When (11) Justice appears she calls upon us to look with open eyes and deeper introspection into ourselves, to weigh our actions and ideas or aspirations in the balance and cut out with the sword of truth those things that do not serve us.
The function of the scales is to weigh up claims so as to favour the one that has more weight, or if there is a superfluity, to adjust accordingly. In short, we are being called on to weigh up situations and to make a just decision based on the circumstances before us.
In addition, there is also the sense of “karmic justice” which is in alignment with the biblical maxim that,
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Galatians 6: 7
If we apply the manifestation of (11) Justice in the fourteenth week after Trinity, which is presided over by (14) Temperance, we may more clearly apprehend that the office of (11) Justice is to pay out the rewards or punishments of our practising or neglecting (14) Temperance in our lives.
One way we can engage with the arcana of (11) Justice through (14) Temperance is through the practice of Stoicism. Seneca teaches in today’s reading from The Daily Stoic that,
Leisure without study is death – a tomb for the living person.
Seneca, Moral Letters 82.4, quoted by Holiday and Hanselman in The Daily Stoic, p. 288
What Seneca is pointing out is that an excess of idleness without purpose is a vice that leads to the death of the higher faculties of man. Putting leisure to good use through study, however, will bring the scales of (11) Justice into balance, and keep her sword, symbolizing the power of intellect and reason, upright, whereas excess in one direction or another will put the scales out of balance and bring the sword of karmic retribution crashing upon our foolish pates.
Personal Application
My leisure time today was spent at a private chess party where conviviality and beer flowed freely. At the same time, after each game that was played, a discussion would ensue about how the game was played out and what the losing party could have done better. If you wish to play chess well, study and practice are required. So chess provides the ideal occasion to get the balance of leisure and study right, in my opinion.