Judge Case
The Judge Case ( The case Judge was) 1894-1895 the cause of the first split of the Theosophical Society in two competing organizations. Years of misunderstandings, influence and power struggles between Henry Steel Olcott , Annie Besant and William Quan Judge ended on April 28, 1895 with the establishment of the Theosophical Society in America (TGinA) on the one hand and the Theosophical Society Adyar (Adyar-TG) on the other. The split was the prelude to a number of further delimitations.
prehistory
The Theosophical Society was founded on November 17, 1875 in New York . The most important founders and protagonists of the first decades were Helena Blavatsky , Henry Steel Olcott and William Quan Judge . In 1879 Blavatsky and Olcott moved to India and in December 1882 relocated the headquarters of the TG to Adyar . In the following years the organization expanded rapidly and spread to all continents. In 1886 the twelve theosophical lodges in the USA were merged into the American section under the direction of Judge, and in 1890 a European section was created under Blavatsky's leadership.
According to theosophical view, so-called masters of wisdom are said to have influenced the development of the TG. These masters were said to be Blavatsky's teachers and the authors of numerous masters letters received from a number of leading theosophists, most notably Alfred Percy Sinnett and Allan Octavian Hume . The masters were held in high regard by the theosophists, just as the masters' certificates have their permanent place in the teaching building of the TG.
The judge case
Olcott's resignation
Blavatsky's death in 1891 brought with it a certain uncertainty and perplexity among the theosophists, since she had been the main figurehead and authority of the TG. Olcott, in particular, felt the burden of responsibility more than ever and resigned as president of the TG in 1892 for health reasons. The American section then nominated Judge as his successor. The European section under GRS Mead followed this vote. Judge was Vice President of the TG at the time. Besant, which, despite its brief TG membership since 1889, had already exercised great influence, supported Judges' candidacy. However, Olcott revoked his resignation in 1892, declared his health restored, and remained in office. In the meantime, a series of unclear and contradicting statements about Olcott's announcement of his resignation and Judge's succession had been published and had led to the formation of camps within the TG, but above all had created a climate of mutual distrust.
Allegations Against Judge And Arbitration
In the August 1891 issue of the theosophical journal The Path , Jasper Nobody (pseudonym of Archibald Keightley's wife Julia ) published an article that caused a stir among a number of theosophists and the impression that this was a message from the Masters of Wisdom . Judge was suspected of being the author of these lines. In September 1893, Besant, Judge and Gyanendra N. Chakravarti , a Brahmin , represented the TG with great success at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. Chakravarti, who allegedly had parapsychological skills and was trained in hypnosis , gained greater influence on Besant at this point. Besant said she heard the voices of the masters , subscribed to the Hindu religion and tradition and turned against Judge.
In a letter to Olcott dated February 6, 1894, Besant alleged that Judge had relied on letters from the Masters . Besant was referring here to the aforementioned publication in The Path and the correspondence about it. The masters , revered as at a higher level of consciousness being located to abuse in such a way was in the TG as a serious sacrilege. On February 7th, therefore, Olcott asked Judge in a letter to either resign his theosophical offices immediately or to submit to a commission of inquiry. Judge replied that the allegations were completely false and that he would go to London in July 1894 for a debate. In the weeks that followed, Olcott published his allegations and Judge justified himself, leading to a myriad of pro and contra statements. The commission, which finally met on July 10, 1894 in London under the direction of Olcott, passed the diplomatic judgment that Judge had mentioned the masters as a private person and not in his capacity as vice-president of the TG. Therefore this office could not be revoked from him. Besant apologized to Judge, but many of the members who had expected a clear and clean solution were disappointed; the conflict was only superficially defused.
The "betrayal" of Walter Richard Old and the consequences
Walter Richard Old (Sepharial) had been a member of the TG since 1887 and later the ES, but in August 1893 he was expelled from the ES by Besant and Judge because he had published internals in a newspaper article and thus broke his oath of confidentiality. However, he continued to be trusted by Olcott and a number of other theosophists. When the Judge Case made waves in England in the spring of 1894 , it collected material against Judge on behalf of the TG. After the investigation ended, however, Old turned the collected material over to Edmund Garrett of the Westminster Gazette . In October 1894, Garrett began publishing the material in the Gazette. He portrayed the masters as charlatans. Leading theosophists like Olcott, Besant and Judge were portrayed as impostors. A number of lodges collapsed over this scandal and numerous members turned their backs on the TG, Old was expelled from the TG. Most importantly, the judge case flared up again and more violently than ever.
There was evidence that Besant had provided Old with material against Judge as early as December 1893, prior to their February 1894 indictment with Olcott. Based on this assumption, Judge relieved Besant of her leading position in the ES in an internal communication dated November 3, 1894. Judge defended Besant in a letter, described her only five years of membership in the TG as too short for the managerial tasks she carried out and threw her Chakravarti claim to be the real cause of the negative developments. Besant, in turn, denied Judge's allegations and published an article in the Westminster Gazette , in which she confronted Judge with the old allegations regarding the false masters' certificates. In December 1894 Besant declared Judge as head of the ES for her part and published her work The Case against WQ Judge (The case against WQ Judge) in February 1895 , in which she seriously incriminated him. The climate was now completely poisoned, there was no longer a common basis for discussion.
The division of the TG
At a congress of the American section of the TG on April 28, 1895 in Boston, the American section declared in solidarity with Judge with 191 to 10 votes that they would leave the TG and elected Judge as president for life. Only 26 lodges stayed with the TG and thus with Olcott, 75 lodges went with Judge and founded the Theosophical Society in America (TGinA). Olcott excluded the "renegade" lodges and members around Judge from the TG on July 5, 1895 by withdrawing the deed of foundation. At the same time, he equipped the lodges that remained with him and the TG with a renewed deed of foundation for a new American section and appointed Alexander Fullerton as general secretary. On July 5th, eight lodges of the European section declared their sympathy with Judge and joined his TGinA, later a lodge in Australia followed suit. This split went down in theosophical history as The Split .
Since the relocation of the TG headquarters to Adyar in December 1882 it had become common in theosophical circles to speak of Adyar when speaking of the headquarters. Due to the schism of April 28, 1895, two TGs were created and the designation Adyar-TG became necessary to distinguish them. In the following decades, renewed divisions gave rise to a number of further TGs, several of which were also called Theosophical Society . April 28th can therefore be regarded as the day the Adyar-TG was created. Today the Adyar-TG calls itself The Theosophical Society - Adyar .
Both organizations saw themselves as the legal and sole successors of the original TG of 1875. Likewise, both claimed to represent the only "true" and "genuine" theosophy . Of course, most of the organizations and societies that split off in the decades that followed presented their successors as the only and legitimate ones.
literature
- Annie Besant : The Case against WQ Judge . Self-published, London 1895.
- Henry Steel Olcott : Old Diary Leaves, Part 5 . Kessinger, Whitefish 2003, ISBN 0766133443 .
- Ernest E. Pelletier: The Judge Case. A Conspiracy which Ruined the Theosophical Cause. Edmonton Theosophical Society, Edmonton 2004. ISBN 0968160239 .