AUTHOR’S NOTE: Before the Jungian tinkerers got hold of it, the original Celtic Cross spread had two positions that reflected the querent’s prior circumstances, and these are still in use by many traditional readers.

There is a popular belief that there is no point in having a “past” position in a tarot reading because the focus should be on the present as a determinant of the future. I agree with this opinion in part and have applied it to some of my spreads as an alternative to the “past/present/future” array that substitutes “present/interim future/final outcome.” I’ve discovered it to be a more rational version of the three-card line.

However, I still find value in trying to figure out why situations are what they are (or why seekers are who they seem to be) and what they might become by examining what they once were. Some diviners also see it as a way to confirm the accuracy of the cards pulled because the past is a known quantity, but I have a more nuanced approach to the Celtic Cross that speaks for itself.

Historically, the card at the bottom (or 6 o’clock) position of the six-card “cross” section was intended to describe the “foundation of the matter” as established in the distant past, suggesting previous issues that have been settled and are no longer subject to change. But that doesn’t mean they have no residual effect on the individual’s life if they happen to signify debilitating memories or entrenched attitudes that hamper growth and prevent moving on. This is the stereotypical “being stuck in the past” paradigm or, more prosaically, the “scab we can resist picking at.”

In the temporal model that I use, the card at the far left (or 9 o’clock) position of the “cross” always depicts the “recent past,” or conditions that are gradually passing away but still have a powerful grip on the seeker and feature prominently in the developing situation. (This placement was Eden Gray’s doing; in Waite’s seminal design, the “recent past” position was the one toward which the court-card Significator’s back was turned; the caption was “This is behind him.” It would change depending on whether the figure on the card was facing left or right. I prefer Gray’s permanent clockwise rotation because it mirrors the diurnal path of the Sun.)

Modern psycho-spiritual readers have disrupted this arrangement by renaming the bottom card as the sitter’s “subconscious” awareness of the subject, with the card opposite it at the top identified as the “conscious” perspective. In my own work I place all psychological functions in the four-card “staff” at the right and ignore this aberration . . . I mean, “innovation.” Specifically, I interpret Cards #7 through #9 as showing the querent’s multi-faceted response to the scenario that emerged over the first six cards and was summarized in the near-term implications of Card #6.

One classical view is that the “cross” section portrays impersonal advancement of the upcoming conclusion while the “staff” section is more about the querent’s personal reactions and contemplated actions leading up to the final outcome. The cross is independent and unconditional (it “is what it is” as shaped by past events and circumstances), but the staff is dependent and conditional (it is what the querent brings to the occasion, at least until Card #10). My “tweaked” Celtic Cross architecture adopts this assumption.

My own definitions of the two “past” positions are as follows:

Position #3:
Primary Meaning – The distant past (months to years); the history or “foundation” of the matter.
Secondary Meaning – Underlying factors that – while still influential – have been pushed into the background; that which the querent has accepted as fact and which is no longer subject to change.

Position #4:
Primary Meaning – The recent past (days to weeks) – developments in the matter that have just occurred and are still being processed.
Secondary Meaning – Prior situations or influences that are still fresh in the mind; the threshold of a change; dawning realization; the first inkling of the next step; an inclination and maybe an opportunity to “second-guess” or “backpedal.”

The recent-past position is transitional and somewhat fluid, carrying forward anything that remained unsettled in the history of the matter while also having one foot in the present (Position #5 at the top). It offers an opportunity to resolve old issues once and for all before they bubble up into current and near-future affairs and cause problems (Position #6 at the far right). In this way “closed” cases can be reopened and subjected to renewed scrutiny; they would still be impossible to undo but their lingering impact can be more precisely understood and managed going forward. There is no reason to “let sleeping dogs lie” if they can be roused and tamed.