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  Ace of Cups
External Forces  2 of Wands
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The Recent Past  Death |
The Crossing Card
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The Future  King of Swords |
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King of Pentacles
His face is rather dark, suggesting also courage, but stubborn. The bull's head is a recurrent symbol on the throne. The sign of this suit is engraved or blazoned with the pentagram, signifying the four elements of nature and the spirit which governs them. This suit is sometimes represented as coins or disks, and is symbolic of money and material goods or services.
Upright Meaning:
Valour, intelligence, business aptitude, mathematical gifts and attainments; success, proficiency, arrival, execution.
9 of Swords
One seated on her couch in lamentation, with the swords over her. She is as one who knows no sorrow which is like unto hers. It is a card of utter desolation.
Upright Meaning:
Death, failure, miscarriage, delay, deception, disappointment, despair, nightmares, worry, tension, extreme anxiety, obsession.
Page of Pentacles
A youthful figure, looking intently at the pentacle which hovers over his raised hands. He moves slowly, unaware of his surroundings.
Upright Meaning:
Application, study, scholarship, reflection, news, messages, rule, management, school, learning, craft apprenticeship, training, preparation, research.
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.
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.
Upright Meaning:
End, destruction, loss, failure, terminus, conclusion, completion, closure, resolution, outcome, annihilation, downfall, rebirth.
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.
Reversed Meaning:
Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, perfidy, bad intentions, a sharp tongue, insulting, insecurity, arrogance.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Reversed Meaning:
House of the false heart, mutation, instability, revolution.
