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We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face...we must do that which we think we cannot.

-Eleanor Roosevelt

Strength — Key VIII: The Woman, the Lion, and the Secret Fire of the Soul

The Wyspell Tarot and Rider–Waite–Smith Tarot Compared

“Above all things, know thyself.”

The Tarot's Strength — Key VIII reveals one of the greatest mysteries of Western Hermetic Qabalah: True power is not the domination of Nature but the conscious union of Will, Love, and the creative forces of Life.

Both the Wyspell and Rider–Waite–Smith (RWS) Tarot portrays a woman peacefully interacting with a powerful lion. Neither image depicts a violent struggle. Instead, the lion responds to a woman whose confidence arises from knowledge of herself.

This is the essential doctrine of Strength: The Adept does not become powerful by destroying the animal nature but by awakening its divine purpose.

The human body is not profane. It is the living instrument through which Spirit experiences manifestation. Its instincts, passions, and desires are not enemies of enlightenment. They are energies awaiting conscious direction.

The lion represents the creative Fire within every human being, while the woman represents consciousness capable of guiding that Fire through compassionate Will.

One might say that the lion possesses enough physical power to devour the woman yet somehow understands that doing so would be a remarkably poor decision!

This is not fear. It is recognition.

The solar nature recognizes its own higher expression.

1. The Path of Teth (ט): Mercy Meets Severity

In the Western Hermetic Qabalah, Strength corresponds to the 19th Path of Teth, connecting:

• Chesed — the Fourth Sephirah: Mercy, Jupiter, benevolence, expansion, and divine authority.

• Geburah — the Fifth Sephirah: Severity, Mars, discipline, courage, and dynamic Will.

This horizontal path crosses the Tree of Life between the Pillars of Mercy and Severity.

Chesed provides the benevolent purpose of power, while Geburah provides the discipline necessary to direct it.

Mercy without strength may become helpless sentimentality. Strength without mercy may become tyranny.

True spiritual Strength arises when Mercy and Severity recognize themselves as complementary expressions of one Divine Will.

The Path of Teth demonstrates that compassion is not weakness. Rather, compassionate awareness is capable of directing tremendous power without descending into cruelty.

The Hebrew letter Teth (ט) has the numerical value 9 and is traditionally associated in Hermetic Tarot with the serpent.

Here the serpent represents the living current of creative vitality—the mysterious power that, within Western esoteric interpretations, is compared to Kundalini.

The coiled serpent symbolizes potential energy awaiting expression.

The lion symbolizes that same creative energy radiating as conscious solar power.

Thus, the Lion–Serpent becomes a symbol of the transformation of instinctual vitality into illuminated Will.

The lesson is simple: The Fire of Spirit becomes constructive when directed by Love.

Even a Magus must remember that possessing a large amount of Fire does not automatically make one enlightened. It may simply make one exceptionally good at starting arguments!

2. The Lady and the Lion: Two Expressions of Divine Strength

Rider–Waite–Smith — The Gentle Mastery of Instinct

In Pamela Colman Smith's illustration, the woman gently handles the jaws of a magnificent lion.

She wears a flowing white robe, a floral girdle, and a garland of flowers. Above her head floats the horizontal figure-eight, or lemniscate, also appearing above the Magician.

The woman does not carry a weapon, chain, or shield.

Her apparent vulnerability is precisely what makes the image spiritually significant.

She possesses something greater than physical force: self-knowledge, patience, and an understanding of the power she is directing.

“She does not conquer the Lion–Serpent. She rides the Fire because the Fire recognizes her as its own Divine Nature.”

The lion represents the solar animal nature—the powerful vitality, passion, courage, and creative drive that animate the human organism.

The woman represents the conscious soul capable of establishing harmonious relationships with those energies.

In Hermetic interpretation, she may be understood as an expression of the Divine Feminine, the Shekinah, or the receptive principle through which divine intelligence becomes manifest.

