Beginner: Celtic Cross Trouble

VioletMoon

First point: what Rodney said. Stick to one question.

Second: the Celtic Cross provides us with a lot of information which can just be an overload especially for beginners.

As you stated yourself, the secret is to connect the cards properly. I tried to dissect the CC over in the readings exchange's Newbies Circle to address this theme.

Try to start by looking at various relations like:

Subconscious - Conscious
Past-Present - Future
Near Future - Guidance - Outcome
Your own influence - Surrounding's influence

I think it's best to go at a CC in parts and then connecting the different findings.

Yeah, definitely agree. It was way too much for me to even understand, especially since I was linking some things to school and some to the relationship which made it more confusing. This was way over my head and I think a truncated version or just sticking to 3 cards and trying to connect them might be a good start.
 

VioletMoon

Since I read the Celtic Cross as an organic whole or gestalt, I don't think it lends itself well to cherry-picking individual cards and trying to read them out of context. I agree with Rodney and Farzon: pick a single question, and read the spread as you would peel an onion, looking at discrete layers and then trying to link them into a larger pattern. There are a few ways to slice-and-dice a CC that aren't strictly a "Lego-block" approach of stacking positional meanings one atop the other. Those that best support a progressive "flow" of ideas are the ones I use most.

If you want to expand this into an entire reading in the Your Readings sub-forum, I'll weigh in on the card meanings. Otherwise, it resembles trying to decipher a cryptogram where you're missing crucial parts of the cipher code.

Ah, gestalt makes sense to me since that's a Psychological Approach as well! Language I understand! I know you're right as well, it's hard to get a sense of a whole reading when you can only see part of it. Thanks for your offer, but I'm not sure that continuing to look into this spread is a good idea for me at this time.
 

VioletMoon

Once as a spread with fixed positions and once as an open reading, taking into account the physical positions of the cards and their pictorial relations (e.g. directions of gazes and movements).

I've never heard of that and that's so interesting to me.... thinking about how the cards connect to each other based off of the links in the images, pointing, moving, gazing, etc... that's something I'll definitely consider in a larger spread!
 

rwcarter

Card 1: The Present. 7 of Swords.
Card 2: The challenge. 8 of Swords.
Card 4: The future. The Devil:
Card 6: Below/ subconscious: 5 Wands
Card8: External Influences. Knight of Wands

Now that you've indicated the intersection of the two is what you should've looked at how does this sound? (I haven't read other's interpretations, so forgive me if I repeat something that's already been said.)

7S - in the present you feel like you have to take from one to give to the other or you have to think outside of the box as to how you can manage both.
8S - trying to handle both things leaves you feeling like you can't do anything else
Devil - you feel trapped in the situation of trying to maintain both things
5W - subconsciously, you may feel like you need to prove something to yourself and/or you may feel like you're energy/attention is too divided
KnW - Do you have or know any teens? An impetuous or impulsive teen may effect a change in the dynamic between marriage and school. Or if you don't have teens, maybe an immature young person may play a role.

Rodney