Reading for yourself and others

Lesson 12 of 12 — the Arcana cartomancy guide

Reversals, significators, consent and the card journal: the habits that make a reader trustworthy.

Key points

• Most playing-card traditions do not read reversals, because the pip cards look the same upside down; Arcana keeps them off by default and offers them as a setting.
• A significator is a court card chosen for the person asking; it is optional, and the Jokers can serve if you prefer not to choose a suit.
• Read other people only with their knowledge; read their side lightly and your own honestly.
• The cards describe and suggest; they do not promise. Say so when you read aloud.
• Keep a journal of question, cards and what you did; it is the only way to learn what the deck means to you.

Tarot readers often turn half the deck upside down and read reversed cards as blocked or inward. Playing-card readers mostly do not, for a plain reason: a Seven of Clubs looks the same either way up. The 1904 manuals that did read reversals had to mark the cards. Arcana keeps reversals off by default; if you turn them on, the card’s title tab shows at the top when it is reversed, and each card has a reversed meaning written for the purpose. Try both and keep the one that reads truer for you.

Some readers choose a card to stand for the person asking before the reading begins, a significator: traditionally the King or Queen of Hearts for the reader themselves, or a court card matching the person’s temperament. It focuses a large spread and is entirely optional. If you dislike choosing a suit for a person, the Red Joker can stand in. Whatever you choose, be careful reading other people. Read for someone only when they have asked, keep their column light, and remember that the cards read bonds and situations far better than they read minds.

The last habit is the one that makes a reader. Write it down: the question, the cards in order, your reading in a sentence, and later, what actually happened and what you did. Over a few months the journal teaches you which cards mean what to you, which is the only authority that counts. The cards describe and suggest. You decide.

Practice

Set up a card journal with four columns: date and question, cards in order, your reading, what happened. Fill the first row today.