Most of us have heard of Mlle. Lenormand, known for having read cards to make predictions for Napoleon and Josephine, but few know much more than this about the most famous card-reader of all time. She was born May 27, 1772 in Alençon, France and died June 25, 1843, having written over a dozen books. Look over her natal chart analysis by Elizabeth Hazel in the Comments (thank you, Liz). Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand claimed to have obtained her first deck of cards when she was 14 from gypsies who taught her how to read them.
It wasn’t until two years after her death that a deck of cards called “Le Grand Jeu de Mlle. Lenormand” was first published by Grimaud. This 54 card deck was actually created by a Madame Breteau, who claimed to be a student of Madame Lenormand. (It is pictured in the Dumas story in this post.)
The 36-card “Petit Lenormand” was a German creation that, in 1845, appropriated the now-dead Mlle. Lenormand’s famous name. This deck was based on an earlier race game and multi-purpose set of cards called the “Spiel der Hoffnung” (“Game of Hope”; 1798) and the even earlier Viennese Coffee Cards (1794/6), published in both German and English.
Because Lenormand’s own memoirs were written as self-promotion and reveal little about her techniques, I’ve focused in this post on first person accounts of readings with her where we get some idea as to her character and methods. An overview of her life is available at trionfi.com. A short biography published 15 years after her death can be found here. New information by Jim McKeague based on newspaper accounts and a court case is available here. Learn to read the various Lenormand-style decks here, here, here and also here. Get a computerized Mlle. Lenormand-style reading here. Several portraits are available here and card meanings here.
Recordings of webinar classes by me teaching the Petit Lenormand deck (and also Tarot) are available through GlobalSpiritualStudies.com. (See additional links at the end.)
Updated 2/1/2015
In the Sibyl’s Boudoir
You can imagine my delight in coming across this first-person account of a visit to Madame Lenormand made by Captain R. H. Gronow of the Grenadier Guards & M.P. for Stafford in his book Celebrities of London and Paris (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1865). Gronow probably met her during his 1815-1816 stay in Paris.
“One of the most extraordinary persons of my younger days was the celebrated fortune-teller, Mademoiselle le Normand. Her original residence was in the Rue de Tournon, but at the time of which I write she lived in the Rue des Sts Pères. During the Restoration, the practice of the “black art” was strictly forbidden by the police, and it was almost like entering a besieged citadel to make one’s way into her sanctum sanctorum.
“I was first admitted into a good-sized drawing-room, plainly but comfortably furnished, with books and newspapers about, as one sees them at a dentist’s. Two or three ladies were already there, who, from their quiet dress and the haste with which they drew down their veils, or got up and looked out of the window, evidently belonged to the upper ten thousand. Each person was summoned by an attendant to the sibyl’s boudoir, and remained a considerable time, disappearing by some other exit without returning to the waiting-room. At last I was summoned by the elderly servant to the mysterious chamber, which opened by secret panels in the walls, to prevent any unpleasant surprises by the police. I confess that it was not without a slight feeling of trepidation that I entered the small square room, lighted from above, where sat Mademoiselle le Normand in all her glory.
“It was impossible for imagination to conceive a more hideous being. She looked like a monstrous toad, bloated and venomous. She had one wall-eye, but the other was a piercer. She wore a fur cap upon her head , from beneath which she glared out upon her horrified visitors. The walls of the room were covered with huge bats, nailed by their wings to the ceiling, stuffed owls, cabalistic signs, skeletons – in short, everything that was likely to impress a weak or superstitious mind. This malignant-looking Hecate had spread out before her several packs of cards, with all kinds of strange figures and ciphers depicted on them. Her first question, uttered in a deep voice, was whether you would have the grand or petit jeu, which was merely a matter of form. She then inquired your age, and what was the colour and the animal you preferred. Then came, in an authoritative voice, the word “Coupez“, repeated at intervals, till the requisite number of cards from the various packs were selected and placed in rows side by side. No further questions were asked, and no attempt was made to discover who or what you were, or to watch upon your countenance the effect of the revelations. She neither prophesied smooth things to you nor tried to excite your fears, but seemed really to believe in her own power. She informed me that I was un militaire, that I should be twice married and have several children, and foretold many other events that have also come to pass, though I did not at the time believe one word of the sibyl’s prediction.
“Madamoiselle le Normand was born in 1768, and was already celebrated as a fortune-teller so early as 1790. She is said to have predicted to the unfortunate Princess de Lamballe her miserable death at the hands of the infuriated populace. She is also reported to have been frequently visited and consulted by Robespierre and St Just; to have reported his downfall to Danton, at that time the idol of the people; to have warned the famous General Hoche of his approaching death by poison; to have foretold to Bernadotte a northern throne, and to Moreau exile and an untimely grave.
“The Empress Josephine, who, like most creoles, was very superstitious, used frequently to send for Madamoiselle le Normand to the Tuileries, and put great faith in her predictions; which she always asserted in after years had constantly been verified. But, unfortunately for the sybil, she did not content herself with telling Josephine’s fortune, but actually ventured to predict a future replete with malignant influences to the Emperor himself. This rash conduct entailed upon her great misfortunes and a long imprisonment; but she survived all her troubles, and died as late as 1843, having long before given up fortune telling, by which she had amassed a large sum of money.”
Danhauser: Neapoleon & Josephine with the Card Reader
Spellbound by the Prophetess
And from The Diary of Frances Lady Shelley (NY: Scribner’s Sons, 1912) we find that on July 4, 1816 Lady Shelley went to see Madame Le Normand:
“I was shown into a beautiful boudoir, furnished with a luxury which gave evidence of her prosperity. After waiting for some time, the prophetess appeared, and exclaimed “Passez, madame.” She then introduced me into a dimly lit cabinet d’étude. On a large table, under a mirror, were heaps of cards, with which she commenced her mysteries. She bade me cut them in small packets with my left hand. She then inquired my age—à peu prés—the day of my birth; the first letter of my name; and the first letter of the name of the place where I was born. She asked me what animal, colour, and number I was most partial to. I answered all these questions without hesitation. After about a quarter of an hour of this mummery, during which time she had arranged all the cards in order upon the table, she made an examination of my head. Suddenly she began, in a sort of measured prose, and with great rapidity and distinct articulation, to describe my character and past life, in which she was so accurate and so successful, even to minute particulars, that I was spellbound at the manner in which she had discovered all she knew.”
Like a Virgin Druidess
Writing eleven years after her death, the great magician Eliphas Lévi had this to say about Mlle. Lenormand (his reluctantly ambivalent admiration shown only through a few left-handed compliments):
“Mlle Lenormand, the most celebrated of our modern fortune-tellers, was unacquainted with the science of Tarot, or knew it only by derivation from Etteilla, whose explanations are shadows cast upon a background of light. She knew neither high Magic nor the Kabalah, but her head was filled with ill-digested erudition, and she was intuitive by instinct, which deceived her rarely. The works she left behind her are Legitimst tomfoolery, ornamented with classical quotations; but her oracles, inspired by the presence and magnetism of those who consulted her, were often astounding. She was a woman in whom extravagance of imagination and mental rambling were substituted for the natural affections of her sex; she lived and died a virgin, like the ancient druidesses of the isle of Sayne*. Had Nature endowed her with beauty, she might have played easily at a remoter epoch the part of a Melusine or a Velléda**.” (Transcendental Magic: its doctrine and ritual by Eliphas Lévi, translated by A. E. Waite.)
[*According to Paul Christian, the Celtic hero Vercingetorix went to the druidesses of Sayne seeking oracles that would help him defeat Caesar. **There are many legends of Melusine, a kind of water nymph or mermaid who enchanted men, brought them great gifts and then would disappear if betrayed. Velléda was a prophet and virgin priestess whom the ancient Germans revered as a living goddess.]
From the Journals of Washington Irving
Washington Irving writes of a dinner conversation that included Sir Henry Lytton Earle Bulwer, brother to the occultist Bulwer-Lytton:
“Speaking of Mad. La Norman, the famous fortune-teller, Bulwer said he had once been to see her—found her ingenious—prone to put questions and draw hints and conclusions from the replies.
“Walewsky told of his having some years since called upon her, knowing that a beautiful woman with whom he had some liaison was about to call on her. Madam La Norman began to talk to him in the usual way but he repeatedly interrupted her, telling her he had no occasion for her science, but had come to aid it. He described the lady who was coming to consult her. He related many striking facts concerning her. He stated what might be said to her as to the future—”I do not advise you to tell all these things,” said he, “I counsel nothing; you may do as you please, but here are six Louis for you.” So saying he took his leave. The lady’s fortune past and future was told in a manner to astonish her, and greatly to the advantage of Mr. Walewsky.”
A Prediction of Fame & Unrequited Love
Read about Marie d”Agoult and Eugène Sue’s readings with Mlle. Lenormand in 1834 HERE.
Treacherous and Ridiculous Insinuations
Jim McKeague in his blog writes in detail about a 1839 court case in which Mlle. Le Normand was embroiled four years before she died. Read the details of this fascinating event HERE, and HERE, while I briefly summarize Mlle. Lenormand’s own words from a letter she wrote to a journal editor to explain her part in the case and gives an inkling of her self-promotion:
“For many years Lord Stirling, a Scottish peer [whose family she had known since 1814], has been reclaiming the heritage of his ancestors; yet today there is even a dispute as to his name and his legal titles. A chart of Canada by Guillaume de Lisle, First Geographer to the King, and covered with precious autographs of Fenelon, Flechier, Louis XV, etc., was submitted in support of the claim in question [given to him by Mlle. Lenormand in exchange for a bond for 400,000 francs]. . . . And it is I who am accused of having co-operated!!! [The chart was eventually proved a forgery.] …
“All my efforts have tended for good; often I was quite happy to see them crowned with success, and it is with great pride when I think back to the ill-fated days of our bloody revolutions, I think of the many victims whom I could snatch from the scaffold or conceal from infamy, of the horrors of hunger.
“Like every good soul born, I have selflessly spread some benefits to the miserable, and offer consolations to suffering souls. Also my dedication in adversity, my firmness, all my conduct, has received at all times the approval of various parties. …
“Always willing to lend a helping hand to the oppressed, Miss Le Normand therefore wants the trial which is engaging Lord Stirling to be delayed; she asks this of all the authorities in order to enter the lists and contribute toward finding the truth.”
As Jim McKeague says in his blog: “The presiding Judge, Lord Meadowbank, in his summing up to the jury, was savage in his criticism of Marie-Anne Lenormand. Speaking of Humphrys-Alexander’s sojourn in Paris in 1836-7, the judge said that he was proved ‘to have been constantly engaged in negotiating with this sybil (sic) – this notorious adventuress in Paris, to whom at least the uttering of these forged documents has been traced – a person obviously of the worst character, and who, although she says that a lie never passed her lips, is proved to you to have had no profession but that of fortune-telling – no means of subsistence but that of imposture, and of telling falsehoods from morning to night.’“
An Obituary and a “Curious Account”
This may be one of the first fictionalized (and sensationalized) accounts of a reading with Mlle. Lenormand: HERE.
