Post by Joanna on Oct 25, 2015 3:16:19 GMT -5
The Home and Shop of a Salem Witch
Salem’s oldest witch shop, Crow Haven Corner, is a neatly kept black gambrel on Essex Street with flower boxes and a cheerful purple door. Laurie Cabot, declared Salem’s official witch by former governor Michael Dukakis, once ran the shop, but now Lorelei Stathopoulos, known as Salem’s “Famous Love Clairvoyant,” owns the business and lives on the upper two floors. She creates love potions, conducts readings for loyal followers and intrigued visitors and serves as a “magical life coach.”
Flocks of tourists gather in front of Crow Haven for photos; the bottom floor is filled with shoppers browsing herbs, jewels, and candles with the help of Stathopoulos’s team of witches. An enchantingly sweet scent (lavender?) wafts through the air. “The more you give love and light, the more you receive at the end of the night,” Stathopoulos says with a wink, heading upstairs. She’s a charismatic dynamo in heels and black-and-orange striped tights with a model’s figure, thanks to a vegan diet (for spiritual reasons) and an avid routine of sea-salt swimming. Her blonde hair has glints of purple and blue. Her mother was a witch and an astrologer, she says, and she’s read tarot cards since age 10.
Her private quarters are up the narrow staircase. Her bedroom, a candlelit sanctuary with black-and-gold wallpaper and golden tasseled curtains, is the heart of her home. A mirror hangs in the doorway to deflect negative energy back into the universe. To the left is an altar flanked by two protective golden leopards. The room glimmers. Homemade spell candles, a Crow Haven specialty, glow atop the altar. Each is magically charged with an intention like protection or love, she says. Here, they illuminate framed photographs of Stathopoulos’s family and reflect against another gold-rimmed mirror. The centerpiece is a shimmering blue urn that honors her late husband. A tall Lady Justice statue, scales in hand, anchors another corner for more protection. Amethysts, a gemstone believed to promote tranquillity, and smoky quartz, said to remove negative energy, line the floor. The gold, pink and black flower-patterned bedspread isn’t a Crow Haven original. “I got it from Neiman Marcus,” Stathopoulos says with a sassy laugh. Several multicolored glass witch balls – intended to ward off negative energy – dangle from the ceiling to encircle the bed. Stathopoulos sometimes offers phone readings from this regal perch.
“Much love and light!” Stathopoulos calls as a customer heads back into the Essex Street bustle.
Source: Kara Baskin, The Boston Globe, October 24, 2015.
