Since we were looking at the Lenormand-derived 1903 US “Gypsy Witch” playing cards last week, which utilise a “near and far” method of reading meanings and these are the only two decks which have near and far meanings, I thought it would be worth adapting the Gypsy Witch’s “short layout” spread to Lenormand cards.

If you’d like a recap, you can check out my post describing the Gypsy Witch cards here:

Gypsy Witch Cards

Now, you don’t HAVE to use the Near & Far method or Method Of Distance to read Lenormand cards at all, although some readers do insist it is “the only true way”. But all of the 19th century Lenormand decks rebranded from the German Game of Hope did come with instructions, purportedly from a relative of the great fortune teller, one “Philippe LeNormand”, which detailed the method as THE method to read the Lenormand Grand Tableau.

You can see my post on the so-called “Philippe LeNormand” instructions and how it relates to Lenormand card history here:

Philippe LeNormand "Near & Far"

So first, we’ll recap on what the Near & Far method is, how we know which cards are near and far, the Philippe Lenormand meanings, and step by step instructions on laying and reading. We’ll also have a sample reading about…. Donald Trump! Read on and find out more below!

Read more

Purpose Of Layout

This spread is good for a gentle, but often quite deep, personal/spiritual reading about where you’re at in life at the time of the reading.

It suggests where you’re at on your life path, the wisdom or advice being offered to you, obstacles that you’re likely to have to deal with, and suggestions for the best path to follow.

Suitable Decks

Primarily Lenormand, as the symbolic nature of the Lenormand deck and use of natural imagery works best with the natural “life path” concept. But you could try it with other decks; just bear in mind you’re likely to get a much more abrupt and event-based tone to your reading.

For more on the differences between, say, Lenormand, Sibilla & Kipper decks, take a look here for my comparison between all the different kinds of decks, their features and what they’re most used for:

Oracle Deck Comparisons

Significator/Central Cards

You do not use significator cards with this layout, nor choose particular cards as key cards to focus on. It’s much more of a free-flowing spread.

Let’s take a look:

Read more

As we’ve been talking about the figure of the Enemy quite a lot here on the Daily Oracle in relation to news and current events readings, I thought I’d share some thoughts on what you might do to investigate further if “enemy” cards keep being hinted at in your personal readings. Can you identify them? What can you do to dive deeper and find out what (or who) it is you might need to address?

Now, this is an expanded excerpt from a post I wrote recently on my Lozzy’s Lenormand blog about identifying enemies in readings. I’ll write at some point in the future about finding and identifying enemies with the different oracle decks I use on the Daily Oracle, but I wanted to dive deeper into finding them in the Lenormand Grand Tableau in particular, because it’s quite a useful way of looking at the cards.

Have I Got Enemies? Who Might They Be?

There are ways you can find out if there’s anything awry by taking a look at a Grand Tableau. Are you surrounded by friends… or foes? Is there anything untoward showing up near your Querent card? And if so, what? What should you be looking out for if you suspect there’s someone with an axe to grind,  or something strange going on?

I’ve recently been reading Bjorn Meuris’s Lenormand book (Petit Lenormand Encyclopedia Vol II) that looks at traditional Near and Far readings in the Grand Tableau, and where he talks about identifying clusters or groups of cards in different themes and I found it a really useful way of thinking about the cards in this spread. He calls the “enemy” cluster “The Gang Of Misery”.

To refresh your memory on the original “Philippe Lenormand” Near & Far instructions and card meanings, take a look here:

Near & Far Lenormand Instructions

So let’s take a deeper dive into finding out what and who to look out for in your Grand Tableau.

Read more

Ah, the Lenormand Card Combinations.

As you’ll know, most of the time with Lenormand readings, you won’t just be reading cards individually. You’ll reading Lenormand card combinations – the cards in pairs – in order to tell a story. To complicate matters, however, each card combination can have multiple meanings. If you’re feeling unconfident about whether you’re combining them “right”, forever searching through lists to check and trying to remember them all, you’re not alone. The biggest number of visitors my website Lozzy’s Lenormand gets by far is for its Card Combination lookup pages. You can find those here:

Card Combination Lookup

And while it’s not a terrible thing to look up on lists, wouldn’t you like to gain confidence in your own abilities and take it a step further?

