Meet Mr Lenormand: Johann Kaspar Hechtel

The prototype for the Petit Lenormand deck, Das Spiel der Hoffnung (The Game of Hope), was advertised in a book titled "Humoristische Blätter für Kopf und Herz" published by Bieling in 1799 (see book extract from Google Books below). Das Spiel der Hoffnung is listed under the author's name, Hechtels JK.

I have established the author's full name to be Johann Kaspar Hechtel and I have found some short biographies for him in Google Books that I will attempt to translate below.

Hechtel (Johann Kaspar) former owner of a brass factory in Nuremberg, was born there on 1 May 1771 and died on 20 Dec 1799 of the smallpox epidemic raging at that time. Except for some treatises on physics that he contributed to different works without his name, he published:
♦ Collection of friendly tributes and small teachings of wisdom and virtue; for use in albums, and intended for the refinement of the spirit and morals of young people. Nuremberg, 1797. 8. New edition ibid 1803. 8. with the title: Tributes of friendship and small teachings of wisdom etcetera.
♦ Contributions to social pleasure: Selection of new cards, tokens and entertainment games for utility and pleasure. Nuremberg, 1798. 8.
♦ Pandora, a new dice and parlour game with 24 questions and 144 answers. ibid. 1798. 8.
[♦ The Game of Hope, a pleasant parlour game, with 36 illuminated figure cards, cased. (This last item is quoted from the 1799 Bieling advertisement above for completeness, it is missing from his biographies however.)]

The book Denkmale Der Freundschaft by Hechtel that was first published in 1797 is currently in print although it may be very difficult to read (thanks to Google Books, you can look inside the original book here).

While in Nuremberg so to speak, I stumbled upon an example of a popular "Bilder-Lotto" (Picture Bingo) here that was published in Nuremberg c1840 (in the same place that The Game of Hope was published c1799). These boards are still manufactured as children's educational toys in Germany today (named Bilder-Lotto or Picture Bingo) and are very similar to Mexican Lotería. You can view some examples for sale on amazon. This places the Biribissi game concept much closer in time and place to the Game of Hope (note that about two-thirds of the Lenormand images can be found on various Biribissi boards preserved in the British Museum).

Danke schön Herr Hechtel! ♥

Lady Charlotte's gift

Lenormand enthusiasts are thrilled to finally be able to see an image of the prototype for the Lenormand deck, The Game of Hope (see British Museum website). Tali Goodwin advised that the photograph was commissioned for her upcoming book The New Lenormand last week. Her book will also include an English translation of the original game instructions.

We can see from the museum photograph that the cards used in the game include both German and French playing card insets with the following regional suits: Acorns/Clubs, Hearts/Hearts, Leaves/Spades and Bells/Diamonds.

Caitlín Matthews has also been researching the game for the Enchanted Lenormand Oracle book and deck set with 36 cards illustrated by Virginia Lee, due out in September 2013:

"In actual fact, the Petit Lenormand deck images derive from a German game called Das Spiel der Hoffnung, published in 1800 by G. P. J. Bieling-Dietz of Nuremberg. This was a board game in which 36 cards were laid in a square while competitors raced to be the winner; it was played by two dice to determine how one advanced around the board. Like Snakes and Ladders, you might advance or retreat if you landed on particular cards. The cards have the same numeration and images as the Petit Lenormand cards, conclusively proving that this was the origin of the images and their ordering. The accompanying leaflet to the game also suggested a simple question and answer whereby 32 cards laid in eight rows of four might answer questions ... Many people are astonished that this seemingly French system has a partial German origin. This game and the French method of fortune-telling with the piquet cards was evidently married together to create the Petit Lenormand style cards, in a Mars and Venus style marriage. A close comparison of the divinatory cards that appeared over the period from the late 18th century to the mid 19th century and beyond show a distinct trail back to this marriage of piquet and a German game. Yet, despite Lenormand’s name being associated with this divination method, she did not necessarily invent it. The game called the Le Grand Jeu, published by Grimaud in 1845, appeared two years after her death and was merely a way of cashing in upon the Lenormand name. Le Grand Jeu is a pack of 52 cards with classical images as their main picture, and so it is not a Petit Lenormand pack."
Enchanted Lenormand Oracle, Caitlín Matthews
(Source: Soundings, 28 April 2012)

I was curious about Lady Charlotte Schreiber, the woman who bequeathed the cards to the museum in an extensive collection that includes numerous Tarot decks and cartomancy decks. A few of the decks are actually named after Mademoiselle Lenormand, including one 36 card "piquet pack" dated late 19th century that was published in France (see British Museum website).

