Hierophany & Hedge, 19 West Pike, Covington, KY (2025)

04/16/2025

The world has certainly felt chaotic recently. Just yesterday it we were in conflict with Oceania, and today it is Eurasia. Or was it the other way around?

When we feel our blood pressure starting to rise, we go find a gnarled tree to hug. Or we sniff an orchid whose flowers evolved to entice an insect that hasn’t existed for millions of years.

If it’s that time of year, we might gaze in awe at an overflowing river irresistibly inundating a shoreline. Rarely, we’ll even try to figure out whether zoo security could catch us before we hugged a condor.

This isn’t to say that the human problems of right now don’t exist or aren’t important. They do and they are.

But there are things that we can change, and there are things that are just making us crazy, and it is okay to do what you need to do to quell the fear and anxiety.

On a related note the The Krohn Conservatory is particularly beautiful at the moment. It always feels delightfully Lovecraftian to us, both in terms of its shockingly alien inhabitants, and its stylish early 20th century architecture. When we step deep into its simulated jungle we become uncertain whether it’s a century ago, or an aeon.

If you get tired of looking at plants, you can come visit us this week on Thursday (4/17) from 12-2pm, Friday (4/18) from 12-2pm, Saturday (4/19) from 2-6pm, and Sunday (4/20) from 12-4pm.

04/07/2025

Legendary fantasy artist kindly agreed to help us celebrate Coil’s birthday with this incredible painting.

Visual artists see the world differently from the rest of us. That can be both blessing and curse, as they sometimes spy things better left disguised.

In this particular instance, for example, Mr. Murphy saw all too clearly how Coil is able to make such quick work of the shop restocking.

If you’d like to offer your birthday wishes in person, we will be open this Wednesday (4/9) from 12-2PM, Saturday (4/12) from 2-6PM, and Sunday (4/13) from 12-4PM.

04/01/2025

As many of you already know, the fine Canadian chandlers of the Folklore Candle Company have set their last wick and poured their last pot of wax.

Their candles have been with since we opened to the public, and the shop won’t feel quite the same without those wooden lids and haunting aromas.

We knew this was coming, so stocked up heavily, but some scents are already nearing extinction. If there is one that you particularly love (for us it’s Storyteller and Longest Day), don’t wait.

Despite inflation and tariffs, they are still the same price as the day we opened.

We will be open this week on Thursday (4/3) from 12-2PM, Friday (4/4) from 12-2PM, and Sunday (4/6) from 12-5PM. (Note that an unavoidable conflict means that we aren’t able to be open this Saturday . . . something that hasn’t happened in years.)

03/18/2025

You need to read “Dungeon Crawler Carl.”

On the surface, it is “Hunger Games” meets “Hitchhiker’s Guide” (and they both play “World of Warcraft.”) After conquering Earth via bureaucratic loophole, aliens force the few surviving humans to navigate a lethal dungeon while the galaxy watches, bets, and laughs.

But these books (there are currently seven) aren’t really about gory monster battles and gruesomely hilarious traps.

They’re about regular people confronting a world built to crush their spirits and to make them turn on one another.

They’re about how a down-on-his-luck former Coast Guard named Carl and his talking Persian cat, Princess Donut, refuse to give up on each other, and refuse to tolerate a world where the strong prey upon the weak.

They are goofy and ridiculous, occasionally filthy, and they will absolutely double you over with laughter and then break you with an ugly-crying jag. As often as not, though, the tears aren’t from sadness, but from the sheer unexpected impact of hope.

They were just what we needed in 2025, and it is possible we’ve already started reading them again.

It’s also possible that we asked the original cover artist, .fleitas.art , to envision the four of us as Dungeon Crawlers. We couldn’t be more delighted with the result.

, if you see this, thank you.

You can (at least until our stocks run out) buy the hardback from us this Friday (3/21) from 12-2PM, and Saturday (3/22) and Sunday (3/23) from 12-4PM.

03/12/2025

We are delighted to reveal this painting of by .

Megan’s incredible tarot and oracle decks have graced our shelves since we opened, and we were honored that she agreed to help us celebrate our upcoming shop anniversary.

