Katherine Tingley Portal

Febr. 20, 2026
last change: March 17, 2026

“Very good presentation!”
– Kenneth Small, Point Loma insider

www.katherinetingley.com

Katherine Augusta Westcott Tingley or short Madame Tingley
Leader and Official Head of the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society Throughout the World
* July 6, 1847 Newburyport, Massachusetts (USA) – † July 11, 1929 in Visingsö (Sweden)

Photos: Public domain.

“Let me have a child from the time of birth until it is seven years old, and all the temptation in the world will not move it. Life is joy.”

The Raja Yoga (Royal Union, the highest Yoga) system of education she developed was meant to direct the students towards a balance of all the faculties: mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional.

Esoteric insights into the theosophical guruparampara:

„οὐκ ἀφήσω ὑμᾶς ὀρφανούς· ἔρχομαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς“
„I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
– John 14:18

_“10 εἴ τις ἔρχεται πρὸς ὑμᾶς καὶ ταύτην τὴν διδαχὴν οὐ φέρει, μὴ λαμβάνετε αὐτὸν εἰς οἰκίαν καὶ χαίρειν αὐτῷ μὴ λέγετε· ₁₁ ὁ λέγων γὰρ αὐτῷ χαίρειν κοινωνεῖ τοῖς ἔργοις αὐτοῦ τοῖς πονηροῖς.”
“10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, 11 for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.”
– 2. John 10-11

THE HERMETIC CHAIN

“This is a big question to answer: “What is your policy?” I have a very definite policy — a clear-cut one, which is not my own, in a sense, but which has been put upon me as a sacred trust to carry out, and which I have taken into my heart and mind and will carry out; and therefore in that sense it is my own. Who put it upon me? Katherine Tingley.

You may know that we have a line of successorship in the Theosophical Society which is different perhaps from anything else in the world. Christianity in its early years had somewhat the same idea, which it called the Apostolic Succession, that is to say, that teacher succeeded teacher, or leader succeeded leader; but the spiritual aspect of this true system died out very quickly in the Christian Church and in the very early centuries of the history of that ecclesiastical society.

But it has not died out among us, and may the immortal gods prevent that it ever die out, because it is based on a spiritual fact or operation of nature. The light of the holy Sages is transmitted from messenger to messenger down the ages; and certain human beings can be trained to transmit that light in purity and in fulness.

This chain of succession in Teachers is what is often spoken of in Greek historical tradition as the Hermetic Chain or the Golden Chain, and was considered among Greek philosophical mystics as reaching from Father Zeus through a series of spiritual and then noble human beings down to ordinary men.
This was a teaching of the Mysteries, where it was fully explained: a true teaching because it represents distinctly and clearly a true operation of Nature.

More or less faint and often distorted copies of this Hermetic Chain of Succession of Teachers was taken over by various later formal and exoteric sects, who kept the fundamental idea of a succession of teachers of power, however much the fact became degenerated into a mere theory- such as in the Christian Church wherein it was called the Apostolic Succession”.
– Gottfried de Purucker: Questions We All Ask, No. 8 (November 19, 1929) & The Masters and the Path of Occultism (1939).

“You understand of course, Companions, that when this Katherine Tingley Memorial Group was first formed, it was a child of my heart in memory, in commemoration, of the life-work of our blessed KT, the greatest esotericist of the three leaders and teachers who have preceded me — a greater esotericist than HPB, a greater esotericist than Mr. Judge.”
– Gottfried de Purucker, The Dialogues, Katherine Tingley Memorial Group (KTMG), First Meeting of November 27, 1929, p. 1.

Further information of Tingleys rightful successorship based on both HPB’s “last photo” and its picture puzzle (rebus) as well as on private photos of her occult ring. It was published for the first time in 2010 by Frank Reitemeyer: HPB’s Occult Ring – Another Chapter of Theosophical History Clarified (update follows).

1. Receptions
2. Activities
3. Websites and portals
4. Books etc.
5. Videos
6. Germany

In chronological order

2026: Katherine Tingley: The Purple Mother
History of Massachusetts Blog, February 6, 2026

2025, Oxford Univ. Press: Morrisson, Mark S.: Light on the path: advancing occultism through esoteric fiction, 1880-1940; 400 pp. Ch. on Kenneth Morris, Talbot Mundy (both Point Loma residents and chelas of KT) and an excellent ch. on Mabel Collins.

2025, Hall, Jill G.: On a Sundown Sea: A Novel of Madame Tingley and the Origins of Lomaland.
Set at the turn of the 20th century, a mystical, tantalizing novel about a visionary’s journey toward her destiny. 384 pp.

2025, UZH: Mühlematter, Yves: Esoteric-Spiritual Utopias: Theosophical Intentional Communities and Schools in California

2024: Pelletier, Ernest E.: Katherine Tingley: The Hijacking of the Theosophical Society in America, 270 pp.

2022: Small, Kenneth R.: Revisiting Visionary Utopia: Katherine Tingley’s Lomaland, 1897–1942, in: Theosophical History Occasional Papers, Volume XV, 2022. 257 pp. Review: W. Michael Ashcraft in: Nova Religio (2023) 26 (4): 128–130, https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.26.4.128.

2021: Selander, Josephine: Spiritual Entrepreneurs: Competing Theosophists and the Making of Alternative Spirituality in the Swedish Press (1900–1925), in: Comparativ | Zeitschrift für Globalgeschichte und vergleichende Gesellschaftsforschung 31 (2021) Heft 5/6, p. 612–630, DOI: 10.26014/j.comp.2021.05-06.06.
“In 1899, the American Theosophist leader Katherine Tingley visited Sweden for the first time on a quest to proclaim a new Theosophical coalition: the “Universal Brotherhood”. As a comment on Tingley’s mission, the Swedish women’s magazine Idun reflected on the appeal of spirituality at the turn of the twentieth century: One may hold whatever opinions one wishes about the feasibility of the coalition’s programme, but one thing is indisputable: this ‘Universal Brotherhood’ is a remarkable expression of the times in our end-of-century era, rich in strong spiritual movements.”

2019, Cal. State Uni. San Marcos: Snover, Chelsea L.: Denting Their Dainty Domes: Women and Metaphysical Religions in California, 1900-1925, 124 pp. M.A. in history.

2018: Revisiting Visionary Utopia: Katherine Tingley’s Lomaland, 1898-1942. Series of seven lectures: 1. Dwayne Little: The Life and Times of Katherine Tingley in the Context of the Progressive Movement, 2. Kenneth Small: Katherine Tingley’s Engaged Practical Theosophy: From Raja Yoga to Patriotism, 3. Kenneth Small: Lomaland Creative Arts: The Music of Daniel de Lange and Art of Maurice Braun, 4. Riain Hager: The Music of Sound: Kenneth Morris’ The Three Bases of Poetry, 5. Kenneth Small: Shakespeare and Classical Greek Drama at Lomaland, 6. Riain Hager: The Self as Poetry in Kenneth Morris’ The Three Bases of Poetry, 7. Riain Hager: The Mythic and Visionary Short Stories of Kenneth Morris.

2014: Lingan, Edmund B.: Katherine Tingley and the Theatre of the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society. Ch. in: The Theatre of the Occult Revival. Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137448613_3. Abstract: “This book explores the religious foundations, political and social significance, and aesthetic aspects of the theatre created by the leaders of the Occult Revival. Lingan shows how theatre contributed to the fragmentation of Western religious culture and how contemporary theatre plays a part in the development of alternative, occult religions.”

2014, Pontifical Salesian Univ., Torino: Introvigne, Massimo: Reginald W. Machell (1854-1927): Blavatsky’s Child, British Symbolist, American Artist, in: Aries 14 (2014) 165-189. Abstract: “Reginald Willoughby Machell (1854-1927) was a promising young artist from a prominent family in North-West England when he was introduced to Madame Blavatsky in 1886. Machell joined the Theosophical Society, abandoned his academic style and decided to devote his life to creating a didactic art aimed at illustrating Blavatsky’s doctrines.
When the Theosophical Society split after Blavatsky’s death, Machell sided with the American faction led by William Q. Judge and later by Katherine Tingley. In 1900, the artist moved to Lomaland, Tingley’s Theosophical colony in California, where he remained for the next 27 years of his life. He continued to paint Theosophical subjects and to write articles on the relationship between Theosophy and the arts. He also emerged as a successful wood carver and as a gifted teacher of younger Theosophical painters, who formed the so called Lomaland Art Colony.
Best remembered for a single iconic Theosophical painting, The Path, Machell was extremely popular for several decades among all branches of the Theosophical movement. At the same time, his almost exclusive focus on Theosophy led to his marginalization in wider artistic circles, although other teachers recruited by Tingley for the Lomaland art school, including Maurice Braun (1877-1941), eventually managed to be accepted by the American art establishment.”

2014, April 2, Jess Smith: The many trials of Madame Tingley. Part one: What Theosophists found in San Diego. San Diego Reader. Part two: The siege of Point Loma begins. “When Judge died, Madame Tingley assumed leadership of the American society. Besant was just an elitist, she said; her ability to read minds and “thought forms” and see people’s auras was “all bosh.” Unlike Besant, who asked 50 cents per lecture, Tingley never charged admission and advocated compassion for all, not just those few on a higher “astral plane.” To stress this universality, in 1897, Tingley renamed the society the United Brotherhood of Theosophists [correct: The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society]. Part three: The siege of Point loma goes global. Part four: Lomaland, a “vile spookery”? Balderdash!, Part five of five.

