Tarot spreads · 10 cards
The Celtic Cross tarot spread, position by position
The Celtic Cross is the best-known tarot spread: ten cards, laid as a cross of six with a staff of four beside it. It looks at one question from every side, from the heart of it and what crosses it to your hopes and fears and where things lean if nothing changes.
How to lay out the cards
- 1. The heart of itTwo of SwordsUpright
- 2. What crosses youThe MoonUpright
- 3. FoundationSix of CupsUpright
- 4. Recent pastThree of SwordsReversed
- 5. What you aim forAce of CupsUpright
- 6. Coming into viewPage of SwordsUpright
- 7. YouStrengthReversed
- 8. SurroundingsFour of WandsUpright
- 9. Hopes and fearsKnight of CupsReversed
- 10. Where this is headingTemperanceUpright
The first six cards make the cross. Card 1 sits in the center, and card 2 lies across it. Card 3 goes below them, card 4 to the left, card 5 above and card 6 to the right. The other four make the staff, a column to the right, read from the bottom up: 7, 8, 9 and 10.
Some books swap the places of cards 5 and 6, or of 4 and 6, depending on which way the central figure faces. The meanings are what matter, and Lanterndeck always uses the order below.
The ten positions
1. The heart of it
Traditionally: the present, or the situation.
The center of the question: what this is really about, beneath the way you phrased it. Read this card first and keep it in mind for every other card.
In the sample, the Two of Swords: a decision held at arm’s length, eyes covered, waiting. Two of Swords: the full meaning
2. What crosses you
Traditionally: the challenge.
The tension in the situation, laid across the heart of it. Even a gentle card here describes friction: something that complicates the first card or pulls against it.
The Moon: uncertainty. Not knowing where things stand leaves room for worry to fill the gaps. The Moon: the full meaning
3. Foundation
Traditionally: the root, or the distant past.
What lies underneath: the older experience, belief or need the situation is built on. It often explains why the question matters as much as it does.
The Six of Cups: warm memories. Part of what’s at stake is how good things once felt. Six of Cups: the full meaning
4. Recent past
Traditionally: what is passing.
Something that has just happened or is on its way out. It’s still in the air, shaping the mood, but its influence is fading.
The Three of Swords, reversed: a recent hurt beginning to ease, not healed but loosening. Three of Swords reversed: the full meaning
5. What you aim for
Traditionally: the crown, or the conscious goal.
The best this could become, or what you’re consciously hoping for. Compare it with the foundation below: are the goal and the root pulling the same way?
The Ace of Cups: a fresh, open-hearted feeling. The hope is for something new and generous. Ace of Cups: the full meaning
6. Coming into view
Traditionally: the near future.
What’s approaching: a development, a mood or a choice that’s starting to show. Read it as something forming, not something fixed.
The Page of Swords: curiosity and plain questions. Asking may come next. Page of Swords: the full meaning
7. You
Traditionally: the self, or your attitude.
How you’re meeting the situation: your stance, your energy, the part you play. It’s often the most useful card in the spread, because it’s the one you can change.
Strength, reversed: self-doubt, being harder on yourself than you would be on anyone else. Strength reversed: the full meaning
8. Surroundings
Traditionally: the environment, or other people.
The people and setting around you: how others see the situation, or the circumstances you’re working within.
The Four of Wands: a warm, settled home life around the question, a source of support. Four of Wands: the full meaning
9. Hopes and fears
Traditionally: hopes and fears.
What you want and what you dread, which are often the same thing seen from two sides. This card is worth reading slowly.
The Knight of Cups, reversed: hoping for a clear romantic gesture while fearing it won’t come. Knight of Cups reversed: the full meaning
10. Where this is heading
Traditionally: the outcome.
The direction things lean if nothing changes. It isn’t a verdict. Read it with card 7: you can change how you meet the situation, and with it, the lean.
Temperance: patience and balance. Things settle at a gentler pace. Temperance: the full meaning
Reading the spread as a whole
Start with cards 1 and 2, the heart and what crosses it: together they name the situation. Then read the vertical line, card 3 below and card 5 above: the root and the goal. Then the horizontal line, card 4 to card 6: what’s passing and what’s arriving.
In the staff, read card 7, you, against card 10, where things are heading, and let card 9, hopes and fears, explain any gap between them. Card 8 shows what you’re not doing alone.
Finally, step back. Many Major Arcana suggest the question touches something big; a crowd of one suit points to where it lives (Cups for feelings, Swords for thoughts and words, Wands for energy, Pentacles for the practical). Reversed cards gathered in one area show where energy is blocked.
The sample, read together
In the sample spread, someone is holding still in the half-light: between knowing and not knowing (the Two of Swords and The Moon), with warm memories underneath and a hurt that’s easing. Self-doubt (Strength reversed) and waiting for the other person to move (the Knight of Cups reversed) keep them stuck. The Page of Swords and Temperance suggest another way: ask a plain question, listen, and let things settle at a patient pace. Not a verdict on the relationship, but permission to want clarity and to ask for it.
Where the Celtic Cross comes from
The Celtic Cross was popularized by Arthur Edward Waite, who published it in 1910 in his guide to the tarot deck he made with Pamela Colman Smith. He presented it as an ancient Celtic method, but there’s no evidence it is either ancient or Celtic. It has become the most widely used ten-card spread anyway, because it works: it asks good questions in a sensible order.
Draw a Celtic Cross on your own question
On Lanterndeck the Celtic Cross is the deep reading: ten cards on your own question, a longer reading and three follow-up questions, kept in your notebook. If it can’t be written, you don’t pay for it.
A deep reading on your own question: ten cards and a longer reading, $4.99 once. Nothing renews. About the deep reading