A few of the Lenormand writers I follow have mentioned the practice of merging tarot or oracle cards with a Lenormand deck, usually by drawing a handful of cards from an alternate pack as a postscript to the Lenormand reading. I've never found this particularly useful, but lately I've been thinking how it might be … Continue reading Paired-Deck Reading #1: A Family Matter
Experimental Methods
Shootout: Tarot vs. Lenormand
One of the advantages of having more than one arrow in your cartomantic quiver is that you have choices as to which one to bring to the target. The disadvantage is that you have to choose. My main reading tool from 1972 until 2012 was the tarot, and specifically the Thoth deck. But when I … Continue reading Shootout: Tarot vs. Lenormand
A “Counting Round” Example Reading
Rather than doing a new reading to test my ideas on card-counting with my "Knights' Crossing" spread, I decided to apply them to the "Mueller's Madness" reading I did yesterday. All images copyright Lynne Boyle The five-card line derived from the 3x3 square was Book-Man-Mice-Clover-Fish, which I would read as "The individual who is the … Continue reading A “Counting Round” Example Reading
Counting Round: A Step Beyond
In re-reading Caitlin Matthews' book The Complete Lenormand Oracle Handbook, I became reacquainted with the technique of "counting round" the cards in a layout in fixed increments from the significator or topic card. This creates an additional narrative path that Matthews suggests can be read as a separate line, after interpreting the pattern in the … Continue reading Counting Round: A Step Beyond
Mueller Madness
Washington DC is practically foaming at the mouth over the projected release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report within the next few weeks. The fact of the matter is that, unless criminal indictments arise from Mueller's document, it isn't likely to be made public. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/you-may-be-disappointed-mueller-report-n971601 I decided to do a Lenormand reading using my "Knight's … Continue reading Mueller Madness
The “Knights’ Council” – Doubling the Topic Card
Although I mentioned in my "Knights' Crossing" post that if the querent has more than one question or topic area in mind I will default to the Grand Tableau, I can see the appeal of including two topic cards in an abbreviated spread. With more than two you're likely to wind up in a GT … Continue reading The “Knights’ Council” – Doubling the Topic Card
A Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down Example Reading
I put the unsatisfactory reading I did yesterday through my new "dead or alive" model as a test case, using the Joie de Vivre tarot. The situation involved a young girl in Connecticut who went missing in 1973 while riding her bike a short distance from home. She went to retrieve an item that she … Continue reading A Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down Example Reading
Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down: A Missing-Person Subroutine
Yesterday while performing a missing-person reading on a young girl, I came upon an implausible scenario that pointed out a flaw in my spread methodology. I presently have two spreads to examine these situations. One is more locational, asking "Where is X?" while the other attempts to answer "What happened to X?" The second one … Continue reading Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down: A Missing-Person Subroutine
Wall-eyed Whinging*
*from an Old English verb, "hwinsian," which means "to wail or moan discontentedly." As I continue to explore the "build it as you go" approach to positioning a topic card in a small Lenormand spread, I decided to tackle the subject of what is likely to happen with Donald Trump's border wall. I selected the … Continue reading Wall-eyed Whinging*
The Devil Is In The Details
Warning: If you're bored or baffled by esoteric number theory and the numerological approach to the tarot, skip this piece. It's one of my enduring passions, but then I'm a mystically-inclined former engineer. On one of the tarot forums we have been discussing the image of the arch-demon on the Waite-Smith Devil card. One of the first … Continue reading The Devil Is In The Details
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 