Strength: Rider-Waite-Smith (U.S. Games), Tarot Illuminati by Eric C. Dunne, Gilded Tarot Royale by Ciro Marchetti

Whenever I see the Strength card come up, it’s gentle but strong energy is immediately accepted and welcomed.

I’m using the Rider-Waite-Smith version of the Strength card for the purpose of this post because that’s the template that the majority of contemporary tarot decks are modelled after.

It’s also very easy to see in the image on the card what the meanings are. This is actually one of the keys to not only learning to read and divine with Tarot cards, but to find decks that you connect with.

If the picture on the card doesn’t connect with the meanings you’re building in your subconscious mind for that card, it isn’t very helpful.

Choose a deck where the pictures on the cards speak to you. No deck will be “perfect” that way, but the majority of the cards will make sense to you in their imagery.

Prefer to watch? I've created a video deep-dive on this below.

The Imagery in the Strength Tarot Card

In the Rider-Waite-Smith version, right away we see a woman and a lion.

That’s an interesting contrast right off the bat because the woman looks very civilized, noble and pure with her white gown and the lion is well, king of the beasts.

The bright yellow background also enters my senses and mind right away promoting a positive feeling of optimism and “can do.”

She has a lemniscate hovering over her head (the infinity symbol) and she’s crowned with a wreath.

She's no ordinary mortal woman but a symbol of the divine feminine.

I’m not going to go too much into the visual symbolism here because this only pertains to the RWS tarot deck in particular.

But I’m bringing some of the ideas forward because they are the meanings that are generally accepted in tarot reading.

Before I get into the meanings that the card has, I’ll list a few keywords. 

Keyword Meanings for the Strength Card in Tarot

gentle strength, quiet determination, overcoming ego and negative drives, courage, can be a good omen for health matters, spiritual awakening (more on that later in this article).

The Shadow or Reversed Keyword Meanings:

I don’t personally used reversed cards. I have my reasons that I’ve written about here. I’m not against it in any way! If using reversals works for you, that’s great. 

In this case, rather than list the possible keyword meanings, I’ll just say that it’s basically the opposite or weakened version of the upright meaning. For example, courage would either be less courage or outright cowardice depending upon your interpretation.

Important: it’s important to recognize that these are the associated meanings that Strength can represent, but this is as a single card. In any spread it’s important to keep in mind the cards that are close by and how they influence the card in question. See my article on how tarot cards influence each other here. (This article is coming soon. Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified when it's published).

The Meaning of the Strength Card in Tarot

Drawing from some of the keyword meanings, the Strength card says you have the inner strength to deal with a situation that’s challenging.

With the feminine aspect to the card (this is metaphysics not gender as we use it in the human realm) there is a graceful and gentle quality implied.

This is a paradox when it comes to our usual way of being in the world. We’re taught to push and “lean into it.”

It’s interesting to note that in the older European decks like the Tarot de Marseilles, this card is called Force.

Sidenote: Strength (Force) is also numbered 11 in the TdM major arcana sequence, as it is in the Thoth (Crowley-Harris) deck. Let’s just leave that as a difference to be aware of for now.

Force is not the same as true strength. There are times where using a quiet and inner but flexible type of determination gets us better results than trying to make things happen. Think of the last time you tried to make someone do something they didn't really want to do. How did it work out for you?

Even if they ended up going along with your desire to control, it probably had a somewhat negative impact on your relationship.

The kind of strength being imaged in the Strength tarot card is a more aligned way of being and doing.

The woman (divine feminine) is showing us a more gentle kind of strength that is ultimately incredibly powerful because it even overcomes the lion.

Deeper Meanings of the Strength Tarot Card

At the end of the day, all Tarot cards (especially the major arcana) point at That which is beyond the card itself.

They are all pointing at how to achieve spiritual awakening and ultimately, enlightenment or what some call gnosis.

Gnosis is a word that means the experience and knowing of enlightenment as opposed to just the intellectual understanding.

The Strength card is showing how we as humans are part animal (the lion) and part divine (the divine feminine expressed by the woman).

The animal part of us, the human part, has a mind and body. Survival and other appetites lead to strong negative feelings that come up in our experience.

We feel angry, afraid, doubt, limited in some way, frustrated, irritated, sad, etc.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with these feelings! They are a huge part of our experience of being human.

But when these “lower” vibrations or lower feelings are dis-connected from our inner divine nature, we can be very destructive.

This shows up in obvious ways such as in the relationships in our lives. Our inner “beast” comes out and can erode or even destroy important and meaningful relationships in our lives.

So what the Strength card is pointing to is the Presence within us that is strong enough to overcome this fiery roar of the lion.

Fiery because the lion is associated with the fire sign of Leo in astrology.

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The Divine Feminine Overcomes

The other interesting thing about the Strength card is the divine feminine aspect. 

Feminine energy is gentle but strong enough to carry a baby and give birth.

Think of something like having tight muscles and getting a massage to release the spasms.

The massage, even thought it might be firm and can even be painful, is a gentle motion that gradually and with gentle determination relaxes the spasms.

The Strength Card as Your Spiritual Emollient

I really like the idea of an emollient on the calcified psychological patterns that repeat themselves, as described in Meditations on the Tarot by anonymous (Valentin Tomberg).

Emollients are softeners that are often used in skin care to soften rough and dry, scaly skin.

That’s how the Strength card works.

When our patterns are active (made of thoughts and feelings) they are like rough and dry skin because they are similar to calcified psychological forms.

Because they appear so “solid” we take them to be real and we have no choice but to act them out.

Even if we become aware of them, if we try to resist them or fight against them, they only come back stronger.

We need an emollient. We need to connect with the softener that is the allowing within us.

As the negative pattern come up we feel the energy in our body and our thoughts are racing and playing the same song as always in order to justify the story behind it.

If we’re able to allow those sensations in our body and detach from the old story and not buy into it, just observe it, and breathe, that calcification will begin to soften.

This releases tremendous amounts of Consciousness that were previously trapped in conditioned thought patterns.

Now even more Presence and Awareness becomes available to us.

If we resolve to continue this practice in a way that’s aligned with the Strength card message, the next time a particular troublesome pattern comes up, we’ll be prepared to soften it and gently massage it’s spasms and contractions.

If we persevere (again, implied by the Strength card) we may reach a point one day where we see the whole mechanism at once and drop it completely and instantly.

The Strength Card Invites You To Practice

The Strength card isn’t just about intellectual understanding. It points beyond itself to a dimension that’s beyond thought.

Try this: The next time you notice a strong emotion or feeling coming up, pause and visualize the Strength card. 

This will remind you to breathe and allow the feelings to be there without wanting to change them OR get caught up in their story.

Soften, breathe and allow while you observe the energy waves rising and falling, contracting and relaxing.

This is the Strength card in action. This is how you connect with Presence or “I Am” within you in a practical way that is stronger than any pattern.