Strength is usually illustrated by a woman (with an infinity sign over her head) with a lion, often accompanied by flowers.
She is calm and collected in the face of adversity (the lion), stronger even than the lion and able to control it fearlessly with a hand to its jaw.
2. The infinity symbol/lemniscate
Represents enlightenment and spiritual powers.
Symbol of courage, passion and desire, very human feelings. But if those feelings are not held in check they can lead to our eventual destruction.
Symbolise renewal, beauty - but also fragility, just as a flower fades and withers quickly
Interesting within the context of ST, where The Abyss was always shown in a very yellow light.
Courage, bravery, confidence, compassion, self-confidence, inner power
A determined, fearless person, who can accomplish anything they put their mind to. Self-mastery, strong, caring relationships, taking big steps.
When drawn in Love, Strength indicates a passionate and fiery romance which can indicate a strong relationship but also one prone to anger, jealousy or other emotional explosions.
Card Inverted/Upside Down
Self-doubt, weakness, low confidence, inadequacy, cowardice, forcefulness
You may be experiencing, or about to experience, intense anger or fear. You may be crippled by self doubt, a lack of conviction and confidence in your ability. Can be understood as depression, a loss of the joy and happiness in your life and can signify withdrawal from friends/society or jealousy at the happiness of others while you feel stagnating.
When drawn in Love, Strength can indicate codependency in a relationship. There may be different forms of insecurity which makes it difficult for you and your partner to be full, independent, individuals within the relationship. It can also suggest issues of power, where one partner may be more domineering instead of empathetic.
Eleven's name connects her strongly with this card, the number XI in the deck, as do the powers implied by the infinity symbol. She is strong and fearless, facing down and literally closing the jaws of the gates to the Upside Down. Loss of confidence in her abilities from S4 onwards, first with their complete loss and then with her failure to save Max, leads to an obsession with training and her withdrawal from her friends and Mike in S5.
Her relationship with Mike has been marred from the outset with explosive feelings, jealousy and insecurity. Also worth considering her second key relationship, with Hopper, which has always existed in a state of unbalance and with (sometimes literal) explosions. Hopper shows a tendency to dominate and overpower even from S2. The parallels regularly drawn between Papa and Hopper/Mike reflect a tendency for Eleven to be overpowered by the men in her life, even given her own innate strength.
The official deck assigns Strength to Max but also gives it a different number (VIII). This reflects the Rider-Waite switching of Strength and Justice for astrological reasons.
The illustration shows Max in the Vecna mindscape which strongly implies an inverted reading of the card. And we know that Max experiences intense depression and self-doubt after Billy's death, withdrawing from her friends/Lucas and blaming herself for not preventing Billy's loss.
So using Max for Strength makes sense within a S4 context. I think El makes a better match overall, especially as her name is literally Eleven (and because I think Eight is a good match for Kali, so I don't want to honour the modern switch) but equally we can't ignore that merch assigns this card to Camazotz!Max.
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