The Major Arcana Through a Western Lens: Tarot Meets Outlaw Country
Every traditional tarot deck opens with the same 22 cards. The Major Arcana. The big stuff. Death, The Devil, The Tower, The Sun. The cards that show up when life is handing you something you can't ignore.
Most beginners hit these cards and freeze. The imagery is centuries old. Robed figures, Latin mottos, symbolism stacked six layers deep. You'd need a semester of art history just to figure out what a pentacle is, let alone what it means for your Tuesday.
So we did something about that.
Why We Rebuilt the Major Arcana with Country Music Legends
Here's the thing nobody tells beginners: tarot is a language. And like any language, you learn it fastest through stories you already know by heart, not through a stranger's vocabulary list.
We already knew Willie's voice. We already knew Dolly's grit wrapped in rhinestones. We already knew what it felt like the first time we heard a Hank Williams song about being so lonesome he could cry. That's not homework. That's home.
So instead of asking you to memorize what a sword or a cup or a wand supposedly represents, we assigned each Major Arcana card over to the outlaw country artist who already lives that card's truth. Through their music, their story, or their whole damn legend, their music becomes your way into understanding. You immediately "get" a card the second you hear whose voice it expresses through. You don't need a textbook. (But, you might want a jukebox.)
The Full Lineup: Major Arcana Meets Outlaw Country
| Card | Outlaw Country Icon |
|---|---|
| 0. The Fool | Roger Miller |
| I. The Magician | Woody Guthrie |
| II. The High Priestess | June Carter Cash |
| III. The Empress | Dolly Parton |
| IV. The Emperor | Merle Haggard |
| V. The Hierophant | George Strait |
| VI. The Lovers | Amanda Shires + Jason Isbell |
| VII. The Chariot | Conway Twitty |
| VIII. Strength | Wanda Jackson |
| IX. The Hermit | Emmylou Harris |
| X. Wheel of Fortune | Johnny Cash |
| XI. Justice | John Wayne |
| XII. The Hanged Man | Townes Van Zandt |
| XIII. Death | Hank Williams |
| XIV. Temperance | Kenny Rogers |
| XV. The Devil | Waylon Jennings |
| XVI. The Tower | The Grand Ole Opry |
| XVII. The Star | Kris Kristofferson |
| XVIII. The Moon | Tanya Tucker |
| XIX. The Sun | Will Rogers |
| XX. Judgement | Willie Nelson |
| XXI. The World | Bob Wills |
Bookmark that table. It's the fastest Major Arcana cheat sheet you'll find, and unlike most tarot beginner guides, it's built to actually stick in your memory.
But knowing who's who is just the front door. The real lessons, the upright and reversed meanings of each card, the full story behind each pairing, the songs to listen to while it sinks in, live in The Honky Tonk Tarot Coloring Book.
A Couple of These Pairings, Up Close
The Fool is Roger Miller. Card zero, the starting point of the whole journey, and there's nobody better suited to it than the man who wrote "King of the Road." The Fool is about jumping in with both boots on, playful and wide-eyed and not the least bit worried about what happens next. That's Roger, whistling his way down the highway without a single chip on his shoulder and total faith it'll all work out.
The High Priestess is June Carter Cash. Intuition, inner knowing, a connection to something bigger than yourself. June carried that quiet, fierce wisdom her whole life, the kind that doesn't announce itself but changes everything it touches. When this card shows up, it's asking you to trust the part of you that already knows the answer.
Justice is John Wayne. The Hollywood version of Justice. This card represents "shared ideals" of fairness, accountability, and the moment truth gets called out plain and square. Say no more.
What's Actually Inside the Book
The Honky Tonk Tarot Colorin' Book, First Edition, is 141 pages covering the complete Major Arcana. Every card gets its own multi-page section built the same way:
- A lesson page breaking down upright and reversed meanings, written in plain country talk instead of stiff tarot-speak
- A side-by-side spread with the traditional Rider-Waite card next to our Honky Tonk version, so you can see exactly how the symbolism carried over
- Full-color art of the Honky Tonk version, good enough to frame
- Black-and-white coloring pages of both versions, because sometimes you learn best with a pencil in your hand and no pressure to get it right
- A suggested song list by that card's artist, so the record's spinning while you color and the meaning sinks in somewhere past your thinking brain
Soft-touch cardstock cover, premium paper, made in the USA, hand-drawn in Oklahoma and batch-printed in Illinois.
This isn't a coloring book you'll find in the checkout line at a big box store. It's like a tarot class and folk art piece had a baby, and it resulted in this coffee-table delight. It comes gift-wrapped every time, because a book this special deserves a threshold moment before you cross into a new shared language with yourself.
One reviewer called it "the definition of surprise and delight" when she gifts it. Another said she's "savoring every page like a treasure". That's not us talking. That's y'all.
Get Your Copy
Ready to actually learn tarot instead of just admiring it from a distance? The Honky Tonk Tarot Colorin' Book is $45, or bundle it with The Outlaw Oracle deck and save.
Grab yours at The Outlaw Oracle and start learning tarot the way it was always meant to be taught. In plain talk. With a soundtrack.
