If you are someone who is interested in the mystical and esoteric world, you might be in search of an occult bookstore near you. An occult bookstore provides a treasure trove of resources for those seeking knowledge on subjects like magic, astrology, divination, and witchcraft, among others. Visiting an occult bookstore can offer an immersive experience, as you are surrounded by shelves filled with books, tarot cards, crystals, and other mystical items. These stores often have knowledgeable staff who can guide you in your exploration and help you find the right resources for your interests. In an occult bookstore, you can find a wide range of books on various topics, from introductory guides to more advanced texts. These books may cover subjects such as spell casting, meditation, herbalism, and mythology.

Watkins Books | London’s Oldest Occult Bookstore

In the time of Samhain, it seems all things lead to the magical, the mysterious, the mystical. Though I know it’s not just me who feels led to such things, I also know some feel that the magical, the mysterious, the mystical don’t always make themselves known—they must be sought out. For those feeling the lure and seekers alike, there are places where those interests align with literary pursuits.

While many bookstores have small sections dedicated to subjects including mysticism and the occult, for seekers of the mystical, there is no place quite like a bookstore dedicated to such unusual endeavors. And for today’s Literary Destinations, I’ve found one of the world’s oldest bookstores with such inclinations.

Watkins Books

Watkins Books at Cecil Court, Covent Garden, London

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the study and exploration of spiritualism, mysticism, occultism, and esotericism (all terms that overlap somewhat in meaning) were on the rise. It was the age when mediums holding seances were trendy, but beneath the popular, and often fraudulent, shows of paranormal happenings was a real widespread interest in subjects and beliefs formerly shunned and demonized.

In the late 19th century, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a secret society focused on the study and practice of the occult, paranormal happenings, and metaphysics, was founded by three Freemasons. This society was structured similarly to the Masonic lodge, with initiations and three levels of Orders to which members belonged, progressing in their studies from esoteric philosophy and the basics of subjects including astrology and tarot, to the Second Order with studies including alchemy, magic, and scrying among others, to the most elite of the society—the Third Order. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn became one of the biggest, if not the biggest, influences on Western occultism. Its lasting effect is still seen in modern spiritual practices within Wicca and other religions. The Order was incredibly active within Great Britain, spreading and intensifying the interest in spiritualism and Eastern cultures and beliefs.

In response to this interest rose Madame Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society in 1875. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was a Russian occultist and philosopher, a leading figure within the esoteric movement and, later, within the Spiritualism movement. She was a controversial figure during her life, not only for her beliefs and efforts to spread the ideas of Theosophy but because, once she moved to America, she claimed to be a spirit medium and was met with numerous claims of fraud.

Within her sphere of influence was John M. Watkins.

Inside Watkins Books

Watkins was a figure within the literary world; a translator, a bookseller through the first ever secondhand and remaindered book catalogue he founded in 1893, and owner of his own printing press. He was also a personal friend of Madame Blavatsky’s as well as one of her “disciples,” and his printing press was behind her pseudoscientific metaphysical book The Secret Doctrine. As the story goes, it was a comment from Madame Blavatsky in a conversation with Watkins that inspired the idea for Watkins Books. She spoke of London’s lack of options for places to buy books on the occult, metaphysics, and mysticism. And so, in 1897, Watkins Books opened.

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Specializing in the very books those of the various spiritual movements of the age desired, Watkins Books became a fixture within London for those seeking out the obscure. W.B. Yeats, Irish poet and member of the mysterious Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, was a frequent patron of the shop. Other frequent visitors recognizable to those interested in spiritual, esoteric, and occult authors included G.R.S. Mead—a writer, translator, historian, and member of the Theosophical Society–and one of the most widely recognized names within the occultist movement, Aleister Crowley. He was a poet, novelist, painter, occultist, and “ceremonial magician.” A biography of Crowley claims he once made all of the books in Watkins Books magically disappear and reappear. Another notable piece of history attached to this bookstore is that when Geoffrey Watkins, son of John, took over the shop after his father passed away, he published Carl Jung’s 1925 edition of Septem Sermones ad Mortuos. Being a beacon for spiritualists and occultists, there was no shortage of notable figures frequenting this bookstore.

Tarot deck selection at Watkins Books

While Watkins Books has changed hands over the past century, it has remained true to its original purpose: to provide a bookstore for seekers of beliefs of a different kind, the mystical, and, of course, the magical. They continue to sell these unique books as well as crystals, tarot decks, statues, and the little oddities that could only be found at a store devoted to the spiritual and occult. These days, the bookstore holds regular events, offers in-store tarot readings, publishes its own spiritual magazine (Watkins Mind Body Spirit) and blog, offers spiritual E-courses, and even has a spiritual map of London on its site.