Her uncanny style makes us feel as if we’ve wandered into a dream, one at once both inviting and unsettling.

We can’t imagine a more perfect rendition of our liminal space.

It’s back from the framer and now hangs in the shop near the calligraphy desk.

03/10/2025

“That’s a pretty nice rock you’ve got there, be a real shame if anything happened to it.” - Baroness Belladonna Nightshade, shortly before doing a mischief.

We want to welcome the thousands of new faces who have joined us virtually over the last few weeks, to the hundreds who have visited the shop in person, and to the millions (gulp) who have watched and shared media of the shop.

When we designed the space, and decided to open our home to strangers, we never imagined anywhere near this level of enthusiasm. We are deeply grateful to you all for your support, and profoundly honored to have positively touched so many lives.

We would say that it is a dream come true, but we had never dreamed something like this was possible. Thank you. Thank you.

The downside, unfortunately, is that the shop wasn’t built to accommodate anywhere near the level of enthusiasm that viral social media can generate.

We are doing our best, and appreciate everyone’s patience.

We imagine that this wave will pass, and in a few weeks there won’t be people spilling out onto the street.

We appreciate your understanding, and look forward to meeting you all soon.

This week we are open Thursday (3/13) from 6-8PM, Friday (3/14) from 12-2PM, Saturday (3/15) from 12-4PM, and Sunday (3/16) from 12-4PM.

03/05/2025

Last week we had the pleasure to visit the to check out their new exhibit of folk art related to the Oddfellows and Freemasons.

Understandably, the marketing focuses on the “mystery” of these organizations. It’s what sells tickets, and for centuries the fraternal orders have been feared and lauded as cultists and/or secret masters.

Shockingly, you won’t find a lot of art related to unholy cabals or to secret plans for world domination.

There is, however, a focus on fellowship and mutual care that feels alien to contemporary America.

A significant portion of the Oddfellow mission was to make sure that its membership would be able to afford funerary care. Maybe more importantly, weekly or monthly meetings provided an opportunity for people to just get together and learn about one another.

To be fair, this fellowship was not universal, and the exhibit does a great job of highlighting the fact that many people were excluded from membership based on race and gender.

Still, one has to wonder whether our nation is worse off for these organizations having largely faded. People rightly feel isolated, and so much of our culture has been hollowed out by the thin substitute of television and “social” media.

The exhibit is definitely worth checking out, particularly on a Monday when admission is free.

02/24/2025

One of ours friends surprised us with this beautiful emu egg for Augur’s birthday.

It inspires us to dream of Neptune’s court, and we imagine it smuggled past dozing mermaids and scheming krakens.

The silver stand, in an Egyptian revival style, once held a cut glass serving dish, but can now usually be found in the shop displaying a shungite sphere.

Welcome to our many new followers, and many thanks to for featuring our little shop.

We want to remind everyone that our shop hours are both variable and limited, and can always be found for the coming week at bespokearcana.com.

Our temporal sorceries allow us to bend time around the edges, but there are certain limitations we can’t safely break. Thank you for supporting our strange schedule.

We will be open this Wednesday (2/26) from 6-8pm, and this Saturday (3/1) and Sunday (3/2) from 12-4pm.

02/17/2025

Presidents’ Day is a strange thing to be celebrating in America right now, but it’s a good time to think about heroes.

We need heroes. We need ideals to believe in. We need organizations and systems that make us larger than ourselves.

This is always true, but it is particularly true in dark times, when we are called upon to think beyond personal fears and beyond the present.

Sadly, real people are flawed. We grew up idolizing Abraham Lincoln, and while he did seemingly impossible and heroic things, he also supported genocide in the American West.

Organizations of any scale are composed of people, and thus are equally tainted. There is no nation state, religious faith, or political movement without blood on its hands. There is no symbol so pure that it can not be used for evil.

Too often, smart and informed people turn to cynicism. They give up on heroes and ideals, and they take a grim satisfaction in both recognizing and anticipating evil so they won’t be fooled.

Cynicism may be reasonable, but it is the antithesis of hope. As a practical matter, it encourages us to give up on good things because they are not perfect.

