Laying out a Celtic Cross spread ~ What's your style?

HighPriestesss

Do you flip one card and talk about it, before flipping the next?

Or do you lay out the 10 cards, read it in your mind first, and then read it to your sitter?

Oh, and if you do the former, do you plop down clarifying cards as you go?

I'm curious..... :D

TIA!
 

wordwitch

I read as I go and pull clarifiers at the end if I need them. Often the next card clarifies it enough.
 

Bronwyn1

I like to turn them all over as I deal them. That way I get a feeling of the spread as a whole before I read them.
 

starrystarrynight

I deal all my cards face up and look at the entire spread as a whole before saying anything. One reason is that I look at the combinations of the cards, the elemental dignities and the prominences of number and suits, which can say a lot before even looking at the images on the cards themselves (which, then, may change things, too.)

That's why spreads much smaller than the Celtic Cross work better "in person" (the larger spreads are okay for emailed readings or exchanges.)

For me, anyway.
 

dangerdork

I lay them all out first, and I state the name of the position out loud as I go, so the querent can form some general impressions for themselves. Then I go back and start reading one at a time from position #1, and start pointing out patterns of related cards in the spread as I go from there.

I use clarifying cards VERY rarely. If you can't read from the spread you have,
then that means:

a) the cards just aren't "on" for this querent right now;
b) you're missing something in the cards you already have;
c) you're not getting the answer you wanted and are trying to "force" an outcome. never a good idea.
 

Kathy24

I lay out the cards 1st too, I get an initial feel for the cards then I go back and do the reading.
 

ChibiKani

I flip each card one by one, and talk about it as I go. It helps me stay focused.
 

Apollonia

I lay them all out at once, because I like to see which type of card or suit predominates. That tells me a lot about what's going on for my client in the situation they're asking about.

I also lay out eleven cards, not ten, as I use two cross cards, each of which shows one aspect of the situation at hand. I find this useful, as often in life we have more than one thing going on around the main question. If, for example, the question is about moving to another location, and the cross cards are The Chariot and the Eight of Swords, there is a conflict going on, either in the querent's mind or situation, that needs to be addressed before the move can happen.

dangerdork said:
I use clarifying cards VERY rarely. If you can't read from the spread you have,
then that means:

a) the cards just aren't "on" for this querent right now;
b) you're missing something in the cards you already have;
c) you're not getting the answer you wanted and are trying to "force" an outcome. never a good idea.

I don't think one can ever generalize to the extent of telling others what works and what doesn't in developing their own reading style. At times I use a great many clarifying cards. It's my style, and it works for me and my clients. In the end, the main thing has to be, not style or how many cards you use in a position, but whether the reading you give is meaningful to your querent.
 

dangerdork

Apollonia said:
I don't think one can ever generalize to the extent of telling others what works and what doesn't in developing their own reading style. At times I use a great many clarifying cards. It's my style, and it works for me and my clients. In the end, the main thing has to be, not style or how many cards you use in a position, but whether the reading you give is meaningful to your querent.

That's completely fair to say, Apollonia, I shouldn't presume to tell other people what their reading style should be, and I see how my post came across that way. I should have used first person instead of second.

This was a hard lesson for me to learn, though, and I do think that these are points that less experienced readers should consider. At least sometimes, "forcing the issue" does nothing to help provide good advice to one's querents, nor to help one's skills as a reader.
 

Sulis

I see the Celtic Cross spread as a really good spread for looking at an overview of a whole situation - The Celtic Cross gives you a snapshot view, a bit like taking a picture of a situation then looking at it from different angles.
For this reason I look at all the cards as a whole before I start reading. I don't like turning one card over at a time and reading like that because to me, all the cards in the spread affect each other, along with the positional meanings and the context.

I don't use clarifying cards either because I've found that they usually confuse more than clarify. If I can't read a particular card, I leave it out for a while and think about it.. The answer usually comes eventually.