New Reader Questions/Advice

Sagey

Hi, I am new to Lenormand.

I have played around with tarot before, but found it nebulous and I was always unclear as to what the cards were telling me. I was drawn to Lenormand as it seems much clearer and suits my style of doing things.

I have been doing some reading (websites and books) and have tried a few practice readings for myself. I have been doing a three card spread for myself daily and recording the results in a journal in order to progress further. Yesterday I felt I would be able to ask the cards a few questions, and when I laid out the cards I felt I understood what was being said. However, since then a few doubts have crept in and I would like to ask a few questions of more experienced readers.

How do you choose the cards? Do you deal straight from the top of the deck or fan them out and pick individual cards? Do you get any special feeling when the cards you are picking feels right?

Does the meaning of the cards come intuitively? What if your interpretation disagrees the with meanings in books/websites?

Thank you for reading this question and I would truly appreciate any answers or insights you may have.
 

reall

hi!:) and welcome to L!:))
imo it's important to have deck you have a good feeling holding in your hands!^^ ;))
and to do reading when you have free time relaxed and no rush!^^ ;))
intuition is most important! so just forget everything else! and focus on your question and answer! then shuffle draw cards from top!^^ first whats on your mind when you look at the card you draw is answer to your question! :)

GT is most usual spread, but you don't need to follow spred or any other rules strictly!
you can draw 3card/one by one anyway you want and add more card on ony you need clarification! I often end up with something like 3x3 spread or even add few cards aside for extra questions and clarifications!^^ / sometimes I just cut it at half or anywhere and draw cards at random!^^ it work well if you are lazy to shuffle!^^ lolz :))

that is what ever works with you is best way!:))

play and enjoy while lerning!^^ :))
 

Sagey

Thank you so much for your reply.

I have been getting this pressure around my jaw when I am shuffling the cards, which builds and builds until it is almost unbearable, like I am clenching my teeth really hard. I have noticed that these times the cards seem to read best for me.

It feels to me then that the answer just leaps out of the cards at me, I don't need to look up answers.

I just wondered if this was usual? I hope so, as I really like these cards.
 

reall

:)) np! everyone is different!:)) and if it works for you that's the way to do it!:))
you got it when you don't need to look for answers!:))
when all goes smooth you are on right track!^^XD ;))
 

Sagey

Thank you. I will keep on with the readings!
 

ThtDancerGuy

Hi, I am new to Lenormand.

I have played around with tarot before, but found it nebulous and I was always unclear as to what the cards were telling me. I was drawn to Lenormand as it seems much clearer and suits my style of doing things.

I have been doing some reading (websites and books) and have tried a few practice readings for myself. I have been doing a three card spread for myself daily and recording the results in a journal in order to progress further. Yesterday I felt I would be able to ask the cards a few questions, and when I laid out the cards I felt I understood what was being said. However, since then a few doubts have crept in and I would like to ask a few questions of more experienced readers.

How do you choose the cards? Do you deal straight from the top of the deck or fan them out and pick individual cards? Do you get any special feeling when the cards you are picking feels right?

Does the meaning of the cards come intuitively? What if your interpretation disagrees the with meanings in books/websites?

Thank you for reading this question and I would truly appreciate any answers or insights you may have.

Hi Sagey,

Welcome to the fabulous, exciting world of the Lenormand. :D Personally, I deal off the top of the deck, but only because that is the way that feels most right to me and thus the way I have programmed my deck to work. That part is completely dealer's choice, literally. haha But the most important thing, and especially with Lenormand, is to stay consistent with your choices and techniques; don't jump around from method to method, unless you're doing it in the beginning to feel out each method for yourself, but ultimately choose the one that feels personally right to you. Consistency is arguably one of the most important things you can maintain with your Lenormand, from meanings and interpretations to the way you choose to pull your cards.

As for intuition and the textbook meanings of the cards, this is often a big area for debate because some readers urge learning the textbook meanings before trusting intuition and others advise the opposite. Personally, I recommend learning the textbook meanings before utilizing your intuition because the Lenormand is not like Tarot in that Tarot cards are read by their images and rely on one's use of intuition. The Lenormand is NOT read by its images – anyone who reads the images instead of what the card means is by definition reading the Lenormand wrong (i.e. noticing that the Anchor may have a rope attached to it in the image and then basing an interpretation off of the superfluous inclusion of a rope in the artwork) – but by its particular meanings, so I strongly advise first learning what each card means before you include your intuition. Also, your intuition with Lenormand is not necessarily used to read the actual cards, because again they have set textbook meanings already that do not change as in Tarot but are only expanded/built upon, but your intuition is used more so in what I call "reading between the lines," which is sensing the latent or "between" energies of a combination or string of cards that they by meaning alone cannot express. For instance, textbook tells you that the Dog is a friend or a confidant and the Garden is a (big) group of people or a big social event. [Your] Intuition tells you that this could be a group (Garden) of friends (Dog); a very sociable, outgoing (Garden) acquaintance (Dog); or help/guidance (Dog) from a public community (Garden), to name a few. Of course it HEAVILY depends on the context of the question: context is arguably more important than the answer itself.
 

Teheuti

You can layout and read the cards any way you want! Consistency tends to build confidence.

That said, if you read the Lenormand cards symbolically or like an oracle (intuitive/psychic/oracular), then you aren't really reading "Lenormand," which, in addition to the cards themselves, is also a method with set meanings (a vocabulary and grammar that must be learned). See what ThtDancerGuy wrote.

Nevertheless, even for us "traditionalists," when doing daily readings for yourself with Lenormand, we've noticed a couple of trends that make this experience different from reading Lenormand more formally (i.e., for others):

1) strong positive and negative card meanings should be "dialed down" to more mundane, daily occurrences. For instance Scythe-Letter might be a small paper-cut and not necessarily a severance letter.

2) the cards often operate more literally. For instance, one woman had Scythe-Tree-Birds as her daily, and the neighbor, that same day, cut down her favorite tree housing birds that she enjoyed watching (she had mentioned her enjoyment of the birds and the tree only the day before).

3) dailies are usually small layouts and often don't have a question (context), actually making them much more difficult to interpret. Intuition and/or experience can be of help but you often won't get what they mean until after the fact (if at all).

It really takes a couple of years of steady practice and observation of the results to feel comfortable reading Lenormand, despite your getting some astounding results right away.