“ Hi , I’m here to see the witch in residence,” I told the front desk employee at a West Village hotel. He asked me, with a slightly alarmed look, what I was talking about.

It didn’t take long to figure out that I had gone to the wrong hotel. A short taxi ride later, I found myself at the James New York, a hotel in the NoMad neighborhood, which is hosting a witch in residence for the month of October. Even at the correct destination, it took two employees to figure out what to do with the woman requesting to see the witch.

They sent me up to a room where I found Melissa Madara, an owner of Catland Books, an occult bookshop and community space in Brooklyn, where workshops have titles like Mediumship for the People, Yoga for Witches, and Reader’s Coven. One book it carries is called “Magic for the Resistance.”

This is a busy time for Ms. Madara, 27, who lives in the Kew Gardens section of Queens. She is a folk witch, herbalist and scryer (that’s like a reader of the crystal ball sort). “A lot of people are, like, ‘Can you come in and be spooky?’” she said.