Monthly Archives: September 2017

Free Money Day

15 September 2017 – Astro-Weather: This evening Saturn’s biggest & brightest moon, Titan, glimmers to the East of Saturn.

Brightening Mercury & faint Mars are almost kissing, close as they are, low in the east before dawn on Saturday morning the 16th

Venus, Regulus, Mercury, Mars in the dawn, Sept. 17, 2017, and again the next morning. The Moon and Venus show the way.

Venus, Regulus, Moon, Mars and Mercury in the dawn of Sept. 18, 2017. Then the thin Moon poses between the two pairs of points . . .

Venus, Regulus, Mars, Mercury & extremely thin, old Moon in the dawn of Sept. 19, 2017, and the next morning, Venus & Regulus pair up.

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Lectures by Rudolf Steiner on this date

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Peter Murphy

The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows  (Latin: Mater Dolorosa) The Seven Sorrows (or Dolors) are events in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

  1. The Prophecy of Simeon. (Luke2:34–35)
  2. The escape and Flight into Egypt. (Matthew2:13)
  3. The Loss of the Child Jesusin the Temple of Jerusalem. (Luke 2:43–45)
  4. The Meeting of Mary and Jesus on the Via Dolorosa.
  5. The Crucifixion of Jesuson Mount Calvary. (John 19:25)
  6. The Piercing of the Side of Jesus, and His Descent from the Cross. (Matthew 27)
  7. The Burial of Jesusby Joseph of Arimathea. (John 19:40–42)

668 – Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II is assassinated in his bath at Syracuse, Italy.

921 – At Tetin, Saint Ludmila, a Czech saint, the grandmother of Saint Wenceslaus, widely referred to as Good King Wenceslaus, is murdered at the command of her daughter-in-law, Drahomíra, who was jealous of Ludmila’s influence over Wenceslaus. Antonín Dvořák composed his oratorio Svatá Ludmila for her

1254 – Birthday of Marco Polo, Italian merchant & explorer

1616 – The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy

1821 – Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, & Costa Rica jointly declare independence from Spain

1916 –Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme World War I

1935 – The Nuremberg Laws deprive German Jews of citizenship

1935 – Nazi Germany adopts a new national flag bearing the swastika

1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt & Winston Churchill meet in Quebec as part of the World War II Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.

1945 – A hurricane strikes southern Florida & the Bahamas, destroying 366 airplanes & 25 blimps at Naval Air Station Richmond, 230 die

1947 – Typhoon Kathleen hit the Kanto Region in Japan killing 1,077

1961 – Hurricane Carla strikes Texas with winds of 175 miles per hour, kills 23

1963 – 16th Street Baptist Church bombing , an act of white supremacist terrorism, in Birmingham, Alabama, occurred when four members of the Ku Klux Klan planted at least 15 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the front steps of the church.Described by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as “one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity”. The explosion killed four girls & injured 22 others.

No prosecutions ensued of the Klan members involved until 1977, when Robert Chambliss was tried & convicted of the first degree murder of one of the victims, 11-year-old Carol Denise McNair. Thomas Blanton & Bobby Cherry were each convicted of four counts of murder & sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 & 2002, but Herman Cash, was never charged .

The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing marked a turning point in the United States during the Civil Rights Movement & contributed to support for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

1966 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation

1968 – The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere

1971 – The first Greenpeace ship sets sail to protest against nuclear testing on Amchitka Island

1972 – A Scandinavian Airlines System domestic flight is hijacked

1974 – Air Vietnam Flight 706 is hijacked, then crashes while attempting to land with 75 on board

2008 – Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history

Free Money Day is an annual, global event held since 2011 as a social experiment to promote sharing & alternative economic ideas. The day is held annually on September 15, the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers’ 2008 filing for bankruptcy. Participants offer their own money to passing strangers at public places, two coins or notes at a time. Recipients are asked to pass on one of the notes or coins to someone else

International Day of Democracy …’democracy is a universal value based on the freely-expressed will of people to determine their own political, economic, social and cultural systems, and their full participation in all aspects of life’

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Today i am:
a dung bettle
wandering in the dark, tasting dust, smelling worms,
feeling the ground,
push push pushing the seed of myself…
Today what are you?
~hag

***

suzie addicks

Your soul is the best friend you keep forgetting you have. It’s closer than your breath & older than death. It dreams like a mountain, laughs like a river, & communicates with you in the exuberantly mysterious style of animals & gods. You are animated because of your soul! It loves you with nonstop unconditional ingenuity. Isn’t it right, then, to devote at least one special day each year to honoring it & giving thanks for its blessings?

