“I woke up in between
A memory and a dream”
– from You Don’t Know How It Feels by Tom Petty

When it comes to temporal bias in a tarot reading (i.e. the traditional “Past/Present/Future” sequence), it could be said that there is nothing more useless to the timing of events than a memory and nothing more idle than a dream. When I set out in the early 1980s to tweak Eden Gray’s updated version of Arthur Edward Waite’s Celtic Cross spread to satisfy my own vision, I recognized that the “What may come to pass” position at the top of the six-card “cross” was as irrelevant to prognostication as any “wild-ass” guess can possibly be: there was no legitimate attempt at substance, just an “oh-by-the-way” observation that invited pointless conjecture. It leaves the querent as disoriented and unsure of his or her bearings as Tom Petty seems to have been in the quoted song lyrics. (In short, it is a “wasted” position that adds nothing to the forecast that can’t be covered as part of the “recent-past-to-near-future” transition.)

I was struck by the fact that, from a chronological angle, the conventional “cross” began with the “distant past” position at the bottom, progressed through the “recent past” node at one horizontal extremity or the other based on Waite’s “Significator facing” premise (one that Gray didn’t use and neither do I), and leaped right over the “present” with two nods toward the “near future,” one theoretical at the top of the array and the other a more consequential outlook that sat opposite the “recent past” position. I was puzzled by this lack of a “present” emphasis because it left a void in the temporal flow that was only alluded to by the “covering” card (aka “the situation as it stands”) at the beginning of the layout that seemed to be more about existing environmental factors than about developmental milestones. To my eyes this shortcoming did not pass muster as a meaningful contributor to the step-wise advancement of the narrative.

Since that time I’ve encountered a growing sentiment among experienced diviners that trying to examine the past of a situation using the tarot is a largely senseless task since nothing about prior conditions can be altered by the querent’s active intervention; at most the exercise provides a “touchstone of credibility” for the upcoming prediction, but the immediacy of the querent’s current state of being as shown by the subsequent cards should be enough to establish that point. Nothing moves, evolves or flourishes in the past, it’s like the proverbial “fly trapped in amber” that is primarily of academic interest. So why bother examining it unless we hope to unearth an underlying motive or agenda with roots therein? If it happens to illuminate the “foundation of the matter,” that’s basically all it’s good for. It’s obvious that the present is the only juncture in our affairs where we can make a constructive difference in what is going on and attempt to direct its future course; thus, it must be kept “front-and-center” in our analysis and not allowed to get away from us. (The observation of George Santayana about “forgetting and therefore repeating” past errors is a separate discussion.)

My interpretation of the top card of the “cross” comes from the written guidance for my personal Celtic Cross design (extracted below), but it would apply equally to any spread (such as the three-card line) that incorporates a “Present” position. I acknowledge that some modern readers equate the top and bottom cards at the left side of the CC pattern, respectively, to the querent’s conscious and unconscious perception of the matter, but I believe this to be blurring the line between that which relates to furtherance of the answer itself (the topical “cross” section) and that which pertains to the querent’s response to its emergence over time (the more actionable “staff” section). This is not my own opinion but arises from a forgotten historical concept that still makes a lot of sense in that one dimension denotes the parameters of being “done to” (perhaps harshly) by the ripening of circumstances and the other outlines reciprocal measures (including psychological adjustments of the “hopes-and-fears” variety) that might be taken by the recipient of that stimulus. (I’ve had encouraging results using this particular model over the last 40+ years.)

Card 5 – the “crowning” card at the top – shows the “present,” which is the realm of possibilities and opportunities where emerging trends and the range of available options first become visible.

Primary Meaning: The present; the situation coming to a head; the “light at the end of the tunnel.”

Secondary Meanings: Developing trends; the realm of possibilities and opportunities; options available to move the matter forward; a chance to seize the initiative, gaining traction and momentum toward resolution; dawning realization about what may soon occur. (I once euphemistically called it “where the rubber meets the road.”)

For a more thorough exploration of the subject, see the following post from 2023:
https://parsifalswheeldivination.org/2023/04/23/tarot-prediction-and-the-eternal-now/