Called the Force in the early Italian decks, Strength depicts the struggle between virtues and vices.
The human condition involves a perpetual struggle between virtue and vice, a moral battleground that has shaped individuals, societies, and spiritual traditions for centuries. In Christian moral theology, this conflict is represented by the opposition between the Seven Heavenly Virtues, which are chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility, and the Seven Deadly Sins or vices, which are lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. These paired ideals and failings embody the ethical range of human behaviour, with virtue striving to uplift the soul and vice pulling it towards corruption.
Each virtue directly counters a corresponding vice. Chastity overcomes lust, temperance controls gluttony, charity defeats greed, diligence opposes sloth, patience neutralises wrath, kindness dispels envy, and, finally, humility counters the root of all sin, pride.
This symbolic framework is both theological and profoundly psychological in nature.
(Excerpt from the book Waiting on the Bench by Attila Karpathy)
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