Today I have scheduled my Soul Celebration Day:

Dear Soul-Self- Be my slow-motion dance. Be my centennial earthquake. Be my ripe pomegranate floating in a blue plastic swimming pool on the first day of winter. Be my handstand on a barstool, my whirlwind week in clown school, my joke shared with a Siberian shaman while shopping for socks at Wal-Mart. Be my puzzle with one piece missing. Be the waves crashing on a beach in New Zealand in the 22nd century. Be my golden hammer resting on the moss of a ten-million-year-old rock…

This kind of poetic thinking prompts me to ask: What would it be like to take a trip in your imagination to the future, where you will visit the person you’ll be, say 7 years from today? What is the most important message you have to convey to that future Self?

Blessings & Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

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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 Threefold Commonwealth

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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

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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 2017
1 pm – 2:30 pm at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

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.

 

question authority

11 September 2016 –

peaceonearth

Astro-Weather: Although Neptune appeared at its best at opposition seven days ago, its visibility hardly suffers this week. The outermost major planet lies low in the southeast as darkness falls & climbs highest in the south around midnight.

Tomorrow morning the 12th, the last-quarter Moon approaches Aldebaran and then occults it for much of North America: before or during dawn in the West, and after sunrise in a (hopefully) blue sky farther east. The star disappears on the Moon’s bright limb (as shown here) and reappears from behind the dark limb

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The Three Sisters: Corn, Beans and Squash (an ancient imagination inspired by Angela Foster to apply to the Elderberries 3-Fold Initiative)

The Iroquois creation myth tells that the earth began when “Sky Woman”, who lived in the upper world, peered through a hole in the sky and fell through to an endless sea. The animals saw her coming, so they took the soil from the bottom of the sea and spread it onto the back of a giant turtle to provide a safe place for her to land. This “Turtle Island” is now what we call North America.

Sky woman had become pregnant before she fell. When she landed, she gave birth to twin daughters. Sky Woman planted her daughters next to her in the “new earth.” From this place grew three sacred plants—corn, beans, and squash. These plants provide food for all of humanity.

Many Native American People traditionally plant corn, beans & squash together. The Corn grows tall to provide the Beans a stalk to reach toward the Sun. Beans bring nitrogen to the soil which becomes fertilizer to feed the land. The Squash covers the ground to prevent erosion and is shaded some by the Corn & Beans. This is known as “Companion Planting”

This ancient Native American technique of growing Corn, Beans, and Squash together in an arrangement called the Three Sisters is the ultimate in companion planting and helps increase harvests, naturally!

After cooperating beautifully in the garden, corn and beans form a complete protein when eaten together! How’s that for a mutually beneficial relationship?

Dear friends this is what is needed now in the world. Elderberries Chicago the Michael Grailroad Begins. The spiritual world needs our head & hands & hearts. Elderberries holds the seeds of Brother & Sisterhood in the Economic Realm. The Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in America – Chicago stands in Freedom in the Cultural Realm. Then on to our sister city Atlanta. No matter where you are on the planet, this 3-Fold work benefits everyone. Please help support the future NOW https://igg.me/at/michaelgrailroad/x/17233652

  

 

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

“It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.”~Benjamin Franklin

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

 Rembrandt

Birthday of Abraham, ancestor of the Semitic Hebrews & Arabs

354 – Deathday of  Saints Protus & Hyacinth mentioned in “Depositio Martyrum

Image result for Captain William Morgan,

1826 – Captain William Morgan, an ex-freemason is arrested in Batavia, New York for ‘debt’ after declaring that he would publish The Mysteries of Free Masonry. This sets into motion the events that led to his mysterious disappearance

1830 – Anti-Masonic Party convention; one of the first American political party conventions

1851 – Christiana Resistance: Escaped slaves stand against their former owner in armed resistance in Christiana, Pennsylvania, creating a rallying cry for the abolitionist movement

parliment-of-world-regilons

1893 – Parliament of the World’s Religions opens in Chicago, where Swami Vivekananda delivers his speech on fanaticism, tolerance & the truth inherent in all religions

1897 –Menelik II of Ethiopia captures Gaki Sherocho, the last king of Kaffa, bringing an end to that ancient kingdom

1919 – U.S. Marines invade Honduras

1921 – Nahalal, the first Jewish settlement in Palestine, as part of a Zionist plan to colonize Palestine creating a Jewish state, later to be called Israel

1932 – Deathday of Fritz Lemmermayer an Austrian writer, journalist & closest childhood friend of Rudolf Steiner in Vienna. Fritz was a passionate anti-materialist, he wanted to devote his life to the creation & maintenance of spiritual values.

