Tarot in the opening chapter

[Imagemaker]

I picked up a new (2004) fiction called The Intelligencer by Leslie Silbert. It opens in 1593 with Christopher Marlowe getting a tarot reading outside the bear-baiting arena on the Thames.

The reader is using the Celtic Cross, a version I'd not heard of before. She says the first card is the "soul" card, and the "bottommost card" is the "present moment."

She mentions a card for "outside influences" but doesn't indicate where it comes from in the spread, except that next she turns to the "column five cards high" and calls the top one the "afterlife position."

This post could also go in the spreads forum, but just to say it was fun to find this tarot bit in new fiction, and that don't most Celtic Crosses have 9 cards, not 10? I never heard of the "afterlife" position before.

 

[Flidais]

...don't most Celtic Crosses have 9 cards, not 10?

There may not be a set number of cards in the Celtic Cross spread. Marion seemed to think the 11-card spread I referenced in my Oracle reading was a "Celtic Cross."

 

[HudsonGray]

Since it's a work of fiction, why don't you contact the author directly? She has a web site: http://www.lesliesilbert.com/author.html

It could be that she made up the spread to fit the story, or that she liked the variant she found of the spread and used it because of that. Or another reason entirely--but you'll be able to get an answer directly from her if you ask, I think.