What does the Strength Tarot Card mean?

The Tarot Card Strength plays a very important role in the Major Arcana. This is one of the cards that represent the three main virtues. The other two virtues are Justice and Moderation. The Strength of the Tarot teaches us to overcome adversity, says that we can overcome our shortcomings and our lower nature.
Eighth Arcana “Strength” (VIII) is an ambiguous card for interpretation. This is a card of compassion, especially self-compassion. Arcana’s message is that self-compassion and gentle kindness are far more intelligent tactic in managing your strong emotions than using repression.
The Strength card, also called the (Tamed) Lion card, depicts a woman playing with a lion.
This card personifies strength, but soft, feminine strength. It is the woman who helps the lion to really feel like a lion. Although the card depicts two opposites, they exist separately, not merging with each other, but preserving their original nature. This card reminds of Tantra – the doctrine of the feminine principle as a source of world and individual energy.

Meaning of the Card

Do not think that the mind is the main part of your personality. Do not forget about your body, about its desires. Take care of it, let it accumulate enough energy to support the mind, and then the mind will be able to overcome the doubts that overwhelm it and give an outlet to the subconscious, which is only one, perhaps, capable of showing you the right path.
Tarot Card Strength means the inner strength needed to overcome the obstacles that stand in your way. It is not brute strength that conquers brute strength. Rather, it’s the strength of mind that overpowers physical strength. In almost all legends about people who defeated a formidable monster, be it a lion, a dragon or someone else, victory was achieved by righteousness, inner fortitude and faith in God, not by power.
The beast on the Tarot card Strength symbolizes external obstacles that stand in the way of your spiritual development. Perhaps this is a symbol of the beast within you, a symbol of your own fears, passions and other qualities that may be stronger than you. But you can change and tame them if you firmly believe that you are stronger. Leo symbolizes a powerful enemy that can be defeated if you have confidence in yourself and the will to win. Everyone who quit smoking or went on a strict diet has already defeated such a beast. Allegory here, as already mentioned, is in the struggle between the physical and the spiritual. You are on the path of spiritual improvement. To reach distance, you must overcome or pacify base passions and make them surrender.

Positive Aspects of the Card
Courage and energy, determination and activity, tenacity and perseverance.
Negative Aspects of the Card
Loss of faith in oneself, illness, weakness, envy.

The Main Meanings of the Card In an Upright Position

Key Words and Phrases

Self confidence. Inner strength. Actions. Power of persuasion. Patience. Wisdom. Defending your own interests. Gentle use of force. The ability to overcome obstacles with an effort of will. Strong position. Self-discipline. Belief in your abilities. Heroism. Protection. Nonviolent Action. Energy. Force. Courage. Healing. Good health. Recovery from illness. Potential. Empowerment. Self-confidence. Softness. Persistence. Taming the “beast in yourself”. Taming instinctive desires. Directing libido in the right direction. Reconciliation. Diplomacy. Tact. The beauty and the Beast. Patience is the most important asset.

The main meanings of the card in an upright position

Feminine principle as a source of energy.
The triumph of spiritual intuition over brute force;
Courage and perseverance;
Highest creative enthusiasm;
Work “not for fear, but for conscience”;
Passion, hot temperament;
Self-control;
Pleasure;
Strength through personal power;
Viability;
Compassion.

Situation and Advice

You need to trust your inner strength, patience and gentleness, this will help to successfully solve all problems. Now is the time to gain faith in yourself. At the moment, you are in a strong position and are able to resist the one who puts pressure on you. You can channel your base passions in the right direction, it will help you become healthy and succeed. If your question was about health, expect healing and revitalization.

Persons designated by Upright Strength Tarot Сard

Track and field athletes. Weightlifters. Gymnasts. Those whose professional activities are related to animals. Healers. People with sound convictions. Arbitrators. People in control of their sexual and instinctive desires. Those who managed to tame the dark side of their personality.

The Main Meanings of the Card In a Reversed Position

Key Words and Phrases

Impotence. Intimidation. Self-doubt. Fear. Depression. Timidity. Danger. Compliance. Failure to cope with anything. Insecure behavior. Misfortune. Exposure to fears. Lack of self-discipline. Anxiety. Addiction. Self-flagellation. Commanding attitude. Ignorance. Impudence. Abuse of power. Despotism. Vanity. Chauvinism. Deceiving power. Lack of conviction. A parody of inner strength. Alienation. Rebelliousness. Fanaticism. Anarchy. Conflicting interests. Feeling exhausted. Immunodeficiency.

Perhaps you are trying to achieve a goal that is beyond your reach at the moment. To be successful, you need to overcome guilt, doubts, and fears. Card Strength in an inverted position can mean fatigue, physical weakness, illness. It can also signal that you need to take better care of your health. Perhaps during this period you are communicating with sick people. The card advises the questioner not to go ahead, for blind rage will inevitably lead to an explosion (defeat).

