Beginner: Celtic Cross Trouble

VioletMoon

I did a Celtic Cross Spread for the first time- I usually stick to just pulling 3-4 cards for any given situation, but I thought it might be nice to give this a try. Clearly, I'm not ready for that since I'm still learning meanings. I'm also using the Linestrider Tarot deck which may be why I'm struggling to learn since it's not a traditional learning deck.

My question was pretty general: what is coming for summer both within my marriage and school (since I'm about to start summer classes in my MSW program).

Card 1: The Present. 7 of Swords. Oh great, am I being cheated on? I can be insecure but i feel a pretty high level of trust within my marriage. I do worry about it sometimes, but now I'm more worried. Or, I wonder if this has something to do with maybe feeling cheated at school?

Card 2: The challenge. 8 of Swords. Lots of swords. I'm not very good at facts based, logical, reasoning, so I'm wondering if these two swords cards are telling me that I need to be more logical and rely less on emotions? Maybe my emotional view is hurting me? I wonder if I'm being blind to something in my relationship?

Card 4: The future. The Devil: I'm getting a greater sense of unhealthy patterns and relationships emerging. I wonder if this is trying to say that my relationship is unhealthy or that the unhealthy aspects are keeping me from reaching my true potential/ happiness. That sounds vague??

Card 6: Below/ subconscious: 5 Wands: Conflict.I wonder if these are my own thoughts about whether the relationship is healthy? I do have some doubts, so I wonder if this is my own internal struggle or attempt to justify the fact that I want to be in the relationship and hope things change even when I know they probably wont.

Card8: External Influences. Knight of Wands. This one is really tricky for me. I'm not sure who this is supposed to be or how it relates. I get that it's saying maybe some in my life is going to come in and shake things up, but I'm not sure how or who or why. Could it potentially be implying that there will be someone who I'm attracted to or a person who might change how I feel about my relationship?


So, yeah, I'm new here, and new to tarot. I hope I did this post right. I think my struggle lies in connecting the cards, not just reading them individually. Also, I'm getting a lot of relationship stuff from this reading, and I'm feeling unsure if I'm interpreting it to be relationship based. Also, some cards popped up reversed but I'm not yet reading reversals.

thanks in advance for any ideas, responses, or help!
 

headincloud

Card 1: The Present. 7 of Swords. This could point at sabotage, is your husband sabotaging you class indirectly. You could also be self sabotaging somehow or it could be you taking advantage of your husband.

Card 2: The challenge. 8 of Swords. Whatever this situation is it's causing frustration, what is it you can't see your way out of or put a stop to?

Card 4: The future. The Devil: Vices, temptations and trappings tied into the above situation.

Card 6: Below/ subconscious: 5 Wands: Is there conflict in your relationship, a battle of ego's going on, may also be an internal struggle or inner battle going on for you.

Card8: External Influences. Knight of Wands. This I'd read as movement in the above situation so sit tight, it's the action of taking your summer class too.
 

rwcarter

Welcome to Aeclectic, VioletMoon!

I don't have time to help with the cards, but wanted to point one thing out to you. As you asked about marriage AND school, how do you know which one any particular card is talking about? Whenever you include "and" and "or" where the subject of the reading is concerned, you probably need to consider doing two readings. In this case one for what's coming for the marriage in the summer and one for what's coming with school for the summer.

The exception to that would be if you really did want to link the two subjects together as one in which case each card should be interpreted as how it affects the junction of the two.

Rodney

My question was pretty general: what is coming for summer both within my marriage and school (since I'm about to start summer classes in my MSW program).
 

Farzon

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.
 

Barleywine

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.
 

Farzon

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.

It took me years to really get this and I'm still working on it.

I found it especially rewarding to look at a CC at least two times in two different ways. 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).

For beginners, I think it is ideal to try big spreads but at the same time, practicing open readings with three cards and no more. One can concentrate on the relations between the cards more easily with a small spread and thus improve ones skills faster.
 

Barleywine

It took me years to really get this and I'm still working on it.

I found it especially rewarding to look at a CC at least two times in two different ways. 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).

For beginners, I think it is ideal to try big spreads but at the same time, practicing open readings with three cards and no more. One can concentrate on the relations between the cards more easily with a small spread and thus improve ones skills faster.

I'd like to continue this discussion since it's a subject near-and-dear to me, but I think we're hijacking the thread.
 

VioletMoon

Card 1: The Present. 7 of Swords. This could point at sabotage, is your husband sabotaging you class indirectly. You could also be self sabotaging somehow or it could be you taking advantage of your husband.

Card 2: The challenge. 8 of Swords. Whatever this situation is it's causing frustration, what is it you can't see your way out of or put a stop to?

Card 4: The future. The Devil: Vices, temptations and trappings tied into the above situation.

Card 6: Below/ subconscious: 5 Wands: Is there conflict in your relationship, a battle of ego's going on, may also be an internal struggle or inner battle going on for you.

Card8: External Influences. Knight of Wands. This I'd read as movement in the above situation so sit tight, it's the action of taking your summer class too.

Thanks so much for helping with this! Definitely makes more sense when thinking about the cards. I think I took on too much too soon... haha but I appreciate your help in making the individual cards a bit clearer.
 

VioletMoon

Welcome to Aeclectic, VioletMoon!

I don't have time to help with the cards, but wanted to point one thing out to you. As you asked about marriage AND school, how do you know which one any particular card is talking about? Whenever you include "and" and "or" where the subject of the reading is concerned, you probably need to consider doing two readings. In this case one for what's coming for the marriage in the summer and one for what's coming with school for the summer.

The exception to that would be if you really did want to link the two subjects together as one in which case each card should be interpreted as how it affects the junction of the two.

Rodney

Rodney, you're so right! This has been a revelation (not sarcasm). I think I was definitely reading it as either or when I should have been looking at it as how they might influence each other since I asked about them together. I'm going to stick to smaller readings and not ask about too much in one reading/ question. Thanks!