Theos-Talk Archives (April 2006 Message tt00827)

Carlos apparently places a great deal of stock in what Alice 
Cleather says.

He writes about "the testimony of Alice Cleather in her ASTONISHING 
book 'H.P. Blavatsky, a Great Betrayal' (published in 1922)."  Caps 
added.

And he goes on to write:

"Alice Cleather was a direct disciple of HPB's and a member of the
Inner Group of the E.S...."

I totally agree that Mrs. Cleather provides a great deal of 
important information and insight concerning Mrs. Besant and Mr. 
Leadbeater.

But she also provides some interesting observations about Mr. Judge 
and Mrs. Tingley.

Below are her words:

"Alice L. Cleather Writes about Mr. Judge and Mrs. Tingley"

[Collated from Alice Leighton Cleather's two books titled H.P. 
Blavatsky:  Her Life  and Work for Humanity, Calcutta, Thacker, 
Spink & Co., 1922, pp. 3, 121-124; and H.P. Blavatsky As I Knew Her, 
Calcutta, Thacker, Spink & Co., 1923, p. 30]  

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. . . Mrs. Katherine Tingley. . . [was] a professional psychic and 
trance medium in New York. . . .For those of us who followed Mr. 
Judge in 1895, later discovered that about the time of H.P.B.'s 
death or soon after (the exact date is not known to me), Mr. Judge 
came under the influence of this woman, who is possessed of 
considerable hypnotic and other dangerous powers.  

He had consulted her, in her capacity as a medium, which led 
eventually to her obtaining a complete hold over him, and also over 
Theosophical friends whom he introduced to her, and to their 
accepting her as a Chela of the Masters; one for whom Mr. Judge 
believed he had been told to seek.  She gave him "messages" 
purporting to be from Them, but subsequently I discovered that most -
 if not all- of those which he gave out as having been received by 
him had come "through" Mrs. Tingley.  The whole history of this 
extraordinary delusion is a long and complicated one, some of it 
being contained in the E.S. documents in my possession. . . . 

When I first met Mrs. Tingley she was known only to a few of Mr. 
Judge's intimates, but even they did not know the nature of the 
influence she exercised over him.  He introduced me to her at the 
Boston Convention of 1895, a year before his death, as a very 
special and mysterious person.  She was then the directing 
intelligence behind the scenes of all he did, culminating in the 
fatal division in the T.S. which was then decided on.  On our return 
[from Boston] to New York he requested me to visit Mrs. Tingley and 
report to him everything she said.  I was staying with Miss 
Katherine Hillard, the learned Theosophical writer, at the time, and 
she urged me not to go, telling me that Mrs. Tingley was a well-
known public medium, and expressed surprise that Mr. Judge should 
consult a person of that description.  But my faith in Mr. Judge as 
an occultist who must know what he was doing, was then absolute; so 
I disregarded her warning and went.   

Mrs. Tingley then told me, among other things, that Mr. Judge was 
really the Master K.H.; and Mr. Judge did not discourage this idea 
when I gave him my report of the interview.  It was not until I had 
worked under Mrs. Tingley for some time that I was forced to come to 
the conclusions I have briefly stated. . . . 

There can, however, be little doubt that she played a very large 
part through Mr. Judge, in the wrecking of the T.S., and that she 
had intended, and planned - probably, from the first - to obtain 
control of the American Section T.S. , of which Mr. Judge was 
President when she first met him.  She was completely successful, 
and on Mr. Judge's death in 1896, took his place as Outer Head of 
the E.S.T. in America.  At first she was announced as a 
mysterious "fellow-Chela" of Mr. Judge, a sort of Lohengrin who was 
to remain unknown for a year.  But she speedily emerged from her 
obscurity, organised a spectacular "Crusade around the world," and 
proclaimed herself the "Leader and Official Head" of the entire 
Judge T.S. . . . 

