William Judge was one of the Theosophical
Society founders and he has a very important role in the resurgence of the
Theosophical movement, and here I published four experiences he had with the
elaboration of the Secret Doctrine.
1. WILLIAM JUDGE PARTICIPATED IN THE
PRELIMINARIES OF
THE SECRET DOCTRINE
In a letter that William Judge wrote
to Mrs. Holloway, he told her:
- "The Masters have ordered me to
stop in Paris to help Blavatsky with the Secret
Doctrine."
At that time, Blavatsky was living
in India, but she had gone to Europe with Colonel Olcott to deal with various
issues related to the Theosophical Society.
And in a letter that William Judge
wrote to Mrs. Wachtmeister, he detailed more about that help he gave her:
« It was in Paris in 1884, where I had
gone to meet her. We stopped in a house in the Rue Notre Dame des Champs, and
for a shorter time at the country house of the Count and Countess d’Adhémar at
Enghien near Paris.
At Enghien especially, H. P. B.
wanted me to go carefully through the pages of her copy of Isis Unveiled for the purpose of noting on the margins what
subjects were treated, and for the work she furnished me with what she called a
special blue and red pencil. I went all through both volumes and made the notes
required, and of those she afterwards wrote me that they were of the greatest
use to her. During our stay there several psychical phenomena took place seen
by many persons.
But every night while others were
asleep I was often awake for several hours, and then in the quiet and the
darkness saw and heard many things which no one else but H. P. B. knew of. Among
these' were hundreds of astral signal bells flying back and forth, showing — to
those who know the meaning under such things — that much was on foot when
people were asleep and the place free from disturbances of noise and
ill-feeling common to the waking mortal.
At the house in Paris she worked all
day and often far into the night on the book, and conversed with me about it.
Sometimes she became changed in manner and much absorbed, so much so that
automatically the famous cigarettes were lighted and then forgotten. In that
way one night she lighted and let go out so many that I forgot to keep count.
One day I said to her that I would
write the book entire, for a joke. She took me up seriously, saying that I
might and she would see that I accomplished it, but I declined of course. This
was in private, and there was no attempt at guying at all. The subject of
elementals came up, and I asked her if she intended to give much on it. Her
reply was that she might say something, but it was all sub judice as yet and must wait for orders, as it was not a quiet
or harmless part of the thing.
She then asked me to write down all
I knew or thought I knew on that head, and she would see if that much coming
from me would be allowed to pass the unseen critics. A long chapter on
Elementals was then done, nearly all by my pen, and she put it away for some
time. The day that it was finished was warm and pleasant, and in the middle of
the afternoon she suddenly grew absorbed once more.
The air of the room at the same time
was turned to the temperature of much below freezing, to judge by sensation,
and I remarked on the fact. It was not a change of the weather at all, but
seemed to blow out from H.P.B. as if she was an open door from some huge
refrigerating store. I again drew her attention to it and said:
-
"It feels as if
a door was open on the Himalaya Mountains and the cold air was blowing into
this room."
To
this she replied:
-
"Perhaps it is
so," and smiled.
It was so cold that I had to protect
myself with a rug taken from the floor.
In about three days she announced
that my small and inadequate chapter on Elementals had been of such a sort that
it was decided she would not put much, if anything, into The Secret Doctrine on
the subject, and mine was either destroyed or retained. It certainly is not in
any part of the published volumes. »
(Reminiscences, p.102-103)
William Judge could not stay long in
France because the Masters ordered him to go to India for a hidden initiation
that he was going to receive.
2. BLAVATSKY SUBSEQUENTLY REQUESTED
WILLIAM JUDGE TO HELP HER TO WRITE THE SECRET DOCTRINE
Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott
returned to India to deal with the plot that Jesuits had made to overthrow
Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society, and by that date, William Judge had
already returned to the United States.
Blavatsky wanted to defend herself, but Colonel Olcott did not let her
and he preferred to exile Blavatsky out of India (to Europe).
And once in Europe, Blavatsky wrote
William Judge to visit her and help her with The Secret Doctrine, but he declined her request, something he
later regretted a lot for not having accepted.
William Judge narrated this history
in the letter he sent to Mrs. Wachtmeister, and below I transcribed the second
part of this letter:
« I have been asked to write anything
known to me personally about the writing of The
Secret Doctrine by H.P.B. As but little time was then spent by me in the
company of the author, what I have to say is meagre.
If I had been with her as much when The Secret Doctrine was being put
together as I was when she was writing Isis
Unveiled, very great benefit would have accrued to myself, and in view of a
letter she wrote me from Wurzburg, I have some regret that the opportunity
offered was not availed of.
When the plan for The Secret Doctrine had taken definite
shape in outline in her mind, H. P. B. wrote me several letters on the subject,
one of which I will quote from:
« Wurzburg,
March 24th, 1886.
Dear W.Q.J.,
I wish only you could spare two or
three months and come to me at Ostende where I am emigrating again, to be
nearer to — and friends. I have some money now and could easily pay your fare
out and back. There's a dear, good fellow, do consent to it.
