Monthly Archives: September 2018

To bear myself in me

29 September 2018 – “Speaking with the Stars”: There’s roughly a two-hour window of darkness now between twilight’s end & moonrise The window gets longer every night this week. Late tonight when the Moon does rise, it’s in company with Aldebaran. By Sunday morning the 30th, the Moon and Aldebaran are shining very high toward the south.

***

“In the karma of every single Anthroposophist is written: Become a person of initiative; observe whether out of the hindrances of your body or any other hindrances that thwart you, you do not discover initiative to be the center of your being. Suffering and joy for you will actually depend on whether or not you can discover personal initiative. As if in letters of gold, there should always stand before the soul of the Anthroposophist: ‘Initiative is part of your karma; much of what meets you in life will depend on whether you can bring this initiative to consciousness’. ~Rudolf Steiner.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

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

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

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

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

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

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

Related imageCaravaggio

1571 – Birthday of Caravaggio, Italian painter

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

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

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

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

Image result for 1885 – The first public electric tramway

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

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

1924 – Ludwig Polzer holds his 1st First Class Lesson

Related image

 

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

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

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

Related imageImage result for Adolf Arenson

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

Image result for 2008 – Following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers & Washington Mutual, The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points,

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

Related image

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

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~my hives shimmer with grace
golden in the grey day
the ever busy bees work at home today
cleaning house
singing appeasements to the undines…
the sukkah waits
as the countenance of Michael
radiates
the power of Divine Will
in Love
~hag

***

A deep holiness broods over the dying light. Now, in ourselves we must find our own power of bestowing warmth; that we may shine from within. In the realm of the senses the plant world sinks down into death. Inwardly the fire-spirits, offspring of the lofty Beings of the Sun, bearing the Archetypal pictures of the plant kingdom, stream down into the womb of Mother Earth. All around us we see withering, the color leaving to reveal the essence. As human beings we must not allow the death of nature to draw us into sleep. In autumn we must discover the force of resurrection within, so that we can pass with full consciousness thru the gate of death with a wakened soul, in our time. This is possible by what Michael bestows as the Fire of Will. We can come into communion with the most hidden secrets of existence now, whispering: Feel yourself as bearer of the Motherhood of Nature, to conceive in love the fiery germ of Self.

Blessings of Michaelmas dear friends.

~hag

see you in NOLA

AGM of the ASA Friday, Oct 5 – Sunday, Oct 7 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE!

First Grace United Methodist Church 3401 Canal Street, New Orleans (Check out their amazing history here!)

Pre-conference: Thursday, Oct 4: Living in the Branches National Branch and Group Gathering

Friday 5 October 2018 4:00-5:15 pm Cain and Abel: Building a bridge between the Two Streams, with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

***

Friday 19 October 2018, 7 – 9 pm

COMMUNITY MEETING: ”A healing conversation about equality and the threefold social order: What is living in us now?” 

Facilitated by Paulette Arnold

***

Friday 2 November 2018, 7 – 9 pm

ALL SOULS FESTIVAL

Earthly Death / Cosmic Life

Storytelling: The Descent of Inanna – An archetype of the soul in the spirit world

 Lemniscate Journey thru the Planetary Spheres & the Zodiac –Artistic Exploration – Which Wandering or Fixed Star calls to you?

Didgeridoo

Remembering those who have Crossed the Threshold

The Hallelujah in Eurythmy

Contact Carolyn Arnett with the names of loved ones, who have died this year, to be read in the circle. (773-539-3688) c.roorda.arnett@gmail.com

$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged

For more info. contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

Friday 30 November 2018 – 7 – 9 pm 

 HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT:  THE MYSTERY OF THE APOCALYPSE with Margaret Shipman

‘Apocalypse’ today almost always means war, but its primary definition is REVELATION.  the Book of Revelations seems warlike until we begin to delve into the messages, seals, trumpets and bowls as stages of initiation!  We will explore the complexities of this amazing book of the Bible by taking a journey through the 7-pointed star and the Apocalyptic Seals of the 1907 Munich Conference.

$15 or pay what you will, Snacks to Share Encouraged

AND:

Saturday 1 December 2018 – 10 am – noon

 THE CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE with Margaret Shipman

How can we begin to understand the importance of The Christmas Conference of 1923/24?  Can it be understood as so profound to consider it a second turning point of time?

