Maître Fripon: The Fox Card

Avec tout son mépris, il s’est bien joué du roi qui va perdre son temps à l’attendre et en être pour ses frais (With all his contempt, he played the King well who will waste his time waiting for him and being at his expense.)

Le Roman de Renart

Fox, if this card is near, you must beware of those with whom you are connected, because some seek to deceive you, otherwise there is no danger.

Philippe Lenormand Sheet

Card no. 14, the Nine of Clubs or the FOX, can be one of the most divisive cards in the pack. Is Renard the master card of work? Maybe he’s the family card par excellence? Or is he the red devil himself?

The Essence and Function of the Fox Card:

The essence and function of the Fox card is falsehood and manipulation, respectively. The Fox’s presence in the game is a warning to be on your guard. Failure to be vigilant will see you fall foul to his wily ways. It is for this reason I often describe the card as a red-flag.

To understand the Nine of Clubs, we have to consider both its eikṓn and folklore.

Starting with the Das Spiel der Hoffnung, the traditional motif of card no. 14 is of a stealthy fox, ready to pounce, or that of a tod or vixen with a dead fowl.

The chicken never saw him coming…

Over time the design has only ever been subtly reinterpreted. The classic Brepols & Dierckx pattern – much loved by serious readers – has either a tod or vixen presenting a goose to four kits at their den. It is presented along with three other classic motifs below.

The animal killed or stalked by the Fox varies from deck-to-deck. However, it tends towards domestic fowl or poultry (chickens, geese, game birds and partridges). Consequently, the implication is that these are not wild birds but someone’s livestock. To feed himself, the fox has trespassed upon someone’s land, found, caught, and killed another’s resources (the bird either raised for flesh or eggs).

Of course, such behaviour cannot be classified as either evil or wicked. The fox must eat. Nevertheless, if we remember that this bird was part of a farmer’s resources needed to feed his family, we can better understand the negative side affect the Fox’s action can have.

We also see the emergence of competing interests.

Foxes are ever-present figures in Old European folklore. Animal lore is often grounded in agriculture and husbandry. The fox-farmer experience saw the fox became a trickster, shapeshifter and wily rascal associated with cunning and manipulation.

Let us consider the classic tale of the Fox and the Crow.

Watching, a fox spies a crow landing in a tree with a piece of cheese which he himself rather fancies. He cannot run the risk of the crow flying away. So, the fox approaches and begins to flatter and praise the crow. Eventually, the fox states he believes the crow must have a lovely voice. Will she please sing to him? the fox asks. Flattered, the crow begins to sing and drops the cheese into the waiting mouth of the fox.

The craftiness and ingenuity employed by the fox in the tale, as well as his desire of something not his, are all to be found in card no. 14. The Fox card in the Judith Bartschi Lenormand utilises this well known tale.

The Fox is in direct opposition with the Querent (he wants the same thing as you), and the Fox will, as a survivalist, prioritise and serve his interests first. If successful his actions will result in a tangible loss. Keen to avoid confrontation, subtle manipulation and treachery fit him best. Hence the red flag.

Classic tales such as the Reynard the Fox, first appearing in the 12th century, as well as the Teumessian Fox, Schir Lowrence, Godmother Lisa, the Fox and the Mask as well as the Wolf and the Fox (Grimm Brothers) can all be studied to better understand this card.

Coda

The Fox card is a red-flag that the Querent must be on her card. Where he stalks, the Querent must act with caution. She will need to guard against manipulation, sabotage and dishonesty. Failure to do so will incur a loss.

Always remember: the Fox is after your cheese!

Person and Descriptions:

As an animal card, the Nine of Clubs can be seen as a person: the competition or rival. Read thus, card no. 14 can be male or female. Look and see if a court-card is present. If not, if the Fox faces a heart or clubs card the person will likely be male. Spades and diamonds indicate females.

However, most of the time, the Fox will be read as a description of a person card. In such cases, careful consideration of his position in the draw must be given. We will consider each option:

Let us take the Fox + the Lady . As the Fox precedes her, she receives a red-flagged status. Such a person needs to be treated with extreme caution. Her interests come first, and she will not hesitate to lie and cheat if it serves her end. She will be charming and have a silver tongue.

Reversing the two cards, the Lady + the Fox, we see something different. Here the Lady card is described as a very independent and solitary person who is nevertheless no threat. She will be extremely clever, resourceful and ambitious but not a team player. She can be nosey. You will not warm to her.

If the Fox falls above the Lady card, it controls or influences her. Such a woman will have a clear agenda and particular motivation which drives her behaviour. In her mind, she has formulated a strategy, which has lead her to enter your entourage. Unfortunately, she has decided that dishonest means or cheating will be the best method of securing it. Beware this is the arch saboteur.

