Monthly Archives: September 2017

I am sorry.  Please forgive me.  I love you. Thank you.

30 September 2017 – Astro-Weather: Bella Luna’s absence from the morning sky these next few days provides an excellent opportunity to view the zodiacal light. From the Northern Hemisphere, early autumn is the best time for viewing this elusive glow before sunrise. It appears slightly fainter than the Milky Way, so you’ll need a clear moonless sky & a site site located far from the city. Look for a cone-shaped glow that points nearly straight up from the eastern horizon shortly before morning twilight begins (around 5:30 am CDT). The Moon remains out of the morning sky until October 4, when the waxing gibbous returns & overwhelms the much fainter zodiacal light.

Arcturus shines in the west these evenings, sinking as twilight fades away. Equally-bright Capella is rising lower in the north-northeast, as bright as Vega high overhead.

By mid-evening Arcturus & Capella shine at identical heights. When it happens, turn around and look low in the south-southeast (well to the lower left of the Moon tonight). There you’ll find Fomalhaut at the same height too.

 

***

Belkis Melisa Krgn

When we look up to the wonder of the starry world, when we contemplate the whole process of the universe with its glories and marvels, then we are led at last to the feeling that all the glory that lies open to our view in the whole universe that surrounds us only has meaning when it is reflected in an admiring human soul. -~Goethe

TODAY is Yom Kippur*

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

Sigmund Gleismüller

395 – John the Evangelist settles in Patmos to write the Apocalypse

Caravaggio

420 – Deathday of St. Jerome also called Hieronymus, Roman priest, theologian, patron saint of translators, librarians & encyclopedists. Rudolf Steiner speaks of him in From Jesus to Christ lecture 4, saying he had to ‘falsify’ the Gospel of St. Matthew, because it was too esoteric for folks at the time:

When we know this, we understand that the original Gospel of Matthew could not be imparted without further preparation because men were not ripe to receive what was in it. For if Jerome, a Father of the Church, was himself not ripe for what it contained, then certainly other men were not. Those who were originally in possession of these communications, the Ebionites, did not impart them because, if received by unripe persons, they would have been so distorted that they must have led to what Jerome meant when he said that they would serve not for edification but for destruction. Now Jerome understood this; yet he allowed himself to impart in a certain way the Gospel of Matthew to the world. ~Rudolf Steiner

1207 – Birthday of Rumi, Persian mystic & poet

1791 – The first performance of The Magic Flute, the last opera by Mozart to make its debut, took place at Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, Austria

1791 – The National Constituent Assembly in Paris is dissolved; Parisians hail Maximilien Robespierre & Jérôme Pétion as “incorruptible patriots”

1882 – Thomas Edison’s first commercial hydroelectric power plant (later known as Appleton Edison Light Company) begins operation on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin

1914 – Birthday of Johannes Tautz – a Historian, Religious scholar, Anthroposophist, Author & Waldorf teacher. After the German capitulation, Tautz was imprisoned by the Czechs, Americans & Russians but managed to escape in the summer of 1945 back to his family in Bad Boll. He was soon approached by Erich Gabert in Stuttgart to join the Waldorf School that was about to be opened as its German & History teacher. On 1 November 1945 he stood before his first 9th grade at the Free Waldorf School, Uhlandshöhe.

Soon Johannes Tautz decided to look up his “predecessor”, the first history teacher at the Waldorf School, Walter Johannes Stein. The conversations with Stein provided an orientation & inspiration for all of his further work as a teacher, lecturer & writer; in his lecturing work at national & international conferences and in the “Hague Circle”, a coordinating international group of Waldorf teachers.

He likewise received particular guidance from Emil Bock regarding a Christological view of world history & from Jürgen von Grone about the destiny of Germany &in particular to the figure of Helmuth von Moltke.

In 1966 Tautz held three lectures about the spiritual background to National Socialism, which later appeared in print under the title Attack of the Enemy – The Occult Inspiration Behind Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in 1976. In it he looks at a number of personalities connected with questionable occult practices with which leading Nazis had been close during the time of the movement’s growth.

In 1979 he edited a collection of biographical portraits together with Gisbert Husemann of the circle of founding Waldorf teachers around Rudolf Steiner.

Together with a young friend, Thomas Meyer, he visited the daughter of Walter Johannes Stein, Clarissa Johanna Muller, in Ireland where she was living in order to look through her father’s literary estate. They found the typescript of Stein’s dissertation annotated by Rudolf Steiner, letters & meditations of Steiner for Stein, his mother & for his brother, who fell in a mysterious manner in WWI. Letters & notes of Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz, Eliza von Moltke, Ita Wegman, D.N Dunlop & many other personalities were discovered & formed the basis of Tautz’s biography of Stein in 1989

In 1993 he initiated the editing of a collection Rudolf Steiner’s letters & notes to Eliza von Moltke together with the post mortem communications & the letters of Helmuth von Moltke himself. The decision to publish these was to prevent or anticipate a partial publication without an appropriate commentary on the subject that had been announced. A previous instance of this content being used had been in the book The Spear of Destiny by Trevor Ravenscroft which, in the opinion of Tautz had been written “without the necessary protection of background knowledge for the deeply-penetrant & difficult to understand material.” Further reading

1938 – The League of Nations unanimously outlaws “intentional bombings of civilian populations”

1962 – Labor leader César Chávez founds the National Farm Workers Association, which later becomes United Farm Workers

1982 – Cyanide-laced Tylenol kills six people in the Chicago area. Seven are killed in all

1993 – The 6.2 Mw Latur earthquake shakes Maharashtra, India with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe) killing 9,748 & injuring 30,000

1999 – The Tokaimura nuclear accident causes the deaths of 2 technicians, many others affected by radiation poisoning, in Japan’s second-worst nuclear accident

2009 – The 7.6 Mw Sumatra earthquake shakes central Sumatra with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). 1,115 people dead, many injured & left homeless

***

“Do you know what you are?
You are a manuscript of a divine letter.
You are a mirror reflecting a noble face.
This universe is not outside of you.
Look inside yourself;
everything that you want,
you are already that.” 

