I have spent the past two years obsessed with the Petit Lenormand cards, a deck of 36 fortune-telling cards created in Germany in 1846, based on an earlier multi-purpose game called the “Die Spiel der Hoffnung” created by Johann Kaspar Hechtel in Nuremburg in 1799. The Petit Lenormand appropriated the name of the Parisian Mlle Lenormand, the most famous fortune-teller of her age, who died in 1843, shortly before the newly incarnated deck appeared. I’ll write more about these cards later.
I am announcing here for the first time that I have found an earlier set of 32 fortune-telling cards that are the undoubtable forerunner of both the “Spiel der Hoffnüng” game and the Lenormand cards. My source is a 1796 book in English in the British Museum entitled: “Les Amusements des Allemands, or The Diversions of the Court of Vienna, in which the Mystery of Fortune-Telling from the Grounds of the Coffee-Cup is unravelled, and Three pleasant Games, viz.: 1. Fortune-telling from the Grounds of the Coffee-Cup. 2. Fortune-telling by laying out the cards. 3. The new Imperial Game of numbers are invented.
The work is based on an Austro-German set of cards from 1794. An introduction to the book states:
“These entertaining games first made their appearance at Vienna, in 1794, where they still are the favorite amusement of the Empress of Germany, and the Imperial Court. They have since been diffused through all the fashionable circles in that country. The Editor, therefore, has to hope that, in a country where the liberality and curious discernment of its inhabitants is so conspicuous as that of Britain, they will not be held in less estimation.”
While there are only 32 cards, most of them are exact forerunners to Lenormand cards. The few variations, like Lion, have close replacements as their Coffee-ground meanings indicate. For instance, “Lion, or a ferocious beast” has the same meaning as the Lenormand Bear.
It’s been thought for several years that the Lenormand images were derived from Coffee-ground fortune-telling or Tasseomancy. This work is the missing link that proves this theory. It has been curious that several of the Lenormand images were not found in the old lists of coffee-ground emblems, but now we know that several cards were added to the original set. The reason for the expansion of the deck to 36 cards probably came about when Hechtel decided to combine “Les Amusements des Allemands” with the German 36-piece playing card deck, which was then more popular than either the 32-card Piquet deck or the 52-card deck.
The Empress, for whom these were a ‘favorite amusement’, was probably Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily (1772–1807), the last Holy Roman Empress, first Empress of Austria and mother of nine. She was described as:
so jealous that she does not allow him [the Emperor] to take part in social life or meet other women. Vicious tongues accuse her of being so passionate that she exhausts her consort and never leaves him alone even for a moment. Although the people of Vienna cannot deny that she is gifted, charitable and carries herself beautifully, she is disliked for her intolerance and for forcing the Emperor to live isolated from everyone. She is also accused of interesting herself in unimportant matters and socializing exclusively with her lady-companions. With them she spends her evenings singing, acting out comedies and being applauded.
Could the “unimportant matters” mentioned above include her use of fortune-telling cards?
Here is the full British Museum description of the book:
A sequence of 32 playing-cards bound (at the British Museum) as a small book, having on them emblematic designs of various character, and below moral apophthegms to which the designs have reference. Each piece has a number at the upper left-hand corner answering to certain explanatory and descriptive tables given in a book of directions which accompanies the cards. The title page of this book of 31 pages bears the following lettered inscription: “Les Amusements des Allemands, or The Diversions of the Court of Vienna, in which the Mystery of Fortune-Telling from the Grounds of the Coffee-Cup is unravelled, and Three pleasant Games, viz.: 1. Fortune-telling from the Grounds of the Coffee-Cup. 2. Fortune-telling by laying out the cards. 3. The new Imperial Game of numbers are invented”, and “London: Printed for Champante and Whitrow, Jewry-Street, Aldgate, and may be had at every Booksellers and Toy Shop in the Kingdom, 1796.” Engraving and letterpress Backs plain (according to Willshire) 1796.