She does not destroy the lion's instincts.

She transforms their expression.

This is not the conquest of Nature by Spirit. It is Spirit and Nature discovering that they were never truly separate.

Wyspell Tarot — Strength Through Trust and Affection

The Wyspell Tarot retains the traditional woman-and-lion symbolism but introduces a significant difference.

Instead of holding the lion's jaws, the woman rests her hand upon his head.

She wears a flowing white gown, a crown of white roses, and a girdle of roses around her waist. Grasslands extend toward a distant mountain range.

The lion appears admiring and peaceful, responding to the woman's presence without resistance.

Where the RWS image emphasizes the conscious direction of animal power, the Wyspell image emphasizes the harmony already established between consciousness and instinct.

The woman no longer appears to be guiding a dangerous force through a moment of discipline. She appears to have developed a relationship of mutual trust.

This is a beautiful metaphysical distinction.

In the RWS version, the aspirant learns how to direct the Fire.

In the Wyspell version, the Fire has learned to cooperate with the aspirant.

There is no need to conquer the beast when the beast recognizes its own divine nature.

Perhaps the lion is simply pleased to discover a human who understands him without insisting that he become a vegetarian!

3. Astrology: Leo, the Sun, and the Solar Soul

Strength is astrologically attributed to Leo, the fixed Fire sign ruled by the Sun.

Leo represents:

• Solar vitality and creative expression.

• Courage, confidence, and sovereignty.

• Passion, personal identity, and leadership.

• The heart as a symbol of radiant consciousness.

• The desire to express one's unique creative nature.

In Hermetic Qabalah, the Sun is associated with Tiphareth, the Sixth Sephirah, Beauty, Harmony, and the Solar Self.

Although the Path of Teth connects Chesed and Geburah rather than passing directly through Tiphareth, its Leo attribution allows a profound symbolic relationship with the Solar Center.

Tiphareth represents the harmonizing consciousness through which the personality may recognize its relationship with the Higher Self.

The lion's Fire becomes the creative strength of the Solar Soul when no longer misdirected by fear, vanity, or uncontrolled anger.

Here we encounter an important distinction between egoic pride and solar sovereignty.

Egoic pride constantly demands recognition.

Solar sovereignty expresses its nature without requiring external approval.

The Sun does not rise every morning demanding applause from the planets.

It simply shines!

Likewise, the spiritually mature person does not require continual demonstrations of superiority.

Confidence arises from self-knowledge.

The lesson of Leo is not that we must become more important than others. It is that each individualized consciousness possesses a unique creative purpose.

As Liber AL vel Legis declares:

“Every man and every woman is a star.”

Strength teaches the individual star to radiate without consuming everything around it.

4. The Lemniscate: The Mystery of 0=2

Above the RWS and Wyspell woman's head appears the lemniscate (∞), the horizontal figure-eight.

The same symbol appears above the Magician, establishing a relationship between conscious creative Will and the mastery of instinctual energy.

In mathematics, the figure-eight symbol is commonly associated with infinity.

Within Hermetic interpretation, however, it may express something more intimate: the unbroken circulation of energy between complementary polarities.

It represents the perpetual interplay of:

• Spirit and Matter.

• Force and Form.

• Consciousness and manifestation.

• Solar and Lunar energies.

• Masculine and Feminine principles.

• Will and Love.

These polarities need not be confused with biological sex. Every human being participates in both active and receptive modes of consciousness.

0 = 2, and the Two return to One.

The Hermetic Formula of 0=2

The formula 0=2, prominent in Thelemic metaphysics, offers an illuminating interpretation of the lemniscate.

The Zero represents undifferentiated potential—the mysterious No-Thing from which manifestation emerges.

Through differentiation, this apparent Nothing expresses itself as Two complementary principles.

The One becomes perceptible through relationship.

The active and receptive poles allow consciousness to experience its own possibilities through distinction, interaction, and union.

