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Tarosophist International Editor Jon Kaneko-James
ab∂ntnts T F∫Wrk by by Marcus Katz nrmand Suit Sui ts by Helen Riding
Forge Press ISSN 2040-4328 Tarosophist International is published by Forge Press, 1 Wood Cottages, Old Windebrowe, Keswick, Cumbria CA12 4NT (UK).
T Art∂nrmand Rding
by Melissa Hill
www.tarotprofessionals.com www.forgepress.com
raditina vs Nn-raditina Rdings
Tarosophist International is the magazine of Tarot Professionals, an organisation for tarot readers and students who are interested in innovative and inspired tarot for contemporary application.
Ris∂T nrmand by Rana George
Subscriptions are free to all members of Tarot Professionals, and a PDF copy of this magazine is available at cost to nonmembers. A screen-readable version of Tarosophist International is available to members on the Members site, and a printed B&W version is available at cost to members and non-members through the print-ondemand service, LULU. The views and items in this magazine do not necessarily reect those of Tarot Professionals or the editor. All material remains copyright to the respective author and is not to be reproduced in any medium. Please do not pass this magazine to others. Non-members are encouraged to subscribe to our regular free newsletter, The Tarot-Town Lighthouse. Tarosophy® and Tarot House® are registered trademarks.
by Mary K Greer
Lot Crds by Steph Myriel Es-Tragon T w w wrs wrs by Tali Goodwin M nrmand
by Tessa Piontek
T Ghot∏T Crd Crdss by Andi Rootweaver-Graf
Tarosophist International Editor Jon Kaneko-James
ab∂ntnts T F∫Wrk by by Marcus Katz nrmand Suit Sui ts by Helen Riding
Forge Press ISSN 2040-4328 Tarosophist International is published by Forge Press, 1 Wood Cottages, Old Windebrowe, Keswick, Cumbria CA12 4NT (UK).
T Art∂nrmand Rding
by Melissa Hill
www.tarotprofessionals.com www.forgepress.com
raditina vs Nn-raditina Rdings
Tarosophist International is the magazine of Tarot Professionals, an organisation for tarot readers and students who are interested in innovative and inspired tarot for contemporary application.
Ris∂T nrmand by Rana George
Subscriptions are free to all members of Tarot Professionals, and a PDF copy of this magazine is available at cost to nonmembers. A screen-readable version of Tarosophist International is available to members on the Members site, and a printed B&W version is available at cost to members and non-members through the print-ondemand service, LULU. The views and items in this magazine do not necessarily reect those of Tarot Professionals or the editor. All material remains copyright to the respective author and is not to be reproduced in any medium. Please do not pass this magazine to others. Non-members are encouraged to subscribe to our regular free newsletter, The Tarot-Town Lighthouse. Tarosophy® and Tarot House® are registered trademarks.
by Mary K Greer
Lot Crds by Steph Myriel Es-Tragon T w w wrs wrs by Tali Goodwin M nrmand
by Tessa Piontek
T Ghot∏T Crd Crdss by Andi Rootweaver-Graf
Tarosophist International
h F is Wrk: Hw Nt Larn LnrmanD
by Marcus Katz Kat z
“The Fox is work …” (The (The Secrets of the Lenormand Oracle, Oracle, Sylvie Steinbach, p.63) “To say ‘John is’ anything, incidentally, always opens the door to spooks and metaphysical debate. The historic logic of Aristotelian philosophy as embedded in Standard English always carries c arries an a n association of stasis with every ‘is’ ‘is’,, unless the speaker or writer remembers to include a date …” (Quantum Psychology Psycholog y, Robert Anton Wilson, Wilson, p. 102)
The Word Is When I read sente sentences nces in which one one thing “is” equated equated with another in an almost absolute manner, I physically flinch. This is probably because it was one of the logical fallacies that was beaten out of me for many months as a young Neophyte in my occult training. My teacher would yell “correspondence! correspondence! Not is!” In this article I will attempt to show, without physical torment, how that lesson has helped me not learn Lenormand (or any other system) in a limiting fashion. We’ll look at something called e-prime, and a nd the differen dif ferences ces between bet ween Tarot Tarot and Lenormand L enormand as simile and metaphor. In Quantum Psychology, Robert Anto A nton n Wilson introduces the idea of E-Prime E -Prime from the work of of Alfred Korzybski, who developed developed the field of General Semantics. Semantics. The idea can be considered considered as straight-forward straight-forward – to remove remove the “is” out out of language. language. As an example, I could have said, “the idea is straight-forward” but rather I said “the idea can be considered as …” thus giving some room for your own decision as to whether it could be seen as straight straight-forward -forward or not … As another example, example, let’s let’s say I said to to you “John “John is the good-l good-looking ooking guy over there” there”.. You Y ou look look across the room and and see John. Well, Well, you see a good-looking good-looking guy next to three other guys. You may be able to see where this is going, particularly when you end up spending the evening talking to Clive by mistake. That word “is” can lead us astray when we take it as fact. This notion of “is-ness” “is-ness” I believe might be seen as the t he bane of lazy writing w riting in occultism and any system that relies on symbolism sy mbolism and correspondence. correspondence. When we read “Mars is anger” or “The Hanged Man is Neptun Neptunee in Astrology” A strology” we create a totally invalid equation between a planet, an emotion, an image and another planet. They are Page 2
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not each other. other. They are not the same. They are not fixed fi xed in anything other than the mind creating a fictional equation. equation.
Lenormand as Simile and Tarot as Metaphor We like to use the symbol of We of a triangle above a straight straight line instead of of two straight lines, which determine equivalency equivalency rather than equals. It is the same sa me with metaphor or simile. A metaphor is defined as a group of symbols sy mbols creating a mapping to another situation, situati on, and a simile might be something as simple as “it is as easy as falling off a log”. When we say “life is a journey” (or a “Fool’s Journey”) we are creating a metaphorical mapping, mapping, which has many ma ny correspondences correspondences between bet ween attributes of both parts, but they they are still not identical. identical. So a card c ard – in this t his case Lenormand – is more of a simile than tha n a metaphor, metaphor, as might be a Tarot Tarot image. The The image of a Fox Fox is a simile for for certain attributes of a fox fox – as we will see – but not a complex complex metaphor metaphor such such as the story of the Tower Tower of Babel for for the Blasted Tower card in Tarot. These similes work together in a Lenormand reading to provide a tableau – a living set of relationships which then map to the querents real life. The fox has no direct mapping – another difference from Tarot – it is only in its relationship, context and position to other cards where it provides the mapping. We can see how this works in a moment We moment,, and why I suggest suggest it is important important to learn bare keywords and raw concepts concepts for each each card before building them them up into into “meaning”. First we will take a look at the fox itself and look at how it functions as an analogy marker in a reading. Let us take a look at one example in Lenormand tradition, the fox, and see how the meaning of this symbol sy mbol has travelled over time, since its first use in fortune-telling and cartomancy.
The Tale of the Fox Halina Kamm (2006 2006)) gives the fox as a false partner par tner,, in any regard, such as a tricky business partner or even even a false prophet. prophet. Dos Vent Ventos os (2007 (2007)) picks up on this by concentrating on the aspects of betrayal and “sneakiness”, “sneakiness”, whilst suggesting it can show that it is the client who is secretive when positioned positioned “in the t he back” of the Querent card. Mertz (2004) also depicts the fix as a cunning predator, ears flat, and about to pounce on his unsuspecting prey. The The card is hence a mixed card c ard of being fixed fi xed on a goal, alert and sensitive, yet also being cunning – so one has to determine if one is the fox or the hen. This is as Kienle (2001) who gives keywords such as “cleverness” and “intelligence” tellige nce” for the positive aspect of the card, and “falseness” and even “theft” for the negative. Page 3
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Dee (2004) provides a means of using distance in a reading with the Fox, in that whilst it symbolises deceit, its proximity to the querent card (the Gentleman or Lady) indicates the likelihood of that deceit in the querents immediate social circle. A Fox close to hand is troublesome – one far away shows that one can rely on close friends. Steinbach (2007) presents the fox as “work in general like our daily job, our career, our employment”. She differentiates between the fox as “job” and the fish as “business”. However, she goes on to discuss the nature of the fox as disloyal friends. AndyBC in his journal of a Cartomante site demonstrates a number of factors that can influence how the fox card (he gives keywords such as “wrong”, “manipulation” etc for his excellent language-based construct method of reading/teaching the cards) applies in a reading depending on its order, and whether it is above or below a querent card. He also points out that the Fox is a symbol-in-itself and not to be dressed-up with other symbolism or correspondences, such as the mir ror in the “Mystical Lenormand” deck or an association with Neptune. He also notes that there is far more similarity between traditions, i.e. French and German, than differences.
Reynard, The Original Fox In the original “Game of Hope”, from 1800, we see that the Fox was perceived as a negative card and one which would result in the player having to change course and take refuge. The little white book pamphlet that came with the cards explains “The cunning Fox leads the player astray …”. The full version of all the original instructions will shortly be published in The New Lenormand by Tali Goodwin, with translations by Steph Myriel Es-Tragon. At about this time, in fact six years prior to the publication of the deck, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe had written his free translation of Reynard the Fox , so the tales of the cunning fox would have needed no introduction to the participants of the game. The story had been available in Germany (in Latin) since as early as 1498, as Reinke de Vos. Reynard is the archetypal bestial trickster figure cum-preacher, and these satires were part of the social fabric. The Fox then, would have almost certainly been interpreted in divinatory terms as a trickster – one who spread a false gospel even, and was not to be trusted.
