Theos-Talk Archives (March 1995 Message tl00139)

Hi Sy,

Thanks so much for your comments about The Occult Way, P.G.
Bowen and AE.  I am impressed at the scope and success of your
research.  You have saved me a lot of work!

I'll tell you how I came to be aware of Mr.  Bowen's unique book.
It the late-60s a professor at the University of Texas at Austin
taught several courses on Eastern Philosphy.  Possibly because
many of the older women who were attending his class were
Theosophists, Prof.  Desani gave a graduate seminar that, as I
recall 25 years later, dealt almost exclusively with The Occult
Way.  (Its also possible that the seminar covered the Bhagavad
Gita; either that or another seminar did.)

Professor G.V.  Desani still lives in Austin, although he is 86
and an invalid due to a dibilitating stroke.  He was an widely
acclaimed novelist in England through World War II.  Then he
returned to his native India and spent the next 20 years seeking
and investigating everything spiritual: yoga, tantra, theravada
and zen buddhism.  He taught in Austin for about 8 years.  I
worked for him for several years as an unpaid assistant.  He
remains under the care of students he met in those years.

Anyway, I too young and ignorant then to appreciate the fact that
this accomplished man would choose an obscure Irish book as a
suitable topic for enlightenment studies.  I do not know how or
when Prof.  Desani found the Occult Way.  I do know that he made
a habit of looking at every book on mysticism, occultism, magic
and yoga that was published.

Over the years I've referred to The Occult Way, but it wasn't
until a personal event this year caused me to begin studying in
earnest that I began to suspect the full significance of what he
had achieved.

I do have the original Occult Way.  Why the Quest people choose
to remove the Q&A section is a mystery.  I also have the original
Sayings of the Ancient One.  It seems to me that I once saw
(probably at the UT gigantic main library) some other writing by
Captain Bowen.  I do not know if I've ever seen "The Way Toward
Discipleship." Do you have a copy?

I will write to Mr.  Western's daughter to see, as you suggest,
if anyone carried on his work.


Todd Katz