AUTHOR’S NOTE: When I first compared the Waite-Smith version of the Strength card to the traditional Tarot de Marseille “Force” or “Fortitude” image, it became obvious that Waite and Smith had taken some “liberties” with the earlier iconography. While reading Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Way of Tarot, I put my finger a little more precisely on what has been bothering me about Waite’s assumptions. This is not the first time I’ve written about the subject, but it crystalizes my thinking.

If one were to only read Waite’s Pictorial Key to the Tarot and those commentaries that slavishly follow his lead, it would be natural to assume that the goal of the apparent conflict between the Woman and the Lion is to repress the animal instincts, thereby allowing a more sublime spiritual aspiration to emerge. Waite said it plainly:

“A woman . . . is closing the jaws of a lion. There is one aspect in which the lion signifies the passions, and she who is called Strength is the higher nature in its liberation.” (I would add that “liberation from those passions” is intended here, in the form of their active suppression and eventual sublimation.)

But there is another opinion in the tarot literature. In The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages, Paul Foster Case observes:

“The woman tames the lion. In Dr. Waite’s version, she shuts his mouth. In the B.O.T.A version reproduced herewith, as in all the older versions, she opens it. This is preferable, since to “open the mouth” is to make articulate, to give speech to, and whatever has the power of speech is assimilated with humanity and impressed by human thought.”

The position of the Woman’s hands is the telling point here. In the RWS card they are placed on the top and bottom of the Lion’s jaws, evidently aiming to squeeze those jaws shut. In the B.O.T.A. version and its TdM inspiration, the Woman’s fingers are clearly inside the jaw-line, intent on levering the mouth open. It strikes me that assisting the Lion in the accomplishment of its purpose is a more fluid and natural (as well as much more efficient) movement than trying to control it by main force. Numerous modern takes on this card dispense with the dichotomy entirely and merely show the two figures coexisting peacefully in the aftermath of their struggle for dominance; there is nothing unruly in the Lion’s demeanor and the Woman is completely at rest. The “Anna K” version included below is one of the best examples of this; they seem to be having an amiable conversation.

Leo (attributed to the Sun in astrology) is a preeminent sign of creativity in all its forms, and “opening the Lion’s mouth” gives it voice rather than bottling it up and inviting frustration (Waite’s Christian sensibilities are clearly on display in his reconstruction). Jodorowsky, although he was specifically addressing the other “solar” card, the Sun, put a slightly more humanistic spin on it:

“. . . the animal nature has not been eliminated but honored and tamed.”

The conclusion supported by this overview is that the Ego is not an “evil” thing to be muzzled at all costs, but an essential ingredient in growing into our humanity. Without encouraging expression of and proactively directing our primitive urges (and thereby benefiting from their boundless energy), we risk squandering their potency by habitually succumbing to blind reactionary impulses.