The Spiritual Garden

The Spiritual Garden - Where the seeds of many paths grow

It was a warm and sunny day when I finally got a chance to visit a metaphysical shop named The Spiritual Garden.  After being told the owner, Michelle Fultz, needed to leave for her other job, we ended up talking later in the day.  Since I wasn't able to interview her at that time, I had the opportunity to walk around and look at the items her store sells.  

For a small location, The Spiritual Garden makes excellent use of the available space by filling every nook and cranny with a plethora of products that include everything from herbs, oils and incense, to books, decorations, clothing and the biggest selection of ritual candles I've seen in a while.  They even offer services such as psychic readings, dream interpretation, chakra balancing, and reflexology, as well as Reiki, past life regressions, massage therapy, and even belly dancing classes.  

Raised in a mostly Eclectic environment by her Catholic mother and Lutheran father, Michelle did have Pagan aunts on one side of her family.  She told me that even though she was raised primarily Christian and attended a Lutheran school when she was a child, she asked a lot of questions.  In 1993 she started her store; it closed and then reopened as a magic shop.  After a fire burned down the magic shop, Michelle and her boyfriend, Steve Bornman, whom she describes as sort of Eclectic and magical, opened The Spiritual Garden at 4805 S. Madison Avenue, on the southside of Indianapolis in 2007.  

After moving in and getting settled, they knew it was meant to be when, on their first day, someone had come in to ask if they could get a psychic reading even though the store did not have a sign outside yet.  Michelle told me that their typical customer is either Pagan looking for supplies or just coming in for readings, however, all are welcome to shop there.  

She feels that what makes her store unique is not so much the selection, because it is similar to other stores of its kind, but that she considers her prices to be a bit more reasonable.  A few examples of this would be that 85% of the herbs and incense sell for only $1 each and all of her standard size bottles of oils sell for $2.50 each.  When I asked her about who her competitors are, Michelle said that she doesn't feel as though she has any; it's not about competing because there's enough prosperity to spread around.

Michelle has been told by some people that they are surprised at how pretty the store is, that they like the energy that flows through it and they appreciate being able to come in and not feel pressured or forced to buy anything.  What brings a lot of people there are the psychic readings.  She remembered someone who had come in for a reading and then came back later to talk about the high accuracy of it.  People have come in from other cities or states and told her that they remembered her store from when they were previously in town.  

Gavin and Yvonne Frost, authors of A Witch's Guide to Psychic Healing: Applying Traditional Therapies, Rituals, and Systems, and The Witch's Book of Magical Ritual: Use the Forces of Wicca to Direct Your Psychic Powers, as well as many other books, have visited The Spiritual Garden from time to time, but Michelle remains humble and does her best to give back to the community.  She likes to contribute to the Witch Hat Society (http://witchhatsociety.org/), as well as shelters; Michelle will donate money from the sale of certain products to the shelters whenever she can, especially at holiday time.

While The Spiritual Garden doesn't have a website nor a newsletter of its own, there is a MySpace profile, which can be found at http://www.myspace.com/themagickshoppe; it is where I got part of the title for this article.  It is also listed on The Witches' Voice at http://www.witchvox.com/, the Indy Channel A-List, and sells online through eBay at http://myworld.ebay.com/thespiritualgarden/.

I asked Michelle if the store has ever experienced any discrimination and she told me that most people believe 'to each their own', but there was one experience she related to me that she actually found quite amusing.  They were having a bit of a pest problem once and called an exterminator to take care of it.  He never said anything to them about their business but simply went about his own.  When he left and Michelle was looking around the shop, she noticed some pamphlets that said something about Jesus Lives and Jesus Saves.  Pretty harmless, she thought, so she laughed it off and didn't worry any more about it.

Michelle and The Spiritual Garden pride themselves in being as helpful as possible to people, no matter what their religion.  I can truly say that anyone visiting her shop can feel as welcome there as they would their own home and feel truly blessed by their experience.

For more info: Call The Spiritual Garden at (317) 731-6572