What made you write a book on Wicca?
I think the word Wiccan is being misused lately. Some people, I call them the new-agers, who are working on the esoteric lines professionally, are going into things such as tarot, candle therapy, and claiming these come under the umbrella of Wicca, which is completely untrue. What happens is they charge good money for these services and then their prophecies don’t fructify, which results in their antecedents being looked into. That is when they say they are my students. This book is what you could call the manual of Wicca.
Tell us about the origins of Wicca.
The origins of Wicca are said to go back 50,000 years. We still find images and statues of Lilith, or the Mother of Wicca, that archaeologists have dug up across the world. Lilith was the the first wife of Adam. She left to find her independence. In a way, she may have been the first feminist. Wicca has always been a global phenomenon. Witches have been believed to be present in several countries at some time or the other. In Japan, she is called dakini-ten; in Tibet she is known as khandroma; in Greece, she was Goddess Diana, but unfortunately by the time it came to our part of the world, it changed into dayan.
Witchcraft and magic have long been associated with superstition, but you approach these topics scientifically. Please elaborate.
One of the reasons why I took up Wicca in India years ago was because I was intent on banishing the word superstition. Unfortunately, the word magic or jaadu has taken form of jaadu-tona and now has negative connotations. I blame a lot of our holy men, the tantrics, who try to take advantage of people for commercial reasons. The real esoteric is part history and part science. I have dedicated a chapter on this. I would say there is no quarrel between science and the esoteric, because in Wicca, we follow the seven Hermetic principles.