2013: Rudbøg, Tim: Point Loma, Theosophy, and Katherine Tingley, in: Handbook of the Theosophical Current, 2013.

2010: San Diego State University: Thornton, George Iszac: Lomaland: Local media portrayals of the occult, viii+67 pp., M.A. in history. Abstract: “This study examines the local media’s coverage of Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society (UBTS) at Lomaland in San Diego, California in the early to mid twentieth century. The San Diego coverage of Lomaland did not follow the same pattern of negative portrayals that previous studies of media representations have emphasized in their own conclusions, including studies that have cited Lomaland as an example of when negative media reactions to Alternative Religious Movements has occurred. The newspapers in San Diego highlighted the positive impacts that the UBTS brought to the community, and even defended the UBTS in times of legal controversy. This study is located at the crossroads of three important academic fields of study: the history of religious movements in North America, the history of media representations of alternative religious movements (ARM), and theoretical constructs for examining the impact and influence of the media. This paper draws from the field of media theory in order to consult a framework through which the content and impact of the media coverage of the UBTS can be viewed. Lomaland represents a case study through which we can understand not only the history and impact of ARMs in the United States, but also a history of the demonization of ARMs by mainstream media, and a deeper look into what shapes those experiences and interactions.”

2003, L.A. Times: San Diego Theosophists Had Own Ideas on a New Age. “A few years before she came west, Tingley met in New York with John C. Fremont, who had helped to usher in California statehood in 1850. She told the aged general of her dream to build “a white city in a golden land by the sundown sea.” Fremont told her that what she described reminded him of Point Loma on San Diego Bay. After she took control of the Theosophy movement, she bought 132 acres atop Point Loma and began designing. She built the Temple of Peace, crowned with a spacious, amethyst-colored glass dome; the Raja Yoga School; an outdoor Greek amphitheater; and several round “lotus” houses with pitched roofs where as many as a dozen students lived together.”

2002: Ashcraft, W. Michael: The Dawn of a New Cycle: Point Loma Theosophists and American Culture, Knoxville.

1999: Streissguth, Thomas: Utopian visionaries. Oliver Press, Minneapolis (ISBN 1881508471).

1998: Rugland, Raymond: A Few Facets of Katherine Tingley, in: Sunrise April/May 1998.

1998: Katherine Tingley. Das leuchtende Vorbild für eine humane Welt, in: Das Forum 4/1998, pp. 22-33.

1998: Sunrise: Theosophic Perspectives, April/May 1998, Special Issue: Katherine Tingley: 1847-1929; German: Sonderheft Katherine Tingley 3/1998

1995, Univ. of Arizona: Waterstone, Penny B.: Domesticating Universal Brotherhood: Feminine Values and the Construction of Utopia, Point Loma homestead, master’s thesis. Abstract: “The Point Loma Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society Homestead, a utopian experiment established near San Diego, California, in 1897, created a distinctly feminine version of the “perfect community” by drawing on aspects of Theosophy that emphasized values that during the 19th century were closely identified with women–selflessness, connectedness, morality, and purity of body and mind, while deemphasizing those generally associated with male character–intellectualism, rationality, individualism, and aggression.
Bolstered by the almost limitless authority of the community’s founder, Katherine Tingley, the women of Point Loma Colony embraced an ideology of woman’s morally superior nature, and used that ideology to expand woman’s “natural” sphere of influence. Point Loma’s emphasis on selfless service to others required a material base that freed women from the demands of narrow, isolated family units by providing communal childcare and kitchens, economic security, and access to education regardless of gender. This limited feminine commonwealth created a space for improvisation in which brotherhood was equated with sisterhood, fictive family bonds replaced blood ties, and childless mothers took the place of real ones.”

1993: Ellwood, Robert and Wessinger, Catherine: Women’s Leadership in Marginal Religions: Explorations Outside the Mainstream

1993: Hewes, Dorothy W.: Family Roles in America’s Utopian Communities from the 1820s to the 1920s. 25 pp. Paper presented at the Meeting of the International Standing Working Group for the History of Early Childhood Education (Sopron, Hungary, September 2, 1993).

1987: Little, Dwayne L.: Katherine Tingley: The Theosophist as Progressive Reformer, 1890–1929, faculty paper and lecture series, Point Loma Nazarene College, January 1987.

1981: Greenwalt, Emmett A.: City of glass, the theosophical invasion of Point Loma. Cabrillo Historical Association, San Diego.

1978, April 20, Gaudette, Merton: Katherine Tingley’s utopian vision in Pt. Loma. The little world that almost was; San Diego Reader.

1977: Clark, Thomas D.: Annie Besant’s Lecture Tour of San Diego, in: Journal of San Diego History (Spring, 1977, vol. 23, number 2).

1974: Harris, Iverson L.: Reminiscences of Lomaland: Madame Tingley and the Theosophical Institute in San Diego, in: Journal of San Diego History (Summer, 1974).

1973: Veysey, Laurence: The Communal Experience

1971, October 23: Harris, Iverson L.: An Interview with Iverson Harris, San Diego Historical Society, Oral History Program.

1955, Univ. of Arizona: Waterstone, Penny B.: Domesticating Universal Brotherhood: Feminine Values and the Construction of Utopia, Point Loma Homestead, Ph.D. dissertation.

1955, Berkeley: Greenwalt, Emmett A.: The Point Loma Community in California “The Theosophical Experiment”, 236 pp.
Contents: Theosophical roots — Spiritualism and the rise of Katherine Tingley — Crusade and cornerstone — Universal brotherhood — Building and defending the White City — The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children vs. Point Loma — Curbing the press : Katherine Tingley vs. the Los Angeles Times — City of Promise : the Raja Yoga experiment at Point Loma — Music, dance, and drama — Literature and philosophy — Archaeology and art — Agricultural Eden — Industrial paradise — Educating the world : Raja Yoga abroad — Reforming the world : prisons, vivisection, war — Katherine Tingley and the decline of Point Loma — Purucker and the end of Point Loma — Looking backward.
Reviews 1st ed.: 1. M. L. F. 1955; 2. Robert V. Hine 1955 in: Pacific Historical Review, 24, 19550801, 318; 3. Prof. John E. Baur in: Southern California Quarterly (1980) 62 (3): 295–297, https://doi.org/10.2307/41170891.
Peer Review: Alice F. Tyler in: The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 42, 195509, 349 (1955).
Reprints of the 1st 1955 ed.: 1. Kraus Reprint Company, Millwood, N. Y. 1977 – 236 pp.; 2. MS Press, New York 1979 (ISBN 0404600689), 3. Second & rev. ed. as “California Utopia, Point Loma 1897-1942”, Point Loma Publications, San Diego 1978, 243 pp.
Review 2nd ed. by Robert S. Fogarty, Editor, Antioch Review, and Associate Professor of History, Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio. “In this reissue additional details about Philip Malpas and Hugh Leonard are provided, but the book is essentially the same as the original 1955 version. Some important works, such as Laurence Veysey’s The Communal Experience (1973), might have helped in this reissue, but Greenwalt has chosen to overlook them. Some of the bibliographic notes have been updated, but most are the same. […] Greenwalt’s account remains the best account of the Point Loma venture. He understands their philosophy, conveys that understanding in clear and direct language, and tells a good story.

1953: Hine, Robert V.: California’s Utopian Colonies, New Haven.

1950: Branin, Jeanette: “The Great Purple Mother: Saint…or Pure Promoter?, in: San Diego Magazine (Oct. 1950).

1948: The Dialogues of G. de Purucker
Report of Sessions of the Katherine Tingley Memorial Group
Edited by ARTHUR L. CONGER, First ed. 1948, 2nd and Revised ed. 1997 TUP
“You understand of course, Companions, that when this Katherine Tingley Memorial Group was first formed, it was a child of my heart in memory, in commemoration, of the life-work of our blessed KT, the greatest esotericist of the three leaders and teachers who have preceded me — a greater esotericist than HPB, a greater esotericist than Mr. Judge. This Group began in a small way, and now the Group has become large.
Seeds of the noblest trees are usually small. My hope was that from this one seeding originally in your Point Loma joint Club-work, would grow a spiritual tree, whose branches would overspread the earth; and this is coming.
I have decided therefore to have a stenographic record made of these meetings, beginning with this evening, for the purpose of enabling Katherine Tingley Memorial Groups which are in process of formation in other parts of the world to receive these teachings, and thus be associated with us in thought.
This KT Memorial Group will grow to be the greatest men-catching net, I believe, that the world has seen in historic times. Spread your mystic nets! Cast them on the waters of life! It is a great and holy duty that we are involved in.”
– Gottfried de Purucker, Meeting of November 27, 1929.

1919: Whiting, Lilian: Katherine Tingley, theosophist and humanitarian. Aryan Theosophical Press, Point Loma. German: Whiting, Lilian: Katherine Tingley und ihr Râja-Yoga-System der Erziehung. Buchhandlung für Universale Bruderschaft und Theosophie, Nürnberg o. J. (ca. 1920).

