#signifiers

[windvexer]

signifiers in tarot

A signifier is a card which, for the duration of the reading, is given a special meaning - it signifies something specific.

Signifiers may be shuffled back into the deck - making it very special if they show up in the reading - or they may be placed down ahead of time to "anchor" the intent of the reading.

Perhaps most commonly, a card is assigned to signify the seeker (the person receiving the reading). Usually it is a court card, but it may be any card.

Signifiers can also be selected to represent the question at hand. If someone is asking about a very tough period at work, the reader might choose the 10/Wands, or perhaps the 8/Pentacles (Reversed) to represent the situation.

Seekers may choose their own signifiers but often rely on the knowledge of the reader to choose one for them.

What type of card you select as a signifier may be important:

A pip signifier may establish that the reading is about a common, everyday situation.

A court signifier may establish that the reading is more about an individual than a situation.

A major arcana signifier may establish that the reading is about fate or "big picture" ideas.

Signifiers are especially powerful when assigned to very specific things:

For a spiritual or religious reading, you can assign specific gods or spirits to signifier cards.

For a social reading, you can assign people to various court cards.

You can assign specific outcomes to certain cards. For example, you may decide that for this reading only, the 10/Pentacles means moving to a new house, but the Ace/Cups means staying in your current house.

Assigning specific identities of involved parties to cards can help a lot when faced with deciphering sometimes vague and confusing identities. In a social reading where four court cards appear, it may be confusing to decide which card is what person.

But if you have assigned identities to each card, the job becomes a lot easier (even if court cards appear to which nobody was assigned).

Signifiers can help readers because they can anchor the intent of the reading into something specific. It is a visual reminder for what the reading is really about.

Signifiers can gain an extra level of meaning when they are shuffled into a deck:

A signifier appearing in the reading can indicate an especially clear or enthusiastic response.

Signifiers can indicate that the seeker's intuitions are correct ("you think the situation is about X, and yes, it is!").

A signifier appearing reversed can indicate that intuition about the situation is incorrect (or vice-versa if the signifier was chosen as reversed).

The directions that characters on signifier cards face may also take on special relevance, whether the card was set out first or is shuffled into the deck.

What cards are the signifier characters looking at?

What cards are their backs towards?

When you place the signifier without shuffling it into the deck, obtain more utility in character direction by putting the card in a central location and placing shuffled cards in a line below it.

For some readers, a ritual of focus and intent is important. Searching for the best signifier in a deck can encourage meditation on the question at hand and may be a valuable part of a focus ritual.

For readers who value tarot as a tool of introspection, having to choose a tarot card to best represent their situation may lead to useful processing and insight.

As a reader, it may be tempting to require your seeker to choose their own signifier, ostensibly relying on some intuitive power. It is my experience that this can make seekers uncomfortable, especially if they are unfamiliar with tarot.

If you need the seeker to choose their own signifier, consider selecting a few cards and explaining the nuances between each. ("This card is more about your actual work load, but this card is more about the relationships with your bosses.")

A deck collector might enjoy assigning permanent signifiers to special decks. An example is a pagan who venerates multiple gods using a special deck for their religious practice, in which certain cards always indicate certain gods (whereas in their other decks, those cards retain their normal meanings).

Signifiers may assist in interpreting a spread. If a signifier is a watery Cups card, and every other card drawn is a Cup or water card, that is significant. It is also significant if every other card is a fiery Wand. An astute reader can compare the spirit of the signifier to the spirit of the spread and therein gain insight.

Signifiers may be used before any reading. All that is required is that the reader choose a card and affirm, internally or otherwise, what the card means for that reading.

A fun and simple way to use signifiers is to shuffle the signifier in the deck, then hold the deck so the cards are revealed to you. Search through the deck until you find the signifier. The card on top of it is the answer to the inquiry or the future; the card beneath it is the antonym of the answer or the past.

("My signifier is the 8/Wands to see what my friend's big new is. The card on top is the Empress - I think it will be a pregnancy announcement. The card on bottom is the 4/Pentacles - I do not think the news has anything to do with her student loans, which is what I thought it would be about.")

