Scent and Sorcery: Akuura Kulak's Journey from Salem Witchcraft to Desert Discoveries

Ever wondered how the mystical world of witchcraft can intertwine with the captivating power of scent? Akuura Kulak, the enchanting mind behind Aroma Sanctum, shares her remarkable journey from Salem, the heart of witchcraft culture, to establishing a flourishing online perfume business, then moving to Arizona. Discover how her upbringing shaped her magical identity and how her unique allergen-friendly, oil-based perfumes, like Fire of Isis and Pirate, capture the imagination of those drawn to the art of fragrance. Akuura's story is one of personal empowerment and creative evolution, as she navigates the vibrant landscape of witchcraft and scent creation.

Join us as we uncover the fascinating dynamics of witchcraft in Salem, where Akuura became an honorary member of several covens and learned to navigate the complex social tapestry of the witching world. Reflecting on her experiences, Akuura shares insights into the validation and empowerment witchcraft has provided her, likening it to the self-acceptance journey of coming out. Listen as she delves into the challenges of maintaining her practice in a more conservative setting and how her thirst for knowledge has driven her personal and spiritual growth.

For those new to witchcraft, Akuura offers insightful advice, emphasizing reading and researching various pagan traditions. Discover the wealth of knowledge available online and the importance of finding safe, supportive communities. She highlights the significance of protection in magical practice, drawing parallels with the discipline of martial arts. Akuura also shares updates on her perfume business and invites listeners to explore the magical essence of Sedona, Arizona. This episode promises a multifaceted exploration of scent, identity, and the dynamic world of modern witchcraft.

Visit Aroma Sanctum now!

Kimothy: 0:04

Welcome back to Your Average Witch, where every Tuesday we talk about witch life, witch stories, and sometimes a little witchcraft. Before we get started I just want to remind you of the All Souls celebration at the reopening of the Ninth House here in Tucson, from October 31 to November 3rd. I’ll be vending on Friday November first, so be sure to come see me!
This week I’m talking with Akuura from Aroma Sanctum. We talked about Salem witches, protection magic, and the magic of scent. Now let’s get to the stories! Akuura, good morning, Welcome to the show.

Akuura: 0:39

Good morning, how are you?

Kimothy: 0:41

I am great. How are you? 

Akuura: 0:42

I'm doing well.

Kimothy: 0:43

Awesome. Now I reached out to you because one of my friends, Angela, was raving about your product. She said she's been a customer for a long time and that you're a witch. And I looked and you looked really interesting. So I thought let me ask this person.

Akuura: 0:59

It's fun when people find me that way.

Kimothy: 1:02

Yeah, word of mouth is the best word. For everything. Can you please introduce yourself and let everybody know who you are and what you do and where they can find you?

Akuura: 1:12

Yeah, so I am Akuura Kulak. I am a perfume designer. I do mostly natural perfumes and products. I'm an artist and astrologer as well and a witch and pagan, sort of, kind of an eclectic pagan at this point. I'm from Salem, Massachusetts. I know, cliche. I live in Arizona now and I have mostly an online and mail order business now. I used to have a retail establishment in Salem for about 30 years and met people from all over the world. It was great. So now I have kind of a cult following and I decided to semi-retire and move out here and just do the online and market myself on socials, which has been an interesting journey. The website is aromasanctum.com and you can find Aroma Sanctum Perfumes on Instagram and Facebook and follow me there. I'm constantly posting stuff about what I'm making and I have four different fragrance collections. They're all oil-based, so they're much better for people who have allergies and things like that. I'm always making new stuff. I used to do customs for people in the shop when I had the store in Salem, but I don't do that anymore. But you can layer a lot of my scents and create your own unique blends and some of them are quite magical and witchy and I've got stuff for both men and women, so natural lotions, baths, things like that. So it's a big website and you've got to kind of navigate around. If you go on the website, go to fragrance collections and you can read about what's in each fragrance I've created and the history behind them and such. So that's where you find those.

Kimothy: 2:41

I want to point out that Akuura and I have never met, but I'm super interested because I freaking love smells.

Akuura: 2:47

Oh, you're going to love my website. You can order samples, so don't worry about that.

Kimothy: 2:50

Oh, holy crap.

Akuura: 2:51

They'll go online and order 20 samples and play around. There's very detailed descriptions of what's in each scent and a lot of them are quite magical. People do use them for ritual use and stuff like my Fire of Isis scent for, for example, which is mostly frankincense and myrrh. So I've got a lot of interesting, interesting blends. 

