The Petit Lenormand Oracle: A Comprehensive Manual For the 21st Century Card Reader

DEDICATION PAGE

I lovingly dedicate this book to my best friend and husband, Padraic Sutton. You are the anchor that keeps me from drifting out to sea. Beidh grá agam duit go deo.

If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.

-Margaret Fuller

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks go to Bjorn Meuris – because you never forget your first. Thank you for introducing me to the world of Lenormand; to Toni Puhle for showing me the value of studying a system; to Susan Branch, whose own story gave me the confidence to share my words with the world; to my caring and supportive husband, Padraic Sutton, without whom this book wouldn’t exist; to my late father, Ray, who forever reminded me to take a break from learning once in a while and teach; to Serge Pirotte, who always had an answer; and a special thank you to Camelia Elias, for giving me the permission I needed to be myself and do it my way. And, finally, to my muse, Beaker. My little Beagle-Cocker mix. The steadfast heartbeat at my feet. Thank you for waiting patiently for your walks when I suddenly started sitting a lot more than usual, staring at the electronic box and tapping my fingers furiously on the plastic board.

© Lisa Young-Sutton 2021

ISBN: 978-1-09835-970-6

eBook ISBN: 978-1-09835-971-3

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Contents

A LENORMAND STORY TO WHET YOUR APPETITE

WHO THE HELL AM I, ANYWAY?

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK?

Abbreviations:

START HERE

What is a card system?

What is intuition?

1. Grounding/Earthing:

2. Clearing and Raising your Vibration:

3. Mindful Breathing:

4. Connecting to Alpha:

5. Protection:

6. Setting your Intention:

7.Closing:

KILLING YOUR MOJO

SHUFFLING AND DRAWING CARDS 101

Standard shuffling methods:

Drawing methods:

Systems? We Don’t Need No Stinking Systems!

Or Do We?

LAYERS OF MEANING AND HOW DO YOU DECIDE

WHICH TO CHOOSE?

LENORMAND: THE GAME OF LIFE

THEME GROUPS

Topic/Object/Life-area:

Cards that explain or describe:

Movement/Change:

Fixed/Resistant to Change:

Descriptive Groups:

Work:

Relationships:

Communication:

Well-being:

People:

THE NUMBERS GAME

PLAYING CARD INSETS

How can we use the insets?

PLAYING CARD INSETS QUICK REFERENCE

THE FISH ALWAYS MEANS MONEY... UNTIL IT DOESN’TWHY WE DON’T WANT TO PIGEONHOLE CARDS IN LENORMAND

Fish Card Examples:

CAN THE MICE EAT THE MOUNTAIN? CAN THE SCYTHE KILL THE MICE? WILL THE COFFIN BURY THE SCYTHE?

SEX: THE LILY OR THE WHIP?

Lenormand Positive-Neutral-Negative

THE 36 CARDS

1 RIDER/CAVALIER/KNIGHT

2 CLOVER

3 SHIP

4 HOUSE

5 TREE

6 CLOUDS

7 SNAKE

8 COFFIN

9 BOUQUET/FLOWERS

10 SCYTHE

11 WHIP/ROD/BIRCH

12 BIRDS/OWLS

13 CHILD

14 FOX

15 BEAR

16 STARS

17 STORK

18 DOG

19 TOWER

20 GARDEN/PARK

21 MOUNTAIN

22 WAYS/CROSSROADS/PATH

23 MICE/RATS

24 HEART

25 RING

26 BOOK

27 LETTER

28 MAN

29 WOMAN/LADY

30 LILY

31 SUN

32 MOON

33 KEY

34 FISH

35 ANCHOR

36 CROSS

It’s All About the Question

Yes/No Questions

A QUESTION SAMPLER

QUESTION IDEAS BY THEME:

REPHRASING COMMON QUESTIONS:

LENORMAND TIMING

Timing assignments:

