Sage Leaves: Strength, Jungian Archetype
Healing Ancestral Wounds Through Tarot
🌿 This week in Sage Leaves… 🌿
We’re beginning a new cycle centered on The Strength card—not simply as a symbol of triumph, but as a quiet emblem of psychic integrity and soul-deep courage.
This week in Sage Leaves, we’ll look at Strength through a Jungian lens, focusing on how this archetype invites us into right relationship with our inner wildness.
In the coming weeks, we’ll explore its role within the Heroine’s Journey and how it can appear in readings related to transgenerational healing. This card carries a subtler kind of power—one that doesn’t force, but fuses.
We’re also sharing the weekly Tarotscope for June 17–23, 2025, offering a glimpse into the energetic rhythms of the days ahead.
And most exciting of all: the Wheel of Visions goes live this week. This immersive experience begins turning with the Summer Solstice and introduces Ember as Oracle, who now resides in-world. She speaks in symbols, not predictions—and if you listen closely, you may hear something meant only for you.
As always, I’ll be sharing a few spontaneous extras—perhaps a recipe, a moment of plant wisdom, or a reflection sparked by your questions. I’ve spent years tending the threads between ritual, science, and healing, and I believe that when something rises at the right moment, it’s worth sharing.
Thank you for being part of this unfolding. I’m so glad you’re here.
Taming the Inner Lion: The Jungian Meaning of Tarot’s Strength Card
In the language of Tarot, the Strength card doesn’t roar. It hums. It speaks in steady breath and quiet hands, not in loud bravado. In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, we see a woman gently closing a lion’s mouth with her bare hands. She doesn’t look afraid. In fact, her face is peaceful, almost serene. This image holds deep psychological meaning—and in Jungian terms, it speaks to something we all must do: learn to live with the wild parts of ourselves.
According to Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology, we all have an inner world made up of different parts. There’s the ego, which is your conscious sense of self. There’s the persona, the mask you wear for the world. And then, there’s the shadow—the parts of you that are hidden, repressed, or difficult to accept.
The lion in the Strength card often represents this shadow. It’s your anger, your fear, your deep longing, or even your drive for power. These feelings aren’t “bad”—they’re part of being human. But if we try to ignore them, they don’t go away. Instead, they grow louder and more unruly. Jung believed that healing comes when we integrate the shadow. That means facing it, understanding it, and learning how to work with it.
The woman in the card doesn’t fight the lion. She doesn’t cage it or run from it. She stays close and calm, using compassion rather than force. This is the essence of true strength—what Jung called conscious mastery. It's not about dominating your emotions or instincts. It’s about forming a relationship with them. Strength asks, “Can you befriend your inner lion?”
In Jungian archetypes, the woman can be seen as the Self—the fully realized, whole personality that comes from uniting all your inner parts. Her white robe suggests purity or clarity of intention. The infinity symbol over her head hints at the idea that this process—taming the lion within—is ongoing and limitless. You don’t do it once. You do it again and again, each time you grow.
This card also links to what Jung called the anima—the feminine inner presence within the psyche, especially in men, that represents intuition, feeling, and relatedness. Strength teaches that healing doesn’t come from sheer willpower or logic alone. Sometimes, it takes softness. Patience. Listening.
“Strength doesn’t conquer the lion—she listens to it.
In taming our shadows, we find our wholeness.”
Strength also has something to say about the Hero’s—or Heroine’s—Journey. Many stories of transformation include a moment where the hero must face their fears not through violence or cunning, but through love. In these moments, they are transformed—not by defeating something outside themselves, but by accepting something inside. That’s the medicine Strength offers.
In a reading, Strength may appear when you’re feeling overwhelmed or doubting your ability to handle a situation. Its presence reminds you that you already have the inner tools you need. You don’t need to yell. You don’t need to prove anything. Strength tells you: stay grounded, breathe, and approach the challenge with heart. Sometimes, gentleness is the greatest force of all.
Jung once said, “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” The Strength card agrees. When you dare to sit beside the lion inside you—and stroke its mane—you become more whole, more human, and more free.
🌿 Sage Leaves Weekly Tarotscope:
🌞 A Solstice of Reckoning and Renewal
Tarotscope for June 17–24, 2025
This is a week of powerful thresholds. With the Summer Solstice on Friday and a surge of astrological friction in Cancer, Aries, and Virgo, you’re walking through a corridor where memory, desire, and possibility all pull at your sleeves. Three major arcana rise in the second half of the week—The Devil, Justice, and The Fool—marking a shift from emotional undercurrents to a more conscious confrontation with power, truth, and freedom. The week begins in nostalgia, but ends in bold, sacred risk.
