Strength tarot card meaning: upright, reversed and symbols

Strength is card VIII of the Major Arcana in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, and one of the most comforting cards to draw. A woman in a white dress calmly closes the jaws of a lion. She uses no weapon and no force. This page explains what Strength means upright and reversed, the symbols in the 1909 card and why your deck may number it VIII or XI.

At a glance

• Upright keywords: courage, patience, compassion, gentle strength
• Reversed keywords: self-doubt, harshness with yourself, giving up too soon
• Number: VIII (8) in the Major Arcana
• Element: Fire Later tradition
• Astrology: Leo Later tradition
• Yes or no: Yes Modern

The element and astrology come from the Golden Dawn system of the 1880s and 1890s, not from the first tarot decks, and the yes or no lean is a modern reading habit. Use them if they help you remember the card, and skip them if they get in the way.

The card: what Pamela Colman Smith drew

Smith drew a quiet, sunny scene. Waite wrote that the woman’s “beneficent fortitude has already subdued the lion, which is being led by a chain of flowers”. He added that the card “has nothing to do with self-confidence in the ordinary sense”. It is strength of a gentler kind.

The woman and the lion

The lion is often read as instinct, passion, fear or anger. The woman does not kill it or chain it. She closes its mouth with her hands. Strength here is relationship with your instincts, not war against them.

The infinity sign

Above her head floats the same sideways eight that hangs over the Magician. Her power renews itself. Patience is a strength that does not run out as fast as force.

The chain of flowers

She wears a garland of roses that also loops around the lion. Waite called it “the sweet yoke and the light burden”. Gentle bonds can hold better than iron ones.

The white dress

White often stands for purity of motive. She is not trying to win or to show off. She is calm, and the calm is the point.

Upright meaning

Upright, Strength is courage with a gentle hand: patience, compassion and steady nerves. It asks you to meet fear or desire without denial and without domination. Bravery can look very quiet.

In a reading, Strength often asks for soft persistence. Stay with the hard feeling, the hard conversation or the slow training until trust grows. It can also be a card of physical recovery, emotional resilience or a person whose kindness is a kind of power.

Reversed meaning

Reversed, Strength can mean insecurity, self-doubt, or harsh self-control that has turned into bullying yourself. It can also mean giving up when patience was still possible, or treating every soft approach as weakness.

Rebuild confidence through small promises that you keep. If you have been cruel to yourself in the name of discipline, soften your grip. Real strength includes asking for help.

Reversals are optional. Many readers never use them and read every card upright, and that is a complete way to read. If you do use them, decide before you shuffle what a reversed card will mean for you, and keep to that choice for the whole reading.

In love, work and spirituality

Love

Upright, holding a tender boundary without rage, patience with a partner, love that tames old fears. Reversed, withdrawing or exploding when vulnerability shows up.

Work and money

Persisting through slow skill-building, handling a difficult person calmly. Reversed, quitting at the first bruise to your pride.

Spirituality

Befriending difficult emotions in practice, shadow work done with kindness. Reversed, using discipline as self-punishment.

As feelings

As feelings, Strength shows warmth, patience and a steady, protective affection. They feel strongly but stay gentle.

Strength as past, present, future and advice

• Past: A time you stayed gentle under pressure.
• Present: This calls for patience and courage, not force.
• Future: You will find the strength you need, often in a quiet way.
• Advice: Be kind and steady, with others and with yourself.

A Major Arcana card names a theme, not a sentence passed on your life. When Strength shows up among mostly Minor cards, give it extra weight: the theme of courage runs under the whole question. If it keeps coming back over several days, write down what was happening each time. Patterns like that teach you more about the card than any list of keywords.

Is Strength a yes or a no?

In modern yes or no readings, Strength leans yes. It says you can handle this, so it leans yes, especially when patience is part of the plan. Tarot is better at showing the shape of a situation than at handing down verdicts, so if the question really matters, turn it into an open question such as “What do I need to know about this?” and draw again.

Affirmation and journal prompts

Affirmation: I meet difficulty with courage, patience and a steady hand.

Reversed affirmation: I stop mistreating myself and rebuild strength through small kept promises.

Journal prompts:

• What is my “lion” right now: fear, anger, desire?
• When was I gentle and strong at the same time?
• What small promise can I keep to myself today?

The history and art behind the card

In the Tarot de Marseille pattern the card is called La Force, Strength. The Marseille pattern numbers Strength XI and Justice VIII. Waite swapped them for the 1909 deck to fit the Golden Dawn’s astrological order, so if your deck differs, read by the card’s title. On fifteenth century cards Strength is one of the virtues, Fortitude, often a woman holding or breaking a column, or a figure wrestling a lion like Hercules. The gentle version, a woman opening or closing a lion’s jaws, became the Marseille standard.

Waite’s change was the number, not the picture. He wrote that “for reasons which satisfy myself, this card has been interchanged with that of Justice”. The reason, as far as we know, was the Golden Dawn’s system, which matched Strength with Leo and Justice with Libra in zodiac order.

When A. E. Waite published The Pictorial Key to the Tarot in 1910, he listed these divinatory meanings for the card: “Power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity; also complete success and honors.” Reversed, he gave: “Despotism, abuse of power, weakness, discord, sometimes even disgrace.” Waite himself called the fortune-telling meanings of the trumps “artificial and arbitrary”, and on this site I read the picture first and treat lists like this as history.

In the modern teaching map called the Fool’s Journey, this card belongs to the second stage, meeting the world’s tests (roughly Strength to Temperance): courage, solitude, change, fairness, surrender, endings and balance. This map is a teaching aid made popular by twentieth-century guidebooks such as Eden Gray’s, not a medieval doctrine. Use it when it helps.

A spread for Strength

Use this spread when you face something that scares you.

1. What am I afraid of? The lion, named honestly.
2. What gentle strength do I have? The quality that can calm it.
3. What is one patient step? How to stay with it without force.

Lay the three cards in a row, read each one on its own first, then read them together as a short story. Write one sentence for each position and one small action you will take.

Common questions

Is Strength card 8 or 11?

In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck it is VIII. In the Tarot de Marseille and the Thoth deck it is XI. Read by the title, not the number.

Is Strength a yes or no?

Usually yes. It says you have the courage and patience to handle the situation.

What does Strength reversed mean?

Self-doubt, being too hard on yourself, or giving up too early. It asks you to rebuild trust in yourself step by step.

Strength with other cards

• With The Devil: the gentle work of loosening a habit or a craving. Patience beats force here.
• With The Chariot: two kinds of control side by side: will and kindness. Use both.
• With The Sun: confidence returning after a hard stretch.

Related cards

• The Chariot: control by will, the card before
• Justice: the card it swapped numbers with
• The Hermit: inner strength found in solitude

Keep learning

Strength is part of the lesson Strength to Temperance in my free Tarot for Beginners course. To keep walking the Major Arcana, read the card before it, The Chariot or the card after it, The Hermit, or go back to all the card meanings. For every card with keywords, affirmations and examples, see my book The Novice’s Guide to Tarot. If you would like a printable cheat sheet for all 78 cards, my 45-page Tarot Workbook is on Etsy.

Sources

• A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1910), Part II and Part III, section 3.
• Pamela Colman Smith and A. E. Waite, the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot (London: Rider, 1909).
• Nicolas Conver, Tarot de Marseille (Marseille, 1760).
• Eden Gray, A Complete Guide to the Tarot (New York: Crown, 1970), epilogue “The Fool’s Journey”.
• Lauri Mukkala, The Novice’s Guide to Tarot, entry for Strength.