Learn With Me: Lenormand Tarot, introduction part 2

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Let’s meet one of the most famous card readers in history, Marie Lenormand through one of the most respected living Tarot readers, Mary K Greer.

This is only a quick thumbnail sketch about Marie Lenormand and the oracle / Tarot decks named for her. This is based on Mary Greer’s excellent article, the guidebook to the Healing Light Lenormand deck by Christopher Butler and our friend, Wikipedia. By all means, if you would like to learn more please visit and read the source material.

Last week, in part one of this introduction, we talked about being self-taught or self-initiated in Tarot. In a sense, it is unavoidable. Even if you take every class, read every book, only you can interact with Tarot. It is going to be your own unique experience and it is going to be wonderful and it is going to be just as valid as your teacher’s experience. Or mine. Or Marie Lenormand’s.

As best as I can tell from these few sources, Marie Lenormand as as self-taught as any of us. She is said to have received her first cards as a gift from “gypsies” (Butler) who taught her to read the cards. True or not, self-taught or not, Marie Lenormand seems to be a self-made person. Born in 1772 in France, orphaned at a young age and raised in a convent, Marie went on to be author, poet, and fortune teller to the stars and celebrities of the time including Robespierre and Empress Josephine.

As remarkable as Marie Lenormand was as a Tarot reader, it is even more remarkable that Lenormand Tarot we know today has little to do with her except her name.

A larger deck, “La Grand Tableau” was first published shortly after her death in 1843 and the more widely known 36 card “Petit Tableau” came significantly after that. (Wikipedia)

It seems that the Lenormand card decks were more interested in connecting with her fame as much or more than any techniques or particular cards. The Lenormand deck we’ll use in this series is the petite tableau which is based on a popular mid nineteeth century game “the game of hope” by Johann Hechtel (Butler)

While there may be little information about Marie Lenormand’s actual cards and methods, there is information about the how the cards with her name have been used over the past 150 or so years.

The entire deck is laid out in a grid….

And I stopped reading right there.

We just finished with a complex oracle.

Live is messy and complicated enough. I work best with people who want clarity and understanding. That, in my experience, is what oracles are for: clarity, comfort, creative problem solving. Oracles are for cutting through the fog, no a lot of smoke and mirrors. If there are people who can find comfort and clarity with that whole deck approach – have at it.

I’m going to approach the Lenormand deck with the same roll up your sleeves, tuck in and let’s learn this approach that we used with the 22 Oracle Dice and the 130 card plus Alleyman’s Tarot which is the same approach I used to learn Tarot in the first place 30 years ago.

It. Just. Works.

Or at least it works for me. I hope it is helpful to you, too.

Next week, we’ll start exploring one randomly drawn card at a time, connect them by pure intuition to the energy of the day, then coordinate that with the guidebook writer’s interpretation of the card. After a while, we’ll connect the cards using the Energy path and TaoCraft layouts that I wrote. Don’t worry I’m not going to hit you with the potential confusion and contradictions of large layouts. Seven cards is the largest number of cards I use in any reading ever with any deck.

Next week: Let’s do this thing – drawing a Lenormand card.

Tomorrow: weekly newsletter

Friday: revisit the growing energy card for this week, The Hierophant reversed

Thanks for reading! See you at the next sip!

Sources:

Butler, Christopher. Healing Light Lenormand © 2021 Lo Scarabeo srl, via Cigna 110, 10155 Torino, Italy. All rights reserved, used by permission.

Greer, Mary K “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, 2023

Greer, Mary K “In the Sybil’s Boudoir” copyright 2015

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Anne_Lenormand#Early_life