One day when I was in the post office of Palo Alto, I saw a sign of meetings of a Theosophical group. My curiosity was piqued. I heard my father once speak disparagingly of Theosophy, and I was immediately interested. So, I undertook to go to a meeting of this group. I found it to be a branch of what was known as the Temple of the People, a Theosophical organization that had sprung up after the death of HPB and W. Q. Judge. They were under, or seemed to be under, the administration of one of the Brothers known as Hilarion. Instructions were given by him through one of the heads of the group by the means of tulku.[1]

The Temple of the People, which was founded in 1898 by William Dower and Francia LaDue, is an early offshoot of the Theosophical Society.[2] “The Temple,” as it was called in its early days, had broken away from its parent society to devote itself more faithfully to the teachings of H. P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge.[3] In 1903, the group moved from Syracuse, New York to California, where they established the colony of Halcyon about fifteen miles south of the town of San Luis Obispo. The organization remains active today.

One of the original members of the Temple was John Varian, who first encountered the Theosophical Movement in his native Ireland; after immigrating to the United States, he found Dr. Dower’s group in Syracuse. Varian moved to Palo Alto, California where he worked as a masseuse and soon emerged as a prominent, if eccentric, figure in town, leading meetings of the “Temple Square,” as the Palo Alto branch of The Temple of the People was called. According to Palo Alto (and Halcyon) resident George Harrison, the meetings were held in Varian’s home and “included professors and students from Stanford, writers, artists, musicians, local business and professional men, and a spattering of dreamers and idealists.[4]

In 1909, one of the Stanford University students regularly attending these meetings was Franklin F. Wolff. Although Wolff never felt satisfied with the soundness of the thinking that he encountered in these meetings, he formally became a member of the Temple of the People in 1912. In 1914, after teaching mathematics for a year at Stanford, Wolff decided to leave academia and to start the search for “that other something” he “had learned of through Theosophical and some certain other sources.”[5]

His first step was to “go into the wilderness,” and along with Varian and other friends interested in theosophy, he formed a philosophical colony in the Santa Francia Mountains south of Carmel, California. Their plan was to live off of 160 acres of government land that had been secured by a member of the group, and they procured equipment for felling and milling trees, as well as plows, cultivators, and other implements (all horse-drawn). Wolff reports that “we actually did cut down a straight grain redwood tree about four feet in diameter for the making of split shakes and split lumber,” but that it soon became apparent that the purpose that Wolff had in mind “was not here being furthered,” and he eventually made his way to the headquarters of the Temple of the People at Halcyon.[6]

By the time Wolff arrived, the Temple had been twelve years in its California home and had developed into a self-sufficient commune similar to that he had envisioned establishing in the Ventana Wilderness. The Temple’s goal was to set an example for society of “a brotherhood of man in cooperation and self-evolution.”[7] Although based on a utopian vision in which “all the land will be owned all of the time by all of the people,” the real inspiration behind the Temple’s work was rooted not in social but in religious ideals.[8] Indeed, the board of the Temple claimed “direct personal correspondence and communication” with “the Masters” of “the White Brotherhood,”[9] who aspired to share with “earnest investigators of life” the same “Great Science . . . as was imparted by HPB to her Esoteric Classes.”[10] In other words, like Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the Temple’s Guardian-in-Chief Francia LaDue (also known as “Blue Star”) claimed to “channel” the ancient esoteric wisdom religion of these Masters.[11]

It is interesting to note that despite his strong reservations about the intellectual soundness of the Temple’s teachings, it seems that Wolff accepted the group’s claims about contact with metaphysical or physically remote beings. He explains this “atypical” means of communication as follows:

This brings up a method of communication which is atypical. It is known as “channeling.” In the case of individuals who have attained at least a certain degree of adeptship, it is possible for their intelligence principle to be transferred to an individual who has channeling capacity, and take over the control of the body, but particularly the control of the mental functions in that individual, for a limited period of time; and the real entity who properly belongs to that body, steps aside, and, it is said, may listen to what is being said through her organism or step aside completely and remain uninformed concerning it. It is said that The Secret Doctrine was written this way and also that the teachings of the Temple were very largely written by this method, but in this case, the principal contributor was a Greek Adept known by the name of Hilarion, so that the work was largely the thought of three individuals known respectively as Koot Hoomi, Morya, and Hilarion.[12]

