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  The Hanged Man
External Forces  9 of Swords
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The Recent Past  6 of Pentacles |
The Crossing Card
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The Future  4 of Cups |
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7 of Pentacles
A young man, leaning on his staff, looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a clump of greenery on his right; one would say that these were his treasures and that his heart was there.
Upright Meaning:
Money, business sense, barter, ingenuity, purgation, commerce, trade, deal, transaction, good economy, industry.
Knight of Pentacles
He rides a slow but steady horse, which is just like him. He holds the pentacle, but does not look therein.
Reversed Meaning:
Inertia, idleness, stagnation, placidity, discouragement, carelessness, blame, irresponsibility, affliction, hardship, trial, burden, stress.
Queen of Wands
Emotionally and otherwise, the Queen's personality corresponds to that of the King of Wands, though she is more charismatic.
Upright Meaning:
A dark woman, countrywoman, friendly, chaste, loving, honourable. If the card beside her signifies a man, she is well disposed towards him; if a woman, she is interested in you. Also indicates love of money, or a certain success in business.
Page of Cups
A fair, pleasing, somewhat effeminate page, of studious and intent aspect, contemplates a fish rising from a cup to look at him. It is the pictures of the mind taking form.
Reversed Meaning:
Taste, inclination, attachment, seduction, deception, artifice.
6 of Pentacles
A person in the guise of a merchant weighs money in a pair of scales and distributes it to the needy and distressed. It is a testimony to his own success in life, as well as to his goodness of heart.
Reversed Meaning:
Desire, cupidity, envy, jealousy, illusion, resentment, rivalry, grudge.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Hanged Man
A man hangs upside down from the Tau cross. This is a card of self-sacrifice and enlightenment.
Upright Meaning:
Wisdom, circumspection, discernment, trials, sacrifice, augury, prophecy, pause, reflection, ideas, imagination, meditation.
