Lenormand Oracle: History, 36 Cards, Spreads and Tarot Differences

What Is the Petit Lenormand?

The Petit Lenormand is a deck of 36 illustrated cards used for cartomancy, that is, divination with cards. Each card shows a simple, concrete image from everyday life: a rider, a ship, a house, a tree, a dog, a letter, a key. Unlike the tarot, there are neither major arcana nor mythological figures: everything rests on objects, animals or people that everyone knows.

Its name is confusing. It bears the name of a famous French cartomancer, but she did not create this deck. To find one's way, one must distinguish the “Petit Lenormand” (36 cards) from the “Grand Jeu de Mlle Lenormand”, published after the death of the cartomancer (around 1845), which the Encyclopædia Universalis describes as entirely apocryphal.

Marie-Anne Lenormand: A Real Figure, but Not the Inventor

Marie Anne Adélaïde Lenormand was born in Alençon on 27 May 1772 and died in Paris on 25 June 1843. Settled in Paris in 1786, she became a very famous cartomancer during the Revolution and the Empire. She claimed to have advised great personalities, including Empress Joséphine, and published several books, notably memoirs in 1814. She was imprisoned several times, but never for long.

No serious source shows that she used the 36 cards that bear her name. According to historians, her name was printed on decks after her death, by publishers who wanted to profit from her renown. Her nephew, it is said, burned her papers and occult objects.

The Game of Hope: The True Ancestor

The 36-card deck derives from a German parlour game, Das Spiel der Hoffnung (“The Game of Hope”), published in Nuremberg around 1799 (some sources give 1800). It is attributed to Johann Kaspar Hechtel, a brass manufacturer and game designer, born in 1771 and who died in December 1799, and it was published by Gustav Philipp Jakob Bieling. The cards carry captions in German and French. The attribution to Hechtel is well supported but is the subject of discussion among historians of cards.

According to Wikipedia, the game was played on a grid of six by six squares, with two dice, from square 1 to square 35, with certain squares (the 8 and the 36) playing the role of traps. We could only confirm these rules from one source: treat them with caution. The pack could also be used as a 36-card playing deck, which explains the correspondences with ordinary playing cards.

Divinatory use came later: practitioners took up the 36 images and gave them meanings. Commercial editions bearing the name Lenormand appear in the mid-nineteenth century, according to several sources, and then spread widely in Germany. According to the Encyclopædia Universalis, cartomancy has also enjoyed renewed interest since the 1980s.

The 36 Cards and Their Playing-Card Equivalents

The 36 cards are numbered. Each is associated with a card from an ordinary deck (the “classic convention”), which makes it possible to read a standard pack of cards as a Lenormand: remove the 2, 3, 4 and 5 of each suit, and keep the aces. Here is the list, with a link to each card.

How to Read the Petit Lenormand

The central principle is reading by combination. A single card has a broad meaning; it is its neighbours that refine it. The first card plays the role of the noun, the next that of the adjective: Crossroads + Heart can be read as “a romantic choice”, Heart + Crossroads as “a heart torn between several options”.

• Person cards: The Man and The Woman represent the querent or an important person.
• No reversed cards: the Lenormand is in principle read upright.
• Precise questions: one asks a concrete question rather than a vague one about the future.
• No compulsory esotericism: the deck can also serve as a tool for reflection, a writing exercise or a conversation prompt.

Which Spreads to Start With?

Spreads are more compact than those of the tarot. Three main families:

• Three-card spread: past, present, future, or situation, obstacle, advice (see our tutorial).
• Five-card spread: a line in which the central card is the theme, flanked by two cards on each side.
• Nine-card square (three rows of three): an overview of a situation.
• Grand Tableau: all 36 cards laid out in rows, often shown as four rows of nine, sometimes as four rows of eight followed by a row of four depending on the school; it is aimed more at experienced readers.

This breakdown is a convention: each reader adapts their methods. For a first attempt, the three-card spread is more than enough.

Differences from the Tarot

Neither is “better”: they do not serve the same kinds of reading. To choose your first deck, our guide to choosing a deck compares the families, and our guide to the major arcana presents the tarot from the side of its symbols. You can also browse the oracles and cards section.

An Honest Reading

The Lenormand is a symbolic language for reflection: no scientific study has shown that a spread can predict the future. No card can tell you what is going to happen. The meanings presented here are practitioners' traditions, which vary between schools. The value of the Petit Lenormand lies in offering a vocabulary of images that helps one reflect on a situation, formulate a question, and put words to an emotion. For serious decisions (health, justice, money, violent relationships), rely on professionals.

Where to Start?

A simple way to begin: read three cards a day (for example, one per page of this guide), note what they inspire in you, then move on to two-card combinations. In the series, cards 1 to 19 are presented in another part of the guide; those from 20 to 36 are presented here. The Lenormand oracle guide gives the overview.

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.