Theos-Talk Archives (October 2006 Message tt00525)

I do not know if Julia Keightley was the OH - as far as I know, his/her
identity was not disclosed. But I can provide a little background on
Hargrove's ES.

Following the death of W.Q. Judge on March 21, 1896, Ernest temple
Hargrove appeared to lead the campaign to bring Katherine Tingley in as
his successor, but shortly afterwards broke with Tingley, and resigned as
President of the Theosophical Society in America in 1898, and led a
breakaway of some two hundred members from the Society which Mrs Tingley
then headed.

The Society which Hargrove established, and then led, had its own ES, and
he wrote to Mrs Tingley telling her “by Order of the master you have
ceased to be the outer Head of the E.S.T. in the interior and true sense. 
The Outer Head to follow you has already been appointed by the Master.”

In 1908 this Society became “The Theosophical Society with Its
Headquarters Based in New York”, and published "The Theosophical Forum"
and "The Theosophical Quarterly".  The Society remained active until it
underwent “indrawal” in 1935.

The ES was administered from December, 1898, by a Reference Committee
consisting of A.P. Buchman, J.D. Buck, George Coffin, C.A. Griscom,
Charles Johnston, Archibald Keightley and William Ludlow.  The identity of
the OH was never made known to the members, although ES documents prepared
by him or her were distributed to them.  These included Aids and
Suggestions (following the 7 papers previously issued by Judge) and
Subsidiary Paper D (follow Judge’s Subsidiary Papers A, B and C).

In September, 1900, the Reference Committee proposed four courses of study
for members: “The First Course provided a comprehensive knowledge of
Theosophical philosophy by means of studying the exoteric Theosophic works
in the light of E.S.T. Instructions 1, 2 and 3. The Second Course taught a
more advanced philosophy based upon “The Secret Doctrine” and other
metaphysical work with the study 	being based upon the E.S.T. Aids and
Suggestions. The Third Course will use Instructions 4, 5 and 6 of the
E.T.S. plus other papers to be issued to the School plus some unpublished
letters of the Master K.H. The emphasis in this course 	was to the above
with the Upanishads, Veda, Puranas, Bible and other sacred texts. The
fourth Course was to be based upon the devotional side of 	Theosophy and
was to study “Light on the Path”, “The Voice of the Silence”, “Letters
That Have Helped Me”, “Through the Gates of Gold” and other devotional
texts.  This course was intended to lead to the development of the Inner
Man.”

An examining Board sent examination papers to members, and assessed the
results.

At the Theosophical Society Convention held on April 30, 1905, it was
reported that the School  had moved from the phase of Instruction under
HPB and WQJ to that of Discipline under the present OH. The School appears
to have followed the Society into its period of “indrawal” in 1935.


Dr Gregory Tillett