Thoughts on the Celtic Cross

Barleywine

I've just started reading Anthony Louis' Beyond the Basics, recommended to me by some astute people here (thank you, Rodney!). I was delighted to see that, over his career with the Celtic Cross spread, he has adopted many of the same tweaks and twists I did back in the 1970s (and still use). While there is much of Waite in it, I see in his method the bones of Eden Gray's approach, much as it underlies my own. A few examples:

The only "cross" he sees in the left-hand portion of the spread is the one formed by the "covering" and "crossing" cards. He acknowledges Waite's "sign of the cross" or "papal blessing" structure but doesn't use it, opting for a "wreath" around the central pair instead. I prefer a "wheel" metaphor myself because I like the idea of "movement-over-time," but Louis reads in the same clockwise manner from the bottom (or "foundation") card.

He also considers the "crowning" card to show possibilities and emerging trends, and in some cases treats it as the "present" when read as a triptych with cards 4 ("recent past") and 6 ("near future"). I generally read it as the "present," or the realm of possibilities and opportunities where the querent has options going forward.

He reads cards 6 and 10 as a pair, with the latter showing the "unfolding" of the former. I see this as a "maturing" or "ripening," but also that the querent still has an opportunity to steer the final outcome from the "near future" vantage point. One Louis innovation I like is reading cards 5, 6 and 10 together as a set, with card 5 as a kind of "preconditioning" or "stage-setter" (my words, not his) for future developments.

He views card 7 mainly in the Waite mode of "the Self." I've evolved more from Eden Gray's idea of "What holds him back" (aka "fears"), but have come to see it as the "deepest part of the Self" since we are often our own worst enemy; so I often view it as psychological blocks or obstacles to accepting the outcome shown by card 6. Since it sits at the bottom of the vertical "staff," I sometimes think of it as the "psychic basement."

He retains the "hopes and fears" paradigm for card 9, but I've decoupled "fears" as noted above and have just left hopes, aspirations, goals and objectives, wishful thinking, etc, in that position. More importantly, I see it as the querents "stake in the matter" and the last chance to make a "mid-course correction" affecting the final outcome.

That's pretty much it. If you're new to the Celtic Cross, you could do a lot worse than considering Anthony Louis' method.
 

Zephyros

Argh, that notorious "hopes and fears" position! I've never known anyone who's completely gotten what that means, most people do what you did with it, I suspect. I know that's what I did. :)
 

Barleywine

Argh, that notorious "hopes and fears" position! I've never known anyone who's completely gotten what that means, most people do what you did with it, I suspect. I know that's what I did. :)

Yes, I've struggled to make it as unambiguous as possible. Card 5 ("crown") has long been considered "the best that can be expected," but I see "expectations" to be the prerogative of the querent, not the question itself, so I've shifted that emphasis to position #9. It can have a "rose-colored-glasses" or "out-of-touch-with-reality" vibe to it, so I tell my querents to think hard about what they really want, and adapt or adjust before it lands on them with both feet.
 

yannie

I have that book, but I'm still not tempted to try the Celtic cross. I really quite dislike it, think it's too unnecessarily complicated, don't have the time and patience for it, and I can think of simpler, more straightforward ways to get the same answers. I must be the only tarot reader on the planet who hates it so much, lol.
 

earthair

Argh, that notorious "hopes and fears" position! I've never known anyone who's completely gotten what that means, most people do what you did with it, I suspect. I know that's what I did. :)

I always deal 2 cards at this position- one for hopes and one for fears! And spookily they always come out the right way around :cool2:
 

Padma

I have always read 7 as the fears and 9 as the hopes. I read 5 as a possibility of what may happen. I have always enjoyed the Celtic Cross for the amount of information I can reap with it, and I find it to be the most accurate out of all the spreads I have tried...I also love how just looking at it, as a whole, before I begin to pick it apart, shows me an immediate vivid snapshot of the entire situation.

:)

ETA Earthair, that is a neat idea!
 

Amanda

Argh, that notorious "hopes and fears" position! I've never known anyone who's completely gotten what that means, most people do what you did with it, I suspect. I know that's what I did. :)

I read that card as one and the same. Whatever falls there is both a hope and a fear for me; 2 sides, same coin, essentially. I'm not sure if that is what was actually intended for the spread, but it seems like a good implementation to me to go along with the rest of an already detailed spread.

For instance, 3 of Wands in the hopes and fears position for me might read: "Hoping for results; fearing the wrong ones come in."
 

Barleywine

I have always enjoyed the Celtic Cross for the amount of information I can reap with it, and I find it to be the most accurate out of all the spreads I have tried...I also love how just looking at it, as a whole, before I begin to pick it apart, shows me an immediate vivid snapshot of the entire situation.

I also think it's great for capturing a high-level gestalt impression of the matter, before starting to deconstruct it into its separate parts I like it best for "situational awareness" readings since it offers a wide range of angles to explore: prsctical/functional ("What might happen and what can I do about it?"); mental/emotional/attitudinal ("How will I experience the situation and how can I best cope?"); and ethical/moral/spiritual ("Why is this happening? Who or what is behind it?"), to name the more obvious ones. It's positional nature makes it easy to narrow the focus and swap between these different levels of subtlety. Since it's progressive and cumulative, there is seldom any doubt regarding where you are on the roadmap.
 

Barleywine

I always deal 2 cards at this position- one for hopes and one for fears! And spookily they always come out the right way around :cool2:

I like the idea of doing this at Card 5 to see what possibilities and options the querent might be able to latch onto. I think I would use 3 cards to flesh out the picture rather than 2. This would also put 12 cards in play, which would match up better with the 3-card elemental dignity sets.
 

MandMaud

Argh, that notorious "hopes and fears" position! I've never known anyone who's completely gotten what that means, most people do what you did with it, I suspect. I know that's what I did. :)

I tend to see hopes and fears as the same thing. I think this is what Amanda's saying, but I'm not sure. The thing that we fear is often the very thing we hope for... both hope and fear involve fascination with the object. So in a way, bringing the two into one concept turns it into something like 'What's on the querent's mind'.

(Which in another spread would be above the central card, as in 'on' the mind - not that I love to be literal with idiom, or anything :D - and position 9 is fairly "up high" in the CC so I find that satisfying!

Putting it another way: both hopes and fears are wishes. Wishes that a thing will or will not happen.

Anyway, I don't see a need to separate hopes and fears into two positions, or two cards.