Monthly Archives: October 2018

Costume Idea: Dress up as your Higher Self

31 October 2018 – “Speaking with the Stars”: This Halloween the evening is moonless, since it’s the Last-quarter Moon. Bella Luna is between Cancer & Leo, rising around midnight in the east-northeast far below Castor & Pollux. The Moon reaches perigee, the closest point in its orbit around Earth, at 3:23 p.m. CDT. She is then 230,034 miles away from us.

In early evening, the two brightest celestial objects in good view are Vega high in the west & Mars lower in the south. Draw a line between them – & a little below the line’s midpoint shines Altair, with fainter Tarazed to its upper right by about a finger width at arm’s length.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

All-an-tide (Cornwall)

The first day of All-hallow-tide, observed until November 6 (Western Christianity)

Halloween (Ireland, Canada, United Kingdom, United States etc…)

Hop-tu-Naa is a Celtic festival celebrated in the Isle of Man on 31 October. Predating Halloween, it is the celebration of the original New Year’s Eve (Oie Houney). It is thought to be the oldest unbroken tradition in the Isle of Man

Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season & the beginning of winter or the “darker half” of the year. It is the cross quarter between the autumn equinox & the winter solstice.

The Mound of the Hostages, a Neolithic passage tomb at the Hill of Tara, is aligned with the Samhain sunrise. It is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature & many important events in Irish mythology happen or begin on Samhain.

It was the time when cattle were brought back down from the summer pastures & when livestock were slaughtered for the winter. As at Beltane, special bonfires were lit.

Like Beltane, Samhain was seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world & the Otherworld could more easily be crossed. This meant the Aos Sí, the ‘spirits’ or ‘fairies’, could more easily come into our world. Offerings of food & drink were left outside for them.

The souls of the dead were also thought to revisit their homes seeking hospitality. Feasts were had, at which the souls of dead kin were beckoned to attend & a place set at the table for them.

Mumming & guising were part of the festival, & involved people going door-to-door in costume (or in disguise), often reciting verses in exchange for food.

Divination rituals & games were also a big part of the festival.

The first day of the Day of the Dead, celebrated until November 2 (Spanish: Día de Muertos) The multi-day holiday focuses on gatherings of family to pray for & remember members who have died, & help support their spiritual journey.

Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars called ofrendas, honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, & the favorite foods & beverages of the departed, & visiting graves with these as gifts. Visitors also leave possessions of the deceased at the graves.

Scholars trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances dating back hundreds of years and to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl. The holiday has spread throughout the world, being absorbed within other deep traditions for honoring the dead.

683 – During the Siege of Mecca, the Kaaba, catches fire & burns down. The literal meaning of the Arabic word ka`bah (كَعْبَة) is “cube”, or “House of God”, considered the most sacred site in Islam, a similar role to the Tabernacle & Holy of Holies in Judaism.

500 years ago, on Oct. 31, 1517, the story goes, that the small-town monk, Martin Luther, marched up to the castle church in Wittenberg & nailed his ‘95 Theses’ to the door, lighting the flame of the Reformation — the split between the Catholic & Protestant churches. Luther’s act is one of the cornerstones of world history, & remains a lasting symbol of resistance.

Nearly all of American history bears the imprint of that act of protest. Luther’s challenge, the protection he obtained, & the reformers he inspired laid the foundation for the establishment of colonial America.

In 1934, an African American pastor from Georgia made the trip of a lifetime, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, through the gates of Gibraltar, and across the Mediterranean Sea to the Holy Land. After this pilgrimage, he traveled to Berlin, attending an international conference of Baptist pastors. While in Germany, this man — who was named Michael King — became so impressed with what he learned about the reformer Martin Luther that he decided to do something dramatic. He offered the ultimate tribute to the man’s memory by changing his own name to Martin Luther King. His 5-year-old son was also named Michael — and to the son’s dying day his closest relatives would still call him Mike — but not long after the boy’s father changed his own name, he decided to change his son’s name too, & Michael King Jr. became known to the world as Martin Luther King Jr.

