Field Trip: Magickal Childe
Most cities have one: a small, secret bookstore, tucked away, almost hiding, on a side street. You have to take a few steps down stairs of filigreed iron, or ring a bell beside a glass door heavy with hammered glass, velvet curtains in olive or oxblood obscuring the view inside. Look not for the storefront fortune-teller ’s garish windowfront. There will be subtle signage – a name inked onto a tin sign, a pentacle etched onto a window pane, wind chimes tinkling where there is no breeze. This is the occult bookstore, and it is every bit as important to urban living as apartment buildings, posh boutiques, bohemian coffeehouses . In New York , for me, it was Magickal Childe. Magickal Childe was an occult bookstore located deep in the canyons of a Chelsea on the cusp of gentrification. It operated openly, though occult bookstores don’t always, its bay window displaying books, jewelry, the ephemera of a magickal life under neon signage for Tarot readings . But for all of its presence on t...