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.
The Crown |
The Outcome  8 of Pentacles
External Forces  The Fool
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The Recent Past  King of Swords |
The Crossing Card
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The Future  9 of Cups |
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King of Cups
He holds a short sceptre in his left hand and a great cup in his right; his throne is set upon the sea; on one side a ship is riding and on the other a dolphin is leaping.
Upright Meaning:
Fair man, man of business, law, or divinity; responsible, disposed to oblige the Querent; also equity, art and science, including those who profess science, law and art; creative intelligence.
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.
8 of Wands
The card represents motion through the immovable – a flight of wands through an open country; but they draw to the term of their course. That which they signify is at hand; it may be even on the threshold.
Reversed Meaning:
Arrows of jealousy, internal dispute, stinging of conscience, quarrels, domestic disputes for married people.
10 of Pentacles
A man and woman beneath an archway which gives entrance to a house. They are accompanied by a child, who admires two dogs accosting an old man sitting on the porch. The child is petting one of them.
Upright Meaning:
Gain, riches, family matters, the home, gift, dowry, pension, haven, country, neighbourhood, comfort zone.
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.
9 of Cups
A goodly personage has feasted to his heart's content, and abundant refreshment of wine is on the arched counter behind him, seeming to indicate that the future is also assured. The picture offers the material side only, but there are other aspects.
Upright Meaning:
Concord, contentment, physical ,; also, victory, success, advantage; satisfaction for the Querent or person for whom the consultation is made.
The Hanged Man
A man hangs upside down from the Tau cross. This is a card of self-sacrifice and enlightenment.
Reversed Meaning:
Selfishness, the crowd, politics, corruption, self-deception, misunderstanding, ignorance, denseness, blindness.
The Fool
A watchdog warns a foolish youth that he is about to carelessly walk off a cliff. The Fool seems totally ignorant of his surrounding and the danger he is in.
Reversed Meaning:
Negligence, inertia, carelessness, apathy, mistake, trespass, transgression, blunder, failure, bungle.
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.
8 of Pentacles
An artist in stone at his work, which he exhibits in the form of trophies.
Reversed Meaning:
Voided ambition, vanity, cupidity, exaction, usury, cunning, sham, intrigue, loan shark, swindle, blackmail, cheat, shakedown, double-deal.
