Theos-Talk Archives (February 2007 Message tt00221)

Tingley a Great Woman


   I think Tingley was a great woman 
and Theosophist.  Does anyone really 
think Judge was subject to be under 
the control of ANYONE, as Cleather 
suggests?!  Motivation and results are 
what counts, and Tingley's motivation 
was the highest, and her results are 
still resonating.  Below is de Zirkoff's 
opinion of Tingley.  (de Zirkoff was 
another of Tingley's "results.")

           - jake j.



KATHERINE TINGLEY AS I KNEW HER
                                           
     - Boris de Zirkoff

        
July 11, 1979, will mark the fiftieth anniversary of
Katherine Tingley's "passing into Light..." after a
long life dedicated to the service of humanity.
      

As is often the case with unusual people, her stature
grows as her image recedes into the distant past,
Misunderstood by some, violently opposed by others,
misjudged by those whose materialism and ignorant
conceit were challenged by her spiritual outlook on
life, Katherine Ting-ley is slowly being recognized as
an inspired leader of thought, and a witness to the
undreamt of possibilities of the hidden powers in man.
        

The Point Loma Theosophical Center which she founded
on the eve of the twentieth century, and of which she
was the driving force and the inspirer, was another
"witness," in the age-old meaning of this mystical
expression, to the redeeming and
spiritually-constructive power of human brotherhood,
Apart from being the Headquarters of a world-wide
organization, it was intended to be a nucleus of a 
mystery-school built on the traditional lines of
ancient temple-schools, in which men and women who
were ready in this incarnation were taught how to
unlock from within themselves their inborn spiritual
capacities, and how to put them into practice on lines
of devoted service and unselfish endeavor within the
structure of a cooperative effort in the cause of the
Ancient-Wisdom.
        

Such an effort can be successfully started and
harmoniously conducted only by an initiated disciple
of esoteric knowledge, in touch with the Custodians of
that knowledge, and laboring under their tutelage.
Such an initiated disciple Katherine Tingley
undoubtedly was, and I take this occasion to declare
this as my own irrefutable conviction.
      

She was a powerful character, with an immense driving
force, an unquenchable inspiration, a total dedication
to the highest spiritual ideals, an inspiring outlook
on life, on the potencies of every human being, and a
disregard of the negative aspects of those whose
positive qualities she incessantly fostered, and whose
dormant capabilities she constantly urged into action.
             

She was a person of kindly and sympathetic attitude
wherever these were required, and a person of great
moral strength and dynamic force when such were
needed. Some of her actions and plans showed rather
plainly that she was able to use a power of
foreknowledge not ordinarily common among men, and to
rely on a thorough acquaintance with human nature
gathered in previous lives. These made it possible for
her to blend into concerted action the lives of a
many-sided community made up of a large number of men
and women from the four quarters of the globe. This,
if nothing else, was a clear evidence of spiritual
leadership, as a genuine leader is a man or woman who
can sense the aspirations and higher desires of others
and release them to action in harmonious unity. It is
relatively easy to try and impose one's own will upon
ignorant followers who happen to love authority where
they see it. It is far more difficult to guide the
potencies of other peoples' wills into constructive
spiritual and ethical channels, and to lead them into
forceful and sustained action in a great and
impersonal Cause. Katherine Tingley was able to do
that throughout her career.
      

Some have attempted to convince others that she was a
medium and that she was occasionally engaged in
mediumistic pursuits of a kind. Only ignorant people
can hold this view, those unacquainted with Katherine
Tingley's character and her opinion upon such matters.
In all my association with her, never once have I seen
the slightest tendency towards mediumism or anything
commonly associated with it. She was adamant on
psychic matters, warning against the development of
any psychic powers, or abnormal psychic tendencies
unregulated by reason and a sound intellectual
understanding. However, it is understandable that some
of her spiritual qualities of foreknowledge, direct
perception of certain truths, and developed spiritual
intuition, would appear as akin to mediumism, to those
whose knowledge about such things is almost nil, and
whose information is usually distorted by other
channels through which it had to pass before reaching
them.
       

Neither the personality of Katherine Tingley nor the
nature and objectives of her work can ever be
adequately understood and justly appraised without
taking into consideration the fact that she was an
initiated disciple of one of the Teachers and was
often acting as a direct agent instructed to perform a
certain task in the world, to leave a specific message
for future generations of men, and to carry out a
certain mandate better known to those under whose
directions she worked. Unless this is taken into
careful advisement, there will be misunderstandings
and misjudgments as a natural result of wrong premises
and distorted views.
         

As other direct agents of the Brotherhood of Teachers,
Katherine Tingley exhibited upon occasion somewhat
conflicting tendencies and characteristics which
cannot be adequately explained without at least some
knowledge of occult matters. This is almost invariably
the case with such agents, and this fact alone, if
nothing else, makes it very difficult to appraise
their work, judge their actions and assess their worth
in proper relation to their surrounding and their
karmic circumstances.
       

Agents of the Brotherhood are not mediums in the usual
meaning of that term, which, as a rule, is connected
in peoples' minds with one or another condition of
trance. Such agents are mediators, in the sense of
being channels - self-consciously aware - through whom
some specific teaching or work is to be conveyed, and
these are sometimes different from the personal
characteristics of the disciple and may be conveyed
only partially or with slight modifications. Any
careful study of the life of H.P.B. or of W.Q. Judge
will show this with considerable clarity. They were
also mediators of their own type and kind. As a matter
of fact, the Theosophical Movement - using this term
in a worldwide meaning, and without relation to any
specific age or era of history - has had a number of
mediators who worked, and work even today, under the
general guidance of the Brotherhood,  to the extent to
which they are able to channel that guidance through
their own personal natures.
       

One of the major achievements of Katherine Tingley,
and a crowning victory of her work and training, was
the fact that she was able to hand over her Torch of
Light to another direct agent of the Brotherhood -
Gottfried de Purucker - who in his own quality of
mediator formulated and outlined further installments
of the Esoteric Philosophy from the same ageless
source of Wisdom.
        

Now, fifty years after Katherine Tingley's departure
from our scene of action, let this brief account stand
as a declaration of trust and deep appreciation from
the present writer for the inestimable privilege of
having been led to knowing her personally, and for the
karmic opportunity of having been for some years a
pupil under her tutelage and guidance. The Center
which she founded and led will some day be recognized
as an integral part of the Mystery-Schools, which
arise and disappear temporarily, on the shifting
scenes of history, as links in an endless chain of
similar efforts. They stand as Witnesses to the
never-dying Wisdom of Those who guide the faltering
steps of the human race through the stages of its
im-maturity and its search for the Light that can
illumine all life, the Present and the Past, and throw
its shining beam upon the Future.


(From Theosophia, Spring, 1979)
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