Beginner Obstacles

BeyondtheVeil

Wow! I really want to connect to the Lenormand Readings, but I find the more I do.. the more confused I am! :bugeyed:

I think it would be much easier to 'read" with just one card until I learn the meanings, but then I read that you can't read lenormand that way. I tried to do a three and then a 5 card reading, but that just made me more confused. I just am not getting how they link together. Some are easy to read, but most are seriously confusing. To make matters worse.. all the blogs/etc can have totally different combination meanings. Some of which do not resonate or make sense with the reading..well question.



Like. .you start reading from left to right, correct? This is the first time using the Under the Roses Lenormand. Let's say this reading... I ask "What message to I need to know? or something like that. Then I get ...


The Key, The Mice, The CrossRoads, The Dog, and The Lady.


I think you read in pairs like.. The Key/Mice go together right? Then do I read The Mice/Crossroads as a pair? Or The Crossroads/Dog as a pair? The crossroads would be the main thing? So the mice ate up {dissolved} the key? Or the Mice ate up{dissolved} the Crossroads? Since The Mice are facing both ways.. does it then eat up/dissolve/destroy both the key and the crossroads?

Since The Lady doesn't have a card to go with it.. do I just read the last card as an extra message? What if it wasn't the lady and was like something like The Letter?


It could be that I am just confusing myself, but this is not easy! lol I also get NO intuition at all looking at these cards. I think they are pretty cards, but they are kind of dark. I like the Victorian vibe they have and the roses on the back, but I don't understand them.


Anyone want to help or can give some tips to a complete newbie? I am totally lost. This is such a beautiful divination system and I want to learn it so badly! These are literally my first attempts at reading lenormand.

I even heard to do the 36 {whole deck} reading first. I just don't know how reading the entire deck would be easy if I can't even link 3 or 5 cards together. Please help!! {{HUGS}}


Thanks in advance! :heart:
BeyondtheVeil

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Genna

You can read one card a day until you have learnt the card meanings, and then start with two-three a day. Use a Lenormand journal and see what the card had to say about your day.
 

BeyondtheVeil

Genna

You can read one card a day until you have learnt the card meanings, and then start with two-three a day. Use a Lenormand journal and see what the card had to say about your day.

Thanks Genna! That is a great idea! :thumbsup: I think I am trying to run before I can crawl. lol


I will buy a book so that I can start my Lenormand Journal.


How long have you been doing it? It seems like this may be a long slow journey, but I guess it is worth it.


Thank you so much for responding Sweetie!! :heart:
BeyondtheVeil
 

Genna

I started in the spring 2016, so I´m still a newbie. Glad you liked my advice!
 

BeyondtheVeil

I started in the spring 2016, so I´m still a newbie. Glad you liked my advice!

I sure do appreciate your advice and help! :thumbsup: Everyone always has something to offer. I think you do as well and I am so thankful that you took the time to respond. :heart:

I am definitely going to start a Lenormand Journal as I think I will need that to remember all the combinations and how each card can mean something.

I have been frustrated also by the 'book meanings" not making sense to the question asked. What do you do then? I would think intuition, but there was a big blow up thread about that. I just am confused at if the book meaning doesn't make sense to the question or the subject.. how to make it fit? Or could it be that it is saying another message? I tried that with one reading, but that didn't make sense in that case either. lol


You are definitely more experienced than I am. lol Do you read often? Do you do practice readings to help you or just more still doing personal/daily draws? I ask because I want to do practice readings with people on the boards, but I am so confused that I honestly think it will take many months to really be able to feel like I actually know what I am doing or understanding it. That is why I asked about you.

Did you buy a deck of regular playing cards and write the names of the Lenormand meanings on them to help you out? I'm thinking of doing that the same time as I am learning the Lenormand cards thinking if I do both at the same time.. maybe it will help my understanding better. Like using playing cards with no photos if they are throwing me. lol What are your thoughts on that?


Sorry for so many questions love! I am just really out of my element in Lenormand.


