Key 20 – Judgement

On the previous card, called the Star, we found out that we were now a true receptacle for the One Force, in both mind and body. We also gained the ability to control all of the material world around us. But our relationship with the One Force was not complete. We still thought of ourselves as separate from it.

On this Key, called Judgement, we are at the tipping point of realizing that completion. The Judgement card is at the bottom of the three cards in the 6th column of the Tarot Tableau. This column is an expression of the sixth stage of spiritual unfoldment, called Realization. The first card at the top of the column is the Lovers Key 6. That Key portrays the principle of Love, which then expresses itself through the activity taking place on the Key below it, called Transition. The result of the activity on Key 13 is called Judgement, where we now find ourselves. Let’s explore how this works.

Let’s begin with the Lovers. The identity and function of that card is the power to choose and correct discrimination. The letter Zain on that card means sword; the perfect tool needed to cut out the old and make room for the new. Applying discrimination in your life allows you to perceive a difference, which, in turn, gives you the opportunity to make a choice.

Moving on to the next card, called Transition, we find a demonstration of the Law of Transformation. This Key acknowledges the necessity for change, and then how to go about it. Life is continuously changing, like it or not, so it’s best to get on board, and explore what’s out there. We fear what we don’t know. Death fits that notion quite nicely. We have no idea what’s going on after the dissolution of our physical bodies. But the Cabala teaches that forms are always changing into other forms. The Cabala states, “Dissolution is the secret of the Great Work.” Scientifically, when a form dissolves and breaks down, it releases energy.

So, first we’ve learned about choice and discrimination in order to improve our life, then moved on to acknowledging the necessity for change, and not to be afraid of it. On the Judgement card we begin to live with the realization that our personality is just an extension of the Personality of our Creator. Yes, our Creator has a Personality. This spiritual unfoldment within ourselves is a major change in our lives, and it’s not an intellectual change. It’s visceral.  From this inner realization we begin to have fourth dimensional experiences.

Using the Law of Love and the Law of Transformation you have arrived at the Key called Judgement. You now experience the full-blown reality that you are one with the All. The delusion of separateness just dissolves. All your previous efforts of using the various tools in your spiritual toolbox take you to a tipping point, and you’re “just there.” No effort.

This is not “understanding”, this experience permeates your entire body. This has nothing to do with an intellectual observation. You know where you’re from where, who you are, and where you’re going, all at once. You’re done. No going back, a door has shut. And there’s no one you can explain this to, unless they, too, have had this experience.

So let’s move on to the four symbols in the lower right corner of the Judgement card, plus the Key number 20, to see how they support what is being taught. Starting with the number 20, it is the letter value of the Hebrew letter Kaph, which is assigned to Key 10 Wheel of Fortune. Kaph signifies mental grasp and comprehension. Remember, the shape of the letter looks like a grasping hand.

On Key 10 is the rotating wheel of manifestation, where we found that most of humanity is in the position of the Hermanubis, who is halfway up the right side of the Wheel, with his ears just above the horizon line. This signifies that he is just beginning to hear his Inner Voice, or intuition. On Key 20 Judgement we’ve completed the section of the wheel holding the Yod, above the horizon line. We now comprehend our true nature. We now know that we are just an extension of that One Will.

Here you know that One Will and you realize that It is in and radiates through all manifestation and flows through all activity. It and you are inseparable from all of Nature. What others would call miracles become your daily experience. This is no longer the occasional flash of lightening that was expressed in the Tower card. The mode of consciousness of the Judgement card is called Perpetual Intelligence, as in, you live in the perpetual experience of the Light and the power, force and energy of Spirit has become your world.

Let’s continue on the number 20. Reading it from right to left, 0 is expressing itself through 2. In other words, Creation is expressing Itself through memory. This is Key 0 the Fool’s inspiration and perception manifesting through the law of Key 2 the High Priestess. Translated, we no longer forget who we are. We are living in the truth with a new consciousness. We can function in the fourth dimension. Our Soul, which surrounds our Spiritual Inner Self while we live in a human body, has always operated in both the 3rd and 4th dimensions. Whether we knew it or not. Our bodies rest, but we never sleep.

