THE CARTOMANTIC MINDSET 3: What Actually Happens When We Read Tarot?

          Of course, there are as many ways of reading oracle and divination cards as skinning a cat. Every new deck published brings its own methods and spreads but most cards are being read today from the perspective of modern tarot reading methods and not from the older, traditional cartomantic practice. In my study of the cartomantic mindset required to read Lenormand, I’m going to look at how we read tarot first, even though I know you know how to do this, because I want to show how we read Lenormand differently, so please humour me!

Reading from the Images   These three card cards are from Steampunk Tarot: Gods of the Machine  and I am purposely using this deck because you probably won’t know it so well,  it creates an even playing field for you to understand what I am getting at here.

          I am going to tell you nothing more about these cards other than that they are drawn for this question, ‘What does the new job entail?’ Yes, you can probably guess some equivalents with a standard tarot, but I am also not giving these cards any positions, so what is left to you?  Have a go at answering the question from looking only at the images, covering the paragraph below.

The Steampunk Tarot:Gods of the Machine by Caitlín & John Matthews, art Wil Kinghan.

How did you do? You might have come up with something like, ‘this new job is finely-honed machine into which you have to fit and be well-turned out.’  What you’ve been forced to do here is relate the images of the cards one to another, which is pretty much how an oracle with no fixed meanings has to be read.  Because I gave you no positions, you had to read the cards like a storyboard, which is how filmmakers plot out their shots in any scene, by making a cartoon strip of images.  You had to use the visual clues from each card to create metaphors. Above, I just looked at the Cosmic Blueprint card and saw ‘finely-honed machine,’ 9 Leviathans looked like ‘a tight fit.’ While Lady of Airships looked ‘well turned out.’  Anyone with no knowledge of tarot or divining could have done this. From a steampunk perspective, my answer could well be: get your main frame organized so that your can enjoy lazy days aboard your own dirigible.’ This is just reading from the images and in a steampunk context, ofcourse!

Reading from Knowledge of the Cards: However, most people know or have some idea of which what meanings these tarot cards represent. I can now reveal their equivalents, for which I give a couple of standard keywords from the Rider Waite Smith end of the tarot spectrum:

XXI World: Completion, perfection.

9 Coins: Accomplishment, self-assurance.

Queen Swords: a woman who is intelligent and decisive.

Modern readers also like to know what positions these cards are placed upon, so that they know how to apply these meanings.  For example, if I ask about my new job, I could designate the positions like this:

1. What does the job offer?

2. What do I gain from the job?

3. How do I need to change my working style?

Covering the paragraph below and using your own knowledge of these three cards, read them in accordance with the three positional questions and frame an answer.

          You might come up with something like, ‘the job offers a fully-rounded and fulfilling role. You gain self-assurance and independence. You need to sharpen up your skills and be pretty savvy.’  Using your knowledge of the card’s meanings, you’ve been able to state the main meaning and apply it to each of the positional questions.  Your knowledge of each card’s meaning was essential, wasn’t it? Without it, when you were forced to use the visual clues, you were just improvising.

Reading Even More Into the Cards

         

          Let’s just look at the equivalent RWS cards: how differently can we answer these questions? ‘The job offers you the world at your feet. You will gain lots of spare time. You need to become commanding and authoritative.’  Here I have read from the images again with a nod at the meanings: we hear more of this kind of reading today than the old cartomantic style.  It is a bit vague, isn’t it? So I might follow up by talking to the client about her mode of dress, based on the images here, or have an intuitive sense of her being alone a lot, since each of these figures is alone.. I can also note that the cards have three women in them, and that they become increasingly sedate in the sequence. I could also look at the directionalilty of the images and say that it’s no use looking back and now is the time to look forward. I could go on….. and on…..

           Some other tarot readers might also have waded in here, not just armed by knowledge of the card’s meanings, but by a whole slew of other knowledge that is supplemental rather than essential: for example that the World represents Saturn, and that, according to different systems, 9 Coins and Queen Swords are both cards of Virgo.  They might also point up the presence of the Four Holy Creatures  as my ‘guardian angels’ or note that the woman is carrying a hawk which connects with the butterfly on the Queen’s throne, both airborne creatures    Would this extend or aid our interpretation here? I think not. My question is about the new job, not about what the stars are doing. As a client, I don’t really care: I just want pragmatic advice and some sense of what the job will bring. I don’t want to know my past incarnations, I don’t need therapy, I just want clarity, and that is what cartomancy can give us.

          Don’t mistake me here: I love tarot, but I tend to read it in more cartomantic than modern tarot style ways these days, as well as using more traditional and historical Tarot decks.  Learning how we distinguish between what we are doing in Tarot and what we do when we pick up Lenormand is essential if you are not to create headaches for yourself later.

          Cartomantic reading style is very literal and pragmatic. There are no ‘Mercury is retrograde, so your communications with your lover will be bad,’ or ‘emotionally, you are psychologically feeling your way.’  It tells clients what they want to know.

In the next blog we’ll  see how the cartomantic mindset helps us read the Lenormand cards in primary pairing and juxtaposition.

