Quotes:Judge, William Quan

Zirkoff, Boris

Judge, William Quan. One of the chief Founders of The Theosophical Society. The life of Mr. Judge is so indissolubly involved in the history and development of The Theosophical Society, that to outline. the one is almost identical to outlining the other. We limit ourselves here to the lesser known facts of Mr. Judge’s early life, prior to his meeting H.P.B. and Col. Olcott.

The son of Frederick H. Judge and Mary Quan, William Quan Judge was born in Dublin, Ireland, April 13, 1851, and spent his early childhood in a country where material adversity often found compensation in its natives’ awareness of the silent forces of nature. At the age of seven a serious illness struck the lad and the doctor informed the family gathered at his bedside that William was dead. But before grief could overwhelm the would-be mourners, to everyone's amazement the boy revived. His recovery was slow, however, but during the year of his convalescence, he began to show an interest in mystical subjects. Unaware of his ability to read, the family found him engrossed in books dealing with Mesmerism, Phrenology, Magic, Religion and similar subjects.

The Judge family came to the U.S.A. when William was thirteen, sailing on the Inman Liner “City of Limerick,” which arrived in New York on July 14, 1864. The mother had already died at the birth of her seventh child in Ireland, and the father had to assume the double responsibility of educating and providing for the children. After a brief stay at the Old Merchant’s Hotel on Courtland St., and later on Tenth St., New York, the family finally settled in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Hardship was no stranger to the Judge household, but William managed to finish his schooling before going to work. He eventually became a clerk in the Law Office of George P. Andrews, who later became Judge of the Supreme Court of New York, and developed an interest in the legal profession, for which he soon began to prepare himself. His father died soon after. On coming of age, William became a naturalized American citizen in April, 1872, and was admitted to the State Bar of New York one month later. His industry, natural shrewdness and inflexible persistence commended him to his clients and he became, as time went on, a specialist in Commercial Law.

In 1874, Judge married a school teacher, Ella M. Smith of Brooklyn (who died April 17, 1931), by whom he had a daughter who succumbed to diphtheria in infancy. The marriage was not successful; his wife, a strict Methodist at the time, not only did not share his later theosophical interests, but opposed them, both on personal and religious grounds. The loss of their child added to the unhappiness of their family life, especially so since Judge was very fond of children, who responded to his affection.

It was in the Fall of 1874, shortly after his marriage, that Judge came in contact with H. P. Blavatsky. According to Olcott, he was then serving in the Law office of E. Delafield Smith, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. After reading Col. Olcott’s articles in the New York Daily Graphic (published in March, 1875, as a work entitled People from the Other World) outlining his experiences at the Eddy Homestead at Chittenden, Vt., where some weird Spiritualistic seances were being held, he wrote to the Colonel asking for an introduction to Madame Blavatsky. Eventually the desired invitation came, and resulted in an association that was to last throughout their lives.

Judge became a frequent visitor at H.P.B.’s apartment, at 46 Irving Place, New York, where the founding of the Theosophical Society was soon to take place. According to Col. Olcott, one evening, after a lecture by a New York architect, George H. Felt, on “The Lost Canon of Proportion of the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans,” Olcott wrote on a scrap of paper: “Would it not be a good thing to form a Society for this kind of study?”-and gave it to Judge. H.P.B. read the note and nodded assent. (H. S. Olcott, Old Diary Leaves, I, 118).

A new life now commenced for the young lawyer, and his association with H.P.B. and Col. Olcott brought him his greatest opportunity. His youth and his sense of insecurity, both material and spiritual, prevented him at first from taking full advantage of the gifts thus laid before him, but in his struggle with himself, beset as he was, with adverse financial and domestic difficulties, he developed an inner strength which later was to marshal into activity all his hidden powers.

We do not have any information as to whether W. Q. Judge participated at all in the preparation of Isis Unveiled, the writing of which at the time demanded much of H.P.B.’s energy. His younger brother, however, John H. Judge, rendered valuable serv· ice in the matter of preparing H.P.B.’s manuscript for the printer, by copying a good portion of the work. This was not an easy task, for typewriters were unknown in those days, and it was necessary to prepare manuscripts for publication by means of handwritten copy. Young John H. Judge met H.P.B. when he was only seventeen years of age; he had a great admiration for H.P.B. and considered it a signal privilege to assist her in her literary task. John H. Judge visited the Point Loma Theosophical Headquarters in California on August 25, 1914, and related these facts to the body of students gathered to receive him.

