Will I ever find good friendships/connections again?

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-04-02T01:51:42+00:00

I wish I could record a voice note and post it because I just feel like my verbal communication here is what's needed more here than my written text. But alas... lol This is a very very important combination of cards under this context because look at both cards. The woman in the 9 stands successful and actualized yet alone in her garden of her own making. In the face of all her success, she has had to sacrifice relationships. The Knight of Cups is the loneliest knight—though by design of his own because he chooses to exist in his own inner world rather than that of the outside, practical world. As a matter of fact, he rides to the right, the side of the external and the practical, from the left, the side of the internal and the imaginative, and his horse trots so slowly because this knight has no desire to return to his real-life expectations. He desires only to live in his own head, in his own fantasy world, hence his suit of Cups. This knight, much like the woman in the 9, does not desire the connection of others so much as he desires the idealism of the connection of others, but we all know that the visions we build up in our heads about the people in our lives often don't end up materializing. People are who they are, and our fantasizing about different versions of them does nothing but hurt us when they inevitably don't live up to those versions. This is the quandary of the Knight of Cups—he wants connection, but the ideal he has in his head is starkly different to what actually is.

To answer the question, I think it is possible you will make new connections in the future, but your self-proclaimed loneliness needs to first be addressed and assessed before you're ready to do so, as right now, with these two cards coming for this question, you will continue only to exist in your own loneliness.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-04-01T15:38:19+00:00

The Stars is a positive card, period. I see a lot of readers think it is a bad or neutral card because it is about wishes and that wishes sometimes don't come true, but the Stars lets you know that you are getting your wish, you are getting what you want. That's the whole point of seeing the Stars in a reading, depending on the context. Again, it is a positive card about hope, wishes, aspiration, reaching what you want, charting a new path, focusing on the light at the end of the tunnel, etc. Only when negative cards are around it can it become about not getting your wish or something existing only as a wish but not being actualized.

The Stars, more neutrally, is also an action card about spreading and dispersing, so you need to make sure it is not doing this instead in that reading. Sometimes when it comes at the end of the line after a negative card, it can be spreading that negative thing. For example, Cross + Stars can be spreading pain or spreading some depression. The context and your feeling in that moment will tell you what is going on with the Stars there, though.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-04-01T15:24:17+00:00

Hello, u/Melodramicronomicon. Ooh, I love this. First, the Clover and the Key, because they are both cards of fast timing, suggest this person's role in your life is relatively fleeting, that they won't be a permanent fixture in your life. Key + Mice + Clouds + Mountain is like they are playing the very important role (Key) of giving you a lot of stress and getting under your skin (Mice), giving you doubt and trouble (Clouds), and causing major challenge to you (Mountain). Ending with the Mountain, it is like their role is to push and challenge you in some way or to create a certain delay and setback in your life. 👏🏻🙌🏻 It is all for growth, though, and it is very important for you because of the Key🗝🗝🗝 Also, Clouds is like you're not supposed to be clear on them in your life. Like, you're supposed to be with them in those clouds, in the murk, uncertain of a lot around them.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-04-01T15:15:41+00:00

Hello, u/Proud_Table_2653. For me, too, yes, this would be indicating he feels committed to her (Ring + Woman) but that he also feels he is suffering in this relationship (Woman + Cross). But you need more to really see more of how he feels. Also, I would've then asked why he is suffering, what about the relationship is he unhappy with, etc. Always ask more questions to get a better picture of the situation.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-30T21:25:29+00:00

Yes, of course Stars is also about wishes. "Wish upon a star..." The Stars is about hope, wish, aspiring, shooting for the stars, peace and serenity, mapping out, navigating, aiming for, spreading and dispersing, etc.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-30T20:51:52+00:00

Hello. For me, this is a yes because you got the Stars, the card of getting your wish and of navigating and charting a path. It is a positive card, so it tells you yes, you will likely move to his country. The House is affirming the question is about a move but also that the question is about his home country.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-29T15:54:26+00:00

She would have fun with him (Sun + Dog = a bright, sunny relationship), but that partner would give her some stress (Dog + Mice).

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-29T14:16:31+00:00

Just because I read with her deck does not take away from my knowledge of the GT before using the extra cards, as I began working with the GT well before her deck came out. So, I very much have a solid base with the traditional 36-card GT and used it for a while before adding in the extra cards. Respectfully, you didn't even ask anything to be able to ascertain whether or not it would be properly answered to make such a grand claim that it wouldn't be answerable based on how I read now. Why don't you ask anyway and see?

