Sights of the Southwest Lenormand (book and deck)
Companion Book details listed below
- Paperback: 102 pages
- Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 20, 2017)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1517759471
- ISBN-13: 978-1517759476
- Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.2 x 9 inches
The Tudor Lenormand (book and deck)
Companion Book details listed below
- Paperback: 140 pages
- Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (October 14, 2015)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1517593174
- ISBN-13: 978-1517593179
- Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.3 x 9 inches
Both created by Eva M. Sawyer
Please note that review copies of the decks and companion books were provided from the creator.
Keep reading to not only read the reviews but also get a special coupon code on these decks!
Sights of the Southwest Lenormand
This deck is borne out of the creator’s love for the American Southwest, where she lives. An additional bonus to this deck is that keywords are provided on the cards themselves, which makes the companion book less of an immediate need, though still helpful.
Companion book for each card contains:
A description of the image used on the card
Noun keywords
Verb keywords
Adjective keywords
Timing
Part of the body
Corresponding Cartomancy (to a regular playing card deck)
Other meanings (depending on context)
This deck is based on the Sights of the Southwest… not surprisingly, the Man and Woman cards have been changed to Cowboys and Cowgirls, and the Birds card is represented by roadrunners. Truthfully, I like the Tudor Lenormand better if I had to choose (and I have that same pull toward the Tudor Era as Eva Sawyer describes in the companion book), but it would have been really nice to have the keywords on the Tudor Lenormand cards, like the Sights of the Southwest deck has.
The Tudor Lenormand
In this deck, not only is the history in which these images were sourced from included, but also additional history of the time period is provided if applicable in the section labeled Tudor History.
Companion book for each card contains:
A description of the image used on the card
Noun keywords
Verb keywords
Adjective keywords
Timing
Part of the body
Corresponding Cartomancy (to a regular playing card deck)
Other meanings (depending on context)
Since this deck is based on the Tudors, it comes as no surprise to me that the Man card is Henry VIII and the Woman card is Anne Boleyn. These are the more obvious examples of how a theme would play out in a Lenormand deck, but there are other more subtle nods to the Tudors that impressed me, such as using the Tomb of Mary Queen of Scots as the Coffin card, or using a Bear statue from the Tower of London Menagerie as the Bear card, or using Hatfield House as the House card.
Lenormand purists would likely be unhappy with the choice of the Book card represented as Lady Jane Grey reading a book, as the Lenormand is the Lenormand… you’re not reading the symbols on the cards as much as Book/Woman/Mice, for example, and including an image of a woman on the same card used to represent the Book card may cause quite a bit of confusion. (See my earlier article where I describe the differences between oracle, tarot, and Lenormand divination systems.)
Overall: The flimsy boxes were a disappointment, and I erroneously thought there was going to be more disappointment to come as I opened up the cards. To my intense and delighted surprise, this was not the case: the cards themselves are smooth as silk, good solid cardstock, and easily shuffled. Since these are self-published decks, I’m glad that my initial fears of bad cardstock were unfounded! This was a really pleasant surprise, and honestly, for most mass-produced tarot or Lenormand decks I immediately move the deck from their flimsy box into a tarot bag anyway.
Pros:
The companion books are nothing if not thorough with a pretty complete history of the images/people/places used in these Lenormand decks. If you are interested in the Tudors AND learning the Lenormand, having the Tudor Lenormand in your collection is a no-brainer. Same if you are a fan of the particular eerie beauty of the Southwest. The companion books also give a history of how Lenormand cards came to be, along with advice on how to read using this system. If you are unfamiliar in any way with reading the Lenormand, I recommend purchasing both the companion book and the deck that goes with it. If you are already familiar with the Lenormand and want to save your pennies, purchase the Sights of the Southwest Lenormand without the companion book. I would recommend purchasing both the deck and the companion book with the Tudor Lenormand, as the companion book has really lovely information about that time period in it.
Cons:
Both the decks and the books are self-published, so you will not get the same “quality” of images as you would perhaps a larger publisher. As I said above, the normal pitfall of flimsy cardstock was avoided here in both cases! Perhaps the packaging could have a touch more polish, but as I don’t tend to purchase decks primarily on the merits of packaging alone, this is a very small Con.
I’m happy to say that with people like Eva Sawyer dabbling in Lenormand deck creation, learning and keeping a Lenormand practice and finding a Lenormand deck that works for you may soon rival tarot decks in their prolificness!
Want to order one of these decks (or another) from Eva? Make sure to use coupon code REVIEW at her website to get 20% off your purchase!
Blessings,
~*~Hilary~*~
www.tarotbyhilary.com
hilary@tarotbyhilary.com
Book your reading here.
HILARY PARRY HAGGERTY is a tarot reader, witch, mentor, editor, and teacher. She has been reading tarot for over 21 years (13 years professionally). She was the winner of Theresa Reed’s (The Tarot Lady) Tarot Apprentice contest in 2011, and has taught classes on tarot and spell-work at The Tarot School’s annual tarot conference Readers Studio and at Brid’s Closet Beltane Festival. She writes a weekly blog on tarot at her website www.tarotbyhilary.com and has been featured in Maxim Magazine and BuzzFeed.
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© Hilary Parry Haggerty | Tarot by Hilary
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