This isn't a LWB example. (I have no idea when LWBs began.) But it is an example of a Taroist writing a book giving divinatory meanings connected with his philosophical meanings of the cards, and then saying that intuition can, and often does, supplant the book meaning in divination.
In the second part of The Tarot of the Bohemians (1892), Papus gives a system of divinatory meanings for the cards. It's a seriously systematic numbers + suit system, combining the pattern of thesis, antithesis, synthesis with the Hebrew letters of the Tetragrammaton, the four-lettered name of God; along with a rather straightforward and narrow reading of the symbolism of the majors (Lovers=love, Justice=justice, Star=hope,). But he keeps pointing out that the reader's intuition can override the given meanings.
In Chapter XX he says:
The truth of the predictions, then, depends upon the intuition of the prophet, and this leads us to consider the differences which may be noticed between the predictions of fortune-tellers.
and:
Intuition plays the most important part when the more exact methods disappear, and therefore woman's nature, which is essentially intuitive, is well qualified to read these divinations.
And he ends the chapter with:
Lastly, we will explain the principal methods used by masters in the art of fortune-telling, so as to enable our readers to become adepts in the prediction of the future. But we must remind them that science has little empire over the subject, and that imagination and intuition reign over this charming domain.
His Second Lesson on divination, which gives his system of meanings for the minor arcana ends with:
It therefore requires little time to thoroughly learn the meaning of the minor arcana, even without much memory. We advise those readers who fear they may forget them, to simply write the meaning on the cards themselves. However, professional card readers are careful not to do this, for intuition often leads them to an interpretation which differs from the exact meaning of the card.
The Seventh Lesson, the conclusion of the divinatory section, contains this statement:
Our readers are therefore able to choose whichever system they prefer, and whichever they find most successful. We must repeat that intuition is the great secret of all these divining arts, and that fortune-telling by cards, in water, in earth, or coffee, is precisely the same thing.
I suppose this is a bit broader than a strict "reading the pictures" approach, though. Papus leaves things to the reader's intuition without that limitation. It could, for example, be a matter of what the reader thinks of Queens and of Cups in a given reading, and not what the reader thinks of a particular picture of a Queen of Cups.
Although Papus is talking about something like "tossing LWBs" (as Herzog put it), he doesn't seem to be so much offering something new so as he is saying (in the late 1800's), "This is how it is done. Readers can and do use their intuitions, instead of book meanings, so feel free to do the same." We don't have an awful lot of old literature on reading the cards. So this may really be the first written record we have of that advice. But I don't know, and would enjoy learning about earlier examples.
), I am really enjoying Anna K's LWB... The connection between the artist and author, and the intention behind the LWB, certainly does seem to be a major decider for me in how useful the LWB will become... but intuition is still a major component... absolutely!!! 