Lenormand deck

Moonbow* said:

BTW - can anyone tell me why the 2,3,4 and 5 of each suit is missing?

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They're based on playing card decks which omit the 2 to 5 of ech suit which are known as piquet decks. These 32-card playing card decks were used to play the card game piquet. People began to do divinations with piquet decks, and from there, 32-card oracle decks developed. To this day, many people in France who read regular playing cards, use 32-card decks.

http://www.wutich.mk.ua/cardparade/eanglish.htm

Well I never knew that! Thanks Rusty,

I have a set of Lenormand and a set of Titania's Fortune Cards. I actually prefer to read with Titania's set.

It is interesting to see Titania's interpretation as some cards are quite different to Lenormand.

I also have a few cartomancy books and I bought the Lenormand set because they have the playing card equivalent on each. I was interested to see how they all tied in.

I normally do a seven card reading (as a daily spread) or a nine card reading as a weekly spread. The spreads are as Lee described in his earlier post.

Occasionally I'll do the full 36 card spread (which is supposed to be done 1-3 monthly).

Titania's Fortune Cards were actually my very first set of cards, so I guess I have a special affinity with them.

purple_scorp

Hi purple_scorp

I have been having a go with these cards using the whole deck as described in the booklet that comes with them. Trying to remember all the card meanings and in relation to whether they are past, present, future or whether they are near or far away from the personal card is going to take a while to get to grips with. For me it will involve alot of writing in my journal.

Would you say it's better to start with a smaller spread, say, the 7 or 9 card one? Also, would you take out the personal card first, to include in the spread?

Hi Moonbow.
I started using the Madame Lenormand deck after I'd used Titania's deck so the transition wasn't that hard.

For me, learning Titania's deck was easier than learning the Tarot, because there are no position meanings. You interpret the cards according to their position to other cards.

Having said this, yes, it is actually easier to start with a smaller spread, such as the seven-card spread.

But is also really good to do the nine card spread, then take one card from that, and expand on it with the full card spread. This is a good way of clarifying the initial spread, just in case you are unsure of part of it. You don't necessarily take the card that you like that you want to know more about - you take the card that juts out at you. Sometimes this is a card that you don't like. Where it gets interesting is to see where the cards in the nine card spread end up in the full spread, as often they are still together, regardless of reshuffling.

To make it easier for me to remember what the cards meant if they were next/near another, I created a huge Excel spreadsheet with the card names across the top, and down the side. Then, slotted notes in at the card intersecting cells. It took twelve A4 sheets and I stuck them in a two by three layout, back to back. Then laminated it. Although it sounds complicated, it was easy to construct and very simple to use. I'm sure this helped me with my initial readings.

I don't read professionally, just for family and friends but it is interesting to receive feedback on the reading. Just recently I predicted a friend of friend would meet someone at work. He couldn't see it at the time. I found out last week that a new person came into his work and they started dating.

In terms of personal cards (the man, the woman), I don't use them as signature cards like you do in the Tarot. So, I don't set them aside before the reading. I interpreting them, according to where they fall. So for example, a woman next to the ring, for me, is a married woman (which may not necessarily be the querent.

My post is probably more about Titania's deck rather than Lenormand's but that's because I'm more comfortable with the former.

If you have any more questions, I'd be happy to answer.

Cheers

purple_scorp

purple_scorp said:

Having said this, yes, it is actually easier to start with a smaller spread, such as the seven-card spread.

But is also really good to do the nine card spread, then take one card from that, and expand on it with the full card spread. This is a good way of clarifying the initial spread, just in case you are unsure of part of it. You don't necessarily take the card that you like that you want to know more about - you take the card that juts out at you. Sometimes this is a card that you don't like. Where it gets interesting is to see where the cards in the nine card spread end up in the full spread, as often they are still together, regardless of reshuffling.

Click to expand...

sorry to be a duh... but can you go into this a bit more for me. For example, can you take out any card from the 9 card spread? Then, how do you lay out the full spread.