Learning the Lenormand When learning the elements of Lenormand, the language of L-Space, consider that the terms of reference are like unlit bulbs – they may be coloured differently, like the Fox is not the Tower, however, they have no intrinsic light until they are plugged into the mains. The Fox is a simile for trickery, for the ability to hunt with cunning, and for singleminded determination. These mappings have no absolute meaning; the Fox is no Page 4
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more “workplace” than it is “intelligence”; it is no more a “false gospel” than it is “a cheating lover”. It is pointless arguing over interpretation at that secondary level. The important thing should be to learn the alphabet of the symbols in a consistent manner, then test them out in practice and, like any language, we will get corrected in our precise pronunciation along the way. When “plugged in” to the other cards in combination and in a Grand Tableau in particular, the circuit becomes connected and the individual bulbs are lit up. However, they also reflect the glare of the images around them, and the circuit transforms as it makes connections across different combinations of resistance and flow. Thus the Fox bulb might be totally shadowed in one corner of the tableau and of no import whatsoever at the oracular moment of reading. It may however be sneaking up right behind us, lit balefully by the Snake, the Bear and the Tower, showing a prism of possibility that someone is indeed building up a strong position from which to leap upon us. The simile of the Fox is now constellated by the other images and forms, in that relationship alone, an oracular mapping to our life. When it is removed from that relationship, it is merely a picture of a fox and a simple simile.
A Technique for Engaging Literal Lenormand One practice method – and there are many more to be provided in The New Lenormand (Tali Goodwin, 2012) and subsequent titles – is to practice using similes in conjunction, through the Lenormand card images. This is also a good journal exercise and can lead to real readings. Consider a situation about which you require some clarity and direct advice. It can be as simple or complex as you wish. In my example, I will consider having a lot of deadlines to meet – I wonder if I should drop some projects now, or continue with all of them and attempt to meet the deadlines. Consider the situation as two separate aspects, such as “My deadlines” and “My projects”. It does not matter which order you place these two aspects in the sentence to follow, so long as you write it out first. Write “[My projects] are to [my deadlines] …” Now, considering these two aspects, shuffle your deck and select out two cards. Complete the sentence “My projects are to my deadlines as … [card 1] is to [card 2]” I pulled out the Bear and the Snake. I write “My projects are to my deadline as the Bear is to the Snake”. Now consider the actual reality of the literal objects on the Lenormand cards, or use their keywords from whichever system in which you are working. In a literal sense, the Bear rarely encounters a snake and if it did find one threatening, Page 5
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would likely kill it. The weight of the bear would probably make it reasonably immune from a poisonous bite. As such, I can divine that my projects, and their scale (pardon the pun), outweigh the insidious thoughts of deadlines – which may poison the work slowly, even killing it. I therefore write to one publisher and tell him his project requires a change of deadline, to be done properly. This was not something I had considered in my original question but now seems very obvious – and works! The Lenormand appears very literal, and it can be used to dictate immediate action in its stark simplicity. I hope you have found this article encouraging in the way you choose to learn Lenormand – or Tarot – or anything else. Do not forget – there is no “is”.
Recommended Site http://andybctarot.wordpress.com
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nrmand suits
by Helen Riding
http://www.mywingsofdesireblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/lenormand-suits.html
After taking a break from my cartomancy studies, I started reading Mystical Origins of the Tarot by Paul Huson and at the same time happened to get caught up in the latest wave of interest in Lenormand. As a result something that made no sense to me before suddenly clicked into place, namely the significance of the playing card suits in Lenormand. The Petit Lenormand deck is based on a regular playing card deck that has been reduced from 52 cards to 36 cards by removing the 2, 3, 4 and 5 pip cards in each suit. The cards are illustrated with various symbols and traditionally also include a miniature of the playing card associated with each symbol. Little seems to be known or understood about the significance of the playing cards, other than that the court cards can serve to describe people in a reading. There are also regional and personal variations throughout Europe in the card meanings, especially regarding which cards represent work, money and sex. The card meanings I have adopted are sometimes referred to as the “French” school or tradition. Several decks named after the French cartomancer Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand (1772-1843), including the Petit Lenormand popular today, were published after her death. However, the Petit Lenormand appears to have been modelled on a deck of cards published much earlier as part of a game of chance: “Detlef Hoffmann has shown that their prototype can be clearly traced back to a lovely little pack of fancy cards, called ‘Das Spiel der Hofnung (sic) / Le jeu de l’espérance’ (The Game of Hope), published around 1800 by G.P.J. Bieling in Nuremberg.” -- A Wicked Pack of Cards: The Origins of the Occult Tarot (1996), Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis and Michael Dummett I am looking forward to reading about recent research into this game in Tali Good win’s book to be published in May 2012, The New Lenormand. I understand that the book will include an English translation of the original game booklet which should help us to understand the original meanings of the cards better. In the meantime, a shift in my perspective of playing card suits has helped me to make more sense of the Lenormand system. Regional variations developed in suit signs after playing cards found their way into Europe, and the standard suit signs we used today originated in France in t he 15th century. The English names given to these French suit signs are not the same in meaning as the French names except for Hearts. This could explain why modern English-speaking cartomancers view the suits somewhat differently to 18th century French cartomancers such as Antoine Court de Gébelin and Etteilla and whoever originally assigned specific Lenormand symbols to specific playing cards.
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I wanted to know how the English suit names came about and have posted some information I found online, other than the information in the Wikipedia entry on playing card suits, for interest sake below. I have also ordered The Playing Card: An Illustrated History by Detlef Hoffmann, an English translation of Die Welt der Spielkarte published in 1972, which may shed more light on the subject. “The English names of the suits are in part adopted from the Spanish, and partly from the French; yet it is singular that the suits on our Cards are altogether those of the latter nation. It has been seen in a former page, that a Latin writer of the sixteenth century called the suit of Spades, Ligones*; the resemblance of the object represented on Cards of that Suit, to one of the forms of the agricultural spade is str iking, and hence we may account for the origin of this denomination; the similarity of sound between the Spanish term Spada**, and the English word Spade, may also have led to the adoption of it. The French call the suit of Clubs Trefle, from its resemblance to the Trefoil leaf: although we have obtained the form of the object from them, we have retained the Spanish word Bastos, literally translated. In admitting also the French suit Carreaux, we have in some degree gone beyond the licence of translation, in calling it Diamonds. Of the remaining Suit, Hearts, it is merely necessary to remark, t hat we have adopted both the name, and the object, from the French Cards. -- Researches into the history of playing cards (1816), Samuel Weller Singer “The mark now called the Trèfle, in France, was formerly known as the Fleur ... As the names, Clubs and Spades, given to two of the suits in this country, by no means correspond with the marks by which they are distinguished, - to wit, the French Trèfle and Pique - I am inclined to consider them as the old names for the suits of Bastoni and Spade; Clubs being merely a translation of Bastoni, and Spades probably a corruption of Spade, or Espadas, - Swords. From these names, indeed, it may be fairly supposed that the cards first known in England were those having Swords, Clubs, Cups, and Money, as the marks of the suits; and that two of those suits retained their names when the old cards of the Spanish or Italian type were superseded by those of more recent French design.” -- Facts and speculations on the origin and history of playing cards (1848), William Andrew Chatto t is interesting to note here that Clubs, once called Fleurs in French, are still called Fiori in Italian (both words mean f lowers). I
“The suit symbols now most widely known are those associated with international games such as bridge. Referred to as ‘French suits’ because of their French origin, they are unique among western cards in that their symbols are not illustrations of objects but very simple shapes in silhouette. This feature arose from the early innovation of printing them from a stencil instead of the more usual woodcut. In the French, German and Spanish languages the resulting shapes are interpreted as heart, clover leaf, pike-head and square (or tile). Their odd English names, none conforming to the others except for the heart, seem to owe more to a folk-memory of Mediterranean suits than to the shapes they actually represent. The typical Italian suit system uses the same symbolic objects as the Spanish (cups, coins, swords and clubs), with some differences of style dating back to an early stage in their history. Other distinctive suit *The Latin word ligones means “hoes” in English. **The Spanish word espada and the Italian word spada means “sword” in English.
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systems are those associated with Germany, with hearts, leaves, acorns and falconry bells. The Swiss symbols are broadly similar but with heraldic shields and roses replacing the hearts and leaves.” -- The Playing-Cards of Spain: A Guide for Historians and Collectors (1996), Trevor Denning Contrary to popular belief, Huson believes that the Clubs suit sign is derived from the Italian Coin and not the Italian Baton. “It’s customary among historians to derive the trèf le, the cloverleaf French suit sign that we call a Club, from the Italian Baton. However, it’s my belief (along with cartomancers of the French school) that it’s far more likely that the cross-shaped Clover Leaf represented the pattern to be found on the interior of the Italian Coin ... As for his suit cards, Etteilla followed Court de Gébelin in equating all Trèfle (Trefoil) cards (and their meanings) with his Coin suit (contrary to many present-day cartomancers who identify Coins with Diamonds); he identified all Coeur (Heart) cards with his Cup suit; all Pique (Pike) Spade cards with his Sword suit; and all Carreau (Paving Tile) Diamond cards with his Baton suit.” -- Mystical Origins of the Tarot: From Ancient Roots to Modern Usage (2004), Paul Huson Huson associates Clubs with Italian Coins (Tarot Pentacles) and Diamonds with Italian Batons (Tarot Wands.) We have some idea of what 18th century French cartomancers such as Court de Gébelin and Etteilla believed the Tarot suits symbolically represented from the correspondences to social classes of Court de Gébelin’s peer Comte de Mellet: “Swords represent royalty and the powerful of the earth; Cups the priesthood; Coins commerce; and Batons agriculture. -- A Wicked Pack of Cards: The Origins of the Occult Tarot (1996), Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis and Michael Dummett “De Mellet complained that ‘Our fortune-tellers do not know how to read the Hieroglyphs having removed from them all the Tableaux and changed even the names of the Cup, the Baton, the Coin, and the Sword, of which they knew neither the etymology nor the expression; they substituted the suits of hearts (happiness), diamonds (indifference and countryside), clubs (fortune), and spades (misfortune) ... But they have retained certain figures and several expressions, consecrated by usage that lets us see into the origin of their divination.’ -- Tarot for Your Self (2002), Mary K Greer When I applied Huson’s alternative Tarot suit correspondences for Clubs and Diamonds to my Lenormand dictionary, I suddenly observed a theme of sorts for each Lenormand suit that is more clearly linked to the elemental concepts now associated with the corresponding Tarot suit for divination purposes. This may indicate that the Lenormand deck was inf luenced to some extent by the thinking of 18th century French cartomancers who contributed to the history of occult Tarot, or it may be a lucky coincidence. Clubs includes cards that represent money, work, physical activity and challenges. Hearts are primarily related to love and relationships. Spades includes cards related to communication, travel and legal matters. Diamonds are related to luck, danger, decisions, risk and reward. The suits may be thought of as a hierarchy of needs, with Page 9
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Clubs/Pentacles/Earth representing our basic physical needs and the other suits representing our higher order needs of love (Hearts/Cups/Water), mental stimulation and justice (Spades/Swords/Air) and creativity (Diamonds/Wands/Fire). I have posted a few salient keywords per card below.
