GOING BEYOND 3 CARDS

All of us aspiring Lenormand Readers want to be able to read a Grand Tableau effectively. It is really the goal of the Lenormand practice - to be able to master this amazing and massive 36-card spread. 

But often, and for a while, we are intimidated by these very long lines that we find in the Tableau, like the 8-card lines and the 9-card lines. And also even the smaller lines and all of these diagonals that we find in it.

So how do we go from where we are right now to being able to master a Grand Tableau?

Well, really, it lies in going beyond three-card readings, or triplets. I did a video about how to read three cards so you might want to tune into it. But in this video, I want to tell you about how we go beyond three-card readings.

Hi everyone, I'm Layla, the Lenormand Reader, and I've been reading the Lenormand for over 20 years. If you aspire to reading Lenormand, if you want to master this practice, you have come to the right place. I have lots of resources for you, so be sure to explore the website and all of the links that I have in the description box for you. And do like and share this video so that more people can find out about this amazing practice.

As you know, the Lenormand Petit Jeu deck is made up of just 36 cards. So the way we get a lot of meaning and a lot of variety in the meaning of the cards is actually by combining the cards together. it is not really about reading the individual cards. It is more about reading them in pairs, triplets, and beyond, and what we call sentences, in order to tell an amazing story with the cards.

So the way to read longer lines is actually to start by combining the cards, starting with pairs, and then moving on to triplets and then beyond. And the way this works is really by linking the cards together into a story.

PRACTICE COMBINATIONS

The first stop is really the two card combinations or the pairs. This is the most common building block of the Lenormand way. You will find many authors have two-card combination dictionaries. I've covered them in some of my deck reviews.

I have my own pairwise combination for each of the cards with every other card in the deck. So feel free to check these out. And then once you've got a good handle on the pairs, you do the same with triplets. So the triplets are really two pairs that you combine together. And there is a central card that you can use to  focus the way you interpret the triplet.

I have plenty of horoscope readings and other forecasts on the forecast channel where you can get a sense of how we can weave the cards into sentences for different signs, to answer different questions and different pick-a-card readings.

And this is really the way you interpret the cards in a more coherent whole instead of individually to get more variety in the meetings and richer insights out of your cards.

So it is not just about reading the cards together, but it is also reading them together to answer to a specific context like I covered in the correspondence video.

Once you have a good handle on two card combinations and you can do triplets, you can apply the same idea to longer lines. You can go for 4 cards or 5 cards. I tend to read lines with an odd number of cards, but there are other authors who use even a number of cards. It is really up to you. The idea is that your lines become longer so that you practice weaving the pairs and triplets together into a longer line, and can tell an interesting story with the cards.

In a 5-card line, we have four pairs of cards that overlap. There is one card in common to two pairs, and so on until the end of the line. We also have a triplet and a pair, or a pair and a triplet. We also have two pairs and a central card. There are all sorts of different ways that you can parse longer lines into smaller combinations. And there isn't really a formula or right or wrong way to do this. It really just depends on the flow of the cards.

The cards themselves could be attracting your attention to certain combinations. You might pick up a certain flow within the line. It really depends, and the idea is that you are spontaneous with this and you can flow with the cards specifically for the context of the question you are reading for.

I appreciate that when you are first getting started,  this flow and this intuition of how to put the line together and how to make sense of it doesn't come out immediately. It tends to take a bit more practice. So the first basic step to start building your interpretation muscle with longer lines is really just to string the cards into pairs.

Start with the first two and then the second card pairs, with the third, the third with the fourth, the fourth with the fifth, and so on until you've covered your line. This way, you can see how the story unfolds. This also helps you practice your pairwise card combinations.

And once you are comfortable with this, you might put a triplet together or parse the cards in different ways like I was just saying, like three cards and a pair, a pair and a triplet. It depends on how many cards you have in the line. But again, I really think that the key here is to go with the cards and how they invite you to flow with the line - as soon as you are ready to do this.

With an odd number of cards in a line, you might like to zoom in on the central card. I do have a few resources on central cards in the blog and other areas I'm going to link them in the description box. 

LEVERAGING THE CENTRAL CARD

The central card can help you focus on a key area that is central to the question that you are asking about. It can stand out and then you can see how the cards on the right and left of the central card support it and how they give you additional information.

Focusing on a central card and having it stand out a little bit can help with parsing the rest of the line.

So for example, if you have a line of five, you have one central card and two pairs on either side. You could  see how these two pairs relate to the central card. You can also do the same thing with a line of seven, where you have a triplet on either side of the central card.