START WITH THREE CARDS

A Narrative Reading:

Paired Reading:

Charged Focus Card:

Uncharged Focus Card Reading with Middle Card Focus:

Focus Card Reading with First Card Focus:

Past Present Future (PPF) Reading:

Lines of Five and Seven:

HOUSES AND MULTIPLE DECKS FOR SMALL SPREADS

Houses in small spreads:

THE ART OF TABLEAU READING

VARIATIONS OF A BASIC CROSS SPREAD

How to Read a Basic Cross:

5-card cross variations with a preselected significator card (SC):

The 9-card cross:

EXTENDED CROSS SPREAD

BOX/PORTRAIT SPREAD

Interpretation Steps:

A BOX SPREAD EXAMPLE

THE PYRAMID SPREAD

CAUSE AND EFFECT PYRAMID:

PRESELECTED SIGNIFICATOR PYRAMID:

THE PYRAMIDAL YES/NO SPREAD:

THE INVERTED 11-CARD WHEN PYRAMID:

MY SIGNATURE SPREADS

1. My Extended Box.

2. The Party No-Table Reading.

3. The Conflict Resolution Spread.

4. Quick and Easy Options Spread.

5. A Quick and Easy Cross Spread.

SPREADS FOR ANIMAL COMMUNICATION

Physical and Personality Traits Spread

Compatibility Spread

A Grand Tableau for Animals

SPECIFIC TYPES OF READINGS

CONNECTING WITH THE SPIRIT WORLD

Example:

PERFORMING HEALTH READINGS

MY HEALTH AND WELL-BEING MEANINGS

CHAKRA QUICK REFERENCE SHEET

ANIMAL COMMUNICATION WITH LENORMAND THE BASIC PROCEDURE

Steps for connecting to animal energies:

Card Steps:

Tips and Advice:

Animal Communication Keywords

MISSING OR LOST OBJECTS, PEOPLE, ANIMALS

Spread ideas:

Some missing object keywords:

A fun exercise to try:

BABY STEPS TOWARD GRAND TABLEAU MASTERY

GRAND TABLEAU (GT) STEPS

POSITION MEANINGS IN A GRAND TABLEAU

HOUSE MEANINGS

MOD/METHOD OF DISTANCE/NEAR-FAR STEPS

General steps.

My Life-Area/Theme Cards:

Distance Rules For Individual Cards:

A MOD Example:

HOW AM I DOING? GT

An Example. Jean’s Reading:

A QUICK HOW AM I DOING GT BASED ON

CHAINING HOUSES

LET’S PLAY CONNECT THE DOTS!

TIPS AND STEPS FOR USING EXTRA CARDS

Extra card GT example:

ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END

A LENORMAND STORY TO WHET YOUR APPETITE

Picture this, if you will. You’re sitting at your desk on a lovely Friday afternoon in June playing with your cards. A woman approaches and says, Oh, I didn’t know you read cards! excitedly. You reply that you’re only learning. She proceeds to tell you that her Persian kitten, Irina, got out of the house a couple days prior and asks you to see what the cards have to say about the kitten returning home. You remind her that you’re new to the cards and are a little nervous about asking such an important question. She assures you that she will take what you say with a grain of salt. Ok. The pressure’s off. You begin to shuffle your deck while concentrating on this question, Show me if Irina will return home by the end of the week. You lay out three cards. They are, Cross-Sun-House. You look at the cards for only a second or two and say, After church on Sunday, she’ll return home. No sooner do the words leave your mouth that you begin to second-guess yourself and you start to make excuses, reminding her that you really don’t know how to read these cards yet. Once again, she assures you that it’s fine and thanks you before leaving. As soon as she’s gone you start rethinking what you’d just told her. No wait, maybe Irina is in distress (Cross) and she’s stuck in the sun or a very hot place (Sun) and the House card could be someone else’s house. Maybe it’s a yellow house and she’s hot because they have no AC (Sun). What if that woman doesn’t even go to church (Cross)? Oh no! Maybe I spoke too soon and should’ve pondered over the cards longer. Interpreting these cards can’t be that easy. What did I do! You put your cards away and remind yourself that she wasn’t going to take what you said seriously anyway. Upon returning to work the following Monday, you receive an amazing phone call. It’s the woman with the kitten. She tells you that the day before (Sunday), Irina was waiting for her on her patio when she returned from church. Everyone lives happily ever after and a new Lenormand reader is born.

