Judgement

Symbols

• The TrumpetA brass trumpet leaning down from the sky — not a punishment, but a name finally spoken aloud.+

  The letter Shin is tooth and fire in glyph — something that cuts and thereby discerns. The horn is that fire in auditory form: it does not destroy; it returns confused things to their own places.

• The White BannerA white banner streaming from the horn — the red cross is not doctrine but a sign that all four directions are being woken at once.+

  Waite notes the cross on the trumpet's banner. White with a red cross is the flag the risen Christ holds in Western painting, as in Piero della Francesca's Resurrection, so the banner names the scene at a glance.

• The Open CoffinsOpen coffins on the grey sea — the old self is not demolished, only left standing open — and already stepped out of.+

  Waite's text has the dead 'rising from their tombs'. Smith draws no tomb: plain open boxes float on the water, so the risen stand upright in something that is itself adrift.

• The Three RisenMan, woman, child — father, mother, the new self. This time all three raise their heads together, no longer ranked.+

  The child turns away from the viewer toward the angel — what has been woken first is the least-contaminated self, who answers without rehearsing.

• The Grey SeaWater and sky the same tone — no before, no after, no above, no below; only the now that the horn has threaded.+

  Revelation has the sea give up its dead (20:13) and then vanish: 'there was no more sea' (21:1). Smith paints the moment in between — the water is still there, holding up the opened coffins.

• GabrielThe messenger angel — he does not command; he only makes the long-true sentence finally audible.+

  Waite never names him, saying only that the angel is 'encompassed by clouds'. Scripture gives the last trumpet to no named angel ('the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised', 1 Cor. 15:52); Gabriel is later tradition.

• Figures Rising BehindThree more rise farther back — the call reaches past the family in front.+

  Waite says this card shows 'more than three who are restored' by design, a variation made 'as illustrating the insufficiency of current explanations': the father-mother-child reading leaves half the risen unaccounted for.

• Mountains Beyond the WaterSnow-white peaks close the view beyond the water — firm ground at last, but far away.+

  Snow-white peaks stand behind the Fool at card 0, and the Hermit keeps his vigil on one at IX. At XX they return on the far side of the water, while the risen stand not on land at all but in coffins that float.

Story

The picture runs along one vertical: sound comes down, bodies reach up. At the top the angel leans out of the clouds and blows downward; below, the risen all turn up toward him, arms lifted or hands joined, in the same attitude of wonder. Six stand up out of the water, three near and three farther off. The child in the front row has its back to us, which puts the viewer behind the risen, on their side of the call, looking where they look. The note is still sounding, and no one has yet stepped onto solid ground.

Correspondences

Shadow

Related Cards

Death

The Fool

The Sun

Combinations with this card