8. Strength
-
Welcome to Soulchology’s worksheets, your starter-kit into an intuitive self-enquiry using tarot and astrology. I write these in my usual dry humour, which reflects the tone of my sessions too, because learning is intense enough without stripping it of humanity. A little wit makes the wisdom easier to digest!
Anyway, while full sessions include numerology, Lenormand, and therapeutic layers, these worksheets are your solo starter kit designed to get you going without frying your nervous system.
Grab your deck, take a breath and don’t overthink it. No altar required. You can read these on your lap, mid-commute, or in bed with questionable lighting. If you know current transits, great, add them in. If not, the cards still work because they’re generous like that.
And, if you shuffle really fast, they love to fling out like you’re live in an episode of Ghosts and Trevor is standing next to you.
Each sheet prompts you to connect the cards with your real life, that is, not your aspirational, one-day-when-I-journal-daily life. Pay attention to the artwork, colours, symbols, and emotional tone because tarot is layered, not linear. Study only what leaps out, don’t go looking for clues.
This isn’t about mystical perfection, it’s about noticing yourself. Your thoughts, your choices, your patterns. If you’re new to tarot and feeling twitchy about it, you might want to read my piece on Substack that gently dismantles the pressure.
My advice is to pull (or fling) your card at the end of the day, not first thing. That way, you’re reflecting and not pre-loading your brain with vague forecasts. It’s a faster way to build intuitive confidence and a more honest way to learn what the cards actually mean to you.
i. The Nutshell
Upright
Strength calmly talks you off the ledge with a cup of tea and a stare that sees straight through your facade. This archetype is the reasoning in a world of shouting, the steady pulse under pressure, and the one who reminds you that true power doesn’t roar, it rests in your ability to stay balanced and enduring in a challenging moment.
Strength is linked to Leo who is the heart-centered Lion of fire that holds steady in the face of fear. Love meets courage and reminds you that force is easy, but mastery is quiet. The message is to feel it all, hold your ground and don’t mistake gentleness for weakness. This is spiritual stamina and the ability to remain whole when everything tries to split you.
Keywords: Inner strength, compassion, resilience, courage, patience, self-mastery.
Translation: You don’t have to fight to prove your power. Breathe. You already have it.
Reversed
When Strength is reversed it’s gritting it’s teeth through a smile that doesn’t reach the eyes, and says, “I’m fine” whilst internally screaming. Maybe your patience is threadbare, or maybe you’re forcing yourself to keep it together when what you really need is to fall apart safely, intentionally and without shame. This reversal signals inner depletion, performative calm, or trying to suppress rather than soothe.
Strength reversed can show up as people-pleasing masked as peacekeeping, resentment wrapped in silence, or a disconnection from your own instincts because somewhere along the lines you learned that vulnerability wasn’t safe. Remember you don’t have to tame every emotion, but you do need to meet them with honesty.
Keywords: Inner conflict, avoidance, burnout, control issues, emotional suppression.
Translation: Strength isn’t about holding it all together. It’s about holding yourself through whatever comes.
ii. Illus-traits
A quick glance at The Strength’s symbolic traits in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck - what's hidden in plain sight?
Woman and Lion – Power with, not over. Collaboration as courage.
Infinity Symbol – Strength is a process.
White Robe – Purity of intent, even when taming the wild.
Floral Garland – Growth through patience because nothing blooms under pressure.
Gentle Touch – Mastery by compassionate presence.
iii. Influences
Planetary: Strength is ruled by the Sun; the one that makes everything grow but also exposes what you’d rather keep in shadow. Under the Sun’s influence, Strength is about illumination over dominance. Think conscious courage. The Sun asks you to show up fully, even when it’s uncomfortable, and to radiate from the inside out. In the background, there’s a quiet nod to Pluto - the underworld therapist - who reminds us that real strength often comes after we’ve sat with our darkest truths and chosen to love ourselves anyway. Together, they say: shine with imperfect honesty.
