By Master's Direction by William Q. Judge (original) (raw)

[For background on William Q. Judge's 12-page E.S.T. circular _reproduced below_ as well as Mrs. Besant's reply,
see: The Theosophical Movement 1875-1950, Chapter XVI, especially pp. 241-246; and Henry S. Olcott's Old Diary Leaves, Volume V, Chapter XIX, "Mr. Judge Denounces Mrs. Besant," especially pp. 252-260.]

I now send you this, all of it being either direct quotations from the messages to me, or else in substance what I am directed to say to you, the different details and elaborations being my own. I had hoped that no such statement would be necessary, but the hope was vain. I have put off writing it since March, 1894, when I issued a circular to the Theosophical Society regarding certain charges which were made against me; but now I am obliged to send this or else to fail in the performance of my duty to you and to the whole T.S. movement, of which the E.S.T. is the real heart. In March this letter seemed to me to be as necessary as it is now, but I was then directed to wait for the conclusion of the matter of the charges made against me, as those had to be first settled and disposed of for the benefit of the constitutional organization. I have since seen the wisdom of this direction, for had I said then what I say now the whole matter would have been mixed up in every way. We have now to deal with the E.S.T. and with our duty to it and to each other; and among those others, to Mrs. Besant.

This is issued in the E.S.T. under the protection of the pledges made by all its members. It is impossible to see them and converse with them, and I have to take the risk of print. If the matter becomes public it will be the fault of those who are not able to keep their pledges, and not my fault nor Karma.

First let me tell you briefly of the E.S.T. foundation and history, and of the Inner Group.

I am not a pledged member of the E.S.T. and never made a pledge in it, as my pledges were long before to the Master direct; I was one of its founders, with H.P.B. , and she at the beginning made me manager and teacher in it from the first, under her, for the American part especially. You can remember all she said of that. I wrote the rules of the E.S.T. myself in London in 1888 at H.P.B.’s request and under the direction of the Master. Those were not altered by her, but after reading them and further consulting the Master she added some general paragraphs. I am the only one standing in that position. Mrs. Besant and all other members are pledged and certified in the ordinary way. The E.S. was started in November, 1888. In May, 1887, I sent the following to H.P.B. from New York:

18th May.

Dear H.P.B. --- Please reply to this. So many people are beginning to ask me to be Chelas that I must do something, so I have drawn up the enclosed paper which you can send me with some formalities on it as you think right to do so --- or whatever I ought to have. If you do not think so, then please tell me in what way I had best proceed.

I know a good many good ones who will do well and who will form a rock on which the enemy will founder, and this plan would encourage them. So fiat something. As ever,

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.

Enclosed paper:

To WILLIAM Q. JUDGE: --- You are directed to draw together all those persons, members of the Theosophical Society in the U.S., who have or express the desire to serve the cause of the Blessed Masters. This you are to do with the understanding in writing in every case that the persons taken are not thereby made Chelas of the Masters, but simply that they are thus given a chance to make a preliminary trial of themselves, and in each case you will take from the applicant an expression in writing, before making your private register of the names, that they well understand the basis on which you thus take them. Nothing is promised; each will have just what he or she deserves --- no more, no less. And all must be faithful to the Cause, to Masters, and to the founders of the Theosophical Society.

Given [etc.]

H.P.B. replied that I might go ahead without the paper and soon she would do something else. Later, at the time she was explaining in London the plan of the E.S.T., I telegraphed her asking her to "make public the Inner Section". That telegram was received in the presence of Dr. Keightley and others. She then told me to come to London and help, which I did. The E.S. was founded on the exact lines of the above papers. I do not wish to place myself on the high level of H.P.B., but in Occultism of Master’s Lodge a lower Chela is often used as the instrument for pointing out even to such a great character as H.P.B. the times and seasons and sometimes the plan. That I did in this case, and by the direction of the Master. H.P.B.’s promulgations followed the ideas and also the words in part of my paper.

