Donnaleigh's Lessons

Deck shown: Game of Hope Lenormand

Tips for Blossoming Lenormand readers:

Here are some tips for those learning Lenormand, to help keep your readings on track. Always check to be sure you're following these basic guidelines:

DO:

• 1)  Keep readings of small spreads simple, short, succinct. Its brevity is its clarity. It will tell you exactly what you need to know, short and sweet. No artificial sweeteners, no unnecessary additives.
• 2)  For 3 cards, try to keep the meaning down to right around 3 words. Really push yourself to turn your reading into a sentence, not a paragraph.
• 3)  Always return to your question. Are you actually staying in context of it? Make sure your answer matches the exact context of your question. The cards are limited in meaning, yet wider in *context* while adhering to their core meaning.
• 4)  Always plan for how your cards will answer. If you have no idea how to read timing in cards, it'll be futile asking "when" questions. What cards will you expect to see for different answers?
• 5)  If you're asking yes/no questions, ask questions where positive cards will give clear positive "yes" answers, and negative cards will mean no. If a negative card will be both a yes and a no, reword the question. Example: "Will i quit my job?" Coffin is a negative card so it should mean no. But it also suggests quitting/ending. You'll be confused! Instead, ask, "should stay on my job (and includ a time frame if you want). Now you will know that coffin means to quit and anchor means to stay.

DON'T

• 1)  Don't over-think it!
• 2)  Don't embellish the meanings, especially while learning. Keep straight to the cards. Don't add an adjective or topic if it's not in the cards.
• 3)  Don't turn the Lenormand cards into tarot meanings.
• 4)  Don't make up meanings to make yourself or your client see what you hope or expect to see. If it doesn't say what you want it to say, don't try and make it become something else. It is what it is.
• 5)  Don't go off-topic with your answer. If you're asking "when," don't answer "what's happening,"... instead, find the timing you want. If you're asking advice, don't predict an outcome, instead look for the suggestion/advice. If you're asking for a lost object, don't explain about their relationship; instead, consider the location of the object. See 3* in the DO section above....

Here's to strong readings!

DL

The Importance of Good Teachers.

To those mentors who came before me and kept me on the specific Lenormand learning path rather than allowing me to run rampant with my own thing ... THANK YOU!  You have given me more than you ever will know. I cannot thank you enough for your guidance despite my constant straying into tarot-land, my first native cartomancy language.

The structure of the Lenormand language is the basis of all I do with this oracle. It tightened the potential of the meanings, but with that, it also tightened the level of accuracy to something that rose so high that it totally blew my mind. How can the cards do that if the reader's mind can't interfere? Or... conversely: "how can readers allow their minds to interfere if what is there is already point-on?"

Being a Student is a Vulnerable Thing...

Learning requires our personal pride to step aside for a moment while we gather wisdom from those with experience. Learning is about being *okay* with positioning yourself as a student. A good teacher will welcome questions and curiosity. Being a strong student takes personal flexibility and even humility. It takes an open willingness to do something other than "the way you've always done it." Yes, this requires vulnerability, but it is the best thing you can do for yourself when learning something new; otherwise you will never grow or change. Even established experts who teach other systems may find themselves in this vulnerable new-student mode again as they expand to new systems. And that's okay!

Later, do what you want with it once you fully know a system, if you feel you need to do that. But chances are, you may find something better than anything you've ever met before and just aren't allowing yourself the opportunity to step out of your comfort zone.

Rigidity can pigeon-hole a person into a personal box that prevents us from fully expanding our horizons.

• Don't fear being wrong.
• Don't fear trying new things.
•  Allow the student within you to fully open to what's possible. If you feel frustrated with being wrong, channel that frustration into finding out why the meaning strayed and how to shift it.
• Learn that other potentials exist.

Getting Re-Directed by Mentors

I was frustrated with every re-direction I was given until I had the epiphany most Lenormand students have where the cards are word pictographs, not so much symbols. Many of us have multiple epiphanies. Those frustrations were each learning opportunities.

Every teacher was once (or more than once) a student. Every expert was once a beginner. But all of them have crossed that bridge of starting as a student and walking across to the other side. And if you do things the way you've always done it ... nothing new is learned. You will always stay on the same side of the bridge. Find those teachers and learn from them, because they will give you wings to fly to heights you never knew existed for yourself.

Here's to expanding our horizons!

Warmly,

DL

I thought I would share something personal with you.

I am a strong advocate of self-readings and journaling, and have journaled thousands of hours myself. When I was going through a difficult marriage, the cards were my therapy and the journal was my counselor who listened as I wrote words onto the page. I really never would go back and read what I wrote after the fact, but the act of physically writing released something from me.

It felt cathartic and healing, particularly when I felt there were things I could share with nobody. The page willingly received me without judgement.

Today, in my new life and in my new house with my life partner who I will soon marry, things are very different for me. He is my oasis, and I have profound gratitude. This weekend, he built me a bookshelf so I could store some of my favorite books that had been in storage. So my task today was to go through some old bins and put my favorite books up.

In that process, I found many of my old, hand-written journals in the storage bins.

WOW.