Lady Charlotte (1812-1895), the daughter of an earl Albemarle Bertie, was by all accounts a remarkable woman. She married twice, had ten children and was a businesswoman who assisted her first husband running the Dowlais Iron Company in Wales. Both husbands served as Members of Parliament. Lady Charlotte spoke several languages and together with her second husband travelled extensively and collected ceramics, fans, playing cards and board games. Lady Charlotte, known as Lady Charlotte Guest before her second marriage, is above all famous for translating The Mabinogion, a collection of tales from Welsh mythology.

Lady Charlotte, who died at age 82, outlived both her husbands. Her first husband, John Josiah Guest (1785-1852), was 27 years older than her and her second husband, Charles Schreiber (1826-1884), was almost 14 years younger than her.

Another item bequeathed to the museum by Lady Charlotte that was also published by GPJ Bieling of Nuremberg is a pack of 25 cards for learning the alphabet, each card displaying various forms of a letter and a coloured vignette in the centre (see British Museum website).

A few additional bequests related to cartomancy and board games are described for interest sake below:

♦ Nouvelle Maniere de Tirer les Cartes Invente en 1792, a print containing a table of cartomantic interpretations for playing cards and two examples of card reading layouts (see British Museum website). (Caitlín Matthews has advised me that this print is taken from Etteilla's book "The Only Way of Reading the Cards".)

♦ Nuovo Giuoco del Biribissi, a popular Renaissance gambling board game similar to bingo and roulette with numbered and illustrated compartments arranged in a grid (see British Museum website). (It is interesting to note that quite a few of the board compartments contain symbols that are also included in the Petit Lenormand deck.)

♦ Il Gioco dell'Oca (The Game of the Goose), a family entertainment racing board game with numbered compartments arranged in a spiral that is thought to be the prototype for many European racing board games (see British Museum website).

Lady Charlotte included a selection of cards from her collection in three large illustrated volumes titled "Playing Cards of Various Ages and Countries" that were published in 1892, 1893 and 1895 (the year she died). She wrote that she reproduced the cards "so as to bring within reach of students objects that are often rare and costly, and throw light on the manners and customs of former times" (Source: The Wunderkammer of Lady Charlotte Guest by Erica Obey).

Merci beaucoup Lady Charlotte! ♥

Lenormand suits

After taking a break from my cartomancy studies, I started reading Mystical Origins of the Tarot by Paul Huson and at the same time happened to get caught up in the latest wave of interest in Lenormand. As a result something that made no sense to me before suddenly clicked into place, namely the significance of the playing card suits in Lenormand.

The Petit Lenormand deck is based on a regular playing card deck that has been reduced from 52 cards to 36 cards by removing the 2, 3, 4 and 5 pip cards in each suit. The cards are illustrated with various symbols and traditionally also include a miniature of the playing card associated with each symbol. Little seems to be known or understood about the significance of the playing cards, other than that the court cards can serve to describe people in a reading. There are also regional and personal variations throughout Europe in the card meanings, especially regarding which cards represent work, money and sex. The card meanings I have adopted are sometimes referred to as the "French" school or tradition.

Several decks named after the French cartomancer Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand (1772-1843), including the Petit Lenormand popular today, were published after her death. However, the Petit Lenormand appears to have been modelled on a deck of cards published much earlier as part of a game of chance:

"Detlef Hoffmann has shown that their prototype can be clearly traced back to a lovely little pack of fancy cards, called 'Das Spiel der Hofnung (sic) / Le jeu de l'espérance' (The Game of Hope), published around 1800 by G.P.J. Bieling in Nuremberg."
A Wicked Pack of Cards: The Origins of the Occult Tarot (1996),
Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis and Michael Dummett

[You can see a complete set of these cards on The British Museum website here.]

I am looking forward to reading about recent research into this game in Tali Goodwin's book to be published in May 2012, The New Lenormand. I understand that the book will include an English translation of the original game booklet which should help us to understand the original meanings of the cards better. In the meantime, a shift in my perspective of playing card suits has helped me to make more sense of the Lenormand system.

Regional variations developed in suit signs after playing cards found their way into Europe, and the standard suit signs we used today originated in France in the 15th century. The English names given to these French suit signs are not the same in meaning as the French names except for Hearts. This could explain why modern English-speaking cartomancers view the suits somewhat differently to 18th century French cartomancers such as Antoine Court de Gébelin and Etteilla and whoever originally assigned specific Lenormand symbols to specific playing cards.

