Personal experiences of "Strength"

Hi All,

The card Strength, what does it mean to you? I am trying to get a better understanding of the card - I learn, appriecate from actual experiences in life in reference to tarot rather reading the "meaning" of the card in a book. Of course interpretations in well respected books and other sources I take under consideration - I have studies so much about this card and studied it myself by looking at it and seeing the feeling I get. But the card still doesn't quite 'click' with me.

I would love to discuss this card further - but not in terms of the symbolism so much, more about how and when this card has been relevant to others in their life.

Can you remember a time when Strength was a part of you life?

I can think of one time for myself - when I really needed the inner strength to keep going - to not give up - that I had the inner power and will to succeed.

Does anyone want to share their "Strength" stories?

Love to you all

Oh, all the time

Sometimes I think I'm in this life to learn the meaning of that card.

A lone struggle with little outside support. In fact I do have outside support. My family every once in a while call me to make sure that, in case I'm not feeling miserable enough, they give me a hand.

Yesterday my daily card was "Strenght". Mom called me long distance accusing me of being selfish, because I don't want to give it up on my carreer and move back home with them, and work in her health insurance company. Then she mentions her menopause, hight blood pressure, and my father's last stroke. Her life, dedicated to the family, has been wasted because I've been away "for ten years"_meaning I decided to marry and leave with my husband to another state and from there I came over here_ breaking the family appart. My sister, on the other hand, who's 28 and still shares the same roof with my parents, is their unique treasure who hasn't betrayed them.

So in that case Strength is simply a struggle to live your life while being consistently disaproved and manipulated to give it up on anything that belongs to you. Also, the ability to maintain some self-control that will prevent you from telling people what you really wish you could tell them, but you know you can't cause it will reward them with even more misery brought upon you.

Jane Lyle of the Rennissance Tarot deck (http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/renaissance2/index.html)--I think it's called something different now--argues that Strength is the most important card in the deck.

I don't know that I agree with her, but it's certainly one of the majors that stands out, well, majorly

One description I've always liked regarding Strength is that of the vestal virgin tending the flame (Wang's Qabalistic Tarot uses this metaphor). Strength is about inner courage. It says that no matter how disadvantaged and frail you feel (like a delicate virgin), YOU have the power to tame the fire--or the lion.

To make it bend to your will.

I have not really thought very much about this card, just assumed that the meaning is obvious.

I was wrong to make such a superficial judgement. The Lion is immensely strong yet the woman seems to have calmed it with some inner strength. It is almost like a kitten but you still get the sense that it could rip into the woman at any minute. What's more, she holds the Lion gently but firmly by the head and she still looks supremely calm.

The main message is of internal strength and calm having an inpact on the the most dangerous and difficult situations.

Strength is number 8 in the Major Arcana, the beginning of a new cycle of seven. So no matter what happens, you can always find strength to deal with any situation, any disappointment, trial, triumph or failure. It is always possible to find strength to begin again.

Kitty, I think the last theme is really important to me: that no matter what happens, or how we may perceive ourselves, we can always find the strength to steer the ship (or the Chariot?) in another direction or around the obstacle. A slip can be just that - a slip - and then you start walking again.

I'm also interested in the implicit calmness and poise of the woman. It is as if she has a reservoir of contained strength that she can draw upon at any time. I take from this the commitment to attend to my spiritual and practical well being to build up those reserves of strength.

I've just looked at Thirteen's thoughts and she has said the much the same about the internal strength.

Moongold

Lately I have been viewing this card with many links to the Magician card, simply cuz in my life right now, the Strength card has appeared through strength of will and conviction more than anything else... The Magician is the card of the will, and Strength seems to be the exercising of it in order to gain.

In a way though, I've also been seeing it as a healing card, and a card where one integrates their wild side into themselves, instead of ignoring it.

I like Thirteen's 'Vestal Virgin' take on this card, since I am a devotee of the Goddess Brighid, who's flame at Kildare was tended by what may be seen as vestal virgins now, but who some said were sacred prostitutes. To me, Brighid represents the inner strength of the woman who must not only tend the hearthfire eg- run the household, but must also fit all her other obligations into her bust life... Housework, study, career, giving birth to kids, etc...