1918: Sinclair, Upton: The Profits of Religion, Pasadena.

1908: Smythe, William: History of San Diego, 1542–1908, San Diego.

1907: Greusel, John Hubert: Purple Mother of Point Loma. A Visit to Katherine Tingley, New Head of Theosophists, at Her California Home – A Remarkable Woman. Say What You Will or Believe What You May. The Detroit Free Press, Sunday, May 19, 1907.

1907, Greusel, John Hubert: Katherine Tingley, Humanity’s Friend. A Visit to Katherine Tingley, San Franciso Chronicle, Jan. 6th, 1907. Reprint by The Woman’s Propaganda League, Point Loma. “Madame Katherine Tingley is now the head of the Theosophic movement throughout the world. I had heard so much of her and her work at Point Loma, that I was happy to have an opportunity to interview her in detail. I shall always recall pleasantly this remarkable woman. She has an eager, searching intellect, an open mind, and I believe is a born leader. After talking with her intimately for an hour and fifteen minutes, I left feeling that I had been in the presence of one of the world’s great women.” Reprint 2022 as eBook by McHale, Kyla.

1902: Sun Worshippers. Detroit Free Press, Sunday, November 16, 1902, p. 36.

1897: Crusade of the Theosophists (NY Times Jan. 25, 1897)

– Numerous articles in the San Diego Union, Evening Tribune, San Diegan-Sun, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times – remain to be found.

1889
– Postscript of H. P. Blavatsky in a letter to William Quan Judge: “Has your new chela turned up yet?”, in: Charles Ryan: H. P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Movement, p. 343 (p. 199 in the 2nd. and rev. ed. of 1975) and Emmett A. Greenwalt: The Point Loma Community in Califorina, 1955, p. 17.

1891, HPB’s bird’s eye view on the future TS and her true pupils
– “When H.P.B. died on May 8th, 1891, Mr. Judge was in New York and Mrs. Besant in mid-ocean on her homeward voyage. He left on the first steamer for England and on May 27 th called a conference of the Advisory Council of the Esoteric Section. The circular concerning this meeting states:

The American Concillors were represented by Bro. William Q. Judge, with full power, and Bro. Judge attended as the representative of H.P.B. under a general power as given below.

What that “general power” which made Mr. Judge H.P.B.’s representative was, is recorded in the following words when his occult status was made known publicly for the first time at the meeting of this Advisory Council:

ESOTERIC T.S. SECTION

As Head of the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society, I hereby declare that William Q. Judge of New York, U.S.A., in virtue of his character of a chela of thirteen years’ standing and of the trust and confidence reposed in him, is my only representative for said Section in America, and he is the sole channel through whom will be sent and received all communications between the members of said Section and myself, and to him full faith, confidence and credit in that regard are to be given. Done at London, this fourteenth day of December, 1888, and in the fourteenth year of the Theosophical Society. H.P. Blavatsky
(Seal) (quoted in Circular of May 27, 1891)

London, October 23d, 1889

…The Esoteric Section and its life in the U.S.A. depend upon W.Q.J. remaining its agent and what he now is. The day W.Q.J. resigns, H.P.B. will be virtually dead for the Americas. W.Q.J. is the Antaskarana between the two Manas (es), the American thought and the Indian, – – or rather the trans-Himalayan esoteric knowledge. Dixi. H.P.B.
P.S. W.Q.J. had better show and impress this on the mind of all those whom it may concern.

(Circular of August, 1893)

Naturally, therefore, the Council came to the following decisions, as recorded in the Circular of May 27, 1891, signed by all who attended the conference, viz. “Annie Besant, Alice Leighton Cleather, Isabel Cooper-Oakley, Laura M. Cooper, H.A.W. Coryn, Archibald Keightley, William Kingsland, Emily Kislingsbury, G.R.S. Mead, W.R. Old, E.T. Sturdy, Constance Wachtmeister, W. Wynn Westcott, Claude F. Wright and William Q. Judge, for the entire American Council E.S.T. and individually.” (Italics theirs):

59.

In virtue of our appointment by H.P.B. we declare:
That in full accord with the known wishes of H.P.B., the visible Head of the School, we primarily resolve and declare that the work of the School ought and shall be continued and carried on along the lines laid down by her, and with the matter left in writing or dictated by her before her departure.
That it was recorded that there was ample proof by witnesses, member of this School, that her last word in reference to the School and its work were: KEEP THE LINK UNBROKEN! DO NOT LET MY LAST INCARNATION BE A FAILURE.”
…………
That this Council records its decision that its appointment was solely for the purpose of assisting H.P.B. in a consultative way, and that as she had full power and authority to relieve us from duty at any time, our office and that of each of us ends with the above resolution passed in order as far as possible in our power to place the future conduct of the School on the basis directed and intended by her: therefore we collectively and individually declare that our office as Councillors ceases at this date, and that from henceforth with Annie Besant and William Q. Judge rest the full charge and management of this School. (Italics ours)

These facts, be it noted, Mrs. Besant well knew and for three years E.S. documents went out signed in their joint names. As a matter of fact this same Circular of May 27, 1891, contained an addendum so signed, containing these significant words:

Consider the position of the School: we are no longer a band of students taught by a visible Teacher; we are a band of students mutually interdependent forced to rely on each other for our usefulness and our progress, until our very brotherliness in mutual help shall draw a visible Teacher back among us. H.P.B. remains one of our heads though H.P. Blavatsky is “dead”, and the Heads of the School have not withdrawn, Their guidance in withdrawing the presence chosen to represent Them for a time on which we have rejoiced to lean.
Especially important is it that at the present juncture we should bear in mind the words of H.P.B. written at the conclusion of the Key to Theosophy (See Section “The Future of the Theosophical Society”, ps. 241-243, original edition, or reprint by Theosophy Company, Los Angeles………)
There, then, is our next pressing work, our most mighty responsibility. For if we of this School, Brothers and Sisters, cannot accomplish this task, the Theosophical Society is doomed………
…..We believe in H.P.B. and in the Masters, and it is enough for us that they say. “Go and carry on our work along the lines on which you have been instructed…”
…..For the use of all of us, there are written teachings left by H.P.B. in our hands that will give food for study and thought for many a year to come (Italics ours), and though the main duty of the Esotericist is service to others, and not personal advancement in knowledge, it is characteristic of her thought for us that behind her she left intellectual and spiritual food for the earnest student, as well as the charge to complete her unfinished work.

Under the heading “Yours till Death and after, H.P.B.” Mr. Judge wrote an article immediately after H.P.B.’s death which appeared in Lucifer, Vol. VIII, June, 1891, ps. 290-292 (afterward republished in “H.P.B. In Memory of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky by Some of Her Pupils”, ps. 26-28) that contained certain words she had written

60.

to him as far back as 1888. The reader’s attention is especially called to the significant fact that H.P.B. penned these words in 1888 and that Mr. Judge published them immediately after her death, reprinting the in The Path, January, 1892, long before any troubles arose. Both the writing by H.P.B. and the publication and republication by Mr. Judge clearly show how accurate was the vision in connection with the breaking up of the Theosophical Society. He says on p. 291, Lucifer, and on p. 27 of that Memorial Book:

In 1888 she wrote to me privately:-
Well, my only friend, you ought to know better. Look into my life and try to realize it – in its outer course at least, as the rest is hidden. I am under the curse of ever writing, as the wandering Jew was under that of being ever on the move, never stopping one moment to rest. Three ordinary healthy persons could hardly do what I have to do. I live an artificial life: I am an automaton running full steam until the power of generating steam stops, and then – – good-bye!
*** Night before last I was shown a bird’s eye view of the Theosophical Societies. I saw a few earnest reliable Theosophists in a death struggle with the world in general, with other – – nominal but ambitious – – Theosophists. The former are greater in numbers than you may think, and they prevailed, as you in America will prevail, if you only remain staunch to the Master’s programme and true to yourselves. And last night I saw *** and now I feel strong – – such as I am in my body – and ready to fight for Theosophy and the few true ones to my last breath. The defending forces have to be judiciously – – so scanty they are – – distributed over the globe, wherever Theosophy is struggling against the powers of darkness.

In reprinting the words in The Path, January, 1892, he added a quotation from that important last section of The Key to Theosophy and then said:
In the first quotation there is a prophecy that those few reliable theosophists who are engaged in a struggle with the opposition of the world and that coming from weak or ambitious members will prevail, but it has annexed to it a condition that is of importance. There must be an adherence to the program of the Masters. That can only be ascertained by consulting her and the letters given out by her as from those to whom she refers……..
We must follow this program and supply the world with a system of philosophy which gives a sure and logical basis for ethics, and that can only be gotten from those to whom I have adverted; there is no basis for morals in phenomena, because a man might learn to do the most wonderful things by the aid of occult forces and yet at the same time be the very worst of men.
A subsidiary condition, but quite as important as the other, is laid down by H.P.B. in her words that we must “remain true to ourselves”. This means true to our better selves and the dictates of conscience. We cannot promulgate the doctrines and the rules of life found in theosophy and at the same time ourselves not live up to them as far as possible. We must practice what we preach, and make as far as can a small brotherhood within the Theosophical Society. (Italics ours)”

• Margaret Thomas: Theosophy Versus Neo-Theosophy – Start page.
  

