THE 22ND PATH

   “On this path, you see a figure that could be either a man or a woman, but I am going to refer to the figure as a woman, a woman with her eyes open, able to see everything clearly, not a blind-folded figure. In her right hand, she holds a sword, straight up and down, a symbol of the element of Air, for Libra is an Air sign. The sword on one level symbolizes the mind’s ability to discriminate and find the truth and make appropriate choices. She holds a scale in her left hand to suggest the ability of the mind to weigh and balance and create harmony. Libra is the astrological sign of balance, which is appropriate here because this path balances the other paths on the Tree of Life.
   "She personifies the soul, which sees clearly both with the physical eyes and the inner eye. The square in the middle of the crown symbolizes the third eye, the eye of inner vision. On her stable throne, she balances the pillars of the Tree of Life. She eliminates the unwanted negative energies and harmonizes all the energies of the self. On that level, she represents the will of the Higher Self.
   “The 22nd path is daunting: you must face the discordant elements in yourself as you move from Tiphareth to Geburah. The path is known as ‘Justice,’ and it refers in part to the kind of justice that you inflict on yourself, but it also suggests your ability to create balance and harmony on all levels of your being if you choose. Remember that Tiphareth is the center of equilibrium where you experience the vision of harmony and the mysteries of sacrifice. As you move toward Geburah, you experience what is out of balance in your own nature. This path is exactly at the midway point of the journey, and you have to establish harmony within yourself before you proceed to Geburah because the sphere of Mars is the sphere of power, which can easily turn to cruelty or destructiveness if your nature is unbalanced.
   “The path might also be called ‘karma’ because you must determine which energies in yourself are attracting unwanted energies into your world. As I mentioned before, whenever you touch a higher sphere, you open up a spectrum of energy containing a virtue and a vice, so to speak. When you enter Tiphareth, for instance, you experience a sense of oneness with the Source, which leads to devotion to the Great Work, culminating in union with God. The opposite, pride, which is a kind of selfishness, also rears its ugly head. Perhaps you know, as I do, devoted religious people who can tell you everything that is wrong with other religions and other sects and make you afraid that you will go to hell if you even think about joining them. That is a kind of pride that throughout history has led to great cruelty and destruction.
   “Perhaps you have also met intellectual people who are knowledgeable but remarkably untrustworthy. In the sphere of Hod, the intellect, truth is the supreme virtue. But some extremely dishonest cutthroats work at colleges and universities. They are operating in the sphere of Mercury, the great trickster. Dishonesty and deception can destroy lives and can end up being just as cruel as pride or any other vice on the Tree. That is what I mean by lack of balance. These vices, or unbalanced energies within you, attract the same problems over and over into your life because you keep sending out thought-forms filled with those negative vibrations that keep drawing the same energy to you, resulting in a kind of cosmic justice that you eventually inflict on yourself. That is the law of attraction, which is the basis of karma. You are faced with situation after situation, in this life and others, until you eliminate the negative thought-forms and establish harmony in yourself.”
   “That's a hard way to learn!”
   “The hardest but perhaps the most effective. The great challenge of the path is using your discrimination, represented by the sword of the figure of Justice, to determine what tendencies you must harmonize in yourself. Then you use your will to eliminate the negative energies and harmonize the vibrations within yourself, which of course requires discipline.”
   “Sounds easier said than done.”
   “In many ways, this is one of the greatest challenges of the Tree because you learn not only to balance the energies within yourself but also to use them for the highest good.
   “An important Egyptian Goddess is Ma'at. As you recall, Ma'at is the Goddess who, in the Hall of Judgment, weighs the heart against a feather. If your heart is as light as a feather, then your soul may go to Osiris. She is the Goddess of order, of balance, of harmony, of truth and justice within the cosmos and the self. The Goddess Ma'at is much like the figure we now see before us."

Reversed: lack of balance or fairness, lack of wisdom