Strength as love potential

In America, especially, it's overwhelmingly common for people to confuse love with sex. Love isn't sex and sex isn't love. The most beautiful love I've ever experienced between myself and another was platonic love. Or if not platonic, at least it didn't involve sex. (Gotta go look up the exact definition of platonic again.) Anyway, sex can be an expression of love, but it isn't love. Love exists separate from sex.

The point I'm getting to is that putting one's sexual urges on hold, no matter how very strong they are, in a loving relationship that one might want overwhelmingly to include sex into is expressed by the Strength card. The subduing of physical desires or "passions of the flesh" is a great sacrifice in the name of love sometimes.

True, Grizabella, though I think Strength is a pretty sexy card, as the cards go. In fact, I think it may be one of the sexiest Majors, and in a more healthy way. So, I definitely see both sex and love in Strength.

P.S. I love that card, reine de saba! So much so I had to go and buy that deck. I'd never seen it before, I've been looking for a Golden I like... Here I am trying to be good & stay out of the decks forum or the trading forum today, and yet temptation finds me... I am perhaps in need of the lesson of the Strength card, as I am weak!

In me, sex is such an important part of the expression of love - the gateway to its spiritual opening, in fact - that it would take a physical impossibility or a serious taboo like incest for me to separate love from sex. When I love, I want to merge with my beloved in all ways. Since that isn't possible (or even desirable if we are to remain individuals!), the sexual merging stands for all others - and also provides a bridge to spiritual merging, as well as one way of creating emotional closeness (there are others, and intimacy involves much more than sex). Mental closeness comes from other forms of intimacy, but while there can be a meeting of minds, there can't - and shouldn't - be a merging of mind. So we are left with the sexual and spiritual merging and I think that's part of the story in this Strength card.

I see that sexual/spiritual link in Strength in love readings. In the meeting of the lady and the lion, there is a merging of energies - the lady has something of the lion in her, the lion, something of the lady, and together, there is trust, surrender and play - all of which are ingredients of the greatest form of love between two unrelated people, as well as ingredients for a successful sexual relationship.

Not the only interpretation for that card, but it's one possible layer.

Agreed....

Ravenne said:

Doesn't this last meaning apply to Strength in RWS and Robin Wood as well?
I mean, she is loving, patient, caring, focussed on the lion. He lets her be that way, but he shows no signs of liking it nor any interest in it or her. In that sense it to me can also mean "Being tolerated" or "being taken for granted" and in a way maybe even a hint being used/letting yourself be used.
The lion is clearly not interested in the woman, but she's completely focussed on him.
Easy to think of the cardwoman being the female in a relationship and the lion the male. But I think the lion is the strong party in the relationship and the woman the gentle, caring one, regardless of which gender that person is.
What an intricate card :S All of a sudden I see more and more meanings to it than ever before. I had these nicely, reasonably short descriptions of each card, but now my journal is turning into a tome!

Ravenne

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I just did a relationship reading for my boyfriend and i. I am the one who holds the relationship together, yet in away he is too. Because i have the fury of a lion inside me and he has the disregard of the lion in him. He also has the nuturing side of the woman in him, so for me strength is balanced. It is the opposing forces working together- it's almost co-dependant. The lion is independant goes off on his own but is destructive when left to his own devices , as does my boyfriend, his nature is raw, i try to tame him, but he's very much untamable, he's fiercy independant of his beliefs and yet i still need to hold him up, he's somewhat broken inside onsome levels too. When i'm angry i grab the lion (metaphorically speaking of course)and i say , come here listen to me, i know your raw nature! I know that it can't be changed, and i will embrace that.

But it requires some level of strength because the lion is strong. No the lion can't be changed into a man. I keep nurturing him, thinking he can be, but his raw nature is far too strong!!! I hold onto him to stop it from running away with him. It requires alot of courage to deal with this beast, patience and understanding to know when it bites ( or screws up) ....It's the nature of the beast, not something that is intentional...I think it takes a massive amount of strenght to take on a relationship like this! But to be remembered that a lion is a beautiful creature and will fiercy protect that which it loves, it is loyal and dependable. It provides and i think the lion shows passion and courage.

The woman is holding onto something that is far more powerful than her you would think, but that makes the woman even more powerful to be able to tame the lion. She must do this with gentleness , persuasion, understanding , love and also a little passionate agression. She can't fight the lion though as i imagine he would turn on her and rip her to shreds- after all he is a beast.

