Strength, Force, Fortitude

• VS → direct link with Hercules, man crushing lion with a club
• later decks use other symbolism, e.g. woman staring into mouth of a lion
• overcoming obstacles, taming rather than fighting, subduing
• going beyond normal limits

• ginseng. stimulant
• giant hogweed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracleum_mantegazzianum
• kelp.
• coca leaves. stimulant, forced labour, going beyond limits
• Ginkgo biloba

• orange
• red
• earth
• hints of green

Strength is a giant mega-flora, a prehistorical fern that emerged from a polluted industrial site, once a chemical factory was left abandoned for an extended period of time. Strength spends most of its life underground, developing its thick and deep root systems. Once it emerges above ground, strength grows slowly, but incessantly. It grows one green, short and thick vertical stem that hardens into a woody trunk over time. The top of the trunk looks a bit like a volcano while it's young, glowing bright orange-red, with blobs of lava-like sap bursting out of it occasionally. Once it reaches adulthood, the volcano-like opening shoots a radial bunch of fiddle-heads - a thousand of bright yellow and red arms radiating as the sun while they unfurl to their full length (up to a kilometre), resembling a giant 1000 armed Buddha. As the adult fronds weigh each nearly a ton, the perfect radial shape can only be seen for a few minutes in the plant's lifetime. After that the fronds begin their spiralling motion (by expanding and contracting their flexible rachis), feeding on the remnants of the industrial buildings. Strength prefers chemical wastelands to grow on, where it can digest toxic chemicals and use them to melt down buildings. In a few years strength can grow several times larger than an industrial factory complex. Its roots partially lift the foundations of the buildings and its leathery kelp-like fronds pry open roofs and grow through windows. The buildings become absorbed in the plant's structure, as scaffolding for its long and floppy rachis. While strength digests buildings, it is extremely toxic to anything that touches it. Its temperature is glowing hot, approaching the melting point of metals. Once it absorbs all industrial waste, it bursts into flames, purifying the ground and scattering its spores far into the atmosphere. They briefly glow as miniature suns, before being carried by acid rain to other polluted parts of the planet.

note: work in progress for PARN. not general reference

major arcana