This is the magic of Lenormand. While you were amazed and relieved to find you were correct, it wasn’t a fluke. These simple images can trigger an immediate response from your right brain. Consider that your left brain is in charge of letter recognition, the recall of memorized facts and prefers to dissect and analyze whereas your right brain is in charge of recognizing shapes, colors, similarities and patterns and immediately wants to see the whole picture. You’ll soon see that Lenormand is amenable to both sides of your brain. Read on, my friends.

(This is a true story of my very first Lenormand reading)

WHO THE HELL AM I, ANYWAY?

If you’d asked me only five years ago if I believed in psychics, I would’ve said something like, Well, I think some people have a gift, but most of them are fake! I’d never been to a psychic, a Tarot reader, a fortune teller, or an astrologer. I definitely didn’t believe in phone psychics or the daily horoscopes in the paper.

So, what happened? Well, it all started when my husband gave me an Amazon Echo for Christmas, 2016. (I had started receiving number signs about a year prior but made no connection).

I wondered what to do with this device. Other than listening to music, I assumed it must perform some other tasks. Ok, it can tell me the weather, but so can the TV and my phone. Then, by chance, I saw an advertisement for Audible.com on the Internet, and it hit me! The Echo could read me audio books! Now we’re talkin’!

So, Audible offered a free trial and you got a free book – which you could return if you didn’t like it, so no pressure! I began sifting through all the available books. This was no easy task as I’d been reading nothing but non-fiction related to dog training and nutrition and scent detection for years! At that moment I wondered how I’d become such a boring person! As I continued searching there was one book that just kept showing up – as if it was haunting me! I kept dismissing it as I had no interest in the subject at all. But it persisted. Then, finally, I thought why not buy the stupid thing. I can listen for a few minutes and then return it, so it would leave me alone. That, my friends, is where it all started. The book was The Universe Has Your Back by Gabrielle Bernstein.

As planned, I started listening to it that evening as I prepared the dogs’ dinner. I was busy so I let it continue playing even though I was thinking how stupid it was the entire time. Then, there was something she said that stopped me cold. I wish I could remember what it was, but honestly, it probably wouldn’t faze me now so even if I listened to it again I don’t think I’d find it. Whatever she said made me stop and take notice. I stopped the book and told myself that I’d start it over that night when I could give it my full attention. That’s exactly what I did. In fact, I listened to that book in its entirety, three times! Suddenly, a whole new world was opening up for me. I was hooked. It was bringing out thoughts and feelings I hadn’t experienced since childhood.

So, what came next was a mad reading frenzy! In my quest to not drain my bank account, I decided to start with books that I could find at the local public library. So I started with Angels 101 by Doreen Virtue, which I devoured in a couple days. Next was The Angel Therapy Handbook by the same author. As luck would have it, I had a snow day that enabled me to work through most of the book. I worked through each exercise, not having a clue what I was doing. I always thought that mediation was something that only some people could do. And even if I could do it, I thought it would be such a huge waste of time. After all, I was a book-reader, a studier, a learner. As far back as I can remember, I’ve been a bibliophile. My family still jokes about the danger of giving me a book at a Christmas gathering or at my birthday party because I will get lost in it immediately and tune everyone out. I can’t resist reading. There is so much to learn and we’re on this planet for such a short time. How, on earth, can I possibly fit it all in? I couldn’t imagine wasting my precious free time sitting cross-legged on the floor with my eyes closed! But I was being sucked-into this new world like a dog hair under a vacuum!

