Geoffrey Watkins
Geoffrey Watkins is the son of John Watkins. As one writer put it: "Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, encouraged her friend John Watkins to open the first ever specialist esoteric bookshop. It bears the ‘Watkins’ name to this day. It is situated in the dignified elegance of Cecil Court, off Charing Cross Road. The shop’s logo depicts Thoth, Egyptian God of Wisdom in the act of writing with pen and paper." Geoffrey "had been educated in Germany and was commissioned by British Intelligence during WWI. Then, early in WWII, Adolf Hitler was having immense military success, perhaps due to the employment of Karl Ernst Krafft who was Hitler’s personal astrologer! It was known that Hitler’s commander, Heinrich Himmler held round table rituals in an ancient castle at the solstices. Our war-time Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, sought the astrological expertise of Geoffrey Watkins to assist with military decisions. It is recorded that an auspicious astrological configuration was forged and presented to Rudolf Hess (Hitler’s deputy in the Nazi party, who, like Himmler was known to believe in astrology) to manipulate a flight to Scotland on a peace mission. Hess took the bait and was captured and interrogated. Hitler’s belief in astrology might account for the choice of the date of his suicide, along with his new wife, Eva Braun, on Walpurgis Night, a spring Sabbath when witches and sorcerers meet to celebrate.
"Today, Watkins Bookshop is regularly frequented by leading lights of metaphysical organisations of all kinds, by spiritual seekers looking for advice, by celebrities taking time to browse or choose a gift, and by those who collect rare esoteric books. The shop has close ties with the director of the imprint of the Wessex Astrologer, Margaret Cahill, whose partner, Stephen Gawtry publishes ‘the Watkins Review’. On the wall of the shop are Anand (World Chess Champion) Gurdjieff’s and Crowley’s natal charts to demonstrate to customers how astrology works." In 2010, "Watkins Bookshop was rescued from permanent closure by a young American entrepreneur, Etan Ilfeld, whose art gallery, Tenderpixel, is also situated in Cecil Court." [1]
