Overview Of Differences Between The Main Oracle Decks
Comparisons between each of the 19th century oracle decks to see where they have similarities and differences
(NB This is an adaptation of a blog post I recently made over at my Lozzy’s Lenormand website)
Pretty much all of the oracle decks I’ve been looking at and using here on the Daily Oracle came into production around the same time —in other words, in the 19th Century, when there was a great flurry of interest in divination and fortune telling parlour games across Europe, and lots of variants being produced.
So, as you’ll no doubt have noticed from my Daily Oracle newsletter and the Resources here, the oracle decks that were produced at the time are all kind of coming from a similar sort of place of interest and purpose, although there are also some quite significant differences between them.
As I know a great many of my readers are interested in all and every kind of oracle card and methods of fortune-telling, and as so many of these old 19th century decks are experiencing a resurgence today, I wanted to give you a rundown of the main features and comparisons between them. What ARE their features? Where are they similar and different? And most importantly, what kinds of readings and questions are they all good for?
Let’s take a look at the most common “classic” card reading decks or systems you may have heard of are you’re likely to be coming across at the current time. The Lenormand (or Petit Jeu de Mlle Lenormand), Sibilla decks, Austrian Gypsy Fortune Telling decks and Kipper.
Lenormand decks
The Lenormand (or the Petit Jeu de Mlle Lenormand version of it, which is the most familiar) has probably become the second most well-known of the revived classic fortune-telling decks after Tarot. And it differs extensively from both Tarot and other oracle decks in both symbolism and the way it is used and read.
It’s worth noting too that there is another deck that bears the name of Mlle Lenormand: the Grand Jeu de Mlle Lenormand, which, despite the name, bears no resemblance whatsoever to the far more popular and famous Petit Lenormand. It’s an interesting, but extremely complicated deck, so I won’t cover it in this post, but will take a brief look at it another time.
Number of Cards in Lenormand decks
36
Deck Features
Rather than depicting grand themes, like the Tarot, or recognisable everyday situations and people directly like the Sibillas, the Petit Lenormand is a deck that relies on simplicity and on universal symbols and concepts, which are then combined into meanings and applied to situations and stories. As such, it has a very different feel and reading method than both Tarot and Sibilla-type decks, although you can use similar layouts with all of them.
And despite its name, the Petit Lenormand deck has very little to do with its namesake, the infamous French fortune teller of Napoleonic times, Mlle LeNormand. Her name was added to an earlier German deck released in 1799 called The Game of Hope (Der Spiel das Hoffnung, created by German card manufacturer Johann Kasper Hechtel) as a marketing ploy in the mid 19th century, after her death.
In turn, the Game of Hope deck appears to have been derived from common symbolic card games of the 18th century such as the Viennese Coffee Cards (which use many of the same symbols, possibly derived from tasseomancy/tea leaf reading) as well as other decks like various English Conversation cards, which use very similar symbols but with more of a Christian ‘take’ on the game.
The images used are simple and universal; A Lady and Gentleman for the people cards as well as the Rider and Child, but numerous animals, symbols from nature and common objects (like Ring, Key, Tree, Mountain, Bear), all of which have conceptual meanings you can then combine into new meanings and apply to questions and situations.
Divinatory Features
Lenormand is a storytelling system but its conceptual symbols work very like a language in a way that’s quite different from situational oracles like the Sibillas, with the symbols or concepts working together to create full meanings in much the same way as individual words do in a sentence.
So, for instance, in the image above, the Storks broadly mean “Change/New Beginnings” and the Ring means “Bond/Commitment or Marriage.” Combined, the meaning of these two cards together most simply is “A committed or agreed change or new start.” You can then apply that combination in answer to any question or context you ask about, from Love (say, a change in status involving a marriage, like getting engaged, or making a renewed go of a marriage, or even just one party promising to change) to Business (a deal or commitment to making significant changes to the business) to the wider or sociopolitical world (a political policy or manifesto, or a deal between countries that makes an agreed change).
