The Crossroads

Crossroads · No. 22 · Playing card ♦Q · Choices, decisions, multiple paths

The card

Paths fork on the card, the junction clearly visible, leading in different directions.

Traditional meaning

Traditionally the Crossroads is choice and decision, and the presence of several possibilities at once.

How to read it

The Crossroads says "it is time to choose". More than one road exists and one has to be taken. The card gives no answer of its own — the answer sits in the neighbouring cards. Sometimes it simply describes the hesitation, the not-deciding.

In context

Love

Choosing between two people, or deciding whether to stay in the relationship.

Work

Moving on or staying put; two proposals, one to pick.

Timing

Now — the decision point has arrived.

Common combinations

Lenormand meanings were first written down in the instruction sheet issued around 1846 by Philippe Lenormand, heir of Marie-Anne Lenormand, and that sheet has long been in the public domain. The "Traditional meaning" section here describes the classical reading handed down from that line, in our own words — it is not a verbatim quotation of the sheet. Card images are public-domain scans of Das Spiel der Hoffnung (1799).