Brief Roundup of Lenormand Posts Plus How To Play The Original "Game of Hope"

The original pre-Lenormand game was a pretty chilled affair, with far fewer of the "rules" that are allegedly essential in GTs today...

I’m foregoing my end-of-week summary of the readings this week because I don’t think most of the predictions (remarkably similar themes, though, and what looks very much like a false prophet who may be showing up soon) have quite played out yet fully. So we’ll take a closer look as part of our look back at the entire month next week. Major news today, obviously, with the US bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities. The consequences are yet to be seen, but I do think there were big hints of this in this week’s readings, especially with the “burdened man”, who could of course represent the Iranian religious leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. Or either Trump or Netanyahu.

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Lenormand-wise, this week we took a look at the use of the “extra” cards we find in some decks, as well as a closer look at how to read 9-Card box spreads. If you missed those, you can check them out here:

Using "Extra" Lenormand Cards, Yes Or No?

How To Read Lenormand 9-Card Box Spreads

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So what do I want to send you instead?

Well, instead, I want to prep us for a closer look at Grand Tableaus with a post that 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).

Das Spiel der Hoffnung (Game of Hope) cards, 1799 design, in 6x6 gameplay layout

The gameplay on Hechtel’s Das Spiel Der Hoffnung deck (above) had three possible “modes”. Read on to find out more…