If you have ever compared a Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck with a Tarot de Marseille deck, you may have noticed something curious.
In the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot, Strength is card VIII and Justice is card XI. In the traditional Marseille sequence, however, Justice is VIII and Strength—historically known as Fortitude—is XI.
The cards themselves are familiar. A woman gently handles a lion in Strength, while Justice holds a sword and scales. Yet their positions in the Major Arcana are different.
So why did Arthur Edward Waite change their order? And does the difference affect how we read the cards today?
The answer takes us through tarot’s history, the influence of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and the symbolic systems that shaped modern tarot.
Strength and Justice: Two Different Tarot Sequences
The simplest way to understand the difference is to compare the two decks.
| Tarot de Marseille | Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot |
|---|---|
| VIII — Justice | VIII — Strength |
| XI — Strength (Fortitude) | XI — Justice |
The Tarot de Marseille reflects an older sequence used in many historical tarot traditions.
When the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot was published in 1909, its Major Arcana followed a different arrangement for these two cards.
Importantly, Waite did not invent the idea of exchanging their positions entirely on his own. The revised order was already associated with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an esoteric organization whose teachings influenced both Waite and the artist Pamela Colman Smith.
To understand why this mattered, we first need to look at the cards before the Rider-Waite-Smith deck existed.
Justice and Fortitude in Earlier Tarot
Justice and Strength have roots in a much older European tradition: the cardinal virtues.
The four cardinal virtues are Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. They appeared widely in European philosophy, religious teaching, literature, and art.
Several early tarot trumps drew on this familiar visual language.
Justice was typically represented by a figure holding scales and a sword, symbols associated with weighing matters and exercising judgment.
Fortitude, which later became widely known as Strength in English-language tarot, was often represented through imagery involving a lion or a powerful figure demonstrating courage.
These images were not originally created specifically for modern psychological or spiritual tarot readings.
They belonged to a broader cultural vocabulary that early tarot artists and players would have recognized.
In the Tarot de Marseille tradition, Justice occupies position VIII and Fortitude occupies XI.
That order became one of the familiar reference points against which later tarot decks could be compared.
The Golden Dawn and a New Symbolic System
During the nineteenth century, tarot became increasingly connected with Western esoteric traditions.
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, founded in Britain in 1888, developed an elaborate system connecting tarot with astrology, the Hebrew alphabet, and other symbolic correspondences.
Within this system, the Major Arcana were associated with the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
The Golden Dawn’s arrangement placed Strength at VIII and Justice at XI.
These positions also aligned Strength with Leo and Justice with Libra within its sequence of astrological correspondences.
This helps explain the logic behind the exchange.
Rather than treating the cards’ numbers as isolated labels, the Golden Dawn placed them within a larger symbolic framework.
Changing their positions allowed the order to fit its chosen correspondences.
However, it is important to distinguish this historical explanation from a claim that the new order was the original or universally correct tarot sequence.
It was a particular esoteric arrangement, not a discovery that invalidated earlier tarot traditions.
What Did Arthur Edward Waite Actually Say?
Arthur Edward Waite was a member of the Golden Dawn, and his Rider-Waite-Smith deck reflects several elements of the order’s symbolic framework.
In The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, published in 1910, Waite acknowledged that the positions of Strength and Justice had been exchanged.
He also indicated that the reasons for the change were connected with matters he did not explain openly in the book.
This is an important limitation.
We can identify the Golden Dawn’s correspondences as relevant historical context, but we should be cautious about presenting a detailed explanation of Waite’s private reasoning as though he had explicitly documented every part of it.
The surviving published material supports the fact of the exchange and its connection with an esoteric framework. It does not justify inventing a personal motive beyond that evidence.
Why Strength Became VIII
In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, Strength depicts a woman calmly interacting with a lion.
The image emphasizes a relationship between human composure and animal power.
Within the Golden Dawn system, Strength was associated with Leo, the zodiac sign represented by a lion.
That correspondence makes the lion an especially recognizable part of the card’s symbolic identity.
By positioning Strength at VIII, the Golden Dawn arrangement placed it within the sequence of correspondences used by the order.
The Rider-Waite-Smith deck retained this order.
But the meaning of Strength does not depend entirely on its number.
Whether the card appears as VIII or XI, the central image can still invite reflection on courage, patience, instinct, and the way we respond to powerful emotions.
The historical numbering difference adds context rather than replacing the card’s visual meaning.
Why Justice Became XI
Justice traditionally depicts a seated figure holding a sword and scales.
The scales suggest weighing and balance, while the sword evokes judgment and decisive action.
In the Golden Dawn system, Justice was associated with Libra, the zodiac sign represented by scales.
Moving Justice to XI placed it within the order’s preferred sequence of astrological and Hebrew-letter correspondences.
The Rider-Waite-Smith deck followed this arrangement.
Yet Justice at VIII in the Marseille tradition remains historically meaningful in its own right.
Neither position needs to be treated as a mistake simply because another tradition uses a different system.
The difference reflects the development of tarot across different historical contexts.
Does the Number Change the Meaning of the Cards?
For a beginner, discovering that two decks use different numbers can feel confusing.
Does Strength mean something different when it is XI rather than VIII?
Does Justice change when it becomes XI?
Not necessarily.
The familiar imagery and broad interpretive themes remain recognizable across both traditions, although individual decks and reading systems may emphasize different details.
The numbering becomes especially relevant when a reader works with a specific system of correspondences, such as astrology, Hebrew letters, or numerology.
If you use those systems, consistency matters. Mixing correspondences from different traditions without recognizing their differences can create confusion.
But if you are learning to read through the cards’ images, historical context, and relationship to a question, the exchange does not prevent you from understanding either card.
It simply reminds you to ask which tradition your deck follows.
What This Difference Teaches Us About Tarot
The exchanged positions of Strength and Justice reveal something important about tarot history.
Tarot is not a single symbolic system that has remained unchanged from its earliest surviving decks to the present.
It developed through different periods, artistic traditions, and interpretive communities.
The Marseille sequence reflects one important historical tradition. The Rider-Waite-Smith sequence reflects a later arrangement shaped by esoteric correspondences.
Understanding that distinction helps us avoid treating every modern interpretation as an ancient fact.
It also gives us more freedom to approach tarot thoughtfully.
We can learn a deck’s established system without assuming that every other tradition must follow the same rules.
And we can appreciate the imagery of Strength and Justice while recognizing that their positions tell a story about how tarot itself has changed.
The question is not which number is universally correct, but which historical and symbolic system we are looking at.