~Rumi

***

*Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which began last night at sunset, falls 10 days after Rosh Hashanah, & is the culmination of the entire High Holy Day drama. It is the holiest day of the Jewish year or, as the Bible describes it, the “Sabbath of Sabbaths”. During the 24 hours of Yom Kippur, the biblical commandment to fast from food & water, while engaging in intense soul-searching, & praying for forgiveness is practiced. Yom Kippur is a day of inner purification & of reconciliation with the creator & with our fellow human beings. It is a reminder of the frailty of human existence & our duty to act charitably toward the less fortunate.

The inspiring, yet sobering, words of Isaiah 58 are read publicly in the synagogue on Yom Kippur “This fasting I have chosen,” says the prophet Isaiah, “Is it not done to loose the chains of injustice & untie the cords of bondage? To set the oppressed free & break every yoke? Are we not meant to share our food with the hungry & to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, you must clothe him, & not turn away from your fellow man?”

There are number of customs & traditions associated with the Holy Day of Yom Kippur. For example: the mikvah, or ritual bath.  The scripture says “You shall immerse yourselves in water & be purified.” This practice, from which Christian baptism originated, symbolizes purification & regeneration, as well as new birth, through repentance. Another custom is to greet each other by saying ‘May your name be inscribed in the Book of Life’ Gmar Chatimah Tova.

The High Holy Days are divided into two parts: The first is the inscribing which begins on Rosh Hashanah & finishes on Yom Kippur when the final “sealing” of fate takes place for the year. Parents customarily bless their children with the priestly benediction: “May it be the will of our Father in Heaven to put into your heart love & reverence. May your eyes be directed, may your mouth speak wisdom, & your heart strive for holiness. May your hands be occupied with good deeds & your feet hasten to do the will of the divine. May He grant you sustenance without stress & with profit, out of His hand that is open wide. May you be inscribed & sealed unto a good, long life. And so shall it be. Amen.”

It is also customary to give extra charity before the holiday, & to light memorial candles for departed family members.

As with all Jewish festivals, the woman formally ushers in the holiday by lighting the candles at sundown. Evening services commence with the recitation of the Kol Nidrei prayer, a plea for absolution from any & all unfulfilled vows a person may have made in the course of the year.

Contrary to popular belief, Yom Kippur is a day of hope & optimism in addition to a solemn day of soul-searching. The Day of Atonement provides a unique awareness of one’s own character & track record, as well as the opportunity to upgrade relationships with relatives, friends, associates & the community at-large. Yom Kippur’s focus on forgiveness, highlights humility, fallibility, compassion, soul-searching faith, thoughtfulness, being considerate, & accepting responsibility

Hildagard

Cabalistic tradition states that the first human being, Adam, was created on Rosh Hashanah.  And so it is that Human-beings are given an opportunity to recreate themselves spiritually, each year, on Yom Kippur.  This holiday is celebrated when the constellation of the scales give way to the virgin as herald in the heavens. Libra & Virgo symbolize key themes of Yom Kippur: Justice, balance, truth, symmetry, wholeness.

 

Libra is ruled by the planet Venus which reflects the beauty of love, & Virgo is ruled by Mercury the god of communications. During this season it is customary to walk to a body of fresh water & recite a special prayer, symbolically casting bread crumbs into the waters, a symbol of our sins: those actions that have missed the mark.

And now, at the risk of mixing metaphors, I’d like us to put into practice the Hawaiian ritual of forgiveness, called Ho‘oponopono – It stems from an understanding that everything in the world is connected, in spite of our feelings of ‘separateness’.

What we do to ourselves & others has repercussions. Because of this unity everything that occurs in our own little world creates a resonance in others & in society as a whole. To heal the planet we first have to heal ourselves; to do this, we will  rely on four magic sentences: I am sorry.  Please forgive me.  I love you. Thank you. x4

In earnest wakefulness & practiced Peace –

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

Spirit-Light of Thought

29 September 2017– Astro-Weather: As the stars come out in late twilight, look high above the Moon for Altai, the eagle.. Once the sky is dark, examine the sky upper left of Altair for dim little Delphinus, the Dolphin, about a fist at arm’s length from it. A little less far straight above Altair is the smaller, dimmer constellation Sagitta, the Arrow.

Although autumn arrived with the equinox a week ago, the Summer Triangle remains prominent in the evening sky. Look high in the west after darkness falls & your eyes will fall on the brilliant star Vega in the constellation Lyra the Harp. Vega is the brightest member of the Triangle. The second-brightest star, Altair in Aquila the Eagle, lies southeast of Vega. The asterism’s dimmest member, Deneb in Cygnus the Swan, stands east-northeast of Vega.

***

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” ~Mark Twain

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

The Feast Day of St. Michael All the Heavenly Hosts, also called MICHAELMAS

1227 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, is excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for his failure to participate in the Crusades. A man of extraordinary culture, energy, & ability Frederick II was called stupor mundi (the wonder of the world), by Nietzsche, also the first European, the first modern ruler – by many historians, Frederick established in Sicily & southern Italy a modern, centrally governed kingdom with an efficient bureaucracy.

He was a King of Germany, of Italy, & Burgundy. His other royal title was King of Jerusalem by virtue of marriage & his connection with the Sixth Crusade.

He was frequently at war with the Papacy, hemmed in between Frederick’s lands in northern Italy & his Kingdom of Sicily (the Regno) to the south. Pope Gregory IX went so far as to call him an Antichrist.

Speaking six languages (Latin, Sicilian, German, French, Greek & Arabic, Frederick was an avid patron of science & the arts. He played a major role in promoting literature through the Sicilian School of poetry. His Sicilian royal court in Palermo, saw the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian. The poetry that emanated from the school had a significant influence on literature & on what was to become the modern Italian language.

He was also the first king who explicitly outlawed trials by ordeal as they were considered irrational.

Caravaggio

1571 – Birthday of Caravaggio, Italian painter

1717 – An earthquake strikes Antigua Guatemala, destroying much of the city’s architecture & making authorities consider moving the capital to a different city

 

1812- Birthday of Caspar Hauser, grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell. Theories link  him with the grand ducal House of BadenThese claims, & his subsequent death by stabbing, sparked much debate & controversy.