Inside Watkins Books

At over 120 years old, it is quite a notable thing for this strange little bookstore to still be around and thriving as it is in the modern world. There has always been a pocket of people to whom the subjects of this store’s inventory appeals, and in a world where charming, independent bookstores full of character are going out of business steadily, it’s fantastic to see a store such as Watkins Books continuing to go strong.

Watkins Books is rich in history and intrigue, a bookstore with an even more mystical allure than other normally charming bookstores. And at the time of year when the mysterious and mystical are on the forefront of more people’s minds, there’s no better time to take a trip to this historically significant, groundbreaking spiritual bookstore. While traveling to London isn’t in the near future for me, this literary destination is certainly on my list of must-visits in the city.

Spiritual L.A./New Age/Occult Bookstores and Shops

These books may cover subjects such as spell casting, meditation, herbalism, and mythology. They can help you deepen your understanding of these ancient practices and provide practical guidance for incorporating them into your life. Besides books, an occult bookstore may also stock a variety of tools and materials for practicing magic or divination.

25 Nov Spiritual L.A./New Age/Occult Bookstores and Shops

Alexandria II Bookstore

Books, tarot cards, magical supplies. Offers psychic readings.

170 S Lake Ave #100, Pasadena, CA 91101

Aum and Garden

Lovely store in the Valley full of gifts and supplies with a full schedule of classes, events, and readings available.

13363 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423

The Green Man

Mostly Wiccan supplies. Offers readings.

5712 Lankershim Blvd, North Hollywood, CA 91601

House of Intuition

Three locations carrying books, crystals and stones, magical implements. Offers readings.

2237 W Sunset Bl, Silver Lake/Echo Park, 90026

7449 Melrose Ave, West Hollywood, CA 90046

5108 York Bl, Highland Park, 90042

Liberate Emporium

Books, cards, gifts. Offers readings and healing sessions with a variety of practitioners.

1765 Hillhurst Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

Liberate Hollywood

“Where spirituality and creativity unite.” A full-service shop smack in the center of Hollywood offering crystals and other gifts, readings, and a full schedule of events, workshops and meditations. (Full disclosure: the author presents a monthly workshop there).

6365 Selma Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90028

Mostly Angels LA

Tiny, beautiful shop selling crystals, gifts and readings in a neighborhood you wouldn’t expect. The shop has recently been taken over by Julian Sambrano – stop in and say hi!

2602 S Robertson Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90034

Mystic Journey

Books, incense, gifts, natural healing products. Offers readings, classes, and book events.

1624 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, CA 90291

Open Eye Crystals

Mid-city metaphysical shop featuring crystals, readings, and events.

6110 West Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035

Psychic Eye

Books and music, metaphysical supplies, and readings.

13435 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423

Spellbound Sky

Charming shop of “metaphysical notions and potions,” full selection of crystals. The owners know their stuff (see page xxx)

4210 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90029

Thunderbolt Spiritual Books

Books new and used, gifts, more Eastern in flavor than the occult –oriented stores. The store has a rich history: Carlos Casteneda used to hold classes upstairs.

512 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401

Vedanta Bookstore, Hollywood

Spiritual bookstore focusing on the religions of India. Other traditions are carried as well, although be forewarned, the author’s previous book was rejected as being “too unconventional.”

1946 Vedanta Pl, Los Angeles, CA 90068

Don’t let anybody diss L.A.’s reading habits. This was and is a bookstore boomtown

The Last Bookstore isn’t exactly the last of its kind, but it leans into the nostalgia of books and the bygone era of plentiful bookstores.

It’s late 1937, and you’re F. Scott Fitzgerald, the once-celebrated writer, and you’re getting paid $1,000 a week, which, especially during the Depression, and even for the gilded coffers of MGM, isn’t toy money.

From your place at the Garden of Allah apartments on Sunset, in what is now West Hollywood, you might decide to amble the couple of miles to Hollywood Boulevard, to the Stanley Rose Book Shop, knuckled right up against Musso and Frank. There, you might find other scribblers, with names like Saroyan and Steinbeck, to share a convivial drink nearby; some of Hollywood Boulevard’s many bookshops are open almost as late as the bars.

Or you’re Ray Bradbury, and on a late April day in 1946 — April the 24th, if you must know — you head downtown, to Booksellers Row, centered on 6th Street between Hill and Figueroa. You’d get there by bus or Red Car, or on your bicycle, because you do not drive, not even one single block, not since you saw that gory accident about 10 years earlier.

