Article by Kaytlin Sellner. Photo by Kaytlin Sellner.
Keegan and Isidora are familiar faces in the Atwood Memorial building at the St. Cloud State campus. These two friends co-own Oracle’s End, a shop hosting products and services that explore alternative spirituality. With their abundant knowledge of metaphysics, divination, and mythology, these ladies do more than just sell pretty hand-made jewelry through their small business. Through Hellenistic-inspired beauty products, unique experiences like elder futhark, and ample curiosity, these SCSU Alumni are making connections with the community through the ‘weird and wonderful’.
For two and a half – almost three years – Keegan and Isidora have been building their small business together. But before that happened, a fateful friendship was forged at Alnwick Castle in Spring of 2018, where Keegan and Isidora first met during study abroad. As SCSU students, Keegan studied Studio Arts, and Isidora was a Creative Writing major with a minor in British History. When asked how the business came to be, Isidora burst out laughing.
“It started out as a hobby.” Keegan explained, smiling. “And then, it just kind of happened!”
Keegan further explained that, in 2019, when she was looking for work, she experienced a lot of frustration. Work culture was a big factor for her in choosing a job, and at that time, there just wasn’t anything that suited her preferences best. So, she brought up the idea to start a business with Izzy.
“I was like, we both make jewelry.” Isidora said, “Why don’t we just do that?”
Joeseph, a current earth Science student, has bought a few bracelets of his own since stumbling upon Oracle’s End two years ago.
“Everybody could use more rocks, in my opinion,” he said, though his favorite part of Oracle’s End has been the tarot reading service Keegan offers. “And the people,” Joseph added.
He is not the only regular who visits the pair. Their presence on campus is well-recognized, resulting previously in a special invitation to the 50th anniversary of the Lemonade Art Fair. They’ve also supported artists at the university by selling their works as consignment items at their storefront. Custom tea blends, funky bucket hats, and curious ‘franken-stuffies’ are intermingled with their usual products, and after sale, directly benefit the artists that create them.
When they’re absent from campus, Keegan and Isidora – and Kate, Izzy’s adorable service animal – are engaged with events in the St. Cloud community. One is Start.up Connect, which involves bi-weekly meetings designed to support new businesses in the area and connect with others on their entrepreneurship journey. Similarly, they regularly attend historic downtown art crawls, such as the one upcoming on April 18, which will be hosted in the Red Carpet’s Martini Lounge from 4:00pm – 8:00pm.
“You can find a lot of cool stuff there, even if you’re not shopping from us.” Keegan said.
Their long term goals involve establishing a brick-and-mortar store, with hopes to establish it in the downtown St. Cloud area.
“Germain street is a lovely place…” Isidora said, and she further explained that there are other shops like Mind Body Spirt and Twin Flame which also promote alternative spirituality and its practices. Keegan wants to have a community space where people can celebrate pagan holidays, as it can be a struggle to find spaces or even opportunities to celebrate them in the open with others.
In the meantime, Keegan and Isidora operate their business on in-person and online, with their last scheduled campus visits slated for April 23 and April 30.
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