Monthly Archives: April 2016

Honest Abe/Why Reverse Ritual?

Insight, Lecture, Poetry, Quote, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul

Leonardo da Vinci inventions

TODAY on April 15th in 1452 Leonardo da Vinci was born. We hear of his former incarnations as Judas & as Augustine in GA 139

Raphael angel

It is the Feast Day of the Archangel Raphael

Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov died on this day in 1765. He was a Russian polymath, scientist & writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, & science. Among his discoveries was the atmosphere of Venus & the Law of Mass Conservation in chemical reactions. His spheres of science were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, art, philology, optical devices & others. Lomonosov was also a poet & influenced the formation of the modern Russian literary language.

Abraham Linocln faces

Abraham Lincoln was shot on this day in 1864, it was Good Friday.

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kari olson bird Kari Olson

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I’ve seen pain shed

Piled up like thin worn out husks –

Skin cast off at the door of the tomb

These burn up,

Their ashes fall & are carried

To the stream of unknowing

They form a slit in the river that grows food

A true life ended nourishes another

~hag

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goetheanum inner secret

Why Reverse Ritual? some thoughts by Hazel Archer Ginsberg (Part 1 of 7)

The Reverse Ritual has its origins in the realm of the highest, deepest & most comprehensive world reality in which the human being, the gods, & the cosmos existentially live, weave, & are present.

For the human being the experience of the highest divine unity is threefold. It is not just a passive thinking, feeling & willing – it is an active, creative, co-thinking, co-feeling, & co-willing with the Godhead.

The body of the Reverse Ritual consists of human thoughts, words & deeds that are ever striving to grasp & further spiritual knowledge, vis-à-vis a cosmic-artistic enlivening, creating paths in the eternal being of the human soul.

Ritual itself can be structured in an archetypal process that has come to us from the ancient mystery schools. We can understand these in phases, styled as:

  1. parts of a whole,
  2. as sequential stages,
  3. & also as simultaneous activities in which the other activities are always present & active.

The Ritual process changes as human evolution does. We see this change enacted as the ‘New Sacrament’ by the Christ Being himself at the Last Supper:

  1. Revelation
  2. Offering
  3. Transubstantiation
  4. Communion

And when Rudolf Steiner re-founded the ‘New Mysteries’ through Anthroposophia,  he laid the foundation for a new ritual, which he called the “Reverse Ritual”. Steiner also referred to it as: the “Ritual of Knowledge”, the “Spiritual Communion of Humanity”, the “Cosmic Communion”, the “World Ritual”, &”the “Cosmic Ritual”.

And as you can see below, it is a reversal of the Sacramental Ritual:

  1. Communion as pure thinking – “Spiritual Knowledge is a real communion, the beginning of a cosmic ritual that is suitable for human beings today” *1. We rise in our thinking to meet the spiritual world behind sense perception.
  2. Transubstantiation or Transformation, from matter to spirit
  3. Offering a meeting Ego to Ego “That good can become”
  4. Revelation of destiny unfolding as “Christ in Me”

I will elaborate more tomorrow.

Read the whole essay here Why Reverse Ritual?

Until soon

Blessings & Peace –

~hag = Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

Mani/Make Way for the New

Insight, Poetry

ManiMani

Mani born April 14, 215 AD. Rudolf Steiner tells us that a great spiritual conference took place, a few centuries after Christ, between the 3 Initiates, Zarathustra, Buddha & Skythianos, under the leadership of a still greater one – the inspiration of Mani – which led to the founding of the Rosicrucian Mysteries. The East in the Light of the West

Death Day of: composer G.F. Handel 1759, & Karl Werner 1888  biographer of St. Thomas Aquinas

On this day in 1912 the Titanic sank

ita wegman garden

TODAY in 1935 Ita Wegman, Elizabeth Vreede & other members were expelled from the General Anthroposophical Society.

