78 Weeks: Strength

[The Guided Hermit]

VIA Tarot

Card name—Lust

First impressions—The VIA deck renames the traditional Strength card Lust and moves it to position XI.

Consistent with the design of the VIA deck, the card contains the pure white bottom that is shaped like a cup which contains the image. Due to the layout of this card, it offers the impression of being far wider than the other cards met earlier.

The card is comprised of three key images:
1. The wheel of four maidens surrounded by thorny vines that fills up half the image;
2. Two nude young girls sitting atop the wheel, resting on top of two reclining lions (one male, one female)
3. The glowing sun that is shown halfway up from its bottom.

The bottom of the card shows four nude maidens, their arms raised above their heads, hair drifting above them and to the sides. The maidens have their hands curled in what appears to be a state of ecstatic relaxation while reclining in the petals of a pink rose. A braid of thorns encompasses the outside of the petals, forming the rim of a wheel. The braids appear to be set into the wheel; the wheel appears to be made of concrete.

At the top of the wheel lays a male lion (left) and a female lion. Both appear docile and are providing the resting place for two young girls who look at us while offering the impression of readiness while being outwardly relaxed.
Behind them, filling the upper third of the card is a large golden hued sun. The disk goes from darker edges to a blazing yellow center.

What the CREATOR says —Strength and Courage, energy and action coupled with the exercise of magical powers for good or ill. Lust for life and ecstasy of experience.


Traditional Keyword Meanings (Bunning)—Strength, patience, compassion, soft control


Images and Symbolism—
• The maidens appear to be both stable and in constant motion
• The lions are symbolic for the sigh of Leo, the sign associated with strength and nobility, power and courage.
• The young girls match the goddesses found in both the Adjustment and later, the Aeon (Judgement) card. They act as witnesses to the process of adjustment and represent the uncorrupted personification of the twin principles of Matt (the feather and heart above).

Mental – My mental impressions of this card
I think of this card in as traditional RWS Strength rather than a Lust for Life. I focus on the girls and lions rather than the saucy girls in the wheel.


Spirit – How I relate spiritually to this card:
I relate to the concept of inner strength and conviction of the heart in this card.

Emotional – How I relate emotionally to this card:
Nothing direct in the emotions. Instead, I go for the conviction of the heart angle.

Physical – My physical connection to this card:
None.

Beneficial – I feel the most beneficial aspect of this card is…
Inner strength is what I get the most out of. Faith in oneself and a sense of personal conviction.

Problematic – I feel the most problematic aspect of this card is….
If poorly aspected, I can see it as the application of excessive force. However, in the VIA, it may come off as exceedingly hedonistic.

What the card means to me—
Strength, courage, personal conviction, power, self control, power, standing above the rest, respect, driving force, potency, dominance; determination to overcome obstacles, perseverance, faith, vitality, tenacity, activity, integrity, focus, discipline, overcoming, uniting reason and passion.

[ncefafn]

A dark angel sits on a stone pedestal next to a lion. The angel wears a red gown and has black wings. She's leaning on a male lion. One can see a chain on the lion's left forepaw, but it's unclear whether he's actually chained up or not, or whether the angel is attached to the chain as well. A mist of fumes rises up from the ground -- is it a drug to sedate the lion? The angel looks off to the side, away from the viewer. It's hard to say which of the two has been tamed by which, who is in control. The angel seems almost sulky and resentful, as if she's the one being restrained.

Mental - having the intellectual strength to finish one's studies, or to tackle some complicated problem.

Spirit - this card seems to suggest channeling your energy into one focus in order to overcome some hurdle or obstacle.

Emotional - powerful emotions kept in check by reason.

Physical - strength to take on a new exercise regimen or demanding job.

Soul - a challenge on your spiritual journey that will make you stronger.

Business - a battle of wills at work, a contest between two companies for supremacy, a corporate takeover

Relationship - one partner getting the upper hand; setting aside petty disputes in order to work together to achieve a goal

Beneficial - you'll have the strength you need to get through whatever life throws at you.

Problematic - chafing at restrictions.

[Llynn]

There is no human being in this card. There is a lioness-like creature standing on top of a rounded hill, and behind her is the Tree of Life. Surrounding the base of the hill is a ring of shields bearing Minoan symbols. Below the lioness is a larger Cretan shield which bears the image of a cocoon surrounded by flames.

The shape of the hill, the presence of the Tree of Life, and the shield barrier suggest to me a sacred enclosure (a temenos), a place set apart from the ordinary world. In this space the lioness could be the guardian of the sanctuary or even represent the deity herself. As the Tree of Life draws its energy from the Earth so too does the lioness.

We must prove our worth if we wish to gain access to this holy precinct and learn more of the Mysteries (eat of the fruit of the tree). We will have to battle the lioness - there is no other option. However, the representative of divinity is not to be killed - that is not the aim of the confrontation. We must show that we are mature enough to handle the power that new knowledge will bring. It is a rite of passage; a test of our strength of will/character/mind/purpose.

Then, when we have mastered our fear and achieved an honourable victory, we place our shield alongside those of previous combatants. We now help to protect the knowledge from those who are not yet ready. It is a new beginning, the lioness points to the future (to the right of the card) yet she is looking backwards. We must build on what we have achieved, confident in our new-found power – knowledge is power. And, every time we strive to make progress (to break out of our cocoon) we must return to the lioness and prove our worth yet again. It is not a battle fought once and for all time.

[yirabeth]

The Gilded Tarot, by Ciro Marchetti

Card name - Strength

Card Image - Here

My impressions - In this card, a woman stands beside a lion, a heavy golden chain looped around the lion's neck and held casually in her hand. She doesn't seem concerned about the lion getting loose -- I believe the chain is more symbolic. If the lion chose, she could not control him even with the chain. She looks forward with seriousness but confidence.

Her hair is held back by a net of golden beads, there are red ones around the edge of the netting. Her earrings are red and gold to match the hair 'netting'. Her gown is green sprinkled with golden stars. The sleeves are two-tone green stripes ,with golden lacework around the elbow and cuffs.

The lion looks very stern, snarling somewhat. I believe his respect for the woman at his side controls him, but he will still exhibit his ferocious attitude to those they encounter.

