Strength

Quiet courage. The gentle hand that calms the wild thing.

The picture

A woman in a white robe stands with a lion, her hands resting on its jaws. She wears a garland of flowers in her hair and around her waist, and the same flowers loop from her to the lion. Above her head floats the sign for infinity, the figure eight on its side. The lion is calm and lets her hold him. Behind them the sky is yellow and a blue mountain rises in the distance.

Upright

Look at how she does it. Her hands are open, her face is calm, and patience is all she brings. The lion lets her.

This is the strength I see in the card. The lion is everything big and hot inside you: temper, fear, appetite, pride. Leo rules this card, and Leo has a lion's heart, generous and loud. The woman makes a friend of the lion. That takes more courage than any fight.

When Strength turns up, you have more steadiness than you think. Something is asking for a soft touch and a long patience. Hold it, breathe, and let the wild thing settle in its own time.

Reversed

Reversed, I read Strength most often as turned inward. The lion is roaring inside, as self doubt, anxiety, the voice that says you cannot cope. The strength is still there. You are simply using it all to hold yourself together. Sometimes it is too much or too little instead: too much looks like force, gripping the lion by the throat and calling it control; too little looks like letting the lion run the house.

Ask where the roar is coming from. If it is in your own head, the card asks you to be as gentle with yourself as the woman is with the lion. If it is out in your life, as temper or pushing too hard, it asks you to loosen your hands.

When it turns up

What wild thing in you is waiting for a gentle hand?

Strength has also been a Tarot Card of the Week. Read that post to see the card at work on a real week.

If you would like the cards read against your own chart, my readings are here.

Related pages
The Number 8 · Strength as a Birth Card · The Twenty Two Paths