Sage Leaves: Strength and the Heroine's Journey
Healing Ancestral Wounds Through Tarot
In This Week’s Sage Leaves
The Summer Solstice has come and gone, but the light we found together still shines. Thank you for joining me for this special Wheel of Visions experience. Whether you pulled cards, lit candles, or met with Ember as Oracle in Second Life, your presence mattered.
If you haven’t visited Ember yet, she’ll be available in-world in Second Life through July 8. Come ask your questions and receive a 3-card reading from our magical flame. And don’t forget—our weekly Sage Leaves tarotscope continues every Sunday, offering fresh insight to help guide your week. If this Solstice experience moved you in any way, I’d love to hear about it. Share your thoughts with us on Substack.
The Role of Strength in the Heroine’s Journey
In the Heroine’s Journey, the tarot card Strength holds a powerful and deeply transformative place. Unlike the Hero’s Journey, which often focuses on battles with the outside world, the Heroine’s Journey explores the internal landscape. It’s a path of healing, integration, and reclaiming lost parts of the self. Strength, with its image of a woman calmly taming a lion, becomes a key symbol of this inner work. It represents the moment when raw emotion meets conscious compassion, and when instinct is not denied, but honored and guided.
This card does not show brute force or domination. Instead, it portrays patience, empathy, and resilience. The woman on the card isn’t using chains or cages. She gently holds the lion’s mouth open, suggesting a relationship built on trust, not control. In the Heroine’s Journey, this image reflects the part of the path where the heroine begins to understand her shadow. She no longer fears her own intensity, anger, or vulnerability. She learns to sit with uncomfortable feelings instead of running from them.
The Strength card often appears after a significant trial or turning point. It follows the loss of innocence, the disillusionment with outer authority, or the separation from a false identity. At this stage, the heroine has already descended into the underworld of her psyche. She has faced confusion, grief, and often betrayal. Strength emerges not as a reward, but as a reminder: healing comes not from avoiding pain, but from holding it with compassion.
This is not always easy. In fact, it rarely is. The lion in the card can be seen as a metaphor for raw, instinctual parts of the self: fear, rage, desire, or even wild joy. These emotions can feel overwhelming or dangerous, especially if a person was taught to suppress them. But the woman in Strength doesn’t run away. She stays. She breathes. She listens. This is the moment in the Heroine’s Journey where the heroine begins to trust her own body, her own rhythm, and her own voice.
"Strength isn’t the roar of dominance.
It’s the quiet power of staying present with what hurts,
and choosing compassion anyway."
Another layer of the Strength card is about boundaries. Often, people confuse compassion with passivity. But Strength is not weak. It shows the heroine holding herself with kindness and others with clarity. She has learned not to lash out, but also not to betray herself. In many myths and modern stories alike, this is the part where the heroine stops asking for permission. She doesn’t need outside approval. She knows her worth from the inside out.
Importantly, Strength helps bridge the gap between the inner and outer worlds. After descending and doing the work of self-recovery, the heroine must return. This return requires courage. It means showing up in the world as her full, integrated self. That’s not easy, especially in cultures that often ask women to shrink, smile, or stay silent. Strength helps her show up with love and fierceness at once.
In many ways, this card reflects the deep feminine wisdom of endurance. It is not about the loudest roar, but the longest breath. It is the ability to keep going, to stay soft without breaking, and to lead with the heart even when the world doesn’t always understand.
In the Heroine’s Journey, Strength is not a final destination. It is a steady companion. It walks beside the heroine as she reclaims herself, piece by piece, and rebuilds a life that honors who she really is.
Ultimately, the Strength card reminds us that power does not always look like force. Sometimes, it looks like gentleness. Sometimes, it sounds like a whisper. And in the Heroine’s Journey, that is often where the greatest transformation begins.
