Isis very much unveiled, being the story of the great Mahatma hoax

by Fydell Edmund Garrett

A MAHATMA AT BAY:

THE VICE-PRESIDENT’S TRUMP CARD.

The following appeared in the Westminster Gazette, under the headings: “OPEN SPLIT BETWEEN THEOSOPHICAL OFFICIALS”; “RIVAL REVELATIONS FROM THE SAME MASTER”; “MR. JUDGE GETS A MISSIVE DEPOSING MRS. BESANT”:—

Just as the Story of the Great Mahatma Hoax is going to press in its collected form, just in the nick of time to be included, comes the material for a new chapter of more extravagant humour than all the rest. Readers of the “Isis” chapters will recall that the Theosophic embroglio has gone through the following stages:—(1) The vice-president’s “Mahatma” makes reflections on the president. (2) The president and other officials make charges of “forging” Mahatma missives against the V.P. (3) Mrs. Besant, after some vacillation, adopts these charges, and joins with the others in offering the V.P. the choice of retiring quietly or an exposure. (4) The V.P. bluffs them all into silence, and they all join in inducing the “Convention” of last July to separate without looking further into the matter. (5) Mrs. Besant and the V.P. “join hands,” in public, on her statement that though he wrote the alleged missives “with his own hand,” yet he had “psychically received” their contents from the Mahatma. (6) In private, Mrs. Besant separates herself from the V.P. by dissolving their joint headship of the Esoteric Section (“the core of the Theosophical Society,” as Mr. Judge justly calls it below): Mr. Judge, V.P., to retain the American section of the section, and she herself the European, to which she has since added the Indian.

Now we learn Phase 7. Seven is a highly Theosophical numeral, and this phase is certainly a rich one. Mr. Judge sends round to the Esoteric Section a pamphlet in which he announces that Mrs. Besant is, in effect, possessed of a devil, and that the Mahatma (under whose direction she also professes to be acting) has ordered him to depose her altogether, and take over the whole thing himself!! Which, in a formal “Order,” he accordingly proceeds to do.

The pamphlet, which among other things professes to give the Judge version of the true inwardness of the abortive “Enquiry” in July, has just been sent round to the Esoteric Theosophists. Copies were not sent to some who were considered dangerous; but the recent unveiling has made a good many so who were safe enough, from the Judge point of view, before, and thanks to one of these who does not acknowledge any headship of Mr. Judge over the European Esotericists since Mrs. Besant’s dissolution thereof, it is possible to give to mankind what was meant by Mr. Judge for a party. The following are the salient passages, followed by the Order deposing Mrs. Besant (the titles in capitals are Mr. Judge’s; the paragraph headings are not):—

BY MASTER’S DIRECTION.

I now send you this, all of it being either direct quotations from the messages to me, or else in substance what I am directed to say to you, the different details and elaborations being my own....

We have now to deal with the E.S.T. and with our duty to it and to each other; and among those others, to Mrs. Besant....

The Greatness of Wm. Q. Judge.

I am not a pledged member of the E.S.T., and never made a pledge in it, as my pledges were long before to the Master direct. I was one of its founders, with H.P.B., and she, at the beginning, made me manager and teacher in it from the first, under her, for the American part especially. You can remember all she said of that. I wrote the rules of the E.S.T. myself in London in 1888 at H.P.B.’s request, and under the direction of the Master. Those were not altered by her, but after reading them and further consulting the Master she added some general paragraphs. I am the only one standing in that position. Mrs. Besant and all other members are pledged and certified in the ordinary way....

An Inner Group was later on formed by H.P.B. at London, so that she might give out teachings to be recorded by the members, and, if possible, teach them practical Occultism. Of this Mrs. Besant, with George Mead to help her, was made the Secretary, because she had great ability in a literary way, was wholly devoted, and perfectly fit for the task. But this did not make her a teacher....

The Littleness of Mrs. Besant.

