LEN: Merrick reads for dodalisque

[Merrick]

Well my friend, you always ask such good questions, I just hope my burgeoning Lenormand skills are up to the task!

[dodalisque]

Well my friend, you always ask such good questions, I just hope my burgeoning Lenormand skills are up to the task!

We are both Lenormand newbies. You can say anything and I'll believe it. These Fanciful Readings are usually suicide missions, so start with the assumption that you're not going to get it right. That allows you to take insane risks and make preposterous guesses, which increases the chances of miraculous coincidences. Usually the real work starts after the reading when we both look for things in the cards that might have given a clue to a perfectly clairvoyant reader. Working backwards, from solution to question, we both try to find the actual story in the cards. If you are really new to Lenormand I should say that the appeal of it is that it releases tarot devotees from the need to be subtle and "psychological" and instead allows us to return to old-fashioned material world circus tent predictions. But I'm such a tarot guy that my Len readings always end up having a tarot flavor anyway. So, whatever. Good luck. If someone gave this to me I would unplug my computer and leave town, so if it doesn't appeal to you, for heaven's sake tell me and I'll find a different story ...

Thank you for agreeing to do a reading for me at such short notice. I am a 25 year old male Ph.D graduate in Sociology from Princeton. I was incredibly lucky for my first job to get hired at a university in New York State as an assistant to X, a famous professor of sociology - a renowned published author, an ambitious career academic, a TV personality in his spare time, and a bit of a rogue. He has disappeared somewhat from the academic limelight over the last few years because his approach to the subject, based on person to person interaction and practical fieldwork, seems to have been replaced by statisticians and anthropological theorists like Claude Lévy-Strauss. But he has recently become very excited by an opportunity to study the sociology of religious cults, which he thinks might re-establish him as a leading light in his profession.

Together we have infiltrated a local cult conveniently situated about 100 miles from the university campus, in order to surreptitiously collect data and complete an in depth study of social dynamics and behaviour patterns and so on. X feels there may be more than one book that will emerge from this work. The group, a ragtag bunch of painfully sincere but simple-minded hippy-dippy misfits, are followers of a charismatic 19 year old girl named Serena who, while in trance, transmits by means of automatic writing spiritual instruction from an advanced race of disembodied intelligences located in the distant galaxy of Sarnia. The cult members call themselves the Truth Seekers. They seem harmless enough.

The trouble is that I feel I may have fallen in love with Serena, who is very beautiful, and also, in spite of the fact that I have no time for such nonsense, seems to possess genuine clairvoyant abilities and is capable of healing physical ailments by touch. Prof. X is enjoying himself immensely but I feel quite conflicted. Professionally I fear our presence may interfere with the data, and I also don't much like lying to Serena. I am even worried about her because, in order to attain a greater state of spiritual purity so as to be a better instrument for receiving the Sarnians messages, she has transitioned from a celibate vegetarian into a reclusive anorexic, emerging only to lead the group ceremonies.

The point is, last night she received a series of very powerful messages that caused her to faint. When we looked at what she had written, we saw that the Sarnians had announced their imminent arrival in bodily form on Earth. Yes, they plan to appear among us at our group meditation tomorrow evening. I feel silly, as a serious academic, coming to a reader of Lenormand cards for advice, but I wonder if you could tell me what is going to happen tomorrow evening, and how it will all turn out.

[Joan Marie]

These Fanciful Readings are usually suicide missions, so start with the assumption that you're not going to get it right. That allows you to take insane risks and make preposterous guesses, which increases the chances of miraculous coincidences. Usually the real work starts after the reading when we both look for things in the cards that might have given a clue to a perfectly clairvoyant reader. Working backwards, from solution to question, we both try to find the actual story in the cards. If you are really new to Lenormand I should say that the appeal of it is that it releases tarot devotees from the need to be subtle and "psychological" and instead allows us to return to old-fashioned material world circus tent predictions.

This is the best description of this exercise I've ever heard.
I may steal it.

[dodalisque]

This is the best description of this exercise I've ever heard.
I may steal it.

I would be honored.

[Merrick]

Well my friend, you always ask such good questions, I just hope my burgeoning Lenormand skills are up to the task!

We are both Lenormand newbies. You can say anything and I'll believe it. These Fanciful Readings are usually suicide missions, so start with the assumption that you're not going to get it right. That allows you to take insane risks and make preposterous guesses, which increases the chances of miraculous coincidences. Usually the real work starts after the reading when we both look for things in the cards that might have given a clue to a perfectly clairvoyant reader. Working backwards, from solution to question, we both try to find the actual story in the cards. If you are really new to Lenormand I should say that the appeal of it is that it releases tarot devotees from the need to be subtle and "psychological" and instead allows us to return to old-fashioned material world circus tent predictions. But I'm such a tarot guy that my Len readings always end up having a tarot flavor anyway. So, whatever. Good luck. If someone gave this to me I would unplug my computer and leave town, so if it doesn't appeal to you, for heaven's sake tell me and I'll find a different story ...

