How YOU see Lenormand....

I was taught by two German women who, although I did not know it at the time, followed different systems as in the French and German. It was sink and swim with them as I was just a tag a long. My teething ring was the GT.

However, when I do the 4 x 9 GT, I follow the German system as well as the "near/far distance style" used between the Man and Woman. That is how I was taught by the "traditionalist" of them both.

Been about 12 years or so that I was introduced and a solid 10....wait....saw them online (the ladies who taught me) last week and have known them since around 2003 then more solidly from 2005 as that is when I started taking notice of the Lenormand more and more.

There were no books about or anything in English on the internet when I started to learn and one of my teachers spoke English like my father which caused me to pay some real serious attention to the cards. "The belly of the mother" was the "Snake card" (I think) to her, so I had to learn how to interpret what she meant as it was not always so straight forward.

Eventually, the GT became "limited" to me, so I ventured out as I wanted something that was more direct when it came to questions.

I came across Sylvie Steinbach and joined AT in 2009 only to find that she had left it and there was a trail of not so good things happening between others and her. The archive examples were good though. Anyways, I bought her book and did not return to AT again until I wanted to learn Tarot. I also considered doing the "Advanced Course" she was going to run in NZ and Australia in 2011. Unfortunately, she wanted me to do the "basic one" as a pre-requisite, and I felt I was too beyond basic to comply plus I realized the courses were not as productive as she thought as it left some learners still confused and others not getting it at all. I did interact with her a few times as well and when it came to her system - there was no flexibility.

I do resort to her book if I really need to.....or when I find it.

DND

WolfyJames said:

Whether it's for tarot or other oracles, I don't like big spreads and I don't use them. So I don't use the Grand tableau. I either use 1 card spreads, 3 cards spreads, 9 cards spreads, or that one that I created.

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just checked out your spread, WJ. I like the looks of it and I'm going to give it a try. T.Y. for posting about it here!

I remember having this discussion before! If the sitter has a very specific area of interest, I try (not always successfully) to resist getting lured into all the interesting storytelling side-trips unless asked. This helps to keep the duration of a GT reading trimmed down. If the sitter's interest is "Tell me about the coming year," all bets are off. The GT is extremely elastic and can cover a lot of ground.

My approach with a GT is to use proximity as the starting point (the cards immediately surrounding a significator first and then those farther away, kind of the reverse of "peeling an onion"). I also read horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines as direction-dependent, radiating outward above, below and to the right of the significator, and converging inward from the left, above and below, not as simple strings but by building up card combinations into a narrative. I use the above/below and left/right models not as conscious/unconscious and past/present/future so much as the degree of situational importance for the subject of the reading. I generally stay away from psychological interpretation of the cards because I don't see it as a Lenormand strength.

I'm trying to work the "four corners" idea into my method, but - unlike the 9-card square - it isn't always obvious how they relate to the significator. With the GT, it seems a bit counter-intuitive to the "proximity" approach. The same is true of the first four cards in the spread as the "message" for the querent; more work is needed in these areas. On the other hand, I find value in using the last four cards at the bottom of a "8x4+4" GT as the "destiny" roll-up for the reading.

The individual focus areas (health, work, love, home, family, etc.) I see as subject-specific "vortices" that pull in the influence of the surrounding cards in the same way the Lady and Gentleman cards do. I like Andy's idea of examining the condition of the Clouds right after working through the main significator as a way to see what kind of resistance might be in the picture.

My favorite "power tools" right now are knighting and intersection, especially where the relationship between the Lady and the Gentleman (or between those and other focus cards) is being examined. I'm playing around some with mirroring, but it's purely a secondary technique at present. As an elaboration of the "near/far" method, I've also been considering using the area enclosed by the knighting "array" as a high-focus zone in which linear combinations and knighting reinforce one another. I just laid this out; it created a 21-card "rounded square" (with the corner cards missing). I laid it out again with the corners filled in - allowing for three-card instead of two-card diagonals - to create a 5x5 square. I can see doing this independent of the GT, but I think I would pre-position the significator card at the center.

Barleywine said:

As an elaboration of the "near/far" method, I've also been considering using the area enclosed by the knighting "array" as a high-focus zone in which linear combinations and knighting reinforce one another. I just laid this out; it created a 21-card "rounded square" (with the corner cards missing). I laid it out again with the corners filled in - allowing for three-card instead of two-card diagonals - to create a 5x5 square. I can see doing this independent of the GT, but I think I would pre-position the significator card at the center.

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I agree that what you are calling the "knighting array" [perfect term, can I use it?] is fascinating and can be highly significant especially when one of the points (knighting from the Significator) either touches on another important card or that point also knights a card like the Significant Other (partner, etc.). Example: The Man and Woman cards both knight to the Heart card! Yes, I've seen this happen.

I also find the knighting pattern in a 3x3 to be significant, although usually secondary to the more common 3x3 techniques - unless reinforcing other patterns.

Knighting arrays as a whole sometimes tell their own story.

Teheuti said:

I agree that what you are calling the "knighting array" [perfect term, can I use it?] is fascinating and can be highly significant especially when one of the points (knighting from the Significator) either touches on another important card or that point also knights a card like the Significant Other (partner, etc.). Example: The Man and Woman cards both knight to the Heart card! Yes, I've seen this happen.

I also find the knighting pattern in a 3x3 to be significant, although secondary to the more common 3x3 techniques - unless reinforcing other patterns.

Knighting arrays as a whole sometimes tell their own story.

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You're welcome to use the term "knighting array," I won't be writing a Lenormand book any time soon. I'm still putting together my workbook of advanced "cross" spreads.

Barleywine said:

You're welcome to use the term "knighting array," I won't be writing a Lenormand book any time soon. I'm still putting together my workbook of advanced "cross" spreads.

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Can you tell us more. And, thanks for the permission.

As people write books and teach others we are attempting to come up with terms that are clear and effective for describing the patterns and methods. For instance, "linking" or "chaining" houses. And "mobile homes" or "mobile houses" for using randomized houses in either short layouts or GTs. - all terms that many people have adopted.

Teheuti said:

Can you tell us more. And, thanks for the permission.

As people write books and teach others we are attempting to come up with terms that are clear and effective for describing the patterns and methods. For instance, "linking" or "chaining" houses. And "mobile homes" or "mobile houses" for using randomized houses in either short layouts or GTs. - all terms that many people have adopted.

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I would, but this really isn't the right forum for it. I created the spreads for use with tarot, primarily in the Golden Dawn tradition; many of them have astrological and elemental correspondences, as well as Tree of Life associations, that don't sync with Lenormand (although some people seem to be trying). I explicitly noted in the text that Lenormand has its own well-established tradition, and didn't recommend the spreads for use with it.