The Sasuraibito Tarot Deck by Stasia Burrington

Welcome back to Every Day Tarot and to Season 19, where I’m diving into something I’ve wanted to explore for a long time: different tarot decks and how to use them!

Today, I’m talking about The Sasuraibito Tarot, a deck that holds a very special place in my heart. This was the first tarot deck I ever owned, and in many ways, it’s the deck that taught me how to read tarot. It’s moody, modern, a little goth, a little Buddhist, and deeply rooted in the Pacific Northwest—the place I call home. If a tarot deck could be a friend you’ve had since your twenties, this would be mine.

My Story with this Deck

I still remember the first time I saw this deck. There was a little boutique I used to walk past on my way to work in downtown Seattle—one of those handmade clothing shops where everything is beautiful and expensive, and you go inside even if you know you can’t afford anything. I was drawn in by the window displays long before I ever stepped inside.

One day, tucked between racks of hand-sewn dresses and local jewelry, I noticed this single tarot deck—just one, not a whole collection. I picked it up, put it back, picked it up again. It felt like the deck was waiting for me, even though at the time I wasn’t actively looking for one.

When I finally bought it, I didn’t know that this would be the deck that carried me through the years right before grad school, during huge transitions, heartbreaks, and new beginnings. I was wandering in a very literal sense—trying to figure out who I was becoming—and the name Sasuraibito translates to “wanderer.” It fit me more than I realized at the time.

Style:

It has a dark, slightly goth aesthetic—black borders, rich colors, a death moth on the back of the cards. But it’s also soft in places. Human. Tender. The imagery feels like it belongs to the world we live in right now, not a medieval fantasy.

Structure:

This is a Rider–Waite–Smith format deck through and through. No renamed cards. No rearranged suits. But with a twist: the minor cards spell out their numbers rather than using Roman numerals. (Bless. Truly.)

Imagery:

The deck is filled with Pacific Northwest vibes—mountains, hikers, tea, cozy interiors, rainy moods. The people in the deck are diverse in race, gender presentation, and expression. There are queer folks, androgynous folks, people with multicolored hair, people who feel like they might actually live down the street from me.

The guidebook is written by the artist themselves, which I adore. Sometimes they explain exactly why they drew something a certain way, and it feels like getting a personal behind-the-scenes tour of their creative mind. It’s such a cohesive experience.

What I use it for:

This deck is the one I reach for when I want clarity, honesty, or a grounding visual cue. It’s vivid and expressive, and the interpretations are strong without being harsh.

What I don’t use it for:

This deck isn’t always my go-to for people who are brand-new to tarot and feeling nervous about it. The imagery isn’t frightening—but it is moody, and some people need something gentler at first. In those cases, I tend to reach for my Anima Mundi deck or other softer, earth-based decks.

💭 Today's Tarot Pull:

From The Sasuraibito Tarot deck by Stasia Burrington, I pulled the Three of Swords (Reversed).

The Three of Swords speaks about heartbreak, grief, and the experience of being hurt or even hurting someone else. Reversed, this leans into forgiveness, healing, and moving on—making space for understanding and integration after the storm.

Reflective prompts on this card:

• Where in my life am I still carrying an old heartbreak that wants acknowledgment?

• Am I holding onto a story of being “wronged” that’s ready to soften or shift?

• In what ways might I be unintentionally wounding myself or others, and what would repair look like?

Ways to Connect & Support:

• Get my⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ FREE 2025 5-Card Tarot Spread PDF⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ + magic straight to your inbox

• Be a Guest on my Podcast!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello and welcome to Everyday Tarot, your daily dive into the
divine wisdom of the tarot. I'm your host, Camille A
Saunders healer, intuitive tarotreader, and professional witch.
And today I'm talking about the Sassari Beto Tarot deck by
Stacia Burrington. Whether you're a seasoned tarot
reader or just starting to explore, this podcast offers
daily insights, intuitive messages, and practical advice

(00:21):
drawn from the cards. Each episode is designed to help
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(02:13):
So tickets for our December 7th event are up now, and you can
find the links for any of these offers in the show notes or on
my website, camilleasaunders.com/everyday
Tarot, in addition to the imagesof the cards I pull on each
episode. All right, well, welcome to
Season 19 where I'm talking all about different ducks and how to
use them. If you haven't listened to my

(02:33):
other seasons yet, you can checkthose out.
I just wrapped up Season 18 on Color Magic where I do an intro
and then I go through different colors and talk about how to
incorporate those into your daily lives, into your spells,
into your glamour magic, etcetera.
And like I said, here we are in season 19 kicking off with our
first episode where I'm talking about different decks and how to

(02:55):
use them. So today I'm talking about the
first deck I got, the Sassery Beto Tarot deck.
So for each episode for the season, I'm going to go through
the style of the deck. Where did I get it?
Any changes from the writer? Wait, Smith format?
I'll talk about the imagery of the deck, what I like to use it
for, and anything I wouldn't useit for.