Natal House(s): Strength aligns strongly with the Fifth House which is the seat of creativity, expression and heart-centered risk. This is where courage becomes personal and living with integrity when no one’s watching. The Fifth House asks: what are you willing to reveal, and can you allow yourself to really be seen? The Eighth House joins in with its themes of transformation, endurance, and the kind of intimacy that requires emotional stamina. There’s also a quiet resonance with the Twelfth house again, not the glamorous kind, but the place where spiritual resilience is forged through surrender. Together, these houses create a constellation of vulnerability, sovereignty, and the ability to love through discomfort.
Astrological Sign(s): Strength is ruled by Leo, fixed fire and the sovereign heart. Leo knows, so it doesn’t fight to prove itself. This sign governs courage, generosity and the kind of loyalty that requires both backbone and tenderness. Under Leo’s influence, Strength becomes the art of staying calm without collapsing. Aquarius sits on the opposite end of the spectrum and brings objectivity, clarity and points to the emotional bravery that sometimes means detaching just enough to act with wisdom instead of ego. Together, they ask: are you leading from your wounds or from your healed self?
Numerologically: Eight is the number of Strength and is the great balancer of power, karma and inner authority. It’s the infinity loop turned upright: ongoing, sustainable and measured. Eight is steady-Eddy. It boots repression aside and knows that endurance outlasts explosion and that true control comes from integration. While Seven asked you to move forward with purpose, Eight wants you to sustain that movement from the inside out. And Six is still there in the background, reminding about harmony and relationships, that strength includes connection as well as boundaries.
Element: Fire represents our life force, will, and motivation. In Strength, it is a steady flame instead of an explosion. It is controlled heat, focused power and lasting passion that symbolises endurance. Here, fire encourages you to act calmly, and to stay energised without losing yourself. Strength is the core that can withstand any challenge. What hidden passion is driving you, even when others don't notice?
iv. A Day in the Life of Strength
Well That Escalated Quickly
You white-knuckle your way through the day, pretending nothing gets to you while bottling every emotion like a ticking time bomb. You smile through gritted teeth, say yes when you mean no, and call it “being strong” while your nervous system quietly files a complaint. Later, you spiral because someone looked at you weird during a meeting and now you’re questioning your entire self-worth.
Adjusting the Knobs
You spend the day internally negotiating with your anxiety like it’s a boardroom hostage situation, or you try to "positively think" your way out of an emotional vipers nest. You’re holding it together by the skin on your teeth and calling it growth, even though your jaw’s been clenched since breakfast.
Unsubscribed from Self-Sabotage
You pause before reacting, take a breath and realise you don’t need to win every argument or carry every burden. Or you let someone see you cry and don’t implode with shame. You name a boundary with your inside voice and your inner lion has now started to purr.
Writing the TED Talk
You lead with compassion and control. You hold your ground without armouring up and whilst feeling something intense, you let it pass without shaming yourself for having the emotion or intrusive thought. You remember that real strength is about presence and move through the day like someone who trusts their own capacity to stay open, even in the heat.
v. Working with these Energies
Staying Centered and Leading from Within
As you now know, Strength isn’t about domination or display. This archetype invites you to build real resilience whilst performing it. When Strength appears, especially reversed, it’s a prompt to examine where your composure is authentic… and where it’s just suppression in disguise. Are you meeting life with presence, or appearing calm before your cork pops?
1. Reclaim your presence
– Where are you pretending to be fine just to keep the peace?
– What emotions are you avoiding because they feel “too much”?
– What would it look like to stay with yourself instead of managing everyone else?
2. Redefine strength on your own terms
– Whose version of “strong” are you still trying to live up to?
– What does true inner power feel like in your body and your mind?
– Are you confusing endurance with self-abandonment?
3. Choose compassion over control
– Where are you trying to force an outcome that needs patience instead?
– Who or what would benefit from you softening, not hardening?
– How would it feel to meet challenge with grace over grit?
4. Let Leo and the Sun restore your centre
– Where are you being called to shine without apology or defensiveness?
