COVER STORY : A Cosmic Quest : After the Valley’s worst year in modern history, we search high and low for vibrations, indicators and predictions on the year ahead.

Don’t go ‘round tonight It’s bound to take your life There’s a bad moon on the rise. -- John Fogerty *

Angela the psychic adviser had just returned from three days of gambling, drinking and no sleep in Las Vegas. If that won’t put you in touch with the spirit world, nothing will.

“I’m excited about the Valley in the coming year,” she said, burning a pot of green and yellow incense, the green for money and the yellow for protection. “Things are going to get better. They can’t get any worse, can they?”

Amen, sister.

This was the Year of the Shakes. The earthquake rearranged more than just real estate--perhaps our sense of well-being, our faith in the cosmic machinery crumbled in the process. At the same time, the economy continued to limp along. There was less money to go around and fewer malls to spend it in.

A year like that can irk the soul.

So, with 1995 fast upon us, we went looking for reassurance. We wanted information on the big issues, like survival and property values.

The standard political promises and economic indicators would not suffice. Science lost its ability to assuage by failing to predict the Nearly Big One. So we took the big leap to the hidden world, the wisdom of the universe. We squinted our beady eyes and peered into the future.

The quest began with Angela.

*

A sign outside the Sherman Way storefront said: “Fay the Psychic Adviser.” But Fay wasn’t in, so we settled for her daughter.

Thin and olive-skinned, of Yugoslav descent, Angela explained that she burns incense and ponders over questions, reaching a state of meditation that, after 15 or so minutes, inspires various insights.

“Yes or no, positive or negative,” she said. “That sort of thing.”

People most often want to know if they will win the lottery or if their sweetheart is cheating on them. In this instance, Angela had been asked to meditate upon the San Fernando Valley.

With several aftershocks rumbling through the Valley earlier this month, the first topic was seismic activity. Angela foresaw another earthquake--a “humongous one,” she said--sometime after the year 2000.

“Unfortunately, people are going to get hurt.”

Otherwise, her outlook was rosy. “I like to focus on the positive,” she said. Shattered neighborhoods will be rebuilt. The economy will improve and the real estate market will rebound.

“I’m not worried about money for anyone,” she said. “It’s going to be easy street.”

And one more thing. Angela received celestial vibrations concerning the Northridge Little League team, the ones who narrowly missed winning the World Series last September.

“Very positive,” she said. “They’ve got a streak of good luck.”

Afterward, our photographer, Scott, professed to feeling equally bullish about 1995.

His confidence, however, sprang from a different source. Seems that Honda will manufacture an updated version of its popular sport bike, the CBR 600 F2. That means the 1994 model should become available at greatly reduced prices. Six-hundred cubic centimeters and a top speed of more than 150 m.p.h. A Saturday morning monster on Angeles Crest Highway.

Scott could barely contain himself.

We, however, remained unconvinced.

*

In the days before the Constitution, American colonists used the Bible to predict coming events. On New Year’s Day, they would choose a passage at random, then apply the words to specific concerns.

Willing to try anything, we stumbled upon a passage from 1 Kings 7:51.

Thus all the work that King Solomon did on the house of the Lord was finished. Solomon brought in the things that his father David had dedicated, the silver, the gold, the vessels, and stored them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord.

Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the ancestral houses of the Israelites, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion. All the people of Israel assembled to King Solomon at the festival in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.

Perhaps these words presaged the reopening of the Northridge Fashion Center, a matter of great concern. Sure enough, a mall official verified that when the quake-damaged mall reopens, “there’s going to be a big ceremony and a lot of celebrating.”

It would not be difficult to imagine civic leaders and local politicians in attendance, along with crowds of shoppers and plenty of merchandise on sale (for example: gold, silver and vessels).

Repairs to the mall were supposed to be completed last month. Current estimates call for a spring reopening. But the month of Ethanim, from the old Canaanite calendar, translates to September-October.

You read it here first.

*

Mystic consumer information notwithstanding, we wanted more. The big questions remained unanswered.

A Ouija board--consulted at the stroke of midnight--provided meaningless letters: T, L, H, S, P. We asked to buy a vowel but came up empty.

Then Ann, our personal consultant at the Psychic Friends Network, offered the expertise of her Tarot cards and psychic abilities which, she promised, “are usually right on.” All this at a cost of $3.99 per minute.

“I feel tremors from the last earthquake,” she explained from the security of a long-distance telephone line. “I feel that you are going to be having these tremors for a year, maybe two.”

A Caltech seismologist had mentioned the same thing on the evening news. Only a coincidence? Ann also suggested that we hang onto our condominium until the real estate market rebounds.

“Can you rent it out?” she asked.

Our father wondered the same thing.

*

Still, with time running out on 1994, we had specific questions that demanded specific answers.

As a last resort, we turned to the Magic 8-Ball. Given to us as a gift, this plastic, liquid-filled contraption boasts of cosmic powers. Concentrate on a question, turn the ball upside-down and an answer appears in the magic window.

Q: Will the really, truly Big One hit in 1995?

A: Yes, definitely.

Q: Will crime increase in the Valley?

A: Yes, as I see it.

Q: Will property values rise?

A: Better not tell you now.

Q: Will the Valley ever get a subway?

A: Signs point to yes.

Q: Will the Northridge Little League team return to the World Series?

A: Ask again later.

The suspense is killing us.