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DANA: When my daughter was growing up, I always told her, if you think it’s wrong, walk away. Don’t go, “Well maybe…” No, walk away. …if you think it’s wrong, it’s wrong.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: Better to walk away from it, and know…
DANA: Don’t second guess your gut, ever. Sometimes yeah, I might make snap decisions about people, “Oh, I’m not gonna like them…” and, you know, then I’ll converse and be around them and yeah, I’ll find that sometimes that I jump to conclusions. But if you’re an ass, I’ll know you’re an ass.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: Your store. You have…for me, at least…it draws me in because I’m curious.
DANA: Cool!
CAROL HARPER/ACN: I’m curious, and you know, that’s the thing…when I did bring a friend in, they were curious too, looking around. Do you ever observe what people are looking at,do you ever observe if they’re connecting with something?
DANA: We try to welcome everyone that comes into the store and make them feel like they belong. Because I’ve been in certain situations where you aren’t welcomed in, and I don’t like that.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: I’m kind of curious now about a reading…my own curiosity (laughs). We’ve met a few times, and I had wondered…
DANA: Why? You are very in touch with what is going on in your life. You’re second-guessing things, but if you step back and look at it…you’ll make the right decision. I don’t need your money.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: I believe that things are a choice, to go with your gut feeling. I’ve been, in the past few months…yeah, I’ve had to make some decisions, but once I made that decision based on that gut feeling, it was the right one. So I mean, there’s a lot of truth to what you’re saying…about people.
DANA: You know, when people walk in and say, “Well, I don’t wanna know.” Well…? (shrugs) Or, “Are you going to tell me that I’m going to die?” Well, no…I’m not that type of a reader. And I have issues with readers that do. I’ve had clients come to me since I’ve been here in Jackson, and there have been others in Amador and Calaveras County that are readers, and they have thoroughly taken advantage of people. And if they were still in business, I would report them.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: Well, they’re not in business anymore.
DANA: They’re not in business. We, because we have a gift, we have the ability to help people make decisions. But you don’t have a right to take advantage of them. There was a big thing on 60 Minutes a couple weeks ago about readers on the East coast taking people for thousands and tens of thousands of dollars. That’s crap! Why would you do that? There’s a young lady in the neighborhood who goes and sees a bruja (which is “witch” in Spanish) in Mexico and in Stockton. They have given her a medallion to wear, and when it turns black, they told her she has go to back and get cleansed and protected. It’ssilver!
CAROL HARPER/ACN: Oh my gosh. It’s tarnished!
DANA: They charge her $1400 to cleanse her and this pentagram she wears. Are you kidding me?
CAROL HARPER/ACN: That is so sad.
DANA: I have issues with people who take advantage because of their belief system, or their superstitions. The Spanish community on the whole is very superstitious. And “cleansing” somebody? Hello? You’ve got to be kidding me? Seriously!
CAROL HARPER/ACN: (pauses in thought) Well, you know…that can be said about any religion that takes advantage of people monetarily. You have tithing with Christianity, or giving alms, or televangelists or whatever. There’s this “business” thing. How much of that…obviously, you have a business. But the thing is, you’re more about the individual person.
DANA: I like balance and if I have a gift (some people call it—in the beginning, I called it a curse; I hated it because I could tell the good guys from the bad guys) - if I have the ability to help someone else, why wouldn’t I do that?
You know readings are really inexpensive, if you look at the whole grand scheme of things. Why would I need to charge $50 an hour? I could…but why would I want to? Who’s got that kind of money these days?
CAROL HARPER/ACN: You and I think a lot alike in that way.
DANA: I charge $25 a reading and it takes as long as it takes. Do I think or do I know they’re going to come back in a month when they need help? Of course. People say, “Well, you need to charge what you’re worth.” Yeah? Am I worth more than $50/ hour? Yes, but why? I don’t have $50 to give to someone to give me insight to fix my life. I can’t charge more for something more than what I would be willing to pay for.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: I wish people would realize that. Other than that, it’s ego.
DANA: Oh, ego. Let’s not even get into ego and the Craft.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: Oh, yeah, so you call it the Craft. Why is it the Craft?
DANA: I am a loving member of the Craft of the wise. I craft things, I make things. I am crafty. I cast spells. I do tarot…all a craft. Your craft is writing. My craft is witchcraft. That’s always how I refer to it, as the Craft.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: I call it a gift. Is that kind of the same?
DANA: I have a gift. But I practice the craft. The craft of Paganism, the craft of witchcraft, the craft of Wicca. To me, it’s always what I refer to it as.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: What do you love about what you believe and your religion?
