As our Fool continues, they are carried by the powerful movement of the Wheel of Fortune to the next phase, the path to the Strength card (Justice in the Waite-Smith deck). Influenced by their destiny, the Fool moves on from the turning point of the Wheel of Fortune to the next leg of the major arcana journey. Here, a significant shift takes place as we delve deeper into the subconscious and the path of the heart. Personally, I prefer the Strength card here on our major arcana journey. In my perspective, Justice is a carryover of the previous seven cards at number eight, where we are still unpacking the morality, ethics, and imprints left on us from the first cycle of seven, still in preparation for the next cycle. Meanwhile, in this position, Strength follows the Wheel of Fortune and precedes the Hanged Man, which indicates a place of empowerment at moment between destiny and things turning upside down.
The Strength card indicates a time to connect to our internal strength and may indicate that we are actually strong enough to face more of the pain, trauma, or fears we have been harboring since childhood. Often we suppress difficult memories or events from our past until we are ready to face them more fully and do the work of healing and recovery. Strength is a card of empowerment and encourages us to stand up for ourselves and be the voice of truth and discovery. The figure of a woman is shown in relation to a vibrant lion who symbolizes strength, valor, ferocity, and unmistakable power.
In correlation with the Justice card, the number eleven is mirrored like the number eight and evokes a sense of passage or movement over a threshold. Imagine sliding doors and the ability to use all that has been learned in cards one (the Magician) through ten (the Wheel of Fortune) to harness your powers and offer your gifts. Eleven is two ones, like two Magicians together creating intentionality, multiplying the seeds planted at the beginning of the path. Following the Wheel of Fortune, our intentions are magnified by our soul’s destiny. Eleven is a number of interdimensional power and invites us to consider the possibility of traveling through worlds to attain knowledge. The Strength card thus asks us to consider multidimensional perspectives of our life journey and healing that can happen through time and space. These invitations may appear as synchronicities and coincidences.
As I was preparing for my self-marriage ceremony, I pulled the Strength card in readings over and over again as a sign of reuniting with my own inner power. My first vow at my self-marriage ceremony was “I vow to call back all parts of myself.” Surrounded by sixty-four images of the divine feminine, I committed to my life path and purpose, inviting in the many aspects of my multidimensional self to assist me in walking this journey. As indicated in the Strength card, this was a moment of empowerment and healing, and it was also the realization of a personal vision in alignment with collective impact. When visions are fully embodied, they have the capacity to work both forward and backward in our lives. Leading up to a vision, ceremony, prayer, or experience, we receive insights and guidance along the way. Afterward, we are gifted the power of the embodiment, reflections, and continued insights as the life journey continues. This is the sacred nature of the number eleven (or eight) expressing itself through the embodiment of Strength (or Justice).
In the classic Rider-Waite-Smith card, a woman strokes a lion to show how power with vulnerability is one of our greatest strengths. The willingness to be compassionate and stay open even when we have hit an edge takes immense courage. She is dressed in white, calmly stroking the lion while it licks her wrist. Although some interpretations say she is a woman taming her power, others believe she is in concert with the wild aspect of herself and is able to use it for her life’s work. Above her is the infinity symbol, linking this card to the Magician, reminding us that all the power, love, and wisdom of the universe reside within us. The card has a bright yellow background symbolizing creativity and abundance; the blue mountain in the distance signifies clarity and fortitude.
Crowley renamed the card “Lust,” indicating the use of sexual energy on the path. As a vital life force, sex has been traditionally viewed something to domesticate, control, lock away, and subjugate. This traditional view is ironic—we are all born out of the sexual act, our very life conception comes from the alchemical mixing of two people or essences to create new life. This card very much speaks to that power and invites us to connect more with our own sensual and sexual energies and perhaps harness it to use in art, creation, connection, and manifestation.
In the Crowley deck we see a nude woman, heart exposed, holding a vessel of fiery liquid love. She is both vulnerable and powerful, holding her essence aloft transforming the dark into light. She sits atop a creature with many heads reminding us of the many parts of our selves: our light, our dark, our shadow, our fear, our pain, our sorrows, our joys, and the myriad manners in which all these express themselves throughout life. The Strength card is also a card of compassion for ourselves, to find that inner core of care for our humble human body and its expression on earth.
When the Strength card appears in a reading, it is a call to courage and a resounding yes to personal power and life decisions. It has an overall positive impact on the reading and brings vitality, literal strength, fortitude, and energy to the next phase in one’s life. In relationships, it may indicate the importance of following one’s personal vision as well as tending to a partner or partners. It can also indicate the alchemical presence in a love relationship that has the power and strength to bring it to another level. In work and health, it indicates a returning vigor if it has been missing or a call to generate more strength and vitality.
Essential Qualities: strength, courage, vitality, trust, empowerment, knowing, wisdom, growth, abundance, lust, passion, beauty, firmness
Suggestions: Go for a walk or hike in the woods and reconnect with your physical body. Ask to receive guidance or wisdom as you walk, a sign to encourage inner strength. Perform a self-marriage ceremony as suggested in the Lovers card.
Strength Layout: Plant Perspective
The Strength layout uses seven cards to determine what is strong or weak in a particular area of life. Inspired by the image of a plant, this card shows the strengths found along each aspect of a plant that relates to a problem or issue that you are wanting more clarification on.
• Card 1: Querent
• Card 2: Root: shows what is grounding or supporting (or needs support in an issue)
• Card 3: Stem: what is helping the situation grow upward and develop
• Card 4: Leaf: what guidance you are receiving that gives strength and illumination to the issue at hand
• Card 5: Thorn: what is hindering or preventing you from stepping fully into your own empowered self
• Card 6: Bud: potential gifts that are unique to you and your situation, as well as the dynamic between yourself and the path’s expression
• Card 7: Flower: outcome of the situation