Hierophany & Hedge, 19 West Pike, Covington, KY (2025)

09/03/2025

We rolled our eyes back in the day when all the audiophiles claimed that MP3s were ruining music. We were young and listening to music with low-quality speakers. A bunch of information we couldn’t hear anyway being ditched in favor of portability seemed like a fair trade.

We can afford better speakers now, but our ears got old, so this particular instance doesn’t really matter for us any longer.

This devil’s bargain between accessibility and quality, however, feels more relevant than ever.

We realized this the other day when going through some goofy old family photos from JCPenney. These are not going to win any photography awards, and the chemicals used for the development have aged poorly.

Despite that, the actual image fidelity of a forty year old photo taken at the mall is significantly better than the overwhelming majority of the images we use to document our existence today.

None of the faces in that old photo were smoothed by an algorithm, and the photo itself was crisply resolved at 11x17.

Our world is increasingly mediated through the distorting and compressing eyes of our phones, and not to our benefit. We give up a few pixels here and there for convenience, and suddenly we discover our worlds have shrunk and our memories have been compressed.

In our little effort to hold back the tide, we are delighted to welcome to this year’s where she will be taking tintype photographs.

It is absurd to post scans of these photos to instagram, as they have a resolution and luminosity that embarrasses the very best digital tool. We’re doing it anyway in the hope that it inspires you to get some real ones taken.

We’ll be open this week on Thursday (9/4) from 12-2PM, Friday (9/5) from 6-8PM, Saturday (9/6) from 12-3PM, and Sunday (9/7) from 12-2PM.

Most of our shop witches are away this weekend, so we will be understaffed. We appreciate your patience, and hope you all enjoy the lunar eclipse on Sunday night.

08/26/2025

Simulacra are some of the oldest and most powerful forms of magic.

The first human paintings are found deep in ancient caves. They illustrate game animals, and were part of rituals designed to guarantee successful hunts.

Similarly, various forms of representational poppets (e.g., “Voodoo dolls”) have been used magically to treat illness or curse enemies. One might treat a fever by chilling a therapeutic poppet, or hobble an enemy by putting a pin though a doll’s foot.

As a result, we take very seriously any representation of our shop, and were a little concerned when we started receiving messages that Hierophany & Hedge was on display at the 2025 show.

But then we saw the photos of the marvelous model that long-time customer and her daughter had produced, and we haven’t stopped grinning since.

This is perfect, right down to the green string on the packages, and we love it. We are so looking forward to seeing it in person

Our customers are wonderful, and we are honored every single day to be able to serve you. Thank you so very much for helping to create something worthy of becoming magical art.

We will be open (in full size) this Thursday (8/28) from 6-8PM, and this Saturday (8/30) and Sunday (8/31) from 12-4PM.

08/22/2025

October is shaping up to be an exciting time on Pike Street!

From October 3 through October 5, the street will be turned into a brutal dungeon crawl in which contestants will be forced to endure a life-and-death struggle with hideous monsters. It will be broadcast live across the galaxy, and folks at home will be able to wager on their favorite con . . .

Wait. Hold on.

We’re receiving word that it isn’t actually a “dungeon” crawl.

Our bad.

It’s an Independent Bookstore Crawl.

Apparently contestants participate by . . . buying books?

Okay. That’s probably safer - particularly if you prepare yourself to endure monster attacks by picking up a copy of Dungeon Crawler Carl.

After all, may attract at least a few dangerous monsters that weekend.

You can find out more about the event at . In addition to , you’ll want to make sure you visit our friends at as well as local favorites and .

08/05/2025

Please join us in wishing a (slightly belated) happy second birthday to Lt. Commander Atramenta Murderpaws and her twin sister, Baroness Belladonna Nightshade.

We had no idea when we summoned these two furry voids from the outer darkness that they would lodge so deeply within our hearts. But it turns out that if you stare long enough into the abyss, it stares back . . . and meows.

They have gifted us with cryptic utterances, savaged toys, and occasionally hard-won purrs, and we can’t believe there was ever a time that they weren’t the managers of our little shop.

They are shown here “helping” us hang a canvas astrological painting from an early twentieth century circus.

We once thought that they were terrible astrologers, since every fortune they give is exactly the same, “You will give us treats.”

It turns out, however, that they have a more accurate prediction rate than any diviner we’ve ever met.

We’ll be open this Friday (8/8) from 12-2PM, and this Saturday (8/9) and Sunday (8/10) from 12-4PM.

07/28/2025

One of the perils of staring for too long at the abyss (or of reading too many Facebook comments) is to fall prey to catastrophism, to start to believe the world is full of monsters.

A healthy amount of fear is a good thing. Our ancestors survived because they knew when to hide from the terrifying things lurking in the dark.

But, in excess, it becomes a paralytic. It keeps us from becoming our best selves, from building better communities, or even from getting out of bed.

Everyone faces fear differently, but the best strategies involve taking action and finding allies. It is easier to be brave when you’re doing something, and when you’re doing it with others.

