The positions of the Strength and Justice Cards in a Tarot deck has long been a source of controversy and discussion among all Tarotists. Traditionally, the Justice card was numbered 8th in the Major Arcana, while the Strength card was numbered the 11th. However, when A. E. Waite published the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot card deck, he changed all that. He put Strength as the 8th card and Justice as the 11th card in the Major Arcana sequence. Naturally, he was quite criticized for this. Following that, when Aleister Crowley published the Thoth Tarot deck, he put the Strength and Justice cards back in their former positions.
Lets look at this placement from both the angles, and understand their respective significance.
The Traditional Placement of Strength and Justice
Traditionally, the decks like the Marseilles Tarot decks have placed the Justice card as the 8th card, and the Strength card as the 11th card in the Major Arcana. The images remained pretty much the same as as they are today – just the numbering was different.
Justice still sat on a throne with a sword in one hand and a pair of scales in the other, while Strength still tamed a wild beast and had a semblance of an Ouruboros on top of her head.
Many conjecture that this placement was made in order to confuse people about the true placement of the cards. Naturally, with the symbolism present in the cards, Justice would correspond astrologically with Libra, and Strength with Leo. With the traditional placement, the natural order of the astrological signs in the Major Arcana was upset. However, from a numerological point of view, this placement made a lot of sense. 8 is the number of balance and and therefore Justice sits just right in this situation. And therefore, it is said that this placement was done more in keeping with the numerological system than the astrological system.
Strength and Justice in the Rider-Waite-Smith Deck
In the RWS deck, however, A.E. Waite placed Strength as the 8th Trump and Justice as the 11th Trump. Naturally he was quite criticized for changing the traditional placement of these cards, but then, this placement makes more sense on an Astrological perspective.
These changes put the cards in proper order, astrologically and according to Waite, it was the true order of the cards in the Major Arcana.
As I have always said, the cards of the Major Arcana tell a story – a story of the Journey of The Divine Fool. They depict this journey as it moves through all the 3 planes of existence – the Material plane, the Mind plane and the Spiritual plane.
So lets see how both these placements (of the Strength and the Justice cards) make sense in the Journey of The Fool.
The Journey of the Fool with the Traditional Placement of Strength and Justice
In the traditional placement, Strength is Trump 11, and Justice is Trump 8.
So, if we arrange the cards of the Major Arcana in 3 rows of 7 cards each (of course, keeping The Fool card outside), we can see the placement of the Strength and Justice cards in the second row.
If we look at the Journey of the Fool in this particular manner the journey appears like this:
The Fool begins his journey, with a bag of hidden talents and ideas, despite all the hurdles in his path.
On the Material Plane: The Fool transforms into The Magician who opens his bag full of ideas and talents and understands his connection with the Universe. He then encounters the opposite side of this Masculine energy in The High Priestess, where he comes in touch with his inner self, and the secret knowledge that he already possessed within. From that point, he became fruitful and matured into The Empress. This maturity gave him the energy for his disciplined approach towards ruling over his realm in The Emperor. The Fool then learns his way through the rules and regulations of society and religion in The Hierophant, and comes in touch with his sexuality in The Lovers card, where he chooses to go for his growth and Individuation, which he achieves in The Chariot.
On the Mind Plane: The Fool then balances his knowledge of his inner and outer self in Justice and looks inward for more knowledge in The Hermit. He then understands the meaning of the cyclical nature of life itself in The Wheel, which gives him the Strength to tame his inner beast. All of this puts him through a change of perspective in The Hanged Man, and he lets go of his old self in Death. After such a life changing change, he finds his inner Master in Temperance and moves to the next plane.
On the Spiritual Plane: After mastering his inner and outer selves, The Fool discovers in The Devil that he still has attachments to the material plane which are more deeply rooted than he thought. His Ego is shattered by this knowledge in The Tower, which then leads him to the peace of The Star. But the confusion of the soul is still to be resolved in The Moon, from where he regains his clarity in The Sun. All of this leads him to the Judgement where all his Karmic balances are cleaned, transforming him into The World.
