10 cards · advanced

Celtic Cross

The definitive ten-card spread. A complete picture of a situation: its heart, its cross, its roots, its trajectory and its outcome.

Draw the Celtic Cross spread

Optional, and worth doing. Questions starting with what or how, about you, get far more out of a reading than yes/no or predictive ones.

Changes which part of each card's meaning is surfaced.

Reversals

New to tarot? Turn these off until the upright meanings feel automatic.

How to read the Celtic Cross

The most famous spread in tarot, popularised by A. E. Waite in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot in 1911. Ten cards is a lot of information and the spread rewards structure over free association.

Read it in blocks, not in sequence:

  • 1 to 2, the cross: the situation and the thing crossing it. Read these two as a single unit before you look at anything else. This pair usually contains the whole reading in miniature.
  • 3 to 4, the axis: what is beneath (root cause, often unconscious) and what is above (your conscious goal or ideal). The gap between them is frequently the problem.
  • 5 to 6, time: what is passing out of the situation and what is approaching.
  • 7 to 10, the staff: you as you are in this, the environment and other people, your hopes and fears (read as one position, because they are usually the same card's two faces) and the likely outcome.

On the outcome card: it is the outcome of the situation as it currently stands, given everything in positions 1 to 9. It is a projection, not a sentence.

Full guide and layout diagram

The positions

  1. The Heart of the MatterThe situation itself, at its centre.
  2. The CrossingWhat crosses it. The obstacle, or sometimes the help you are resisting.
  3. AboveYour conscious aim, ideal or best possible version of this.
  4. BeneathThe root. What is underneath this, often outside conscious awareness.
  5. BehindWhat is passing out of the situation. Recent history losing its grip.
  6. BeforeWhat is approaching. The near future entering the frame.
  7. YourselfHow you are actually showing up in this. Your stance.
  8. EnvironmentOther people, external conditions, what surrounds the situation.
  9. Hopes & FearsWhat you most want and most dread, usually two readings of one card.
  10. OutcomeWhere this leads given everything above. A projection, not a verdict.

For reflection and entertainment. Not medical, legal, or financial advice.