In terms of card meanings, Lenormand cards do not usually have reversed meanings.
As for Lenormand layouts, the most famous is the Grand Tableau, a large layout using all 36 cards and which is based on the old French playing card game of Piquet. The layout centres on the “story”(or the “Big Picture”) in the life of either a male or female consultant. Most classic shorter Lenormand layouts, like lines of 3, 5 or the 3x3 9 card or “Box” spread, are essentially just smaller sections of a Grand Tableau.
Le Petit Lenormand versus the Tarot?
It is often claimed that Tarot is “the deeper and more psychological” divinatory deck, and Lenormand the “everyday” which, by implication, is then seen as shallow or superficial in some way. I’m not sure I agree, although the Tarot has much wider applications. It’s true that Lenormand focuses more on the day-to-day, but its symbols, while simple, are also very universal in their human concerns and can, outside of the Grand Tableau, be applied easily to all sorts of situations, from the routine and mundane, to the more psychological and worldly. You are still likely to get fairly simple answers, however, and not as in-depth as with the Tarot.
Sibilla decks
The first and most important thing is that as we know, “Sibilla” isn’t just one deck; it refers to the decks that were commonly in use in ladies’ parlour games throughout this era, particularly in Austria, Italy and France. They are named after the “Sibyls”, the female oracles, the prophetesses of Ancient Greece.
And although there are several decks that could be termed “Sibillas”, there are two main entirely separate versions of Sibilla cards in circulation and common use currently, the one from Italy (and derived from the earlier Austrian “Gypsy Fortune Telling deck”), and one from France.
The Italian is La Vera Sibilla (“The true Sibyl), the more complex version of a deck with exactly the same meanings called the Gypsy Oracle Cards or La Sibilla della Zingara, which is also very popular. La Vera Sibilla has playing card references and lottery numbers printed on it, the later Gypsy Oracle Cards just have different versions of the same cards and images, but the two do otherwise correspond in meaning.
The French? Meanwhile, in France comes La Sibylle des Salons (aka The Parlour Sibyl),first produced around 1840, with highly distinctive illustrations by French artist Jean-Jacques Granville. His illustrations are also used in an Italian reproduction of it called the Sibilla Indovina (above). The cards in this Sibilla deck, although similar in the sorts of things and people they depict, do NOT tally in any way with La Vera Sibilla: they are two completely different decks and systems, although they work in a very similar way.
And who was the Sibyl, the prophetess of the parlours, said to be being depicted therein (see the illustration above)? Why, none other than our very favourite French fortune teller to the stars, Mlle LeNormand, of course!
Number of Cards in Sibilla decks
52
Deck Features
Both La Vera Sibilla and the Sibylle des Salons have playing card references, although these do NOT tally with each other at all in terms of meaning, and are from very different playing card systems. These can be used in both cases to deepen the meanings of the cards.
The images used tend to be very evocative, and depict everyday, situations, people and concepts. People cards include friends, helpers and enemies, junior and senior individuals, lovers, wives, the widowed and so on. Familiar places and situations include home and private life, death, surprises, rewards, love, messages, celebrations, journeys for instance. And concepts like frivolity, constancy or inconstancy, faithfulness and falseness are also included, which makes for great storytelling.
Divinatory Features
A big feature of the Sibilla decks is that they tend to represent both everyday events AND universal human experiences or conditions, and have lots of different people cards. As such, they are great for where, who, how, what types of readings. Cards also have reversed meanings, like the Tarot. There are specific classic layouts you can use for these decks, but they also work well in classic Lenormand-type layouts such as three card, five card and nine cards.
Comparison & Uses Between Sibillas and Other Decks?
Although you’ll always find a few cards with similar meanings across all these decks, Sibillas are WAY more precise than Lenormand in terms of detail and directness. Not only do they have many more cards than the Lenormand, they also give you in particular many more options in terms of people, even though these are obviously different across the decks. Crucially, they also have many more meanings. There are nearly double the amount of cards, each of those cards can also be read in reverse, giving each deck around 104 possible meanings! Where Lenormand is conceptual, so can be a little vague at times, Sibillas are situational, so tend to be quite direct. “This is happening, with this person, and then this.” As such, they are even more ‘everyday’ than Lenormand, but obviously still less esoteric and flexible than something like the Tarot.
