Good tidings from the Bodhi Tree Bookstore, West Hollywood, Calif.: the country's best-known metaphysical and spiritual bookstore is being sold by longtime owners Stan Madson and Phil Thompson to Karuana Gatimu and Lori Cutler. The transition takes place officially in mid-October. Madson and Thompson will help as needed after that and then retire from involvement in the store.
One of the first orders of business for the new owners is searching for a new location for the Bodhi Tree. (Madson and Thompson sold the building nearly two years ago.) They will likely move between the end of this year and next spring.
Madson and Thompson called the new owners "two very special women" who have backgrounds in both the spiritual and business world. They both have worked at Skechers, the shoe company, Gatimu as director of e-commerce and marketing operations and Culter as director of staffing.
Gatimu is also a life strategist, spiritualist and student of ancient technologies who is a non-denominational reverend with a practice since 1997. Cutler began an apprenticeship with a Toltec master five years ago and regularly goes on power journeys to the pyramids of Teotihuacan in Mexico as a teacher and guide.
The new owners aim to maintain the store as "a sanctuary for all on the path of spiritual knowledge" and continue its many community events, book signings and workshops. At the same time, they have the intention of expanding and enhancing the Bodhi Tree in part by using "new technology and educational techniques" that will "connect to the vast world that has exploded the past few years."
There is a nice symmetry about Gaitmu and Cutler's shared business experience at Skechers: in 1970, the Bodhi Tree was founded by Thompson, Madson and Dan Morris, who had met and worked together in aerospace at Douglas Aircraft.
