A pupil will occasionally inquire about significators in a tarot reading. Describe them. Do they have to be included in tarot readings? Do I need to choose them?
A card intentionally picked to represent the asker is known as a significator (or a person they are asking about). A significator may be necessary for some spreads, but they are frequently optional.
The age, gender, and astrological sign criteria are my preferred way to select someone (if known).
For instance, a youthful Gemini man would be the Knight of Swords while an Aries woman would be the Queen of Wands.
A different approach would be to select a card based on how the questioner appears. The Page of Cups might be a young boy with fair hair and blue eyes, while the King of Pentacles would represent an older guy with black hair.
Remember that sometimes the aforementioned rules are not difficult.
A man who could be the King of Pentacles might be acting more like a young man who is in love, in which case the Knight of Cups would be a better analogy.
Another piece of advice is that everyone is inhabited by male and female energy. Be prepared to bend gender norms. The Queen of Pentacles reversed appeared in a reading I once gave to a man. I began to describe a woman with black hair who wasn’t very practical and might have been clingy. He came up to me and said “I’m gay. BUT that perfectly sums up my boyfriend. I’ve seen Kings portrayed as female bosses, Queens as stay-at-home mothers, Pages as mature people acting immaturely, and Knights as young lesbians. Be flexible and avoid supposing that everyone will share your viewpoints “standard Court Card (See my piece on The Tarot and Gender Bending.)
Additional ideas
There are times when the Major Arcana or other cards might provide a more accurate portrait of a person.
For instance, The Empress is ideal for a woman who is expecting, whilst The Eight of Pentacles may be beneficial for a workaholic.
You could be required to select a card to represent a circumstance in some tarot readings. For instance, the Eight of Wands could stand in for a trip, and the Three of Cups is ideal for a celebration or a love triangle.
If you need a reading for someone who has passed away, you can use a card from one of the Court techniques mentioned above, or the High Priestess if you don’t know the person’s birthdate.
So, the question is, are they required? Choices vary from individual to person. For each reading, some readers use significators. I don’t. The correct card will most likely appear to represent the ENERGY the subject is transmitting (or needs) at the time of the reading, though I do have some spreads where I feel they are significant.
The best course is to experiment with them.
Check to see if they make sense to YOU or if they make sense in a specific spread.
Feel free to use them in your readings if you enjoy working with them.
You are free to skip them if they don’t.
In This Article...
How can I determine which Tarot card I am?
According to Alvarez, the simplest way to determine your tarot card is to “let your intuition be your guide.” “Choose a card at random, face down, from a shuffled deck. You can get some direction for the day by performing this action every morning or evening.”
This method of reading tarot cards is different from some others in that you don’t ask any questions (like you would with a Magic 8-Ball), you just take cards out of the deck. Then, she advises, “check up the meaning and consider your day to see if the card had any importance or emphasized an underlying theme.” This procedure “assists newcomers in becoming more theoretically acquainted with the cards as well as in viewing them as a link to personal and practical experiences.”
Find your zodiac card
According to Alvarez, this method is based on your solar sign and the traits that correspond to it (the one you say when someone asks you, “What’s your sign?”). “This card assists in highlighting your strengths, areas that may need improvement, and recurring themes in your life that may be caused by imbalances. Look up the Major Arcana card that usually corresponds with your sun sign, then your sun sign.” Although each card has multiple levels of meaning, Alvarez suggests the following descriptions:
What does the Celtic cross’ Significator represent?
Listen as Brigit and her guests provide their finest advice and tactics for interpreting Tarot cards with assurance. Brigit Esselmont, your host, is now available.
THANK YOU
Before I start talking about the show for today, I want to extend a sincere appreciation to everyone who left a review on iTunes and provided feedback and comments. I want to show my gratitude to two people in particular.
American PinkMartini is the first. Who knows? This individual (I’m guessing a woman) It may be a man) says, “Brigit breaks down how to discover love into 7 easy steps in this podcast episode. I am even able to follow what she is saying as a novice. I’m grateful. I can’t wait to use what I’ve learned to begin my spiritual journey.
The second is from LaurenSamantha in the United Kingdom. Because I convinced myself that I couldn’t understand it, that it was too difficult, and that my memory wasn’t good enough to potentially memorize all of those card meanings, spreads, and other information, I discarded tarot as a spiritual instrument. I do understand you, for sure! How I wish my journey here had begun sooner! This is a fantastic starting point for your Tarot exploration. Brigit helps me get through my workday, and now that I’ve started reading, I have aspirations for starting a Tarot company. I’m so grateful for your magic! Yay! I’m very happy I can be of assistance.
