Monthly Archives: January 2018

Tap Root

30 January 2018 – Astro-Weather: Anyone with clear skies in parts of North America (not so much here in Chicago) & across the Pacific Ocean to Australia & eastern Asia can witness the total eclipse of the Blue (2nd Full Moon in a month) Super (moon at Perigee) Moon.

From North America, the eclipse occurs before dawn & delivers better views to those who live farther west. The eclipse’s partial phases start at 6:48 a.m. EST (3:48 a.m. PST). Those in the continent’s western two-thirds can view at least some of totality, which gets underway at 6:52 a.m. CST (4:52 a.m. PST). Totality last 76 minutes & can be seen in its entirety west of a line that runs from central North Dakota to New Mexico. The eclipsed Moon hangs among the background stars of Cancer with the Beehive star cluster to its northwest.

The Moon reaches perigee, the closest point in its orbit around Earth, just 27 hours before it is Full. At 4:57 a.m. EST on the 30th, it lies 223,068 miles away from us.

To read more about the Spiritual Scientific explanation of this cosmic event, go to this post by Johnathan Hilton

 

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

516 BCE – The Second Temple of Jerusalem finishes construction

1128 – Birthday of Alanus ab Insulis, Teacher at Chartres. Rudolf Steiner speaks about him in many of his Karmic relationships lectures.

1661 – Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, is ritually executed more than two years after his death, on the 12th anniversary of the execution of the monarch he himself deposed.

1882 – Birthday of Franklin D. Roosevelt, American lawyer and politician, 32nd President of the United States

1889 – Deathday of Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, is found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera in the Mayerling. From the research of Rudolf Steiner we hear about this suicide as being a karmic consequence of his life as Nero.

1933 – Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.

1945 – World War II: The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with German refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, killing approximately 10,500 people

1948 – Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist. A year earlier on this same date, W.J. Stein sent him Steiner’s Threefold Social Order

1956 – Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.’s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

1969 – The Beatles’ last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Beneath the crust of ice I hear
A ready roar
Rumble up from the tap root
Of the dogwood tree
It knows my secret name
Witch will rise with the sap
When Brigid-Bride calls me…
~hag

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Today is Tu B’Shvat – the “New Year for the Trees ” which occurs every year on the eve of the Full Quickening Moon, around the time of the Cross Quarter between Winter Solstice & Spring Equinox. This is when the sap begins to rise.

Kabbalists have used the tree as a metaphor to understand the relationship between the spiritual & physical worlds. Spiritual Science tells us that the human being is a reversed plant. Our head is the root. The higher spiritual realms are where these roots come from, which then ultimately manifests their influence through branches & leaves – our heart & lungs & limbs, our thinking, feeling & willing in the world.

In the 16th century, the Kabbalists compiled a Tu B’Shvat “Seder,” similar to the Seder for Passover. It involves enjoying the fruits of the tree, & discusses philosophical & Kabbalistic concepts, like the idea that by eating with the highest intention we can repair the ‘fall’. The ‘sin’ against the Tree of Knowledge was that Adam & Eve ate its fruit before it was ripe.

Henry E. Huntington

So, what is it about waiting (perhaps, wading) that transforms knowledge from hurtful to healthy? Do we have faith that the spring will come & everything will grow & ripen in its season?

Through eating, we have a daily opportunity to correct a part of our soul, so deep & intrinsic that it reaches back into the Garden of Eden.

The custom on Tu B’Shvat is to eat fruits from the seven species for which the Land of Israel is praised: “…a land of wheat and barley and (grape) vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and (date) honey” (Deut. 8:8).

On Tu B’Shvat, it is also customary to eat a “new fruit” something we have not yet tasted this year.

Henry John Stock

This festival lets us ask: Am I getting the spiritual food I need, to truly live with grace, or is my tree being blown down by the forces of information overload & rampant materialism?

Am I part of a strong community, providing a warm & nurturing environment? Or am I cast into the pale bleak anonymity of urban life & cyberspace?

Am I looking to future generations knowing that I am providing them with the proper foundations for their lives?

The word “Shvat” is also related to the Hebrew word for a staff or rod. A staff can be used as a symbol of power; or as a cane to lean on. This is an underlying theme of the month.

