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Wednesday, July 03, 2002

By Linda Wilson Fuoco, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Moonstones has everything from A to Z, which in the case of this shop means everything from Angels to Zen and Amethyst to Zircon.

	Amy Mokricky, owner of Moonstones in Dormont, pets her shop cat, Bahloo. (Tony Tye, Post-Gazette)

A pentagram adorns the door of the shop at 1517 Potomac Ave., Dormont. Pentagrams, five-pointed stars, abound in the shop, along with Christian crosses and Celtic crosses. The merchandise includes feng shui crystals, singing bowls used during meditation sessions, jewelry, stones and scented candles.

Books for sale include "Flashback" by Timothy Leary and the "Complete Idiot's Guide to Paganism." There are tomes on dream interpretation and alternative healing therapies. There are stacks of beautifully bound journals with blank pages.

There are periodicals, too, with "The Pagan Net News," a tabloid, displayed on a rack next to The City Paper.

When Amy Mokricky opened the shop five years ago, she set out to create "a safe place where people could come to investigate." She describes it as a "metaphysical store."

Searching and healing are veritable themes of the shop Mokricky created to deal with the June 29, 1994, murder of her sister, Jill Creighton.

"My mother, Mary Creighton, died four months later. I believe she let herself go, to be with Jill. This place is in memory of Mom and Jill. This shop has been my saving grace, pretty much, along with my husband, supportive friends and family and the Center for Victims of Violent Crime."

Mokricky is a board member of the nonprofit agency that counsels crime victims and their families.

"I had been a hairdresser for 15 years and was doing pretty well at that," Mokricky said. "After my sister was murdered, it was tough for me to have intimate contact with people. I started searching for answers. I reread the Bible and that did not do anything for me."

Then she read The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying "and that just totally blew me away. I started reading up on Celtic pre-Christian paganism and that felt like coming home."

Moonstones opened on Central Square in Mt. Lebanon and moved to a bigger storefront in Dormont in February 2001.

"I had a candle burning at the other store and when I moved I transferred the flame here," Mokricky said. "My husband helped with the move. He worked for three days with a broken wrist so that I could open here on a Saturday."

The best sellers are the stones -- from which the store gets its name -- and the jewelry. There are bowls and bins of polished, unmounted stones, including gem-quality amethyst selling for $3 to $8.

"Amethyst is one of the most spiritual stones," Mokricky tells a browsing customer. "It is calming and contains serene energy. Smoky quartz is the Prozac of stones."

All of the stones have special meaning and properties, she believes. She points to beautiful light green stones called peridot.

"After Sept. 11, I loaded up on peridot and it is selling well."

Mythology and lore surrounding peridot gives it great power, including the power to cure illnesses and banish evil.

Precious and semiprecious stones are also mounted in a wide array of jewelry, including necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings. Mokricky is quick to admit that not all jewelry buyers buy into the lore of the stones' powers. "I'd say it's about 50-50," she said. "About half of the customers just like stones as jewelry."

There are still more moons in Moonstones.

The black-and-white shop cat, Bahloo, is named for an aboriginal lunar god. And the last four digits of the shop telephone number -- 412-343-6666 -- spell out "moon."