TAROTStrength
Upright
Overcoming challenges with calm assertiveness and understanding.
Self-discipline and balance between assertiveness and compassion.
Exorcizing your own ghosts.
Handling difficult situations with inner resilience. Positive outlook when faced with adversity.
Intuition
The beast is not an external monster; it is your own fears, and this can get larger and more dangerous than anything else because it is inside you.
It is the Nemean Lion, and it is moon-colored because it was created by Selene; Goddess of the moon. It is intuitive, understanding you better than you understand yourself, making it particularly hard to beat.
Reversed
Misuse of real or perceived strength in a situation. Confusing gentleness with weakness.
Lack of self-control in difficult situations.
Lack of action and placating rather than asserting
Astrologia
Warm and generous leader with ambition and drive. Courageous and resilient against obstacles and willing to fight. Can have issues with pride and ego, leading to overreaction.
Strength
The previous card in the Major Arcana, The Chariot, is about exerting strength outward to achieve goals. The Strength card is about controlling raw emotional power, because allowing it to surface unchecked would be disruptive. It is about managing inner demons through strength of character and a cool head, rather than allowing them to control your direction.
The Strength card represents a person’s inner strength of character during times of adversity. It depicts a woman in a cave, calming a large beast through understanding and compassion. This avoids a display of brute force, argument, or a fight to the death.
This is not the meeting of a woman and a domesticated pet. The beast is untamed and in its own environment. There is balance here, but it is not achieved through simple affection; it is closer to mutual respect between two warriors.
The beast has a front paw raised in a typical feline 'ready-to-swipe' position. It is ready to defend, but has chosen not to. The woman wears armor, with a shield and spears at her feet. One hand is raised to the beast in a gesture of peace, but the other rests close to her weapons, ready to defend at a moment’s notice.
This is not 'compassion as weakness', nor is it appeasement or fear. It is a perfect state of peace between equals who know and respect the strengths of the other.
Athena and the Nemean Lion
Athena
The woman is Athena: Goddess of wisdom, war, prudent restraint, and the crafts. Although she is a Goddess of war, her domain is not brute strength and bloodlust, but war as strategy. She represents winning through planning, organization, and knowing both yourself and your enemy, and choosing the right time and place.
Athena is a patron Goddess of heroic endeavor. She often appears in myths as an unseen watcher, helping those she favors and ensuring success through understanding, guile, and skill. A quotation from Marcus Aurelius perfectly encapsulates her methods:
What obstructs the way becomes the way.
Real strength comes not from turning every disagreement into a pitched battle, but treating it as a stepping stone to growth. Each encounter makes you stronger.
Like most mythical deities, Athena likely originated from the animal and domain associated with her: the owl. Owls are skillful predators long associated with wisdom. Birds are common in early Neolithic temple structures, and early depictions of Athena show her as winged.
The Nemean Lion
The Nemean Lion was a fearsome beast. Depending on the myth, it was either the offspring of two monsters (Typhon and Echidna) or created by the Goddess of the Moon, Selene. This card depicts the latter, which is why the lion is the color of the moon. A beast that is physically strong is dangerous, but one intuitive enough to know your personal strengths and weaknesses is the worst beast of all. You might as well be fighting yourself (and, because this is a Major Arcana card, you probably are).
Thus, the Nemean Lion represents the beasts within: the fears and complexes that stop you from succeeding and hold you back. These can grow quite large over a lifetime. You succeed against them as Athena does: put down your weapons and understand the enemy. You must realize that the things you despise in others are often the very things you hate in yourself, hidden deep inside. They are defeated only by understanding what they are.
Athena never fought the Nemean Lion. A god cannot undo something another god does, so she could not kill a beast created by Selene. The Nemean lion's hide was impenetrable to swords and spears, rendering it invulnerable to direct assault.
Instead, she helped someone else who could defeat it: Heracles (Roman: Hercules). After besting the beast (by choking it in a powerful arm lock), Heracles took the lion’s pelt as a cloak, rendering himself invulnerable. Athena’s champion became far more powerful for his later trials.
What obstructs the way becomes the way.