Consulting the Sybil
This description is from a German book on fortune telling from 1860. The translation may be a little rough:
“Above the door was a sign with the words:
Mlle. Lenormand – Bookseller.
The profession of Sybil had not yet been sanctioned by the law, and just as every transaction had to bear a legal title in order to justify a levy, Mlle. Lenormand had sought and obtained a patent as a bookseller. She received her clients undisturbed here, and could conduct her prophecies here, without attracting suspicions among the police. In her capacity as a bookseller, she was even in the royal National almanac.
When a person came into Lenormand’s consulting room, the bell of the oracle was rung, a maid opened the door, and led the visitor into a room which was less than sibylline. Lenormand spurned the usual household of the vulgar fortune-tellers, she surrounded herself with no kind of phantasmic decoration. The interior of the room was bourgeois. On the wall, in two rows, about thirty volumes of books were seen . . . recent books by herself and those more or less cabalistic.
After having had time to look around, Mlle. Lenormand appeared. In later years she was a small, strong woman, with a large blond wig on which an oriental turban was thrust.
“What services do you wish?” She usually asked the visitor.
“Madame, I come to consult you.”
“Good! Place yourself here. – Which playing card reading do you want? I have them from 6 francs, 10, 20 and even 400 francs.”
“I believe something in the price of a Louis d’or.”
“Well, then, come to this table and show me your hand.”
“Here it is!”
“Not that one, the left. – What is your age? What flower do you prefer? What animal is it before whom you feel the most resentment?” All these questions asked with a monotonous, nasal voice.
With every reply she repeated: “Good!
And, passing over the playing-cards she presented them to the client: “So, cut with your left hand!”
Then she would turn the cards one after the other, and spread them on the table, and now she set out [the meaning of] the cards at a speed that one was scarcely able to follow her. It was as if she were reading from a book, or as if she were teaching a learned lesson. In this seemingly contradictory stream of speeches, one was suddenly illuminated as by a beam of light. 
The Sybil excelled particularly in the investigation of the character, inclinations, and taste of the persons who sought them. She never failed to give her visitors information about the past, and the correctness of this is also confirmed by all who have ever had the opportunity to visit this strange woman.
What is even more, those who visited her always found a great pleasure in her prophetic conversation.”
From The most complete , and the only true, art of the fortune-telling of the most famous fortune-teller of the world-magnificence, Lenormand, Verlag des Literatur- und Kunst-Comptoirs, 1860. In addition to a biography of Mlle. Lenormand, the book contained this ad for their 36-card Lenormand deck:
The First Republic
One of the most fascinating stories of Mlle Lenormand is the account in The First Republic, or The Whites and the Blues (Les Blancs et Les Bleus, 1867-68) by Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers. This work is part of a series of Napoleonic romances that begin with the Revolution and end with the fall of the Empire. Volume 2 contains chapters called “The Seeress” and “The Occult Art” in which Lenormand reads for both Josephine and Napoleon (who have not yet officially met). Dumas, writing nineteen years after Lenormand’s death, claimed that what he wrote was not fiction:
“I can guarantee the truth of this scene, for these details were given me by the friend and pupil of Mademoiselle Lenormand, Madame Moreau, who still lives (1867) at No. 5 Rue du Tournon, in the same rooms as the famous seeress, where she devotes herself to the same art with immense success.”
It seems that one evening Josephine Beauharnais and her friend Therese Tallien decided to see the fashionable seeress, Mademoiselle Lenormand. They disguised themselves as waiting-maids or ‘grisettes,’ and, using false names, made their way to Rue de Tournon No.7. There they were shown into an inner salon to await their turn. A young man silently joined them as he waited for his turn to have his fortune revealed. Therese Tallien went first into the inner chamber and learned that she is to become a princess. What follows is from Dumas’s text:
“Mademoiselle Lenormand at this period of her life was a woman somewhere between twenty-four and twenty-nine years of age; short and stout in figure, and concealing with difficulty that one shoulder was larger than the other. She wore a turban adorned with a bird of Paradise, a fashion of the day. Her hair fell in long curls on either side of her cheeks. She wore two skirts. . . . Near her, on a stool, was her favorite greyhound, Aza. The table on which she did her marvels was a plain round table with a green cloth on top and drawers, in which she kept her cards. . . . Facing the sibyl was an arm-chair, in which the consulting person was seated. Between that person and the seeress lay an iron wand, which was called the divining-rod; at the end turned toward the consulting person was a little iron snake. The opposite end was made like the handle of a whip or cane. . . .
Mademoiselle Lenormand made a sign to Josephine to take the chair which Madame Tallien had just left; then she drew a fresh pack of cards from her drawer, possibly to prevent the destiny given by the last pack from influencing that of the present. Then she looked fixedly at Madame de Beauharnais.
‘You and your friend have tried to deceive me, madame,’ she said, ‘by wearing the clothes of servants. But I am a waking somnambulist. I saw you start from a house in the centre of Paris; I saw your hesitation about crossing my threshold; and I also saw you in the antechamber when your proper place was the salon, and I went there to bring you in. Don’t try to deceive me now; answer my questions frankly; if you want the truth, tell the truth.’
Madame de Beauharnais bowed.
‘Question me, and I will answer truly,’ she said.
‘What animal do you like best?’
‘A dog.’
‘What flower do you prefer?’
‘The rose.’
‘What perfume is most agreeable to you?’
‘That of the violet.’
The seeress placed a pack of cards before Madame de Beauharnais, which was nearly double the size of an ordinary pack. These cards had been lately invented, and were called “the grand oracle.”
‘Let us first find where you are placed,’ said the seeress.
Turning over the cards, she moved them about with her middle finger until she found “the consultant;” that is to say, the image of a dark woman, with a white gown and deep embroidered flounce, and an overdress of red velvet forming a train behind, the whole on a rich background. This card was lying between the eight of hearts and the ten of clubs.
‘Chance has placed you well, madame. See, the eight of hearts has three different meanings on three different lines. The first, which is the eight of hearts itself, represents the stars under whose conjunction you were born; the second, an eagle seizing a toad from a pond over which it hovers; the third, a woman near a grave. Listen to what I deduce from that first card madame. You are born under the influence of Venus and the Moon. You have just experienced a great satisfaction, almost equal to a triumph. That woman dressed in black beside a grave indicates that you are a widow. On the other hand, the ten of clubs pledges the success of a rash enterprise of which you are not yet aware. It would be impossible to have cards of better augury.’
Then, shuffling the cards, but leaving the “consultant” out, Mademoiselle Lenormand asked Madame de Beauharhais to cut them with her left hand, and then draw out fourteen of them, and place those fourteen in any order she like beside the “consultant,” going from right to left as the Eastern peoples do in their writings. . . .
‘Really, madame,’ she said, ‘you are a privileged person. I think you were right not to be frightened away by the fate I predicted for your friend, brilliant as it was. Your first card is the five of diamonds; beside the five of diamonds is [the five of hearts] that beautiful constellation of the Southern Cross, which is invisible to us in Europe. The main subject of that card, which represents a Greek or Mohammedan traveller, indicates that you were born either in the East or in the colonies. The parrot, or the orange-tree, which forms the third subject, makes me think it was the colonies. The flower, which is a veratrum, very common in Martinique, leads me to think you were born on that island.’
‘You are not mistaken, madame.’
‘Your third card, the nine of diamonds, indicating long and distant journeys, implies that you left that island young. The convolvulus, which is pictured at the bottom of this card, represents a woman seeking a support, and makes me suppose you left the island to be married.’
‘That is also true, madame.’
‘Your fourth card is the ten of spades, and that indicates the loss of your hopes; nevertheless, the flowers of the saxifrage which are on the card authorize me to say that those griefs will pass away, and that a fortunate issue—a marriage probably—has succeeded those distresses which at one time seemed to exclude all hope.’ . . .
[Lenormand correctly divines that Josephine’s husband died a violent death on the scaffold, that she has a son and daughter, and that the son is involved in an ‘affair of the sword’ but that hope will never fail him.]
‘And here, madame, is the eight of spades, which is a sure indication of marriage. Placed as it is next to the eight of hearts,—that is to say, near the eagle rising to the skies with a toad in his talons,—the eight of hearts indicates that this marriage will lift you above even the loftiest spheres of social life. But, if you doubt it, here is the six of hearts, which, unfortunately, seldom
accompanies the eight,—that six of hearts in which the alchemist is looking at his stone now turned to gold; in other words, common life changed to a life of honor, nobleness, and high employments. See, among these flowers, is the same convolvulus, which entwines a broken lily: that means, madame, that you will succeed, you who seek a support, you will succeed—how shall I tell you this?—to all that is highest and noblest and most powerful in France,—to the broken lily: you will succeed that lily in a new sphere; passing, as the ten of spades has shown, over battlefields where—see on that card—Ulysses and Diomed drive the white horses of Rhesus, placed under the guardianship of the talisman of Mars.’
‘When you reach that point, madame, you will have the respect and the tender regard of every one. You will be the wife of that Hercules strangling the lion in the forest of Nemaea; that is to say, a useful and courageous man exposing himself to all dangers for the good of his country. the flowers which crown you are lilacs, arums, immortelles; for you will combine in your own person true merit and perfect kindness.’
She rose, with a movement of enthusiasm, caught Madame de Beauharnais’s hand, and knelt at her feet.
‘Madame,’ she said, ‘I do not know your name, I do not know your rank, but I know your future. Madame, remember me when you are —empress.’
‘Empress! I? You are mad, my dear.’
‘Eh, madame! do you not see that your last card, the one that leads the fourteen others, is the king of hearts; that is to say, the great Charlemagne, who bears in one hand a sword, in the other a globe? Do you not see on the same card a man of genius who, with a book in his hand, and a map at his feet, meditates on the destinies of the world? And, lastly, see on two desks opposite to each other, the books of Wisdom and the laws of Solon; those books prove that your husband will be not only a great conqueror, but a great lawgiver.’
[Josephine cries, ‘Impossible!’ and immediately leaves. Meanwhile, the young man who has been waiting his turn in the salon has ignored all the efforts of Therese Tallien to discover anything about him. He, too, has tried to disguise his real persona, but Mademoiselle Lenormand sees through it. She offers him many forms of divination and he chooses a palm reading.]
‘Your hand is the most complete of any that I have seen; it presents a mixture of all virtuous sentiments and human weaknesses; it shows me the most heroic of all characters and the most undecided. . . . The enigma I am about to read to you is far more difficult of interpretation than that of the Theban sphinx, for though you will be greater than Oedipus, you will be more unfortunate.’ . . . [She describes his rise and fall and several injuries he will sustain.]
‘But,’ said the young man, ‘ this is the second or third time you have mentioned an alliance which will protect the first eight lustres [glories] of my life. How am I to know that woman when I meet her?’
[Lenormand describes the dark-haired Josephine. She warns Napoleon that eventually he will forget Providence gave him her as a companion, and that he will abandon that companion. Then his happiness will be destroyed by a second wife, who is fair and the daughter of kings.]
