Lenormand: What Difficulties Do YOU experience?

"Lenormand: What Difficulties Do YOU Most Experience As A Learner".

  • Understanding one system or any for that matter.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Certain cards when in a combo or spread. E.g. Sun/Cross.

    Votes: 11 40.7%
  • How to answer a question whether specific or general.

    Votes: 10 37.0%
  • I find it tricky reading them in pairs, threes, or more than 5.

    Votes: 10 37.0%
  • I cannot get my head around certain cards. E.g. Coffin.

    Votes: 4 14.8%
  • I find it hard to read when a card like Tree/Heart/Fish turns up for a question like Job.

    Votes: 10 37.0%
  • I do not know when I am the "Man"/"Woman"...or not.

    Votes: 4 14.8%
  • I do not understand the basics.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I find it confusing as one source says this and another that.

    Votes: 6 22.2%
  • Other: State Reasons In Comments.

    Votes: 3 11.1%

  • Total voters
    27
  • Poll closed .

Barleywine

Thanks for your candor. Would you help me understand what is considered just how near is near and far is far? I mean besides cards that actually 'touch' that are obviously near. Do we actually count and give weight to cards as the are farther and farther away or is it just something you feel or ??

As I use it, it's more of a "feel" thing than a rigid rule, at least once I get more than two cards away. Touching the significator or other topic card ("close") and the next set out ("near") I see as fairly obvious, but after that ("medium" and "far") I often follow the line to its end rather than stop at a boundary. In practice, though, except in certain instances (like significator in a corner), "far" captures almost all the cards in the spread. In the inexpensive pdf for the Gilded Lenormand, Andy has it color-coded in the example layout, which is really helpful.
 

celticnoodle

That's funny. I read where you read 1 and 32 together then 8 and 25 together, making a diagonal cross.

This the thing, you can read so much where your head is spinning. Ultimately guess always has to be 'do what your own gut tells ya'.. then, (and haven't got near close to this) over time feedback and thousands of reads will be your ultimate answer. :)
funny the differences. and, yes, I agree, use your own gut to read. When I first began to read the Lennies, I also just read the cards looking at the pictures and seeing what it said to me. I'm a very visual reader anyway. Many people had a fit about how I read, but it seems to work for me.

Since then, I do also know the accepted rules for the meanings w/the Lennies and generally apply them, but I still see other meanings for the cards when I do read them and they are accurate still. So, I am a big use your own instincts in any kind of divination you do--including lenormand! :D

Okay, to address my little tirade above I just went back and started to further read Anthony Louis' book. Ironically the next section that came up was 'Work Cards' and this is what he mentioned and I quote:

"Most Lenormand teachers advise learning a core set of meanings and sticking to them until your own experience teaches you otherwise. My impression is that the cards most commonly used to signify ‘work’ in a reading are FOX, MOON, and ANCHOR. They all make sense in their own way. My own preference (which may change as I gain more experience) is to use ANCHOR because I view work as providing stability and structure to one’s life. If I were reading for a professional person with a public career, I would view MOON as the “signifier because MOON traditionally refers to high rank and prominence in one’s field. For a day laborer without a steady job, the FOX might make more sense as a card representing the tasks that must be done that day in order to survive.”

Excerpt From: Louis, Anthony. “Lenormand Symbols: Exploring the Origins of the Images on the Cards.” iBooks.

I have never seen the moon as a work card. Never even thought of it! interesting. I'll have to see if it works in the readings I do. I recently did a reading for someone I know re: a new job. I'll go back and see where that moon card is and the cards around it and see if it offers more information... As for the Bear card--I always first see that as a mother type of meaning---protecting something/someone. I see Bear as powerful strength and protective. So, I can see it in work for a position of power or if it were a card describing the type of work--a doctor perhaps, nurse, policeman, for examples as well as daycare provider, teacher, etc. etc.

Now this is all beginning to make much more sense to me. Everything in context. Use one for this another for that. I like that even he has described using one card (Anchor) for work until such time he sees a need to change it. Because as he says, all these cards above make sense, and so to use one you just have to go with what maybe makes more sense above the others, again remaining flexible to change it if need be.
yes, agree.
 

onesun

As I use it, it's more of a "feel" thing than a rigid rule, at least once I get more than two cards away.