Cards below are controlled or influenced. Should the Fox fall beneath the Lady card, the woman in question uses a calculated and shrewd approach to achieve a goal. She uses research, cunning and her own skills to get what she desires. However, these are not dishonest. You will find that such a person is goal-oriented and target approached in her manner. A self-made woman.

One positive attribute the Fox brings to a person-card is that they are family oriented. However outsiders are frowned-upon.

If the Fox falls before the Querent’s card, it warns the Reader that the client will keep stuff back or not be 100% honest.

Physically, the Fox describes someone as having red hair. This can be shaded from strawberry blonde, ginger to red-brown. Due to the Fox’s penchant for masks, he can indicate someone has hair extensions or wears a wig/hairpiece. In my experience, the Fox does not reveal dyed hair.

The Fox’s build is more “skinny” than slim. The person also often has a prominent nose.

Special Features:

In 2011 and 2012, I discussed the Fox card’s effect in terms of proximity and order. Examining both the Serpent and the Fox cards as descriptions for people cards, I touched upon the importance of order once more. The importance of order and proximity underpins the material below.

When the Fox card falls near the Significator, its influence is at its most potent. This is because proximity concerns engagement. Its influence is felt directly/strongly. You are, therefore, urged to be on your guard or fall foul to the Fox’s machinations as he is active in your vicinity.

Should the Fox be at a distance, it has less opportunity to act. It is not close enough to your environment/resources. You do not engage directly. It does not cease to be a concern; care should still be given to the cards the Fox affects.

Like the other cards, the Fox cannot affect every card in the game. His influence is confined to the cards he is near and encounters. Cards are controlled or dominated by the card that comes before them. That is the A card in an A + B (+ C) grouping.

For the Fox, these will be the cards shown in red below:

These are the cards the Fox influences (below), overcomes (precedes) and effects in terms of consequence (diagonal). In these combinations he is card A.

You can see these cards as being red-flagged. They will be areas where caution must be exercised to avoid traps or pitfalls. Of course, any carte maîtresse falling here becomes a key life area of concern.

The beauty of the Fox card is that it offers us a warning. A shrewd Querent can use this information. With enough cunning and finesse you can build a strategy or take steps to turn the tables.

The other cards will receive the Fox’s descriptive values or traits. Of course, these will be of the mercurial nature of the card. But they do not receive the red-flag status of being on the Fox’s radar.

The Petit Lenormand’s Nine of Clubs shares several associations in common with the Italian Falsità (4♦) card, which shows a cat. We see this across several cartomantic methods.

Like the cat, the fox was demonised. Not as common as black dogs and toads, foxes appear in lore and records as familiar spirits or disguised fae/demons. Méphistophélès, from Germanic folklore, is often shown dressed in red with vulpine features.

The shapeshifter nature of the fox in folklore can manifest in readings. Seeing the Park + the Fox can indicate a masquerade, costume event or CosPlay. The Book + the Fox can indicate a pseudonym or nom de plume.

The Fox and Cats:

In Continental and Eastern Europe, the Fox card is linked to felines. I know French, Romanian, Russian and Belgian cartomantes who all acknowledge this association.

But why? Some believe it is a flawed association and that the Hound should be the card of cats, citing foxes being part of the same family as dogs.

It is not disputed that foxes are members of the Canidae family. If such biological classification precludes the association of felines with the Fox, it must also exclude it from the Hound card, too.

Regardless of the biological family, the evolution of the fox sees it differ in a number of ways to the dog. But also share traits with cats:

Unlike dogs, some foxes can climb and ascend trees. The fox has both longer and cat-like sensitive whiskers. Foxes’ pupils are vertically split unlike other members of the Canidae family.

At the time of the cards conception, the European Wildcat was also far more common. This feline is an adept hunter: eating rats, mice, moles, birds and capable of killing rabbits and chickens — something that still occurs.

However, it is folklore that has linked the cat with the fox. Both were unfairly demonised and associated with deceit and manipulation. Both were seen as shape-shifters capable of deceiving the common man.

The Reynard fables — a direct influence on the card — includes a character called Tybalt, the Prince of Cats. Despite their rivalry, Tybalt is variously described as a friend, ally and cousin of Reynard.

It is for this reason several decks employ the fox and cat interchangeably for cards associated with falsity.

It is essential to recognise the role and influence of folklore in cartomancy. You can choose not to associate the card with cats. But it is a grave mistake to dismiss it as flawed logic. If you do, you’re dismissing the very core essence that gave birth to the oracle.

