‘Nullius in verba’ was chosen to accompany the arms given to the Society by Charles II in the second charter
of 1663. John Evelyn had sketched a variety of possible ‘Armes and
mottoes proposed for ye Royal Society, 1660′, which included the motto
eventually chosen and still used today. Designs which failed to make
the final cut included a vessel under sail with the motto ‘Et augebitur
scientia’, a hand issuing from clouds holding a plumb-line with the
motto ‘Omnia probate’ (1 Thess. 5.21), two telescopes extended in
saltire with earth and planets, motto ‘Quantum nescimus!’, and a shield
bearing the sun in its splendour inscribed ‘Ad majorem lumen’, plus on
one side of the shield ‘Quis dicere falsum audeat?’. A final design, a
shield charged with terrestrial globe and human eye, is headed ‘Rerum
cognoscere causas’ from Virgil’s Georgics, alongside which is the word
‘Experiendo’ and a repetition of ‘Nullius in verba’. All were rejected,
with the exception of the latter, and the arms were entered into the
official volume, ‘Royal Concessions in the College of Arms’, approved
by the King on 22 April 1663 and entered into the record by Elias
Ashmole on 30 June 1663.

Ac ne forte roges, quo me duce, quo lare tuter,
Nullius addictus iurare in verba magistri.
(Horace, Epistles I.i, 1.13-14)

You shall not ask for whom I fight
Nor in what school my peace I find;
I say no master has the right
To swear me to obedience blind.
(trans. C.T. Carr)

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(Russian: Елена Петровна Ган, also Hélène, 12 August [O.S. 31 July] 1831, Yekaterinoslav, Ukraine, Russian Empire — May 8, 1891, London), better known as Helena Blavatsky (Russian: Елена Блаватская) or Madame Blavatsky, born Helena von Hahn, was a founder of Theosophy and the Theosophical Society.

It was in 1873 that she emigrated to New York City. Impressing people with her psychic abilities, she was spurred on to continue her mediumship. Mediumship (among other psychical and spiritual sciences of the time), based upon the quasi-religion known as Spiritualism having began at Rochester, NY, was a widely popular and fast-spreading field upon which Blavatsky based her career.^[3]

Throughout her career she claimed to have demonstrated physical and mental psychic feats which included levitation, clairvoyance, out-of-body projection, telepathy, and clairaudience. Another claim of hers was materialization, that is, producing physical objects out of nothing, though in general, her interests were more in the area of ‘theory’ and ‘laws’ rather than demonstration.

In 1874 at the farm of the Eddy Brothers, Helena met Henry Steel Olcott, a lawyer, agricultural expert, and journalist who covered the Spiritualist phenomena. Soon they were working together in the “Lamasery” (alternate spelling: “Lamastery”) where her book Isis Unveiled was written.

Madame Blavatsky wrote that all religions were both true in their inner teachings and problematic or imperfect in their external conventional manifestations. Her writings connecting esoteric spiritual knowledge with new science may be considered to be the first instance of what is now called New Age thinking. In fact, many researchers feel that much of New Age thought started with Blavatsky.

She also lived in Philadelphia for part of 1875, where she resided at 3420 Sansom Street, now home of the White Dog Cafe. While living on Sansom Street, Madame Blavatsky became ill with an infected leg. She claimed to have undergone a “transformation” during her illness which inspired her to found the Theosophical Society. In a letter dated June 12, 1875, she described her recovery, explaining that she dismissed the doctors and surgeons who threatened amputation. She is quoted as saying “Fancy my leg going to the spirit land before me!,” and had a white dog sleep across her leg by night.

To India

She had moved to India, landing at Bombay on 16 February 1879, where she first made the acquaintance of A.P. Sinnett. In his book Occult World he describes how she stayed at his home in Allahabad for six weeks that year, and again the following year.

Sometime around December 1880, while at a dinner party with a group including A.O. Hume and his wife, she is claimed to have been instrumental in causing the materialization of Mrs. Hume’s lost brooch.

By 1882 the Theosophical Society became an international organization, and it was at this time that she moved the headquarters to Adyar near Chennai, India (then known as Madras).

The society headquartered here for some time, but she later went to Germany for a while, in between she stayed at Ostend (15 July 1886 – 1 May 1887) where she could easily meet her English friends. She wrote a big part of the Secret Doctrine in Ostend ^[9] and there she claimed a revelation during an illness telling her to continue the book at any cost. Finally she went to England.

A disciple put her up in her own house in England and it was here that she lived until the end of her life.

Final years

In August, 1890 she formed the “Inner Circle” of 12 disciples: “Countess Constance Wachtmeister, Mrs Isabel Cooper-Oakley, Miss Emily Kislingbury, Miss Laura Cooper, Mrs Annie Besant, Mrs Alice Cleather, Dr Archibald Keightley, Herbert Coryn, Claude Wright, G.R.S. Mead, E.T. Sturdy, and Walter Old”.^[10]

Suffering from heart disease, rheumatism, Bright’s disease, and complications from influenza, Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky died at 19 Avenue Road, St Johns Wood,^[11] the home she shared, in England on May 8, 1891.

Her last words in regard to her work were: “Keep the link unbroken! Do not let my last incarnation be a failure.”

Her body was cremated; one third of her ashes were sent to Europe, one third with William Quan Judge to the United States, and one third to India where her ashes were scattered in the Ganges River. May 8 is celebrated by Theosophists, and it is called White Lotus Day.

She was succeeded as head of one branch of the Theosophical Society by her protégé, Annie Besant. Her friend, W.Q. Judge, headed the American Section.

Influences

Blavatsky was influenced by the following authors:

• Helene Fadeev, her mother
• William Blake
• Edward Bulwer-Lytton
• Louis Jacolliot
• Paschal Beverly Randolph

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One of the first to catch my attention was the Invisible College, a precursor of the Royal Society; It consisted of a group of scientists including Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, John Wallis, John Evelyn, Robert Hooke, Christopher Wren and William Petty. In letters in 1646 and 1647, Boyle refers to “our invisible college” or “our philosophical college”. The society’s common theme was to acquire knowledge through experimental investigation.

The idea of an invisible college became influential in seventeenth century Europe, in particular, in the form of a network of savants or intellectuals exchanging ideas (by post, as it would have been understood at the time). This is an alternative model to that of the learned journal, dominant in the nineteenth century. The invisible college idea is exemplified by the network of astronomers, professors, mathematicians, and natural philosophers in 16th century Europe. Men such as Johannes Kepler, Georg Joachim Rheticus, John Dee and Tycho Brahe passed information and ideas to each other in an invisible college. One of the most common methods used to communicate was through marginalia, annotations written in personal copies of books that were loaned, given, or sold from person to person. (Wikipedia)

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