Lenormand card layout explanation
Lenormand card reading explanation. What are Lenormand divination cards and who was Mademoiselle Lenormand? What can you expect from a Lenormand card reading? On this page you will find more information about mademoiselle Lenormand and explanations of Lenormand card reading.
The Lenormand cards are still sometimes confused with tarot cards. Yet there is little that the tarot and the Lenormand cards have in common.
The Lenormand cards were once designed by Madamoiselle Lenormand, a famous French fortune-teller from the 18th century.
Marie Anne Adelaïde Lenormand was born on 27 May 1772 in Alencon, France. When she is only one year old, her father dies. Her mother remarries, but nevertheless cannot come to terms with the loss of her husband and dies herself four years later.
Marie Anne grows up in a children's home. At the boarding school where she stays, she already predicts the future to the nuns.
She tells one of the nuns that she will be transferred and replaced by a lady from Picardy. A prediction that actually comes true a year and a half later.
Truth-telling in lingerie shop
In 1786, Marie Anne moves to Paris where her stepfather requires her to learn to sew. Her stepfather is sympathetic to her and hopes this will ensure that she will find a good job.
Indeed, she finds a job as a seamstress in a lingerie shop but unfortunately, sewing does not suit Marie Anne very well. She pays more attention to learning new divination techniques that she is good at and actually enjoys.
Besides divination with cards, she also teaches future predictions through astrology, explaining dreams, mirror gazing, water reading, palmistry, coffee-gazing and reading tea leaves.
Yet it is precisely her job in the lingerie shop that takes her further in her career as a fortune teller.
In the shop, she predicts the future for several regular customers and gets to know Madame Gibert, a famous French clairvoyant who teaches her the art of card-reading according to old French tradition.
Napoleon and Joséphine
Soon Marie Anne gave up sewing and found work at several newspapers for whom she wrote about fortune-telling and also occasionally did weather forecasting.
Together with Madame Gilbert, Marie Anne starts a salon where people can have their future predicted through card readings and astrology: Salon De Sybille of the Faubourg Saint Germain on Rue de Tournon in Paris.
The salon is visited by people from all walks of life. Not only housewives, workers, doctors and judges, but also people of nobility know their way to the fortune tellers.
Through the salon, Marie Anne meets Joséphine de Beauharnais, who is married to officer Napoleon Bonaparte at the time.
Marie Anne and Joséphine became close friends and when her prediction that Joséphine and Napoleon would one day ascend the throne actually came true, Mlle Lenormand became instantly famous and was appointed court card reader.
No more important decision is taken before Madame Lenormand has considered the issue with her cards.
Until the moment mademoiselle Lenormand sees in Joséphine's cards that Napoleon wants to divorce her. When this prediction too turns out to be correct, Napoleon has Madame Lenormand imprisoned for treason.
However, not for long.
Napoleon turns out to be unable to do without Mademoiselle Lenormand's predictions and releases her so that she can resume her duties as a court card reader.
Lenormand cards
Although divination with cards has been banned by law since Napoleon's banishment in 1815, Marie Anne does not let this stop her. When she is no longer allowed to divination, she decides to write about it.
In all, she wrote no less than 14 books about her ways of divination, her predictions and about all the famous clients she had, including General Moreau, the Prince of Talleyrand, Robbespierre, Murat, Louis XVIII, Marie-Antoinette, Tsar Alexander the first and, of course, Joséphine and Napoleon.
Marie Anne Lenormand died on 23 June 1843 and was buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery (3rd ward). By then, she already had a host of admirers who rendered her a last service in the funeral procession.
The famous Lenormand divination cards were designed only after her death, based on her notes and other instructions from her hand.
They have since been released in at least 100 different versions.
Want to buy a set of Lenormand cards for yourself? You will find several beautiful versions >HERE.
Lenormand card layout explanation
Some of these versions I have in my happy possession. And yes, I have also done consultations with these for years. Just as Marie Anne Lenormand predicted the future to her clients, I did the same for my clients in my own salon for many years.
In doing so, I worked exactly according to the traditional Lenormand divination methods, meaning that I also used the Lenormand divination cards only for making predictions. This is also exactly what you can expect from your own Lenormand card reading: predictions.
Predictions work very well because predictions make you more aware of your situation and more alert to your surroundings.
Also, when you have a positive prediction, you will try harder to make it come true. Here, you can follow the advice given to you during the prediction.
When a negative prediction emerges in the cards, you can also do everything possible - again by following the advice given to you during the prediction - to not let it come true. After all, you will be prepared for possible setbacks or pitfalls.
Nothing in the cards is fixed. A prediction is always meant to show you what will be could happen if you continue on the path you are on. Fortunately, you have your own free will to make the predictions come true or not.
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