When looking at old cartomancy decks and specifically the Petit Lenormand, it seems quite apparent that most of them have an inset filled with a playing card. In the case of the Petit Lenormand, the reason for having such an inset is unknown as this was not described with the first deck; it might have been added for flexibility, giving to the deck a dual purpose, as it could then be used for playing cards, and eventually for fortune telling.
Going back to the topic that interest us, cartomancy and divination, we can safely assume that most of the meanings in the world are deriving from the French, and more specifically they go back to Eteilla. All of this makes perfect sense when looking at most decks and most sibilla. But, when looking at the Petit Lenormand, it’s quite obvious that something is wrong. For example, spades, in most cartomancy systems, are treated as the least auspicious suit, and are usually the most unpleasant cards. However, when looking at the Petit Lenormand, we cannot say that cards like the Lily, the Bouquet of the Child, for instance, are so bad that they would be placed in the worst suit of the deck. Common sense tells us that something is wrong with this picture.
If we want to consider other options, we must explore history and go back to the origins of the Petit Lenormand. Among all the treasures in the collection of the British Museum, there is a pack of cards, named Das Spiel der Hofnung (the game of hope), which was bequeathed by Lady Charlotte Schreiber in 1896. We can find it online here: UR Lenormand
Later on, Decker, Depaulis and Dummett, in their wonderful book “A wicked pack of cards”, page 141, speak of a few packs of 36 card that appeared around 1850, under the name “Petit Lenormand”. Their composition points to Germany rather than France, and amazingly, this type of cards has never been produced in France. The historian Detlef Hoffman has shown that these decks can be attributed to a common ancestor, a deck called “Das Spiel der Hofnung” (the same one bequeathed to the British Museum), published around 1800 in Nuremberg. Surprisingly it was not a fortune telling pack but a race pack of the family of the goose games. However, the last lines of the text states that “with the same cards one can also undertake an entertaining fortune telling game”, no other explanation is given.
Coming back to the insets, if we want to look at a system that seems correct, we must look at how cartomancy was commonly practiced in the south of Germany around 200 years ago. This could help us to understand better how it can be applied to the Petit Lenormand, and try to make sense of the inconsistencies with the french system.
We can look at two aspects, the suits, and the people they represent.
The suits.
The Hearts are generally seen as a good omen, and especially in love, of course. They also deal with domestic lives and our surroundings.
The Spades are a very positive suit, in contrary to the french system. They provide positivity to the future, friendship, or trust in other people. It represents happiness and what brings us pleasure. The reason why their interpretation is so different is certainly because, instead of representing blades as in the french system, they are assimilated to leaves or shields.
Diamonds represent first and foremost the state of our finances, but are also a mix of day to day events, sometimes good, sometimes bad, the precarious nature of life.
Clubs are not good in any way. They can be interpreted as illness, loss and separation, but also accidents that happen in life. They’re never pleasant, and as such, are the most negative suit of the pack. This is the suit where we find the worse cards.
People.
While there can be other cards representing people in special occasions, we can safely assume that, from a cartomancy point of view, jacks represent children, boys and girls, queens represent women, and kings represent men. Cards of the same suit can usually be seen as representing people from the same family.
There are 2 ways in which these insets can be used for representing people, per suit attribute, and per age.
When looking at suit attribute, Hearts will be emphatic, family oriented people, the ones you can count to support you on an emotional level.
Spades represent people with are there to help you evolve, solve your problems, the ones you can count on when help is needed.
Diamonds are much more unpredictable people, they represent people who change their mind quickly, nervous and quick of action.
Clubs, by the negativity of their suit, represent difficult people, and people working against your goals, that’s why they usually represent an ex or difficult significant other, step parent, …
If we look at age, Spades tend to be the older people in the 4 suits, as they have qualities usually acquired with age, such as wisdom, experience, … as such, they can represent a father, mother or older relative.
Hearts, per their empathic nature, will represent people older than the querent. They might be an older sibling or friend…
Diamonds, per their unpredictable nature, which is generally a characteristic of younger people, tend to represent younger siblings or persons known to the querent.
I personally do not associate clubs per age characteristic.
I will add that it does not make sense to look for people in every spread. Traditional definitions of the cards remain the root of the Petit Lenormand interpretations. Looking for people left and right should be done lightly, only when really dictated by the situation.
Putting everything together.
Let’s do first a small reading to familiarize ourselves with the concepts developed. Someone is wondering if she should stay in a group of leave.
We have 1 Diamond, 1 Club and 1 Spade. Looking at suit characteristics, we could say that day to day unpredictability in the group (diamond) is bringing problems (club), it has its toll on the consultant’s personal growth (spade).
Eventually, but this does not seem mandated here, we could look at the queen of diamonds on the paths, the painful choice might be motivated by a woman in the group which is quite unpredictable.
As we can see, looking at the insets gives us a very good overview of the situation, even before starting to go into the details of the interpretation.
Looking at the traditional interpretation, we see that the consultant is at a crossroad (paths) which bring her some pain (cross), it’s time for her to move somewhere else (ship).
Going to a more complex example, I will revisit a previous spread. A mother was asking why her son is not behaving correctly at school and home.
This is the gist of what was said by looking at the insets.
We have a majority of spades (4) and clubs (3). Spades are a very auspicious suit, which bodes well among Nick’s problems. They represent positive signs, among the problems denoted by the 3 clubs. This, by itself, is a positive sign that Nick’s problems can be solved once the cause has been found.
We see 3 people. Nick, by his young age, can be represented by the jack of hearts. That leaves 2 adult people that could be involved in Nicks’ problems: the king of clubs and the queen of spades.
First, the king of clubs, difficult character who can create some concern, as this is a characteristic of his suit. Being directly on top of the Mountain, he can be seen as an adversary to Nick’s evolution. He is also clouding to some extent the heart and the book. He could be a man at school or home, there is no evidence at this point to define him better.
Second, the queen of spades. An experienced person who could help him. Here, as his mother is the consultant, we can safely rule her out, as she would be represented by the Lady. That leaves us with someone at school who could help him, teacher or counsellor.
