There are many variations of how to to read not just the Tarot, but a 10 card Celtic Cross spread itself. Everybody has their own approach for their own reasons. As someone who has been conducting Tarot Reading services since I was a child, I am a firm believer in laying the cards in the following manner:
1) The Situation Now. What is happening? What is the question? This can often be about a relationship, challenge if life, financial issue or something health-related. Or, as is often the case, it is something quite general and broad where a person wants to gauge a theme in their life on where it is leading to if not dealt with.
🕈
2) The Crossing Card. This is the ‘bump in the road’ which is causing conflict or obstruction on the immediate present. This isn’t necessarily a negative card, it just show what is.
🕈
3) The Crowning Card. Describes the atmosphere and energy that hangs over the present situation. It’s a reflection of surface-level factors that are affecting the present situation.
🕈
4) The Base Of The Matter. What is underneath everything? This can include unresolved traumas, limiting beliefs, cognitive biases and distortions, and repressed aspects of our personality. These hidden energies drive our conscious and outward behaviors and interpretation of life. Carl Jung believed that the unconscious is always tying to make itself conscious but if we refuse to give it space to express itself, our shadow solidifies and grows stronger. This is why most people experience their subconscious bubbling to the surface in odd ways like aches, pains, allergies, nightmares, mood swings and perhaps even serious illnesses.
Often this base card will seem to contradict the rest of the spread. This doesn’t mean that it is wrong or irrelevant – it’s just that our conscious mind is rarely every in full understanding of what below-the-surface forces are driving it.
🕈
5) Past Influences. This card shows what is passing out of your life. This energy is losing power, potency and primacy – even though it was relevant in the recent past. Now you must let go of this because your future can not manifest until you release your past. This card draws our attention to something that is no longer important and suggests that it only affects the current situation to the degree in which you let it.
🕈
6) Near Future. This card shows what is about to happen and can not be avoided. This is not a long-term card as it shows what is about to move into your life.
🕈
7) Extension Of Present Situation. This elaborates on card number 1 and adds additional and perhaps deeper insights. The card drawn in this seventh position fleshes out the state of affairs you currently find yourself in. It can suggest attitudes and inner qualities that might need to be re-examined and developed in some way.
🕈
8) Other People & Influences. How do others close to the situation (or people removed, but close to you) view what is going on? This card shows what their opinions, concerns and analysis might be. It can also hep predict their response. This eighth Tarot card in the Celtic Cross spread can sometimes hint at what you may be projecting onto others. All of this is not set in stone anyway, and it’s completely changeable if you desire.
🕈
9) Hopes & Fears. Although I do not personally use reverse meanings if a card is drawn upside down, I do intuitively use either the positive or negative meanings of each cards. All Tarot cards can reflect both what we want to happen and what we are sacred of – which ironically, can sometimes be the same thing! This is a truly useful revealing card.
🕈
10) Ultimate Outcome. Let me be absolutely clear that nothing is final, but this Tarot card illuminates how the present situation is likely to resolve itself (my spiritual consulting service can help you dig deeper in this regard). Card 10 summarizes all the other nine cards drawn in the spread. If you wanted to, you could use this final cards as your starting card (number 1) in a new 10 card Celtic Cross Tarot reading in a few weeks or months.
🕈
Some people believe that the Celtic Cross Tarot spread represents a six month cycle but the Tarot doesn’t perfectly align with our human perception of time. So, I think it’s silly to try and force the Tarot into such precise constrictions. The Tarot wasn’t designed for strict rules and limitations. This is why these ten cards and the positions they find themselves in are flexible. The intuition of the Tarot reader, me, and the mind of the Querent, you, plays a huge role in shaping your ultimate destiny.
The Tarot is a divine tool which simply alerts us to causes and consequences in our daily lives as well as the whole arc of our lifetime. With these insights and ideas we are better equipped to live the dance between fate and free will.