Strength VIII

Keywords & phrases

• Gentle strength
• Courage
• Compassion for self & others
• Self-acceptance
• Forgiveness
• Subtle power
• Self-mastery
• Kindness to animals

First impressions

This is a beautiful card. A powerful image of gentle strength and compassion.

What is happening in the card?

In the Strength card, we see a beautiful woman holding a lion, a wild animal, by the head. She is dressed in a flowing white robe, adorned with flowers. She also wears a crown of flowers above which floats a lemniscate, the symbol of infinity, like a halo.

Her expression is calm, almost beatific, and she appears to be gently exerting her power over the lion. She clearly feels love for this creature. Strength is lovingly taming the beast.

The Lion himself appears to be submitting to her subtle strength.

The landscape is lush and green and in the far distance, we can see a mountain.

How can we relate to this card?

Strength is about self-mastery.

It’s one of those cards in the Tarot whose meaning is quite easy to grasp but whose advice is often hard to enact, especially when it comes to ourselves.

Most of us get to a point where we are aware that self-acceptance and forgiveness are the key to freeing ourselves from the past and to breaking negative thought and behaviour patterns, but the reality is that living this way is more easily said than done.

As the woman in the Strength card shows infinite kindness to the lion, perhaps the first and easier step for us on the path to self-love and acceptance is to show care, compassion and forgiveness to others. 

Strength asks us to face the parts of us that we are not proud of and love ourselves anyway. 

Message & affirmations

Today, I forgive myself, and I forgive others, and in doing so I release myself from the past and I am free to live courageously and love with an open compassionate heart.

My personal experiences of this card

I had to give this one a little thought. Go beyond the lofty concepts of compassion, forgiveness and inner strength and really ask myself when do I actually enact these ideas in my life? Or at least see where I need to enact them.

And the answer came immediately. We all have to live and breathe this stuff in any relationship, with ourselves and others, but the one that leaps to front of mind for me right now is the parent-child relationship. Hardly surprising for the single mum to a pre-teen daughter, who is very nearly as tall as me now and already borrowing my shoes and clothes.

Parenting takes love, compassion, forgiveness, acceptance and discipline. And that’s just how we must deal with our kids – with a gentle, loving, benevolent strength.

This is what they need from us, but it is also what we must show to our own selves and to each other as parents (and human beings actually). How many times do the kids push our buttons and we find ourselves locked in and exchange or a drama with them and then have to take a moment to remind ourselves who is the ‘adult’ here?

I’ve been there many times and inwardly berate myself for it once I’ve regained control of myself and the situation. And kids (or lovers, or siblings, colleagues, parents) can be beasts, right? They push all the wild, crazy buttons and bring the worst of our natures to the surface.

So, what the Strength card would teach me in this situation is to forgive myself, move on, be strong, do better.

If I’m a ‘rubbish’ parent, friend, daughter, sibling, human today, I can be better and do better tomorrow. But I must dig deep to be and do. The ideas and words alone are not enough.

Questions, prompts & insights

Who needs your compassion or forgiveness right now? Who needs your strength?

In what situation must you call on your inner strength? Your impulse control?

Featured decks:
Main image from The Rider Waite Tarot.

The animated image of the Strength card is part of an ongoing AI art Tarot project by Still Small Voice Tarot.