#witchblr #tarot #divination #signifiers

[nespyofire]

You make me wanna die

I'll never be good enough

#oc #original characters #digital art #art #dragon #monster #creature #comic strip #signifiers

[hopsof]

Lamb to the slaughter

#Dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #mithrun #fanart #spoiler #my art #the canaries #digital illustration #procreate #digital art #fantasy #goat demon #symbolism #painting #allegory #the flower is a dried up white rose. it represents death but white roses also signify purity. it's pretty but #like young mithrun it's rotten #it is covering the demon's eye because the demon took mithruns eye specifically because it was his pride and joy #there's other symbols but i think theyre more obvious

[sierrabaktiyar]

Week 3 - Semiotics

Semiotics is the study behind signs and symbols and their meaning. With the understanding of semiotics, one would be able to have the ability to read images, such as those in print forms or in media, which are also known as graphs and graphics. Semiotics firstly consist of signs, which is the representation that best communicates something. Secondly, it consists of signifiers, which is the image or word. Signifiers also consist of icons, indexes and symbols. Lastly, semiotics also consist of signified, which is the thing that the signifier evokes. 

For example, as seen in this advertisement, Van Gough is placed off to the very right whereas what's supposed to be considered as a museum label, but instead is a card with the brand name and a tagline, is placed off to the very left. Additionally, the brand’s product is placed in the centre but it is also distinctively placed at where the frames of it are focusing on both Van Gough and the label. Making the use of Van gough’s artwork, which is well-known for its choppy yet expressive brush strokes, this advertisement suggests that by wearing their product, Van gough’s work would be seen much more cleaner and clearer than it has ever been. Therefore, the message of this advertisement is that by wearing the brand’s product, it helps one to improve their vision. 

Hence, the takeaway from this, is that semioticism should be handled with such sensitivity as it plays a big role in design. It is the main key that helps designers to communicate their intended meaning and ensure that it is understood by the person on the receiving end, correctly. 

(275 words)

References:

Advertisement source: Marwan. (2020, August 20). 70 Best Print Adverts of All Time - Empire Group. Empire Group. https://theempire.com/best-print-adverts/

#Semiotics #Sign #Signifiers #Signified #Icon #Index #Symbols #advertisement

[bugqiu]

european summer signifiers:

eggshell

hiking

breathable

glaze

shallots

#maaterial world #signifiers

[matinroslan]

Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of signs and how they are used to interpret communication. It is a visual representation of ideas, concepts, and emotions that rely on the viewer's interpretation of the signs and symbols used. I did some research and found an image that can relate to the topic of the day.

This is a painting titled Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. In relation to semiotics and its perspective, the painting can be looked at as a collection of signs and symbols that convey a sense of wonder. The colors and swirling lines can be interpreted as signifiers of movement and energy while the use of light and dark can be seen as a signifier of day and night.

From what I see, Semiotics seeks to understand ways in which signs and symbols are used to create meaning in human communication. It allows us to explore various types of signs used in different social contexts. It has been used in advertising and design applications as well as to analyse art.

An artist's use of signs and symbols and the way it is manipulated, as well as their choices of a medium are all able to reveal their individual artistic inclinations in Semiotics.

[203 words]

#semiotics #signifiers #signify #signifying #vincent van gogh #symbols #signs #art

[captainkirkk]

Concept: Fire Lords traditionally dress like the stages of the sun to match their reign.

When Zuko is first crowned, he dresses in the colours of dawn. Bright yellows and pinks and even purples. He starts to wear more traditional crimson-and-gold robes after a few years, the colours of midday when Agni is at his strongest. And towards the end of his reign, when he's getting ready to pass the crown onto Izumi, he starts dressing like the setting sun.

#i haven't been able to stop thinking about this for DAYS please free me #avatar #atla #i imagine this was something that went out of style with sozin's era #because fire lords refused to wear anything but the colours of midday #because they believed that was the only way to signify that they are strong #anyway i'm just losing my mind at teenage fire lord zuko dressed like the rising sun #my posts #atla headcanons #au ideas

[markscherz]

There is a happiness no-one else knows: the feeling of mud between fully webbed toes; the caress of a breeze on your moist shiny skin; the warmth of the sunlight that slowly soaks in; the gentlest hum of a thought far away, as you sit and you soak and let time tick away.

#poetry #herpetology #frogs #meme #you cannot win in a game of patience against any amphibian or reptile #to me nothing signifies the difference in our minds and bodies more than that simple fact #endotherms are so bloody impatient #because we feel ourselves ticking faster than everything around us #ectotherms literally chill to the tempo of the moment #it's a marvellous and challenging thing to behold #answers by mark #princezilla

[kerimcangoren]

The thing the photograph is of is causally indispensable to the photograph in a way that the thing a painting is of need not be. 'That's why Sugimoto thinks of his photographs of fossils as "another set of fossils," as, in effect, fossils of fossils. And that's why although there are paintings of unicorns, there are no fossils of unicorns and there are no photographs of them either. But the fossils also make sense as a problem for photography, and for the same reason. 'The painting of a sea lily colony is a representation of it, a picture of it. The fossil of a sea lily colony is neither. The footprint is not a representation of the foot that made it; the smoke may be a sign of fire but it isn't a picture of it.

