Judgement

✦ I am seeing.

✦ Acceptance of Flaws

When the Sun shines into all of the cracks and crevices, it also brings to light a lot of things we shoved away when no one was lookin’. Er, oops. You look behind you and see the lies, the gaffes, the embarrassments, and the really hard lessons learned. You were weak. You’ve been mean and cowardly. You have deliberately hurt other people, and have really treated yourself like crap. It’s hard to look at. It’s even harder to take in. At some point, though, you have to just accept that all of these little (or huge) screwups have made you the amazing, shiny person you are today. That’s the Judgement card, for the most part. It’s about release. The Basic card has to do with Judgement Day, when all the sins are wiped clean and we’re taken bodily into heaven or something like this. All I know about the Rapture is this bumper sticker: “Come the Rapture, Can I Have Your Car?”

✦ Beauty in Flaws

Anyway, the Judgement card is not so much about wiping the slate clean as accepting that your life is full of holes and mistakes and graffiti and scuffs, and all of those marks and flaws are what make you beautiful. That bears repeating: all of your flaws make you beautiful.

✦ Crossroads of Growth

This card often comes up when we reach a crossroads. We can continue the way we have been, or we can challenge ourselves and find our authentic path. Our true calling is out there, and although it’s easier to remain complacent and accept what has made us comfortable, it doesn’t do us a damn bit of good. It doesn’t help us grow, and it doesn’t help us become more complete people. All of the scars, all of the spills and pieces of broken self that are lying around—those are the strongest parts of us because they’re still here. If we accept those flaws and bring them into ourselves, maybe we can feel lighter and move onward and upward.

✦ Judgement Inverted

✦ Self-Acceptance Issues

The problem is accepting ourselves when we are flawed. We compare ourselves to other people. We judge other people negatively to make ourselves look better. This is what the reversed Judgement card is about. Making other people feel small or less than. It is one thing to level our disgust or self-hatred on ourselves, but it is quite another to aim that toxic mess at someone else. If this comes up in a reading, it oftentimes has to do with gossip or flat-out malicious behavior. Negativity pointed outward is just as bad as negativity pointed inward. It just makes more of a splash.

✦ Living Your Truth

It’s also about creating another truth for yourself that doesn’t fit and is terribly uncomfortable. How long can you wear that? How long can you punish yourself while the truth is just waiting for you to live it? I get this card a lot with people who are in jobs that don’t suit them or marriages that have died on the inside. It seems impossible to change the situation but unbearable to stay.