Did Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh participate in the creation of this deck? It is impossible to separate him from the creation of that deck. I lived for so many years in his community, my rooms were in his house. His presence throughout that creative time permeated the making of the deck.
Did he give it his seal of approval?
Yes. He was still alive when a marvelous tarot reader and German disciple, Ma Jivan Upasika, asked Osho about creating a tarot deck. He said she should do it and then she came to me. So I sent some drawings in for Osho to consider and his response was that I was to create the cards. Little did I know that within a year or so Upasika would leave the commune and I would eventually carry the bulk of that project (for 5 years in total). So the creation of what we now have as the Osho Zen Tarot, all the paintings, including the design of the cards, the commentaries for the book and finally selecting the quotes from Osho's Zen discourses was an ongoing work that I kept steadily at while other projects and community functions were also tended to. My studio was in the house where the master lived for many years. His presence never left, even after his body died. SO often I felt him smiling as though in the room with me as I painted late into many a night.
While he was alive he always supported my creative expression and creating the Osho Zen Deck was a personally transforming and profound work between master and devoted disciple. For years I had literally prayed in the early years of my disciplehood that my creative abilities would one day support his teachings. It wasn't too far into the project that I was certain this work would be just that. It was clear to me way before anyone really saw what I was doing that it would be used, loved and respected by hundreds of thousands of people the world over. That has all come to pass. And if I'm not mistaken it is the most popular Osho title at present and is in 14 or 15 foreign translations.
What were his views on tarot, if any?
As I recall he was never big on esoteric secrecy or practices, his way was to open the mysteries so that humanity could grow into a new species with greater presence, responsibility and intelligence, what he referred to as The New Man. Aquarian vision to the max!
What made you decide to add the Master card as an additional Major Arcana card?
It was not my decision. I can't say whether it was Ma Jivan Upasika's idea or whether in those early days Osho had requested she include him in the deck. I never questioned it as it made total sense to me that a card for The Master should be there.
Try it both ways and see what works better for you