I did this reading with my lenormand deck (with the actual correct scans this time, thanks to my scannerl). My question was: how are the cats coping with me being out of the house so much? I have been out a whole lot more than I used to be, recently, between social activities and trips out of town.

I used Sylvie Steinbach’s “no layout method” from her lenormand book. As far as I understand, you pick a key card. Then, after you shuffle, you find the cards surrounding the key card in the deck, and interpret them. I’ve been meaning to try this on tarot cards, too, but haven’t yet. It sounds like a neat idea.

So, then the question was, what is the key card for this reading? Immediately I thought of 18-Dog, but I just couldn’t represent my cats with a dog card! They’d never forgive me, if they read this entry. So, I went with 13-Child. Here’s what I got:

So, that’s 32-Moon, 6-Clouds, 13-Child,34-Fish,28-Man.

I have to say, I thought this was a tough one to interpret. Any experienced lenormand folks out there should feel free to chime in.

The cards before 13-Child represent the present or recent past influence. I see 32-Moon+6-Clouds as emotional confusion or instability. I could see how the cats could feel some instability when my routine has changed so dramatically. It makes sense.

Of course, the more interesting part of the spread is 34-Fish+28-Man, which I thought should indicate the situation going forward, or actions they will take… something along those lines. I generally see 34-Fish + 28-Man as an entrepreneur or businessman. That would be me. I conduct most of my business at home, which does keep me available to them for a set of core hours each day. I eventually took this to mean that the cats would make sure they hung out with me during my work time, to compensate. It does make sense, and they are already starting to do more of that. Still, I can’t help the nagging feeling that a better interpretation is possible, just waiting to be found…

If I were going to read the cards just intuitively, I’d note that the 13-Child and 28-Man are looking away from each other, with slippery 34-Fish in between. To me, this says that I’ll have to accept that they’ll emotionally pull away from me some, since I’m not spending as much time with them.

Anyway, no matter what, the spread didn’t seem to say anything horribly negative. For that, I am grateful!

So, remember the liar I was dealing with? The advice was to walk away as quietly as possible. And, I’ve been trying to do that. Now, however, it’s not even necessary, as this rather annoying person has begun actively severing our ties.

And so, okay. I am fine with that. But out of morbid curiosity, I did a couple readings last night to try to get some insight into what’s going on. I thought it would be cool to share, as it shows off the type of spread I like to use for things like this.

Obviously I will keep the subject of these readings anonymous. To make the text flow, I will call this person: Anon Y. Mous. Or, Anon, for short!

So, the first spread I did was with my lenormand deck. I asked “what’s going on with Anon?” and put down three cards to make a sentence about it. This forms the top line of the spread, and represents the surface-level information. Then I put two cards beneath it, to represent what’s going on underneath the surface. Then I put down a single card to represent the root of everything.

Here’s what it looked like:

I know people that would put a full 3 cards on each level. Or 5 cards, however many you want. But, I feel that as you delve deeper into a person’s subconscious drives, you get into simpler and simpler impulses. Like, someone might explain that something’s fair because of X and expected because of Y and reasonable because of Z, but under the surface it’s all coming from simple jealousy. You see? So, the shape of the spread coincides with the complexity of the issues at each level.

Anyway, my interpretation of these particular cards is:

• Level One: we have 21-Mountain + 5-Tree + 23-Mice. I see this as some kind of blockage (Mountain) to Anon’s health and well-being (Tree), which is causing that health to deteriorate (Mice).
• Level Two: Underneath the surface, we see 35-Anchor + 16-Stars. Ah, so Anon’s deeper issue is a concern about their long-term goals or mission in life. Aging and deteriorating health would certainly aggravate those concerns. I could see how Anon would be afraid of becoming obsolete, or dried up, or what have you.
• Level Three: At the root, we have 2-Clover. This confused me for a bit, and I was interpreting it as seeing an opportunity of some sort… as in: Anon sees some tactical advantage in messing with me. But, I wasn’t satisfied, and I went to Sylvie Steinbach’s The Secrets of the Lenormand Oracle. It points out that 2-Clover can represent “excitable, nervous temperaments.” And I immediately said “yep!” That’s it… I think Anon is kinda grasping at straws because they are at a loss for what else to do.

So, to get more cartouche practice, I threw down three cards with the same question: “what’s going on with Anon?” Here’s what I got:

So that’s 10-Set, 6-Hathor, and 23-Pyramid, all reversed. I’m still reading cartouche with the book in my hands, as I’m still getting to know the cards. Let me tell you, I was amazed at how interesting and accurate these three cards sounded, to me.

I was aware that 10-Set represented setbacks and delays, but checked on the reversed meaning in the book. The first line opens: “There is a difference between deliberate evil intent and the blunders of the mentally afflicted.” And let me tell you, that is exactly what I have been telling people about Anon. If you are into tarot, think 9 of Swords… which Crowley calls “cruelty.” It is when your mind gets so addled and agitated that you end up lashing out in unseemly ways. Other applicable text about this card include “pseudo-intellectuality” and “hysterical emotionalism.” That last one fits nicely with 2-Clover from the lenormand reading above, I noted.

Now for 6-Hathor reversed, we have the feminine goddess energy wrapped in knots. This has intuitive meaning for me, but again, I go to the book for clarity. It says: “Spiritual weakness is an obvious meaning here, also misuse or neglect of the feminine side of one’s nature.” That is a really interesting insight into the root of this behavior, I think! Another keyword here was “intimidation,” which I think dovetails nicely with the “pseudo-intellectuality” from the reversed 10-Set.

The 23-Pyramid I didn’t have to look up. It clearly stands for foundations and permanence. Reversed, we have ideas like instability and need for changes. This could also tie into aging and health problems, which were a focus from the lenormand reading.

