Monthly Archives: April 2017

Linger

Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Speaking with the Stars

25 April 2017 – Astro-Weather: Look west after darkness falls tonight &you’ll witness the beginning of the winter sky’s decline. By 8:30 pm CDT the lower tier of bright winter stars & constellations barely clears the horizon. Sirius in Canis Major, Aldebaran in Taurus, and the three belt stars of Orion the Hunter all hang low in the west. Still, a higher tier of winter stars remains prominent. Look for Capella in Auriga, Castor & Pollux in Gemini, & Procyon in Canis Minor to keep winter on your mind & in the sky for several weeks to come.

Sandy Dooley

“If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful flowers, what might not the heart become in the long journey towards the stars?”~ G K Chesterton

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David Dunlop

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist, founded the Church of Alexandria. The oldest & the shortest of the four Gospels, the Gospel of Mark emphasizes the rejection of Christ by humanity while being God’s triumphant envoy.

A winged lion is Mark’s symbol. The lion derives from Mark’s description of John the Baptist as a “voice of one crying out in the desert” (Mark 1:3), which artists compared to a roaring lion. The wings come from the application of Ezekiel’s vision of four winged creatures (Ezekiel, chapter one) to the evangelists.

“…This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come” (Mark 4:26-29)

1599 – Birthday of Oliver Cromwell, political leader & Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, & Ireland. Nicknamed “Old Ironsides. Cromwell was born into the middle gentry. He was an intensely religious man, a self-styled Puritan Moses, & he fervently believed that God was guiding his victories.

Cromwell was one of the signatories of King Charles I’s death warrant in 1649

Cromwell is one of the most controversial figures in the history of the British Isles, considered a regicidal dictator by historians, a military dictator by Winston Churchill, but a hero of liberty by John Milton, Thomas Carlyle, & Samuel Rawson Gardiner, & a class revolutionary by Leon Trotsky

1875 – Death-Day of the 12th Dalai Lama -Trinley Gyatso. His short life coincided with a time of major political unrest & wars in Tibet which particularly suffered from the weakening of the Qing Dynasty.

During his period of training as a child, Tibet banned Europeans from entering the country because of wars Britain was fighting against Sikkim & Bhutan, both of whom were controlled to a considerable degree by the lamas in Lhasa. These wars were seen as efforts to colonize Tibet—something seen as unacceptable by the lamas.

Trinley Gyatso was fully enthroned as Dalai Lama on 11 March 1873 but could not stamp his full authority on Tibet because he died of a mysterious illness

1917 – Birthday of Ella Fitzgerald, American singer

2015 – Over 9,100 are killed after a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake strikes Nepal

2015 – Riots break out in Baltimore, Maryland following the death of Freddie Gray in police custody

Red Hat Society Day, an international social organization that was founded in 1998 for women age 50 &over, but now open to women of all ages.

In the fall of 1997, Sue Ellen Cooper, an artist from Fullerton, California, purchased an old red fedora for $7.50 from a thrift shop during a trip to Tucson, Arizona. When a good friend was nearing a 55th birthday, Cooper cast about for an idea for an original gift. Inspired by a well-known Jenny Joseph poem, “Warning”, which begins “When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple, with a red hat which doesn’t go and doesn’t suit me.” Cooper wanted to encourage her friend to grow older in a playful manner. She gave her friend a red hat of her own suggesting that she keep it as a reminder to grow older on her terms.

The symbolism behind the red hat affected women Cooper encountered. Those women responded by wearing their own red hats & entering a new women’s movement that embraced a renewed outlook on life filled with fun & friendship, fulfilling lifelong dreams.

Cooper repeated the gift on request several times, & eventually several of the women bought purple outfits & held a tea party on April 25, 1998, at which the Red Hat Society began.

After spreading by word of mouth, Cooper then established a “Hatquarters” to field the hundreds of e-mail requests for help starting chapters. She now serves as “Exalted Queen Mother”, & has written two best-selling books about the Society.

The Red Hat Society membership increased through word of mouth, There are over 20,000 chapters in the United States & over 30 other countries growing from two chapters in 1999 to over 70,000 members.