Thank you for agreeing to do a reading for me at such short notice. I am a 25 year old male Ph.D graduate in Sociology from Princeton. I was incredibly lucky for my first job to get hired at a university in New York State as an assistant to X, a famous professor of sociology - a renowned published author, an ambitious career academic, a TV personality in his spare time, and a bit of a rogue. He has disappeared somewhat from the academic limelight over the last few years because his approach to the subject, based on person to person interaction and practical fieldwork, seems to have been replaced by statisticians and anthropological theorists like Claude Lévy-Strauss. But he has recently become very excited by an opportunity to study the sociology of religious cults, which he thinks might re-establish him as a leading light in his profession.

Together we have infiltrated a local cult conveniently situated about 100 miles from the university campus, in order to surreptitiously collect data and complete an in depth study of social dynamics and behaviour patterns and so on. X feels there may be more than one book that will emerge from this work. The group, a ragtag bunch of painfully sincere but simple-minded hippy-dippy misfits, are followers of a charismatic 19 year old girl named Serena who, while in trance, transmits by means of automatic writing spiritual instruction from an advanced race of disembodied intelligences located in the distant galaxy of Sarnia. The cult members call themselves the Truth Seekers. They seem harmless enough.

The trouble is that I feel I may have fallen in love with Serena, who is very beautiful, and also, in spite of the fact that I have no time for such nonsense, seems to possess genuine clairvoyant abilities and is capable of healing physical ailments by touch. Prof. X is enjoying himself immensely but I feel quite conflicted. Professionally I fear our presence may interfere with the data, and I also don't much like lying to Serena. I am even worried about her because, in order to attain a greater state of spiritual purity so as to be a better instrument for receiving the Sarnians messages, she has transitioned from a celibate vegetarian into a reclusive anorexic, emerging only to lead the group ceremonies.

The point is, last night she received a series of very powerful messages that caused her to faint. When we looked at what she had written, we saw that the Sarnians had announced their imminent arrival in bodily form on Earth. Yes, they plan to appear among us at our group meditation tomorrow evening. I feel silly, as a serious academic, coming to a reader of Lenormand cards for advice, but I wonder if you could tell me what is going to happen tomorrow evening, and how it will all turn out.

Thank you for coming to see me! That is quite the dilemma you’ve found yourself in and I will do what I can to help. I will return with a reading for you soon.

[Merrick]

Well monsieur dodalisque, I appreciate you coming to see me about such a sensitive matter.

Unlike you, the cards have long ago disabused me of any naive notions of the solidity of the material world. So you tell me that you are secretly in love with a powerful clairvoyant healer, and I say there’s nothing new under the sun.

That being said, I understand why you are concerned and have come for a reading. While I may not be shocked by the details of your plight, I am intrigued by them and am most eager to dig into what the cards can tell us. I suspect based on the larger context of your question that you are concerned with more than just tomorrow night’s events, so I have opted for a 3x3 reading in order to give us insight into not just tomorrow night but how the events of tomorrow night will play out over the next few weeks. And here are the cards:



Sadly the first thing I see is that the most common suit here are the clubs, the suit of hardships. And indeed I’m seeing some strongly negative cards here, such as the rod, the mice, and the mountain, and judging by the context of the spread that fox is up to no good too. Spades are the second most common suit, then diamonds, no hearts at all.

The middle card, the Garden, presents our main theme. It seems clear to me that the Garden represents the Truth Seekers and you and the professor’s entanglements with them. This group dominates the reading, as they should, for without them there would be no reason to read for you at all. Your fate is inextricably intertwined with theirs now. The boundaries of the reading are the Letter, the Anchor, the Mountain, and the Key. The letter surely represents the messages that Serena receives, and I believe the anchor shows that you will be involved with this group for far longer than the limits of your research require. The mountain shows you face significant obstacles, not uncommon when dealing with a cult, but the key suggests that perhaps there’s a way out of this after all.

Now to the fans. Top row, left to right says an untrustworthy message from afar will solidify your place in the group. Perhaps Serena will request that you stay as a result of tomorrow’s meditation, or encountering the beings calling themselves Sarnians will bind you to the group in ways you couldn’t previously imagine. Leftmost column top to bottom says this message will cause relentless strife amongst the group, creating a massive obstacle to overcome. Given that these Sarnians aren’t what they claim, it would make sense that their message will divide the group. Even if you tried to warn the Truth Seekers about the Sarnians’ true nature, some would simply take that as evidence of your own untrustworthiness.

