Let's Get Metaphysical

Starting Wednesday, Aug. 23, the sun is shifting into Virgo season, leaving behind Leo's bold impulse toward romance and creativity, and moving toward a time of self-examination. If that sentence sparks your interest, there's a hidden gem, with plenty of gems and crystals in stock, on North Main Street in Kent, Conn. Tarot in Thyme, created by Regina Olson, a tarot and astrology reader, is awash in the soothing fragrances of the essential oil bar, the bundles of sage and the citrus-scented wood of the palo santo sticks on display.

Olson, who explained she grew up with a strict Jehovah's Witness background, became interested as an adult in other types of spirituality, studying ancient Chinese practices like feng shui, which seeks to harmonize man-made structures with the environment's natural energy, and 9 Star Ki, a type of Chinese astrology based around numbers and natural elements. Tarot is her calling, however, and in private sessions held in a calming lavender room in the back of the store clients can relax and let the cards unfold.

This is also where psychic medium Janine Mangiamele holds her readings, for both individual and group appointments. Olsen met Mangiamele at a reading in New Milford, Conn., and was enchanted enough to offer her a place at Tarot in Thyme. Vivacious, quick and direct, Mangiamele colorfully describes her connection to the other side as a peek into a crowded party. During a read you're almost invited to picture a boisterous reunion of your ancestors as Mangiamele communicates what she overhears, snippets of spiritual smalltalk.

"People will pop in and say, 'Tell Bob I say hi,' and then that's it, " she said. "Or other people will say, 'Do you remember what happened twenty years ago…' If someone was funny and sarcastic when they were here, they absolutely will when they're passed. A psychic, whether they sketch or use tea leaves, reads information. Loved ones don't speak to them. But as a psychic medium, it's a bit like I'm a double major in college. For me it's both."

Virgo season is a time for solving puzzles, and Mangiamele's readings, which she invites you to record and write down, leave you with plenty of family questions and lore to uncover.

Archive Illustrations Yale University

Archive Illustrations Yale University

Archive Illustrations Yale University

Archive Illustrations Yale University

Latest News

East Canaan's CowPots to face the 'Sharks'

Amanda Freund of East Canaan will appear on the television show "Shark Tank" on April 4 to pitch CowPots.

Photo by Ruth Epstein

CANAAN — Fans of the television show “Shark Tank,” stay tuned. On Friday, April 4, Amanda Freund of East Canaan will be facing the panel, imploring members to invest in her unique product: cow poop.

Freund and her father Matthew Freund produce and market CowPots, which are made from the abundance of manure found on their dairy farm. Matthew Freund, realizing cows were producing more manure — 100 pounds per cow per day — than was needed for fertilizing fields for crops, came up with the concept of the pots. Years of trial-and-error experimentation finally resulted in success. In 2006 he began selling the biodegradable pots using 100% composted manure to local stores. Now the pots can be found in outlets across the country, as well as internationally.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss lacrosse ices Kingswood Oxford 19-0

LAKEVILLE — The Hotchkiss School opened the girls varsity lacrosse season with a big win in the snow against Kingswood Oxford School.

The Bearcats won 19-0 in a decisive performance March 26. Twelve different players scored for Hotchkiss, led by Coco Sheronas with four goals.

Keep ReadingShow less
HVRHS releases second quarter honor roll

FALLS VILLAGE — Principal Ian Strever announces the second quarter marking period Honor Roll at Housatonic Valley Regional High School for the 2024-2025 school year.

Highest Honor Roll

Grade 9: Parker Beach (Cornwall), Mia Belter (Salisbury), Lucas Bryant (Cornwall), Addison Green (Kent), Eliana Lang (Salisbury), Alison McCarron (Kent), Katherine Money (Kent), Mira Norbet (Sharon), Abigail Perotti (North Canaan), Karmela Quinion (North Canaan), Owen Schnepf (Wassaic), Federico Vargas Tobon (Salisbury), Emery Wisell (Kent).

Keep ReadingShow less
Thomas Ditto

ANCRAMDALE — Thomas Ditto of Ancramdale, born Thomas David DeWitt Aug. 11, 1944 in New York City changing his surname to Ditto at marriage, passed peacefully on Pi Day, March 14, 2025. He was a husband, father, artist, scientist, Shakespeare scholar, visionary, inventor, actor, mime, filmmaker, clown, teacher, lecturer, colleague, and friend. Recipient of numerous grants, awards and honors in both the arts and sciences, a Guggenheim and NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts fellow, he was a creative genius beyond his time. In addition to authoring scores of papers, he held several patents and invented the first motion capture system and the Ditto-scope, a radically new kind of telescope. He was a pioneer in computer generated video, film, and performance.

When not hard at work, he was always there to help when needed and he knew how to bring smiles to faces. He loved his family and pets and was supportive of his wife’s cat rescue work.

Keep ReadingShow less