7 Day Lenormand Read online

  7 DAY LENORMAND

  Andrea Green

  © Andrea Green, 2018.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  About the Author

  Andrea Green is the pen-name of a fortune-telling insider. Her first book, True Tarot Card Meanings went straight to #1 in Tarot books worldwide (Kindle and Print) where it has remained as the top-selling book for Tarot for over a year!

  She has spent many years reading and researching cartomancy, divination and the esoteric arts. Her life is dedicated to sharing the knowledge that she has accumulated over the years. She believes that there should be no mystery in divination and is dedicated to helping every person discover fortune-telling for themselves.

  If you are interested in further Lenormand courses, check out the classes for every level at:

  www.tarotassociation.net

  Learn Lenormand in Seven Days

  Author Andrea Green boils down her extensive experience with the original Lenormand deck and presents these essential seven steps for you to learn Lenormand in just one week.

  Andrea has worked with author Tali Goodwin who gave her exclusive access to the research that brought about the revival in Lenormand card reading. Now you can share – for the first time – the true interpretations and all the card meanings in one place!

  This easy-to-follow booklet combines the earliest sources of fortune-telling by cards with the latest methods of teaching. It will give you the easiest and fastest way to read Lenormand cards with confidence.

  As an experienced reader, you can also use this book as an essential reference guide to historical and contemporary card meanings.

  You are about to learn Lenormand from the first roots of the tradition to the latest branches!

  CONTENTS

  Preface

  Introduction

  Choosing Your Deck

  Day 1. THE GAME OF HOPE

  Day 2. A JOCULAR GAME

  Day 3. LENORMAND CARDS

  1. The Rider (Cavalier)

  2. The Clover Leaf

  3. The Ship

  4. The House

  5. A Tree

  6. Clouds

  7. Snake (Serpent)

  8. A Coffin

  9. The Bouquet (Flowers)

  10. The Scythe

  11. The Rod (Birch)

  12. Birds (A Bird)

  13. The Child

  14. The Fox

  15. The Bear

  16. The Star

  17. The Stork

  18. The Dog

  19. The Tower

  20. Garden (The Park)

  21. Mountain (The Mountains)

  22. The Ways (Roads, Crossroads)

  23. Mice (The Mouse)

  24. The Heart

  25. The Ring

  26. The Book

  27. The Letter

  28. The Gentleman

  29. The Lady

  30. The Lilies

  31. The Sun

  32. The Moon

  33. The Key

  34. Fish (The Fishes)

  35. The Anchor

  36. The Cross

  Day 4. THREE CARD READING

  Day 5. NINE CARD READING (Rows)

  Day 6. NINE CARD READING (Columns)

  Day 7. THE GRAND TABLEAUX

  Ten More Ways to Learn Lenormand

  Conclusion

  Kindle Tarot Books & Series

  Gated Spreads Series

  Tarosophy KickStart Series

  Volume I.

  Tarot Life Series

  Also in Print and Kindle

  Websites & Resources

  Preface

  The Lenormand Deck is a set of 36 cards with easy-to-read symbols such as the Dog and the Tree, the Lady and the Child. The cards have simple meanings such as ‘friend’ or ‘health’, ‘a wife’, or ‘younger person’. It is a very literal deck and ideal for fortune-telling, resolving everyday situations and getting quick answers. In fact, it can also be used for deeper spiritual questions and provide a lot of detail in just a few cards.

  The deck is read in a different way to tarot or oracle decks, in a particular language – which is very easy to learn. In this book you will be given the essential steps to learn Lenormand in just seven days and set off on a life-time journey of discovery with the cards.

  You will also learn the actual history of the cards, which are nothing to do with the famous fortune-teller of Paris, Mlle. Lenormand, whose name is associated with the deck. The cards now known as Lenormand were actually designed in Germany as a game by the owner of a brass factory.

  In this book are methods that are absolutely unique - you’ll not find these anywhere else unless they’ve been copied!

  Introduction

  The Dog is in the House.

  What can we say about this?

  It is a friendly dog. The house is safe and comfortable.

  The dog has been there a long time.

  It protects the home and is loved by the family.

  The house has been there a long time.

  It has held many families and lives, over many years.

  If that were a dream, or a story, it would be a nice one.

  If that were a dream in answer to a question, it would be an answer that would say “you are safe with a loyal friend”.

  And the Lenormand cards are as simple as that. They are pictures of dreams which can answer your questions.

  No matter the question. If you had asked, “Will my new job be OK?”, “Is this a good car to purchase”, or “Is Kim going to be trustworthy?” you would get your answer.

  Two cards – the Dog and the House. Now let’s meet the others.

  Choosing Your Deck

  There have been more Lenormand decks produced in the last six years than in the last two centuries, such is the new interest in this deck.

  The original Lenormand deck is the best deck to buy, as it is a reproduction of the Game of Hope on which every Lenormand deck is based. It can be purchased from www.thegamecrafter.com.