We don’t have the answer, and we don’t think there is one right solution, any more than there is one best moral code or political system.

We just know that we could all use some heroes right now, even imperfect ones.

This week we’ll be open Thursday (2/20) from 6-8PM, and Saturday (2/22) and Sunday (2/23) from 12-4PM.

02/14/2025

Not every romance is a story of fairy tale love.

Some are supervillain origin stories.

Here my companion is contemplating the awful destruction she just inflicted upon an innocent Belgian waffle.

I never stood a chance when she decided to steal my heart, and I love her more every day.

We hope this Valentine’s Day sees you reveling in as much romance (and as many truffles and flowers) as you desire.

02/11/2025

Romantic love is one of the great engines of civilization.

It pushes us to dizzying heights of creativity and kindness. It nurtures empathy and inspires self sacrifice. And, yes, it occasionally makes passionate fools of us all.

The world encourages cynicism when it comes to romantic love. We are told it is a thing for fairy tales and daydreams, not for sensible people.

Luckily, magic shops are not a place for sensible people.

We’re here for love in all its wonderful and absurd glory.

Here you will find sensuous candles and books of romance from the unrequited to the scandalous. Here are instruments for crafting poems and songs, and for writing promises of passion. Here are tools for purifying ablutions and for enchanting the private moments that remind us that the love of self matters at least as much as the love of others.

You’ve still got time for some Valentine’s Day shopping.

We’ll be open Wednesday (2/12) from 6-8pm, Thursday (2/13) from 3-5pm, Saturday (2/15) from 12-4pm, and Sunday (2/16) from 12-4pm.

02/04/2025

The best part of any trip, of course, is getting home to family.

We’ll be open this Saturday (2/8) from 3-7pm, and Sunday (2/9) from 12-4pm.

02/04/2025

Our trip to New Orleans coincided with the heaviest snowfall there in over a century.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, which makes up for the fact that a lot of the places we had wanted to visit were closed and we ate more from hotel vending machines than fancy restaurants.

Here are few highlights from the trip to provide a brief respite from staring into the abyss:

1&2. Jackson Square. The only creatures out were midwestern tourists and icy homunculi.
3. Many thanks to the lovely folks at , who let us play with their pens,
4. And to the oddity merchants at and , particularly TINC, who made us miss our girls.
5. Those interred at St. Louis Cemetery #1 were unfazed by the weather.
6. As were the undead at . Thank you to for helping us not to starve.
7. Turns out fallen snow angels can still ascend.
8. The best Bourbon street is one frozen and devoid of revelers.
9. Most of the galleries skewed to the Live, Laugh, Love crowd, but we loved the bats and lasers at
10. Thanks to the incredible confections of
11. and the excessive powdered sugar of we didn’t have to loot any locked convenience stores.
12. We prefer a soft filter on our ghost stories, but certainly did a thorough job of detailing the gruesome horrors at LaLaurie Mansion.
13. Coil refused a serpent cane from but said she’d be okay if made us an expanding table like this
14. It’s always nice to see how other magic shops do it. As busy as we are, we’re glad we don’t have to manage the crowds of and
15. The incredible staff at an empty took great care of us northern vegetarians with an intimidating baked Alaska.

01/30/2025

Last weekend we finally found the time to get together with friends to play our first tabletop role-playing game of 2025.

Thanks to fey shenanigans, our heroic adventurers found themselves transformed into mice. Of course, their newly diminished stature wasn’t about to stop them from saving the day.

It did, however, result in some uncomfortable conversation about whether mice needed trousers, or merely jaunty hats, to be considered clothed.

We put spiders to sleep, went parachuting with squirrels, and conjured a laser-pointer to evade a hungry cat.

We all could use more community right now, and saving the denizens of an imaginary garden with friends was a great way to remind ourselves that none of us are as alone as we fear.

Through happy coincidence, we also just received this wonderful tiny painting by from . Supposedly the subject matter is a wizard mouse named Pipkin, but it looks an awful lot like an illusionist we know named Virgil.

Please support human artists. And mouse artists, we suppose.

Oh, and we’re on Blue Sky now if anyone would like to visit us there.

