5 January 2017 – Astro-Weather: First-quarter Moon (exact at 1:47 pm CST). Our satellite rises in the east around noon but doesn’t become prominent until the Sun sets around 5 pm, by 6 pm it appears in the south nearly two-thirds of the way to the zenith. The Moon’s half-lit orb then lies among the background stars of southern Pisces. This evening, look to the upper right of the Moon for the Great Square of Pegasus. A diagonal through two corners of the Square points toward the Moon.
Orion is now well up in the east-southeast after nightfall, with his three-star Belt nearly vertical. The Belt points up toward Aldebaran & even higher, the Pleiades. In the other direction, it points down to where bright Sirius rises to twinkle furiously around 7 pm CST.
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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
TODAY – According to the original Calendar of the Soul:
The Eve of Epiphany
137 – Deathday of Pope Telesphorus, traditionally considered as being the 7th Roman bishop in succession after Saint Peter. In ancient Greek myth, Telesphorus was a son of Asclepius. He frequently accompanied his sister, Hygieia. He was a dwarf whose head was always covered with a cowl hood or cap. He symbolized recovery from illness, as his name means “the accomplisher” or “bringer of completion” in Greek. Representations of him are found mainly in Anatolia & along the Danube. Telesphorus is thought to have been a Celtic god in origin.
Feast day of Saint Simeon Stylites (the Greek word style means pillar) a Syriac ascetic saint who achieved fame for living 47 years on a small platform on top of a pillar near Aleppo (in modern Syria)
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12th Holy Night: January 5-6, 2017 Epiphany, ‘Three Kings’ –Constellation of Aries, Ram (ruling the head) The Sphere of the Mystic Lamb
Our journey, taking us on the path from Jesus to Christ, is a divine archetype that every human being may follow thru the 12 regions of the Zodiac – & beyond, into the compass of the Holy Spirit & now on the Eve of Epiphany, we get a glimpse into the sphere of the Mystic Lamb.
This last & highest region – Aries the Ram, is ‘at the head’ of the whole zodiac circle of ‘Adam-Kadmon’ – the Alpha to Omega Archetype of Humanity –from which the Christ descended – passing thru each sign – each Angelic realm – into the Spirit & Soul of the Sun, for the pre-earthly deeds.
It is no coincidence that the sphere of the Mystic lamb in Aries stood in the heavens at the exact time of the Baptism, when the Christ being was ‘born’ into the Sun-Soul/body of the Nathan Jesus, in order to perform, 3 years later, His 4th & most important deed on the hill at Golgotha. In John 1:35-36, the Baptist says: “Look, there is the Lamb of God”. With these words we hear a testimony of the cosmic connection of Christ with the heavenly region of the Ram, thru which Christ entered our cosmos from the realms beyond the zodiac. It is thru this portal outside of The Trinity, related to more than our cosmos alone, that the ‘Voice from Heaven’ speaks at the baptism: “This is my Beloved Son, today I have begotten Him” or as Matthew 3:17 tells it: “As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. Suddenly the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on Him. 17And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!”
From the Aries constellation flows the source of Christ’s spiritual influence in the cosmos which then spreads its emanations towards the 1st 7 ‘light or ascended’ zodiac signs, which goes down to the region of the Scales. This may be called the body of the Mystic Lamb. And from Virgo to Pisces we have the body of the Divine Sophia. The overlapping center where they meet is where the ‘Mystic or alchemical Marriage’ takes place, an initiatory process in the New Mysteries open to humanity now. (Remember: the 13 Hidden Holy Night is New Year’s Eve, the center between the above & below, where we see the Sun at Midnight)
Those initiated in the ancient Jewish rites had an inkling of the connection between, what they called the ‘Messiah’ & the region of the Ram. This is seen in the practice of sacrificing lambs for the ‘sins of Israel’. The Passover was a pre-figuring of The Christ, the new ‘Sacrificial Lamb’ – destined to be led to the slaughter for ‘the sins of the world’. This sacrifice was the medicine redeeming humanity from the fall, & ending the need for blood sacrifice.
John the Baptist was a leading initiate of the Jewish mysteries. In his earliest incarnation as ‘Adam’ – he was the 1st man to take up a physical existence on earth. Because of this he was given the task of baptizing people in preparation for the descent of Christ -the 1st God to enter physical existence on earth. His task was to sort the Lambs – those ready for the new initiation, from those unfit in that life. And Eve had the task of giving birth to the Matthew Jesus.
Christ-Jesus became the new archetype of the human being, which had fallen into disarray through ‘the fall of Adam’- The human body was intended in the beginning to be more spiritual, but instead, it entered more deeply into materiality then what was intended by the gods. But thru the Resurrection, we can achieve the rise of Adam-Kadmon – the perfected human being – in times to come. It is for this reason that John the Baptist says that he (as the old Adam) must decrease, while Christ (the new Adam) must increase.
Later after John the Baptist dies, his spirit is able to unite with Lazarus/John during his initiation by Christ into the New Mysteries – so that Lazarus becomes John the Divine. In the Book of the Apocalypse he reveals the connection of Christ with the Sphere of the Mystic Lamb, in his description of the Heavenly Lamb who guards the Book of Seven Seals.
And so, thru our journey of Jesus to Christ we see the earthly reflection in the 13 Holy Nights between the festivals of Christmas to Epiphany, of our human evolution back to the Godhead. And at Epiphany, the festival of the Birth of Christ into the earthly body of humanity in the man Jesus, we get an insight into the journey that a god took to become human. For at the moment of the Baptism, the highest Trinity is reflected in the depths of earthly existence: the Holy Spirit as the Dove (Bull), the Son-Principle as the Lamb (Ram) & the Father-principle as the Voice from the Heavens – from those realms where human imagination has yet to penetrate. But it is from there, from the bosom of the Father/Mother, that Christ descended into our cosmos. There He worked from the sphere of the Sun, as the 13th in the circle of the 12 – the Divine Spirit of our solar system; & then at the Baptism He descends from the Sun to the Earth, in order that the Earth may become a Sun.
It is ‘The Great Work’ of Being Human, to Become, each of us, a Sun – Recognizing & acknowledging this spark of Divinity in everyone we meet – supporting & adding to this light – to do as my friend Teddy Mowrey resolves: “…Improve my awareness of the Christ in me, bringing it consciously into recognition of the Christ in others. The Christ in me responds to the Christ in you”.
Let us gleam in 2017
Virtue: Devotion becomes the power of sacrifice