Finally, I need to mention my Mum. My mother is one of th emost strong-willed people I know, and she can get you to do whatever she wants just by giving you 'the look'... There was never any need for her to use force to get me to tidy my room or stop showing off... She just gave me the look, and I would do what she said!

Kiama

Strength Within

This card consistently comes up for me when I am experiencing situations in which I need to be self-accepting and strong in my own spirit, trusting my own judgement and not being swayed by others' opinions. I've been working a lot lately with the Ancestral Path tarot, which I have found to speak very concretely, even literally -- the phrase that popped into my mind this morning when I drew the card for my daily draw was "the courage of [one's] convictions." It's one of my favorite cards and strikes me as friendly.

Who has the REAL strength?

Another thing this card indicates is WHO has the real strength. It a reminder to the Fool not to be fooled. Which may be why it's such an important card.

Take Alex's suituation. On the surface, her mom seemed to have all the strength--the power to push the right buttons, to demand, manipulate, hurt. On the surface, Alex is the David, her mom Goliath.

But if we examine it closer, we see that it's Alex who has the REAL strength here. Afterall, SHE is the one who has something her Mom wants. That puts HER in control of the situation. She can give or withhold.

Her mom, having nothing Alex wants--not even approval--has no power at all. The mother's strength, we see, is false, like that of a puffer-fish who puffs up to look big and mean and nasty in order to hide the fact that its really weak and small. She's a poker player relying on a bluff, because she's got nothing REAL in her hand to play.

Alex's strength, in the meantime, is real. She's chosen the life she wants to life and is living it, she doesn't break or bend from her course, and she still has all the control over what her mother wants (herself!). She has a full house--and so long as she doesn't fall for the bluff, she will win the card game.

Thus, another important message of Strength is not to be fooled. It's the Virgin who has the REAL strength, not the lion.

Hello all,

Just a quick comment on Strength that kind of relates to what Thirteen was talking about. Strength can also come from being in an advantageous position. In the Rider-Waite version and many others, the woman is standing behind the lion, where its jaws cannot reach her. Indeed, by simply putting herself in the right place she has rendered her opponent's strength useless.

There are references to this kind of strategy all over the place, and the first two that come to my mind are Sun Tzu and the Bible. Though these may not seem related, hear me out...

The former is probably the most obvious. "The Art of War" is about fighting smart battles (and this information can be applied to many areas besides warfare... a number of large corporations require executives to read this book). One of its exhortations to the successful general is to never fight the enemy where he is strong, but make him fight you on terms that suit your strength. Hence, "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."

The Biblical connection is more tenuous. It only comes about when you understand the true meaning of "turning the other cheek" as Jesus taught it in the Gospels. Many believe this teaching is about giving up vengeance and agression, and in a way it is, but there's more to it than this.

If someone else slaps you across the face, at least if this other person is a 1st century Jew, he used the palm of his right hand, and thus he probably hit you on the left cheek. If you now show him your right cheek he can only hit you in two ways - by using the palm of his left hand or backhanding you with his right. But both of these methods of striking someone are taboo. You have made your agressor's strength irrelevant without lifting a finger; if he strikes again he will only hurt himself.

True Strength comes from knowledge, not from physical might. There's a very good reason this card comes after the Chariot and before the Hermit.

I never knew that about the taboo & alternate striking. I think we miss out when we don't know the historical context.

It's like reading Shakespere's plays, without the knowledge of the times, you just don't know how good it really is, we've lost too many of the connections that give meaning to the odd phrases. (Unless you take a class in it, but few do).

Very interesting!
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I once got The Moon coupled with Strength in a relationship reading.

I guess it told me to be brave and not shirk away from what's coming to me. I saw The Moon as an unsteady path, not knowing who was friend or foe. A long time has passed since that reading, and I can say that i've become a more self-reliant person as a result.