We are so happy that has become a tiny seed crystal for community building. We’re also proud that contacts made in the shop allowed the all-star local defense law firm to take the case of one of the Roebling Bridge defendants pro bono, and get their spurious felony charge dismissed.

Many thanks to who provided us with this painting of our basement. It illustrates why our stocking sometimes takes longer than expected, and why we’re getting better at facing our fears.

We’re open this Tuesday (7/29) and Thursday (7/31) from 6-8pm and Saturday (8/2) from 12-4pm.

07/22/2025

Successful relationships are built on daily respect - sharing labor, listening, and compromising. This isn’t glamorous, but without it all the dramatic performances of affection are just that, performances.

Which isn’t to say that memorable displays don’t matter. It’s good to have stories years later about the Christmas car with a bow on it, or the proposal on an exotic beach.

The parts of our relationship that we love the most, however, are the things that sit between these extremes - the fun parts that aren’t work, but that don’t require months of preparation or a loan.

We’re talking about small presents, weekend trips, going for walks, and spontaneous romantic date nights.

The summer is always a challenging time at Augur’s day job, and to cheer him up, Coil made him an arrangement of grocery store roses (in a coffin tiki mug, naturally).

A small gesture now and again makes all the difference in the world.

Our advice for this week? Take half an hour out of one of your days to do something thoughtful for someone you care about.

We’ll be open this Saturday (7/26) and Sunday (7/27) from 12 until 4PM.

07/19/2025

On our recent trip to Columbus we had the pleasure of visiting the lair of celebrity kitchen witch,

From the giant skeleton greeting customers to the icing spiderwebs, everything is perfectly designed to fulfill the desires of vampires who like butter as much as blood.

In addition to decadent pastries, they offer a selection of savory stuffed biscuits and plenty of swag.

Lt. Cmdr Atramenta, resident gourmand of , gives two Murderpaws up for this chocolate puck, and Baroness says the t-shirt is adequate (which is the highest rating she gives).

If you’re one of our Columbus customers, make sure to visit; and if you’re around Cincinnati it’s worth the road trip north.

07/18/2025

We just saw the horrific footage of the assault on peaceful protestors on the Roebling Bridge.

You should go watch it, but be prepared to be sickened and furious.

We so very much wish that this weren’t the truth of our country and our city. But we must not turn our gaze away from what is happening.

Should revelers in the city’s newly proposed entertainment district also expect to be tackled and beaten?

We dearly hope that a condemnation from arrives soon.

07/15/2025

One of the great joys of the shop is getting to work with artists whose visions are their own special kind of magic.

has been working on a series of paintings depicting buildings cast adrift in the shifting seas of the astral plane, moored to material reality by the most tenuous of crumbling staircases.

When we saw them, we knew we had to see what would look like in one of her haunting dreamscapes.

We couldn’t be more disturbingly delighted with the results.

In dreams, size can be deceiving, and that nautiloid had better hope it doesn’t get too close to any kitten’s claws or vulture’s talons.

We’ll be open this Saturday (7/19) and Sunday (7/20) from 12-4PM.

07/11/2025

There is a theory in metaphysics that our belief creates gods; not just cultural practice and religions, but actual supernatural beings.

We don’t know if that’s true. But we know we need ideals to believe in, we need figures to model behavior, and we need to be inspired.

We can imagine worse gods than a superpowered immigrant willing to risk his life to protect the weak from monsters. In this world overrun with bargain basement Lex Luthors, it would be nice to have a Superman.

Go see the new Superman movie. It’s not perfect, but it does what a movie about a superhero ought to do. It makes you want to be brave enough to be a hero too.

These are pages from our collection drawn by the gifted and written by our all time (and all star) favorite comic writer, .Morrison.

They tell the story of a world overrun by parasites that devour hope, and a boy who dreams of a savior who isn’t a hero because of his powers.

Here’s to believing.

07/08/2025

It’s become a July tradition for us to post a fireworks video and say something about the country.

It really feels like we’re staring at the abyss though, so here is a picture of Lieutenant Commander Atramenta Murderpaws surveying some of her troops.

She is still recovering from her fractured hip and surgery. She is doing much better, and seems to be getting around without any pain. She remains quite weak though, and in general is both more skittish and lethargic.

The cats come and go between the shop and Hierophany House as they please, and for the moment Murderpaws remains hesitant to brave the shop crowds. She’s made a few appearances, however, and is clearly looking forward to getting back to her post full time.

Baroness is just trying to understand the point of Roman candles if you aren’t supposed to point them at people.

We’ll be open this Wednesday (7/9) from 12-2pm and Saturday (7/12) and Sunday (7/13) from 12-4pm.

Hierophany & Hedge

09/03/2025

08/26/2025

08/22/2025

08/05/2025

07/28/2025

07/22/2025

07/19/2025

07/18/2025

07/15/2025

07/11/2025

07/08/2025

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