The Grand Tableau, the definitive Lenormand spread, is a fantastic layout that covers all life areas. The beauty of a Grand Tableau is that there’s a wealth of information you can unearth in it. The other beauty of it is that you don’t have to. You can read it as ‘lightly’ or as ‘in depth’ as you wish to.
But if you really want to get in-depth with a Grand Tableau, there are some advanced techniques than can help you unearth ‘clues’ if you want to explore particular life areas or situations more deeply.
- You can look at all the cards surrounding the card in question, just like you would if you were doing a 9 card (3×3 or box) spread. So if you want to go deeper into the issue of love and romance, for instance, you can look at the cards surrounding the Heart in your spread and tell a story from them. If you want to explore your business and money-making activities, you’d look further at the Fish and so on.
- You can also look at the influences in the rows, columns, and diagonals leading to and from the card in question
- You can get even more clues if you look at the cards mirroring, reflecting and especially (for extra coolness) knighting that card. You can read about those techniques in this post here.
- You can use Lenormand Houses to explore even further; both the House that the card in question falls in, but also the House that represents that issue.
So in this post we’re just going to look at the last one, Lenormand Houses and how you can use them practically to get more information when you’re telling the story of your Grand Tableau or want to dig a little deeper.
What is a Lenormand ‘House?’
As a recap, all 36 cards, in numerical order, can be used as “Houses”; kind of ‘stages’ depicting different life influences within which the shuffled cards fall at any given time. The Lenormand Houses ALWAYS keep the same order, from 1-36, whereas the cards, of course, don’t. Take a look at the House positions here:
So How Do You Read Lenormand Houses?
Grand Tableaus are the only spread in which you can read Lenormand Houses. They can help you get into even more depth with any area you’re interested in.
I have already covered the basics of the Lenormand Houses in a previous post, so if you are unfamiliar with the concept and want a simple explanation, please check it out here:
The Lenormand Houses and How To Read Them
The main skill you need to read Houses as a Lenormand reader is an understanding of how the cards and essences combine. I generally find that the House tends to bring its energies to whichever card sits within it, rather than the other way round, but it can be helpful to think of the House as a ‘background setting’, and the card passing through it as something that happens within that setting
Visualising The Cards In Houses
Lenormand, as we know, is a storytelling system, and I often find that actually visualising The Houses in conjunction with the cards that happen to fall in them can be most helpful in understanding how all the influences in the querent’s story may be interacting. Some people even use a layout cloth including the House positions for their readings, and lay their cards on the cloth once shuffled to make this easier.
Here’s an example of that, where the cards have been shuffled for the Grand Tableau reading. Just take a step back now for a few minutes, and look at the cards in this spread and which Houses they’re falling in. Try and get the ‘feel’ of some of these combinations; can you see how the House ‘setting’ for each card might influence what that card is telling you?
Checking Influences In Different Life Areas Using The Houses
So imagine that you want to explore a particular card or a particular area in more detail. Imagine, for instance, that in this spread, you want to look in more detail at the subject of business and cashflow.
Well, there are two ways you can find more about business, cashflow and moneymaking in this querent’s life.
1. Find the CARD of the Influence You Want to Explore And Look At Its House
The first thing you’ll do is go and find the Fish card, right? Yep. And so you’d take a look at that first and look primarily at all the cards around the Fish to tell you more about it. You’ll probably look also at what cards are reflecting, mirroring and knighting it in order to get more detail.
And as part of that, you can also look at which House the Fish is falling in. In this case, we can see the Fish card is falling in the House of Mice. That tells us that the ‘background setting’ for the Fish card here, for business and money-making, is the area of losses and worry. What does that suggest to you?
2. Find the HOUSE of the Influence You Want to Explore And Look At The Card Within It
At the same time, it’s also worth looking at the ‘setting’ which governs business, cashflow and moneymaking for this querent, and seeing what card is falling within it. Now, remember, the House positions will always stay the same; it’s the card within them that changes. The position of the House of Fish will always be position 34 in the spread.
What’s the card that is passing through the House of Fish at this time? It’s the Ship. So this suggests perhaps money from overseas business or trade or that the business is mobile or progressing
Which is more significant? Well, they are both important and useful. The most immediate is where the card of Fish falls at the time of the reading, but the House position, about business and moneymaking in general, gives a little more depth. So when doing an in-depth Lenormand reading, I would always look at both the card AND the House for the areas I’m most interested in or want to explore more.
Telling A Story In A Chain Using Card Houses
If you want to get really advanced with your Grand Tableau Houses, Rana George (whose guide to Lenormand is excellent) has a very cool technique on this which is really good fun to try. It takes you, in a chain using cards in their House positions—such as the Fish in the Mice position—in a story all the way to the end of the chain which is the House of that influence and the card within it (so in this case, the House of Fish with the Ship inside). The story chain can be very long, very short – or not possible at all in some cases, depending on where the cards lie.
