by Marcus Katz
96 Yoav Ben-Dov, 20.
97 See Marcus Katz, Tarosophy (Keswick, UK: Forge Press, 2016), 81–89.
98 See Fred Gettings, The Book of the Tarot (London, UK: Triune Press, 1973), 122–123.
99 The Queen’s Sword review site at http://www.thequeenssword.com/top-9-tarot-de-marseille-decks/(Last accessed December, 2016).
100 Alejandro Jodorowsky, The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards (Rochester: Destiny Books, 2004).
101 See issues of Tarosophist International from the Tarosophy Tarot Association www.tarotassociation.net and review site www.thetarotreview.com for regular articles, including TdM decks.
6
Lenormand
Fortune is far from frowning upon you, my dear lady, you have, indeed, the best of prospects, because, (14. [Moon]) your noble way of thinking will procure you many advantages, and you will particularly promote by it your easy circumstances, and make yourself friends, who shall contend to please you. Since nothing is perfect (30. [Insects and Pests]) on earth, you need not wonder, if there are little minds envy you, who being themselves without accomplishments, endeavor to lessen them in others.
—“Reading for a Lady,” 1796 102
20 February, 1796: London, England
It is a few weeks after Queen Charlotte was hit by a stone in protest over the rising price of bread, and two months before Edward Jenner would administer cowpox to eight-year-old James Phipps, paving the way for proof of what he would later call “vaccine” for smallpox, after vaca, meaning cow.
On Jewry Street in Aldgate, behind the London Tower, we arrive to see a book being published amidst a whole selection of games and amusements from the same publisher, including the Little Sorcerer, Combat with the Giant, the Magic Ring, and the Pastora: or the Shepherdess of the Pyrenees, described as “a diverting game calculated to kill care and enliven the dreary hours of winter.” These are all listed as educational games, some obviously more so than others—the Magic Ring involves moving around a snail-shaped track encountering wizards and fairies whilst another game, Le Petit Euclid, is specifically to teach geometry to children. These games all come with a tetotum (a spinning dice), 103 tokens and small cases for “the pocket.” 104 We add the tetotum to our growing collection in the time-pod.
The book, also listed under the education section in the British Register of the time, is Les Amusemens des Allemands (Games of Germany) and its author promises to unravel the mysteries of fortune-telling by means of thirty-two “emblematical cards.” These cards are based on the symbols read in coffee grounds and are said to have first appeared in Vienna in 1794. 105 The author reports:
In my late travels to Germany [footnote: 1793] I visited the library of a convent in that country, where I found a book of Egyptian hieroglyphics, which was said to have been discovered by the Emperor Constantine the Great in Egypt, in the year 320 after the birth of Christ. A translation of it in the Latin language being also shewn to me, I begged leave to make an English version of it, and copied the emblematic figures, in hopes of its being likely to become an acceptable present to my countrymen. This book, does not, properly speaking, teach the method of Fortune telling from the grounds of the coffee cup, because coffee was not in use at that time: but as sherbet is a very favourite liquor among the Egyptians and the people of the East in general; the art used to tell Fortunes from the dregs of that liquor, has been applied here to the grounds of coffee, which is drank in every country of Europe.
With regard to the figures represented on the cards, it may easily be imagined, that they will not appear so plainly in the coffee cup, some degree of resemblance being sufficient, and a fertile imagination will easily supply the rest. Thirty-two figures have therefore been chosen, though the grounds in the cup may perchance represent more. 106
In this chapter, we switch our settings and add to our time-traveller tool-set a new deck of cards, but not yet the tarot; for now, we will add the “Lenormand Deck,” a set of thirty-six cards carrying common emblems such as a “Dog,” a “Key,” a “Child,” and other everyday symbols. 107 The Lenormand deck will help us bridge between cartomantic methods and tarot, although the method of reading is somewhat different to either, it uses layouts and methods that can broaden our cartomantic scope.
28. Dog, Key, and Child Lenormand Cards from The Original
Lenormand (3rd edition), Marcus Katz & Tali Goodwin, 2016
The Games of Germany book in the British Museum comes bound with the whole set of cards on every page so they may be taken out and used in the fortune-telling parlour game. It is the first time that cards have been explicitly published for such fortune-telling and every card has two playing-card inserts; a German and an Italian playing card so the deck can be used to play Piquet and other card games. It is often thought that such “educational” or “fun” card games originated to provide decks for gambling during times when such activity was unacceptable or even illegal.
