The Small Cross is the first two cards in the Celtic Cross Spread. As I have menetioned in another post folks new to the tarot should stay way from trying to do a full Celtic Cross Spread because you will just get frustrated.
See:
Small Cross
But .. doing what's called the 'Challenges Spread' in the book 'Heart of the Tarot', which is the Small Cross of the Celtic Cross spread can be a great next step after doing Daily Draw Cards for awhile.
1 . 2 or
The two position meanings are as follows.
1 - Situation
2 - Challenge(s)
These are in essence the same as Joan Bunning's meanings - 'Heart of the Matter' and 'Opposing Factors' in her book Learning the Tarot and on her web site [ http://www.learntarot.com/ccross.htm ] that mirrors the book.
Most sources you read tell you to always read the second card, 'Challenges' as upright and never reversed. But this is up to you. They also tell you lay this 'across' card number one but I never do as I find this confusing and imagery-wise very disrupting.
I use a Negative Positional Dignity for position #2 - Challenges. See
'Positional Dignities Explained' and 'Positional Dignities - The Reading' for more on this topic.
A very good book dealing strickly with the Challenges Spread is called The Heart of the Tarot : The Two-card Layout: Easy, Fast, and Insightful by Sandra A. Thomson, Robert E. Mueller, and Signe E. Echols. Many times you can pick it up new and/or used from Amazon for less than $2.00 plus shipping and handling.
Don S.