Strangely enough, a short time before the actual publication of H.P.B.’s first work, some disruption occurred in the relations between H.P.B. and W. Q. Judge, possibly due to some occult test. Writing about it, Olcott says: "During that year of interregnum [which he places at between July 16, 1877 and Aug. 27, 1878] Mr. Judge did not visit us, owing to a difficulty between Mme. Blavatsky and himself, nor did she write to him nor he to her, his only letters being addressed to me. This is mentioned merely by way of explaining why his name does not appear at that period in either of the Minute Books or in ‘Old Diary Leaves’... When between us three were re-established, and continued down to the death of H.P.B.”

W. Q. Judge’s position as one of the three chief Founders of the Theosophical Society-questioned as it has been by some ignorant critics-is amply substantiated by both Col. Olcott and H.P.B. In the light of their emphatic statements to this effect, there can be no doubt on the subject. When H.P.B. and Olcott left the U.S.A. for India, December 17, 1878, the small group of Theosophists was left in the hands of the Acting President, Major-General Abner Doubleday, of Civil War fame, and W. Q. Judge. The Society had largely been conducted as a “literary salon” with H.P.B. as the main attraction. The vacuum she left behind could not be filled either by Doubleday or Judge. During the years immediately following the removal of the Founders to India, Judge was left very much alone both by H.P.B. and the Masters. The golden days when Judge could visit the Lamasery, as H.P.B.’s apartment in New York was called, seemed gone for ever. Judge wrote rather despairingly to Olcott, complaining that he was being left out in the cold. This situation was undoubtedly connected with his trials as a probationary chela. He asked for news about the Masters, just anything. It is from the period of 1879-82 that Judge’s correspondence with Damodar K. Mavalankar dates. The replies of the latter revealed to Judge a more intimate relationship between Master and pupil than he had ever hoped for himself, and this made Judge his fervent admirer and life-long friend. In the series entitled “A Hindu Chela's Diary,” Judge paraphrases Damodar’s mystical experiences, as described in his letters to him.

In a letter to Damodar dated June 11, 1883, Judge writes: “I have your last. On the back is written in red pencil 'Better come M∴’ . . .” It was in 1884, which year marked the turning-point in Judge’s career, that he undertook his long wished for journey to India. He went via Paris where he arrived March 25, 1884. When H.P.B., Col. Olcott and party arrived in Paris, March 28th, Judge was on hand to meet them. According to some of his published letters, Judge was ordered by the Masters to stay there and help H.P.B. in writing The Secret Doctrine, which at that time was still envisioned as a new version of Isis Unveiled–a plan abandoned later. Judge worked for and with H.P.B., both in Paris and at Enghien, where they stayed for a while in May as guests of Count and Countess Gaston d’Adhemar. He also was in London for a few days during H.P.B:s hurried trip there in early April. Judge left Paris for India at the end of June, arriving in Bombay July 15th, where he lectured the 18th on “Theosophy and the Destiny of India.” After lecturing at Poona, Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Gooty, he reached Adyar August 10th. His brief stay at Adyar seems to be shrouded in somewhat of a mystery, which we may never be able to unravel for lack of adequate documentation.

It was during Judge’s stay at Adyar that the Christian College Magazine of Madras published the article “The Collapse of Koot Hoomi,” with fifteen forged letters purporting to have been written by H.P.B. That period was one of grave anxiety and serious trouble, and the atmosphere at Adyar must have been electrically charged. We do not know exactly when Judge left Adyar on his return trip to New York, but he does state himself that he was in London in November, 1884, on his way home via England. It was on November 1st, 1884, that H.P.B. and party left London and boarded the steamer at Liverpool, on their way to India via Alexandria and Port Said. Olcott, on the other hand, sailed from Marseilles for Bombay on October 20, arriving at his destination November 10th. From the above it follows that Judge left Adyar at about the time when both H.P.B. and Olcott were enroute to Adyar from Europe. Considering the routes used in those days, it is most likely that their steamers met each other somewhere in the Mediterranean, but no information has ever come to light on this subject, nor any hint as to why Judge left Adyar so soon and without waiting for the Founders’ arrival. There is no information either on a meeting between Judge and Damodar and what the former thought of him after personally contacting him.

