Your oversized emotional support cat you didn’t know you really needed, that’s the lion of Strength. Sprawling, unruly, probably shedding all over your metaphorical couch, and yet somehow the one presence that steadies you when things unravel. This isn’t a predator waiting to pounce; it’s a paradox—wild yet willing, chaotic yet strangely loyal.
Strength asks: Will you conquer, cooperate, or simply sit beside this creature? To tame—not banish—the fuzzy roar in your chest. Because in that act of choosing partnership with your instincts, you find what tarot’s most famous feline has been hinting at all along: courage, compassion, and the subtle art of lion symbolism in tarot, making peace with your own unruly wildness.
Lions Before Tarot: Myth, Religion, & Literature
Across civilizations, lions have prowled as guardians of power and spirit. In China, stone lions keep watch at temple gates; in Hindu tradition, the goddess Kali rides one into battle; and in Egypt, Sekhmet appears with a lion’s face, embodying both destruction and protection. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the winged lion of St. Mark circles through the heavens, later appearing in tarot’s Wheel of Fortune. By the Middle Ages, lions had become the darlings of heraldry, roaring across shields and banners to proclaim nobility and legacy.
And the roar doesn’t stop with religion. From fables to film, lions keep padding back into our imagination. They stride through Aesop’s tales as proud rulers, guide us toward sacrifice and resurrection as Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia (yes, he makes us cry every time), and they command cliff-top ceremonies in Disney’s The Lion King (you pictured baby Simba being lifted into the sky, didn’t you?). The sphinx, part lion, still sits in riddles we can’t quite solve. Thrones, gates, and tarot imagery alike carry these echoes: the lion as ruler, guardian, and keeper of mysteries—always larger than life, always just a little bit untamable.
Esoteric Traditions
Esoterically, lions straddle the paradox of day and night, with solar vitality and nocturnal mystery. As a power animal, the lion symbolizes assertiveness, confidence, leadership, and protection. In meditation or dreamwork, lions often appear as guardians of thresholds. Those liminal places where transformation takes root. In tarot, this translates to the lion as being about balance: between light and shadow, between power wielded and power withheld. A prime example of lion symbolism in tarot.
Lions Beyond the Cards – Stars, and Psyche
The lion doesn’t belong only to tarot. It roars across culture, cosmos, and psychology. From ancient myths to zodiac skies to the depths of the unconscious, this archetype has always stood for power, paradox, and transformation. Exploring these roots deepens how we read the Strength card, showing us that this wild companion has long been more than just an illustration.
Mythology and Religion
Across civilizations, lions have stood as guardians of power and spirit. In Chinese tradition, stone lions flank temple gates as protectors. In Hindu lore, the goddess Kali rides a lion as her mount. While in Egypt, Sekhmet embodies both destructive fire and protective ferocity. In Judeo-Christian tradition, the winged lion represents St. Mark, appearing as part of the tetramorph in the Wheel of Fortune. Medieval heraldry covered shields and banners with lions, proclaiming honor, nobility, and legacy.Astrology
Astrology – Lion in the Stars
The lion lives in the stars through Leo, the zodiac sign of fire, charisma, and vitality. Astrologically, Leo governs confidence, leadership, and creative expression. These qualities ripple directly into the Strength card. When the lion shows up in a spread, the Leo influence often resonates. Being a reminder of the courage to shine, the challenge of balancing pride with generosity, and the call to live fully in one’s solar presence.
Psychology – Befriending the Inner Beast
Carl Jung saw lions as archetypal images of the untamed self. These instincts, passions, and shadow energies can’t simply be locked away. In this frame, the lion is the raw drive within us: ego, libido, desire, even rage (I wonder if Jung knew Alister Crawly). True strength comes not from suppressing the lion but from befriending it, integrating it into wholeness. In tarot readings, the lion often becomes a shorthand for this psychological integration, where wildness meets conscious choice.
Lion Symbolism in Tarot: Some History about Strength
Tarot de Marseille – Fortitude
Long before they padded into our decks, lions had already roared through human myth, usually as trials that demanded pain or endurance. Hercules, for example, was tasked with wrestling the Nemean Lion, a creature so fierce its hide could not be pierced. Who would actually volunteer for that fight? Exactly. The myth makes clear: courage often reveals itself through impossible adversity.
In the Tarot de Marseille (TdM), that idea shifts into the card we know as “Fortitude.” Here, a composed woman pries open the jaws of a lion. The tableau is oddly calm, almost serene, as if mind simply triumphs over matter. Some versions even blur the line between woman and beast, suggesting fusion rather than domination.
Still, I’ve always wrestled with this imagery. “Mind over matter” can sound uncomfortably close to coercion, imposing, inflicting, compelling, or forcing compliance. That may work for authoritarian leaders, but it doesn’t sit well as a vision of inner strength. To me, Fortitude in the Marseille tradition is better understood as discipline: the steady refusal to let instinct run the show, without crossing into brutality. It’s less about subduing the lion and more about standing your ground beside it, knowing that composure itself can be a kind of courage.
Rider–Waite–Smith – Strength
When the Rider–Waite–Smith (RWS) deck arrived in 1909, Pamela Colman Smith reimagined Strength with subtle but radical shifts. Instead of a scene of force, she painted partnership: a serene woman in flowing white rests her hands gently on the lion’s head, crowned with the symbol of infinity. Her floral garland and soft demeanor suggest grace, patience, and quiet mastery.