An Inner Group was later on formed by H.P.B. at London, so that she might give out teachings to be recorded by the members, and, if possible, teach them practical occultism. Of this Mrs. Besant, with George Mead to help her, was made the Secretary, because she had great ability in a literary way, was wholly devoted, and perfectly fit for the task. But this did not make her a Teacher. And even when she bid adieu to H.P.B. on her leaving Europe for America in April, 1891, the very last thing H.P.B. put into her hands as she left her presence, into which she never again entered, was the sealed statement that made her Recorder of the teachings. H.P.B. knew that she would not live to see Annie Besant again, and if she were to have been constituted a "Teacher", that would have been the time to give her the position. But she did not. The death of H.P.B. destroyed of course any further value in the office of "Recorder." I am a member of the Inner Group, and have been since 1891. It was needless to speak of this before now.

The conversations of H.P.B. with the Inner Group were taken down in a more or less fragmentary form by the different members in notes, and later Mrs. Besant and George Mead wrote them out as Secretaries. I have a complete copy of these, and so has each member of the Inner Group, and those copies comprise all the "Instructions" left in the possession of Mrs. Besant or the Inner Group. In my possession and within my control is a large body of Instructions given to me all the time from 1875, which I shall give out and have given out, as far as I am directed. Read page xix of Secret Doctrine (Introduction to vol. I), where H.P.B. says she taught Colonel Olcott and two Europeans. I am one of the latter. Colonel Olcott is the old standard-bearer, and has been the medium for teaching, himself having Chelas whom he has instructed, but always on the lines laid down by the Master through H.P.B. He was selected by the Master to do a certain and valuable work not possible for anyone else, and he was never taken into the E.S. by a pledge, for, like myself, he was in the very beginning pledged directly to the Master. His main work has been that great and far-reaching work in the world, among not only ordinary people, but with kings and rulers, for the sake of this cause which the Masters knew he was to do for them.

Mrs. Annie Besant has been but five years in this work, and not all of that time engaged in occult study and practice. Her abilities as a writer and speaker are rare and high for either man or woman, her devotion and sincerity of purpose cannot be doubted. She gave many years of her life to the cause of the oppressed as she understood it: against the dread blight of materialistic belief in herself, she worked thus without hope in a future life and in every way proved her altruistic purpose and aim. Since 1889 she has done great service to the T.S. and devoted herself to it. But all this does not prevent a sincere person from making errors in Occultism, especially when he, as Mrs. Besant did, tries to force himself along the path of practical work in that field. Sincerity does not confer of itself knowledge, much less wisdom. H.P.B. and all the history of occultism say that seven years of training and trial at the very least are needed. Mrs. Besant has had but five. Mistakes made by such a disciple will ultimately be turned to the advantage of the movement, and their immediate results will be mitigated to the person making them, provided they are not inspired by an evil intention on the person’s part. And I wish it to be clearly understood that Mrs. Besant has had herself no conscious evil intention; she has simply gone for awhile outside the line of her Guru (H.P.B.), begun work with others, and fallen under their influence. We should not push her further down, but neither will the true sympathy we have blind our eyes so as to let her go on, to the detriment of the movement. I could easily retire from the whole T.S., but my conceptions of duty are different, although the personal cost to myself in this work is heavy, and as I am ordered to stay I will stay and try my best to aid her and everyone else as much as possible. And the same authority tells me that "could she open her eyes and see her real line of work, and correct the present condition in herself as well as the one she has helped to make in the T.S. and E.S.T., she would find herself in mental, physical and spiritual conditions of a kind much better than ever before, for her present state is due to the attacks of the dark powers, unconsciously to her."

And now it becomes necessary under instructions received to give the members of the School some account of the things behind the scenes in connection with the recent investigation attempted at London upon the charges against me.