The Hebrew letter on this card is Shin, the third of the Hebrew Mother letters.  It looks like three flames reaching up from a single source of fire. It is assigned to the element fire. The sound of the letter is “shh”. Say it out loud. It will immediately remind you that you use this sound, with your index finger on your lips, whenever you’re trying to tell someone to be quiet.  The fourfold injunction in the study of the Great Work is : Know, Will, Dare and Be Silent. The letter Shin corresponds by sound to the final admonition – be silent.

This takes us to the next observation. Serpents are recognized as symbols of wisdom. You don’t know that they’re near by until they’re upon you. They are silent.  Jesus told his disciples to be wise as serpents, thus emphasizing, for those that had ears to hear, the ancient doctrine of silence. Paul Foster Case explains, “The wise waste no time, invite no misconception, expend no energy in vain efforts to tell. When they speak, it is not to tell the Secret, but to point the Way.”

The Tarot is just pointing the Way. As you’ve been traveling through the Tarot cards, you’ve probably wondered why all the detail and discussion about symbols and planets and the zodiac and numbers and vibration! Do I really have to know all this? It’s like a foreign language. It’s like peeling an onion, that never ends!

You will find that when you finish reading about the 22 Keys and begin to read the cards again, starting at the Fool, it will make more sense to you. It’s a practice. More is revealed to you. With each reading, you’re incorporating this wisdom into every cell of your body. This is just like the important Yoga pose called savasana, which is at the end of every Yoga practice session. What appeared confusing becomes clear. And you are drawing to yourself those who also know the magic of the symbols.

Let’s look further at the letter Shin. It means a tooth. We use our teeth to break down our food in order to digest and make it available for our body’s nourishment. Here on this card our ideas of separation are broken down. Here our higher consciousness consumes our lower awareness of limitations. We’re done with misery, now and forever. Nothing less. This is the promise, our covenant with God.  Shin is the encompassing flame of realization. It consumes the whole unhappy illusion of lies.

This card appears to refer to Judgement Day when all souls are judged. Judgement is the result of weighing evidence. Look at Justice Key 11. Justice is always represented by scales. In ancient Egypt, a scale was used with a person’s heart on one plate and the feather of truth on the other.

Judgement implies estimation or measurement. Paul Foster Case clearly explains this, “One might say that the Great Secret answers the question: How much do you weigh? That is to say, we have to see that since all that is real of us is identical with the One Thing, our true weight must be the same as Its true weight. The consciousness of Totality comes in here.”

Once a Judgement has been reached, our reasoning activity has come to an end. No more discussion, no more argument for or against. Case closed. On the Lovers card we began by using the principle of right discrimination, and through the Transition card we cleaned out our house; we put it in order. The Transition card is the agency of right discrimination. So here we are at Judgement deciding.

What are the consequences of that decision? The word “decision” is derived from a Latin root, meaning “to cut.” The Judgement card cuts off, forever, our connection with the false knowledge of this world. It puts an end to our limitation to the 3-dimensional world. It terminates our sense of mortality.

Gabriel is the angel depicted on the Key. He summons the dead from their coffins with a blast from his trumpet. He is the archangel of the element of water, and of the moon. This brings back the idea relating to the number 20, where Creation, the number 0, is expressing Itself through memory, the number 2.

All of the water shown in the Tarot has its source on Key 2, the High Priestess. The three coffins float on water and the background is made up of ice bergs. Even the sky is blue. When you lean over a body of water you see your reflection. Such a prevalence of water on this card suggests that we are looking at Creation reflecting on Itself on this card.

Archangel Gabriel’s name means “Might of God”. He’s blowing his trumpet to wake up the three figures, the man, woman and child, from their coffins. This isn’t even a subtle suggestion – he’s blasting a horn, no less! Your morning alarm clock pales in comparison. Get up, now! Our True Nature is calling us.

The three characters are moving out of their 3-dimensional state, but not by their own volition, their own efforts, but under the assistance of Gabriel, the Power of Creation. He knows that we have never truly forgotten who we really are. On the Day of Judgement we are raised up and out of our dream of mortal existence. And, thereby, we enter into the 4th dimension in full consciousness!

