The Crown

What sits above you: your aim, and the best that can come of this.

What this position asks

What are you reaching for?

This card goes directly above the Present. Waite numbered it third, ahead of the Foundation, and some books still follow his order, so match the positions by name. He said "This crowns him", and wrote that it represents "the Querent's aim or ideal in the matter", and, as the best that can be reached, "that which has not yet been made actual."

So the Crown holds two things at once. It is what you are consciously aiming for, the thing on your mind when you asked the question. It is also the best this situation can become, as things stand today.

I think of a ridge line on a long walk. You can see it the whole way up. You are not standing on it yet, and it tells you which way to keep climbing.

How cards behave here

A Major Arcana card in the Crown says your aim is about who you are becoming. The question may look small, and the reach behind it is large.

A Minor card says the aim is specific and within sight. Cups above you mean you are hoping for a feeling: love, contentment, closeness. Wands mean you want to make something happen, to start or to win. Swords mean you want clarity, a decision made, the truth out in the open. Pentacles mean you want something you can hold: security, a result, a finished piece of work.

A court card in the Crown is often the version of yourself you are trying to grow into. It can also be an ideal person, someone you admire.

A reversed card here most often means the aim is turned inward. You know what you want and have not said it out loud, sometimes even to yourself. It can also be too much, an ideal set so high it has turned into pressure.

Its partner: the Foundation

The Crown and the Foundation make the upright line of the cross. Read them together and you see what is driving the aim. Plenty of wishes are really an answer to something underneath.

Put the Nine of Cups in the Crown, the figure sitting contented in front of a row of cups. The aim is to be satisfied with life. With the Five of Pentacles in the Foundation, two figures in the snow outside a lit window, that wish grows out of an old fear of going without. With the Four of Wands in the Foundation, a garland raised over a celebration, the wish sits on a happy home base and is more about enjoying what is already there.

A few examples

The Ten of Cups in the Crown: a rainbow of cups over a family. The aim is a settled, loving home, and it is within reach.

The Seven of Cups in the Crown: a figure facing cups full of visions in the clouds. There are too many aims at once. Pick one, and the rest will wait.

The Chariot in the Crown: success through willpower and focus. The best outcome here comes from holding a straight line.

When this position speaks

Card 5 is worth reading slowly. The aim it shows may not be the one you said out loud when you asked the question.

If this went as well as it possibly could, what would it look like, and would you still want it?

If you would like the Celtic Cross read against your own chart, my readings are here.