Celtic Cross
The Celtic Cross is a classic ten-card tarot spread: six cards in a cross and four in a column beside it. Made famous by A. E. Waite, it looks at a question in depth, from its roots and challenges to hopes, fears and outcome.
Also known as: celtic cross spread
The spread has two parts. The cross: a card at the heart of the matter, a second laid across it as the challenge, then four around them showing the root below, the recent past to one side, the crown or conscious aim above and the near future to the other. The staff: four cards in a column, read from the bottom up.
The staff shows you, your surroundings, your hopes and fears, and the likely outcome. Together the ten cards give a full picture: what is happening, why, what is pressing on you, what you want and where it is all heading.
Waite presented it in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot as an old Celtic method, though there is no evidence it is Celtic or especially ancient. His version begins with a significator, a card chosen to represent the person asking, and lays the crown third and the root fourth. Many modern readers skip the significator and lay the root third and the crown fifth; the meaning of each place is the same.
The outcome card is often treated as a verdict. It is better read as the natural result of the present course, shaped by everything else in the spread, especially the cards for yourself and for your hopes and fears.