Then, one night, I was reading the mediumship chapter in one of Doreen’s books where it asked you to close your eyes and try to sense a deceased loved-one and feel where they are in relation to your body. I did so and focused on my Mom. I first imagined she was at my right side and we were walking arm in arm. But suddenly, my left arm raised and I physically felt her at my left side just above my shoulder. It was an eerie feeling for me. I opened my eyes and turned the page to a diagram that shows where your mother appears and low and behold, it was on your left side just above your shoulder! I was petrified that I’d crossed some evil line and was entering a forbidden world. I threw down the book and vowed to forget all this ridiculousness. I planned to return the book to the library in the morning and get back to my normal life. That night, I awakened as usual to use the bathroom (if you’re young – just wait – you’ll get there too!) and something made me look at my digital watch. It was 4:44:44! Still groggy, I wondered what the odds were of looking at my watch at that exact second. And suddenly my eyes opened wide and I remembered reading about the Angel number 444. I told myself that I’d look it up again before I returned the book in the morning. Then, I returned to bed.

Morning came and all was forgotten. My dogs were anxious for their morning run through the fields of a friends farm that I drove to every morning. As far as I was concerned, life was about to return to normal. I grabbed the book on the way out the door so I could drop it off at the library on my way home. But, of course, it didn’t happen that way. On the way to the library, the book sat next to me in the passenger seat. I was lost in thought about dog training and the day ahead when I realized that the car in front of me was sitting at the stop sign for an unusually long time. I looked up and saw that the car was a restored 1970s model that looked like it just rolled off the assembly line. In it sat two small white-haired women, close together on the big bench seat, their heads barely clearing the seat’s back. I was debating tapping the horn to wake them up when I happened to notice their license plate. I have head to toe chills right now as I recount that moment. It said Angel444. Ok, here come the tears. I can’t even recount that moment without being overcome by awe at the magic of it all! Needless to say, the book returned home with me and I finished it that night. I’d outgrown the library at this point and started searching online, though I wasn’t exactly sure what I was searching for. I found Hay House and bought several books by Louise Hay, Wayne Dyer, and Sonia Choquette. I now had both feet in the pool! But, being the hard-sell that I am, I once again began to think it was all my imagination and tried to walk away from it and return to my non-believing life full of logic and facts. Enter: The Crows.

I’ve always been a nature-lover and have three bird feeding stations on my property so when I awakened one morning to a yard full of crows I thought it was odd but certainly not impossible. They were everywhere – all over the grass, in the trees, on the shed and the house. They were so loud! I didn’t think too much about it and went about my day. As I left the house a couple crows swooped down at me, making me duck. What was their problem? I wished they’d move on. Throughout the day I was asking people if they’d noticed all the crows and no one seemed to know what I was referring to. It continued day after day. They were flying alongside my van as I drove and swooping down at me as I entered the post office. My sister and I attended a dog training conference in Connecticut and they followed me there too. After the conference, we decided to head up to the Beach house on Cape Cod for a few days and, you guessed it, the crows followed. The first morning there, I sat on the couch sipping my tea and watching the crows in the trees outside the window when my sister awakened and came out to say, What’s with all these crows? We never have crows here! Their squawking had awakened her. I told her they were with me and began to tell her my story. I believe she said something like, You always were a little odd, and we laughed and got on with our day though I intended to research this phenomenon when I got home. The following week, I was talking to a client in my grooming shop and she told me about a group mediumship reading at the New Age shop in town. I had to go! I sat in that seat like a child waiting for Santa to come through the door. I could’ve exploded. I was so excited. His name was Matt Kamont, the Lehigh Valley Medium, and he was amazing! After the session, we spoke and I asked him about the crows. Finally! Someone understood! He said the same thing happened to him when he discovered that he was a medium but had no intention of using his gift. The crows were relentless, he said. He told me they’d leave me alone as soon as I committed to pursuing my own gifts. He was correct. There was no turning back now. I was in the club. Meditation became a daily practice.

