4 May 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: New Moon occurs at 5:46 pm CDT. At its New phase, the Moon crosses the sky with the Sun & so remains hidden in our star’s glare.

Head outside late this evening & you can’t miss Jupiter. The giant planet rises shortly after 11 pm & climbs highest in the south around 4 am. The Benevolent King is the brightest point of light in the sky in the constellation Ophiuchus, until Venus rises during twilight.

Vega is the brightest star in the northeast late these evenings. Look to Vega’s upper left for Eltanin, the nose of Draco the Dragon. Closer above & upper left of Eltanin are the three fainter stars of Draco’s stick-figure head, also called the Lozenge. Draco always points his nose to Vega no matter in what part of the sky we see them. He seems awfully curious about it. Do dragons eat jewels?

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY – Past/Present/Future:

250 AD – Feast day of St. Florian the patron of Upper Austria, chimney sweeps; soapmakers, & firefighters. The “Florian Principle” (known in German language areas as “Sankt-Florians-Prinzip”) is named after a somewhat ironic prayer to Saint Florian: “O heiliger Sankt Florian, verschon’ mein Haus, zünd’ and’re an”, equivalent to “O Holy St. Florian, please spare my house, set fire to another one”. This saying is used in German much like the English “not in my back yard. The name Florian is considered synonymous with fireman in the German speaking world. In some cases call for a fireman will actually be spoken as calls for Florian.

1493 – The Division of the world: The Spanish-born Pope Alexander VI decreed in a Papal Bull that all lands west & south of a pole-to-pole line one hundred leagues west & south should belong to Spain. Portugal objected because its status & rights had been omitted & overlooked. King John II of Portugal began negotiations directly with King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella of Spain to push the line west & allow him to lay claim to lands discovered east of it. The result was the Treaty of Tordesillas.

1875 – Birthday of Hermann Beckh a pioneering German Tibetologist & prominent promoter of anthroposophy.

Due to his unusual memory skills, & his many interests & talents, his peers encouraged him towards law. It became clear to him that he was not made out to be a judge when he had to impose a fine on a poor married couple for stealing wood. He paid the couple’s fine out of his own pocket & left his position.

He later took up the study of oriental languages, Indology, & Tibetology. In 1907, he received his doctorate with a thesis on Kalidasa’s poem Meghaduta.

In 1911, he met Rudolf Steiner & Friedrich Rittelmeyer, which led to his intensive study of Steiner’s work. On Christmas Day, 1912, he became a member of the Anthroposophical Society.

In 1916, Beckh was drafted into military service, shortly after he published two volumes about the Buddha & his teachings. Stationed in the Balkans, he was called to work in the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Due to his task, he learned the Scandinavian languages in addition to: English, French, Italian, Classical Greek & Latin, Hebrew, Egyptian, Sanskrit, Tibetan & Old Persian.

From 1920 onwards, he worked as a lecturer of anthroposophy. In March 1922, he joined the Circle of Priests of The Christian Community & worked until his death as a priest, seminary teacher, lecturer, independent researcher & writer. In 1928, “Mark’s Gospel: The Cosmic Rhythm” was published, in which he related the narration of the gospel of Mark to the path of the sun through the twelve zodiac signs. In Beckh’s exposition, Mark’s gospel could be understood more in connection with the “earthly” signs seen in the planets, & John’s gospel more in connection with the “stellar” zodiac  of the fixed stars. At the time of The Mystery of Golgotha the planets & the constellations were together, not separate as they are now, due to the progression of the equinoxes.  In the Introduction to the sequel, “The Cosmic Rhythm, the Secrets of the Stars & Earth in the Gospel of John” (1930), Beck favorably mentioned Wilhelm Kaiser’s “Die geometrischen Vorstellungen in der Astronomie” (1928), & referred to The Novices of Sais, of Novalis.  Beckh died in Stuttgart, in 1937.

~   ~   ~

(POD )Poem Of the Day)

~My heart pulses with power
In the balance of the elements
Beatbeatbeat
I am the eagle in the light of the Sun
My wings beat in time to my thoughts…
I am a Taurus Bull in the pleasure glade
Glad am I – the thoughts that love felt
I fly to the far edge of sky
I rest in the deep folds of earth
I am a child of eternity
I am Free
~hag

~   ~   ~

From the Esoteric Lessons Part II: Berlin, October 11, 1911

“We know that the physical world is only an inverted mirror image of the astral world.

 A very important meditation to make the words “The world is only maya” effective is the following: Everything is really there in reverse.

What we see from above downwards is really there from below upwards.

A plant’s root is above and the flower down below.

The starry heavens we have before us is the result of spiritual beings who are really active behind us.

Any sound that’s received by the left ear comes from the right.

We must become familiar with these facts and also with complementary colors. If someone has a lot of red spots imagine that they’re green, or imagine that projecting limbs are cavities. One imagines the green in a plant as reddish purple and a brown root as dark blue.

One should permeate all of these exercises with reverence and devotion. That’s the feeling with which we can hope to approach the world’s Godhead; otherwise God remains an abstraction to mere thinking.

