Confessions of a Freaky Fortune Teller

For those interested (and some seem to be), I’ve been pulling cards randomly from the deck this week when I’ve been doing daily draws or short readings (both for myself and for other people), and it’s given me a pretty fair accuracy rate - though we still need to wait and see on the whole financial mess, but since that’s mine I can keep you updated.

Here’s what I’ve been doing: I set the question in my mind and recite a little rhyme about it mentally - daft, maybe, but it seems to help me connect with the cards. Next I shuffle, while not thinking about anything at all. Then when the cards feel cooked, I cut them in three piles to the left using my left hand, restack them, and draw randomly. After a reading or readings involving six or eight cards, I do deal them out into five or six stacks and reassemble them, then shuffle a bit to make sure I don’t have cards ’sticking’ in the same spots.

Aristede over at Lenormand Oracle has been asking me about whether the cards work better pulled randomly or dealt off the top of the pack. I’ve never really kept count on that, as sometimes I do deal off the top of the pack - always if I’m doing a full board.

Since I do know I’ve been pulling randomly this past week, I’m going to switch to dealing off the top of the pack starting today and see if anything turns out differently. I don’t think it will, but hey - you never know.

As an aside, a LOT of people have asked me questions about how precisely to shuffle, deal, and even if they need to consecrate their cards, do special rituals, etc. No, no, no! The cards are yours, you can treat them however you like. If you want to consecrate them, feel free. But if you don’t want to do rituals, that’s fine, too, there’s no need. As far as I’m concerned, it pretty much comes down to how you feel most comfortable working with your cards. If somebody’s told you certain laws must be obeyed when shuffling or dealing, they’re wrong. And if you do things that make you feel silly or stupid while you’re shuffling or drawing, that could throw your reading, because you’re feeling too self-conscious. I’d hate to see anybody go off the cards just because someone claims that the cards won’t work unless you do ‘X’. Hogwash!

The only thing I’d recommend is to not do readings about emotionally charged subjects when you’re upset, as that’s likely to throw your concentration, and I do find that - for me - trying to stay in a sort of ‘Zen’ state while shuffling helps. It’d probably be a good idea to draw cards in an uncluttered space - that idea really appeals to me - but they still work if you’re sitting in front of your computer and there are papers everywhere.

As to my combinations - they aren’t set in stone. Since this blog is here both to help me get my writing back up to speed, and to help anyone who’s reading it to learn how to read Lenormand cards, I try to put my reasoning or card keywords in parenthesis so you can see how I arrived at the combination meaning. The same combinations could mean different things if different questions were involved, or if someone else was reading the cards, though most of the keywords are pretty universal. Anyone who has been reading for a while will probably find that they have a mix of traditional keywords and concepts, plus their own personal associations, to draw from. But that takes time and practise - very few of us are gifted enough to learn a whole new language overnight, so please don’t expect it of yourself. Just keep playing with the cards, as well as doing proper readings - don’t make it too much of a chore - if it wasn’t fun, I wouldn’t have stuck with it this long.

One thing I do want to say - if it ever comes down to trusting the cards or trusting yourself - then trust yourself. Always. The cards are just bits of pasteboard. The magic comes from you.