{"id":899,"date":"2007-06-29T19:55:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-29T19:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=899"},"modified":"2011-10-29T11:19:15","modified_gmt":"2011-10-29T17:19:15","slug":"the-street-of-the-idol-makers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=899","title":{"rendered":"The Street of the Idol-Makers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Monday I drove to Denver for the last day of the International New Age Trade Show (West)<\/a> at the Merchandise Mart, partly to see friends and also to check out the<\/p>\n

Books, New Age and World Music, CD’s and DVD’s, Aromatherapy Bath and Body Preparations, Apparel, Candles, Crystals, Tarots and Divination Tools, Heath and Wellness Herbal Remedies, Incense, Jewelry, Native Traditions, Metaphysical Supplies and Greeting Cards.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I had not visited that show (it’s wholesale only) since 1997, when I was signing copies of Sacred Mask, Sacred Dance<\/em><\/a> at the Llewellyn booth. (They were not about to fly John Jones over from England, even though he wrote 75 percent of the book.)<\/p>\n

The Llewellyn booth this year was big, but the energy seemed low. Nobody made eye contact. Maybe the staff had partied too hard the night before. I snagged a free 2007 Tarot reader for M. and left.<\/p>\n

When M. worked for Celebration Books in Colorado Springs, she also had to work some of their metaphysical fairs<\/a>–the same stuff, but at the retail level. (The two businesses are now owned separately, I understand.)<\/p>\n

Walking the show, I could not help but notice how little has changed in the 20-some years since we first went to a metaphysical fair, other than the shift from videotapes to DVDs.<\/p>\n

But there is one big change. In 1981 there was no Pagan merchandise sector. Now here was the Mythic Images<\/a> booth next to Maxine Miller Studios<\/a> and Celtic Jackalope<\/a> (love that name), followed by Sacred Source<\/a> and Dryad Design<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With all the divine images, it was like the Street of the Idol Makers.<\/p>\n

Off to the side was King-Max Products<\/a> with its bland Chinese manager representing a whole line of Gothy knick-knacks and kannabis kitsch and some very NSFW statuary. (You can’t even see it on the website without an account.)<\/p>\n

I just wonder if the Chinese worker painting the statuette of a voluptuous woman receiving cunnilingus from a wolf thinks that that is a common occurrence in America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Monday I drove to Denver for the last day of the International New Age Trade Show (West) at the Merchandise Mart, partly to see friends and also to check out the Books, New Age and World Music, CD’s and DVD’s, Aromatherapy Bath and Body Preparations, Apparel, Candles, Crystals, Tarots and Divination Tools, Heath and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5,40],"class_list":["post-899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-paganism","tag-polytheism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-ev","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7581,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7581","url_meta":{"origin":899,"position":0},"title":"The Passing of Carl Weschcke","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"First, the official announcement from Llewellyn, then my comments. It is with profound sadness we share the news of Carl Llewellyn Weschcke\u2019s passing. He passed peacefully on Saturday, November 7 surrounded by family. He was 85. Carl Llewellyn Weschcke was Chairman and the driving force behind Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"weschcke","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/weschcke-219x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1045,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1045","url_meta":{"origin":899,"position":1},"title":"Death No Longer Entrances Me","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I did not have time to cruise the whole INATS-West show three weeks ago, but I did walk through the big Llewellyn booth, since it was close by my friends' booth.I scooped up some of the free stuff, including a flier for \"a Gothic Book of the Dead.\"It's one of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"books\"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1039,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1039","url_meta":{"origin":899,"position":2},"title":"Casual Labor at the New Age Trade Show","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"So as I was saying, I briefly visited the INATS West show yesterday, in the capacity of day labor to help the Zells take down their booth on its last afternoon.(You sit on the curb in front of the liquor store until a guy wearing a wizard's hat and driving\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":653,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=653","url_meta":{"origin":899,"position":3},"title":"Llewellyn Takes on a School Board","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Llewellyn, the largest New Age\/Pagan\/astrological publisher in the US, has pushed a North Carolina school board into a corner. When the board said that \"religious groups\" could distribute \"scripture\" in the school's, Llewellyn's publicist decided that the works of Silver Ravenwolf would qualify as well. Jason Pitzl-Waters has the details.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":334,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=334","url_meta":{"origin":899,"position":4},"title":"Llewellyn George, Patent Medicine, and\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 17, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Llewellyn George, Patent Medicine, and Pagan Publishing In 1993, when I was editing the Witchcraft Today series for Llewellyn Publications, I few up to Minnesota to spend a couple of days conferring with Carl and Sandra Weschcke, who own the company. Driving me around St. Paul in his black Cadillac,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10966,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10966","url_meta":{"origin":899,"position":5},"title":"Interview with Carl Weschcke’s Biographer","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I once stayed a couple of nights at Carl Weschcke's house, when he lived out in Marine on St. Croix, and on the drive back and forth to the old Llewellyn Publications office in St. Paul I heard a lot of his stories \u2014 but I am sure there are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/melanie-marquis.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3351,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions\/3351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}