My Favorite Lenormand Deck (so far!)

My very first Lenormand deck was the Gilded Reverie, by Ciro Marchetti, an early Christmas present from my husband. I loved it. And I still love it. Not only are the stylized images very clear and beautiful, the size of the cards is perfect. Many Lenormand decks tend to run a bit small because the largest common spread is the Grand Tableau (GT) which utilizes all 36 cards; if you have large cards, there are few large-enough work spaces aside from the floor in which to set them out (and the floor is a'ight but not ideal!). The Gilded Reverie card size is larger than most Lenormands, but still small enough to be workable in a GT. And I love cards produced by US Games - they are by far my favorite in terms of the quality of card stock.

I have two other Lenormand decks - soon to be four (I can't wait to receive the Vintage Lenormand by Kendra Hurteau very soon!). One is Caitlin Matthews' Enchanted Lenormand, and the other is the Blaue Eule, a very traditional deck. Both of these decks are pretty small - not much larger than a mini-Tarot deck I have - and in my case this is not always preferable for shuffling because I have hands that are a bit on the larger side of average!  I must admit I never use my Blaue Eule, and don't really like it very much. Despite its size, I really like the Enchanted Lenormand, and the card stock is really high quality - it's durable, thick, smooth, easy to shuffle - all the good stuff.

Enchanted Lenormand - Caitlin Matthews

So in a fight between Gilded Reverie and Enchanted Lenormand, which would win?

The Enchanted Lenormand gets the gold. One of my main complaints about the Gilded Reverie is that after some use the golden edges have started to split apart on some of the cards, forcing me to resort to super glue (and narrowly avoiding laminating to card to my skin in the process!) - what's up with that, US Games?? It's been really the biggest let-down with this deck, which is sad because its small carrying box is excellent and so portable. While the Enchanted comes in a large box, I'll simply have to dig up a little bag for it. Furthermore, I really enjoy the hand drawn artwork on the Enchanted deck. The Sun really leaps off the card, and the expression on its face is of pure joy.

Perhaps my favorite deck will change as I accumulate more, but for now, the Enchanted Lenormand gets two, un-Superglued thumbs up.