Hippies abound at Earthly Awakenings
An aroma of burning incense greets customers of Earthly Awakenings, a small shop located across the street from Cafe Ibis at 21 Federal Avenue. The store has a merchandise selection ranging from jewelry, oils and crystals to a variety of tobacco supplies.
Covering the wall behind the checkout counter are Polaroid pictures of customers’ dogs.
“We are a dog-friendly establishment,” said Kari Scott, an Earthly Awakenings employee. “We have had small dogs come in and even Great Danes. They get treats and if (the owner) is in, we take their pictures and put them up,” she said.
Owner Marlene Hansen, a Cache Valley native, said she opened the store more than 16 years ago. She said she had always wanted to own a store like Earthly Awakenings, so she just did it. She loves her job and the customers she deals with daily.
“I love the fun, different people that come in,” Hansen said. “All of my customers are so different. I get people from all walks of life in here.”
She said the most popular item they sell is tobacco, but they have many other products including tie-dye and leather clothing, oils, incense and herbs.
“I couldn’t really make it on tobacco alone,” Hansen said. She explained she orders most of the merchandise from other stores and the shop is much more than just tobacco and its byproducts.
“A fun thing about working here is every time a shipment comes in it is like Christmas. What are we going to get this time?” Scott said.
Hansen said many of her customers, but not all of them, use the oils, incense and herbs for a spiritual purpose.
According to crystalandgemstones.com, certain oils and gemstones contain qualities associated with chakras in the body. One gemstone, bloodstone, is associated with the heart chakra: love, healing, courage and strength.
Scott said incense is used for varying purposes depending on the person burning the fragrant sticks. She said incense has more than 1,000 years of burning history and some customers use it to make their homes and cars smell better, but others use it for services and ceremonies.
“Different people use it for different purposes,” she said.
Carrie Miller, a senior in secondary English education, said she did not like the smell of incense until she visited Eastern Asia and fell in love with the smell of sandalwood.
“I just associate it with really great memories,” Miller said.
She said during her visit to Cambodia, South Eastern China and Thailand she experienced a lot of cultural incense burning.
“We went to Angkor Wat in Cambodia and spent most of our time there,” she said. “It’s a complex of temples where people still take offering so they burn incense all over them.”
Miller said she would probably burn more incense now if other people enjoyed the smell as much as she does.
Scott said she owns many of the stones the store offers and likes them all.
“They’re all so different and have many reasons and purposes,” she said. “The Native Americans believe the stones are the wisdom keepers because they were here first. We’re all made up of the same stuff essentially.”
She explained everything is composed of vibration and light.
“Just like every human being has a different vibration, so do all the different stones based on the color or their crystalline makeup,” she said.
She said she does not know how the descriptions of stone and oil benefits came about, but that because so many different authors have reached the same conclusions, it is up to the individuals using the oils or stones to test it for themselves.
“Everybody is different so everyone is going to experience some different effect,” Scott said.
Aside from incense and stones, the store also has a selection of herbs and spices, which Scott said could be used to make tea, cooked or burned as incense.
She said they have many enlivening kinds of oils, but lavender is good for relaxation. Many customers use the oils for medicinal purposes, she said.
Scott said people use eucalyptus oil to calm respiratory problems because of the vapor that comes from the essential oil. She explained using natural products could be a purer form of curing or improving health ailments.
Customers can also find a selection of clothing in the back of the store.
Braden Felix, a sophomore in engineering, bought Mukluks from Earthly Awakenings. He said they are similar to Eskimo shoes: socks made of thick yarn with leather bottoms.
Felix said there is a section of the store with USU T-shirts and anti-BYU T-shirts. He said the store had a hippie vibe and that many of the people in the store were different from him.
Scott, a Washington state native, said she likes her job at Earthly Awakenings and the store should not really be called a smoke shop, but is known more as a hippie or spiritual store by customers. She said it has an alternative appeal.
“I call it sanctuary. It is the only place in Cache Valley that you can find these things,” she said.
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