Monthly Archives: March 2020

Return of the Swallows

Kerry Darling

For those of us who approach things by the Goldilocks Principle (not too little, not too much), the time of Equinox is practically perfect. TODAY we get that glorious balance of day & night all over the world- from the equator extending to the North & South poles- with just about 12 hours of each. (Now if only folks could come out of hibernation like the bear)

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Ankita Goenka

For thousands of years, at the Vernal Equinox, human beings have been celebrating rebirth. Cultures & countries around the world mark the Spring Equinox with various holidays:

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In Persia (known now as Iran), today is Nowruz, which means ‘New Day’ in Farsi – The start of their New Year, & is one of humanity’s oldest celebrations. More than 300 million people celebrate Nowruz. This includes Iran as well as places that have felt Persian influence through the ages: the Balkans, the Black Sea Basin, the Caucasus, Central Asia & the Middle East.

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On the other side of Asia from Iran is Japan, another country with a public holiday, with roots in the ancient Shintoism religion. The belief that every natural object possesses a spiritual force is honored with the advent of spring, as trees & flowers thrive. To celebrate, people will hold family reunions, visit shrines & give offerings to cherry blossoms & other natural wonders.

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Holi: is a Hindu-arrival-of-spring holiday. Another very old festival. The first known mention of it is in a fourth century poem. It’s a national holiday in India, celebrated on the day after the full moon in the Hindu month of Phalguna, so it’s a movable feast. The holiday is known for the brightly colored powders that are thrown into the air covering everyone.

Ninetta Sombart

The Vernal Equinox sets the rhythm for our movable feast of Easter, which is the first Sunday after the 1st Full Moon that occurs on or after the Spring Equinox. That allows Easter to fall anywhere from March 22 to April 25. This year, Easter Sunday is April 12th 2020.

On this day I like to contemplate the ‘Representative of Humanity’, Rudolf Steiner’s sculpture holding the balance.

Our ancestors had a keen awareness of the seasons & the movements of the Sun & stars. They built initiation sites as giant calendars, often aligned to prominently display shafts of sunlight during solstices & equinoxes:

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Chichen Itza, Mexico: This complex of Mayan ruins on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico is popular all year but especially during the equinoxes. At the “El Castillo” pyramid dedicated to Kukulcán (or Quetzalcoatl), the late afternoon Sun creates the shadow illusion of a snake slowly sliding down the northern staircase. Thousands come here to witness this spectacle, & now this day has a carnival atmosphere, with music, dancers & more.

Image result for Mnajdra Temples, Malta:

Mnajdra Temples, Malta: On the Mediterranean island of Malta, the Mnajdra complex consists of three temples. The buildings are estimated to date from 3600 B.C. to 2500 B.C. During the equinoxes, the rising Sun is in exact alignment with the main doorway of the lower temple, which allows sunlight to fill the main corridor into the innermost altar. It’s another highly celebrated event on the island.

Image result for Stonehenge, sun England:

Stonehenge, England: The most famous Neolithic structure in England, if not the world, is the gathering place for pagans, druids & well everyone, during spring equinox. You can watch the same awe-inspiring, clockwork sunrise that our ancient ancestors witnessed thousands of years ago.

Image result for Newgrange (Brú na Boinne)

In Ireland, the Spring Equinox was celebrated long before the arrival of the Celtic tribes. The best known of the ancient Irish equinox temples is Knowth, which is near to Newgrange (Brú na Boinne). Knowth has a 100-foot long passage that accepts the Sun on the morning of the Spring & Autumn Equinox. A second & older stone cairn equinox temple is found at Longhcrew & is given the name Cairn T. Both Knowth & Cairn follow a sunbeam on the morning of the Equinoxes to enter a passageway lighting up the sacred geometry on a back stone inside the temple. This precise timing from a period of over 6 thousand years ago still works today.

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With the Vernal Equinox, we are at the mid-point of the Waxing Year. The spark of light that was born at Winter Solstice has reached maturity, & from this point forward, the days grow longer than the nights. This is the time of full Dawn, 6:00 am on the Year Clock, & so it was the time of the festivals of the Grecian Goddess, Eostre, & the Germanic Ostara, both Goddesses of Dawn. (It is from these Bright Ladies that the modern Easter holiday takes its name).

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This is also the time of Kore’s return from the Underworld, where She (as Persephone) has ruled throughout the Winter. It is also the time of the celebration of the rebirth of Adonis the Beautiful.

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The Feast of the Annunciation, occurring on the fixed calendar day of March 25,also known as Lady Day, the Feast of the Incarnation (Festum Incarnationis), Conceptio Christi (Christ’s Conception), commemorates the visit of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, during which he informed her that she would be the mother of the Son of God. Gabriel’s salutation: “Hail, Mary full of grace, the LORD is with thee” (Luke 1:28; gratia plena Dominus tecum), & Mary’s response to God’s will, “be it done to me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38; fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum). The “angelic salutation” is the origin of the Hail Mary prayer & the Angelus; the second part of the prayer comes from the salutation of Saint Elizabeth to Mary at the Visitation.

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The Spring Equinox is also associated with ancient mystery schools who had special initiatory rites at dawn, known as: Alban Eilir, Eostar, Eostre, Ostara, Ostra, (the origins for the name Easter) & the Rites of Spring.

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Michelle H. Taylor

For us it’s a time for balance, a time to honor & celebrate the greening of the Earth. This year is the earliest date for the Equinox in 124 years. Yes ‘Spring Fever’ may be extra potent this year, & our world situation is calling us to do some ‘Spring Cleaning’. May we avail ourselves to the growing sunshine, for healing, & a much needed morale boost.

~hag

***

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

George de la Tour

Feast Day of Joseph the Carpenter, husband of Mary the Mother of the Matthew Jesus.

Image result for return of the swallows painting
Gerry Hillber

Annual Return of the Swallows: The American cliff swallow is a migratory bird that spends its winters in Goya, Argentina, but makes the 6,000-mile trek north to the warmer climes of the American Southwest in springtime. According to legend, the birds, who have visited the San Juan Capistrano area every summer for centuries, first took refuge at the Mission when an irate innkeeper began destroying their mud nests. The Mission’s location near two rivers made it an ideal location for the swallows to nest, as there was a constant supply of the insects on which they feed, & the young birds are well-protected inside the ruins of the old stone church.

Each year the Fiesta de las Golondrinas is held in the City of San Juan Capistrano. Presented by the San Juan Capistrano Fiesta Association, the Fiesta de las Golondrinas is a week-long celebration of this auspicious event culminated by the Swallows Day Parade & Mercado, street fair. Tradition has it that the main flock arrives on March 19 (Saint Joseph’s Day), & flies south on Saint John’s Day, October 23.

When the swallows come back to Capistrano
That’s the day you promised to come back to me
When you whispered, “Farewell,” in Capistrano
’twas the day the swallows flew out to sea
— excerpt from “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano” by Leon René

In recent years, the swallows have failed to return in large flocks to the Mission. The reduction has been connected to increased development of the area, including many more choices of nesting place & fewer insects to eat.

Image result for Christiane Wilhelmine Sophie von Kühn painting

1797 – Death Day of Christiane Wilhelmine Sophie von Kühn (March 17, 1782 – March 19, 1797) the love interest & eventual fiancée of the German Romantic poet & philosopher Friedrich von Hardenberg, known to many simply as Novalis. Her image famously appears in Novalis’ Hymns to the Night.

***

No photo description available.

Greetings friends – The Central Regional Council has just scheduled a Zoom Study Group Meeting for April 8th on the Karma of Epidemics (details below) ALL are welcome to join us.


Our Easter Retreat ‘KNOW THYSELF – Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology’ – a combined effort of the CRC & AAP is POSTPONED.

We will continue to evaluate the world situation & will revisit this potent working in late Summer or early Autumn.

If you have registered already, we will process refunds beginning this week. Let Alberto Loya (aloyavaca@peoplepc.com) know if you prefer to re-use your registration fee for the re-scheduled event.

We will use our next CRC Zoom Meeting to explore together the spiritual psychology & karma of epidemics.

April 8th 2020, 7:15 pm CST (see audio conference details below)

“Imagine a people which was composed entirely of liars, the astral plane would be populated solely by the corresponding demons and these demons would be able to express themselves in a constitutional tendency to epidemics. Thus there is a certain species of bacilli who are the carriers of infectious diseases; these beings are the progeny of the lies told by human beings; they are nothing else than physically embodied demons generated by lies.” (GA 99 – L.6)

Theosophy of the Rosicrucian – The Law of Destiny – Schmidt Number: S-1539
Lecture VI https://wn.rsarchive.org/GA/GA0099/19070530p01.html

Audio Conference Details:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/451374910

Meeting ID: 451 374 910

One tap mobile
+13126266799,,451374910# US (Chicago)
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Dial by your location
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Meeting ID: 451 374 910
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/adZ7jft0hb

If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@peoplepc.com
Let us stand together with courage in this now, as we look to our future with equanimity, holding all that comes before us as being guided by a divine directive waiting to be revealed by our patient spiritual investigation.

Many of us are doing constructive things like the Hallelujah in Eurythmy, & The Foundation Stone Meditation at Sunrise (or anytime) every morning to create a high vibration of Love & Light – Please join us for the healing of all.

Yours in service ~The CRC team: Marianne Fieber, Alberto Loya, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton

art by Daniel Ospina

***

Ara Isaakyan

‘The Three Days’, an On-Line Easter Festival with the Central Reginal Council

Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, all three days: April 9-12, 2020 from 3 pm – 4:15 pm CDT

We will be taking up indications from Emil Bock’s ‘The Three Years” to artistically explore the Spiritual Science of ‘The Paschal Triduum’: Following the Cosmic Sun on the ultimate path of initiation, from the Free-Will Sacrifice, through the Conquering of Death, into the Resurrection of the New Sun.

How can we as human beings in community bring a practical understanding to these mysteries?

Join us as we strive to gain the forces needed to do our part in furthering this impulse in world evolution.

FREE – ALL are Welcome – Zoom Call and other details to follow

For more info. contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@peoplepc.com

May Hope Spring Eternal –

The CRC – Marianne Fieber, Alberto Loya, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton 

***


The Sacred Gateway: Online Conference

Conscious Living, Conscious Dying,
and the Journey Beyond

ONLINE
APRIL 17-19, 2020 

Bring a new consciousness to your own life and death

  • Support those who are crossing and who have crossed over 
  • Expand your practice and knowledge of working with the dying
  • Learn more about the soul’s journey from death to new life 

Through interactive workshops, biogrpahy work, keynote discussions with Rev. Patrick Kennedy and Dr. Melinda Toney,  workshops with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox, and more, as well as experiential and artistic activities, we will consciously explore the spiritual and practical aspect of human life and death. 