Comm.: From the foregoing three points are clear:
1. That HPB appointed Judge as her successor as Outer Head, he just wasn’t allowed to make it public for certain reasons.
2. That a system of philosophy had to be worked out, not phenomena in the material world, the direction that fatally took Besant and Leadbater. Cp. Tingley’s plan to involve a private association of German philosophers in Erlangen in 1925 (see below).
3. That words and deeds must form a unit.

1893
– KT met William Quan Judge
– After the first Parliament of World Religions in Chicago from Sept. 11-27, Annie Besant let Chakravarti magnetize her. Masters warned in several letters precipitated by Judge before and during this turning point. Besant ignored the warnings and accused him, her teacher, of forging the Mahatma letters. Resulted in the order of the masters to split the TS in 1985, the premature death of Judge in 1896, the autocratic reorganisation of the healthy parts by Tingley and the known Mahatma letter of 1900 or the “Cant Letter” to Besant with further warnings about superstition, clairvoyance and excessive secrecy, which she also ignored, just as before.

1894
– “For myself, I may say that as early as June, 1894, Mr. Judge told me of the standing of the present Outer Head in the school, and spoke of her work at that time and for the future. I am one among several to whom he so spoke himself. Of his appointment of the present Outer Head there is absolutely no doubt; and there is also no doubt of her entire ability to fill that appointment; or of her right to it; or that it came from and was directed by the Master…”

• Julia Keightley (pen name Jasper Niemand) on Mrs. Tingley, in: The Search Light (New York), Volume I, May 1898, p. 30, quoted by Blavatsky Archives.

1895
– Of the several warning letters from the Masters one letter of Mahatma Morya, addressed to Besant, Judge’s chela on probation, was published in the Lucifer magazine of June 1895, p. 345 (then edited by Annie Besant and G.R.S. Mead) and was denounced as “fraudulent” – the result of her greed for power and the consequences of magnetizing:
“The fraudulent messages ascribed to Mahatmas reached their culminating point in the following letter:
“You have faithfully worked for us by aiding the T . S. and often wondering if we really exist. That we do yofl should know from intuition alone, as phenomena cannot prove it. But a crisis has now come, foreseen by us, the importance of which you do not know. It demands judgment, not sentiment; intuition, not reason, and a firm support of the cause. The T. S. is in such a condition that there is no hope, save in America. It has at last become a danger, menacing the real theosophical movement, instead of a help to the cause. The duty of the American group is cut off from the diseased parts (sic) so that itself can live.
If that is not done a few more years full of strife will come to a closc in ruins— the work of twenty years ruined through ambition, aided by sentimentality, exercised at the wrong time. Reflect then before you set an organisation above our great cause. Much is expected of you. The destroyers of Theosophy have used their year of probation in increasing and extending unbrotherly acts and thoughts, and have ruined much. No longer temporise, but act. A wide and noble future lies before those who shall aid us by aiding our real move ment, the salvation of the human race.”
– Bold type added by theoarchive; these warning letters are in the Adyar archives and are not published even after over 130 years.

Besant and Mead attacked Judge of having faked the Mahatma Letters to her, the same attacks that Blavatsky had before. Mead himself broke up in 1906 with Besant because of the Leadbeater pedophile affair. Gottfried de Purucker however confirmed, that the split of the TS was ordered by the Masters and that Judge remained true and loyal to Them: “In our own theosophical movement, comprising all these various Theosophical Societies today, the break-up into these various Societies was deliberately engineered. Why? Because the teachers knew that if certain ones were not called out, called apart — I mean certain ones who could be depended upon — they would be swallowed up, lost, in the welter of religious and psychical superstition which had already begun to invade the theosophical movement before Judge died. Do you understand me?”

• Gottfried de Purucker, KTMG Papers: Eighteen Meeting of August 12, 1930.
  

– Bold type added by theoarchive. The Leadbeater affair continues to be denied or swept under the rug.

– April 28, 1895: Judge (and Tingley still in the background) cut off on Masters order the American section from the diseased Adyar part. Convention resolution passed with over 90% approval. Reorganisation as “The Theosophical Society in America” (TSA).

– “One of the more interesting and important episodes in Theosophical history was the conflict that grew between the two Outer Heads of the Eastern School of Theosophy – William Q. Judge and Annie Besant – in the mid-1890s. The main reason for this conflict was the public accusation that Judge was forging letters allegedly written by the Masters or Mahatmas. This allegation of Judge’s dishonesty led to a resolution brought before the convention of the T.S. in Adyar by Mrs. Besant in December 1894, demanding that Judge resign his vice-presidency of the T.S. Instead, the American Section Convention declared in April 1895 its autonomy from the Adyar administration (i.e. Olcott) and appointed Judge president for life of the “Theosophical Society in America.” This whole episode is treated at some length in Brett Forray’s article.
Although it is important for the historian to establish the validity of the arguments raised by either party, admittedly no easy task, what is more important vis-à-vis Mr. Forray’s article was Judge’s persistent conviction that he was in communication with the Masters during the earliest years of The Theosophical Society. This claim and other revelations, among which included Judge’s practice of the occult or magical sciences as revealed in his lecture of 1876 (Theosophical History, vol. IX, no. 3 [July 2003]), his conviction that his body was in the possession of a Hindu sage—this inner self he identified as “Rajah”—and his mention of undergoing past incarnations in India, establish him as no ordinary administrator within the Society but rather an individual who helped to articulate and to develop an interpretation of Theosophical esotericism.
In some regards, Judge was to Blavatsky what Sariputta was to the Buddha: an extremely learned and articulate interpreter and propagandist of Blavatsky’s teachings and one who helped define the boundaries of Theosophy. In this role, Judge exhibited high expectations for some selected members within The Theosophical Society to advance the Theosophical cause.”
– Quotation from the editor’s comment of Prof. James Santucci to: Forray, Brett: William Quan Judge’s and Annie Besant’s Views of Brahmin Theosophists, in: Theosophical History, Volume X, No. 1 January 2004.

1896
– March: Elected new head of The Theosophical Society after William Quan Judge.
– April: At the Annual Convention in Madison Square Garden, New York, revealed plans for an education center and a mystery school in the West.
– Closed nearly all local lodges as they were drifting away in psychism, phenomena, superstition, clairvoyance.
– June: Announced and launched a World Crusade for Theosophy, which began on June, 6th, 1896. Toured through the USA, Europe and India.
“In June 1896, Katherine Tingley set forth with a group of students on a lecture tour throughout the world, the first of many journeys. Her entire theosophical teaching was directed to the preservation of the philosophy as given by the Masters through H. P. Blavatsky. She protested against wanderings from the plainly defined theosophical course, either into identification with ecclesiasticism in any form or into the promotion of psychic, yoga, or other so-called occult practices, or other such side issues.”
– Charles Ryan: H. P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Movement, online ed., ch. 23.
– Met Gottfried von [later: de] Purucker in Switzerland, who draw her a sketch of the Point Loma property to be brought for the new center.
– Collected mystical stones in Bavaria and Austria together with Dr. Franz Hartmann for the new center.
– “One day in Dublin, shortly before my return to New York, Katherine Tingley gave me a roughly drawn sketch of San Diego Harbor, and Point Loma, California, on which she had made an arrow-mark, where she said the great “Seat of Learning”, of which Mr. Judge spoke in an E.S. communication, dated November 3rd, 1894, was to be established, and a Temple erected, as well as homes for a number of faithful members.”
– Some Reminiscences of William Q. Judge by Emil August Neresheimer
– organizing Peace Congresses in various countries up to 1914

1897
– On January 24, 1897, Edward R. Rambo and C.A. Griscom, Jr., purchased 120 acres of land on Point Loma of 132 acres (534.000 sqm) three miles north of the lighthouse.

Photo: Public domain.

1898
– “In mid-January, 1898, about a month before the convention, she called in ten influential members who had shown no signs of wavering, and revealed the constitution in its entirety. It was received, as she had hoped, in a devotional spirit. “Never shall I forget the solemnity of that night … ,” wrote Fussell, one of the faithful. “Although the Constitution of the Universal Brotherhood may appear ironbound, yet all who know our Leader will realize that her one desire is to give freedom to all and to aid the progress of the work.”⁸

Ironbound it was, with Katherine Tingley’s name written into it as “Leader and Official Head” for life. Once accepted by the convention, hers alone would be the power of appointing or removing officers of the Society, or approving the bylaws of the lodges. The constitution might be amended by a two-thirds vote of a congress only if the leader approved the amendment, and, indeed, only if she called the congress.

