The Lenormand Key: “This Is The Way”
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Here I’m pinching the motto of the Mandalorians from the Disney Star Wars expansion series to explain what the Key card in Lenormand means as an expression of “Yes.” I’ve always found the interpretation of the Key in a reading to be awkward. OK, it means “Yes,” but “Yes, what?” It seems to hang out there as a further question mark: is the whole reading one big affirmative? (Normally, I would see it that way only if all of the cards concur.)
This was cleared up a bit recently when I came across the observation that the Key “agrees with” or confirms the testimony of whatever card follows it. In thinking about this, I can’t see why it wouldn’t reinforce the “Yes-ness” of any card that touches it to some degree, although the one following would receive its input most directly as part of the normal left-to-right progression. It’s probably best that I stay with the “fore-and-aft” contacts and ignore the rest for now.
I began using it this way, and while performing a Grand Tableau recently I had the occasion to examine the Key between the Whip and the Mountain. The querent is considering a search for a new job, and the confirming emphasis of the Key landed between “a rock and a hard place.” I took some time to contemplate how this could possibly be a constructive situation, and hit upon the aphorism “This is the Way.” In other words, the test posed by the Whip and the Mountain would strengthen his resolve to see it through. Because the Key mirrored the Snake with the Fox immediately following, it seemed that a bit of Machiavellian intrigue* might in fact be “the Way.”
But the rest of the reading suggested that he may not have to go that far. There was an indication that he might be able to do a little “finagling” with his current management (Snake and Fox were adjacent to one another and prominent in the same row as the Key) and get them to bump him up in the organization and in pay-rate. In the row below, Fish + Moon + Man described a “lucrative job” that could come his way; however, the Coffin following the Man reminded me of the Wicked Witch of the West trying to get Dorothy’s ruby slippers off in The Wizard of Oz: “These things must be done DEL-icately!” In other words, it could be a “hard sell” with the risk of being shot down in flames.
However, the Letter followed the Coffin, so it he perseveres in his external job search, he might have a legitimate presentment from the other company to dangle in front of his current boss before the situation gets too dangerous. In that sense, the Key in the row above, which knights to the Letter, could produce a “bargaining chip,” but he would most likely have to endure some hardship to come by it: the Whip in front of the Key could symbolize “beating the bushes” strenuously, and the Mountain following augurs an arduous uphill climb. But things turn around immediately at the beginning of the next row as described above. Key also knights to the Cross in the third row, so he might have to take on considerably more responsibility whichever way this goes, but its knighting to the Sun in the same row is another powerful endorsement of “This is the Way.”
As an aside, it’s also noteworthy that the “knighting array” involving the Man is quite positive: it knights to the Crossroads, the Child, the Tree, the Woman, the Heart and the Dog, suggesting that the decision (Crossroads) to make a new beginning (Child) would be good for his mental health (Tree) and particularly for his relationships (all the rest).
I’m liking the Key in this scenario quite a bit because turning it into “the Way” makes it a more active “trigger” card that advances the narrative rather than just being passive commentary. We might say it “tunes up” the following card to achieve its maximum positive potential (here that would be spying a clear path to the top of the Mountain). The problem I’ve had comes when a question is cast in the negative: “Am I going to die next week?” Key followed by Coffin says “Yes, most certainly!” I’m being a bit facetious (and simplistic), but I’ve felt the need to focus the meaning of the card a bit more precisely. In this regard, I was recently given the insight that the Key can suggest ways to “get inside” (literally “unlock”) a matter and sort it out most fruitfully, generally in line with the significance of the following card but there may be instances in which it can be applied to the crux of the matter wherever it lies within the reading (possibly by one of the other relational techniques like mirroring, intersection or knighting).
*My thinking on the Fox and the Snake continues to evolve; they are often lumped together in the same negative bin, but there is a subtle difference between them. When I see the Snake, I think “malicious duplicity and treachery,” but when the Fox comes up it brings to mind circumstances that demand obliquity, at best “finesse” and at worst “finagling” (e.g. the professional con man as opposed to the malevolent liar; one fleeces you as a matter of business, the other enjoys it). Put them side-by-side and you get the “Machiavellian” staples of scheming and manipulating. Here they suggest “pulling strings behind the scenes.”
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on July 17, 2023.
