Dodal
Justice · VIII
A crowned seated figure holds an upright sword on the left of the image and scales on the right. The two pans hang below the raised hand; the high chair frames the head and shoulders.
What happens to the scales?
The sword and scales remain, but their positions change. Compare a seated holder of two implements with a figure arranged along the axis of a much larger balance.
Start with the pictures
Justice · VIII
Jean Dodal · Lyon, 1701–1715
Open the source image ↗
Justice · XI
Pamela Colman Smith · 1922 printing, p. 113
Open the source scan page ↗Notice what changes
Smith
Justice · XI
A crowned figure sits between pillars with an upright sword and a pair of scales. A curtain closes the space behind the throne.
Harris
Adjustment · VIII
A masked figure stands on a narrow point, holding a long downward sword along the body’s centre. Large scale pans hang on either side from chains above. Repeated spheres and angular forms surround the figure.
Open Harris’s painting and reference page ↗Now read the authors
Waite’s explanation
Waite distinguishes moral justice, concerned with a person’s works, from his theological account of spiritual election. Similar pillars do not make this the same threshold as the High Priestess’s.
Crowley’s explanation
Crowley distinguishes natural equilibrium from human moral justice.
What changes when balance is something a figure must inhabit rather than an implement held in one hand?
Write one thing you can point to in the image, one interpretation from a named author, and one inference of your own. Keeping the three separate gives you something useful to revisit.
Read the contemporary essay
Gabriel’s contemporary account explores adjustment and equilibrium. Its Marseille description needs checking against the actual Justice card; the study here uses the pictured Dodal witness.
Sources and image credits
The Dodal cards are one early-eighteenth-century Marseille witness. The black-and-white Smith plates come from the 1922 Rider reprint, whose title verso lists first publication in 1910. Colours in later editions can differ.
The images shown here are reproduced from public-domain sources, with their original borders and page context.
- Jean Dodal · source record and rights statement ↗
- Pamela Colman Smith · source record and rights statement ↗
Harris’s paintings are linked on their host’s reference pages. Crowley’s text is the separately identified Thelemagick transcription of The Book of Thoth. Neither a modern reproduction nor a transcription replaces examination of the original artwork or edition.