What is Strength?

One of my favorite cards in the tarot is VIII Strength. I use it as a talisman when I feel worn down, scared, impatient, triggered, or off my game. I pull up the image of the Strength tarot card in my mind. I imagine a woman standing with her hand on a lion. This mental picture is not specific to any tarot deck. The woman is me and the lion is the thing: the thing that I am afraid of, or that seems hard, or that is standing in my way. The lion is all the crazy shit that is happening in the world and each roadblock task in my day-to-day life. The gentle hand upon the lion reminds me that I can work with what is, I can handle this, I can be strong in the face of difficulties.

The Strength tarot card from the Rider Waite Smith tarot deck.

Strength is the eighth step or lesson of the Fool’s Journey that is represented in the Major Arcana of the tarot deck. This is a metaphorical journey through life experiences that a person goes on in order to realize the wholeness of their humanity. I think Strength is the step of being courageous in the face of the unknown, moving through uncertainty, and doing hard things with ease and grace. Life is full of change and mystery. It’s impossible to know what is coming next. Even if we have a good idea based on past results, things can change rapidly and seemingly at random. Strength gives us the backbone to keep exploring and moving forward into that vast vagueness of the future.

And ya know what? It’s fine to fumble and whine and muddle your way this process through as well. Strength does not demand perfection, but simply perseverance. It doesn’t have to look pretty or be perfect by any means, but you can keep going and do life. Strength can look like many things, and that includes waiting, allowing, following intuition, being still, and seeing what happens. “Doing life” might not look like much more than surviving. A tsunami hits you and you don’t resist, you let it happen, and you look for the right time to start picking up the pieces. You don’t say, “This can’t be happening.” You accept that the shitstorm is indeed happening and you look for avenues to take from here, not from some time or place that you wish existed but doesn’t.

In this way, the Strength card is not so much about action, like The Chariot, which came before it on the Fool’s Journey. Strength is rather about surrender. It is possible to be strong without being forceful, aggressive or domineering. There is a time and place for the power of The Chariot, but the next step on the Fool’s Journey is to go beyond the ego-focused will of the Chariot and towards a more holistic consciousness. There is a great need to remain calm in the face of aggression, to work toward harmony between individual wills, and integrate your unique ego into the beautiful mixture of all creation.  

Doesn’t it feel like a moment when we could use some harmony? We’re not going to achieve that by focusing on our own individual wants and needs, but rather on what the collective requires. We have to be willing to show each other compassion and compromise. We have to at least be willing to listen and try to understand points of view different than our own. Strength reminds us that it will be hard, but we can do it. How? Well, that is the great unknown, and Strength leads us into that unknown with an open heart and an open mind. You don’t need to have all the answer to start trying to make solutions. Strength asks us to be brave and make an effort, knowing that we might fail or get it wrong, but our intentions are pure and we’ll keep trying until we figure it out.

I started taking an online Portuguese language class last week in preparation for a trip I am taking to Brasil at the end of April. (Eeeee! I’m so excited!) There were 5 other people in the class who I had never met before, all from the United States. Seemingly out of nowhere, the conversation turned to what we were doing to protest current government action. I was heartened to know that I was in a class full of people who were not going to allow the current regime to dismantle human rights and degrade our democracy. At the same time, I felt attacked for not being more politically active in protest. I felt very defensive.

The Strength tarot card from the Shadowscapes deck.

Listen, I’ve been to my fair share of protests. I’ve taken back the night, marched for women’s rights, gotten my pride on innumerably times. I’ve been one of those people who texts voters to get to the polls and written letters for Amnesty International. But honestly, ya’ll, I don’t connect with that type of activism. That feels a lot like the action heavy focus of The Chariot, and we’ve already established that I lean towards Strength when it comes to how I like to move through the world. But nowadays, it feels like if you don’t raise your voice in outrage, you are not doing enough. We’re being guilted into the aggression of The Chariot, even if we don’t resonate with it.

I wonder if activism can extend to bringing compassion, compromise, and surrender to what is when it comes to taking a stance against politics that we don’t agree with? Can a desire for kindness and peace lead towards a more just and equal world for all of us? I think The Chariot and Strength can work together. The Chariot makes powerful demands that politicians be accountable and represent the people, marching in the streets and disrupting business as usual. And then when it’s time to settle down to negotiate and make change, Strength can lead those conversations with patience and fortitude. It’s when you bring Chariot energy into a peace talk that you get yelling and arguing, which generally don’t create change. Strength is the open mind that looks for a middle path and the courage to walk in someone else’s shoes.

Ultimately, I have to be strong in my own conviction about what is right. If random strangers can make me feel bad about myself for not being more aggressive in my activism, that is obviously a reflection of how I think about myself on a personal level as well. Can Strength be admirable? Can I move through the world without needing outside validation for my thoughts and actions? Is there some action I can take that does feel meaninguful and useful to me? These are deep questions that lead to inner growth if I can have the courage to actually work with them.

Let me leave you with a practice for connecting to your own Strength. You can use the following prompts with the tarot, or simply reflect on them in your journal.

What does the Strength card have to tell me at this point?

How can I connect with and enhance my Strength?

What distracts me or blocks me from my Strength?

How can I use my Strength in this situation?

What can Strength teach me now?

How can Strength help me change the world?

I hope you find these questions helpful and that you connect in with the Strength inside of you now. It doesn’t have to be a daily touchstone like it is for me, but it’s not a bad practice to incorporate into your self-care on some kind of routine basis. Strength will help you find the will to do what is difficult, the compassion to work through what’s hard, and the courage to do it all over again each time you are called.