Monthly Archives: August 2017

From Chaos into Purpose

Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Insight, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Speaking with the Stars, The Bridging Project: Life & Death

7 August 2017 – Astro-Weather: The fixed date of the 2nd Harvest known as Lammas is popularly celebrated on August 1st or 2nd – but Today the Cross-Quarter of Lammas is exact –When the Sun reaches 15% of Leo – This day marks the actual midpoint between the Summer Solstice & the Autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere.

The Full Moon of August is called The Corn or Sturgeon Moon (exact at 1:11 pm CDT). Bella Luna rises around sunset. Once it’s dark, try to see through the moonlight to find the Moon resting in the northeastern corner of the constellation Capricornus the Sea Goat. That’s where the Corn Moon always resides at this time of year.

When the Sun, Earth, & Moon line up in space, eclipses sometimes come in pairs. So, as everyone in North America readies for The Great American solar eclipse on August 21’st (occurring at new Moon), a partial lunar eclipse sneaks in just two weeks earlier  – TODAY – at the preceding full Moon.

This glancing encounter with Earth’s core shadow, the umbra, takes nearly 2 hours from start to finish, visible from the Eastern Hemisphere.

The eclipse belongs to Saros 119 & is # 61 of 82 eclipses in the series. Each series typically lasts 12 to 13 centuries.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

“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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James Christensen

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Look, how
The charm is everywhere…
How it rests between the breath…
How it comes when called
Forth from chaos into purposeful hands,
Light to my feet
It fills my head with heat…
~hag

***

Persian Scholar Al-Biruni (C.E. 973-1048)

Taking into consideration what we talked about from the research of Rudolf Steiner in yesterday’s Blog offering, it is important to be as conscious as possible today during the Lunar eclipse, which is working to attract, & bring to the surface, our lowest, animalistic urges & unconscious impulses.

Today when the Earth comes between the Sun & Moon, we can picture the shadow that moves over the moon as being an assemblage of the human shadow-self, acting as a magnet for the adversarial powers.

Knowing that the spiritual significance of a lunar eclipse exists for this purpose, we can use this opportunity to bring our shadow self to light – to recognize our responsibility to make conscious what is usually in the dark – to bring healing & integration to our souls.

This is an important step toward the work we are called to do during the solar eclipse.

We must recognize that this build-up of shadow-forces, culled from human beings today, will be part of what is released into the spiritual world at the time of the solar eclipse. Could the adversarial beings be using these dark forces to bring about a 3rd crucifixion? The 1st Mystery of Golgotha was on the physical realm, the 2nd occurred in the etheric realm – let me explain:

Steiner tells us, that after the 1st Mystery of Golgotha, The Christ united with the Earth, no longer in an individual physical body, He can be recognized in a being belonging to the Hierarchy of the Angels. Kind of hard to imagine, but think back to that clue from the Old Testament: ‘And the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses’/ Steiner says: ‘As an angel, Christ could always be found by those who were clairvoyant…In this angel form, He has always been united with evolution’. Steiner doesn’t say so directly, but it makes me think of the connection with the Nathan Soul, the Angel Being he worked with in the Pre-Earthy Deeds – the original Adam Kadmon – that pure, innocent soul part which separated off from Adam, the 1st Human, before the fall.

Through the coming of this new age of Michael, humanity can gradually begin to understand all that the Christ Impulse signifies. It wasn’t possible to really understand it before this. For instance starting in the 16th century thru the beginning of the 19th Century, when influences were coming in from the spiritual world from the Archangel Gabriel to bring modern science, there also entered into humanity a very materialistic world view that was antagonistic to spiritual insights. So more & more, as human beings passed into the spiritual worlds at the gate of death, they brought with them these materialistic ideas, which were polluting these higher realms & which prevented their souls from taking up fortifying spiritual influences for their next lives. Because of this another sacrifice was needed.

So, Steiner tells us, Christ, who had taken on the outer form of this Angelic Being, suffered an ‘extinction of consciousness’, as a result of the opposing forces that had been brought into the spiritual worlds by these materialistic souls who had passed thru the gate of death. These ‘seeds of earthly materialism’ which were increasingly carried into the spiritual world & which caused more & more darkness, built, what Steiner calls, the ‘black sphere of materialism.’ Christ took this black sphere into His Angelic being, for the purpose of transforming it- putting into action the Manichean principle that takes on evil in order to redeem it. This black sphere caused a ‘death by suffocation’ for the Angel Being in which the Christ is manifesting himself since the Mystery of Golgotha. 

