“THE UNIVERSE IS BASED ON THE SUBJECTION OF WOMAN.” The woman suffragists held their third and largest open-air meeting under less-than-desirable circumstances on January 14, 1908. An icy wind whistled relentlessly over Madison Square, yet the suffragists in charge were out at least a dozen strong, the largest turnout yet. “Sure, th’ women must want th’ vote bad, t’ spout f’r it on sthrate corners such a day.” That was the opinion of one-half the audience at the open... Read more
“On my penetrating into the Ascension at chosen noon, and standing for the first time in presence of that noble work of John La Farge, the representation on the west wall in the grand manner of the theological event from which the church takes its title. Wonderful enough in New York to find one’s self in a charming, and considerably dim old church, hushed to admiration before a great religious picture.” Henry James. “New York Revisited.” THE CALL... Read more
WRECK OF THE HEREFORD In the spring of 1907 Arthur “Punk” Buckley paid Irvine a surprise visit in New York, and told him what had happened during the intervening weeks since they last saw one another in Florida. After the trial the peons stood by each other until all were down at the same dead level of poverty. Then they separated and Arthur went to sea on March 16, 1907 on the Norwegian square-rigged bark Hereford, bound for Buenos... Read more
THE LOST CANON OF PROPORTIONS OF THE EGYPTIANS September 7, 1875. Judge and Castle once again called on Blavatsky.[1] “Thanks for the scarabaeus,” she said to Judge, greeting him with much effusion.[2] Judge pretended ignorance. “It is useless to pretend,” said Blavatsky, informing him how he had sent it, and where the clerk had posted it. Blavatsky then turned to Castle, her eyes flashing fire. “Perhaps you think, Mr. Castle, that my spirit was not with you and that... Read more
GUNS AND ROSES.[1] First week of September 1875 Judge and Castle knocked on the door the of apartment at the summit of a flight of stairs at 46 Irving Place. The strong odor of tobacco was bleeding into the hallway from beneath the cracks of the front door.[2] “Come in.” They entered an ordinary, if somewhat disorderly, looking room, that was littered with books, papers, and oriental tapestries.[3] As they made their way into the main parlor, Judge and... Read more
THE ENCOUNTER WITH THE STRANGER August 22, 1875. Olcott used to go to The Sun and tell the reporters how one of the Eddy brothers had floated out of a window for a distance of three miles, landing safely on a mountain. “Levitation is possible,” Olcott said earnestly, “for anyone having confidence in the fidelity of the spirit guardians.” Edward Page Mitchell and Frank Church of were skeptical. “Let’s go,” said Church. “We will go with you to the top... Read more
When Olcott returned to New York, he was approached by William Quan Judge, a young lawyer whom he knew from City Hall. He was the proud father of a two-month-old child, whom he and his wife Ella named Alice, after Judge’s late-mother.[1] He had come to ask for an introduction to Madame Blavatsky. Olcott told him that he would see what he could do. In the summer of 1874, while Olcott was conducting his first tests at the Eddy farm,... Read more
HEATHER FROM THE GRAMPIAN HILLS July 4, 1875.[1] Colonel Henry Steel Olcott fastened the windows shut, and drew the blinds. The light from a single candle was all that illuminated the room. It cast an otherworldly effect on the seventeen people sitting around the bare mahogany extension-table in the back parlor of 12 Pembroke Street. Their thirty-eight year old host, the “Flower Goddess,” Mary B. Thayer, sat at the center of the table, her back facing the mantel. Her... Read more
“I have, I know, been told that this correspondence may have been forged from first to last by a man whose imagination had certainly been fed on the most seductive tales.”—Gaston Leroux (The Phantom Of The Opera.)[1] ~ On the evening of the January 14, 1858, the carriage of Napoleon III winded through narrow, sinewy streets, through a crowd which grew in density. It was only when the emperor and his coterie approached the entrance of the Salle Le... Read more
William James, Harvard’s first professor of Psychology, was probably the most famous Theosophist from Cambridge, Massachusetts. (It was here where James operated a laboratory in “a small room [that] was given up to pickle jars and electric batteries.”)[1][2] For the sake of this article we’ll begin in the 1880s, a tumultuous time for James. The year of 1882 was bookended with the loss of his parents, beginning in January with the loss of his mother, Mary. In December, Henry James... Read more
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