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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

The Devil

The Outcome

Ace of Swords


Hopes and Fears

Death


External Forces

The Fool


The Querent

King of Wands

The Recent Past

2 of Pentacles

The Crossing Card

Strength


The Significator

Knight of Cups

The Future

2 of Wands


Foundation card


5 of Swords

 

 

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

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

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

 

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.

Reversed Meaning:

Manipulation, despotism, abuse of power, weakness, discord, disgrace, deception, trickery, lies, cheap tactics, malevolence.

 

 

 

 

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

 

The Devil

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

Reversed Meaning:

Evil, weakness, pettiness, vehemence, betrayal, deception, prison, small-mindedness, trifling.

 

 

 

 

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

 

5 of Swords

A disdainful man looks after two retreating and dejected figures. Their swords lie upon the ground. He carries two others on his left shoulder, and a third sword is in his right hand, point to earth. He is the master in possession of the field.

Upright Meaning:

Degradation, destruction, revocation, infamy, dishonour, loss, disdain, notoriety.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Recent Past represents past events and concerns.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

The Future depicts that which lies ahead.

 

2 of Wands

A tall man looks from a battlemented roof over sea and shore; he holds 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 should be noticed on the left side.

Reversed Meaning:

Trouble, fear, physical suffering, disease, chagrin, sadness, mortification, trivial disappointments.

 

 

 

 

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

 

King of Wands

The nature to which this card is attributed is dark, ardent, lithe, animated, impassioned, noble. The King uplifts a flowering wand, and wears what is called a cap of maintenance beneath his crown. He bears the symbol of the lion, which is emblazoned on the back of his throne.

Upright Meaning:

Dark man, friendly, countryman, generally married, honest and conscientious. The card always signifies honesty, and may mean news concerning an unexpected heritage to fall in before very long.

 

 

 

 

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

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

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.

Reversed Meaning:

Inertia, sleep, lethargy, hope destroyed, depression, sloth, misery, undoing, ruin, subjugation.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

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.