William H. Dower. T. L. S. to John and Agnes Varian. Halcyon, California, October 25, 1912.

Dr. Dower tells his friends in confidence his plan to wed Jane Kent the following week. He fears that the marriage will test the Temple and that if the group breaks apart over the marriage, it will have been founded on “personality” and not on the teachings of Theosophy.

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HALCYON
A group of Theosophists from Syracuse, New York, moved to Oceana, California, in 1903 to form the Halcyon community. They rejected the teachings of Katherine Tingley, the head of the movement at the time, in favor of a return to the original work of Madame Blavatsky. They built a sanatorium for the treatment of liquor, morphine, and opium addiction. Socialism and communal property marked the group and drew the attention of reformers like novelist Upton Sinclair.