During our time travels, we will see many esotericists allege that a secret teaching was passed down out of Egypt through the tarot cards, but the reality may be far more mundane; such symbolic and educational decks were a means of practising the real secret of life—gambling.
The instructions for use of the cards is as follows:
This pack of cards which is called the coffee pack, because the figures are borrowed from those represented by the grounds in the cup, is shuffled by somebody in company, who according to the sex, is to be called the cunning man or the cunning woman, cut by the person that demands to have his fortune told, and then laid down in four rows of eight cards each. If the person who wants to have his Fortune told be a man, he is represented by the male figure on foot; if a woman, the female figure will represent her. Every card therefore, that stands in the row of the pedestrian gentleman, besides all the cards immediately above or below the male figure, regards the person that wishes to have his Fortune told if he be a man, and if it be a lady that consults, the same rule to be observed with the cards in the row in which the female figure is, and with those immediately above and under it.
There are verses printed on each card also, similar to several other rare and unpublished decks in the British Museum (and likely elsewhere) that contain “speech bubbles” on the cards to give a direct message from the card itself.
Here is a list of the verses from this, the most original source of what is now called Lenormand:
The Coffee-Card Verses
Crossroads/Fingerpost: Excesses will certainly make you unhappy, avoid them therefore while it is time.
Ring: In the happy marriage which you are about to enter; avoid Jealousy for the sake of your own peace of mind.
Clover: You may be very fortunate indeed if you always discharge your duty with honour and integrity.
Anchor: A person as honest as you in his dealings, will never want a rich harvest of gain; your wishes too are likely to be accomplished.
Snake: A secret enemy endeavours to injure you; try by kindness to make him your friend.
Letter: You may flatter yourself with good hopes in your enterprise but act prudently and speak not always as you feel.
Coffin: You may rejoice at a considerable legacy, but many people will envy you for it.
Star: Do your part, and you will soon experience the good effects of it.
Dog: You will easily find better friends among strangers than among your own relations.
Lily: You wish for a virtuous wife, this wish may be granted if you requite the same for the same.
Cross: There is no misfortune however severe, that does not produce some good; hope therefore all will be for the best.
Clouds: Just as the clouds are dispelled, so let your anger vanish, then you will soon be superior to all vexations.
Sun: You will make an unexpected fortune, use it so that no body may covet it.
&
nbsp; Moon: The liberality of your mind will always rather increase than lessen your prosperity; it will also daily endear you more to your friends.
Mountain: You may easily get in favour with the great, but remember always that the higher you rise the deeper you will fall.
Tree (3 Trees, two in sleeves): Never regret labour or pains; a good work is its own reward, be this your consolation.
Child: The consequences of the good education which you will give to your children, shall gladden your old age. You shall live to see much joy from them.
Woman: Gratify your partiality to the fair sex, but never offend decency.
Man: Depend upon receiving some good news; the loss you have sustained will recover likewise.
Rider: Despair not of Men’s goodness for you shall have an unexpected proof of it; you may expect news, and restitution of that which you thought lost.
Mouse: Have a vigilant eye upon your servants, as your negligence may make an honest man a thief.
Birch rod/Whip: You are involved in disputes. Do not engage in them too warmly else your body will be afflicted with illness.
Flower/Rose: You sport with fortune, but whatever the cards refuse, your good sense, your skill, and learning will amply compensate.
Heart: You meditate a project of marriage, if you consult reason, you will abound with blessings.
Garden: You frequently go into company, if you wish to be benefited by it, hear much and say little.
Bird/Turtledove: You are very happy, but love entirely swayed by passion will render you very unhappy.
Fish: Don’t let yourself be caught with baits like the fish; circumspection is very necessary especially on a long journey.
Lion: Be always on your guard; he easily believes is easily deceived.
Tree (Single tree, fully grown): The industrious, in whose number you are comprised, will never want for lucre and decent support.
Insects and Pests: Your unexpected good fortune will create you many unknown enviers, who shall grudge you it.
House: From the visit which you and your house will receive, great advantages must ensue, but let prudence guide your conduct.
Scythe: Wait quietly for the harvest, proportionate to your labour; for every one is the make of his own fortune.
We can see how these meanings barely differ from those which will be developed for the Lenormand cards as they begin their transformation through the timeline. However, it was not this particular deck of cards that would resurface a few decades later; rather it would remain consigned to a couple of museums for more than two centuries. In fact, the Coffee Card deck was not the only one of its type being produced at the time—let us travel just three years later and return to Germany to witness the actual nexus point of the Lenormand deck.
