Useful Departure or Deviation?

Samweiss

DownUnderNZer said:
Different Lenormand Systems:

Fox (Work), Whip (Sex), Bear (Finances)...... French.
Anchor (Work), Lily (Sex), Fish (Finances)..... German.

Few other cards differ as well.

My question would be if Madam Lenormand was French and breathed, lived, and died in France would it be fair to say then that the "closest system" to her would be the French one rather than German or any other? :D
Click to expand...

I doubt madame Lenormand had a card for sex. Like Barleywine mentioned, it was such a taboo subject in that time period. But here's a quote from Andy's book:

"The most enduring myth is that the Petit Lenormand method is about memorising hundreds of card combinations. This is not true. There is also a notion of ‘schools’ based on using certain cards to identify work or sexuality. This is not true, either.
You will not be asked to memorise lists; nor will you have to worry about schools’ meanings. There are no such things. Not all readers in Belgium use the Moon for work, just as not all French readers use the Fox. As you will see, the cards are multi-variant, so there is no singular card for employment, et cetera."

Andy's cards for work has been most consistant for me, these being Moon, Anchor, Ship and House.
 

DownUnderNZer

Andy uses the German system.

Not all use the German system or the French etc.

The two German women I had as teachers used the two systems only one went with the French and the other German. The one that went with the German was taught generation to generation and a Traditionalist - just like Andy I'd say.

Distance is another aspect that differs between the two systems as well. And there are "other systems".

You do not need to know all combinations, but rather how cards connect with one another.

"Sex" exists back to cave man days, so I'm sure Madam Lenormand would have had a very polite way of putting things like "romance", "marriage" or "passionate love" even though she was a rather forthright woman. Tact I'd say...simply tact. :)



Samweiss said:
I doubt madame Lenormand had a card for sex. Like Barleywine mentioned, it was such a taboo subject in that time period. But here's a quote from Andy's book:

"The most enduring myth is that the Petit Lenormand method is about memorising hundreds of card combinations. This is not true. There is also a notion of ‘schools’ based on using certain cards to identify work or sexuality. This is not true, either.
You will not be asked to memorise lists; nor will you have to worry about schools’ meanings. There are no such things. Not all readers in Belgium use the Moon for work, just as not all French readers use the Fox. As you will see, the cards are multi-variant, so there is no singular card for employment, et cetera."

Andy's cards for work has been most consistant for me, these being Moon, Anchor, Ship and House.
Click to expand...
 

Samweiss

DownUnderNZer said:
"Sex" exists back to cave man days, so I'm sure Madam Lenormand would have had a very polite way of putting things like "romance", "marriage" or "passionate love" even though she was a rather forthright woman. Tact I'd say...simply tact. :)
Click to expand...

Indeed. :) But I don't see Whip being associated with any of those things you mentioned.
 

Padma

Helen's Lenormand History said:
"The original prototype for the Lenormand deck, das Spiel der Hoffnung (Game of Hope), was designed as a board race game with a secondary use of fortune telling by a German man Johann Kaspar Hechtel (1771-1799). The deck was later named after the famous French fortune-teller Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand (1772-1843).

The board game used a traditional Southern German playing card deck of 36 cards with new illustrations on each card that were laid out in a 6x6 formation, a typical formation for gambling board games similar to Mexican Lotería now known in Germany as Bilderlotto (picture lotto). (Southern German playing card decks historically did away with the aces and the 3/4/5 pip cards in each suit leaving only 36 cards, the two/deuce/Daus corresponds to the French ace and is ranked highest in the playing card deck.) The Anchor, traditionally a symbol of hope, was the second last card and the winning square for the player who reached it first."

"For the fortune telling purpose, the instructions were to lay out the cards in an 8x4+4 formation we know as the Grand Tableau (big picture) today. The 8x4 part was based on a Grand Tableau formation using a 32 card piquet deck. The original game instructions preserved in the British Museum do not contain explicit divination meanings for each card.

The original cards included both German and French suits (hearts, bells/diamonds, acorns/clubs and leaves/spades), but the cartomantic meanings of the cards correspond to traditional German cartomancy systems not the French ones that are more well-known in the English-speaking world. Acorns/clubs were traditionally associated with the servant class and poverty in Germany, which explains why it is the least favourable suit."
Click to expand...

Oops! Looks like the Germans invented it! })
 

DownUnderNZer

But didn't the "Game of Hope" originate from the UK?.

Sort of something about that and Madam Lenormand's cards as to who had it first.

Hers were just playing cards with symbols drawn on them. :)

I know both systems, so I'm fine either way. :thumbsup:

Padma said:
Oops! Looks like the Germans invented it! })
Click to expand...
 
GT Question Just received my first deck