Married business partners Gem and Glenn Hotvet are arguably best known locally as the mad scientists behind K23 — the psychedelically inclined DIY music venue they launched in 2014.
Named after a mystical scent Tom Robbins conjured in his 1984 novel Jitterbug Perfume, that project extended beyond the confines of their compact midtown space to the tune of memorable events such as the Psych del Rio festival at the Arneson River Theatre and the Astral Projection concert series at the Scobee Education Center & Planetarium.
"Music is my first and truest love," Gem Hotvet said of the K23 years. "Hosting Gary Wilson was a dream come true. The Planetarium? Mind-blowing. It was a mind blow that they said yes to the meeting, much less letting me do my scumbaggery there."
After three successful years, the duo shelved K23 in 2017 to focus on other endeavors.
"We kind of realized there's not really a lot of money in art and music in San Antonio — not the way I wanted to do it," Gem explained.
Upon weighing their options, the Hotvets decided to take a gamble on a retail concept built around Gem's longstanding interest in the occult. Inspired by travels and visits to "woo-woo" shops in New Orleans and beyond, the couple began plotting their own foray into the genre. Delayed slightly by the dire retail landscape of the pandemic, their Déjà Vu Esoterica opened its doors in October of last year in a lovingly restored 1920s-era house in Southtown.
Witchy but entirely approachable, Déjà Vu offers a unique hybrid that encompasses metaphysical wares, tarot readings and handcrafted works by local artists — including jewelry by Andrea Sepulveda, runes and foraged bone assemblages by Sage Cove, ceramics by Elyse Cano, woven altar cloths by Josh Yurcheshen and flight-ready brooms by Sisterwolf.
Expanding on the shop's welcoming vibe, Déjà Vu also hosts First Friday gatherings with readings and aura photography, and social nights at nearby watering hole Lowcountry.
"My real goal is to make opportunities for people to connect," Gem said of the shop's social programming. "A lot of people the first few months, when they would come in, it just felt like they wanted friends. I'm blessed to have a wonderful group of friends around me that all have their different interests and talents — but we all have this common thread. So, I just wanted to open that up so that more people could find their friends."
We recently caught up with Gem Hotvet via Zoom to chat about all things Déjà Vu — from candle magic and the life lessons of the tarot to Instagram scammers and a mysterious "haunted artifact" on display in the shop.
When did you become interested in the occult?
When I was in fifth grade, we were assigned this book called The Egypt Game. It was a murder mystery, and I honestly don't remember how it ended. What I remember is that these children were sneaking into the back of a junk shop and making offerings to this bust of Nefertiti. When I read it, something went off in my mind. So, I became extremely interested early in life. With Satanic Panic and whatnot going on, there was a lot that I did not have access to as a kid. But as a teen, my sister and I would go to Crystal Forest across from Ingram Park Mall. I got my first tarot deck there, started working with pendulums and hanging out with animists when I was 18, and went to my first sweat lodge. I just started opening my mind to what the potentials and possibilities are.
How did the idea for Déjà Vu Esoterica come about?
Well, Glenn and I got married 10 years ago. And during our honeymoon in New Orleans, we went to these little shops that are just cute as shit. With the experience that we both have, [we figured] a store would be totally doable for us one day. So, it just started off as a pipe dream. ... We looked at the experiences from our travels. Because every time I travel, I'm gonna go find a little woo-woo shop to pop into. I've been to shops all over the country — East Coast, West Coast, middle of the country, all over. So, it just seemed like something that I had the requisite experience for.
How has the response been so far?
The response has been good, but I'm also from here. San Antonio is a tough nut to crack. But I think [it helps] when you're from here and you know the people and you understand the spirit of this area. My spiritual practice is working with the Virgin of Guadalupe. She is the land, she is the birds in the air, she is the water in the river, she's everything. ... When you're working with the land and being respectful of the fact that 27 25 community goes down to the little bugs on the ground, it seems like it's all going to flow.
Your website mentions an inclusive selection of products. How do you balance the offerings out?
I started out heavy in the areas that I have experience in — I'm deep into candle magic. I've been doing that since I was a kid and tarot since I was a teenager, but really strongly for the past seven or eight years. As far as herbs and incense and stuff, I've just brought in the things that I know I use. And as people come in, I ask them, "What's your practice? What are you into? What's drawing you here?" And if they ask for special things, I bring in special things. My approach is 100% about providing for community — because you can buy anything on the internet.
What do you sell the most of?