And of course when you have Tableau-style layouts, for example a portrait, you also have a central card and the central card and a portrait is pretty significant, and so you examine how it connects with the cards around.

So central cards are a helpful tool to focus on when you are reading a line. They help you zoom in on the theme or even represent the main outcome. It can depend on the line itself. There are different ways you can interpret the central card and it is up to you. 

In time, you will develop the flexibility and spontaneity to interpret the cards in a way that makes sense for the question, and you will be able to tune into what they are trying to tell. So you  go with them and you go with how the line is inviting you to interpret it.

You can also have more than one central card. It depends again how you want to parse the line. Suppose you have a line of seven. You can have one central card, or you can have three central cards and you will have a pair on either side. If you have an even number of cards, you might have two central cards instead of one or three. So again, this is flexible and the idea is to go with how you feel the cards should be read specifically in this reading, for the question that you are answering.

Before we try a few examples, why don't you leave me a comment below, telling me where you are at with your card combining skills with the lines that you are reading? Are you stuck at the triplets or the pairs? Or are you trying to go beyond? Are you reading longer lines, like 5- or 7-card lines? And are you reading Tableau-styles layouts, putting all of these lines together? Let me know in the comments where you are at with your Lenormand practice.

So let's recap quickly what are the steps to build your card combining skills with longer lines. First, you want to make sure that you understand individual card meanings. So really just a one-card interpretation. And then you want to get a good handle on your pairs. That's two cards. And then also your triplets. And all throughout that you are practicing one, two, and three card readings, you want to make sure that you are trying to answer questions because the idea is to interpret the cards for the question and its context.

And once you are pretty flexible with that and you are flowing with it reasonably well, then you might want to go beyond three cards. You might want to try 5, 7, and even 9, because the idea is that you are going to start weaving the pairs and triplets into a longer sentence to tell the story that unfolds. So it is pretty much applying what you've done with the smaller lines to the longer lines. It is very much the same idea.

In any of these lines, you might want to focus on a central card, or a few central cards, to get a focus for the reading and see how that might help you answer the question.

With this said, let's head over to the table and try a few examples.

EXAMPLES: CARD PAIRS

Let's start with the card pairs. Let's look at two cards to start with, and then we're going to build this into longer lines. Here's the first and the second.

Okay, so these are some pretty good cards to get started with because they're straightforward and we can immediately make sense to them. We don't have the added complexity of tricky card meanings. There are some cards that are a little bit tricky, a bit mute, but these ones are pretty straightforward.

We have the Clover and the Letter. Now, combining these two cards together is very straightforward. There is good or lucky news. It is about communication in some form or other, written or not, that brings good news or brings us some luck and good fortune.

The Letter is typically about written communication like messages, letters, emails, etc. but generally, you can broaden the card a little bit depending on the context to suggest other modes of communication. With the Clover, it is clearly positive. So this is a very simple combination as both cards are very easy to relate with.

Let's try another pair and see if there are other examples that come up for us that maybe give us some added dimensions of complexity. 

The Road and Heart is quite an interesting pair because the Heart comes on the other side of the Road. I would say this is exploring or going down the path of a connection or an interest, probably in the context of a relationship. If the Road came after the Heart, I could maybe suggest that there is no strings attached kind of situation because the Road tends to be open-ended.

Sometimes the order of the cards matters. But not all the time. Like if we had the Letter and the Clover in this order, it would pretty much suggest the same thing as the Clover and Letter.

Now, of course, the more cards you add, the more this can become relevant, and also the context can sometimes drive this idea. So the Road and Heart is about pursuing a path that you want, a path of interest. It is going after the things that make you happy. It can mean following your Heart in a very literal sense. And of course, when it comes to relationships, you could be exploring a relationship.

The Heart is not strictly about love, it can point to feelings in a more general way. But it does bring a sense of happiness. In the context of a relationship, the Heart is certainly supportive [without nearby negative cards]. So this too is a very straightforward combination. And this is how you would practice them.

Looking at the Fish and Child. This is also a pretty easy combination. And honestly, most combinations are easy like that.

The Fish and Child obviously points to a new beginning. The Fish is about money, finances, prosperity, and also work, business, and your income, or how you are productive.

When they come together, there is a new source of income, a new financial opportunity, or other kinds of opportunities. There is a new chapter in this area of your life.

It can also point to something like a new customer, or a new project, or some kind of source of income, whatever that form or source can look like for you or the person you are reading for.