Conference Fees:

  • $200 Supporter Level/Group Rate(3+ People) Includes Conference Live Links and Recordings, Two Sacred Gateway Webinar Series ($80 value), Resources & Podcast Links and supports this conference and other events like it! 
  • $150 Registration and Resource Package ~ Includes Conference Live Links and Recordings, Two Sacred Gateway Webinar Series ($80 value), Resources & Podcast Links 
  • $95 Regular Rate  Includes the entire Live Event + Recordings and Resources 
  • $45 Youth Rate (Age 35 and under) Includes the entire Live Event + Recordings and Resources
  • $45 Keynotes Only Live Keynotes + Recordings 

Click Here to Join the ASA!


Conference Schedule

All start times in Eastern Standard Time 
(Note: Workshops Subject to Additions/Minor Changes)

Friday, April 17

7:30pm-9pm Conference Opening and Keynote

True Living is Dying: The Life-Giving Power of Death Keynote Discussion and Q&A with Rev. Patrick Kennedy 

Saturday April 18 

11:00-11:45am Welcome, Introductions and Biography Work

11:45am-1:15pm Two-Day Themed Workshops (Choose one theme and attend Saturday, and Sunday) 

  • From Loss to Connection Through the Arts: Reading, Writing and Drawing with Marianne Dietzel and Maureen Flannery
  • The Lemniscate Journey: Exploring the Relationships in Our Lives from Birth to Death and Death to Rebirth Through Biography and Social Art with Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox
  • Giving Way to Grace: Chrysalis Emerging from Conscious Living and Conscious Dying with Melinda Toney, MD, Carole Shoaf End-Of-Life Doula and Katherine Blackburn, End-Of-Life Doula and Esoteric Christian Minister
  • Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn, and the evolution of Earth – Then and Now. with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. How do we look at the karmic connections that shape current events? Our work with those on the ‘Other-side of the Threshold’ can give us clues.

1:15-1:30pm Break

1:30-2:30pm Vigil Room Experience  

2:30-3:00pm Break

 3:00-4:30pm Topic Workshops

  • Acknowledging the End with Jolie Luba
  • After Deathcare as a Healing Art with Tischia Bluske

4:30-5:00pm Break

5:00-6:00pm Death & Healing Keynote Conversation with Dr. Melinda Toney 

6:15- 7:00pm Group Reflections and Closing

Sunday, April 19 

11:00-11:45am Welcome, Introductions and Biography Work

11:45-12:45 Consecrating our Dying Keynote with Patrick Kennedy

12:45-1:15 Break

1:15-2:30 Two-Day Themed Workshops

  • From Loss to Connection Through the Arts: Reading, Writing and Drawing with Marianne Dietzel and Maureen Flannery
  • The Lemniscate Journey: Exploring the Relationships in Our Lives from Birth to Death and Death to Rebirth Through Biography and Social Art with Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox
  • Giving Way to Grace: Chrysalis Emerging from Conscious Living and Conscious Dying with Melinda Toney, MD, Carole Shoaf End-Of-Life Doula and Katherine Blackburn, End-Of-Life Doula and Esoteric Christian Minister
  • Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn, and the evolution of Earth – Then and Now. with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. Explore the ancient origins of the many cultural expressions that work with, celebrate, & honor our beloved dead. Prepare the way for the Unborn, and for the future of humanity. Become inspired to Renew or Create your own Tradition. Through Spiritual Science learn to find your destiny, and meet your karma. Prepare for your own conscious crossing into the journey between death and rebirth, by asking questions like: Who have I been? Who am I now? Who do I want to become?

2:30-2:45pm Break

2:45-3:30pm Green Burial Exploration and Conference Closing

Full Conference
$200 Supporter
$150 Resource Package (Includes 3 Webinar Series $80 value, Podcast Links and Conference Live Links and Recordings)
$95 Standard ASA Member Rate
$45 Youth Rate


CLICK HERE TO REGISTER! 

***

Our dear Dr. Steiner said: ‘It is not the Christ we lack, but the knowledge of Christ, the Sophia of Christ, the Isis of Christ we are lacking.’ In ‘Ancient Myths and the New Isis Mystery: Their Meaning and Connection with Evolution’ Lecture 3; given in Dornach, 6 January 1918, by Rudolf Steiner; we hear how the power of ‘The Word, the power of The Logos’, must be resurrected through our striving to activate the Wisdom of Anthroposophia within each of us. Join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg for a powerful presentation Lifting the Veil of the New Isis-Sophia, to bring Light to Love.

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~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Saturday, 30 May, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm Groh Farm, 135 Temple Rd, Wilton, NH

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.

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?

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’?

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.  

$30 suggested donation at the door, with potluck lunch to follow
(please bring a dish to share) RSVP deb@anthroposophy.org Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire

***

Also part of the tour 

3 June 2020 – a Round Table Discussion 7 pm – 9 pm on ‘The Sophia’ with John Bloom, Joan Sleigh, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg & Carrie Schuchardt  at The House of Peace in Ipswich, MA. 

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year.Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Trans-denominational Minister, ‘Anthroposopher’, working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, The Traveling Speakers Program, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society.

Whitsun 2020 Vitae Sophia

Éire go Brách

Image result for st pat as pagan
Image result for Éire go Brách
Éire go Brách (literally meaning “Ireland till the end of time”)
Image result for st. patrick

Traditions abound on St. Patrick’s Day, include the wearing of the green, & watching for leprechauns or otherwise communing with the nature elementals. St. Patrick’s Day originated, of course, in Ireland where it started out as a holy feast day & later as a symbol of Irish Nationalism. In America, St. Patrick’s Day was 1st celebrated as a holiday in 1737 in Boston. Even then, it was considered to be a secular holiday. Because of the influx of Irish immigrants into the United States, there are now actually more people of Irish descent in the U.S. than there are in Ireland. Due to this fact perhaps, the holiday has become more important in this country than it is in Ireland.

The story of St. Patrick tells us that he was born in Scotland around 373 AD. Most historians believe that his name was actually Maewyn, although he used the Roman name, Patricius or Patrick. His parents could be considered ‘pagan’ as they were ‘peasants’ = people of the land. While he was with his family in Wales, he was kidnapped & sold into slavery in Ireland. Some stories say he was 6 years old, some say 16.

Eventually he escaped his captors & fled to Gaul or France. It would appear that Patrick found his new faith of Christianity while in France. He claimed that God had given him visions, calling him to return to Ireland to convert the Irish from Paganism to Christianity. Patrick began to preach Christianity, denouncing Druidism in particular. Because of the politics at that time, & the power of the Druids in Ireland, Patrick was repeatedly put off.

So he began to incorporate pagan rituals, myths & beliefs into his Christian preaching. By the time of his death, he has merged many elements of Paganism & Christianity & set up monasteries staffed by Irish clergy trained in this blended wisdom.

His death on March 17, 461 AD, became a holy holiday in Ireland about a 1000 years later, & then it morphed into being an Irish national day of pride.

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It is the tiny 3 leaf shamrock which ties together St. Patrick & the Goddess Brigid. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Trinity. Yet, the 3 leaf shamrock had already long been a sacred plant to the Celts. It was believed that the shamrock symbolized the power of the Triple Goddess Brigid. As the Goddess of healing, Poetry & smith craft, a sacred fire was kept burning in her temple in Kildare to honor these 3 sacred gifts to the Irish. It was the Goddess Brigit who, after the long Irish winter, would bring back the spring & the lush fields of blooming shamrocks. At a later date, when the Catholic Church named Brigid as a Christian St. they built a convent over her shrine in Kildare. They also established a ritual called “The Day of the Christian Bonfire of the Celts.”

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This ritual was celebrated on the same day that the Druids had for many centuries set bonfires throughout the country in honor of the Goddess Brigid (around Feb 2= Imbolc). Catholic tradition also required that St. Brigid was to be venerated by the Irish, in the same manner that the Virgin Mary was throughout Europe. She was referred to as the mystic mother & bride of St. Patrick. So, when St. Patrick died on March 17, it became a celebration of honor to Brigid as well.

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St. Patrick was perhaps best known for driving the snakes out of Ireland. The fascinating thing about his feat is that, according to biologists, there have never been any snakes in Ireland as an indigenous species. Many scholars today believe this to be a symbol of Christianity driving out Paganism. One of the symbols of the Druids was the snake, but I see it as a symbol of transformation. My friends, the 1 thing we can always count on is: Change! May we all transform with grace.

Image result for st patrick's transforming snakes painting
Judith Shaw

17 March 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Spot the 2 Dog Star clusters under Sirius again tonight right after dark, high in the south. And in the early dawn of Wednesday the 18th Bella Luna forms a tight triangle with Jupiter & Mars over them!

Image result for Dog Star clusters under Sirius old star maps

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

763 – Birthday of Harun al-Rashid

Image result for Marcus Aurelius

180 – Deathday of Marcus Aurelius

Image result for animals running from fire in a forest painting

An interesting perspective on the Virus, shared to me by my dear Bill Rogers in TN, by Tomasz Kozera: I’ve read the open letter from Medical Section of Goetheanum advising about dealing with coronavirus. It says that the cases of disease need to be treated in the calm, reasonable way. In case of fever, wash your hands, stay home, limit contacts, except for the contact with your doctor. You can use Meteoreisen but we have no certainty it helps. Those are very reasonable advices, certainly worth to follow. And certainly, all the medical indications in these dramatic days need to be absolutely observed.

It’s perfectly clear however that there is still one crucial element about this disease unnoticed as aI think, which is quite obvious, though one needs to make some deeper intuitive effort to realise the entire significance of it. Coronavirus attacks lungs, the breathing system. It makes lungs calcified and concreted so that they cannot breathe anymore.

Breathing in and breathing out we exchange the airy substance with the universe. This is the constant exchange between the individual and universal. It proves in the most evident way that the individuality is the inherent part of the universe. Independent human being, detached from the world of nature and universe is the mere illusion. Why then do people behave and think like this communion of individual and universal were irrelevant?

This is the karma of materialism. When people alienate themselves from the nature and universe in their thinking and deeds, this alienation strikes back. The nature wants to say: If you people do not want to keep the inner communion of your soul and spirit with the nature and universe, this communion becomes impossible also on the bodily and biological level. This is the consequence, if you alienate yourself in your soul, the time comes when your body alienates from the nature, too. This is no coincidence, that the pandemics came soon after the fires in Australia, caused by the global warming inflicted by the human material activity and consumption, hostile to the world of nature (no matter what big corporations and oil companies propaganda says like there would be no human responsibility for the nature and its wellbeing). The fires significantly polluted the global airy substance, now the breathing becomes harder and the virus works to make it harder. The sufferings of the billion burned down animals are back on humanity.