In 1883 he completed his novel “The Alchemist”. Rudolf Steiner met Lemmermayer again in 1886 in the circle of the poet Marie Eugenie delle Grazie.  An extensive correspondence attests to the close friendship between the two (see GA 38 ).

In ” My Life ” Steiner says: Fritz Lemmermayer, with whom I was later on terms of intimate friendship, I came to know at one of delle Grazie’s afternoons. A highly noteworthy man. Whatever interested him he expressed with inwardly measured dignity. In his outward appearance he resembled equally the musician Rubinstein and the actor Lewinsky. With Hebbel he developed almost a cult. He had definite views on art and life born out of the sagacious understanding of the heart, and these were unusually fixed. He had written the interesting and profound romance, Der Alchemist(3), and much besides that was characterized by beauty and depth. He knew how to consider the least things in life from the view-point of the most vital. I recall how I once saw him in his charming little room in a side-street in Vienna together with other friends. He had planned his meal: two soft-boiled eggs, to be cooked in an instantaneous boiler, together with bread. He remarked with much emphasis while the water was heating to boil the eggs for us: “This will be delicious!” In a later phase of my life I shall again have occasion to speak of him (see GA 028, p 141f )

Lemmermayer & Steiner joined the ranks of the Viennese artist circle in the house of the protestant priest Alfred Formey. In 1891 Lemmermayer was vice president of Schrifstellerbundes Iduna , named after Iduna , the Norse goddess of youth & immortality a counterweight against the currents of naturalism.

Lemmermayer  became a member of the Anthroposophical Society  in 1920. He Steiner on many trips through Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland & England.  This led to his 1929 published memories,  where he spoke about Rudolf Steiner, Robert Hamerling & other personalities of the Austrian intellectual life of the 80s. In addition, Lemmermayer published in the weekly ” Das Goetheanum “.

1940 – George Stibitz performs the first remote operation of a computer

1941 – Ground is broken for the construction of The Pentagon

1941 – Charles Lindbergh’s Des Moines Speech accusing the British, & the Roosevelt administration of pressing for war with Germany

1943 – World War II: Start of the liquidation of the Ghettos in Minsk & Lida by the Nazis

1950 – Korean War: President Harry S. Truman approved military operations north of the 38th parallel

1954 – Hurricane Edna hits New England as a Category 1 hurricane, causing significant damage & 129 deaths

1961 – Hurricane Carla strikes the Texas coast as a Category 4 hurricane, the second strongest storm ever to hit the state, 129 people die

1968 – Air France Flight 1611 crashes off Nice, France, killing 89 passengers &six crew

1973 – Deathday of Salvador Guillermo a Chilean physician & politician, known as the first Marxist to become president of a Latin American country through open elections. Allende’s involvement in Chilean political life spanned a period of nearly forty years. As a member of the Socialist Party, he was a senator, deputy & cabinet minister. In 1970, he won the presidency. Allende adopted a policy of nationalization of industries & collectivisation; due to these & other factors, increasingly strained relations lead to his death. On 11 September 1973, the military moved to oust Allende in a coup d’état sponsored by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). As troops surrounded La Moneda Palace, he gave his last speech vowing not to resign. He was assassinated by the CIA assault rifle attack.

Following Allende’s death, General Augusto Pinochet declined to return authority to the civilian government, & Chile was later ruled by a military junta that was in power up until 1990, ending almost four decades of Chilean democratic rule. The military junta that took over dissolved the Congress of Chile & began a persecution of alleged dissidents, in which thousands of Allende’s supporters were kidnapped, tortured, and murdered.

1974 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 crashes in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing 69 passengers & two crew.

