thorhammer
Strength
I really like the creator’s slightly alternative meaning of this card, that of initiation and life thresholds. The card’s placement in the Tarot Tree specific to this deck is powerful and evocative, and I think it fulfils some emptiness and yearning in many women for some celebration and reclamation of that moment when they transformed from a child into a woman. For a while, I took the card’s meaning quite literally, but then I realised that working with the card allowed me to go back in time, as it were, and change the way I think about my body and my path through puberty and menstruation. It’s been a long time coming – half my life, but the power of this image and the issues it works through has helped me greatly.
This card deviates from the usual imagery of the Strength card, although it still contains the two main elements, the woman and the lion. Here, instead of conquering or taming the lion in this card, the young woman seems to have entered into some sort of partnership with the lioness. For now, their purposes run parallel. She rides the lion, making use of the power of the animal, which symbolises her own inner, primal power. By using this power as the vehicle for her forward progress, she becomes something that has been feared for some time – a powerful woman. I love the creator’s inclusion of the male lion’s tail disappearing out of the card’s right side – this shows that the lioness, as the woman’s wild nature, will pursue her desires implacably and it may transpire that this wild desire will be at cross-purposes to duty and expectation as the road leads further into the future.
Another symbol of the woman’s fearlessness of her own inner self is the snake wending its way up her leg. By picturing it on her leg, and moving upwards, the artist has implied that the woman is grounded by her wild Self, and it rises through her to give her knowledge, wisdom and power over herself. The snake echoes the spirals painted on the woman’s shoulder and hip. To me, the placement of these spirals is important; located at the joints of her leg and arm, they suggest that she is held together by her connection to the past and future, and all her movements are – not controlled, exactly – inspired by her path to a higher state of existence (symbolised by the spiral form).
The banner, held in her left hand to signify unconscious ownership of her inheritance, has two pennants – one to represent the Sun which has such a strong presence in this card (the image is portrayed as the noontime of the woman’s life, symbolised by the sun’s rays moving straight down), the other to represent the Moon, which, while not explicitly present, nevertheless has power in this instance as the force that calls forth the woman’s monthly bleeding.
The card has an atmosphere of heat, energy moving outward, and looking at it, I can almost feel a blast of warm air on my face. The bonfire on the hill represents the fire in the woman, the flare of her awakening Self in this moment of claiming her birthright. This is where the heat comes from – her energy moving out into the world in a very Yang manner. So while the card has overtly feminine connotations, yet the masculine principle is present, and serves to help the viewer to balance the two in their mind. She channels the active principle, challenging the world to accept her entry into adulthood.
The road upon which they run leads downhill – away from the apogee of energy portrayed in this image – toward a lake, which represents many things, among them mystery, emotions and, in contrast to this singular moment, a slower lifetime of existence. It represents a calmer influence, a slowing of motion, and connection to the rest of humanity through the present but also the past (in the depths of the lake). This woman has not reached this point in her life by existing in a vacuum. She owes her existence and her birthright to her ancestors and the long lineage of women who have gone before her. The lake also represents the life ahead of her, the fecundity of her womb and the potential for love and family in her future. The gate before the lake is another threshold – probably marriage and/or motherhood.
The road is well-defined, showing again that many have gone before this one woman and that the path is well prepared, that she follows in illustrious footsteps. But it represents another concept altogether, as well – that whilst it is noble to seek the road less travelled, sometimes the high road is exactly that for a reason, and that tradition and heritage have value in and of themselves.
\m/ Kat
I really like the creator’s slightly alternative meaning of this card, that of initiation and life thresholds. The card’s placement in the Tarot Tree specific to this deck is powerful and evocative, and I think it fulfils some emptiness and yearning in many women for some celebration and reclamation of that moment when they transformed from a child into a woman. For a while, I took the card’s meaning quite literally, but then I realised that working with the card allowed me to go back in time, as it were, and change the way I think about my body and my path through puberty and menstruation. It’s been a long time coming – half my life, but the power of this image and the issues it works through has helped me greatly.
This card deviates from the usual imagery of the Strength card, although it still contains the two main elements, the woman and the lion. Here, instead of conquering or taming the lion in this card, the young woman seems to have entered into some sort of partnership with the lioness. For now, their purposes run parallel. She rides the lion, making use of the power of the animal, which symbolises her own inner, primal power. By using this power as the vehicle for her forward progress, she becomes something that has been feared for some time – a powerful woman. I love the creator’s inclusion of the male lion’s tail disappearing out of the card’s right side – this shows that the lioness, as the woman’s wild nature, will pursue her desires implacably and it may transpire that this wild desire will be at cross-purposes to duty and expectation as the road leads further into the future.
Another symbol of the woman’s fearlessness of her own inner self is the snake wending its way up her leg. By picturing it on her leg, and moving upwards, the artist has implied that the woman is grounded by her wild Self, and it rises through her to give her knowledge, wisdom and power over herself. The snake echoes the spirals painted on the woman’s shoulder and hip. To me, the placement of these spirals is important; located at the joints of her leg and arm, they suggest that she is held together by her connection to the past and future, and all her movements are – not controlled, exactly – inspired by her path to a higher state of existence (symbolised by the spiral form).
The banner, held in her left hand to signify unconscious ownership of her inheritance, has two pennants – one to represent the Sun which has such a strong presence in this card (the image is portrayed as the noontime of the woman’s life, symbolised by the sun’s rays moving straight down), the other to represent the Moon, which, while not explicitly present, nevertheless has power in this instance as the force that calls forth the woman’s monthly bleeding.
The card has an atmosphere of heat, energy moving outward, and looking at it, I can almost feel a blast of warm air on my face. The bonfire on the hill represents the fire in the woman, the flare of her awakening Self in this moment of claiming her birthright. This is where the heat comes from – her energy moving out into the world in a very Yang manner. So while the card has overtly feminine connotations, yet the masculine principle is present, and serves to help the viewer to balance the two in their mind. She channels the active principle, challenging the world to accept her entry into adulthood.
The road upon which they run leads downhill – away from the apogee of energy portrayed in this image – toward a lake, which represents many things, among them mystery, emotions and, in contrast to this singular moment, a slower lifetime of existence. It represents a calmer influence, a slowing of motion, and connection to the rest of humanity through the present but also the past (in the depths of the lake). This woman has not reached this point in her life by existing in a vacuum. She owes her existence and her birthright to her ancestors and the long lineage of women who have gone before her. The lake also represents the life ahead of her, the fecundity of her womb and the potential for love and family in her future. The gate before the lake is another threshold – probably marriage and/or motherhood.
The road is well-defined, showing again that many have gone before this one woman and that the path is well prepared, that she follows in illustrious footsteps. But it represents another concept altogether, as well – that whilst it is noble to seek the road less travelled, sometimes the high road is exactly that for a reason, and that tradition and heritage have value in and of themselves.
\m/ Kat
