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...dealing compassionately with our own inner beast, helps us become

 more like the lady in the Strength card and less like the lion,

 and as a result, we also learn how to calm the

fierce aspects of other people with love and kindness.

 

Card number eight in the Tarot’s Major Arcana is called Strength, but this title can be misleading. This card is not about exerting brute strength or applying physical force. Rather, it represents qualities of inner strength, such as courage, fortitude, patience, compassion, integrity, and resolve.

Typically, the image on the Strength card is of a woman in a white robe who is gently calming or subduing a lion. The lion represents the seemingly overpowering problems which block our path in life, whether they are inner ones––such as substance abuse, or external ones––such as an obstinate co-worker. The lady, however, represents a call for inner strength to deal with these challenges, and she holds out the promise that we can overcome them.

In many Tarot decks, a lemniscate (the infinity sign) floats over the lady’s head, indicating that the ultimate source of our inner strength comes from our connection with the divine essence of the Universe. Furthermore, the lady’s connection with the lion is that of an embrace rather than of conflict or struggle. This indicates that our physical desires (represented by the lion) may be united with our spiritual yearning (represented by the lady) when our spirituality takes loving and compassionate control of our lives.

The message here is not to submerge or destroy our desires and passions, though, but rather to understand them and bring them into constructive harmony with our soulful purpose. In fact, it is when we try to deny our desires and passions that they begin to stalk us like a hungry lion, and we risk being mauled by them. Thus, the Strength card is about compassionate self-examination and the ancient dictum, “Know thyself,” although it goes beyond just that, as it also offers the gentle advice to love yourself.

As noted, the lion in this card also may represent the ferocious problems and challenges in the world around us that can leap out unexpectedly and attack us. In that case, this card urges us to deal with those lions with loving courage as well. As Thich Nhat Hanh said, “The only thing worthy of you is compassion...Hatred will never let you face the beast in man.” And so we must learn to deal with difficult people with understanding and kindness (for ourselves as well as for them), because to do otherwise casts us in the role of our own internal lion.

So the lion in the Strength card may represent the beast within us, and he may be the beast in other people, but how much difference is there between the two really? The roar of those outer lions calls to our inner one, and vice versa. They are kindred spirits, so how we handle one of them both reflects and affects how we handle the other. For example, dealing compassionately with our own inner beast, helps us become more like the lady in the Strength card and less like the lion, and as a result, we also learn how to calm the fierce aspects of other people with love and kindness.

As this card illustrates, each of us is a composite of spiritual yearnings and base desires, i.e., we all have a bit of the lady and a bit of the lion in us. But the more we allow compassion to guide and transform our passions, the more we will become like the lady and the more our interactions with other people will be with their lady instead of with their lion.

James Ricklef is a Los Angeles based Tarot reader, teacher, and freelance writer. His new book, "Tarot Tells the Tale," published by Llewellyn Publishing, features sample Tarot readings for well-known historical, mythical, and fictional characters. To schedule a Tarot reading (either private readings or readings at parties) or to inquire about his Tarot classes, contact him at knighthawk111@hotmail.com. For more information about his work, see his website: http://home.att.net/~jwricklef