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Jyoti Thomas

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I drag the large stones to higher ground
I plant my seeds
& carry the balance of the elements
In my hands to bless them…
I linger with the moist black secret
Smell of earth…

~hag

Honeyed Soul

Poetry, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars

24 April 2017 – Astro-Weather: For those who like to observe during the quiet predawn hours, Saturn offers a treat this week. The ringed planet rises around midnight & climbs some high in the south by the time morning twilight begins. It shines against the backdrop of northwestern Sagittarius, where it appears nearly stationary relative to the background stars

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

“Greek philosophy beautifully compared the human soul with a bee. The world of colour and light offers the soul honey which it brings with it into the higher world. The soul must spiritualize sense experience and carry it up into higher worlds.” ~Rudolf Steiner 1906

Jackie Lanng

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

479 BC – Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt

1184 BC – Traditional date of the fall of Troy

1915 – The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals & community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide

1904 – Birthday of Willem de Kooning, Dutch-American painter & educator

1942 – Birthday of Barbra Streisand, American singer, actress, & producer

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

~The Earth is an apple
Ripening in space…

~hag

A rhythmic state of grace

Uncategorized

23 April 2017- Astro-Weather: The waning crescent Moon appears to the right of Venus before dawn. The two approach each other as the morning progresses.

William Etty

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

”History, if thoroughly comprehended, furnishes something of the experience which a man would acquire who should be a contemporary of all ages, and a fellow-citizen of all peoples.” ~Joseph Roux, Meditations of a Parish Priest

Martorell

303 – Death day & feast of Saint George, Roman soldier & martyr. One of the ‘14 Holy Helpers’ immortalized in the myth of Saint George & the Dragon. In the legend a dragon or crocodile makes its nest at the spring that provides water for the city of Lydda in the Holy Land. Consequently, the citizens have to dislodge the dragon from its nest to collect water. So, each day they offer the dragon at first a sheep, then a maiden. The victim is chosen by drawing lots. One day, this happens to be the princess. The monarch begs for her life to be spared, but to no avail. She is offered to the dragon, but then Saint George appears on his travels. He faces the dragon, protects himself with the sign of the Cross, slays the dragon, & rescues the princess. The citizens abandon their ancestral paganism & convert to Christianity

Oleg Shuplyak

1616 – Deathday of William Shakespeare, English poet, playwright, & actor. He is often called England’s national poet, & the “Bard of Avon”. Shakespeare was born & brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, & they had 3 children: Susanna, & twins Hamnet & Judith.

His extant works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, 2 long narrative poems, & a few other verses. His plays remain highly popular & are constantly studied, performed, & reinterpreted in diverse cultural & political contexts throughout the world- translated into every major living language & are performed more often than those of any other playwright

1869 – Birthday of Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz – was born in Prague (then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire) to an aristocratic family with royal connections. Polzer-Hoditz was one of Rudolf Steiner’s most valued, independently-minded colleagues. Leaving behind his background traditions, he would become a key player in Steiner’s regenerative threefold social impulses, working tirelessly for a genuinely unified, free Europe. He also fought to protect Rudolf Steiner’s esoteric legacy & the integrity of the Anthroposophical Society.

Following Steiner’s untimely death, Polzer-Hoditz fostered a broad range of friendships & alliances with key figures such as D.N. Dunlop, Walter Johannes Stein, & Ita Wegman. In a bid to avoid further division & conflict, he made significant interventions to alter the tragic course of events that consumed the Anthroposophical Society, although he was unable to stop the major split within the membership that followed. In the final decade of his life, he concentrated his energies on world issues & on influencing events, especially in Europe, while lecturing widely & writing books. In contrast to the destructive special interests of the national & religious groups that craved dominion & power, Polzer-Hoditz sought to build a true understanding between Central & Eastern Europe & to cultivate a spiritual connection with the West.

According to anthroposopher T.H. Meyer, Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz had an experience that brought to the surface one of his past incarnations as Hadrian, 76 AD – 10 July, 138 AD, who was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He is known for building Hadrian’s Wall, which marked the northern limit of Britannia. He also rebuilt the Pantheon & constructed the Temple of Venus & Roma. He is considered to have been a humanist, & he is regarded as one of the ‘Five Good Emperors’.