Bent Sorensen has offered this list of the 32 Emblematic Fortune-Telling Cards, ordered according to the numbers found on the cards:
1. Crossroads/Fingerpost
2. Ring
3. Clover
4. Anchor
5. Snake
6. Letter
7. Coffin
8. Star
9. Dog
10. Lily
11. Cross
12. Clouds
13. Sun
14. Moon
15. Mountain
16. Tree 1 – Labor, Pains, Long Effort
17. Child
18. Woman
19. Man
20. Rider
21. Mouse
22. Birchrod/Whip
23. Flower (Bouquet)
24. Heart
25. Garden
26. Bird/Turtledove
27. Fish
28. Lion (“any ferocious beast” for which Bear was later substituted)
29. Tree 2 – Green Bush (the Industrious, not in Lenormand—closest is Key?)
30. Worms or Vipers (“Bugs,” not in Lenormand—closest is Fox?)
31. House
32. Scythe
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 
36 comments
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July 12, 2013 at 6:56 pm
A New Lenormand Deck Discovery | Fennario's Weblog
[…] A New Lenormand Deck Discovery. […]
July 12, 2013 at 8:41 pm
read84
So very interesting! Thanks so much
Read Greyer
July 12, 2013 at 8:55 pm
mkg
read84 – Can you be more specific – Greyer who or what?
July 12, 2013 at 9:11 pm
read84
Good heavens–that’s my name. Sorry for the confusion.
July 13, 2013 at 7:17 am
Shelley, Sparrow Tarot
Very exciting discovery! You’re like an archeologist for divination methods. Thanks for sharing your findings with us.
In your opinion does studying and learning Lenormand compliment tarot or distract from it? I’m curious, as it’s trending so much lately from all over the place, but also concerned that it would create too much confusion and crossed wires with my simultaneous tarot studies.
July 13, 2013 at 7:58 am
Rachel Pollack
Thank you for this, Mary. Very valuable. And I wish that early deck was available!
July 13, 2013 at 9:01 am
Robert Place
If we had permission from the museum and there are pictures of all of the cards in the book, we could reproduce the deck.
July 13, 2013 at 10:46 am
mkg
Rachel & Robert –
Pictures of all the cards are on the BM website (there’s a link in the text – look for the references in blue-gray). They can be reproduced by paying the British Museum for the right to use their photographs.
July 13, 2013 at 10:57 am
mkg
Shelley –
Lenormand and modern Tarot utilize totally different modes of reading. It might be better to concentrate on one or the other during the most intense period of learning. But it really depends on what you can handle.
Lenormand consists of both the cards and the Lenormand method. You can use the Lenormand cards in any way you want, but to get the results that everyone is so ga-ga about, you really need to use the traditional methods. That means memorized meanings and not reading the cards symbolically. Pre-Rider-Waite methods of reading the Tarot are more akin to Lenormand tradition than one might think, especially with the suits, so some people find that the Lenormand methods are beginning to affect their Tarot readings – making them more succinct and pointed. I like having the option to use whatever works for the situation, the querent and the question.
July 13, 2013 at 1:54 pm
Shelley, Sparrow Tarot
Thanks Mary! This was a really helpful response. I’ve been seeing Lenormand coming up over and over lately and always increasingly so, and it’s really starting to take hold. I’ve got a solid professional basis in tarot despite my always continued studies, so your answer helps me to understand where the two fit in together. I’m very interested in seeing how knowing Lenormand might enhance or add value to my tarot practice. Keep us posted on your continued findings!
July 13, 2013 at 2:19 pm
Sue Wilhite
Wow! How wonderful that research turns up the “missing link” – it was there all the time! (Did you use Lenormand cards to guide your search? 😉
July 13, 2013 at 2:29 pm
Muselady11
Wonderful discovery, Mary! I love the way symbols shift through different collectors and reconstructors, but definitely some strange ones, especially the “bugs” card! And I see two trees, or at least I can’t figure out what else they’d be. The text meanings are quite interesting; some of them you can definitely see where they led to the current ones, but others are quite independent.
July 13, 2013 at 5:07 pm
mkg
Sue – No, I didn’t use the cards for help on the research. I had to do it the good, old-fashioned way (via internet is old-fashioned? – yep – long hours of checking every search parameter you can think of!). Of course, people keep putting up new material on the web all the time, so you have to regularly go back over old ground.
July 13, 2013 at 5:08 pm
Le Fanu
What a wonderful find and what a joyful resharing of it for us all! Thank you Mary for this. I got palpitations just reading it…
July 13, 2013 at 6:15 pm
Kendra
Thank you so much for sharing this, Mary. It is quite fascinating.
July 13, 2013 at 7:58 pm
childrenofthesunreadings
This is fantastic! I’m very interested in folk divination with plants or flowers and how it may have influenced other systems.. I am so glad there is proof of a connection between cartomancy and tea-leaf or coffee-ground reading symbols.
July 15, 2013 at 9:09 am
Caitlín Matthews
Do tell us how these came to be discovered, Mary. I was wondering whether another deck would show up, since little oracles were so popular at this time.
