The Red Hand Lenormand is a fully-illustrated 54 card extended Lenormand Deck printed at the standard playing card size of 2.48" x 3.46" on master quality linen card stock with black core and matte coating, intended for durability, vibrant image reproduction, and ease of handling/shuffling. Each deck is housed in a rigid two-piece box designed to provide protection and longevity even while you’re on the go, and comes with a 50 page booklet for easy reference.
The Red Hand Lenormand is an extended Lenormand deck featuring 54 unique illustrations that depict a gracefully gothic setting. Aside from the standard 36 Lenormand cards, I’ve included an additional 18 that expand the options one can read with. It can be used as a regular Lenormand deck, an expanded Lenormand/Oracle deck, or just a pretty playing card deck according to your preferences.
The Red Hand Lenormand has a stark red and black color scheme with highlights of white here and there, giving it a cohesive look across the entire deck. While the images have a darker horror-esque look, they contain all of the light and dark themes and meanings of a standard Lenormand deck.
What is Lenormand?
The 36 card Lenormand deck is modeled on a deck of cards published c1799 as part of Das Spiel der Hoffnung (The Game of Hope), a game of chance designed by Johann Kaspar Hechtel. Named after the famous French fortune-teller Marie Anne Lenormand, Petit Lenormand (or simply Lenormand) decks have the same card numbering, primary symbols and playing card associations as the cards in Hechtel's Das Spiel der Hoffnung game.
Cartomancy with the Lenormand is similar to that of Tarot. It involves simple, straightforward imagery, but the cards involve more concrete/tangible issues than that of the psychology/spirituality of Tarot. Cards are read more syntactically and can have layers of meanings. You can take into account their literal meaning, imagery, symbolism of the subject of the card, the form, the number of the card or its number within its suit, etc. Cards are not read on their own, and instead depend on other cards around them to form a syntactical “sentence” of imagery.
Reading with Lenormand
Performing a reading using Lenormand cards is a bit like looking at sequential art or reading a comic, with each card as a panel in the story, modified by and modifying the context of the cards around it. Lenormand shines with simple, everyday concerns and concrete issues. Lenormand readings involve interpreting not just single cards, but card combinations together, and then stringing those combinations together with others like words in a sentence.
Certain cards are read as “significators” which can represent the querent. The cards surrounding the significator then modify the meaning. Since the Animus/Anima (male/female in a typical Lenormand deck) cards are a limited selection of choices for representation of people, I’ve included extra significators in the extended cards that can be swapped in according to what the querent is drawn to, including Animatxs for a trans querent and Animxs for a non-binary querent, as well as a Skeleton card if none of those feel right. Feel free to use any of the cards in the deck if they feel like a better fit for the situation.
However you choose to use your deck, my hope is that it will serve you well in your endeavors.