6x6 spread?

Nickigirl

Thanks! I do realize Anthony Louis doesn't recommend the 6x6 as a spread. Actually, I think that location 186 of the Ebook is the only place he mentions it. He states: "According to the rules for the Game of Hope at the British Museum[7], the 36 picture cards which now form the Lenormand deck were laid out in a square with six picture cards on each side (6 x 6 = 36)."
This is the comment that got me wondering about the kinds of spreads we use and how we lay them out. It made me wonder why the 6x6 layout used when playing the Game of Hope isn't the spread we use now. Where did the 8x4+4 and the 9x4 layouts come from anyway? Are those traditional to some other type of cartomancy that pre-dates the Lenormand as we know it?
 

Teheuti

Where did the 8x4+4 and the 9x4 layouts come from anyway? Are those traditional to some other type of cartomancy that pre-dates the Lenormand as we know it?
I don't know if anyone can answer your question for sure although you'll find the 8x4, 8x4+4, and 9x4 layouts in old books but never the 6x6 - that I've seen (I collect old cartomancy books).

32, 36 and 52 card decks were all common in Europe, being used for different games. The 8x4 layout was common for reading 32 card decks in both France and Germany. And the 8x4+4 appears regularly.

In France in 1788 there were instructions for 36 playing cards to be used in the 9x4 pattern that later was called "The Lenormand [or Master] Method." (Discovered by Kwaw.)

Because the 1846 Phillipe Lenormand instruction sheet used the 8x4+4 format rather than a 9x4, it became the standard and many people only had the instruction sheet (which came with all Lenormand decks until fairly recently) to learn from.

Perhaps with the larger Schafskoph (Sheephead) German 36-card deck (the most common 36 card deck), the 6x6 layout would have stretched too far to reach comfortably and it may not have fit on many tables.

None of this tells us why as the authors of the old books weren't concerned with such explanations.
 

Barleywine

Louis' book doesn't suggest reading a 6x6 square; rather he proposes a triangular spread instead such that each row from the top down contains the following number of cards
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Several interesting patterns can be examined in such a layout but Anthony Louis doesn't appear to have tried it out; rather he just proposes it as being of interest.

Well, now I'm just going to have to experiment with it to see what kind of interesting patterns it produces. :) Thanks!
 

Nickigirl

Thanks! That's really interesting info!

I don't know if anyone can answer your question for sure although you'll find the 8x4, 8x4+4, and 9x4 layouts in old books but never the 6x6 - that I've seen (I collect old cartomancy books).

32, 36 and 52 card decks were all common in Europe, being used for different games. The 8x4 layout was common for reading 32 card decks in both France and Germany. And the 8x4+4 appears regularly.

In France in 1788 there were instructions for 36 playing cards to be used in the 9x4 pattern that later was called "The Lenormand [or Master] Method." (Discovered by Kwaw.)

Because the 1846 Phillipe Lenormand instruction sheet used the 8x4+4 format rather than a 9x4, it became the standard and many people only had the instruction sheet (which came with all Lenormand decks until fairly recently) to learn from.

Perhaps with the larger Schafskoph (Sheephead) German 36-card deck (the most common 36 card deck), the 6x6 layout would have stretched too far to reach comfortably and it may not have fit on many tables.

None of this tells us why as the authors of the old books weren't concerned with such explanations.