Johfra Bosschart
4th Holy Night: Feast of St. John, Constellation of Sagittarius, Centaur/Archer (ruling the hips & thighs) The Sphere of the Archai, Principalities, Spirits of Personality
The Greek word Archai literally means ‘Beginnings’. Rudolf Steiner gives as the German equivalent Urbeginne: Ur-beginnings, First Beginnings, Primal Beginnings. They are the Beings who attained the human stage at the beginning of our evolutionary cycle, on Old Saturn. Their guidance can be illustrated thru the example of the child overcoming the forces that pull us toward the earth, moving from the crawling stage, learning to stand upright, & then walking – a victory of our human nature over the animal nature. In Dr. Steiner’s lectures on the Apocalypse of St. John, they are described as ‘The eldest of the ‘Elders’ of mankind.
This relates to the 1st of the pre-earthly deeds of Christ, made in connection with the Nathan Soul in the realm of the Archai. This sacrifice occurred in the Lemuria epoch when humanity was 1st assuming an upright position. The counter force to this uprightness disconnected human beings from the spiritual forces of the earth, making it possible for adversarial powers working against the true path of development, to bring disarray to the 12 sense organs. Christ had to descend from his lofty heights to overcome this threat, working thru the Nathan Soul who later incarnated as Jesus of the Luke Gospel, to harmonize the forces of the 12 Zodiac.
Then on Old Sun, the Archai were connected with the forces of thinking in relation to the physical brain. Now, their task is to bestow on humanity the forces necessary for ego-consciousness to arise thru thought, signified by the Archers arrow within the bow. Another name for the Archai is ‘Spirits of Personality’ since Ego consciousness is individualized to become the personality.
Humanity will have the possibility of gaining something of the impulses of Spirit-Man when the point of the Spring Equinox moves into the region of the Archer – revealed simultaneously with its counter-image – the ‘War of All against All’. At that time humanity will divide into 2 main ‘races’ – those that will hold the animal qualities of the Centaur & those that stand upright, setting the arrow of thought into motion as the Archer.
The imagination of the arrow that has been consciously released from the bow is a picture of the human will directed towards a definite purpose. The final aim of the whole of earthly evolution is the attainment of the Vulcan condition – when humanity will rise to that plane on which the Spirits of Personality -The Archai – stand at the present time.
Are we willing to develop our aim in service of that sublime Christ-Revelation which germinates in the Earth, & works from the highest spiritual realms, directing our highest intentions for inner development in order to guide humanity to this mighty impulse?
Jane Gadd
Virtue: Control of speech & thinking (minding one’s tongue) becomes a feeling for the truth
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
“The historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence.” ~T.S. Eliot
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Feast Day of St. John the apostle. Rudolf Steiner speaks of an earlier incarnation as Hiram (GA 93, 264,265)
5th Century – Feast day of Saint Nicarete a woman of Nicomedia who became a saint as a disciple of St. John Chrysostom. She left her home specifically to study theology & practice devotion & care for the poor in Constantinople. She became a follower of John Chrysostom & worked as a physician as well as a healer for the poor. She cured John Chrysostom of a stomach ailment. Later, when Chrysostom was sent into exile from Constantinople, she went with him
537 – The Hagia Sophia is completed
1521 – The Zwickau prophets arrive in Wittenberg disturbing the peace & preaching the Apocalypse. Philip Melanchthon cannot silence them. Martin Luther is being held in protective custody at the Wartburg castle at this time. He is later released & is able, by his preaching, to regain the peace
1571 – Birthday of Johannes Kepler, German mathematician, astronomer, & astrologer. “Johannes Kepler was as much a natural scientist of an earlier time as of a later one. He drew his thoughts from external observation, but in his inner experience he had an absolute feeling that spiritual Beings are there when man is receiving his thoughts from Nature. Kepler felt himself to be partly an Initiate, and for him it was a matter of course that he experienced his abstract building up of the universe artistically.It is extraordinarily valuable, from a scientific point of view, to immerse oneself in the progress human thought has made through such a man as Kepler. But one is more deeply stirred when one steeps oneself in Kepler’s life of soul, in that soul-life which in later times did not work with such intensity and inwardness in any other natural scientist, certainly not in any authoritative teacher of mankind at large. For between the fifteenth and the nineteenth centuries the feeling was entirely lost that through thought the human soul is brought into connection with the divine-spiritual.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Younger Generation: Lecture VIII, 1922 see also Christ and the Spiritual World: The Search for the Holy Grail, 1914
1822 – Birthday of Louis Pasteur, French chemist & microbiologist
1918 – The Great Poland Uprising against the Germans begins
1929 – Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin orders the “liquidation of the kulaks as a class”
1929 – Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin orders the “liquidation of the kulaks as a class”
1935 – Regina Jonas is ordained as the first female rabbi in the history of Judaism
1939 – The Erzincan earthquake shakes eastern Turkey. At least 32,700 people were killed
1945 – The International Monetary Fund is created with the signing of an agreement by 29 nations
1948 – Deathday of Marie Steiner von Sivers – wife of Rudolf Steiner & one of his closest colleagues. She made a great contribution to the development of anthroposophy, particularly in her work on the renewal of the performing arts – speech & drama, & the new art of eurythmy. She was also chief editor & publisher of Rudolf Steiner’s literary estate.
Marie von Sivers was born to an aristocratic family in Włocławek, Poland, then part of Imperial Russia. She was well-educated & was fluent in Russian, German, English, French & Italian. She studied theater & recitation with several teachers in Europe.
Marie von Sivers “appeared one day” at one of Rudolf Steiner’s early lectures in 1900. In the autumn of 1901, she posed the question to Steiner, “Would it be possible to create a spiritual movement based on European tradition and the impetus of Christ?” Rudolf Steiner later reported: With this, I was given the opportunity to act in a way that I had only previously imagined. The question had been put to me, and now, according to spiritual laws, I could begin to answer it.
Marie von Sivers collaborated with Steiner for the rest of his life & carried his work beyond his death in 1925 until her own death in 1948. She accompanied him & helped him as secretary, translator, editor, & organizer of his lecture tours & other public activities. She assisted Steiner’s work with her own resources & in 1908 founded the Philosophical-Theosophical Press (later Philosophical-Anthroposophical) to publish Steiner’s work.
Starting in 1912, Rudolf Steiner developed the art of eurythmy. With Marie’s guidance, it developed in three directions: as a stage art, as an integral part of Waldorf pedagogy, &as a therapeutic method. Under her tutelage, two schools of eurythmy were founded, in Berlin & in Dornach, Switzerland.
Marie von Sivers, made a study of purely artistic speaking. She gave introductory poetry recitals at Steiner’s lectures & assisted him in the development of the four Mystery Dramas (1910-1913). With her help, Steiner conducted several speech & drama courses with the aim of raising these forms to the level of true art.
On 24 December 1914, von Sivers married Rudolf Steiner. Beginning in 1914, Steiner drew up a succession of wills naming Marie Steiner-von Sivers as heir to his entire work & property & his successor in the leadership of the anthroposophical movement.
In GA 12, 27, 126 1910 Rudolf Steiner speaks of her earlier incarnations as Hypatia & Abertus Magnus
1978 – Spain becomes a democracy after 40 years of fascist dictatorship
1979 – The Soviet Union invades the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
2008 –The Gaza War, also known as Operation Cast Lead or the Gaza Massacre. Israel launches a three-week armed conflict against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip & Israel
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