The Man: meaning of Lenormand card 28

The card at a glance

The image on the card

In the Sol da Alma Lenormand, the Man is a young man with curly brown hair, standing in the middle of a field of red, orange and pink flowers. He wears a long petrol-green overcoat with its collar turned up to show a honey-coloured lining, a dark blue jumper and dark trousers, and he has his hands in his pockets. His body faces almost straight ahead, but his head is turned to the right of the viewer, his gaze raised slightly, looking into the distance. Behind him are golden hills, great clouds lit by the sun and, on the right, a rainbow coming down over the valley. He is a man of today, calm, waiting or thinking.

In the Engraved Lenormand, the Man is a figure from another century, painted in watercolour: a gentleman with short hair combed back, shown full-length and in profile, facing right. He wears a long dark coat with a velvet collar, a pale waistcoat, a white ruffled bow tie and grey trousers, and he is standing at the edge of a dirt track that winds through a meadow, among autumn trees and shrubs, with bluish hills in the distance. One hand is closed against his body and his gaze is fixed ahead, on the path. It is the classic Lenormand image: a gentleman standing, seen from the side, so that you know where he is looking.

The symbolism, detail by detail

The standing figure

The whole person, present, standing still at the centre of his own story. The Man does nothing on the card — he simply is. What he does is for the cards around him to say.

The profile and the turned head

The direction of the gaze. In both paintings, the Man looks to the right: in a spread, that direction shows what he has his attention on.

The path

In the Engraved Lenormand, the road opening up in front of him: life going on, choices still to be made. He is at the edge of the path; he has not set off yet.

The hands in the pockets

In the Sol da Alma card, a certain reserve: a man who observes before he acts, who keeps his thoughts to himself.

The field of flowers

In the Sol da Alma card, the life around him, full of colour — the person’s world, which the other cards will fill in.

The rainbow

In the Sol da Alma card, hope and promise after uncertain weather. It lies on the side the Man is looking towards.

The clothes

The coat in the Engraved Lenormand and the overcoat in the Sol da Alma card say the same thing in different eras: a grown man, well turned out, presenting himself to the world.

The ace of hearts

Hearts, the suit of Cups in the tarot, is the suit of Water, of feeling and of bonds; the Ace is its seed. It is a happy playing card for the Man: it places at the heart of the person the capacity to feel and to connect with others.

The history of the Man

The Man is one of the thirty-six cards of ‘Das Spiel der Hoffnung’, the Game of Hope, published in Nuremberg around 1799 by Johann Kaspar Hechtel. It was a board game made of illustrated cards, each with a miniature playing card in one corner; in the German decks, card 28 is called ‘Der Herr’ — the gentleman — and card 29 ‘Die Dame’, the lady. Ever since, the Man has kept place 28 and the ace of hearts.

The name ‘Lenormand’ only appeared after the death in 1843 of Marie Anne Lenormand, the most famous Parisian fortune-teller of her time; publishers used her name to sell the deck, with no evidence that she ever used it. In Portugal and Brazil the deck became known as the ‘Baralho Cigano’, the Gypsy Deck, a popular name with no historical Romani origin. In Brazil, the Man is often called ‘o Cigano’, the Gypsy Man, and the Woman ‘a Cigana’, the Gypsy Woman.

The idea of having a card in the deck to represent the person asking — the ‘significator’ — is an old one in fortune-telling with playing cards, where it was customary to choose a court card for the querent. The Lenormand has it built in: two person cards, one male and one female, drawn in profile.

The meaning of the Man

Strictly speaking, the Man has no meaning of his own: he is a person. When he appears in a spread, he says there is a man involved in the matter — and, when the person asking is a man, he represents him. His meaning is built up from the cards that surround him, and that is what makes him such a useful card: he is the point from which the rest is read.

When the querent is a woman, the Man is usually the most important man in the question: the partner, the husband, the boyfriend, the suitor, the ex. In a question about work, he may be the boss, a colleague, a business partner; in a question about family, the father, a brother, a grown-up son. When the querent is a man, the Man is the querent himself, and the spread is read around him.

There are situations the card cannot settle on its own — for example, a man asking about another man, or a couple made up of two men. In such cases, readers commonly agree before shuffling which card will stand for each person: the Man for one, and another card (often the Rider, the Child or a card that means something to the querent) for the other. What matters is that the choice is made before the cards are drawn.

The direction of the gaze

The Man is drawn in profile or with his head turned, and that is not a minor detail: it is one of the keys to the reading. In both versions of this card — the Sol da Alma Lenormand and the Engraved Lenormand — the Man looks to the right of the viewer. So it is from the cards to his right that you read what he has his attention on.

The most common reading is this: what lies in front of his gaze is where the person is heading, what occupies him, what he desires or faces — often the near future. What lies behind him, at his back, is what he is leaving behind, what has already passed or what he is not paying attention to. If the Man falls at the far right-hand edge of the layout, looking out of the spread, many readers take it that his gaze is outside the situation — distracted, turned towards something else, or with no visible future in that matter.

Some readers also read the vertical axis: the cards above the Man speak of what is on his mind or weighing on him; those below, of what he has under control or what serves as his foundation. There is no single rule here — what matters is to choose a method and stick to it in every reading.

It is worth bearing in mind which deck you are using. If, in another deck, the Man looks to the left, then it is the left that counts. The principle is always the same: you read in the direction the figure is looking.

