Navigating Anger with Courage

How Leo’s Cards Strength and the Five of Wands Can Help Us Explore Anger, Boundaries, and Authenticity

I hope that you’ve all been enjoying some warm weather, the San Francisco summer fog seems to finally have lifted for me!

Before we transition from Leo season to Virgo on the 22nd, today I want to spend some time exploring how the Leo cards Strength and the Five of Wands can help us transform our relationships with anger.

I knew that I wanted to explore the 5 of Wands and anger in conjunction with Strength before we entered Leo season, and I’ve been working on this post all month! I know from working with clients that I’m not alone when I say anger can be tricky, so no surprise that I’ve found it a rich topic for discovery.

For some of us, anger can be a righteous safe haven from feelings of fear and shame. For others, it’s a taboo emotion that can trigger fear and shame. It’s a huge subject, hence the longer-than-normal post, but it’s a topic that is often ignored, so I would especially love to hear your thoughts and feedback!

Why Strength & The Five of Wands?

Numbered 8, Strength is the first card in the Second Line of the Major Arcana. We’ve left Line One and The Chariot, in which we learned how to complete the sentence, “I am.”

In Line Two, we embark on a new chapter that asks, “Who am I?” As we emerge from The Chariot’s cocoon, Strength greets us, because exploring the question, “Who am I?” will require strength and courage.

In The Chariot, we learned how to meet the expectations of others. Now, we must dare to pursue our authentic selves.

The Minor Arcana card for our ‘field-work’ with Strength is the Five of Wands. The Wands represent our fire, our passion. The Fives are moments of contraction or friction. The Five of Wands can often show up as anger, and how we engage with anger is very important in our spiritual evolution.

When The Five of Wands is informed by Strength, conflict and anger become gifts that inform our authentic self-expression, and that is one of the most courageous undertakings we can endeavor.

The Lady & the Lion

In the classic short story, The Lady, or the Tiger by Frank R. Stockton, a king discovers that his daughter is in love with a lower-caste man. This courtship is a crime and in this kingdom, justice is a matter of chance.

Any accused criminal must choose between two doors in a public arena. Behind one door is a beautiful maiden whom the accused man must marry immediately. Behind the other door is a ravenous tiger that will devour the defendant.