The death of H.P.B. destroyed, of course, any further value in the office of “Recorder.”

The conversations of H.P.B. with the Inner Group were taken down in a more or less fragmentary form by the different members, in notes, and later Mrs. Besant and George Mead wrote them out, as Secretaries. I have a complete copy of these, and so has each member of the Inner Group, and those copies comprise all the “Instructions” left in the possession of Mrs. Besant or the Inner Group. In my possession, and within my control, is a large body of instructions given to me all the time from 1875, which I shall give out and have given out, as far as I am directed....

Mrs. Annie Besant has been but five years in this work, and not all of that time engaged in occult study and practice....

Since 1889 she has done great service to the T.S. and devoted herself to it. But all this does not prevent a sincere person from making errors in Occultism, especially when he, as Mrs. Besant did, tries to force himself along the path of practical work in that field. Sincerity does not confer of itself knowledge, much less wisdom....

Singular Disinterestedness of Wm. Q. Judge.

I wish it to be clearly understood that Mrs. Besant has had herself no conscious evil intention: she has simply gone for awhile outside the line of her Guru (H.P.B.), begun work with others, and fallen under their influence. We should not push her farther down, but neither will the true sympathy we have blind our eyes, so as to let her go on, to the detriment of the movement. I could easily retire from the whole T.S., but my conceptions of duty are different, although the personal cost to myself in this work is heavy, and as I am ordered to stay I will stay and try my best to aid her and everyone else as much as possible. And the same authority tells me that “could she open her eyes and see her real line of work, and correct the present condition in herself as well as the one she has helped to make in the T.S. and E.S.T., she would find herself in mental, spiritual, and physical conditions of a kind much better than ever before, for her present state is due to the attacks of the dark powers, unconsciously to her.”

Black Magic and the Plot Behind the Scenes.

And now it becomes necessary under instructions received to give the members of the School some account of the things behind the scenes in connexion with the recent investigation attempted at London upon the charges against me....

I was made the object of an attack in the guise of an attempt to purify the Society, and Mrs. Besant was thrown forward as the official accuser of myself—a friend who was certified to her by H.P.B., her teacher, well known as working for the T.S. for many years. All this needs light, and the best interests of Mrs. Besant and of the E.S.T. demand that some of the secret history shall be given out, however disagreeable it may be, in order that the very purgation which was improperly directed to the wrong quarter shall take place now. The difficulty arose when in January or February Annie Besant finally lent herself unconsciously to the plot which I detail herein....

The plot exists among the Black Magicians, who ever war against the White, and against those Black ones we were constantly warned by H.P.B. This is no fiction, but a very substantial fact. I have seen and also been shown the chief entity among those who thus work against us....

How Mr. Judge’s Master Caught Out Mrs. Besant’s Friend.

The name of the person who was worked upon so as to, if possible, use him as a minor agent of the Black Magicians, and for the influencing of Mrs. Besant, is Gyanendra N. Chakravarti, a Brahman, of Allahabad, India, who came to America on our invitation to the Religious Parliament in 1893. He permitted ambition to take subtle root in his heart; he is no longer in our lines. He was then a Chela of a minor Indian Guru, and was directed to come to America by that Guru, who had been impressed to so direct him by our Master.... While in that relation he was telepathically impressed in Chicago with some of the contents of a message received by me from the Master. It corroborated outwardly what I had myself received. It was, however, but a part, and was, moreover, deficient in matter, Chakravarti himself being only aware of it as a mental impression, and I am informed that at the time he was not fully aware of what he was doing. His ability to be used as an unconscious vehicle was made known to me when he was made to receive the message. Although he was not fully aware of it, not only was the whole of his tour here well guarded and arranged, but he was personally watched by the agents of the Master’s scattered through the country unknown to him, who reported to me. On several occasions he has taken people into his confidence, believing that he was instructing them, when in fact they were observing him closely from the Lodge, helping him where right, and noting him fully, though they did not tell him so. This was also so in those parts of his tour when he believed himself alone or only with Mrs. Besant....

