It has taken me a long time to work up the courage to talk about what happened to me when I decided to take a Witchcraft 101 class at this store. I decided to take the class because I always had an interest in witchcraft, and I wanted to feed the more spiritual part of myself.
The class was $500 and I was permitted to pay in installments. It was $250 up front, which I somehow managed to afford. At the time I was barely making that much in a week, but I felt that connecting to a higher power was worth making the sacrifice and eating ramen for a few months.
The store is run by two people, Mark and Donna. The issue here is Mark. When I first started going to the store, he was weird and aggressive off the bat, but sometimes I can be judgmental and I told myself to give him the benefit of the doubt. I was with a very good friend of mine and we stayed for a couple hours chatting about astrology, religion, and the craft. I found myself pleasantly surprised at how welcoming he was. He was very touchy feely, but I told myself that sometimes spiritual leaders are less bothered by physical contact with strangers.
As time went on, when I came into the shop alone, Mark always turned the conversation over to sex. I'm typically unbothered by sexual conversation. Sex is natural and healthy. However, there comes a point where you have to acknowledge that someone is crossing the line. He also began making our hello and goodbye hugs longer and longer, even trying once to kiss me on the mouth. I turned my head away and he said "Some women just can't handle physical intimacy, they are very closed off." He was trying to gaslight me because I didn't want to kiss him on the mouth? Come on.
As far as the class goes...WASTE OF TIME. Mark spent 90% of class ranting about how much he hates Wiccans, Feminists, Dianic Witches, how interested he is in Nazi Germany (he spent at least 20 minutes per class talking about Nazi Germany and how interesting it is and how much he wants to visit the camps and battle sites and how Nazis were witches), and all the other things he hates. I once asked a question about the Voodoo use of Catholic imagery on altars and he went on a 30 minute, profanity laced rant about how priests are rapists. He loved saying that every other shop in CT was a joke and full of cheap, Chinese made garbage.
He once spent nearly an entire class during the election telling us all that Hillary Clinton ate babies and participated in the dark arts, and that Donald Trump needs to be president. He said that since women read 50 Shades of Grey, it's okay for Trump to say he grabs women by the p**sy because it is the same thing. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE is entitled to their opinion about politics. However, I didn't pay $500 to hear someone yell about immigrants and claim that Hillary Clinton is going to bring about the end of the world.
Donna is the other owner and teacher of the classes. She is certainly knowledgeable and kind, and she has a lot to teach...when Mark isn't belittling her and yelling over her. She was once explaining a holiday to a student and Mark actually looked at her at yelled "WHEN TEACHER IS TALKING EVERYONE ELSE IS SHUTTING UP." He was literally derailing the class to talk about Trump again and Donna was answering an actual Witchcraft question. As smart as she is, Donna lets Mark walk all over her and does nothing. She watched him bring in an actual USED vintage baby's coffin into the shop as decor (she made it clear she didn't approve), stood up to him about it briefly, and now its just a permanent part of the decorations of the place.
I quit the class before it finished. I reached out to Donna and told her the truth. Mark had been behaving in a sexually inappropriate way with me, he kept trying to get me to do things outside of class with him (go to the casino, go on ghosts hunts with just the two of us, collect graveyard dirt), he kept making unwanted physical contact with me. I stopped coming to the shop outside of class and refused to be alone in the shop with him at all. His taking up class time for political rants, his assertion that "gay men just love drama" when hearing my friend was in an abusive relationship with his partner, his constant Nazi lectures..I told her all of it.
Donna told me several women have come forward to say he has tried to be sexual with them. She told me none of them wanted her to confront him. I told her she had my permission to tell him everything I said. Donna told me she believed me and would call me back soon. She never did. I was under the impression that she was a strong, independent witch. Apparently I was incorrect. She obviously lets Mark run the show and behave as he pleases.
I spent $500 (money I didn't have, that I made huge sacrifices in my life to afford) to get sexually harassed and learn very little about Witchcraft.
Don't take classes here. Don't shop here. This is not a safe space and it is not a space with healthy energy. read more