By Robert Brune
DELHI — Walking into Aunt Jet’s Witchcraft and Art shop on Main Street in Delhi feels less like stepping into a store and more like crossing a threshold into another world. The air carries the earthy scent of dried herbs and incense, crystals shimmer softly in the afternoon light, and behind the counter sits Jet, artist, teacher, and lifelong practitioner of the craft, greeting customers with a warm, steady smile.
Jet, whose given name is Jeanette, has lived in Delhi for nearly thirty years. The name “Jet,” she explains with a laugh, comes from her younger brother who couldn’t pronounce “Jeanette” as a child, and it stuck. “I’ve been Jet since the early seventies,” she says. “It’s who I am.”
Born on Long Island and raised Roman Catholic, Jet says she was drawn to nature and ritual from her earliest years. “My mom used to say, ‘nature is my church,’” she recalls. “She was an herbal healer and taught me how to clear spaces and work with energy.” For Jet, witchcraft isn’t a religion unless one chooses to bring gods or goddesses into it. “It’s about using the energy that already exists in the natural world, in herbs, stones, and intention to create change.”
For more than two decades, Jet has been dedicated to the ancient goddess Hekate, a figure from Greco-Sicilian mythology who guards crossroads and guides travelers through the unknown. “She was the torchbearer,” Jet explains, “helping people make decisions and find their way. I like that, she’s a light in the dark.”
Teaching the Craft
After fifteen years, Jet is once again offering a full series of witchcraft classes. “It’s nine lessons,” she says. “I used to teach Wicca, but I don’t anymore — it felt too restrictive. Witchcraft, for me, is about discovering your own path.” Each class explores an aspect of the natural and symbolic world — colors, herbs, stones, moon phases, and the elements of earth, air, fire, and water. Students also learn to use pendulums and runes, to create sigils and charms, and to understand what’s real and what’s superstition.
“I want people to learn how to listen to themselves,” Jet says. “If you tell me red means sunset, that’s your truth. Magic works best when it’s personal.”
Her beginner series, priced at $75 for the full eight-week course, fills a growing need for genuine, hands-on instruction at a time when social media has flooded the public with misinformation. “There’s this trend online about blowing cinnamon powder across your doorway for prosperity,” she says. “That’s maybe five years old, it’s not traditional craft. My classes are about separating the real from the internet.”
A History of Misunderstanding
Jet’s path hasn’t always been easy. About fifteen years ago, she became the subject of local controversy when a nearby church publicly warned its congregation not to visit her store. “People came in whispering that their priest said I was a devil worshipper,” she recalls. “I’m not. There’s no devil in witchcraft.”
The stigma cut deep, but Jet turned it into opportunity. “It was actually great advertising,” she laughs. “People came in just to see what all the fuss was about. Once they met me, they realized how normal it all is.”
That period of misunderstanding still lingers as a reminder of how easily fear can replace curiosity. “People forget that witchcraft is rooted in honoring the earth,” she says. “It’s not about harm. It’s about balance.”
Her resilience echoes the stories of women from older generations, healers and wise women who carried herbal and spiritual traditions quietly through the centuries. In southern Italy, women once practiced folk magic and protective rites not unlike Jet’s, acts of strength and independence that helped them navigate a world that often misunderstood them. Like those women, Jet continues that lineage of quiet power, rooted in compassion and courage.
A Modern Coven
Jet’s spiritual circle, or coven, has been together for over twenty years. “We’re sisters,” she says softly. “There’s no hierarchy — no high priestess or high priest. Everyone brings their own strengths. We’ve lost one sister recently, so we’re four now, but we’ve stayed close”.
Each year, the group celebrates Samhain, the Celtic word for Halloween, pronounced sow-in, a time to honor ancestors and mark the end of the harvest. “It’s when we say goodbye to summer,” she explains. “The darkness comes, and we prepare for winter. It’s about gratitude, reflection, and respect for those who came before”.
The Heart of the Shop
Despite the mystical atmosphere, Aunt Jet’s store is a remarkably welcoming place. Paintings inspired by forests and moonlight line the walls; shelves display gemstones, herbs, and handmade candles. Jet herself offers henna art, psychic readings, and her own paintings — much of it inspired by nature and the changing seasons.
“I do this because it’s who I am,” she says. “I’ve got all this knowledge sitting between my shoulders. I might as well share it.”
That sharing, the teaching, the patience, the willingness to answer questions is perhaps what makes Aunt Jet’s shop such a treasure in Delhi. It’s a place where myth meets mindfulness, where curiosity replaces fear, and where Halloween isn’t about fright, but about connection to nature, to history, and to one another.
Before leaving, Jet pauses to smile at a young woman admiring a row of pendulums. “They’re not magic until you make them so,” she says gently. “It’s your energy that does the work.”
This Halloween season, visitors can find Aunt Jet’s (Wicked Good Magick) at 68 1/2 Main Street in Delhi, a cozy, candle-lit space where ancient wisdom meets small-town warmth, and where a friendly witch invites everyone to discover the magic within themselves.
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