Having all 36 cards of the Lenormand laid out before you, it is very likely you may have no idea where to begin. Don’t you worry if you can read lines of 5 or lines of 9 spreads and remember of two cards combinations because some cards can be read in pairs.

It’s important to go through many layers of meanings and choose to use whichever of these best suits you and your question, so follow your own intuition, mix and match the methods as you see fit.

Now take the cards and shuffle the cards focusing on the questions. After you feel ready, lay them out from left to right in lines of 8, one after the other. At the end, you shall have 4 rows of 8 cards, with 4 cards in the last row, placed in the center.

Find the Significator in the Grand Tableau

A significator (28 Gentleman for a man and 29 Lady for a woman) represents the querent. and is the the main point of the entire reading.

Your intuition plays a large part in forming the reading and assembling the kaleidoscopic puzzle of your customer future. Make it fun and thoughtful.

Reading Horizontally, Vertically and Diagonally in the Grand Tableau

Horizontally – to the left and to the right

The cards that are to the significator’s left will represent the past, those to the right the future. The farther away the cards are from the significator are farther away in time, while those close are representative of the more immediate circumstances.

Vertically – Above and Below the Significator

The cards above the significator will tend to denote thoughts and ideas he already knows (17-21), while the cards below stand for unconscious forces (30-36)

Diagonals

Finally, the diagonals can be thought of as influences or possibilities, a mix of both horizontal and vertical forces. These diagonals will form an X, with the significator in the center. You can think of these diagonals as the following:

Left diagonals represent influences that lead to current situation – consciously the upper left diagonal and subconsciously the bottom left diagonal.

The right diagonal represents the possibilities. The upper right diagonal shows conscious opportunities and the bottom diagonal shows the unconscious opportunities.

These cards show where your life path can lead you. And may show outcome of your situation.

The Corners of the Grand Tableau Spread

These “frame” cards (1, 8, 25, 32) can be helpful to glance at to get the context and the surrounding situation of the reading. You can choose to read this either as an big “X”, or go around the corners clockwise.

Reading Topics in the Grand Tableau

If there is a particular area you are concern, please locate it’s symbol corresponding to your issue and it will help you greatly.

The Tree 🌳 stands for health, House 🏡 for home and family matters, Heart ♥️ is love, Fox 🦊 is your current job, Bear 🐻 for your boss, the Anchor your career or life’s calling, Fish 🐟 corresponds to money 💰 , and Ship 🚢 to travel 🧭 . By looking at the surrounding cards you can tell a story.

Reading Houses in the Grand Tableau

As if that wasn’t enough, there is also the idea of so-called houses. If all the cards of the Lenormand were laid out in their correct numerical order, each card (or rather each position) would represent a “house” belonging to that card’s domain.

So Ship 🚢 has a position 3, look at this house what card is there. Ring 💍 is 25, so look at this house and see what card is there.

With a Stork in the house of House (change of residence) or Dog in the house of Snake (your friend is not loyal) you can see the added layers this technique can bring to any reading. If heart ❤️ lays in 17 position, Stroke, it means your point of view on love is changing. You make nee rules what you need for transformation and change.

Each position represents the topic of the card with the corresponding number.

It is also of importance as some cards face one way or the other (in particular the people cards, but also the Whip, Scythe and Book) which then focuses their effect in one direction and thus modifies the meaning depending on how the other cards are positioned.

The Heart of the Matter of the Grand Tableau

We often look at the center card, which carries the underlying concern that is behind the reading, like in Celtic Cross.

In the Grand Tableau, it is not just a single card, but rather, the four cards at the center of the spread.

These 4 cards give you a core of the question, it’s essence, the answers and outcome.

Predictive Timing

Look at the last 4 cards in a last raw – these cards are also called fate cards.

Generally you can look at 8-12 weeks outcome or just wait if longer until the reading is fulfilled.

You have endless possibilities how you can read the spread. Start with simple and be open to listen to your intuition.