The essential Lenormand
"We are on the verge of a Lenormand revolution, and you won't find a better teacher than Rana George. What distinguishes George is her expertise with the cards—birthed in family traditions, honed by the hardships of war and destruction, grounded in the realities of the modern world, and nurtured by her own deep compassion. After reading this book you will continue to hear her expert guidance in your ear, charting a path through the divinatory landscape. Learn from the best what the Petit Lenormand cards have to offer today's seeker.
Mary K. Greer.
YouTube Review. This is a video review of Rana George's educational book on how to read the Lenormand, The Essential Lenormand: Your Guide to Precise and Practical Fortunetelling. This book, published by Llewellyn…
00:13:47 Added on 4/15/14.
‘The Essential Lenormand’ by Rana George, due for release in March 2014 by Llewellyn Publications.
Reading this book is like experiencing a chocolate explosion in the mouth! Deliciously surprising and comfortingly familiar all at once. Rana George is our undisputed Lennie Guru, our Divination Diva. Just like Rana, her book is wholly unpretentious and patiently clear in its meaning. Finally! Lenormand demystified in a language and approach that speaks to even the most novice of readers. For those amongst us who have never read Lenormand before, fear not. Armed with nothing but a deck of regular playing cards and this book you will have everything you need to begin immediately. Rana George is the fortune-telling ‘aunty’ we all wished we had, you know, the one that gives us the ‘inside scoop’ on outrageously successful fortune telling through years of authentic practice and divination. She has taken us under her wing!
With patience and in plain language, demonstrating real-life events with examples, Rana effortlessly steers us through these essential Lenormand lessons. ‘This is Lenormand on steroids’ was what came to mind as I dove in, page after page. Where others have tried and perhaps not quite succeeded, Rana has waved her magic wand to create light at the end of the Lenormand tunnel! Eureka! In these pages she takes us through the benefits of reading Lenormand and the process toward approaching our readings, to the correct way of structuring our questions. Along with her sagely advice on the importance of consistency in which she advocates the necessity of sticking to one system, allowing it to eventually evolve into our own personalized system, Rana guides us in an unambiguous manner that instill confidence in our abilities to replicate her expertise with ease, by steering us away from overwhelming confusion toward becoming confident and expert readers.
The detailed attention Rana George gives to each of the 36 cards in The Essential Lenormand is a treasure trove of wisdom and knowledge! As with words in any language (the meaning of which is dependent on the context in which they are spoken,) Rana goes through different meanings for each card in context to many different areas of use. These include: Predictions, mannerisms & personalities as described by the cards, work, love, health, finances, the ever elusive question of timing, advice or action oriented readings, negative & positive cards, finding lost objects, traditional meanings and she very preciously shares her personal anecdotes for each card too. This is truly a vast volume of in-depth and relevant meanings for each card which will greatly expand our Lenormand vocabulary. Therefore this chapter alone makes The Essential Lenormand the most valuable English book available on this subject to date, in my opinion.
But, that’s not all! There is a whole section dedicated to spreads and techniques. I felt like a kid in a candy store! Anyone serious about Lenormand will drool over this section of her book! Jam-packed with so much useful information that it serves to mentor each of us; taking us from beginners to masters of this art! Readers could not wish for a more practical, down-to-earth approach that keeps on surprising with jewels of knowledge and countless ah-hah moments! Rana’s chapter on the Grand Tableau, a spread that has intimidated many a reader before, is possibly the crown jewel in this priceless treasure. In the same charming style that gives absolute clarity and in-depth understanding throughout the book, Rana shares with us her personal approach to reading the Grand Tableau. This is huge! This is the mother-load of Grand Tableau tuition (minus the fear factor.) Finally there can no longer be an excuse to avoid becoming an expert Lenormand reader, it would be almost impossible to miss the mark with this essential guide at our side. Generously illustrated and expertly detailed without losing her readers, The Essential Lenormand is notably the most valuable book currently available to Lenormand readers in the English speaking world today. This is more than just another book on Lenormand, it is an absolute necessity for anyone who is considering Lenormand as a divination tool, equally so for those readers who are already proficient in this system of fortune telling as even expert readers are guaranteed to learn something new!