So as we open our thinking, feeling & willing to align with the rising sap, in gratitude for the fruits of life; we can use this time to focus on the idea of consciously using our daily behavior as a medium for spirituality.

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The Karma Project – A Western Approach to Reincarnation & Karma
February 7, 2018 – 7:15 pm CST (8:15 pm EST)
View this email in your browser

 The course of human life between birth and death is determined in three different ways, and we are likewise dependent on three factors beyond birth and death.  The body is subject to the laws of heredity; the soul is subject to self-created destiny or, to use an ancient term, to itskarma; and the spirit is subject to the laws ofreincarnation or repeated Earth lives.”

~Rudolf Steiner, A Western Approach to Reincarnation and Karma, Chapter 8, “Reincarnation of the Spirit and Destiny” (fromTheosophy, Chapter 2) … focus of the February 7 meeting!

The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing  study conversation.  The study has been divided amongst five volunteers who will summarize their section to rebuild it as a foundation for our conversation. Please familiarize yourself with the lecture if possible so you will feel comfortable sharing your reflections and thoughts with the group.

This collection of lectures has been republished by Anthroposophic Press under the title: “A Western Approach to Reincarnation and Karma
The following is the link to Chapter 2 of Theosophy (from e.Lib):
http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA009/English/AP1971/GA009_index.html

This will be a “Zoom” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer).  To connect to the audio/video-conference:
Option 1.  Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended)
https://zoom.us/j/831956619
Option 2.  Call in using your telephone.
United States: +1 669 900 6833  or +1 646 558 8656
Access Code: 831-956-619
Option 3. You can use a combination of Options 1 and 2 (computer and phone). If you use the phone, please turn off the audio on your computer to avoid audio feedback.

Please join us!

Agenda for our Study Call

7:15  Verse
7:18  Welcome and Introductions
7:25  Study led by six volunteers
Marianne – page 117 to 120
David – page 121 to page 124
Lisa – page 125 to page 128
Hazel – page 129 to 132
Alberto – page 133 to end
8:05  Conversation
8:20  Identify volunteers for the next study call, April 4
8:25 Share plans re: Speaker for March 7
8:28  Close with verse

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Adrian Asatru

 

Spinning Destiny with the Fates

An Experiential Workshop with Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Saturday, 10 February 2018 – 10:30 AM – 4:30 PM

At the Theosophical Society 1926 N Main St, Wheaton, IL 60187

Come face the Fates & meet the Sibyls in the Light of Anthroposophy & ask: Does Fortune smile? Is Justice blind? How can I Co-Create with Destiny, to spin the thread of my life with integrity, to heal and clear the collective karma, & achieve my True Becoming?

Through the insights of Rudolf Steiner,  the power of Myth-Telling, & Ritual-Tasks, such as interactive drumming, & Socratic questioning; we will journey into our soul-depths to stand before the “Daughters of Necessity” that we will transform to meet our true calling; asking: ‘What is my Highest Purpose?’

Please bring your own vegetarian lunch

$60 nonmembers $50 members $70 at the door

Register here

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg  –Spiritual Midwife, Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Blogger – Anthroposopher, working as the Festivals Coordinator for the Rudolf Steiner Branch of Chicago.

Founder of  www.reverseritual.com

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Pop Up Valentine’s Market – Sunday February 11th – 1pm till 9pm
at the Elderberries Three-Fold Chicago space 4251 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago
Locally Hand-Crafted: Clothing, Art, Jewelry, Soy Candles;
+ Fair-Trade, Essential Oils, Supplements…

20 per cent of sales goes to a new heating & cooling system for the Branch

Would you like to be a vendor? contact Hazel

Thanks to those who responded to the call for items for Peer Space! I forgot to mention we also need folding tables, & a few garbage cans. Come see the newly lazured space & pick up a gift for your beloved ones

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Denise Yocco

Friday February 23rd 2018 -Open Community Conversation 7 pm – 9 pm

This is a call to All: Especially those working out of the various Steiner initiatives – Folks from The Chicago Waldorf School, City Garden & The Urban Prairie Waldorf School, The Christian Community, Arcturus, the Rudolf Steiner Branch, Elderberries, Angelic Organics, Zinniker’s Bio-Dynamic Farm…

Come be part of our ongoing conversation about the future of anthroposophy & its cultivation here in Chicago.

