About the Five-Card Cross spread
The Five-Card Cross is a well-known shortened form of the Celtic Cross. It keeps the heart of the larger spread: the present at the centre, the past and the future on either side, the root of the matter below and what it could become above. Five cards are enough to see a situation in the round without the time a full ten-card reading needs.
Use it for a question that deserves more than three cards but not a full sitting: a relationship, a job, a plan or a period of change. It is also a good step for learning the Celtic Cross, since these five positions are the core of it and every later card builds on them.
The positions
- 1The Present. What is at the heart of the matter?
- 2The Past. What is passing out of the picture?
- 3The Future. What is coming next?
- 4The Root. What lies beneath this?
- 5The Potential. What could this become?
How to lay it out with your own deck
- Hold your question in mind and shuffle.
- Lay the first card in the centre: The Present.
- Lay the second to its left (The Past) and the third to its right (The Future).
- Lay the fourth below the centre (The Root) and the fifth above it (The Potential), so the five cards form a cross.
Drew the cards at home? Choose “Enter my own cards” above and get the written reading for the cards you drew.
How to read it
- Read across first: The Past, The Present and The Future make a three-card story of how things are moving.
- Then read down the cross: The Root below shows what the situation stands on, and The Potential above shows what it could grow into.
- Compare The Future with The Potential. The Future is where things are heading; The Potential is the best this can become. The distance between them is often the real message.
- If The Root is a hard card, look there before anything else. Changes made at the root tend to shift the rest of the cross.
Questions
- What is the five-card cross tarot spread?
- A shortened Celtic Cross with five positions: the present in the centre, the past on the left, the future on the right, the root of the matter below and its potential above. It shows a situation in the round in a few minutes.
- How is the five-card cross different from the Celtic Cross?
- It keeps the central cross and drops the crossing card and the four-card staff that look at your attitude, others, hopes and fears, and the outcome. It is quicker and simpler, and suits questions where you mainly want to see the situation itself.