Strength
Major Arcana · number 8 · La Forza
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Strength is not the kind that shouts: it is the kind that holds the lion’s jaws open with bare hands and does not tremble. This card tells you that you have energy, courage and above all generosity, and that with these three things success comes in full, and with it the honours, the recognition you are owed. If these days you are facing a trial, in your health or at work, you have everything it takes to come through it. The practical advice: use firmness with gentleness. With a difficult colleague, with a rebellious child, with a tired body, patience wins where harshness breaks.
Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
Reversed
Reversed, Strength turns into bullying or into weakness, two faces of the same imbalance. Perhaps you are using your power to crush someone, or perhaps you are the one feeling crushed and unable to find a voice. In the family and at work there is discord in the air, and the risk is being dragged into a humiliating scene. If you recognise yourself, it is no accident: power that is not governed turns against you. The practical advice: before reacting, count to ten and ask yourself what you really want to obtain. Then choose the road that leaves no one wounded, yourself included.