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Inner Focus Card: VIII Justice. The image on this card shows a woman with her back to the viewer, naked except for shoes on her feet and a belt around her waist, kneeling on two rose-colored pillows with her knees spread wide. Beneath the pillows are piles of human skulls. The woman is blindfolded, with her head facing to the right; her lips are parted. In her left hand is the center pole of scales which she holds at shoulder level, with a statue of a naked woman with her arms around her stomach in the left bowl and a statue of a naked man with his hands gripping his erect penis in the right bowl. We can't see where her right hand is, but it appears it is near her pubis. The key phrases for this card are: commitment and trust are the qualities necessary for a successful solution, and loving justice.
Outer Focus Card: 8 of Chalices. The image on this card shows a man and a woman. The man has a knife (a single-edge blade, as opposed to a dagger or sword, which usually has two edges) in one hand, held up threateningly, with his other arm around her neck from the back, gripping her chin and lower cheek. His eyes are open, his brows are furrowed and his mouth is open, as if he is angry and shouting. The woman has her eyes half closed and her mouth open and she looks like she is startled and calling for help. Her blouse is pulled off one shoulder and her breast is visible. The key phrases for this card are deceit, threats, shame, and change of plans.
The scales of justice have represented the balance between truth and fairness since the legal systems of Ancient Rome. The traditional image on the Tarot Justice card shows Lady Justice seated on a throne, dressed as a queen and carrying an upheld sword in one hand and the scales of justice hanging downward in the other hand. Lady Justice hears both the support and the opposition, weighs the two, and reaches a fair and just verdict. Our Decameron Lady Justice is blindfolded like many representations of Justice, indicating that even though she may be pleasuring herself, her findings will be fair and balanced for all. We are being reminded that in the end the power interactions between male and female need to balance out for a relationship to prosper. Our Decameron Lady Justice is kneeling on piles of skulls. Besides death, the skull has an interesting and relevant symbolism here: "memento more," which means "remember your mortality." The sharpness of that message may be dulled a bit by those plump pillows, but the skulls are there and they create a foundation for her existence. Her shoes also represent foundation, another reminder of its importance. Lady Justice is wearing a belt, a belt that looks similar to the belt laying on the bed in the image of the Decameron 9 of Pentacles. The belt gathers up, holds, and secures things that would otherwise be scattered. In the Justice card, the belt is another reminder to Lady Justice, binding her to her intent of fairness.
The traditional key phrases for the 8 of Cups are letting go, abandonment, and escapism, similar to the key phrases for the Decameron card. The Decameron 8 of Chalices could be telling us what happens when we don't listen to that little voice inside of us warning us that things are getting out of hand and perhaps the time has come to walk away. While the image appears physically threatening, this card does not necessarily warn of physical violence. After all, the suit of Chalices corresponds with the element of Water, and the soul. Water is about feelings and emotions and illusions. Our soul can certainly be damaged without the physical body being harmed. The angry and threatening man in this image is holding a knife. The knife is used for cutting and it represents liberation, sacrifice, division, severance, betrayal, survival, and death; any of these could apply to our image. We also need to remember that while it appears the man is the threatening one, he could represent a woman if that woman was the dominant one in a relationship.
Also, we are working here with a Major Arcana card for the Inner Focus and a Minor Arcana card for the Outer Focus, which can hint that the Inner Focus message is more archetypal or far-reaching, while the Outer Focus message is more day-to-day. Of course, day-to-day events can also have long-term consequences, but these two cards together make me feel that the Outer Focus card has an immediate nature to it.
Discord happens in any relationship. We need to be aware of our surroundings, for sometimes discord seems to come out of the blue. However, if we examine the situation, even if that examination happens through hindsight, we will usually find hints and signs of the approaching discord. If we remind ourselves to respond only with fairness and objectivity, we might be able to make that discord be transient in nature. If we remember the importance of Justice, if we commit ourselves to using justice as our lens through which we see the world, and our mouthpiece through which we communicate with others, and if we trust that our partners will do the same, our end result will be good.
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