Celtic Cross

When to use this spread

It suits questions that stay with you for a while and have several layers: a turning point at work, a family matter, a phase in which you don’t know where you stand. Use it when you have time and calm, because ten cards need to be brought into relation with each other; twenty minutes is the minimum. For everyday questions or a quick prompt it is too heavy; for those there is the card of the day or Three Cards. And ask an open question: “How do I deal with this?” can carry ten cards, “Should I?” cannot.

The positions

1. Situation – What is it really about? The first card names the centre of your question, often more precisely than you have put it yourself. Read it as the headline of the whole spread. If it differs greatly from your topic, it shows you what this is actually about.
2. Challenge – What crosses your path? This card lies across the first and is always read upright. It shows what is wrestling with the situation: an obstacle, a counterpart, sometimes a force that is simply unfamiliar. Situation and challenge together form the core message.
3. Foundation – What lies beneath the situation? The root: a need, a formative experience, a state of affairs that has grown over a long time. It is usually older than the question and explains why it occupies you so much. Here honesty pays off more than anywhere else.
4. Past – What are you leaving behind right now? Not the distant past but the recent past, whose effect is just fading. This card often shows a phase that is over, even if inwardly you are still holding on to it. Ask yourself what you can let go of.
5. Conscious goal – What are you consciously striving for? The thing you openly say you want. Compare it with the foundation: do root and goal fit together, or is your head heading somewhere other than your need? This comparison is one of the strongest statements of the spread.
6. Near future – What is coming your way next? The next stage, not the final destination. This card shows what is taking shape over the coming weeks if things take their course. It is often the first stretch of the road to the outcome. Compare it with that card.
7. Yourself – How do you yourself feel about it? Your inner attitude to the question: whether you fight it, sit it out, embrace it or run away from it. This card holds up a mirror to you and sometimes differs surprisingly from the situation. Then the more honest of the two is what counts.
8. Environment – How does your environment affect things? People, circumstances, moods around you: what do they contribute, what do they expect? A court card can stand for a specific person. Check whether your environment supports you or quietly holds you back. Together with “Yourself” it forms a pair of inner and outer.
9. Hopes and fears – What do you hope for or fear? Both at once, because hope and fear lie closer together than we think. A bright card can be a hope you don’t dare believe in; a dark one a fear that steers you more strongly than your goal does.
10. Outcome – Where is it all leading? The direction everything is moving in if you change nothing. Read it together with the conscious goal: if they match, you are on course. If they differ, the other cards show where you can make a start.

How to read the spread

Begin with the cross: situation and challenge first, as a pair. Then foundation and conscious goal, the vertical axis from bottom to top, followed by past and near future, the horizontal one from left to right. After six cards you then have a complete picture of the inner situation. Only then do you read the staff from bottom to top: yourself, environment, hopes and fears, outcome. Sum up each step in a sentence before you move on; that way you won’t lose the thread with ten cards.

Then look for the connections: goal against outcome, foundation against hopes and fears, yourself against environment. Count the Major Arcana; three or more indicate a weighty question in which outside circumstances play a strong part. A suit that recurs names the area of life: Wands for drive, Cups for feelings, Swords for thinking and conflict, Pentacles for everyday life and work. Read reversed cards as blocked or inward-turned forces, not as misfortune.

An example

Jonas has been asked whether he will take over as chair of his sports club. His cards from the Waite-Smith tarot: Three of Pentacles, Ten of Wands, Six of Cups, Page of Wands, The Emperor, Seven of Wands, Nine of Swords, Queen of Cups, The Tower, Strength. The situation, the Three of Pentacles, shows recognised skill. It is crossed by the Ten of Wands, the burden: he is already carrying a lot. The foundation, the Six of Cups, is his bond with the club since childhood. Behind him lies the Page of Wands, the time of eagerly joining in; before his eyes is the Emperor, the wish to provide responsibility and order. The near future, the Seven of Wands, shows that he will have to stand his ground. In the staff: the Nine of Swords, brooding at night; the Queen of Cups, a caring person in his environment who backs him up; the Tower in hopes and fears, the dread that everything will collapse and at the same time the quiet hope of tearing down what has become rigid; as the outcome Strength, patient power rather than force. Four Wands cards: this is about energy and how he manages it. Jonas reads neither a yes nor a no in this, but a condition: he can carry it if he hands over what is already weighing him down now.

Tips

• Record the spread with a photo and take another look after a week.
• Always read goal and outcome as a pair. The distance between them is the most important message.
• If the staff is brighter than the cross, your environment is carrying you; if it is the other way round, the matter itself is carrying you.
• Not every card has to make sense. Two or three silent cards are normal.