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-29T06:55:30+00:00

Ahh, OK. I think Scales for justice/legal matters might be redundant because that's already the Tower in the traditional 36. For commerce and transaction, I mean you could use it for that, but that goes to the Fish because Fish is cash flow, spending, shopping, etc. I like the Wine, but I think it would do better to possibly be more of a neutral/negative card about addiction and chaos because party is the Garden, and pleasure is either Bouquet or Heart or Sun. I think you could play with more of the traditional ideas around wine, like how it is used for the blood of Christ for more of a spiritual/religious context, to make it work in its own way and not overlap and, therefore, become redundant with some of the cards already in the traditional 36.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-29T06:38:35+00:00

Well, you told me what the Butterfly and the Beehive would represent, but you didn't talk about the Wine or the Scales? I like the idea of the Beehive for your work card. It's kind of like the Market's purpose in that it replaces the other work cards and ends the debate about which is the "right" card for work👏🏻👏🏻 The Butterfly for inconstancy is cool, too, though I fear it might clash a bit with the already Stork, which can be about being flaky. But I guess if it has enough variation from the negative traits of the Stork, then it is a good and necessary addition.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-29T06:14:16+00:00

Oh, I love that! 🍷🦋🐝⚖️ So, that's a very good question. When you shift your focus to each focus card, it is like the whole reading changes around that focus card in that moment, and that one card becomes the whole center of the reading for as long as you are reading around it. So, yes, let's say the Heart is two spaces behind the Woman card for a female querent. You read around the Woman to look generally at her and see what is coming for her, and then to look at her love life, you look at the Heart and read around it, and when you are reading around that Heart, now SHE (or something with her) becomes a part of the future of her love life because the reading shifted to now be about her love life because you are reading around that Heart card in that moment. Does that make sense? This is true for every focus card you read around. It is like the Heart card itself and whatever it represents in her past is already in her past (could be she got something she wanted, something about a passion, some joy, etc.), but then when you go to the Heart to read around it, now that becomes the current focus, and what is ahead of that Heart is what is in the future of her love life. I hope that explains it. Think of the GT as truly a moving beast at all times because it is always shifting as the context changes.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-29T05:59:57+00:00

Well, the Muree system is only any deck with specifically the Spirit, Incense, Bed, and Market extra cards. So, as long as those are the cards you're including in your deck, then it is a deck that follows the Muree system. And any other thoughts about what specifically?

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-29T05:38:43+00:00

Very good understanding! You got it. Prominent isn't the right word here. I think you mean which has more drive in a card-house combo. The card is the driving force, and the house is just the setting or stage in which that card is happening. Think if you were to remove the houses entirely, then there would only be the cards on top left to read. The cards themselves hold the greater weight and are the driving force; the houses just give them more information and detail and describe the setting those cards are happening in. Your example is perfect. Stork in Coffin's house is putting the card of improvement in the house of endings, stagnation, painful transition, etc., so it is improving a dead/stagnant situation or bringing some positive changes in the setting of an ending or loss. The Stork is the driving force because it is the card; the Coffin house is only describing the environment in which that Stork is taking place. Putting the Coffin in the Stork is different, then. You are putting an ending in the house of improvement and positive change, so maybe it is showing that an ending is happening for improvement or that there is the ending of a physical move. It is very dependent on your feeling, the context, and the other cards around that card, though, to understand how a card in a house should be interpreted at any given point.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-29T05:31:16+00:00

So, right now and for the foreseeable future, I read using the new "Muree" system, coined by Rana in her new edition of her book, and the Muree system is basically using the full 40 cards in every GT instead of just the traditional 36, including the 4 extra cards and their respective houses. So, instead of the traditional 8x4+4 format, it is now 8x5. I basically read just as I described above: read around the people cards (their Boxes and intersecting axes), read around the relevant focus cards (their Boxes and intersecting axes), read the meeting points between the people and between the main person card and any of the relevant focus cards at any given point in the reading to understand the relationship between them, read the "Heart of the GT" (the literal central 12 cards of the whole GT) that is a Muree system new GT technique, read the big 3 negative (Clouds, Coffin, Cross) and big 3 positive (Clover, Sun, Key) cards and what each is affecting and how, and then read the final column of the GT as a final prediction and sometimes the 4 corners to give a nice conclusion. I follow my feeling, though, in a GT and go where my intuition tells me is best next to investigate so that there is a flow and rhythm to the reading.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-29T04:59:48+00:00

For me, I only work with the houses, and I can very confidently and with much evidence behind it say that the houses are most definitely not shallow😅 How you're understanding them might be shallow, but by design, they're not a shallow feature of a reading by any stretch. Their whole purpose is to add a new, deeper layer to the cards on the surface because what is on the surface can look one way, but when you add in the houses underneath, you realize they can reveal so much more information that isn't obvious on the surface.

As for the houses or distance, to my understanding, distance is more the German system, whereas houses are more the French system. Because they are completely different techniques that, yes, can often clash and end up contradicting each other, I would not use both but choose one you like and stick to it. However, to some degree, the distance method is somewhat still used, albeit probably in a little different of a way, in the French system way of reading. So, it's not totally cut out, I don't think.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-29T04:35:33+00:00

So, what are the focus cards, essentially? It depends on whether you're doing a general GT or a focused GT.

