Choosing a significator according to the nature of the question

easyboy82

le fey said:
I like this idea too. I do use significators sometimes, but I don't separate them out - just note which card specifically describes the querent and they pay special attention if that card turns up in the spread, and where.

Yes, it is exactly what I think about the use of significators: I don't think it is of much use to separate a card from the deck , while its presence or not in the spread and the position it is in can give some interesting hints.
 

Seafra

I used significators when I first began because the one book I owned told me to. I stopped simply because I don't like losing a card to such a fixed position -- I'd rather have it available to me in the layout. The only time I use a significator now is when clarifying the meaning of a card from a spread - I'll pull additional cards and lay them on top of the card I want clarified.

A few people I read for like to write their question out on a piece of paper and I begin the layout on that, so I suppose that could be called a significator of sorts.
 

easyboy82

Maybe my definition of "significator" is better expressed by "the card representing the questioner in a spread"
 

moderndayruth

easyboy82 said:
Personally I always use Queens for women, no matter their age. While the knights are young men under 40 years and kings older men over 40. I don't use pages and in the case they would be men too. The method in "Gypsy wisdom" is the same.

Thanks for the clarification, it makes sense and it's quite... ege age-sensitive :)
Otherwise, if knights were for woman under 40 - i can imagine a Tarot reader asking me ( i am 37) - Excuse me, madam, have you turned a Queen or you are still a knight? :D
I found the book on the amazon and i am going to order it;
just a short excerpt to tease you all:
"My grandmother, Antolina Mateos Ramos, was the village gypsy psychic in Alcala de Guadaria Spain and earned her living raising flowers and giving card readings. Her friend Estrella (Star) taught spells and potions and explained how they worked.
When I came of age (14-years old) the two gypsy ladies took me in hand and taught me the traditions of gypsy divination. "
(from "Gipsy Wisdom by Christina Aguilar)

Btw, easyboy82, does she mention Gipsy Fortune Telling Cards in the book?

Love,
mdr
 

easyboy82

A warning about this book and about the other one on this subject "Gypsy magic" by Patrinella Cooper.
They are nice books as a whole BUT they really contain a lot of new age stuff inside.
Some part seem genuine but other really just don't ring true.
About Gypsy wisdom for example: the author says she's been trained by her grandmother in the Spain of the 70's. Her grandmother tells her that there are hundreds of decks out there (in the Spain of the 70's???) and teaches her the celtic cross spread (a very anglosaxon spread, a tirage en croix would have been much more believable!) and a lot of common places about latin countries.
Some things her grandmother says look like new age or wiccan thought: interconnectedness of all beings, sexual freedom ( Gypsy society was not sexually free!).
So I think there is a base of truth and the book is nice as a whole but I don't believe everything in it come from the gypsy wisdom of the grandmother's author.
The content is the following:
- intro
- card reading: 52 cards deck and Tarot> again: I think a Sanish gypsy would have used the 48 spanish deck and not the 52 cards one...and above all the meanings for the 52 pips are those..of the Rider Waite Tarot! Then speaking about the Tarot the meanings for the 22 major arcana are added. These are weak points but as a whole I like the practical and fortune telling oriented approach of the subject: I think that for many anglosaxon this could be a refreshing one.
- pendulum (a couple of pages)
- crystal ball (a couple of pages)
- some spells : these are nice, they look different from wiccan spells and ring as truly traditional ones.
- a few herbal remedies and one gypsy recipe (beef tripe)
Hope this has been of use..
:)