The Symbolic Whisper of Tarot

What can tarot symbolism be compared to?

Imagine someone with no engineering background picking up a complex technical blueprint. To them, it looks like a “mess” of lines, arrows, numbers, and strange markings. If they’re asked to copy it, they’ll reproduce it only approximately—they’ll get details wrong, skip something that seems “insignificant,” and worst of all, they won’t even realize where the mistake is. And when that blueprint is “switched on” in the real world, the system won’t work.

Tarot can be understood in a similar way: as a visual code in which every detail has its place, its function, and its relationship to everything else. These aren’t simply pretty pictures—they’re symbols that operate like a language. If someone doesn’t know the grammar of that language, they’ll “read” by ear and by guesswork.

Clairvoyance as a Practice

When someone is just beginning to explore clairvoyance or divination, the experience rarely arrives as a fully formed, cinematic scene that simply “reveals everything.” More often it shows up as a sensation, a sudden association, a brief inner impulse. At first, it almost always surfaces in the unconscious—where the mind processes impressions in its own way, without asking permission. Then the real work begins: bringing that information up into awareness and translating it into a language that can be used meaningfully, without self-deception.
That’s exactly where divination systems come in. They are not substitutes for the clairvoyant, doing the work on their own; they are tools—ways of directing and shaping something that would otherwise remain scattered and inaccessible in the unconscious. When used properly, the results can be surprisingly good.

Choosing a Significator in Tarot

One of tarot’s core ideas is that a person (or a situation) stands at the center of their own microcosm. Every spread is like a small map of that microcosm: relationships, motivations, influences, directions, and likely outcomes.

That’s where the significator comes in—a card that identifies the querent (the person asking the question / the person the reading is about) or the “core” of the topic (the situation itself). A significator is sometimes also called a blank—a “marker” card that helps establish focus.

 

Why use a significator at all?

A significator is not required. It’s a structural tool. Some readers use one every time; others only in certain situations.

It’s helpful when:

• there are many people/factors and you want it to be clear who is who;
• you’re doing relationship readings (two blanks—one for each person);
• the situation is complex and the focus can easily become blurred;
• you want to track how a person “moves” through the spread (for example, proximity between cards, the direction of development, repeating themes).

You can skip it when:

• the spread is short and straightforward (1–3 cards);
• you’re working within a specific system that doesn’t require it;
• your practice is to let the deck define what matters most through the positions.

 

How to choose a significator: main approaches