☰ Cards, readings & spreads
Strength tarot card meaning: upright and reversed
Major Arcana · VIII · patience · courage · gentle control
Upright meaning
Strength shows a woman closing a lion's jaw with her hands, calmly. The card is about influence without force — patience, steadiness, the courage that looks quiet from outside. Not domination; persuasion.
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Strength reversed
Either you are pushing where patience was required, or your reserves are genuinely empty and you have been calling that weakness. Both need rest more than effort.
Reversal does not flip Strength into its opposite. The same force is present but blocked, turned inward, or overdone — which of the three applies is decided by the cards around it. The keywords shift to self-doubt, forcing it, depleted.
In love
Compassion and tolerance holding a relationship together. Also the courage to be vulnerable, which the card treats as strength rather than risk.
In career and money
Difficult people or situations handled with composure. Long-game work where persistence beats intensity.
Yes or no?
Yes. Drawn in answer to a direct question, this card supports going ahead. Want it read against your actual situation rather than in general? Pull a card here.
Zodiac sign and astrology
A Major Arcana card of a zodiac sign · Golden Dawn
- Sign
- Leo
- Element
- Fire · fixed
- Sun in sign
- July 22 – August 22
- Hebrew letter
- Teth
A woman holds a lion’s jaws with her hands, connecting the image to Leo without making force the point. With fixed Fire understood as will that sustains, Strength is read as staying steady under pressure. In an argument, you keep your voice level and hold your position without trying to overpower the other person.
Other Leo cards: Five of Wands · Six of Wands · Seven of Wands · King of Wands
As a birth card
In a birth-card reading, Strength as a soul card is read as an inner drive to handle intensity without overpowering anyone. You may recognize this in how you approach an argument: you lower your voice, let the other person finish, and ask a question rather than issue a demand.