We are not helpless however, spiritual forces of light and life are intensively active these days. There are ways to redeem the sins of humanity against nature and to restore the harmony between human beings and nature. Uniting with Christ forces of life in the spirit is not only the help we may rightly expect for ourselves, but also the inner responsibility to seek rescue for the world.
Realising and contemplating the close bounds of the individual self with the universal self is the way to bring the harmony on the level of life. When we think of ourselves as the part of all embracing universal self, we enter into the inner communion with the world of nature and universe. The body of nature is the body of Christ, when in our thoughts and feelings we unite with the world of nature, we unite with Christ. We are then no longer hostile to the nature and the nature is no longer hostile to us. The viruses then no longer have favorable conditions in our body, because the life forces of the universe and of Christ permeate the body with the forces of light, preventing it from hardening and alienating from the etheric substances of nature.

Here is the meditation on the individual and universal self, based on my recent spiritual considerations:
In the primeval times of evolution
In the living activity of cosmic dream
The individual self united with the universal self
Manifesting its being in the eternal being of the Sun
Radiating the forces of light and life in space
In the ethereal singing of planetary spheres
The individual self descended into the world of nature from the cosmic heights
To find her inner being in the stream of earthly evolution
In the transient being in the world of space and time
Christ descended into the stream of earthly evolution
To unite with the human being in the world of transience
To create anew the communion of the human soul with the cosmic soul
Christ, through your Death and Resurrection you redeemed the individual human soul
Make the intimate communion of individual and cosmic being resurrect in my Self
So that my soul may unite with the eternal being of universe
Within the ethereal singing of planetary spheres
So that my body may become one with the vast body of nature
In the mutual offering of the substances
In the sacred communion of the individual Self and the Self of the universe.

May the Christ forces of life and light permeate and protect you in these difficult days.

***

No photo description available.

Greetings friends – The Central Regional Council has just scheduled a Zoom Study Group Meeting for April 8th on the Karma of Epidemics (details below) ALL are welcome to join us.


Our Easter Retreat ‘KNOW THYSELF – Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology’ – a combined effort of the CRC & AAP is POSTPONED.

We will continue to evaluate the world situation & will revisit this potent working in late Summer or early Autumn.

If you have registered already, we will process refunds beginning this week. Let Alberto Loya (aloyavaca@peoplepc.com) know if you prefer to re-use your registration fee for the re-scheduled event.

We will use our next CRC Zoom Meeting to explore together the spiritual psychology & karma of epidemics.

April 8th 2020, 7:15 pm CST (see audio conference details below)

“Imagine a people which was composed entirely of liars, the astral plane would be populated solely by the corresponding demons and these demons would be able to express themselves in a constitutional tendency to epidemics. Thus there is a certain species of bacilli who are the carriers of infectious diseases; these beings are the progeny of the lies told by human beings; they are nothing else than physically embodied demons generated by lies.” (GA 99 – L.6)

Theosophy of the Rosicrucian – The Law of Destiny – Schmidt Number: S-1539
Lecture VI https://wn.rsarchive.org/GA/GA0099/19070530p01.html

Audio Conference Details:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/451374910

Meeting ID: 451 374 910

One tap mobile
+13126266799,,451374910# US (Chicago)
+16465588656,,451374910# US (New York)

Dial by your location
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US
+1 301 715 8592 US
Meeting ID: 451 374 910
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/adZ7jft0hb

If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@peoplepc.com
Let us stand together with courage in this now, as we look to our future with equanimity, holding all that comes before us as being guided by a divine directive waiting to be revealed by our patient spiritual investigation.

Many of us are doing constructive things like the Hallelujah in Eurythmy, & The Foundation Stone Meditation at Sunrise (or anytime) every morning to create a high vibration of Love & Light – Please join us for the healing of all.

Yours in service ~The CRC team: Marianne Fieber, Alberto Loya, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton

art by Daniel Ospina


The Sacred Gateway: Online Conference

Conscious Living, Conscious Dying,
and the Journey Beyond

ONLINE
APRIL 17-19, 2020 

Bring a new consciousness to your own life and death

  • Support those who are crossing and who have crossed over 
  • Expand your practice and knowledge of working with the dying
  • Learn more about the soul’s journey from death to new life 

Through interactive workshops, biogrpahy work, keynote discussions with Rev. Patrick Kennedy and Dr. Melinda Toney,  workshops with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox, and more, as well as experiential and artistic activities, we will consciously explore the spiritual and practical aspect of human life and death. 

Conference Fees:

  • $200 Supporter Level/Group Rate (3+ People) Includes Conference Live Links and Recordings, Two Sacred Gateway Webinar Series ($80 value), Resources & Podcast Links and supports this conference and other events like it! 
  • $150 Registration and Resource Package ~ Includes Conference Live Links and Recordings, Two Sacred Gateway Webinar Series ($80 value), Resources & Podcast Links 
  • $95 Regular Rate  Includes the entire Live Event + Recordings and Resources 
  • $45 Youth Rate (Age 35 and under) Includes the entire Live Event + Recordings and Resources
  • $45 Keynotes Only Live Keynotes + Recordings 

Click Here to Join the ASA!


Conference Schedule

All start times in Eastern Standard Time 
(Note: Workshops Subject to Additions/Minor Changes)

Friday, April 17

7:30pm-9pm Conference Opening and Keynote

True Living is Dying: The Life-Giving Power of Death Keynote Discussion and Q&A with Rev. Patrick Kennedy 

Saturday April 18 

11:00-11:45am Welcome, Introductions and Biography Work

11:45am-1:15pm Two-Day Themed Workshops (Choose one theme and attend Saturday, and Sunday) 

  • From Loss to Connection Through the Arts: Reading, Writing and Drawing with Marianne Dietzel and Maureen Flannery
  • The Lemniscate Journey: Exploring the Relationships in Our Lives from Birth to Death and Death to Rebirth Through Biography and Social Art with Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox
  • Giving Way to Grace: Chrysalis Emerging from Conscious Living and Conscious Dying with Melinda Toney, MD, Carole Shoaf End-Of-Life Doula and Katherine Blackburn, End-Of-Life Doula and Esoteric Christian Minister
  • Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn, and the evolution of Earth – Then and Now. with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. How do we look at the karmic connections that shape current events? Our work with those on the ‘Other-side of the Threshold’ can give us clues.

1:15-1:30pm Break

1:30-2:30pm Vigil Room Experience  

2:30-3:00pm Break

 3:00-4:30pm Topic Workshops

  • Acknowledging the End with Jolie Luba
  • After Deathcare as a Healing Art with Tischia Bluske

4:30-5:00pm Break

5:00-6:00pm Death & Healing Keynote Conversation with Dr. Melinda Toney 

6:15- 7:00pm Group Reflections and Closing

Sunday, April 19 

11:00-11:45am Welcome, Introductions and Biography Work

11:45-12:45 Consecrating our Dying Keynote with Patrick Kennedy

12:45-1:15 Break

1:15-2:30 Two-Day Themed Workshops

  • From Loss to Connection Through the Arts: Reading, Writing and Drawing with Marianne Dietzel and Maureen Flannery
  • The Lemniscate Journey: Exploring the Relationships in Our Lives from Birth to Death and Death to Rebirth Through Biography and Social Art with Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox
  • Giving Way to Grace: Chrysalis Emerging from Conscious Living and Conscious Dying with Melinda Toney, MD, Carole Shoaf End-Of-Life Doula and Katherine Blackburn, End-Of-Life Doula and Esoteric Christian Minister
  • Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn, and the evolution of Earth – Then and Now. with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. Explore the ancient origins of the many cultural expressions that work with, celebrate, & honor our beloved dead. Prepare the way for the Unborn, and for the future of humanity. Become inspired to Renew or Create your own Tradition. Through Spiritual Science learn to find your destiny, and meet your karma. Prepare for your own conscious crossing into the journey between death and rebirth, by asking questions like: Who have I been? Who am I now? Who do I want to become?

2:30-2:45pm Break

2:45-3:30pm Green Burial Exploration and Conference Closing

Full Conference
$200 Supporter
$150 Resource Package (Includes 3 Webinar Series $80 value, Podcast Links and Conference Live Links and Recordings)
$95 Standard ASA Member Rate
$45 Youth Rate


CLICK HERE TO REGISTER! 

***

Our dear Dr. Steiner said: ‘It is not the Christ we lack, but the knowledge of Christ, the Sophia of Christ, the Isis of Christ we are lacking.’ In ‘Ancient Myths and the New Isis Mystery: Their Meaning and Connection with Evolution’ Lecture 3; given in Dornach, 6 January 1918, by Rudolf Steiner; we hear how the power of ‘The Word, the power of The Logos’, must be resurrected through our striving to activate the Wisdom of Anthroposophia within each of us. Join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg for a powerful presentation Lifting the Veil of the New Isis-Sophia, to bring Light to Love.

Image result for the divine sophia painting

~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Saturday, 30 May, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm Groh Farm, 135 Temple Rd, Wilton, NH

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.

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?

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’?

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.  

$30 suggested donation at the door, with potluck lunch to follow
(please bring a dish to share) RSVP deb@anthroposophy.org Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire

***

Also part of the tour 

3 June 2020 – a Round Table Discussion 7 pm – 9 pm on ‘The Sophia’ with John Bloom, Joan Sleigh, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg & Carrie Schuchardt  at The House of Peace in Ipswich, MA. 

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year.Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Trans-denominational Minister, ‘Anthroposopher’, working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, The Traveling Speakers Program, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society.

Whitsun 2020 Vitae Sophia

Johanna von Keyserlingk: Vessel for the Etheric Christ

Beloved Friends – The Gospel of John reveals these words spoken by The Christ on Earth:

“..I am the way, the truth, and the life..” ~John 14:6

“..You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free..” ~John 8:32

“..When the Spirit of Truth comes, it will guide you into the full truth..” ~John 16:13

“..Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth.” ~John 17:17

Image result for lies of the demon  painting
Benoît-Hermogaste Molin

Here is an interesting quote from Steiner for us to consider at this time:

Imagine a people which was composed entirely of liars, the astral plane would be populated solely by the corresponding demons and these demons would be able to express themselves in a constitutional tendency to epidemics. Thus there is a certain species of bacilli who are the carriers of infectious diseases; these beings are the progeny of the lies told by human beings; they are nothing else than physically embodied demons generated by lies.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Theosophy of the Rosicrucian, Lecture VI, The Law of Destiny, GA 99, Schmidt Number: S-1539 (thanks to Josef Graf) https://wn.rsarchive.org/GA/GA0099/19070530p01.html

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Goya

Friends, we are being called to strive more & more, to live as ‘Christ in me’, taking up the healing medicine of the Spirit, which makes us whole, & then sharing it thru our every thought, word & deed. 

