The Celtic Cross — what each of the ten positions shows
updated · 6 min read
There are many tarot spreads, and the best known is the Celtic Cross. Ten cards are laid in a cross and a staff, and one question is looked at from several sides.
Where a single card gives an answer, the Celtic Cross shows the structure of a situation. How things stand, what is catching, where it is heading. Separate cards take each of those.
The ten positions and what they mean
This service uses these same ten positions. Taking them in order:
| # | Position | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Where you are now | The centre of the question. What is happening at this moment |
| 2 | What stands in the way | Laid across 1. What is blocking the road |
| 3 | What you are aiming at | Above the cross. The wish you are aware of holding |
| 4 | What lies underneath | Below the cross. The ground you have not noticed, what sits at the root |
| 5 | What has passed | Behind the cross. The current so far, what is going out |
| 6 | What is coming | Ahead of the cross. What is about to arrive |
| 7 | How you are holding yourself | The foot of the staff. Your own stance on the matter |
| 8 | The people around you | How the people and circumstances around you are bearing on it |
| 9 | Hopes and fears | What you are hoping for, and what you are afraid of |
| 10 | Where it settles | The top of the staff. Where this leads if it carries on |
The knack is reading them in pairs
Read one at a time in order, the ten fall apart into fragments. The Celtic Cross holds together when you read it in combinations.
1 and 2 — what is happening, and what is obstructing it
These two are the core of the question. The second is traditionally often read without regard to upright or reversed: it is whatever crosses the first, for better or worse. Sometimes it turns out to be a following wind.
3 and 4 — what you know and what you do not
An ideal card at 3 with a heavy one at 4 reads as: in your head this is what you want, and something is pulling against it somewhere. That gap is frequently the real subject of the question.
5 and 6 — the movement of time
Which way it is running, from what has passed to what is coming. A lighter card at 6 than at 5 reads as a turn for the better; the reverse reads as a stretch to hold on through.
7 and 8 — you and the people around you
Your own stance, and the circumstances around you. Where these two do not match, it reads as a sign that how things look from outside and how you see them have come apart.
9 and 10 — the wish and where it lands
Position 9 is the unusual one, holding hopes and fears together in a single place. The structure of the mind — that the more strongly you want something the more strongly you fear it — is given to one card to carry. Position 10 then shows where this leads if it carries on.
Position 10 is not an unchangeable fate. A tarot result is a sketch of what follows if the present current holds. It is read on the understanding that dealing with the obstacle at 2 can change 10.
Upright and reversed
A card that comes out upside down is reversed. It reads as the upright meaning weakened, turned inward, or inverted. Reversed does not mean bad.
If upright Strength reads as going on with persistence, reversed reads as pushing too hard, or as more preparation still being needed.
When to use a single card instead
- You want a bearing for today, or an answer in one line → a single card
- The situation is complicated and you want to sort out why it is as it is → the Celtic Cross
- You are caught between two options → a two-way spread
Because the Celtic Cross carries so much, a vague question scatters the reading too. Narrowing to one subject — should I stay in this job — is what makes the ten cards mesh.
Note: the person asking questions in this article is fictional. This is not a record of a real consultation.
Common questions
- Does it use all seventy-eight cards?
- A Celtic Cross can be drawn from the twenty-two major arcana alone or from all seventy-eight including the minor arcana. The more cards, the finer the description; the fewer, the broader the strokes.
- Can I ask the same question again?
- Traditionally, drawing repeatedly on the same question is avoided. Drawing again until an answer satisfies you means choosing the result rather than reading it.
- Is it all right not to use reversals?
- Some schools do not. Without them, strength is read from the relationship with the surrounding cards. Neither is more correct; what matters is deciding at the outset and being consistent.