6. The Mantle of Madame Blavatsky.
After Madame Blavatsky’s death, Mrs. Annie Besant assumed the leadership of the Theosophical Society, and wore upon her finger a ring that belonged to the High Priestess: a ring with a green stone flecked with veins of blood red, upon the surface of which was engraved the interlaced triangles within a circle, with the Indian motto, Sat (Life), the symbol of Theosophy. It was given to Madame Blavatsky by her Indian teacher, says Mrs. Besant, and is very magnetic. The High Priestess on her deathbed presented the mystic signet to her successor, and left her in addition many valuable books and manuscripts. The Theosophical Society now numbers its adherents by the thousands and has its lodges scattered over the United States, France, England and India. At the World’s Columbian Exposition it was well represented in the Great Parliament of Religions, by Annie Besant, William Q. Judge, of the American branch, and Prof. Chakravatir, a High Caste Brahmin of India.
FIG. 38. PORTRAIT OF MRS. ANNIE BESANT.
Mrs. Besant, in an interview published in the New York World, Dec. 11, 1892, made the following statement concerning Madame Blavatsky’s peculiar powers:
“One time she was trying to explain to me the control of the mind over certain currents in the ether about us, and to illustrate she made some little taps come on my own head. They were accompanied by the sensation one experiences on touching an electric battery. I have frequently seen her draw things to her simply by her will, without touching them. Indeed, she would often check herself when strangers were about. It was natural for her, when she wanted a book that was on the table, to simply draw it to her by her power of mind, as it would be for you to reach out your hand to pick it up. And so, as I say, she often had to check herself, for she was decidedly adverse to making a show of her power. In fact, that is contrary to the law of the brotherhood to which she belonged. This law forbids them to make use of their power except as an instruction to their pupils or as an aid to the spreading of the truth. An adept may never use his knowledge for his personal advantage. He may be starving, and despite his ability to materialize banquets he may not supply himself with a crust of bread. This is what is meant in the Gospel when it says: ‘He saved others, Himself He cannot save.’
“One time she had written an article and as usual she gave me her manuscript to look over.
“Sometimes she wrote very good grammatic English and again she wrote very slovenly English. So she always had me go over her manuscript. In reading this particular one I found a long quotation of some twenty or thirty lines. When I finished it I went to her and said: ‘Where in the world did you get that quotation?’
“‘I got it from an Indian newspaper of —,’ naming the date.
“‘But,’ I said, ‘that paper cannot be in this country yet! How did you get hold of it?’
“‘Oh, I got it, dear,’ she said, with a little laugh; ‘that’s enough.’
“Of course I understood then. When the time came for the paper to arrive, I thought I would verify her quotation, so I asked her for the name, the date of the issue and the page on which the quotation would be found. She told me, giving me, we will say, 45 as the number of the page. I went to the agent, looked up the paper and there was no such quotation on page 45. Then I remembered that things seen in the astral light are reversed, so I turned the number around, looked on page 54 and there was the quotation. When I went home I told her that it was all right, but that she had given me the wrong page.
“‘Very likely,’ she said. ‘Someone came in just as I was finishing it, and I may have forgotten to reverse the number.’
“You see, anything seen in the astral light is reversed, as if you saw it in a mirror, while anything seen clairvoyantly is straight.”
The elevation of Mrs. Besant to the High Priestess-ship of the Theosophical Society was in accord with the spirit of the age—an acknowledgment of the Eternal Feminine; but it did not bring repose to the organization. William Q. Judge, of the American branch, began dabbling, it is claimed, in Mahatma messages on his own account, and charges were made against him by Mrs. Besant. A bitter warfare was waged in Theosophical journals, and finally the American branch of the general society seceded, and organized itself into the American Theosophical Society. Judge was made life-president and held the post until his death, in New York City, March 21st, 1896. His body was cremated and the ashes sealed in an urn, which was deposited in the Society’s rooms, No. 144 Madison avenue.