The lemniscate symbolizes their continuous relationship.

The two loops are not separate objects.

They are one uninterrupted line.

The Many remain expressions of the One, even while experiencing themselves as differentiated centers of awareness.

This also suggests the formula of the Alchemical Marriage: the reunion of apparent opposites into a higher state of conscious wholeness.

In Strength, the woman and lion are two expressions of a single living power.

The lion is not merely something she controls.

The lion is part of what she is.

5. Alchemy: The Red Lion and Philosophical Mercury

Strength is an especially beautiful illustration of the alchemical relationship between Sulfur and Mercury.

Sulfur — The Solar Fire

The lion represents the active principle of Philosophical Sulfur.

Sulfur symbolizes:

• Creative passion.

• Radiant Will.

• Vitality and desire.

• The fiery principle of transformation.

• The dynamic force seeking expression.

This is the Red Lion of the alchemical imagination—the fierce, passionate energy of manifestation.

But unrefined Sulfur can become destructive.

Fire may warm a home or consume it.

The difference lies in how the energy is directed.

Mercury — The Fluid Intelligence

The woman may be interpreted as Philosophical Mercury, the mediating principle capable of joining opposites.

Mercury is fluid, adaptable, receptive, and transformative.

It permits the Fire to become conscious of itself through relationship.

Where Sulfur represents dynamic creative force, Mercury represents the intelligence that receives, modifies, and redirects it.

Their union creates an alchemical transformation.

Passion becomes devotion.

Anger becomes courage.

Fear becomes alertness.

Desire becomes creative purpose.

Salt — The Body as the Vessel

The third alchemical principle, Salt, represents embodied stability and material form.

In the Strength card, Salt may be understood as the living organism in which these transformations occur.

The body is not an unfortunate prison from which consciousness must escape.

It is the alchemical vessel through which Spirit, Soul, and Matter participate in the Great Work.

The woman and lion must meet somewhere.

That somewhere is the living world.

The essential formula becomes:

Sulfur supplies the Fire. Mercury directs its transformation. Salt gives the transformation a living form.

And behold—the Magus discovers that spiritual enlightenment requires more than an impressive collection of ceremonial robes!

It requires the integration of consciousness into everyday life.

6. The Lion–Serpent: The Hidden Fire of Teth

The relationship between lion and serpent is an important feature of the Hermetic interpretation of Strength.

The serpent represents the coiled potential of Life Force.

The lion represents the radiant expression of that energy.

In symbolic terms:

Serpent = latent creative vitality.

Lion = expressed solar vitality.

Their union forms the Lion–Serpent, an image of instinctual power becoming conscious creative expression.

This interpretation has parallels with the yogic symbolism of Kundalini, although the Indian and Western traditions developed within distinct historical and philosophical contexts.

Within a comparative esoteric framework, the serpent rising through the body may be understood as the gradual integration of instinct, emotion, intellect, and higher awareness.

The movement from Yesod toward Tiphareth represents a particularly meaningful psychological analogy.

Yesod, associated with the Moon, is the sphere of image, instinctual patterning, dreams, and the formative subconscious.

Tiphareth, associated with the Sun, represents harmony, integrated identity, and the Solar Self.

Thus, the movement of serpent toward lion may symbolize the awakening of unconscious vitality into conscious expression.

The Moon does not become evil because it reflects the Sun.

Neither does the instinctual nature become evil because it operates beneath ordinary conscious awareness.

The Great Work consists of bringing these aspects into harmonious relationship.

The Serpent and the Caduceus

The twin serpents of the Caduceus provide another useful Hermetic analogy.

Their opposing movements suggest complementary currents of energy.

In comparative yogic symbolism, these may be related analogically to Ida and Pingala, while the central channel represents balanced integration.

In the Hermetic Qabalah, the central pillar of the Tree of Life similarly provides a symbolic structure for harmonizing apparent opposites.