🌿 Tuesday – 6 of Cups | Mars Enters Virgo
The past comes softly, like a scent you haven’t smelled in years. Today stirs something familiar—an old memory, a returning feeling, a glance backward that warms you or stings. With Mars entering Virgo, you're being asked to sort through that memory with practical intention. What from your past deserves to be honored? And what must be composted to nourish your next season?
Let tenderness guide you. But don’t let it keep you frozen.
💧 Wednesday – Ace of Cups | Jupiter Square Neptune
The heart opens. But with Jupiter and Neptune forming a tense square, that opening could feel like too much, too fast. You might cry without warning, feel overwhelmed by beauty or by sorrow, or both at once. The Ace of Cups offers you a vessel—one you can fill, one you can empty, one that reflects what you are becoming.
Drink slowly. Don’t rush to define what you feel. Let the waters rise and fall. Let your spirit float a bit today.
🔥 Thursday – 7 of Wands | Moon Sextile Pluto
Courage isn't just for dragons and battles. Today, courage might look like saying no. Or saying yes to something you’ve kept avoiding. The 7 of Wands brings friction—but not just external conflict. This is about defending what matters inside of you, even if it’s messy, even if it isn’t convenient.
With the Moon in Aries touching Pluto, you’re not just guarding your values—you’re rewriting your relationship with power. Don’t give it away. Own your fire.
🌞 Friday – Page of Wands | Summer Solstice + Sun Enters Cancer
This is the heart of the week, and the turning of the Wheel. The Summer Solstice crowns the sky with light, but it also marks the beginning of the return to darkness. The Page of Wands is the perfect card for this moment—curious, alive, a little reckless, beautifully open to the new.
You stand at a threshold. Don’t look for a polished plan. Look for the spark. Something wants to begin, and it might not wait for your perfectionism to catch up.
🕸️ Saturday – The Devil | Moon Trine Mars
This is where the glamour breaks. The Devil arrives when we’ve confused attachment with desire, or when we’ve mistaken freedom for indulgence. There’s nothing evil here—only the pull of the material, the addictive, the distracting. You may see your own patterns more clearly today. Or someone else’s. Don’t panic.
With Moon and Mars in earthy harmony, your body knows what’s real. Let your instincts speak, but don’t be ruled by them. Ask: what am I enslaved to? Then breathe. The door has never been locked.
⚖️ Sunday – Justice | Sun Square Saturn, Mars Sextile Jupiter
Today is about balance—but not the kind that comes easily. Justice arrives like a blade of clarity, especially in the wake of The Devil. This is the reckoning. You might find yourself face-to-face with consequences—your own or someone else’s. Don’t flinch.
With the Sun squaring Saturn, it’s time to take responsibility. But the presence of Mars sextile Jupiter reminds you: this isn’t about punishment. It’s about alignment. What must be made right, so you can move forward with integrity?
🌬️ Monday – The Fool | Sun Square Neptune
After the storm, the leap. The Fool is your invitation to begin again—but this time, with your eyes wide open. The dreams of Neptune are still strong, and you may not have all the details. That’s okay. The Fool doesn’t need guarantees. Just trust, and a willingness to say yes to your own becoming.
Where are you ready to be unburdened? What step would you take if you believed the universe wanted to meet you there?
🌀 Final Reflection
This week is a slow unwinding of self-deception, distraction, and memory. The Solstice brings your full light to the surface, and the major arcana remind you that freedom doesn’t come without a choice. The journey from The Devil to Justice to The Fool is no small transformation. You’re being offered release. But you must walk through the fire to get it.
Stand in your truth. Let the past inform you, not bind you. And above all—step forward. Even if the road curves out of sight, it begins with your next breath.
✨ Until next week, may the cards guide you gently,
—Dr. Winkler
💫 Would you like a more personalized glimpse into your journey? If you'd like a tarot or Lenormand reading tailored just for you, I invite you to reach out. I’m honored to hold space with you as we explore the symbols and stories of your own unique path. You can connect with me directly:
That’s it for this week! Look for Sage Leaves in your inbox on Tuesday afternoons (North American time.) We look forward to exploring more about Tarot, Healing and more! Take care, be well, and good-bye for now!