Number and Meaning: 20, Initiation

Traditional Name: Judgement

Medicine Woman Energy: The Wisdom to Discern

Affirmation: “I recognize the circle of life brings undeviating justice to all things, events, and beings as all unite in consciousness.  I realize my every thought, word, and movement affect all creation.  Through time, the great circle returns all things to their maker.”

The Card Speaks: “Judgement is simply the return to Self of that which Self has given forth.  From the mountaintop, you can look back and see the footprints of your path through the snowy valley of life.  Here, your heart can open to all, for you see clearly from on high.  No anger is stored.  No judgement is hidden.  Now you have learned to express what needs to be expressed, to empty the heart and open its doors for true love to enter.

Judgement symbolizes our resurrection or rising above the illusion of separation.  Here we find cooperation not only with people, but with the forces of all nature and life.  There is no more sense of being judged or of judging others, as we accept all as a unity of interaction.  This is a new plane of awareness.

“At this level of being, you have acquired the capability of discernment.  You know your proper place at any given moment and the proper place of others.  Your experience has given you the wisdom with which to make decisions that may leave someone out and let another in, but now you do this without judging those people or yourself.  Instead, you discern correct action at any given time and you are unafraid to take it.  You are able to speak your mind without guilt.

“You may find that you are increasingly sensitive to sound.  The vibration of truth is a sound that can be perceived in your own and someone else’s words.  Now you are sensitized to it.

“From this plane of awareness, your life can be reviewed and all accounts settled. You will know the impact your words have on others/  Old events may be perceived in a new light.  What was once seen as a hindrance now can be seen for its value in helping the Self to gain certain qualities and experiences necessary for the awakening that has come about.  Welcome to the level of consciously working with us, the Guides of humanity.”

Self Questioning: Am I capable of expressing what I think without harsh judgement of others?

Exercise: Listen

Meditation: Spend half an hour chanting om aloud.  Then be silent for half an hour.

Visualization: See yourself ascending a rainbow stairway to the heavens.  Put yourself into that ascending body and begin to feel yourself walking up those stairs.  Imagine that you can pierce the clouds and hear the call of celestial music.  Reach for the angelic hand outstreched and go where you are led.

Astrological Sign: Pluto

Foods: Every religious tradition has had certain suggestions, if not rules and taboos on which foods help one to be on the highest spiritual path.  Definitely, foods affect the body in very specific ways.  If you have been utilizing these lessons fully, you have seen how certain foods affect yor own body.  You will also discover that when you eat according to a certain diet, your own feelings or “vibes” become different from others who are not eating the same way you are.

Religious groups or even families are more in harmony with each other when they partake of the same general diet.  Mayn spiritual teachers eat very lightly, gaining an extra sensitivity to the needs of their people. Adopt the diet of a religious tradition or exalted teacher you respect.  Notice the change in your own vibration as you allow yourself to become aware of the diet’s effects.  Do you gain more understanding into the person or tradition?  Do you feel more akin?  Learn from this

Colors: See how real gold or diamonds affect the way you feel.  Why are these so valued throughout the world?  What is the stone of your land, its color and place in your life?  How do you feel when adorned with jewelry that carries special meaning for you? How do you feel completely unadorned?  Whate are your true colors?  Experiment.

Find out when certain colors or stones felt importand in your life. During what periods?  During which relationships?  How did the color help you?

Surround yourself with a color and see what sound it brings to mind.  Try listening to different sounds and see what colors they bring to mind.

Toward Discernment

During times of self-reflection, there is an evalutation of the actions of self and others.  In the early stages of understanding, you may easily judge others as wrong.  “If it weren’t for them I would have been able to….”  The best thing to come out of judging others wrong is the desire to be unline “them” oneself.  You vow to remain better or to become better than that which you are percieving as outside yourself.

As you become more aware of how your thoughts and actions draw events and people to you, you begin to judge situations differently.  It is no longer simply “I am totally right and they are totally wrong.”  You begin to see where “you asked for it” or “played right into their hands?”  This is the second level of judgement leading toward true discernment.  At this stage, you begin to see more clearly where others are misjudging or pre-judging others and you want to help these “prejudiced” and “judgemental” people to see their errors and become more fair.  Of course, you are still judging them andmay become irritated at your own judgements.

All of this leads to the third stage of judgement.  Here we might call it a further refinement of discrimination.  You are sorting out that wich is beneficial to you and that which is not, but you are no longer making blanket decisions to rule out someone or something merely by it’s general classification.  You are distinguishing between subtleties.  In the area where you do this best, you would be considered a connoisseur.  Your tastes and perceptions are very refined.  This is a high level of the quality of judgement and it is easy to want to stay here.  But remaining at this level will become just as distatsteful to the spiritual seeker as remaining at either of the first two levels.

The next step in your personal evolution is to go beyond these necessary, developmental stages.  The path looks something like this.

Egotistical self-righteousness: I’m always right

Blind dogmatism: My group is always right.

Prejudice and judgementalism: My values are better than someone’s.

Discrimination: I can tell you to the smallest detail why one thing is better than another.

Discernment:  I can see a reason for it all and the part I play in its creation.  I can also choose not to play my part.

Discernment is a willingness to look and listen attentively to the information before you, wehter that information comes in the form of a person, a creed, an event, or even the simplest of words and actions.  You take the time to reflect on the reason for its being placed within your field of awareness.  You accept the part you played in drawing it to you.  And if you don’t like it, you accept your role in dismissing it from you.

As you can see, it is very hard at this level to get too uppity about anything.  And at the same time, you can and must make choices.  But these choices are based on the refined sense you have developed alond the way during the early stages of judgement.

Discernment is a liberation from the roles of either victim or oppressor.  You have ascended.  You may now trust yourself to carry out the divine will by trusting and acting on what feels right to you in each moment.  Your mind, spirit, body, and emotions are a coordinated unit acting with full knowledge of your relationship to the whole.  The mind, body spirit, and emotions now know experientially that what you sow, you will also reap.  The circle of life is clear.

The Medicine Woman Tarot Set