Walking through the door and immediately feeling a sense of peace and relaxation is the effect Forever And A Day has on its customers. The metaphysical store in Woodstock, a staple in the New Age community for 15 years, will celebrate its anniversary on February 26.
Owner and founder Sherry Dean wanted to create a place that was for everyone, a place where people felt accepted regardless of their background or beliefs.
“In the beginning, when people came, they’d say, ‘Well, you say you have something for everybody. Do you have a Bible?’ And we didn’t, so we went and bought a couple and put them in,” says Dean.
Before Forever And A Day opened in 2010, Dean ran an herb business called Gaia’s World Ceremonial Herbs and had a consignment booth in the now-closed Woodstock Flea Emporium. Her interest in New Age products led her to ask her customers what products they might want that the booth didn’t already have.
“People started asking and sending us emails, asking, ‘Where is your big store?’ We didn’t have a big store,” says Dean, “so that’s when we started thinking about opening one. Wasting no time, she bought the pre-existing Sonny’s Barbecue building and started renovations, which ended up taking five months.
“The store has come a long way since then,” says Dean. “It was almost embarrassing because we had such a big space and not a lot of inventory.”
A Place of Kinship
When the store first opened, people thought it catered to witchcraft, and some even came in looking for spells. But Dean likes to emphasize that Forever And A Day doesn’t lean toward any one belief system. While it has undergone a few changes over the years—including another remodel and the addition of the salt cave in 2018—the mission of the metaphysical store remains focused on providing a peaceful environment for people of all faiths and backgrounds.
Forever And A Day practitioner Amy Cathryn has been working at the store as a psychic medium, tarot reader, shaman, reiki master, astrologer and energy worker since April 2019. Working there for the past five years has given her a good sense of how Atlanta has evolved spiritually, she says.
Dean, too, has noticed more people leaving organized religion and undergoing their own spiritual awakenings. “More people are waking up,” says Dean. “So it’s very common for people to walk in and say, ‘I’m just getting into all this.’ We hear that a million times.”
If a customer is new to the New Age community, Forever And A Day offers community-centered events such as a monthly Tea and Tarot gathering. The popular mixer is for people in the community to come together, talk about all things metaphysical and do informal tarot readings for each other.
“It’s more of a place of kinship, sort of a safe haven,” says Cathryn. “There are a lot of people I’ve found who don’t have a network of spiritual people, so they come once a month to talk about spiritual things and give readings.”
The store has grown in many ways since it opened. It now offers a salt cave, three sound-healing practitioners, a BioAcoustic Mat, tarot reading appointments available daily and three reiki practitioners. In addition, since 2018, Dean has allowed local small business owners to come to the store to sell their New Age or consignment products on Saturdays and Sundays.
“I love to support the local people, and the store gets unique products that other stores don’t have,” says Dean.
Karen Burns offers sessions in intuitive coaching, hypnotherapy and past-life regression at Forever and A Day. Since joining the emporium in April 2023, Burns has seen the New Age industry expand as people become more aware of its practices. Burns, like Dean and Cathryn, believes the metaphysical store will continue to grow as more people discover the world of spirituality. Both Burns and Cathryn credit Dean for the store’s success over the past 15 years.
“Sherry created the place with the intention for it to be a haven, and a lot of people remark on that,” Cathryn says. “I love how she has built a sense of kinship with the community.” ❧
Forever And A Day is located at 7830 Hwy 92 in Woodstock. For more information, visit ForeverAndaDay.biz or call (770) 516-6969.
An Atlanta native, Camille Lueder has a B.A. in Journalism from Berry College. Her passion for travel has led her to work seasonal jobs, including one on a trail crew in Colorado and another at a farm in Hawaii.
