The Fairy Tale Lenormand
This is one of the most adorable deck of cards I have ever seen in any form – be it Lenormand, Tarot, Oracle, or just a deck of playing cards!
Published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc. (www.usgamesinc.com), with artwork by the very talented Lisa Hunt and with a booklet written by Arwen Lynch, this set of Lenormand cards is sure to delight any level of practitioner. As someone who is still at a beginner’s level (I admit it), I think it would be great for someone who is learning the basics of Lenormand or who is just beyond the basics.
And I love the little tin. I love little boxes of all kinds and I collect them.
Winner of the 2016 Tarosophists Award for Best Lenormand Deck, the cards measure no more than 2 ¼ inches by 3 ½ inches (5.5 mm x 8.5 mm) and they are made out of standard card stock with a glossy finish on them which makes them easy to shuffle and handle. They are just a tad smaller than a standard poker deck. I can well imagine elves and fairies sitting around a toadstool table dealing out the cards to see what their fortune will be today!
I grew up loving Fairy Tales. My beloved grandmother MacDavid, “Gramma Mac” was a skilled storyteller and she lived not very far from the home in which I lived with my parents and my brothers and sisters. I – along with my brothers and sisters, and my cousins, who lived next door to my grandmother – spent many happy days at her home, which was where she grew up as well. A day was not complete without at least one storytelling session and usually there was more than one. I personally loved Fairy Tales but she would also tell stories about our family history and about the neighborhood. She also brought the Fairy Tales into our real life. For instance, there was an old shack across the creek – my father, who had been an Eagle Scout, said it was where the Boy Scouts met back in the 1940’s – but Gramma Mac said it was where the Wicked Witch of the West lived! At least in the warm months. In the winter, she lived in the cellar! What my grandmother called “the dungeon”! – the drained cistern that was beneath the house and was attached to the herb cellar. When she went down into the cellar in the winter – to get a jar of pickles or some other canned item – she would knock on the walls to “let the witch know she was coming”. In the spring, when the snows melted and the creek overflowed its banks, the cellar would flood and, remembering how Dorothy melted the Wicked Witch with a pail of water, we would ask about the witch. “Oh, she’s alright,” my grandmother told us. “She’s already gone back to the shack in the woods. It’s spring.”
The Creek
Sometime in the early 1970’s, the shack burned to the ground – some teenagers torched it – I remember being there before it burned and seeing evidence of partying. I was only twelve but I didn’t think the witch drank Genny Cream Ale and smoked Pall Malls (but honestly, what did I know?). Of course, by then I was getting a bit old for believing in the Wicked Witch of the West. At least – in a literal sense. In a few years, I would be discovering the Goddess and a whole new way of looking at witches and fairies.
When I first opened up this pack of cards and looked at the images, all the lessons I learned from hearing fairy tales from my grandmother and reading them on my own came back to me. Using fairy tales as a metaphor for the concepts within the Lenormand (or the Tarot) is nothing short of brilliant. In my humble opinion, anyway!
Lisa Hunt is the artist who created the Fairy Tale Tarot and five other divination decks. Her website is here: Lisa Hunt Gallery. There’s a lot to see, so plan to spend some time here! She’s a fabulous artist. I personally would love to get the Fairy Tale Tarot someday – I have always loved it. Not to mention that using Tarot cards and Lenormand cards in the same reading is quite the rage nowadays (see: https://www.cafelenormand.com/combine-tarot-lenormand/ and http://learnlenormand.com/combining-lenormand-with-tarot/) so having the Fairy Tale Tarot along with the Fairy Tale Lenormand would be a great way to access this trend! But right now, let’s just focus on the Fairy Tale Lenormand.
The little booklet – and it is small! – was written by Arwen Lynch. Her website is here: Tarot by Arwen. The Forward in the book is written by Donnaleigh de LaRose and I highly recommend that you read it carefully. I know that lots of you skip over forwards and introductions but don’t do it this time. There’s a ton of important information in these eleven pages. I have to admit that I didn’t know who Donnaleigh de LaRose was before I read this introduction but I checked out her webpage and I hope you all do, too. There’s a wealth of knowledge here.
