Lenormand Five-Finger Exercise

In music and other disciplines, daily practice exercises for learning and bettering one’s skill with the chosen instrument or activity are sometimes called five-finger exercises: hands-on, practical training until (or after) basic skills are ingrained.

Here is a nice way to practice the Lenormand which I’ve seen described by a couple of authors. Reading the Lenormand requires reading the cards in combination, and this exercise will strengthen the imaginative or intuitive faculty that combines the cards. All that’s required is a deck and optionally a list of meanings.

1. Lay out a card. Look at it, and think about it’s meaning. If you’re just beginning look up the description or primary keywords for this card, so you start to build an association. Some people suggest speaking the card name and meanings aloud — some tarot authors advocate this as well — but I admit I never do that myself.

Ring

First card: Ring — Relationships, partnerships, contracts.

2. Now that you’ve identified the first card — I often think of this is the theme card — think about what you want to know regarding that card. You may have a specific question if you recognize the card in your life, or you can simply ask what the card is saying to you about its subject matter.

Question: What is this card Ring telling me about my relationship? (Which could be marriage, committed, or even a business partnership.)

3. Draw a second card, and it will be the answer to the question. Refer to your meanings if you are still learning the cards, and relate it to the keywords or description you have. Read this second card as telling you about the first card, or answering your question regarding the subject of the first card. I often think of this as the modifier, because it gives a specific scenario to the theme of the first card.

Ring + Whip

First card: Ring — Relationships, partnerships, contracts.
Second card: Whip — Arguments, fights, conflict, competition.

Answer: This suggests I am in a relationship of some type that currently is undergoing arguments and discord.

4. Optionally, draw a third card and treat this as the outcome of the two cards you’ve already examined. Again reference meanings if you need to.

Ring + Whip + Clover

First card: Ring — Relationships, partnerships, contracts.
Second card: Whip — Arguments, fights, conflict, competition.
Third card: Clover — Happiness, luck, opportunity.

Outcome: Although I may be having some trouble with a relationship as described above, things will likely turn out okay.
Note that you might want to let your intuition talk to you before referencing your card meanings. Who know what your inner voice will have to say!

You can try this whenever you have some free time. The main thing is to relax and have fun. Reading cards should be enjoyable, not a daily grind. That’s what work, school or other stressful endeavors are for! So it makes sense to only spend a few minutes at a time on this exercise.

I hope you find it helpful!

Cartomancy Forum (Updated)

Update: the issues with Art of Cartomancy have been fixed, and both forums are accessible. So stop by if you want to talk cards with like-minded individuals.

The cartomancy forum where I was previously spending my time, Art of Cartomancy, vanished a couple of days ago without warning. The forum url is redirecting to my current hangout, The Cartomancy Forum.

If anyone reading this was a member of the old forum but is hesitant to join a new one, I encourage to you become a member. Any forum is a reflection of its members, and a lot of those members have dipped their toe in the new forum. I’m hoping a lot of the knowledgeable, friendly and helpful community from Art of Cartomancy will continue the tradition of sharing and learning at The Cartomancy Forum.

For anyone else who is interested, I suggest you stop by the new forum and see if you’d like a place to chat with open-minded people who love reading, learning and talking about cards.

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Garden +  Birds + Scythe + Man +  Letter + Dog + Clover

Updated Lenormand Meanings – 4 Nov 09

This is a brief note to say that I’ve updated my Lenormand meanings page, based on how I’ve been reading the cards.

Lenormand Combination: Heart + Whip

The Lenormand Heart card speaks of love, feelings and emotions. The Whip for me is about strife, conflict and discord.

Heart + Whip: Fight with a loved one.

Whip + Heart: An emotional argument.

Tarot Trumps and Videogames – The High Priestess

2. The High Priestess

Aeris: Final Fantasy VII

There are probably other women who could have embodied the secret, inner wisdom of the High Priestess, but Aeris is the one who kept putting herself in my mind. In Final Fantasy VII, Aeris plays a young woman who has always been different from others, and who held wisdom beyond her years. Her connection to the life force of the planet is like the High Priestess’ connection to inner wisdom, both of which are a spark in the individual and yet have deeper connections to larger reality.

Aeris dies in what was considered a shocking plot twist at the time the game was released; yet her wisdom is eternal, and she is able to guide the main protagonist Cloud to find himself, allowing him and all life on the planet to find some kind of redemption. Aeris was an insistent inner voice as I wrote this post, telling me there could be no other — the High Priestess, indeed!

Tarot Trumps and Videogames – A Teaser

Here I am, going a bit off the beaten path in order to take a look at the major arcana, or tarot trumps, as filtered through the lens of a gamer. This is something I’ve been thinking about writing for a while, and I’ve run out of excuses to procrastinate.

I’m thinking this series of posts will provide a quick sketch of each tarot trump as it could be applied when thinking about a specific character, locale or plot point in a videogame. These will be based on videogames I have experienced, which are slanted towards console gaming. I make no apologies for my love of the Japanese role-playing game.

To test the waters, I’ll look at a single card.

