Upright
Power exercised gently. Not the strength that overwhelms but the kind that stays calm while something wild settles.
Major arcana 8 · Fire
Strength
Reversed
Self-doubt, or force used where patience was needed. The lion handled badly.
ArcanaMajor
Number8
ElementFire
PlanetSun
Yes or noYes
Keywordscourage, patience, inner control
Where it sits in the sequence
The major arcana run 0 to 21 as a progression — the Fool's journey from unguarded beginning to completed cycle. Card 8 falls in the middle stretch, where the outward journey turns inward and gets tested.
The image
What is on the card
A woman in white calmly closes the jaws of a lion, an infinity symbol above her head. She is not straining.
Every detail in the Waite-Smith deck was placed deliberately by Pamela Colman Smith in 1909, and reading the picture usually gets you further than reading a keyword list. Notice what the figure is doing, where they are looking, and what is behind them.
Strength in love, work and health
In love
Patience with a difficult partner, and strength that does not need to raise its voice.
In career and money
Persistence over force. Winning by outlasting rather than overpowering.
In health
Recovery, resilience, and gentleness with the body rather than punishment.
Reading it in a spread
A card means different things by position. In a past-present-future layout, Strength in the past describes something already worked through; in the future it describes a direction rather than a fixed outcome.
Read it against its neighbours rather than alone. Two cards from the same suit intensify each other; a major arcana beside a minor tells you the situation is larger than the everyday.