When Theo de Laurence in 1918 word for word copied Arthur E. Waite`s book "The Pictorial Key to the Tarot" and published it under his own name together with a monocolored edition of the Waite/Smith tarot deck, tarot found a place in esoteric circles in the USA. Like in Europe, the number of people interested in the intricacies of the esoteric tarot and its references to the Hebrew alphabet, to the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, to numerology and astrology were limited and it stayed so for several decades. To comprehend the esoteric tarot in those days, as it was described in the few books on the subject, demanded a lengthy and concentrated study, which was only for the dedicated few.

In the mid-to-late 1960`s, however, a new era for tarot in the USA began. With a generation of youngsters having grown up with comic books as their primary lecture, the soil was ready. I remember that my aunt in California after the Second World War apparently felt that her European relatives did not only need long missed groceries, like coffee and chocolate, but also a splash of American culture. Among the many parcels that found their way over here, she included big boxes of comic book series featuring all kinds of heroes like Superman and Batman and whatever else they were called, so unfamiliar and strange to me. I looked at them with amazement and read the sparsely written caption bubbles and did not really grasp them, having grown up with stories told in words and not pictures, as I was. I found them rather boring, so I gave them away (but I hate to think of what a treasure they would be today, had I kept them).

To the hippie generation in the 1960`s USA, comic books, however, were an integrated part of their growth, and when copies of the Waite/Smith tarot deck popped up in their circles in the 1960`s, they found an ever changing and endless comic book to read, which they did. Tarot reading became an integrated part of the scene. People experimented with tarot, they copied, changed, and re-colored the Waite/Smith images, publishing these variations in small editions. In the 1970`s the commercial publishers saw the light: this was not only a passing trend but an opportunity with a lot of profit inherent. Esoteric tarot was still only for the few, card reading became essential for the many. A large number of popular books substituted the former texts so difficult to read: "How to Read Tarot Cards for Yourself", "Find Your Lucky Card", "Your Daily Reading". Therapists and psychologists followed suit, using the tarot deck as a tool for their sessions instead of former days` Rorschach test cards, workshops were given, card readers "exchanged readings" with each other and attended each other's workshops. Weak and undecided people became convinced that they needed a tarot reader to help them clarify their problems, regardless if these were romantic, economic or career related. Tarot became a mass medium and a part of many people's daily life.

One of the more obscure of the tarot reading activities are the telephone tarot reading services. For an amount of $4-5 per minute (!) you have access to your own so-called psychic reader, who claims to be able to help you on with your life. One prominent telephone reader, maybe the most prominent of them all, was Miss Cleo, the subject of this review. Miss Cleo, promoted as a "genuine Jamaican Shaman", reached her audience through TV advertisements. In contrast to most other TV card readers, she had no hosts around her, just sat smilingly behind a table with a stack of cards and answered in an entertaining way and with a Caribbean accent the phone calls that came through. After the TV show people could call another phone number and get in direct contact with the famous reader to have their personal problems solved.

The show was a great success and went on for a long time. Then the company behind her decided to twist the screws a bit more. They sent unsolicited messages to potential customers stating that "Miss Cleo has had a special vision about YOU— it is important that you call her immediately!" Persons who responded with a call were switched on to a 900 (paying/toll) number and to one of many card tarot readers and charged for the call, often without being told there was going to be a fee.

By and by, a great number of complaints led to that Attorney Generals in several U.S. states took the company to court and eventually, of course, Miss Cleo herself was called to testify. During her court appearance, she had to admit that she was not a Jamaican shaman after all, but an actress named Youree Cleomili Harris, whose mother was from Florida and whose father was from Texas.

Reporters dug into the details and could soon reveal that Miss Cleo's "personal advice" were taken directly out of a popular text book with tarot card interpretations, which resulted in another court case, raised by the book publishers against the multimillion dollar phone syndicate controlled by two South Florida businessmen, who were pulling the strings behind "Miss Cleo's performance. In this connection I can mention a story I heard from a friend of mine, who worked at the sex-line of one of the telephone service syndicates. She worked at the sex-line, which was situated on one floor of the syndicate's building, the card readers were on another floor. When there was a lack of tarot readers present, excessive sex-girls were sent to the card reader floor to take the calls. The opposite, however, did not happen(!)

Shortly before the Miss Cleo scandal became front page news on several papers, a "Miss Cleo Tarot deck" had been published. A large chain of pharmacies, "Walgreens" had received the exclusive rights to distribute the Miss Cleo tarot. Many thousands of packs had been distributed to pharmacies all over the USA. When the scandal began they were taken off the shelves and sent back.

The Miss Cleo tarot is available as a deck only, or as a set with an instructional video on tarot reading, featuring Miss Cleo herself. The quality of the cards is fine, the faces of the characters might be intended to look Caribbean, yet there is an obvious mixture influence from traditional Egyptian style tarot decks and the Waite/Smith tarot. There is a small booklet enclosed also. The presentation box which also holds the video is solid and of better quality than most similar packing. It shall be noted that the video is in US format and not the European PAL-system.