Review by Kim Huggens
This deck, created by Ma Deva Padma, sat
unreviewed on my shelf for nearly 8 months, because it is one
of the most difficult decks to try and review that I
have come across. It has good point and bad points,
but I doubt I will ever come to a definite personal
conclusion about it: The most I can do is outline my
thoughts on it so far, and describe the deck itself,
letting the reader judge for themselves the quality of the
deck and whether or not it is worth them obtaining it.
Despite at first seeming very theme-less and non-militant,
it becomes apparent after reading the accompanying
book that the Tarot has been used to convey the
teaching of the now deceased Zen Master, Osho. As such,
the cards' meanings are described in a way that makes
you feel you're being lectured, and often the
things said about certain concepts or actions seem like
sweeping statements, and statements which not many people
would agree with unless of the Osho Zen persuasion
belief-wise in the first place. An example of one of these
statements can be found in the Lovers card
description: "Sexuality is very animal." But this said, it is also safe
to say that these statements are based only on
subjective belief, as most statements like this are. It is
therefore understandable that not everybody will accept
them.
Luckily for those who do not like the Osho-Zen
approach to the cards' meanings, the book also includes
very beautiful descriptions of the cards and their
meanings in a more general sense. These descriptions act
to bring the reader 'into' the card, often explaining
what the figures in the cards are feeling and thinking.
I found this approach helped immensely when
reading the cards and figuring out what the images were
trying to convey. Often in the book you will find a
story about the Buddha which perfectly illustrates the
meaning of the cards further, and serves to inform a bit
more about the Osho Zen tradition and the life of
Buddha.
The deck itself deserves great praise, as each card is a
stunningly beautiful piece of artwork. It is one of the
few decks I bought mainly for the art. You can very
easily just sit and look through this deck over and over
again and not get bored of it. The artwork does vary
however, from delicate water-colour pieces to bold
geometric designs, and then to more cartoon-like images.
This is not off-putting though, and serves to add
variety to the deck.
The Major Arcana, whilst keeping the
traditional meanings and ordering, often use different
imagery. It certainly came as a shock to me to find that
what is usually the High Priest, and is represented by
a religious figure, had become No-Thingness,
represented by total blackness!
You may be confused at the
reference to No-Thingness and this is because I have yet to
mention the changed titles of the Majors. Interestingly,
nowhere in the book does it give the traditional titles,
but because the traditional ordering is kept is it
easy to work out which card is traditionally which. In
this deck the Majors are as follows:
Fool: Fool
Magician: Existence
High Priestess: Inner Voice
Empress: Creativity
Emperor: Rebel
High Priest: No-Thingness
Lovers: Lovers
Chariot: Awareness
Strength: Courage
Hermit: Aloneness
Wheel: Change
Justice: Breakthrough
Hanged Man: New Vision
Death: Transformation
Devil: Conditioning
Tower: Thunderbolt
Star: Silence
Moon: Past Lives
Sun: Innocence
Judgement: Beyond Illusion
World: Completion
There is
also one extra Major Arcana, the Master, which shows
what one can become when they finally break from the
never-ending cycle of birth-death-rebirth (Fool-Completion) and
find Enlightenment. Not surprisingly, this Master card
is illustrated with a painting of Osho himself.
Whilst the new titles of the Majors seen daunting and not
well-chosen when seen without the images, the images
themselves convey the meaning wonderfully and complement the
titles beautifully. These images are very spiritual and
often humorous, conveying the meaning in quite an
anecdotal way. For instance, the Innocence (Sun) card shows
a white-haired old man, laughing joyfully, totally
engrossed in the rather predatory-looking praying mantis
which is perched on his index finger. Such images touch
the heart, and often one finds oneself 'aw'-ing over
the cards!
The Minors are changed quite considerably.
The titles, e.g. 5 of Swords, are not shown on
the cards, and instead a word conveying the meaning is
on them. The suits are Fire, Water, Clouds, and
Rainbows instead of Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles
respectively. On the Minors can be found the number of the card
inside a small diamond of the suit's colour: Either grey
(Clouds), red (Fire), blue (Water), or rainbow (Rainbows).
Like the Majors, the images on the Minors convey the
meaning very well, but I doubt one could gain meaning from
some of them if they did not have the keywords on them.
These images, again, are often very humorous,
anecdotal, and some very symbolic. For instance, the 8 of
Water, 'Letting Go', portrays a cluster of green leaves
over a pool, and from one of the leaves is dripping a
small droplet of water.
The Court cards do not bear
titles on the cards themselves either. Instead, inside
the coloured diamond representing the suit, is an
arrow pointing in one of the cardinal directions. North
is King, East is Knight, South is Queen, and West is
Page. This is difficult to get used to at first, but
the Court cards are improved greatly by the keywords
on them. It is not uncommon for the Courts to be
illustrated without actual people, as the courts in this deck
tend to convey concepts more than people.
The backs
of these cards are gorgeous: Very earthy and
oriental. Not reversible, but it is doubtful that one could
tell which way up the card was anyway as the back
design is not of anything specific.
Overall, this is not
a deck I would suggest for beginners or people who
find little value in the philosophies of Osho or Zen
Buddhism. However, it is a stunningly attractive deck, and
one that should have a place in the home of the
collector. Reading with it could prove tricky though at
first, and it is a deck aimed more at healing and
spiritual growth spreads that at your standard Future
readings.
Kim Huggens is a 22 year old Tarot reader and Pagan, currently studying an MA in Religion in Late Antiquity at Cardiff University, UK. She has studied Tarot since the age of 9, and is the co-creator of the forthcoming Sol Invictus: The God Tarot as well as the in-progress companion deck, an as-yet unnamed Goddess Tarot.
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