Julie Balavia is a great gal to have on your side.  A genuine, in-the-blood strega* (how often have you seen one of them?)  she is an incredibly talented psychic.  I’m willing to place betting-man’s odds the true believers will be impressed and the hardened skeptics will come away shaking their heads and puzzling over how exactly “she does it.”  Simply put, she’s the genuine article: a ruby shining in the modern world’s pile of gravel.

So, why is the Reverend writing about a psychic?  Psychics are a lot like psychiatrists, bartenders, and undertakers: when times are bad, they see a lot of business.

The economy has hit some rough times, and it seems to be on everybody’s mind: from Mr. President during his State of the Union to the neighborhood gossip. At the time of writing this, the latest jobless figures quoted are 1 in 10, but this does not take into account those who have been unemployed so long they have exhausted unemployment, or taken what they could to survive but are “under employed,” meaning they are not really using the full range of skills (ie: a lawyer washing dishes to get by, for example.)

The following interview with Julie by a local Rochester, NY based news team is re-printed for not-for-profit educational purposes only (and with the hope of providing some comfort and hope to the concerned.)

Julie Balavia, Psychic and owner of Mystic Moon

News 8 Reports:
Psychics see Boom in Tough Economy
Reported by: Matt Molloy
Wednesday, Jan 14, 2009
@09:35pm EST

Julie Baliva is a psychic medium with more than 40 years of experience. In this recession she says clients are more focused on finances than anything else.

“It’s not necessarily are they losing their jobs, they’re all terrified they are going to lose it,” said Baliva. So they come to her for guidance. “I try to tell people don’t be the person who waits until the job is over and it’s the end. Let’s take some action first and get you right into a job somewhere so there is not down time or time for you to worry about things,” said Baliva.

“My business has always been prosperous. Unfortunately, it’s busier when there are times of crisis. It’s simply the way it works,” said Baliva.

Jason Klaum has been a client for the past year. His focus most recently, “Success, my job, how well I’m going to do in the future,” said Klaum.

Klaum hopes future visits won’t focus so much on finances.

“I think if the economy’s better, everybody’s lives improve a little bit more and the outlook might be better as far as what I might find out,” he said.

In the meantime a shaky economy means more concerned customers for psychics like Baliva.

“I give people the faith in knowing that this is going to be very short term. That this isn’t something you need to go into a major panic,” she said.

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*Strega:  The word is simply Italian for “female witch” (male is “Stregone,” plural, “Stregharia.”). This ancient form of Italian witchcraft has been passed for generations through family lines, and I have often heard it is inherited through blood lines, and, unlike other systems of magic, can not simply be taught, despite several attempts to popularize and mass-market it.  Charles Godfrey Leland, an American folklorist from Philadelphia, took an interest in this, claimed to have found a genuine strega, and, in 1899, with Christian bias firmly in hand, wrote Aradia, Gospel of the Witches (available for free to read in its entirety here).  This began popularizing a mythic image of the Stregharia as devil worshiping sex-fiends or curse-casting crones lobing the malocchio at all who crossed their path. Whether her account was true or whether she was having a bit of fun at Leland’s expense is a mystery kept by the Stregharia alone.   I chose this link as it appears closer to  realistic, but can not fully endorse anything.  After all, I am not a Strega. (Julie is a much better resource!)