By Ernest Pelletier
A MYSTERY
ABOUT HPB AND EVENTS IN LONDON,
1891
Shortly after reviewing “The Secret Doctrine” Annie
Besant joined the Theosophical Society on
March 10th, 1889. Besant had made a name for herself as one of
England’s finest orators and her
abilities were needed by the growing Society. Besant showed great promise as a student of Theosophy and was soon sitting
at H.P.B.’s side acknowledging her as her new
guru. She was quickly brought
in as a pledged member of the Esoteric Section.
Just one month before her death H.P.B. appointed
Besant (April 1st, 1891) as the Chief Secretary of the Inner Group of the Esoteric Section and
Recorder of the Teachings [1] and arranged for her to go to America to meet William Q. Judge and deliver Blavatsky’s
message to the American Convention held April 26th - 27th,
1891, as her special delegate. At the time Besant
accepted that Judge was an Occultist, a view she later discounted.
On May 8th Blavatsky died in London
while Besant was on her way back
from America. Besant had sailed for
England on May 6th and, upon receiving word of Blavatsky’s death, Judge
followed on May 13th,
1891. Olcott would not sail from India until
June 15th.
Evidentiary facts have been gathered and are presented
here for consideration regarding that period
between Blavatsky’s death on May 8th and the time of Judge’s arrival
in London on May 21st,
1891.
Her first
will drawn up in India
Blavatsky executed her first Will before she left India
in early 1885. According to Olcott she drew up a Will on January 31st,
1885. Olcott stated:
“The witnesses were
P. Sreenivasa Row, E.H. Morgan, T. Subba Rao, and C. Ramiah. It contains a clause to the effect that
she wishes her ashes to be buried within the
compound of the Headquarters at Adyar; and another request that annually,
on the anniversary of her death, some
of her friends should assemble here and read a chapter of the ‘Light of Asia’ and one of ‘Bhagavad Gita’.” [2]
This is the Will and Testament which is being kept at
Adyar to this day, and considered Blavatsky’s official
Will. But it was
not the Last Will and Testament she executed.
Her second
will drawn up in Belgium
A second Will was drawn up in March 1887 while Blavatsky
was living in Ostend with Countess
Wachtmeister, who looked after her needs. Ten days before leaving Ostend she
lost consciousness while
sitting in her chair. Sylvia Cranston recounts
from Wachtmeister’s notes:
“When the lawyer,
doctor, and consul arrived, they found a joyous party. The doctor kept repeating, ‘But she should be dead, .
. . she should be dead.’ He had never known a case in which a person in such
condition recovered. The drawing of the will
went smoothly until the lawyer learned HPB had left all her worldly
goods to the countess and nothing to
her relatives. Fearing the countess had exercised undue influence on her mind, he objected, but HPB vehemently opposed.
Madame Gebhard, to avoid a scene,
gently informed the lawyer, ‘perhaps when you know the amount which Madame Blavatsky has to will away,
you will have no further objections to making
the will as she desires, for had Madame Blavatsky died, there would not have been
sufficient money to pay for her funeral expenses’.”
“The party broke up
several hours later. Departing, the American consul laughingly said:
‘Well, I think this is enough
fatigue for a dying woman!’” [3]
Wachtmeister continued:
“I will add that I
never saw that will again. After HPB’s death at Avenue Road, London, on May 8, 1891, I went to Ostend
to see the lawyer and asked him what had been
done with the will. He told me that after my departure he had given the will to HPB. I suppose that she must have
destroyed the deed, as it was never found among her papers.” [4]
Blavatsky’s second Will, although very different from the
first in content, has one element of similarity - both Wills were drawn up at moments of her pending death.