The two persons around whom its noise arose are Mrs. Besant and myself. Prior to that in 1891, after the death of H.P.B., Col. H. S. Olcott, the President, was the center of a disturbance due to his resignation, and that disturbance was due to the same forces working from behind to try and disintegrate the T.S. by causing its old-time President to leave office before his death. The recent troubles centered around us because I was made the object of an attack in the guise of an attempt to purify the Society, and Mrs. Besant was thrown forward as the official accuser of myself --- a friend who was certified to her by H.P.B., her teacher, and well known as working for the T.S. for many years. All this needs light, and the best interests of Mrs. Besant and of the E.S.T. demand that some of the secret history shall be given out, however disagreeable it may be, in order that the very purgation which was improperly directed to the wrong quarter shall take place now. The difficulty arose when in January or February Annie Besant finally lent herself unconsciously to the plot which I detail herein; but prior to that (from August, 1893), those managing that plot had begun to work upon her.

The plot exists among the Black Magicians, who ever war against the White, and against those Black ones we are constantly warned by H.P.B. This is no fiction, but a very substantial fact. I have seen and also been shown the chief entity among those who thus work against us and who desire to destroy the whole movement and especially to nullify the great work which H.P.B. began for the Western nations. These Black Magicians have succeeded in influencing certain Brahmans in India through race-pride and ambition, so that these, for their own advantage, desire to control and manage the T.S. through some agent and also through the E.S.T. They of course have sought, if possible, to use one of our body, and have picked out Mrs. Besant as a possible vehicle. One object of the plot is to stop the current of information and influence started by H.P.B. by deflecting thought back to modern India. To accomplish this it is absolutely necessary to tear down the tradition clustering around the work of H.P.B.; her powers and knowledge have to be derogated from; her right to speak for the Masters has to be impugned; those Masters have to be made a cold abstraction; her staunch friends who wish to see the real work and objects carried on have to be put in such a position as to be tied hand and foot so as not to be able to interfere with the plans of the plotters; it has to be shown that H.P.B. was a fraud and forger also. These men are not the Chelas of our Masters.

The name of the person who was worked upon so as to, if possible, use him as a minor agent of the Black Magicians and for the influencing of Mrs. Besant is Gyanendra N. Chakravarti, a Brahman of Allahabad, India, who came to America on our invitation to the Religious Parliament in 1893. At the first sincerely desirous of helping the race by bringing to the American people the old truths of his forefathers, he nevertheless, like so many before him, permitted ambition to take subtle root in his heart. Fired with the ambition of taking position in the world as a Guru, though doubtless believing himself still a follower of the White Brotherhood, he is no longer in our lines; on the contrary, his mediumship and weakness leave him a vehicle for other influences also.

He was then a Chela of a minor Indian Guru and was directed to come to America by that Guru who had been impressed to so direct him by our Master. That he was not a Chela of our Master he distinctly admitted to several persons, among others to me. While in that relation he was telepathically impressed in Chicago with some of the contents of a message received by me from the Master. It corroborated outwardly what I had myself received. It was however but a part and was moreover deficient in matter, Chakravarti himself being only aware of it as a mental impression, and I am informed that at the time he was not fully aware of what he was doing. His ability to be used as an unconscious vehicle was made known to me when he was made to receive the message. Although he was not fully aware of it, not only was the whole of his tour here well guarded and arranged, but he was personally watched by agents of the Masters scattered through the country unknown to him, who reported to me. On several occasions he has taken people into his confidence, believing that he was instructing them, when in fact they were observing him closely for the Lodge, helping him where right, and noting him fully, though they did not tell him so. This was also so in those parts of his tour when he believed himself alone or only with Mrs. Besant. His report of the message is as follows:

"You should tell Judge that we are satisfied with his work in America. He has our best thanks for his exertions in the field of Theosophy. He should try his best to keep always in the light of his higher nature, and thus alone he will be able to find out truth from its shadow. Thus alone he will be able to shut out the powers of darkness that every now and again try to smother his true and noble self which is pure and sincerely devoted to us."

