I recently bought a very early 20th century booklet on fortune-telling with German-suited playing cards: Green Leaves, Red Hearts, Bells and Acorns, as found on the Spiel der Hoffnüng cards. A friend is translating the book for me and, at first glance, it seems to provide a key to the Lenormand suits.
In looking for images to illustrate these old suits I came across an astonishing double-headed version of a deck that was popular in Germany, Austria and Hungary. In it the Daus cards (2’s which substituted for Aces) represent the four seasons, but look at how the pictures match the images on the Pages:
Starting on the right: Wintery Acorns (Eicheln) are Clubs and both the Jack and Daus feature birch rod switches.
Summer’s Bells (Schellen) are Diamonds and both cards show wheat being harvested with a scythe.
The red Hearts (Röt Herzen) of Spring (same in both decks) are all about hearts and flowers, the blossoming of love.
The green Leaves (Grün Laub) of Fall are Spades and show two children pressing wine grapes, while the Jack of Spades depicts a child at play. The Lenormand text for this Jack calls it is a card of goodness. Country customs often turn grape stomping into a time of fun and frivolity. Fall is also the season when children return to school.
A 1830 32-card set of German Fortune-Telling Playing Cards (Munich: Franz Josef Holler, made by Comptoir Industry of Leipzig)
I then found a webpage featuring German cards printed with fortune-telling meanings. This deck falls right between the 1799 Spiel der Hoffnüng game (the direct forerunner of the Lenormand cards) that is illustrated with both German and French playing cards, and the 1846 emergence of the German fortune-telling deck named after Mlle. Lenormand.
While the individual card meanings don’t seem to match the Lenormand cards, the suits do, and they show a fortune telling tradition that is quite different than the English and French systems most of us are familiar with. I’d be very grateful to anyone willing to translate some of the verses above into English. Please post translations in the comments.
While it’s hard to tell what beast is shown on the 10 of Acorns (Eicheln), we also find a beast (Bear) on the equivalent 10 of Clubs. Both of them have envy as a keyword. The original Lenormand instructions read: “Bear means happiness, but it also indicates it is necessary to avoid discussions with an envious person.”
You can sign up anytime to access my Lenormand course or to order the DVDs at Global Spiritual Studies.
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
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October 4, 2013 at 8:01 pm
Clairsentient1
Reblogged this on Beacon of Aquarius.
October 5, 2013 at 5:05 am
Caitlín Matthews
I have asked my sick German friend to translate these as she needs the money.
October 5, 2013 at 6:37 pm
N. Furman
First card-Mut-courage the Enemy constantly seeks you , to prevent your Luck. Many people seek to make you lucky/happy.
It is really hard to see the writing well as it is so small. Any way around that?
October 5, 2013 at 10:26 pm
mkg
To see the images better click on them, download to your computer and enlarge. The writing is not always clear and the spelling seems to be old-fashioned. Thanks for attempting this.
October 6, 2013 at 7:03 am
kerstin
The 10 of acorns says “a widow/widower will make you happy” and “a gift will arrive soon”. It’s odd messaging since the cards title is “Envy”.
I can translate the other cards too as soon as I’m back on my computer. On the phone the images are rather low res/blurry. Stay tuned for more later.
One more thing: I was born and raised in Germany and never new as a teen what wisdom existed in the history of playing cards in Germany and surrounding countries. My first encounter with cards was in Hungary with a Gypsy lady. So I always made the association cards = gypsy. Later on when I myself got into cards I had long left Germany but am now delighted to find so many “treasures” from this area. Very amazing!
October 6, 2013 at 8:49 am
N. Furman
Looks like Kerstin is on the job- but I will give it a whack too. She has the native German better than I, but I did learn Fraktur ( the odd printing) and studied Middle German slightly, if you mash the two of us you should get good results 🙂 I’ll try the computer trick but I am really an idiot at these things. What I tried didn’t work, may rope in a daughter for tech help-lol
October 6, 2013 at 9:20 am
N. Furman
Arglist- guile, cunning-
You always hope for Money, and who knows, if it were good if you had it.
From suffering comes joy.
October 6, 2013 at 9:24 am
N. Furman
Might-
One of your friends will soon marry. The marriage ???? ( can’t read) has?
replaced/displaced everything? Kirsten, can you figure this out?
October 6, 2013 at 9:25 am
N. Furman
Unglueck- Bad luck
In time you will receive what you seek. You trust yourself far to much ?
October 6, 2013 at 9:26 am
N. Furman
too- sorry 🙂
October 6, 2013 at 12:49 pm
N. Furman
Trennung- separation-
You are often morose (sour), but it does you no good. Be of good cheer (hope) , you will be helped.
October 6, 2013 at 12:54 pm
N. Furman
Falschheit-falsehood.
