Without a doubt Judgement has been one of the hardest Tarot cards for me to crack. When I first started studying Tarot twenty years ago I just didn’t get it at all. Which isn’t surprising really. As the penultimate card in the Life Lessons section of the deck (aka the Major Arcana) it represents an incredibly profound and beautiful human experience. One many never truly embrace.
It’s the card that shows us how to reach The World. Nirvana.
That shows us how to save our souls.
And the secret it tells is this…
To become a fully evolved human being you have to help others.
That’s it. As simple as that.
Yet so many fail to grasp this truth.
My nineteen year old daughter doesn’t believe in Tarot or astrology. She has looked to the wider world for her life lessons instead. Raised on a diet of reality television and photoshopped images she has absorbed the belief that it’s what’s on the outside that counts. As a result she thinks happiness lies in a night out clubbing and boozing.
The sad thing of course is that it never will.
This morning as she-who-doesn’t-cope-well-with-alcohol recovered from a night of drinking we discussed all this and then I set her to work putting out the rubbish and bringing in the washing. Helping me. Which put a halt to the downward spiral of self-blame and guilt she was about to fall into.
That’s my recipe for adolescent self-absorption. Put them to work!
What’s yours?
The Tarot Teaclub 
Love, you couldn’t have put it better! I raised two daughters and taught adolescents for over 40 years. I remember my teenage angst in the 60’s, when the world was changing so rapidly. Thus,having experienced the trials and tribulations of adolescence and having taught many many adolescents; I,too, find that scrubbing a floor, or doing something nice for someone else helps a young one deal with the trials and tribulations of growing up. And it is also good advice for us all!
I like your interpretation of Judgement and will add it to my compendium of interpretations! Happy New Year, my dear!
Thanks Bhearni. I want to add that this is why I believe we train adolescents all wrong in our schooling system. It is more important for teenagers than for anyone else to perform acts of service for others. They shouldn’t be locked up in cages like wild animals, I mean, schools (they just look like cages these days). They should be out in the world a few days a week or for one whole year of schooling doing volunteer work to keep them on the right track. To give them the reality check they need at that age.