If we glow through our thinking with reverence, devotion and humility, we may hope to penetrate the spiritual world”.  ~Rudolf Steiner

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Tuesday 7 May 2019 in Ann Arbor Michigan

& also

Sat. 25 May 2019 –  7 pm – 9 pm in Chicago

Climbing Jacobs Ladder: Celebrating the Feast of Ascension

Leading Thoughts & original art-collage projections with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Social Art with Nancy Melvin

$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged

Read about this year’s interesting ‘Easter Paradox’ – A Cosmic Wake Up Call: The Easter Paradox of 2019

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The Karma Project  A Western Approach to Reincarnation & Karma May 8, 2019 – 7:15 pm CST (8:15 pm EST)View this email in your browser

The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to a presentation on the psychological understanding of karma, with special guests Drs. Roberta Nelson and David Tresemer. Guidance – and challenge – from Rudolf Steiner (August 3, 1924): “If we want to experience our karma in a comfortable way — it will surely take vengeance on us in one way or another … to be anthroposophists we must be able to observe our own experience of karma with constant wide-awake attention.”

Roberta Nelson is Faculty Chair in the 3-year programs offered by the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology (AAP). She has a doctorate in Counselor Education that qualifies her to supervise, educate, and counsel. In addition, Roberta is dual licensed as a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) as well as a Licensed Addiction Counselor (LAC) in the state of North Dakota. She has other trainings and certifications in Psychosynthesis, EMDR, NVC, and other modalities.   David Tresemer is President of AAP. He has a doctorate in psychology from Harvard. He has written about various aspects of anthroposophy applied to issues in our world, the most relevant for this webinar being contributing to and editing of The Counselor: As If Soul and Spirit Matter (to which Roberta Nelson was a major contributor) and Slow Counseling, as well as quarterly columns in Lilipohmagazine. Our approach on May 8: An anthroposophic psychology must take seriously the different functions of body, soul, and spirit. Spirit—light, freedom, beyond time and space; Physical Body—vehicle for experience and expression; Soul—the mediator. Karma—held as precious in Spirit, stamped into the Physical Body, and worked in Soul. Whereas the Spirit sings in light and freedom, the Soul learns through darkness and constraints, through struggles. The anthroposophic notion of karma helps us understand how we can wrestle with our own being, transforming through experience.   Audio-video: We will have some images on screen, though we will describe these to those who join by telephone. PREPARATION: Please have a pen and blank paper. If you have chalk-based pastels, please have those ready as well.  Audioconference Details   Option 1.  Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended): https://zoom.us/j/689514145   Option 2.  Call in using your telephone. United States: (646) 558-8656 or: (669) 900-6833 Access Code: 689-514-145   Please join us!Agenda (Central Time)   7:15  Welcome and introductions 7:18  Verse 7:20  Introduce guest speaker 7:25  Guest Speakers: Drs. Roberta Nelson & David Tresemer (45 minutes) 8:10  Q&A – Please state your name, location before asking a question 8:28  Close with verse

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Sunday 19 May 2019, 2 pm – 4 pm- Social Sculpture Workshop around the ‘URPFLANZE’ with Victoria Martin. More details to follow

$20 for art supplies + Snacks to Share Encouraged 

for more info. contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

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Whitsun: A Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Sunday 2 June 2019 at the Branch 2 pm – 4 pm

also

10 am – 1 pm Saturday 8 June 2019 -4804 Sewanee Road, Nashville, TN 37220. for more info. contact Cathy Green cgreen@grasslandaquatics.com

also

12 Noon Potluck, Program 1 pm -4 pm Whitsunday 9 June 2019, In Knoxville, TN. for more info. contact William Rogers wmerogers@gmail.com

also

7 pm – 10 pm 11 June 2019, Ashville, TN. for more info. contact Marnie Muller 

Eurythmy: AUM = A – I stand for myself, U- I stand for humanity, M – I stand for Life

Social Sculpture: Steiner’s ‘Blue Dot Exercise’: Through Art, the bridge between science & spirit, we warm the ‘I’, to open the heart, in support of healthy community.

Leading Thoughts with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg*

What are my gifts-What are my tools? How can I place them in right relationship within the social realm? How can I hone them to strengthen and enhance the world?

Enter the Labyrinth of Vitae Sophia: Human hearts, once warmed, can rise up to meet the source of wisdom, like flowers turning toward the sun.

Living into the Foundation Stone of Love: How can we take our individual Inner Whitsun & expand it, into what Steiner calls the “World Festival of Knowledge” a path leading from ‘Sprit Recollection’, to ‘Sprit Sensing’, to ‘Sprit Beholding’?

*Hazel Archer-Ginsberg is the founder of the website and blog Reverse Ritual – Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year (www.reverseritual.com). She is an Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Trans-denominational Minister, and “Anthroposopher.” She works as the Festivals Coordinator & Council Member of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch as well as with the Traveling Speakers Program, and she serves on the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society.

Read about this year’s interesting ‘Easter Paradox’ – A Cosmic Wake Up Call: The Easter Paradox of 2019

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