“…It was the case of that human being, so enigmatic for many people, who was once placed into this city in a mysterious way, and who in just as mysterious a way met his death in Ansbach. An author, in order to indicate the mystery of his life, wrote that as he was carried out to burial the sun was setting on the one horizon and the moon was rising on the other. I speak, as you know, of Caspar Hauser. If you disregard all the pros and cons that have been asserted, if you look only at what has been fully verified, you will know that this foundling — who was one day simply there in the street, and who since he did not know whence he came, was called the Child of Europe — could neither read nor write when he was found. At an age of twenty years he possessed nothing of what is gained through the intellect but he had a remarkable memory. As they began to instruct him, as logic entered his soul, his memory disappeared. This transition in consciousness was accompanied by something else. He possessed at first an incredible, an entirely inborn truthfulness and it was precisely in this truthfulness that he went more and more astray. The more he nibbled, so to say, at intellectuality, the more it vanished. There would be many things to study were we to enter deeply into this human soul which had been artificially held back. It is not difficult for the student of Spiritual Science to credit the popular tradition, so unacceptable to the learned people of to-day, which relates that while Caspar Hauser still knew nothing, while he still had no idea that there were beings besides himself of different form, he exercised a remarkable effect upon quite savage creatures. Savage animals humbled themselves and became mild, something streamed from him that made such beasts gentle, although they savagely attacked anyone else. We could in fact penetrate deeply into the soul of this remarkable personality, so enigmatic to many, and you would see how things that cannot be explained from ordinary life are led back through Spiritual Science to spiritual facts. Such facts cannot be learnt by speculation but only by spiritual observation, though they are comprehensible to an unbiased and logical thinking.

All this has only been said in order to show you that the modern consciousness has evolved from another, an age-old-state when man was not in direct touch with outer objects in the modern sense, but on the other hand was in connection with facts and beings of the spiritual world.” ~Rudolf SteinerThe Apocalypse of St. John, Spiritual Science — The Gospel — The Future of Mankind

1885 – The first public electric tramway in the world is opened in Blackpool, England

1902 – Deathday of Émile Zola a French novelist, playwright, journalist, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, & an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France & in the exoneration of the falsely accused & convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J’accuse. Zola was nominated for the first & second Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901 & 1902. His death from carbon monoxide poisoning is suspected to have been murder

1924 – Ludwig Polzer holds his 1st First Class Lesson

1954 – The convention establishing CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) is signed

1957 – Twenty MCi of radioactive material is released in an explosion at the Soviet Mayak nuclear plant at Chelyabinsk

1981 – Deathday of Adolf Arenson, German composer & Anthroposopher. Arenson editied many of Rudolf Steiner’s works, & composed the music for many of the plays & productions. Steiner mentions him at the end of Wonders of the World lecture 1

2008 – Following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers & Washington Mutual, The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, the largest single-day point loss in its history

2009 – The 8.1 Mw Samoa earthquake strikes with a maximum Mercalli intensity.  A destructive tsunami follows, leaving 1189 dead & hundreds injured.

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

John Stolfo

 

As the Michaelmas Feast
Pulls the Afternoon Sun into a Blinding Shaft
– The Drawn Sword of Michael
Pierces Thru
On the Oblique Angle of the Sun
Casting a long Shadow
That Stretches to the Western Horizon
Yet Met
In Silent Admonition
Thru Strident Free Discernment
Revealing the Revelation
In the Spirit-Light of Thought
~hag

 

***

Liane Collot D ‘ herbois

Human consciousness is ever evolving. The Zeitgeist is flavored by the various attributes of the 7 Archangels who take turns ruling a portion of the epoch. In 1879 Michael became the Time Spirit of our age. When he was last up, he ruled the Hebrew folk as they were preparing the vessel for the Christ Being to enter a human form. Back then he held the countenance of Jehovah, the god of the Hebrew people.

At the ‘Turning point of Time’ Michael got a promotion to become an Archai & took on the countenance of The Christ.

In 1899 the Kali Yuga ended & the gates to the spiritual world were opened once again.  Around that time, at the end of the 19th century, the fixed date of September 29th came to be called: The Feast Day of St. Michael & All the Heavenly Hosts. The old legends would always preface the famous story of the battle against the dragon, with an enumeration of the 9 angelic realms, with Michael standing before us as the King & herald of all the hierarchies.

And so as we strive to create the festival of the future, which we call Michaelmas, we are invited to stand in balance between the light & the dark, around this time of the equinox, to look back to the fruits of the past, & to prepare by looking to what is coming toward us from the future.

To look where we have been & to where we are going. To contemplate the angelic choirs – that we may look to our future selves – that we may think, here & now, that step by step, we can courageously build our own strong & steady rung on the ladder of evolution, teaching us to count the human being as the 10th hierarchy.  It is to this that the mighty sun-being Michael directs our gaze; which we must in turn direct to the world of nature – Replacing dead sense-bound thinking, represented by the Dragon, with Imaginative Cognition, (to reclaim the Cosmic intelligence) living heart-thinking, fostered by Michael, to reveal  the Living Christ, as the fundamental force of the Universe.

May Michael fortify our “I” & strengthen our Will, giving us the courage to find the Spirit behind the living Cosmos.

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

***

Michaelmas & the Horn of Plenty: Fall Festivals Ancient & New

Saturday September 30th 10:30 am – 4:30pm at the Theosophical Society 1926 N Main St, Wheaton, IL. 60187 – Pre-registration (630) 668-1571 

Come join our Experiential Workshop celebrating the Autumnal Equinox to prepare us for the journey into the dark of the year. We will look back to the fruits of the past, & prepare for what is coming toward us from the future. Our ancestors called this Sabbath – Harvest Home or Mabon. The Hebrew folk count this as part of the High Holy Days. In Greece & Rome it is dedicated to The Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter & Persephone.  Today, we are invited to stand with the powerful Archangel Micha-el, in balance, between the light & the dark, as we create the ‘festival of the future’, which we call ‘Michaelmas’. Forging confidence through Heart-Thinking, Michael strengthens our Will & reinforces our higher “I” so that we have the Courage to find the Spirit behind the living cosmos.