What the CREATOR says - The lion is the woman's animal instincts. They neither lead her nor drag behind her -- They are there, a reserve of strength power and courage.

Traditional meanings(Thirteen's ebook) - this is a card of courage and energy. It represents both the Lion's hot, roaring energy, and the Maiden's steadfast will. The innocent Maiden is unafraid, undaunted, and indomitable. She proves that inner strength is more powerful than raw physical strength. This card assures the Querent that they can control not only the situation, but themselves.

Keyword Meanings(J.Bunning's ebook) - showing strength, being patient and compassionate. Achieving soft control.

Reversed Meanings (Thirteen's ebook) - The querent has been or is likely to back down from challenges.They're far too passive and scared. OR It is not that the person doesn't want to take control, or can't, but rather that something is keeping them from doing it OR The querent cannot manage to control the beast.

Further Thoughts - I think it's important to note this is about "Soft" control -- not physical bully-strength but pursuading, gently steering something the way you need it to go. Overall, a very good card to heed in my opionion!

[jcwirish]

Strength is about turning away from the Chariot's willpower and looking inward to find our courage and power. We look at our lives and aim to balance the scales. Strength can be about subduing desire, it is about taming the wild side to our nature. It's about understanding our nature and making choices through our own strength based on what is truly the best choice for us and those around us.

In the Strength card, the main figure is controlling the lion not through brute force, but with her words and inner power. A gentle touch is needed, not force. Strength is an inner quality, built of self-love and trust. It is an aspect of our feminine power.

Strength calls people to recognize their own power, especially when they are feeling inadequate. The goal is self-control, and to bring one's opposing strengths together to act in concert. There is a need to integrate all aspects of your personality. Only by finding equilibrium can you fully express yourself.

[Sinduction]

The image on this card brings to mind "Master and Servant." In a fierce wind, a woman is standing, arms back, her dress and hair trailing in the wind. She meets the force of the wind head on and lets it blow. She seems to be enjoying it, knowing it will pass before it blows her over.

At her side is a gargoyle, representing brute force, ready to fight. But I get the feeling he won't move unless she says so. So he is at the ready while she is deciding when and how to make her move.

A very gothic take on the classic card.

[Wendywu]

In some decks this is a card that, whilst not exactly soft shows a gentleness, sometimes the lion is almost cuddly and the relationship between woman and animal is almost playful in the images given to us. Not so in this deck; here Strength is a raw, passionate fire that consumes the figure shown.

I have a problem with the Strength card in any deck. I was ill for some time but for the months prior to diagnosis I had no idea why I was in such pain. It had been mooted by one doctor as IBS and so I thought it was something I just had to learn to live with. At that time I drew Strength in just about every personal reading I ever did for myself. My understanding of Strength then was one where I saw the card discussing self control in various ways – the subjugation of the animal nature within us. So tried to develop a somewhat Vulcan attitude to pain and did my best to ignore it. Eventually of course other symptoms cropped up and I leaped on the merry-go-round. After diagnosis I suddenly realised that for me at that time the card meant “OMG you are gonna need some strength to get through this!” - a pure and simple message. Now, I feel differently about Strength and instead of trying to subjugate my animal nature I welcome it into my life wholeheartedly. It was after all partly sheer animal strength that got me through my problems – prolonged illness and treatment are a matter of mental strength as well as physical. But as a result of drawing it so often when I was in such pain, the drawing of Strength in a reading now provokes an Oh No response

I look at this Ironwing Strength and it echoes within me so strongly it’s almost scary. The woman has been through a terrible ordeal – in the book we are told it was the ordeal of initiation but I see it as any trial that any of us undergoes that almost breaks us. Usually when you reach that point where you think “No more, I really can’t take any more” with that breathless sobbing in the mind – that’s when you find Strength. Dig down deep into the emergency reserves tank . It’s there in all of us – you just have to know how to access it. And the Tiger comes and floods her with raw, passionate, fiery power. Because of this Strength she is able to see her burned, smouldering ribs as flutes, not as a terrible injury. Because of this Strength she can reach out and claw back all those parts of her spirit self that were broken off and lost during her ordeal. I love the way this is illustrated by the curling tentacles of her hair reaching out, questing to recover the lost shards of her soul.

I love also the way we see that the force poured into the woman actually forms part of a two-way stream with her as a conduit. Above her head is one of her Spirit Guides watching over her and offering assistance. Through her endurance and transformation she has found power – this is shown by the quartz crystals, a stone of great power for healing and soul strength. Her ribs, so damaged by her trials have transformed into iron trumpets. Thus she can cause her joy to echo out and be shared with others. No part of her has been left unaffected by the change that coming into her Strength has wrought in her. Because of this she will have Strength to share, and possibly healing to offer others. I love the warmth and compassion of this card. I know that at first sight it can look pretty terrible – I mean, smoking ribs!! But when you understand the trials that the poor woman has been though, and how incredibly she has come through then the compassion kicks in. Not only has she survived – she has grown, changed and developed into far more than she was.

I really am grateful that my understanding of this card has been so expanded by Ironwing. When I first came to the card in tarot generally I thought it had a fairly simplistic message and indeed at times it is but, at the same time, there is a massive underlying concept. The woman has endured – what we don’t know and it really doesn’t matter. The key factor is endurance. Her pain extended beyond her previously imagined limits and was such that she was irrevocably changed. So far, so normal for a great many people all over the world. What changes it from the norm is the flooding of the woman with Strength by the Tiger, aided by the Spirit Guide. This I think can happen unbidden but in this card we see the results clearly shown.

I appreciate the illustration of the woman’s self-discovery of her inner power with the images of quartz. This very special crystal has had a place round my neck for years. And on my desk, my nightstand, my altar, the coffee table etc. It is special and its windows offer insight into other worlds – and this is an aspect of this card that I feel could be overlooked. The quartz is there for a reason, and so one must think about quartz, it’s meanings and its uses. We use it in so many ways – not just for healing and inner strength. This avenue of thought is intriguing and leads to areas where one would not expect this particular card to venture.