Suddenly, I was remembering things about myself that had been long forgotten. As a young child I was a mystic. My mother was always waving her hand in front of my face as I sat glassy-eyed, performing a thousand mile stare. She named it fog island. I seemed to know that there was a spirit world coinciding with our own and I felt an overwhelming need to connect with it. I was a lucid dreamer and growing up above a funeral home (my father was an undertaker), I always felt that spirit was trying to connect with me too. I truly wanted to know why we were here – What was our purpose?

I remember sneaking into the Catholic Church across from our home because I felt Spirit was there. My Presbyterian parents were less than thrilled – especially when the priest called my father to ask him to keep me away from mass because I was receiving communion (which non-Catholics are forbidden to do)! The clincher was when I ran into the house one day and told my mother that I’d just seen the Virgin Mary above the pond behind our home! My parents were desperate to distract me so they bought me my first horse. Their plan worked. I switched my focus to speaking to my horse and any animal I could find. Finally, someone understood me!

But as kids do, I grew up, pushed all of that spiritual nonsense to the back of my brain, and got on with life in a human body. Fast forward about thirty years. For reasons I may never know, I started receiving number signs – specifically my birthdate. I was seeing it everywhere – license plates, billboards, number of emails I received each day, etc. But it was when the totals at stores were coming up as my birthdate that I finally had to research what it meant. I performed an online search and found that numerology and Angel numbers were a real thing! A book-reading frenzy began, followed by local and online courses in everything from remote viewing to mediumship and from psychometry to animal communication. I immediately found that I had a real gift for animal communication and began practicing it in online forums as well as in my grooming salon and training business.

I was happy enough with the information I was receiving but felt like there must be a way to get even more. I began searching for a better way to channel messages and information. I hired a Shaman to give me a reading on where I should focus my energy. She was a lovely woman, half Native American. She started by retrieving my totem animals and told me that my first birth totem animal was a bobcat. The cat’s large paws told her that my talents could be best accessed via something I held in my hands and she suggested psychometry and scrying. I attempted psychometry with some success, but I knew it wasn’t what I was looking for. I then tried crystal ball and water gazing and again, it was no better than simply closing my eyes and using no tools at all. Next, I tried automatic writing and was getting closer. But then, I ordered my first deck of oracle cards and BINGO! I found my niche!

I was avoiding tarot because I thought it was evil. My Christian upbringing was preventing me from going down that road, but before I knew it, I couldn’t resist and ordered my first tarot deck. I simply removed the devil and death and thought I’d be fine. LOL! I knew there were plenty of books on the subject of tarot and card reading, but somehow I resisted buying any. Being the book-addict that I am, I still can’t believe I was that strong! But, I didn’t want to use the cards the way anyone else was using them and I never thought I’d be reading for humans. No, I simply wanted to use them for my animal readings. I wanted to use the symbols on the cards to develop a common language with Spirit. I’d already started a symbols journal, which I’d learned to do through my mediumship classes, and I already knew I could see things with my eyes open and looking at a piece of paper in front of me through my remote viewing courses. So I was trying to piece it all together. By using cards as the things I’d hold in my hands (as the Shaman had predicted), I was able to let my eyes move to whatever symbols they were drawn to and it was exactly what I was searching for.