Clubs/Pentacles/Earth: the body, physical matters, health and wealth Cross (6) = burden, suffering, sacrifice Mice (7) = losses (health and wealth), stress, productivity Mountain (8) = obstacle, inactivity, delay Fox (9) = work, skills, discernment Bear (10) = resources (including money), strength, protection (including mother) Whip (J) = sex, conflict, physical activity Snake (Q) = betrayal, complications, disease Clouds (K) = confusion, uncertainty, discomfort Ring (A) = commitment, partnership, obligations
Hearts/Cups/Water: the heart, love, emotions and relationships Stars (6) = inspiration, guidance, technology Tree (7) = life, health, gradual development Moon (8) = romance, intuition, recognition Rider (9) = news, arrival, visitor Dog (10) = friend, acquaintance, loyalty Heart (J) = love, affection, generosity Storks (Q) = improvement, relocation, pregnancy House (K) = home, family, safety Man (A) = male person
Spades/Swords/Air: the mind, thoughts, communication, travel and justice Tower (6) = authority, legal matters, corporation Letter (7) = written communication, document, mail Garden (8) = public, group, outdoors Anchor (9) = stability, perseverance, base Ship (10) = travel, vehicle, distance Child (J) = young person, small size or quantity, student Bouquet (Q) = beauty, pleasure, gift Lily (K) = elders (especially males), maturity, serenity Woman (A) = female person
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Diamonds/Wands/Fire: energy, creativity, enterprise, risk and reward Clover (6) = luck, chance, boost Birds (7) = verbal communication, companionship, negotiations Key (8) = solution, certainty, discovery Coffin (9) = death, depression, bankruptcy Book (10) = knowledge, secrets, research Scythe (J) = decision, danger, separation Crossroad (Q) = choices, diversification, junction Fish (K) = business, transaction, independence Sun (A) = success, vitality, self-confidence Mais oui, I will definitely be paying more attention to the Lenormand suits in future
readings!
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h Art f th Lnrmand Rading by Melissa Hill
The magic of the Lenormand oracle is in the artful application of combinations found between the cards. That is, Lenormand cards work by influencing the other cards surrounding them. A Lenormand card is always part of a thing that is itself plus the card before, and the card after plus itself. If you’re looking at a three card reading, the two cards on either end hinge around the center card. The three cards together form two ideas that make up the whole of the reading: the first two cards are one part and the other part is made of the second card and the third. It might be helpful to think of the way the cards work with each other in terms of mixing colors. If we have three colors before us -- red, yellow and blue -- red and yellow can be blended together in varying proportions to form as many shades of orange as the eye can discern. However, red and yellow can never form purple or green. If you were to do a “reading” with the colors red, yellow and blue, the answer, in Lenormand-format, would be orange and green. Likewise, if the draw of colors were blue, red and yellow, the answer would be purple and orange. If you’ve spent any time with an artist or go browsing in your local art supply shop, you’ll likely find a color wheel. The whole of the Lenormand deck works in a similar way. Blending two cards, say the Fox and the Ship, will render a different shade than what the Fox and the Cross would, and yet, elements of the Fox will be found in both infusions. In this way, a Lenormand reading is a gradient map, moving from one side of a chromatic sequence to another, shifting shades subtly, as the possible events of any one future cascade down the timeline. The Melissa Lenormand by Melissa Hill
Sarah Sarah just found out that her artwork had been accepted into a gallery exhibit. It was a momentous first for her, and as excited as she was about the opportunity, she was nervous about where this might lead. She came to me with the question, “What will Page 12
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be the outcome of my gallery exhibit?” The Lenormand is my ideal tool for questions of outcome.
The Melissa Lenormand by Melissa Hill
The cards I drew for her were the Sun, Mountain, Fish, Bouquet and Moon. Recall that the reading happens between the cards. With five cards on the table, we have four bits of information revealed. I begin with Fish in the center, acting as a pivot point for the flanking cards. The Fish is inf luenced by the Mountain. Together they represent the dissipation of an obstacle. In my Lenormand vocabulary, the Fish card is the “wish” card and the Mountain may represent self-imposed limits -- a mountain of experience saying “no” that Sarah has brought to the table. The Bouquet, blended with the Fish is an offering of money. Moving further out from the focal card, the Sun influencing the Mountain shines hope on the situation. The Moon, influenced by the Flowers indicates praise in support for Sarah’s dream. The outcome of her gallery exhibit will be: Obstacles standing in the way of her pursing her dream of being an artist will cleared away by the financial support of others and the acclaim she will receive.
Conclusion The modern Sibyl has a crayon-box vocabulary, the ability to appreciate the difference in the color values of the cards, and an understanding of the science behind the spectrum. The modern Sibyl is an intuitive artist, blending the cards to create a vibrant but realist mosaic that resonates with the querent in the context of the question. And the Lenormand is but another medium we can use to paint a picture of the future as it comes to pass.
--Melissa Hill is the artist and innovator behind several modern Lenormand decks including The Melissa Lenormand and The Postmark Lenormand. She teaches a self-paced introductory video course on contemporary Lenormand cartomancy at http://lenormand.info and blogs about tarot, lenormand, divination and sassy living at
http://sassysibyl.com
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raditina vrsus Nn-raditina nrmand Rdings by Mary K. Greer
So, you have your first deck of Lenormand cards. You excitedly get them out, look at the little white book that accompanies them and lay out all 36 cards in a giant spread called the Grand Tableau. Then, starting from the Gentleman or Lady card, you are told to read them in a variety of sequences and combinations using the keywords provided: obstacle, friend, luck, travel. Eeeek! If you are not sure how to get coherent messages out of all this, that’s a common reaction. You’ll probably head straight for the Internet where you’ll discover Lenormand forums and classes—new ones emerging almost daily. A quick perusal shows t hat each card has a variety of meanings, many of which make little sense in relation to the picture. Then, you discover that not all Lenormand meanings and techniques are the same but depend on which ‘school’ is followed: German, French, Dutch-Belgian, Russian, Brazilian, Spanish and Steinbach-American. There are lists of keywords to be memorized, but most of the books and courses are in foreign languages. Then you read that it will take 5 to 8 years before you can be considered proficient. All for 36 cards whose images are, at least in most decks, icon-simple: a house, a dog, a bunch of flowers, a coffin (we all know what that means!). “But, I’ve been reading Tarot for 15 years,” you cry. “I can pick up any of a dozen oracle decks, throw out the little white book that comes with them, and read the cards intuitively. Everyone tells me how good my readings are. What can be so difficult? I already know what the Star, Sun and Moon are from reading Tarot. The Mountain must be something big and important, and a Bear is ferocious and destructive. I’ll just apply all the animal lore I learned from my Animal Cards and use my favorite spread rather than reading all the cards at once. What could be easier?” Few of us English-speakers, until recently, have had the experience of getting a Grand Tableau Lenormand reading in the European style from an expert. Yet, suddenly, within the past three years these cards have become all the rage, and new Lenormand decks are coming out with really pretty and intriguing pictures. Plus, there’s more symbolism on these new decks providing additional clues to their significance (or do they?). A butterf ly reminds us that soul-guidance is nearby; cute mice make us think of the helpful creatures in the Cinderella story; an astrological glyph for Mars suggests an aggressive, warrior energy. Just when you think you have a handle on it, a Lenormand reader on-line says, “No, the Mice traditionally mean theft, loss, erosion, decay and financial expenses.” “Not to me!” you answer. “I like mice. I see them as fun and playful.” And so the battle begins — traditional versus non-traditional or ‘anything goes’ LePage 14
