Embracing the Strength Card in Your Creative Practice
2024 is an 8 year (2+0+2+4), and the corresponding tarot card is Strength.
Strength is one of the easier cards to interpret—we know the word and what it means, and the traditional imagery on the card (a woman with a tame lion) makes sense implicitly. The Strength card often shows up when we’re being asked to be courageous or call on our inner strength. However, it’s actually a bit more complex and particularly useful when we dig deeper.
So what does it mean to be in a Strength year? And how might we tap into the archetype for our creative practices and projects?
Let’s talk about it.
Defining Strength
Some key meanings of the Strength card include:
Tapping into inner strength
Acting with compassion and gentleness
Stepping into your power
Finding the courage to face challenges
Building your spiritual, emotional, and relational strength
I’ve been thinking about the property of ‘strength’ in bread dough as an interesting metaphor as well. A strong dough will hold and retain gas and result in a well-structured, risen loaf. Essentially, strength is how it holds its form.
Like bread dough, you have different structural elements that allow you to hold your form. You have to go through the steps and use the right ingredients. Your creative projects, too, require various components and processes to hold their form. This is a good year to review your foundations and processes to see if they’re serving you, to release what isn’t, and to fortify what needs attention.
Strength encourages necessary risks, pointing out parts of yourself that need compassion and exploration. This year, get to know those aspects, love them, and integrate them into your creative journey.
Strength in Your Creative Journey
Regardless of where you find yourself in your creative practice or spiritual journey, the Strength card is a powerful guide. Reflect on these questions, journal about them, or draw tarot cards:
Where does your creative self or project need compassion?
What aspects of your practice demand courage?
Where have you been giving away your power, and how can you call it back?
In what areas are you resilient, and how can you extend those lessons to other lacking parts?
What brave steps can you take this year in your work, community, or practice?
What foundational strength is needed to support your project's form?
How can you embrace creative risks in the coming year?
We’re talking more about this year’s collective tarot card and what it means for your creative practice and projects on the newsletter in the coming weeks. Subscribe to stay in the loop and get Witching Your Creative Practice for FREE!