Today I am pairing the Snake with the Ship.
Snake is one of those tricky cards, because it means different thing to different people, and varies by tradition. Harking back to “traditional” (German and Spanish from my studies), this card is read primarily as a woman, or an indicator of intelligence. However, the French-based sources (including the English language works by John Dee and Sylvie Steinbach) see this card in a more negative sense: lies, backstabbing and treachery. This makes sense as the Lenormand cards with club suit inset tend to be negative. I believe the cards with poems inset warn of the person depicted by this card.
For me, Snake is a blend of these. In a Grand Tableau (the 36-card layout) I will first regard the Snake as a “generic” woman with no special attributes or traits. Her relationship to the questioner as well as her character would be indicated by surrounding cards and location in the spread. In a relationship reading, she could be “the other woman.” When I do a smaller reading such as the no-layout, then I consider the Snake as a detour of some sort — a winding road, literal or figurative — or perhaps a backstabber, if appropriate.
Without further ado:
Snake + Ship
Snake is a woman or a detour. Ship is a journey, trip or movement. This combination could be a detour in travel plans; or could represent escape from a certain woman. It could also represent a foreign woman, due to the Ship’s connotations of distance and “from afar.”
Ship + Snake
This could be traveling to meet a woman, or taking the long way around — which could be literal with physical travel, or it could be a figure of speech applied to an action where a person does things methodically and maybe redundantly, not taking any shortcuts.
At the risk of making things confusing, I think both pairs could be interpreted to mean a detour on a journey. The first pair emphasizes the detour, which would in this case occur during travel. I would see this as the unexpected detour caused by an accident blocking the road, for example; or if a cruise ship needed to re-route for unexpected repairs. The second example would be more of choosing to take a detour, and again, this is reminiscent of going the “long way around.” For example, taking a road trip and deciding that a side trip to stay overnight in an area known for wineries would be fun.
Normally I wouldn’t read the same meaning in both pairs of cards, but I think it fits in this case, keeping in mind the emphasis (or theme card) for the pairs. Again, context in a reading is going to be the ultimate arbiter.
Agree? Disagree? Want to share your own take on this combination? Please post a comment if so.
Jase on Cards 
9 comments
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October 1, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Ginger
I agree but the thing I find a bit frustrating about the Lenormand cards are the multitude of possible meaning combinations….I simple CAN NOT remember them all and have yet to develop a real intuitive feel for them. I was into them for quite a while and even got the Steinbach book as reference…but honestly I think that overwhelmed me more…could read without looking up meanings and who wants to page through a book all the time…I put them away and started using once of my favorite oracle decks again for a while…very soothing…lol…I’m planning to work with the Lenormand again…just needed a break…I was driving myself batty…
October 10, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Jason
Hi Ginger,
I’m sorry I wasn’t able to respond to your comment sooner. I particularly wanted to address your experience with Lenormand. In short, I don’t think you should ever have to remember them all, which I hope you think is good news! 😀
I almost never read authors’ combination lists, to be honest. I have checked them on occasion, to compare to my ideas or early on when I was stuck; but for the most part, I figure out what the combination of cards means to me.
Blogs where others have posted their own Lenormand readings, or forums that do the same, have given me ideas. But generally I avoid looking at the lists of combinations, whether it’s Steinbach or Treppner.
Neither of them is meant to be a definitive resource anyway, but more of a jumping point. The problem is getting a feel for HOW to do the combining. 🙂 Myself, I found it really helpful to use the theme + modifier technique. In practice, I just kind of “flow” from one card to another, but sometimes it’s still helpful to use this techique, to help me analyze what the cards are saying. Especially if I’m having trouble making sense of cards in the context of a tricky reading.
Now look at me, this could be a post of its own! 😀
At any rate, I wanted to say that it’s just a matter of getting a feel for how to combine cards. If you’re comfortable combining tarot cards, then this isn’t all that different; except that the Lenormand cards can have a wider range of meaning per card, due to the way they “speak.” Time, patience and practice.
Best of luck to you with this! And when you come back to the Lenormand, I heartily suggest try it a while without referencing the combination lists, and see how it goes for you.
October 3, 2009 at 9:49 am
Kapherus
I generally follow the French Lenormand tradition, so when I read Snake as a woman, she’s usually manipulative and deceitful.
I’ve found that ex-wives are often represented by Snake in readings for divorced men who don’t get along with their ex-wives– that’s not to say all ex-wives are manipulative or deceitful! 🙂
In the French Lenormand tradition, Snake is often read as a ‘loose’ or gossipy woman. (Snake sometimes carries sexual undertones in certain combinations, such as Snake + Coffin = STD).