THE CARTOMANTIC MINDSET 2: Differences Between Tarot and Lenormand

10 Stones from The Wildwood Tarot and 10 Clubs/Bear from Daveluy Lenormand

First of all let’s look at the most obvious differences between Tarot and Lenormand, so that we can get a sense of what we are talking about:

Tarot                                    Lenormand

78 cards                               36 cards

Major and minor cards          Cards of equal weight (except Man & Woman)

Upright & Reversed cards      Cards always read upright

Read on spread positions       Read by proximity to each other

Esoteric                               Non-esoteric

Complex symbolism             Single image with additional playing card inset

Cards read by their images   Cards read by their keywords

Passive Significator              Active Significator/s left in deck

Cards speak floridly             Cards speak tersely

Cards of Equal Weight: In Tarot, trumps or major cards have an archetypal and pips or minors a pragmatic weight to them; Trumps will speak about major events or changes, while Pips discuss the small stuff.  In Lenormand, the cards have an equal weight to them: 34 of the cards  can equally contribute to the reading and are what I would call ‘speaking cards.’ The Man and Woman cards are ‘cards that are spoken of.’

          The other cards describe these two client cards by juxtaposition, as below, where Man comes out first far left, the card next to it speaks about it or describes it: here Man has Coffin beside him. (The cards are my 19^th century Belgium Daveluy Lenormand. ) These cards came up in a larger reading about a woman’s husband, who is very depressed and who has recently been confined in a mental institution.  Coffin signifies endings and illness. The two cards together create a combination that says ‘sick man;’ the fact that he has been confined is also suggested by the box-like shape of the coffin, although if he had been imprisoned for criminal activity, we would expect to see Tower next to him.

Man & Coffin from The Daveluy Lenormand

 Some Lenormand cards have a more or less fortunate meaning attached to them. When any card falls next to a fortunate card it is enhanced; when it falls next to a challenging card, it struggles.  Neutral cards just describe.

    Fortunate: Rider, Clover, Bouquet, Stars, Dog, Heart, Ring, Sun, Key

   Challenging: Clouds, Coffin, Snake, Scythe, Rod, Fox, Mountain, Mice,         Cross

    Neutral: Ship, House, Tree, Snake, Birds, Child, Bear, Stork, Tower, Garden, Paths, Ring, Book, Letter, Lilies, Moon, Fish, Anchor.

Reversals:  Anciently, tarot cards were originally read upright or were being used for gambling in games like tarocchi  where reversals weren’t relevant at all. Over the course of time, as cartomancers became skilled in reading tarot, reversed cards suggested different meanings to them. Even today some people use reversals while other ignore them.  In playing card cartomancy, some readers use reversals, especially in 32 or piquet reading, as we’ve already seen with Etteilla.

          However, in Lenormand, there are no reversed meanings.  The multi-layering of how Lenormand cards are cartomantically read makes this process redundant. Recently, and in some countries, reversed readings have sprung up, but these are not traditional and are never mentioned in the 19^th century Little White Books that accompanied the cards.

Positions;      In tarot you read cards that are laid upon pre-decided or named positions. Take a spread like the ten-card Celtic Cross, which is introduced by the reader speaking about all ten positions: ‘this covers you, this crosses you, this is beneath you, behind you, this crowns you, this is before you; one for yourself, one for your home, one for your hopes and fears, and one for what will surely come to pass.’ Each position is an essential part of the reading and helps define or frame how the card laid upon each position it is to be read. Here the positions enable the reader to speak about each card.                          

                           

Lenormand cards work by proximity to each other, creating meaning beyond each individual card’s meaning, working by juxtaposition. This creates a more linguistic and non-symbolic method of reading. Just as we use different combinations of the alphabet to create different words, so too do Lenormand cards work together. If you come to Lenormand from Tarot,  you will  need to let go positional meanings  because we are going to be reading in pairs, triplets and lines, and by association and juxtaposition rather than by spread positions.  See below.

7 Cups, Thoth Tarot & 7 Hearts/Trees from Daveluy Lenormand

Esoteric Meanings & Symbolism:  As stated above, esoteric tarot only arrived in the mid 18th century: before this, the many esoteric meanings we attach to tarot today were not yet in consciousness.  To us, many of the Tarot cards seem esoteric because their symbolism is associated with medieval and renaissance symbolism which comes from a different mindset. However, we should remember that cartomants have always used the tarot pips just like the playing cards, because that is what they really are. (Go to Italy and you will understand this better!)  The trumps have arisen from a series of Classical sources (Hermit from Cronos as God of Time, Fortuna as Goddess of Luck), from the medieval executive (Emperor and Empress, Papesse and Pope), from everyday life (Bateleur or Magician as street conjuror) etc. 15^th century Italian tarot users knew the symbology of the tarot.  They knew that the chariot was a triumphal float, that a man hanging from one foot was a traitor, that the wheel of fortune was what happened when you strove to get above your allotted position in life.  They knew that coins were money, that swords were strife, that batons were staves of office or strength, that cups were pleasure.  They didn’t worry about the esoteric meanings of tarot because they didn’t use cards for divination but for card games and for tarot appropriati where you made witty, poetic epithets with the cards, describing your friends.