For the first time ever, I opened them up and started reading things that I had written 8 years ago, in 2010. This was during an extremely tender time in my life when I felt broken, as if I were dying inside. The notes that I wrote were amazing. Not only was what I wrote cathartic, but there was a very precise timeline of what would happen to me in the next four years, step by step, and precisely how the marriage would end, and how I would meet somebody and fall in love, find a loyal friend in this man, and find Harmony. It even told me what kind of job the man would have, and his relationship experience. I don't remember writing any of this now, but there it all is.

It also told me why I was staying in the same place. It described my situation as an exit ramp I took that curved back around and kept leading me back to the same road because I was afraid a path would not appear.So I kept going back to what I knew, the same old road i was on.

It told me I was not forward-thinking. It told me I was living other people's dreams instead of my own life. These words are very powerful to me as I look back on them and realize how honest they were.

Exerpt:

What is my challenge?

Not learning, thoughts are repeated, immaturity, trying to overturn depression. No forward thinking because she can't have foresight beyond the next step. Turning back. Daunted. She is walking on the steps in dreams of others, doesn't make her own strides. All her bridges become exit ramps and turn back to where she was before.

At the time, the process of looking forward to the future, seeing it unfold 4 years before it had happened, somehow gave me a periscope beyond what I was able to see: a view of what was on top of the water when I was underneath with no air and couldn't breathe.

This tool is available to everybody. I look back on this journaling experience now and how absolutely correct it was in every exquisite detail. I do not even remember writing many of these things, but as I read back on them in awe, I can see how much value there is in this exercise when we sit with ourselves and the cards and just let it flow. How right it was. How honest. How systematic, creative, precise, and cathartic.

There is no way to journal that is the ONLY way for everybody. What is right for you and lets you express yourself is correct for your experience. If you need to Doodle, Do It. If you need to use a certain card system, do it. If you want a variety, do it. Whatever it is that gives you time with yourself to explore how you can open the doors of your world, it is right for you.

I can share first-hand that journaling allowed me to become friends with myself, to explore the possibilities of what lay ahead for me in my own life, and to slowly allow me to make peace with where I was heading ... that I could let go of things that weren't serving me and still be safe. It showed me the dilemmas I would struggle with, the feelings I would have, and how I would overcome them.

Looking back on this messy little notebook where I spilled my conscience and worries, it is like I am reading my own biography .... and yet at the time, these things had not even happened yet. I was writing the story in vivid detail before it happened. It was a wonderful thing to discover today, reading my future, but discovering it after it had already become my past and present. I was awed, and really respect the process now that I see what it saw, with the 20/20 vision of hindsight to color it.

And it gave me further confidence that more people should have a deck of cards and a piece of paper and the ability to just... search. Journaling with cards is a powerful guidance tool and transformation system. And dare I also call it "a dear friend." I am grateful for all it gave me in the process.

Deck featured: Blue Bird Lenormand, 2nd edition.

Context in Lenormand is Key...

The cards are nothing without context in small readings.

This video shows the malleability of 2 cards placed in different contexts.

Your readings are like aiming an arrow at a target, and hitting the bulls eye requires a question/context match. Are you hitting the target?

To view this video, click on the video image above

to be brought directly to YouTube,

or go to: youtu.be/qULRX6FY-Ps

This video also references another video about daily draws, which can be viewed at:

youtu.be/K01xFASNFJ4

Here's wishing you bulls-eye accurate targets!

DL

When getting the Mice card can literally mean seeing a mouse that day, the meanings for Lenormand daily draws can be broader and often more literal than in readings for wider time frames.. Let's talk about how to become a better reader through your daily draws.

This video addresses some of the difficulties in doing daily draws with the Lenormand system, and offers some suggestions to keep you on track when learning.

To view this 6 minute video tutorial, click on the image below, 

or CLICK HERE to go to be brought directly to YouTube.

Wishing you clear readings!

DL

Next is a tutorial for professional Lenormand readers on how to flip the Lenormand question when live clients are seated in front of you.

When reading for clients, we become interpreters of the cards. Here's how we can become translators of the cards while respecting the question and client. A true pro becomes a master translator. Good readers interpret their craft well. But they don't have to teach clients how to interpret or read cards. That's our job and that's what they're paying us for: results, infornation, and ways to improve their life choices.

"Pro Tips for Len Flips"

 

This is an actual card question to show how important flipping the question is in a Lenormand reading. We'll talk about why it needs to be done and how clarity in interpreting a reading can be improved tenfold by using this technique.

To view this technique and reading,

Click on the image below or CLICK HERE to be brought to YouTube.

Deck shown: Blue Bird Lenormand by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

Warmly,

DL

One of my YouTube video viewers recently mentioned concern that the animals in the Lenormand appeared bad. The Snake, the Mice, the Fox...and the negativity around their meanings makes her feel uncomfortable because she is an animal lover. This video speaks to that. There's also some discussion about the extra cards in the Celtic Lenormand and how altering their use can affect your readings.

To view this video, either click on the image above,

or CLICK HERE to go directly to the YouTube page.

Warmly,

DL

This is a 2 minute Lenormand video tutorial.

Asking questions in Lenormand is key to getting crystal clear answers.

The formation of your questions can make or break your reading's clarity and outcome.

Here is a seemingly benign question about insurance that had to be flipped for clarity,

as an example of how to word your questions.

Ask for what you want, not what you fear.

To view this video tutorial, click on the image below, 

Or go directly to the YouTube video at: youtu.be/Zqoammc7vSA

Warmly,

DL