Arkarma
All spreads

The cross spread

The Marseille spread: strengths, obstacles, advice, outcome. The synthesis reveals itself.

✦ Draw this spread

The World, emblem card of this spread
XXI
The World
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The cross spread is the classic method of the Marseille school: four cards laid in a cross read your situation from every side. What carries you, what holds you back, the advice of the cards and the outcome toward which everything converges.

Its signature: the fifth card, the synthesis, is not drawn. It is computed by adding the numbers of the first four, reduced until it lands on a major arcana. It is the mathematical conclusion of the spread, the one cartomancers call the card that reveals itself.

✦ The 4 positions of this spread ✦

  1. The strengths at play
  2. What stands against you
  3. The advice
  4. The outcome

✦ How the cards are shuffled ✦

No lazy random draw: Arkarma shuffles a real deck of 22 arcana the way hands would. Seven riffle shuffles broken up by cuts, some of which turn part of the pack over: that is how reversed cards are born, in clusters, as on a real table. Your question and your day enter the shuffle: ask the same question on the same day and the deck will be shuffled exactly the same way. Only your hand, by choosing other cards, can change the answer.

The deck then spreads before you and it is your hand that chooses: the intention, the moment and the gesture. The reading that follows takes up your question word for word and answers you as a reader would, card after card.

✦ Frequently asked questions ✦

How is the synthesis of the cross spread computed?
You add the numbers of the four drawn cards. If the total exceeds 22, you add its digits until you reach a number between 1 and 22: the matching arcana is your synthesis. Arkarma does the maths and shows you the detail.
What is the difference between the outcome and the synthesis?
The outcome is the fourth drawn card: the visible direction of events. The synthesis is computed: it gives the deep meaning of the whole spread, the lesson under the story.
Does the cross spread suit every question?
It is the best format for a situation that deserves more than a yes or no: full enough to give structure, short enough to stay clear. For a full exploration, move on to the Celtic cross.
✦ Draw this spread

Before you draw, you can explore the meaning of the 22 major arcana: every card of your reading has its full page there, upright as well as reversed. And for another view, the 10 spreads of Arkarma await you.