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normand readings. “Hey, if I’m having fun and everybody says how good my readings are, then why should I bother with what somebody else tells me the cards mean? That’s their meaning, not mine. I’m intuitive! I’ve learned to trust my intuition and nobody’s going to make me doubt my Guides who tell me it’s okay to read this way.” First, I want to be perfectly clear—both techniques involve intuition—despite the fact that non-traditional readers often define themselves as “Intuitives.” Following a system or tradition doesn’t make a person any less intuitive. Furthermore, trusting that anything you say must be divinely guided doesn’t necessarily make it so. Nevertheless, I’m going to declare it is perfectly all right to do whatever you want. After all, you’re going to do it anyway. Some will throw out the books and time-honored methods in favor of using the cards as projection devices or psychic triggers. Others will create their own unique meanings and systems. And, some will basically follow a school, yet develop an observably unique reading style. The artistically inclined will create new decks. In some cases, these new decks will be so filled with superfluous details that they actually start evolving a new kind of Lenormand-influenced oracle. When a fad sweeps the planet, anything goes! The 36-card Petit Lenormand is over two hundred years old if we take its origins as the Spiel der Hofnung (Game of Hope) that appeared in Germany around 1800, based on even older Italian Biribissi games (from which roulette, bingo and Mexican Lotería evolved). A tradition of tea leaf emblems that use almost the same set of figures and meanings is nearly that old. While there are differences among schools, these differences are not so great as they first appear. It’s clear that there is a Lenormand tradition that is just as venerable and established as divinatory meanings for the Tarot. Tarot, with its more widespread popularity, has evolved quite a bit, integrating psychological and occult perspectives and world myth. Modern readings tend to emphasize free-will and choice over fate. While Tarot is more metaphorical and allegorical and is often based on metaphysical and spiritual teachings, Lenormand provides a straightforward sign-language in which two or more signs make up a va riety of compound words and concepts. Lenormand seems to say, “This is what is,” even when describing the future. There are generally not as many layers of meaning as in Tarot, yet Lenormand is flexible enough to incorporate new situations like Garden+Birds (or Crossroads) for social networks. The schools of Lenormand are like a single language with different dialects. More than most other deck oracles, there is a grammar that determines sentence structure. As with writing formal essays, you vary the expected form at your own peril. What you lose if you don’t follow the traditions is: 1) the bluntly straight-forward, concrete, specific, and eerily accurate responses for which Lenormand is well-known; 2) the full range of integratable concepts that the tradition provides; and 3) set methods for putting these concepts together into full sentences, paragraphs and story-lines. If you aren’t interested in this, then why use Lenormand rather than any of the other oracle Page 15
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decks available? Yes, I know, you like the pretty cards, and they “speak” to you! I have been privileged to be part of many panels put together by Tarot events organizer, Thalassa, at which well-known diviners each do a reading for an audience member using their oracle of choice. Thalassa then hands each of us a set of new oracles, hot off the press, and we read for someone using a tool we’ve never seen before. Of course we are brilliant and insightful. What this proves is that an experienced diviner can read with almost anything (personally, I prefer trash readings). So, using the Petit Lenormand as another one of these intuitive oracles is no big deal. But, like geomancy, the runes and I-Ching, there is a vocabulary and rules that result in a particular kind of oracular experience that sets it apart from all other oracles. Why miss out on its particular gifts? Having come from forty-five years of Tarot reading experience, I have found myself excited beyond belief to meet the challenge of an entirely new way to interact with a divinatory tool. By rigorously following tradition in this learning phase (I’m three years into the process), I feel like my brain is creating new synapses and networks— exciting for those of us with aging-brain issues. I’m also amazed at the results. I decided to let the cards tell me who were the t wo finalists on American Idol, including who would win and something about their final performance. I hadn’t seen the show since it had gotten down to seven contestants. Drawing five cards each before the finals, I wrote down that one finalist would be a foreign woman who was there by a stroke of luck: Jessica Sanchez has Filipino-Mexican parents and had been voted off but saved by the judges (Clover-Ship-Snake). The other would be a baby-faced male who was known for his creative choices (Roads-Moon-Child(Jack of Spades)). Later I realized that Phillip Phillips’ medical crisis was also described. With House+Key in Phillip’s future, it was obvious he would win, for Key is the ‘Yes!’ card—he would win the house. But, what blew me away was that the song cinching his win was called “Home” with the refrain, “I’m going to make this place your home.” (The audience went wild like I’ve never seen them before.) The judges noted that Jessica’s final song, while pretty, was old fashioned and dull (Clouds+Lily). Any old meanings for these cards would not give you this degree of traditionally recognizable exactitude. What many readers note is that, if you follow the traditions for analyzing card com binations and relationships, there is a point at which it comes together in a flash with an insight or story that transcends the individual components. That’s intuition. A traditional reader can backtrack through the layout to check for confirmation that this intuition holds up. Additional details can also be filled in. The “anything goes” reader who works solely by intuition or spiritual guidance doesn’t have this feedback loop to rely on, but just has to ‘trust’ that what they say is right. I participate in several internet Lenormand forums. I’ve been carefully observ ing the responses when a person asks for interpretations of their daily readings. What I’ve noticed is that non-traditional readers often give interpretations that tend toward 1) vague platitudes that sound nice, 2) irrelevant and convoluted metaphorical storylines, or 3) an emphasis on advice rather than description. When the original poster reports back on what actually happened, the more traditional readers are almost al ways the ones whose statements are acknowledged as most relevant. Their responses Page 16
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tend to be more succinct, blunt, to-the-point-descriptive, and they don’t offer advice unless the question specifically asks for it. Lenormand readings have a voice and style that is immediately recognizable and that we can count on. Non-traditional readings may not make the best use of its full range of possibilities for, by changing the meaning of one card, the things it stood for may be overlooked. On the other hand, a purely intuitive reading is free to range any where. The reader can bring through spiritual guidance and offer metaphorical insights without being limited by Lenormand constraints. When I asked the L enormand cards themselves what the advantage was for non-traditional readers, it responded that a person won’t be burdened with the long, hard work it takes to learn the secrets of the deck. They can adapt what they want, and forge their own path. Unfortunately, such an innovator may join a Lenormand forum and feel like traditionalists are tr ying to force them into a straightjacket of conformity. It’s really not that black-and-white; Lenormand readers are generally quite friendly and accepting. I predict that as more and more new Lenormand-style decks are produced you’ll find more adorable mice, astrological references, superfluous butterflies, frogs and story book scenes, and even additional cards.* Some people will gravitate to reading everything on the cards, making up meanings for the new elements that take the cards in entirely new directions. Eventually, a few of the new meanings will stick. New traditions will be born. Already we see shorter layouts using two, three, five, seven or nine cards, although most of these derive directly from aspects of the Grand Tableau and have evolved integrally out of learning-exercises preparatory to reading the larger layout. But, that’s how things change. Personally, I find that learning and working within the constraints of the tradition are like developing the tools, rules, methods and classical forms of any great art that, once learned, retreat into the background of conscious awareness. As a result, the artist-practitioner is able to create and intuit with a beauty and precision that can be counted on to produce reliable, expert results. Intuition flourishes when one’s instincts are freed from having to focus on the mechanics, which have become secondnature. My advice: don’t throw out the traditions; they are reliable, tried-and-true methods for getting concrete specifics from the Lenormand cards. Most people will experience great joy in the breakthroughs that happen when forging the new mental pathways that are accessed. Pick a school and stick with it until learned. Get yourself at least one traditional deck** and one of the newer, more expressive decks, and play with both. In the long run, though, you will do whatever you want to do, and the Lenormand traditions will continue to evolve. No one can accuse us humans of not being creative. The cat is out of the Lenormand bag! *The “Gypsy Witch Fortune Telling Cards” are essentially a Lenormand deck expanded to 52 cards. Other 19th century fortune-telling cards draw from an even larger pool of re-occurring mage and thematic possibilities. **Traditional 36-card Petit Lenormand decks include the Blue and Red Owl Lenormand’s from AGMuller or USGames (the White Owl to a lesser degree), Lo Scarabeo’s French Cartomancy, the Konigsfurt Lenormand Orakelspielkarten, the Konigsfurt/Urania Wahrsagekarten (known as ASS), the Carta Mundi Lenormand, or the Bernd A. Mertz Lenormand Wahrsagen mit Karten.
