Category: Petit Lenormand

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The Three Rs: Reading the Combos in the Petit Lenormand

For those first lessons, reading, writing and arithmetic, I thought as great a burden and penalty as any Greek. And yet whence was this too, but from the sin and vanity of this life, because I was flesh, and a breath that passeth away and cometh not again? For those first lessons were better certainly, because more certain; by them I obtained, and still retain, the power of reading what I find written

St. Augustine, Confessions (Pusey, trans.)

Like most older readers, my Petit Lenormand apprenticeship was the “Grand Tableau.” These days, people prefer to “work up” to the full board via trios, squares and lines of varying length. Personally, I feel the GT is a good introduction; however, I can understand its intimidating appearance. It was, for this reason, I designed both my courses and mentoring around a structure designed to lead into the 36-card spread: line of three, 3 x 3 (teaches vertical and diagonal trios), line of five (can be read in mirror), line of nine (echoes the 9 x 4).

Combinations:

When I first started writing about the Petit Lenormand, there was a prevailing view that one had to memorise copious lists of different pairs, trios, &c. Most now know such ideas are nonsense: additional cards and directional nuances of specific decks all influence a combination.

However, the most significant modifiers are context and individual circumstances. If two people ask how their financial circumstances will progress, two identical pairings would have a different nuance for a wealthy entrepreneur and a single parent on benefits. Having a diverse clientele, I see this often. So they cannot be fixed.

It is, for this reason, I do not offer combination lists. Outside of a few essential pairs or trios (often for timing), it is far better from the start to focus on honing the necessary skill to combine cards in actual reading.

Forming Combinations:

There are several forms of combinations. But the three primaries are: by proximity, by touching and by correlation.

I refer to combinations of cards that touch – horizontally, vertically, or diagonally – as attendance. Other names include contact and encounter cards. The process is two-parted: narration and specification.

Narration:

Narration is when cards read like a storyboard: we start with the first card and move along, forming a narrative using the cards’ essence or core topic. Once the core significations are learned, most cartomantes find this method natural if not effortless.

For example, let us consider the following:

Letter: You receive a message (Letter, 7♠).

Letter + Park: You receive a message (Letter, 7♠) and go out (Park, 8♠).

Letter + Park + Bouquet: You receive a message (Letter, 7♠) and go out somewhere (Park, 8♠) and have a pleasant time (Bouquet, Q♠).

As you can see, building a flowing narrative is straightforward. It gives us the bare bones of an answer. However, it is vague and non-specific and needs to be fine-tuned, which is done through specification.

Specification:

Specification, or pairing, is the A – B method. Just as the word “feed” describes something different if preceded by the word “animal” or “social,” cards will be qualified by their attending partner. So, in A – B, B modifies or describes A.

When I first started writing about the cards I likened card A to a noun and card B to an adjective or verb. Nouns denote a person, object or place. Adjectives describe or seek to qualify a noun, and verbs express conditions or actions. Essentially, card B is the description or guise taken by card A.

To illustrate this, we will return to the above trio.

The first pairing is the Letter (7♠ ) and the Park (8♠). The topic of the Letter is often a ‘phone call, DM, e-mail or a letter. Our clue to its nature is the Park. It describes something as being in the open or en masse. The Letter + Park can thus be read as a flyer or advertisement.

The second pairing is the Park (8♠) and the Bouquet (Q♠). In this pairing, the Park is the subject. The Park’s essence is community, and thus is often either a place or group one mixes in. It is for this reason that the Park is the card of social networks such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, &c.

Considering the first pairing, we can take the Park as an event that the Bouquet describe. The Bouquet is the card of artistry and beauty. Describing the Park, the Park + Bouquet would refer to a craft fair, exhibition or horticulture event.

Now we know that the message received was an advertisement for an event or exhibition connected to crafts or horticulture. Which, from the narration, we see the client will attend and enjoy herself. She might take a girlfriend, as the Bouquet is also a person-card (queen of spades).

It should be clear then that narration gives the bare bones and specification the details. Using a line of three allows you the chance to practice combinations of attendance and get a feel of the cards.

Below are three clients readings done over the last few months.

Reading #1:

The first reading was for a female client who asked: will my presentation be well received?

