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 Cups
External Forces  3 of Cups
|
||
The Recent Past  The High Priestess |
The Crossing Card
|
The Future  3 of Wands |
|
|
|||
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.
Upright Meaning:
Fair man, man of business, law, or divinity; responsible, disposed to oblige the Querent; also equity, art and science, including those who profess science, law and art; creative intelligence.
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.
Judgement
An angel in the heavens blows a trumpet, calling the dead to rise from their graves.
Upright Meaning:
Change of position, renewal, finality, recompense, solution, promotion, redemption, validation, graduation, spiritual growth, final outcome.
Page of Pentacles
A youthful figure, looking intently at the pentacle which hovers over his raised hands. He moves slowly, unaware of his surroundings.
Reversed Meaning:
Prodigality, dissipation, liberality, squandering luxury, bad news, misspending, waste, throw away, deplete, flush down the toilet.
The High Priestess
Crowned by the moon, the High Priestess is seated between two pillars, one black and the other white. She holds the Tora scroll and the secret wisdom of the world's creation.
Upright Meaning:
Secrets, mystery, silence, tenacity, wisdom, woman's intuition, emotional awareness, empathy, hidden truth.
3 of Wands
A calm, stately personage, with his back turned, looking from a cliff's edge at ships passing over the sea. Three staves are planted in the ground, and he leans slightly on one of them.
Reversed Meaning:
The end of troubles, suspension or cessation of adversity, toil and disappointment.
9 of Pentacles
A woman with a bird upon her wrist, stands amidst a great abundance of grapevines in the garden of a luxurious manorial house. Possibly it is her own possession and testifies to material well-being.
Reversed Meaning:
Roguery, deception, voided project, bad faith, insecurity, egotism, immodesty, self-centeredness, vanity, narcissism.
3 of Cups
Maidens in a garden-ground with cups uplifted, as if pledging one another.
Upright Meaning:
The conclusion of the matter in plenty, perfection and merriment; happy issue, victory, fulfilment, solace, healing.
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.
7 of Cups
Strange chalices of vision, but the images are more especially those of the fantastic spirit.
Reversed Meaning:
Desire, will, determination, project, ambition.