Judge sailed for the U.S.A. from Liverpool, November 15, 1884, on the British steamer SS Wisconsin, and reached New York November 26th. It was on that voyage that A. E. S. Smythe, future President of the Canadian Theos. Society, met him for the first time.

The fact, however, that Judge's visits to H.P.B. and to Adyar marked the beginning of his exceptionally successful work for the Society would indicate that he derived inspiration from his journey. Upon his return to New York, Judge found his financial prospects greatly improved. He joined the law firm in which Olcott's brother worked, and thus he was able to devote more time to the Society.

Col. Olcott graphically describes the inner change which had taken place in Judge. He says: “...Mr. Judge felt what you may call the 'divine afflatus' to devote himself to the work and to pick up the loose threads we had left scattered there in America and carry on. The result shows what one man can do who is altogether devoted to his cause.”

In reviewing the situation in America, Judge realized that a radical change was needed in the administration of the Society, if it were to make any headway. Consequently, he wrote to H.P.B. and Olcott suggesting that an American Section be formed. This was done in June, 1886, with Judge elected as permanent General Secretary. The new Section soon prospered under his vigorous leadership and new branches were chartered all over the country.

Judge’s despondency and immaturity of earlier years seemed entirely gone. He soon attracted to himself devoted workers who gladly carried out his plans. Olcott comments again: “...His brain was fertile in good practical ideas, and to his labours almost exclusively was due the rapid and extensive growth of our movement in the United States; the others, his colleagues, but carried out his plans.”

In April, 1886, Judge started his magazine The Path which was to become the backbone of Theosophical publicity in the U.S.A. As there were few qualified writers at the time in America, Judge wrote a great many articles himself. He did so under a number of pseudonyms, such as An American Mystic, Eusebio Urban, Rodriguez Undiano, Hadji Erinn, William Brehon and others. His style was simple and direct, and he dealt with a variety of theosophical and allied subjects. H.P.B.’s admiration of this journal was very marked, and she referred to it as “pure Buddhi.”

In the Summer of 1888, Judge published An Epitome of Theosophy, a gem of succinct presentation of the chief tenets of the Ancient Wisdom. In a much shorter form it had previously appeared as a Theosophical “Tract,” and was also published in The Path (Vol. II, Jan., 1888). So wide spread was its circulation at the time, that the Theosophical Publication Society in England published the expanded version which Judge wrote specifically for that purpose.

In 1889 Judge started a smaller magazine intended for inquirers which he called The Theosophical Forum. His answers to questions submitted are models of concise expression founded on a deep knowledge of technical Theosophy. He also contributed articles to The Theosophist and to Lucifer which H.P.B. started in London in the Fall of 1887.

Judge’s understanding of the Indian philosophy found expression in an excellent interpretation of The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali which was produced with the assistance of James Henderson Connelly and published in New York in 1889.

In 1890 Judge published Echoes from the Orient, a broad outline of Theosophical tenets which originally appeared in Kate Field’s Washington, under the pseudonym of “Occultus.”

In the same year appeared a rendering of the Bhagavad-Gita, based mainly on the translation of J. Cockburn Thomson, hut with valuable commentaries in footnotes. He also wrote further Notes or Commentaries in The Path, and these were published later in hook form.

In the latter part of 1891, appeared Judge’s Letters That Have Helped Me, a series of letters written by him to “Jasper Niemand” (Mrs. Julia ver Planck, later Mrs. Archibald Keightley) which had originally appeared in The Path. Much later, namely in 1905, there was published at New York a second series of Letters compiled by Jasper Niemand and Thomas Green. Both series have been repeatedly reprinted.

In 1893 Judge published The Ocean of Theosophy, which in subsequent years became one of the Theosophical classics, running through innumerable editions.

Judge was also instrumental in publishing a large number of Oriental Department Papers consisting of Sanskrit and other Oriental Scriptures specially translated for this Department by Prof. Manilal Dvivedi and Chas. Johnston. He also issued from June, 1890, through March, 1894, the Department of Branch Work Papers containing valuable suggestions for Theosophical work and study. Both of these series of Papers are now quite scarce.

Approximately in 1894-95, Judge supplied the current edition of Funk & Wagnalls’ The Standard Dictionary with definitions of Theosophical terms, and was announced therein as a specialist on the subject.

