Card Directions in Lenormand

[Moon-Hermit]

Lately I’ve been working more with card directions, but a few are still unclear to me. Any help would be deeply appreciated. 
 

1) What does the Snake’s head vs. its tail signify? I guess the tail is the source of the treachery and the head points at what’s she’s biting? But I’m not sure. 
2) The Mountain. This one confuses me a bit because most of the time I use the Dondorf deck and there’s no clear open/closed side on the Mountain card (at least to my eyes); or are directions read in another way here? 
3) The Key; I already know that it says yes (unlocks) whatever comes before it and affirms the message of the following card as certain (locks), but I’m curious if the cards above and below have any significance as well, like what we see with the Cross, Book and Tower cards?

Edited 8 hours ago by Moon-Hermit

[DanielJUK]

There are some old threads on the forum with ideas about this.

 

Summarising them..... There is no agreement on the facing directions, apart from Clouds (sunny side / dark side). Each deck does it differently and so you might need to work it out per deck if you want to use them, or notice when doing the reading. Card Directions has become very popular in modern books / decks but are perhaps not the most important thing in a reading, like they might be helpful when you see them but are not the whole reading. Readers use this differently, some more so, some less so.

 

(some of these discussions are about other cards but the later posts are useful generally)

 

 

This thread begins with a discussion about Signficator card facing but evolves to any directions....

 

[Moon-Hermit]

Hi @DanielJUK, thanks for your reply ❤️

 

Yes, I'm aware of the fact that they differ from deck to deck (that's why I don't rely on images and for instance just see it as a rule that the Scythe always cuts to the right--- otherwise I'd have to rethink it for every single new deck!) and are used sparingly. I have already went through the threads you've posted and took notes. These three cards specifically are just bugging me a little bit because I couldn't find much about them anywhere 😅...

[WizardintheWoods]

I was taught not all of the cards actually have directional cues.  Snake doesn’t in my learning. Snake only has before and after Stork, as Storks eats snakes. Key you have written what I know.  I did study working with many directional cues or clues as I heard people talk about them with the various cards. I found that using so many of them muddying the waters of the reading rather then help sorting it out, but that might just be my reading technique.  Wishing you luck on your search. 

Edited 1 hour ago by WizardintheWoods

[Moon-Hermit]

51 minutes ago, WizardintheWoods said:

I was taught not all of the cards actually have directional cues.

I agree. For some it just wouldn't make sense, like the Clover, the Letter, the Fish, etc.

 

51 minutes ago, WizardintheWoods said:

Snake doesn’t in my learning. Snake only has before and after Stork, as Storks eats snakes.

Yes I had learned that first from Bjorn Meuris' tips on this website actually: lenormandguild.wordpress.com

It's quite a cool thing to note when context calls for it.

 

51 minutes ago, WizardintheWoods said:

I did study working with many directional cues or clues as I heard people talk about them with the various cards. I found that using so many of them muddying the waters of the reading rather then help sorting it out, but that might just be my reading technique.

I agree with you on this as well. I use these cues very sparingly in tableaus and for simple line readings I don't use them often. But I think it's a good little technique to use when a card doesn't make sense in a grand tableau; for example if it's a secret I'm trying to uncover (the Book) instead of using Houses and following the chain I could note the directions if I'm in a hurry, provided that the surrounding cards don't already give me a clear answer. 

I've made a list of the directions and only these three are left a bit unclear, that's why I'm so stuck on the subject for now, even if I won't be using them frequently, lol.

 

51 minutes ago, WizardintheWoods said:

Wishing you luck on your search. 

Thank you so much! ❤️✨

Edited 32 minutes ago by Moon-Hermit