The Lenormand deck holds thirty six small cards, each a plain everyday image, a ship, a bear, a letter, read in combination rather than alone. A reading draws or accepts a spread of these cards and reads the meaning each one takes from the cards lying beside it, plainer and more situational than the fuller tarot symbolism it sits next to in this atlas's own catalog.

History

The deck takes its name from Marie Anne Lenormand, a celebrated Parisian fortune teller of the early nineteenth century whose clientele reportedly reached into Napoleonic era society; her own fame is well documented and genuine. The specific thirty six card deck sold under her name today is a separate matter worth stating plainly: it was published only after her death in 1843, credited to a German publisher, and is a later commercial creation rather than a deck she designed or read from in life. Its actual images trace further back, to an earlier German parlor game deck, the Game of Hope (Das Spiel der Hoffnung), published around 1799, whose plain everyday pictures the later Lenormand-branded deck adapted for cartomantic reading.

A Sample Of The Thirty Six Cards

• Rider, news arriving.
• Clover, small luck.
• Ship, travel or trade.
• House, home and family.
• Tree, health and slow growth.
• Clouds, confusion or a passing trouble.

How A Reading Is Constructed

A reading draws or accepts a spread of the thirty six cards and reads each card's meaning as modified by whichever cards lie immediately beside it, rather than reading any single card alone the way a one-card tarot pull might be read. That combinatory method, plain everyday images read through their neighbors, is what the report item's own description calls a plainer and more situational method than the tarot symbolism it sits next to in this catalog.

Where To Read More

• RiderNews, Arrival, MovementRider: news arriving.
• CloverLuck, Small Joys, ChanceClover: small luck.
• ShipTravel, Distance, LongingShip: travel or trade.
• HouseHome, Family, StabilityHouse: home and family.
• TreeHealth, Growth, RootsTree: health and slow growth.
• CloudsConfusion, Doubt, TroubleClouds: confusion or a passing trouble.