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The use of a "significator card" stems from the early practice of using Tarot cards at parties. Each party guest would select a card, and the rest of the guests would tell why that particular card fits the person who selected it.
In many predictive Tarot spreads today, the "significator card" may still be suggested. The "significator card" represents the client for whom the reading is being made by the card reader. For this reason, many card readers invite their clients to sift through the cards of the Tarot deck, until they find a card that they feel represents them best.
This card can also be chosen blindly, at random (thru a cut of the deck).
The "significator card" is more like a symbolic witness to the reading, rather part of the reading itself. The "significator card" is never taken to be predictive, rather just a symbol representing the client for the purposes of the reading.
In more contemporary books, a separate "significator card' is allowed, but not absolutely required. The reason being, that in most spreads, the first card is usually understood to be similar to the "significator," representing the current frame of mind of the client.
If a "significator card" is chosen anyway, it is typically set aside, and not used in the reading, until after all the other cards have been selected and read. Only then, is the "significator card" integrated into the reading, and then only as an indication of the client's recent past, and current attitude just before the reading.
Nevertheless, in answering the client's question, "What is to happen?", or "What must be done?" from the cards, the "significator card" can be useful; showing the card reader and the client alike, a departure point and a starting place for action by the client to begin.
In short, the "significator card" can be viewed as representing those characteristics which the client had displayed in the recent past, and will likely display again, after all the current issues (indicated in the cards of the spread itself) are finally resolved.
For the card reader and the client alike, the "significator card" can be a helpful indicator of what to expect when the current situation's issues are past, and normalcy is once again restored to client's life and routine.
