The Broom and Crow, a pagan and new-age shop positioned downtown, offers products for any seasoned witch or aspiring crystal healer which you could’t discover wherever else in Eau Claire.
Tabatha Voss, the shop’s proprietor, stated she has been pagan since she was seventeen and opened the shop a couple of 12 months in the past after realizing she and others with comparable beliefs had nowhere on the town to go to for provides or sources.
“I carry a lot of items for people who practice a nature-based spirituality,” Voss stated. “That also encompasses people who are really into crystal healing or yoga or read tarot cards. The events or classes I have here I try to tailor to this community who is really into the Earth or earth energies.”
In addition to the objects on her gross sales flooring, Voss stated she additionally offers courses starting from tarot readings to astrology with the intention to higher attain the group.
She stated she has a crew of ten different lecturers, and they work collectively to plan numerous courses round holidays or phases of the moon.
She calls this her “spiritual care team” and stated she likes to consider her retailer as a therapeutic place in addition to a “witchy shop.”
However, this doesn’t imply it’s all broomsticks and inexperienced masks. In reality, it’s fairly completely different.
“By witchy stuff, I mean people who have done moon rituals or just honoring the moon as something to tap into magically,” Voss stated. “People who read tarot cards or are into mediumship, aligning their chakras … those things are gateways to the metaphysical.”
Voss stated she understands this vocabulary may be overwhelming.
She describes paganism as an umbrella time period for a nature-based non secular path, much like how Christianity is an umbrella time period for Catholicism, Lutheranism, and so on.
“Pagans have Wiccan and Heathen and Egyptian paths,” Voss stated. “Fairy paths, stuff like that. Pagans, what connects us is our spiritual connection to nature. Most people feel spiritually connected in a field or in a forest so those are our churches.”
That being stated, Voss stated she encourages anybody at any stage of their non secular journey to return to her for questions.
She stated she is at all times pleased to reply questions, or to level prospects to newbie books or put collectively starting kits for issues like crystal therapeutic and spells.
One level she stated she likes to drive dwelling for freshmen is that no query is just too bizarre. She describes herself as a “safe space and judgement-free zone.”
“It always ends up being not nearly as strange or complicated as they think it is,” Voss stated.
Furthermore, many objects in her shop have labels to assist freshmen. For instance, she has a poster on the wall to assist prospects pick crystals.
Additionally, herbs utilized in spellwork every come labeled with potential functions that may vary from love spells to cash spells, or banishing spells for trauma and unfavorable power.
Voss stated her guests are cut up about 50/50 between seasoned professionals shopping for provides and highschool or faculty college students on a “seeker path.”
The major means she stated she connects to the group, each seekers and specialists, is thru the number of courses supplied via The Broom and Crow.
One vein of courses is herbalism, taught by Kerri Kiernan, grasp herbalist.
Kiernan stated she teaches individuals easy methods to use herbs to higher each their bodily and psychological well-being.
Her courses are held all through the autumn, into late winter and early spring, and vary from herbalism for temper assist, to salve-making or gift-crafting.
“People come to me with questions like, how can I keep my mood up in the winter?” Kiernan stated. “How can I get my anxiety down so I can sleep better?”
Though her official job as an herbalist usually includes creating customized sources for purchasers, she doesn’t at all times have time to tackle as a lot as she would love. She stated that’s what these courses are good for.
“My goal is to make people confident enough to use herbs themselves,” stated Kiernan, “and know that I’m a local resource they can come to.”
Kiernan stated her courses are enjoyable in addition to skill-building. Similarly to Voss, Kiernan stated that individuals can know “literally nothing” and get one thing out of it.
She stated one among her favourite components of educating courses is exhibiting individuals what sources for therapeutic exist that they might not be acquainted with.
Kiernan stated she needs she had discovered a few of her natural cures in faculty, as some may be nice for stress administration.
For instance, she stated she was not too long ago working with a school first-year who was experiencing nervousness.
“Instead of just treating symptoms,” Kiernan stated, “in herbalism and holistic well-being we’re trying to identify underlying causes.”
Both Kiernan and Voss stated that group engagement is a spotlight of what they do at The Broom and Crow.
“I want to draw in people who have been interested in things like (paganism) and connect people,” Voss stated. “I feel like there’s a lot of things people don’t understand about paganism or wicca and I want to demystify that.”
Voss stated even she didn’t have the vocabulary vital to grasp her personal spirituality till maturity, after wandering right into a witchy shop in Phillips, Wis. when she was 17.
It was at this shop she bought Scott Cunningham’s “Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner” and realized her “destiny.”
However, she stated she had at all times felt related to nature in a means she didn’t absolutely perceive.
“I grew up in the country, so I spent a lot of time in the woods,” Voss stated, “and I lived next to a creek. That was all so magical for me.”
She stated as a toddler she would “mix concoctions and say incantations and commune with forest spirits,” and that this felt like dwelling to her.
However, she later moved to a metropolis and disconnected with this facet of herself, till she picked up Cunningham’s ebook and started educating herself.
“It felt like something I had always done,” Voss stated. “So, I was always drawn to it.”
She stated although she graduated from UW-Eau Claire with a level in English, after connecting with different pagans within the space she realized opening The Broom and Crow was what she was meant to do.
The Broom and Crow is positioned at 106 E Grand Ave in Eau Claire.
Voss’ class schedule may be discovered right here.
Lopez may be reached at [email protected].
