Recently, I asked my Lenormand Learner’s Community for their burning questions…

And of course, they delivered! The most asked about card was by far the Lilies. This neutral, seemingly innocuous card is stirring up some trouble in the readings of this curious community. Naturally, it was a great opportunity to dig into here in Deep Dive Divination.

These are the questions we are going to answer in this post:

Does the Lilies mean sex?

How do I know whether the Lilies indicates something peaceful or something slow?

If you’re looking for the Lilies card meaning, sample combinations and example spreads, you will find that HERE.

Time to dig in! But before we fully answer these questions...

Let’s back that thing up.

We need to remember that Lenormand and divination is about YOUR relationship with the cards.

When I began thinking about the Lilies, I found myself craving a discussion about the heart of what Lenormand and card reading is truly all about: your relationship with the cards based on experience. Yes, there are “traditional” meanings for the cards which are important to note and do significantly contribute to accuracy in my experience, but ultimately, reading cards comes down to the relationship between the cards and the diviner.

Here’s what I mean by a relationship with your cards: each time you are picking up your cards to read, you are engaged in an exchange with your deck. You ask a question, interpret the answer, and see how it plays out in real life. Next time you approach a similar topic or question, you may rephrase/refine your question based on how the cards played out previously. You are having a conversation and learning how to communicate more effectively with your straight up friend, Lenormand.

You may be thinking...okay Emily...what does this have to do with the Lilies card?

Pick it and stick it.

Before we can even begin to build a relationship with the Lilies card, we need to select the card essence/meanings we will associate with the Lilies card. We pick the scope of meanings, then we stick with it. Pick it and stick it. Overtime, you may expand or contract your range of meanings but we need to commit to a range of meanings to begin with.

Depending on the book, teacher, or system you are utilizing, you will likely encounter a range of possible meanings for this card. This doesn’t necessarily mean one system of thought is “wrong” and the other is “right”. It just means that different relationships have formed with this card but the core essence is typically very similar.

Personally, I use the same range of meanings that Rana George does because she is my mentor and helped me formalize my Lenormand understanding. Her book, The Essential Lenormand, is my favorite book on Lenormand. Here are some of the keywords I associate with the Lilies:

PATIENCE
MATURITY
AGING
PEACE
WAITING
SLOW
WISDOM

This brings us back to our first question:

Does the Lilies mean sex?

The short answer is yes it can mean this but I don’t use this association and here’s why…

You may find other websites/systems do indeed include sex as a possible meaning for this card. You can totally use this meaning! It has been used historically and continues to be frequently used today.

However, in my own card practice I do not associate sex with the Lilies card because I do not feel it meshes with the modern essence of the card. My relationship with the card may be different from other readers and that is okay. If you do see sex aligning with this card - keep using it! You picked it, stick with it! (no pun intended here ;-) I personally use the Whip card to represent sex in a traditional 36 card petit Lenormand deck. When I use the bonus cards in the Rana George deck, the Bed card represents sex for me. This Bed card is soooo helpful to have a separate designation for sex so we can free up our other cards.

Okay, so we answered our first question. Let’s move onto our next question:

How do I know whether the Lilies indicates something peaceful or something slow?

Here’s the short answer:

When you really think about it, peace and slowness have a lot in common. Often, when we are at peace, we are not worried about time - things unfold how they unfold. The Lilies indicates slowness and the surrounding cards determine how the querent will experience the slowness, which if positive or neutral, can represent peace in certain circumstances.

For you deep dive diviners, let’s dig into this a little more.

Those of you that have taken my classes or have been following me for awhile...you probably know what I am about to harp on...

It’s all about the context.

AND it’s all about the surrounding cards.

Look to the context of your question to see which meaning would be most appropriate. For instance, if you are asking a question relating to a sequence of events then I find the Lilies tends to represent slow time. We then want to look at the surrounding cards to indicate HOW this slow time will feel. So if we ask the cards to show us the sequence of events pertaining to selling a house and we get:

I would interpret this spread as: you will be waiting around at first and this will cause doubt but then action picks up and ultimately you will be successful in selling it.

The Clouds indicated the negative association with the waiting/slowness because it is of a negative polarity and it is modifying the Lilies. We would see the waiting as troublesome and therefore, it isn’t peaceful.

But, if we ask something about the quality of an event or circumstance, we are more likely to get something surrounding peace or leisure if it is accompanied by positive cards.

If we were to ask, what will my vacation feel like? And we pull:

The trip will feel leisurely and you will enjoy the outdoors/environment.

We are talking about the quality of a vacation as our querent would experience it. Since the Lilies is modifying the Ship (travel) then we can have this peaceful but still slow time association. We don’t have a negative card surrounding it and we’re talking about the feel of the vacation.

Let’s come back to our answer to the question again:

When you really think about it, peace and slowness have a lot in common. Often, when we are at peace, we are not worried about time - things unfold how they unfold. The Lilies indicates slowness and the surrounding cards determine how the querent will experience the slowness, which if positive or neutral, can represent peace in certain circumstances.

For much more on the Lilies, please feel free to explore THIS PAGE, which has the Lilies card meaning, sample combos, and example spreads.

Thank you diviners for your interesting questions! It’s always so fun to dive deep with you :-)

If you want more deep dives, Lenormand tips and tricks, make sure you’re in the Lenormand Learner’s Community!