Hierophany & Hedge

Hierophany & Hedge Hierophany & Hedge are purveyors of fine eldritch goods and services including magical reagents, sib

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

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

The Malleus Maleficarum, published in 1486 by Kramer and Sprenger, is a manual for detecting and combating Satanic witch...
07/01/2025

The Malleus Maleficarum, published in 1486 by Kramer and Sprenger, is a manual for detecting and combating Satanic witches.

It provided a controversial (even at the time of its publication) legitimacy to those who believed in a diabolical conspiracy, and its lurid descriptions of imaginary witchcraft have helped shape cultural perceptions ever since.

Though widely regarded as one of the “most evil books ever written,” the Malleus did not originate the idea of devil-worshipping witches, and it was not the reason that tens of thousands of innocent people were executed during the “Witch Hysteria” of the 17th century.

Europe descended into chaos because of famine and war driven by the Little Ice Age and religious schism, and exacerbated socially disruptive technologies like printing presses, centralized law codes, and joint-stock companies.

The people tortured and executed were not witches in either the contemporary or historical sense. They were almost all devout Christians who found themselves at the periphery of community power structures. They were mostly women, mostly poor, and often “weird.” In short, they were outsiders, the same people who always suffer when society is looking for a scapegoat.

Modern witches have very little in common with those of Kramer’s fever dreams, but a great deal in common with the innocents who were strangled, beheaded, stoned, and, rarely, burnt. That commonality is not one of practice, but one of identity.

We purchased a new (to us) copy of the Hammer of Witches at an auction in Mexico City last month. It will, at least for a while, be on display in our Eldritch Ballroom beneath another relic of the Witch Hysteria, our executioner’s sword.

(We burned a printed facsimile. We don’t believe in burning books, even ones we don’t like.)

We are open this week on Mon (6/30) from 12-2PM, Fri (7/4) from 12-2PM, and Sat (7/5) and Sun (7/6) from 12-4PM.

We are exceptionally excited to reveal the new sticker sheets created for us.Lauren is an artist based in the United Ki...
06/17/2025

We are exceptionally excited to reveal the new sticker sheets created for us.

Lauren is an artist based in the United Kingdom whose art brilliantly combines classic tattoo iconography with contemporary culture.

Her incredible renditions of Baldur’s Gate characters were how we found her. (Repeatedly searching for cozy romantic pictures of Karlach and Laezel wasn’t a waste of time after all!)

She graciously agreed to turn her gaze upon some of the denizens of , with predictably magical results.

While we will be retailing these as stickers, they wouldn’t look bad on someone’s skin . . .

We’ll be open this week Tuesday (6/17) from 6-8pm, Friday (6/20) from 12-2pm, and Saturday (6/21) and Sunday (6/22) from 12-4pm.

Happy Solstice!

Coil remains in a distant swamp celebrating an ancestral birthday, so all you’ve got this Father’s Day is Augur.Baroness...
06/15/2025

Coil remains in a distant swamp celebrating an ancestral birthday, so all you’ve got this Father’s Day is Augur.

Baroness and Murderpaws are in a similar situation, and want everyone to know that they’ve literally never been fed and could starve at any moment!

It’s a strange time to be thinking about my father.

He has an unflinching optimism about humanity, and that feels alien in a historical moment so threatened by war, tyranny, and institutional cruelty.

But he always taught me that it’s in moments of crisis and despair that you most need to believe in human decency.

Obviously, there are bad people, and there are good people who do bad things. Systems fail, and there is awfulness in the world.

But when your hope teeters on the edge, when you start thinking it might be better to push someone else off the boat to save your own skin, that’s when you need to believe in people the most.

It’s much harder to stand up for what we know is right if we believe we’re alone.

That’s why the most effective lie monsters tell is that everyone is a monster.

But it’s a lie. We’re not alone.

People are compassionate. People loathe bullies. People believe in justice, in freedom, and in love.

I worry things are going to get worse before they get better, but I’m going to try to make my dad proud. I don’t believe for a second that I’m the only one.

He also recommends hugging animals whenever they’ll let you.

Happy Father’s Day to all.

If you ever have a few days to spare, ask a fan to tell you about Warhammer 40K. They’ll describe a galaxy-spanning tota...
06/09/2025

If you ever have a few days to spare, ask a fan to tell you about Warhammer 40K.

They’ll describe a galaxy-spanning totalitarian empire, policed by witches and warrior nuns, guarded by zombie super soldiers in giant robots, and maintained by incense swinging mechanic-priests. They’ll also mention sadistic space elves, cybernetic pharaohs, Lovecraftian xenomorphs, and literal demons.

In the 1980s a group of British nerds invented the satirical 40K setting to sell tiny lead toy soldiers. They borrowed from Dune and Star Wars, but mixed in Tolkien, Judge Dredd, and Hitchhiker’s Guide. Then they let it ferment in a generation or two of Thatcherite policy and Reagonomics.

It’s weird.

It’s so weird that it’s avoided the attention of Big Media, which in turn has allowed it to get even weirder. In addition to a ridiculous variety of (now plastic) toy soldiers, it has spawned hundreds of novels, as well as video games, comics books, and cartoons.

It’s also stayed true to its political roots. You will find some fans who don’t get it, but the owners and most fans celebrate the message that power corrupts and that fascism (really any extremism) is the true enemy of humanity.

Oh, we should probably also mention that in this grimdark far future, the only approved style of interior design looks a lot like the interior of Hierophany & Hedge (only with more zombie computers).

That’s why we asked gifted Italian painter .abbate to help us envision in the 41st millennium.

Augur is a Rogue Trader searching for exotic goods in the deep void and Coil is a demon-hunting Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus, subtype: radical.