July 15, 2013 at 9:44 am
mkg
Caitlín – I followed a link to the British Museum website – checking back on something to do with Cagliostro and fortune telling. While in the archives I spent a little time putting in a couple of search keywords and then this popped up. I imagine that the photographs were probably added within the past year.
July 16, 2013 at 8:02 pm
Madame Nadia
Reblogged this on Under the Cowrie Moon.
July 17, 2013 at 7:39 am
Ariane
Hi Mary, congratulations to your nice blog and this challenging post. For all lenormand enthusiasts: A large collection of old lenormand cards can be found here: http://www.stregato.de/blog/2013/06/uralte-antike-lenormandkarten-sammlung/ Best regards, Ariane 😉
July 17, 2013 at 4:03 pm
mkg
Ariane –
You have a wonderful website, both for the antique cards you show and for your information on reading with different cartomancy decks. Your Streerath deck can be dated to around 1860 (I have an incomplete copy). The final deck on your page is the 2nd edition Madam Morrow deck from the McLoughlin Co., New York (first published in 1886). There was an earlier Madam Morrow edition featuring the Kunst-Comptoir deck (Berlin, circa 1854) that is the original design that was reproduced as the Mertz Lenormand.
I also appreciate your posting the meanings to two suits of the Schafkopfkarten. http://www.stregato.de/blog/category/schafkopfkarten/
I hope you post the other two suits soon. These appear to be closest to the meanings that would link the playing card inset with the pictures. Correspondences between German and French playing cards and the Lenomand emblems are shown in the original game: Die Spiel der Hoffnüng (1799).
July 21, 2013 at 10:52 am
Lenormand — if not symbols, than what? | Postmodern Magic
[…] several very valuable bits of research on her blog for those interested in the Lenormand: this post is particularly interesting, as it provides evidence that the Lenormand did not begin as a game […]
July 31, 2013 at 9:52 pm
Dan Lang
I’m new here. I was interested in visiting hour page to earn Moe about lenmorand and your association with Marcus Katz with his quick trip to London to investigate old material for his upcoming book and his homework assignment for you. I am new to The Lenmorand deck and excited about your work and recent work of Tali and Marcus too. I have purchased all of their collaborated work and as a new student of the Tarot and the Lenormand decks! I come with goodwill and a genuine desire to learn. I LIVE in MINNESOTA with my lovely wife and 3 children. I have been a Freemason since 1995 and my association in masonry has led me down many paths. I’m fascinated by Lenormand and I need to start at the beginning. I am grateful for learning about your research and association with Tali Goodwin and Marcus Katz. I am sincere and new. All my best to you and yours. I have Tali’s book on Lenormand and A German deck, Piatnik deck with 36 cards. I want to dive in. Your experience and knowledge about all aspects of the Lenormand deck and how to experience the cards in the way that will become a part of me. Thank you for sharing this blog with me. Peace and light. Daniel Lang
August 1, 2013 at 10:10 am
mkg
Thanks, Dan. Yes, Tali & Marcus’s recent trip to the British Museum means they now have a copy of the book that came with these cards—which they promise to share. The book states unequivocally that the cards are based on coffee-ground meanings. Huck Meyer of trionfi.com had earlier found a 1763 text listing similar coffee-ground meanings with a mention that coffee and card reading were done together by Dutch and German people. Tali and Marcus also found another (mislabeled) deck that seems to be a link in the development of the Lenormand cards.
August 6, 2013 at 3:34 pm
Claudia van der Sluis
Great work Mary, congrats on your discovery!
November 11, 2013 at 2:06 pm
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[…] the petit Lenormand deck. A detailed account of Mary’s recent discoveries can be found on her blog, or by downloading her excellent online webinar through Global Spiritual Studies. In addition, […]
December 4, 2013 at 8:38 am
Jen M.
Thanks, Mary! This is fascinating! I would love to have a Leonarmand deck! So, so cool!
December 4, 2013 at 9:12 am
New Discovery about the Origin of the Lenormand Cards | The Burning Serpent Oracle
[…] https://marygreer.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/a-new-lenormand-deck-discovery/ […]
February 25, 2014 at 3:29 pm
Tiffany
Thanks for sharing this. So fascinating!
March 26, 2014 at 11:14 am
john
no reversed cards i suppose
March 26, 2014 at 2:06 pm
mkg
There’s no reversals indicated for the Coffee Cards, nor do reversals appear in the standard instruction sheets that come with Lenormand decks. Most Lenormand readers today do not use reversals, although they are mentioned in a few books.
May 1, 2014 at 10:06 am
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