Theosophical Society in America (Hargrove)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Theosophical Society in America (Hargrove) or Theosophical Society in America (Hargrove) was a theosophical organization that emerged from the Theosophical Society in America (TGinA).

history

In 1895, as a result of the Judge Case, the Theosophical Society (TG) split into the Adyar-TG under Henry Steel Olcott and the TGinA under William Quan Judge . After Judge's death, Ernest T. Hargrove was elected President of the TGinA in 1896 . He tried to continue Judge's course. From the start, however, he was overshadowed by the actual leader figure, Katherine Tingley . At a large theosophical congress in Chicago on February 18, 1898, Tingley was "officially" elected as president of the TGinA. At this congress she was given comprehensive powers, which gave her complete control over all centers and lodges of the TGinA including their management teams, and it also changed the orientation of the TGinA to include social and educational aspects.

Hargrove had lost all authority to Tingley and was degraded by this move to an exchangeable command receiver and practically sidelined. He hadn't expected such a change of direction and he didn't agree with it either. He then declared that congress illegal and convened his own in another room. On this, his approximately 200 supporters elected AH Spencer as president of the TGinA and declared the earlier course judges to be trend-setting. This did not change the facts, only that there were two TGinAs from this point in time. None of the parties gave in and so it remained, on the one hand the Tingley TGinA and on the other hand the Hargrove TGinA (called TGinA-Hargrove for better distinction).

After all attempts at an agreement or supremacy between the two organizations had failed, Hargrove was elected president of its TGinA-Hargrove. This was mostly called the Hargrove Group or Hargrove Society , worked according to the statutes, which had been drawn up under William Quan Judge on April 28, 1895 and claimed to be the rightful follower of the theosophical tradition. It was based in New York . One problem was the demarcation from the Tingley TGinA, although this had meanwhile been renamed Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society . Both organizations had the same organization, the same program, the same teaching, the same access to their esoteric secrets etc. The success of the TGinA-Hargrove was then only moderate, in its prime it had about 300 registered members, including one Change of name to The Theosophical Society in 1908 brought no improvement.

The publication organ of the TGinA-Hargrove was the magazine Theosophical Quarterly (1903-1938), which appeared quarterly. The magazine described itself as the "official organ of the Theosophical Society", which was founded in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky , William Quan Judge and others. With this she wanted to underpin the claim of the TGinA-Hargrove as the only legitimate TG. In the last few years of its publication the tone had become increasingly instructive and snooty, and the reputation had suffered as a result. The magazine had given the organization a certain cohesion when the publication was discontinued in July 1938, which accelerated the long-standing process of decay of the TGinA-Hargrove. The death of Ernest Temple Hargrove on April 8, 1939, was then only the end of an already completed dissolution.

In 1906 or 1907 the TGinA-Hargrove awarded Robert Crosbie a deed of foundation for the establishment of a lodge in Los Angeles . In 1909 the United Lodge of Theosophists (ULT) developed, Hargrove can thus be regarded as the ULT's midwife. The TGinA-Hargrove also had a lodge in Munich . [1]

swell

[1] Austrian Journal of History: ORTE DES OKKULTEN ( Memento from July 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) page 119

Web links