A number of articles and essays from Judge's active pen appeared in The Irish Theosophist, The Pacific Theosophist, The New Californian, The Vahan, and the Proceedings of various Theosophical Congresses and of the World’s Fair Parliament of Religions in 1893. His literary activity was outstanding, particularly considering that it was limited to a period of hardly ten years (reckoned from the founding of The Path), during which Judge was often ill.

In December, 1888, Judge was in Dublin, Ireland, and there is evidence that he went from there to London and assisted H.P.B. in the formation of the Esoteric Section. On December 14 of that year H.P.B. issued a special order appointing Judge as her “only representative for said Section in America” and as “the sole channel through whom will be sent and received all communications between the members of said Section and myself [H.P.B.,]” and she did so “in virtue of his character as a chela of thirteen years standing.”

The same year Judge was appointed by Col. Olcott as Vice- President of the Theosophical Society, and in 1890 was officially elected to that office, the rules having been changed.

The special trust and confidence reposed in Judge by H.P.B. may be better understood if the psychological mystery connected with him is born in mind, a mystery which is better known in the Orient and which had remained completely unknown in the West until recent times. As explained by C. A. Griscom, one of Judge’s friends and co-workers,

“It was the good fortune of a few of us to know something of the real Ego who used the body known as Wm. Q. Judge. He once spent some hours describing to my wife and me the experience the Ego had in assuming control of the instrument it was to use for so many years. The process was not quick nor an easy one and indeed was never absolutely perfected, for to Mr. Judge’s dying day, the physical tendencies and heredity of the body he used would crop up and interfere with the full expression of the inner man’s thoughts and feelings. An occasional abruptness and coldness of manner was attributable to this lack of co-ordination. Of course Mr. Judge was perfectly aware of this and it would trouble him for fear his real friends would be deceived as to his real feeling. He was always in absolute control of his thoughts and actions, but his body would sometimes slightly modify their expression... Mr. Judge told me in December 1894, that the Judge body was due by its Karma to die the next year and that it would have to be tided over this period by extraordinary means. He then expected this process to be entirely successful, and that he would be able to use that body for many years, but he did not count upon the assaults from without, and the strain and exhaustion. This, and the body’s heredity, proved too much for even his will and power. Two months before his death he knew he was to die, but even then the indomitable will was hard to conquer and the poor exhausted, pain-racked body was dragged through two months in one final and supreme effort to stay with his friends.”

In this connection, the following passage from one of H.P.B.’s letters to Judge, written from Ostende on October 3, 1886, is of great interest:

“The trouble with you is that you do not know the great

change that came to pass in you a few years ago. Others have

COL. HENRY STEEL OLCOTT 1832-1907 This photograph, taken in the early days of The Theosophical Society, is preserved in the Adyar Archives.

DR. ALEXANDER WILDER 1823-1908 (Consult the Bio-Bibliographical Index for a biographical outline.)

occasionally their astrals changed and replaced by those of Adepts (as of Elementaries) and they influence the outer, and the higher man. With you, it is the nirmanakaya not the ‘astral’ that blended with your astral. Hence the dual nature and fighting.”

The fact referred to in both of these excerpts is what is known as Tulku, a technical Tibetan term which describes the condition when a living Initiate or High Occultist sends a portion of his consciousness to take embodiment, for a longer or shorter period of time, in a neophyte-messenger whom that Initiate sends into the outer world to perform a duty or to teach. There are many degrees of this condition, and most of its mysteries remained under the seal of secrecy until the present century, and are even today but very imperfectly understood among students of the Movement. It is this teaching which provides the key to the many apparent contradictions in the character of Messengers and Chelas as witnessed in the history of the Movement for many years past.

In a forthright letter dated from London, Oct. 23, 1889, H.P.B. spoke of Judge as being “part of herself since several aeons” and wrote to him saying:

“The Esoteric Section and its life in the U.S.A. depends on W.Q.J. remaining its agent and what he is now. The day W.Q.J. resigns, H.P.B. will be virtually dead for the Americans.

“W.Q.J. is the Antaskarana between the two Manas(es) the American thought and the lndian–or rather the trans-Himalayan Esoteric Knowledge.”

With H.P.B.’s death, May 8, 1891, a great cohering and vitalizing influence was removed from the public activity of the T.S. At first, the shock of her physical disappearance momentarily united all in seeming solidarity, but the contest of strong wills which had existed in the Society for some time past could only be delayed temporarily.

