A full-color guide to fortune-telling with the Lenormand oracle
• Explores the meanings of the 36 Lenormand cards and their playing card insets to help build a resourceful, interpretative vocabulary
• Provides instructions for many spreads, starting with 3 or 5 cards and building to the Grand Tableau spread, which uses all 36 cards
• 416 pages and full-color throughout
• Reveals the origins of the Lenormand oracle from both coffee-ground symbols and playing card cartomancy
More than 200 years old, the 36 Lenormand cards are an oracle combining standard playing cards with images from the everyday world, such as key, book, animals, and flowers. Their simple, predictive, and non-esoteric nature opens the realm of fortune-telling to all, offering a traditional cartomantic divination where card combinations fuse together to give clear answers.
In this complete guide to Lenormand card reading, Caitlín Matthews explains the multiple meanings for each card, providing keywords so the reader can quickly build an interpretive vocabulary for Lenormand fortune-telling. She details how to lay spreads, starting with 3 or 5 cards and building to the Grand Tableau spread, which uses all 36 cards. She explores the significance of the playing card pips and suits on each card and how cards combine to create a variety of meanings. Matthews enables readers to learn the Lenormand card keywords so they can both read for themselves and express their interpretations to clients. Providing real case histories for readers to interpret, she also includes self-tests and practice exercises with answers to check at the end of the book.
In addition to her comprehensive practical introduction to the Lenormand oracle, Matthews delves deeply into the history of cartomancy to reveal the mythic blueprint that underlies this simple deck, the key to which lies not in their imagery but in their connection to playing cards.
“Anyone interested in Lenormand--beginner or seasoned reader--will find this book essential reading. It is wise, wonderfully structured, and written in a voice that makes one feel as though the author is sitting at your side, offering inspired advice and support. Here is a guidebook to not only the Lenormand world but also the symbolic, storied, readable world around us.”
“An outstanding, definitive handbook for both beginners and experienced readers that gives a ‘big picture’ view of the Lenormand deck! Caitlín starts where most others leave off, exploring the original cartomantic tradition and combining it with modern techniques connected to those roots. As someone who appreciates the classic wisdom of the Grand Tableau, I’m so happy to see it taught this well, step by step, so anyone can use it.”
“This book is a sublime source that will provide handy inspiration for anyone interested in the Petit Lenormand cards. The content will satisfy the novice, the journeyman, and the expert alike. Essential for your shelf!”
“The Complete Lenormand Oracle Handbook by Caitlín Matthews is a wonderfully comprehensive and practical Lenormand guide. Matthews does a thorough job of presenting the history of the oracle to give the reader a solid sense of the deck’s development over the centuries. Matthews has created an inspirational manual for Lenormand that can be a companion to readers at all stages of their cartomantic career.”
