Celtic Cross

The Celtic Cross lays six cards in a cross, one card laid across the first, and a column of four to the right, often called the staff. Each place has a role, such as the situation, the challenge, the recent past and the likely outcome. Arthur Edward Waite printed it in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot in 1911, calling it an ancient Celtic method, though no older source for it is known and there is nothing Celtic about it. Many books and decks have since changed the order of the positions, so two readers may lay it out differently. See Celtic Cross spread for the positions.