William Quan Judge

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William Quan Judge (born April 13, 1851 in Dublin , Ireland , † March 21, 1896 in New York City ) was an Irish / American lawyer , author of esoteric works, theosophist and one of the founders of the Theosophical Society (TG). After the first split in the TG, he founded the Theosophical Society in America (TGinA), of which he also became president.

William Quan Judge

Live and act

Childhood, youth and marriage

William Quan Judge was born on April 13, 1851 in Dublin, Ireland to Frederic H. Judge and Alice Mary Quan. Hence its double name "Quan Judge" was derived. He lost his mother as a child and in 1864 his father emigrated to the USA with a total of six children , where he settled in Brooklyn . At a young age, Judge also lost his father and began studying law in New York in 1869 . He received US citizenship in April 1872 and was admitted to the bar in New York in May of that year after completing his studies. He practiced this profession in the following years with average success and it therefore brought him only modest income. In 1874 he married the teacher Ella M. Smith ; The connection with Smith resulted in a daughter who, however, died of diphtheria around the turn of the year 1878/79 . In 1893 the family moved to New York. Smith was a devout Methodist and opposed theosophy until Judge's death in 1896, but then changed her mind and joined the TG.

Foundation of the Theosophical Society

Even through his father, who was in contact with the Freemasons , Judge had been brought up in an enlightened spirit and was interested in various religions, but esoteric thoughts also aroused his curiosity. In 1874 he read a preprint of Henry Steel Olcott's book People from the Other World and then looked for and made contact with the author and Helena Blavatsky . Judge had the idea and gave Blavatsky the impetus to create a society for the study of secret sciences and on September 8, 1875, Judge, Olcott, Blavatsky u. a. the "Theosophical Society" (= TS = Theosophical Society (TG)). On November 17, 1875, Olcott was elected the first president of the TG on the proposal of Judges, and Judge himself became general secretary. In addition to his work for the TG, the next few years brought an intensive examination of esoteric and religious topics, especially in the dialogue with Blavatsky and Olcott. Here Judge got the tools for his later writing activity and the future leadership of the TG in the USA. According to Judge, Blavatsky also brought him into contact with so-called masters of wisdom . These “masters” are said to have appeared both to him alone, as well as to Blavatsky and Olcott and to have given instructions or hints, both orally and in the form of so-called “master’s letters”. Since these statements could not be verified, their truthfulness is disputed.

As a lawyer and businessman

When Blavatsky and Olcott left for India at the end of 1878 , Judge was determined to go with them; However, since this was far beyond his financial means and he also had to look after his wife, he had to stay in the USA. In the following years he tried to raise the necessary funds through speculation and investments in companies. To this end, he traveled to Venezuela to open a lead mine , but the venture turned out to be a complete failure. Worse still, he contracted Chagas disease in the country , which he never got rid of and which was responsible for his early death in 1896. A business adventure in Mexico also ended in fiasco. In 1883 Judge was back in the United States, and as a result of his long absences, his law firm in New York had gone bankrupt and he had amassed debts that he laboriously paid off in the years that followed. In early 1885, Judge found work with another New York law firm and held that position until 1894, when his poor health forced him to quit. Until his death in 1896 he lived on a pension from the American TG.

Standstill and travel to India

Since Olcott and Blavatsky's departure for India on December 17, 1878, Major General Abner Doubleday , a veteran of the Civil War , had become interim president of the New York TG. He was more likely to be persuaded by Blavatsky than to be qualified for the job. Due to the frequent absence of Judges in his function as general secretary, the qualified leadership was missing and the TG in America was like a torso at this time , nothing went on. It wasn't until 1883, when Judge finally gave up his unsuccessful business, that he found time again for the TG. In that year 1883 he founded the Aryan Theosophical Society of New York , of which he also became president. But already at the beginning of 1884 he got the necessary funds, from whom is unknown, to go to India, with the result that the American TG was orphaned again. Via London , where he met Alfred Percy Sinnett and Francesca Arundale , he traveled on to Paris where he met Blavatsky and Olcott, who had stopped there on their European tour (February to December 1884). Since during this time there were differences between Blavatsky and Emma and Alexis Coulomb , two employees of the Theosophical Society in Adyar , he continued his trip to India as authorized representative of Blavatsky to see that things were going well. On August 10, 1884, he arrived at the TG headquarters in Adyar , dealt with the matter, but could not prevent the resulting Coulomb affair and left for New York at the beginning of October 1884 without having achieved anything. On this voyage he first met Albert ES Smythe (AES Smythe), who later became Secretary General of the TG in Canada .