          Lenormand depicts ordinary objects (Anchor, Book,Coffin), places (Tower, House, Mountain), animals (Fox, Bear, Dog, Stork), celestial phenomena (Clouds, Sun, Stars). No-one needs be mystified by anything shown here: these were everyday things in the nineteenth century and, although we don’t use rods on children or horses any more or harvest with scythes, we still know what they were once used for.

          Lenormand cards come with a playing card inset which is used by some readers as a secondary piece of information. So Clouds, which shows clouds with a dark or light side to them, also has an  inset showing the King of Clubs: this card can speak about confusions and muddles worsening or improving, depending on which side the dark clouds face,  but it can  stand for a confused or mentally ill man in addition.

9 Suns from The Nostradamus Tarot and 9 Diamonds/Coffin from Daveluy Lenormand 

Cards Read by Image or Keywords: In Tarot reading, the images are frequently used as clues or visual triggers that help create meaning, despite each card having its given meaning, as we will see in the example below. In Lenormand reading, the images on the cards are standard images and no matter how variously these might artistically appear or which Lenormand pack they use, the cartomant reads the cards exactly the same way, every time. This difference is one of the main ones that confounds beginners.

          When you come from Tarot, you’ve been used to buying and using the most aesthetically pleasing pack: while you know the standard meanings of the Trumps in a traditional deck, when you use a mythological tarot or a zombie tarot, you will automatically begin to associate meanings with that mythos  or genre. When it comes  to buying a Lenormand deck, many beginners are drawn to find an artstyle that they like best, using the same criteria as when they buy a tarot.  However, it is the consistency and clarity of each Lenormand image that enable you to read which is a traditional deck is best: plainness and simplicity is here a virtue.

          Many contemporary Lenormands have, for example, depicted the Coffin as a Sarcophagus: this immediately introduces a set of associations that are not actually present in the keywords by which we divine.  Coffin is about endings, finalizations, illness, not about embalming, Egyptian myth, mummies or hauntings, for example, but it is hard to stop the mind going there if the images give you cultural, historical or social visual clues. 

Sword Maiden from The Arthurian Tarot & Jack Spades/Child from Daveluy Lenormand

Passive and Active Significator: In Tarot reading, the Significator (a card chosen to represent the client) is often removed and left on the table while other cards are laid around it. It does nothing but represent them. In cartomantic and Lenormand divination, the Significator is generally shuffled into the pack and comes out as an active ingredient of the reading.  The cards touching the Significator (the Man or Woman card) are more significant and have stronger effect upon the client than the other cards. Some other cards can indicate other people in the spread also:

          the Kings: House,  Lilies, Fish, Clouds.

          the Queens: Stork, Bouquet, Path, Snake.

          the Jacks:  Heart, Child,  Scythe, Rod.

The court cards or ‘honours’ as they were once known, have always been used by playing card cartomants as ‘people cards,’ and this method is still used in Tarot as well as Lenormand.  Lenormand can also employ any of the 34 speaking cards as a ‘topic’ or a card that stands for the issue under question. So Fish might be chosen to stand for a client’s finances, or Book for their education.

Florid and Terse Oracles:  If you go to a university, you will notice that some tutors use very complex language constructions and can be voluable, loquacious, even poetic in speech. But if you go to a building site or street market, you will notice that people speak tersely and concisely. Tarot is more like the university lecturer while Lenormand is similar to a stall holder in a market: both can convey meaning to you, but one will take longer to do it than another. This creates a very different style of reading and interpretation.

         

With these basic differences in mind, the next blog will look at what we are doing when we read tarot, because you will understand better what I am showing here.

 THE DAVELUY LENORMAND is available to buy in a refreshed facsimile from 

http://gameofhopelenormand.bigcartel.com/product/caitlin-matthews-daveluy-lenormand-deck-c-1860

To purchase copies of The Wildwood Tarot by John Matthews & Wil Worthington, The Nostradamus Tarot by John Matthews or The Arthurian Tarot by Caitlín & John Matthews see www.hallowquest.org.uk

In Autumn 2014, my One and Only Petit Etteilla Course will be coming from the same firm. http://www.cartomancy.net/en/courses/petit-etteilla

 In October my own generic Lenormand book will be coming from Inner Traditions: The Complete Lenormand Oracle Handbook. This has over 400pp and 100 illus. It takes you from foundation level with many practices, self-tests and case histories. It can be used with any Lenormand deck.

THE CARTOMANTIC MINDSET 1: Pre-Esoteric Cards

Why and how Lenormand Reading is different

from modern methods of Tarot Reading 

If you are familiar with Tarot and are wanting to approach Lenormand for the first time, then this might be a helpful place to start, to understand why and how reading Lenormand is so different. If you approach Lenormand with a cartomantic mindset, you will arrive prepared.

CARTOMANCY FLOURISHED BEFORE ESOTERIC TAROT

Cartomancy is the craft of divining from cards. While it is a word often applied to playing card reading these days, it is a useful term for anyone who is taking up Lenormand reading for the first time.  Lenormand cards are read cartomantically, which is an older method of reading cards, which I’m going to outline here.