Description and Symbology
The card is set in a dark cave, implying a location where a trial must take place, the inner recesses of the mind, or both. A fearsome beast, the Nemean Lion, stands over a woman. She is unafraid, instead touching the head of the lion in a gesture of peace and understanding. The woman is the Goddess Athena.
Although both characters appear at peace (perhaps even friendly), a closer look reveals that both the lion and Athena are poised for battle should it become necessary. The lion has a paw raised, ready to swipe, with its back legs braced for a rapid pounce. Athena keeps her shield and spears close to hand, her helmet resting on her head, ready to be pulled down over her face for combat.
The resulting image is a moment of perfect balance. Neither is afraid of the other, and both are uniquely powerful. Instead, there is a mutual respect and understanding for each other; the balance of equals.
Symbol for Strength
The Symbol for strength represents Athena’s weapon of choice; the spear, and shows a spearhead. It also looks similar to the symbol for the feminine.
Dark Cave
The classic battlefield for a trial where the hero is at a possible disadvantage. The cave takes them out of their comfort zone and into the dark unknown. Also, a location associated with the deep recesses of the mind. The beast in the cave is either a trial or a hidden part of the person representing a challenge, emotional injury, or previous failing. It could also be both.
The Nemean Lion
Neither a tame animal nor a friendly noble beast. Moon colored because it was created by Selene, Goddess of the moon. This makes the lion particularly dangerous, as it comes from intuition; you have to understand it, but it already knows and understands you.
Athena
Athena represents the tactician-warrior that does not give in to emotion but also knows when to fight. She takes the time to know both herself and her enemy because that is crucial to strategy and tactics.
Opposites in perfect balance
Both the lion and Athena show respect and understanding, but both are also prepared to fight. Compassion and understanding is not unwillingness to fight, but rather looking for a better way out that suits all parties. This is true strength.
Tips for Readings
The following table shows the upright and reverse meanings for general questions. The last row ('Yes/No') is useful when you are picking a single card to decide a yes or no decision.
Upright
Reversed
A relationship built on balance, compassion and understanding between partners.
It represents complete equality whilst maintaining a healthy assertiveness.
The possibility of bullying, causing fear and disharmony.
Power imbalances causing one-sided relationships.
Misuse of power.
Success through leadership and ability to make tough decisions and gain agreement with competitors.
You will have a period of success despite a number of difficult situations and setbacks.
This success comes from a newfound inner strength and tenacity, and ability to face-down and address problems.
You may show a lack of leadership and timidity in decisions, which may cause you to be passed over.
To fix this, you need to reflect on the real underlying problem, which will be to do with something current or in the recent past that is either occupying your mind or preventing you from standing up for yourself.
You must face this beast to solve your behavior, noting that this does not necessarily mean beating it; you can simply move on from its grasp.
Health will come through an awareness of your own abilities and weaknesses, and understanding that you should not ignore (nor run away from) any troublesome symptoms.
Now is a good time for anything involving creating a long term health plan or making decisions for the future; taming future problems early is the way forward!
You may be setting yourself up for future illness through ignoring problems and symptoms today. Face your health demons before they develop real horns!
There is the possibility of weaknesses in certain parts of your body, causing repeated injuries. Look to solving this once and for all, rather than concentrating on the day-to-day effects.
Remember; you can have compassion for yourself as well as others!
There will be growth through inner strength and compassion for others.
An ability to be able to walk in other people’s shoes and understand their problems will go a long way.
Beware of being open to believe anything, or lack of strong personal beliefs.
Wishful thinking fixes your problems, but only for the moment. It makes the future worse by allowing the real beast behind the lie to grow!
Forming your own beliefs and red lines, then standing up for them, would be the ideal. Waiting until you feel stronger to make decisions may be the more practical way forward for now.
You will have a good control over financial matters. This will come through an ability to address problems early.
Be wary of hiding problems or weakness in addressing major issues.
Pause and try to find problems in the small print or hiding behind the sales pitch, because there is definitely one there!
Yes, through inner strength and an acute awareness of problems, and the backbone to address them head-on.
No, through lack of self-control or misuse of strength.
Reading the Card
The Upright Strength card is not, as some assume, about 'taming' your emotions; that is merely repressing yourself. It is realizing you are a being of two halves. You need to respect your inner emotions, while realizing they are not helpful at all times. More than taming, the message is: do not let your negative emotions grow into uncontrollable beasts inside you.
