Petit Lenormand encyclopedia: Volume 1 Paperback – February 2, 2018

I am blown away by this series of books by Bjorn Meuris on reading Lenormand cards. I have always been drawn to Lenormand. I'm a Tarot reader but something about these little cards always appealed to me. I've bought book after book, and most of them made learning Lenormand seem like a huge chore. Some of them make it seem like you have to memorize every meaning and combination before you even touch a card. On the other hand, I've bought Lenormand "courses" that were so simplistic that I learned almost nothing; they'd leave out the playing card inserts, saying they were only for "advanced readers." My quest to learn Lenormand was so frustrating.Then I discovered these books by Bjorn Meuris. Right off the bat, you are reading cards. By "cards" I mean the practice deck you create yourself from an ordinary deck of cards as part of the learning process. After just a few chapters, I had learned more than I ever did from the huge tomes. This book emphasizes USING the deck. The whole process is designed to make that deck your own, to assimilate it into your mind. There are a lot of exercises, but they're essential to the process.I won't say that it's "easy." For me one of the hard parts is looking at a card that represents an object, and turning it into a descriptor of another card. It's a particular and (for me) non-intuitive process but this book makes it as painless as possible, primarily by all the opportunities you are given to practice these skills.Don't skip any of them. Do them faithfully. Trust this author and you WILL become a proficient Lenormand reader. At first it's not "fun" to use your playing card practice deck when you know there are many gorgeously illustrated decks out there that you just want to get your hands on! But remember, your practice deck is just a tool. And you can always do both-- do the exercises with your practice deck, then with an illustrated deck.I feel like Bjorn Meuris threw me a life raft with these books. His writing style is simple and engaging and demystifies the whole process. My only wish is that all 3 books would be combined into one.

I want to disclose right up front that I have studied with the author of this book and hold him in very high regard as a teacher. I took a Lenormand Masters class with Rana George, Mary K Greer, Donnaleigh DeLarose, and Bjorn Meuris. I loved all of these teachers, and was captivated by Bjorn's affable demeanor and no nonsense teaching style. I have also had a private lesson with him.This book is truly suitable for beginners and experienced Lenormand readers. He doesn't spend much time going over history. He presents the basic facts of the system including meanings and several spreads up to and including the Grand Tableau. And he does this in such a way that it does not require discarding what we have learned before if we studied modern methods of working with the Petit Lenormand.This last point is the key to the effectiveness of his approach to the subject. He teaches the Method of Distance, also known as Near/Far. This is the original way of reading these cards dating back to the mid 19th century.In using this method, the placement of cards in relation to the significator card is of prime importance. We examine the proximity of positive and negative cards to it, and make judgments from there.And the Grand Tableau is read as being entirely in one time zone, either the future, past, or present. The modern method tends to divide the Tableau into past, present, and future within that one spread.He goes over mirroring, knighting, and counting methods to pull more information about the cards without the use of houses, which is a more contemporary technique that is not really compatible with the distance method. These older methods will work either way you choose to read Lenormand.He also presents ways of using the playing card inserts without distorting the core meanings of the Lenormand cards. That section concludes with an old method of determining the gender of an unborn child using the proximity of Jacks to the Stork card. All in all, a fascinating and very worthwhile addition to any cartomancy collection. I will be reviewing Volume 2, which goes into great detail about the use of the method of distance with the Grand Tableau, in the near future.

If you want to learn Lenormand, forget all the websites and apps. Get this book and read it. Follow the step-by-step progression and complete the exercises. Meuris will take you from "confused" to "confident" as you read and practice. This is one book that should be in the library of every new Lenormand student.

Content was relevant and informative about Lenormand. However overpriced.

I have known Bjorn Meuris for quite a fews years through the online communities, and I have always found his knowledge of the Lenormand deck and the explications he gives to continually be at the highest level.

These 2 volumes reach a new level of excellence, from simple beginnings on how to read to mastering the grand tableau, that wonderful spread using all 36 cards. 
Volume 1 focuses on the basics, learning the cards, doing simpler spreads, how to combine the cards into a multitude of ways, and ends with an excellent chapter on cartomancy and how to use it in your readings. Volume 2 is completely dedicated to how to read the grand tableau, using the method of distance. 

Where Bjorn shines, is how he can easily explain what seems so complex with other authors. In most manuals, describing proximity and distance seems so complex, but these 2 books have a special place because they make it so easy to understand it. 

I highly recommend these.

good book, trustful autor about the subject

To the point! It has all you need to start!

This book is full of grammatical errors, i.e bad punctuation, and missing words. The author also mixes up cards in one of the exercises, and the layout could use some improvements. The images should really be in colour (the book is quite expensive after all), which would have made them clearer, and easier to interpret. E.g The Whip looks like a club on a table.The exercises are good over all, but he needs more answers/interpretations. There are a couple of exercises where the author has given two example spreads, but he does not provide his interpretation/an answer key for them. That’s lazy of the author, and bad for the reader.The book has a nice flow, and the exercises’ increase in difficulty is well paced and logical. Explanations are simple, straight forward and to the point, which I love, and everything feels relevant without a bunch of page fillers.PERSONAL TIP: Once you get into the 9-card spreads it’s best to read the whole book first, and then go back and do the exercises.Over all I’m happy I bought this book, and I do recommend it, but I’m not sure I’ll invest in the second volume unless the price is reduced or the quality improved.

I have dabbled in Lenormand a few times over the years and really didn't understand or get anywhere with reading the cards. Bjorn's book was recommended to me for learning Lenormand. It is excellent, I cannot say enough about it. This book travels with my everywhere and is my Lenormand Bible! Bjorn is very no nonsense and straightforward. It is wonderful to have this book that you can readily understand and start practicing readings right away. This is an invaluable book! You can also find him on the World Divination site where he also teaches using this book! Awesome courses!

O livro traz um método de ensino muito claro, técnicas de mesa real fantásticas, e é perceptível que muitos autores brasileiros se inspiraram nessa obra. Para o estudante de petit lenormand é um livro indispensável.Vale a pena o pequeno investimento.