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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

7 of Wands

The Outcome

King of Pentacles


Hopes and Fears

Justice


External Forces

Temperance


The Querent

Knight of Cups

The Recent Past

2 of Wands

The Crossing Card

4 of Swords


The Significator

Queen of Swords

The Future

The Empress


Foundation card


The Wheel of Fortune

 

 

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

 

 

Queen of Swords

Her right hand raises the weapon vertically and the hilt rests on an arm of her royal chair the left hand is extended, the arm raised her countenance is severe but chastened; it suggests familiarity with sorrow. She is a bitter, unmerciful oppressor of those who fall under her reign.

Upright Meaning:

Widowhood, female sadness and embarrassment, absence, sterility, mourning, privation, separation, lack of empathy.

 

 

 

 

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

 

4 of Swords

The effigy of a knight in the attitude of prayer, at full length upon his tomb.

Reversed Meaning:

Wise administration, circumspection, economy, avarice, precaution, testament.

 

 

 

 

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

 

7 of Wands

A young man on a craggy eminence brandishing a staff; six other staves are raised towards him from below.

Upright Meaning:

Valour, discussion, wordy strife, negotiations, war of trade, barter, competition. It is further a card of success, for the combatant is on the top and his enemies may be unable to reach him.

 

 

 

 

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

 

The Wheel of Fortune

The Sphinx sits atop a wheel in the sky, symbolic of the wisdom of fate. Other Egyptian characters ride the wheel as it turns, which is surrounded by four cherubs who serve as the guardians of Heaven.

Reversed Meaning:

Increase, abundance, superfluity, comfort, gain, eminence, convenience, luxury, extravagance, benefit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Recent Past represents past events and concerns.

 

2 of Wands

A tall man looks from a battlemented roof over sea and shore, holding a globe in his right hand, while a staff in his left rests on the battlement; another is fixed in a ring. The Rose and Cross and Lilly are on the left side.

Upright Meaning:

Marriage not possible, riches, fortune, magnificence, surprise, wonder, enchantment, emotion.

 

 

 

 

The Future depicts that which lies ahead.

 

The Empress

Seated on her throne, the Empress holds up the golden sceptre. She represents the archetypal female.

Upright Meaning:

Fertility, pregnancy, motherly instincts, fruitfulness, compassion, diplomacy, public rejoicings, jubilation.

 

 

 

 

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

 

Knight of Cups

Graceful, and 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.

Upright Meaning:

Arrival, approach – sometimes that of a messenger; advances, proposition, demeanour, invitation, incitement.

 

 

 

 

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

 

Temperance

An androgenous angel mixes fire and water in the act of performing spiritual alchemy. Her left foot is on land, as her right dips into the sea.

Reversed Meaning:

Religions, the priesthood, disunion, unfortunate combinations, competing interests, intoxication, disillusion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

Justice

A female judge holds the sword of Justice in her right hand and the scales of Justice in her left. This is symbolic of fairness and the knowledge of the law, as well as the power to execute judgement.

Upright Meaning:

Equity, rightness, probity, fair, honest, reasonable, uprightness, nonpartisan, balance, justness, integrity.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

King of Pentacles

His face is rather dark, suggesting also courage, but stubborn. The bull's head is a recurrent symbol on the throne. The sign of this suit is engraved or blazoned with the pentagram, signifying the four elements of nature and the spirit which governs them. This suit is sometimes represented as coins or disks, and is symbolic of money and material goods or services.

Reversed Meaning:

Vice, weakness, ugliness, perversity, corruption, peril, bullheadedness, defiance, unruliness.