While Strength is generally one of the sunnier cards in the Tarot pack, it too contains the full spectrum from light to dark. Before we dive deep into the energies of this card, let’s take a look at some of the traditional Tarot card meanings.
Positive Tarot Card Meanings for the Strength Card
- Powerful Courage: The Strength card symbolizes the inner strength and courage to face challenges head-on. It represents the ability to overcome obstacles and persevere with confidence.
- Loving-Kindness: Strength embodies compassion and loving-kindness. It encourages you to approach situations with a gentle heart, treating yourself and others with empathy and understanding.
- Creative Expression: This card encourages you to tap into your creative potential and express yourself freely. It signifies a time of inspiration, vitality, and the confidence to share your unique gifts and abilities.
- Vibrant Energy: Strength encompasses vibrant and passionate energy. It signifies a time of enthusiasm, zest for life, and the ability to harness your inner fire to manifest your desires.
- Emotional Maturity: The Strength card represents emotional maturity and balance. It encourages you to handle emotional situations with poise and grace, showing restraint and resilience.
Negative Tarot Card Meanings for the Strength Card
- Arrogance: In its negative aspect, the Strength card can signify arrogance and an inflated ego. It cautions against excessive pride and the tendency to dominate or manipulate others.
- Selfishness: When out of balance, Strength can represent selfishness and a disregard for the needs and feelings of others. It reminds you to practice selflessness and consider the greater good in your actions.
- Failure to Integrate Shadow Self: The negative aspect of Strength can indicate a reluctance to acknowledge and integrate one’s shadow self. It may suggest difficulty accepting and integrating the darker aspects of one’s personality, leading to internal conflicts and unresolved issues.
Feeling into the Energy of the Strength Tarot Card
Strength corresponds with the Heart Chakra. The main meaning of this card is the triumph of loving-kindness and gentle confidence over the ego. It shows us what it can be like when courage and compassion rule our hearts. In the Marseille style decks, this Arcanum has the number 11 (XI).
When Strength (Leo) shows up in a reading or as our card of the day, we may be looking at how to overcome egoic tendencies. The way to do this may seem counterintuitive but that is only because we have been programmed to be unkind to ourselves when we see traits in ourselves that we don’t like.
Instead, Strength invites us to ponder how our ego tries to protect us and what we can do to alleviate its fears. We can only win these kinds of battles through loving-kindness. How about, just for today, we show ourselves the same kindness we would to a person that we respect and honour?
Creative self-expression
Although Strength is a card of strength and emotional maturity, it also has a childlike, sunny and playful quality. It teaches us that maturity equals freedom of creative self-expression rather than boredom.
It is a card of great vitality, passion, generosity and creativity. Strength trusts that she is in the spotlight for a reason. She is fabulous and she knows it. The positive aspect of strength signifies healthy self-love. The negative aspect of Strength can signify arrogance and selfishness, as well as an inability to integrate lower drives (often through a failure to accept these aspects of self).
Leo Energy
In the Zodiac, this card connects with the energies of the 5th House – the House of Leo. This house tells us a lot about a person’s sexuality as well as creative expression. A budding romance, as well as children/conception, can be found in this House placement in a Zodiac Tarot reading.
Without this energy in our lives, we are pretty miserable. There are many ways to bring the energy of the Strength card in and the quickest way to do it is probably to reconnect with what we loved doing when we were children.
This is a card of both Solar Magick and Feminine Mysteries. It also ties in with the mysteries of the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid. Corresponding with the Heart Chakra, it is a wonderful Healing Key which can and should be used in many different types of healing rituals. The corresponding deity is Sekhmet, the Goddess of Healing and War.
Leo Energy
In the Zodiac, this card connects with the energies of the 5th House – the House of Leo. This house tells us a lot about a person’s sexuality as well as creative expression. A budding romance, as well as children/conception, can be found in this House placement in a Zodiac Tarot reading.
Without this energy in our lives, we are pretty miserable. There are many ways to bring the energy of the Strength card in and the quickest way to do it is probably to reconnect with what we loved doing when we were children.
