Strength: Two versions
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| Visconti Sforza Fortitude |
We have seen several different versions of the Strength card in Tarot decks. An early
version is found in the Visconti Sforza deck (1450), where Hercules is shown ready to club a lion. But in the myth of the Twelve
Labors, he ends up having to strangle the Nemean Lion with his bare hands.
In the Strength card of the
Marseilles deck, a woman appears to be taming a lion (1910). So how did we get
from a heroic Hercules bashing a lion to a serene woman gently handling a lion?
This brings up a discussion of gender issues, particularly
surrounding the common concept of “manhood,” which includes almost superhuman qualities of physical strength, power, and violence. Maybe we can find a clue to this change in the card from man to woman by examining a 13 th
century painting by Giotto in the Arena Chapel of Padua, Italy. Giotto’s
painting of the Virtue, “Fortitude,” shows a woman holding a large shield with
a lion on it. She is standing in a defensive posture with broken arrows below.
She is brandishing a club and wearing a lion skin cape with a lion’s head for a
helmet, similar to scenes of Hercules wearing the skin of the lion he killed.
According to Medieval Historian, Mary D. Edwards, the woman may represent
“Omphale,” Queen of Lydia in ancient Near East (“Cross-dressing
in the Arena Chapel: Giotto’s Virtue Fortitude Reexamined,” included in Receptions of Antiquity, Constructions of
gender in European Art, 1300-1600.) 
One of the stories about Hercules goes like this: After he
had committed murder, his punishment was slavery, and Omphale bought him as a
slave. Then she exchanged clothing with
Hercules. She wore his lion cape and carried his club, while he wore her dress
and spun wool with her maidens. So, this is Hercules in “drag”? And Omphale as
a warrior? Why? (There is a parallel biblical story about the tough man, Samson,
which included killing a lion and an exchange of garments with his thirty
companions, Judges
13-14). What does that mean? This
must have been an important story for the ancient Greeks, because they made
Greco-Roman statues of Omphale, and later, there were Renaissance paintings of
Hercules dressed as a woman. (Hercules
and Omphale’s Maids by Lucas Cranach the Elder.)
This myth seems to indicate a reconsideration of “manhood.” The
myths about Hercules indicated that he was the epitome of brute strength and
physical prowess as a warrior; living a life of violence, war, and murder. These
stories dealt with a false sense of power; a false sense of true manhood. This
sheds a little light on the modern day struggles prevalent right now, of
certain young men who are attracted to macho, brutal gangs, or Neo-Nazism and
white nationalism. What are they saying about themselves? “Is it that they want
to be manly, violent men?” Or does this mean they need to examine and deal with
their underlying animal nature, and then decide what to do about it.
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| Vertigo Tarot Strength |
Rachel Pollack commented on the switch in Tarot renderings from
the strong man, Hercules, to a calm woman holding a lion in the Strength card. “Over time this
aggressive image has changed to that of a maternal-looking woman taming a
lion.” (Her commentary from “The Vertigo Tarot” deck
about “Black Orchid” of DC Comics.) Rather than portray the killing of a
lion, artist Dave McKean, who designed the Vertigo
Tarot, shows Black Orchid in the Strength card as a superheroine figure,
holding the monster lion’s mouth. Black
Orchid, a comic book character akin to Superman, has super powers and is
the master of disguise. She can alter her appearance and voice. (Somehow all of
this sounds familiar in view of the headlines about “transgender people” right
now.) She leaves a “Black Orchid”
calling card after her heroic deeds. Rachel Pollack, again, says, “With Black Orchid we see the world of flowers
itself taming the animal violence in humans.” (Sounds like the “Flower Power”
of the sixties.)
What was that incident we recently saw on TV from
Charlottesville, NJ? We saw Neo-Nazi’s
and White Supremacists wearing
bicycle and motorcycle helmets swinging broom handle sticks and holding garbage
can lid shields, whacking away at a resistance
group made up of people demonstrating against a 1940’s kind of Nazi fascism.
Some of those demonstrators were also wearing bicycle helmets and swinging baseball
bats and whacking away at the Nazi’s. It looked like something from a Medieval
Battlefield painting. Huh? What
the…?
Was this just grown up little boys playing war games, or
something more serious and sinister? Wasn’t this what WWII was about? We must
consider that millions lost their lives at the hands of the Nazi’s. Our
soldiers were fighting to defeat fascism and Nazi murderers, and won. What
was that street battle and that car ramming the crowd all about? All this hubris resulted in the murder of a
young woman, and the incident was shown around the world. Now What?
It seems this is what the Strength card is about: finding a peaceful solution to our animal
passions. In the “Vertigo Tarot,” the heroine, Black
Orchid, is holding open or closing the monster’s mouth. She is showing us
the necessity of subduing our subliminal animal qualities and exposing the
violent underbelly of the basest human nature.
In the modern context of the Strength card, the woman embracing a lion in the Marseilles deck
characterizes the inner power and strength of a more spiritual level of
consciousness. She has a confidence in herself that enables her to overcome the
false sense of immoral and violent manhood. She is unafraid, and exudes an affection
that subdues the negative forces of malicious animal instincts. She symbolizes the
power of controlling destructive energies. It is the power of love over hate,
and the end of vicious cruelty.
When you receive the Strength card in a reading, realize you have
the strength to overcome adversity and can protect yourself and loved ones. Become
proactive and resist negative forces and ideological doctrines. Work on
knowing you always have the inner power to radiate love and defeat hate.
