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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

4 of Cups

The Outcome

4 of Swords


Hopes and Fears

Page of Swords


External Forces

2 of Cups


The Querent

2 of Pentacles

The Recent Past

7 of Wands

The Crossing Card

The Tower


The Significator

The Hermit

The Future

The Devil


Foundation card


The Sun

 

 

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

 

 

The Hermit

An old man with a walking stick holds up a lantern to enlighten his path.

Upright Meaning:

Prudence, circumspection, insight, self-awareness, retreat, solitude, detachment, isolation, peace, withdrawal.

 

 

 

 

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

 

The Tower

Lightning strikes the top of a Tower, knocking the crown off the top. Reminiscent of the Tower of Babel, two figures fall from grace.

Upright Meaning:

Misery, calamity, deception, ruin, catastrophe, distress, adversity, disaster, discord, falling apart, going all to pieces, injury.

 

 

 

 

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

 

4 of Cups

A young man is seated under a tree and contemplates three cups set on the grass before him; an arm reaching out from a cloud offers him another cup. His expression notwithstanding is one of discontent with his surroundings.

Reversed Meaning:

Novelty, presage, new instruction, new relations.

 

 

 

 

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

 

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.

Upright Meaning:

Material happiness, good marriage, contentment, blessings, lucky break, opportunity, praise, magnificence, brilliance, miracle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Recent Past represents past events and concerns.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

The Future depicts that which lies ahead.

 

The Devil

The devil holds the lovers, Adam and Eve in chains. This card represents the fall of man.

Upright Meaning:

Vengeance, violence, disgrace, force, lust, lies, cheating, hoax, bait, snake oil, disorder, confusion, false values, compulsion.

 

 

 

 

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

 

2 of Pentacles

A young man, in the act of dancing, has a pentacle in either hand, and they are joined by the lemniscate, the sign of eternity.

Upright Meaning:

On the one hand it is represented as a card of gaiety, recreation and its connections, which is the subject of the design; but it is read also as news and messages in writing, as obstacles, agitation, trouble, embroilment.

 

 

 

 

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

 

2 of Cups

A youth and maiden are pledging the love of one another, and above their cups rises the Caduceus of Hermes, between the great wings of which there appears a lion's head. It is a variant of a sign which is found in a few old examples of this card.

Reversed Meaning:

Love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, concord, sympathy, the interrelation of the sexes, and – as a suggestion apart from all offices of divination – that desire by which Nature is sanctified.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

Page of Swords

A lithe, active figure holds a sword upright in both hands, while in the act of power walking. He is passing over rugged land, and about his way the clouds are collocated wildly. He is alert and aware, looking this way and that, as if an expected enemy might appear at any moment.

Upright Meaning:

Authority, overseeing, secret service, vigilance, spying, examination.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

4 of Swords

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

Upright Meaning:

Vigilance, retreat, solitude, hermit's repose, exile, tomb and coffin. It is these last that have suggested the design.