Here is the podcast for Easter Sunday on ‘I Think Speech’
Easter is a spiritual event that takes place on the stage of humanity. The physical body of Jesus of Nazareth was the mediator through which the powers of the cosmos were united with the Earth. With the sacrifice on Golgotha, when the life-blood of the Cosmic Heart penetrated the Earth & its forces flowed down, even to the very core, the Earth became illuminated from within. The Resurrection took place, 1st at the gates of the underworld for the souls of the dead who had lost their divine nature. And with the dawn on Easter Sunday, the opportunity was then given to every single human individuality to experience this light within the self.
And the seed was planted for the reunion of Sun & Earth.
The Mystery of Golgotha is the pivotal event of the whole divine process of creation, of the whole process of human evolution from its beginnings in the womb of the Spirit, to its consummation in humanity as the 10th hierarchy.
The Christian Festivals were never meant to be merely the commemoration of great historical events or simply truths of the Christian revelation, as great as these are. The Festivals in themselves, are, each year, spiritual events, carrying a significance that grows & deepens with the developing phases of human evolution, ever evolving as we do. This is especially true of the Easter Festival, with its answer to humanity’s deepest needs, its quickening of our highest hopes; with its message of the victory of good over evil, of light over darkness, of life over death.
Again & again, from all points of view, Rudolf Steiner spoke about the deep meaning of the Easter Festival in the eternal working of the divine worlds upon humankind, in the prefiguring myths & symbols of the ancient Mystery religions, in its relation to the world of nature & the cosmic universe, in which the date of this moveable feast contains a unique mystery. For it is determined by a cosmic alignment. It contains a call to humanity to lift ourselves up to the worlds beyond the earth; to once again speak with the stars. It contains a promise, that in the course of world-history, it will be possible, thru the working of the Christ Impulse, for humanity to once again be united with the cosmos, in the New Jerusalem. It is for this that we strive when we celebrate the Easter Fest.
Its consequence, must be looked for in all human history, in the arts, in human thinking, in all social relationships, & even in the materialistic triumphs of modern science.
In the New Mysteries we follow the path of Rosicrucian/Christian initiation through Holy Week. With every step, from the recognition of the old atavistic Sun on Palm Sunday, thru to the meeting of the Saturn-Spirit & The Harrowing of Hell, we sow healing seeds, sprouted in the blood of Christ, that spark the rising of the New Sun of Easter, within ourselves & in the Universe. Each of these steps thru the planetary spheres leads to a conquest of a corresponding layer in the interior of the earth. The Beatitudes are the spiritual weapon we must wield to fortify the development of self-determination in the human ego led by Christ, giving us the strength to make the darkness transparent. Like Christ, we must descend to ascend.
Every year we have a chance to recapitulate the original Easter event. We rest on the Sabbath, Saturn-day – In Christo morimur – This is the Mystic-death or temple sleep of the initiate; remembering that In the Garden of Gethsemane – the midpoint of the earth, the epicenter of the cosmos – between the rocky hill of Golgotha, part of the lunar Mount Moriah, & it’s polar opposite the Solar Mount Zion, there was a New Tomb where the body of Christ rested, & yet it was the Oldest Tomb, for it was formerly a primal fissure, a gorge splitting Jerusalem in two, called by some Adam’s Grave –known as the gate to the underworld. The earthquakes of Good Friday & Holy Saturday tore open the original fissure. The veil of the Temple “was rent in twain”. Vistas were opened into the interior of the earth. “He was lowered into the grave of the earth’, & so it was, that The Christ went into the Earth’s Interior, His blood becoming the medicine for our continued evolution. The darkness of Saturn is lit up from within by the Resurrected Sun. The Easter garden begins to bloom, so that our soul can behold, like the Magdalana before us, The Risen One as the gardener of the New Jerusalem.
In ‘The Birth of a New Agriculture: Koberwitz 1924’ , we learn that the earth underwent a change through the deed of redemption on Golgotha, a transformation of the unruly Mars powers of rusty iron into the silvery light of Mercury. This transforming of iron thru the sacred mystery of the Christ-blood is a determining factor in the transformation of earthly substance, which will later be carried over into the transubstantiation of the earth. The spirit radiates from the heights & yet is also carried to us by the eternal divine world of the depths. ‘May there ascend from the Depths the prayer that is heard in the Heights’. We can send our prayer to the Christ-heart in the earth’s depths, to help overcome & redeem the adversarial powers that hold sway in the nine layers of the earth’s interior. The agricultural course was a stepping stone to this ultimate aim.
Spiritual science tells us that when the blood flowed into the earth from the cross on Golgotha, a new Sun-globe was born in the interior of the earth. This golden earth-center is the legendary land of Shambhalla, hidden away, yet waiting to be re-discovered by the seeking, Christ-guided human soul.