1976 – A bomb planted by Zvonko Bušić is found at New York’s Grand Central Terminal

1978 – Janet Parker is the last person to die of smallpoxin a laboratory-associated outbreak

1982 – The international forces that were guaranteeing the safety of Palestinian refugees following Israel’s 1982 Invasion of Lebanon leave Beirut. Five days later, several thousand refugees are massacred in the Sabra & Shatila refugee camps

1988 – The St. Jean Bosco massacre takes place in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

1992 – Hurricane Iniki, one of the most damaging hurricanes in United States history, devastates the Hawaiian islands of Kauai & Oahu

9/11 – 2001 – Two hijacked aircraft crash into the World Trade Center in New York City, while a third smashes into The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, & a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in a series of coordinated suicide attacks by ??? Over 2,996 people are killed, many suffer illness associated with the clean up

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Bloom upright skeleton
With soft flowers of bitter dust
Fetid in Autumn’s withering
Bloom, heart-head dreaming
My Crone womb carries you forward
Willing the grave to sprout from within
Bloom, soul-forces purified & ready
Let tears embrace the wind
To wipe blank eyes screen fixed & unfocused
Bloom now in freedom won

~hag

 

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heart-of-the-rose-by-sir-edward-coley-burne-jones-1833-98Sir Edward Coley

Spiritual epiphany alert! 
Yes, my dear bundles of rumbling DNA

Uncanny revelations are imminent!
Hope you don’t mind being shaken awake
in the middle of your regularly scheduled life…
It doesn’t matter if you’re a true believer
or a work-a-day TV viewer — YOU
will soon be invited
to have one of your logical certainties torn out
by the roots & replaced with a throbbing vision
of cosmic hoopla…
Brace yourself for the most pungent enlightenment you’ve had since your last mudwrestle
with an angel…

…for Long-standing versions of reality
are mutating…Stories that have remained fixed
are about to acquire unexpected wrinkles…
& from the crack in the godhead
new possibilities are pouring forth…

&…there’s something You can do
to ensure that the new versions of the old vision
are more empowering than the overlay:

1. Escape the cramped quarters of your own mind…
2. Slip away from the corners you’ve been backed into…
3. Stop telling the convoluted stories ‘they’ concocted
to rationalize why you should be afraid…
4. Get out of the loop & escape into the big,
fresh places that will rejuvenate
your eyes and heart…& for the foreseeable future,
5. take on the demeanor & spirit of a noble warrior
with high integrity & a fluid sense
of humor…

What I pray is that we won’t be satisfied with mediocre
half-truths; that it is ok to be focused
on cutting out waste, fraud, & delusion; that
it’s ok to be itchy to know more about the unacknowledged
games that are being played…Frustration, I hope,
will be our holy fuel…Unsweetened lemonade,
I trust, will be our rejuvenating drink…
These are blessings, my friend, not curses..!
I pray that you’ll pick one of those itchy scabs
until it bleeds
so the healing process can start over —
the right way this time…See…there goes that misplaced acceptance of
warped chunks of complications…Here comes
an opportunity to make a break for bubbly responsibility

True Human Freedom…
To take advantage, we’ll need to travel much lighter –
So please peel off your heart-armor – polish your sun-shield
Power the rust off your sword

Wipe that forty-pound sneer of doubt off your face –

Bury your broken-down theories by the wayside,
& donate all your unnecessary props
to the birds & the bees – Strip down –
for where we’re going, all you’ll need are
your good looks & a big fresh attitude…

I end this 9/11 epiphany with:

THE “AMERICAN” or “THREEFOLD” VERSE sent by Rudolf Steiner to Ralph Courtney, a pioneer of Anthroposophy in North America for the Threefold Group in New York City, which later established the Threefold Community in Spring Valley (now Chestnut Ridge). This verse for the American spirit speaks of the inner unity of human beings and of support from the spiritual world for our efforts:

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.

In Peace & Good Will

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

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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.

Dear Friends – The Elderberries Three-Fold Café has been on Sunset Blvd. in the heart of Hollywood for over 9 years. They provide not only good healthy food, but nutrition for the soul – Rudolf Steiner’s Weekday Exercises are even on the back of the menu! The café is a hub for youth, hosting anthroposophical study groups, music, alternative film screenings etc – providing support for inner practices, meaningful work to those in need, & platforms for individual creative expression -imbuing all they do with a love for the future of our world.

Our 3-fold friends, Dottie ZoldDaniel Evaeus & Frank Agrama, came in from Los Angeles in March to speak with the Branch Council & have an open conversation with members & friends, about the possibility of opening a second Elderberries 3-fold Café in the unrented space at the branch*. It has long been the vision of Elderberries to create a “Michael Grail-Road” establishing 3-fold Café’s around the world where youth can come to find themselves thru anthroposophy.

