{"id":7438,"date":"2008-12-08T13:00:22","date_gmt":"2008-12-08T18:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=7438"},"modified":"2011-05-17T06:10:01","modified_gmt":"2011-05-17T11:10:01","slug":"secrets-only-your-witch-would-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/secrets-only-your-witch-would-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Secrets Only Your Witch Would Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: I tend to use my coffee breaks to scan through The New York Times, and came across t<\/a>his article<\/a> <\/em>by Cintra Wilson on the rise of New Age practices like astrology, tarot and witchcraft, with a particular focus on the latter. Hope you enjoy it. –RA<\/em><\/p>\n

HANDFULS of articles have been written since the economic downturn on how, during such times of anxiety, business booms for psychics, astrologists and card readers.<\/p>\n

Enchantments, the witchcraft store in the East Village, recently moved down the street from where it had been a landmark since 1982. Last year, my friend Nancy bought me one of its customized Solar Blast candles for my birthday. After lighting it, a flurry of life-altering changes suddenly occurred \u0432\u0402\u201d which was, at least, an amusing coincidence. I developed a more absorbing curiosity when Nancy gave me a second Solar Blast this year, and this one, too, seemed to be a cosmic throw-switch, releasing yet another mother lode of life-changing events.<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aYears ago, I had been dumped by my boyfriend and was out of my mind,\u0432\u0402\u045c Nancy told me as we waited at a cafe for Enchantments to open (a bit later than the posted store hours). \u0432\u0402\u045aThis chick walked up to me at a party and told me she was \u0432\u0402?drawn\u0432\u0402\u2122 to my \u0432\u0402?grief mask.\u0432\u0402\u2122 \u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p>\n

I chortled.<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aI was in that place where you\u0432\u0402\u2122ll insinuate yourself on anyone, so I told her my story,\u0432\u0402\u045c Nancy continued. \u0432\u0402\u045aShe told me that I had to go to Enchantments.<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aI said, \u0432\u0402?Wait … aren\u0432\u0402\u2122t they, like, Wiccan?\u0432\u0402\u2122 And she said, \u0432\u0402?Do you want your boyfriend back, or what?\u0432\u0402\u2122<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aI went. First I got a tarot reading from this absolutely stunning witch, with big blue eyes, tons of black hair, a thick Bronx accent and a huge pentagram necklace. I was weeping, and she was so comforting! So maternal! She said, \u0432\u0402?I am going to give you something very hard core.\u0432\u0402\u2122 She comes back with this fire engine red candle in the shape of a penis. She carved my name and the guy\u0432\u0402\u2122s name and our birth signs into it, then anointed it with oils.\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p>\n

And?<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aWe ended up getting back together. But briefly. I realized the relationship was hollow and ridiculous. This witch gave me an object to project power on, but what the experience really gave me was the ability to see how much power I had on my own. I didn\u0432\u0402\u2122t need the guy. I got an idea of how to confront my own pain and darkness, and transform it into something positive.\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p>\n

Another friend of ours, an actress in her 50s, bought a candle \u0432\u0402\u045adressed\u0432\u0402\u045c to assuage her anxiety about a big acting gig, which she landed. (She soon became the muse of a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, earned several film roles and was finally able to quit her day job. Coincidence?)<\/p>\n

Two witches were on duty when we visited the shop: A young man who could be the fraternal twin of Wednesday Addams, who preferred to be known only as Ricky (occultists, it seems, are often cautious about giving their full names); and Kathy, a fetching, gum-chewing platinum blonde in a spiked belt, black jeans and a T-shirt sprayed down the front with escaped glitter.<\/p>\n

A financial crash, Kathy agreed, is a good time to be in the occult business: \u0432\u0402\u045aWe\u0432\u0402\u2122re always asked to do love stuff, but lately, it has been way more about jobs \u0432\u0402\u201d people looking for work and protection of their monies.\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p>\n

Nancy and I were shopping for luck for our literary projects.<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aIf you\u0432\u0402\u2122re a writer, Mercury is your patron god,\u0432\u0402\u045c Ricky said. \u0432\u0402\u045aHe\u0432\u0402\u2122s all about speed, speech and commerce. New York is his city. There\u0432\u0402\u2122s a big statue of Mercury at Grand Central station.\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p>\n