These are spiritual and contemplative correspondences, not established anatomical descriptions of electromagnetic currents.

The practical teaching remains profound:

When instinct, emotion, intellect, and Will cease struggling against one another, consciousness becomes capable of expressing a greater degree of its creative potential.

7. The Thoth Tarot: Strength Becomes Lust — ATU XI

Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot presents this same mystery through Lust — ATU XI, rather than Strength VIII.

The essential attribution remains Teth and Leo.

Yet the imagery changes dramatically.

In the RWS Strength card, the woman gently guides the lion.

In the Thoth Lust card, the Scarlet Woman—Babalon—rides the mighty Beast in ecstatic union.

The difference is symbolically important.

Waite emphasizes spiritual fortitude, compassionate control, and inward mastery.

Crowley emphasizes the consecration of the entire creative nature to Divine Will.

One teaches the aspirant to establish conscious harmony with instinct.

The other depicts the joyous participation of the whole being in the creative Fire.

These are not necessarily contradictory doctrines.

They may represent complementary phases of the Great Work.

Three Expressions of the Fire Mystery

The RWS woman teaches the lion to cooperate.

The Wyspell woman enjoys the trust already established.

The Thoth Scarlet Woman rides the Beast as an expression of divine creative ecstasy.

The progression may be expressed as:

Discipline → Integration → Ecstatic Union.

However, this is a comparative Hermetic interpretation, not a compulsory historical sequence or a claim that one Tarot deck is spiritually superior to another.

Indeed, a competent Magus should understand that a lion may cooperate lovingly without requiring anyone to ride him!

8. The White Roses: Love Purifying the Expression of Power

The white roses appearing upon the woman's crown and red roses at her girdle are especially important in the Wyspell and RWS imagery.

Within Western Hermetic symbolism, the rose may represent the unfolding of consciousness, the beauty of love, and the integration of apparent opposites.

Its association with Venus connects it symbolically to Netzach, the Seventh Sephirah.

Netzach represents desire, affection, attraction, beauty, and the emotional powers through which consciousness experiences relationship.

In Strength, the roses suggest that love need not destroy desire.

Instead, love can refine desire into a more harmonious expression.

The crown of roses symbolizes consciousness governed by love.

The girdle of red roses suggests the integration of that love into embodied existence.

The white garment expresses purity of intention—not a rejection of sexuality, physical vitality, or ordinary human sensation.

Purity is not the absence of passion. It is the freedom of passion from destructive distortion.

This distinction is essential.

The Western Hermetic Adept does not become enlightened by declaring the flesh profane.

The body is the living temple of manifested consciousness.

Its desires require discernment, not condemnation.

Its passions require direction, not shame.

The lion is not evil because he is powerful.

He becomes dangerous only when his power lacks an appropriate relationship with the whole.

9. The Spiritual Psychology and Parapsychology of Strength

From a psychological perspective, Strength illustrates the relationship between emotional regulation, instinctive responses, conscious intention, and self-awareness.

Fear, anger, desire, and excitement are accompanied by bodily changes.

The nervous system coordinates these changes through interacting brain and physiological processes.

The goal of emotional maturity is not to eliminate such reactions but to recognize and respond to them constructively.

Emotion is energy-in-motion, as a useful metaphysical expression.

Yet its movement must be understood.

Anger may signal a violated boundary.

Fear may identify possible danger.

Desire may motivate creativity.

Courage allows us to act wisely even when fear is present.

The woman of Strength represents the individual who understands these energies well enough to avoid becoming their helpless servant.

She is not emotionally dead.

She is emotionally integrated.

A Parapsychological Interpretation

Within parapsychological and metaphysical models, the relationship between the woman and lion may be interpreted as sympathetic resonance—the possibility that consciousness and emotional states participate in subtle interpersonal influences.

Human beings undeniably influence one another through posture, facial expression, voice, attention, and emotional communication.