On May 13th Judge sailed for London. He attended the Convention of the European Branches of the T.S., July 9-10, under Olcott's chairmanship; Annie Besant had arrived a few days after H.P.B.’s death. It is during that period in London that the Esoteric Section was placed under the joint Outer Headship of Judge and Annie Besant. Judge returned to the U.S.A. on August 6th.

In January 1892, less than a year after H.P.B.’s passing, Col. Olcott, an ailing man at the time, resigned the Presidency of the T.S. in Judge’s favor, and prepared to devote his remaining years to the writing of his memoirs and to other literary work. There is strong evidence, however, that illness and fatigue were not the only reasons for this action. Among other and more compelling reasons, was one connected with the E.S. Olcott had originally opposed its formation, hut yielded when learning that the Masters themselves had ordered H.P.B. to organize such a Section. Eventually, after H.P.B. had gone, the leading members of the Blavatsky household in London began to look to Judge and Annie Besant for leadership and direction. Olcott himself has written: “Every possible thing was done to reduce my position to that of a cipher or figurehead; so I met the thing half way with my resignation.” There is more to this story, however, than has ever appeared in print.

When Olcott's resignation came up for discussion and action before the Blavatsky Lodge of London, Annie Besant, as President thereof, addressed a strong letter to the membership of that Lodge, dated March 11, 1892, expressing her candid view that “the present Vice-President, and remaining Co-Founder of the Society, William Quan Judge, is the most suitable person to guide the Society, and one who cannot with justice he passed over.” This was an unqualified endorsement of Judge as the future President of the T.S.

At the Annual Convention of the American Section held at Chicago, April 25, 1892, Judge’s election to the Presidency was unanimous; this decision, however, was accompanied by an unanimous Resolution, strongly supported by Judge, that Olcott should revoke his resignation due to go into effect on May 1st.

The European Section did not hold its Convention in London until July, 1892, at which time Judge was unanimously elected President, the European members having understood that Olcott's decision to resign was final. The situation was further complicated and uncertain because Olcott himself had intimated in May 1892 that his resignation was still an open question “dependent upon the contingencies of my health and the proof that my return to office would be for the best interest of the Society.”

The Indian Section, as early as February of that year, had unanimously agreed to recommend that the Presidential office should not be filled during the lifetime of Olcott, but that his duties be performed, if necessary, by the Vice-President acting as Pres. of the T.S. Thus the Indian members were not actually called on to vote.

Col. Olcott had also raised an objection to Judge’s assuming the Presidency immediately, demanding that Judge first resign his post as General Secretary of the American Section, as otherwise this would give him three votes out of five on the General Council.

On August 21st, 1892, Olcott issued an Executive Circular in which he stated that on February 11th of that year “the familiar voice of my Guru chided me for attempting to retire before my time...” He also pointed out that on April 20th Judge had cabled him from New York that he was not then able to relinquish the Secretaryship of the American Section and wrote him enclosing a transcript of a message he had also received “for me” [Olcott] from a Master that “it is not time, nor right, nor just, nor wise, nor the real wish of the ∴ that you should go out, either corporeally or officially.” His communication ended with the following statement:

“. . . I revoke my letter of resignation and resume the active duties and responsibilities of office; and I declare William Q. Judge, Vice-President, my constitutional successor and eligible for duty as such upon his relinquishment of any other office in the Society which he may hold at the time of my death.”

Judge, in a Notice to the members of his own American Section, gave an unqualified endorsement to this latest development and expressed his satisfaction. This action alone, if nothing else, throws a flood of light upon the nobility of his character.

The year 1893 was marked by an event which showed the great impact that Theosophical publicity had made in America. It spelled out Judge’s high point of success when, at his suggestion, the Theosophical Society was invited to participate in the Parliament of Religions held at Chicago during the World’s Fair. Distinguished representatives of Oriental religions were chosen from the ranks of the T.S. Hevavitarana Dharmapala, the resuscitator of Buddhism in Asia, came from Ceylon; Prof. G. N. Chakravarti represented Brahmanism, bringing credentials from three Brahmanical Sabhas. He was Professor of Mathematics at the University of Allahabad (ancient Prayaga), and a member of the T.S. Branch in that city. Judge organized the Theosophical meetings, and officially represented Col. Olcott; he, with Annie Besant, stimulated the Congress with their clear exposition of the ancient teachings. The sessions were held on September 15, 16 and 17, and were attended by overflow audiences.