Kimothy: 3:15

Do you have any that smells like a hot guy's leather  jacket?

Akuura: 3:17

 I have a lot of leather scents. Leather scents and I've got some others. Essence of autumn is like a leather tobacco. That's just amazing.

Kimothy: 3:23

Oh my gosh, that's what I'm after.

Akuura: 3:29

Yeah, and Pirate is very intense leathery, spicy scent and I actually dreamed and then created it. That was a journey, yeah, so that's my most leathery, you know kind of butch scent would be Pirate. Women wear it too. It's very spicy as well. But it's got two different, it's got like a black leather note and a regular leather note, so that one's pretty popular, especially with the big bearded guys.

Kimothy: 3:46

Okay, yum, I'm excited. That's fun. 

Akuura: 3:49

Oh yeah, you'll love it. 

Kimothy: 3:53

Now you mentioned that one of the titles you own is witch. What does it mean when you call yourself a witch?

Akuura: 3:58

You know, it took me a long time to embrace the word, maybe because I'm from Salem, the witch city, which is such a cliche.  I grew up there and they use, you know, it's called the witch city and there's like Witch City Auto Body,  Witch City this and Witch City that. There is literally a witch logo on the police cars. 

Kimothy: 4:21

That’s kinda cool. 

Akuura: 4:25

It's cool, but kind of kitschy too you know I grew up with that and I just was like I don't really care. I would cringe calling myself a witch. But it took me a while to figure out what I was actually. I knew I wasn't a Christian. I was brought up in a Catholic family and really rebelled against it at age seven and said this is not for me. I'm not what you are. I just didn't know what I was and I knew about the witch history there, but I didn't really look into what witches really are today. It took me a while to figure that out, and this was back in the 60s and 70s because I'm older. So I came across this book in the library, I think when I was 13 years old, and it's out of print now, but I did manage to find a copy of it again. It's called the New Pagans by Hans Holzer. Hans Holzer was a ghost hunter kind of person. He was pretty famous. He was on TV a lot. I think he's dead now, but in his book he wrote this in the 70s he is exploring people who are going back to pagan religions, including Wicca, and he traveled around the world, from England and all over America, interviewing people who had covens and groups that were reviving these traditions, and they were all from. You know different traditions, but Wicca was a big part of them and when I read that I was like, oh my god, I'm a pagan. All of a sudden I had a name, you know, I knew what I was and I embraced the word you know more favorably after that, because I realized it was a real thing and it wasn't just, you know, something that I was making up in my head. But I was always very connected to nature and the seasons and the cycles of nature and all of that. So it made sense to me and I started avidly studying at that point and then I, you know, really more embraced the term. Mostly I call myself a pagan more than a witch, because I have started to get into some more Norse paganism as well. But for me it's more of a spiritual, religious thing more than a magical practice thing. But I do both.

Kimothy: 6:13

So you mentioned being coming from a Catholic family. Did witchy things happen when you were a kid?

Akuura: 6:24

Oh my god, I lived in the most haunted house imaginable. Salem has a lot of old houses and a lot of ghosts, and this was a family house that had been in my family for two generations and it was very old. The front part of the house went back to the 1700s and that's the part I was living in. And yeah, there were a lot of weird poltergeist kind of things going on off and on. So at a very early age I became aware of the unseen, as you like to call it, and I was a little afraid of it but more intrigued by it. But I also realized I had to learn more about this and I thought it strange that some people didn't experience these things. My mother was very psychic and she used to have premonition dreams, usually about people dying, so of course it scared her and she thought it was evil. Maybe part of her thought she caused it, I don't know.

Kimothy: 7:13

Oh, that's sad to think about.

Akuura: 7:16

It was. And later, when I was older, I talked to her about it, you know, and she would tell me these dreams. I was like you know, this is just natural, it's just something that you know how to do and don't be afraid of it. But she was so ingrained Catholic to think that all that stuff was evil. But I noticed right away that some people did not perceive these things and some people did so. Some of us are more open psychically and unfortunately I was very open psychically and had a rather terrifying childhood living in that house and that was one of the motivators for me to get into occult studies and learning about witchcraft was to keep my sanity and protect myself from the entities that were in that house. Some were human and some were non-human.

Kimothy: 7:56

I'm one of the not people. I kind of wish I was one, because it sounds so interesting, but I don't see or hear anything.

Akuura: 8:04

It's hard to live with because you have to learn how to tune it out. And I guess it's like you know, mediums have it worse. They really have to learn to tune stuff out. I don't want that.