In this same passage, Wolff goes on to contrast “legitimate channeling” with mediumship:

This would seem to be an appropriate time to produce a footnote observation on the distinction between mediumship and legitimate channeling. Throughout the mass of Theosophic literature, one will find an extended critique of that which is known variously as spiritualism and mediumship where there is often supposed to be communication through a medium by an entity who has passed to the other side through the normal process of death. There is a great deal of criticism of this practice to be found throughout Theosophical literature; but then the thought arises, there is a means of communication called channeling which is employed by the very individuals who are highly critical of mediumship. What is implied here is the following: that there is a positive aspect of this function of communication and a negative aspect and that there is considerable danger involved in the negative form of practice. On the other hand, in the case of the positive communication through channels, there is, so far as my experience goes, always the presence of an Adept who is making the communication. It is not a communication from any Tom, Dick, and Harry who may have passed over to the other side through death. This channeling is by living entities, though they may not always be upon the physical plane.[13]

Wolff was a resident at Halcyon from 1915 until the end of 1922, except for a little over a year of service in the army. Wolff reports that he “faced the First World War as a conscientious objector” and that in attempting to defend his position on philosophical grounds, he “went through the mill.” This was because “without the support of a religious organization, well-recognized, that has as one of it tenets nonviolence, like the Friends or Quakers, there is no formal provision in the law for the conscientious objector who bases his objection upon an individual moral conception or philosophy.”[14] Although Wolff states that he “was ready to face imprisonment or the firing squad,” it wouldn’t come to that. [15] Instead, he received a message from Hilarion (channeled through Mrs. LaDue) that convinced him to accept his conscription into the army:

Specifically, Wolff served in the U.S. Army Spruce Production Division, which was a home-front branch of the U.S. Army Signal Corps’ massive commitment to supply high quality spruce wood for the production of Allied combat airplanes and fir for ships. Wolff was based in the state of Washington; after his hitch was up, he returned to Halcyon.

Before he left for his stint in the army, Wolff had served as an assistant to the head of the Temple’s “Propaganda Department,” a woman who would become his first wife. Sarah A. Merrell Briggs was eleven years his senior, and was married with a young son.[17] Wolff worked as her assistant for two years before he left for army duty in 1917; while he was away Sarah divorced her husband and the couple maintained their relationship through letters.[18] When Wolff returned from his service in early 1919, the two were free to pursue a relationship and they were married on June 25, 1920.[19]

Prior to the war, Wolff had begun to lead a weekly class on mathematics, the earliest mention of which is found in the November 1915 issue of the community’s monthly newsletter, The Temple Artisan:

Regular classes in Mathematics, Music and Biological Chemistry have been started at the Temple Centre for members. All of the above subjects will be correlated with fundamental occultism and the teaching ultimately compiled into text books on the subject. Franklin Wolff leads the class in Mathematics.[20]

The May 1916 issue of The Temple Artisan states that this class (a well as the classes in Biological Chemistry and Music and Mysticism) were being prepared as correspondence courses, and for further information, to contact Sarah A. Merrell Briggs, “General Secretary, Halcyon, Cal.”[21] One of these courses can be found in the “Lectures, Notes and Outlines” section of the Wolff Archive (under “Lectures”). In addition, Wolff wrote and published two essays in the 1915-16 volume of The Temple Artisan, both of which can be found under the Essays tab of the Wolff Archive.

In her “Report of the General Secretary” in the September 1916 issue of The Temple Artisan, Sarah described the work of her “most efficient assistant” in the Propaganda Department as follows:

At this point we wish to publicly acknowledge our indebtedness and express our appreciation to Mr. Wolff for his unfaltering active support of the department. His clear mental conceptions and logical mind have given greater assistance than appears on the surface. And I shall not fail to include in this report the work in Occult Mathematics, of this most efficient assistant of ours; for if, metaphorically speaking, walking the floor in helpless sympathy with a wild-looking man, who rages against Secret Doctrines that won’t correlate their subject-matter, and then suddenly rushes to his typewriter and writes in calm majesty for many minutes, only to spring forth again into desperate struggle with the Occult Muse, while you, listening painstakingly to the difficulties and perplexities of that break in logical connection that won't clear up, soothingly but silently apply the Mystic Light, if that picture were omitted the story of the Temple work of this department would be incomplete.[22]