(03:16):
I'll have of course, the link for you to buy or check out the
deck if you're interested. And then we'll do a card pull at
the end to see what message the deck has for us today.
So like I said, I am talking about the Sassery Beto Tarot
deck by Stassia Burrington. This is a very well loved deck
by me. The Tarot deck guidebook is

(03:39):
peeling on the outside. It's like a laminated plastic,
which is nice, but yeah, the lamination is coming off, but
still in fairly good condition. My deck box still looks quite
lovely actually. It's got some dents and things
like that, but there is that. So this is a tarot deck.
So that's the style. It probably is my most

(04:01):
traditional Rider Waite Smith formatted deck, I would say,
although the imagery is very different from the Rider Waite
Smith look. And this deck is a lot more
modern Buddhist Pacific Northwest in its imagery on the
cards. And then the imagery kind of on

(04:23):
the back or on the box is I would say like dark kind of
goth. There's the like Death Moth on
the back as well as like some bones.
It's red and black and grey on the back.
And the cards on themselves are all framed with a black frame
and they have a very nice, you know, title of the card at the

(04:46):
bottom. And they actually spell out the
numbers instead of using Roman numerals, which I greatly
appreciate because lots of people have a hard time with
Roman numerals. And so I do like that they do
put the Roman numerals oops for the Major Arcana cards.

(05:07):
But of course, you don't necessarily need to know the
numbers for that one as much. And yeah.
So where did I get this deck? Like I said, this is my first
deck. I should look it up.
I got it at like a boutique clothing store in Seattle when I
lived downtown. It was probably on somewhere

(05:30):
between 1st and 3rd Ave. down inkind of like Belltown downtown
area, if you know Seattle at all.
Yeah, there was a store, like a clothing boutique store I used
to walk by and it had a lot of handmade clothing.
And they actually had, I think, like you could go and get
measured there or like, look at fabrics or stuff like that.

(05:50):
Like I think they would, like, make clothes tailored to you.
Often if you do that right, the clothes are fairly expensive.
So I definitely remember like walking by the store I used to
walk by on my way to work when Iworked at downtown on 3rd Ave.
and I used to kind of get coffeein a place around there.

(06:11):
And I just was very drawn to thestore and I kind of did not know
why. That's like how it felt for a
long time. I went in it.
I of course was kind of like, oh, I like these clothes, but
like high price tag. Like I don't think I can afford
that necessarily at that time. I love buying a lot of handmade
handprinted or you know, sewn clothes.

(06:33):
Now at the time that felt very out of reach.
I remember they had some jewelryin there and I'm pretty sure I
bought some earrings at some point for for like someone's a
friend's birthday or something like that.
Like I kept going in the store. I like I said, I didn't usually
buy anything while there, but this was one of the I think this
was like the only deck they had in there.
Again, they had clothes, they had like some jewelry, probably

(06:56):
some other like handmade things from local artists.
And then, yeah, I saw this deck probably a couple times, like I
said, but it was, it wasn't likethere's a collection of decks or
anything like that. It was just this particular one
that was there. And yeah, I don't think I really
knew. I don't know what I knew about
Tara at the time. I don't know if I was looking

(07:19):
for a deck or anything. The deck is actually like the
cover pages inside is signed. So that's very cool.
And they are so Sasya Burringtonon the intro it says the 78 card
deck is inspired loosely by the Rider Waite deck, contemporary
living in the Pacific Northwest,and Japanese and Buddhist ideas.

(07:41):
The Japanese word Sassari beto most closely translates to
wanderer. It's an older literary term that
is falling out of use, meant to describe a person ever seeking
searching for a place of healingand refuge.
This deck is designed to accompany the curious wandering
querent. And then it's Stein signed.
So yeah, it was a local artist. You can check out there.

(08:05):
They're just sasiaburringtontarot.com or
Stasia. No, sasaribitotarot.com you can
check out or like their artist website.
And I really like the deck. It was a good first deck.
Like I said it, I don't actuallyhave any of the like Rider,
Waite, Smith like traditional decks.

(08:27):
I don't personally, I am not drawn to the yellowness of it
all. I know there are some that sort
of have like a different color tone.
So perhaps one day I will get them.
But this is probably, like I said, my most traditional one
and it's not very traditional. I mostly just mean that they
adhere to the format they adhereto.
They don't change any of the names of the major Connor cards

(08:49):
or of the like page Night Queen,King things.
And like I said, right that the author, the artist says, so this
person wrote the book and the cards.
That is not always how it works.Sometime a lot of times people
that write the book are different than the illustrator.

