May 23, 2016

1498 –Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake in Florence, Italy. Savonarola was an Italian Dominican friar. He was known for his prophecies & his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule & the exploitation of the poor. The Florentines expelled the ruling Medici &, at the friar’s urging, established a “popular” republic. Declaring that Florence would be the New Jerusalem, the world center of Christianity & “richer, more powerful, more glorious than ever”, enlisting the active help of Florentine youth.

In 1495 when Florence refused to join Pope Alexander VI’s Holy League against the French, the Vatican summoned Savonarola to Rome. He disobeyed & defied the pope by preaching under a ban, highlighting his campaign for reform with processions, bonfires & pious theatricals. In retaliation, the Pope excommunicated him.

A trial by fire proposed by a rival Florentine preacher to test Savonarola’s divine mandate turned into a fiasco. On May 23, 1498, they condemned, hanged, & burned him in the main square of Florence.

1533 – The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.

1934 – The American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.

1945 – World War II: Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Schutzstaffel, commits suicide while in Allied custody.

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~To my body I gave the power of my heart

Bee love & create I said

Beat within the grace of the world’s rhythms

A pulsing radiant sun

In tune with the music of becoming

A ferry thru dark churning waves

An oasis flowing with fresh waters

On the high tide of blessings

To open my head

In pure thought unfolded

~hag

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Dear Friends –

It is my intention to share some impressions, explore key themes & insights into the initiatory revelations that I am currently living with from my recent immersion in the Leminscate Arts Mystery Drama “The Working of the Spirit”. I may need a few days to chew over & digest, to catch my breath & come back into my meditative rhythm.  So until soon…

Xox

~hag = Hazel Archer Ginsberg