          Before Tarot went esoteric, before Lenormand cards were even born, people were laying out playing cards and reading them by juxtaposition with each other.  It is from this era that we inherit the cartomantic style of reading that is used in Lenormand.  

          The image below is Etteilla’s spread called le Coup de Douze  (12 card Spread – and yes, it does have two extra cards for ‘the surprise.’) This is taken from the very first published book which outlined practical cartomantic reading with a pack of 32 playing cards, The Only True Way to Read the Cards, published in 1773. 

         

                                          

Etteilla read the cards from right to left (most modern cartomancers read left to right today and that is still the case with Lenormand cards) and used reversed cards (which Lenormand reading does not). We see that the carte blanche (the blank card that acted as the Significator) is centrally placed here. The cards either side of it, which touch the Significator are King Hearts and 10 Diamonds, signifying a Blond Man who has an abundance of money, respectively.  The line is read by pairing card 1 with card 2, card 2 with card 3 etc.  until the line is read. This method tells the story as cards blend together. Many years later this same Coup de Douze  spread was taken up by the Golden Dawn and translated into the fiendishly complex Opening of the Key spread, which takes several hours to lay and read.

          Here is the case in point: cartomancy is simple, pragmatic and non esoteric.  It doesn’t depend on a knowledge of astrology, it doesn’t require you to know which phase the moon is in, you don’t need to know numerology.  This is one of the reasons why Lenormand is non-esoteric in nature and why we read in the ways that we do now: because the reading style dates from before the esotericizing of tarot in the mid-late 18^th century, which was begun by Court de Gebelin and Comte de Mellet, and to which Etteilla himself contributed, though not before recording his own cartomantic methods.  

          The older style of cartomantic reading is one that is nowadays only used by playing card readers and cartomancers who use small oracles like Lenormand.  It comes from a different mindset and, without taking this on board, it’s easy to try and read  Lenormand like Tarot, which won’t help you at all. The art of reading a line, combining the cards as you go, is where this kind of reading began.

In the next blog of this sequence, we’ll look at the specifics of how Lenormand and Tarot are different and how this affects the style in which we read. 

For those who like to read with traditional, historic decks, I thoroughly recommend the cards produced by Lauren Forestell: these facsimile  decks are printed on good linen cardstock, with clear images.  http://gameofhopelenormand.bigcartel.com/

The One and Only Petit Etteilla Course

by Caitlín Matthews

Etteilla (1738-1791) wrote the first self-instruction manual on cartomancy in 1770, enabling readers to divine with a piquet deck of 32 playing cards.  Written before the impact of esoteric tarot, this influential book revolutionized divination.  Its unique methods of reading have remained largely unexplored by readers who have been deterred from studying them because his work was written in 18^th century French or not available in English.  Now for the first time, his book can speak directly as you learn to read Petit Etteilla for yourself.

On the One and Only Petit Etteilla Course (so called in echo of Etteilla’s own style of writing!) you will create your own Petit Etteilla Deck, learning how to apply his 18^th century meanings in a more helpful modern way.  The complete text of his book is translated and explained clearly so that you can read for yourself how his methods work. 

Throughout his book, Etteilla gave many spreads outlining the case history of one woman for whom he reads sequentially. He invites you to lay out the cards for her, just as he has done, so that you can learn his methods quicker. The original illustrations from his 18^th book are included so that you can follow him. 

The text is arranged over several lessons, so that you understand the source material for yourself and how it is applied in practice.  This is supplemented by my explanations, examples of spreads and case histories so that you begin to learn the methods by daily practice.  I also provide smaller spreads that can be practically used on a daily basis.

The course enables you to learn cartomantic combination from Etteilla’s keyword meanings. This precise method of reading is very different from the interpretations of Tarot reading but, because all the meanings you will ever need are already written upon your cards, you can immediately read and combine them without the need of memorization. By building up your reading from simple pairing and short line spreads, you will gain confidence and soon be reading Petit Etteilla for yourself and others.

Features of this course:

• The first complete English translation of the revised 1773 edition of La Seule Manière de Tirer Les Cartes by Etteilla, fully annotated
• Side by side original Etteilla and modern applications of the meanings
• Learn to read using Etteilla’s meanings and spreads
• Practise your skills using case histories 
• Learn cartomantic combinations
• Gain confidence in reading for clients
• Create your own Petit Etteilla Deck
• Illustrations of Etteilla’s Original Spreads, including The Wheel of Fortune, the Spread of Twelve, Spread of Fifteen, Etteilla’s Spread, The Dovetail Spread, Horoscope Spread.
• New, shorter spreads for everyday divination

Available from http://www.cartomancy.net/en/courses/petit-etteilla

In the Future, You Will Be Raped by Brigands! or How Not To Interpret For Your Client

‘In the future, you will be raped by brigands!’  is probably the worst line ever to fall from the lips of a cartomancer into his client’s ears.