Walter Benn Michaels / Photographs and Fossils in Photography Theory edited by James Elkins, 2006 / p. 432

#quote #quotes #signs #signifiers #punctum #referent #semiotics #representation #footprint #fossils #photography #photograph #Walter Benn Michaels

[xerorao]

Brothers and their Lovers

#omori #omori fanart #omori kel #omori hero #omori sunny #omori mari #omori sunkel #omori suntan #omori heromari #hello omori fandom i've come with some food :) #omori bad ending #this takes place after Sunny jumped off the hospital building #wonder if someone would understand the symbolism of how the arms around suzuki siblings signify something #... their deaths maybe?

[lucabyte]

Taking pride in One's own appearance.

#you people are becoming my guinea pigs for my finally learning how to communicate information via comics. a thing ive needed to practice at #also BLEGH. YUCK. andrew hussie was right candy makes you sick. this is a little too saccharine for me. yeesh. let me get back to the meat. #isat #isat spoilers #in stars and time #in stars and time spoilers #isat fanart #in stars and time fanart #isat siffrin #isat loop #sifloop #doodlebyte #'let me get back to the meat' i say eyeing something similarly sickly in my sketches. at least it's mildly tormented as a counterbalance... #you people have no idea how much im having to stay my own hand. oh i can draw miserable nudity but the most basic of fluff? visceral #anyway i dont know the logistics of picking up a glass eye or where loop got money (besides pilfering from siffrin) & ive previously drawn #sif with a vague blank middle-grey eye as either being scarred over or a blank occular prosthesis put in quickly at the nearest town #i dont know that they'd have a glass eye during the game but considering prosthesis are reccomended to keep the skull etc from deforming #id imagine it would probably come up postgame as something to do now theyre not on a time limit trying to save the country #plus i assume that having it gouged at by a sadness wasnt exactly a clean wound by any measure #all this to say. idk i just wanted to get some information across in comic form to Test my Abilities #and we're far enough down now to say my absolute most wretchingly sweet fluff headcanon that actually inspired this #which is that i think siffrin gets into the habit of not wearing the eyepatch around loop so they kinda match. #and as a signifier to the other that they're letting their guard down around them. vulnerability etc. #just kinda wearing it around their neck so they don't lose it

[gammija]

Horseys! inspired by this banger of a post by @pinkravat-art

#tma #tma mlp au #the magnus archives #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #also inspired by my sibling rewatching some mlp episodes in the living room the other day #tma s5 #magnuspod #tma jon #tma martin #jonathan #martin #jonmartin #gammijart #my tummy achy ;_; #id in alt #i do hope people understand i didnt just give jon a smoking cutie mark because he smokes #but because of how smoking/addiction/the web are fundamental in his arc and tmas narrative #and how cutie marks as signifiers of some kind of predestined endpoint/some plan for your life could be seen as Webby #signifying that even here he can't get away from something else having control over his life #but of course also. heh smoky pony

[telescopicflower]

i don’t wanna get into a habit of posting unfinished art but wyll is my muse and therefore i must post the wip

#bg3 #bg3 fanart #bg3 art #digital drawing #baldur's gate 3 #baldurs gate wyll #wyll ravengard #bg3 wyll #wyll is my no.1 husbando #he is also so fun to draw it flows sooo much easier than other subjects #give him more content NOW larian or else #i sketched shitty hearts on it to signify it is unfinished #and also because i love him

[gaytedlasso]

there’s never enough time.

~

3rd anniversary of canon destiel

Nov 5, 2020

#YEAR 3 ! GIVE IT UP FOR YEAR 3 #have some angst #I’ll draw fluffy things another time #purposely gave these a blur effect #to signify the haste of time #and he’s that is the cut Dean reaction from the ep trailer #LOVE YOU ALL #sketch.art #destiel #deancas #November 5th #Nov 5 #nov 5 2020 #destiel angst #despair #spn 15x18 #Cas’ confession

[owlygem]

Manifesting this at the end 💛

#and maybe crowley can start to wear more colour too #maybe add red #to signify their detachment from their toxic roots #good omens #good omens 2 #aziraphale #yellow is pretty #like a certain demons eyes #myart

[spinaart]

tatsujun brainworm....

#persona 2 #tatsuya suou #jun kurosu #shin megami tensei #jun is telling him all about asters. they signify patience and faith in love #(<- consumed by tatsujun mental illness) #persona #fanart #art #spin draws