Back in the 1800s, a medium from Pike,New York was directed by his guide – Seneca – to establish a Spiritualist community in the South. He ended up in central Florida, which was mostly swamps and mangroves, totally uninhabitable in my book! But on December 18, 1894, the Cassadaga Spiritualist camp was officially chartered.
Today, the camp consists of 57 acres with 55 homes, two lakes (Colby Lake and Spirit Lake), a haunted hotel, a bookstore, gift shops, and mediums, psychics, astrologers, tarot readers, healers. I first went there in the 1970s, when I was in graduate school, and had a mind blowing reading with a psychometrist, Wilbur Hull, a quadrapelegic. After Rob and I met in the 1980s, we began going there every so often, usually when en route elsewhere. Over the years, we got to know Hazel Burley, one of the mediums in the camp, and her husband, Art.
The friendship started around 1984, when we were walking around the quiet streets in town, checking out the various little houses, most of them posted with signs that read, Reverend So and So, followed by the person’s psychic expertise. The sign outside of Hazel and Art’s place was simpler:
So we went in and had readings. The synchronicity in our meeting Hazel was that her mentor had been Wilbur Hull, the quadrapelegic with whom I had my first reading in Cassadaga. Ever since then, we always drop by Hazel’s when we’re in town.
On our way back from the book fair in St. Augustine, we stopped overnight in Cassadaga, stayed at the haunted hotel (that’s another story) and this morning, dropped by to say hi to Hazel. We hadn’t seen her for three years and discovered that her husband, Art, passed on in December 2006. But as always, Hazel is the paragon of graciousness and intellectual curiosity and the three of us settled in her comfortable reading room and talked.
The conversation turned, invariably, to her wonderful collection of books. She pulled out a 1962 edition of a Sydney Omarr book that we’d never seen. Thought Dials, based on his numerology system.
Since Rob and I have been writing Omarr’s astrology books since 2003 when he died, we were most interested. We were also curious about whether our contract for these books is going to be renewed. We didn’t tell Hazel about our contract concerns, but she said, “Let me show you two how his marvelous thought dial works. Think of a question, then you each turn the dial to three different numbers.”
As she was demonstrating how it worked, we both had the feeling that Omarr was giving us a reading about the future of his books! The upshot? Rob’s numbers added up to a 1, mine added up to a 9. The beginning, the end. And the interpretations that Omarr had written for these two numbers perfectly describes the situation.I’ve since ordered the book so that when this whole thing shakes out, we can post his words, about those numbers.
There’s a certain synchronicity in timing here, too. We had thought about dropping by Hazel’s the night before, but learned this morning that she hadn’t been home. So our timing for this morning was perfect. She was home and in between clients.
– Trish
Trish and I also both had readings with a couple of the psychics who live just outside of the camp. The ones who aren’t members of the Cassadaga Spiritualist Association, as Hazel is, usually are card readers, not mediums. The association is very strict on rules and adding new people.
Trish’s reading was positive about her career and things in general. I sort of complained that psychics usually are very positive, because it makes you feel good, like you got your money’s worth. They rarely tell you that anything negative is coming your way.
So I had a reading with a guy named Mike, who used a native American deck. I picked eight cards and he talked for 45 minutes. When he got around to asking if I had any questions, I asked about my left foot, which was fractured this past summer. “Will it get better so it doesn’t bother me anymore?”
He answered instantly: “Oh, that foot is going to give you pain the rest of your life.”
Hmm, so much for complaining about positive readings. That’s a good example of a trickster synchronicity.
Rob
Hi Sean, Good to hear from you. We met you and your mother once years ago. You were a young kid. We always enjoy visiting your grandmother when we are in Casadaga. She's very gracious and personable… and a very good medium.
I landed on this blog while searching for inforation on Wilbur Hull. Just thought I'd say hi. I'm glad you've always had great experiences in Cassadaga.