The Strength card signifies you will meet a challenging situation that brings up powerful, destructive inner emotions that will grow over time unless checked. Your best route is to channel that energy away from combat and into moving forward without fighting, but also without simply placating or letting go. After all, this is a Major Arcana card. Whatever is causing this is profoundly important, not just a passing argument or a bad meeting at the office.
The Upright Card
The Upright card signifies you can succeed and get past the beast in front of you. Surrounding cards, or the question asked, will tell you something about the situation that brought this beast to stand in your path. Options to progress beyond it may include:
- Respect Works Better Than Hate: Both get returned, but only one is received as a gift. This is especially true when the beast is an old version of you trapped in a previous situation. Telling yourself something as simple as 'You did all that anyone in the same situation could have' is sometimes all it takes to silence guilt and a lifetime of 'what if' and 'if only'.
- Understanding Goes a Long Way: You may find yourself understanding yourself, because parts of the beast are you. Perhaps the problem is simply that you do not want to do something because it takes you out of your safety zone. Get to understand the beast before you fight it. There may be no real battle there, other than making a decision requiring true strength.
- Allow Failure to Succeed: Sometimes you need to let a situation go, despite knowing the probable outcome. Protect yourself from it, but let it happen. Everyone has their own path and must learn by walking it, even if that path takes something (or someone) away from you. Space is the only way some injuries heal.
Finally, labeling anything big with the word 'inevitable' raises more emotion and requires more inner strength than you ever thought possible. It is better to face it now, instead of at the last moment. No matter how successful your life, you will always have to do this on occasion. Save your energy: accept the reality, and then start to fix it rather than blindly fighting it.
The Reversal
The reversed Strength card suggests something will knock you emotionally.
You may be blocked by conflicts with others, resulting in out-of-control emotion. This may be because you cannot find common ground or someone has done something that seriously hurt your inner self.
The Strength card is not about the other person. As a Major Arcana card, it is entirely about you. When another person is involved, the card highlights their effect on your psyche, which is the true danger.
Everyone notes that Strength is about balance, but few explain what that means in a Reversal: it means your energy is not just going out to hit your opponent; it is training a new beast to rear its head inside you later. When you lose it, the beast gains it.
When you lose it, the beast gains it.
Balance in the Reversal is not about winning or losing. It is about maintaining your Self when others are raging or hurting. It is about staying true to your own values, because that is your real strength and your true armor.
More than many other cards, the Reversed Strength card is not a prediction. It is a warning. Look at the beast on the card. This is what you are in danger of creating inside yourself if you are not careful.
In Jungian terms, the beast represents the potential for unresolved issues to fester until they become part of your Shadow. This is the part of the psyche that constantly undermines your conscious actions, and it is exactly the aspect that Tarot readers explore when performing a 'Shadow reading'.
Card Design Process
Looking at other Tarot decks, it is obvious that the lion is rarely fearsome; it is often dog-sized or appears entirely tame. A lion on a Strength card should not look like a dog. It should not look like a normal lion, either. It should look like a monster.
The Nemean Lion was a monster. But what should it look like? It was decided it should resemble ancient statues of lions: less like a realistic feline and more like a towering, giant bear with a smaller head and oversized paws. That is what you see on the card.
The source material for the Nemean Lion’s pose was the author’s cat, originally taken in as a stray. A particular trait of this cat, Bertie, was raising one paw and growling, ready to swipe if he disliked a situation. Over time, that raised paw slowly turned into a friendly handshake, a story that resonates perfectly with the theme of the Strength card.
Final Words
The Strength card symbolizes the power of understanding, patience, and compassion over inner urges of brute force or verbal aggression. It encourages calm assertiveness and strength of character to maintain your Self.
It does not suggest people-pleasing, placating, or ignoring situations to avoid conflict. If it is time to fight, do so with rationality and patience, always showing your true face rather than unleashing an angry, uncontrolled beast.
Finally, remember that sometimes it is better to prevent emotions from rising and simply walk away. Choose patience. Form a better strategy, and fight another day on your own terms.
