The Dennis Wheatley 'Museum' - Champions of Reincarnation: Dennis Wheatley & Joan Grant

The resurrection of the 'Watchers'

The inscription (helpfully dated 6.3.42) in the
copy of 'Eyes of Horus' that Joan Wheatley
gave to her son Jack. Clearly he was
considered a modern 'watcher'

Jack would have made a good watcher.
He later became Major-General Sir Jack Younger Bt.
He fought at Tobruk, was captured and escaped from
a PoW camp, and then spent a year fighting with
Italian partisans behind enemy lines

Click on the image to enlarge

Joan and Charles write to Jack while he is a
prisoner of war in Italy recommending how he
might profitably spend his time, and talking of
their plans for running a communal farm and
clinic in the future.

N.B. The typo with the date is amusing,

Click on the images to enlarge

Parts of a long letter from Joan Wheatley to Dennis
exploring the practical issues faced by the modern
'watchers'.

It is likely that it was written just before the end of the
war, because it contains references to DW getting
'free and out of uniform' and to his getting well rested
'before we start on the house' - presumably a reference
to 'Grove Place', which he bought towards the end of
the war.

The pamphlet mentioned in the letter is missing.

Click on the images to enlarge

For a transcript of the full letter, click here

In 'Eyes of Horus', Ra-ab Hotep (aka Joan Grant) was one of the leaders of the movement which secretly sought to bring about the return of the 'true' religion. They sought to do this (and largely succeeded) with a minimum of bloodshed as they were compassionate people.

The movement's full name was 'The Eyes of Horus' (hence the title), and they were colloquially known as 'The Watchers'.

There are a few references to Watchers in the Beatty / Wheatley correspondence which would seem to indicate that not only was Joan recalling events and organisations from past lives, but that the Beattys and the Wheatleys (and presumably a select few others) were trying to make the Watchers something of a reality in the twentieth century.

Exactly what the purpose was, beyond promulgating a new (or old) religion is not clear, but it would seem to go beyond that. DW was expelled from Dulwich College in part because he had tried to set up a secret society, so he would probably have received warmly any suggestions along such lines from the Beattys.

In a letter written to Jack Younger, DW's middle stepson, while he was a prisoner of war in Italy, the Beattys not only discussed how he might spend his enforced idleness in developing his spiritual side but they also discussed their aims to form some kind of communal farm and clinic in the future.

The idea of renovating the country through a spiritual renaissance would have appealed to DW, because in one of his War Papers he had already suggested that one of the ways to defeat Hitler would be to foster a spiritual / religious leader in Germany to promote a more favourable belief system (possibly even Joan's?). He had also suggested persuading the leaders of all the World's major religions to advocate the removal of Hitler, being aware of the huge potential of Faith in such matters.

In the fullness of time Joan was to realise her ambition to start a clinic, but this was mostly achieved with her next husband, Denys Kelsey.

References : On Jack Younger, see Wikipedia

Provenance: Private collections