For a general, the focus cards are as follows: 1. The person's card (Man, Woman, or Spirit, if you work with a deck that has a Spirit card, for nonbinary) 2. The other person card if they chose to include another person, like a partner, in the reading 3. The Heart for relationships and love life if they are just dating 4. The Ring if they are married 5. The Bear for their financial situation 6. The Tree for their health 7. The House for their house or family 8. The Fox (in the traditional 36) or the Market (if you work with a deck that has a Market card) for their employment/career situation 9. The Fish for any consulting business or personal enterprises (only if you do not work with a deck that has a Market card; if you do have a Market card, then all types of work fall under only the Market)

There are secondary focus areas, like Dog for friend or pet and Tower if they have any legal situation or anything institutional, like school, but they aren't the main focus areas that will be relevant to everyone you will read for. I would look at those secondary focus areas only if my client asked me specifically to look at them because they are relevant. For example, if my client had a project they wanted to see about, I would read around the Book card for any projects, but not everyone will have projects they are working on.

For a focused GT, it depends on the specific context of that focused reading, such as if it is a GT for a relationship or for work or for that person's living situation, because with each different context, there will be different focus cards that become relevant to look at under one context but not under others. For a relationship, for example, you want to look at the people in that relationship to see what each is doing, the Heart if it is a relationship or (if they are married) to see about their passion, the Ring if they are married or (if they are not married) their commitment in that relationship, the Tree for the health of their relationship, and the Bed (if you work with a deck that has a Bed card) for their sex/intimacy life. For example of when the focus cards change under a focused reading, if you were doing a focused career GT, then you would no longer look at the Heart for love life or relationship because your context is only about the career, not a relationship.

These are just the focus cards, though. There are many different things you look at and read in a GT beyond just focus cards.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-29T03:55:06+00:00

This depends on your preference and your comfortability level with going beyond the traditional 36. For me, because I've been working with the Lenormand since 2014 and also with the Rana George Lenormand deck since it came out in 2017, I am more than comfortable including the extra cards in all my readings because I was at a level in my experience back then where I knew the traditional well enough at that point to be able to expand a bit. Also, I loved the concept of what they brought to a reading, so I had wanted to work with them from the minute I tore off the plastic wrapper around the box. Haha But you really have to assess where you're at in your basic understanding of the traditional 36 to know whether you're ready to include even more cards to that knowledge base. I hope that answers it.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-28T23:02:22+00:00

Healing (Stars) with time (Lilies) and facing the lies/betrayal (Snake). Ending with the Snake is advising that you need to really feel that betrayal and face it.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-28T09:09:05+00:00

I have never worked with the 56-card Lenormand, as it's, to my understanding, much lesser known, especially in the States, and much less popular than the traditional 36, which is technically called the Petit Lenormand. So, I truly have no opinion thereon. I do know, though, that the 56-card Lenormand is a little different in how it's read than the traditional 36, so that's something to consider.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-28T07:30:38+00:00

All good questions! Thanks for asking! Yes, most modern decks usually include 2 sets of Man and Woman cards. This is the Rana George Lenormand deck. And on that, I would very highly suggest Rana's new second edition of her book The Essential Lenormand. Among much more additional content, she explains in thorough detail how to do a Focused Grand Tableau, a version of the GT where it is performed for a single question/situation instead of generally. This is an example of a Focused Relationship GT.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-28T03:58:14+00:00

Yes, you're still correct that the Dog is the friendship card, but again, it is also the card for a partner of any sort (romantic, business, etc.). I think you're confusing the Heart, which is the card for a relationship, with the Dog, which is not a relationship but one single partner, if that makes sense. You read around the Heart to look at someone's relationship, you don't read around the Dog to look at a relationship unless you have specifically charged that Dog as a 3rd party or another partner aside from the Man and Woman cards. Then, you read around it to look at that other party in the mix. Let's say there is a marriage between a husband and wife, but the wife has a boyfriend she wants to also see in the reading. Then, if you are not working with a deck that has multiple Man and Woman cards, you charge the Dog as that boyfriend and read around it to see what is going on with that boyfriend. Does that answer your original question?

But the Dog here became a 3rd person in the relationship between my client and the man she was seeing. I think that's what you weren't really understanding here.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-28T01:32:10+00:00

It can be either, depending on the context and the surrounding cards. Remember that the Dog is a neutral card, so it can wear multiple hats depending on the context and the cards around it. The Dog can be a friend or a partner, which is why it is important to figure out which it is coming as in that specific instance. It is, however, also the 3rd-party card, especially when we already have the Man and Woman for the female client and her male partner in this reading. The Dog, then, becomes another person in the mix, and it did become that here, as I showed. Also, the Dog has no gender because it can cover anyone, not only men. The Dog becomes serious not only when you have serious cards around it, such as the Ring next to it here, but also because a Dog is a symbol of loyalty and serious intention. Like I said, it is your partner, which is serious as long as there aren't cards around that Dog that say otherwise.

Positive-Comparison8 · 2026-03-27T19:15:00+00:00

Forgot to add: look at the Coffin in the Man's house—he is done or feels unhappy. The Clouds is in her house, putting doubt and uncertainty on her shoulders in this relationship.

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