A fascination with the metaphysical world has been a lifetime in the making. While caring for her mother and grandparents, all of whom passed away from terminal illnesses within a year and a half of each other, Laura spent a great deal of time working with Hospice. The Hospice workers, both here and in California, helped her understand that it is commonplace to find that when you are living with and caring for a loved one who is terminally ill, very often you find yourself experiencing things that cannot readily be explained away - not that Laura wasted much of her time trying. “My family is predominantly Irish, and I grew up with folklore and superstition being treated as a matter of fact rather than fancy. I had a cousin in Pennsylvania who read tea leaves, and people came to see her from miles around, and I’ve been reading tarot cards since I was a teenager. Adding to all that, my father served in the Army during the Korean War and ​returned with a love of Eastern philosophy and its religion – so reincarnation was mixed in with Catholicism as part of my overall spiritual upbringing.”

All of these experiences finally led to a realization that, for her, traditional religion didn’t deal with spirituality, death and the afterlife in a manner she could relate to. Laura is hoping that “Talisman will be a place where people can meet and gather to discuss ideas and issues concerning aspects of their personal beliefs and experiences without fear of ridicule or judgment.

In addition, we are going to offer our patrons the opportunity to experience diverse spiritual encounters by contracting with individuals representing a variety of psychic abilities. We’re planning to host tea leaf-reading parties, pet psychics, handwriting analysis, past life regressions, tarot card and other readers. We’d also like to hold workshops on such topics as creating a home altar, practical gem magic, aromatherapy and creating effective herbal formulas – we’re just planning to talk to our customers to find out their interests and needs, and then do our best to try and meet them.”

Find more at Talisman and Cauldron