Fair warning though, have a box of kleenex handy. Rana tells us about her Lenormand beginnings in war-torn Beirut. Her tale reads like something from The Book Thief; richly embroidered with the romance of old-school family-taught divination during the angst of a bloody war that revealed both the best and worst of humanity in a very personal manner to this young impressionable girl. She tells us the tale of her humble beginnings as a child and hereditary fortune-teller who was at first almost surprised and apologetic about the accuracy of her predictions, and who then later was haunted by the same as the horrors of war brutalized her nearest and dearest. She lived through the horrifying effects of war not once, but twice as she first saw these events unfold in the cards before they manifested in a cruel savagery that deeply impacted her life in Beirut before immigrating to the USA with her remaining family. Rana shares her painful memories of these difficult years and tells how Lenormand was a stabilising influence that comforted and empowered her. In later years she passed her astounding gift on to her 3 young sons who have each become gifted readers in their own right. Furthermore, in sharing her experience and expertise with Lenormand though this beautiful book, our Lenormand Guru is passing the same on to us. We thank you Rana!
388 pages of pure genius. That is what you will get once you own a copy of what is sure to become the best-selling book in this genre for years to come. I give it 5 stars! Rana George wins the ‘Lenormand Oscars’ with this book. It will take nothing short of a miracle to surpass what she has shared in these precious pages.
Kinda like Rana’s darling red-lips trademark and her keep-it-simple-sweetheart approach, this book gets a BIG RED KISS of approval!
Jera-Babylon Rootweaver
Review: The Essential Lenormand by Rana George.
Posted on March 5, 2014 by AndybC
The Lenormand “method” is a lean one. Forget your Jungian archetypes and your Mills and Boon Qabalah – you’re working with something that calls a spade a spade. Directive, specific, and helpful.
So when a book comes out introducing and explaining that same method, at an impressive 300 + pages, you can be pretty sure it is going to go one of two ways: either it’s by someone who knows the method inside out or it’s going to a lame and pretentious tome of incongruities and drivel.
Fortunately, Rana George’s The Essential Lenormand is most definitely the former.
Rana’s book is divided into three parts: Part 1 – Beginning with Lenormand; Part 2 – A Closer Look at the Thirty-Six Cards, and, Part 3 – Reading Techniques with Spreads.
“Beginning with Lenormand” sets the basics down. Rana goes through the importance of consistency and the need for direct questioning, as well as touching on the minor variations that exist within the Lenormand method which have woefully been dubbed ‘schools’ in the past and built up into a life of their own. I smiled, happily, to see Rana encourage her readers to “predict, predict, predict” – such a vital exercise for anyone to learn how this deck talks and to listen and learn from both mistakes and successes.
Within the “A Closer Look at the Thirty-Six Cards” section, Rana works through each of the petit-Lenormand deck’s symbols at some impressive length. For each symbol you learn its main meaning along with some illustrations done under headers such as “time” and “future” and for describing someone.
At the end of this, Rana concludes with an anecdotal reading, further emphasizing how the card can be read, as well as giving reference to the traditional and what is the real Lenormand method, distance. Due to Rana’s progression and personal use distance is not covered in-depth but it’s wonderful to see it here.
The meanings given here are traditional within the ‘Philippe Lenormand’ sheet’s tradition. I could recognize and understand where Rana was coming from, at all times, even if I did not always agree i.e. here the Whips has ‘a sexual energy’ and the Fox is connected to employment. Minor differences and differences that occur at all times, from reader to reader. Nevertheless these are always explained and subsidized with Rana’s own experience and background so that someone who works differently is not isolated or ‘corrected’. Thus I think this is perfectly understandable and should be expected of any author.
Finally, within Rana’s “Reading Techniques with Spreads'' we are guided through several spreads, including a Sun-Sign based astrology reading, and the Grand Tableau which gives you a method of working through all 36-cards and a useful “Combination Drills” section.
For a neophyte Rana does provide enough here to get you going and more, and enough information for someone struggling to come back, re-gather, and try-again.
Only Caitlín Matthews has managed to provide the masterly tone and non-intimidating clarity Rana George achieves here.
The meanings given are traditional, rooted within those same meanings used for over one-hundred years, but also influenced by Rana’s own unique experience. With the latter, this is delivered by way of context, derived from experience arising out of tradition, rather than absolutism or ‘revolutionizing’ as other authors have fallen foul of whereby anything other than their “take” is left out and wrong.
One cannot review this book and not mention Rana’s own story which is touched by the Civil War, harrowing circumstances, and finally a new beginning. What this underpins is not only a spirit full of hope but the practical uses and unique advantage of this oracle in day to day life. Whilst you will be horrified, and then inspired, you will be left in no doubt why people cherish this deck so much.
A wonderful book and one that I recommend.
Rating: 5 / 5
Available: Kindle e-book & paperback
from 8 March, 2014. Andy Boroveshengra
http://boroveshengra.wordpress.com/
Llewellyn
https://www.llewellyn.com/blog/2014/02/the-essential-lenormand/
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