Another dynamic measure of the influence of Martin Luther is the quintessentially modern idea of the individual — of our personal responsibility before ourselves & our God, rather than before any institution, whether church or state. This was as unthinkable before Luther. The contemporary idea of “The People,” along with the democratic impulse that proceeds from it –  The more recent ideas of pluralism, religious liberty, & self-government all entered history through the door that Luther opened.

Luther’s second unyielding act of courage was at the ‘imperial diet’ held in the city of Worms in 1521, when he made it clear that he feared God’s judgment more than the judgment of church leaders in that room.

And suddenly the individual had the freedom & possibility of thinking for themselves.

Martin Luther was not inclined to tilt at papal windmills. In fact, until about 1520 he was a vigorous champion of the church. He desired desperately to help Rome elude the fate it ended up experiencing. In fact, in a case of Oedipusian irony he became the very man who brought about everything he had hoped to avoid. As his story illustrates, it was a sublime & ridiculous decoction of forces that created the perfect storm that burst over the European continent, creating what we now call the Reformation.

Today the Catholic & Lutheran churches are taking the memory of 1517 in hand. Pope Francis joined leaders of the Lutheran World Federation in Sweden to hold a joint service in a spirit of unity after 500 years of division.

1517 – Deathday of Fra Bartolomeo, Italian artist

1984 – Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh security guards. Riots break out in New Delhi & other cities – 4,000 Sikhs are killed.

Image result for Russian Metrojet Flight 9268

2015 – Russian Metrojet Flight 9268 is bombed over the northern Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board

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POD (Poem Of the day)

~My soul duels with worms
Hidden in the clay of being
That would gnaw the scroll of mythos
Witch I carry in my heart whole
& speak thru the living word…
No worries
I will cut bait & continue singing...
~hag

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On All Hallows-tide, the eve of All Saints’ Day, it was a Medieval Christian tradition for the poor to go to wealthy homes offering to pray for the recently departed in that household, since folks knew that prayers could help the dead on their journey in the after-life. And as a token of their appreciation, the rich would give them food & beer.

Many Halloween customs come from this same ritual. Visitors would show up holding lanterns made of hollowed-out turnips with candles inside, which represented souls in purgatory. Masses were held so that souls wouldn’t feel neglected & haunt believers. There were costumes & masks, & mummers plays to depict the various stages of the after-life.

But after the Protestant Reformation — which can be traced back to a different Oct. 31 event (exactly 500 years ago today): Martin Luther’s 1517 publication of his 95 theses — the idea that souls could be saved in this way began to lose popularity in many of the new denominations.

Some Catholics kept up the practice of going door-to-door on the eve of All Saints’ Day, which became known as “Souling.” By the 1840s, when a wave of Irish & Scottish immigrants brought the custom to the U.S., it was basically a pagan/secular pastime. Young people danced outside tenement apartments in exchange for gifts. Costumes were made out of old clothes, & faces painted with burnt corks, while tricks included stuffing cabbages in chimneys & whacking each other with bags of flour.

Although the Irish Catholics faced widespread prejudice, the celebration having been stripped of its Catholic underpinning, quickly proved to be popular. As those immigrants began to assimilate, newspapers reported the custom trending among 19th century college students. In the early 1900s, high schools, rotary clubs & charities began to throw Halloween parties. By the 1930s, North America had a new term for the old tradition: Trick-or-Treating. And as suburban swelled in the 1950s, Trick-or-Treating grew into the kid-friendly practice seen today.

Here in America, Halloween calls for an interaction with spooky strangers, that come out of the night, knocking on our door, shouting, give me a treat or you’ll get a trick. On a spiritual level, trick-or-treat, can be seen as a demand that strangers, a symbol of the unfamiliar parts of ourselves, give up their gifts to us. There is a lot of energy that gets locked up in the dark, & Halloween is an opportunity for us to dialogue with the dark, the shadow side of The Self, & call that energy back.

Light & dark are not opposites, but 2 parts of the same cycle. In order to fully appreciate the festivals of light, which return with the Winter Solstice, we must 1st grow in the dark womb of our perennial inward journey. With the veil between the worlds so thin, great transformations are possible, since the power of all the dimensions are available to us.

