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Re: Theos-World To John D. and Frank R. and other interested parties RE: Harris' article

Jul 20, 2001 03:09 PM
by Compiler


Daniel,

Sorry, no can do. I can't scan, proofread, and then post anything these days
because my scanner is broken. If you or anyone else has noticed, I haven't
added a new article to the WisdomWorld.org web site for almost 6 weeks now
because of this break down. Sorry. And on top of that I'm mailing out my
economic project to the United Nations in the morning and will be very busy
with that project for a while now, as I mentioned in this earlier posting
entitled "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" (#1898 on
theos-talk):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/1898

Fraternally,

John
-------

Blavatsky Archives wrote:

> To Frank: Thanks for the article below by Iverson L. Harris.
>
> To John: The scholar Emmett A. Greenwalt in his work CALIFORNIA
> UTOPIA: Point Loma: 1897-1942 (Revised 1978 ed) states (p. 182) that
> two ULT replies were published to answer Mr. Harris' article.
>
> Theosophy Magazine published a reply in their March 1977 issue, pp.
> 159-160. John, can you post to this forum that article?
>
> Also Hermes in their Dec. 4, 1976 issue, pp. 569-570 published
> a "rebuttal" to the I.H article. Has anyone access to this?
>
> To Frank: Apparently The Eclectic Theosophist in their Sep. 15,
> 1977, p. 7 issue replied to the comments made in those ULT magazines.
> Frank, do you have a copy of that article?
>
> Daniel
> http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>
> A CHAPTER OF THEOSOPHICAL HISTORY CLARIFIED
>
> IVERSON L. HARRIS
>
> Following are the "additional notes" by Iverson L. Harris to "Some
> Reminiscences of William Q. Judge" by E.A. Neresheimer, referred to
> in our last
> issue under 'Historical Material'. Though Mr.
> Neresheimer's "Reminiscences" are
> not known to many today, yet they have been in type for some decades,
> and to
> readers of them during those years they will have presented an
> incomplete and
> in certain instances not fully accurate picture. To some, inter-ested
> not so
> much in the history of the Theosophical Society as in the teachings
> and
> doc-trines themselves, the whole matter will appear of minor or
> subsidiary
> importance; but to those historically minded, and especially to those
> who feel
> an inborn duty to defend those on whom misunderstanding has fallen,
> there is
> always urgency to place on record actual facts so that these speak for
> themselves and become part of a faithful record available to all.
> These facts are now covered in the commentary which follows and are
> here
> printed as a practical means for their more public noting and their
> preservation. - EDS.
>
> Serious students of Theosophical history usually have strong
> convictions -
> strong loyalties and sometimes even stronger prejudices, alas! This is
> understandable, but does not justify distortion of facts when these
> facts prove
> to be unpalatable and irreconcilable with attitudes taken and
> sometimes
> stubbornly maintained in the face of the established facts.
>
> The World Centenary Congress of the Theosophical Society in New York
> in
> November 1975 took an historic step forward in its public - and
> apparently
> unanimous - recognition of the T.S. in New York in 1875, along with
> H. P.
> Blavatsky and Col. H. S. Olcott; and not only as such but as the
> master-architect and builder of the modern Theosophical Movement and
> best
> expounder of the Esoteric Philosophy in the U.S.A. in the Nineteenth
> Century.
> The timely publication of the first volume of Judge's Collected
> Writings is
> irrefutable evidence of his outstanding stature.
> The time is now ripe to brush away some of the distortions,
> misrepresentations
> and false-hoods frequently promulgated by earnest but prejudiced or
> misinformed
> ex parte writers concerning what happened to the Theosophical Society
> in
> America immediately following the death of Mr. Judge on March 21,
> 1896.
> There has long been a wide cleavage between those who vigorously and
> ardently
> main-tained that William Q. Judge 'appointed' Katherine Tingley as
> his esoteric
> 'Successor' and those who, on the other hand, have chosen to apply to
> the
> Buddhist guruparamparâ of the Judge-Tingley 'succession' H.P.B.'s
> dictum that
> the 'Apostolic Succession' in the Roman Catholic Church was 'a gross
> and
> palpable fraud.'
> The final coup de grace to the bona fides of Katherine Tingley's
> 'successorship' to William Q. Judge was loudly and publicly
> proclaimed by the
> anonymous writers of the United Lodge of Theosophists publications to
> have been
> in E. A. Neresheimer's Some Reminiscences of William Q. Judge
> privately
> circulated and publicly quoted in the early 1930's. On Page 17 of the
> typescript of this in many ways well-written, informative and
> generally
> authoritative ac-count, Mr. Neresheimer writes:
>
> "Mr. Judge's 'diary' is in my possession and can be seen at any time
> by any
> responsible Theosophist. I desire to state that 'the further messages
> and
> quotations from Mr. Judge's diary' of which Mr. Hargrove writes in
> the above
> pamphlet of April 3rd, 1896, are not in the book and never were, as
> any
> inspection will verify. Those alleged 'messages and quota-tions'
> attributed to
> Mr. Judge could only have been concocted by Mrs. Tingley, assisted by
> Mr.
> Hargrove and Mr. J. H. Fussell, who alone were closely associated with
> Katherine Tingley at Headquarters at that time, and who, with her,
> drafted all
> communications that then went out from Headquarters."
>
> The historical facts completely contradict the charge that the people
> named
