Barleywine
If we go with real definition of intuition – that is immediate cognition without discourse – as long as the person has studied the cards’ signification the process of combination should, always, be intuitive i.e. Tree – High Tower, long healthy life versus Tree – High Tower – Clouds terminal illness or serious debilitating health condition. You should be able to combine the cards with ease, and under any appropriate context.
That is achieved through studying and making a rapport. I firmly believe intuition is needed.
My personal experience is that study and practice create "conditioning," not intuitive acumen. Automatically making sense of a card combination with just a glance is a conditioned response, not primarily an intuitive one. I resort to intuitive insights (although I won't deny that they could be obcure, long-forgotten associations dredged up from my subconscious) when I'm having trouble making 1+1 equal 2, because they ignite my imagination and give me new grist for the mill. For me, they are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. I never open a reading (and especially not a Lenormand reading) expecting I'm going to get a lightning-flash of intuitive revelation that makes everything perfectly clear. Intuition as I see it helps me bridge apparently unbridgeable gaps in continuity, but the link forged in this way still has to be tested in practical terms - usually through verifying with the querent whether it makes sense within the context of the question.