DANA: Making people happy. I like what I do. I like to make things. I like to spread joy. I made some Books of Shadows. A Book of Shadows is a witch or a Wiccan person’s journal. It’s what they write down, the tinctures that they make, or the ointments that they do, or the spells that they cast, or the information that they want to keep forever. And I’ve made some to sell in my store recently. Well, and I have a young lady who is trying to help me get my books in order (haha, yeah, hmm…that’s a good one. My filing system is a plastic bag.)
CAROL HARPER/ACN: (laughs)
DANA: …so I put together this basket and I put a book of Shadows in there. I could have sold that book. That whole basket was probably about $150, and I gave it to her. Why? To say thank you. She cried, I cried. It was all good.
You know, play it forward. Not pay it forward. Everybody goes, “No, it’s pay it forward’”. No it’s not; it’s play it forward. It’s an action. If someone does something nice for you, then do something nice for somebody else, not because you’re supposed to, not because “Ooo, I might get something out of it.” [Do it] because it’s the right frickin’ thing to do!
It’s like, I have an urban deity, an urban god that I talk to…for parking. His name is Squat.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: (laughs) That’s appropriate. [As in], I’m gonna “squat” here for a while!
DANA: Okay, try this. This works especially well in the big city…Sacramento, anyplace where there’s a lot of traffic and no parking space.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: Like, that no left turn in San Francisco…auughh!
DANA: It works really well when it comes to parking…Arden Mall, Stockton. Anywhere you are, and someone cuts you off? Don’t call him a raunchy, no-good whatever else…no road rage. “Thank you very much, I guess you needed to go first.” Be polite about it…inside. Not outside, inside your body.
You get to the parking lot; all the parking places you see are all full. “Squat, Squat come to me, Squat Squat, let it be…find a parking place close for me…” Do some kind of rhyme with his name in it. You’ll get a parking place.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: That’s like making a wish and blowing the candles out.
DANA: Duh!
CAROL HARPER/ACN: Wow!
DANA: It works every single time.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: One of my favorite movies is Practical Magic. Sandra Bullock…
DANA: There’s a lot of hokus pokus out there. Magic doesn’t manifest that fast. It’s not like taking a pharmaceuticals and your your infection is gone. Herbs and magic don’t work that fast.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: But they do work?
DANA: All the time.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: But they call it Practical magic. Why?
DANA: What are you gonna call it, impractical?
CAROL HARPER/ACN: (laughs) But in those movies, kinda like a Hollywood version of it, you like, think it was a “normal” way of life. Like, I was raised Catholic, I was raised Mormon, I was raised…okay, I was raised as a witch. So the “practicality” is like, oh yeah, my mom mixes potions or whatever…
DANA: Yeah, pretty much in our house it was that way. There’d be jars all over the kitchen. And if it looked gross, don’t drink it.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: (laughs)
DANA: …because I was making something. When my daughter was in school—once she hit high school—she had a nickname. They called her “Herbs & Spice”. Because any time she got sick, I would pump herbs into her. Okay, I make tinctures for my family. I will blend consumable herbs for my family only. I’m not an herbalist; I just have a couple of really good books. I have treated our family with those books for twenty years. And if it had a black cover on it, a black binder or black book, you don’t open it. And if it was a jar of nasty-looking crap on the counter, leave it alone. Because I’m making something, and it’s gonna taste bad!
To this day my daughter will say something to me on Facebook. Well, you’re know I’m going to say, then she’s (mimicks daughter) “Yeah, I know…go to the health food store and get some and get some herbs No, I’m not doing it.” Whatever.
My daughter had perfect attendance—grammar school, junior high school, high school. Hello? She had perfect attendance. I would blend all my own herbs, so it’s practical. I’m a kitchen witch. I can do pretty much anything out of my kitchen. Practical.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: Why do they call it “magic”?
DANA: Because you’re altering an event; you’re changing the course of an event. I’m altering people’s lives by being here. They’re making different decisions, because they can see things objectively from someone who doesn’t have an agenda.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: Gotcha. You just want to help.
DANA: I want to help. And there are people who come to me and their issues are way past anything I know what to do, or how to deal with.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: What do you do in that situation?
DANA: I refer them to people I know. I’ve had a couple of people that have come in here that have issues. We did the Mind, Body and Spirit Fair, and I don’t do grief counseling. But I was sitting right next to [name withheld] and I got up from my table and walked over to [her] and I said, “Look, I’m out of my realm. I don’t know what to do. I am not a grief counselor, help me.”
Then there was another woman who came in here who has children who have behavioral issues. [Name withheld] is my first line of defense. I will give them her name and number. She is a wellness coach; she does meridian tapping. Because society, the first thing they want to do with kids now is put them on drugs.
