In my post on 2024 as a Strength year, I mentioned that many decks position Justice as card 8, something I expanded on in the post titled ‘The Card 8 Debate’. Because Justice has a storied history as 8, I wanted to explore this card a bit further. I’ve also recently entered a personal Justice year, so the invitations and lessons of this card are really on my mind.
Before I dive in: what the heck is a personal year card? These differ from birth cards, which are calculated by adding the month, day, and year of your birth. You can find more info on those here. With personal year cards, you’ll add the month and day of your birth, along with the year of your most recent birthday.
For example, my birthday is December 28. So, I add 12+28+2023 (even though we’re in 2024! Again, this is the year of your most recent birthday, NOT the current year), which totals 2063. I add all those digits together (2+0+6+3), which equals 11. Justice is the 11th card of the Majors (in the system I prefer), and so my personal year card is Justice.
Let’s give another example. Let’s say your birthday is June 15. Your most recent birthday was in 2023, so we’ll add 6+15+2023. This totals to 2044, which reduces (2+0+4+4) to 10. That means you’re in a Wheel of Fortune year. Are you in a Wheel year all of 2024? No. You entered the Wheel on your birthday in 2023, and your personal card will change again on your birthday this year, 2024. These energies span birthday-to-birthday, NOT calendar year to calendar year.
If you like, you can reduce these down further, to single digits, and look at your personal year cards as pairs. In the examples above, we’d end up with Justice/High Priestess, (11 and 2) and Wheel of Fortune/Magician (10 and 1). I personally prefer not to do this, but it’s your choice.
I’ve had serious “aha moments” looking back on milestones in my life through the lens of my personal year cards. I got divorced in a Death year, sober in a Temperance year. My life turned upside down in a Hanged Man year. The list goes on. We also move through these cards in 9- year cycles, so you can really begin to find patterns and common themes in how these archetypes show up for you. (I give readings that are all about personal year cards, FYI, to look back at your history and put events into context. Email me if interested at oakmoontarot@gmail.com.)
ANYWAY, long preamble to talking about Justice…but I just get SO EXCITED talking about personal year cards and I want everyone to work with them! They’re truly fascinating.
So, I just turned 42, and I’m really coming to terms with myself as “middle aged”. I don’t FEEL middle aged, but I must concede that I’m probably here (or even past it!): living to 84 would be awesome, and maybe I’ll live longer than that, but it’s just as likely that I won’t even get that far.
When Justice is card 11, that places it at the very heart of the Major Arcana. If you leave the Fool out of the count, as card zero and the one who travels, that makes for 21 Trumps. The 11th card, then, is the hinge, the center, the mid-point of the journey. Justice makes so much sense here, as it’s an invitation to look squarely at your life and what you’ve made of it so far.
I’ve certainly been engaged in this process, of really LOOKING at where I am in my life and reflecting on the choices that I’ve made that led to this point. It’s not all on me, of course. We are not responsible for or in control of everything that happens to us. I find it helpful to think of Justice’s 11 as 10+1, or a combination of the energies of the Wheel (card 10) and the Magician (card 1). The Wheel represents forces beyond our control, and the Magician is what we do have agency over; Justice is the truth of our lives unfolding in that tension.
And I think we’re all trying to hold that tension now. Much as mid-life feels like a critical turning point where something in us demands an honest accounting, we are collectively at a similar juncture, a Justice-type hinge that is very clearly asking us to have a reckoning. What choices led us here? How can the choices we make now influence the turning of the Wheel going forward? How can we find peace in this necessary balance between effort and surrender?
Justice corresponds to Libra, and the Libra court card is Queen of Swords. The Queen of Swords has a strong edge of sorrow and relationship with loss. To reckon with the choices we’ve made means acknowledging the choices we didn’t make: the possible futures that never materialized, the dreams that never manifested. At midlife, I’m in that space of mourning, too. But Justice and the Queen of Swords teach us to be empowered by such sorrow. We can let it inform and shape our choices going forward; not in a misguided attempt to avoid future loss, but by allowing it to clarify what’s most important to us.
A few weeks into my personal Justice year, and I’m deep in that process already: acknowledging that, while there is so much beyond my control, my choices do matter, and I want them to be conscious ones. I think so much of the struggle many of us experience in Justice is that we’re reaping the consequences of choices we made when we were metaphorically ‘asleep’, and that can feel deeply unfair. Fair or not, it’s how it is, and all we can do from here is strive to wake up, and choose with our eyes and hearts more open.
As a prompt today, I recommend this 2 card spread:
I think it’s deceptively simple, and can offer some really plain and beautiful insight. I recommend pulling multiple pairs, to represent various choices you’ve made throughout your life. When I did it, I wasn’t holding an event in mind and then pulling the card for the choice; I simply let the cards speak for themselves. But try it both ways, and see what works best for you. I also recommend just pulling for this spread ‘impersonally’, as a way to learn about the cause and effect of the various cards themselves. I love to hear about your pulls, so please share in the comments if you’re willing!
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This was so helpful! Thanks! I had been calculating wrong and thought I was in hanged man but apparently justice isn't thru with me until next September!!!
If a year adds up to 10, do you also reduce to 1, Magician? I think so?
It’s interesting that we can never have a Fool year.