I was peering at Strength earlier this evening and thinking about the Tiger in particular. When I was a girl there was a TV advert for petrol (gasoline) that said “Keep a tiger in your tank”. And I remembered that advert and though how very apt it is for this card. Also I remembered my old sensei saying so many times “All strength comes from the gut”. If you look at this card, it so looks like Tiger is squashed into a tank in the figure’s gut. And from there its power will pour through and suffuse her entire being. Sensei Higaonna 10th dan once said that karate is above all else a moral and spiritual discipline. Any martial artist will tell you that he was absolutely right. So I think of Sensei Keith telling me that strength comes from the gut and Higaonna Sensei pointing out that karate is a spiritual discipline, and I see that what I learned from them can be applied to this card. Indeed, sometimes, during the hours and hours of training, it became an endurance test (and was designed to push each of us to our absolute physical limits – and then a little bit further). And yet there was always this core, this utter determination to keep going because no matter how limited the body, Spirit has no limits and can bring a strength that would once have seemed so very far beyond me as to be unattainable. And this karate discipline, maintained for many long years, is what informs my life. Strength, endurance – this is coinage I understand wholeheartedly. Eventually this discipline was to be useful in another way, when Spirit graced me with a different kind of Strength. And I know beyond doubt that this strength is available to everyone. I do believe, however, that what the card illustrates very clearly is the fact that we do not find that inner strength until we have been tested to beyond what we thought were our limits. And at that time, we find the Tiger in our tank.

I like looking at the figure’s heart (does it remind anyone else of a fruit – an apple, a fig? – I’m not sure). I know we see it in cross section to illustrate the path Strength takes as it fires trough her – the Strength coming from the Tiger meeting with the support pouring from the Spirit Guide. But what strikes me is that really, to get the benefit of either, Tiger or Spirit, it is essential to have an open heart. Now maintaining that can in itself take courage. We are so easily hurt – a wrong word, look or gesture can cause genuine pain. And when I am hurt, I have a natural impulse to close off, turn away and let myself explore my pain in private. Like digging at the sore place where the tooth used to be….) what we are asked to do here though is to deny that impulse, and to not even close off in our heads. It’s easy to pretend to ignore a hurt, and to carry on behaving normally, but inside a wounded animal is licking at its pain and hiding. I think the open heart in this card calls on me to keep on being open to the possibilities. And this is easy to say but so much harder to do. After all, if my home is burgled I’m gonna make damn sure it doesn’t happen again. But if my heart is plundered? And then I am told to not put locks and bolts in place but to let it happen again and again…… Maintaining an open heart in the face of abuse takes incredible courage. But again – the Strength will be gladly given….

[jackdaw*]

First Impressions
This is a peaceful card, very gentle; not what you’d expect from that fiery show-off Leo. That would be more in line with the Thoth equivalent, Lust as she straddles the lion naked. To a lesser extent, perhaps, the sexy and confident woman in the Tarot of Prague card. But this one? Or the po-faced lady in the Marseille card who calmly pries the lion’s jaws open? Not so much.

First, the yellow sky. Again. Sigh. It hangs over a pastoral green landscape that recedes to trees and hills and finally to a bluely distant mountain. In the foreground stands a young woman bending over a lion. The woman has a lemniscates over her head like that on the Magician card. Her hair is blonde and crowned with a wreath of greenery and red flowers; it looks as if there is a flowerbed growing out of the top of her head. She’s also wearing a thicker garland of leaves and flowers in a long rope around the waist of her white gown (long sleeves, slightly scooped neck, looks like a nightgown) and cascades down her side to reach the ground between her and the lion. Her back is slightly bent as she reaches down to him, and her face and eyes are turned toward him as well. She has a slight smile on her face. One hand rests on his snout, the other below his jaw.

Does she look like she’s subduing the lion? Holding its jaws closed? Bending him to obedience with her own will? No, not in the least. She makes me think of me with our dog – she comes up about as far on me as the lion does on her – the way the lion responds affectionately, almost slavishly, to the touch of her hands.

The lion is redder in shading – both fur and mane – than I would have expected. Perhaps there’s something symbolic about the red lion, or it’s meant to bring a hint of the fiery Leo energy to the card. I don’t know; it bears looking into, though. There’s something very devoted, doglike about him in the way he gazes up at her and his tongue lolls out to lick her hands. His tail is tucked between his legs, too; in a dog I would definitely think it was kowtowing to the person handling it.

So I think the biggest thing I need to reconcile with this card is: why is it so gentle? If it’s associated with Leo (the centre of attention, the life of any party) and has such a burly name as Strength, why is it so soft and pretty? A gentle strength? Strength of will, of love?

Creator’s Notes
Waite says in the Pictorial Key to the Tarot:

Originally Posted by Waite

A woman, over whose head there broods the same symbol of life which we have seen in the card of the Magician, is closing the jaws of a lion. The only point in which this design differs from the conventional presentations is that her beneficent fortitude has already subdued the lion, which is being led by a chain of flowers.

That symbol of life is the lemniscate, which also floats above the Magician’s head. Interesting, that it’s these two in particular that share that symbol. And I don’t see the lion as chained by the flowers. Too bad, it would be good if it were. So I wonder if that’s an example of Waite writing about the card in his head rather than the one in front of him, or of the colouring not being done properly? The curls of the lion’s mane could conceivably have been coloured in one solid colour rather than including the garland.

Originally Posted by Waite

For reasons which satisfy myself, this card has been interchanged with that of justice, which is usually numbered eight. As the variation carries nothing with it which will signify to the reader, there is no cause for explanation.

Well, la-dee-da! If the above two sentences don’t turn so many Tarotists against that snarky old curmudgeon Waite, I don’t know what will. Of course he’s trying to protect the secrecy of the Golden Dawn, and bully for him, it’s a hell of a lot more than many others have done since, but does he really need to be so – smug – about it?

Originally Posted by Waite

Fortitude, in one of its most exalted aspects, is connected with the Divine Mystery of Union; the virtue, of course, operates in all planes, and hence draws on all in its symbolism. It connects also with innocentia inviolata, and with the strength which resides in contemplation.