No. Our son was diagnosed with OCD, ADD and ADHD. Yeah.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: Labels and boxes.
DANA: We’re not going there. So we treated it with Bach Flower essence and some other herbal stuff. He graduated and walked on stage. But if people come in with issues that are way past anything I can do, I will make a phone call, give them a card, refer them. I’m not going to pretend to be a grief counselor.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: Something you’re not.
DANA: Someone came in one day and her dad had just died, or was dying. She bought a sage stick. Well, I have a rack of books that people bring me just for whatever, and I will give them out to people I see fit. Some people buy them; some people, I just give them. Well, I gave her book on pagan death and dying. I don’t know anything about it. Here’s a book, take the book. Everything you need is in here. I mean, I bought that book for other people because I don’t do grief counseling. I don’t do…
When people come to me and say, “I think my husband is abusing my kid.” And you’re talking to me instead of a cop? Are you trippin’?
CAROL HARPER/ACN: A book. That’s interesting. When you knew that you were coming out as a witch…
DANA: I’ve never been in. From the day that I read that book, and it will be twenty years this October…I’ve never been in. You’re a Christian; why would you…it’s not something you hide. Why? Because mine isn’t mainstream doesn’t mean I have to hide it. I’m strong enough to stand up and say, “You know what…?”
CAROL HARPER/ACN: What if you have someone interested in being a witch or witchcraft. Or maybe they’ve read this interview and go, “Wow, I feel the same way. Maybe there’s something about me, maybe I have some kind of gift…”
DANA: Then I will refer them to that book.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: Could they come to you?
DANA: Yeah. There’s also a really, really good online school called WitchSchool.com. They’re based on the East coast, and they offer all kinds of…
CAROL HARPER/ACN: (chuckles) In Salem? (chuckles)
DANA: Yeah, they actually moved there. They had to.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: No way, are you serious?
DANA: They had to because where they were originally—the discrimination they got—they had to move that part of the country.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: No way, are you serious?
And yeah, we do Circle here. I have several clients, customers who said come on, you teach some classes. So we are going to do a class probably in the next month on how to incorporate scrapbooking and your Book of Shadows…because traditionally, a Book of Shadows was all handwritten. Okay, I have black binders for days, of handwriting. Give me a break, if pagans had computers, it would all be typed!
CAROL HARPER/ACN: (Laughs)
DANA: Okay? For instance if you’re doing hand copying, and it’s a nine and a half by eleven, a college rule, and you make a mistake, you gotta start all over again. Spell check? Wait a minute…
CAROL HARPER/ACN: (laughs)
DANA: So incorporating technology into a Book of Shadows? Yeah! Let’s just cut up some paper and have fun. So I’m going to teach some classes.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: At the store here?
DANA: Yeah, here at the store. And we do hold Circle, every couple of months. I’m being asked to hold a weekly Circle, which…it’s kinda like going to church. You go once a week, and it’s usually with the same group of people, which…studying, going to ritual, going to Circle with the same people over and over—you build a bond and it’s really easy to raise energy. And everybody kind of feeds off of everybody, so positive feeds positive, healing feeds healing. So yeah, I’ll get there.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: In Native American cultures, the Circle is used in many rituals—the medicine wheels—I find it interesting that the Circle is such a universal symbol of healing part in many religions.
DANA: It’s whole. There are some people who need some healing circles, that they are emotionally and physically damaged. And yeah, we’ll do ‘em. At times, it gets overwhelming. I’m often home on the computer making labels and putting together kits, and…I was thinking about this last night as I was printing off pages and pages of labels and tags, and thinking, I left work at 4:00, and it’s 11 at night, and I’m eating a baloney sandwich, trying to get things ready for the shop tomorrow!
CAROL HARPER/ACN: You’re a busy woman!
DANA: The first 45 days we were here seven days a week. But I have an exceptional husband, who I’ve passionately love after 20 years…and he was here today, hanging labels.
Nice. So when are you open?
DANA: I’m Garfield, I don’t do mornings! We’re open for the most part right now from 11ish to 5 or 6-ish. We’re closed totally on Thursday.
CAROL HARPER/ACN: Can you do readings by appointment?
DANA: Yes, appointments. Walk-ins are really good if you want a reading on the weekend. I have a friend who is here on Wednesdays, [ name withheld], she’s also a reader. She’s a hypnotherapist, she does Reiki and energy clearing and all kinds of other cool stuff. Because I need two days off…
CAROL HARPER/ACN: Sure, we all need a break! Well, this has been a trip…thank you!
DANA: Sure.
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Copyright © Carol Harper. Published by Amador Community News, March 2011. Contact: carolrharper@gmail.com
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