Here are a few words about the Initiative from Dottie Hazel   Daniel Frank  Here are a few ‘testimonies

Please help us pave the way for a 3-fold Cafe in the heartland!

Go to this link to find out more & donate if you will https://igg.me/at/michaelgrailroad/x/17233652

Thanks for supporting the future!

If you prefer to give a donation by check, or would like a receipt for tax purposes contact Chuck@ChuckGinsberg.com

*The good will of the Branch council & the membership at large shall determine whether this initiative will reside at the Branch. (Stay tuned for a ‘Special Members Meeting’ TBA) If it is not wanted here, Elderberries may take up root near a Waldorf School or other Chicago location.

You can get your donation back upon request if it doesn’t come thru, or you can choose to support the mission in LA, or other future hubs in the Michael-Grail Road around the country.

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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.

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, and 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 and Rome it is dedicated to Dionysus, or Persephone and Demeter.  Today, we are invited to stand with the powerful Archangel Micha-el, in balance, between the light and the dark, as we create the ‘festival of the future’, which we call ‘Michaelmas’. Forging confidence thru 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 – 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

Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Singing with Elisabeth Swisher

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ON-GOING: 

Community Study – Wednesdays at 8:00 am- 9:40 am  in the Library at the Chicago Waldorf School 1300 W. Loyola, Chicago

‘Anthroposophy’, which means Wisdom of the Human Being is a ‘Spiritual Science’ built on the research of Rudolf Steiner. Our current conversation explores: the riddles of existence, the truth of karma, the mystery of evil, historic connections, life after death and more.  We incorporate ‘The Calendar of the Soul’, eurythmy, focused discussion and seasonal artistic explorations in our study. We are working with Karmic Relationships Vol. 2 currently. ALL are welcome.

Contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg (773-549-3026)  Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

An immaculate bride buds forth from the stem of Jesse…

8 September 2017 – Astro-Weather: Rise & Shine – the view at Dawn. Very low in the east as dawn brightens on Saturday morning September 9th, Mercury, to the right of Regulus, under bright Venus. Mars, fainter  farther lower left.

Then before bed: Although September is typically a slower month for meteors than August, be on the lookout for a relatively new shower called the Epsilon Perseids. The shower peaks late this evening, though the best views will come after midnight once the Moon has set & Perseus rides high in the sky. So perhaps tonight before sleep you might make the intention to spiritually tune into this opportunity to receive this Michaelic gift of cosmic iron to fortify our blood.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

The aim of science is to discover and illuminate truth. And that, I take it, is the aim of literature, whether biography or history… It seems to me, then, that there can be no separate literature of science.” ~Rachel Carson

nativity-of-mary

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Mary’s birth has ‘officially’ been celebrated since the sixth century -A September birth, with the Sun in the constellation Virgo. Also noteworthy-the Eastern Orthodox Church begins its Church year in September, with the feast of the Immaculate Conception nine months earlier on 8 December.

The apocryphal book of James gives us this account: Anna & Joachim are infertile but pray for a child. They receive the promise of a child that will advance God’s evolutionary plan for the world.

St. Augustine connects Mary’s birth with the work of The Christ. He tells the earth to rejoice & shine forth in the light of her birth. “She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley. Through her birth the nature inherited from our first parents is changed.”

Today the barren Anna claps her hands for joy, the earth radiates with light, kings sing their happiness, priests enjoy every blessing, the entire universe rejoices, for she who is queen and the Father’s immaculate bride buds forth from the stem of Jesse

michelangelo-david-hand-760x970

1504 – Michelangelo’s David is unveiled in Piazza della Signoria in Florence

1565 – The Knights of Malta lift the Ottoman siege of Malta, the climax of an escalating contest between a Christian alliance & the Islamic Ottoman Empire for control of the Mediterranean

fludd_summum_bonum

1637 – Deathday of Robert Fludd, a prominent English Paracelsian physician & occultist, an astrologer, mathematician, cosmologist, Qabalist & Rosicrucian apologist.

