Theos-Talk Archives (November 1997 Message tt00283)

Dear Friends:

 Thanks to both Dallas and Jerry E. we have strong statements in
support of William Quan Judge. There are those who enter Internet
discussion lists to interject controversy just for the fun of it. We
Theosophists have much more in common in this world of skeptics, than we
have differences. Reading the works of Judge should reveal to the open
mind and heart his true mystical understanding as well as evolution in
the field of practical occultism. Reading the historical background, so
well expressed by Jerry, will provide one with the Facts of the case.
While I have not read the material at Adyar, I have seen other archival
materials which prove to my mind that Judge was not only innocent of the
charges made against him, but indeed a victim of ambitious personages who
attributed to him motives of their own weak and paltry minds. Walter Old
and Sydney Edge were of such calibre and did not have a lasting
influence in the Society, for all their coniving.

 There are those who have benefited from Besant's writings and have
a perfect right to honor her many fine humanitarian accomplishments.
Loyalty to one's first teachers, or those whose writings have brought us
into the beauty of the Theosophical Philosophy is natural. But that
loyalty may blind us to the weakness of that teacher, the misguided path
taken by our predecessor. Whether we believe the story that Annie
regretted her treatment of Judge upon her deathbed or not, it is still
reasonable to ask a would-be critic to read his writings. By knowing
Judge from the inside, one may see that H.P.B. was not speaking
idle words when she called him " a chela of fourteen years standing "

 We might ask ourselves, were we ourselves on trial in the manner
of those students directly connected with H.P.B., would we have stood up
to the tests of our human frailties and misguided "virtues"?

 Earnestly saddened by all that still divides us,

 Dara Eklund