Halloween Tarot - Judgment
By Kipling West; book by Karin Lee
US Games Systems, Inc.

Awaken Sleeper! That really says it all for me, and also incorporates every Judgment card I can think of.

In this card, a vampire towers over a small family, who has risen from their graves. He looks comically threatening. The child reaches up with both hands, and it seems that the father holds him back while the mother urges him on. Perhaps the father represents the mental, moral (?), responsible, cautious choice ("Don't go -- you'll become a blood-sucker!") and the mother represents the emotional, romantic (?), sentimental, impulsive choice ("Eternal life!"). Perhaps. I know that in my small family, the father uses intellectual judgment and the mother (me) uses intuitional judgment. (Just looked in the book. It says "conscious" and "sub-conscious.")

The family is rising, but only because they hear the call. And it is not yet decided if the vampire will take one or more of them. They are meeting at the portal(s) between the under-world and the above-world, the above-world and the beyond-world. What makes Judgment such a key card, IMHO, is how we envision the "after-death." Do we sleep? Do we awaken? Do we sleep, then awaken? Do we live on only through our DNA, and the recycling of our material bodies? Do we return in spiritual bodies? Material bodies? And how much does our belief influence how we live our lives? How we make our judgments?

Of course, the divinatory meaning doesn't always have to be that heavy. It can relate to any kind of awakening or resurrection, as well as reaping the benefits or consequences of previous actions. (He can only come in if you invited him.) It also indicates the responsibility of using "good" judgment, considering the well-being of one's self and others. And finally, there is a message here about judging others: the family is not exactly fleeing in terror from this scary monster. We know vampires are horribly evil, yet they still have qualities that draw us …

One Love All Love,
Moonchild