The cards as they fell:

Cards: The Stars (6♥), the Lilies (K♠) and the Bear (10♣).

The narrative tells us that the Querent’s presentation will be clear (Stars) and go without any problems (Lilies), putting her in a strong position (Bear).

Let us refine it. The Stars is the cards of clarity and precision. The Lilies describes this as coming from focus and sensitivity. The Querent knows her stuff (clarity and focus) and knows how to put it across effectively (precision and sensitivity).

The final pairing is the Lilies and the Bear. When read as a topic, the Lilies is more often than not a man. Described by the Bear, we have a senior or older man in a position of power. We associate the Lilies with family, which would be someone within your team or department rather than higher management in professional terms.

Put together: we can say yes, it will go well and impress her immediate line manager. That she did. And has been given more responsibility as a result.

Reading #2:

The second reading was for a male consultant. He had just started his first job after University. He asked: should I come out to my colleagues?

The cards as they fell:

Cards: The House (K♥), the Fox (9♣) and the Birds (7♦).

The primary narration says that discussing his personal life (House) would be a mistake (Fox) and cause some upset at this time (Birds).

Why? The House signifies our home but also our personal life. Here, the Fox indicates the necessary steps taken to keep this private, e.g. the environment he is in is one where he needs to be discreet, not too open (House + Fox).

The reason is shown by the Fox + Birds: To avoid fuelling a two-faced colleague or gossips. Here, the Fox is the topic. Card no. 14 is the red flag card and indicates that something is wrong or lies. It is described by the Birds, which indicates noise and ruffled feathers. Often the Fox + Birds is an unfounded rumour — the Birds put 2 + 2 together and come up with 5.

So the answer is no, it is best to keep one’s private life private or risk causing up set by fuelling the office gossip.

Reading #3:

The third reading was for a female Querent. She was unemployed, and wanted to know: will I find a job soon?

On discussion with the Querent, we defined soon as a month.

The cards as they fell:

Cards: The Cross (6♣), the Boat (10♠) and the Bouquet (Q♠).

The narration tells us that there is still a difficult (Cross) wait (Boat) for a job offer (Bouquet).

The Cross is a time-card and always indicates the present. In terms of topic, it signifies hardship and pain. The Ship tells us that the hardship is being cast adrift. Nothing is moving, and she is lost (Cross + Boat).

The Ship + Bouquet tells us of a wait to hear of a job offer. The Boat is a long journey, or significant movement. The Bouquet , in this context, and be seen as an offer as it signifies arrangements (remember it shows cut flowers arranged in a bouquet).

So, the answer is no, not this month. But note that the Boat + Bouquet come after the Cross. The job is coming, but not this month.

This reading was done in February. In March, the Querent received a call-back for a second interview and was offered the job.

So, there you have a basic line of three and combinations.

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Cards:  Jeu Lenormand © Carta Mundi

Featured Image: GBSmithArt, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Eikṓn Equals Essence: The Pictures on the Petit Lenormand

Twelve o’clock.
Along the reaches of the street
Held in a lunar synthesis,
Whispering lunar incantations
Dissolve the floors of memory
And all its clear relations
Its divisions and precisions…

T.S. Eliot, Rhapsody on a Windy Night

It is now over ten years since I first started writing about the Petit Lenormand. Not that it was ever the intention or purpose of my then website. Within a few months of launching my DarkMoon, questions about the 36-cards and how to read them equalled and sometimes surpassed reading requests. Some even booked GTs to see how they were done and read.

So, I started writing a few short articles. The first was on the Serpent and the Mice cards. The second on trigger and heart (later changed to “hinge”) cards. However, most subsequent articles focused on building combinations. Most people (contacting me) knew the cards’ broadest significations but struggled to link them together in a coherent manner. It was at that point I first utilised the noun and adjective/adverbs.

Within the context of card combinations, nouns and adjectives are just an analogy. For me, it was never a rule or scheme followed indefinitely. It simply illustrated how, in most pairings, the second card describes or modifies the first. It also did not reflect how either I learned or read. Like most, my apprenticeship centred on the classical full-board or grand tableau. Cards were not understood through keywords but as events or happenings. I still see the cards that way, which is the basis of the concept of “essence” or “topic.”

