In the classic Strength card of the Tarot, a woman stands next to a lion. She appears to control the lion with just a touch or a loose leash of roses. In some cards, she is even closing the lion’s jaws.
The Lion as Strength
The lion in this card is male and an archetype of power, strength, nobility, and bravery. Male lions are used in heraldry and are called King of the Beasts. They have been depicted in religious and political art for 40,000 years, dating back to paleolithic cave art and continuing through the ancient world.
Male African lions can weigh nearly 400lbs (180kg) which adds to their majesty and mystique, but there is one thing that has always puzzled me. In the wild, males in a pride often just defend their territory. The females do most of the work of hunting and raising the young. The images shown on cave walls seem to me to be of female, without mains or the signs of a ruff. (Male cave lions had a minimal mane, but did have a small ruff of fur).
I’m not going to argue that males lions aren’t formidable and very strong, but they seem pretty lazy to me, lying around while the women do all of the work.
Lions: Strength Over Laziness
Modern Witch Tarot
This leads me to the idea I had this morning. In the context of some readings, the male lion can represent procrastination or laziness. Perhaps the lady isn’t not holding him back, but rather urging him on, or urging him to useful work.
While the lion is classically seen as representing our “animal” nature, our passions and aggression, it could also represent an innate desire for stasis and inertia.
It takes a lot of strength to overcome inertia and create momentum in life!
Keep in mind that this interpretation depends on the surrounding cards, the question asked, and, most of all, your intuition and the intuition of your reader. It is something to consider though, especially when you feel strong emotions aren’t a factor in the reading.
What do you see the lion representing in the Strength card?
What Clients are Saying about Sophrosyne Tarot
I was advised to ask open-ended questions instead of predictive questions which I thought was helpful because I never would have known if it weren’t for the reader. The reader provided the reading along with some advice too so the entire reading was very thorough and explained in an understandable manner.
Everything said was accurate and helpful for me to identify my flaws in order to grow as a person. I have learned a lot about tarot and what it does to help me.
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