Craft of the witch
May 1997
By Kumkum Bhandari
There is magic, mystery and power in the way of the Wicca, but not as commonly understood. Ipsita Roy Chaudhury personifies it.
 |
Three years short of the 21st century, I find myself seated opposite a modern day witch. The lady is attired in black and silver. “Black,” she explains with a sweep of her manicured hands, “is an important color for witches. It is the color of absorption and therefore of inscrutability and mystery, of women and of thunderclouds. of things said and unsaid. The woman,” she says in that smoky, power driven tone,” must never make herself absolutely clear. The mystery must remain.”
A bit of the mystery unfolds as we settle down in a cool quiet room in Ipsita Roy Chakraverti’s South Delhi apartment. The drapes are drawn, shadows lurk, but there is no evidence of cobwebs, cauldrons or cats. Instead, in an ambience of rather mystifying normality, the door is firmly shut on a frisky white pooch and the wholesome aromas drifting in from a kitchen nearby. One thing is amply clear being a witch is serious business. Every witch is serious business.
Every witch has a personal diary, aptly called The Book of Shadows, in which she notes her experiences, her discoveries and what she considers magical. She knows all about the curative properties of certain sounds and she uses ancient chants for rituals and therapy, connects deeply with nature; learns to harness energy from earth, water, fire and air; knows how to renew herself; has the ability not merely to draw energy from the elements, but also project it; knows how to be centered despite her tumultuous environment; develops her intuitive abilities hones and refines her sensibilities.
Life and magic course through and around her. Being a witch is about ripping away layers of social conditioning, gender limitations and protective shields. It is, in a sense about moving towards being the complete and total woman. There is intensity, conviction and passion in the way Ipsita talks about witchcraft, or Wicca—the Craft of the Wise—and its relevance throughout history. She enumerates some of the incredible similarities between Old Wiccan findings and the discoveries of modern physics and parapsychology.
Traditionally, Wiccans were the fledgling social community’s first healers and counselors, spiritually and intuitively strong women who became too powerful for the comfort of the male leadership. At one time Wiccans were burnt at the stake. It was said the witches were into black magic. Now, may be partly due to my work or to the New Age movement, witchcraft and Wicca are no longer dirty words in India. The fact is that simple village folk to members of society’s highest stratum approach me for Wiccan therapy, crystal therapy, energy transmission, observes Ipsita. When she first publicity declared her ‘witchness’ in 1986 and offered Wiccan therapy in India, she was vulnerable.
‘The New Age movement, as it is now, didn’t exist then’, she says. ‘I don’t want to sound boastful, but I was a pioneer. Remember, call someone a ‘witch’ and you could be in for slander. Legally.” But she was easily accepted. Partly because of her packaging and presentation—she is elegant, articulate and poised. People listen when she speaks. “If I had come from a different rung of society, or was illiterate, the reaction wouldn’t be the same. I have observed that it is always the person they will accept, and then the word Wicca. Witches are not born, they are made. Or perhaps they sculpt themselves.”
Ipsita’s background is commendable but unexceptional: her father was a career diplomat, her mother was from an aristocratic Bengali family of Calcutta, India. Both were of the Brahmo Samaj calling. Was she the black sheep in the family. Not really, she replies disarmingly but you could say I brought some non-conformism into the family. So where did it all begin? In Montreal, where she was educated. An only child, she shared her father’s passion for reading and devored books on Indian mysticism and traditions partly because people were always asking questions about India and one does not like to appear ignorant.
This led to a chance invitation to participate in a study circle where women members of a worldwide organization met every week to talk about ancient cultures and civilizations. Ipsita was irrevocably drawn by the way they conversed about diverse things like Taosim, Sufism, old Egyptian magic, the Dianic cult of Greece. They would also experiment with ancient rituals and ceremonies to test their relevance and efficacy. Ipsita’s road to witchdom became clear. Three years of poring over books and manuscripts, and studying for informal weekly tests added breadth and depth to her knowledge.
