Significator Cards

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About Card Reading
and Cartomancy
Significator Cards
There are almost as many ways to select a significator card as there are styles of card reading decks, so pips, court cards, trumps, and specially designated cards are all valid significators; art by Pamela Colman Smith and various unknown artists

Significator cards are specially selected cards that carry particular meanings to card readers. They may provide information about the person whose fortune is being told or offer details about the situation which forms the reason for the reading. Not all Card readers employ significator cards, and those those who do may or may not fully share the significator information with their sitters, depending on the reader's personal style, the time allotted for the reading, and the sitter's level of interest in details.

Contents

Selecting the Significator

If a pip card, such as the 7 of Swords, is selected as the Card of the Day, its meaning -- in this case, generally accepted as an enemy, a gossip, a quarrel, or a thief -- will set the stage for the reading to come
When a tarot trump card is selected as the significator, it may be based on the zodiacal sign of the sitter, in this case a Leo, who is represented by the card of Strength; art by Pamela Colman Smith
In the tarot there are four court cards in four suits, making it possible to choose from 16 cards to find the best significator; art by the Dondorff tarot artist
The Gentleman card in an old Lenormand deck, also represented as the Ace of Hearts; artist unknown
The Lady or Woman card as the Ace of Spades in "Pixie's Lenormand"; art by Pamela Colman Smith
In the several oracle card decks published as Sibylla cards, the significator card is called The Consultant

Some cartomancers select a significator card in order to get an overall impression of the tone or mood of the reading before it begins. This is often a random card, slected by cutting the deck or drawing a face-down hard from a spead.

Some card readers select a significator card to help them understand the personality and likely interests of the sitter, querent, or client for whom they are reading. This may be a random card or one that has been chosen by one of several methods of selection,

Some readers select two significators if they know that they will be reading about the sitter and another person. They may do this in order to help them determine the likely styles of interaction between the two people before they delve into specific insights provided by the rest of the cards that come out during the reading. The two significators may represent two people in a love or marriage, at work, in school, or any such situation.

Some readers have in mind a preselected significator for the sitter, and possibly one for the sitter's significant other, which they allow to remain hidden in the deck during the divination session and they will only comment aloud if the preselected card or cards actually come out during the course of the reading.

There are several methods for selecting significator cards. Some can be used with any card deck, and some are specific to certain decks. It is also possible to employ more than one method of choosing a significator card during a reading, resulting in two or more significator cards being used at the same time for different purposes.

The Significator du Jour

The Significator du Jour, also known as the Card of the Day, is a card that is selected before the reading begins in order to inform the card reader (and the sitter, if the reader chooses to explain it) about what can be expected during the course of the reading. While this card is being selected, the reader may silently or verbally ask it to reveal what unspoken spiritual currents or hidden truths underlie the reading or what the spirits, ancestors, angels, or deities wish to contribute to the reading.

Here are two ways to select the card du jour:

  • The Reader Cuts the Cards: The reader shuffles and cuts the deck at random and the card that is revealed is the significator for the reading. The reader may briefly explain its meaning. This method is adaptable to both in-person readings and remote readings by phone, text, or video conferencing.
  • The Sitter Cuts the Cards: The reader shuffles the deck and pushes it across the table to the sitter, who cuts it and turns the top half up to reveal the significator. It is common for the reader to instruct the sitter to cut the cards with the left hand or non-dominant hand. The card reader places the significator according to the layout, while briefly describing its meaning. This method can only be used during in-person readings, where it is popular because it immediately engages the attention and interest of the sitter.

If the significator card will represent the overall scope of the reading or symbolize the sitter, the card reader then begins building the layout. However, if there will be two significators for two individuals, the selection process is repeated.

The Significator by Trumps

The tarot card deck contains five suits of cards, the fifth suit being known as the trump cards. There are 22 of these, numbered from 0 to 21 in most decks. They bear images that are highly emblematic and show people, spirits and angels angels engaged in varied activities.

  • Selection by the Image on the Trump: Because the trumps are so emblematic, their images often are attractive -- or repulsive -- to certain sitters and readers. The reader may select a trump for the sitter based on the person's appearance or on the card's imagery. Likewise, if a sitter strongly identifies with a particular trump -- say The High Priestess or The Magician -- and tells the reader, the reader may very well concur and use that card to represent the sitter.