Middle row left to right says the conflict among the Truth Seekers will slowly crumble the bonds that kept the group together. I don’t see outright catastrophe but the well-being of the group will be in a slow decline after this, worse than things already are. Middle column top to bottom seems to suggest that some clever maneuvering within the group could begin to set things right.

Bottom row left to right says after a period of hardship, the group will overcome these difficulties and discover the solution to their problems. Rest assured the group dynamic will be very different by then however. The rightmost column top to bottom reiterates that the foundations of the group are being stripped away slowly, but within this process you may find the way out, perhaps by shedding members who were sowing strife.

In other words, you’re in this for the long haul. It’s a good thing you love Serena because you’ll need that passion to get you through this. It’s also a shame you love Serena because there’s no romantic future for the two of you. Not a single card indicating romantic love or attachment came up in the reading, not even cards that seem to indicate these events would primarily affect you and her, just the group as a whole.

I do not envy you, my friend. You didn’t ask to end up in this situation, yet here you are. I hope this reading gives you better and understanding and perhaps just a tiny bit of hope.

[dodalisque]

Sigh. This is going to be a long email. You might want to go grab a coffee or a salad or something.

I'm afraid I am going to have to dock you marks for "technical difficulty", because no attempt was made to hazard insane guesses at the flesh and blood outcome of this fictional event, though vague outlines emerge. However, apart from that unreasonable quibble, pretty much every word is accurate.

"No hearts" - Bang on. The hero doesn't get the girl, Serena. He's a bit of a pencil-neck geek, and she is a vatic seer and a foxy babe. I like to think Prof. X might be the FOX, because he is the most intellectually intelligent person in the story, but also crafty. We will get back to that possibility later.

How wonderful that the GARDEN, the cult itself, shows up in the centre of the reading. It is the focus simultaneously of a professionally conducted sociological experiment and a visit from aliens from outer space. There's a lot pressing in on that garden: the intellectual and the metaphysical.

The climactic scene in the novel, with the cult members holding hands and meditating while they wait for the Sarnians' spaceship, or whatever it is, to land - this takes place in an actual garden behind the house they use as their meeting place.

It's a freezing night and the tension builds as three times the group troop outside to welcome the Sarnians, only to be driven back inside eventually by the cold.

And then the Sarnians don't come. At 4 am the Truth Seekers gather up their things and go home, so proud of their own devotion that they feel no immediate disappointment.

Those fans you articulate so beautifully are at the fluttering heart of the reading. "Fans" - I've got to adopt that word immediately. So much better than the dry phrase "narrative line" that I have been using. Is that your term or one found in Lenormand literature?

In the top row you correctly read that Serena's messages from Sarnia (LETTER) give the hero the thumbs up he needs to be accepted into the group. At first they are suspicious of this newcomer when he comes to ask to join their number.

As you say in the subsequent fans of rows and columns, the group will suffer a blow to its belief system and cohesion, and Serena's authority as the infallible automatic-writing link between Earth and Sarnia will be weakened. But oddly, the group remain friends and still meet to meditate together and discuss hippy-dippy nonsense.

The strangest outcome of the Sarnian's non-appearance is what happens to Serena. The morning after the experience in the garden, the hero wakes up to find this ethereal willowy vegetarian goddess frying up sausages in the kitchen.

" So have you given up on all that Sarnia stuff," the hero asks.

"No, not at all," replies Serena, stubbing out her cigarette, and lolling back in her chair in woolly slippers and a dirty housecoat, then reaching past him for the ketchup, "The Sarnians did come. They are part of us now. We're free to do what we want."

Prof. X, fearing that his potentially career-boosting study of this group will come to an end, and also to continue the sociological study of a collapsed cult, he establishes himself as the new head of the Order, the living embodiment of Sarnian wisdom. On the other hand, in psychological terms, perhaps she has undergone a cathartic transformation of consciousness. The hero doesn't know what to think. Is Prof X mad or crafty as a fox.

Serena drifts off to university and gets involved in left-wing politics, while Prof X plays the part of a living god before the group.

It's obvious he's become as mad as a hatter. One night there is a dispute and a gun goes off and the police are called. Prof X is hauled off and put in a rubber cell.

The hero goes to visit him one year later. The Prof claims that he only faked madness and continued his Sarnian routine while institutionalised so as to avoid damage to his reputation and a prison sentence for unlawful discharge of a firearm. He boasts to the hero, his former assistant, of the fascinating sociological study he is conducting into the social hierarchies of mental hospitals.

Prof X refuses to leave and go back to the university to resume his academic responsibilities with the hero, who ends the book, like us, unsure as to whether Prof X is mad, or crafty, or the embodiment of Sarnian wisdom. Prof X winks at the hero as he is leaving the compound. But what does that mean?

