Your Guide to Community, Politics, Ar ts and Culture in Nor th Denver DenverNorthStar.com
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Volume 2, Issue 12
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September 15, 2021-October 14, 2021
Psychics and Tarot Card Readers Aplenty in North Denver Shops
Practitioners Ready to Help Believers Better Themselves
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ALWAYS FREE!
With Seasonal Flu Coming, Northside COVID Vaccine Rates Are Mixed By Bill Menezes
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COMMUNITY Safety Improvements at 32nd and Lowell PAGE 6
ARTS & CULTURE Interested in Learning to Sing? PAGE 9
Arcana owner Sadie McGarry, with shop kitty, Lilin
PHOTO BY KATHRYN WHITE
By Kathryn White
J COMMUNITY First "social equity" Dispensary Likely Opening in North Denver PAGE 10
HEALTH & WELLNESS Birding PAGE 16
KIDS & EDUCATION DPS COVID Numbers PAGE 12
POLITICS Elected Official Update PAGE 15
ewelz Truly sat relaxed and smiling from behind a small draped table at the Highland Street Fair. Awaiting her next customer, several decks of cards and an assortment of candles stood between Truly and a chair that didn’t stay empty for long. It was a coming home of sorts: Truly used to live nearby on West Moncrieff Place with her grandmother, whom she first read tarot cards with when she was younger. Truly’s grandmother learned over many years from a friend, and when Truly brought home her first tarot deck, she began to pass along what she knew. Since then Truly has explored and developed her gift for reading tarot cards for others. North Denver’s arterial streets of West Colfax Avenue, Sheridan Boulevard, West 38th Avenue, and Federal Boulevard have long been home to large signs advertising tarot card readings, psychics, palm readers, and more. If you crave some direction in your work or romantic lives, there are options. And if you look a little further—to side streets or online— you’ll find even more. The area boasts a number of shops and independent practitioners geared toward supporting your spiritual life with a range of products and services. The Denver North Star spoke with several to learn about what’s available. Along the way, we picked up some guidance on navigating what’s offered. For Heaven’s Sake metaphysical store (4900 West 46th Avenue) has operated in North Denver for 21 years. Initially on West 32nd Avenue, then Tennyson Street, the shop is now across from Scheitler Rec Center. Long-timers in the neighborhood will remember when The Enchanted Chalice, next to the original Common Grounds coffee shop, changed hands and became For Heaven’s Sake. The store offers books, aromatherapy products, divination tools, healing crystals, jewelry, and more. They also host a rotation of what they describe as spiritual services: tarot readings, reiki energy and bodywork, and psychic fairs. Owner Dianne Fresquez built the business through creative approaches (she wasn’t previously trained in business) and is proud of their numerous offerings today. “If you can create your sacred space from some of the things we have in the store, then we’ve done
our job well.” Newer to the scene is Arcana Herbal (2834 West 44th Avenue) in Sunnyside. Owner Sadie McGarry, who identifies as a witch, opened the shop during the pandemic. The shop is flourishing, McGarry reports, and she’s eager to emphasize the shop’s inclusiveness. She welcomes people of all paths into the shop, “and anyone looking to add healing to their spiritual practice.” Equally important is a focus on healing through what she describes as shadow work, or an awareness around aspects of our self where we might want to release shame or find balance. Arcana sells gemstones, bath salts, teas, ritual mists, tarot decks, and more. Many products are made locally, and the shop also offers classes. When it comes to spiritual, psychic, or psychic medium services, North Denver has just as much to offer. But first let’s clarify our understanding of a few terms encountered in our reporting. According to Rebecca Rosen, a psychic medium who has appeared on The Rachael Ray Show, Entertainment Tonight, and Oprah.com, “Psychics tune into the energy of people or objects by feeling or sensing elements of their past, present and future. Simply put, psychics rely on their basic sense of intuition and psychic ability to gather information for the person being read.” And psychic mediumship, for Rosen, adds to that an emphasis on “making connections with and delivering messages from people who are no longer living to those who still are.” She receives “information primarily and directly from the dead, spirit guides and angels.” We’ve mentioned tarot cards and tarot card readings. In Hunter Oatman-Stanford’s June 2014 Collectors Weekly article, “Tarot Mythology: The Surprising Origins of the World's Most Misunderstood Cards,” much about the history and evolution of tarot cards is explored. What likely began in Turkey in the 14th century as a playful divination game, has morphed over time and geography, taking on meaning shaped by the peoples using them and the surrounding times and cultures.
See PYSCHICS, Page 6
he Northside has a checkered record so far when it comes to neighborhood residents vaccinated against COVID-19, with some areas surpassing city and national averages and others still trying to catch up as of late August. The good news: By late August, Vaccination rates were inching higher across metro Denver, a trend local health officials want to continue as the seasonal flu period approaches late in the year. The Metro Denver Partnership for Health, comprising COVID strategy groups to coordinate work by CDPHE, the Colorado Health Institute, Denver Public Health, Gov. Jared Polis’ office and others, is tracking vaccination status with an interactive map available at https://www. coloradohealthinstitute.org/metro-denver-covid-19-vaccination-map. Although the data are grouped by U.S. Census tracts, which often overlap local neighborhood lines or ZIP Codes, they provide clear, updated snapshots of how Northside neighborhoods are doing. Many Northside neighborhoods including Berkeley, West Highland, Potter Highlands and parts of Sunnyside, have topped an average of 75% of residents older than age 12 having received at least one dose of vaccine. None were at less than 50% average.
Although no single factors consistently indicated whether a neighborhood likely had a higher or lower vaccination rate, household income disparities at times reflected widely divergent vaccination status. That compared with the Denver County 79.4% rate of residents older than age 12 having gotten one dose as of Aug. 29, according to Denver Public Health data. That also compared with the national rate of 62% with one dose by that time, according to Centers for Disease Control (CDC) figures. Behind the overall averages are sometimes widely varying vaccination rates across the Northside, shaped by such factors as economic status, resident age and other determinants of who has gotten their shots in the roughly nine months since they became available. For example, in tracts comprising Berkeley more than 87% of residents over 12 have received at least one shot. Sloan’s Lake and Highland/Highland Park areas also topped 87%, while much of Sunnyside had an 80% or better vaccination rate for people over 12.
See VACCINE, Page 12