I wanted to know how the English suit names came about and have posted some information I found online, other than the information in the Wikipedia entry on playing card suits, for interest sake below. I have also ordered The Playing Card: An Illustrated History by Detlef Hoffmann, an English translation of Die Welt der Spielkarte published in 1972, which may shed more light on the subject.

"The English names of the suits are in part adopted from the Spanish, and partly from the French; yet it is singular that the suits on our Cards are altogether those of the latter nation. It has been seen in a former page, that a Latin writer of the sixteenth century called the suit of Spades, Ligones*; the resemblance of the object represented on Cards of that Suit, to one of the forms of the agricultural spade is striking, and hence we may account for the origin of this denomination; the similarity of sound between the Spanish term Spada**, and the English word Spade, may also have led to the adoption of it. The French call the suit of Clubs Trefle, from its resemblance to the Trefoil leaf: although we have obtained the form of the object from them, we have retained the Spanish word Bastos, literally translated. In admitting also the French suit Carreaux, we have in some degree gone beyond the licence of translation, in calling it Diamonds. Of the remaining Suit, Hearts, it is merely necessary to remark, that we have adopted both the name, and the object, from the French Cards."
Researches into the history of playing cards (1816), Samuel Weller Singer

*The Latin word ligones means "hoes" in English.
**The Spanish word espada and the Italian word spada means "sword" in English.

"The mark now called the Trèfle, in France, was formerly known as the Fleur ... As the names, Clubs and Spades, given to two of the suits in this country, by no means correspond with the marks by which they are distinguished, - to wit, the French Trèfle and Pique - I am inclined to consider them as the old names for the suits of Bastoni and Spade; Clubs being merely a translation of Bastoni, and Spades probably a corruption of Spade, or Espadas, - Swords. From these names, indeed, it may be fairly supposed that the cards first known in England were those having Swords, Clubs, Cups, and Money, as the marks of the suits; and that two of those suits retained their names when the old cards of the Spanish or Italian type were superseded by those of more recent French design."
Facts and speculations on the origin and history of playing cards (1848),
William Andrew Chatto

It is interesting to note here that Clubs, once called Fleurs in French, are still called Fiori in Italian (both words mean flowers).

"The suit symbols now most widely known are those associated with international games such as bridge. Referred to as 'French suits' because of their French origin, they are unique among western cards in that their symbols are not illustrations of objects but very simple shapes in silhouette. This feature arose from the early innovation of printing them from a stencil instead of the more usual woodcut. In the French, German and Spanish languages the resulting shapes are interpreted as heart, clover leaf, pike-head and square (or tile). Their odd English names, none conforming to the others except for the heart, seem to owe more to a folk-memory of Mediterranean suits than to the shapes they actually represent. The typical Italian suit system uses the same symbolic objects as the Spanish (cups, coins, swords and clubs), with some differences of style dating back to an early stage in their history. Other distinctive suit systems are those associated with Germany, with hearts, leaves, acorns and falconry bells. The Swiss symbols are broadly similar but with heraldic shields and roses replacing the hearts and leaves."
The Playing-Cards of Spain: A Guide for Historians and Collectors (1996),
Trevor Denning

Contrary to popular belief, Huson believes that the Clubs suit sign is derived from the Italian Coin and not the Italian Baton.

"It's customary among historians to derive the trèfle, the cloverleaf French suit sign that we call a Club, from the Italian Baton. However, it's my belief (along with cartomancers of the French school) that it's far more likely that the cross-shaped Clover Leaf represented the pattern to be found on the interior of the Italian Coin ... As for his suit cards, Etteilla followed Court de Gébelin in equating all Trèfle (Trefoil) cards (and their meanings) with his Coin suit (contrary to many present-day cartomancers who identify Coins with Diamonds); he identified all Coeur (Heart) cards with his Cup suit; all Pique (Pike) Spade cards with his Sword suit; and all Carreau (Paving Tile) Diamond cards with his Baton suit."
Mystical Origins of the Tarot: From Ancient Roots to Modern Usage (2004),
Paul Huson

Huson associates Clubs with Italian Coins (Tarot Pentacles) and Diamonds with Italian Batons (Tarot Wands), an association which becomes more obvious when observing these Minor Arcana suit patterns of the Ancient Tarot of Marseilles below. This deck is a Lo Scarabeo reproduction of the Tarot deck published in 1760 by Nicholas Conver, a cardmaker from Marseilles, France.