Even the name of the Society was changed. It now read “The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society.” Although apologists for the change argued that the historic title was intact except that it followed “Universal Brotherhood,” the switch meant a subordination much more radical than that. A subsidiary constitution applied the term “Theosophical Society” to a lesser organization whose functions were limited to publishing theosophical literature and building up a library.⁹

Although Katherine Tingley was careful not to provide ammunition to her foes by releasing the constitution for their perusal, she was nevertheless faced with the problem of acquainting enough influential delegates with the document to give it the best chance of passing on the floor of the convention. Since delegates were already arriving in Chicago for the annual affair, she was able to select another group of those worthy of previewing the document. How well she selected them can be seen by the reaction of one of their number, Dr. Jerome Anderson of San Francisco, about whom Fussell wrote:

… He became speechless when he realized the glorious work that had now taken birth-his eyes filled with tears, the tears of a strong man who feels the joy of the
realization of his highest hopes, that it should be possible after 21 years of the toil and work of H. P. B. and W. Q. J. [Blavatsky and Judge] at last to have an organi-
zation which they strove for and which would protect the work for which they gave their lives.¹⁰

⁸ “J. H. Fussell’s Statement,” Searchlight, I (April, 1898), 6.
⁹ “Preamble and Constitution,” New Century, I (March 5, 1898), 8; “Constitution of Theosophical Society in America,” ibid., p. 15.
¹⁰ Searchlight, I (April, 1898), 7. Anderson had recently attracted theosophical notice by writing Septenary Man, or The Microcosm (San Francisco, 1895).
– Emmett A. Greenwalt: The Point Loma Community in Califorina, 1955, pp. 38-39.

– KT was elected as head for life by 5,000 delegates in Boston Convention with the right to appoint her successor. Largest gathering of esotericists in recorded history. Autocracy as reaction of Jesuit plans to infiltrate and neutralize the TS.
– Integrated the TS into the new umbrella organization “Universal Brotherhood” and renamed to “The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society” (UBTS).

– Hargrove’s ES

I do not know if Julia Keightley was the OH – as far as I know, his/her identity was not disclosed. But I can provide a little background on
Hargrove’s ES.

Following the death of W.Q. Judge on March 21, 1896, Ernest Temple Hargrove appeared to lead the campaign to bring Katherine Tingley in as his successor, but shortly afterwards broke with Tingley, and resigned as President of the Theosophical Society in America in 1898, and led a breakaway of some two hundred members from the Society which Mrs Tingley then headed.

The Society which Hargrove established, and then led, had its own ES, and he wrote to Mrs Tingley telling her by Order of the master you have ceased to be the outer Head of the E.S.T. in the interior and true sense. The Outer Head to follow you has already been appointed by the Master.

In 1908 this Society became The Theosophical Society with Its Headquarters Based in New York, and published “The Theosophical Forum” and “The Theosophical Quarterly”. The Society remained active until it underwent indrawal in 1935.

The ES was administered from December, 1898, by a Reference Committee consisting of A.P. Buchman, J.D. Buck, George Coffin, C.A. Griscom [Cave], Charles Johnston, Archibald Keightley and William Ludlow. The identity of the OH was never made known to the members, although ES documents prepared by him or her were distributed to them. These included Aids and Suggestions (following the 7 papers previously issued by Judge) and Subsidiary Paper D (follow Judges Subsidiary Papers A, B and C).

In September, 1900, the Reference Committee proposed four courses of study for members: The First Course provided a comprehensive knowledge of Theosophical philosophy by means of studying the exoteric Theosophic works in the light of E.S.T. Instructions 1, 2 and 3. The Second Course taught a more advanced philosophy based upon The Secret Doctrine and other metaphysical work with the study being based upon the E.S.T. Aids and Suggestions. The Third Course will use Instructions 4, 5 and 6 of the E.T.S. plus other papers to be issued to the School plus some unpublished letters of the Master K.H. The emphasis in this course was to the above with the Upanishads, Veda, Puranas, Bible and other sacred texts. The fourth Course was to be based upon the devotional side of Theosophy and
was to study Light on the Path, The Voice of the Silence, Letters That Have Helped Me, Through the Gates of Gold and other devotional
texts. This course was intended to lead to the development of the Inner Man.

An examining Board sent examination papers to members, and assessed the results.

At the Theosophical Society Convention held on April 30, 1905, it was reported that the School had moved from the phase of Instruction under HPB and WQJ to that of Discipline under the present OH. The School appears to have followed the Society into its period of indrawal in 1935.

• Dr Gregory Tillett, Email of Nov. 1, 2006 in the Theosophy.io group. Additional comment by Ken Small: “Actually John Cooper told me that Mrs. Griscom was their ES Head. He also identified her as the writer who used the pseudonym “Cavé” in the small booklets entitled ‘Fragments’. One can see this name used in ‘The Theosophical Quarterly’.”
  

1899
– April 13, at the Congress HPB’s plan for a “Great School of Learning”, which she mentioned in a letter to William Quan Judge, was made public and the foundation of the “School for the Revival of the Lost Mysteries of Antiquity (SRLMA)” declared.
– Built the three-story sanitarium with Dr. Lorin Wodd, capped with an enormous aquamarine glass dome, forming a rotunda nearly a hundred feet in diameter and eighty-five feet in height. From the corners of the building rose three additional brilliantly colored domes.
– Built the Aryan Memorial Temple, later, it was rededicated as the Temple of Peace. Glistening white, the circular building reached skyward in two tiers, and was magnificently topped by a voluminous dome of amethyst-tinted glass (today a parking lot). From across the bay, and to the citizens of San Diego, Point Loma began to look more and more like a colony from another planet. At night, from out at sea, the illuminated spires were beacons far more eye-catching than the government’s lighthouse.
– Built the first Greek theater in the U.S. (still exists, but dilapidated).
– Other buildings went up in rapid succession, and within a year the place was a major tourist attraction. It became almost customary for guests at the Hotel Del Coronado to take the tour, complete with Theosophical guides, of the Lomaland complex. Later, a bus tour was added.

1900
– On February 13, 1900, Tingley moved The Theosophical Society’s headquarters from New York City to Point Loma.
– Master K.H. writes the last known lettter, known as the “Cant Letter”. Addessed to Annie Besant, a chela on probation to William Quan Judge, who has turned hostile against her teacher. The Master warned Besant about the “cant about Masters” and a new superstition about greed for psychic powers.

1901
– KT starts her Raja Yoga School, unsectarian, no theosophical doctrines taught, in its heyday up to 500 pupils (Neresheimer).
– KT started theosophical children education in unsectarian and non-contentious Lotus Groups, beginning with 50 “Lotus buds”, each Sunday at 1125 Sixth Street, San Diego. Boys in one group, girls in another, to “learn about nature, music, and rhythmic motion.” Long before Dr. Rudolf Steiner’s Waldorf schools and anthroposophical Eurythmy.

1902
– Bought the Fisher Opera House in San Diego, renamed it Isis Theater for public theosophical lectures and events. Demolished in 1928.

1904
– Ken Small comments at theosophy.io on Nov. 1, 2006:
“About Crosbie leaving Point Loma
I did find last year and passed on to a few ‘ULT associates’ some documentation Iverson Harris put together about Crosbie leaving
Point Loma. (now of course it is packed away in my ‘attic’ and I cannot immediately access it as like yourself I DO need to have some
space to walk between while working on different studies and projects….and sorry to say ULT history is hardly my favorite exciting passtime !) If I remember correctly the results were quite mundane.
Crosbie was having monetary difficulties and was one of the very few at Point Loma who received a small monetary stipend for the work he did. This was not sufficient for the needs of he, his wife and very young child, so he elected to leave. This Crosbie had already decided and when Tingley found out she wished he would stay, but did not attempt to change his mind. It is quite probable that all the stories about a conflict between Tingley and Crosbie evolved AFTER Crosbie initiated the ULT, though even in this I have never seen anything written from Tingley or any Point Loma Theosophist at the time nor even heard anything anecdotal said about Robert Crosbie! From the Point Loma side as far as I know, nothing was even written or said when the ULT published “The Theosophical Movement: 1875 -1925″ which contains much that is factually incorrect regarding Point Loma and the Judge-Tingely-Crosbie history. (Daniel having posted the documents for all to view certainly helps clarify this historical era )… now with the history clarified it would really be a step forward if the ‘ULT-Theosophy Company’ would really withdraw and re-write their embarrassing so-called ‘history’ which only makes them look backward, cultish and ignorant!”

1912
– KT gave artist Maurice Braun studio space in the Isis Theater, where he founded the San Diego Academy of Art in 1912.

1913
– KT organized an International Peace Congress, which was held on a Swedish island where she owned property. The congress attracted hundreds of people – not just Theosophists, but statesmen and members of royal families from throughout Europe. 

1914
– The lomalanders began to prepare for a Parliament of Peace and Universal Brotherhood. It was to be held at Point Loma the following year, but war broke out in Europe and shattered the plan. 

1922 
– Met Rudolf Steiner, founder of the Anthroposophical Society, in Germany and proposed that the two groups merge. Tingley’s stroke later that year and Steiner’s death in 1925 precluded this potential merger. (speculation, needs to be verified)

1923

Photo: Public domain.

1925
– Bought a large former school building in Erlangen, Germany, to establish a new Raja Yoga School and Academy, suggested cooperation of all theosophical lineages including anthroposophists and launch a central library for future research. The project failed because of the universal rejection of the German groups.