As a special treat, the Monday Eurythmy group will present a performance of Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul Verse  #47

We will also continue to explore the biography of famous Chicagoans. At this meeting, Mary Ruud will share her research on Harold Washington.

And as always, the floor will be open for conversation.

All are welcome

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

Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map) Check out our Web site! Chicago, IL (Anthroposophical Society in America)

The newly renovated (& lazured) Elderberries 3-Fold Space is currently available for rental on PEER SPACE for classes, events, meetings, retreats, art exhibits, family parties, etc…

Gravity

27 January 2018 – Astro-Weather: After dark you’ll find the Great Square of Pegasus sinking in the west, tipped onto one corner. Meanwhile the Big Dipper is creeping up in the north-northeast, tipped up on its handle.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Carole Voss

If you want to change the world, you have to change the metaphor.” ~ Joseph Campbell

407 – The deathday of St. John Chrysostom The epithet Χρυσόστομος or Chrysostomos, means “golden-throat” in Greek & denotes his celebrated eloquence. As Archbishop of Constantinople, he was known for his preaching & public speaking, & his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical & political leaders. Chrysostom was among the most prolific authors in the early Christian Church. The Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom is sublime.

1302 – Dante Alighieri is exiled from Florence

1756 – Birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

1775 – Birthday of Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, German-Swiss philosopher

Riddle of Man: German Idealism: Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, a lecture by Rudolf Steiner – “…For Schelling, the world riddle consists in the fact that he sees himself, with his soul awakened to egohood, confronted by a seemingly mute and lifeless nature. Out of this nature the soul awakens. This fact reveals itself to human observation. And the knowing, feeling human spirit delves down into this nature and through this nature fills itself with an inner world that then becomes spiritual life within it. Could this be so if there did not exist between the soul and nature a deeply inward relatedness at first hidden from human cognition? But nature remains mute if the soul does not make itself into the instrument of nature’s speech; nature seems dead if the spirit of man does not free life from the spell of semblance (Schein). The secrets of nature must sound forth from the depths of the human soul. But in order for this not to be a deception, it must be the essential being of nature itself that speaks out of the human soul. And it must be true that the soul only seemingly goes down into its own depths when it knows nature; in actuality, when it wants to find nature, the soul must travel through subconscious passages in order to delve down with its own life into the cycle of nature’s weaving…”

1901 –Deathday of Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer

1951 – Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with Operation Ranger

2011 – Arab Spring: The Yemeni Revolution begins as over 16,000 protestors demonstrate in Sana’a

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POD (Poem Of the day)

~Roundness
+ Gravity
Shapes the Heart
~hag

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Alexander the Great & the Fates by Bernardino Mei

It is interesting that the Sibyls should 1st appear in Ionia, since it was also at the same time, the birthplace of Greek philosophy: that high wisdom of Thales & especially Aristotle, still considered one of the greatest thinkers in politics, psychology & ethics. When Aristotle turned 17, he enrolled in Plato’s Academy. He also founded his own school, the Lyceum. Did you know he was the tutor of Alexander the Great? Learn more at this experiential workshop:

Spinning Destiny with the Fates

An Experiential Workshop with Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Saturday, 10 February 2018 – 10:30 AM – 4:30 PM

At the Theosophical Society 1926 N Main St, Wheaton, IL 60187

Come face the Fates & meet the Sibyls in the Light of Anthroposophy & ask: Does Fortune smile? Is Justice blind? How can I Co-Create with Destiny, to spin the thread of my life with integrity, to heal and clear the collective karma, & achieve my True Becoming?

Through the insights of Rudolf Steiner,  the power of Myth-Telling, & Ritual-Tasks, such as interactive drumming, & Socratic questioning; we will journey into our soul-depths to stand before the “Daughters of Necessity” that we will transform to meet our true calling; asking: ‘What is my Highest Purpose?’

