Cult of Tarot Forum

Hello Dodalisque,
I'm ready for the question of your fictional character!
Please, introduce your question with a few lines about the context, I mean, if your fictional character is a man or a woman, these things.
Thanks!

I edited my first post and title because my assigned partner is Dodalisque not Chiscoteque.
Sorry for the mistake!

Call me Ishmael!
I'm a young man just starting out in life and I want adventure, the wilder the better. Without coins in my pocket or what you would call an education I don't have much chance of falling into some fancy job in the city, and in any case I want a real man's job. So I've decided to take to the open seas on a whaling vessel. But I need your magic cards to tell me if I have chosen the right ship. It's called the "Pequod", sailing out of Nantucket, and the captain's name is Ahab.

Year of our Lord, 1851

I imagine you'll have a whale of time.

Charlie Brown wrote: ↑15 Nov 2019, 23:55 I imagine you'll have a whale of time.

LOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And once again, CoT has given me my daily dose of mirth.

Hi Ishmael,
Your story looks like fascinating, so I'm glad to use my magic cards and to read for you. While shuffling my little cards I was concentrating on your words, and at one time I decided to lay out my 36 cards in a traditional Grand Tableau!
Let's see what your future has in store for you with regard to the bold choice you made for your life! A pic of your GT is above!!
I come back!

I'm back Ishmael,
In your Grand Tableau (GT) I can see that you chose to join a ship to work. The Anchor (the work card for me) is next to the Ship card (literally a vessel here) and these two cards -both refer to the sea- are close to your significator card, the Gentleman.
Another card which refers to the sea is the Fish card, here near the Bear, prominent on the left corner of your GT. Because of its position at the top and near the Fish card I see it as representing your boss, the captain Ahab. This man will be very important concerning your future!
The corners are the Bear, the Sun, the Clouds and the Cross.
Well… I’m worried about the two last cards, and I’m afraid that they taint the Bear card with burdens and important challenges, that your vitality and natural enthusiasm would be tested. As a possibility, the captain Ahab could be a man that life has roughed up and he can be someone unpleasant who doesn’t get along with you.
Let’s take a closer look at your significator, the Gentleman. Above is the Mountain card, below the Clouds (and your card mirrors the Coffin)… hmm, you will face important challenges and will have to overcome difficulties. The Clouds can represent literally storms while you’ll navigate; with the Mountain above your head, this could refer to an enemy too, hoping that this enemy won’t be your captain! But I guess the weather can as well be a powerful enemy for a sailor!
A card I wanted to look in particular in your Grand Tableau (because of your question) is the Paths card which refers to choices.
You asked me if you made a good choice and choose the right ship!
With the Scythe above and the Tree below I have a sense that your choice was sudden, you wanted to break the status quo and you did it! But where this will lead you?
Paths + Garden + Whips + Mountain
The Garden card can represent the team of sailors, but the Whips can show conflicts within the team and important challenges to face, or a blockage.
Many things can depend on the captain, if he will be a good support for you or not. From these cards at least I would say he won’t be a help. Far from your significator card I don’t see signals which show harmony, and possibly the reverse.
I’m sorry Ishmael, my cards aren’t really good for you. Let me know how my reading resonates (or not)!

Decan, thank you for responding so quickly and for choosing such an ambitious spread. The set spread for this month only asked for a line of 5 or 7 cards but you gave us the whole Grand Tableau! Moby Dick, I suppose, is still regarded as the greatest American novel, and the biggest whale deserves the biggest spread.

When I read for someone, I tend to have difficulty passing on bad news that I see in the cards, so I was wondering how you might find something reassuring to say to Ishmael about his fate, when on the last page of the novel the monster whale sinks the ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and eats the whole crew, including the captain! But there is a happy ending of sorts. Ishmael is the only survivor and floats to safety in an empty coffin. How brilliant that you noticed that the Coffin card mirrors the Gentleman.

It's wonderful that the Ship and Gentleman cards should be next to each other, and you are right that the surrounding cards - Mountain, Whip, Anchor, Mice, Clouds - predict major difficulties ahead. Anchor + Ship is a contradictory combination, linking stillness to the idea of a journey, and might add up to "shipwreck".

Mountain + Whip suggests enormous suffering, and possibly also obstacles presented by arguments. It's true that Ahab has to use all his satanic persuasive power to drive on his crew in the mad quest to catch Moby Dick. Like the Mountain he won't be moved in his determination to get his revenge on the beast. I suppose I'm also associating Ahab somewhat with the ship itself.

Mice + Clouds = something eating away at you nastily, or tragic loss. The whale destroys the little whaling boats dispatched to harpoon it, then rams the ship several times to sink it, until Ahab is left abandoned in the middle of the ocean with nothing. The whale is like the mice nibbling away at Ahab's defences before destroying him or, if it's not too confusing, like a cat playing with a mouse.

