Lenormand Cards
A deck of 36 concrete, object-based cards (Rider, House, Snake, and so on) that read specific life situations more literally and down-to-earth than Tarot.
The Lenormand deck is named after the French fortune-teller Marie Anne Lenormand (1772–1843), though the system itself, known as the "Petit Lenormand," took shape only after her death, likely developing out of a German parlor game called "The Game of Hope" from the late 18th century. Unlike Tarot with its archetypal, layered imagery, the 36 Lenormand cards depict simple, concrete objects — the Rider (news), the House (family, stability), the Snake (a complicated situation or a detour), the Coffin (the end of a stage) — and they're read literally, in the context of neighboring cards in a spread, rather than as standalone symbols. That makes the system well suited to specific, practical questions ("how is this work situation unfolding") where Tarot offers a deeper but more abstract image. In the classic "Grand Tableau" spread, all 36 cards are laid out at once, and their positions relative to each other — a card to the left, to the right, above — add another layer of reading: that combinatorial principle is the main thing that sets the method apart from Tarot spreads.
See also
Significator
A card chosen to stand in for a person or situation in a Tarot or Lenormand spread — a reference point the rest of the cards are read against.
Archetype
A universal, recurring image or role (the Sage, the Hero, the Mother) that structures human experience — a central concept in reading Tarot and myth.
New Moon
The phase when the Moon is invisible from Earth and a new 29-day cycle begins — a symbolic starting point for setting new intentions.
Intention
A consciously formulated decision to act in a given direction, which self-inquiry practices anchor to symbolically "clean" moments, like the New Moon.
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