This Mabon, September 22nd, marks not only the Autumn Equinox and the turning of the wheel, but also marks the 6th year since we debuted the www.whitemagickalchemy.com online shop. But it didn’t start there. I was 29 years old when I took pretty much the last $600.00 I had to my name to create what today, 23 years later, is White Magick Alchemy.

It all began back in the early 90’s. I was the VP of a large software company in San Francisco. Sick of the commute, $25.00 a day parking, fancy coffee drinks, snagged nylons and a picking up my finely pressed business suits from the cleaners weekly, I basically decided one day to up and quit my job. Yeah, crazy right? I started dabbling with EO’s and FO’s, blending and manufacturing perfume oils, lotions, soap, bath and body products for what was to become my first company Purple Sun Body & Bath Essence. It was a wholesale business that did fairly well. I remember back in those days I was cold-calling gift shops and setting up appointments to intro my new perfume and body care lines in hopes that they would want to sell my products in their shops. It wasn’t easy and times were tough. Sometimes I would offer consignment terms just to get my stuff on their shelves. Then one day, one of my girlfriends said “Hey! You’re doing all these amazing cool fragrances, why don’t you add candles.” And the rest is history.

Within 6 months I had started a candle company and re-named my business Purple Sun Candle Company. Before I knew it, I had a rep company based out of SF that that fell in love with my new candle lines and literally propelled the Purple Sun brand off into space like a fricken rocket! I’m not even kidding. But back then, there weren’t even many candle companies around. By the grace of the goddess and a lot of hard work, we went from living in a small rental on the outskirts of town, to owning our very own home.

I opened The Candle Factory in Petaluma California where we not only manufactured all of our candles, but I had this gorgeous retail shop in the front of the building that was packed full of beautiful candles and accessories of all kinds. I even had a little witchcraft area where you could find my spell candles as well as just about every figural candle you could think of. Little Miss. Sydni was my shadow back then, and came with me to work on the weekends and all during the summers when she was out of school. She’d wick up molds, pack the candles into boxes, and make stick figures of Frank Sinatra and Keith Urban out of the all-natural packing foam. Years later she would become one of my greatest assets, and together, we ran the company side by side.

Back then we did a lot of private label manufacturing and we made all of the figural spell candles for Lucky Mojo Curio Company, one of the worlds most loved shops for Hoodoo offerings. Love miss cat to this day. She actually taught me how to set up tag words when I opened my first online shop in 2002 because I didn’t have a clue as to how this whole internet thing worked. Years later, we would stand together as the copycats came and raped us of our original business concepts and uniquely designed spiritual offerings, using our online businesses as templates to build similar websites.

It was back in 2002 when I debuted my first initial online website which featured all of the candles we had been making. My customer list included major department stores like Nordstrom, Bloomingdales and Pier One Imports, natural food markets which included Whole Foods Markets and Andronicos, and every spiritual new age shop and brick and mortar shop that wanted to carry my all-natural additive free candles. Just writing about it now takes me back to that place in time. I was such a young wild free spirit, the kids were all little, life was different back then. I was multi-tasking like a well oiled machine. Dropping the kids at school, cooking meals, cleaning the house, working at building my business, and playing in a rock and roll band all at the same time.

Then one afternoon in 2006, I was chatting with a customer at The Candle Factory and she told me about Etsy. It was June 2006 that the White Magick Shoppe opened on Etsy, the very first spiritual supply shop that offered handmade ritual spell candles, oils, handmade jewelry, spell kits and everything in between. In 2007 I changed the name to White Magick Alchemy and closed The Candle Factory 2 years later. We were full sail on Etsy and I will honestly say, it was so much fun! In the beginning.

As Etsy began to grow, more and more shops opened, some using White Magick Alchemy as a template to build their witchcraft shops. Then came the copycat stalker woman from Etsy, who created a mimic witchcraft shop of White Magick Alchemy filled with knock-offs of practically every product I had ever created. Obsessed with me and White Magick Alchemy, whenever I created and listed a new unique product offering or a new candle, she would look at that product and within a hour, she had a knock off with the same name listed on Etsy in her shop. I had to retain legal counsel to deal with this woman and trademarked the majority of my trade names to protect what I had worked so very hard to build. Etsy was a huge disappointment as they condoned the copying, they condoned the trademark infringement, and they condoned the stalking. And as more and more sellers flocked to Etsy, the more I wanted out of and away from the never ending Etsy drama. While it was a wonderful venue to debut and build the White Magick Alchemy brand, I knew my time would be limited there. So, Etsy slapped me on the hand once. I changed everything around to suit their needs. They slapped me on the hand a second time and in that moment, I was done. No way was I going to allow another corporation to have any power over White Magick Alchemy. That’s when I built the www.whitemagickalchemy.com website. And it opened to the pubic on Mabon, September 23, 2011. So, in essence, Mabon marks yet another milestone for Purple Sun Candle Company and White Magick Alchemy. And on this day, I celebrate the fruits of 23 years of labor. And after 23 years of building and sustaining this magical business, I truly am in such a happy place right now.

On this beautiful Mabon morning I would like to take a moment here to just say thank you to all of our amazing customers who have followed White Magick Alchemy throughout the years. For without you, we wouldn’t exist. Each and every one of you are what keeps me plugging away at what I do, and I feel so blessed that you have joined me on this most magical life journey. You are the sacred flame that keeps White Magick Alchemy alive. Again, with love and gratitude, thank you.

Mabon Blessings,
Nancy xo