Daily Archives: July 30, 2017

Consolidation

30 July 2017 – Astro-Weather: 1st Quarter Moon is in Libra, look to Her upper left for Spica & Jupiter at dusk, & far right for Scorpius & Saturn.

Starry Scorpius is sometimes called “the Orion of Summer” for its brightness & its prominent red supergiant (Antares in the case of Scorpius, Betelgeuse for Orion). But Scorpius passes a lot lower in the south than Orion. That means Scorpius has only one really good viewing month: July – which is almost over. Catch Scorpius in the south-southwest now right after darkness is complete.

Look for the 2 stars especially close together in the tail. These are Lambda Upsilon Scorpii, known as the Cat’s Eyes. The cat is tilting his head & winking – pointing west (right) by nearly a fist-width toward Mu Scorpii, look for a much tighter pair known as the Little Cat’s Eyes.

By the time morning twilight starts to paint the sky, brilliant Venus already dominates the scene. The planet rises around 4 am CDT. It’s hard to mistake the Goddess of Love for anything else she shines far brighter than any other object in the morning sky.

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Sarah Born

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

We understand only the very smallest part of human history and of our own life if we consider it in its external aspect, I mean in that aspect which we see from the limited view-point of our earthly life between birth and death. It is impossible to comprehend the inner motives of history and life unless we turn our gaze to that spiritual background which underlies the outer, physical happenings“.  ~Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships, Volume IV: Lecture III

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

762 – Baghdad is founded

1626 – An earthquake in Naples, Italy, kills about 10,000 people

1733 – The first Masonic Grand Lodge in the future United States is constituted in Massachusetts

1965 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare & Medicaid

1975 – Jimmy Hoffa disappears from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at about 2:30 p.m. He is never seen or heard from again

1818 – Birthday of Emily Brontë

1863 – Birthday of Henry Ford

1898 – Deathday of Otto von Bismarck, 1st Chancellor of Germany

1894- Birthday of Ernst Lehrs a German anthroposophist, science teacher in the 1st Waldorf School in Stuttgart, lecturer & writer. Having fought in World War I, he then studied science & graduated with a PhD in 1923. In 1935 he moved to The Netherlands, where he worked as a teacher, before moving to Britain as a Jewish refugee from the Nazis. In 1952 he returned to Germany & worked as a lecturer at the newly established course in anthroposophic special education in Eckwälden, where he remained until his death.

In his important work “Man and Matter”, Ernst Lehrs talks about how today’s researcher is an uninvolved spectator, he reveals not only how science has led inescapably to the illusions it believes in today, but more important how we may correct in ourselves the misconceptions science brings into our views through today’s education, giving us a spiritual understanding of nature based on the work of Goethe; which requires an activation of the cognitive consciousness, leading the true researcher back to themselves.

Ernst Lehrs was a personal pupil of Dr. Rudolf Steiner, one of the 12 founding members of the Esoteric Youth Circle.

Written by Ernst Lehrs  a few days after the burning of the 1st Goetheanum: “His (Rudolf Steiner’s) open criticism in various directions concerning the Society & the various activities within it in the weeks leading up to the fateful Christmas-New Year’s time, made one clear about the fact that it was due to the failure on the part of the Society that the necessary spiritual protection was missing from the building. Yet, it was out of an experience of this failure that the impulse for the Youth Course arose, as well as what led to the coming about of our specific endeavor. Thus the idea arose among us that we should ask Rudolf Steiner if, & how we could contribute to the Anthroposophical Society ‘consolidating’ itself again – as one of us put it. With this in mind, we asked to be allowed to speak with him. In the Glass House, on January 3, 1923, we asked about our helping toward consolidation of the Society, Rudolf Steiner answered in a calm tone with emphatic earnestness; “Just keep yourselves consolidated, & the Society will be consolidated.” Then he gave the advice that we should sit together on a regular basis & in symposium-like conversations, reflect again & again upon the foundational impulse of our group.”

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Sulamith Wulfing

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~The eye is open 
Watching 
Old men grip & grasp 
Blinking at Women yearning
Streaming with children spinning dizzy 
Vapors rise
Flesh falls
The eye recalls
The beauty of an ordinary Summer day
It sees me 
Looking for you

~hag

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Preparing for the 2nd Harvest: Lammas Day

The Wheel turns from St. John’s Tide with its message of the inner Christ Sun and the mirroring of the Holy nights, to the Sun in the heart of the lion (or at least it’s where Regulus, the heart of the lion, was a couple of thousand years ago!) Lammas, or Loaf mas, a cross quarter festival traditionally celebrated at the beginning of August, marks the point when we leave the Garden, and earn our own way, “by the sweat of our brow”.

