May 19, 2016 “History is a cyclic poem written by Time upon the memories of man”. ~Percy Bysshe Shelley

1643 – Thirty Years’ War: French forces defeat Spanish forces at the Battle of Rocroi, marking the symbolic end of Spain as a dominant land power.

1792 – Birthday of Johann Gottlieb Fichte, the philosopher of the ”I”. Rudolf Steiner reveals a past life as Spinoza in GA 158

1895 – Birthday of Emil Bock, a German anthroposophist, author, theologian & one of the founders of The Christian Community.

In 1914 he began a study of languages at the University of Bonn. However, the same year he enlisted in the First World War & was sent to the front in Flanders, where he was wounded. In 1916, he met for the first time the theologian Friedrich Rittelmeyer, & from 1918 he studied Protestant theology in Berlin, & graduated in 1921. That same year he was one of the founders of the Christian Community in Switzerland. Bock soon became the leader of the seminary of the Christian Community, & after the death of Friedrich Rittelmeyer, he became the leader of the community in 1938.

In 1941, the Nazi regime banned the Christian Community due to its alleged “Jewish” & “Masonic” influence, & Bock was sent to a concentration camp. He was released from the concentration camp in 1942, but was under surveillance for the rest of the war. Yet, Bock was instrumental in the rebuilding of the community.

1898 – Death-day of William Ewart Gladstone a British Liberal politician. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times, more than any other person, & served as Chancellor of the Exchequer four times. Gladstone was also Britain’s oldest Prime Minister; he resigned for the final time when he was 84 years old. According to Alfred Meebold, a personal student of Rudolf Steiner, Gladstone was Cicero.

1921 – The United States Congress passes the Emergency Quota Act establishing national quotas on immigration.

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~I am in the Eye

A hazel orb resting beneath golden lids encircling

Eyelashes growing like stalks of dark truth

I see beyond light shimmering

In every blade of greening leaf

Blue flames leap

Opening my pores

As I shine in & out of life

~hag

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A review from Copake:

Working of the Spirit Presents Powerful Pictures of the Soul Life of Contemporary Times in Readers Theater

This “new Mystery Drama” as it is being called is really a “must see” for anthroposophists everywhere!  It is compelling and well written, with a cast of actors well suited for the reading of such complex and compelling characters and interconnections! The actors have been assembled from around the world.

Over Whitsun weekend, Camphill Copake hosted a festival of “new mystery dramas” in “readers theater” format. Michael Burton, established author and lifetime student of Anthroposophy and Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery Dramas, wrote the Working of the Spirit drama.

Working of the Spirit will be presented in Readers Theater in two separate performances in Chicago on Saturday and Sunday, May 21 and 22. Tickets are available for purchase at www.workingofthespirit.org or at the door of the Chicago Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Requested donations start at $15.

Both Readers Theater performances of The Working of the Spirit will start at 10:30 a.m. As with Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery Dramas, the play is an all day event, with anticipated ending at 6 p.m. (Folks are invited to come & go as they like, but if you plan to enter sometime in the middle, please buy your tickets on line ahead of time 🙂

The journey of the play is well worth the long ride, however, with rich language – very deep and beautiful – and the depicting of the lives and relationships of earthly humans as well as spiritual beings.

Twenty actors portray the many characters and do a clear and moving rendering, as they read from scripts, bringing the play to life.  At Copake, the author, Michael Burton, portrayed the part of Trautmann and also read all stage directions to stimulate the imaginations of the audience. Michael’s speech and his clear voice made it easy to “see” the play.

This new drama, based on Rudolf Steiner’s four Mystery Dramas and featuring the characters from those four plays, continues their stories into the future.

