Then, there was a knock on the door. It was Dennis, our mailman. Back in those small towns, we actually knew our mailman's name. He had a package for my grandpa, which was unusual. This was before online stores like Amazon, the Home Shopping Network, and even Temu! Sometimes, my grandma would get things in the mail after trading in Green Stamps she got from the Piggly Wiggly grocery store.
We all gathered around the table to look at the box. Grandpa wasn't expecting anything, and there was no return address. Who could have sent it? What was inside? Little did I know that my life was about to change completely.
Grandpa opened the box, and I was thrilled to see it was full of books! My grandpa enjoyed reading old Westerns, stories about cowboys and the lawless Wild West, but I never liked those stories. There were about 20 books in total, and hidden among them were two that really caught my eye. One was called "Yoga, Youth, and Reincarnation" by Jess Stearn, and the other was about the life and work of Edgar Cayce. My grandpa let me have these two books because he wasn't interested in them.
I took the books to my room and started reading the yoga one. Looking at the table of contents, I realized it wasn't just about weird yoga poses like I thought. It also had chapters on astrology, reincarnation, and psychic abilities. In this book, I read about the basics of reading playing cards, how readings are done, and how to develop my own psychic ability by focusing on my "third eye" chakra. I also read about the author meeting Sybil Leek and her practices as a witch. I had always been interested in witchcraft, but up until then, all I knew about it was from watching Samantha Stephens on the TV show "Bewitched"! This book was probably the first place I learned that witchcraft was a religion, not something evil or against God.
I kept that book in my room for a long time and would reread certain chapters or parts over and over, wanting to learn more, hoping to find something new each time. Then one day, I came home, and the book was gone. My grandma had decided to "clean" my room, and she threw it away without thinking about how I felt about it. Or maybe I talked about it too much, and that's why it disappeared.
Eventually, I moved on and found other books. I read them and started writing down what I was learning – this became my first book of spells and magical knowledge. I also started building my own collection of books that would become my personal library of the occult. That first book faded from my memory to the point where I couldn't remember the title or the author anymore. However, I remembered the things I had read about divination and witchcraft. Sometimes, I would try to search for the book online using different keywords, but I never had any luck, and eventually, I stopped trying to find it for my growing book collection.
Then, just last month, I was at a thrift store looking for rare and old books to add to my collection or sell in my Etsy shop when I saw it. As soon as I saw the cover, I knew exactly what it was, and all the memories came rushing back – me in my room focusing on my third eye, o taking a deck of cards from my grandpa's tin of pennies he used for poker so I could practice reading cards.
And now, finally, after more than 30 years, the book is back in my life and in my collection, bringing with it all the happy memories of my youth as I took my first steps towards becoming who I am today. Oh and as for the origin of the book, it was sent to my grandfather by his daughter from his first marriage who lives several cities away. She had bought the box of books at a yard sale and sent them to my grandfather without looking at them too closely.
Carolina Dean
Bibliophile-in-Chief
12th House Books.
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