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The Enchanted Lenormand Oracle: 39 Magical Cards to Reveal Your True Self and Your Destiny
The Lenormand deck is one of the most culturally significant oracle decks of our time. This modern interpretation brings it fully up to date for use by today's readers.
This is the classic Lenormand deck for the 21st century, now reissued with a fresh design to showcase the amazing hand-painted card illustrations that guide the diviner in solving problems, learning what the future holds and developing intuition. The traditional deck has been updated to make it as relevant as possible to contemporary readers, including in the LGBT the deck offers, for example, an extra Man card and an extra Woman card to allow same-sex relationships to appear in readings. Another extra card, the Divinator, allows the diviner themselves to appear in a spread. Other updates to make the cards feel more relevant today include reducing the original deck's reliance on Christian imagery, for example by changing the name of the Cross card to the Crossing, and replacing its crucifix artwork with a beautiful image of bird wings over a bridge.
Much used by the Roma, the Lenormand cards are named after Marie-Anne Lenormand, a famous clairvoyant of the 18th and 19th centuries who read for Napoleon and Josephine Bonaparte. Fascinated by this evocative oracle, cartomancer and Lenormand expert Caitlín Matthews commissioned simple yet profound artwork to capture the authentic flavour of the antique decks. The card illustrations are all hand-painted (rather than created as digital montages), allowing each card to express its own character. The accessible guidebook is suitable for a complete beginner to card divination, but also offers new perspectives to existing Lenormand users. There are detailed profiles of each card, as well as practical advice on using layouts to ask for guidance on a specific problem or to look at the bigger picture and discover true purpose in life.
This is the classic Lenormand deck for the 21st century, now reissued with a fresh design to showcase the amazing hand-painted card illustrations that guide the diviner in solving problems, learning what the future holds and developing intuition. The traditional deck has been updated to make it as relevant as possible to contemporary readers, including in the LGBT the deck offers, for example, an extra Man card and an extra Woman card to allow same-sex relationships to appear in readings. Another extra card, the Divinator, allows the diviner themselves to appear in a spread. Other updates to make the cards feel more relevant today include reducing the original deck's reliance on Christian imagery, for example by changing the name of the Cross card to the Crossing, and replacing its crucifix artwork with a beautiful image of bird wings over a bridge.
Much used by the Roma, the Lenormand cards are named after Marie-Anne Lenormand, a famous clairvoyant of the 18th and 19th centuries who read for Napoleon and Josephine Bonaparte. Fascinated by this evocative oracle, cartomancer and Lenormand expert Caitlín Matthews commissioned simple yet profound artwork to capture the authentic flavour of the antique decks. The card illustrations are all hand-painted (rather than created as digital montages), allowing each card to express its own character. The accessible guidebook is suitable for a complete beginner to card divination, but also offers new perspectives to existing Lenormand users. There are detailed profiles of each card, as well as practical advice on using layouts to ask for guidance on a specific problem or to look at the bigger picture and discover true purpose in life.
- GenresNonfiction
160 pages, Cards
Published April 17, 2018
About the author
Caitlín Matthews
146 books197 followersCaitlín Matthews is a writer, singer and teacher whose ground-breaking work has introduced many to the riches of our western spiritual heritage.
She is acknowledged as a world authority on Celtic Wisdom, the Western Mysteries and the ancestral traditions of Britain and Europe. She is the author of over 50 books including Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom, a study of Divine Feminine in Gnostic, Jewish and Christian thought and King Arthur’s Raid on the Underworld, a new translation and study of the Welsh poet Taliesin’s extraordinary poem, itself a major cross-roads of British mythology.
Caitlín was trained in the esoteric mystery traditions through the schools founded by Dion Fortune, Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki and Gareth Knight. Her shamanic vocation emerged early in her ability to sing between the worlds and to embody spirits. She has worked in many of the western traditions with companions upon the path including R.J.Stewart. Like him, she teaches the many strands of the ancestral European traditions. She specializes in teaching traditional European spirit-consultation oracles where the diviner draws directly upon the spirits of nature for answers and in the use of the voice to sound the unseen. Caitlín has been instrumental in revealing the ancestral heritage of the Western traditions through practical exploration of the mysteries as well as through scholarly research. Her teachings are couched in a firm historical and linguistic framework, with respect to the original context of the teachings, but never loses sight of the living traditions of these teachings which can be explored through direct application to their spiritual sources.
Trained as an actress, Caitlín is in demand as a storyteller and singer. She appears frequently on international radio and television, and was the song-writer and Pictish language originator for the Jerry Bruckheimer film King Arthur. With John Matthews, her partner, who was historical consultant on the film, she shared in the 2004 BAFTA award given to Film Education for the best educational CD Rom: this project introduced school-children to the life and times of King Arthur. She and John are both concerned with the oral nature of storytelling and its ability to communicate the myth at a much deeper level than of the commercial booktrade. This is apparent in their forthcoming project, The Story Box. For Caitlín, her books are merely the tip of a much bigger oral iceberg which is her teaching.
