The Silver Dragon
The Place to Find Unique Items for the Body, Mind and Soul from Around the World
One may not be able to travel right now, especially to places like Tibet, Egypt, India, Turkey and Japan. But the objects of their religious traditions are available at Silver Dragon, a New Age, eclectic and metaphysical store established on Merrick Way in 2013. “Our pieces come from many different places,” says shop owner Ayessa Lopez. “As for what inspired me, my parents [from Cuba] taught me from a very young age to meditate and work on myself.”
Lopez, a Coral Gables resident since 1992, says the store’s location (it was previously in South Dade) was pure serendipity. “I came across this building as I was walking – which is one of the nice things about Coral Gables – and I saw this ‘For Rent’ sign. Chance. I turned a corner and it was there and it was meant for me.”
Today, anyone who walks into her store is welcomed by the smell of Tibetan green incense, one of many varieties she carries. Those with sensitive noses can take comfort in the fact that her selection of incense – as well as prayer candles – are absent any additives, unnatural colorings, or chemicals. The shop is also replete with natural stones, Turkish, Nepalese and Tibetan jewelry, essential oils, books, aromatherapy products, purifying sage, Buddhist Thangka paintings, prayer malas (meditation beads), quartz bowls, herbs, and healing crystals.
Reflecting on the crystals, Lopez says that each is a product of time and pressure. “This is the difference that pressure makes,” she says. “You could say our society is under a lot of pressure right now, so it is how one handles that pressure that can help one evolve, just as one mineral turns into another.”
Other items include statues of Isis, a widely worshipped Egyptian deity who helped the dead enter the afterlife, and who could invoke healing spells. And while most think of a happily enlightened Buddha, you can also find statuaries and paintings of bodhisattvas – those who are said to delay reaching nirvana out of compassion for suffering beings. And don’t be put off by the traditional Tibetan depiction of skulls within art pieces; they are meant to remind us of the impermanence of life and to scare the evil of the world away. And as for their religious tapestries – all are easy to roll up for traveling, as Tibetans had strong nomadic traditions.
“I hand pick all the pieces, so nothing is the same,” says Lopez. “When someone wants something to bring into their lives, they get something special and unique.” Store items cost from $19 to $5,000, though most are in the price range of their Turkish rings, $79 to $150.
There is one item not for sale. It is a wooden statue of Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu god of beginnings, a remover of obstacles to abundance and prosperity. When Tibetan monks visited the store years ago it became a spontaneous alter where they provided prayers and offerings. “We can’t sell this piece. It came here to stay,” says Lopez.
As the city emerges from the COVID shutdown, Lopez hopes to resume the shop’s chakra balancing sessions, energy clearing sessions, and psychic readings. You may also visit their website silverdragongables.com to learn more about chakras and how to stimulate them with different stones or essential oils to increase well-being.
Silver Dragon
81 Merrick Way
786.305.5575