When Elyse Bernath was 4 years old, she almost died. Her near-death experience was the result of a severe case of the flu, she said.
But after Bernath recovered, she said things felt different.
By the time Bernath was 6 years old, she said she noticed that she was able to feel and know things that most others weren’t able to. She said she was able to walk into a restaurant and feel the heartbeat of a fetus or know that someone was going to die in six months.
Bernath said she struggled growing up, since she felt different from others. However, she said she was eventually able to take her differences and turn them into a metaphysical business, which uses spirituality tools like tarot cards, spells or candles, to help others.
“I love what I do. It’s not a job, it’s my passion, it’s my obsession and helping people is everything to me,” Bernath said.
Magical beginnings
Bernath started her business when she was just 14, she said. It was originally more of a hobby than anything else, she said, until she decided to make it more of a permanent business several years later.
Bernath has run Mystic Moon Spiritual Readings & Energy Healings in Chicago for over 30 years now. She offers spiritual enhancement services online, such as energy healings — which activate the body’s energy systems to remove energy blocks and heal itself — spellwork and tarot card readings.
Although she said she was “born with the gift,” Bernath said she spent about 15 years getting certifications in various healing techniques. Now, she said she can combine ancient practices with modern ones to achieve a greater degree of wellness.
For Wycke Malliway and Blake Malliway — two brothers who own Malliway Bros. Magic & Witchcraft on Morse Avenue — their skills were inspired differently.
Before they opened Malliway Bros. Magic & Witchcraft, they said they ran an Etsy shop and a group called Witches’ Conclave, where people met up to teach each other things about witchcraft. Wycke Malliway and Blake Malliway still run the group.
Blake Malliway said he and his brother travel to England about five times a year. During their trips, they have visited the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Cornwall to study centuries worth of charms and spells on display. He said they stayed at a witch hotel in Glastonbury called The Covenstead, and had gone on Wise Women Walks in St. Buryan.
Blake Malliway said he was able to connect with one of St. Buryan’s village witches, who he said took the brothers on walks through the landscape to teach them how to connect with the spirits of the land.
“Witchcraft very much deals with the spirit world,” Blake Malliway said. “By us going out there, we were able to learn how it was done by the people who live, breathe, do this day in, day out, which is part of our inspiration for what launched all of this.”
Blake Malliway said the things that they learned in England also helped inspire their store.
Mother and daughter duo Heather Hinze and Madi Hinze took a different approach. In February, the two opened their store, Roots & Ritual, in Irving Park without getting certifications or traveling to England to learn from experienced witches.
When Heather Hinze was 7 years old, she said she went on a trip to Salem, Massachusetts, with her mother and grandmother. The three were watching a reenactment of a Salem witch trial when one of the accused witches pointed out at the audience, she said.
“I swear she pointed at me. In my little 7-year-old brain, that’s what I thought, and I remember sitting there thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m a witch,’” Heather Hinze said.
It was her first experience thinking that she was a witch, and years later when she was in her late teens and early twenties, she said she began reading books and learning about witchcraft.
Madi Hinze said she learned from her mother after growing up with Heather Hinze’s decades-old tarot deck and numerous books. They said they began taking classes in 2020 for tarot card readings and “other witchy things.”
Spells, intentions and results
At Mystic Moon Spiritual Readings & Energy Healings, Bernath offers a wide range of services to her clients. Her favorite is creating custom spells, she said.
Bernath said people often call her with a situation, which she creates a spell to help resolve. The most common situations that she deals with are love readings, love spells and mediumship, which is communication between spirits and the living. People often want her to connect to the spirit world or help remove a third party from a situation, she said.
“Any spell that I do is usually to adhere to a situation, to help a situation,” Bernath said. “I don’t like to use the word, per say, witchcraft, because that’s not exactly what it is. There are spells that are potions, there are spells that are bottles, there are spells that are just incantations and chants, and it just really depends on what someone is looking for.”
Bernath said she puts most of her time and effort into creating these spells so that her clients will get the results that they want. She said that rather than tell her clients what they want to hear, she gives them the results without any sugarcoating so their time isn’t wasted.
In some ways, Wycke Malliway and Blake Malliway approach magic differently. For one, they do use the term witchcraft — unlike Bernath. The Malliway brothers also tend not to do any love spells, spells to control other people or spells for vengeance, but instead offer services like candle dressings, Wycke Malliway said.
He said when people are looking for specific magic, he and his brother often find herbs and oils to match the situation, do a spell over the candle and then let the client take that candle home.
Blake Malliway said he usually gives his spells three days to show results, whereas Bernath gives hers between three and six months. Blake Malliway also emphasized the importance of recognizing whether results match the intentionality.
“The more you do this, the less it’s about ‘Did this work?’ and more it’s about ‘Did it work the way I wanted it to?’” Blake Malliway said. “Nine times out of 10, you’re gonna get something that happens. It’s just, did it happen the way you wanted it to?”
His brother echoed this sentiment. Wycke Malliway said often his process involves casting spells, seeing if they work the way he intended and then either trying something new or determining what made it work.
Reading about the occult
Both Malliway Bros. Magic & Witchcraft and Roots & Ritual sell occult books, which cover topics ranging from magical practice to folkloric history, in their stores.
Wycke Malliway and Blake Malliway own Crossed Crow Books, a publishing house that the two launched in 2021. The Malliway brothers sell their occult books in their store and also stock them in some other bookstores, they said.
Blake Malliway said Crossed Crow Books has grown exponentially since it was launched and is now one of the larger body, mind and spirit publishers.
Occult books are also a big component of Heather Hinze and Madi Hinze’s business. Books are their most popular product, Madi Hinze said, and the two take great care in curating their book selection.
“Our book selection is very intentional and I think we highlight books from people who are practicing witchcraft or magic from a decolonial perspective or a more radical perspective,” Madi Hinze said.
Roots & Ritual also has a children’s books section, which Heather Hinze said is filled with books that she wishes she had read to her daughter when she was younger.
Reading about witchcraft is a great way to learn about magic since witchcraft and magic are for everyone, Madi Hinze said.
Heather Hinze also emphasized that learning and reading about witchcraft is especially important and helpful now, considering the political climate. Both Heather Hinze and Madi Hinze said they believe that witchcraft is deeply political. Heather Hinze said that it is often when women’s rights are being threatened that witchcraft resurges, and Madi Hinze said that witchcraft involves political issues such as cultural appropriation, deforestation and overharvesting.
“It’s a great time to learn about witchcraft,” Heather Hinze said. “There tends to be these times in history where there’s a resurgence. I think the ’60s was a big one, and I think we’re coming back around now to another resurgence just based on everything. And again, this goes back to ‘Witchcraft is political.’”
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