AUTHOR’S NOTE: In developing this essay I borrowed from the way I’ve always read tarot since, at least in this one instance, the visual integration of both tarot cards and Lenormand cards in large layouts is almost identical, although Lenormand exhibits more formal structure in terms of what I call “sub-routines” or “protocols.”

Unlike the more broadly impressionistic cards of the tarot, Lenormand cards are highly individual in their meaning and narrowly defined in their expression. Therefore, when assessing their synergy within a spread, our efforts at coaxing these fractious elements into a convincing narrative can seem daunting in the extreme. The crux of the problem is that there is no hierarchy other than by “theme” (aka life-topic); all of the cards are of equal strength so they must be ranked in some way in order to make the most sense of their relative importance within the context of the reading. The various sub-routines of the Grand Tableau, if used correctly, are intended to harness this chaotic dissonance. Still, the challenge remains, and newcomers often experience the GT and other large spreads as a blur of conflicting and confusing impressions that resemble a “patchwork quilt,” in the making of which the quilter showed no skill at matching fabric swatches for color and design.

Applying the convention of a designated focus card along with other topical theme cards can create an intelligible network of significance that resembles the nucleus and radial ganglia of a human nerve cell; there can be several of these structures in a GT where more than one area of life is being examined. Quite often, these features interact with one another via more than one sub-routine: proximity, knighting, mirroring, intersection, etc. While the primary significator card (usually representing the querent) remains the linchpin of the reading, it is necessary to consider the contribution of the other themes to its agenda. This is where my “ripples on a pond” analogy comes into play, so it’s worth bumping this 2018 post:

Ripples on a Pond

For the purpose of the present essay, the key element from that post is the photo of raindrops falling on a puddle of water. Some ripples are moving in the same direction and thus are magnified in their effect, while others travel in opposite directions, which can dampen or even nullify their influence. This isn’t a perfect depiction of how the GT works, but it’s close enough. When using this model, I find that if I figuratively back off from the spread a couple of paces, squint my “mind’s eye” and de-focus from the individual cards for the moment, trying for a “gestalt overview” of the entire layout, certain “hot-spots” will stand out in high relief due to their interconnected role in the broader scheme.

If we think of simultaneously throwing rocks in a pond, the big ones will make a much larger splash that will carry all the way to the far shores and back again. Depending on the specific theme of a topic card and the context to which it contributes (the Clouds as wide-ranging but unspecified “troubles” and the Scythe as “lurking dangers” are good examples), these are the overarching motifs of greatest importance that I seek when taking a comprehensive “visual snapshot” of the overall pattern.

While the 3×3 “box” spread doesn’t pose the same difficulty because all of the peripheral cards touch the central focus card, the principle is the same: there can be cards that will jump right out of the mix due to their immediate consequences for the subject of the reading. To a lesser extent, this can also apply to line spreads larger than three cards where there is some distance between cards that creates the need for enhanced synthesis. I have yet to try it with playing cards and the 21-card “Gypsy” layout, or with the Grand Etteilla deck and one of Alliette’s complicated arrays; there is always more to learn in the realm of cartomancy.