To Predict or Not To Predict? How to Use Lenormand As a Personal Tool

Different readers have different uses for cartomancy systems like Lenormand. Of course, they are often used specifically for fortune-telling, for direct prediction of the future. However, as I mentioned here, 5 Mistakes When Reading Lenormand For Yourself,  an over-attachment to the cards in terms of feeling that everything in your life is fixed and pre-ordained by some outside force, with you as just the passive recipient of your given fate, with nothing you can about it, can be pretty a pretty unhealthy approach. Luckily, because of how it works, Lenormand is flexible enough  that we can use the cards in a lot of different ways.

It is often said that Lenormand is just a fortune-telling system where Tarot is the psychological exploration one. I’m not sure I would entirely agree with that interpretation. Tarot is certainly more esoteric and mystical,  so lends itself far more to spiritual journeys, with a specific framework of progress through the stages to higher enlightenment. The Lenormand is more direct, with its meanings grounded in the day to day realities and universals of everyday human life, so it tends to lend itself to action more than musing. At the same time, that day-to-day reality includes psychological realities, such as  Innocence (Child), Discovery and Learning (Book), Love (Heart), Hopes & Dreams (Stars) Security (Bear), Loss (Mice), Responsibilities and Burdens (Cross) and so on.

As someone who tends to be a very earth-bound person with a love of nature, I am not especially looking for spiritual enlightenment sitting “up there” over and above my daily life. I personally think the knowledge and wonder and connections are already here, on Earth, waiting for us to discover and act on. From a spiritual perspective, I am more interested in the universal experience, archetypes and how things are interconnected; I am more interested in the wisdom of the here and now than the pursuit of some pure, ideal self ruled from outside and above. The beauty, for me, is in the discovery and wisdom of the now and it’s one of the reasons I like Lenormand so much.

So how might you use Lenormand as a personal tool in a more active, way?

I should caveat this by saying I do find that experimenting with prediction and checking what eventually happened is a highly useful way of learning how the cards tend to work for you when you first begin with Lenormand. Predict for the day and week ahead, or draw cards that look BACK, and you can see how they seem to be working for you—or not!

Lenormand is way more direct than Tarot, and as such is well-suited for very direct fortune telling and prediction if you choose to use it that way, but you don’t have to focus on that aspect of it. You will notice that I personally don’t tend to use timings much in my predictions, for example: I don’t like things to be that precise and fixed. For my predictive readings I tend instead to set the time period I’m interested in in the question itself e.g. “What is coming up for X in the next week/month/year?” and so on. But even in my personal, private predictions, I tend to be interested more the themes, rather than exactly when things are going to happen. I prefer to leave things to be open enough for me to act on them and what the cards are telling me about the influences that are around me or other situations.

And prediction is not the only way I use the cards. Privately, I most usually ask questions to get more information about specific situations in my life. My own experiences have been that when used personally, the cards primarily tend to reflect the main influences around me at a given time, and highlight “areas for consideration.” (often, as it transpires, with a strong degree of accuracy and/or usefulness.)  I then have the tools and information I need to consider them and act upon them as I wish.

It’s All About The Context & Story

The key thing to remember about the Lenormand system is that the underlying meanings of the cards are fundamental enough to be able to be applied to multiple situations and to answer multiple questions. One of the things I really like about Lenormand is that it’s both simple and adaptable to multiple scenarios, once you understand the fundamental meanings of the cards. Once you know those, it’s going to be up to you as a reader how you choose to use and apply them.

One thing is certain though, and that is that Lenormand provides a whole story, a picture, in which the elements are interconnected. However you choose to do your Lenormand reading and with what purpose, a narrative of some kind is what is going to come out. In its own way, Lenormand is a quite holistic system. It always shows how one aspect of life or a situation interlinks with another and pulls it together into a complete story.

Use Questions, Contexts and Relevant Card Meanings

Bear in mind that the intention you  yourself set with the cards via the question you use is extremely important in giving a reading focus. Sure, you might ask “What’s coming up for me this week?” which is naturally predictive.

But you might equally well ask a “now” question to get more depth about a situation that you want to investigate. You don’t necessarily ask what’s going to happen. You’re just trying to get information. “What’s going on with X-person/this situation?” for example. “What should I know about X?” “What are the main influences around me at this time?” “What is the root of this problem?” “What might I want to focus on now?”

You can interpret your card meanings in terms of the context you are using. And of course, always remember, you are an active agent in your own life: the cards may show certain influences around you, but it is you who then decides on the actions to take in response.

Of course,  you can even, depending on your question, use the cards themselves to indicate actions to take e.g.

What would be the main actions for me to take if I wanted to…. X?

Some action meanings in response might be, for example:

Mountain: Stand your ground

Whip: Work hard and/or fight for it

Tree: Stay Healthy

Child: Look at the problem with a child’s eye view, or as if you’re seeing it for the first time

Cross: Take responsibility

Ring: Commit to it

Fox: Do what you have to do to survive/keep your wits about you/watch out for deceptions

Bouquet: Be agreeable/make sure you look good

For more tips on Lenormand questions take a look at my post How To Ask Lenormand Questions For The Best Results.

