Gilded Reverie Lenormand Expanded Edition

I won't let the one oversight I found (through the sharp eye of my husband) color my review of yet another amazing deck from artist Ciro Marchetti, so let's just get that out of the way now. Be aware, there is one error in the printing. The Dog card #18 has been partnered with the 10 of Spades (printed in the lower right-hand portion of the card). This is incorrect and should be the 10 of Hearts. There is no 10 of Hearts in this deck (at least the one I just purchased), but there is another 10 of Spades....the correct card #3, The Ship. So, essentially there are two cards associated with the 10 of Spades, and that is incorrect. I have heard that there may be an expansion set of cards published for this deck, if so, perhaps U.S. Games can include a revised printing of Card #18, the Dog card to correct this error. That out of the way, let me just echo what other reviewers have already said and perhaps encourage you further to check out this deck. If you have any of Marchetti's other decks (Legacy of the Divine Tarot, Gilded Tarot, etc) you will appreciate his artistic vision here in the Lenormand. He transforms this simple fortune-telling deck into one that will allow you to delve even deeper into what the cards are trying to impart to you. The artwork is absolutely stunning. I found I couldn't stop going through and looking at this deck. Marchetti and his co-authors encourage you to create stories with the cards you lay out. The artwork, the mood, and atmosphere present on the individual cards certainly makes it easy for you to do so. The packaging is supurb, a nice sturdy, beautiful box to store your cards and booklet in. Other Tarot publishers should take note of this. The deck is based on the 36-cards of the original Lenormand. The authors based their interpretations on a German predecessor of the game, The Game of Hope. Though the accompanying booklet is small, the interpretations are substantial enough to guide the reader into creating their own stories and conclusions from the card layouts. We are given three nicely crafted layouts to use with this deck. I particularly liked "The Fortune-telling Day Spread". You layout two rows of nine cards. Each pair of cards are read together and provide information on 9 aspects of your life that you may experience that day. If you do this early and write down the results, at the end of the day you can assess the results of your reading to see how accurate it was in reflecting your experiences that day. Nice! Though my primary medium these days is the Tarot, I grew up on Lenormand (and other) styles of divination being practiced by the five sisters in my Mother's family. I have a deep love and respect for this style of fortune-telling. So, if you enjoy down and dirty gypsy fortune-telling style decks (and I have quite a few), this one is one of the best interpretations I've seen to date and it takes this type of fortune-telling to new levels.

The Gilded Reverie Lenormand Expanded Edition is honestly one of the most visually beautiful card decks I have owned. The artwork and overall presentation are extremely well done, and the aesthetic quality alone makes the deck enjoyable to work with and display. Compared to tarot, Lenormand systems feel much more open to personal interpretation through imagery and symbolism rather than heavily structured meanings and guide systems. Because of that, this deck felt more intuitive and image-driven to me, where a lot of the experience comes from how you personally perceive and connect the cards together. One thing buyers should know is that there is not a huge amount of guided instruction included, especially compared to many tarot products that provide more detailed explanations, spreads, and beginner structure. People completely new to Lenormand may need outside research or practice to fully understand the reading style and symbolism. That said, if you are specifically looking for an alternative to traditional tarot or simply appreciate beautifully designed divination-style decks, this set is excellent from an artistic and presentation standpoint. Overall, this is a gorgeous deck with strong aesthetic appeal and a unique reading style that can be very rewarding for people interested in symbolic interpretation and alternative card systems.

This is my first Lenormand deck and I'm blown away. This helped me to decipher a lot more info then just using tarot and oracle. I found out something really important with this deck and I'm seriously blown away. The imagery is gorgeous and easy to read without needing the guidebook so perfect for beginners. I was concerned about how I would like cards without words but you don't need it. Super easy. Love this deck! I immediately purchased another deck by the same author but this is still my favorite. Highly recommend!