‘You will be Alexander, you will be Caesar: you will be more than that,—you will be Atlas bearing the world on your shoulders. . . . As success came to you through a woman, so it will leave you through a woman.’ . . .
‘It is Caesar’s fate that you predict for me.’
‘More than Caesar’s fate,’ she replied; ‘for Caesar did not attain his ends, and you, you will attain yours. Caesar only placed his foot on the steps of a throne, you will sit upon the throne itself. Only do not forget the dark-haired woman, who has a sign above the right eyebrow, and puts her handkerchief to her lips when she smiles.’
‘Where shall I meet that woman?’ he asked.
‘You have already met her,’ replied the sibyl; ‘and she has marked with her foot the spot at which the long series of your victories will begin.’
It should be noted that the deck of cards described in the text,”Le Grand Jeu de Mlle. Lenormand” is known to have only been created after the death of Mlle. Lenormand, although it was named after her in order to take advantage of Lenormand’s fame. The book that came with my deck is dated 1845.
Society Under the First Empire
Here are a few short quotes from The Court of Napoleon: or, Society under the first empire by Frank Boott Goodrich and Jules Champagne, (New York, 1858). [Thanks to Caitlin Matthews for passing this on.]
M’lle Marie-Anne Lenormand, the most distinguished sibyl of modern times, the counsellor of Robespierre, Napoleon, and the Czar Alexander, the confidante and biographer of Josephine, and who possessed the ability to subject the most brilliant and enlightened court of Europe to the authority of her shuffles of cards and perusals of palms, merits more than a passing notice. . . .
She rejected cartomancy, or the art of reading cards. It is true that she used cards, but this was merely cabalistically, for the sake of the figures upon them, and to aid her in numerical processes. . . .
M’lle Lenormand became, therefore, the protégée, and was, in a certain sense, the object of the affectionate consideration, of Josephine. Her cabinet was now crowded with the elite of Parisian society—priests, nobles, magistrates and soldiers. The visitor to the dwelling of the pythoness was shown into a room in which books, prints, paintings, stuffed animals, musical and other instruments, bottles with lizards and snakes in spirits, wax fruits, artificial flowers, and a medley of nameless articles, covered the walls, the table and the floor, leaving the eye scarcely an unoccupied spot to rest upon.
The furniture of the cabinet of consultation was in maple; the walls were adorned with portraits of the Bourbons, with a painting by Greuze of great value, and with her own portrait by Isabey. Her cards, which were of large size and covered with colored hieroglyphics, were painted by Carle Vernet. . . .
On one occasion M’lle Lenormand was summoned by Fouché to his cabinet. He reproached her for the aid and comfort she had given to the Bourbons by her late predictions. She paid no attention to his complaints, being engaged in shuffling a pack of cards, and muttering from time to time, “The knave of clubs!” He then said that he intended to send her to prison, where she would probably remain a long time. “How do you know that?” she returned. “See, here is the knave of clubs again, and he will set me free.” “Oh, ho! the knave of clubs will set you free, will he? And who is the knave of clubs?” “The Duke de Rovigo, your successor in office.” . . .
One of the biographers of M’lle Lenormand has remarked, witch or no witch, a certain share of admiration will always be due to her, for having contrived to be believed in an age which neither believed in God and his angels, nor in the devil and his imps. . . .
In detailing the incidents of M’lle Lenormand’s life, we have sufficiently described the sate of the art of fortune-telling in France and the consideration with which it was regarded, during the period of her professorship. Her success does not seem to have been derived from any previous credit accorded to the art of necromancy, but was the result rather of her remarkable skill and the tendency of an atheistic age to fill the void it had itself created, with superstitious dreams. She estabished a faith in astrology and chiromancy, for a time; they fell, however, into disrepute at her death, being afterwards exercised only by acknowledged charlatans, and obtaining support only from the ignorant and the credulous.
More Lenormand-style deck resources (see others in the intro paragraph at top):
- Examples of historic decks can be found at the Lenormand Playing Card Museum.
- Overview of spreads and meanings. Bio, tutorial & meanings.
- A brief overview of material from the highly regarded Treppner course.
- Here’s a book and a forum discussion with its author.
- A Lenormand blog with videos.
Mary K. Greer has made tarot her life work. Check here for reports of goings-on in the world of tarot and cartomancy, articles on the history and practice of tarot, and materials on other cartomancy decks. Sorry, I no longer write reviews. Contact me
Mary K. Greer's Tarot Blog 
79 comments
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February 13, 2008 at 3:49 am
peacepixie
This was so great to read! Thanks so much for posting this mary :)…. Fascinating stuff
February 16, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Paul Nagy
Yes, it is great to get a sense of local color from these memiors. Of course what an interesting treasure it would be to find the memoirs of a magus who could give a studied account of occult particulars.
February 19, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Jodie
Dear Mary. Where did you find your info on Mlle LeNormand? Ive been trying to find english print of her books or biographies but to no avail.
I am a descendant of hers and even for me this is difficult. Unfortunately I do not speak french, although a tarot reader and clairvoyant medium, I still cant locate anything other than basi information. Kindest Regards jodie
March 2, 2008 at 12:12 am
marygreer
To Jodie –
I found all this information on the web. Try searching on all variations of her name and use google’s translation feature for the French sites.
Also, there’s a very informative site at:
http://www.victorianhalloween.com/ml/lenormand01.shtml
To Paul Nagy –
I’m sure you’re familiar with the works of Eliphas Lévi and Paul Christian (both available in translations from the French). For more modern works there’s Crowley’s autobiography, _The Zelator: A Modern Initiate Explores the Ancient Mysteries_ by Mark Hedsel, and, for biography, my book, _Women of the Golden Dawn_, among many others. But, perhaps you mean something different. These aren’t particular to tarot or divination, although they are included in all the above works.
Mary K. Greer
April 13, 2008 at 5:43 pm
claudia
hi mary
your web site is so interesting!
i live in london at the moment ..too far from you. would it be possible for you to email me the name or contact details of a very talented tarot-card reader in london?
in my life i only met once somebody very good who was able to say something very real of my past and something which really happened later on.
it is also my intention to start taking classes here in london -just for my knowledge- but have not too much information yet.
well, many thanks in any case
claudia
April 14, 2008 at 3:18 am
marygreer
I don’t know anyone in London in particular but your best best is to check with one of the metaphysical bookstores like Atlantis or one of the others or go to the website of the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI)—in my links—and see who they recommend. There are many different kinds of tarot readers. People who give accurate details of your past and future are often working psychically. Such a reading can be very impressive but doesn’t necessarily help you make your own decisions based on insights into your higher purpose, goals and range of choices. Other readings focus on the meaning of events and what you can learn from whatever happens.
Mary
June 7, 2008 at 12:41 am
Chanah
if you read French, Juan has links to some of her books over at his site – the New Lenormand – http://www.thenewlenormand.com/page1/page1.html
I wish I still had the mail, but Guido Hesse wrote to me with a description of how La Lenormande had a client from Germany – wish I could remember his full name, but the first name was Karl, and he was a financier – who was boht a client and corresponded with her. I’m wondering if this might be part of the German connection, because the Petit Lenormand cards seem so much more German than French, and as far as I know, were first produced in Germany – but I could be wrong about that. I’ll see what I can find out, though.
And then there’s the connection with JJ Grandville, which has always intrigued me because he’s my favourite artist. Amongst other things, Grandville was the draftsman for the Sibylle des Salons (The Parlour Sybil, a/k/a Mme Lenormand) deck, though he was forced to sign over the copyright to his uncle, Mansion, since Mansion was giving Grandville room and board at the time. But the name, and the date (the deck was done in the 1820s if memory serves), are a little too coincidental, and I know our heroine liked to hang out with artists.
Mary, have you talked to Ron Decker? It occurs to me that he gave a talk about Mme Lenormand at a tarot conference last year, so he may have more information as well.
Interesting stuff, and a very nice post. Thank you.
June 7, 2008 at 1:27 am
marygreer
Chanah – Thank you for the link and the information on the decks. I love all those details. Lenormand-style cards are becoming more and more popular and lots of people appear to be fascinated by this woman.
I wasn’t able to attend Ron’s workshop at WATTS because I was needed elsewhere. Obviously Lenormand deserves a major study, although it would be almost impossible to undertake without reading French. That’s one reason why I so enjoyed finding these accounts of her by British tourists. They answer the question – ‘what would it have been like to have gotten a reading from Madame Lenormand herself?’ I’m just happy to contribute that one little piece.
January 28, 2009 at 7:33 pm
alkines
I get your blog today. I’m new in tarot. But I like to study. Now I can read someone just a little. Your web is my best place to learn
January 30, 2009 at 12:14 pm
mkg
alkines –
I’m so glad to hear that my blog is helpful to a beginner. I try to include some of the basics – like the post on the varieties of three-card spreads. Let me know if there is something else you’d like to see.
April 5, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Lorrie Kazan
Hi Mary: You’re always such a font (sp) of information. Loved this one and will read some of the french! Look forward to seeing you at RS09. Lorrie
April 22, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Janine Le' Normand
oh my :O this is realy weird.. im realy related to this woman.. well sort of lol .. i think anyways lol
January 3, 2010 at 12:56 am
Delmaree Jones
Thankyou for this interesting site. I have a couple of questions regarding M lLe Normand,you may or may not know the answers. Was M le Normand a mademoiselle, or a madame ? If she was supposed to have died a virgin then how could she possibly have direct descendants asJodie claims to be a descendant she must have had brothers or sisters.If so do we know anything about them? Thanks again yours faithfully, Delmaree Jones.
January 3, 2010 at 7:04 pm
mkg
Delmaree –
Lenormand was supposedly never married, however she’s been referred to both as mademoiselle and madame. Several people have claimed to be “great nieces,” etc. I don’t know enough to say whether this is true or not.
Mary
March 22, 2010 at 12:59 pm
Heatherleigh Navarre
How wonderful to learn that I share a birthday with this historical figure!
April 22, 2010 at 7:01 pm
shell
hey i wanna know if there is a place that i can buy the tarot lenormand tarot cards. if anyone knows of a place lemme know.
June 9, 2010 at 11:49 am
Elizabeth Hazel
Mary,
Love your blog on Mdm Lenormand!
Her birthday is confirmed on the Astrotheme site, where Lois Rodden’s database was shifted after her death. I tentatively rectified to 10:44 am, chart attached, which gives her a 28 Leo rising. The Ascendant conjunct Regulus and Sun at 6 Gemini conjunct Aldebaran connect her with aristocrats & military men. Papus & Cagliostro have similar fixed star placements showing highly placed clients. The Sun is in the 10th with Uranus on the Midheaven conjunct Mercury retrograde. (Uranus was discovered shortly after her birth, I think around 1781).
