AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’ve spent the last 12 years applying the original methods of Andy Boroveshengra to my reading of the Lenormand Grand Tableau, having received some online mentoring from him before he published his book.

As one rule of thumb, I use his assumption that the “flow” of the cards surrounding the querent’s Significator (Man or Woman card) migrates from top-to-bottom (or from exercising influence over the querent to being susceptible to the individual’s manipulation) and from left-to-right, going from a passing state of affairs to a more pressing one. The latter is not exactly a “time-line” for events but rather a shift in focus from less-consequential details that are fading away to noteworthy factors that are growing in importance.  I don’t read according to the direction the Significator is facing in most cases, so the right side typically shows the course of progress.

In general, I follow these lines out to the right-hand border of the tableau, with impact declining the farther away the series gets from the Significator; the same thing occurs when working toward the left. Depending on where the Significator lands in the tableau, the cards at the far edges and corners can be (literally) “marginalized” in relation to the querent’s path as reflected in the “near/far” matrix centered on the Significator. (The “four corners” analysis is a separate consideration.) This “moderation by distance” is one of the ways I handle the risk of “information overload,” and it follows the traditional idea that (with some exceptions) cards farther away are less impactful.

In thinking about the array of cards, I realized that we might view those to the right of the Significator as imposing a “right-hand twist” on the matter or, more accurately, bringing the “strong right hand” of situational control to bear on the developing scenario. (All you left-handers can go get a coffee at this point.) The meaning of the Latin word “dexter” is “right,” which suggested the title for this essay; however, here I’m talking about the “reader’s right,” since in shield heraldry it meant the “bearer’s right” when holding the shield. (This has no relevance to my theme except as an historical point-of-interest.)

I should also mention that those who follow the Method of Distance or “MOD” guidance of Bjorn Meuris don’t deal in the same way with this extended “flow” because they pay more attention to proximity of the surrounding cards to the Significator and to “clusters” and “constellations” of topically-related cards (or so I understand it, not yet owning Volume 2 of his Lenormand Encyclopedia).

Below is a hypothetical example reading that I intentionally laid out in a “megaphone” pattern to symbolize the increased amplitude of the cards to the right, using larger cards to convey “loudness.” Here we have a man who seems to have gone through some very trying times, but his fortunes appear to be looking up in a big way! If he stays the course, all should be well in his personal and professional life.

For starters, the Gentleman and the Lady intersect at the Key and the Fish, with the Ring between them and the Gentleman knighting to Heart and Anchor (although he might have to wait for her to “disentangle” herself from the Cross), and the Sun in the four-card “summary” line holds the lingering Clouds at bay. (For what it’s worth in this scenario, Heart, Ring and Anchor form what is known as the “Love and Romance” cluster, and here they are auspiciously placed for both parties.) Professionally, the diagonal line of Scythe-Man-Key-Moon suggests that he may have freed himself from prior work-related obligations and is on the road to greater recognition and success.

Note that I seldom use “facing” between the male and female Significators unless they are adjacent in a relationship reading; here it may just mean that the Lady is not yet in a position to “accept the Ring” because she is beholden to the Bear and burdened by her knighting to the Cross). As I see it, there is nothing to the right of the Gentleman to indicate serious difficulty, and the crowd of challenging cards at his back is losing its hold on him, with only the Cross implying present hardship as mentioned above.