“If I am a Fraud so are H.P.B. and the Masters.”

If I was guilty of what I was accused, then Master would be shown as conniving at forgery and lying—a most impossible thing. The only other possibility is that Mr. Chakravarti and I “got up” the message. But he and Mrs. Besant have admitted its genuineness, although she is perfectly unable herself to decide on its genuineness or falsity; but further, Mrs. Besant admitted to several that she had seen the Master himself come and speak through my body while I was perfectly conscious. And still further, H.P.B. gave me in 1889 the Master’s picture, on which he put this message, “To my dear and loyal colleague, W. Q. Judge.”

Now, then, either I am bringing you a true message from the Master, or the whole T.S. and E.S.T. is a lie, in the ruins of which must be buried the names of H.P.B. and the Masters. All these stand together as they fall together....

How Mrs. Besant Privately Thinks H.P.B. a Fraud.

As final proof of the delusions worked through this man and his friends, I will mention this:—Many years ago—in 1881—the Masters sent to the Allahabad Brahmans (the Prayag T.S.) a letter which was delivered by H.P.B. to Mr. A. P. Sinnett, who handed a copy over to them, keeping the original; it dealt very plainly with the Brahmans. This letter the Brahmans do not like, and Mr. Chakravarti tried to make me think it was a pious fraud by H.P.B. He succeeded with Mrs. Besant in this, so that since she met him she has on several occasions said she thought it was a fraud by H.P.B., made up entirely, and not from the Master. I say now on Master’s authority that it was from the Master, and is a right letter. Only delusion would make Mrs. Besant take this position: deliberate intention makes the others do it. It is an issue which may not be evaded, for if that letter be a fraud, then all the rest sent through our old teacher, and on which Esoteric Buddhism was made, are the same. I shall rest on that issue: we all rest on it.

Mrs. Besant’s Rival Revelations.

Mrs. Besant was then made to agree with these people under the delusion that it was approved by the Masters. She regarded herself as their servant. It was against the E.S.T. rules. When the rule is broken it is one’s duty to leave the E.S.T., and when I got the charges from her I asked her to leave it if it did not suit her. The depth of the plot was not shown to Mrs. Besant at all, for if it had been she would have refused. Nor was Colonel Olcott aware of it. Mrs. Besant was put in such a frightful position that while she was writing me most kindly and working with me she was all the time thinking that I was a forger and that I had blasphemed the Master. She was made to conceal from me, when here, her thoughts about the intended charges, but was made to tell Mr. B. Keightley, in London, and possibly few others. Nor until the time was ripe did she tell me, in her letter, in January, from India, asking me to resign from the E.S.T. and the T.S. offices, saying that if I did and would confess guilt, all would be forgiven, and everyone would work with me as usual. But I was directed differently, and fully informed. She was induced to believe that the Master was endorsing the prosecution, that he was ordering her to do what she did. At the same time, I knew and told her that it was the plan there to have Colonel Olcott resign when I had been cut off, the presidency to be then offered to her. It was offered to her, and she was made to believe it was the Master’s wish for her “not to oppose.” She then waited. I did not resign, and the plot so far was spoilt for the time....

She felt and expressed to me the greatest pain to have to do such things to me. I knew she so felt, and wrote her that it was the Black Magicians. She replied, being still under the delusion, that I was failing to do Master’s will.

How Mrs. Besant Tried Witchcraft.

Her influencers also made her try psychic experiments on me and on two others in Europe. They failed. On me they had but a passing effect, as I was cognisant of them; on one of the others they reflected on health, although she did not desire any harm at all; she was made to think it best and for my good. She then sent word to these people that she had not succeeded. This is all the effect of pure delusion; the variance between such things and her usual character is shown in her all the time writing me the most kind letters. In all this Mr. Chakravarti was her guide, with others. She was writing him all the time about it. He went so far as to write me on a matter he was supposed to know nothing of: “No matter what Annie may do to you as co-head of the E.S. she means you no harm.”

