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  7 of Wands
External Forces  8 of Cups
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The Recent Past  Ace of Cups |
The Crossing Card
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The Future  5 of Pentacles |
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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.
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.
The Chariot
A stately figure drives a chariot pulled by a black and a white Sphinx. The canopy of his chariot is the night sky, emblazoned with stars.
Upright Meaning:
Traveling, journey, fun times, victory, battle, voyage, route, emigration, flight, change of place, challenges met boldly, triumph.
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.
Upright Meaning:
Moderation, frugality, management, accommodation, accomplishment, etiquette, ritual, formulate, develop, heighten, perfection.
Ace of Cups
Atop the waters are water-lilies; the hand reaches out from the cloud, holding in its palm the cup, from which four streams are pouring; a dove, bearing in its bill a cross-marked Host, descends to place the Wafer in the Cup; the dew of water is falling on all sides.
Upright Meaning:
House of the true heart, joy, content, abode, nourishment, abundance, fertility; Holy Table, felicity hereof.
5 of Pentacles
Two injured people in a snow storm pass a well-lit church.
Reversed Meaning:
Disorder, chaos, ruin, discord, profligacy, injury, hurt, harm, jealousy, vagrancy, underdevelopment.
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.
8 of Cups
A man of dejected aspect is deserting the cups of his felicity, enterprise, undertaking or previous concern.
Reversed Meaning:
Great joy, happiness, feasting, jubilee.
Queen of Cups
Beautiful, fair, dreamy – as one who sees visions in a cup. This is, however, only one of her aspects; she sees, but she also acts, and her activity feeds her dream.
Upright Meaning:
Good, fair woman; honest, devoted woman, who will do service to the Querent; loving intelligence, and hence the gift of vision; success, happiness, pleasure; also, wisdom, virtue; a perfect spouse and a good mother.
7 of Wands
A young man on a craggy eminence brandishing a staff; six other staves are raised towards him from below.
Reversed Meaning:
Perplexity, embarrassments, anxiety. It is also a caution against indecision.