Alcohol, close friendship or anything that distracted from the prescribed hours of study, solitude and meditation, were taboo. Practical training in witchcraft followed. It included learning varied techniques of self-development and understanding the significance of ancient chants, movements, symbols, gestures, invoking energy from the elements, and training in the use of the apparatus integral to the craft. At the end of the road, the guide gave each new initiate witch certain implements: symbolic gifts of Mother Goddesses who are worshipped by Wiccans. The Goddesses—both eastern and western were generous.
From Athena, Ipsita received the black cloak, which conferred majesty and regality on herd. Diana blessed her with independence and thinking. Among other gifts were the crystal skull of Kali, the silver bowl from Venus, to be filled with water and used in particular rituals. But the glowing amber ball of Hecarte which confers vision and is used not for crystal gazing but for toning up the electro-magnetic system of the body eluded her. Her guide told here. If you have been and are a true Wiccan, the ball will come to you in some part of your life.
Prophetic words. Call it magical coincidence or divine blessing, she recently chanced upon the object in an antique shop in Darjeeling, India. An old lama needed cash for his journey to the plains. The selling price was Rs.35,000—cheap for an amber ball that size. Since she didn’t have that kind of money with her, she left an offer with the shopkeeper intimating that she was leaving the next day. Barely an hour before her departure, he showed up with the item. Goddess Hecarte had finally delivered. After her return to India, impelled to experience the school of life, she taught, wrote and experimented with art. Wicca, she says, is just one compartment of my life, but it has seeped into her writings and, more recently, into her paintings,
These she says, of the 20 canvases she displayed at a solo show, were Wiccan paintings based on the theory that through the juxtaposition of certain colors, forms, shapes and symbols, you can transmit energy and healing to others. People respond to the idea. Her canvases are dominated by blues, browns, oranges and yellows. For many years, Ipsita was involved in Wiccan therapy. People from all walks of life, from peasants to prime ministers, have benefited from Wicca. Now she feels neither the inclination nor the necessity to offer therapy or interact with people.
“ I really feel that I have no more obligations to society anymore. I have done what I could or can, for it. No one should approach me for therapy. No one should approach me for working miracles, as people are apt to do. I am not a god woman and I should do my own work at my own energy,” she says firmly. “You could say I am more into studying, painting, writing, reading, even documenting old cases,” she continues.
She draws on facts, figures, experience for the articles she writes about Wicca. There is also the occasional workshop on Wicca, for women who want to live the Wiccan way. They include 25 to 30 women in Calcutta and about a dozen in Delhi, India. For Ipsita, there is a definite ennui. A sharp cynicism that swaddles society. Rigidity exists. The magic is not allowed to enter, the minds are closed. She says:“ Most people are like vegetables.”
She is emphatic in her denunciation of society being motivated by lucre, lust, ambition: “As an individual, break away from it as much as possible. Stand-alone. Say this is what you are. To a certain extent, yes, may be, you will have to play certain games that society plays, but beyond that do your own thing. And if you are strong enough, society comes to you, you don’t have to go to people.”
Her winning formula is simple: ‘From the practical point of view, your ambition must not be inordinate, for then you are at a disadvantage. The other thing you must know is the art of letting go. If someone or something comes to you, well and good. But if you feel that your pride and self-respect are compromised, let go. These are two things that I have lived by and I would recommend to others. Cultivate the ability to be with people and the ability to withdraw. It is essential not to be dependent on anybody. Whether it is your close family or friends, that dependence must not be there. When you recognize the essential transience of all things, you will not get bogged down in happiness or unhappiness.”
Her actions are never guided by conventional notions of good or bad. She has no wish to hurt anyone physically, emotionally or spiritually, but beyond that, she says ‘To me life is free I have lived it to the less. And that I find give me a lot of energy. Today, someone might ask me: ‘Where do you get your energy from? Do you sit down to a ritual, do you invoke energy?’ The point is, if I do a ritual, I could formally invoke energy, otherwise it is all round me. Energy flows when you live freely, without letting others define or limit you.”
A good wife and mother, Ispita does not believe in being ‘closed” in relationships. “Today if I was attracted to another man, I would not say: ‘No, I am married so I will have no friendship or relationship with you.’ I would like to think that within bounds, I would like to give and take from other relationships. Above all, I am an individual. We are de-energized because we let conventions dictate to us, we are dulled, closed to our essential nature and our deeper needs, fearful that for every freedom, people around us or we ourselves must pay a price.
