



Since he supplied us with a visual vocabulary for cutesy dread over many decades, perhaps it comes as no surprise that Edward Gorey designed a set of whimsical tarot cards. The set is called the “Fantod Pack,” the word fantod signifying “a state of worry or nervous anxiety, irritability” and thus possibly the most Edward Gorey word ever. (David Foster Wallace was fond of the word as well, using the phrase “howling fantods” multiple times in Infinite Jest; the main clearinghouse website for DFW information is called The Howling Fantods.)

Not surprisingly, Gorey’s tarot set is (a) not precisely a tarot set, (b) reflexively downbeat, (c) more like a parody of a tarot set, and (d) utterly hilarious. Seriously, and I know that he is known for this style of humor, but looking over the Fantod Pack will give you a whole new appreciation for the possibilities of the deadpan mode of humor. Why is the “Stones” card so funny, when it’s just a little drawing of three plinths of varying size? Somehow the silly self-seriousness of the project is communicated. The backs of the cards feature a typically Goreyish creature called a “Figbash.” Here’s one now:







Authorship of the Fantod Deck is attributed to a “Madame Groeda Wyrde,” which might engage the minds of those of you who enjoy anagrams. The instructions are as hilarious as the other elements of the set, as for instance:



Interpretation must always depend on the character and circumstances of the person consulting the pack. What might portend a wipe-out for a teenage hotdogger from Yokohama, might warn an octogenarian spinster in Minot, North Dakota, of a fall in the bathtub, though, of course, the results might come to much the same thing.



Ahem: “To read your fortune, first shuffle the pack and take it in your left hand. Stand in the centre of a sparsely furnished room and close your eyes. Fling the pack into the air. Keep your eyes closed. Pick up five cards and place them face up in the form of a cross.” Then you’re supposed to read the cards in the following fashion. The center card shows your current situation, the top card depicts “something from the past that continues to affect your future,” on the left is your “inner self,” the card on the right shows “the outer world,” and the bottom card displays “something about to come into being in the near future.”







Every card comes with an evocative list of associated words, and these too are simply brilliant. Unfailingly austere and morbid—nobody’s meeting a dark & handsome stranger in this set—the peculiar word choices only enhance the grim comedy, with bizarre words like chagrin, bêtise, megrims, impetigo, catarrh, inanition, cafard, barratry, and champerty lending everything a flushed air of erudite and anemic horror.

Some sources falsely attribute the deck to the 1995, which is when Gorey made the first set available. Its origins actually trace back to an issue of Esquire in the 1960s. An unauthorized deck was printed in 1969, after which an authorized limited edition of 776 copies was created (750 numbered, and 26 lettered) in 1995. Since 2007 it is available as an unlimited deck; you can get it from Amazon for about ten bucks. Copies of the 1995 limited edition set run much, much higher, though—there are three of them available on Amazon for $450 each.





“The Sea”

January / wasting / loss of ears / an accident in an elevator / lurching sickness / cracks / false affection / vapors / a secret enemy / misdirection / demons / estrangement / chagrin





“The Limb”

February / miscarriage of justice / gapes / a forged snapshot / morbid sensations / a useless sacrifice / alopecia / a generalized calamity / broken promises / ignominy / an accident in a theatre / fugues / poverty





“The Stones”

March / a forged letter / paralysis / false arrest / falling sickness / evil communications / estrangement / a sudden affliction / anemia / strife / a distasteful duty / misconstruction





“The Ancestor”

April / hereditary / weakness / thrush / loss of money / a false statement / morbid dependency / staggering sickness / champerty / megrims / paranoia / an overdose / imprisonment / instable furniture





“The Waltzing Mouse”

May / vertigo / loss of jewelry / a bêtise / morbid cravings / disorders of the large intestine / corruption / equivocal symptoms / a hazardous project / brawls / suicide / involuntary seclusion / shriveling





“The Écorché”

June / sexual incompetence / a forged check / obscurity / irregularities / puckers / inconstancy / an accident on a pier / morbid sensibilities / deception / a social disease / confinement / cysts





“The Plant”

July / tics / sexual indecision / impetigo / loss of intellect / misplaced confidence / writhing sickness / loose ends / palsy / assailed credit / dissolution / scandal / worms





“The Effigy”

August / a sexual problem / assailed honor / unpleasant secrets / amnesia / broken hopes / a misalliance / rashness / yaws / clouded mentality / abrasions / financial losses / an accident in a stadium





“The Child”

September / denigration / sexual inadequacy / sties / hallucinations / breakage / loss of youth / rust / crawling sickness / an obstacle / forced restraint / aberrations / catarrh





“The Blue Dog”

October / loss of one of the senses / weltschmerz / unnatural voices / disorders of the knee / diseases of the tongue / disturbances / miscarriage of a child / an accident in a garage / dementia / fraud / a quarrel / wispiness





“The Feather”

November / blackmail / a forged passport / hysterical pregnancy / loss of eyelashes / disorders of the small intestine / a disagreeable letter / delirium / hinderance to prospects / twitching / separation / imbroglios / a mistake





“The Bottle”

December / melancholia / itching / unfortunate publicity / a disregarded warning / irregularity / an accident on a bicycle / loss of feeling / flukes / vexation / intrigue / abandonment / frustrated hopes





“The Burning Head”

Sunday / bafflement / loss of saliva / a forged deed / an impasse / extradition / a boating accident / chilblains / delayed desires / wandering sickness / evil companions / an impediment / despondency





“The Tunnel”

Monday / sexual disturbance / a swindle / loss of wits / diseases of the blood / angst / false trust / an irrational project / an unpleasant discovery / bad luck / an execution / boredom / panic





“The Ladder”

Tuesday / slander / reversals / creeping sickness / a forged will / insomnia / loss of hair / detention / theft / cafard / jealousy / an accident in a restaurant / inanition





“The Bundle”

Wednesday / a tedious illness / inadequate drainage / a broken engagement / a train accident / malaise / false friends / hangnails / misconduct / aphasia / regrets / disappointment / fluctuation





“The Insects”

Thursday / folie à deux / green sickness / senseless talk / loss of vitality / an accident in a field / false hopes / spasms / a refusal / insincere love / blisters / disagreeable news / threats





“The Urn”

Friday / a sexual dilemma / a forged invitation / harmful rays / alginuresis / a broken heart / mumbling sickness / broken communications / injustice / interference / miscalculation / low fever / scales





“The Yellow Bird”

Saturday / true love thrown away / pique / foot trouble / mania / barratry / an accident on a ladder / indiscretion / bone disease / thwarted ambitions / poison / an unforeseen catastrophe / complications





“The Black Doll”

“In the words of the old rhyme

What most you fear is coming near”

