Editor’s note: This is the third of a series of five stories naming winners of the 2022 Authenti-CITY awards given by the City of Covington to mark National Economic Development Week.
Coil from Hierophany & Hedge, at 19 W. Pike St. Hours are updated daily. (Photo from City of Covington)
Never in Covington’s 200-year history (not that we know of, anyway), has a local business thanked the City for “taking arcane civil defense against malign sorcery seriously.”
In full disclosure, we were completely unaware of the protective powers of the Solomon’s Seal and Cinquefoil we placed in the planters along Pike Street. But Hierophany & Hedge’s proprietors, Augur and Coil, see magic where the rest of us see the mundane. It’s one of the many things we love about them.
Coil, left, and Augur (Photo from City of Covington)
As for the other reasons, well…
When weary of the vagaries of this world, Hierophany & Hedge offers otherworldly charm, eloquence, magic, and a sense of style and bespoke accouterment.
Beyond its sophisticated façade, this little shop is a veritable portal to another place and time, where wizards, witchery, and magic prevail. Its shelves are an apothecary of herbs, talismans, wands, crystals, candles, chalk sigils, and books of spells. And its Facebook page is creative beyond measure.
Its Old World aesthetic belies its youth: the shop celebrated its first anniversary in The Cov in April. How quickly we were smitten. And, it seems, so are they.
Augur and Coil said they chose The Cov because the city “thrums with supernatural energy.”
But that’s not all:
Wands are a Hierophany & Hedge specialty (Photo from City of Covington)
“Surveilled by the great catfish at the roots of the Roebling, guarded by the spirits of the Mutter Gottes lions, and only lightly menaced by the country’s largest colony of Oubliettes, a magic shop couldn’t exist in a more perfect spot,” Augur said. “The decision to locate our magic shop in Covington was thus less a choice for us, than an inevitability.”
(And we love their way with words).
They just plain get us, here in The Cov:
“Covington is a community that realizes the health of a modern city is not measured in cold statistics like the density of fast-food eateries, but in the existence of a unique culture that provides a spirit of place,” Coil explained. “America and the world are increasingly flat places in which cultural homogeneity is the norm. Covington stands out by celebrating the unique and embracing the authentic.”
Bottom line: Hierophany & Hedge encourages us to find our own magic. What a siren song. We’re entirely under their spell.
Augur, left, and Coil accepted the Authenti-CITY Award on Monday from Mayor Joe Meyer at Covington Yard. (Photo from City of Covington)
The first-annual Authenti-CITY awards were unveiled by Covington’s fun and irreverent Economic Development team in 2021 to celebrate National Economic Development Week in an off-the-wall way.
There were no rules and no criteria – just staffers getting together after hours (maybe over a few drinks, maybe not) and debating fiercely about what businesses, places, events, people and organizations most “kept it real” in The Cov. The fervor had to do with this: Narrowing down the massive list (because, you know, Covington is such a cool place).
City of Covington