Persons designated by the Reversed Strength Tarot Сard

Fragile or weak people. Disabled people. Sick people. People with poor immunity. Dependent people. People who let their base passions prevail. People who are addicted to the material world. Cowards. Bores. People whose behavior is based on subconscious, uncontrollable fears.

In the Spreads

Strength in the Tarot indicates passion and inner possibilities. For those in need of additional support, indicates that they need to rise even higher. It is an anchor in life.

In an Upright Position:

This card tells us that courage and perseverance will help us cope with problems and that the power of love and intuition is stronger and more lasting than hatred, brute force and enmity. Drawing this card from the deck means that you have overcome the fears that you had in the past, and now you are collecting your strength and energy for the next phase of your life journey. However, this may also indicate that although in the past you have achieved a lot thanks to your perseverance and determination, in the future you can still succeed, spending less effort, if you bring more love and care to your daily activities.
When the Strength Tarot card appears upright, it is very reassuring because there are such virtues as mind over matter and the ability to overcome adversity. Some of the most common interpretations of this card are courage, control over one’s lower nature, compassion, and tolerance.
The Strength card shows passion, willingness to fight, and optimism. Arcana clearly shows that our goal is not to learn to hide our instincts under the cover of pale virtue, but to learn how to tame them with love, gentleness and perseverance. Thus, we will gain control not only over these wild natural forces, but also over those reserves of energy that we had to spend to suppress these forces until now. The card indicates willpower, desire and pursuit to endure, even if it hurts. Willingness to give up, to renounce something dear in the name of the Supreme. In general, this card speaks about the courage with which you fight against the vicissitudes of fate, about creative efforts and the interaction of mental and emotional forces, about the ability to curb passions, about an optimistic psychological mood.

In a Reversed Position:

You are capable of demonstrating mastery over mundane and material matters, but you lack love and intuition in your relationships with others. You are not coping with the situation, and your personal and emotional affairs are in a state of conflict. You have missed the spiritual side of life.
When the Strength Tarot card is turned upside down, it may mean that we are in a period of exceeding. Perhaps we allow ourselves to become overwhelmed by our passions. As a result, our lower natures cannot be controlled. When this happens, it is reflected in flaws such as ferocity, lack of self-discipline, laziness, or lack of security.
In the inverted position, Strength represents weakness, self-doubt, fear, and anxiety. Says that strangers often interfere with your destiny. Perhaps it’s the other way and you should show at least a little compliance in relation to others. In some cases, the card warns that your intentions are doomed to failure, or that you abandon plans out of fear of difficulties.

In a Personal Spread

In a personal scenario, it says that you are the master of your fate at this stage of life, but on condition that you have a certain moral strength and the ability to resist the unfavorable events of life. The card characterizes you as a life-loving person, captured by your own emotions and thirst for pleasure, which sets you apart from the crowd, forcing some to admire you, and others to envy. It is necessary to learn to understand and be aware of these various forces that make up a large part of your nature, this is a kind of “inner lion” that must be tamed.

In an Upright Position:
8 Arcana Strength can indicate when one partner is with another through complex emotions. For example, a situation in which people learn to trust again. The Strength of the Tarot in relationships almost always involves compassion as a stone in conflict resolution.
Sometimes it can be a card for catching and taming a partner. When it comes to finding love, relationships, or new friends, The Strength insists on keeping looking, not losing hope.
Arcana Strength means internal energy, pressure, confidence, perseverance, a thirst to show “who is the boss in the house,” the desire to achieve the realization of one’s intentions. In spreads, this card may indicate a certain advantage of one of the partners over the other, and may also show the special importance of intimate relationships. Passion not only animates communication, making it brighter, but sometimes creates the basis for drama and jealousy. In this case, the Strength may be on the side of instincts, before which human reason and logic retreat.
In a Reversed Position:
The value of the Strength card in the opposite position can indicate relationship problems associated with fear or aggression. This is a warning sign to address any lingering issues of past events that may affect the current relationship.
Sometimes Arcana can indicate aggression in a relationship, and this is physical violence or a threat. Inverted Strength indicates that the conflict was previously resolved incorrectly, you were too direct or, on the contrary, too passive. In any case, you need to take this situation as a lesson.
In a reversed position, the card means quarrels, disagreements, misunderstandings, discord in relationships. It can also predict periods of problems in intimate life.

In the Spreads for Dates

In an Upright Position:
If you have been severely hurt by someone to whom you are not indifferent. This card shows that strength is returning to you and the hour is not far away when you will completely recover from the shock.
In a Reversed Position:
Perhaps you lack self-confidence and feel that it is simply impossible to meet a new person. The card says that you will find the strength to overcome shyness. You can go somewhere and find pleasure in unfamiliar surroundings.

In the Spreads for Family

In an Upright Position:
You are wise beyond your years. In every person and every situation, you immediately see the best sides. Thanks to you, disputes and quarrels in the family are minimized.
In a Reversed Position:
You enjoy the ugly scenes you put on at home. You are not very happy right now. Talk about your feelings with someone you trust.