Uranus is conjunct Algol, giving her the appearance of the Medusa or Gorgon (MC is public appearance) and perhaps the ability to turn people to stone. Uranus is associated with the occult, and with unusual branches of it like phrenology and crystal balls, and also with mesmerism. The Scorpio IC/4th house equates with her strange occult décor and hidden passages. Saturn in Leo is in the 12th, consistent with jail time. Saturn is in joy in the 12th, but suffers by being in Leo, sign of its fall. Secrecy and fear were her stock-in-trade, but she was vulnerable. Her knowledge of famous clients would make her prone to hidden enemies – a 12th house matter.
In some older astrology books, the 9th house is associated with divination, and more particularly with a person’s tendency to get accurate or bad readings (see Avraham ibn Ezra “The Beginning of Wisdom” circa 1200 CE). Mars in Aries is conjunct the South Node in the 9th with the Moon in Aries, too. She had a gift for giving readings, and for seeing the past (the south node). Putting the North Node in her 3rd indicates making a living by speaking or communicating.
My guess is that she’d had her chart done early in her life and knew that she wouldn’t prosper in marriage. Sun squares Jupiter in her 7th, and Jupiter also rules her 5th house of children, so spoils her outlook for children. With her 12th house Saturn, she was aware of the possibility of imprisonment, attempted to prevent it, and prepared for it just in case. Given the kinds of astrology done at the time, an astrologer would have warned her about sticking tightly to her principles and integrity with her Sun conjunct Aldebaran. Lots of benefits but many temptations there. George Bernard Shaw also had a prominent Aldebaran contact, and lived by strict principles.
In any case, she had some enviable aspects: Uranus trine Pluto (wow!), Mars trine Saturn, Venus sextile Uranus/opposite Pluto. Mars and Jupiter are both in rulership. If the rectified time is fairly accurate, Jupiter in Pisces in her 7th house (clients) is trine the Part of Fortune in Cancer in the 11th house of society and acquaintances. This would also improve her prospects of making money through social and political connections.
At the end of your short bio, you noted that even though she went to jail she’d stashed away a pretty good pile of loot. In this rectified chart, Mercury rules the 2nd house – its retrograde, so no one was aware of how much money she had hidden away or where it was, but it enabled her to skedaddle to a safe haven after she was released.
Btw, Valleda and Melusine are mentioned in “Annals” by Tacitus, and I think that’s where Vercingetorix’s connection with a Sybil is mentioned, too. McCullough includes them in her Great Men of Rome series.
Elizabeth Hazel
Whispering Tarot/Tarot Decoded
http://www.kozmic-kitchen.com
“Though my soul may set in darkness it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too dearly to be fearful of the night.”
~Sarah Williams
June 9, 2010 at 12:05 pm
mkg
Liz – Thank you so much for the astrological analysis of Lenormand (and for rectifying her chart!). This is really great information and an example of how fixed stars and other classical perspectives can be used.
Mary
August 19, 2010 at 7:17 pm
Lilith Neri
Dear Mary: I’m a mexican girl who likes Trot so much, but I’m not a professional reader. I’ve my first when I was 15 yo. (now I’ve 37) and only try to “play”, but with the time, I read different info and now, with web I’m lookin’ for more. Your web really give a lot of hope to try again to listen to my differents kind of Tarots. Last year I buyed a Melle. Lenormand pack and I never listen before about her, so, thanx so much 4 your existence!!!
I send you a lot of hugs and bless you.
August 19, 2010 at 10:32 pm
mkg
Lilith –
It is difficult to find information about the deck pictured above. But, if it speaks to you then use it – make it your own. Welcome.
Mary
September 23, 2010 at 1:39 am
Y YO ME PREGUNTO….. « LAS CARTAS LENORMAND
[…] con una de las paginas con mas solera y con mas información que puede haber en internet, Mery Greer K. que para mi es una de las mejores en tema […]
December 26, 2010 at 8:19 pm
Lucy
I definitely found the information about Mlle. Lenormand interesting, particularly her astrological information. Using her deck has always been a challenge and sometimes feels more cryptic than illuminating, particularly with the tarot card meanings. Thanks for giving such a wealth of information on a very noteworthy character in the history of prognostication!
April 7, 2011 at 11:42 am
Arwen
I’ve just learned that U.S. Games is now carrying the Mlle Lenormand Blue Owl deck. I have the Mystic Lenormand (and love it). I sometimes use it to drawa a clarification card on personal spreads. Fascinating post.
April 7, 2011 at 12:22 pm
mkg
Arwen – Thanks for the info. It’s good to know that it will be more easily available in the U.S.
October 10, 2011 at 7:32 am
Saida
Dear Mary, what a wonderful and complete site. And so much valueable information. I love it! I just started to write information about Madame Lenormand and the reading cards in Dutch. My blog is developing and I hope it’ll be that interesting as yours! Thanks a lot for sharing.
November 14, 2011 at 10:53 am
Jodie LeNormand
Ah, it’s great to see the memoires translated, I can’t read French, so this is really helpful 🙂
January 16, 2012 at 10:09 pm
Valentina Kaquatosh
My whole life I have been fascinated with this legendary reader! I even created my own card deck inspired by her. I should post it one of these days. Thank you for updating this! It means a lot.
February 9, 2012 at 3:14 pm
ted
Great stories, Mary. Love the history lesson, especially the account by Dumas… no I have to take a look at those decks…
February 11, 2012 at 3:14 pm
terry
Very interesting, indeed. ;I would like to recommend for german speaking readers the biography: Marie-Anne Lenormand: Portrait einer berühmten Seherin by Kornelia Igges. – A very good description of her life and work, also the more “secular” doings of Ms. Lenormand – the biographies she wrote, the magazine she edited, the publishing company she ran, her salong and dinner-parties, her friendship with Josephine etc.
I beneath also give a report from the famous and influential Duchess de Dino’s autobiographical journal, of her meeting with Ms. Lenormand. Perhaps not as impressive as that of Gronow, but still valuable:
A SORCERESS’S PREDICTIONS
One had to fix the day and the hour beforehand and this I
arranged through my maid giving a false name and address. She gave me an appointment and on the day named I went with my maid in a cab, taken at a distance from my abode, to the Rue de Tournon where the sorceress lived. The house was of good appearance and the rooms clean and even rather pretty. We had to wait till a gentleman with
moustaches had left the chamber where the Sibyl delivered
her oracles. I made my maid go in first and my turn came
next. After some questions about the month, day and hour
of my birth, and about my favourite animal, flower and
colour, and about the animals, flowers and colours which I
particularly disliked, she asked whether she should make the
great or the little cabala for me, the price being different.
At last she came to my fortune and told me what follows.
I may have forgotten some insignificant details but I give
the main part of what she predicted, and I have since
repeated it to several persons, my mother and M. de Talley-
rand among the number.
She said that I was married, that I had a spiritual bond
with an exalted personage (my explanation of this is that
the Emperor was my eldest son’s godfather), that after much
pain and trouble I should be separated from my husband,
that my troubles would not cease till nine years after this
separation, and that during these nine years I should
experience all manner of trials and calamities. She also said
that I should become a widow when no longer young but
not too old to marry again which I should do. She saw me
for many years closely allied with a person whose position
and influence would impose on me a kind of political position
and would make me powerful enough to save some one from
imprisonment and death. She said also that I should live
through very difficult and stormy times, during which I
should have very exciting experiences, and that one day even
I should be awakened at five o’clock in the morning by men
armed with pikes and axes who would surround my house
and try to kill me. This danger would be the consequence
of my opinions and the part I was destined to take in
politics and I should escape in disguise. I should still be
alive, she said, at sixty-three. When I asked whether that
was the destined end of my days she answered, ” I don’t say
you will die at sixty-three, I only mean that I see you still
alive at that age. I know nothing of you or your destiny
after that.”
The leading circumstances of this prediction seemed to me
then too much out of the probable course of events to cause
me any anxiety. I told my friends about it as a sort of
joke, and, though the most improbable parts of it have come
true, such as my separation from my husband, my prolonged
troubles, the interest in public affairs which M. de Talley-
rand’s concern with them has imposed on me, I confess that
unless some one has mentioned some similar matter, I think
very rarely about what Mile. Lenormand told me, and very
little of herself though she was a remarkable person. She
seemed to be over fifty when I saw her. She was rather tall
and wore a loose, black, trailing gown. Her complexion
was ugly and confused, her eyes were small, bright and
wild ; her countenance, coarse and yet uncanny, was crowned
with a mass of untidy grey hair. The whole effect was
unpleasant, and I was glad when the interview was over.
I thought of her prophecies in July 1830, when I was
alone at Rochecotte surrounded by conflagrations, and was
receiving the news of what was happening in Paris, and
when I saw General Donnadieu’s regiments marching past
my windows on La Vendee where it was thought Charles X.
would go. I heard some denouncing the Jesuits whom they
were silly enough to accuse of setting fire to their houses
and fields, and others crying out against ” malignants ” such
as I. The Cure came to my house for refuge and the
Mayor asked whether I did not think that the soutane,
which according to him reeked of brimstone, should be
turned out of the commune. Already I saw myself sur-
rounded by pikes and axes, and escaping as best I could
disguised as a peasant. I escaped then, but I have sometimes
said to myself that it was only a postponement and that I
should not get off in the end.
February 12, 2012 at 8:01 am
terry
One more historical reading from Mlle. Lenormand, this time for Karl August von Malchus, the minister of finance in perussia. I think this reading is very interesting, especially so because von Malchus was very much a man of “the real world” of politics and also an intellectual and a sceptic, much like – or even more than – captain Gronow. He has written tractats on economics. (Please find beneath the german Wikipedia article on von Malchus. )
von Malchus explicitly says he wanted to put Mlle. Lenormand to the test when he went for the reading. The account for the meeting is here taken from a digitalized irish university magazine from the 1840-ties. I give you the link for the magazine also, so you can check for mistakes in my transcription. A couple of places I did not exacltly understand Mlle Lenormand’s french comments – french I do not master.
The article in the magazine also extends before and after the Malchus-record – clickable chapters are given down to the right – and I think some readers also will find the other parts amusing, though not as importaint/convincing as the Malchus part.
Terry
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_August_von_Malchus
http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/jun–co-william-curry/the-dublin-university-magazine-volume-30-goo/page-87-the-dublin-university-magazine-volume-30-goo.shtml
Malchus was at length prevailed on
to visit the divineress ; the following
is his account of the visit which we
give in his own words :—
“All this at length overcame the re-
pagnance I felt towards a sibyl of this
species, and I determined to go, intend-
ing however to put the reality of her
miraculous knowledge to every test in
my power. – I was glad to find that the street
in which she lived, and even the quarter
of the town in which it was situated,
was one in which I had never been. I
put on a threadbare cast-off surtout,
and a very shabby old hat, got into a
facre, and drove to the Faubourg St.
Germain, alighted before turning the
comer of the Rue Toumon, and pro-
ceeded to her house on foot.
