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Abitha’s Apothecary doesn’t sell pill bottles and cough syrup — the walls are lined with spells to help spell-makers get out of jail, have children and win money.
And according to owner Reta Bray, the spells really work.
Bray makes all the oils and incense herself, and she said many of them have magical properties.
“I’m basically the Ace Hardware of the magic world,” she said.
One of the most popular items the shop sells is called Abitha’s Money Draw Oil. Bray makes the oil from a recipe handed down from her mother, and said it’s essentially liquid luck.
“I have 70- and 80-year-old Catholic women come in and buy some and go straight to the casino to play bingo,” she said. “They won’t go without it.”
Bray also makes a variety of spell kits that help people protect their homes or bring peace and tranquility. The kits come with a candle, special herbs or oils and a set of instructions.
Bray said the shop serves all types of communities, from Christians to pagans and even members of the Satanic Church. The leader of a local Satanic group often gets candles and other supplies from the shop, but Bray said he never actually goes in.
“He’ll stand out in the parking lot while his girlfriend gets this, that and the other thing,” she said. “The good energy in the shop makes him sick.”
Bray took over the business, formerly called Abitha’s Herbary, after her mother and aunt, the shop’s former owners, retired. Bray said the herbs used to make natural medicines, candles and oils used for spells date back to the 1600s — the Salem witch-trial era. She said the people who were persecuted were largely misunderstood and were just practicing a different form of medicine.
“The more we research and the more we study, we see that they were just naturalist,” she said. “The natural medicinal healings were around before penicillin, which a lot of people tend to forget.”
Bray said natural medicines are easier on the body and less expensive, which is why a lot of people use them.
One shopper asked for a spell that would keep others from reading her mind. It’s none of their business, the shopper said.
The store also has a variety of healers, palmists and psychics who are given a free space to do readings for customers.
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Regular reader Michael Makeba said he was called to shamanism through his dreams. He said he tries to help as many people as he can through card readings and other forms of divination.
“Nobody is turned away,” he said. “If somebody can’t pay, I will not turn them away. I will help them.”
The store hosts a psychic fair once a month; the next one is scheduled for the end of October.
If someone wants to learn how to read the cards for themselves, the store offers classes for $10. The apothecary also has a variety of other classes that change from month to month. Past classes include spell writing, wire wrapping for protective crystals and a rejuvenation circle to cleanse negative energy.
The store carries 262 types of herbs for customers to choose from for both medicinal and magical purposes. For example, Bray said Pau D’Arco bark can be used to treat swelling, pain and some kinds of infections. Arnica is used in spells to help one’s love life.
Bray said that it won’t make somebody fall in love with someone else, but it will put that loving energy out into the universe.
“Everybody causes magical things to happen, whether they intend to or not,” she said.
Abitha’s Apothecary
3906 Central Ave. S.E.
Open Tuesday-Saturday,
noon-7 p.m.
(505) 262-0401
Facebook: Abitha’s Apothecary
aka Abitha’s Herbary