It is not only the veil between the physical & spiritual worlds that thin, it can also be the division between any 2 polarities, like the left & right hemispheres in our brains for instance, or between any 2 realities that are struggling to coexist, like war & peace for instance. This dark night can represent a resolution of paradox, a respectful meeting of the different sides of the same coin, witch can initiate the healing transformation required, in order to let the light back into our lives, once we’ve come to understand & own our side of the dark…

Look for me there, in the dark…

Homework: Dress up as who you want to be in the coming year

xox

 ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

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~ALL SOULS FESTIVAL~

Come Experience the Journey of the Soul in the Life between Death & Rebirth

 6:45 pm – 9:30 pm Friday 2 November 2018 at theRudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618

Guitar by Philp Armetta, Didgeridoo by CG, Fratres by Arvo Part 1 – Cello by Martin Brenman, Piano by Danuta Berger

The Descent of Inanna – An archetype of the soul in the spirit world with Hazel Archer Ginsberg

We cross the threshold for the Leminscate Journey thru the Planetary Spheres & the Zodiac – Eurythmy with Mary Ruud +

Moon: Sheila Donahue
Mercury: Nancy Melvin
Venus: Deborah Rogers
Sun: Alison Biagi
Mars: JMMF
Jupiter: Mary Spalding
Saturn: Martine Benmann

an Artistic Exploration with Nancy Melvin during the Circle of Remembrance

Please contact Carolyn Arnett with the names of those who have died this year to be read in the Circle 

$10 Donation goes to support Eurythmy

Snacks to Share Encouraged

For more info. contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg

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 ‘The Festival Life’

with Hazel Archer Ginsberg for WITH = Waldorf in the Home

Monday 5 November 2018 from 8:15 am – 9:30 am

at the Chicago Waldorf School Andersonville Campus, 5200 N Ashland Ave, Chicago

In the cafe (on far north east side of first floor) after the Day of the Dead assembly

For more info. contact Judy Shaver jlshaver9832@gmail.com

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 2018 Fall Youth Conference in Chicago Nov 1-4th, 2018 

Our Ideas – Our Ideals – Working together to create together

Tamarack Waldorf School will stay as a group though Friday evening- the rest of us will carry on through Sunday at 1PM.

Sponsored by the Christian Community in Coordination with Tamarack Waldorf School, Bart Eddy and Detroit Community School, Elderberries Chicago and musician Jen Zimberg.

High School students that want to come together to work- build- paint- create – in conversation and singing – Our Ideas – Our Ideals – Working together to create together

for more info. contact Ann Burfeind

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The Karma Project 
A Western Approach to Reincarnation & Karma
August 8, 2018 – 7:15 pm CST (8:15 pm EST)
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 … something is present in us that is like a more sensible person who gladly turns to the eternal, divine, spiritual powers that live in and animate the world.  Then, in our inner life, we become certain of a higher inner individuality existing behind the outer one.  Through thought exercises such as these, we become aware of the eternal spiritual core of our being.  This is extraordinarily significant.  And once again, this is something we can actually do“.

~Rudolf Steiner, A Western Approach to Reincarnation and KarmaChapter 4, “Knowledge of Reincarnation and Karma through Thought-Exercises”, Stuttgart, 20 February, 1912 … focus of the November 7meeting!

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

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/320455319
Option 2.  Call in using your telephone.
United States: +1 669 900 6833  or +1 646 558 8656
Access Code: 320-455-319
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 prevent audio feedback.

Please join us!

Agenda for our Study Call

7:15  Welcome and Introductions
7:18  Verse
7:25  Study led by six volunteers
Mary – pages 53 to 56
Nick – pages 56 to 60
Hazel – pages 60 to 63
Travis – pages 63 to 65
Alberto – pages 65 to end
8:05  Conversation
8:25  Identify volunteers for our next study call (Chapter 5): January 9
8:28  Close with verse

Wednesday 5 December, 2018 CRC Conference Call 7:15pm – 8:30pm CST (8:15pm – 9:30pm EST) – Reincarnation & Karma

with special guest: Dr. Ross Rentea: “A presentation from the karma and the work together of Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman”.

