to be fair

When I turned over this card there were a few symbols, as always, that caught my eye. And it was only later, when I was looking through the symbols, that the title, "to be fair", suddenly came into my mind.

So let's look at everything that this card is about; everything that we are being asked to consider and what the message is that's coming through this card.

At the very centre of the card we have a beautiful lady holding scales. This is reminding me of... "to be fair" is to keep things in balance, to make sure there's justice, to make sure everybody has an opportunity to speak and that everybody listens; that everything is in balance.

If we look at the scales. On either side of the scales there are two very different objects. Now, the objects, to me, didn't feel important. What felt important was that they were different to each other. And what that says to me is that whenever things are in balance, it doesn't mean that everybody is in agreement, that everybody believes the same thing, or comes to the same conclusion or solution. You can have different opinions, you can come to a different conclusion, you can believe in different things yet the scales can still remain in balance if you give the same weight to somebody else's beliefs or conclusions or thinking as you give to your own, for example.

This is saying that, just because somebody doesn't agree with you, just because somebody doesn't have the same point of view as you, doesn't mean to say they're wrong. You need to see everything balanced. It means you're not always right as well. The scale has to always be in balance.

The other thing that stood out for me was in the background. There we have water. And, for me, water is about emotions. But look at the depth of the water, look at how choppy (or should we say, smooth) the water is. If we're talking about emotions here and we're talking about how smooth the water is, it's saying, don't let your emotions get so hyped up, don't let the water become choppy, that you can't have a balanced view, that everybody around isn't receiving the same respect as you would expect for yourself. You want everybody to be treated equally and with justice and with fairness.

So don't let your emotions rise to the surface and become all flustered that you're not keeping yourself in balance, that you're not seeing things in a balanced way.

At the same time, the water is also very shallow on this card. So don't let your emotions take over. Emotions will always be involved because we are emotional human beings. Emotion is what we are about. But don't let those emotions take over. They can be there but keep them shallow. make sure they don't take over the whole situation.

A couple of other things that stood out for me. Firstly the ruffles. She's wearing this most beautiful gown with ruffles. And whenever I saw the ruffles I was thinking of ruffled feathers. Again, it's a nod back to the emotions. Don't let someone else's opinion ruffle your feathers. Don't let your emotions rise so high that it ruffles the feathers around you, that everybody else is getting upset because you're so emotional about something. You want to stay balanced. Now is not the time to go off on one. Now is the time to remain balanced, to take everybody else's points of view, beliefs, thinking, solutions, conclusions, whatever the case may be; take everybody else's feelings onboard and consider them equally, with equal weight. Don't let the ruffles stop you seeing something in balance. You want to smooth it over.

You can see on the card, there're ruffles at the top and she has smoothed them out for a beautiful bodice. But then the ruffles have risen again and she's had to smooth them out again. This is saying that, yes you want to walk a path where everything is balanced, you want to treat people equally so there's give and take, you want to be communicating where you're talking but also listening. Everything has equal and opposite sides. Everything is in balance. But there will be times whenever your emotions rise and you maybe ruffle a few feathers or you get  a bit ruffled yourself. You want to smooth that out. You don't want to be continuously ruffled. Smooth it out so things can go back into balance again.

The other thing I noticed was the way the sun is shining on the clouds. I kind of expected the sun to shining down on the clouds. I expected the sun to be higher than the clouds. But the sun is shining up into the clouds and changing the colour of the clouds as a result. So it feels like the sun is setting. It feels like, perhaps, the sun is setting on a situation that maybe has had you out of balance or feeling a bit ruffled and very emotional. The sun is setting on that. Things are starting to balance themselves out. Things are starting to feel a bit more just. And everybody is feeling that they've been treated right and treated equally.

So it feels like, if there has been an issue like this in your life, the sun is setting on it. And, as the sun is setting on it, it's casting these beautiful colours on the clouds; clouds that represent higher thinking. If there are too many clouds in the sky, it can lead to clouded judgement. Again, that's going back to if you have clouded judgement, you're not seeing everybody's point of view, you're not considering everybody's belief and thinking and solutions, not everybody is being treated fairly. So, you don't want you judgement to be clouded. You want it to be illuminated so you can consider everybody's point of view.

That takes us to the phrase; the phrase that eventually felt relatively important to me on this card; not at the start, just towards the end. It reminded me of someone I knew whenever  I was a child and this person would always use the phrase, to be fair: "to be fair, to be fair". Whenever someone uses that phrase, to be fair, generally what they are saying is, somebody has maybe been criticised about something and this person steps in and says, "to be fair..." and they're going to say something that shines a nicer light on the person, explains better why they did what they did or whatever they were criticised for. To be fair. Let's not let the scales of justice fall on one side and condemn this person. "To be fair" is bringing the scales of justice back into balance again, back into their natural and fair position.

It's a nice phrase to go through in life because quite often as humans, we are very quick to condemn, we're very quick to criticise. And if you are tempted and you see someone, and you're like, "why are they doing that?", let this little phrase come into you head, to be fair. And then look and try to step in that person's shoes, understand why they're doing it, rather than just leave the criticism and walk away, not seeing the person in the best light.

There's always two sides to the story. And whenever you hear two sides and you're open to both opinions and both sides of the story, things become a lot more balanced and you can view the world in a lot more balanced way.

This card is suggesting that perhaps if things have felt a bit out of balance, that the sun is setting on that; things are starting to sort themselves out, things are coming into balance. But it's not only that. It's also saying to us, going forward try to keep things in balance, try to remember there are two halves to the story, try to remember that people aren't intentionally bad. There's always a reason why they do something so, if they are criticised, think "to be fair, why did they do that?" Step into their shoes, try to understand. And, also, going forward, in everything in life try to see things in a balanced manner. So, if you are communicating with somebody, don't do all the talking and don't do all the listening. Do both - talk and listen. See the good side and the not-so-good side. In ourselves, too, we have a beautiful light side but we also have shadow side which many of us kind of want to push aside and ignore. But it's whenever you bring both those sides into balance and you understand both those sides, then you can live a more balanced and true life for yourself.

This card is all about balance, bringing justice, bringing equality, bringing fairness to your life and the lives of those around you.

Reference: This beautiful card is from Wisdom Of The Oracle Deck by Colette Baron-Reid, illustrated by Jena DellaGrottaglia