Arcanist's Guidebook

Three-Card Spread

The spread Three cards laid in a row and read from left to right. It is a modern layout with no historical source; the positions are the Guidebook’s own.

The positions

Celtic Cross

The spread A. E. Waite’s own method, from The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), Part III §7, “An Ancient Celtic Method of Divination”. In his words it “is the most suitable for obtaining an answer to a definite question.”

How it is laid, and what each position is

The Significator. Waite first chooses a card to stand for the person or matter asked about and lays it face up. For a person, a court card: “A Knight should be chosen as the Significator if the subject of inquiry is a man of forty years old and upward; a King should be chosen for any male who is under that age; a Queen for a woman who is over forty years; and a Page for any female of less age.” The suit follows colouring, from Wands for “very fair people” to Pentacles for “very dark brown or black hair”. For a matter, “that Trump or small card should be selected which has a meaning corresponding to the matter.” Here the Significator is optional.
The rest of the pack is shuffled and cut three times, face down.
Cards 1 to 6 make a cross around the Significator. Card 1 covers it and card 2 lies across card 1. Card 3 goes above it and card 4 below. Card 5 goes on the side it looks away from (“behind him”) and card 6 on the side it faces (“before him”), so set which way it looks.
Cards 7 to 10 are “placed one above the other in a line, on the right hand side of the cross”, from the bottom up.
If the tenth card is doubtful, Waite lays the spread again with the tenth card as the Significator. If the tenth is a court card, the matter “falls ultimately into the hands of a person represented by that card”, and he suggests a fresh reading with that card as the Significator.

The positions, in Waite’s words

Horseshoe Spread

The spread Seven cards laid in an arc and read from left to right. It is a modern layout: the seven positions are the Guidebook’s own and have no historical source. The Golden Dawn also laid its cards in a horseshoe, in the Opening of the Key, but read them by counting and pairing rather than by fixed positions; that method is in this menu as a spread of its own.

The positions