VIII - Adjustment

Titles: The Daughter of the Lords of Truth, The Ruler of the Balance; Justice
Hebrew letter: ל (Lamed = ox goad = 70) [Single Letter = Zodiacal Trump]
Element: Air
Astrology: Libra ♎ - Cardinal Air - The scales (ruler: Venus, exaltation: Saturn; detriment: Mars, fall: Sun)
Time: 23 September - 22 October
Path on the Tree of Life: 22nd Path (Geburah ↔ Tiphareth; 5 ↔ 6)

Symbols/Colours:

the equilibrium of all things is hereby symbolized;
the figure is that of a young and slender woman poised exactly upon toetip; she is crowned with the ostrich plumes of Maat, the Egyptian goddess of Justice, and on her forehead is the Uraeus serpent, Lord of Life and Death; she is masked, and her expression shows her secret intimate satisfaction in her domination of every element of dis-equilibrium in the Universe;
this condition is symbolized by the Magic Sword which she holds in both hands, and the balances or spheres in which she weighs the Universe, Alpha the First balanced exactly against Omega the Last; these are the Judex and Testes of Final Judgment; the Testes, in particular, are symbolic of the secret course of judgment whereby all current experience is absorbed, transmuted, and ultimately passed on, by virtue of the operation of the Sword, to further manifestation;
this all takes place within the diamond formed by the figure which is the concealed Vesica Piscis through which this sublimated and adjusted experience passes to its next manifestation;
she poises herself before a throne composed of spheres and pyramids (four in number, signifying Law and Limitation) which themselves maintain the same equity that she herself manifests, though on a completely impersonal plane, in the framework within which all operations take place;
at the corner of the card, are indicated balanced spheres of light and darkness, and constantly equilibrated rays from these spheres form a curtain, the interplay of all those forces which she sums up and adjudicates;
the Trump represents The Woman Satisfied;
this woman-goddess is Harlequin; she is the partner and fulfilment of The Fool;
she is wrapped in a cloak of mystery, the more mysterious because diaphanous; she is the sphinx without a secret, because she is purely a matter of calculation; In Eastern philosophy she is Karma;
from the cloak of the vivid wantonness of her dancing wings issue her hands; they hold the hilt of the Phallic sword of the magician; she holds the blade between her thighs.