Hi, guys. I’m a day late, and I am so sorry. Yesterday I felt something gnawing on the back of my brain, something I was forgetting, but I was so busy, and I just couldn’t remember…I’ve been so incredibly busy with work that I literally haven’t done anything else. I mean, literally. Oh, I wrote 181 words one Wednesday in January only because my fellow Turtleduckers forced me to. (And it was GLORIOUS). But that’s it. Anyway, I was washing dishes today when it hit me like a lightning strike: I’d forgotten to blog here. AGAIN. <facepalm>
So…life has changed a bit since we last “talked.” I’ve started learning Lenormand, which is similar to Tarot, and it’s been really interesting. And challenging. And frankly a bit frustrating. I guess it stems from knowing Tarot so well, and it being like an extension of myself that I literally don’t remember my struggles with it — it’s been years, folks. I mean, I started learning when I was sixteen, almost thirty years ago. And then in my twenties I continued on several non-standard decks, a big no-no, as there are no pictures to help make associations with the meanings, and I honestly don’t know how I managed that, as there weren’t the zillion Tarot groups or Facebook groups there are now, or websites that teach you meanings. It’s actually quite amazing. Anyway, Lenormand’s imagery is very simple, but its method of reading is more complex because you’re combining cards and meanings to create a story or sentence, depending on how many cards you have. But, as in Tarot, there are many possible meanings to the cards, so combining them becomes a bit confusing. Take my daily draw for today, for example: House + Dog. The House card is safety, stability, comfort, settling down, maybe even happiness. The Dog card is a faithful friend, an actual dog, loyalty, friendship, a soulmate maybe? My initial interpretation was something along the lines of “a good friend will visit our house” or something like that, but now I’m wondering if it’s more like, “I’m feeling comfortable and stable in my home with my faithful husband and family” or something. See what I mean? It’s very ambiguous. It also depends on the question asked, which has to be very specific, unlike in Tarot, and context. So you’d never think of love with a career reading, even if The Heart pops up, for example. Well, unless it’s love of one’s job, I suppose. Or sex if The Whip pops up – The Whip can point to sex, but only in certain contexts, not always. (Darn it, right?). So I am slowly learning, slowly trying my hand at combining the cards, and I am trying not to look up combinations and meanings online as a crutch. I’m trying to formulate my own meanings and my own associations. It’s getting interesting. Yesterday, The Child card, which usually means a child, a beginner, beginnings, a small thing….I believe meant my cat, quite literally, because we call her “Child.” We got a call from the vet on a situation. The second card was The Rider, which can point to news. Lenormand can be literal, and it can be very blunt. So, literally, news about “child.”
So what does this have to do with Esperanto? Well, there’s a similarity there that I recently noticed. I’m still studying Esperanto twice a week with my study partner. I’m learning lots of new words. And I noticed that you can put together parts of words to form new ones. Like, for example, “forkuri.” It means “to run away.” “For = away” + “kuri = to run.” Or, “netrovebla.” This one stumped me until my study partner said, “remained unfound.” And then I thought about it as I studied the word. Esperanto is a very logical, precise language, which is one of things I love about it. It makes it easy to figure out (well, sometimes, if you’re not slow like me) or put together because it always makes sense. “Ne” is “no” or “not,” “trove” is “found,” and “ebla” is “possible” or “possibility.” So that makes “no possibility of being found.” The meaning is right there in the word! How cool is that? Take one of the words for “hospital”: malsanulejo. “Malsan” is “unhealthy” or “sick,” “ul” is person,” and “ejo” is “place.” So we have “sick person place.” Crazy, right?
Back to Lenormand.
Suppose we have The Rider, The Child, and The Bouquet.
We can make a sentence with that.
News (Rider) involving the birth (Child) of a beautiful (Bouquet) baby/child.
Person coming into my life (Rider) who brings a new beginning (Child) and a gift. (Bouquet)
Of course, these are the simple ones. I’ve been doing the 5-card spreads, where you combine cards and do something called mirroring. I’m also about to start on 9-card spreads. And there’s something called The Grand Tableau, using all 36 cards, which is as scary and complex as it sounds. That’s down the road a bit.
See the similarities? It’s kind of wild how that works. Despite my frustrations with Lenormand, I am enjoying it, and I am learning some new stuff and gaining insight into my life. Some people combine Tarot and Lenormand, and I’m considering trying that too at some point.
I currently have two Lenormand decks, totally on opposite sides of the spectrum – one is gorgeous and looks like paintings (Brume Lenormand) and one is gothic and scary and a bit horror-like (Gothic Mysteries) and it’s been fun playing with them. I also bought a gothic playing card deck for regular cartomancy because why the hell not? Might as well go all in! And it is a beautiful, dark, gothic deck that I can’t wait to use.
But actually, when you think about it, the cards speak a language of their own, too, so Esperanto and Lenormand aren’t that different as far as “talking” goes. I can’t wait to get to know them both better.