We will take a journey with the foundation stone, beginning with the laying of the first stone, a physical one, for the first Goetheanum, in 1913.  Then — through the phoenix experience of the 1922/23 fire, and its journey back to earth a year later—we find it again, as a foundation stone meditation planted into our hearts.  The introduction of The Foundation Stone Meditation was a central focus of the Christmas Conference week.  It was one of three great gifts which Rudolf Steiner brought at this time as powerful spiritual tools for human evolution.

 $15 or pay what you will, Snacks to Share Encouraged


Margaret Shipman has been a member of the Anthroposophical Society for 30 years and considers the work of Rudolf Steiner to be the core of her life.  In 2002 she started a national study group for anthroposophy – ‘Geographically Engaged Members Studygroup’, or G.E.M.S.  She is also a cellist and pianist and spent 36 years repairing and making instruments of the violin family.  She co-authored the book titled Violin Restoration with her mentor, Hans Weisshaar, who was in the second-ever Waldorf class and met Rudolf Steiner as a child.

For more info. contact coordinator Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

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 Elderberries 3-Fold Space is currently available for rental on PEER SPACE for classes, events, meetings, retreats, art exhibits, family parties, etc…

Equanimity

25 September 2018 – “Speaking with the Stars“:  On Mars, the planet wide dust storm is abating.  Altair,  the brightest star in the constellation of Aquila the Eagle, also associated with the Summer Triangle, is straight above Mars right now.

***

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

Kari Olson

Rudolf Steiner’s lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Joseph von Führich

Birthday of Cleophas, disciple on the road to Emmaus Luke 24:13-32. This occurs three days after the crucifixion, on the day of Jesus’ resurrection. The two have heard the tomb of Jesus was found empty earlier that day. They are discussing the events of the past few days when a stranger asks them what they are discussing. “Their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” He soon rebukes them for their unbelief & gives them a Bible study on prophecies about the Messiah. They ask the stranger to join them for the evening meal. When he breaks the bread “their eyes were opened” &  they recognize him as the resurrected Christ, Who immediately vanishes. Cleopas & his friend hasten back to Jerusalem to carry the news to the other disciples, & learn that The Christ has also appeared to them. The same event is recorded in Mark 16:12-16:13.

Image result for john scotus eriugena

810 – Birthday of John Scotus Eriugena, Christian mystic philosopher, translator, theologian & poet. John “of Ireland” (Eriugena means “Irish-born,” where the Scotti were an ancient & extensive tribe) is a major figure in the development of mystical spirituality in western European Christianity. He served as the primary translator-conduit for ideas from the great Greek Christian minds of the Middle-East & Near-East to come into Europe. ‘God is both immanently within and transcendentally beyond all beings’ Expanding richly on the idea of the apokatastasis or “universal salvation” of all souls in God’s all-saving Divine Love. Eriugena also wrote of the conscious Return (reditus) & merging of all beings into God. No souls (including the souls of animals & the demon-souls) would be left out of this grand return, no one would be damned to suffer forever in hell or wither away into oblivion. Eriugena’s enlightened view reveals an astonishingly positive scenario of a triumphantly compassionate, ever-loving God who is the Heart, Source & Substance of everyone.

“…we come across wonderful characters such as Scotus Erigena, a monk from Scotland called the Scottish St. John, who later lived at the court of Charles the Bald. He did not get on well with the Church, and it is told that the brothers of his order tortured him to death with pins. Of course, this is not to be taken literally, but it is true that he was tortured to death. A splendid book was written by him, On the Divisions in Nature which reveals a great profundity of thought… “. ~Rudolf Steiner, Occult Signs and Symbols, lecture 3, GA 101

1789 – The United States Congress passes the Bill of Rights

1849 – Deathday of Johann Strauss I, Austrian composer

Image result for shel silverstein

1930 – Birthday of Shel Silverstein, American author, poet, illustrator, & songwriter

Image result for erich maria remarque quotes

1970 – Erich Maria Remarque, a German novelist who created many works about the terror of war. His best known novel is All Quiet on the Western Front (1928). This made him an enemy of the Nazis, who burned many of his works

1978 – PSA Flight 182, a Boeing 727, collides in mid-air with a Cessna 172 & crashes in San Diego, killing 144 people

