Learn With Me: Lenormand, Say It Loud – part 2

Let your love language do the talking.

Sage Sips Blog is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee.

Sorry for being late getting this posted. I was a victim of my own turkey tryptophan and once I woke up from a nap, figured out what year it was and cleaned the kitchen it was getting late in the day. Instead of writing, I settled in and watched “Why Is This Happening Live” with Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow. They are hands down one of my favorite TV duos, you can almost see the IQ points dripping off of the screen. I feel smarter just by watching those two. But you HAVE to see this special. Especially if you live in America. I don’t know if the link will work for you, I THINK you can see it on the free version of Peacock, but however you need to do it, I URGE every American of voting age to PLEASE watch this. 2024 is going to be globally, historically important – no joke, no exaggeration, no intuition, just the facts on the ground in saying that. PLEASE make time for this. Please ACT. This is for real.

Ok

Enough of the scary stuff for a Friday.

Let’s look at the Lenormand cards we drew Wednesday in part one and see for ourselves if they read any differently in concert than they do individually.

I want to say yes, but not quite in the way the guide book presents.

They do connect very strongly. My colleagues are right about the intensity and in-your-face quality Lenormand seems to be lending to the reading. The cards connect to each other very strongly, but not in a way that changes the individual card’s meaning, but in a way that strengthens the connection between the cards at a layout level. Instead of connected dots, it is a fluid, unified stream of energy and consciousness. This pathway layout flows together like a heartfelt sentence.

The fading energy card is the heart (meaning union/connection akin to the two of cups) with the jack of hearts inset (akin to a knight of cups energy). The word ESTABLISHED comes to mind. I don’t think that this card in this position means that love is leaving or diminishing. It may be solid enough that you can open your focus to other things. Your attention can embrace other things. The love doesn’t leave so much as single specific relationships take up a little less space in your total attention bandwidth. This broadening and softening of focus allows you to bring your love, compassion, and sense of connection to more people and things. EXPANSIVE also comes to mind with this card.

Hmmm…go Marie. If Marie Lenormand is regarded as one of the best “fortune tellers” it is because of the intuition she tapped into, not the cards that were named for her. Trust your own heart and noggin. I suspect that, and some cultural saavy got her to where she went.

Current energy is the Stars cards. I have no idea why this is stars, plural and the other decks have Star, singular, in the major arcana. It probably has no significance at all. In any case, the Stars is associated with divine guidance, just like the Star in RWS cards. There is also an element of wish fulfillment (cue Jiminy Cricket and “When You Wish Upon a Star” from Disney’s Pinocchio)

There is some connected-card meaning modification here. The guidebook says that when the Stars and The Heart appear together, it means that a “relationship is blessed.” In the energy I see here, however, YOU are the one doing the blessing, not some divine providence.

Finally the growing energy is the Garden card. This is associated with a place of meeting or community. The inset is stepping forward a bit. The 8 of spades is akin to the 8 of swords. If I think about the 8 of swords, its connotations of empowerment vs powerlessness and victim mindset steps forward.

In understanding the Garden card, lets look at it through the lens of its inset companion, the 8 of spades/swords.

The Pamela Smith art is my favorite representation for the eight of swords because it clearly shows some key ideas. The woman’s feet are unbound. She can’t see, hear or use her arms, but she can walk. It would require that she use care, touch and other senses to move safely, BUT she could walk forward, follow the water (intuition, emotions) at her feet through the circle of swords to safety. Often this comes gives the message of unconventional action or creative problem solving. She can use whatever is at her disposal in order to act and to escape OR she can choose to stand still and remain imprisoned. Each would require its own kind of courage and endurance.

Now, about that sentence.

Expansive love, flowing into guidance and action.

Bless your relationships (of all types)

Speak your love-language, whatever it is, and speak it loudly.

If your love language is cooking special favorite foods for loved ones, you’ve had a good couple of days. However you show affection, let it flow. In loving others we can liberate ourselves.

Thank you so much for reading!

