Haym Solomon

Living in California my whole life the historical markers I grew up with are so different from the East Coaster's childhoods. American History as it is written in history books is so accessible to people on the East Coast. They can visit the sites.

As a child I visited Spanish Missions. The swallows came back to Capistrano every year. The friars and the Catholics and the Mexicans and the Indians were mentioned on the placards I guess but nobody read that stuff. We were there for the birds.

When I was older I played my harp at a wedding in an incredible Mission in San Diego and, Dude, the acoustics were awesome. One certainly didn't read the plagues that are set up in that place.

I think it might almost be impossible to know what the real history of California is at this point. I suspect that almost nobody would have been able to live in Southern California because of the mudslides and wildfires. It is said that the Native Americans would intentionally set fires in order to control when they happened. Once I went to an exhibit of Native American basket weaving and those baskets gave a lot of information. The baskets from Washington State area were finely detailed and crafted. You could tell those guys could sit down and concentrate for hours and hours. But, in comparison, the baskets from the California tribes were sort of all over the place. I mean, they were in pretty much the same style, but put together roughly and looked sort of like they were created while under the influence of some mind altering problem. ADHD and Divorce must have plagued the natives, even back then. I had never realized how an exhibit like that could tell so much about the differences of the psychology and probably of the life style of the people who made them.

What am I babbling about here?

Oh yeah, the Jew who funded the American Revolution. That's someone you never hear about. Thing is, all I really remember after visiting the grave of Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia is the pauper's grave of the guy next door to Ben. This was a guy named Haym Solomon who immigrated from Poland in the 18th Century. He had traveled around Europe before coming to the States and had learned about finance. According to the placard on his grave, he provided much of the money that was used to fight the Revolution against England. And he died bankrupt. He is forgotten and unknown, but he is lying there right next door to Ben. It's the strangest thing. I don't think the folks on the East Coast know what they've got there.

Can't find Haym's birthdate. Wikipedia claims that he was born in 1740 in Leszno Poland. This means that he was born while Pluto (planet of other people's money and bankruptcy) is in its own sign while he was born. Sure wish I could get a date for this guy. Whichever end of the year you look at the outer planet activity there's something going on. Uranus in Capricorn was in conjunction with the South Node for pretty much the entire year. That sets up the theme of the Revolutionary for everyone born that year.

At the beginning of 1740 Saturn in Cancer would have been opposing Uranus and in conjunction with the North Node. Towards the end of the year Neptune and Jupiter would have been in conjunction with the North Node in Cancer. That's a lot of Rebellion against Government and Idealistic Thinking about setting up new forms of "Homeland."

At any rate, Thanks, Haym.