BY MARIA HERNE
STAFF WRITER
Dolly Malee is a witch.
But those expecting a pointy hat and warty-nosed Halloween stereotype behind the Witchy Crafters exhibit at the Schuylkill Pagans New Age Expo at the Pottsville Inn & Suites on Centre Street found instead a cheerful blond woman wearing a flowing purple dress and an amethyst pendant, selling books, candles and incense.
?People have a lot of ideas about Wiccans, that we?re devil worshippers and we?re evil, and it?s just not true,? said Malee, Schuylkill Haven, and a member of the Schuylkill Pagans, a local group dedicated to pagan beliefs and traditions. ?People tend to dismiss things that they fear or don?t understand.?
The event, which was held Saturday and Sunday, featured more than 50 vendors selling everything from crystals to candles, and offering New Age and holistic services such as tattoos, Reiki healing, clairvoyant consultations and tarot card readings.
This was the third year for the event, which was first held in 2005 at the River Inn on Route 61, Pottsville area, with just 23 vendors.
Malee, who said she first became aware that she had ?the gift? ? the ability to see spirits and send and receive messages from spiritual entities ? when she was 13.
Malee said she inherited her powers from her grandmother and mother and said she has passed on the gift to her children and grandchildren.
?I?ve always had a strong ability to predict when there will be a death around me,? she said. ?I?ve also been able to communicate with entities who want me to pass messages onto their family and friends. I?ve helped people get rid of negative and destructive entities in their house.?
The Rev. Rosemarie Moyer, the founder of Blooming Rose, a clairvoyant school in Hereford, Berks County, knew from an early age that she had the ability to commune with the dead.
?When I was three or four, I would often sit and talk to my grandmother; she had died, but I could see her as plain as day,? Moyer said. ?My mother, an old-fashioned Italian-Catholic woman, would get upset, and run and pray the Rosary when that would happen.?
Moyer, 65, said she once used her powers to help law enforcement officials find missing children; she now operates a small school for novice clairvoyants in her Berks County home.
?I believe everyone has the gift to see, but it?s up to you whether you will choose to use it or not.? Moyer said.
Also at the expo were Pat Chapman and Phyliss Livera, New Jersey residents and graduates of the Rocky Mountain Mystery School, a global network of ?light workers? who study and practice ancient healing traditions. For $35, they will perform a ritual known as an ?emotional cord cutting.?
When a relationship has formed between two people, energy continues to flow between them even when they are no longer in each other?s lives, which can be a drain on the person?s energy and life force, Chapman said.
The idea, Chapman said, is to rid the person of unhealthy and negative links that they may have formed with someone in their past ? such as an ex-spouse, lover, family member or friend that died traumatically or suddenly, and who they may be still grieving, Chapman said.
?Most people say they feel much better afterward,? Chapman said.
http://www.republicanherald.com/site/ne ... 2624&rfi=6
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
