Cartomancy with the Lenormand and the Tarot: Create Meaning & Gain Insight from the C

[ivanna]

Hi,
Did you read more? Could you give your opinion? i have the book on my wishlist and depending on what you recommend, i would buy it.
Thank you.

 

[rwcarter]

I've read a little more, but unfortunately I'm not all that impressed. I'm on page 104 in the Tarot Spreads section. There is an interesting spread where he lays out the 22 Majors and uses a counting technique to determine which cards are read and in what order.

Chapter 4 droned on to the point that I ended up skipping forward to Chapter 8, some 50 pages. The next chapter deals with Lenormand spreads. Skimming forward, I'll likely skip the 3 chapters after the Lenormand spreads. Then there are a couple of chapters on using Lenormand and Tarot together.

Lenormand meanings and keywords (for Things, People, Descriptions and Places) are relegated to two Appendices in the back of the book.

Now I haven't completed the book, but my sense from what I've read and what I've skimmed is that maybe half of it is interesting to me.

Rodney

 

[SixDegrees]

The next chapter deals with Lenormand spreads.

Like three-card, nine-card, grand tableau stuff, or original "spreads" with positional meanings? I fear for the latter...

Then there are a couple of chapters on using Lenormand and Tarot together.

Yes, this is what I'm most curious about. Any more information you could give here would be greatly appreciated.

Lenormand meanings and keywords (for Things, People, Descriptions and Places) are relegated to two Appendices in the back of the book.

Well that's too bad. It sounds like another Lenormand book aimed at tarot readers (like Katz and Goodwin's abominable "Learning Lenormand"). When will the big publishers learn that most people aren't looking for this? I'm sure to the dismay of many marketing folks, it seems like most readers are turning to the Lenormand because they want to learn something new, not something that carefully transitions them and ends up muddling everything in the process. We don't need to be coddled!

It's a shame that most of the supposedly "legit" books on Lenormand by trusted sources (andybc, Rana George, etc) won't be out for a year or more.

 

[Lee]

It's a shame that most of the supposedly "legit" books on Lenormand by trusted sources (andybc, Rana George, etc) won't be out for a year or more.

Seven months for Rana George's.

 

[rwcarter]

Finished up the Tarot Spreads section. There is a glaring error in this section that I'm surprised no one caught. Patrick describes a spread where he uses only the Majors and a card counting technique to determine which cards are read and in which order. There's an example of the layout that's being discussed. In the bottom left corner of the sample cards sits the 7 Pentacles. A quick search through the other cards shows that someone put up the 7P instead of the Chariot. What makes it an even more glaring error is that the Chariot is one of the cards that comes up in the reading. So he's discussing a card that's nowhere to be found. The method itself is interesting though, and I'll probably give it a try sometime with the whole deck.

I started the Lenormand Spreads section. He starts off with the Grand Tableau, which he admits that he reads differently than most folks do. He details his method of reading the GT, but (as far as I've read, so this may not be true) he doesn't mention anything about the traditional way of reading it. I know there is at least one other (and possibly two) Lenormand spread he discusses, and it didn't look like anything I'd ever seen before.

Rodney

 

[ivanna]

ok,thank you for commenting.
I will not buy it.

 

[SixDegrees]

Finished up the Tarot Spreads section. There is a glaring error in this section that I'm surprised no one caught. Patrick describes a spread where he uses only the Majors and a card counting technique to determine which cards are read and in which order. There's an example of the layout that's being discussed. In the bottom left corner of the sample cards sits the 7 Pentacles. A quick search through the other cards shows that someone put up the 7P instead of the Chariot. What makes it an even more glaring error is that the Chariot is one of the cards that comes up in the reading. So he's discussing a card that's nowhere to be found. The method itself is interesting though, and I'll probably give it a try sometime with the whole deck.

I started the Lenormand Spreads section. He starts off with the Grand Tableau, which he admits that he reads differently than most folks do. He details his method of reading the GT, but (as far as I've read, so this may not be true) he doesn't mention anything about the traditional way of reading it. I know there is at least one other (and possibly two) Lenormand spread he discusses, and it didn't look like anything I'd ever seen before.

Rodney

Thank you very much for taking the time to share your insights! It sounds like I will pass on this as well and wait for the books geared more toward Lenormand.

 

[rwcarter]

I finally read the back cover of the book last night and things fell into place. The purpose of the book is not to teach one how to read Lenormand cards, but how to read Lenormand (and tarot majors to some extent) intuitively. From the back cover:

With personal stories, applied theory, and how-to instructions, you will discover how the symbols of the decks interact and learn how to read intuitively.

The second Lenormand spread is a 10 card spread that is similar to (based on?) Sylvie Steinbach's No Layout Spread.

Patrick seems to move back and forth between interpreting the Lenormand cards individually and in pairs/groups. When he interprets them individually and needs more information, he either looks to the House System to provide that info or will look at the cards around the card to provide that info.

One thing he does that I have to give him credit for is to include a reading he did where he "messed up". Don't think I've ever seen an author do that before. Usually all the readings included show how proficient the author is at their craft.

Oh, and that same illustration that includes the 7 Pentacles instead of the Chariot is repeated further along in the book when he finally starts to discuss using tarot and Lenormand together (page 161 of a 264 page book).

 

[rwcarter]

Another thing I find interesting in the book is how Patrick looks for Lenormand symbols in the tarot Majors and uses the Lenormand meaning to add a layer to the tarot meaning of the card.

On the other hand, there is another glaring error in the book related to Arcanum VII. On page 163, he says that

Women needed to concern themselves with their financial as well as domestic future. It's telling that 25 - Ring traditionally could mean "a proposal," but VII - The Lovers traditionally meant "a choice."

 

[rwcarter]

OK. Just finished the book and must say that overall I'm not impressed. I'll summarize pros and cons in one post:

Pros
- Nonce tarot spread is an interesting idea
- I like his tarot spread that uses counting to determine which cards are read and in which order
- I like his list of possible Signifier cards to use for different topics when using Lenormand
- His 10 card Lenormand spread that he calls the Petit Tableau
- I like that he included an example of a reading where he "messed up"
- I like how he looks for the Lenormand symbols in the Majors and uses Lenormand meanings to inform the Tarot meanings

Cons
- Doesn't actually teach one how to read Lenormand or Tarot
- Spends way too many pages talking about things that are neither Lenormand nor Tarot
- Needs another good editing to get rid of some glaring errors
- When looking at his shamrock reading, it looks like he only discusses 3 of the 8 Lenormand cards that he lays out with the tarot cards. I had to look at his list of Lenormand keywords to see that he did actually discuss all 8 cards....
- I wasn't interested in his meditations on what each Lenormand card means to him
- When he lists his way of doing things, I wish he'd also included the more "traditional" way so one could compare and contrast
- When he adds Lenormand cards to a tarot reading he's done, he seems to read the two systems separately for the first and third lines and together for the second line.

Decide For Yourself
- Teaches one how to read Lenormand and Tarot intuitively

As long as I get something new and interesting out of a book, it's not a complete waste of my time. So I don't regret having purchased or read the book. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who asked for a book on how to learn the Lenormand or even on how to blend Lenormand and Tarot together. Although that appears to be the purpose of the book, I'd say that maybe 20% of it is devoted to using the two systems together, ~30% is devoted to one system or the other and the remaining 50% isn't devoted to either system.

Rodney