The Journey of The Fool with the Changed Placement of Strength and Justice
In this changed placement, Strength is Trump 8, while Justice is Trump 11. So again, if the cards are arranged in 3 rows of 7 cards each, with The Fool card kept outside, the Majors would look like the arrangement above.
Lets now look at the Journey of The Fool with this placement:
The Fool begins his journey with a bag of his hidden talents and takes the leap into the unknown.
On the Material Plane: The Fool transforms into The Magician who connects with the Universe and channels the energy of the Universe to create something powerful in the world. He then encounters his inner, hidden self, his subconscious and learns the deeper secrets that were already hidden within him in The High Priestess. From there, The Fool grows and matures into The Empress, who then matures into The Emperor with his disciplined and hardworking approach. The Hierophant is the stage where The Fool learns about society and religion and rules, and with that knowledge he moves into The Lovers card where he discovers his sexuality and chooses the right path ahead. Which is why, in The Chariot card, he has achieved success and victory over the Material Plane.
On the Mind Plane: With success, The Fool needs to learn how to tame his inner beast in the Strength card, which then leads him to looking more inward in The Hermit card. His knowledge leads him to understand the cyclical nature of the world in The Wheel. This creates a sense of balance and harmony within him in Justice. After this understanding, he goes through a change of perspective in The Hanged Man, and then leaves his past behind in Death, emerging thereafter to be a Master of the Mind Plane in Temperance.
On the Spiritual Plane: It is here, in The Devil card, that he discovers that he is still attached to the material plane, which totally shatters his ego in The Tower, and leads him to a place of calm contemplation in The Star. His confusions are confronted in The Moon, and he moves towards clarity in The Sun. This takes him to clearing off his Karmic balances in Judgement, then leading him to real harmony with the Universe in The World.
Summing Up…
So if we see the Journey of the Fool from both the perspectives, it makes sense either way. Whether Strength comes first, or whether it is Justice, the Fool does go through a journey of awareness, discovery and understanding and evolves into The World card.
The meaning of the card doesn’t change with the change in the placement of the card. And essentially, both these journeys make sense.
Your Turn
So, what do you think of these placements? Do you have a particular preference? Does any particular placement make a lot of innate sense to you? Does the placement matter to you when you do your readings, or choose a Tarot card deck?
Lets get talking in the comments section below.
I am most interested in the numbering of the major arcana because I am studying a book that asserts that the number of the major arcana cards describes attributes of the numbered cards of the four suits. All of the Ones are informed by the Magician, All of the twos by the High Priestess etc.
Through that lens, the eights seem to be more related to the Strength card than to they are to the concepts of Justice.
I am interested to hear others thoughts on this.
Wow. Which book is this? Sounds interesting…
I certainly find your concept interesting, and it makes a bunch of sense.
Now that you’ve mentioned this connection, I’ve also felt something similar, but with court cards. What I’ve often felt is that all the four Kings are manifestations of the different aspects of the Emperor, and all the four Queens are manifestations of the Empress. In the same vein, the four Pages are manifestations of the various aspects of the Fool, while the Magician and the High Priestess show their various aspects through the four Knight cards. 🙂
What do you think of this? 🙂
I was a stickler to the RWT because I learned with the Justice card being the XI card. However, more decks I buy I find this inversion, because of this I have pushed myself to consider this matter further. The only true way of knowing Imho, was to throw the cards until undeniably one made more sense than the other. Another thing I have noticed is this is spiritual, and taking into account the artists use of those positions tends to make sense for that deck. Same goes for the little white book, many people throw it away, but if you look not all are the same some artists add their inspiration to the meanings and their art. When I have been caught up on symbology or need more insight because something is missing I found the artists expression of cards to add that missing link; since it is their personal creation.
