Caitlin Matthews - 'The Complete Lenormand Oracle Handbook'

Melia

Just thought I'd mention that I came across a listing of a book to be published soon by Caitlin Matthews - 'The Complete Lenormand Oracle Handbook'. Anyone else know about this?
 

Autumn Spice

I preordered that book. :)
 

Lil Red

I still need to preorder it, but I'm super excited about it! :D
 

Glass Owl

According to the Amazon listing, the book:

• Explores the meanings of the 36 Lenormand cards and their playing card insets to help build a resourceful, interpretative vocabulary
• Provides instructions for many spreads, starting with 3 or 5 cards and building to the Grand Tableau spread, which uses all 36 cards
• Includes case histories for readers to interpret, self-tests, and practice exercises
• Reveals the origins of the Lenormand oracle from both coffee-ground symbols and playing card cartomancy

These two sentences also jumped out at me.

She explores the significance of the playing card pips and suits on each card and how cards combine to create a variety of meanings.

Providing real case histories for readers to interpret, she also includes self-tests and practice exercises with answers to check at the end of the book.
 

Melia

That the 4 suits form part of the illustration on the front cover of this book tells you there will be some meaningful focus on this, which is really good to see.
 

Sarahlu

Excited! If the Enchanted Lenormand book was that great, I can't wait to see what she can do with plenty of space to expand and explain in as much detail as needed.
 

andybc

This is a book I am personally very excited about. Caitlín has discovered some real treats which will be in this book and I think anyone, whatever their experience or preference, will find something within these pages.

Also for people wanting to know more about how to use the suits, I think they will enjoy it.
 

Lee

I've now read most of this book, so I feel like I'm able to at least give some first impressions.

There's a lot I like about this book, and some things I found frustrating.

I was pleasantly surprised when I first opened the book. Teheuti has posted that it's a beautiful book. When I read that I thought, "How beautiful could it be?" But she was right -- it's gorgeous! The book has been printed in full color. All card images, as well as diagrams, are in color. Most of the text is in black ink but all the chapter and section headings are in red or blue ink. Kudos to Destiny Books for a first-rate production.

Caitlín Matthews has written a very comprehensive book. It includes full meanings for all the cards, broken down into categories (i.e. Nouns, Verbs, People, Timing, etc.), with some sample combinations for each; plenty of reading examples, exercises, and self-tests; many spreads; many methods for reading the Grand Tableau; Near and Far Method; special information the cards can give such as timing, locations, lost objects; and general advice on the reading process and reading for others professionally.

One of the things I like about Caitlín's Lenormand books (this one and the accompanying book to the Enchanted Lenormand deck) is that she really makes an effort to try to communicate to the reader the mechanics of reading cards in combination, and she includes many examples and exercises to that effect.

I particularly liked the "reverse" exercises, where you have a story or headline or situation and you try to find the proper cards to match. In a bravura performance, she uses 12 cards to illustrate the entire plot of the Odyssey!

I think the book would serve anyone as a great introduction to the various methods included under the umbrella of "traditional."

But there were things that frustrated me as well. It's not a big deal, but some of Caitlín's choices for decks to use as illustrations weren't the ones I would have chosen; some of them have images that aren't very clear when shrunk down and reproduced on the pages.

More importantly, I had the same problem with many of her reading examples as I did with the Enchanted Lenormand book, which is that I found several of them hard to follow in their logic. To arrive at her interpretations of combinations, she seems to use an associative mental process which is often opaque to me. Perhaps I simply haven't formed the mental connections necessary to comprehend them; however, when reading examples in other books and online, I don't seem to have this problem.

One factor that doesn't help in this regard is some inconsistency with keywords. There's keywords listed in the card meanings section at the front of the book, and there's a shorter "At a Glance" keyword list at the back. When reading the examples and exercises, I found that sometimes there would be a keyword in the larger front section that wouldn't be at the back, and that's perfectly reasonable. But sometimes there were keywords in the list at the back that weren't in the meanings chapter at the front. And in some reading examples, Caitlín uses keywords or concepts that aren't found in either the front or the back lists.

I'm probably being too sensitive to this, but for me, I find these kinds of inconsistencies disruptive to my learning process, if I can't follow or understand where the author is going with the interpretation.

