Judgement

The call. Waking up, rising, and answering to who you really are.

The picture

An angel leans down from the clouds blowing a long trumpet, and a white banner with a red cross hangs from it. Below, people rise from open coffins that seem to float on water, most of them with their arms lifted towards the angel. In the front stand a man, a woman and a child. Behind them rise snow covered mountains.

Upright

Judgement is the card of the wake up call. Something sounds, and you hear it clearly, and you cannot go back to sleep.

The people in the coffins are answering it. They are rising out of what held them, out of old ways, old stories, old versions of themselves. Pluto rules endings and rebirth, and fire burns away what is finished. Put together, this card is about becoming who you came here to be.

I read the name gently. The only verdict on this card is your own, looking back with clear eyes, forgiving what needs forgiving, and choosing to rise. When this card turns up, a decision you have been circling is ready to be made.

Reversed

Reversed, I read Judgement most often as blocked. You can hear the trumpet, and you are staying in the coffin anyway, because rising means leaving something familiar behind. It can also be turned inward, where the judgement has become self judgement: you have heard the call and decided you are not worthy of it.

To tell which applies, notice what you say to yourself when the call comes. If it is "not yet" or "maybe later", the card is blocked, and the trumpet will only get louder. If it is "who am I to do that", it has turned inward. Be as fair to yourself as you would be to a friend in the same place.

When it turns up

What call have you been hearing that you have not yet answered?

If you would like the cards read against your own chart, my readings are here.

Related pages
Judgement as a Birth Card · The Twenty Two Paths