Oh, and Baroness is a space cat (probably possessed by some sort of warp entity) while Murderpaws is hiding in her mom’s oversized cape.

We hope you enjoy this as much as we did. We’ll be closed this week (except a couple of hours on Wednesday) as Coil will be away celebrating her grandfather’s nine hundredth birthday.

What? Sorry. We’re saying ninetieth? Right. Ninetieth birthday.

As a belated birthday treat to each other, we visited the incredible residents of TC Highlands Farm. These giant fluffy ...
06/03/2025

As a belated birthday treat to each other, we visited the incredible residents of TC Highlands Farm.

These giant fluffy cows love brushing and fig newtons, and they live on a tourism farm in central Kentucky. That means they won’t ever end up on a plate.

We have always loved highland cows and have always imagined this is what Aurochs looked like.

(For those of you without our enthusiasm for Pleistocene megafauna, the Aurochs were the wild cows depicted on Paleolithic cave paintings.)

Luckily for us, these pampered highland cows behave like giant puppies.

If you’d like to visit the cows you can book an appointment at the web site.

will be open this Thursday (6/5) from 6-8pm, and Saturday (6/7) and Sunday (6/8) from 12-4pm.

is honored to be a sponsor of the 2025 Cincinnati Fringe Festival (). The Festival runs from May 31 until June 13. Duri...
05/29/2025

is honored to be a sponsor of the 2025 Cincinnati Fringe Festival ().

The Festival runs from May 31 until June 13. During that time there will be over a hundred performances by dozens of actors, dancers, puppeteers, storytellers, and poets.

There will be shows by internationally renowned theatrical veterans, as well as debut productions by local performers.

Some shows will be okay. Others will blow your mind.

Each performance is less than an hour, and tickets are just $20. That means you have the freedom to experiment and check out something that might not be your usual cup of tea.

The shows take place at a number of venues centered about the in downtown Cincinnati, and you can find more details and buy tickets at cincyfringe.com.

This is one of several new wands we received last week from our Italian wand maker. It is crafted from the wood of a fa...
05/27/2025

This is one of several new wands we received last week from our Italian wand maker. It is crafted from the wood of a fallen Yew tree, and alludes to the historic association of the yew with cemeteries and mortality.

Nearly every part of the yew is intensely poisonous, and they were planted near medieval churches to keep shepherds from grazing their livestock in adjacent cemeteries. Yew trees may live for up to a thousand years, and in that time spread their roots far and deep.

For that macabre reason, the yew is colloquially called Death Eater.

Murderpaws is doing better, but still requires most of our attention. We are taking the week to attend to her, but will be open on Saturday (5/31) and Sunday (6/1) from 12-4PM.

Great news!!!Atramenta Murderpaws is okay!Those of you who visited last week may have noticed her conspicuous absence.Sh...
05/20/2025

Great news!!!

Atramenta Murderpaws is okay!

Those of you who visited last week may have noticed her conspicuous absence.

She had a broken hip.

We aren’t quite sure when it happened. We suspect it was when she tried to recreate her second favorite scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark and ride her cat tree through a wall.

It is a common problem for Maine C***s. They are literally too big for their skeletons. This is perhaps a trade-off because their bodies are too small for all their heart.

She underwent successful surgery today, and will be coming home tomorrow. Many thanks to the teams at and

For extreme bravery in the car and for gallantry while being barked at, she’s been promoted to Lieutenant Commander.

She’s got a few weeks of recovery in front of her, and will be relying on her sister to manage the shop until her return.

Thank you all for your kind words and support. We’ll have the shop open when we can, but family takes priority.

This week we will be open Saturday (5/24) and Sunday (5/25) from 12-4pm. We will be closed Monday in honor of Memorial Day.

Please join us in wishing a fond farewell to our shop associate, Sol. She graduates next week, and is thence to Chicago ...
05/11/2025

Please join us in wishing a fond farewell to our shop associate, Sol. She graduates next week, and is thence to Chicago with her charming partner for a career on the stage.

Fittingly, we first met Sol in an abandoned theater. We were there trying to get a recalcitrant ghost into a jar. She was getting into character reciting ancient Greek poetry. We ended up having a wonderful conversation about Kant (or maybe Hegel?) before the authorities arrived.

She joined our staff when things got crazy during Blink! last year, and has been an indispensable part of the team ever since. We are going to miss her, and hope that she remembers to come back and visit.

In addition to being a gifted artist (she made us this portrait for Christmas last year), she is an enthusiastic and talented player of tabletop role-playing games. We didn’t want her to forget us, or to forget how important taking some time to relax is, so we’re sending her on her way with this custom gamemaster’s screen by

We look forward to following her career at ._

Rituals are powerful because they extend beyond a moment. They are done repeatedly, to a schedule divorced from profane ...
05/08/2025

Rituals are powerful because they extend beyond a moment. They are done repeatedly, to a schedule divorced from profane time.

They are a what and a why that sanctify the when. To perform one is to reach into the past and future and make yourself more than the now.

However, for them to be meaningful, they require work and commitment. It is okay for them to feel onerous sometimes. The only thing magic likes more than an offering is a sacrifice.

Every year we have the floors throughout Hierophany & Hedge and Hierophany House oiled and waxed. That’s just house maintenance for floors not sealed with plastic.

However, we also take that time to ritually reconsecrate the space. We cleanse, we anoint, and we ward. It is a lot of work, but it centers us in our keep, and it reminds all our guardians and ghosts that they are beloved.

(The cats just like to flop onto and slide around on the empty floors.)

We will be open this Thursday (5/8) from 12-2pm and this Saturday (5/10) and Sunday (5/11) from 12-4pm.

Address

Covington, KY

Telephone

+18592612710

Website

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