***

In early dawn, watch the waning Moon step toward and then past Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn -- March 16-20, 2020..

16 March 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Sirius shines brilliantly in the southwest after dark. Lower left of it, by about one fist, is the triangle of Adhara, Wezen, & Aludra, from right to left. They form Canis Major‘s hind foot, rear end, & tail, respectively.

Just left of these 3, forming an arc, are the 3 uppermost stars of the constellation Puppis. No, Puppis is not a puppy, despite following behind the Big Dog. It’s the stern of the giant ancient constellation Argo Navis, the ship of Jason & the Argonauts.

***

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Keith Haring

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Image result for 1244 – Over 200 Cathars who refuse to recant are burned to death after the Fall of Montségur

1244 – Over 200 Cathars who refuse to recant are burned to death after the Fall of Montségur.

Image result for Johanna von Keyserlingk

1966 – Death Day of Countess Johanna von Keyserlingk

Johanna von Keyserlingk: Vessel for the Etheric Christ

Humanity is ripe for ‘the Christ experience’ such as Paul had outside Damascus. Johanna von Keyserlingk, the hostess of the conference in Koberwitz in 1924 where biodynamic agriculture was born, was one such person. Inwardly she was also the hostess of powerful spiritual observations.

As an 8-year-old girl of noble birth, while walking with her governess in the Vienna Woods in 1887, she meets a thin, 26-year-old man, with dark hair & powerful eyes, who looks at her with a penetrating gaze. This meeting lives & works in her until, at the end of the 1st World War, as a 39-year-old Countess, she meets a 56-year-old man. She had already attended 2 of his lectures & read some of his books. After this meeting she is able to speak with him in private. He asks her where she was at the age of 8. After some thought, she comes to nothing but the place – Breslau, where she lived then. But he shakes his head, apparently he means something else with his question. Johanna has more conversations with him & six months later he repeats the question. Then she suddenly remembers the young man in the Vienna Woods who had looked at her with such wonderful eyes. This man was, of course, Rudolf Steiner.

On March 26, 1879, on the threshold of the beginning of the new Michael era, Johanna was born in Brno. Her father, which she described as a true despot, was the son of Scottish nobility -Karl von Skene. He went to Silesia via Austria & married her future mother, Klara Schoeller, who came from a family of industrialists. Together with 3 brothers (Karl, Philipp & Robert) she lived near her father’s estates.

Her clairvoyant powers were revealed early on, which was not unusual in her father’s Celtic line. These experiences made her both lonely & independent at an early age. Not understood by the people in her environment, she often sought comfort in nature, in the park near ancient trees, & there she had contact with the elemental spirits.

About this time she wrote: “I remember very well that as a small child I could look at the window between the bars of my bed and see the sun rise in the morning and that I experienced the sun as what other children see as their mother and father. I remember also, that the other children I played with often chased me, especial the time when I correctly predicted the death of an adult as if it were self-evident. However, when I noticed that not even my mother saw what I perceived spiritually, I kept silent.”  

At the end of her teens, she became involved with Kant’s philosophy, with Angelus Silesius & with the poet Hölderlin. In 1899 when she was 21 years old, she married Count Carl Wilhelm von Keyserlingk, & had 3 boys: Wolfgang (1900), & a boy (1902) who soon died, & Adalbert (1905). They went to live in Klettendorff, not far from Breslau. Later this became the castle Koberwitz (1920), partly on the advice of Steiner.

Because of her devoted son Adalbert, most of the memoirs & notes were made public, but only after Johanna died at the age of 87. With intimate friends such as Rudolf Meyer (who lived in Koberwitz for 3 years), Emil Bock, Friedrich Rittelmeyer, Eliza von Moltke, Margarita Woloschina & Monica von Miltitz, she did share her experiences & her confidential conversations with Steiner during her life.

When she was 28, Johanna went thru a painful phase in her life. She was sick in bed due to an entopic pregnancy, which almost killed her. What she experienced was that some sort of strange individuality wanted to incarnate in her.

“When I had been given up by the doctors and felt that my life force was leaving me, I suddenly saw a shining figure next to the bed, from which a penetrating force emanated.”

And the first words she was able to speak after this experience were:

“Me and my house want to serve the Lord; for I have experienced what the captain of Capernaum experienced.” ( ~ Matthew 8:5-10 ‘And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, 6and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” 7Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9“For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” 10Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. 11“I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; 12but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed that very moment’. )

“When I heard from the doctors that there was no more salvation for me, which I had already experienced myself, I knew: now I will reach the goal of my life, the Christ. Either in death or in the spirit world. White starlight was around me, and I was thinking of the fevered son of Capernaum’s chieftain. Science dawned on me: when you now see the Christ, he can also restore earth life to you. There were energies buzzing next to me and a fire figure appeared next to my bed. Such strength emanated from him that I believed I could not bear it. It was like over-tensioning the atmosphere because of the pressing of the ether. I felt as if that would tear me apart and heard the words: Go, your faith has helped you …

It was a very white silence around me, and glittering life entered me from there. The pains were gone. The doctor came and assumed that this condition was agony. But life continued to shine, and when my husband asked what had happened, I could only say that in the New Testament he had to seek out the healing of Capernaum. As of this hour, there was only a common solution for us. Me and my house want to serve the Lord. My illness was gone and life took a different direction. But as bright was the light that I had seen, so dark was the time I had to live in the following years. It was like I was going to die. For years now I had experienced the terrible of death in all phases.”

Her brow bone, just above the root of the nose, literally shattered. Years later, bone splinters that had grown out had to be removed using tweezers. With the forehead chakra released in this radical way, her clairvoyant experiences increased in number & intensity.

What is expressed in this event? Perhaps people who were associated with Christ on earth had a role to play in preparing for His return in the etheric, starting in the 20th century; a karmic bond that is revealed in this time of the Second Coming. Rudolf Steiner talked about the youth of Nain, who was raised from the dead by Christ & so was initiated into a task for the future of humanity. Steiner also pointed out the connection between the resurrected Lazarus John & the teacher of humanity, Christian Rosenkreutz. This is also the time when Steiner describes Christ becoming the Lord of karma.

At the ‘Turning Point of Time’ the apostles gathered by Christ were the 1st to be inaugurated into this new impulse, there must be anthroposophers starting in the 30’s & into our time now that are able to receive the inspiration of Christ, now as Lord of Karma. Anthroposophy wants to be a movement of people who work to restore their karma.

Steiner tells us: Spiritual science “imposes enormous responsibility upon us, for it prepares for the concrete event of the reappearance of Christ.” It is known that Steiner took actual people as examples for some of the characters in his mystery dramas. Perhaps Johanna was the model for Theodora?

According to Steiner, Johanna had an awakened consciousness that would become normal perhaps a 1000 years in the future! Perhaps this ‘premature birth’ was what caused her so much pain in her life…? And yet, Steiner called the figure next to the sick bed of Johanna the Christ power.

In one of the conversations with Steiner, he also warned that Johanna was facing great Luciferic dangers, but that she had special qualities  – the iron of Mars, that could protect her from this. He called her ‘the Iron Countess’.

In 1915, Johanna started to write down a series of imaginations  that she received. This lead to a book that describes the fortunes of a grail knight going through a mental training: the was named book ‘Gralburg’ (Grail Castle). In the preface she writes:

In these imaginations my own experience in full reality passes by. It is lived more real than earthly events are experienced. As the images are there, that’s how I experienced them. Often the images and words sounded strange and inexplicable, I did not understand them and I do not understand much of them nowadays, but I could not change anything, because I wanted to stay with the truth. Often the end of an image was added as an explanation only after years. Real spirit beings met the spirit student, and they addressed him in real words. These spiritual words have actually been spoken to him.

As far as I can judge, these things have lived in the astral. The astral, however, takes place in the interior of the earth in the direction of midnight. This astral is invisible in itself and fine visible form force expresses itself in the periphery of the earth, in the ether world. That which happens invisibly in the depths, is imprinted in the ether and comes to visibility, and what I saw there I wrote down.

This book cannot be judged by a literary standard. I wrote it down for myself and I don’t feel the need for others to read it. If it were just me, I would put it in a desk drawer; and then it can be read after my death or not. And when I am asked now, yes, why do you spend it anyway, then I can only answer – not for my sake, but so that the others hear of the figure so lovingly striding through the hall.

‘Imagine a fine brilliance of tender sunlight
flowing from his soul
Imagine a pair of warm eyes, so full of love
that you start to glow, and you kneel
Imagine a mouth from which truth springs
as if from a deep source the deity itself arises,
it sounds so beautiful, that forever
you would like to listen to this voice in reverence.

Imagine his hands caressing your hair
with a gesture that heals all suffering.
Yes, under their light springs the new life we seek!
Imagine a ruler striding like this
and highest heavenly threads are for him
and where his foot goes is light
that shows us the right way.
Do you see his garment shining from afar
then the fire starts to burn in your heart,
it is so beautiful that you cannot comprehend it.

And he sees your suffering
and he approaches you
which makes your heart completely still.
And gently, like the song of angelic children,
the air that blows towards you is so lovely.

You can put your head on his knee in quiet humility
and deep peace comes into you.
The sun radiates from his holy body
and sun flows over your mind,
and you see jubilantly in the golden distance,
your homeland, where he draws you’.

At the end of this ‘hymn’ her footnote : “At the sight of the Nazarene standing before me, written down in a short moment”.

Through the book: “Koberwitz 1924, Geburtsstunde einer neuen Landwirtschaft, moment of birth of a new agriculture”, many people learn the name of the Keyserlingk family. At the time, Koberwitz was an estate owned by the family, near Breslau.

At Pentecost in 1924, a gathering took place there in the penultimate year before Rudolf Steiner’s untimely death, to which many attendees have fond memories. From the descriptions of the different souls you can get the feeling that there was a true cosmopolitan Pentecostal Spirit. As the title of the book indicates, this was also the time & place where the birth of bio-dynamic agriculture can be placed.

A lot happened there in the days of June 7-17, 1924. For example, it was the first time the Johani Epistle was pronounced at the altar, during the Christian Community Service (established 2 years earlier). The impression arises that in Koberwitz a successful meeting between the royal & the priestly streams took place. In total there were 120 people, many with an agricultural background, but also many others who attended, for example, there were evening lectures on karma & the Eurythmy performances, that attracted folks such as Eliza von Moltke, Rittelmeyer, Bock, Wachsmuth, Koschützki, Marie Steiner, Vreede & many others. So these days were busy with all kinds of activities. It was later discovered that at night Steiner wrote whole parts of his autobiography, which appeared shortly afterwards in the weekly Das Goetheanum & were later compiled into his biography; he also received & answered countless mail correspondences.