–Hazel's Grandson Sean
Thasnks, Hilton! We're going to get this one.
Hi, Rob/Tish
Did you see the NYTimes September 16th article on Jung's secret Red Book? I just stumbled across it. Fascinating reading. Would love to read the actual book. Blogspot won't let me paste the URL in, but the title of the article is "The Holy Gail of Unconciousness" by Sara Corbett. I think you'd enjoy it.
Amazingly, we found a Google alert on synchronicity and Cassadaga. Thinking it was ours, we clicked it only to find that someone else posted on the same subject – Cassadaga and synchronicity – and his post appeared one day after ours. We're following up on it.
Sorry to say it Rob, but had a feeling about the foot…
I was very fortunate to find, and hook up with, an exceptional reader who guided me through with annual reading/updates for a few years. She called herself a Life Counselor and admitted that for me, she did it all. Charts, tarot and palmistry. Of the three, I'd recommend the palmistry insights over a few years of living life.
I also recommend taking an annual update journey with one guider/counselor, like your relationship with Hazel. My counselor and I were so connected that I can listen to the readings from a few years ago, and understand so much more about how it has manifested in "real time".
That's where the beauty begins to flow, when time and daily details are put into the perspective of a journey that takes years of growth.
Ohhhh that is so spooky (you last comment)!
This little town sounds so interesting. I would love to go there sometime. I think this reading is a good indication the contract will go through just as you would like it to.
Trish forgot to mention that the woman in the next room woke up the night before in the middle of the night to find one of the ghost girls in her room. The creepy part was the girl climbed in bed with her. The woman, instead of freaking out, said to her: "Ghosts don't sleep."
She claimed the ghost girl replied, "You remind me of my Mommy." Spooky.
Gypsy – wow, is this woman still around? A psychic like that is rare!
Jarielyn- there are supposedly two little ghost girls who wander the hallway on the first floor. We didn't see them, but around 2 AM, I woke and that image from The Shining popped into my head – the kid madly pedaling his tricyle up the hall in that haunted hotel! Didn't sleep well there.
This is very interesting. I would love to go visit Cassadaga and stay in the haunted hotel.
I didn't know you two wrote Sydney Omar's books. I've always loved his astrology books.
I think that is totally cool.
It's so hard to find a psychic/medium who is accurate and honest. Love your story.
This is a fabulous post.
oh, gee! what a wonderful place! need to start feeding my piggy [bank] better and faster!
and listen, speaking of card readers – several years ago when i was living in the dc area, my daughter and i went to visit a card reader in a tiny little village/town about an hour from the city – we had heard about her through a number of people – they all swore that she was right on! so we trekked up one day – she sat at a table in the corner of a little cafe where, if you wanted a reading, you just went in, ordered a bite or something, and waited your turn – anyway, let me just tell you that i nearly fell out of my chair with what she told me – it was as if this woman had been following me around the last two years – literally! same thing with my daughter – absolutely incredible – she told me about my son's near fatal illness and that he was "as well as he would ever be" – about the man with whom i was in a relationship at the time, including his profession [he wore white and worked with his hands] which was that of a surgeon – she went on and on – the only thing she missed at all was she said that she saw a critical heart problem for me and that i would require surgery within a few months time to save my life – as it turned out, within a few weeks, totally out of the blue, my oldest daughter had this problem –
sorry i digressed so – another great interesting intriguing post, boys and girls!
Great link, Vanessa. Very interesting interpretations.
Thanks for the tarot link, Vanessa. I'll try it out. Check out http://www.astro.com. You can get a free chart there.
OMG, an honest psychic. Love that. I know real-life readings are better, but I've found a tarot site that has never steered me wrong: https://www.pov-int.com/en_us/3card_reading. (Just be sure to focus on your problem/question before clicking.) However, I'm curious if you guys know of a good site for astrological charts–not just the sun and moon signs, but all of the planets/houses (?). As spiritual as I am, I'm amazed I've never had that done.