The “Lenormand Grab-Bag” — A 26-Card, 5×5+1 Tableau

AUTHOR’S NOTE: To my knowledge, between the 9-card, 3×3 “box” and the 36-card Grand Tableau there is only one non-linear layout, the 15-card, 5×3 mini-tableau (although the 21-card, 7×3 Gypsy spread might qualify). Here is an unconventional attempt to fill that void using the 36-card deck and a single six-sided die as a pointer. It creates a build-it-as-you-go 25-card tableau with a 26th “covering” card to double-up on the central focus card for reasons I’ll explain later. (The inspiration for the design came from my recent Mandala of Revealing tarot spread. All images are from the Grand Tableau Lenormand, copyright of Lo Scarabeo, Torino, Italy.)

Shuffle the deck and lay six cards face-down into each of the six spread positions as shown in the example reading below. These sub-packs can be populated in any order as long as you wind up with six cards in each one.

Roll the die to obtain a number of spots from “1” to “6.” Counting from the topmost position as “1” and moving clockwise, locate the sub-pack that corresponds to the roll. (I’ve turned sub-pack #2 over for clarity, but the Birds was actually on the bottom.)

Take the bottom card from that face-down sub-pack (i.e. the first card laid down in the set, which was the Birds in this example) and place it face-up in the center of the reading surface as the focus card or Significator. Again working up from the bottom, deal the five remaining cards into a “cross” pattern around the Significator, left to right and then top-to-bottom, with one of the cards covering the Significator so all five are placed in the layout. I’m thinking that this “doubling-up” of the focus card could suggest the private (bottom card) and public (top card) face of the situation.

The reading sequence can be ended here or it can proceed into a 9+1 box. If stopping at this point, read the layout as you would any cross pattern, but in this case with the sixth covering card as part of the vertical axis (just to keep everything in balance).

If continuing, roll the die again (ignore any repeat of the first number) and pick up the sub-pack of the resulting number. Working up from the bottom of the pack (the Ship here), populate the empty corners of the box with four more cards, going top-left, top-right, bottom-right and bottom-left. Reserve the two remaining cards in their original bottom-to-top order. Read the pattern as you would any nine-card box, but with the added “twist in the middle.”

If you then want to add more cards outside the box pattern to create a sense of “distance” within the interpretation, you will need 16 more cards, the two reserved from the previous sub-pack and 14 more from three additional sub-packs (2+6+6+2). Roll the die as many times as necessary, not counting any numbers already rolled, until you get three “live” sub-packs, then deal cards — always bottom-to-top in their face-down orientation — from the selected sub-packs into the layout starting at the top-left corner and proceeding clockwise. (Here the three rolls gave me sub-packs #3, #1 and #4 in that order.) Begin laying cards with the two reserved cards in their original configuration and continue with the sub-packs indicated by the dice-rolls. Adding these 16 cards will also create a full range of eight “knighting” opportunities.

Although not illustrated in these examples, other techniques like quadrant emphasis (above/below and left/right), mirroring and intersection can be used just as they are with the Grand Tableau. (There will be no “house” correlations unless you create your own.) One advantage of centering the Significator card is that all of these methods will be available to the fullest extent, with no truncated patterns. (I contemplated the option of creating a more personalized reading by intentionally placing the Gentleman or Lady card in the center as the focus of the spread, but the symmetry of the six-card pulls would be compromised; best to keep it random when they don’t fall naturally in the middle.)

Taking the spread to this point will create a 26-card, 5×5+1 tableau that uses all but ten of the cards. I might get clever and enlist those ten extra cards in a 3×3+1 side-story that I call the unspoken “second-line narrative” to the main thrust of the reading. (See below.)

Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on August 7, 2023.