Through the years 1884 to 1887 the Theosophical Society was faced with challenges that compromised the Organization's credibility to the public, and its ability to carry out its objects. In particular was the publication of "The Collapse of Koot Hoomi" in the September 1884 issue of the Madras Christian College Magazine. The fifteen forged letters included in this exposé was damming to co-founder, Helena Blavatsky's credibility and brought ridicule upon the existence of her teachers. The resulting unrest in the Theosophical Society in 1886 moved Blavatsky to resign her position as Corresponding Secretary. Her departure from Adyar was the result of continuing strained relations between her and her co-founder, Henry S. Olcott. As events unfolded Richard Hodgson's infamous investigation for the London Society for Psychical Research, published in 1886 was the culminating blow against Blavatsky and her teachers. Its  influence is still being felt today. For Judge, his final challenge developed from accusations leveled by Annie Besant. Besant was a newer member who had only joined in 1889, though because of her talents and work for the TS, she quickly gained influence in the TS. She accused Judge, among other things, of misusing the Mahatma's names for his own advancement. This, calamity, originating within the Theosophical Society itself, grew out of control and created a polarization among the entire membership into Judge and Besant camps. Eventually, the enmity resulted in the eventual breaking up of the Theosophical Society into two organizations.  In many ways, Judge's magazine, The Path, was an effort to educate and strengthen the character of Theosophists in America, so that they would be better able to see through these reoccurring assaults that befall the TS, so that it would emerge all the stronger.

            It was in mid 1883, the third and youngest of the three founders, William Quan Judge, received a letter from his Indian pen pal, Damodar K. Mavalankar. On the back of the letter was a note in red pencil, saying, "Better come. M. " followed by three dots arranged in a triangle. That following March, Judge debarked to Paris where he met with H.P.B and Olcott. While there, he worked with HPB who was deeply engaged in writing what was to become her master work, The Secret Doctrine. In late June he left for India and by August, arrived in Adyar just as  "The Collapse of Koot Hoomi" had been published. The other two founders were expected back at Headquarters in November. Yet, for reasons we may never know, Judge did not wait for their arrival. Rather, he returned to London and by the end of November, was back in New York. Whatever happened upon that trip, Judge, now only thirty-five years old, returned as a new person. He was filled with inspiration and ideas for bringing Theosophy to the American people. Upon his arrival home, Judge also immediately found a position in a law office, working with Olcott's brother. 

            That following April, the first issue of The Path was published, and Judge proposed that the General Council issue a charter for the American Section. By June, the charter was granted with Judge as the General Secretary of the new Section and The Path became its official publication. By this time, Blavatsky had resettled in London and three months later, in September of 1887, launched the first Issue of  her own magazine, Lucifer. During this period, she began to work closely with Judge. These two sister magazines: The Path and Lucifer, born only five months apart, each sought to stimulate the revival and growth of their respective Sections.

            The first issue of The Path appeared in April 1886 as an unpretentious 32 page monthly, only a little larger than the standard 6 x9 format, typical of small, low budget periodicals of the time. The first issue appeared with an orange wrap simply printed in black ink. There were no advertisements and no illustrations other than a radiating Om symbol on the cover. Except for minor alterations in the cover design, and the gradual introduction of pictures of friends of the Movement, the magazine's appearance and format remained unchanged for its entire ten year run. William Quan Judge was listed as editor and copyright holder, with his friend and fellow theosophist, Arthur Gebhard was listed as co-founder and business manager for the joint venture. The publisher, "The Path," was listed under a P.O. Box in New York. Because the community of Theosophical students in America was a very small one, and only a few of them knew enough about the teachings to write on the subject, most of the articles were written by Judge under a dozen different pseudonyms such as, Hadji Erin, William Brehon, Eusebio Urban, etc. Assisting Judge was Julia Campbell Ver Planck, who contributed articles under the pseudonym of Jasper Nieman, among others. Judge's articles were typically short and to the point. There also seems to be an inclination for Judge to divide his variety of subjects among his various pseudonyms. William Brehon was credited for Judge's series on the Bhagavad Gita. Eusebio Urban had the more philosophical and psychological subjects, such as "The Three Planes of Human Life" which deals with levels of consciousness. Bryan Kinnevan got the Irish subjects.

            Judge's first editorial spoke of his hopes for making the magazine a vehicle for the expression of theosophical teachings, while addressing their application in daily living. "True occultism," as he called it, "is clearly set forth in the Bhagavad Gita and Light on the Path, where sufficient stress is laid upon practical occultism"... Accordingly, The Path includes a valuable commentary on The Bhagavad Gita, that continued until it became the length of a book. Judge also called for contributors to give expressions of these ancient ideas in their more modern forms. Though he did not want to exclude the occult arts and phenomena, they were not the object of this journal. It appears that The Path not only fulfilled Judge's  intentions, but within his own articles, he strove to model what he understood to be the ethics of a true Theosophist. This last aspect of Judge's journal becomes very important as we approach the last three years of  this Editor's life, and that of The Path. 

            As the American Section grew, it was still not free from detractors, and those who sought to undermine the effort. In 1888, there had been a rumor going around that the publication of Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine was delayed because Indian "Pundits" were against her publishing the book. In the June issue of the Path, Judge published a letter signed by a number of Indian Theosophists saying that the rumor is untrue. However, in the October issue, a follow up letter from N.D. Kandalalvala stated that he had learned that the "student of Indian Esotericism" refused to revise the book. "Madame Blavatsky, therefore, can no longer be blamed for not taking the assistance of Indian scholars. Kandalalvala was speaking of T. Subba Row, who at first supported Blavatsky, then began to become critical of her after she left Adyar.  