10:30am –The Eleusinian Mysteries, Art & Mythos

11 – Group Eurythmy with special guest Mary Ruud – ‘Song of Proserpine’ by Percy  Shelley

11:20 – Break

11:40 – The High Holy Days – ‘Atonement’ & a Sweet New Year

12pm – Ho‘oponopono an artistic Forgiveness Exercise

12:30 – 1:30 Picnic Lunch

1:30 –  ‘Mabon’ Harvest Home Fest

1:45 – Circle of Intuition: Questions as we go into the Dark of the Year

2:15 – Break

2:30 –Michaelmas, The festival of the future NOW,  Art & Leading Thoughts

3:30 – Iron Rod Eurythmy with special guest Mary Ruud

4  – Open Conversation – 4:30 pm – Close

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – is a Spiritual Midwife, and Trans-denominational Minister, working in an eclectic style that inspires connections – initiating us into the magic, waiting to be revealed, in the cycle of the seasons.   Festivals Coordinator & Council Member of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, and the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Founder of Reverse Ritual – Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year

 

Scintillating

28 September 2017 – Astro-weather: Bella Luna waxing now shines above the Teapot’s handle at nightfall.

Susan Sorrell Hill

Uranus reaches opposition three weeks from today, but it already has become a tempting evening luminary. The ice giant world rises before twilight ends & climbs above the eastern horizon by 11 pm CDT in Pisces, northwest of Omicron Piscium

***

Sharon Mcerlane

“God is an intelligible sphere whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere”. ~Alanus ab Insulis

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

551 BC – Birthday of Confucius, Chinese teacher, editor, politician, & philosopher of the Spring &Autumn period of Chinese history

1203 – Deathday of Alanus ab Insulis, Theologian, poet, teacher at Chartres.  Alan’s philosophy was a sort of mixture of Aristotelian logic and Neoplatonic philosophy. The Platonist seemed to outweigh the Aristotelian in Alan, but he felt strongly that the divine is all intelligibility and argued this notion through much Aristotelian logic combined with Pythagorean mathematic

 “Do not hold as gold all that shines as gold”

In the Anticlaudianus he sums up as follows: Reason, guided by prudence, can unaided discover most of the truths of the physical order; for the apprehension of religious truths it must trust to faith. This rule is completed in his treatise, Ars catholicae fidei, as follows: Theology itself may be demonstrated by reason. Alainus even ventures an immediate application of this principle, & tries to prove geometrically the dogmas defined in the Creed

Giovanni Segantini, Bagpipers of Brianza

1899 – Deathday of Giovanni Segantini,an Italian painter known for his large pastoral landscapes of the Alps. He was one of the most famous artists in Europe in the late 19th century. In later life he combined a Divisionist painting style with Symbolist images of nature. He was active in Switzerland for most of his life.

1924 – Rudolf Steiner gave his Last Address in Dornach GA 238  The Individuality of Elias, John, Raphael, Novalis with the Michael Meditation:

Springing from Powers of the Sun,
Radiant Spirit-powers, blessing all Worlds!
For Michael’s garment of rays
Ye are predestined by Thought Divine.

He, the Christ-messenger, revealeth in you —
Bearing mankind aloft — the sacred Will of Worlds.
Ye, the radiant Beings of Aether-Worlds,
Bear the Christ-Word to Man.

Thus shall the Heralds of Christ appear
To the thirstily waiting souls,
To whom your Word of Light shines forth
In cosmic age of Spirit-Man.

Ye, the disciples of Spirit-Knowledge,
Take Michael’s Wisdom beckoning,
Take the Word of Love of the Will of Worlds
Into your soul’s aspiring, a c t i v e l y !

1978 – Deathday of Pope John Paul I, born Albino Luciani, served as Pope until his sudden suspicious death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history.

***

~Flowing from the living waters
The cosmic fount foams up
To moisten my mind’s eye with salt & sulphur,
Forming a mercurial lachrymation
Beading brilliant, Mixing & Pooling
The cosmic iron in my blood scintillating slowly
Within the shining spark of thinking
A way to read intrinsic meaning into being…
The writing is on the wall my friend
Add your etching to enhance
The conscious conversation & Be
Heard…
~hag

***

Carlo Crivelli

Forge me with fire, a sword for my smiting
Fright to my foes and flames for my fighting
Shape me a shield forceful and fierce
Stalwart and shapely to fend against fears
Strike me a spear of speed as a shaft
Fearless to fly as a shot to the start
Staunch be my front against fury assailed
Strong be my soul where the feeble have failed

***

Dear Friends –

“We come here
To embrace what is common in each one of us –
Our love for a higher knowledge
Which unites us in understanding.
Let this Light of Knowledge unite
Each and All of us
Making rise in each
The raising of the Other”.
~Rudolf Steiner

On the Autumn Equinox, September 22nd 2017, The Elderberries Three-Fold Café Initiative surpassed their crowdfunding goal, raising $25,690, enabling them to pave the way for a 3-Fold Café in the Heart-land!

Daniel Evaeus came in from LA for the Michaelmas Festival on the 23rd. He also visited CWS & got to know the city a bit.

On Sunday a group of over 35 folks from the various Steiner initiatives in the area including: The Chicago Waldorf School, & The Urban Prairie Waldorf School, The Chicago Christian Community, Arcturus, & the Rudolf Steiner Branch, gathered in the upper room at the branch.

John Bloom, the General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society, his associate Mark Herrera, from RSF, & Daniel Evaeus from Elderberries 3-Fold Café in LA, met at the Archer-Ginsberg home for a lunch meeting, then over to the branch for the ‘Open Conversation’, exploring how to best serve the ‘Being of Chicago’ at this time in history & talk about the future of anthroposophy.

 

Eurythmist Mary Ruud got everyone up to do eurythmy, as late comers were bringing in more chairs from downstairs, explaining that it was International Eurythmy Day!

I welcomed all & gave the imagination of The Archangel of Summer taking us to task to ‘make straight the path’ by holding us in 90 degree weather, before handing the seasonal chalice over to Michael. Powerful energies abound during these volatile times of transition; storms arise, as well as opportunities for growth & change. The 100 year anniversary of 3-folding was highlighted.

Branch Council Secretary Elisabeth Swisher recited the ‘Verse for America’*.

Christian Community Priest Ann Burfeind helped chair the meeting; she spoke about how the impetus for gathering was sparked by what was living in a young teacher from Urban Prairie.

Branch Council Treasurer Chuck Ginsberg shared his impressions from the ‘How We Will Forum’ put on by the Elderberries youth over labor day weekend in LA, where he was able to deepen his understanding of 3-Folding & was impressed by how they were able to put on such a successful event with a plethora of guest speakers, gathering over 150 attendees.

Mary Spalding from Urban Prairie spoke about how her 6th grade class, while learning about business math, decided out of themselves to create a ‘3-Fold Café’!

