Mary Hollis Billing
Mrs. Mary J. Hollis Billing was a remarkable American medium and member of the Theosophical Society. Master K.H. said that "among mediums she is the most honest if not the best".[1] She had two spirit guides who talked freely in direct voice: "James Nolan" and an Indian named "Ski".
Personal life
Mary Judith Kerns was born on April 24, 1837, at Jeffersonville, Indiana to Nicholas and Elizabeth Kerns. She married Ephraim J Hollis (1829-1910) in 1855. He was a captain during the Civil War, and worked as a railroad clerk.[2] The family lived in Indiana and in Louisville, Kentucky. There were several children: Ira, Anna, Winifred, Sarah, and Helene.[3] As of May, 1873, Mary was living in Louisville, Kentucky, still the wife of Ephraim, when she applied for a passport.[4]
She seems to have married Dr. Henry J. Billing in 1877, although no records are available for a divorce from Ephraim and marriage to Billing.
Mary's son Ira Hollis became a professor and President of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Winifred married John Henry Judge.
During her later years she lived with her daughter Helene's family in the Bronx, New York. They were Morgan and Helene Goldsmith, with three daughters. Mrs. Hollis Billing died on July 14, 1908 in Bronx, New York.[5]
Theosophical involvement
According to Readers Guide to The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett:
Mrs. Billing was active in the formation of the London Lodge but did not join it, preferring to retain her membership in the Parent Society. At that time (1877), if a member of the Parent Society joined a branch, membership in the former was forfeited (SH, p. 103). When HSO composed his first circular explaining the origin and plan of the TS and the aims for which it stood Mrs. Billing took a packet of these circulars to London (SH, pp. 104-5). When the Founders went to England in 1879 enroute to India they stayed with Dr. and Mrs. Billing for a time (SH, p. 123). At an election of officers in London Lodge on January 5, 1879, Dr. Billing was elected one of the two vice-presidents (SH, p. 124). Of Dr. Billing, ML-54 (92), pp. 301-2, has some rather severe things to say.[6]
Jim Nolan
On October 13, 1887, the Religio-Philosophical Journal began a series of interviews with questions placed by a reporter to the "control" named Jim Nolan. The interviews took place at 24 Ogden Avenue in Chicago and dealt heavily with the nature of materialization.[7] In a letter to Mary Hollis-Billing, H. P. Blavatsky claims that Jim Nolan was another name of her other spirit guide, "Ski."[8]
Ski
Ski (short for "Skiwaukie") was an Indian spirit guide of Mrs. Hollis Billing, and acted as a good influence to her. In one of his letters, Master K.H. wrote:
She has been a loyal member of the Society from the time she joined it, . . . She also, unless closely watched by "Ski" can turn a traitor — precisely because she is a medium, though it is not likely she would do it — withal she is incapable of either a falsehood or deceit in her normal state.[9]
He was also occasionally used by the Masters to deliver messages. Again, in the words of the Master:
Suffice then for me to say that "Ski" has more than once served as carrier and even mouthpiece for several of us.[10]
In a letter send to her by H. P. Blavatsky, the latter claims that Ski was not really a disembodied spirit guide:
Why for pity’s sake do not you tell people the truth about our Brother Ski, as you told me, as you and he know it to be truth? Why allow people to believe he is a disembodied "Spirit," when he is a living Spirit, who lived and will live for as many hundred years as he likes, putting his body away to sleep, whenever tired of earthly life, and roaming in the interplanetary worlds as much as he likes. Why should you conceal from those who are prepared to receive the truth, that he was an Initiate, and knew more than all their “medicine men” put together? Our Brothers know him and he knows them. Morya is his greatest friend as you know, and he brought that silk handkerchief from his house to Olcott. Morya (M) wants Ski to come out bravely and tell the world the truth.[11]
However, as seems to be frequently the case with untrained psychic communications, there were several entities acting under that name, as can be gathered from the Master's statement as to "the shortcomings and crimes of several other "Skis" having been fathered on the real "Ski," and Mr. Massey unable to recognise one from the other".[12]
Online resources
Articles
- Madame H.P. Blavatsky by Mary Hollis-Billing
- Letter from H. P. Blavatsky to Mrs. Hollis Billings published by Blavatsky Study Center
- Mrs. Mary J. Hollis by Paul J. Gaunt and Leslie Price. Psypioneer, October 2010, pp. 272-274.
- "Skiwaukie" the Indian spirit-guide at Psypioneer, October 2010, pp. 274-283.
Additional resources
- N. B. Wolfe, Startling Facts in Modern Spiritualism, (Forgotten Books, 2012).
Notes
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 103b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 352.
- ↑ U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865.
- ↑ 1870 U. S. Census.
- ↑ U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 for Mary J Hollis.
- ↑ New York, New York, Extracted Death Index, 1862-1948.
- ↑ George E. Linton and Virginia Hanson, eds., Readers Guide to The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett (Adyar, Chennai, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1972), 219.
- ↑ William Quan Judge "About 'Spirit' Materializations" The Path VI (July 1891), 109-113.
- ↑ Letter from H. P. Blavatsky to Mrs. Hollis Billings at Blavatsky Study Center
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 103b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 352.
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 103b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 352.
- ↑ Letter from H. P. Blavatsky to Mrs. Hollis Billings at Blavatsky Study Center
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 103b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 353.