These deathless words make us wonder what was the reaction of the lady for whom Etteilla was reading? He uttered them  as part of his interpretation of the Petit Etteilla cards in the Dovetail Spread in his book of 1773.* 

Dispute des Brigands after Alexandre Marie Colin, 1829

 Etteilla reports this spread at breakneck speed, summarizing his findings from the cards like this: ‘In brief, it says in the future you will be raped by brigands. You will decide to change your behaviour, but this won’t succeed. Among those who have made this attack on you will be a light brown man. Advantage for your husband.’ Even if you or I saw such a thing in a spread, today we would not speak this aloud so baldly!   

When you read for others,  you also  have to express what you understand in words to a client and that means you need to become fluent in interpreting cards aloud as well as for your own benefit on paper or in your mind.  As you read for others, each client’s own needs and concerns bring you to engage with areas of interpretation you had not previously considered. 

Not only do you have to read the cards in context with the question, but you also have to express what you understand in suitable language. If you read for an engineer you will use very different metaphors than when you read for a young English student or an elderly artist.  It’s helpful to keep your metaphors and comparisons general and understandable, without jargon.

The way we read is not only about presenting what the cards say,  it is about the tone and tenor of your interpretation too.  You will communicate the import of the cards more sensitively with a man still reeling from being dumped by his girlfriend than you might with a tough businesswoman who wants you to tell her the absolute truth about her trading prospects this month.   It isn’t that you will hold back on the truth, just that you will handle and express your findings in well chosen language without brutalizing, spooking, bewildering or upsetting your client.

         

What you do not say aloud is also responsible cartomancy. Sometimes you see things in a spread that should not be disclosed unless the client first speaks about it. Only the other day I was reading Lenormand for a female client who was worried about her husband’s long absences: when  I discovered Man on the house of Woman and Bear on the house of Lilies in the same Grand Tableau,  my immediate impression was that her husband could be a secret cross-dresser but, since this was information that might cause offence and had not been flagged up by her as a possibility, I kept my own council. These combinations could equally indicate that she and her husband simply cross-polarise the usual male and female roles between them.

         

You may get a sense that there is an undisclosed matter hanging over a reading that might be revealed, but creep up on it, introducing a topic only if it is appropriate for the client.  Crashing in with, ‘I see that you were raped,’ or ‘your clandestine affair is revealed here,’ is not what someone comes to be told; however, if they come in order for you to read about the rape or about their affair, then that’s another matter.  

Very few of us would get away with a pronouncement like, ‘in the future, you will be raped by brigands!’ But sometimes you may indeed read something troubling that is coming up or has already happened to the client.  Predicting future difficulties for a client may make him fearful or superstitious, while lingering on past problems may retraumatise him. So what do you do?

Here is a line of Petit Etteilla that would suggest such a possibility:

            

My own Petit Etteilla cards with the Joker as the Etteilla or Significator card :   K♥  + A♠ +r8 ♣+ 8♠ + Etteilla  ←

 It literally reads, right to left, ‘In solitude while abroad enjoying yourself, a striking man…,’ as a line and then the two meeting cards at either end (King Hearts and 8 Spades) complete the sentence with ‘ …is abusive.’  The sense is clear: the woman is abroad and lets down her guard while enjoying herself.  Etteilla (the Significator card) pairs with the 8 Spades to give us ‘Solitude,’  and 8 Clubs gives us ‘distant or abroad.’ The Venus card of Ace Spades is one of sexuality, so while it might be about her general enjoyment, it could equally be about a sexual assault.  King Hearts has some physical characteristic and could well be a blond or fair-haired man as well.

           

In terms of reading about the past, my rule of thumb is, has the client already mentioned a traumatic issue like being sexually assaulted abroad?  If she hasn’t, I don’t go into detail but merely say, ‘there was some kind of attack while you were abroad.’  If the client confirms this, that’s enough. If she wants to say more, she can. Otherwise, we pass on without more comment.

But in terms of a predicted future event, like an assault while on holiday, that is shrieking on all frequencies to you, the responsibility is to warn or caution. Let’s say the client is a woman of the world, with good confidence,  I might say, ‘When you go abroad, I’m sure you’re going to have a pleasurable time, but you need to watch out for a particular guy, especially when you’re alone. He might be someone who looks like he would be a good lay, but he’s got an abusive streak in him. Just be careful.’

Had the client been someone who couldn’t receive that news without going into a melt-down, or a much younger woman whose confidence isn’t so great, then my approach would be different. I might say, ‘When you go abroad, it would be best to go round the sights and the shops with another woman. Avoid being alone, especially in remote places or down-town.’  This would invariably bring up a question from the client, in response, ‘What do you see?’ To which I would reply, ‘the cards are saying you should be careful not to be alone in case of some opportunistic man taking advantage of you while you’re out enjoying yourself.’  So she asks, ‘What kind of man?’ I reply, ‘He’s got some facial or other characteristic that makes him distinctive – could be a scar or a tattoo or a broken nose, something like that nature.  He’s the kind of guy who’s out for a good time, but at your expense.’ She is warned, but less explicitly.

When it comes to broaching the full extent of a reading, we cartomancers have to avoid becoming the brigands ourselves. Cartomancy is not about shock and awe, or scoring points, it is service of guidance along a path that the client is currently walking, sometimes rather shakily.  The job is not to knock them off the path or to lose them, or make them fearful of their journey, but to orient them until they come to the next clear signpost or into familiar regions again.

