The Celtic Cross

The Celtic Cross is a ten-card tarot spread made of two parts: a cross of six cards describing the situation, and a staff of four cards beside it describing you and the forces around you. It was popularised by A. E. Waite’s 1910 guide to the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, and it remains the most widely used ten-card spread. It suits complex or general questions.

What is the Celtic Cross spread?

The Celtic Cross spread is a layout for seeing a situation whole. The cross on the left gathers the matter itself: its present state, what crosses it, what it rests on, where it has come from, what it aims at and where it seems to be going. The staff on the right turns to the person asking: their own attitude, the people and circumstances around them, their hopes and fears, and the outcome that all of these forces point toward together.

Waite presented the layout in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot as an old method, though nothing firm is known of its history before him. It has since gathered many variants. The order of the positions differs between sources, and so do some of their names. Waite’s own order, for instance, lays the card above the centre third and the card beneath it fourth; the order used here, and in TarotSeeker, places the foundation third and the aspiration fifth. Some readers also begin with a significator, a card chosen to stand for the person asking, while many today leave it out. None of these versions is the correct one. What matters is that you fix the order before you draw and keep to it.

How do you lay out the Celtic Cross?

The Celtic Cross is laid in two movements: first the cross, from the centre outward, then the staff, from the bottom up.

• Card 1 goes in the centre.
• Card 2 lies across card 1, turned sideways.
• Card 3 goes below the centre.
• Card 4 goes to the left of the centre.
• Card 5 goes above the centre.
• Card 6 goes to the right of the centre.
• Cards 7 to 10 form a column to the right of the cross, with card 7 at the bottom and card 10 at the top.

Leave a little room between the cross and the staff, so the two parts read as two groups.

The ten positions

Each position below is named as it appears in TarotSeeker. The one-line examples come from a single reading, for the question “What do I need to understand about leaving my job to work for myself?”, so that the whole spread can be read together at the end.

Heart of the matter

The heart of the matter is the present state of the situation, and often the inner state of whoever is asking. It is the card the rest of the spread gathers around. Example: the Two of Swords here describes a stalemate, a held breath before a choice that reason has to settle.

Two of SwordsA blindfolded stalemate between two hard options: decide by reason, not feeling.

What crosses you

What crosses you is the card laid across the centre. It names the challenge or obstacle in the way, or, depending on the question and the other cards, a factor that reinforces the present state and keeps it in place. Example: the Four of Pentacles suggests a tight grip on security, and here it reinforces the stalemate: caution is keeping the choice from being made.

Foundation

The foundation is what the matter rests on: earlier experiences or events that anchor the present, for better or worse. It is often deeper and older than the past influences card. Example: the Eight of Pentacles here describes years of patient practice, a solid base of skill beneath the question.

Past influences

Past influences describe what has recently shaped the matter and is now passing. Where the foundation lies underneath, the past influences lie behind. Example: the Ten of Wands here points to a heavy load recently carried, perhaps the very overwork that raised the question.

Aspirations

Aspirations is the card of objectives and ideals: what you are reaching toward, or a larger issue that deserves consideration. It describes what is hoped for, not what is already real. Example: the Nine of Pentacles suggests a picture of self-made comfort and independence, the life the change is meant to build.

Probable future

The probable future is the most likely next development, if things continue as they are. It looks nearer than the final outcome. Example: the Two of Wands here describes ambition turning into planning, a wider horizon coming into view.

Self

Self is the first card of the staff. It describes your own attitude toward the situation, or the energy you bring to it. Example: the Page of Pentacles points to a diligent beginner, someone who sees themselves as still learning.

Environment

Environment describes the people and circumstances around you: your position among friends, colleagues and society, and outside influences on the matter. Read it as a description of how things may appear around you, never as a statement of anyone’s private thoughts. Example: the Three of Pentacles here suggests skilled work that others see and value.

Hopes and fears

Hopes and fears holds what you want and what you dread, which are often the same thing seen from two sides, along with any inner conflict affecting the present. Example: the Moon suggests uncertainty, a situation not yet clear, with hidden feelings rising to the surface.

The MoonThe shadow surfacing: the unconscious, hidden forces, and the need to trust instinct in the dark.

Outcome

The outcome is the result of all the other forces in the spread taken together: where the situation is heading if they continue as they are. It is the sum of the reading, not a verdict on it. Example: the Chariot points toward forward momentum held on a true course, success that comes through willpower and self-command.

How do you read the Celtic Cross as a whole?

