Natalia Lee

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Category: Reviews

Fortune’s Fools Lenormand

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Lenormand, Reviews
Things have been quiet around here as I’ve been focusing on my newsletter and building closer contact with readers. But as things are always in a constant flow of change I now desire to open the doors to more frequent writing on here again. So I creak open the door with a deck review.

For the past couple years I have not been participating in the acquisition of new tarot decks as I feel I have a good and decent collection, I am satisfied. What I have been doing, on and off, is keeping an eye out for playing card reproductions that catch my eye. Well, this year a deck was published that I have been following for a while. It is a Lenormand deck, a strikingly iconic Lenormand deck. Iconic in an emblematic sense, and this is the deck I want to talk about now.

The Fortune’s Fools deck is a creation from and with the times, to be precise and per the guidebook it “is a two-year collaboration between Gordon White and Scottish illustrator, Colin Alexander.” What is really, I have to say, cool, about the deck is that it is truly a communal and collaborative creation, since it was created through youtube lives, with active participants in the conversation of each of the cards. “The finished product (the deck) is as good as it is thanks to the generous collective insight of the RuneSoup community.” So besides being a collaborative creation, it is also, given the medium through which it arose, an international creation, with voices from diverse parts. For all these reasons, before diving into the aesthetics, it is a unique fortunetelling deck with it’s own particularly strong voice.

“We have also sought to make the deck more of a global, polyvalent affair, rather than cleaving too close to Lenormand’s European pastoral tableau. And so the whole thing is a love letter to rich, adventurous engagement with a vibrant, living cosmos.”

I’m going to swerve into the aesthetics. The technical points are, it is printed on a premium matte black cardstock, with high intensity color images, from my perspective high intensity as the colors really do pop out against the matte black background. The playing card insets are included in the cards, which is always a plus in my book. I don’t believe it was specified in the guidebook but the deck is poker size, allowing it to be manageable for big spreads. The card edges are black, and it comes with a 161-page book on fortunetelling. The book is divided into two parts, the first part is on how to step into becoming a better fortuneteller with any deck. The second part is a overview of each of the cards in the deck. Admittedly, I purchased the whole package, partly from wanting the deck but also because I really wanted the book as well.

I have read a good amount of Lenormand books, and mostly all of Camelia Elias’ writings on Lenormand card reading. My favorite book being Lenormand Thirty Six Cards: An Introduction to the Petit Lenormand by Andy Boroveshengra. But I wanted to read Gordon White on fortunetelling, as he has mentioned previously that this is his fortunetelling book.

It does not disappoint, re-enlivening the landscape of telling fortunes, weaving in the whole animate cosmos in light of what it means to tell fortunes, reading signs, and symbols. There’s a brief history of Madame Le Normand, of cartomancy in general as well as tarot, and then it dives right into the metaphysics of play and omen logic. No corner is left untouched in the fortunetelling section, it is succinct, to the point, yet eloquent, as it guides the reader around the world of telling fortunes.

In the second part of the guidebook, each of the cards get roughly 2 pages of descriptive information along with reading examples, keywords, and even songs to think with that go with the card. Which is a fun rabbit hole to jump into, listening to the songs for each of the cards. All in all the guidebook is excellent, and serves as an excellent companion to the deck.

What else can I say about the deck other than it is saucy, talkative, colorful, and easy to use. The images are well defined and easy to read. I will add as a caveat, as someone who uses glasses, that all except 2 of the cards were easy to recognize. The two exceptions for me were the house and the mice card. Now that I know them I don’t get confused, but initially I did need to turn up the room light to see them better on the spread.

Speaking of lighting, the cards are well suited to moody, atmospheric, candlelit readings. It is very apropos to the feel of the deck. Actually, I will add that the deck is also very well suited as a trusty traveling companion, for unexpected encounters, engaging in new landscapes, and exploring different places. It is adventurous.

On shuffling, they shuffle wonderfully smooth. Flexible cardstock. For overhand shuffling, the cards do tend to stick together initially but ease into it with use.

Here are images of a grand tableau, in thinking with Gordon’s words on this spread:

The grand tableau is the most animist of layouts. Along with the more than human, quotidian motifs of the Lenormand oracle, it offers up to the skilled fortuneteller a web of complex relationalities and a process-oriented way of seeing we have almost lost. It is quite literally a jungle (White, pg. 80).

Fortune’s Fools Lenormand by Gordon White, Art by Colin Alexander, 2023.

All in all I heartily recommend this deck for fortunetellers, cartomancers, and diviners. It is a deck that walks both with tradition, while also surmounting boundaries, it is daring and fresh.

