what is the significator

Hi Marion,

I have recently got the R-W deck as a gift from friends. Along a book has accompanied "Key To Tarot". in the procedure to perform the reading it sayd "Place the significator..." can you pls explain me what is the significator.

-keyur

Some people pick out a card to represent the querent (from the courts, usually) or sometimes people pick a card to represent the overall question/situation.

Many of us shuffle and draw a card that becomes the significator (and is usually right on target in symbolizing the situation). Some don't do this at all.

It's up to you to play with different approaches and see what works best for you.

Hi keyur

I don't pick out a significator unless one pops out of my deck while shuffling or is obviously trying to make it's way out of the deck. If I'm reading for myself, it's usually the Queen of Pentacles or Wands that shows up, and I'll place it beside my spread for extra insights. Otherwise, I leave it up the the cards to show what they want.
Hope this helps, Maria

When I first began reading Tarot, I think I used an astrological method I read in a book to arrive at a significator to represent either myself (for a self reading) or the person I was reading for. At some point, I just quit using a significator altogether. It had no effect on the quality or accuracy of the readings. I also dislike taking out a card simply to represent the querant since it really doesn't shed any light on the issue(s) being explored in the reading especially if you are using some formulistic way to choose the significator.

I used to read using a significator card for some years and have only just stopped doing so. There has been no real difference to my readings.

I would suggest though, that the years I spent choosing a significator has helped me to understand the different energies of the various suits and the court cards themselves. I think this is mostly because I would consider the person I was reading for (usually a friend or someone I knew fairly well) and then consider the suits and the court cards carefully until I chose the right one for them

This exercise may not have done much for those particular readings but in future readings when I saw that card come up a would recall that I had chosen it for a particular person and remembering that would help me to interpret the card's meaning more clearly sometimes.

Hi

I would say that I have the same views as Lady Maria. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, it just depends if I feel that I should or not. Never used to until quite recently.

I would say that this could help highlight what the reading is about, in a way. I tend to use that in relation to the question, not the person that I am doing the reading for. I guess, if you were to do a reading and they don't give you a question, then the significator card can act as what needs to be focussed on, and in a sense can be used as the question. Not so sure that makes sense. Oh well. LOL

Bec

Here's my approach to the significator. If I'm throwing a spread in reference to a question, I'll mentally choose which of the 78 cards represents the question.

The card might be one of the usual court cards, as the books stress, but I find the selection too limited. So often questions are not about some individual, but a set of circumstances. Suppose someone's asking about a home purchase, because now there's a new child. You could choose the Kind of Wands, or whatever, but a good choice might also be 10 Pentacles, or 6 Pentacles, or 4 Pentacles, since the query is about a house, money, family, security, options... The choice depends on the shading of the question and the insights you hope to gain.

Keeping that card in mind, I simply leave it in the deck, have the Questioner shuffle the cards, and throw the spread. I would check to see if that card is part of the spread or not, and read and react to the spread accordingly.

To me, it seems unhelpful to leave so important a card as the significator 'out of the running' in throwing a spread.