What someone said about sex- My relationship with my boyfriend is extremely raw and passionate- yet we have a strength of understanding and compassion in our relationship too. It's a combination. It's require because my boyfriend is a lion who goes off and does his own thing, so i need the patience of a saint to deal with this, whilst i know that the bond that developed between a lion and a human can be so strong, the inner nature of the human can relate to the lion, especially if she is a lioness inside. The lion stays with its' pride and is a loyal creature i believe.

moderndayruth said:

"The older decks had two competing symbolisms: one featured a woman holding or breaking a stone pillar, and the other featured a person, either male or female, subduing a lion. This Tarocchi del Mantegna card (image, left), made in Ferrara around 1470, illustrates both. The modern woman-and-lion symbolism most likely evolved from a merging of the two earlier ones."

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Hot-diggity! - well, there you go - thanks for the info

the understanding here is a lot simpler than most, it's the will over the passions, the unseen over the seen, the higher principal over the lower.If physical love is someone's highest value than that is strength , if someone' highest value is silence in retaliation ,than that is strength.In a loving relationship that could be self surrendering of personal power, up holding the individuals highest ideals.You may never know it, but for them it's in motion.
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I can see the Strength card as being about balance, or imbalance, between two people. Perhaps one person is controlling in some way. Or because of one person's patience and compassion, it brings out the best in the other person (or fails to, in a reversal). It could be a reminder to both people in the relationship to be patient and kind to one another. It could indicate a power struggle between two people. The power struggle could lead to a break-up or to a stronger union, as has been mentioned here.

PentQueen said:

In my experience, this card has been popular in my love relationships...and I still don't know what the heck it means!

I remember asking how attracted so-and-so was to me, and pulled this card...seemed strange, as I always thought it to be a card of unconditional love & forgiveness...looks as though there's more to this card than meets the eye, though...

Anyway because this card often shows upright for one person in my life and reversed for another, I can only gather that upright, it means that there exists the strength to endure hardship...and there's 'cooperation' from the parties...an important element to any relationship.

I suppose there's a whole slew of other meanings, such as a need to control overflowing passion, a relationship of guidance; two people who will become stronger out of their difficulties together/or who support each other in their individual struggles, etc.

Overall, it seems to be a positive relationship card...one where learning about emotional intelligence is essential and worked toward. I think it's also Tarot's way of saying: 'don't give up yet'.

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I totally agree with PentQueen when she says about emotional intelligence. When I asked about the potential of a relationship that I have the Strength came up and it does make sense.

We have a strong physical attraction and sex is always intense. Since we started dating I have mixed feelings towards him! I have felt so much tenderness and anger at the same time! He said he doesn't know what happens between us!

It's been a while since last time we saw each other, but I see this separation as something good. During this time I could access our situation and I recognized that I do have those feelings inside. It is strange because it seems that it had to be like that. I think acknowledge why I have such feelings and in which way I express them can make our relationship better.

I realized we are both lion and maiden! The problem is that sometimes when one is a lion the other becomes a lion too. It's really hard! So that's why I think this separation has been good, otherwise things would get out of control.

By the way, I see it as temporary separation!

Grizabella said:

In America, especially, it's overwhelmingly common for people to confuse love with sex. Love isn't sex and sex isn't love. The most beautiful love I've ever experienced between myself and another was platonic love. Or if not platonic, at least it didn't involve sex. (Gotta go look up the exact definition of platonic again.) Anyway, sex can be an expression of love, but it isn't love. Love exists separate from sex.

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For instance, there is not a drop of love in relationships where one person needs the other: there is neediness. Sex can be an expression of violence and hatred, as well as of control. True love between family members is not healthy if it is linked to sex. And so forth.

Platonic relationships are relationships based on the sharing of ideas, ideals and intelligent conversation, such as the friendships between Plato and his students. These may or may not involve sex.


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Indeed? Then if I were you, I'd sue my face for slander. (Terry Pratchett)

Wanted to revive this great thread.

Also, I had another thought, it could literally be 'taming the beast' but 'the beasr' not being your partner, it being something that you compromise or change within yourself to enable you to get to that level with your partner in order to make the relationship work. Taming a part of yourself.

Very similar to what Xhollysue very wisely says earlier in the thread.