Theos-Talk Archives (March 2005 Message tt00448)

 William Q. Judge




The Greatest of the Exiles




1851 - 1896



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Who was Mr. William Q. Judge ?



H. P. Blavatsky
April 3rd. 1888 



"To William Q. Judge, 

General Secretary of the
American Section of the 

Theosophical Society.



MY DEAREST BROTHER AND CO-FOUNDER OF THE 

THEOSOPHICAL
SOCIETY:



In addressing to you this letter, which I request you to read to the
convention summoned for April 22nd, [1888]... We were several, to call it to
life in 1875. Since then you have remained alone to preserve that life
through good and evil report. 



It is to you chiefly, if not entirely, that the Theosophical Society owes
its existence in 1888. Let me then thank you for it, for the first and
perhaps the last, time publicly, and from the bottom of my heart, which
beats only for the cause you represent so well and serve so faithfully. 



I ask you to remember that, on this occasion, my voice is but the feeble
echo of other more sacred voices, and the transmitter of the approval of
Those whose presence is alive in more than one true Theosophical heart, and
lives, as I know, pre-eminently in yours. ..."




-- HPB





H.P.B.'s 1st Message to the American Theosophists. April l888.

LETTERS THAT HAVE HELPED ME, p. 276-7, U.L.T., Los Angeles, l946



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March 25th 2005 marks the 109th anniversary of the death of Mr.
Judge.





His worth is best described and found in reading this short
article:





===========================






THEOSOPHY GENERALLY STATED






"The claim is made that an impartial study of history, religion and
literature will show the existence from ancient times of a great body of
philosophical, scientific and ethical doctrine forming the basis and origin
of all similar thought in modern systems. It is at once religious and
scientific, asserting that religion and science should never be separated.
It puts forward sublime religious and ideal teachings, but at the same time
shows that all of it can be demonstrated to reason, and that authority other
than that has no place, thus preventing the hypocrisy which arises from
asserting dogmas on authority which no one can show as resting on reason. 



This ancient body of doctrine is known as the "Wisdom Religion" and was
always taught by adepts or initiates therein who preserve it through all
time. Hence, and from other doctrines demonstrated, it is shown that man,
being spirit and immortal, is able to perpetuate his real life and
consciousness, and has done so during all time in the persons of those
higher flowers of the human race who are members of an ancient and high
brotherhood who concern themselves with the soul development of man, held by
them to include every process of evolution on all planes. 



The initiates, being bound by the law of evolution, must work with humanity
as its development permits. Therefore from time to time they give out again
and again the same doctrine which from time to time grows obscured in
various nations and places. This is the wisdom religion, and they are the
keepers of it. At times they come to nations as great teachers and
"saviours," who only re-promulgate the old truths and system of ethics.
This therefore holds that humanity is capable of infinite perfection both in
time and quality, the saviours and adepts being held up as examples of that
possibility.



>From this living and presently acting body of perfected men H. P. Blavatsky
declared she received the impulse to once more bring forward the old ideas,
and from them also received several keys to ancient and modern doctrines
that had been lost during modern struggles toward civilization, and also
that she was furnished by them with some doctrines really ancient but
entirely new to the present day in any exoteric shape. These she wrote
among the other keys furnished by her to her fellow members and the world at
large. Added, then, to the testimony through all time found in records of
all nations we have this modern explicit assertion that the ancient learned
and humanitarian body of adepts still exists on this earth and takes an
interest in the development of the race.



Theosophy postulates an eternal principle called the unknown, which can
never be cognized except through its manifestations. This eternal principle
is in and is every thing and being; t periodically and eternally manifests
itself and recedes again from manifestation. In this ebb and flow evolution
proceeds and itself is the progress of the manifestation. 



The perceived universe is the manifestation of this unknown, including
spirit and matter, for Theosophy holds that those are but the two opposite
poles of the one unknown principle. They coexist, are not separate nor
separable from each other, or, as the Hindu scriptures say, there is no
particle of matter without spirit, and no particle of spirit without matter.




In manifesting itself the spirit-matter differentiates on seven planes, each
more dense on the way down to the plane of our senses than its predecessors
the substance in all being the same, only differing in degree. 



Therefore from this view the whole universe is alive, not one atom of it
being in any sense dead. It is also conscious and intelligent, its
consciousness and intelligence being resent on all planes though obscured
on this one. On this plane of ours the spirit focalizes itself in all human
beings who choose to permit it to do so, and the refusal to permit it is the
cause of ignorance, of sin. of all sorrow and suffering.



In all ages some have come to this high state, have grown to be as gods, are
partakers actively in the work of nature, and go on from century to century
widening their consciousness and increasing the scope of their government
in nature. 



This is the destiny of all beings, and hence at the outset Theosophy
postulates this perfectibility of the race, removes the idea of innate
un-regenerable wickedness, and offers a purpose and an aim for life which is
consonant with the longings of the soul and with its real nature, tending at
the same time to destroy pessimism with its companion, despair.



