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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

6 of Cups

The Outcome

6 of Swords


Hopes and Fears

Ace of Swords


External Forces

The Sun


The Querent

3 of Pentacles

The Recent Past

Knight of Wands

The Crossing Card

10 of Swords


The Significator

The Hanged Man

The Future

7 of Pentacles


Foundation card


Queen of Wands

 

 

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

 

 

The Hanged Man

A man hangs upside down from the Tau cross. This is a card of self-sacrifice and enlightenment.

Upright Meaning:

Wisdom, circumspection, discernment, trials, sacrifice, augury, prophecy, pause, reflection, ideas, imagination, meditation.

 

 

 

 

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

 

10 of Swords

A murder victim, pierced by ten swords showing the act of excessive force.

Reversed Meaning:

Advantage, profit, success, favour, power, authority, triumph over your enemies.

 

 

 

 

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

 

6 of Cups

Children in an old garden, their cups filled with flowers.

Upright Meaning:

Remembrances, looking back, as on childhood; happiness, enjoyment, but coming rather from the past; things that have vanished. Another reading reverses this, giving new relations, new knowledge, new environment, and then the children are disporting in an unfamiliar precinct.

 

 

 

 

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

 

Queen of Wands

Emotionally and otherwise, the Queen's personality corresponds to that of the King of Wands, though she is more charismatic.

Reversed Meaning:

Good, economical, obliging, serviceable. Also signifies opposition, jealousy, even deceit and infidelity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Recent Past represents past events and concerns.

 

Knight of Wands

A man on a journey, armed with a short wand, and although armoured it is not on an errand of war. He is passing mounds or pyramids. The motion of the horse is a key to the character of its rider, suggesting his mission.

Upright Meaning:

Departure, absence, flight, emigration. A dark young man, friendly. Change of residence.

 

 

 

 

The Future depicts that which lies ahead.

 

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

 

3 of Pentacles

A sculptor at his work in a monastery. Compare the design which illustrates the Eight of Pentacles. The apprentice or amateur therein has received his reward and is now at work in earnest.

Upright Meaning:

Artifice, trade, skilled labour; regarded as a card of nobility, aristocracy, renown, glory.

 

 

 

 

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

 

The Sun

A nude child rides a white pony in the foreground. Behind him the sun boldly enlightens the world, acting as a source of life and role model to several sun flowers.

Reversed Meaning:

Kindness, favour, gain, abundance, good tidings, windfall, praise, benediction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

Ace of Swords

A hand reaches out from a cloud, grasping a sword, the point of which is encircled by a crown.

Upright Meaning:

Triumph, the excessive degree in everything, conquest, triumph of force. It is a card of great force, in love as well as in hatred. The crown may carry a much higher significance than comes usually within the sphere of fortune telling.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

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.