We have some idea of what 18th century French cartomancers such as Court de Gébelin and Etteilla believed the Tarot suits symbolically represented from the correspondences to social classes of Court de Gébelin's peer Comte de Mellet:

"Swords represent royalty and the powerful of the earth; Cups the priesthood; Coins commerce; and Batons agriculture."
A Wicked Pack of Cards: The Origins of the Occult Tarot (1996),
Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis and Michael Dummett

"De Mellet complained that 'Our fortune-tellers do not know how to read the Hieroglyphs having removed from them all the Tableaux and changed even the names of the Cup, the Baton, the Coin, and the Sword, of which they knew neither the etymology nor the expression; they substituted the suits of hearts (happiness), diamonds (indifference and countryside), clubs (fortune), and spades (misfortune) ... But they have retained certain figures and several expressions, consecrated by usage that lets us see into the origin of their divination.'"
Tarot for Your Self (2002), Mary K Greer

When I applied Huson's alternative Tarot suit correspondences for Clubs and Diamonds to my Lenormand dictionary, I suddenly observed a theme of sorts for each Lenormand suit that is more clearly linked to the elemental concepts now associated with the corresponding Tarot suit for divination purposes. This may indicate that the Lenormand deck was influenced to some extent by the thinking of 18th century French cartomancers who contributed to the history of occult Tarot, or it may be a lucky coincidence.

Clubs includes cards that represent money, work, physical activity and challenges. Hearts are primarily related to love and relationships. Spades includes cards related to communication, travel and legal matters. Diamonds are related to luck, danger, decisions, risk and reward. The suits may be thought of as a hierarchy of needs, with Clubs/Pentacles/Earth representing our basic physical needs and the other suits representing our higher order needs of love (Hearts/Cups/Water), mental stimulation and justice (Spades/Swords/Air) and creativity (Diamonds/Wands/Fire). I have posted a few salient keywords per card below.

Clubs/Pentacles/Earth: the body, physical matters, health and wealth

Cross (6♣) = burden, suffering, sacrifice
Mice (7♣) = losses (health and wealth), stress, productivity
Mountain (8♣) = obstacle, inactivity, delay
Fox (9♣) = work, skills, discernment
Bear (10♣) = resources (including money), strength, protection (including mother)
Whip (J♣) = sex, conflict, physical activity
Snake (Q♣) = betrayal, complications, disease
Clouds (K♣) = confusion, uncertainty, discomfort
Ring (A♣) = commitment, partnership, obligations

Hearts/Cups/Water: the heart, love, emotions and relationships

Stars (6♥) = inspiration, guidance, technology
Tree (7♥) = life, health, gradual development
Moon (8♥) = romance, intuition, recognition
Rider (9♥) = news, arrival, visitor
Dog (10♥) = friend, acquaintance, loyalty
Heart (J♥) = love, affection, generosity
Storks (Q♥) = improvement, relocation, pregnancy
House (K♥) = home, family, safety
Man (A♥) = male person

Spades/Swords/Air: the mind, thoughts, communication, travel and justice

Tower (6♠) = authority, legal matters, corporation
Letter (7♠) = written communication, document, mail
Garden (8♠) = public, group, outdoors
Anchor (9♠) = stability, perseverance, base
Ship (10♠) = travel, vehicle, distance
Child (J♠) = young person, small size or quantity, student
Bouquet (Q♠) = beauty, pleasure, gift
Lily (K♠) = elders (especially males), maturity, serenity
Woman (A♠) = female person

Diamonds/Wands/Fire: energy, creativity, enterprise, risk and reward

Clover (6♦) = luck, chance, boost
Birds (7♦) = verbal communication, companionship, negotiations
Key (8♦) = solution, certainty, discovery
Coffin (9♦) = death, depression, bankruptcy
Book (10♦) = knowledge, secrets, research
Scythe (J♦) = decision, danger, separation
Crossroad (Q♦) = choices, diversification, junction
Fish (K♦) = business, transaction, independence
Sun (A♦) = success, vitality, self-confidence

Mais oui, I will definitely be paying more attention to the Lenormand suits in future readings!

"The old names for playing cards - the Devil's picture book, the bible of the gypsies, the encyclopaedia of the dead, the perpetual almanac - retain vivid reminders of cards' past kinship with books. The following poem written by P. Pierre St. Louis in 1668, is further evidence of this connection in French:
Les livres que j'y voy de diverse peinture,
Sont les livres des Roys, non pas de l'Escriture.
J'y remarque au dedans différentes couleurs,
Rouge aux Carreaux, aux Coeurs,
Noir aux Piques, aux Fleurs
These books I see with abundant painting
Are the books of Kings and not of scripture.
Inside I observe different colours,
Red for diamonds and for hearts
Black for spades and for clubs. (Chatto 1848: 16, my translation)."
The Playing Card's Progress: A Brief History of Cards and Card Games,
Joyce Goggin