Justice is one of the three cardinal virtues represented in the tarot. The others are Temperance and Fortitude (or Strength). This card was invariably titled "Justice" and invariably depicted as a woman with sword and scales. Sometimes she has a halo; almost always she is seated on a throne. Usually the sword is in her right hand, occasionally it is in her left. The Visconti-Sforza version has a vignette of a knight on horseback above the lady's head, perhaps a flattering reference to Francesco Sforza, who was anything but just in reality. Aside from this single instance of embellishment, the depiction of Justice was universally predictable and simple. (Indeed the image persists unaltered to this day as an icon of jurisprudence and the law.)
Less predictable, though, was the placement of the virtues in the sequence of trumps. In the Tarot de Marseille and related decks, Justice follows the Lovers and the Chariot as trump VIII. (The switching of Justice and Strength by Waite in 1910 was without historic precedent.) In the southern tradition of Bologna (Tarocco Bolognese), Florence (Minchiate), and Sicily (Tarocco Siciliano), the virtues were all grouped together immediately above the Pope, Temperance coming first. In Florence and Sicily, Justice is the highest of the three, whereas in Bologna, she is in the middle, between Temperance and Fortitude.
In the eastern tradition of Ferrara and Venice, Justice is unexpectedly elevated out of the company of the other virtues and given a place just between the Angel (Judgment) and the World. The card was probably felt to fit in this spot because the sword-and-scales motif was a common one for depicting the Last Judgment, in which all human souls were weighed and sent to their assigned eternal dwelling-place. St. Michael often appeared in this role, carrying sword and scales and trampling a demon or dragon underfoot. Ironically, the card now called "Judgment" does not really depict the Last Judgment per se, but rather the resurrection of the dead, an earlier event in apocalyptic chronology.
The virtues, besides being moral principles, also had a place in Renaissance cosmography as an order of angels. We thus might expect to find them above the celestial spheres (Star, Moon, and Sun) in the tarot sequence. But except for the unusual placement of Justice just mentioned, this is not the case. Instead, the virtues were generally placed among the lower-ranking allegories of the tarot, such as Love and Fortune. This has some logic to it, though, as the cardinal virtues were regarded as guides for practical life, as distinguished from the loftier theological virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity) that were distinctively Christian. The cardinal virtues had been incorporated into Christianity from the Pagan culture of classical Greece.
Aristotle gives an account of what Justice meant in pre-Christian times. The idea is not a karmic one; it is not about a cosmic "payback" for good or bad deeds. Rather, Aristotelian Justice is about fairness in transactions between people; it is about personal character in the social context. The just person takes only what he or she is fairly entitled too. Justice is about not cheating, not being greedy, and not taking advantage of others. The idea of balance is there in the sense of doling out equal portions...one should be neither selfish nor selfless, but instead find the proper mean between these extremes. This concept of Justice lacks the cosmic, karmic dimension of the weighing of souls.
In the Marseille ordering, this concept of Justice seems to fit happily with the placement of the card. Love (the Lovers) can be seen as one extreme (self-sacrifice) and the Chariot as the other (self-assertion); Justice appears as the mediating principle that finds a balance between these two polar approaches to dealing with others.
Thus, in reading most of the old decks, it is sensible to assign Justice a straightforward (although profound) meaning: being fair, neither exploiting and being exploited.
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