Hadrian was born into a Hispano-Roman family. During his reign, he traveled to nearly every province of the Empire. An ardent admirer of Greece, he sought to make Athens the cultural capital of the Empire and ordered the construction of many opulent temples in the city. He used his relationship with his Greek lover Antinous to underline his love of Greek culture leading to the creation of one of the most popular cults of ancient times. He spent extensive amounts of time with the military; he usually wore military attire & even dined & slept amongst the soldiers. Late in his reign he suppressed the Bar Kokhba revolt in Judaea, renaming the province Syria Palaestina

1891 – Birthday of Russian composer, & conductor Sergei Prokofiev,  egarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. A graduate of the St Petersburg Conservatory, Prokofiev initially made his name as an iconoclastic composer-pianist, achieving notoriety with a series of ferociously dissonant & virtuosic works for his instrument.  Prokofiev’s greatest interest, however, was opera.

After the Revolution, Prokofiev left Russia & resided in the United States, then Germany, then Paris, making his living as a composer, pianist & conductor. During that time he married a Spanish singer, Carolina Codina, with whom he had two sons. In the early 1930s, the Great Depression diminished opportunities for Prokofiev’s ballets & operas to be staged in America & western Europe. Prokofiev, who regarded himself as composer foremost, resented the time taken by touring as a pianist, & increasingly turned to Soviet Russia for commissions of new music; in 1936 he finally returned to his homeland with his family. He enjoyed some success there – notably with Lieutenant Kijé, Peter & the Wolf, Romeo & Juliet, & above all with Alexander Nevsky.

The Nazi invasion of the USSR spurred him to compose his most ambitious work, an operatic version of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. In 1948 Prokofiev was attacked for producing “anti-democratic formalism”, so with his standing compromised & his income severely curtailed, he was forced to compose Stalinist Soviet music, such as the cantata On Guard for Peace.

Prokofiev died at the age of 61 on 5 March 1953, the same day as Joseph Stalin. He had lived near Red Square, & for 3 days the throngs gathered to mourn Stalin, making it impossible to carry Prokofiev’s body out for the funeral service at the headquarters of the Soviet Composers’ Union. He is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. He was an atheist

1919 – Opening of the 1st Waldorf School, Stuttgart Germany. Waldorf education, is based on the educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy. Its pedagogy emphasizes the role of imagination in learning, striving to integrate holistically the intellectual, practical, & artistic development of pupils.

Steiner’s division of child development into three major stages is reflected in the schools’ approach to early childhood education, which focuses on practical, hands-on activities & creative play; to elementary education, which focuses on developing artistic expression & social capacities; & to secondary education, which focuses on developing critical reasoning & empathic understanding.

The overarching goal is to develop free, morally responsible, & integrated individuals equipped with a high degree of social competence.

Qualitative assessments of student work are integrated into the daily life of the classroom, with quantitative testing playing a minimal role in primary education & standardized testing usually limited to that required for college entry. Individual teachers & schools have a great deal of autonomy in determining curriculum content, teaching methodology, & governance

1945 – Deathday of Albrecht Georg Haushofer (a German geographer, diplomat, author & member of the German Resistance to Nazism. Haushofer was born in Munich, the son of the retired World War I general.

Obtaining an insight in Nazi politics, Haushofer approached to German resistance circles. Following the outbreak of World War II.

High-ranking members of the Nazi Party looked disapprovingly upon his half-Jewish mother. Incarcerated in Berlin Moabit Prison, he wrote his Moabit Sonnets, posthumously published in 1946. In the night of 22/23 April 1945, as Red Army troops already entered Berlin, Albrecht Haushofer & other inmates were shot in the neck by SS troopers. His body was discovered by his brother Heinz on 12 May 1945.

One of the sonnets, titled Schuld or “Guilt”, was on his person at the time of his execution. It reads as follows:

Guilt
I am guilty,
But not in the way you think.
I should have earlier recognized my duty;
I should have more sharply called evil evil;
I reined in my judgment too long.
I did warn,
But not enough, and not clearly enough;
And today I know what I was guilty of.
~ Albrecht Haushofer

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Daniel Gale

POD (Poem Of the Day)
Even day & night dance
Making sunset & dawn between them
A rhythmic state of grace…
Even now
The earth envelops the seed
Pushing it into the darkness
Before it arises into fruit…
~hag

Biocentric

Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars, Spring

22 April 2017 – Astro-Weather: The weak Lyrid meteor shower peaks, near Bella Luna, a waning crescent.

The spring constellation Corvus, the Crow, perches in the southeast these evenings, about a fist & a half at arm’s length to the right of Spica. But above Spica this year is brilliant Jupiter, hogging the show. Corvus is traditionally seen as ready to snatch sparkling Spica out of Virgo’s hand

Titan

As dawn begins to brighten Sunday morning, catch Venus as she begins to show herself as the morning star next to the waning crescent Moon low in the east.