This sacrifice by Christ in the 19th century is comparable to the sacrifice on the physical plane through the Mystery of Golgotha & can be called the 2nd crucifixion of Christ, on the etheric plane. This spiritual death by suffocation, which brought about the extinction of consciousness in the Angelic Being, is a repetition of the Mystery of Golgotha in the etheric.

It took place to make possible a revival of the Christ consciousness, which wasn’t accessible to human souls on earth at the time of the original Mystery of Golgotha. This revival makes it possible for humanity to gain clairvoyant vision starting in the 20th century. So what was lost in the way of consciousness by humanity in the individuation process brought on by the necessity of modern science, will arise again as a new form of clairvoyant vision.

Steiner names the starting date as 1933. The 2nd World War with its Nazism tried to cover this revelation up.

It was for the sake of humanity that this Being suffered an extinction of consciousness in the etheric world, so that thru this sacrifice humanity could gain a resurrection of consciousness that will lead us to perceive the Etheric Christ.

And so the question I am living with today is: Does this series of eclipses point to another “black sphere of materialism” that could cause an extinction of Christ’s astral body? And what does that mean? Will that sacrifice bring a sea-change in human consciousness as the others have?

In this time of the Consciousness Soul, human beings we are called to actively participate in this cosmic & earthly event, in awakened consciousness.

Holding the light in love

~ Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

The Central Regional Council is hosting a Bridging to the ‘Great American Eclipse’ in St. Louis – August 19-22, 2017 

Transfiguration

Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Insight, Poetry, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars, The Bridging Project: Life & Death

6 August 2017 –The Eve of the Full Corn Moon – Tomorrow’s partial Lunar eclipse herald’s the Solar eclipse on the New Moon 21 August  2017. And even though we won’t see the Lunar eclipse here in America, its impact affects all.

“…of an eclipse of the moon, the man of today merely says: “Now the earth comes between the sun and the moon; hence we see the shadow cast upon the moon by the earth.” That is the physical explanation. But in this case also the old initiate knew that a spiritual reality was behind the physical fact. He knew that when there is an eclipse of the moon, thoughts stream through darkness down upon the earth; and that such thoughts have a closer relationship with the subconscious life than with the conscious life of the human being. The old initiates often made use of a certain simile when speaking to their pupils. It is; of course, necessary to translate their words into modern language, but this is the gist of what they said: “Visionaries and dreamers love to go for rambles by moonlight, when the moon is full. There are, however, certain people who have no wish to receive the good thoughts coming to them from the cosmos, but who, on the contrary, are desirous of getting hold of evil, diabolical thoughts. Such people will choose the moment of a lunar eclipse for their nocturnal wanderings…”

Acting as a “safety-valve, the lunar eclipse, exists for the purpose of allowing the evil thoughts which are present in the cosmos to approach those human beings who are desirous of being possessed by them. people do not, as a rule, act in full consciousness, but the facts are nevertheless real — just as real as the attraction of a magnet for small particles of iron. Such are the forces at work, in the cosmos.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Human Questions and Cosmic Answers.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

The Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ – “We find the transfiguration scene in all the evangelists except St. John. This is significant. Let us clarify the meaning of this scene. What takes place? Jesus goes with three disciples Peter, James and John, up a mountain: this means into the inner sanctuary where one is initiated into higher worlds and where one also speaks in occult language. The disciples were carried up into a higher state of consciousness. They saw then that which is not transitory but eternal. Moses and Elias appear and Jesus himself with them. What does this mean? In occult science the word Elias means the same as El — the goal, the way. Moses is the spiritual scientific word for truth. By the fact that Elias, Moses and Jesus appear you have the fundamental Christian truth: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus himself says — this is a fundamental Christian mystical truth — “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” (John, ch. 14, v. 6) ~ Rudolf Steiner, The Gospel of St. John, 3rd Lecture

Alexandr Ivanov.j

70 AD- The Second Temple of Jerusalem is destroyed by Roman legions under Titus. For 420 years, the 2nd Temple constituted a divine presence – the point where heaven & earth met. Its presence is sorely missed, its absence mourned.

