Strength & The Hermit : The Two Kinds of Power Nobody Talks About Enongh
Strength & The Hermit: The Two Kinds of Power
Nobody Talks About Enough
One tames what's wild. The other walks away from
the noise to find what's true.
There's a question I've been asked
more times than I can count
in 20 years of tarot readings.
"How do I know when to hold on —
and when to step back?"
It sounds simple.
But it isn't.
Because holding on takes strength.
And stepping back takes a different kind
of strength entirely.
Card 8: Strength.
Card 9: The Hermit.
Neither of these cards is dramatic.
Neither arrives with lightning
or trumpets or collapse.
They arrive quietly.
In the middle of ordinary life.
When you're sitting across from someone
you care about deeply —
and something in you wants to react,
to push, to defend —
and another part of you knows
that's not the move.
That's Strength.
Or when the noise of other people's opinions
has gotten so loud
that you can no longer hear your own.
When you need to step away —
not because you're giving up,
but because you know
the answer you're looking for
isn't out there.
That's The Hermit.
Today I want to walk you through both —
their history, their symbols,
and what they truly mean
when they arrive in a real reading.
Because these two cards,
in my experience,
represent two of the most underrated
and most necessary forms of power
a human being can develop.
Strength (Card 8) — The power that doesn't need to prove itself
 |
| Strength |
1. Historical background
When people hear "Strength,"
they picture force.
Muscle. Dominance. The ability
to overpower whatever stands in the way.
But the Strength card in tarot
tells a completely different story.
The imagery draws from a long tradition
of heroic myths — Hercules
wrestling the Nemean Lion,
the ancient idea that true heroism
meant conquering not just
external enemies
but the beast within oneself.
Over centuries, this evolved
into something far more nuanced
than brute force.
The Rider-Waite deck made a choice
that I find deeply significant:
they depicted Strength not as a warrior,
not as a soldier,
not as someone who conquers by force —
but as a woman
gently closing the mouth of a lion.
Not subduing it.
Not defeating it.
Quietly, calmly, with complete composure —
taming it.
This is the Strength the tarot is talking about.
The kind that doesn't shout.
The kind that doesn't need to.
The kind that works from the inside out —
from patience, from compassion,
from a centered place in yourself
that the chaos of the moment
cannot reach.
2. Symbols in the card
π¦ The woman and the lion
In 20 years of readings,
this image has moved me
more times than I expected.
The lion is real.
Its power is real.
It isn't a metaphor for a small problem
or a minor inconvenience.
It's the full force of instinct —
anger, fear, desire, impulse —
everything in us that wants to react
before we've thought about
whether reacting is wise.
And the woman doesn't fight it.
She touches it gently.
She meets it with such complete calm
that the lion — this enormous, powerful,
potentially dangerous creature —
simply... settles.
This is what real strength looks like
in human relationships:
not the ability to win the argument,
but the ability to stay so grounded
that the argument never escalates
into something that damages what matters.
∞ The infinity symbol above her head
The same symbol appears above
The Magician's head.
But here, it means something different.
For The Magician, it speaks to unlimited potential.
For Strength, it speaks to something
I've watched in real people across years of readings:
the capacity for patience
that doesn't run out.
The kind of person who can be tested
again and again —
by a difficult relationship,
by a situation that keeps requiring more —
and who finds, somehow,
that they still have something to offer.
That's not luck.
That's a particular kind of strength
that flows from somewhere deep
and doesn't deplete the way
ordinary willpower does.
πΈ The white robe and flowers
White for purity of intention.
Flowers for the natural,
unforced quality of her power.
She isn't armored.
She isn't braced for battle.
She is simply... present.
Completely herself.
And that presence is enough.
3. What it means in a real reading
When Strength appears in a reading,
I often notice a particular pattern:
the person across from me
is dealing with something —
or someone —
that is genuinely difficult.
And some part of them wants to know:
is it okay to be gentle here?
Or do I need to be harder?
"Strength doesn't appear when you need
to be tougher. It appears when you're
tempted to be — and when staying soft,
staying patient, staying present
is actually the harder and more powerful choice."
In relationship readings:
the moment when not reacting
is more powerful than reacting.
When the way you hold yourself
through a difficult conversation
changes the entire dynamic.
In career readings:
the discipline to not act on impulse.
The patience to wait for the right moment.
The composure that makes people
trust you with important things.
In personal readings:
the invitation to stop fighting yourself —
to stop treating your own difficult emotions
as enemies to be conquered —
and to start relating to them
with the same gentle steadiness
the woman shows the lion.
What I always say when Strength appears:
"Whatever you're dealing with —
the answer is not force.
The answer is presence.
Stay. Breathe. Don't push.
The lion always responds
to genuine calm."
The Hermit (Card 9) — The light you carry when you walk alone
 |
| The Hermit |
1. Historical background
The Hermit draws from one of the oldest
archetypes in human spiritual history:
the wise elder who withdraws from the world
not out of defeat or despair —
but out of a deep understanding
that some truths can only be found
in silence.