You walk into Fowler Brothers bookstore, which opened in 1888 as a church supply shop, and by the time it would close its doors for good in 1994, it was the oldest surviving bookstore in the city. On that day, a brilliant and fetching book clerk named Maggie McClure caught his attention; Bradbury caught hers because she thought he was shoplifting books into his vast trench coat. They married not quite 18 months later.

L.A. is a universe where you can twinkle in the galaxy of your choosing — farming, tech, academia, movies, and, for much of the 20th century, bookshops. Whole solar systems of bookstores — new, used, rare, secondhand, antiquarian — clustered in certain cities: in Glendale, along Brand Boulevard; on Ventura Boulevard in the Valley; in Pasadena, on Colorado Boulevard, from Old Town to Vroman’s, still the oldest book-seller in Southern California; on and near Hollywood Boulevard; in Long Beach, orbiting around the legendary Acres of Books, founded the year after the 1933 earthquake, with miles of shelves where Bradbury went to shop, even though the science fiction section bore the label “screwball aisle.”

L.A. in the 1920s and ‘30s was beginning to shake off its reputation for hayseed Babbittry, or at least to acquire a critical mass of urban sophisticates possessing expansive tastes and sometimes the wallets to indulge them. The Zamorano Club, a men’s group named for the man who brought the first printing press to California, welcomed bibliophiles, oenophiles, foodies, collectors, art patrons, conversationalists, and tastemakers. Colleges and universities needed libraries to match the reputations they wanted to attain — and bought accordingly.

The movie studios needed research libraries so directors and producers could find out what Daniel Boone wore and what Cleopatra ate, and those libraries had huge budgets and farsighted librarians. California historian Kevin Starr once wrote that Jake Zeitlin — a pioneering rare-book seller and publisher — calculated that over 20 years, MGM alone spent $1 million bulking up its library.

Department stores ran book departments as big as modern-day bookstores, and in its column “Gossip of the Book World,” The Times let readers know when authors were due in town for book signings. Amelia Earhart would be at Robinson’s on Aug. 8, 1932, signing copies of her book “The Fun of It,” and as a bonus, her Lockheed-Vega plane had been dismantled, brought downtown from Burbank, and reassembled right in the store.

If you’ve seen the great 1946 L.A. noir film “The Big Sleep” — and if you haven’t, shame on you, go watch it at once, after you’ve finished reading this — one scene may have eluded your notice: Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe walks out of one bookstore and heads right across the street to another, in search of a particular book, just as a rainstorm gears up. It is the rainstorm, not two neighboring bookstores, that was the Los Angeles rarity.

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Even without today’s enticements of fluffy coffees and lounging sofas, book lovers of yore managed to endure the rigors of strolling from store to store in these neighborhoods. And, like moons to the bigger stores’ planets, specialty bookshops found bibliophiles’ markets for volumes about art, fitness, science, ethnic interests, photography, erotica, comics, sports, mystery and horror, architecture, and the spiritual. The glorious Bodhi Tree on Melrose Avenue was founded in the groovy year of 1970, extolled by Shirley MacLaine’s autobiography in the 1980s, and put out of business in 2011 by the usual suspects: online book sales and metaphysical books going mainstream in chain bookstores. The Thomas Bros., makers and sellers of those seminal Southern California map guides, once had stores in Los Angeles and in Long Beach — killed off by GPS and by a consequent public indifference to knowing all by yourself which way is north.

Beyond its Hollywood mother ship, Pickwick Books, in its flush years, operated branches in Canoga Park, Costa Mesa, San Diego, San Bernardino, Bakersfield, Montclair and on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Dutton’s books reached readers in North Hollywood and Brentwood. The Martindale’s chain flourished in Century City, Santa Monica, the Wilshire District and in Beverly Hills, where its clientele was so flossy that the store carried Paris Match and an Arabian-horse magazine.

Fowler Brothers’ last move was to 7th Street, among the department stores and high-end shops. Fowler Brothers had sold books to Charles Lindbergh, Bobby Kennedy, John Philip Sousa, Irving Stone and of course Ray Bradbury. Marie Leong worked there for something like 25 years, full- and part time, and loved it partly because the owners were a family, and so was the feeling of the store; “when I wanted to do something with my daughter, like something at school, they’d let me come in late or leave early — so nice.”

Fowler Brothers’ location seemed ideal. Judges and jurors came in on their lunch breaks, as did workers in need of office supplies. Weekends, downtown was still a desert, but the weekdays were hopping. And then L.A. started digging up the street for a subway. Customers couldn’t navigate their way through the chaotic breaks in the street and stopped coming. The sidewalk out front collapsed from a construction leak. “My boss said, ‘I’ve had enough; we have to close this,’ ” Leong remembered. And in March 1994, that was the end. Ray Bradbury made a swan-song visit on the last day.

