Tarot card reader and artist Monica Bodirsky sits on a stone bench in Toronto’s Cedarvale Park, flipping a card and placing it upright on a cloth adorned with moon phases and bats. The rings on her fingers shimmer as sunlight filters through rainclouds and the park’s canopy. Across from her […]
Tag: Stigma
Increased openness to witchcraft has allowed occult shops to grow
Not everyone welcomes occult bookstores with open arms in Canada. There is still a surprising amount of stigma associated with those who sell wares relating to the metaphysical. “Satanic panic was in the ‘80s and it’s still a mindset that a lot of people have,” Lex Veld-Martul says, seated in […]
No house-warming parties for now-cliché ‘Not Haunted’ signs
A common marketing ploy used by realtors these days is the “Not Haunted” atop the curbside FOR SALE sign. Now, it was charming at first, especially in the case of the Middlesex County house, just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. I mean, the Conjuring House in Rhode Island is just an […]
True crime: The greatest influence on our modern ghost stories
There is a strong relationship between the paranormal and true crime. Tailing along like an awkward teenage third wheel is mental health because, in a lot of the more gruesome cases, there’s an element of deviation. Horror tropes borrow strongly from true crime. Look at a fair amount of our […]