1945 – The Atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, an act of genocide on President Harry Truman’s orders.

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~In the cardboard sky
The Thunder gods gather in
A procession of chattering dark wind
Laying eggs of other lives
Of blue souls in weaving sighs
Where incense rises in long dreams
To be weighed
In the over-ripe fruit trees
~hag

***

Rudolf Steiner gave us a lot of hints on to how to come to terms with ‘Evil’. He calls it evil because it ‘misses the mark’, but he reveals that the gods themselves called their opponents into being. Humanity, striving toward Freedom, stands as the Tenth Hierarchy & has as its task to integrate the vast gifts of Nature & Spirit while accepting the possibility, & finding the strength to lead evil (i.e.: Lucifer & Ahriman) back to the good.

“In the Primal Beginning was the Word
And the Word was with God
And a God was the Word.
The same was in the Primal Beginning with God.
It was there where all things came into being,
And nothing came into being but through the Word.
In the Word was the Life, and the Life was the Light of men.

In the Primal Beginning is the Thought,
And the Thought is with God,
And a God-like being is the Thought.
In it is Life,
And the Life shall become the Light of my Ego.
And may the Divine Thought shine into my Ego
That the darkness of my Ego may grasp the Thought Divine.

In the Primal Beginning is the Thought,
And Infinite is the Thought.
And the Life of the Thought is the Light of the Ego.
May light-giving Thought fill the Darkness of my Ego,
That the Darkness of my Ego may grasp the Living Thought
And live and weave in its Divine Primal Beginning.

In the Primal Beginning is Memory,
And the Memory lives on further,
And Divine is the Memory.
And the Memory is Life.
And this Life is the Ego of Man
Which streams into Man himself,
Not he alone, the Christ in him.
When he remembers the Divine Life
In his Memory is the Christ.
And as the radiant Life of Memory
Christ will pour Light
Into every Darkness of the immediate present.

In the Primal Beginning was the power of Memory.
The power of Memory shall become Divine;
And a Divinity shall the power of Memory become.
All that arises within the Ego shall become
Something which has arisen
Out of the Christ-permeated, God-permeated Memory.
In it shall be the Life;
In it shall be the radiant Light
Which, out of the Thinking which remembers,
Shines into the Darkness of the present time.
May that Darkness as it is to-day
Comprehend the Light of the Memory
Which has become Divine!”

~Rudolf Steiner, Background of the Mystery of Golgotha –Pre-Earthly Deeds of Christ, March 7th, 1914

***

The Central Regional Council is hosting a Bridging to the ‘Great American Eclipse’ in St. Louis – August 19-22, 2017 

Speaking from Soul to Soul with the Solar Eclipse At the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Motherhouse, St. Louis, Missouri August 19, 5 PM CST through August 21, 5pm CST

Read the article from Das Goetheanum

RETREAT CONTENT: At this Central Regional retreat, we take The ‘Bridging Project’ into the realm of ‘Speaking with the Stars’. In the life between death and re-birth the human being is engaged in an intimate conversation with the ‘Stars’. We will prepare for, view and work to hold the light during the ‘Great American Solar Eclipse’, which will sweep from West to East across all of America, and will be visible in the St. Louis area on Monday August 21st 2017. Through the social arts of folk eurythmy, song, study, color, meditation, and an interactive pageant*, we will engage with the spiritual significance of this powerful cosmic and earthly event. Afterward we will process, share and continue the conversation, working to understand the mysteries of the will. 

click here for a List of possible  activities to do around the Solar Eclipse

RETREAT LOCATION: The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Motherhouse is located just south of downtown St. Louis, Missouri, overlooking the Mississippi River(https://www.csjsl.org/motherhouse-services/take-a-tour.php). On Monday, we will travel to a TBD park or nature area about one hour south of St. Louis to experience the full solar eclipse, returning to The Motherhouse in the late afternoon.

TRANSPORTATION: Transportation is at the discretion of the participants (not included in retreat cost). The planning team will try to facilitate ride sharing opportunities if you request our assistance.  The closest airport is Lambert-St. Louis International Airport (Code: STL) ( http://flystl.com/)

LODGING PLANS: The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Motherhouse has 8 single and 2 double rooms available for the CRC conference. A few rooms have private bathrooms, and there are several shared bathrooms across the hall from the bedrooms. Rooms will be assigned on a first-registration basis to conference participants. If capacity allows, we will try to accommodate additional participants, whether at Carondelet or at local members’ homes.