Her
possible third and last will drawn up in England
At the end of March 1889, a few months after “The Secret Doctrine”
was published, according to Cheiro, a famous palm reader
who was in London at the time, Blavatsky invited him to visit her one evening at Avenue Road. Blavatsky had
deduced from evaluating her own palm
that her life was nearing its end. She apparently contacted Cheiro to verify
her conclusions and give her a time
frame in which she could expect the inevitable. Again according to Cheiro, Blavatsky thanked him after his reading and
said_
“Your warning will do me good, for I will now put my papers in
order and prepare in earnest for the short time that lies before me.” [5]
Although a third Will has never been acknowledged, it can
be assumed from Blavatsky’s supposed
comments that she was taking this seriously and that she would take the
time to draw up another Last Will and Testament.
The
probable content of her last testament
In her 1887 Will, Blavatsky had apparently left nothing
to Olcott and nothing for Adyar either;
all was to go to Countess Wachtmeister who was looking after her night and day
and receiving no compensation in
return. H.P.B.’s circumstances had changed drastically since then and a very different Will was needed
to reflect this new status. Judge had become her most trustworthy supporter and the most dedicated to the CAUSE.
Blavatsky eventually came to
realize that her own Master had initiated him in 1884 and she depended on Judge
for the many tasks she needed done.
In one of her letters she wrote: “I trust Judge more than anyone in the
world.” [6]
Recognizing Blavatsky’s involvement with Judge in all
aspects of theosophical work, and the fact
that Besant had only recently joined the Society, it would seem reasonable to
assume that Blavatsky would not
have designated Besant as the main benefactor in her Will. Olcott mentioned that when he had arrived at the
London headquarters on September 4th, 1889, he “found Mrs. Annie Besant living in the
house, having just come over from the Secularists into our camp, with bag and baggage.” [7]
Besant claimed, and declared some months after Blavatsky’s death, that she was “the
person who arranged H.P. Blavatsky’s business affairs in England” [8] during that time. It would be reasonable to
expect, therefore, that Besant was the person in charge of Blavatsky’s Last Will and Testament and would have known where to find it
after her death.
It is reasonable to deduce that Blavatsky drafted a new
Will sometime after Cheiro’s visit and also
to assume that Blavatsky drew up her Last Will and Testament circa August 1890
when a Deed of Trust was executed
in which Annie Besant’s property at 19 Avenue Road was officially vested into the hands of trustees as a headquarters
for the British Section. [9]
It was agreed at the time that: “On the one hand, it
was not right to have left the house in Mrs. Besant’s name, and on the
other, Madame Blavatsky’s health precluded it being in her own name.” [10]
Once again Blavatsky’s
health was a major concern.
The reasons for preparing a third will
Following are several reasons why a third Will is
a possibility:
1) On July 27th, 1886, Blavatsky had offered
Judge her royalties from “The Secret Doctrine”
and “Isis Unveiled”.
2) In August 1886 Blavatsky asked Judge to help her get
her royalties from J.W. Bouton for her “Isis Unveiled”. She protested that
the money was being sent to Olcott at Adyar
while she needed the funds to survive (See “The Judge Case”, E. Pelletier, Chronology, Aug. 22,
1886 entry for more details).
3) Olcott mentioned years later in “Old Diary Leaves”
that “she also offered to turn over
her share of the Theosophist to Judge and make him her successor.” [11]
4) When Blavatsky wrote her second Will she wanted
Wachtmeister to have all, but her “Secret Doctrine” had not been
published yet, nor had the
Esoteric Section been formed.
5) When Olcott, a lawyer, finally declared six months
after Blavatsky’s death that there was a Will,
he carefully worded his speech at the Sixteenth Convention and Anniversary of
the Theosophical Society at Adyar. He
stated: “In the will that she executed here, she left me everything and offered her sister the copyrights
to her books.” [12] [Italics added]
He not only omitted any reference to the 1887 (second)
Will, he carefully avoided mentioning the words “Last Will and Testament”
when proclaiming Blavatsky’s Will. (Years later in “Old Diary Leaves” he did write that “she
executed what proved to be her Last Will and
Testament 31st January
1885.” [13]).
