Angela Mitchell's Psychic Salute

Angela Mitchell says she can peer into your past and predict your future. Consistently. By her own estimates, if she was playing baseball, she’d be batting nearly 1,000. Palm, tarot, crystal ball, aura and psychic readings are all in her arsenal of soothsayer tools. Think of Angela’s Spiritual Boutique in Concord’s Heights as the Alice’s Restaurant of the astral realm. You can get anything you want without that whiny Arlo Guthrie singing about it.

Photo by David Mendelsohn

In her own words:

• I prefer the word psychic when describing what I do. I realized at a very early age that I had the gift.
• Four generations ago, my grandmother Mileva decided she was going to use her gift to help people. That got passed down to my mother Margo, then down to me.
• Now the gift is with two of my daughters.
• Sometimes it was a little hard growing up in a family of psychics. Nothing in our family was a secret or private. When I was pregnant with my daughter Pebbles, my mother knew before I did. She also knew that it was a girl.
• One out of every five customers is either a doubter or skeptic before they even walk in. I normally sit and talk with them about why they’re pessimistic.
• This is also why I offer specials. On the weekends I have a $15 introductory reading as an offer for first-timers.
• Most become believers after one session with me.
• Some clients are easier to read than others because their aura is stronger. If they are very skeptical, I can generally see their past clearer than I can see their future. It’s difficult to tap into their energies when they are doubters.
• I charge by the reading, not by time we devote. There isn’t a scheduled limit on my readings. Every person is different.
• We start every reading by asking the client if they want full insight, whether it’s good or bad. If we see something negative, we can bypass it.
• When I was younger and went someplace where there were crowds, my circuits would get overloaded. I became aware that I have the ability to turn it off and on.
• It’s pretty hard for our family around Christmas and birthdays. Everyone pretty much knows what the other person is buying them.

Neon tarot cards, chakras and crystal balls are perfect draws for travelers on Loudon Road in Concord, where Angela presides over her Spiritual Boutique. Longtime residents might confuse Angela’s place with her mother’s fortune-telling parlor. It’s closed, but was about a half mile closer to town on the same side of the road. That’s two generations of fortunes told on the strip best known for fast-food joints and the Steeplegate Mall.

CREDIT: Thanks to Adam Searles for his fearless photo assistance, especially in the ebbing light. Thanks to the psychic team of Pebbles and Gina Mitchell for their unbridled enthusiasm and a remarkable talent for wrangling their mom. And lastly, thanks to Rick Broussard for his momentary presence on the set and his now-familiar phrase, “Gotta go!”