AUTHOR’S NOTE: The classic Celtic Cross spread requires the use of a court card to represent the person for whom the reading is being done (the querent, seeker or sitter) or any other card that is appropriate to the subject of the inquiry. This is the first card placed on the table, and all of the others refer to it in some way. It is a practice that has largely fallen out of favor, and I can see why since it adds nothing to the scope of the narrative when we have a “live” sitter across the table who can fill in those details first-hand. But there are still times when it can be worthwhile to consider.

While I rarely use the court cards for this purpose unless the identified “problem” is a person, when the querent arrives for the session with a difficult issue to be addressed, I will suggest a card for the Significator position that relates directly to the matter. I won’t necessarily choose one that is unfortunate in nature as befits the difficulty itself, but rather one that shows a constructive path to resolution. For example, if a seeker is experiencing emotional challenges in a relationship, I wouldn’t pick the 5 of Cups or the 8 of Cups to underlie the spread, but perhaps the 9 of Cups, which as the 9 of Hearts in the cartomantic playing-card deck is the “hope” card. For a vexing decision with no clear answer, instead of the stymied 2 of Swords it would be better to select the 6 of Swords since it implies forward progress in the same elemental mode. The querent’s input is essential in making this call.

Suppose the seeker has no specific problem to explore and instead requests a general life-reading (at which the Celtic Cross excels). If I decide to use a Significator, I would ask for the individual’s astrological birth sign and use the court card of the applicable biological gender and age group. Alternatively, I might propose that the seeker pick one from among the 16 court cards. I don’t typically take a function-related approach that excludes certain demographics; if, however, a sitter wants to know whether to pursue a job opportunity as a roughneck laborer on an offshore oil rig, the obvious choice for Significator would be one of the more robust Knights, but if the querent is a younger or physically slighter, less-muscular person I probably wouldn’t go there at all and just keep it open-ended.

I occasionally create spreads that use a Significator card for a particular position, and these are almost invariably non-court cards. If the problem can be narrowly-defined, I will apply one of the Minor Arcana, but if it exhibits a pervasive mood or theme and not a single-pointed factor I would use the most relevant Major Arcanum. In fact, this same decision could be made when contemplating which non-court card Significator would be best for a Celtic Cross reading. While I no longer believe that trump cards always portend major upcoming events, they do work especially well for establishing the environmental backdrop for a general reading.