Celtic Cross Tarot Spread: 10 Positions and How to Read Them

The Celtic Cross is a ten-card tarot spread: six cards form a cross that shows the situation, and four cards in a column beside it, the staff, show you, your surroundings, your hopes and fears, and the likely outcome. It is the classic layout for a deep look at one important question, and its last card is best read as where things are heading if nothing changes, not as a fixed verdict.

The ten positions

This is the modern layout most guides use today, and the one our Tarot reader follows.

The staff stands to the right of the cross and is read from the bottom up. In Waite’s version, the sides for the past and the near future depend on which way the significator faces; most readers today simply put the past on the left and the future on the right.

The two parts of the spread

The cross describes the situation itself. Cards 1 and 2 are read as a pair: the heart of the matter and the force crossing it. Around them, the horizontal line is a timeline, running from the recent past (4) through the present (1) to the near future (6). The vertical line runs from the root (3), what lies beneath the situation and often out of view, to the crown (5), what you are consciously aiming for.

The staff describes you within the situation. Card 7 is your attitude and the part you play. Card 8 is the people and conditions around you. Card 9 is your hopes and fears, which are often the same thing seen from two sides. Card 10 is the likely outcome of the present course.

Waite’s order and the modern order

A. E. Waite made the spread famous in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910). His version begins with a significator, a card chosen to represent the person asking, and lays the cross in this order: 1 covers, 2 crosses, 3 crowns, 4 is beneath, 5 is behind and 6 is before. The staff then follows as cards 7 to 10.

Most readers today skip the significator and lay the root third and the crown fifth, so the four cards around the centre go clockwise from the bottom. The meaning of each place is the same either way; only the order of laying changes. If you learn from an older book, check which order it uses before you compare readings.

How to read a Celtic Cross, step by step

1. Choose one important question. The spread needs something substantial to answer, such as “What should I understand about changing jobs this year?” Avoid yes-or-no questions; a single card answers those better.
2. Shuffle and lay all ten cards before you read any of them.
3. Take in the whole spread. Count the Major Arcana, notice which suit dominates and how many cards are reversed. When more than half the spread is Major Arcana, the matter is a significant chapter; when more than half the cards are reversed, energy is blocked or held back.
4. Read the core pair. Cards 1 and 2 tell you what the reading is really about.
5. Read the timeline and the axis. Follow 4 to 1 to 6, then compare the root (3) with the crown (5): does what lies beneath support what you are aiming for?
6. Read the staff, cards 7 to 10, from the bottom up.
7. Link the positions. Compare your aim (5) with the outcome (10), and yourself (7) with your hopes and fears (9). Court cards in the cross often describe people involved; in the staff, they may describe you.
8. Sum it up in a few sentences, and note one thing you can do.

Questions that suit the Celtic Cross

Open questions that begin with what, how or why give the ten cards room to work.

• “What do I need to understand about my relationship with my sister?”
• “How can I make the most of this new job?”
• “What is holding me back from finishing my degree?”
• “What should I weigh up before moving to a new city?”

Each names one area of life and leaves the answer open. Questions about other people’s private choices, or about health, legal or money decisions, are better left out of any spread.

A worked example

Here is an illustration of how the positions talk to one another. The question: “What should I understand about changing jobs this year?”

Read together, the story is clear. A long stretch of carrying too much (Ten of Wands) has left the person ready to walk away (Eight of Cups), yet the need for security pulls the other way (Four of Pentacles). Beneath it lies a search for meaning (The Hermit), and the conscious aim is to learn something new (Page of Pentacles). Things may move fast soon (Eight of Wands), friends are supportive (Three of Cups), and the hopes and fears turn on chance (Wheel of Fortune).

The outcome points to a calm, deliberate move, and the seventh card shows what stands between the person and it: the Two of Swords, a decision put off. The spread does not say “you will change jobs”. It says that if the person stops waiting and plans the move with care, the transition is likely to be a steady one.

Mistakes to avoid

• Reading the outcome alone. It is the result of the other nine cards, not a separate verdict.
• Asking a vague question. “What about my life?” gets a vague reading. Name the area and the time frame.
• Forgetting that card 9 cuts both ways. A bright card may be a hope and a hard card a fear. Ask yourself which it is.
• Treating the challenge as bad news. Card 2 shows what crosses you, which may be a test worth meeting. Waite himself noted that a favourable card here means the opposition will not be serious.
• Redrawing. If the spread feels uncomfortable, sit with it; the discomfort often points to the real message.
• Over-reading reversals. A reversed card shows energy blocked, delayed or turned inward, not disaster.

When to choose a smaller spread

The Celtic Cross suits big, layered questions: a career change, a relationship at a crossroads, a move to a new city. For everyday questions, a three-card spread is quicker and often clearer, and a single card answers a clear yes-or-no question.

Whatever the spread, tarot is a tool for reflection. It shows the energy around a question and leaves the choices with you, and it is never a substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.

You can lay a Celtic Cross in our Tarot reader. You shuffle the full 78-card deck, choose all ten cards yourself, and each card is read for its position and for the area you pick: general, love, career or money. It is one of the deeper readings, which use credits; the card of the day and yes-or-no readings are free. To learn the cards that most often set the theme of a Celtic Cross, see our list of the 22 Major Arcana.