It so happened that Annie Besant was especially strongly impressed by the personality of Chakravarti, and from that time on her opinions became colored by his point of view. Playing on her desire for occult powers, Chakravarti “captured” Mrs. Besant in less than two months. Judge watched his growing ascendency over her mind with anxiety, as he intuitively felt that a subtle attempt was being made then to divert her efforts from the genuine line of occultism into a sectarian offshoot. He became more uneasy when, on Mrs. Besant’s return to England with the party that included Chakravarti, she prepared to go to India on a long lecture tour, and he warned her that it was not an auspicious time to go. Before leaving, she spent some time in London during which she saw a good deal of the Brahmana; the latter left for India shortly before Mrs. Besant and Countess Wachtmeister started for the Orient.

A vivid light is thrown upon this very critical period in the history of the T.S. by Dr. Archibald Keightley, a successful physician, a staunch supporter of H.P.B., and a most reliable student. In the protest he made in defence of Judge in 1895, there occurs the following passage. After giving instances of Chakravarti’s psychic ability to throw a glamour over individuals or groups, he writes:

“I lived at Headquarters [London] during Mr. Chakravarti’s visit there and knew from Mrs. Besant, from him and from personal observation, of his frequent magnetisation of Mrs. Besant. He said he did it to ‘co-ordinate her bodies for work to be done.’ To a physician and a student of occultism, the magnetisation of a woman advanced to the critical age of midlife, a vegetarian, an ascetic, by a man, a meat-eater, one of full habit, large appetite and of another and dark race, is not wise. The latter magnetism will assuredly overcome the former, however excellent the intentions of both persons. And I soon saw the mental effect of this in Mrs. Besant's entire change of view, in other matters besides those of H.P.B. and Mr. Judge.”

It should be borne in mind here that for a number of years during the mission of H.P.B., both in India and later, there existed a growing antagonism on the part of certain groups of proud Indian Brahmanas against the divulging by her of esoteric truths to the “outcastes,” truths which they considered their jealously guarded secret knowledge to which they believed they had exclusive rights. Even individuals such as Subba Row fell victims to this inbred feeling, apparently oblivious of the fact that H.P.B.’s actions were taken on direct orders of her Teachers. Brahmanical orthodoxy was entrenched in its age-old exclusiveness, and, even though its votaries could not suppress the work of the Theosophical Society, they could at least make repeated attempts to distort its teachings and foil its main objectives. Even Col. Olcott repeatedly fell under the same subtle and pernicious influence, and had to be severely taken to task by H.P.B., as many of her letters to him plainly show. The Allahabad Branch of the T.S. was a hotbed of this Brahmanical exclusiveness and haughtiness, as is conclusively shown by the message which Master M. ordered H.P.B. to convey to A. P. Sinnett with regard to the Prayaga Branch-one of the most important pronouncements from the Teachers.

Approximately at this time in the life of Judge we see the gradual emergence of a simmering enmity against him on the part of those whose secret jealousy and lust for personal power made them a sounding board for nefarious influences the real nature of which they obviously did not realize. Judge’s own declaration that he was in personal touch with the Masters and received communications from them, both for his own use and for transmission to others, became fruitful soil upon which the thorny weeds of enmity could grow. In some instances such feelings can be readily understood, but to find both Olcott and Annie Besant among these, proves both the subtle nature of the temptation and their lack of intuition. While making complimentary statements about Judge in print, they obviously indulged in vastly different feelings behind the scenes. This is not intended as a cheap accusation. The situation prevailing at the time should serve as a lesson. An imperative need for all students of the occult is to constantly bear in mind that dedicated workers, pledged disciples, and even merely sincere aspirants, wholeheartedly engaged in Theosophical work, are tested, tried, and disciplined at every turn by the sudden exteriorization of their pent up and delayed Karman, an occult law stressed by H.P.B. herself. This is a process of purification which nothing can stop or set aside, until the disciple has worked off his negative karmic tendencies and has risen above his weaknesses into the pure air of impersonal spirituality. Unless this fact is understood, no satisfactory explanation can ever be found for the recriminations, accusations, abuses and injustices which occurred at the time to embitter Judge’s last remaining years. While explaining their nature, the above occult law never justifies wrong action or thought for which every student is fully responsible.