Please bring your own vegetarian lunch

$60 nonmembers $50 members $70 at the door

Register here

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg  –Spiritual Midwife, Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Blogger – Anthroposopher, working as the Festivals Coordinator for the Rudolf Steiner Branch of Chicago. Founder of  www.reverseritual.com

 

unbound & beauteous

22 January 2018 – Astro-Weather: Orion is now high in the southeast right after dark.  Orion is the brightest of the 88 constellations, but his main pattern is surprisingly small compared to some of his dimmer neighbors. The biggest of these is Eridanus the River to his west, enormous but hard to trace. Dimmer Fornax the Furnace, to Eridanus’s lower right, is almost as big as Orion! Even the main pattern of Lepus, the Hare cowering under Orion’s feet, isn’t much smaller than he is.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1905 – Bloody Sunday in Saint Petersburg – unarmed demonstrators led by Father Georgy Gapon were fired upon by soldiers of the Imperial Guard as they marched towards the Winter Palace to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Bloody Sunday caused grave consequences for the Tsarist autocracy governing Imperial Russia: the events in St. Petersburg provoked public outrage and a series of massive strikes that spread quickly throughout the industrial centers of the Russian Empire. The massacre on Bloody Sunday is considered to be the start of the active phase of the Revolution of 1905. In addition these events became one of the key events which led to the Russian Revolution of 1917.

1561 – Birthday of Francis Bacon, English philosopher & politician, Attorney General for England and Wales. Rudolf Steiner speaks of him as Harun al Rashid in Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies – Volume I lecture 10:

When we learn to know the individuality of Haroun al Raschid inwardly in the astral light, as we say, when we have him before us as a spiritual individuality in the 9th century, bearing in mind what he was behind the scenes of world-history and when what he was had been unfolded on the surface with the brilliance of which I have told you — then we can follow the course of time and find such an individuality as Haroun al Raschid passing through death, looking down from the spiritual world upon what is happening on earth, looking down, that is to say, upon the outward extermination of Arabism and, in accordance with his destiny, being involved in the process. We find such an individuality passing through the spiritual world and appearing again, not perhaps with the same splendour, but with a similar trend of soul.

And so we see Haroun al Raschid appearing again in the history of European spiritual life as a personality who is once again of wide repute, namely, as Lord Bacon of Verulam. I have spoken of Lord Bacon in many different connections. All the driving power that was in Haroun al Raschid and was conveyed to those in his environment, this same impulse was imparted by Lord Bacon in a more abstract form — for he lived in the age of abstraction — to the various branches of knowledge. Haroun al Raschid was a universal spirit in the sense that he united specialists, so to speak, around him. Lord Bacon — he has of course his Inspirer behind him, but he is a fit subject to be so inspired — Lord Bacon is a personality who is also able to exercise a truly universal influence.

When with this knowledge of an historic karmic connection we turn to Bacon and his writings, we recognise why these writings have so little that is Christian about them and such a strong Arabic timbre. We discover the genuine Arabist trend in these writings of Lord Bacon. And many things too in regard to his character, which has been so. often impugned, will be explicable when we see in him the reincarnated Haroun al Raschid. The life and culture pursued at the Court of Haroun al Raschid, and justly admired by Charles the Great himself, become the abstract science of which Lord Bacon was the bearer. But men bowed before Lord Bacon too. And whoever studies the attitude adopted by European civilisation in the 8th/9th centuries to Haroun al Raschid, and then the attitude of European learning to Lord Bacon, will have the impression: men have turned round, that is all! In the days of Haroun al Raschid they looked towards the East; then they turned round in Middle Europe and looked towards the West, to Lord Bacon.

And so what may have disappeared, outwardly speaking, from history, is carried from age to age by human individualities themselves. Arabism seems to have disappeared; but it lives on, lives on in its fundamental trend. And just as the outer aspects of a human life differ from those of the foregoing life, so do the influences exercised by such a personality differ from age to age.

