Monthly Archives: April 2020

East to West

Nicholas Roerich

Greetings friends –

Thank you for making our CRC Easter Festival ‘The Three Days’ such a powerful event, with folks from all over the world sharing & adding to this joyful community gathering.

Here is the recording of our presentation for Good Friday, & here is the script from our artistic offering: ‘Love’s Sacrifice’.

This is a link to our CRC Holy Saturday offering, with the script toPersephone as Queen of the Underworld’

Easter Sunday recording you need a password for this one: P9^L.*5^ And here is what we shared

These are the art images we shared

Here is contact info. for Eurythmist Mary Ruud

Barkley Ventex

And now dear friends we enter the most esoteric time of year; when the secret teachings of the meaning of our human evolution are revealed, in the time between the Resurrection & the Ascension, 40 days later, leading to Pentecost-when The Sophia brings her gifts on Whitsunday at 50 Days.

Join us 1st for the

MORE INFORMATION

The Connection between Epidemics, the souls of the Dead, and the Spiritual World on Saturday 18 April 10:45 am – 12:15 am CDT (11:45 am-1:15 pm EDT, 8:45 am – 10:45 am PDT)

& on Sunday 19 April 12:15 pm – 1:45 pm CDT (1:15 pm – 2:45 pm EDT, 10:15 am – 11:45 am PDT): Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn and the Evolution of Earth -Then and Now with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

And then god-willing, join us in person (or look for an online SOPHIA event)

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Lifting the Veil of The New Isis -Sophia, a Telling of the New Isis Myth, with Leading Thoughts, on the Being of Anthroposophia, w/ Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Friday, 29 May 2020, 7:30 – 9:30 pm at Groh Farm, 135 Temple Rd, Wilton, NH

$10 suggested donation – RSVP deb@anthroposophy.org – Sponsored by the Anthoposophical Society in NH

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.

Jo Jayson

~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

Whitsun 2020 Vitae Sophia

as part of the tour 

Cantinho dos Deuses | Arte deusa, Arte visionária, Arte espiritual

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.

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Light Divine

Merry Prep-Stir Easter Sunrise 2020

Happy Easter Friends

Up with the birds for sunrise. Banned from assembling at the Great Inland Sea of Chicago, our intended prep-spray spot, we meet in our backyard. Every year at Christmas we collect the tress that folks leave in the alley, & burn them throughout the year.. How perfect to remember the sacred birth at the time of the Resurrection.

My dear friend & Merry Prep-Stir ally Ines Katharina suggested we add a bio-dynamic egg & honey from the Zinniker farm to our 501 prep. We also added soil collected by Angela Foster from her various pilgrimages.

The brew frothed & glowed a pale yellow. We sang & told stories & fed the fire, which added ash to the mix. Then we sprayed our little piece of urban bottom land, & walked the neighborhood, delighting the children who were out looking for the Easter Bunny. We ended up at the gazebo park where the 120 year old ginkgo tree lives. The Gnomes put us to work arranging rock piles in the landscape…

Back home Ultra & her godfather Fuji play music, while Chuck keeps the fire burning & we all enjoy breakfast on the deck. The Paschal Lamb, from Benta & Walter Goldstein‘s bio farm, is on the grill, our old dog & crazy cat are happily laying on the porch, bees are dancing in the blue bells, our next door neighbor’s just came out with their 2 Waldorf girls to look for hidden eggs. O how they love a good fire. I look around, is that a glow? Even though it’s a bit overcast, there is a glint in the air, the neighborhood truly feels more light-filled.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 3-days1.jpg
Sophia Takada

Here is a link to our CRC Holy Saturday offering

Here is our program for this Feast Day of the Resurrection
CRC ‘The Three Days” Easter Sunday 12 April 2020
by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, indications from Emil Bock and Rudolf Steiner

Easter is a spiritual event that takes place on the stage of humanity.

The physical body of Jesus of Nazareth is the mediator through which the powers of the cosmos are united with the Earth aura.

With the sacrifice on Golgotha, when the life-blood of the Cosmic Heart penetrates the Earth, and its forces flow down, even to the very core, the Earth becomes illuminated from within.

The Resurrection takes place, 1st at the gates of the underworld for the souls of the dead who had lost their divine nature.

And with the dawn on Easter Sunday, the opportunity is then given to every single human individuality to experience this light within the self.

And the seed is planted for the reunion of Sun and Earth.

The Mystery of Golgotha is the pivotal event of the whole divine process of creation, of the whole process of human evolution from its beginnings in the womb of the Spirit, to its consummation in humanity as the 10th hierarchy.

The Christian Festivals were never meant to be merely the commemoration of great historical events or simply truths of the Christian revelation, as great as these are.

The Festivals in themselves, are, each year, spiritual events, carrying a significance that grows and deepens with the developing phases of human evolution, ever evolving as we do.

This is especially true of the Easter Festival, with its answer to humanity’s deepest needs, its quickening of our highest hopes; with its message of the victory of good over evil, of light over darkness, of life over death.

