The Strength card is a symbol of inner fortitude, which helps us prevail in the face of life’s challenges. Strength is something that needs to be reinforced every day. Just as muscles need to be continuously used to maintain their power, so too does inner-strength need to be habitually exercised.
The ‘Camel Lady’, Robyn Davidson, with her beloved dog, Diggity, and four camels, trekked 2700 kilometres across some of Australia’s most remote and inhospitable deserts, from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean, in 1977.
Strength’s tarot meaning is one of my favourites because it has a very potent, supportive energy that lets you know that you can do what needs to be done. That you have the inner strength to push through whatever is holding you back or causing you pain and negativity right now.
Self Care Emporium
Davidson wrote about her 1,700-mile journey across the deserts of Western Australia in her bestselling memoir Tracks. She painted an intimate portrait of the experience of solitude and loneliness in a context where life has lost all its previous forms, a concept more of us can relate to since the pandemic. She went weeks on end without seeing anyone, navigated miles of arid desert without water, slept under the stars and fended off poisonous snakes and aggressive bulls charging towards her.
Tarot Memoir
The Strength card represents strength, determination, and power – like The Chariot. However, while The Chariot signifies outer strength and will, the Strength card speaks to the inner strength and the human spirit’s ability to overcome any obstacle. Strength is about knowing you can endure life’s obstacles. You have great stamina and persistence, balanced with underlying patience and inner calm. You are committed to what you need to do, and you go about it in a way that shows your composure and maturity. Biddy Tarot
the quality or state of being physically and emotionally strong.
- Write about a time when you needed to show great fortitude.
- Examine the life of an ancestor and consider the fortitude they needed in order to survive. What do you learn from them?
- Women like my great great grandmother were sentenced for petty crimes and transported to Van Dieman’s land. They certainly needed fortitude to survive the journey and life in the early colony. Read about more of these women.
- Write a portrait of a woman whose sheer strength of will and courage you admire.
Strong Trailblazers
The Waanyi People of the Gulf region in north-west Queensland shared stories of colonisers committing atrocities against them. The diary of Emily Caroline Creaghe, the first female explorer in Australia, vividly describes details such as the kidnapping and chaining up of Aboriginal women to tame them as workers, and the taking of body parts as grotesque trophies.
Her diary, much of which is very disturbing now, relates her views and experiences of exploring unknown country, her relationship with her husband and the other members of the expedition. It tells us about the harshness of the northern climate, the variety of landscapes, much of it hostile and unwelcoming to European eyes. It relates her views about the personal hardship suffered such as shortages of food and water, the poor quality of flour, lack of basic supplies and hygiene.
Born into the Bird family of Kew (NSW) on 16 October 1915, Aviatrix Nancy Bird Walton seemed destined for the skies. At 13, she went for a flight in a de Havilland Gipsy Moth at a local fair and was hooked. She took flying lessons from Kingsford Smith, gaining her class A flying licence when 17 years old.
Walton took her first flying lesson from Charles Kingsford Smith, pioneered outback ambulance services and founded the Australian Women’s Pilots Association.
Born into a yachting family on 25 January 1954, Kay Cottee grew up with three sisters in the southern Sydney suburb of Sans Souci. On 29 November 1987, Cottee set off from Sydney Harbour on her attempt to sail around the world.
Her yacht had been renamed Blackmore’s First Lady for the natural health brand that sponsored her. As well as aiming to be the first woman to achieve this feat, she hoped to raise money for Ted Noff’s Life Education Program.
Wild Mother Calling 