So keep in mind that you may subscribe to receive all of these podcast episodes directly to your iPhone and offer ratings on iTunes.
LET’S GET INTO TODAY’S EPISODE!
I keep getting signals from my brain that this will be a brief episode, largely because I find significators… They simply don’t seem to bring much value in my opinion. But once more, I want to share this information with you so that YOU may test it out and decide whether it’s useful to you or not.
As a side aside, I believe that Tarot books and other related materials frequently feel the need to stuff their pages with advice on how to use Tarot cards. This idea of significators frequently arises because we desire to have a growing number of skills that we may impart to others. But whenever I choose a technique or a particular manner of accomplishing anything, I always ask myself:
“IS THIS GOING TO ADD VALUE TO MY READINGS?
Will it provide me with the intuitive understanding I require, or can I just do it more simply and reach the core of the issue that way? I just want you to keep that in mind when I discuss significators today: how will this benefit my Tarot readings? It’s undoubtedly about options, and it’s undoubtedly about what suits YOU. Let’s begin immediately.
WHAT IS A SIGNIFICATOR?
Look, usually the significator card is a single card that stands in for the client or the person posing the query for that reading. Now, in certain cases, it may genuinely be a representation of the situation you are referring to. So you might choose the Eight of Wands if you’re going to embark on a significant international journey. Or, if we’re picking it for the client, they might be embarking on a brand-new creative endeavor and selecting the Page of Cups to stand in for them. I’ll go into more detail regarding the actual card selection in a moment.
It normally isn’t covered in the reading. It is decided upon before the reading. Now, it can either be chosen at random or purposefully. This is often the purpose of a significator card. When choosing the card, keep the client or the circumstance in mind so that it will serve as their representation when you perform the Tarot reading.
For instance, the significator or the current circumstance is sometimes represented by the very first card in the Celtic Cross. You might choose that card at random in a Celtic Cross by treating it like any other card. Alternatelyand I believe this was the original intentyou deliberately pick that card, place it in the center, then chose cards 2 through 10 at random from the deck to complete your spread. That’s good to know, isn’t it?
ONE THING IS THAT IS REALLY PERSONALISES THE READING.
Additionally, if the client is unfamiliar with having a reading performed for them, it might really be extremely grounding for them. When working with a new client who has never had a Tarot reading before, it can often be helpful to just look through the deck and choose a card that best describes them. This can help them begin to recognize themselves in the Tarot deck and forge a connection. Oh, these cards do in fact signify anything to me. My image appears in the cards. Therefore, it can be really beneficial in that sense on a sort of deeper subconscious level, and it enables the client to recognize themselves in the reading. They are included in this reading because of this visual clue. Once the significator is surrounded by all the other cards, they exclaim, “Oh yeah, that’s me! That is exactly who I am. Consequently, some persons require these visual clues to help them reintegrate into the reading. It is more concrete.
If you arrange the cards without providing a significator, it’s possible that the customer will just say, “Well, that’s just a bunch of cards therewhat are they? Therefore, it might be a useful strategy if you need to convey and help ground the customer in the reading.
DEPENDING ON HOW YOU CHOOSE A SIGNIFICATOR, IT CAN ACTUALLY ADD SOME EXTRA INFORMATION.
Therefore, it might be intriguing to discover whatever card your client chooses as their significator and what additional information that gives you as a reader about your client and what is happening for them. It might be a useful method for gathering that kind of data.
It can also be a useful technique to learn more about a client and their current situation. Even if you make a more rational decision regarding which card to chose, you may still delve deeper into that card and ask, “What else does this card reveal about where you are in your life right now?
The goal is essentially just to increase the reader’s and the client’s awareness as you read so that you can once again see the client in that reading.
DO YOU HAVE TO USE A SIGNIFICATOR?
You don’t, though. As I’ve already said, you should carefully consider whether it will enhance the reading or not. Sometimes it will make perfect sense, and other times you won’t understand it at all. So, the decision is entirely yours.
Now, as I also indicated before, a significator is a component of various spreads, most notably the Celtic Cross. Again, you have a choice as to whether the significator is chosen at random as part of the standard card arrangement or whether you deliberately choose it.
COURT CARDS
One of the most popular methods for selecting a significator is to simply glance at the court cards and select one based on the client’s age, gender, and element.