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Learn With Me: Lenormand Tarot, say it loud

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Part 1

Over the past several weeks we’ve looked at the history of Lenormand Tarot as its been told by Christopher Butler in the book accompanying this deck and a few quick online searches. The origins are as fuzzy as any other Tarot deck.

So far we’ve looked at a few single cards. The more I work with the deck, the more I appreciate the artwork. Color on black with a certain neon light at night aesthetic is my favorite palette. Been definitely feeling the intp, cyberpunk lofi aesthetic these days. This deck is a standout in the art and visual representation. I don’t care much for the pale colors and deliberately old, eighteenth century look of most of the other decks that I’ve seen. The lesson there is to find a deck you resonate with VISUALLY regardless of RWS vs Lenormand setup to the deck.

See? We really are learning stuff here.

We also learned how the Lenormand Deck pushes you toward intuitive reading. You have to rely on your own intuition for the role that the playing card insets play in the card interpretation – if any. In contrast, the RWS decks use that aspect of intuition through card reversals. Lenormand disregards reversals outright.

I have to agree with my friends who said, in their experience, Lenormand tended to be more blunt, direct, in your face and to the point. I have a hunch that this is a function of Lenormand being a smaller deck and, I suspect, you might get the same punchy quality if you did a major arcana only reading with a RWS deck. Some limited run specialty decks are majors only, and when I first experiments with “cybertarot” software back in the 90s, the demo was majors only – and this has a similar feel to those majors-only readings. Just like when a lens narrows a beam of sunlight, it increases the heat and intensity of the light it could be that a smaller deck increase the intensity of a reading. But I also suspect there is a “goldilocks zone” at play, too. Too small of a deck, or too large of a layout could dilute or blur the cards’ insights to the point that it is no longer useful at all.

In my experience, larger layouts will do that regardless of the deck’s size. Even the 10 card celtic cross can get unwieldy and contradictory. I see no value in even trying the every-card-in -the-deck 4 x 9 grand tableau layout that is common to Lenormand. It is absurd to me on its face. My hunch is that Mlle Lenormand was riffing from pure intuition and using the cards to connect with her clients. That isn’t to say that it is schtick or performance or a con or a trick…people are sometimes more willing to believe “the cards” over what another human has to say. The cards make us feel that the information is otherworldly, something more or special compared to human insight.

The cards are skeletal armature. The cards are a structural foundation on which human intuition builds.

That is the larger, functional insights from these cards today. Please read tomorrow and we’ll take a look at these cards specifically in this pathway layout. The right hand card is fading energies, the middle card is current energies and the left card is growing energy as I read these.

continues tomorrow …..

Day job day

Lots going on today out in meatspace, but in a few hours I’ll be ready to do any email Tarot readings you all might need – order yours HERE no appointment needed. Readings are OPEN all through the holiday season. Delivery times might vary depending on what’s in the oven and how far behind I am on the elfcon panic knitting, but I will get it to you asap.

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Offer ends November 30, 2023

Reverse Engineering Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving week U.S. friends! I’m thankful for anyone and everyone around the world who reads this. Don’t forget the blog readers special. This week, I’m giving everyone on the free blog the same offer that members get ALL of the time – a private one card reading on request. Seeing your name, email, topic, question or permission for an open reading is what helps me connect to your individual message, so if you put that information in an email I’ll reply with a free one card private Tarot reading. It would be a big help if you put THANKS23 in the subject line so I don’t accidentally get it confused with a question for the blog. Offer ends for free blog readers on 11-30-23.

Now to that reverse engineering thing.

Instead of pulling a card to see what ideas it brings to mind, let’s start with an idea and see what card it brings to mind.

Friendsgiving has had my attention lately.

Admittedly, this is focused on us here in th USA. Much love to the rest of the world, but right now I’m up to my eyeballs in dysfunctional family vibes and not dialing in very well to more universal themes at the moment. Thinking about Thanksgiving this year, The World comes to mind.