In addition to esoteric hours, in the evening, a large number of people had personal conversations with Steiner. with all this work, it was surprising to many that Steiner, who made an extremely tired impression on arrival, gradually became more vital. From those 12 special days around Dr. Steiner arose many personal memories form the participants.

Here’s a good example of ‘how karma works’. In principle, the course was only intended for people with an agricultural background. And yet, Young Wilhelm Rath, as one of the initiators of the youth movement, passed by Koberwitz to deliver some notes by Walter Johannes Stein, in which he describes his own spiritual experiences, for Rudolf Steiner. The post-office was not appropriate for such personal documents, so WJ Stein asked Rath to hand them over personally. Because of this, Rath was then allowed to attend the entire Agricultural course, although Wachsmuth was worried at 1st about breaking the rules. This later turns out to be an important turning point in Rath’s career.

The book Koberwitz 1924 not only gives a nice impression of the conference but also of Johanna herself. We read that she played a harmonium for the guests, that she & her husband were the perfect hosts, & that she personally took care of the flowers & plants in the castle park. The Staff loved her. A chambermaid, who also wrote a contribution in the book heaped praises on her.

A life motto for the Count & Countess was: Founding places of love and peace, where the Christ can be resurrected – this was engraved on a memorial for Steiner after he died.

She described to Steiner, the image of a fairytale-like white mosque with a minaret & she heard the word Bosphorus. According to her, this was the answer to a question she had been dealing with for a long time.

Later on at Christmas 1925, after Steiner had died, she was with severe pneumonia in Sonnenhof in Arlesheim, where Ita Wegman nursed her. There, Mieta Waller asked her if she could use her clairvoyance to help find the Palladium in Constantinople. After all, legend tells that Emperor Constantine buried the Palladium under a large column. This question was the start of a long search that would be continued by her son Adalbert.

The Palladium has been called the greatest solar gem on Earth by Steiner, & world evolution depends on whether this underground sun-sanctuary is illuminated by “the sun of the west” – the new light of human thought. A truly cryptic description! Especially since Steiner also indicated that it would be an actual object buried somewhere. The comparison can then be made between the physically present cup of the last supper & the transcendent grail.

She made a trip to Constantinople, to Hagia Sophia & experienced all kinds of things that are described in her diary, including that she had seen this mosque in the image of a ghost. Physical indications & images not yet understood alternated. However, the Palladium was not found. It is questionable whether the Palladium might have been found spiritually. However, she said, this cannot be discussed it is “a question for the future”.

In the Achmedie Imperial Palace, she received gruesome images inscribed in the ether of the Council of Constantinople in 869 AD., where she recognized ahrimanic inspirations. Steiner often spoke of this council where the “spirit” of the human being was abolished. Here she experienced what Steiner called a second Golgotha, ​​& the moment when the karma of humanity began to become disordered.

In Hagia Sophia, however, she experienced the luminous presence of Christ & of Michael, like ‘the sunrise of a new dawn‘.

It is a risk when people make statements about what they consider to be their previous incarnations. It was not Johanna’s intention that her own research would be made public during her lifetime. She did, however, discuss it with Steiner & her son Adalbert. He decided to publish the notes after her death.

In 1922 she visited a forest in Rawitz where she had been as a child. “When I arrived, the spirits of the trees and shrubs on this familiar road back started to speak to me, to my surprise. But what they told me this time was not pleasant to me. They told me: “You are free now, you have to deliver us, we are bound to these trees.” And they added, I had tied them to this place myself in a past life. I said to them, “Your trees are not old at all, how can I have met you before?” But they answer: Our fathers were already here, and in them our spirits have inherited themselves. – You shouldn’t leave until you deliver us”.

It is then explained to her how she could accomplish this salvation by making 3 crosses on the trunk while invoking the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. So she does this & from each one a strip of light is released, which then, according to her observation, dissolves in the light of Christ.

Shortly before this, she had images of a man who lived several hundred years ago, who loved to be in nature & had conversations with nature spirits. She had the impression that the man was also involved in magic. He spoke to her : “I am glad that you are here, I have also come to see you. You must carry on with the work that I have begun. I will show you what happened here, and you must then free what I have banned. “

It is characteristic of Johanna that she told Steiner this kind of experience. She was not yet sure about the meaning. Steiner confirmed that this man with faustic traits was a previous incarnation of hers, & that he had banished the elemental beings to the trees. That is why she now had to free them herself.

In an earlier conversation where Eliza von Moltke was also present, Steiner had said, “The countess once experienced that earth life is spiritual death.”

A central theme with Johanna that she always discussed with Steiner (she has about 28 sessions with him) is Shamballah or the golden land, as she calls it. She related that to the moment when the blood of Christ flowed into the earth initiating a new solar globe. She saw out of the earth’s core, a golden fire in the earth’s depth. Like Ptolemy she called this the primal sun. This connected her with Empedocles who plunged into the fire of Mount Etna.

She described it in the following way in a question to Steiner: “…originally there was the fire and the light. These lived together in a deep harmony. Then the light rejected the power of the fire, and the smoke, which could no longer rise in the light, returned and covered the fire, and so the primeval fire was covered with a layer of ash. This axis is the mineral of the Earth. At first people saw through it to their primal home, the primal sun, but the earth became more and more dense and the smoke darkened more and more. Man seemed to be separated from the primeval sun (which is paradise) by the mineral layer. With this primeval sun which has been revived by the Christ, man must try to unite again.”

Steiner confirmed to her that this primordial sun is also the land of Shamballah, where the initiates of all time took their inspiration and what will become visible to all people in the future. It is closely related to the etheric second coming of the Christ & His work on a new heaven & a new earth in which people must play an active role.

Steiner spoke fondly of the Iron Count & Countess, he called them that, not only because the Koberwitz land which was iron rich. He wanted Johanna to conquer & free her clairvoyance with her iron will, which was linked to her innate clairvoyance, & also from her dependence on Steiner’s influence.

Before she met Steiner, Johanna had a life where everything came to her. Spiritual guidance had provided for her fortunes. But this would change soon. They were able to remain in Koberwitz for only 4 years after 1924. A movement started immediately on several fronts, reinforced after Steiner’s death in 1925, that came to destroy the new bio-dynamic impulse. The fertilizer industry, including IG Farben, felt threatened by this new healing art. They wanted to buy the copyright describing the agricultural course for a large sum of money. But Carl declined, partly because he wanted to test it in practice before the course content was published. In the company where Carl worked with several co-owners, tensions grew & he had to leave the field in 1928. They also left Koberwitz. Shortly after, he died en route to Dornach. According to Johanna because of a broken heart.

Not much is known about her life after that, except that it was difficult. In 1941 she was captured by the Gestapo, & put under interrogation for days. She saw a figure next to the German officer. But she was not tempted to give in to this demonic being.

After 1945 she could no longer stay in Poland & fled to the west where she ended up in Stuttgart, completely destitute & incognito. In 1949 the book Koberwitz was published as a private edition. In the years before her death she went blind.

Just before this book went to press, she also wrote about Kaspar Hauser, & about her struggle to keep a relationship with Steiner in the spiritual world after his death: “While during the life of Rudolf Steiner one could still live in the sphere of his personal closeness without great effort, it was no longer possible after his death. After the death hour of 1925, there were still encounters in the astral for me. But I think that this is happening more and more at a distance. Was the atmosphere of the earth obscured by what was preparing for threats there in Germany? We were alone, as if deserted. It was as if there was an impenetrable dark night in the otherwise bright atmosphere”.

This shows how difficult it was to hold the Pentecostal substance of Koberwitz in the dark period that was holding sway. After his death she wrote:.

“It was on the morning of Rudolf Steiner’s cremation, which I did not go to. The teacher’s body was still laid out in his studio, where the aura of the beloved teacher appeared next to me. I was told to write. I took paper and pen and the following words came from his presence. Often I could not write quickly enough, then paused and waited until I was back, as Rudolf Steiner used to do when he dictated to me.

“My job has ended.”        “What I could give the people who were ready for it, I gave them.”        “I am going, because I found no ears that could hear the spiritual word behind the word.”        “I am going, because I found no eyes that could see the ghosts behind the earth images.”        “I go because I found no people who could realize my will.        ” The mysteries remain hidden until I come back. I will come back and reveal the mysteries when I have succeeded in creating an altar, a cultic place for human souls, in spirit worlds. Then I’ll come back. Then I will continue to reveal the mysteries. “

“Those are to blame for my death, which have held back the culture of the heart. Had people pushed through their hearts into the depths, they would have found the strength for the challenges of this time.”

There are many Anthroposophers who do not consider these statements to come from Steiner but rather see them as a projection from Johanna herself, or from the adversarial forces trying to cloud the message.

We do know that Rudolf Steiner is able to teach his students from the spirit body, as indicated in the mystery dramas.

A short conversation with Steiner in 1924, before his death, will conclude this biography for now.

Johanna: “Mankind is spoiled anyway [miscarriages]“. Steiner: “Yes, you can say that.” Johanna: “But what will happen at the end of the century?” Steiner in despair: “I don’t know either – but Ahriman is also part of Christ.”

May we all find the “The Way, the Truth & the Life…& work to purify ourselves, to be a fit vessel for the Christ, & for the work of embodying Anthroposophia

~hag

***

R. Steiner, in:The Gospel of Matthew(Zeist 2003, GA 123), lecture, Sept. 10. 1910

M. von Miltitz, in Foreword by J. von Keyserlingk,Die Reise nach Byzanz-Das Palladium des Sieges(Basel 1991)

Erlöste Elemente(Stuttgart 1991)

Palladiump. 16

Adalbert (died 23-10-1993), besides an enthusiastic promoter of biodynamic agriculture, also a doctor and researcher of ancient mystery places, wroteVergessene Kulturen im Monte Gargano(Nürnberg 1968) andUnd sie erstarrten in Stein(Basel 1983).

Die Reise nach Byzanz-Das Palladium des Sieges,p. 16. InIn the Gospels there are several references to Capernaum and a healing of a sick person through Christ. Johanna talks about a chief and his sick son. Matthew 8 speaks of a chief of Capernaum and his sick servant; in Luke 7 about a chief and his sick slave ; in John 4 about a courtier and his sick son.