Maybe I’m just really sluggish this week (God knows I feel it!) but I have no clue about the Divine Mystery of Union. I have a gut feeling, based on the white-clad maiden and the red lion, that it’s something alchemical. Combine this with the innocentia inviolata – the meaning of which I can kind of infer from context – it’s sounding very sexual in context. Getting in touch with the Divine through sex with a virgin? Or am I just being silly? Anyway, on to my next point: Fortitude as one of the original Christian virtues is defined in Wikipedia as: “forbearance, endurance, and ability to confront fear and uncertainty, or intimidation”. I assume that the “all planes” Waite refers to include the spiritual or divine plane, the physical earthly plane, and no doubt others. So I will have to bear this in mind when studying the symbolism.

Originally Posted by Waite

These higher meanings are, however, matters of inference, and I do not suggest that they are transparent on the surface of the card. They are intimated in a concealed manner by the chain of flowers, which signifies, among many other things, the sweet yoke and the light burden of Divine Law, when it has been taken into the heart of hearts.

The chain of flowers is pretty significant. Waite seems to suggest that the chain of Divine Law, the bond that ties one to the Divine, is no fetter at all, or one willingly and even joyfully borne.

Originally Posted by Waite

The card has nothing to do with self-confidence in the ordinary sense, though this has been suggested--but it concerns the confidence of those whose strength is God, who have found their refuge in Him.

Now this seems to harken back to Strength as Fortitude the virtue. Faith in God, the faith that He will look after you, gives you the moral courage to beard the lion in his den, to go undefended to close his jaws.

Originally Posted by Waite

There is one aspect in which the lion signifies the passions, and she who is called Strength is the higher nature in its liberation. It has walked upon the asp and the basilisk and has trodden down the lion and the dragon.

That’s a lot of sexy dangerous animals he’s throwing in the way there. Asp, basilisk, dragon … perhaps the courage (even if only symbolic) is Leonine after all.

VIII versus XI
Really, Strength and Justice knew their places back in the good ol’ days before Waite got his mitts on the Tarot. And then bang! Strength and Justice are swapped, and nobody knew why; but the change has certainly caught on. But why was it done in the first place? Weren’t they happy where they were? Waite says that the reasoning satisfies only himself, and he can’t be bothered to justify himself to the likes of us. Good for him, but it doesn’t tell us anything.

The simplest explanation is this: the original Tarot decks didn’t bother their pretty little heads about astrology and such foolishness. That was grafted onto Tarot later, when the occultists got their hands on it. Fortitude had a lion on it. Leo. Justice had a scale. Libra. Easy-peasy, right? But then look at the astrological order; if you were running through them in chronological order as they fall in the year, you get … Taurus-Gemini-Cancer-Leo-Virgo-Libra-Scorpio … These correspond in the Tarot to Hierophant-Lovers-Chariot-Strength-Hermit-Justice-Death and so on. So they switched the two cards to make them fall nicely in line. Very pretty. And this, as far as I can puzzle out in between high-flown points of exaltation and declinations and a goddess named Ma (Ma’at, I wonder?), is what the Order of the Golden Dawn, to their oh-so-secret Cipher Manuscripts are saying. The bits in [square brackets] here replace astrological glyphs and Hebrew letters that were in the translation but I can't insert here.

Originally Posted by Cipher Manuscripts, folios 54-55, translation on Hermetic.com

VIII Justice = [Lamed] and [Libra] And XI Strength - [Teth] and [Leo] which causeth a transposition for these are cognate symbols but at one time the sword of Justice was the Egyptian knife symbol of the sickle of Leo while the scales meant the [Sun] having quitted the balance point of highest declination. To the female and the lion gave the idea of Venus Lady of [Libra] repressing the fire of Vulcan ([Saturn] in [Libra] exaulted. But earliest was the lion goddess to [Leo] and Ma to [Libra] with her scales. And this is better.

I wish I understood astrology better. But as the Cipher Manuscript was a key document for the Golden Dawn, and the Rider Waite Tarot is clearly a Golden Dawn-influenced Tarot, it stands to reason that this would impact Waite greatly.

The more I look at different Tarot systems, particularly Marseille, the more sense the Justice-as-VIII makes to me. But Waite says that Strength is VIII, so that’s why I’m looking at it this way, despite my 78-week buddies being several cards away this week

Others’ Interpretations
Waite says:

Originally Posted by Waite

8. FORTITUDE.--Power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity; also complete success and honours. Reversed: Despotism, abuse if power, weakness, discord, sometimes even disgrace.

Symbols and Attributes
Astrologically, Strength is tied to Leo, which is a Fire sign ruled by the Sun. Makes sense, as it falls at the time of year (July-August) when at least in my part of the world the sun is hottest. Leo, the Lion, is a fiery and energetic sign that doesn’t necessarily seem to jive with the gentle nature of the card, even with a lion on it to really underline the connection. But the courage the maiden shows ties into the bold fiery energy of this sign. Waite’s apparent interest in the sexual aspects of this card also tie to Leo. But the most interesting tidbit I picked up came from Wikipedia, which mentioned almost in passing that generosity and mercy are also aspects of Leo. Now, these I do see as emphasized in this card, and tying back to the old concept of Strength the card as Fortitude the virtue.

The symbols I guess are most worth looking into are the woman and the lion (obviously), the lemniscate over her head, the chain of flowers and greenery and the mountain in the card’s background.

First thought on the key symbols – the woman closing the lion’s jaws. When going over what Waite had to say about them, and the thought about “bearding the lion in his den”, I was reminded of the Biblical story of Daniel. Had to go back and dig it up. Daniel was cast into the lions’ den because he continued to pray to God as he had always done, despite the king’s decree that nobody should pray to anyone but him. When the king, feeling guilty, goes to check on him the next morning, Daniel is alive and well:

Originally Posted by Daniel 6:22-23

My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt. Then was the king exceedingly glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God.