Claims of additional psychic or nonlocal energy transmission remain subjects of investigation and debate, rather than scientifically established explanations.

Symbolically, however, Strength offers an elegant image of resonance.

The woman does not need to threaten the lion.

Her composure communicates safety.

Her confidence is not theatrical.

Her actions express an internally coherent relationship between intention and emotion.

The lion responds to this relationship.

The greater lesson is that our relationship with our own emotional nature influences how we meet the world.

A person who is constantly at war with themselves may find conflict everywhere.

One who understands their own instinctual nature can respond with considerably greater freedom.

10. Cosmology: The One Fire Expressing Itself Through the Many

Within Hermetic cosmology, the universe may be contemplated as a continuous expression of Divine Consciousness through progressively differentiated forms.

At Kether, we encounter the mystery of undifferentiated Being.

At Chokmah, the dynamic impulse of creative Wisdom appears.

At Binah, that impulse receives the conditions of understanding and form.

Through the remaining Sephiroth, the possibilities of consciousness become increasingly differentiated until their manifestation in Malkuth.

The Strength card presents this cosmic process in miniature.

The lion represents the dynamic creative force.

The woman represents the intelligence through which this force becomes harmoniously directed.

Their relationship embodies the meeting of active and receptive principles.

Neither exists independently within the greater unity of creation.

The universe, understood through this metaphysical model, does not simply produce living creatures.

It expresses consciousness through innumerable centers of individualized experience.

This relates to the Hermetic principle:

As Above, So Below.

The cosmic relationship between creative force and formative intelligence finds a reflection in the human relationship between instinct and self-awareness.

The human being becomes a microcosmic expression of the greater creative process.

The Lion and the Lady are therefore more than two figures upon a Tarot card.

They are a symbolic portrait of Consciousness learning to experience its own power through Love

1. Theology: The Shekinah, the Holy Guardian Angel, and the Solar Self

The woman of Strength may be interpreted through the symbolism of the Shekinah, the indwelling Divine Presence.

In this reading, she represents the presence of divine intelligence within embodied life.

Her gentle relationship with the lion suggests that the sacred does not need to conquer creation to reveal itself.

It is already present within creation.

This idea also provides an illuminating connection to the Christian symbolism of the Lion of Judah.

The lion signifies sovereign spiritual power, while the heart-directed compassion of the woman recalls the transformative significance of divine love.

A comparative Hermetic reading may also evoke the Egyptian relationship between Sekhmet and Hathor.

Sekhmet represents fierce solar power, while Hathor expresses nourishment, beauty, joy, and love.

Their contrasting attributes suggest the possibility that destructive and nurturing expressions of power may be understood as manifestations of a deeper sacred energy.

Strength and the Holy Guardian Angel

In Western Hermetic practice, the Holy Guardian Angel (HGA) represents a profound relationship between the individual and Divine Will.

Within the Tiphareth-centered model, the Solar Self is the harmonizing center through which the personality may recognize its spiritual identity.

The fivefold soul model offers another useful perspective:

• Nephesh: Instinctual vitality and the animal soul.

• Ruach: Individualized mind, reason, and self-conscious personality.

• Neshamah: Higher Understanding and spiritual intuition.

• Chiah: Living spiritual Wisdom and creative life-force.

• Yechidah: The unique, indivisible essence of the Self.

In Strength, the lion may be related symbolically to Nephesh.

The woman represents a consciously integrated relationship among the soul's faculties.

The higher spiritual purpose is not to annihilate Nephesh but to bring the organism's vitality into cooperation with Divine Will.

The Holy Guardian Angel does not require the destruction of the human personality.

The Great Work calls for the personality to become a more transparent instrument of its authentic spiritual nature.

The lion must remain a lion.

Its power is essential.

But its power becomes magnificent when directed by conscious Love.