Sage Leaves Weekly Tarotscope: June 24-30, 2025
This week's energetic landscape opens with a burst of action and closes with grounded collaboration. The 7-card spread for the days ahead is as follows: Tuesday brings the Knight of Wands alongside the Sun conjunct Jupiter in Cancer. Wednesday’s card is the 5 of Wands under the New Moon in Cancer. Thursday presents the 9 of Swords just as Mercury enters Leo. Friday follows with the 10 of Wands during Mercury's trine to Saturn in Aries. Saturday reveals The Hanged Man as Mercury trines Neptune in Aries. Sunday anchors with The Emperor while Mercury opposes Pluto in Aquarius. Monday rounds out the week with the 3 of Pentacles beneath a Moon-Mars conjunction in Virgo. Two Major Arcana appear this week, alongside three Wands, marking this as a week of internal and external pressure seeking release through structure and perspective.
On Tuesday, you feel the fire. The Knight of Wands rides in, restless and bold, as the Sun and Jupiter align in the emotional sign of Cancer. This is energy that rushes forward with heart but may not stop to ask for directions. You're driven to act, speak, or create, but are you truly ready? What you're feeling is the spark of momentum. Use it wisely. What excites you? That might be the first breadcrumb leading to your deeper work this week.
Wednesday’s New Moon in Cancer brings a stirring of emotional tides. Paired with the 5 of Wands, your internal landscape becomes a field of tension. Competing desires, multiple priorities, and others' demands rub against each other like flint against steel. It can feel chaotic. You may be triggered. You may want to withdraw. Instead, stay curious. This is growing pain, not permanent conflict. Everyone is finding their position in the dark. Including you.
By Thursday, your mind has had enough. The 9 of Swords arrives as Mercury enters Leo, illuminating all that weighs on your thoughts. Anxiety, sleeplessness, and a sense of failure may try to claim your peace. But pause. Take a breath. The shadows here are often larger than the truth they hide. What has gone unsaid? What needs forgiveness, especially from yourself? Let the mind speak, but do not believe every fear it utters.
Friday offers a sobering checkpoint. The 10 of Wands lands heavily, right as Mercury in Leo trines Saturn in Aries. There’s clarity here, but it comes with responsibility. You’ve taken on a lot. Too much, perhaps. This card says: the burden is real, and it’s yours to carry. But must you carry it alone? Examine the load you’ve chosen. Some of those sticks may be stories you no longer need to hold.
When pressure rises and burdens stack high,
you are not being punished,
you are being forged.
Trust the friction, for it shapes your brilliance.
Saturday shifts the tempo. The Hanged Man appears as Mercury aligns with dreamy Neptune. You are invited, perhaps forced! to stop. Surrender, not out of defeat, but wisdom. This card turns your world upside down so you can see it clearly. Stillness is sacred. A change in perspective could free you from the grind. Listen to what silence is offering. Let insight rise slowly, like mist over water.
On Sunday, The Emperor takes the stage. Mercury now opposes Pluto, and you must decide what control really means. The Emperor demands structure, order, boundaries. But he also warns of rigidity and tyranny. Where are you being called to lead, to build, or to hold firm? And where are you imitating power without embodying wisdom? Stand tall, but stay human.
Finally, Monday brings integration. The 3 of Pentacles under the Moon conjunct Mars in Virgo helps you return to craft, cooperation, and grounded teamwork. This is where the insights and burdens of the week begin to crystallize into something useful. You are not meant to do this alone. Collaboration does not mean losing yourself. In fact, it may be how you find the next piece of your purpose.
This week, the rhythm moves from fire to earth, from ambition to reflection, and finally to mastery through unity. Two Major Arcana: the Hanged Man and The Emperor, form the backbone of your transformation. The three Wands cards mark your restlessness, drive, and over-extension. Listen to what your energy is telling you. Notice where the pressure builds. And above all, remember: even in times of intensity, your insight is your compass. Trust it.
Until next time, may your days be rooted in stillness and lit by small revelations.
May the cards speak clearly, the herbs offer comfort,
and your own inner wisdom rise gently to meet you.
Take care, be well, and good-bye for now!
With warmth from the liminal in-between,
—Dr. Winkler