Many Lenormand beginners come to Lenormand with a background in Tarot.
Tarot is a fantastic and insightful method of card reading. Tarot readers spend years mastering their craft, learning how to interpret the images on the cards, gaining insight into how different Tarot decks work…
But therein lies the #2 biggest beginner Lenormand mistake.
Because so many people learning Lenormand have a background in Tarot, they have a tendency to want to read Lenormand like Tarot.
They ignore the meanings of the Lenormand cards and instead focus on the images on the cards, pondering how the images make them feel, contemplating what the different colors might mean, examining where each element of the image is located and how it relates to other elements…
If you come from a Tarot background, I completely understand why you might want to read Lenormand like Tarot. It's safe. It's natural for you. It works when you read Tarot.
Just because it works for Tarot doesn't mean it will work with Lenormand.
If you picked up a pack of playing cards and started to read them, would you look at the Ace of Hearts and go, “Oh, a red heart. This card is about love.”
The Two of Hearts – “Hmmm, that must be a couple.”
The Three of Hearts – “Ah, a menage à trois.”
How limiting would that be?
But it works for Tarot, so reading images intuitively must be how you read any card based oracle, right?
Wrong!
Are you reading Lenormand or are you reading Tarot with a Lenormand deck?
One of the wonderful things about having different oracles is that they tell us different things. They use different techniques, letting us stretch our mind, our skills, and ourselves.
If you want to use Tarot techniques on multiple card decks, you can always pick up a different Tarot deck. Each deck is different, letting you interpret each reading differently.
But to always want to read a deck as if it were a Tarot deck holds you back.
They say variety is the spice of life. Just as you wouldn't want to eat the same food at every meal, you don't want to read every oracle like you read Tarot.
Stretch yourself. Open to the possibilities of what Lenormand can teach you if you but let it.
Allow Tarot to be Tarot…and allow Lenormand to be Lenormand.
There are ways you can combine Tarot and Lenormand in a reading, but you will become a better Lenormand reader if you learn to read Lenormand as it was meant to be read.
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