Patrick Dunn

At this point, there aren't that many books in English about Lenormand divination, so it would be reasonable to expect that the few books that do exist would focus on the basics of Lenormand and how to get started. Many of them do just that, but that's not this book's strength, and I can't recommend it as your Very First Lenormand Book. Dunn is forthright about that, saying that this is "only secondarily a how-to book," but it's not that obvious from the cover and the book description.

This show more book is intended for a reader who is familiar with the tarot, but not with Lenormand. It's mainly about Lenormand and secondarily about the Major Arcana (there isn't much about the Minor Arcana). Dunn provides a list of keywords and sample illustrations for both of these, and if you're feeling adventurous, you could get started learning Lenormand from that. But I think many people want a bit more to work with when they're learning a new system. For instance, card combinations are important in reading Lenormand. I enjoyed Dunn's analysis of four kinds of card combinations, but if this was my introduction to Lenormand, that would have confused me. He refused to list card combinations—and I understand there's always a danger when you have a list like that of deciding those are the only right answers and not trusting your intuition—but I liked seeing several examples (in other books) to get a feel for them.

Since other books will lead you through the basics, I recommend reading this book for what it covers that those others don't. There's a chapter on asking questions that would be useful for any form of divination, not just cartomancy. Dunn discusses questions that reveal meaning and those that reveal data, why some querents don't seem to have questions or don't want to tell you what they are, and how to focus a question so that it gets at what the querent actually wants to know. He speculates on how divination works and offers suggestions on how to use abductive reasoning (nonrational thinking) to perceive patterns. He talks about how to pay attention to how your body feels when you consider card combinations so that you're less likely to lie to yourself about a reading. There's a chapter on divination and magic, for when you wish to shape events, not just learn about them. Dunn writes with a sense of humor (the first appendix is called "Okay, Fine, A List of Meanings for the Cards, if You Insist"), and I thought the book was not just informative but a pleasure to read. show less

Patrick Dunn is both a magician and a linguist. With that in mind, just think of this book as A Linguist's Exploration of Magic rather than A Magician's Exploration of Linguistics, as the subtitle would have it. While Magic, Power, Language, Symbol explores magic in some depth, it will only give you a taste of what linguistics is like.

Dunn begins the book by discussing how applying semiotics (the study of symbols) can increase a spell's efficacy. From there, he uses linguistics to examine show more symbols and language, the bases of magic. Dunn focuses on ceremonial magic and several of the middle chapters are devoted to topics such as Enochian magic, the Qabala, and gematria. If, like me, you're not all that interested in ceremonial magic, these chapters might seem a bit long. Don't skip them though; Dunn includes interesting nuggets such as how to use glossolalia in magic. The early and last chapters are more general and will probably appeal to a broader audience. show less

Dunn's work is approachable, plain and clear and combines a rare insight of a professional linguist engaged in magical practice.

Apart from some intuited techniques that I knew from before, I got some food for thought to combine it via synergy of an arsenal of tools used to achieve aims: mainly in Theurgy and street-magick, when the semiotic web of adverts, entities, energies, psychomorphs, human minds, and interlocking beings, dimensions, genius loci is dense and force one to engage all the show more time.

Reminded of old de Saussere's ideas, Korzybski and Hayakawa, as well as Wierzbicka book on universals, primes in linguistics, 'Lost Languages', cultural translation and interpretation it is overall a great feature and pleasant to read.

Combination of all these tools and more are highly successful in gnosis arretos (silent language mentioned by Proclous) in Theion Ergon, as well as communication with spirits, not to mention conscious usage of languge amongs our human tribe! Hah! show less

Dunn's work is approachable, plain and clear and combines a rare insight of a professional linguist engaged in magical practice.

Apart from some intuited techniques that I knew from before, I got some food for thought to combine it via synergy of an arsenal of tools used to achieve aims: mainly in Theurgy and street-magick, when the semiotic web of adverts, entities, energies, psychomorphs, human minds, and interlocking beings, dimensions, genius loci is dense and force one to engage all the show more time.

Reminded of old de Saussere's ideas, Korzybski and Hayakawa, as well as Wierzbicka book on universals, primes in linguistics, 'Lost Languages', cultural translation and interpretation it is overall a great feature and pleasant to read.

Combination of all these tools and more are highly successful in gnosis arretos (silent language mentioned by Proclous) in Theion Ergon, as well as communication with spirits, not to mention conscious usage of languge amongs our human tribe! Hah! show less