William Quan Judge

William Quan Judge (April 13, 1851 – March 21, 1896) was an Irish-American mystic, esotericist, and occultist, and one of the founders of the original Theosophical Society.

was henceforth to subsist on its philosophical basis ... From his twenty-third year until his death, [Judge's] best efforts and all the fiery energies of his undaunted soul were given to this work."

Judge, who arrived in India soon after the Coulombs had been sent away from headquarters, made a detailed examination of the false door constructed in Madam Blavatsky's 'occult room'.

The real beginning of the work of Theosophy in the United States began in 1886, when Judge established The Path, an independent Theosophical magazine.

Judge's interest in the welfare of others affected his work, so that his articles and Theosophical talks addressed the common people in homely language and with simple reason.

A beginning must be made and it has been made by the Theosophical society ... Riches are accumulating in the hands of the few while the poor are ground harder every day as they increase in number ... All this points unerringly to a vital error somewhere ... What is wanted is true knowledge of the spiritual condition of man, his aim, and destiny ... those who must begin the reform are those who are so fortunate as to be placed in the world where they can see and think out the problems all are endeavouring to solve, even if they know that the great day may not come until after their death.

The Grand Clock of the Universe points to another hour, and now Man must seize the key in his hands and himself – as a whole – open the gate ... Our practice consists in a disregard of any authority in matters of religion and philosophy except such propositions as from their innate quality we feel to be true.It has been said of Judge: "Everything he wrote of a metaphysical nature can be found, directly or indirectly, in the works of Madame Blavatsky.

Not as a questioner of philosophies did I come before her, not as one groping in the dark for lights that schools and fanciful theories had obscured, but as one who, wandering through the corridors of life, was seeking the friends who could show where the designs for the work had been hidden.

It was as if but the evening before we had parted, leaving yet to be done some detail of a task taken up with one common end; it was teacher and pupil, elder brother and younger, both bent on the one single end, but she with the power and knowledge that belong but to lions and sages.Blavatsky often referred to the founding of the Theosophical Society as coming about as a result of occult direction from her teachers.

[6] After Blavatsky died in 1891, Judge became involved in a dispute with Olcott and Annie Besant, whom he considered to have deviated from the original teaching of the Mahatmas.

Other new organizations split off from his, including the Temple of the People (whose library bears his name) during 1898 and the United Lodge of Theosophists or ULT during 1909.