The Snake

Snake · No. 7 · Playing card ♣Q · Betrayal, desire, a complicated woman

The card

A snake winds across the ground, body coiled. The line of the drawing is itself the meaning: it does not go straight.

Traditional meaning

Traditionally the Snake is betrayal, deception and trouble, and often a woman causing harm.

How to read it

The heart of the Snake is "not in a straight line". It can be someone working an angle, or a matter that simply winds and has more to it than shown. Modern readings also give it desire, temptation and a complicated kind of intelligence — you need not always read a villain, but you should read "not simple".

In context

Love

A third party, something concealed, or manipulation and push-pull inside the relationship.

Work

Office politics, a competitor’s manoeuvre, the fine print in a contract.

Timing

Drawn out and repeating; hard to pin to a date.

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).