TinkZ
I was so taken by the image of Strength in the Maroon Tarot Deck that I submitted this card interpretation to the Maroon Tarot website. I hope it will be appropriate to also share this interpretation with the study group on this forum.
Thanks,
TinkZ
Sila – Strength
A fist (with what looks like remnants of a chain) rises up out of a battered stronghold. Has the fist finally broken free from the fortress that held it prisoner for so long and which looms over and dominates the landscape? Is it victorious in escaping from imprisonment? Or is the fist part of the citadel – has the fist been trying to impose its will on the populace? Is the fist breaking free from the chains or is the fist itself “chained up” or entangled in a mistaken idea of strength and the uses to which strength should be put?
I think the card asks us to examine our ideas about what Strength is. Is Strength being so powerful that you can impose your will on others? Do we want Strength so that we can get what we want or be free to do whatever we want? Is Strength simply brute force? That is one idea of Strength. But could the concept of Strength have some other levels?
Could true Strength actually be victory through non-violent endurance?! Could Strength be standing for what you believe in – or being what you are - without forcing it on others through violent means? Could Strength seek to change others through testimony of what is right? Could Strength lead through example? Could Strength shine a light on what is true and right – instead of shoving what is “true and right” down another’s throat?!
True Strength is an archetype and the world knows it when it sees it.
Strength could be standing alone, as the solitary student in China’s Tiananmen Square who confronted a tank or as Jerzy Popieluszko who dared to speak about what he believed to empower others.
Strength could be standing in union with others – as with members of Solidarity in the Gdansk shipyard in Poland or with United Farm Workers in California.
Strength could be embodied in Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King Junior, Lech Walesa, Cesar Chavez, Jerzy Popieluszko, the Buddha, Jesus Christ, and countless others, named and nameless. This kind of Strength is not brittle and cannot be budged, let alone killed. The United Farm Workers sang that, united in their fight, they could not be moved (“No! No! No nos moverán!”) Before he was assassinated, Oscar Romero said that his voice could not be silenced and that if he was killed he would live on in the people with which he stood.
Could Strength be the “perfection” of ourselves, the belief in ourselves – as in the Olympic athlete who has given her very best and who holds her fist up in victory after winning the gold medal? Could Strength be about working with ourselves, building up the best, understanding the worst, and loving both?
Could True Strength be so “strong” because it chooses not to fight opposition and obstacle with violence and hostility? Because it chooses not to fight ignorance and misunderstanding with yet more ignorance and misunderstanding?
Thanks,
TinkZ
Sila – Strength
A fist (with what looks like remnants of a chain) rises up out of a battered stronghold. Has the fist finally broken free from the fortress that held it prisoner for so long and which looms over and dominates the landscape? Is it victorious in escaping from imprisonment? Or is the fist part of the citadel – has the fist been trying to impose its will on the populace? Is the fist breaking free from the chains or is the fist itself “chained up” or entangled in a mistaken idea of strength and the uses to which strength should be put?
I think the card asks us to examine our ideas about what Strength is. Is Strength being so powerful that you can impose your will on others? Do we want Strength so that we can get what we want or be free to do whatever we want? Is Strength simply brute force? That is one idea of Strength. But could the concept of Strength have some other levels?
Could true Strength actually be victory through non-violent endurance?! Could Strength be standing for what you believe in – or being what you are - without forcing it on others through violent means? Could Strength seek to change others through testimony of what is right? Could Strength lead through example? Could Strength shine a light on what is true and right – instead of shoving what is “true and right” down another’s throat?!
True Strength is an archetype and the world knows it when it sees it.
Strength could be standing alone, as the solitary student in China’s Tiananmen Square who confronted a tank or as Jerzy Popieluszko who dared to speak about what he believed to empower others.
Strength could be standing in union with others – as with members of Solidarity in the Gdansk shipyard in Poland or with United Farm Workers in California.
Strength could be embodied in Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King Junior, Lech Walesa, Cesar Chavez, Jerzy Popieluszko, the Buddha, Jesus Christ, and countless others, named and nameless. This kind of Strength is not brittle and cannot be budged, let alone killed. The United Farm Workers sang that, united in their fight, they could not be moved (“No! No! No nos moverán!”) Before he was assassinated, Oscar Romero said that his voice could not be silenced and that if he was killed he would live on in the people with which he stood.
Could Strength be the “perfection” of ourselves, the belief in ourselves – as in the Olympic athlete who has given her very best and who holds her fist up in victory after winning the gold medal? Could Strength be about working with ourselves, building up the best, understanding the worst, and loving both?
Could True Strength be so “strong” because it chooses not to fight opposition and obstacle with violence and hostility? Because it chooses not to fight ignorance and misunderstanding with yet more ignorance and misunderstanding?