There were some card keywords/concepts that threw me, like "witness" for the Rider or "layoffs" for Whip. I've tried to find precedents for these among other books and blogs and have come up short; I'll be happy to stand corrected on this if anyone has further information. "Witness" for Rider doesn't really make sense to me, unless perhaps one thinks of it as someone bringing evidence to a trial, but that seems like a bit of a stretch, since someone may be a witness but never appear at a trial. "Layoffs" for Whip seems a bit too precise for one card; I would think that concept would need two cards, such as Moon+Scythe (for Caitlín, the Moon is the work card). [UPDATE: kalliope set me straight on "layoffs" for Whip in a subsequent post.]

It's great that the book is 400 pages, but I think it's important to point out that many of those pages are filled with spreads of Caitlín's own devising, or spreads/methods from traditional playing-card reading which at least to my knowledge haven't been previously used for Lenormand. I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, and readers may very well find some or all of this material interesting and/or useful; I just felt it's worth mentioning.

In the same light, there is a whole chapter devoted to Caitlín's concept which she calls the "Lenormand Universe," in which she lays out what she calls the mythic structure of the deck and derives archetypal titles (for example, Key = "Revelation of Luck"; Fox = "Surviving Fate") to the cards to add nuance to a reading.

To be fair, she's very up front that this is her own invention and not part of the umbrella of mainstream traditionalist methods. It's really up to the reader as to whether they find this kind of thing a benefit. I'm of two minds about it. On the one hand, I actually like this sort of thing, and I particularly enjoyed a similar analysis that Caitlín included in the book to her Celtic Wisdom Tarot. On the other hand, one of the things I find so appealing about Lenormand is the absence of this kind of thing.

There's going to be inevitable comparisons between this book and the other major Lenormand release this year, Rana George's The Essential Lenormand. I think it's fair to compare them, since they cover a lot of the same material in a similar breadth. Caitlín's book is more comprehensive and encyclopedic; I get the sense that she included every method and spread that she could get ahold of or conceive. Rana's book is more of an exposition of her own reading style, and thus it seems less comprehensive but more straightforward. I find Rana's prose clearer and more lucid, and her examples easier to follow.

Just as an example, Caitlín's book includes 17 spreads (not counting the three standards of Line of Five, Nine-Card, and GT). In Rana's book I count four spreads (again, not counting the three standards). If one is a completist, they may prefer the 17. Personally, I like simplicity and prefer the four.

When I first read Rana's book, I liked it but felt it wasn't what I was ultimately looking for in a Lenormand book/course. Much as I liked certain aspects of The Complete Lenormand Oracle Handbook, it's inspired me to revisit The Essential Lenormand, and I find I have a renewed appreciation for Rana's book. Much as I appreciate comprehensive surveys, I would rather have authors tell me how they do it and guide me step by step through that method.

But that's only my subjective impression, and I'm sure The Complete Lenormand Oracle Handbook will be very popular.

If anyone disagrees with me, please, please post! I would love for there to be a variety of opinions and impressions expressed here.
 

shadowdancer

Lee, thank you so much for taking the time to give such a comprehensive review. I really have appreciated it and it has helped me decide as to whether I invest or not.

Rana's book was easy to read, and gave me enough to work with on my path of learning. I did not feel there were any gaps as such.

Having read Caitlin's previous book I was a little apprehensive that it would be a little overwhelming and heavy with keywords etc. Encyclopedic was a good description and it could be this book is of value to those who want to wring absolutely everything they can out of learning Lenormand. Also for those who want to make use of playing card inserts will find it an asset.

Having read your review I will go with my instinct and stick with Rana's book. Her style is one that I find resonates with how I learn. (One of the reasons I love James Ricklef's and Mark McElroy's books on tarot).

I hope this doesn't come across as negative on my part. We all learn differently and resonate to differing styles. Caitlin's book will no doubt be of real value to many on the Lenormand path.
 

Lil Red

Hi Lee,

I first want to thank you for the review. It was very informative and brilliant. I was actually planning in getting it, but seeing that it does not stick to any school of thought makes me hesitate. Another reason is I'm not much a fan in spreads, especially since I'm a novice. I honestly believe this book will lead me confused, but I may still get it in the end. If only to quench my curiosity as well I'm interested to see her cartomancy meaning. What I do know for certain that I'm going to stick to Rana book since I actually learned a lot by reading her book. So for me that is my to go book :D

Thank you Lee for the review! It definitely helped me in what is on the book.