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 (USA), and has designed a very singular deck: The Outsider Tarot. He got inspired by people who were 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 spirit is to homage all of them, including those ones usually remaining in strange places, out of conventions: drag queens, migrants, daredevils, hustlers, trans people, resistances, 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 Pentacles) is Asunta (the 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

The cards are painted in watercolor and gouache, and display the artist's hand motion. For the composition, Bobby was inspired by some classic styles, from The Great Esoteric Tarot (Marixu Güller) and Rider-Waite's shapes (Pamela Coleman Smith), achieving a greater definition by using black lines, both on white backgrounds and inside of full-colored fields.

The elements catch the attention due to their dimensions. Although even among those strong multicolored contrasts that are perceived at first sight, there's a complex esoteric system implicit in them. 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 some of the 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 idea, Bobby thought on court characters in terms of elementals (fire, air, water and earth), and represented them as daily life objects, which creates innovating alchemical readings due to the two-element dynamics produced by the combination of characters and suits.

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, such as wires do towards different directions

Jackie Shane is in the middle of problems in the Five of Lights (Wands), with unplugged and disconnected light bulbs, holding a wire 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 comes along with the deck and offers deep meditations for each card, which is 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 considering shapes and background concepts. About shapes, these quite outstanding cards clearly transmit presences. And the change in the suits' elements produces new forms and a radical transformation for the regular eye acquainted with classic compositions. At the same time, several 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 the "tattoos" across closed-fist arms, since those drawings end as arrow-heads, which reminds of a tail's sting: the card might be inspired by Libra's ancient symbol, which included a scorpion's pinches as claws. Another important characteristic are the eyes, which replace swords, so they're meant for action. 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, and 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 the broom of fairy tales

the material foundations of the Four of Roses (Pentacles) are represented by a character whose head and neck are covered by a custome, only opened in 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 offers different possibilities, so it turns to be a flexible tool: to read from a more visual perception and/or a more esoteric point of view, and to be used for fortune-telling or, instead, for 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.

The deck and guidebook are handcrafted and were released on February 2021 by a 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.