Five weeks after the death of Judge, the Theosophical Society held its annual conclave in New York City, and elected E. T. Hargrove as the presiding genius of esoteric wisdom in the United States. It was originally intended to hold this convention in Chicago, but the change was made for a peculiar reason. As the press reported the circumstance, “it was the result of a request by a mysterious adept whose existence had been unsuspected, and who made known his wish in a communication to the executive committee.” It seems that the Theosophical Society is composed of two bodies, the exoteric and the esoteric. The first holds open meetings for the discussion of ethical and Theosophical subjects, and the second meets privately, being composed of a secret body of adepts, learned in occultism and possessing remarkable spiritual powers. The chief of the secret order is appointed by the Mahatmas, on account, it is claimed, of his or her occult development. Madame Blavatsky was the High Priestess in this inner temple during her lifetime, and was succeeded by Hierophant W. Q. Judge. When Judge died, it seems there was no one thoroughly qualified to take his place as the head of the esoteric branch, until an examination was made of his papers. Then came a surprise. Judge had named as his successor a certain obscure individual whom he claimed to be a great adept, requesting that the name be kept a profound secret for a specified time. In obedience to this injunction, the Great Unknown was elected as chief of the Inner Brother-and-Sisterhood. All of this made interesting copy for the New York journalists, and columns were printed about the affair. Another surprise came when the convention of exoterics (“hysterics,” as some of the papers called them) subscribed $25,000 for the founding of an occult temple in this country. But the greatest surprise of all was a Theosophical wedding. The De Palm funeral fades away into utter insignificance beside this mystic marriage. The contracting parties were Claude Falls Wright, formerly secretary to Madame Blavatsky, and Mary C. L. Leonard, daughter of Anna Byford Leonard, one of the best known Theosophists in the West. The ceremony was performed at Aryan Hall, No. 144 Madison avenue, N. Y., in the presence of the occult body. Outsiders were not admitted. However, public curiosity was partly gratified by sundry crumbs of information thrown out by the Theosophical press bureau.
The young couple stood beneath a seven-pointed star, made of electric light globes, and plighted their troth amid clouds of odoriferous incense. Then followed weird chantings and music by an occult orchestra composed of violins and violoncellos. The unknown adept presided over the affair, as special envoy of the Mahatmas. He was enveloped from head to foot in a thick white veil, said the papers.
Mr. Wright and his bride-elect declared solemnly that they remembered many of their former incarnations; their marriage had really taken place in Egypt, 5,000 years ago in one of the mysterious temples of that strange country, and the ceremony had been performed by the priests of Isis. Yes, they remembered it all! It seemed but as yesterday! They recalled with vividness the scene: their march up the avenue of monoliths; the lotus flowers strewn in their path by rosy children; the intoxicating perfume of the incense, burned in bronze braziers by shaven-headed priests; the hieroglyphics, emblematical of life, death and resurrection, painted upon the temple walls; the Hierophant in his gorgeous vestments. Oh, what a dream of Old World splendor and beauty!
Before many months had passed, the awful secret of the Veiled Adept’s identity was revealed. The Great Unknown turned out to be a she instead of a he adept—a certain Mrs. Katherine Alice Tingley, of New York City. The reporters began ringing the front door bell of the adept’s house in the vain hope of obtaining an interview, but the newly-hatched Sphinx turned a deaf ear to their entreaties. The time was not yet ripe for revelations. Her friends, however, rushed into print, and told the most marvellous stories of her mediumship.
W. T. Stead, the English journalist and student of psychical research, reviewing the Theosophical convention and its outcome, says (Borderland, July, 1896, p. 306): “The Judgeite seceders from the Theosophical Society held their annual convention in New York, April 26th to 27th. They have elected a young man, Mr. Ernest T. Hargrove, as their president. A former spiritual medium and clairvoyant, by name Katherine Alice Tingley, who claims to have been bosom friends with H. P. B. 1200 years B. C., when both were incarnated in Egypt, is, however, the grand Panjandrum of the cause. Her first husband was a detective, her second is a clerk in the White Lead Company’s office in Brooklyn.
“According to Mr. Hargrove she is—‘The new adept; she was appointed by Mr. Judge, and we are going to sustain her, as we sustained him, for we know her important connection in Egypt, Mexico and Europe.’”
In the spring of 1896, Mrs. Tingley, accompanied by a number of prominent occultists, started on a crusade through the world to bring the truths of Theosophy to the toiling millions. The crusaders before their departure were presented with a purple silk banner, bearing the legend: “Truth, Light, Liberation for Discouraged Humanity.” The New York Herald (Aug. 16, 1896) says of this crusade:
“When Mrs. Tingley and the other crusaders left this country nothing had been heard of the claim of the reincarnated Blavatsky. Now, however, this idea is boldly advanced in England by the American branch of the society there, and in America by Burcham Harding, the acting head of the society in this country. When Mr. Harding was seen at the Theosophical headquarters, he said:
“‘Yes, Mme. Blavatsky is reincarnated in Mrs. Tingley. She has not only been recognized by myself and other members of the American branch of the Theosophical Society, who knew H. P. B. in her former life, but the striking physical and facial resemblance has also been noted by members of the English branch.’