(09:09):
And I will try to reference bothof those as I talk about all the
ducks. But in this one they did it all.
So it's a very cohesive deck as well.
And it has, like I said, it has a dark tone to kind of like the
back imagery, like kind of goth,also modern.
It has like very modern looking people, like multi colored hair
people. It's not all white people and

(09:32):
what else? There's kind of like more
androgynous, non binary looking folks and yeah, just like the
clothes people wear and the imagery is just like a more
modern take on it. So I do like that.
Also, I live in the Pacific Northwest and so like I remember
I love the Hermit card in this deck because it's like a lone

(09:54):
hiker, like kind of perched on the side of a mountain, which is
definitely like the vibe here a lot.
Most people hike in some capacity and enjoy the outdoors
and want to leave the city and go explore on weekends or things
like that. And so that's very cool.
There's also a lot of like coffee, tea culture in this

(10:15):
deck. I like that.
And like I said, there's kind oflike a diversity of people
representation, which is also very nice.
Yeah. What else do I want to say?
I think that's mostly about the imagery aspect.
I talked about where I got the deck.
Yeah. So there's no real changes from
the writer. Waite Smith formatting, like I

(10:36):
said, it's more modern. It's like Buddhist and Pacific
Northwest in more of its imagery.
But that doesn't change the format necessarily.
I like to use it for. So it has really good
descriptions of card imagery. I'll just like, go to a random
page here. Let's see if I can find one
where they say like in this particular one, the author and

(11:04):
artist will sometimes say like this is how I like, This is why
I drew it like this or or like this is sort of the traditional.
So here's one for Temperance. They don't necessarily say this
is how they did it, but they saythe card commonly shows a
hermaphroditic Angel showing a balance between genders and

(11:25):
pouring liquid from one vessel to another.
Sometimes water into wine, sometimes cold water into hot.
This is a blending or synthesis of opposites.
They always have the reversal definition and then they have
quotes in here, at least for theMajor Arcana cards, which is
very nice. It gives kind of like an an
additional I'll read one that's in here.

(11:46):
So for the sun, it says the quote is life is so damn short
for Fox's sake, just do what makes you happy by Bill Murray.
So they're sort of like they pull a quote that kind of like
has to do, you know, with the vibe of the card and a gun,
right. That's some more like modern
language. I would say I'm still trying to

(12:06):
find a card in here that talks where they speak sort of like in
the in the first person about what they chose to draw.
But I do like that aspect of, well, it feels like the artist,

(12:28):
right, sort of speaking to you in that sense.
And, and just sometimes I don't know, I have ducks that like
they don't, they're good descriptions of the of like what
the card embodies, but they don't necessarily like speak to
the imagery on the card. Like perhaps because the artist

(12:49):
is separate from, you know, like, or the author who wrote
the deck book is has another person that did the art or just
they didn't choose to do that. Oh, here's one.
OK so for the 8 of wands it saysI choose to portray these wands
as arrows, fast flying and true to their aim.
This card to me illustrates being in the zone.

(13:09):
Once your foundation is strong and your muscles practice, you
can act with efficiency and without effort.
So right, that's an example where they sort of like explain
why they chose certain imagery, which I think is very cool for
the like anything I wouldn't usethis deck for, I don't know,
it's pretty versatile to me. Like I said, it's my first duck.

(13:30):
So when I, you know, first started reading tarot cards for
myself and for others, like thisis definitely what I'm most
familiar with. This summer I took this duck
when I went and presented at Enchanticon like a fantasy
convention in St. Louis, MO.
And I did a talk on divination and tarot in the Harry Potter
series while I was there. And afterwards, folks, you know,

(13:53):
after my talk came in, like, chatted with me, which is very
cool. And someone asked about the deck
in particular. And then when they came over,
they were like, oh, it has like,very strong energy.
And I was like, oh, well, you know, it's my oldest deck.
Like, it's probably been with mesince like, 2018.
And yeah, it's where I feel likeI learned kind of my foundation

(14:17):
of tarot. And it's still in very good
condition. Like I said, you know, the book,
the inside of the book is still very good, like put together.
So I appreciate that too. It has the gilded edges and you
know, thick stock cards like that's really nice too.
Some ducks just don't necessarily have that lasting.

(14:38):
Or maybe like this box is also very like strong.
It's like red on the inside, which is very cool.
Again with the Death Moth on it.And yeah, it has Japanese script
on the side as well, which is cool.
It just gives a particular vibe to the deck.
But oh, and it says love lore lust lost.