Many folks, including Ultra-Violet Archer, a 12th grader from CWS, spoke about how the youth were wanting to bring these kind of impulses into practice in the world. (see the attachment for the letter sent to the Branch Council from the seniors at CWS)

Eurythmist Johanna Rodhe, Kris Boshell, Educational Support teacher at CWS, & several other people told stories about feeling called to do their work here in the ‘Heart-Land’.

Many people asked Daniel to hold forth about the Elderberries mission. Mary Tom wondered if their social process was primarily geared toward underserved or at-risk youth. Daniel gave examples that featured Waldorf alum, International YIP participants, as well as helping those who were struggling; called as they all are to bring their ’pre-natal’ pictures into focus. Along with Gordon Edwards, Mary Tom questioned whether the branch was the best location.  Daniel spoke about how in LA the branch was an hour away, in Pasadena, & that they felt cut off, & so for them it was attractive to be able to have the anthroposophical impulse so close; that many young people were wanting to be able to come to 1st Class & participate in study groups & in the festival Life.

Sheila Donahue spoke about the need for good food, & hoped that perhaps Elderberries could provide a healthy school lunch?

Someone mentioned that Farmer John Peterson from Angelic Organics could be a supplier for the café. A parent from Urban Prairie, after hearing that the Café in LA was vegan & gluten free, jokingly asked if Elderberries would have sausage. And folks wondered if Zinniker, the oldest bio-dynamic farm in America, might be a resource?

Sylvie Desouches, music teacher at CWS, told the story of how her daughter was interested in the future of food, bio-dynamics & sustainability.

Handwork teacher & Renaissance woman Nancy Melvin brought up the fact that the kitchen is an important social gathering place; and also offered to host Lazure painting workshops to help bring in venue & an artistic, educational impulse.

Michael Holdrege, master teacher at CWS & beyond, told stories of holding powerful gatherings in the Cafés of Vienna.

Alex Boshell, the Athletic Director at CWS, spoke about the upcoming 100 year anniversary of the Waldorf School & the need to renew. He also expressed the hope that students could share their artistic offerings to the wider community, bringing their offerings to places like the branch.

Chuck Ginsberg agreed asking why the Branch building is so under used; except for the festivals & a few study groups, it stands empty. And Mary Ruud said because the building is always locked! Others agreed & talked about coming during public hours & that no one was there to let them in. Then Chuck gave an impassioned speech about how ‘institutions are failing us because of a lack of Brotherhood’; asking ‘how can we unlock the branch’ to rousing applause!

Branch Member & Engineer Mihi Rosu gave a succinct definition of how the 3-Fold Social Organism worked. John Bloom filled in the picture of how each sphere needed to mutually support the others, & how the economic realm must be worked in ‘Brotherhood’ not out of the old patterns of fear, scarcity & ‘power over’.  He talked about how people sometimes get stuck when it comes to making agreements that serve the highest good. When asked if RSF could help with the lease agreements, he said yes. John talked about how people were waking up to the arrival of various 100 year anniversaries, & that the time for the 3-Fold Social Order is NOW.

Mark Herrera shared that he was a Waldorf graduate, with kids in the San Francisco Waldorf School. He has worked at RSF for over 19 years & is very excited that the Elderberries initiative is coming to Chicago.

Council Member Andrei Onegin said he would be willing to help build out the space with Elderberries, inviting his own crew of young people to help.

Kris Boshell hoped that we could make these kinds of meetings a more regular thing, & asked if we could convene again in a month?

Many were frustrated with the lack of communication between the Mother & Daughter initiatives, asking how they could become members of the branch.

Branch member Deborah Rogers closed the meeting with the ‘Verse for The Michaelic Age’.

Many folks stayed for snacks, social time & further conversation downstairs. Our family hosted Daniel Evaeus & branch member Nick Novak for dinner that night. And the next day Daniel met with Andrei in the branch space, before Chuck drove him to the airport. We now await the drafting of the agreements & the signing of the lease with the Branch Council. If this cannot happen in a timely matter, (they would like to make an official announcement at the AGM in Phoenix in mid-October) then Elderberries will take up residence at another location; options were scouted in Bucktown, East Rogers Park & Uptown.

May this initiative thrive & serve the highest good for all.

May we see past the ‘me’ to meet the ‘we’; rising in our thinking to work with the true Spirit of Chicago, healing the past, unlocking the now, to support the future, as we join our striving with the Being of Anthroposophia.

~yours in service Hazel Archer Ginsberg

THE “AMERICAN” or “THREEFOLD” VERSE by Rudolf Steiner given to Ralph Courtney, a pioneer of Anthroposophy in North America for the Threefold Group. 

*May our feeling penetrate to the center of our hearts –
And seek, in love, to unite with those who share our goals,
And with the Spirits who look down benevolently on our hearts earnest strivings. 
Sending us strength from realms of light, to illuminate our love.

***

Michaelmas & the Horn of Plenty: Fall Festivals Ancient & New 

Saturday September 30th 10:30 am – 4:30pm at the Theosophical Society 1926 N Main St, Wheaton, IL. 60187 – Pre-registration (630) 668-1571 

Come join our Experiential Workshop celebrating the Autumnal Equinox to prepare us for the journey into the dark of the year. We will look back to the fruits of the past, & prepare for what is coming toward us from the future. Our ancestors called this Sabbath – Harvest Home or Mabon. The Hebrew folk count this as part of the High Holy Days. In Greece & Rome it is dedicated to The Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter & Persephone.  Today, we are invited to stand with the powerful Archangel Micha-el, in balance, between the light & the dark, as we create the ‘festival of the future’, which we call ‘Michaelmas’. Forging confidence through Heart-Thinking, Michael strengthens our Will & reinforces our higher “I” so that we have the Courage to find the Spirit behind the living cosmos.

10:30am –The Eleusinian Mysteries, Art & Mythos

11 – Group Eurythmy with special guest Mary Ruud – ‘Song of Proserpine’ by Percy  Shelley

11:20 – Break

11:40 – The High Holy Days – ‘Atonement’ & a Sweet New Year

12pm – Ho‘oponopono an artistic Forgiveness Exercise

12:30 – 1:30 Picnic Lunch

1:30 –  ‘Mabon’ Harvest Home Fest

1:45 – Circle of Intuition: Questions as we go into the Dark of the Year

2:15 – Break

2:30 –Michaelmas, The festival of the future NOW,  Art & Leading Thoughts

3:30 – Iron Rod Eurythmy with special guest Mary Ruud

4  – Open Conversation – 4:30 pm – Close

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – is a Spiritual Midwife, and Trans-denominational Minister, working in an eclectic style that inspires connections – initiating us into the magic, waiting to be revealed, in the cycle of the seasons.   Festivals Coordinator & Council Member of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, and the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Founder of Reverse Ritual – Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year

***

Two Anthroposophical Events to which you are warmly invited!