It would be inadvisable to give a full account of the so-called “Judge Case” within the scope of the present outline. All pertinent data on the subject may be obtained by the perusal of The Theosophist, The Path and Lucifer for approximately the years 1893-96, and the following three main sources of information issued at the time: The Case Against W. Q. Judge (London: Theos. Puhl. Society, 1895) published by Annie Besant and prepared by her at the request of Olcott; Reply by William Q. Judge, read by Dr. A. Keightley on behalf of Judge before an informal meeting of the T.S. Convention at Boston, Mass., on April 29, 1895, and published in pamphlet form; and Isis and the Mahatmas published by Judge in London in 1895, and dealing mainly with the attack published in the Westminster Gazette.

The accusations against Judge grew mainly out of a number of documents which Walter R. Old, at one time a devoted worker in H.P.B.’s household in London, and Sidney V. Edge, brought to Adyar in December, 1893, and which purported to prove that Judge had been misusing the names and handwritings of the Masters to bolster his own personal aims. Olcott considered the documents incriminating. Acting on a formal request of Annie Besant, who by then was at Allahabad with Prof. Chakravarti, Olcott wrote to Judge, Feb. 7, 1894, offering him two alternatives: (1) resignation from all offices, in which case only a general public explanation would be made; (2) to have a Judicial Committee convened as provided for in the Constitution of the Society. In the latter case, the proceedings would be made public. Judge decided in favor of the second alternative, and cabled March 10th in reply to Olcott: “Charges absolutely false. You can take what proceedings you see fit; going to London in July.” The Judicial Committee met in London on July 10th, 1894, to consider the six charges which had been drawn by Annie Besant.

The basic charges were that Judge had been untruthful in claiming uninterrupted teaching from, and communication with, the Masters from 1875 to the present time; and that he had sent messages, orders and letters as if sent and written by Masters.

Judge challenged the Committee’s jurisdiction in the case, pointing out that “the President and Vice-President could only be tried as such by such Committee, for official misconduct-that is misfeasances and malfeasances.” The Judicial Committee found itself also face to face with its own limitations, on the very basis of the T.S. Constitution, as it could not try anyone within the T.S. on questions of personal beliefs. Upon motion duly made, the charges were dismissed, and Olcott, concurring with this, made the following historically important statement:

“Mr. Judge’s defense is that he is not guilty of the acts charged; that Mahatmas exist, are related to our Society, and in personal connection with himself [Judge]; and he avers his readiness to bring many witnesses and documentary proofs to support his statements. You will at once see whither this would lead us. The moment we entered into these questions we should violate the most vital spirit of our federal compact, its neutrality in matters of belief. Nobody, for example, knows better than myself the fact of the existence of the Masters, yet I would resign my office unhesitatingly if the Constitution were amended so as to erect such a belief into a dogma: everyone in our membership is as free to disbelieve and deny their existence as I am to believe and affirm it. For the above reason, then, I declare as my opinion that this inquiry must go no farther; we may not break our own laws for any consideration whatsoever.”

In retrospect, it seems most curious that any kind of special Judicial Committee should have been required to convene, with all the attendant expenses of long journeys, in order to arrive at a conclusion which anyone could have readily arrived at by carefully consulting the Constitutional basis of the T.S.

In a sudden volte face, symptomatic of the many confused trends of thought fighting for supremacy at the time, Annie Besant stated: “For some years past persons inspired largely by personal hatred for Mr. Judge, and persons inspired Ly hatred for the Theosophical Society and for all that it represents, have circulated a mass of accusations against him, ranging from simple untruthfulness to deliberate and systematic forgery of the handwritings of Those Who to some of us are most sacred. The charges were not in a form that it was possible to meet, a general denial could not stop them, and explanation to irresponsible accusers was at once futile and undignified... I regard Mr. Judge as an Occultist, possessed of considerable knowledge and animated by a deep and unswerving devotion to the Theosophical Society. I believe that he has sometimes received messages for other people in one or other of the ways that I will mention in a moment, but not by direct writing by the Master nor by his direct precipitation; and that Mr. Judge has then believed himself to be jusified in writing down in the script adopted by H.P.B. for communications from the Master, the message psychically received, and in giving it to the person for whom it was intended, leaving that person to wrongly assume that it was a direct precipitation or writing by the Master himself-that is, that it was done through Mr. Judge, but done by the Master.”

When this entire period is carefully viewed in retrospect, many of the issues at stake appear rather childish and immature against the background of additional information on certain occult subjects which has become available since the publication in 1923 of The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett. Had the information contained therein on the rationale behind the sending of letters and messages by the Mahatmans, either by precipitation or otherwise, been available at the time, it is quite possible that responsible officials could have stemmed the tide of recrimination which enveloped the Society for years.

