David M. Grossman – USA
Two Souls, One Heart - One Vision
The story of HP Blavatsky leading up to her coming to New York in July 1873 and launching the Modern Theosophical Movement is a kind of epic story all by itself. But once she arrived in Manhattan, already a multicultural city of immigrants of over a million people, almost immediately she settled into the work of preparation for what was to come. She connected up with the Spiritualist Movement which was receiving some notoriety at the time and becoming an annoying adversary to the then utterly materialistic mainstream scientific views dominating the “Halls of Learning.”
It was while interfacing with the spiritualists by writing articles for the secular press and for “Spiritualist” journals and observing demonstrations of Spiritualistic phenomena, most famously at the Eddy Farm in Chittenden, Vermont that HPB first met Col. H. S. Olcott. He was covering the Spiritualists as a journalist, but we are told his real interest was to satisfy a curiosity that arose within him, checking for the authenticity or fraud concerning such phenomena. He wrote articles in the NY Graphic and in 1875 published the book People from the Other World. Olcott was also captivated by a hidden side of nature (the occult world) that he was being made aware exists. And when he met Helena Petrovna Blavatsky at the Eddy farm this man of many talents had his life redirected forever.
Due to her articles, and knowledge displayed in discussion, HPB gathered around her Spiritualists and others of a philosophical, scientific and religious bent for regular discussion as she slowly made a name for herself, often controversial, in New York City.
At the same time a young Irish immigrant named William Quan Judge had recently passed the New York State Bar Exam and become a lawyer. He also had a keen interest in everything with a mystical and philosophical leaning.
The story goes that the young William nearly died when he was seven years old back in Ireland. The doctor first pronounced him dead and then minutes later he revived. After that incident it is said that his parents found him able to read where he wasn’t known to before and as time went on noticed in him a hunger to learn about everything mystical and philosophical from the Book of Revelations to astrology and other religious and mystical texts.
Having read some of the articles on Spiritualism by Col. Olcott where HPB was mentioned Judge contacted Olcott who was also a lawyer to see if he might introduce him to HPB. Finally the meeting was arranged.
Judge recalled that first meeting many years later after the passing of HPB where he wrote in his article, “Yours till Death and After:” published in Lucifer in June 1891.
It was her eye that attracted me, the eye of one whom I must have known in lives long passed away. She looked at me in recognition at that first hour, and never since has that look changed. Not as a questioner of philosophies did I come before her, not as one groping in the dark for lights that schools and fanciful theories had obscured, but as one who, wandering many periods through the corridors of life, was seeking the friends who could show where the designs for the work had been hidden. And true to the call she responded, revealing the plans once again, and speaking no words to explain, simply pointed them out and went on with the task. It was as if but the evening before we had parted, leaving yet to be done some detail of a task taken up with one common end; it was teacher and pupil, elder brother and younger, both bent on the one single end, but she with the power and the knowledge that belong but to lions and sages.
The official inauguration of the Theosophical Society took place on November 17, 1875. The three founders who happened to remain totally committed and involved in the work until their deaths were chosen as President; Col. H.S. Olcott, Corresponding Secretary; H.P. Blavatsky and Counsel; William Q. Judge who was just 24 years old at the time.
In the early years after the formation of the Society, Judge spent much time in the quarters of HPB along with Olcott learning, observing, witnessing demonstrations of certain phenomena by HPB and helping her along with his younger brother John with the production of Isis Unveiled. Overall Judge was from the beginning always totally supportive of HPB and the movement she represented. But he was young and had, shall we say, his own personal Karma to work through with a demanding job, a wife and then a child who died as an infant sadly to say. So it must have been difficult for him when HPB and Olcott packed up and left for India on December 18, 1878. In spite of the fact that HPB never returned to the USA where she had become a citizen, she and Judge always stayed in touch and were totally supportive of each other. During those first years after the departure of HPB & Olcott the work in the USA languished. Judge was going through his trials and tests so to speak. But finally early in 1884 Judge was able to go to Europe, first to London where he met A.P Sinnett and others from the British Theosophical Society, and then to Paris where on March 28th he once again was joined with HPB and Olcott as they had returned from India.