Worlds tend to collide during the holidays. Things that mean the world to us as individuals might mean little or nothing to other people. Sometimes, when the holidays bring together people who only gather out of social obligation or genetics, it can feel more like a game of billiards than a homecoming or reunion.

Holiday gatherings can also be comfort and warmth and a heartfelt celebration of the people who are, as the song goes, most dear to us.

Here I am reminded of the book The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot. The holidays can make us feel lonely by comparison to the rest of the year and by comparison to others who have connections that we don’t have.

You don’t have to connect through the holidays. You can connect to the whole universe anytime, anywhere with anything. According to Talbot, with actual 3-D holograms, every part of the projection material contains the information to project the whole image. Conceptually, that can be extended to our world in general. Pick up a pebble and you are holding the whole world in the palm of your hand.

Even if you are alone, if you celebrate your holiday your way (or even just allow yourself to enjoy some sort of non-holiday fun) then you are connected, you are a part of the whole holiday season. It doesn’t matter what you celebrate, or if you celebrate anything at all. You are a part of the wholeness of the universe. You are connected even if you are alone. Even if you are rejected by one group, there are others that would welcome you as one of our motley crew without hesitation.

There are reasons Friendsgiving is a thing – and to my thinking it is a wonderful thing at that.

It is probably a modern internet misappropriation of some old, misunderstood quote, but I think it exists in the collective consciousness for a reason. It is a much needed idea: “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb” meaning that chosen bonds are real, are powerful and are important regardless of how you feel about your genetic family. This is a time of year to celebrate and be thankful for the family we’ve found out there in the wide world just as we celebrate, when able, our birth family.

As someone who has been literally and explicitly told by my mother that she thinks I’m going to hell, I’m here to tell you that religion and politics have affected family relationships. I don’t know how many families, to what extent or what percentages – but I can vouch for one.

I can also vouch that it is possible to be happy without the idyllic holiday. It is possible to make your own.

It’s not for me to know much you want to be a part of a genetic family that rejects you to whatever extent for whatever reason. But I hope that you know this:

Pick up a pebble and you hold the wholeness of Earth in your hand. Take a breath and know that you are a part of all humanity. There are people on this pebble hurtling through space that accept you for who you are. There are people that love the things that you love. There are people that love you.

They might not know it. You might not know it. It’s only been since the advent of internet access that we are beginning to see the threads of this level of connection, but world-bonds of found family do exist.

For that I am thankful.

And thank you so much for reading! Please visit Wednesday when we will look at the Lenormand deck. It feels like time to start weaving them into a larger reading than the one card meditations we’ve been doing. Next Learn With Me: Lenormand will be a three card energy path reading again with Thanksgiving as our focus.

See you at the next sip!

A Little Lenormand – blog readers only

Hi everyone!

It’s Sunday and I was given a delightfully slow morning. I drank a whole cup of coffee in one go while it was still hot without multitasking my way through it. What a treat!

I want to give you a treat too. Of everything I put on social media to promote this blog and my private readings, the main blog here on the website is nearest and dearest to my writer self. That’s where my Tarot private practice began – with blogging. I appreciate all of you who read this blog more than you know.

The best way I can think of to say thank you this Thanksgiving Week 2023 is to give you what I do best: private Tarot by email.

You won’t find this offer anywhere else. I’m only posting it right exactly HERE.

Send an email to the contact in the right hand column of this page or on the contact page with your name and a question or topic (or “open” to let spirit lead the way) and I will reply with a private one card Tarot reading just for you.

Please add the code THANKS23 to the subject or email so I don’t accidentally think it is a question for the blog.

Offer ends November 30, 2023

Thank you.

S.O.P.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8UFwPGM/

This is my first go at embedding a TikTok video, so I hope you can see it ok. If not you can see the crystal cast happen on TikTok where I’m SageWordsTarot, just like all the socials (except the YouTube channel where you add a YT at the end)

Of all the runes showing, the blank “Odin’s Stone”grabs my attention the most, with it landing on top. It feels like some information, be it literal or intuitive, is currently hidden “by divine mandate” You can interpret that how you wish: divine, higher self, woven into the fabric of the universe…

“What isn’t known will be revealed in its time”

The other runes speak of division, karma, focus, desires and joy.

