Zephyros
I've found that the CC works very well for people who have never had a reading before or a very general view of their lives or a given situation. Usually some kind of theme emerges from it by the first few cards and then I just roll with it. It's like a Swiss army knife of spreads.
I learned my version from Terry Donaldson's book, Step by Step Tarot. Wonderful little book, I've since lost it, unfortunately. In it, curiously, cards 1 and 2 don't cross, they're simply two cards one perpendicular to the other, and show the "general situation. Card 3 is the one above the cross and is "on your mind." Four is the lower and is the near past while five is the left arm and shows the farther past. Six is the cross's right arm and is the "doorway from the present to the future," while seven is at the base of the pillar and is advice. Eight is the next one above and is family or other people connected to a situation, nine is "hopes and fears" and ten is the overview/any other matters.
I don't know which "school" this one comes from but it seems to work. And after so many years the other ones don't seem right to me.
I learned my version from Terry Donaldson's book, Step by Step Tarot. Wonderful little book, I've since lost it, unfortunately. In it, curiously, cards 1 and 2 don't cross, they're simply two cards one perpendicular to the other, and show the "general situation. Card 3 is the one above the cross and is "on your mind." Four is the lower and is the near past while five is the left arm and shows the farther past. Six is the cross's right arm and is the "doorway from the present to the future," while seven is at the base of the pillar and is advice. Eight is the next one above and is family or other people connected to a situation, nine is "hopes and fears" and ten is the overview/any other matters.
I don't know which "school" this one comes from but it seems to work. And after so many years the other ones don't seem right to me.