St. John’s Tide

Sea Cooke

In the new mysteries we strive at St. John’s Tide toward an enhanced awareness of our will forces – Rudolf Steiner talks about how we are dreamy in our feeling & asleep in our willing, so we really have to make an effort to follow John the Baptist & ‘make straight the path’, an effort to enable the higher ego to come to expression ever more fully.

The summertime union between the sun & earth is actually a re-union between the spiritual beings of the Sun & their human offspring. Through ‘the great window of heaven’ we experience this interaction which helps us develop an awareness of our ego.

Rudolf Steiner tells us that at midsummer the Trinity reveals itself out of the heart of this cosmic activity. A sounding, like the music of the spheres, that calls us to explore our own inner harmony with the cosmos. To answer the echo that unites us to the eternity of the Trinity.

Also important: Can we learn, to be still & small enough to hear the voice of conscience?

At the fullness of Summer, the light is so bright that it leaves no room for the shadow to hide. High Noon is the hour of judgment – a good time to remember what John said “Then you will know the truth, & the truth will set you free.”

We respond to the summertime call for METANOIA a yearly review, looking with courage to the errors of the past, enduring all the pain self-knowledge brings, so that someday, with hearts lifted, we may say:  Yes I am, and Christ in me!

For when our little ego decreases, we grow in Christ. The true power of our Ego will increase like Christ increases in earth existence. Just as John the Baptist, after he was beheaded, concentrated his spirit self to become the guardian angel of the apostles, especially Lazarus John. Johannes E – O – Ah…Following this archetypal gesture we can see that JB has become one of the main impulse givers towards group work, towards community life for us even today.

From Rudolf Steiner we know that in the thinking of the Archangel of Summer Uriel, world thinking is embedded. So while the ‘eye of heaven’ from Uriel gazes down upon us, the need arises to let the light of the higher ego shine into our being.

What would it be like to use our natural summer connection with the whole etheric environment, to make an offering in the spirit of the new mysteries?  To let stream up with enthusiasm the cosmic thoughts that have been revealed to us by the Gods & give them back as deeds of good will in the world

John the Baptist by Carovaggio

“In Summer the process of outbreathing is at its height. The earth has given its soul to the cosmos…the soul of the earth strives toward the stars, it wants to know about the life of the stars and planets. And, in its own way, it is most united with the movements of the stars, through the light of the Summer Sun at St. John’s time. ~Rudolf Steiner from ‘Man’s Being, His Destiny, and World-Evolution’ May 21, 1923

In the new mysteries we strive at St. John’s Tide toward an enhanced awareness of our will forces – an effort to ‘make straight the path’, to recognize our potential for discordant, as well as selfless acts; an effort to enable the higher ego to come to expression ever more fully in the mysterious recesses of our personal priorities with respect to our will. In the Summer-Tide, through ‘the great window of heaven’ we experience an interaction between humanity and the sun forces, assisting us to develop an awareness of our ego. The summertime union between the sun and earth is actually a reunion between the divine gods of the spiritual sun & their offspring, humankind. We can contemplate this dynamic & bring it to life in our soul most strongly at this time.

We can seek to experience the ego development of humankind by following the earnest gaze of the Archangel Uriel into the earth, guiding the union of the sun’s inner radiance with the being of the earth.

Like the call of conscience from John the Baptist, the need arises to let the light of the higher ego shine into our being, knowing that the union of creator and created is affected by the disharmony from the imperfect deeds of humanity.

We respond to the summertime call for a yearly ‘metanoia’ by reviewing our deeds of the past year, (like we do at the time of the Winter Solstice) while the ‘eye of heaven’ gazes down upon us. We seek to know the will forces, that through our deeds, become part of the earth’s being.

While Michael wants us to develop a consciousness of the human being in relation to the supersensible, Uriel wants us to wake up towards an inner conscience. From Rudolf Steiner we know that Uriel’s intelligence governs all planetary and zodiac activity in the cosmos, and that in Uriel’s thinking, world thinking is embedded. His gaze is stern, making us aware of our faults and misdeeds, of our karmic debt to humanity and the earth. Uriel asks us to develop a ‘historic conscience’…

~hag

Indications gathered from research into the Anthroposophical teachings of Rudolf Steiner

uriel RS 2Uriel by RS

“Uriel, ruling guardian of summer heights,
You with the all-penetrating gaze.
From your eyes stream forth
The light of the resting stars,
Of the wandering moon,
Of fire flaming powers of lightning.
You watch and judge the reapers of the harvest,
Of us, man on earth, usurpers of the light.
You, Archangel Uriel, conscience of the world,
Wisest among all angels”.