***

Vincent van Gogh

Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly
in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions
of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying
flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers. . . .
How did it go?
How did it go
?”
― Shel SilversteinWhere the Sidewalk Ends

***

Equanimity by Alison Lee

Virtue of the month: Contentment Becomes Equanimity

At this time, the flowers wither, fruit & nuts fall from the trees & decompose, leaving their empty husks on the ground; grains are sorted or stored before being sown, to ensure a new cycle of growth. This process of decomposition & sorting also concerns the human being. Just as the fruit is separated from the tree & the seed from the fruit, so is the soul separated from the body, in sleep, in meditation, in death…The body is the envelope -the wrapping – & the soul is the seed that is planted in the soil of the spiritual world.

The human being is a fruit…& when we are ripe, we must not fall to the ground like the fruits & seeds of the earth, we must journey with consciousness into the spiritual world.

Autumn is the season for that separation of which Hermes Trismegistus speaks:You shall separate the subtle from the gross, gently and with great skill.

To separate the subtle from the gross is to separate the spiritual from the material, & the whole of nature undergoes this process of alchemy at autumn-tide, in preparation for the coming of new life. And yet most people have no idea what to cut out or re-cycle: they swallow everything whole, & yet are rarely content.

And so this is what we have to learn from Michael: Discernment! – How to choose, & what to choose, how to separate the pure from the impure, the useful from the useless, the harmful from the beneficial. The absence of judgment in this respect is the cause of many misfortunes. Michaelmas is resplendently rich in meaning for those who understand that it can bring them the courage to cultivate true freedom & liberation. So put the sword of Michael to use, to bless & bestow, as well as to cut away what does not serve – To separate the wheat from the chaff -To sharpen the mind & protect the heart.

Stand as a peaceful warrior for change

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

Dear friends – I will be taking a break from the blog as I prepare for 

AGM 2018 Friday, Oct 5 – Sunday, Oct 7 in New Orleans, Louisiana

I will leave 1 Oct. & return 11 Oct. Look for me in NOLA

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE!

First Grace United Methodist Church 3401 Canal Street, New Orleans (Check out their amazing history here!)

Pre-conference: Thursday, Oct 4: Living in the Branches National Branch and Group Gathering

Free event! $25 lunch/refreshments fee.

Some travel scholarships available.
Email with questions.

National Youth Conference (Wed pm, Thurs, Fri am October 3-4-5):
MY HEART’S VOCATION: Finding Ourselves within Community

Click here for Youth Conference schedule and registration!

$250 Early Bird (until September 5th), $275 Standard

$375 Sponsorship (supports financial assistance) $60 Youth

Includes Friday light reception, snacks, beverages, and Sunday light brunch! Limited financial assistance available. Email to find out more. 

Conference Schedule

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE!

Thursday, October 4

9:00-3:30 First Grace Methodist Church
Living in the Branches: National Branch and Group Gathering
National Youth Conference (Details coming!)

4:00-9:00 Central Region Gathering

Friday, October 5

7:45-9:30 am – Bayou St. John Songtrail: meet under the McDonough Oak.

10:00-12:00 – Class Lesson and Conversation with Joan Sleigh

1:00 pm Opening

1:30-2:30 Keynote Conversation with Orland Bishop

2:30-2:45 Trio Sharing

2:45-3:30 Here and Now with the General Council

4:00-5:15 Concurrent Sessions (Choose on site)

Cain and Abel: Building a bridge between the Two Streams, with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Exploring Transformation Through Our Own Biography, with Janey Newton

5:30-6:15 Central Region Interactive Panel

6:30 DINNER

8:00 Momento Mori Ritual (Stay tuned for details!)

Saturday, October 6

8:00-8:45 Singing or Speech

9:00-10:00 Keynote Discussion with Joan Sleigh

10:00-10:15 Trio Sharing

10:45-12:00 Concurrent Workshops (Choose on site)

Initation of the Heart: The Fifth Gospel, with Patrick Kennedy

General Council Annual Update Session

Transforming Community – Creating the Future: Young People Discovering Their Purpose and Place, with Bart Eddy

12:00-1:30 Lunch (Table Topic Discussions)

1:30-2:30 Youth-Led Panel

3:00-4:15 Participant Research and Initiative Sharing Sessions
(Click here to submit your research/initiative sharing proposal.)