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flowersofsparing

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~The mist has one last dance

In the slanting rays of the sun rise

The birds proclaim the resurrection

The tender tendrils tease

The daffodils, the hyacinth

Scent the dew

The porch is swept

The old wood waits to burn

Make way for the new

~hag

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dnarainbow

Tomorrow I will begin a 7 part series, offering up thoughts on Why Reverse Ritual?

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Until Soon

Blessings & peace –

~hag = Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

I Am/Synopsis

Insight, Lecture, Quote, Rudolf Steiner Quote

star man Kari Olson Kari Olson

POD (Poem Of the Day)

 Today I am:

Rising with that star over there

See how I hang by a thread

Amidst skyscrapers & thunder clouds

Pronouncing a nameless constellation

I coast into creation

To contemplate the flower

For a season in time.

TODAY WHAT ARE YOU?

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earth marc-chagall-the-creation-1960Marc Chagall

Synopsis:

This is the last of the 12 part series. To read the entire lecture click- Encountering the Inner Layers of the Earth as a Rosicrucian Christian Initiation, in relation to the Beatitudes and the 9 fold human being.

  1. The Washing of the Feet – a preparatory exercise in morality. The higher is a product of the lower. The Christ could not accomplish His deed without being in the center of the 12.

            Physical body

            1st layer –The Mineral Earth – known science, Thin allows volcanic eruptions Mt.                      Vesuvius April 6, 1906

           1st Beatitude – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of                          Heaven”

         “Blessed are they who are beggars for the spirit, for if they develop their Ego                      ruled outer bodies in the right way, they will find within themselves the                              kingdom of heaven.” RS (this is a prefiguring of stage #8)

A vision of this scene from the life of Christ

  1. The Scourging – Endure suffering, Courage & equanimity. Intensification in the life of feeling. A Love of life. Sympathy with all living beings & the whole of Nature

           Etheric Body

           2nd layer – The Fluid Earth – dimly sentient, dissolves life

          2nd Beatitude – “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

         “Blessed or God-filled are they who do not banish sorrow, but who endure it,                     developing the power of Ego whereby they can find the Paraclete or Holy Spirit                who reveals itself thru the ego”  RS (a prefiguring of stage #9)

To see, in lucid dream, the scene of the Scourging; as compassion deepens, to see                     ourselves in the Christ Who is scourged.

  1. The Crowning with Thorns — abstain from anger. Detachment. The power to separate & re-unite thinking, feeling, willing produces a brain change

           Astral Body purify to drive Lucifer out

            3rd layer – The Vapor or Air Earth – cancerous urges “Life present at every point”.                     inverted feeling

           3rd Beatitude – “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

          “Those who can curb their astral body, who are so strong that they cannot be                     moved to anger without the consent of their Ego, who are even-tempered and                 inwardly strong enough to overcome the astral body, will fulfill the purpose of                 earthly evolution.” RS

Meet the Guardian of the Threshold. 

  1. The Bearing of the Cross – to carry ‘the world in one’s conscience.’ Bear the body with dignity like an external object, as Christ bore His Cross. Live into every being. Identify with the Spirit of the Earth. End of feeling separate. Brotherly Love.

           The Sentient Soul – The Spirit must wield the body as the hand wields the hammer.

           4th layer – The Water or Form Earth – negative space

           4th Beatitude: “Blessed are they that hunger & thirst after righteousness, for                     they shall be filled.”

The Ego must work to spiritualize the Sentient Soul enabling us to feel the                                    outpouring of brotherly love as righteousness; a longing similar to what we                                previously experienced unconsciously as the longing we call hunger and thirst.”                        We must thirst for the things of the soul.

            “Blessed are they who, through the Christ-Impulse, learn to hunger and thirst                  after righteousness; for they will find a strong force in their inner being                                whereby, because they are working for the righteousness of the world, they                      shall find within themselves the satisfaction of this quality.” RS

The stigmata may appear

  1. The Mystic Death – to consciously cross the threshold – Lose all to gain all – senses are illusion. We appear to die to ourselves & it is in the world around us that we begin to live again. We pour our life out into our surroundings & it flows back to us again, ever enriched.