            In the July 1889 issue of the Path, Judge commented upon Emmett Coleman's  slanders against HPB in the Chicago spiritualist newspaper, The Religio Philosophical Journal. Coleman's articles, written to denegrate HPB, had regularly appeared in this journal since 1881. Blavatsky ignored them, but Judge, following HPB's teaching, that it is the duty of a Theosophist to speak up for those who are unjustly condemned, wrote to the Journal in his teacher's defense, only to find that his letters went unpublished. Around this time, Mabel Collins had filed a lawsuit against HPB, which Judge also followed with interest. The court judge dismissed the case without going to trial, on the grounds that the alleged evidence against HPB lacked merit.  

            HPB passed away on May 8th 1891. Judge, upon learning of the news, set sail for London on the 15th. He attended the Convention of the European Branches in July. Olcott  chaired the proceedings and all was well between the two remaining founders. HPB's Inner Group members met and decided that Judge and Besant would jointly co-lead the Esoteric Section, Blavatsky had founded in October 1888. She had previously appointed Judge as her representative in America. Judge and Besant worked together for a while, until Besant began to become suspicious of  Judge and shared her concerns with Olcott. This was the beginning of the so called "Judge Case," a complicated affair that would be beyond the scope of this paper to summarize its various shifts and turns. For the purpose of this survey, the important thing about the Judge Case was that it resulted in the polarization of the TS membership into the defense of either Besant or Judge. That polarization continues to this day among many otherwise influential members of all of the Theosophical organizations.

            The high point of Judge's career was in September 1893 with the success of the Theosophical Congress at the Parliament of Religions. The Path reports that the last day of the Theosophical Congress was held in a hall designed to seat three thousand people. Among the speakers were Judge, J.D. Buck, Chakravarti, and Annie Besant. 

            As The Path moved into its ninth year, Olcott and Besant called Judge to London to answer the charges leveled against him, or resign his position. He arrived in London in July, argued his case to the satisfaction of the General Council. Accordingly, on July 7th, the General Council issued a document, The Neutrality of the Theosophical Society,  in order to put the whole matter to rest. The document was published as a pamphlet, as well in published in Lucifer, The Path and The Theosophist. That would have been the end of the story, but a disgruntled Member, Walter Gorn Old, known for his books on astrology written under the pseudonym, Sepherial, took copies of the evidence Besant had collected against Judge and handed them over to Edmund Garrett, editor of the Westminister Gazette, with the expectation that Garrett would use the material to once and for all expose Judge. However, Garrett had no sympathy for either side of the question and used the material to create an exposé on the Theosophical Society, entitled: "Isis Very Much Unveiled Being the Story of the Great Mahatma Hoax." The article series ran in the Gazette thus reopening the case and creating new and deeper hostilities among the membership. Garrett was so intent upon making his point that he republished his exposé in a hard bound book and mailed a copy to every Lodge in the TS. Now polarized beyond hope, the American Section of the Theosophical Society, at its 1895 Annual convention, declared itself an autonomous organization, and elected Judge as President for life.  Judge, ill and exhausted, died, March 21, 1896, just short of his 45th birthday.  

            As Judge had requested, The Path, passed on to the editorship of the new President, E.T. Hargrove. It was renamed Theosophy Magazine beginning with its April 1896 issue. In November 1897, the magazine, now under Katherine Tingley's control was again renamed Universal Brotherhood. In January 1900, it was again renamed the Universal Brotherhood Path. In 1912, a wholly new Theosophical effort, called the United Lodge of Theosophists, launched their own magazine, and in memory of Judge's effort, called theirs, Theosophy Magazine. The new U.L.T. magazine bore the same simple unassuming orange cover and simple design Judge had adopted for his renamed Theosophy Magazine. 

            One measurement of Judge's success with The Path is in the Growth of the Theosophical Society in America during the magazine's years of circulation. When Judge launched The Path, he recorded only six existing Lodges in the US that were chartered before 1886. That number grew to eighteen after the first year and by 1894, the number had grown to eighty-four. Year after year, the number of new charters in the United States exceeded those in the European and in the Indian Section. Judge's articles and his book, The Ocean of Theosophy remain in print. His pamphlet Epitome of Theosophy, always in print among the Judge line Theosophical organizations, was also reprinted by the Adyar TS in 1975. Judge's long series on the Bhagavad Gita was made into a book, as was the series "Letters that Have Helped Me," a collection of inspirational letters from Judge to Jasper Nieman. From the support and revenues attracted by The Path, Judge was able to create several other concurrent publications. Among them was The Oriental Department Papers, a small periodical designed to bring the writings from the East into English translation and study. He also started a serial called the Branch Work Papers, which was distributed solely to the Lodges. The issues contained selected papers that had been presented at Lodge meetings around the country so that those Lodges with smaller memberships and less resources would be able to make use of them at their own meetings. Another concurrent periodical Judge created was The Theosophical Forum. It began in 1889 as a question and answer publication and ran until 1905. The Vahan, its British counterpart, begun in 1890 and was initially launched by HPB. Judge's innovations remain as good as they were over a hundred years ago. and could still be of value to the public if only there was the will and the vitality of those times could be brought back among this present generation of students.