OR

3:00-4:15 Pageant Participant Preparation with Marianne Fieber-Dhara (Details at the conference!)

4:30-6:15 Concurrent Sessions (Choose on site)

Orland Bishop: The Seventh Shrine

House of Hope, with Thea Lavin

Anthroposophical Contemplative Practices in Everyday Life

6:15-7:30 DINNER

8:00-9:30 Confluence of Karma: A Pageant Of Dedicated Service

Sunday, October 7

8:00-8:30 Group Speech

8:30-8:45 Trio Sharing

8:45-10:00 Now and Next (Art, Reflection, Closing Plenum, Singing)

11:00-12:30 First Grace Church Service, or Tour of Raphael Village [link]

Lunch on your own!

Post Sessions (Included in Conference Fee)

2:00-4:00 Lisa Romero: Contemplative Practices

2:00-4:00 John Bloom and Laura Scappaticci: “So That Good May Become”–Working with the Foundation Stone

See you in New Orleans!
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE!

Schedule subject to minor changes.

Limited Financial Assistance Available.
Email 
community@anthroposophy.org for an application.

Even night & day struggle

24 September 2018 – “Speaking with the Stars”: La Bella Luna comes into her fullness in the Harvest Moon exact at 9:52 p.m. CDT. She rises in the east soon after sunset. Later in the evening you’ll find the Great Square of Pegasus above her by a couple of fists at arm’s length.

***

Lectures by Rudolf Steiner on this date

Those who work with the Original indications in the Calendar of the Soul know that Rudolf Steiner lists the birth & death days, as well as other significant occurrences of various individualities, along with the dates in the calendar.  He said of this: “What is presented here can be useful to those who wish to follow the path of mankind’s spiritual development” ~Rudolf Steiner

According to the Calendar of the Soul today is the Festival of Persephone, part of The Eleusinian Mysteries, held annually in honor of Demeter & Persephone. The most sacred & revered of all the ritual celebrations of ancient Greece. They were instituted in the city of Eleusis, just  west of Athens, possibly as far back as the early Mycenaean period, & continued for almost two thousand years. Large crowds of worshippers from all over Greece (& later, from throughout the Roman empire) would gather to make the holy pilgrimage between the two cities & participate in the secret rites, generally regarded as the high point of Greek life.

622 – Muhammad & his followers completed their Hijra from Mecca to Medina to escape religious persecution. Rudolf Steiner tells us Muhammad was able to see into the etheric realm. Legend has it that the enemy was just seconds from capturing them when they ducked into a cave, where they surly would been found, except a spider wove a giant web & a dove made a nest at the entrance, so when the enemy come to the cave they thought – they can’t be here, since the web was so intricate & the nest so well established.

Image result for Second Council of Nicaea

787 – Second Council of Nicaea: The council assembled at the church of Hagia Sophia

Image result for St. Gellert painting

1046 – Deathday(drowned) /Feast of St. Gellert

Related image

1541 – Deathday (murdered) Theophrastus Paracelsus, a Swiss German philosopher, physician, botanist, astrologer, & occultist. He is credited as the founder of toxicology. He is also a famous revolutionary for utilizing observations of nature, rather than referring to ancient texts, something of radical defiance during his time. He is credited as the first to note that some diseases are rooted in psychological conditions.

Paracelsus’ most important legacy is his critique of the scholastic methods in medicine, science & theology. As a physician of the early 16th century, Paracelsus held a natural affinity with the Hermetic, Neoplatonic, & Pythagorean philosophies central to the Renaissance. Paracelsus rejected the magic theories of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa & Nicolas Flamel in his Archidoxes of Magic.

Astrology was a very important part of Paracelsus’ medicine & he was a practicing astrologer. Paracelsus devoted several sections in his writings to the construction of astrological talismans for curing disease. He also invented an alphabet called the Alphabet of the Magi, for engraving angelic names upon talismans.

