Pamela Colman Smith · RWS deck
The Major Arcana
Strength
- Hebrew Letter
- TETH
- Element
- LEO
- Path
- Chesed ↔ Geburah
- State
- Feeding / Hunger
Upright · Feeding
Power welcomed rather than fought. The fierce, instinctual self is invited to the table and fed, not suppressed — strength that comes from closeness, not control.
Reversed · Hunger
The same lion, the same closeness, but nothing's being fed. Power is present and starved — either denied on purpose or reached for endlessly without ever actually being satisfied.
The image
A woman gently closes a lion's mouth with bare hands, an infinity symbol above her head, a garland of flowers at her waist. Nothing here is forced. The lion isn't beaten into stillness — it's welcomed close enough to be touched.
Teth's path runs between Chesed, mercy, and Geburah, severity — power in its rawest form, met not with a cage but with an invitation.
Learn how to read Strength in a spread
This page shows you what Strength means. Knowing how to read it — how it shifts next to the other cards, what the reversal is really telling you, and how to turn a spread into a clear answer — is what the RWS Decoded course and book teach, card by card.
