The Marginal Lenormand by Anastasia Kashian is not your typical Lenormand deck. Inspired by the wonderfully bizarre world of medieval manuscript marginalia, this 37-card deck takes one of the most structured divination systems and dresses it in absurdity, humor, and historical oddities.

If you’ve ever stumbled across illustrations of rabbits jousting knights, snails battling soldiers, mischievous monkeys, or strange hybrid creatures hiding in the margins of illuminated manuscripts, you’ll immediately recognize the inspiration behind this deck.

The Marginal Lenormand manages to be playful without sacrificing the integrity of Lenormand itself. It’s a deck that invites curiosity, laughter, and surprisingly insightful readings.

Unboxing + Flipthrough

My First Impressions

The first thing that caught my attention was how different it feels from nearly every Lenormand deck I’ve worked with.

At first glance, it almost looks like an art book disguised as an oracle deck. The medieval-inspired imagery immediately stands out, but instead of feeling old or intimidating, it feels delightfully weird.

I honestly wasn’t sure whether the unconventional artwork would distract from traditional Lenormand reading. Instead, I found the opposite to be true.

The deck keeps the classic Lenormand symbols intact while allowing the medieval illustrations to add layers of personality and storytelling. The result feels familiar enough for experienced readers while remaining refreshing.

It has a quirky sense of humor that never crosses into parody.

The Artwork

The artwork is undoubtedly the star of this deck.

Rather than creating modern illustrations inspired by medieval art, Anastasia Kashian embraces the wonderfully chaotic spirit of authentic manuscript marginalia. Every card feels like a tiny historical curiosity waiting to be explored.

Animals behave like humans.

Humans behave even stranger.

Fantastic creatures appear where you least expect them.

Many illustrations are based on genuine medieval motifs that once decorated the borders of religious books and manuscripts. Historically, these images often served as jokes, satire, social commentary, or simply whimsical decorations created by artists enjoying themselves.

That playful energy carries beautifully into the readings.

Even when pulling traditionally difficult cards like Scythe, Coffin, or Snake, the artwork introduces subtle emotional nuance. Sometimes the imagery softens a harsh interpretation. Other times it highlights the absurdity of life’s challenges.

The balance between historical authenticity and readability is impressive.

Box, Card, and Finish

Unfortunately, this is where the deck fell short for me.

While I genuinely love the artwork and the overall concept, the production quality didn’t quite meet my expectations. The box uses a lift-off lid, and I found that it comes off rather easily. Personally, I would have preferred a sturdier box that feels more secure for storage.

The cardstock itself has a nice thickness, but the finish wasn’t to my liking. It has an uncoated, paper-like feel that, to me, comes across as inexpensive rather than intentionally vintage. I can appreciate that the publisher may have been aiming to echo the look and feel of medieval manuscripts, but I don’t think the materials quite achieve that effect.

Despite the finish, the cards shuffle reasonably well, and I didn’t have any issues with their size or handling. My concern is more about how the surface feels in hand than the overall construction of the cards. Because of the uncoated finish, I’d also recommend being a little more mindful of where you use the deck. I found myself double and even triple-checking that my reading surface was completely dry before putting the cards down, as they seem more susceptible to moisture and surface wear than decks with a coated finish.

That said, the printing itself is lovely. The color palette complements the medieval artwork beautifully, and the illustrations remain crisp and easy to appreciate. The artwork is undoubtedly the highlight of the deck, and the printing does it justice.

I absolutely adore the concept and the illustrations, but I do wish the publisher had paired them with higher-quality materials. For a deck this creative and visually distinctive, better paper quality and a sturdier box would have elevated the entire experience.

Guidebook

The accompanying guidebook adds more than just the basic Lenormand keywords.

Alongside the traditional card meanings, it explores the inspiration behind the artwork and explains how the medieval imagery relates to each card. It also includes guidance on card pairings, making it a helpful companion whether you’re new to Lenormand or already familiar with the system.

