The Anino Lenormand is, next to The Gravenchase Lenormand Narciso’s newest Lennie. Both decks have an extra free deck about which this feature is written.
In the monthly column Artist’s Advice divination authors and deck designers give their reading tips, divination techniques or unique essays to share their expertise and showcase a new release. This issue:
The Gravenchase Zodiac Oracle/Anino Zodiac Oracle |Lynyrd-Jym Narciso
PART: 1 (Yes part 1! Fall/Winter will give you P2)
“I am going to talk about the 12-card Zodiac oracle decks that come free with The Gravenchase Lenormand and Anino Lenormand and its various uses. Firstly, The Gravenchase Zodiac Oracle and Anino Zodiac Oracle are 12-card decks featuring the 12 signs of Western Astrology. Each is done in the theme of the Lenormand deck they come free with, which makes them easier to integrate with or compliment their Lenormand decks. You can use them as separate oracles altogether, or in conjunction with their Lenormand counterparts.
Being an artist, I am always advocating finding creative and hands-on approaches to working with things. This article is meant to be a starting point where I suggest some ideas and uses to you, dear reader, in the hopes that it will jump-start your creativity in discovering more ways to use your zodiac oracles.
Lenormand combinations
One of the ways you can put The Gravenchase or Anino Zodiac Oracle to use alongside their Lenormand counterparts is by using one of the cards as a significator. You can choose f.e. the querent’s birth sign. In this way, the card becomes quite a powerful focus because it (and thus the reading) resonates more with the querent.
Another possible use for the deck would be timing. Each astrological sign covers specific days of the year, roughly the second half of one month and the first half of the next, so you can get a clearer range of time period/dates when drawing a card for a timing follow-up.
The zodiac oracles can also be used together with the Lenormands on thematic issues which the astrological sign in the card may represent. Just to explain, each sign is associated with particular qualities – passive, active, mutability, the elements (and what these represent), etc. – and these qualities may reveal more about specific aspects on the issue the querent is looking at with the reading.
Each sign is associated with particular qualities, so each card can reveal specific aspects of the querent’s issue
Elements, Polarity, and the like
Each sign holds a wealth of information which, with a bit of research and creativity, has a lot of potential uses for readings. There are a lot of free resources online, and here is a bit of a really basic, but informative, introduction to what I am talking about.
Every sign is associated with one of the classical elements Fire, Air, Water, Earth. That element is associated with different aspects of the human psyche: creativity and energy for Fire, the intellect and reason for Air, feelings and emotions for Water, and practicality and pragmatism for Earth. These four elements in turn are split into two polarities (and genders, especially in older traditions) – Fire and Air are active, extroverted, positive (which is “self-expressing” – more about this in a bit) – also associated with the male gender. Water and Earth are passive, introverted, negative (which is “self-containing”) and which associated with the female gender. Self-expressing and self-containing are more about how energy is projected or flows in a system.
For example, Fire, a creative element, directs energies outward in forms of creative expressions, while Earth, a practical element, lets its energies flow within a contained system, building a solid foundation, figuratively-speaking. The following are elemental associations amongst the 12 astrological signs:
Fire Aries Leo Sagittarius
Air Libra Aquarius Gemini
Water Cancer Scorpio Pisces
Earth Capricorn Taurus Virgo
Modes or Modality
The 12 astrological signs are also divided into three different modalities across all the four elements they are associated with. The modalities are Cardinal, Fixed, and Mutable. As such, Aries is Cardinal Fire, Leo is Fixed Fire, Sagittarius is Mutable Fire, and so on across the other signs. The three modalities have particular qualities associated with them.
Cardinal signs relate to new beginnings, activity, initiative, drive, change, even momentum. The upside-downside issues with these signs are: impetus vs. hastiness. It would help if we relate things again to energy flow. Cardinal signs generate energy, so they also relate to intense experiences in life.
You can read the Zodiac Oracle related to energy flow and the type of energy
Fixed signs relate to stability, focus, accumulation and building up, storing up, a determination to continue what was begun, etc. The upside-downside issues with these signs are: consistency vs obstinacy/unadaptability. In terms of energy flows, it focuses, stores and builds up the energy generated in the cardinal mode.
Mutable signs relate to flexibility, adaptation, integration, receptivity, change, and other similar aspects relating to versatility and ease of adjustments. The upside-downside issues with these signs are: diversity vs instability/conflict-averseness. In terms of energy flow, mutable signs distributes, adapts, and integrates the energy generated by the cardinal, focused and stored by the fixed.
As a summary, here are the signs arranged acording to their elemental and modality associations:
Cardinal Fixed Mutable
Fire Aries Leo Sagittarius
Air Libra Aquarius Gemini
Water Cancer Scorpio Pisces
Earth Capricorn Taurus Virgo
Aspect in a reading
Now, these various qualities and aspects of each sign can be put to use in a reading as meanings. For example, when drawing a card on an issue like a relationship problem and one draws Aries, the card itself implies strong assertiveness and energies (because it’s a Fire sign, and a Cardinal sign) – areas which could have potential problems with the querent (like not being able to meet halfway, only a one way flow of energies in the relationship, etc).
If it is a follow-up regarding a third party, the card might hint at that because the sign is self-expressing – energy is directed outward (perhaps of the relationship), and there is the issue of hastiness because it is a Cardinal sign – like jumping into following urges without thinking of the consequences.
Intuition & study
This of course is just an example, and the meaning and interpretation of the card will still depend on the reader’s intuition and the context of the reading (and also that not all Aries are cheaters!). The point of the example is that we are using qualities and aspects which relate to each sign to generate potential meanings which might reveal other facets of the issue the querent is having a reading on.
I hope this rather brief introduction gives the reader and idea of potential uses in readings for the cards. I would like to also recommend looking up introductory materials (there are a lot of free online) on the signs and the aspects discussed above as well as some others (like planetary associations, etc.) so the reader gets an even fuller vibe of each sign and how they can be read in a reading.”
– Lynyrd-Jym Narciso | Paraluman
Next time: a Zodiac Oracle Houses Spread! Part: 2 will follow after the summer!
Lynyrd-Jym Narciso, the decks’ creator and the artist behind Paraluman Studio, has been creating and illustrating tarot and card art for over 15 years. For comments, feedback, and the like, he may be reached on his e-mail address. Buy the Lenormand & Zodiac decks? The Gravenchase Zodiac Oracle and Anino Zodiac Oracle are decks which come free when you order The Gravenchase Lenormand and/or Anino Lenormand. Both are available in the Paraluman Etsy shop. |