The Central Regional Council invites all members in the central region to consider participating in the ASA’s Annual General Meeting and conference in October. The focus of the year’s event is on taking action, and working inwardly and outwardly to help humanity evolve.  The work we have undergone in the central region has often been developed toward this aim of taking action and responding to the world in a meaningful way.

The AGM and conference in 2018 will be held in our region in New Orleans, LA. We hope all our regional members may be able to attend this year and begin planning for next year in the Big Easy!

Rise Up! Life as a Labor of Love

Anthroposophical Society in America
Annual General Meeting and Conference

Fri, Oct 13 at 1:00 pm to Sunday, Oct 15 at 1:00 pm
at 
the Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ

Pre-conference gathering at the Heard Museum Friday morning, October 13, from 9:30-11:30 am for members of theSchool for Spiritual Science. Bring your blue cards!

Please register online through www.anthroposophy.org!

All Souls Festival and Retreat
At the Minnesota Waldorf School in the Twin Cities, MN.

Week-end Retreat including Festival

Fri, Nov 3 at 7:00 pm to Sunday, Nov 5 at 11:00 am

Cost $75 (registration required, click here)

Journey of the Soul Festival

Saturday, Nov 4 at 7:00 to 9:00 pm

Suggested Donation $10 at the door – All are welcome

Walk the pathway of our beloved across the threshold, being present for them, and preparing for our own journey. 

“Life after death
Life before birth
Only by knowing both
Do we know eternity”
~ Rudolf Steiner

Sponsored by: Central Regional Council (CRC) and Twin Cities Branch of the Anthroposophical Society

Questions: Dennis Dietzel dennis.dietzel@gmail.com, Marianne Dietzel mariannemdietzel@gmail.com, Linda Bergh hellolindabergh@gmail.com

Culmination of “The Bridging Project: Between Life and Death from Soul to Soul”

 

 

The laying of the Foundation Stone

20 September 2017 – Astro-Weather: New Moon (exact at 12:30 am CDT) Tonight at sunset begins the Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah.

With La Bella Luna hidden in the underworld in this time of the dark moon, I think of these words from Rudolf Steiner: ‘The Moon-mystery was one of the deepest secrets in the ancient Mysteries, for it is the primal wisdom that the Moon enshrines within itself. What the Moon is able to reflect from the whole universe forms the sum-total of the forces which sustain the animal world of the Earth, especially the forces that are connected with the sexual nature of animals; these forces also sustain the animal element in man and are connected with his sexual nature in its physical aspect. So the lower nature of man is a product of what radiates from the Moon, while the highest wisdom once possessed by the Earth lies concealed within the Moon fortress.’

***

Catrin Welz-Stein

Lectures by Rudolf Steiner on this date

Looking at the past to see the present, co-creating the future: “History, historical life, will only be seen in the right light when a true consciousness of the connection of the so-called living with the so-called dead can be developed” – The Living and the Dead by Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, 5th February, 1918

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

622 – Muhammad & Abu Bakr arrived in Medina

1378 – Cardinal Robert of Geneva, called by some the “Butcher of Cesena“, is elected as Pope Clement VII, beginning the Papal schism. He was the 1st antipope residing in Avignon, France

1498 – The Nankai earthquake generates a tsunami that washes away the building housing the statue of the Great Buddha at Kōtoku-in in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan. Over 10,000 die

1519 – Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with 270 men on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe

1737 – The Walking Purchase– between the Penn family, the proprietors of Pennsylvania, & the Lenape Tribe (also known as the Delaware). This document may have been an unsigned, unratified treaty, or even an outright forgery (Encyclopædia Britannica refers to it as a “land swindle”. The Penns’ agents began selling land, an area of 1,200,000 acres, in the Lehigh Valley to colonists while the Lenape still inhabited the area

1893 – Charles Duryea road-tests the first American-made gasoline-powered automobile

1906 – Founding of the Paracelsus Branch, Basel Switzerland

1913 – The laying of the Foundation Stone of the 1st Goetheanum

1913 – Founding of the Moscow Branch of the Anthroposophical Society

1933 – Deathday of Annie Besant. In 1890 Besant met Helena Blavatsky. She became a member of the Theosophical Society & a prominent lecturer. She established the first overseas Lodge of the International Order of Co-Freemasonry, Le Droit Humain. Over the next few years she established lodges in many parts of the British Empire. In 1907 she became president of the Theosophical Society, whose international headquarters were in Adyar, Madras. She also became involved in politics in India, joining the Indian National Congress. When World War I broke out in 1914, she helped launch the Home Rule League to campaign for democracy in India. This led to her election as president of the India National Congress. In the late 1920s, Besant travelled to the United States with her protégé & adopted son Jiddu Krishnamurtiwhom she claimed was the new Messiah & incarnation of Buddha. Krishnamurti rejected these claims in 1929. She is thought to be the reincarnation of Giordano Bruno

1941 – Holocaust 403 Jews (128 men, 176 women & 99 children) were murdered by Einsatzkommando 3 in Nemencing, Latvia.

1942 – Holocaust in Letychiv, Ukraine. In the course of two days the German SS murders at least 3,000 Jews

1973 – Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~TONIGHT:
dipping apples in honey
casting crumbs into the River
singing happy birth-day dear Earth
“L’shanah tovah tikatevi v’taihatemi”
~hag

***

Liane Collo D herbois

Greetings Friends – On this New Moon signaling the Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah. Interesting also to think that TODAY in 1913 was the laying of the Foundation Stone of the 1st Goetheanum.

Come join us for these upcoming programs seeking to activate the Foundation Stone in our hearts:

Michaelmas & the Horn of Plenty – Fall Festivals Ancient and New

Saturday September 23rd  2017 – 4 pm – 6 pm at the Rudolf Steiner Branch, 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL.