In Theosophy the world is held to be the product of the evolution of the
principle spoken of from the very lowest first forms of life guided as it
proceeded by intelligent perfected beings from other and older evolutions,
and compounded also of the egos or individual spirits for and by whom it
emanates. 



Hence man as we know him is held to be a conscious spirit, the flower of
evolution, with other and lower classes of egos below him in the lower
kingdoms, all however coming up and destined one day to be on the same human
stage as we now are, we then being higher still. Man's consciousness being
thus more perfect is able to pass from one to another of the planes of
differentiation mentioned. If he mistakes any one of them for the reality
that he is in his essence, he is deluded; the object of evolution then is
to give him complete self-consciousness so that he may go on to higher
stages in the progress of the universe. 



His evolution after coming on the human stage is for the getting of
experience, and in order to so raise up and purify the various planes of
matter with which he has to do, that the voice of the spirit may be fully
heard and comprehended.



He is a religious being because he is a spirit encased in matter, which is
in turn itself spiritual in essence. Being a spirit he requires vehicles
with which to come in touch with all the planes of nature included in
evolution, and it is these vehicles that make of him an intricate, composite
being, liable to error, but at the same time able to rise above all
delusions and conquer the highest place. 



He is in miniature the universe, for he is as spirit, manifesting himself to
himself by means of seven differentiations. Therefore is he known in
Theosophy as a sevenfold being. The Christian division of body, soul, and
spirit is accurate so far as it goes, but will not answer to the problems
of life and nature, unless, as is not the case, those three divisions are
each held to be composed of others, which would raise the possible total to
seven. The spirit stands alone at the top, next comes the spiritual soul or
Buddhi as it is called in Sanskrit. This partakes more of the spirit than
any below it, and is connected with Manas or mind, these three being the
real trinity of man, the imperishable part, the real thinking entity living
on the earth in the other and denser vehicles by its evolution. 



Below in order of quality is the plane of the desires and passions shared
with the animal kingdom, unintelligent, and the producer of ignorance
flowing from delusion. It is distinct from the will and judgment, and must
therefore be given its own place. On this plane is gross life, manifesting,
not as spirit from which it derives its essence, but as energy and motion
on this plane. It being common to the whole objective plane and being
everywhere, is also to be classed by itself, the portion used by man being
given up at the death of the body. 



Then last, before the objective body, is the model or double of the outer
physical case. This double is the astral body belonging to the astral plane
of matter, not so dense as physical molecules, but more tenuous and much
stronger, as well as lasting. It is the original of the body permitting the
physical molecules to arrange and show themselves thereon, allowing them to
go and come from day to day as they are known to do, yet ever retaining the
fixed shape and contour given by the astral double within. 



These lower four principles or sheaths are the transitory perishable part of
man, not himself, but in every sense the instrument he uses, given up at the
hour of death like an old garment, and rebuilt out of the general reservoir
at every new birth. The trinity is the real man, the thinker, the
individuality that passes from house to house, gaining experience at each
rebirth, while it suffers and enjoys according to its deeds--it is the one
central man, the living spirit-soul.



Now this spiritual man, having always existed, being intimately concerned in
evolution, dominated by the law of cause and effect, because in himself he
is that very law, showing moreover on this plane varieties of force of
character, capacity, and opportunity, his very presence must be explained,
while the differences noted have to be accounted for. 



The doctrine of reincarnation does all this. It means that man as a
thinker, composed of soul, mind and spirit, occupies body after body in life
after life on the earth which is the scene of his evolution, and where he
must, under the very laws of his being, complete that evolution, once it has
been begun. In any one life he is known to others as a personality, but in
the whole stretch of eternity he is one individual, feeling in himself an
identity not dependent on name, form, or recollection.



This doctrine is the very base of Theosophy, for it explains life and
nature. It is one aspect of evolution, for as it is reembodiment in
meaning, and as evolution could not go on without reembodiment, it is
evolution itself, as applied to the human soul. But it is also a doctrine
believed in at the time given to Jesus and taught in the early ages of
Christianity, being now as much necessary to that religion as it is to any
other to explain texts, to reconcile the justice of God with the rough and
merciless aspect of nature and life to most mortals, and to throw a light
perceptible by reason on all the problems that vex us in our journey through
this world. 



The vast, and under any other doctrine unjust, difference between the savage
and the civilized man as to both capacity, character, and opportunity can be
understood only through this doctrine, and coming to our own stratum the
differences of the same kind may only thus be explained. It vindicates
Nature and God, and removes from religion the blot thrown by men who have
postulated creeds which paint the creator as a demon. 



Each man's life and character are the outcome of his previous lives and
thoughts. Each is his own judge, his own executioner, for it is his own
hand that forges the weapon which works for his punishment, and each by his
own life reaches reward, rises to heights of knowledge and power for the
good of all who may be left behind him. Nothing is left to chance, favour,
or partiality, but all is under the governance of law. Man is a thinker,
and by his thoughts he makes the causes for woe or bliss; for his thoughts
produce his acts. He is the centre for any disturbance of the universal
harmony, and to him as the centre, the disturbance must return so as to
bring about equilibrium; for nature always works towards harmony. 



