Theos-Talk Archives (November 1998 Message tt00031)

>Subject: re:Judge, and farewell
>From: "K Paul Johnson" <pjohnson@leo.vsla.edu>
>Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1998 09:47:42 -0500 (EST)
>
>Hey gang,
>
>I'll start by responding to Dallas's comments concerning Judge,
>then explain why I will not participate in this list further.
>
>I find fascinating the distinction between "Histories and
>historical documents" and "opinions (his own or those of
>others)."  What this amounts to is an insistence that ULT
>histories are "histories" and other sources are "opinion."  I
>feel sure that objective non-ULT observers would agree that ULT
>"histories" are absolutely rife with opinion.  And since my own
>work as well as books by Bruce Campbell and Arthur Nethercot are
>published by university presses rather than sectarian
>organizations, objective observers might consider the historical
>portrayals in them to be more than mere opinion.

Dallas is right about W.Q. Judge. And - since when has a book the TRUTH when
published by a ... University Press? Impressed, impressed! For me poppycock
is poppycock even when published by a University. I feel Dallas wanted to
highlight that the slanders and reductional view about Judge are not based
on historical facts but rather on rumours and questionable and secondary
sources. What must consider ALL of a matter to get an objective view. That's
all.

>The Judge affair is treated at length by Nethercot in his Last Five Lives
>of Annie Besant, in a chapter called "The Judging of Judge."
>Unfortunately he does not have endnotes, but one can still detect
>what sources he used.  Garrett's "Isis Very Much Unveiled" is a
>major source.  See my bibliography in Initiates of Theosophical
>Masters for details on these works.
>
>As for details: I challenged Dallas's claim that Judge's
>"sustained effort" after TS headquarters moved to India was
>responsible for tremendous growth.  He says that "after HPB and
>Olcott left for India in 1878 it was Judge who kept the TS in New
>York alive by holding weekly meetings, even when no one was
>present."  That is a very misleading statement.  It *was*
>"after...1878"-- but *well after.*  My point was that Judge did
>not make a *sustained effort* but rather *resumed* his effort
>after some years.  This is a matter of record and Dallas seems to
>avoid facing this fact.


Dallas "avoids" this fact because this is in reality not a fact and you
can't avoid nothing. Yes, Judge did make sustained efforts for the Cause
*uninterrupted* at the Headquarters at NY (it was never "transferred" -
another fairy tale of blind believers of Adyarism). There are not Judge's
own words but also from trustful people and coworkers around him. And we
should not forget what HPB herself said, when Judge launched the ES-Section
together with her in 1888: He is a chela with 13 years standing. He was the
only one who was not pledged. That says much. Furthermore she said: He is
the only agent of Dzyan in America. Furthermore it is true that much of the
work Judge did was esoteric work, not to be recognized by everyone and not a
work of trumpets and noise.

>Second, as for Judge producing no letters that turned Besant
>against Olcott, look to Garrett, described in my Initiates,
>concerning threats that HSO would somehow harm Besant if she went
>to India.  (This was after the resignation imbroglio.) Besant's reports
about
>the letters from/through Judge show that they started fairly soon
>after HPB's death.  And it is clear that Besant's perceiving
>Judge as a channel to the Masters, and their joint headship of the ES
>which Olcott had always kept at arm's length, had the effect of
>distancing her from Olcott.  This whether or not the letters in
>question specifically denigrated HSO.  They did promote Judge, as
>in "Judge's plan is right.  Follow him and stick" (see
>Nethercot.)


This period in question is the time when AB was hypnotized and under
influence of dark forces. She was the pupil of Judge and pledged. After she
broke the pledge her teacher warned her three times not to go the left hand
path. Only after she ignored the warnings (later this sad situation was
repeated from 1907 on, when the then messenger of the Masters, Katherine
Tingley, had reason to warn AB again three times.) Judge received order from
Master to cancel the *probation* chelaship of AB and kick her down from her
office which she got for *test*.

>If one believes that Olcott wrote his resignation "unrequested"
>simply because no one who pressured him to resign did no
>explicitly and publicly, then there isn't much I can say to
>dissuade them from this view.  See Nethercot for some background.
>As for Judge urging HSO to withdraw the resignation, the politics
>of all this are complicated but it would seem that alliances were
>constantly shifting by this point and Olcott's support from
>elsewhere, India particularly, had given him courage to oppose
>his detractors.  Although in one place he attributes his change
>of heart to Masters' instructions, in ODL he says it was due to
>the influence of Indian supporters (see Initiates for the
>citation.)  Judge's request to HSO not to resign might have been
>a face-saving move when it became clear that HSO did not intend
>to do so anyway.  None of these principals can be trusted to be
>honest and open about such secretive political maneovering.
>
>As for Judge not wanting to go to India-- that doesn't mean he
>didn't want the TS presidency which could have been shifted to
>New York or London.  Remember that a pro-Western, anti-India tone
>was quite prevalent in Judge's publications at the time of the
>division.  (Not in cultural terms, but in terms of where TS
>effort should be concentrated.)


If Judge had the wish to get President he had many chances and opportunities
to get it easy as both HSO and AB declared several times that he is the best
candidate. The truth is that AB had selfish dream of power. Judge was ever
fair and loyal - even to his enemies. Judge never used tricks or slanders.
It was AB who tried to put down HSO and Judge was on HSO's side, although he
became more and more selfish after HPB's death and tried to undermine her
major role in the TS. Then AB began to hate Judge and tried to put down
Judge.
That selfish progress in the Adyar TS which was mainly financed and nursed
by the American Theosophists was one of the major reasons for the most
Theosophists to declare independence to Adyar. No one was forbidden to join
the NY parent society who was willing to accept the first object and live
for the true teachings. So it was the Adyar TS who was responsibly for the
split of 1895. Adyar excluded itself from the mainstream. This was the thee
last step of a series of many incidents into avichi (it began in 1885 when
Olcott kicked off HPB - and with her the Masters - from Adyar). What then
followed after the 1895 actions of HSO and AB, in collaboration with
Chakravarti and Bishop Leadbeater is well known: The rapid change into a
church where free thought was forbidden, selfishness, sensations,
clairvoyance, claims, claims, claims, the falsification of the genuine
teachings, psychism etc. led the Adyar TS into a horrible parody of what the
genuine TS stands for: The fight against the tidal wave of psychism and
superstition. This psychic and materialistic organization (Alice L. Cleather
would say: the lengthen arm of Bhutan and Vatican) brought birth to the
pseudo-occultism and pseudo-theosophy and the childish and dangerous New Age
of today of which we all have to suffer. It was only Katherine Tingley who
fighted uninterrupted against this bad development and when under her lead
the Mahatma Letters were published in 1923 it was a great shocking for the
Adyarits because everyone now could see with his own eyes which side gave
the right meaning of the genuine teachings. Only when KT furthermore forced
the Blavatsky Collected Works project the Adyar Church made steps to go back
to the path. But even today there is a great party within the Adyar TS that
continues the pseudo-occultism. That is the main reason for the worldwide
problems of the Adyar TS of today, discussed so much every day in the net.
Hard but true.

Frank




...Snip....