The story comes from a novel by Alison Lurie called "imaginary Friends". Yet, eerily, a friend of mine was reading at the same time a book by Carl Sagan that talks about the famous incident of the Clarion Cult, whose story is exactly the same as the one in Lurie's book.

Lurie claimed she had never heard of the Clarion Cult, but that she was inspired to write the novel after her experiences, over a period of 20 years or more, involving the writing of a 900 page poem, called "Evening Light at Sandover", by the poet James Merrill and his gay partner, which they "downloaded" using a ouija board.

This gave Lurie, who was highly skeptical of the quality and authority of the "dictated" poems, and sarcastic about the intellectual claims that her friends made for these utterances, not to mention doubts about the objective reality of the dictating spirits, gave her the idea for her book. Science and metaphysics and poetry and psychology meet head on.

Merrill, who was a serious and ambitious poet, was later embarrassed by the notoriety of this huge poetic- metaphysical oddity: "The most that can be said for it is that it actually happened," he said.

So the next task for us both is to go back and find the actual outcome in the cards. The central row fan describes the ceremony in the garden, as repeatedly (WHIP) the group goes out into the freezing GARDEN and their enthusiasm, cohesion, and belief wanes (MICE).

If Prof X is the FOX - and he does seem to loom over the reading up there in the middle of the top row. As divine messenger (LETTER + FOX) he finds a secure role (ANCHOR). It also brings about his end (ANCHOR). But he feels tremendously secure (ANCHOR) locked up safe in the booby-hatch.

MOUNTAIN + SUN + KEY suggests that the best cure (KEY) for depression (MOUNTAIN) is an optimistic attitude (SUN). Hmmn. I wonder if anyone has ever tried that?

Opening up the column fans from left to right: multiple (WHIP) messages from distant sources (LETTER) cause problems (MOUNTAIN). Prof X (FOX) had an enormous revelation (SUN) in the GARDEN among the cult members. The bedrock of his sanity (ANCHOR) has been weakened (MICE) and the door closes (KEY) on his illustrious career.

If Serena is the FOX, that card knights to the MOUNTAIN and KEY, suggesting she was successful in finding a beautiful answer (Fox + KEY) to a difficult problem (FOX + MOUNTAIN).

Of course I know the story really well - Alison Lurie is a favorite of mine - but do you see any other combinations that might echo elements of the actual story of the novel? BTW, what is that nice looking Len deck?

[Merrick]

Sigh. This is going to be a long email. You might want to go grab a coffee or a salad or something.

I'm afraid I am going to have to dock you marks for "technical difficulty", because no attempt was made to hazard insane guesses at the flesh and blood outcome of this fictional event, though vague outlines emerge. However, apart from that unreasonable quibble, pretty much every word is accurate.

"No hearts" - Bang on. The hero doesn't get the girl, Serena. He's a bit of a pencil-neck geek, and she is a vatic seer and a foxy babe. I like to think Prof. X might be the FOX, because he is the most intellectually intelligent person in the story, but also crafty. We will get back to that possibility later.

How wonderful that the GARDEN, the cult itself, shows up in the centre of the reading. It is the focus simultaneously of a professionally conducted sociological experiment and a visit from aliens from outer space. There's a lot pressing in on that garden: the intellectual and the metaphysical.

The climactic scene in the novel, with the cult members holding hands and meditating while they wait for the Sarnians' spaceship, or whatever it is, to land - this takes place in an actual garden behind the house they use as their meeting place.

It's a freezing night and the tension builds as three times the group troop outside to welcome the Sarnians, only to be driven back inside eventually by the cold.

And then the Sarnians don't come. At 4 am the Truth Seekers gather up their things and go home, so proud of their own devotion that they feel no immediate disappointment.

Those fans you articulate so beautifully are at the fluttering heart of the reading. "Fans" - I've got to adopt that word immediately. So much better than the dry phrase "narrative line" that I have been using. Is that your term or one found in Lenormand literature?

In the top row you correctly read that Serena's messages from Sarnia (LETTER) give the hero the thumbs up he needs to be accepted into the group. At first they are suspicious of this newcomer when he comes to ask to join their number.

As you say in the subsequent fans of rows and columns, the group will suffer a blow to its belief system and cohesion, and Serena's authority as the infallible automatic-writing link between Earth and Sarnia will be weakened. But oddly, the group remain friends and still meet to meditate together and discuss hippy-dippy nonsense.

The strangest outcome of the Sarnian's non-appearance is what happens to Serena. The morning after the experience in the garden, the hero wakes up to find this ethereal willowy vegetarian goddess frying up sausages in the kitchen.

" So have you given up on all that Sarnia stuff," the hero asks.

