Bärtschi Grand Tableau – Interpretation: Part One

Time to start interpreting the Grand Tableau I posted yesterday! Here is a link to yesterday’s post where I wrote about the method I use in interpreting this large 36 card spread:

The Grand Tableau

Also, I decided I want to interpret one more area of the spread – Finances. So, I will read the cards surrounding the fish like this:

One thing to keep in mind throughout the interpretation of all the various lines of cards is the main theme of the reading which can be indicated by the first card in the spread. In this spread that is the Coffin – which I think means the overall theme of this reading will be about transformations. Sometimes, when you lay out a Grand Tableau the first card just doesn’t suit as a theme and sometimes when you lay out this spread you are specifically looking for information regarding a specific theme so in that case you might not have to notice the first card. The whole thing is up to you – the reader - to decide.

The first things I interpret are the “basic 4″ lines which represent the present, past, future and what is repressed:

I like to start with the Present. In this reading that is very easy as it’s only one card – The Letter! Also, very easy to interpret – I’m receiving greetings for my birthday! If possible during interpretation, keep in mind the overall theme of the reading indicated by the first card. So, my interpretation for the Present would be: I am receiving Greetings for my birthday and they are transforming my feelings – making me feel loved and special and make me realize how lucky I am to have so many nice friends and a loving family!

This is very true! That is exactly how I felt yesterday – all my birthday greetings made me feel so warm and wonderful inside!

Next, I move on to interpreting the Past. You can do the interpretation in any order you wish. Usually, I do the Present first, then the Past and then the Future and do Repressed last. If you are reading for another person – that can be the most difficult area to work with. Even with yourself, it can be the most difficult.

Anyway, back to the Past! In this spread there are only two cards for the Past – The Clouds and The Clover. Once again, remember the overall theme of transformation in the interpretation of these cards. This is another very easy to interpret set of cards – my take is: In the Past my joy and happiness and maybe even my luck has been clouded by transitory problems and troubles but they have started to clear up more recently. The reason I say that the troubles have started to clear up recently is because the rainbow side of the clouds is right next to me and also because of the overall theme of transformation.

This is also very true! Last year was filled with difficulties and it seemed as soon as one was cleared up another one showed up. It is also true that in the more recent past there has been fewer of these transitory problems. Here is a close up of the Past cards:

Now, it’s time to look at the cards for the Future – I always find these the most difficult to interpret. Sometimes it just jumps out at you what they mean but sometimes, they are very obscure (as the future always is!!).

Here are the cards representing the Future in this spread:

The Sun, The Bear, The Anchor, The Key and The Rider

All these cards look very positive. The Future starts off with the Sun – that is great, it is the most happy and positive card in the Lenormand cards. All in all, it looks like the Future is going to be very successful and happy. To me, it seems like I or we (my husband and myself) will find out something (Rider) that makes it almost certain to have financial security or “big” security” (Bear + Anchor). Keeping in mind that the overall theme of this reading is transformation and that the Anchor can mean work – this might also mean a big change in employment. So, I think I’ll go out on a limb with this interpretation for the future and say: The Future is going to be very successful, you will finally hear of something that allows you to make a big change in your employment. 

My husband likes his new job and he’s been there 10 months now – we’re not in any hurry for him to find new employment. However, sometime in the next few years, we’d like to get closer to my mother. She is still living on her own but she’s over 70 and won’t be able to do that for a lot longer. That would put us closer to a lot of other members of our families as well.

One other thing I notice in this set of 5 cards for the Future – the Rider and the Bear are showing up in the same set – again. Every time I’ve used this deck these two cards have showed up in the same set of cards.

Next it’s onto the most tricky part of the “basic 4″ lines of this reading – what is repressed. These are things that you prefer not to think about, things that you might not even know are going on in your mind, things that you don’t want to face or maybe even things that you think about constantly that drive you crazy because they are always there in your thoughts running underneath everything else.

In this spread the cards in the Repressed line are The Heart, The Crossroads and The House. This turns out to be very true and kind of private so I shan’t discuss it in depth. The three cards together show making a decision about love and home life and when you add in the overall theme of transformation, it tells of thinking of making a change in these areas. Luckily, in my life, this overall situation has gotten much better.

It is very startling how accurate this part of the reading is. In fact, so far, the whole reading has been very accurate and insightful. It’s hard to know whether the Future is accurate - but the cards do give me great hope in that direction.

Since this post has already become very long, I will continue with the interpretaion of the secondary diagonal lines tomorrow! It takes a lot more time to write about interpreting this spread than it actually does in person. This is a great spread to do for other people – they don’t need to have a question and it gives them a general overview of what is going on in their life.