Kindergarten Lenormand, the Review & Interview

The Review

Have you ever considered to use a Lenormand deck to trigger wonderful moments from your childhood? If not, or if not yet, you should highly consider Chloe McCracken‘s Kindergarten Lenormand. It is a sweet, simple and inspiring deck that clearly helps you making the Lenormand yours. I got a sample deck with extra blank cards (so I decided to draw on some of them and get my own extra cards, you can see those below).

Very simple drawings that are like those of a kid, which help you grasp the Lenormand at first sight. But there’s more. You can use it to teach Lenormand to your kids, or use it for meditation or self-study. Their simplicity is the key that opens the gates of the Lenormand. This simple and cute deck is good for starting your journey with the Lenormand, or enjoy yourself while feeding your inner child. Plus, it gives you powerful sense of trust to yourself when you use this deck for reading!

It has 2 riders (male rider and female rider), two snakes, two trees, 3 bird cards, 2 children, a dog and a cat, 2 male consultants and 2 female consultants). I got the sample deck with blank extra cards, for my creative delight! Why? Because I could draw some extra cards by myself and get a very personalized Lenormand! (I loved that!)

This is a Lenormand that enhances both your imagination and creativity. It encourages you to go beyond the images, to draw something yourself, to overcome fears, to trust yourself, to have self-esteem, to feed your inner child, to play with children, to be yourself. That’s why I loved it so much.

It has Printerstudio’s paper stock quality. It shuffles really well, and cards are strong. Perfect to use them on a daily basis. The backs are flashy: red and blue, with “Kindergarten Lenormand” printed on them.

I spent several days thinking about my extra cards. What could I fill in the blank cards that I got? (Or, at least in some?) Well, I finally decided to add 4 cards: 37. the Mirror (for inner study, self-reliance, responsibility), 38. the Cauldron (for magic, believes and the unknown), 39. the Mask (not true self, social self, the face we show to others), and 40. the Totem (for our Totem, animal relationship, inner animal, instincts). I used a permanent black pen. The results are very cute and match easily the spirit of the Kindergarten Lenormand. Easy, simple, funny, creative. This Lenormand made me feel good!

Note that this is a deck which is “hard to get”, unless you go to one of Chloe’s workshops. But, if we get a re-edition, we can get it from home! Read the interview and know how to get your copy 🙂

The Interview

Pepi: Where did the idea of the Kindergarten Lenormand come from?

Chloe: The Kindergarten Lenormand came about in 2012 when I decided to run workshops to teach the Lenormand reading system. I didn’t want to worry about copyright issues, so I thought “why not draw my own deck?” Despite my partner objecting that “You can’t draw!” I went for it, and had a lot of fun in the process. There were a few cards that were tough – coffins are harder to draw than you might think, hence why card 8 is titled Grave 😉

P: Are you planning to leave the extra white cards for us to play with those?

C: The extra white cards just happened because I wasn’t intending this as a commercial deck, and because of using printerstudio.com to add the playing card associations onto the cards. If I ever re-edit this deck for sale, I had thought to change the playing card associations on the extra cards. I also intended to include a few cards with card meanings if I re-edit, but I guess I could still leave in a few blanks, for you creative types!

P: I think this is a very good deck to teach children and encourage them to follow the steps of their mothers or grandmothers. How do you think it could be best used for that?

C: I suppose it could be a good deck for kids, showing them that you don’t need huge skills to create your own deck. And it is nice and simple, too. If I used it with kids, I’d encourage them to see a story in the lines of cards…

P:How do you think your deck takes out our inner child?

C: Hmm, does this deck bring out people’s inner child? Possibly. The images look child-like, encouraging us to access the side of ourselves which resonates with images of this simplicity and low skill level. Might encourage us to keep our readings simple, too, which fits well with the Lenormand style.

P:How can we get a copy?

C: I have a very few copies of this deck available at the moment – I’ve been using them in my workshops, so I only have about 5 unopened. If anyone is interested, they can email me at info@innerwhispers.co.uk. As I say, I may re-edit these at some point, it’ll depend on my time commitments and the level of interest.

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