Strength Tarot Card: Gentle Mastery of the Lion Within

Quick Answer: What Does the Strength Tarot Card Mean?

Strength is a card of the Major Arcana. In the Rider–Waite–Smith deck it’s numbered VIII (8); in older decks such as the Tarot de Marseille it’s usually XI (11). On the traditional card, a woman calmly closes the jaws of a lion that a chain of flowers already holds.

Keywords: courage, patience, gentle power, self-control, compassion, inner strength.

• Upright, in one line: the card can point to handling a strong impulse, fear or temper with steady, kind control rather than force.
• Reversed, in one line: readers often take it as strength out of balance: power used as force, feelings pushed down and called “control,” or self-doubt that makes you forget you can hold the lion at all.

On The 9th King, the Strength tarot card is a mirror, not a forecast. It doesn’t tell you what will happen. It asks: What’s roaring in me right now, and can I meet it without either fighting it or obeying it?

The Strength tarot card at a glance

	Strength
Card	Major Arcana VIII (Rider–Waite–Smith), XI in older decks
Keywords	Courage, patience, gentle power
Upright	Steady, kind control of impulses
Reversed	Force, suppression or self-doubt
Correspondence	Leo, Hebrew letter Teth (Golden Dawn–derived)
Key question	Can I hold the lion without fighting it?

Tarot started as a card game: Encyclopaedia Britannica dates the first decks to Italy in the 1430s and their use for fortune-telling to France around 1780 (Britannica: tarot). The meanings below are traditions readers built over time, which is why they work as prompts for reflection.

Strength: VIII or XI? Why the number changes

If your deck says 8 and a friend’s says 11, both are right.

The older order

Strength was historically called Fortitude, and it’s traditionally the eleventh card, with Justice eighth (Wikipedia: Strength (tarot card)). In Tarot de Marseille–style decks, Justice usually follows the Chariot as card VIII (Wikipedia: Justice (tarot card)), which leaves Strength at XI.

What Waite did, and what he said about it

The Rider–Waite–Smith deck was published in 1909 by William Rider & Son, drawn by Pamela Colman Smith to A. E. Waite’s instructions (Wikipedia: Rider–Waite Tarot). Waite moved Strength to VIII and Justice to XI. In The Pictorial Key to the Tarot he says only that he swapped them “for reasons which satisfy myself,” and adds that the change means nothing to the reader, so there’s nothing to explain (Waite, Pictorial Key: Strength, sacred-texts.com).

The usual explanation (from other writers, not Waite)

The explanation you’ll usually read is astrological. Waite and Smith were both members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and under the Golden Dawn’s correspondences the eighth card goes with Leo and the eleventh with Libra. A lion card on Libra and a scales card on Leo didn’t fit, so, the argument goes, the two were switched. Wikipedia adds that the switch was first suggested in the Cipher Manuscripts, the documents behind the Golden Dawn’s teaching (Wikipedia: Strength (tarot card)).

You can see the pattern in the Golden Dawn’s own table. In Liber LXXVIII, which prints the Golden Dawn’s Book T, the old numbers are kept (Fortitude is 11 and Justice is 8), but Fortitude is listed straight after the Chariot and Justice straight after the Wheel (Liber LXXVIII, sacred-texts.com). Our Justice tarot card guide walks through the same swap from the other side.

What to do with this: use whatever number your deck prints. The card’s meaning doesn’t change with its position.

The imagery: what’s on the Strength card

Waite’s description

Waite opens his description simply: a woman, with the same symbol of life over her head that appears on the Magician, is closing the jaws of a lion. He says the only way his design differs from the usual one is that her kind strength has already subdued the lion, which is being led by a chain of flowers (Waite, Pictorial Key: Strength).

That word already matters. The card shows what happens after patience has done its work.

The symbol over her head

On the Magician card, Waite describes that same sign of life as an endless cord forming a figure 8 lying on its side (Waite, Pictorial Key: The Magician). Many readers call it the infinity symbol. Here it ties her quiet power to the Magician’s: the same life force, used gently.

The chain of flowers

Waite reads the flowers as a hidden sign of divine law, a light burden willingly taken into the heart (Waite, Pictorial Key: Strength). Read more simply, a lion held by flowers is held by something it could easily break, and doesn’t: consent, not domination.

On the 1909 Smith card

Some details come from Pamela Colman Smith’s drawing rather than Waite’s words. On the 1909 Smith card, the woman wears a white gown with a wreath of leaves and flowers in her hair, a garland runs from her waist over the lion, the sky behind is bright yellow, and a blue mountain rises in the distance (the card is reproduced on Wikipedia: Strength (tarot card)).

What older decks showed

Waite notes that Fortitude is one of the cardinal virtues, and that the female figure is usually shown closing a lion’s mouth, while in the earlier version printed by Court de Gébelin she’s opening it. Either way, he says, the card conveys the idea of mastery (Waite, Pictorial Key: Part I, §2).

