So here’s one of the issues you may come across when it comes to focusing your readings. Do you actively choose a keycard to focus your reading around, or do you not, ask your question, just see where the cards fall, and let your keycard be whatever the cards themselves choose?
What Is A Keycard?
A keycard that you choose is one you decide is going to sit in the centre of your reading, based on your question. So it could be the Heart for love, or the Fox for career, or Ring for a marriage or deal, the Man or Woman for a particular person.
What Layouts Does This Relate To?
The readings this relates to are the 3-Card, 5-Card and 9-Card readings.
Obviously, this question doesn’t come up with the Grand Tableau, because the whole thing is really made up of keycards.
How Do You Go About Picking A Keycard When You Read?
You decide before you shuffle what card you are going to focus on and keep focusing on it as you shuffle and ask your question. Personally, when I feel it is ready, I find my chosen keycard in the pack, and lay the cards either side of it in the reading I have chosen.
So, say I am doing a 5 card reading about love. I ask my question, shuffle the cards, and when I am ready, find the Heart card in my pack and lay it. Then I take the two cards that came right before it in my pack and lay them in front of it, and the two cards that came directly after, and lay them afterwards.
What Do Other Lenormand Readers Say?
I’ve seen different approaches to this. I’ve seen excellent Lenormand readers say they “check the reading to see if it’s about what it should be” and draw the cards again if there is nothing in there that seems relevant. To be honest, this seems like a bit of a cop-out to me, rather like the “picking cards again if you don’t get the answer you want” thing (see 5 Mistakes When Reading Lenormand For Yourself). I’d only do this if I thought I had been distracted from the task at hand.
On the other hand, I’ve seen equally good readers say they would never deliberately choose a keycard for any Lenormand reading because if you do you might miss vital information and clues: that if you do, you’re not getting the real benefit of what the Lenormand cards can offer.
All I can give here is my own experience. I do think there is value in choosing keycards in some circumstances, but I also think ‘reading blind’ can also be beneficial.
Advantages of Choosing A Keycard
- Clearly focuses the reading on whatever area or thing you want
- Makes the context clear to the reader
- Ensures the reading is only about that thing and nothing else
- Makes the reading very direct
Disadvantages of Choosing A Keycard
- Over-controls the reading
- May miss out on useful information
- Doesn’t get in depth or show nuance
- Can make one card seem ‘redundant’: it’s only there to perform the role of keycard you’ve given it and nothing else. This can particularly be an issue in 3 and 5 card readings
Advantages of Reading Blind
- More intuitive & fate-driven
- May pick up on hidden information
- Gets more in-depth with a reading, under the skin of what’s really going on with regard to the question
- Every card has work to do: no cards are redundant
Disadvantages of Reading Blind
- Will seem less focused: you will need to focus on the context and question yourself
- Can seem more random and irrelevant
- You need to be confident about card meanings & be able to apply them easily
- Can seem too vague and indirect
Keycards versus No Keycards in Action: EXAMPLE
As an illustration, let’s take a look at the exact same question to the exact same person answered by using a keycard and not.
Question: What is coming up for X moneywise this week?
In this reading choose the Bear as the keycard, and use the cards that fell around it, and come up with the following spread:
Clover—Cross—BEAR—Sun—Stars
Keycard: BEAR = Money
Cross-Bear = Money burdens or financial responsibilities or debts
Bear-Sun = Successful finances
Around that:
Clover-Stars = Massively good luck
Cross-Sun = Successful or happy responsibility or joy after pressure
In a chain
Clover-Cross – burdened or heavy luck or good fortune, the weight of luck
Cross-Bear = Financial burden; debt
Bear-Sun = Lucky finances
Sun-Stars = Big success; ambitions achieved
In conclusion:
Q: What is coming up for X moneywise this week?
A: Although there have been financial burdens and debts and perhaps the pressure of having to rely on chance, luck, or for opportunities to come, this week is lucky financially. It looks as though there will be great financial success and good fortune
Nice and direct, right? All good.