Consider that I am a 38-year-old woman with an earth element from Taurus. “OK, well, let’s choose then a Queen since that’s approximately my age range, and then for the earth sign, then that’s Pentacles, so I would choose the Queen of Pentacles,” is what I may say.
If my husband did it, we have a… Who is he right now? man, 41 years old, and a Libra. We might say that he is transitioning into the role of a king. And since Libra is an air sign, swords are king. If that served as his significator, that might be really intriguing.
Familiarize yourself with the traditional meanings
During intuitive tarot readings, your intuition will direct you in conveying messages, but Rose thinks it’s still beneficial to comprehend the conventional meaning of each card. She advises developing a regular tarot reading ritual where you ask your trusted tarot deck questions about your life and keep a journal of the readings you do for yourself to explore the meanings of the cards. According to Rose, intuition can come through more clearly the more you connect with yourself and your deck.
How do I determine my yearly Tarot card?
By the way, depending on where you think the parentheses in the math formula belong and the subsequent order of operations, I think I might be calculating the year card a little differently.
My strategy is to separate out three sums for a trinity that has spiritual significance. Your birth month and day are combined to create one number. If the year is your birth year or a transiting year for a Tarot Year Card calculation, add the digits for that year separately.
You have now completed two operations. When you combine the two together, you get the third order for that beautiful, tidy trinity. Theosophic reduction is only performed once three operations for the trinity have been completed (i.e., if the sum is over 22, add the digits together for a single digit sum).
That is the intriguing riddle with metaphysics.
There are numerous alternative methods and correspondence schemes. Consider my investigation of elemental directional correspondences and resolving the conflicts in a prior blog article.
It’s crucial to comprehend your justification and to choose a strategy or correspondence system that supports your personal philosophy.
You should do such procedures independently before combining them in a math problem where parentheses denote the separation of ideas (left to right). Since the idea of a Base Year has been established, it only makes sense to calculate the Base Year using a different order of operations. It supports the viewpoint that each Base Year is “predetermined to the point where, simply by adding up the numbers, we can predict what the Base Year tarot card will be.
The degree of the sun in astrology is equal to the month plus the day. That then becomes an idea in and of itself. What is the sum of our birthday’s month, day, and sun sign degree? “changes a Base Year determination’s overall generalities. Therefore, it makes sense that the degree of the sun sign, as an independent concept transferred to numerology for this purpose, would be its own distinct idea and require a different set of parentheses. It seems logical to me to carry out this step in a separate predetermined order of operation, and to combine the two preset sums in the third and last predetermined order of operation.
This technique of calculation produces three operations for a trinity, matching it with Hermetic and Neo-Platonic philosophytwo ideas that have a significant impact on esoteric tarot.
So that’s the justification behind my strategy. However, it differs from the conventional approach advocated by Archetypal Tarot and the literature on tarot birth cards.
My advice is to investigate the many strategies, choose the one that works best for you, and then stay with it, i.e., be consistent. The most important factor is ultimately personal consistency.
The Fool is card 22 in the Archetypal Tarot. Key 0: The Fool can be a birth card or, in the case of the practice in this workshop, a Tarot year card.
I don’t follow 22 because my own philosophy favors the continuity of trinities and the hallowed sevens. I perform the theosophic reduction if the total exceeds 21. I prefer to view The Fool card as a symbol. But this is solely a matter of personal taste. Just do what seems to work for you; there is no right or wrong answer here.
If your birthday occurs between January 1 and June 30, according to Archetypal Tarot, your Tarot Year Cycle is more likely to be felt from one January to the next, neatly aligning with the calendar year.
However, if you were born in a late calendar season, between July 1 and December 31, you are more likely to experience the Tarot Year according to the appropriate Major Arcana card from your birthday through the next birthday or solar return.
I suggested a three-card oracle reading when considering the lessons your Tarot Year Card will teach you, but you are welcome to approach the journaling prompts as you prefer. Yes, you could use a tarot deck for this, but I’ve found that using a non-tarot deck works far better. Pick your favorite modern oracle deck, like as Lenormand, Kipper, or another.
Because there is a wider range of artistic expression when you take your Tarot Year Card from many modern decks, this is an extremely enjoyable practice. I had a Key 20: Judgement year in 2021, so if I’m studying the Judgement card, I’ll take a Key 20 from one of the several tarot decks I own and lay it out in a spread.
