FAQ — Justice

Short answer (validated yes/no table): YES, it is fair.

She accuses no one. She does not look the querent in the face — her eyes rest on her scales, and it is those scales that speak for her. The card invites lucid appraisal rather than external judgement: no one in the image is being judged. In looking at her, you are looking at yourself.

An eye with a dual function, depending on what the querent brings to it. For someone seeking to understand a situation, it reveals — illuminating what had not yet been seen. For someone who comes wounded, seeking redress, it protects — covering them with a gaze that wishes them no harm.

An earlier concept envisaged a stone stele bearing the inscription "Dura lex sed lex" ("the law is harsh, but it is the law"), but this was abandoned after an actual trial: readable text pulled the card towards a legal register rather than a mystical one. The throne became an open Book with no readable text, from which a halo of light emanates — the law no longer needs to be written to carry authority; it radiates by itself.

A deliberate echo of the asymmetry of the Tarot de Marseille, where the right-hand pillar of the throne always rises above the left and the pans of the scales are never quite level — a living balance rather than frozen perfection.

A direct echo of Ma'at, the Egyptian goddess of the weighing of the heart: for her, the feather is not merely an ornament, but the very instrument of the weighing. Justice in the DAL is a winged goddess, never a queen — it is this lineage from Ma'at that grounds the choice of wings.

A card of equity rather than punishment: it announces a moment of truth that does not evade you, approached calmly, and a situation left unresolved that will finally find its point of balance, however imperfect.

An unacknowledged imbalance, a postponed decision, or a misunderstanding about what is owed to whom. A judgement that is too harsh towards oneself, or conversely a refusal to see one's own share of responsibility.

A documented nod in the Guide: the deck's 80 cards, reduced to a single digit, point precisely to Justice — as though the Tarot, through this card, became aware of its own function at the moment it weighs itself. A connection with the Grimoire's mise en abyme principle (already present in The Hermit, The Wheel of Fortune and Judgement) is suggested, but explicitly remains unresolved to this day.