The next month’s issue of The Temple Artisan notes, however, that “Franklin Wolff is . . . at North Branch for a time, expecting to return to the Temple Centre on or about the Holiday season. His interesting lessons in Occult Mathematics will, however, continue, as he will transmit such lessons regularly as required.” The January 1917 issue reports that “Brother Franklin Wolff is again at the centre and has resumed his class in Occult Mathematics,”[23] but by April of that year, he had returned (along with Sarah) to visit the property at North Branch.[24] Wolff was evidently assisting W. A. Wotherspoon develop some properties of the Halcyon Mining Company, located at North Branch, Calaveras County, California.[25] There is no mention of this activity in the Wolff Archive, although Wolff did engage in a mining operation along El Dorado Creek in the 1930s; perhaps his visits to North Branch were when he honed his mining skills.

By the fall of 1917, Wolff was at the newly inaugurated military base named in honor of Meriwether Lewis; his intellect was put to good use as the commander’s assistant and Wolff rose to the rank of sergeant. He was able to return to Halcyon for the Temple’s annual convention in August 1918, where it was reported he gave “an interesting talk” and that “on picnic day Sergeant Wolff put about twenty templars through a drill on the beach.”[26] The Temple continued to advertise and sell Wolff’s course on Occult Mathematics while he served in the army.[27] By December 1918, Wolff received his discharge from the army, and he returned to Halcyon.

While he was in the army, Wolff had been promoted to the position of Temple priest by Mrs. LaDue.[28] Apparently by this time, Mrs. LaDue had also shown Sarah how to contact Hilarion.[29] It would appear that LaDue, who was in poor health, was preparing to install Sarah in her role as the “Inner Head” of the organization, and for Wolff to assume the “Outer Head.”[30] In fact, Wolff states that “early in 1919 when in conference with B. S. (Blue Star) she remarked to me that Sarah would have to prepare to take over the work as head of the Order of the 14 and that I should prepare for position as Head of the priesthood.”[31] In a channeled message several months before LaDue’s death, Hilarion advises Sarah that

Your work my child is important lodge work and you should take and function in the place vacated by B. S. when that time comes, but that functioning must be according to hierarchical law. You would be known as Inner Guard and will work exoterically with W. H. D. [Dower], but will work esoterically with F. A. B. and F. F. W. [Franklin Wolff]. If [Dower] becomes unmanageable, the work will go on and F .F .W. will function in that office exoterically as well as esoterically.[32]

Mrs. LaDue died on July 19, 1922, and for the remainder of the year a political drama played out. The Wolff Archive contains almost two-hundred pages of transcribed private messages that Sarah received from Hilarion in 1922—sometimes also Koot Hoomi and Morya or even Blue Star herself—that reveals that she and Wolff were being pressed to convince Dr. Dower of “the new Temple Dawn” in which Sarah would follow Mrs. LaDue as Chief Guardian of the Temple.[33] Some of the messages were even directed at Dower himself, urging him to accept Sarah as the new esoteric head, who was to complement his exoteric activities: “I wish to say to you, William, that I have chosen this child as the Light Bearer to the coming Race. She will follow in Blue Star’s footsteps . . . You will do well to listen to these words, William.”[34]

These messages, however, contradict Mrs. LaDue’s own words—albeit written some thirteen years before her death—that anointed Dr. Dower as her successor. LaDue’s will, which was “written and sealed in 1909” and opened three days after her death, names Dower, “at the Master’s suggestion,” her successor; it also “warned her followers not allow anyone to be associated with the offices of the Temple who claimed ‘mastery of psychic abilities’.”[35] This led Wolff to ask Hilarion this question: “Father, in connection with the documents read last night, am I correct in holding that the establishing of Doctor’s official succession to the office of Guardian-in-Chief and Corporation Sole has no bearing in determining the question of his succession to the Lodge Agency?” Hilarion responds:

I can only repeat, my child, hold high your faith and wait. . . . My eldest son holds the outer gates; a younger son holds the inner gates. Be not cast down, my son, we will make good our word to Sarah. You have little faith if outer exoteric word and legal forms can move you from the interior knowledge that is yours. Hold that faith firmly against all comers, even as thou lost now unknowingly.[36]

