Not that I’m putting any actual effort into having an occult shop, or for that matter, a fourteen year old groupie, but I just thought I’d continue to articulate my goals.
–Have creepy, evil occult shop
–Have lunch with Jimmy Page
–Buy a house
–Dye my own yarn and make me something from it
–Do the dishes
As previously noted, there are any number of problems with the woo-woo shops in Nashville. One, they’re all hung up on making sure that you know that they’re all feel-good, safe places to hang out and buy crystals and talk about aliens. Two, they’re not occult shops so much as New Age shops. They smell like hippie incense. The kids working behind the counter are all so young, why bother to ask them for help with anything? I don’t trust that the herbs are what they say they are.
An occult shop should be dark and poorly lit. There should be a wall of herbs, some imported, some grown out back. There should be someone on staff who can tell your fortune. There should be someone on staff who can give you magical advice and direct you in spell-compilation. It should make the neighbors nervous and seem mildly offensive and scary to the broader community.
And it should be the kind of place you might run into Jimmy Page, should he happen to be in town.
Anyway, this was all a big tangent to get around to the meat of the post, which is ole Page talking about his magical practices in Guitar World— “You mean talismanic magick? Yes, I knew what I was doing. There’s no point in saying about it, because the more you discuss it, the more eccentric you appear to be. But the facts is – as far as I was concerned – it was working, so I used it.”
Tiny Cat Pants 
We need a higher caliber of immigrants around here, that’s for sure. If we had folks coming here from the Caribbean there would be a botánica on every corner, and maybe even some santeros to help you out.
Is there any place even close to this in Nashville other than Magical Journey? They’ve turned so sterile I can’t stand to go there anymore. I’d be at your shop all the time if you had one.
No, there’s some Galactic something or other that some folks like, but I refuse to go any place with “Galactic” in the name. There was a little shop over in Berry HIll which had potential (and awesome huge chunks of frankincense), but it’s sketchy in an uninteresting way.
It is surprising, I think, that we don’t have one botanica in town. Can’t TIRRC get on this?
I think I’m having a supernatural vision!
Why yes, yes I am!
It’s a vision of Aunt B. opening up the most successful shop Nashville has ever seen…and in there she will sell Mack’s homemade salsa and Kahlua, both guaranteed to cast a spell of love on every pair of lips they touch.
mmmm…yes… Amen… “Let it be so!”
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There is a botanica, I don’t know where it is, though.
The “sketchy” place in Berry Hill was Tish Owen’s Goddess & the Moon, which has moved to a much nicer location on 8th Avenue (in the same building as The Mystic Coffeehouse, next to Arnold’s meat & three).
Tish is good people & her shop is not “New Age”, even if some of her customers are, and I’ve never seen anything sketchy go on there in the decade I’ve known the owner and her husband, other than the sketchy landlady who refused to fix anything wrong with the shop premises in Berry Hill, until they finally gave up and moved rather than continue to keep their merchandise in a building that was a fire hazard and had broken plumbing. It’s unfortunate that those conditions got G&TM a bad rep, as I love it and the people who run it.
It’s not poorly lit and spectral, but it’s the best option Nashville’s got. Galactic Gateways is definitely “New Age”, Magical Journey hasn’t been interesting since I was in high school, and I don’t really know of anywhere else. Tish can do readings, Tish’s staff can give you advice of the type you mentioned, and there’s nary a high-school kid in sight. Or a discussion of aliens. Mostly the shop smells like…coffee, rather than hippies. Otherwise I wouldn’t hang out there.
Go check out the new store and see what you think, at least. Maybe they can satisfy your need for woo.
I am so happy to hear this and I am going to go check them out this weekend. Good to know.
Good to hear it Aunt B! Tell Tish Elizabeth told you to come by, and have a good weekend! Get Kara at the coffee shop in front to make you an elixir, they’re fabbbbbulous.