1929
– Serious injuries by a car accident near Osnabrück at the German-Dutch border. Was transferred to the center in Visingsö for care, but died shortly thereafter. Before her departure to Europe she slipped off her occult ring from the finger in the presence of her secretary Elsie Savage (later Benjamin). She ordered her to take good care of the ring and hand it out to her succcesor. Elsie Savage was surprised and asked why she does that. KT’s simply reply was: “Because I do not come back.” (oral information by Elsie Benjamin to Berlin theosophists)

The End of the Point Loma Project

1942
– Tingley’s successor as OH and leader Gottfried de Purucker (who changed his aristocratic name suffix “von” into “de” during the anti-German war propaganda in World War I) moved the community from Point Loma to Covina because of the military base. He warned several times against the wildfires of which he had visions, as his secretary Elsie Benjamin reported orally.

1950
– Colonel Arthur L. Conger contested William Hartley’s position as successor to de Purucker. Conger dies soon and James A. Long moved the community from Covina to Pasadena and Altadena. Hartley saw the TS heading in the wrong direction and emigrated to the Netherlands, re-establishing the Point Loma TS in The Hague, where it is located until today.
Long closed all lodges and sold all properties as the Point Loma school in Vinsingsö, Sweden, and kicked out the most active and most diligent residents such as Boris de Zirkoff, W. Emmett & Carmen Small, Iverson & Helen Harris, Gordon Plummer, Jan Venema, Helen Todd etc, according to Emmett Small’s “News Bulletin” of 1951-1952, of which appeared around six issue (never reprinted). Without money, job, home!
Long said he “did not want them to create more bad karma for themselves” (because they were antagonistic to him, and the way he took over the Society.) Long named his theosophical opponents, who wanted to hold the TS on the original, vital and open minded lines, as OMECS (an acronym for approximately “Other Members with Erratic and Confused Sights”).

Cancellations of Point Loma-Covina T.S. Membership by James A. Long

Holland: Jan E. Venema

Sweden: Mrs. Klara Kirsebom

U.S.A.:
Boris de Zirkoff
Mrs. Helen Harris
W. Emmett Small

RESIGNATIONS FROM T.S. “BIN C, PASADENA”

U.S.A.:
H.L. Merry, Covina, California
Dorothea J. King, San Diego, California.
Lester A. Todd, San Francisco, California
Helen K. Todd, San Francisco, California
Anthony W. Shore, Desert Hot Springs, California
Jalie Neville Shore, Desert Hot Springs, California
Dora Grace Heck, Los Angeles, California
Iverson L. Harris, San Gabriel, California
Sven Hildor Barton, Topanga, California
Marguerite A. Barton, Topanga, California
Ethel Green Small, San Diego, California
Carmen E. Small, San Diego, California
L. Gordon Plummer, San Diego, California
Rose Lloyd, Burbank, California
Bess R. Neeper, San Diego, California
Florence Collisson, San Diego, California
Helen H. Laird, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Inez H. Van Assche, Santa Barbera, California
Nancy Lewson Browning, Los Angeles, California
Audree Dreher, Shernan Oaks, California
H. van Wingen, Jr., Pasadena, California
Zarah M. Bickford, Hollywood, California
Vahdah Olcott Bickford, Hollywood, California
Ola L. Corkham, Wichita, Kansas
Alma B. Mills, Pasadena, California
Katherine G. Heck, San Diego, California
Gertrude Fisk, Petaluma, California
Helen Peoples, Petaluma, California
Anna Voris, Petaluma, California
Foster L. Griffiths, San Diego, California 
Mary M. Griffiths, San Diego, California

Sweden: Maja Waerland Synge

Holland: (list not yet received: see Extracts from Correspondence)

Germany: the following members of the former Nuremberg Lodge:

Hedwig Geer – Georg Gomnel – Georg Schmidt
Ludwig Schäfer – Arthur Wehner
Margarete Kraus – Charlotte Koch
Werner Koch – Anna Nelkenbrecher
Berta Fröhlich – Karl Hafner – Hans Kramer
Lydia Blum – Georg Blum – Ludwig Seboldt
Ingrid Gürtler – Inge Schlagbauer
Alois Heidrich – Wilhelmine Heidrich
Konrad Wening – Elisabeth Wening
Hans Geer – Dora Grasser – Adolf Hänfling
Georg Wöllner – Engelbert Fergg
Hilde Geer – Ferdinand Renner
Margarete Lammermann – Robert Sauer
Alfred Dratschmidt – Arthur Löffler
Otto Leidenberger – Marie Zeltner
Hans Kauz – Betty Landshuter
Arthur Koschate – Emma Böcklein
Thomas Pesoldt – Else Kadner
Willi Bochlein – Klaus Geer
Elisabeth Spatz – Herrmann Spatz
Rudolf Stiegler – Leonhard Kraus
Hans Gräser – Karl Koppl
Hedwig Reder – Andreas Pommer
– News Bulletin No. 2, W. E. Small, 1951

Ken Small comments at theosophy.io on Nov. 1, 2006: “Regarding Point Loma esoteric groups. Regarding the Esoteric Section with its three degrees under de Purucker:

Though Col. Arthur Conger is alleged to have written the letter closing it and it is typed by someone and has his signature. It was written less than a couple of weeks before his death when he could neither speak nor sign his name from the effects of severe Parkinson’s (so the question is who actually wrote this letter ?…..)and also did he or others have any authority to do so ? Certainly from the point of view of the respective secretaries and officers of the three groups appointed by dePurucker, Boris de Zirkoff, Henry T. Edge, W. Emmett Small and Helen Harris, Col. Conger did not have any such authority nor did James Long, as these individuals were entrusted with their responsibilities by de Purucker. So now so many years later it can be said truthfully that these original Point Loma esoteric groups did not close then, but paradoxically continued though not explicitly as a formal organization…

Regarding other esoteric groups from the lineage that went from Conger to William Hartley and then in Holland to D.J.P. Kok and now to Herman Vermeulen or in Germany from Hartley to Hermann Knobloch to Ms. Ackermann I do not know directly if they have any Esoteric groups, but I would say it is unlikely. They do consider themselves to be ‘esoteric lineages’ going back through Point Loma to Blavatsky but I have not heard that they have any formal esoteric or secret groups or teachings.”

Comm.: The current status of organized Theosophy is unclear – whether Theosophy has become part of the solution or of the problem. Theosophists of all lineages have failed to provide an answer regarding Coronoia or the Epstein-Gates-Convid. Only the Anthroposophists report on the plandemic and also give a voice to critics like Dr. Tom Cowan or Dr. Stefan Lanka, who question the real existence of disease-causing viruses. Meanwhile theosophists believe in the covid virus, because the fake science allegedly has detected its genome sequences. In reality these dugpas have fabricated them only with the software Megahit and Trinity, without ever having had original, purified material. Flight from reason and flight from reality.

The Theosophists of 2020 fail to understand the recent problems, deny them in worshipping the dogmas of science (scientism). And that at least since 1984, the Orwell year, in which AIDS (and soon later in 1987 also HIV) became the first global medicine dogma, which no doctor or biologist must question (as The Perth Group in Australia has documented). At the present time only the Anthroposophists succeed with schools and open debate to religious as well as scientific dogmas and fulfill with that the goals that HPB has set. In theosophical circles the debate space that HPB exemplified is replaced by blind believe in scientism and trust in their alleged good karma, because they possess a membership card and therefore supposedly receive an initiation as a gift from the masters. That is much better than the idea of lengthy studies.

Some Adyar E.S. members even claim that Theosophists are forbidden to think and that thinking brings bad karma. So better “trust the science” for good karma! The Theosophists started for reformation of dogmas and grievances, bute today they need a reformation forthemselves. The same procedure as every 2,000 years, James.

Katherine Tingley
Theosophical University Press (TUP)

Katherine Tingley and Point Loma
Theosophy Northwest

K. Tingley
The Theosophical Society Point Loma (TSPL), Blavatskyhouse

Kenneth Small: Katherine Augusta (Westcott) Tingley
World Religions And Spirituality Project (WRSP)

Banyan Tree, The 
Theos. Resource library, archive and bookstore by Kenneth Small (Point Loma Publ. archives). Re-blogged from us: The Banyan Tree.

Katherine Tingley
Theosophy Wiki

Tingley, Katherine Augusta
Theosophy World

Katherine Tingley: The Purple Mother
History of Massachusetts Blog

Katherine Tingley & Lomaland
Wikipedia

Maurice Braun Gallery

Katherine Tingley: Theosophical center Visingsö
Grenna Museum

In ascending chronological order

Katherine Tingleys 1896-97 World Crusade (compiled from Theosophy magazine).

The Mysteries of the Heart Doctrine (ATP 1902, TSPL scan)

The Life At Point Loma, Los Angeles Saturday Post, December, 1902. Reprinted ATP 1908, 86 pp.

In the Supreme Court of the State of California. Katherine Tingley, Plaintiff and Respondent, Vs. Times-Mirror Company, a Corporation, Defendant and Appellant; Appeal for Superior Court of San Diego County, E. S. Torrance, Judge, Transcript on Appeal, [San Diego, 1904]. vi, 928 pp. Reprint by Forgotten Books 2018.

