Scorpio
November 1, 2008
Isn’t it perfect that Halloween is celebrated now, under the sign of the Scorpion (Oct 22 – Nov 22)? The veil between the worlds is at its thinnest and ghosts and skeletons and vampires are at home now, wandering the streets. This is appropriate under the eighth sign, Scorpio, the sign of death, sex, transformations and all mysteries. Contact with the other side can happen easier now for seekers.
During the Depression in Arivaca
November 1, 2008
We are facing the Panic of 2008: an economic downturn, recession, maybe depression. Over the years there have been many of these, but the Great Depression sticks in one’s mind. The Crash of 1929, when on Black Thursday, October 24, a wave of selling began in which the stock market collapsed. Soon after, the worst of that was over, but the economic downturn which became the Great Depression lasted for years, and wasn’t really over until World War II brought about increased military spending. My parents remembered the Depression vividly. My mother, like many people in the 1920s, lost money when her bank failed, and she really didn’t have anything to lose—it was all she had been able to save while working in a menial job. She never forgot this as long as she lived. My father remembered sacks of “splits” or broken pinto beans, which sold for less than whole beans. Tony Prevor said that his family was already being careful with their money and it didn’t affect them as much as other people. Chicago was a big city, though, and you could buy day-old bread for pennies and milk for 7 cents a quart. People made do with the basics. But then, their expectations were different from ours.