On my ringing, the door was opened by a little
girl, who might be about fourteen years
of age. I asked for Mile. Lenormand,
and received answer that she would
scarcely be able to speak with me just
then, as she was extremely busy. “Very
well,” said I ; “ask her when I may call
again ?” After a few moments, the child
returned with the answer, ‘ Next Satur-
day, any time after twelve o’clock.* I
expressed my wish that she would ap-
pomt the hour herself, as I had, I said,
abundance of leisure, so that it was
equal to me at what time I came, and I
was anxious that her reception of me
should interfere with no other engage-
ment. The little maid disanpeared, and
presently there came out of the adjoin-
mg chamber a woman advanced in years,
and, I must confess, not without some-
what witch-like in her appearance, her
eyes elancing about her not exactly
with nre, but still with an expression
of uncommon intelligence and subtlety.
Coming straight up to me, and giving
me no time to speak, she put a cara into
my hand and with the words, “Sanedi,
trait hewres, monsigneur,” (?) disappeared again
into her cabinet : she hardly saw me half
a second, and I had not opened my lips
in her presence.
*Saturday came, and I was there
(in the same dress) punctually at three
o’clock, was again received by the little
maid, and requested to wait a few mo-
ments, as somebody was just then with
Mile. Lenormand. About ten minutes
might have passed, when the door of the
cabinet opened, and a voung woman,
supported by a man under the middle
age, came out, weeping so excessively,
that one could literally have washed
oneself in her tears, and giving utter-
ance to the most heart-piercing lamen-
tations. Her companion did everything
possible to assuage her grief, reminded
er that the thing, after all, had not
been infallibly declared, that the ques-
tion still remained, whether it would
really come to pass,’ and so on. There
must something terrible have been told
to the poor soul.
‘* I was now ushered in, and made to
sit down near the sorceress, at a table
that stood by the sofa. As I had heard
that, when asked only for the petit jeu
(which cost two napoleons), she left out
many details, in her sketch of the past,
the present, and the future, I at once
signified my desire to have the grand jeu
of which four napoleons is the price.
« She then asked me —
*l. The initial letter of my Christian
name.
* 2. That of my surname.
” 3. Of my country.
* 4. Of the place of my birth.
*5. My age — to be given with as
much exactitude as was m my power :
it so happened that I could state it even
to the hour, and did so.
* 6. The name of my favourite flower.
* 7. The name of my favourite ani-
mal.
* 8. The name of the animal to which
I had the greatest repugnance
* Upon this, she took, in addition to
some seven packs of cards which already
lay on the table, seven packs more, mak-
ing in all fourteen packs. They were,
however, of very different kinds; for
instance, Tarok-cards, old German
cards, whist cards, cards marked with
the celestial bodies, cards with necro-
mantic figures, and I know not what all
besides. – She now shuffled one pack
after another, giving me each pack, after
she had shuffled it, to cut. Naturally, I
was going to do this with the right hand,
but she prevented me, and said, “Jax (?)
main gauche, monsieur,” To try whether
she said this merely to mystify me, or
would seriously make a point of it, I cut
the second pack with the left hand, bat
took the right again to the third ; but
she interposed instantly, and repeated,
“La main gauche, monsigneur,’ Out of
each pack, after cutting, I had to draw
(still with the left hand) a certain number
of cards, prescribed by her ; not the
same number out of each pack, but from
one more, from another less : from the
Tarok cards, for instance, twenty-five ;
from another pack, six ; from a third,
ten ; and so on. The cards thus drawn
she arranged in a certain order on the
table : all the rest were put aside.
* She then took my left hand, and
surveyed it very attentively, taking par-
ticular notice of all its lines and mter-
sections. After a little while, she com-
menced oountine the lines upwards and
downwards, and from side to side, pro-
nouncing at the same time the names of
the heavenly bodies. At length, she
opened a great necromantic book which
lay near her, and in which were drawn
an immense variety of hands, with all
their linear marks : these drawings she
compared carefully, one after another,
with my hand, till she found one that
was marked in a similar way. Then,
turning to the cards arrays on the
table, she studied them with great in-
tentedness, went from one to another,
numbering and calculating very busily,
till at last she began to speak, and to
tell me, out of the cards before her, my
past, present, and future destinies.
She spoke very rapidlv, and as if reading
out of a book ; and I observed that if,
in running on, she happened to revert a
second time to any thing already men-
tioned, she stated it in the very same
words as at first — in short, exactly as
if she were reading it again out of the
book.
*Of my past history, she told me, to
my infinite astonishment, much that I
myself had almost forgotten, which,
probably, there was no one in my own
country that knew or remembered, and
which most certainly was known to no-
body at Paris. Among other things, she said —
“You have more than once been in
peril of life; in particular, within your
first five years, you had a narrow
escape of drowning.” – Who told her that
in my fourth year I fell into the great pond at
Schwetzingen?
“More than once vou have been in
danger of losing your life by fire.’
” This, too, is true”.
“You were born in circumstances
which did not offer you the prospect of
high station in the world ; nevertheless,
you have attained it. Very early in life
you began to labour for distinction of
some sort : you were not yet five-and-
twenty when you first entered the ser-
vice of the state, but it was in a very
subordmate position.”
How did she find out that I received
my first official appointment- at nineteen?
Then she proceeded to reckon up to
me a multitude of particulars of my past
life, in particular placing the different
sections of it before me in so definite and
distinct a manner, that I begun to feel a
kind of horror creeping over me, as if I
had been in the presence of a spirit.
With respect to the last section but
one (my taking office in Westphalia),
she remarked, that it had not at first
appeared likely to become very brilliant,
but that circumstances had soon oc-
curred, which had given it such a cha-
racter. Of the present she spoke with the
same accuracy.
Of the future, some things that she
said were characterized by a true Sibyl-
line obscurity, or might have been com-
pared to that Pythian utterance, ‘ If
Croesus crosses the Pbasis, a great king-
dom will falL’ Some things, on the other
hand, she expressed in a clear and
unambiguous manner, and they have
proved true. For example, she said, “You are in
great anxiety about your family ” — which
indeed I was, for I knew that my wife
and children had got in safety as far as
Elsen, but whether they had got happily
to Hildesheim, and if so, how matters stood
with them there, I knew not — “but,”
proceeded the sorceress, “you may be
tranquil on this score, for in eight days
you will receive a letter, which will in-
deed contain various things not agree-
able to you, but will relieve you of all
uneasiness on your family’s account.”
In effect, by the eighth day I re-
ceived a letter from my wife, which
aquainted me that she and the children
were well, but of which the remaining
contents were by no means of a charac-
ter to give me pleasure.
Within the next eight days I should
four times successively obtain accounts
of the state of things in my native coun-
try, and on one occasion should hear
very minute particulars respecting my
family. – This was said on the 28th of March.
Two days after, the allies entered Paris,
an event the most unexpected to all its
citizens. About six days after, I went
to walk on the Boulevards ; a person in
the uniform of the Prussian artillery
came eagerly up to me, and to my asto-
nishment I recognized Monsieur N.,
who had lived with us a short time be-
fore at Compiegne, had then returned to
Hildesheim, and joined the Prussians,
and was now come direct from Hildes-
heim to Paris, consequently had no end
of things to tell me about my family
whom he had’seen and spoken with. A
little after, I met Monsieur Delins, for-
merly prefect of Gottingen, and, in
short, I really, in the course of eight
days, had news from Germany just four
times.
She proceeded — “Tou will not re-
main long in France, but will return to
your own country, where you will at
first have to encounter a host of annoy-
ances, some of them trifling, some grave.
You will be arrested, but speedily re-
stored to liberty.” – All this took place here in Heidel-
berg.
She now said very distinctly, that
before the 23rd of November, 1814, I
should receive an important decision,
but one very unacceptable to me. In
effect, on the 21st of that month, I re-
ceived the letter of the Hanoverian mi-
nister. Count Munster, conveying to me
the determination of his government on
my claim to the estate of Marienrode :
the purport of this determination was,
that my claim was rejected, but the ap-
peal, which I spoke of, to the Congress
of Vienna, left open to me.
“Your destiny,” she added, “will,
for the next three years, be but preca-
rious and unstable; and you will not
find yourself in prosperous circumstances
again until 1817.”
When she had completely finished,
I wished to have the whole written down
(this costs a napoleon more), as it inter-
ested me too much to allow of my
trusting the retention of it solely to
memory. “Much,’ said I, “of what you
have said to me, respecting my past life,
has put me in no small astonbhment.”
“Ak”, replied she, drily, “c’est bien
fait pour celaJ” (?)
She had no objection to write it all
down for me, but assured me that she
had more to do than could be told, and
must, therefore, request of me three
things. First, that I would write down
for her the three answers above men-
tioned ; secondly, that I would not re-
quire her to go into the past and the
present at such length as she had done
in her verbal communication ; and,
thirdly, that I would give her three
weeks’ time, before coming for the
paper. “That will be the easier for
you to do,’ said she,” as you will remain
two months longer at Paris.” This
struck me much, because, in the posi-
tion I then occupied, and under the
political circumstances existing, I could
not engage to be at Paris three days.
“Surement,” repeated she, as she ob-
served my perplexed looks ; “vou$ res-
terez encore deux mois a Paris.”
And in this also she was right.
I remained at Paris Just two months
longer, and no more.
After three weeks I revisited the
bouse of Mile. Lenormand, but found
her engaged, and heard from the little
maid that, with the best will in the
world, she had not yet been able to
make out time to write what I wished
for ; but, if I would come again in four
days, it should positively be ready.
I was glad of this delay ; the test,
I thought, would be all the severer,
whether she really read the same things
in the cards, this second time, that she
did three or four weeks before, or whe-
ther she only recalled, by an effort of
memory, what she had said to me on a
former occasion. I therefore quit the
house with pleasure, and returned after
four days. Mile. Lenormand was gone
out. The little maid excused this on
the score of urgent business, begged me,
in her mistress’s name, to enter the ca-
binet, and, opening a drawer, showed
me a paper intended for me, but which
was not yet quite finished. I read it
through, as far as it went, and found
that It already contained about two-
thirds of what the sorcerees had said to
me orally. Errors there were none,
and the little variations from what I
had heard near four weeks before from
her, were of the most inconsiderable
nature.
In four days more, the little maid
assured me, the manuscript should, with-
out fail, be ready. In effect it was so,
and corresponded accurately with what
she had spoken more thim four weeks
before. Yet how many nativities might
she not have cast in the interval I think
many men’s destinies must have thrust
mine out of her recollection.
I went purposely, from the time of my first
visit to her till my departure from Paris,
into her neighbourhood several times,
and always found one or more carriages
standing before her house, which had
brought persons desirous of learning
their destiny at the lips of Mlle. Lenor-
mand.
February 14, 2012 at 3:41 pm
Mlle. Lenormand: A Puzzle « andybc: card reader
[…] The two comments on Greer’s blog come from Terry (thank you, Terry), posted on February 12, and I therefore cannot reproduce them here. Please read here. […]
April 27, 2012 at 9:49 am
Caitlin Matthews
I have been researching the origins of the Lenormand deck. These will be appearing in my Enchanted Lenormand Oracle, which will be a Lenormand deck and book. See http://www.hallowquest.org.uk for more details. Also see http://caitlin-matthews.blogspot.com/
October 5, 2012 at 6:00 am
скеле
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October 5, 2012 at 9:34 am
mkg
There’s a contact form found at the top of my blog. Please state specifically what you are interested in talking about. Thank you for your interest.
