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General News: Explore the Metaphysical at Brid's Closet
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| Bernadette Montana in her shop on Main St. |
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| Halloween signs hang in the store |
October 04, 2007
When you enter Brid’s Closet, the new metaphysical store on Main Street in Cornwall, you are greeted by Bernadette Montana, a witch with a smile on her face.
Inside the store, you can find herbs, crystals and brooms, as well as sheer women’s clothing in bright colors, designed for belly dancers. Jewelry, purses and other occult objects fill out the eclectic mix of goods for sale.
The herbs are Bernadette’s specialty. She finds them in the wild or grows them organically, then dries them and sells them along with a dose of advice about which ailments they will cure.
It is Bernadette herself, however, that draws people into her shop. She is a practicing witch and her store is a meeting place for others who share her interest in the wicca religion, which emerged out of pagan nature-based practices that go back centuries.
Many wiccans, or witches, practice their religion quietly, not wanting to provoke criticism. Bernadette does not fear that, but embraces it. When she first opened her store a month and a half ago, the pastor of the Cornwall Baptist church wrote a public letter tying witchcraft to satanism.
She described how recently a woman came into her shop clutching a Bible and intent on trying to convert Bernadette to Christianity. “We talked and when she left, we shook hands,” Bernadette said, happy to have defused a potentially unpleasant confrontation.
And in Cornwall, a community with a strong Judeo-Christian tradition and nearly a dozen churches with active memberships, Bernadette says she has gotten a very positive response, much better than she received in New Paltz, where she used to run her shop.
“The Fall Festival was the most amazing day,” she said, “I’ve never seen this place so crowded.” The people were curious about the shop and a couple of dozen of them wanted to have their Tarot cards read, a divination practice that Bernadette offers in her back room. She also offers Reiki sessions, a practice in which she pulls energy through the body of a patient to help heal ills.
Bernadette said that there are thousands of practicing wiccans in the Hudson Valley, where she moved from New York City in 1992. She has a group of more than 50 that she stays in touch with.
On Halloween, which is a harvest celebration and marks the New Year for wiccans, Bernadette plans to welcome trick-or-treaters and keep the atmosphere light. More solemn celebration will be reserved for her fellow Wicca members who will gather to worship the forces of nature that are central to their beliefs.
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