6 Ways To Build Up To Reading For Other People

While the majority of those starting to read Lenormand are happy to just read for themselves, the time comes, of course, where quite a few of you would like to start reading for others. Or perhaps you have other people asking you to “do them a reading.” What’s the best way to get yourself to the point where you’d be comfortable to do so?

Learning Lenormand is a process, a gradual building-up. Nearly all would-be readers come to Lenormand from Tarot, so most of you will have some familiarity with the concept of card-reading itself, but it’s worth underlining again: Lenormand is a completely different system from Tarot, so in many ways, you will need to start from scratch.

What are the main stages to take yourself through in order to build up to being able to read for others?

1. Get Familiar With The Cards Meanings & Main Layouts & Read Regularly For Yourself

The first thing you’ll need to do is build your confidence and familiarity with the cards’ meanings, combinations and how the cards together work in readings. And the single best way to do that is practising regular readings for yourself.

Begin with simple readings, like daily 3-card readings or simple 3-Card readings about situations in your own life.

Then when you’re ready, move to  5-Card spreads for more detail. Try readings with different kinds of questions; with keycards and not with keycards. Apply the cards to different contexts in your own life. Try 9-Card spreads to seek out information. And make sure you do a few Grand Tableaus for yourself.

If you are at this point on your journey, you may find the following posts and pages useful:

Lenormand Card Layouts

Your Lenormand Journal: 5 Exercises To Try

2. Reflect On Your Accuracy, And Reading Strengths & Weaknesses

Learning Lenormand is not just about passively taking in information from card readers though; you need to be active about your own learning in order to build your own relationship with the system.

Do take the time to look back on your own readings over a period of time and reflect on them. The helpful thing about doing a bunch of readings about yourself is that nobody knows you and the realities of what goes on in your life better than yourself. And if it turns out you have got things wrong in your readings, no harm done: it’s simply something to learn from and very useful information.

Here are some of the things you might reflect on:

• How accurate or useful did your interpretations turn out to be? Was there anything you missed that you can now see staring you in the face?
• On the other hand, were there things that you got totally wrong or you still don’t know what the cards were referring to? What might you learn from that?
• We often find that meanings tend to work in certain ways for us in particular situations. How did the meanings tend to work for you and in which circumstances? Which layouts & methods worked best for you?
• Which cards give you trouble or seem to speak to you most? What was the most helpful way you found to use them day-to-day?

Once you’ve done that, you can start plugging the gaps, perhaps reading further, or exploration on the issues that cause you difficulties.

3. Do Practice Readings Where You Can Check the Answers

This is something I used to love doing when I was learning, and sometimes still do to keep myself on my toes; looking at other people’s readings and spreads, trying them out for myself, and THEN finding out what the ‘answer’ was. Either in reality or their interpretations.

As I’ve said, the great thing about reading for yourself is that you know yourself and your life and you can see quite easily where your readings went well, and where they fell short. But the less great thing about reading for yourself is that it’s hard to be objective and keep emotional distance.

One of the BIGGEST skills to learn before you can start reading well for others is to be able to step back with a cool head and no personal investment at all and just read the damn cards as they are. To be totally objective. And then to see if you captured everything that needed to be captured in the reading. Lots of people put up their readings online, so it’s always worth taking a look for yourself

And this is the number one reason I like to include lots of practice readings in my books – with answers & interpretations. If this is where you’re at, you might find some of my workbooks & ebooks useful:

• Lenormand Career & Work Readings WB (available to download as a PDF in the shop here, and formatted for e-readers, tablets & mobiles at Amazon and elsewhere)
• Lenormand Love & Relationship Readings WB (coming soon)
• Lozzy’s Complete Guide To Lenormand (coming soon)

4. Do Readings About Others You Know

Once you’ve got practiced in that more distanced way of reading, it’s time to get back to your own life again; but this time try doing readings about the people around you.

It’s kind of half and half: there are probably things you know about them and their situations which you can bring to the readings, but this time, it’s not about you. Something you’re curious about?  Got a question on a situation a friend is having? Do a reading, keep it to yourself—but then see what unfolds around you.

As with your own readings, see what worked and what didn’t. What came up? What does that tell you for next time? What might you do differently? Try it.

And now is the time to start considering the other aspects too. Reading for others is a big responsibility. What sort of things would you have to be careful about when reading for another person? Imagine they were sitting in front of you. What sort of sensitivities might you need to have or think about in how you gave the reading? What would you do and not do? What questions wouldn’t you answer? What sort of layouts would you use and why?

5. Let Go of Lists & Start Letting Intuition Guide You

Once you’ve got to this stage, you should be building much more confidence. Yes, you may still refer to lists like the Card Combinations from time to time, but if you’ve been thorough in your practice, you should be building up a strong relationship with your cards.

Now is the time to see if you’re able to do without the lists and rely more heavily on your own knowledge and intuition. If you have someone sitting in front of you, you’re not going to be spending all your time looking up combinations in a book or on a website. So now, see if, in your own readings or those about others, you can focus on the story the cards seem to be telling you, and how you might tell it.

If this is where you’re at, you might find the following posts & pages helpful:

6 Tips For Getting Confident About Card Meanings

Reading Lenormand Card Combinations: The Number 1 Secret

How To Tell A Story With Lenormand

 

6. Start Doing Practice Readings For Willing Friends & Family

It’s up to you how you’d start to do this and at which stage. Many people don’t read for others at all, so that is a decision you’d need to make for yourself based on what you’ve learned about your readings and your preferences so far. It’s not for everyone, and it’s way more about the interaction and the other person than it is about you, and involves a lot of skills, so it can be quite a leap.

One thing I would say if you do, is to pick your people carefully at this stage. It’s best to keep things light-hearted; probably a friend or family member who’s willing to help you out and do it out of curiosity and “for entertainment purposes”, not someone in the middle of a massive breakdown. Avoid very emotionally loaded situations, and avoid being ‘handed’ responsibility for something that someone either needs to deal with themselves, or needs to see someone about (I’m thinking particularly about health issues or legal questions here.)

Also you need to consider practicalities. Are you going to be talking in person (in which case, be very confident) or dropping them an email? (I have often done “distance” readings for people, which gives me more time to consider). How are you or the person going to choose the cards? Are they going to be shuffling them or are you? What deck will you be using? Which layout? How are you going to find out their question and frame it in a way that gives your reading focus? How are you going to keep yourself objective?

Ultimately, building up to reading for others is about building up your own confidence and own personal practice with the Lenormand cards,  combining what you learn on here and other places with your own quirks and your own personal take on life.

So in brief then. Building up to reading for other people involves:

• Getting familiar with card meanings & layouts, and reading regularly for yourself
• Reflecting on your own experiences. Your accuracy, strengths and weaknesses.
• Doing practice readings where you can be totally objective and check the answers.
• Doing readings about others you know, and starting to think about how you would frame them.
• Moving from lists and books to using your own intuition
• Begin doing “for entertainment purposes” readings for willing family and friends

WANT MORE STUFF?

If you’d like more info and guidance on Lenormand in general, do check out out my Lenormand Tips page for answers to some common questions and issues. You can also sign up to my mailing list for a FREE downloadable Card Combinations e-book, my regular newsletter, tips and exclusive subscriber-only freebies!

And if you enjoy trying out practice readings where you get to check your answers, why not take a look at the books & materials now available in the Shop?