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While speaking with a friend, I thought it might be interesting to look at the Eclipse. On a whim, I asked “Should I read for the Sun or Moon first?”. It was of no matter to my friend so I choose the moon (being we’re both women). What happened next was very interesting.
I typically throw in lines of five. I am not sure why, but I like five. It’s not too many cards but not too few. When I threw my first line (because when I choose something specific, I will throw lines of five until the card I am seeking appears in a line) the first card out was the Sun. So I chuckled to myself because I was initially going to choose the Sun. I continued to throw my five cards and then started the next line. The first card of the second line? The Moon. The eclipse occurs when the Moon moves in front of the Sun.
Here is the full throw:
Because of the way that the cards came up, I decided to read it as layers. I am leaving out cards 1 & 5 because they are (to me) the eclipse. So, what will this energy bring?
Garden + Key : A gathering will certainly take place. This to me is a no-brainer. It could also be “Meetings are successful”.
Lily + Clouds : What I find interesting about these two cards are the two Kings. The Lily is the “Good” king – the lily is generally representative of family matters, harmony and social welfare. The Clouds – the “Bad” king are about setbacks and storminess – as a person this king is your “Grumpy” man. Think unpleasant Ex. What I dislike about this is that the Bad king sits on top of the Good king. So it appears that harmony will be disrupted. At least the clouds are a passing influence.
Ring + Dog : This makes me think “obligations will be kept” or a promise fulfilled. The clouds will still have an influence here – the dark side of the clouds face the dog. Good people may feel like they’re being dogged. Aggravation will come with the responsibilities to be kept.
Bear + Tree : There are a lot of ways to view this combination, but I see it as someone or something seeing a gradual increase of power or influence. The Bear is a very powerful animal and one which demands your attention and respect. The tree implys the growth here – slow and steady. A Maturation of sorts. Once the energy of the clouds dissipate, the energy of the Dog will take over so I see the growth and power to be more positive.
There’s also the strong possibility that there’s a message here for me personally as in two days time we will be traveling to a family reunion (garden + lily). There will most certainly be alcohol involved which makes the clouds + lily a funny combination (a family of social drinkers, which they are). It may be trying (clouds again) but in the end it appears that relationships will grow and strengthen (ring +dog & bear + tree).
Thoughts? :)
Being I woke up in an absolutely horrid mood, I figured what could be better than to throw some cards? Generally I am not an optimistic person, but I figured things couldn’t get much worse. But they always can…
What’s this all about? Well, the anchor is work (to me that is – many people use the fox for employment instead). The cross often pertains to grief and the child new beginnings.
And here begins our lesson. I thought this might be a good opportunity to illustraite how three different schools of thought would interpret these cards, and how important it is when reading to maintain an open mind.
When I went on my hiatus from reading for others, I invested in a membership over at waldfee.net which is a very extensive website as far as Lenormand and several other card systems are concerned. I had become familiar with it back in 2005 if I recall correctly. It’s exclusively in German so I have to use several online translators, but I feel it’s quite worth it. It was very important to me to be able to find additional resources to draw from. Part of what I’ve always had trouble with as far as English resources are concerned are the combinations. Waldfee has many that aren’t typical in any of these books.
Why is this important? Well….
When you read, you hope it’s going to be coherent. When I read the Lenormand, I think of my layout as a sentence where each card represents a word or phrase. This is why I like to read using linear type spreads. Now, I will demonstrate why this becomes challenging when using the different resources that are out there.
Reference #1: The Secrets of the Lenormand Oracle
“Anchor+Cross: Lasting sorrows, painful life experience, religious lifestyle”
“Cross + Child: Communion, baptism, birthing pains”
Now, it’s VERY important to note here that Sylvie Steinback (the author of this book) uses the Fox to represent work. I started reading using Sylvie’s method. It’s a very good one as far as I am concerned (I still use a variant of her “no layout method”) but because I had some background in what I would guess are traditional German meanings (and anyone more knowledgeable out there – please do correct me if I am mistaken) a lot of her meaning didn’t work well for me. This is one of those instances. If you’re a beginner to the Lenormand (or just looking for what I would consider to be a more “hip and updated” version of reading with these cards), this is a very good jumping off point to learn from. I know of many people who swear by Sylvie’s method and this is where they stop because it works beautifully for them.
