After years of questioning the lessons taught to her in church as a young girl, Amy Davis became comfortable in her own spirituality after she turned 50, which led to the creation of the only "metaphysical curio" shop in Hot Springs: The Parlour.
After growing up in a Christian household, coming to terms with her spirituality, which doesn't revolve around a single religion, has been no small feat, but has led to her gaining self-confidence and completing her goal of opening the shop of her dreams last September.
"I grew up Missionary Baptist and we went to church three times a week, and I knew as a young child I didn't fully agree with the things they were telling me, but that's just what you do growing up in the South," Davis said. "As an adult, I questioned everything in the spiritual world and I studied all different kinds of religions. ... I just kind of gave it all up. I always felt spiritual, but not religious. ... I've always been attracted to the unusual and unknown."
She said that as an adult she struggled with her spirituality for many years.
"The thought of having a store like this was always in the back of my mind, I was just always too afraid; 'What will my conservative family think?'" Davis said. "As I got into my 50s, I was like I feel like I need to live my life how I want to live it, and things just kind of fell into place, and here we are a year later."
She said her lengthy struggle was a result of how she was raised in the Protestant Baptist faith.
"I was indoctrinated into all these ideas that were true and you didn't question it," Davis said. "But I question everything; I always did, and I still question everything. My therapist has a saying that I absolutely love and it's 'I believe in the possibility of everything and the absoluteness of nothing.'"
If she could go back in time to tell her younger self one thing, Davis said she would simply tell herself to embrace who she is with all of her "wonderful weirdness and quirks," as well as stop worrying about what other people think.
"Keep doing what you're doing and study all the different things," Davis said. "If there's something you like about this aspect (of a religion), or if there's something you like about that aspect (of a religion); you don't have to necessarily choose one thing. There is a saying 'Take what you like and leave the rest,' and I kind of like that because you can make it your own spirituality. You don't have to follow necessarily what someone else is doing, you can make it your own, and that's kind of what I've done."
She noted that she thinks pulling from different religions to build spirituality has a sense of freedom and liberation.
"For me personally, I like to do candles and herbs together," Davis said, adding that she prefers solitary practice. "If I am trying to manifest something I put all my meditation onto what I want to manifest. ... Manifesting something is when you put all your focus on what you want to happen. ... Meditation and positive affirmations are important for me in manifesting ideas to come in fruition."
"There's a lot of people who grew up just like me, in a very traditional, religious family, and they weren't allowed to talk about or do anything what their families considered odd or unusual; and now that they're adults they can come in and kind of choose for themselves what they want to do."
The Parlour is located at 340 Ouachita Ave., Suite C.
To resolve common misconceptions when it comes to an uncommon store located in Arkansas -- no, Davis is not a witch, nor does she practice Wicca. However, she said The Parlour is a store for "anyone and everyone," whether you claim to be a witch, Wiccan or Christian; jokingly adding that anyone is welcome as long as they are wearing a precautions COVID-19 mask. Evens shoppers' dogs are welcome.
"On any given day you might walk into the shop and join in conversations about the spirit world, herbs and plants or even who has the best cheese dip in town," she said.
With the store's tagline being "Spooky New England meets the Primitive South," Davis said people come in for sheer curiosity and there are people who come into the shop in search of something specific.
"Some people who come are just drawn to the aesthetic," she said. "Southern Gothic, Victorian Gothic, Primitive Cottage styles all cohesively thrown together to create a magical feeling when you walk in. ... There's no claims that any of this will do specific things for anyone; I think people think it's fun and exciting to come in the shop and look at things."
Davis said the most common thing people come in the shop for is something to help "get rid of negativity."
"My goal for the shop (is) to create a space for unique retail as well as a place for learning," she said. "Pre-COVID we had classes, workshops and gatherings, including herbal cooking classes, crystal class, tarot classes and even had an astrologer come and do birth charts for people. We had a huge Samhain (Halloween) and winter solstice celebration and can't wait to start things back up again."
Currently, tarot readings are available on Saturdays, and a custom blending station for dried herbs and oils is soon to come.
"Friday Gladheart, who reads tarot here, is going to start doing custom blended herbs and oils for people," Davis said. "So if a person has a specific thing they want to manifest, she can guide you on how to do that. Certainly not do it for the person, but she can give you items to kind of aide to propel it and make it a stronger manifestation with herbs and oils."
Having opened The Parlour Sept. 3, she said she enjoys having a place in the South where people can come and talk about what they have never been able to talk about out loud before; things that they were always told were "evil."
"People have a misconception of paganism and things of the witch-nature, so offering them a place to come and get books on topics they would like to study really makes me feel good and to let them know its OK and to let them choose what they want to study," Davis said.
Upon initially opening, she said she thought it was going to be difficult run a shop of her kind in the south, but in reality people have been "so kind and lovely and they're so excited to have a place like this."
"I have to say, it's really been the best thing ever, that I've done," Davis said. "This place makes me so happy, and when people come in it makes them happy and that makes me even happier to see people love the store as much as I do. ... Lots and lots of research goes into the products that I carry. ... When I first started the shop I didn't really know what it was going to turn into, and then people would come in and I would ask them 'What do you want to see in here?' And I took all those suggestions and I think I've got a big variety now."
"I love my customers," she continued. "They're what keeps me going and open. When COVID first happened I thought my store wouldn't survive, and my customers kept it going. If it weren't for them I wouldn't be here."