Do I think that the maiden in this card is an angel sent by God? No, probably not, it was just an interesting thought

More likely, Waite meant to liken the young woman, clad in virginal white with flowers in her hair, to be pure. It emphasizes her role as the innocenta inviolata he mentioned in PKT. It represents purity, not so much of body as of spirit, of intentions. If the unarmed and unprotected maiden can hold her own against a lion with serenity, gentleness and without fear for her own safety, she must have great courage indeed. Another popular theory is that the lion represents one’s animalistic, bestial nature. Impulse, lust, instinct, etc. And the girl is the higher self, the spiritual side of one’s nature. So this card would represent the triumph of virtue, of spirituality, of all the higher aspects, over the baser aspects of human nature.

As for the lion itself, frelkins had an interesting point:

Originally Posted by frelkins

[…] RWS completely changes the meaning of this card, imvho -- the woman (soul) shouldn't be conquering or taming the lion, she is harnessing its strength and courage to bear up under duress. lions of course mean courage and kingship, but also i believe in this card there is a meant to be a link to the "lion of st. mark."

mark is felt to embody courage, since he was martyred by being burned alive for evangelizing to the egyptians. the message he preached was the kingship or rulership of christ, so mark's symbol is the lion. all of these associations would have been understood by everyone in italy at the time of the early tarot, as they were preached in churches and shown in stained glass and murals.

But why is it red? Alchemically, the red lion represents sulfur. From what I was able to find, sulfur symbolizes the very human aspiration to spiritual enlightenment.

Unlike the more muscular lady in the Marseille card La Force, who pries the lion’s jaws open, Strength’s hands are on either side of his jaws, seeming to close them or hold them together. But in such a gentle way that the lion doesn’t seem to even think about fighting it. He likes it. Together, the beauty taming the beast has a sexual undertone; Waite refers to the Divine Mystery of Union. In joining her gentleness to the lion’s force, and overcoming him in this manner, allows her to gain access to the spiritual.

Over her head is the lemniscate, the same symbol of endlessness, infinity, that the Magician also has over his own head. Why these two in particular? Both cards are about inner strength and will that manifests in the real world, about bringing the spiritual down to the material plane. The Magician channels the spiritual to manifest in the physical through the force of his will. Strength brings inner strength and courage to the mundane world and allows her to accomplish what could not be accomplished with brute force. But while the Magician makes the spiritual his own personal tool, uses it to achieve his own ends, Strength seems to use it for good. That’s the difference between the two. Robert V. O’Neill says that the lemniscate indicates her “connection to Infinite Wisdom and Power” but I’m afraid I don’t quite see that.

How does she bind the lion to her? Not by any rope or chain, but by a garland of flowers and leaves. At least, I assume that it should tether the lion to her side; it isn’t readily obvious in the deck I have. This reinforces the point that she doesn’t need to exert any great force. It’s a lion, he could break that in an instant and be free if he wanted. But he wants to be close to her; she controls him through gentleness. OR … another thought. Bob O’Neill says the garland is just a sash, not a rope, that ties around her waist and lets the end hang long between her body and the lion’s. He likens this to a Masonic symbol – a “tow chain” about the waist of a Master Mason initiate. I like my theory better

The mountain in the background is higher than the rest of the landscape. In fact, it sticks out like a sore thumb in terms of geography and colouring. So it must be important. We could see that as representing higher planes (ie, the spiritual aspect).

My Interpretation
This isn’t a card of brute force, of physical strength. If I want a depiction of that I can go back to the Marseille, or better yet the Visconti. But this Strength card is much gentler than that. Yes, she bends the lion to her will. But she doesn’t subjugate his nature, or [EDIT: force] him to her will, she just makes him want to obey her, to make her happy. Because he loves her. That’s the type of strength this card is supposed to represent.

If I were to see this card in a reading, I would see it as a need for courage, for facing what you are afraid of, and seeing that there’s no real need for fear after all. Look at the lion here. He’s a lion, with teeth and claws. But once the girl faces him, she realizes that he’s a big softie. With mental conviction and fortitude, all fears can be faced down. It might also be a warning that force is not going to work here, that when facing a dilemma there must be another solution.

Recolouring
I decided to colour the lion, well, lion-coloured. I’m not an alchemist. And I tried to colour the lion’s mane so that it appeared the floral garland goes around his neck, binding him to her. Because I prefer that version of the symbolism. Other than that, I tried to leave the colouring largely unchanged. Just a little less flat a yellow sky.

[gregory]

Card name: Lust

First impressions
Well – the power of sex. The whore of Babylon, by the look of her. Almost reminiscent of Lady Godiva without the modesty. We have the RWS thing with a woman and a lion – but a lion with many very various heads (still counting) - and – well, talk about wild abandon. It is also very RED – again - passion – but also perhaps anger ? The lion has a serpent as a tail too.
There is a curious pair of praying hands between the Beast’s front legs, and faces with closed eyes below him. Being him are a number of rayed discs - 8, I think – which match the one to which the reins are attached. The woman holds up – or reaches up to touch, as she does not look like she is supporting it - something that looks like a womb full of blood and above it are a myriad of goat horns, and a number of bright rays emanating from the womb-thing. She holds the lion’s reins so taut that they almost look phallic.

From the Book of Thoth

i. Babalon
This Trump was formerly called Strength. But it implies far more than strength in the ordinary sense of the word. Technical analysis shows that the Path corresponding to the card is not the Strength of Geburah, but the influence from Chesed upon Geburah, the Path balanced both vertically and horizontally on the Tree of Life (see diagram). For this reason it has been thought better to change the traditional title. Lust implies not only strength, but the joy of strength exercised. It is vigour, and the rapture of vigour.

“Come forth, O children, under the stars, & take your fill of love! I am above you and in you. My ecstasy is in yours. My joy is to see your joy.”

“Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and fire, are of us.”

“I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge & Delight and bright glory, and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness. To worship me take wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell my prophet, & be drunk thereof! They shall not harm ye at all. It is a lie, this folly against self. The exposure of innocence is a lie. Be strong, O man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for this.”

