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Johann Kaspar Hechtel is this atlas's only bridge from historical figures into the Petit Lenormand cartomancy deck, and he built the bridge without meaning to: what he actually published was a race game.

A Race Game, Not a Fortune Telling Method

Hechtel was a Nuremberg engraver and game publisher who in 1799 produced Das Spiel der Hoffnung, the Game of Hope, a boxed dice and track race game whose thirty six numbered, illustrated cards were made for play, not divination. He died in 1799, the year the game reached print, so he never saw what it became.

From a Board Game to Card 1

Those thirty six cards later gave rise to the Petit Lenormand, the cartomantic deck named for the French fortune teller Marie Anne Lenormand, whose cards are read together in pairs, lines and the Grand Tableau rather than singly. The Rider, card 1, carries the inset of the 9 of Hearts and shows a horseman galloping up, signifying news, messages and fresh developments arriving from outside. As the first card it sets things in motion, and combined with other cards it colors what kind of news comes. This atlas's only path from a named historical figure into the Lenormand deck runs through the game he actually meant to publish, not the practice that grew from it afterward.

Where To Read More

• Johann Kaspar HechtelTarot & Oracle Deck CreatorsThe Nuremberg publisher whose 1799 race game is this atlas's only bridge into the Lenormand deck
• RiderNews, Arrival, MovementCard 1 of the deck his game's thirty six cards gave rise to