Strength to Temperance

Welcome to the middle of the journey. These seven cards are the world’s tests: courage, solitude, change, fairness, surrender, endings and balance. They include some cards that frighten beginners, like the Hanged Man and Death. By the end of this lesson I hope they feel like teachers instead.

The seven cards

Strength (VIII). Courage, compassion, patience. A woman gently closes a lion’s jaws, an infinity sign above her head. This is soft strength: calm, kind and steady. Reversed, self-doubt or insecurity.

The Hermit (IX). Introspection, solitude, wisdom. An old man stands alone on a mountain peak, holding up a lantern with a star inside. Time alone to find your own light. Reversed, solitude turning into isolation.

The Wheel of Fortune (X). Fate, cycles, change. A great wheel turns in the sky, with a sphinx on top and four winged creatures in the corners. What goes up comes down, and the other way around. Reversed, resisting a turn of the wheel.

Justice (XI). Fairness, truth, law. A figure on a throne holds a sword and a set of scales. Cause and effect, honest choices, accountability. Reversed, unfairness or avoiding responsibility.

The Hanged Man (XII). Surrender, letting go, new perspectives. A man hangs upside down by one foot from a living tree, calm, with light around his head. A chosen pause that changes how you see. Reversed, stalling or indecision.

Death (XIII). Transformation, endings, rebirth. A skeleton in armor rides a white horse, a sun rising on the horizon. A chapter closes so a new one can begin. It never predicts a physical death. Reversed, fear of change or holding on.

Temperance (XIV). Balance, harmony, patience. A winged angel pours water between two cups, one foot in a pool and one on land. Blending, moderation and healing. Reversed, excess or swinging between extremes.

Seeing the pattern

After the Chariot’s victory, life tests the traveler. Strength asks for gentle courage. The Hermit sends you inward. The Wheel reminds you that nothing stays still, and Justice that choices have consequences. The Hanged Man asks you to let go, Death closes a chapter, and Temperance heals and blends what is left into something new. If you read these seven as one story, you will see that it ends in balance, not in disaster.

A note on the hardest cards

If the Hanged Man or Death makes you nervous, look again at the pictures. The Hanged Man’s face is calm. Behind Death, the sun is rising. Smith put hope into the hardest images, and you can look for it too. Go back to the lesson on hard cards whenever you need the calm words again.

How to learn them

Again, choose one keyword and one picture detail: the lion, the lantern, the wheel, the scales, the living tree, the rising sun and the two cups. Say them out loud while you look at each card. It feels silly the first time and it works.

Try this

Today’s exercise: Find the card from today’s seven that you would least like to draw, and write one calm sentence about what it might teach you. Keep it short. Two or three lines in your notebook are enough, and there are no wrong answers. If you like, come back to the page tomorrow and add one more line about anything you noticed in the meantime. Small, regular notes like these are how the cards slowly become familiar.

Quick recap

• Cards VIII to XIV are the tests of the journey.
• Strength is gentle, the Hermit is inward, the Wheel turns.
• The Hanged Man is a pause, and Death is an ending, not a death.
• The middle row ends in balance with Temperance.

Keep going

When you have done the exercise, press “Mark as done” and continue with the next lesson, The Devil to the World. There is no hurry. If a lesson needs a second day, give it one.

To go deeper, read the Major Arcana entries for these cards in my book The Novice’s Guide to Tarot.

Need a refresher? Go back to The Fool to the Chariot or see the whole course.

Go deeper: The Novice's Guide to Tarot: Major Arcana VIII to XIV

Mark as done