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T Ris∂T nrmand
by Rana George
When I first got the email from Marcus, I didn’t know what to write about in such a short time. I am in the middle of writing my own book, and working with three boys and their end of the year projects and finals. Then w ith a spark it came to me, I saw the picture of the ace of wands from James Ricklefs’ Tarot of the Masters. Yes! I am going to write about the decks that brought hard core Tarotistas to the Lenormand, and how I saw the events unfold which brought my beloved Lenormand from obscurity in the land of the free to the fashion of the day. Lenormand has been around for a long time as a major and solid system of divination in Europe. In North America not so much, it was practically unknown. For the people who had heard of it, especially the Tarotistas, they viewed it as “ugh! Another oracle”. One day, I was astounded to find a book in English about Lenormand. The excitement of finding this book led me to a forum on the web where I found my Disneyland. That forum directed me to a bookstore twenty minutes away from my home. Through this forum, I discovered a whole new world. A world I never knew existed. I thought that people like me weren’t out in the open, and everything should be “hushhush”. The enthusiasm over took me when I found out that there was a Tarot gathering at a bookstore near me. Soon the enthusiasm turned to pure anxiety, I had never been to this type of gathering. I had no idea what to expect. Since that day, my life changed significantly. I met the craziest, out of the box, creative, talented, and unruly characters you could ever lay eyes on. People like me! I finally found my home. Now this bunch ate, drank, and breathed Tarot. The year I joined happened to be the Crowley binge year for the group. They taught me the traditional, the heavy, and the over the top eccentric. When I first pulled my Lenormand cards, I got the nods and the polite smiles. A year later, those nods and polite smiles soon changed to inquisitive questions. You see this was when one of the first collage Lenormand decks came on the scene, the Melissa Lenormand. A tiny buzz started swirling on the net, the hardcore Tarotistas were intrigued, and suddenly they wanted to know more. What was so special about this small plain deck of cards? Why was everyone talking about it? Why would you want to use the simple 36 cards to predict if you can use the more sophisticated system of the 78 elaborate cards? The group wanted to learn more and quickly because I had to move to another state. The time constraint became the force behind the rush to learn. Slowly my friends, my mentors, and my teachers became my students as well. On a sunny Chicago afternoon, I was having a yummy Lebanese lunch with the leader and the young magician of the pack. The young magician blurted out a marvelous idea. “Now just a thought, what do you think if we created a Lenormand deck using Pamela Colman Smiths’ art work from the Pam A that I own?” The leader and I jumped on the idea; it was unprecedented, original and exceedingly creative. I saw cartoon fireworks all around us, with bells and whistles. Soon after, the three of us were on the floor working on the first Lenormand deck that would bridge the Tarot Page 19
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and the Lenormand worlds together. The energy of the three of us was bouncing in all directions; we were on a thrill ride and a creative high. However emotions were mixed, the joy was tinged with the sadness that hovered around for my soon separation of the pack. Still it was a magical, intoxicating time filled with high excitements and laughter. Out of love and friendship was the creation of The Pixie’s Astounding Mlle Lenormand Cards. Now that tiny buzz on the net gained a sizeable momentum and rapidly became a large whirl. The Pixie deck attracted everyone from the Lenormandist and the Tarostistas, to the people that wouldn’t even take a look at anything but a Rider Waite. The success of our baby was remarkable, Lenormand was on the rise. A year later, a class taught with the new Postmark Lenormad in NY at the Readers Studio gave a great momentum to that whirl especially with the arrival of Marcus and Tali and their extensive campaign for Tarot of Antiquity and Lenormand. Thus subsequently transforming that large whirl into a vast tornado. Marcus and Tali’s work and research brought more and more inquiring minds to the folds of Lenormand. And this is just the beginning… I am sure there are many different stories and many other perceptions for the rise of the Lenormand, but this is my story, my perception, and how I watched Lenormand slowly rise to the fore front and take center stage. I am going to enjoy the success and the glory of Lenormand, because that little deck of cards packs a punch and truly deserves to be known and recognized for the brilliant and accurate divination tool that it is. Is it the fashion of the season? Is it a fad? Will the Tarotistas get tired of it and give up on it? I seriously don’t think so. In fact, I actually believe when all the Tarotistas unlock its secrets, they will find that they have discovered a true gem and a blunt razor sharp little pack of cards. Beware, Lenormand is a tool that will expand your reading abilities, and infect it with dangerously new awareness and insights. This powerful little deck will add another path for the hero, another path full of predictions, and possibilities to the ever-evolving Tarot story. Rana George Ranageorge.com
----For close to 30 years Rana has been a psychic, a medium, a teacher, a mentor, and a card reader for many friends, family, clients and students. She is the co-creator of the Pi xie’s Astounding Lenormand Cards, a deck meant to bridge the gap between Lenormand and tarot. She is also a consultant to several other decks in progress, including Ciro Marchetti’s upcoming Lenormand deck.
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“Lot Crds“ frm r Italan Deks – T Exmp∂Prudnc by Steph Myriel Es-Tragon
The decks of the early tarot remind us that the present „standard“ of 78 cards = 22 Trumps and 56 minors, made up of 40 pips and 16 courts has not been „the norm“ from the beginning. Alongside and preceding the Visconti-Sforza1, variants appeared with greater or lesser differences. The early history of tarot is still much under debate as researchers continue to unearth sources for further interpretation and adaptation of dates2. Due to the revival of interest in the „Tarot of Antiquity”, which we honour this year in Tarosophist International as a sure sign for the recovery of the dignity of the tarot, reprints and re-creations of early decks have come on the market. For this article I have chosen to look at the Minchiate 3 (first mentioned 14664 in Florence) and the so-called Mantegna 5 deck (originating in Ferrara around the same time). Both decks have much larger sets of emblematic images, typical for Renaissance culture and art, only partially overlapping with the “standard” tarot. Following a brief description and appreciation of these two decks I want to discuss, whether the omission of cards in the later ‚standard’ has to be considered as a loss. In the framework of this brief article, I will concentrate just on one card: „Prudence“, the only one of the four cardinal virtues not appearing in modern tarot decks.
The Minchiate The Minchiate seems to have been used for a different though similar game as Tarocchi, roughly at the same time as the Visconti in the second half of the 15th century. Yet complete decks only survive from the 18th Century, for example the Etruria deck, recreated and published by Lo Scarabeo6. A modern re-interpretation is offered by Brian Walker7. The deck consists of 97 cards with 418 trumps and 56 minor arcana (110, Knave, Knight, Queen, King in the suits Swords, Staves, Cups and Coins). The 41 trumps – numbered from unnumbered (The Fool) to XL Trumpets (Angel for Judgment) include 22, which resemble the major arcana in the tarot with a few deviations and in a different order. There is no High Priestess, the Empress is replaced by the Grand Duke, the Emperor is specified as The Emperor of the West, followed by the Emperor of the East (instead of the Hierophant). Added are the virtues Hope, Prudence, Faith and Charity, the four elements and the 12 Zodiac signs. The full list of trumps in the Minchiate reads like this 9:
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-- The Fool III Emperor of the West VI Temperance IX The Wheel of Fortune XII The Hanged Man XV The House of God XVIII Faith XXI Water XXIV Libra XXVII Aries XXX Cancer XXXIII Leo XXXVI The Star IXL The World
I The Juggler IV Emperor of the East VII Strength X The Chariot XIII Death XVI Hope XIX Charity XXII Earth XXVI Virgo XXVIII Capricorn XXXI Pisces XXXIV Taurus XXXVII The Moon XL Trumpets (Angel)
II Grand Duke V Lovers VIII Justice XI The Hermit XIV The Devil XVII Prudence XX Fire XXIII Air XXVI Scorpio XXIX Sagittarius XXXII Aquarius XXXV Gemini XXXVIII The Sun
The Minchiate can be read like a tarot deck with the additional cards providing further aspects of meanings. Both the Lo Scarabeo booklet, written by Andrea Vitali and the book by Williams provide methods of divining with the Minchiate. Numerological readings would obviously bring up other results than the tarot we are used to. The suits are related to the elements but denote „painful situations“ (Swords), “problematic situations” (Wands), “positive situations” (Cups) and “happy situations” (Coins) according to Vitali, therefore his interpretations differ from those written for our usual tarot decks.
The “Mantegna” The socalled Mantegna tarot10 with its 50 trumps without pips has been influential in Renaissance art. For example, Albrecht Dürer made copies of some of these images during his stay in Italy 11. The 50 engravings, most likely originating in Ferrara with visible Venetian influences12 subdivide into 5 series of 10 images each. • “E” series (Estates) (sometimes also „S“ for „Stations“) represents the hierarchical levels of society: I The Beggar (Wretch), II the Servant, III The Artisan, IV The Merchant, V, The Gentleman, VI The Knight, VII The Doge, VIII The King , IX The Emperor, X The Pope •
“D” Series makes up the second decade with the nine Muses and Apollo
• “C” Series, the third decade presents the seven medieval „liberal arts“ and the three sciences Poetry, Philosophy and Theology • “B” Series : in the fourth decade appear the Genius of the Sun (Iliaco), the Genius of Time (Chronico) , the Genius of the world (Cosmico), plus the seven virtues, i.e. the four „cardinal“ and the three „theological“ virtues • “A” Series , the final decade brings up the seven classical planets, the sphere of the fixed stars, the primum mobile and the first cause. Page 22
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So we see here the “entire cosmic ladder in neoplatonic fashion, from beggar to God, in fifty steps that would be comprehensible to the educated fifteenth-century mind.”13 Adam McLean, too, emphasizes the neoplatonic and hermetic roots of the rich sym bolism of these cards14 and he relates them to the main trajectory of Renaissance development, i.e. “great works of the creative human spirit … which transformed the outer restrictive social forms of the medieval period and gave a new impulse of freedom to the spiritual seeking of humanity”. Both Huson and McLean point to parallels between the Mantegna and the later tarot. McLean’s provides this table of correspondences:
In his conclusion, McLean poses the question whether neoplatonic and hermetic influences have perhaps been more relevant in the formation of the modern tarot than the Kaballah. Personally, I think this is moot point as we have several layers of traditions over the centuries informing the modern tarot w ith confluences of various traditions at two or three historical turning points, one of which was the Renaissance, when neoplatonism/hermetism but also the kabbalah aroused much intellectual interest.
Prudence – a lost card? Prudence together with Fortitude/Strength, Temperance and Justice makes up the four cardinal virtues15 inherited from antiquity. The church later added the three “theological” virtues of Hope, Charity and Faith. These seven virtues where usually depicted as the counterforce Fig. Prudence (Minchiate Etruria, Minchiate Williams, Mantegna) to the seven deadly sins, for example on the portals of the Gothic cathedrals. Page 23
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In our cards from the Minchiate and the Mantegna tarots, Prudence looks into a mirror and she is accompanied by a serpent or dragon. In the Mantegna (as in many other pictures and statues) she has two heads looking Janus-like into past and future. She is the one who looks a all sides of a situation and with foresight as to its potential developments before she decides what action to take. The serpent or (very tame-looking) dragon stands for the wisdom, which is her source and her guideline. Giotto for example placed Prudence behind a lecturer’s desk to underline her relationship (almost identity) with “Sapientia”. Of the original four virtues three – Strength, Justice and Temperance - have been preserved in the major arcana of the tarot. But, strangely, Prudence a has been left out of the picture, despite the fact, that in older texts she is referred to as the “mother” or “father” of the vir tues. Many have speculated whether she is still there, but expressed by another of the existing trumps. Court de Gebelin, for example, saw her in the “Hanged Man” in an upright version16. This seems to me quite unconvincing, as the Hanged Man hanging by his foot was part of the Minchiate in addition to the Prudence image. Alternatively, Prudence has often been associated with the Papesse or High Priestess. This seems to be sound solution at first glance as the High Priestess is missing from the Minchiate and the Mantegna. But in my opinion, the qualities of these two images differ very much. The High Priestess is guarding the deepest secrets and access to them over the paths into the underworld/the subconscious or states beyond being and death. Prudence for me has none of this depth. Hers is a more worldly, calculating, weighing sense of foresight, decisions based on taking all things into account. She is not associated with the Moon or water, but rather with earth. But she is above any of the pip cards, such as 8 or Ace of Pentacles because she takes a much longer and deeper view. So, yes, it seems to me we have lost a card here. Perhaps there are more?