Man is always carrying on a series of thoughts, which extend back to the
remote past, continually making action and reaction. He is thus responsible
for all his thoughts and acts, and in that his complete responsibility is
established; his own spirit is the essence of this law and provides for
ever compensation for every disturbance and adjustment for all effects. 



This is the law of Karma or justice, sometimes called the ethical law of
causation. It is not foreign to the Christian scriptures, for both Jesus
and St. Paul clearly enunciated it. Jesus said we should be judged as we
gave judgment and should receive the measure meted to others. St. Paul
said: "Brethren, be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man
soweth that also shall he reap." And that sowing and reaping can only be
possible under the doctrines of Karma and reincarnation.



But what of death and after? Is heaven a place or is it not? Theosophy
teaches, as may be found in all sacred books, that after death the soul
reaps a rest. This is from its own nature. It is a thinker, and cannot
during life fulfill and carry out all nor even a small part of the myriads
of thoughts entertained. Hence when at death it casts off the body and the
astral body, and is released from the passions and desires, its natural
forces have immediate sway and it thinks its thoughts out on the soul plane,
clothed in a finer body suitable to that existence. 



This is called Devachan. It is the very state that has brought about the
descriptions of heaven common to all religions, but this doctrine is very
clearly put in the Buddhist and Hindu religions. It is a time of rest,
because the physical body being absent the consciousness is not in the
completer touch with visible nature which is possible on the material plane.
But it is a real existence, and no more illusionary than earth life; it is
where the essence of the thoughts of life that were as high as character
permitted, expands and is garnered by the soul and mind. 



When the force of these thoughts is fully exhausted the soul is drawn back
once more to earth, to that environment which is sufficiently like unto
itself to give it the proper further evolution. This alternation from state
to state goes on until the being rises from repeated experiences above
ignorance, and realizes in itself the actual unity of all spiritual beings.
Then it passes on to higher and greater steps on the evolutionary road.



No new ethics are presented by Theosophy, as it is held that right ethics
are for ever the same. But in the doctrines of Theosophy are to be found
the philosophical and reasonable basis for ethics and the natural
enforcement of them in practice. Universal brotherhood is that which will
result in doing unto others as you would have them do unto you, and in your
loving your neighbour as yourself--declared as right by all teachers in the
great religions of the world.




WILLIAM Q. JUDGE

December 1893 



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In 1888, H P B wrote Mr. Judge: 





"Well, my only friend, you ought to know better. Look into my life and try
to realize it--in its outer course at least, as the rest is hidden. I am
under the curse of ever writing, as the wandering Jew was under that of
being ever on the move, never stopping one moment to rest. Three ordinary
healthy persons could hardly do what I have to do. I live an artificial
life; I am an automaton running full steam until the power of generating
steam stops, and then--good-bye ! ... 





Night before last I was shown a bird's eye-view of the Theosophical
Societies. I saw a few earnest reliable Theosophists in a death struggle
with the world in general, with other--nominal but ambitious--Theosophists.
The former are greater in number than you may think, and they prevailed, as
you in America will prevail, if you only remain staunch to the Master's
programme and true to yourselves. And lass night I saw /\ and now I feel
strong--such as I am in my body--and ready to fight for Theosophy and the
few true ones to my last breath, The defending forces have to be
judiciously--so scanty they are--distributed over the globe, wherever
Theosophy is struggling against the powers of darkness."
--H. P. Blavatsky





Those who value Mr. Judge's service to Theosophy and to the Great Ones would
like to close this brief appreciation with some words of H P B written only
a few days before her death:





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H. P. Blavatsky
Apl. 15, 1891 





"To the Fifth Convention of the American Section of 

The Theosophical Society





BROTHER THEOSOPHISTS:





"I have purposely omitted any mention of my oldest friend and
fellow-worker, W.Q.Judge, in my general address to you, because I think that
his unflagging and self-sacrificing efforts for the building up of Theosophy
in America deserves special mention.





Had it not been for W.Q.Judge, Theosophy would not be where it is today in
the United States. It is he who has mainly built up the movement among
you, and he who has proved in a thousand ways his entire loyalty to the best
interests of Theosophy and the Society.



Mutual admiration should play no part in a Theosophical Convention, but
honour should be given where honour is due, and I gladly take this
opportunity of stating in public, by the mouth of my friend and colleague,
Annie Besant, my deep appreciation of the work of your General Secretary,
and of publicly tendering him my most sincere thanks and deeply-felt
gratitude in the name of Theosophy, and for the noble work he is doing and
has done.



Yours fraternally, 


*

H.P.Blavatsky * *

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[ Source: Fifth of the FIVE MESSAGES TO AMERICAN

THEOSOPHISTS, p.
32 ] 







Judge Day



March 25th 2005





Dallas





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]