Meaning
Smith's Strength is a woman in a white robe, garlanded with flowers, closing or gently holding the jaws of a lion, with the figure of eight on its side above her head, as over the Magician. A chain of flowers runs from her to the lion, and a mountain stands far off. Waite calls the card Fortitude in one part of his book and Strength in another, and reads it as fortitude of an inward kind rather than force.
The Golden Dawn gave the card Teth, a simple letter glossed as serpent, and the sign Leo, and titled it the Daughter of the Flaming Sword; Book T calls it Fortitude. On the order's tree it is path 19.
We read the card as courage without force: the lion is led, not fought, and the strength is in the steadiness of the hand.
Why it is VIII here
In the Marseille decks Strength is XI and Justice VIII. The Golden Dawn exchanged them so that its order of letters and signs would run straight: Teth and Leo come before Lamed and Libra, so the card of Leo must come before the card of Libra. Waite printed the exchange in 1909 and said only that it had been made for reasons that satisfied him. Crowley's Thoth deck put both cards back, as Lust XI and Adjustment VIII, while keeping their signs.
In the birth cards
Strength is the root of Greer's eighth constellation, with the Star, 17. It is the Soul card of everyone whose total is 17 and both cards for a total of exactly 8, together 11.1 percent of the days from 1900 to 2030; the single 8 alone covers 6.6 percent. A 17-8 reaches both cards and has no Hidden Factor; a single 8 leaves the Star unreached.
The numbering matters here. With Strength as XI, as in the Marseille decks, the pair 11-2 would read Strength and the High Priestess, and 17-8 the Star and Justice. Greer accepts either numbering as long as it is stated; ours is the 1909 deck's.
As a natal-chart card Strength is the Sun-sign card of Leo; the person in Figure 1 of the Tarot page has it as Rising card, for Leo rising. As a year card it comes 12 times in the 201 years from 1900 to 2100 for a 15 June birthday.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Golden Dawn title (Book T)
- “The Daughter of the Flaming Sword” sourced
- Waite's fortune-telling list (1911), upright
- “Power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity; also complete success and honours”, quoted as history; Waite called such meanings artificial and arbitrary sourced
- Greer's name for the constellation
- Courage and Self-Esteem (1987, 2021) sourced
- Our line for the birth-card chain
- 8: Courage grounded in self-worth; 17-8: Unmasked and unafraid our construction
- Number
- VIII in the Golden Dawn and the 1909 deck; XI in the Marseille and Thoth decks disputed
- Thoth deck name
- Lust, XI sourced
- Sun-sign card
- For the Sun in Leo; also the Moon card and the Rising card for Leo sourced
How the schools read it
- Game decks (15th to 18th century)
- La Force, numbered XI: a woman holding open or closing the jaws of a lion.
- Golden Dawn, Book T
- Teth, the serpent, a simple letter, and the sign Leo; path 19. Book T calls the card Fortitude and titles it the Daughter of the Flaming Sword.
- Waite and Smith (1909 to 1911)
- Fortitude of the spirit rather than force; Waite numbers it VIII and says only that it has been exchanged with Justice, for reasons that satisfy him.
- Mary K. Greer (1984 to 2021)
- The root of the constellation of 8, with the Star: the Soul card of every total of 17, and both cards for a single 8. She accepts either numbering if it is stated.
- Crowley, Thoth deck (1944)
- Renamed Lust and numbered XI again; the letter and Leo stay with it.
- EsoTerrier
- Read here as courage without force: the lion is led, not fought, and the strength is in the steadiness of the hand.
Claims about it
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Waite swapped Strength and Justice.
disputedWhat the record shows: The Golden Dawn did, so that Leo comes before Libra in its order of letters. Waite's 1909 deck was the first published deck to print the swap.
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Strength is trump VIII, as a fact about the tarot.
disputedWhat the record shows: A convention. The Marseille and Thoth decks number it XI. We use the 1909 numbering and say so, since it changes two birth-card pairs.
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Teth and Leo are Strength's ancient correspondences.
disputedWhat the record shows: They are the Golden Dawn's, from about 1888, and the reason for its new number.
