The Difference between Strength and Nine of Wands

I think Strength is referring to the internal battle, while the 9 of wands refers to the external battle. Both are Fire cards. Strength is an 8 rather than a 9.

So the person seeing you as Strength sees you as struggling with your own issues/weaknesses/desires and could be aware that it takes a lot of courage for you to speak up for yourself. They may also think that you are still in a position where you could be influenced one way or another.

The one seeing you as 9 of wands doesn't see that inner struggle. They see the external. They may see that you stand your ground and are defensive, but they don't appreciate your internal struggle. As far as they are concerned you have decided, you are standing your ground and you won't accept advice or be influenced.

From personal practical experience i do not recognise any corrolation between these cards.

Strength is about the ability to deal with very difficult defurments in everyday life.

Nine of wands, candily, i hate. This is all about the endings of very often very hard work which has turned out to be ball-bendingly futile. Defeat is oncomming and best recognised.
When there is a death on the event horizon this bastard always appears and it doesn't seem to matter if it is reversed.
Sorry to radiate nagativaty but this minor card is it in a big way.

Aladdin said:

From personal practical experience i do not recognise any corrolation between these cards.

Strength is about the ability to deal with very difficult defurments in everyday life.

Nine of wands, candily, i hate. This is all about the endings of very often very hard work which has turned out to be ball-bendingly futile. Defeat is oncomming and best recognised.
When there is a death on the event horizon this bastard always appears.
Sorry to radiate nagativaty but this minor card is it in a big way.

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I enjoyed this post very much

So one person sees me as being able to deal with difficult defurments (wtf is a defurment).

The other sees me as a difficult bar steward about to meet my maker?

One person sees me in a positive light and the other in a negative difficult light?

Strength seems proactive and the Nine of Wands reactive. Strength woman looks to be shushing the lion because she can (in the RWS tradition). She's dressed up for a May festival and not for a safari. Nine of Wands guy looks like the last man standing on Pork Chop Hill. He's bloodied, bowed, yet resolutely dug as if for a final stand.

I don't know if this helps with what you were going for, but this sticks out to me.

Strength is the Zodiac Trump of Leo (the Emperor is Aries and Temperance is Sagittarius, the three Zodiacal fire trumps)

the 9 of wands, IIRC, is a card under Sagittarius, under Temperance, not Strength.
(2-4=Aries, 5-7=Leo, 8-10=Sagittarius)

For me, this means that the power represented in the 9 of wands is closer to the inner core of power described, at least in my deck, by the inner balance created by Temperance.

That's just my two haypennies in a grinder

caridwen said:

(wtf is a defurment).

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I think that's when you feel like someone has skinned you alive and is using you as a fur rug in front of their fireplace.... it's close to being a doormat, but has it's own nuances.

(sorry, couldn't resist)

cardiwen,

A deferment if i've spelt it right means not going into 'Job Centre Plus' and attempting to kick the living daylights out of the poor "customer service advisor" when a benefit is about to be axed, even though you know you are about to be presented by a preordained 'Camelegg' government panoply of bollox response if you can relate to that.

I doubt you will find this interpretation of Strength in any published book very soon.....

Sword King said:

Strength seems proactive and the Nine of Wands reactive. Strength woman looks to be shushing the lion because she can (in the RWS tradition). She's dressed up for a May festival and not for a safari. Nine of Wands guy looks like the last man standing on Pork Chop Hill. He's bloodied, bowed, yet resolutely dug as if for a final stand.

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Nicely said! I really like this description and I think it's very apt. The Maiden is often seen as a civilizing agent (in Waite) who offers the brute strength a higher, nobler way to express itself. Crowley turns this on its head naming the card "Lust." His view is that the civilized lady learns how to use the brute to express herself in a more natural way. In both cases there is the idea of a partnership where each "strengthens" the other.

This is different from Temperance which looks to create a synthesis that is a unique third option, not just the merging of the two halves. The lion is still a lion, the lady is still a lady, but both benefit from the partnership.

You're quite right that none of this seem to jive with our 9/Wands guy who really hasn't much choice. There is the feeling here of "in for a penny, in for a pound." He's gone this far, taken this much damage, why give up now? There may be a certain bitter satisfaction that the soldier gets from hanging in there, but he does't seem to really benefit. He is not given strength, he just finds what reserves he has to hold out through this last hurrah.