Reloading Humanism is a private initiative founded by Alexander Curtis and its legal status is that of a private project that expresses the opinions of a private individual. Nevertheless, the intention is to found a registered charity in Austria, which having the same name, will be able to secure funding for the realisation of other projects and  activities. Among the projects currently being planned are the publication of books, the running of a two days a meeting point and sustainability library, the promotion of philosophy and the holding of film nights.

Thought of as emblems of the aristocracy, along with titles, after the First World War the bearing of a coat of arms was made illegal in Austria. This however does not however mean that a coat of arms cannot be thought out. Nevertheless, as a coat of arms was traditionally bestowed upon the bearer by a monarch or superior instance and as in Austria there is no herald with whom a coat of arms can be registered, any coat of arms thought up will have an element of spurious randomness and a lack of veracity that undermines the seroiusness of the undertaking. Yet following in the footsteps of Hesiod and the poets of Antiquity, an invocation can be made to the Muses and the granting of a coat of arms from a higher instance than an earthly king can be invoked. The petition made and accepted, a bestowal may then be draughted:

 

Not through a king invoking a god given right to rule

are these arms granted to he who has sought and long wandered;

but through the higher instance of nine heavenly muses.

For from the remnants and debris all around, the bearer

has found principles and geometries we deem to be right.

Thus do we allow him to use as arms the following:

a wild man holding a flint that stands for endeavour,

while a wild woman with a laurel stands for ourselves.

The two support a blue shield with a glass ball thereupon,

that whilst also being burnt from without, is burning within.

Below in a scroll there is the motto: “Out of Itself”.

Above the arms as crest, there shall be a hoopoe bird

whose call “Who, who, who?” is both a question and a challenge.

The challenge is for the bearer of the arms to set up,

in the country where, on the banks of a winding river

we manifested ourselves in a world of snow and ice,

a society dedicated to the propounding

and articulation of that which we hold to be right.

The fellowship established, the challenge is extended

to all who hear the call to join the cause and with due zeal

follow as members the many ways of noble intent.

And we command that from the tangled mess of today’s words,

the bearer shall devise and distil out a language which,

free from infectious cynicism gives back to Being

the invective to be what it is and should rightly be.

And further the bearer shall write down all that we dictate,

with that written being presented and made available,

for we maintain that these things are endowed with a seeming-ness

that we deem to be most seemly and right and though we speak

not of truth, we approach it through seemliness and beauty,

this being our way, our nature and the very core of Being.

 

 

This in turn implies a promise of acceptance and a willingness to serve:

 

With wings would I fly through the air that I breathe,

with limbs would I walk the Earth of sustainence,

with hands would I scoop up the waters of life.

With objects of vision and affairs of heart,

I see, feel, apprehend, within and without,

an inner eye that forges understanding,

an outer self that dispenses compassion

– that when I peruse the groves of paradise

and walk the darstedly alleyways of death,

the fruits of my mind and the heart’s labourings

are always attuned to that which is deemed right.

To this end, do I strive to fathom Nature

and would feign understand its parabolas

(according to which all things proceed and unfold)

and to this end I read and also write books

in which these musings are clearly expounded

and feel duty-bound to propagate these things

that my delight be shared and not mine alone.

And to this end I troth to rear and nuture

an ambience in which these things are discussed,

a place convivial but home to excitement,

where the body cared for, minds come together,

burning the weal of an idea in our hearts.