Blue Owl, White Owl, Red Owl: The colour of the owl refers to a title given to various Lenormand decks. Whilst these can be inconsistent, different versions have poems, German, French, and English versions, and/or plain card inserts. There may also be differences in art or colouring.
Cartomancy: The art of fortunetelling by divination using cards.
Charged Card (also known as Key Card): A card that has been mentally infused with intent, such as on an issue or objective.
Counting: A method of counting from one card to another to create a sequence of cards that is read in a linear fashion.
Facing Card: A card wherein the direction of its image gives more indication of its significance in the context of the cards either side of it.
Gipsy Fortunetelling Deck: Any generic title of fortunetelling cards can be over thirty-six cards in number.
Grand Tableau (GT): The layout or matrix often used for the reading of the Lenormand. The GT uses all thirty-six cards. It can also be used to denote the house in which a card falls.
House: In a Grand Tableau reading, all thirty-six positions are given a house based on the corresponding card number in sequence. The first position of the Grand Tableau is therefore the House of the Rider (1) and the final position is the House of the Cross (36). A house provides a context for the card placed within it.
Insert Playing Card: In some Lenormand decks, a corresponding playing card is depicted, which can be used with traditional cartomantic methods. There is sometimes a disparity between the playing card meaning in different tradions and the meaning of the Lenormand card in different traditions.
Kipper Deck: German Kipper cards, originally devised by Susanne Kipper of Berlin, Germany. There are thirty-six Kipper cards to the deck, although the images are not of the Lenormand symbols. To give some idea of the images and title, number 29 is the prison “Gefangnis.” The prison is a sturdy grey four-turreted tower, with a brown tiled roof, surrounded by a crocodile-infested moat. Beyond the Prison is thick green forest, and a large bird of prey flies over head. The card has a green ornate picture frame inlay, and a green border around the outside of the card. The back of the card has lilac flocked wallpaper print and a vertical green almond shape containing a grey crouching monkey holding a crystal ball.
Knighting: The direction that you read the card in the style of knighting used in the game of chess. The move forms an L-shape, counting two in one direction and one in another.
L-Space: A term coined by Tali Goodwin for the “headset” or mental attitude for Lenormand reading, usually as distinct from T-space for the tarot mindset.
Lenormand Deck: The deck of thirty-six fortunetelling cards named after the celebrated sibyl Mlle. Marie-Anne Lenormand and based upon the design of “The Game of Hope” by J. K. Hechtel.
Literal Lenormand: A term coined for the reading method of the Lenormand, where an object literally stands for itself. Reading the cards out loud aids this approach, such as saying, “The Child is under the Sun and in the House of the Garden,” from which arises a literal picture that is then applied to the divination.
Piquet (Picket): An early-sixteenth-century thirty-two-card deck and game for two players. This card game adds to the melting pot of cartomancy and first originated in Spain and France, and then migrated to Germany during the Thirty Years’ War. It was considered a fashionable game to play and is still played by some today. It first became popular in England after the marriage of Mary I of England to King Phillip of Spain; back then it was known as “Cent” after the Spanish game Cientos. It later took on the French name of Piquet when King Charles I married Henrietta Maria of France in 1625.
Salon: The working environment for the art of fortunetelling.
Shadow: We use this term to denote how a card might overshadow cards closest to it. This entirely optional way of reading the Lenormand is a variation on tarot’s reversals. Lenormand cards are not read reversed.
Sibyl: The Greek word for a prophetess, used by Marie-Anne Lenormand to mean the reader or fortuneteller.
Sitter: The person receiving a reading.
Wahrsagekarten: German for fortunetelling cards.
Zone: A nontraditional term we use for different areas of the Grand Tableau.