Hilarion goes on to reaffirm that Sarah and Wolff had been “selected as the first of twelve to be chosen,” but then instructed them not to oppose Dower and to help him “with your advice and your support wherever possible,” but once again, only “exoterically.”[37]

The couple soon came to realize, however, that their “lodge work” would lead them beyond the Temple; in particular, as they made clear in their letter of resignation from the Temple dated December 22, 1922 (and circulated to all members of the Temple), it became clear to them that this work had “no claim of a status” within the Temple of the People:

It is a work outside of that body and coming under the independent hierarchical alignment. It is simply desired by Those directing us in this work that correlation with the Temple work should be established. It is true that we received our preliminary training for this work through the Temple and so in a certain definite sense have received birth through the Lodge work that came through the Temple. But beyond this sense of being the instrument of our preliminary training the Temple of the People has no relationship to the work given us save such as the Head of the Temple might wish to see established . . . [38]

The problem was that the new Head of the Temple—that is, Dr. Dower—had no desire for such a relationship, and in fact, did not recognize Sarah’s ability to receive messages from Hilarion, Blue Star or the Great White Lodge. In a 1923 issue of The Temple Artisan, Dower penned a note titled “Concerning False Messages,” in which he is particularly damning:

A misguided woman formerly associated with the office work at Halcyon has caused to be circulated at Halcyon a so-called “fare thee well” typewritten “message” purporting to come from the Master Hilarion intending to convey to those reading it that Hilarion has deserted the Temple Center at Halcyon and that all would be well if members foreswore their sacred obligations and followed this emotional psychic instead of those appointed by B. S. (Francia A. LaDue) under direction of the three Masters, Hilarion, Morya and Koot Hoomi.[39]

It is unclear what document Dower is referencing in this passage, but if it is the resignation letter quoted above, then his criticism is unfair; specifically, this letter is not represented as a message from Hilarion, it does not state that Hilarion has deserted the Temple, and it concludes with the statement that “We have no desire whatsoever to draw anyone away from his Temple alignment or from membership.”[40]

On the other hand, Dower’s claim to the leadership of the Temple did rest on a solid ground—that is, Mrs. LaDue’s will; moreover, one could argue that Dower was simply heeding LaDue’s instruction therein not to allow an office of the Temple to be filled by anyone who claimed “mastery of psychic abilities.” And, there is evidence that Sarah envisioned a new group forming out of a section of the Temple, although only after Dower (and others in the group, such as John Varian) opposed and criticized her claims. A “message” dated October 18, 1922 states that “the work of the central zone is that of preparing a Temple of Living Light” that “will become the place wherein the restoration of the Ancient Mysteries will be accomplished.”[41] In her essay on “Self-Realization,” Sarah begins by reflecting on Blue Star’s final words: “When she said I would take her place when she was gone, she said truly, I have taken that place. But how different it is from what I thought . . .” In the rambling text that follows, she surmises that Blue Star and Red Star are the “daughter” and “son” of Hilarion and the Temple their “child.” Sarah is the “daughter” of Blue Star, who, together with the “son” Franklin Wolff, must give birth to a “child” of their own. In other words, the lofty goal of their marriage was seen as the raising of spiritual—not biological—offspring; that is, the deliverance of a movement of their own.[42]

After leaving Halcyon, Sarah was apparently ready to get to work, as evidenced by an undated entry in her channeled messages, an excerpt from which is presented here:

Many students are not sought, but a few earnest, determined, teachers and or students seeking to prepare themselves to give again the truths to others who are found worthy are sought. The Masters of Wisdom seek a FEW thoroughly trained, sincere, dependable students who may qualify as accepted Chelas to do the work of the Great Occult Cycle now opening before the race.

If you are deeply sincere and have caught the “Call,” you may write for further information to

Temple of the Rising Sun

Arroyo Grande, Calif.[43]

The couple would not remain in the area long enough to start a school, but they did continue their relationship with at least one of the members of Halcyon, Edgar Conrow.[44]

Conrow was a vice president of the League of Brotherhoods, the Temple’s auxiliary exoteric organization in Syracuse, and he had accompanied Mrs. LaDue on her trips in 1901 and 1902 to the California Central Coast looking for land on which to build Halcyon. In 1904, he moved his family from Philadelphia to Arroyo Grande, Calif., which borders the northern perimeter of Halcyon (he purchased the Pitkin house, an 1890 Victorian mansion that his family lived in for the next fifty years). The January 1905 issue of the Temple Artisan notes that “Brother Edgar Conrow and family arrived here early in December, and will reside here permanently, in connection with the work.” Specifically, Conrow took charge of the Temple’s farming activities, and continued his role on the association’s Board of Directors.

