The first card of the Major Arcana, the Fool, is the starring role to be played by every Outsider. The role of the Fool requires just a simple white bandanna knotted around a twig of yarrow for protection. The remaining 21 cards from the Outsider Tarot’s sequence of Majors are designed to be approached as scenes — offering costumes, props, and set pieces for the Tarot reader to imagine themselves wearing or interacting with. The Fool’s bandanna, worn over the eyes, is meant to inspire inward focus and encourage each Outsider’s next great leap into another scene from the Major Arcana.

When Major Arcana cards appear in a reading, they seek to spark a response or an action. The Outsider Tarot guidebook offers a paragraph of “stage direction” for every Major Arcana which serve as guided visual meditations with the costumes, props, and set pieces that appear in each scene. 

You’ll notice that there are quite a few new names in the Outsider Tarot’s Major Arcana: the WITCH replaces the High Priestess, the PROVIDER replaces the Empress, the BOSS replaces the Emperor, the CLERIC replaces the Hierophant, the GHOST CAR replaces the Chariot, ADJUSTMENT replaces Justice, and ASSESSMENT replaces Judgment. Many of these changes were made to cast aside the idea of patriarchy, monarchy, established religion and privilege in favor of modern, non-gendered archetypes.

Perhaps the most notable of these changes is the RUNAWAYS which replaces the Lovers. I believe the Runaways is one of the most pivotal scenes from the Major Arcana, one familiar to every Outsider. Each person who comes to the scene of the Runaways in their life is torn between the powerful gravity of a familiar past and a future that holds endless possibilities and question marks.