General Book of the Tarot, by A. E. Thierens, [1930], at sacred-texts.com
Whosoever might hesitate before the emblems of this card and think it might as well stand in relation with Libra on account of the idea of 'justice,' generally ascribed to the latter sign, and the balance which the woman holds in her left hand, will do well to consider the systematic relationship existing between all signs of the zodiac or evolutionary cycle. The left hand derives from, while the right hand is instrumental in giving out. Scorpio derives from Libra the balance and the idea of justice, but the sword in the right hand shows, that we have not justice pure and simple, platonic so to speak, but that which has often been called 'avenging justice.' Au fond it is more vengeance than justice and Scorpio is famous for its tendency to vengeance, in every way and every form. After Libra, the stage of total manifestation, this stage is the taking-back, the first step on the way home, which explains the well-known feature of desire, thirst for experience in this sign, because it wishes to bring home something from the voyage 'westward.' So the card of justice means above all the faculty of desire, higher as well as lower, from the most spiritual or religious longing down to the most crude lust. Sexual experience is one of the most important expressions of it, and we may safely say, that one of the principal significances of the card is sex. Another, principally where sex is sublimated, is occult experience, and the psychical side of earth-life in general. Naturally it stands in
close relation to the sign Virgo, on the other hand of the Balance, in which sensation was born; the faculty (or possibility) of the sensation bringing the desire to realise it. It is the sign of transmutation, which is the change of the inner composition by the experience won. The sensation realised makes one feel, actually, bodily, psychically or morally, the meaning of good and evil, and therefore the 'sword of discrimination' is the emblem in the right hand of this figure. Every mistake in the process of life will avenge itself with geometrical certainty. This house is the school of life and it is remarkable how it is concerned with 'school' in every respect. In this house the Self takes from life and from the cosmos surrounding what it wants, consequently what it does not yet possess, and the card of Justice becomes the index for our debts or the possessions of other people.
Meanwhile the balance in the left hand of the figure denotes, without the slightest doubt, that since Libra is on the left hand Justice must be the VIIIth card, not the XIth as some authors have it.
P. identifies this principle with that of the Hebrew letter Heth, which "expresses a field, from it springs the idea of anything that requires labour, trouble, effort." The sexual union has taken place and Adam-Eve are condemned to "earn their bread in the sweat of their face" on the field. To say it less tragically the divine gift of the senses obliges us to work with them and to suffer by them as well as to benefit by the enjoyment of their impressions.
It is the card of sorrow as well as of deeper satisfaction. In the man under this card there is always something of the 'avenger of wrongs,' and very often
it has to do with the proceedings of justitia in the world. It is also the card of the secret, or hidden. Most authors are not very famous for their interpretation of this card, but P. says a very good thing about it: "The sword here is a sign of protection for the good, as well as a menace for the bad."