In medieval European monasteries,
monks practiced deliberate withdrawal —
not because the world was bad,
but because the noise of the world
made it impossible to hear
what they most needed to hear.
In ancient philosophy,
the wise figure was almost always depicted
as someone who had stepped back
from the pursuit of wealth and status —
not out of poverty,
but out of a clear-eyed understanding
that those things
were not where the real answers lived.
The Hermit inherits all of this:
the understanding that there are seasons
in human life
where the most important thing
is not to push forward,
not to stay engaged,
not to keep showing up to the conversation —
but to step back,
go inward,
and find the lamp you carry within yourself.
2. Symbols in the card
π¦ The lantern with the six-pointed star
This is the detail I return to
most often when The Hermit appears.
The light the Hermit carries
is not a floodlight.
It is not designed to illuminate everything,
to make the whole path clear at once,
to remove all uncertainty.
It lights only the next step.
And in my experience,
that is exactly what inner wisdom does.
It doesn't give you the whole map.
It gives you enough light
to take the next honest step —
and then, when you take it,
a little more.
π The mountain peak
The Hermit stands at the summit —
not climbing, not descending.
He has arrived somewhere
that most people never reach:
a place above the noise,
above the competing opinions,
above the pressure to be
what other people need him to be.
This doesn't mean isolation forever.
It means he has found
his own center of gravity —
and from here,
he can see clearly.
π§ The staff
He leans on his staff —
but lightly.
It supports him
without being a crutch.
This is the posture of someone
who has learned to carry themselves:
not rigidly,
not by force of will alone,
but with a quiet, earned steadiness
that comes from having walked
a long road inward.
3. What it means in a real reading
When The Hermit appears,
I've learned to ask a particular question
before I say anything else:
"How long have you been trying
to figure this out by listening to other people?"
Because The Hermit almost always appears
when the noise has gotten too loud.
When the advice has gotten too contradictory.
When there are too many voices
telling you too many things —
and none of them are the voice
you actually need to hear.
"The Hermit doesn't appear because
you're alone. It appears because
the answer you're looking for
has always been inside you —
and you've been looking everywhere else."
In relationship readings:
the need for space — not distance,
but genuine solitude —
to hear what you actually feel
underneath all the analysis
and second-guessing.
In career readings:
the invitation to stop asking everyone
what you should do —
and to sit quietly long enough
to hear what you already know.
In personal readings:
a period of deliberate withdrawal
that isn't failure or retreat —
it's preparation.
The Hermit always comes back.
But he comes back knowing something
he didn't know before.
What I always say when The Hermit appears:
"Stop asking. Stop researching.
Stop looking for the answer
in another person's opinion.
You already know.
You've known for a while.
Give yourself the silence to hear it."
Strength & The Hermit — two kinds of power the world undervalues
[ Strength ] : The power to stay
 |
| Strength |
Something is pushing you
toward reaction, defense, force.
The Strength card isn't telling you
to be passive.
It's telling you that the most powerful thing
you can do right now
is to remain completely, calmly present —
and let that presence do
what force never could.
[ The Hermit ] : The power to step back
 |
| The Hermit |
The answers aren't out there.
You've been looking long enough to know that.
Step back.
Get quiet.
Light the lamp you carry inside yourself —
the one that has always been there —
and follow it.
Just one step at a time.
That's enough.
These two cards have appeared together
in more readings than I can count —
and they almost always point
to the same underlying situation:
someone who is being asked
to find a deeper kind of strength
than the world has taught them to value.
Not the strength that fights.
The strength that holds.
Not the confidence that comes
from having everyone's approval.
The confidence that comes
from knowing your own mind.
"In 20 years of readings,
the people who developed both of these —
the Strength to stay present
through what's difficult,
and the Hermit's willingness
to go inward for their own answers —
they are the ones who always arrive
somewhere real."
Which card feels more present
in your life right now —
Strength, or The Hermit?
Tell me in the comments.
I read every single one. π
π Luna ✨
π Coming Up Next
In the next post, we continue
the Major Arcana journey —
exploring the cards of balance,
sacrifice, and the long view
of what it means to grow.
Not memorization. Understanding.
Stay tuned. π
π More from Tarot & Soul
π The Fool vs The Magician: Two Ways to Begin
πΏ The High Priestess vs The Hierophant: Two Kinds of Wisdom
πΏ The Empress vs The Emperor: Two Paths to Success
π The Lovers vs The Devil: Love or Obsession?
⚡ The Tower vs Judgement: When Everything Falls Apart
π‘ The Wheel of Fortune, The Tower & Judgement
⚖️ Justice & Death: The Two Cards That Ask You to Let Go
π The Moon vs The Sun: When Everything Is Unclear
π How to Learn Tarot by Yourself: A Complete Beginner's Guide
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