Lenormand love and relationship spreads are a lot of fun to read – filled with gossip, intrigue, and a myriad of details that sometimes people wish you didn't know.
Kinky sex life? Lenormand just might spill the beans.
About to break up? Caught in a love triangle? A Lenormand love spread doesn't hold back.
Want to know how two people are relating in a relationship? Whether their love is sincere or they're just going through the motions, staying out of obligation? You guessed it! A Lenormand love reading will tell you.
Lenormand Love and Relationship Combinations
To read Lenormand love spreads, you have to begin by understanding the love meanings of Lenormand cards. The meanings help you to pick out combinations that indicate a relationship between two people, in addition to combinations that describe the type of relationship they have.
The most basic love and relationship combination involves the Heart card. It occurs when the Heart falls between:
- the two significators (Man and Woman cards)
- two court cards (i.e., House, Clouds, Bouquet, Scythe, Child, Stork, Crossroads, Lily, and Fish)
- two cards that represent people (i.e., Rider, Snake, Bear and Dog)
- or any combination thereof (such as the Man and the Snake)
Most basic love combination in a Lenormand spread
When reading a Grand Tableau (GT) or a 3×3 spread, the combination may not always appear horizontally as depicted in the image above. Two people can be connected to the Heart vertically and/or diagonally.
Guide to Reading Lenormand Love and Relationship Spreads
Look at the cards between the two people.
This applies to all spreads – from a simple 3-card spread to a Grand Tableau.
The cards between two people tell you about the type of relationship they are in and any difficulties they might be having.
The Ring indicates a committed relationship, often one involving a legal agreement, such as a marriage. It isn't a sign of love, but a sign of commitment. It is not a sign of faithfulness or monogamy.
The Heart shows passion, love, and affection between the couple.
The Anchor represents an enduring relationship. The two people are comfortable with one another and are choosing to stay together. It can be a sign of a committed relationship where the couple has chosen not to undertake the legal arrangement represented by a marriage, such as two people living together without (or prior to) getting married.
The Mountain indicates problems coming between two people. It can signify giving one another the cold shoulder, emotional distance, and other issues that can be surmounted with effort.
The Whip often indicates arguments and heated conversations. It can also show an abusive relationship and/or some of the sexual nature of the relationship, such as dominance, kink, etc., however, don't jump to these conclusions right off the bat. Make sure you check the cards surrounding the Whip. Most often, it will be a sign of problems and arguments in the relationship, not a description of their sex life or abuse.
You can find more meanings for cards that fall between two people here.
Additional Techniques for the Grand Tableau
Important note: Since most readings will involve the Man and Woman cards, for convenience, I will explain the following techniques using the Man and Woman cards to signify the two people in the relationship. If you are doing a reading that involves different people cards, you can simply substitute the person card you're interpreting for the Man/Woman card. The reading techniques won't change based on the cards used to represent the two people.
Technique 1: Distance
1. Look at how far the two people are from each other. If they aren't near each other, it's possible they aren't in a relationship.
Similarly, if the Man and Woman cards are next to each other without any cards between them, it often indicates that they aren't in a relationship. They probably know each other, but “there is nothing between them.” If they do happen to be in a relationship, it can be a sign that they are in the process of going their separate ways.
If the cards land in different rows, such as the Man in the row above the Woman, this represents the Man likely has more control in the relationship and/or more influence over what will happen between them. You often see this when one person has a crush on someone or, if a relationship is ending, who is more likely to be ending the relationship.
2. Look at the cards near the two people. If the Man and Woman are far from each other, but are close to other people cards (e.g., Dog, Snake, etc.), you might want to consider whether there is an affair, a homosexual/lesbian relationship, or something else keeping the two people apart, such as a business trip.
Usually if there is an affair, there will be a card connecting the Man/Woman to a person card, such as Man-Heart-Snake. Don't jump to conclusions if you see that the Man/Woman is closer to another person card because it could simply mean that the person card is a friend or a momentary attraction (not something the Man/Woman will act on). Look at surrounding cards for more information.
If you're ever in doubt, ask the person you're reading for questions to help you understand what the cards are telling you. It's better to ask if there is distance because of a business trip than to incorrectly assume someone is being unfaithful or that a relationship is ending.
Technique 2: Read the Heart, Ring and Anchor
The Heart describes someone's love life. The cards touching it can tell you everything from what someone is looking for in a love relationship to whether a person is single or not.
The Ring indicates commitment. The cards touching it give insight into the quality of a relationship.
The Anchor shows stability. Surrounding cards will tell you if a relationship will last for the long-term.
Remember you can also use houses, knighting, and mirroring for more information.
Reading Homosexual and Lesbian Relationships
There is a recent tendency for people to want to add additional cards to a Lenormand deck to signify homosexual and lesbian relationships, such as adding an extra Man card to signify a male partner in a homosexual relationship. However, this is not necessary.
Homosexual and lesbian relationships existed when the Lenormand cards were created. A Lenormand deck is perfectly capable of discussing LGBT relationships without adding additional cards.
This is where court cards and additional person cards come in.
A male partner is typically represented by the Rider or Dog. Personally, I've found the Dog is how a male partner appears most often in spreads, but some readers do use the Rider. You can intend to have either the Dog or the Rider represent a male partner or love interest prior to shuffling the cards or you can simply lay the cards and see which one is coming across as a person when doing a reading.