I informed Mrs. Besant in September, 1893, of the message. But afterwards, when Mr. Chakravarti’s work under me was finished, and when ambition, aroused through that visit, had grown strong, he tried to destroy the effect of that message on Mrs. Besant’s mind by cunningly construing it to mean that, although I was thus in all things commended, yet the last part of it contradicted the first and supported the charge of forgery and lying. This is madness when not deliberate. The psychological delusion of Mrs. Besant is also here shown: for she said that perhaps I would rely on that message to refute the charges, and if I should, the last paragraph of it was the part that would go to show that the Masters knew I was guilty. She accepted the cunning construction, permitting herself to think that the Master could commend me for all the work I had done, of which the pretended acts of forgery would be a part, and at the same time send me a delusive message, part of which was to be immediately used as condemnation if brought forward by me. If I was guilty of what I was accused, then Master would be shown as conniving at forgery and lying --- a most impossible thing. The only other possibility is that Mr. Chakravarti and I "got up" the message. But he and Mrs. Besant have admitted its genuineness, although she is perfectly unable herself to decide on its genuineness or falsity. But further, Mrs. Besant admitted to several that she had seen the Master himself come and speak through my body while I was perfectly conscious. And still further, H.P.B. gave me in 1889 the Master’s picture on which he put this message: "To my dear and loyal colleague, W. Q. Judge".

Now, then, either I am bringing you a true message from the Master, or the whole T.S. and E.S.T. is a lie, in the ruins of which must be buried the names of H.P.B. and the Masters. All these stand together or they fall together. Let it be proved that H.P.B. is a liar and a fraud, and I will abandon the T.S. and all its belongings; but until so proved I will remain where I was put. Lastly, as final proof of the delusions worked through this man and his friends I will mention this: Many years ago (in 1881) the Masters sent to the Allahabad Brahmans (the Prayag T.S.) a letter which was delivered by H.P.B. to Mr. A. P. Sinnett, who handed a copy over to them, keeping the original. It dealt very plainly with the Brahmans. This letter the Brahmans do not like, and Mr. Chakravarti tried to make me think it was a pious fraud by H.P.B. He succeeded with Mrs. Besant in this, so that since she met him she has on various occasions said she thought it was a fraud by H.P.B., made up entirely, and not from the Master. I say now on Master’s authority that it was from the Master, and is a right letter. Only delusion would make Mrs. Besant take this position; deliberate intention makes the others do it. It is an issue that may not be evaded, for if that letter be a fraud then all the rest sent through our old teacher, and on which Esoteric Buddhism was made, are the same. I shall rest on that issue; we all rest on it.

Mrs. Besant was then made to agree with these people under the delusion that it was approved by the Masters. She regarded herself as their servant. It was against the E.S.T. rules. When the rule is broken it is one’s duty to leave the E.S.T.; and when I got the charges from her I asked her to leave it if it did not suit her. The depth of the plot was not shown to Mrs. Besant at all, for if it had been she would have refused. Nor was Col. Olcott aware of it. Mrs. Besant was put in such a frightful position that while she was writing me most kindly and working with me she was all the time thinking that I was a forger and that I had blasphemed the Master. She was made to conceal from me, when here, her thoughts about the intended charges, but was made to tell Mr. B. Keightley in London and possibly few others. Not until the time was ripe did she tell me, in her letter in January, from India, asking me to resign from the E.S.T. and the T.S. offices, saying that if I did and would confess guilt all would be forgiven and everyone would work with me as usual. But I was directed differently and fully informed. She was induced to believe that the Master was endorsing the persecution, that he was ordering her to do what she did. At the same time, I knew and told her that it was the plan there to have Col. Olcott resign when I had been cut off, the presidency to be then offered to her. It was offered to her, and she was made to believe it was the Master’s wish for her "not to oppose". She then waited. I did not resign, and the plot so far was spoiled for the time. The delusion was so complete that she did not take the pains to contradict the rumor sent out by others, attached to her name, that Master ordered her to do as she did. Why? Because the Brahmans and their agents had made her silent. Showing the delusion further, note this: She wrote me that I must "resign the office of successor to the President", the hint being that this was one of the things Master wanted me to do. The fact was I had no such office and there was no such thing to resign. The Master knew it, and hence he never ordered it. She felt and expressed to me the greatest pain to have to do such things to me. I knew she so felt, and wrote her that it was the black magicians. She replied, being still under the delusion, that I was failing to do Master’s will.

