THE PIQUET DECK

Hi everyone, welcome back to the channel. Thank you as always for tuning back in. If you're new here, welcome! I'm Layla, the Lenormand reader, and I'm one of the few people who focuses almost exclusively on the Lenormand deck. So be sure to check out all of the links in the description box. There's plenty on the website that you can take advantage of to master this amazing deck.

In this video, I want to talk to you about the Piquet deck. I have had this deck for a while and I've been wanting to share it with you. The reason for this is because the Lenormand deck has very close parallels with the Piquet deck. So it is part of the history of Lenormand.

As you know, we use the word "piquet" in Lenormand to refer to one of the versions of the Grand Tableau. It's the one that has the bottom line that stands out from the rest of the big rectangle, whereas the other version of the Grand Tableau is the Grand Tableau of 9s, where you have 9 cards per four rows. So the word "pique" in our practice refers to the Grand Tableau layout, but in history, it also refers to a deck of cards.

And it's relevant to the Lenormand because the Lenormand deck is actually almost 100% based on the structure of the Piquet deck. So I was happy to find one such deck when I was still in North America and I've had it for a while and I've been wanting to share it with you. So let's do this today in this shorter video.

OVERVIEW OF THE PIQUET DECK

So here is the Piquet deck. As you can see, it is a regular playing card deck. Now, what is different about the Piquet deck from the standard playing cards is that it is made up of only 36 cards. So here you go. The 36 cards of the Piquet deck. It is 36 cards across the four suits that we're all familiar with, the hearts, the spades, the clubs, and the diamonds. And the thing about this 36 card deck is obviously it is not a full 52 playing card deck.

So apparently, the 52 card deck playing card deck that we're all familiar with goes as far back as around the 1550s, So 16th century. The Piquet deck was well in circulation by the 1700s. And so between the 1500s and the 1700s, a number of cards were dropped out of the regular 52 playing card deck to produce what is known as the Piquet deck.

The cards that were dropped were the 10s, the jacks, the queens, and the kings. So the Piquet deck is made up of only the aces, the 2s, the 3s, the 4s, the 5s, and the 6s, plus the court cards of the knave and the queen.

Whatever the reason they were dropped, the Piquet deck is a fascinating historical artifact and it's also a great deck to use for Lenormand readings. If you're looking for a deck that is a little bit different from the standard 52-card deck, I would definitely recommend checking out the Piquet deck.

And what also happened in the 1700s is that this 36-card deck was further reduced to 32 cards. The card that was removed was the 6 across each of the suits. So the 6s from all the suits were removed. Now, in the piquet deck, we have the numbers 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. We have the jack, queen, king, and ace. And this is exactly the structure that we find in the Lenormand deck.

COMPARING THE PIQUET AND LENORMAND DECKS

For comparison, let's compare it with the Lenormand deck.

I like to use the Palimpsest when I do these reviews or videos because the Palimpsest shows the pip associated with each of the cards rather well. I know some of you don't like the illustrations on the Palimpsest. They are a bit quirky. But the pips show really well. And until I find decks that I like that show the illustrations and the way that I want them specifically so they’re clear on camera, I'll just be using this. So thanks for bearing with me for those of you who don't like the Palimpsest.

>> Download your Pip Combinations Worksheet

I want to add that the numbers we are looking at when we are comparing the Lenormand deck with the piquet deck are the numbers associated with the pips. Not the card number, but the pip. As you know, Lenormand cards have a number associated with each of them, and also it has a pip card associated with them. Our focus here is the pip card numbers, not the number of the card.

So as you can see, we've got each of the Lenormand cards associated with one of these playing cards, the pips. So we've got the ace of hearts is the Man. The king of hearts is the House. The queen of hearts is the Stork. The jack is the Heart itself. And the ten is the Dog, the 9 is the Rider, the 8 is the Moon, the 7 is the Tree and the 6th is the Stars. So it's a pretty happy suit. And the same idea goes for the other suits.

