I had a doctor appointment this week. I injured my toe over a year ago, and I still have pain in the toe and foot. Scans hadn’t showed anything permanent injured, and supposedly any damage was to tissues or ligaments that just take months to heal. I wanted a followup to assess whether my (slow) healing is still what the doctor expects.

I pulled out my Judith Bärtschi Lenormand deck to ask: What will the outcome of my doctor appointment be?

Cross – Mice – Child – Moon – House (Sorry for the poor lighting!)

Reading in a line, this flows from left to right, and the cards go from negative to more positive. Read “poetically,” with a story based purely on the thing pictured on each card: the mice eat at the base of the cross. The child plays in the moonlight until it’s time to go home.

Translated more practically: my suffering is lessened when a fresh start is brought to light, achieving some stability. It’s my suffering, because the reading is about my injury. Mice at the base of the cross is also reminiscent of the small pains (gnawing mice) at my base, or my feet. The Child is a fresh start, under the spotlight of the Moon; and the House then showcases stability. In summary, I read this line as meaning the doctor will offer something that will help me out.

Now, on the surface that is reassuring but generic. “Of course a doctor will help you out!” I can imagine some of you saying. That’s not always the case. I’ve had some doctors who were unhelpful, or downright rude, over the years.

The outcome of my visit is that the doctor was a bit stumped. He felt my toe should be healed, leaving me pain-free at this point. He wanted to check with a pain management specialist, to see if there might be any lingering effects from my particular injury. We also talked about whether I might need physical therapy.

Although my physical pain hasn’t decreased, I’m hopeful for some options, and I do think physical therapy would help; so the first part of the reading works for me. The fresh start under the moon works in the context of the specialist: bringing in something new, and something with recognition (a specialist), to assist my (physical) stability. As of this writing, I’m still waiting to learn what specific options I may have.

It’s good to have a specific question; and the more specific, the better. I would rate this question as medium specificity. It builds upon a specific scenario: I’m going to the doctor, and I expect some outcome, but I don’t know what. A “fresh approach” could mean lots of things. With the Moon, I was first in mind of x-rays; which aren’t new, but I haven’t had any in a while. I thought any other scans are unlikely.

So I ended up with a reasonable yet somewhat generic answer: something new to show me stability. (A house relies on a stable foundation. So does a person!) I see a lot of Lenormand readings along this line. More specific questions would target whether I’d have more tests, or would I get a referral to another doctor. These would also have been good follow-up questions, if I’d had the time or inclination to do more readings.

Conversely, I could have used a few more cards to get more details. For an open question of this nature, that might have been useful. The line of 7, or a 3×3 square, might have provided just a bit more info.

What do you think about these cards? Hit me up in the comments!