I love to use clarifiers in my practice. A clarifier is a companion card. It does not replace or correct that cards that have already been drawn, but to sit beside it and offer resonance. If the main card is the headline, the clarifier is the subtext.

Where one card might describe the visible shape of the moment, the clarifier describes the inner tone. It can give some extra information or can offer a different perspective. It does not shout over the first voice but harmonises with it, sometimes softly, sometimes dissonantly, but always in relation.

To understand a clarifier card, imagine the difference between a photograph and the caption beneath it. The photograph captures an image — it shows what is there. The caption provides context: it may point to time, place, or mood, or even undermine the image with irony. On its own, the photo is complete. With the caption, the meaning shifts. A clarifier works in exactly this way. It acknowledges that the first card is enough, but it adds a frame, a filter, or a whisper that subtly changes how it is seen.

Importantly, a clarifier does not always have to agree with the main card. Sometimes it emphasizes, sometimes it softens, sometimes it appears to contradict. But contradiction here is not conflict, but it is contrast. Like in paintings, it can add more dimension to the reading. The clarifier says: there is more than one angle to this truth, it expands the meaning of a card.