Judgement
Major Arcana · number 20 · Il Giudizio
Upright
Judgement sounds the trumpet and something in you rises up: a change of position, renewal, an outcome that finally arrives. If you have long waited for an answer, a verdict, a call, these days you hear it. It may be a promotion, a reconciliation, a decision about your health that lets you breathe again. Be careful only with legal matters, where Waite warns of a possible loss: do not go to court light-heartedly. The practical advice: when the call comes, stand up and answer with your whole voice. The past has been judged, the rest is yours.
Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
Reversed
Reversed, Judgement speaks of weakness and timidity: the trumpet sounds but you stay down, afraid of getting it wrong, or with a simplicity others can exploit. At the same time the card announces a decision taken by others, a sentence, a deliberation that concerns you. If these days you feel something is being decided over your head, at work, in the family, in some official matter, it is no accident. It is not a sentence: it is an invitation to make yourself heard before it is too late. The practical advice: write down your reasons and present them, calmly, to whoever decides.