Advanced Techniques for Reading the Petit Lenormand Grand Tableau – Part I

Once you’re familiar and comfortable with the Basic Guidelines for Reading with the Petit Lenormand, you’re ready to add a little more meat to your readings. What follows are some of the main techniques used to read the Lenormand Grand Tableau (9×4 or 8X4+4).

Each of the techniques have their uses, and some are better than others, but I will leave it to you to make up your own mind as to their usefulness, and whether they appeal to you. I do have my preferred methods, and normally stick to only 2 or 3 advanced techniques to interpret the Grand Tableau for my clients. If you add too many techniques, you are liable to start repeating yourself and wasting your time. My best advice to you is to stick to the techniques that resonate with you.

Advanced Technique #1 – Reading Diagonals

When you want more information on a person in a Grand Tableau, you’ll often look at the column in which the subject of your reading is found. As we covered in the Basic Guidelines for Reading with the Petit Lenormand, the column you are reading always represents that person’s present, but what happens when you want more information on a particular card in that column? What about a particular card in that person’s future? What if the person has a question that isn’t covered in the future or past?

Well my friends, one way is to read the card’s diagonals. Here’s an example based on the Grand Tableau found on the Basic Guidelines page:

02-21-29-32-04-15-24-17-26
03-19-22-31-14-11-25-07-27
30-20-34-01-12-16-33-06-35
36-13-18-23-05-09-28-08-10

Basing ourselves on the Lady’s position, we might want to know more about the choice she is considering (a decision or choice is usually represented by the Path card (#22), which is found right below the Lady card in the 3rd column in our example).

Looking at the Path’s diagonals, we are trying to determine what is influencing her decision.

Let’s look at these more closely…

The first cause influencing her decision is the Mountain (card #21), paired up with the Moon (card 32). Here we have obstacles and a cycle of sorts. With Mountain + Moon, we could conclude that the Lady keeps being burdened regularly with insurmountable obstacles and this in turn is prompting her to make a decision. When we involve the mountain, these obstacles often seem very heavy, as well as psychologically defeating, and this person is going through some serious difficulties, which is why she’s decided to take action.

The next direct cause to her decision are the Garden (card #20), paired up with the Rider (card #1). By the looks of things, the lady has gone to her network of acquaintances for some help. She is expecting some news, and is probably waiting for that information to make her final decision.

Finally, we have the Cross (card #36) and the Tree (card #5). Whenever the Tree is involved, we are talking about the person’s health. In this case, the cross is a warning that if the issues continue for much longer there might be some very serious health concerns for the lady; that is, if they haven’t already surfaced.

All taken up together, we have someone who is desperately looking for help before the stress overcomes her and makes her very ill. Given that the lady is at the very top of the 3rd column, the lady is very much aware of her situation, and believes that she can’t keep things going as they are. Something MUST change, and it MUST change soon, which is her main motivation to the decision she is making.

Next we will cover this technique’s cousin, Knighting in Advanced Techniques for Reading the Petit Lenormand Grand Tableau – Part 2.