Big Mama Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki

Every person has a spiritual calling

The English Qabalist and Witch Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki regularly visits the Netherlands to give lectures and workshops. At some of the workshops old temples are rebuilt and people live and work an entire weekend in the atmosphere of ancient Egypt. What does she teach people? “There is more in life than eating, working, watching television and sleeping. That spirituality is within every persons reach”.

Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki (72) calls herself ‘a little bit abnormal’. Spiritual teachers often teach one specific tradition. But Dolores studied during several decades very different spiritual approaches and movements. She studied witchcraft and underwent intensive training in Qabalah (Jewish mysticism). Beside that she studied the ancient Egyptian and Greek tradition and she visited the Indians in Northern America. ‘I walk into a temple as easy as into a mosque’ she says. ‘What I teach people has nothing to do with religion. People with different religious outlooks visit my workshops and seminars. It does not matter to me if you call The One God, Allah, Jehovah or Krishna. It hurts me to see what people sometimes do to each other’s in religious conflicts. I really do not understand why Palestinians and Israeli’s fight with each other’s when both pretend to be the descendants of Abraham. It is a fight between brothers, the old story of Cain and Abel, all over again. That is not what it is all about. It is about the spiritual experience, which is in our reach and within every bodies reach. We all can make contact with the spiritual source in ourselves. That can make you a better Christian, Jew, Muslim or Hindu.’

Different techniques

To teach people to get in contact with their spiritual aspect Dolores teaches them all kinds of techniques. During her workshops the participants do meditation, rituals and mental exercises. Sometimes an old spiritual setting is rebuild to bring the people into the right atmosphere. At this moment Dolores travels around the globe with a series of workshops about ancient Egypt. An entire weekend people live in a space that is decorated like an old Egyptian Temple. They dress like the people there once did, and they perform rituals from the old Egyptian spiritual tradition. There are lectures about ancient Egypt, for example about Egyptian art and about the relationship between the practical work in the temple and daily life. ‘When you are together with a group of people for a couple of days, and you are focused on spirituality it lifts you up’ says Dolores. ‘In some Indian traditions drugs are used to get this effect, but for me there is a boundary. There are other ways towards ecstasy without damaging your body.’

Occult family

Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki came into contact with spirituality early in life. She was born in the English Jersey in what she calls an ‘occult family’. Her grandmother and great grandmother were both witches. Her great grandfather was a German Jew. ‘As a child I grew up in a spiritual atmosphere.’ she tells. ‘But only in my half twenties I started to practice spirituality actively. I studied opera and drama in that time, but I noticed that this was not enough for me, that I missed something in life. I would now call it a spiritual calling. On a day I went to a bookshop with spiritual books. I was looking into a book, and suddenly I heard someone say to me: ‘You don’t need that book, you need this one.’ It was the bookseller who handed to me a book of W.E. Butler with the title ‘Magic, its ritual power and purpose’. It was just a small book with about fifty pages. I did not know what the seller meant, but I bought it. In the train on the way home I read the book in one time. Then I knew that I found what I was looking for. In the back of the book was an address, the address of the School of Inner Light. I contacted this school and I went there to follow courses and training there. These were based on the Qabalah. The founder of the school, Dion Fortune, often said that Qabalah is the yoga of the West. It offers various techniques and symbols which can be applied on all aspects of life.’

Spiritual Calling

Besides her training in the School of Inner Light Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki receives a personal training of the English Qabalist Ernest Butler. She studies with him for years and undergoes different initiations. When Butler retires, he asks Dolores to take over his school. At fist she is reluctant, but Butler makes her clear that he finds she has no choice. In 1976 she becomes the head of the international school ‘Servants of the Light’. Together with her husband she runs this organization to this day. Dolores travels to give workshops, seminars and lectures; her husband does the organization and administration in England. In answer to the question what the school teaches people, she says ‘I could give one hundred of answers to that question. We teach people to find themselves. We learn people to realize that there is more in life than waking up, eating, working, watching television and go back to sleep again. That there is a part in them that wants to be discovered. Aspects of themselves that they don’t know about. I am convinced that every person has a spiritual calling and that it is within every bodies reach to follow this. That this spiritual side of life is not dissociated of our daily life but is a part of it. That spirituality not only takes place in the church, the temple or the mosque. That spirituality is closer than we think. It is in the world around us.’

Pitfalls

Even though spirituality is close, according to Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki it is important to get a thorough guidance on the spiritual path. Everybody who joins her school gets a personal supervisor. There the student can go with questions or problems. Not seldom Dolores sees that ‘spiritual beginners’ walk into certain pitfalls. ‘They do a workshop about Magic and they think that after that they have developed psychic abilities. That does not need to be the case. In one person these abilities develop faster than in another. There are also people who don’t develop these abilities at all. And why do you want this so desperate. People think that they will see all kind of beautiful things, like angels, fairies and all kinds of friendly nature spirits. They don’t realize that they also can be confronted with the dark side of the supernatural. Another pitfall is that people start to feel superior to others. They walk down the street and think ‘The people around me don’t realize what a great magician is among them… Nonsense. You are nothing more or nothing less than other people. You develop certain talents only for yourself. But not everybody walks into these pitfalls. The atmosphere within my school is relaxed. When you see people gathering together at one of my workshops it is like one big family. I suppose I am the ‘Big Mama’ of the family. That suits me better than a title as teacher or director.‘

Interview Marjolein Wolf, Photograph Bert Meijer

This article was published in the Dutch magazine Paravisie of 2002 July, postbus 1876, 1200 BW Hilversum, tel 035-6218041