Strength
Upright
Inner strength, courage, patience, taming through gentleness.
Reversed
Self-doubt, insecurity, raw uncontrolled force.
What the Golden Dawn actually taught
Book T reads: “courage, strength, fortitude — power not arrested as in the act of Judgment, but passing on to further action, sometimes obstinacy.” This is force actively moving forward, with a real risk of stubbornness — quite different from the lion tamed through gentle love, which was largely Waite and Smith’s own innovation.
Imagery & symbolism
A woman closes a lion’s jaw gently, without struggle, her expression untroubled. Above her head, the same lemniscate that crowns the Magician loops endlessly — will, not force, is the whole of her power.
Numerology
8 — power, cause and effect, and karmic strength. Base number.
Also associated with
courage, patience, inner strength, compassion, resolve