A Witch's Guide to Budget Shopping: Manila

It was stormy when we reached Manila. After a grueling 6 hours of delay in the flight, the aircraft landed smoothly even though its near zero visibility on the runway. We also have to endure the damp travel to our hotel in Quezon City. There are a lot of things that we want to do in the capital, the most important thing that we wanna do though, is to buy supplies for our witchy stuffs. So in this guide, I will try to recall as much as I can the places where a budget conscious witch like me could buy things at a lower price. 

First stop is Binondo. The city offers not just tasty food that could satisfy the palate, but it also offers a wide variety of crystals and herbs. You need to look for stuff that you dont normally find elsewhere. They have ginseng and other charms and trinkets that they can cleanse and bless for you. The shops in Binondo are not very budget friendly though and you could get some of the items they offer at a lower price elsewhere. We went to this famous shop in Binondo called Dragon Phoenix and the prices of crystals start at around PHP 500.00 up.

If you want to buy Philippine made masks, sculpture replicas and my personal favorite- a nicely hand made journals, The Manila Collectibles is the place to go. They offer a wide variety of Philippine items like T'nalak, Urns, hand made curious and artworks. The prices in this shop ranges from PHP 500.00 up. 

Our next stop is the Philippines' own Diagon Alley where people could buy supplies like wax dolls, black candles, oils, and herbs. Welcome to Quiapo. 

This place almost has everything. We started our tour by buying wax effigies at 20 pesos each. We had to ask for the wholesale price since we bought a lot of pairs. They are selling both man and woman candles in black and red. Candle effigies are best used for spells for control. One knowledgeable could use this to affect decisions, alter emotions and banishing or healing. 

Quiapo also sells black candles, but for this one, you need to be very careful. We had an experience where the lady sold us a candle for three times the price, all because the candle has black wick. Regarding stones, there are stones that are not really that expensive and are only PHP 50.00 up. However, some stalls would sell stones at a very expensive price. 

This place is also an LNK practitioner's heaven. You could find a lot of oils, amulets and libretas here. A word of caution though, some sellers would really milk money from customers. You could also find stingray's tail, dried seahorse, snake oils, potions for menstruation, coconuts with "one eye" and most items that a Filipino Kabbalist/Ceremonial magician can use in rites. You can also find herbs like mugwort, dill, cinnamon wood, crosses and other stuff.

The final stop in our budget shopping and by far has the most intensive collection of stones and crystals is NHS or Natural Healing Stones in Merville Park, Parañaque. The house is a lavish looking and is very serene once you are inside. I think the house also offers venue for seminars, lectures and meditations. They have a lot of stones which are, thankfully both affordable and expensive. You can find tumbled stones for as low as PHP 50.00 up. They have a collection of hard to get crystals imported abroad. I even saw some crystals that I only saw online. 

There are still a lot of places that one can get supplies in

Manila and I am just speaking from my own travels and experiences. This will be the first of a set of shopping guides that I will publish based from my interaction with practitioners around the country. For now, let's end it here.

-photos from the internet-