Read on, and I’ll let you into the secret!

The No.1 Secret To Reading Lenormand Card Combinations

Well, the first thing is that the secret ISN’T to try to sit down and learn everything you find on a list by heart.

Nope!

In fact, this is probably the WORST possible way you can try to learn card combinations.

Why?

Because all the lists you will see are just examples. They’re not definitive, they’re not The Lenormand Bible. They are suggestions, based on some of the most common meanings you get from combining Lenormand cards ourselves.

Wouldn’t it be better to learn how to do that for yourself? And how might you do that?

Read on!

Read more

If you’re just catching up, we’ve already looked at the following methods to read and gleaned info about our particular Querents, the Lady and Gentleman, across traditional readings and more modern methods. Check them out here:

The Game Of Hope

Philippe Lenormand & Near & Far

GT Modern Basics I

GT Modern: Expanding Story

Houses & Counting

The Story Of Our Lady & Gentleman So Far

Read more

As a reminder, here’s our GT:

And here’s the summary of “additional information” we already got from our previous expansion of the story for both our Querents:

Read more

You can check out that post here, as well as the original “Game of Hope” reading for the same layout and the “Near & Far”

Lenormand GT III: Modern Basics

Lenormand GT I: Game Of Hope

Lenormand GT II:Near & Far

As a reminder, here is our same Grand Tableau, now using the Blue Owl Lenormand deck.

In the last post, we looked at reading the corners for a summary, the first few cards, the bottom row and then reading the cards immediately around the Querent.

This is what the reading showed:

Read more

We’ve also looked at the Near and Far method suggested by the so-called “Philippe Lenormand” instructions that came out with the decks when they were rebranded as Lenormand in the 1840s. Here’s the same Grand Tableau layout with the exact same cards in the same positions, but using a different deck: this time, the Blue Owl deck, which has a 19th century design.

As a reminder, the outcome of the Near & Far reading of this Grand Tableau was as follows:

Read more

We took a brief look at the three different ways that Hechtel’s cards were designed to be used (as a playing card game, as a board game, and as a “game of oracles”), and we looked at how a player might have interpreted the cards in the latter.

You can check out that post here:

Lenormand GT I: The Game Of Hope

Let’s have a reminder of “the jocular tales” a player might have told about both the Gentleman and the Lady in this layout based on the limited Game of Hope instructions, which told players only to “spin a tale” around the figures in the layout based on the images around them.

Read more

The reason for this is that while it is a spread that tends to intimidate new readers, and many complications and so-called “rules” have been added into methods of reading it over the years, in actual fact, it started off as being a pretty simple game for reading indeed.

So this post is going to take us back to its origins as a parlour game used purely for entertainment.

Back To Hechtel’s Das Spiel Der Hoffnung; The Game Of Hope

As you’ll know if you’ve read my Introduction, the so-called Petit Lenormand cards widely known as “Lenormand” today actually had very little to do with the famous French fortune-teller Mlle Marie Lenormand herself, despite all the marketing and mythos. She may have had access to them, she may have not, but they certainly were not created by her at all, nor, in fact, in France.

The cards were instead a direct copy of a German parlour game released in 1799 by a Nuremberg publishing house that had been created by German card game manufacturer Johann Hechtel, (Hechtel also died in 1799).

The gameplay on Hechtel’s Das Spiel Der Hoffnung deck (above) had three possible “modes”:

Read more

One of the most well-known and popular oracle decks of the 19th Century, the so-called “Petit Lenormand” cards are named after infamous French fortune-teller-to-the-stars, Mlle Marie Anne LeNormand (1772–1843). She was so esteemed she read for the Emperor Napoleon and Empress Josephine, (although not, it must be said, in ways always to Napoleon’s liking.), had a fearsome international reputation as a fortune teller, but also managed to find herself imprisoned in France on a number of occasions, although never for long.

Read more

Below is a list of brief meanings for all 36 Lenormand cards.

