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Celtic Cross Spread

 

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.

Spread Positions

  1. This is it (what you asked about)
  2. This crosses it (strengthens or opposes)
  3. This crowns it (higher influences)
  4. It rests upon this (lower influences)
  5. This came before
  6. This comes next
  7. This is you
  8. The external world around you
  9. Your hopes, fears, and secret desires
  10. The result or outcome

 

 

 

Celtic Cross

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Celtic Cross Reading

The Crown

8 of Pentacles

The Outcome

The Chariot


Hopes and Fears

4 of Swords


External Forces

Ace of Swords


The Querent

5 of Cups

The Recent Past

Knight of Cups

The Crossing Card

8 of Swords


The Significator

The Tower

The Future

3 of Cups


Foundation card


King of Cups

 

 

The Significator represents what the main theme of the reading deals with, the initial situation.

 

 

The Tower

Lightning strikes the top of a Tower, knocking the crown off the top. Reminiscent of the Tower of Babel, two figures fall from grace.

Reversed Meaning:

Oppression, imprisonment, trap, tyranny, hardship, torment, persecution, coercion.

 

 

 

 

The Crossing Card denotes an added impulse that compounds the initial card, whether complimentary or contradictory.

 

8 of Swords

A woman, blindfolded and bound, with the swords of the card around her. Yet it is rather a card of temporary endurance than of irretrievable bondage.

Upright Meaning:

Bad news, violent chagrin, crisis, censure, power in trammels, conflict, calumny, sickness, having one's hands tied, insanity.

 

 

 

 

The Crown stands for what the asker is aware of consciously.

 

8 of Pentacles

An artist in stone at his work, which he exhibits in the form of trophies.

Upright Meaning:

Work, employment, commission, craftsmanship, skill in craft and business, preparedness, readiness.

 

 

 

 

Foundation card reveals unconscious driving forces that the querent may not be aware of.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Recent Past represents past events and concerns.

 

Knight of Cups

Graceful, but 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.

Reversed Meaning:

Trickery, artifice, subtlety, swindling, duplicity, fraud.

 

 

 

 

The Future depicts that which lies ahead.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

The Querent represents the asker and their attitude towards the subject of the reading.

 

5 of Cups

A dark, cloaked figure, looking sideways at three prone cups two others stand upright behind him; a bridge is in the background, leading to a small keep or holding.

Reversed Meaning:

News, alliances, affinity, consanguinity, ancestry, return, false projects; marriage, but not without bitterness or frustration.

 

 

 

 

External Forces represents the influence of others in your life as well as trends in your relationships with others.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hopes and Fears shows the expectations you have concerning the outcome of your question.

 

4 of Swords

The effigy of a knight in the attitude of prayer, at full length upon his tomb.

Upright Meaning:

Vigilance, retreat, solitude, hermit's repose, exile, tomb and coffin. It is these last that have suggested the design.

 

 

 

 

The Outcome of your question. Interpret this card in the context of the entire reading and as an indicator of the path you are currently on, but not necessarily bound to.

 

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.

Reversed Meaning:

Riot, quarrel, dispute, litigation, defeat, presumption, vengeance, trouble, a bad trip, problems multiplied.