Renard the Worker:

In their 1989 Petit Lenormand: Méthod de Cartomancie, Mary [di] Marco and Jeanine Goffinet associated card no. 14 with salaried employees and the Fishes with the self-employed, military and entrepreneurs. Neither Silvestre nor Delclos followed this particular model, but Moony, Rana George and Lozzy Phillips do. My second mentor (herself French) used the Fox card for self-employed or temporary workers.

The distinction between salaried and self-employment was common in the Petit Lenormand literature until recent times. Several German readers used the High Tower as Marco did the Fishes.

As a younger reader, I did attempt to integrate this distinction. I could see the logic of the Fox as a temp, freelancer or the wheeler dealer. Foxes work for themselves. Over time, however, I found that the cards simply did not adhere to this distinction. Instead, the same card(s) matter regardless of whether the person is salaried or freelance, but the nuance was different due to different circumstances.

This realisation led me to see the Fox as a critical card for career readings. But not in a manner where he (or any other card) can be read purely as work.

Foxes are opportunistic and in constant competition with their environment. They are remarkable survivors and have had to adapt to ever-changing habitats.

Consequently, card no. 14 talks more about competition, rivals and the strategies needed to succeed in business or at work. When someone is going for a job interview, the Fox will be the other candidates. If you are running a business, the Fox is your biggest competition.

If the Fox talks about roles, it is cash-in-hand, casual labour, game-keeper, night workers, pawn-brokers, smallholdings, as well as the less legal poachers, hunters, and so on.

Well-Being:

The Fox is associated with the nose and olfactory system. Got a nasal polyp? The Fox + Flowers says you do! Blocked nose? The Fox + Mountain . The Fox + Flowers can also indicate allergic rhinitis.

Time after time, the Fox will appear near the Tree or Coffin when the client is either ill but asymptomatic or requires more specialist investigation (if the Key is nearby).

If the Fox card overcomes either the Tree or the Coffin, he warns of illnesses that are either masked by generalised symptoms or have no apparent symptoms. With the Fox + the Coffin, there is a strong possibility of misdiagnosis or inaccurate tests that need repeating. Due to personal experience, whenever I see such configurations, I urge the Querent to get an annual check-up and, if necessary, a second opinion.

The Fox in Action:

In the summer of 2020, a female Querent consulted the cards. Her question concerned as to whether an upcoming first date would gell well. Although the Lady and the Gentleman had spoken over FaceTime and exchanged e-mails and DMS, neither had met face-to-face. Consequently, the Lady was full of nerves.

The cards as they fell:

The Birds, the Fox and the Park.

We can immediately tell that the response is negative. The Birds, paired with the Fox, shows that nerves will be a big issue. Neither the Lady nor the Gentleman will feel comfortable in each others company (Birds + Fox). The conversation will be pretty tense, with both holding back.

As a result, both parties will decide that they do not have a good enough rapport or chemistry to form an association. That is signified by Fox’s overcoming the Park. Wrong company.

As such, the answer is no, and both will decide not to see each other again.

So it was. The Lady and the Gentleman both felt that they had nothing common. The Lady told me the evening ending early as they had nothing to talk about.

§

Illustrations:

Cards: Ur Lenormand: The Primal Lenormand © U.S. Games, Jeu Lenormand © Cartamundi, WanderWüst © Jorge/Wandering Oracle, Cartes Lenormand ©Dondorf, Lenormand Fortune-Telling Cards © Zao-Gelli, Petit Lenormand © Daveluy (Author’s Collection).

References or Further Reading

Boroveshengra, A., 2011, 2012 & 2013. Journal of Cartomante: The Fox and Serpent.
Boroveshengra, A., 2013. Cartomantes’ Cabinet: The Petit Lenormand Course.
Boroveshengra, A., 2015. Lenormand Thirty Six cards. 2nd ed. Create Space.
Delclos, M., 2013. Le Livre du Petit Lenormand. 1st ed. Escalquens: Éd. Trajectoire.
George, R., 2014. Essential Lenormand. 1st ed. Llewellyn Publications, U.S.
Marco, M. and Goffinet, J., 1989. Petit Lenormand. Bruxelles: Servranx.
Meuris, B., 2018. Petit Lenormand Encyclopaedia: Volume 1 & 2. Create Space.
Muradova, A., 2021. The Red Devil and the Symbolic Meaning of the Colour ‘Red’ in Modern Breton. [online] Journal.fi. Available at: https://journal.fi/scf/article/view/7542 [Accessed 6 May 2021].
Phillips, L., 2021. Lozzy’s Complete Guide To Lenormand: Workbook Edition. 1st ed. Independent.
Silvestre, C., 2003. Le Petit Lenormand. [Montpellier]: Gange éd.