The Fox

Fox · No. 14 · Playing card ♣9 · Work, cunning, strategy

The card

A fox stands alert, head slightly turned. The image is about watching and being on guard.

Traditional meaning

Traditionally the Fox is cunning and deceit, and in many traditions it stands plainly for work.

How to read it

The Fox has two layers. One is "keep your wits about you" — someone is calculating, or something is not what it claims. The other is ordinary work and making a living. Which layer applies depends on the company it keeps. It also asks you to be sharp, rather than always casting you as the victim.

In context

Love

Insincerity, testing the water, or two people each running their own calculation.

Work

Your actual job, job-hunting; also manoeuvring in the workplace.

Timing

Depends on the neighbouring card; the Fox gives no timing of its own.

Common combinations

Lenormand meanings were first written down in the instruction sheet issued around 1846 by Philippe Lenormand, heir of Marie-Anne Lenormand, and that sheet has long been in the public domain. The "Traditional meaning" section here describes the classical reading handed down from that line, in our own words — it is not a verbatim quotation of the sheet. Card images are public-domain scans of Das Spiel der Hoffnung (1799).