Petit Lenormand: How to Choose and Use the Significator in Your Readings

The Significator is a special card in a Petit Lenormand spread. It represents either a person or a central subject on which the querent's question focuses. Traditionally, the Significator is associated with cards 28 (The Querent) for a man, and 29 (The Querent) for a woman. But these two cards are not the only ones that can play this role.

The Significator acts as a reference point in your spread. It provides a framework for interpreting the other cards around it. By placing it at the heart of the reading, you focus your attention on the aspect of life that interests you, whether it is love, work, or another specific question.

What makes Petit Lenormand unique is that you can adapt the Significator to the situation. For example, for a professional question, the card The Fox could be chosen as the Significator to represent work, or The Anchor for stability in the career. For a health-related question, you might opt for The Tree, symbolizing vitality and well-being.

It is also possible to use multiple Significators in a single spread, depending on the complexity of the situation. Let's take an example of a love spread: you could choose The Ring to represent marriage, The Child to symbolize procreation, or The Gardens to evoke shared vacations. Each Significator allows you to explore a different aspect of the relationship and enrich your interpretation. The use of multiple Significators makes perfect sense with the Grand Tableau.

Understanding and choosing the Significator well is therefore a key step to guide you in interpreting card combinations. It helps structure the spread and derive clearer and more precise answers.

The choice of the Significator is crucial as it guides the interpretation of the spread. Some cards are traditionally used as Significators depending on the context: love, family, professional, or health readings. Here are the commonly used cards:

The Significator plays an essential role in a spread as it becomes the focal point around which the other cards revolve. In 2 or 3 card spreads, the Significator acts as a kind of "main character" or reference point. The other cards modify, complete, or explain the situation relative to this Significator. Here is how it intervenes in 2 or 3 card combinations.

1. The Significator in a 2-Card Combination

In a 2-card combination, the Significator can be interpreted in several ways depending on its position in the combination:

• Noun - Adjective: The Significator can be interpreted as a noun, while the adjacent card acts as an adjective that qualifies the Significator. For example, if The Rider is your Significator and the second card is The Clover, it could mean "a lucky message" or "a beneficial news".
• Subject - Verb: If the Significator is the first card (the subject), the next card can be seen as a verb that describes an action. For example, The Rider + Clover could be read as "the messenger brings an opportunity". If the position of the Significator changes, and it is the second card, it could be "an opportunity presents itself to the messenger".
• Cause - Effect: Here, the first card (the Significator) represents the cause, while the second card illustrates the effect. If The Rider is your Significator and The Clover is the second card, it could indicate "a movement that brings luck".

2. The Significator in a 3-Card Combination

With three cards, the Significator plays a central role in the structure of the sentence and the interpretation becomes more nuanced.

• Noun - Adjective 1 - Adjective 2: The Significator here becomes the noun around which the next two cards are built, playing the role of adjectives. For example, if your Significator is The Rider and the following cards are The Clover and The Ship, you could interpret this as "a lucky and adventurous messenger", or "a lucky message related to a journey".
• Subject - Verb - Complement: The Significator can be the subject, the first card that initiates the action, while the following cards represent a verb and a complement. Let's take The Rider, The Clover, and The Ship as an example. If The Rider is the Significator, it could mean "a messenger seizes a travel opportunity" or "a lucky movement leads to adventure".
• Subject 1 - Link - Subject 2: Here, the Significator can represent the first subject of the interaction. The following cards, especially the middle one, describe the relationship or link between the Significator and the last subject. If your spread is Rider + Ship + Clover, with The Rider as the Significator, it can represent "a journey undertaken by a messenger brings an opportunity".

3. The Role of the Significator in More Complex Spreads

In longer spreads, such as those with 5 cards or more, the Significator remains the central reference point, but the cards around it add depth to the interpretation. For example, in a 5-card spread, the Significator still represents the key element of the question, and the other cards describe how this element evolves in the broader context.

In these spreads, the positioning of the Significator is also important. If the Significator appears at the beginning of the spread, it indicates a proactive role or an ongoing situation. If it is placed at the end, it can indicate the result or conclusion of a situation. The surrounding cards then detail the causes, influences, and possible consequences related to the question asked.

4. The Significator in a Grand Tableau (36-Card Spread)

The Grand Tableau is one of the most comprehensive and complex spreads in Petit Lenormand, where all the cards are laid out in several rows to provide an overview of upcoming events. In this spread, the Significator occupies a central place, and its positioning directly influences how you will interpret the other cards.

• Its Positioning in the Tableau: When you find the Significator (often card 28 for a man or card 29 for a woman), immediately observe where it is located. Is it near the center or more on the periphery? A Significator in the center of the tableau suggests that the querent has a direct and active influence on events. If the Significator is on the periphery, it indicates that external events have more control over the situation, and the querent may have less room to maneuver.
• The Importance of Surrounding Cards: In a Grand Tableau, the cards surrounding the Significator are crucial as they provide information about immediate influences and challenges the querent faces. For example:
  Cards to the left: They can indicate past events or diminishing influences.
  Cards to the right: They show upcoming events or opening opportunities.
  Cards above: They symbolize aspirations, thoughts, or elements beyond control.
  Cards below: They represent the subconscious, internal resources, or foundations on which the querent can rely.
  
