There is something about the images on Tarot cards that enchants me.  It doesn’t matter which deck, the images still call to me, daring me to discover their secrets, and my own. Every time I look at a deck, I learn something new.

Today, I was thinking about The Chariot and Strength. I feel that a corner is turned as we move from card 7 to card 8 (which I always see as Strength).  Take a look at the images on most RWS-based decks and their meanings to see what I mean. In the Chariot we have control of our emotions and the world around us, just as the charioteer has control over his steeds. Some decks show a struggle, but they are ultimately about control.

On the Strength card we see a woman sitting with a lion on her lap. It seems a calm card, but what if we were to see ourselves as the lion and not the woman. It is a card about will power and force, and how we need to learn control over what is fierce and wild, including ourselves. In the Chariot we had a taste of that control, but in Strength it is taken to a new level. And if we can’t exercise control, like the woman, we may find ourselves controlled like the lion. Once we have learned about this control, about the strength of our will, the path of The Hermit calls and offers us a chance to absorb what we have learned.