Part of reading cards is really about connecting with your medium of choice. This way, when you lay out cards the meanings will be evident to you. Through interacting with many wonderful people over at The Art of Cartomancy forum I have seen this fact to be illustraited over and over. There are people from all over that come there and share knowledge and it’s so interesting to see how people view the same cards I use. There is no “wrong” way to read them – everyone is different. The important thing to do is find YOUR way of reading….
Had I stuck with Sylvie’s methods exclusively, the cards I threw probably would have been different. Once you and your cards agree on a language together, they will speak the one you’re familiar with. In my case, everything is “a work in progress” so the cards and I are still perfecting our conversational methods, lol…
Example #2: The Treppner Course
“Anchor+Cross: This work is destiny”
“Cross + Child: A child/young lady has a cross to bear”
Could this work for me? Well, I suppose it could but it’s not entirely clear what work it is that is destiny. I have several different “jobs” if you will. Having a cross to bear also wouldn’t fit – I am not what I would classify as a “young” lady, lol. This surprised me because usually Treppner’s method works well for me and it is what I use for meanings most of the time. But I started to run into things like this where I wasn’t too clear on the meaning. Rather than throw more cards (and further confuse myself) I decided to try looking for alternate meanings again. If you are interested in learning about the Lenormand and using the Grand Tableau in particular I would VERY highly recommend this course. It is worth the money spent in my opinion, and this course really helped me to move forward with my reading as a practice.
Example #3 Waldfee
Anchor+Cross: (this is roughly translated in both cases): An end to one’s occupation, layoffs due to work reduction.
Cross+Child (this is what struck me): A fresh start in 3 weeks. An important new beginning.
Both of these examples really hit home for me, which is somewhat unfortunate. Both my husband and I have seen enormous slow downs at our respective jobs due to the gargantuan mess that the US ecomony has become. It’s probably not helpful that we work in different divisions of the same very hard hit sector. My husband’s job has already seen multiple layoffs. Mine has not yet and my employers are working dilligently to avoid them.
The Child/Cross combination is reassuring – at least there will be a fresh start in three weeks though I am not entirely certian how this will impact us. Because (of course) this was very unsettling I looked at the bottom of the deck. What did I find?
Everything for a reason, I suppose
It’s been a while. I have sat down on multiple occasions thinking I was going to write and it just wasn’t working for me. I hate when I get blocked but it happens. But I digress….
Today when I was shuffling the Book fell out of my deck. I though that was amusing (I still contend that my cards have a sense of humor). So I asked my cards to tell me a secret. Here’s what I got:
What is nice here is that everything is coming to me, and it’s all plesant. Very much so.
The storks herald change, and the bouquet a surprise or a gift. This will mean a lot to me as indicated by the heart, or I will love whatever the change surprises me with. What confuses me to some degree is the ship. Depending on who you look to for a meaning, it could be “a long time” or three years. Or 3 days/weeks/months. Or, possibly my ship has come in.
The other possibility here is that this is about my mother’s impending visit to see me for my birthday (the storks could be the timing card which would indicate February). While this is reasonable, it wouldn’t be a secret by any means. Unless my mother plans to surprise me somehow (as indicated by the bouquet again).
The final thing I noticed while thinking about this was that the Lady is holding a bouquet of flowers. So again this could be indicating that changes are coming, and this is something that has been my heart’s desire for a long time. The ship can also indicate longing for something. Of course (not ironically) the next card on the deck was – The book.
I guess I’ll wait and see 
After having thrown cards a few times and getting what I felt were appropriate responses to what was in my mind, I decided to ask the Petit Lenormand the aforementioned question….