Koberwitz 1924, Geburtsstunde einer neuen Landwirtschaft(Privatdruck 1985) p. 25f

InIJsselaarde. Magazine to deepen the relationship with the living environment(Sept. 1999)

Wiedergerufen vom Herrn des Schicksals and Falter und Bluete (with poems) (Dornach 1998)

KC Markides, The magician of Strovolos (Deventer 1995), see also the article by G. Zwahlen about Daskalos inDas Goetheanum,number 34, Dec. 3. 1995

GA 118, Jan 25. 1910

The Gospel according to Matthew(Zeist 2003, GA 123), lecture 10 Sept. 1910

Gralburg(Stuttgart 1968, antiquarian still available sporadically). It was thrown into the lap many years ago through a book flea market. That eventually led to this article. Steiner already thought that the book should be made public because it demonstrates how an individual path of development can proceed.

H. Giersch (ed.)Das Ätherische Christus-Wirken. Rudolf Steiner über die Wiederkunft Christivan Harold Giersch (Dornach 1991)

G. Hillerdal and B. Gustafsson,Christ experiences today(Bergen op Zoom 2002); HW. Schroeder, On the second coming of Christ (Zeist 2000); HP van Moons,Coming and Second Coming – About the second coming of Christ and the coming of anti-christ(Zeist 1999); G. Bossis,My shadow, that is your neighbor(Zeist 2001); G. Goelzer and M. Friederich,Falter und Bluete – Christuswort und Christerkenntnis(Dornach 1994); Wiedergerufen vom Herrn des Schicksals, A1 Die Samariterin am Brunnen(Dornach 1998)

Fertile agriculture(Zeist 1992,GA 327)

The Aya (or: Hagia) Sophia, completed in 537 on the site where a church was built in 360, became a mosque in 1453 and has been a museum since 1932.

H. Oehms,Know your karma – Karma insight and self-development(Zeist 2000); F. Berger,fellow sufferers, coherence between different lives on the track(Zeist 2000); J. Saether,Wandeln unter unsichtbaren Menschen(Stuttgart 1999). About learning to look at people in order to place them in a spiritual context, without speaking directly about previous incarnations, see: A. Koopmans,Kijk op karma(Zeist 2002) andPractical human science(Zutphen 2004)

J.Ben Aharon,The spiritual event of the 20th century. An imagination. The occult dimension of the years 1933-1945(Zeist 1996)

R. Steiner (GA 118) nomination Munich March 15, 1910

The years 1933-1945 could have been illuminated by her from her clairvoyant fireplaces. You can suspect that J. Ben Aharon experienced this lack as well and that is why he connects with Johanna in his book about those years.

In various terms this theme is mentioned “altar in the spiritual world”, as is also the case in the speech for the youth in Koberwitz:“spiritual light will only come in this century, if Michael succeeds in the way in the astral light to the altar where the flame burns that Ahriman fears. ” Also inHelmuth von Moltke 1848-1916. Dokumente zu seinem Wirken(Basel 1993) March 27, 1919

In:Koberwitz 1924, p. 177

These statements (as well as the following) make it clear that Steiner saw a hopeful future. In lectures (GA 346) for the priests of the Christian Community he mentioned the year 1933 in which the apocalyptic beast would stir again. –

The Book is Open

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Greetings Friends on this ‘The Ides of March’ 2020 – “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way –*“

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We can certainly agree that these are interesting times, & dear friends, we have signed up to be here in this life. So, yes, we are being called to raise our vibrations to meet every challenge, every opportunity. We know from Spiritual Science that ill health is brought about not only by human actions, but by our thoughts & feelings, which create conditions & circumstances for dis-ease. Sickness can be seen as an expression of the soul-spiritual state of the social organism of humanity. In this age of the ‘Consciousness Soul’, we are global citizens, teetering between individuation with its ‘social distancing’ & conscious community.

In times of crisis it is important to use critical thinking, which takes into account not only the materialistic science but spiritual science as well – asking questions, questioning answers…

Many folks are questioning the connection that the ‘Spanish flu’ of 1917-18 had with the 1st World War, the war that beget all wars. At that time, materialistic science gave us new fields of technology – high powered machine guns, nerve gas & radio waves pervaded the atmosphere for the 1st time – These developments were also wrapped up with fraudulent politics propagating divisive ideologies.

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Dr. Rudolf Steiner revealed the link between the formation of viruses & bacteria & what could be called ‘the god Mammon’ – showing a prophetic connection that we can see in the world today between god-like corporations like the insurance & ‘healthcare’ industry & pharmaceutical companies who make billions from illnesses. But are we as a society so asleep, so hypnotized & indoctrinated by our screens that we don’t see this connection, or our own responsibility in the link with the increasing number of ‘natural catastrophes’ worldwide?

Theories by folks in the know like Dr. Francis Boyle, the man who was once responsible for pushing through legislation for biological weapons, who is now trying to give us a look into the inner workings of the pentagon, are labeled ‘conspiracy’, which is a catch phrase denoting crazy. But the word conspiracy actually means:  ‘a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful’. Why do we want to discredit or kill the messenger? Dr. Boyle who helped make biological weapons, says that coronavirus is a weaponized biological agent of global warfare that came out of a biowarfare lab.

Many respected doctors like Thomas Cowan & Dietrich Klinghardt are trying to alert us to the fact that there is a connection between coronavirus & places where there has been a recent rollout of 5G, like Wuhan, China & Milan, Italy. Here in the states, at Washington’s Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland, one of the 1st places in the US tricked out with 5G, there have been 6 confirmed deaths from the virus of patients who were in the hospital for other reasons.

Perhaps this ‘pandemic’ will raise our awareness of the health dangers of 5G? Maybe it will wake us up to the need to improve the US health system? It may help us think twice about our carbon footprint when we are deciding whether or not to fly? Can we enact measures to create new climate policies, like demanding subsidies be removed for corporate polluters?

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Can this become the impetus to finally develop brotherhood in the economic realm, as seen in the example of the NBA’s Mark Cuban, who vows to pay the arena workers, from security to concessions & beyond, during the lock down.

And what about our own personal self-sacrifice? Every one hated Jimmy Carter when he asked folks to cut down on gas. But as individuals we need to do our part to address the climate crisis through our personal choices. Let’s put our money where our mouth is, supporting practices like bio-dynamics that heal & spiritualize not only our own health but the health of the earth.

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How telling is it that there is a plague of locusts in Africa right now! When will we stop thinking something happening ’over there’ doesn’t absolutely effect everyone on the planet?

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We are being called to develop tolerance, & interest in the other, fostering the energies of compassion & empathy to develop love, so that we cannot rest until help is given to everyone who is suffering. This kind of thinking opens us up to include not only this current health crisis, but all the worldwide issues like hunger & human rights abuse.

Besides the basic physical things already mentioned by many, let us practice ‘soul hygiene’, by doing constructive things like the Hallelujah in Eurythmy, (or Hope U, Love A, & Ah Ha Wonder) & The Foundation Stone Meditation at Sunrise (including the energy of the Sun gives us an extra boost) every day, to create a high spiritual vibration of Love & Light – Please join us for the healing of all.

~hag

*From, ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ (1859) by Charles Dickens.

Simple Hallelujah

The 5 panels of the Foundation Stone Meditation:

Human Soul!
You live within the limbs
Which bear you through the world of space
Into the spirit’s ocean-being:
Practice SPIRIT-RECALLING
In depths of soul,
Where in the wielding
World-Creator-Being
Your own I
Comes into being
In the I of God
And you will truly LIVE
In human world-all being.

For the Father-Spirit of the heights holds sway
In depths of worlds begetting life.
Spirits of Strength: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones
Let ring forth from the heights
What in the depths is echoed,
Speaking: Ex deo nascimur –
Out of the Godhead we are born.

This is heard by the spirits of the elements
In east, west, north, south:
May human beings hear it!

Human Soul!
You live within the beat of heart and lung
Which leads you through the rhythms of time
Into the feeling of your own soul-being:
Practice SPIRIT-SENSING
In balance of the soul,
Where the surging deeds
Of world-evolving
Unite your own I
With the I of the world;
And you will truly FEEL,
In human soul’s creating.
For the Christ-will encircling us holds sway,
In world rhythms, bestowing
Grace upon souls.
Spirits of Light: Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai
Let from the east be enkindled
What through the west takes on form;
Speaking: In Christo morimur –
In Christ death becomes life.

This is heard by the spirits of the elements
In east, west, north, south:
May human beings hear it!

Human Soul!
You live within the resting head
Which from the grounds of eternity
Unlocks for you world-thoughts:
Practice SPIRIT-BEHOLDING
In stillness of thought,
Where the eternal goals of the gods
Bestow the light of cosmic being
On your own I
For free and active willing
And you will truly THINK
In human spirit depths.

For the Spirit’s world-thoughts
Hold sway
In cosmic being, imploring light.
Spirits of Soul: Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi
Let from the depths be entreated
What in the heights will be heard,
Speaking: Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus
In the spirit’s cosmic thoughts the soul awakens.

This is heard by the spirits of the elements
In east, west, north, south:
May human beings hear it

At the turning point of time
The cosmic spirit-light of the world
Entered the stream of earth existence.
Darkness of night had ceased its reign;
Day-radiant light
Shone forth in human souls:
Light
That gives warmth
To simple shepherd’s hearts;
Light
That enlightens
The wise heads of kings.

Light divine,
Christ-Sun,
Warm
Our hearts;
Enlighten
Our heads;
That good may become
What from our hearts
We are founding,
What from our heads
We direct,
With Single purpose
And focused willing
~By Rudolf Steiner, Translation by Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

Patrice Lime

POD (Poem Of the Day

~In the beginning & at the end
The book is opened
And we see what we must
Remember.
We are made of god-stuff
The explosion of stars
Waves of light
Molded into form
Secrets writ large on the scroll of each soul
The laws of creation
Death & change inscribed in the blood
A Sun-seed ever expanding
In eternal thoughts
That led to love…
But where is Wisdom?

~hag

Jake Baddeley

The ‘Merry Prep-Stirs of Chicago’ invite you to stir it up with us on the Vernal Equinox 19 March 2020 (the earliest date for the Equinox in 124 years) we will gather at 7 pm together with the Thursday Study Group at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in America – Chicago while reading Steiner. At this years Fellowship of Prep makers Gathering, I was gifted the 500 & 501 preps by Lloyd Nelson. We will also work with these at Sunrise on Easter Sunday at the “Magic Hedge” by Montrose Beach. contact Hazel or Brita Finlayson for Details.

***

Greetings friends – Our Easter Retreat ‘KNOW THYSELF – Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology’ – a combined effort of the CRC & AAP is POSTPONED.

We will continue to evaluate the world situation & will revisit this potent working in late Summer or early Autumn. 

