Watkins Bookshop - Free Talks & Events

We are delighted to welcome John T. Kruse as he dives deep into the rich cultural traditions of the British Isles, revealing the symbiotic relationship between humans and faeries. Explore the magic, habits, and culture of the Good Folk. Discover the different types of faeries, how to find them, and what precautions you should take when working with them. Respectful and thorough, this talk will enrich your life and give you an introduction to truly feeling the presence of the Good Folk.

Drawing upon psychoanalysis, anthropology, the arts, and esoteric philosophy, Alex Monk presents examples from folklore and literature to enrich his case illustrations which offer therapists important clinical perspectives on ways of working with clients who feel cursed and repeatedly manifest self-sabotaging states. The book examines the challenges that can arise when working with this client population and illustrates how to work through them while navigating potent transferences and projective identifications. Monk illustrates the way in which clients with developmental trauma may experience the supernatural and its psychic representatives as persecutory and/or a source of empowerment and healing. Trauma and the Supernatural in Psychotherapy also considers the historically conflicted relationship between psychoanalysis and the supernatural and proposes treatment perspectives which are not implicitly dependent upon a materialist paradigm.

This book will be of great interest to psychotherapists and counsellors who have an interest in clinical work concerning the connection of relational trauma to unconscious forms of communication and uncanny phenomena arising between therapist and client.

Copies of the book will be on sale at the event.

Real or not, ghosts and their locations are rich fuel for the writer, artist, musician. In this wonderful book, Wise and Bayer have bought together a collection of London ghosts in photographs with their accompanying stories. These are the visions and the voices they heard. The artist and photographer was inspired by the reports of London ghosts and has depicted them here as they appeared in her imagination.

The stories, repeated over time at specific places, are now embedded in the fabric of each place. An actual source for many of these ghost sightings, or a reliable known witness, is hard to track down. They seem to vanish like mist in the sunlight when one delves closer.

The stories presented in this book are thrilling. The authors have tried, with some presented in this book, to imagine more of their story, by tuning in to them at their haunting grounds. In this way they have treated them as real phenomena and real souls, with a story to tell, and who can be communicated with.

After listening to this engaging talk, we hope that you will visit these places, tarry a while, offer them kindness, and see what they reveal to you. And remember, it is not the dead you have to fear in this world, but the living!

Join us to hear Mike Bass present his wonderful linocut-style oracle card deck which features characters and beings from the folklore of the UK and the US.

Creatures such as Mermaid, the Brownie, the Boogyman, Sasquatch, Black Shuck and the Jackalope. Divinities such as the Green Man, the Muse, the Banshee, Pan, Sheela-na-Gigh and Herne the Hunter. Trees such as Oak, Maple, Willow, Yew, Hazel and Redwood. Animals and birds such as Fox, Raven, Badger, Rattlesnake, Wolf and Eagle.

The deck can be used as an oracle to answer questions, to fire up creativity, connect with nature, and enrich daily life with a sense of magic.

Jennifer Kavanagh presents her brief overview of prayer in different cultures and traditions, grounded in the perspective and experience of contemporary Quakers. She looks at the differences and similarities between worship and prayer and her brilliant, wonderfully inclusive description of what is happening in Quaker meeting for worship is worth the cover price alone. In so many ways this book is an invitation ‘to pray as we can, not as we can’t’. Do Quakers pray? Well, the answer is yes, despite a cautiousness around prayer which this wise, timely (and deceptively slim) volume seeks to address.

Although written for Quakers this book is definitely of interest to anyone questioning ‘who or what we pray to’. This is an important book, an intelligent and challenging guide for a questioning age.

In 1897, an Indian yogi exhibited himself at London’s Westminster Aquarium, demonstrating yoga positions to a bemused audience. Four years earlier, Hindu philosopher Swami Vivekananda spoke at the first World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, where Annie Besant extolled the ‘exquisite beauty’ of his spiritual message.
The Victorians were fascinated by, yet suspicious of, Indian religious beliefs and practices. But within two generations, legions of young Westerners were following the ‘hippie trail’ to the subcontinent, the Beatles meditating at the feet of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Journalist Mick Brown’s vivid account charts this eccentric history of Western obsessions with Indian faith, through a curious cast of scholars, seekers, charlatans and saints.
From bestselling epic poems on the Buddha to murder plots, magic and the occult, The Nirvana Express is an exhilarating, sometimes troubling journey through the West’s search for enlightenment.

In 1666, Londoners suffered fire, plague, famine and war. The official parliamentary report declared the great fire as arson. This book reveals the bitter clash between the Lion and the Unicorn, the City of London and the Crown, played out in the intrigue around the Great Fire of London and the strange esoteric design of Hawksmoor's churches.

This terrific book is a guide to the occult world, featuring 10 itineraries and maps of magical tours across the globe. Spanning countries and continents in pursuit of occult themes, it is meant to be pursued by the astral or armchair traveller rather than on the ground, although we expect readers to be inspired to plan epic trips of their own. It takes a fantastically fresh approach to the occult, with a nod to the retro Shell Guides in the use of collage artwork and humorous, on-point suggestions of places to stay and eat. Expand your occult horizons by trying these tours – and many more!