The Magick Shop & Edgefield Visit

Thursday night, basically Day 3 of my Hoarder cleaning project, Reese had to go deal with drama between her sister and soon-to-be-ex brother-in-law. It ended up with a confrontation between her and her BIL, and the cops were called. No one got hurt, but he threatened to go to his mother’s house to get a gun and shoot Reese! Reese still didn’t back down, but it was a complete mess until nearly midnight when he finally left to go stay at a motel for a few days. (Basically, both his kids said they didn’t want him around anymore, and he finally took the hint.)

Meanwhile, back at Reese & Sleep’s apartment, Sleep and I tried out a really good port wine and split the bottle. Port wine is much stronger than regular wine, so we were completely toasted by the time Reese got home and crashed. He and I talked about all kinds of things and then watched a 411 Missing documentary about people who disappear under strange circumstances in national parks. It was quite compelling watching, but then I’ve read some of the researcher’s books who was featured in the documentary.

The next day, I helped Reese pack for her next weekend festival she was going to vend at, and we hung out and talked. Rhonda, Reese’s sister, helped take my sister to the grocery store to use some of her SNAP money for groceries now that they had a working refrigerator. When we all got home, Sleep and I and Reese took Reese’s niece and myself for our first trip to their favorite magick shop. Run by real pagan-witch couple, they had taken classes there and were regulars. I was looking for gifts for our Initiation for Amara later in the month and gifts for our Coven Creation ceremony. I found lots of goodies there!

The weird part was entering and leaving the store!

When we arrived, Sleep and I got there first, and we couldn’t get in the door. I could only see a lock and a blank brass plate on the door, the protection plate that was supposed to stymie burglars was like a sort of “pull” lever… only it didn’t work. So, Sleep and I were confused and he tried pulling on the door and it remained locked (or so we thought). He and I looked at the store owners, who looked back at us like we were crazy…! Sleep tried again and again and so did I, and I couldn’t understand why we couldn’t get in the door. The owners were perplexed as well. We yelled through the door, and the owners said it wasn’t locked and they weren’t closed so come on in!

And then– very oddly– a doorknob appeared where there had once been a blank brass plate! We entered and I scratched my head over my perception and wondered what the hell that was all about, but soon forgot about it as I shopped.

However, on our way out, Sleep mentioned how odd it was that he could only see 2 locks instead of a lock and a knob, and I told him I only saw a blank brass plate instead of a knob. Then we realized that some anti-theft spell must have kicked in to prevent us from entering, but then it stopped working against us for some reason. We got into Sleep’s car to head back home, and I wondered aloud if we were “followed” by our little denizens from the Troupe or maybe even Kili– and I suddenly felt and heard Kili in the backseat behind me admitting she came with us, and couldn’t get in either!

I just started laughing, because the whole thing was too crazy to believe, and yet both Sleep and I were hallucinating a missing knob when neither of us was “on” anything, and we got confused over the same thing separately. Then the perception of someone behind me on top of that…! Sleep was laughing as well, because we knew what we saw and yet we were completely wrong about what we saw… He was going to ask the shop owners later if their spellcasting was ever done on the door of the shop.

I’ve been gone for 2 weeks, which is the longest I’ve been apart from Cat since I moved in with her. Apparently, she couldn’t take it anymore, and she drove all the way down from Kitsap to east Portland to pick me up and drive me right back again on Saturday! She and I met up with Sleep at Edgefield– which is actually not far from where Reese and Sleep live– and we had a long lunch and perused their gift shop. It was a nice way to end a very LONG visit to Portland for me.

And I was so relieved to get back to Heron Hold and my own room and things again. And my BED! Ahhhh! I’ve missed it so much!