Sasuraibito Tarot by Stasia Burrington

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Hi everyone, it's Katey, and today I have for you a much requested review of the
Sasuraibito Tarot by Stasia Burrington. Now, this is a deck that I got a few
months ago, I think it was sometime in November or October last year, and I
did an unboxing of it, and since then it has just become one of my favourite decks,
and certainly one of my most used decks. It wasn't a deck I was even really
thinking of getting. I remember I liked some of the artwork, but there was also a
lot that I was just not super keen on. But I wanted to get the Mesquite Tarot
and the easiest way for me to do that was to order from Little Red Tarot,
and she has a set shipping rate of 10 pounds, and so I thought well I might as
well get a couple of decks because, you know, then it kind of makes that shipping
worthwhile. And my favourite of those decks that I ordered turned out to be
the Sasuraibito, the deck that I wasn't even, you know, super super sure I would
like. Now before I get into the meat of the review I have one last thing to tell
you, and that is that this edition that I have is the first. There has more
recently been published a second edition and whilst I don't think any of
the cards have changed, the images, there are a few differences in the hardware,
what I call the hardware. From memory, the box is a little bit different, I've heard
people say that the box is actually quite a lot harder to open. This one
isn't it all, there's quite a bit of extra space in here and the box lid
comes off very easily. I think there's also some gold foiling on the front and
the card stock is a little bit different, I think it's a little bit thinner in the
new one. And, according to Little Red Tarot, the images are also a little
darker in the second edition than in the first. I don't think any of those changes
are dramatic, but I did want to let you know that I am reviewing specifically
the first edition. But I think most of what I have to say will stand up, will be
true for the second edition, because largely I'm talking about, you know, the
images and working with the deck. Now, as I said, it does come in this lovely
two-part box, which is my favourite sort of packaging for a deck mostly, I love
this kind of smaller box that fits the cards. It's a very sturdy box and it does
have these little, kind of, notches for your thumbs to be able to hold on to the
bottom box while you're lifting off the lid. There's not a whole lot of writing
on it and this image on the bottom of the box is the same as the card backs.
Now, the cards have this gold gilding on the edges, which is very pretty,
the sort of thing that, you know, kind of is a nice touch but I'm not too bothered
about. Mine's held up pretty well, although I have heard that people, you know, this
isn't the best wearing gilding, but I use this deck all the time and I do riffle
shuffle, although I am still reasonably careful with my cards, and I think mine's
held up pretty well. The backing is very pretty, I like the backing, it's this
death moth with these bones and it is reversible. As I said, the card stock on
this first edition is a little bit different, this card stock is quite bendy.
It's a little bit glossy, but not too much, and I don't mind glossy cards
usually, the thing that bothers me about glossy cards is often the cards end up
sticking together, but that hasn't been a problem at all - this is not too slippery
but it's also not grippy. It's a really easy deck to shuffle It's, kind of, pretty
well a standard size, to a Rider Waite Smith or a classic card, it's just very
easy to handle and work with. As for the images, Stasia Burrington certainly has a
distinctive style. Some people say it's rather Anime-esque, and I can kind of see
that, although to me it's not so much Anime, not at least the sort of anime that I'm
used to seeing. It certainly has a Japanese style influence, though. In some
ways this deck actually kind of reminds me of the Anna K, not in terms of art style
at all, obviously, but in terms of the way in which the cards have been done. In so
many ways the, you know, the symbols that we're used to seeing, the esoteric symbols
and the occult symbols of, you know, the the Golden Dawn and such, all of those
are removed. Instead, the artist has very much used body language, facial
expressions, colour, all of those sort of things, to set the mood of the card, to
express the meaning of the card through the mood. And I think Anna K, the Anna K
deck has done very much a similar thing, and the Anna K is one of my favourite
decks for that reason. So, I think in many ways, that's why I love the Sasuraibito
Tarot so much, is because it's done a similar thing, just in an art style that
I prefer a little bit more. Essentially, rather than the occult symbolism, it's
everyday symbols that we see and recognise in our lives that are used to
express the meaning, to evoke the meaning through emotion. For instance, cards like
the Sun - just the way that this character is kind of holding up their hands
to cover their eyes - I've had that feeling before, where the sun is so
beautiful but also blinding... it's just it's so simple, but I recognise that
experience in the card. Another is the Six of Swords. I can feel that, you know,
that cold air on your face, that breath in that you take. It's a very similar
feeling to when, you know, you've finally given yourself permission to move on. It
doesn't mean that you're not upset or you're not finding it difficult anymore,
but there is a sense of relief, there's a sense of that taking a breath in, finally
feeling that cold air on your face,.I very much get that feeling from this
card, and so that speaks volumes to me about the meaning of the card and the
