Occult Shop isn't what you think
[attach]5242[/attach]Nicole Cooper is accustomed to customers who say they were terrified of The Occult Shop growing up.
“They’d be like, ‘You know, when we were kids we used to be so scared of the store as we got up to it we would run past because it was like full of witches and there was black magic,’ ” she says. “Now they’re shopping here 15 years later and they know that it’s not scary and they can come here and get spiritual bath salts and things that smell good, so it’s kind of neat.”
In addition to candles, incense, oils, herbs and books on the occult, the shop also provides tarot readings by three readers, including one of the shop’s founders Tamarra James.
Cooper, the store’s manager, says the sessions typically last between 30 and 45 minutes, depending on factors like how complicated the situation is that prompted the customer to get a reading, and the time of day. They range in price from $50–65.
“We try to meet as many people’s needs as possible,” says Cooper. “But it’s nice, people come in here who aren’t interested in the occult at all and they’re just here because they like our incense.”
The shop also has formulas to make over 1,000 recipe concoctions with scented oils.
“You can just buy them individually because you like how it smells or we can even help you mix something custom to you,” says Cooper. “You can come in and get advice on how to use a product spiritually, you can come in and get some custom incense or an oil made, there’s no other place that you can really do that.”
For the last 17 years The Occult Shop, which was started by James and her husband Richard in 1979, was located on Vaughan Road and Louise Avenue. In October they relocated a few blocks south to Bathurst Street at Helena Avenue.
“Richard and Tamarra definitely, when they moved, were looking for a place still in this neighbourhood,” she says, adding many other occult shops have closed down over the years. “They really love having a store here, it’s really like a neighbourhood community.”
She says the store attracts everyone from kids and teenagers who come in with their parents from out of town to local 90-year-old grandmothers.
While a lot of the stock have been staples since the beginning, she says they also respond to customer demand and will bring in items if people request them with the exception of human remains and animal parts, which people have both tried to sell to the store and wanted to buy.
“Yeah, I think there is sort of the misconception that we’re like full of Satanists and black magic but ah, mostly herbs, really,” she says.