So, if we put those together, we see a similar meaning to the lenormand reading… we have a kind-of frantic and borderline cruel (10-Set Rev) activity rooted in spiritual weakness and a neglected feminine side (6-Hathor Rev), which is exacerbated by time passing and weakening health (23-Pyramid Rev).

I continue to be impressed by the cartouche cards, and hope to be able to spend more time working with them soon!

I put down a simple three-card, one-position reading about my crafting activity tomorrow. I’ll be going over to a friend’s place to finish some decorations, and wanted a quick read about it. I used my lenormand deck.

Here’s what I got:

The cards are 33-Key, 32-Moon, 6-Clouds. Interesting that I’d get 33-Key in the first position, two days in a row! I’m just unlocking doors left and right, I guess…

Anyway, my fast interpretation is that 32-Moon represents the artistry we are putting into the decorations. So, I think we will be able to find a way (33-Key) to blend all the elements together well (32-Moon), but I will still not be satisfied (6-Clouds). I’m noting that the Clouds are associated with Mercury and Gemini (my sun sign and rising sign). I can easily be conflicted and of two minds about, well, everything!

So, I will look out for that, and try to be happy with what we come up with.

This was just a simple “how will this evening go?” reading. I put down three cards in that single position. Essentially, with this type of reading you just ask the three cards to tell you a story. I used my French Cartomancy (lenormand) deck for this reading. Here’s what I got:

The cards were 33-Key, 16-Stars, and 5-Tree. Very interesting, indeed! The key next to the stars seem to indicate a kind of revelation or insight. Possibly not a small one… as the stars would point to things like spirituality or destiny. Add into that the influence of the tree, which speaks to health and growth. hmmm…

I must say, I was only asking about a simple get-together of friends to discuss (mostly) tarot… so I wasn’t expecting something so important-sounding. The only obvious connection I can see is that we have been meaning to talk about what direction the group should be heading, in terms of study and other activities. Maybe there will be some real progress made on that front, tonight! No matter what, the reading looks positive, and interesting. Nothing to worry about, here.

Good! Because I dislike worry.

Here is a reading I did the other day for a friend. It was about whether she would be stuck in the same career forever, or if she’d be able to successfully transition to something else. I did a reading with my Key to the Kingdom deck, which I won’t be showing here. I then did a second reading with my Lenormand deck.

I laid out four cards. On the horizontal axis, we have “what you want” vs. “what you need.” On the vertical axis we have “what you should do” vs. “what you shouldn’t do”. Here is the way the cards fell:

In brief, I told her that she wants to find a way to get rid of the burden of her current career (36-Cross), but in order to do that she’s going to need a big obstacle in her path (21-Mountain). In other words, as long as her current career is going smoothly, she just wasn’t going to have the energy or drive needed to make a big change. The 30-Lily card versus the 17-Storks card makes me think that maybe for now she should attempt to find contentment with her current circumstances, rather than attempt big changes or inject novelty into her life. The Lily is the “zen card,” if you will… so…

The querent confirmed for me that the last time she changed careers, her old career had to turn sour before she had the energy to make the move. So, that part of the reading rang very true to her. Overall, I’d say my reading wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but it was accurate nonetheless.

Wow, has it really been almost a full month since my last, so-called daily reading? Sorry, I’ve been quite busy.

Anyway, I have some smallish scans of a Lenormand deck now, so I can share some of the readings I do with this fantastic and historically interesting oracle. I use the French Cartomancy Kit cards, and these scans are fairly similar to those images.

I don’t try to be extra “gypsy”-ish when using these cards… I use them pretty much the way I use tarot cards. Maybe there are some purists out there that think that my approach is horrible and wrong. If it makes you feel any better, there are probably plenty of tarotists that think my tarot techniques are horrible and wrong, too!

The Reading

Today’s reading was done before I went out trying to run an errand on behalf of a friend. I tossed down four cards. The horizontal axis is “situation” vs. “outcome”, and the vertical axis is “do this” vs. “don’t do this”.

In case it’s hard to read, they were:

• Situation: 21 Mountain
• Do this: 6 Clouds
• Don’t Do this: 10 Scythe
• Outcome: 29 Woman

Ruh-roh… looks like trouble. The mountain indicates a large obstacle in my way. Furthermore, the advice, clouds, is to try to deal with the confusion and uncertainty the best I can. This is emphasized further by the advice not to be decisive (scythe) or do anything irreversible. Luckily, I took the outcome, the Woman, to mean that my friend would be okay with whatever happened, even if there were delays or I just couldn’t help her. As if to further reassure me, I glanced at the bottom card of the deck and saw 30 Lily, which I associate with calm and zen-like grace (among other things).

So, fine. I will do my best, and try to roll with the punches on this one…

I have been looking around for more fun decks for purely intuitive use, and I fell in love with the idea of the Lenormand oracle decks. They are typically 36 cards, modeled after a deck that famous French fortune-teller Marie Lenormand supposedly used. You can see a list of suggested meanings for the 36-card version here.

Only problem is, the versions of this deck that I really like are all playing hard to get. I eventually ordered this “French Cartomancy Mini Kit,” which I think looks pretty good…

… and the name will no doubt inspire me to tell fortunes over wine and cheese.

But, I’d much rather have the deck simply called “Lenormand Oracle“….

You can see that the pictures on this unavailable deck do not have the playing card inset. I find that to be ten thousand and three times more appealing. Though, perhaps I will assign meanings to the playing cards in the deck I bought, and eventually be glad I have them.

Who knows?

There are others available, which have poems or something on each card, but I would probably find that more distracting than the playing card inset, so I chose against it.