1. The Magician

Sly Cooper: Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus

This seems like an odd choice, I have no doubt. There are plenty of great games out of there, and a lot of them have fantasy settings and feature genuine wizard types, who can throw fireballs and cast healing spells with equal finesse. Yet I opted for a racoon thief. Why? The Magician talks about the ability to get the job done: the person who has the knowledge, skills, talent and will necessary to tackle the job at hand. All that’s needed is to act, to move forward, towards one’s goal. That sounds just like the noble Sly Cooper, who always has a plan and a goal in mind.

Sly also has a good head in a crisis. He can adapt his plans as necessary to continue towards his goal, accommodating any crisis. He’s smart, and knows when to rely on himself — or when to rely on his loyal comrades, who provide additional brawn and brains. Just like being a manager, sometimes the Magician’s strength may come from knowing when it’s appropriate to delegate!

The Magician speaks to me of skill, talent and will. Sly Cooper also embodies these things.

Rider Waite Deck, Bargain at $1,259

Yes, you read that correctly, over one thousand dollars for a tarot deck currently being sold at eBay. This is a 1910 Rider Waite deck with the Key to the Pictorial Tarot book. At the time of this post, the bid is $1,259, and with six days left I’m sure that number will climb higher.

Good luck to anyone who is bidding on this deck! If you do bid, I’m curious if you intend to actually use this item. Or if you aren’t bidding but wish you could, what would your goal be in owning this item? Let me know in the comments.

Lenormand Combinations – Garden in Real Life

As anyone who’s been reading my blog knows, I’ve been searching for a home to buy, and doing readings related to the hunt for a house. Not all of them have been posted here.

I did finally fall in love with a house. The only downside I could see was its location on a busier street. I did some readings regarding this house and its suitability, and none of them were ever really positive. Cross had shown up to describe this house, even when next to Heart, making me think of “the burden of ownership.”

Garden had popped up a couple of times, and the best I could figure was to relate it to the busy location. The reality turned out to be quite different. The house is settling too much, indicating a likely problem with the foundation. In retrospect, Garden seems a good representative of the foundation itself. In this light, here are two card combinations that came up.

Garden + Mice: something “eating away” at, or eroding, the foundation.

Garden + Bear: the foundation needs to be strengthened; needs a lot of work.

Sometimes readings do make more sense after the fact, and this is one of those cases. The upside of this is that particular pairings will have more meaning for the reader in future. I’ve certainly expanded my repertoire for the Garden card!

Lenormand: Working in Reverse

A helpful exercise for getting better at any deck of cards is to work in reverse. That is, come up with the message or answer that the cards have to tell, then figure out which cards would say it. Over at Art of Cartomancy, we are currently practicing this exercise as a game, just for fun.

Here is an example of this exercise. You can certainly create scenarios with less drama, although they may not be as entertaining for others. This question is on behalf of Monica, a woman who comes to you in tears.

“I just can’t take it anymore! *sob, sob* My office job is boring. I can’t stop eating cake. I’m addicted to soap operas. And I got a bad perm! *sob, sob* But I need to know the truth about my relationship with Brad. Are we heading for marriage?”

The answer for this poor lady is no, because Brad is two-timing her. He’s seeing one (or more) other women, and looking for someone he can take financial advantage of. A marriage proposal would be unlikely, and would only be for ulterior motives. Brad’s more interested in stringing his women along at this point.

You’ve heard the question and you know the answer. The challenge: say it with a line of Lenormand cards! There is no right or wrong here, as long as the basic answer is conveyed, along with any embellishment that doesn’t change the answer.

Reading at First Sight

Yesterday I did a quick tarot reading for someone using a three card draw as a followup to an initial reading. It was a relationship question, and the three cards I drew were 7 of Swords, 5 of Pentacles and Knight of Wands.

This was a reading where I didn’t need to muse over the cards to understand their message. I instantly had a snapshot of the answer from glancing at these three. I don’t feel that these cards bode well for a relationship, going by divinatory meanings and the related imagery. I also noticed a lack of water element cards, which surprised me. That doesn’t seem like a good sign for matters of the heart, as it implies a lack of emotional consideration in the situation.

After the first few seconds, this reading was a matter of me trying to explain the cards to the questioner in a way that justified my initial gut feeling, by backing it up with details unfurled from this cluster of cards. This was an online, non-interactive reading; so I was not able to ask questions and clarify certain aspects of this situation. Regardless, I didn’t see a positive outcome from these cards, and this was an almost-instant flash of intuition.

Others have pondered this matter: that a card reading’s outcome is known on some level, at first glance. The reading process is simply picking through the mental chaff to pull little kernels of truth, which are woven into a cohesive story that delivers the knowledge the questioner seeks. This simple reading of mine really hit this idea home, and it makes sense.

An analogy might be reading the dust jacket blurb about a novel. One gets a fairly good idea of what to expect from the blurb, but reading the whole book is necessary to fully grasp the tale contained within.

Cartomancers, have you experienced this? Does it occur frequently, or rarely? What kind of cards speak to you this way? You know the drill: share your stories in the comments.