For each card, you’ll generally find:

✦ Traditional Lenormand meanings

✦ An explanation of the featured artwork

✦ Notes connecting the imagery to the card’s symbolism

✦ Card pairing guidance

I especially enjoyed learning more about the artwork and the ideas behind it. It adds another layer of appreciation for the deck without taking away from the straightforward nature of Lenormand.

How the Deck Works

Despite its unconventional appearance, this is very much a traditional Lenormand deck.

The core symbols remain recognizable, allowing readers to perform standard Lenormand techniques without having to learn an entirely new system.

Instead of replacing established meanings, the medieval artwork enriches them.

For example, the Rider is still the Rider.

The Fox is still the Fox.

The Heart is still the Heart.

The symbolic foundations remain stable, while the surrounding artwork offers additional intuitive clues that may deepen the interpretation.

I appreciate that the deck respects Lenormand’s structured language rather than reinventing it.

Reading Style and Themes

The Marginal Lenormand works especially well for readers who enjoy combining logical systems with intuitive storytelling.

It excels in:

✦ Daily card pulls

✦ Nine-card portraits

✦ Grand Tableau readings

✦ Shadow work

✦ Creative writing prompts

✦ Historical and folklore-inspired readings

✦ Readings that benefit from humor and perspective

One unexpected strength is how easily the artwork sparks narrative connections between neighboring cards.

Because the illustrations are so expressive, patterns often emerge naturally across larger spreads.

This makes Grand Tableau particularly enjoyable.

The deck also has a wonderfully mischievous personality. It doesn’t feel sarcastic or mocking, but it does have a habit of gently pointing out life’s ironies.

Interview with Anastasia Kashian

To learn more about The Marginal Lenormand, I asked Anastasia Kashian about the inspiration behind the deck, the artwork, and the creative process.

Getting to Know Anastasia

Eisel: For readers who may be discovering you for the first time, can you tell us a little about yourself and the work you do?

E: What first drew you to Lenormand, and what keeps you coming back to it?

A: Lenormand is such a bold, simple, earthy system. Unlike Tarot, with its complex layers of reference to learned systems of theology and philosophy, the emblems we see in Lenormand are almost folksy; the figures and objects presented are completely recognisable from the fireside tales our great-grandmothers might have told. Which is a gift to the artist, as you don’t have to do any complicated “explaining” – everybody already knows about Foxes and Bears, Gardens and Crossroads and Towers (with or without Princesses in residence!) It’s both very Everyday, and also packed with intrinsic meaning, and you can tell those old stories over and over again without boring your listener – the evergreen tale elements.

E: Medieval marginalia is such a distinctive interest. What first fascinated you about these illustrations?

A: I loved Medieval art from childhood, and from the first time my parents (who shared a great love of Gothic and Romanesque architecture, if nothing else) took me into a Medieval church – the first of many, many visits – I was intrigued by the contrast between the monumental – the God-Sized scale of the building, and the fervent, unquestioning religiosity behind that – and the altogether more human, humorous, and mundane little carvings and other decorations hidden away in corners and under the choir-stalls. Later on I was to find that those irrepressible Medieval artists did the same with the Books of the Church, Bibles, Hymnals, Commentaries; you can’t help but love these unofficial “footnotes” to the principal story that pop up EVERYWHERE, and express so much more of the maker’s personality and humanity than the dutiful rote copying that was their main job.

E: How has your background or personal interests influenced the kinds of projects you’re drawn to?

A: Everything I’ve ever been drawn to or made any serious study of has ended up coming back into my work somehow. I studied Anthropology at London’s University College (a great many years ago now!) which was quite a good way of getting in touch with a lot more Stories – ritual objects, masks, dances, costumes, and festivals from the wider world. Although I probably got most value through hiding from my tutors in the old Folklore Society Library, now sadly dispersed and archived – in an aircraft hangar somewhere in Essex, I believe. But what a resource and inspiration! Mages’ grimoires, travellers’ field notes, alchemical texts and local broadsheets, all jumbled together.

