Melissa Lockwood


	You may think we're crazy, but we sure have alot of fun!

Melissa Lockwood has been well known in Houston for being the proprietess of Ruby Rabbit, Gift of Enchantnments, a metaphysical store that used to be in West Houston. Her store was filled with the coolest rocks, books, and PEOPLE, and often, folks would just come in to hang out because the atmosphere was so mellow. This is due to the good vibrations of welcoming and beauteous owner Melissa, an experienced metaphysician.
Melissa has always been a witch a la Samantha of "Bewitched" fame. Classy, model-like, intelligent and fun, she even has an executive spouse named Tom, who nonetheless has got it together more than the hapless Darrin!

Melissa is a medium who Often sees your spirit guides and angels and sometimes even your long departed relatives. Although she reads tarot, she doesn't really need them to give you a deep and personal message. However, she does make a living as a gifted reader, but it's her lovely energy that is healing us of any doubts.

The elegant Melissa is at heart a Southern belle, well read, with perfect manners and an easy touch. She is naturally artistic, an influence which you can see all over her home, and I think she always draws around her ghosts and other trappings of her past lives as an Amazon priestess. If you give her a call, you will feel warmed by her charm and mesmerized by her deep and unusual gift of mediumship. You can call her for a tarot read at 832-640-8666. She won't mind!

The Witching Hour
from the Houston Press
By Lauren Kern
(Published on February 11, 1999)
Sabrina might be following in the nice-witch broom-wake of Samantha from the smash '60s sitcom Bewitched, but most supernatural shows of late are a little more rebellious. Think naughty Nicole Kidman in Practical Magic, the spell-casting sidekick Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, wicked Shannen Doherty in her post-90210 vehicle Charmed, and, queen of all covens, the very angry Fairuza "We are the weirdos, mister" Balk in The Craft. These are edgy, hip, midriff-baring, miniskirt-wearing witches with attitude. They're teen idols.

So what's the progressive, turn-of-the-century parent of a wannabe-witch to do? Take the troubled teen to a "safe and simple" afterschool group at Ruby Rabbit Enchantments. More self-help than scary, The Magic Hour for Teens won't have them doing drugs and dressing Goth. In fact, recommended reading such as Silver Ravenwolf's Teen Witch: Wicca for a New Generation explains that "wearing black clothing and lots of gaudy jewelry and threatening people with the silly nonsense of cursing them puts you far away from the path of the real Wiccan."

Instead, this small but spunky crew fills in mimeographed worksheets, looks for "everyday miracles," repeats such affirmations as "I have lots of money" and "I have perfect health" and studies the occult sciences of astrology, numerology, tarot, runes, meditation, chakras and feng shui....

Foster and Ruby Rabbit owner Melissa Lockwood started the group because when they were growing up they could find only negative books about the Salem witch trials and because they realize teens are intrigued by movies like The Craft. "We wanted to do something positive for kids," says Lockwood. And it seems to be working. These teens have good, solid heads (with pointy hats) on their shoulders.

Oh, sure, these junior high girls (and the lone boy) know that with practice they could accomplish the dramatic feats of levitation and hair-color transformation performed in the movies, but they are practical about their magic indeed. "Why would she want to?" asks Robin Williams of her friend Sterling Lockwood's potential powers for frivolity. With a wisdom beyond her 12 years of age, Sterling (Melissa's youngest daughter) explains that she only casts spells on people who ask her for it and who she deems needy of her intervention: "If somebody was dying in a hospital, I'd try to do a healing spell."

Sterling has apparently convinced her West Houston Charter School classmates of her good-natured reserve as well. Once they called her "evil" -- an insult to which she would reply sadistically, "I'll turn you into a newt." (She got this idea not from magic class but from an old Monty Python movie.) But these days her friends are starting to sniff around her mom's suburban store and even sign up for the class. And Sterling has earned a new schoolyard nickname: Glenda the Good Witch.