from the hermit to justice
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from the hermit to justice
reflections on the shift from virgo to libra season
hello friends, and welcome to libra season.
before we get into the transition from the hermit to justice, a bit of housekeeping: at the end of the month, i will be moving this newsletter to a new home over at ghost. this has been a long time coming, and i’m taking the opportunity to consolidate patreon and substack into one new platform.
for both free and paid subscribers here, your subscription will be automatically transferred, and there’s no need for you to do anything. however, if you’d like to consider joining one of the paid tiers, you can get up to three exclusive tarot spreads every month, and provide some much-needed financial support to a queer creator. i’ll share more about this next week.
thank you for being here, for supporting my work, and for sending so much positivity my way. i am very grateful for you.
now, on to libra season.
from the hermit to justice
i’ve been writing about fairness and equality this month, exploring the ways that individual ethics and morality are not always reflected by society, the ways that power and privilege can only go so far to correct broader issues, the magic found in community care and mutual aid. and with the sun moving into libra, with the season lining up with our studies, there are new aspects to examine, new pathways to wander down.
libra is our sign of cardinal air: cardinal, meaning to initiate or begin something, to set things into motion, to make major decisions about a trajectory, to take bold steps in a new direction; and air, that element tied to the mind and information, the ways that we process and communicate, the perceptions that we utilize, the blindspots we may not always be aware of. libra welcomes autumn, but it also offers us a fresh start, serving as an invitation to evaluate and analyze, to observe and consider, to decide where to pour our energy and resources and intentionality.
the shift from the hermit, a card of solitude and observation, wisdom and detachment, to justice, a card about the strengths and limits of society, can sometimes feel like a jarring one. in the major arcana, the wheel lives between these archetypes, offering us a clear start to a new sequence, giving us some context for the things we can and cannot control. but with the golden dawn astrological correspondences, we shift straight from hermit to justice, from solitude to community awareness. both signs are seekers of truth, clear-eyed observers who want to understand, recognize, interrogate. but while the hermit is making space for internal reflection, justice wants our ideals to manifest in tangible, practical ways.
justice is about both the conscious and the subconscious, the ways that what we think, feel, believe, and perceive intersect with what we do, say, share, act on. what is motivating our pursuits? in seeking truth, what are we really seeing?
in today’s impossible world, it’s easy to go straight into political ideas with a concept like justice. in so many ways, the systems that we have been told are incorruptible are actively breaking down every day, revealing their flaws, crumbling into pieces before our eyes. many of these institutions were built on injustice, and we as citizens are becoming bolder in our methods, calling out what we see, demanding that these broken pieces get ripped down and reimagined, reconstructed, with real justice in mind.
but when we’re talking about the tarot, justice through this lens can feel out of reach, hard to access. in more personal readings, justice wants us to consider how we make our decisions: what motives us, drives us, and what holds us back. what lives beneath our actions, gives shape and weight to our choices? how do we decide what we are going to fight for, and when to keep our mouth shut? when do we prioritize our own comfort? why are we willing to ask the hard questions, and when it is easier to avert our gaze?
the archetype of justice lives in between two cards that don’t have zodiacal correspondences: the wheel of fortune (card 10) and the hanged one (card 12). if your primary work with the tarot is through these astrological correspondences, the magic that surrounds this card may feel inaccessible at times, hard to understand. but if you’re struggling to find answers in justice, remember the lessons surrounding this card: that there is much that we cannot control; that bigger forces are always at work; that sometimes we are moving even when it feels like we’re standing still.
when you’re stuck in a difficult decision, challenge, or situation, what helps you find clarity? what is your north star, your guiding principle, your cornerstone? what is your world view built upon?
for more on justice, and for card pulls for all twelve signs of the zodiac, don’t miss my latest round of tarotscopes over at autostraddle. have a beautiful libra season, friends.
images from this post feature cards from the spacious tarot. all photographs by meg jones wall.