interpretation that the artist has taken. Another card that uses that, kind of,
everyday symbolism would be the Two of Cups. This is such a sweet card and it
certainly, you know, we've all, we've all done a pinkie promise before. It's tha,t you
know, it's the naive sort of relationship, the innocence of an early relationship,
where we're willing to promise something without, you know, it doesn't have the
commitment associated with it that, you know, like a long-term relationship might
with a marriage or something, but it's still there, it's still a sign of
goodwill and connection. The Eight of Cups I think is just a brilliant card. This is
just so about, you know, moving on from something. I think even in the book but
this is what I thought of too, how after you've undergone something difficult, so
often we want to change ourselves, we want to redefine ourselves and, you know,
she's in a very vulnerable position, completely naked, but she's just chopping
off all of this beautiful long hair, but it's long hair that has grown over the
period of something difficult, something that she's leaving behind. She's
literally cutting parts of herself off to leave them in the past and, in so
doing, she's redefining herself so that she can step into the future as somebody
new, as somebody different. I also just love the simplicity of the Ace of Swords,
the Aces in general I really like in this deck. But the Ace of Swords, it's
almost visceral, it's so obvious what this card is about in this deck. It's
about clarity and cutting through the cloud and cutting through uncertainty. I
know a card that some people have a problem with is the Devil, and I've heard
people say that this is man hating, and also they just don't like the way
that it's depicted. I actually love it, I think it's brilliant. I think the reason
it's so clever and why it works so effectively, at least for me, is because
it's not obvious in terms of going one way or another with the Devil card. You
know, is this man tempting and lustful or is he dangerous? It's not clear either
way. Is he seducing us or is he threatening us? It's not obvious which it
is, and so perhaps it's neither or perhaps it's both. I also love the play
with the gaze in this, and we often talk about the male gaze and, you know, just in
pop culture in general, the idea that often women are passive when photos are
being taken of them, they are there to be observed rather than being active in the
interaction. This is very interesting because he's looking directly at us and
so it's not entirely clear, again, whether we're looking at him and gazing upon him,
and whether we are the people in power here, or whether he is gazing upon us and
seeing us, and we are the passive in this interaction. Now this is a Rider Waite
Smith system deck, I would say. It certainly does it in its own way, as I
said, it does have its own take on the cards. But ultimately, I think the
majority of the meanings do come back to what we understand from the Rider Waite
Smith. The Wands though, in many ways they stand out a little bit because they are
rather 'pippish', not entirely, but they are a lot more so
than the rest of the deck. All of the other suits are largely scenic, whereas
the Wands, they kind of verge more on to pips. In many ways, this deck feels
intimate. A lot of the cards are, kind of, zoomed in to, like, a snapshot a small
aspect of everyday life, and in that way it does it feels very personal and
intimate. Some of those cards I already mentioned, like the Eight of Cups and the
Two of Cups, I feel like certainly fit into this, you know, they feel vulnerable,
they feel personal, they feel like an intimate moment between just, you know,
for a person to experience for themselves, or between two people. Another
example might be the King of Cups. I don't know, just seeing this old
grandfatherly figure pouring you a cup of tea, that's such a small, everyday
experience but it's also a very meaningful one. The Ace of Cups is
another one, just kind of this, you know, person sitting
with their cup of tea and you do- I at least, I feel a sense of, you know, what
that feels like for me when I sit down and just, kind of, am really mindful with
my cup of tea and what that means to me, what taking that time out to just enjoy
a cup of tea feels like. It just feels like in many ways this deck captures
those little moments, those important moments. Even in the Death card, we see, at
least to me, it looks like the spirit rising out of this dead body, that moment
that that occurs, and that feels like a very special, you know, meaning-heavy
moment. And I really like that about this deck, that it feels like small snapshots
of everyday life that have meaning, have meaning to the people in this picture
and that, you know, we can relate to moments in our lives that have similar
meanings. They feel personal. Other words I might choose to use to describe this
deck would be things like luscious, expressive, sensual, its evocative and its
rich. And in some cases it is rather modern. It doesn't feel, you know,
specifically tied to today, like some decks feel to current, this deck just
feels modern. You know, there are examples such as the Emperor with a man wearing a
business suit and it's kind of zoomed in to him having a smoke. Again that
intimate moment with him. We even have an astronaut in the Star card, and I know
some people have said that they don't really get this card and I kind of
forget what the book says, but the first thing I thought of when I saw his card
and was actually one of the reasons I decided to get it in the end, was it
reminded me of one moment from Stargate SG1 where, basically, there's this kind
of big space war and a bunch of ships get destroyed and Sam who is, you know,
one of my favourite characters from any show ever, she's basically stranded in