If you have registered already, you can roll that over & it will be honored when the event goes forward later this year. Or if you would like a refund, contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@peoplepc.com

We will use our next CRC Zoom Meeting to explore together the spiritual psychology & karma of epidemics.

April 8th 2020, 7:15 pm CST

Let us stand together with courage in this now, as we look to our future with equanimity, holding all that comes before us as being guided by a divine directive waiting to be revealed by our patient spiritual investigation.

Yours in service ~The CRC team: Marianne Fieber, Alberto Loya, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton

***

Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond

Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn, and the evolution of Earth – Then and Now. with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Explore the ancient origins of the many cultural expressions that work with, celebrate, & honor our beloved dead. Prepare the way for the Unborn, and for the future of humanity. Become inspired to Renew or Create your own Tradition. Through Spiritual Science learn to find your destiny, and meet your karma. Prepare for your own conscious crossing into the journey between death and rebirth, by asking questions like: Who have I been? Who am I now? Where am I going…? Who do I want to become?

THIS EVENT WILL NOW BE HELD ONLINE APRIL 17-19.  STAY TUNED FOR NEW REGISTRATION INFORMATION! 

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Our dear Dr. Steiner said: ‘It is not the Christ we lack, but the knowledge of Christ, the Sophia of Christ, the Isis of Christ we are lacking.’ In ‘Ancient Myths and the New Isis Mystery: Their Meaning and Connection with Evolution’ Lecture 3; given in Dornach, 6 January 1918, by Rudolf Steiner; we hear how the power of ‘The Word, the power of The Logos’, must be resurrected through our striving to activate the Wisdom of Anthroposophia within each of us. Join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg for a powerful presentation Lifting the Veil of the New Isis-Sophia, to bring Light to Love.

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~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Saturday, 30 May, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm Groh Farm, 135 Temple Rd, Wilton, NH

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.

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?

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’?

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.  

$30 suggested donation at the door, with potluck lunch to follow
(please bring a dish to share) RSVP deb@anthroposophy.org Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire

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Also part of the tour 

3 June 2020 – a Round Table Discussion 7 pm – 9 pm on ‘The Sophia’ with John Bloom, Joan Sleigh, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg & Carrie Schuchardt  at The House of Peace in Ipswich, MA. 

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year.Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Trans-denominational Minister, ‘Anthroposopher’, working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, The Traveling Speakers Program, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society.

Whitsun 2020 Vitae Sophia

Thought Experiments

Many of us are doing Hallelujah in Eurythmy & The Foundation Stone Meditation at Sunrise every morning to create a high vibration of Love & Light – Please join us for the healing of all.

Jupiter, Mars and Saturn in the dawn sky, mid-March 2020

14 March 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: 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

Why is Pi Day celebrated on March 14th? Well, it’s because the Greek letter Pi (π) is used in mathematics to represent a constant – originally this was the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, but it has various definitions now & is used in many mathematics & physics formulas. Pi is most commonly shown as being 3.14159 but this is just an approximate value. It’s an irrational number, & its decimal representation never ends. Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, so today we celebrate all things circular. Take a look at what one million digits of pi looks like!

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Looking at the past to see the present, co-creating the future: “History, historical life, will only be seen in the right light when a true consciousness of the connection of the so-called living with the so-called dead can be developed” – The Living & the Dead by Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, 5th February, 1918

Antonio Molinari

Feast Day of Abigail (Hebrew “my father’s joy”) in 2 Samuel 17:25 she became a wife of David after Nabal’s death. She became the mother of one of David’s sons, who is listed in the Book of Chronicles under the name Daniel. Abigail is also listed as one of the seven Jewish women prophets.

Anglia Campus

44 BC – Casca & Cassius decide, on the night before the Assassination of Julius Caesar, that Mark Antony should live

 Titian

1489 – The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice

1592 – Ultimate Pi Day: the largest correspondence between calendar dates & significant digits of pi since the introduction of the Julian calendar.

1794 – Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin

1879 – Birthday of Albert Einstein! (1879 is the year Michael became the Time-Spirit) see article below

1900 – The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing United States currency on the gold standard.

1903 – The Hay–Herrán Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian Senate would later reject the treaty

1926 – El Virilla train accident, Costa Rica: A train falls off a bridge over the Río Virilla between Heredia and Tibás. 248 are killed & 93 wounded

1943 – World War II: The Kraków Ghetto is “liquidated

1978 – The Israel Defense Forces invade & occupies southern Lebanon, in Operation Litani

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1681 – Birthday of Georg Philipp Telemann, a German Baroque composer & multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family’s wishes. He held important positions in Leipzig, Sorau, Eisenach,& Frankfurt before settling in Hamburg in 1721, where he became musical director of the city’s five main churches. While Telemann’s career prospered, his personal life was always troubled: his first wife died only a few months after their marriage, & his second wife had extramarital affairs & accumulated a large gambling debt before leaving Telemann.

Telemann was one of the most prolific composers in history & was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the leading German composers of the time—he was compared favorably both to his friend Johann Sebastian Bach, who made Telemann the godfather & namesake of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, & to George Frideric Handel, whom Telemann also knew personally. He remained at the forefront of all new musical tendencies & his music is an important link between the late Baroque & early Classical styles

1790 – Birthday of Ludwig Emil Grimm, a German painter, art professor, etcher & copper engraver. His brothers were the well-known folklorists Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm

1804 – Birthday of Johann Strauss I, an Austrian Romantic composer. He was famous for his waltzes, & he popularized them alongside Joseph Lanner, thereby setting the foundations for his sons to carry on his musical dynasty. His most famous piece is the Radetzky March

Horoscope by Hendrik Woorts

1867 – Birthday of Marie Steiner von Sivers – born into an aristocratic family in Włocławek, Poland, then part of 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 Steiner-von Sivers & Rudolf Steiner were married on Christmas eve 1914, & she was one of his closest colleagues. 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

She made a great contribution to the development of anthroposophy, particularly in her work on the renewal of the performing arts (eurythmy, speech & drama), & the editing & publishing of Rudolf Steiner’s literary estate.

Starting in 1912, the art of eurythmy was developed by Rudolf Steiner. Under Marie Steiner-von Sivers’ 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 was trained in recitation & elocution & made a study of purely artistic speaking. She gave introductory poetry recitals at Steiner’s lectures & assisted him in the development of the 4 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. Ms Steiner died on December 27th 1948

1883 – Deathday of Karl Marx. Rudolf Steiner revealed that Marx was a landowner in Northern France in the early 9th century, & that one day his property was seized by a rival. Marx was then forced to work under the new owner of his former property. The new owner reincarnated as Friedrich Engels, who embarked on a compensatory cooperation with his former rival. So it is that old impulses of destiny may work on in a new incarnation. No wonder that Marx became a fierce enemy of all private property, having himself experienced in a previous life how insecure the private ownership of property can become. Those seeking deeper insight into this historic-karmic background of Marx & Engels & their activities are referred to Steiner’s lecture of 6 April 1924. GA 236.

1923 – Birthday of Diane Arbus, American photographer & writer noted for photographs of marginalized people—dwarfs, giants, transgender people, nudists, circus performers—& others whose normality was perceived by the general populace as ugly or surreal. In 1972, a year after she committed suicide, Arbus became the first American photographer to have photographs displayed at the Venice Biennale.  Millions viewed traveling exhibitions of her work in 1972–1979. The book accompanying the exhibition, Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph, is the bestselling photography monograph ever, still being reprinted today

1932 – Deathday of George Eastman, American inventor & businessman, founded Eastman Kodak

***

James Christensen

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Where there is no road
A wise hag is on a thought walk,
Bowed under the weight of her soul,
Clinging like a child to her back.
She spits words into hard ground where they cover themselves
& wait like seeds…
She knows, when the time is ripe,
The wheat will rise up singing…
~hag

***

CREATIVE SPEECH from ‘Das Goetheanum,’ 7th March, 1926 By Marie Steiner von Sivers

“SPEECH reveals to the human being their divine nature; the sounds of speech are creative forces which unite us with our spiritual origin and enable us, once again, to find the path leading to the spirit. Speech raises the human being above the level of the animal; it leads us back to the Divine within our Ego. That spark from the Divine Ego, which, issuing forth, prepared itself to become human, had of necessity, as it traveled the path leading into the material world, to unite itself with the forces of destruction. When the densifying process worked too strongly, damming up the spirit, as it were, then the form could be cast off by the ever-recurring forces of death and change. Thus there arose the animal kingdom, which may be likened to a kind of extended alphabet, containing within it all that burdened humanity too heavily when we carried it compressed within the limits of our own being. In the human being it was able to be so far clarified that it could develop into the Word, into Speech. Sound, tone in the animal kingdom cannot rise to the level of speech. It remains mere noise in the case of cold-blooded animals, and, in the case of warm-blooded animals, inarticulate sound. Even in its most beautiful form, in the song of the birds, cosmic tone cannot fully reveal itself; the song of the birds is at most only its faintest echo. It is in speech that the individual force of the Ego first finds expression through tone and becomes aware of its own being. Through speech, cosmic forces can, as it were, focus themselves in an individual Ego and from out this Ego work creatively once more.

When the human being raises to the upright position, when we change from the horizontal position natural to the animal to the vertical position of the human being, we free the forces of speech. The child is overshadowed by these forces; as their individuality develops they become more and more strongly united with them. The child does not say ‘ I ’ of themselves so long as their utterance is mere incoherent babbling. In personal desire, in egoism, the lower ego in the first place struggles through, expressing itself in wishes and desires, afterwards working its way through to feeling and thence into thought. Thought enters into the human being through the gate of speech. Pictures, imaginations are in this way raised up into the consciousness. Through this interplay of processes the human being becomes a thinking being.

 A ray from the spiritual essence of the Sun enters into the human being through the mind. In the German language there is a reflection of this in the words ‘Sonne’ (Sun) and ‘Sinn’ (Mind), where the all-embracing, all-enclosing vowel sound ‘ O ’ is transformed into an arrow of light in the vowel sound ‘ E ’ (ee)”.

***

Albert Einstein was slow to speak or read, & he was considered a poor student. He found inspiration in playing the violin. Einstein’s parents were secular, middle-class Jews. His father, Hermann Einstein, was originally a featherbed salesman, and later ran an electrochemical factory with moderate success.

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Einstein would write that two “wonders” deeply affected his early years. The first was his encounter with a compass at age five. He was mystified that invisible forces could deflect the needle. This would lead to a lifelong fascination with invisible forces. The second wonder came at age 12 when he discovered a book of geometry, which he devoured, calling it his “sacred little geometry book.”

