Strength Tarot Card Meaning

strength tarot card - 2 lions

The strength tarot card is one of finding your own inner strength. Of fighting the battle internally over how much power to wield or to step aside. It’s not about proving you are the strongest, but knowing how to use your strength to maintain a balance within your life.

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Find a journal prompt based on the strength tarot card here!

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Definition of The Strength Tarot Card

strength tarot card with definition

Simple Upright Meaning

internal strength, balance, what you need is within

A Full Explanation

The strength tarot card typically (like in the Rider Waite Tarot deck), depicts a person along with a lion. The lion represents a very strong animal. And in this image, the person and animal can live side by side in peace.

This person has mastered the strength to survive around this strong creature. The other important aspect of this card is self restraint. This person is strong enough to know when to fight and when to enjoy this animals company.

Having strength does not mean overpowering your enemies, but having strength within yourself. Of mastering your own mind. The strongest you can be is when you decide to walk away from a situation that you would have previously tried to fight or defend one way or another.

This lion, or other powerful animal on the card, can also represent some of our own inner strength. We must each decide how much power or compliance each situation warrants. Sometimes it’s important to take the lead, and others it’s better to allow another person to take charge.

When you see this card in a reading, it can also be when you’ve had a difficult time recently. This card is reminding you to focus on yourself, try to balance your situation, and keep moving. Because balance goes hand in hand with strength.

The Rider Waite deck also depicts the symbol of infinity, which can represent endless inner strength. We can get through the situation if we strive for it. What you need for the situation, you can find the energy for within.

My Design

strength tarot card

This strength tarot card image is fairly simple, with two lions opposing one another in the image, and alternate colors. Lions are considered a strong predatory animal, one of the strongest, and they often appear on this card in other decks.

We can have the strength of a lion within us, and we must keep control of it. Which is what this card is about – using your inner strength when necessary, and try to keep a balance within life.

Other Thoughts

Strength was initially a confusing card for me to understand, because in the first tarot deck I purchased, the Triple Goddess Tarot, it looks like the girl has power over a wolf (the strong animal), or that this wolf is even injured. It was only in seeing other tarot cards that I realized that this is not how it’s meant to be understood.

A memory I have that reminds me of this card is when there were a bunch of us trying to help someone move. Many of us were teachers, and knew how to take charge. But my main instructor who taught me, stood to the side, waiting for one of them to give him instructions because he realized there were already enough alphas in the room.

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To me, he is the archetype of strength depicted in this card. He could have become another one of the alphas, taking control of the situation (and making it more chaotic with so many other people already trying to take charge), but instead decided to not assert dominance into the situation.


Are you new to tarot and looking at practicing? Try your hand by picking one card a day, or try one of these tarot spreads! If you’re still having a really difficult time connecting with this card, leave it by your bedside or under your pillow to further connect. Try the mindfulness journal prompt based on this card too!