Rudolf Steiner considered Ita Wegman a true “friend”, companion over many incarnations, and invaluable helper. In her incarnation in the 20th century she collaborated with him in writing a book, asked decisive questions that led to the Christmas Foundation Conference, the First Class, and more. We will look especially at their working together on the “Fundamentals of Therapy” a work on which R. Steiner put finishing touches until hours before crossing the threshold.

Ross Rentea, MD, has been practicing anthroposophical medicine in Chicago for 35 years. He is a member of the Anthroposophical Society (1972), the First Class of the School for Spiritual Science (1974), the Physicians Association for Anthroposophic Medicine (1984) and the Christian Community (1976). He has served on the Board of the American College of Anthroposophic Medicine. He has lectured nationally and internationally, and published and written numerous scientific research articles and recently (2017) the book “Childhood Illnesses and Immunizations”. Besides anthroposophical medicine his current interests are in better understanding the seven Rhythms of the Foundation Stone. He is a co-founder of the True Botanica Company www.truebotanica.com and the Lili Kolisko Institute for Anthroposophical Medicine www.koliskoinstitute.org .

For more info. contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg

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The Changing Nature of Childhood Health & Illness

by Dr. Thomas Cowan, M.D.

Nov 15, 2018 — Morning Lecture

10:30am—12noon; Location: 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL 60618 (Rudolf Steiner Branch);

childcare available for additional $5 cash donation at day of event as needed.

Click link below for tickets and more info.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-changing-nature-of-childhood-health-illness-morning-lecture-tickets-51902871887

Nov 15, 2018 — Evening Lecture

7:00 pm—8:30pm; Location: 2135 W. Wilson Ave. Chicago, IL 60625 (The Christian Community Church)

Click link below for tickets and more info.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-changing-nature-of-childhood-health-illness-evening-lecture-tickets-51983654510

Tickets are $12. No tickets sold at the door. This event will sell out.

Please join us in welcoming world-renowned doctor and author Dr. Thomas Cowan, M.D. from San Francisco, CA as he describes his research and experience with today’s children and their health, based on his newest book, Vaccines, Autoimmunity and the Changing Nature of Childhood Illness. The lecture will include suggestions to support the best possible health in our children. We are providing two opportunities to hear Dr. Cowan speak.

We will provide childcare for the morning session in an adjoining space to the lecture, to help parents of young children attend.  Childcare will not be available for the evening lecture.

Dr. Thomas Cowan M.D. is board-certified in anthroposophic medicine. He is a founding board member of the Weston A Price Foundation and is author of The Fourfold Path to Healing, a companion book to Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. He writes the “Ask the Doctor” column in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts.

He is author of Human Heart, Cosmic Heart (A Doctor’s Quest to Understand, Treat and Prevent Cardiovascular Disease). He has three grown children and currently practices medicine in San Francisco where he resides with his wife Lynda Smith Cowan.

This series is presented and sponsored by:

Waldorf Learning Support http://arcturus.info

Arcturus Rudolf Steiner Education Program http://arcturus.info

HealthMarketing.us http://healthmarketing.us

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Friday 16 November 2018

COMMUNITY MEETING

Details TBA

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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.

AND:

Saturday 1 December 2018 – 10 am – noon

THE CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE

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.

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 Hazel Archer Ginsberg

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Wed. 5 December 2018 CRC Zoom Call 7:15pm – 8:30pm – Reincarnation & Karma

with special guest: Dr. Ross Rentea: “A presentation from the karma and the work together of Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman”

Steiner considered I. Wegman a true “friend”, companion over many incarnations, and invaluable helper. In her incarnation in the 20th century she collaborated with him in writing a book, asked decisive questions that led to the Christmas Foundation Conference, the First Class, and more. We will look especially at their working together on the “Fundamentals of Therapy” a work on which R. Steiner put finishing touches until hours before crossing the threshold.

