This Week's Writerly Tarot: Judgment, Strength, and Justice

Judgment. It comes up a lot around here. And I'm not talking about judgey-judge judgment, or even the more polite judgment of discernment. Like Death, Judgment is one of those cards whose meaning is more nuanced and archetypal than the dictionary definition.

To paraphrase Inigo Montoya, it doesn't mean exactly what you might think it means.

Judgment is often called Rebirth in the tarot, and yes, that is exactly what you think it means. And as I noted before, this cards turns up a lot for me (and for you, dear reader, since you're here and all). It turned up most recently in June, in my big Three-Card Summer Solstice reading, and also here and here. Judgment and I have some history, which is fine—I understand that rebirth is often a multi-step process—so I asked for some further classification this time around.

Dear Judgment, I said, care to elaborate on what exactly you are illuminating?

And the answer was even bigger than the question. For corresponding factors, I got Strength and Justice (you can click on the links to read my take the last time those cards showed up). It's like old home week around here, all these familiar faces. So what does it mean, all of them showing up again, this time in each other's company.

My thinking? For one, there is something BIG on the horizon. These are all major arcana cards, which means this next step in our rebirthing is going to be a doozy.

And for two, it's got the presence of the Divine Feminine written all over it.

Just look at those cards. There's Justice with her sword and scales, severity and mercy all in one swift impersonal stroke. And there's Strength, with her hand in the lion's mouth, the very emblem of soft, yet powerful, control.

So what's up for us creative folk this week? I'd say that whatever you have been working on over the past few months—or the past lifetime—is going to reach an interesting stage in its gestation. You might need a midwife to help you along. And by that, I mean all the fierceness of the female way of thinking and knowing and being in the world.

This might be in the form of an actual woman you know, a friend or sister or daughter, a mother or mother figure, a mentor or maven or minister. If this is this case, she will have advice. There will be wisdom on her lips and she will offer it freely. It would be oh-so-smart to heed those words this week.

But She Herself might show up, usually veiled and in your peripheral vision. In that case, get in touch with the part of you that connects to others even as it remains sovereign unto itself. Open your heart and mind simultaneously. Listen for the whisper that comes from just over your shoulder, the nudge and the pull, the feeling in your gut. Let your feet take a spiraling path instead of the straight and narrow. Stand in your truth. Walk in it too. Speak it as clearly as you can. And know that forgiveness and compassion and empathy are not weaknesses. No, they are actually quite muscular. As is She.

What has all of this got to do with writing? I don't know. But I am certain, absolutely certain, that I will know, in a very little while. And so will you.