Kimothy: 8:14

I would think it would be neat to see things, but I don't want to be constantly, like a constant barrage. 

Akuura: 8:25

Yeah that's the thing, and I don't usually see apparitions. I did see some later in life at another location in Salem and it scared the crap out of me. I don't like seeing them. I can deal with feeling them around, you know, and I can feel their energy, but seeing them as an apparition kind of freaks me out, and luckily it hasn't happened too often. But yeah, my main motivator was um learning how to protect myself from, you know, things that go bump in the night. Because there was a lot of things going bump in the night in that house. I didn't sleep much till I was 12.

Kimothy: 8:51

Seriously. Oh, I mean, I believe you. That sounds so scary for a little kid.

Akuura: 8:56

It was an initiation, I'll tell you, and I think it's because you know magical people, whether you want to call them witches or psychics or whatever, we have a light. Our light is so bright and entities and spirits are attracted to us for whatever reason dead people trying to communicate, other spirits trying to use our energy or manipulate us in some way or just feed off our energy. And yeah, it's like you're a flame and there's moths coming to you and you've got to do something about it, and I figured that out at an early age.

Kimothy: 9:23

What a good analogy, very witchy.

Akuura: 9:27

Oh yeah, oh yeah.I felt like the flame, surrounded by moths all the time and I'm like why doesn't anybody else have these problems? So I really got into studying the occult when I was like 13 or so. After I read this book and said, okay, maybe there's more I can learn, and I started looking for more books which weren't very available back then. And of course we didn't have the internet back then, which makes things easier for people today. So I had a couple friends who were into this as well and we embarked on the journey of studying about occult forces basically, and had sort of an informal little coven for a while. But yeah, the rest of my family, they just think I'm crazy. I'm sure that's true of a lot of witches. 

Kimothy: 10:08

Let's come forward to now. Can you introduce us to your practice? Do you have any daily, or if not daily, any consistent things that you do ritual-wise or any other? I don't necessarily use the word ritual.

Akuura: 10:22

Yeah, yeah, not consistent. It's a good word, though. I mean there's rituals of all kinds that we enact in our lives, from brushing our teeth to meditating. I definitely meditate every night before I go to sleep. It seems to set me into an interesting state to dream and do stuff on the other realms, but I'll do full moon ceremonies once in a while. I'm pretty much a solitary practitioner now. When I was in Salem I was kind of an honorary member of a few different covens. Salem is complicated because witchcraft has not just become a big thing there for practicing spiritually, it's become a business. So there are all these covens in Salem, the different factions who don't get along with each other, and that's quite interesting.

Kimothy: 11:03 

Oh, witch wars!

Akuura: 11:05

Oh, it's witch wars big time and I refused to get drawn into that. I had friends in all these different groups and I just would say you know what I am, Switzerland, I'm not getting involved in your conflicts, and I maintained friendships with all of them. I just wouldn't get drawn into their drama. And they would invite me sometimes to Sabbat rituals and stuff as a kind of honor or a member, but I was never formally initiated to any of those groups. There's quite a few there, so on my own I just do some full moon stuff. Some of the major Sabbats, like Yule and Samhain, I'll do a little ritual at home, but it's not compulsory in my mind. If I feel like I need to do it, I will. I wish I had more of a group here. There are some Facebook book groups here that I've hooked up with, so we'll see. Maybe we'll end up forming a group here. They're very kind of closeted here, but there's more of them than I thought. It's kind of interesting.

Kimothy: 11:56

How would you say witchcraft has changed your life, or would you?

Akuura: 12:01

I wouldn't say it's changed my life as much as validated my life, because I don't know. I guess a good analogy would be a gay person who didn't know they were gay and finally knows they are and comes out of the closet and feels comfortable with themselves. And I think that's what being a witch did for me is made me accept the side of myself that other people might think is weird, that I realize now is a natural thing. It does empower you, it does empower me to a point of feeling you know a little more control in my life. And we can't control our lives completely, obviously, but feeling like you have an edge of either knowing what's going to happen or how you can change things a little for the better sometimes. I think that gives you a little edge and I think that's why a lot of people, I think, get into witchcraft because they want to empower their lives.

Kimothy: 12:50

I agree, based on what I've heard people say when they answer this question, I super agree.

Akuura: 12:55

Oh, I bet, I bet you get a lot of that, yeah.

Kimothy: 12:58

What would you say is the biggest motivator in your practice, and has it changed since you first started?