Ross Rentea, MD, has been practicing anthroposophical medicine in Chicago for 35 years. He is a member of the Anthroposophical Society(1972), the First Class of the School for Spiritual Science(1974), the Physicians Association for Anthroposophic Medicine (1984) and the Christian Community (1976). He has served on the Board of the American College of Anthroposophic Medicine. He has lectured nationally and internationally, and published and written numerous scientific research articles and recently (2017) the book “Childhood Illnesses and Immunizations”. Besides anthroposophical medicine his current interests are in better understanding the seven Rhythms of the Foundation Stone. He is a co-founder of the True Botanica Company www.truebotanica.com and the Lili Kolisko Institute for Anthroposophical Medicine www.koliskoinstitute.org .

For more info. contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Blood Moon

24 October 2018 – “Speaking with the Stars”: October’s Full Moon is called the “Blood Moon or Hunter’s Moon.” Bella Luna officially arrives at opposition to the Sun (which is what makes a full moon) at 11:45 pm CDT. You can find her rising in the east around sunset, residing in the northern part of the constellation Cetus, peaking in the south around 1 am. Look left of her shining face by two or three fists for the little Pleiades cluster on the rise. Whenever we see the Pleiades climbing the eastern sky, their tiny dipper shape is standing on its handle. Bella Luna dips low in the west by the time morning twilight starts to paint the sky.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1260 – Chartres Cathedral is dedicated in the presence of King Louis IX of France

Image result for tycho brahe

1601 – Death day of Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer & alchemist. Rudolf Steiner speaks about him here in Karmic Relationships, Volume IV: Lecture VI: “We were tracing the thread of evolution which enters into the spiritual life of the present time, and we left off with the individuality of Julian the Apostate. I told you that this individuality was next incarnated in one who is only known by legendary accounts, whose secret is contained in the Parsifal legend, in the name of Herzeleide. In this life as Herzeleide, the soul of Julian the Apostate entered into a far deeper inner life. The soul-life of the individuality was deepened, as was indeed necessary after the many storms and inner moods of opposition which he had undergone in his life as Julian the Apostate.

But this later life of which I told you — this life as Herzeleide — spread itself out over the former life as Julian the Apostate like a warm embalming cloud. Thus the soul grew more intense and deep and inward, and grew richer, too, in manifold impulses of the inner life.

Now this soul was among those who had carried over something of the ancient Mysteries. Julian had lived within the substance of the ancient Mysteries at a time when their light was still radiant in many ways. Thus he had received into himself much spirituality of the cosmos. All this had been as it were pressed back during the incarnation as Herzeleide; but it was none the less pressing forth in the soul, and thus we find the same individuality again in the 16th century; we find arising in him once more, in a Christianised form, what he had undergone as Julian the Apostate. For the same individuality reappears in the 16th century as Tycho de Brahe, and stands face to face with the Copernican world-conception which emerges within Western civilisation at that time.”

1911 – Orville Wright remains in the air nine minutes and 45 seconds in a Wright Glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.

1926 – Harry Houdini’s last performance takes place at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit. Harry Houdini was born Ehrich Weisz on 24 March 1874 in Budapest, Hungary. The son of a Rabbi, he relocated with his family to America in 1876.  By the age of 17 he was known as Harry Houdini & left his family to pursue his career in magic. Booked for a two-week engagement in Detroit at The Garrick Theatre, he arrived in pain, but decided to perform the opening show on October 24th.  With much difficulty he performed, but cut the show short & was admitted to Grace Hospital.  It had been determined that he had a ruptured appendix. Surgery was not enough to spare Houdini’s life & he died on 31 October 1926 from peritonitis.

1945 – Founding of the United Nations.

1946 – Deathday of Emil Grosheintz – dentist who had a practice in Basel, was an early anthroposopher, when the society was still connected to the theosophical movement. Rudolf Steiner loved him because of his sacrificial & conscientious work. His professional career as a dentist allowed him to accompany Steiner on many of his lectures. Like a leitmotiv, his life runs through the fact that he was always present as a witness in important moments of anthroposophy.

In 1906, Emil Grosheintz co-founded the Paracelsus branch in Basel. In 1907 he took part in the Munich Congress & became a member of the German section of the Theosophical Society in 1908.

In 1912, during a visit of Rudolf Steiner to his estate in Dornach, Grosheintz decided to make his land on the Dornach hill available for the construction of the first Goetheanum, & organized the purchase & donation of some further eastern plots.