WAYS TO AVOID THE BRIGAND’S PATH WHEN READING

Il Sentiero dei Briganti or the Brigand’s Path is a mountainous route stretching from La Monaldesca to Vulci in North West Italy

Ask these questions of yourself while you read:

- What kind of client are you reading for? What is their state or condition?

- How are you conveying the information of the cards?

- Is your tone of voice appropriate to your client?

-Are you using language that they understand?
- Can they hear and receive the difficult messages that you read from their current standpoint?

- What are the most important points to summarise from the reading for the client to implement?
- What in the reading enables the client to go home with some hope and confidence?

Kindness and consideration for your client is the respect by which you honour them.  Speaking intelligently and in context to their condition enables their understanding of what you find, however hard the message.   

*Etteilla’s La Seule Manière de Tirer Les Cartes of 1773, has finally been translated into English as part of the One and Only Etteilla Course which will be available in September from http://www.cartomancy.net/en/courses/petit-etteilla

The One and Only Petit Etteilla Course

by Caitlín Matthews

Features of this course include:

• The first complete English translation of the revised 1773 edition of La Seule Manière de Tirer Les Cartes by Etteilla, fully annotated
• Side by side original Etteilla and modern applications of the meanings
• Learn to read using Etteilla’s meanings and spreads
• Practise your skills using case histories 
• Learn cartomantic combinations
• Gain confidence in reading for clients
• Create your own Petit Etteilla Deck
• Illustrations of Etteilla’s Original Spreads, including The Wheel of Fortune, the Spread of Twelve, Spread of Fifteen, Etteilla’s Spread, The Dovetail Spread, Spread of Thirty-Three, Horoscope Spread.
• New, shorter spreads for everyday divination

CHOOSING A LENORMAND DECK by Caitlín Matthews

WHICH DECK?

What is the best kind of deck to learn from? There are so many on the market that it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the choice: painted, photoshopped, photographic, thematic, traditional packs, clip-art and trade-advert packs. With such a range of decks to choose from and with some of these being produced privately and more expensive than the commercially available ones, you want to spend your money wisely and well.

(Just a selection of decks: L-R, from top: Lilac Lenormand, Blue Owl, Melissa Lenormand, Britta’s Wahsagenkarten, Postmark Lenormand; bottom: Magisches Lenormand, Victorian Lenormand, Ryder’s Lenormand)

Everyone has their own aesthetic response to artwork, of course, and this is often how beginners proceed: by appearance alone. But if you use the same criteria as for choosing a tarot, you can soon lose the plot in Lenormand. Tarots often have a lush imagery, so that it’s like choosing 78 very beautiful or charming pictures for your art gallery, but sheer proliferation of loveliness or whimsy will not help you in Lenormand. Think of Lenormand decks as you do of font that you read. If I switched to italic script, the clarity is immediately lessened: it might be fine for a short greeting, but pages of this would do your head in. However, if I chose to write for you in Walbaum FrakturEF, which is a thick historic German font, I wouldn’t blame you for leaving this page immediately. We need unfussy Lenormands just as we need clear font.

The criteria for leading your search include these questions:

• Are the cards crystal clear so that you can understand the image quickly?
• Can you easily distinguish Bouquet from Lily, or House from Tower?
• Do the cards come with a clear playing card or suit and number?
• Do the cards have a running sequence of numbers 1-36 printed on them?
• Are they are a good size for laying out all 36 in a Grand Tableau (regardless of the fact that you aren’t reading one of those just yet?)

1. Choose a deck where the images are clear at a glance.
If it is overwhelmed with astrological emblems, words, lush images or heavily loaded with photo-montaged cut-outs, you will never be able to steer your way through a Grand Tableau without confusion. Simple images enable your mind to make the connections between cards: complex cards delay that process. Here are two decks that show what I mean. The top one is Dream Inspires Lenormand by Flick Merauld who is a great photographer: I like the art a lot but, for a beginner, these two cards are unclear. The flower, if you know your horticulture, is a Lily, but because the number 30 has faded away into the white background, you can’t see this quickly enough. The card beside it is the Star, but it also depicts an owl, which could easily confuse a beginner with the Birds card. It’s also got a fire in it, which might take your mind elsewhere, away from the essential clarity and precision of Star’s meaning.

                            

In the row beneath, we have a Russian Lenormand which gives us few clues as to the cards’ identities. I chose these three cards purposely, because they are only identifiable by their suit which, if you don’t speak Russian, could be problematic in itself on the first card. The first card is a diamond, but what does it signify? This is the Paths card and the Russian D is for Dama, Lady or Queen, in this instance. The middle card shows a cross but, no, it isn’t the Cross, because the suit tells us it’s a 9 Diamonds – so it’s actually the Coffin card, but it doesn’t actually depict one! The last card is 9 Hearts, so we know it’s the Rider, but because the horse is stationary, it could be mistaken for the Gentleman card. These cards are confusing to read with and, even though I’ve read for years, I cannot use this Russian one at all except in small layouts!