So this is pretty much how you would look at card pairs: You start with one card meaning, the second card meaning, and you bring them together to make sense of them as a pair.

The next level on top of that is how it makes sense specifically to the question. Start by just looking at the cards without answering a question. But then you want to try to answer questions because it helps you narrow the cards and make them more relevant to the question you are asking.

So let's use these cards and move on to triplets now.

EXAMPLES: CARD TRIPLETS

We've got the Letter and Clover. Let's take the Fish. Obviously, this brings quite a lot of good stuff for the money aspect. The Letter, Clover, and Fish triplet can mean a few things. It can mean some good news with regards to finances in a general sense.

The Letter can more specifically represent an offer, for example, so in the context of work, if someone is looking for a job or looking at making changes in their job or make improvements in it, then the cards are really good as they suggest good income.

In a business context, something similar applies. The Letter can also point to things like documents and paperwork. So contracts and agreements and collaborations can also be suggested here. The Letter brings this kind of green light or some kind of opportunity with a strong financial element.

Now, the cards are not specifically about relationships, but if we were to look at them in terms of a relationship, like we do in the correspondence exercises, they would also be supportive because they generally point to good news. And the Fish can be exciting when it comes to relationships because it tends to be associated with the physical aspects of relationships, and in a fulfilling way. So really, these are good news cards any way you look at them.

Let's try a different triplet.

Let's try the other three here: Road, Heart, and Child. Again, pretty straightforward when we add the Child to the Road and Heart. They point to a new love, or pursuing things we love - new ones. They are also about being open minded, open to experiences, having an open Heart, being open to adventure. And the reason is that the Road has that character.

The better you understand the cards, the broader your vocabulary, the more flexible you are with possible meanings in combinations and lines.

So these are easy ways to read a triplet. Let's go beyond a triplet. Let's try a line of four.

Now here, we also have similar ideas that the Road opens up a financial opportunity or some kind of money-, income-, or business-related opportunity that easily builds on this triplet. The idea of the Road at the end of the line here can mean that you'd be open to this venture. So you go down this path.

Cards can add something specific meaning or just contribute to the general energy or a reading.

In this line, there is an opening or some kind of news that brings about this opportunity, or enables you to move forward. The Road is active, so it has a bit of motion to it. The idea of going down a path, traveling down a path, exploring.

It can also be a card of choice. A lot of people see the Road as strictly about choice. And so here you might need to make a decision about what you make of this news. If it is an offer, you might wonder if you should take it. If there is something you need to respond to, you might consider how you do that. The Road can bring these choices. But I would say, because of the Clover, the line is pretty positive.

EXAMPLES: LINE OF FIVE

Now, in a line of four, you don't really have a central card. You have two central cards. In a line of three, you have a central card. I feel that with an even number of cards, the idea of a central structure or a central pair or triplet stands out better when you have a longer line. I don't think it stands out so much in a shorter line, like a line of four, but you still might feel that it is relevant or you feel that it stands out.

But with an odd number of cards, I feel the central card stands out better. And personally, I prefer an odd number of cards. I think it is easier to zoom in on a central focus when you have an odd number of cards. The central card can bring up the theme or suggest an outcome. It is up to you in a way how you like to focus on the central card.

With the Clover in the center, it really focuses on the blessing and the good luck factor that is coming through the Letter and Fish. If we have the Road in the central position, it might focus more on how you move forward or the choice we need to make. And if you go down that path, it also focuses on this action of moving forward with it if you take the Road to mean that. So it is really pretty straightforward.

It is really when the lines become longer that it becomes about how you weave the cards together. So let's move on to a line of 5. I'm reshuffling the deck just to refresh it and pick some new cards. Let's draw 5 cards.  We've got the Fish again, the Coffin, the Stork, the Road, and the Moon. Okay.

In longer lines, the central card can speak a bit more loudly, it stands out a little bit as the main action. I feel that the longer the line, the more helpful the central card can be because it helps parse the line a bit better. But without it, we can still weave the cards together.

We would go from cards 1 and 2, cards 2 and 3, 3 and 4, 4 and 5. This is the most straightforward way to put the cards together. So when we look at the Fish and Coffin, there could have been an ending in relation to work, money, business, and these aspects of life.