Also, in the published
transcript of this Will there is no
mention of copyrights being offered to her sister.
6) Blavatsky had subsequently made arrangements regarding
her share of the net profits from the sale of
her books (in 1888 and 1890)
and they did not include monies
going to Adyar. [14]
7) In the interview by William Mulliss in October 1926,
Besant claimed that she had been appointed
H.P.B.’s literary executor. [See “The Judge Case”, E. Pelletier, Appendix H for
full text.]
In “Rebirth of the Occult Tradition”, Boris de Zirkoff
wrote: “As far as English Law is concerned, a Literary Executor
can be appointed only in a Will.” [15] It is possible
that Besant was in
fact appointed Literary Executor
- in a Will that would
have been executed after she became associated with Blavatsky.
8) It would have been out of character and imprudent for
Blavatsky not to have had a new Will executed to reflect changed
circumstances.
9) If Blavatsky did destroy the second Will, as
Wachtmeister speculates, she would not have
done so without another Will to replace it, as it is obvious after
reading “Why I do not return to
India” that she would not leave everything
to Olcott and Adyar as stipulated in her
first Will.
William
Judge shows distrust
The interesting question which arises is, what was Judge
so concerned about that he would send
a telegram from New York, on May 9th, to 19 Avenue Road telling the
members there to “Do nothing till I come”? [16]
This was done shortly upon receiving word of Blavatsky’s death and
only a few days after Besant’s
departure from New York
on May 6th, 1891.
Blavatsky had appointed Judge as “my only representative
for [the Esoteric] section in America”
on December 14th, 1888. On December 25th, 1889, she
appointed Olcott as her “Sole
official representative for the Esoteric Section in Asiatic countries”,
although Olcott’s position appeared
to be mostly in an administrative capacity. Neither was in England at the time of Blavatsky’s death. Judge, who H.P.B.
claimed “had been a part
of herself and of the
Great Lodge ‘for aeons past’ ” [17], felt very responsible for
preserving the integrity of the E.S. materials.
H.P.B. had reinforced this in her circular “Notice” of
August 9th, 1890, in which
she stated that all orders in E.S. Instructions issued in the U.S. would only
be through Judge or directly by
herself. This would have been reason enough to spring Judge into action and immediately send that telegram.
Edmund Garrett, Editor of the “Westminster Gazette” and a
friend of Besant, reported that “Avenue-road was at first inclined to resent this ukase”, [18] that is, an official order, having the
force of law. Interestingly, this telegram of Judge’s is mentioned by various authors [19] but it never appeared in any
official theosophical periodicals of the
time. The telegram appears to have
been expurgated.
By the time Judge arrived in London on May 21st,
Besant was already wearing Blavatsky’s ring
and Blavatsky’s body had been cremated. Was Judge the one who was supposed to receive H.P.B.’s ring after her death?
There is sufficient information included in the Chronology and Appendix A to cover the
details surrounding this ring. It will not, therefore, be repeated here.
No Will was ever
presented to Judge while he was in England. He may not have known at that
time that there was a Will but likely expected there would be. Judge had
represented Blavatsky in other legal
matters before and would therefore have found it strange that he was not presented with her Will while in
London.
Some years later, Besant admitted that she destroyed very important documentary evidence in her possession related to
the “Judge Case” stating, “I
destroyed all the letters I had received from Mr. Judge, as I could not carry
them with me round the world.” [20]
Could it be that Blavatsky did have a third Last Will and Testament and that it suffered
the same fate?
Was this
possible third testament hidden?
Olcott did not arrive in London until nearly two months
after Blavatsky’s death. Upon word of
her death Bertram Keightley went to Colombo on May 21st, 1891, where
he was to meet Olcott on the 28th.
[21]
However, Olcott only arrived in Colombo on June 10th,
from Adelaide, met Bertram and sailed
on to Bombay. They left Bombay on a French steamer on June 15th and reached Marseilles on July 2nd.