Akuura: 13:04

Oh, it's changed big time. I think my first motivator was survival. Like I, said yeah, from all that childhood stuff. It's like I got to stop these things from attacking me in the night. You know that was the first motivator, but for me it's more about knowledge and learning. I'm an Aquarian and we just, we're know-it-alls and we want to know everything and we're curious about everything and I just never want to stop learning on anything that I do. And that's why the perfume business is so fascinating to me, because you never stop learning that there are always new things that you can put together and make. Astrology is another one. I study astrology for the rest of my life because it's just constantly new data coming up and things to learn. And same with the occult studies. You know what more can you know? What more can I know about the universe and how it works? That fascinates me. So that's my main motivator now is just learning more.

Kimothy: 13:56

I love that. What would you say is your biggest struggle with witchcraft?

Akuura: 14:03

I think my only struggle is recent; moving here and having to be somewhat closeted. I'm not used to that. Most people probably are that are witches. But coming from Salem, Massachusetts, you can walk around in a black cape with a giant pentacle around your neck 365 days a year and no one's going to look at you weird you can really be out. That's why a lot of people want to move there and stuff. But in most places you've got to be a little more discreet and I'm just not used to that. I'm used to being really out with it and here people are fairly Christian. I've made a lot of great friends here who accept me and have started to figure out that I not a churchgoer and I don't want to lose friends or alienate people. So I'm kind of just more discreet than I usually am about it.

Kimothy: 14:52

That's interesting. It's interesting that this conversation well, I have this friend group and a new person joined the group in the past like two days and they asked or someone asked, I don't remember which one, how- what it was like when we came out, and so we were talking about that last night and it's it never occurred to me that people in Salem were, probably weren't ever in the closet. That's so interesting.

Akuura: 15:25

We were for a while. I mean when, when I was a teenager it was-.

Kimothy: 15:27

I mean in my lifetime.

Akuura: 15:28

Yeah, it wasn't a thing. There weren't any witch shops. It was a quiet little town. You got a few tourists to come see the House of Seven Gables on a bus and that was it. 

Kimothy: 15:38

And then The Craft happened?

Akuura: 15:39

And then, well, Laurie Cabot came to town. She lived right near me on Derby Street and she became the official witch of Salem. She's like this public figure. She's pretty old now, she pretty much stays at home as a recluse now, but she's written a lot of books and taught a lot of classes and she has a huge following. And that's when witchcraft really became a thing in Salem. And now there's like 20 witch stores I call it the witch's shopping mall and people flock. They're like, right now it's so crowded you can't move there. I mean you can't even walk the streets or drive or anything. It's just ridiculous. In October that's what I hear and I made a lot of money in October, but I got really tired of it. I had to leave. I had a good time for a while and then it became unmanageable. It just became way way too much, but before that I mean our little group. We either foraged for herbs in the woods or grew our own, and any witch supplies we needed, like ritual tools or anything we had to order them from mail order catalogs like Magical Child in New York city yeah, Magical Child was like the mall for the witch stuff. You know, you could get your incense and your tools and whatever there you make your own. But there were no witch shops or anything like that in Salem and it was still pretty under the table, so to speak. And now it's just all over the place. And you know there's obviously average people who live there too who are kind of annoyed by the whole thing.

Kimothy: 16:52

I imagine.

Akuura: 16:53

It's so commercial and a lot of them go away. They just go away for two weeks, Like the people in New Orleans. They don't want to deal with the crowds, you know.

Kimothy: 17:00

Yeah, I live- because the, because the Tucson Gem Show happens and man. 

Akuura: 17:05

Oh, I've not been to that yet, but I imagine that's the same type of thing. 

Kimothy: 17:09

It is really fun, but man, the tourists.

Akuura: 17:10

Oh yeah, I'm kind of afraid to go to that because I know I'm going to come home with six-foot amethyst geodes for my house. Yes, yeah, I'm a little afraid to go to that gem show, but I'll get there. I’ll get there eventually.

Kimothy: 17:21

If you come down, I'll buy you some tacos. 

Akuura: 17:28

There you go, we'll meet up for sure. 

Kimothy: 17:30

I'm really interested in hearing the answer to this question. Do you ever experience imposter syndrome about your practice?

Akuura: 17:36

I actually don't know what that is. That was kind of a strange question and I had to think about it. I don't think I have any self-doubt. I've always known what I am. It's not... I think when people come to it later maybe or they've tried other religions first and then get into witchcraft, maybe they do. I never have. I've just been like, yep, this is what I am. I don't have any problems with it. 