Marke Levene’s immersion in the 1990s with Portal Productions on producing and touring Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery Dramas provided him a meditatively acquired outline of the fifth Mystery Drama Steiner had planned when the start of WWI blocked continuation. This play is an attempt to continue the story of these characters.  Michael Burton used Marke’s outline as his starting point.  By Patrick O’Neill

May 18, 2016    “The history of the world is but the biography of great men”. ~THOMAS CARLYLE

1048 – Birthday of Omar Khayyám, Persian mathematician, astronomer, & poet

1474 – Birth-day of Isabella d’Este, Regent in Mantua, (a city in Lombardy, Italy) one of the leading women of the Italian Renaissance, a major cultural & political figure. She was a patron of the arts, supporting Raphael, Mantegna, Titian, Leonardo da Vinci, as well as a leader of fashion, whose innovative style of dress was copied throughout Italy & at the French court. She was called: The “liberal & magnanimous Isabella” “supreme among women” “The First Lady of the world”.

1860 – Abraham Lincoln wins the Republican Party presidential nomination.

1896 – The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that the “separate but equal” doctrine is constitutional

1910 – The Earth passes through the tail of Comet Halley.

1933 – New Deal: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority

1951 –United Nations Security Council Resolution 93, adopted after hearing a report that a “prearranged & planned attack ordered by Israel authorities” was “committed by Israel regular army forces against the Egyptian regular army” in the Gaza Strip on February 28, 1951.

The Council condemned this attack as a violation of the cease-fire previsions of UNSC Resolution 54 & as inconsistent with the obligations of the parties under the General Armistice Agreement between Egypt and Israel & under the United Nations Charter.

The Council again called upon Israel to take all necessary measures to prevent such actions & expressed its conviction that the maintenance of the General Armistice Agreement is threatened by any deliberate violation of it & that no progress towards the return of peace in Palestine can be made until both parties comply strictly with their obligations.

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“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: no pity or wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

But helpless pieces in the game He plays,
Upon this chequer-board of Nights and Days,
He hither and thither moves, and checks… and slays,
Then one by one, back in the Closet lays.

Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out of the same Door as in I went.

With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with my own hand labour’d it to grow:
And this was all the Harvest that I reap’d—
“I came like Water, and like Wind I go.”

Into this Universe, and why not knowing,
Nor whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing:
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing.

And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky,
Whereunder crawling coop’t we live and die,
Some letter of that After-life to spell:
And answer’d “I Myself am Heav’n and Hell”

~ Omar Khayyám 

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From Marke Levene : Chicago is the Next Step on the Journey

The origin of the drama that we call The Working of the Spirit came in the form of an imagination experienced by Marke Levene. This experience occurred to him at the end of decades’ long work with the mystery dramas written and produced by Rudolf Steiner from 1910 through 1914.

When in 2012 after a pralaya (rest) of 17  years Marke made a decision to pursue production of what he had observed and engaged the help of a circle of past and new associates. The emphasis has been since the beginning on producing a work with artistic integrity. Michael Hedley Burton worked with the group to produce drafts of the text of the drama. Over years and in meetings at locations around the world persons of the development group in sometimes heated exchanges honed the imagination and text into a work with artistic merit. Marke and his company of actors felt well enough about the product that they have brought it for the first time to the public in the form of a readers’ theater. The unveiling took place first in Copake, NY. Members in the audience had to react and speak with the cast following the performance and throughout the next day. And now you may be able to join in this first unveiling. Read more here.

Lemniscate Arts & The Readers Theatre Presents: Opening the Realm of New Mystery Drama –

“The Working of the Spirit” – 

Saturday May 21 and Sunday May 22, 2016. 

10:30am to 6:30pm – Each day is a staged reading in full with breaks, of the new drama.

Contribution $15.00 – $45.00 per presentation – 

Get your tickets now at www.workingofthespirit.org 

The troupe of actors will arrive in Chicago to rehearse May 18, 19, & 20 with the readings happening May 21 & 22.

Some of the actors need housing in Chicago. If you have space in your home, contact Barbara Richardson brichardson@centerforanthroposophy.org

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Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map) – calendar of events

Check out our Web site!Chicago, IL (Anthroposophical Society in America)