Theosophical Manuals – Katherine Tingley Series (ATP 1907-1920’ies, some revised), 8 out of 18 booklets. Reprint by Scott J. Osterhage (of all 18 booklets 2024 in two volumes as Introductory Guide to Theosophy: Theosophical Manuals under Katherine Tingley, 529 pp.

The Pith and Marrow of Some Sacred Writings: Druidism and Its Connection with Ireland, 1908.

Some Of The Vital Problems Of The Age From A Theosophical Standpoint. Address in the Grand Hall, The Copley-Plaza, Sept. 17, 1913. Flyer, 4 pp.

A Nosegay of Everlastings (ATP 1914)

To Abolish Capital Punishment. A Plea to the Citizens of Every Country. Extracts from Addresses by KATHERINE TINGLEY, Leader of the Theosophical Movement Throughout the World. Men’s and Women’s International Theosophical Leagues of Humanity, Point Loma, 30+2 pp, n.d. [1914].

Theosophy and Some of the Vital Problems of the Day (ATP 1915)

The Mystical Christ (not found, c. 1920)

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky: Foundress of the Original Theosophical Society in New York, 1875, the International Headquarters of Which are Now at Point Loma, California. (ATP 1921). German: Helena Petrowna Blavatsky – Ein Genius verändert die Welt, Verlag Esoterische Philosophie 1992, 326 pp., 2nd. ed. 2000.

Katherine Tingley on marriage and the home: an interview with the theosophical leader (TPCo. 1921), reprint 2018 and 2023.

Theosophy: the Path of the Mystic (ATP 1922, 3rd & rev. ed. TUP 1977), TSPL scan of the 2nd. ed. 1922

The Wine of Life (ATP 1925, 2nd & rev. ed. TUP 1996), TSPL scan of the original edition 1925

The Gods Await (ATP 1926, 186 pp., 2nd rev. ed. TUP 1992), TSPL scan of the original ed. 1926, German: Die Götter warten (TV 1995), German audio book

The Travail of the Soul (ATP 1927, TSPL scan)

The Voice of the Soul (ATP 1928, TSPL scan)

The Wisdom of the Heart (Point Loma Publications, 1978), TSPL scan, compilation of various extracts by W. Emmett Small

The Splendor of the Soul (TUP 1996, collection and rev. of material of 1927/28)

Gems from Katherine Tingley: A Birthday Book of Precepts and Axioms, compilation by Scott J. Osterhage, excerpts from “The Pith and Marrow of Some Sacred Writings” (1908) and “A Nosegay of Everlastings” (1914), 388 pp.

1916, San Diego Exposition Weekly: Katherine Tingley And Senior Girls Of The Raja Yoga College Near San Diego (excerpt)

Full movie:

Social worker and Theosophist, Katherine Tingley and seniors of the Raja Yoga College are featured (14:55). The first American based Greek theater is dedicated in 1916. It would be erected in Point Loma (15:15).

1919: Film with aerial footage from an airplane; not found.

August 15, 2011, TS Point Loma: Katherine Tingley’s and Gottfried de Purucker’s special task in the Lodge of Compassion
Johanna Vermeulen: “Point Loma: Retrospective on History and Meaning for Today” Full movie

March 14, 2017, Theosophy Cardiff: Elementary Theosophy (Complete) by A Student of Katherine Tingley
Published in 1907 – read by Dave Marsland of Cardiff Theosophical Society.

March 14, 2017, Theosophy Cardiff: Theosophy: Self Knowledge, The Key by Katherine Tingley
An extract of “The Wine of Life”, published in 1925, read by Dave Marsland of Cardiff Theosophical Society. “The Wine of Life” is a compilation of public addresses delivered by Katherine Tingley in the USA & Europe in 1923 & 1924.

March 15, 2017, Theosophy Cardiff: Theosophy: The Brightness Beyond Death by Katherine Tingley
An extract of “The Wine of Life”, published in 1925, read by Dave Marsland of Cardiff Theosophical Society. “The Wine of Life” is a compilation of public addresses delivered by Katherine Tingley in the USA & Europe in 1923 & 1924.

March 16, 2017, Theosophy Cardiff: Theosophy: Towards the Great Peace by Katherine Tingley
An extract of “The Wine of Life”, published in 1925, read by Dave Marsland of Cardiff Theosophical Society. “The Wine of Life” is a compilation of public addresses delivered by Katherine Tingley in the USA & Europe in 1923 & 1924.

July 23, 2020, Theosophy Wales: Theosophy: The Duality of Man’s Nature by Katherine Tingley
Read by Dave Marsland of Cardiff Theosophical Society.

July 28, 2020, Theosophy Wales: Theosophy: The Individual’s Two Companions by Katherine Tingley
Read by Dave Marsland of Cardiff Theosophical Society.

July 28, 2020, Theosophy Wales: Theosophy:- Self Study and Self Control by Katherine Tingley
Read by Dave Marsland of Cardiff Theosophical Society.

July 29, 2020, Theosophy Wales: Theosophy: The Vortex of Human Life by Katherine Tingley
Read by Dave Marsland of Cardiff Theosophical Society.

Oct. 13, 2020, Theosophy Wales: THOUGHTS ON REINCARNATION:- The Message of Silent Nature by Katherine Tingley
Read by Dave Marsland of Cardiff Theosophical Society.

Oct. 14, 2020, Theosophy Wales: THOUGHTS ON REINCARNATION:- The Limitation of One Earth Life by Katherine Tingley
Read by Dave Marsland of Cardiff Theosophical Society.

Oct. 14, 2020, Theosophy Wales: THOUGHTS ON REINCARNATION:- Reincarnation the Key by Katherine Tingley
Read by Dave Marsland of Cardiff Theosophical Society.

Oct. 15, 2020, Theosophy Wales: THOUGHTS ON REINCARNATION:- We Know that We are Deathless by Katherine Tingley
Read by Dave Marsland of Cardiff Theosophical Society.

Oct. 16, 2020, Theosophy Wales: THOUGHTS ON REINCARNATION:- Vast Possibilities and Endless Opportunities by Katherine Tingley
Read by Dave Marsland of Cardiff Theosophical Society.

Oct. 17, 2020, Theosophy Wales: THOUGHTS ON REINCARNATION:- Passing into World of Light by Katherine Tingley
Read by Dave Marsland of Cardiff Theosophical Society.

Oct, 26, 2020, Theosophy Wales: The Open Doors of Silence by Katherine Tingley
Read by Dave Marsland of Cardiff Theosophical Society.

Oct, 27, 2020, Theosophy Wales: Imagination; A Liberating Power by Katherine Tingley
Read by Dave Marsland of Cardiff Theosophical Society.

Oct. 10, 2025, CBS 8 San Diego: Author explores Point Loma’s Madame Tingley
A local author, Jill Hall, who grew up in Point Loma, sets the record straight about the mysterious stories of Madame Kathrine Tingley and her famed Lomaland.

Photo: theoarchive.com

Second Tingley-related German magazine “Leaves for Universal Brotherhood” (Blätter für Universale Bruderschaft), vol. 1, no. 1, Nuremberg (Nürnberg), March 13, 1902, by Mr J. Th. Heller; first number was hand-written (printed from no. 2 onwards).

The first Tingley-related German magazine was “News” (Nachrichten) from 1896 onwards, edited by Dr. Franz Hartmann, who served as President for Tingley’s reorganized “Theosophical Society in Europe” (T.S.E.), but only for one year. In 1897 he stepped back und launched his own Theosophical Society in Munich, allegedly “by order of the Masters”. He named it “International Theosophical Fraternization” (“Internationale Theosophische Verbrüderung”, I.T.V., 1897-1987, its state section “Theosophische Gesellschaft in Deutschland” is still active, but follows today more Leadbeater than Hartmann or Blavatsky, although they show photos and texts of them.). Two volumes of this magazine are known, the title of the second volume was augmended to “Theosophical News” (Theosophische Nachrichten).

Hartmann claimed that Tingley has left the original programme of H. P. Blavatsky by building a school and a theosophical church with dogmatism. That was the contrary of the truth, as Tingley was fulfilling the aims of Blavatsky, of which Hartmann was simply wasn’t informed about by her or by Judge. Despite the fact that Hartmann one year before wrote in a letter to Wilhelm Hübbe-Schleiden his conviction that Tingley was the rightful successor to Blavatsky. Also that he has eye-witnessed several times both her deep esoteric knowledge and occult powers, which were the same as that of Blavatsky.

And despite the fact that he himself, together with Countess Wachtmeister, tried to launch a theosophical monastary in Monte Veritá, Switzerland, a center of alternative groups like vegetarians, life reformers and occultists. The project was never realized because the money was lacking.

According to her occult powers he reported that Tingley had told him about circumstances of which she could have no knowledge, and that she has directed him occult the unknown way from his home in Kempten, Bavaria, to Berlin, to the foundation meeting, where he was to be elected for president. He did not even had the adress, but Tingley directed him by clairaudio, hearing her voice in his head. This eyewitness letter about Tingley’s occult status is among the Hübbe-Schleiden Collection of the University of Göttingen, Germany.

1896

• Katherine Tingley in Berlin. Launch of the “Theosophical Society in Europe” (TSE), Dr. Franz Hartmann elected President.

