H. P. Blavatsky; A Great Betrayal

by Alice Leighton Cleather

[Seal] H. P. Blavatsky, ∴

" ... The Council passed the following minute....

That it was resolved and recorded that the highest officials in the School for the present are Annie Besant and William Q. Judge, in accordance with the above-quoted order to William Q. Judge of December, 1888, and with the order of April 1st, 1891, to Annie Besant, as well as with the written declaration of H. P. B. in a letter to William Q. Judge dated March 27th, 1891, which we now here have read, in which she wrote that Annie Besant should be so considered. The order of April 1st, 1891, is as follows:—

I hereby appoint, in the name of the Master, Annie Besant Chief Secretary of the Inner Group of the Esoteric Section and Recorder of the Teachings.[22]

H. P. B., ∴

Finally, we—the Council—declared over our signatures that "from henceforth with Annie Besant and William Q. Judge rest the full charge and management of the School."

Thus did the Council establish the "Dual Headship," and until her meeting with Mr. ——, two years later, and her subsequent visit to India, Mrs. Besant continued to work harmoniously with Mr. Judge in the management of the School.

A full report of this Council meeting was immediately sent out to the whole E. S., bearing the date May 27th, 1891. Attached to it was an "Address" signed by Mrs. Besant and Mr. Judge as joint "Outer Heads," declaring that these "changes in the Constitution of the School" having been "made by the joint Councils of the E. S. T." (Italics mine.—A. L. C.), they considered it their "duty" to issue this address to each member.

The one error, and the foundation of all subsequent ones, as I subsequently realised, was that of speaking of themselves as H. P. B.'s "agents and representatives after her departure"; for there is nothing whatever in the wording of the abovementioned official appointments which even suggests such a contingency. Both obviously could refer to the holders of them only during H. P. B.'s life-time. Indeed, Mr. Judge's was made when the School was founded, and had been operative ever since; while Mrs. Besant's was merely an official confirmation of a secretarial office she had filled since the formation of the I. G. scarcely nine months previously (thus giving her the precedence of Mr. Mead.) It will be seen, however, that Mr. Judge's appointment was a far more important one than Mrs. Besant's, and was conferred on him "in virtue of his character as a chela of thirteen years' standing"; whereas Mrs. Besant had been "on probation" only, for barely a year. Moreover, when Mr. Judge became the object of attacks in 1889, H. P. B. issued the following very significant notice:—

"London,
October 23rd, 1889.

"The Esoteric Section and its life in the U. S. A. depends upon W. Q. J. remaining its agent and what he is now. The day W. Q. J. resigns H. P. B. will be virtually dead for the Americans. W. Q. J. is the Antaskarana between the two Manas(es), the American thought and the Indian—or rather the trans-Himâlayan esoteric knowledge. Dixi.

H. P. B. ∴

"P. S.—W. Q. J. had better show and impress this on the mind of all those it may concern."