“Apple, sacred fruit of the Goddess, With this gift, I do caress
The pimple that brought me shame. I banish this zit in your name.”

In case you were wondering, we just cast a witch spell on you. You can thank us for your clear skin later.

This is the sort of stuff we saw at the Village Witch store in North Lawrence, 311 N. 2nd St. We parked in a sketchy gravel parking lot behind the building. Maddie was perturbed by the sign that read “Unaccompanied under 18 are welcome if they are carrying a $100 bill.” Maddie took this quite literally.

No worries though, we got in just fine. The staff was friendly and helpful and answered our questions when we asked them.

The first thing Maddie saw was a cloak, which gave her the heebie jeebies. Mara didn’t notice the cloak and went to look at the rocks. There were tables and tables covered with bowls of rocks. The rocks are believed to have special properties such as health and wealth. There were also rocks for each astrological sign. In addition to the special properties, the rocks are believed to be alive. We found a sign that read “Play with the rocks, they love that!”

Ha.

OK, so we kept looking around and we started to find this stuff pretty interesting. We found a witch starter kit that included: candle holders, a wand, mortar and pestle, altar tile, salt cellar, book, altar cloth, charcoal tongs, charcoal, bells and a chalice censer.

All we needed to do was buy the kit and we were well on our way to becoming legit witches!

We went to the bookshelf next and perused the shelves. The majority of the books were spellbooks, duh, and some other books just about being a witch. We flipped through some of the spellbooks and found some strange stuff. But hey we were in a witch store, so what do you expect?

Maddie was fascinated by the wands we found. They were locked up in a display case. The wands looked fragile and were fairly expensive. We also found brooms for sale. It felt like we had stepped into the world of Harry Potter.

Probably one of the neatest things we found was an altar in the corner. It was pretty much a bunch of random objects such as keys, candy, stuffed animals, etc. We’re not one hundred perfect positive but we believe that you leave behind an item at the altar to receive prayers and blessings.
Anyway, we enjoyed our time in the Village Witch a lot more than we thought we would. We were impressed with how many different products they carried, but the store seemed a bit cluttered and disorganized. The staff was friendly though. Bonus: it smelled really good in the store.

Overall Grade: A-

OK, so later that night we visited the Metaphysical Psychic Shop on Massachusetts Street. It was interesting to say the least.

It took us several attempts and awkward phone conversations with the psychic to get an appointment. Maybe it was her psychic abilities that made her socially awkward? I guess we’ll never know.

Anyway, we went to her shop only to discover that the door was locked. Huh? So we knocked and knocked and finally she answered the door. We were greeted by her little fluffy dog. The dog was more friendly than she was. We sat on the couch and waited while she prepared herself.

Finally, she came in and asked what reading we wanted to have done. We told her we wanted a palm reading ($35 per person).  Mara got up and Maddie asked if she could come along. The psychic curtly told Maddie that readings are private and she couldn’t come along. This made us super uncomfortable.

Mara was led into a tiny back room. She sat opposite of the psychic. Her little dog sat by her feet.
The psychic asked her to lay her hands on her legs facing upward. She asked Mara to think of two wishes and tell her one of them. Then the reading began.

The psychic told Mara lots of things, some which seemed to fit her and others which did not. She incorporated Mara’s wish into her reading. The psychic also asked questions throughout the reading. Our general impression was that she used the wish and questions you answered to make the reading fit you better.

While Mara was in the back room with the psychic, Maddie was unsure of what to do. Downtown shoppers frequently looked through the psychic store building and were surprised to see someone in there. Apparently, no one ever goes in that building. She browsed through some magazines and took the opportunity to take some creeper pictures. It felt like an eternity but finally, Mara was done.

When the reading was over, the psychic asked if Maddie was getting a reading done also. Maddie made an executive decision from the look on Mara’s face when she was done, and said NO WAY.

Mara isn’t supposed to tell you what happened during her reading, but we’ll tell you this: Mara is going to have a very lucky week at the end of July.

Of course I just told you that, so now it’s not going to happen. Dang.

Overall Grade: C

xoxo
Mara and Maddie