“Every Man His Own Mahatma.”

Informed as I was of these inside facts, I drew up under Master’s direction my circular on the charges in March, 1894, and there outlined what would be done. It was all done as I said, and as the Master in March told me would be the case. The London investigation ended as Master predicted through me in my circular, and for the benefit of the T.S. But all that time the conspirators used all means against me. They had all sorts of letters sent me from India with pretended messages from the Masters asking me to resign and confess. But Master kept me informed and told me what steps to take. He even told me that, much as it might seem the contrary from the official papers, Colonel Olcott would be the central figure and the one through whom the adjustment would come. This also turned out true.

Migration of Mahatmas to—New York?

The Master says that the T.S. movement was begun by Them in the West by western people; that cyclic law requires the work in the West for the benefit of the world; that They do not live in India.

They also say that Nature’s laws have set apart woe for those who spit back in the face of their teacher, for those who try to belittle her work, and make her out to be part good and part fraud....

A distinct object H.P.B. had in view I will now, on the authority of the Master, tell you, unrevealed before by H.P.B. to anyone else that I know of: it is, the establishment in the West of a great seat of learning, where shall be taught and explained and demonstrated the great theories of man and nature which she has brought forward to us, where Western occultism, as the essence combined out of all others, shall be taught.

I also state on the same authority that H.P.B. has not reincarnated....

We are all, therefore, face to face with the question whether we will abide by Masters and their Messenger on the one hand, or by the disrupting forces that stand on the other, willing to destroy our great mission if we will but give them the opportunity.

“I Declare Mrs. Besant’s Headship at an End!”

The pamphlet closes with the following “E.S.T. ORDER,” dated November 3, and signed in manuscript:—

I now proceed a step further than the E.S.T. decisions of 1894, and solely for the good of the E.S.T. I resume in the E.S.T., in full, all the functions and powers given to me by H.P.B. and that came to me by orderly succession after her passing from this life, and declare myself the sole head of the E.S.T. This has been done already in America. So far as concerns the rest of the E.S.T. I may have to await the action of the members, but I stand ready to exercise those functions in every part of it. Hence, under the authority given me by the Master and H.P.B., and under Master’s direction, I declare Mrs. Annie Besant’s headship in the E.S.T. at an end.

This, then, is Mr. Judge’s response to the case against him, and, as was expected, it takes the form of attacking his colleagues, but keeps strictly to generalities as regards the evidence against himself. The date affixed is one when Mr. Judge had probably heard of the articles in The Westminster by cable, but had no idea of the detailed nature of the attack. The parts quoted throw many interesting side-lights, but perhaps the most delightful thing is the picture presented of all the Theosophists playing off the Mahatma on one another: Mr. Judge, Mrs. Besant, Mr. Chakravarti, and others, giving the most contradictory messages from the same Tibetan source; and Mr. Judge now finally “going one better” than all the rest, for has he not, in a very real sense, the Mahatma in his pocket?

At any rate, the battle has now well begun. The prophets of Baal are cutting, not themselves as of old, but one another. More power to all their elbows!

Mrs. Besant was willing enough to accept Mr. Judge’s anti-Olcott missives as “psychically” from the Mahatma; we shall now see how it strikes her when the same weapon is turned against herself.[^[1]]

[1]. We have seen. Vide Preface.

[In the same issue was published a “vote of censure passed on the President by one of the local ‘Lodges’ of the T.S. (Bournemouth), declaring that the articles recently published in the Westminster Gazette disclose a primâ facie case against the Vice-President,” “of fraud upon his fellow Theosophists.” “The Vice-President should not continue to lie,” the Bournemouth Lodge remarks, “under such a charge.” Other Lodges have also taken one side or the other.]