For every East Village business that’s opening or closing, dozens are quietly making it. Here’s one of them: Enchantments.

Melvin Felix Cat Cabral carves a candle.

When Enchantments opened in 1982, the “witchcraft, goddess, and nature religion” store was “narrow, dark and kind of creepy, which was fun because it looked like a witchcraft store by movie standards,” said Cat Cabral, manager of seven years. In 2003, employee and lifelong witch Stacy Rapp bought the store and in 2008, she moved it down the block to 424 East Ninth Street – a sunnier, airier space where the rent is $6,500 per month (up roughly $1,000 over four years). Sunlight has been good for business. “It’s helped people realize our shop is a positive thing and not about black magic,” said Ms. Cabral. The Wiccan accoutrements are flying off the shelves – and not as the result of spells. Even in challenging times, said Ms. Rapp, the store sells well over 50,000 candles a year. We asked Ms. Cabral how the magic happens.

Can you describe to the curious yet unfamiliar what Enchantments is all about?

It started out primarily as a Wiccan and pagan supply shop, a community center selling books on different Wiccan and neo-pagan alternative systems. It also specialized in Afro-Creole-Caribbean religions like Santeria and kabbalistic, hermetic magic, different systems of European magic. We’ve grown over the years to cater to so many different spiritual and magical paths. I think of it as eclectic like New York is – full of people raised in different religions and now on various different paths of discovery and interested in hidden knowledge.

How does it work when people come in asking for you to do a spell?

People come in and ask us to do a spell and we say, “No, but we can sell you the supplies to do it yourself.” People come in often thinking in terms of “Bewitched” or “Harry Potter” magic. In its most simple terms magic is an intention and a will, plus doing an action. You show the universe or God your intent and then have trust and faith that it will manifest. People need some kind of moral code to live by and we carry a lot of the tools, traditions and rituals to help give them structure.

Speaking of “Harry Potter,” I imagine business improves when shows like “True Blood” make the supernatural world seem cool?

We have people coming in asking if we sell True Blood. Harry Potter people come in asking for mugwort. We carry mugwort. It’s a prophetic psychic dream potion you take in tea before you go to bed for lucid dreams. What’s been nice is that those movies have helped give Wicca a positive, more mainstream spin by showing it in a favorable light.
People are a lot more open-minded when they realize it’s not about putting a curse on someone and wishing them dead, it’s about personal enlightenment.

What sells the best?

Our seven-day custom-carved candles. We talk to the customer about what they are trying to working on. It might be trying to clear away obstacles; finding a new job or roommate; looking for clarity, confidence, guidance, or love. We try to find out what’s going on and we customize a candle and a spell for them to take home and do themselves.

Do you get people asking for black magic?

Very rarely do they come in asking for black magic. People who have been burned by a job or a love are hurt and angry. Some might be looking for a quick solution. We talk to them and immediately tell them it’s not what we do. They either quickly leave or they open up and we see they are actually sad.

Our best customers have great success stories: women with fertility issues who’ve gotten pregnant really easily, people on job hunts getting jobs, people with relationship issues finding good relationships; people who come in here are aware of what they need, but they might need to hear it from someone else. Often our customers are people on the edge of their seat, but who can’t quite see themselves from the outside.

The website looks like it could use some updating. Any plans for that?

We are going to have a new website by the end of the month. It will be much easier to navigate. We have a Facebook page where we list about our classes and open circles. Open circles are when celebrate all of the major Wiccan holidays like Halloween.

What other improvements do you think the business could use?

It would be great to paint the store and make it more organized. But then I think because it started in the 80s in the East Village it has a real punk and anti-establishment DIY style and attitude that we don’t want to lose. For now, all this light has made everything for us bigger and brighter.