Ah, so we’re in December: that time of year, where we start wondering “Where the bloody hell did the last year go?”, reflecting on events from the year just gone and any lessons learned, as well as “Okay, what’s coming up for me and what do I want to plan for or think about?”
December, then, is a great time for those “big” Year Ahead readings, whichever card system you’re using. A time for both reflection of what’s been, and what’s coming up ahead. In Lenormand, you can both use the classic reading layouts, as well as adapted layouts from other systems which can help you read for a new year in various different ways.
So here are my top five Lenormand readings to try for a new year (in order of complexity)
1. A Simple Life Path Reading For A New Year
This very simple reading, adapted for a new year from a reading suggestion that came with Celtic Lenormand, is one which takes a holistic view. It won’t give you a high level of detail, but will give you a general “feel” for where you’re at and what is coming up. It uses several 3-card spreads, so is great for practising your 3-card reading skills!
My 2022/23 Path Reading
For this one, I’m going to use the Rana George deck.
So what do you think it’s telling me?
2. New Year’s Crossover Pyramid Reading
Now, the great thing about a pyramid reading is that you can adapt the “sections” to read anything you want, and also have as many cards as you want. What I wanted here is to have a reading that reflects not only what has already gone (the ‘basis’ for the new year, where I’m starting from) but to also give a focus and guidance for the year ahead and what the overarching “theme” may be. I’ve used two cars for each “section”, but you could perfectly well also use three (and one or two for the “peak” of the pyramid).
My 2022/23 New Year Crossover Reading
For this one, I chose to use the Ciro Marchetti Gilded Reverie deck, with extra cards, for a more “psychological” read.
So what do you think these cards are telling me about this year and next?
3. A 4 Life Areas Reading
I’ve actually adapted (or rather, bastardized) this one from a method that came with the 18th century Sibilla Indovina/Parlour Sybil cards, and it’s less about month by month predictions, more about broad life areas, although as there are only four, and in my version, corresponding with the Lenormand interpretations of playing card suits, not Sibilla, they are fairly general. It makes use of the 5 card spread, and if your deck includes playing card references, you’ll have an extra little ‘trick’ in terms of interpretations to play with. If your deck doesn’t have these references, though, no worries at all, you can still draw the cards in these broad categories, you just don’t get to do the extra part. You can also get additional info from Reading The Pips (an idea which originated with Caitlin Matthews) if that’s your kinda thing.
Now, for this, it’s important to know first off that Lenormand playing card suits don’t necessarily mean the same as in traditional playing card reading, or any other system for that matter, so bear that in mind and don’t try to mix them up, or it’ll confuse you. As a reminder, you can find them listed in my previous post here:
Playing Card Inserts: What Do They Do?
Here’s the initial, basic reading (using the Blue Owl Lenormand deck) and the “life areas” they respond to. I shuffled the deck, asking about next year, and drew five cards for each “category” as follows. Ignore the “suits” for now; they’re for the next step. It doesn’t matter what suits the cards themselves fall in.
Enterprise, Action, Thought: So this would be businesses, enterprise, higher learning, thought, changes, action
Survival, Challenges, Problems: (the Clubs in Lenormand, not the Spades) Difficulties, struggles, obstacles to face
Structure, Practicality: Routines, organisation, day to day, getting things done practically, jobs.
Emotions, Love, Ideals: Romance, love, friendship, dreams
My 2023 4 Life Areas Reading (initial)
- First Read The 5 Cards In Each Category To Tell You The Upcoming “Story” Of Each Area Of Your Life
Playing Card Extras
Now, we’re going to add an extra card to the reading IF & WHERE we have a card that is in the same “suit”as our life area.
- Do we have any cards with the suit of diamonds in the Diamonds section? YES, we have one (the Book), so I’ll pull one more card and first lay it above the Book to give more info on that reading. The card I pull, as below, is the Ring.