Kimothy: 17:49

That's cool.

Akuura: 17:50

 I mean, I have witch friends who were former Mormons. They've had a lot of deprogramming to do, you know, and maybe they have some self-doubt. The rain's getting loud here. Hopefully it's not. 

Kimothy: 18:10

Oh I can hear it. That's neat. 

Akuura: 18:12

Oh, it's unbelievable, it's coming down here.

Kimothy: 18:14

What brings you the most joy in your practice?

Akuura: 18:19

Oh, that's an interesting question. I feel like when I connect with these spiritual entities, the gods or whatever you want to call them, it's just such a joyful experience and I do connect with them more than I ever connected with you know, Jesus or you know, anything else, and for me that's the joy of it. I'm just feeling the forces of nature when they move and I don't know the whole thing, but I think, really just connecting with what you'd call the gods, I guess they make their presence known.

Kimothy: 18:54

That's awesome, that's cool. What is something that you did early on in your practice that you don't do anymore, and why don't you do it?

Akuura: 19:07

I used to do more really full-on ceremonial magic type stuff when I was younger, with all the paraphernalia and all the preparation and I don't know, people still do it and they like it. I've kind of grown beyond that where I don't need to do it anymore. It's enjoyable but I don't need to do it anymore. So I've kind of let go of a lot of the ritual trappings, so to speak, and for me it's become very simple. If I need to manifest something, I can just go into a meditative state and do that without having all the paraphernalia. But I still have it because it's fun. I just don't do as much of the detailed stuff as I used to do. And you know I used to hear all these people would come to my shop and say I'm like, oh, I'm looking for this certain oil because I have to do this spell, and you know they can't find it anywhere and I didn't have it and they're all discouraged and I just I says, you know, you can substitute something else. And they're just really shocked because it's all in the mind. You know, this energy, this power that we're using. It's really all in the mind. These other things are just. They're just little. I call them toys more than tools to focus the mind, and for beginners they do need to focus their mind with certain smells and colors and whatever. But as you get more advanced you really don't need that. And they would always be shocked when I would say that you know like their spell's not going to work if they don't have this special oil or herb or whatever. And I say you don't need any of it actually, but they're so ingrained to believe that they do. Maybe they're watching too many TV shows, I don't know.

Kimothy: 20:36

It reminds me of being a teenager and putting on makeup. I don't wear makeup anymore, but it was really fun when I did.

Akuura: 20:45

Yeah, that's a good analogy. Actually it is, and I think people get into it. You know, I see a lot of younger witches. You know not to disparage them, but I see a lot of younger witches experimenting with it and getting into it and that's the fun part for them is playing with all the toys. Yeah, and some of them think it's just that, and I think some of them are just playing a game. That's like make-believe to them, and then something happens, something actually happens, and they freak out and run away. I have seen this and some of them go back to Jesus or whatever because they get scared, because I think part of them maybe doesn't want to believe that these forces are real. The toys are fun, but you don't need them.

Kimothy: 21:30

What, speaking of toys, what is your favorite tool? 

Akuura: 21:33

My favorite tool, I mean as far as physical objects. I don't really have a physical tool that's my favorite. I mean I play around with crystals, tower cards, runes, pendulums, things like that. I would say my favorite tool that I use most consistently is astrology, which isn't really part of witchcraft, but it's a great insight into the cycles of life. It's like a, I like to call it a cosmic weather report, and I do astrology for clients and if you have an accurate natal chart, you can predict all these things for the person and follow the cycles in their life, and it's incredibly accurate. And there's more and more research being done now with, of course, computers and databases about astrology. That's becoming really more and more interesting. So, yeah, it's something I always go to and look at for you know, things that are going on in my life and other people's lives, and I find it to be a very valuable tool and a guide to whatever you're going to do whether it's on the mundane world or the magical world.

Kimothy: 22:29

Do you ever feel like you have any magical slumps or low periods?

Akuura: 22:36

I think everybody does, because we get busy in the mundane world. I mean people have to. You know, I moved across the country and that was a big deal. That kind of put my routines on a skew for a while, but I don't ever feel disconnected from it.

Kimothy: 22:55

How do you pull yourself out of it?

Akuura: 23:03

 I don't think I've ever really been disconnected to it. I mean it's you know I practice less obviously when I'm busy and stuff, but it's like a daily thing. I just feel the energy around me all the time. It's not like I have to go do something fancy to get me back into it. So I don't. Yeah, that's a question that probably doesn't really apply to me. I guess other people might go through that.

