Patrick Gillman Bowen

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Patrick Gillman Bowen ( PG Bowen ; Captain PG Bowen ; born June 29, 1882 in Kenmare , County Kerry , † July 30, 1940 ) was an Irish author and theosophist .

life and work

Bowen was born on June 29, 1882 in Kenmare, the youngest son of Robert Bowen . Father Robert was a theosophist and personally acquainted with Helena Blavatsky . He wrote down valuable instructions for studying Blavatsky's work The Secret Doctrine . Contrary to his father's wishes to start studying, Bowen left his parents' house in 1897 and went to South Africa around 1900 . There he joined the South African Mounted Rifles , a regiment of the British Army , where he worked in the intelligence department and achieved the rank of captain .

In South Africa he developed an interest in the language and culture of the local population. An African teacher named Mehlo Moya is said to have accepted him into an occult brotherhood. According to him, he went through an initiation in three degrees and was allowed to copy the fragments of the associated written initiation rituals. He translated these from a Bantu language into English and later published them under the title The Sayings of The Ancient One . During a stay in France around 1920 he met George William Russell and when he returned to Ireland in 1922, he joined the Hermetic Society led by Russell . Through Russell and the Hermetic Society, he dealt intensively with the teachings of theosophy and found the theosophical principles to be identical to those into which he had been initiated in Africa. For the rest of his life he taught this belief in the Hermetic Society and published a number of theosophical works related to it.

In 1933 he became president of the Hermetic Society; a year before his death, with the beginning of the Second World War , he dissolved the organization in 1939.

Works (selection)

  • Natural Magic . Kessinger, Whitefish 2005, ISBN 1425360378 .
  • The Occult Way : Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton 1978, ISBN 0722950713 .
  • The Sayings of the Ancient One . Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton 1969.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bowen, Patrick Gillman
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bowen, PG; Bowen, Captain PG; Bowen, Patrick Gilman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish author and theosophist
DATE OF BIRTH June 29, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Kenmare
DATE OF DEATH July 30, 1940