1900 – Galveston hurricane: A powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000 people

1941 – World War II: Siege of Leningrad begins

1949 – Deathday of Richard Strauss, German composer

1978 – Black Friday, a massacre by soldiers against protesters in Tehran, provoked 700-3000 deaths, it marks the beginning of the end of the monarchy in Iran

1988 – Deathday of Dr Rita Leroi a few days before her 75th birthday. She attended the Stuttgart Waldorf School as a child. She went on to became a Clinical Assistant at the Ita Wegman Clinic in Arlesheim. She developed a deep interest in cancer & the Iscador treatment of this disease. In 1954 she married Dr Alexandre Leroi who was the leader of the Society for Cancer Research & Director of the Hiscia Research Institute in Arlesheim. It is here that Iscador is produced & researches into the many problems to be solved in developing it into an effective remedy are undertaken. In October 1963 the Lukas Klinik, devoted to the care & treatment of cancer patients, opened in Arlesheim & Rita Leroi became its Director & selected to be President of the International Anthroposophical Medical Association

1989 – Partnair Flight 394 drove into the North Sea, killing 55 people. The investigation showed that the tail of the plane vibrated loose in flight due to sub-standard connecting bolts that had been fraudulently sold as aircraft-grade

1994 – USAir Flight 427, on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport, suddenly crashes in clear weather killing all 132 aboard; resulting in the most extensive aviation investigation in world history, altering manufacturing practices in the industry

International Literacy Day

***

mary-womb

My POD (Poem Of the Day)

~The simple thrill of a sparrow’s song cuts the twilight
Opening the colors to dawn
I carry this melody in my belly-O-dee
Close to the egg of silence in my womb ba
& so it is
That I give birth to Today
~hag

***

virgosky

The Virtue for the month of SeptemberCourtesy becomes steadiness of feeling.

Even though today it is still hot & muggy here in the Heartland, Autumn awaits, breathing in behind the rain black clouds, ready to break into the midst of the light-headedness of summer’s high flight, bringing sobriety & the resolve of the harvest.

Now the time has come when the contemplative Virgin of the heavens approaches, to gather us up in her blue mantle, like ears of corn, we are brought home from the fields of Summer.

The constellation of the Virgin has always been regarded in the ancient mysteries as the bearer of the bread of life -Full filled at the ‘Tuning Point of Time’ in the ‘miracle of the loaves & the fishes’, as well as the ‘Last Supper’.

If cosmic provisions are to become nourishment for the “I”, we must make a connection with the powers of the depths, which lie opposite the Virgin along the axis of the Zodiac, in the constellation of Pisces, the sign of the Fishes. With this balance of Above & Below we can truly feed the “I” – & say as St. John did: “I am the Bread of Life”!

This begs the question, which our current culture has to answer: How can the food of life, which is so often taken in unconsciously, in greedy gulps -instead be taken up & internalized with a wakeful & reverent consciousness?

If the Bread of Life is to be fully digested by the “I”, then what is required is the destruction of our selfish desires, making us ‘virgin’ again, that we may give birth to the ‘Christ in me’, to preserve & focus the activity of the will, freeing the “I” from outdated husks, to feed the Christ self.

In the social realm, the royal virtue of courtesy brings the giddiness of summer’s unconscious expansion back into a steadfast feeling of thoughtful care. A soul hygiene that brings the pendulum into right relationship, just as every out-breath is followed by an in-breath -The austerity of the Virgin leading us into the balanced scales of Libra in preparation for Michaelmas.

This must be developed in the practice of our social life. If we practice this high ideal of courtesy, not just a surface, conventional politeness, we can acquire the right heart-felt feeling, which awakens an inner organ that can reveal to us the true being of the other person, as well as opening our connection to the elemental beings, that look to us to release them from the withering blooms.

“If the sheath-bearing Virgin, who draws near with golden rays of autumn sun, in the blue firmament, is to nourish you with what she provides, you must take up this food that is the Bread of Life in your innermost being.

That you can only do, when you develop not only your senses, but with them, open up the spirit of your soul to the world around you, & deepen in your heart the fruits of your life, that you gather, shape & organize. Only the right heartfelt tact gives you the possibility of recognizing the human being in others & of becoming aware of your own human nobility!” ~Rudolf Steiner

virgomary

In the lap of the BVM with you

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

***

The Elderberries Three-Fold Café has been on Sunset Blvd. in the heart of Hollywood for over 9 years. They provide not only good healthy food, but nutrition for the soul – Rudolf Steiner’s Weekday Exercises are even on the back of the menu! The café is a hub for youth, hosting anthroposophical study groups, music, alternative film screenings etc – providing support for inner practices, meaningful work to those in need, & platforms for individual creative expression -imbuing all they do with a love for the future of our world.