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Footnotes 1 See the Timetable on http://trionfi.com/0/j/ 2 For research into Renaissance cards see http://trionfi.com 3 Brief overview http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minchiate Page 24
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4 Raimondo Luberti (Burchiello) and Franco Pratesi cite a source which mentions minchiate and tarocchi alongside each other in 1440 http://trionfi.com/0/p/09/ 5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantegna_Tarocchi 6 Latest edition 2011 7 http://www.amazon.com/The-Minchiate-Tarot-Renaissance-Astrological/ dp/0892816511/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337847543&sr=8-1-fkmr1. The set includes a book with detailed sketches and explanations on the symbolism in the cards in their wider Renaissance context. 8 Online version of an older Florentine edition: http://www.tarot.org.il/Minchiate/ 9 Footnote missing. 10 Whilst most authors rather doubt the authorship of Andrea Mantegna (1431- 1506) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Mantegna, Rafal T. Prinke puts forward evidence to the contrary: http://www.levity.com/alchemy/prink-ma.html 11 “Tarocchi”: Menschenwelt und Kosmos : Ladenspeler, Dürer und die “TarockKarten des Mantegna” : Exhibition, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum Cologne 1988/9 12 One card depicts the Venetian doge, written in the Venetian dialect Doxe. 13 Paul Huson, Mystical Origins of the Tarot: From Ancient Roots to Modern Usage, Destiny: Rochester 2004 14 Adam McLean, An Hermetic Origin of the Tarot Cards? A Consideration of the Tarocchi of Mantegna (first published in the Hermetic Journal 1983), http://www.levity.com/alchemy/mantegna.html 15 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_virtues 16 http://www.letarot.it/cgi-bin/gallery/146/1%20-%20Le%20quattro%20Virt%C3%B9.jpg
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h w wrs: An amp f Para Manings in Lnrmand and art ards by Tali Goodwin
It is of note that the only cards immediately comparable between the regularly recognised Tarot structure and the majority of decks known as the Lenormand are the astral principles of the Star, the Moon and the Sun, and the more manifest Tower. In this article I will briefly outline how we can use the Tower as an illustration of the divergence between the two types of deck; Tarot and the Lenormand. I will also touch upon how meaning has been ascribed to the cards as a whole with a surprising proposition – that originally the cards had no meaning at all. In my forthcoming book, The New Lenormand (June 2012), I present a translation of the original rules of the game, “The Game of Hope” (kindly done by Steph Myriel Es-Tragon and courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum), which was published around 1799-1800 by G. P. J. Brieling in Nuremberg. This game of 36 cards appears to be the template from which most “petit” Lenormand decks derive. We know that the first “Lenormand” deck was “Le Grand jeu de la Madame Lenormand” which was 54 cards, published by Grimaud in around 1845 (two years after the death of Lenormand) and thereafter a number of publishing houses started producing versions of this and the 36-card variant. The original game, much like if we used “Monopoly” for a divination system, contains the rules and character of each card/image, which would have naturally informed players of their interpretation in divination. It is from these original characters of the cards that I derive my own interpretations, layered onto the “essence” words that I have developed from my personal experience of the deck. We’ll take a look at the Tower in the game, and how that can be developed into interpretative “meaning” – you may like to consider Marcus Katz’s article in this magazine alongside mine.
The Lenormand Tower Here is the instruction for a player landing on the Tower: 19: To enjoy the pleasant vista from the Tower, one pays 2 marks. The Lenormand Tower, is specific then, in that it is a Watchtower in an interpretative sense, it is very much about being alert and prepared well for something which has not yet happened; in order when it does to stop it in its tracks or to premeditate a more pleasant outcome. The Watchtower is more enabling, less intimidating, it is very much about keeping control of the physical state of being, it has more promise of the material. Page 26
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You could describe the Lenormand Watchtower as a promoter of autonomy, (from ancient Greek, “one who gives oneself one’s own law”) and this fits in with the original intentions of the Game of Hope that it would be a tool for didactic learning. The game presents 36 cards of moral lessons and how one deals with the “Vice and Virtue” which each throws up along the way. It tells us ‘you too can have a pleasant life if you look ahead and plan your life carefully and make the appropriate choices’. Whereas, with the Tarot Tower it is almost saying “all now is lost to all that enter here”. The Lenormand seemingly offers more “Hope”. The Lenormand Tower would not be out of place in a tourist guide book, it does not elicit a gasp or a shock as the Tarot Tower usually does. The image of the Tower in the ‘Game of Hope’ is clearly an observatory form of Tower rather than a defensive emplacement or “House of God”. There is a balcony at the top providing a clear view of the surroundings to the distant horizons. A flag is raised to full mast and is caught in a full breeze, perhaps signifying that the sky is clear. There are no obstructions around it, and it is slightly raised upon a grassy mound emphasising its elevation, it is functional and unadorned, merely a watchtower – suspiciously identical to the 18th Century Watchtower in Nuremberg where the Game was devised and produced. A tourist in the Nuremberg of 1800 would no doubt discover many of the cards – garden, house, etc., in plain sight throughout the town.
Traditional and Contemporary Meanings When we look at various schools of thought with regard to the Lenormand deck, we discover a variety of meanings for each card, some similar, some variant. I have used the original French and German books in our collection for these meanings. Halina Kamm (2006) gives the tower as rigidity and inf lexibility, might, power and egotism, whilst at the same time equating it with magic and occultism – perhaps as a watchtower within the inner world. There are often conflicts of meaning with the card as representing “authority” – is it self-mastery and wisdom, is it education Page 27
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authority, or military might? At heart, the essence of the card, to me, is “vision”, the clear-sightedness that the watcher in the watchtower brings, whether then used for learning a lesson, martial victory or inner knowledge. Mertz (2004) concentrates on the tower as the house of wisdom, saying it depicts the place where wise men and women might live in the winter, suggesting then interpretations of quiet success and isolation, to some extent. Kienle (2001) depicts the card more literally as a “school”, “education” or “place of work”. Dee (2004), writing in English, stresses the “castle” nature of the card, suggesting that if it is surrounded by more negative cards, it could be that the querent feels “under siege” or be suffering from a debilitating illness. Treppner concentrates on the “authority” aspects of the Tower, and Steinbach (2007) extends the Tower symbolism to cover governmental institutions, the “power and hierarchy of the corporate pyramid system”. Whilst adding it also covers colleges and other learning establishments of education, she also adds that it also symbolises “the ego, someone’s ambitions and belief systems”. In the Brazilian version, Dos Ventos (2007) combines meanings of isolation and independence with similar meanings of “government offices and even foreign countries”. If the card comes up close to issues of employment, it signifies a “complete change of job”, possibly even “relocation”. AndyBC on his Journal of a Cartomante site – highly recommended – shows that whilst the “High Tower” may signify loneliness, it also separates out the cards to either side of it, which I think is an important place-holder function in the overall tone of a GT reading in particular. It also shows how cards can have functional effects in a layout, rather than a purely symbolic one, something that is not considered as much in Tarot, where every card is read as an entity of itself.
The Tarot Tower The Tower symbol in the Tarot is very much about sudden catastrophic collapse and the end of an era. There is not much scope to be able to make amends, to take action; it is more how we deal with the impact of an inevitable upheaval, and how we come to terms with reacting to that loss and change, it is a foregone conclusion. We have as much control over it has the figures usually falling from the Tower itself. The first reference to the card that would become the Tower of the Tarot was in a late fifteenth–century Italian manuscript, Sermons de Ludo Cum Aliis where it was called La Saggita (The Arrow). The oldest example of the card was in the Gringonneur deck of approximately 1475 (pp. 84–88, A Cultural History of Tarot , Helen Farley, I.B Tauris & Co Ltd: 2009). The whole section of Farley’s piece on the “Tower: Absent or Lost?” is of interest in tracing the history of this specific card. In Tarot, the Tower then starts to get extended in symbolic and interpretative meaning. If we look at Crowley’s take on the Tower and the inclusion of reference to doctrines of Yoga and the Eye of Horus (Eye of Shiva), Crowley says of this “that on the Page 28
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opening of which, according to the legend of this cult, the Universe is destroyed”. It is the card of “annihilation”, “to make of nothing”, which Crowley explains is the end goal, to become broken as are the figures that fall from the garrison, lost but transformed into “mere geometrical expressions” without human form. Here we are going mystical and spiritual, far away from the “watchtower” of the Lenormand. According to Crowley, this is the sought-after state to be in, a state of non-attachment to the Physical realm and intellectual ego. This is partly why I use the essence-word of “vision” in my own Lenormand reading, as it does allow some overlap into Tarot on this basis. Waite in his appraisal of The Tower is very much of the same consensus of Crowley and the doctrines of Yoga, in that he says “I agree with Grand Orient [himself, writing under an earlier pseudonym!] that it is the ruin of the House of Life, when evil has prevailed therein, and above all it is the rending of a House of Doctrine. I understand that the reference is, however, to a House of Falsehood” (p.132, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot ). This would be the ‘pride which comes before the fall’, the sin of Lucifer, the Devil the card before the Tower. So in Tarot we have come a long way from the literal watchtower to the sin of pride. However that may be, the vice and virtue of each card, each image, each symbol, can be read according to its own nature – we read the cards. On that note, we will briefly look at the cartomantic reading of the Six of Spades, which is associated with the Lenormand Tower card.
