I’ve already written at length (ad nauseum?!) about various methods of finding a Significator for your sitter (or yourself) and in one of the resulting blog post comments, Chloe McCracken mentioned a way to use them that I thought was GREAT and am going to share with you here.
By the way, if you’re not familiar with Chloe’s work, please check out the @TABITarot blog where she tirelessly blogs for TABI and also manages to find the time to write her own blog, Inner Whispers.
As with all the best things in life, it’s really simple to implement: You chose your significator, insert it back into the deck, let your client shuffle and chat about their issue……then you carefully go through the well-shuffled deck and read the cards either side of the significator.
Here’s a worked example:
I chose the Queen of Wands for myself because of the lions on her throne and me being Leo *tosses mane imperiously, sits with knees apart*. I slipped the card into the middle of the deck and started shuffling, thinking all the while about how I could Improve Things…..
Once I was satisfied that I’d shuffled sufficiently, I inched through the cards until I found the one I was looking for, the Queen of Wands. The card before her was the 2 of Pentacles and the card after her was the 8 of Swords.
The first thing that struck me was that she seems to have turned her back on the dancing Pents dude and has turned her head towards the sword-hampered figure in the 8Swords. She is inclined towards the Swords.
Mind you, that guy’s hat is a bit strange…..
Anyway, although she is inclined towards the Swords, she IS still looking out at us – and her cat is certainly not side-tracked by the show on either side of the cards.
I see water in both of the cards either side of her.
So, here’s how I interpret these cards for the query: How I can improve things: I am naturally inclined towards the self-limiting behaviour of the 8 Swords. Sometimes my emotions/hormones (I’m at a funny age!) DO whell up and I feel overwhelmed (see the puddles of sea-water around the Swords gal’s feet? – and let’s not forget that this queen embodies Water and Fire – not always comfortable bedfellows), but that feeling of restricction is ENIRELY avoidable (that Swords girl can easily shirk off those bonds and get off her blindfold – if she wants to. And she’s not trapped by swords – the whole front of the card is sword free. She just THINKS she’s stymied. *I* just think I’m stymied. And that’s wrong-headed thinking.
Instead the Queen would do well to take a better look at the juggling Pentacles chappie. Strange hat notwithstanding, he’s managing to juggle his disks – and rides out the waves. He’s on one leg. He’s got balance. He is not subsumed by the waves/emotions/hormones. Once I get a metaphorical boat, I’ll be fine. I’ve maybe even already GOT the boat 🙂
Have you tried Chloe’s idea? How did you get on with it? What would you add to my interpretation?
Deck: RWS Centenary Edition, published by US Games – words, A E Waite, artwork Pamela Colman-Smith

Stop being confused by court cards! Start being excited by the possibilities! Become a court card adventurer along with me 🙂 The Tarot’s Court Cards are my specialist area. They talk to me. Not LITERALLY though ….






















