Alice Cleather, The Esoteric School, and the Inner Group:
An Insider's Perspective on Blavatsky, Judge, and Besant
In the pages of the Canadian Theosophist in 1937-38, Alice Cleather presented new information surrounding the ES crisis of 1890-91 that precipitated the issuing of "Preliminary Explanations to No. III of the Instructions" to the E.S. What we want to draw readers attention to is the great faith that H.P. Blavatsky had in her friend and co-worker, W.Q. Judge, a faith that did not waver to the very end. Also, it should be noted that Annie Besant, even at this point was editing H.P. Blavatsky without permission to do so. We get a clue that Besant is already allowing her own naive sensibilities to color her understanding of her teacher and the Movement and is willing to pass that understanding on to others. She is, in effect, covering up certain truths for political motive, that motive in this case is to guard the ES against further defections when members are faced with an ugly truth. This idea is further bolstered by a submission to the Canadian Theosophist that Cleather made in 1937. In this submission, we are given some background on Besant's Volume III of The Secret Doctrine and her active hand in its editing. Cleather goes over the origins of the Third Volume, spending some time on the use of the Esoteric Instructions and the Inner Group teachings. Volume III includes "Instruction III" but does not include the "Preliminary Explanations to No. III" where Blavatsky counciled the ES to defend Judge, come what may. It is obvious why Besant would not want to remind readers of this. Then as an example of the limitations of Besant's editing, Cleather takes page 559 of the Third Volume (TPH, 1897) and using her own notes from the Inner Group, shows how this passage taken from the oral teachings of the Inner Group could have been more clearly written.
The following are pdfs from the Canadian Theosophist and as such we apologize for their rough appearance.
Preliminary Explanation to ES No. III