Austrian “Gypsy” Fortune Telling Cards
I don’t have a separate section for these on the Daily Oracle because they are so similar to the Vera Sibilla which is derived from them.
Number of Cards in Austrian Gypsy Fortune Telling decks
32/36
Deck Features
Earlier decks had only 32 cards, the later, 36. The cards are simple, do not generally have playing card references, but represent similar situations and people as the Sibillas. They don’t usually have reversed meanings, although some readers do refer to them.
Divinatory Features
Although they are in some ways just a simplified form of the Sibilla decks, they don’t seem quite as precise for some reason, possibly because of there being fewer cards. Again, though they’re great for where, who, how, what types of readings. There are specific layouts you can use to read these decks, but they also work well in classic Lenormand-type layouts such as three card, five card and nine cards as well as similar layouts to Sibillas. And you can also use them in Grand Tableaus.
Comparison & Uses Between Gypsy Fortune Telling Cards And Other Decks?
They tend to give slightly simpler readings, but basically, pretty much anything you’d do with Sibillas or Kipper decks.
Kipper Decks
Number of Cards in Kipper
36
Deck Features
For anyone used to reading with either the Italian Sibillas (La Vera Sibilla/Gypsy Oracle Cards) or the 32 or 36 card Austrian Traditional Gypsy Fortune Cards, then you’d find the Kipper cards very familiar indeed, as they are in fact closely linked and derived from these decks. Notably, they only have 36 cards, like Lenormand, and although they are numbered, they do not have playing card references, only images. There are several Kipper decks in existence with very different designs, but all have the same cards and order. These include the original Wahrsage Kipperkarten, the Salish, and more modern versions such as the Fin de Siecle and Mystical Kipper decks.
Divinatory Features
As a direct derivative, Kipper cards have much the same “feel” and often similar meanings as the Austro-Italian Sibillas and Gypsy Fortune Telling Cards; they’re all in the same family. They’re direct, they involve people and situations. What Kipper cards don’t have is reversed meanings, so they’re more like the Lenormand in that sense, as is their having the 36 cards rather than 52. Some readers insist that Kipper cards have to be read in “special” ways, and like most decks they have had particular layouts, methods of reading and features associated with them historically, but generally speaking they have so many similarities with those other decks, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t read them in similar ways, although things like direction characters and illustrations are facing adds to the experience of the reading.
Comparison & Uses With Lenormand?
Although they are similar in the sense they have the same number of cards, the ‘feel’ is very different in terms of meanings and what you get out of a reading. Like the Sibillas, these are direct and to the point and are really for everyday “What, where, who, why, how” details and predictions.
So When Should You Use Each Type Of Deck And What For?
Use Tarot (78 cards) for: In depth psychological or life journey analyses, meditation, human condition type stuff, the esoteric.
Use Le Petit Lenormand (36 cards) For: Grounded universal human concerns, events and people. Storytelling. Apply the universal concepts and combinations to situations and questions at various levels, but expect simple answers. There are “rules” in particular layouts, but the cards are still fairly instinctive and quick to use once you’re clear on meanings. They are FAR less direct than Sibillas and Kipper, and are conceptual rather than situational.
Use Sibillas (52 Cards) For: Everyday events and people; direct and specific predictions and explorations: the lowdown on the what, where, who.
Use Austrian Gypsy Fortune Telling Cards (32/36 Cards) For: A simpler version of how you use the Sibillas, although given they don’t use reversals usually and have fewer cards, you’ll find they seem to only cover about a third of the possibilities!
Use Kipper (36 Cards) For: Similarly, everyday events and people; direct and specific predictions and explorations: the lowdown on the what, where, who.