Strength Tarot Card Meaning — Inner Power and Compassion

1. About Strength

Strength is card 8 of the Major Arcana in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. A woman in a white dress, crowned with flowers, calmly holds the jaws of a lion. Above her head floats the same figure-eight infinity sign that appears over the Magician. The lion does not seem to be fighting her; she is not straining. The scene looks more like trust than combat.

That calm is the heart of the card. Strength in tarot is rarely about muscle. It describes patience, steadiness and the ability to stay kind while handling something powerful, whether that is a difficult person, a strong emotion or your own impulses.

2. Where Strength Comes From

• One of the cardinal virtues. The card began as Fortitude, one of the four cardinal virtues of classical and medieval philosophy, along with Justice, Temperance and Prudence. Three of the four appear in the tarot trumps.
• Two early images. Early decks showed fortitude in two ways: a woman holding or breaking a stone column, or a figure overcoming a lion. A card from the Ferrara "Tarocchi of Mantegna" series of around 1470 used both ideas. Some Italian decks showed Hercules wrestling the Nemean lion, a male hero rather than a woman.
• The calm woman and lion. By the Tarot de Marseille, the standard image was a woman opening or closing a lion's mouth. This is the version that later decks built on.
• Why it is number 8. In older decks Strength was XI and Justice was VIII. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, matching cards to zodiac signs, placed Leo (the lion) at the eighth position and Libra (the scales) at the eleventh, so the Rider-Waite-Smith deck swapped the two cards. Many decks still use the older order, so you may see either number.

3. Reading the Symbols on the Card

Symbol	Common reading
Woman holding the lion's jaws	Gentle control: guiding a strong force instead of beating it.
The lion	Instinct, passion, anger or fear: energy that is useful once it is not running the show.
Infinity sign	Patience that does not run out; inner resources that renew themselves.
Wreath and belt of flowers	Softness as a form of power; growth rather than domination.
White dress	Calm intention; she has nothing to prove.

4. Upright Meaning by Area of Life

Area	Upright	Reversed
Love	Patience with a partner's difficult moods; a relationship that survives friction through kindness.	Losing your temper, or putting up with too much to keep the peace.
Work	Handling difficult clients or colleagues calmly; persistence on a long project.	Feeling overwhelmed, self-doubt, or reacting rather than responding.
Money	Resisting impulse purchases; steady saving.	Giving in to impulses or anxiety-driven decisions.
Wellbeing	Building habits slowly and gently.	Being harsh with yourself, which tends to backfire.

5. Reversed Strength

Waite's reversed keywords in 1910 were "despotism, abuse of power, weakness, discord, sometimes even disgrace". Modern readers usually see the reversed card as the lion slipping out of the woman's hands, in one of two directions. Either the force takes over (outbursts, impulses, bullying) or the person loses confidence and feels too weak to deal with it at all. In both cases the suggestion is the same: return to calm, consistent effort rather than swinging between extremes.

6. Worked Examples

Example 1: A teenager at home

A parent asks how to handle constant arguments with a teenage child and draws Strength upright. The reading points to steady, patient boundaries rather than louder confrontations. The lion is not the enemy; it is energy that needs direction.

Example 2: Public speaking nerves

Someone preparing for a presentation draws Strength as advice. The card suggests acknowledging the fear and practising until it feels manageable, not pretending it is absent.

Example 3: Reversed, beside the Five of Wands

In a question about a tense team, reversed Strength next to the Five of Wands would typically be read as tempers running high and nobody staying calm. One person choosing not to escalate can change the dynamic.

7. Common Card Pairings

• Strength + Chariot: outer drive and inner patience; both cards are about self-mastery from different angles.
• Strength + Devil: working on a habit or impulse that has become hard to control.
• Strength + Sun: confidence that comes from having faced something difficult.
• Strength + Justice: the two cards that swap numbers between deck traditions; together they describe firmness balanced with fairness.

8. Common Misunderstandings

• "Strength means physical power or health." The card is about inner steadiness. It does not predict recovery from illness or physical outcomes.
• "It means suppressing my emotions." The woman holds the lion; she does not kill it. Emotions are guided, not denied.
• "Strength is card 11, so this site is wrong." Both numbers are used. Rider-Waite-Smith decks use 8; Marseille-style decks use 11.
• "Gentle means passive." Holding a lion's jaws is an active choice. Gentleness here is a skill.

9. Frequently Asked Questions

❓ What did Waite write about Strength?

His upright keywords were "power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity; also complete success and honours". The modern emphasis on gentle patience comes more from Pamela Colman Smith's image than from that list.

❓ Is Strength a yes card?

Many readers treat it as "yes, with patience". It favours a steady approach over a quick one.

❓ Why does Strength have the infinity symbol?

It links the card to the Magician, who also has it. Readers often take it to mean inner resources that do not run out.

❓ What does Strength mean in a love reading?

Upright, patience and warmth through hard moments; reversed, anger or self-silencing. See Tarot for Love for spreads.

10. Final Thoughts

Strength reframes power as steadiness and care. For background on the numbering swap and the card sequence, see Major vs Minor Arcana; to draw for a current situation, try the one-card draw. As with every page here, the card is a prompt for reflection and entertainment, not a forecast.

Sources consulted: Wikipedia, Strength (tarot card); Tarot Heritage; A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910).

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