Next stop, Lenormand! I continued to buy as many oracle and tarot decks as I was drawn to. I mean, seriously, can we card readers ever have enough? Then, one day, I was looking through an email regarding a deck sale (I don’t recall from which company), and I saw an interesting oracle deck. It was so cute I had to have it. It was Liz Dean’s Fairy Tale Fortune Cards. Because she doesn’t call them Lenormand cards, I still didn’t know what I had. I read the LWB, which has a brief history of the origins of the cards and was fascinated by the story of Mlle LeNormand. I was so intrigued that I did an online search of her name and well, you can guess what came next. Oh my! Another card system? I thought there were only two flavors! Of course, I had to learn more about it because by this point I was already becoming a cardophile! While I was still only using the cards in my own way to read animals, I began my first study of a card system and Lenormand was the big winner! Other than the Grand Jeu Lenormand – my other Lenormand system, I now rarely use anything else.

And, as they say, the rest is history. Here I am, Lisa the Lenormand Lady, who used to be called Lisa the dog lady. I’m liking the Lenormand title better! So, it only took me fifty plus years to discover this passion but as I believe that everything happens in its own time, I know that it was meant to happen the way it did. My sincere wish in writing this book is that someone – even one person – will read it and become inspired and realize that anyone, even someone who has no family connection to anything psychic and wasn’t born a Gypsy can read Lenormand cards and read them with amazing accuracy. So, read on my friends and enjoy the journey.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK?

I wanted to include in this book everything that a new reader would need to become successful with this deck. Because I began writing this book while I was still learning how to read cards, it’s truly a greenhorn’s journey! My intention from the start was to write as I learned so that the language and approach of the book would come from the viewpoint of a rookie, making it more approachable and effective for other learners. All the examples in the book are taken from actual readings that I journaled, or in some cases, I asked the question and drew the cards at the time I was writing – asking the cards to provide me with the best example for those who will read my book. To keep things authentic, no cards were changed. I hope that the examples are clear and helpful.

What you won’t find here is a history of Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand. She didn’t develop this deck, probably never used it, and it was named after her for marketing purposes only. If you wish, you can read all about her in other books. You also won’t find combination lists here. I’ve never studied nor practiced them and quite frankly, I’ve never seen the point in wasting my time with them. Because I want the cards to paint me a picture or tell me a story. Unless I’m asking a simple yes/no question, I minimally use three cards. Any 2-card pair can say different things depending on the question, context, proximity to the significator, surrounding cards, and the intended mode of reading (that is, narrative or descriptive). If I didn’t want to pigeonhole the cards’ meanings, I likewise didn’t want to pigeonhole combinations.

The Chapter, The 36 Cards And Their Meanings, is a compilation of information regarding each card. These are my meanings, which are based on the original game rules and the Philippe Lenormand sheet that accompanied all early decks. I even considered the Coffee Card verses that the deck was no doubt based on. I understand that there are other ways to interpret these cards based on regional differences or personal preferences. My advice is to choose the meanings that resonate with you and don’t stray from them. For instance, if you want to use the Fox as your primary work card because it’s what you’re already accustomed to, that’s fine. There’s no reason to change that. Choose your meanings and adhere to them consistently and you’ll have no problems. Remember that these cards are the words in a language. A language that you’ll use to communicate with Spirit. Once your language is in place, it will be understood and communication will take place.

Each card section contains the following information:

The name and number of each card: All Lenormand cards are numbered the same – no exceptions. Card 1 is always the Rider and Card 36 is always the Cross. A few names can vary slightly, so I’ve included all that are popular.

The Playing Card Inset: Because there are several ways to read playing cards and there’s no need to combine cartomancy with Lenormand, I have no cartomantic meanings included here outside of the court card insets, which readers may choose to represent people in a reading. (See the section: Playing Card Insets)

The Primary Vibe: This is the core essence or base meaning of each card. Being a tree-hugging hippie from the sixties, I chose the word vibe to describe this. The primary vibe should be the first thing you think of in any reading. It’s the building block for each card from which you’ll form sentences.