Also how do you lay out the seven card spread and read it.

Do you think it's worth getting the Titania deck as the book sounds as though it may help with the Lenormand. There doesn't seem to be an English book out there in English for the Lenormand deck

Hi Moonbow.
This post is going to appear as contradictory.

Although Titania based her cards on Lenormand, her interpretations are more modern. So they are different. So getting Titania's set will help you with Titania's deck but I'm not that it will necessarily follow that it will help you with Lenormand's deck. (However, as I said in an earlier post - the tranisition from one to the other is relatively easy.) Hope that doesn't sound like double dutch.

As Lee explained in his earlier post, Titania's set comes with a full instruction book that details the seven, nine and full card spreads.

Personally, I love Titania's stuff. As well as the cards, I have her numerology book and her crystal ball kit. I would recommend that you buy Titania's Fortune cards for themselves, and not necessarily as a way of interpreting Lenormand. It is a truly beautifully packaged set.

The seven card spread is read as a sentence. The best way to explain is to show a sample reading. I hope that this is not outside this thread's guidelines.

When I do seven and nine cards spreads, I like to shuffle, then fan the deck out, face down and hand pick the cards. When I do a reading for other people, I shuffle, then fan the deck and they pick the cards.

Cards are always read in their upright position.

For the purpose of this reading, I will give quick interpretations only. If the cards together don't mean anything, I'll leave them out. Each card is read in conjunction with the others in the line, though the further apart, the less impact. This is where your intuition kicks in. Because there are so few cards in a seven card spread, I read all joint meanings.

Quick sample seven card spread:
Anchor, Heart, Star, Ship, Coffin, Fish, Bear

Anchor/Heart - Secure in love.
Anchor/Ship - Torn between going away and staying.
Anchor/Fish - Money looks sound.

Heart/Star - Bodes well for love relationship.
Heart/Coffin - Love is not flourishing or your love is away.
Heart/Bear - Really important love affair.

Star/Coffin - Problems won't last longer.
Star/Fish - Business looks excellent.

Ship/Fish - Improvement in affairs, increase in luck and fortune.

Coffin/Fish - Wait for funds.

Fish/Bear - Money earned through profession.

My interpretation:
You had a fantastic relationship, however, your lover went away, and you do not know whether to follow them or not. The reason for your procrastination is that you are doing really well in your own employment. Perhaps you are trying to get enough money together to visit your lover. This will come, after a short wait.

With regard to the nine card reading. It is a three column, three row layout. It is read in sentences across each row. Then down each column, then diagonally from corner to corner (top to bottom). Yes, you can take any card and expand on it with a full reading. Lay that card in the centre. Shuffle deck and select one to cross it. Then reshuffle pack and layout cards in set pattern (which may be a little complicated to show in this post).

Without explaining order that cards are laid, it ends up being a huge cross, 8 cards down, 8 across (these surround central two cards). Then three cards each in each corner of the cross and the remaining cards (six) in a straight line at the bottom.

If you want to know more about this spread, I can post but it is perhaps suited to a different topic.

Good luck with your reading and let me know if you need more help.

Cheers
purple_scorp

I just bought this delightful deck from Mysteries in Seven Dials. It's a Lo Scarabeo approc 1.5"x 3" (so quite small), for around £5. It's the first non-Tarot deck I've bought, and it looks quite powerful. Anyway, just wanted to say thanks to all the contributors to this thread. Really helpful!

Happiness,

does your deck have the playing card equivalent on each card?

Let us know how you go with readings.

Cheers

purple_scorp

No, just the picture, and a tiny number at the top, in a small 'drop-down' box. No words at all. The picture has a tiny white border, microns wide. This is the followed by a dark border, larger at the top and bottom, which appears to show wreckage. Around this is a white order, around 1/5" wide.

The rear shows 4 mirrored images of a girl playing with a doll

Thanks for the encouragement Purple, I'll let you know how I progress.