Celtic Cross Spread

Difficulty: Average
This is probably the most well-known tarot spread. A good, basic spread for beginners to practise with, the Celtic Cross is useful for questions of all types. In this spread, it can be helpful to notice the relationships between the pairings of cards #5 & #9, #1 & #2, #3 & #4, and #6 & #10.
- The significator epitomizes what the reading deals with, the initial situation.
- An added impulse that compounds the significator, which may be either complimentary or contradictory.
- This is what is consciously known (thoughts).
- Unconscious driving forces that may not be known fully (emotions).
- The immediate past regarding the current situation.
- The first future card indicates the immediate future.
- This card represents the reader and their attitude towards cards #1 and #2.
- The external influences, the places and people which influence the topic.
- This tarot card suggests expectations; what is secretly hoped for or feared.
- The second future card reveals the long-term outcome.
Your Celtic Cross Reading
The Crown |
The Outcome![]() The Tower
External Forces ![]() 4 of Swords
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The Recent Past![]() 8 of Cups |
This Crosses the Significator
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The Future![]() 10 of Swords |
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The Significator represents what the main theme of the reading deals with, the initial situation.
9 of Cups
A whole lot of cargo looks minimal when it's loaded onto a gigantic ship. This applies to more than one might expect.
This Crosses the Significator denotes an added impulse that compounds the initial card, whether complimentary or contradictory.
8 of Pentacles
Things grow from other dead things. Don't overlook them for their dark origins, and don't dismiss the dead as a total erasure of what was.
The Crown stands for what the asker is aware of consciously.
7 of Pentacles
'And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof'. –Rev 5:5
The Foundation reveals unconscious driving forces that the querent may not be aware of.
Balance
AKA Justice in traditional Tarot.
Not the scales of a common religious moralist and no longer a cardinal virtue, but the raw, heartless justice of nature.
The Recent Past represents past events and concerns.
8 of Cups
D cups in this case. Don't be ashamed to enjoy your vices, and never regret the sins you enjoy.
The Future depicts that which lies ahead.
8 of Pentacles
Things grow from other dead things. Don't overlook them for their dark origins, and don't dismiss the dead as a total erasure of what was.
The Querent represents the asker and their attitude towards the subject of the reading.
6 of Swords
Something has to make the rain come down. It got up there but once there's enough of it, it falls back to Earth. It's not enough just to let it happen, if you want to understand you have to observe.
External Forces represents the influence of others in your life as well as trends in your relationships with others.
4 of Swords
Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam!
(Today is a good day to die!)
Hopes and Fears shows the expectations you have concerning the outcome of your question.
9 of Pentacles
Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Dzugdzugdzug.
Realistically, profit isn't hanging in the sky to be taken. If you take it, you're taking it from somebody. And you don't just get to smoosh them.
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 Tower
10:00 – Card 4
Male, Earth, Libra.
Failure and Loss. Defeat and ruin. The higher it's built, the harder it falls and the more it crushes when it does. That doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't worth building. Defeat can be accepted and the ruins left behind in favour of greener pastures, or one can start to rebuild. The latter is more difficult, but often more rewarding.