Energy: This relates to the charge of each card. Whether it’s positive, negative, or somewhere in between. For me, this is of the utmost importance in a reading. For example, if I’m performing a reading for someone with Cancer and I ask about the outcome of a treatment and draw several favorable cards, one of which is the Stars, would that indicate that it’s spreading? NO! It would indicate healing, success, and a new direction. Mice is my card for a spreading of something negative such as a disease. Mice spread disease and are thieves and bring loss, and what is disease but the loss of good health! If you understand that my question is about the success of a treatment and not the progression of the cancer, then this should make perfect sense. (See the section on questions)

Influence: This gives you the general impact a card will have on the reading. Such as, does it bring it up or down or is it fast or slow.

The Theme Group: This simply gives you an idea of the general category each card fits well into and what themes you’ll most likely find certain cards showing up in.

Base Keywords: These are the primary keywords from which you’ll derive your interpretations. They’re the words that will immediately come to mind when you first look at a spread.

The Basic Concept: This simply explains why the primary vibe is what it is and how the base keywords were chosen based on the card’s original emblem meaning. This is where I explain the core meaning of each card.

The Broader Concept: This is based on the cards’ emblems as well as their symbolic meanings. We use these meanings in a secondary fashion for general readings, and to answer specific theme questions such as spiritual, animal readings, missing objects, or to describe characteristics, locations, or for time references. You’ll find my Chakra associations here also. I believe that Chakras are very important and open and close them every day. I got involved in spirituality and divination as a non-believing skeptic, so any practice that had a perceptible concrete effect on me turned me into a believer. Chakras fall into that category! If you don’t work on your Chakras already, I recommend searching for some online meditations to get started. You’ll find many on Youtube. What you won’t find here are any associations to astrology as that is built into the Grand Jeu Lenormand deck, which is my other standard Lenormand system. I provide a brief example for using each card in a spiritual and relationship reading to give you some ideas. They are not intended to be all-inclusive statements as each reading will be unique. You’ll also find my directions here, which are based on my location on the Earth. I live in the Northern hemisphere on the East Coast, so those directions apply to my position on the planet. You can use them or develop your own based on where you live.

Descriptive Words: These are the symbolic keywords that we use in describing physical and personality traits as well as occupations.

Advice: Not everyone uses the cards for advice readings but it’s one of my most popular reading requests so I’ve included some of my advice meanings for each card. Even if you don’t use them yourself, I hope that they’ll inspire you to think more broadly and creatively when using this little deck!

Directional Cues: These are optional but come from some of the oldest reading traditions. Once I discovered directional reading, there was no going back for me so I hope you find these useful.

The PLOT: This gives you the original meanings that were included with the deck once it was repurposed and marketed for divination rather than simply as a game (even though the original game mentions that the cards can be used for a fun divination game). While Philippe Lenormand was simply a fictitious character invented for the marketing of this system, the meanings are valid nonetheless.

Game of Hope: I’ve included the game directions to give you a broader perspective on how the card meanings were derived and which cards were considered favorable or detrimental.

The Method of Distance: This is the original divination reading method for this deck as all early readings were performed using a grand tableau and it was the distance from the client’s card that impacted the other card’s meanings.

Compare To: I included this section to help differentiate between similar cards that tend to confuse new readers.

Emblem’s Meaning: This section tells you why the card’s pictures were chosen and what they originally meant to the readers of the period.

House Meaning: These are based on the standard Lenormand card meanings. Some readers may choose to use the Master Method, which I have studied but prefer not to use as it appears to be based on the playing card insets rather than the actual Lenormand cards. You can read about the Master Method in Andy Boroveshengra’s book as well as Caitlin Mathew’s.

Timing: I include the most common timing associations here for convenience. There is also a chapter on using this deck for timing.

Well-being: Lastly, I’ve included the most common health associations for each card for those of you who wish to perform health readings. Keep in mind that health readings are subject to the laws of your country. They may also leave the reader open to legal actions should you give someone the wrong advice. If you choose to read for health, please include a disclaimer on your website or in any literature you share with your clients freeing you of any responsibility.

Abbreviations:

GT = Grand Tableau

PT = Petite