Major Arcana · 8

Strength

Strength is the gentle hand that closes the lion's jaws with love rather than force, the courage that masters the wild heart through compassion. It is the quiet sovereignty of the soul that has made peace with its own animal nature.

  • inner strength
  • courage
  • gentle mastery
  • compassion
  • patience
  • fortitude
  • self-control
  • resilience

Meaning

Upright

Strength upright is power without violence, the quiet courage that endures and the compassion that tames. You have the inner resilience to meet frustration calmly and to guide difficult forces, in yourself or others, through patience rather than domination. Waite frames its meanings as power, energy, action, courage, and magnanimity, even complete success and honours. This is the soft control Bunning describes: persuading and influencing gently, forgiving imperfection, tempering force with benevolence. The lion of your own passions is not slain but befriended, led by a chain of flowers. Trust that you can endure what comes. The strength here is spiritual and moral, the confidence of one whose refuge is in something larger than the self, mastering fear through love and steadfast composure.

Reversed

Reversed, Strength points to the inner lion slipping its chain. Waite lists despotism, abuse of power, weakness, discord, and sometimes even disgrace. You may feel your courage failing, beset by self-doubt, insecurity, or exhaustion that drains your gallant spirit. Alternatively, force has curdled into domination: raw aggression, impatience, and the urge to control through coercion rather than gentle influence. Passion overruns reason; the beast leads instead of being led. This can signal a loss of composure under pressure, harsh self-judgment, or compassion withheld. The remedy is to soften, to lead with the flowering chain again rather than the iron one. Reclaim power from a centred, patient place, and let tenderness, not pressure, restore your mastery over the wild within.

Correspondences

Element
Fire
Zodiac
Leo
Hebrew letter
ט Teth (serpent, signifying the coiled instinctual life force that must be raised and mastered, the subtle wisdom of the snake transmuted into spiritual power.)
Tree of Life
Path 19 joining Chesed (Mercy) to Geburah (Severity), the line where loving-kindness tempers and gentles raw strength.
Number
8 · Eight is the number of courage, inner power, and gentle mastery, a doubling of the four that brings stable structure into dynamic motion; in Strength it is the steady, regenerating force of the soul that governs the instincts through love rather than the harder will of the Chariot.

Symbolism

  • The woman closing the lion's jaws Waite says her beneficent fortitude has already subdued the lion, embodying mastery achieved not by violence but by serene, loving will.
  • The lion Waite notes that in one aspect the lion signifies the passions, the raw instinctual force tamed by the higher nature.
  • The chain of flowers leading the lion Waite calls this the sweet yoke and light burden of Divine Law taken into the heart of hearts, gentle bonds replacing brute restraint.
  • The lemniscate (infinity symbol) above her head Waite names it the same symbol of life that broods over the Magician; later esoteric readers see it as eternal spirit and dominion over the temporal world.
  • Her white robe A later esoteric reading (not stated by Waite) links the white garment to innocentia inviolata, the inviolate innocence and purity Waite associates with the card.
  • The garland of flowers crowning her and circling her waist A common esoteric interpretation reads these blossoms as the flowering of nature harmonized, beauty born when wildness is befriended.
  • The mountain in the background A later esoteric detail (not in Waite) suggesting spiritual attainment and the steadfast solidity behind inner power.
  • Her calm, downcast gaze upon the beast Her composure shows that the strength which resides in contemplation, as Waite phrases it, governs through tenderness rather than fear.

In the Rider-Waite-Smith image, a serene woman in white bends to close the jaws of a great lion, and Waite is careful to note that her beneficent fortitude has already subdued the beast. There is no struggle here. The lion is led by a chain of flowers, which Waite calls the sweet yoke and the light burden of Divine Law when it is taken into the heart of hearts. Mastery has become gentleness. Above her head broods the lemniscate, the same symbol of life Waite sees over the Magician, marking her as a wielder of inexhaustible spiritual force. He insists the card has nothing to do with self-confidence in the ordinary sense; rather it concerns the confidence of those whose strength is God. The lion signifies the passions, and she who is called Strength is the higher nature in its liberation. She has, in Waite's scriptural echo, trodden down the lion and the dragon, ruling the instincts through love.

Archetype: The Tamer of Beasts - The Compassionate Sovereign

Strength embodies the archetype of integration, the moment in the hero's journey when one ceases to war against the instinctual shadow and instead befriends it. In Jungian terms this is the conscious self extending compassion to its own animal nature, channeling primal libido into creative, governed power. The psychological task is mastery through acceptance rather than repression: authority over the wild within is won by tenderness and patience, never by force.

Mythology

The lion-taming maiden recalls Cyrene, the Thessalian princess Apollo loved for wrestling a lion bare-handed, and the Roman virtue Fortitudo personified among the cardinal virtues. The lion itself evokes the Nemean lion whose strangling by Heracles became his first labour, and the constellation Leo into which it was set. Egyptian Sekhmet, the lion-headed goddess, embodies the same scorching solar ferocity that must be appeased and turned to healing. In Christian iconography Daniel sits unharmed in the lions' den and Samson rends the lion's jaws, scenes that prefigure the card's serene mastery; Waite himself alludes to the psalm of treading upon the lion and the dragon.

Nature

Herbs: sunflower, St. John's wort, chamomile, cinnamon, bay laurel, marigold
Crystals: citrine, carnelian, tiger's eye, sunstone, golden topaz
Season: high summer, the fierce solar weeks when the Sun moves through Leo

These solar, fiery correspondences align with Leo and the element of Fire, radiating warmth, courage, and vitality; tiger's eye and carnelian in particular are traditionally carried for steady courage and self-mastery, while chamomile tempers fire's heat with calming patience.

Light & Shadow

Light

The radiant confidence that masters fear and instinct through love, patience, and unshakable inner composure.

Shadow

Strength turned to coercion or collapse, where power becomes domination or courage decays into self-doubt and the untamed beast runs free.

“I master my inner world with gentleness, and my strength flows from compassion, not force.”

The Fool's Journey

After the triumphant willpower of the Chariot, the Fool learns that some forces cannot be conquered by external control. Strength teaches him to tame the lion within through love and patience, integrating his passions before he can withdraw into the Hermit's solitary search for deeper truth.

Sources & further reading