Again and again, from all points of view, Rudolf Steiner spoke about the deep meaning of the Easter Festival in the eternal working of the divine worlds upon humankind, in the prefiguring myths and symbols of the ancient Mystery religions, in its relation to the world of nature and the cosmic universe, in which the date of this moveable feast contains a unique mystery.

For it is determined by a cosmic alignment. 1st the sun must enter into the sign of Spring, then it waits, for the moon to come into its vernal fullness…then the planetary beings whose names correspond with the days of the week come into play. This is Holy Week.

We are invited to connect to the Solar forces, so when the first Sun-day after the Full Moon of Spring arrives, then it is time to celebrate the Easter Festival.
And there is deeper meaning still in this alignment. It indicates how through the Christ Impulse, humanity is to be set free from the forces of earth-evolution, pure and simple.

It contains a call to humanity to lift ourselves up to the worlds beyond the earth; to once again speak with the stars. It contains a promise, that in the course of world-history, it will be possible, through the working of the Christ Impulse, for humanity to once again be united with the cosmos, in the New Jerusalem.

It is for this that we strive when we celebrate the Easter Fest.
Its consequence must be looked for in all human history, in the arts, in human thinking, in all social relationships, and even in the materialistic triumphs of modern science.

The great initiate Rudolf Steiner told us: “Anthroposophy itself must become like an inner festival of Resurrection for the human soul. It must bring an Easter mood into humanity’s world-conception”.


MOVEMENT SHARING


And so with guidance from the spiritual worlds we bring you these Easter thoughts. The airy regions of the Earth rejoice. Can you hear the ringing of the Easter Bells? Angels calling. Singing, through the breath of nature, jubilating in delight. For the grave, & the heart are full, of light.

The sun-filled pulse of life is living in the human heart. The wide-span of soul breathes in the fragrance of Spring renewed, touched by the Risen Christ.

Yet from the ancient chasm the earth quakes. Reverberating with the revolution. Echoing up from the empty tomb. Resounding in gladness. Trembling the rocks. Flashing with lightning to tear away the curtain. Removing the blindfold of the senses. To see the spirit form, shining white, like snow, in overwhelming brilliance.

Fear turns to astonishment.

Stand with me dear sisters & brothers on the high summit of the mountain. Then descend with the women to the grave, to meet the angels who have rolled away the stone.

Walk with me to the top of Mount Tabor, in the sunny landscape of the Sea of Galilee. Under the wide open sky, draw in, the miraculous draught of fishes, and become a fisher of men.

Or shall we meet in the upper room, the Cenacle, where the washing of the feet and last supper vibrate still.

Come, shout Hallelujah from Mount Zion, to get a glimpse of the Ascension that is to come.

Stand alone with Mary Magdalene to meet the gardener, the new seed planter, cultivator of a fresh life on earth. Can you hear him calling your name?

Anxiety becomes amazement shining through tears of pure love, which opens their super-sensible eyes and grows the heart.

Or do you need to put your fingers in the wound like Thomas the doubter?

Receive instead, the ‘warmth that changes the beat of our heart, weaving in our blood a true fulfilment’

Know in truth: ‘Christ is Risen to you as the meaning of the Earth’!

If we align our will with the Divine Will, then we too can ‘Come Rise’…

Sound Interlude

Dominique Hurley

Break out room Question: What do you think the Being of the Earth is wanting us to hear today on Easter Sunday 2020? We come back have a large group sharing.

Roxie Belerd

Elemental Chorus:
“Grant me a vision of Nature’s forces
That connect the worlds; all its seeds and sources
And innermost life – all this I shall see,
And stop peddling in thoughts that mean nothing to me…”

Rudolf Steiner, calling to mind this quote from Goethe’s Faust, tells us in his lectures entitled ‘Symphony of the Creative Word’: “…Thus you can see that what lies beyond the threshold is calling to be part of our own nature, you see how it takes us into active divine forces, into what lives and works in all forms of existence.” Hear now the Elemental Chorus, inspired by what Steiner gives at the end of these 1923 lectures.

Human Spirit receive now a message from the Gnomes – We are the Elemental Beings of earth; working in your Metabolic organization.
“You dream yourself
And shun awakening.
I maintain the power of root nature,
It creates for me the body of forms.
O human being – Strive to awaken”!

elementals
Kit Denny

Human Spirit receive now a Message from the Undines –
We are the Elemental beings of water; working in your Rhythmical system

“Your think the deeds of angels
And know it not.
I bestir the water’s power of growth,
It creates for me substance of life.
O human being – Think in the spirit”!