You will be
working for the Society, for I want you badly for the arrangement of Secret
Doctrine, Such facts, such facts. Judge, as Masters are giving out will rejoice
your old heart. Oh, how I do want you. The thing is becoming enormous, a wealth
of facts. I need you for calculations and to write with me. I can assure you,
you will not lose time by coming.
Do think of
it, dear old boy.
Yours sincerely and affectionately,
H.P.B. »
This pressing invitation I could not
accept because of certain circumstances, but on looking back at it I am sorry
that it was let slip by. Other letters going into the matter of what was to be
done and referring to old beginnings need not be quoted. One of them, however,
reminds me of another period when The
Secret Doctrine was in her mind, though I am not aware she had told anyone
else.
Speaking to those who know and
believe that H.P.B. was all the time in communication with the Masters in their
retreats somewhere on the globe, I can say that a serious series of
consultations was held among them as to what should go into The Secret
Doctrine^ and that it was plainly said that the book was to be done in such a
manner as to compel the earnest student to dig out many profound truths which in
a modern book would be announced especially and put down in regular course.
It was also said from the same
source that this age, being a transition one in all respects, the full
revelations were not for this generation. But enough was to be given out in the
manner described, as well as plainly, to make it substantially a revelation.
All students, then, who are in earnest will do well not to pass carelessly over
the pages of any part of the book.
This is all I can say on the subject
of the writing of this wonderful book. I only wish it were more, and can but
blame myself that I was not present at a time when, as I know now, greater
opportunity was offered than at any other period for inner knowledge of the
writers, seen and unseen, of The Secret Doctrine. »
(Reminiscences of H.P. Blavatsky and “The Secret
Doctrine” by Countess Wachtmeister and others, appendix I-3, p.101-104)
3. LETTER FROM THE AMERICAN THEOSOPHISTS ASKING
BLAVATSKY TO PUBLISH HER WORK
The orthodox Brahmins were very
opposed to the publication of The Secret
Doctrine because they did not want Blavatsky revealed to the Westerners,
certain secrets of the occult teaching which they consider reserved only for the
Orientals. And these Brahmins were generating more and more pressure for
Blavatsky to desist from her project.
And that is why William Judge sent a
letter to Blavatsky signed by several American theosophists requesting her to continue
with the publication of her book:
« New York,
January 10, 1888.
Madame H.P. Blavatsky,
Respected Chief: — We have just
heard that you have been asked to withdraw from publication the Secret Doctrine.
This extraordinary request emanates,
we are told, from members of the Theosophical Society, who say that if the book
is brought out it will be attacked or ridiculed by some East Indian pundits,
and that it is not wise to antagonize these Indian gentlemen.
We most earnestly ask you not to pay
heed to this desire, but to bring out the Secret
Doctrine at the earliest possible day.
It is a work for which we, and
hundreds of others all over the United States, have been waiting for some
years, most of us standing firmly on the promise made by yourself that it was
being prepared and would appear.
While the West has the highest
regard for the East Indian philosophy, it is at the same time, better able to
grasp and understand works that are written by those acquainted with the West,
with its language, with its usages and idiom, and with its history, and who are
themselves westerns.
As we well know that it is from the
West the chief strength of the Theosophical Society is to come, although its
knowledge and inspiration may and do reach us from the East, we are
additionally anxious that you, who have devoted your life to this cause and
have hitherto granted us the great boon found in Isis Unveiled, should not now stop almost at the very point of
giving us the Secret Doctrine, but go
on with it in order that we may see your pledge fulfilled and another important
stone laid in the Theosophical edifice.
Further, we hasten to assure you
that it makes but small difference — if any whatever — here in the vast and populous
West what any one or many pundits in India say or threaten to say about the Secret Doctrine, since we believe that
although a great inheritance has been placed before the East Indians by their
ancestors they have not seized it, nor have they in these later days given it
out to their fellow men living beyond the bounds of India, and since this
apathy of theirs, combined with their avowed belief that all Western people,
being low-caste men, cannot receive the Sacred Knowledge, has removed these
pundits from the field of influence upon Western thought.
And lastly, knowing that the great
wheel of time has turned itself once more so that the Powers above see that the
hour has come when to all people, East and West alike, shall be given the true
knowledge, be it Vedantic or otherwise, we believe that the Masters behind the
Theosophical Society and whom you serve, desire that such books as the Secret Doctrine should be written.
We therefore earnestly entreat you
not to be moved from your original purpose and plain pledge that, before passing
away from our earthly sight, you would lay before us the Secret Doctrine.
Receive, Madame, the assurances of
our high esteem and the pledge of our continued loyalty.
Signed: William Quan Judge and 45 others Theosophists. »
(The
Path, February 1888, p.354-355)
4. THE AUTHORITY OF THE SECRET
DOCTRINE
When Dr. Hübbe Schleiden visited
Blavatsky in Würzburg, in January 1886, he received from Masters Kuthumi and
Morya, two letters that they materialized in Dr. Schleider’s documents, where
they declared that the authors of the Secret
Doctrine were themselves with Blavatsky.