Hugs,
BeyondtheVeil
 

zhadee

hi BeyondtheVeil,

the way I did it about 10 years ago.
Start simple by giving each card a name. You may look up their meanings on the internet. There are several different schools out there. Basically, it's german and french. They differ on the meanings of some cards, like Rods, Snake, Fox and Lily. Choose one system and stick with it! Once you feel comfortable with the 36 names, you may start by looking at something and ask your cards to show it to you. This will teach you Lenormand's alphabet.

Once you feel comfortable with this excercise, you may pull two cards and combine their names. The first card is the noun, the second card is an addition like colour, size, amount, or quality. If you feel very comfortable with this excercise, you have learned how to combine. It's the basic thing about the Lenormand.
 

BeyondtheVeil

zhadee

hi BeyondtheVeil,

the way I did it about 10 years ago.
Start simple by giving each card a name. You may look up their meanings on the internet. There are several different schools out there. Basically, it's german and french. They differ on the meanings of some cards, like Rods, Snake, Fox and Lily. Choose one system and stick with it! Once you feel comfortable with the 36 names, you may start by looking at something and ask your cards to show it to you. This will teach you Lenormand's alphabet.

Once you feel comfortable with this exercise, you may pull two cards and combine their names. The first card is the noun, the second card is an addition like colour, size, amount, or quality. If you feel very comfortable with this exercise, you have learned how to combine. It's the basic thing about the Lenormand.

Thank you so much love!

This is a stupid question, so please bear with me {lol} How do I know what system to use? Or rather.. what system I'm getting the info from?

Do you know what system Blue Birds Lenormand uses? I couldn't find the Blue Owl that everyone was suggesting, but found the Blue Bird instead. I "think" it is the same thing.


I just tried a reading on what someone thinks about not seeing me for awhile. I drew
Birds and Gentleman. I think this means they 'may' talk to me as I drew a clarifier and it was Letter. I read that Birds and Gentleman/man mean talkative man, man in relationship, etc.

The lwb doesn't cover combinations, so that is why I looked it up. The letter means some sort of communication or news. If the news/words written though are bad it means sadness, etc. So my problem is that I get the individual card meaning.. but putting it together doesn't seem to make sense. I also just noticed that the Man is facing away from the birds. {now facing the letter, but the letter wasn't there at first]. So since the Man isn't facing the birds..does that then change the meaning?


I asked what does X think about not seeing me for awhile? It seems like either I got a message about maybe they want to communicate? What do you think? Is that 'what" they are "thinking" about me? Or did it answer some other question? lol


What system would the Blue Birds Lenormand be?


I'm sorry for so many questions.. I just am confused. I gave you the sample reading so that maybe you could help me figure out if I actually am understanding the reading or if I am only confusing myself. lol From those meanings.. is it clear what system it is based on? Which system would you suggest?


Thanks for responding Matey! :heart:


Hugs,
BeyondtheVeil
 

Nemia

Blue Owl and Blue Bird are not the same deck at all. Blue Owl is a traditional German deck, Blue Bird a new American (I think) art collage deck.

The "system" is not in the cards but in the book you learn with, the tradition. There is a Dutch/Belgian tradition, a German and French one... and now a US one. I prefer to call them schools. Those schools reflect the fact that these cards are quite new (invented in the late 18th, early 19th century), and in different place people have adopted them differently. It doesn't matter which school you pick. Lenormand works for all. Just be consistent.

Make it simple. Learn with a book or website that you feel comfortable with. And then stick with the meanings you learned there. If you learned that Fox is the work card, use it as such. You may meet later another book that uses Anchor as work card but then you know already that you follow a different system, and just leave it.

It's more important to learn the inner logic of all the associations to one card - time, health, person, character, number. They're all connected to the core keyword, or the image itself (snake - intestines), and sometimes to the card face (mostly with court cards - look at Lilies for example).

Each card holds a whole bouquet ;-) of such meanings.

I remember taking the cards with me and looking at them all the time, just shuffling them and looking at each and learning their meanings.

Far as I understand, and I'm no expert because I don't use them too often although I've been reading Lenormand for many years!, there are two basic ways of reading them.