her spacesuit just kind of floating in space. And she's running out of air and,
you know, the people who have survived and, you know, her friends who were in the
ship, all of their powers are down and everything so they can't come and get
her. And so it's just this trust and faith that she has to have floating
around in the vastness of space that her friends will do everything they can to
come rescue her, and just trusting that that
will happen. I love working with this deck because it fills so many needs for
me, it's a very versatile deck. I've used it in so many readings for myself in
everyday like, you know, 'What can I expect today?' or 'What can I focus on today?' but
also in quite, you know, meaningful important readings. I did that Body
Beliefs spread that was going around a few months ago, I did that for myself
using this deck, and it was incredibly moving. I've also done plenty of my
readings for clients with this deck and I've had some great feedback, and also it
was just it flowed, you know when readings just flow? And that has
certainly been my experience with this deck. It can be very practical, it can be
very emotional, it can be a bit of both, it's a very versatile deck for me, and
part of the reason why I use it so often is because it can be used in so many
ways, it's useful in so many different types of readings. Another thing that I
think this deck shares in common with be Anna K is the fact that the courts, the
courts have been done in such a way that they are so readable and relatable. They
don't feel like, you know, a King and a Queen high up on the throne and, you know,
the only way to understand them is to understand them by rank. Instead, these
are real people and they all have very very distinct personalities. The Pages
are all, you know, kind of young and ready to set out on your new adventure, try
something new. The Knights are all really doing something... And so that's another
reason that I think this deck is so readable, is because sometimes courts can
feel a little inaccessible, and I know that lots of people have that experience.
Whereas these ones just feel like everyday people that you can get to know.
I love a lot of cards from this deck I, don't know if I have a favourite, the Six
of Cups and the Nine of Cups would certainly be up there. But I wanted to
talk a little bit about the Six of Pentacles, because it is a card that I've
spoken about before, how I don't tend to like the interpretations of the
traditional imagery because, when I look at that traditional imagery, it doesn't
look like, you know, generous giving or charity - well perhaps it is charity
although I have criticisms of that kind of charity! - because, you know, in that card,
I see people having to basically beg for a few cents from somebody who is very
wealthy and, you know, they're kind of balancing out and working
out what they can give without really making a big difference in their
own lives. Whereas the Six of Pentacles in the Sasuraibito
is quite interesting because you can't really tell who is giving and who is
receiving, and you can't really tell whether that's a good or a bad thing for
either party. There's an ambiguity here that I appreciate in this card. As with
the cards, in many ways the book has removed, you know, all of that occult,
symbol-heavy language. It doesn't rely on those traditional core meanings in the
same way that perhaps the Rider Waite Smith does. It certainly comes back to a
Rider Waite Smith meaning, but it expresses them in a personal, relatable
way, in a way that is very much based on emotional experience, and I really, really
like that, I think it's great and it's refreshing. When I have pulled out the
book to have a read of what the artist has written about the card, I've been
kind of bowled over by, you know, word for word relates exactly to my experience,
like, not just an overall broad meaning I then kind of relate to my experience,
it'll be just one sentence pops out to me that is exactly my experience. So
that's been really interesting, and just a wonderful experience, I love it when
that happens. One thing I'm not crazy about the book
is just the formatting. It's not super consistent, you know, some cards have a
quote to go with them, others don't, and also, sometimes you'll get the title on
the end of the page and then the rest of the meaning is on the other side of the
page. I don't know, just a little petty thing, but something that I like to have,
you know, neat formatting with whitespace, and all of that which is lacking in this
book. So that is my review of the wonderful saucer Sasuraibito by Stasia
Burrington. It is absolutely one of my favourite decks and certainly one of
my favorite decks of the of recent times. I just think it's fabulous, it's so
versatile, it's so usable and accessible, and it's also beautiful and sensual and
intimate as I said. I think it does a great job of capturing small moments and
expressing the traditional, or close to traditional, meaning through emotion,
through colour, through body language, through facial expressions, and for that
reason, I couldn't recommend it more highly. I know a lot of people love it, I
know there are some people who didn't get on board with it, and that's fine,
we're all different, we all appreciate different things. But if this art does
appeal to you at all, my experience has been absolutely incredible
with it. So I'd love to hear if this is a deck that you've been enjoying, let me
know why in the comments below. If you have any other questions about this deck,
feel free to ask and I'll do my best to get back to you. And until next time, so
much love, bye!
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Sasuraibito Tarot by Stasia Burrington | Tarot Deck Review

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