“But this recognition by the English members of the society does not seem to be as strong as Mr. Harding would seem to have it understood. In fact, there are a number of members of that branch who boldly declare that Mrs. Tingley is an impostor. One of them, within the last week, addressing the English members on the subject, claimed that Mme. Blavatsky had foreseen that such an impostor would arise. He said:
“‘When Mme. Blavatsky lived in her body among us, she declared to all her disciples that, in her next reincarnation, she would inhabit the body of an Eastern man, and she warned them to be on their guard against any assertion made by mediums or others that they were controlled by her. Whatever H. P. B. lacked, she never wanted emphasis, and no one who knew anything of the founder of the Theosophical Society was left in any doubt as to her views upon this question. She declared that if any persons, after her death, should claim that she was speaking through them, her friends might be quite sure that it was a lie. Imagine, then, the feelings of H. P. B.’s disciples on being presented with an American clairvoyant medium, in the shape of Mrs. Tingley, who is reported to claim that H. P. B. is reincarnated in her.’
“The American branch of the society is not at all disturbed by this charge of fraud by the English branch. In connection with it Mr. Harding says:
“‘It is true that the American branch of the Theosophical Society has seceded from the English branch, but as Mme. Blavatsky, the founder, was in reality an American, it can be understood why we consider ourselves the parent society.’
“Of the one letter which Mrs. Tingley has sent to America since the arrival of the crusaders, the English Theosophists are a unit in the expression of opinion that it illustrated, as did her speech in Queen’s Hall, merely ‘unmeaning platitudes and prophecies.’ But the American members are quite as loud in their expressions that the English members are trying to win the sympathies of the public, and that the words are really understood by the initiate.
“The letter reads: ‘In thanking you for the many kind letters addressed to me as Katherine Tingley, as well as by other names that would not be understood by the general public, I should like to say a few words as to the future and its possibilities. Many of you are destined to take an active part in the work that the future will make manifest, and it is well to press onward with a clear knowledge of the path to be trodden and with a clear vision of the goal to be reached.
“‘The path to be trodden is both exterior and interior, and in order to reach the goal it is necessary to tread these paths with strength, courage, faith and the essence of them all, which is wisdom.
“‘For these two paths, which fundamentally are one, like every duality in nature, are winding paths, and now lead through sunlight, then through deepest shade. During the last few years the large majority of students have been rounding a curve in the paths of both inner and outer work, and this wearied many. But those who persevered and faltered not will soon reap their reward.
FIG. 39. PORTRAIT OF MRS. TINGLEY.
[Reproduced by courtesy of the New York Herald.]
“‘The present is pregnant with the promise of the near future, and that future is brighter than could be believed by those who have so recently been immersed in the shadows that are inevitable in cyclic progress. Can words describe it? I think not. But if you will think of the past twenty years of ploughing and sowing and will keep in your mind the tremendous force that has been scattered broadcast throughout the world, you must surely see that the hour for reaping is near at hand, if it has not already come.”
The invasion of English territory by the American crusaders was resented by the British Theosophists. The advocates of universal brotherhood waged bitter warfare against each other in the newspapers and periodicals. It gradually resolved itself into a struggle for supremacy between the two rival claimants for the mantle of Madame Blavatsky, Mrs. Annie Besant and Mrs. Tingley. Each Pythoness ascended her sacred tripod and hysterically denounced the other as an usurper, and false prophetess. Annie Besant sought to disprove the idea of Madame Blavatsky having re-incarnated herself in the body of Mrs. Tingley. She claimed that the late High Priestess had taken up her earthly pilgrimage again in the person of a little Hindoo boy, who lived somewhere on the banks of the Ganges. The puzzling problem was this: If Mrs. Tingley was Mme. Blavatsky, where was Mrs. Tingley? Oedipus would have gone mad trying to solve this Sphinx riddle.
The crusade finished, Mrs. Tingley, with her purple banner returned to New York, where she was royally welcomed by her followers. In the wake of the American adept came the irrepressible Annie Besant, accompanied by a sister Theosophist, the Countess Constance Wachmeister. Mrs. Besant, garbed in a white linen robe of Hindoo pattern, lectured on occult subjects to crowded houses in the principal cities of the East and West. In the numerous interviews accorded her by the press, she ridiculed the Blavatsky-Tingley re-incarnation theory. By kind permission of the New York Herald, I reproduce a portrait of Mrs. Tingley. The reader will find it interesting to compare this sketch with the photograph of Madame Blavatsky given in this book. He will notice at once how much the two occultists do resemble each other; both are grossly fat, puffy of face, with heavy-lidded eyes and rather thick lips.