Where we have a Lenormand card that associates with one of the cards from the Piquet deck. So there is a perfect pip association between Lenormand cards and the Piquet deck. And that's a reason why I would say it's a very good reason to believe that Lenormand cards were adapted from the Piquet deck initially. But as you know, it also is associated very strongly with the game of hope. And I did a video about the game of hope. I will refer to it and I will link it in the description and also up here.

So let's move on to the next suit. So this is the suit of Spades. So we have an ace. We have the king, the queen. The Jack, ten, 9, 8, 7, 6. So the same numbers and court cards in each of the suits, of course, in the Piquet and each of these cards correspond to one of the Lenormand cards.

So the spade is the ace of spades, sorry, is the Woman, the king is the Lily. The Queen is the Flowers, the Jack as the Child. And the Ship is number ten, Anchor is 9. Garden is 8. Letter is 7 and 6 is the Tower. So not as happy as a suit as the Hearts, and I did cover the pips a little bit in another video, which I'll also link for you in case it's interesting. So this suit number from the Piquet corresponds to Lenormand.

Let's go through the suit of Diamonds. It’s the same idea, an ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine, eight, seven, and six.

The suit of diamonds in Lenormand is the enterprising suit, the business suit. Here's the ace. It's the Sun. And here is the ace reversed. The king is the Fish. Queen is the Road. The jack is the Scythe and the Book is the ten of diamonds. Coffin is nine. Key is a Bird. Seven is Clover. Six is the Stars.

So this is a suit that is focused on luck and enterprise, and you know, taking some risks. It's also quite a dynamic suit. So that's the third suit. Again, matches perfectly with the pips of the Piquet.

And finally, we have the clubs. Here is the ace. The king, the queen, the jack, ten, nine, eight, seven, and six. Same idea. We have the ace of clubs is the Ring, the king is the Clowns. The Queen is the Snake. The jack is the Whip. Ten is Bear, nine is Fox, eight is the Mountain, seven is the Mice, and six is the Cross.

In Lenormand, the club's suit is the challenge suit, whereas in most of the other playing cards and correspondences between the pips and the energy of a suit, it is usually the spades that is challenging. But in Lenormand, it's a little bit different.

So these are the four suits of the Lenormand deck and how they match perfectly with the pips of the Piquet.

Now, in case it's of interest to you, the Piquet deck was used for a game. It is played with just two people and it has its rules. I'm going to link a video that I found was more helpful than others to learn how to play Piquet if you're interested in it.

But here's what: you do not need to go out and get yourself a Piquet deck to play with. You could just take them out of a 52 playing card deck and you've got your Piquet deck. I was happy to find this one. I was just curious about it, you know, about if it's different. I have to say, I like the illustrations. They look pretty classical and tidy as well. So it's a clean-looking deck.

The size is a bit small, but actually it's quite nice to handle and the back is just a regular playing card deck. And this one was produced by Piatnik, which is a very popular and famous and well-respected company for decks. If I find it, I'm going to link it for you and maybe add it also to my Amazon page.

But I just wanted to do a quick video today to cover this deck. Just for a reference, so we have it on record somewhere in our resources, and so you have a bit of an idea of the history.

So yes, we have plenty of reason to believe that it wasn't Marie Anne Lenormand who came up with the deck. She came up with how to use the deck, but the structure of the deck was in circulation through decks like the Piquet.

The symbols on the cards were already in circulation through the Game of Hope, which like I said, I was going to link.

So it's really the method of divination using an existing deck of cards that is the major contribution of Marie Anne Lenormand, along with her predictions, of course, that were apparently really spot-on and controversial.

So that was it for a quick tutorial or a video on the Piquet deck for our records. Let me know if you know anything else about these cards or if you have any thoughts about them. I'd be interested.

There is a bit of mystery around some elements of Lenormand, but I think when it comes to the history of the deck, it's pretty clear that she didn't come up with the deck. But if there's something else you want to share, I would love to hear it. So thank you for tuning in. As always, until next time, take very good care of yourself.

NOTE. Usage of the Piquet deck 1821 and Lenormand deck authorized by Wiener Spielkartenfabrik Ferd.Piatnik & Söhne, A-1140 Vienna, © by Piatnik Vienna, http://www.piatnik.com/

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