When I first hear of Lenormand, I was on the fence about it. I'm a tarot girl, and I have a few oracle cards that I use on a regular basis as well . . . but Lenormand? What was it's purpose? Was it meant to be a replacement for tarot? After several of my tarot friends began to tell me how much they loved the Lenormand deck, I decided to give it a try. To quote Harlan Ellison, “You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.” I figured it was time to outgrow my ignorance of the deck so many people loved. I initially started off with a different Lenormand deck and the pictures were a bit confusing. They were poorly drawn and there was to much going on in each picture for me to get a sense of what the cards were trying to say. The energy, the drawings and the meaning of each card seemed to clash with each other. It just wasn't a good deck. Instead of throwing out the baby with the bathwater, I decided to try one more deck. I saw a video review of this one and was immediately impressed with the beautiful artwork. I hesitantly made my purchase and I'm glad I did. When my cards arrived, I was very excited. I went through each card one by one and I could feel the energy of each card. This deck spoke to me immediately and it complimented the book I was going through to learn the Lenormand. (That book is "The Essential Lenormand: Your Guide To Precise and Practical Fortunetelling" by Rana George.) If you're new to Lenormand, you will love this deck. You will bond with it immediately and you will appreciate the beautiful golden edges along with the stunning artwork. (On a sidenote, I also enjoyed finding the designers initials in each card. It feels like a little game. Every good artist signs his or her artwork, and this artist made his signature a fun little quest on each card.) I may not be a Lenormand expert, but I'm pretty sure this is the only deck I will ever need. I just can't express how much I love this deck. You really need to hold it in your hands to feel it's energy to understand why it's so lovely.

This is such a beautiful deck. The imagery is stunning. The guidebook isn't as good as some of the others I have but I still like it. I just can't get over how pretty the cards are!

Beautiful cards easy to read fav author

First off, I want to say, I LOVE Ciro Marchetti's work. His imagery is divine and you don't even need the accompanying book to understand on a deep level what the cards are trying to tell you - however, it is nice to have it. This is so far, my favorite of my Marchetti decks. The reason for this is that it is one, published by US Games Systems Inc - their card stock is the best in the business. I have had Llewlleyn decks and their card stock is flimsy. I have had Lo Scarabeo decks and their card stock is so slick that cards go flying everywhere. US Games Systems knows what's up, and this is perfect. Secondly, I have little hands and I have torn ligaments in my wrist. As years have gone by, Marchetti's cards have gotten bigger and bigger as he adds more and more detail to each image (I appreciate the work he puts into this) however, due to the minute details in every piece of work, his cards have gotten so gigantic I can't even shuffle them (you need man hands to shuffle his Oracle of Visions deck). The Guilded Reverie Lenormand is PERFECT for little girly slim hands with torn ligaments that want to shuffle smaller cards. This is a traditional playing card sized deck, and is easily portable. Not only that, but the reads are INCREDIBLE. The artwork is absolutely fascinating (as are all Marchetti's works) and the little box that it comes in is secure and nice to safely store your cards in. Marchetti in the past made the Guilded Tarot, and due to me buying and having that deck, I have been hooked on all of his works. He makes learning cartomancy easy and fun. If you are new to Lenormand, take the plunge and get this deck as it will be easy for you to learn and you'll be in awe of your readings. Highly recommended.

I love these cards! The art work is simply beautiful and the images feel as though they speak their own words to you. This is my first Lenormand deck. They are nice and sturdy card stock, so I know they will last a long time. They are very glossy, and the gilded edges add to the asthetics. The box they come in is nice and sturdy. It has a magnetic flap to hold it closed. The booklet included gives a nice decription for each card. You will have to buy a more complete book on Lenormand if you want a more in depth complete understanding though. I would recommend The Complete Lenormand Oracle Handbook by Caitlin Matthews. The reason I gave them 4 stars instead of five, is they kind of stick to each other a little, making them slightly difficult to shuffle thoroughly. I think its the way they were cut, or could possibly be the gilded edging. As for the gilded edges, its already wearing off with light use for me. Not a huge issue though. I would love to see a version of this deck on the same card stock, with or without the gilded edges, with a matte finish and with golden accents on the front and backs of the cards. I think if they were made this way to begin with, they would not stick like they do. They would also be more appealing to me on a personal level. Otherwise, this is a great deck to start with and I am sure you will find much pleasure with it for years to come.