  You can also pick up a Blue Owl deck, which is one of the older decks.

  If you browse the Learning Lenormand Facebook Group for Lenormand decks or look at the many decks produced with Kickstarter funding, you will find many from which to choose.

  However, here is a quick checklist to help your decision – as well as finding one where you actually like the artwork:

  1. Can you tell the Clouds from the Ship or Star? The Ways from the Mountain or the Garden? It is important to easily be able to tell the cards from one another as soon as you look at them.

  2. Is each card just simple symbols or full of symbols? Some new decks can be confusing because, for example, they might picture the Ways at the bottom of a mountain, or a Dog with a large sun in the design. It then becomes harder to tell which card you are looking at, if it has other symbols on it. The cards ideally should show just one symbol.

  3. Can the deck be easily shuffled and laid out in a Grand Tableaux? If you want to master the largest spread, it requires space to lay out all 36 cards. Is the deck a good size for this?

  4. Do the cards clearly show numbers and playing card inserts? When you discover later counting methods or correspondences with the playing cards, these will be useful. You do not necessarily need them as a beginner.

  5. Does the designer understand the sources of the symbols and has referenced them correctly? If you have a deck with a ferocious dog or a cartoon laughing whip,
this is likely so far deviated from the original Lenormand that it should instead be considered a semi-related Oracle deck.

  There is such a wide range of Lenormand decks out there, with more decks being created every month, so you will be sure to find the decks that work best for you!

  All the links to many more resources can be found at the back of this book.

  Day 1. THE GAME OF HOPE

  Today, on our first day of a week of study, we look at the history of the Cards and begin to learn why it is essential – and easier - to know this history before we actually read the deck.

  We will then look at some important exercises for practice today – taking a little time, all within just one day – ready for day two, where we really get reading.

  In history, we start in Nuremberg, Germany, around 1799, with the production of a new parlour game, The Game of Hope, by J. K. Hechtel, a brass factory owner.

  The game was played by laying out 36 cards in number sequence and then racing other players using dice, in a manner similar to “snakes and ladders”. In fact, all such games derive from the earliest known format A Game of Goose and perhaps trace their ancestry even earlier back to the Senet game of ancient Egypt.

  The Game of Hope was typical of such games and used on each card a simple symbol which was instantly recognizable to the European Christian of the time; a dog for faithfulness, a garden park for socializing, a Cross for suffering and an Anchor for hope or faith.

  It also used symbols from popular fables which would be told around the typical European dining table or at bedtime; the cunning Fox, for example, appears from the Reynard stories. In another card from the Game of Hope, we see the Stork – this is illustrated as eating a Frog, which comes from a fable which tells the tale of what happens to frogs who get too big for their pond!

  In the game, when a player landed on a particular card, an instruction was given in a little accompanying booklet, telling them whether they should pay a forfeit or receive rewards from another player, move forwards or drop backwards, etc. In some cases, the player would have to wait on a card until they threw a particular dice number, or another player landed on their position.

  Why is it important to know this history?

  Well, for example, when the Game of Hope was first used as a parlour game, that tale of Reynard the Fox would have been common knowledge. The Fox in the deck would have instantly been seen in this light; as the trickster and master manipulator, looking after number one. The whole European family would know this was the ‘meaning’ of the fox – it would not be seen any other way.

  Here is an image of Reynard the Fox at the Ways. Interestingly, “The Ways” is another Lenormand card!

  Reynard The Fox.

  We can also see early meanings in the original instructions for the game. In the booklet, we see that the “cunning fox leads the player astray”, actually taking them back to “the woods” symbolized by the Tree card! So, it is a somewhat tricky card when appearing in a fortune-telling reading, for both good and ill, depending on its context.

  We could also look at the Bear card, for example, in career readings, in this historical context. The Bear appears in the cards as a powerful boss, employer (company), or already established power – sometimes as a mother.

  The relationship between the Fox and the Bear, for me, comes from the original tales of Reynard, where the Bear features as an active character.

  The Fox and the Bear in the tales of Reynard are recognised as self-interest versus the establishment. Reynard tricks the bear in a number of different ways, always taking advantage of the bear’s self-confidence and single-mindedness. The Fox works by indirect methods, manipulation and controlling the communications between the various parties, to his own ends. The Fox (unlike the Snake in the grass – another Lenormand card) is an enemy in plain sight – just in that they look after number one.

  We can have some sympathy for the fox though, as he (or she) is also employing his self-interest to look after and feed his family back at the den. In some Lenormand decks we see him stalking the chickens who are totally unaware of their role in the natural pecking order.

  So, when someone asks me about career (or any other subject) in a reading, I always think of the context in which players would have played the original Game of Hope, and the stories they would have told each other from those images. These would have been informed by their own experience of the tales of the time, including Reynard the Fox.

