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Celtic Cross Spread

 

The Celtic Cross is the most well-known tarot spread and also the largest available here, involving ten cards. This spread begins with a pair of crossing cards at the center of the issue, essentially being two significators. When two significators are involved, they may strengthen or oppose each other, which speaks of the nature of the situation. Above and below the initial cross, we have two cards which are symbolic of the intellectual (top) and emotional (bottom) basis of the issue. The Before and After cards show the past and immediate future.

At the right, four cards are laid out, going upward. At the bottom you have a card representing yourself, and the next card shows how others may affect the situation. Card #9 indicates what you may be hoping for, or possibly, what you hope will not happen. Finally at the top is the outcome, meaning the distant or ultimate future.

Spread Positions

  1. This is it (what you asked about)
  2. This crosses it (strengthens or opposes)
  3. This crowns it (higher influences)
  4. It rests upon this (lower influences)
  5. This came before
  6. This comes next
  7. This is you
  8. The external world around you
  9. Your hopes, fears, and secret desires
  10. The result or outcome

 

 

 

Celtic Cross

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Celtic Cross Reading

The Crown

King of Swords

The Outcome

Knight of Cups


Hopes and Fears

7 of Pentacles


External Forces

Strength


The Querent

7 of Swords

The Recent Past

Judgement

The Crossing Card

4 of Pentacles


The Significator

6 of Swords

The Future

3 of Swords


Foundation card


Death

 

 

The Significator represents what the main theme of the reading deals with, the initial situation.

 

 

6 of Swords

A ferryman delivering passengers to the further shore. The course is smooth, and seeing that the freight is light, as the workload is not beyond his ability.

Upright Meaning:

Journey by water, route, way, envoy, commissionary, expedient, travelling, a short trip.

 

 

 

 

The Crossing Card denotes an added impulse that compounds the initial card, whether complimentary or contradictory.

 

4 of Pentacles

A crowned figure, having a pentacle over his crown, clasps another with hands and arms; two pentacles are under his feet. He clings to what he has.

Upright Meaning:

Possessiveness, desperation, obsession, gift, legacy, inheritance, materialism.

 

 

 

 

The Crown stands for what the asker is aware of consciously.

 

King of Swords

He sits in judgement, holding the unsheathed sword. He recalls the conventional symbol of justice in the Major Arcana, and he may represent this virtue, but he is rather the power of life and death.

Upright Meaning:

Power, command, authority, militant intelligence, law, defensiveness, security, high office, duty, public service.

 

 

 

 

Foundation card reveals unconscious driving forces that the querent may not be aware of.

 

Death

The Grim Reaper rides into town on a pale horse. The king has fallen, and the Pope greets Death with the king's family. The sun sets in the gateway on the horizon.

Upright Meaning:

End, destruction, loss, failure, terminus, conclusion, completion, closure, resolution, outcome, annihilation, downfall, rebirth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Recent Past represents past events and concerns.

 

Judgement

An angel in the heavens blows a trumpet, calling the dead to rise from their graves.

Upright Meaning:

Change of position, renewal, finality, recompense, solution, promotion, redemption, validation, graduation, spiritual growth, final outcome.

 

 

 

 

The Future depicts that which lies ahead.

 

3 of Swords

Three swords piercing a heart; cloud and rain behind.

Upright Meaning:

Removal, absence, sorrow, emotional pain, delay, division, rupture, dispersion, dissolution, a mental breakdown.

 

 

 

 

The Querent represents the asker and their attitude towards the subject of the reading.

 

7 of Swords

A man in the act of carrying away five swords hastily; missing two which remain stuck in the ground. He is a thief. A camp is close at hand.

Reversed Meaning:

A dangerous plan that may fail, quarrelling, annoyance, disturbance, thievery, crime, slander, babbling.

 

 

 

 

External Forces represents the influence of others in your life as well as trends in your relationships with others.

 

Strength

A woman holds a young lion at bay with her female strength of grace. She is crowned by the lemniscate as the Magician is, revealing herself as his counterpart.

Upright Meaning:

Power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity, boldness, grace, mercy, goodwill, finesse, dexterity, soothing, tact.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hopes and Fears shows the expectations you have concerning the outcome of your question.

 

7 of Pentacles

A young man, leaning on his staff, looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a clump of greenery on his right; one would say that these were his treasures and that his heart was there.

Upright Meaning:

Money, business sense, barter, ingenuity, purgation, commerce, trade, deal, transaction, good economy, industry.

 

 

 

 

The Outcome of your question. Interpret this card in the context of the entire reading and as an indicator of the path you are currently on, but not necessarily bound to.

 

Knight of Cups

Graceful, but not warlike; riding quietly, wearing a winged helmet, referring to those higher graces of the imagination which sometimes characterise this card. He too is a dreamer, but the images of the side of sense haunt him in his vision.

Reversed Meaning:

Trickery, artifice, subtlety, swindling, duplicity, fraud.