With her partner, John Matthews, and with Felicity Wombwell , she is co-founder of The Foundation for Inspirational and Oracular Studies, which is dedicated to the sacred arts that are not written down. Their FíOS shamanic training programme teaches students the healing arts as well as hosting masterclasses with exemplars of living sacred traditions. Caitlín has a shamanic practice in Oxford dedicated to addressing soul sickness and ancestral fragmentation, as well as helping clients find vocational and spiritual direction. Her soul-singing and embodiment uniquely bring the ancient healing traditions to everyday life.
Caitlín’s other books include Singing the Soul Back Home, Mabon and the Guardians of Celtic Britain, The Psychic Protection Handbook, and Celtic Devotional. She is co-author, with John Matthews, of the Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom and Encyclopaedia of Celtic Myth and Legend. Her books have been translated into more than nineteen languages from Brazil to Japan.
The author lives in Oxford with her husband and son in a kind of book-cave or library, whichever you will. They share their home with a white cat and a black cat.
She is acknowledged as a world authority on Celtic Wisdom, the Western Mysteries and the ancestral traditions of Britain and Europe. She is the author of over 50 books including Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom, a study of Divine Feminine in Gnostic, Jewish and Christian thought and King Arthur’s Raid on the Underworld, a new translation and study of the Welsh poet Taliesin’s extraordinary poem, itself a major cross-roads of British mythology.
Caitlín was trained in the esoteric mystery traditions through the schools founded by Dion Fortune, Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki and Gareth Knight. Her shamanic vocation emerged early in her ability to sing between the worlds and to embody spirits. She has worked in many of the western traditions with companions upon the path including R.J.Stewart. Like him, she teaches the many strands of the ancestral European traditions. She specializes in teaching traditional European spirit-consultation oracles where the diviner draws directly upon the spirits of nature for answers and in the use of the voice to sound the unseen. Caitlín has been instrumental in revealing the ancestral heritage of the Western traditions through practical exploration of the mysteries as well as through scholarly research. Her teachings are couched in a firm historical and linguistic framework, with respect to the original context of the teachings, but never loses sight of the living traditions of these teachings which can be explored through direct application to their spiritual sources.
Trained as an actress, Caitlín is in demand as a storyteller and singer. She appears frequently on international radio and television, and was the song-writer and Pictish language originator for the Jerry Bruckheimer film King Arthur. With John Matthews, her partner, who was historical consultant on the film, she shared in the 2004 BAFTA award given to Film Education for the best educational CD Rom: this project introduced school-children to the life and times of King Arthur. She and John are both concerned with the oral nature of storytelling and its ability to communicate the myth at a much deeper level than of the commercial booktrade. This is apparent in their forthcoming project, The Story Box. For Caitlín, her books are merely the tip of a much bigger oral iceberg which is her teaching.
With her partner, John Matthews, and with Felicity Wombwell , she is co-founder of The Foundation for Inspirational and Oracular Studies, which is dedicated to the sacred arts that are not written down. Their FíOS shamanic training programme teaches students the healing arts as well as hosting masterclasses with exemplars of living sacred traditions. Caitlín has a shamanic practice in Oxford dedicated to addressing soul sickness and ancestral fragmentation, as well as helping clients find vocational and spiritual direction. Her soul-singing and embodiment uniquely bring the ancient healing traditions to everyday life.
Caitlín’s other books include Singing the Soul Back Home, Mabon and the Guardians of Celtic Britain, The Psychic Protection Handbook, and Celtic Devotional. She is co-author, with John Matthews, of the Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom and Encyclopaedia of Celtic Myth and Legend. Her books have been translated into more than nineteen languages from Brazil to Japan.
The author lives in Oxford with her husband and son in a kind of book-cave or library, whichever you will. They share their home with a white cat and a black cat.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 19, 2018
Book and deck
November 24, 2019
Not just another Tarot deck, Lenormand cards are more of a story you tell yourself by looking at the spread and finding the connections between all the cards in your spread and the rest of the deck.
While it seems harder at first--each card has an idea that you interpret into meaning--it is interesting and leaves a lot more open to interpretation.
It is less a predictor of the future than an inventory of what each person wants and needs and imagine the helps and blocks to that goal.
For me, it would take considerable study and time to learn. I don't mind the practice, but for me, and this is just my opinion, where my attention goes, my energy flows, and I would rather my energy flow in a different direction.
While it seems harder at first--each card has an idea that you interpret into meaning--it is interesting and leaves a lot more open to interpretation.
It is less a predictor of the future than an inventory of what each person wants and needs and imagine the helps and blocks to that goal.
For me, it would take considerable study and time to learn. I don't mind the practice, but for me, and this is just my opinion, where my attention goes, my energy flows, and I would rather my energy flow in a different direction.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews