Here's the article from the Seattle Weekly!
http://www.seattleweekly.com/2007-08-01/news/best-occult-pagan-shop-edge-of-the-circle.php
Best Occult/Pagan Shop: Edge of the Circle
By Gavin Borchert
Well, it is cluttered. But Edge of the Circle is otherwise not at all
like what you might imagine a magickal bookshop to be. Rather than
gloomy, musty, cobwebby, and antique-filled, it's well lit and
colorful, filled with curiosities, but not in the least sinister.
Owner Robert Anderson wants his place, which anchors one end of a
flourishing strip of shops on Pike just west of Broadway, to be
welcoming and inclusive, and he's thrilled to give me a tour.
Maybe not entirely inclusive. In a manifesto on EotC's Web site,
Robert describes what the store won't offer: "I hate the New Age. I
hate it. I hate ear candles, Deepak Chopra books, and anything in
pastels." The book selection does, though, range from herbalism to
kabbalah, Frazer's Golden Bough to Astrology for Dummies, A Kitchen
Witch's Cookbook to the Poetic Edda. A cloth-swathed shelf jocularly
labeled "Spooky Section" holds the scariest works: H.P. Lovecraft
anthologies and Anton LaVey's Satanic Bible. Anderson prides himself
on having beefed up the selection of what he calls urban folk magic:
Santeria, vodun, and related beliefs. "[This] worship community is
huge," Anderson says, "and it's great to see the look of relief on
the face of someone new to Seattle, who finds that we carry eggshell
powder, cascarilla [used in rituals], in those little paper cups."
That's just one of the "props and supplies of sorcery" that Robert
relishes being surrounded by, as much as by the books: incense, oils,
herbs, prayer candles. Agua espiritual. "Controlling Lucky Mojo"
sachet powders — the whole "Lucky Mojo" line, in fact, including
Lavender Love Drops and Stop Gossip Oil. Vessels and chalices.
Jewelry, bumper stickers, gems and stones, CDs. Large banners adorned
with pentagrams; robes in purple, black, and aqua; T-shirts with
Celtic knot designs. Dozens of different tarot decks: an art nouveau
tarot, a gay tarot, an animal-wise tarot, a medieval cat tarot. And
the classic Golden Dawn Tarot in black and white: You can color the
cards yourself.
Anderson points out a black, foot-tall statue of the winged, goat-
headed idol, Baphomet, in a glass case (yours for just $87.50): "Most
New Age stores wouldn't touch that."
The store's predecessor was a place on 14th Avenue and Union Street
called Shamanic Convergence, the founding of which is obscured by the
mists of time, i.e., sometime in the mid-'80s. It was renamed Edge of
the Circle in 1992, moved to its current location in 1994, and has
been owned by Anderson (as the company Fun Time Incorporated) since
May 1995.
But Edge of the Circle serves an even broader function as a community
center and gathering place for pagan and alternative-religion groups
of all kinds. An unprepossessing basement room—with a copy of the
Wiccan Rede ("An it harm none, do what ye will") tacked on the wall—
sees frequent use for classes, meetings, and rehearsals. On the main
floor, a cozy corner table is set aside for tarot readings, with
three different readers sharing a schedule that covers afternoon and
early evening seven days a week. And the entryway windows have become
a community bulletin board, with flyers and posters advertising a
Seattle shaman meetup; Central Puget Sound Pagan Pride Day (Sept. 16
in Tukwila); the Holy Well Circle, "Seattle's open Wiccan circle";
and rune study classes. A company called Witchy Wonders offers its
services to "those of us who desire respectful cleaning of temple
rooms, altars, sacred spaces. . . . A complementary smudging is
happily offered and banishing rituals are yours for the asking."—701
E. Pike St., PAN-1999, www.edgeofthecircle.com.
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