As such, rather than having a student write three or four nouns and several adjectives, I recommend focusing on the essential nature of each picture in the game. Students are encouraged to thoroughly inspect their deck’s iconography and thereby penetrate the essence. If you know the core nature or topic of a card, you cannot go wrong (most of the time). Besides, essence often helps one come to understand some of the folklore or more obscure associations – all of which come from the picture!

That brings us to both a common misunderstanding and the subject of this entry:

We often hear that the images in the Petit Lenormand have no value. That is incorrect. Each card’s signification comes from its emblem. However, the Petit Lenormand emphasises the whole image over the symbol. You do not devote 300 words to the Boat’s sails. The image, when read, can be likened to an eikṓn or logogram. It, therefore, differs from the deconstructive method common to English-speaking diviners where, for example, a single detail on a card (snail, flag, etching on a goblet and so on) may be the focus rather than the image within which it is contained.

It is an issue of emphasis.

Details do matter to the Petit Lenormand reader. Directional clues (dark v. light, spine v. page, turret v. ground) add nuance. Card no. 15, the Bear (10♣), can describe someone as strong or muscular and a brunette. But if one is reading with the Schmid or Gilded Reverie, that would not be so. Why? Polar bears are not brown. The descriptive value thus changes to: strong or muscular and blonde.

Going further, replacing the child with a baby or cupid on card no. 13, the Child (Kn♠), would completely change the card’s signification. The Child is not a neonate but a preadolescent. The same with a dagger on card no. 11, the Birch Rod (Kn ♣ ).

Images are therefore important. Within them lies the cards’ essence and, therefore, signification. If you are struggling, it is often because you have not linked with a card’s (or several) core nature. Failure to do so prohibits access to (for a lack of better words) the collective memory and objective psyche.

For example, let us take the MOON card (8♥). Often people approach this card as they do the Tarot’s XVIII atout. The cards are entirely different, something which is confirmed by its icongraphy. Card no. 32 is the card of recognition and reputation.

Why? We have to remember what the Moon is.

Our Moon is the Earth’s single natural satellite. It has no light source and instead reflects the sun’s rays. Being but a reflection, it cannot illuminate the heavens as does the sun. Thus, as some points will be bathed in moonlight, others will remain cloaked in darkness. If one studies the iconography of traditional patterns — such as the Brepols, the Dondorf, the C.L. Wüst or the Blaue/Rote Eules — we see a partially lit landscape.

All we have done is identified what it is, its function and its behaviour. Neither you nor I could do so without the image. How does it work in a reading?

Traditionally, the Moon card falling near the Significator presaged great honour or fame. The moonlight shines upon you, leaving the rest in the dark. Far away, the opposite is true. If we remember that the moonlight is a reflection of the sun’s rays, we can understand the card with little difficulty. It is a shimmer of the Sun card as reflected in others’ eyes — hence the fame and honours.

Primarily, the Moon refers to our status, particularly in terms of professional or financial standing and whether we are deemed successful or not by society and our peers. Most people achieve fame through their career. If you are going for a job interview, a strong Moon-card is desirable. After all, you need to look good in the eyes of the interview panel! Of course, it can be one’s set or the trends and fashions observed in other contexts.

Consequently, we can think of the Moon in terms of essence and topic, as reflection and status, respectively.

Let us consider a second picture. In recent times card no. 19, the HIGH TOWER (6♠), has seen a significant revision of its core theme. It is now a card of government bureaucracy. And yet, a government is a group of people governing and hence a matter for the Park (often combined with the Bear).

One will note that the High Tower is traditionally portrayed as a tower-house. It is often located at a boundary, crowned with a lookout.

Perusing some of the traditional patterns, one will also note it is distinctly earlier period to the House (K♥) or Park (8♠) cards. The overall impression is not one of the arrogant bureaucrats but the distance in terms of time (old), height (looking out) and location (at a distance).

After such considerations, the old references to a long life and retirement does not look so archaic or strange. It has continued to live in the deck’s roots and can be found in several combinations. The “high” also translates into vertical combinations when considering the ground level (card below) versus the turret or apex (card above). It is for that reason I continue to refer to it as the High Tower.

Replacing the traditional tower-house with a skyscraper, or even the Empire State Building or la tour Effiel changes the card’s core essence and therefore meaning. A citadel would also make the governmental associations even more erroneous.