Her influencers also made her try psychic experiments on me and on two others in Europe. They failed. On me they had but a passing effect, as I was cognizant of them; on one of the others they reacted on health, although she did not desire any harm at all; she was made to think it best and for my good. She then sent word to these people that she had not succeeded. This is all the effect of pure delusion; the variance between such things and her usual character is shown in her all the time writing me the most kind letters. In all this Mr. Chakravarti was her guide, with others. She was writing him all the time about it. He went so far as to write me on a matter he was supposed to know nothing of: "No matter what Annie may do to you as Co-Head of the E.S., she means you no harm". He must have known what she was doing from her. It was quite true, and I knew why it was true that she meant no harm --- she was deluded.

Informed as I was of all these inside facts, I drew up under Master’s direction my circular on the charges in March, 1894, and there outlined what would be done. It was all done as I said and as the Master in March told me would be the case. The London investigation ended as Master predicted through me in my circular, and for the benefit of the T.S. But all that time the conspirators used all means against me. They had all sorts of letters sent me from India with pretended messages from the Masters asking me to resign and confess. One of those was anonymous and signed "A Brahman who loves you". I know the author. The object of these things was to confuse my mind if possible and render me unfit to act at all, while they went on with the plot and the influencing of Mrs. Besant. But Master kept me informed and told me what steps to take. He even told me that, much as it might seem the contrary from the official papers, Col. Olcott would be the central figure and the one through whom the adjustment of the matter would come. This also turned out true.

The Master says that the T.S. movement was begun by Them in the West by western people, and that it is not Their desire to turn it into a solely eastern movement nor to have us run after the present East and its exoteric teachers; they confirm the statement so often made by H.P.B. that there are not to-day in modern India any true Initiates teaching the people; that cyclic law requires the work in the West for the benefit of the world; that They do not live in India, and that They find it very hard to break down the walls of theological and other prejudices in the East; that the Egos of the West include many who helped to make the religion, the philosophy, and the civilization of the ancient East; that the new race is being prepared for in the West, and to divert thought back to the teachers of to-day in the East would be dangerous; that many Initiates have remained with the West as Nirmanakayas for its help in its destiny, and that through the great work in the West the whole East as well as West will be benefited. And They say that if the task of raising up the almost suffocated spirituality of India could have been done by working wholly there and thus benefiting the West, the time spent by the Messengers of the Lodge in the West was wasted. They also say that Nature’s laws have set apart woe for those who spit back in the face of their teacher, for those who try to belittle her work and make her out to be part good and part fraud; those who have started on the path through her must not try to belittle her work and aim. They do not ask for slavish idolatry of a person, but loyalty is required. They say that the Ego of that body she used was and is a great and brave servant of the Lodge, sent to the West for a mission with full knowledge of the insult and the obloquy to be surely heaped upon that devoted head; and they add: "Those who cannot understand her had best not try to explain her; those who do not find themselves strong enough for the task she outlined from the very first had best not attempt it". The T.S. and its devoted members should so pursue the aim that the great work may at last be accomplished, so that when the next great Messenger shall arrive the obstacles that were found in 1875 will not be there, to be again overcome only through long years of effort.

