The position speaks as much as the card
The Grand Tableau brings out all thirty-six cards. None is set aside, none is chosen. The spread therefore cannot draw its information from selection, since there is none: it draws it entirely from distribution.
The system of houses is the fixed half of that information. Each place in the grid carries, once and for all, the meaning of the card that bears its number. The first position is the house of the Rider, whatever card falls there: it speaks of what is arriving. The thirty-fourth is the house of the Fish: it speaks of money. These thirty-six areas never move from one spread to the next.
The card is the mobile half. It comes to qualify the area of the house it lands in. So you find exactly the grammar of pairs described on the page about reading by combination, except that here the noun is the house and the qualifier is the card.
This table holds for the 4x9 format, four rows of nine cards, the one RunAstra uses as its reference. The numbered positions are read from left to right, row after row: position 1 at the top left, position 36 at the bottom right. In the 8x4 plus 4 format, the same house numbers exist but do not sit in the same places of the grid, which changes the whole neighbourhood.
A card in its own house
It happens that a card falls exactly on the position bearing its own number: The Key in position 33, The Fox in position 14.
Its meaning is then intensified. Area and qualifier merge, there is no longer any gap between what the position speaks of and what the card says. The Key in its house is a certainty without shading. The Mountain in its own is a blunt blockage. The Mice in theirs are a wearing away that no longer hides.
This doubling is a signal, not a conclusion. The card in its own house remains subject to its neighbours and to its distance from the significator, like every other card.
The table of the 36 houses, 4x9 format
| Position | House | What the position speaks of |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Rider | what is arriving, the awaited news |
| 2 | The Clover | where the lucky opening shows up |
| 3 | The Ship | what one sets out towards, the wish to leave |
| 4 | The House | the home, the family, what shelters |
| 5 | The Tree | health, what grows with time |
| 6 | The Clouds | what stays unclear, the zone of uncertainty |
| 7 | The Snake | the complication, the detour to be handled |
| 8 | The Coffin | what is ending, what has to be left behind |
| 9 | The Bouquet | what is offered, what gives pleasure |
| 10 | The Scythe | what gets cut, the clean break |
| 11 | The Whip | what repeats, what is argued over |
| 12 | The Birds | what is being talked about, what is stirred up |
| 13 | The Child | what is beginning, what is still small |
| 14 | The Fox | work, what calls for vigilance |
| 15 | The Bear | authority, what weighs with its full weight |
| 16 | The Stars | what guides, the horizon aimed at |
| 17 | The Stork | what changes, what renews itself |
| 18 | The Dog | the friend, what one can lean on |
| 19 | The Tower | the institution, the step back taken |
| 20 | The Garden | the public, where one is seen |
| 21 | The Mountain | what blocks, the obstacle to get past |
| 22 | The Crossroads | the choice to be made, the alternative |
| 23 | The Mice | what wears out, what is slowly lost |
| 24 | The Heart | love, what is loved |
| 25 | The Ring | commitment, what binds |
| 26 | The Book | the secret, what is still to be learned |
| 27 | The Letter | what is written, the message going round |
| 28 | The Man | the place of the male figure |
| 29 | The Woman | the place of the female figure |
| 30 | The Lily | maturity, what settles down |
| 31 | The Sun | success, what radiates |
| 32 | The Moon | recognition, what touches |
| 33 | The Key | what opens, certainty |
| 34 | The Fish | money, what circulates |
| 35 | The Anchor | what lasts, what one settles on |
| 36 | The Cross | the burden, what has to be gone through |
Carried over to the grid, the distribution comes out like this: the first row covers houses 1 to 9, the second houses 10 to 18, the third houses 19 to 27, the fourth houses 28 to 36.
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+One remark that pays off in reading: the two subject cards occupy houses 28 and 29, that is, the first two positions of the last row. A card falling there speaks of the place held by a male or female figure in the situation, which has nothing to do with where the significator itself happens to be.
Reading a card in a house
The formula is always the same: the house gives the area, the card gives the quality. You merge them into a short expression, never into two sentences.
The Fish in the house of the Rider, position 1. The house speaks of what is arriving, the card speaks of money. Reading: what is drawing closer concerns resources, news of a financial kind. The house does not say whether it is money coming in or going out; the neighbours will settle that.
The Fox in the house of the Moon, position 32. The house speaks of recognition, the card speaks of trade. Reading: professional reputation, the way the work is perceived. The area stays that of the Moon, work comes to qualify it.
The Mountain in the house of the Ring, position 25. The house speaks of commitment, the card speaks of obstacle. Reading: a commitment at a standstill, a contract that is not moving.
The Key in the house of the Mountain, position 21. The house speaks of blockage, the card speaks of opening. Reading: the obstacle has a way out, something unlocks where it was stuck.
The direction of reading never reverses. It is always the house that is the subject and the card that is the qualifier, including when the other way round would sound more elegant.
What the houses do not do
Three limits, to keep readings from inflating.
A house is not an answer. It situates a statement, it does not conclude it. An unfavourable card in the house of the Fish says nothing about the amount, the date or the outcome. It says the difficulty is playing out on the ground of money.
Neighbourhood comes before house. If a card is stuck against the significator, its relation to it outweighs its house. Houses are a second level of reading, not the first. The full working order is described on the Grand Tableau page.
A house is not read in a small spread. Houses exist only because all thirty-six cards are laid out. In a line of three or a cross of five, the positions have other roles, and applying houses to those formats makes no sense.
For the rest of the module, the mother page of the Petit Lenormand gives the origin of the deck, the reference school and the table of the thirty-six cards.
