Strength
Strength is courage expressed as gentleness: the quiet, patient power that masters instinct through compassion rather than force.
Major Arcana VIII
Upright keywords
- inner strength
- courage
- compassion
- patience
- self-control
- gentle influence
Meaning when upright
Strength shows a woman calmly closing a lion's jaws, a picture of power that works through love and steadiness rather than domination. It speaks of courage, endurance, and the ability to meet fear, anger, or appetite without being ruled by them. Waite gives it power, energy, action, courage, and magnanimity, with complete success and honors to follow. The lion is not destroyed but befriended, so the card favors integrating your passions rather than suppressing them.
On the card
- woman gently closing the lion's jaws
- Mastery through love and calm will rather than violence; Waite's higher nature in its liberation, subduing the passions.
- red lion
- Animal instinct, passion, and desire; also Leo, the card's zodiac sign.
- horizontal figure eight above her head
- The same sign of life that hovers over the Magician: infinite, spiritual strength.
- chain of flowers linking her to the lion
- Waite's sweet yoke and light burden of Divine Law, taken into the heart of hearts; control through gentleness.
- wreath of flowers in her hair
- Harmony with nature and the beauty of a disciplined life.
- white robe
- Purity of intention; Waite connects the card with innocentia inviolata, inviolate innocence.
- distant blue mountain
- Future heights that calm, sustained strength makes reachable.
- the lion's lowered head and tail
- A beast already subdued and willing, as Waite says her fortitude has already overcome it.
In Waite’s words
A woman, over whose head there broods the same symbol of life which we have seen in the card of the Hierophant [sic: the lemniscate is on the Magician], is closing the jaws of a lion. The only point in which this design differs from the conventional presentations is that her beneficent fortitude has already subdued the lion, which is being led by a chain of flowers. For reasons which satisfy myself, this card has been interchanged with that of Justice, which is usually numbered eight. As the variation carries nothing with it which will signify to the reader, there is no cause for explanation. Fortitude, in one of its most exalted aspects, is connected with the Divine Mystery of Union; the virtue, of course, operates in all planes, and hence draws on all in its symbolism. It connects also with innocentia inviolata, and with the strength which resides in contemplation.
These higher meanings are, however, matters of inference, and I do not suggest that they are transparent on the surface of the card. They are intimated in a concealed manner by the chain of flowers, which signifies, among many other things, the sweet yoke and the light burden of Divine Law, when it has been taken into the heart of hearts. The card has nothing to do with self-confidence in the ordinary sense, though this has been suggested—but it concerns the confidence of those whose strength is God, who have found their refuge in Him. There is one aspect in which the lion signifies the passions, and she who is called Strength is the higher nature in its liberation. It has walked upon the asp and the basilisk and has trodden down the lion and the dragon.
- Divinatory meaning
Power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity; also complete success and honours.
- Reversed
Despotism, abuse of power, weakness, discord, sometimes even disgrace.
Correspondences
- Element
- Fire
- Astrology
- Leo
- Hebrew letter
- Teth (ט)
- Path on the Tree of Life
- Path 19: Chesed – Geburah
- Number
- Eight is power and mastery through effort; in Strength it becomes the sustained, patient force of self-command.
To reflect on
- What wild part of me needs befriending rather than fighting?
- Where can gentleness achieve more than force?
- What gives me courage when I'm afraid?
In your readings
Hasn’t appeared in your readings yet.
Ask about this card
Marguerite, the traditionalist, answers from Waite’s text, what is drawn on the card and its correspondences. You can choose another reader in settings.