According to Vice, the lower floor of the Ace of Cups, which is named after a tarot card, sells food and drinks along with witchcraft tools such as crystals and magic wands. The upper floor is where customers to go to meet with witches and sorcerers.
“You can hire us to cast a spell for you. You should talk to us about what you want and we'll offer you possible choices,” says owner Wine Kongsorn who claims he opened the café to unite the community of Wiccans in Bangkok.
“For a long time, the community of Wiccans had no place to get together in Bangkok," he said. "We needed a place to meet and perform rituals. We thought a cafe would be perfect to create community but it took us five or six years to make it happen.”
In Thailand, witchcraft is a kind of native religion and is very acceptable to the primarily Buddhist population of which only 1.2 percent are Christian.
Kongsorn’s café caters to customers in search of everything from love spells to hexes and even offers exorcisms to those in need.
“We have several ways to draw an evil spirit out. We start with sound therapy like tuning forks and singing bowls and move on to using fire,” he said.
Kongsorn says customers are rarely in search of “strong sorcery” such as curse-lifting and exorcism but are generally interested in having their fortunes read or having spells woven for their love interests. The Thai people generally go to Buddhist monks for help with bigger problems such as hauntings and possessions.
The cafe also offers some bizarre "services" such as a doll that houses an aborted fetus who supposedly can predict lottery numbers. Described as “illegal” by the Vice reporter, use of the doll costs up to $2,000.
About 60 percent of the Café’s customers know what they’re after when they frequent the establishment, but 40 percent come in just out of curiosity.
“A lot of people hear about us, come in, and want a spell, but we need to have a little discussion first. I can't perform a spell that's against my morals or ethics, like money or lottery spells. That's messing with destiny. If we were to make you super-lucky, or give you something that doesn't belong to you, the universe would take payback in some way,” Kongsorn said.
We can only hope the Ace of Cups Café doesn’t become a global restaurant chain!
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