The Outsider Tarot by Bobby Abate

A deck related to modern life, inclusion and multicutural tolerance.

Bobby Abate (1973, Sagittarius) is an Italian artist, film-maker and esoterist living in Brooklyn (United States) and has designed a very singular deck: The Outsider Tarot. He got inspired by people who became a great influence in his life, like Rachel Pollack and Eden Gray, and by those who used to live beyond social boundaries like Nina Simone, Mark LaPore, Chris Chisholm and Jackie Shane. The deck's spirit is to homage all of them, including those ones usually remaining in strange places and staying out of conventions: drag queens, migrants, daredevils, hustlers, trans people, the resistance, refugees, punks and rebels. As Bobby says, it's about "reclaiming Tarot for ourselves", by assigning them a special representation in cards.

Five of Bottles (Cups) is Nina Simone, Fathom of Roses (Queen of Coins) is Asunta (artist's grandmother), and Root of Lights (King of Wands) is Shirley Chisholm

Saint Therese is the Nine of Roses (Pentacles), and the cards' back includes elemental symbols (Lights, Eyes, Bottles, Roses)

at the meeting in the Three of Bottles (Cups), there's an absence between Rachel Pollack and Eden Gray, the classic ones of Tarot

Cards are painted in watercolor and gouache, and express the artist's hand motion. For the composition, Bobby was inspired by classic styles, like those of The Great Esoteric Tarot (Marixu Güller) and Rider-Waite's shapes (Pamela Coleman Smith), achieving greater definition by using black lines, both on white backgrounds and inside of field fulls of colors.

Cards' components attract the attention because of their dimensions. Although even among those strong multicolored contrasts catching perception at first sight, there's a complex esoteric system inserted among those first impressions. As a result, a reading may alternate between or combine perceptions of different kind.

Classic names has been changed according to present day lifestyles. Bobby dismissed classic titles like Priestess, Empress, Emperor, Hierophant and the four court characters, since the very concept of royalty is against the idea of "being outside of": how could an outsider have a king or a queen? The Priestess is Witch, The Empress is Provider, The Emperor is Boss, and The Hierophant is Cleric. And, following the same tendency, Bobby thought on court characters in terms of elementals (fire, air, water and earth), and represented the latter ones as daily life objects, which creates quite alchemical readings due to the character - suit dynamics.

element	suits		characters
fire	wands	lights	page	sparks
air	swords	eyes	knight	billow
water	cups	bottles	queen	fathom
earth	coins	roses	king	roots
Dynamics: the classic Page of Wands is called Spark of Lights (Fire, duplicated element), whereas the Queen of Swords is called Fathom of Eyes (Water & Air).

a strange marriage happens in the Two of Bottles (Cups) related to an egg, with hairs like fauces and a claw-hand, with red ink to write and paint

the Six of Eyes (Swords) moves away like two snakes coming out of a kind of computer while pulling eyes down, as well as cables do towards different directions

Jackie Shane is in the middle of the problems of the Five of Lights (Wands), of unplugged and disconnected light bulbs, holding a cable instead of a microphone

Kathy Acker is the Fathom of Lights (Queen of Wands), in a card unusually focused on genitals, in the alchemical battle between Water (Fathom) & Fire (Lights)

Court characters include elemental symbols, whereas major cards don't show characters but a planet or an astrological sign. A manual coming along with the deck offers deep meditations for each card, great to awaken intuition inside of the esoteric system underlying the designs. As an alternative, Bobby also considers major cards as scenes in a theater play, so they can be also used for other purposes, and not just for fortune-telling.

The deck as a whole introduces quite original changes, if considered shapes and background concepts. About shapes, these quite outstanding cards are also very clear to transmit presences. And the change in the elemental representation of suits produces new forms and a radical transformation of the classic compositions to the regular eye. At the same time, cards' details turn the deck into a very specific and particular artwork. The Three of Eyes (Swords) is a clear example: the classic heart is absent, so there's no object to traverse. But treason comes from "tattoos" in the arms ending in closed fists, since the drawings all across the arms end as arrow-heads, which remind of a tail's sting: the card might be inspired by Libra's ancient symbol, which included the scorpion's pinches as claws. Another important characteristic are the eyes, replacing swords and meant for action, so the same comes from above and below: in any card's position and about any matter, it tells of a kind of fatality related to Libra and Saturn, also alluding to the concepts of justice and vengeance.

Adjustment is the classic Justice, associated to Libra, as a fungus dressed up in torso, with two needles of loose and entangled threads, and a magnetic pendulum hanging above

Witch is an absent character and replaces the classic Priestess, associated to Moon and a broom in fairy tales

material foundations of the Four of Roses (Pentacles) are a character with head and neck covered by a custome, opened only for eyes and mouth

court characters in the Bottle suit (Cups): the Spark (Page) is locked-in and the Billow (Knight) goes out and flies high like a butterfly, but the Fathom (Queen) and the Root (King) exchange the place of suns and pinched animals in their bodies (a crab and a scorpion)

Ghost car is The Chariot, associated to Cancer, in the middle of a speedway between public stands, with a seat on the roof, bodywork of a pre-colombine or oriental demonic style, and a liquid spread on the floor (maybe fuel)

The Outsider Tarot then becomes a flexible tool that offers different possibilities: to be read from a more visual perception and / or a more esoteric point of view, and to be used in fortune-telling or, instead, in symbolic practices. The long list of characters included in the cards offers a wide range of options for personal identification: Carlson Wade, David Bowie, Carrie Fisher, Cash Askew, Zaha Hadid, Vera Rubin, Britney Spears, Dorothy Parker, Truman Capote, Lillian Leitzel, James Baldwin, Frida Kahlo, Kenneth Anger, Daniel Kish, Raed Fares, Aaron Schwartz, Edith Piaf and Carl Jung.

Deck and guidebook are handcrafted and were released on February 2021 by fundraising on Kickstarter. Visit The Outsider Tarot and contact Bobby on Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr or Twitter.

Next, a video with Bobby and me (Julia) of almost half an hour where he introduced the deck before the official launching, back on September 2020.