Even then several partial explanations on this subject were available in some of the writings of H.P.B., but somehow or other they had either not been consulted or simply forgotten. Portions of several of the Letters written by the Masters to Sinnett had been copied by several of the officials and placed in the hands of a few, carefully selected people; it is a wonder that certain other excerpts from them, bearing upon the matter of messages and precipitations, had not been equally dealt with, thus avoiding a great deal of unnecessary trouble.

The following two statements, among others, should he borne in mind. Master K. H. wrote to Sinnett:

“In noticing M’s [Master Morya’s] opinion of yourself expressed in some of his letters-(you must not feel altogether so sure that because they are in his handwriting, they are written by him, though of course every word is sanctioned by him to serve certain ends)-you say he has ‘a peculiar mode of expressing himself to say the least’.

On another occasion, Master K. H. explained:

“Very often our very letters-unless something very important and secret-are written in our handwritings by our chelas.”

ln the light of the above passages, what becomes of the accusation that Judge, while transmitting admittedly genuine messages from the Masters, yet gave them “a misleading material form,” meaning the handwriting used by Judge on those occasions?

The judicial verdict of the Committee was received with mixed feelings. The charges had been met on legal grounds, but human emotions are never satisfied with merely legal decisions, and so Judge’s guilt or innocence was to be decided rather by public opinion than otherwise. The minds of important officials in the Society were already made up for reasons which were not necessarily expressed in official sessions of Councils and Committees.

On September 27, 1894, Walter R. Old, then Treasurer and Recording Secretary of the T.S., sent in his resignation being “unable to accept the official statement with regard to the inquiries held upon the charges preferred against the Vice-President of the T.S.” This was of course his privilege; but he went one fatal step further. He published in the Westminster Gazette the entire series of papers in the so-called Judge Case which had been entrusted to him by Col. Olcott. This breach of faith precipitated a number of recriminations, accusations and emotion-whipped opinions as if Pandora's box had been suddenly opened. Charges and countercharges followed. At the Adyar Annual Convention, in December, 1894, Judge who was still Vice-President of the T.S., was slandered, and Col. Olcott, occupying the Chair, unfortunately did nothing to improve the prevailing Theosophical climate. Annie Besant renewed her charges against Judge and was supported by others. It soon became obvious that no satisfactory agreement could be reached between the contending parties. The final outcome of this unfortunate state of affairs was the decision of the American Section, the largest of the three then existing Sections, to become an independent body as “The Theosophical Society in America,” under the Presidentship of Judge. This became a fact at the Boston Convention on April 28-29, 1895, by a majority vote of 190 against 9.

A large number of the English lodges took a similar course. Some lodges and individual members in Continental Europe and Australia withdrew at a later date and affiliated with the Society m America. Judge expressed the general feeling in these words:

“The Unity of the Theosophical Movement does not depend upon singleness of organization, but upon similarity of work and aspiration; and in this we will ‘Keep the Link Unbroken’.”

Judge’s health had long been very poor. He had contracted Chagres fever in South America which had had debilitating effect on him. Later tuberculosis set in. During the Parliament of Religions he was at times unable to speak above a whisper, and he had many premonitions of death. The concerted enmity of some of his former co-workers must have contributed a great deal in depleting his physical resistance and he passed away on March 21, 1896, at about nine o’clock in the morning, at his New York home, in the presence of Mrs. Judge, E. T. Hargrove and an attending nurse.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 1, pp. 472-490

Judge, William Quan (1851-1896) *Practical Occultism. From the Private Letters of Wm. Q. Judge. Pasadena, Calif.: Theosophical University Press, 1951. 307 pp.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 8, p. 461

Judge, William Quan (1851-1896). *“The Bhagavad-Gita,” Commentary on the Second Chapter. The Path, New York, Vol. II, February, 1888.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 9, p. 427

Judge, William Quan (1851-1896). *E.S.T. Circular: “By Master’s Direction,” issued November, 1894.—*Excerpts from Letters. 419 Published in The Word, New York (ed. by Harold W. Percival), Vol. XV, April, 1912, pp. 17-18.—*Practical Occultism. From the Private Letters of W. Q. Judge. Pasadena, Calif.: Theos. University Press, 1951. 307 pp.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 10, pp. 418-419