The Tomb becomes the altar, a sacred place to commune with the gods – with the souls of the departed as our intermediaries. The tomb becomes the Round table, & the Parsifal question leads us to find Christ in the etheric.
Also working with us from the time of the Vernal Equinox is the Archangel Raphael, who holds the staff of Mercury, offering us the healing power of the Caduceus through the grace of the living Christ, who stands as the middle pillar within us all.
Before the mystery of Golgotha, the task of evolution was that the cosmos would become human, after this turning point, the human becomes cosmos -The New Sun -The imperishable resurrection-body uniting with the Cosmic- Sophia.
“Anthroposophy itself must become like an inner festival of Resurrection for the human soul. It must bring an Easter mood into man’s world-conception.” – Rudolf Steiner, The Easter Festival in relation to the Mysteries.
RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
and his poem to accompany todays Zoom Meeting,
“Human Bee-ing at Easter Time” (find link below)
EASTER
In Unison With Light
v1
When streaming from the cosmic spheres
the sun is speaking to the human senses
and joy from depths of soul
is with the light as one in seeing,
then drawn from sheath of self
thoughts rise to far horizons
and dimly bind
the human being to the spirit’s presence.
WITH SENSE OF BEES
Oh let this sonnet sound with sense of bees whose dancing learns the music light composes.
They coalesce in darkness and so eas-ily one waggles, turns exact degrees, shapes lemniscates and there, where sunspace lives, she charts saliva of the stars*, the nectar
discovered… danced for… gathered for the winter and condensed to summer scented octaves’ remembrance, every sestet heaven’s droplet men have prayed, climbed for. But our own light lapses.
Our poison spreads with ease: disease collapses the colonies we’ve cared for. What last couplet
foretells our bond with nature… left… in silence… or kept, dark songs’ light… learnt? Our sustenance…
- expression for honey
by Pliny, 1st century Roman
TODAY on EASTER SUNDAYwe complete our journey on the 8-Fold Path to Easter at 8 am PT / 9 am MT/ 10 am CT / 11 am ET / 3 pm UT / 4 pm CET for 30 minutes,
4 April 2021 – In Lucien Dante Lazar’s Contemporary Easter contemplation we will explore the birth of the Cosmic Child in the heart, bringing an etherization to the head to ignite the Divine Sophia which opens a living knowledge & Resurrection of the human “I” – Self.
*For the artistic part please have paper & color pencils
Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95633444828?pwd=Wk56K08vK2dNQUhhK0Q2S09zQWJrQT09 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: bee
Dial by your location Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aX8X3nrr3 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: 425730
“Human Bee-ing at Easter Time”
Easter Sunday 4 April 2021, at 12 pm PT/1 pm MT/ 2 pm CT/ 3pm ET / 7 UT / 8 pm CET
Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/7052931041?pwd=Z0ZmT05FdDZIclE4RFBLZWNwWXJ5QT09
Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: Easter
Dial by your location – Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: 776400 – Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/a961qZZhF
Keynote with Ines Katharina Kinchen who makes her home at the , a small biodynamic initiative nestled in the in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Tennessee, surrounded by the Cherokee National Forest. Here she lives with her son Marquise, tends to the bees, the animals and the land, and facilitates workshops.
Ines is a Resonance Medicine practitioner, a kindergarten teacher at the Asheville Waldorf School, and the founder of the Honeybee Habitat Project.
What can the bees teach us about consciously engaging with the Earth and deepening our inner festival life? And how does this inner festival life affect the beings all around us?
Let us discover the tasks of our time and journey with the Bee into her connection to the Earth,
the Cosmos, and the Human Soul… during the Easter expansion.
This small ceremony will include artistic and meditative activity. Please have ready: some real honey and a spoon, a beeswax candle and matches, paper and colored pencils.
Zoom Host – Lisa Dalton
Easter verse with Geoffery Norris
Welcome – Hazel Archer
Dottie Zold – On the Buddha’s 8-Fold Path
Group Eurythmy with Mary Ruud working with the Mystery Drama fairytale ‘Rock Spring Wonder’
$10 Suggested Donation (can’t make it? or joining us online? please consider supporting this event, Thank you)
Hazel Archer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Easter Festival for the Elementals – Time: Apr 4, 2021 02:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/7052931041?pwd=Z0ZmT05FdDZIclE4RFBLZWNwWXJ5QT09
Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: Easter
Dial by your location – Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: 776400 – Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/a961qZZhF
For more info. contact Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer
Festivals, Arts, & Cultural Events for the Rudolf Steiner Branch
of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
https://donate.rschicago.org/