July 14, 2026

Forty years of service

The shop’s first newsletter went out in April 1986, typed and photocopied. In it, founder Wesley Vincent set down what the enterprise was for: to be “the clearing house where knowledge and/or healing can be exchanged,” and — the line we still quote — “the most valuable assets are the people.”

At the time, “the enterprise” was a few bookcases of used metaphysical books inside a psychic center on San Mateo. Forty years, several moves and one Emporium later, the mission hasn’t needed an edit.

What’s accumulated around those bookcases: the best incense wall in New Mexico, baskets of stones, a case of iconography from a dozen traditions, a back room where readers have kept seven-day-a-week hours for decades, and a customer base that drives in from out of town — sometimes for a specific book, sometimes just because the shop smells like the shop.

We’ll mark the anniversary properly with the community that built the place. Watch the events page.