If you have a sizable collection of tarot decks, choose your Tarot Year card from seven, eight, or even ten different decks, and arrange the cards in a spread as you respond to the journaling questions on the handout.
Tarot Year card variations should be read as their own spread, which means you should look for symbols that strike out to you and make a note of which signs or symbols are drawing your attention. Summarize the various ways that Major Arcana card has been interpreted. As you explore the Tarot Year, take a picture of the spread.
The Tarot Year Card is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what you can accomplish with it; birth cards, personality cards, soul cards, and other cards are all covered. Learn more about Base Years, Cycle Themes, and your Karmic Year while also reading about them. This book also has an amazing reference on how to interpret your Year Cards.
Get a copy of Archetypal Tarot: What Your Birth Card Reveals About Your Personality, Path, and Potential if you desire to use the tarot for introspective psychology work, journaling, and self-exploration. Theresa Reed, the Tarot Lady, wrote the Foreword for this edition from 2021.
The 2011 book Who Are You in the Tarot: Discover Your Birth and Year Cards and Uncover Your Destiny has been updated. I own both and adore them.
Which tarot deck ought I to consult?
The most well-known tarot deck is this one. Due to its age and classic nature, it is less inclusive than some of the others. Dore claims that despite being quite Eurocentric, Christian, and hetero, she still utilizes this deck nearly exclusively. “She claims, “I’m particularly interested in interpretation, and the Pamela Colman Smith artwork in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck is so lovely. Dore frequently uses these photos, which is why she consistently uses this deck. She claims, “I learn so much there, and I believe using a deck to dig deep is helpful. Even though you might not connect with the visuals, the Rider-Waite-Smith deck continues to form the basis for many contemporary decks and still uses the same numbering scheme. All of our specialists advise beginners to start with a Rider-Waite-Smith-based deck because most resources and tarot reference materials are geared toward it, regardless of your personal artistic preferences.
How can I figure out my shadow card?
Greetings from #MagicMondays! I’ll publish a piece on All Things Witch every Monday. I frequently get texts about witchcraft, respond to emails about symbols, and have ritual discussions over shared meals. I made the decision to gather all of this information in one location and spread it around. Because magic resides inside of us, we are all capable of using it! Let’s start working now!
I occasionally determine a person’s birth card and shadow card during a reading. The cards even appear in the spread we lay out on the table to emphasize how important they are to people. In astrology, your birth card corresponds to your solar sign. It’s also referred to as your personality card. It represents the kind of person you are. It’s useful to consider astrology at this time. The sun wants to establish its individuality. Your sun sign’s characteristics influence the various ways in which you construct your existence. More of what you need to study is displayed on your birth certificate. Are you prepared to determine yours?
This is something I picked up from my ghoul friend Wolfie in Philadelphia a few years ago, and it has proven useful to me ever since. Okay, you must include the month, day, and year of your birthday. Here’s an illustration:
The next step is to add that number. Continue adding these numbers up until you reach a result that falls between 22* and 1.
1 + 3 + 4 = 8
This card represents your birth and is the Major Arcana card Strength.
This makes it simple to identify your Shadow card, also known as your Soul card by some teachers. In the tarot’s story, this card signifies what comes after you in life and what your soul’s mission or journey might be. You merely need to multiply the original three-digit number (134) by one to find out:
13 + 4 = 17
The Major Arcana card The Star has a counterpart in this shadow card, which is your own.
Here’s another illustration. Let’s use Kanye West’s birthday as an example:
And 11 + 0 Equals 11
It relates to his shadow card, Justice, also known as Accountability in some decks.
Your birth card is The Fool (22 = 0), while your soul card is The Emperor (2 + 2=4), if your initial number is 22.
Your initial number becomes both your Birth and Shadow card if the sum is greater than 22, which causes you to become intensely concentrated on the current phase of your life.
Additionally, you have three cards if your first number is 19. the Magician (1 + 0 = 1), the Sun, and the Wheel of Fortune (1 + 9 = 10). Similar to the Sunaltimate dynamic, in essence. When the odds are in your favor, you are a rare beast.
It was enjoyable! Before you leave, please be aware that I will be providing readings this weekend in Brooklyn (off the L, M, or B38 bus) in honor of Friday’s full moon and eclipse. I’m available on Saturday, October 19 and Sunday, October 20 at 10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 4 p.m. To arrange a meeting and learn more, send me an email or a message. I would adore reading to you!