2 November, 1799: Nuremberg, Germany
A young man walks unsteadily along the square-cobbled streets of Nuremberg. It is early November and the snow is deep, muffling the sounds of his footsteps. It has been an atrocious winter in Europe and the man is coughing badly as well as itching, which has worried his wife.
They have a reasonable income from the brass factory of which his parents are owners, but his new ventures into game design have not yet brought them much additional income. Nuremberg is now the gaming capital of the world, with wooden toys and board games as much an industry as the brass factories which had been so busy creating musical instruments played across Europe. He has argued with his wife that in the future, games will be as much a part of household activities in the evening as musical recitals, but she is not yet convinced of his vision.
He looks up through the snow at the Sinwellturm, the Round Tower of the Imperial Castle and smiles grimly under his scarf—at least if he does not survive the winter, the tower will stand and it will also be forever on his latest deck of playing cards, Das Spiel der Hofnung, or Game of Hope. He smiles again, ruefully; his first game had been called Pandora, a dice game with his favourite selection of jocular questions for the family; but it now seemed his last game would be one of hope.
Johann Kaspar Hechtel died one month later, likely of smallpox, leaving both his wife and his little game of cards behind him.
It was not until fifty years after Hechtel’s untimely death that another death conspired to return his deck to the world—the death of Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand (1772–1843), a self-made cartomantic celebrity who was the talk of Paris for some forty years. Within a few years of her death, two types of decks emerged from German publishers who were keen to capture the market with a new audience wanting details of Lenormand’s fortune-telling methods.
The first was a fifty-four-card deck containing images of mythical figures, constellations, flowers, and other symbol systems. It was called the “Grand jeu de Mlle Lenormand” (“big game”) and is a complex and somewhat confusing system of cartomancy. 108 Shortly thereafter a simplified version was published, the Petit Lenormand of thirty-six cards, which was actually a re-published version of Hechtel’s “Game of Hope” with the same symbols and card inserts, only now given the name of “Lenormand,” likely in the hopes of selling more copies.
So, a dead woman’s name was put on a dead man’s deck, to suggest that every purchaser could become a celebrity fortune-teller with the hidden secrets of Mlle. Lenormand herself. As it was the “little Lenormand” which more recently in our timeline has captured the popular imagination, it is to this version we will turn our attention. We will first note the differences of Hechtel’s game (and hence the “Lenormand”) to the original Coffee Cards which are parallel.
List of Lenormand Cards
To compare this earlier set of cards and instructions with the later Lenormand cards (originally Hechtel’s “Game of Hope” deck), we present here a list of the 1796 coffee cards alongside the Game of Hope cards, this latter which was then used as the model for the petit Lenormand cards.
1799/1800 (Hechtel/”Lenormand”)
1796 (Amusements)
1. Rider/Messenger
Roads
2. The Clover Leaf
Ring
3. The Ship
Leaf of Clover
4. The House
Anchor
5. The Tree
Serpent
6. The Clouds
Letter
7. The Snake
Coffin
8. The Coffin
Star
9. The Bouquet
Dog
10. The Scythe
Lily
11. The Rod/Whip
Cross
12. The Birds/Owls
Clouds
13. The Child/Little Girl
Sun
14. The Fox
Moon
15. The Bear
Mountains
16. The Stars
Tree
17. The Stork
Child
18. The Dog
Woman
19. The Tower
Pedestrian (Man)
20. The Garden
Rider
21. The Mountain
Mouse
1799/1800 (Hechtel/’Lenormand’)
1796 (Amusements)
22. The Ways
Rod
23. The Mice
Rose/Carnation/Flower
24. The Heart
Heart
25. The Ring
Garden
26. The Book
Bird
27. The Letter
Fish
28. The Gentleman
Lion or any Ferocious Beast
29. The Lady
Green Bush
30. The Lily
Worms
31. The Sun
House
32. The Moon
Scythe
33. The Key
34. The Fish
35. The Anchor
36. The Cross
Hechtel possibly merged the four duplicate symbols out of the earlier deck (i.e., bush/trees became “trees” and worms/serpent became “Serpent”) and then added six additional symbols, all of which are common to the symbols read in coffee grounds: Ship, Fox, Stork, Tower, Book, and Key. This would have been to create a deck more suitable for the common decks of the area which had thirty-six cards, not thirty-two.