Our candles were selected by color, then spoonfuls of powdered incense were burned in the glass candleholders while Kathy and Ricky took out their daggers and carved \u0432\u0402\u045amagickal seals\u0432\u0402\u045c into our candles from a guidebook of drawings kept in plastic sleeves in a three-ring binder. Once the candles were carved, they put on latex gloves and rubbed custom oils and glitter into our candles.<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aWe are so O.C.D. about oils,\u0432\u0402\u045c Kathy joked. \u0432\u0402\u045aWe get them from, like, 15 different companies\u0432\u0402\u045c because, she explained, one could have an awesome almond but a peppermint of inferior quality.<\/p>\n

I had to ask: \u0432\u0402\u045aWhere do you guys stand on Satan?\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p>\n

Eyes rolled. The Enchantments store policy is explicit on the Web site: \u0432\u0402\u045aWe DO NOT carry any items dealing with black magick.\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aIn nature you see both the light and the dark,\u0432\u0402\u045c Kathy explained. \u0432\u0402\u045aIn other cultures, they embrace it all. We discourage people from doing certain kinds of spells, like, breaking up other people\u0432\u0402\u2122s relationships.<\/p>\n

Manipulative magic always backfires,\u0432\u0402\u045c she continued. \u0432\u0402\u045aEverything you do comes back to you threefold.\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aYou don\u0432\u0402\u2122t want to mess with the order of things,\u0432\u0402\u045c Ricky said. \u0432\u0402\u045aBelieve me, I know.\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p>\n

Has increased knowledge of the Craft affected their daily lives?<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aIt\u0432\u0402\u2122s great at parties,\u0432\u0402\u045c Ricky claimed. \u0432\u0402\u045aWhenever I\u0432\u0402\u2122m drunk in a bar, I walk up to people and say, \u0432\u0402?I bet you\u0432\u0402\u2122re a Taurus … I can just tell.\u0432\u0402\u2122 Tauruses always have really nice bags.\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aI feel so held and loved!\u0432\u0402\u045c said Nancy, who was being crawled all over and kissed by the store\u0432\u0402\u2122s resident black cat, Medea.<\/p>\n

Any success stories, lately?<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aA few weeks ago, a bunch of women I made fertility candles for a couple years ago all came in to show me their kids,\u0432\u0402\u045c Kathy said.<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aWe each have our talent,\u0432\u0402\u045c Ricky said, explaining in colorful language that his specialty was helping those in need of sex. Finishing Nancy\u0432\u0402\u2122s candle, he dropped a red Boy\u0432\u0402\u2122s Night Out candle into its glass holder with a musky whooff of incense, for a client who buys them every Friday.<\/p>\n

A black-clad man with a unicursal hexagram around his neck came in to show Ricky an out-of-print book on Sex Magick. \u0432\u0402\u045aHey, I told your thelemite joke the other day!\u0432\u0402\u045c Ricky said.<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aWhat\u0432\u0402\u2122s the thelemite joke?\u0432\u0402\u045c I asked.<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aHow many thelemites does it take to screw in a light bulb? None! Because Aleister Crowley never left instructions.\u0432\u0402\u045c (A thelemite, I learned, is a practitioner of \u0432\u0402\u045athelemic magic.\u0432\u0402\u045c)<\/p>\n

Our candles, wrapped in paper, were each $20 \u0432\u0402\u201d a small price to pay, we felt, for the thrill of consorting with unknown forces, and the blessings of Mercury, god of New York. To bastardize Frank Sinatra: Hey! Wicca or Jack Daniel\u0432\u0402\u2122s … whatever gets you through the winter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: I tend to use my coffee breaks to scan through The New York Times, and came across this article by Cintra Wilson on the rise of New Age practices like astrology, tarot and witchcraft, with a particular focus on the latter. Hope you enjoy it. –RA HANDFULS of articles have been written since … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[36,52,740,117,738,739],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7438"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}