Lenormand Lost & Found: A Novel Approach
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Here is something for my Lenormand followers since I already posted on tarot today.
In the past I’ve used horary astrologer John Frawley’s sign-and-house meanings to create tarot spreads for the purpose of locating lost items and missing people. I haven’t been so diligent with Lenormand, so here I will attempt to rectify that. While reading Lisa Young-Suttons The Petit Lenormand Oracle, I encountered a wealth of new ways to interpret the Lenormand cards as places to look for someone or something. Not all of them are particularly convincing, so I decided to whittle them down to fit within my own understanding of the cards while using quite a bit less free-association from the images (although that too can be a legitimate way to work).
Before laying out the cards, consider the following list of potential locations to get the “lay of the land.” Note that some definitions will be appropriate for spots within the home while other will be better suited for places outside it (particularly in missing-person cases).
Rider: In one’s personal vehicle; in the garage; near the front door; appearing soon
Clover: By the house plants; in a happy or cheerful place; in a field or at a farm
Ship: Lost in transit; far away and gone for a while; transported some distance
House: In the main living space; in another resident’s room; still on the premises
Tree: Under the trees; out in the yard; in the woods; with the medicines
Clouds: In a partly or fully concealed condition; not readily visible; in a dim area
Snake: On the floor or ground; wrapped up in, behind or under something
Coffin: In a box, container or closet; buried in the ground; near a waste disposal area
Bouquet: Near personal grooming items; by a mirror; in a “fun” place (e.g. party room)
Scythe: Near cutting tools (knives, scissors, clippers, mowers, etc); in the sewing room
Whip: In a utility cabinet or broom closet; in the gym; near something that cycles
Birds: Local or in the neighborhood; in a busy area; to the East
Child: In the child’s room; in the play area or game room; in a unique location
Fox: Cunningly hidden; inside something deceiving; where it shouldn’t be; misplaced
Bear: In the den; near a place of protection or preservation such as a storage facility
Storks: Has changed address or left the home; in a dressing room or changing area
Stars: In a high or remote spot; by the TV or computer; in a dark place; to the North
Dog: In the guest room; at a friend’s house; near a pet’s place or pet food area
Tower: On an upper floor; on a high shelf; by a window; isolated; in a secluded area
Garden: Near devices for connecting with others; at a meeting place; outdoors
Mountain: In a hard-to-reach place; elevated; in the mountains
Roads: The next place you choose to look; by the driveway or street; down the road
Mice: A detrimental place; damaged or partly destroyed; stolen; unlikely to come back
Heart: In the master bedroom; in the hobby room; somewhere inspiring or motivating
Ring: With the jewelry; in something circular; gone down the drain; with seasonal items
Book: In the library; on a bookshelf; with books; at a place where learning occurs
Letter: At the desk; by the mail box or mail slot; with the mail; in the filing cabinet
Gentleman: Significator for a male querent; in the man’s room
Lady: Significator for a female querent; in the woman’s room
Lilies: In the family room; in the mother-in-law apartment; at a relative’s house
Sun: Near a heat source; in a warm place; in plain sight; to the South
Moon: In or at the office; with the memoirs (photos, awards, news clippings, etc.)
Key: Where you put it for safekeeping (of course); right where it’s supposed to be
Fish: With other items; by money or financial papers; near a water source; to the West
Anchor: In the basement; in a low place; near a wall or foundation; where we hope it is
Cross: Near or under something heavy; weighed down or constrained
The first step is to place the cards of a large-format deck (e.g. Laura Tuan’s Lenormand Oracle or the Golden Lenormand Oracle) into a standard Lenormand “house” array (Rider through Cross). I recommend the 8×4+4 layout for this exercise. (A Grand Tableau spread cloth or panel can also be used if you have one.)
Next, using a deck with smaller dimensions, place the Man card on the 28th position of the “house” pattern for a male querent, or the Woman card on Position #29 for a female querent.
Choose a card to represent the missing item or person (for example, lost jewelry might be indicated by the Ring or the Bouquet, while a person could be identified by an appropriate court-card inset); leave it in the deck. It doesn’t matter which card you use for an inanimate object as long as you “charge” it so it becomes pertinent to the reading; it acts as a pointer or index for the item’s location. The court-card “personages” are self-explanatory.
Shuffle the remaining 35 cards and deal them into the “houses,” left-to-right and top-to-bottom while skipping over the Significator position, until the “charged” card turns up. The location suggested by the house it lands in should be explored to the extent possible. The position of the “object card” relative to the Man or Woman will reveal the direction in which the item or person might be found, and roughly how far away the location is (by applying the “near/far” method). Note that I use the principles of Northern Hemisphere astrology for directional purposes: left of the Significator is East; right is West; above is South; and below is North. Although I don’t normally consider “facing” with Lenormand cards, whether the Man or Woman is looking toward or away from the “object card” could imply how likely he or she is to see the target. Once the relationship between the Significator and the “object card” is established, the various GT sub-routines (knighting, mirroring, intersection, chaining, etc) can be applied to obtain more detailed information.
Here is an example reading for a real-life situation: “Where is my wife’s missing pendant?” I used the Bouquet as the “object card” because the pendant was a gift from me. The Bouquet showed up in the house of the Heart, for which the primary meaning is “in the master bedroom” (the last place it was seen); the suggestion is that, although she’s looked there, she didn’t look hard enough. The Lady is facing away from the Bouquet, advising “You overlooked something.”
I carried this analysis a bit further and found that both the Lady and the Bouquet knight to the Book, making this quite the mystery; the Book is in the house of the Fox, so perhaps she outsmarted herself by stashing the pendant out-of-sight. They intersect at the Lilies, hinting that the pendant could be near “family” or “heirloom” items within the master bedroom; the Lilies is in the house of the Mountain, indicating “elevated” and “hard-to-reach.” They also intersect “on the diagonal” at the Man (“in the man’s room”), another possibility since it’s on the same floor and to the southwest. The Bouquet is to the right of the Lady and one row above, showing a “southwesterly” direction, but there is some distance between them so the pendant isn’t “right under her nose.” This position also conveys that the search “has a future.”
As a final touch, I decided to do some house chaining, starting with the Bouquet’s location in the house of the Heart. The Heart is in the house of the Birds, so the item is most likely not far away in an area that receives some traffic, and it may be paired with something else. The Birds is in the house of the Stars, a further emphasis on “up high” and also “in a dark place” (the Stars relates to “night”), so the shelf in the bedroom closet (the only high, dark location in the room) is a prime candidate. The Stars does not appear in the spread, so the chain ends there.
Doesn’t this all tie together quite neatly? Now we just have to go find it.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on September 24, 2023.
