Bärtschi Grand Tableau – Interpretation: Part Two

Yersterday in my post, I interpreted the “basic 4″ lines (Present, Past, Future and Repressed) of the Grand Tableau Spread with the Bärtschi Lenormand Cards. Here is a link to that post:

Bärtschi Grand Tableau – Interpretation: Part One

On June 19th, I wrote about my method of laying out this spread and how I interpret the cards – here is a link to that:

Bärtschi Lenormand – The Grand Tableau

Today, I’m going to interpret the secondary lines of the spread.

After I interpret the “basic 4″ lines of Present, Past, Future and Repressed, I look around the spread and decide what else I’d like to find out about. In a reading for myself, the first card I look for is the Man to represent my husband – he is a major factor in my life and I like to see what is going on in that department. I like to read these secondary lines diagonally – once again, that is up to you as the reader. I like doing this because - even if the card of interest is included in one of the “basic 4″ lines – you can read diagonally from it and have a new message.

While I am  interpreting all the secondary, diagonal lines – I will keep in mind the overall theme of this reading which can be indicated by the first card in the spread. In this lay out that card turned out to be the coffin - which I think says the main theme of this reading is transformations. For more about this subject please refer to my other two posts on the Grand Tableau.

In this particular lay out of the Grand Tableau the Man card is right up in the corner; so, I will read the cards like this:

The cards are: the Key, the Snake (it’s very different in this deck),  the Scythe and the Fox.

For me, the interpretation of these cards is very clear! There is going to be a solution to my husband’s snaky behavior – this will completely cut off this kind of treachery from now on. If you read my blog very often you will have read about the ongoing problem my husband has with crankiness! Keeping the overall theme of transformation in mind while reading these cards seems to indicate that there is going to be a final solution to this problem! (It has already been improving a lot.)

This is a very simple and straightforward way of interpretation. It doesn’t have to be done this way. If the cards seem confusing or don’t quite make sense - you can look at the other cards surrounding the main cards to clarify things. I’ll show a simple way of doing that in this next interpretation.

The next card I look for in the lay out is the Child – my children and grandchildren are very important in my life and I like to see what the cards have to say about them. The Child card is down in the opposite corner from the Man but two diagonal lines can be drawn from it due to the shape of the spread. 

Here is how I will read the first line:

The cards are: The Scythe (clarified by Bouquet and Ring – also very different in this deck), The Tree, The Woman, The Cross.

This set of cards is very relevant and easy to understand in the context of my children.  The first card, Scythe - can show the sudden ending or cutting off of something. To clarify what that might be,  I look on either side of the Scythe card and see the Bouquet and Ring. This makes the whole thing so clear – it is about the sudden ending of the beautiful relationship I had with my son and his wife when they moved away to the Philadelphia area! So, keeping in mind the overall theme of transformation, I can interpret these cards to mean – The sudden severing of the close and happy relationship with my son and his wife when they moved has really affected my sense of well being, making me sad (Tree + Woman + Cross). However, this will be change (theme of transformation).

My son and his wife have been so busy for the past couple of years with school, buying a home and getting their life in order that they haven’t had a lot of time to spend talking to us or writing letters. What is wonderful – that is already starting to transform! In this past week we’ve talked to them twice and had a couple of e-mails as well!

Next, I’ll interpret the second diagonal line that can be drawn from the Child card like this:

There are only two cards – The Garden and The Ship. Just the two cards together are so vague - a trip to a public place or event - that I decided to look at all the cards around the Garden to get a clearer picture of what sort of public place or event this might be. The cards on either side of the Garden are the Ring and Lilies – this really seems to indicate the Garden card might refer to a wedding.  I probably wouldn’t have even included card above the Garden (The Whips) to act a a clarifying card but later in the same day I did this spread – I talked to my son who told me they had to go to a wedding this weekend and didn’t really want to go as they had other plans! So, the Whips did act to clarify the Garden!  So, these cards are a very simple message – my son and DIL had to transform their original plans in order to attend a wedding. 

The next card I like to look for is the Tree to see what is going on with my health and well-being. One part of the health diagonal line was already drawn while reading the first diagonal line from the Child card. I think it is very significant that the first line from the Child crossed the Tree and the Woman (myself) – showing what a major impact this has had on me.

Here is the other diagonal line which can be drawn from the Tree:

The cards to interpret are: The Crossroads, The Tree, The Bear and The Storks.

I’m going to do a simple interpretation of these cards. If you wanted to - you could read a lot more into this by looking at the cards around the main cards; but, since the cards seem to make good sense on their own, I decided to interpret them in a very straightforward manner. I think this means that I’m going to have to decide about making a big change regarding my health, to make myself feel better (keeping in mind the overall theme of transformation). This is very true – I really need to lose at least 35 pounds. My feet have been bothering me and I don’t like that at all. I’m sure they would hurt less if I weighed less. I think I need to eat less and exercise more.

The reading is almost done now! Next I’ll look at the financial side of things by drawing two lines from the Fish card. Here is the first line:

The cards to interpret with this first financial line are: The Birds, The Woman, The Fish and The Moon.

I decided to start with the Birds to interpret this group of cards as it made more sense to me. I’ll also keep in mind the overall theme of transformation. This seems to mean that there has been a lot of chit chat and goings on about me (Woman) and increased money (Fish + Moon) which will make a change in my life (theme of transformation). This has already happened! Recently, I received a small inheritance from an elderly great aunt which I didn’t expect and neither did the rest of my family as she had told everyone she wrote me out of her will.  It isn’t a large amount of money but makes a nice little nest egg for my husband and me and while it doesn’t change our life in a huge way – it does make it nice to have this little extra.

Here is the next line to interpret for finances:

The cards in this line are: The Clover, The Fish, The Crossroads and The Fox.

This is a very simple message – I’ll also keep in mind the overall theme of transformation. To me these cards say: Be careful with the lucky little windfall you’ve had and don’t make a decision to invest in something that might not be what it seems – you might end up losing it. Very sage advice.

Now, for the very last thing I’m going to look at in this lay out of the Grand Tableau – I’m going to check which cards are on all four corners of the lay out:

I’ve already talked about how the first card can indicate the overall theme of the reading. The other cards in the corners are: The Man, The Child and The House. This just seems really cool and interesting to me! I think it shows how my life is surrounded by my husband, children and home and how there are going to be transformations and changes with these this coming year – hopefully for the better!

For the very last, I’ve drawn all the lines and single cards used in this interpretation – kind of the Grand Total of the Grand Tableau:

Isn’t it cool how the lines representing various aspects such as finances and health cross and intersect just like in real life! Some of the cards have been used twice and even thrice! (That’s an old fashioned word but I think it sounds nice.)

This is way too long a post – perhaps, I should have split it in two. However, since I had already written two previous posts on this spread I decided to just finish it in this one, uber long, post.

Reading all three posts and writing about the spread and interpretation takes way longer than actually doing the Grand Tableau in person. If you haven’t tried it – I hope you do! It is a wonderful spread to use with the Lenormand cards – you can learn so much and it mirrors life very well.  The three posts I’ve written about the Grand Tableau show and tell how I lay out and interpret this spread – you could decide to go about it in a very different way – it’s up to you as a reader to decide how you want to read the cards.