Marie-Anne Lenormand: The Cartomancer Who Predicted the Marriage, Rise & Fall of Napoleon
Napoleon’s fate was in the cards
By the time Marie-Anne Lenormand met Josephine de Beaharnais (later known as Josephine Bonaparte, Empress of France), cartomancy had been in Europe for over 400 years. Born in 1772, Madame Lenormand knew from an early age that she had a gift. Throughout her life, she would predict the fate of many, including important events and people. Her life took many turns, from a convent school education, to fortune teller for the rich and famous, to jail, to publisher, and then to historical legend. She died a rich lady, with no heirs save a stuffy nephew who burned all of her belongings (though, he refrained from burning her money).
Prophetic Beginnings
Life was unkind to many in 1700s France, a lesson Madame Lenormand learned quickly. Following the death of her mother and father, Lenormand was placed in a convent school at the age of five. Surviving legend has Lenormand predicting the removal of the standing Superior, at her Benedictine convent, and then predicting her successor. She was age seven at the time. This set her on the path to be one of France’s most famous cartomancers, to this day.
