Table Of ContentTHE ENGLISH LENORMAND
By Mary K. Greer, Tali Goodwin & Marcus Katz
Transcribed from Les Amusemens des Allemands, London, 1796,
and with additional commentary.
Published by Forge Press (August, 2013)
1 Wood Cottage, Old Windebrowe, Keswick,
Cumbria CA12 4NT
Cover: ‘A Consultation of Mlle. Lenormand’, 1843
The English Lenormand © Mary K. Greer, Marcus Katz & Tali
Goodwin, 2013. All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise – without written permission from the publisher.
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Introduction
The revival of the Lenormand deck throughout online cartomantic
groups has been unparalleled in the last two years. It has generated
more new Lenormand decks in this short period alone than in the
whole of the preceding century, and a number of new books in
English on the subject. The reading of Lenormand cards is no longer
a sub-category of many forums or social networking spaces, but now
has its own forums and social sites. The authors of blogs on the
subject, who have for many years been lone voices of interest and
experience, have found themselves the subject of a wider scale of
interest.
The singular marker of growth is of course the contracting and
publication of new decks and books by major publishers, which has
now commenced; self-published decks have also found themselves
acquired by several of the major publishers as the market has
developed.
This interest remains a niche of a niche of a niche, though, and
whilst there may be seemingly intense debates about various
aspects of the situation, they are in actuality confined to a small
group of interested parties. We have been delighted to see the
development of interest, which one day may make a book in itself. In
the meantime, there are still many discussions and practices to
share, and develop and research to complete.
An important driver in this revival is the historical aspect of the deck,
its symbols and reading method. Our own Learning Lenormand (pub.
Llewellyn, 2012) and Original Lenormand deck were based on our
personal return to cartomantic roots. On our part, the Lenormand
was always a minor note in a grand chorus composed of Papus,
Etteilla, Wirth, Levi and the Professor Foli’s of the cartomantic world;
an “antique” style of reading bridging from early Fortune Books to
contemporary Tarot. So it has been a constant bemusement to
witness the flourishing of this “petit” deck.
In this booklet, we present a major discovery by Mary K. Greer. Her
research work has been ongoing and whilst only in the last few years
turning to Lenormand, has always been immersed in the history of
cartomancy. In discussion with her, we visited the British Museum
where Mary had come across a reference (and photographs) of a
book, Les Amusemens des Allemands, dating from 1796. This book
appeared to be a chap-book collecting 32 cards, which were stuck
into the book. However, we suspected it contained more than the
cards, even if the additional material was not photographed.
On viewing the book, we discovered that there was an additional
“pamphlet” of some 31 pages pasted into the book ahead of the card
images. This contained not only explanatory text of the card images,
but incredibly, a definitive statement that the card images were
derived from coffee-grind reading symbols, which had previously
been suspected but never proven. The text also goes on to provide
many other previously unknown aspects of card reading,
demonstrating that the Lenormand “method” is plainly a card-based
version of coffee-cup reading.
We have provided a complete transcript of the booklet herein, and
the card images themselves can be viewed on the British Museum
website [Ref. 1982,U.4637.1-32].
We have also provided a comparison with the Hechtel deck, “The
Game of Hope” which became the template of what is now
commonly referred to as “The” petit Lenormand deck. We then show
how these original and authentic instructions and meanings from
1796 can be used in contemporary readings with any Lenormand
deck.
Les Amusemens des Allemands;
OR, THE
DIVERSIONS
OF
THE COURT OF VIENNA,
In which the Mystery of
FORTUNE-TELLING
is UNRAVELLED, BY MEANS OF
THIRTY-TWO EMBLEMATICAL CARDS,
WITH A BOOK OF
SUITABLE DIRECTIONS.
LONDON:
Published February 20th, 1796,
BY
CHAMPANTE and WHITROW, Jewry-Street, Aldgate.
Price Three Shillings.
ENTERED AT STATIONERS HALL.
ADVERTISMENT
THESE entertaining games first made their appearance at VIENNA,
in 1794, where they still are the favourite amusement of the
EMPRESS of GERMANY, and the Imperial Court. They have since
been diffused through all the fashionable circles in that country. The
Editor, therefore, has to hope that, in a country where the liberality
and curious discernment of its inhabitants is so conspicuous as that
of Britain, they will not be held in less estimation.