1729 – Birthday of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German philosopher & author. Rudolf Steiner speaks about him at length in in Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies – Volume I lecture 11:

“.…At the close of his life Lessing wrote the remarkable essay, The Education of the Human Race, at the end of which, quite isolated, as it were, the idea of repeated earth-lives appears. The book shows how mankind goes through one epoch of development after another, and how the Gods gave into man’s hand as a first primer, so to speak, the Old Testament, and then as a second primer the New Testament, and how in the future a third book will come for the further education of the human race. And then all at once the essay is brought to a close with a brief presentation of the idea that man lives through repeated earth-lives. And there Lessing says, again in a way that is absolutely in accord with his character (I am not quoting the actual words, but this is the gist of it): Ought the idea of repeated earth-lives to seem so absurd, considering that it was present in very early times, when men had not yet been spoilt by school learning? The essay then ends with a genuine panegyric on repeated earth-lives, finishing with these beautiful words: “Is not all Eternity mine?”…”

1788 – Birthday of Lord Byron, English poet & playwright. In the same lecture that Rudolf Steiner speaks about Lessing, he also mentions Lord Byron. So interesting that they share the same birthday. Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies – Volume I lecture 11:

It was when, in another connection, I began to take a special interest in the life of Lord Byron. And at that same time I got to know some Byron enthusiasts. One of them was the poetess, Marie Eugenie delle Grazie, of whom I shall have much to say in my autobiography. During a certain period of her life she was a Byron enthusiast. Then there was another, a most remarkable personality, a strange mixture of all possible qualities — Eugen Heinrich Schmidt. Many of you who know something about the history of Anthroposophy will be familiar with his name…”

Gosta Adrian Nilsson

 

1849 – August Strindberg, Swedish novelist, poet, & playwright. Rudolf Steiner speaks of him as Julia, the daughter of Augustus in Karmic Relationships, Volume IV: Lecture II. So interesting that  Bacon, Lessing, Byron & Strindberg all share the same Birthday & were all researched by Rudolf Steiner, who looked into their former incarnations & reported this research in his Karmic Relationships lectures the focus of his life’s work right before he died.

This date was also the Deathday of Rudolf Steiner’s father Johann Steiner in 1910.

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I greet teeth white with biting bitter heads…
Devour time, dear ally, to make my bread rise
& free my blood to be
Reborn of spirit unbound & beauteous...
~hag

***

Alfred Agache

The 3 Fates are celebrated & worshiped by many names, in many traditions: the Nordic Norns, the Greek Moirae, in Scandinavia we have the Wyrd Sisters, Wyrd=the Word, a prefiguring of The Logos. In mythology we hear about ‘the Daughters of Necessity’. In fairy tale we meet the Maiden Crones from Giant-Land. From Medieval Europe in Shakespeare’s Macbeth we have the 3 Witches, also called The Harsh Spinners. In the Judeo/Christian tradition this concept evolves into: Faith, Hope & Charity. In the Americas we see this image of the Triple Goddess, in a mountain in Oregon called the 3 Sisters, outpictured in the Native American legend of Squash, Corn & beans, the 3-sisters that work together to feed humanity. We will also look into what Spiritual Science reveals about the Sibyls…& so I invite you to come join us to receive the cyphers of their stories:

Spinning Destiny with the Fates

An Experiential Workshop with Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Saturday, 10 February 2018 – 10:30 AM – 4:30 PM

At the Theosophical Society 1926 N Main St, Wheaton, IL 60187

Come face the Fates & meet the Sibyls in the Light of Anthroposophy & ask: Does Fortune smile? Is Justice blind? How can I Co-Create with Destiny, to spin the thread of my life with integrity, to heal and clear the collective karma, & achieve my True Becoming?

Through the insights of Rudolf Steiner,  the power of Myth-Telling, & Ritual-Tasks, such as interactive drumming, & Socratic questioning; we will journey into our soul-depths to stand before the “Daughters of Necessity” that we will transform to meet our true calling; asking: ‘What is my Highest Purpose?’

Please bring your own vegetarian lunch

$60 nonmembers $50 members $70 at the door

Register here

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg  –Spiritual Midwife, Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Blogger – Anthroposopher, working as the Festivals Coordinator for the Rudolf Steiner Branch of Chicago. Founder of  www.reverseritual.com

 

RIP SOP

16 January 2017 – Astro-Weather:

New Moon – exact at 8:17 p.m. CST. After dinnertime, the enormous Andromeda-Pegasus complex runs from near the zenith down toward the western horizon.

