It’s that spooky season when black cats, pointed hats and potion bottles become part of Halloween displays in store windows and across many front lawns.
The witches of San Antonio are… tolerant.
“It’s the whole, ‘my culture is not a costume’ thing,” said Gem Hotvet, owner of Déjà Vu Esoterica, a boutique occult shop in Southtown. “It’s mostly a joke, yeah? But really, it’s a 365 day a year thing for me.”
Hotvet, along with her husband and business partner Glenn Hotvet, are celebrating Déjà Vu’s two year anniversary this month inside the historic Craftsman bungalow on South St. Mary’s Street they’ve turned into a destination for those seeking the accoutrements of ritual and a like-minded community.
The rooms inside of the shop were designed by Reggie De La Garza of Shangri-La Homestead, with sumptuous velvet curtains, dark-painted wood and vintage wallpaper. An altar dominates the entry way, which anyone can add to.
The space is a controlled riot of crystals and stones, bagged herbs, candles and incense, Tarot and other oracle cards. Hotvet sources items locally when she can, and from small independent makers nationwide. One section of the store features books on all things occult-related, and Hotvet has been delighted to find that books are among the most popular items she carries.
Seventy-eight Degrees of Tarot, Mexican Sorcery: A Practical Guide to Brujeria de Rancho and American Brujeria: Modern Mexican American Folk Magic are titles Hotvet is constantly restocking.
“And any titles about Hecate,” she said of the Greek goddess of witchcraft and magic. “She’s kind of like the ‘It Girl’ of witchcraft these days. A lot of ladies are working with Hecate.”
One small room is used for readings; nine divination specialists, including Hotvet, offer their services, which include several types of Tarot, astrology and runes, which are stones, sticks or tiles inscribed with the ancient Runic alphabet.
For the Hotvets, making Déjà Vu a place for community was an important part of what they wanted to do.
“We opened with the intention of being a place for education, social connection, spiritual guidance,” she said, “and overall to be a lovely third place for local occultist weirdos. We’re pleased to see that coming to fruition.”
Déjà Vu fosters that community by offering regular classes and hosting events. A recent class included an amulet-making workshop, and every first Wednesday of the month it hosts a monthly Tarot discussion.
An upcoming series that begins with “Ceremonial Magick 101” starts Oct. 21, taught by Mike Rogers, who has been involved in the community for more than two decades, first in Los Angeles and now in San Antonio.
Rogers is a regular at the shop. He said he buys oils, incense and books for rituals, and does a lot of gift buying as well. “There have been other metaphysical, you know, occult shops in San Antonio, but this one is really definitive, really geared towards people who are actually practicing,” he said.
With close-cropped grey hair and wearing a polo shirt, Rogers stands out a little in the shop, a generic-looking white dude surrounded by mostly women in various states of more stereotypical hippy witchiness.
His education series is meant for the beginner and the magic-curious, he said.
Hotvet also fosters community through Hestia’s Hearth, a group of local and Hill Country witches who meet regularly to hang out, relax, dance, share chisme and trade items. Hotvet said they’re planning an event in January, “sort of like a pub crawl but for all the witch shops!” The goal is to fundraise enough to become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
As much as this is a way of life, this is not a crowd that takes itself so seriously they can’t indulge in a little Halloween fun.
On Oct. 31 starting at 5:30 p.m., Déjà Vu will embrace the kitschy witchy season, with its second annual “Little Shop of Horrors” event, offering free face painting and treats for the kiddos and $33 Tarot card readings for the grownups.
Halloween for witches is about “saying goodbye to the sun” for the season, said Hotvet. But in addition to fostering the local witch community, the Hotvets understand the importance of being part of the physical community as well.
With the shop located between King William and Lavaca, she said, “It’s a hot spot for trick-or-treaters.”