To watch all the cards as they are born, see this youtube playlist: here.

To purchase the deck: Fortune’s Fools.
An Ukiyo-e Lenormand: A review

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Lenormand, Reviews
An Ukiyo-e Lenormand by Robert M. Place is beautiful. It comes in a red cloth two part box that slides out, with arched grooves on both of the boxes for easy access. This is the packaging that Robert Place looks to be implementing in all his new decks and I love it. As per Place himself: “The box is based on an antique deck in my collection. It is a design that I have not seen being used for 100 years.” It keeps the deck neatly in place, provides a sturdy home for storing the deck, and also for carrying it around in a bag. The top box has two labels, one on each side.

The deck comes inside the inner box wrapped in a thin layer of plastic along with the small guidebook. The cards themselves are edged in gold, and their size is more square than rectangular, slightly larger than a regularly sized bridge or poker deck. Four by three inches to be exact. The cardstock is a silky smooth matte, and easy to shuffle. I should add that I’ve owned previous Robert Place decks in the past and in comparison, the cardstsock quality on this one is much improved.

The guidebook is small and brief, mostly including the same information already available on the cards themselves from Robert Place’s website, linked below. There are one or two paragraphs on the Lenormand in general, and a couple more on how to read the cards towards the end. What I liked about the guidebook, which can also found on the website, are the description of the cards. Although each is short in length, it addresses how he linked the traditional cards within Japanese culture, mythos, and the ukiyo-e aesthetic. There are tidbits from history and Japanese culture that I enjoyed as well.

“The name Ukiyo-e, meaning “floating world,” refers to the style of Japanese woodcuts and paintings made famous in the 19^thcentury. The deck references Japanese art and culture, including Shinto deities (called kami), Buddhist bodhisattvas, and other mythic figures. At times, these references may modify the meaning of the card.”

Some of the traditional cards have been re-positioned through a Japanese cultural lens. These cards add a rich texture of Japanese mythos. They are re-interpretations that offer different perspectives on the traditional card meanings. It should be noted as well, that some of the cards are reworkings of Ukiyo-e prints from Place’s own collection.

Qualities of the cards include strong lines, a rich color palette, borderless cards, with a background the color of rice paper. The inserts are large and clear, and I find the courts to be surprisingly animated.

There are also sets of cards in no particular order, or grouping, from what I can see, which I find interesting because the coloration above or below lend themselves to an added subtlety of tone within a reading when looking at a tableau. Especially considering the interplay of color significations and their associated meanings. For example, and these are brief:

Bad words and malicious gossip eat away at the fecundity on offer throwing a cold pall over the gathering/party. (The green in the mice card that turns into the blue in the garden card, from fecund to stagnant.)

An Ukiyo-e Lenormand: A deck of Oracle Cards with references to Japanese art and culture, by Robert M Place, Hermes Publications, 2019.

Or, looming difficulties cloud loyalty, dampening commitments. (Looking specifically at the grayish bottom of the mountain card and the bottom blue of the dog card.)

An Ukiyo-e Lenormand: A deck of Oracle Cards with references to Japanese art and culture, by Robert M Place, Hermes Publications, 2019.

Overall, this deck is cohesive in presenting the art and culture it aims to explore through the creator’s eyes, while somewhat in keeping with the Lenormand frame. Robert M. Place has created a deck imbued with a deep appreciation and respect for Ukiyo-e art and the culture within which it arose. It is harmonious and elegant. A divinatory reading with the deck is clear and dynamic. To be frank, there is nothing I do not like about the deck, I bought it because of its beauty, and find myself reaching for it often because the readings are eloquent.* Needless to say, I highly recommend this deck for cartomancy lovers, especially those that appreciate a differently structured voice from the traditional Lenormand world.

To order the deck and see all the cards: An Ukioy-e Lenormand.
To read more on how the creation of the deck arose: here.
Caveat: I’m not fully versed in lenormand reading and admit that this deck would read more as an oracle than as a straight traditional lenormand deck.
The Friar’s Delight Lenormand: a review

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Reviews
The Friar’s Delight Lenormand is a little unpretentious gem of a deck. Firstly, I’m not big on Lenormand decks, I used to have a couple some years ago, and I dabbled with reading them but it never stuck so they quickly moved on to more motivated hands. After these failed experiences I spent a couple years sticking closely to tarot and playing cards, not big on oracles either unless you count the one and only LXXXI Magician’s deck. So when I caught sight of this little gem I thought, how curious. Utilizing illuminated manuscript art but within the context of a pack of cards, each card is a re-contextualization of this particular art form.

