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Greetings Friends – I confess, I am an early riser. I wake up around 4:30 am every morning, & pay attention to what lingers from night school. We know that especially during the 13 Holy Nights our dreams & impressions especially in that hypnogogic state between waking & sleeping are particularly potent. And today  I woke up with this quote from Meister Eckhart in my mind: “We are all meant to be mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born.” Hmmm such a blessing to ponder.

Then I get an email about the Greek Old testament Book of Wisdom (7: 11-12) with this quote:   In her coming all good things came to me,
and of her hands riches not to be numbered.
All these I delighted in, since Sophia brings them,
but as yet I did not know She was their mother.

Getting to work I discover that TODAY – According to Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul, is the birthday of Enoch – Descendant of Cain, who came up in relation to the feast day of his brother Abel yesterday. In addition to an appearance in the Book of Genesis, Enoch is the subject of many Jewish & Christian writings. Enoch was the son of Jared (Genesis 5:19–21), the father of Methuselah, & the great-grandfather of Noah. The Bible says that Enoch lived 365 years before he was taken up by God. The text reads that Enoch “walked with God: and he was no more; for God took him” (Gen 5:21–24)

He was called ‘Enoch the scribe of judgment’, & was considered the author of the Book of Enoch, which recounts how he was taken up to Heaven & was appointed guardian of all the celestial treasures – chief of the archangels, & the immediate attendant of God’s Throne, where he was taught all the secret mysteries &, with the angels at his back, fulfills of his own accord whatever comes out of the mouth of God.

Various esoteric writings identify Enoch as Metatron, the archangel which communicates God’s word. Enoch was seen, by this literature, & the kabbala of Jewish mysticism, as having been the one which communicated God’s revelation to Moses, in particular. An interesting thing to contemplate in these pre-dawn hours.

Today is also said to be the feast day of the prophet Daniel – whose Hebrew name means: “God is my Judge“- He was the bible hero who interprets dreams & receives apocalyptic visions. The Book of Daniel begins with an introduction telling how Daniel & his companions came to be in Babylon. Then it gives a set of tales set in the Babylonian & Persian courts, followed by a set of visions in which Daniel sees the remote future of the world.

Maybe you remember the famous story of how Daniel & his 3 friends Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego were among the young Jewish nobility carried off to Babylon following the city’s capture by Nebuchadnezzar. The four are chosen for their intellect & beauty to be trained in the Babylonian court.

But Daniel & his friends refuse to eat the non-kosher food & this is seen as an affront to the king, so they were thrown into a lion’s den & then a fiery furnace. I grew up with that tale. I think there was a bible song around this theme. ‘God sent an angel to the lion’s den & he shut the lion’s mouth’. I forgot the part about the fiery furnace, but anyway, you get the idea. It is quite a powerful imagination especially for a kid.

Today, dear friends it is also the Feast day of Caspar, no not the friendly ghost – the youngest of the Magi, King of Tarsus. His gift was myrrh, which is used in making medicines. This symbolizes The Christ as healer & great physician.

And for those who have been living into the 13 Holy Nights, Tonight is 10th Holy Night ruled by the Constellation of Gemini, the Twins (out-pictured in the human body in the lungs, arms, & shoulders) This is the Sphere of the Seraphim, the Spirits of Love. We are up there folks, the top of the 1^st & highest hierarchy.

The ceaseless yearning of the Seraphim for the sphere of the Holy Spirit above them brings the impetus of Universal Love, which begets the will to sacrifice. An earthly reflection of this macrocosmic impulse of love can be seen in the ancient Greek myth of the Twin Brothers Castor & Pollux – where the immortal twin is willing to sacrifice himself for his brother.

In the Christian era, after the Christ-Impulse enters into earthly evolution, love truly becomes universal, going beyond the love founded on blood-ties. In John 15: 12-14 we hear: ‘Love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do this the highest commandment.’

The Spiritual Love that Christ arouses, is the fulfilment of the fundamental principle of all true Christian Mysteries – ‘Not me but Christ in me’. We see this Universal Love in the being of the Nathan Soul, living in the Jesus of the Luke Gospel, who sacrificed himself 4 times in the pre-earthly deeds, & then to become the vessel of Christ.

We see it in the Mary of the Luke Gospel, who united with the Mary of the Matthew Gospel, allowing the Divine Sophia to enter the earthly realm.

