Thoughts on the Celtic Cross

Having read a few books on Tarot, I've been thinking about the Celtic Cross spread and have come up with some of my own ideas on it, and my own approach to interpretation. At first I thought the spread was about what factors have an influence on the question at hand. Now my opinion is that the spread is about what lessons need to be learned.

The spread is composed of ten cards, arranged as follows (card 2 is placed horizontally on top of and across card 1):

                10
     5
                9
4   1 2   6
                8
     3
                7

Now, if you have a deck, please shuffle the cards and try it. You'll notice that the first two cards form a small cross. Including the next four cards forms a larger cross, and the four create a circle around the first two. The final four cards form a staff to the right of the circle cross.

Let's talk about the cross first. The esoteric meaning of the cross is the intersection of time and space. In this spread, time is the horizontal axis, and space the vertical axis. But I don't mean the entirety of space, just the vertical axis, as it applies to your mind. That will be clearer as we go examine the focus of each position. Let's begin:

1. This card is your immediate situation.


2. This card is like a large stick held up by a couple of posts in front of you. It appears to block your way, but on closer examination you see that it's not attached to the posts, but simply held up by them. In fact, you can take the stick with you and use it.


3. Now we get into the parameters of your surrounding situation. This card is what's under the surface of your mind. It can also indicate the root cause of the problem if there is one.


4. This card indicates a lesson that needs to be learned for the purpose of letting it go, or an influence that is on the way out.


5. This card indicates a lesson that is here now, or on the way.


6. This card indicates an influence or lesson that is coming in the future.


7. The next four cards indicate a course of evolution, starting from this card, which is the lesson of the physical situation.


8. This card represents thoughts about the situation and environment.


9. This card represents the lesson given about your emotions.


10. This card is the final piece of the puzzle: inspiration, will, intuitiveness.

So the first six cards are about your immediate situation and its parameters, and the next four are a path to evolve out of it. I'll be trying out this interpretation over the next couple of weeks, and I'll let you know how it works out.