1. start with two cards. The first card is WHAT? card and the second the HOW? card - the first card is the noun, the second the adjective. I call this the Moulin Rouge technique because in French, the noun (moulin) comes first, the adjective (rouge) second.

So if you have the Fox and the Anchor, the Anchor describes the Fox. Every time a new card is added to the right, it describes the bunch of cards that came before it.

I think Caitlin Matthews explains this technique really well.

2. start with three cards, a bit like in tarot: the central card is the main player, the other two give their comments. I.e., the main card is the noun, the other are adjectives and verbs.

I find a nine-card layout (three times three) very useful.

You don't even have to ask a question. Just let the cards decide which is the topic of the reading - the central card in a nine card reading. And look how this topic is treated by the cards around it.

In tarot, the question is super important. In Lenormand, often it's enough to ask: what's going on right now?, and then start with the cards themselves. Or a concrete question with development - where is the relationship going? or something similar.

I do book readings - I did some very good readings for Scarlett O'Hara and the Girl with the Pearl Earring ;-)

The more training you have with Lenormand, the more self confident you are with the cards. They really work differently from tarot, more concrete, more pragmatic, rather terse compared to the magically full world of the tarot.

I have to heed my advice and go and train some more!

PS: I'm not a great fan of "what does X think" questions. X has his/her own defenses and I tend to respect that. Often, you'll get reflections of your own desires or conflicts reflected back. I always prefer questions of the "what do I have to know about me and X" kind, or, for tarot, "what can I do concerning X" and not the all-too-often guesswork of what goes on in other people's heads.
 

zhadee

I asked what does X think about not seeing me for awhile? It seems like either I got a message about maybe they want to communicate? What do you think? Is that 'what" they are "thinking" about me? Or did it answer some other question? lol
I am no big fan about this question.
What do I think about a person I have not seen for a while? Yesterday, I did not think of them at all. But now that I've seen that movie/heard that song/eaten that pizza and so on, they are on my mind.
Had somebody asked about me thoughts yesterday, they would have received a completely different answer than today. But seriously, just because I think of them, it does not necessarily mean I will do something about them.

Now what to make of any card? The way you read your cards reflects your personality. Choose a school that resonates with your truth. Choose a teacher who resonates with you. MIne had been Iris Treppner's book, after a few years I then found Lilith's method more in sync with me. I've been very active on a german forum, discussing meanings back then helped me most of all.
Now that I have access to english and french sources, I keep adding new layers.

These are your cards, they help you to reflect a matter. If you want to send somebody a message, Lenormand will help you to find out if that is a good idea. From my experience, no card is either good or bad.
They are symbols, and thus endlessly vertile. It's you who give them the meaning. So sending or not sending that message, receiving or not receiving a message - there's a lessson in each one of these scenarios.
 

reall

Just to join all good advice here and say you don't need to stick to any specific book or rules in your reading!:) whatever works best for you is best!:) and just for the record I think there is Russian system as well!XD lolz :)

I agree 1 card reading is best to start with!:) I often do that and then draw few more cards on top of it for clarification, also 2 card seems to give you good hint as you were on spot with that bird man reading?:) i.e if he is not facing birds maybe he is avoiding eye to eyes conversation?:) and letter say you'll had to fold a paper/take pen and deal it old fassion/or chat way?:) lolz also I know a person who gives amazingly on spot tarot redings with just a 3cards so maybe you should try that next with lenny?:)

and for that 5card example, I always watch a last card first!XD then glance over all cards and link their basic meanings/interpretation, i.e in this case I would say;
Key is Mice card/meaning something small, tiny, bits by bits, mouse won't eat your whole closet in a day!XD lolz so Key is to do something bit by bit, one piece at time?:) then Crossroad card(this is always decision and options for me) meaning to decide about Dog card meaning frendship/to be faithful to someone something?:) and final card is lady representing female frequent so if you asked question for yourself you need to decide that?:) so answer would be; decide about doing small tings one step at the time and be determined about it?:) hope this makes sense to you and show you how you just need to learn how to link basic meanings in context of question you are interpreting!XD lolz :))