PREFACE
If we consider the baneful influence which the pretended occult and
super-natural arts have at all times had upon the credulous and
weak-minded, if we calculate the fatal and ruinous consequences
which they have produced, and are still found to produce upon the
deluded victims of superstition, it cannot be but a benefit to humanity
in general, to detect the artifices by which a set of impostors, by the
name of conjurors, fortune-tellers, magicians, alchymists, cabalists,
judicial-astrologers, gypsies, &c. have at all times endeavoured to fill
their purses.
Thanks to our enlightened age that their number is no more so
considerable as it has been in the last century, and that the mischiefs
resulting from the practices are less frequent and extensive at
present. We cannot, however, say, that those dangerous tribes have
quite lost their credit among the present generation; persons of both
sexes still consult them here and there, and the mischiefs
occasioned by their pretended divinations are still incalculable.
Amiable and hopeful young women and men owe their ruin to their
predictions, by which they regulate the conduct of their life; parents
reduce their families to beggary by exposing their fortunes to the
pest of gambling, at the instigation of those detestable hornets who
flatter them with the acquisition of wealth by those means; hundreds
of weak individuals have hanged, drowned, shot or otherwise
destroyed themselves, because accident made some circumstances
of their situation agree with the false prophecies of those crafty
cheats. The natural propensity to believe in supernatural causes and
effects is still too prevalent among the majority of the people, and
reason and conviction alone are not always able to suppress it. Were
all men penetrated with the belief, that nothing can happen in this
world without a sufficient cause, and that the effects must agree with
the causes, the professors of the occult sciences would long ago
have been compelled to starve, or to embrace a more useful
employment than that of living upon the silliness and credulity of their
fellow-creatures. Though it cannot denied, that those juggling tricks
have lost for the most part their reputation, yet they still meet with
popularity, and it is a duty to weaken this popularity and more; nay, to
destroy it, if possible, entirely. I have, therefore, thought the best way
to bring upon them that ridicule and contempt which they so justly
deserve, would be to change them into games and entertainments,
which operate more forcibly upon young and inexperienced minds,
than philosophical arguments.
In my late travels to Germany [footnote: 1793]I visited the library of a
convent in that country, where I found a book of Egyptian
hieroglyphics, which was said to have been discovered by the
Emperor Constantine the Great in Egypt, in the year 320 after the
birth of Christ. A translation of it in the Latin language being also
shewn to me, I begged leave to make an English version of it, and
copied the emblematic figures, in hopes of its being likely to become
an acceptable present to my countrymen. This book, does not,
properly speaking, teach the method of Fortune telling from the
grounds of the coffee cup, because coffee was not in use at that
time: but as sherbet is a very favourite liquor among the Egyptians
and the people of the East in general; the art used to tell Fortunes
from the dregs of that liquor, has been applied here to the grounds of
coffee, which is drank in every country of Europe.
With regard to the figures represented on the cards, it may easily be
imagined, that they will not appear so plainly in the coffee cup, some
degree of resemblance being sufficient, and a fertile imagination will
easily supply the rest. Thirty-two figures have therefore been
chosen, though the grounds in the cup may perchance represent
more.
THE EDITOR.
DIRECTIONS
TO POUR OUT
THE COFFEE GRINDS
Pour the grounds of coffee in a white cup, shake them well about in
it, so that their particles may cover the surface of the whole cup; then
reverse it into the saucer, that all the superfluous parts may be
drained, and the figures required for Fortune-telling be formed. The
person that acts the Fortune-teller must always bend his thoughts
upon him or her that wish to have their fortune told, and upon their
rank and profession, in order to give plausibility to their predictions. It
is not to be expected upon taking up the cup, that the figures will be
as accurately represented as they are in the pack, and it is quite
sufficient, if they bear some resemblance to any of the 32 emblems;
and the more fertile the fancy shall be of the person that inspects the
cup, the more he will discover in it. In other respects every one who
takes a pleasure in this amusement, must himself be a judge, under
what circumstances he is to make changes in point of time, speaking
just as it suits, in the present, the past, of the future: in the same
manner, their ingenuity ought to direct them when to speak more or
less pointedly and determinately with regard to sex.