“Behold! these be grave mysteries; for there are also of my friends who be hermits. Now think not to find them in the forest or on the mountain; but in beds of purple, caressed by magnificent beasts of women with large limbs, and fire and light in their eyes, and masses of flaming hair about them; there shall ye find them. Ye shall see them at rule, at victorious armies, at all the joy; and there shall be in them a joy a million times greater than this. Beware lest any force another, King against King! Love one another with burning hearts; on the low men trample in the fierce lust of your <snip>
This Trump is assigned to the sign of Leo in the Zodiac. It is the Kerub of Fire, and is ruled by the Sun. It is the most powerful of the twelve Zodiacal cards,’ and represents the most critical of all the operations of magick and of alchemy. It represents the act of the original marriage as it occurs in nature, as opposed to the more artificial form portrayed in Atu VI; there is in this card no attempt to direct the course of the operation.

The main subject of the card refers to the most ancient collection of legends or fables. It is necessary here to go a little into the magical doctrine of the succession of the Aeons, which is connected with the procession of the Zodiac. Thus, the last Aeon, that of Osiris, is referred to Aries and Libra, as the previous Aeon, that of Isis, was especially connected with the signs of Pisces and Virgo, while the present, that of Horus, is linked with Aquarius and Leo. The central mystery in that past Aeon was that of Incarnation; all the legends of god-men were founded upon some symbolic story of that kind. The essential of all such stories was to deny human fatherhood to the hero or god-man. In most cases, the father is stated to be a god in some animal form, the animal being chosen in accordance with the qualities that the authors of the cult wished to see reproduced in the child.

<snip>

In this card, therefore, appears the legend of the woman and the lion, or rather lion-serpent. (This card is attributed to the letter Teth, which means a serpent.)

The seers in the early days of the Aeon of Osiris foresaw the Manifestation of this coming Aeon in which we now live, and they regarded it with intense horror and fear, not understanding the precession of the Aeons, and regarding every change as catastrophe. This is the real interpretation of, and the reason for, the diatribes against the Beast and the Scarlet Woman in the XIII, XVII and XVIII-th chapters of the Apocalypse; but on the Tree of Life, the path of Gimel, the Moon, descending from the highest, cuts the path of Teth, Leo, the house of the Sun, so that the Woman in the card may be regarded as a form of the Moon, very fully illuminated by the Sun, and intimately united with him in such wise as to produce, incarnate in human form, the representative or representatives of the Lord of the Aeon.

She rides astride the Beast; in her left hand she holds the reins, representing the passion which unites them. In her right she holds aloft the cup, the Holy Grail aflame with love and death. In this cup are mingled the elements of the sacrament of the Aeon. The Book of Lies devotes one chapter to this symbol.

<snip>
There is in this card a divine drunkenness or ecstasy. The woman is shown as more than a little drunk, and more than a little mad; and the lion also is aflame with lust. This signifies that the type of energy described is of the primitive, creative order; it is completely independent of the criticism of reason. This card portrays the will of the Aeon. In the background are the bloodless images of the saints, on whom this image travels, for their whole life has been absorbed into the Holy’ Grail.
“Now ye shall know that the chosen priest & apostle of infinite space is the prince-priest the Beast; and in his woman called the Scarlet Woman all power is given. They shall gather my children into their fold; they shall bring the glory of the stars into the hearts of men.
“For he is ever a sun, and she a moon. But to him is the winged secret flame, and to her the stooping starlight.”
This sacrament is the physical-magical formula for attaining initiation, for the accomplishment of the Great Work. It is in alchemy the process of distillation, operated by internal ferment, and the influence of the Sun and Moon.

Behind the figures of the Beast and his Bride are ten luminous rayed circles; they are the Sephiroth latent and not yet in order, for every new Aeon demands a new system of classification of the Universe.

At the top of the card is shown an emblem of the new light, with ten horns of the Beast, which are serpents, sent forth in every direction to destroy and re-create the world.

Images and Symbolism
Frieda Harris says in her essays:

XI. Lust, This card was formally called Strength. It implies, however, not only strength, but joy in strength exercised. The seven heads of the lion are, respectively. that of an angel, saint, poet, adulteress, warrior, satyr, and lion-serpent. The central figure is the woman, who has surrendered herself to all the forces of creation and who rides astride of the Beast. In her left hand she holds the reins, as representing the passion which unites them, and in her right she holds aloft the Cup aflame with love and death. In this Cup are mingled the elements of the sacrament of the Aeon. In the background are the bloodless figures of the saints on whom this mirage travails, for their whole life has been absorbed into the Holy Grail.

Also:

XI. Lust. Leo. Teth.
This card was called Strength. It means Joy in desire. The lion has seven heads, an angel, a saint, a poet, a warrior, a bacchante, a satyr and a lion-serpent. the woman has given herself to the forces of life. She holds the Cup or impregnated womb. The horns surrounding it represent the male element. The figures under the feet of the lion are the martyrs to whom this path towards Union is an empty dream. The reins which are held by the woman are the passion which unites her to the Beast.

The word Teth means serpent, it seems – so that is where the tail comes from.
Babalon and the Beast in sexual congress.
Babalon IS the Scarlet Woman - so the card colouring really fits. Also, in Thelema, the Great Mother and the Gateway to the City of the Pyramids (Wiki is my friend).

She is considered to be a sacred whore because she denies no one, and yet she extracts a great price—the very blood of the adept and his ego-identity as an earthly individual. …

The concept contained within this aspect of Babalon is that of the mystical ideal, the quest to become one with All through the annihilation of the earthly ego ("For as thy blood is mingled in the cup of BABALON, so is thine heart the universal heart.”). The blood spilling into the graal of Babalon is then used by her to "flood the world with Life and Beauty" (meaning to create Masters of the Temple that are "released" back into the world of men), symbolized by the Crimson Rose of 49 Petals
In sex magic, the mixture of menstrual blood and semen produced in the sexual act with the Scarlet Woman or Babalon is called the Elixir Rubeus (abbreviated as El. Rub. by Crowley in his magical diaries), and is referred to as the "effluvium of Babalon, the Scarlet Woman, which is the menstruum of the lunar current" by Kenneth Grant.

Crowley believed that a number of the women he became involved with were, or may have been Scarlet Women.

The design of the card is much like the description of Babalon and the Beast in Revelation 17:

3. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
4. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
5. And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

Snuffin says that the 7 heads of the Beast represent the 7 chakras, and that Babalon has activated then and absorbed their power into her womb. Above her, he says, rears the very phallic Kundalini serpent –the tail of the Beast – and she is looking directly at it rather than the head of the beast. There are five human heads and two animal faces – controlled instincts, and also showing us the wild side of mankind.