To create the ‘chain’ in our example, we’d look first at that Fish in the House of Mice position and read that together, then find the Mice card and its House position (Mice in House of Stars) and read that. Next, in this example, we’d find the Stars card, here in the House of Letter position, and read that. Then we’d find the Letter card in its house position and read that. All the way through until we got to the Ship in the House of Fish, which is where our chain would end.
We can use it for any influence we want to explore more. So if you wanted to explore the querent’s love life, you’d start with the Heart, her friendships, you’d start with the Dog, any news she gets, with the Letter card and so on. Whichever aspect you choose.
Let’s look at a live reading and try it out. We want to explore the querent’s business and moneymaking life, so here we’re going to start with the Fish.
Reading the Houses About The Querent’s Business & Moneymaking Affairs
- So we begin first with the Fish card. This is sitting in the House of Mice, suggesting she our querent make losses or be feeling rather impoverished.
- We then go to the Mice card to find out more about this. The Mice is sitting in the House of Stars, suggesting her dreams, goals and achievements have been undermined and nibbled away at somewhat.
- Next, we go to the Stars card to find out more about this. The Stars appear in the House of Letter, suggesting she’ll be getting news of an achievement or perhaps achievement of a writing or written goal.
- The Letter itself is falling in the House of Snake. Oh no! There seems to be bad news coming or she’ll get news of a problem or issue.
- To find out more, we go to the Snake card. It lurks in the House of Man. It will be a man causing the problems, here, then.
- To find out more about him, we go to the Man card. He is sitting in the House of Lilies, which suggests he is someone older, old-fashioned, or a male member of her family.
- The Lilies appear in the House of Cross. This suggests a real burden here connected with age or experience, that there’s a test of some kind in store, that’s going to put pressure on her.
- The Cross itself is falling in the House of Rider, suggesting this ‘test’ is going to present itself soon.
- The Rider is coming through her House of Scythe, however, so it may be over very rapidly, or she may have to cut something out. It could also suggest an accident.
- The Scythe cuts through the House of Sun. This could mean it involves positive decisions or a cutting down.
- The Sun shines in the House of Ring. This suggests a happy agreement is come to or a deal or bond leads to positive things.
- The Ring falls in the House of Whip, suggesting that any agreement has to be hashed out and fought for.
- The Whip falls in the House of Bear, suggesting that the main bone of contention will be about the ongoing financial or material protection side of things.
- The Bear stands in the House of Woman, indicating that it is the woman here who stands firm and her security and self-protection which is at stake.
- The Woman is in the House of Storks, showing that she is in a period of change at this time.
- The Storks are in the House of Dog, so it’s likely that what’s changing the most for her is her friendships or where she gets support and help from.
- The Dog is in the House of Coffin, showing support with regard to endings. Perhaps this is about getting help with closure or finishing things. Or she may lose support in some way.
- The Coffin is in the House of House. So there are endings to do with either domestic matters or where she feels ‘at home’.
- The House stands in the House of Key. So where she feels at home is the answer to everything. Home is of prime importance.
- The Key falls in the House of Garden, suggesting that the answer can be found through socialising, being with other people, looking to the outside world.
- The Garden is in the House of Birds, suggesting conversations and discussions with a lot of people, communicating with others; even the social world of Twitter!
- The Birds fall in the House of Tree, so it could be that there are health discussions, but it’s more likely to be talking about communication channels, branching out, means of growth.
- The Tree is standing in the House of Anchor, so this should be about long term growth, things that will last.
- The Anchor is in the House of Tower, which suggests building long term establishment, solidity and respect, possibly with official sources.
- The Tower is in the House of Moon, so it’s all about gaining respect and high regard in the world
- The Moon shines in the House of Clover, so there is a very good chance of manifesting this high regard, and she should have opportunities to do so.
- The Clover is in the House of Fox, so these are opportunities she’ll need to be smart and opportunistic about and grab with both hands, and may even have to be sneaky about.
- The Fox is in the House of Book, so she may have to keep her sneakiness hidden, or be smart in terms of using what she knows.
- The Book is in the House of Bouquet, indicating she’ll make a wonderful discovery, or learn something lovely.
- The Bouquet is in the House of Crossroads, so is likely to have multiple ‘wins’ or make choices that turn out well.
- The Crossroads is in the House of Mountain, however, so may find her way blocked and her choices limited, or she’ll have to find ways around obstacles.
- The Mountain is in the House of Child, so she could find a younger person putting the brakes on things, or her own inexperience will cause problems.
