Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl[1]
“Ingratitude is abhorred by God and man.”
Sir R. L’Estrange.
After the last number of the “Lotusblüten” was already in print, we received the news of the death of William Q. Judge, who after the death of H. P. Blavatsky, was the real soul of the Theosophical movement in America, Europe and Australia. The author of The Lotusblüten was bound to William Q. Judge by bonds of friendship and like-mindedness for years, and lived with him for several months in India (Adyar); he is therefore qualified to pass judgment on him which is not based on hearsay but on his own observation.
William Q. Judge was a real theosophist, concerned not merely with the investigation of newer theories, but with the practical implementation of truths once recognized. For this reason he was just as little understood by enthusiasts, fantasists and theorists as H. P. Blavatsky; but he was particularly hostile to those who wanted to impose themselves as his disciples without having either the courage or the ability to follow him. He was one of the founders of the “Theosophical Society,” and indeed he and H. P. Blavatsky and Colonel H. S. Olcott were probably the only ones involved who understood what it was really about; for while even today the majority of those engaged in the study of theosophical writings seek nothing in it but an extension of their personal knowledge, William Q. Judge and few others recognized that true self-knowledge consists only in one’s own experience and that this can only be gained through exercise; Therefore, the first and main purpose of the newly founded society was not to make propaganda “for theosophical ideas in a theoretical way,” but it was called, according to the principle:
“Words have been exchanged enough;
Now let me finally see deeds.”
(Goethe.)
To form a nucleus of people in which the already generally theoretically recognized ideas of general human brotherhood can be put into practice.
The only practical way to reform the world is for everyone to reform themselves; for there are already enough preachers who do not follow their own teachings. It was therefore expected that from this germ, by good example and teaching, a tree should grow whose branches would spread throughout the world; that every branch should be a lamp for the revelation of truth through deeds; that knowledge of God and love of one’s neighbour should spread through practice and thereby all mankind should be ennobled, enlightened and uplifted.[2]
No one has worked more actively and tirelessly for this purpose than H. P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge; but, as the light shines eternally into the darkness, and the darkness cannot comprehend the light, so it was with these champions of the realization of mankind’s ideals; their minds were not comprehended by mindless men, and the very “leaders” (?) who, to H. P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge, not only owed everything they knew or thought they knew, but also, by their own assertion, owed their moral salvation to call out to the first the very next day: “Crucify them!” and to throw dirt at them.[3]
The author of the Lotusblüten did not answer all these miserable things. Not because he gave any justification to these foolish attacks, but because he knows that a lie grows like an avalanche the more one rolls it. He is also mindful of the saying of a poet unknown to him, who says:
“The most fatal thing is after the delusion
To fight a great principle,
The insight that we à la Titan
Fight a simple stupidity.”
It was only stupidities that were brought up against H. P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge, and to combat them the author considers his time too valuable and human life too short.
But we still live in the age of theory, where all knowledge is based on mere opinion and probability. Much is said and written about spiritual perception and spiritual knowledge; but that a person may actually have and exercise spiritual knowledge and therefore speak just as “authoritatively” in relation to what he himself has experienced spiritually, just as a traveler returning from a foreign country has the right to speak authoritatively about and talk about what he saw and did there; very few people seem to understand this. The seers do not need proof of what they see and feel and what they themselves have and are; the spiritually blind cry out for proofs and reject them when they are offered, because they are unable to comprehend them. For these reasons, many of the members of the “Theosophical Society” who were still deep in theory could not grasp the practice of Theosophy taught by William Q. Judge and fell away from him and the original “Theosophical Society,” although they continue to regard themselves even now as the staunch adherents of that society as it originally was. These people lack a true understanding of the spirit of Theosophy.
While the vast majority of Americans took the side of William Q. Judge and followed the practical path, in England, too, the petty, greedy, well-known shopkeeper spirit revealed itself in this direction, which is only concerned with its own personal possessions, the expansion of its own theoretical concepts, but which cannot grasp the idea of a sublimity above egoism. Therefore the so-called English Section of the T.S. has become a common club for the theoretical discussion of metaphysical problems, in which we may find intellectual endowment but little spirit.
The true “Theosophical Society” is not about clubbing and schoolmastering, nor about bringing everything under one roof or forcing it into a template, as is the case with other associations and sects, but the “Theosophical Society” should be no more than a means of offering free, self-thinking people a means of coming closer together, and of helping in word and deed to those who cannot think for themselves.
The Theosophical Society suffers no disruption from the death of William Q. Judge; for, as is evident from his legacy, he stood in much closer relation to the enlightened ones who are entrusted with the care of these endeavors than was assumed or even suspected in his lifetime, and the same have already made arrangements for his succession.
Notes:
[1] William Q. Judge. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 7, no. 44 (May 1896), 373-379 [First appeared in High Country Theosophist and Theosophical History. This is a new translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, which supercedes any previous translation by me, ©2025}
[2] See, Dr. Hartmanns “Magie.” Page 252.
[3] See, “Sphinx” XX. May 1895. Page 288.