• Proximity to Positive or Negative Cards: If the Significator is surrounded by positive cards like The Sun or The Clover, it suggests a favorable period. Conversely, cards like The Clouds or The Snake near the Significator indicate challenges to overcome.
• Life Line: You can also draw a horizontal or vertical line around the Significator, analyzing the cards that make up this line as a "life path" or the main lines of past, present, and future events. It is a way to explore major developments in the querent's life.

In summary, in a Grand Tableau, the Significator becomes the pivot around which all influences are analyzed. Its position and neighboring cards offer a wealth of information to understand the querent's current and future situations, as well as the internal and external factors that play a role in the question asked.

In Conclusion:

The Significator, regardless of its position in the spread, acts as an anchor point for interpretation. It helps to better understand the influences of the other cards and articulate a clear answer to the question asked. The association of the Significator with the surrounding cards creates a narrative thread, making the spread more structured and intuitive to analyze.

Exercise 1: Choosing a Significator for a Specific Situation

Here are 7 concrete questions. Try to choose a Significator for each based on the theme of the question. Click the "Solution" button to see the recommended Significator card and a brief justification.

• Will I get a promotion at work this year?
• Will my partner and I buy a house together?
• Will I meet someone special in the next six months?
• Will my finances improve by the end of the year?
• Should I accept this job offer abroad?
• Will my health improve after this treatment?
• Will I have a child next year?

Exercise 2: Interpreting the Cards around the Significator

For this exercise, take card 28 (The Querent) if you are a man, or card 29 (The Querent) if you are a woman. This card will represent your Significator, that is, yourself in the spread.

Place this card in the center of the table, then draw 8 other cards that you will place around the Significator to form a tableau of 9 cards in total, arranged in 3 rows and 3 columns. The cards should be arranged as follows:

You can now practice interpreting the cards around the Significator. Here are some tips to guide you:

• Horizontal Lines: The cards on the same line as the Significator often tell a story or sequence of events. For example, a line can indicate a situation evolving from an initial state (to the left of the Significator) to a resolution (to the right).
• Vertical Lines: These cards often describe external or internal influences. The card above the Significator can symbolize aspirations or mental challenges, while those below can reflect subconscious or physical aspects.
• Diagonals: Diagonals highlight connections or cross influences. They can reveal unexpected paths or subtle relationships between events and people in the spread.

Once the cards are laid out, try to create combinations by linking the Significator to the surrounding cards according to the patterns you have already learned (Noun-Adjective, Subject-Verb, etc.). For example:

• Horizontal Line: If you have The Rider to the left of the Significator and The Sun to the right, it could indicate "an opportunity that presents itself and leads to great success".
• Vertical Line: With The Fox above and The Heart below, it could suggest "strategic thinking guided by sincere emotions".
• Diagonal: If you have The Snake in the top left and The Ship in the bottom right, it can represent "a winding path leading to a change or journey".

Remember to practice regularly and explore different ways of reading the cards to familiarize yourself with the interactions between the Significator and the other cards.

First, it's better to choose the significators before the reading so that you’re not influenced by the cards that appear and their position in the spread. Even though there are generic significators like The Gentleman or The Lady, it’s recommended to choose the significator(s) depending on the context of the question. Here are three ways to use significators:

• 1 - Significators are usually used in the Grand Tableau because all the cards will appear, so the significators will definitely be present. Then, it's very useful to use the column, the row, and the diagonals where the significator is the central point. It's also relevant to interpret the square of nine cards around the significator.

For the other two options, which apply to spreads other than the Grand Tableau, there is the question: "will my significator show up?" That's why using significators in N-card spreads is less common, and is probably what led you to ask the question. So there are two points of view:

• 2 - The significator is seen as a card like any other and may not appear. If it shows up, great, and we use it just like in the Grand Tableau. If it doesn’t, we accept that and include it in the interpretation. For example: if I ask "is my husband cheating on me?", I can choose the Snake as the significator of the potential lover before drawing the cards. If the Snake card appears, that could mean the querent's doubts are justified. I would then look at the other cards in the spread to put the Snake in context and see whether the presence of a lover is confirmed or not. If the Snake card does not appear, I might think there is no infidelity, but I’ll still look at the drawn cards, because there might be an issue in the couple even if nothing has happened yet.
• 3 - You definitely want to have the significator(s) because it helps to structure the spread. In this case, you draw out one or more significator cards and place them in front of you. Then you determine the placement of the other cards. For example, you can put the significator card in the center of a nine-card square and draw eight cards around it. You can also place the significator card in the center of a five-card line spread and draw four cards, two on the left and two on the right. If you have two significator cards, you can place each significator at one end of a five-card line and draw three cards in the middle. In this situation, the significator cards play a structuring role rather than an interpretive one (since they were deliberately placed). The significators set a frame within which the drawn cards are interpreted. Naturally, significators will also be part of the associations you make to interpret the reading. For example, for the question "will I pass my exam?", I can choose the Letter card as the significator of the exam and place it at the center of a five-card spread. I can structure the reading by saying the two cards on the left represent the 'Against', and the two cards on the right the 'For'. Be careful, the Petit Lenormand doesn't always work well with fixed card positions because of how the associations can be made in all directions, so you should structure your spread or not depending on your own habits and preferences. For learning, you should try all the methods and see which one suits you best.

Personally, with the Petit Lenormand, I do 70% Grand Tableaux, 20% nine-card squares, and 10% quick spreads with three or five cards. I always use significator cards in my Grand Tableaux. I sometimes use one or two significators (pre-drawn or not) for the nine-card square. And I never use significators for my quick spreads. Of course, this is not a strict rule! 😄