Rider Waite Card Meaning - Strength

VIII –Strength - Courage, Patience, Gentleness

The Strength card is one of the four cardinal virtues represented in the tarot deck. The Waite-Smith design engages the classical Renaissance personification of this virtue as a person with strength greater than the jaws of a lion.

The meaning and value of the virtue of strength is perhaps self-explanatory, but the presence of the card in a reading signals the need to be courageous in the face of extraordinarily difficult circumstances or through the course of everyday life, depending on the overall situation described in the cards. Next to a court card, it shows an individual who is acting with great calm and self-restraint.

Reversed, the Strength card reveals inner struggles, conflicts of conscience, or simply a lack of self-control. It can also show a weakness of will and surrendering to temptations, leading to trouble. Acts of cowardice are also denoted.