Doubles Anyone?

Just as pairing enables lenormand lines to be read by the beginner, learning  to interpret  double cards in the deck marks the entry to the intermediate level by introducing the student to directionality .

Clouds Card- The Major Double

Dondorf Clouds

“Bubble, Bubble toil and trouble…”. This phrase always pops into my head  when the Clouds card appears.  It is the major malefic in the near and far method of reading lenormand. I fondly remember, when first  starting to handle the cards that The Clouds  constantly fell in pairs and 3×3 layouts in a statistically impossible manner during practice sessions almost as if it were daring me to read the cards!

One cannot ignore the “Trouble” card as I dubbed it,  no matter the layout choice. My first task though was to make the card’s code clear.  Which was the dark side and which was the light? Neither the Dondorf Clouds/ aka French Cartomancy deck  my first deck nor the Blue Owl my Master or working deck have images which are definitive on the card face of number six.   I darkened with a permanent black marker the area in front of the King of Clubs in the Dondorf deck. By so choosing I  had made my first commitment, even if it was not a “traditional” placement as I was to learn later. Thereafter, the King of Clubs politely “backed” off and my first direct acquaintance was made  in the Lennie deck!  It was also a definitive  first step onto the main highway of lenormand method’s directionality.

A 2011 Daily Draw

As for the other  Lennie Doubles, they are indeed a crew to be watched- very closely.  The Double Cards are not as I believed when a newbie ranked 11th, 22nd, and 33rd.  The negative rated cards indicate crisis points, traumatic events and opposition in the Querent’s life. They are the “reasons why” the reading is being done.  When discussing the so-called “Double Cards” they include all of the 7 traditionally* negative rated cards:

Clouds  dark/light
Coffin head/foot; draped undraped
Scythe handle/blade
Fox  nose/tail
Mountain snowy/sunny
Mice head/tail
Cross before/after

Plus 2 mixed or neutral rated  knowledge and wisdom cards:

Serpent head/tail and the Book pages/spine

Skipping over or shunning process and procedure in Cartomancy is to ignore  history.  The cards and the scenes on them have their roots in a cultural and  folkloric narrative, which is where their context or meaning is anchored.

There is no need to rush headfirst, to stumble on substitutions  or to fall on the sword point of  arrogance posing as intuition. Cartomancy is a methodology, without  knowledge of its procedures one will get either mediocre results or no results at all.  If the results are lackluster most dabblers will return the cards to their tuckboxes and move on in their quest for water, digging yet another shallow hole in the vast New Age desert of the unreal.  Those who double back to  start fresh by respectfully investigating traditions, learning  methods and engaging in a daily practice will in their season reap the rich harvest of  deep meaning.

*Utta Dittrich at  the Waldfee data base.