French Cross

It’s almost impossible to talk about french cartomancy without mentioning the ever present “tirage en croix”, or simply french cross in english. This spread was first described in great details in Oswald Wirth’s 1927 book, “Le tarot des imagiers du moyen-âge”. It has since become a cornerstone of the french cartomancy world; not only for its use with the Tarot, but also for oracles, particularly with the Belline. A multitude of authors have later on written about this particular spread, and often come with their own version, which might in some cases be quite different from the original, to the point where it’s barely recognizable.

The version I describe in this article, and that I use in my own practice, is very close to the original. After all, if something works fine, there is no reason to change it for the sake of changing. I have just added one position to the original, that I place outside of the original spread; this way, I try to respect what was already defined without touching it, and at the same time I add some information that I find the most useful.

This spread is traditionally done with majors only. It is always possible, of course, after a first quick read, to add a minor to each position, in order to do a full reading with additional practical details and clarification. I will show such an example later in this article.

Position 1 represents you facing the question, the positive aspects of the situation.
Position 2 represents what works against you, the negative aspects of the situation.
Position 3 is the advice, how to deal with and judge the positive and negative aspects of the question, represented respectively by positions (1) and (2), and how to resolve them.
Position 4 is the outcome, what happens when following the advice of card (3). This is the final result.
Position 5 is the synthesis, what links everything together.
Position 6 is the long term consequences, the effects of the outcome on the querent at longer term.

Please note that the synthesis is not the final outcome of the spread, the card at position (4) is the ultimate response to the question. The synthesis is what links all the other cards together, it gives a “mood” to the reading. Some people add all the cards together and reduce by 22 to obtain it. But due to math problems with this method, not giving each card the same chance of being selected and even some cards to not being selected at all, I prefer pulling another card from the deck for this position. It has always been my stance that if I need a card, I just draw it from the deck instead of calculating or doing other gimmicks.

Not every type of question is suited for the tirage en croix. Per its definition, this spread has in position (3) a card of advice, of what action should be done to resolve issues, conflicts between positions (1) and (2). As as consequence, questions when the response is supposed to be a simple yes or no, or questions describing a passive situation without any intervention (what will happen… for example), are not the best choices for this spread. It would be much better to reserve it for proactive questions, where different aspects, positive and negative, of a question are evaluated and resolved; this can a great spread for asking advice on a situation.

Putting everything together

Alan has been married for 10 years and the couple is having a mini crisis, he and his wife have been distant for a while. Allan asked the following question, “what is the best I can do with my marital problems?”

IF we get the essence of the reading with a one liner, we could say to Allan that if he takes the initiative (bateleur), the wheel might start turning (la roue de fortune), he must be the one driving (chariot) the discussions (amoureux), but his wife must remain at the center (imperatrice). Long term, things should flow better (temperance).

If we look visually at the reading, le Bateleur is certainly not looking l’Imperatrice, certainly busy with other things. And of course, that wheel is not going to turn until he rectifies that situation. His wife is in the middle of the spread, in a position of power. At first view, it looks like something we can see in many couples after a while; the wife feels neglected because the husband is too busy with other things in life, his career for instance, and everything slows down, cools down, for the couple.

The advice, with the the Chariot, is for Alan to take control of this situation, and be a driving force ad establish some communication, as shown in l’Amoureux. L’Amoureux is a nasty card as outcome, it shows three people, a man caught into two women, a card of indecision. There’s no finality in that card. Taken together with le Bateleur, who seems busy with something outside of the couple, we could certainly think that Alan might be looking at someone on the side, and that might be a root problem why the couple is having problems at the first place.

Temperance, as long term consequences, shows that reestablishing that dialog might have some positive effect long term, but certainly not a great solution: that back and forth in between the jars seems like spending a lot of time trying to fix the problems.

Now, adding the minors can complete the picture. With the 10 of deniers, his wife is certainly more interested in her well being and being all set financially more that anything else. She is looking first and foremost for a life of comfort, where everything revolves around her. Now, in between the 4 d’épées and the valet de coupes, we can understand better why that wheel does not turn easily. The 4 d’épées being about instability and bad temper, we might consider that Alan is not always ready to work on his couple, there is too much agitation when the message should be of conciliation, as the valet is showing, a cup offered is what would make that wheel turn, time to put theses swords back in their sheat, and replace them by another 4, the 4 of bâtons: putting more stability in how he tries to make thing moving forward, certainly be more even in his behavior.

At this point, it seems that we have a husband quite upset by all what is happening around him and a wife who is retreating into a comfortable material life, as the only cup, the only offering, we find here is in position (2), not very promising. Going from the 4 to the 10 of bâtons shows an increase, there certainly is a lot of work to be done to reestablish some sense of communication, and he’s certainly going to face some strong opposition.

With the 6 d’épées, trying to heal the problems long term is certainly not going to be easy, this card is about two opposite sides, discussions are back, it will take all the might of Temperance to try to balance all this.

Deck: Le Véritable Tarot de Marseille, by Kris Hadar.