Specifically how this manifests in the person you are reading for and their situation, or for yourself if you are reading for yourself, is going to depend on the specifics of their background. This can be someone who ends their job, has a customer relationship, gives up on some amount of money, or wraps up an investment project. There are many possibilities depending on the specific context.

it is not possible to capture every single one of them in the cards, but what we end up doing is that we match the cards to the situation in a way that makes sense to it. And this is why it is important to have a flexible interpretation ability, which is what I call the interpretive imagination. I talked about that also in the correspondence video. So in the first step here, we combine these two cards and we come to an ending.

Now let's combine Coffin and Stork. They suggest a change or that something that was on hold now picks up. It's not strictly an ending, but it's actually an ending that can pick up again. The Stork and Road is about moving down this path, taking steps forward, continuing, making changes and / or choices. The Road and the Stork suggest activity and being proactive.

And then we have the Moon after the Road. So I would take this pair as suggesting a positive path forward. The Moon in Lenormand is typically gentle and kind. And so it is by default positive unless there are challenging cards that can bring out a more shadow aspect of the Moon.

So with the Moon and Road, there can be an invitation to go forward and invitation to move forward and this could be tied into the Stork as well. So in this case, it's pretty straightforward. We just tie the two pairs together and we see how the story builds up.

So to recap the line, it's possible that something that was on hold, picks up again and we're able to move forward with it. And because the Moon is quite bright, there is an idea or possibility that this can result in a positive outcome and that we would be happy moving forward with it because it aligns and feels good.

Now, there is also another way we can read the cards and I think this goes back to how you want to read the Coffin. And again, this can be driven by the more specific details of the question and the background that is at play here for your reading or for the person you're reading for.

This triplet in the middle can mean a change and an ending. And actually with the Moon being a card of phases, with the Coffin, it might be a good time to wrap up a certain phase and move on into a new direction, turning into a new phase. So that too can apply. But again, the same principle of weaving the cards two by two until the end of the line applies. It's just that how you make sense of the story has several possibilities because the cards are very flexible. So you choose the interpretation that goes best with the specific context of the person you're reading for.

Now, focusing on the triplets. We can break up a line into pairs and triplets. It tells the same story. We have something that comes to an end and there is a change and then there is a forward movement. Or there is an ending, and again, there is a forward movement through the triplet.

So where you want to start your focus in order to build the line from the ground up, as I like to say, it's up to you. Sometimes there are some combinations that stand out more than others. You might be attracted to read the first two cards as a pair and then the rest as a triplet or vice versa. Or just weave them in two by two combinations. It is flexible. And it can sometimes depend on the cards.

But I think at the end of the day, after you've gone through the, shall we say, the analysis of how you put the cards together and what they're telling you, when you put the line together, you're probably going to end up with the same idea. You need to be holistic at the end of the day, and take these ideas together. But as you can see, we sort of built up the story.

So it's not really practical to combine all long lines into a single meaning, you can combine a triplet, a pair. For example, the Road and Moon can be an invitation. This is a single unified meaning. We can take this triplet to suggest the end of a business project.

But beyond three, sometimes four cards, we cannot really combine the cards into a unified meaning, instead we weave them into a story or a sequence of events, which is as straightforward as our examples.

And if you want to focus on the central card, you can do that. You can see how much it adds to your initial interpretation or to the interpretation in general.

The Stork in the middle focuses on the need for change, the need to pick up, take initiative, and get going. This could be a helpful message if you want to take the central card as focusing on an idea, advice, or possibly an outcome.

And the Fish and Coffin and then the Road and Moon are on either side of the Stork. So you might want to parse the line in this way.

The Fish and Coffin can mean a wait for funds. The Road and Moon can be a positive way forward and an invitation to move forward. Clearly with the Stork, something that was on hold can now come through and move forward. So again, it doesn't really add all of that much to what we initially saw. 

These are just ways you can analyze the line in case it gives you additional insights. Often, the cards are what help you parse the line in different ways.

EXAMPLES: LINE OF SEVEN

Let's go ahead and do a line of seven. This is a longer line, although it's not too long for Lenormand purposes because we need quite a few cards to get more specific meaning in the Lenormand.

Okay, so here is a pretty challenging line because we have the Whip and the Scythe both figuring together and usually when these two come together, it can be some pretty strong energy here. But I have to say also that the rest of the line is pretty positive and what really stands out is the Key, especially the fact that it is in the middle.

So this is an example where I feel that the central card can be helpful in its central position to tell us a little bit more about what is going on with the challenges. The Key is a card of solutions of resolutions, of good thinking, resourcefulness, and intelligence. So when I see it in the central position, even if there are challenging cards, it suggests that we can overcome these challenges or that perhaps there is a good reason for them, or that we need to confront certain aspects at play here.

