Watkins Books
Watkins Books is London's oldest esoteric bookshop specializing in esotericism, mysticism, occultism, oriental religion and contemporary spirituality.[1] The book store was established by John M. Watkins, a friend of Madame Blavatsky, in 1897 at 26 Charing Cross. John Watkins had already been selling books via a catalogue which he began publishing in March 1893.[2] The first biography of Aleister Crowley mentions that Crowley made all of the books in Watkins disappear and magically reappear.[3]
Geoffrey Watkins (1896–1981) owned and managed the store after his father.[4] He was also an author[5] and publisher, with notable books including first publishing Carl Gustav Jung's 1925 edition of Septem Sermones ad Mortuos.[6]
In 1901, Watkins Books moved to 21 Cecil Court where it has been continuously trading ever since. It publishes a magazine called the Watkins' Mind Body Spirit magazine, which has featured leading authors from mind-body-spirit and esoteric fields. Watkins Books has been owned by Etan Ilfeld since March 2010.[7][8] Since then, a new website has been launched, and the store regularly hosts book launches and signings. Additionally, the Watkins website has integrated a spiritual map of London that everyone is invited to contribute to. Watkins Books has also published a free Mind Body Spirit app that is available on the iPhone/iPad and Android devices. [9]
Watkins' Spiritual 100 list for 2012
The February 2012 issue (Number 29) of Watkins Mind Body Spirit ranks the world's top 100 most spiritually influential living people.[10] The three main factors used to compile the list were:
- the person has to be alive;
- the person has to have made a unique and spiritual contribution on a global scale; and
- the person is frequently googled, appears in Nielsen Data and is actively talked about on the Internet.
The list follows:
- Dalai Lama
- Eckhart Tolle
- Thich Nhat Hanh
- Deepak Chopra
- Paulo Coelho
- Elizabeth Gilbert
- Iyanla Vanzant
- Ken Wilber
- James Redfield
- Rhonda Byrne
- Alice Walker
- Nelson Mandela
- Wayne Dyer
- Doreen Virtue
- Michio Kaku
- Oprah Winfrey
- Alejandro Jodorowsky
- Mantak Chia
- Desmond Tutu
- Alex Grey
- Peter Russell
- Byron Katie
- Ram Dass
- Esther Hicks
- Bernie Siegel
- Richard Bach
- Brian Weiss
- Andrew Cohen
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
- Robin Sharma
- Steve Taylor
- Z’ev ben Shimon Halevi
- Andrew Harvey
- Marianne Williamson
- Lisa Williams
- Francis Chan
- Don Miguel Ruiz
- Masaru Emoto
- Gregg Braden
- Andrew Weil
- Erich von Däniken
- Adyashanti
- Krishna Das
- Sonia Choquette
- Joseph Ratzinger
- Louise Hay
- Amma
- Vladimir Megre
- Ervin Laszlo
- Elaine Pagels
- Jeff Foster
- Seyyed Hossein Nasr
- Neale Donald Walsch
- Drunvalo Melchizedek
- Pema Chödrön
- Diana Cooper
- Bruce Lipton
- Dan Millman
- Karen Armstrong
- Graham Hancock
- David R
- Jack Canfield
- Clarissa Pinkola Estés
- Sogyal Rinpoche
- Swami Ramdev
- Philip Berg
- Caroline Myss
- Michael Newton
- Daisaku Ikeda
- Vadim Zeland
- John Bradshaw
- Richard Bandler
- Jean Houston
- Starhawk
- Daniel J
- James Lovelock
- Judy Hall
- Gary Snyder
- Patrick Holford
- Oberto Airaudi
- Dr Azmayesh
- Mother Meera
- Rabbi Michael Lerner
- Lynne McTaggart
- Michael Beckwith
- Satya Narayan Goenka
- Satish Kumar
- Paramahamsa Nithyananda
- Rowan Williams
- Prem Rawat
- Mooji
- Stanislav Grof
- Grant Morrison
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
- Dolores Cannon
- Gangaji
- Shakti Gawain
- Claudio Naranjo
- Mastin Kipp
- Marion Woodman
References
- ^ "US film producer supplies the magic to save occult bookshop". West End Extra. 2010-04-02. Retrieved 2012-03-08.
- ^ Watkins Review, Issue 24, June 2010
- ^ Page 268, 1952 edition of The Great Beast by John Symonds
- ^ "Geoffrey Watkins: Information from". Answers.com. Retrieved 2012-03-08.
- ^ http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3403804790.html
- ^ "The automatic writings of Jung". Philipcoppens.com. Retrieved 2012-03-08.
- ^ http://www.thebookseller.com/news/deal-agreed-over-watkins-books.html
- ^ Kindred Spirit, Issue 109
- ^ "App Store - Mind Body Spirit Books by Watkins". Itunes.apple.com. 2012-02-18. Retrieved 2012-03-08.
- ^ "The Spiritual 100 - Watkins' annual list of the 100 most spiritually influential living people!". Watkinsbooks.com. Retrieved 2012-12-09.