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  9 of Cups
External Forces  King of Cups
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The Recent Past  The World |
The Crossing Card
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The Future  10 of Pentacles |
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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.
Queen of Swords
Her right hand raises the weapon vertically and the hilt rests on an arm of her royal chair the left hand is extended, the arm raised her countenance is severe but chastened; it suggests familiarity with sorrow. She is a bitter, unmerciful oppressor of those who fall under her reign.
Upright Meaning:
Widowhood, female sadness and embarrassment, absence, sterility, mourning, privation, separation, lack of empathy.
The Star
Under the stars, a nude woman pours out two vials of water, one onto the land, the other into a pond. Opposite the angel of Temperance, her left foot is on the land, her right on the water.
Upright Meaning:
Youth, beauty, gifts, hope, bright prospects, ingenuity, genius, adept, mastery, gratitude, support, thanks, savvy.
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.
The World
A nude, dancing female holding two batons, symbolic of Mother Earth and Mother Nature. She is encircled by a wreath and surrounded by the cherubs who are the guardians of Heaven and Earth.
Upright Meaning:
Assured success, courage, honour, glory, vitality, life, energy, vigour, zest, pep, fervour, passion, animation, existence, reality.
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.
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.
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.
Reversed Meaning:
Dishonest, double-dealing man; roguery, exaction, injustice, vice, scandal, pillage, considerable loss.
5 of Pentacles
Two injured people in a snow storm pass a well-lit church.
Upright Meaning:
Material trouble, poverty, destitution, abjection, love without money, debt, famine, hardship, concordance, affinities, distress, bankruptcy.
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.
