TODAY IS: the Birth & Death Day of Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, Known to us simply as Raphael Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. Born April 6, 1483 – Died April 6, 1520 (aged 37) in Rome. (Pineas/Elias/John the Baptist/Raphael/Novalis -Karmic Relationships Vol.4 lecture 11)

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

   O Tree of Life

   Now is not your Winter

   The red-rose-vine will entwine

   The ever greening bough

   In a slow motion rapture

~hag

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The 4^th Stage: (Part 5 of the 12 part series) Encountering the Inner Layers of the Earth as a Rosicrucian/Christian Initiation, in relation to the Beatitudes and the 9-fold human being.

Before the Mystery of Golgotha we had the picture of Atlas bearing the world on his shoulders. On the modern path it is: The Bearing of the Cross, which refers to the Sentient Soul, Giving us the virtue of carrying “the world in one’s conscience”.

Here in this 4^th stage of initiation we see an extension in the life of the feeling to an identification with the whole Earth – the end of the feeling of separateness.

In modern times, the human being strongly identifies with the body. For instance: Spinoza’s Ethics, tells us that the basic fundamental idea of the human being is ‘The body in action.’ The disciple must cultivate the notion that in the sum-total of things, their own body is not more important than any other body, whether it be the body of an animal, a tree or a piece of marble. The Self is not bound by the skin; it is united with the great entity of the universe, just as our hand is united with the rest of our body. That is why the disciple must live into every other being, & identify with the Spirit of the Earth.

To identify ourselves with all beings doesn’t mean that the body is to be despised. We must bear the body with dignity as we would some sacred object – just as Christ bore His Cross.

The Spirit must wield the body as the hand wields the hammer. At this stage the disciple must be conscious of the occult powers that are latent within the body.

The 4^th Beatitude gives us a clue: “Blessed are they that hunger & thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

Or as Steiner reveals:  “The Ego must work to spiritualize the Sentient Soul enabling us to feel the outpouring of brotherly love as righteousness; a longing similar to what we previously experienced unconsciously as the physical longing we call hunger and thirst.”

We must thirst for the things of the soul. This strengthening of the Sentient Soul is the medicine for the 4th layer in the interior of the earth, called the Form Earth. This layer holds the negative of every form found in the mineral layer; for example a rock in this realm would look like a plaster cast, creating negative space.

Steiner tells us that in contemplation on this stage of initiation, called The Bearing of the Cross, the stigmata may even appear. This is the sign that the disciple is ripe for the next step.

Where will this lead us?

Tune into tomorrow

Until soon

Blessings & Peace –

~hag = ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg