Death was swept under the rug in Colorado, unless it could be sensationalized. It’s a lot different here. Obituaries are published prominently and respectfully. The names of the dead are also read on the radio, along with their funeral date, time and place. This has had a big (good) effect on me.
I’ve also been doing a lot of shopping here. I’ve bought many things new. But I’ve bought a lot more off the local craigslist clone.
The list is enormously popular here. The prices are insanely low, most likely because people just aren’t going to pay what they might somewhere else. I’m sure this is the case.
For example, I bought a seven piece bedroom set. It’s a popular brand, hard to find used, in excellent condition. The seller had people call from all over the country trying to buy one piece here and one piece there. These are designers looking to pick the stuff up cheap and resell it to their clients.
The seller wasn’t into this. The set belonged to her deceased parents and she wanted it to go to a certain kind of person. Respect was more important to her than money, basically.
As another example I bought high end outdoor furniture. The seller assured me, it would cost $5,000, to buy it new. I was confused by this. I had priced the stuff online and it was more like $10-12,000. That would be before tax and a person would probably have to pay shipping as well.
I was curious enough to look into this. He said he has two sets (two houses) of this outdoor furniture and he bought it new. Surely he knows what he paid!
As it turns out, no one will pay $10,000 for outdoor furniture around here, so the local distributor for the brand, sets the price at a point where it will sell. Interesting, no? It’s like Amazon raising the price of goods for people shopping on a Mac.
If it seems this piece is all over the place, it’s because it’s an introduction to a series. I have a packed 8th house, which is naturally concerned with exchange of energy and the goods of the dead. I am deeply into and interested in this at this time and I want to tell you some stories. These threads will come together in the end. To be continued.
Have you ever bought or sold goods of the dead?
Skip to part 2 – Buried In (Or With) Your Goods
I haven’t knowingly but I shop at thrift shops a lot.
Since my dad died about six months ago, there’s been a lot of cleaning and donating and throwing away. Mom wants to keep her keepsakes but jettison everything else. It has been life-altering to help/witness.
I hear you. It took years for my mother to clean up my dad’s stuff. He just to go to auctions and buy a box of junk for one item in the box. Kept the junk, too.
We siblings are starting the process of going through mother’s things after her death three months ago.
If I haven’t said it before, I’m sorry for the loss of your dad.
I’m a thrift store shopper, so I imagine I have. Someone asked me about that and I said I don’t mind someone owned it first – I own it now and paid a fraction of the price new.
I’ve been hooked on thrift shops and estate sales forever, rarely buy anything new. Considering a course in estate liquidation soon — seems like a good way to earn a living with Virgo Moon in my 8th and Neptune transiting my 2nd house…
I love the term “goods if the dead”. I have no problem wearing another’s (most often deceased) clothes. I wrote a short story about this once, set in a thrift store I used to frequent in another state, in another time.
*of the dead. :/
My grandparents had an antique store so we were surrounded all the time with things that belonged to someone from a long time ago. ….. their books,tables, chairs and things precious to them. My grandma Bo would tell stories about the people whose belongings we had. Always good or interesting stories.
My dad when I was seven and I remember my mum opening his suitcase with his belongings and my brother and I could look at whatever we wanted. Then she said my dad needed our help and we could help him by picking out a nice coffin. So we went coffin shopping I guess. I remember thinking they looked like really pretty pastel silky beds inside. I feel lucky I was taught a healthy attitude towards death.
Yay! Stories!! Pulls up a stool, orders a drink and patiently waits 😉
I had a friend who, when complimented on his clothes, said “Oh thanks,
this is my dead guy’s jacket”…apparently, he had luckily stumbled across the entire wardrobe of a deceased man of his size with great taste and lots of money.
When my beloved Dad died twenty-five years ago, my step-mother (Scorpio/Sun) sold and gave away ALL of his belongings. NOTHING by her, given to me. My Dad had been a photography enthusiast, and nearing the end of his life had given me his full, professional single-lens-reflex camera set up. Although I do not use it, I have it to this day. It is my way of keeping him close by.
Renee, that’s so heartbreaking. I’m so glad you have his camera at least.
I still have a few things from my dad, but let my mom give away most — at the time it was too painful to me to hold on to them, but later I wished I’d kept more, still do.
Yes, I purchased wonderful old furniture (1890s thru 1950s pieces) for nearly nothing, a few marks or then, later, a few euros, in the flohmarkts near my home when I lived in Germany. I also got a loden cloth Lodenfrey coat sized for a vey small man (judging from the side the buttons were on) but perfect for me. I’ve purchased jewelry from trays in the Portobello Road and have a pair of Dutch stacking tables I got in at this huge endless antique fair in a field outside Chicago while on a road trip. My father’s books and a shirt he wore when gardening stay with me to remember him by, and my grandmother left me small small items too, as did an aunt. Sometimes I have found great clothing items in resale shops too.
I truly feel you can sense the good or bad energy on pieces – I can tell in when I am in a shop or a market, instantly, for example. Not like “aura” or anything — just an instinct. My aunt had the same sort of instincts. I have no problem with it.
