"Fortune Telling" Cards - Lenormand etc

Diana

Rusty Neon: Thanks for calming me down. I do have a fiery nature at times! (But the fact remains that this poem does not fit in with the way one reads Lenormand cards.) I will try and found out very shortly (after the Easter holidays) whether the English translation has any historical background. Perhaps e-mailing US Games itself would be helpful too. And I could ask them if they have read the Wirth book at the same time! :)
 

Ruby7

Re: Grand Lenormand

Rusty Neon said:
Hi Ruby ... The Sédillot/Frelaut book (see my post above), penned in French, contains amazing one-stop information and assistance on the various schools of symbolism in the Grand Lenormand. Fortunately, I was able to get a pristine new copy of this book at a remainders bookstore in Montreal for $14 CDN but, unfortunately, it retails for $42 CDN.

Thanks Rusty Neon! I definitely need to do more research to give this deck all it deserves. I feel that there is a lot to learn from Mlle Lenormand, and with more information I will be able to look at this deck with more clarity and understanding. Maybe I will pick up one of the smaller decks too. Unfortunately my French is not as it should be for a Canadian (I came here from Scotland), so I will have to work on that too! Thanks for the encouragement Diana, I will let you know (in a few months lol), Ruby
 

Rusty Neon

Grand Lenormand

Despite its association with "fortune-telling", the Grand Lenormand deck can fit in well with the psychological slant of contemporary tarot and other divination approaches. The Grand Lenormand employs a variety of symbolisms and concepts: French cartomancy, Greek mythology, alchemy, geomancy, star constellation divination, flora-mancy (my word :)), letter codes, and DM-illustrative pictures. The Grimaud Petit Lenormand, as a variation of the Grand Lenormand, employs cartomancy, Greek mythology, alchemy, flora-mancy and DM-illustrative pictures.

* DM=divinatory meaning
 

Aerin

Wow!

Thanks guys, this all helps.

I am very suspicious of the US Games deck as you probably noted in my post - the poems are pretty icky. I haven't seen a book in English yet, it seems these cards are far more popular on the Continent.

Is Lenormand's original deck anywhere?

Diana, I'd love a reading with these cards unless you already have far too many other volunteers!

I'm wondering if the other fortune telling decks I have are realted in any way: they are unnumbered and just have pictures depicting 'thief' or 'desire' or 'death' or whatever. I have two 36 decks by different publishers, one Piatnik and the card names are identical, plus one 52 card Piatnik decik with some exta cards. The weirdest card is 'constancy', an eye in the middle of a sun...

Aerin
 

Rusty Neon

Hi Aerin ... What are the titles of your other (non-Lenormand) decks? Do any of those decks have playing card representations tucked off in a corner of the card?
 

Cerulean

On the 54 card Astro Myth Lenormand deck...

I bought my cards from Alidastore.com, ordered them through the website. They are oversize and do come with instructions, but I cannot see any dates to when this system came about.

There used to be a website that listed the 54 cards and the classical Greek myth that is assigned to various cards. It's not like the Mythical Tarot where Jason and the Golden Fleece is the suit of Wands: it's more like bits and pieces of the myth attributed to different cards, such as the Nine of Diamonds, one of the clubs, etc....in other words, certain cards of different suits can be a part of the same mythical allegory.

I haven't gotton to the astrology part yet of the Lenormand, but I saw in the instructions, if a card is on the right or left side of a layout, the reader learns to read one portion of the card.

There is a Dutch book on the system, but no English one, aside from the instructions with the deck.
 

Aerin

Rusty Neon said:
Hi Aerin ... What are the titles of your other (non-Lenormand) decks? Do any of those decks have playing card representations tucked off in a corner of the card?

One is untitled, it didn't come in a box even (!) and was just called 'fortune telling cards'. It's a 36.

One is called 'Gypsy fortune telling cards' and is by Piatnik. Another 36.

One is called 'Art Deco Fortune Telling Cards' and is also by Piatnik. It's a 52 deck.

The cards aren't even numbered, let alone have playing card representations, just called by their title. All are illlustrated. Since the three have similar depictions of each title, I'm thinking there is a standard e.g. the eye in the sun for constancy, a dog by a grave for fidelity, a woman in a garden by the sea grasping an anchor for hope, Hermes for messenger.

Aerin
 

Rusty Neon

The Flower Cards of Madame Lenormand

I just discovered today on the internet that there are some oracle cards called the Flower Cards of Madame Lenormand:

http://www.schors.nl/rights/titles/parret.html

The website indicates: "Little is known about the origin of these particular flowers cards, except the fact that they were created by the French artist Grandville; yet the images themselves are very inspiring. The beautiful, allegorical representations correspond not only the symbolism of the usual playing cards, but also to the oracle cards of the famous Madame Lenormand."

Although the Grand Lenormand uses flowers as one of its divinatory components, I'm not sure if there's any linkage between the Flowers deck and the Grand Lenormand since the flowers deck has 64 cards vs. the Grand Lenormand's 54 cards (52+2). Maybe this is just a case of Lenormand's name being used because of its name recognition value.

Is there anyone who has this flower deck who can determine what linkage (if any) there is to the Grand Lenormand?