Just west of the zenith, spot Andromeda standing on her head. About halfway down from the zenith to the west horizon is the Great Square of Pegasus, balancing on one corner. Down from its bottom corner run the stars outlining Pegasus’s neck & head, ending at his nose: Enif, slightly orange, due west.

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Dariusz Slusarski

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1412 – The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy

1477 – Birthday & Deathday (1547 ) of Johannes Schöner, a renowned German polymath. He was a priest, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, cosmographer, cartographer, mathematician, globe &scientific instrument maker & editor/ publisher of scientific tests. He published of Copernicus’ “De revolutionibus” in Nürnberg in 1543. He enjoyed a European wide reputation as an innovative & influential globe maker & cosmographer- as one of the continent’s leading & most authoritative astrologers.

1547 – Ivan IV of Russia a.k.a. Ivan the Terrible becomes Czar of Russia

1556 – Philip II becomes King of Spain

1838 – Birthday of Franz Brentano an influential German philosopher, psychologist, & priest whose work strongly influenced not only students Edmund Husserl, Sigmund Freud, Kazimierz Twardowski, Alexius Meinong, Carl Stumpf, Anton Marty, Christian von Ehrenfels, and Tomáš Masaryk, but many others whose work would follow &make use of his original ideas & concepts. Rudolf Steiner recalls the obituary he gave of Brentano as part of his lecture The Case for Anthroposophy where he also speaks about the Separation of the ‘Psychological from the Non-Psychological’ in Franz Brentano.

1901 – Deathday of Arnold Böcklin a Swiss symbolist painter. Rudolf Steiner speaks about him in an incarnation as an Arthurian Knight

1909 – Ernest Shackleton‘s expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.

1919 – Temperance movement: The United States ratifies the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring Prohibition

1942 – Crash of TWA Flight 3, killing all 22 aboard, including film star Carole Lombard

1945 – Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the Führerbunker

SOP with his wife Astrid

1954 – Birthday of Russian anthroposophist Sergei Olegovitch Prokofieff Dear Friends – Today would have been his 64th birthday (16 January 1954 – 26 July 2014) He was the grandson of the composer Sergei Prokofiev. Born in Moscow, he studied fine arts & painting at the Moscow School of Art. He encountered anthroposophy in his youth, & soon made the decision to devote his life to it. Prokofieff, wrote his first book, Rudolf Steiner and the Founding of the New Mysteries, while living in Soviet Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he was a co-founder of the Anthroposophical Society in Russia. At Easter 2001, he became a member of the Executive Council of the General Anthroposophical Society in Dornach, Switzerland. Prokofieff was a prolific author; at the core of his work is an attempt to develop a deepened understanding for Christianity on the basis of Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual-scientific research. Prokofieff left us a treasure trove of Works

http://www.anthroposophy.org/uploads/media/AWE2014_09.pdf
https://steiner.presswarehouse.com/books/AuthorDetail.aspx…

 

1957 – Deathday of Arturo Toscanini an Italian conductor, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail & sonority, & his photographic memory.] He was at various times the music director of La Scala Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, & the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Later in his career he was appointed the first music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937–54), & this led to his becoming a household name through his radio & television broadcasts & many recordings.

1969 – Soviet spacecraft perform the first-ever docking of manned spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, & the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk

Marta Lebeck

1970 – Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects

2003 – The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry

2006 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia’s new president. She becomes Africa’s first female elected head of state

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Eliza Leahy

POD (Poem Of theDay)

~The truth
Of what we call our knowing
Is both light & dark…
Humans are always dying & waking…
The rhythm between – We call life…
Wake-up!
Some miracle is about
To happen…
~hag

Tina Yu

***

May the echo of these words, spoken by Martin Luther King Jr. reverberate in our hearts, stimulate our minds & inspire our hands to action:

“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”

“Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles; Cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances. Courage breeds creativity; Cowardice represses fear and is mastered by it. Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience ask the question, is it right? And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.”

“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”

“A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.”

“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”

“Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”

“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.”

“Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That’s the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system.”

“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.”

“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”

“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”

“By opening our lives to God in Christ, we become new creatures. This experience, which Jesus spoke of as the new birth, is essential if we are to be transformed nonconformists … Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit.”

“Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, ‘Love your enemies.’ It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.”

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”

We shall overcome someday

Xox  ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

SAVE THE DATE:  Lazure Workshop with Nancy Melvin – January 20-21 9am-5pm 

 $100 for the weekend (1/2 the proceeds go toward the ‘Furnace Fund’ for the Branch)

Lazure is a technique for applying several layers of transparent color washes on walls, enlivening interior spaces with breathing, light filled color.  We will Lazure the Branch’s newly renovated areas in anticipation of the Elderberries Cafe moving into the space.  We will look to Steiner’s indications for public spaces in Urban areas for color schemes.  The two day workshop will begin Saturday morning January 20th with color samples and participants can learn the brush technique which is radically different from painting with flat opaque paints.  Then right away on the first day we will test color layers and apply the first several washes on the walls.  There will be down time in between layers for participants to break for morning tea, for lunch and afternoon tea.  The next day will add layers and depth to the colors as needed.  By the end of the workshop you will learn all you need to know to go home and do this work in your home or office.

Nancy Melvin will lead the workshop, a former Waldorf Grades Teacher and teacher of wet on wet painting to children.  She has lazured many Waldorf classrooms, most recently the EC extension of CWS in Lincoln Square and the foyer of CWS’s EC area.

 for more info. Contact Nancy Melvin melvinstudiochicago@gmail.com

***

Spinning Destiny with the Fates

An Experiential Workshop with Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Saturday, 10 February 2018 – 10:30 AM – 4:30 PM

At the Theosophical Society 1926 N Main St, Wheaton, IL 60187

Come face the Fates & meet the Sibyls in the Light of Anthroposophy & ask: Does Fortune smile? Is Justice blind? How can I Co-Create with Destiny, to spin the thread of my life with integrity, to heal and clear the collective karma, & achieve my True Becoming?

Through the insights of Rudolf Steiner,  the power of Myth-Telling, & Ritual-Tasks, such as interactive drumming, & Socratic questioning; we will journey into our soul-depths to stand before the “Daughters of Necessity” that we will transform to meet our true calling; asking: ‘What is my Highest Purpose?’

Please bring your own vegetarian lunch

$60 nonmembers $50 members $70 at the door

Register here

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg  –Spiritual Midwife, Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Blogger – Anthroposopher, working as the Festivals Coordinator for the Rudolf Steiner Branch of Chicago.

Founder of  www.reverseritual.com

 

Wishing for warmth among bent feathers

13 January 2018 – Astro-Weather: Vega still twinkles quite low in the northwest after dusk. It’s sometimes called the Summer Star, but its way out of season now! It’ll soon be gone, to return to the evening sky next spring.

At dawn on tomorrow morning the 14th Bella Luna hangs above Mercury & Saturn. What does this speaking say?

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Faye Hall

History is a cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of the human being”. ~Percy Bysshe Shelley

1090 – Birthday of Bernard of Clairvaux, Mystic, Theologian, Co-Founder of the Order of the Templars

1497 – Deathday of St. Veronica of Milan. Being very poor & having no formal education, she attempted, , to teach herself to read.  While making this effort one night, the Virgin Mary appeared to Veronica, &taught her in the form of three mystical letters:

The first signified purity of intention; the second, abhorrence of murmuring or criticism; the third, daily meditation on the Passion. By the first she learned to begin her daily duties for no human motive, but for God alone; by the second, to carry out what she had begun by attending to her own affairs, never judging her neighbor, but praying for those who did wrong; by the third she was enabled to forget her own pains & sorrows in those of her Lord, & to weep hourly, but silently, over the memory of His wrongs.

Veronica became accustomed to nearly constant apparitions & religious ecstasies. She saw scenes from the life of Christ, yet these never interrupted her work. She joined an Augustinian lay order at the convent of Saint Martha in Milan at the age of 22. This community was very poor; Veronica’s job was to beg in the streets of the city for food.

She received a vision of Christ in 1494, & was given a message for Pope Alexander VI, so she traveled to Rome to deliver it. After a six-month illness, Veronica died on the date she had predicted, 13 January 1497.

