Deck Review: The Wyrd of Sarah Howard
Ever since this deck reached me from half a world away a couple of weeks ago I have been OBSESSED. Like, totally head over heels in love.
The artist and creator, Gabi Angus-West, recently did a small reprint of this previously out-of-print Oracle Deck. I spotted it on Fairlight Tarot‘s Instagram feed when they posted about receiving their deck, and it was like that bit in movies where the camera zooms in on the love interest and everything slows down and goes all glow-y and shiny swimmy. It was very unexpected, because I am not an Oracle person at all. I have two Oracle decks (as opposed to *ahem* 76 *ahem* Tarot decks) and I bought them mainly because I wanted to support the (super talented) artists, not necessarily to work with. But Sarah called to my soul! Tbf, it’s kinda also a (Minor Arcana) Tarot deck, as all the cards map on to playing cards (plus Pages) and the meanings are in the same ballpark.
So I had to have her!
I found one on eBay for about £250 and contemplated selling a kidney. Fortunately for me, a bit of digging revealed that while I’d missed the pre-orders for the small, final reprint, Gabi planned to release the last 200 decks on her page once she was confident the original batch had arrived safely with their new owners. Cue obsessively monitoring her store page twice a day every day for a month!
It paid off, and a couple of weeks ago my Sarah arrived! She is everything I hoped for 😍
The Wyrd of Sarah Howard is a 59-card poker-sized Oracle deck. It comes in a nice sturdy box with a small black & white guidebook. The cards are a good thickness, very easy to shuffle (especially because of their small size), and have a linen finish. The deck is based on playing card cartomancy, “with a beady eye on the Tarot minor arcana”. It essentially follows the story of the creator’s time spent staying in a lake house while working on her first Tarot deck (The Bonefire Tarot), where she encountered her muse/imaginary friend/ghost/spirit guide/former self, Sarah Howard. The whole deck is a glorious mix of the quirks, whimsy, and ephemera of everyday beauty in nature, and an exploration of our secret selves and spiritual yearnings. The artist’s love both for her family and the land where she lives shines through the story of the deck, and the questions it poses about who ‘Sarah’ really is are a blend of spooky, delightful, and fascinating.
All this means the deck is super intuitive and really easy to read even if you’re not an “Oracle Person” (like me!) While I love the gorgeous, evocative artwork, and the intriguing theme/backstory, my absolute favourite thing about this deck are the whimsical card titles. They constitute brief thoughts or fragments that read like lost lines from a poem or half-forgotten song lyrics. I think(?) in the first print run the artist made the decision to take these longer titles off the cards (while keeping them in the guidebook) and replace them with simple key words. I am SO happy that this run has the full titles back on the cards, as this adds so much to how I interpret and relate to them in a reading.
Here are some of my favourite cards (warning: there are a lot, lol).
The Ace of Clubs (Wands) is perfectly depicted by the idea of ‘waking up in the sun’, and the 5 of Spades (Swords) as ‘I may have taken more than I need’ made me lol (especially as I do this constantly when packing!). I love this 3 of Clubs (Wands) (and have often gone for spontaneous swims in my underwear myself), and how it taps into the traditional meaning of the card, which the creator summarises as ‘preparedness’, adding “always be prepared, and pack a towel, you never know when you will be called upon to go deep”.
The Queen of Hearts’ love witchy energy is perfectly captured by this image of ‘scrying in the water’, and the insight offered by the Ace of Spades (Swords) comes through with the drawing entitled ‘above the waving trees the clouds formed a word’. And instead of the traditional RWS slain figure with daggers in the back, the 10 of Spades (Swords) offers us the broader idea of ‘contemplating mortality’. The guidebook invites us to “realise the shortness and fragility of life. To imagine oneself gone, to see others without you as you would never do”.
The Seven of Spades (Swords) as ‘freaked out by seagrass’ really amused me as an image, because my little sister has this exact same fear (weeds tangling round her legs and dragging her down) whenever we engage in wild swimming! “The seagrass which loves the darker parts of the lake reaches out to tickle us, to tease us a little, but fleeting, ancestral dark thoughts will have us entangled and assured of certain demise. Don’t worry Baby, you are just freaked out by seagrass”. The drawing of the creator’s family for the Ten of Hearts (with the title’ that which moves me to tears’) is just gorgeous. And I love the King of Diamonds (Pents) being portrayed as the (rich) friend with the boat!
Well, first up I LOVE ‘[those] clever little lights [that] only come on in the dark’, we have many in our garden, and secondly this, to me, is a great representation of the Jack (Knight) of Spades’ (Swords) energy. As the creator writes, “to search for ever more efficacious ways to streamline a life through invention and innovation. To be of utility, such a broad spectrum treasure”. The so-called ‘heart’s desire card’ (Nine of Hearts) as ‘I always wanted to swim with dolphins’ is perfect. And I think this might be one of my favourite Page of Hearts. Her dreamy face. ‘I hear the Universe’.
I love the Page of Clubs (Wands) being depicted as a ‘warmth [that] melts [even] the frostiest hearts’, and the 9 of Diamonds (Pents) – incidentally one of my favourite Tarot cards – showing beautiful birds eating from the artist’s hands is stunning. Most of my favourite cards are very upbeat, so I wanted to also include one of the slightly darker cards in the deck here with the 5 of Clubs (Wands). ‘We all have our off days’.
And here’s my favourite card from TWoSH, the 8 of Spades (Swords) – ‘The oysters have shucked my feet’. Firstly, even though it’s in many ways quite unpleasant, I just find the image of the cringing, bleeding feet against the idyllic backdrop so visually arresting. And secondly, I’m still pondering the depth of this card, and how it relates to the ‘traditional’ RWS concept of being in a prison of our own making. Oysters – eaten live even – are a delicacy in many cultures. Instead of barbaric, this is seen as the height of sophistication. And, yet, the rage when instead they hurt us! When instead of us swallowing them down whole, they slice into our own vulnerable, delicate skin. A lot to think on.
If this deck appeals to you in any way I would strongly recommend ordering it while Gabi still has some limited stock! It’s not going to get printed again, and it truly is one of the most unqiue and special decks I have ever had the pleasure to work with. Easily goes into my Top Five All Time Decks.
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