This booklet differs from other Lenormand booklets in that while it gives the meanings of the cards, using the Fairy Tale story of the image to fully illustrate the concept, there are no double meanings. Usually Lenormand booklets will give you basic examples, such as Clover + Letter or Dog + Man. However, this booklet is so tiny that those kinds of examples might have been edited out for the sake of space, which is understandable. And honestly – I can attest this for myself – you don’t get that kind of linguistic understanding of the cards by reading it in a book. The only way you get it is by using the cards every single day. Practice makes perfect – I must have heard that a hundred times as a kid – but ya know what? It’s true. And if it doesn’t make you perfect – at least it makes you competent.
At the end of the book, there are several spreads, all based on the Fan Spread. I used that spread for several days – with several different questions. Here are the results.
First question: Will I hear from C. soon? This was the other day, although I am once again waiting to hear from C. Here are the cards I pulled:
From this, I saw that C was still at work (36, Cross, burdens) but he would soon be texting me (27, Letter) with good news (9, Bouquet). Which is exactly what happened. I hope it happens again!
Yesterday, I went out to lunch with my cousin Rose. Rose was one of the cousins who lived next door to my Gramma Mac; she called my Gramma “Auntie”. Rose was born two months before I was – I have no memory of life without Rose – she is my oldest and dearest friend. We went to the Saigon Café and had lunch and caught up. Before I met with her, I asked the cards (rather rhetorically, I admit), “What will we talk about?” Here is the answer:
Both Rose and I have dealt with a lot of death in our families these past few years – in the last ten years, she has lost both her parents, her older brother (whom I adored) and her husband. In the past year, I have lost my father, my beloved aunt, my yellow lab, and a troublesome but loved uncle. We talked about how these deaths affected us and our loyalty to our dead loved ones but also the brightness of the future, as we explore new relationships and new experiences. It was such a wonderful lunch!
This morning, I got a call from an ex-boyfriend. He’s off work today and do I want to hang out with him today? Do some fishing?
Of course, my first thought is NO. But I go to the cards, right? And this is what I pull:
Okay, setting aside that the cards are practically in order – believe me, I shuffled! And it’s not like they were in order to begin with! – I am first struck at how the Lady and the Gentleman are facing away from each other! Doesn’t that say it all! But there’s the 30 Lilies card and there’s a definite sexual attraction between the two of them – or is there? Is the Lady looking somewhere else? And where is the Gentleman looking? The focus is the 31 Sun card so maybe they get it together – as an old Crone, I’d say that’s a very big maybe.
But hell! I haven’t been fishing in a very long time! And it’s a beautiful sunny day! Perfect fishing weather!
I have to say that I absolutely love this deck of cards. It’s my new favorite divinatory method – I’ve been using it every day. I might actually learn the Lenormand with this fabulous deck! I can’t recommend it enough! If you purchase it or get it as a present, I hope you love it as much as I do!
Until next time, Brightest Blessings!
References:
Lynch, Arwen & Lisa Hunt. Fairy Tale Lenormand. Stamford, CT: US Games, Inc., 2016.
Cafe Lenomand: Combine Tarot – Lenormand
Learn Lenormand: Combinging Lenormand with Tarot
Photograph of “the creek” from my own personal collection.
The Fairy Tale Lenormand on Amazon
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About the Author:
Polly MacDavid lives in Buffalo, New York at the moment but that could easily change, since she is a gypsy at heart. Like a gypsy, she is attracted to the divinatory arts, as well as camp fires and dancing barefoot. She has three cats who all help her with her magic.
Her philosophy about religion and magic is that it must be thoroughly based in science and logic. She is Dianic Wiccan and she is solitary.
She blogs at silverapplequeen.wordpress.com. She writes about general life, politics and poetry. She is writing a novel about sex, drugs and recovery.