Jungian Tarot - Strength

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The Daughter as Collector of Experience

'Strength' is the female aspect of 'The Lover' separated out in

the same way that the female aspect of 'The Magician' is 'The High

Priestess'. As 'The Lover' represents the Son, so 'Strength' shows the

Daughter. She is the consort of Original Man, who is represented in the

upper right background. Together they will produce another Son within

the confines of manifestation. The pattern of Mother/Father/Son is

repeated over and over again.

Psychologically, this means that integration (the balance of

opposites) takes place simultaneously at many levels of consciousness.

The encounter of conscious and unconscious happens again and again,

becoming ever more subtle until the " consciousness " is returned to the

natural state of union symbolized in the Tarot by 'The Fool'.

The card shows a young woman whose right hand rests upon the

head of a lion - an image derived from apparent meieval Tarot references

to 'Leo', which nineteenth century commentators expanded to mean control

of sexual currents which have been called the 'Kundalini', or serpent

energy. Indeed, innocence holding enormous sexual power under control is

a very appropriate explanation for this card.

Above her head are the stars, at her breast the Sun, and at her

feet the Moon - a reference to the woman of the 'Apocalypse'. But, in

terms of that same text, she is also the Whore of Babylon. The obverse

of this card, little understood, and never actually shown in a Tarot

card is sexually unbridled, violent, brutal, even dangerous. Indeed,

integration with this archetype may be traumatic for some, because it

requires a willingness to accept the psychological reality that

brutality and barbarism always lurk beneath the most innocent human

facade. Deeply embedded Christian faith may make it very difficult, or

even impossible, for some readers to consider a dark opposite side to

the Virgin .

Woman, in every case (whether approached as Mother, Daughter, or

Grandmother) relates to the underworld, as is suggested here by the

steps heading downward, and by the cave at the feet of the 'Empress'.

This may lead to some very dark, undifferentiated, aspects of both the

personal and the collective unconscious.

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fa

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