Lenormand Card Decks

Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand (1772–1843) was a French professional fortune-teller of considerable fame during the Napoleonic era. In France Lenormand is considered the greatest cartomancer of all time, highly influential on the wave of French cartomancy that began in the late 18th century. The Petit lenormand was named after her and history had proved that she did not create this deck or system.

The deck was named after her several years after her death, snagging her name and notoriety for the sake of a marketing campaign to boost sales. No one knows for sure what she used for her cards, though we know she wrote symbols on them. So while we know she did not create this system, it was named after her but not related to the actual cards or images she used.

The Lenormand Oracle is a deck of 36 cards usually of bridge size. The deck is numbered 1 to 36, and each card has a central symbol that could be an animal, an object, a celestial body etc… A regular playing card from the Piquet Game is associated to each card (6 to 10 plus the King, Queen, Jack and Aces). The reader cast the cards in a “Grand Tableau” and the Card 28: The Man for a male consulting or Card 29: The Woman in the case of a female is payed extra attention, as all the cards revolving around it will have a significant impact on the querent’s psychic reading, good or bad depending on the nature of the cards. The series of video below will guide you in learning how to read the Lenormand cards.