Strength

A gentle, already-won mastery over the lion's wildness, courage and power that come from a settled inner authority, not from a fight.

Upright

fortitude
power
courage
magnanimity
inner strength
subdued passion

The source describes a quiet, already-accomplished mastery rather than a battle in progress: the lion is not being fought, it is being led gently, its wildness already met and calmed. Waite is careful to distinguish this from ordinary self-confidence, he frames it instead as a strength drawn from something trusted beyond the self, a refuge rather than personal willpower alone. The lion can be read as the passions or instincts, and the woman as the part of a person that has made peace with them, not by force but by a kind of settled command. Practically, the source ties this to power, energy, courage and magnanimity, outward capability, not just inner calm, and even to success and honours.

Traditional meaning.

In this source the card is named Strength, or Fortitude, and shows a woman who has already subdued a lion, leading it by a chain of flowers. Waite is explicit that this is not self-confidence in the ordinary sense, though that is how it is often read; it concerns instead the confidence of those whose strength is God, who have found their refuge in Him. Divinatory meanings are power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity, and also complete success and honours.

Symbolism

A woman closes the jaws of a lion; over her head broods the same symbol of life seen on the Magician card. The lion has already been subdued and is led by a chain of flowers rather than force. Waite notes the card is sometimes numbered eight and interchanged with Justice, without consequence to the reader. In one aspect the lion signifies the passions, and the woman called Strength is the higher nature in its liberation, having walked upon the asp and basilisk and trodden down the lion and dragon. The chain of flowers signifies, among other things, the sweet yoke and light burden of Divine Law taken into the heart. Waite connects Fortitude, in its most exalted aspect, with the Divine Mystery of Union, with innocentia inviolata, and with the strength that resides in contemplation, while noting these higher meanings are inference, not plain on the card's surface.

In this context

A relationship: The chain of flowers rather than a leash or weapon may speak to how firmness and gentleness can sit together in how someone meets a partner's intensity or their own. Nothing in the source names another person's feelings or intentions.
Work or direction: The source's language of power, energy, action, and complete success and honours can reflect ambitions or efforts that call for sustained courage rather than a single burst of force.
A decision I am weighing: Waite's distinction matters here: this is not ordinary self-confidence but a steadier kind of trust. A decision approached this way may lean less on bravado and more on a settled sense of what one can carry.
Something about myself: The lion trodden down and then led by flowers can mirror a passion or instinct that has been met rather than suppressed. Waite's note that this connects to 'the strength which resides in contemplation' suggests the source locates this fortitude in something quieter than assertiveness.

Sit with this

Where in your life looks more like the lion being led by flowers than fought outright?
Waite distinguishes this card's strength from ordinary self-confidence, does that distinction land for you right now?
Is there a passion or instinct in your life that feels trodden down, or one that feels genuinely met and settled?

Reversed

despotism
abuse of power
weakness
discord
disgrace

Waite's upright Strength is not about muscling through a situation by will alone, it is a quieter authority, gained gently, symbolized by a chain of flowers rather than a chain of iron. Reversed, that gentleness is what goes missing. This can point toward two different failures rather than one: either the lion is no longer held and what it stood for (passion, impulse, instinct) runs the show, or the holding continues but turns harsh, control that has become domineering, one-sided, or coercive. The source's own words for this are stark: despotism, abuse of power, disgrace. It is worth sitting with why a reading landed there rather than reaching straight for a gentler synonym.

Traditional meaning.

Waite gives the divinatory meanings for reversed Strength plainly: despotism, abuse of power, weakness, discord, and sometimes even disgrace. Where the upright card shows fortitude that has already subdued the lion and leads it gently by a chain of flowers, the reversal turns that same relationship sour, control curdles into domination, or the strength fails outright and dissolves into weakness. The source does not soften this: it names disgrace as a real possibility, not merely a mood.

Symbolism

The upright image is a woman closing the jaws of a lion, over whose head broods the same symbol of life seen on the Magician; her fortitude has already subdued the beast, which is led by a chain of flowers rather than forced. Waite notes the lion, in one aspect, signifies the passions, and the woman is the higher nature in its liberation, having 'walked upon the asp and the basilisk and trodden down the lion and the dragon.' Waite gives no separate reversed image, the reversal is read through the same picture inverted: the flower-chain no longer holds, the jaws are no longer closed, or the closing becomes force rather than the 'sweet yoke and light burden' he describes for the upright.

In this context

A relationship: Waite's source does not name relationships directly, but 'despotism' and 'abuse of power' sit uneasily close to dynamics of control within a partnership, while 'discord' and 'weakness' point toward a bond where neither person is holding steady ground. This card cannot say what another person has done or intends; it can only prompt a look at where power and gentleness stand in a relationship the reader is asking about.
Work or direction: In a work setting, this reversal may point toward authority exercised harshly rather than earned, or toward a felt inability to hold a position that once seemed secure. Waite's 'discord' also fits ordinary friction where cooperation has broken down.
A decision I am weighing: The source's contrast between despotism and weakness can mirror a decision where the reader senses they are either pushing too hard or not holding their ground at all. Naming which of the two feels closer, without forcing a tidy middle path, may be more useful than treating them as the same problem.
Something about myself: Waite ties the upright card to fortitude 'which resides in contemplation' and a strength whose refuge is not the self alone. Reversed, this can describe a stretch where that inner steadiness is absent, replaced by force turned outward (despotism) or by its collapse (weakness), worth noticing without rushing to resolve.

Sit with this

Of despotism, weakness, discord, or disgrace, which of Waite's four words feels closest to what you're sensing right now?
Where the upright card shows a chain of flowers rather than force, where in your situation has holding turned into forcing, or forcing given way entirely?
Is there a place where you're currently pushing harder than the moment calls for, or a place where you've stopped holding on at all?

Sit with this

Each meaning is written by us and grounded in A. E. Waite’s The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), which is in the public domain. Nothing appears here until a person has read it.

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Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), public domain. VIII. Strength, or Fortitude (p. 34). Knowledge version 0.1.0.