In 1920, the Swarthmore College Bulletin lists Conrow as an “editor and publisher.”[45] Although there is no mention of this activity in the Temple Artisan, Conrow and Sarah A. Merrell-Wolff are listed as co-publishers of the November 1924 issue of a periodical named The Herald of Light: Unification, Illumination, Liberation. Wolff wrote a column for this monthly titled the “Open Forum” and at least one essay, titled “Create New Robes for the Ancient Wisdom.”[46] A transcript of this essay can be found in the Wolff Archive under “Essays.”

In Sarah’s essay on “Self-Realization” quoted above, she concludes that if they fail to make an “understanding branch of the Temple Tree come alive,” they will go to “the HPB branch of the TS” instead;[47] that is, to the “United Lodge of Theosophists . . . the most faithful group of students of the Secret Doctrine that we know.”[48] And in fact, it appears that this is exactly what they did; specifically, they joined the Los Angeles branch of the ULT on December 16, 1922.[49]

Documents found in the Wolff Archive related to the Temple of the People range from Wolff’s acceptance letter into the group to letters and notes from LaDue to Sarah. Various Temple pamphlets and notes are included here as well as messages from Hilarion and Morya.

Endnotes

[1] Franklin Merrell-Wolff, “Autobiographical Material: A Recollection of My Early Life and Influences” (Lone Pine, Calif.: July 6, 1978), audio recording, 5.

[2] Here is a synopsis of the Temple’s history from James A. Santucci’s entry in James R. Lewis, ed., The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions, 2nd ed. (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2001):

During the eventful year of 1898, another Theosophical organization came into existence with the founding of the Temple of the People by Dr. William H. Dower (1866–1937) and Mrs. Francia LaDue (1849–1922), who believed that they were following the instructions of the “Master” to separate from the Tingley-led Universal Brotherhood and T.S. and, according to its own declaration, to lay the “mental, physical, and spiritual foundations of the coming sixth race.” Arising out of the Syracuse (New York) Lodge of the U.B. and T.S., they and their group moved to California in 1903, where they settled on land east of Oceano, establishing the headquarters known as Halcyon. By 1904, Dr. Dower opened the Halcyon Hotel and Sanitorium in order to continue his medical practice, treating such maladies as tuberculosis, nervous disorders, alcoholism, and drug addiction. The following year (1905), the Temple Home Association was incorporated, which laid out a town plan and sold or leased house sites, thus organizing a co-operative colony with Mrs. LaDue, also known as Blue Star, becoming the first head—Guardian in Chief—of the Temple. In 1908, the Temple was incorporated under the title “The Guardian in Chief of the Temple of the People, a Corporation Sole.” After Mrs. LaDue’s death in 1922, Dr. Dower became the second head of the Temple, supervising the construction of the Blue Star Memorial Temple. Begun in 1923 and completed in 1924, the Blue Star Memorial Temple was built in accordance with mathematical and geometrical symbolism illustrating the Unity of all Life, or the Higher Self. Upon Dr. Dower’s death in 1937, Mrs. Pearl Dower became the third Guardian in Chief, who organized the property according to its present specifications, a 95 acre property consisting of 52 homes, 30 of which are owned by the Temple, the William Quan Judge Library, which also houses the Temple offices and an apartment for visitors. The successor to Mrs. Dower in 1968 was Harold Forgostein, who is painted 22 pictures in the early 1930s at the request of Dr. Dower depicting the Native Americans’ contributions to understanding the balance in nature and scenes from the life of Hiawatha, both important in Temple teachings. These paintings are now in the Temple’s University Center. Mr. Forgostein remained head of the Temple until 1990; the present Guardian in Chief is Eleanor L. Shumway.

[3] See Francia A. LaDue and William H. Dower, “The Temple” (Oceano, Calif.: Temple Home Association, ca. 1900). The name was changed several years after its foundation, as “The Master gave the name The Temple of the People and directed its use for the Temple movement in 1899, but requested that only the first two words be used, until such time as he should indicate a change. That time is now here . . .” Francia A. LaDue and William H. Dower, “The Temple of the People” (Oceano, Calif.: Temple Home Association, 1908), 31.