MEALS: Meals will be provided by the Sisters of Carondelet during the fixed times listed below. Conference participants not staying at The Motherhouse are also able to order meals through this registration form. Vegan, vegetarian, non-dairy and gluten-free diets can be accommodated if requested in advance. Coffee, tea and ice water will be provided. Breakfast: 7:30 AM – 8:30 AM $7 Lunch: 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM $10 Dinner: 5:15 AM – 6:15 PM $11

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The Sisters of Carondelet are environmentally conscious, and no disposable water bottles are allowed in the property (but re-usable bottles are allowed)  Additional information will be provided to registered participants in July

click here to register  

 

Rioting Roses

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

2 August 2017 – Astro-Weather: The waxing gibbous Moon stands at its highest point above the southern horizon as darkness falls this evening. If you look a few degrees Her lower left, you can’t miss Saturn. The glorious ringed planet shows up nicely against the backdrop of southern Ophiuchus on any clear night.

Bella Luna reaches apogee, the farthest point in its orbit around Earth, at 12:55 pm CDT today. It She is 251,671 miles from Earth’s center.

***

Gina Bigalow

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

“An ethical misunderstanding, a clash, is impossible among ethically free human beings. Only someone who is ethically unfree, who obeys natural drives or the conventional demands of duty, will thrust aside someone who does not follow the same instincts and the same demands. To live in love of action, and to let live in understanding of the other’s will, is the fundamental maxim of free human beings.” — Rudolf Steiner, The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

216 BC – The Carthaginian army led by Hannibal defeats a numerically superior Roman army at the Battle of Cannae

Feast day of “The Virgen de los Angeles” (the Virgin of the Angels) is Costa Rica’s patron saint, also known as La Negrita. According to tradition, La Negrita, the Black Virgin, is a small (less than a meter tall), representation of the Virgin Mary found on this spot on August 2, 1635 by a native woman. As the story goes, when she tried to take the statuette with her, it miraculously reappeared twice back where she’d found it. The townspeople then built a shrine around her. In 1824, the Virgin was declared Costa Rica’s patron saint. La Negrita now resides on a gold, jewel-studded platform at the main altar in the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles in Cartago. Each August 2, on the anniversary of the statuette’s miraculous discovery, pilgrims from every corner of the country (and beyond) walk the 22 km from San José to the basilica. Many of the penitent complete the last few hundred meters of the pilgrimage on their knees.

1832- Birthday of Henry Steel Olcott – an American military officer, journalist, lawyer & the co-founder & 1st President of the Theosophical Society. Olcott was the first well-known American of European ancestry to make a formal conversion to Buddhism. From 1874 on, Olcott’s spiritual growth & development with Helena Blavatsky & other spiritual leaders would lead to the founding of the Theosophical Society. In 1875, Olcott, Blavatsky, & others, notably William Quan Judge, formed the Theosophical Society in New York City. Olcott financially supported the earliest years of the Theosophical Society & was acting President while Blavatsky served as the Society’s Secretary. In December 1878, they left New York in order to move the headquarters of the Society to India.

1921 – Birthday of Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor & actor

1922 – Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-Canadian engineer, invented the telephone

1922 – A typhoon hits Shantou, Republic of China killing more than 50,000 people

1924 – The last of Rudolf Steiner’s “19 Class Lessons” was given in Dornach.

1934 – Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg

1939 – Albert Einstein & Leo Szilard write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon

1943 – Jewish prisoners stage a revolt at Treblinka, one of the deadliest of Nazi death camps where approximately 900,000 persons were murdered in less than 18 months