What the lion stands for

Waite gives one more key: in one aspect the lion stands for the passions, and the woman is the higher nature set free (Waite, Pictorial Key: Strength). That’s the doorway to the 9K reading: the lion isn’t an enemy outside you. It’s your own heat, hunger and fear.

Strength upright and reversed meaning

Waite’s own divinatory list for the card is short. Upright: power, energy, action, courage and magnanimity, along with complete success and honors. Reversed: despotism, abuse of power, weakness, discord and sometimes disgrace (Waite, Pictorial Key: Part III, §3). Notice that the reversed list goes wrong in two directions: too much force and too little. That’s the key to this card.

Strength upright

Courage that doesn’t need to shout. The upright card can point to bravery that stays steady: the hard conversation, staying with a fear instead of fleeing it.

Patience with a strong impulse. Readers often take upright Strength as a moment when a big feeling (anger, craving, panic, pride) is present but not in charge. You feel it fully, and you still choose what you do.

Compassion as power. The woman doesn’t beat the lion; she meets it close up. Upright Strength often points to treating the reactive parts of you with the patience you’d show a frightened animal.

Strength reversed

Reversed, the card describes strength gone out of balance. In reflective reading, three patterns come up most.

Raw force. The lion takes over, or you use force on yourself or others: snapping, steamrolling, “winning” an argument and losing the relationship. This is Waite’s despotism in everyday clothes.

Suppression dressed as control. This one looks like the upright card from outside. You’re calm and composed, and underneath the lion is chained in a cellar. Anger goes unspoken, needs go unasked, and the pressure leaks out later as resentment, exhaustion or a sudden blow-up. Holding the lion’s jaw gently is not the same as pretending there’s no lion.

Self-doubt. The third pattern is Waite’s weakness: forgetting you have any strength at all. The lion looks too big, so you don’t try.

So when Strength shows up reversed, ask yourself: Am I letting the lion run, locking it away, or believing I can’t hold it at all?

Theme	Upright	Reversed
Impulses	Felt and held	Obeyed or buried
Courage	Steady and quiet	Loud, or missing
Power	Used gently	Used as force
Feelings	Named and allowed	Denied and called “control”
Self-belief	“I can hold this”	“I can’t handle anything”

Strength and Leo: the astrology correspondence

The 9th King uses Golden Dawn–derived correspondences, the tradition the Rider–Waite–Smith deck draws on. In the Golden Dawn’s Book T, as printed in Liber LXXVIII, this card appears as Fortitude, with the title The Daughter of the Flaming Sword, the Hebrew letter Teth (printed “Tet” there) and the sign Leo (Liber LXXVIII, sacred-texts.com).

Other schools differ, and plenty of readers use no astrology at all. Not every card maps to a single sign, either: in the Golden Dawn scheme some Majors go with planets or elements, and the court cards and Pages work on a different system. Treat the Leo link as a lens, not a rule. Our Tarot & the Zodiac page lays out the whole map.

Why Leo fits

Leo’s symbol is the Lion, and our Leo personality traits guide describes it as a fixed fire sign ruled by the Sun, associated with generosity, creativity, confidence, loyalty and visibility. The match is almost literal: the lion on the card is the Leo lion. (The Sun rules Leo, which is one reason The Sun card shares some of this warmth.)

Leo’s shadow and Strength’s lesson

The Leo guide also names the sign’s shadow: pride that won’t admit mistakes, generosity that wants applause, sulking when nobody notices. Strength is the lion lesson. The card doesn’t ask Leo energy to shrink. It asks the heart to lead and the roar to wait its turn.

Using the link in your own chart

You don’t need Leo placements to use this card, but if your Sun, Moon or Rising is in Leo, it may feel personal. Find where Leo falls with our birth chart guide and ask: In this area of life, do I lead with warmth, or with volume?

The 9th King reading: tension, shadow and the self-mastery lesson

The tension: gentleness versus force

Every Strength moment holds two pulls. One says fight it: crush the craving, out-muscle the anger. The other says give in: the feeling is big, so obey it. Both treat the lion as stronger than you.

The card offers a third way: stay close to the feeling without running from it or letting it drive. That’s slower than force and harder than surrender.

The shadow side: three ways the lion goes wrong

Strength’s shadow shows up in three costumes.

• The tyrant. Strength turned into force: control of other people, or a punishing, drill-sergeant relationship with yourself. I’ll just push through. It works until something breaks.
• The tamer who’s really a jailer. Suppression dressed as control. This is the person everyone calls “so calm” who hasn’t said what they actually feel in years. It can grow from early lessons that anger or need wasn’t safe; our inner child work guide explores where patterns like that can start.
• The one who forgets the lion is theirs. Self-doubt so deep that every strong feeling seems like proof you’re about to lose control. Sometimes this hides as judging other people’s “lack of control” very harshly, which is worth a look through psychological projection.