[4] George Harrison, interview by Dorothy Varian, June 26, 1962, typescript in Papers of Russell and Sigurd Varian, Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries. In her biography of John’s remarkable sons, Russell and Sigurd Varian—both of whom grew up in Halcyon—Dorothy Varian (Russell’s wife) recounts that one their closest friends was “Franklin Wolff, a Stanford graduate student and mathematician.” Dorothy Varian, The Inventor and the Pilot (Palo Alto: Pacific Books, 1983), 35. Below is an excerpt from Eleanor Shumay’s “The Temple of the People: A History” that depicts Varian’s ties to Halcyon:

The original group of Temple members included John and Agnes Varian. John was a chiropractor practicing at the Sanatorium and Agnes the first Halcyon Store keeper and postmistress. John had first encountered Theosophy at home in Ireland and found Dr. Dower’s group in Syracuse when he emigrated to the U.S. He had a deep connection with Irish mythology and wrote wonderful poetry expressing these ageless mythological truths. He also pinned a special love poem to his wife’s pincushion every day. There was much laughter and a spirit of adventure in their household of three sons. The boys, Russell, Sigurd and Eric, were fascinated with electricity and its practical and impractical applications which included attaching electrical current to bed springs and door knobs to the shocked astonishment of visitors. After high school and college, Russell, the dreamer, and Sigurd, the expert in practical applications, did much of their research in Halcyon on the klystron tube that made radar possible. They later moved their operations to Palo Alto, and established the Varian Electronics Firm. Eric stayed in Halcyon, raised his family and worked throughout the Central Coast area as an electrical contractor. (Accessed on April 14, 2017. http://www.templeofthepeople.org/history/temple-history/.)

[5] Franklin Merrell-Wolff, “Autobiographical Material: My Academic Life and Embarking upon My Spiritual Quest” (Lone Pine, CA: March 1, 1982), audio recording, 8. According to the Temple’s bulletin, a series of lectures given by Varian, Wolff and others during Wolff’s year of teaching attracted “much attention.” Temple Artisan 14, no. 8 (January 1914), 167.

[6] Wolff, “My Academic Life,” 10. Wolff had previously spent time at the Temple’s headquarters during the year of 1914, including the Temple’s “Fifteenth Annual Convention of Temple Members,” which was held at the beginning of August. According to the Temple’s bulletin report, Wolff “rendered yeoman’s service” in the production of a “mystery play” by John Varian titled “The Cauldron of the Gods.” Temple Artisan 15, no. 4 (September 1914), 60-1. This bulletin also reported that “The Halcyon Centre had the pleasure of a holiday visit from Miss Eileen Dixon and Franklin Wolff of Carmel” that year. Temple Artisan 15, no. 8 (January 1915), 128. Eileen was an early love interest of Wolff, and she was involved at Halcyon for some time, appearing in a play in October 1917; by April 1918, she had left the community for Palo Alto.

[7] See Francia A. LaDue and William H. Dower, “Open Meeting of the Temple Home Association,” (Oceano: Temple Home Association, 1904), in which these plans are outlined. In the early years, the Board struggled to cover it costs, and regularly requested that its members lend a “helping hand.” See Francia A. LaDue et al., “The Helping Hand” (Oceano: Temple Home Association, 1905); Francia A. LaDue et al., “The Helping Hand” (Oceano: Temple Home Association, 1907); and Francia A. LaDue et al., “The Helping Hand” (Oceano: Temple Home Association, 1908).

[8] Francia A. LaDue, William H. Dower, “The Temple Home Association Explained,” (Oceano, Calif.: Temple Home Association, ca. 1904), 14.

[9] LaDue and Dower, “The Temple,” 3-4; Francia A. LaDue and William H. Dower, “The White Brotherhood and Its Connection to the Temple,” (Oceano, Calif.: Temple Home Association, ca. 1900).

[10] Francia A. LaDue, “Private: To Members of the Order of the 36,” (Syracuse: The Temple, 1901/1903), 61.

