Strength: tarot card meaning

Strength is card VIII of the Major Arcana, associated with the element of Fire. Drawn upright it speaks of courage, patience, compassion; reversed, of self-doubt, lack of confidence, suppressed power.

Upright meaning

courage, patience, compassion, self-mastery

Power expressed through gentleness and inner steadiness -- steady the lion rather than slaying it, and stay calm under pressure.

Reversed meaning

self-doubt, lack of confidence, suppressed power, overwhelm

Fear is in the driver's seat, crowding out the strength that is really there -- meet it with patience, not force.

Vedic and astrological correspondence

In a three-card reading

In the past position Strength describes the current that carried you to where you are; in the present position, what is most alive in the situation now; in the future position, the direction things tend toward if nothing changes. A reading weighs it against the other two cards rather than on its own.