One View of Strength

Preliminary sketching for the Stength card, Tarot Major Arcana VIII.

(Pencil on Paper)

The Rider-Waite-Smith tradition, which I’m mostly pulling from, included switching the number and position of Strength and Justice. In earlier decks, Justice was VIII and Strength was XI. This same change occurred in other Golden Dawn decks.

In Crowley’s Thoth deck, card VIII is Adjustment, a different take on the original Justice card and position. Card XI, instead of being Strength, is Lust.

I’m focusing on the red lion as the alchemical symbol for the philosopher's stone, the final work, instead of either Waite's somewhat bland taming of the subconscious or Crowley’s (very on-brand) confrontation of the desires. The complexity of the alchemical goals enacted in an active struggle with the fire of wisdom strikes me as more complex, and more interesting, than either of those iconographies.