"No, not at all," replies Serena, stubbing out her cigarette, and lolling back in her chair in woolly slippers and a dirty housecoat, then reaching past him for the ketchup, "The Sarnians did come. They are part of us now. We're free to do what we want."

Prof. X, fearing that his potentially career-boosting study of this group will come to an end, and also to continue the sociological study of a collapsed cult, he establishes himself as the new head of the Order, the living embodiment of Sarnian wisdom. On the other hand, in psychological terms, perhaps she has undergone a cathartic transformation of consciousness. The hero doesn't know what to think. Is Prof X mad or crafty as a fox.

Serena drifts off to university and gets involved in left-wing politics, while Prof X plays the part of a living god before the group.

It's obvious he's become as mad as a hatter. One night there is a dispute and a gun goes off and the police are called. Prof X is hauled off and put in a rubber cell.

The hero goes to visit him one year later. The Prof claims that he only faked madness and continued his Sarnian routine while institutionalised so as to avoid damage to his reputation and a prison sentence for unlawful discharge of a firearm. He boasts to the hero, his former assistant, of the fascinating sociological study he is conducting into the social hierarchies of mental hospitals.

Prof X refuses to leave and go back to the university to resume his academic responsibilities with the hero, who ends the book, like us, unsure as to whether Prof X is mad, or crafty, or the embodiment of Sarnian wisdom. Prof X winks at the hero as he is leaving the compound. But what does that mean?

The story comes from a novel by Alison Lurie called "imaginary Friends". Yet, eerily, a friend of mine was reading at the same time a book by Carl Sagan that talks about the famous incident of the Clarion Cult, whose story is exactly the same as the one in Lurie's book.

Lurie claimed she had never heard of the Clarion Cult, but that she was inspired to write the novel after her experiences, over a period of 20 years or more, involving the writing of a 900 page poem, called "Evening Light at Sandover", by the poet James Merrill and his gay partner, which they "downloaded" using a ouija board.

This gave Lurie, who was highly skeptical of the quality and authority of the "dictated" poems, and sarcastic about the intellectual claims that her friends made for these utterances, not to mention doubts about the objective reality of the dictating spirits, gave her the idea for her book. Science and metaphysics and poetry and psychology meet head on.

Merrill, who was a serious and ambitious poet, was later embarrassed by the notoriety of this huge poetic- metaphysical oddity: "The most that can be said for it is that it actually happened," he said.

So the next task for us both is to go back and find the actual outcome in the cards. The central row fan describes the ceremony in the garden, as repeatedly (WHIP) the group goes out into the freezing GARDEN and their enthusiasm, cohesion, and belief wanes (MICE).

If Prof X is the FOX - and he does seem to loom over the reading up there in the middle of the top row. As divine messenger (LETTER + FOX) he finds a secure role (ANCHOR). It also brings about his end (ANCHOR). But he feels tremendously secure (ANCHOR) locked up safe in the booby-hatch.

MOUNTAIN + SUN + KEY suggests that the best cure (KEY) for depression (MOUNTAIN) is an optimistic attitude (SUN). Hmmn. I wonder if anyone has ever tried that?

Opening up the column fans from left to right: multiple (WHIP) messages from distant sources (LETTER) cause problems (MOUNTAIN). Prof X (FOX) had an enormous revelation (SUN) in the GARDEN among the cult members. The bedrock of his sanity (ANCHOR) has been weakened (MICE) and the door closes (KEY) on his illustrious career.

If Serena is the FOX, that card knights to the MOUNTAIN and KEY, suggesting she was successful in finding a beautiful answer (Fox + KEY) to a difficult problem (FOX + MOUNTAIN).

Of course I know the story really well - Alison Lurie is a favorite of mine - but do you see any other combinations that might echo elements of the actual story of the novel? BTW, what is that nice looking Len deck?

First off, thank you for the feedback that I didn’t really detail the events of the night you asked about. That is a good reminder to always answer the querent’s question and not the question I want to answer instead. I could have given this answer in addition but not instead, so my apologies and thankfully this was a reading of a fictional situation.

It’s pretty cool how well that drawing mapped to the original book, which I sadly have not read but based on the synopsis I’m sure I would like, what is its title?

“Fans” is a term used in Andy Boroveshengra’s book Lenormand Thirty Six Cards when reading different lines within a medium to large Lenormand spread. I’m a fan of fans myself.

The deck is the Green Glyphs Lenormand by James R. Eads: https://www.jamesreadsmerch.com/collect ... st-edition

[dodalisque]

The Alison Lurie novel this reading comes from is called "Invisible Friends". My wife and I are both book people and work in bookshops but somehow I had never come across any Alison Lurie until about 2 weeks ago. She's 93 now so we may have been busy with our young children when she was popular. I get mad passions for authors and obsessively read everything they have done to the exclusion of any other distractions, if I find someone I like. That hasn't happened for a few years, not since I went mental over Penelope Fitzgerald and the English novelist Elizabeth Taylor. So this thing I have for Alison Lurie has taken me over completely.

