24 June 2016 – Brilliant Jupiter appears high in the west as darkness falls & remains on display until around midnight. The giant planet shines against the backdrop of southern Leo the Lion.
Feast Day of John the Baptist. Rudolf Steiner revealed his other lives as Elijah, Raphael, Novalis in GA 120
1314 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn
1374 – A sudden outbreak of ‘St. John’s Dance’ causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations & begin to jump & twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion
1717 – The first Freemasonic Grand Lodge in the world is founded in London. Benjamin Franklin was a member.
1812 –Napoleon invades Russia
1916 – Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to sign a million-dollar contract
1922 – Assassination of Walther Rathenau, a German statesman who served as Foreign Minister during the Weimar Republic.
1938 – A 450 metric ton meteor hits Chicora, Pennsylvania
1973 – The UpStairs Lounge arson attack takes place at a gay bar in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Thirty-two people die.
1976 – Deathday of Rudolf Kreutzer entrepreneur, anthropsopher
2002 – The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania kills 281, the worst train accident in African history.
2004 – In New York, capital punishment is declared unconstitutional
2012 – Lonesome George, the last subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise, dies
~ ~ ~
Sandra Wilson
~At dawn the thread of Time unfurls
Sunlight streams across Space
Time reaches in both directions
Knotted in the golden orb of the moment
The Eye opens, the Heart unlocks, the Navel yawns
& takes the World in its belly
~hag
~ ~ ~
Bartolomé Esteban Perez Murillo
St. John’s Tide starts on the fixed date of June 24, the birthday of John the Baptist
The name John is really a title, it represents the best of humanity, devoted to what is beyond the little self, alive to the revelation of the spirit brought by Christ. At the center of history, the summons of JB was to turn inward, & confront the lower self. St. John’s Day is a perfect time to re-assess & re-balance ourselves in this metanoia.
The Gospel of St. John the Evangelist emphasizes the divine spark in humanity & tells us that this divinity appeared in its supreme form as the Logos Himself.
The God who was buried in matter is born again in Jesus of Nazareth. And so it is for every individual human being – there is a mighty experience, which may be called the birth of the higher self – Just as the child is born of the mother, so too the divine Ego is born of the striving human being. Awakening to Initiation is possible, & when it is taken up, life as we know it takes on a new dimension.
When the human principle in Jesus of Nazareth had reached its highest development, & his body had become an expression of the spirit within him, he was ripe to receive the Christ in the Baptism by John. His body had unfolded its full power, as the radiant sun at midsummer.
This had been prophesied. The spirit was to be born out of the darkness, like the Sun which increases in power towards solstice, waxing strong until St. John’s day, & then begins to wane.
It was the Baptist’s mission to proclaim this: ‘He who was announced by the prophets of old, the Son of the spiritual realms, born of the spirit, behold, He hath appeared.’
John the Baptist was active up to this turning point of time. First, he lived a life of renunciation, then, preparing the way, thru baptism. And with the path made straight, the inner spirit-light could shine forth ever more brightly, reflecting the Christ light.
JB was able to behold the approach of Jesus of Nazareth, as the increase of the Sun, & say ‘I must decrease, as the Sun decreases after midsummer day.’ But The Christ as the spiritual Sun will increase, & ‘his Light will shine forth from out of the darkness.’
This is how the universal Ego of humanity is reborn, & the condition fulfilled for the rebirth of the individual higher self in every human being.
This is – the most vital event in the evolution of each individual human: the rebirth of the immortal being which can issue forth from the ordinary Ego. This is inseparable from the greatest of all events, the deed of Christ on Golgotha.
Until soon
Blessings and Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg
Join us for our St. John’s festival:
Sunday June 26th, 2pm -4pm at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP
He Must Increase but I Must Decrease– Exploring the Mysteries of Midsummer
with special guest Robert Karp, Co-Director of the Biodynamic Association.
How do we stand wakefully within the sublime mysteries of summer and St. John’s tide? Who is the mysterious archangel of Midsummer described by Rudolf Steiner and what is his relationship to John the Baptist? Can we trace his influence in modern culture, in modern America? What transformation does he seek to bring into our souls and into our communities?
These are some of the questions we will explore in this talk and, in a series of social-artistic exercises that will be incorporated into the talk.
***PLEASE BRING YOUR JOURNAL if you have one***
Hammer Dulcimer by Dr. Elaine Wagner
Rudolf Steiner’s Summer Mantra, Read by Elisabeth Swisher
Labyrinth Walk with ~hag
For more info. Contact Hazel ReverseRitual@gmail.com
