It's a Boo-tiful Life: My Spooky Adventures this Fall

It's Halloween season, & you might be surprised at how spooky Cleveland can get! This city is chock-full of old-timey history, & a few interesting shops have recently opened in Lakewood, a suburb right outside the city. I've been trying to visit them all & thought I'd share them with you here. Whether or not you're local, I think you'll be interested in how cool all these weird little spots are...

The Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick

This tiny Wicca museum is located within a record store on 14th St. in Tremont, just around the corner from me. It's just one small room (though they're currently in the midst of an expansion), & it costs $5 to enter, as a means of maintaining the space & the world-renowned collection curated by the late Raymond Buckland. It's a museum, so nothing in the space is available for sale, but it's absolutely worth a visit if you want to learn more about the wide world of Wicca. (2676 W 14th St., Cleveland)

Coven

Local witch Miranda Scott just opened Coven in July, & it, too, is a small spot, though she's definitely making the most of it. It's chock-full of witchy goods, including crystals, spices, sage, palo santo, & more, along with kitschy feminist items like Beyonce prayer candles ("Our Lady of Lemonade"), anti-Trump goodies, journals, etc. I bought an aura-cleansing spray made with mica (so it literally sparkles in the bottle), along with a little button that says "HEX TRUMP." Blessed be.

Cleveland Curiosities

If you're in the market for a two-headed taxidermied goat, a pig fetus, a human kidney, or a camel skull, his is the spot for you. Also new as of July, Cleveland Curiosities has been described by local press as "a world-class oddities shop," & you certainly get the feeling that it is when you enter to see a real guillotine. All of their taxidermy is ethically sourced, & some of the owners' work has been featured on American Horror Story! They also offer classes in offbeat hobbies like bat-pinning. (13375 Madison Ave., Lakewood)

Haunted Cleveland Ghost Tours

For my first assignment for Ohio Magazine, I went on Haunted CLE's 20th anniversary tour, a four-hour bus tour with four stops in downtown Cleveland - but it went quickly because it was really interesting & fun. It's mostly a tour of spooky history, but there are also a few references to ghosts, of course! We visited the historic Gray's Armory Museum, which has a creepy shooting range in the basement; the State Theater, one of Playhouse Square's oldest spots; the Cleveland Police Museum, where local author/expert James Jessen Badal spoke about the Torso Murders; & finally, Erie Street Cemetery, where we used copper dowsing rods to try to locate paranormal activity. Spooky indeed!

So tell me: What spooky stuff am I missing? What's spooky in your neck of the woods?