Mama Cleo

Back when I was in college and discovering/exploring new things in the universe (ie: looking past my Roman Catholic upbringing), I discovered Tarot. I know there are a lot of people who equate tarot with Mama Cleo and fake fortune tellers, but Tarot and the power of the cards has survived for centuries before that fake Jamaican actress. THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO HEAR THE VOICE OF THE DIVINE...

Tarot is one of those things that you can do....or you can't. No ifs, ands or buts. When I decided to pick it up and try it, I wanted to use it as a spiritual tool. So, before I laid out a spread for my guinea pigs (family and friends), I said (still say) a prayer to the Holy Spirit and ask that they help me to communicate the message that God wants the person to hear.

Surprises of suprises, I was actually REALLY good at it. So, I decided to go commercial (big F'in mistake). This was the late-90's before the fall of Cleo. (I actually worked about a month for Mama Cleo's sight and quit when they didn't pay me.) They were a bunch of fakes and I didn't want anything to do with it. After getting the "Training Manual" I realized that the majority of people who worked for her were absolute idiots and the manual encouraged you to lie and tell the querant what they wanted to hear. That's not the spirit of God and I couldn't take it.

Still, I knew I had a gift. Still, I knew I had helped some people realize what they already knew. I wasn't going to give up. After the Cleo-Catastrophe I researched a bit further and found a different Tarot line.

Before they allowed me on the line, they sent me through and interview and a test (novel idea, huh?). I had to get on the phone line with someone, not knowing if they were male or female, nothing about them at all, and lay out the Celtic Cross Spread. If I wasn't 100% accurate in my reading, they wouldn't offer me a job.

I did it. And God how I regret it. Every reading I gave was fine until one night a girl who was living in California came on the line. Her first question was whether or not her boyfriend could find out what it was she talked about. I told her no, but the number would show up on the phone bill.

She was scared. I started laying out her cards and stopped.

I told her I could see she was in trouble. I asked her who it was that was dangerous to her.

She told me her story about how she came to California with her current boyfriend, who had apparently killed her ex boyfriend in Ohio (a drug deal gone VERY bad). She was worried her was going to turn on her and hurt her.

I didn't need my cards for this one. I told her to hang up the phone, go somewhere safe and go home to her mom in Ohio. I've never had an intuition stronger in my life than this. If she didn't do exactly what I said, she was going to die.

I spent a half an hour on the phone, desperately telling her to do what I said, and to this day, 8.5 years later, I'll never know if she followed my advice.

I saw her death in my cards, (the only time I've ever seen it, Tarot doesn't work that way) and felt it in her situation and I only hope she listened.

I hung up my cards that night. At least in regards to strangers. I didn't even touch them for months after that reading, no matter how desperate my friends were for advice.

I couldn't and I wouldn't. I still to this day pray for that girl, so many years and miles away....

I hope she listened to me. I pray for her, that she did...