Use The Appropriate Card Layouts

I experiment with a lot of different spreads these days, but among classic Lenormand spreads, both the 9 card spread and the Grand Tableau do utilise elements of the past, present, future, mainly in the sense of influences past, current and coming up for consideration and as they fit into the whole picture of the reading. You can use that information in many ways, however.

3 Card Spread: Use for simple questions around and an overview of any given situation.

5-Card Spread: This can be used for any question, on any given situation. This is my preferred layout for this reason: it’s completely flexible and gives a fair overview of a situation, with whatever question I might ask.

9- Card Spread: Traditionally Column 1 shows the past influences, Column 2 the current and Column 3 the future influences coming into play. However, this reading is not primarily about prediction. It’s mainly about looking at an overall situation – any situation, or person – with a degree of depth. It creates a whole picture for you of that situation, with a number of factors and influences interlinked.  Again, the key to this is the question you ask and what the focus card turns out to be. This layout is ideal for looking at a specific situation in some depth: “What do I need to know about X?” “What can you tell me about X?” is the best type of question for this layout.

Grand Tableau: A very in-depth look at ALL aspects of a querent’s life at a given point in time. Its name literally means “The Big Picture.” Sure, because of the size of it, readers tend to only use it to cover a fairly sizeable period of time, and like the 9 card spread it tells a story, and can move from past influences to those more in the future. That said, the whole point of the Grand Tableau is the depth and detail it brings, the story,  rather than future prediction per se. You can use this layout to explore  any aspect of your current life that you want and all the influences around it.

EXAMPLE: 5 Card Reading

Imagine you want to do a reading to give yourself some guidance about a project or endeavour you have undertaken. You shuffle the cards and ask the following question:

Q: What actions can I take to help me succeed in this endeavour?

The cards you pull are as follows.

Dog— Garden— MOON— Bouquet— Bear

Friendship, Social, Honour/Perception, Loveliness/Gift, Strength/Protection

Because we have set our intent and framed the question in this specific way, and because Lenormand works by us applying the underlying card meanings to our exact context and question, in this case, it’s going to be most helpful to us to focus our answers on “active” and psychological interpretations of a lot of the cards meanings.

Keycard: MOON

Honour, respect, perception, emotion, manifestation, also creativity

So at the heart of this reading, we can see that the actions concerned are all about the honours you receive, how this manifests, how it is perceived and your creativity.

Central Cards & Mirrored Cards

Garden-Moon = Honour shared with others, or how you appear to others, creative sharing.

Moon-Bouquet = Given or gifted honours. Beautiful or pleasant emotions or creativity. Gifts, rewards, prizes.

Dog-Bear = Protective or protection of friends, supporters, or allies. It has an implication of power, security, perhaps wealth,  and a shielding of some kind.

Garden-Bouquet =  a lovely, flourishing, perhaps artistic social group or marketplace, where people are positive to one another

So overall, the answer seems to be around sharing the best aspects of our endeavour openly in a group of supportive, well-regarded or perhaps powerful or protective allies who also hold us in high regard.

For more detail on this then:

5-Card Chain

Dog-Garden = Group of friends or allies, supporters

Garden-Moon = High honour group, well-respected, perhaps a creative group, sharing

Moon-Bouquet = Gifted with honours, beautiful feelings, creating beauty, something higher, art

Bouquet-Bear = Powerful or financial gift; protective beauty or blessings. Confidence? The blessings of powerful people?

Sharing this endeavour with a high-level supportive or protective group brings protective & powerful good things, perhaps a sense of confidence and security.

And for even more detail if we want it:

Dog-Garden = Group of friends or allies, supporters

Dog-Moon = Friends who honour and respect us, creative friends, emotional support

Dog-Bouquet = Pleasant, attractive, or artistic friends

Dog-Bear = Powerful or protective friends, strong support, the protection of friends

A strong and supportive group of possibly artistic or creative allies and friends

Garden-Moon = High-level, well-thought-of creative or vocational group, sharing ideas

Garden-Bouquet = Beautiful or pleasant group or public, art or design group

Garden-Bear =  Powerful, protective or wealthy group

A creative or emotion-based world, the artistic or creative world, protective or powerful group

Moon-Bouquet = Gifted with honours, beautiful feelings, creating beauty, something higher, art

Moon-Bear = Treated respectfully, powerful reputation, protective feelings, strong feelings

Beauty, confident and powerful feelings or creativity

Bouquet-Bear = Powerful or financial gift; protective beauty; blessings

A powerful or protective beauty

So:

Q: What actions can I take to help me succeed in this endeavour?

A: Making sure I keep what I’m doing to the highest level and sharing creative work with a supportive group of well-regarded creative allies for feelings of confidence and security.

In Summary:

To use Lenormand as more of a personal development than a fortune-telling tool:

• Focus on the context of the reading and the ‘story’ you are telling and how things interlink
• Ask personal-development and action-based rather than “What will happen/what’s coming up?” questions
• Bear in mind that because of the way Lenormand works, answers will still tend to be direct and grounded rather than spiritual journey type answers
• Use the appropriate layout for your situation and focus on getting in-depth guidance and information
• Interpret the card meanings in an active way, or focus on how you might respond to particular influences around you.

 

Want more info and guidance? Check out my Lenormand Tips page for answers to some common questions and issues, or why not sign up to my mailing list for a FREE downloadable Card Combinations e-book, my regular newsletter, tips and exclusive subscriber-only freebies!