- The Child is in the House of Ship, so it’s likely that she’s someone relatively new who is on a journey, making progress.
- Finally, we return to the start. The Ship is in the House of Fish, so this looks as though it is a moneymaking or business journey, or she is making money from overseas.
Whew! So as you see, chains can be quite long. Putting this into ‘story’ form, then:
Business-wise, our querent appears to be making losses or feeling rather impoverished. Her goals or dreams have been undermined or whittled away, but she should be getting some news about achievement soon. Unfortunately, that may be turn out to be bad or negative news, perhaps a negative message, most likely from a man who is older or more senior or experienced than her. This presents her with a test or responsibility of some kind to meet, although it is likely to be over very quickly and she may just need to make cuts or reductions in order to deal with it. They are likely to prove positive anyway, and lead to a positive bond, agreement or deal, although she’s likely to have to hash out her terms a bit, particularly with regard to her financial security and power, and how well protected she is. She’ll need to stand firm and make sure she’s covered and looking after herself. She is in any case in a period of making changes at this time, particularly with regard to allies and supporters and those who she gets help from. She may need help bring something to an end, or an association may finish, as she focuses on where she feels most ‘at home’; she’ll finish with anything that doesn’t. She’ll find the key through other people, being out in the wider world or marketplace, and will be communicating a lot with others, probably through different communication channels, perhaps branching out into different social media. She should be looking for things that bring her long term, solid growth, and will help her establish herself more formally, give her strong foundations, and bring her respect and high regard in the eyes of the world. She has a very good chance of achieving this, too, although she’ll need to be smart about opportunities and grabbing them when they arise. She may need to keep her smartness discreet at times, or use her knowledge in a clever way. This will bring her good things and come to fruition, and her choices should turn out well. She may have obstacles she needs to find her way round, however, her lack of experience being one of them. But she’s on a journey, she’s making good progress, and she should see that in terms of her cashflow and moneymaking endeavours as a result.
Want Me To Interpret YOUR Grand Tableau?
*Please note, you will need your own deck of Lenormand cards & to draw the cards yourself”
Grand Tableau Short Report $19.99
What do the cards want to tell you? This short report, based on the cards most immediately influencing the Querent ONLY, is the most akin to a traditional Lenormand reading. Usually blunt and to the point, it’s a popular general reading for those who are curious as to what the cards have to tell them: but is less suitable if you have specific questions. It is the cards which choose the topics, not the Querent!
Average report length: 5-7pp. Turnaround: 48 hours approx
Grand Tableau Key Areas Report $39.99
This is an expanded Grand Tableau report, based not only on the cards most immediately influencing the Querent, but also offering more exploration of client-specified areas of interest, and takes the ‘bigger picture’ story of the spread into account. That said, the cards will still only tell you what they want to tell you, and is unlikely to answer questions as directly or clearly as a smaller reading would. Key areas for focus might include Love or Career/Business Matters, Problems to Watch Out For, Areas of Success, for instance.
Average report length 10-12pp. Turnaround: 72 hours approx
Grand Tableau Full Report $84.99
This is an FULL and detailed Grand Tableau report, based not only on the cards most immediately influencing the Querent, but also offering explorations of ALL of the other cards in the reading, woven into a story directly relating to you. As such, there is a lot of detail, which can be overwhelming to the unitiated. Once again, as a general reading, my Full Grand Tableau is unlikely to answer questions as directly or clearly as a smaller reading would.
Average report length: 18-19pp. Turnaround: 8-10 days approx
NOT SURE WHICH SPREAD TO CHOOSE?
“I want to ask the cards a specific question on a life area eg love or work or about a person.”
Choose one of the short 5 card or 9 card reports.
5 card readings are more direct, 9 card readings more analytical and exploratory.
“I don’t have a specific question: I want a general reading, and to see what the cards have to tell me!
Choose a short Grand Tableau Report but be prepared for the cards to be quite blunt and to pick up whatever life areas they think you need to know about!
“I don’t have a specific question: I want a general reading, but also to see what the cards have to tell me about one or two specific life areas OR ask if a particular issue is showing up.”
Choose a Key Areas Grand Tableau Report for a more exploratory reading, and ask me to focus on particular areas and the overall picture as well as what’s appearing immediately around you, in the spread. Be aware the cards won’t necessarily be able to answer all questions directly or in the exact way you want; it will still depends on the story showing in the spread!
“I don’t have a specific question: I want a general reading, but on ALL possible life areas.”
Choose a FULL Grand Tableau Report for a detailed exploratory reading which looks at ALL 36 cards and strings them together in a storytelling way. Be aware there is a LOT of information in this reports, which some readers may find overwhelming.