The Eleusinian Mysteries – Art & Mythos by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Song of Proserpine by Percy Shelley – Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Michaelmas ‘The Festival of the Future’ – Art & Leading Thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Copper Rod Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Singing with Elisabeth Swisher

$10 Donation* & Snacks to Share Encouraged * goes to support eurythmist Mary Ruud

***

Please join us for An Open Conversation with John Bloom & Daniel Evaeus

Sunday September 24th, 1 pm – 2:30 pm at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

This is a call to All: & especially those working out of the various the Steiner initiatives: The Chicago Waldorf, City Garden & The Urban Prairie Waldorf School, The Christian Community, Arcturus, & the Rudolf Steiner Branch…to have a conversation about the future of anthroposophy in Chicago.

All are Welcome to meet John Bloom, our new General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America & Daniel Evaeus from The Elderberries 3-Fold Café in LA, as we explore how we can best serve the ‘Being of Chicago’ at this time in history.

***

Michaelmas & the Horn of Plenty – Fall Festivals Ancient and New

Saturday September 30th, 10:30 am – 4:30pm at the Theosophical Society 1926 N Main St, Wheaton, IL. Registration (630) 668-1571 BYO Veg. Picnic Lunch

 Come join our Experiential Workshop celebrating the Autumnal Equinox to prepare us for the journey into the dark of the year. We will look back to the fruits of the past, & prepare for what is coming toward us from the future. Our ancestors called this Sabbath – Harvest Home or Mabon. The Hebrew folk count this as part of the High Holy Days. In Greece & Rome it is dedicated to The Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter & Persephone.  Today, we are invited to stand with the powerful Archangel Micha-el, in balance, between the light & the dark, as we create the ‘festival of the future’, which we call ‘Michaelmas’. Forging confidence through Heart-Thinking, Michael strengthens our Will & reinforces our higher “I” so that we have the Courage to find the Spirit behind the living cosmos.

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg –Festivals Coordinator & Council Member of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, and the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Founder of ReverseRitual.com

Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

10:30am –The Eleusinian Mysteries, Art & Mythos

11 – Group Eurythmy with special guest Mary Ruud – ‘Song of Proserpine’ by Percy  Shelley

11:20 – Break

11:40 – The High Holy Days – ‘Atonement’ & a Sweet New Year

12pm – Ho‘oponopono an artistic Forgiveness Exercise

12:30 – 1:30 Picnic Lunch

1:30 –  ‘Mabon’ Harvest Home Fest

1:45 – Circle of Intuition: Questions as we go into the Dark of the Year

2:15 – Break

2:30 –Michaelmas, The festival of the future NOW,  Art & Leading Thoughts

3:30 – Iron Rod Eurythmy with special guest Mary Ruud

4  – Open Conversation – 4:30 pm – Close

 

Be Come a Polished Mirror

18 September 2017 – Astro-Weather: The predawn fireworks appear even more spectacular this morning. A wafer-thin crescent Moon hangs below Venus & above the Mercury-Mars pair. Less than 1° separates brilliant Venus & tiny Regulus as dawn brightens Tuesday & Wednesday mornings September 19th and 20th. Look low in the east.

***

Anything you dream is fiction, and anything you accomplish is science, the whole history of mankind is nothing but science fiction. ~ Ray Bradbury

Lectures by Rudolf Steiner on this date

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Dierec Bouts the Older

900- Feast Day of Saint Richardis, was the Holy Roman Empress, born in Alsace. She married Charles the Fat & was crowned with him in Rome by Pope John VIII The marriage was childless.

Charles’ reign was marked by internal and external strife, caused primarily by the constant plundering of Norman raiders on the northern French coast. By 887, Charles appears to have succumbed to fits of madness. During this crisis, Richardis attempted to rule in her husband’s stead, but was unsuccessful. In an effort to bring down the over-powerful and hated Liutward, Charles’ archchancellor, he & Richardis were accused by Charles of adultery. Charles asserted that their marriage was unconsummated & demanded a divorce.

In a bid to assure him of her innocence, she finally assented to an ordeal by fire. Barefoot, & wearing a shirt covered in wax, the flames nevertheless refused to touch her. Disheartened by her husband’s continued mistrust, Richardis left the imperial palace & wandered into the forest. There she was visited by an angel, who ordered her to found a convent in a certain spot, which a bear would indicate to her. In Val d’Eleon, at the banks of the river, she saw a bear scratching in the dirt. There she built the abbey of Andlau.

An alternative legend recounts that Richardis found the mother bear grieving over her dead cub in the forest. When Richardis held the cub, it returned to life. After the working of this miracle, both mother & cub remained devoted to the saint for the rest of their lives.

1793 – The first cornerstone of the Capitol building is laid by George Washington

1812 – The 1812 Fire of Moscow dies down after destroying more than three-quarters of the city. Napoleon returns from the Petrovsky Palace to the Moscow Kremlin, spared from the fire.

1850 – The Fugitive Slave Act passed by the United States Congress as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests & Northern Free-Soilers. It required that all escaped slaves were, upon capture, to be returned to their masters & that officials & citizens of free states had to cooperate in this law. Abolitionists nicknamed it the “Bloodhound Law” for the dogs that were used to track down runaway slaves

1851 – First publication of The New-York Daily Times, which later becomes The New York Times

1873 – Panic of 1873: The U.S. bank Jay Cooke & Company declares bankruptcy, triggering a series of bank failures.

1882 – The Pacific Stock Exchange opens.

1895 – Booker T. Washington delivers the “Atlanta compromise” address. The agreement was that Southern blacks would work &submit to white political rule, while Southern whites guaranteed that blacks would receive basic education & due process in law. Blacks would not agitate for equality, integration, or justice, & Northern whites would fund black educational charities

1906 – A typhoon with tsunami kills an estimated 10,000 people in Hong Kong

William-Adolphe Bouguereau

1909 – 1st mention by Rudolf Steiner of the two Jesus Children. GA 114

1910 – In Amsterdam, 25,000 demonstrate for general suffrage

1916 – 1st lecture by Rudolf Steiner on the Mexican Mysteries

1919 – The Netherlands gives women the right to vote

1927 – The Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air

1936 – Deathday of Konrad Burdach, author of Faust and Moses

1939 – The Nazi propaganda broadcaster known as Lord Haw-Haw begins transmitting.

