How Lenormand Works

36 simple pictures – a house, a ship, a letter. How can such a small deck say something about your life? A look at where the Lenormand cards come from and how they speak.

Where the cards come from

The cards go back to the «Game of Hope», a dice and card game published in Nuremberg around 1799. They got their name later, after Marie-Anne Lenormand (1772–1843), the most famous card reader in Paris. Whether she ever used these cards herself is not documented – but her name stood for foresight, and it stayed.

A language of 36 words

Each card shows a picture from everyday life: house, path, letter, key. Because you know these pictures, you recognise them quickly – in your thoughts and in what you encounter. Like words, they only form a sentence together. That is why Lenormand is read in pairs and rows: the first card names the topic, the second gives it its colour.

Clear and concrete – and still a mirror

Lenormand speaks more directly than tarot. It shows what is happening rather than how it feels inside. At Conradius the cards still remain a mirror: they show possibilities, forces and tendencies. What you make of them is up to you.

What comes your way joins the conversation

As with tarot, the card you draw is what comes your way in this moment. Your inner self has known your question for a long time. Lenormand gives it simple pictures that you may find quite literally in the evening – a letter, a path, a house.

Bridges to tarot

Many Lenormand pictures have a sister in the tarot. If you know both decks, you see the same force from two angles:

The Coffin↔Death

Death carries the same ending: something has been fulfilled, may go, and makes room for the new.

The Scythe↔The Tower

The Tower shows the same sudden break: a lightning bolt that frightens and frees.

The Stars↔The Star

The Star carries the same light: hope, guidance and trust in the future.

The Heart↔Two of Cups

The Two of Cups shows the same heartfelt bond: two people meet and offer each other the cup.