Osho Zen: DoW18: Joan Marie

[Joan Marie]

This deck, the Osho Zen just arrived this week.

I'm not sure about it. I'm going to withhold judgement. But I think this deck may have a very specific use for me outside of regular readings.

One thing I want to get out of the way is that I do not care for the packaging.

It's a 2-piece box. The white part slides out (not so easily) from the main sleeve. It reminds me of how computer software is packaged, or children's toys. It's not a particularly nice way to access a deck. And lifting the cards out of their little bed is also awkward. I would prefer even a tuck-box to this. But I think part of the issue is the booklet and the need to make something that would accommodate it. But there are so many options these days for boxes, really nice ones. But I suspect this packaging was designed a long time ago (I think the original deck is from 1994) and they just have not chosen to update it. Options for packaging even just a few years ago were very limited and extremely expensive to produce. I think I may have to find some other housing for this deck because I just can't get the idea of software out of my head.

But with that out of the way, I will now try and focus on the deck this week. I'll start with a little draw for today.

Interesting to combine springtime flowers and the idea of maturity. Ageing as a blossoming. I do like that idea. becoming kinder, more supple and open as opposed to brittle. When you think about it, it is when you are young that you tend to break more easily, lose your temper, become offended and hurt. With maturity you learn to listen and hear what isn't said. You see what isn't shown, you sense what is not apparent. You become more graceful in your demeanour, more peaceful within.

A lovely card and a lovely message for a Sunday.

[Abigail]

I don't like this kind of box either, it is not practical.
I wonder if the publisher does not have a standard box size.
A friend bought this deck a long time ago. The box was made of flexible cardboard with a small white paper booklet.

[Joan Marie]

A friend bought this deck a long time ago. The box was made of flexible cardboard with a small white paper booklet.

I don't really know anything about this deck's history or permutations it has gone through in packaging or booklet, but I wonder if the one your friend got was a bootleg. I say that because this deck comes with a pretty substantial booklet and I would suspect that anyone making a Pirate copy might skimp on that and replace it with a cheap little LWB.

I just checked the ISBN number on the book and it says it was published in 1995, same as the deck. hmm.

[Joan Marie]

Creativity

This card corresponds to the Empress.

It portrays the power and influence of nature (earth) and the heavens in the act of creation.

It reminds me that today I really need to get myself aligned, grounded and connected. That's where my energy will come from and it's a good start to the week. It's worth taking the time for.

[Joan Marie]

I'm starting to warm up to this deck.

Today's card, if you look closely, shows many hands coming together. It's about taking an active role in the creation of something, not being passive.

Things can feel so overwhelming at times but really the only way out from under all that is to begin and to stay with it and even when it feels like the waves are crashing over your head, you stay with it.

I'll make it to the beach eventually. But not without effort and not without help.

[Joan Marie]

This deck is call the Osho Zen Tarot but I wonder if it is more like something between a Tarot deck and an Oracle.

I honestly don't know and am asking the question. It's like there are 78 cards but the similarity stops there. But I'm feeling very much in flux right now on how I feel about a lot of things so this is just in the mix.
I'm just working with it for now and learning a lot about a lot of things including a current discussion in another thread about what oracle decks even are.

But for today, I will examine this card and consider what it could mean for me today.

And I have to mention something else strange. I usually do the "Today's Card" you see on the home page before I do this draw and so often the themes overlap coincidentally or synchronistically, and today is no different. The Today's card was about Depth. And I see a similar message here.

She's standing next to the tree but instead of just admiring it or thinking about what she knows about it or about trees, she's actually trying to connect, to find its depth, her own depth really.

This is very much a theme for me today, something I will keep in mind. I do have a lot of things on my mind.

[Joan Marie]

Yesterday I mentioned how I do the Today's Card and then I do this draw and how so often this draw matches or dovetails directly with the Today's card.

So it is today. I'm really starting to wonder if there is something to how having something in your mind somehow directs the fall of the cards. I mean we have all had the experience of drawing cards that seem to express exactly what we were thinking about. But this, what I am describing with these unrelated but back-to-back draws, is almost like some kind of actual "test" of this phenomena.

The Today's Card was all about not feeling pressured to be busy all the time, to do what feels "right" even if it doesn't seem "productive."

And then for this I draw the Going with the Flow card. (Ace of water:cups)

I really am feeling this today, just live and don't worry about measuring the value of anything.

If nothing else, this second draw really reinforces the first one for sure. Like shuffling and drawing the same card twice: I think it's trying to tell me something.

But who or what is "it?" So in lies the mystery and fascination of all of this.

[Joan Marie]

Oh my.
Weren't we just having a discussion elsewhere on this forum about Oracle banalities?

Sorry but this one just leaves me cold, not only the "keywords" but the image as well.

I'm sure if I tried I could come up with some kind of affirmation type message for myself for the day about how we are all in in this COVID lockdown situation together blah blah blah.

But I just can't. Sorry. This card is just a little too "on the nose" as they say and doesn't really leave any room for anything like divine messaging.

And now I have that earworm and images in my head of 80s pop stars singing earnestly into shared microphones clutching their 80s headsets to one ear.

Huey Lewis, Cindy Lauper, and Kim Carnes singing their hearts out.

[Joan Marie]

pretty card. Reminds me (a lot!) of a photo I took last week:

Again this card dovetails with Today's card on the homepage.

Difficult conditions by way of contrast, underline quiet dignity. Difficulty does not give or imbue anything with dignity, but it does set it off, make it more visible.

Dignity isn't something earned or bestowed. It's something to be recognised if we have the eyes to see it.

[Joan Marie]

My last day (for now) with the Osho Zen.

This is a good card for me today. I've been trying to work on a project and not getting too far with it, except that the concept has grown immensely. Yet despite the fact it sounds really inspired, and it is, I still have been having trouble getting motivated to make any real progress.

I'm a bit strange in that I can be extremely organised, and yet, I am terrible with things like lists and goals and plans. Which makes getting a project going really difficult. Once it's going well, I do a lot better. But I have been in this nascent phase for far too long.
Then a couple of days ago I decided to focus hard on one aspect and just forget the rest. It#s a little more than bite-sized, but at least it seems clear and do-able for me. And it seems to, so far, be working.

So this "Control" card speaks to me. I have to find the balance between being entirely loose-y goose-y with my work or too constricted. neither of those work for me. Finding the sweet spot, control, is what I need and need to stick with.

[Joan Marie]

A few final words on this deck.

I bought it mostly because I had heard people talk about it and I thought I'd try it out.

The artwork is nice and the imagery is evocative.
The keywords are all right, I could have maybe done without them.

With all due respect, I do not care much for the manual. I admit I have not read it carefully or completely but that is in part because the parts I have read just are not saying much to me. It leans really heavily into the zone of "affirmations" finding the silver lining all the time. What I hate about that is it invalidates honest feelings.

For example the card called "Sorrow." In the description uses the example of the loss (death) of one's life partner. And then say this:

The pain is not to make you miserable, the pain is to make you more aware! And when you are aware, misery disappears.

yea...okay.

I don't advise anyone to say this to someone seriously grieving.
Not that there isn't truth in the statement, there is of course. It's just presented in a kind of pithy "Hang in there Baby" tone.

The ideas and concepts are all good and valid. The presentation in the book just feels juvenile to me. That's a bit harsh. But that's how it feels.
Maybe I'm too old!!

The box/packaging I wrote about in the first post.

All that said, there is something about this deck that makes it interesting and I will try it again, but for now I think I will move on to something else for a while and come back to it later.