           Intellectual soul- Develop virtues which go from like to like.  Subject & predicate                  are equal, as in the

          5th Beatitude “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy”.

        “Blessed or God-filled are they who develop love; for as they radiate forth love,               it will return to  them again.” RS

          5th layer – The Fruit Earth – Life in its most original state before death came  to earth,             must be contained Teeming, out of control. Like a virus.

          Without the transformation of the Mystic Death there would be no mercy. 

  1. The Entombment, – The Descent or Hallowing of Hell – Only by experiencing the descent can we ascend.

Freed from the body, become one with the earth. Being one with the earth, find life                 again within the cosmos. Being united with the all, bring the all up from the depths,               in the depths find the Father God.

            Consciousness soul – Can perceive that drop of the divine entombed within the                        heart, shining in the blood Changes the constitution of our blood.

            The tomb  becomes an altar.

           6th layer –  Fire Earth – able to feel pleasure and pain, composed of unresolved will              forces. The more human passions increase, the more restless it becomes. It fights                    back -causing earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. These ended Lemuria. “When                    human will is evil and chaotic it acts magnetically on this layer and disrupts it. When              the human will is free from egotism, it is able to appease this fire.” 

          6th Beatitude – “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

          “Blessed are they, who are pure in blood and heart, the expression of the Ego,                  who allow nothing to enter there but the pure Ego-nature; for they will                                recognize God therein!” RS

  1. The Resurrection – Consequence of the journey into hell, achieved through sacrifice- The power of healing. Achieved through sacrifice.

           Spirit-Self – consciously able to bring into the world the spirit from the Spiritual                      Realms

          7th layer -The Earth Mirror or Mirror Earth – Reversed morality; like a prism which                   decomposes everything reflected in it, bringing to expression its polar counterpart. It             is up to human beings to transform the forces of this layer into moral healing forces.

          7th Beatitude: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children           of God”.

         “Blessed are they who bring peace — or harmony into the world; for they shall be            the sons of God!”  RS

  1. Ascension – Includes the 40 days of teaching leading up to it. Connects phantom body & Etheric body

           8th Beatitude: “Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for            theirs is the kingdom of Heaven”.

         “Blessed are they who stand under the new order, who stand under Christ and                  who suffer persecution from that which remains over from the old order!”  RS

           Beware Superiority

To stand firm, when past influences seek to destroy, to be steadfast in regards the 8th            layer – The Splinterer or Fragmenter. “Everything evil is prepared, organized &                          brought into the world from here. The seat of all disharmony, immorality & unrest.                  Everything there strives against the other; it is the opposite of love.”

In opposition to Life-Spirit Replacing immorality with love calms this zone down.

Work together in harmony opens the way for Wisdom.

  1. Whitsun or Pentecost –Uniting with the Sophia – The Isis or Wisdom of Christ

          Spirit-Man- purified physical body – transforming space so the new impulse can                   descend.

        9th layer– The Earth Core – black magic sowing hate – Relates to the functions of the          human brain and the forces of  the human and animal reproduction.

Home of the ‘Earth Brain’ – Here too lurks the sun demon, the anti-Christ, Sorath.

        9th Beatitude “Blessed are you when men shall revile you, and persecute you,                 and shall say all  manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be             exceeding glad, for great is your  reward in Heaven.”

       ‘Blessed are you, who are especially called to carry the Name of Christ out into the         world!’ RS

Spiritualized Love

        This is Spirit-Man in the making – The Resurrection body of Christ won by                             humanity.