The Bear is a great choice for Ahab. He's a man of power who is completely alone, so the top left hand corner seems like a good place for him. Letter + Fish + Bouquet seem like peculiarly pleasant cards to be surrounding Ahab, but we must remember that at the beginning of the novel the owners of the ship send him an invitation to take charge of a potentially very lucrative voyage. A successful trip might last more than a year and make a small fortune in oil and ambergris for the captain and the ship's owners. Perhaps the sweet-smelling Bouquet next to the Fish brings ambergris and perfumes to mind.

Fantastic that the cards in the 4 corners - Bear + Cross + Clouds + Sun - pretty much summarises what Ishmael should expect from this trip. The optimism of the Sun, which seems so out of place with the other 3 cards, actually predicts Ishmael's miraculous survival at the end of the book, and it's directly overhead for the Gentleman. I haven't read the book for a long time but I seem to remember that the sun is directly overhead when Ishmael floats to safety.

We could talk forever about these cards, but I also notice that the Woman card is a long way from the Bear. Readers often forget that Ahab leaves behind a pretty young wife and his small child when he sets off on his voyage. Dog + Child + Clover surround the Woman, suggesting that she is loyal to him and a blessing.

He is a man who until quite recently was happy and had everything his heart could desire, but on his previous voyage Moby Dick had ripped off his leg and the false leg he had had made from some of the creature's whalebone had splintered and castrated him. He had been handsome, respected, and accomplished, but suddenly was not of much use to a young wife. Fate, using Moby Dick as its representative, punished him for no apparent reason and robbed him of his happiness, like Job in the Old Testament. Hate and resentment against a hostile universe replaced love and drove him to abandon his home and seek out his own destruction.

Thanks again for the reading. I am new to Lenormand and feeling my way into it, so please correct me if anything I have said seems completely wrong. And if anyone else has anything to add, please jump in. We are mostly talking about technique here and about how to interpret Len. cards, so I thought it might be fun to pretend that the cards are infallible - which they are - and saw everything in the novel if we only knew how to look closely enough.

Okay that's Moby Dick! Here in my country it's not a book that we study at school and I'm sure most of French people didn't read it, and it's my case even if the title is familiar.
Thanks for your extensive feedback, I will read it again and try to relate what you said with the GT!

dodalisque wrote: ↑17 Nov 2019, 03:48 Decan, thank you for responding so quickly and for choosing such an ambitious spread. The set spread for this month only asked for a line of 5 or 7 cards but you gave us the whole Grand Tableau! Moby Dick, I suppose, is still regarded as the greatest American novel, and the biggest whale deserves the biggest spread.

Well, yes, and maybe too ambitious lol; actually I did it because Charlie Brown used this spread for my fictional character's question and I found that it could be a good idea to do it myself here.

wrote: When I read for someone, I tend to have difficulty passing on bad news that I see in the cards, so I was wondering how you might find something reassuring to say to Ishmael about his fate, when on the last page of the novel the monster whale sinks the ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and eats the whole crew, including the captain! But there is a happy ending of sorts. Ishmael is the only survivor and floats to safety in an empty coffin. How brilliant that you noticed that the Coffin card mirrors the Gentleman.

I'm not a professional so I don't read for clients. I regularly lay out a GT for myself and when the news are bad they are..., but I put this into perspective with regard to the context; the Coffin alone isn't most of the times death and so on, card meanings are more "ordinary" somehow. But if you have a depressive client and pull very bad cards, well, I guess to use a ton of diplomacy would be most welcome!! You don't have to lie but there are situations where you don't have to say everything that the cards are saying so that you don't hurt a client.

wrote: It's wonderful that the Ship and Gentleman cards should be next to each other, and you are right that the surrounding cards - Mountain, Whip, Anchor, Mice, Clouds - predict major difficulties ahead. Anchor + Ship is a contradictory combination, linking stillness to the idea of a journey, and might add up to "shipwreck".
Mountain + Whip suggests enormous suffering, and possibly also obstacles presented by arguments. It's true that Ahab has to use all his satanic persuasive power to drive on his crew in the mad quest to catch Moby Dick. Like the Mountain he won't be moved in his determination to get his revenge on the beast. I suppose I'm also associating Ahab somewhat with the ship itself.

Ishmael is the narrator in the book and somehow "neutral" according to Wikipedia; he faced everything but like a spectator/participant. The position of the Gentleman at the end of the line makes me think of that. The captain wasn't his enemy (nor his friend), they were distant. In this GT the Gentleman is distant from the Bear. I thought that he could have been his enemy because of the Clouds/Mountain near.

wrote: Mice + Clouds = something eating away at you nastily, or tragic loss. The whale destroys the little whaling boats dispatched to harpoon it, then rams the ship several times to sink it, until Ahab is left abandoned in the middle of the ocean with nothing. The whale is like the mice nibbling away at Ahab's defences before destroying him or, if it's not too confusing, like a cat playing with a mouse.