As per the creator:

“All 36 cards feature artwork taken directly from the pages of these centuries-old illustrations. Each one has it’s own unique authentic frame and is named using decorative letters from an actual manuscript.”

The Friar’s Delight Lenormand, created by Rabbit’s Moon Tarot, 2019.

As is stated by the creator, each card stands alone in a way, as each has distinct borders and decorations that stays true to the milieu of the image presented, yet when the cards are displayed together in a spread the whole aesthetic coheres to illustrate a story with a particularly unconventional voice. All the images sit on a black background, which again struck me since it’s not common to see this in decks, especially Lenormand decks. The effect is striking and allows the reader to really grasp the details of each illustration. In other words, the illustration for each card, whether the ship or the ring, is accentuated by the black background.

As per the creator, again:

“The vibrant colours are a result of the offset printing (not digital) process. The elements are assembled on a black background, (a modern touch) to set them off in a dramatic and clear way.”

This vibrancy is fully captured when you layout the cards in a big tableau, as opposed to 3 or 5 cards.

The Friar’s Delight Lenormand, created by Rabbit’s Moon Tarot, 2019. Please excuse the picture quality as the sun was playing a strong game coming in through the windows and my camera fell short of delivering the true picture.

The Details

The card stock is a soft matter that shuffles smoothly, specifically 350-gram matte finish, the edges are a metallic gold, and it is a poker sized deck, just big enough to enjoy the art while still small enough to comfortably accommodate a grand tableau. It comes in a two-piece sturdy, matte-black cardboard box, and a small 12-page booklet. The booklet itself is brief, so if you are looking for more in-depth information a standalone book aimed at going over the art of Lenormand reading is the best way to go.† The card backs are made to look like a cover of a manuscript, weaving an enchanted narrative of the deck itself as an illuminated manuscript with which we can divine and read the signs, and to open the manuscript is to enter into this world.

The Friar’s Delight Lenormand, created by Rabbit’s Moon Tarot, 2019.

Many of the cards stand out in presenting different perspectives on the traditional Lenormand images, for example, the tower is reminiscent of the tower of Babel, the rider has the air of St. George missing his dragon, the snake encircles the globe, and the whip is too much, deliciously comical, and look at that cloud card, memorable. All the cards have the playing card insert in the top right hand corner, excluding Stars and Cloud, which have it positioned differently. The insert itself is clearly visible as well.

All in all, this is an idiosyncratic deck for all Lenormand lovers. It is lighthearted, endearing, funny, and takes itself seriously enough to give straight answers, while grabbing you by the hand and taking you for a walk through its enchanted pages.

You can buy the deck here: Rabbit’s Moon Tarot.

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† A couple Lenormand books and recommendations:

The Complete Lenormand Oracle Handbook: Reading the Language and Symbols of the Cards by Caitlín Matthews.

The Essential Lenormand: Your Guide to Precise & Practical Fortunetelling by Rana George

I would be remiss if I didn’t add as well Camelia Elias, and her writings on the Lenormand: Taroflexions and Patheos: Cartomancer.
Button Soup Tarot: A Collaborative Tarot Deck

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Reviews

Mid to late 2019 the community at Cult of Tarot, a forum for all tarot lovers and readers, decided to create a community based tarot deck, where all members were invited to choose a card from the 78 and create their own vision of that card. It began with the Majors and then grew into the Minors. I contributed two cards to the project, The Star and The Hermit. It was unexpected on my part, since I do not feel I have artistic drawing nor painting skills. But I thought I could put together something, maybe a collage or assemblage, and so I did.

The end result of all our creative contributions turned out to be a beautiful and multifaceted tarot deck: Button Soup Tarot A Community Deck.

Button Soup Tarot: A Collaborative Tarot Deck, 2020. Image from Rabbits Moon Tarot.

The deck was fully funded through kickstarter and officially brought to life in December of 2019. It is a unique multi–artist work of art, by the community and for the community. Colorful, diverse, and with excellent contributions that bring varied and unique perspectives on the 78 cards. The cardstock is soft matte, the cards are bordered in an elegant dark grey, and the art is framed with a line of gold foil, and the edges are gold as well. The end result of the borders and the gold details is a lovely cohesive deck, one which I recommend one and all to peruse.

It is now being sold by the wonderful Joan Marie At Rabbits Moon Tarot, also the forum lead and designer at the Cult of Tarot forum. I heartily encourage you to give it a look, as it is truly an inspired creation.

The deck along with a video review can be found here: Button Soup Tarot.

Here is another video review: Button Soup Reveal.

For a look at the cards: all the cards.

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† I share this tarot deck project out of love, in no way do I receive monetary compensation.