Welcome to our walk in the Lenormand Park!
Depepi’s question for number 20: How do you feel when reading the Lenormand? Is it a different feeling compared with you reading the Tarot?
Yep, definitely. It’s going to take awhile, that’s for sure. Some readings come together nicely into phrases describing potential activities to be aware of, and sometimes, it’s hard to parse them because of the linguistic nature of the interpretive tradition. So, I stay in a very intellectual mode with this system compared to the often intuitive/visual thing going on with Tarot.
For example, this morning for my daily “what should I be aware of?” three card draw, I got the Tree, the Lady, and the Dog. The Tree in the “noun” position is what’s throwing me off right now. Am I going to have “friendly” health today? Oh, or maybe this: I need to be loyal to my fitness and healthy eating practices today to avoid problems. Ah-ha! See, it’s all about taking the series of standard meanings and weaving them together into a sentence or phrase advice or description of a situation.
Let me know what tricks you use to zero in on a phrase that makes sense to you.
I tend to find the “Tree” represents the underlying idea of learning unconditional love and the idea of non-attachment in relationships – challenges in love and relationships, a quest for truth in love and relationships – and the kind of person that would be going through this would be an “old soul” who’s here to let go of personal attachments in order to evolve to the “next level” of their soul’s evolution.This is why the tree of life is symbolic here – and also it relates to health for these old souls can sometimes bring in karmic issues from previous lives that could manifest as health issues in this lifetime. So now we have the idea of perhaps giving up something (we love) because its too stressful or bad for our health. Blend this with the Lady, and we have you giving up something that you love in order for a greater good. Now take the Dog, which I often understand as a pack animal and being part of groups, obviously to do with the whole loyal/love theme of a dog nature, but at a deeper level its also about honesty with the self, a commitment to personal truth, and a clarity in judgement. The Dog theme for me feels very much like “gentle yet powerful in love”, and the dog being ever loyal is very committed to it’s owner/pack, as well as working for that love (think of the dog running for the ball, or begging for the treat/affection). So now we have the underlying understanding of each card (the Lady being relatively clear in this spread, so there’s no need for deeper analysis) it can be read as:
You, Giving up something you love for a greater good/Giving up something you love which wasn’t great for your overall health, which is to do with/requires you being honest with yourself about something – a truth that you’d previously chosen to hide from in some form or other (seeing things through rose tinted glasses / romantisized rather than what it really is).
I’d be interested to see how this relates to you personally / whether it resonates or not! :O)