William Q. Judge — The Pilgrim
Fohat Magazine (Fall 2003 - by Ernest Pelletier)
William Q. Judge had been jotting down notes and sending them to Julia VerPlanck in order for her to eventually write an occult novel, going so far as to have its title copyrighted under her name in 1891. Over the years he sent her odds and ends of paper with suggestions and describing incidents to be included in various chapters. Judge wrote in one note, “I must tell you first what happened to me in this present life, since it is in this one that I am relating to you about many other lives of mine” (Letters, p.95). One such incident from another life described in his notes is the consecration of a temple “on the site of the . . . city of Conjeveram” (now Kanchipuram), which is considered one of India’s most sacred pilgrimage sites (Letters, p.94).
In “The Pilgrim of Eternity” in Theosophical Movement the author states, “The institution of the pilgrimage is but a religious reflection of a spiritual verity; the person going on a pilgrimage represents the Eternal Pilgrim, the Human Soul bound for the Shrine of Light in the Land of Perfect Service” and makes the observation that
While the Theosophical Adepts train Their Disciples by a method all Their own, “in one respect it is a specialization of the pilgrimage to a sacred place so common in India”.
The Adepts established these places of pilgrimage at a time when spirituality began to decline. Shrines, whether newly built structures or natural sites, were magnetized by Them to ensure the spiritual needs of pilgrims were cared for. The author of “The Pilgrim in Eternity” summarizes it thus:
Adepts established these places of pilgrimage at a time when spirituality began to decline. Shrines, whether newly built structures or natural sites, were magnetized by Them to ensure the spiritual needs of pilgrims were cared for. The author of “The Pilgrim in Eternity” summarizes it thus: Within the visible message were hidden the occult hints. The physical pilgrimage was but a reflection of the psychological pilgrimage: sacred shrines, sacred cities, sacred rivers, sacred hills, etc., were psycho-physiological centres to which the Ego must go, and which corresponded to the bodily journey to these places.
These sites also ensured that the spiritual heritage of India remained alive in the minds of its people.