When they arrived in London, on July 4th, they were greeted by Judge who took them to
headquarters at 19 Avenue Road “where [Olcott]
had an affectionate greeting
from Mrs. Besant and other residents of the house.” [22]
Olcott described
what happened shortly after he arrived:
“Mrs. B. and I
visited the bedroom of H.P.B., and, after a time of solemn meditation, pledged ourselves to be true to the Cause
and to each other. The death of my co- Founder
had left me as the recognized sole centre of the movement, and it seemed as if the hearts of all our best workers
warmed towards me more than they had ever done
before.” [23]
There are no reasons to not take Olcott’s description of
events at face value, although the incident does seem rather strange. A few days later he stated:
“I passed some time
alone in her room, and I received there what was necessary for my guidance in the future; I may simply
say, in one word, the gist of it was that I should continue the work as though nothing whatever had happened. ”. [24]
One does wonder if Olcott gave all the details of the
event or did he purposely leave out some very
important information - information that would have undermined Olcott’s
authority and the whole Adyar
organization that he had built. Apart from the loss of his “chum”, could the contents of a possible third Will have
contributed to Olcott’s melancholy after her death while he was in London?
Judge realized a few months later, when the two of them
were in California, that something
was troubling Olcott. He included in a cable to Besant on October 26th, 1891: “There is something wrong with H.S. Olcott.” [25]
Serious questions arise concerning what occurred in
H.P.B.’s bedroom. Why wasn’t Judge included
in this little private parley? Why were none of the other residents at
headquarters invited into Blavatsky’s room with Olcott and Besant? Why Blavatsky’s room at all?
Olcott first met Besant the night of his arrival in
London, September 5th, 1889, when he came to settle his differences with H.P.B. regarding the E.S. and
other matters. Besant, a Secularist at
the time, had just joined the ranks of the Movement. Olcott immediately took to
her and thought she was “a natural
Theosophist”. Ten years later he recalled an incident that transpired that evening:
“She had not, I
believe, made one public discourse in support of Theosophy, nor had she said one word of the sort during the
conversation between her and H.P.B. and myself
I recollect taking her then by the hand and saying, just at parting: ‘I think you
will find yourself happier than you have ever been in your life before, for I
see you are a mystic and
have been frozen into your brain by your environment’.” [26]
Olcott quickly became an admirer of Besant’s lecturing
abilities after listening to her on a number of occasions.
Now, after having met barely two years prior, they forged
an alliance that was only jeopardized
once, shortly after Blavatsky’s death. What kind of tête-à-tête did they have to suddenly
come out from Blavatsky’s bedroom pledging allegiance to each other and to be
true to the Cause? Which Cause?
Based on the premise that there was a third Will, this
would have been the most opportune
time for Besant to hand it over to Olcott. Besant, living in the same house as Blavatsky and looking after her
business affairs, may well have been the only person who knew of the existence of Blavatsky’s Will. Perhaps when
she arrived in London from New York
she immediately read the Will, pondered upon its contents, and wondered what to do with
it.
Again presuming the third Will existed, in all
probability after reading it Besant was determined
to show it to Olcott first, since he was the President of the Society, and let
him decide what to do. Besant must
have felt it her duty to personally hand over Blavatsky’s Will to him. She appeared to believe at the
time that the Esoteric Section was part of the whole Society and that Olcott as its President was, therefore, “the
only one who represents the mission
from the Masters themselves”.[27]
This belief becomes even more evident when reading
her statement and resolution at the
Annual Convention at Adyar in 1894.[28]
Supposing that in Blavatsky’s Will there was nothing
bequeathed to Olcott or to Adyar, would
that not have been of concern enough to Besant for her to wait until Olcott’s
arrival to determine what to do next? And she was not about to question her perception - her
truth.