(15:02):
It's like on the on the outside of the the the deck, the box,
the smaller box that kind of thethe cards go into and then the
other one says printing to. So this is the second edition
SAS RB Totaro. It's a sarbitotarot.com.
And then it has, yeah, Stassi Burrington's name on it.

(15:24):
And definitely the cover of the box is like it's been, it's been
thrown in many a person bag. So it's actually a little bit
worn down, but it still looks pretty good, very legible and
everything. So I recommend.
And yeah, I guess like sometimesit's not my first choice for I

(15:45):
have another deck that is a verylike gentle deck, the Anima
Moody Tara deck by Megan. Why Rwandan has animals in it.
Mostly I feel like that one's very approachable for people
that don't know anything about tarot.
If I'm reading for like a familymember or someone that like is
like, that's cool you read tarotand I want you to read for me.

(16:07):
But like, I don't know anything about it.
But I feel like this deck's it'sstill very like approachable and
the colors are very like vivid and descriptive.
I would say. Like it has a lot going for it,
I would say. So I don't really have any
challenges with that aspect of it.
And usually if I read for othersand like I'm sort of like posted

(16:29):
up with like multiple ducks, I let people pick what duck speaks
to them. So sometimes the imagery on the
outside of the box is what they kind of like go for.
All right. So yeah, I guess that's sort of
ending on that one. Like I said, it's sort of my
most traditional style deck, at least in the writer Wheat Smith,

(16:50):
kind of like a category. I am going to go ahead and pull
a card about. What message does the deck have
for us today? I was just going to go to Sasa
Burlington's website. I'm trying to, I think they
actually have a new tarot deck. The Yukika Tarot is available.

(17:14):
It is on Kickstarter and it's very vivid and a very different
look to the deck. So, and I'm putting together a
deck, a 78 card deck with art islike very time consuming, like
years for most people. So yeah, you can go to
sasiaburlingtonart.com and they actually have a picture of every

(17:36):
single card in this deck, which is like amazing because a lot of
places it's really hard to find that.
They talk about their new tarot deck.
They have a children's illustration.
I think they've done some books.They have a Patreon, so there's
lots of other ways you want to support.
You can support them if you want.
If you don't, if you don't need another Tarot Jack, but you want

(17:59):
to see a lot of folks put their decks on Etsy or just like when
they make art, they have yeah, some art notepads or like
stickers or other other thing isthat they've made some of their
imagery into like patches or stickers and stuff.
So if you want a a cheaper way to contribute to the artist or

(18:21):
just check out their Etsy, I canlink that in the show notes as
well. But anyway, I'm going to go
ahead and pull a card from this deck.
I'm going to ask it try to ask aspecific question.
OK, well, I had a card just fly out.
So oh, I got the three of swords.
Interesting. I sort of had this question in

(18:42):
my mind of like, why did this duck come to me?
And so the Three of Swords is about heartbreak, pain, and
sadness, feeling wronged or stabbed in the back, hurt.
This card carries feelings of great loneliness, suffering,
rejection, betrayal, separation,and disappointment.
You may feel lost and surprised by the pain.
The Three of Swords can represent a wrong being done to

(19:04):
you or the possibility of you hurting others.
Are you hurt or do you wield theblades?
So yeah, I, I like don't even really know when I got this
duck. So I was trying to think about
like what that time period was like for me.
I know I had I had kind of like a switched jobs.

(19:25):
I was working in downtown Seattle and a non profit that I
enjoyed. But I was definitely like the
year after, like in 2019 is whenI started Graduate School to
become a therapist. So I would definitely say it was
like a transition time for me. And I think it was like right
around my solar return, like around when I was trying to

(19:46):
think if that's right, about 27 a little after that.
But yeah. And then, you know, reversed.
It's about forgiveness, healing,understanding and moving on.
So I'm not totally sure what this cards about today, but
perhaps, you know, that's, Oh mygosh, the book just flew out of
my hand. That was how I was feeling at
the time and maybe why I needed write some tarot or this deck in

(20:08):
particular. All right, well, thanks for
joining me today on Everyday Tarot.
Links for the tarot decks I talkabout will always be in the show
notes and on my website if you'dlike to look at them or purchase
them. And thanks for joining me today
on the podcast. Just as a reminder, the podcast
comes out daily, Monday through Friday for all of 2025.
You can e-mail me [e-mail] with

(20:31):
your thoughts, questions and more.
If you haven't joined my newsletter, you should do that
and get my free 5 card 2025 Terror spread PDF to do that
spread for yourself. And yeah, you can always e-mail
me like I said, me at camillasaunders.com with your
thoughts, questions and more andI will see you soon.

(20:51):
All right, bye. Bye.