And according to an annotation that
William Judge made in his diary, Blavatsky sent him shortly afterwards a precipitation
copy of those statements.
Six years later, when William Judge
went to London to participate in the Second European Convention of the
Theosophical Society that took place in July 1892, he met Dr. Hübbe Schleiden
who showed him the original certificates, and William Judge was able to prove
that they were the same ones that he had also received.
Master Kuthumi certificate
Master Morya certificate
I put above the facsimiles of the Masters’
certificates about the triple authorship of the Secret Doctrine, whose copies William Judge received in 1886 and
which he could compare with the originals that Hübbe Schleiden showed him in
London in 1892.
And later, William Judge published
an article entitled "Authorship of The Secret Doctrine" in which he
spoke about those two letters:
« A good deal has been
said about the writing of Isis Unveiled,
and later of the Secret Doctrine,
both by H.P. Blavatsky.
A writer in the spiritualistic
journals took great pains to show how many books the first work seems to quote
from, and the conclusion to be arrived at after reading his diatribes is that
H.P.B. had an enormous library at her disposal, and of course in her house, for
she never went out, or that she had agents at great expense copying books, or,
lastly, that by some process or power not known to the world was able to read
books at a distance, as, for instance, in the Vatican at Rome and the British
Museum.
The last is the fact.
She lived in a small flat when
writing the first book and had very few works on hand, all she had being of the
ordinary, common sort.
She herself very often told how
she gained her information as to modern books. No secret was made of it, for
those who were with her saw day after day that she could gaze with ease into
the astral light and glean whatever she wanted. But in the early days she did
not say precisely to the public that she was in fact helped in that work by the
Masters, who gave from time to time certain facts she could not get otherwise.
The Secret Doctrine, however, makes no disguise of the real help, and
she asserts, as also many of us believe, that the Masters had a hand in that
great production.
The letters sent to Mr. Sinnett
formed the ground for Esoteric Buddhism,
as was intended, but as time went on it was seen that some more of the veil had
to be lifted and certain misconceptions cleared up; hence the Secret Doctrine was written, and mostly
by the Masters themselves, except that she did the arranging of it.
For some time it was too much the
custom of those who had received at the hands of H.P.B. words and letters from
her Masters to please themselves with the imagination that she was no more in
touch with the original fount, and that, forsooth, these people could decide
for themselves what was from her brain and what from the Masters.
But it is now time to give out a
certificate given when the Secret
Doctrine was being written, a certificate signed by the Masters who have
given out all that is new in our theosophical books. It was sent to one who had
then a few doubts, and at the same time copies were given from the same source
to others for use in the future, which is now.
The first certificate runs thus:
« I wonder if this note
of mine is worthy of occupying a select spot with the documents reproduced, and
which of the peculiarities of the “Blavatskian”
style of writing it will be found to most resemble?
The present is simply to satisfy the Doctor that “the
more proof given the less believed”. Let him take my advice and not make these
two documents public. It is for his own satisfaction the undersigned is happy
to assure him that the Secret Doctrine,
when ready, will be the triple production of M. [Morya], Upasika [Blavatsky] and most humble servant – K.H. [Kuthumi].
S.E.C. »
On the back of this was the
following, signed by the Master who is mentioned in the above:
« If this can be of any
use or help to Dr. Hübbe Schleiden, though I doubt it. I, the humble undersigned Faquir,
certify that the Secret Doctrine is
dictated to Blavatsky, partly by myself and partly by my brother K.H.
M.·. »
A year after this, certain doubts
having arisen in the minds of individuals, another letter from one of the
signers of the foregoing was sent and reads as follows.
« The certificate
given last year saying that the Secret
Doctrine would be when finished the triple production of Blavatsky, Morya, and
myself was and is correct, although some have doubted not only the facts given
in it but also the authenticity of the message in which it was contained.
Copy this and also keep the copy
of the aforesaid certificate. You will find them both of use on the day when
you shall, as will happen without your asking, receive from the hands of the
very person to whom the certificate was given, the original for the purpose of
allowing you to copy it; and then you can verify the correctness of this
presently forwarded copy.
And it may then be well to
indicate to those wishing to know what portions in the Secret Doctrine have been copied by the pen of Blavatsky into its
pages, though without quotation marks, from my own manuscript and perhaps from
Morya, though the last is more difficult from the rarity of his known writing
and greater ignorance of his style.
All this and more will be found
necessary as time goes on, but for which you are well qualified to wait. »
~ * ~
As the prophecy in it has come true, it is now the
time to publish it for the benefit of those who know something of how to take
and understand such letters. For the outside it will all be so much nonsense. »
(Path, April 1893, p.1-3)
And below, I show you a facsimile of the letter that William Judge
subsequently received from Master Kuthumi:
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