The harvest of grain, and the baking of bread, represents the first child of the cosmic union of Sun and Earth. It symbolizes the essence of humanity, born from this union, for the loaf is more than a gift of nature, it is made by the combined forces of nature with the will forces of human activity.

The harvest season is a time of judgment. We are called upon to sift through the things that have grown up during the past half-year, and decide what we will keep and what we will cut away. We must make choices, and act on them. The cycle of life turns past the peak of growth, into the time of release.

In astrology, the moon, five eighths past the new moon, is called the “disseminating moon”. During this phase, what has built up in the waxing cycle begins to be released into the environment. We start to see the results of our work. At Lammas, the sun is five-eighths of the way around the Wheel from Winter Solstice. Growth has reached its peak, and the life of the Sun God has begun to bleed off into the fruit and grain.

The King is Dead Long Live the King – for now is also the time of sacrifice, of death in service of life. Some of the first fruits are ready for harvest, but some, too unripe to be eaten, must be plucked anyway. These are culls, removed so they won’t drain the life force from the good fruit. If everything was left on the tree, the life force would be diluted, or worse, the bad fruit could weigh down a branch until it breaks, destroying the entire crop, or sometimes killing the tree. The culls are taken so the rest of the fruit, and those who depend on the crop for survival, might live.

John Barleycorn must die… ‘Cut in half and buried, then beaten with sticks, and finally crushed between stones’… as the song goes, nevertheless rises once again. Bread is the perfect sacrifice for “Loaf Mass” or Lughnassadh as the Celtics called it, for they knew that this festival is more than just the first fruits of the earth — it also involves the first fruits of human labor. Grain is processed by human craft, and joined with the four elements to make the staff of life.

We will explore this ancient, yet ever renewable Cross-Quarter holiday, further tomorrow.

In gratitude ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

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Kari Marie Olsen

The Bridging Project Between Life and Death from Soul to Soul

2 August 2017 – 7:15 pm CST(8:15 pm EST)

With special guest Gisela Wielki, sharing her many years’ experience working with the so-called dead from the perspective of a Christian Community Priest

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The Central Regional Council is hosting a Bridging to the ‘Great American Eclipse’ in St. Louis – August 19-22, 2017 

Speaking from Soul to Soul with the Solar Eclipse At the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Motherhouse, St. Louis, Missouri August 19, 5 PM CST through August 21, 5pm CST

Read the article from Das Goetheanum

RETREAT CONTENT: At this Central Regional retreat, we take The ‘Bridging Project’ into the realm of ‘Speaking with the Stars’. In the life between death and re-birth the human being is engaged in an intimate conversation with the ‘Stars’. We will prepare for, view and work to hold the light during the ‘Great American Solar Eclipse’, which will sweep from West to East across all of America, and will be visible in the St. Louis area on Monday August 21st 2017. Through the social arts of folk eurythmy, song, study, color, meditation, and an interactive pageant*, we will engage with the spiritual significance of this powerful cosmic and earthly event. Afterward we will process, share and continue the conversation, working to understand the mysteries of the will. 

click here for a List of possible  activities to do around the Solar Eclipse

RETREAT LOCATION: The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Motherhouse is located just south of downtown St. Louis, Missouri, overlooking the Mississippi River(https://www.csjsl.org/motherhouse-services/take-a-tour.php). On Monday, we will travel to a TBD park or nature area about one hour south of St. Louis to experience the full solar eclipse, returning to The Motherhouse in the late afternoon.

TRANSPORTATION: Transportation is at the discretion of the participants (not included in retreat cost). The planning team will try to facilitate ride sharing opportunities if you request our assistance.  The closest airport is Lambert-St. Louis International Airport (Code: STL) ( http://flystl.com/)

LODGING PLANS: The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Motherhouse has 8 single and 2 double rooms available for the CRC conference. A few rooms have private bathrooms, and there are several shared bathrooms across the hall from the bedrooms. Rooms will be assigned on a first-registration basis to conference participants. If capacity allows, we will try to accommodate additional participants, whether at Carondelet or at local members’ homes.

MEALS: Meals will be provided by the Sisters of Carondelet during the fixed times listed below. Conference participants not staying at The Motherhouse are also able to order meals through this registration form. Vegan, vegetarian, non-dairy and gluten-free diets can be accommodated if requested in advance. Coffee, tea and ice water will be provided. Breakfast: 7:30 AM – 8:30 AM $7 Lunch: 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM $10 Dinner: 5:15 AM – 6:15 PM $11

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The Sisters of Carondelet are environmentally conscious, and no disposable water bottles are allowed in the property (but re-usable bottles are allowed)  Additional information will be provided to registered participants in July

click here to register