The Lion-serpent in combination spell out the meaning of Teth in full. There is a 13 rayed nimbus around the head of the serpent head. The Lion-serpent will appear again in the Tower card.

Babalon is naked, and holds up the Grail – which looks almost like a womb filled with blood – it contains the distillation of Sun and Moon (semen and gluten) as sacrament. There is a tiny golden nucleus almost like the beginning of a new life. From the grail come ten rays of light which bring order to the ten Sephiroth – which represent Adam Kadmon, the Tree of Life in the microcosm. There are ten horns (I had not noted the number, but that makes sense.)

Snuffin says that the Beast is trampling “upon images of the Saints” – so that’s why the praying hands – and that their purity and chastity denies then the sexual and magickal power shown in the card.

DuQuette says that the original design showed a smiling woman holding open the jaws of a fierce and powerful lion – much more like more traditional cards ! I imagine that at that point it was called Strength !

At an exhibition of the paintings Frieda Harris told a child who asked about the card:
“Well, you must understand the feeling of it. Now how do you feel if you see nice chocolates & there, you get them & how good they taste. That is a picture of how you feel about those chocolates.”
I love this; it almost says it all

This is the card that leads to the deck being banned altogether in US jails, as it is seen as pornography. But as DuQuette says – this card is about the mystery of Babylon which, unlike the mystery of the virgin - the mystery of divine spirit descending into matter - is about the reabsorption of all evolving life and consciousness into Binah, the great supernal female. It is almost about the other side of the virgin.

DuQuette: “Deity lusts for that moment when all her children will return to her. Someday, each one of us will also lust for that moment.”
Crowley identified himself with the Beast, so this card will have had great importance for him. His lascivious Scarlet Women are here, all rolled into one, and sex magick too. The all-embracing orgiastic experience, as Banzhaf put it.

Banzhaf also point to the ten glowing circles as the stars fallen from heaven – the sephiroth in the Tree of Life that are yet to be arranged. Again there is a reference to Revelation: “His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them down to the earth.”

Traditional meanings –
Cribbed shamelessly from Wasserman
Courage, strength, energy, the use of magical power, control of the life force, great love affair, resort to magick.
From the Book of Thoth:

Mitigate Energy with Love; but let Love devour
all things.
Worship the name ____, foursquare, mystic,
wonderful, and the name of His House 418.
Courage, strength, energy and action, une grande passion; resort to magick, the use of magical power.

It only now occurs to me just HOW much Wasserman cribbed from BoT….
My impressions (appearance of the card):
The more I look at it, the more sexual it appears. But I do find it OTT – OVERLY sexual, to be honest. I’m no prude, but I think there is a powerful suggestion of excess here. Of exploitation and greed almost. But the green area with the ordered Sephiroth rays and the horns surrounding that suggest something – more, somehow. Banzhaf sees those as snakes, but the striations look far more like goat horns, to me. Crowley says they are horns AND serpents...

My take (what I make of it/what I might see in a reading where I drew it)
Energy, power, passion – maybe to excess – there is a powerful feeling if excess here, for me. Courage, perhaps, and inner strength too. Maybe even literal conception. It could also show the negative side – rape, abuse, violence.

[linnie]

ATU – XI – Lust (Strength) – THOTH

Attributes –

The Daughter of the Flaming Sword
Hebrew letter – Teth (Serpent)
Tree of Life – Path 19 joining 4 Chesed – Mercury to 5 Geburah – Severity
Colours: Yellow (greenish), deep purple, grey, reddish amber.
Zodiacal Trump – Leo
Sol rules, Uranus exalted
Original design: A smiling woman holds open the jaws of a fierce and powerful lion.

LWB - “Mitigate Energy with Love; but let Love devour all things.
Worship the name - - - - , foursquare, mystic, wonderful, and the name of His House 418.
Courage, strength, energy and action, une grande passion, resort to magic, the use of magical power.”

From Crowley’s Book of Thoth – “This Trump was formerly called Strength. But it implies far more than strength in the ordinary sense of the word. the influence from Chesed upon Geburah, the Path balanced both vertically and horizontally on the Tree of Life. Lust implies not only strength, but the joy of strength exercised. It is vigour, and the rapture of vigour.

“Come forth, O children, under the stars, & take your fill of love! I am above you and in you. My ecstasy is in yours. My joy is to see your joy.”

“Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and fire, are of us.”

This Trump is assigned to the sign of Leo in the Zodiac. It is the Kerub of Fire, and is ruled by the Sun. It is the most powerful of the twelve Zodiacal cards,’ and represents the most critical of all the operations of magick and of alchemy. It represents the act of the original marriage as it occurs in nature, as opposed to the more artificial form portrayed in Atu VI; there is in this card no attempt to direct the course of the operation.

In this card, therefore, appears the legend of the woman and the lion, or rather lion-serpent. (This card is attributed to the letter Teth, which means a serpent.)

There is in this card a divine drunkenness or ecstasy. The woman is shown as more than a little drunk, and more than a little mad; and the lion also is aflame with lust. This signifies that the type of energy described is of the primitive, creative order; it is completely independent of the criticism of reason. This card portrays the will of the Aeon. In the background are the bloodless images of the saints, on whom this image travels, for their whole life has been absorbed into the Holy’ Grail.
“Now ye shall know that the chosen priest & apostle of infinite space is the prince-priest the Beast; and in his woman called the Scarlet Woman all power is given. They shall gather my children into their fold; they shall bring the glory of the stars into the hearts of men.

“For he is ever a sun, and she a moon. But to him is the winged secret flame, and to her the stooping starlight.”

This sacrament is the physical-magical formula for attaining initiation, for the accomplishment of the Great Work. It is in alchemy the process of distillation, operated by internal ferment, and the influence of the Sun and Moon.

Behind the figures of the Beast and his Bride are ten luminous rayed circles; they are the Sephiroth latent and not yet in order, for every new Aeon demands a new system of classification of the Universe.