Kimothy: 23:24

What is something you wish was discussed more in the witch community?

Akuura: 23:31

 Oh, that was a great question. Protection, and not only because of my history growing up in that scary haunted house, but generally people get into this, I think, without utilizing protection as much as they should. Even if they're studying with other people, it's just not emphasized as much as it should be. And I think people that have a lot of energy and light and power, they are going to attract certain forces on other planes that can be dangerous. Again, the moths to the flame analogy some of those moths are nasty and then sometimes it's people that you know other people's energy in groups that have to you know, that are manipulative, that want to control and manipulate their followers, almost like, you know, crazy gurus do with their followers. And I don't see a lot of people learning that in the beginning of their practice, which I think is a mistake. I think that's number one. It's just like martial arts- the first thing you learn is how to block and how to fall without getting hurt. 

Kimothy: 24:40

Oh, I want to do that. 

Akuura: 24:42

So there's an analogy, because I did Kung Fu for quite a long time. So before you start learning how to do the fancy kicks and playing with swords, you have to learn those things first, otherwise, you're going to get killed, right? Yeah, and how to get up If someone knocks you down, how to roll and get up so that they don't skewer you with their sword. You have to learn these things and I feel like a lot of the witches today that are getting into it are not learning these protection techniques as much as they should be, depending on what group they're studying with or what they're reading. And I think it's really, really important A book I always would recommend to people, because all these younger witches would come to me for advice and stuff too and be like, oh, this is happening, I don't know what to do and I'm freaking out, and I'd be like, well, it's not my time or expertise to you know or duty to help you right now because I'm busy, but you can read this book and it will help you. And I think they're just lazy and they don't want to read the book sometimes. But the one I always recommend and it's a classic, it's Dion Fortune's Psychic Self-Defense, which is still in print. I think it was first printed in the 1940s. She's dead now. She was a famous occultist and mixed mystic. She belonged to, I believe, the Golden Dawn and some of those higher ceremonial magic groups and she wrote a lot of fiction too and her fiction books are really interesting because they draw on mythological legends and magical practices and she weaves a lot of magical practice into her novels. But this book is her only. I think it's her only. She wrote two or three that were nonfiction and this is one of them and it just goes into really basic techniques of how to protect yourself from all kinds of nasty spiritual things, be they demons or dead people or humans trying to manipulate you with their energy. I mean it's a really good basic book. It's a bit antiquated and quaint to read because you know she was still very Victorian in her attitude, so it's amusing, but very good solid knowledge and practices and how to diagnose what's going on. If you've got, you know, poltergeist activity or weird stuff happening in your house, I mean it's all about how to diagnose and divine what is going on and how to fix it and how to protect yourself in the future. And I think it should be like Witch 101 for most people that are getting into it who don't have a really experienced mentor.

Kimothy: 26:55

Have you heard of the TV show called Evil? 

Akuura: 26:57

I have. I have not seen it yet. 

Kimothy: 27:00

I kind of wonder if the showrunners or the people who write have read that. 

Akuura: 27:10

I bet they have. I have to watch it now. So interesting. She covers everything from possession to psychic vampires. It's a really interesting book and most people don't know about it, or young witches, of course, don't know who she is. I mean, I'm a little older so I remember these people and have studied. You know AleisterCrowley and all these other people that were from that era. They had a lot of good knowledge there. But she's. It's pretty practical, easy, you know, to follow and fascinating to read. Just you know, even if you're not a witch, you'd find it fascinating to read

Kimothy: 27:34

Think of the three biggest influences on your practice, whether it's a person or a pet or a deity, smell, thought process, whatever. Thank them for the effect they have on your practice. 

Akuura: 27:57

It was hard to pick three. I'll tell you, I've always been connected to ancient Egypt and Isis. I've had past lives in Egypt, actually, and my name comes from one of my past lives. I took it back. From Egypt, so that was one of the major influences and there was a lot of speculation that a lot of the Wiccan ritual and belief comes from ancient Egypt, which is fascinating. After that, yeah, it's hard to say I read a lot of, you know, Sybil Leek, she was a quite famous British witch back in the day, wrote some books in the seventies and this is when I, you know, there weren't much, there wasn't much available to learn from back then, but those, those were big influences on me, just realizing that, yeah, there were people out there doing this, you know, in my imagination. So I think those were the biggest influences. But I've always had a connection to ancient Egypt and I still do.