Strength Tarot Card Correspondences
Angelic correspondence: Archangel Ariel
Element: Fire
Zodiac Sign: Leo
Chakra: Heart
Colour: Gold
Crystal: Ruby, Red sunstone, Tiger’s eye, Rose quartz, Golden topaz
Body: Heart, the spinal cord, the 12 Thoracic vertebrae, the back, the forearm, the spleen, the metabolism of the liver, the pulmonary arteries
Exercise: Any type of exercise which requires good posture or is performed aerobically outdoors (in the sunshine)
Stance: Camel pose
Magickal Tool/Ingredient: Rose petals
Associated Major Arcana Cards (through numerology): The Star
Associated Minor Arcana Cards: All cards associated with Leo
- 5 of Wands (Saturn in Leo). Healing through pushing through self-imposed limitations and competing against oneself by setting achievable goals and targets. Rewarding oneself is important. Joyful sparring with others may also promote healing and growth.
- 6 of Wands (Jupiter in Leo). Healing through feeling the fear and doing it anyway. Your self-confidence can only grow if you push yourself outside your comfort zone and learn to be comfortable in the spotlight.
- 7 of Wands (Mars in Leo). Healing by choosing your battles wisely and calling in divine protection. Never let the ego motivate you to fight because there can be no winner in those instances.
- Knight of Wands. Healing by going on an adventure. Smile, play and have fun!
Remedies to increase the energy of the Strength card in your life
- You can make a tarot essence to harness and increase the energy of Strength, using the Strength card of your choice, along with any of the crystals above that you feel drawn to work with
- Placing the Strength card over your heart chakra in meditation enhances your heart’s ability to give and receive, gives you the courage to express yourself creatively and reminds you that life can be a lot of fun
- Get your hair done
- Observe a feline and learn to please yourself if you are addicted to pleasing others.
- Wear gold and the colours of fire
- Spend lots of time in the sun
- Learn to breathe through your heart
Affirmation: “Life is an amazing adventure of unfolding the mysteries of the heart.”
Angelic Invocation to Archangel Ariel
Dear Archangel Ariel, thank you for showing me clearly that my true power lies in the heart and that my superpower is to be kind to everyone. Amen and so it is!
Grounding/Balancing/Banishing
- Give to charity
- Encourage others to shine
- Hug a tree
- Take a back seat
- Shave your hair off
Love and Relationships
The Strength tarot card is number 8 in some decks and 11 in others. It’s not important which number Strength is assigned for the purpose of relationship Tarot meanings. The important thing to remember is its association with Leo energy, depicted in both Marseille and RWS style decks. Strength is also known as ‘Lust’ in Thoth-inspired decks.
Leo is, at its best, magnificent, magnanimous and generously loving. However, at times it can signify somewhat self-centred energy. Leo loves love and loves to be adored!
Overcoming ego
The spiritual lesson of the Strength card is to overcome the ego with kindness and compassion, toward self and others. When this card shows up, it’s no longer possible to ignore our fleshly desires – they need to be acknowledged and dealt with… but not condemned!
So Strength is a card of embracing sexual desire, not suppressing it. It’s also a card of positivity and optimism. At a deeper level, it corresponds to the Shakti energy which is feminine but present in both males and females.
It’s a great card for the relationship as it describes a passionate connection and deep mutual desire as well as sheer fun.
Chemistry and fertility
Physical chemistry won’t be a problem if this card shows up in a reading before a first date. Making sure you won’t fall pregnant might be an issue though so do take precautions.
Together with The Empress, it heralds pregnancy. With The Lovers, you might experience the most passionate encounter of your life. Together with The Devil, it may signify a person who has a sex addiction.
This card is especially important for the female libido and is the female equivalent of The Tower (Mars) in terms of raw sexual power. If ill-dignified or reversed it can be a sign of frigidity and repressed female sexuality. It could describe a wallflower-type personality or someone who is under the thumb of their husband.
Creative power
For creative types, this card ensures the balance between male and female power and the ability to materialise creative projects. If this card is important to you (as in being one of your birth cards), it is possible that your ability to be artistically creative is tied in with your sexuality to a higher degree than for most people.
Single and looking
To a single person, the Strength card usually heralds an influx of passion and romance. See someone nice? Definitely give them your number! You have a ton of pulling power if this card describes your own energy. If it’s an outside influence in a love reading, you have an admirer who’s not likely to take no for an answer as he is confident and finds you completely irresistible!
Intimacy
The erotic emphasis in the Strength/Lust card is on fun and pleasure in any way it can be had. If it’s not available, the energy of Strength can help find a way to heat things up.
Take me to the Angelic Tarot Card Meanings Index
