Coffees and herbal teas, as well as a fascinating collection of knives and swords are among the amenities at the coffee and book shop.(Photos by Owen Stayner.) (click for larger version)

 

I’ve always been curious about the occult world, mostly because of my grandmother. Though a devout Baptist, she had a mild flirtation with metaphysical culture. My grandmother claimed to have seen her mother’s ghost wandering around the backyard on a few occasions, and had personal clairvoyant readings performed by famed psychic Edgar Cayce, who operated a photography studio in Selma, Alabama, (our home town) from 1914 to the early 1920s. She even owned a silverware pattern that featured what appeared to be the head of a pagan deity on each piece. Whenever her grandchildren spent the night at her house, she would set aside her National Enquirer and assorted Hollywood tabloids after dark and pull out a deck of tarot cards to read our fortunes.

So when I heard about a “psychic fair” at a Southside coffeehouse and bookstore called Books, Beans, and Candles (“Alabama’s largest Metaphysical Coffee shoppe”), I couldn’t resist a Saturday afternoon visit. Inside, a half-dozen psychic readers were set up on both floors of the shop divining (fortune telling is the more familiar phrase) via several methods: spreading tarot cards, throwing runes (wooden or stone objects with ancient alphabetical letters on each), reading auras, doing past-life regressions, or performing geomancy (a method of divination that involves interpreting patterns formed by tossed stones). I had two readings done, one each with tarot cards and runes. The special fair price was $10 for 15 minutes. Both readings had eerie similarities, and the rune tossing mentioned a recent inheritance (I had recently inherited my grandmother’s mystical-looking silverware).

A few days later, Books, Beans, and Candles shop owner Mitchell Hagood sat down with me to expound upon metaphysical culture. He was quick to point out that the capacity to divine psychic readings is not as selective as one might think.

“What’s amazing is everybody has the ability, but some people are more gifted,” Hagood says. “It’s the ability to tap into it, to let things go and understand that there are so many different things that we just don’t understand or why it works. There’s a conscious energy out there and one can tap into it, but it takes a lot of studying.”

Jackal-headed Egyptian deity Anubis is prominent throughout the shop. (click for larger version)

 

Books, Beans, and Candles opened in 2007 next to Zydeco, on 20th Street South. A year later it moved up the street to its present location at 1620 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. South. The swords mounted on the shop’s walls are from Hagood’s personal collection. A few are for sale. “I love swords. I love medieval antiquities,” he admits. “In our group, most people are pulled to the medieval concept. It’s sort of ‘get back to your roots,’ but I do like indoor plumbing. Some people go, ‘Oh, cool! It’s a castle.’ I don’t want to live in a castle.”

Statues and images of Anubis, a jackal-headed god associated with mummification and the afterlife in Egyptian mythology—here dubbed the “patron god of the shop”—are scattered throughout. The coffee- and bookshop has a community vibe, as a place where regulars gather to discuss a broad range of topics. “It was not the intention. That was not my plan,” Hagood explains of the “gathering place” nature of the store, where psychic readings are performed for a fee throughout the week. “I planned on going home at seven o’clock every night, not sometimes one or two in the morning. But because of that, it’s definitely been more fulfilling. We all have our callings, I guess.”

Hagood says that the psychic fairs that Books, Beans, and Candles holds twice a year are designed to give curiosity seekers a taste of what a metaphysical store has to offer. “Psychic fair readings are quick. Most readings [typically] last 30 minutes to an hour,” he says. Some seeking readings become emotional during the process. “People sometimes cry. One thing I do with my readings, when I see something bad that they’re about to go through, my whole point is to tell them, ‘You’re doing this so you can change,’” he explains.

The shop draws an eclectic clientele interested in exploring various forms of spirituality. “Everyone comes to the [metaphysical] community in different ways. Everyone has their own path, their own set of beliefs,” the shop’s owner says. “How you grow up ends up shaping you, what you believe and how you believe it. Some people have these epiphanies, this enlightenment. Mine started when I was five. Certain events made me start questioning things. It wasn’t until much later that I knew there was a term for it, whether you want to call it Wicca or witchcraft or paganism. I’m part Cherokee, so I got really in touch with my Native American heritage. Nature always seemed predominant in everything I did, that connection, that feeling I get when I’m in the woods and things.”

Hagood also embraces Celtic tradition, which explains why “the shop has a little more flair to that side.” Besides pagans, the store attracts Hindus, Christians, Muslims, and even atheists. “You can walk into our shop and ask [patrons] what they believe, and you’ll get a different answer from every single person in here,” he says. “Here, we’re very much about individual spirituality. The beauty of our shop is that everybody is welcome. We’re intolerant to intolerance.”

Hagood describes tarot, which employs a deck that usually consists of 78 cards, with some depicting “virtues, vices, and elemental forces,” according to most definitions. “What seems to be random is not really random,” Hagood explains, referring to the patterns that emerge from a spread tarot deck. “If one believes there’s an order to the universe, then things happen for a reason. Or could it be our brains trying to view things in an orderly fashion? How do we know?”

