← Encyclopedia of Tarot · lesson 101/121
Significator
A significator is a card chosen before the reading to represent the querent — the person asking — or sometimes the matter they are asking about. It is taken out of the deck and laid face up, and the reading is built around it. Not every reader uses one, but it remains part of several traditional spreads, the Celtic Cross among them.
Choosing a significator: Waite's advice
Waite gives the classic rules in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911). The reader picks a court card to suit the person. By his scheme a Knight stands for a man of forty or more, a King for a younger man, a Queen for a woman over forty and a Page for a younger woman — an unusual allotment, which many later readers reverse. The suit follows colouring: Wands for very fair people, Cups for light brown hair, Swords for dark brown hair and grey or hazel eyes, Pentacles for very dark hair and eyes.
Waite himself warns against applying this too literally: a person's temperament can be a better guide than their looks, so a dark but very energetic person may be better shown by a Sword than a Pentacle, and a fair but easy-going one by a Cup than a Wand.
A significator for the matter
Waite also allows the significator to stand for the question instead of the person, by choosing a card whose meaning matches it. His example is a question about whether a lawsuit will be needed, for which he takes Justice. For "will I win my lawsuit?" he goes back to a court card, because the question is about the person.
Other ways of choosing
Many modern readers choose by star sign, by the element that best describes the querent, or simply by which court card the querent feels drawn to. Some use a Major that fits the querent's situation, such as The Fool for someone setting out. Others prefer to draw the significator at random, or leave it out altogether so that every card of the deck can take part in the reading.
In a reading
The significator is usually not interpreted as a card in its own right; it stands for the whole person. What matters is what surrounds it — what covers it, crosses it, crowns it and lies before it. When the significator's own court card turns up elsewhere in the spread, or a court of the same suit appears, readers often take note of it.