Newcomer to Lenormand.

Thoughtful

Have been a tarot reader for quite some time which l enjoy. Now l feel l want to explore the Lenormand method.
Have ordered the The Burning Serpent cards by Robert Place, now l wonder if l have chosen a good deck to start with. Would appreciate your views very much as l do want to start off correctly.
This will be a fascinating departure from Tarot, l do want to start off in the right way, because what l will learn at the outset will stay with me. l do not want to pick up any bad habits. Hopefully if there is a lwb with The Burning Serpent it will steer me on the right path :)
 

Barleywine

The Burning Serpent is a beautiful deck, but it does take a few liberties with the standard iconography. You might be better to start with a more traditional (and much less expensive) deck that sticks closer to the basics. But I guess I shouldn't talk, since I started with the Gilded Reverie and it's still my favorite (and the Burning Serpent is on my wishlist)
 

Jen P

I agree with Barleywine. The Burning Serpent deck is indeed beautiful, but I feel you'd be better off with a simpler deck. It's important to be able to immediately recognize your images in a grand tableau, and the simpler, the better - at least for beginners. It's also important that you like the deck. I started with the Blue Owl (ebay), but it's getting harder to find. You might try the Bluebird (ebay or bookdepository), Piatnik (ebay or amazon)----here's what it looks like: https://www.google.com/#q=piatnik+lenormand---, or Dondorf decks. I would recommend one of the Dondorfs - shown here: http://gameofhopelenormand.bigcartel.com/product/le-fanu-s-lilac-dondorf-is-returning

Check out images of starter decks online to see if you like them. Here is a good resource page to start:
http://www.divinewhispers.net/lenormandlessons.htm

and especially here: http://www.divinewhispers.net/apps/blog/show/20013417-choosing-your-first-lenormand-deck

If you need links or more advice, just PM me. What decks would anyone else suggest?
 

Gwynydd

Blaue Eule. It's the Blue Owl deck in German. Except, there are no words on the cards :D This makes it a beautiful deck that is also very inexpensive. It just means, if you can't speak German, the little white booklet would be useless to you. But, I have this deck, and I'm really happy with it for a beginner's deck.
 

Thoughtful

Thank you Gwynydd, Jen P, Barley Wine, so much for your comments.
Well as l have already ordered the The Burning Serpent l will have to see how it goes, it looked so beautiful.
Will definitely take all your recommendations into account and start looking at the more traditional cards. Then the hard work begins Lol!

Thank you Jen P for the helpful links you provided and your offer :)
 

Jen P

One more thing I thought of - you probably want to stick with smaller decks, as it is difficult to find space for a grand tableau with bigger cards. Best of luck on your lenormand journey!
 

Thoughtful

Thanks for your wishes Jen P, am looking forward to delving into something different for a while. l think the Grand T will be a little way off, but you never know. l shall probably start with 3-5 cards to find my way around at first. Am quite excited about looking into Donnaleighs teachings, she appears to be a mine of information.
 

Jen P

There used to be a bunch of youtube videos by Malkiel (a German fortune teller), but unfortunately, he took down all his videos. However, check out the videos by Donnaleigh (Tarot Tribes Beyond Worlds), thetruthinstory and Hexe Claire. There are definitely some other ones. Kelly from thetruthinstory did a Lenormarch challenge last March. Enjoy!
 

Barleywine

Since I was so experienced with large tarot spreads, I jumped right into the "deep end" - the Grand Tableau. What I found was that, because it can be segregated into so many individual focus areas (health, work, career, romance, home, family, children, money and finances, enterprises and ventures, etc) each with a specific significator card or sometimes two (each one a little "vortex" of influence), using the "distance method" you wind up reading only a few surrounding cards in each major life area, unless they happen to intersect in a variety of ways. Unless you're doing a complete life-reading, you really only have to focus on the specific area(s) of interest and not try to read the whole thing. It's a good way to explore card combinations and interactions in a big-picture way, and not at all intimidating when broken down this way.

Andy Boroveshengra has a simplified method in his book, Lenormand, Thirty Six Cards that quickly brings all of it into focus.
 

Amanda

You could always download an app for your phone -- there is one that doesn't cost much, The Dondorf Lenormand, though it may appear as "Lenormand!" in a search. It is more traditional and has excellent traditional meanings for the cards. I started with the Mystical Lenormand (for years), then moved to the Gilded Reverie when it came out, and then- the only deck so far to really get under my skin with it's meanings a bit was Under the Roses Lenormand... I actually almost consider this Lenormand more like an oracle because it seems so 'off' and 'loose' with it's Lenormand meanings. I should have bought the one you ordered (I had thought about it), I imagine it's meanings are likely better than the UTR deck.

http://www.foolsdog.com/Lenormand/