PORT TOWNSEND — Jill Spier bought the first Phoenix Rising in downtown Port Townsend — a hole in the wall, as she recalls it — half a lifetime ago, in 1987. She then set about building a place of her own: an emporium of books, crystals, jewelry, statues, scarves, shawls, wands, singing bowls and psychic readings.
Now Spier is looking to start anew, in a country across two oceans.
“The shop has been my life, my passion,” she said this week in Phoenix Rising’s book-lined alcove.
Spier built this incarnation of the store 25 years ago — the corner building at 696 Water St. in Port Townsend.
In her Long Island, N.Y., accent, Spier deadpanned that she acquired Phoenix Rising as a way to hold herself accountable to her meditation practice. She had begun meditating a couple of years before; “I believe it’s the essence of life,” she said.
“If I sell a book on meditation and I’m not meditating, guilt will just flow through me,” Spier thought at the time.
“So, ah, that’s never happened. I’ve been teaching meditation now for 20 years.”
All the while, Spier also has been learning about sacred stones and crystals.
“They’re the beauty of the Earth, and they have healing properties,” she said.
For many years, Spier has been traveling to India. She adopted her Indian daughter, Jaya, at 4 months old, and wanted her to grow up with her culture. India became their second home as Spier formed deep friendships there. She has been purchasing Kashmiri scarves, jewelry, brass statues and thangkas — paintings of Buddhist or Hindu deities — for the shop ever since.
Then, six years ago, Spier visited Sri Lanka, the island south of India in the Indian Ocean. She later met the Sri Lankan organic farmer who is now her partner. In the town of Ella, they plan to start an orphanage for children and teenagers, a meditation center, and the next incarnation of Phoenix Rising, this one small like the first.
Spier had intended to sell her Port Townsend building and the store. But with a shop inventory she estimates at over $1 million in wholesale value, it was difficult. She tried for more than a year and a half and found no buyer with enough funding.
The building itself will be sold, but Phoenix Rising is set to close its doors at the end of February.
Spier paused to call out to a customer about the crystals he was perusing.
“Have you used one of those before?” she asked.
Oh yes, he replied, smiling and adding that she had sold him the citrine ring on his finger.
Spier spoke next about what she considers most important about her shop.
“When someone comes in, [and] they’re ill, someone died, they’re getting a divorce. You can see how tight, how hard life is. And I help them. They buy [something], whether it’s a book, a crystal, a this, a that — or just talking or feeling the atmosphere here. And they leave relaxed.
“That’s an absolutely beautiful feeling.”
Spier’s modus operandi was to make Phoenix Rising as complete and full a shop as she could. She employs four part-time staff people, and she works seven days a week when she’s in Port Townsend. So, “because I never saved any money, everything went right back into the shop,” she said.
“At times, paying bills could be stressful. But outside that, [the store has attracted] really lovely people. It’s not like a grocery store or elsewhere; people come in here to be here. And so 97 percent of the people don’t mind waiting. They are warm, friendly.”
Shelby Smith, the man who had admired the crystals display inside the store, said he was one of the people who had walked in to Phoenix Rising feeling tense and bereft. Smith, who worked in hospice care in the Northeast for years before moving into his current nomadic life, had been looking for a citrine piece for a while. He found the right ring in Port Townsend.
“The minute I tried it on, I loved it, she loved it, it was done,” he said.
After she moves to Sri Lanka, Spier plans to return to Port Townsend to visit. She knows there will be something different in the Phoenix Rising space, and that will “be weird. But that era will have passed,” she said.
“I have been overwhelmed at the support and love that has come through since the sign went up three weeks ago that we’re closing,” Spier said.
“It’s been quite beautiful.”
Yet there’s the basic Buddhist tenet, Spier added: “Everything is temporary.”
Phoenix Rising “has been healing for me and for so many others. I’m a very lucky person,” she said.
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Diane Urbani de la Paz is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Port Townsend.