What makes this version so striking is what it leaves out—no weapons, no chains, no battle. The lion’s expression is calm, almost trusting, echoing the idea that true strength is born of compassion, not control. By replacing struggle with cooperation, Smith reframed the archetype: Strength became collaboration with the wild within. This image has since become one of the most enduring examples of lion symbolism in tarot, shaping how readers understand courage and sovereignty today.
That said, I often find the RWS version a touch outdated. The idea of “taming” the lion—even through gentle partnership—feels conditional, as any cat owner can confirm. To me, the archetype has since evolved. It’s no longer about control, even cooperative control, but about sovereignty: the inner steadiness that doesn’t need to wrestle or coax instinct into submission. Strength here becomes courage, confidence, and that silent knowing that doesn’t roar for attention—it simply is.
Strength (VIII) – Courage, compassion, instinct integrated with higher will.
Wheel of Fortune (X) – Winged lion of St. Mark as cosmic guardian of cycles.
The World (XXI) – Winged lion again, part of the four guardians of wholeness.
The Emperor (IV) – Throne lions symbolize rulership, sovereignty, and protective authority.
The Sun (XIX) – Implied solar-lion connection, Leo’s ruler the Sun.
Two of Cups – Winged lion crest blessing union and communication.
Queen of Wands – Throne lions reinforcing fiery charisma and leadership.
King of Wands – Throne lions + salamanders marking rulership with vitality and authority.
Lions Across Decks the RWS Deck
Thoth Tarot – Lust
Aleister Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris reimagined Strength as Lust, and the shift is impossible to miss. Here, a radiant woman rides a many-headed lion-serpent, crowned in fire, lifting her chalice in rapture. This is not a lion that lies quietly at your feet. It bursts with solar force, libido, raw will, and the untamed surge of kundalini energy that pulses at the root of creation itself.
Crowley’s reinterpretation changes the archetype entirely: Strength is no longer about steady composure or gentle mastery, but about surrendering to passion so completely that you paradoxically gain power through it. To “ride the beast” is to embrace ecstatic union with desire instead of trying to control or contain it.
Personally, I’ve always found this reading difficult. The lion, to me, is less about lust and more about confidence, sovereignty, and assertiveness. The kind of energy that crowns you as conqueror rather than consumes you as lover. Where Crowley’s Lust card revels in abandon, I read the lion as a reminder of courage and self-possession: strength not in losing oneself, but in standing firm.
Weaving the Three Lions Together
Taken side by side, the three traditions show just how many faces a lion can wear. In the Tarot de Marseille, the lion is subdued, almost emblematic of stoic fortitude. Strength born from self-discipline and calm control. In the Rider–Waite–Smith, it becomes a partner: a creature that tests and teaches through quiet cooperation. In the Thoth, the lion explodes into ecstatic force, demanding that power be found not in restraint but in surrender to passion and will.
Together, these lions trace a spectrum: from restraint (TdM), to harmony (RWS), to ecstatic release (Thoth). Each invites us to ask: What is the nature of my own inner lion today—do I need to calm it, collaborate with it, or dare to ride it into fire? That question sits at the very heart of lion symbolism in tarot.
And this is just with the three main systems. Studying how each tradition depicts the lion offers us more than historical trivia. It opens up multiple doorways of insight. These variations give us better tools for guiding interpretation in a reading, whether we’re speaking of quiet endurance, cooperative strength, or unleashed desire.
Personally, I like to imagine Strength not only as the act of taming or riding but as a kind of lived presence. A woman—graceful, maybe even elegantly dressed—simply existing with the lion inside her. No force, no struggle. The lion isn’t a problem to be solved but a natural part of her being. I’ve even played with sketching this vision in my own illustrations of Strength (though nothing perfected yet). To me, it suggests that true strength isn’t loud or dramatic. It’s that quiet sovereignty we carry when instinct and self move as one.
The Three Lions Spread
A spread to explore the meaningful symbolism across tarot traditions.
Layout: Three cards in a row.
- The Marseille Lion – Fortitude
- What part of my life requires calm discipline or steady restraint?
- The RWS Lion – Partnership
- Where can I work in harmony with my instincts instead of fighting them?
- The Thoth Lion – Ecstasy
- Where in my life is raw passion or desire asking to be embraced and expressed?
Tips for Interpretation:
- If Wands appear, you may be impulsive, energetic, or ambitious.
- If Cups appear, this could represent vulnerability or emotional intensity.
- If Swords, you may have restless thoughts or anxieties.
- If Pentacles, perhaps stubborn habits or the weight of responsibility.
Lay them out, journal through the positions, and notice not just what the lion does, but how you respond to it.
Tip: Journal each position as discipline, harmony, or ecstasy. Which lion feels most alive in you right now?
Creative & Intuitive Reflections
- Journaling Prompt: Who or what is the “lion” in your life right now? How do you relate to it?
- Sketch Prompt: Draw the lion as it appears in Strength, Emperor, and Wheel of Fortune. What shifts across the images?
- Community Question: If your inner lion could talk, what secret wisdom—or sarcastic comeback—would it give you?
Empowering Takeaway – Strength You Can Sit Beside
Strength isn’t just what you flex, it’s what you tame. It’s not found in crushing the wild, but in learning to walk with it, hand resting gently on its mane. This week, let your lion speak. Ask it what it knows about power, partnership, and sovereignty, and listen closely. Its roar may surprise you, but its purr might change everything.