1916 – Rudolf Steiner’s 2nd lecture on the Mexican Mysteries

Image result for Judiciary Act

1789 – The United States Congress passes the Judiciary Act which creates the office of the United States Attorney General & the federal judiciary system, & orders the composition of the Supreme Court of the United States

Related image

1869 – “Black Friday“: Gold prices plummet after Ulysses S. Grant orders the Treasury to sell large quantities of gold after Jay Gould & James Fisk plot to control the market

Image result for f. scott fitzgerald quotes

1896 – Birthday of F. Scott Fitzgerald, novelist & short story writer

1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower in Wyoming as the nation’s first National Monument

1914 – World War I: The Siege of Poland begins

Image result for 1948 – The Honda Motor Company is founded

1948 – The Honda Motor Company is founded

1950 – Forest fires black out the sun over portions of Canada & New England. A blue moon is seen as far away as Europe

Image result for 1957 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends 101st Airborne Division troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce desegregation

1957 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends 101st Airborne Division troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce desegregation

Related image

1960 – USS Enterprise, the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is launched

Image result for 1996 – Representatives of 71 nations sign the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban

1996 – Representatives of 71 nations sign the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty at the United Nations.

Image result for 2005 – Hurricane Rita

2005 – Hurricane Rita makes landfall in the United States, devastating portions of southwestern Louisiana & southeastern Texas

Image result for 2007 –100,000 people take part in anti-government protests in Yangon, Burma

2007 –100,000 people take part in anti-government protests in Yangon, Burma

Image result for 2009 – The G20 summit

2009 – The G20 summit begins in Pittsburgh with 30 global leaders in attendance. It marks the first use of Long-Range Acoustic Devices in U.S. history

2013 – A 7.7-magnitude earthquake strikes southern Pakistan, killing more than 1327 people

2015 – At least 1,100 people are killed & another 934 wounded after a stampede during the Hajj in Saudi Arabia

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

Karen Sleigh

~Making Peace
even night & day struggle,
but this is how magnificent sunsets & the stunning dawn are born…
We can call it a state of grace –
for unless the earth enveloped the seed
& the seed moved against the darkness, there would be no grain…
We take in the air & the air escapes us…
Call it the breath of life; not loss or disaster
it is the empty heart waiting to be filled…

***

MICHAELMAS AND THE SOUL-FORCES OF MAN by RUDOLF STEINER

Summary by Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

Lecture 4. The far-reaching social significance of a Michael Festival. Earth spirit and human spirit. The cosmic breathing process. Nature-consciousness, self-consciousness, and spirit-consciousness. “

In the Gemüt, through anthroposophical endeavor — we learn to distinguish between nature-consciousness, engendered during the spring and summer, and self-consciousness proper which thrives in the fall and winter.

“When the human Gemüt receives into itself spirit-consciousness — the spirit-consciousness engendered by the transition from nature-consciousness (spring-summer) to self-consciousness (autumn-winter) — then will the solution to our social problems of the moment comes clear.

A Michael Festival calls for us to feel in our souls everything that can activate spirit-consciousness.

“…What does Easter represent in the year’s festivals? First death, then resurrection: that is the outer aspect of the Mystery of Golgotha. One who understands the Mystery of Golgotha in this sense sees death and resurrection in this way of redemption; and can feel in their soul that we must unite in our Gemüt with Christ, the victor over death, in order to find resurrection in death.”

But Christianity does not end with the traditions associated with the Mystery of Golgotha: it must advance. The human Gemüt turns inward and deepens more and more as time goes on; and in addition to this festival that brings alive the Death and Resurrection of Christ, humanity needs that other one which reveals the course of the year as having its counterpart within us, so that we can find in the round of the seasons, first of all the resurrection of the soul — in fact, the necessity for achieving this resurrection — in order that the soul may then pass through the portal of death in a worthy way.

Easter: death, then resurrection; Michaelmas: resurrection of the soul, then death. This makes of the Michael Festival a reversed Easter Festival. Easter commemorates for us the Resurrection of Christ from death; but in the Michael Festival we must feel with all the intensity of our soul: In order not to sleep in a half-dead state that will dim our self-consciousness between death and a new birth, but rather, to be able to pass through the portal of death in full alertness, we must rouse the soul through our inner forces before we die. First, resurrection of the soul — then death, so that in death that resurrection can be achieved which the human being celebrates within.

 In Spiritual Science Death must Become…A Resurrection

For this we strive

In gratitude ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

human heart as sense organ

23 September 2018 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Now Bella Luna on the eve of the Full Harvest Moon, shines even farther left of Mars after dark. Look lower right of the Moon, by roughly half that distance, for Fomalhaut, the Autumn Star, low & slowly on its way up in the southeast.