A distinct object H.P.B. had in view I will now on the authority of the Master tell you. The work of the dark powers and their conscious and unconscious agents is against this object. They wish to defeat it. It is an object of the highest value and of the greatest scope, unrevealed before by H.P.B. to anyone else that I know of, though possibly there are those to whom she hinted it. All her vast work in the West, with western people, upon western religions and modern science, was toward this end, so that when she comes again as Messenger --- as hinted at in the Key to Theosophy --- much of the preparatory work should have been done by us and our successors. It is, the establishment in the West of a great seat of learning where shall be taught and explained and demonstrated the great theories of man and nature which she brought forward to us, where western occultism, as the essence combined out of all others, shall be taught. This stupendous object the Black Lodge would prevent. And even the exoteric theological Brahman would also prevent it, because it will in the end obliterate that form of caste which depends alone on birth, for there will be developed those whose inner vision will see the real caste of the inner man and put him down in a lower one for his discipline if he is not truly in his place. To-day the four natural castes are all confused, and those who are black within strut about as keepers of the key to the shrine of truth, when in fact they should be lower down, as learners. Shall her great object be worked against by us and its foundations overthrown? Never, if the vast powers of the Masters can be drawn to its support; never, if we are faithful to our pledges and to our trust.

I also state, on the same authority, that H.P.B. has not reincarnated. That Ego is quite conscious and working toward the final accomplishment of the end in view, which depends very largely upon the members of the Theosophical Society, and on their loyalty. If the plotters succeed, the Black Lodge will win by turning our thoughts to the modern East with its Yogis and Fakirs, its hide-bound castes, its subtle and magnificently intellectual theology, its Hatha Yoga and all the dangers attending that.

In some minds this question has arisen: "Why does not the Master objectively communicate directly at one and the same time with Col. Olcott and all these others, so as to stop all trouble, and by bringing about a clear understanding smooth out all difficulties?" To do this would be contrary to the rule and dangerous for us. The force given out by doing it would allow --- through the law of equal reaction --- a similar amount of force to the Black Lodge, who also would be thus shown those who were involved. Greater trouble would follow. This law is well known. How often has H.P.B. said that, while such exercise of power cannot hurt the Adept, it arouses the sentinels at the threshold, who then precipitate themselves on the unprotected neophyte. Were it now done, then all the hundreds connected with us would be targets for assaults, on this plane of desires and passions, by the dark powers. The Masters protect us while we are still without our own weapons, by keeping themselves on the spiritual plane --- save to those who have obtained the means for self-protection. And in this is much information as well as warning. It is not well to vibrate a string that you want to raise up to a high note, unless you are strong enough to stand the consequences of its inevitable vibration to one equally low. At that low point lie the dark forces, and the vibrations rouse them up. We must be sure of the below before we try to go to the above. Practices, such as the Indian books are full of, lead to unwise vibrations, before we are ready. When we are encased in the steel of true devotion it will be time to try those experiments.

We are all therefore face to face with the question whether we will abide by Masters and their Messenger on the one hand, or by the disrupting forces that stand on the other, willing to destroy our great mission if we will but give them the opportunity.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.

I now proceed a step further than the E.S.T. decisions of 1894, and, solely for the good of the E.S.T., I resume in the E.S.T. in full all the functions and powers given to me by H.P.B. and that came to me by orderly succession after her passing from this life, and declare myself the sole head of the E.S.T. This has been already done in America. So far as concerns the rest of the E.S.T. I may have to await the action of the members, but I stand ready to exercise those functions in every part of it. Hence, under the authority given me by the Master and H.P.B., and under Master’s direction, I declare Mrs. Annie Besant’s headship in the E.S.T. at an end.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.

[See Annie Besant's reply to Mr. Judge's above 12-page circular. For some background on Mr. Judge's circular as well as Mrs. Besant's reply, see: The Theosophical Movement 1875-1950, Chapter XVI, especially pp. 241-246; and Henry S. Olcott's Old Diary Leaves, Volume V, Chapter XIX, "Mr. Judge Denounces Mrs. Besant," especially pp. 252-260.]