The Tree (Lenormand): meaning, combinations and spreads

Introducing the card

The Tree is the fifth card of the Petit Lenormand. The drawings vary more than for other cards: a large lone tree, an oak, a grove, or several trees. The name varies too ("the Trees" in a few editions). What remains is the idea of a rooted being that grows slowly.

In Hechtel's Jeu de l'espoir (around 1799), from which the Lenormand derives, the Tree belongs to those images of the plant world or of everyday life that served the game as much as conversation. Its divinatory meaning was built later, through use.

Traditional meaning: duration, roots, vitality

English-language glossaries associate the Tree with: health in the broad sense, longevity, roots. Other authors read spirituality or the big picture in it. French-speaking readers often add the family tree and family ties.

• Duration: a slow process, one that takes years rather than weeks.
• Roots: origins, family, what grounds us.
• Vitality: general energy, endurance.
• Patience: what cannot be forced.

A word on "health": in tradition, the card speaks of vitality in a general sense, never of a diagnosis. No reading replaces a doctor's opinion, and the card says nothing about a real state of health.

When the Tree stands for a person

Sometimes it is read as a person of a certain age, steady or well-rooted, or as an ancestor. Most often, however, the card describes a process rather than an individual: something that takes time. If the card lies near the Child, one reads growth; near the Coffin, the end of a long cycle.

Authors differ on the importance of the Tree for timing: some make it the card of the long term (more than a year), others refuse to give a duration. It is honest to say "long" without putting a figure on it.

In everyday life, work and relationships

• Daily life: lifestyle habits, rhythm, health habits in the general sense.
• Work: a long-term project, a career built slowly.
• Relationships: an old bond, a solid friendship, the extended family.
• Inner life: re-centring yourself, accepting that some things take time.

The card does not say that everything will be fine. It invites you to think in the long term.

Common combinations

The Tree and the Garden resemble each other through the plant world, but the Garden speaks rather of social space, and the Tree of time.

An example of a three-card reading

Suppose the question is: "Where do things stand with this project I have been carrying for a long time?" The spread gives Tree – Clouds – Sun. One possible reading: the project is old and solid (the Tree), it is currently going through a period of doubt (the Clouds), and the break in the clouds is suggested in the last card (the Sun). One could say: "What you have built lasts; the current fog is not the end of the story."

Another person, with the same cards, would dwell on the doubt. These are two ways of telling the story: what matters is to treat them as hypotheses for reflection, never as certainties. Neither reading says what will happen.

Exploring the symbolism of the tree further

In many cultures, the tree is an image of life linking earth and sky: the tree of life, the family tree, the world tree in several mythologies. The Lenormand does not take up these traditions in detail; it keeps a simple image, that of something that endures. If you enjoy the symbolism of plants, you will find this theme in the Garden or in the Bouquet, which develop the idea in different ways.

Playing card and link with the tarot

In the classic convention, the Tree is the 7 of Hearts.

The tarot has no tree as such. By association of ideas, one might look at the Hanged Man, whose gallows is sometimes drawn as a pruned tree in Marseille tarots, but the meaning (reversal, suspension) is quite different. Here, the tarot and the Lenormand speak of different things.

An exercise for reflection

Draw your own tree in three parts: roots (what holds you up), trunk (what keeps you standing), branches (what you want to grow). Then draw the Tree and see what it suggests. Finally, go on to the Clouds, the next card.

Frequently asked questions

Also read

The meanings mentioned belong to tradition and symbolism. They are neither promises of results nor medical advice. Back to Guide to the Lenormand oracle.