09/09/2025
Review of the Lenormand Summit Hosted by the World Divination Association Last Weekend
Lelia and I (Ethan) just wrapped up our weekend at the 2025 Lenormand Summit, hosted by the World Divination Association’s own Toni Savory. To be honest, while Lelia was the official attendee, I might have accidentally overheard, taken notes, and flung my own cards around. This was our second year attending, and it was absolutely delightful.
Held online on September 6th and 7th, the summit took place in a private Facebook group, offering the flexibility of live participation and 30 day access to the recorded sessions. The curriculum covered an impressive spectrum of Lenormand techniques. We got to see fantastic presentations by a diverse crew of teachers and practitioners. The roster included Alexandre Musruck, Serge Pirotte, Rana George, Bjorn Meuris, Jane Matthews, and more. The workshops featured deep dives into foundational methods like the Grand Tableau, advanced topics like the Muree System, and explorations into health readings and combining symbolic systems.
Lelia is a WDA Gold Endorsed traditional Lenormand reader, and is actively pursuant of Master certification. She has told me on many occasions that she is enjoying the community and the way ideas and knowledge are exchanged in the WDA. It is a fertile and safe place to cultivate one’s craft, and she seems to be happy with the investment of mindshare to study among them. I wouldn’t be surprised if soon she’s speaking at something like this.
Watching the summit presenters got me thinking about our own approach here at Myself Is My Cards. It’s probably no surprise that we are broad in our scope when it comes to tradition and progress. We’ve committed a lot of attention to the historiy found in the Lenormand and Marseille decks, for example, yet we equally acknowledge how these icons operate in the contemporary world. My primary driver is to forecast how they are developing into the future. This gives me a clear orientation to the present and roots my work with real people facing modern situations.
For me, it involves spending a fair amount of time in both the past and the future—conjuring their connections, listening to their voices, seeing their flavors, and smelling their tones. A bit hyperbolic, maybe, but you get my drift.
In this work, Lelia and I believe these arts can be handled in a multitude of ways. We see a difference, however, between preserving a card-reading tradition in a bell jar like a museum piece and continuing a living lineage into the future. The latter requires allowing cultural updates to flow into the system and its usage.
I was so pleased to find that many presenters at this summit spoke freely about allowing this kind of updating in their own practice. Heath Reedy’s talk was a prime example, detailing his exciting project of decoding relationships between systems as diverse as chess, the Sephiroth, alchemy, Tarot, I-Ching, and Lenormand—and that’s not even an exhaustive list.
This brings us to a kind of middle sea where all these waters merge. I frame it this way because that is where my own flow exists. There is a certain cocktail my endocrine system crafts for me when I am writing, studying, or divining within that zone, the sweet spot within the hydrosphere of divination, shall we call it? It's a symbolic ocean that reflects all of human creativity, from our art and technology to our social and political acts. And in the current global climate of conflict, acknowledging the darker currents in this collective psyche feels not just relevant, but necessary.
It is within this turbulent climate that we see speakers at the Lenormand summit opening up about a whole variety of alternative ways to make, use, and interpret cards.
If you are new to Lenormand, it’s worth mentioning that the community has always had a significant percentage of strict traditionalists. Their camps focus on French, German, or other origins, centering on the meanings from the little white book that came with the first published decks. For them, using the cards beyond those original instructions would often elicit firm corrective comments in online forums. As Susanne Sanner mentioned in her talk, these "card wars" have been going on for a long time. I’ve observed plenty of friction over these points since I entered the coliseum back in 2017.
However, there now seems to be a sea change. More practitioners are loosening their grip on rigid structures and enjoying the play and brilliance that comes with experimentation. This shift was definitely on display at the conference, and I was glad to see it. It’s like Lenormand is experiencing a glow-up: Taking up space, speaking its truth, and letting go of what no longer serves it.
Don’t trip. I’m playing.
Ultimately, this evolution is a good thing. I hope it brings forward even more quality insights and encourages traditionalists to share the potential and potency of their craft. There is room for everyone as we all follow our Heart, Letter, Mountain, Rider, Sun, Fish, House, Anchor.
More of our blogs can be found:
Myselfismycards blog (https://www.myselfismycards.com/myselfismycards-blog)
Ethan Nicoll Astrologer blog (https://www.ethannicollastrologer.com/blog-2-1)
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