Lenormand study -- KEY

Mystical Lenormand AGM 2005

I'm using an image of Mystical Lenormand today, and I can already see why so many Lenormand readers prefer simple card faces that show only a plain image, with perhaps the playing card as well. It really does confuse the matter, for me, as a Lenormand beginner, to have a lot of images on the card. The temptation to do a tarot-style springboard from those images is nearly too great to resist. BUT--all sources seem to point to the same advice: you must learn the card meanings by rote, and learn to read them according to tradition. It's that simple.  It makes sense. You have to learn to play your scales before you can indulge in jazz improvisation. You have to learn to draw before you can become the father of Cubism. So, here I am with today's doh-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-doh. 


Key (33), despite the fact that today's card shows a sleeping dragon and an egg with a key in it, is really just a key--a big, ornate key. What does a key mean to me? My first thought is, freedom. Release. A key is what you need to open a door. It is the answer to the problem. 





In puzzles and maps, the 'key' provides the necessary means to make sense of the information given. So it can mean, making sense of things, finding a pattern, understanding information. A solution to a problem. 


A key can be a way out of a bad situation, to set something free, a means to achieving freedom from that which has had you trapped. Of course, a key can also be used to lock you in, imprison you. It can be lost or hidden, to keep you apart from information or solutions. But I do not know if Lenormand readers use shadow meanings such as this. I need advice on that. In my mind, the positive meaning is foremost--an idea, a solution, a new understanding, a way out, a new opportunity. 


Now what the dragon has to do with that, I don't know, but at this point, I'm not going to worry about the extra imagery in the Mystical. Or the Melissa for that matter. 


Reading the Lenormand
I found this very useful bit of information at Language of Lenormand:

In basic reading of Lenormand position is primary. The card to the left is read first, the card following it makes the combination.
L+ R =C . 
In the combination itself, the second card qualifies or modifies the meaning of the card it follows. When working with a single line of cards all the cards on the line can point back to or act as qualifiers to any combination or card they follow. The entire line is connected, it is a group which makes a phrase or a complete sentence.

Mama Whodun at Language of Lenormand also offers a wonderful advice for Lenormand newbies in her post, Lenormand Beginnings: 

Lenormand is nothing like Tarot. Apples and oranges.What you learned in Tarot does not apply. Lenormand is a different oracle with a different voice!  In Lenormand, the beginning is everything.Your first steps must be unencumbered.   Purge your mind of  Tarot landscapes, Tarot habits and Tarot games as you approach the symbol language of the lenormand cards. Instead of stockpiling  decks buy  1 simple deck,  a few large journals and lots of pens. I wish someone had told this to me! 

Well, I don't need to be told twice to go and buy NEW BLANK BOOKS! That's like candy to a baby. And my thoughts are confirmed about tarot and Lenormand being completely different worlds. I also have confirmation that my Mystical Lenormand and possibly my Melissa are not the best place to start. Good thing for me I've ordered a Blue Owl Lenormand. Fingers crossed it actually has the playing card inserts and not the verses, because one can never be certain when ordering from Amazon, so I hear.  


Now the question is, will having Lenormand entries here put off readers who are tarotists? Should I start a Lenormand blog? Or do you mind having the Lenormand entries here? What do you think?