At the top of the card is shown an emblem of the new light, with ten horns of the Beast, which are serpents, sent forth in every direction to destroy and re-create the world.” (Crowley, BofT).


Imagery/initial impressions – Rather than the more familiar RWT imagery, this card’s imager invokes thoughts of a very primal force: physicality, physical-ness, insatiability. The first thing that caught my eye was the top section of the card, bearing what looks like 9 tape worms , or possibly sucking organisms such as leeches (erk). Whatever they are, both creatures are renowned for parasitism of other organisms… They speak of feeding frenzy energy…. an unashamedly physical devouring, sexuality, irrepressibility, abandon… and I cannot help but shake that feeling from my interpretive efforts here.

The 4 heads that I saw brought King Midas to mind… If not the capacity to turn all to gold, at least the desire to… Harris describes the ecstasy of satiated lust to a child: How one might feel if “you see nice chocolates, and there, you get them, and how good they taste”. The “Ecstasy of Saint Theresa” I get… but THIS card’s imagery challenges me more deeply! There is no ‘regal’ energy here… just raw, pulsing energy… lustfulness… earthy, and unbridled. Colours… as I see them… red brown, rich amber, orange red, deep puce, brown, emerald green and vivid blue.

A many-headed beast, its tail the head of a serpent, (its association with Teth, perhaps), walks over the dead… (Whose hands appear raised in supplication… the more formally ‘devout’, perhaps) … those whose bodies are spent. The naked female draped over the lion holds a harness to the creature with one hand… and grasps at what looks like a plump, juicy, red womb-like object (which I know understand to be the Holy Grail!!! Keh?) – Representative of physical potential… potentiality….

Du Quette – “The naked image of the Babylon, the Scarlet Woman elevating the Holy Grail, and straddling a fantastic and terrible 7-headed beast.”

The 4-headed ‘lion’ (now understood to be 7-headed) – it is a 7-headed beast… (The seven beasts of Crowley), but I failed to discover all 7… If I count the tail’s serpentine head I have 5… However, the 7-headed-ness pertains to the seven beasts of Crowley, various aspects of man…

The 4 heads that I saw brought King Midas to mind… If not the capacity to turn all to gold, at least the desire to… Harris describes the ecstasy of satiated lust to a child: How one might feel if “you see nice chocolates, and there, you get them, and how good they taste”. The “Ecstasy of Saint Theresa” I get… but THIS card’s imagery challenges me more deeply! There is no ‘regal’ energy here… just raw, pulsing energy… lustfulness… earthy, and unbridled. Colours… as I see them… red brown, rich amber, orange red, deep puce, brown, emerald green and vivid blue.

Amidst the frenzied tape worms is a central half-Wheel, emerald green/blue, in massive contrast to the Earth tones already present, green-blue offering a feeling of serenity amongst the otherwise excessive energy of this card. Is this calm, blue-green aspect of the card its one connection with the Divine, as distinct, but part of, the more orgasmic, primal force behind this card?

DuQuette:- “The mystery of Babylon concerns the re-absorption of all evolving life and consciousness into Binah, the Great Supernal female. In this mystery, the symbol of the Whore (who is indiscriminately receptive to all) becomes the supreme and holy image”, and “The supreme spiritual message of this card may be summed up something like this: Eventually, each of us will come to a level of consciousness so profoundly high that the only level higher is the Universal Consciousness of deity itself. Our dissolution into the Infinite is the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate marriage. Deity lusts for that moment when all her children will return to her. Someday, each one of us will also lust for that moment”.

So… I read DuQuette’s book and see the error of my ways… This is not a lustful woman grasping at physical satisfaction, but “Babylon, the Mother of Abominations, and this is the Mystery of her adulteries, for she hath yielded up herself to everything that liveth, and hath become a partaker in its mystery… And because she has shown herself the servant of each, therefore she is become the mistress of all”. Du Quette – “The naked image of the Babylon, the Scarlet Woman elevating the Holy Grail, and straddling a fantastic and terrible 7-headed beast.” The 4-headed ‘lion’ (now understood to be 7-headed) – it is a 7-headed beast… (The seven beasts of Crowley), but I fail to discover all 7. If I count the tail’s serpentine head I have 5… However, the 7-headedness pertains to the seven beasts of Crowley, various aspects of man…

How would I read this card?

Well… firstly, I have to agree with Crowley’s statement that “Someday, each one of us will also lust for that moment”….… but … the imagery simply does not, to me, imply that same story… )

In truth, I am not fond of this card’s imagery … Give me the gentle inner strength of RWT, no apologies. In me, this card's imagery elicits an abhorrence of greed, where lust seemingly rules beyond compassion, where it entails stepping on others’ remains to find one’s own foothold. Initially, the thought came to me re the comparison between the Crowley Lust card and the Strength card in my deck. My card is less about the physical satiation and more about conquering carvings and overcoming hooks, be they physical or emotional. I believe that same message comes into this card, as craven, unbridled, lust is not overly useful (to my mind) and can lead to complications… I cannot very well connect the dots between what I see and what Crowley/Harris intended to show.

When looking back to the LWB’s offering, quoting Crowley’s own words, I cannot, even after looking deeply, see the Love element of this passion-play thing unravelling before my eyes…. Une grande passion, undoubtedly, given the open-ended definition of ‘passion’ … but where is the Love?

I do see it as a very primal, base desire to take in all that is… Now that I am familiar with the concept behind the card, I hope I can recall that other aspect of its energy to turn it around to something more positive, more similar to how I once viewed the Strength card. Insatiability… hmmm… I would try to read into the card’s message about the desire for union with All that Is, as I believe that is what Babylon is seeking to assimilate into her being… and there is, perhaps, the positive that things, long since discarded, ie deceased persons, may have found themselves more fully alive through the above, ongoing, assimilation into All That Is process… ?

I cannot disregard my own intuitions re card imagery, though, and, given my incapacity to retain information overlong, I am likely to read it simply as I would have read it before embarking on this study… As excess, insatiability, the desire to consume All … As a sexual, orgasmic, primal feasting without constraint, sometimes involving walking over others… hmmm… I would feel obliged to recommend some sort of constraint…