In April of that year word came to what has become known as the “Coulomb Affair.” HPB, and her work were unjustly attacked and lied about. Judge showed the depth of his fellowship with HPB and dedication to the movement, for without delay, Judge, at a moments’ notice, at Olcott’s request as president of the society, sailed for India to do whatever he found necessary to straighten things out, to clear HPB’s name and get the Theosophical headquarters back into functioning condition.
At Adyar he shut down HPB’s private rooms, interviewed witnesses to what took place, and gathered the facts about the Coulomb attacks on HPB in support of clearing her name as he did again at the end of her life when Judge was instrumental in suing The Sun newspaper in New York City and Prof. Coues due to the outright and totally unsubstantiated lies and libelous attacks upon her character which were finally refuted and given published apology. During this time HPB died, so all legal matters were dissolved according to law. To try and make up for the slander, even though the charges had been dropped, The Sun gave Judge space in the paper to write an article on the real HPB. The article is titled “The Esoteric She: The Late Mme. Blavatsky - A Sketch of Her Career,” published in The Sun September 26, 1892. What follows are a few paragraphs from The Sun article:
Her life since 1875 was spent in the unremitting endeavor to draw within the Theosophical Society those who could work unselfishly to propagate an ethics and philosophy tending to realize the brotherhood of man by showing the real unity and essential non-separateness of every being. And her books were written with the declared object of furnishing the material for intellectual and scientific progress on those lines. The theory of man’s origin, powers, and destiny brought forward by her, drawn from ancient Indian sources, places us upon a higher pedestal that that given by either religion or science, for it gives to each the possibility of developing the godlike powers within and of at last becoming a co-worker with nature.…..
As every one must die at last, we will not say that her demise was a loss; but if she had not lived and done what she did humanity would not have had the impulse and the ideas toward the good which it was her mission to give and to proclaim. And there are today scores, nay, hundreds, of devout, earnest men and women intent on purifying their own lives and sweetening the lives of others, who trace their hopes and aspirations to the wisdom-religion revived in the West through her efforts, and who gratefully avow that their dearest possessions are the result of her toilsome and self-sacrificing life. If they, in turn, live aright and do good, they will be but illustrating the doctrine which she daily taught and hourly practiced.
Looking into the flip side of their relationship and work together, we can find many examples of HPB’s support for Judge and his work in America. For example after WQJ launched the magazine The Path Blavatsky wrote him in 1886 when she was not well:
... I will begin to work from this day to bring Olcott to let you have 50 monthly for your Path. They must be found - for if we were three original ones to this day, very soon we will be two …"*
(* From an unpublished letter of HPB, printed in Boris de Zirkoff’s magazine THEOSOPHIA, Volume XVII - No. 4 (86) - Spring 1961)
Judge proposed the formation of an American Section of the Theosophical Society in 1886, with the approval of both HPB and Col. Olcott.
Also referring to Judge’s magazine The Path; at the time HPB launched Lucifer in 1887 she wrote:
If I thought for one moment that Lucifer will “rub out” Path I would never consent to be its editor. Now listen to me my good old friend: Once that the Masters have proclaimed your“ Path” the best the most theosophical of all theosophical publications – surely it is not to allow it to be rubbed out!!” ——— “I give you my word of honor of HPB. I will force people to subscribe for Path & this will never hurt Lucifer. One is the fighting combative Manas – the other (“Path”) is pure Buddhi. (Letters Between Blavatsky and Judge – 12, [Letter One - 1887]
In her Letter to be read at the American Convention of Theosophists in 1888 HPB expresses in no uncertain terms not only her respect but heartfelt thanks to WQJ for aiding her in the work of “The Masters” to which she dedicated her whole life. She writes:
In addressing to you this letter, which I request you to read to the Convention summoned for April 22nd, I must first present my hearty congratulations and most cordial good wishes to the assembled Delegates and good Fellows of our Society, and to yourself—the heart and soul of that Body in America. 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.
Addendum
A brief note on the controversy concerning W.Q, Judge during his lifetime and carried on by others ignorant of theosophical history in the decades following his death and his prominent work for the movement, especially in America is presented below.
As far as, “Was he considered one of the original founders?.” Of course he was and not only did he become Vice President of the T.S. but statements throughout the years by not only HPB and Olcott but also Annie Besant puts any possible controversy to rest. We’ve already painted a clear picture we think about how HPB viewed her colleague. Here are a few comments from other sources including Olcott and Annie Besant made concerning WQJ.