November 14, 2012 at 2:11 am
clairvoyant chris
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February 16, 2013 at 5:45 pm
Marie Anne Lenormand – chart study | morganesky
[…] Mary Greer […]
April 17, 2013 at 3:52 am
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July 4, 2013 at 5:55 am
lars
from a sceptical point of view,one would have to ask how successfully high class women would have been in those days at disguising themselves as poor people.
not just clothes but mode of speech and accent?
victor hugos account is anachronistic in the description of mme lenormands deck that had not been published yet.
regarding the Prussian fellow.
she would have seen through his disguise straight away,
mme lenormand was well connected in the court.
she delays his reading for a few days,thus giving a chance to follow him to find out who he was and assemble his life story.
still trotting out these parlour tricks as psychic paranormal.
come on,tarot has moved on,surely?
July 6, 2013 at 6:56 pm
Mary K. Greer
Lars –
Mlle Lenormand may very well have pulled some cons in her lifetime. I wouldn’t be surprised if she did. However, you seem to have some kind of crystal ball that tells you exactly what she knew and did. I find that pretty amazing. There will always be people who take advantage of others, or who pretend to know more than they do, but there are also readers who are honest and insightful and who have actually helped others. I’m willing to bet that a good tarot reader has a better prediction rate than the average TV weather predictor or someone who professionally predicts what the stock market is going to do – and both of those probably get paid a lot more than the tarot reader.
July 7, 2013 at 11:46 am
Mary K. Greer
I appear to have never thanked Terry (above) in the comments, although we corresponded. I really want to do so now for bringing two such important accounts of Mlle Lenormand to light. What we are getting is a very consistent picture of both her and her readings – although still tantilizingly brief as the descriptions are.
July 7, 2013 at 12:14 pm
lars
mary.
thanks for replying.
actually,i am a tarotist myself,
i do not make my living from it ,but all power to the elbow to those like yourself who do.
i don’t have a crystal ball,but even a quick reading of the madames life can show that she was an astute politician and a crafty old girl,and some of those ruses are recognisable to those who may have been around the scammers block a bit.
i don’t really see her as a good “role model” for modern tarot.
she may be the most famous but she strikes me as one of the most shamelessly manipulative.it seems.
maybe folks are impressed that mme lenormand had such famous clients,and in fact,that is what is attractive.who wouldn’t want a few celeb clients?
the whole predictive thing is so pointless.even if it would work.but it doesn’t,
if madame L could have told napoleon to chill out or he would end up spending a third of his life under arrest,that would have been worth paying for!
but she didn’t.
she told Josephine and N and all the rest of them what they wanted to hear.
that’s why we are talking about her now.she was “smart”
you say a good reader has a good prediction rate,better maybe than an economist or a weather person.
frankly,thats not much of a recommendation!!
says it all about “prediction”for me.
July 7, 2013 at 12:47 pm
terry
Thanks Mary, I appreciate that. –
For the readers of the blog I would like to draw attention to the two books on Mlle Lenormand by Dicta Dimitriadis, they are very well researched and can easily be purchaced via Amazon.com, or eventually Amazon.fr. (the french amazon-site). Regrettably they’re in written french (one is very well translated into German by Cornelia Iggers, and may be purchased from Amazon.de). So if a translator feels the urge to some historical and spiritual work from french to English here is a honourable (and most likely also profitable) task at hand!
Concerning the reliability of the readings from Mlle. Lenormand (according to Dimitriadis she never married, neither was engaged, and therefore Mlle – that is the short form of Mademoiselle – should be her proper titulation). Of course she might have been using her aquaintances, her general knownledge and psychological insights to give impressive “cold” readings. But clearly, hat will not be able to account for her many precognitions, f.eks. the one given above to von Malchus about the letter coming within 8 days, and the descriptions of its content.
We, in fact, also have some reports from sceptics that became impressed by her predictions. One is Captain Gronow, as quoted above. Another was Cellier du Fayel, a law-professor who also was the editor of a journal, where he had warned about charlatans. He visited her with the sole purpose of reprimanding her for taking advantage of the ignorant. But – he became so stunned with what she told him about both his past and present, that he left her completely baffeled. And within a year, so much of her predictions also hade come true, that he threw in the towel, and sent her a letter of appreciation and admiration. Mlle Lenormand and Cellier du Fayel ended up becoming the best of friends, and he also wrote a biography about her.
July 7, 2013 at 1:52 pm
terry
PS: I would guess lars’ points concerning Mlle Lenormand would mainly be taken from “A Wicked Pack of Cards: The Origins of the Occult Tarot” by Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis and Michael Dummett. They seem to have a partly very well-informed but also quite biased (reductionist) view on the matter of precognition, and does not seem to concider deeply the philosophical question of Time; that linear time might be mainly a convenient construction of our everyday mind – Einstein said humorously something like “the only reason for time to exist, is that not everything should happen at the same moment” – rather than an ontological entity.
If that be the case, one can not at all exclude that given, say, altered states of mind, it would be possible to exactly “predict” future events. In quotemarks because if so, it is not predicting, but rather seeing events that ARE there already, like getting a bird’s view on which train-stations ARE there already further ahead on the railroad you’re on.
Which implications such a perspective may have for the human free will goes way beyond the scope of our little Lenormand-discussion here.
July 7, 2013 at 3:30 pm
terry
PPS: And given the amount of clients that visited Mlle Lenormand on a daily basis – many of them with a foreign and fully unknown biographical background – it is highly improbable that she, as the authors of “A Wicked Pack of Cards” partly seems to suggest, that she would have been able to collect information on the gross part of them via her connections. If that should have been the case, she would have to had organized a formidable network of spies, almost comparable to the East-German Stasi during the cold war. She clearly was a woman of resources, but THAT amount or kind of resources she obviously did not posess.
July 8, 2013 at 2:11 am
lars
terry,
again,the example of the skeptic ,du fayel.who became converted is a good example of what I have said.
being an editor of a magazine publishing articles and a famous lawyer,information about the man would be easy to know.mlle L would have been well aware of him as a noted “anti-charlatan.
re your reference to stasi..
in fact the period around and after the French revolution that we are talking about, where mlle L operated was a time where the atmosphere of constant intrigue,spying,denouncement ,mass murder and paranoia were an absolute and extreme constant,something of a “mass psychosis”.
that is a detail worth remembering in all this.
the ideas of the past present and future being co-existent are fascinating and I have made my own explorations of the phenomenon.
however,the idea that to remain sceptical about those who claim to access precognition and prediction at will is “reductionist” is not clear-headed.
its the old thing of the onus being on the unproven hypothesis needing to be proved rather than vice-versa.
230 year old accounts of a woman whom you admit may have done some cons and used her guile and “considerable resources”,in a wildly unstable and crazy period of history really don’t do it!
July 8, 2013 at 11:32 am
terry
Clearly, nothing can be definitely PROVED from historical accounts. But as mentioned, even if Mlle. Lenormand could have known about some past/present events in the life of du Fayel (but not the host of complete foreigners, coming from all over Europe)), she could of course NOT know anything about spesific FUTURE events. This law-professor was most likely a very intelligent man (apart from holding a prestigious and demanding academic position, he has also published several books), and even if one is not convinced about her abilities for precognition, HE in fact became so, based on his own first-hand experience with her. This is not a definite proof, but cannot just be easily disregarded because it does not fit with ones philosophy.
Also Napoleon: According to Dicta Dimitriadis in the book “Mademoiselle Lenormand: Voyante de Louis XVI a Louis-Philippe”, when Napoleon spent his last days in English captivity on the island of St. Helena, far out in the Atlantic, Napoleon gave the following confession to general Henri Bertrand, who renders the statement in his diaries, “Sketches from St. Helena”:
“She (Mlle. Lenormand) drew a picture of this island on a wall panel in an apartment that still exists in Paris, in the Rue de Tournon. She described Longwood and Hudson Lowe for me (ie. the villa where he sat arrested, and the English commander/guard) … I knew all this already when I was at the height of my power. ”
Napoleon here confirms that Mlle Lenormand told him all this – and even illustrated the whole scene with matching pictures! – ten years (or more) before it occurred. This clearly is a very strong statement that supports the hypothesis about her precognitive abilities, a statement that cannot easily be disregarded just because it happens not fit with ones philosophy on Time (or lack thereof).
This is what I mean by reductionist: That one systematically choses to look away from all occurences that challenges one’s estabilshed “truth”, instead of taking them seriously into account, and thereafter reinterpret one’s world-view in light of the vital information given.
July 9, 2013 at 2:23 am
lars
terry,
i apreciate your spsirited response.
however,i must say that i am not representing any “absolute truth” that is “being challenged”
by statements in 200 year old diaries written about supposed conversations with another person about events that happened decades previously .
in my view,these really can`t really be said to “support a hypothesis”of any sortnor is it,literally”vital information”
par contre,it may well be you who can be said to be systematically looking away from the bald facts of mlle L having “very probably pulled a few cons”
why would she do that if she could see so clearly into the future?
you forget the social background of all these people,that,brought up on the bible,they were were all basically prejudiced to belie in these times.ve in prophecy.
did you know that even isaac newton sincerely believed that his scientific enquiries would lead to proof prove that prophecy existed?
to profess `skepticism` was not easy then,and tfor those who did,he old childhood conditioning could easily kick back in,given the correct suggestions and a bit of theatre.
re..”reductionists”
tunnily enough,thats what the supporters of sai baba called me when i recommended they watch videos of sai babas badly performed terrestial ,not supernatural,magic tricks on youtube!
life is a mystery!!
July 9, 2013 at 1:35 pm
terry
It may come as a surprise, but as a matter of fact, as a former university teacher I am well aware about Newton’s interest in both the religious and the alchemical field, and I think I also know a bit about the post-revolutionary aera in France, the ideological currents, the beliefs and disbeliefe, the philosophy, the litterature and so on.
Wheter or not a person has a psi-ability has nothing to do with with their morals. I don’t know for sure wether or not Mlle Lenormand in fact did use tricks and7or cold reading. (But Captain Gronow and von Malchus clearly had the perception that this was not the case with their readings.) But IF she did, it was most probably with the intention of impressing her clients even more. She was not beyond vanity (we know from her biography) and wanted most certainly to be percieved as The Very Best in her field (which she succeded in, even if there were challengers, as Dimitriadis shows). The intellectual and sceptic professor du Fayel, as we have heard, was at first convinced that Mlle Lenormand was a con-artist and only a con-artist. But after his first-hand experinence, a privilege which neither of us will ever have, he – as also already said – changed his mind alltogether. His second, mature opinion on her is represented in the book: “La Vérité sur Mlle Le Normand. Mémoires, révélations intimes des mystères de la Sibylle et de ses adeptes ou consultants”.
