MUTE CARDS: WHEN LENORMAND'S CARDS DON’T SEEM TO SAY MUCH
Most of us come to Lenormand because of its amazing ‘in-your-face’ insights. But sooner or later, and the more we practice, we’ll get those readings that seem to not say much.
There’s actually a word for this Lenormand phenomenon and we can thank Caitlin Matthews for it and her many contributions to the Lenormand world.
She calls them mute cards, though I like to think of the phenomenon as applying to the whole reading instead - a mute reading.
Have you had such mute readings, when you feel the cards aren’t telling you much?
There are several reasons why this might happen, and so several ways to remedy this and to get insights out of your reading.
So let’s look at what we can do about these mute readings.
CLARIFY YOUR QUESTION
The most common reason why a reading might be mute is that we didn’t ask a clear question.
We know there’s an issue, we’re aware of how we feel about it, but that’s it. We didn’t flesh it out beyond our initial reaction and we didn’t really think about what outcome we’d like to see.
Though it can be one of those situations that will just pass and doesn’t really need a reading, often enough it’s worth one and we just need to sit down and think about the issue a little more deeply before heading to our Reader’s table.
So to get clear about your question, first think about what happened, and think about what exactly the problem is. How do you really feel about the issue and what would you like to see happen?
Think about how different scenarios might play out, and refine your question from there.
If you’re really stuck, try writing down your question.
You’d do this anyway if you’re keeping track of your readings in a journal, which is always best practice.
With a well-formulated question, you’ll interpret the cards more precisely because you’re clear about the theme in question and the outcome you’re after.
In other words, a clear question means you have a clear context for making sense of the reading.
GET THE BIRD’S EYE VIEW
Before you figure out how specific card combinations and sentences build on each other to answer your question, get a general sense of the reading’s energy. You can do this by looking at the positive, negative, and neutral effects of the cards.
Take note of how many cards are positive, how many are negative, and how many are neutral.
Though this is only a bird’s eye view that can change when you dig out the details through the combinations, remember that you’re doing this to ‘unmute’ a reading.
Is your reading mostly positive, negative, or neutral? Does that help answer your question to some extent?
It normally would, though if it’s largely neutral, this exercise might not be all that helpful. Still, give it a try and see whether it does.
FOCUS ON THE CENTRAL CARD
Most layouts have a central card or group of cards. It helps to focus on them as they might offer the main answer to your question.
Single-line layouts typically have an odd number of cards, so the middle card can carry the most weight in the reading. The portrait has a central card, and the Grand Tableau has a heart or spine, depending on the version you’re using.
Whichever layout you selected for your query, you can use the central card(s) as your starting point for interpreting the reading.
How does the central card answer your question?
From there, you can add details by examining how other cards relate to the central card - what they add to it or perhaps how they compromise it.
And even if these details are still mute, you can still make significant headway with the help of the central card.
PROBE WITH QUESTIONS TO UNLOCK THE CARDS
As you go about examining the reading to answer your question, ask yourself more questions around the issue:
- What are you worried about?
- What are you excited about?
- What are you hoping for?
- Are there people connected with your issue? Are they represented in the cards - perhaps through the pips?
- Which cards are encouraging?
- Which cards are challenging?
- What are the cards advising you to do?
You might come up with other questions that are more pertinent to your main concern.
The idea is to seek out detail from the reading by probing with more questions.
It’s about digging into the reading’s story through helpful prompt questions that extrapolate on your main query.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
Sometimes, we might try digging into the cards more deeply than we need to. The cards might be speaking simply, like in a simple sequence of events or compound words, but somehow we skip over that and try to complicate things.
Lenormand speaks in simple terms more often than not, so you’re most probably on the right track when you go with the more obvious meaning of the cards.
Check-in to see if you’re avoiding the simple messages in search for an answer that’s closer to what you want to hear - we all do this at times.
But remember that that’s why you come to Lenormand. Right? To get those in-your-face messages that you won’t easily get with other methods.
LEAVE IT ASIDE FOR SOME TIME
One of the best techniques for overcoming a mute reading is to leave it for a day or more, and come back to it later.
It shouldn’t surprise any Lenormand Reader that mute readings can be the result of a ‘mute mind’.
Our mindset and consciousness of the moment plays a key role in how we interpret a reading - perhaps that day wasn’t ideal. So it helps to leave the reading aside and look at it later.
Let the reading ‘incubate’ for some time, and you’ll see it with fresh eyes when you come back to it.
This also gives you time to think about the issue a bit more. Perhaps you’ll achieve a different perspective that helps you see the reading a little differently.
So here are a few approaches you can use to unlock your mute readings. Are there others that you use when you’re stuck? Be sure to let me know on social media.\
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