1968 – Deathday of Antonio d’Achille , Aquinas scholar

1969 – Deathday of Anna Samweber – an active co-worker in Berlin with Rudolf Steiner and Marie Steiner-von Sivers. Her anecdotes & recollections were recorded by Jacob Streit during an intensive two days shortly before Anna’s death. They contribute a warm & intimate picture of Rudolf Steiner, the man, & his work. “Frau Dr Steiner owned a lovely diamond watch with her initials inscribed on the lid. It was broken, and I had to take it to a well-known watchmaker who lived a long way from the Motzstrasse (the house at 17 Motzstrasse in Berlin was where Rudolf and Marie Steiner lived from 1903 – 1913, and where the work of the Anthroposophical Society was carried on). It was late on a cold and foggy November evening when I made my way in the direction of Nollendorfplatz, where the building site for a subway was situated. I was walking along a long, wooden blank wall when suddenly two human shapes appeared from the dark and attacked me. I remembered that once Rudolf Steiner had told me that if ever I was in need I could call on him. So when these two attackers went for me, the one holding me from behind so that the other could rob me, I called inwardly and spontaneously: ‘Doctor, help me!’ At the same moment both fellows fell back like lightning and were gone. When Rudolf Steiner came for breakfast the next morning he greeted me with the words ‘Good morning, Sam. What was the matter that you cried so loud last night?’ When I told him about my experience and he had listened quietly, he said simply: ‘But I did help you, didn’t I?’ “ ~Anna Samweber from her book Erinnerungen an Rudolf Steiner (Reminiscences of Rudolf Steiner)

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~My soul is a trembling veil…
The rioting roses churn my nectar…
I fly in a frenzied froth that caps my vision…
Will you dance the leminscate
In serpent flight with me…?
~hag

***

Lammas is also a festival of regrets and farewells, of harvest & preserves. Reflect on these topics, alone in the privacy of your journal, or share them with others around a fire.

Regrets: Think of the things you meant to do this summer or this year that are not coming to fruition. You can project your regrets onto natural objects like pine cones & throw them into the fire, releasing them. Or you can write them on dried corn husks or on a piece of paper and burn them.

Farewells: What is passing from your life? What is over? Say good-bye to it. As with regrets, you can find visual symbols and throw them into the fire, the lake or the ocean. You can also bury them in the ground, perhaps in the form of bulbs which will manifest in a new form in spring.

Harvest: What have you harvested this year? What seeds have your planted that have borne fruit? Find a visual way to represent these, perhaps creating a decoration for your house which represents this harvest for you. Or you could make a corn dolly or learn to weave wheat, which was used by early farmers as a resting place for the harvest spirits.

Preserves: This is also a good time for making preserves, either literally or symbolically.
As you turn the summer’s fruit into jams, jellies & chutneys for winter, think about the seeds you will keep to plant next year. How can you keep them sweet in the store of your memory?

Cathy Cassetti

Speaking of sweet: The traditional day for the blessing of beehives is August 8th. The last day of the honey harvest, so the bees will be sure to have enough fuel for the winter.

Bee Love –

xox  ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

Kari Marie Olson

The Bridging Project – Between Life and Death from Soul to Soul

August 2, 2017 – 7:15 pm CST (8:15 pm EST)

The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to our conversation with special guest Gisela Wielki.

Gisela Wielki was born and raised in Germany. Obtained her degree in early childhood education, followed by a three year study at the Seminary of the Christian Community in Stuttgart (ordained in 1970.) Gisela was sent to the New York Congregation in 1972, and then lived in Chicago from 2002 to 2010 as a one of the founding directors of the English speaking seminary. Gisela has spent many years working with children, youth and young adults in Christian Community summer camps, youth and young adult conferences

Please read to prepare for the session:

Our theme for the evening shall be multifaceted:

Death is not the final stage of life

There is no deathday without a birthday

What is death? Who is death?

Not so, death is not just an entry into a new state of consciousness.

Death and the significance of the body

Death and the building of a new body through Christ and with Christ

Pen and paper may be useful

Option 1. Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended)

https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/762393301

Option 2. Call in using your telephone.

United States: +1 (312) 757-3129

Canada: +1 (647) 497-9350

Access Code: 762-393-301

Please join us!

