Barleywine
There are many times I would like to weigh in on someone's request for help in reading their Celtic Cross spread, but I can't confidantly figure out which of the variants they're using, and therefore which card they're placing in which position. The one I've always used (the layout, not the positional meanings) is this one:
http://www.learntarot.com/ccross.htm
which is the one I learned from Eden Gray's first book back around 1971, and which has served me well.
Many people seem to like the one that resembles the Christian "sign of the cross" (signum crucis, the "self-blessing" ritual) as popularized by Arthur Edward Waite in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot: card 3 at the "forehead" position, card 4 at the "solar plexus," and cards 5 and 6 at each of the "shoulders." It always seemed like part of his attempt to "Christianize" ("re-Christianize?") tarot interpretation, so I've always disregarded it.
The one I linked has always made more sense to me as an "astrological" model: the distant past (card 3) is below the horizon, at the "midnight" position and long-gone from active engagement, the recent past (card 4) is at the 9 o'clock position, or "dawn," and is only just receding from the picture; card 5 is culminating at 12 o'clock, or "noon" - some call it "what may come to pass" but I just call it the "present" as the realm of "possibilities" competing for attention in the full light of day; and card 6 as the "near future" or short-term outcome, at the "sunset" position, which is the end of the current "day" but not the end of the matter. In practice I've always read cards 4, 5 and 6 as a "continuum" or sliding scale on the "past-present-future" yardstick.
It would be helpful if those asking for help would list their positional meanings and perhaps use the following standard notation to help those of us who want to help them:
........X...........10
X.....1/2.....X....9
........X............8
......................7
where X relates to their personal arrangement.
ETA: Moderators, please move if you think it necessary. I got to thinking this is more about the spread itself than about the individual position usage.
http://www.learntarot.com/ccross.htm
which is the one I learned from Eden Gray's first book back around 1971, and which has served me well.
Many people seem to like the one that resembles the Christian "sign of the cross" (signum crucis, the "self-blessing" ritual) as popularized by Arthur Edward Waite in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot: card 3 at the "forehead" position, card 4 at the "solar plexus," and cards 5 and 6 at each of the "shoulders." It always seemed like part of his attempt to "Christianize" ("re-Christianize?") tarot interpretation, so I've always disregarded it.
The one I linked has always made more sense to me as an "astrological" model: the distant past (card 3) is below the horizon, at the "midnight" position and long-gone from active engagement, the recent past (card 4) is at the 9 o'clock position, or "dawn," and is only just receding from the picture; card 5 is culminating at 12 o'clock, or "noon" - some call it "what may come to pass" but I just call it the "present" as the realm of "possibilities" competing for attention in the full light of day; and card 6 as the "near future" or short-term outcome, at the "sunset" position, which is the end of the current "day" but not the end of the matter. In practice I've always read cards 4, 5 and 6 as a "continuum" or sliding scale on the "past-present-future" yardstick.
It would be helpful if those asking for help would list their positional meanings and perhaps use the following standard notation to help those of us who want to help them:
........X...........10
X.....1/2.....X....9
........X............8
......................7
where X relates to their personal arrangement.
ETA: Moderators, please move if you think it necessary. I got to thinking this is more about the spread itself than about the individual position usage.