Here was what I got:
It’s really kind of amusing, but here’s what we have:
Whip+clouds – discussions that go no where. This has been the state of my relationship with my husband. I feel like he rarely (if ever) listens to me, and it can be quite aggravating (and occasionally costly). For example we had a discussion about the roast chicken I was going to make for dinner. I had just finnished preparing it – butter under the skin and lemons and rosemary in the cavity in addition to a few other things. We hung up. My husband called me back not more than 20 minutes later to ask if I wanted to go out to eat tonight. I think I was silent for a full 30 seconds before I reminded him about the discussion we’d just had. Sometimes I wonder if it might be more fulfilling for me to talk to my dogs. At least they have an excuse – namely that they can’t speak English.
Clouds+Moon – depression. Ah yes, it has reared its ugly head. This is nothing new for me – I deal with it every year during the fall. Fortunately it hasn’t been too bad this time around, but then I have been preoccupied with other things.
Moon+Anchor – this combination intrigued me. According to some schools of thought it can represent addiction. Thankfully that is one problem I don’t have! If we consider that some people believe that the moon is representative of fame, it could be fame through work (again, not a likely option for the lowly Countess, lol). OR it could be emotional work – working with people’s feelings. That’s what I was doing with my readings, and it’s quite emotionally draining as well (which could also be another meaning if we look at the moon as feelings and thoughts and the anchor as “tieing one down”).
Finally Anchor+Birds – Work+worries? Yes, that does fit. Weighted down by worries? Check. Working with phone calls? Check again. It all depends on how we choose to view the birds.
This seemed to work on so many levels. So I flipped the deck over, and what did I find?
Indeed!
Hmmm…
Unfortunately for me, I do not do well reading for myself. In this instance I asked about my husband’s job (yes, back to that) and this was the throw.
I used to love mice, but after having them infest my house and seeing them all too frequently in my readings, they’re not my favorite creatures. Sadly, the mice imply “loss” or “theft”. In this case, a message is lost (mice+letter) and the letter was to or from a man (more than likely to my husband). What’s worse is that it appears that he was beginning to feel better about things at work (which he has) however, a phone call is about to change that. The best thing about this situation is that it’s temporary and short lived (so says the birds). Either that or there will be a misunderstanding that will cause him some grief.
I would of course have to assume that we shall be receiving another late night call from a client he’s been working with (who have since been instructed to please lose his phone number) because they weren’t notified he was not to be contacted. This will of course set my husband off and aggravate him (as it would me). So, a mundane message again but not so horrid.
At least I will get a hearty laugh when the phone rings….
Today’s Lenormand draw:
Bear – Snake – Letter – Clover – Rider
My previous throws all had a message that was repeated. The first was family, the second was removed obstacles. Today, it appears to be a fortunate message or lucky communication. Here’s how we break it down:
Bear + snake is more than likely a business woman, the bear is about official people and possesions. It can refer to other things (the bear+the lily usually refers to the law or a lawyer) but more often than not these are the references.
Snake + letter tells me the message will be from this woman. Apparently (according to the snake+clover) she is a rather fortunate individual herself.
Next, we have the letter+clover or “message fortunate” followed by clover+rider “fortunate message”. Finally, we have the bear+rider “official message”.
When I look at the bottom of the deck, there were the Stars. So, the message could bring some clarity, it could be about an idea or it could be about a new start. I’ll have to wait and see, but whatever it is, it appears to be purely positive and that is always welcome in my house, lol…
I have to say I am perplexed about the repetition in the message (I personally think my guide has a fantastic sense of humor), but I do appreciate it – it makes it much easier for me to decide (because in some cases the letter can mean something superficial and the clover can mean “fleeting” or short term influence) what the cards are trying to tell me. Perhaps I am just that thick? None the less, it does give me a good laugh so I’ll enjoy this hiccuping while it lasts…
On the surface this looks like an awful throw, but is it really?