- Do we have any cards with the suit of Clubs in the Clubs section? YES, we have one (the Bear), so I’ll pull one more card and first lay it above the Bear to give that more information. The card I pull is the Sun.
- Do we have any cards with the suit of Spades in the Spades section? NO. So we don’t pull any extra cards for that.
- Do we have any cards with the suit of Hearts in the Hearts section? YES, we have one (the Rider), so I pull one more card and first lay it above the Rider to give that more information. The card I pull is the Anchor.
- First, I’ll read the extra cards with their ‘suit’ card to add to the information of the original read.
- The next step is to take the extra cards together, and read them together as a “summing up” in the middle of the reading:
4. A Clock Reading: 12 Months
Now let’s get into WAY more detail. A clock reading is GREAT if your bag is a month-by-month predictive reading. It makes excellent use of three card readings, so given there are twelve of them, one for each month, this reading will give you plenty of practice in those!
My tip with this is to think not only what influences the cards are predicting for each month, but what advice you might give yourself each time off the back of that (If you want an example, my last year’s one is here: pretty accurate as it turned out!). So in other words, try to make it useful as well as just predictive.
My 2023 Clock Reading (Month by Month)
The deck I’ve used for this is the Blue Bird deck.
Read the cards in clock position 1:00 as January, 2:00 as February, 3:00 as March and so on, all the way round clockwise until December 2023 right at the top in the 12 o’clock position.
Obviously, the card that contains my Querent card, should be taken to be of “special” significance.
How would you interpret the cards?
5. A Grand Tableau
And finally, this one is obviously the classic for a new year, because of the sheer amount of info it can give you. You can make your interpretations as broad or as detailed as you wish; there’s no need to go into detail of every single card, but it’s fantastic for interlinked, theme-based readings, as well as looking at the cards/influences likely to be immediately around you. (If you have a deck with extra cards like the Ciro Marchetti Gilded Reverie, or the Rana George, why not try out a GT including them? You can find instructions on how you might do those HERE)
My 2023 Grand Tableau
So here’s mine for 2023. I’ve picked the Celtic Lenormand deck, and as I had a choice between versions of certain cards (this deck has alternatives for several cards), I chose the following as most appropriate:
- The male, not the female Rider card (he is more vigorous and active and I wanted my Rider to be an “action” card)
- The Lady as opposed to the peasant Woman, as I kind of wanted the “higher” version of myself. On the other hand, I really don’t like the Celtic’s Lord card much (he looks like Ghenghis Khan, really not a vibe I’m keen on) so always choose the much friendlier looking villager Man to represent all the lovely guys in my life. I’ve also chosen the female Child over the male one.
- The Shedding Snake rather than the standard Snake, as I’d rather have the energy of “problems being shedded” and transformed for a new year’s read.
- The Dog rather than the Cat. Although in this deck both represent position 18, the friend, I prefer the Dog’s more loyal support than the witch’s familiar vibe for a new year.
- Of the three Birds cards on offer, I chose the Owls, giving communication that sense of inner wisdom and maturity.
- And for the Tree, I chose the more vigorous, traditional Oak, with its springlike energy, over the Holly, which has a more wintery, submerged feel.
So what do YOU think it says is coming up for me?
Now, I’m sure, if you’ve been reading all my previous Grand Tableau posts, you know the drill by now, so I won’t repeat it here, but if you want to see my interpretation of the main themes that appear to be coming up for me, you can check them out by clicking the link below.
Although I’m afraid I’ve had to stop doing Full Grand Tableau interpretations for the time being due to my current workload and the sheer amount of time and energy they take me to produce (I’m finding they prevent me from being able to do anything else at all, not ideal when you’ve got courses and books to get out as well as other work!), I’m still able to do both Short Grand Tableau reports and Key Areas Grand Tableaus. Interested to see what might be coming up for you? Why not get your own New Year Grand Tableau report based on the cards you’ve pulled?
What about you? Do you have any additional New Year spreads you use, either with Lenormand or with other systems that can be adapted? Let us know in the comments below!