The Six of Spades In the earliest attributions of the playing cards to cartomantic divination, we find verses which dictate how the card is read, dependent on the gender of the sitter. These simple couplets, easily learnt, would have been a wonderful parlour game. I recently visited a library in Edinburgh to view a copy of Flamstead and Partridges Fortune Book from 1750. This is a very useful resource for those of you looking to read fortunes by the appearance of moles on the body – perhaps we will make that our theme for 2013, “Mole Reading for Beginners”! Be that as it may, here is the original reading for the Six of Spades, the first couplet applying to a gentleman, the second pair to a lady: This six fortells that when you do wed You will have a cracked maidenhead, But the girl this number draws She’ll wed one with great applause It is interesting that by the time this gets to Dee (2004) the meaning has been slightly modified to avoid the “cracked maidenhead” allusion: The six fortells whene’er wed Page 29
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You’ll find expectations fled; But if a maid the number own She’ll wed a man of high renown. (p. 55, Jonathan Dee, Fortune Telling with Playing Cards). Again, this is a far cry from our ‘watchtower’ or ‘fall of man’ interpretations of Lenormand or Tarot, although perhaps there is a common theme of surveying the landscape before you leap – into the unknown, into yourself, or into marriage alike. In presenting these parallel tracks of Lenormand, Cartomancy and Tarot interpretations it is perhaps important to remember that their bring together was often for marketing purposes, later brought into the service of divination. The playing card inserts were put onto decks such as the ‘Game of Hope’ simply to ensure they could be used for playing other card games, such as Piquet, and not limited to a niche market or singular usage. Similarly, when cards were originally used for divination, along with dice, they were simply keys to look up interpretations in fortune books, not given any particular meaning in themselves. I often wonder if it is likely that some early marketing person thought, “why not produce a little white book with a deck, or put the meanings onto the deck in verse, and then we can sell the deck without the big book?” and then went and undercut all those publishers selling expensive fortune-books, particularly the Italian ones. However that may be, we are now in a situation where people can read the “Lenormand” cards without any particular reference to the fact that they were never used by Lenormand, they came from a family card game, and their meaning is subject to drift and re-interpretation. In my book I’ll provide the full original sources for those interested in this background.
Recommended Website Journal of a Cartomante, http://andybctarot.wordpress.com
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M. Lnrmand
by Tessa Piontek
Perhaps you’ve seen those cute little fortune-telling cards. You know, the ones with Mlle. Lenormand’s name on them. Some have red, white, or blue owls on the back, while others have birds with outspread wings. Most of these decks have 36 cards and the pictures themselves on these cards vary, some depicting playing cards along with an image designed to indicate the meaning of the card, while others have cute little rhymes to facilitate their interpretation. The rhyme on Number 23, from the Red Owl version says, “The robber mouse takes your treasure. Inside the house he steals with pleasure. Hope’s not all foregone if this card is near, Once the mouse is begone you regain what’s dear.” A warning to be taken seriously, despite the charm of these petite cards. Variations on these cards can be found around the world, in many different languages, but who was Mlle. Lenormand? Did she actually use the fortune telling cards that bear her name? With the popularity of tarot cards, many people may tend to dismiss these little fortune-telling cards, but their worldwide popularity would indicate otherwise. Born Marie-Anne Adelaide Le Normand in Alençon, France, on May 27, 1772, although some biographies list her birth as early as 1768, she died at the age of 71 on June 25, 1843. Interestingly, the cards that bear her name were not published until after her death, indicating her inf luence was substantial enough to continue after her death and has continued to this day. Known as Napoleon’s fortune-teller, she also allegedly read for such aristocracy and heads of state as Empress Josephine; Czar Alexander; Jean-Paul Marat, a French journalist and politician; and Maximilien Robespierre, a prominent figure during the French Revolution, just to name a few. Less known is the fact that she authored a number of books, which undoubtedly added to her fame or notoriety, as the case may be. Copies can be difficult to find, but one such book which she co-authored with Jacob Merritt Howard is “Historical and Secret Memoirs of the Empress Josephine: (Marie Rose Tascher De La Pagerie.): First Wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.” In her lifetime, Mlle. Lenormand wrote approximately fourteen books; however, they were not on cartomancy or fortune-telling per se, but rather on her associations with the rich and famous, mainly to promote herself and her clairvoyant abilities. There are many myths regarding her early life; however, according to church records she was born in 1772, not 1768, and had a sister and a brother. Marie-Anne’s father Page 31
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died the year after she was born. Her mother remarried the following year and soon after passed away also, leaving Marie-Anne an orphan by the age of five and in the care of her stepfather. Her stepfather remarried twice again in quick succession, his second wife dying at an early age as well. Not wanting to care for children that were not biologically theirs, her stepparents sent her and her siblings to boarding schools where Marie-Anne first developed her clairvoyant talents. At the age of seven, Marie-Anne found herself in a Benedictine convent school where she foretold the dismissal of the Mother Superior, for which she was put on a ration of bread and water. Not long after the Mother Superior was removed from her post for involvement in a disgraceful scandal, Marie-Anne surprised those hoping to fill the vacant position by foretelling it would be filled by appointment by someone from afar. To everyone’s amazement King Louis XVI did indeed appoint a replacement from another institution. Marie-Anne was thereafter transferred to another convent where her abilities continued to increase to everyone’s alarm. Her stepmother decided the cure was to take her out of school and send her, in 1786 at the age of fourteen, to Paris where her stepfather obtained employment for her in a shop. While working there she studied mathematics and bookkeeping, in addition to numerology, and won 1200 francs by selecting a winning lottery number. 1200 francs is equivalent to €183 or $240 today, which was, no doubt, quite a sum in the late 18th century. How, then, did an indistinguishable shop clerk rise to fame and fortune as the premier clairvoyant to European monarchs of the late 18th and early 19th centuries? The combination of an unsettling political atmosphere, frighteningly accurate predictions, and an unquenchable desire to promote her talents all combined to make Marie-Anne Lenormand the most famous fortune-teller of the past 200 years. Most of the biographical information available to us today about Mlle. Lenormand seems to be a combination of fact and fiction, most of the fiction coming from Mlle. Lenormand’s own writings. Many of her early encounters with political leaders appear to be exaggerated, if not completely fabricated. In one book, “Visionaries and Seers” by Charles Neilson Gattey, he relies heavily on the works of Mlle. Lenormand herself to support her claims. Another book, “Remarkable Women of Different Nations and Ages,” an anonymous anthology originally published in 1858, gives no references at all. Her early claims of having correctly foretold the future of Jean-Paul Marat, Louis Saint-Just, and Maximilien Robespierre have been put in doubt by Louis du Bois, who wrote her biography shortly after her death in 1843. What we do know is that by 1802, at the age of 30, she was successful enough to purchase a country home in Migneaux and a flat in Paris. Whether her fame, and fortune, was built on accurate predictions, or the insecurity and credulity of the Parisian elite, or a combination thereof, remains to be determined. By the time Mlle. Lenormand reached Paris the r umblings of the French Revolution were simmering and would explode within a few years time. 1790 was an eventful Page 32
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year. She joined an old friend, Jacques-René Herbert, as a companion and reader to M. d’Amerval de la Suassotte, an aristocrat. In addition to practicing augury, Marie Anne and Jacques- René became involved in the weighty political atmosphere in Paris at the time by secretly helping M. d’Amerval to write and distribute Royalist pamphlets within the city. In the same year she met Mme. Gilbert, another fortune-teller, and M. Flammermont, a baker, who would turn out to be a lifelong friend. According to some biographers, Mme. Gilbert taught Mlle. Lenormand how to read tarot cards and palmistry. Together the two women told fortunes while M. Flammermont busied himself distributing political leaf lets, as well as, advertising the fortune-telling services of the two women. The three of them were arrested, their cards and leaflets burned, and threatened with more severe punishment if they were to revive their illegal occupation. It is unknown what happened to Mme. Gilbert after their release; although, it has been suggested that Mme. Gilbert may have been an alias of Mlle. Lenormand herself, given the illegality of their profession, since a version of the name, Guilbert, was her mother’s maiden name. Mlle. Lenormand continued her divinatory career, undercover from that time on, setting up shop under the guise of a librarian and letter-writer. Cleverly, she also knew the value of showmanship to enhance her growing reputation. Upon entering her salon, her client would be escorted into a secret room by M. Flammermont, where they would find bats nailed to the ceiling by their wings, stuffed owls, and other gruesome ornaments. In addition to tarot cards, Mlle. Lenormand used scrying, wands, talismans, and a Gypsy’s ring along with other divinatory items. Upon leaving, they would be escorted out another secret door. It is questionable if these theatrics were really necessary to enhance her predictions, but they undoubtedly left an unforgettable impression. Her clients, without the assistance of M. Herbert, originally were common folk, who were impressed by her predictions, and word spread to their employers, eventually reaching ladies-in-waiting at Court. Ultimately, Mlle. Lenormand did have clients at the highest levels of society, but her natural clair voyance may have been enhanced by knowing where to eavesdrop and who to pay for information. In 1793, the Reign of Terror, as it was known, began and resulted in the execution of over 16,000 by guillotine throughout France in less than a year’s time. Those in power, as well as those who desired it, sought assurance that they would not likewise lose their lives via the “national razor” by consulting Mlle. Lenormand, whose reputation as an accurate sibyl was growing rapidly. In the same year of 1793, according to Mlle. Lenormand, Napoleon consulted her incognito. Discouraged at the way his career seemed to be going, he was considering leaving France altogether and seeking service w ith the Turks. Mlle. Lenormand foretold he would play a grand role in the history of France, in fact becoming the King, and his marriage to Josephine. She later claimed to have foretold their divorce and his defeat.