Dragons—also the mascot for UAB—adorn the shop. (click for larger version)

 

He explains the tarot divination process: “After the deck has been shuffled [by someone receiving a reading], the cards are laid out and the pattern of the spread cards gives a pertinent reading,” Hagood says. “And you know what? Sometimes I miss. And if I’m off, I’m off, man. Sorry. I don’t always charge you for it, because I missed it. But it’s rare. I’d say, probably in four years, [I've missed] twice. But integrity is extremely important. Our psychic readers are phenomenal. Everybody who reads [tarot] here gets tested. My reputation’s on the line. When someone walks in and they get a reading, I want to know that it’s a good reading.”

The testing of readers is done yearly by Hagood and his wife, Willow (the name she uses to give readings). “When I test somebody, I hand them the cards and say, ‘Go.’ I just sit here, no facial expressions, nothing. And the reader has to do a complete reading for me,” Hagood says. “And if you get it right, good. And if you don’t, go back and practice more. And I don’t mean get it close. They have to get it perfect. If they don’t, they don’t read. Everyone here has been perfect, freakishly on the money. Then you get up and do it for my wife, and she’s probably harder [on readers] than I am.”

All readings are confidential. “Readings are very private. It’s weird. I won’t say we’re therapists, but we treat divination in a lot of the same ways,” Hagood says. “When I do a reading for you, I don’t talk about it to anyone else. Trust me, I’ve had readings like, ‘Boom boom . . . you’re having an affair.’” There are certain areas into which he will not allow his readers to inquire. “We’ve had people ask, ‘My son’s committed suicide, is he in heaven?’ That type of reading will not be done here because that person needs professional help to deal with this anguish.”

A reader known as Skagi reads tarot a couple of nights a week at the shop. He came to the psychic world trying to prove a friend had been misguided by bogus tarot readings. He soon changed his opinion. “I was trying to call b.s. on the guy but the more I looked into it, the wider the scope became and the more things made sense,” Skagi admits, then adds, laughing, “and I’m still trying to prove that he’s full of b.s” A reader for nearly 20 years, he discussed the awkwardness of sharing divinations that carry a gloomy forecast.

Objects affiliated with psychic culture enhance the store’s metaphysical aura. (click for larger version)

 

“Each client is different and part of the skill is knowing that difference and understanding it and providing it in the most compassionate way,” he says. “In all the years I’ve been reading I’ve never seen: ‘Oh my goodness! You’re going to die next week.’ But there are times when I look at the cards and I have to go, ‘OK, this is not going to end the way you want it to end. Sorry. Let’s see what it has to tell us about how to manage that.’ I don’t believe in destiny in the sense that a lot of people think of it. If you see a card in a position of final outcome, well, that’s not the final outcome, it’s a potential outcome. It’s basically a way for folks to look within themselves and to either handle what may be coming or to prepare for it, or to make changes so that it doesn’t.”

Lilith has been giving readings for friends for a decade. “I didn’t start doing it more publicly until maybe five years ago, unless you want to count what I was doing in high school. I had some playing cards and I just took the face cards out and told some people a few things based on whatever they drew out of it.”

Tarot readings and other forms of sortilege have become popular as entertainment for groups seeking fortune-tellers, including clientele as diverse as the McWane Science Center, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Talladega Superspeedway.

“One of the main requests we’ll have is, ‘I want a psychic reader,’” Hagood says. “At [a recent gig at] the McWane Center, I was thinking it’s going to be teenage girls. Ha! There were more women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s there seeking readings.” A NASCAR race was the oddest location ever requested for a divination, Hagood says. “A lady called me and said there’s a corporate event at Talladega looking for a tarot card reader,” he recalls, laughing. “She offered a price and we accepted. Suddenly, I realized, ‘That’s a freakin’ race! Are they insane? That’s 100,000 people drinking? They’re nuts!’ My wife Willow is really good. I sent her but I basically went along as her bodyguard. I was worried about her safety, so I took my gun with me but they confiscated it and gave it back when I left. They had a tent set up, it was done very professionally. I was shocked at how many people were receptive to it. This was the day before the big race, but there were still cars racing on the track. Willow would let the cars go by and then start talking again.”

Books, Beans, and Candles offers psychic readings throughout the week. (click for larger version)

 

“I always tell those who hire us for events, ‘You understand that we will give real readings, we will not give out lies. We’re not going to give fluff out.’ Now, we’ll do our best to make it positive if we can. But if we see it, we call it,” Hagood says.

Hagood says he feels blessed to be where he is, doing what he loves and believes in. “I truly love to come here to the shop. I love the people and I love the conversations. And I mean, you talk about some weird conversations,” he says, laughing. “Society dictates what’s normal and what’s not. The shop’s a special place. You’ll get some flaky people, but who doesn’t? That just adds another persona to the shop.” &

Books, Beans, and Candles, 1620 Richard Arrington, Jr., Blvd. Open Monday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–9 p.m., Sunday, noon–7 p.m. Details: 453-4636, www.bookbeancandle.com.