Using significators

[WolfyJames]

I also use significators and I let the deck choose it for me, I fan the cards, close my eyes and then pick the cards of the spreads, significator included.

I think this way the card reveals a lot about a person. It can represent a strength that can be good in a negative reading, so I tell the person that while they will go through a hard period, that their strength (qualities from the cards) will help them through it. It can represent a weakness as well, that can alter in a bad way a reading. It can represents a desire that can conflict or ally with whatever their reading is about, so it's a matter of determining if this desire is good or bad (drinking too much or taking drugs are bad desires). And there are other elements as well that come from experience using a significator that way.

 

[Barleywine]

Interesting how few people will simply pick a significator from another deck to avoid taking it out of play in the reading. I seldom use significators these days, but have created a couple of spreads that make good use of them. I don't think they're necessary in the Celtic Cross, but today I had the idea that the "facing" of a randomly-selected significator might be useful to show the querent's fixation on a particular time frame. For example, if an ex just left the relationship, a significator facing toward the "recent past" might confirm that it was (and still is) an all-consuming event; toward the "near future" it could be saying that the querent is moving on and couldn't care less. If the significator card is facing straight out and is randomly-selected allowing for reversals, it's orientation could show a "beneath" or "above" (whatever you choose to label those positions) preoccupation. Just an extra data point to present to the sitter that might shed more light on the situation.

 

[Morwenna]

I don't think I've ever used significators; I also hate the idea of taking a card out of play. I know many other people do, including friends of mine who've read for me in the past, or at least they did at the time.

But I'm intrigued by some of the suggested uses in this thread.

 

[nisaba]

I've been pondering the use of significators, cards that stand in place of a person, when the reading is focused on them.

I haven't used them in a while, but I wonder if that makes me strange.

Do you use them? Why or why not?

I haven't used them that way in decades. I have other ways of remembering who the reading is focussed on ... like simply remembering who the reading is focussed on. And what if, having taken that card out of the mix, it is desperately needed elsewhere in the spread for a particular message?

That being said, I have used - and do use - significators for qualities, situations, events etc. We're about to do an exchange right here using a significator for the thing we want to change. (The thread shows how the spread works).