The Deck Itself

E: What sparked the idea for combining Lenormand with medieval marginalia?

A: I’d wanted to make a Lenormand for a while, but none of my ideas seemed to really work, until one day I was looking at a Medieval image of Noah’s Ark – the weirdly inconsistent scale, with the tiny tub of a boat crammed with apparently giant people and animals, bobbing on a perfectly symmetrical sea, the liveliness and directness of the rendering and storytelling – and it just clicked into place. I had the outlines for the Ship and the House right there already.

E: Why did medieval marginalia feel like such a natural visual language for Lenormand?

A: Because everything Is What It Is, clear and crisp, presented on a single plane. If we need to see what’s going on inside a building, the artist just cuts the side of it off. There’s no fussing about with unnecessary concepts like Naturalism, or Perspective. It makes it a breeze to read…

E: How long did the project take from the initial concept to the finished deck?

A: I finished the cards in 6 months. Then I had to finish the guidebook, and there was another year for the publishers to Do Their Thing. So around a year and three-quarters.

E: In what ways did the deck evolve as you worked on it?

A:I think the overarching deck concept more or less arrived complete with the first few cards. After that it was just a case of fitting the puzzle-pieces together. Making a deck is always like putting together a giant jig-saw puzzle – the cards sort of exist in potentia, then you have to work out which wayup they go, as it were.

Building The Marginal Lenormand

E: How did you decide which historical illustrations best represented each of the 36 Lenormand cards?

A: Sometimes a particular image would float to the top of my memory unbidden, at other times I’d construct a little story about the card and search the libraries for reference images which had the right shape and feel to tell it with.

E: Were there any cards that proved especially difficult to pair with medieval artwork?

A: The Heart was quite difficult because that stereotypical heart-shape that we now use as shorthand for Love only really started appearing in art towards the end of the Middle Ages. If we go back even further in history, we didn’t even think of the physiological heart as the seat of our emotions – people were more prone to feel their feelings in their stomachs and livers! Which would paint quite a different picture…

E: How did you balance preserving traditional Lenormand meanings while embracing the humor and unpredictability of marginalia?

A: Delicately!

E: The guidebook provides historical context alongside Lenormand interpretations. Why was that an important part of the experience you wanted to create?

A: It’s quite difficult to pluck individual elements from the culture of another time or place without giving your modern audience at least some contextual clues. The past isn’t just another country, in some cases it might as well be a different galaxy! Things can get very confusing without a phrasebook, or at least a street map.

E: Was there a card whose meaning or symbolism changed for you while creating the deck?

A: Not changed as such, but I did become more intensely aware of additional aspects to some cards, like the Dark Side of the Sun…

Art, History & Hidden Details

E: What surprised you most while researching medieval marginalia?

A: How strongly individual the voices of those often anonymous makers can be. You get a real sense of their different personalities, opinions, and tastes when you study the manuscripts in detail.

E: Is there a particular illustration in the deck with a fascinating backstory you’d love readers to know?

A: Google “Sir John Mandeville” and “Anthropophagi” to find out more about the monstrous personages in the Sun card. They’re not simply random, fantastical inventions from the artists’own imaginations, like many of the chimaerae and grotesques in a lot of Marginalia – this was how medieval europeans envisaged the inhabitants of far-away lands! St Christopher, for example, was supposed to have been a convert from a tribe of Dog-Headed people, the Cynocephalii, somewhere on the continent of Africa. (Dog-Headed Men not included in the deck, unfortunately.

E: Are there details or visual references hidden throughout the deck that readers might not notice at first glance?

A: Yes

E: Which card best captures the spirit of both medieval marginalia and Lenormand?