Superb cards of good quality and with a smooth gloss surface that are surprisingly smaller than most oracle cards. The edges are gilded in gold. They fit easily in the palm of the hand and I find them very comfortable. There is a book included that gives info on each card. Also there is a fantastic guidebook that explains exactly how to read them and set them up is produced by Gali Lucy.

ist die erweitert version der Original LeNormand karte

I must be honest and admit that I bought the cheaper deck of this beautiful set (2 months ago) and I was happy enough with them until I realized there were 8 new cards in the expanded deck, but no sign of the booklet that I thought would have been included. Sighssss... So I went online to try and find the information there, but it was not available on the creator's website. I was quite disappointed even though the cards were still beautiful and YTube did have a couple of vids about the deck but wasn't very detailed. Again, I sighed! Yesterday I ordered the proper set and today they arrived (yes I paid for the expedited delivery). Upon opening the package and unwrapping the cellophaned deck I found a couple of points of difference. The proper (newest) deck has: 1. a much brighter gilding on the edges. 2. a slightly darker edging around the pictures. 3. the colour (sorry I'm in Canada and that is how we spell it :D ) is a little brighter 4. the pictures are more vibrant and clearer to see regarding the details on each card. 5. the cards themselves are much higher quality in this new/proper deck (thicker and have a wonderful shine and feel- I bet they'll shuffle beautifully) 6. they are just slightly larger than the cheaper deck but not at all uncomfortable to hold. They really fit the hands well. 7. The little booklet is not very detailed but still easy to understand and it has some really great tips and techniques included. I doubt the booklet will last as long as the cards as I am still learning. 8. The deck and booklet do indeed fit nicely into the designated box, seems well made, and there is an audible 'click' when the closing flap closes due to the concealed magnets. Overall, I am so very happy to have this proper set! I am not less happy with the other deck other than the gilding is already wearing off, and the box is not going to last long as it is like any deck of playing cards box, and the cards are much less sturdy. This set is a wonderfully beautiful addition to my slowly growing collection of fortune-telling cards!

El mazo viene en un estuche de muy buena calidad con cierre magnetico y viene estampada la imagen de la dama en la portada de la caja y en la parte posterior viene una nota del editor que incluye la imagen del jinete y el anillo, en el interior viene un libro instructivo y las 47 cartas, una carta extra del caballero y otra para la dama, una extra para los pajaros llamada los buhos, y las llamadas el tiempo, los puentes, los dados, la mascara, el pozo, la brujula, el laberinto y la lupa para sumar un total de 47. La calidad del estuche y las cartas es excelente, los colores y los diseños son extraordinarios, vivos, elegantes y de muy buen gusto, las cartas vienen con los perfiles laminados en dorado y la contraportada es hermosa en mi opinion. Las cartas miden 10.5x7cm más de lo normal en el sistema Lenormand, y el mazo tiene un ancho de 1.8cm aprox. Para un usuario clasico de Lenormand pueden parecer demasiado grandes e incomodas, pero para un usuario del Tarot son perfectas y muy comodas y ademas se manejan con mucha facilidad. Yo soy usuaria del sistema RWS, y decidi complementar mis lecturas con el sistema Lenormand, lo cual me ha funcionado muy bien y me da la oportunidad de reconfirmar o aclarar un poco más la informacion obtenida por el Tarot. El plastificado de las cartas es tambien de excelente calidad. Para mi es un excelente producto que no debe faltar en el stock de ningun coleccionista. Es hermoso, elegante, practico y funcional.

Excellent quality, beautiful!! Loved it