It looks like:
Endings, danger, losses, obstacles, strong feelings. If you bring in the card combinations though, it’s a totally different matter.
End to danger (coffin+scythe), cut losses (scythe+mice) obstacles erradicated (twice here – scythe+mountain, mice+mountain) blocked strong feelings (mountain+heart), transformation of strong feelings (coffin+heart)
Now one might consider blocked feelings to be negative HOWEVER sometimes in life it is vital to remove yourself from the feelings in a situation to re-examine it using the rational mind. So, it’s not always a bad thing. In fact it can be a very good thing. Then we can think about how we feel and decide whether the feelings are in fact warranted. I think the message is really quite lovely.
A lot of times, things that happen in life seem to be quite dreadful on the surface. Once we muddle through and see our way clear, we realize that what happened needed to for whatever reason. The end result is we learn a great lesson. If not about the experience itself, we learn about ourselves. Our deep feelings, the heart of who we are. It is impossible to lie about yourself or your situation when faced with enormous crisis. To do so would not serve our natural desire to self-preserve. We are faced with our true character. When the crisis ends, we can chose to stagnate and be blocked – lock our hearts away behind great mountains. OR, we can become transformed. We can hack away at the things that steal our lives from us and hinder our progress and move closer towards the people, things and situations that we want. Good can come from bad.
I have:
Bear – Paths – Ring – Sun – House
Bear generally means an official, though the bear can have a lot of other meanings. Since the bear’s partner is the house, it makes me think a real estate agent but the bear is also coupled with the paths, so it could simply be a decision about a house (viewing the house as a possesion using the bear). There’s also a decision to be made regarding a relationship or contract (paths + ring) and there’s good fortune around this (sun). Whatever it is it will bring luck to the house (sun + house).
This is a very straightforward reading. Sadly I know of no one who’s buying a home, lol… I guess I’ll have to wait and see. I looked at the bottom of the deck and my card was the dog so it is probably a friend, possibly male.
Tada!
Update: It (very ironically) turns out that one of the people in our IT department who was trying to help me today (9/19) mentioned during casual conversation that he and his future wife are house hunting. They had made an offer on a home they liked and expected to hear back today. Going with your first impression tends to give you a correct answer in life, and cards are no different. It’s also important to recognize that different people read the same cards to mean different things! That doesn’t mean one way is better than another – it’s quite the contrary! When we shut ourselves off to suggestions and advice from others, we essentially shut off the learning process, and that’s the bad thing!
Interesting things to note:
The central card on the bottom row (the Zigeuner cards) is “Falseness”. The cards surrounding the central card in the top row (the Lenormand) are the Fox and the Snake, both of which resemble the Cat and Snake in falsness. The rider (top row) also has a resemblance to the coachman in the “journey” card (bottom row) and the predominant horse is white as it the horse the rider is on.
In the top row, the Lady’s body is facing the other cards, however her face itself is turned away. She is coulpled with the Fox. This can imply either that she is clever or underhanded. The lady is also coupled with the Rider who is approaching her. Since the Lady is generally the Querent or Questioner, she would be me. So the rider may be bringing me a message from a woman (snake) who is less than trustworthy (fox). What is also unsettling is that my home is surrounded by the fox and snake.
In the Gypsy (Zigeuner) reading, it’s kicked off by Misfortune. So it seems something rather unpleasant is going to occur. Fortunately it will not be a long term influence (as indicated by the visit) or perhaps it will come from a visit. The visit card has an elment of surprise to it. The third card is falseness which is also a rather negative card. It can indciate deception – internally or externally. Maybe this visit will force me to face something that I know but am turning a blind eye to? Next is unexpected joy which is a very positive card, so whatever the unfortunate event is, I can at least take heart that it will be for the best. It’s followed by journey. The journey card can indicate a long time or a sudden voyage. Maybe I am happy to be going on a trip? The other possibility is that something that appeared to be a very bad situation (misfortune) was not (falsness) when I visit it and see it for what it is?
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