The cards around the Man

In a spread with the Man, the most important cards are the ones touching him: those immediately to his left and right, above and below, and on the diagonals. They are the ones that describe him — the state he is in, what he feels, what he has in his life. The further away a card is from him, the less directly it concerns him.

These cards are read as adjectives and as situations. The Man next to the Heart is a man in love, or affectionate by nature; next to the Fox, a calculating man, or someone who is not being sincere; next to the Anchor, a stable man, settled in his work; next to the Ship, a man who travels or who is far away; next to the Mice, a tired or worried man; next to the Bear, a man with power or money; next to the Dog, a loyal man, a friend.

A card right up against the Man carries more weight than several cards further away. And the same card changes its meaning depending on which side it falls: the Coffin in front of his gaze is an ending that is approaching or that he is facing; behind him, an ending he has already left behind. That is why, before reading the neighbouring cards, you look at where he is looking.

The Man and the Woman in the same spread

In questions about love, what is watched most closely is the relationship between the Man and the Woman on the table. The distance between the two cards shows how close the two people are: side by side, they are together or very close; at opposite ends of the spread, there is distance — physical or emotional.

Where they are looking also counts. In the Engraved Lenormand, the Man looks to the right and the Woman to the left: if the Man is to the left of the Woman, they are looking at each other, which is read as interest, attention, a wish to meet. If they have their backs to each other, each is looking the other way — each taken up with something else. In the Sol da Alma Lenormand, both figures look to the right: in that case you read whether one is looking at the other and the other is not, or whether both are looking in the same direction, at the same thing.

The cards that fall between the two describe what unites or divides them: the Ring or the Heart bring them closer; the Mountain, the Scythe or the Clouds put obstacles, cuts or confusion in the way.

The Man in love

In love, the Man is almost always the partner or the suitor when the person asking is a woman — and the querent himself when he is a man. The reading comes from the cards around him: next to the Ring, he is committed; the Heart, in love; the Stork, going through a change; the Book, keeping something back; the Crossroads, undecided; the Cross, carrying a burden.

For a single woman asking about love, the appearance of the Man in a small spread says that a man is coming onto the scene — the neighbouring cards say what kind of man and in what circumstances. For a man who is asking, the cards in front of his gaze show what he is looking for; those behind him, what he has already left behind.

The Man in work and money

At work, the Man may be the querent or a man who carries weight in the situation: a boss, a colleague, a client, a business partner. Next to the Tower, someone connected with an institution or holding an official post; the Anchor, someone with a secure job; the Bear, a boss or someone with power; the Fox, a competitor or a colleague best not trusted.

With money, the cards around him show that man’s financial situation: the Fish, money and business; the Mice, losses or expenses; the Clover, a small stroke of luck. In a question about a deal, the Man may be the person you are negotiating with.

The Man in health and wellbeing

In questions about wellbeing, the Man shows who is being talked about, and the neighbouring cards show that person’s mood and energy — the Sun gives strength, the Mice speak of tiredness, the Tree of a slow pace and of roots. The cards are no substitute for any consultation or any kind of health care: they show tendencies and attitudes, and nothing more.

Who is this man?

If the Man is not the querent, the cards around him help to identify him. The House points to someone from the family or the household; the Dog, a friend; the Tower, someone from an institution or more distant; the Ship, someone from outside or who lives far away; the Child, a young man or a son; the Bear, an authority figure, sometimes the father or the boss. Some readers also use the Man’s playing card — the ace of hearts — to link him to cards of the same suit that lie close by.

When the Man is the querent himself, the spread is, in essence, a portrait: what he is living through, what surrounds him, where he is looking.

The Man as advice

As advice, the Man says little in himself — it is the advice of the cards around him that counts. But when he falls in an advice position, he is commonly read as an invitation to take the matter on personally: to put yourself at the centre of the question, to act for yourself, or, when a woman is asking, to speak directly to the man concerned.

The timing of the Man

The Man does not measure time: he is a person, not an event. In a ‘when’ question, timing is read in the neighbouring cards — quick next to the Rider or the Scythe, slow next to the Mountain, the Tree or the Anchor.

In the Grand Tableau: house 28

In the Grand Tableau — all thirty-six cards laid out on the table — the Man is one of the cards from which the reading begins, when the querent is a man. The house in which he falls sets the tone: in the house of the Anchor, work is at the centre of his life; in the house of the Heart, his affections; in the house of the Cross, a burden or a duty.

House 28, in turn, is the house of the Man. The card that falls there describes the man in the question, or the querent himself if he is a man — what he has in mind, his state of mind, whatever is marking him at that moment.

Combinations with other cards

• Woman — A couple, a meeting, a relationship — the distance and the gaze between the two cards say how things stand.
• Heart — A man in love, affectionate, good-hearted.
• Ring — A committed man: married, engaged, or bound by a contract.
• Fox — A calculating or insincere man; also someone very skilled at his trade.
• Bear — A man with power, money or authority — a boss, a protective father.
• Dog — A loyal man, a trusted friend.
• Ship — A man who travels, who lives far away or who comes from elsewhere.
• Anchor — A stable man, with a secure job and his feet on the ground.
• Crossroads — An undecided man, facing a choice.
• Book — A reserved man who is keeping a secret, or a studious man.
• Rider — A man who is arriving, a visit; or a young, active man.
• Cross — A man carrying a burden, a responsibility or a great worry.