1923

• “From Finland the Leader and her party will go directly to Germany and lecture in Berlin, Niimberg, and other cities. As readers of The Theosophical Path will
  remember, the Leader’s visit to that country last year was attended with phenomenal success.”
  – The Theosophical Path, August 1923, p. 194.

1924

• “News from Germany
  In a recent letter Brother J. Th. Heller, Director of the Theosophical Propaganda Center at Nürnberg, Germany, speaking of communications sent by the Leader to the members of his Center, says: “They brought so much help, love, and peace from the wonderful harmony of the body of earnest, silent workers in the Sacred Temple at the International Center, that we were very deeply impressed by this power. … We are all most grateful for this great help and renewed opportunities in working with the comrades at Point Loma and throughout the world in this great and holy Cause for humanity!”

Brother Heller reports that the members of the Nürnberg Center are united in a deep spirit of devotion and loyalty, and carry on their public work as well as the work among themselves with ever-increasing enthusiasm and efficiency. They are all looking forward eagerly to the Leader’s prospective visit to them this summer.”
– The Theosophical Path, July 1924, p. 85.

1925

• Bought the estate of Dr. Rolf Hoffmann in Erlangen with his (private) philosophic academy). Dr. Hoffmann was an acquaintance of the Munich revolutionary marxist Ernst Toller. That is why Dr. Hoffmann was not well-received in conservative university circles and explains the founding of his own academy. The address was “Auf dem Burgberg 14” (“on the castle hill”, today: Burgbergstraße 73), the former villa Isidor Rosenthal, diagonally opposite the water tower.

According to the catalog of Gerd Simon to the Hans Vaihinger exhibition 2022-2023 in Nehren near Tübingen, 3rd ed. 2020, p. 55, Arthur Liebert (1878-1946, born as Franz Levy) initiated the founding of the academy. Hoffmann’s private academy was launched in 1922 and lastest only until 1925. The area on the hill was a respected Professors’ quarter, in which Tingley tried to launch a second Point Loma world center.

Photos from the founding meeting of the academy in 1922. Photo left: Cutout of Dr. Rolf Hoffmann. Photo right: “On the founding of the Academy of Philosophy: 1. Dr. Rolf Hoffmann, the donor of the academy. 2. Geh. Reg.-Rat [Privy Councilor] Prof. Dr. Hans Vaihinger (Halle), Managing Director of the Kant Society. 3. Mrs Privy Councilor Vaihinger. 4. Prof. Dr. Arthur Liebert, deputy Managing Direcotr of the Kant Society. 5. Prof. Dr. [Ephraim] Liliequist (Lund, Sweden).
Photos from the catalog of Gerd Simon to the Hans Vaihinger exhibition 2022-2023, p. 56. Public domain, fair use.

Photo: Postcard “Erlangen, castle hill with observation tower”, the villa on the right under the text, public domain.

Left photo: The castle hill with the villa (under the text “Burgberg”). Right photo: Close view of the villa with the still existing property wall. Photos public domain, republished in fair use from the dissertation on Isidor Rosenthal (1836-1915) by Marco Ritter, p. 380.

Left photo: “A temple of the spirit”, front view of the villa. Right photo: Charcoal drawing of the draft by Walter Gropius and Carl Fieger for the extension for Dr. Hoffmann’s dream of a large philosophic academy and Tingley’s dream of a German Point Loma center. Photos public domain, republished in fair use from Gerd Simon, op. cit., pp. 56-57.

Tingley’s project failed, because the German theosophists of all lineages she had invited for cooperation und support, declined any support (sending pupils, staff, money, books). The reasons were both personally (“a woman”, “an American”) as ideological, as no other lineage accepted her claims as Leader and successor. The rejections were published in the German magazines as “Theosophische Kultur” of the Hartmann lineage (ITV and TGD), in “Theosophische Studien” of the Adyar section and in “Theosophie” of Hugo Vollrath (who claimed to be a pupil of Hartmann and who in 1927 microfilmed his ten or eleven Mahatma letters, which were never published in full; the microfilms are still missing). Whether the anthroposophists also commented on this in their magazines remains to be seen.

End of 1924 there happened a landslide on the slope. It is unclear if the villa was damaged, because Hoffmann as a fan of the Bauhaus architecture hired the famous Walter Gropius for three extension buildings, integrating and thus preserving the old villa. Nevertheless the villa was demolished in 1925.

It still needs to be clarified at which moment Tingley came into play after the landslide: Was it before Hoffmann’s plan for the extension on 2,700 qm (29,062 sq ft) in the modern and cold Bauhaus style or after that? Would she have liked the Bauhaus style?

Through the boycott of the German theosophists the plans for the new building were abandoned, Dr. Hoffmann moved with his wife and four children to Point Loma. There he served as Professor for “Germanic literature”, as the “Path” has it (most likely for German literature was meant).

The board of trustees (Kuratorium) of the AKADEMIE AUF DEM BURGBERG, of which Dr. Hoffmann was Vice President, reads like the Who’s is Who of the known philosophers of the time: Ernst Cassirer, Benedetto Croce, Paul Natorp, Heinrich Rickert, Rudolf Eucken, Carsun Chang (Peking/Beijing), Efraim Liljequist (Sweden), as a preserved letterhead of Aug. 7, 1924 shows.

There were only a few publications during the short lifetime of the academy. Their magazine was “Die Akademie”, of which in 1925 the third issue was published (offering by a second hand bookseller in Pasadena, which suggests that it is one of the booklets that Hoffmann took with him during the move to Point Loma. Most likely it was the last issue.

In his 2005 dissertation on Isidor Rosenthal (1836-1915) Marco Ritter gives details about the villa are given. He writes that the property wall with elaborate wrought iron archway still exists today. Ritter writes that Dr. Hoffmann was the last owner of the property, which was foreclosed in 1929. That would mean, that Tingley was not the legal owner. It is unclear how it came to the foreclosing, as Dr. Hoffmann was only in California and not in nirvana and why he did not care about it anymore. On p. 180 Ritter quotes a file note, hat Hoffmann became in August 2023 the last owner of the property. That would mean that Tingley never was the legal owner.

Further information
– Aug 13, 2019, Peter Millian: Erlanger Bauhaus-Pläne mit Walter Gropius
– Jutta Thamer in a not specified article in the magazine “Das neue Erlangen”.

• Oct. 4-11th: Katherine Tingley in Berlin. The Theosophical Path, December 1925, p. 600.
  

1926

• The Work Spreads in Germany
  From all over Germany come almost daily new applications for membership in the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, and offers of assistance and co-operation from new friends, and invitations to the Leader to speak in different cities. Thus her purchase of the beautiful and historical estate Auf dem Burgberg 14, Erlangen, assumes daily more significance as the promise of a new European Center of our great Movement.

By the time this reaches our readers, the Leader will probably be there, picking up the many threads of her work of former years, consolidating the efforts of the past, and, one may be sure, pushing with her wonted vigor her new plans for the spreading of the saving message of the Wisdom-Religion in distraught central Europe.
From far-off Beuthen in Upper Silesia, comes this word from our new Comrade, Baron Ebner von Eschenbach-Baader:
“The regular arrival of THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH has become a real delight to me. The newspaper clippings which I also receive, I am very glad
to read. How fine the pictures are of the Leader and Point Loma, published in Europa auf Reisen. This is splendid propaganda, certainly.”
– The Theosophical Path, June 1926, p. 597.

• Dr. Erik Bogren: “I am so happy to hear that Doctor Rolf Hoffmann and family are now at Point Loma. I can see their happiness and how contented you are to have them there. They are splendid people and I am very glad to have known them. They went right into my heart.”

Konsulinnan Fru Anna Wicander, Directress of the Stockholm Center of the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, expects to spend a week with the Leader and party in Erlangen, Germany, and then to join them again at Visingsö, Sweden.”
– The Theosophical Path, June 1926, p. 599.

• “THEOSOPHIST HEAD GOING TO EUROPE
  Katherine Tingley and Party of Five to Leave today; Return in September BEGINNING a lecture-tour expected to extend throughout Europe, Katherine Tingley, head of the International Theosophical Head quarters at Point Loma, will leave this morning with a party of five. Her party will include Mrs. A. G. Spalding, Rolf Hoffmann, Gottfried von Purucker, E. A. Gyllenberg, and Iverson L. Harris, all members of the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society. Talbot Mundy, Mrs. Dee Allen and Mr. Lars Eek who were to leave today also, will join the party later, according to Harris, secretary of Madame Tingley.

The party will leave New York for Southampton on the White Star liner Homeric, April 30th, arriving in London about May 6th. The lecture program will start there with several meetings and will be carried into Holland where meetings will be held at The Hague, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Groningen and other places.

Madame Tingley expects then to take her party to Bavaria, where she is establishing a new center of activities. Her itinerary includes Würzburg, Nürnberg and Berlin in Germany; Paris, France; Geneva, Switzerland; southern Sweden and Stockholm. She expects to sail with her party from Stockholm on the new Swedish-American motorship Gripsholm for New York, August 28th, and plans to arrive back at her San Diego Headquarters in September.”
— The San Diego Union, April 23, 1926
– The Theosophical Path, June 1926, p. 609-610.