12. Numerology: Eight, Nine, and the Power of Manifestation

Strength bears the number VIII — Eight.

In modern numerology, eight is frequently associated with authority, organization, ambition, resilience, material achievement, and the responsible use of power.

Its constructive expression includes:

• Self-confidence without arrogance.

• Leadership without domination.

• Ambition guided by integrity.

• Resilience during difficult circumstances.

• The capacity to organize creative energies toward meaningful results.

Its challenging expression may include excessive control, rigidity, workaholism, fear of vulnerability, or obsession with achievement.

These qualities correspond beautifully with the Strength card.

The number eight suggests that power becomes useful when it is organized.

However, power without love easily degenerates into domination.

Teth and the Number Nine

The Hebrew letter Teth has the gematria value 9.

This distinction is important: the Tarot card is numbered VIII, but its Hebrew letter is the ninth letter of the alphabet.

In Hermetic numerological interpretation, nine may suggest culmination, gestation, and the preparation of an inner process for manifestation.

It also recalls Yesod, the Ninth Sephirah, through which subconscious and formative energies are traditionally understood to prepare for material expression.

Thus, the numbers eight and nine provide complementary symbols.

Eight represents disciplined power; Nine suggests the inward formation and development of that power.

The Horizontal Eight and Infinity

Although the numeral 8 and the lemniscate ∞ are mathematically distinct symbols, their visual resemblance invites metaphysical comparison.

The upright eight suggests structured manifestation.

The horizontal eight suggests uninterrupted circulation.

Together they offer an elegant symbolic formula:

Power becomes sustainable when its movement remains balanced.

There is also an important gematria distinction: the Hebrew word Chai (חי), meaning Life, has the numerical value 18—Cheth (8) plus Yod (10). This is not a gematria value of eight alone.

The symbolic interpretation must remain distinct from the actual numerical calculation.

Otherwise, our mystical mathematics becomes so creative that even Pythagoras would request an accountan

13. Divination: What Strength Means in a Tarot Reading

When Strength appears in a reading, its central message concerns the responsible expression of personal power.

The card advises the querent to recognize their resilience, trust their developed abilities, and respond to challenges with patience and courage.

Constructive Expression

Strength may indicate:

• Courage during emotionally difficult circumstances.

• Patience and confidence in one's abilities.

• The ability to manage intense emotions.

• Healthy boundaries without unnecessary aggression.

• Compassion toward oneself and others.

• Emotional resilience and recovery.

• Creative passion directed toward meaningful goals.

• The development of self-knowledge and spiritual maturity.

For the individual represented by this card, the message is reassuring:

You possess more inner strength than you may presently recognize.

You do not need to force every situation into submission.

Sometimes your greatest advantage is the ability to remain calm while others surrender to emotional chaos

Challenging or Ill-Dignified Expression

In my Tarot practice, an upside-down card is not automatically assigned a reversed meaning. Its challenging expression is determined by the surrounding cards, the question, and the context of the reading.

When Strength is ill-dignified, it may indicate:

• Fear or diminished self-confidence.

• Anger that has become difficult to regulate.

• Excessive attempts to control other people.

• Emotional exhaustion.

• Suppression of healthy desires.

• Self-doubt despite demonstrated ability.

• Impatience with natural processes.

• A conflict between instinct and conscious intention.

The card does not necessarily predict that intense anger or fear will occur.

Rather, it may reveal an existing imbalance requiring awareness.

For example, Strength accompanied by the Five of Wands might suggest internal or external conflict requiring disciplined courage.

With the Nine of Swords, it may emphasize restoring confidence while confronting fear and distress.

With the Six of Cups — Pleasure, Strength may suggest a healthy integration of affection, sensual fulfillment, and emotional generosity.

The surrounding cards determine which dimension of Strength is most relevant.

In Love and Relationships

Strength often indicates patience, devotion, emotional courage, and the willingness to understand a partner without attempting to dominate them.

