“Hot” Cards

Many of my ideas about Lenormand reading spring from my numerous fertile conversations on the Aeclectic Tarot forum with authors Andy Boroveshengra and Mary K. Greer before they both moved on - and then we all did. This one is no exception. I've written on this subject before (links below) but I wanted to sharpen …

Mind Over Matter

I was just looking at the tarot-deck "de-enable" thread on one of the forums and realized that I haven't had to be "de-enabled" on buying a new deck in a very long time. It probably helps that I don't find most recent decks particularly inspiring from a divination standpoint, even if they happen to be …

Starting Over

Although there are differing opinions on the subject, there are times when it just seems prudent to scrap a reading that has begun badly and start over, not because the testimony in the cards is unfavorable but because something about the circumstances of the draw was "off." Last night I did two Lenormand Grand Tableaux, …

“I Yam What I Yam . . .”

". . . and dat's all what I yam!" (In the immortal words of Popeye the Sailor Man.) I came across a neat bit of wisdom on Andy Boroveshengra's blog Fortuna's Picturebook that I'm going to borrow for the theme of this post: "Cards are never something else before they are themselves." https://abcartomancy.blogspot.com/2019/07/shall-i-compare-thee.html Andy was …

Playing-Card Insets: A Challenge Worth Taking

I've been working with the Lenormand cards going on nine years now, but I've never put a lot of effort into understanding and using the playing-card insets. Concurrently, I've been studying playing-card cartomancy somewhat casually, first through Dawn Jackson's Hedgewytchery material and more recently through the excellent blog of Kapherus (J. David Arcuri), Art of …

Stiff-necked Scholars, Attend!

Although it's an over-simplification of the truth, I can easily pass for a card-carrying member of the "Stiff-necked Scholars' League" of Lenormand practitioners: I value the historical basis of this cartomantic system above all else, and take a dim view of too much imaginative tinkering with its customary methods. (On the other hand, is there …

A Lenormand Topic-Card “Cheat-Sheet”

In working with my "Knights' Crossing" spread, I realized that it would be useful to have a visual cue-card (or "cheat-sheet") for my clients to choose which of the topic cards is the best fit for their current circumstances. I decided to select the keyword parameters for those cards that are most likely to exhibit …

A Lenormand Deck Saga

As my Lenormand deck collection continues to grow along with my experience, I thought it would be interesting to recap my journey so far. My first deck was Ciro Marchetti's Gilded Reverie (bottom row, second from right), which I used for around a year before buying Laura Tuan's large-format Lenormand Oracle and then the poker-sized …

When Enough May Still Be Too Much

About half the time, I'm struck by a clever title for a new post and then have to go hunting for a topic to wrap it around. You can probably spot them with little difficulty, although you may have to think about a few. Here I want to talk about the trend of modern writers …

Turn of the Tide

It's probably obvious that I really love the tarot. It's been a faithful companion on my life's journey since I first discovered it around 1970; it brings out my contemplative side in the same way that philosophy does, thanks mainly to the writing of Aleister Crowley, whom I admire as a thinker and scholar if …