“Yes,” agrees Ipsita, ‘we have become very conditioned. We have become fearful of isolation, of not being accepted by the herd. Our fears prevent us from experiencing life fully. Don’t divorce yourself from any experience simply because it might bring you pain. Accept that, live with that pain, break your pain. For, through that very pain will come your liberation.”
Wise words, brave prescription, hell to pay. ” In some of my writings, I have said that society does not really understand what a witch is. A witch is the total woman. Strong daring women who have dared to live their own life, whatever it be. Jacqueline Kennedy, Indira Gandhi, Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, Namita Gokhale, Kiran Bedi—all of them could count as witches. Benazir Bhutto qualifies but she is letting ambition override her. Much the same can be said of some Hindi film actresses,” she adds.
Can we possibly stretch the list to include a male witch? She laughs heartily, quick to join the game. “Chanderashekhar, our former prime minister, makes it. So does Ravi Shankar, cartoonist and art director of India Today. Sarod Maestro Amjad Ali Khan fits the bill and so does a former solicitor—general Anand Deo Giri.”
Men—you have come a long way, baby! Ipsita has helped many de-energized women emotionally or physically battered by men to recognize and unleash the power within themselves. ‘Wicca can do that the empowerment of the goddesses. Her work in Indian villages exposed her to a new genre of men. The village women—simple women accused of witchcraft—would give me stories which were really heartbreaking. It opened my eyes to how much venom there was in these men.”
It seems but natural that Ipsita should speak passionately about the empowerment of women, of the return of female power. A word here. Has Ipsita noticed the growing breed of wimpish Indian men, nice, gentle sorts who don’t know what to do with all these ‘empowered women’ ?She laughs. The laughter over, she turns thoughtful.
” Actually we shouldn’t go so much by men and women. We should go by individuals. Empowering the individual. As we gradually arrive at the age of the unisex, we should take the human personality. Let it be strong. Wicca is not so gender obsessed that it is going to say that we are of a kind and we keep to our kind. We are of everybody; we are of human soul, human strength. It is not as it we are aggressive women on the warpath. We believe that strength can come in two ways. It can come through the guile of a Venus.”
So witchcraft is about the empowerment of the person, of searching for new vistas of personal freedom, of moving towards being a total person. It is about junking excessive ambition, about letting go. It is about discovering the secret of renewing yourself, sourcing deep energy and perpetual youth from within.
“A Wiccan knows how to live life. There is no negativity no dullness, no pulling back. That effortlessness is there. Before you can draw energy from the elements to rejuvenate yourself, you have to love nature, attune and identify with it. To bring it to more practical and understandable levels, you must have an almost sensuous and sensual relation with what is around you. Attune your senses finely to recognize the sensuous touches of nature. Winter flowers are not fragrant, but there is a smell to them. Identify it. Only as you become finely-honed and centered will you be able to sense and use the presence of earth energy or that of other elements. The more you sensitize yourself, the more Nature reveals her secrets.”
Ipsita comments on how she has observed the presence of potent earth energy in certain places, especially in Orissa, India. These are powerful spots for healing and rejuvenation. A photograph of her meditating in one such powerspot in the Konark temple shows fingers of mist rising around her.
Even though many women believe that Ipsita can work miracles, she is no peddler of magic potions or secret powders to perpetuate eternal youth or entice a reluctant lover. But, she laughs, I tell them you can make it happen for yourself in simple ways. She offers lots of practical suggestions.
Take one. Want to energies your room? Float red rose petals is a crystal bowl full of water, leave it in the sun—15 minutes in summer, an hour in winter—let it cool and then put it in your room, the energy levels will rise. You can even splash the water on your face and pulse points. Watch what happens. Everything is full of life and color.
” We believe that nothing is inanimate. So tap that energy. Use it. Sensitize yourself to Nature’s hidden gifts. Make it work for you. Sometimes you feel life is one dull day following another. But it’s not so if you know how to bring the magic back.”
“Yes,” emphasizes the woman in black and silver, ‘you can make the magic happen in your life in simple ways.’