The Bear is a great choice for Ahab. He's a man of power who is completely alone, so the top left hand corner seems like a good place for him. Letter + Fish + Bouquet seem like peculiarly pleasant cards to be surrounding Ahab, but we must remember that at the beginning of the novel the owners of the ship send him an invitation to take charge of a potentially very lucrative voyage. A successful trip might last more than a year and make a small fortune in oil and ambergris for the captain and the ship's owners. Perhaps the sweet-smelling Bouquet next to the Fish brings ambergris and perfumes to mind.

I saw the Bouquet and the Letter near the Bear and chose to neglect them because I wasn't able to relate these cards with the context; I mean that there is no "pleasant woman" on a whaling vessel generally and the Letter is a card often a bit neutral. I recognize that I thought that this captain could have been an alcoholic (pleasure/Bouquet from alcohol/Fish) but on a ship at that time it wouldn't have been a great scoop, lol

wrote:Fantastic that the cards in the 4 corners - Bear + Cross + Clouds + Sun - pretty much summarises what Ishmael should expect from this trip. The optimism of the Sun, which seems so out of place with the other 3 cards, actually predicts Ishmael's miraculous survival at the end of the book, and it's directly overhead for the Gentleman. I haven't read the book for a long time but I seem to remember that the sun is directly overhead when Ishmael floats to safety.

Here these 4 cards in the corners seem essential; I should have given more importance to the Sun card though, because above the Mountain it predicts that Ishmael will overcome huge obstacles despite all!

wrote:We could talk forever about these cards, but I also notice that the Woman card is a long way from the Bear. Readers often forget that Ahab leaves behind a pretty young wife and his small child when he sets off on his voyage. Dog + Child + Clover surround the Woman, suggesting that she is loyal to him and a blessing.

He is a man who until quite recently was happy and had everything his heart could desire, but on his previous voyage Moby Dick had ripped off his leg and the false leg he had had made from some of the creature's whalebone had splintered and castrated him. He had been handsome, respected, and accomplished, but suddenly was not of much use to a young wife. Fate, using Moby Dick as its representative, punished him for no apparent reason and robbed him of his happiness, like Job in the Old Testament. Hate and resentment against a hostile universe replaced love and drove him to abandon his home and seek out his own destruction.

Yes, indeed, likely the influence of the Cross over the Bear, but the Clouds bring also misfortune!
Here the whale could be the Bear too, because it’s the captain's obsession, and the Bear stands for something huge generally. Or it can be the Fish card: apart money it can represent literally a fish (what is a whale, but a very big fish!)

wrote:Thanks again for the reading. I am new to Lenormand and feeling my way into it, so please correct me if anything I have said seems completely wrong. And if anyone else has anything to add, please jump in. We are mostly talking about technique here and about how to interpret Len. cards, so I thought it might be fun to pretend that the cards are infallible - which they are - and saw everything in the novel if we only knew how to look closely enough.

Lol, I won't correct you, we are all students! Thanks for your question!!

Decan wrote: ↑17 Nov 2019, 08:51 Here the whale could be the Bear too, because it’s the captain's obsession, and the Bear stands for something huge generally. Or it can be the Fish card: apart money it can represent literally a fish (what is a whale, but a very big fish!)

Now that I realise you did not know that the question was about the novel Moby Dick, I am even more impressed by your reading. You are so lucky to be French and that you were not made to read it in school. Too long - hardly any plot or dialogue - just a voice spouting long convoluted sentences. The narrator Ishmael actually disappears from the book about half way through, for no good reason, but re-emerges at the end. Probably by accident, due to simple incompetence, the author Melville seems to have anticipated a lot of developments in 20th century fiction. Apparently it was Albert Camus' favourite novel. The emptiness of the godless universe Melville describes at the end of the book must have seemed to him like an anticipation of Existentialism. At the time it was written, polite Christian society in Boston where he lived was outraged or thought him mad. It only sold a few hundred copies during his lifetime. Nowadays it is praised for things that would astonish Melville I'm sure.

I forgot to mention a few things in the question - Ahab's wife, for instance - that you could have explored in your answer. Of course it would have been impossible to guess about such things, even about the existence of Moby Dick himself. From the question it just seems like a regular whaling trip. With the benefit of hindsight it is tempting to identify Ahab with the Ship card. The Bear would then be free to be Moby Dick, waiting in the top left-hand corner - the distant destination of the voyage. Letter + Fish + Bouquet could represent the promise (Letter) of wealth (Fish) and success (Bouquet) with the hideous reality of the beast hidden behind the promise. No? OK, well Bear + Letter could be a powerful invitation, or irresistible temptation, maybe a way of arriving at some idea of the force of Ahab's obsession.

I'm so glad you used the Grand Tableau. It looks so dramatic and can go in so many different directions. I was a bit scared of it but I think I'll try one myself. I don't have paying "clients" but there is no good sensible word in English for the person you read for, so I just use "client", which to me sounds the least bad.