Be Hip and Get Your Aura Photographed in Chinatown

By Kate Fustich

Sad to say, but the time has come for you to ditch your harem pants-wearing fake-Buddhist friend for the real deal. Rather than relying on comments like “Your aura is a really aggressively yellow today,” you should head to Chinatown, where a tiny one-of-a-kind boutique called Magic Jewelry will photograph your aura for you.

Located at 238 Canal Street and surrounded by racks of “I ♥ NY” t-shirts and Statue of Liberty foam headbands from neighboring merchants, the tucked-away storefront is easy to walk past. Inside, you instantly escape the hectic clutter of Chinatown into a tiny fantasy world. Though small, the shop itself is full of neatly organized crystals and totems. The walls are plentiful with Zodiac posters, half in English, half in Chinese.

You will be greeted by one of the chirpy staff, but don’t worry, you’re not the first 20-something to wander in there. There will probably be at least two others leaning against the counter, giggling together about their aura-related revelations while a saleswoman tries to sell them shards of Obsidian.

For a fee of $20 (cash or credit) an employee begins the process, escorting customer to a set-up that looks a bit like school picture day, only the camera looks like a clunky prop from a 1912 period drama. Sit down on a squat plastic stool and you will be instructed to rest your palms two metallic impressions of hands, with diodes running up and down the fingers. You will also be assured that you won’t be electrocuted (a legitimate concern).

Following a countdown too quick for a customer to put on a photogenic face, the camera snaps a picture, and a print will eventually pop out of the camera, Polaroid style.

While it develops, customers are offered some bitter green tea in a Dixie Cup. Your photographer will tape the picture to a cardstock frame and make a few quick notations around the edges.

Finally, you will be granted the privilege of seeing your aura. Most likely it will be a somewhat unflattering and grainy picture of you surrounded by a colorful cloud. Don’t fret! Think of it as a Beck album cover, or something.

Included in your $20 fee is a detailed explanation of your aura. Your photographer will roll up her sleeves and use the end of a pen as a pointer to direct you across the landscape of your soul. Energy is cyclical, she says. In the photo, the arc of the energies observed represent the past week, the present moment, and the upcoming week.

Whether or not you are the type to place value in the spiritual or supernatural, it’s hard to deny this impressive micro-lecture on energy, chakras and your spirit. There is a sprinkling of sweeping generalizations mixed in with plenty of seemingly individualized analysis. For some, it’s not always a positive experience. After all, you’re probably more likely to overhear someone being warned about future emotional strife than the likelihood they will meet their soulmate in the upcoming days.

After 15 minutes of introspection featuring charts, theories, and a refill of tea, you will be encouraged to come back in two weeks for an entirely new reading. Customers leave Magic Jewelry thinking about the good chuckle they had and perhaps a quality Instagram picture, and might even feel oddly connected to the universe and to yourself. Don’t worry, it only takes about a week for that energy to cycle back to skepticism.

[Images via Yelp and the author]