Agenda

7:15 Welcome and introductions

7:18 Verse

7:20 Introduce guest speaker

7:25 Guest Speaker: Gisela Wielki (50 minutes) 8:15 Q&A – Please state your name, location before asking a question

8:28 Close with verse

***

The Central Regional Council is hosting a Bridging to the ‘Great American Eclipse’ in St. Louis – August 19-22, 2017 

Speaking from Soul to Soul with the Solar Eclipse At the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Motherhouse, St. Louis, Missouri August 19, 5 PM CST through August 21, 5pm CST

Read the article from Das Goetheanum

RETREAT CONTENT: At this Central Regional retreat, we take The ‘Bridging Project’ into the realm of ‘Speaking with the Stars’. In the life between death and re-birth the human being is engaged in an intimate conversation with the ‘Stars’. We will prepare for, view and work to hold the light during the ‘Great American Solar Eclipse’, which will sweep from West to East across all of America, and will be visible in the St. Louis area on Monday August 21st 2017. Through the social arts of folk eurythmy, song, study, color, meditation, and an interactive pageant*, we will engage with the spiritual significance of this powerful cosmic and earthly event. Afterward we will process, share and continue the conversation, working to understand the mysteries of the will. 

click here for a List of possible  activities to do around the Solar Eclipse

RETREAT LOCATION: The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Motherhouse is located just south of downtown St. Louis, Missouri, overlooking the Mississippi River(https://www.csjsl.org/motherhouse-services/take-a-tour.php). On Monday, we will travel to a TBD park or nature area about one hour south of St. Louis to experience the full solar eclipse, returning to The Motherhouse in the late afternoon.

TRANSPORTATION: Transportation is at the discretion of the participants (not included in retreat cost). The planning team will try to facilitate ride sharing opportunities if you request our assistance.  The closest airport is Lambert-St. Louis International Airport (Code: STL) ( http://flystl.com/)

LODGING PLANS: The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Motherhouse has 8 single and 2 double rooms available for the CRC conference. A few rooms have private bathrooms, and there are several shared bathrooms across the hall from the bedrooms. Rooms will be assigned on a first-registration basis to conference participants. If capacity allows, we will try to accommodate additional participants, whether at Carondelet or at local members’ homes.

MEALS: Meals will be provided by the Sisters of Carondelet during the fixed times listed below. Conference participants not staying at The Motherhouse are also able to order meals through this registration form. Vegan, vegetarian, non-dairy and gluten-free diets can be accommodated if requested in advance. Coffee, tea and ice water will be provided. Breakfast: 7:30 AM – 8:30 AM $7 Lunch: 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM $10 Dinner: 5:15 AM – 6:15 PM $11

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The Sisters of Carondelet are environmentally conscious, and no disposable water bottles are allowed in the property (but re-usable bottles are allowed)  Additional information will be provided to registered participants in July

click here to register 

 

“We shall come rejoicing”…

Poetry, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars, The Bridging Project: Life & Death

1st August 2017 – Astro-weather: This evening the waxing gibbous Moon forms a triangle with Antares to Her lower left & brighter Saturn more directly to Her left.

Dariusz Slusarski.

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

 “History is a cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of man”. ~Percy Bysshe Shelley

Feast Day of Joseph of Arimathea – according to all four Gospels, the man who assumed responsibility for the burial of Jesus after the crucifixion. A number of stories that developed during the Middle Ages connect him with both Glastonbury, where he is supposed to have founded the earliest Christian oratory, & also with the Grail legend.

“One must penetrate to an understanding of the Mystery of the Bread, which is said to have been broken by Christ Jesus in the same chalice in which Joseph of Arimathea caught His blood. As legend tells it, this chalice was then removed to Europe, but was preserved by angels in a region high above the surface of the earth until the arrival of Titurel [Note 9] who created for this Grail, this sacred chalice, a temple on Mont Salvat”  ~Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, April 16, 1921

30 BC – Augustus Octavian enters Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under the control of the Roman Republic

30 BC – Deathday of Mark Antony, Roman general & politician

1464 – Deathday of Cosimo de’ Medici, Italian ruler

1469 – Louis XI of France founds the chivalric order called the Order of Saint Michael in Amboise

1714 – Deathday of Queen Anne of Great Britain

1819 – Birthday of Herman Melville, American novelist, short story writer, & poet

1842 – The Lombard Street riot erupts in Philadelphia. A parade was held by over 1,000 members of the black Young Men’s Vigilant Association on Philadelphia’s Lombard Street between 5th & 8th streets in commemoration of the 8th anniversary of the end of slavery in the British West Indies.  As the paraders neared Mother Bethel Church, they were attacked by an Irish Catholic mob. The rioters moved west, setting fires & attacking firefighters & police as they went, heading for the home of African-American leader Robert Purvis. Purvis & his home were reportedly saved from the Irish mob solely by a Catholic priest’s intervention.