[11] Transcripts of her channeled messages are found in the Wolff Archive; see for example. Francia A. LaDue, “Message to All Students of Life,” (Syracuse: The Temple, 1899); Francia A. LaDue, “Message,” (Halcyon: The Temple Home Association, no date); Francia A. LaDue, “Prophecy,” (Syracuse: The Temple, 1902); ibid. Most of them are signed with “H” or “Hilarion” and one or two with “Morya.”

[12] Wolff, “My Academic Life,” 9.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Franklin Merrell-Wolff, “Lectures to University Students,” part 5 (Flagstaff, Ariz.: February 1968), audio recording, 9. For details, see Franklin Merrell-Wolff, “Federalism and the Question of Conscientious Objection,” (Lone Pine, Calif.: July 2, 1970), audio recording. Wolff argues that real conscientious objection should be based on an inner conviction and not on an outer affiliation to a recognized religious organization, although he admits that in individual cases, this may be difficult to determine.

[15] Wolff, “Lectures to University Students,” 4.

[16] Wolff, “A Recollection of My Early Life and Influences,” 5. In this recording (pp. 4-5), Wolff reports this was the third of three personal communications to him from Hilarion, all relating to practical matters. The first concerned his diet:

I decided to take the course of vegetarian diet, not for dietetic reasons but for ethical reasons, because the eating of meat implied the killing of creatures and that seemed to me ethically objectionable. I followed this vegetarian diet for a year and a half and developed chronic indigestion, and then received a message from the one called Hilarion telling me to desist, and I did; and I’ve not been interested in vegetarian diet since. It took ten years to correct the tendency to indigestion.

Wolff received the second message during his year at Harvard:

On another occasion, while at Harvard, I had become interested in Indian sources, namely, East Indian sources, and I laid my plans to get to India. I succeeded in getting an offer of a teaching position in a missionary school in the field of mathematics. But I wrote to headquarters at Halcyon and received another message to the effect, “The Child of the East will find his call to action in the West wind. It would seem that if you return to India, you may be taken up by Indian quietism.” I interpreted this to mean that I should not so return.

[17] The community’s monthly newsletter reported that Sarah established permanent residence at Halcyon in mid-1915 (July). Temple Artisan 16, no. 5 (October 1915), 78.

[18] These letters can be found under the Wolff Archive tab, “Correspondence.”

[19] More on Wolff’s first wife can be found under the Wolff Archive tab, “Sherifa.”

[20] Temple Artisan 16, no. 6 (November 1915), 89. In a later issue, Wolff describes this class as follows:

Briefly stated, the program pursued by the class in occult Mathematics has been as follows: In the first place, from a metaphysical point of view, number and geometrical form were considered as basically underlying all manifestation in the sense of being the formal or schematic condition of all expression. Either Light or Sound may be regarded as the substantial basis of the manifested Deity, but Number and Geometry give the fundamental principles of organization under which manifested Light or Sound must fall. Consequently, logically, Number and Geometry stand first.

In the second place, the numerical elements and operations of algebra were formulated in the terms in which they are employed in ordinary manipulation. From this the class has proceeded to the interpretation of the ten primary numerical elements and of the algebraic operations. It is expected that with the discovery of more or less adequate interpretations of both of these the key to the partial interpretation of numerical complexes will be found.

The spirit of work in this class is strictly cooperative. The endeavor is to follow the ideal of bringing together the peculiar powers of all the individual members of the class and from the interaction of these evolve a system of interpretation that would be more comprehensive than that which any one individual could offer. Temple Artisan 16, no. 8 (January 1916), 120-1.

[21] Temple Artisan 16, no. 12 (May 1916), 180.

[22] Temple Artisan 17, no. 4 (September 1916), 56-7.

[23] In full the report is as follows: “Brother Franklin Wolff is again at the centre and has resumed his class in Occult Mathematics. The weekly classes have functioned without intermission since the start, save for a short period during the holidays. Valuable material for permanent courses has accumulated which will be made generally available later on.” Temple Artisan 17, no. 8 (January 1917), 56-7.

[24] “Mrs. Sarah A. M. Briggs and Franklin Wolff of the Centre visited North Branch, Cal., the past month on business, stopping with our comrades, Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Wotherspoon.” Temple Artisan 17, no. 11 (May 1917), 168.

