One technique that we did not cover in the last installment of “How to Read the Grand Tableau” is something called knighting. If you’re already familiar with chess, this additional set of reading will be familiar and easy to understand for you. Though we are covering this technique as part of the Grand Tableau, it is technically possible for you to use it on a portrait lenormand spread, though having the larger amount of cards definitely makes this method more satisfying with this larger spread.

What Does Knighting Reveal in the Grand Tableau?

In a Lenormand reading, knighting is used to discover unknown factors that are affecting the situation. For example, knighting can pinpoint things such as underlying motives, or secret desires. Discovering these during the reading can profoundly affect how you understand what is happening, and what you can do next.

How to use Knighting in the Grand Tableau

As we mentioned before, if you’re familiar with how the game of chess works, you’ll find that knighting will be rather easy to do. In case you’re not familiar with chess, we created a diagram for you here to understand where a knight chess piece can move.

As you can see, there are 8 spots in total. The general rule can be summed up as this: move two spaces in any direction, and then one space in the perpendicular direction. You’re looking to basically move in a “L” shape all around you.

Step by Step Knighting in Your Lenormand Reading

1. Choose a card to be your knight. First, you’ll pick a card that you’d like to start with; imagine this card is your knight chess piece. How do you choose a card? It depends on what it is you’d like to know more about. For example, if you’re looking to learn more about family, choose the House. If you’re searching for deeper insight on love, choose the Heart.
2. Move as the knight in all the positions you can, and read the pairs. When reading pairs, the knight is your first card. The position that the knight lands on is your second card. Do this for all the cards you can, for a maximum of 8 pairs. Sometimes, if your knight card is on the edge of the Grand Tableau spread, you won’t be able to read all 8 pairs; that’s perfectly okay. All of this should give you more information on the topic that you have chosen.

Examples of Knighting in the Grand Tableau

Let’s imagine that the Grand Tableau spread has dealt us the following cards. We’ll go through knighting two different cards in this spread to help us gather more hidden information that we may have not known otherwise.

Knighting the Heart - Example Lenormand Reading

In this lenormand reading, say that we want to learn more about how love affects the situation. We’ll go ahead and choose the Heart card as the card we would like to knight. Since the card is on the edge of the spread, it means that we’ll only be able to get 3 additional pairs.

1. Heart x Mice - Decay has moved into your feelings of love. Perhaps you are riddled by doubts about whether the love is real. There may be elements of jealousy and lack of trust between lovers. Some dynamic here is rather unhealthy.
2. Heart x Dog - A loving friend may be in the picture. Perhaps, this pair also represents complete devotion (a dog is unconditionally loving), and it may make it hard for you to see the flaws that are present.
3. Heart x Clouds - There may be some uncertainty surrounding your feelings and your love life right now, meaning you may feel more insecure than usual. You may feel like you want to hide your feelings. Alternatively, your feelings of love may be clouding your judgement, and you may find it hard to see things clearly.

In this instance, the picture of one’s love life is a quite grim. The story that is starting to come together seems to paint a portrait of a relationship where there is doubt and one-sidedness, though the querent is perhaps choosing to avoid seeing this. As we stated before, knighting can reveal what is hidden, and these can be sometimes uncomfortable truths.

Knighting the Fish - Example Lenormand Reading

Say that we also want to find out more about the finances surrounding this reading. We’ll instead choose the Fish as our knighted card. With this card in a central location, we’ll be able to get all 8 pairs.

1. Fish x Child - Inexperience in financial affairs and perhaps being irresponsible when it comes to money.
2. Fish x Man - A wealthy, or self-employed man. Or just a man that places a lot of emphasis on wealth. This can also represent the querent if he identifies as male.
3. Fish x Book - Learning in the financial field, or going back to school in order to earn more.
4. Fish x Rider - You may be getting news about your finances, or sudden changes in financial circumstances or how you value things.
5. Fish x Stars - Dreams and wishes that are centered around money and material possessions.
6. Fish x Fox - Caution around finances, perhaps also tinged with a bit of selfishness.
7. Fish x Tower - Feeling disconnected and lonely from others based on your focus on wealth, and perhaps only reaching out to others if you feel they can bring some personal gain.
8. Fish x Mountain - Financial troubles.

We included a few short interpretations since there were so many cards - but a story here starts to emerge as well. Perhaps this person had financial troubles in the past due to their inexperience, leading the querent to place a lot of emphasis on wealth in their later life. They may have put all their hopes around making a better living and amassing possessions, only to feel empty and lonely later on. This again may be something that the querent is not fond of recognizing in themselves.

We hope this little guide has been helpful in helping you get started with knighting. Have you ever had instances where knighting helped you discover something uncomfortable? Tell us in the comments below!