There is some sense of “just desserts” (did I spell that right?) so enjoy any of those piping hot cups of schadenfreude that may come along in the next days or weeks. I want to connect that to a national scale and the U.S. political landscape (fingers crossed)

The “bringing desires into focus” (Rune Cards of Mannaz by Thom Pham) from the thurisaz combined with the flow of joy from wunjo gives advice to pay attention and take care of the seeds we are sowing now, as they will indeed come to fruition later – both a caution and a hopeful promise, depending on what you are putting out there.

Ihwaz, awareness of karma, is the topmost rune in the field. Taking responsibility is the topmost message. Own it. Your monkeys, your circus – tend to it with an eye to current needs and future consequences.

The light and dark chips are evenly distributed and equal-ish in number. “If shadow work calls to you, that may be energized in this ti me.”

My mind is drawn to the leonid meteors tonight. If you resonate with astrology, you might want to fold that into this reading as well.

Thanks for reading!

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Learn With Me: Lenormand, The Moon

Learn Lenormand and Tarot together

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There is more to unpack here than it seems.

From a purely intuitive point of view, when the card turned over the message was simple and clear: Trust your own intuition right now. You already know what you are seeking to know. Trust your gut. Even if you don’t want to face it, deep down, you already know.

But from the “Let’s Learn Lenormand!” point of view, things are evolving.

As I dug into some other online resources to learn about the card, it starts to get contradictory and confusing. Honestly I’m not surprised. Lenormand is the quinessential large layout and this deck is very tied to that method and therefor that energy.

On one hand, the Moon in this deck vibes just like the Moon in the RWS based decks.

Which makes sense, because according to some sources, the deck is based on the Thoth Tarot and Thoth oracles while other sources say it is from oracle cards created directly by Marie Lenormand. Or both.

It doesn’t really matter except for vague background context which may or may not be helpful in any given individual reading. Like I’ve said over and over – no matter what oracle you use or how you use it, the REAL oracle is our own innate human intuition and psychic senses. The cards, runes, charms, crystal balls, bone or chicken gizzards are all just amplifiers and clarifiers that help access our intuition with greater ease and to communicate it to other people with greater clarity.

The Lenormand specific interpretations are all over the place. Some say it is just like the RWS moon. Others say it is nothing like the RWS moon. Christopher Buther, this deck’s author, basically connects it with intuition like other Tarot, but changes the meaning quite a bit based on adjacent cards.

My hunch the message here is to show just how interdependet the card interpretations are. The grand tableau layout using all of the deck is very interconnected and very interdependent.

It may be time for us to move on from one card readings and start with a tres petit tableau to play with the interconnected and mutually modifying card relationships.

Although, admittedly, I’m beginning to think good old Marie used the cards a prop as much as anything, laying them all out on the table and letting the psychic reading fly, occasionally making something up about the cards in front of her to justify what intuition had just told her. Which is as good of a use of the cards as any. They are props and prompts in the end, no matter how structured or methodical our approach to the cards may be.

*shrugs* who knows

There is your Tarot lesson for today: Trust your intuition.

Trust it when you are using Tarot cards, no matter how you use the cards. Trust it in pure form just out and about in daily life. Like a full moon in the middle of the night, trust your own good intuition to light the way.

Thanks for reading! See you at the next sip!

Meditation Practice

Meditation Tarot

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“No matter where you go, there you are.” – Buckaroo Banzai (1984)

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Tincture of Time

The most difficult and deepest healing

“Time heals all wounds”

Deep healing requires the tincture of time.

Time is often the bitterest pill to swallow in our emotional healing. The slow changes time brings are often the most bittersweet. Patience with ourselves and everyone else is necessary medicine, but often the most difficult to create.

The seven of coins calls us to be patient and let the most difficult medicine of all, time, work its healing magic.

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Members only post today

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I hope you have a relaxing and fun weekend too! See you at Monday’s sip!