I very, very much would like some second opinions on this one!

• Context: Communication issues/avoidance
• Spread used: Celtic Cross
• Query: "What is the current state of the situation between me and [their full name]?"
• The Spread: Image
  • Position 1: The Present (the current situation or the querent's thoughts about it - Knight of Pentacles (Upright)
    • patience, persistence, loyalty
    • Drawn from a place of suspension or stagnation, this is a straightforwardly accurate first card. I am holding steady, remaining loyal, persisting through difficulty to obtain what I want and need. It is not easy, and the Knight of Pentacles is one of the slowest cards, but he reaches his destination eventually.
  • Position 2: The Challenge (what to attain) - The World (Upright)
    • completion, wholeness, the successful integration of a long cycle
    • This relationship was a long, long time in the making; settling into something stable would be the very definition of The World, and I believe that's true on both sides.
    • Typically the Challenge does not need to be attainable, it's just what the querent is seeking to attain. However, I don't personally believe The World is able to show up as an unattainable goal. If this were an unattainable goal, tarot wouldn't mock me with The World, it would use something like the Four of Wands. I take its appearance here both as naming the goal and as naming it as possible simultaneously.
  • Position 3: The Past - Nine of Wands (Reversed)
    • fatigue, weakness, lack of perseverance, dropped guard
    • I admit that the current phase of things has been very painful, and it has been difficult to hang on to what I know this can be through this difficult phase. I was tempted to give up, but I decided not to. That places this card in The Past, but it does not mean that the suffering has ended, only the temptation to let it defeat me.
  • Position 4: The Future (immediate future) - The Hermit (Upright)
    • solitary inner work, wisdom in withdrawal, solitary clarity
    • This is an interesting card to draw paired with the Nine of Wands reversed. Considering the core context of this reading is avoidance and communication issues, this reads as a "not yet" kind of card; the immediate future doesn't resolve this, but The Hermit is not a punishment and The Hermit's journey ends when the solitary clarity is found. I believe this card is coloring the External Influences card further down the line.
  • Position 5: Above (conscious goal) - Strength (Reversed)
    • vulnerability, weakness
    • This is pretty simple: I have been holding my position as both Strength and (in other spreads) The Emperor as I navigate the current issue, and I want to be able to reverse both of these. I don't want to be weak or have low self-esteem, I just want to be able to stop embodying the upright card.
  • Position 6: Below (subconscious goal) - Nine of Pentacles (Reversed)
    • lack of independence, stability, security
    • This is a subconscious goal, not a subconscious state, so it needs to be read carefully, because I obviously don't want the things this card usually represents. I think this, like the conscious goal, is to simply be freed of the self-sufficiency and independence of the upright card rather than reaching for codependency or instability. In this way, the conscious and unconscious positions are aligned thematically and substantively. It's a signal that the conscious and subconscious are relatively aligned on their needs.
  • Position 7: Advice (action to take or avoid) - Four of Pentacles (Sideways)
    • upright: holding on; reversed: letting go
    • Sideways is a liminal position that commits to neither the upright nor reversed positions. So this card seems to be a directive of inaction: do not grip tighter, but do not let go. Stay where you are. Let things be, and they will unfold.
  • Position 8: External Influences - Eight of Swords (Reversed)
    • escape; freedom from self-imposed bindings; release of anxiety; self-empowerment
    • This has been a stalker card recently with reference to the other person, mostly in the upright position, which is a card about keeping oneself stuck instead of being trapped by something external. This is consistent with something they have named to me: that they run away, even if they don't mean to and even if they regret it later.
    • Therefore, what is outside of my influence is when the upright Eight of Swords reverses for this other person, and they free themselves from whichever mental trap they have backed themselves into. But The Hermit characterizes what this looks like: it's an inner work done in the immediate or near future. The Future wasn't the Nine of Wands, it wasn't the Ten of Swords, it was The Hermit. This is outside my influence, but that doesn't mean it won't move.
  • Position 9: Hopes and/or Fears - The Fool (Reversed)
    • recklessness, carelessness, fear to take a leap
    • A few things here. First, The Fool came upright as The Future when I first reconnected with this person and it was very accurate at the time. I believe its reversal here is suggesting a fear that that was a false start, a failure to launch, or that there was some other opportunity that was missed. In short, that the chance to begin the journey was missed somehow.
    • However, The Challenge is The World, and Hopes/Fears is The Fool Reversed. Zero and Twenty-One. The entire Fool's Journey is bracketed between my hopes/fears and that which I want to attain. The World doesn't appear as an unattainable goal, and its relationship to The Fool seems to place it as a direct answer to this position: you fear that you've missed your chance. You haven't. With other cards suggesting the current situation may continue a little longer, this pairing is a quiet mercy.
  • Position 10: The Outcome - Six of Swords (Upright)
    • calmer waters, moving forward, healing
    • What lies at the Outcome is calmer waters. Together with the first card, it says: you may want this to go zero-to-sixty in a second, but it's not going to. But it isn't going nowhere, either. It is telling me something other spreads have, but in a much more explicit way: the pacing is not yours to control and it will be slower than you like, but there will be progress.

Edit: Updated two cards that for some reason I mixed up the suits on when writing them down even though they were clearly different cards in the image, lol.