$The stories of Odin, Loki, and their friends and enemies probably represent just a tiny fraction of the diversity of Nor...$

01/28/2025

The stories of Odin, Loki, and their friends and enemies probably represent just a tiny fraction of the diversity of Norse theology. They are simply the tales that survived; knitted together by nineteenth century cultural historians who wanted a coherent system to mirror that of the classical world.

That doesn’t mean what we think of as Norse mythology is “wrong,” just that it was told and retold in many different ways by many different people.

All of this is prelude to talk about a term we used last week that a few people have asked us about: fimbulwinter, or fimbulvetr.

In Norse mythology (as we know it), the world ends with an event referred to as Ragnarok. It is a bit unclear whether this is an event of sacred time (like the Christian world ending on Good Friday and being reborn on Easter) or a literal one (like the Christian Second Coming).

It is also not entirely clear whether this end was a final termination, or merely a cyclical end and rebirth, with the passage of the people and gods of one age giving rise to another.

Finally, the particular form of this ending is also ambiguous. Some accounts focus on the mythological aspects of magical serpents and hounds. Others highlight more concrete physical changes to the human environment.

Amongst the latter are three consecutive terrible winters in which no sun will shine and no crops will grow. (Some speculate the myth may have been inspired by harsh winters caused by volcanic activity.)

These are fimbulwinter, and they herald the beginning of the end times.

We don’t think that particular apocalypse is upon us yet, but after spending a week in New Orleans during a blizzard, we’re not completely sure.

We’ll have a proper tourist report next week, but here is a picture from the (usually bustling) Jackson Square.

We arrived home in time to enjoy some haggis, cranachan, and poetry for our annual January 25th celebration of the Scottish holiday of Burns Night.

If you’d like to learn more about Nordic myths, we have plenty of books on the topic, including these by and

We’ll be open this Saturday (2/1) from 3-7PM, and Sunday (2/2) from 12-4PM.

01/22/2025

Apparently some monsters long thought dead, or at least frozen in eternal slumber, have returned to plague the world.

We’re obviously talking about shoggoths, what were you thinking of?

is delighted to introduce the latest Seussian treat from .

This one recounts, in playful images and rhyming couplets, the doomed Pabodie expedition to the Pole, and describes ancient horrors not well enough buried in the ice.

It is longer and even more charming than the other two tomes in the series.

It’s the perfect thing for anyone looking to escape more contemporary concerns.

01/13/2025

The frost wraiths have been loosed upon the land.

They have kissed the sky with somber white and blanketed us in garments powdered and crystalline.

Their attentions have shrouded the earth in eerie silence and illuminated it with an uncanny glow.

We have indulged in fireside chats, and always one more mug of hot cocoa.

After the deluge of the holidays, the shop has been sweetly quiet. It has been a pleasure to talk with customers at length, to take stock, and to wonder at the future.

Here are a few images of the chill around Pike Street. Murderpaws gave the snow a chance; and, after due consideration, decided she hated it.

We will probably subject you to more as we have a weakness for the Victorian tableau of our facade obscured by falling snow.

We will be open this Wednesday (1/15) from 2-4pm, Saturday (1/18) from 5-8pm, and Sunday (1/19) from 12-4pm.

01/05/2025

We know that the snow disrupted travel plans for some of the people who’d been planning to visit today.

We hope that everyone was, and remains, safe. We’re lucky to be able to stay locked away by the fire with our kittens, but we wish the best to anyone who has to travel.

We’re also thinking of the people without a safe place to live. It wouldn’t be the worst time to send some money to or to a shelter nearer to you.

Our hours are even stranger than usual this week to better welcome the folks coming into town for the . Hopefully at least one of these days will work for you.

(Also, Snowmaggedon is much scarier than a typical Armageddon because it has two g’s and one d.)

Open this week Wednesday (1/8) from 12-2PM, Friday (1/10) from 12-2PM, Saturday (1/11) from 5-9PM, and Sunday (1/12) from 4-6PM.

Hierophany & Hedge

04/16/2025

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04/01/2025

03/18/2025

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02/24/2025

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