Shortly after joining the Society Annie Besant gave two
lectures at the Hall of Science, August
4th and 11th, 1889, on “Why I Became A Theosophist.”
There she described her loyalty to truth as she saw itg:
“An imperious necessity forces me to speak the Truth, as I see it, whether the speech please or displease, whether it bring
praise or blame. That one loyalty to Truth I must keep stainless, whatever friendships fail me or human ties be
broken. She may lead me into the
wilderness yet must I follow her; she may strip me of all I love, yet I must pursue her; though she slay me yet I trust
in her; and I ask no other epitaph on my tomb but ‘She tried to Follow Truth’.” [29] [Italics added]
Following up on the possibility that there was a third
Will, could the Cause that Olcott and Besant
both adopted following their tête-à-tête have
been to maintain the status quo of the Theosophical
Society as she envisioned it was and to which Olcott had dedicated his life’s work?
The premise that in this probable third Will Blavatsky
made Judge one of her benefactors,
but not Adyar, would have been reason enough for Besant and Olcott to have pledged allegiance to each other. This Will
was their little secret. If Besant did hide the supposed Will until Olcott saw it, would Olcott not have felt a
deep sense of gratitude toward her?
How could Olcott ever repay her for having saved the Society - Adyar, which he considered to be the center of the
Theosophical Movement. Olcott’s actions certainly lend credence to this probability and he certainly supported Besant
as much as anyone could thereafter.
As mentioned earlier, Olcott would likely have found some very disturbing information in Blavatsky’s Will - information he decided would never be
revealed and it never was, but
there is sufficient evidence to establish the probability that a third Will
existed and that Olcott chose to withhold it.
Judge might have suspected that Blavatsky had another
Will when he sent that telegram on May
9th, but he apparently never made a fuss about it. Judge may not
have cared much about a Will; his main concern was the CAUSE.
Like H.P.B., Judge was fully aware that Olcott’s
Executive responsibility was centered from the
first on being the President and that his authority was mainly exoteric. Judge,
on the other hand, although closely
involved with exoteric matters, was mainly concerned with the Esoteric
and was loyal to the Theosophical CAUSE and to its
great Teachers.
Olcott was always
concerned with promoting and sustaining the headquarters as the center of the organization. He seemed to lose track of the original CAUSE and of the main
objectives while still believing that he was following
orders from the Masters and was loyal to H.P.B. In a letter to Olcott in April 1885 she paraphrased K.H. as saying
that Olcott had managed to save the Society’s body but had lost its soul.
NOTES
[1] The title conferred on Besant by H.P.B. was nothing more than that of “Chief”
Secretary to take notes just as one would for any
other meeting. There was no occult status to this position other than that her notes would have been
the ones kept on record. This position would be the first step taken for training
in her role as pupil. Besant never actually recorded
a meeting of the Inner
Group. She missed meetings, and then H.P.B. died.
[2] “Old Diary Leaves”, Fourth Series (1910), p. 418; “The Theosophist”, Vol. 60, February 1939, pp. 355-360; “The Theosophist”,
May 1892, Supp. p. lix.
[3] “H.P.B.”, by Sylvia Cranston, p. v321.
[4] “Reminiscences of H.P.B.”, p. 64
(Quest, 1976) or pp. 77-78 (1893).
[5] “Mysteries
and Romances of the World’s Greatest Occultists”, by Cheiro (Count Louis Hamon), London: Herbert Jenkins Limited,
1935; p. 178. Also see Fohat magazine, Vol. 5,
Spring 2001, p. 6.
[6] “Irish Theosophist”, Vol. 3, June 1895, p. 156.
[7] “Old Diary
Leaves”, Fourth Series
(1910), p. 171.
[8] “The Theosophist”, Vol. 13, March 1892,
Supp. p. xlv.
[9] “The lease of 19, Avenue Road, purchased for 1,600 pounds
in 1883, was given to H.P.B. in 1890 by the then owner,
and by H.P.B.’s wish was at once
vested in the hands of trustees. . . .
