Lenormand Cards

Lenormand Cards are named after the most famous fortune-teller of all time, Mademoiselle Marie Anne Lenormand who was born in 1772 in Normandy (as her name suggests). She was 5 years old when her parents died and she entered a convent orphanage. Though her personal history is unclear, she was sent to Paris at 14 years of age and apprenticed to a milliner but by the age of 30 she was known as the ‘Sibyl of the Parisian Salons’. Many celebrities of the day met with her and reported on her style and methods. The telling of fortunes was described as a ‘black art’ and was illegal so she designed her own card decks to double as ordinary picture cards. They were small enough to hide in the volumes of her lace and pearls should she be confronted by the police. Her drawing room, the ‘Sanctum Sanctorum’ was guarded by a servant and Mademoiselle Lenormand would appear from a hidden door within the panelled walls. The room was extravagantly decorated and perfumed and she wore highly exotic costumes. She would shuffle and the Querent (a derivation of a Latin word meaning ‘seeker’ and denoting someone who seeks the advice of a cartomancer or medium) would cut the cards with their left hand and she would lay the cards out in rows, side by side, asking, as she did so, a number of questions, such as the Querent’s date of birth, favourite colour or animal.

Mademoiselle Lenormand was reputed to be an advisor to the Empress Josephine and to have read cards for Napoleon Bonaparte, who was said to have had her thrown into the Bastille for a reading that was not to his liking. She was also imprisoned in Belgium in 1821. She read cards for Tsar Alexander of Russia and the leaders of the French Revolution, foretelling the deaths of Robespierre and Marat. She wrote approximately a dozen books and created a publishing house for self-promotional writing which was a front her divinatory activities but she never revealed her methods. Upon her death in 1843, at 71 years of age, she had no close heirs so her Catholic nephew inherited her Fr 500,000, a vast sum of money earnt during her forty year career as the world’s most famous Cartomancer. He burned her cards and writings. Soon decks were being created in her name.

A small 36 card deck is known as Petit Jeu Lenormand Cards. Alongside selected playing card images, they featured a house, child, birds, garden, ring, stars, key etc., and were used for every day fortune telling. Le Grande Jou Lenormand, is a deck of 52 playing cards with 4 suits and 3 court cards with each suit. They bear images of constellations and signs of the zodiac, classical myths, flowers, talismans and numbers. Both Lenormand card decks contain two cards with an image of a man and a woman, one chosen to represent the gender of the Querent. Early decks were used with dice and known as a ‘Game of Hope’.

To read Le Petit Lenormand, cards, it is recommended to use the entire 36 cards laid in six rows of six cards, called Le Grande Tableau. This includes the male and female cards, one of which will represent the Querent. Cards are read from the Querent’s card horizontally, vertically and diagonally, using the direction that the Querent’s card is facing and taking into consideration the images of the cards closest to this card. No reversals are appropriate. You take for example, an anchor and its meaning could be positive or negative according to the cards at any position close to it, so it could mean stability or it could be restriction. 

To read Le Grand Jeu de Mlle Lenormand, due to the amount of information illustrated on each card, far fewer cards are required for an in depth reading. Five cards are usually sufficient. Once again, the cards assume a different reading according to their position within a spread. Of the five cards, the middle card represents the Querent. The two cards on the left represent habits and future possibilities, and the two cards to the right reveal plans, hopes and desires. Larger spreads can be used, and the male and female cards can be included for a more personal reading. 

Published in Psychic News Magazine
Article by Wendy Stokes https://wendystokes.co.uk