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Willa Selt

Music is the expression of the will of nature while all other arts are expressions of the idea of nature. ~Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

254 – Deathday of Origen (which means *child of Horus* -his nickname was  Adamantios which means *unconquerable*, *diamond*) – Church father considered a heretic because of his belief in reincarnation

1145 – the 19th recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet

1451 – Birthday of Isabella I, of Castile, Queen of Spain

1724 – Birthday of philosopher Immanuel Kant

Odilon Redon

1840 – Birthday of painter Odilon Redon

a quote from the vedas

1904 – Birthday of physicist J.R. Oppenheimer

1915 – The use of poison gas in World War I escalates when chlorine gas is released as a chemical weapon in the Second Battle of Ypres

1945 –Prisoners at the Jasenovac concentration camp revolt. 520 are killed & around 80 escape

1945 –Führerbunker: After learning that Soviet forces have taken Eberswalde without a fight, Adolf Hitler admits defeat in his underground bunker & states that suicide is his only recourse

1954 – Red Scare: Witnesses begin testifying and live television coverage of the Army–McCarthy hearings begins

Bella Leuther

1970- 1st Earth Day  “There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.” ~Marshall McLuhan

“We can speak of Karma not only in the case of individual persons, for man should not consider himself as a single being. If the individual were to rise even a few miles above the earth, the result would be the same as if the finger severed itself from the body.

If we penetrate into spiritual science we are literally forced to admit through this knowledge that we should not delude ourselves to the extent of insisting that we are single beings. This applies to the physical world and even more to the spiritual world. Man belongs to the whole world and his destiny is involved with that of the entire world. Karma touches not only the individual, but also the life of whole nations.”

Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 100 – Theosophy and Rosicrucianism: Lecture VII: The Law of Karma – Kassel, 22nd June 1907

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Lua Abyssa

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Will you
Sow the seeds of premonition
Into a fruitful action
To ignite the weave
In radiant expectation…?
~hag

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John Muir is remembered on Earthday (his birthday was April 21st1838 ) also known as “John of the Mountains”, an American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, glaciologist & early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, & books describing his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada, have been read by millions. His activism has helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park & many other wilderness areas.

The Sierra Club, which he founded, is a prominent American conservation organization. The 211-mile John Muir hiking trail in the Sierra Nevada, was named in his honor, along with  Muir Woods National Monument, Muir Beach, John Muir College, Mount Muir, Camp Muir & Muir Glacier.

Muir was noted for being an ecological thinker, political spokesman, & religious prophet, whose writings became a personal guide into nature for countless individuals, making his name “almost ubiquitous” in the modern environmental consciousness.

During his lifetime John Muir published over 300 articles & 12 books. Muir has been called the “patron saint of the American wilderness” & its “archetypal free spirit.” As a dreamer & activist, his eloquent words changed the way Americans saw their mountains, forests, seashores, & deserts.

Muir exalted wild nature over human culture and civilization, believing that all life was sacred. He moved beyond the Transcendentalism of Emerson to a “biocentric perspective on the world”. He did so by describing the natural world as “a conductor of divinity,” & his writings often made nature synonymous with God.

My dear sisters & brothers, let’s make every day Earth Day!

XOX ~hag

Dingus Day

Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars

17 April 2017 – Astro-Weather: Bright Arcturus is climbing high in the east these evenings. Equally bright Capella is descending high in the northwest. They stand at exactly the same height above your horizon at some moment between about 8 pm and 9:30 pm CDT. Can you time this event? Like everything star-related, it happens 4 minutes earlier every night.

