When traditional means of courtship (like getting your object ofaffection drunk or cheesy pick-up lines) fail, it’s time to askyourself a question: Do you believe in magic?

If so, the necessary elements for casting a love spell can befound at Botanica Mama Roots, a Normal Heights store specializing in”traditional and urban magic.” In the voodoo tradition, a botanica islike a magical herb supermarket. The shelves of Mama Roots are linedwith herbal and other mystic remedies, the majority of themlove-related.

“We have a definite surge in business around Valentine’s Day,”John Lee, a Mama Roots worker, said.

“But year-round, at least 90 percent of our business comes frompeople looking for love — either they don’t have anyone, or theperson they like doesn’t like them, or the person is married orwhatever.”

Lee said the first remedy he recommends for the lovelorn is aWhitewash Bath, which is kind of a cure-all for people interested inmagic — the duct tape of the supernatural. The bath consists of holywater, cocoa butter, milk and other ingredients, with someingredients added, taken away or substituted, depending on theintended outcome. The essential element in the bath for someonelooking for love is a few bottles of champagne.

Cat Templeton, another Mama Roots employee, said the bath helps bycleansing one’s spirit.

“The cleaner you are, spiritually and physically, the moreattractive you’re likely to be,” she said.

Mama Roots employees prescribe and sell all the necessary elementsof the bath for about $30.

Those looking for something a little stronger can buy the VoodooLove Kit for $9.95. The kit includes a book on voodoo, a poppet (morecommonly known as a voodoo doll) and straight pins. To use the kit,one merely inserts the pins into spots labeled on the doll for thedesired mate (“tight tushy,” “nice hands,” etc.) or specific activity(“second base”).

When asked about magical aphrodisiacs, Lee recommended chocolate.The store sells something a little more potent, though: bottles ofMama Juana, which is various herbs soaked in alcohol. The concoctionallegedly gives one sexual strength.

“It’s called Mama Juana because ‘Mama wants some,'” Lee said.

At $25 for a one-dose bottle, it’s not quite as economic asViagra, but Lee said it is extremely powerful.

Lee said most of the magical love supplies the store sells are forpeople who just want to find a mate. If they want to make a specificperson like them, or break up an existing relationship for their ownbenefit, it gets more complicated.

“That’s a matter of messing with someone’s free will, and itraises all sorts of questions about karma,” he said.

Lee said if someone had that kind of problem, they would need apsychic reading ($25 at Mama Roots) and the reader could thendetermine the magical remedy.

“We’ll do the work,” he said. “Our karma would still be clean.It’s all on them and their duty to deal with the repercussions.”

Lee did not elaborate on the dangers of bad karma.

Those who already have a mate needn’t be left out. Tantric magicis practiced through sexual activity.

“Tantric magic is generally done utilizing the energy producedwhile you’re actually being intimate,” Templeton said.

“It’s actually one of the strongest forms of magic because you’redealing with raw energy.”

Mama Roots specializes in voodoo and its off-shoot, santeria, butalso provides components for, and carries books on, other forms ofritual magic and pagan religions.

The employees at Mama Roots, many of whom also give readingsthere, hail from different schools of magic. Lee declined to statehis beliefs, saying his “personal practices and beliefs are not openfor scrutiny.”

New employee Templeton, though, is a self-proclaimed witch whopractices Wicca, a form of white magic most closely linked topeople’s traditional concept of witchcraft.

“I haven’t practiced voodoo or santeria yet, but I’m lookingforward to trying it out now that I work here,” she said.

Botanica Mama Roots is located at 3512 Adams Ave. The phone numberis 563-9110.