Onto this week’s dispatch. This week’s card is Strength.

The Strength tarot card features a gentle-looking femme figure caressing a mighty lion into submission. She is in charge, but kind. She isn’t forceful or dominating like the earliest versions of the card (which used to feature a very swole Hercules). This person, often wearing the robes of a priestess and adorned in natural materials, wields power through a gentle yet confident influence, not brute force. She is in charge of the container, but she doesn’t tyrannize it.

Through this approach, the ferocity of the lion transforms into something more docile, yet still mighty. Its strength is intact but channeled wisely. It’s no longer an angry toothed predator that only attacks. It’s a strong, sweet lil baby.

So why would this peaceable vibe traditionally correspond to cayenne, a capsicum whose fire once brought me to my knees?

Each tarot card has many correspondences, from crystals to plants to animals to objects. (This, of course, is the very point of this newsletter.)

I’ve always crinkled my nose at Strength’s traditional pairing with cayenne. Seemed too obvious to make something powerfully spicy “strong,” in a way that negated the subtleties of this compassionate card.

Tarot’s Strength gets its power from being more carrot, less stick. And to my easily fire-lashed tongue, cayenne was a wooden club. Weren’t our ancestors more nuanced? 

It turns out that in herbalist practices, cayenne plays a role just like the maiden who gently steers the lion toward their best self: Cayenne is the herb to take when your herbal regimen isn’t working. It increases the bioavailability of other herbs by boosting bloodflow that allows other herbs to penetrate deeper. Cayenne gets in there and enhances, imbuing everything with more potency. More chutzpah.

It’s as if Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights gives everyone that pep talk their inner child always needed. It coaxes the other herbs to work at their highest level. It lends stamina. Power with, not power over, as they say in kink spaces. Spicy for the spicy.

In Ayurveda, cayenne is oft referred to as a “heart herb,” boosting circulation and metabolism. The Strength tarot card, which ties to the astrological fire sign of Leo, also corresponds to this area of the body: the heart and spine. I love this. The heart as compassionate core.

Cayenne is great for protection spells. Alyssa Web over on Monrck Co says that “The cayenne pepper’s magical properties act like a shield, fiercely guarding your space.” 

I once used cayenne in this way, as a gentle yet firm guardrail.

Gentler methods didn’t seem to be working, so my parents deployed a bevy of snap traps in dark corners. As I housesat, I realized the therapy bills I’d wrack up after finding so many dead mice would financially devastate me. Not to mention, the mice would mind.

So instead, I used cayenne to deter them. I sprinkled it around the perimeter and inside cabinets like an even more fervent Salt Bae. I said, “Go away! There’s nothing for you here but heartburn! Go live your truth elsewhere!”

The mice went away! (I also asked a friend to let his rat terrier pee around the yard. And I did a spell that coincidentally-or-not resulted in a fox moving onto the porch and scaring away rodents. But that’s another story.) 

Was it the cayenne that worked? I mean, who’s to say. But the gentle, soft-powered “no, thanks, how about this instead” — that’s Strength.

Where do you need to call in strength that is more cayenne, less stick?

You get homework this week! Your card assignments are below.

One of my practices is to let tarot be my tour guide. 

I pull one to three cards, usually from my Animal Wisdom deck by Dawn Brunke. And then I amble my city until I find them. I’m not sure if I’m looking for the animal on the card or an associated symbol. I invite the world to co-create.

Sometimes, drawing upon my knowledge of my San Franciscan environs, I hypothesize where I’d find things. Sometimes I don’t. Once I wandered Potrero Hill, calves quivering under the poundage of my stubbornness, for a while before folding. As I popped into a wine bar, I saw all 3 animals almost immediately, mostly thanks to the design magic of wine labels. Who knows what awaits you.

I challenge you to this quest. Although I insist your calf health is taken more seriously. 

This can mean you find things that connect literally, symbolically (perhaps you know or look up specific card meanings), or just in terms of vibes. Bonus points if you see two rainbows.

Lastly: Please share your pics with me! I’d love to see what spirit brings you!

Thanks for reading,
Cristina

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