We are very fortunate in here in Chicago to be one of only a few Branches that own a building, a home for Anthroposophical work. But not having a tenant for over 4 years has us put in a dire position, & if something doesn’t shift soon we will lose the building.

When Elderberries 3-Fold Café came to visit us in Chicago we realized that are meant to use the entire building to further anthroposophy. We are called, my friends, to create centers for young people to meet, where they can discover who they are in the light of Anthroposophy, where they can work on their inner development, where they can work thru their karma together, with us, each learning from the other. We can save the Rudolf Steiner Branch by making it a home base in a network that supports Youth Initiatives, ‘bringing the Old & Young Souls together’. This goes hand in hand with the practical application of the ‘3-Fold Social Organism’, so needed in the world, which they are coming now to implement through practical Anthroposophy.

Please help us pave the way for a 3-fold Cafe in the Heartland! – one of the hubs on the ‘Michael Grail-Road’ which will further Anthroposophy around the planet.

OUR CAMPAIGN

Our $25,000 goal will provide us with the seeds required to get off the ground in Chicago and will cover:

  • Rent & Deposit
  • Construction / Materials
  • Tableware & Equipment
  • Furniture
  • Permits

Will YOU help support the future NOW?

***

Image result for karma painting

Spiritual Science Study Group – Starting Sept. 13th 2017 & then every Wednesday at 8:00 am- 9:40 am in the Library at the Chicago Waldorf School 1300 W. Loyola, Chicago. We are working with Karmic Relationships Vol. 2, Rudolf Steiner’s seminal mission. All Are Welcome.

‘Anthroposophy’, which means Wisdom of the Human Being is a ‘Spiritual Science’ built on the research of Rudolf Steiner. Our current conversation explores: the riddles of existence, the truth of karma, the mystery of evil, historic connections, life after death and more. We incorporate ‘The Calendar of the Soul’, eurythmy, focused discussion and seasonal artistic explorations in our study. Contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

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. $10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged

Saturday September 30th 10:30 am – 4:30pm at the Theosophical Society 1926 N Main St, Wheaton, IL 60187 – Pre-registration (630) 668-1571, BYO 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, and 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 and Rome it is dedicated to Dionysus, or Persephone and Demeter.  Today, we are invited to stand with the powerful Archangel Micha-el, in balance, between the light and the dark, as we create the ‘festival of the future’, which we call ‘Michaelmas’. Forging confidence thru 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, & the Central Regional Council  of the Anthroposophical Society. Founder of Reverse Ritual – Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year

Eurythmy with Mary Ruud, who just moved here from WI. Mary has been teaching Eurythmy to adults and children for more than 30 years. She works in several Waldorf teacher training courses for private, public and charter schools as well as Lifeways Early Childhood Training. Mary’ Masters of Liberal Arts thesis was Nature and Self, how our attitudes towards the natural world shape our concept of Self. Mary is also a trained Therapeutic Horsemanship teacher.

Details about the Elderberries Initiative

Dear Friends – I have been asked to help fill out the picture of the Elderberries 3-Fold Café Initiative for Chicago currently being proposed.

Elderberries has been in business for over 9 years in LA & has a spotless financial record. They have even been able to finance buying a house for their co-workers to live, as well as renting a new space for their cultural hub. They are paying around $5000 a month for all 3 properties in LA, & have never missed a payment .

The plan is to bring a team of co-workers to Chicago to build out the Café, as they did in LA, then Dottie Zold, Daniel Evaeus & Frank Agrama would stay to start-up & run the Café in Chicago. These & other young people go thru a training in Café management as part of their 3-fold work. The crowdfunding page speaks a bit about that process. This empowers individuals to take the lead & run the Café after the original crew returns to LA.

Ann Burfiend has offered to put them up at the Christian Community Church, so they would have a place to live while the enterprise is getting up & running.

Elderberries has agreed to pay the Rudolf Steiner Branch $2000 a month rent. We have another prospective tenet for the back space (Warner DeJulio who is a wine maker, willing to invest $25,000 of his own money to build out the back space for his business, put in his own HVAC & pay his own electric, & water, as well as construct a firewall which our building has been in violation for not having all these years) Warner would pay $1000 per month giving us a total income of $36,000 per year which covers our expenses.