I got the idea for fanciful readings from a book by James Ricklef called Tarot Tells the Tale, where figures from history or fairy-tales come to a tarot reader at a crucial moment in their lives to ask for a reading. Ricklef uses the cards to get fresh insights into the psychology of well-known figures. Then Joan Marie had the idea of using that as a way for people to do readings for each other. But the whole concept has suffered from teething problems. Regular readings involved thinking up personal questions to ask each other, but after a couple of months I was all out of problems and neuroses to explore. What was lacking were decent questions on which to practise our skills.

Chiscotheque started Plato's Cave, which as you know focuses on individual readers asking the tarot philosophical and moral questions. It might be nice if we could figure out the most effective way to do Fanciful readings. It seems to work best when the person doing the reading does not recognise the book or movie under discussion. The person setting the question - the client - needs only to give the bare outlines of a situation. The fun is, as in the reading you did here, to see what odd collisions appear between the reading and actual story. The "reveal" of the story is like a real client telling you the juicy details of a sitaion from thier lives that you have seen in bare outline with the help of your cards.

But hopefully, unpredictable things can happen. I was amused by JM's reading about Dune for you. That was cute the way she dodged the whole issue. It might have been more effective if your situation was less specific with fewer details. But hark at me! I set a terrible example by giving you a long complex story to figure out. But as I say the Fanciful thing is a work-in-progess. I was just joking of course about docking you points. I admire the way you read cards so much, and I'm no authority on anything. I thought your reading was terrific. We would never expect to predict someone's life in clear detail while doing a tarot reading but Lenormand prides itself on being more concrete than psychological. So blind guesses are allowed; they don't seem to be attempted much anymore in the tarot world. In Len readings I guess we take a holiday and pretend to be old time gypsies in caravans telling the future for someone. Apologies for being so chatty. It won't last.

[Merrick]

The Alison Lurie novel this reading comes from is called "Invisible Friends". My wife and I are both book people and work in bookshops but somehow I had never come across any Alison Lurie until about 2 weeks ago. She's 93 now so we may have been busy with our young children when she was popular. I get mad passions for authors and obsessively read everything they have done to the exclusion of any other distractions, if I find someone I like. That hasn't happened for a few years, not since I went mental over Penelope Fitzgerald and the English novelist Elizabeth Taylor. So this thing I have for Alison Lurie has taken me over completely.

I got the idea for fanciful readings from a book by James Ricklef called Tarot Tells the Tale, where figures from history or fairy-tales come to a tarot reader at a crucial moment in their lives to ask for a reading. Ricklef uses the cards to get fresh insights into the psychology of well-known figures. Then Joan Marie had the idea of using that as a way for people to do readings for each other. But the whole concept has suffered from teething problems. Regular readings involved thinking up personal questions to ask each other, but after a couple of months I was all out of problems and neuroses to explore. What was lacking were decent questions on which to practise our skills.

Chiscotheque started Plato's Cave, which as you know focuses on individual readers asking the tarot philosophical and moral questions. It might be nice if we could figure out the most effective way to do Fanciful readings. It seems to work best when the person doing the reading does not recognise the book or movie under discussion. The person setting the question - the client - needs only to give the bare outlines of a situation. The fun is, as in the reading you did here, to see what odd collisions appear between the reading and actual story. The "reveal" of the story is like a real client telling you the juicy details of a sitaion from thier lives that you have seen in bare outline with the help of your cards.

But hopefully, unpredictable things can happen. I was amused by JM's reading about Dune for you. That was cute the way she dodged the whole issue. It might have been more effective if your situation was less specific with fewer details. But hark at me! I set a terrible example by giving you a long complex story to figure out. But as I say the Fanciful thing is a work-in-progess. I was just joking of course about docking you points. I admire the way you read cards so much, and I'm no authority on anything. I thought your reading was terrific. We would never expect to predict someone's life in clear detail while doing a tarot reading but Lenormand prides itself on being more concrete than psychological. So blind guesses are allowed; they don't seem to be attempted much anymore in the tarot world. In Len readings I guess we take a holiday and pretend to be old time gypsies in caravans telling the future for someone. Apologies for being so chatty. It won't last.

Thank you for the context and the compliment! There are many wonderful readers here, yourself included, and I’m glad to have found such a welcoming community.

The funny thing is I feel more confident doing circus tent predictions with the tarot because the mixture of the question, the cards drawn, the images on the cards, and their placement together has certain things pop out at me that give me a strong feeling that it’s this or that. With Lenormand I’m still at the stage where I’m trying to internalize all the meanings each card has the “grammar” rules for a reading that I’m often missing important pieces of the big picture that would help solidify what I’m looking at. For example, it didn’t occur to me that Prof. X might be the Fox, despite him being the only other character you named in your question.