Jupiter reached opposition & peak visibility just 10 days ago, & it remains a stunning sight all night. It appears low in the east-southeast during evening twilight & climbs highest in the south around midnight CDT. The giant planet of Kingly benevolence is the night’s brightest celestial object with the exception of the waning gibbous Moon & Venus, neither of which rises until well past midnight. Jupiter resides among the background stars of Virgo, northwest of that constellation’s brightest star, Spica.

Easter Monday, also known as Bright Monday, Renewal Monday, Wet Monday, and Dingus Day, is the Monday immediately after Easter Sunday. It is observed by many Christian groups, but primarily by the Eastern Orthodox & Roman Catholic traditions. It marks the beginning of Easter Week (Roman Catholic) / Bright Week (Eastern Orthodox).

Various cultures observe Easter Monday. For some, Easter Monday is a solemn remembrance of Christ’s death & resurrection marked by an outdoor procession. For others, there are Easter egg-rolling competitions. For still others, siblings or spouses wake each other up by pouring buckets of water on each other (ie. “Wet Monday”). There are also celebrations with a large gathering & a polka festival (Dingus Day).

In the United States in the early nineteenth century, Dolly Madison, the wife of the 4th American President, organized an egg roll in Washington, D.C. She had been told that Egyptian children used to roll eggs against the pyramids so she invited the children of Washington to roll hard-boiled eggs down the hilly lawn of the new Capitol building! The custom continued, except for the years during the Civil War. In 1880, the First Lady invited children to the White House for the Egg Roll because officials had complained that they were ruining the Capitol lawn. It has been held there ever since then, only cancelled during times of war. The event has grown, & today Easter Monday is the only day of the year when tourists are allowed to wander over the White House lawn. The wife of the President sponsors it for the children of the entire country. The egg rolling event is open to children 12 years old & under. Adults are allowed only when accompanied by children!

Do you think the current administration will continue this good spirited tradition today?

Kari Marie Olson

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

“Our ancestors required a different event that was connected to the time when the sun reaches its zenith. When everything in nature was budding and blossoming, they experienced an ecstasy that reaffirmed for them the existence of the spiritual world. What they experienced then at St. John’s Tide we now have to experience in the spring, at Easter. We have to be able to celebrate the awakening of the soul, the resurrection of the soul, when spiritual science speaks to us not merely as a theory, but as living knowledge”. ~Rudolf Steiner, The Presence of the Dead on the Spiritual Path, April 17, 1914

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

485 – Death-Day of Proclus – dubbed ‘The Successor’ – a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher. He studyed mathematics & the works of Aristotle under Olympiodorus the Elder. As a gifted student, he eventually became dissatisfied with the level of philosophical instruction available in Alexandria, & went to Athens, the pre-eminent philosophical center of the day, to study at the Neoplatonic successor of the famous Academy founded 800 years earlier (in 387 BC) by Plato; there he was taught by Plutarch of Athens, Syrianus, & Asclepigenia; he succeeded Syrianus as head of the Academy, & would in turn be succeeded on his death by Marinus of Neapolis.

He lived in Athens as a vegetarian bachelor, prosperous & generous to his friends, until the end of his life. He was not appreciated by the Christian rulers; he spent time traveling & being initiated into various mystery cults. He was also instructed in the “theurgic” Neoplatonism, as derived from the Orphic & Chaldean Oracles.

His house has been discovered recently in Athens, under the pavement of Dionysiou Areopagitou Street, south of Acropolis, opposite the theater of Dionysus. He had a great devotion to the Goddess Athena, whom he believed guided him at key moments in his life. Marinus reports that when Christians removed the statue of the Goddess from the Parthenon, a beautiful woman appeared to Proclus in a dream & announced that the “Athenian Lady” wished to stay at his home. Proclus died aged 73, & was buried near Mount Lycabettus in a tomb. It is reported that he was writing 700 lines each day.

1622 – Birthday of Thomas Vaughn, a Welsh philosopher, famous for his writings in the area of natural magic, with his book Anthroposophia Theomagica, a magico-mystical work.  (Some say Rudolf Steiner got his idea for to name the AS from this treatise)

Although he did not practice medicine, Vaughan sought to apply his chemical skills to preparing medicines in the manner recommended by Paracelsus. Vaughan was also the author of tracts published under the pseudonym Eugenius Philalethes.