The lease was burdened with a mortgage the responsibility for this remaining with the donor of
the lease. A cheque for [405 pounds,
16s, 11d.] was given to Annie Besant
[by a theosophist who
requested anonymity] last month, and paid by her to the mortgagees, thus
releasing the property.” (“The Vahan”, Second Series, No. 2, September
1, 1891, p. 7.) In December 1896 Olcott named some of the prominent
financial supporters: “The Blavatsky Lodge acquired permanent premises in Avenue Road, through the abundant
generosity of Mrs. Besant, the Countess Wachtmeister, the Messrs. Keightley
and others”. See “General Report
of the 21st Anniversary of the T.S.”, 1896, p. 15, and “A
Historical Restropect - 1875-1896 - of the Theosophical Society”, p. 14.
[10] “General
Report of the 15th Convention and Anniversary of the TS”, 1890, p. 59. In “A Short History of the T.S.”, p. 257, Ransom
writes this as having taken effect in August 1889. The “General Report”, however, states that “in the early
part of this year [1890]
the Theosophical Society
had become possessed, through Mrs. Annie Besant’s generosity, of the lease of her house as its Head-Quarters . . .”, p. 58. Alterations were undertaken and additions built. The headquarters were inaugurated July 3rd, 1890. “The Theosophist”, Vol. 11, August 1890, pp. 661- 662.
[11] “Old Diary
Leaves”, Third Series (1904), p. 379.
[12] “General Report of the 16th Convention
and Anniversary of the TS”,
1891, p. 49.
[13] “Old Diary
Leaves”, Fourth Series
(1910), p. 418.
[14] See “The
Judge Case”, Ernest Pelletier, Chronology, Apr. 4, 1888 and March 9, 1890 entries.
[15] “Rebirth of the Occult Tradition”, pp. 65-66.
[16] See “The Judge
Case”, E. Pelletier, Chronology, May
9, 1891(est.) entry.
[17] “Irish Theosophist”,
Vol. 4, March 1896, p. 115.
[18] “Isis Very Much Unveiled”, 2nd ed.,
p. 28.
[19] For
example: Arthur H. Nethercot mentions this telegram on p. 357 in “The First
Five Lives of Annie Besant”. His
references are “The Theosophist”, July 1891; “Bright”, pp. 20- 21; Williams, “The Passionate Pilgrim”, p.
204. We do not have the reference for Bright and the latter is mentioned on p. 205 not 204; the first reference
does not exist in “The Theosophist”.
[20] “The Case Against W.Q. Judge”, p. 82.
[21] “The Theosophist”, Vol. 12, June 1891, Insert in Supp. at p. lxxi.
[22] “Old Diary
Leaves”, Fourth Series
(1910), pp. 301-303.
[23] “Old Diary
Leaves”, Fourth Series
(1910), p. 303.
[24] “The Theosophist”, Vol. 12, September 1891,
p. 707.
[25] “The Case Against W.Q. Judge”, p. 42.
[26] “Old Diary
Leaves”, Fourth Series
(1910), p. 172.
[27] Annie
Besant’s “Address of Welcome to the President-Founder” at the First Annual Convention
of the T.S. in Europe, held in London, July 9th and 10th.
1891. “The Theosophist”, Vol. 12, September 1891, pp. 705-706.
[28] “General Report of the 19th Anniversary
of the TS”, 1894, pp. 39-46.
[29] “A Short History of the T.S.”, p. 257.
The above text is an
excerpt from the book “The Judge Case, A Conspiracy Which Ruined The Theosophical CAUSE” by Ernest E.
Pelletier (Edmonton Theosophical Society, Edmonton,
Canada, 2004). See pp. 351-353 of “Supplement”. The text has been published also by
FOHAT magazine, Canada, Winter 2008 edition.
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