Image result for moon & mars paintingStephanie Allison

Uranus reaches opposition one month from today, but it already has become a tempting evening target. The ice giant world rises before 8 pm CDT & climbs above the eastern horizon by 11 pm, in southwestern Aries, south of the Ram’s brightest star, Alpha.

***

Lectures by Rudolf Steiner on this date

A generation which ignores history has no past — and no future.” ~Robert A. Heinlein

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY ( Watch for repeating themes & interesting ‘coincidences’)

63 BC – Birthday of Augustus, the founder of the Roman Empire & its first Emperor. Augustus’ reign laid the foundations of a regime that lasted for nearly fifteen hundred years through the ultimate decline of the Western Roman Empire & until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. Both his adoptive surname, Caesar, & his title Augustus became the permanent titles of the rulers of the Roman Empire for fourteen centuries after his death. The cult of Divus Augustus continued until the state religion of the Empire was changed to Christianity in 391

Image result for Robert de Sablé paintingDereck Clark

1193 – Deathday of Robert de Sablé, French knight, the eleventh Grand Master of the Knights Templar & Lord of Cyprus

Image result for Battle of Arnemuiden

1338 – The Battle of Arnemuiden was the first naval battle of the Hundred Years’ War & the first naval battle using artillery, as the English ship Christopher had three cannon & one hand gun.

Image result for Battle of Kherlen

1409 – Battle of Kherlen, the second significant victory over Ming dynasty China by the Mongols since 1368.

Image result for – Battle of Blore Heath

1459 – Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English War of the Roses, takes place.

Related image

1641 – The Merchant Royal, carrying a treasure of over 100,000 pounds of gold (worth over £1 billion today), is lost at sea off Land’s End.

Related image

1779 – John Paul Jones on board the USS Bonhomme Richard wins the Battle of Flamborough Head.

Related image

1846 – Astronomers Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier, John Couch Adams & Johann Gottfried Galle collaborate on the discovery of Neptune

Related imageAnna Kulisz

1909 – The Phantom of the Opera (original title: Le Fantôme de l’Opéra), a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux, is first published as a serialization in Le Gaulois.

Image result for Pilot Earle Ovington makes the first official airmail delivery

1911 – Pilot Earle Ovington makes the first official airmail delivery in America under the authority of the United States Post Office Department

Image result for Roland Garros of France becomes the first to fly in an airplane across the Mediterranean

1913 – Roland Garros of France becomes the first to fly in an airplane across the Mediterranean (from St. Raphael France to Bizerte, Tunisia)

1930 – Birthday of Ray Charles, American singer-songwriter, pianist.

Image result for Sigmund Freud

1939 – Deathday of Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist & psychiatrist

Image result for Italian Social Republic

1943 – The Nazi puppet state known as the Italian Social Republic is founded.

1968 – Deathday of Padre Pio, a Franciscan friar, priest, stigmatist, & mystic. On September 20, 1918, while hearing confessions, Padre Pio had his first occurrence of the stigmata. This phenomenon continued for fifty years, until the end of his life. The blood flowing from the stigmata smelled of perfume or flowers:  the odour of sanctity.

People who had started rebuilding their lives after World War I, began to see in Padre Pio a symbol of hope. Those close to him attest that he began to manifest several spiritual gifts, including the gifts of healing, bilocation, levitation, prophecy, miracles, extraordinary abstinence from both sleep & nourishment, the ability to read hearts, the gift of tongues, the gift of conversions.

At the time of Padre Pio’s death, his body appeared unwounded, with no sign of scarring. Doctors who examined his body found it empty of all blood.

1973 – Deathday of Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet & diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate

1983 – Gulf Air Flight 771 is destroyed by a bomb, killing all 117 people on board.

2004 – Over 3,000 people die in Haiti after Hurricane Jeanne produces massive flooding & mudslides.

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I Am
A book without a cover
The Queen of Chaos on tippy-toes…
Dreaming of procrastination
I tie
The key onto the kite…
I gather
Earth crammed with heaven…
My 4 winds fold-in
Mountain dwellers from far & wide
Grass weavers, potters, & music makers…
I watch
Black earth & red earth join in a buckle of sky
As Hermes teaches me to be
Direct…
~hag

***

Ayse Domeniconi

MICHAELMAS AND THE SOUL-FORCES OF MAN by RUDOLF STEINER

Summary by Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

Lecture 3. The sun circles – The Druid and the Mithras Mysteries; Observation of the sun yielded knowledge of the connection between heaven and earth. The great language of the heavens was deciphered, and then applied to earthly things.