  1. The ‘New Jerusalem’ the Earth as a Sun. Shambhalla.

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Research Resources:

 With Special thanks to Dr. Rudolf Steiner, Adolph Arenson, & Edward Schuldt for his compiled excerpts: Regarding the Interior of the Earth, Regarding the Beatitudes

‘The Sermon on the Mount in The Christ-Impulse and the development of Ego-Consciousness (GA 116) RS

Buddha & Christ in Metamorphoses of the Soul (GA 58) RS

The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric (GA 118) The Gospel of St. Matthew (GA 123) RS

The Interior of the Earth and Volcanic Eruptions (GA 96) RS

The Interior of the Earth in The Christian Mystery (GA 97) RS

Cosmogony lecture 16 (GA 94)

Popular Occultism lecture 14 RS

Rosicrucian Training- The Interior of the Earth – (GA95) RS

The Festivals & their Meanings – RS

The Foundation Stone Meditation -Rs

http://www.rsarchive.org/RelAuthors/ArensonA/InterioroftheEarth.php

http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/PlanSphere/19220424p02.html

The Birth of a New Agriculture: Koberwitz 1924 and the Introduction of biodynamic -Adalbert Grof Von Keyserlingk http://books.google.com.au/books?id=IhKwMKcExV8C&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17&dq=Christ+enters+the+interior+of+the+earth+Rudolf+steiner&source=bl&ots=swMfWoc3vt&sig=TIfrs6LvcYHQSItK0Ae5cHow8yk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=iyZpVN63EcevmAW4qIGoBg&ved=0CE8Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=Christ%20enters%20the%20interior%20of%20the%20earth%20Rudolf%20steiner&f=false

http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA254/English/RSP1973/19151018p01.html

http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA223/English/AP1984/19230331p01.html

http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA094/English/SGP1978/EsoCos_index.html

http://www.crystalwind.ca/mystica/legends-fables-and-lore/shambala/448-the-legend-of-shambhala-shangri-la

Shamballa/The New Jerusalem

Insight, Lecture, Quote, Remembering

leadingthought_covs

April 12, 1925 was the last Leading thought given by Rudolf Steiner

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Goldencirclewithgoldenpyramidinside

The Road to Shamballa | music by Three Dog Night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnyh6i9NvmE

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7th-seal-drawn-by-steiner

The 10th Stage: (Part 11 of the 12 part series) Encountering the Inner Layers of the Earth as a Rosicrucian/Christian Initiation, in relation to the Beatitudes and the 9-fold human being.

10 is the number of completion. We then begin a new sequence. Humanity having achieved the initiation as a 9-fold being, works on as the 10th Hierarchy, to co-create the building of the ‘New Jerusalem’ – Shambhalla – the Earth as a Sun. It is for this that we strive.

Here is where I ended my lecture on Easter 2016.

For today’s offering, I have decided to include below my undigested notes on this theme, which deserves its own lecture.

“The growth of the New Jerusalem has been ongoing since the Mystery of Golgotha. When the human being has entirely fulfilled his time on earth he will have reached the stage in which he not only weaves the heavenly substance into his own body through his senses, but in which he extends the heavenly substance through what we call spiritual knowledge and art into what will be the external city. The Old Jerusalem was built from below upwards; the New Jerusalem will be built in all reality from above downwards”. ~From The Book of Revelation, by Rudolf Steiner, Lecture 9, Dornach, 13 September 1924

Some thoughts from lecture 12 of The Apocalypse of St. John By Rudolf Steiner

It is only possible for humanity to reach freedom & love through the descent of evil into the abyss.

The clairvoyant Jupiter-human will live consciously under moral conditions. The astral body already transformed through the ego will be capable of working into the etheric body. This is possible thru the Christ-being. Only later will humanity, with the aid of the Father, be able to work into the physical body.

The “first death” is the laying aside of the very last physical body. Humanity then goes on living in the spiritualized earth with all that has been brought into the etheric body with the aid of Christ. They live in harmony with the Christ-principle.

The etheric body of those who have rejected it will be adapted to the physical body & will live in disharmony & burning desire. Those who have thrust away the forces which the Jupiter-consciousness can give them, will remain behind, sunk down below. It is the corrupted intelligence that falls prey to the beast; therefore the number of the beast is the number of humanity. The Sorat-principle originating from other world-ages, must satisfy itself with these materialists who have hardened into matter on the earth. These will be the hosts of Sorat.