So when you say 'feel' do you mean it would depend in large part the cards themselves? Say, if an important card (very relevant to the query) is 'far' then the feeling is maybe it's perhaps farther than it 'should be'? or vice versa, cards that are 'irrelevant' are then felt I guess less farther'?
 

onesun

Since then, I do also know the accepted rules for the meanings w/the Lennies and generally apply them, but I still see other meanings for the cards when I do read them and they are accurate still. So, I am a big use your own instincts in any kind of divination you do--including lenormand! :D

So far in my studies, and realize I am still very young in this, I have seen German readers far more 'lenient' in terms of utilizing intuition with Lennie. Seems some actually encourage it. If it's this way in other systems I do not know but from my point of view I cannot see how one can unequivocally avoid using intuition in everyday practice. After all it is part of perception. I believe one can suppress it but never is it fully extinguished. This is just my point of view. But why suppress at all anyway? It's simply the subconscious bubbling to the surface, it has it's place is what I'm saying. And as you say yourself, seems to 'work' despite what traditional systems insist.

Here's what Webster's has to say regarding the origin of the word 'intuition':

late Middle English (denoting spiritual insight or immediate spiritual communication): from late Latin intuitio(n-), from Latin intueri ‘consider’
 

celticnoodle

thank you onesun for your post above. I LIKE YOU! :D
 

Barleywine

So far in my studies, and realize I am still very young in this, I have seen German readers far more 'lenient' in terms of utilizing intuition with Lennie. Seems some actually encourage it. If it's this way in other systems I do not know but from my point of view I cannot see how one can unequivocally avoid using intuition in everyday practice. After all it is part of perception. I believe one can suppress it but never is it fully extinguished. This is just my point of view. But why suppress at all anyway? It's simply the subconscious bubbling to the surface, it has it's place is what I'm saying. And as you say yourself, seems to 'work' despite what traditional systems insist.

Here's what Webster's has to say regarding the origin of the word 'intuition':

late Middle English (denoting spiritual insight or immediate spiritual communication): from late Latin intuitio(n-), from Latin intueri ‘consider’

My thought on the subject is to use intuition judiciously and somewhat sparingly when trying to blend combinations that are otherwise jarringly incompatible. I don't see much need for it with single-card interpretations, but then those aren't of much use in isolation anyway. If we didn't apply some inspiration, imagination and ingenuity, we would just be building "Lego-block castles" out of keywords.
 

DownUnderNZer

I think a reader can be "intuitive" going off of what s/he knows of the card meanings and use what is thought to be the best case scenario through that "intuitive thought".

I do not think someone that reads only using "intuition" and no idea of the cards basic meanings is being "intuitive".



DND :)

My thought on the subject is to use intuition judiciously and somewhat sparingly when trying to blend combinations that are otherwise jarringly incompatible. I don't see much need for it with single-card interpretations, but then those aren't of much use in isolation anyway. If we didn't apply some inspiration, imagination and ingenuity, we would just be building "Lego-block castles" out of keywords.

So far in my studies, and realize I am still very young in this, I have seen German readers far more 'lenient' in terms of utilizing intuition with Lennie. Seems some actually encourage it. If it's this way in other systems I do not know but from my point of view I cannot see how one can unequivocally avoid using intuition in everyday practice. After all it is part of perception. I believe one can suppress it but never is it fully extinguished. This is just my point of view. But why suppress at all anyway? It's simply the subconscious bubbling to the surface, it has it's place is what I'm saying. And as you say yourself, seems to 'work' despite what traditional systems insist.

Here's what Webster's has to say regarding the origin of the word 'intuition':

late Middle English (denoting spiritual insight or immediate spiritual communication): from late Latin intuitio(n-), from Latin intueri ‘consider’
 

Barleywine

I think a reader can be "intuitive" going off of what s/he knows of the card meanings and use what is thought to be the best case scenario through that "intuitive thought".

I do not think someone that reads only using "intuition" and no idea of the cards basic meanings is being "intuitive".DND :)

I think this gets it exactly right. We "open up" our base knowledge through an inspired reinterpretation formed on insights of an "extra-rational" type. I sometimes think of it as a kind of "can opener" or "nut-cracker." If you can't find the nuts, you can't crack them. Trying to just "wing it" makes me think of the fable of The Emperor's New Clothes.
 

onesun

@ celticnoodle, DND, Barleywine:

Absolutely. Love the discussion here. Resonates wholeheartedly. Especially right at forefront in using Lennie one must truly have the trad meanings down pat. Otherwise how would you know where to return when you go dancing off the cliff like The Fool. lol I mean it's the difference between divining and selling snake-oil. Well, I'd comment further but some flu symptoms have the best of me just now. UGH. I'll return when more coherent. Thanks for sharing!!
 

Flaxen

This is such an interesting discussion. The lennies do seem to need a different approach to tarot. When I started learning, I confused myself by reading lots of different systems. Eventually I picked one to focus on and only used those meanings until I felt completely comfortable.

A few years later and I have now developed a style of reading which I'm comfortable with.

Fox as work is one which has come to mean for me specifically work requiring resourcefulness/cleverness such as freelance or self-employment.