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Einstein became deeply religious at age 12, even composing several songs in praise of God and chanting religious songs on the way to school. This began to change, however, after he read science books that contradicted his religious beliefs. This challenge to established authority left a deep and lasting impression. At the Luitpold Gymnasium, Einstein often felt out of place and victimized by a Prussian-style educational system that seemed to stifle originality and creativity. One teacher even told him that he would never amount to anything.

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A pivotal turning point occurred when Einstein was 16 when he was introduced to a children’s science series by Aaron Bernstein, Naturwissenschaftliche Volksbucher in which the author imagined riding alongside electricity that was traveling inside a telegraph wire. Einstein then asked himself the question that would dominate his thinking for the next 10 years: What would a light beam look like if you could run alongside it? If light were a wave, then the light beam should appear stationary, like a frozen wave. Even as a child, though, he knew that stationary light waves had never been seen, so there was a paradox. Einstein also wrote his first “scientific paper” at that time (“The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields”).

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Einstein’s education was disrupted by his father’s repeated failures at business. In 1894, after his company failed to get an important contract to electrify the city of Munich, Hermann Einstein moved to Milan to work with a relative. Einstein was left at a boardinghouse in Munich and expected to finish his education. Alone, miserable, and repelled by the looming prospect of military duty, Einstein ran away six months later and landed on the doorstep of his surprised parents. His parents realized the enormous problems that he faced as a school dropout and draft dodger with no employable skills.

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Fortunately, Einstein could apply directly to the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School. Einstein would recall that his years in Zürich were some of the happiest years of his life. He met many students who would become loyal friends, such as Marcel Grossmann, a mathematician, and Besso, with whom he enjoyed lengthy conversations about space and time. He also met his future wife, Mileva Maric, a fellow physics student from Serbia.

After graduation in 1900, Einstein faced one of the greatest crises in his life. Because he studied advanced subjects on his own, he often cut classes; this earned him the animosity of some professors, so he was subsequently turned down for every academic position that he applied to.

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Meanwhile, Einstein’s relationship with Maric deepened, but his parents vehemently opposed the relationship. (Maric’s family was Eastern Orthodox Christian). Einstein defied his parents, however, and in January 1902 he and Maric even had a child, Lieserl. It is  thought that she died of scarlet fever or was given up for adoption.

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In 1902 Einstein reached perhaps the lowest point in his life, and his father’s business went bankrupt. Desperate and unemployed, Einstein took lowly jobs tutoring children, but he was fired from even these jobs. Finally he got a job at the Swiss patent office in Bern, which allowed him to think about how  the speed of light remains the same no matter how fast one moves. This violates Newton’s laws of motion, but this insight led Einstein to formulate the principle of relativity: “the speed of light is a constant in any inertial frame (constantly moving frame).”

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For the next 10 years, Einstein would be absorbed with formulating a theory of gravity in terms of the curvature of space-time. To Einstein, Newton’s gravitational force was actually a by-product of a deeper reality: the bending of the fabric of space and time.

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In November 1915 Einstein finally completed the general theory of relativity, which he considered to be his masterpiece. Hewas convinced that general relativity was correct because of its mathematical beauty and because it accurately predicted the precession of the perihelion of Mercury’s orbit around the Sun. His theory also predicted a measurable deflection of light around the Sun. As a consequence, he even offered to help fund an expedition to measure the deflection of starlight during an eclipse of the Sun.

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Einstein’s work was interrupted by World War I. A lifelong pacifist, he was only one of four intellectuals in Germany to sign a manifesto opposing Germany’s entry into war. Disgusted, he called nationalism “the measles of mankind.” He would write, “At such a time as this, one realizes what a sorry species of animal one belongs to.”

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After the war, the headline of The Times of London read, “Revolution in Science—New Theory of the Universe—Newton’s Ideas Overthrown—Momentous Pronouncement—Space ‘Warped.’” Almost immediately, Einstein became a world-renowned physicist, the successor to Isaac Newton.

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Invitations came pouring in for him to speak around the world. In 1921 Einstein began the first of several world tours, visiting the United States, England, Japan, and France. Everywhere he went, the crowds numbered in the thousands. En route from Japan, he received word that he had received the Nobel Prize for Physics, but for the photoelectric effect rather than for his relativity theories. During his acceptance speech, Einstein startled the audience by speaking about relativity instead of the photoelectric effect.

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Einstein also launched the new science of cosmology. His equations predicted that the universe is dynamic—expanding or contracting. This contradicted the prevailing view that the universe was static.

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During a visit to California, Einstein met Charlie Chaplin during the Hollywood debut of the film City Lights. Einstein also began correspondences with other influential thinkers like Sigmund Freud (both of them had sons with mental problems) on whether war was intrinsic to humanity. He discussed with the Indian mystic Rabindranath Tagore the question of whether consciousness can affect existence.

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Einstein also clarified his religious views, stating that he believed there was an “old one” who was the ultimate lawgiver. He wrote that he did not believe in a personal God that intervened in human affairs but instead believed in the God of the 17th-century Dutch Jewish philosopher Benedict de Spinoza—the God of harmony and beauty. His task, he believed, was to formulate a master theory that would allow him to “read the mind of God.” He would write: “I’m not an atheist and I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages.…The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God.”

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Inevitably, Einstein’s fame and the great success of his theories created a backlash. The rising Nazi movement found a convenient target in relativity, branding it “Jewish physics” and sponsoring conferences and book burnings to denounce Einstein and his theories. In December 1932 Einstein decided to leave Germany forever

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The 1930s were hard years for Einstein. His son Eduard was diagnosed with schizophrenia and suffered a mental breakdown in 1930. (Eduard would be institutionalized for the rest of his life.) Einstein’s close friend, physicist Paul Ehrenfest, who helped in the development of general relativity, committed suicide in 1933. And Einstein’s beloved wife, Elsa, died in 1936. And to his horror,  physicists began seriously to consider whether his equation E = mc2 might make an atomic bomb possible. During the war Einstein’s colleagues were asked to journey to the desert town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, to develop the first atomic bomb for the Manhattan Project. Einstein, the man whose equation had set the whole effort into motion, was never asked to participate. Voluminous declassified Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files, numbering several thousand, reveal the reason: the U.S. government feared Einstein’s lifelong association with peace and socialist organizations. (FBI director J. Edgar Hoover went so far as to recommend that Einstein be kept out of America by the Alien Exclusion Act, but he was overruled by the U.S. State Department.)

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Einstein was on vacation when he heard the news that an atomic bomb had been dropped on Japan. Almost immediately he was part of an international effort to try to bring the atomic bomb under control, forming the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists.

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Although Einstein continued to pioneer many key developments in the theory of general relativity—such as wormholes, higher dimensions, the possibility of time travel, the existence of black holes, and the creation of the universe—he was increasingly isolated from the rest of the physics community. Because of the huge strides made by quantum theory in unraveling the secrets of atoms and molecules, the majority of physicists were working on the quantum theory, not relativity.

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Through a series of sophisticated “thought experiments,” Einstein tried to find logical inconsistencies in the quantum theory, particularly its lack of a deterministic mechanism. Einstein would often say that “God does not play dice with the universe.”

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The other reason for Einstein’s increasing detachment from his colleagues was his obsession, beginning in 1925, with discovering a unified field theory—an all-embracing theory that would unify the forces of the universe, and thereby the laws of physics, into one framework.

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New generations of space satellites have continued to verify the cosmology of Einstein. And many leading physicists are trying to finish Einstein’s ultimate dream of a “theory of everything.”

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The ‘Merry Prep-Stirs of Chicago‘ invite you to stir it up with us on the Vernal Equinox 19 March 2020 (the earliest date for the Equinox in 124 years) we will gather at 7 pm together with the Thursday Study Group at the Rudolf Steiner Branch while reading Steiner – 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL. 60618. At this years Fellowship pf Prep makers Gathering, I was gifted the 500 & 501 preps by Lloyd Nelson. We will also work with these at Sunrise on Easter Sunday at the “Magic Hedge” by Montrose Beach. contact Hazel or Brita for Details

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Our dear Dr. Steiner said: ‘It is not the Christ we lack, but the knowledge of Christ, the Sophia of Christ, the Isis of Christ we are lacking.’ In ‘Ancient Myths and the New Isis Mystery: Their Meaning and Connection with Evolution’ Lecture 3; given in Dornach, 6 January 1918, by Rudolf Steiner; we hear how the power of ‘The Word, the power of The Logos’, must be resurrected through our striving to activate the Wisdom of Anthroposophia within each of us. Join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg for a powerful presentation Lifting the Veil of the New Isis-Sophia, to bring Light to Love.

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~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Saturday, 30 May, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm Groh Farm, 135 Temple Rd, Wilton, NH

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.

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?

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’?

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.  

$30 suggested donation at the door, with potluck lunch to follow
(please bring a dish to share) RSVP deb@anthroposophy.org Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year.Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Trans-denominational Minister, ‘Anthroposopher’, working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, The Traveling Speakers Program, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society.

Whitsun 2020 Vitae Sophia

as part of the tour 

3 June 2020 – a Round Table Discussion 7 pm – 9 pm on ‘The Sophia’ with John Bloom, Joan Sleigh, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg & Carrie Schuchardt  at The House of Peace in Ipswich, MA. 

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In Chicago are creating an opening for what in Rudolf Steiner’s work is called a ‘moral imagination’. So we need friends and communities to join with us to imagine what is possible if the human being was freed from the State and Economic imprint on them today. What do we individually and collectively see as need in our communities?

Inclusivity and diversity of the most broad kind is needed: those who agree and those who do not agree with basic norms and needs of the other have to be in the room to build a collective way forward. NVC people in the room for all feeling safe to share and collaborate from their particular perspective. Courage will be needed to step in and stretch into our becoming.

Rudolf Steiner shares about the threefold commonwealth:

‘It is intended as the expression of what the people’s would do if their own latent powers were recognized and liberated by their respective governments. How to work out the details always becomes clear in such matters, when the path towards realization is entered upon, for they are not instructions as to what is to be done, but forecasts of what will happen when things are allowed to take the path demanded by their essential nature.’

Basics:

Rights Realm – Equality
Having to do with the people to people relations. All people equal under the eyes of the law. Human Rights.

Separating Politics from Money and Culture

Economic Realm – Communityhood
Three Councils – Producers, Distributors, Consumers.
No Sate/Political influence allowed.

‘All economic affairs should be dealt with by separate self governing bodies and a central economic council. Once these are freed from all military and political influence they will be able to develop their business in a manner suitable to the needs of the moment, and according to the laws of economic life itself.’

Cultural Realm – Freedom of the Individual
The State/Politics has no role in this realm.

‘All Judicial, Education, Cultural, Spirit traditions, Science, Art etc. to be left to the free choice of the individual.’

#HowWeWill202
#FormingCurativeCommunities