Strength Tarot Card Meaning
courage · gentleness · self-mastery · patience
The Strength is a Major Arcana card, and it speaks to courage, gentleness, self-mastery. Below you will find its upright and reversed meanings, the symbolism in its artwork, what it suggests in love and career, and whether it tends to lean yes or no.
Strength Upright Meaning
Strength shows a woman calming a lion — soft hands, unshaken center. Real power looks like tenderness, patience, and the ability to stay with what is hard.
Strength Symbolism
A woman in white gently closes the jaws of a lion with bare hands, her expression untroubled. The infinity sign floats above her head like the Magician's — mastery that returns to itself. She does not fight the lion, she befriends it: the wild part of her nature has agreed to be led.
Strength in Love
Emotional maturity and compassion soothe conflict. Choose kindness even when you're right.
Strength in Career
Steady, persistent effort beats force. Lead by example.
Strength Advice
Meet the difficult thing gently. It will yield.
Strength Reversed Meaning
Reversed, Strength shows self-doubt, force, or a temper running the room. You may be white-knuckling a situation that would soften if you did. Rest the fists; the lion in you needs care, not conquest.
Strength Reversed Advice
Loosen one grip today. The thing you are trying to force will move faster once you stop shoving it.
Is the Strength a Yes or No?
The Strength generally leans toward yes. Its themes of courage and gentleness tend to support moving forward, especially when you already feel drawn in that direction. Treat this as a prompt for reflection rather than a fixed prediction — your own sense of the situation matters more than any single card.
Want to see this card inside a larger reading? Try our Tarot Spreads, or ask a focused question with the Yes/No Oracle.