The Justice is an Arcana in the Persona series. In most Persona games, it is the eighth numbered card in the Major Arcana, numbered VIII8, following the Chariot and preceding the Hermit. In Megami Ibunroku Persona and the Persona 2 duology, it is the eleventh card, numbered XI11, following the Fortune and preceding the Hanged Man.
A Tarot de Marseille Justice cardA Rider-Waite-Smith Justice card
In tarot, the Justice is the eighth of the 21 trump cards, which are called "Major Arcana" in esoteric usage. The imagery originates from Italian tarocchi decks. The Justice card features a crowned woman carrying a sword and a pair of scales, a common Renaissance image of justice as a concept and as a cardinal virtue.
Note that the Rider-Waite-Smith deck swaps the numbers of Strength and Justice, and this alternative numbering is followed in the first three Persona games. According to Waite, this was due to personal preference and has no cause for explanation.[1]
Arthur Edward Waite lists the following divinatory meanings in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot: "Equity, rightness, probity, executive; triumph of the deserving side in law. Reversed: Law in all its departments, legal complications, bigotry, bias, excessive severity."[2]
Personas of the Justice Arcana are usually heroic figures or are related to the concept of "Justice" itself. From Persona 3 onward, the Justice arcana also contains the rankings of Angels from Pseudo-Dionysius's On the Celestial Hierarchy, such as Throne and Angel.
↑The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1922), Arthur Edward Waite. Published by William Rider & Son Limited. (2nd ed.) p. 100.
↑"The Greater Arcana and Their Divinatory Meanings", The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1922), Arthur Edward Waite. Published by William Rider & Son Limited. (2nd ed.) p. 285.