1940 – The British liner SS City of Benares is sunk by German submarine U-48; those killed include 77 child refugees

1943 – The Jews of Minsk are massacred at Sobibór

1944 –  The British submarine HMS Tradewind torpedoes Jun’yō Maru, 5,600 killed

1947 – The National Security Council & the Central Intelligence Agency are established in the United States under the National Security Act

1960 – Fidel Castro arrives in New York City as the head of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations

1962 – Deathday of Therese Neumann, mystic, stigmatic

1988 – End of pro-democracy uprisings in Myanmar after a bloody military coup. Thousands, mostly monks & civilians (primarily students), are killed

2001 – First mailing of anthrax letters from Trenton, New Jersey in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

2007 – Buddhist monks join anti-government protesters in Myanmar, starting what some call the Saffron Revolution

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Over the open face of light
Some sober trails of vapor creep
Enticing a vortex in the somber cosmic night…
Inward I turn my rays of hope
To be come a polished mirror
Hard Obsidian & black silver
Lead into gold
~hag

***

Ideas are for Anthroposophy
Vessels, formed out of love,
Into which the being of humanity, spiritually,
Is brought from the spiritual worlds.
Clothed in thoughts formed with love
The light of true humanity
Shall shine through Anthroposophy.
And knowledge is but the form
In which through humanity
It shall be possible
That the true spirit from the widths of the world
Will focus in human hearts
It may enlighten human thought.
And as Anthroposophy
Really can only be grasped through love,
Therefore it is love creating
If it is grasped by the true being of humanity.
Therefore, in the midst of furious hatred
A place of love could be built in Dornach.
And words
Will not be coined in the Anthroposophical realm
As they are usually coined today.
Words are formed
That are all intrinsically pleas.
Every word in Anthroposophy
If it is spoken in the right sense
Is fundamentally a plea
A reverent plea:
A plea
That the spirit may come down to humankind.
~ Rudolf Steiner, From the 1922 The Christmas Foundation; Beginning of a Cosmic Age

May Human Beings Hear it…XOX ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

***

Dear Friends –

What is it you need? What would you like? What can you share? What is your legacy?

Important questions to ponder on this 100 year anniversary of the 3-fold Social Organism; one of the many legacies given to us by Rudolf Steiner, waiting to be fulfilled by us now.

The Economic Life needs our Brother & Sisterhood

The Cultural/Spiritual/Educational Realm calls for Freedom

In the Political or Rights Realm we must foster Equality

“His social theory, based on his profound understanding of the human being, drew upon the ideals of the 1784 French Revolution—liberté (freedom), egalité (equality), fraternité (brotherhood)—yet applied in an unprecedented way…This threesome of practice is the foundation for organizing an empowered self-governing citizenry that would find its authority, responsibility, and accountability through active civic engagement. Further, such a threefold practice would assure that every person matters, and what matters to each person matters to the whole.”*

The Elderberries 3-Fold Café is coming to Chicago in the spirit of Brother & Sisterhood.

Are we willing to meet them?

Go to this link to find out more & donate if you will 

https://igg.me/at/michaelgrailroad/x/17233652

Thanks for supporting the future!

*John Bloom, One Hundred Years: In Recognition of Rudolf Steiner’s

***

Michaelmas & the Horn of Plenty – Fall Festivals Ancient and New

Saturday September 23rd, 2017 – 4 pm – 6 pm at the Rudolf Steiner Branch,4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL.

The Eleusinian Mysteries – Art & Mythos by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Song of Proserpine by Percy Shelley – Eurythmy with Mary Ruud 

Michaelmas ‘The Festival of the Future’ – Art & Leading Thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Copper Rod Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Singing with Elisabeth Swisher

$10 Donation* & Snacks to Share Encouraged * goes to support eurythmist Mary Ruud

***

Dear Friends – Please join us for : An Open Conversation with John Bloom, our new General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America

Sunday September 24th, 1 pm – 2:30 pm at the Rudolf Steiner Branch

All are Welcome to discuss the fate of the Branch Building, the Elderberries Initiative; the state of the Anthroposophical Society today; as well as explore how we can best serve the ‘Being of Chicago.’

John Bloom was appointed General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America in October 2016. He is Vice President, Organizational Culture at RSF Social Finance. As part of his work at RSF he has been developing and facilitating conversations and programs that address the intersection of money and spirit in personal and social transformation. He writes frequently for RSF’s Reimagine Money blog and has fostered collaborative dialogues on the challenging social aspects money. As part of his work he has helped develop awareness of issues of land and biodynamic agriculture across the US. John has written two books, The Genius of Money, and Inhabiting Interdependence, both published by SteinerBooks. He lives in San Francisco.

***

Saturday September 30th 10:30 am – 4:30pm at the Theosophical Society 1926 N Main St, Wheaton, IL. 60187 – Pre-registration (630) 668-1571 

Come join our Experiential Workshop celebrating the Autumnal Equinox to prepare us for the journey into the dark of the year. We will look back to the fruits of the past, & prepare for what is coming toward us from the future. Our ancestors called this Sabbath – Harvest Home or Mabon. The Hebrew folk count this as part of the High Holy Days. In Greece & Rome it is dedicated to The Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter & Persephone.  Today, we are invited to stand with the powerful Archangel Micha-el, in balance, between the light & the dark, as we create the ‘festival of the future’, which we call ‘Michaelmas’. Forging confidence through Heart-Thinking, Michael strengthens our Will & reinforces our higher “I” so that we have the Courage to find the Spirit behind the living cosmos.

10:30am –The Eleusinian Mysteries, Art & Mythos

11 – Group Eurythmy with special guest Mary Ruud – ‘Song of Proserpine’ by Percy  Shelley

11:20 – Break

11:40 – The High Holy Days – ‘Atonement’ & a Sweet New Year

12pm – Ho‘oponopono an artistic Forgiveness Exercise

12:30 – 1:30 Picnic Lunch

1:30 –  ‘Mabon’ Harvest Home Fest

1:45 – Circle of Intuition: Questions as we go into the Dark of the Year

2:15 – Break

2:30 –Michaelmas, The festival of the future NOW,  Art & Leading Thoughts

3:30 – Iron Rod Eurythmy with special guest Mary Ruud

4  – Open Conversation – 4:30 pm – Close

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – is a Spiritual Midwife, and Trans-denominational Minister, working in an eclectic style that inspires connections – initiating us into the magic, waiting to be revealed, in the cycle of the seasons.   Festivals Coordinator & Council Member of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, and the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Founder of Reverse Ritual – Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year