Two cards in conversation
Strength + King of Wands
People often bring two cards with a question about what will happen. Olivia reads a pair as a conversation instead: what each card brings, and what appears between them.
What links them
- A Major and a Minor
Carved on both cards
- The thin crescent moon · Full moon over the valley
- The lapis lion · Lion heads on the throne
Five ways to read this pair
Try one lens at a time. Write a sentence for each before you read anyone else’s version.
Story
Read Strength first, then King of Wands, as two scenes of one story. What changes between them?
Contrast
Where do Strength and King of Wands pull in different directions, and what does each ask of you?
One colours the other
Let King of Wands describe the way of Strength, as an adjective describes a noun. Then swap them.
A shared symbol
The same symbol is carved on both: “The thin crescent moon” and “Full moon over the valley”; “The lapis lion” and “Lion heads on the throne”. Follow it from one image to the other: what stays the same, what changes?
Number, suit and element
A Major and a Minor: the Major can name the theme, the Minor shows where it turns up in ordinary days.
One reader’s version
Strength and the King of Wands both keep company with lions and with Leo’s fire. Strength meets raw force with gentleness; the King directs it outward as leadership. Together they ask whether your courage is steady enough to be gentle as well as bold.