So in the central position, the Key as a positive card and in contrast with these challenging cards, tells me that there could be an upside to this or a good reason for it, and that we will also be able to overcome it. That might be something you want to look at as well. You don't have to read the cards in this way, but I feel it tends to work out well when you interpret the longer lines, especially with some help from the central card.

So let's do the two by two weaving here. We have the Road and Moon, which we got in the line of 5, and like we said, it points to exploring a path forward. It can be an invitation. It is also a gentle unfolding and suggests a phase.

We also have the Garden on the other side of the Moon. Now the Garden with the Moon, I take to mean an invitation more often than not. This can be a gathering or a get together. It can be an evening of sorts, maybe not so much a party, but there can be some kind of interesting event here. 

And then we have the Key in the middle, obviously the Key and Garden bring good answers, good solutions. But then we have the Whip and the House and the Scythe. So the Key and Whip would typically point to solving a problem. Sometimes people will want to see the Key on the other side of the Whip to feel that the problem has been solved.

With the Whip on the right of the Key, it suggests that we need to approach a problem and that it is not so much solved. The Whip and House clearly point to a problem within an environment. This environment is represented by the House. And then we have the Scythe on the other side of the House, which clearly points to a parting and a letting go, a separation from this House. Or there can be a breakup of the group within this House.

Now, because the Key is in the middle of the line, I feel that it helps us interpret the rest of the line here a bit better in the sense that it encourages us to go down this challenging path of letting go of this environment, separating from it, moving away from it.

So when we wrap up the line from the beginning to the end, I feel that the story that is unfolding is that we could be exploring a place, we might take something interesting out of it because of the Key, but then afterwards, it sounds like it's better to move away from it.

It can also suggest a different scenario depending again on the specifics of the question that is being asked. Another scenario that I can see in the cards is that there is an opportunity that enables us to make a change.

I see this a lot when it comes to work, where people are looking for a different job when they're not really happy where they are. It's a very common question that I get in private readings and so I see a lot of this dynamic where there is an opportunity that opens up and enables the person to make a change. And the change can be a bit of a rough transition, obviously, sometimes people wrestle away from a job or there are some negotiations and challenges in this regard. And this too is a scenario that can apply with the cards.

So that's how you can weave the cards. And again, really this pairwise stringing of the cards into the sentence applies. Having a focus on the central card can help interpret what is the takeaway and it helps also parse the different parts of the line. And again, the cards are often the main driver of how best to weave the line together.

That's why there isn't really a substitute for practicing. Beyond the basic understanding of the cards, it's really just getting into these lines and making sense of them. And like I said, making sense of them specifically for a question is what is going to help you refine your interpretation and move the cards from being general to specific and relevant to the question that is being asked.

So I hope this little demo here with the lines starting with 2 and 3, into 4, 5, and 7 cards helped you get a sense of how you can string the cards together. And like I said, beyond two or three cards, it's hard to unify them into a single meaning. Instead, it becomes a weaving of a sequence of events into a story that unfolds.

So like I said in here, we discovered an interesting place where we explored a certain environment, maybe took away something interesting from it, but then decided to leave. Or the other interpretation that I offered in terms of getting an opportunity and then being able to move from the current situation.

Let me know your thoughts about these interpretations or if you would look at the lines a little bit differently if you would weave them in a different way. I look forward to your comments. So these are my tips for you to go beyond three cards.

Let's recap them one last time before we close the video. First, familiarize yourself with individual card meanings. Then practice card pairs. Then practice triplets and then from there, go on to 5, 7, and longer lines, and use central cards and other card structures in the way that you feel makes sense to you. And all throughout, it is important that you answer questions so that you become skilled with interpreting the cards specifically for these questions.

If you've enjoyed this material and you want to take a deep dive into Lenormand, you might be aware that I offer one of the few Master Programs to master Lenormand, the Certification Program. Be sure to check it out. I've got the link in the description box. And I also have a whole lot of other resources on the website from the free resources to the master guides and the smaller courses as well as now I've been offering masterclasses and workshops that you can tune into. So explore everything that is available on the Lenormand Readers website. There is plenty to help you move forward with this amazing practice.

And if you enjoyed this video, then please give it a thumbs up, like, share, and subscribe to the channel so that you're always up to date with the tips and forecasts that I offer through Lenormand. Thank you so much for watching, and until next time, take very good care of yourself.

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