William Q. Judge and Katherine Tingley - I
by H.N. Stokes
[Reprinted from O.E. Library Critic (Washington, D.C.), November-December 1934, pp. 6-8.]
Not a little discussion has been aroused by the circulation in 1932 by Mr. E.A. Neresheimer of a document directly charging Katherine Tingley, J.H. Fussell and E.T. Hargrove with having "concocted" certain statements quoted by Mr. Hargrove in an E.S.T. circular dated April 3d, 1896, as being found in documents left by W.Q. Judge and which Mr. Hargrove regarded as referring to Mrs. Tingley, and which were advanced by him as supporting her as Judge's successor. The charge of "concoction", as directed against three prominent theosophists, two of whom are still living, is a serious one, and it has been the aim of the CRITIC to get at the facts, even at the risk of boring some of its readers who may have thought it a matter of no importance. These are asked to consider whether the vindication of two persons, prominent theosophists and officials of theosophical societies against charges of fraud is not a matter worthy of some effort.
Missing Judge Documents Discovered
The question of the relation of W.Q. Judge to Katherine Tingley having been raised again, and the honor of one of the Point Loma officials having been impugned, search of the Point Loma archives brought to light all of the documents forgotten, containing the passages quoted by Mr. Hargrove, and all of them in Judge's own handwriting. That they should have been overlooked is not surprising seeing that they were in part written on odd scraps of paper, and as the questions involved had not gone so far as to lead to those concerned being charged with deliberate fraud.
What Judge Wrote
I was furnished with photographs of most of these forgotten and now rediscovered documents. These I compared, with the assistance of old friends of Judge, with unquestionably genuine and personal letters of Judge in their possession and in the presence of a person expert in examining handwriting, and the unanimous conclusion was that the documents were actually written by Judge. In the CRITIC of September, October, November and December, 1932, I discussed these manuscripts, especially those containing what Judge regarded as direct communications from the deceased H.P. Blavatsky, in which a woman designated by a sign was spoken of in highly laudatory terms. The special sign used though there were others consisted of three short nearly horizontal lines crossed by a nearly vertical stroke, and this, designated by Hargrove as "Promise", was supposed by him to refer to Katherine Tingley. In one case the three short horizontal lines were used, the vertical stroke being omitted, presumably because of haste in taking down the dictation, many others signs of such haste being in evidence. The complete sign I have designated before and herein as "X", the incomplete sign being herein designated by "Xb". Another sign used was "13". I reproduce here the passages of the Judge scripts containing these signs, copied from the photographs before me:
You can make X what you wish & the truthfulness of X spirit and devotion to us will make X useful. Keep X well in the background in outer work X is our mystery.
Our dear chela, you have at last found your chela who was one of ours years ago (X) consecrated to the work then & by the
will brought face to face with you. X is Raavais linked with you in our work. As your light shines in upon her soul fears will disappear as the dew before the sun.
Jany 9, H.P.B.
No one I have met in the last 5 centuries has been qualified As I said Xb is our mystery. Xb is a mystery to Xb. Judge try a little more of it. Let Xb say what ------- [unintelligible symbol] wants to.I can do well now with 13 can do better in time.
Clearly then, Judge was getting from some source communications supposed by him to be the discarnate H.P.B., referring to a mysterious person, a woman, "X", or "Xb", of great importance, but who was to be "kept well in the background in outer work".
Judge Meant Tingley
Who was this mysterious woman? Why was no reference found to her by name in anything left by Judge as far as has been discovered? Mr. Hargrove interpreted these signs as "Promise", supposed by him and others associated with him to be Katherine Tingley, and with good reason as will appear below. But the photographic evidence was still lacking that it was she rather than some other person who was meant. I therefore secured from the two Point Loma officials, Dr. J.H. Fussell, who was private secretary to Mrs. Tingley, and from Miss Elsie V. Savage, another secretary to Mrs. Tingley, certificates to the effect that this sign "X" was constantly used by Judge and others in addressing or in referring to Mrs. Tingley, as shown by numerous letters in the Point Loma archives. These certificates will be found in the CRITIC of December, 1932.
Some Judge Letters to Tingley
But these were not sufficient to convince the "doubting Thomases" and I did not myself possess the direct evidence of the truth of this claim. Now, however, I have before me the originals of five letters of W.Q. Judge to Katherine Tingley, all in his handwriting, in which both the signs "X" and "13" were used in addressing her. These were loaned to me from the personal file of Mrs. Tingley and are browned with age and in part broken along the folds and mended. The contents of these letters I am not permitted to quote, though it may be said that they deal mainly with current theosophical affairs, both trivial and important, and indicate that the writer was in the habit of taking Mrs. Tingley into his confidence. They are as follows:
1. Written in pencil, undated, addressed to "X" and signed "
" (Aries), "
" (Jupiter) and a Sanskrit initial "J". The Jupiter sign was used by Judge in writing to Hargrove (see his series of Judge letters in 1932-3 Theosophical Quarterly). One of the Judge-Hargrove letters were signed with a Sanskrit "J" (Theosophical Quarterly, Jan., 1932, page 245). Judge also used the Aries sign at times (see his letter to "Dear Purple" in Oct., 1932, CRITIC).
2. Written in ink, dated "Nov. 12/94" and addressed to "D X", unsigned and with pencil notes said to be in Mrs. Tingley's writing.
3. Written in pencil, dated "Nov. 15/94" and addressed to "Dear X"; signed "
4. Written in ink, dated "Jan. 11" [1895] addressed to "Dr. X" and signed "
5. Dated "Monday," addressed to "Dear X 13" and unsigned.
An important point to be noted is that two these letters, Nos. 2 and 3, are dated about six weeks or more before the dates of the now famous scripts recording his supposed communications from H.P.B., thus showing that his use of the sign "X" for Mrs. Tingley antedated its use in these scripts. Judge's use of this sign in the scripts was therefore made with the knowledge that Mrs. Tingley was the wonderful person meant by H.P.B.
See next article by H.N. Stokes. . . .
Return to Table of Contents of H.N. Stoke's
"William Q. Judge and Katherine Tingley" series of articles