~ From Uriel, a St. John’s Hymn By Wilfried Hammacher,
Translated by Truus Geraets

Uriel

Greetings Friends – I share this in preparation of St. John’s Tide

Human hands work with the striving stalks
To guide the light into the grain
In the reaping, with the grinding, thru the baking, the bread dies, only to rise again
In the breaking, love abides
In the giving, and thru the taking – the stone atones

The baking of bread lets life die – to rise again
The offering of bread lets love abide.
May light become love
May love feed and be fed
In giving and in taking – the stone atones
Union and Communion increase
As the summer wanes

st. John-the-baptistRembrandt

St. JOHN’S EVE in the Tropic of Cancer

Hot horns of light
Frame the dreaded Forerunner…
Wild Pan the Baptist
With wort & rue in his pouch
Locusts & raw honey on his breath,
Anoints the mistletoe
In the oak-grove.

The God has gone into the grain
The Sun is on the water
The edge of the rioting rose
Begins to melt
Its scent is heavy on the heat
Stealing the breath
From the hot mouth of God

Her infer-red ruby steams
The magnetic stains of light
To guide the Summer-Tide Soul
Into the labyrinth
Where the Oak King crests
And gives way
To the Dark Holly Twin

The hissing serpent
A round writhing egg
Christens the honey moon with mead

Awaken the gate
Meditate the laurel grail
And St. John’s spear
Under Canopus squared
A packsaddle beam
Capping an arch
As Argo sails the dipper flock
From the top of severity
To the mount of the manger

Pin a tail on the donkey
Put a fence around the goat

~hag

john the baptist BoschBosch

The guiding motifs of our life, which come to expression through our motivations or will forces, are a manifestation of the deeper aspects of our ego. Because the higher ego is active in these deep seated will forces, we can begin to approach the ego by contemplating our will. How do we respond in a particular situation? What leads us to significant decisions in life?

St. John's RS GA 229 Plate VSt. John’s Tide by RS

Schaue unser Weben
Das leuchtende Erregen
Das wärmende Leben } The Heights

Lebe irdisch Erhaltendes
Und atmend Gestaltetes —
Als wesenhaft Waltendes } The Depths

Fühle dein Menschengebeine
Mit himmlischen Scheine
Im waltenden Weltenvereine } The Midst, The inner being of Man.

Es werden Stoffe verdichtet
Es werden Fehler gerichtet
Es werden Herzen gesichtet.

Behold our weaving, the kindling radiance, the warming life.

Live in the earth’s sustaining, and in the form-giving breathing,
with the power of true being.

Feel your very bones suffused with heavenly glory
in the presiding yoga of the worlds.

Substances are densified – Errors are judged and rectified – Hearts are sifted, Receive the light.”

John the baptist scroll

About John the Baptist (Elijah)

There is a long series of lamp and fire symbols in the Old & New Testaments; the group of events in which the Lord appeared in flames of fire & clouds of glory, from Exodus 3 to Malachi 3:2, affirming John to be “the flame signal of the Messiah, the last Old Testament form of the pillar of fire and candlestick of the temple, therefore the lamp at once flaming and shining.

More than this, & more to the point, we find that, under the figure of lamps of fire, the messengers of God, are here repeatedly set forth (Matthew 5:14-16; Matthew 25:1-8; Revelation 1:20; Philippians 2:15).

He was the burning and shining lamp (λύχνος, not φῶς) and there was nothing you wanted more than to bask for a while in that light. (John 5:35)

He was not the Light, but came to bear witness to the Light (John 1:8).

The glory of his appearance was a derived or kindled illumination (Matthew 6:22; 2 Peter 1:19).

Then stood up Elijah the prophet like as a fire, and his word burned as a lamp. (Ecclus. 48:1)

“Rabbi Menahem said that Solomon compares ‘prayer’ with ‘lamp,’ & ‘teaching’ with ‘light,’ (Proverbs 6:23) because the one flashes for the twinkling of an eye, it only comforts in the moment during which it shines; while the other, “like the shining of the sun, burns evermore, and leads to eternal rest.

He was a burning & a shining light…. He was the “phosphorus“, the forerunner of the Christ-Light. The Lamb is the Lamp of the New Jerusalem. (Revelation 21:23)

Cabeiri

What are the mysteries of the Cabiri? And how do they relate to MidSummer? Perhaps thru the reality of the Trinity

Calendar of the Soul for St. John’s Tide, 12th week (June 24)

The radiant beauty of the world
Compels my inmost soul to free
God-given powers of my nature
That they may soar into the cosmos,
To take wing from myself
And trustingly to seek myself
In cosmic light and cosmic warmth.

Der Welten Schönheitsglanz,
Er zwinget mich aus Seelentiefen
Des Eigenlebens Götterkräfte
Zum Weltenfluge zu entbinden;
Mich selber zu verlassen,
Vertrauend nur mich suchend
In Weltenlicht und Weltenwärme.

Corresponding – Forty-first Week (January 12-18)

The soul’s creative might
Strives outward from the heart’s own core
To kindle and inflame god-given powers
In human life to right activity;
The soul thus shapes itself
In human loving and in human working.

Der Seele Schaffensmacht,
Sie strebet aus dem Herzensgrunde,
Im Menschenleben Götterkräfte
Zu rechtem Wirken zu entflammen,
Sich selber zu gestalten
In Menschenliebe und im Menschenwerke

~Rudolf Steiner