Strength Tarot Card Meaning

Waite's list for the upright position runs: power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity, "also complete success and honors." In modern terms, the power here is not dominance. Magnanimity means generosity toward someone you could easily overpower, and that sets the tone for the whole reading. Waite adds that Strength has nothing to do with self-confidence in the ordinary sense. It concerns a steadier trust that has no need to prove itself. His "success and honors" are best read today as the respect that composure tends to earn, not as a promised result.

The keywords are courage, patience, compassion and inner strength. Courage here is quiet: staying with a strong feeling, a difficult person or a fear without lashing out. Patience is the method, since the lion in the picture was won over, not beaten. Compassion can point outward, and it may also point at your own impulses, which Strength suggests are better guided than punished.

The astrology fits. Fire gives Strength its warmth and drive, and Leo, the sign of the lion, supplies the heart and the pride. The image is read as that heat held with discipline, so the energy stays useful instead of being put out or let loose.

Waite describes a woman closing the jaws of a lion. Her task is already done: the lion is subdued and is led by a chain of flowers. Waite reads the chain as the "sweet yoke" and "light burden" of a law taken to heart, which in modern terms means a bond held by willingness instead of force. Above her head broods the symbol of life, a sign that her strength is not only muscle. The lion is read as the passions, and she, in Waite's words, is "the higher nature in its liberation." He also says she has walked upon the asp and the basilisk and trodden down the lion and the dragon. Today that is read as fears and urges that have been faced and outgrown.

Waite's reversed list is despotism, abuse of power, weakness, discord and "sometimes even disgrace." Modern readings keep two sides of this. One is power used harshly, often to cover insecurity: the lion is no longer led by flowers but pushed around. The other is the loss of nerve, shown by the keywords self-doubt and weakness, where you feel the lion is too large to approach at all. Strength reversed may be asking where force has replaced patience, or where fear has talked you out of your own steadiness. Discord, in Waite's list, can follow either way.

In a relationship reading, Strength points to affection that is steady instead of dramatic. It may suggest meeting a conflict with patience and compassion, and being able to stay warm while saying something hard. The lion can stand for strong feelings such as jealousy or anger, and Strength is read as handling them gently, not denying them. Reversed, it can point to insecurity or a struggle over who holds the power. As someone's feelings, it is read as deep, loyal care, expressed with restraint, and perhaps a person who is working to be gentle with something they feel strongly.

At work, Strength is read as an attitude: staying calm with a demanding colleague, holding steady through a long project, or leading by patience in place of pressure. Waite's word "magnanimity" suggests using authority generously. It does not promise any outcome. It may simply point to choosing composure when a harsher reaction is tempting.