Deck Review: Far-Out Tarot

Readers of this blog will know that The Wyrd of Sarah Howard, by the artist and creator Gabi Angus-West, is the darling of my life, in my Top Three All Time Decks – so it was a no-brainer for me to back Gabi’s most recent project, the Far-Out Tarot, on Kickstarter. (I also own a copy of her Tarot Avatara, but for some reason I’d always dithered over ordering a mass-market copy of Gabi’s first deck, the Bonefire Tarot – and now I know why! It’s because I was destined to get an indie copy as an add on during the Far-Out Kickstarter campaign 😊).

Now, I’m pretty much guaranteed to back anything Gabi does, such is my gratitude for the existence TWoSH, but black and white decks are always a harder sell on me. I have a fair few because so many talented creators work in B&W, but I’m never organically drawn to them. And much as I love Gabi’s art, I also sometimes find it a bit ‘busy’. It’s so lush and complex, which is wonderful, but my little ADHD magpie brain sends my eyes flitting all over the place, and it makes it harder for me to be still and relax into the Tarot. For me, this jumpy-eye-syndrome is exacerbated by black & white cards (in a general sense), as the fewer points of contrast gives my gaze even less to settle on. BUT, in my opinion, Gabi’s greatest skill is as a visual storyteller. The way she weaves images and their meanings together in words is so warm and wonderful. The guidebook is little, but it is mighty! Reading it helped give me a new appreciation for the artwork, and gave me more of an anchor to steady myself in the cards’ symbolism.

So, I don’t think this deck will be for everyone. But I think it’s very much a deck where if you love it, you LOVE it. And when I say I’m in love you’d best believe I’m in love L-U-V style. The world she draws is whimsical, different-yet-known, it tugs at moth-eaten childhood memories of pictures from fairystories, and gently nudges you back into that realm of wonder again.

“The Far-Out is a virtual retreat for the body and soul. Time-out from the rough and tumble of modernity. A place to visit, if you are lucky to stay, where you may call upon the folk of the tarot cards to speak to you gently and from a place of peace and reflection. The Far-Out Tarot is the getaway you get to take everyday… The Far Out is a world you always have permission to enter, a psychological state; a sacred space, the details exactly as you would have them.”

Gabi Angus-West

The deck comes in a sturdy lidded box, with beautiful internal detailing, and a ribbon pull to help get the cards in and out. Inside there’s a standard 78 card deck, and a small (but useful) paper guidebook. The deck is reasonably faithful to the RWS, and this plus the guidebook means it’s easy to use and interpret, even for beginners. The cards themselves are good quality, with that powdery matte finish, and silver gilt edges. They’re a bit shorter and wider than ‘standard’ Tarot cards, about halfway in-between Tarot and playing cards.

This deck shines in terms of attention to tiny details. For example, I love the little sticking plasters sported by the figure on the Star – hope sometimes gets battered and bruised, but it never quits. And obviously plasters and bandages are a classic symbol of healing.

I also love how the bow has become the curve of the moon as the figure (who Gabi identifies as the huntress Diana, the goddess of the moon) shoots for the stars on the Moon card.

There’s no title on the Death card, as per the traditional Tarot de Marseille, where Death was instead referred to as “the card with no name” (or “arcane sans nom” in French). Gabi describes her Death card as featuring a pregnant woman, “accepting and prepared to labour”. I like having pregnancy featured here (instead of it’s more typical appearance on The Empress card), as it’s a really good example of a process which draws/takes from us, but does so in order to nourish new life. Which is, essentially, the message of the Death card – the old must fade to make way for the new. Anyone who’s been pregnant (particularly in your late 30s like I was), knows how much it saps the vitality from you – literally weakening your bones(!) in order to support the developing foetus. But it’s also an amazing experience, feeling your body physically create new life (I still find it wild tbh. I look at my kids and it just blows my mind that I created them with my body, and now they’re two little independent souls, out there in the world, with their own rich interior lives and thoughts). Gabi notes that the woman rests beside a pond where “putrefaction and decay fizz below the surface, breaking down the old to nourish the young and the fresh”.

The imagery on the Four of Swords really resonated with me, as being in a bath with a glass of wine is my Happy Place. The guidebook notes that the bath is shaped like an hourglass, as “time set aside for this retreat to a peaceful state is limited and [the bather] knows it”. She’s still got one boot on, ready to return to the fray once this period of rest and restoration is over.

The Three of Swords, for me, has always been very much a card about heart vs. head – and this depiction captures that well, showing a figure that wants to have her cake and eat it. Sometimes we have to choose between making sensible, logical, longterm choices and choices that give us pleasure in the short term. We can’t do both, however much we might want to, and to attempt to do so only begets misery. As the guidebook explains, “she tried to have her cake and eat it too, now she eats alone. No one to share. No one to help her face the pain of her choices and decisions”.

A gorgeous Six of Swords, where the winged swords are birds who are keeping pace with the ship – often our mental baggage follows us, even when we set out to start anew.

Swords are the suit of air, and I love that in this Knight of Swords card we get a real sense of the power of this element, the ferocity of the wind. Gabi’s artistry is on full display here, the ways the clouds are scudding across the sky, the dandelion seeds blowing everywhere – I can almost feel the wind buffeting my face! The guidebook observes that “wound up, the dandelion clock and its chimes tell us that time is too short and the moment must be now.” But I also feel this card delivers the message that the Knight of Swords, for all his righteous passion and fury, can be somewhat lightweight, much like the fluff of the dandelion. Sometimes swift action is too hot-headed to be effective in the longterm.

I love how the Two of Wands has corn ears, one uprooted, and one whose roots are only just hanging on. We are ready to uproot ourselves from the soil that has grown us and depart for new horizons.

Not only does the figure in the Eight of Cups have her eyes planted firmly ahead, everything else is also following her futuristic gaze, even the eyes in the cups themselves: “you have a strong sense that the time is just right to move on, it is written in the skies”.

The Queen of Cups conveys a real sense of love and dreaminess here, clearly showing her (possible) role as a “wise and empathetic mother”.

In the RWS Two of Pents we have the juggler in the foreground, looking pretty chilled. But the rough seas behind him let us know that it is hard work to keep things on an even keel, even if it looks effortless. Here he’s actually standing in the boat, which I love. Keeping your balance while standing up on a rowing boat is *hard*!

This stunning King of Pents looks so much a part of the rich, fertile land he has helped to cultivate and bloom. With him “you will neither lack nor be starved of food or affection”.

I love me a Nine of Pents, and I like that this one here is clearly an older woman, with her body as mature and flourishing as her garden. And I am always happy to see some snails making it into any interpretation of the Nine of Pents, as they’re probably my favourite easter egg in the whole RWS deck. The snail imagery is likely based on Rosalind from Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ (Colman Smith was a set designer for various Shakespeare plays, and friends with lots of theatre folks), where she says she’d rather be wooed by a snail than Orlando, because, though he comes slowly, he comes with his house on his back, “a better jointure, I think, than you make a woman… he comes armed with his fortune”. Nine of Pents don’t want no scrubs!

This is a really rich, thoughtful deck that I definitely recommend. You can buy it from the artist and creator’s online store for AU$ 70 (approx. £34). (And while you’re there, do yourself a favour and pick up a Wyrd of Sarah Howard, a snip at £30. These were going for hundreds of pounds on eBay prior to this last (and final) print run; I bought two copies just in case I ever lost or damaged my main one. The only deck I’ve ever done this for!)

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