Lenormand deck

This deck is rather different from your usual RW based deck in that there is no major and minor arcana and you use the whole 36 card deck for the reading.

The deck was designed by Mlle LeNormand in the 1780-90s in Paris. She went from rags to riches reading for the elite in France and predicted the downfall of Napoleon and others. She was also into Astrology and other esoteric methods.

There is more than one style of the deck. I have the deck printed in Switzerland which features pictures and a poem. The poems help to guide the reader on the meaning of the cards.

Mlle LeNormand's Spread:

Get the querent to shuffle the deck and cut it 3 times.
Deal out all the cards in four rows of eight, with the four leftover cards below the rows of eight.

In the deck are two cards that represent the querent. One is a male, one a female. Where the querent card falls will give meaning to the cards around it.

For instance: If the querent card falls in the centre, you will read cards to the left as the past, cards to the right as the future.

Cards close will have one meaning, cards far away another. You have to pay attention to combinations of cards. eg. Positive cards around a negative card will mean that the problem will not be as bad. Or a ring card next to the scythe will indicate an unhappy relationship.

Pictures of the deck: in the oracle cards section.
More info: www.serenapowers.com/lenormand.html

These cards are excellent for the intuitive reader.

Carolyn: I'm so glad you posted this. I have two Lenormand decks, and I have never been able to figure out how to use them properly. I already had that link bookmarked but still, I'm having problems.

I would love to be able to fortune-tell with these cards, and I believe them to be very accurate when they are used correctly.

You talk about the cards to the left and to the right - horizontally. But how does one read them vertically - the cards above, the cards below?

And how does one work in timing? Is it the cards that are close to the querant card that are the ones nearest in time, and the ones furthest away, the farthest.

Is it necessary to read all the cards, or is it only the ones nearest the querant card that are important?

So many questions.

Have you never used the cards that have all the different pictures on them? I have one of those decks as well, and I find them terribly confusing.

Perhaps I should take a course. There are courses here in Switzerland, being so close to France, there is a certain interet in the Lenormand cards. It could come in handy to make a bit of extra money, if I learned to read them properly. People love having their fortune told.

Hi,

You can also use "normal" tarot spreads for the LeNormand cards. This works also well, in fact I like much more doing tarot spreads with LeNormand cards instead of the "traditional" LeNormand spread.

B/W there are at least 3 more LeNormand decks out in Germany: a set of huge cards with pictures from Greek mythology, flowers, star signs, etc all combined on the cards, another LeNormand deck called the LeNormand Revival cards and some pocket sized variations of the LeNormand cards.

I understand there's a fairly recent deck called "Titania's Fortune Cards" which are based on the Lenormand cards (I've just ordered these from Amazon).

I've moved this thread to Divination because it's non-Tarot.

-- Lee

I have the 36 card set and the 54 card set of Mlle Lenormand cards, and I am not fully used to reading them either, also I have the impression that they would be a very good means for readings. I have looked at amazon for some books, and found some in German (although I don't know about English ones).

I would also agree that you, basically, can use almost any spread with the cards. I have seen quite a variety of sets/decks so far, with poems, without poems, different styles of images and so on and so forth.

Regarding the timing line - I have, somewhere in my archives something about this, I think to remember. I will try to dig it up and post it here later.

BB,
Helruna

catlin said:

Hi,

there are at least 3 more LeNormand decks out in Germany: a set of huge cards with pictures from Greek mythology, flowers, star signs, etc all combined on the cards, another LeNormand deck called the LeNormand Revival cards and some pocket sized variations of the LeNormand cards.

Click to expand...

catlin: that deck you talk about with Greek mythology, etc., I have one (but not a big one, a pocket sized one) and I find it so confusing and so fascinating at the same time. I would so much love to know how to use it properly. I don't know about the "revival cards" - I'll check and see what they are.

Interesting that one can do Tarot spreads with this deck. I'd never thought about it. I'll try that out in the coming week. Do my daily spread with them and see what happens. But I'd really love to know how to do the classical spread properly. Maybe I just haven't given it enough time.

Helruna: please go digging in your archives (put on a helmet in case they come crashing down on your head - lol - ). I'm very interesting in this timing thing.

Diana said:

catlin: that deck you talk about with Greek mythology, etc., I have one (but not a big one, a pocket sized one) and I find it so confusing and so fascinating at the same time. I would so much love to know how to use it properly. I don't know about the "revival cards" - I'll check and see what they are.

Click to expand...

If the "revival card" are by Windpferd, I know what they are. They are similar to the ones you already have, Diana - they have the Greek mythology etc. on them. I have them too.

*puts her helmet on, checks her torch and gets ready to search her archives*

Will do my best to find whatever I have on them.

BB,
Helruna

Hi Helruna,

Mery Meet and Welcome here! Yes, the Revival cards I was talking about are the ones by Windpferd. How do you like them? I only have seen one tiny picture of them in a catalogue and could not make up my mind to get them or not.

Time line guide by Bernd A. Mertz

The following is by the author Bernd A. Mertz and taken from the book "Wahrsagen mit den Karten der Madame Lenormand" (Foretune telling with the Madame Lenormand cards):

Time line guide

The problem with the card readings at times is to find out how long it might take until the shown event/outcome will take place. Here is a method that might be helpful:

The “problem card” is referred to in the text as PC. This can be either the first card in a layout (if it isn’t too big and has too many cards) or, in a bigger spread where the PC, the card that best represents the question/situation/problem and then go to the last card, the “goal card”, GC, in the spread.

The “golden rule” (stated by Bernd A. Merzt) is that you should only “add” numbers, not subtract:

- cards 1 - 6 always represent years,
- cards 7 - 30 always months,
- cards 31 - 36 always days.

The numbers of the cards (see also examples) show how to multiply the different years/months/days.

Some examples:

PC “The Tree” (5) = 5 years, or 60 months
GC “The Book” (26) = 26 months
60 plus 26 months = 86 months
= 7 years plus 2 months


PC “The Key” (33) = 33 days
GC “The Bouquet” (?flowers/9) = 9 months
= 9 months and 33 days


PC “The Dog” (18 ) = 18 months
GC “The Snake” (7) = 7 months
= 2 years and 2 months


As you can see, sometimes the time period is too long for a certain result to finally kick in. Then the querent has to choose whether he wants to give up (what Merzt suggests, as he sees it as a negative answer to the question) or seek another way (my personal opinion) to solve the problem or get what the querent is looking for.

Another smaller guide, source unknown

Here is another time line guide for the 36 card version. Unfortunately, I don't know where I got it from, some website, but I forgot to post the link in my archives (me dummie!).

The Clover (2): very soon (3 - 4 days)

The Tree (5): longer time period (9 - 12 months) or early evening/sunset

The Stars (16): night, winter

The Roads/Ways (? 22): approximately about 7 weeks

The Letter (27): to soon/short, only for a short time

The Sun (31): Dawn till noon

The Moon (32): early sunset/afternoon until evening

The Cross (36): 2 - 3 weeks

Well, I guess you might look either for the card close to the Significator/personal card, or at the end, in the last position. There are no directions given in my document where exactly the cards are "supposed" to show up to read them for time line.


As far as the 54 cards go, well, I think the astrological associations might also indicate certain time lines as well. I haven't worked with them yet, so I had to go back and read the book/look at the cards to come up with a time line guide or so.

Hope this helps. That is all that I can find (right now).

BB,
Helruna

*got back save from her dungeon like archives*