“Sex Cards” in Lenormand
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’ve always maintained that Lenormand doesn’t need a unique sex card (just as it doesn’t need a specific, universally-accepted “work” card or “health” card.) There are other ways to “flay the feline.”
Regarding sex, there are many cards that can deliver us to the brink (or push us down the slippery slope, as the case may be): Heart as passion in all its forms; Ring as recurrent “hooking up;” Dog as “friends with benefits;” Bear as “domination;” Whip — signifying intense, repetitive action of a “thrusting” nature — as recreational (and sometimes “rough”) sex; Lilies as conjugal sex in a family setting; Bouquet as “flirting;” Garden as “playing the field;” Clover as lighthearted companionship with no commitment; House as “living together;” Anchor as “enduring fidelity.” Depending on context, there are also a few that can suggest sexual inhibition or blockage: the “stop” cards Mountain, Coffin and Cross; Mice as impotence; Tree as debilitating disease, Tower as celibacy; etc; and some that convey troubling implications: Fox, Snake, Clouds, and perhaps Scythe (I’m thinking of the bizarre, perversely erotic obsession with “cutting”).
There are endless discussions on the Lenormand sites regarding which one we should use as the “sex card.” For his part, author Andy Boroveshengra neatly finessed the whole question by considering the Lilies as the “family” card that presupposes the creation of offspring, an occurrence that necessarily involves a “seminal” event by two people (unless we choose artificial insemination in a clinical setting). He leaves it at that and doesn’t broach the idea of the Whip as casual sexual activity in any way, shape or form.
Although the consideration of sexual matters in divination is often unspoken and comes wrapped in the guise of a “mind-reading” exercise about what someone “thinks or feels” about the querent (a veiled substitute for “Does he or she love me?”), it is (or should be) an entirely private affair. While he was talking about astrology and not tarot, John Frawley notes that we will eventually be able to “spot the love question (here I will substitute ‘sex’) masquerading as something else;” then “we can gently nudge the querent to see if she wants to open this issue.” However, I very seldom delve into the subject in my own practice.
I don’t have any good advice for those who want to tackle sexual intentions or desires in their readings, other than to say that it’s a subject fraught with potential disillusionment that does not serve any useful purpose in helping a client navigate the larger issues in life that involve “matters of the heart.” I tend to stay away from “love” readings in general as being psychological fishing expeditions, in which identifying sexual opportunities can be a covert but nonetheless potent theme. I’m typically more philosophical than anecdotal in my approach to prediction and really don’t want to have a hand in feeding or starving anyone’s pet fantasies.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on August 23, 2023.
