For people who feel disillusioned by mainstream religion, and people who feel that the secular world doesn’t satisfy their spiritual needs, options can appear scarce.
According to Christina Oakley Harrington, owner of Treadwell’s bookshop, many of these people are finding an answer in Paganism.
Where curiosity first took root
Spending her childhood in Burma, Chile and Africa, alternative beliefs were never an unnatural concept to Oakley Harrington. Witnessing a West African spirit possession ceremony at the age of six, the study of esoteric topics has never seemed taboo to her.
The daughter of two academics, she was introduced to the cultural practices of different countries before experiencing those of her parents’ native countries of the UK and US. She explained what she thinks draws people to research the occult, magic and mysticism:
“It’s usually people who have a strong sense of wonder and enchantment and mystery. [They’re] Often the same kind of people who go into careers like art, who become artists or poets or writers,” she said.
“It’s the same kind of temperament. It’s a curiosity about things you can’t quite put your finger on. People who have a rich inner life.”
Wicca and modern spirituality
A practitioner of Wicca (known more commonly as witchcraft) herself, she finds that the Christian paradigm of many Western countries has led to various misconceptions of people who seek to learn about alternative belief systems or knowledge.
“I think one of the most common misconceptions now, amongst Europeans, is that it’s some sort of crutch or [way of] coping with hard times or coping with uncertainty,” Oakley Harrington said.
“It’s a yearning for a rich inner life that has a spiritual component and has a language of symbols in a kind of semi-Jungian way. And for engagement with the world at a deeper level.”
While practiced differently by different people, Wiccan beliefs generally focus on a reverence of nature, the divinity of both a Goddess and a God, and the ethical practice of magic.
In the aftermath of COVID-19 lockdowns, Harrington believes many young people are seeking a new connection with nature through paganism.
“It happened the minute the lockdown ended. I think young people miss the land,” she said.
Data from Britain and the United States seem to support her observations, with estimates of 1.5 million people practicing paganism in the US, and 74,000 in the UK according to the 2021 census.
Treadwell’s Books and building a community
Having spent most of her professional life as a lecturer in medieval history at the University of Surrey, founding a bookshop was a passion project for her.
When her department was rearranging, she took the opportunity to strike out on a more unconventional path, and used her severance pay to fund the opening of Treadwell’s Books.
Situated in Fitzrovia, the shop has been open since 2003, and acts as a place of gathering for anyone interested in the occult and magic. Her desire to build a community of like-minded people was at the core of its early success.
“We had parties [in the shop] three nights a week, and we got in the cheapest wine ever. We just invited people to come and talk about magical ideas,” she said.
“And often, people would come and chat and meet friends and help each other finish their books, or work on each other’s documentaries. I wanted to make an original space, and have an original effect.”
Lessons from the occult
For Oakley Harrington, if the “conventional” world could take any knowledge from the world of the occult, it would be this: “There’s nothing embarrassing about feeling something powerful and beautiful and sensitive and tender from nature.
“From your local tree, from your local park, from your local neighborhood. And there’s nothing scary or inherently about if you see, if you have uncanny experiences, some people do, some people don’t.”
Having encountered many skeptics over the years, she admits that not many of them have been converted. On the other hand, she believes the shop has helped to make the wider public more accepting of other people’s beliefs.
“What we have been very successful in doing is showing people who are skeptical that people who do have these experiences and take them seriously are not stupid,” she said.
“Maybe you think that, doing a ceremony to welcome Midsummer is stupid, but you can see by having met us and spending some time with us, the people who do that do that for a very sincere reason, and it’s not because they’re too stupid to know about how three-dimensional reality works.”
Over two decades since its opening, the shop remains a popular destination for anyone seeking to further their knowledge of the occult.
On the shelves of Treadwell’s, visitors can expect to find books on topics ranging from paganism and folklore to history.
Other than books, they stock a variety of items such as candles, tarot cards and various other materials associated with the occult.
Featured image credit: Treadwell’s Books
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