On Mr. Judge's death in 1896, I was among those English members 
cabled for to attend the convention of New York when Mrs. Tingley 
was introduced to the E.S.T. Council as Mr. Judge's successor.  She 
then asked me to accompany her on the tour round the world which 
passed through India in the winter of that year.  Subsequently, in 
1899, I and many others left Mrs. Tingley's Society on discovering 
that she was departing as far from H.P.B.'s original teachings as, 
on her side, Mrs. Besant was.  To neither of these organisations was 
I, therefore, able to belong. Neither of their leaders inspired me 
with any confidence, as both were introducing ideas completely 
foreign to those promulgated by H.P.B. while professing to carrying 
on her work.  An important instrument, which neither of them 
scrupled to use for this purpose, was the Esoteric School, which, 
owing to the pledge of secrecy, could be, and was so used without 
the knowledge of the T.S. and outsiders. . . 

It was under Mrs. Tingley's influence that Mr. Judge began, after 
H.P.B.'s death, the campaign in favour of Western Occultism which 
culminated in the announcement, in an E.S. paper (written by Mr. 
Judge, but dictated by Mrs. Tingley) deposing Mrs. Besant, that a 
school for the Revival of the Mysteries would be established in 
America. . . .

. . . It was she herself [Mrs. Tingley] who told me, personally, 
that she dictated the famous E.S.T. Circular headed "By Masters's 
Direction," and signed by Mr. Judge, deposing Mrs. Besant from her 
position as joint Outer Head. . . . Mr. Judge's circular was a 
characteristic Tingley counterstroke, and anyone familiar with her 
language and methods (as I subsequently became) can easily recognise 
it throughout.  Mr. Judge's style was totally different and quite 
unmistakable. . . . 

It is regrettable that this paper, headed "By Master's Direction," 
is still accepted as such by many, including the [United Lodge of 
Theosophists] group at  Los Angeles, California.  See their Magazine 
Theosophy, September,1922, p. 250, et seq. . . . 

. . . It did not take some of us very long to discover that Mrs. 
Tingley knew very little about Theosophy and nothing whatever about 
Occultism.  We found that she was simply a clever opportunist, with 
a talent for organisation and showy activities on philanthropic and 
educational lines.  She has established a successful colony at Point 
Loma, California; but all the work requiring a knowledge of H.P.B.'s 
Teachings is being done by students who acquired their knowledge 
under H.P.B. and who followed Mr. Judge in 1895.  Most of them were 
E.S. members and one, Dr. Herbert Coryn, was a member of H.P.B.'s 
Inner Group. . . . 

In view of the unimpeachable facts concerning Mr. Judge and Mrs. 
Tingley it is to be deplored that there are groups of earnest 
Theosophists in America who endeavour to uphold the entirely 
indefensible theory that he was the occult equal of H.P.B.  Some of 
them even go so far as to assert that he and she were sent out 
together by the Masters as Co-messengers!  I need hardly add that 
this claim is not only impossible and untenable, but has no shadow 
of justification in fact.  Mr. Judge began his occult career at the 
same time as Colonel Olcott, both becoming H.P.B.'s pledged pupils 
in 1874.   Both men served well and faithfully during H.P.B.'s life-
time, but as soon as she was withdrawn they both failed in different 
ways.  In Mr. Judge's case his considerable knowledge of occultism 
rendered his easy deception by an ordinary professional psychic, 
devoid of real occult knowledge, the more surprising for he was 
always warning students against the dangers of psychism.  Such 
failures only serve to illustrate the enormous difficulties that 
beset the chela's path in the Kali Yuga, and the magnitude of 
Damodar's achievement in winning through.  As H.P.B. clearly 
indicated in her Letter of 1890, he was the one full success in the 
whole history of the T.S.; and he was an Aryan, not a Westerner.  

The loss of Mr. Judge's occult judgment after his Teacher's death 
was nowhere more clearly shown than in his unquestioned acceptance 
of Mrs. Tingley's ignorant assertion that Western Occultism is the 
essence of all other systems; for H.P.B. consistently taught and 
demonstrated that in the East and not in the West is the fountain 
head. . . .This was one of the radical departures from H.P.B.'s 
teachings made at that time as much by Mr. Judge as by Mrs. 
Besant. . . . 
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I should state here that the research and findings of the late 
Walter A. Carrithers, Jr. (a strong defender of H.P.B.) also 
confirms much of what Mrs. Cleathers writes above.