This angel, surrounded by a cloud, is an ancient symbol of the 4th dimension, according to Paul Foster Case. Gabriel displays two circles. His head is one circle and his body the second one. A larger circle of clouds surrounds him. His red wings are activity and fire, courage and strength. As on the Lovers card, the white clouds veil the true nature of the Self, which is hidden by appearances, deeply embedded in Nature. The watery stream of consciousness flowing from the High Priestess throughout the Tarot deck gives us the sense of time. On this Key we are being called above it.

Twelve rays of light pierce the clouds. In Hebrew, the number 12 refers to Kether, the Crown of Primal Will, in the Tree of Life diagram. It is the Life Force revealing Itself directly through the cloud of appearances, unlike the Lovers card. 12 also refers to the zodiac, each sign an expression of that Will within the human body.  And each sign is designated to a specific area of your body. So here we have the raising up of spirit and body.

Gold represents the Sun. Seven rays of energy blast out of Gabriel’s golden trumpet.  The seven rays are the seven interior centers,  called chakras, or whirling spiritual energies.  Through these centers the body is invigorated and healed. The vibrating sound of the trumpet activates them.

In the background, the flowing water of the stream of consciousness from the High Priestess’s robe has been frozen into ice burgs. The illusion of time is gone. The open sea in the foreground that the coffins rest upon is the end of that stream. The end of the stream is Judgement, the point of decision. No turning back.

The three stone coffins are floating on the sea. The sea is the great subconscious mind emanating from the High Priestess.  We can only conclude from this card that all of the entire material world is actually just resting on mind stuff.  The three coffins appear to be quite solid. They represent the 3-dimensional level of consciousness. The three figures are standing, which puts them at right angles to their coffins. Paul Foster Case explains this as “an attempt to represent the mathematical definition of the Fourth Dimension – that it is at right angles to all three dimensions of space, as we perceive them”.

Let’s take a look at the three figures. The man is portraying the self-conscious, directing mind. The woman is expressing the receptive, subconscious mind. The child is a combination of the two. In Egyptian mythology these three were expressed as the family of Osiris the father, Isis the mother, and Horus the child.

It’s most interesting that the male, with his arms crossed in the traditional posture of Osiris risen, places him in an attitude of passive adoration. Quite different from when he was in the 3rd dimension. In 4th dimensional consciousness his mind becomes completely receptive, for he acknowledges that he does nothing of himself. The crossing of his arms illustrates the negation of any personal contribution to his actions.

The woman is actively receiving, with her arms lifted up, expressing her perfect reliance on the Life Source. Since all of manifestation arrives through her, she now creates according to the Will of God.

The child is looking towards the center of the card. Accordingly, he represents the ability to look within, receiving his information from his developed senses, which can look through the surface of manifestation to its Source. This is unlike the report received from just his physical senses. He is functioning from his intuition. His instruction is coming from Key 5 The Teacher.

Once again, we are looking at figures that are nude. On the Star card Isis is nude because she is revealing Truth to those who look at her. Nudity also suggest perfect intimacy. The figures are no longer flesh colored; they are grey. Grey is the perfect combination of the opposites white and black. Grey also indicates Wisdom.

In the Hebrew alphabet there are seven letters that are pairs of opposites: Life and Death (Key 1);

Peace and Strife (Key 2);

Wisdom and Folly (Key 3); Wealth and Poverty (Key 10);

Beauty and Ugliness (Key 16);

Fertility and Sterility (Key 19); and

Dominion and Slavery (Key 21). The three gray colored figures show that the forces of the seven energy centers in the human body have been perfectly coordinated. The seven rays of the trumpet have had their effect.

 

Finally, let’s take a look at Gabriel’s banner. Both the banner and the cross are symbols of the number 4. There are also four figures in the picture. This 4 is a reference to the Emperor card, which stands for Aries, a fiery sign ruled by Mars. Gabriel’s wings also are a reference to Mars.  The Emperor is sovereign reason, which leads to right judgement.

Perpetual Intelligence is the mode of intelligence of the Judgement Key. Here we see the true interaction of Reason from the Emperor and Intuition from the Teacher. Without correct reasoning we’ll never be able to hear the inner voice of intuition. And, for sure, we couldn’t possibly hear Gabriel’s trumpet call, no matter how loud the blast.

The Tarot provides you with many tools to use along your Hero’s Journey. Use them. This is not that difficult to implement. Your Inner Self knows the way. If you try a little every day, It will take care of the rest.