The Celtic Cross reads best as two conversations that meet at the outcome. The cross is the conversation about the situation: what it is, what presses on it, where it came from, where it leans. The staff is the conversation about you within it: how you hold yourself, how the world around you stands, what you hope and fear. Read each part as a group before you read them against each other.

Pairs worth comparing

Several positions are built to be read in pairs, and the comparisons often carry the real insight of the spread.

• Heart of the matter and what crosses you. The crux of the question lies where these two meet. In the example, caution (the Four of Pentacles) is holding the stalemate (the Two of Swords) in place.
• Aspirations against outcome. Does the outcome fulfil the ideal or differ from it? The Nine of Pentacles imagines calm, settled comfort; the Chariot describes effort and drive. The aim may be reachable, but the road there looks more strenuous than the picture.
• Foundation against hopes and fears. Is the fear grounded? Solid skill below (the Eight of Pentacles) and fog above (the Moon) suggest that the fear has less ground under it than it seems to.
• Self against environment. How you see yourself and how others may see you. A Page among colleagues who value the work (the Three of Pentacles) suggests someone underrating what they already bring.
• Probable future against outcome. Whether the near step and the final direction agree. Here they do: the planning of the Two of Wands leads naturally into the momentum of the Chariot.

Counting Majors and suits

Count the cards by kind. In the example, two of ten are Major Arcana, so the matter is largely in the hands of the person asking. Five are Pentacles: the question is, at bottom, about work, money and practical security, whatever its emotional colour. There are no Cups at all. The only Water in the spread comes through the two Majors, the Moon and the Chariot, both Water cards, as if feeling enters the question only as fear and as drive. A useful sentence to carry into the rest of the reading might be: the ground is firmer than it feels, the caution is the obstacle, and the cost to the heart has not yet been asked about.

The ChariotConquest through willpower and self-control: momentum in the right direction.

The guide Reading the whole spread, a deeper guide for Adept members in the app’s Library, sets out these overall looks in full.

Common mistakes with the Celtic Cross

Most difficulties with the Celtic Cross come from treating ten cards as ten separate readings.

• Reading each card in isolation. The spread is built from relationships. A position read without its pair loses most of its meaning.
• Treating the outcome as fixed. The outcome card describes where the present forces lead. Change the forces, and the direction can change too.
• Using it for a narrow question. A yes-or-no question, or one about a single afternoon, leaves most of the positions with nothing to say. A smaller spread serves better; the guide Tarot spreads: how to choose one can help you pick.
• Laying it again when it confuses. A second Celtic Cross for the same question adds ten more cards to the confusion. Return to the first and read the pairs.

The Celtic Cross for beginners

The Celtic Cross is manageable for beginners once three-card spreads feel comfortable, but it is a poor first spread. If you are new, practise with a three-card spread until you read the line as a whole without thinking about it, then try the Celtic Cross on a question that genuinely has many parts. Read the cross alone at first, then add the staff. The guide Three-card tarot spreads, in this Library, is a good place to build that habit.

The Celtic Cross in TarotSeeker

The Celtic Cross is an Adept spread in the app. Shuffle your own deck and enter the ten cards as they fall, or let the app draw for you, and add your first impression of the spread before the companion’s reading appears. The companion then reads all ten positions and the connections between them, the pairs above, the count of Majors and suits, the elements and numbers, and shows the grounds for each connection, so you can test every one against what you see.

Questions readers ask

Is the Celtic Cross good for beginners?

The Celtic Cross suits beginners once they are comfortable with three-card spreads, but it is a demanding first spread. Its ten positions and the pairs between them ask a lot of a reader still learning the cards. A good approach is to read the six-card cross first, then add the four-card staff, and to save the spread for questions with several genuine parts.

What is the order of the Celtic Cross positions?

In the order used by TarotSeeker, the Celtic Cross positions are: heart of the matter, what crosses you, foundation, past influences, aspirations, probable future, self, environment, hopes and fears, and outcome. Books differ on the order: A. E. Waite’s 1910 version lays the card above the centre third and the foundation fourth. Any version works if you fix it before drawing.

What does the outcome card mean in the Celtic Cross?

The outcome card in the Celtic Cross is the sum of all the forces in the spread: where the situation seems to be heading if those forces continue as they are. It is not a fixed verdict. Compare it with the aspirations card to see whether the ideal and the likely result agree, and with the probable future to see whether the near and far steps point the same way.

Why is it called the Celtic Cross?

The Celtic Cross takes its name from A. E. Waite, who presented it in 1910 as an ancient Celtic method of divination, and from the cross formed by its first six cards. No firm evidence links the spread to ancient Celtic practice, and its history before Waite is uncertain. The name has stayed because the layout became the best known in tarot.