At a typical Moon, Serpent & Bone night market, one can expect to see fire-eaters, snake charmers, and stilt-walkers. Bones and crystals decorate rows of vendors’ tables and tarot readers are ready to tell curious guests’ fortunes. Walking into one of the night markets is like entering an otherworldly plane. Now, Moon, Serpent & Bone pioneer Amy C. Wilson is ready to cement her legacy with a brick and mortar cafe.
Wilson started Moon, Serpent & Bone with a vision to craft a space for what she calls “fringe folk,” or people drawn to the occult. After seven years of her annual summer solstice festivals, she’s setting up a cafe in Beacon for spiritual people to socialize and relax in like-minded people’s company, where they can breathe a breath of fresh air in a place built just for them.
Alternative spirituality is having a big moment right now. More and more people seem attracted to the mystical, searching for some sort of guidance during a tumultuous time. By creating the Moon, Serpent & Bone Shop and Cafe, she’s creating a space for the community she helped establish.“There’s a hypersaturation in the oddities and curiosities markets in the Hudson Valley. It started with me being just one, and then last October, there were 13,” Wilson says. “Over the years, doing the markets, the community has really grown and people have found each other.” (Read our profile of Curio Cabinet of the Hudson Valley.)
Wilson was raised in the world of magic. Her father was a psychic medium, and in 1992, she moved to New York City and worked at an occult shop. “I was asked to read tarot, and I had never read tarot before,” she says about her time at the occult shop. “When I read the cards, the woman immediately hired me.”
Since then, she’s been involved in the witchcraft business, starting the first occult night market in the Hudson Valley and taking over the candle magic business Otherworldly Waxes.
Moon, Serpent & Bone has a one-of-a-kind business plan: it is a cafe, a witchcraft store, an art gallery, and an event venue all at once. Cuban art from her life partner’s gallery, Changolife Arts, will be on display in the cafe. Wilson plans to host both public and private events, like free reiki readings and cult-themed movie screenings on Sundays.
Related
ChangoLife Arts Provides a Platform for Cuban Artists
Products for sale in the cafe range from taxidermied objects, bones, perfumes, books, antiques, and vintage clothing. The selection will be carefully curated, just like all of her vendors at the Moon, Serpent & Bone night markets.
“[The cafe] was always floating around in the back of my head. It was just finding the proper resources and motivation, and I feel like this past year with the market, it pushed me in this direction,” Wilson says.
Wilson believes everyone has an innate psychic ability within them, and that all they have to do is awaken it. To encourage that, Wilson will also host spiritual classes through Moon, Serpent & Bone, like psychic development classes and paranormal education lessons.
Although Wilson is pivoting to a more permanent location, she’s not abandoning her night markets or pop-up events either. This June, she’s hosting the Strawberry Moon Magickal Market on June 14 in Beacon, the Summer Solstice Night Market on June 20 in Wappingers Falls, and the Illumination Night Market on June 27 at Bad Seed Hard Cider Tap Room in Highland.
The Moon, Serpent & Bone Shop and Cafe had its grand opening on June 13. It’s located on the third floor of the KuBe Arts Center in Beacon, in room 308.
[location-1]
