The Osho Transformation Tarot: Insights and Parables for Renewal in Everyday Life [Paperback]

Really, the book is what attracted me to this collection. I saw it a few weeks ago, started reading the back of the box and realized that the book was pretty much what I'd been wanting for a while: a book of parables. I'd had a fondness for mythology since middle school, but rarely indulged to this degree. The stories are from different paths (Sufism, Islam, Hinduism, Christiantity, etc.), and each corresponds to one of the 60 cards ... except when the cards double up on a story to impress an opposite meaning. This deck, as is the Osho Zen Tarot, is named for a man who loved to tell such parables to his followers, the Bagwaan Shri Ragneesh (remember that old dude who led the commune in Oregon?), but he's only really mentioned in the intro and closing of the book.

Not having read many parables, I find this book utterly charming. The cards and illustrations I find a bit less so, but I think that for the first time since collecting divination decks, the artwork is less important to me for understanding the meaning behind the cards.

The cards measure 5.25" x 3.25", and are bordered with a grey pattern on the picture side. The backs feature an orange circle painting that is also shown on the box. The artwork is amazingly colorful and, while I've seen decks that are visually more appealing to me I will say that the drawings are very skillfully rendered and fairly often get across the point of the story. I've been told that I have big hands for a woman, but I'd find this deck little tricky to shuffle playing-card style (which doesn't seem to suit the mood of the deck anyway). The cards are covered with a semi-glossy and not terribly slick coating.

This deck is probably one of the best divinatory systems I've ever picked up. The book is gripping, so as to not force memorization of the cards as much as to make reading them intuitive. I feel as if I know -- a little bit -- the people portrayed in the stories ... and many of the meanings behind the cards are things I've consciously pondered on my own.

Aside from the word "tarot," I feel that this deck is exactly what it's title claims it to be. If you learn well from stories, I highly recommend this deck.

Some versions of this deck feature an extra card with Osho's picture, which is missing from this version. Personally, I dont like this card as I feel as if it encourages a personality cult.

This set includes 60 cards. The art is beutiful and simple - no heavy symbolism (= no astrology, numerology, cabbala, etc) as in decks like Crowley Thoth or Rider-Waite-Smith.

The book gives for each card a short explanation and a story from which the scene on the card is taken. The stories are multi-cultural (zen stories, jewish stories, chrisitian stories, etc), feature known figures (e.g. Moses, famous zen teachers), and are very enlightening.

The stories themselves are interesting and readable enough to make this deck worth it's price just for the value of the book as reading material.

The deck leads to a warm and personal reading style - both the reader and the readee can relate to the stories and figures in the cards. The reading session has more in common with story telling than with horoscopes (a la 'you'll meet a tall dark stranger') which is different from, and to my taste favourable over, that encouraged by other decks.

All in all I highly and warmly recommend this deck.