2. Do They Have a Playing Card or Suit Symbol on them? Some people feel that the playing card part of a Lenormand card is just extraneous, because they themselves haven’t ever used them. The traditional packs came with them because Lenormand or Petit Jeu (Little Oracle) decks derive from piquet (reduced 32 card) cartomancy. When Lenormand cards received a pictorial image, it was the playing card that helped people remember what the card’s divinatory meaning was about. But it was the German values of playing cards and not the French ones that ended up on Lenormand cards: in the German system it is Clubs which is the challenging suit and not the more usual French Spades.

Above we have, on the left, the Cartamundi Petit Jeu cards of Child, Sun and Mice; this is a later 20th century version of the c1860s Belgian Daveluy cards on the right.

 Here is a  larger card from the Daveluy: it has the playing card of Queen Diamonds, the text that enables the reader to interpret it and the actual image of the Paths below. Knowing that the Paths is also Queen of Diamonds is helpful to the modern reader who can indeed read the card as ‘choices, decisions, crossroads in your life or alternatives’ but it can also be read as ‘an ambitious or career Woman who knows (or thinks she knows) where she is going.’ As we saw in point two above, sometimes knowing the suit and number of the card is simply helpful for identification purposes. Combinations of cards which we read by juxtaposition with each other can also be read, as a secondary process, as combinations of suits, telling us a lot more about our cards. I will be teaching this in my forthcoming book, the Complete Lenormand Oracle Handbook, see below.

3. Do they have a Numerical Sequence of 1-36?
The traditional numeration of Lenormand cards is the same whatever you pack you choose. Some packs will often have a title as well as a number, but some will have just a number. Those without numbers are less quickly read when you are learning. There are some fine decks without any such numbers, but they are less easy to read or identify. The pack below is one of my first non-traditional Lenormands, the mini Postmark Lenormand by Melissa Hanney. I have the ordinary sized deck and know it well, but when she made the mini, Melissa left off any numeration or suit-designation because of space considerations – as you can see, I’ve included my own notation here. For me this is fine, for a beginner it would be another story, perhaps? It is clear deck to work with at the ordinary size.

4. Is it Possible to lay out a Grand Tableau with them? In your considerations, bear in mind that when all 36 cards are laid out in a Grand Tableau, it is the cards’ simplicity that will count. If you have chosen the lushly illustrated Hawaiian Pineapple Lenormand (I just made that deck up!), it won’t matter how beautifully painted it is if you can’t, at a glance, tell the difference between the Tree and the Garden, or between the Dog and the Fox, or if you aren’t certain which equivalent Lenormand cards the Volcano (The Mountain?) or the Surf-Board (Ship?) are supposed to represent! I’ve seen many people try to read a GT and heard them say, ‘the Bouquet is over Lady card so that means you have a gift on your mind – oh, sorry, that’s the Lily, isn’t it? So - is your dad ok? This is not the kind of impression you want to give!

This is also why size is a consideration: you will notice that most Lenormand decks are very small, some even smaller than poker size playing cards. Don’t be put off! There is a good reason for this: if the pack you choose has very large cards, then you will need an enormous table when it comes to laying out all 36 of them in a Grand Tableau! I bought a pack a couple of years back which was nearly as big as an original Visconti Sforza tarot card (for which you need jazz pianist, Fats Waller, hands!) To have spread 36 of these cards, I would have needed a double bed-sized table and arms like an orang-utan! I gave them away finally as impossible to work with.

My personal choice for laying a Grand Tableau is a traditional mini deck, because I have a small table and am often travelling to teach, so that I’m reading cards on a small hotel table for clients. 36 mini cards still make a square of about 18 inches or 45cms. As you can see from this picture, the cards of this facsimile Game of Hope (the first Lenormand from 1800) entirely fill my small table. I can easily navigate between the cards because of the pale backgrounds.

TRADITIONAL DECKS
I personally use a range of cards that are variations of the traditional packs, with both the playing card and the traditional image upon them, or with the playing card marked in the corner and the images in the centre. If you are learning, then you will need at least one such traditional style deck to start with. People ask me all the time what is my favourite deck and it’s very easy to say the Mertz, which is super clear and unfussy. It’s the deck that lives beside my computer and when I’m skyping with someone, I can take it in hand and ask it anything. As you see, it ticks all the boxes: against the white background, we have numerical sequence number, playing card and clear image.

                                

Here is the Purple Dondorf deck, a facsimile made by Lauren Forstel, taken from Le Fanu’s collection. (You can get ordinary editions of the Dondorf very easily for a small cost.) It’s slightly less clear than the Mertz because it has painted backgrounds to the subjects, but it’s still very good to work with.

Below is a Grand Tableau using the c. 1890s Stralsunder Lenormand: again, this is a mini deck that hasn’t been cleaned up in any way, so it’s not as clear as a new Stralsunder I’m currently expecting in the post, but you can see immediately how each card has to really do its work if you are to read along the lines and make a joined up interpretation. The pale background enables smaller objects to leap out clearly: the cards with more painted backgrounds are not as easy to see unless you are sitting close to the cards. Unfortunately, many of the antique decks are very rare and mostly unavailable, although Lauren Forstel, see below, has brought some wonderful decks back into circulation by her clear reproduction.