We will turn our attention now to card no. 18, the HOUND (10♥). Most readers see this card as the symbol of faithfulness par excellence.

The traditional image of this card was never a lapdog or even the family pet. Older Petit Lenormand decks had a working dog or sighthound (such as a Deutscher, Brittany Spaniel or Braque Saint-Germain). The dog is seen outside with its kennel, sometimes looking up as if it had heard or sensed something. It is, therefore, quite evident that this dog is not just a family pet. It has a role and fulfils a service. It is for this reason I prefer the title Hound.

The essence of the Hound card is the entourage. Entourage refers to people surrounding, but also attending to, a person. It talks about the people in your environment. Your doctor, plumber and colleagues will appear as the Hound.

Long-term readers of my work will know I often read the Hound as a colleague, employee, or professional acquaintance. It is a natural association – not least because I saw working-dogs growing up in a rural area!

Similarly, next to the House card, it can indicate a neighbour or someone living nearby. Why? Remember the Hound has a doghouse in its owner’s garden. It lives on the homestead. Its kennel is analogous to our neighbours’ property.

The loyalty of these people, friend or otherwise, can only be reckoned by the surrounding cards.

We can briefly consider a fourth and final card: card no. 1, the Cavalier (9♥).

Our traditional image is a well-dressed young man in either a tailcoat or frockcoat with Hessian boots and pantaloons. He is riding a horse. He is often but not invariably shown on the road and riding away from a château or maison de maître, he thus en route.

The Cavalier is a heard sent forth. He is riding out and has a destination but will return soon return to his abode. The most common reason for such action is to visit or deliver some tidings. For this reason, I have never referred to the card as the rider as it does not evoke the function or nature of the eikon: that is, a messenger.

Traditionally, the Cavalier was often said to denote news from abroad when falling far from the Significator. When one remembers that proximity refers to engagement, it is not hard to understand.

Far away, the Cavalier crosses a greater distance. However, it is equally possible that the news does not pertain directly to the querent.

We use the card as a “male person” because it shows a male person. If the Cavalier is female, it cannot be read thus. The male-figure can function as the chevalier servant. If a married female consultant has a lover, the Cavalier would represent him.

Similarly, its association with vehicles and exercise comes from the horse. That was the car or bicycle of the day. Equestrianism is a sport, no?

These are all what I refer to as progressed meanings, which is progressing each card’s essential nature on a functional level. That is, reading the card at the first indexical level of semiotics.

That has been the way in all forms of cartomancy, from the Tarot to the Oracle Gé and everything in-between.

When mentoring new readers, I encourage them to work with one or two decks. I advise them to study the cards closely and distil the information into an essence or core concept. That becomes there starting point for combinations. They will also become (if used) the houses’ significations in a full board.

Here is a basic list (given purely for reference for future articles):

  • Card no. 01 – The Cavalier (9♥) is herald.
  • Card no. 02 – The Cloverleaf (6♦) is chance.
  • Card no. 03 – The Boat (10♠) is travel.
  • Card no. 04 – The House (K♥) is home.
  • Card no. 05 – The Tree (7♥) is constitution.
  • Card no. 06 – The Clouds (K♣) is disturbance.
  • Card no. 07 – The Serpent (Q♣) is venom.
  • Card no. 08 – The Coffin (9♦) is endings.
  • Card no. 09 – The Flowers (Q♠) is arrangements.
  • Card no. 10 – The Scythe (Kn♦) is severance.
  • Card no. 11 – The Birch Rod (Kn♣) is correction.
  • Card no. 12 – The Birds (7♦) is noise.
  • Card no. 13 – The Child (Kn♠) is youthfulness.
  • Card no. 14 – The Fox (9♣) is falsehood.
  • Card no. 15 – The Bear (10♣) is strength.
  • Card no. 16 – The Stars (6♥) is navigation.
  • Card no. 17 – The Stork (Q♥) is change.
  • Card no. 18 – The Hound (10♥) is the entourage.
  • Card no. 19 – The High Tower (6♠) is distance.
  • Card no. 20 – The Park (8♠) is community.
  • Card no. 21 – The Mountain (8♣) is barriers.
  • Card no. 22 – The Path (Q♦) is intersections.
  • Card no. 23 – The Mice (7♣) is erosion.
  • Card no. 24 – The Heart (Kn♥) is emotions.
  • Card no. 25 – The Ring (A♣) is unions.
  • Card no. 26 – The Book (10♦) is knowledge.
  • Card no. 27 – The Letter (7♠) is communication.
  • Card no. 28 – The Gentleman (A♥) is male.
  • Card no. 29 – The Lady (A♠) is female.
  • Card no. 30 – The Lilies (K♠) is serenity.
  • Card no. 31 – The Sun (A♦) is illumination.
  • Card no. 32 – The Moon (8♥) is reflection.
  • Card no. 33 – The Key (8♦) is accessibility.
  • Card no. 34 – The Fishes (K♦) is resources.
  • Card no. 35 – The Anchor (9♠) is stability.
  • Card no. 36 – The Cross (6♣) is pain.