Requests to the mayor & police for protection initially led to the arrest of several of the victims & none of the rioters. Over three days of attacks, the 2nd African American Presbyterian Church, the abolitionist Smith’s Hall, & numerous homes & public buildings were looted, burned & mostly destroyed. The mayor had credible evidence of a plan to burn several local churches, which he ignored. Eventually, as the rioting began to subside, the local militia was brought in to restore order.

1936 – The Olympics opened in Berlin with a ceremony presided over by Adolf Hitler

1971 – The Concert for Bangladesh, organized by former Beatle George Harrison, is held at Madison Square Garden in New York City

***

Jeff Gooden

 

(Lammas/ Lughnassad poem – Aug. 1st )

CORN RIGS & WHEELS [15 degrees Leo]

CICADAS TRANCE
IN THETA WAVES OF SOUND

THE SICKLES REAP IN BORDERTIME
OPENING THE GATEWAY TO THE WEST

DRAGONS FLY
INTO THE MOUTH
OF THE HOLLOWMAN –
HIS EYES BLAZE
AS HE GLIMPSES HER WAITING WOMB
ALL RIPE & HOT – HER PHOENIX TOMB
A FIERCE ALCHEMICAL FURANCE –
BAKED IN THE LION FIRE
OF TETRAMORPH ANGELS
JOHN BARLEYCORN MUST DIE
GRIND THE GRAIN
TO MAKE THE BREAD & BEER

MOULDED CHRYSOKOLLA –
THE KNEADED WICKERMAN
FULFILLS THE SACRIFICE
& SITS UPON HER ALTAR –
NEXT TO BRAIDED CORN DOLLIES
& MOIST CAKE

AT THE TOP OF THE HILL –
THE SUN
COVERED WITH PITCH & TAR
& TIED TO THE SPIKED WHEEL OF CATHERINE…
IS SET AFLAME –
THE BLAZING DISK ROLLS IN IMMOLATION
TO IT’S DECLINE

BURN THE OLD STRAW EFFIGY
AT THE FUNERAL GAMES
TO BLESS THE FIRST GRAINS

WATCH SOTHIS RISE –
MORNING FIRST SCORCHER
CELESTIAL JACKAL
HERALD OF THE NEW YEAR –

FLOOD THE FIELDS
WITH YOUR SCINTILLATING SERUM

& WE MEET ONCE AGAIN
ONCE AGAIN, ONCE AGAIN
IN A YEAR & A DAY
TO BEHEAD THE LOAF
& EAT…

~hag

***

“Bringing in the Sheaves” – Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness, sowing in the noontide and the dewy eve: Now begins the harvest and the time of reaping, we shall come rejoicing bringing in the sheaves. Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, we shall come rejoicing bringing in the sheaves. Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, we shall come rejoicing bringing in the sheaves.

So perhaps you’d like to bake a loaf of bread on Lammas. If you’ve never made bread before, this is a good time to start. Honor the source of the flour as you work with it: remember it was once a plant growing on the mother Earth. If you have a garden, add something you’ve harvested–herbs or onion or corn–to your bread. If you don’t feel up to making wheat bread, make corn bread. Or gingerbread people. Or popcorn. What’s most important is intention. All that is necessary to enter sacred time is an awareness of the meaning of your actions.

 

Shape the dough in the figure of a man or a woman & give your grain-person a name. If he’s a man, you could call him Lugh, the Sun-King, or John Barleycorn, or the Pillsbury Dough Boy, or Adonis or Osiris or Tammuz.

Pauline Campanelli in The Wheel of the Year suggests names for female figures: She of the Corn, She of the Threshing Floor, She of the Seed, She of the Great Loaf (these come from the Cyclades where they are the names of fertility figures), Freya (the Anglo-Saxon and Norse fertility Goddess who is also called the Lady & the Giver of the Loaf), the Bride (Celtic) and Ziva or Siva (the Grain Goddess of, the Ukraine, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia).

Another way to honor the Grain Goddess is to make a corn doll. This is a fun project to do with kids. Take dried-out corn husks and tie them together in the shape of a woman. She’s your visual representation of the harvest. As you work on her, think about what you harvested this year.

