About the Celtic Cross spread
The Celtic Cross is the best-known tarot spread and the one most readers learn after the basics. Its ten cards look at a question from every side: what sits at the heart of it, what crosses it, what lies beneath, what is passing and coming, how you feel about it, what others bring to it, your hopes and fears, and where it all leads.
It is the spread to use for a question that matters and has many moving parts. A full reading takes time, so leave yourself twenty minutes and read the cross before the staff.
The positions
- 1The Significator. What is at the heart of the matter right now?
- 2Crossing Card. What crosses, challenges or shapes it?
- 3Foundation. What is the root of this?
- 4Recent Past. What is passing out of the picture?
- 5Crown. What are you consciously aiming for, and what could this become?
- 6Future. What is coming next?
- 7Emotions. How are you meeting this, inside?
- 8External Forces. What are others, and the wider setting, bringing to it?
- 9Hopes & Desires. What do you hope for, and what do you fear?
- 10Outcome. Where does all of this lead?
How to lay it out with your own deck
- Shuffle with your question in mind, then lay the first card in the centre: the heart of the matter.
- Lay the second card across the first: what crosses or challenges it.
- Place the third below (the foundation), the fourth to the left (the recent past), the fifth above (the crown, your aims), and the sixth to the right (what comes next). This makes the cross.
- Lay the last four cards in a column to the right, from the bottom up: your emotions, external forces, hopes and fears, and the outcome. This is the staff.
Drew the cards at home? Choose “Enter my own cards” above and get the written reading for the cards you drew.
How to read it
- Read the first two cards together. The crossing card is not always an obstacle; sometimes it is the very thing that makes the situation move.
- Compare the crown (position 5) with the outcome (position 10). When they agree, your aim and your path line up; when they differ, the gap is the real subject of the reading.
- The hopes-and-fears card (position 9) is often the most personal. A hope and a fear can be the same thing seen from two sides.
- Count the Major Arcana. Four or more in a Celtic Cross means the question is about a turning point, not a passing phase.
Questions
- What are the 10 positions of the Celtic Cross?
- 1 the heart of the matter (the significator), 2 what crosses it, 3 the foundation beneath it, 4 the recent past, 5 the crown or conscious aim, 6 the near future, 7 your emotions and attitude, 8 external forces and other people, 9 hopes and fears, 10 the outcome.
- How do you read a Celtic Cross tarot spread?
- Read the cross first (cards 1 to 6) as the situation itself, then the staff (cards 7 to 10) as your part in it and where it leads. Then look for links: the crown against the outcome, the foundation against the past, repeated suits and numbers.
- Is the outcome card final?
- No. It shows where the situation leads on its present course. The rest of the spread, especially your own attitude (7) and the outside forces at work (8), shows what could change it.
- How long does a Celtic Cross reading take?
- Ten to thirty minutes. It rewards slow reading: take each card in its position, then step back and read the shape of the whole spread.