It should also be stressed to forget (for now) ideas such as “work cards” and whether a card is a mother or the father, male and female, or about “sex”. Such significations do not touch upon the cards’ essence. No card on an elementary level is work or sex

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Featured Image: English: Ikona u Manastiru Svetog Romana via Wiki Commons.

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Knowing That Looks Can Lie

These days, one does not entertain much interest in the social networks and communities. Earlier this month, however, there was an interesting discussion concerning the directionality of the cartomantic values of the Lenormand.

Although the use of direction in the Lenormand is a topic that arises episodically, few readers ever discuss the regards of the honneurs. Of course, the silence reflects the fact that little attention is given to the very personage of the queen of hearts (the Stork) or the king of diamonds (the Fishes), let alone their eyes. The taciturnity of our references, here, thus matches that of the paucity of sources on reading the four valets as people.

However, there is some folklore to be found. Interestingly, just as with the directional traditions, we find the susurration focused on the persons found in the least wholesome of our four suits: the king of clubs (the Clouds), the queen of clubs (the Serpent), and the knave of clubs (the Birch Rod).

The Clouds is a card that causes much confusion for readers. Unfortunately, we live in a time that struggles to understand the differences between object and function, and cause and symptom. This is evident in all practices of modern divination.

Although the Clouds can leave one ‘confused’ and uncertain these are symptoms of the card, rather than cause. Does one become confused each time a cloud is seen in the sky? No. The Clouds is a disturbance in the environment that engulfs and obfuscates situations, and people, that can and does result in serious implications. Thus, the card functions much like cumulonimbus storm cells and dense fogs.

From the earliest times, the absence of light or its causes (eclipses, et cetera) were malefic omens. In agricultural societies, the weather can be destructive – ruining harvests, flooding homes, destroying crops. Cards engulfed in the Clouds’ fog become tempestuous and difficult terrain. It is for this reason that certain cards that deal with direction and precision – the Road and the Stars  – suffer so. The Clouds is thus the Lenormand Oracle’s greater malefic.

Traditionally, one judges the severity of the Clouds from the placement of the dark and light side of the clouds. However, there are Lenormand Oracles where no clear differentia exists, such as the traditional Dondorf pattern, or the more recent Maybe Lenormand. How does one thus judge the card’s effect?

If one has the good fortune to be utilising a deck with the full playing-cards, the dark clouds can be ascertained from the regard of the king of clubs. Without clear differentiation, the direction he faces can be taken as the darkest side, or the eye of the storm.

Certain sources, usually Anglo-Saxon, report that the direction the king of clubs faces is the light-side. Such reversals overlook the problematic nature of this figure and the power of the “gaze” (think of deochi/yakhalo and traditional aspect theories).

In the cartomantic tradition, the kreuz-könig is considered a man who is to be treated with extreme caution and a dishonest figure (as is his consort). He casts darks shadows wherever he encroaches. The German card-reader, Birgitt Kraheck-Liecke, described him as someone who does not put all his cards on the table, which echoes the Petit Lenormand tradition.

In the pairing of the Clouds and the Tree, we can see serious health concerns resulting in a touch-and-go situation. The client will find herself undermined and a disquieting in her affairs.

Certain Lenormand Oracles have designs that contradict this simple rule, such as Piatnik’s Mlle Lenormand Wahrsagekarten. Sometimes this is because the publishers changed the designs of the playing-card inserts.  In these decks, the regard of the card cannot be taken as the indicator of the dark side (image here trumps folklore), but the gaze still reveals from where the storm blows or the king of clubs’s focus or domain if functioning as a person.