> 'Concocted' the notes, or memoranda, (sometimes miscalled
> the 'diary') in Mr.
> Judge's own handwriting. These Mr. Neresheimer naturally did not find
> in the
> Judge Diary in his possession; they were written by Mr. Judge on
> fragments of
> paper, of which Mr. Neresheimer was fully cog-nizant at the time of
> Mr. Judge's
> death, as borne out by statements made by him at the time. Later, on
> a visit to
> Point Loma, Mr. Neresheimer admitted in the presence of his wife and
> other
> witnesses that the fragments of 'messages and quotations' published
> by Mr.
> Fus-sell and Mr. Hargrove were actually in Mr. Judge's handwriting.
> The details of the Judge 'diary' and the above-mentioned libelous
> charge and
> its refutation are set forth in The Theosophical Forum, Point Loma,
> Calif.,
> Vol. IV, No. 5, January, 1933, and No. 7, march, 1933. Dr. H. N.
> Stokes' O. E.
> LIBRARY CRITIC of Washington, D. C., issue of September, 1932
> reproduces the
> actual language of seven of these 'messages and quotations' under the
> heading
> 'The Judge 'Occult Diary'. Vindication of Tingley, Fussell, Hargrove."
> Dr. Stokes published further facts in this case in his issue of
> October, 1932
> and March, 1933.
> I have seen the originals of these 'messages and quotations' in Mr.
> Judge's
> handwriting, and I showed photographic copies of them to Miss
> Margaret Thomas
> (an active U.L.T: member) at Oakley House, Bromley Common, Kent,
> England, while
> I was attached to Dr. de Purucker's staff during the temporary
> transference
> thither of the International Headquar-ters of The Theosophical
> Society (Point
> Loma) in 1932-1933.
> The anonymous author or authors of the U.L.T. History of the
> Theosophical
> Movement have persistently maintained that the statement that
> Katherine Tingley
> was 'appointed' by Mr. Judge as his esoteric 'Successor' is untenable
> and even
> fraudulent. But the Founder of the United Lodge, Robert Crosbie,
> fully aware of
> the documents on which the Esoteric Council at the Headquarters in
> New York
> accepted Katherine Tingley as having been pointed to (if not literally
> appointed) by W. Q. Judge to succeed him as Head of the Esoteric
> Section, for
> years thereafter was among the most outspoken in proclaiming the fact
> and the
> strength of Katherine Tingley's successorship. Witness, for example,
> the long
> article titled "The Sifting Process" published in The Search Light
> Light Vol.
> I, April, 1898. over the signature of Robert Crosbie. (Reprinted in
> The
> Theosophical Forum, Point Lam, Calif., Vol. III, Page 253, August 15,
> 1932, and
> in THE O. E. LIBRARY CRITIC, March, 1933, Vol. XXII, No. 4). Why does
> the
> U.L.T. suppress the following from an address given by their Founder,
> Robert
> Crosbie, in the Fisher Opera House, San Diego, California, at a
> series of
> meetings in honor of William Q. Judge, on March 29th and April 1st,
> 1901 - five
> years after Judge's death?:
>
> "It should be noted that the Leaders of the Theosophical Movements
> did not
> become so by virtue of an election by vote - nor were they self-
> appointed. Mme.
> Blavatsky was the first leader, by the force of her wisdom and power
> of
> leadership, and all the true students of Theosophy accepted her as
> such. And
> when she appointed William Q. Judge as her suc-cessor, his leadership
> was
> accepted for the same reason - and so, too, with Katherine Tingley,
> who was
> appointed by William Q. Judge as his successor. And when she dies she
> will
> appoint her successor who will be followed by the faithful members - -
> And thus
> is pre-served the line of teachers and the continuity of the
> Movement."
>
> A later change of attitude which led Mr. Crosbie to found the United
> Lodge of
> Theosophists, cannot alter the historic facts on which he based his
> judgment
> consistently and continuously for at least five years following Mr.
> Judge's
> death.
> One phase of this brief historical review closes with the following
> item which
> appeared in The Theosophical Forum (Point Loma), June, 1937:
>
> "E.A. Neresheimer
> The passing of our old and much loved Brother, E. A. Neresheimer,
> last April
> 16th, at his home in Santa Monica, California, in his ninety-first
> year,
> recalls his long years of member-ship in the T.S. and his devotion to
> Theosophy
> dating back to the time of H. P. Blavatsky and W. Q. Judge. As Dr. de
> Purucker
> said in a telegram of sympathy to Mrs. Neresheimer: 'Nere's memory for
> magnificent past work for us all in Society will remain ever green and
> cherished.'"
>
> But what of the succession of spiritual leaders in the Point Loma
> Theosophical
> Society, so positively proclaimed by Robert Crosbie?
> When Katherine Tingley died in 1929, her office as "Leader and
> Official Head"
> and Esoteric Teacher was assumed by Dr. G. de Purucker, not though
> any written
> appointment but by the 'divine light' of intellectual and spiritual
> qualification - recognized and tested by his predecessor through long
> years of
> discipline and confidence. In his case, in superlative de-gree can
> one apply
> the infallible rule given by Jesus: "By their fruits shall ye know
> them."
> For a more detailed - though -, for one who knows the facts, notably
> restained
> - account of what happened to the Theosophical Society, following the
> death of
> Dr. de Purucker on Sep-tember 27. 1942, see Charles J. Ryan's H. P.
> Blavatsky
> and the Theosophical Movement, Appendix IV, to the new special
> edition issued
> by Point Loma Publications, Inc. in 1975. This Appendix was reprinted
> in The
> Eclectic Theosophist Newsletter No. 29, July 15, 1975.
>
> [From: The Eclectic Theosophist No. 37, Nov. 15, 1976, p.2-3.]
>
>
>
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