IN A NUTSHELL
 
A fine art print, made to order, of the Justice card from the Spirit Vertigo Tarot concept art, 8x10".
 
SYMBOLISM
 
Justice in tarot symbolizes balance, measurement, and accountability between the individual and the collective, within and ideally beyond the designated bounds of the humanscape. As an ideal, it represents the drive to right wrongs, correct imbalances, find and maintain integrity, and create more equitable systems. Practically, of course, this card must also represent the tensions and contradictions between our stated ideals and our actual actions, individually and collectively. Note that Western society's classic and mythological symbols of justice neatly symbolize its perversions in practice: the scales of commerce and purchased power, the sword of violence and dominion, and the blindfold of intentionally limited perspective.
 
In this design, the scales weigh hand against heart, action against intention or ideal. The anthropomorphized figure of Justice is double-sided as their sword, and particolored to represent duality while also suggesting at its transcendence through multiplicity of nature and perspective in Spirit, and collaboration and equity in the human sphere. The stark black and white elements are meant to recall the Priestess's pillars flanking the Veil in classic tarot iconography. The black side of the figure gazes open-eyed and painlessly into dazzling light, to show complete and intentional awareness, and the search for as much information and context as possible in forming wise decisions. The white side of the figure is not blinded, so much as eyeless--the light-decoding apparatus never formed here. This face leans into a starry void, representing the rich heightening of other senses, including intuition and gnosis, under the absence or reduction of a primary sense. This face knows what they don't know, listens to greater powers from broader landscapes, and understands the mystic truth that the Void is as rich in mercy, love, support, and potential as the Light.
 
The interplay of light against dark and dark against light here represents balance and the integration of dualities, but it's also a little art joke on the concept of negative and positive space and the unavoidable Face/Vase illusion. If the edges of the card were joined full-circle, the space around the Justice figure would form a cosmic-scaled chalice or vessel. That's a nod to tremendous creative power, and to the emotional and psycho-spiritual aspects and consequences of rational processes. We try so hard to separate, suppress, marginalize, and deny the emotional aspects of our mental and legal decision-making, very often to our detriment. Pushing emotion and spirit to the edges doesn't disappear them, it grants them unacknowledged and undirected powers.
 
The sword's hilt is a spinal column, symbolizing through the lovely, sculptural architecture of bone, the challenges of embodying Justice in living form, of connecting head to root, and of building futures up from history and ancestry.
 

This print features concept art circa 2015 from the Spirit Vertigo Tarot, a deck in progress which I will be reworking in a new medium as I no longer use this fine marker technique. The initial concept illustrations will only be available as prints and posters. I’ve selected highlights from the deck in progress to feature in the shop, but you can order an 8x10” custom print or message to request a 16x20” poster with any of the images currently on the Spirit Vertigo portfolio.