Deck: Standard Rider-Waite
Card: Strength
Card Type: Major Arcana (major archetypes of life, represents the greater themes of life including the big transformations we go through and the spiritual truths that make up the universe)
Element: Fire (action, passion, energy)
Number: 8 (abundance, leadership, influence, honor, respect, power, cosmic consciousness, infinity)
Planet: Mercury (communication, perception, enterprise, local travel); Sun (inspiration, personality, initiative)
Zodiac Sign: Leo (joy, loyalty, generosity, affections, cheer, pride, authority, confidence, drama, entertainment, charisma, energy, restlessness, laziness, arrogance)
Chakra: Root/Base (Muladhara- grounding, survival, manifestation);
Heart Center (Anahata – balance and love)
Rune: Uruz (the physical or mental strength required to achieve your dreams; energy, courage, healing, change, an exciting opportunity that we need to make room for by shedding that which is old)
I-Ching Hexagram: Ta khu (success through discipline and application of wisdom)
Colors: Yellow (wealth, inspiration, optimism), Orange (amusement, all that is unconventional, extroversion, activity), Green (prosperity, growth, money, nature) and White (clarity, newness, perception)
Keywords: instinctive drives, inner strength, survival, courage
When you get Strength in a reading, it is time to draw upon your deep inner strength.
Are you facing a difficult decision, or are you trying to figure out how you should respond to a particularly ferocious occurrence? This card says that whatever you are dealing with does indeed have big teeth and a loud roar, that it is even considered king of its stomping grounds. But look again. The lion is subdued with nothing more than gentle hands and calm but firm gaze.
Every battle does not require that you meet it with equal force. In the case of fire, which is the element this card is associated with, you cannot fight it with itself. That will only add to the conflagration.
Instead, you must steel yourself within, stick to your principles, follow your inner truth and put the roaring lions of your life into submission mode. You will achieve the lion’s compliance by balanced application of your intuition (left hand on top) and common sense/initiative (right hand on bottom). Know thyself, and realize you are victorious.
It might also be that you have pushed away your wild, animalistic desires and impulses for the sake of logic and spirituality. Strength is urging you to work with that wild part of yourself. Strike a balance between your basic drives and higher goals. You may be surprised to find that getting into your body, whether through exercise, feasting, or sex, actually opens up new spiritual doorways for you and increases your personal power.
If there is conflict in your situation, Strength may be advising you to face your adversary with love and compassion. Don’t worry: you’re not giving up or in, only taming the beast.
Take-Away Message: Your greatest strength lies in being vulnerable today. Let your defenses down. Stop hiding, particularly from yourself. With a sense of unconditional self-love and compassion towards yourself, feel your feelings completely and honestly. Don’t judge yourself so harshly for being human.
The universe speaks. Follow me as I learn to listen. 