The Branch Council has asked Elderberries to crowdfund to bring an initial down payment of $25,000 for the build out (realistically it will cost less than that since the work will be done by the co-workers) And also after getting established to bring another $ 25,000 so the branch would have a reserve for tax increases, building maintenance, etc…

The crowdfunding page has been up for about a week with folks around the world contributing. Thank You! This initiative can’t happen without our tangible good will. It’s up to all us to engage our will thru the New Mysteries of Money*, even if it’s just $10, which shows a gesture of unity. Otherwise we shall be forced to sell the building. And unfortunately we have discovered that there is an encroachment on the south side of the property which makes it undesirable to a developer & will not get us a very good price.

Elderberries will bring us more than just financial security, besides supporting you – the future of Anthroposophy, it will enliven our branch life:

The 3-fold conference *‘How We Willput on by Elderberries is happening right now. Over 150 folks from around the world have gathered, (each paying $350 to attend) with guest speakers like:

Nicanor Perlas, in the core group of People Power 2 that deposed former Philippine President Joseph Estrada who was starting to violate key provisions of the Philippine Constitution. He spearheaded the formulation of Philippine Agenda 21, the sustainable development blueprint of the Philippine government, which introduced into mainstream policy and development circles the societal threefolding approach to participatory governance.  He serves a consultant to government, business, and civil society on integral sustainable development and its local adaptation for towns and cities, Sustainable Integrated Area Development or SIAD. For the national and global impact of his work, Perlas received the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize, in 2003. Earlier, he also received The Outstanding Filipino Award and the UNEP’s Global 500 Award. 

Orland Bishop Founder and Executive Director of ShadeTree Multicultural Foundation in Los Angeles, California, a unique organization of social architects and entrepreneurs devoted to creating new social forms and collaboratives for systems change. ShadeTree’s Genesis Pathway is a human development process designed to mentor youth through self-knowledge and the creating of community. Shadetree uses the core idea of “genius to genius” mentoring which helps to reveal the inherent gifts in each individual while seeking ways for each to live productively and originally in the world.” Orland is an active member in several working groups on the futures of money and systems that leverage monetary wealth and social capital for emerging economies.

Gerald Häfner has been active as a German politician with the Green Party. From 1987 to 2002, he served three times in the lower house of parliament and was a member of the European parliament from 2009 to 2014. Waldorf teacher, publicist and co-founder of numerous initiatives and foundations like ‘More Democracy’ and Democracy International, Häfner is now also head of the Section for Social Sciences at the Goetheanum since 2015.

Bart Eddy is an educator, social entrepreneur and community development advocate who has worked in Detroit for more than 30 years. During that time, he has Co-Founded the Barnabas Youth Opportunities Center (1983), Detroit Community Schools (1997) and the Sunbridge International Collaborative (2012). He currently directs the “Brightmoor Makers” program for youth employment and advocacy and is passionately committed to helping young people find their sense of vision, mission and purpose in the global community. Bart was a class teacher at the Detroit Waldorf School from 1988-1996.

John Bloom Vice President, Organizational Culture at RSF Social Finance in San Francisco, the new General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America.

John Beck director of communications in 2009 for the Anthroposophical Society in America. He has recently completed a book, Being Human in the Millennial Age.J

And many others including Daniel Evaeus & Frank Agrama https://howwewill.blog/speakers/

Dear friends – This is the kind of gift they could bring to the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago as well.

As members & friends of the Rudolf Steiner Branch, & of AnthropoSophia, we need to perform our due diligence by actually researching Elderberries & their initiatives for ourselves as free individuals. If it is our will, we can have a 3-Fold Café here in the Heart-land.

Unraveling the true identity of civil society is an urgent matter. It is not a mere intellectual exercise. The answers we give to this quest will determine the effectiveness with which we engage the world.” –Nicanor Perlas from “Shaping Globalization: Civil Society, Cultural Power and Threefolding”

Here is the crowdfunding link https://igg.me/at/michaelgrailroad/x/17233652

Here’s another look at what the youth are doing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0aAs3alndU  They raised enough money 2 years ago to send 10 young people to Dornach.

Will you help support the future? Or will the branch become part of the past?

If you have any questions please contact me or the branch treasurer Chuck Ginsberg  (he is currently attending the ‘How We Will Forum’ & will return Sept. 6th)

~Yours in service Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Ok now i need to get back to working on:

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.

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, and 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 and Rome it is dedicated to Dionysus, or Persephone and Demeter.  Today, we are invited to stand with the powerful Archangel Micha-el, in balance, between the light and the dark, as we create the ‘festival of the future’, which we call ‘Michaelmas’. Forging confidence thru 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 – 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