Its challenging expression may reveal jealousy, possessiveness, or fear disguised as control.

The lesson is that genuine affection gives another person room to remain themselves.

In Career and Finances

Strength encourages steady leadership, persistence, integrity, and confidence developed through competence.

It favors thoughtful action over impulsive displays of power.

However, it does not promise automatic financial prosperity.

A lion may possess tremendous confidence, but confidence alone does not qualify him to manage your retirement investments!

In Spiritual Development

Strength advises the aspirant to integrate bodily vitality, emotion, intellect, and spiritual aspiration.

It is a card of self-mastery—not self-denial.

The Adept learns to direct the inner Fire toward conscious creative purpose.

Above all, Strength asks:

Are you directing your power, or is your power directing you?

14. A Simple Hermetic Meditation: The Lady and the Lion

This contemplative practice can be used with either the Wyspell or RWS Strength card.

Preparation

Sit comfortably in a quiet location.

Place the Strength card before you.

Breathe slowly and naturally, allowing the body to settle.

First — Contemplate the Lion

Visualize the magnificent golden lion standing before you.

Recognize him as a symbol of your physical vitality, instinctual nature, passion, courage, and creative power.

Do not judge his strength.

Acknowledge it.

Second — Become the Woman

Imagine yourself embodying the calm and confident presence of the woman.

Approach the lion with respect.

There is no need to overpower him.

Rest your hand gently upon his head.

Imagine that your emotional nature and conscious intention are entering a state of cooperation.

Third — The Solar Heart

Visualize a warm golden light radiating from the region of your heart.

Let it symbolize Tiphareth, the harmonious Solar Self.

Contemplate the lion's vitality becoming an expression of that inner harmony.

Fourth — The Lemniscate

Visualize a luminous horizontal eight above your head.

Let one loop represent creative Will and the other compassionate Love.

Contemplate the continuous relationship between these complementary powers.

Fifth — Affirmation

Slowly repeat:

I AM the consciousness that knows its power.

I AM the Will that directs the Fire.

I AM the Love that harmonizes the Beast.

My passions serve my creative purpose.

My strength arises through self-knowledge.

Rest quietly before concluding the meditation.

The purpose of the exercise is contemplative integration, not an attempt to force unusual physical or psychic sensations.

Conclusion: The Lion Is Not the Enemy

The Wyspell and Rider–Waite–Smith Strength cards present complementary expressions of a single spiritual mystery.

The RWS woman demonstrates the disciplined guidance of tremendous instinctual power.

The Wyspell woman demonstrates the trust and harmony that may develop through that guidance.

The Thoth Lust card offers a further interpretation, revealing creative vitality participating ecstatically in Divine Will.

Together, these images suggest that spiritual maturity is not achieved by rejecting the animal nature.

It is achieved through conscious relationship with it.

The body is not the enemy of Spirit.

Emotion is not the enemy of Reason.

Passion is not the enemy of Wisdom.

These become destructive only when their relationships are distorted.

The Great Work is the harmonization of all aspects of the Self into one conscious expression of Creative Will.

The Lion is your Fire.

The Woman is your awakened relationship with that Fire.

The lemniscate is the unbroken circulation of their complementary powers.

And Strength is what happens when you finally recognize that you were never required to destroy any essential part of yourself to become whole.

After all, if the lion is already willing to cooperate, why spend your entire incarnation wrestling him?

Final Hermetic Teaching

The strongest person is not the one who can defeat the lion, but the one whose consciousness is sufficiently harmonious that the lion no longer feels the need to fight.

Above all things, know thyself.

Thank you for your interest, thoughtful comments, and supportive donations. May the golden Fire of Leo illuminate your heart, may the wisdom of Teth bring harmony between Mercy and Severity, and may the Lion within you become your greatest ally in the Great Work.

May you live long and prosper!

Magus Eli — The Tarot of Eli 2, LLC

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