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Mlle. Lenormand’s fame and fortune continued to spread despite the fact that fortune-telling was still an illegal activity. In 1798 she moved to No. 5 rue de Tournon, where she continued to practice divination under the same guise as before, of a librarian and letter writer, until her death in 1843. Within two years after her death, fortune telling cards bearing her name began to appear. To this day you can find Mlle. Lenormand’s fortune telling cards, which are available in many variations. Mlle. Lenormand’s most successful vision may have been the one she saw for herself: a self-made, self-sufficient prophetess to the rich and famous. Her name is still recognized around the world as the most famous seer of the last 200 years.
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T ghot∏T Crds
by Andi Rootweaver Graf
What follows is a short (fictional) story about how we suppose a mysterious, unnamed German deck found its way to us, about a hundred years after it was created. Europe had recently been plunged into war, again. The man had managed to scrape some wood together to keep them warm from the bitter cold. He had a lifechanging decision to make. From a suitcase he pulled out his old friends, they had served him well many times before and he hoped that they would do so once again. He remembered earlier occasions when he’d asked his trusted friends for help, their advice and direction had always been useful, sometimes not what was hoped for, but almost always uncannily accurate. This time things had changed, his circumstances were more complicated. He had a family to support, and their world was thrown into disarray. All around them were destroyed buildings and damaged infrastructure. Pain and loss. The war had affected everybody. An opportunity presented itself to leave everything behind and to start a new life elsewhere, but it was a big decision to make. Should they take the opportunity he wondered, or should they stay and try to rebuild their lives from the rubble and destruction that surrounded them. The man removed his old friends from the suitcase and laid them in a familiar spread on the table, as he’d done many times before. They had been constructed from cardboard towards the end of the 1800’s, consisting of a group of 36 cards. Each card boldly displayed a symbol and a short message in the old language that today is hardly spoken anymore. In answer to his question his cardboard friends advised him in no uncertain terms to take his family south, as far as he could, which is exactly what he did. The family reached their destination on the most southern tip of Africa soon after the end of WWII. Amongst their humble possessions was an old suitcase containing a variety of things, including his trusted cardboard friends. The cards were packed away, possibly even forgotten, especially after the old man died. For generations they silently remained in darkness in the old suitcase. Africa was however not destined to be their last home, neither were they destined to be forever silenced in darkness. Sixty or so years later they would eventually travel to Australia, where once again they would be discovered and brought out of the darkness. The hands that nally released them from the old suitcase belonged to the wife of the old man’s great-grandson. Page 35
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My name is Andi Graf, perhaps better known in the cartomancy world as Rootweaver. With the help of Susanne Zitzl, a German translator, author, cartomancier and deck collector, I have started learning the ‘language’ of this deck of cards and am slowly discovering their preferred pattern and system of use. The rarity of this deck is becoming apparent since none other like it could be found anywhere by Susanne during her research. She compared it with Lenormand cards, Kipper cards, several Gyspy cards, different reproductions of older fortune-telling cards (eg Russian cards,) and modern cards for fortune-telling and self knowledge. This deck doesn’t match any of those, and is only somewhat similar to some Gypsy and Lenormand cards because they also have symbols such as house, fox, stork etc... but they also have different symbols that Susanne has not yet seen in other fortune-telling decks, for example sphinx, frog, comet, lifeboat... The publisher (Versandbuchhandlung Urano) has long since ceased to exist, and nobody knows who the creator of the cards was. Even the name of the deck eludes us, the title on the pack is ‘Echte Wahrsagekarten’ which simply means ‘Original Fortune telling Cards.’ What we have discovered however is a cartomancy system befitting such a rare deck. Like nothing else currently available, both deck and system seems to be truly unique. While the LWB that accompanies this deck suggests the use of the Grand Tableau, a spread that is commonly used in Lenormand and other readings, the interpretation of the layout within the GT is very unique. For example, in modern cartomancy cards left of the significator card indicates past events while cards to the right relate to future events. However, with this deck cards to the left of the significator have a completely different meaning to cards lying to its right, depending on the position of the card in relation to the significator it could have any one of several meanings. In addition to this, certain cards influence others within the spread, changing their meanings dramatically rather than merely enhancing them. In a sample reading with this mysterious deck I asked about the history of my husband’s great-grandfather in relation to these cards. He, as far as we can tell, was the original owner of this deck. I laid all 36 cards out in a Grand Tableau as per the instructions in the LWB, but interpreted only a few of the card combinations for this sample reading. This was some of what the cards revealed about the history of the old man and his cards: “Failures. Accept the advice of good friends. If this card lies near card 34 it means a funeral or deception” Page 36
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I interpreted this to be the realization that Germany was going to lose the war (WWII), and that the card-reader probably consulted his cards (his friends) for advice on what to do to protect his family. The card did in fact lie close to card 34, I interpreted the ‘funeral or deception’ to be the death of life as they knew it in what was once their beloved home-country, a home that they were probably advised (by the cards) to immigrate from; and the sense of betrayal that he and his family must have felt when, in spite of misleading propaganda, they realized that Germany would be defeated. Not to mention what betrayal they must have felt when, in years to follow, Germany’s conduct in the war became clearer. Close to the significator card were a couple of cards that spelt “Loss” and “Rescue.” I wondered whether this referred to the deck of cards themselves that would be ‘lost’ for decades at the risk of becoming permanently lost to the world until they were recently found (rescued) amongst the great-grandfather’ belongings; only to discover that they border on ‘extinction’ as we have not been able to find another anything like them since making this discovery. Furthermore, a deeper explanation of one of these two cards informs us “If this card lies near the signicator card, it means that the person is restless and cannot nd peace.” Which is partly what inspired me to choose the title for this article, The Ghost in the Cards. Now all that remains is to breath new life into this (almost) extinct deck and cartomancy system, as a way of honouring its origins and as a way of bringing some peace to it’s old friend, great-grandfather. Peace perhaps in the knowledge that his 36 card board friends are safe and protected, honoured and - if all goes according to plan - will soon again be revived for other lovers of cards and cartomancy to benefit from their wisdom and insight.
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Editria I’m a fascist. Those who know me will accept this beyond doubt. I might not be interested in a totalitarian and right wing system of government, but as far as Tarot goes, I’m a tottering little Mussolini. What deck do I use? Thoth, Thoth and nothing but the Thoth. Anything else? Well… there’s always the Palladini Aquarian deck, because although the Thoth deck is superior, I’m a hypocrite as well as a snob. Rider-Waite clones? Get out. Oracle deck? You come to me with an oracle deck? Smithers, release the hounds. I’ve always regarded Oracle decks as second rate to Tarot. I’ve always felt they were shoddy and made up. Someone just found a whole lot of cool images on Lolcatz and decided to paste them into a template. I once came across a deck that had a card called the ‘Ace of Wombs.’ Then came the Lenormand. I love the Lenormand. It doesn’t just appeal to me as a geek, and as a diviner: it appeals to me as a snob and obscuritan. It has history. Being into the Lenormand is like being into European Electro-Swing music, or reading the books of William Hope Hodgeson. It lets you wear your black turtleneck with pride. I don’t have a Lenormand deck yet, but I’m getting one. When I do, I’m going to play with it. But… From a business point of view I wonder if it’ll make any difference. Most of our customers aren’t what you’d call ‘power users.’ They’re ordinary people with ordinary problems. You can read their cards using the Lenormand, an Angel Oracle or the Tarot de Marseilles. In a few days they won’t remember the difference or even care. They care about themselves: they didn’t come to you for the love of the cards, they came to you for a solution to whatever was bothering them, and at the end of the day they only care about whether they got it. Which makes all my nonsense utterly irrelevant, because what we’re talking about here is something that affects professionals in every craft: is it the right tool for the job? If you give a blinding Lenormand reading, hell yes. Honestly, if your customers are happy it doesn’t matter if you give a reading with the Tarot, an oracle deck or playing cards retouched with dabs of your own bodily f luids. If the Lenormand does it for you, go for it. We can at least say one thing (probably: ) it worked for la Lenormand. A lot of deck creators are professionals in their own right, but Mlle Lenormand was stellar. She read cards for some fantastic people: Empress Josephine and the Czar to name but two. And to some extent it surprises me that France still had a thriving trade in divination. A hundred years or so before la Lenormand’s birth they’d seen The Affair of the Poisons where Paris had gone mad with panic over black magic and poisoning, and Page 38
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diviners all over the city had been locked up and tortured until they agreed to be involved in various acts of heinousness or regicide. The affair’s bloody architects, the Marquis de Louvois and Nicholas de la Reynie, had executed large numbers of the city’s highest profile diviners. That sort of thing leaves a stain on the national psyche. Either way, welcome back from the dust of history, Mlle Lenormand, and we hope your deck helps us to see what we want to see. At the end of the day I don’t see any reason for there to be any particular rivalry between Lenormand, or any other oracle deck, and the Tarot, in the same way that there needn’t be any rivalry between the lead guitar and bassist. I’ll let you decide which is which, but one is the front man, while the other does an improtant job within the rythm section. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to choose my Lenormand deck.
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