Online book shopping tends to herd you further and further down a rabbit hole of your known tastes and shopping habits. Wandering through a real bookstore promises the element of surprise, and lets you discover and cultivate interests you never knew you had.

A vintage postcard from Patt Morrison’s collection shows the Spell occult bookstore in Torrance. Its Pacific Coast Highway address is today home to a strip mall with an Italian restaurant, a liquor store and a massage parlor.

Phil Mason ran a used bookshop on Western Avenue, marked by a distinctive red door. Magnificent Montague shopped there often, on the lookout to add to his enormous archive of black Americana books and ephemera. Montague was the Los Angeles R&B disc jockey whose joyous catchphrase for some especially fabulous recording was “Burn, baby, burn!” In 1965, young men and women took up Montague’s chant with a different meaning during the Watts riots.

Mason once assured me that he was the only registered monarchist on the L.A. County voter rolls. After he died, his books were sold off at a dollar each. I made two trips there, buying all that my yellow Civic hatchback could hold, and slowly driving my treasures home.

In Pasadena, there’s a boutique coffee place, part of a chain, where Prufrock Books once stood. As a poor student, I yearned after its treasures and still wonder what became of a book I coveted fiercely, one whose title I’ve forgotten but which had been signed by all of the Hollywood Ten.

As happens so often, just when something has almost vanished, we rediscover its virtues. So it promises to be these days, with new independent bookstores bursting upon us in Pasadena, Santa Monica, Highland Park. Barnes & Noble, originally the superstore scourge of independents, must be hoping for a joyous and prosperous welcome when it returns to Santa Monica next year.

It’s a delight to see all of these, of course, but the city can’t ever regain the deep bench of booksellers so many had before the Internet Age. Certainly since then, L.A. has registered often, by many metrics, as the biggest book-buying market in the nation, undented by the arch mockery from that 212 island.

You might find a collection of tarot and oracle cards, runes, pendulums, candles, herbs, and crystals. These tools can be used to enhance your spiritual practices and connect with higher energies. One of the advantages of visiting a physical occult bookstore is the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals. Often, these stores host events, workshops, and classes where you can meet others who share your interests. These events can be an excellent way to learn from experienced practitioners and expand your network within the occult community. If finding an occult bookstore near you proves challenging, you can also explore online options. Many occult bookstores have an online presence where you can browse and purchase books, as well as other items. While online shopping may lack the personal touch of visiting a physical store, it still provides access to a wide range of resources for your occult studies. In conclusion, an occult bookstore can be a haven for those interested in the mystical and esoteric world. Whether you are searching for books, tools, or a community of like-minded individuals, these stores offer a wealth of resources to support your spiritual journey. So, if you are looking for an occult bookstore near you, start exploring the options available and embark on a fascinating exploration of the occult realm..

Reviews for "The Cauldron of Knowledge: Seeking Enlightenment at an Occult Bookstore Near Me"

1. Sally - 2 stars - I had high hopes for this occult bookstore near me, but I was sorely disappointed. The staff was unhelpful and seemed more interested in chatting amongst themselves than assisting customers. The selection of books was small and lacked variety, with outdated titles dominating the shelves. I was hoping to find some unique and rare occult texts, but there was nothing of the sort. Overall, it was a lackluster experience, and I would not recommend this store to anyone serious about their occult studies.

2. David - 1 star - This occult bookstore near me is a complete sham. The moment I stepped inside, I felt like I was transported to a tacky Halloween store rather than a legitimate place for esoteric knowledge. The atmosphere was garish and cheap, with tacky decorations cluttering every corner. The books were poorly organized, and it was evident that they lacked proper maintenance. The whole place felt like a money-grabbing scheme rather than a genuine occult bookstore. Save your money and find a better establishment elsewhere.

3. Cassandra - 2 stars - As an avid reader and practitioner of the occult, I was excited to visit the occult bookstore near me. However, my excitement quickly turned into disappointment. The store lacked a proper ambiance and felt more like a cluttered garage sale rather than a bookstore. The staff seemed disinterested, and when I asked for recommendations, they were unable to provide any meaningful suggestions. The book collection was also lacking, and it seemed like they hadn't restocked in ages. Overall, this occult bookstore did not live up to the expectations, and I won't be returning anytime soon.

Unlocking the Esoteric: A Journey to the Nearest Occult Bookstore