Now the exact same question for the exact same person but without choosing a keycard to do the reading around.
Question: What is coming up for X moneywise this week?
In this reading, we just pick the cards wherever they fell and read it blind. I usually pick the card that ‘feels’ right and then use THAT as my central, or keycard, in the reading. In this case, it was the MICE, as below.
Letter—Child—MICE—Fox—Tree
Keycard: MICE = Worries, niggles, undermining
Child-Mice = Worries about starting something or something new
Mice-Fox = Work or hustle worries
Around that:
Letter-Tree = Growing or branching out bits of writing or documents
Child-Fox = Work or hustle beginner
5-Card Chain:
Letter-Child = Beginner’s news, piece of writing, or documentation
Child-Mice = Anxious beginner
Mice-Fox = Work or hustle anxieties
Fox-Tree = Growing, healthy or branching out work
(I could also go way more into detail into each card by reading it in a pair with all the other cards)
Q: What is coming up for X moneywise this week?
A: At the core is a sense of anxiety and worry, particularly about making a new start with some work or a hustle, which is to do with perhaps some written work. Coming up, though, it looks like the work is healthy and growing.
Note in particular how in this ‘blind’ reading, I had to do WAY more work in terms of interpreting the meanings and applying them to the context of the question I had asked. This is only something you can really do if you are comfortable & confident with the card meanings and how to apply them to different contexts.
OK – So What Is The Difference Between These Two Readings? Which Is “Correct”?
Let’s look at both the readings together:
WITH Chosen Keycard
Q: What is coming up for X moneywise this week?
A: Although there have been financial burdens and debts and perhaps the pressure of having to rely on chance, luck, or for opportunities to come, this week is lucky financially. It looks as though there will be great financial success and good fortune
WITHOUT Chosen Keycard & Read Blind
Q: What is coming up for X moneywise this week?
A: At the core is a sense of anxiety and worry, particularly about making a new start with some work or a hustle, which is to do with perhaps some written work. Coming up, though, it looks like the work is healthy and growing.
Completely different readings, on the surface, right?
Well, not exactly. Both of the readings are “correct”, but they take a different approach to answering the same question
- The Keycard reading answers the question exactly & very directly, with no nuance. It says there has been pressure moneywise but that all will be well. Boom! Done & dusted. Next!
- The Blind reading goes a little more under the surface: in a way it delves into why you are asking the question about money in the first place. It shows that what lies at the heart of the matter is actually anxiety (interestingly, this does reflect what the keycard reading shows about financial pressure & responsibility) and gives some detail about a new work venture. Again, its ending is positive, showing that work will be healthy and flourishing despite the worry. In other words, rather than just ask the question, it shows how the money situation looks like it will improve.
If you want to decide whether or not choosing a keycard is right for your situation, I’d say the following:
When To Use A Keycard
- When you’re not quite confident of the card meanings yet
- When you don’t seem to be able to get focus on a reading,
- When you only want to focus on that specific thing very directly
- When you are specifically exploring n particular area, individual or named ‘thing’ further, perhaps as a result of something else coming up in another reading. For example, a particular individual pops up in a reading and you want to find out more about them, or there is something you don’t understand. This works particularly well in a 9-card reading.
When Not To Use A Key Card i.e. Do A Reading ‘Blind’
- When you are fully confident of your ability to apply the card meanings in different contexts
- When you want the reading to include extra information, or reveal ‘surprises’ & are comfortable with that
- When you want to exercise your intuition more
- When you want to get much more in depth into what’s really behind a situation
I hope this brings some clarity to the question of keycards.
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!
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Why not doing both? One reading with Key card and then another one blind, that way we can a direct answer and also underlying influences.
Yes, that’s a useful approach.
i was reading how to pick a key card for the 3,5 cards. i’m wondering that when i spread a Grand Tablue and want to set a key card for (a partner/person or someone i knew in the past such as (Ex Boy, Girl or old friend). I just set the key card is Woman/ Man or i have to set another key card for this situation?