major arcana
No image of this card
Lady Frieda Harris painted the deck between 1938 and 1943; it was first published in 1969, seven years after her death in 1962. The paintings remain in copyright until 2032 in the UK and EU and 2064 in the United States, so no card images or substitutes appear here.
See the deck at its publisher ↗The Daughter of the Lords of Truth; the Ruler of the Balance
Suit: Trumps Major Arcana
Justice holds the sword and scales: judgment joined to proportion. The card asks what is due, what follows from an action, and whether the matter is being weighed without favour or distortion.
A card carries more than one history. Its place in the tarot pack, Golden Dawn path, Rider–Waite–Smith reading and later variants are kept beside their own sources, since the same name can do different work in different decks.
8 sourced claims: 4 traditional , 3 modern , 1 contested
The Book of Thoth remains in copyright. The catalogue therefore gives the deck's titles, ranks and numbering beside the Golden Dawn material it inherits, while citing Crowley by page without reproducing his text.
This deck calls the card Adjustment; it is filed here as Justice and numbers it VIII.
This deck's book publishes no upright and reversed lists, so none are shown. Its account of the card is cited below rather than reproduced.
The Thoth deck calls this card Adjustment rather than Justice. Crowley numbers it VIII, restoring the older order, while keeping the inherited Hebrew letter and sign: ל · Lamed, Libra. The numeral and the attribution disagree on purpose. Book T titles it The Daughter of the Lords of Truth; the Ruler of the Balance.
Aleister Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris, Thoth — Part Two: The Atu (Keys or Trumps).
Justice
A seated figure bears upright sword and scales between pillars, distinguishing moral consequence from the High Priestess's hidden order.
A concise paraphrase of Waite's published explanation of the Pamela Colman Smith design, not a universal description of all historical decks.
Upright, Waite associates Justice with equity, right conduct, integrity, sound judgment and receiving what a situation merits. Reversed, the card can indicate legal complications, bias or severity applied without proportion.
Waite himself warns that many fortune-telling allocations are artificial and arbitrary; these are historical Rider–Waite–Smith meanings, not assertions of fact.
Hermetic Qabalah
Book T establishes this Tarot-to-letter attribution. The path number and endpoints belong to this tradition's canonical Kircher arrangement.
Book T's formal title, Tree or elemental place, astrological attribution, and characteristic reading. This is the system used by the Hermetic Tree.
The Daughter of the Lords of Truth; the Ruler of the Balance
The formal esoteric title printed in Book T.
ל · Lamed
A Golden Dawn correspondence, not a claim about the historical origin of the card or a universal Jewish letter-to-card system.
Libra
Book T's attribution carried by the Hebrew letter and therefore by this path.
Courage, strength, fortitude, and power moving into action, with possible obstinacy.
Paraphrased from Book T's brief meanings; its dignity method reads a card in relation to neighbouring cards rather than as a fixed keyword.
Historical context and places where influential decks or occult systems differ.
One of the twenty-one figured trumps plus the Fool found beside the four ordinary suits in historical tarot packs.
Museum history dates the earliest documentary references to the 1440s–1450s in northern Italy and identifies tarot's original use as a trick-taking game. The occult-Qabalistic reading is later.
Waite numbers Strength VIII and Justice XI, reversing the order common in older packs.
The Tree follows Golden Dawn and Rider–Waite–Smith numbering. Older deck traditions retain Justice VIII and Strength XI.
| Relation | To | First attested |
|---|---|---|
| Tarot trump of | Path 22 · Lamed | 1888 CE |
| Hebrew-letter attribution | Lamed | 1888 CE |
| Astrological attribution | Libra | 1888 CE |