The Original Lenormand
Your chance to acquire one of only 100 copies of this limited 5th edition Original Lenormand deck, a reproduction of the actual Game of Hope deck in the British Museum, printed under license.
5th Edition NOW SOLD OUT – PLEASE JOIN LIST BELOW TO BE THE FIRST TO KNOW ABOUT THE 6th Edition!
The 4th edition sold out extremely quickly, and other projects required completion before we returned to the Lenormand, but we have now relicenses and printed 100 copies of the Original Lenormand (in tin) for readers as a 5th edition.
The Story of the Lenormand Revival
In New York, 2011, Tali Goodwin and Marcus Katz announced the Cards of Antiquity campaign which sought to bring old-school ‘vintage’ decks to popular awareness.
Within that campaign, they primarily wanted to bring the ‘petit Lenormand’ deck to popular attention as part of the nascent Arkartia project, which required a deck featuring a Rose (on the Bouquet card) and a Key.
At the time, they had also discussed a potential Lenormand book contract with Llewellyn Worldwide, although the general thinking was that there was insufficient interest in the subject to warrant a book.
There were only a few, fairly unattended, blogs on the subject, mainly in French or German, literally just five or six, and compatively few readers of petit Lenormand outside of continental Europe and Brazil, etc. which made it an extremely small English-speaking market.
This was why no publisher had produced a book in English on the subject, with only a couple of books having been self-published in the past, both wildly varying in their approach to the deck.
Marcus & Tali looked to grow that audience by sharing their new passion for the deck and what they referred to as an almost forgotten ‘salon-style’ of reading. They imagined that it would be fantastic to see at TarotCon events – a return to vintage cartomancy and elegant ‘fortune telling’.
Subsequent to the announcement of the campaign – and several of those in the audience that day also became some of the major promoters of Lenormand in coming years – the Lenormand deck became a new phenomena in cartomancy.
In fact, more Lenormand decks were published in the following two years than in the previous two centuries.
The History of the Original Lenormand Deck
The connection of the ‘Game of Hope’ or Das Spiel der Hofnung (J. K. Hechtel, 1799, G. P. J. Bieling of Nurenberg) to ‘petit Lenormand’ decks was first made in 1972 by Prof. Detlef Hoffmann and Erika Kroppenstedt in Wahrsagekarten: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Okkultismus (quoted in footnote by Decker, Depaulis & Dummett, A Wicked Pack of Cards, 1996).
It was from that neglected footnote that Marcus & Tali’s own research had developed, leading them to the British Museum and the research included in their first book on the subject, and the first published book (by a publisher) on Lenormand in English, Learning Lenormand (Llewellyn, 2012).
For their part, in addition to a book, they decided to share their research by producing a replica of the ‘Game of Hope’ cards in the British Museum.
The first step was to pay for the British Museum to photograph the deck, as there was no photography of the deck at that time. This was done with an investment from Tarot Professionals Ltd, and shortly thereafter the Museum made those images available on the British Museum website.
The Original Lenormand Deck
Marcus & Tali then worked with leading artist and tarot creator Ciro Marchetti to prepare the images for printing, who tidied up folds and rough edges from the original artefact, amongst other work, whilst keeping as true to the original as possible.
They were able to assure this authenticity having viewed and handled the original deck in good lighting conditions, so were very aware of its size, appearance, colouring and texture.
You can click the below image for a fuller size photograph of all the cards in the Original Lenormand 4th edition.
Steph Engert also kindly produced the world’s first English translation of the original German instruction (gaming) sheet.
For more information on using this deck for divination, please see the range of Lenormand courses here at the Association and the books Learning Lenormand and 7 Day Lenormand.
Following 4 prior editions – including the now-infamous “greenies” of the first printing which acquired a unique greenish hue – we have now produced a 5th edition, limited to 100 copies only.
These are licensed directly from the Trustees of the British Museum by Tarot Professionals Ltd.
This edition (as was the 4th edition) is printed by an alternative printing company than our previous editions, and comes in an exclusive tin with the original box cover printed on the lid.
Buy Your Original Lenormand (5th edition) Deck
The deck is provided as 38 cards in a tin.
Please order your Original Lenormand deck and postage options based on your location, USA or Overseas.
* PLEASE JOIN THE WAITING LIST BELOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE KEPT INFORMED OF NEXT EDITION, THANK YOU *
USA
Price … $49.99 + $7.99 package & postage USA.
REST OF WORLD (UK, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, ETC)
Price … $49.99 + $15.25 package & postage Worldwide.
The Original Lenormand deck (5th edition) comes with a duplicate Gentleman and Lady card for optional use in same-sex relationship readings.