Exploring Tarot: Strength

In card eight of the Major Arcana, Strength, a woman wearing a white gown with a flowered garland in her hair and another larger garland tied around her waist lovingly holds the head of a lion in her hands. A lemniscate appears above her head as she gazes at the lion whose tongue licks her wrist. The land is fertile and green while a mountain rises up in the background.

A soul-archetype card, Strength describes taming the wild within, and making peace with the ego side of self as we transmute ego into the higher vibratory awareness of Spirit. The lemniscate, or figure eight pattern above the woman’s head, suggests this is an infinite process by the soul to understand the nature of our physical existence through its own lens instead of from the lens of the reactive ego. In that way, control for control’s sake gives way to the soul’s higher purpose of learning all that it can to add to the collective consciousness of All That Is.

When Strength appears in a reading, it suggests that you summon your inner strength to take control of the ego within so that you understand a situation from a higher perspective. It’s asking you to express self-confidence and integrity and to use your inner strength to overcome obstacles in your path. Reversed, Strength implies a lack of higher awareness with ego becoming the strongest influence that guides your decisions.