We now reach the above’s divisive consort, the queen of clubs (the Serpent).

Like the king the Serpent has suffered much from the stressing of a symptom over the cause. Whereas the former had an acute case of confusion, here we have complications. Again the card can cause complications but that is a side effect. There is also an unusual inclination to interpret the card as a constricting python, rather than a likelier venomous species such as vipera ursinii[1].

For some, the Serpent is the mother or another maternal figure in the querent’s life. Such association derives from the Germanic kreuz-queen who, although sometimes interpreted as an older female, is still primarily interpreted – vis-à-vis the suit – as a woman from whom little good can be expected from (Kraheck-Liecke, 2008[2]). Without the direct presence of herzkarten, she is never kin. Such maternal significations become arbitrary when we notice that Lenormand readers do not elevate the kreuz-könig to a similiar paternal figure. As consorts, the king and queen should share such associations.

Although meadow vipers are known to be bad-tempered and aggressive, with quite toxic venom, it cannot bite unless one is in close enough proximity for the Serpent to strike. The malefic attributes of this particular queen focus on situations with close emotional ties denoting some form of close presence. Therefore, this is a woman one does not want too close – serpent in bosom – but can be and is neutralised with distance.  Nevertheless we must never forget that the Serpent keeps her belly and ear to the ground and therefore is wise and intelligent.

It may be that the queen is better viewed as someone with whom one exercises caution but suspicion must be balanced with respect. In the game, the regard of the queen of clubs can be used to ascertain what she withholds from you. Thus, the card she turns from can be read as what she hides from you, or lies about.

Perhaps we see the queen of clubs combined with the Heart card. The queen deceives us about how she feels.

We could read this as loving another (the Serpent ‘has’ the heart), seduction and enticement (including adultery or seducing someone with no real feelings for gain), as well as trust/relationship problems in general. This harmful encounter brings the Serpent’s venom greater toxicity (in health it is sepsis) and although a classical adultery indicator it also warns of toxic love-affairs and dangerous partners.

Our king and queen’s offspring is a similarly troublesome card.

The knave of clubs (the Birch Rod) is a pugnacious figure but also a disciplinary one, associated with correction and lawsuits and thus well positioned in the game can prevent matters escalating into unmanageable conditions and hostility. He can also clear up affairs (besom). A less fortunate placed valet leaves one subject to scathing and hurtful slurs, violent outbursts and the general sense of feeling broken and beaten.

As such he has a dual nature: disciplinarian and aggressor. For fear of rubbing « la verge » up the wrong way, I will leave aside any potential phallic associations. Suffice it to say, there are readers who take this valet’s member very, very seriously. Personally, it’s a little too Freudian for me.

Quite often the reader can pinpoint the cause of tension (presence of a master card or the question posed). If, however, there is doubt it is useful to consider the card the knave of clubs looks towards. This card can identify what will anger our bellicose knave.

For example, we find the Key to the left of the Knave of Clubs. Does he find a solution disagreeable?

Therein lies the regards of the court of the clubs. As you can see, the regards offered details that were also consistent with the order. Herein lies an important directional lesson that will be touched on in future articles.

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Notes:

Cards: Jeu Lenormand © Cartamundi (1982).

Title, taken from See All Her Faces by Dusty Springfield.  Featured Image, via Wiki Commons Antakya Archaeology Museum Evil eye mosaic Dosseman https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antakya_Archaeological_Museum_Evil_Eye_Mosaic_in_2019_08.jpg#Licensing

[1] During the Eocene Epoch, pythons were native to South-eastern and Eastern Europe. Although certain Lenormand Oracles have represented the Elapidae classes, the typical design is closer to the meadow viper native to Central, South-eastern and Eastern Europe.

The emphasis on the card’s proximity to the significator – a method built around the concept of direct or indirect engagement – mirrors the logical inferences of these species of snakes.

Johann Kaspar Hechtel could indeed have known what a python was; however I am quite confident they were still extinct in Nuremberg in the eighteenth century.

[2]Kraheck-Liecke, B. (2008). Birgitt Kraheck-Liecke [online].