A: Several. I’m going to single out (or should that be “double out”?) two – Mice and Coffin. In Lenormand-speak, both these cards have a real “Not Gonna Lie To You” energy, but I think the Marginalia theme enables a more nuanced reading of these generally negative cards; there’s learning to be had here, too, even if that learning almost certainly takes the form of “Try Not To Do This Thing Again”… That blunt, but not quite hopeless, tone is very much the voice of both the Lenormand itself and the historic Marginalia imagery. I find it empowering in a very practical sense. Here we are, it says. And yes, sometimes Life is terrible. Now, what can we do to ensure that we can get up again tomorrow morning, and not wallow in the ash-pit, brooding?

The Creative Journey

E: What was the biggest creative challenge you encountered while making this deck?

A: Everything! Though I think some of the hardest technical challenges involved reformatting scenic cards like Garden and Paths/Crossroads into something a lot more contained and 2D.

E: What part of the project brought you the most joy?

A: All of it. Except editing. Nobody likes editing, and you can’t convince me otherwise.

E: What did creating The Marginal Lenormand teach you as an artist, researcher, or reader?

A: Working with historically inspired themes is always rewarding if you can really get into “character” – it’s like studying with the Masters of another age.

E: How did it feel to finally hold the completed deck for the first time?

A: Actually the best bit about holding the finished deck in your hands is finally being able to read with it properly! Only when it is complete can you see if it really “Works”. Rather like an architect with his building.

Looking Back

Who It’s For

I would especially recommend this deck for:

✔ Experienced Lenormand readers looking for something visually unique.

✔ Collectors interested in medieval history, illuminated manuscripts, or historical art.

✔ Readers who enjoy decks with personality and humor.

✔ Tarot readers who are curious about learning Lenormand through memorable imagery.

✔ Anyone who appreciates unusual or unconventional deck design.

If you’re brand new to Lenormand, this deck is still approachable thanks to its faithful use of the traditional symbols, although pairing it with a foundational Lenormand book may help you build confidence more quickly.

My Honest Thoughts

The Marginal Lenormand is one of the most visually distinctive Lenormand decks I’ve come across, and it’s easy to see the passion that went into its concept. The medieval marginalia gives the deck a personality all its own, but it never loses sight of what makes Lenormand such an effective reading system. The traditional symbols remain clear and recognizable, allowing the artwork to enhance the experience rather than replace the core symbolism.

That said, I do think the artwork can be a bit overwhelming at times. Traditional Lenormand relies on clear, direct imagery, and this deck is filled with intricate details that naturally draw your eye. While I found that to be part of its charm, beginners or those who are still learning Lenormand may occasionally find the illustrations distracting, especially when trying to focus on the primary symbol of each card. If you’re already comfortable with the system, however, those extra details can become an enjoyable part of the reading experience rather than a distraction.

I also think the production quality lets the deck down. The artwork deserves better materials than what it was printed on, and I would have loved to see a sturdier box and a higher-quality card finish. For a deck that’s this imaginative and beautifully illustrated, those details would have made a significant difference.

Even with those criticisms, I still think The Marginal Lenormand is a worthwhile addition for collectors and Lenormand enthusiasts who appreciate historical art and unconventional deck design. If the artwork speaks to you, it’s a deck that’s well worth exploring. Just be aware that you’re buying it for its creativity and artistic vision rather than its production quality. 

Overall, The Marginal Lenormand is a deck I’ll remember for its creativity and artistic vision. While I wish the physical production had received the same level of care as the artwork itself, the illustrations and thoughtful interpretation make it a unique addition to any Lenormand collection.

Where to Find the Deck & Creator Info

✦ Deck Creator & Artist / Illustrator:  Anastasia Kashian

✦ Publisher: Redfeather

✦ Publication Date: May 28, 2026

✦ Where to Get the Deck: Amazon

Disclaimer: I received The Marginal Lenormand deck for review, and as always, my thoughts are completely honest and based on my own experience using the deck.