That’s why I enjoy and appreciate the practice. I’m not taking to Lenormand as easily as I did tarot but I want to get better at it and this is a really helpful way to calibrate my skills against a concrete situation where the outcomes are known to someone and can be laid out.

[dodalisque]

The funny thing is I feel more confident doing circus tent predictions with the tarot because the mixture of the question, the cards drawn, the images on the cards, and their placement together has certain things pop out at me that give me a strong feeling that it’s this or that.

I am so glad to hear you say that. As much as I adore Enrique Enriquez and the scientific and aesthetic context in which he places tarot, I find the magical aspect of the cards is becoming diluted as I seem to grow in understanding in psychological terms about how the process works. I think I liked it better when I was new to the cards and it all felt like telepathy and magic. If we accept EE's thesis, it seems like we are not allowed to be clairvoyant anymore. I miss it.

For example, it didn’t occur to me that Prof. X might be the Fox, despite him being the only other character you named in your question.

I tried to give a clue early on by describing the Prof as "a bit of a rogue", but the whole question was unfair. Charlie Brown's question for me this month is a lot more reasonable. Speaking of which, I still have to do that reading. I'm still struggling with Len. It doesn't carry any of the weight of our beloved TdM, but it does provide a new system for engaging with our unconscious. It's a bit like knowing Greek and then deciding to learn Japanese. I'm afraid I'm a bit of a tarot snob, but some readers are fantastic with Len cards and it does fill me sometimes with a kind of irresponsible delight that I don't get from intensely pondered TdM readings.

[Merrick]

I am so glad to hear you say that. As much as I adore Enrique Enriquez and the scientific and aesthetic context in which he places tarot, I find the magical aspect of the cards is becoming diluted as I seem to grow in understanding in psychological terms about how the process works. I think I liked it better when I was new to the cards and it all felt like telepathy and magic. If we accept EE's thesis, it seems like we are not allowed to be clairvoyant anymore. I miss it.

Honestly this may be worth its own thread in another area of the forum, but I quite agree. It’s not just Enrique either. Jodorowsky is very firm in saying that the tarot is a tool for psychological exploration only. Camelia allows more magic into her world, thank goodness, but she’s also very into being Zen and as a result cuts out a lot by going that route.

It’s interesting to see the spectrum of tarot practitioners. Some come down hard on the idea that the tarot has no value outside of psychological work. Others, like myself, feel it is an extraordinary tool for fortune telling and incidentally psychological work. Others still feel it has mystical powers unto itself and spend a lot of time wrapping the whole thing up with other occult/esoteric/new age subjects. Some feel it’s only good for esoterica and poo-poo the fortune telling and psychological uses. I doubt you’ll ever get one group to agree with another.

I’ve seen enough defy the odds stuff coming from tarot to know it’s not just a set of dead images that happen to resonate with the psyche. That approach can yield some interesting results, and you know I’m a big fan of EE’s reading methods, but I think it does miss the mark of what the tarot can and does provide. I’m honestly surprised at how many prominent voices in the tarot world are against using the tarot for fortune telling. I was listening to Root Lock Radio, a well received podcast that I see recommended often to newcomers, and the host flat out tells the listeners not to use the tarot for divination. I was stunned because it was such a black and white blanket statement. He basically said it’s impossible to actually tel the future to begin with and all it does is amplify your fears about worst case scenarios. I was disappointed to hear this, both because we should be allowing room the for tarot to be a genuine Oracle, but also because it was sad that this person felt fortune telling does nothing but play on fear.

On the other side of that coin, I was watching a YouTube video where the person was saying you should never divine with the tarot not because it doesn’t work, but precisely because it works so well that you run the risk of locking yourself into an outcome you don’t want. This was slightly more nuanced than the “divination doesn’t work” argument, but I had to strongly disagree with the conclusion. Unless the universe is wholly deterministic then there’s no risk of locking yourself into a specific future, and if the universe really IS deterministic then that was going to be your future regardless of whether or not you did a tarot reading about it.

Anyway, I’ve turned this into a rant but suffice it to say I respect the power of the cards to predict future events but I don’t think they can lock you into an unwanted outcome. Just the opposite, using the cards responsibly can help you determine what you need to do to get the best outcome from a given situation, provided you form your questions well and recognize that you still have to put in the work or actually changing your circumstances if you want to make that change manifest in your life.

[dodalisque]

Honestly this may be worth its own thread in another area of the forum, but I quite agree. It’s not just Enrique either. Jodorowsky is very firm in saying that the tarot is a tool for psychological exploration only. Camelia allows more magic into her world, thank goodness, but she’s also very into being Zen and as a result cuts out a lot by going that route.

