(Petit) Lenormand / "Blue Owl" Lenormand (AGM-Urania)

(Petit) Lenormand / "blue owl" Lenormand. AGM-Urania, Germany. Bespoke divinatory deck, 36 single-headed cards + divinatory-meanings booklet. Size: 56mm x 87mm.

Deck make-up:
Cards: 1-36.

Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand (1772–1843) was a French professional fortune-teller of considerable fame during the Napoleonic era. In France, Lenormand is considered the greatest cartomancer of all time, highly influential on the wave of French cartomancy that began in the late 18th century. Lenormand claimed to have given cartomantic advice to many famous persons, among them leaders of the French revolution (Marat, Robespierre and St-Just), Empress Josephine and Tsar Alexander I. She was active for more than 40 years. After Lenormand's death her name was used on several cartomancy decks including a deck of 36 illustrated cards known as the Petit Lenormand, or simply Lenormand, cards that are still used extensively today.

This deck is the little brother of the Grand Lenormand (see links at end of page), but the Petit Lenormand isn't a subset of the Grand – none of the cards are common to both. The pictures on the Grand seem to be more classical and mythology based, whereas the imagery here is more about the everyday.

The deck shown is the popular "blue owl" deck (named after the design of the backs) by AGM-Urania. Their advertising literature describes the design used as dating from the 19th century. The edition shown contains regular playing cards used as small inserts into the main design; the relevance of this feature does not seem to be explained by the booklet enclosed with the deck. Other "blue owl" decks have been available showing obscure verses in lieu of the playing-card inserts. These verses-style decks also, confusingly, seem to also be available as a "red owl" deck.

Click on any card to explore the design.

(Comments or corrections, please e-mail: Click to see e-mail address.)

Cards

The playing-card inserts shown seem to rather butt in on the main pictures. Take a look at card 28, for example. I can't believe the original would have been designed like that, aesthetically. It would have been nice to see the proper, full artwork, but this deck is only available with the playing-card inserts or mysterious maxims in lieu of them.
My favourite picture is the coffin on card 8.