Through the heart organization the course of nature was perceived within the human being, and through the heart science the spirit of the sun’s annual passage through the zodiac was studied. In this way initiates read in the heavens what was to be done on earth.

“…the human heart is really a subconscious sense organ.”

This was taught in the Mithras Cult.

“…The disciple was taught to perceive the course of the seasons within himself by means of his heart organization.

the heart-science of the old Mithras pupils; what they really studied when they looked at themselves through their heart was the spirit of the sun’s annual passage through the zodiac. In this way the human being experienced themself as a higher being, riding on his lower nature; (the Bull) and therefore it was fitting that the cosmos should be arranged in a circle around him; in this manner cosmic spirituality was experienced.

“…A spirit of reverence for the ancient cultures pervades us when we see deeper into them and work to rediscover, how to apply this heart-science now.

Steiner talks in lecture 3 about the relationship between the various phases of the moon and the weather. “…looked at in a spiritual-scientific way the moon presents itself as a sort of fortress in the cosmos. From the outside, not only the light-rays of the sun but all the external effects of the universe are reflected by the moon down to the earth; but in the interior of the moon there is a complete world that nowadays can be reached only by ascending, to the spirit world.”

“…higher beings who occupied etheric bodies only, and whose instruction was imparted to human beings as though inoculating the etheric body with higher wisdom.”

“…it was simply a case of his having to breathe and of his blood circulating in him; and it was in his circulation that he willed.”

We know now that what the individual planets tell us provides the vowels of the world-script; and all that forms around the vowels when the planets pass the constellations of the zodiac gives us the consonants.

This kind of Cosmic experience leads us to participation in the cosmos; in this way we can achieve a spiritualized instinct for the meaning of the seasons with which our organic life as well as our social life is interwoven — an instinct for the different ways in which the earth stands to the cosmos while on its way from spring to summer, and again from summer through autumn into winter. Celebrating festivals that have social significance, in the same way that the forces of nature, through our physical organization, make us one with our breathing & circulation.

“…As the blood circulation inside us is essential for our existence, the circulation of the elemental beings between earth and the heavens is indispensable for us as well.”

We dig deeper with more Michaelmas tomorrow

Until soon ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

 

 

Symmetry

22 September 2018 –

Ayse Domeniconi

At the Autumnal Equinox – the wheel of the year turns & we find ourselves moving into the time of the harvest.  In the tropical zodiac, at equinox, we say the Sun is crossing the celestial equator, moving from Virgo into Libra, the sign of the scales – a time to take stock. Are the scales balanced? Do they tip & spill? Are they full? Do we know what to harvest & what to plow under? Can we identify & cut away outworn habits & emotional baggage that can choke our growth?

But in sidereal astrosophy we see the Sun in relation to the actual constellations as they are now, with the Sun actually appearing in the crown of stars in the constellation of the Virgin. When we use the tropical zodiac, the 4-foldness of the Equinoxes & Solstices form The Cross, which reminds us of an event that occurred only once in history, at the time of the incarnation of Christ. Then, the start of Spring was at 0 degrees of Aries, the Ram – the 1st sign in the zodiac.

At the Equinoxes we have the horizontal beam, a balance of light & darkness. At the Solstices we have the vertical beam, an opposition of light & dark. At Autumn Equinox the Sun is balanced in Libra, which then marks the transition from light to dark. Libra is a threshold, a gateway between the upper chakras & the lower chakras. In the upper signs, from Aries thru Virgo we have a memory of the cosmic human being before it was formed on Earth. From Libra to Pisces, the human form meets the physical world. So we can look at the upper half of the zodiac as being related to our past cosmic creation by the ‘gods’ & the lower half of the zodiac as our human journey of ‘The fall’ & then hopefully our redemption out of our own ego forces.

The Sidereal zodiac shows us the vernal point has moved thru the ‘procession of the equinoxes’, so that it is now descending thru the lower half of the zodiac, taking humanity along on its evolutionary journey.

Adoring this great cross, formed from the 4 Cardinal Points of the Equinoxes & Solstices, are the 7 Festivals: Michaelmas, Advent, Christmas, Easter-tide Ascension, Whitsun & St. John’s-tide. These festivals are the 7 Cosmic Roses unfurling from the center of The Cross.