But it will still be possible to convert a certain number. Not till the Venus-incarnation does the final decision come.

In the further spiritualizing of the earth there will no longer be etheric bodies. Those who have received Christ will cast them off without trouble; the others will feel it as a “second death”.

“…This is the plan which is called the New Jerusalem. They live in a new heaven and a new earth, that is, Jupiter. This new Jupiter will be accompanied by a satellite, composed of those who are excluded from the life in the spiritual, who have experienced the second death and are, therefore, unable to attain the Jupiter consciousness”.

Those who have reached the true goal on earth, sketch out the plan for the Jupiter-evolution: the New Jerusalem.

The regularity of the New Jerusalem is pictured in the cube of the 7th Seal.

7th apocalyptic sealfrom a sketch by Rudolf Steiner

In Chicago we were fortunate to have Christian Community priest Richard Dancey, who is an amazing storyteller, bring us the Legend of Shambhala over the years. It is a long & winding tale, which I could never hope to bring in this format. But it is so interesting that I thought I would share a few words about the origins of this myth:

Shambhala =”the golden place of peace/tranquility/happiness/just-so”.

In Tibetan Buddhist & Hindu traditions, Shambhala is a mythical kingdom hidden in the interior of the Earth.

Hindu texts such as the Vishnu Purana mention Shambhala as the birthplace of Kalki, the final incarnation of Vishnu who will usher in a new Golden Age – Satya Yuga.

The Kalachakra, a Buddhist text, prophesies that when the world declines into war & greed, & all seems lost, the 25th Kalki king, Lord Maitreya, will emerge from Shambhala with a huge army to vanquish “Dark Forces” & usher in a worldwide Golden Age. (Some scholars put this date at 2424 AD)

The legends, teachings & restorative practices associated with Shambhala are older than any of these organized religions.

Shambhala may very well have been an indigenous belief system, of ‘sun worshipers’ yet to come, with amazing healing abilities, wisdom & long life.

The idea of Shambhala is said to have “outer”, “inner”, &”alternative” meanings. As the 14th Dalai Lama noted during his 1985 Kalachakra initiation, Shambhala is not an ordinary place: “Although those with special affiliation may actually be able to go there through their karmic connection, nevertheless it is not a physical place that we can actually find. We can only say that it is a pure land, a pure land in the human realm. And unless one has the merit & the actual karmic association, one cannot actually arrive there”.

During the late-19th century, HP Blavatsky co-founder of the Theosophical Society, alluded to the Shambhala myth, giving it currency for Western occult enthusiasts. Madame Blavatsky, who claimed to be in contact with a Great White Lodge of Himalayan Adepts, mentions it in several places.

Later esoteric writers further emphasized & elaborated on the concept of a secret land inhabited by a hidden mystic brotherhood whose members labor for the good of humanity.

Alice A. Bailey claims ‘Shamballa is an extra-dimensional or spiritual reality on the etheric plane, a spiritual centre where the governing deity of Earth, Sanat Kumara, dwells as the highest Avatar of the Planetary Logos of Earth, and is said to be an expression of the Will of God’.

Nicholas and Helena Roerich led a 1924-1928 expedition aimed at Shambhala.

Nicholas roerichs_treasureNicholas Roerich 

French Buddhist Alexandra David-Néel associated Shambhala with Balkh in present day Afghanistan, also offering the Persian Sham-i-Bala, “elevated candle” as an etymology of its name.

In a similar vein, the Gurdjieffian J. G. Bennett published speculation that Shambalha was Shams-i-Balkh, a Bactrian sun temple.

“…The more insight men achieve, the greater and mightier will Christ appear to them to be! When once their gaze can penetrate into Shamballa, they will be able to understand much of what is indeed contained in the Gospels but for the recognition of which they will need to experience a kind of event of Damascus. Thus at the time when men are more sceptical of the original records than they have ever been, the new form of belief in Christ Jesus will arise when we grow into the realm where He will first be encountered: the mysterious land of Shamballa”. ~from The Second Coming of Christ in the Etheric World, lecture 2, by Rudolf Steiner

Tomorrow, dear friends I will offer up a synopsis of Encountering the Inner Layers of the Earth as a Rosicrucian/Christian Initiation, in relation to the Beatitudes and the 9-fold human being for easy study; including a list of all my research resources.

