Strength

Major Arcana VIII (in Waite-Smith numbering; XI in the Marseille tradition), Strength depicts a woman calmly closing the jaws of a lion, the lemniscate of infinity above her head. Waite's Pictorial Key calls this 'fortitude' — not physical force but spiritual courage, the power of gentle persuasion over brute compulsion. The card's repositioning from XI to VIII by Waite reflects the Golden Dawn's astrological attribution to Leo and its placement in the sequence as the point where raw instinct is mastered through patience. She tames not by domination but by the quiet authority of compassion.