We see it in the willing of Zarathustra, who incarnated as the Jesus of the Matthew Gospel, & sacrificed himself to allow the Christ to descend at the Baptism. In ancient Persia, during the last age of Gemini, Zarathustra was a great Magi, able to foretell the coming of Christ, who he saw as Ahura Mazdao. This vision gave him the impulse to sacrifice himself in his coming lives in order to prepare for it. Since ‘The turning point of time’, the individuality of Zarathustra has incarnated again & again as ‘Master Jesus’ –  & is one of the circle of 12 Bodhisattvas who inspire humanity towards developing this selfless Universal Love.

In the next age after where we are now, in the 6 cultural epoch we will see a recapitulation of the age of Gemini on a higher level. It will be a time that stands under the signature of the Wedding at Cana, where those who unite in the Spirit of Christ will feel good-will towards one another even though they are not blood-relations.

Finally at the end of earth evolution, this sacrificial love will have created a new Cosmos, a universe of love engendered by Human Beings as the 10th hierarchy of Freedom & Love. Christ Himself shows us the way, He put this Love into practice, by descending from the Trinity beyond the Zodiac, into earthly evolution, to unite Himself for all times with humanity, becoming the ultimate example by fulfilling the deed on Golgotha. Christ Himself-a God, lay down his life, to die an earthly death so that we can overcome death.

John, the disciple that Jesus loved most, a direct witness to all the events that he describes in his Gospel, knows this love thru his initiation as Lazarus. He proclaims this in the famous passage of John 3:16 – 18: ‘By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers & sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a friend in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children in Christ, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth’.

And so we see how all impulses concerning community, & the social life, all striving towards joining together on the basis of mutual love & genuine interest in one another, arise from the region of Gemini.

Also Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘From fixed star to fixed star, a reciprocal conversation holds sway. Through this conversation the cosmos comes into being. Whatever the planetary systems speak about with one another across the widths of space in order to become a cosmos is regulated by those Spirits that we call the Seraphim’.

What would it look like to bring this Cosmic Universal Love, consciously into our world today? To resolve for this New Year, & very year, to open our thinking-hearts, with the intention of enacting an unconditional Love which is capable of uniting people – to become kindred-souls, with those who are willing to walk the talk, & join together in communion with the Spirits of Love, who yearn for us to join the cosmic conversation …?!? We are all Twin-Souls United in Christ when we practice the Virtue: Perseverance becomes faithfulness.

As we persist in developing the ability to be depended upon, faithfulness ripens. We must persevere even when we can’t see any outward progress – When we insist on striving toward self-development, in service of our true destiny, which is an  honoring  of the Divine Will, not our own personal desire – The Gemini Meditation tells us “I recognize my other self and in the waning of that self, I grow.” With this resolution to cultivate a universal love we can build a sustainable world-reality. See you in the striving, until soon, Blessings dear ones & peace.

~hag

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

‘Calendar of the Soul’ by Rudolf Steiner, translated by Roy Sadler

v39
New Year
Completely open to the spirit
I win the light the being of the world bestows;
thought’s clearness grows
to give me who I am
and waking in me
from thinking’s power
my sense of Self springs free.
v40
Epiphany
And when I am in spirit’s depths
in ground of soul
my own dry well of self-illusion fills
with power of the World Word’s fire
the heart-formed love world wills.

A QUEST FOR AN EPIPHANY VISION
The spirit seeks our words… Maybe in a park,
or in the woods, listen… Nature’s speaking…
Reach out, find the Earth’s symphonic being:
listen to the water’s falling music
where the winter’s torrent seeks the spring.
Find the New Year’s syncopated rhythm
of life — in life’s continuous pattern
reforming. Form the music in your heart.
Nature needs our witness, our quickening
with her quickening, accompanying
the roots’ attendance by the moving pool.
Nature waits for eye and ear. Appearance
waits. Go, find through all your senses’ presence
an epiphany in Sophia’s school.

***

Nancy Poer Wednesday 6 January 2021, 2 pm – 4 pm CST Joan’s Epiphany ‘What Joan of Arc Calls for Today’ In-Person at Elderberries Bio-dynamic Outpost & The Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249-51 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago or Online Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/7052931041  Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 Today on the Birthday of Joan of Arc we Welcome Special Guest Nancy Poer Social Sculpture: “The Passage” with Lucien Dante Lazar, + An Artistic exploration  We will also explore ‘The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations’, Lecture 5, ‘The Nature of the Christ Impulse and the Michaelic Sprit Serving It’ by Rudolf Steiner, with Leading Thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg Group Eurythmy with Mary Ruud Dear friends please consider making a good will donation to The Rudolf Steiner Branch, our HVAC got destroyed in the Tornado http://donate.rschicago.org/For more info. contact hag@rschicago.org Blessings of the Season ~Hazel Archer-Ginsberg Events & Festival Coordinator for the Rudolf Steiner Branch  of The Anthroposophical Society