Base Cards, Clarifiers and Significators

[natalie8]

It seems like the more I try to find out about these on line, the more confused I get. I'm still new to Tarot and I'm teaching myself using the Rider Waite deck. I love it!

Quite often, when I read threads on here, people talk about a base card. What it this and how can I use it? Is this something more appropriate for more advanced readers?

Regarding clarifiers, I think I've figured out the basic meaning. For a question such as "Will I get a job in the next 2 months?" you might want to pull two cards in a row for your answer for an "expanded version" but even here, I'm still a bit lost.

I think I have the idea about significators. Say if I'm doing a reading on myself, I would choose a card that represents either my looks or personality, thinking the personality ones would be more fitting, going from another thread.

A question I have about this is, would this cloud my judgement if I use a significator with my own bias?

I'm really grateful for any replies that can guide me. In my opinion, coming from a newbie's point of view, I like to keep things simple at this point and not use any of these, but that's only to prevent any confusion.

I would like to learn how and when to use a base card in a reading.

Thanks!

 

[Eyebright]

I am relatively new to tarot too, and I also found these things confusing in the beginning! You certainly don't have to use any of them to get a great reading, some people however use them for various reasons and to enrich their reading.

The base card is the card at the bottom of the deck once you have shuffled and selected your cards. It is used to represent undercurrents in a situation, things you may not know, things that are hidden, or maybe something you know subconsciously about the situation. It adds an extra aspect to the reading, but isn't essential!

Clarifiers- this is an additional card that you select if you find that a particular card in your spread is not making much sense to you, or if you want to expand on the answer that card gives. As it says it helps to clarify the meaning and make things clearer for you!

Significators- This is a card that you select at the start of the reading to represent yourself, your client or the situation you are reading about. It is usually a court card if it representing a person but it can be any card from the deck if you think that represents your query or the question better. For example if you have a question regarding a court case you might select Justice to represent the situation. I personally don't use significators as it takes a card away from the deck and I lose a potential answer to my question!
You can select your significator in a variety of ways; pages and knights for young people, kings and queens for older. The physical appearance of the person on the card that closest matches your own. You can also do it by astrological associations. Cups represent the water signs (cancer, scorpio and pisces), wands represent fire signs (leo, sagittarius and aries), swords represent air signs (gemini, libra and aquarius) and finally pentacles/coins/dics represent earth signs (taurus, capricorn and virgo).
Alternatively you can choose whichever suit represents your personality more!
There are a variety of options for significators if you do choose to use them you just have to go with what you think works best for you!

Hope some of this helps you

 

[natalie8]

Thanks, Eyebright. As for the base card I had no idea, now you've "clarified" it, ha ha.

As for clarifiers, your description helps quite a bit more. I was kind of thinking along those lines, but I wasn't too sure about my thoughts.

As for significators, you've opened up a whole new realm for me. I'm on the same thinking as you are, if I take a card out of the deck, that's one less card to answer a question.

 

[PrincessPaulina]

Personally, I would never read a spread without consulting the base card - for me, this is often the key or underlying issue of the reading.
If anything, using this card simplifies and clarifies the reading.

I also do usually use a significator (I'm probably in the minority, it seems like most people feel the way you do about pulling a card out of the deck). However, in my style of reading the significator is really important - I believe it focuses the reading, since it represents the querent or issue at hand, and basically "ties" the querent to the deck. Craig Keene, who wrote the article in the link below, summarizes my view on the relevance of significators much better than I do:
http://nmrjournal.com/zine/archive/issues/19/647.htm

I get very creative with significators:
- I don't even remember the last time I used a court card as a significator. For example, when a querent wanted to know what she could do to find a life partner I used the 2 of Cups as her significator.
- I may let the deck choose the significator for me (in which case I shuffle, cut, and draw the 1st card, which will then serve as my sig. for the next spread)
- sometimes I determine which deck I want to work with that day by 1st checking the significators my various decks propose, then working with the most interesting one.
- To see which elements surround me at a given time, I shuffle and cut the deck into 4 piles, then look at the base card in each pile. If one of these cards needs clarification, I will then use it as a significator for another spread.
- Whenever I encounter a challenging card, something I would like to avoid, I reverse this card and use it as a significator in another spread. For example, if I drew 7 Swords for the outcome position in the Celtic Cross, I might do another spread using the 7 Swords reversed as the sig., with the question of how best to proceed in order to avoid this outcome.
- Similarly, if I want to change a negative influence or situation, I'll find the appropriate card and reverse it for the significator. So if I were feeling really brokenhearted and blue, but wanted to see how to change this situation, I'd use the 3 of Swords reversed as the significator in a spread.

As you can see, I love significators

 

[natalie8]

Thanks, PP for that. I still feel that I have so much to learn, but your descrition might make things easier.

 

[rwcarter]

natalie8,

Take a look at the Table of Contents - All About Reading sticky Note at the top of the forum. Post 3 has some indexed threads on Significators and Base cards (also called Shadow cards). The first post has some already indexed threads on Clarifiers.

I don't use Significators because I think they take a card out of play. You can identify a Significator for yourself (or the situation), but I'd suggest leaving it in the deck. And if it comes up in the reading, then it has even more power.

I don't normally use base cards, but a deck or two has informed me that it would be to my benefit to do so.

I also don't use clarifiers because I find that more often than not they confuse matters instead of clarify them.

BTW, have you found the Rider-Waite-Smith forum? It's dedicated to the deck and its creators.

HTH,
Rodney