New start and expansion of the TG

Annie Besant , Henry Steel Olcott and William Quan Judge in London

In that year 1884, Henry Steel Olcott , President of the TG, had established several boards of control from London, including a. also one for America, which was to coordinate and promote the fate of the individual theosophical branches and groups. The New York TG, with Judge as general secretary, and the Aryan Theosophical Society of New York led by Judge , were also subordinate to the American Control Council. This council, along with its chairman Elliott Coues , was extremely unpopular, and when Olcott instructed the control council to elect a board of directors subordinate to the council, it broke. The members of the control council decided at a meeting in October 1886, Coues was not present, the dissolution of the council and instead the establishment of the American section of the TG (ASTG). All groups, branches, and centers of TG in America should be represented in the ASTG and directed by one person, general secretary and treasurer rolled into one. William Quan Judge was elected to this office, reporting directly to Olcott, President in Adyar. Olcott simply accepted the new order and Coues, who refused to come to terms with the situation, was expelled from the ASTG in June 1889.

Now Judge began to bind the existing groups more firmly to the ASTG and at the same time to conquer new territory. The journal The Path , which he founded in April 1886, now served as the official publication organ of the ASTG, recruited new members and promoted the cohesion of the entire organization. Extensive travels with numerous lectures led to the establishment of new branches and centers and gradually the company grew from around 12 lodges when it was founded in October 1886 to 101 lodges by April 28, 1895, the separation from Adyar.

Further tasks

In 1888, Olcott appointed Judge vice-president of the TG, and in the same year he was also appointed head of the Esoteric Section (ES) in America by Blavatsky . After Blavatsky's death on May 8, 1891, he and Annie Besant ran the entire ES. Judge presented the TG at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 , which was held as part of the World Exhibition held there . All of these additional activities increased the workload tremendously for Judge. In addition, he wrote articles for magazines such as The Path or Lucifer, etc. , often under a pseudonym . a. and wrote books. Among his publications, the work The Ocean of Theosophy, which appeared in 1893, deserves special mention. It is a summary of Blavatsky's secret teaching and is considered to be one of the best, and most understandable, introductions to theosophy.

Separation from Adyar

With the death of Helena Blavatsky on May 8, 1891, and presumably also as a result of his exhausting travels, Olcott's health deteriorated. For this reason he published his intention to resign as president of the TG in Adyar. The ASTG and the European Section then proposed the TG Judge as a successor. Although Olcott had not officially resigned, the European Section mistakenly believed that this was what had happened and elected Judge as the new president. Upon learning of this, Olcott revoked his resignation and remained president. These confusions led to mutual distrust and accusations that poisoned the TG climate. The situation was further exacerbated by Annie Besant, who brought new tensions to the TG with her Hindu orientation and gradually gained influence. These disputes went down in theosophical history as the judge case . On April 28, 1895, the ASTG declared its exit from the TG and elected Judge as its president for life. Only 26 lodges stayed in the ASTG and thus with Olcott, 75 lodges went with Judge and founded the Theosophical Society in America (= Theosophical Society in America (TGinA)). This declared itself to be completely independent and independent of the TG in Adyar.

death

In the following 11 months, Judge was able to expand the TGinA again to around 100 boxes until he died on March 21, 1896, completely exhausted, at the age of 44 in New York. Above all, the Chagas disease, but also the stressful activities surrounding the Theosophical Society, had taken their toll. His last words were: “Keep calm. Hold on. Walk gently. ”His body was cremated in a crematorium on March 23rd . The successor at the TGinA was first Ernest T. Hargrove and finally Katherine Tingley after a controversial election .

Works (selection)

  • The sea of ​​theosophy . Lang, Kolbenmoor 2003, ISBN 3-930664-23-2 .
  • The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali, An Interpretation . Theosophical publishing house, Leipzig 1924.
  • Echoes from the Orient, A General Outline of Theosophical Teachings . Heller, Nuremberg 1906.
  • Studies on the Bhagavad-Gita by William Quan Judge. Translated from English by Conrad Johann Glückselig . J. Th. Heller, Nuremberg 1905 (digitized version)
  • How do you acquire occult powers? Renatus-Verlag, Lorch 1926.
  • Practical occultism. From the private letters of William Q. Judge . Theosophical University Press, Pasadena 1951.

literature

  • Annie Besant : The case against WQ Judge . London 1895
  • Sven Eek, Boris de Zirkoff (Ed.): William Quan Judge, 1851-1896, the life of a theosophical pioneer and some of his outstanding articles . Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton 1969.
  • Josef H. Fussell: Events in the History of the Theosophical Movement. A talk about San Diego in California . Heller, Nuremberg around 1921.

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Judge, William Quan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish-American lawyer and theosophist
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin
DATE OF DEATH March 21, 1896
Place of death New York City