Give your corn dolly a name, perhaps one of the names of the Grain Goddess or one that symbolizes your personal harvest. Dress her in a skirt, apron & bonnet & give her a special place in your house. She is all yours till the spring when you will plant her with the new corn, returning to the Earth that which She has given to you.

“we shall come rejoicing”…

xox  ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

Kari Marie Olson

The Bridging Project – Between Life and Death from Soul to Soul
August 2, 2017 – 7:15 pm CST (8:15 pm EST)
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to our conversation with special guest Gisela Wielki.
 
Gisela Wielki was born and raised in Germany. Obtained her degree in early childhood education, followed by a three year study at the Seminary of the Christian Community in Stuttgart (ordained in 1970.) Gisela was sent to the New York Congregation in 1972, and then lived in Chicago from 2002 to 2010 as a one of the founding directors of the English speaking seminary. Gisela has spent many years working with children, youth and young adults in Christian Community summer camps, youth and young adult conferences
Please read to prepare for the session:
Our theme for the evening shall be multifaceted:
 
Death is not the final stage of life
There is no deathday without a birthday
What is death? Who is death?
Not so, death is not just an entry into a new state of consciousness.
Death and the significance of the body
Death and the building of a new body through Christ and with Christ
Pen and paper may be useful
 
Option 1. Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended)
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/762393301
Option 2. Call in using your telephone.
United States: +1 (312) 757-3129
Canada: +1 (647) 497-9350
Access Code: 762-393-301
Please join us!
Agenda
7:15 Welcome and introductions
7:18 Verse
7:20 Introduce guest speaker
7:25 Guest Speaker: Gisela Wielki (50 minutes) 8:15 Q&A – Please state your name, location before asking a question
8:28 Close with verse

 

***

The Central Regional Council is hosting a Bridging to the ‘Great American Eclipse’ in St. Louis – August 19-22, 2017 

Speaking from Soul to Soul with the Solar Eclipse At the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Motherhouse, St. Louis, Missouri August 19, 5 PM CST through August 21, 5pm CST

Read the article from Das Goetheanum

RETREAT CONTENT: At this Central Regional retreat, we take The ‘Bridging Project’ into the realm of ‘Speaking with the Stars’. In the life between death and re-birth the human being is engaged in an intimate conversation with the ‘Stars’. We will prepare for, view and work to hold the light during the ‘Great American Solar Eclipse’, which will sweep from West to East across all of America, and will be visible in the St. Louis area on Monday August 21st 2017. Through the social arts of folk eurythmy, song, study, color, meditation, and an interactive pageant*, we will engage with the spiritual significance of this powerful cosmic and earthly event. Afterward we will process, share and continue the conversation, working to understand the mysteries of the will. 

click here for a List of possible PDF activities to do around the Solar Eclipse

RETREAT LOCATION: The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Motherhouse is located just south of downtown St. Louis, Missouri, overlooking the Mississippi River(https://www.csjsl.org/motherhouse-services/take-a-tour.php). On Monday, we will travel to a TBD park or nature area about one hour south of St. Louis to experience the full solar eclipse, returning to The Motherhouse in the late afternoon.

TRANSPORTATION: Transportation is at the discretion of the participants (not included in retreat cost). The planning team will try to facilitate ride sharing opportunities if you request our assistance.  The closest airport is Lambert-St. Louis International Airport (Code: STL) ( http://flystl.com/)

LODGING PLANS: The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Motherhouse has 8 single and 2 double rooms available for the CRC conference. A few rooms have private bathrooms, and there are several shared bathrooms across the hall from the bedrooms. Rooms will be assigned on a first-registration basis to conference participants. If capacity allows, we will try to accommodate additional participants, whether at Carondelet or at local members’ homes.

MEALS: Meals will be provided by the Sisters of Carondelet during the fixed times listed below. Conference participants not staying at The Motherhouse are also able to order meals through this registration form. Vegan, vegetarian, non-dairy and gluten-free diets can be accommodated if requested in advance. Coffee, tea and ice water will be provided. Breakfast: 7:30 AM – 8:30 AM $7 Lunch: 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM $10 Dinner: 5:15 AM – 6:15 PM $11

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The Sisters of Carondelet are environmentally conscious, and no disposable water bottles are allowed in the property (but re-usable bottles are allowed)  Additional information will be provided to registered participants in July

click here to register