In 1913 he became chairman of the Johannesbauverein. Because of his excellent organizational abilities & his experience, Emil Grosheintz became co-founder of the anthroposophical branch at the Goetheanum on September 12, 1920, & until May 9, 1943, he served as its first chairman &remained honorary chairman until his death

On 24 December 1914, Emil & Nelly Grosheintz-Laval were witnesses at the wedding ceremony of Marie & Rudolf Steiner.

On September 20, 1913, Emil Grosheintz & his wife Nelly Grosheintz-Laval took part in the laying of the foundation stone for the first Goetheanum. In the same year he moved with his wife & the two sons Hansi & Pierre into the Duldeck house designed for him by Rudolf Steiner on the Dornach hill near the Goetheanum.

1929 – “Black Thursday” stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange.

Image result for 1975 – In Iceland, 90% of women take part in a national strike

1975 – In Iceland, 90% of women take part in a national strike, refusing to work in protest of gaps in gender equality.

Image result for Solidarity trade union

1980 – The government of Poland legalizes the Solidarity trade union

2008 – “Bloody Friday” saw many of the world’s stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

A Haiku for Lori Kulik’s Birthday

Between Michael
& All Souls, green becomes gold
Your fire a bell
Calling in the Full Blood Moon
Your bright gifts so bold
In the cosmic Iron Swell
~hag

***


From Occult History: Lecture 4 
by Rudolf Steiner

During the 16th century, in the year 1546, a remarkable man was born of a noble house of Northern Europe, and in his very cradle, so to speak, everything was laid — including family wealth — that could have led him to positions of great honour in the traditional life of that time. Because, in line with his family traditions, it was intended that he should occupy some eminent political or other high position, he was marked out for the legal profession and sent with a tutor to the University of Leipzig to study jurisprudence. The tutor tormented the boy — for he was still a boy when he was forced to study law — all day long. But at night, while the tutor was sleeping the sleep of the just and dreaming of legal theories, the boy stole out of bed and observed the stars with the very simple instruments he had himself devised. And very soon he knew not only more than any of the teachers about the secrets of the stars but more than was to be found at that time in any book. For example, he very soon noticed a definite position of Saturn and Jupiter in the constellation of Leo, turned to the books and found that they recorded it quite erroneously. The longing then arose in him to acquire as exact a knowledge as possible of this star-script, to record as accurately as possible the course of the stars. No wonder that in spite of all his family’s resistance he soon extracted the permission to become a natural philosopher and astronomer, instead of dreaming his life away over legal books and doctrines. And having considerable means at his disposal, he was able to set up a whole establishment.

This was arranged in a remarkable way. In the upper storeys were instruments designed for observing the secrets of the stars; in the cellars there was equipment for bringing about different combinations and dissolutions of substances. And there he worked, dividing his time between observations carried out on the upper floors of the building and the boiling, fermenting, mixing and weighing which went on in the cellars below. There he worked, in Order to show, little by little, how the laws that are written in the stars, the laws of the planets and fixed stars, the macrocosmic laws, are to be found again microcosmically in the mathematical numbers underlying the combinations and dissolutions of substances. And what he discovered as a living connection between the heavenly and the earthly he applied to the art of medicine, producing medicaments which were the cause of bitter animosity around him because he gave them freely to those he wanted to help. The doctors at that time, intent upon extorting high fees, raged against this man who was accused of perpetrating all sorts of “horrors” with what he endeavoured to bring down from the heavens to the earth.