[25] The March 1917 issue of The Temple Artisan notes on p. 75 that Mr. Wotherspoon General Manager of the mining operations at the properties of the Halcyon Mining Company, located at North Branch, Calaveras County, Calif.

[26] Temple Artisan 19, no. 5 (October 1918), 59, 67.

[27] See, for example, Temple Artisan 19, no. 2 (July 1918), 30, where “two courses are offered at $1.50 each” with “six lessons in every course outlined.”

[28] The Wolff Archive contains a handwritten certificate signed by “Chief Priest” LaDue, dated 11 August 1918, which states that as of that day she has accepted Wolff as a “Novice in the Order of the Priesthood of the Temple of the People.”

[29] In a 1916 journal that is part of the Wolff Archive, Wolff indicates that Sarah’s channeling of Hilarion began this year. The earliest messages from Hilarion found in the Wolff Archive are from 1920. See Sarah A. M. Wolff, “Channeled Messages, 1920” under the Sherifa tab of the Wolff Archive. In 1922, Wolff is also told to open his consciousness to “Koot Hoomi,” but his efforts apparently were not particularly successful. Sarah A. M. Wolff, “Channeled Messages, 1922”, 49, 50, 58, 69. Wolff remained critical, however, asking before making such an effort, “How may I distinguish between that which is genuinely from another intelligence and that which is merely words and phrases floating about in my own mind?” Afterwards, he says “From within me, one speaks and says ‘Thou art deceived, it is thy own personal mind that has builded this,’” ibid., 53, 64. One also finds that Sarah, who is often much less critical, also on occasion had doubts, ibid., 6, 55.

[30] One might note that Temple of the People employed the same gendered division of spiritual labor as that Blavatsky employed in the Temple’s parent organization—that is, male intellectual instruction and female intuitional channeling.

[31] Franklin F. Wolff, “Statement of Credentials of Lodge Status of Sarah.” In a channeled message, Sarah is advised by Hilarion that “Your work my child is important lodge work and you should take and function in the place vacated by B. S. when that time comes, but that functioning must be according to hierarchical law. You would be known as Inner Guard and will work exoterically with [Dower], but will work esoterically with F. A. B. and [Franklin Wolff]. If [Dower] becomes unmanageable, the work will go on and F .F .W. will function in that office esoterically as well as esoterically.” Sarah A. M. Wolff, “Channeled Messages 1922,” 23.

[32] Sarah A. M. Wolff, “Channeled Messages 1922,” 23.

[33] LaDue had allegedly spoken these words to Sarah, as she sat beside her on her deathbed, ibid., 3, 4.

[34] Ibid., 3, 8.

[35] Paul Eli Ivey, Radiance from Halcyon: A Utopian Experiment in Religion and Science (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013), 123.

[36] Sarah A. M. Wolff, “Channeled Messages 1922,” 113.

[37] Ibid., 6 and 116. A few weeks later, Hilarion advises that “It is requisite that the Temple membership be held together and not be torn apart by strife; it is equally requisite that a cleansing process take place wherein the evils now dominating the outer gate are controlled and eliminated.” Ibid., 120.

[38] Franklin and Sarah Merrell-Wolff, “Letter to Temple Members, December 22, 1922.”

[39] William H. Dower, “Concerning False Messages,” Temple Artisan 23.

[40] Franklin and Sarah Wolff, “Letter to Temple Members, December 22, 1922.”

[41] Sarah Wolff, “Channeled Messages,” 184.

[42] Sarah A. Merrell-Wolff, “Self-Realization” (November 19, 1922) in “Channeled Messages, 1922,” 192-5.

[43] Sarah Wolff, “Channeled Messages,” 185.

[44] Edgar Conrow (1864-1935) was born in New Jersey and received his Bachelors of Letters from Swarthmore College in 1883. While in Philadelphia he was active in the local chapter of the Temple, known as the “Brotherly Love Square” (at the time, one of twenty-four branches of the Temple across the United States, formally known as “squares”).

[45] Swarthmore College Bulletin 17, no. 4 (June 1929), 46.

[46] (February 1923). The November 1924 issue of The Herald of Light is listed as Volume 6, no. 11, so it would appear that this journal had been circulated since 1918.

[47] Ibid., 195.

[48] Sarah Wolff, “Channeled Messages, 1922” 145.

[49] The Aquarian Theosophist 4, no. 3 (January 17, 2003), 27.