There are just 8 days until Halloween, and CityBeat is giving you some spooky inspiration for how to get into the haunted holiday spirit. Come back to citybeat.com each day for new Halloween tips.
Before the spooking can commence, witches and wizards and other magical practitioners must make sure their magical supplies are fully stocked.
One might try Hierophany & Hedge, Covington’s new magic shop. Opened in May, this place doesn’t hawk gags and goofs for local birthday-party magicians, but instead is a shop where the secrets of ancient ritual can be unearthed from obscure tomes, where components for protective talismans are found — a place where magic isn’t only real, but essential.
Owned and operated by the mononymous Coil and Augur — two intentionally mysterious and impeccably dressed shopkeepers who look to be plucked straight from Victorian aristocracy — browsing the wares at Hierophany & Hedge is an overall transportive experience. Walk inside and it seems you’ve tripped over time itself only to have undone the past 150 years of fashion and technology, replacing it with immaculate antique woodwork, jars of curious powders, gemlike stones glittering in the warm sunlight, a wall of handcrafted wands made from woods sourced across the world... Is this really in Kentucky, or are we in 19th-century London?
“The ideal way that we would like someone to discover the shop is that they (are) walking down the street and it’s raining and they discover a little alcove here. And, as they’re standing in the alcove, they look through the window, and they see that this is here, and they can’t quite believe that it’s here,” says Augur, whose gaze captivates like a charm of binding, fortified by his precisely tailored gentleman’s suit and bespoke accoutrement.
“And they wonder if they don’t come through the door right now whether it might not be here on a return visit.”
Candles and incense of many sorts are on display, giving the room a mystically righteous aroma. Want to see a meteorite fragment? They have those as well, along with a plethora of stylish jewelry for any occasion. Stones and crystals of many sorts are available.
There’s an adorable collection of plush “familiars” (animal companions, like a witch’s black cat or Jon Snow’s direwolf) if you want something cuddly at your next seance and custom-made Ouija-style boards. An impressive wall of jarred goods lines another wall, with items as simple as dried rosemary to the strangely legal-to-trade powderized wooly mammoth tusk … not something you’d likely find at Whole Foods.
Along the back is an assortment of books: fiction, guidebooks, academic musings on magic. A bit of reading for any sort.
Hierophany & Hedge’s business hours vary from week to week, so be sure to visit their website to find out when their doors open next.
Hierophany & Hedge, 19 W. Pike St., Covington, hierophanyandhedge.com.
Check out our other days of recommendations:
- 12 Days of Halloween: Day Four — Murder Mystery
- 12 Days of Halloween: Day Three — Witches Brew
- 12 Days of Halloween: Day Two — Ghost Hunting
- 12 Days of Halloween in Cincinnati: Day One — Pumpkin Preparation
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