Louvel Delon
Written by: Jada Jackson
Edited by: Laurence Almalvez
The shelves in the Occult Bookstore are stuffed with collections of books on Paganism, Magick and Zen Buddhism. Beyond the shelves, wooden tables are filled with plates of crystals and precious stones. Behind the counter, store owner Louvel Delon stands in front of an array of Mason jars filled with herbs and elixir mixers that go along with spiritual rituals.
Delon describes his first occurrences with the Occult Bookstore as something close to a cosmic coincidence.
“I felt like it just popped out of the universe,” he says. “It was just there for me.”
He hung out in the neighborhood as a teenager but never noticed the bookstore until one evening when it caught his attention and he ventured inside. Each step into the bookstore fueled his curiosity; he began looking through the plethora of books, which lured him to return to the store throughout that week. Delon’s visits caught the eye of the store owner, who asked him if he wanted a job at the store. From that day forward, Delon was on a path to become the owner of the Occult Bookstore, now located on North Milwaukee Avenue.
As the owner of an occult-focused bookstore, he communicates some of his life experiences and guides people who are going through unexplainable spiritual experiences.
Delon says customers often come into the store and tell him things like, “If I went and talked to my mom, or went and talked to whoever, they would just say, ‘Oh, you got the devil in you’ or ‘You're crazy’ or you're this or you're that.” The bookstore serves a purpose, he says, in helping those people.
First-time visitor Shartata Mitchell shopped at the Occult Bookstore alongside her fiance, who had brought it to her attention. She said she was amazed by the store’s energy and overjoyed to see that the owner was a person of color.
“Seeing someone that looks like me, of color, running a place like this was refreshing, so it [was like] I’m not the only one,” Mitchell says.
She added that she enjoyed how Delon didn’t pressure her to buy anything; instead, he simply guided her to items that fit with her spiritual interests. From his guidance, she decided to purchase a divination pendulum, which is a device that can be used to answer questions, oftentimes with a pendant that swings from a string.
“It helps you talk to your higher self. It's not spirits that you’re talking to—it’s actually your higher self. There’s a lot of things we [subconsciously] know but we just don’t know how to tap into it,” Mitchell says.
Delon says the store’s mission is to be a resource for people who want to learn about the ancient wisdoms of occult studies.
“A lot of people think books are on the way out. [But to me,] they are more like albums. They are this recorder that holds memories, craftsmanship, magic, the occult,” Delon says. “We are a portal to that land, so I want that land to be opened for another hundred years.”
Delon had a strict Southern Baptist upbringing, which motivated him to seek the path of alternative philosophies.
"Seeing someone that looks like me, of color, running a place like this was refreshing"
“Very early on, even in Sunday school, I was asking a question, ‘What about people in China? What if they've never experienced the Christian God? Are you going to say they're going to go to hell?’” he recalls.
“And that question puzzled me. [What if] you haven’t had exposure to any particular deity because it's not from your culture? How can they be cursed?”
That led him to filter out some of his mother’s teachings and develop his own sense of spirituality instead.
“I was able to look at the root of what she wanted me to know and not get caught up in the dogma,” Delon says.
Delon sounds like a teacher when he describes the Latin root of the word “occultus,” which means “to be hidden from sight.”
“Occultism is not some big bad boogie word. It just means understanding the non-plain meanings of these religious texts, these practices and even our lives,” Delon says.
Delon, who has a multicultural background, studies many versions of the occult, including Haitian Voodoo, Gnostics theology and Scandinavian magic, among other beliefs that fit in with his ancestral background. He uses the occult as a frame of reference to analyze the hidden influences behind everything, whether it be solar, psychological, mental, or spiritual. More specifically, he uses the Chinese philosophy Wu Wei under Taoism, which literally means “not-doing,” as a lens for his moral outlook.
While considering moral choices and conduct, Delon is thoughtful.
“There is balance, there is natural, ecological balance in the world, and if you aim for that you don't have to worry about the moral of something,” he says. “So for me, rather than having to always go back to the rule book and figure out if I've done something wrong, I sit in a place of balance equipoise and naturalness.”
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Photos by: Rifdi Bin Rosly
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