Card of the Week: Strength

Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr’s original serenity prayer asked for “courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and the insight to know the one from the other.”

The Strength card embodies not just outward physical strength, but also inner mental and spiritual strength.  It demonstrates the courage to persevere in the face of difficult obstacles, with power guided by intellect, and passion coupled with confidence and patience.  This card is a reminder of the depth of your own inner fortitude that can be tapped when necessary.

Inverted, this card suggests power guided by instinct rather than intellect.  Asserting dominance for short-term gain will often be counter-productive in the long run.

In “A Private Little War”, the Enterprise is orbiting the idyllic planet Neural.  Its native low-tech Hill People and Villager tribes had coexisted peacefully when Kirk had last visited years earlier and befriended a young native named Tyree.  Now Tyree is a Hill People  leader with a Villager wife, Nona, a powerful Kahn-ut-tu shaman with knowledge and healing powers.  When Villagers attack, Tyree is reluctant to kill in response.  Kirk discovers that Klingons are fueling a war by artificially advancing the weaponry of the Villagers.  Nona accidentally sees a phaser in use, and believing it will help her people gain even more strength, steals Kirk’s phaser to bring to them.  But she doesn’t know how to operate it, and they distrust her and kill her.  Tyree reluctantly agrees to let Kirk try to re-balance their society by equally arming the Hill People.