During my intermittent involvement with the Tarot de Marseille (I'm still waiting for that "one book to rule them all"), I've come across the opinion that Batons and Swords are the "hard" suits, while Cups and Coins are "soft." There is some logic to this: both wooden batons (also called staves) and edged metal blades … Continue reading Hard and Soft, Red and Black
Lenormand – General
RWS, TdM and Lenormand Binning
I have now added searchable categories for my Waite-Smith, Tarot de Marseille and Lenormand-related posts and am beginning to populate them. These posts aren't as easy to chase down as the Thoth group because they are often tied to broader commentary, so it will take me some time to capture them. As before, use the … Continue reading RWS, TdM and Lenormand Binning
A Little Ingenuity
A while back I spent a few hours pasting together a Lenormand Grand Tableau layout sheet, and was keeping it in a cardboard portfolio under the bed. Last week-end I crumpled it slightly while pulling out my guitar case (to be honest, I forgot it was there since I've been working mostly with tarot lately). … Continue reading A Little Ingenuity
Cartomantic Consumerism: One Deck Too Far
A question came up on one of the tarot forums late last year that stopped me in my tracks, and after thinking carefully about it I haven't bought a new deck of any kind since (although I still lust for quite a few). "How many decks are too many?" My flippant answer at the time … Continue reading Cartomantic Consumerism: One Deck Too Far
Lenormand Ramblings
I realized yesterday that I've been remiss in not venturing into anything other than tarot lately, so this will bring me up to date at least on the subject of Lenormand cartomancy. I'm writing mainly for those tarot enthusiasts who have yet to explore its alternate reality but are intrigued by a new challenge. A … Continue reading Lenormand Ramblings
The “Bounce”
I'm delving into a subject here that may be difficult to grasp, so bear with me. Some of you - but not many, I'd wager, given the demographic of the tarot community - know what a "dead-blow" hammer (or mallet) is. It's a striking tool used in applications like metal-working, sculpting, wood-carving, cobbling, jewelry-making and … Continue reading The “Bounce”
Example Reading: New Lenormand Deck “Attitude Check”
The Golden Lenormand Oracle is my newest Lenormand deck, so I thought I would run it through my new "attitude check" spread. This deck has caught some flack from traditionalists (even though it's just a dressed-up Blue Owl) because of its gold-foil "bling" and its much-larger-than-average size. I've read with it a bit and the … Continue reading Example Reading: New Lenormand Deck “Attitude Check”
New Lenormand Deck “Attitude Check”
Because most Lenormand decks are matter-of-fact and don't differ much from their peers in terms of imagery or interpretation, it has always seemed to me that trying to conduct the kind of "new deck interview" that many people do with tarot decks is an exercise in futility. The cards don't respond well to the kind … Continue reading New Lenormand Deck “Attitude Check”
Knighting “On the Diagonal”
While working up my previous post on using intersection with cards in a Lenormand Grand Tableau that have a diagonal rather than right-angle relationship with one another, I touched on the subject of approaching knighting from an oblique perspective instead of the usual squared-off "chess-move" pattern. Here is a visual comparison of the two. Diagonal … Continue reading Knighting “On the Diagonal”
The Angle of the Dangle
Since I'm going to talk about reading diagonal lines in the Lenormand Grand Tableau, let's assume for the moment that the title of this post is a colorful allusion to that rather than a) an aeronautical term for the angular deflection or "droop" of an airplane tow rope, b) a prenatal determinant of gender or … Continue reading The Angle of the Dangle
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 