Mystical wanderers,,,,hello. I, Troy Parrott, Tarot Pro, am continuing our journey through and exploration of the Tarot. In this series, we are examining each card of the major arcana, using a special North London themed deck of my own design. What do the cards hold in store for your future?

Today, we move on to Card VIII: Strength.

VIII — Strength

Upright

Courage, influence, compassion

Inverted

Cowardice, self-doubt, anger

What is strength? The dictionary defines it as the power to withstand great force or pressure. We think of strong people as having large muscles and who can lift heavy things like rocks or Champions League trophies, but strength can also be measured by one’s capacity to do things that would otherwise be difficult. It encompasses courage and bravery, mental fortitude and determination.

The woman on the eighth card of the major arcana is confronted with a lion. Not just your garden variety lion, but a particularly lurid and odious member of the panthera genus. Look at that cat — it’s dangerous, obnoxious, and probably racist. Who’d want to go near that thing?

The woman does, because she’s strong. In the card, she’s “taming” the lion by using feminine guile, or coercion, or even trickery to soothe the savage beast into submission. Yes, it does take a lot of bravery and self confidence to consider even going near a lion, much less charm it into submission.

Various tarot interpretation sites will tell you that the lion represents “raw passion” or “emotion” and that, upright, this card is representing one’s struggle to overcome personal conflict. Contrast that with the Chariot, which is also about overcoming but of external forces in pursuit of the goal. Here, we’re told, taming the lion is about inward reflection and courage. If the card comes inverted, it could represent one struggling to find the inner strength to overcome a situation. Perhaps one’s well is dry, or you’re resisting looking to your own strength in a situation — another call to self-reflection.

That’s all well and good, but it sure looks to me like that lady’s choking the hell out of that lion, and that’s even better in the context of football. I like that interpretation. Choke that lion, lady, blue lions suck. Joe Exotic’s got nothing on her.

Come back tomorrow and we shall discuss the next card in the Tottenham Hotspur Tarot.