The selection of significators by association of zodiac signs with the trumps is an easy system to use and a simple one to memorize, but it can be upsetting to sitters who may not like the trump that is traditionally assigned to their astrological sign. For example, most Libra people like being associated with the card of Justice, but many Taurus people feel no symbolic or psychological affinity to the Hierophant card, and quite a few Capricorn people are seriously offended by being told that their significator card is The Devil.

Sitter feelings aside, another drawback to selecting significators by trumps is that if the card reader plans to employ two significators, for two people, and they are both born under the same sign of the zodiac, there will be no way to distinguish between the two.

The Significator by Court Cards

Both playing cards and tarot cards, being designed for game play, have methods of ranking the value of each card. Both types of decks have numbered pip cards and a separate grouping of court cards, with the court cards being valued more highly than the pips.

  • Selection by Court Rank: In a playing card deck the pip cards may be selected as significators with the card du jour method, but there are also three ranks of court cards -- the Jack, Queen, and King -- which have been utilized for centuries by cartomancers to symbolize a Young Person, a Woman, and a Man. In the tarot card deck, there are four court cards -- the Page (or Princess), Knight, Queen, and King -- and these may represent a Young Woman, Young Man, Mature Woman, and Mature Man.
  • Selection by Rank Plus Suit: Once the relevant court rank is selected, the four playing card suits of clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades, or the four tarot card suits of wands, coins, cups, and swords are then used to select the actual significator. This will result in 12 options for a deck of playing cards and 16 options for a tarot deck. The final selection may be made in one of several ways:
* Suit by Physical Appearance: For example, Spades for a darker person or Wands for a ruddy person with red hair.
* Suit by Occupation or Social Role: For example, Hearts for a lover or child and Coins for a farmer, accountant, or landlord.
* Suit by Zodiac Sign Element: For example, Clubs for a person born in a Fire element sign, such as Aries, Leo, or Sagittarius, and Cups for a person born in a Water element sign, such as Cancer, Scorpio, or Pisces.

The Significator by Special Card

Some decks are designed to be used for divination, not for gaming. These decks, quite diverse in their number of cards, imagery, and meanings, are generally lumped together in a category called oracle cards.

  • Significator by a Social Role Card: Some oracle card decks contain special cards that identify people by occupation, appearance, or social role. These special cards may have names such as the Foreign Woman, the Lawyer, the Thief, the Soldier, the Protector, the Enemy, or the Guide. Depending on the oracle card deck being employed, the card reader may select one or more appropriate significators from among the choices offered. These cards are not limited to use as significators; they may also be read for their meaning when they appear in the overall divination.
  • De Facto Significator by Designated Card: Lenormand card decks and some oracle card decks contain built-in or designated significator cards. In Lenormand cards these may be called the Man and the Woman or The Gentleman and the Lady. In oracle cards such as the Sibylla decks, the designated significator card is not gendered and is called The Consultant, meaning the sitter. Among those who use playing cards, the two Jokers may be utilized as significators, with the Big Joker representing the Man and the Little Joker representing the Woman.

The Significator's Place in the Layout

Significator cards may be placed at the head of the table, at the center, or wherever they fall out, depending on what card layout is employed and the reader's style of presentation.

  • In the Celtic Cross layout, the significator, also referred to as "the Present Situation of the Client" in this layout, goes at the center of the table and is covered and crossed by other cards.
  • In the Lenormand deck's Grand Tableau layout, the Gentleman and Lady cards are located after the cards have been laid on the table and a path is established between them.
  • In the Wheel of the Year layout, the significator card is placed in the center of the array to preside over the year to come, or, if it is the sitter's personal significator and is allowed to "come out naturally" as the cards are placed on the table, then whatever house or month it appears in -- if any -- is designated to be the area of greatest importance to the sitter in the coming year.

Are Significator Cards Necessary?

While there are many card readers who rely heavily on the use of significator cards to get into the personalities of their sitters and the people of interest to them, there are just as many readers who never employ significators at all and rely only on their ability to interpret the direct meanings and images of the cards that they draw for the reading at hand.

Those who utilize significators may value them for the insights they provide into social, occupational, and familial matters, and may use them to build speedy rapport with sitters. Those who do not employ significators may consider them to be a distraction from their job as diviners because they don't provide "answers," only hints and suggestions of the spiritual and social atmosphere surrounding the sitter and the reading. And even readers who always select significators may not lay them on the table during a short reading, but merely hold them in mind while turning the cards.

Ask your card reader if he or she uses significators -- the answer may surprise you!

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See Also

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