But what if you don’t want to read cards with old-time people on them? Well, there are still very clear, bright modern decks that you can read with also, like the Magisches Lenormand by Gabriele Büttner and Sandy Plütsch. You still get numeration, playing card and a very clear image. Some clients like this deck because it has a very friendly, open feel to it and isn’t full of serious,or historical subjects.

THEMATIC DECKS
Thematic decks are ones that follow a particular theme, mythos or concept. You can go onto using these after you have laid down the basics of learning the meaning and order of the cards. Once you have your bedrock of skills, a thematic deck isn’t going to throw you. Like learning basic acoustic guitar, within time you’ll be able to pick up another kind of guitar and learn what it can show you, because you already have that skill in your hands. Cultural decks are very nice if you have already laid down a base line by learning all 36 cards, but they can also mislead beginners into reading Lenormand more like a tarot card again. If the (non-existent) Hawaiian Pineapple Lenormand has assigned a circle of hula dancers to the card of the Ring, your mind will create associations with the Ring that are symbolic of dancing rather than of ‘agreements,’ which is one of the keywords of this card. In this way you will inevitably bring a whole host of cultural and metaphorical associations that finally detract from or cloud the core meaning.

Here we have Nepher Khepri’s Egyptian Lenormand which shows a sarcophagus for Coffin, the god Thoth for Moon and the Djed Pillar for Cross – I can read this pack without any problem because I have a knowledge of Egyptian myth and symbology: it doesn’t give me problems, but you might be tempted, as a beginner, to fuse the thought ‘Mummy’ with Coffin or ‘writing’ with the Moon, which wouldn’t help you. Below it are the mini deck version, to give you a sense of scale, of Carrie Paris’s excellent Lenormand Revolution, which is based upon the French Revolutionary theme: Lady is manning the barricades, Tower is the Bastille being stormed on 14th July and Gentleman is Louis XVI, still with his head on. These are not so easy to distinguish when all the cards are down, but, as a deck that a strong theme it works for me. A beginner is going to struggle to see the images quickly enough until they have the basics down.

Paris de Bono’s Japanese Lenormand deck pursues a cultural theme: the images are clear and the only point of unclarity for a Lenormand reader is that he has also intended them to have an alternative playing card use as well as a Lenormand one, so there is an upsidedown keyword which has nothing to do with Lenormand interpretation, but everything to do with the playing card meanings. Most beginners would find this off-putting. Tower has nothing to do with escape, of course! But if you wanted a ‘two for one’ deck, this might be helpful to you.

My own deck, the Enchanted Lenormand Oracle, with art by Virginia Lee, is somewhere between a traditional and thematic deck, as it is largely based upon themes in folk stories. Although the frame - by which the cards join up with each other - is busy, the central image is clear and the crystal ball images stand out when set side by side in tableau.

MAKE YOUR OWN
A lot of people decide make their own Lenormand: for your own use, a self-made pack is fine but, unless you have fine art skills, it may not be to everyone else’s taste. I’ve seen many home-made and marketed Lennies that I would rather not use because they are artistically not to my taste nor clear enough in execution.

One of the most charming self-made decks that still ticks all the boxes for me is by the youngest Lenormand creator: Ryder, the 8 year old son of Lenormand teacher, Rana George. It is eminently clear, well-drawn and identifiable. I use the mini deck myself and it’s lots of fun.

Every December I receive a lot of Christmas cards; a couple of years back I made my own Lenormand by cutting up the cards: you may recognize Ship. Tower, House, Rider, Lily and Scythe, but I made these just for fun and won’t be inflicting these upon you at any point, I assure you!

The cards I’ve selected here reflect my own preferences and tastes, of course, and I’m sure your own aesthetic is very different. But I’ve also chosen them to reflect the difficulties and help that cards can bring to the beginner who is taking up Lenormand for the first time. Every deck I’ve mentioned by name is usable and I mean no slight to any creator: I trust they understand that I’m not slating their work, just showing what is helpful or not so helpful for beginners. Lenormands, like cars, are vehicles and you want to chose the best model for the job. My first car had a racing engine and absolutely no insurer would insure me to drive out in it, as a new driver: you might also want to consider the CC of your engine power and find a good run-about Lenormand that will serve you while you are learning how to drive as well as navigate at the same time! You can aspire to faster, sleeker models as you learn.

Many of the traditional antique decks on this blog can be obtained from http://gameofhopelenormand.bigcartel.com/ This will include the forthcoming new and cleaned up edition of the Daveluy Lenormand, from the original cards in my possession, coming soon. Some decks will be easily available on Amazon, but others will have to be bought from overseas. Some self-published decks are no longer in print.

Coming in October 2014: The Complete Lenormand Oracle Handbook; Reading the Cards, their Symbols and History is a generic book on learning Lenormand. It has 416 pages and over 100 pictures, and includes a progressive way of learning based on practices, spreads, case histories. It is a stand-alone book and quite separate from the Enchanted Lenormand Oracle.