Card XX, Major ArcanaJudgement tarot card meaning
Upright and reversedJudgement in shortIn short
Judgement is the call. An angel in the clouds blows a trumpet and people rise from their graves, arms open. Something wakes you and you answer: an old chapter gets weighed and closed, and a new life starts.
- Awakening
- Reckoning
- Renewal
Piece oneThe sea
Behind the risen a rough blue sea runs back to a row of snowy mountains under a pale sky. Waite leaves the landscape undescribed. The open tombs float on the water, and he points out that his card restores more than three people. The sea carries the rest.
"But in this card there are more than three who are restored..."Waite, 1911
Why it is hereThe sea holds the tombs and carries the call outward. The risen stand in boxes floating on it, so the waking spreads past the front figures toward the horizon. The snowy mountains close the scene. The angel's trumpet reaches all of it.
Piece twoThe angel
A great angel with red wings leans out of the clouds and blows a long gold trumpet. The old story calls this the Last Judgement. Waite says the call comes from above, and you hear and answer it from within.
"The great angel is here encompassed by clouds, but he blows his bannered trumpet..."Waite, 1911
Why it is hereThe angel is the call itself. Everything else on the card answers the trumpet: arms raised, faces turned up. The clouds hide the angel's body, so the sound arrives from above, larger than the scene. The banner on the trumpet marks who sends it.
Piece threeThe banner
A white banner with a red cross hangs by the trumpet. Waite notes the cross is there, as usual. It marks the call as sacred, a summons to rise.
"the cross as usual is displayed on the banner."Waite, 1911
Why it is hereThe banner marks the trumpet's sound as sacred. It hangs from the instrument like a flag on a herald's horn. Its red cross repeats the angel's red wings, and its white matches the pale clothes of the risen, so it ties the sky to the people below.
Piece fourThe risen
The man and the child rise from their tombs, and more figures lift their arms from tombs floating on the water behind them. Waite points out that his card restores more than three. They all share one wonder.
"It should be noted that all the figures are as one in the wonder, adoration and ecstasy expressed by their attitudes."Waite, 1911
Why it is hereThe risen are the reason the angel blows. They stand up from their tombs with arms open, answering the call. The sea behind carries more of them. Their raised arms point back to the trumpet and close the loop between above and below.
Colour, and where else it appearsEchoes
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The sea
Slate blue water and white peaks: cold colours waiting for the call. The Two of Wands looks out over a bay to distant mountains. In the Eight of Cups dark water and steep peaks wait for a man walking away under the moon. On Judgement people rise straight out of the sea.
Also in -
The angel
Wine-red wings, gold hair and grey cloud, the one strong warm colour in a cool sky. The Lovers has a red-winged angel too, arms open over a couple. The angel of Temperance stands in a stream and pours. Judgement's angel stays in the clouds and calls with sound.
Also in -
The banner
A red cross on off-white cloth, the simplest shape on the card, readable from across a room. The High Priestess wears a white cross on her chest. The child on The Sun holds a red banner with no sign on it. On Judgement the cross gives the flag its meaning.
Also in -
The risen
Blue-grey waves, grey stone tombs and pale bodies, the bottom half cool and still. The Ten of Cups has a couple raising their arms the same way, under a rainbow of cups. There the gesture greets a happy home. On Judgement the same open arms greet a call from the sky.
Also in
Colour notes are ours, read from the picture; Waite does not explain the colours.
JudgementUpright
A wake-up call. Waite's words: change of position, renewal, outcome. Something you've waited for gets decided, or you suddenly see your life clearly and know you have to change.
You answer. The trumpet sounds and what was asleep in you gets up. Waite says some have called it a card of eternal life. You can forgive old mistakes, close old chapters, and start again.
JudgementReversed
Waite gives weakness, pusillanimity, simplicity, and also deliberation, decision, sentence. You hear the call and don't answer it, out of fear or doubt.
Waite also records one account of total loss through a lawsuit. More often you're putting a decision off. Stop waiting and answer.
Yes or noYes.
Yes. The time has come and the answer is ready. Expect an outcome, often a new position or a fresh start.
Judgement in your lifeIn your life
Love
A turning point. An old love gets a second life, or you finally see whether it should go on.
Work
A new position: a new role, a career decision, or results finally landing.
Money
Something gets settled: a payment, a decision, an account. Waite also records one account of loss through a lawsuit, so read contracts carefully.
Health
Renewal and recovery. A card can't diagnose you; if something's wrong, see a doctor and listen to your body.
Spirituality
A strong awakening. Something in you answers a call, and you see your life from higher up.
Advice
Answer the call. Look honestly at your past, forgive what you can, and get up.
As a person
Clear-sighted, honest. They wake people up and help them start over.
Past, present, future
Past: a moment that changed how you saw yourself. Present: a call to answer. Future: a decision and a new start.
Written by us, from Waite's meanings and the picture.
Symbols and correspondencesAt a glance
- Number
- XX
- Hebrew letter
- Shin
- Element
- Fire
- Element
- Fire
- Upright
- Change
- Reversed
- Weakness
QuestionsCommon questions
Mostly, yes: awakening, renewal, outcomes. It feels serious because you face your past, and it leads to a new start.
A turning point: a love renewed, or a clear decision about its future.
Yes. It's time, and the outcome is close.
Waite names a woman on the right, a man on the left and their child between them: father, mother, child. He notes there are more than three, all sharing one wonder.
Fire, in the Golden Dawn system. Its Hebrew letter is Shin.
Waite says the card marks the great work of transformation completed, answering a call from above that you hear and answer from within.
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1911Card meanings and quotes: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1911. Hebrew letter, sign and element: the Golden Dawn's Book T. Colours, life situations, yes or no and questions: written by us, from Waite's meanings and the picture.
All 22 major cards