When I think of “Strength” I directly think of the Haindl Tarot. It is the only Tarot deck I own and I used to do a lot of readings for myself with it. Lately, I have moved to Colette Baron-Reid’s Wisdom of Avalon cards.

I do not know much about Tarot. But someone explained to me the idea of a birth card which you find with “playing” with your birthday date. You add the numbers of your day of birth, month of birth and year of birth. Then you add the digits of that number again and for my date of birth, it gives 8 which is the position of the Strength in the Haindl Tarot.

In this Tarot deck the Strength card is connected with ideas of healing and shamanism and I just love its imagery

embodyhealing says about this card:

…Haindl has the most unique take on the Strength card of these three decks. Using the Hebrew letter Teth or “Snake”, the astrological symbol for Leo, and the Rune Sigil, or “Sun”, Haindl references the original numerology of the card, given that the Teth is the 8th letter, and the Sigil is the 11th rune. Haindl’s imagery makes no mention of a lion or lioness at all other than the Leo symbol below the main figure. Instead, a nude figure holds up an enormous snake at a watering hole under the waxing crescent moon. The pool, or the unconscious resources that refresh us, is the source of the Strength embodied in the figure’s action. Rachel Pollack, in her book “The Haindl Tarot: The Major Arcana” makes much of the idea that Strength is an inherently andro-feminine card, due to its number 8, and its references to the Empress card. Teth, the Snake, also seen in the Empress, may be the Kundalini power of yoga union that rises with consistent focused and dedicated practice. The power is to be harnessed and cultivated, rather than ignored and left untapped. In Haindl’s Strength, the figure has championed this energy, or is she wrestling with it still? She is in a wrestling stance, grappling with the large serpent. Or is she humbled on one knee? In reality, she is both- confident within humility. Likewise, contrary to Pollack’s read of the figure and the card as andro-feminine, the Sun, or Leo, is traditionally presented as inherently masculine. I think this is Haindl’s way of normalizing the balance of the energies of action and passion, reception and peace, and attributing the entire spectrum’s balance into the concept of Strength. The figure holds the snake in an S shape, bringing to mind the healer’s symbol, indicating that it takes healing to be strong, and Strength is needed to heal. 

Looking back on my life “healing” has been a huge topic of my life. From the beginning when I tried to heal my mother with being a good girl to my adulthood trying to heal from abuse and from bad mental health. Maybe I need to consider this connection a little more as well as what that person said about me and my aura.

Maybe that is exactly where the answers for my questions of self-esteem lie.

copyright: Michael Jackson