So today on this Autumnal Equinox, we can contemplate & celebrate this solar moment of equality & balance, experienced by everyone around the globe. We can also think about how the world has changed, how the constellations have moved on, how The Christ has united with the Earth, & is now working in us to redeem our evolution.

We can take our initiation in hand when we consciously co-create the festivals in the solar-cycle of the year, working to unfold the 7 Roses of transformation within, & out in the world.

And so it is my friends, that we begin our journey, like Persephone, into the dark of the year…feel your power go within like the seed planted deep within the darkness of the Earth…We must be initiated into these dark mysteries before we can truly celebrate life’s renewal…

The apples fall from the tree, the corn & grain are gathered in, the grapes are crushed for wine…The Sun God is sacrificed to the night & the fertile Mother assumes the face of the Wise Crone – the Harvest Hag challenging us to face our shadow

Balanced Blessings

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

MICHAELMAS AND THE SOUL-FORCES OF MAN By RUDOLF STEINER, a Summary by Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Lecture 3. The sun circles – The Druid and the Mithras Mysteries; Observation of the sun yielded knowledge of the connection between heaven and earth. The great language of the heavens was deciphered, and then applied to earthly things.

Through the heart organization the course of nature was perceived within the human being, and through the heart science the spirit of the sun’s annual passage through the zodiac was studied. In this way initiates read in the heavens what was to be done on earth.

“…the human heart is really a subconscious sense organ.”

This was taught in the Mithras Cult.”

“…The disciple was taught to perceive the course of the seasons within himself by means of his heart organization.

the heart-science of the old Mithras pupils; what they really studied when they looked at themselves through their heart was the spirit of the sun’s annual passage through the zodiac. In this way the human being experienced themself as a higher being, riding on his lower nature; (the Bull) and therefore it was fitting that the cosmos should be arranged in a circle around him; in this manner cosmic spirituality was experienced.

“…A spirit of reverence for the ancient cultures pervades us when we see deeper into them and work to rediscover, how to apply this heart-science now.

Steiner talks in lecture 3 about the relationship between the various phases of the moon and the weather. “…looked at in a spiritual-scientific way the moon presents itself as a sort of fortress in the cosmos. From the outside, not only the light-rays of the sun but all the external effects of the universe are reflected by the moon down to the earth; but in the interior of the moon there is a complete world that nowadays can be reached only by ascending, to the spirit world.”

“…higher beings who occupied etheric bodies only, and whose instruction was imparted to human beings as though inoculating the etheric body with higher wisdom.”

“…it was simply a case of his having to breathe and of his blood circulating in him; and it was in his circulation that he willed.”

We know now that what the individual planets tell us provides the vowels of the world-script; and all that forms around the vowels when the planets pass the constellations of the zodiac gives us the consonants.

This kind of Cosmic experience leads us to participation in the cosmos; in this way we can achieve a spiritualized instinct for the meaning of the seasons with which our organic life as well as our social life is interwoven — an instinct for the different ways in which the earth stands to the cosmos while on its way from spring to summer, and again from summer through autumn into winter. Celebrating festivals that have social significance, in the same way that the forces of nature, through our physical organization, make us one with our breathing & circulation.

“…As the blood circulation inside us is essential for our existence, the circulation of the elemental beings between earth and the heavens is indispensable for us as well.”

***

 

Mabon (an ancient Celtic name for the Autumnal Equinox)

A salmon swallows the nut of wisdom
And leaps from the river’s dark depths –
A bright flash of silver in the bent rays of light

A hawk wheels in the eye of the Sun,
His elongated shadow moves
Over an ancient green mound

A fox gleams gold and russet there at the fringe of the forest
Her eyes glinting secrets
From the coming twilight realm

A Maiden sits silent
Clasping two crossed swords
In elegant equipoise

On his knee the King muses by a deep pool…

Soul tied to the wheel
Crystalized in the last shock of corn
Pierced by the oblique sun lit spear

With eyes that see
Down into the root
Where autumn grain waits
To Be
Easter-Tides’ Seed

The death of bedazzled day
And the dawn of focused night
Meet in symmetry

Halfway
Thru the cycle
We enter the return

Sail West Beloved Sun King
We follow You
Into the Dawning Dark

~hag