There’s something deeply resonant about stories that echo across the chambers of our collective consciousness. V for Vendetta isn’t just a movie—it’s a mirror reflecting the archetypal journey we all must take if we wish to evolve beyond the confines of our societal cages. The transformation of Evey Hammond represents perhaps one of the most potent modern depictions of what tarot readers know as the Fool’s Journey—a path toward enlightenment that begins with innocence and ends with integration.
The Fool Steps Forward
In tarot, the journey begins with The Fool (0)—wide-eyed, naive, standing at the cliff’s edge, unaware of the precipice but somehow carried by an invisible force of destiny. This is Evey at the start, living in fear, obeying curfew despite her instincts screaming otherwise, walking alone at night against better judgment. She is society’s perfect citizen: compliant, docile, unquestioning.
Like many of us, she exists within a system designed to maintain her fear while convincing her it’s for her protection. How familiar this feels in our current landscape, where we’re told that surveillance keeps us safe, that censorship preserves truth, that uniformity creates harmony.
The Tower Moment
V’s entrance into Evey’s life represents The Tower (XVI) card—sudden, violent disruption of what once seemed solid. The old structures must crumble before new foundations can be built. When V rescues Evey from the fingermen, he doesn’t just save her body; he initiates the collapse of her worldview.
Our own governments, both external and internal, require similar Tower moments. The comfortable lies we tell ourselves—that we’re powerless, that nothing will change, that the system, though flawed, is necessary—must be demolished before we can see clearly. How often do we shy away from these Tower moments? We resist the painful clarity they bring because destruction, even when necessary, terrifies us. We’d rather cling to our comfortable cages than face the vastness of freedom.
The Hanged Man’s Sacrifice
Nothing in V for Vendetta demonstrates the archetype of The Hanged Man (XII) more powerfully than Evey’s imprisonment. This card represents willing sacrifice, suspension between worlds, and gaining new perspective through surrender. Evey’s transformation in that cell—believing herself captured by the government when she was actually being “tested” by V—embodies this energy completely.
When she finds Valerie’s letter, when she chooses death over betrayal of her principles, she undergoes the profound spiritual death required for rebirth. “I’d rather die behind the chemical sheds.” she says, and in that moment of surrender, finds herself paradoxically free.
How many of us are willing to metaphorically die for what we believe? To stand in the rain on the rooftop and feel everything—the fear, the rage, the grief—washing away? To surrender our attachment to comfort in exchange for truth?
Our self-governance often lacks this courage. We compromise our values for convenience, trade our authentic voice for approval. The internal fingermen of doubt and self-preservation keep us obedient to our own limiting beliefs.
Justice and Judgment
The Justice (XI) card in tarot doesn’t represent punishment but balance—not vengeance but equilibrium. V’s vendetta initially seems like revenge, but it evolves into something more profound: a rebalancing of power, a return of voice to the voiceless. When Evey refuses to obey detective Finch and his order to back away from the train of explosives, she commits V’s body to become the symbolic match that ignites revolution, and this symbol embodies true Justice. Not an eye for an eye, but the sacrifice and dedication that lead to the restoration of humanity’s moral compass.
The film culminates in what tarot readers would recognize as Judgment (XX)—the collective awakening, the moment when individual transformation catalyzes societal resurrection. As thousands don the Guy Fawkes mask, they aren’t just participating in destruction; they’re answering a call to collective rebirth.
The World Completed
The final card of the Major Arcana is The World (XXI)—completion, integration, the dance of opposites in harmony. V for Vendetta doesn’t show us this card fully manifested. Instead, it leaves us at the threshold of possibility as Parliament explodes. The new world must be built by those who witness the destruction of the old.This is where we stand today—in that pregnant moment between demolition and creation. Our governments, both internal and external, have revealed their corruption. The facades have crumbled. But what will we build in their place?
The Revolution Within
The most powerful aspect of V for Vendetta isn’t its call for political revolution but its insistence that true revolution begins within. Evey couldn’t participate in changing society until she had transformed herself—until she had faced her fears, embraced her power, and integrated her shadow.
We cannot create governments of love and community while our internal governance remains rooted in fear. We cannot see ourselves in others while rejecting parts of ourselves. We cannot manifest justice externally while perpetuating imbalance internally.
The movie whispers to us: become the person who could build the world you envision. Face your prison, find your letter from Valerie, stand in the rain and be reborn.
The Masks We Wear
“Beneath this mask, there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask, there is an idea, Mr. Creedy. And ideas are bulletproof.”
The Guy Fawkes mask has become an international symbol of resistance not because we all wish to blow up buildings, but because we recognize that transformation requires us to temporarily embody an archetype larger than ourselves. In tarot terms, we must wear the energy of each card, learning its lessons before moving to the next.
Our current systems of governance—the structures we’ve created to organize our societies and ourselves—have become rigid masks frozen in expressions of control rather than care. They no longer serve the living faces beneath. Like Evey being stripped of her hair, sometimes we must shed these constructed identities to remember who we truly are.
The Promise of the Fool’s Completion
“Artists use lies to tell the truth, while politicians use them to cover the truth up.”
The beauty of the Fool’s Journey is that it always completes itself. No matter how dark the night, dawn arrives. No matter how deep the dungeon, freedom waits. No matter how entrenched the tyranny, the human spirit rises.
V for Vendetta reminds us that even in our darkest political moments, when justice seems perverted beyond recognition, when love seems forgotten in the corridors of power, transformation remains not just possible but inevitable.
Like Evey standing in the storm, arms outstretched, face upturned to the cleansing rain, we can choose to shed our fear. We can remember that beneath the masks of division, beneath the costumes of conflict, we share one heart, one journey, one collective story.
And perhaps that’s the most revolutionary act of all—to trust that journey, to see ourselves in each other, to believe in a future where love and community guide us toward truth, beauty, and justice. Not the justice that masquerades as vengeance, but the justice that restores balance, that heals wounds, that transforms prisons into gardens.
The Fool steps off the cliff not because they are foolish, but because they trust the universe will catch them. In the same way, we step into uncertain political futures not because we are naive, but because we trust in our collective capacity for rebirth.
Remember, ideas are bulletproof. Love is bulletproof. And the journey, though it passes through darkness, always leads toward light.