Shadow work with Strength isn’t about getting rid of the lion. It’s about becoming someone the lion trusts. Shadow Work, Plainly explains how to start gently, and our zodiac shadow work guide covers Leo’s shadow alongside the other signs.

Your lion, not someone else’s

One clear line, because this card gets misused. Strength is about meeting your own impulses. It is never a rule that you should stay calm and gentle while someone else mistreats you. If another person’s anger or behavior is the danger, your job isn’t to tame them; it’s to get safe and get support. Responsibility for abuse or violence always belongs to the person doing it. Sometimes the strongest thing a person can do is leave, and that’s Strength too.

A gentle note: looking closely at anger, fear or old hurts can stir up a lot. If you’re dealing with trauma, abuse, thoughts of self-harm or distress that feels overwhelming, please work with a qualified therapist rather than on your own. And it’s always fine to stop a prompt that feels like too much. Knowing your limit is part of strength.

The self-mastery lesson: patience is power you can repeat

The lesson of the Strength tarot card, as we read it at 9K: real self-mastery is gentle enough to repeat every day. Force runs out. Patience doesn’t.

It has three parts:

1. Stay close. Feel the impulse in your body instead of fleeing it or acting at once.
2. Stay kind. Speak to that part of you as you would to a scared animal: low and steady.
3. Stay in charge. Choose what you’ll actually do: speak up, step away or wait.

Waite links the card with the strength found in contemplation, not ordinary self-confidence (Waite, Pictorial Key: Strength). The strongest people often aren’t the loudest. They’re the ones who can pause.

Strength in love, work and the self

These are reflection angles, not predictions.

Strength tarot in love

In a love question, Strength often brings up how two people handle big feelings: jealousy, desire, hurt pride, the urge to win a fight.

Upright, it can point to warmth under pressure: “I’m angry, and I still love you” in the same breath. Reversed, readers often see a shadow pattern: control, swallowing everything to keep the peace, or doubting you deserve care.

The card doesn’t tell you to stay or leave. It asks: Am I meeting my feelings here with honesty and patience, and am I being met the same way? If you two run hot and deep in different directions, fire and water relationships may help.

A useful habit is the slow sentence: when a strong feeling hits during a hard talk, name it first (“I’m getting defensive”). It gives the lion a voice without the wheel.

Strength at work

At work, Strength can point to steady leadership: calm in a crisis without pretending it isn’t one, hard feedback given kindly, holding your ground without dominating.

Reversed, it can point to burnout from “pushing through,” or swallowing frustration until you check out. A practical test: Am I handling this with patience, or just with endurance? This isn’t financial or career advice, and the card isn’t a forecast about your job.

Strength and the self

Turned inward, Strength is self-respect under pressure: how you talk to yourself on the bad day or the morning after a mistake. Does your inner voice sound like the woman on the card, or like someone trying to win a wrestling match?

Practical exercise: the Lion Check-in

This is the one exercise to take from this page. It takes about five minutes and is meant for everyday surges: irritation in traffic, the urge to send a sharp text, nerves before a meeting, a craving. If it doesn’t fit, skip it.

Step 1: Notice

Catch the moment the lion stands up. Where do you feel it: jaw, chest, hands, stomach? Don’t explain it yet.

Step 2: Name

Give it a plain name: anger, fear, craving, pride, hurt. Naming a feeling lets you stand next to it instead of inside it.

Step 3: Pause

Take a few slow breaths before you act. There’s no right count. A pause like this may help the surge settle; if it doesn’t, that’s fine too.

Step 4: Ask

Ask the lion: What are you protecting, or what do you need? Anger often guards a boundary; fear often guards something you care about; craving often points to rest or comfort.

Step 5: Choose

Pick one response that respects the need and your values: say the true thing calmly, step away, ask for help, or wait. One small action is enough.

Worked example (fictional): Marcus drew Strength reversed after a week of snapping at his team. In the car before work he noticed a tight jaw, named it “pride, and fear underneath,” paused, asked what it was protecting (his worry about looking incompetent if the project slipped), and chose one action: tell his manager the timeline was at risk. The snapping eased once the fear had somewhere to go.

Five Strength journal prompts

1. Which feeling do I usually fight, and which do I usually obey?
2. Where am I calling something “control” when it’s really silence?
3. When did I last handle a strong impulse with patience, and what helped?
4. What would it sound like to talk to myself the way the woman on the card touches the lion?
5. Where am I underestimating the strength I’ve already shown?

For more prompts like these, see our shadow work prompts, or lay out a whole reading with the shadow work tarot spread.

