Why hate on the celtic cross?

Maelin2

CC is the little black dress of spreads - you can dress it up, dress it down, but if you only ever wear it with pearls and pumps, you'll be bored silly - Wear it with platforms, with boots, with a leather jacket....well, it's a differnt story.

I often use pieces of the CC - not all the cards, but sections, and have found it the spread I keep coming back to, after those fancy multiple card spreads have lost their appeal.

It's a two card spread - the central cross being the central issue, forget the rest of the cards. It's a three card sread from left to right: Past present, future; or from bottom to top: underlying issue, current influence, possible aspiration - or either of those three card spreads around the central cross opposing forces - two possible 4 card spreads. Add a "more detail" card - no. 7 for your perspective, along with the central cross, or #8 for the surrounding forces, read with card 3,4,5, and 6 - or go whole hog and do all the cards, including both your hopes and dreams ans a final outcome.

I visit other spreads, but after 35 years, I keep coming back to the CC.

Best wishes
 

HighPriestess

I personally find it too complicated for simple questions, and I find it easier to work with three and four card spreads; it's easier for me to see the relationships between cards if there are less cards I have to worry about.

I've tried using it a few times and I kept forgetting which card meant what in which position! I just found it was much easier to make my own spreads.
 

triple_entendre

CC is the little black dress of spreads - you can dress it up, dress it down, but if you only ever wear it with pearls and pumps, you'll be bored silly - Wear it with platforms, with boots, with a leather jacket....well, it's a differnt story.
IMHO, the three-card draw is more like the little black dress. The CC is more like plaid orthopedic shoes.
 

Nayana

I always use the celtic cross, i find it really easy to see the connections between the cards. When i was younger i found it difficult to interpret properly and i just used to take each card on surface meaning and didn't connect them together. Definitely it should not be a spread that someone who is learning for the first time should use as it is complicated and i think they would be more worried about the positions and their meanings rather then the cards and how they are relating/influencing each other.

A large part of Tarot is learning to listen and trust your intuition which means that feeling uncomfortable with a certain spread is not encouraging the mind to let go and interpret.

That being said, all spreads need time and attention dedicated to them, Tarot is like a language and it takes practice to become a fluent reader.

What it seems like is that many people dislike the CC as initially they were lead to believe it was "the" spread to use and to only use it. Apparently many people when starting out didn't look much further than the small handbook that comes with the deck ;).
 

Carla

IMHO, the three-card draw is more like the little black dress.

Agreed!

If the 3-card draw is the little black dress, to me the Celtic Cross ignores Coco Chanel's advice. The last thing you should do before leaving in the morning is look in the mirror one last time and take off one thing. The Celtic Cross just seems to have too many accessories. I do use it sometimes, though. Just like I sometimes wear big bangle earrings with a chunky necklace. ha
 

triple_entendre

This comparing spreads to fashion items is fun! So what's the Opening Of The Key? I mean, at least most readers have actually used the CC enough to form an opinion about it. I get the impression that people read halfway through the instructions for the OOTK before giving a nervous laugh, putting the book down, and running not walking away!
 

Carla

This comparing spreads to fashion items is fun! So what's the Opening Of The Key? I mean, at least most readers have actually used the CC enough to form an opinion about it. I get the impression that people read halfway through the instructions for the OOTK before giving a nervous laugh, putting the book down, and running not walking away!

The OOTK is one of those Big Fat Gypsy Wedding dresses.
 

lotus2blossom

When I first started with tarot I did a 3 card spread (past, present, future) and then went to celtic cross, as most people probably do. The reason I don't care for it is because I feel like it can be difficult to interpret since the spread itself is made to be used for ANY topic. If I choose another spread or make up my own spread that is created for the area of my particular question then I have a much easier time interpreting what the cards are telling me. I feel like with the celtic cross I tend to do a bit more guessing and give myself several possible answers of what a card may be telling me in the context.
 

kamya26

I have loved and still love CC .
always been most helpful and I never really had a problem connecting the cards.

Yes it is long which sometimes gets tiring but after all the help it gives in terms of past, present future and current issues the time is worth it!
 

Zezina

I personally prefer the Cross to many of the other options.
I think of it as being time-tested: after so many decades in use it has really proven its worth. If it were not so broadly useful, the CC would have disappeared long ago.

(I think there has been a rush of attempts among tarot users over the last 10 years or so to create new spreads. Most of those new spreads I think of as unnecessary, or else as specifically personal. Perhaps we want to explore, perhaps we want to innovate, perhaps we're just easily bored...? I don't know. It could just be my own 'Taurus rising', but I usually give up on newer spreads after trying them out several times. I think the older ways work just fine.)

I also think of it as providing a long-lens view of an issue, or as providing insights on the issue from many angles. The CC provides endless intrigue from just a single question.

I also like it because, to me as a reader, it seems to speak in complete sentences. Single-card or three-card readings, by contrast, seem to provide only sound-bites.

I totally agree. While Tarot has relatively recently evolved into thousands of different decks, Celtic Cross spread has survived so long just because it does work so well for those of us who embrace it.

Just as there will always be people who choose to create new Tarot decks comprising foxes or elephants because they are bored, or because they think they know of a better way, or want to put their own artistic mark on Tarot, so there will always be those who find it more stimulating to try new spreads, or to create their own.

When I joined this forum it seemed that it was regarded as almost almost childish to prefer the Morgan-Greer Tarot, and at that time I felt very left-footed about my abiding connection to the 70's Morgan-Greer, despite my having many decks.

But gradually the wheel has turned, and now I see that Morgan-Greer Tarot is returning to favour on this forum, and is receiving the acknowledgement I feel it deserves. That's all about fashion.

Perhaps another factor is that many on-line Tarot readers could well comprise the most active members of this forum, and for them the quick in-and-out of the 3-card layout may be all the commitment they prefer to make to on-line querents in terms of time or energy.

With face-to-face querents I've always found the Celtic Cross spread works really well.