Lenormand VS Tarot??

Sylvie Steinbach

In the study group index there is a thread on merging the Lenormand with Tarot...

For your entertainment, that thread was created a while back but show the break down on how I have used those two for a long time in my practice.

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=96703

Enjoy! ;-)
 

MomentoMori

To me lenormand is more of a fortune telling type of divination that is more precise, tarot on the other hand is more of a guidance type of divination and more generalized in it's interpretations i.e a tool more for insight than telling you straight how it is like the lenormand does.
 

JustinDevereaux

Tarot and LeNormand

Part of the issue with tarot is the humanistic approach that has been piled onto the cards. It has become all about feelings and psychology. A skilled reader can use tarot cards with the same pin point accuracy to foretell specific events as with the LeNormand cards. It has to do with one's approach to them.
 

grumpyowl

I like using Lenormand for practical matters. It will straight on tell you exactly what needs to be fixed/done as long as it is a tangible item/person/problem etc. It's always been very concrete for me (and very right)! Once it even gave me advice on how to save money by looking at the telephone bill (mice + birds).

I use tarot for personal development. There is more room to interpret internal change and such with tarot.
For me Lenormand is sort of extroverted & in the sensory world and the Tarot is introverted and in the realm of the spiritual/emotional.

Oh btw: I'm new here. Relatively new to Lenormand but have read tarot for +15 years.
 

AzulParadiso

I prefer Lenormand 100%.

There are too many definitions when it comes to Tarot, and more possible combinations due to all the cards, while Lenormand is blunt, short and to the sweet point making it more accurate.

There are people who swear Tarot has to go by the book. Such as, the lovers meaning"love" or Empress meaning the "ultimate woman". When in reality, the meanings go much deeper than that. I prefer Lenormand! :D
 

AzulParadiso

That's how I use them! To foretell specific events & to predict, but most people swear the cards have to go by the book. I see a lot of errors when it comes to this approach.

Part of the issue with tarot is the humanistic approach that has been piled onto the cards. It has become all about feelings and psychology. A skilled reader can use tarot cards with the same pin point accuracy to foretell specific events as with the LeNormand cards. It has to do with one's approach to them.
 

Teheuti

Part of the issue with tarot is the humanistic approach that has been piled onto the cards. It has become all about feelings and psychology. A skilled reader can use tarot cards with the same pin point accuracy to foretell specific events as with the LeNormand cards. It has to do with one's approach to them.
I agree. You can read any deck in any way you want, but what do you hope to get from those cards?

Are there better and not so good ways to get the kinds of responses you are wanting or needing? Is one deck better suited for a certain kind of information or technique than another?

For instance, some European cartomancy decks feature a lot of cards having to do with love and marriage - far more than the other decks. Some decks feature types of people - old, young, widowed, wealthy, poor, military types, professionals, thieves. They are like the folk rhymes and counting games that are supposed to predict who a girl will marry: "Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief, Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker,_Tailor .

We need tools that suit our proclivities (natural talents and ideals) and ones that work best with the kinds of information we want. Some decks can serve a variety of options, while others are more limited.

Tarot is incredibly flexible and was not created for fortune-telling. Rather a number of very different ways of reading the Tarot were developed and perfected hundreds of years later.

Leormand, in even its pre-Lenormand forms, was created for fortune-telling and the core meanings have been part of it since the beginning (with very little variation until recently). Does that mean it shouldn't evolve? No - I don't think we could stop it, but I think the approaches that take the Lenormand strengths and inherent unity into consideration will be those that last the longest.
 

jeffrey2530

I like Lenormand very very much, but I can't talk to it. Tarot on the other hand, speaks to me like my best buddy~...

it really depends on the individual I believe...
 

Richard

I like Lenormand very very much, but I can't talk to it. Tarot on the other hand, speaks to me like my best buddy~...

it really depends on the individual I believe...
I used to love the Lenormand but lost interest when I encountered militant "traditionalists" who insisted that the cards must NOT be interpreted according to the standard universal symbolism of the images but rather MUST conform to specific Lenormand meanings, which are etched in stone. Not being of an anal disposition regarding picture cards, however beautiful, I banished my decks to the top shelf of the hall closet. At least, Tarot interpretation is more flexible.
 

Teheuti

Of course you can read Lenormand cards any way you want!

If you read the pictures symbolically you are using the cards as a personal oracle. However books and study groups are not going to be of much use to you. What would they have to teach you? I mean you can each tell stories about what symbols mean personally or how those symbols appeared in your readings - but you can be using any oracle deck to do this. Even if everyone uses Lenormand decks, there are now well over 70 different decks (most published in the past three years) with much variation in the individual symbols that have been added to the cards.

Now, if you want to learn the Lenormand *System* of reading the cards - that's another thing entirely. It's like learning the Golden Dawn system for reading Tarot - there's the original tradition, which is essential if you want to call yourself a Golden Dawn reader, and then variations ala Crowley or Waite as well as more modern variations that are still in line with and based on the original teachings.

It's up to you whether you want to use the cards as a personal oracle - more power to you!
Or you want to learn the original system for which the cards were created (which we can now trace as far back as the 1760s), along with modern additions and variations that are in keeping with the tradition.

Tarot existed for 350 years before divinatory meanings were officially attached to them, so all Tarot systems and meanings are "add-ons". Lenormand was originally designed for fortune-telling in a very specific way - not that you have to pay any attention to that.

BTW, there is no one "standard universal symbolism" of an image. That's why whole books have been written on the world-wide variations in the symbolism of the snake or cats.