My oddest “goods of the dead” is a set of men’s vest buttons from the 1880s, purchased from an estate sale in London a few years ago. They are silver and each button carries a hand-tinted tiny photo of a different women, members of the demimonde — actresses, so to speak, of the day. I call them Hugo’s Girls. They totally spoke to me in a way from the tray and I had to have them and sort of protect them. I took them to Tender Buttons in NYC once to learn more — such fun. I feel I saved them! I plan to frame them in a shadow box.
Those buttons — so unique, priceless! Yes, you did save them. “Hugo” must be smiling down on you!
🙂 I like to think so! And the ladies too; I have a sense that they think they were pretty special in their day. They looked quite pleased with themselves, lol.
Once when Uranus was transiting my natal Venus in the 8th, my husband and I bought a used dresser at a thrift store. I was joking with him that it probably came from a dead person. He didn’t believe me, but when he was cleaning it out later that night he found ads for tombstones stuffed in one of the drawers. So, yeah, I think we did unexpectedly (Uranus) buy the goods of the dead (Venus in 8th) that time. My poor husband was really shocked and disturbed (Uranus) by this.
::::enthusiastically pulls up a chair:::::
Yes, I used to be a hospice chaplain so I felt sometimes I was led to the best deals by those in spirit who appreciated my prayers and comfort 🙂
@ Renee,
The same thing here for me too, just 3 years ago.
It stings. (she is Libra Sun)
My Aquarius Saturn resides in my 8th house.
Back in 2008, a man I lived with who changed my life forever passed away suddenly. We had his late wife’s belongings that her family left behind after previously taking what they wanted.
I had an unadvertised garage sale, and made about $ 1,200.00 in about 20 minutes.
I saved his sweater that he always wore, a cap and a couple of small trinkets. The most beloved thing he left was a dog, she will be 12 in November. I love her like my own child.
I still have items owned by his late wife, she was a collector. I keep them packed away, afraid to let go for the possible value they hold. Overwhelming to try to figure it all out.
When my mom lay dying, I clipped off some of her hair. That was the most personal memento I saved from someone dear who I lost.
I have a clipping of my mom’s hair too, I think the funeral director suggested it. When my husband died, I was so distraught I didn’t even think to ask for a clipping, and that funeral director didn’t mention it.
I once lived in a flat in a redbrick building that was built in 1922. It had lots of gorgeous woodwork, and massive folding doors, and two tall built-in dressers lined with cedar.
In this flat, friends and visitors claimed to see a small dark cat that would run from my walk-in closet (a former Murphy-bed room) to a window on an opposite wall. Even a Navy Seal friend who liked cats saw it and knelt to look for it under the bed and a chair. (My cat was huge and white with some black markings.) There was a built-in dresser in the closet/room, and if I ever left any beaded jewelry in a dish on top of this high dresser, it would be broken up or unstrung into a pile of beads when I got home 70% of the time. I lived alone. At night, sometimes someone would push or shake my bed! I tried not to bother that special dresser or use it any longer, and the problems stopped.
Just today I spoke with my recently departed mother’s attorney. He said my “list of assets with estimated value” would be sufficient for probate. It’s due to the court next week.
Her assets are well under the $5.5 million asset exemption for inheritance taxes. She’d gone through most of her assets for medical care.
A few weeks ago, we siblings did a first run through of her belongings with the list I’d made by nagging her for years. I wish it were more complete. She was a Libra.
There’s so many things to distribute or toss.
PLUS, brother has asked me to take care of his estate, too, why his time comes.
I bought an oracle deck on Ebay when I was starting out with Tarot. The was a post-it note with the deck when it arrived.
The person’s father had died and left a collection of oracles and Tarot decks. The note was very sweet and touching.
I kept the deck for a couple years, but I am not really into fairies, so I gave it to my Gemini friend who was interested. I wanted it to find a loving home, and I’m sure it did.
Actually, I think when I bought the above deck, it came with a used deck that I currently still have.
So I have the Tarot deck of a deceased person who loved their deck until it was worn.
My Aunt operates her own cleaning business. Many of her clients are seniors. One passed away and had no family in the area (Toronto) or even in Canada. She was a painter and as well owned some ‘burlesque’ type dresses and outfits. I, with my Aunt, had to clean out her belongings. I took some of her paintings and her retro rug. No idea what happened to the dresses. It’s a shame though… I never took care of the painting and therefore they were destroyed. 8th house opportunities mean nothing unless you see their worth (and therefore respect) first…
What happens if you have no planets in 8th house?
Does it mean that you receive nothing from the dead?
I feel that I have many things from people no longer here, yet no planets in 8th house (cusp in Taurus).
Maybe it’s not them leaving things to me, but me taking objects upon myself, trying to find a meaning?
I’m somewhat obsesssed with what people leave behind, but don’t understand why.
Ruler of 8th, Venus, in 9th, square Neptune.
Perhaps I am imagining things?
But… who’s to say?