The Tarot Arcana

This project was suggested and voted by our subscribers.

The series brings to sculpture the Major Arcana in two specular readings : upright on one side, reversed on the other.

Fair warning: these are not “the classical” Tarot Arcana, these are my personal interpretation of the Arcana.

Instead of a reconstruction, think of it as a symbolic translation.

In this project I deliberately moved away from conventions.

These cards borrow meaning from multiple cultures (sometimes faithfully, sometimes freely) using their symbolic vocabulary to express an idea rather than to recreate a myth.

Justice (XI)

In a tradition that often uses the blindfold as shorthand for impartiality, this figure insists that judgment begins with seeing.

The card borrows from the Orunmila / Ifá, not as a literal depiction, but as a conceptual spine. As a deity of wisdom and intellectual development justice then becomes framed less as punishment and more as measured understanding.

Authority is marked by a crown in the Yoruba royal idiom—an adé-like sign of legitimacy rooted in tradition rather than intimidation.

The sword and scales are carved in wood—a symbolic refusal of spectacle and violence.

The sword is present but not indulged; it reads as a tool carried under control, not an appetite.

The scales hang from a staff that must be held upright, making balance a responsibility rather than an abstraction.

Two small weights deepen the idea: a feather and seeds face each other across the scales.

Lightness against consequence, principle against harvest—an additional measuring language layered onto the classic one, a reminder that justice is not only law but outcome.

Inspired by Adikia (the Greek personification of injustice opposed to Dike/Justice) Justice Reversed becomes self-serving force.