Strength
Major Arcana
What the Strength means — upright and reversed, with keywords.
08What this card is
A woman has her hands at the jaws of a lion, and if you look closely she is not fighting it. Her posture is calm, almost affectionate. Strength is power that does not need to raise its voice: patience with something difficult, including the difficult parts of yourself. It gets confused with toughness and endurance, but the picture argues the opposite case. What is wild here is handled and befriended, not defeated.
Upright meaning
KEYWORDS
Strength that holds steady rather than forcing.
Reversed meaning
KEYWORDS
Resolve that's been worn down past its normal reserve.
People also ask
- What does Strength mean?
- Keywords: quiet courage, patience, self-control. Strength that holds steady rather than forcing.
- What does Strength reversed mean?
- Reversed, the keywords shift to self-doubt, depleted resolve. Resolve that's been worn down past its normal reserve.
- Is Strength a good card?
- Neither, and the question is worth resisting. Upright it speaks of quiet courage; reversed, of self-doubt. The same card is encouraging in one spread and a warning in another — what decides it is the question you asked and the cards around it.
- Where does Strength sit in the deck?
- Strength is a Major Arcana card, number 8 of the twenty-two. The Majors mark the large movements of a life rather than the week's weather, so when one lands it usually answers the question behind the question.
- Which cards are read alongside Strength?
- The Majors run in order, like a story, so Strength reads differently depending on what it follows: The Chariot and The Hermit. Reading them in sequence is the fastest way to see where this one sits.The ChariotThe Hermit
Combinations with Strength
A card rarely arrives alone. Each pairing below changes the reading — sometimes softening it, sometimes sharpening it into something the single card never said.