Pour it out

28 March 2018 – Astro-Weather: Before the first hint of dawn tomorrow morning, look for Mars & Saturn glowing just 2° apart in the south-southeast. They’re above the Sagittarius Teapot.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

“Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.” ~ Thomas Aquinas

1483 – Birthday of Raphael,(Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino) Italian painter & architect. In Rudolf Steiner’s last address he speaks about this individualities’ previous lives as John the Baptist & Elijah.

1515 – Birthday of St. Teresa of Ávila, From the Pastoral Medicine lecture #5: “In the case with such personalities as St. Teresa there is continuous healing coming from the spirit. When we study these individuals, we find that as a first stage the ego organization separates from the rest of the human organism. It then draws the astral body closely to it, in a certain sense away from the physical-etheric organism. This is in the waking state. What is the consequence of this? You can easily see that this puts the individual into a kind of dream condition. From a spiritual-scientific point of view the ego, by drawing the astral body to itself, is not allowing it to enter the physical and etheric bodies completely, and this brings about a kind of dream condition. But because of the special karmic density, both ego and astral body are strong, and they bring into the dream condition receptivity for the perception of the spiritual world. Dream is transformed into a state in which the individual is really able to see into the spiritual world and to feel the presence of spiritual beings.” ~Rudolf Steiner

1592 – Birthday of John Amos Comenius, Czech bishop Pansophia educator. Rudolf Steiner speaks of him as an adviser to Harun-al-Rashid in the Karmic Relationships Vol. 6 lecture 8. “…Haroun al Raschid and his wise Counsellor passed through the gate of death. But after their life between death and rebirth they continued to pursue their earthly aims in remarkable ways. It was their aim to introduce Arabian modes of thinking into the European world with the help of the rudiments of the Intelligence now spreading in Europe. And so after Haroun al Raschid had passed through the gate of death, while his soul was traversing spiritual, starry worlds, we see his gaze directed unswervingly from Baghdad across Asia Minor, to Greece, Rome, Spain, France and then northwards to England. Throughout this life between death and rebirth his attention was directed to the South and West of Europe. And then Haroun al Raschid appeared again in a new incarnation — becoming Lord Bacon of Verulam. Bacon himself is the reincarnated Haroun al Raschid who in the intervening time between death and rebirth had worked as I have just described.

But the other, the one who had been his wise Counsellor, chose a different direction — from Baghdad across the Black Sea, through Russia and then into Middle Europe. The two individualities took different paths and directions. Haroun al Raschid passed to his next earthly goal as Lord Bacon of Verulam; the wise Counsellor during his life between death and a new birth did not divert his gaze from the sphere where influences from the East can be increasingly potent, and he appeared again as Amos Comenius (Komenski), the great educational reformer and author of “Pan-Sophia.” And from the interworking of these two individualities who had once been together at the Court in Baghdad there subsequently arose in Europe something which unfolded — more or less at a distance from Christianity — in the form of Arabism derived from influences of that past time when the Intelligence had first fallen away from Michael on the Sun.

Here we have indicated something that lies as sub-strata of the soil into which we to-day have to sow the seeds of Anthroposophy. We must ponder deeply over the inner and spiritual reality behind these things”.

1941 – DeathDay of Virginia Woolf, English novelist, essayist, short story writer.

1943 – DeathDay of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian pianist, composer, & conductor

1985 – Deathday of Marc Chagall, Russian-French painter & poet

1994 – DeathDay of Eugène Ionesco, Romanian-French playwright & critic

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POD (Poem Of the Day)]

~I have burnt the old palms
To release the phoenix
This Dies Cinerum
Will raise the Lenten veil
Just enough
That I may enter
The house of Lazarus
As friend & sister
To pour the precious oil
~hag

***

NO STUDY AT THE BRANCH TONIGHT (I have a CRC meeting)

Greetings Friends on this Holy Wednesday, ruled by Mercury, who for the Greco-Roman world was both the god of healing & also the god of merchants & of thieves.

It is “Mitt-woch”. The balance of Holy Week, is sought, as the drama turns inward.

Both Judas & Mary Magdalene are typical Mercury people – active & temperamental; something is always happening round them. Mary Magdalene transforms her restlessness into peaceful devotion, & the capacity for love. She anoints the head of Christ with precious spikenard oil, a spiritual act. Christ accepts what this woman does as a fulfillment of the Last Anointing.

Judas declares her deed extravagant & becomes indignant. He pretends to want something for the poor; yet it is only self-deception, his own inner restlessness, not a genuine social impulse. His unrest springs from a deeply hidden fear, opening him to the adversarial power which leads him to betray Christ. A soul driven by fear & hate cannot show devotion; above all, it cannot love.

So, in the two figures, Mary Magdalene & Judas, we stand at a crossroads. One leads to the realization of the imminence of Christ; the other into the dark night.

All the individuals taking part in the scenes of Holy Wednesday – Mary, Martha, the risen Lazarus, & Judas, show us unique approaches in the expression of the mysteries.