What you want and what you dread, sharing one card.
What this position asks
What are you hoping for, and what are you afraid of?
This card sits third from the bottom of the staff, just under the Outcome. Waite gave it a single line: "The NINTH CARD gives his hopes or fears in the matter."
Hopes or fears. He did not say which, and I think that was wise. One card holds both because they are so often the same thing. You hope the new job comes through, and you fear it will. You want the relationship to go deeper, and the depth is exactly what frightens you.
A hope and a fear about the same thing are two sides of one coin. Card 9 hands you the coin and lets you turn it over.
How cards behave here
A Major Arcana card in Hopes and Fears says the stakes feel large. What you want, or dread, touches on who you are, and it may be older than this situation.
A Minor card says the hope or fear is closer and more particular. Cups here mean you are hoping for love or closeness, or afraid of losing it. Wands mean you want to succeed and fear failing, or fear being seen trying. Swords mean you are hoping for a clear answer and dreading what it might be. Pentacles mean hopes and fears about money, security, work and health.
A court card here is often the kind of person you hope to become, and are a little afraid of becoming. It can also be someone in your life you are pinning something on, or bracing against.
A reversed card in Hopes and Fears is most often turned inward. This is the hope you have not admitted, or the fear you have not said out loud. It can also be too much, a fear grown far out of proportion to anything in the rest of the spread.
A card that looks frightening here may simply be describing the fear, with no forecast attached. Check it against card 10 before you worry.
Its partner: the Outcome
Card 9 is what you want and dread. Card 10 is where things are heading. Read together, they show whether your hopes are pulling you toward the outcome or your fears are.
If Justice turns up in Hopes and Fears, the figure holding the scales and the upright sword, you want a fair result, and you are wary of it, because fairness means your own part gets weighed too. With the Five of Swords as the Outcome, someone gathering swords while two others walk away, the result may be a win that leaves you on your own. With the King of Pentacles as the Outcome, the steady figure on a throne carved with bulls, the fair result settles into lasting security.
A few examples
The Lovers in Hopes and Fears: a choice of the heart, and commitment. You long for it and you are afraid of choosing wrong.
The Two of Cups in Hopes and Fears: two people exchanging cups. You want a real partnership, and the fear is being seen that closely.
Judgement in Hopes and Fears: figures rising at the sound of a trumpet. You are hoping for a calling, a fresh start, and you are wary of what answering it would ask of you.
When this position speaks
Card 9 is where you catch your own thumb on the scale. Knowing what you want, and what you fear, lets you see how each is quietly steering you.
If what you hope for arrived tomorrow, what would you be afraid of?
If you would like the Celtic Cross read against your own chart, my readings are here.
The Celtic Cross
The other nine positions, and the spread they belong to.
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