Fortunately, as the result of a certain happening, he found favour with the Danish King, Frederick the Second, and as long as he retained this favour, all went well: tremendous insight was gained into the spiritual working of cosmic laws in the sense I have just described. This man did indeed know something about the spiritual course of cosmic laws. He dumbfounded the world with things which admittedly would no longer find the same credence to-day. On one Occasion, when he was at Rostock, he prophesied, from the constellation of the stars, the death of the Sultan Soliman, which came true within a few days of the date he had foretold. The news of this made the name of Tycho Brahe famous in Europe. To-day the world at large knows hardly anything more of Tycho Brahe, whose life lies such a short time behind us, than that he was somewhat of a crank and never quite reached the lofty standpoint of modern materialism. He recorded a thousand stars for the first time in the maps of the heavens and also made the epoch-making discovery of a type of star, the “Nova,” which flares up and vanishes again, and described it. But these things are mostly passed over in silence. The world really knows nothing about him except that he was still “stupid” enough to devise a plan of the cosmos in which the earth stands still and the sun together with the planets revolve around it. That is what the world in general knows to-day. The fact that we have to do here with a significant personality of the 16th century, with one who accomplished an infinite amount that even to-day is still useful to astronomy, that untold depths of wisdom are contained in what he gave — none of this is usually recorded, for the simple reason that in presenting the system in detail, out of his own deep knowledge, Tycho Brahe saw difficulties which Copernicus did not see. If such a thing dare be said — for it does indeed seem paradoxical — even with the Copernican cosmic system the last word has not yet been uttered. And the conflict between the two Systems will still occupy the minds of a later humanity. — That, however, only by the way; it is too paradoxical for the present age.

It was only under the successor of the King who had been well-disposed towards him that the enemies of Tycho Brahe arose an all sides. They were doctors and professors at the University of Copenhagen, and they succeeded in inciting the successor of his patron against him. Tycho Brahe was driven from his fatherland and was obliged to go south again. It was in Augsburg that he had originally set up his first great planisphere and the gilded globe on which he always marked the new stars he discovered — finally amounting to a thousand. This man was destined to die in exile in Prague. To this very day, if we turn, not to the usual textbooks, but to the actual sources, and study Kepler, let us say, we can still see that Kepler was able to arrive at his laws because of the meticulous astronomical observations made by Tycho Brahe before him. Here indeed was a personality who again bore the stamp, in a grand style, of what had been great and significant wisdom before his time; one who could not reconcile himself to the kind of knowledge that became popular immediately afterwards in the shape of the materialistic view of the world. Truly it is a strange destiny, this destiny of Tycho Brahe!

And now, placing both personal destinies side by side, think how endlessly instructive it is when we learn from the Akasha Chronicle that the individuality of Julian the Apostate appears again in Tycho Brahe, that Tycho Brahe is, so to say, a reincarnation of Julian the Apostate. Thus strangely and paradoxically does the law of reincarnation take effect when the karmic connection of the single individual are modified by world-historic karma; when the cosmic Powers themselves use the human individuality as their instrument.”

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~ALL SOULS FESTIVAL~

Come Experience the Journey of the Soul in the Life between Death & Rebirth

 6:45 pm – 9:30 pm Friday 2 November 2018 at theRudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618

Cello by Martin Brenman, Guitar by Philp Armetta, Didgeridoo by CG

The Descent of Inanna – An archetype of the soul in the spirit world with Hazel Archer Ginsberg

We cross the threshold for the Leminscate Journey thru the Planetary Spheres & the Zodiac – Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

an Artistic Exploration with Nancy Melvin during the Circle of Remembrance

$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged

For more info. contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg

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‘The Festival Life’

with Hazel Archer Ginsberg for WITH = Waldorf in the Home

Monday 5 November 2018 from 8:15 am – 9:30 am

at the Chicago Waldorf School Andersonville Campus, 5200 N Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL · (773) 465-2662

In the cafe (on far north east side of first floor) after the Day of the Dead assembly

For more info. contact Judy Shaver jlshaver9832@gmail.com

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 2018 Fall Youth Conference in Chicago Nov 1-4th, 2018 

Our Ideas – Our Ideals – Working together to create together

Tamarack Waldorf School will stay as a group though Friday evening- the rest of us will carry on through Sunday at 1PM.

Sponsored by the Christian Community in Coordination with Tamarack Waldorf School, Bart Eddy and Detroit Community School, Elderberries Chicago and musician Jen Zimberg.

High School students that want to come together to work- build- paint- create – in conversation and singing – Our Ideas – Our Ideals – Working together to create together

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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 can, Snacks to Share Encouraged

AND:

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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 can, 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 hag@rschicago.org

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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…