Myths and misreadings about the Strength card

• “Strength means being tough and never showing weakness.” The card shows the opposite: closeness, softness and patience. Feeling a lot isn’t weakness; obeying every feeling isn’t strength.
• “Strength means staying calm no matter how people treat you.” No. The card is about your own lion. When someone else is harming you, safety and support come first, and leaving can be the strong choice.
• “Strength is a self-confidence card.” Waite himself says it isn’t, in the ordinary sense. It’s closer to quiet steadiness than swagger.
• “Reversed Strength means you’re weak.” Reversed often points to strength used wrongly, as force or suppression, not to a lack of it. And self-doubt is a pattern you can work with, not a verdict.
• “You need Leo in your chart for this card to apply.” The Leo link is a Golden Dawn–derived correspondence, a symbolic lens. Anyone has a lion to meet.

If you’re still finding your feet with tarot in general, Code of Ascension’s Tarot for Beginners: How Tarot Really Works (Code of Ascension) covers the basics, and its Intuitive Tarot guide (Code of Ascension) shows how to blend traditional meanings with your own first impressions.

Strength Tarot Card: FAQ

What does the Strength tarot card mean?

The Strength tarot card stands for courage, patience and gentle power. Upright, readers often take it as handling a strong impulse, fear or temper with steady, kind control rather than force. Reversed, it can point to force, suppressed feelings or self-doubt. On The 9th King it’s read as a mirror for reflection, asking how you meet your own “lion,” not as a prediction of what will happen.

Is Strength card 8 or 11?

Both, depending on the deck. In the older order Strength is XI and Justice is VIII. The Rider–Waite–Smith deck of 1909 swapped them, so Strength became VIII. Waite said only that he did it for reasons that satisfied him. Other writers usually explain it through the Golden Dawn’s scheme, which links the eighth card with Leo and the eleventh with Libra. Use the number your own deck prints.

What does Strength reversed mean?

Strength reversed usually describes strength out of balance. Waite’s own list includes both abuse of power and weakness, and on The 9th King we read three patterns: raw force, suppression dressed up as control, and self-doubt. Ask yourself which one fits: are you letting the lion run, locking it away, or believing you can’t hold it at all?

What does Strength mean in a love reading?

In love, Strength often brings up how two people handle big feelings like jealousy, desire and hurt pride. Upright, it can suggest warmth and patience under pressure. Reversed, it can point to control, swallowed feelings or self-doubt. It doesn’t tell you to stay or leave, and it never means you should stay calm while being mistreated. It asks how you’re meeting your own feelings, and how you’re being met.

What zodiac sign is the Strength tarot card?

In Golden Dawn–derived correspondences, the tradition the Rider–Waite–Smith deck draws on and the one The 9th King uses, Strength is linked to Leo, the sign of the lion, and the Hebrew letter Teth. The Golden Dawn’s Book T calls the card Fortitude, “The Daughter of the Flaming Sword.” Other schools assign cards differently, so treat the Leo link as a symbolic lens.

Is Strength a yes or no card?

The 9th King doesn’t use tarot for yes/no answers, because a single card can’t decide an outcome. If you drew Strength on a yes/no question, try a better one: what would handling this with patience and courage look like, and which impulse needs holding steady first? That gives you something to act on.

What does the lion on the Strength card mean?

Waite says that in one aspect the lion stands for the passions, and the woman for the higher nature set free. Read reflectively, the lion is your own heat, hunger, fear and pride. It isn’t an enemy to defeat. The card shows it already calmed and led by a chain of flowers, a picture of strong feelings held with patience rather than force.

Your next step: the next time you feel the lion stand up, run the Lion Check-in above: notice, name, pause, ask, choose. Then read our Leo personality traits guide to see how the sign of the lion handles pride, warmth and visibility in everyday life.

Explore Next

• The sign of the lion: Leo Personality Traits
• The other half of the number swap: Justice Tarot Card
• The card before Strength in Rider–Waite–Smith order: The Chariot
• Start shadow work safely: Shadow Work, Plainly
• Where old patterns begin: Inner Child Work
• Every sign’s shadow: Zodiac Shadow Work
• More tarot on The 9th King: Tarot Card Meanings · Major Arcana · Tarot & the Zodiac · Three-Card Tarot Spread · The Sun
• More Major Arcana: The Hermit · The Magician · The Empress · Temperance

Final Thought: Be Someone the Lion Trusts

The woman on the Strength card isn’t winning a fight. She simply stayed close, stayed kind and stayed in charge. Your anger, fear and hunger aren’t problems to crush. They’re power waiting for a steady hand. Know your nature. Rule your life.

About the Author

King is the founder of The 9th King, where zodiac psychology, relationships and shadow work are explored as tools for self-knowledge rather than fortune-telling. He’s a Libra Sun, and writes about the personal side of astrology on King The Kemist. Astrology on The 9th King is interpretation and self-reflection, not prediction or established fact.