Kimothy: 29:10

What advice do you have for witches just starting out?

Akuura: 29:15

Read Psychic Self-Defense. Definitely Witch 101. There's so much information available now that was not before. Beyond books, we have the internet and of course you've got to sift through stuff on the internet of what's good and what isn't. But I think it's easier for younger or new witches to find like-minded people now because of the internet and meetup groups and things like that, and that is definitely something I would suggest. They just have to be careful who they get involved with. But yeah, it's mostly about reading a lot. You've got to study a lot and I think a lot of people are lazy and don't want to do that. The Norse religion, in particular, the Norse pagans they require a lot of book study. It's like Bible study for Christians. They really want you to learn the sagas and all this stuff and a lot of people are very put off by that. But as far as general Wicca and witchcraft, yeah, there's just a lot of reading to do and taking your time with things, not rushing into stuff.

Kimothy: 30:17

Now that you've answered the questions and seen what it's like to talk with me, who would you like to hear answer these questions?

Akuura: 30:29

My friend Jaqc, Jaqc Cabot Civitarese. She is a witch of the Cabot tradition. She's a high priestess in that group. She's a good friend of mine but quite a fascinating person as well. She's a seamstress. She makes magical robes and clothing and regular clothing as well. She's done weddings and whatever, and she's also a psychic and a reader and, yeah, just learning astrology. She's a fascinating person and she has spent a lot of time in the Salem community as well. She's in the Boston area, had a lot of interesting experiences too. I think she'd get a kick out of it. I think you'd get a kick out of her. She's on Facebook. You can find her there.

Kimothy: 31:08

Nice, thank you. Is there anything else you wanted to bring up? Anything, I didn't ask anything happening with you, any questions you had for me?

Akuura: 31:18

I've been pretty busy lately. I do astrology off and on, like I said, but at this point my other business is so busy I don't have time to do astrology, probably not until January. The perfume business, Aroma Sanctum Perfumes. I do have a big sale coming up. I do it, it's like an early Cyber Monday sale. I do it the week before Thanksgiving and I will be posting about that on my social media and I probably will run it for two days this year just to see what happens. It's a big flood of business but that's a good way to take advantage of the sale and try some new oils and different things and I have little sample gift sets that are available and things like that. So that will be coming up in November. 

Kimothy: 32:01

Nice. So the last two things I ask of my guests. Thing number one is please recommend something. It doesn't have to be witch related, just something cool that you're really into this week.

Akuura: 32:13

Oh, what am I into this week? I've been working so much for like a month. Oh, it's hard to say. Oh, it's hard to say.

Kimothy: 32:22

I'm going to throw one out real quick. This might horrify some people, but Little Debbie, Christmas tree cakes are back out, so go get you a box, everyone.

Akuura: 32:33

That's funny. I mean I did go up, you know, I just like to hike and ride horses here too in Arizona. That's one of the reasons I moved here. I would definitely recommend, you know, checking out Sedona at some point if you're in this area. It's a very magical place. I try to get up there about once a month. It's kind of my new spiritual place. Unfortunately, it's become very touristy and very crowded, much like Salem, so you have to prepare for that. There is a facebook page called Sedona, Sedona, Arizona the People's Suggestions, and that's a good one to look on for advice. If people want to check that out. But it, the vortexes, they're so powerful and you experience so many interesting things there. I certainly have. I came out here on vacation a few times and just fell in love with the place and said I have to go live near Sedona somewhere at some point. So I go up there about once a month Now. It's kind of my magical place. I used to be very connected to the ocean. It's kind of funny, and now it's like the red rocks, red rock fever they call it. So I go back to that a lot.

Kimothy: 33:38

And the last thing I ask is for a story, it doesn't have to be witchcraft, it can be whatever. I just like stories.

