Meaning of Courage in the Osho Zen Tarot

Card No. 8

This is a master card of the Osho tarot, because it delivers a genuine life lesson. So, when he meets it along his spiritual journey, the Fool listens to it carefully. He first learns that it will do him no good to blame someone or something when a hard blow comes his way, but that he will indeed have to face the challenge in order to come through with honours. He will then understand that trials must not be avoided or denied, but that once again they must be gone through in order to come out both unscathed and respected.

The Courage card expresses these notions and moral values well, by depicting a resplendent flower facing a radiant sun. But when you look at it a little more closely, you realise that it had to go through a great many trials and challenges to get where it is. Indeed, starting out as a tiny seed planted under the ground, it let itself be transformed into a fragile stem which, over time, forces its way through rocks and stones, to end up facing the light of the sun and thus become a flower. The path of this flower, which was long and perilous, is the best symbol one could find to give shape to the notion of courage.

In a divinatory reading, the Courage card reveals that in order to bring about any action or project, you will have to go against your own fears and thus get very close to what usually repels you and forces you to turn back. The card therefore encourages you to give yourself the means necessary for your success.

Keywords: Bravery, Ordeal, Challenge, Perseverance, Confidence, Surpassing