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How to Read Three-Card Lenormand Spreads

By Tina Gong

Published September 26

As we covered in previous articles, Lenormand is a system that taps into our deeply rooted intuitive potential. For it to fully work, there is another aspect of our mind that needs to incorporated into the equation. It is the same part of our brain that processes and helps us deal with language. Lenormand's keywords thus become the vocabulary of our vernacular and its rules the grammar.

Method 1: Reading A Sentence with Lenormand Cards

Two cards are most commonly read with the first being the noun or verb and the second a corresponding adjective or adverb. Expanding the reading to incorporate three or more cards doesn't add any extra difficulty. The images (or rather keywords) are simply read in forward narration. You string them together like little pearls of wisdom and individual words form a sentence. The third card in the row simply tends to be an object. or a characteristic that gives further insight into the situation.

For the sake of illustration, let's assume you've asked your little deck for further insight on your current job situation and pulled Ring, Stork and Scythe. The Ring usually refers to deals and contracts, the Stork (being a migratory bird) is known to signify change, and the Scythe possesses the quality of extreme speed. Taking all this into consideration, we can say that "the contract will change very quickly" or, to make the reading even more literal "the contract will change sharply". Asking about your relationship and receiving Anchor (security, long term prospects), Moon (appearance) and Mice (damage) you can say that "the security of your long-term relationship appears to be diminishing". Quite simple, isn't it?

Method 2: Chaining Pairs and Mirroring with Lenormand Cards

Once you've mastered this method, you can build upon it with another, perhaps more insightful way of interpreting a three card spread. Instead of just going through it like a simple sentence, left to right, you can read each individual pair - 1+2, 2+3 and 1+3 - treating the second (center) card as a hinge connecting the two sides of a symmetrical picture.

If you were to ask about the future of your friendship with your current best friend and pulled Woman, Tree, and Book - the story implied by the first two cards would be that of your female friend being a healthy influence and a deeply rooted presence in your life. Next, the Tree and the Book would hint at great knowledge of each other, exceptional familiarity and her being your lifelong confidante. In the end, we would use the technique called "mirroring" (connecting the two cards standing at the opposite end of a line), with Woman and Book telling us that your friend is very good at keeping secrets but is also very well read and book-smart (which literature perhaps being an important mutual interest that connected the two of you to begin with). Thus, we can conclude that this friendship is likely to last for good.

Both ways of reading a line of three cards are equally effective and it is largely a matter of personal preference, situation and intuition which will help you decide which one to resort to at any given time. As always - practice makes perfect.

Posted in: lenormand, seventh sphere

2 comments

Lynn Sep 13, 2019

I like the method of the cards mirroring each other.
Bonnie Jun 24, 2019

Thankyou and it was good for the reminder of 1 + 3 being mirrors for more info..