The New Orleans Lenormand
The New Orleans Lenormand deck consists of 50+ cards: The 36 cards of the petite traditional Lenormand plus additional cards representing the unique spiritual topography of the Big Easy.
The traditional Lenormand meanings have been transformed through inspiration drawing on the unique environment of New Orleans and southeastern Louisiana. For example, a mountain is a fitting image for struggle and obstacles in a European context but has little relevance to New Orleans where are no real hills let alone mountains. The surrounding swamps and bayous are a much more apt signifier of what the Mountain card traditionally denotes. Other transformations include Rougaroux for Fox, paddle wheel for ship, streetcar for stork, crawfish for fish, levee for anchor.
Added cards in The New Orleans Lenormand include Marie LaVeaux, St. Expedité, St. Roch, Congo Square, and more. In additional, there are multiple gender cards, including non-binary options.
The Lenormand cards draw their name from a 19th century French fortune teller Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand (1772–1843). She was highly influential and widely considered the greatest cartomancer of her day. In actuality the cards predate the work of the eponymous Parisian fortune teller whose name they currently bear. The configuration of 36 cards first appear in Germany as Das Spiel der Hoffnung (The Game of Hope) designed in 1799 by Johann Kaspar Hechtel of Nuremberg.
The New Orleans Lenormand draws inspiration from the traditional deck of the Petit Lenormand consists of 36 cards each containing a representative symbol (ship, clover, bear, key, etc) and an inset pip card. In contrast to the tarot, Lenormand cards are very practical in their meanings and much less psychological. Where tarot cards generally are interpretted in relation to their placement in a spread, Lenormand are read in relation to each other. Often with tarot, each card carries a discreet meaning within a reading. With Lenormand, the individual cards act more like component words in a sentence: noun, verb, and qualifiers
Photography and design by Rebel publisher Sven Davisson. Davisson’s other books include The Star Set Matrix.