For more details, as well as card combination lists and a link to my online card meanings and combinations courses, please click the butt…

Read more

Now, you may be aware that there’s not one but two distinct sets of oracle cards in circulation that bear the name of Mlle Lenormand.

One is the Petit Jeu de Mlle Lenormand, which is what we are mostly talking about when we talk about “Lenormand” these days; the  simple 36 cards I use here and elsewhere, and that originated with Johann Hechtel’s Das Spiel Der Hoffnung (Game of Hope) cards at the end of the 18th century.

The other deck you may have heard of is the Grand Jeu de Mlle Lenormand. Which, although both decks/games have been named after the famed fortune-teller herself, is a TOTALLY different set of cards which uses a completely different system and has origins elsewhere and in different traditions.

So in this post, I want to introduce you to the Grand Jeu and highlight the main differences for those of you who are curious. The deck does seem to be out of print or ridiculously expensive in many countries for some reason, especially the US, but is available at a very reasonable price (less than £20!) via Amazon in the UK, and you may well be able to find a copy elsewhere, such as eBay if you’re interested.

What Is The Grand Jeu de Mlle Lenormand?

The Grand Jeu de Mlle Lenormand is a deck of 54 oracle cards that bears absolutely no relation either in interpretations or symbolism to the 36 Petit Jeu de Lenormand cards that you’ll be familiar with. So it isn’t just a “bigger version” of the smaller deck; it’s a completely different system.

That said, it is a very interesting, if very complicated, one, and well worth checking out if you’re into oracle decks, and especially if you’re an aficionado of Greek mythology, as the deck is based on that. Other than that, it pretty much has it all, although I should warn you, it is very complex and scholarly rather than intuitive to learn.

What Are The Main Similarities and Differences Between This And  A Petit Lenormand Deck?

Similarities:

• Both decks have playing card references

• Both involve weaving together information to make stories

• The idea of the meaning of one card influencing or ‘tempering’ the meaning of another is present here in terms of the storytelling nature of the deck.

Er… that’s it for similarities, pretty much!

Differences:

• The Petit Lenormand deck has 36 cards, the Grand Jeu, 54

• The imagery and elements between the two are completely different

• The Grand Jeu cards are considerably larger than Petit Lenormand cards. They have to be, because of the sheer amount of information they contain!

• There are multiple decks produced for Le Petit Jeu Lenormand; the Grand Jeu appears to have one deck only

• Petit Lenormand uses very simple imagery, a single image per card. It is likely that these were derived from other simple oracle systems of the time, as well as, for example, from coffee ground reading divination traditions.The Grand Jeu Lenormand deck is far more intellectual and contains complex scenes based on Greek mythology, several scenes per card, as well as other divination references, like astrology and alchemy

• The Petit Lenormand deck can be used (and learned) far more intuitively than the Grand Jeu

• Any layouts you use will be quite different because of the way you interpret the cards. Three card and five card layouts are not uncommon, however.

Is The Grand Jeu More Authentically Connected With Marie Lenormand Than The Petit Lenormand Deck?

Well, yes and no. We do know that the deck we call Lenormand today, the Petit Lenormand, is actually based primarily on that of Hechtel’s Game of Hope and rebranded using the famous fortune teller’s name in the mid-19th century and thus is unlikely to have had anything whatsoever to do with Marie Lenormand and her methods. Even the so-called “Philippe Lenormand” instructions that were long printed with the decks are likely to be a marketing ploy more than evidence of any direct connection with the lady herself.

It is similarly likely that the Grimaud Grand Jeu Lenormand deck (sample here with instruction booklet from the British Museum) was also given Marie Lenormand’s name for marketing purposes. BUT, although no writings or details of her methods remain, there are contemporaneous as well as fictionalized (and likely exaggerated) accounts of visits to the great lady herself, which suggest her methods involved analysis of multiple elements; playing cards, reference to the classics, astrology, the querent’s preferred flowers, scents and colours.

So although the Grand Jeu is highly unlikely to follow the exact methods and interpretations used by Mlle Lenormand, I’d suggest it is probably rooted more in the idea of her methods, where multiple elements are used, than the Petit Lenormand deck.

To show you what I mean, let’s take a closer look at the detail on the cards.

Read more