Me too! I suppose you feel more comfortable with the system you began your learning with, isn’t it!
I agree with you. The best way to really get to know the cards beyond the textbook meanings is to see them in the spread and ‘hear’ what they have to tell you.
And yes, that little white book (LWB) does often hold a nugget of information. I always make sure I scan through it before put it away. I don’t ever throw it out.
😉
http://advancedtarotsecrets.blogspot.com/2010/12/strength-and-justice.html
(shrugs)
You do have an interesting point…
Back when I was a kid, I read a numerology book by Cheiro, and he said in that book that the pair of scales was the symbol of the number 8, and that the number was all about ‘Justice’. And then many, many years later I encountered the Tarot.
What I think (and I wrote this article a few years ago), is that Waite took a bit of creative license with the deck and made many changes to the deck so that it corresponded with the order in which the Sun Signs were ordered. And now here we are talking and discussing about it… ?
Wouldn’t you agree?
Oh, and on a side note I complimented you on a very thoughtful post on my advanced tarot secrets blog. I may disagree with some of your findings, but I like what you wrote. It is well thought out.
Thanks Dusty… I had a look at your site (but I couldn’t find your blog anywhere… ) so if you could send me a link, I would like to read some of your posts too.. I can see that you are totally into the cards yourself… and so it is really great to meet someone like you… 🙂
“Naturally, with the symbolism present in the cards, Justice would correspond astrologically with Libra, and Strength with Leo.”
Au contraire my friend.
I would like to put forth that Justice implies authority. 8 is a Capricorn number, being the doubling of eight, or the re-doubling of two upon itself. The square is the first dimensional shape (dot(1), circle(2), triangle(3), square(4)…) that presents opposing forces in a structure capable of reinforcing itself ==> [X]. Anyway, the doubling of rigidity and structure coupled with authority and rule of law (e.g. “justice”) infer Justice has an affinity to Capricorn. Libra is a possibility, but Justice ignores the primary traits of Libra, being beauty, partnership, and group thinking. Executive authority and decision-making (e.g. “dispensing justice”) are Saturnarian. I realize I am challenging the ancients, but those bozos thought the earth was the center of the universe and that the Tarot came from Egypt. So: I am officially challenging the ancient “Tarot experts.”
Secondly, Strength is more representational of Aquarius than Leo. First, the card number is 11 (the eleventh house is that of Aquarius–which is also ruled by Saturn–more on this later). The emphasis is control of the beast, not the strength of the beast. The beast (or lion, if you prefer) can be seen as the animus, or the egoic need for expression, individuality, survival. The opposition of Aquarius (Saturn) to Leo (Sun) is the clash of the Titans, the individual railing against the responsibilities of life as part of a collective.
Without turning this into a complete tirade, I respectfully submit that these two cards represent the signs above, as it makes sense when one takes the time to understand astrology, and the Tarot as it tries to assimilate astrology into itself.
Hmmm.. I was simply referring to the way the sequence of the cards in the Major Arcana correspond with the sequence of the Astrological signs and how the images / pictures in the cards correspond to the typical imagery associated with these signs: the pair of scales for Libra, and the Lion for Leo.
A long time ago, when I was kid, I read a book by Cheiro on Numerology, and in that book he talked about the imagery associated with the number 8 and said it corresponded with a pair of scales. Till date I haven’t read about 8 being linked with a pair of scales anywhere else. 🙂 I have also read of the number 8 being associated with Saturn.
You do have an interesting point of view though… 🙂
Dusty,
Thank you for your article. Your book was the first of many I bought to learn the Tarot. After all this time I had to ask why we’re Strength and Justice numbered differently in different decks. Well, thanks to your article I finally know why and it makes sense! As a Capricorn with a life path number of 11, I like the way you associated Justice with Capricorn. I always felt, being an 11, I was associated with this card and The High Priestess. Thank you Dusty!