Divination: The Old Style Lenormand Oracle

 

The Old Style Lenormand Oracle Cards

The Old Style Lenormand is a traditional form of the famous Lenormand oracle system, a card-reading method named after the celebrated French fortune teller Marie Anne Lenormand. Unlike Tarot, Lenormand cards are generally more direct, practical, and symbolic in their interpretations, focusing on everyday events, relationships, opportunities, obstacles, and fate.

The traditional Petit Lenormand — the system from which most “Old Style Lenormand” decks descend — was first published in the 1840s, shortly after the death of Marie Anne Lenormand in 1843.

However, its roots go back earlier. The deck was heavily inspired by the 1799 German card game Das Spiel der Hoffnung (“The Game of Hope”), created by Johann Kaspar Hechtel. That earlier game already contained many of the symbols later found in Lenormand:

• Rider
• Ship
• Coffin
• Stars
• Cross
• Anchor
• and others

After Marie Lenormand became famous as a fortune teller to aristocrats and political figures — including associations with Napoleon Bonaparte and Joséphine de Beauharnais— publishers capitalised on her reputation by attaching her name to oracle decks after her death.

The earliest known Petit Lenormand oracle editions appeared around 1845–1850 in Germany and France .These early editions are what modern publishers usually imitate when producing “Old Style Lenormand” decks today.

Marie Lenormand herself likely used playing cards, astrology, numerology and various other fortune-telling methods. But there is little evidence she personally created the familiar 36-card Lenormand deck as we know it now. The deck is more accurately inspired by her fame rather than designed directly by her.

The deck spread rapidly through Germany, France, Austria, Belgium and Russia. By the late nineteenth century it had become one of Europe’s most widely used fortune-telling systems, especially among folk practitioners, travelling readers, spiritualists and mainstream fortune tellers.

Many modern “Old Style” reproductions are based on these nineteenth-century editions.

Although the cards bear Marie Lenormand’s name, historians generally believe she did not create the modern 36-card Lenormand system herself. Instead, publishers used her fame after her death to market a simplified oracle deck based partly on earlier German game cards and divinatory systems such as the aforementioned Das Spiel der Hoffnung (“The Game of Hope”), created by Johann Kaspar Hechtel around 1799. The resulting Petit Lenormand deck became enormously popular in France , Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Central and Eastern Europe.

Traditional “Old Style” decks preserve:

• antique engraving styles
• muted or aged colour palettes
• playing-card inserts
• older symbolic imagery
• classical European occult aesthetics

Structure of the Deck

The traditional Lenormand contains 36 cards, each with a fixed symbolic meaning.

Some of the best-known cards include:

Card	Symbolic Meaning
Rider	News, movement, arrival
Clover	Luck, opportunity
Ship	Travel, commerce, journeys
House	Home, family, stability
Snake	Deception, complexity
Coffin	Endings, transformation
Bouquet	Gifts, beauty, happiness
Fox	Cunning, work, self-interest
Bear	Strength, authority
Stars	Hope, guidance, spirituality
Moon	Emotions, recognition, intuition
Cross	Burden, fate, spiritual trials

Unlike Tarot, Lenormand cards rarely stand alone. Their meanings emerge through combinations and proximity.

For example:

• Heart + Ring → committed love
• Fox + Snake → deceitful manipulation
• Sun + Child → joyful new beginnings

Lenormand readings are often concise, predictive, practical and pattern-based.

Readers commonly use:

• 3-card spreads
• 5-card lines
• the Grand Tableau — a full 36-card layout revealing an entire life situation

The Grand Tableau is considered the heart of advanced Lenormand practice. Cards are interpreted according to:

• position
• direction
• mirroring
• surrounding influences
• card pairings

This creates a highly nuanced symbolic map.

Symbolism and Occult Associations

Though Lenormand is usually less overtly mystical than Tarot, many occultists connect the cards with:

• fate and synchronicity
• folk magic
• European divination traditions
• numerology
• astrology
• spirit communication
• dream symbolism

Older decks often include imagery reflecting:

• Masonic symbolism
• Christian iconography
• Victorian romanticism
• folk superstitions
• medieval allegory

The cards operate through symbolic association rather than ceremonial magic.

Collectors and practitioners often love Old Style Lenormand decks because they evoke nineteenth-century occultism with antique divination parlours, European folk mysticism and good old cartomancy traditions.

Common visual features include:

• engraved line art
• aged parchment tones
• ornate borders
• playing-card insets
• simple symbolic scenes

The atmosphere is often less fantastical than Tarot and more like symbolic storytelling.

Influence on Modern Divination

Lenormand has experienced a major revival in recent decades through online readers, occult publishers , YouTube cartomancers and modern deck creators . Yet many practitioners like me still return to Old Style decks because they believe the older imagery preserves clearer symbolism using traditional reading methods with historical authenticity and a stronger connection to classical cartomancy.

Today, Lenormand exists alongside Tarot, Oracle cards, Kipper cards, Sibilla systems

and playing-card divination as one of the most respected forms of European fortune telling.