In the July 1891 issue of The Theosophist it was stated:
Mr. Judge will remain in England until Col. Olcott's arrival early in July; his presence with us at such a sad time is most welcome, for all who have the privilege of Knowing the Vice-President and Co-Founder of the Theosophical Society will at once realize how we must value the sense of strength, courage and hope, which he inspires wherever and with whomsoever he is."* (* The Theosophist, Vol. XII, July, 1891, p. 634.)
In 1892 Col Olcott put in his resignation as president of the TS which he later withdrew. In the meantime Annie Besant circulated this letter concerning the future of the society:
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE BLAVATSKY LODGE
March 11th, 1892
My dear Colleagues,
For the first time in the history of the Theosophical Society we are called upon to elect a President. When the Society was founded in 1875 by H.P. Blavatsky, H.S. Olcott, and William Q. Judge, H.S. Olcott was appointed its President, and has held that office down to the present year. Now the office is vacant, by his resignation, and it devolves upon us to fill it.
Having in view the importance to the whole Society of a wise choice of our chief officer, I feel that you may fairly claim at my hands, as President of this Lodge, some expression of opinion, not as determining your votes, but as a factor in the formation of your judgment. I therefore frankly say to you that, in my view, the present Vice-President, and remaining co-founder of the Society, William Quan Judge, is the most suitable person to guide the Society, and one who cannot with justice be passed over. He is not only the Vice-President and a founder, but he was the trusted friend and colleague of H.P. Blavatsky from 1875 until she passed away. Belonging to the old country by his birth, he has gained the confidence of the American Section by his faithful work, and will doubtless command its unanimous support.
Having thus placed my own views at the service of the Lodge, I leave the matter in your hands.
Fraternally,
Annie Besant,
President of the Blavatsky Lodge
In Sven Eek’s Damodar and the Pioneers of the Theosophical Society, we learn that Col. Olcott, when in America in 1906, the year before his death, met with Mrs. Holloway-Langford a good friend of Olcott and his sister. Laura Holloway relates Olcott’s words to her referring to Wm. Q. Judge:
Olcott: ‘I know how you feel about him and always have felt.’ Holloway: “Then, taking my hand in his, he gave my face a searching glance, before he answered, in a manner subdued and most impressive:
…We learn much and outgrow much, and I have lived much and learned more, particularly as regards Judge.’ . . .’I know now, and it will comfort you to hear it; that I wronged Judge, not willfully or in malice; nevertheless, I have done this, and I regret it.’ (Excerpt from Damodar and The Pioneers of the Theosophical Movement – Sven Eek, TPH , Adyar India [p.657-658])
Again many years later after HPB, Wm. Q. Judge and Col. Olcott had completed their work and left the scene, begun together in 1875, and much of the dust had settled in the society around accusations and disagreements involving Olcott, Judge and Besant, Annie Besant wrote in the October 1922 issue of The Theosophist, pg 351:
William Quan Judge [was] a much loved friend and pupil of H.P.B.’s, and the channel of life to the American Branch of the T.S. A highly evolved man, with a profound realization of the deeper truths of life, he built up the Society in America from small and discouraging beginnings. No difficulties daunted him, and no apparent failures quenched his fiery devotion. . . . He was beside H.P.B. through those early days, saw the exercise of her wonderful powers, and shared in the founding of the Theosophical Society. And throughout the remainder of her life on earth, the friendship remained unbroken, and during the later years she regarded him as her one hope in America, declaring that, if the American members rejected him, she would break off all relations with them, and know them no more. . . .His real work, the spread of Theosophy in America, was splendidly performed, and his memory remains a lasting inspiration. . . . William Quan Judge must ever have his place among Theosophical Worthies.
It is now one hundred fifty years since the formation of the Theosophical Society and HPB began presenting the teachings of Theosophy. Not so many years later Wm. Q. Judge followed by disseminating those teachings through his magazine The Path, pointing to their practical application and building up the society in America. If you read the writings of both HPB and Judge today, they are for the most part remarkably fresh in their expression and the principles put forth have grown in acceptance and influenced the “race mind” not only philosophically but also had a noticeable impact in the arts, literature and in the frontiers of science, especially psychology and neuroscience. From the look of things in our world we still have some way to go for recognition of the true purpose of life and our true nature as spiritual beings.
“Gently to hear, kindly to judge."— Henry V, Act 1, SHAKESPEARE.”