Esoteric Symbology of the Tarot: Strength By Gary Shook In the previous card, The Chariot, the seeker had set foot upon a new path. Having mastered his material world he quested forth into the unknown. In the strength card his path has become clear, and leads him back into himself. In a way this card is a reprise of the Magician. The Magician was the beginning of the Fool's journey in the material plane, and Strength is the beginning of the inner journey into the spiritual planes. It is the first card in the second third of the Major Arcana. The Magician was pictured as masculine (although in truth the Magician is a hermaphrodite) and thus a symbol of the Fool's integration into the material realm. The Fool is now depicted as feminine and thus shows his arrival into the spiritual planes. The lemniscate above the Magicians head returns in the Strength card. Where the Magician used its powers in his external magick, the woman in the Strength card turns this energy inward, to work upon the self. To begin the inward journey one must transcend the passions and weaknesses of the lower man. The Strength card depicts this transcendence in the woman's domination of the lion. She is dressed in pure white, a symbol of the purity of purpose required to defeat the desires and phobias of the lion. The red lion is the body nature, its desires and fears. The woman is subduing the lion with her spiritual will alone. Here she transcends the weaknesses of the body by her purity and will, and begins her spiritual decent into the depths of her soul. Other Symbolism The roses in the card represent the passions and desires of the flesh. Her crown and belt of roses around her waist indicate she has controlled her inner desires and have brought them into union. She has balanced her spiritual powers with her physical powers into one force. With the strength of these primal forces so bound she can draw upon them to conquer any obstacle she may encounter on her inward journey. The landscape is a natural setting, and shows that while the journey leads inward the final obstacle to beginning it still lies attached in the material plane. The desires and weaknesses that must be overcome are those of the flesh, and not the spirit. The yellow background is the masculine, solar strength. It counterbalances the feminine representation of the woman in the card and continues the theme of duality that runs through all the preceding cards. | 