Akuura: 33:46

I have a million stories from Salem. Obviously I might have to put them all in a book at some point. I'm thinking about it because, yeah, it's an insider's view of growing up in Salem and everything that happened there. But so many things would happen especially in the October season when we'd have people from all over the world would happen especially in the October season when we'd have people from all over the world. And when I started my business I moved my business four times before I finally settled down into my own space downtown, which was great. I used to share space with other businesses. So when I first started out in the mid-90s, I had a little corner in this kind of curious bookstore, as I used to call it, called Black Hat Books, which unfortunately isn't there anymore. But it was a very eclectic little space. She had antiques and antique books and used occult books and jewelry and there was a friend of ours, Andrew, was in there doing readings and then I had my little corner doing the oil. So it was a really interesting little bookstore and there were couches, people could hang out and talk and read books. So all kinds of people used to come in, from tourists to antique book collectors. It was a fascinating little place and one October during the busy season I had this lady come in and she was browsing around and could hear her talking and I was like, oh, an eccentric British lady, how fun, she'll probably buy some stuff. And she was a big woman. She was wearing this flower dress and she had this huge elaborate flowered hat on. You know, she looked really kind of fun and eccentric. So she finally came over to my counter and was studying things very intently and looking at all my bottles of oils and I had a little sign there that had my business name on it. She finally said Aroma Sanctum, hmm, sanctum of what? Sanctum of… the DEVIL? And she just had this fit and the owner of the store and I were kind of horrified. We were just we didn't even know what to do. She was ranting and screaming about Jesus and damnation and it was incredible. Like the few customers that were in the store left because they thought she was completely insane and we didn't even know what to do. I mean, like, do we call an ambulance or the police? And we finally started to try to escort her out. “Get your hands off me!” She was carrying on. I guess she had seen too many witchy things in the little time she was there and that was the last straw and she thought it was the sanctum of the devil. I said, lady, I'm just trying to sell some perfume. What was the witch for? It was something I will never forget. I will never forget that lady. I think she did it in a few stores. I heard later she just would have these complete meltdowns like she was having an epileptic fit or something. Maybe she was, maybe she was possessed. I don't know what in the world, but yeah, that was one of the weirder things that I never will forget. That just makes me laugh to this day. The crazy British lady.

Kimothy: 36:27

People are wild.

Akuura: 36:28

Fear of witchcraft walking around Salem. Oh yeah, why are you- I don't know. Oh, we used to get some scary people. We used to get a group from New Hampshire, a Christian group. They were banned. The police finally banned them from coming to Salem because they were causing so much trouble. They were wearing t-shirts saying “Terrorists for Jesus,”  I'm not kidding. Jesus must be annoyed, right, but they would actually try to disrupt business like pulling people out of line waiting to get in stores, things like that and be rather aggressive. And they were arrested a few times and they were finally banned from Salem. So we used to get all kinds there. But yeah, that lady was something I'll never forget. I wish I had a picture of her. She's like something you see in a British sitcom. You know, very funny.

Kimothy: 37:22

Good night.

Akuura: 37:23

Oh yeah, we laughed about that for a long time.

Kimothy: 37:25

I just don't understand.

Akuura: 37:26

I could make my friend laugh, but just say that, “Sanctum of… the devil!” we would just go off.

Kimothy: 37:36

Well, thank you so much for being on the show. I'm really glad Angela recommended reaching out.

Kimothy: 37:43

I really enjoyed this conversation.

Akuura: 37:47

Oh yeah, it was fun. Yeah, I'll come back on sometime if you want, if I come to Tucson, I'll let you know.

Kimothy: 37:52

Yeah, Everybody, make sure you go down in the show notes, click and follow. Go buy a bunch of perfume because everybody knows, you know, you know you like to smell good. 

Akuura: 38:07

Oh yeah, and these will not give you a headache or make you sick. I have very loyal customers. I have a cult following all over the world and a lot of them are people who cannot wear regular perfumes. They can wear my oils and that's how I got into it. I'm allergic to almost everything. They're very safe.

Kimothy: 38:25

Then everybody go click. I command it. 

Akuura: 38:27

Okay, thank you. 

Kimothy: 37:29

Okay, see you on the internet. Bye!

Akuura: 37:32

All right. Happy Samhain!

Kimothy: 37:38

Akuura. Welcome to Hive House. I have some cards in my hand. Please say when.

Akuura: 37:39

Oh, when!

Kimothy: 37:43

What is your favorite holiday and why?

Akuura: 38:57

Hmm, I'd have to say Samhain just because of my history in Salem and the whole magic of autumn in New England. It's just (fades out )  (fades in)... it is a rather obscure art, yes, and some people would ask me a lot of questions that come into the shop and spend all day there, you know, picking my brain, but a lot of people just take it for granted that I don't know, they just magically appear out of thin air or something. It's a lot of work and it's a lot of experimenting. I call it alchemy. It kind of is. It is alchemy and it's a very hard, it's a very hard art to do because you're trying to capture an essence of something and not just the smell You're trying to get. You're trying to capture and portray a mood with a smell, and it's a lot more difficult than portraying a scene on… (fades out)

Kimothy: 39:46

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