Tjugondag jul (“Twentieth Day Yule”), or Tjugondag Knut (“Twentieth Day Knut”),  a traditional festival celebrated in Sweden & Finland on 13 January. Christmas trees are taken down on Tjugondag jul, & the candies &cookies that decorated the tree are eaten. In Sweden, the feast held during this event is called a Knut’s party (Julgransplundring, literally “Christmas tree plundering”)

1898 – Émile Zola’s J’accuse…! exposes the Dreyfus affair – an open letter published in the newspaper L’Aurore where Zola spoke about President of France Félix Faure & accused the government of anti-Semitism & the unlawful jailing of Alfred Dreyfus, a French Army General Staff officer who was sentenced to lifelong penal servitude for espionage. Zola pointed out judicial errors & lack of serious evidence. The letter was printed on the front page of the newspaper & caused a stir in France & abroad. Zola was prosecuted for libel & found guilty. To avoid imprisonment, he fled to England, returning home in June 1899.

As a result of the popularity of the letter, even in the English-speaking world, J’accuse! has become a common generic expression of outrage & accusation against someone powerful.

1915 – The Avezzano earthquake shakes the Province of L’Aquila in Italy with a maximum intensity of XI (Extreme), killing over 32,610 people.

2001 – An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 1800

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

 Irakli Dolidze

~O my soul
A winter sparrow that won’t rest
Wishing for warmth among bent feathers
Seized-songs rush
Shrill in my throat
Spreading sparks off my wings
Love forming a note
Flowing thru
Hollow bones I fly
From yesterday
The sun caught in the amber
O my hazel eye
~hag

***

Denise Yocco

Try to find groups, smaller or bigger, who work together not only to study, but to carry out responsible work in the world. Stand with each other so that those who are standing know they are not standing alone, that each is trusted, and that he can trust the others.” — Bernard J. Lievegoed, MD (1905–1992), Doctor of Medicine & Psychiatry, Psychiatrist, Consultant for Organizational Development, Author

***

SAVE THE DATE:  Lazure Workshop with Nancy Melvin – January 20-21 9am-5pm 

 $100 for the weekend (1/2 the proceeds go toward the ‘Furnace Fund’ for the Branch)

Lazure is a technique for applying several layers of transparent color washes on walls, enlivening interior spaces with breathing, light filled color.  We will Lazure the Branch’s newly renovated areas in anticipation of the Elderberries Cafe moving into the space.  We will look to Steiner’s indications for public spaces in Urban areas for color schemes.  The two day workshop will begin Saturday morning January 20th with color samples and participants can learn the brush technique which is radically different from painting with flat opaque paints.  Then right away on the first day we will test color layers and apply the first several washes on the walls.  There will be down time in between layers for participants to break for morning tea, for lunch and afternoon tea.  The next day will add layers and depth to the colors as needed.  By the end of the workshop you will learn all you need to know to go home and do this work in your home or office.

Nancy Melvin will lead the workshop, a former Waldorf Grades Teacher and teacher of wet on wet painting to children.  She has lazured many Waldorf classrooms, most recently the EC extension of CWS in Lincoln Square and the foyer of CWS’s EC area.

 for more info. Contact Nancy Melvin melvinstudiochicago@gmail.com

***

Spinning Destiny with the Fates

An Experiential Workshop with Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Saturday, 10 February 2018 – 10:30 AM – 4:30 PM

At the Theosophical Society 1926 N Main St, Wheaton, IL 60187

Come face the Fates & meet the Sibyls in the Light of Anthroposophy & ask: Does Fortune smile? Is Justice blind? How can I Co-Create with Destiny, to spin the thread of my life with integrity, to heal and clear the collective karma, & achieve my True Becoming?

Through the insights of Rudolf Steiner,  the power of Myth-Telling, & Ritual-Tasks, such as interactive drumming, & Socratic questioning; we will journey into our soul-depths to stand before the “Daughters of Necessity” that we will transform to meet our true calling; asking: ‘What is my Highest Purpose?’

Please bring your own vegetarian lunch

$60 nonmembers $50 members $70 at the door

Register here

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg  –Spiritual Midwife, Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Blogger – Anthroposopher, working as the Festivals Coordinator for the Rudolf Steiner Branch of Chicago.

Founder of  www.reverseritual.com