  And as a general rule, when looking at career questions in the biggest reading – which we will learn later this week – the Grand Tableau, I always consider where the Fox and the Bear are positioned relative to each other, and the cards between them.

  Is the Fox able to overcome the Bear to secure his own position? Is the Bear bringing a Cross and Coffin to stop the Fox in his ways? How can the Fox get around the Bear, if the Bear is in the way of the Fishes …? Considering these two cards as the querent and the established power in their career, and likening them to the tales of Reynard, really helps me make sense of a reading.

  When weaving a tale of the Fox and Bear, we can see archetypal stories and characteristics of those animals written into (and out of) us. They play out in real life as self-interest versus establishment, and this immediately applies to the career aspects of a reading.

  So, what has the Game of Hope got to do with Lenormand cards? Shortly after the death of the famous Parisian fortune-teller Mlle. Lenormand, which was fifty years after the death of J. K. Hechtel, an enterprising publisher decided to capitalise on the Hechtel’s deck and Lenormand’s name. They produced a deck of cards – a recreation of the Game of Hope and simply called it the “Little Game of Lenormand”, suggesting that these were in fact the very cards that had been used by Mlle. Lenormand.

  We know that it is unlikely that she even knew about this particular deck of cards, instead she probably used a ‘Piquet’ deck or ‘Etteilla’ fortune-telling deck for her readings.

  So, the Lenormand cards are not Lenormand cards at all – they are the Game of Hope.

  The original sources of the modern Lenormand cards are an important part of its heritage and help us easily to understand the way in which the card meanings can be interpreted in a modern reading.

  Having covered that bit of history, we will now present todays exercises to get us warmed up for the week. I suggest performing the exercises as close to given as possible, as many times during a day that is convenient for you. They are designed to build up together, so try and avoid the temptation to skip ‘easy’ exercises in favour of the more involved ones.

  Each individual exercise has a particular and important skill to teach, which will get you set up for reading the Grand Tableaux by the end of the week. The exercises are also designed to get you to a confident position in a week from which you can then develop further skills.

  If you are already a confident reader, this book can be used as a reference guide to the essential meanings of each card and other useful reading skills.

  EXERCISE 1

  Take your deck and ensure that the cards are arranged by number. Look through the cards, counting them out aloud, saying both with the name of the card and the number. It is very important for later this week that you say both the name and the number.

  EXERCISE 2

  Lay all the cards out in your deck in four rows of nine cards. Say each card out aloud whilst looking through them in order, like this “The Rider THEN the Clover THEN the Ship …”

  Notice particularly the cards at the start and end of each row, in the corners, the cards in the middle, etc. Get used to scanning around the layout to get familiar with the designs, the images, and their locations.

  Treat this exercise a little bit like a memory game.

  Repeat these two simple exercises as many times as possible during the day. There is no test, other than to get familiar with the deck and an idea of the positions when laid out in a four by nine pattern.

  All 36 cards in order. r />
  Day 2. A JOCULAR GAME

  Today we discover the Coffee Cards, adding to our historical knowledge, and learn to start reading the Lenormand cards.

  The Game of Hope was not the first deck of cards to use the symbols we now see – although as we saw yesterday it did become the model of the Lenormand deck. There was an earlier deck called the Coffee Cards, produced in a book, The Games of Germany (1796), a copy of which presently sits in the British Museum.

  The Coffee Cards in that book are very similar to the Lenormand deck with a few variants. We do not need to look at these differences in this 7-day sprint, just to know one particular thing, which is really important.[1]

  In the Coffee Cards book, it is clearly stated – for the first time in print – that the card symbols are based on the divinatory reading of coffee grounds.

  So, when you are doing a Lenormand reading, you are actually doing a picture-book version of coffee grounds or tea-leaf reading! Which are both based in turn on the most ancient form of divination – dream symbolism.

  Perhaps this is why Lenormand cards are so simple and direct – they are a defined set of symbols taken from our most basic experience of dreams, where there is an overlap between the outer and inner worlds.

  A JOCULAR TALE

  So, we learnt yesterday that the Lenormand cards are a reprint of the earlier Game of Hope cards. This was a Christian teaching game – likely only on the basis that it would allow for the cards to be also used for gambling!

  The second important thing for our rapid race through the deck is that the original Game of Hope booklet also gave a simple instruction (in German) for fortune-telling by the cards:

  “With these same cards it is also possible to play an entertaining game of oracles by shuffling the 36 cards and then letting the person, for whom the oracle is meant, cut the cards, then laying out the cards in 5 rows with 4 rows at 8 cards each and the 5th row with the remaining 4 cards. If the person querying is a woman, one starts from card 29, spinning a jocular tale from the cards nearby around the figures on display. If it is for a man, the tale is started from card 28 and again makes use of the cards surrounding this one. This will bring much entertainment to any merry company”.[2]