Vaughan was unusual amongst alchemists of the time in that he worked closely with his wife Rebecca Vaughan. He was a self-described member of the “Society of Unknown Philosophers”, & was responsible for translating into English in 1652 the Fama Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis, an anonymous Rosicrucian manifesto first published in 1614 in Kassel.

He placed himself in the tradition of the Rosicrucian reformers of education, &of Johannes Trithemius, his teacher Libanius Gallus, and Pelagius of Majorca.

1787 – Goethe’s experience of the archetypal plant in Palermo – “Goethe narrates a conversation that once ensued between Schiller and himself after they had both attended a meeting of the Society for Nature Research in Jena. Schiller was dissatisfied with the results of the meeting. He had found there a most disintegrating method for the study of Nature and he remarked that such a method could never appeal to a layman. Goethe replied that “possibly this method was cumbersome for the initiated also and that there might well exist yet another way of portraying Nature active and living, struggling from the whole into the parts, and not severed and isolated.” And then Goethe evolved the great ideas which had arisen within him concerning the nature of plants. He drew “with many characteristic strokes, a symbolic plant” before Schiller’s eyes. This symbolic plant was intended to give expression to the essential being lying in every single plant, whatever particular form it assumes. It was intended to demonstrate the successive development of the single portions of the plant, their emergence from each other and their mutual relationship. In Palermo, 17th April, 1787, Goethe wrote these words in reference to this symbolic plant form: “There must be such a thing; if not, how could I recognise this or that structure to be a plant if all were not moulded after one pattern?” Goethe had evolved in himself the conception of a plastic, ideal form that was revealed to his spirit when he surveyed the diversity of the plant forms and observed the element common to them all.” Rudolf Steiner Goethe’s Conception of the World: Chapter I: Goethe and Schiller

1790 – Death-Day of Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a renowned polymath & a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, & diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment & the history of physics for his discoveries & theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, & the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia’s fire department & the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution.

Benjamin Franklin, then 21, created the Junto, a group of “like minded aspiring artisans and tradesmen who hoped to improve themselves while they improved their community.” The Junto was a discussion group for issues of the day; it was modeled after English coffeehouses that Franklin knew well, & which became the center of the spread of Enlightenment ideas in Britain.

Franklin became Grand Master of the Freemasons & published the first Masonic book in the Americas, a reprint of James Anderson’s Constitutions of the Free-Masons. Franklin remained a Freemason for the rest of his life

Franklin earned the title of “The First American” for his early & indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author & spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation. Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, & opposition to authoritarianism both political & religious, with the scientific & tolerant values of the Enlightenment

Franklin became a successful newspaper editor & printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette at the age of 23. He became wealthy publishing this & Poor Richard’s Almanack, which he authored under the pseudonym “Richard Saunders”. After 1767, he was associated with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments & criticisms of the British policies.

He pioneered & was 1st president of The Academy & College of Philadelphia which opened in 1751 & later became the University of Pennsylvania. He organized & was the first secretary of the American Philosophical Society & was elected president in 1769. Franklin became a national hero in America as an agent for several colonies when he spearheaded an effort in London to have the Parliament of Great Britain repeal the unpopular Stamp Act. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris & was a major figure in the development of positive Franco-American relations. His efforts proved vital for the American Revolution in securing shipments of crucial munitions from France.

He was promoted to deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies in 1753, having been Philadelphia postmaster for many years,& this enabled him to set up the first national communications network. During the Revolution, he became the first US Postmaster General. He was active in community affairs & colonial & state politics, as well as national & international affairs. From 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania. He argued against slavery from an economic perspective & became one of the most prominent abolitionists.

His colorful life and legacy of scientific and political achievement, & his status as one of America’s most influential Founding Fathers have seen Franklin honored more than two centuries after his death the $100 bill.

1907 – The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day.

1912 – Russian troops open fire on striking goldfield workers in northeast Siberia, killing at least 150

1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed & trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.

1969 – Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.

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Hedi Clemb

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Today I Am
Earth reborn in the hands of the potter
Who gathered me, who molded me
In fire & aire with the waters of life…
& today What of YOU…?
~hag

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Greetings dear friends –

Thank you for traversing the path of Holy Week with me. I will take a short break from the daily blog to travel to NYC, when I return I will resume my P.O.D. in honor of April as ‘Poetry Month’

Until Soon ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg