Strength as Intentions: To Be Patient With You, and With Themselves

Written by Chaya the Medium.

Strength as intentions is a plan to keep a hand on the lion. Here is what I would read in it, upright and reversed, and why the gentleness is the plan.

If you want the short answer, I would read Strength as intentions that are patient, warm and deliberately gentle. In an intentions position the card suggests the person means to handle what is between you with care rather than force: to go slowly, to manage their own wilder feelings, to not push you and not be pushed. The intention is steady. It is not passive, and it is not fast.

This is the woman closing the lion's mouth with her hands. She intends to keep it calm. She intends to do it without a weapon.

Strength upright as intentions

Tina Gong's Strength guide at Labyrinthos associates the upright card with courage, compassion, inner strength and patience. When the card lands in a position that asks what someone intends toward you, I read those meanings as the shape of their plan rather than as a promise about what they will do. Feelings and intentions are different questions; Strength as feelings covers the first, and this page covers the second. The Major Arcana overview at Biddy Tarot is a useful second reference.

Upright, I read Strength as a person who intends to be good to you in a measured way: to be there, to be kind in hard moments, to hold their own desire or fear in check so that it does not run over you. They are not planning to sweep you anywhere. They are planning to be steady, and the steadiness is the declaration.

What I would not read into it is urgency. Strength intends the long way, with the lion kept calm. If you need the lion let loose, this card is telling you the person will not do that to you, or to themselves.

What the card does not tell you

The card does not confirm the person will let their feeling show, that their patience is for you rather than a habit, or that what they are holding back is affection and not something harder. No card lets a reader see another person's plans. What a card can do is describe the kind of intention that fits the person's behaviour, and give you something to check against what they actually do.

Strength reversed as intentions

Reversed, Strength as intentions describes control lost or control turned harsh: a person who cannot manage what they feel about you and intends to act on every swing, or one whose care has become rough because they are frightened of their own feeling. It can also describe someone whose patience has become a doormat and who intends to tolerate what they should not.

In your own question, ask whether the person seems overwhelmed by you rather than steady, or whether their gentleness has turned into tolerating things that hurt them. A reversed card as intentions is a prompt to compare what is said with what is done, not a diagnosis of bad faith.

Strength as an ex's intentions

Asked about an ex, Strength as intentions can suggest they still feel something and intend to hold it gently in check, out of respect for the ending or for you. That restraint is often mistaken for absence of intention. It is not. Whether it eases is their decision, and it will be quiet. My guide to asking a psychic whether an ex will come back explains what a reading can and cannot say about that question.

Strength as a new person's intentions

For someone new, this card describes warm, patient intent from someone who will not rush you and will not be rushed. It is a very good card for the long run and a frustrating one for anyone who wants speed.

What their intentions look like in action

Look for gentleness in hard moments: they stay kind when you are difficult, they are patient with your pace, they do not use feeling as pressure. A Strength intention shows in how the person treats you when things are not easy.

What to record before drawing again

Keep three short notes: the question you asked, how the person has behaved when you were at your worst, and whether their patience is something you can trust rather than test.

For comparison, the Chariot as intentions and the King of Cups as intentions describe different intentions. The Strength card meaning page covers the card in full, and Strength as a person and Strength as a yes or no cover the other questions people most often ask of it. For a personal interpretation, my guide to a love psychic reading online explains how I work, and the three-card tarot listing and customer reviews are worth reading before deciding whether to order.