Benefits of Using a Significator Card in Tarot Spreads
How to Choose and Use a Tarot Card to Represent Yourself
I was talking with a friend yesterday and she mentioned she saw no point in using a significator card in the Celtic Cross tarot spread. I agreed that it was optional. But for those who want to use one, it can provide a variety of benefits and bring insights to your tarot spreads.
A significator card is a card chosen before the start of the reading to represent the person asking the question (the querent). There are a variety of ways of choosing such a card. I’ll give examples of how to choose one, and then discuss the benefits of using the card in readings.
Choosing Your Significator Card
Fool, Magician, or High Priestess Are Significators Easily Adaptable for All
Some readers use a basic binary, such as using the Magician for male clients or the High Priestess for female clients. This is obviously fairly limiting in so many ways! But if you’d like to keep it simple, for nonbinary folks I’d probably add in the option of either the Fool as the symbol of all-potential or Temperance, because angels are genderless and its symbolism is about balance and integration. Keep in mind that the first few cards of the Major Arcana are closer to formlessness than cards later in the sequence. So the Fool, Magician, and High Priestess embody a highly abstract quality that makes them easily adaptable to a variety of personality types.
Base the Significator on Appearance
Alternately, it’s common to use a card, typically chosen from the court cards, that looks like the querent. As you look through the court cards, you’ll notice, based on the client’s coloring and style, that one of the cards seems to match them the best. There are traditional guides to coloring, but they tend to favor European skin types. As a result, I find that the season-based color analysis approach works best. This system is easily applicable to all races and coloring.
Wands court cards are Spring = Warm skin tone, light eyes and hair
Cups courts are Summer = Cool skin tone, light eyes and hair
Swords courts are Autumn = Warm skin tone, dark eyes and hair
Pentacles courts are Winter = Cool skin tone, dark eyes and hair
Personal Choice
Some readers notice that a particular card shows up for them and that can become their significator card. And some readers choose a card that illustrates what qualities they want to emphasize or develop. Choosing your significator this way feels very personal and embodies how you’re showing up in the now. The down side of selecting your significator this way is that it will change over time.
Astrology Method 1
But perhaps the most common way of choosing a significator card is to start with your astrological sun sign.
The basic method is to choose the King, Queen, or Knight (based on age, gender, or personal preference) of the suit that matches the element of your sun sign. Using this method we get:
Fire signs (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) = Wands court card
Water signs (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) = Cups court card
Air signs (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius) = Swords court card
Earth signs (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn) = Pentacles court card
Astrology Method 2
A more elegant method is to select the court card that corresponds to the querent’s sun sign using an established formula. These formulas vary by tradition, but the following is very common. Queens are the cardinal sign, Kings are fixed, and Knights are mutable. Then you would choose the suit based on the element of the sign. This is my preferred method, but of course for those who have a strong sense of gender preference it sometimes doesn’t work if the card illustrations are also highly gendered. The benefit of this method is that it can cultivate a sense of gender fluidity when reading the court cards!
Aries = Queen of Wands
Taurus = King of Pentacles
Gemini = Knight of Swords
Cancer = Queen of Cups
Leo = King of Wands
Virgo = Knight of Pentacles
Libra = Queen of Swords
Scorpio = King of Cups
Sagittarius = Knight of Wands
Capricorn = Queen of Pentacles
Aquarius = King of Swords
Pisces = Knight of Cups
Now that you’ve chosen your significator, let’s see what the benefits of using it are!
Benefits of Using a Significator Card
A significator card gives the querent a place in the spread. Sometimes it’s an assigned position, like the first card in the Celtic Cross spread. Sometimes the significator is shuffled into the deck and then you look through the cards for it and read the cards around it. By grounding the reading around the significator, you clearly show who the main character of the story is. The cards nearest the significator show what’s most important.
The significator card brings specific symbolism to the spread. That makes it easier to see what elements of the reading mesh well with the querent and what can be more challenging or just different for them. You can determine areas of ease or difficulty based on elemental symbolism (how does the King of Wands feel surrounded by Cups?). Or you can trace any unique symbols or design elements of the card through the spread, finding other cards that carry those visual cues forward or evolve them. This helps you tell the story of the spread and can even show your unique presence through the other cards.
If you know which card or cards represent you, it’s much easier to see other people in the spread. Also, as you begin to see patterns of certain cards showing up for certain people in your life, it’s much easier to note when new people enter the situation. This makes relationship readings a lot more straightforward!
Finally, when you have an established significator card, you can also see when you’re not showing up as yourself. If you’re the King of Swords but the Page of Swords shows up, maybe you need to think about things in a new way. You can also see when it’s in your best interest to bring forward an energy that isn’t your usual style. For instance, if you’re normally the Queen of Cups, but the Queen of Wands shows up, maybe you need to bring more fire—and whatever that means to you—to the situation.
What’s Your Card?
I hope this gives you some new insights into using significators! Do you normally use significators in your readings? What’s your card? I’d love to hear in the comments!