Marie Anne Adelaïde Lenormand was born on May 27, 1772, in Alençon, a small town about fifty miles from Paris, in the family of a rich draper. After the death of her parents, Marie went to live with her stepfather and was regularly visiting a gypsy camp near the city wall, where a gypsy woman taught her to read the palm and gave her a deck of used cards. With the death of her father, her family’s prosperity came to an end and Marie was forced to abandon her studies at the local Benedictine convent. She had become famous for her successful predictions while still at the boarding school of the convent. The director, to whom the little Marie had predicted that she would not stay very long in the monastery, was soon transferred to another location.
At the age of 16, Marie left the convent and moved to Paris, where she was forced to work as a seamstress for a living, even though she was still very young.
Then, Marie worked as a clerk in a fabric store, but her unusual talent soon revealed itself. In Paris, Maria became acquainted with fortune-telling as well as with the divination system of the famous Etteilla, which had already popularized it in 1780. After some time, and thanks to her lottery winning of 1800 francs, she opened her own salon with a friend, on Rue de Tournon, where she received ladies and gentlemen who wanted to know their future through various methods of divination, such as cards, palmistry, astrology, the shape of the skull and the crystal ball. Marie was also interested in the «language of flowers» and the elaboration of flavors, and this passion is reflected in her Astro-mythological deck. She received a lot of money for her fortune telling and that without any reserve, since it was known that her predictions came true, and with amazing accuracy.
At the age of 32, Marie Lenormand was at the pinnacle of glory. In a very short time, she became a consultant for the richest and most influential people of the capital. The salon of Mademoiselle Lenormand had gained immense popularity because the elite of post-revolutionary Paris frequented it. In 1793, the salon was visited by Marat, Saint-Just and Robespierre. To the three of them she predicted a violent death. And it is exactly what happened: a few months later, Jean-Paul Marat was lethally wounded by Charlotte Corday, and the two others were arrested and executed a year after that. Lenormand herself was arrested for suspicion of sympathizing with the Jacobins, but her political connections got to work and she was allowed to continue her practice.
But most of her fame, of course, came from her friendship with Joséphine de Beauharnais, the wife of young General Bonaparte. On their first meeting, the fortune teller predicted him the crown. Neither Josephine nor Napoleon believed her that day. However, 10 years later the prediction came true. Once in power, Napoleon did not forget the prophetess: he gave her one million francs and she became a personal fortune teller for Empress Josephine. Lenormand then not only predicted her divorce with Napoleon, but also the defeat of the French army in Russia. But Napoleon was soon tired of his wife’s passion for «those stupid things» and, in 1808, he sent Marie Lenormand away from Paris – he had also sent Madame de Stael away in 1802 because «of her too liberal thoughts». In response to her expulsion, Lenormand wrote The memories of a prophetic Sibyl: on the secret causes of her arrest, where she predicted the fall of Napoleon and the restoration of the house of Bourbons. But this work was only published after the fall of Napoleon.
In 1814, when Russian troops entered Paris, Lenormand received a visit of the future Decembrist Mikhail Lunin, to whom it was predicted that he would be hanged. It is known, however, that he escaped this fate. In 1818, the famous fortune teller was presented in Paris to Emperor Alexander I of Russia.
After the victory over Napoleon, Lenormand was consulted by many high-ranking officials from different countries, coming to the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818, where the leaders of Europe were establishing new borders for the countries. However, her considerable influence behind the scene of political events was felt by certain like a major hindrance.
At the instigation of the Church, Lenormand was brought to trial in 1821 in Paris. She was accused of heresy following her statement that she was in connection with the archangel Gabriel. The court sentenced her to one year in jail along with a hefty fine, but an appeal to the Supreme Court turned out to be a success, and she did not have to serve her sentence. A crowd of people came to congratulate Mademoiselle Lenormand when she was released. From that day onward, she practically retired from politics, but remained popular until her death on June 23, 1843, a date which she had predicted, along with the circumstances, 14 years before the incident. A countless number of people from different backgrounds came to her funeral to pay homage. Marie Lenormand left half a million louis d’or in legacy to her nephew, her only parent.
Here are some successful predictions of Mademoiselle Lenormand:
- You have only a couple years to live, your Majesty. You will be guillotined». Four years later, the head of Marie-Antoinette was separated from her body by the sharp knife of the guillotine.
- In 1793, Lenormand received, in her salon at the Rue de Tournon, the visit of Marat, Robespierre and Saint-Just. To each of them she predicted a violent death. «You will be the first», she said to Marat, and Robespierre and Saint-Just will die by decapitation. A few months later, Marat was stabbed in his bath by Charlotte Corday, and a year after that, Robespierre and Saint-Just were accused of betrayal and executed. Lenormand predicted that the French army would be defeated by the Russian troops, and that shameful exile would await Bonaparte, as well as loneliness and a painful death.
- A few days after the visit of Alexander the 1st, Lenormand was visited by Pavel Pestel and Sergueï Mouraviov-Apostol. «You will be hanged», she told them. «But in Russia nobles are not executed by hanging», answered Mouraviov-Apostol. «They will make an exception for you, then» replied Marie. After the repression of the Decembrist revolt, the five leaders were sentenced to death by hanging. Among them there were Pavel Pestel and Sergueï Mouraviov-Apostol.
- Year 1829. The composer Gioacchino Rossini wants to know when he will meet real success and unfolds his partitions before Marie Lenormand asking her to do the reading directly on top of them. Marie then tells him that he will not write a single other opera, and that only death awaits him in Paris. After the Guillaume Tell, Rossini virtually ceased his activity as a composer. From then on, Rossini came to be known as an exquisite cook. Obese, he died in 1868 in Paris in terrible pains.
- Year 1832. During the visit of a client who was a noble, Marie Lenormand predicted to Honoré de Balzac that he would have an affair with a foreigner, then marry her and die soon after. And just 5 months after his marriage to a Polish countess, Evelina Hanska, Honoré did indeed die.