In the Spreads for Friendship

In an Upright Position:
You are having difficulty with some of your friends. The reason is that life leads you forward, you grow up and they don’t. Let them go from you and yourself from them. You have different paths.
In a Reversed Position:
Your unbridled behavior turns away the people that are closest to you. Treat your friends more carefully, otherwise you may lose them.

In the Spreads for Career

In an Upright Position:
Arcana says that you have forces, including material ones, to achieve goals and implement plans. It can mean good business contacts, mutually beneficial partnerships and successful deals. You have all the makings in order to achieve financial well-being, so take advantage of them.
Arcana pushes you to be patient and expand your intellect. There can be complex personal relationships that require caution.
The Strength of the Tarot card can represent work related in part to listening, sometimes even compassion. May also indicate nonprofit work related to the welfare of animals or specific populations.
When you influence someone from your position, there is a need to be tactful in your approach.
In a Reversed Position:
Perhaps work-related questions will require you to maximize your concentration of energy. And here the card warns that the manifestation of aggression in resolving issues will not give any results. Sometimes indicates significant material costs.
In situations with work, the interpretation of the card is often associated with the resolution of conflicts. Indicates a problem that was poorly resolved. This is a reflection of harmful consequences, harsh approaches.
The card also appears when there is no strength and patience in relation to work. Organizations that are understaffed and underfunded are of concomitant meaning. The result is fatigue, which makes it difficult to get yourself to work.
If you have no way out of the situation, you may have to start looking for a way to cope or leave.

In the Spreads for Health

In an Upright Position:
The Strength card suggests good health outcomes. Set goals and stick to them. Now is the time to practice endurance, not inaction. Endurance is what sustains a person. The only reason you fail in health is your insecurity.
The state of health and activity of a person is now very pleasing. Even chronic diseases recede under the pressure of irrepressible energy.
In a Reversed Position:
It’s not very good if the card is in this position. This is a sign of a lack of energy. The person is tired of the constant struggle with diseases. He has no motivation, he is ready to give up.
Leaves much to be desired. Impotence and resignation to disease, traumatic risk, cardiovascular disease, depression.

In the Perspectives

The events will be very intense and you will have many reasons to rejoice. You will feel the power flowing through you and you will feel even more alive.

Answer to Yes / No Tarot Spreads

In an Upright Position:
Probably yes”.
In a Reversed Position:
More likely no than yes.
Yes, but with obstacles.

Combinations with other cards

Strengthening
Four of Wands: waiting
Five of Wands: search for reserves
Nine of Wands: vitality, growth of strength
The Hanged Man: buying time, patience
Weakening
The Chariot: tight control
Six of swords: apathy, heartlessness
Eight of Cups: fatigue, lack of strength
Five of Pentacles: ill health, weakness

Arcana’s warning

Your self-esteem will grow to the extent that you succeed in your endeavors.
You are depressed. Accept your inner strength, body, and sexual needs.
Do not overestimate your strengths, do not bring destructive consequences.

Self-Development Lesson

You are able to transform your physical, mental and sexual energies into spiritual power that will lead you into new areas of intuitive understanding.

Key Ideas

You have enough inner strength to understand the situation and resolutely confront difficulties. Believe in yourself. Take action today.

Psychological significance of the Arcana:

Do not think that the main aspect of you is the mind. To use it correctly, you need good health, an obedient body. Do not forget about its needs, try to understand what it wants from you, and try to satisfy its requirements. Give him the opportunity to accumulate the necessary amount of energy so that it can provide for the work of your mind. And then it will be able to overcome his doubts and find contact with the subconscious. After all, only the subconscious will give you the surest advice on how to live on. It will also help you to reveal previously unexploited abilities and talents, to become a more creative and active person. Only harmonious development will allow you to gain integrity. This means to unite the body, soul and mind and live a long and happy life.

Final Advice of Arcana

8th Tarot Arcana advises to be firm. Stick to your own “I”. Have the strength to resist anyone trying to knock down.

In an Upright Position:
Do not rush to become leaders, do not try to convince someone and lead them. Just do as you see fit, and let others make their own choice of path.
In a Reversed Position:
Listen to your inner voice, try to distance yourself from temptations, take time for spiritual development. This is the meaning of the Tarot card Strength in the spread for advice.

Conclusion

The Strength card is in a sense akin to the Magician card. Just as in it, the extraordinary power of this Arcana is based on deep inner harmony. If the power of the Magician is the result of the harmonious interaction of consciousness and subconsciousness, then the vitality, courage and passion of this card is an expression of the balance that a civilized person finds with his animal nature. This is reflected in myths, for example, about the friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu, who was at first his implacable enemy. This card clearly shows that our goal is not to learn to hide our instincts under the cover of pale virtue. Learn how to tame the archaic scary forces that live in us with love, gentleness and perseverance. Thus, we will gain control not only over these wild natural forces, but also over those reserves of energy that we had to spend to suppress these forces until now.

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