Until Soon

Blessings & peace –

~hag = Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

Leo meets Attila/Rose-Well/9th stage

Insight, Lecture, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul

leo-the-great-attila

TODAY is the Feast day of Leo the Great, Pope who convinced Attila the Hun to withdraw from Italy in 452 AD.

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Rose-Cross-3-by-Laura-SummerLaura Summer

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Digging to dis-cover

The root of the rose

Only to reach

The well

~hag

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Wisdom!!! Jake BaddeleyJake Baddeley

The 9th Stage: (Part 10 of the 12 part series) Encountering the Inner Layers of the Earth as a Rosicrucian/Christian Initiation, in relation to the Beatitudes and the 9-fold human being.

And so it is that 10 days after Ascension we come to: Whitsun or Pentecost, which correlates to the 9th stage in the Rosicrucian/Christian Initiation. I think of it as a Uniting with The Sophia – The Isis or Wisdom of Christ.

Of course this theme, which is of special interest to me, another focus of my spiritual scientific research, deserves its own series of lectures, but for now it will suffice to say: The Cosmic Being of the Sophia belongs to the Highest Heavenly realms. In relation to the earth, we can see this Divine Being connected to the sphere of the Sun as a star. Her highest member connected with humanity is at the level of The Spirits of Wisdom, her lowest member is the being of Anthroposophia.

In the past Lucifer had slain her, the task of the initiate is to re-member her, bringing Wisdom into the purified soul of humanity.

Without the marriage of Wisdom & Love, we cannot hope to understand & live into the Love that Christ brings.

In our time the Being of Anthroposophia working as the youngest member of the Cosmic Sophia is responsible for the path that leads to free thinking, loosened from the physical brain in anticipation of the age of Spirit Man. She is therefore leading humanity in the modern path of initiation, with the help of the cosmic intelligence of Michael, to unite us with the Love of Christ, which has been made available to human beings through the work of Christian Rosenkreutz & Rudolf Steiner.

In the stage of Spirit Man, the purified physical body – receives the substance of Atma & is able to truly live within its ideals.

The 9th layer is in opposition to Spirit-Man. Steiner called it “the last carapace of the Earth‘s immaterial Core,” & spoke of a relationship between this realm and the functions of the human brain and the forces of human and animal reproduction.  The spirit of the planet lives here; what Steiner called the ‘Earth Brain’ in his Mystery Dramas.

But here too lurks the sun demon, the being of the anti-Christ, Sorath.

When Christ, the “I” bringer, penetrated this primal point, redeeming the lost souls of the dead, the Resurrection took place, 1st at the gates of hell. With the Resurrection at dawn on Easter Sunday, what was preserved at the earth’s core from the Saturn condition, the archetype of the physical body, was renewed, & from the grave of the earth rose the ‘New Adam’ – the Resurrection body of Christ, which waits to be drawn towards humanity for “The New Jerusalem”. Here at the core, a golden sun is pulsing – the origin of the legend of Shambhalla.

To this Sorath, the “I” destroyer, and his minions the Asuras, work to oppose. The substance of this 9th realm, seeking to destroy this golden future, is the epitome of black magic, sowing hate, discord & separation. Here is where Dante put Cain, the brother killer.

Only the might of spiritualized love united with purified Wisdom, held by the most sublime initiate, can transform all that is physical, even the body of the earth herself.

The 9th Beatitude cautions us that to achieve such greatness we must face much resistance:  “Blessed are you when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in Heaven.”  

Rudolf Steiner encourages us with: “Blessed are you, who are especially called to carry the Name of Christ out into the world!”

This is the 9-fold human being – Spirit-Man in the making.

Until soon

Blessings & Peace –

~hag = Hazel Archer Ginsberg