In a general sense, I read Snake as trouble– so your idea of ‘detour’ makes sense to me regarding a trip.
Ship + Snake usually indicates ‘car trouble’ in my readings (I read Ship to represent a car rather than Rider). But it could also indicate problems encountered while on a trip.
Snake + Ship can indicate distancing oneself from a problem, or a foreign woman (woman from a distance) who should not be trusted.
Interesting to compare our different approaches to the cards!
Kaph
October 7, 2009 at 2:50 pm
spiritsong
It is interesting to compare 🙂 I like both your writing on the combo and Kaph’s.
I had never thought of Snake+Ship as distancing oneself from a problem, I like that!
Both combos would make me also consider car trouble or some kind of annoying problem while travelling.
The Snake would primarily first mean trouble or deceit somewhere, depending on the surrounding cards for me, and if that didn’t fit, then I would look at the woman angle. Sometimes it will give me two layers of meaning referring to both.
Spiritsong
October 10, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Jason
Car trouble wouldn’t be my first thought, as I use the Rider to indicate a car. But it makes perfect sense to me. And trouble while traveling certainly could come from a car! But for me, Rider would narrow it down to the car whereas Ship could imply anything about a trip.
March 30, 2016 at 9:24 am
Evebliss
I’m learning to read with Lenormand (in fact I’m learning tarot as well and I’ve never done any card reading so I’m new to it), and I find it frustrating that so often whenever I ask about myself as a person I keep getting the Snake card because of all the negative connotations that it has got. Usually I mind my own business and if people are less than nice I simply ignore it, and unless someone is really nasty I won’t give them a piece of my mind, but that’s about it. So, I kept wondering why of this snake card as if I was some kind of vile person, and this afternoon it dawned on me that maybe it referred to my ability to speak different languages, since snakes have forked tongues which could be interpreted as two or multiple tongues (I speak several European languages, as well as Japanese). My job is mostly related to communicating in different languages and it involves translations both written and as interpreter… so I don’t know… how do you see it?
I don’t know personally anyone who does Lenormand readings, and though this thread is quite old, I thought I would give it a try and ask…
March 30, 2016 at 10:15 am
Jason
Hello! Some people read the Snake as a woman without the negative connotations; and that may be an intelligent woman (or intelligence) in particular. That would align with your thought of speaking multiple languages. This may be a case where the cards are adjusting to give you a personal meaning, which I think most readers develop with time. I’d be cautious in assigning a meaning of general communication skill here because you likely have other communication cards — such as Letter, Birds and Whip, depending upon your base set of card meanings. If you add another one it may be confusing. I rather like the idea of intelligence, or perhaps a “silver tongue.” 🙂
Also consider other car around the snake that may modify or enhance its meaning, as Lenormand tends to do.
Lastly, it may just be the cards having fun with you for asking about yourself, since you already know how to describe yourself. Sometimes our reading topics can produce confusing results if out questions aren’t truly meaningful.
I hope these ideas are helpful.
March 30, 2016 at 12:59 pm
Evebliss
Thank you so much for your feedback. As to asking about myself, I see that it can seem peculiar, though it was more in the sense of how my work and performance was being perceived and rated by my superiors.
Interesting that the cards would have fun with someone. I’ve read something similar before, though when one is learning, all kinds of questions should be good for training purposes and for understanding how the cards speak to us.
Still, I wonder whether we should choose what each card will mean to us (based on the traditional meanings that make more sense to us), or if we should instead take the time to learn the language in which the cards speak to us when doing readings, which is what I’ve been trying to do. But of course, if they are taking me for a ride, I’m afraid it’s going to take me for ever to figure things out…
March 30, 2016 at 1:21 pm
Jason
How your work performance is perceived is a very reasonable question. If you were just asking, “describe me (my personality)” I’d say that was not very helpful. So in this case you asked a reasonable question and I wouldn’t say you are getting a frivolous response.
Keep in mind that people may see us differently than we see ourselves. For example, if I think I’m quiet and shy, someone who doesn’t know me may think I’m crabby or angry, or even stuck-up.
So consider that when doing a reading like this.
And again, while Snake is often a negative card, the whole reading helps to determine if that is the case. Look to your source of meanings to see what fits. In this case it may simply be they are aware you are female. (Perhaps they are sexist and take that into account.) or it could be they see you as intelligent, or as you note, speak multiple languages. Or maybe they think you take a winding path to get things done.
You won’t know until you get feedback from your superiors. Then you can come back and look at your reading in light of the real-world feedback. And that’s how we learn. It takes time and practice, with any cards. Just keep practicing, recording your readings, and coming back later to see where you were right or wrong.