– What inner fire needs tending to that’s about thriving not just surviving?
– Are you offering yourself warmth, or only discipline?
5. Respond with integrity, not impulse
– What choices reflect your grounded courage, not your surface confidence?
– Where are you ready to act with quiet strength, not loud certainty?
– What would it mean to live your power as presence, not pressure?
vi. Building Skills
The Soft Kind of Strong
Strength is quiet and expresses kindness when self-criticism is strong. True inner strength remains compassionate and in control.
Consider this: Sit quietly. Breathe mindfully. On each slow exhale, gently repeat to yourself:
“May I be peaceful.”
“May I be safe.”
“May I be healthy.”
“May I be happy and free from suffering.”
Repeat the cycle another couple of times. Let the words settle like warm water in cold places. Let them remind you that fierceness and gentleness are allies.The Strength card teaches you to approach tough times with kindness and courage.
vii. Embodiment
Tarot is somatic. This card asks how you hold your power and anchor it in. It lives in the body as a breath you can trust, and the instinct you honour. This is the kind of power you feel in your bones and can be embodied through your senses:
Smell: If Strength had a scent, what would it be? Sun-warmed skin? The earth after rain? Something steady, grounding and alive?
Body: Where do you feel the tension between effort and ease? In your jaw? Your stomach? Your chest? Your hands that want to fix, hold, or fight? What shifts when you cushion without collapsing?
Soundtrack: What song carries quiet courage? The kind that builds slowly, holds steady, and never has to shout? What melody feels like self-trust under pressure?
Action: What can you do today that requires tenderness instead of toughness? Where can you respond rather than react? What does it mean to stand your ground with an open heart?
Nature cue: Step outside. What mirrors the essence of Strength? A tree bending in the wind but never breaking? An animal pausing, alert and calm? The sun rising again without asking for permission?
Notice what grounds you: The goal is deep integration. Let Strength remind you that resilience is lived and the strongest thing you may do today might be choosing gentleness on purpose.
viii. Your Impressions
Look at the Strength card in your own deck if possible. Take a moment to observe without overthinking.
What draws your attention first - the figure, the lion, the hands, the gaze, or the absence of struggle?
How does this card register in your body or mood: calm, steady, open, restrained, quietly powerful?
If this card could ask a question, what would it encourage you to be more flexible about, or to hold your ground on, or how to remain authentic to yourself?
ix. Intuitive Meaning
Use this space to explore what Strength means to you as a lived energy. Let it reflect the places in your life where resilience, self-trust, and quiet power are being asked to lead:
When have you held your ground with grace; choosing response over reaction, presence over pressure?
Where are you appearing strong on the surface whilst feeling frayed underneath?
What would it look like to embody strength without resistance, to stand fully in your power without needing to dominate, convince, or defend?
Applied insight with a three-card reading using Strength as your anchor:
What part of me is asking for compassion, not control?
Where am I being called to present with quiet courage instead of force?
What would true inner strength look like if I stopped performing and started listening?
Pull or shuffle-fling your cards. Feel for where your body tenses and where the breath deepens. That’s the place to stay with. Don’t try to fix it, just stay and notice.
Write your own Keywords
Write three you words that echo your lived experience of Strength:
—————————————————
—————————————————
—————————————————
x. Closing Reflection: Track Your Evolving Lens
Your relationship with each card will grow over time because it’s meant to shaped by your life. Consider the prompts below to revisit and reflect.
What I thought this card meant when I first pulled it: —————————————————
A recent experience that changed how I see it: —————————————————
How I feel about it now, in my body or life: —————————————————
What surprised me as this card kept showing up: —————————————————
One way this card is living in my life right now: —————————————————
If this card visited me today as a guide, what would it want me to remember? —————————————————
Revisit these after a week, a moon phase, or a meaningful moment. Let the card evolve as you do.
If you feel a quiet sense of recognition, curiosity and want to explore it, browse the sessions page for what feels right.