You will receive an annoyance (be frustrated), through no fault of yours. A friend is very frank with you.
October 6, 2013 at 12:55 pm
N. Furman
The titles of these cards and the meanings seem to have no connection?
October 6, 2013 at 3:08 pm
mkg
Thank you so much for these translations. You are right that the titles and message seem to be unrelated. How odd. I wonder if they come from two different sources?
Odete Lopes Mazza told me about another deck in the British Museum from 1793! – available here (you can order a higher resolution jpg for research purposes): http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?assetId=1316795&objectId=3136718&partId=1
I’m waiting for the larger image to arrive before I try to compare keywords.
October 6, 2013 at 5:02 pm
N. Furman
I’ll keep chipping at them. The slowdown is that I have to flip between 2 screens constantly, to read then type. So, bit by bit we eat the head of the rat. 🙂
October 6, 2013 at 5:22 pm
kerstin
Ok, here are my layman’s translations for leaves, starting at the top row clockwise:
Leaves:
Card: (Good) chances/(positive) prospects
Be on guard/careful to not rushing into marriage.
Call to service/you’ll be summoned to duty very soon.
Card: knowledge
Someone, somewhere, talked good about you.
Nothing is ever good enough for you.
Card: wisdom
Offer your secret to only one person.
Someone will make a fool of you/someone will play a practical joke on you.
Card: hope
You’re happier when dealing with married people than with singles.
You are ten years older than you say you are.
Card: old age
Sad/bad news will come your way.
Beware of a false friend.
Card: seocret
Someone is longing for you.
Your foolishness is causing you misery.
Card: recovery
Don’t believe everything you hear/you’re told.
Your wishes will come true in due time.
October 6, 2013 at 5:41 pm
kerstin
Here is Hearts. Again, starting top row counter clock wise:
Card: Groom
Changes are coming your way.
Someone is watching your every step.
Card: reunion
Your hopes will become reality.
Your suffering will end soon and things will turn around for the better.
Card: honor/respect
Money is on its way.
Someone is counting on you with much hope.
Card: pleasure/delight
You have a lucky hand in business.
An honest man is irritated with/by you.
Card: happiness
Be careful of someone who’s constantly flattering you.
Many are causing you pain and suffering.
Card: good news
Be persistent, there will be a lucky break.
Only patience will view your dissatisfaction.
Card: loyalty/fidelity
You care little for someone who does not mean well for you.
You have no regrets for your true love.
Card: reconciliation
Someone’s jealousy is causing him to be deceitful (against you).
You’re not thinking about someone as often as this person would like you to.
….the meanings seem all very disconnected from the card title indeed. I’ll post the other two suits in a bit. But I’m now really curious about the history of the cards!!!
October 6, 2013 at 6:11 pm
mkg
Kerstin –
Wonderful! Some of these are really strange and even ominous. Others are funny. I can’t tell you how much it means to get these translations from you and N. Furman
January 23, 2014 at 11:10 am
Michelle
Hi Mary,
Do you know why the 1796 deck at the British Museum lacks playing card inserts? The instructions mentions an Imperial Game of Numbers, but I found the instructions difficult to follow for a card game.
Thanks-
Michelle
January 23, 2014 at 2:50 pm
N. Furman
Sorry I disappeared on the translation end- holidays, family , etc. If you still want some work done on that I can pick it up, but you may have it covered by now ?:)
May 29, 2014 at 7:45 am
petedoswell
playing cards are always a fascinating way of working 🙂 keep up the good posts
June 11, 2014 at 4:27 am
alexh
In Tirol (Alps of Austria/Italy) – we play with these cards. I like them more than the doubled ones (above shown). Klick on “Watten:Spielkarten”, then the cards are beeing displayed. http://www.watten.org/hilfe . I like the Unicorn in the Ace of “Laub”
July 5, 2014 at 11:46 am
Tessa
These are beautiful!
July 5, 2014 at 1:28 pm
alexh
Tessa – Yes, they are :-)) They are the so called “Salzburger Blatt” (Piatnik)
@ Mary: Quote: “I recently bought a very early 20th century booklet on fortune-telling with German-suited playing cards”
Is this booklet from Augustus Tora (1914)? I would be really interested in that one too. 😉
August 8, 2014 at 8:04 pm
Angie
I have a set of piatnik hungarian playing cards with the acorns;bells;hearts;leaves. It is 32 cards, 7-10, then lower Jack; upper jack; king and ace. I would really appreciate it if someone could please help me out with the meaning. I have searched everywhere and found hungariansoup site offer some meanings, but I think there is more to it. Can anyone help me, please?
October 10, 2014 at 6:46 am
graytarot
Fascinating…
I do believe that different decks are better suited to different states of mind, but in the end, the cards are only hints at a larger reality.
I might try these some day.