People love the tumbles, honey. Everybody collects rocks, even if you don't believe that they do anything mystical. They're still super cool. Little kids come in and we have this nine-foot-long thing of tumbles and it's all different kinds of stones. The little kids light up. It's so delightful to see them having a good time. We're doing really well with the body oils, bath salts, candles. Just stuff for witches.
Let's talk about the divination services. Who's doing the readings?
The first little while I was doing all the readings. I am very happy to have people helping me now. I've got a big group of friends who are all readers. The first reader that I brought on was not a personal acquaintance, just a dude that comes into the shop. He's a delight. He's an architectural historian named Nicholas Fuqua. ... But I just let people email me and if they seem cool, then we can meet up. And if they give me a good reading, we can talk about them coming on. Have you ever had a reading done?
I have not. However, I did receive some pushy messages from one of your Instagram scammers wanting to sell me a reading.
Yeah, they duped my whole account. I follow lots of metaphysical accounts so I'm well aware that this is what they do. They steal all your photos. They follow people. ... But when you follow them, they message you because then they have the door straight open to your DMs. This is a huge, prevalent problem across Instagram that they're doing nothing about. ... And [the scammers] don't ever read for you. They just block you the minute they have your money.
What would you say to someone who discredits divination as mumbo jumbo?
Divination is never going to tell you anything that you don't know — I'm not that kind of reader. Honey, if I could pick lottery numbers, I wouldn't be doing this. [I'd be] living on a mountainside somewhere. And I'm certainly not telling anybody that I can tell you unknowable things. This is not Miss Cleo's Psychic Network. ... Many folks have experienced the same joy, grief, satisfaction, growth, disappointment or frustration that I have. Tarot holds all this wisdom from the myths, archetypes, wise people from generations past — and many symbols that illustrate the human experience. It is the best tool for healing that I have ever known for myself. After spending my life unraveling the lessons that it has to offer, I feel honored to be able to help others access it for themselves.
Are most of your readings tarot-based?
A lot of the readings we have are tarot-based. I'm doing Le Petit Lenormand, which is another oracle system. It's just better for material-world things. ... We have a palm reader, Hailey Johnson, who is also a Vedic astrologer. She comes down from New Mexico when the weather's good. She's extremely talented. And we have a Jungian dream analyst, Leigh Baldwin, who's phenomenal.
Anything else you'd like people to know about Déjà Vu Esoterica?
We got by with a little help from our friends. I've known Reggie De La Garza of Shangri-La Homestead forever. And we've known Mike Long of Long House Builders for years. They were the team that helped us make the shop beautiful. When people walk in the door, it's audible gasps. What I told Reggie is that I want opulence. I want to disarm people with beauty. I want them to walk in and just forget [their troubles]. And she aced it. The statement that I hear from people over and over, especially from people visiting San Antonio, is: "We don't have anything like this where I'm from." My main mission with the shop is to supply the discerning magic practitioners of San Antonio. I want to make people go on a whim. If they want a new magic wand, they'll know exactly where to go.
Are there any areas of the shop you're planning to develop?
We are adding more space for jewelry because we want to bring more local jewelers in. There's a whole bare wall that's gonna be filled with shelves [for jewelry]. The only thing on the wall [now] is the haunted artifact that we have in the shop.
What's the haunted artifact?
Okay, so there is this cast-iron gate that Reggie and I found when we went to Architectural Antiques one day and it's breathtakingly beautiful. It has all of these willows and little lambs sleeping under the willows. It's so beautiful that it made me sick to my stomach when I saw it. And so I bought it. When it came in, we were in the process of renovating. And there was some activity that started happening around the shop. There was a fan that would click on by itself all the time. ... There was a book that got thrown off the shelf with extreme force. There was a little elephant that fell down when that happened, and it broke the front legs off because it hit the ground hard as shit. And then the last thing that happened was this whole shelf of taper candles got swept to the floor. And so we had to talk it out with the spirits. The architectural historian that reads for us asked me where I got it. [When I told him] he said, "Ah, I think that came from a graveyard, probably where children are buried." And so we put it together. There was a lady who came in, she's a regular. She walked in and said, "I feel some playful energy. There's playful spirits in this house." [We made some] offerings and were like, "Hey, you're protected. You're safe. No one's gonna do anything to you. I'm gonna leave you candy on the altar if you're good. But you've got to chill this rambunctious energy." Nothing has happened since then.
Déjà Vu Esoterica
11 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday-Sunday
1236 S. St. Mary's St., dejavuesoterica.com.
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