Fantastic, we're both mystics! Bring back magic! I always think I'm going to love Camelia's books but I can never seem to follow her thought processes during her readings. EE is an artist pure and simple - art is his religion - and his readings are so powerful and convincing. I love how his approach and his astonishing intellect transforms tarot into a serious subject for serious minds, but a lot of what he says is just jargon really.

I used to work as a hypnotherapist and ran into the same attitude. Hypnotism fought long and hard to get out of the circus tent, so nowadays budding hypnotists are encouraged,figuratively, to wear a lab coat and explain to clients what they do in the language of clinical psychology. But in private I have never met a hypnotist yet who didn't feel some sort of telepathic communication with his clients during sessions. They don't dare to say it out loud out of fear of being scolded by their fellow professionals.

I don't know if you'll be interested in this but I think it's the best reading I ever did, from the April '19 TdM reading circle for Max, and it relates to what you are saying above.

viewtopic.php?f=175&t=1319&p=7269#p7269

My wife always picks the cards for my readings with her eyes closed, and she came up with a miraculous selection here. They allowed me to figure out my entire tarot philosophy while reading for someone else. I started having ideas I didn't even know I had: the way tarot is supposed to work. It just seemed to write itself. And I set myself a tough task by using only the TdM court cards. There are different styles of reading and different schools of tarot to suit different temperaments. Different people are different - I need that on a tee-shirt.

[Merrick]

Bravo! That reading was absolutely inspired. The court cards can still flummox me from time to time so I admire your choice to read only with them. And then summing it all up with that corresponding majors reading was just the cherry on top.

I am definitely a mystic. I appreciate using the tarot for self analysis but at the end of the day the deck’s ability to move us spiritually is what I’m most interested in.

[dodalisque]

I am definitely a mystic. I appreciate using the tarot for self analysis but at the end of the day the deck’s ability to move us spiritually is what I’m most interested in.

Wonderful, that's so refreshing to hear. I go back and forth between the Noblet and Dodal but there's no question that the Noblet is more attractive, and the minors are fantastic. The size of the Noblet cards is perfect too. I love the depressive slovenliness of the Dodal, and how rough and messy it is. Lots of room for ambiguity and improvisation. Like me you seem to prefer Type I decks. Type II is like Bach, a bit straight-laced. I listen mostly to pre-Bach early music, much more cheerful and jolly.

I fell in love with tarot the first time a friend asked a question and lay down 3 RWS cards so that we could figure out the "meanings" from the companion book. Under my eyes those meanings shirted and fit a narrative that I knew intuitively to be true. I suppose now I think about it, I'm drawn to the performance aspect of face to face readings, because it helps me to carry on my work as a hypnotherapist in an informal environment. I guess I'm always looking for a way to change other people's lives for the better. Intrusive and arrogant of course, but that's what therapy is, and at least it's well meant.

What do you think of EE's use of language in the tarot, and the way he makes anagrams from the card titles, or exploits puns, etc. to hit on convincing coincidences? He seems to have mostly stopped reading cards - perhaps burned himself out - or has too much artistic integrity to allow himself to be established as the leader of a school or method of reading the cards. His whole message seems to be the opposite of that, that each person needs to find their own creative path.

Now he has an online group that works with the alphabet and words in the same way that he deconstructs and recombines elements of the pictures on the cards. I find the Wordplay thing a bit dry and cerebral compared to his work with the images. His hero is a Canadian poet called b p nicol who I don't much like. But I noticed yesterday when I was looking at those 3 Coins cards we were talking about the other day that "Deniers" in English could mean "people who deny things" like climate-change for example. Deniers could also be things like "excuses". So Coins cards could be used in a reading to talk about the subject of denial, or saying No. Chickens live in coops (Coupes), so Cups can contain fears. I don't know what to say about Bastons and Despee. Batons are passed in relay races; despee/despair? I spy (spee) with my little eye. Whatever.

Sorry for button-holing you like this. Don't feel like you have to reply. I'm in a chatty mood these days. I might be giving the reading circles a break for a month or two since my life here in the real world has suddenly gotten frantic, but hopefully we will read for each other again sometime and get to chat some more.

[Merrick]

I love language play and wordplay. Lewis Carroll and Shakespeare both leap to mind as masters of English wordplay. I appreciate how EE plays with all of these constructs. So many people think of language or words as fixed and they are not. Similarly, so many people think of the images in the tarot as fixed and they aren’t as fixed as we imagine they are. It’s true if anything, isn’t it? Under the surface things are more malleable than we give them credit for.

That being said I don’t think I’d take a wordplay course from EE, whereas I would take a tarot course from him.