Sai Baba has nothing at to with this case at all. That said, since I have a general interest in the field of parapsychology, I have done some research also on him, and am not convinced of his claimed paranormal abilities. That there are of course lots of cheaters within this field whose primary interest is sucking money out of the naive, and/or gratify their own ego. But that does not say anything about the reality of psi, parapsychology and the occult; “Where there is cheese, there always will be rats.”
Hans Eysenck (1916-1997) was a famous professor in psychology at the Univerisity of London. At the time of his death, he was the most quoted psychologist in the world, in different books, journals etc. He concidered, afther thorough research, that there were some pepole that in fact had ESP-abilities (ie. were able to perform telepathy, clayrvoyance and precognition), and also held that this view was backed up with solid and valid laboratory-research. In his book “Sense and Nonsense in Psychology, he writes:
“Unless there is a gigantic conspiracy involving some thirty university departments all over the world, and several hundred highly respected scientists in various fields, many of them originally hostile to the claims of the psychical researchers, the only conclusion the unbiased observer can come to must be that there is a small number of people who obtain knowledge existing either in other people’s minds, or in the outer world, by means as yet unknown to science.”
That be the case, Mlle. Lenormand may very well have been one of those people that Eysenck here talks about. This seems to be suggested by many historical, biographical and anecdodical reports – and NB! reports sometimes given by highly resourceful people, some of them who on the oputset was declared sceptics. Such reports cannot easly be discarded, just because they’re, say 170 years old. Much written historical documentation is taken utterly seriously even if centuries older than this.
——
Unless there is presented radical new arguments, I herby close my argument with these words. The debate is using much space in Marys’ blog, and I got a strong feeling that agrement between the different positions is not going to be reached. All the best to the readers of the blog with further research on Mlle. Lenormand. The books by Dimitriadis gives many valuable historical quelles for persons seriously interested in an in-depth study of her life and work.
July 10, 2013 at 4:16 am
lars
terry,
iin fact, have not said that psi ,transpersonal unusual or unexplainable experiences do not exist.
the skeptic vs believer argument bores me a lot.
on a human level the holders of the different attitudes are often more similar to each other than they imagine.
dawkins has his “enemies of reason”
and you may have “reductionists or materialists”
for me,in tarot terms you are both popes with your own devils!!
ready to fight the good fight!
it is probably a matter of taste,but a madame sitting in her dimly lit boudoir with bats nailed to the wall asking people what their favourite colour and animal is really doesnt do it for me,and incidentally,is one of the poorer argumants for the existence of psi.
btw .was she really even a tarotist?
sounds like the cards were just another piece of mis-en-scene,like the nailed bats and the pickled snakes and lizards.
i do regular readings for people for money and have done so for some years now.
my style of reading is non-predictive.
its more “human potential”
of course,i have met the full range of styles of readers along the way.
what i have noticed is that the whole predictive game is really not helpful for peoples lives.
in fact,my view is that it is exactly the opposite.
how does the idea of predicting the future actually help people in their lives?
i`ve never had a coherent answer to that.
to me,prediction implies,as it has always done from the bible onwards,powerlessness,limitation and subservience,and simple ignorance as well as pointless credulity, which to me, works against many of the potentials of the tarot as a creative,imaginative,artistic tool to facilitate really positive human interactions.
i have met too many wannabe mlle lenormands with their crass,egoistic pretensions to be enthusiatic about canonising her.
July 10, 2013 at 1:09 pm
terry
lars
Given these issues may be of interest to other than us, the many tarotisti that reads this blog, I will allow myself to use some more space and give a couple of comments:
First, I think it should not be neccessary with ridiculing a la: “dawkins has his “enemies of reason” and you may have “reductionists or materialists” for me,in tarot terms you are both popes with your own devils!!”
Concerning the subject of prediction in tarot (and other forms of reading/divination, I would guess), you say: “what i have noticed is that the whole predictive game is really not helpful for peoples lives.
in fact,my view is that it is exactly the opposite.”
I think, in fact, in most cases you are quite right in this matter, very often predictions are just an ugly way of “linking people to the Devils throne”, with a refernce to the Rider-Waite decks’ Devil-card. And since most of predictions, to my quite elaborate experience, are NOT real, that is they are not reliable. Predictions should therefore, I think, for the most part be avoided. Tarotists and other divinators are often overestimating their own abilities. I have tested out about 50 professional readers on giving predictions, and the results (in that respect) were dissapointing. Concerning the here-and-now situation, they were often good, even really impressive at times. Concerning the future, one could often as well have asked, say, the postman (no offence!). If I eg. asked about how my australian friends were doing, the readers were often spot on. But when I asked how my friends would be doing a year from now, their predictions turned out to be unspesific and really not much better than anybodys guess. –
So my conclusion is: Most professional tarotreaders are NOT able to give predictions about the future in a trustworthy way. (This of course doesn’t at all dissmiss the possibility of precognition as such; it just means that most people believeing thay have such an ability, in fact do not. Or they are able just in glimces, but not in a consistent, reliable way.)
But given that a person in fact HAVE such a gift, and is really able to predict the future – should he/she do such a thing? What good would come of it? You say: “how does the idea of predicting the future actually help people in their lives? i`ve never had a coherent answer to that.”
I think you are mostly right concerning this. But one COULD perhaps look at it this way: If i am sitting at a train, and a person (the tarotist/diviner metaphorically speaking) suddenly informs me that the train I am sitting on is going to Siberia (whereas until then had thought it was going to sunny Greece). Then I will suddenly – and for the first time in my life – be able to make an informed and free decicion whether I want to go to Siberia or not. And if I don’t want to, I now have a totally new motivation to leave the train. In this case the prediction: “you are going to end up in Siberia!” will strangely enough give me a new freedon to avoid ending up in Siberia, a freedom I otherwise would not have had.
Of course all this raises many philosophical questions concerning our free will, time etc. that are not at all easily solved, but this would be my tentative answer.
Based on the historical reports I believe that Mlle Lenormand was one of the few people that in a for a great part (nobody’s near to perfect, errare humanum est!) reliable way was able to “see” future scenes in peoples lives. E.g. the statement made by Napoleon given earlier is one such report. But – wheter or not she ought to have done so, and – wheter or not she thereby liberated people or enslaved them, I cannot say for sure. Probably it was both. But still I find her a highly interesting person, and the subject of precoginition highly facinating.
July 11, 2013 at 12:17 pm
lars
terry
for my part,i would say that the reason that the tarotist in your siberia/greece story knows where the train is really going is because (s)he is smart enough to be paying attention to what is happening in the here and now and has looked out of the window and read the signs !!
`Siberia and `Greece` are just possibilities in the present,
maybe just as all the future is.
this matter of precognition,which will probably never be proved one way or the other,will have to remain a matter of temperament,taste or bias.
one suspicion that i cannot shake off is that
to wish to know the future could very well be to show ones fear of the present
July 12, 2013 at 8:59 pm
terry
“one suspicion that i cannot shake off is that to wish to know the future could very well be to show ones fear of the present” This may very often be true, and could be one more reason why predictions ought not to be given, or at least not be given lightly.
But it says of course nothing about the principal possibility of prediction. In the quite classic book on psychic research, “Psychic discoveries behind the Iron Curtain” by Ostrander & Schroder, there is a couple of interesting interviews with the famous bulgarian psychiatrist Giorgi Lozanov, who passed away last year. He had an advanced parapsychological laboratory in Sofia, where he did research on 49 different psychics, with the help of a highly skilled staff of physicists, doctors, psychologists etc. He researched precogition over a period of more than 20 years, and was probably the greates expert on prediction in all eastern Europe during the cold war aera. His most famous subject was the bulgarian national “psychic icon” Baba Vanga. And Lozanov, who followed Vanga for many years, states that according to his estimations, her predictions would come true in near to 80 % of the time. She did not use tarot-cards or any other external means to organize her divinatory work, as she as a grown up was physically blind. She claimed to see inner pictures and films of what would happen, and also that information were provided for her by some kind of spiritual beings.
There are lots of myths about Baba Vanga on the internet, peple claiming to know what she has said about the future about the world etc. These are often dripping full of bogus, and are clearly not to be believed at face value (she usually did not predict that kind events, but focused on personal stuff). But Lozanov had, as said, done scientific research on her, that was performed on behalf of the bulgarian state. So I concider his reports to be quite reliable. They support the hypothesis that real prediction – which is percption, “seeing”, across time, and not just clever, clue-guided guessing – is possible. I also had the luck to meet him in person once, and he then confirmed to me the main points that Ostrander & Schroder refers in their book I mentioned above.
Based on both Lozanovs and some other professional scientists substantial work, and also based on my own private little research, I have reached the conlusion that a few people in fact have this ability. In principle, I would guess one could say that we all have it, or the potential for it. But for any practical purpose, there will be just a few persons that can be said to posess such a skill. And as said above, based on the historical reports I think Mlle. Lenormand, the colourful “sibylle des salons”, most likely was one of those persons. Wehter or not she made proper use of her abilities is, as already discussed, another matter.
——
So – now I think I have presented my views to the best of my ability. I hope also other readers have had some benifit from our discussion – thanks for the excange.
July 14, 2013 at 4:51 am
lars
terry.
ditto.
all the best.
July 14, 2013 at 9:26 pm
mkg
Terry & Lars –
I’ve really appreciated your discussion and that you’ve kept it so friendly while still presenting deeply felt but opposing sides of the issue of prediction.
I, too, have tested out mundane (event-oriented) predictions with Tarot, both with myself and in classes. I found they are rarely better than 50-50. However, I’ve seen plenty of instances that stand out from the norm. The more situations are based on the character of the person or persons involved, the more likely they are to be accurate, at least for the short run and occasionally in the long term. The more they are based on factors completely unconnected with the person, the closer they are to 50-50.
With Tarot I’ve concentrated my practice on what I find most meaningful to me and helpful to my clients: interactive readings that focus on a person’s accessing their own inner wisdom, clarifying their own goals and considering options suggested by the cards in light of these.
However, I’ve been exploring the Petit Lenormand deck for the past several years and have been amazed at the kinds of information it has been providing: finding lost objects, predicting the results of TV reality contests and mundane events, a short while into the future. It’s not perfect, of course, but more precise and accurate than I’ve experienced with Tarot. One of the factors is having a limited, consistent, precision language for communicating the information.
I have met people who are more mentalists than fortune-tellers, and I’ve been astounded by many things (including predictions) that I can’t explain and don’t need to. Without question Marie-Anne Lenormand was immensely gifted. Whether she “read” the cards are not (as we would conceive it today) is beside the point.
I discovered long ago that I can choose the worlds I live in. By choosing to live in a magical universe, I’ve been blessed with extraordinary occurrences that are profound, awe-inspiring and deeply meaningful. By living in a world that demands evidence and facts, I’ve taken part in clarifying and uncovering pieces of the real history of Tarot and cartomancy. It’s exciting and wonderful to have access to both worlds.