The Spirit of the Old Style Lenormand

The Old Style Lenormand occupies an interesting space between:

• folk magic
• divination
• storytelling
• psychology
• symbolic intuition

Its cards are deceptively simple, yet capable of remarkable complexity when woven together. Rather than presenting elaborate mythological archetypes like Tarot, the Lenormand speaks in the language of signs, omens, meetings, letters, roads, keys, birds, and stars — the symbolic vocabulary of everyday destiny.

The modern reproductions are readily available.

https://the-tarot-shop.co.uk/product/old-style-lenormand/

Book time:The Mammoth Book of Lost Symbols by Nadia Julien

 

The Mammoth Book of Lost Symbols 

By Nadia Julien 

First Published 1989 by Marabout, Alleur. Belgium

English translation 1996 by Robinson Publishing

Edition discusses here is the English reprint 2012, reprint 2019 by Robinson in US

Paperback 508 pages

The book is an extensive encyclopedic guide to symbolism, mythology, occult traditions, religion, and esoteric philosophy. First published in earlier forms in the late 20th century and reissued in 2012, the book is essentially a large A–Z dictionary of symbolic meanings drawn from cultures and spiritual traditions around the world.  

Rather than being a narrative book with a single argument or story, it functions as a reference work. Julien explores symbols connected with:

• Alchemy
• Tarot
• Astrology
• Kabbalah
• Freemasonry
• Ancient Egyptian religion
• Greek and Roman mythology
• Eastern spiritual traditions
• Sacred geometry
• Animals, plants, colours, metals, and numbers
• Dreams and archetypes

The work examines how symbols act as a hidden language through which cultures express spiritual truths, cosmic principles, psychological ideas, and mystical teachings.  

One reason the book appeals to occultists, pagans, tarot readers, and students of esotericism is that Julien blends several approaches together:

• historical symbolism,
• mythological interpretation,
• Jungian-style archetypal thinking,
• occult correspondences,
• and mystical philosophy.

For example, an entry on a serpent may discuss:

• its role in ancient religions,
• its alchemical meaning,
• associations with wisdom or rebirth,
• kundalini symbolism,
• and appearances in dreams or magical traditions.

The tone is scholarly but accessible. It is not strictly academic history, nor is it purely occult instruction. Instead, it sits somewhere between a mystical encyclopedia and a symbolic handbook. Readers often use it for:

• tarot interpretation,
• magical correspondences,
• meditation and pathworking,
• dream analysis,
• ritual symbolism,
• or simply researching the hidden meanings behind ancient symbols.

Book strengths I noted were  the enormous breadth of material, cross-cultural comparisons,useful concise entries,and its value as a sourcebook for esoteric study.  

It’s a good reference book for dipping into rather and serves me well as such.

It’s not without faults however; the entries can feel dense or uneven and it sometimes mixes mythology and occult interpretation without clearly separating historical fact from esoteric speculation, and it can occasionally read more like a mystical correspondence guide than a critical academic text.  

The book is still in print and available at very reasonable prices.

https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/nadia-julien/the-mammoth-book-of-lost-symbols/9781780331263/

ISBN-13: 9781780331263

About the author 

Nadia Julien ; a Belgian writer and researcher best known for her work on symbolism, mythology, astrology, and esoteric traditions. Although relatively little biographical information about her is publicly available, her published works reveal a lifelong fascination with the hidden meanings embedded in myths, symbols, dreams, religion, and occult philosophy.  

Before becoming known as an esoteric author, Julien worked as a teacher with the Alliance Française. She later practised graphology — the study and interpretation of handwriting — for a number of years. Graphology was especially popular in parts of Europe during the 20th century and was often linked with psychology, personality analysis, and symbolic interpretation. This background appears to have strongly influenced her later writing style, which frequently explores hidden patterns and symbolic meanings beneath ordinary appearances.  

Over time, Julien became deeply interested in esotericism, comparative mythology, astrology, symbolism, folklore,mystical traditionsand the archetypal language of dreams and images.  

She went on to publish numerous reference-style books and encyclopedias, particularly in French and English. Her writings tend to blend historical research with occult interpretation, Jungian-style archetypes, spiritual symbolism, and cross-cultural mythology.

Among her best-known works are:

• The Mammoth Book of Lost Symbols
• Grand dictionnaire des symboles et des mythes
• Encyclopédie des mythes
• Dictionnaire des superstitions et des présages.  

Her books often examine how symbols recur across different civilisations and religions. For example, she explored how images like:

• serpents,
• trees,
• stars,
• labyrinths,
• dragons,
• colours,
• metals,
• and sacred numbers

carry layered meanings that evolve through mythology, alchemy, religion, magic, and psychology.

Julien’s approach was not strictly academic in the university sense. Instead, her work sits in a space between:

• reference scholarship,
• mystical interpretation,
• and metaphysical exploration.

Because of this, her books became especially popular among readers interested in a range of backgrounds.

Her writing style is often described as dense but rich — more like wandering through an occult encyclopedia than reading a conventional narrative book. Readers who enjoy symbolic correspondences and hidden meanings tend to appreciate her work, while more academic historians sometimes criticise it for blending folklore, mysticism, and speculation together without sharply separating them.