A female partner is typically represented by the Snake. It is possible for her to be represented by the Bouquet, Crossroad, or Stork (all of which have Queens for their court cards). It's never happened in readings I've done, but it can happen. Like for a male partner, you can intend for any of these cards to represent a female partner or love interest prior to shuffling the cards or you can simply do the spread and see which card comes across as the partner during the reading.
Aside from the card used to signify a partner, all aspects of reading homosexual and lesbian relationships are identical to male-female relationships.
I hope these tips help you when reading Lenormand love and relationship spreads.
* Note: All deck images are from the Blue Owl Lenormand deck, available at Amazon.
Sorry, this might be a stupid question. But what if you want to make a love spread with 3×3 cards and neither the woman or the man turns up?
Read the cards based on the question you asked. There’s more information here: Reading 3×3 Spreads
Thank you for your reply. Does that mean that a lovespread doesn’t have to have man/women card in it, or the other cards that can represent a man or a woman?
Although, when I make a 3×3 and have a question about love in my mind, some of those cards always pop up anyway :0)
Sounds like you’re confusing GTs with 3x3s
No. I know the differens. I might just have put my question wrong.
If you make a GT, you use all cards, therefore of course you’ll have the man and the woman card, and can read the cards that connect them.
But if you make a 3 card or a 3×3 card spread, you might not get the man or the woman card in the spread. You even may not get any of the cards that can illustrate a male or female figure (Rider, Bear a.s.o.)
So, my question is, how can you read a lovespread, when these cards doesn’t turn up?
Again, if your 3×3 does not have person cards in it, interpret it based on the question you asked. Look at what the cards mean according to love, and all the other ways to read a 3×3. If you want to have a full and complete love reading, you need to do a GT. It will always provide you with the most information and it will always contain all of the person cards. A 3×3 is an abbreviated GT. The GT is the full story.
Thank you for your reply. I’ll just go for the GT then. It was just because you mentioned the 3×3 – and because I’m still a bit over whelmed by the GT ;0)
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
I mentioned the 3×3 because it can come up with the 3×3. It would probably be easier for me to offer classes to explain everything because it’s far too much to put in an article. There are a lot of complexities to combinations that I don’t think many people understand and it isn’t always easy to convey. It isn’t until people start to master the GT that they begin to see how every single card relates to every other card and the layers of meanings each card has. It’s why it takes years to master Lenormand.
thank u very much for sharing! 🙂
You’re welcome Marika.
will the meaning be the same when we get … woman, heart man.. cards ….
what will the difference be if we get man heart woman cards….?
Both are the most basic combination I described above. The card order doesn’t matter.
You will oblige me with your help.
In a 3 card reading, i got Woman , fish, Man Does that mean that the only thing that binds these two together is spirituality?? (meant to be only spiritualy together?)
The meaning depends on the question you asked.
Thank you for your reply Ann !
Ι asked about the feelings of the woman towards me… whether she will communicate again with me. So I guess she will only think of me, as she is very far away. She lives in another country.
Hi – Love your site. I’m learning a lot. Which is the card which usually represents sex? There is no card which signifies this overtly. Sexual relations cannot always be described as a love relationship (heart), commitment (ring), or by the mere presence of a man and woman card. Thanks
Hi Kathy – People traditionally use the Whip or Lily.
Thanks! A little surprising.
It is surprising, but if you look at the meanings of the cards, it makes sense. For example, the Whip can mean repetitive action and physical activity. It’s also considered a phallic symbol. Put it all together and you can start to see how the Whip card is connected to sex.
What if the man and woman fall in the same row with strong/positive cards in between them (ex. Heart, Fish, Anchor, etc.), but they aren’t close together?
How do you define not close together? It’s hard to answer your question without seeing the spread. Depending on how far apart they are, it could mean a connection or not.
For instance, if the man and woman were in the same row of a 9×4 GT but had 6 cards in between them. The 6 cards are strong romantic joiners (Heart, Anchor, Child, etc.), but there’s still the distance between the man and woman. So would the distance negate the joiners, or would there simply be a connection with a lot of facets?
That much distance negates the connection.
you mentioned meanings for when cards fall between the man and woman, but what if they fall to the left or right? for example, i did a 3×3 in which the present column was the coffin + the woman + the man. since the woman and man have no joiners and are preceded by the coffin, would that seem to indicate a separation?
Usually, nothing between them literally means there’s nothing between them. They may know each other, but there’s nothing there – no commitment, no love, no passion, no connection.
Don’t forget to pay attention to where the cards are falling. It’s sounds like you’re reading the Coffin as a joining card, but it’s a preceding card.
These articles might also help you with combining cards in a 3×3: How to Read a 3×3 Spread and How to Read Lenormand Card Combinations.
i was doing a grand tableau with the woman as my significator and the man as the guy i am seeing. our cards were joined by the mice which makes sense because our relationship is undergoing stress right now (he was diagnosed with cancer). my question is if you read the joiner as the present condition of the relationship, do the cards to the right indicate the future of the relationship? for instance, the order of the cards in my GT was woman – mice – man – sun – lily. so would the sun and the lily be the future for us together or do they have nothing to do with the relationship?
They aren’t about your relationship.
I am doing a reading about people who are not yet together and there are no cards between them. I have heart-man-woman-lily (4×8 +2 spread). Is there a way to read it when I’m seeing if there is a possibility of a relationship?
Please read the article above. It explains what no cards between them means.