Mary
July 16, 2013 at 7:54 am
lars
mary,
don`t forget paul the octopus.
he correctly predicted the results of 11 out of 13 matches in the 2010 football world cup!!
re.tarot history.
its not so much that there is “a world that demands facts” as you put it,but rather that the facts of history,when they became widely known and disseminated, “demanded” that the purveyors and believers of invented histories had to acknowledge them,and admit how much fantasy had been involved.
as these occultists and purveyors of invented histories were largely the same folks as had presented “precognition” as a given,
then the idea that precognition was a fantasy in the same way that their “knowledge”of the past had been comes into play…..
i lived in a few different worlds myself,..
I`m no Richard dawkins!(and I have never read “a wicked pack of cards”or any book by those kind of guys.)
I`m operating from my own place.
when I come to meeting people who try to sell predictions,…
not to put too fine a point on it….
I wouldn`t touch them with a bargepole!!
July 16, 2013 at 1:26 pm
mkg
Lars –
Facts can’t demand anything. And even a fact can appear to be one thing and turn out to be something else entirely. It is a well-documented fact that *people* invent histories, including many of the occult histories, and such inventions become part of the history of ideas. Decisions are made based on these inventions. A few prove truer than we might have one time believed, some get marked as frauds. History and science are always being rewritten because they are, in themselves, the constantly changing inventions of humans. There is a huge amount of scientific research that supports precognition, although not in the way that we think of it when we generally refer to fortune-telling.
We can all think any way we want, but when a subject hasn’t really been researched, experienced and/or tested then an opinion is just an opinion, and we all have them.
July 19, 2013 at 10:10 am
lars
mary,
you say that “there is a huge amount of scientific research that supports precognition”.
there is also a huge amount of scientific research,for example, both for and against global warming,
I don’t really see what you are trying to say here.
you seem to mix word levels/meanings here,too.
sure history and science are “invented” by humans,but that’s a different use of the word i”nvented” than if you say I am inventing a story when I say
“I just flew to mars and brought a couple of aliens home for tea with me”
September 4, 2014 at 10:07 pm
Mademoiselle Lenormand, la adivina favorita de la aristocracia francesa | El sueño significado
[…] Mlle. Lenormand, the most famous card reader of all time […]
January 21, 2015 at 7:13 pm
Terry
I have recently found one more historical reading with Mlle. Lenormand.This time it is for the French countess Marie d’Agoult (1805-1876).
The Wikipedia-article about Marie is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_d%27Agoult
In her “Mémoirs” she relates information from a reading that took place in Paris the 23 of June 1834. The amount of information she relates is not large, but given the historical impact of both herself and her lover – the famous composer and pianist Franz Liszt – it is still of interest. Marie writes that Mlle. Lenormand told her the following:
“In two or three years there will be a total change in your life. What now seems impossible will happen. Your way of living will be altered completely. Even your name will be different, and your new one will be known throughout not only France but Europe. You will leave your country for a long time. Italy will be your country of adoption, and you will be loved and honored there. You will love a man that will create a sensation in the world and whose name will be very famous. You will be hated by two women that will try to harm you by every means. But have no fear; you will overcome all obstacles. You will live to be old, you will be surrounded by true friends, and you will have a good influence on many people.”
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At the time of the prediction she had,in fact, already met Liszt. But Marie was still married to the count Charles Louis Constant d’Agoult. Divorces were, of course, not so frequent then as now. And leaving the safety of a count-husband for a 24 year old pianist from the middle-class was even more seldom … But Marie did, and the next 10 year she and Liszt had an affair that produced 3 children. One daughter, Cosima, was later to marry famous composer Richard Wagner.
After the break-up between Marie and Liszt in 1844, she went on pursuing a quite successful career as a writer under the pen-name Daniel Stern. She wrote both historical works, as well as novels, most famous being “Nelida”, which made quite a buzz because of her thinly disguised disclosing of events from her relationship with Liszt.
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Some sources suggest that Marie actively tried to model her life after Mlle. Lenormands words, and that she thereby to some extent made the prediction self-fulfilling. But still: Marie was of course not able to make Liszt into the musical giant became. And as for her own career (under the name Daniel Stern) – well, there have been many who wanted to become writers without being successful ….
So: Not at all a bad reading from our sometimes a little tricky but always fascinating Sibylle!
Terry
January 21, 2015 at 9:32 pm
mkg
Terry – thank you so much for this. I don’t suppose there was any mention of Mlle. Lenormand herself or adescription of the location or method used?
January 22, 2015 at 11:23 pm
Terry
Mary
I found the quote above and the reference on the pages 124-5 in a biography about Marie d’Agoult, called “Marie d’Agoult – The Rebel Countess” by Richard Bolster.: http://www.amazon.com/Marie-d%60Agoult-The-Rebel-Countess-ebook/dp/B001BTPC2A/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top I see it is also available via Kindle.
The reading is also referred to in the book “Franz Liszt and Agnes Street-Klindworth: A Correspondence” by Pauline Pocknell, page Lxv, note 115. On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Franz-Liszt-Agnes-Street-Klindworth-Correspondence/dp/1576470067/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1421997092&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Franz+Liszt+and+Agnes
Google has luckily a free link available directly to the interesting note 115 here: http://goo.gl/NehtVb There it is in brief mentioned the use of ‘cabalistic cards’, and also a reference to another work where Marie’s account can be found.
But of course the best would be to consult Marie’s account in her book “Memoires”: http://www.amazon.com/M%C3%A9moires-1833-1854-French-dAgoult-1805-1876-ebook/dp/B00M4NNBGQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1421997187&sr=1-1&keywords=M%C3%A9moires+d%27agoult I see this book is also available via Kindle, but only in French.
Best
Terry
January 22, 2015 at 11:31 pm
Terry
PS: But in “Marie d’Agoult – The Rebel Countess”, which I quoted from, I haven’t found any more details from the reading.
January 23, 2015 at 12:09 am
Terry
PPS: Now I think I have found the most complete of Marie’s own accounts of the reading with Mlle. Lenormand, but it is not in “Memoires” but in another of her work, namely “Mes Souvenirs”, The free French pdf-file is here: http://www.ebooks-bnr.com/wp-content/uploads/agoult_mes_memoires_volume_1.pdf The account is found in the Appendix E, pages 278-279
And yes, I see there, except for the reading, also are some quite short but interesting descriptions concerning the whereabouts and persona of Mlle. Lenormand, but my French is not so good that I dare to translate into English and publish here.
Terry
September 26, 2015 at 3:18 am
Jessica Adams (@jessicacadams)
Coco Chanel also used Lenormand. See the Chanel biography by Justine Picardie. Thank you, Mary.
November 14, 2015 at 1:04 pm
mkg
Jessica,
There’s a photograph somewhere online that shows Coco Chanel’s Lenormand deck laid out on her desk in her home. Thanks for reminding me of this. Found it: https://adecorativeaffair.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/img_1995.jpg
December 22, 2015 at 5:24 am
Coco Chanel's Oracle Cards | Jessica Adams
[…] website for a sample reading, you need to think like a Frenchwoman! The deck was created by Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand (1772–1843) who was the most famous French professional fortune-teller of her era. She claimed to […]
February 22, 2016 at 10:25 am
Lenormand - opisy kart. - Wrota Tarota
[…] niewiele o jej technikach wróżbiarskich, niemniej jednak zachęcam do odwiedzenia strony “Mary K. Greer’s Tarot Blog“ gdzie są ujawnione niektóre zapiski osób korzystających z jej usług, które dają […]
August 9, 2016 at 4:17 pm
Lenormand – That Damn Broad
[…] few years, and fell in love with Reiki, learned some Holistic Counseling, and now I am studying the Lenormand method of […]
December 30, 2016 at 6:44 pm
Heather Druktenis
Superb work. Thanks 🙏🏻
October 17, 2018 at 5:00 am
The Lenormand Oracle: History and practice | Spiral Nature Magazine
[…] At the age of 14, she left Normandy for Paris, and as her reputation as a fortune teller and card reader grew, she offered advice to the Empress Josephine, Robespierre, and Tsar Alexander I. She was accurate enough in her fortune-telling that she was suspected of being a traitor or spy within the court and incarcerated more than once. She was also a prolific writer of esoteric subjects and published approximately 12 texts. Details of her life have been well gathered and researched by tarot expert Mary K. Greer.1 […]
October 1, 2019 at 4:35 am
Introducing a Different Type of Oracle Cards – Witches Of The Craft®
[…] At the age of 14, she left Normandy for Paris, and as her reputation as a fortune teller and card reader grew, she offered advice to the Empress Josephine, Robespierre, and Tsar Alexander I. She was accurate enough in her fortune-telling that she was suspected of being a traitor or spy within the court and incarcerated more than once. She was also a prolific writer of esoteric subjects and published approximately 12 texts. Details of her life have been well gathered and researched by tarot expert Mary K. Greer.1 […]
October 13, 2019 at 6:20 am
Mademoiselle Lenormand – isis gayo
[…] Anne Lenormand también fue un personaje denostado, la bruma que persigue a la magia tildada de superstición es alargada, a menudo alimentada por la […]
March 12, 2020 at 4:13 pm
Cartomancy – What Magic Is This?
[…] More info and some accounts of the Queen of Cartomancy Marie Anne Lenormand […]
June 7, 2021 at 2:31 pm
Lenormand and Gender – M. M. Kelly
[…] https://marykgreer.com/2008/02/12/madame-le-normand-the-most-famous-card-reader-of-all-time/ […]
April 22, 2022 at 8:01 pm
Lenormand Cards - A Little Mystical
[…] and teacher, took a deep dive into the history of Lenormand and wrote about her discoveries on her blog. This is how she explains their […]
May 28, 2022 at 4:45 pm
Living and Loving Learning Lenormand | This Is Who I AM
[…] https://marykgreer.com/2008/02/12/madame-le-normand-the-most-famous-card-reader-of-all-time/ […]
September 27, 2023 at 11:24 am
Learn With Me: Lenormand Tarot, introduction part 2 – Sage Words Tarot
[…] “Mlle. Lenormand, the most famous card reader of all time” copyright 2008 accessed via https://marykgreer.com/2008/02/12/madame-le-normand-the-most-famous-card-reader-of-all-time/ on September 27, […]
December 4, 2023 at 5:42 am
Chi Ofoegbu
Some folks aren’t totally convinced about her readings. They say maybe it was more about her charm and flair than any actual psychic powers. So, the controversy kind of swirls around whether she was a legit seer or just a savvy showwoman cashing in on the whole fortune-telling craze of her era. It’s like a debate between the skeptics and the believers, you know?
– 12zodiacsigns
December 5, 2023 at 4:50 pm
Mary K. Greer
Chi Ofoegbu, This kind of speculation is meaningless. Skeptics and believers have more to do with the thoughts of these people and nothing at all to do with Mlle. Lenormand! There’s no way we will know the truth, although I imagine (note: this is my fantasy), based on the many first-hand accounts of readings with her, that she was both a psychic and a savvy showperson. Most psychics aren’t “on” all the time so develop a bit of showmanship and can be good at reading a person, plus situations change (unless you are a believer in absolute predestination).