Sylphs | Brian froud, Faery art, Faeries
jenny Blue

Human Spirit receive now a Message from the Sylphs –
We are the Elemental Beings of air; working in your Nerves and Senses

“Creative might shines to you,
You divine it not.
You feel its strength and live it not.
I quaff the airy force of life,
It fills me with the power of existence.
O human being – Live and create a cosmic breathing existence!”

fire – Heni's Happy Paintings
Don Brwen

Human Spirit receive now a Message from the Salamanders – We are the Elemental Beings of fire; warming the “I”.
“Divine Will offers you strength,
You accept it not.
With its strength you can Will – Yet you thrust it from you.
I consume the striving power of fire,
Into spirituality of soul it releases me.
O human being – Receive in love the will-power of the gods!”

Gnomes: O human being – Strive to awaken!

Undines: O human being – Think in the spirit!

Sylphs: O human being – Live and create a cosmic breathing existence!”

Salamanders: O human being – Receive in love the will-power of the gods!”

Wellspring: The Representative of Humanity between Lucifer and Ahriman

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

Music: Now the green blade riseth

Rudolf Steiner - Center for Anthroposophy

Mary Ruud – Performance of the COTS Easter Mood Verse
‘When out of world-wide spaces
The Sun speaks to the human mind,
And gladness from the depths of soul
Becomes, in seeing, one with light,
Then rising from the sheath of self,
Thoughts soar to distances of space
And dimly bind
The human being to the spirit’s life’.
~Rudolf Steiner

Mary Ruud leads – All Togther: The Hallelujah in Eurythmy

Thank you & Happy Easter

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Sea Cooke

The Three Days” – An online Easter Festival with the Central Regional Council

Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, All three days: April 10 -12, 2020 from 3 pm – 4:15 pm CDT (4 pm – 5:15 pm EDT)

We will apply Spiritual Research, taking inspiration from the ancient Mysteries, indications from Rudolf Steiner, Emil Bock, and personal vision, to artistically follow the Cosmic Sun on the ultimate path of human initiation, from the Free-Will Sacrifice, through the Harrowing of Hell, to Conquer Death – into the Resurrection of the New Sun.

Artistic activities include: Speech Work with the Calendar of the Soul, Musical interludes, Drawing exercise, Conscious conversation, Participatory Eurythmy, and a Performance with Mary Ruud of the Easter Verse from the Calendar of the Soul.

Special Guest Rev. Craig Wiggins, Lanker for the Christian Community, will join us in the pageant readings. And Dr. David Tressemer of the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology (AAP) will also join us in the readings, as our dear David Howerton is ill.

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 – find below Zoom Call details and link to reading materials.

This will be a “Zoom” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer). To connect to the audio/video-conference:
Option 1. Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended)
https://zoom.us/j/9900117223
The PASSWORD is: 679832

Option 2. Call in using your telephone.
United States: +1 669 900 6833 or +1 312 626 6799
Access Code: 990-011-7223
The PASSWORD is: 679832

Option 3. You can use a combination of Options 1 and 2 (computer and phone). If you use the phone, please turn off the audio on your computer to prevent audio feedback.

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

May Hope Spring Eternal – The CRC – Marianne FieberAlberto LoyaHazel Archer Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton

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The Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond ONLINE CONFERENCE APRIL 17-19, 2020

MORE INFORMATION

The Connection between Epidemics, the souls of the Dead, and the Spiritual World on Saturday & on Sunday: Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn and the Evolution of Earth -Then and Now with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Holy Hell

Sirius Painting by Acchi Aya Sanchez
Aaron Mosse

11 April 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: As the stars are coming out an hour or so after sunset, look southwest for dazzling Sirius, the departing Winter Star. It’s the brightest point in the sky after the bright Venus (occult Mercury, bringing the healing power of Love) in the West.

Vasily Kafanov

Now turn & look East for Arcturus, the arriving Spring Star. It’s shining at the same height as Sirius. These are the two brightest stars in view right now. But Capella is a very close runner-up to Arcturus! Spot it high in the northwest, about two fists at arm’s length to the upper right of Venus (occult Mercury).

Dear friends –

Below is my offering for Holy Saturday 2020. Join the CRC for our community online gathering ‘The Three Days’ today 3 pm CDT to ‘see’ the performance. (Bring paper & colored pencils as we will take a journey into the Underworld thru the rendering of a labyrinth!)

Prophetic Art painting, abstract cross art with heart and circles ...
Vashi Vant

For those who would like to view the recording of our Good Friday offering, here is the link

Stephanie Pui-Mun

Persephone as the Queen of the Underworld by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

SOUND: Rainstick

Once upon a time, before the ‘Turning Point of Time’, Zeus, the King of the Gods, was in courtship with the goddess of the harvest, Demeter. They conceived a beautiful goddess named Persephone, who was loved by all for her lighthearted kindness.  

Demeter was very protective of her daughter, keeping her naive to the ways of the world and dressing her as a child, even as she grew into a woman. She meant to keep her innocent and virginal forever, always by her mother’s side.

Sound: flute

But the winds of change were gusting up in all worlds. And one day Persephone was out with her nymphs gathering flowers in a meadow; roses and crocuses and beautiful violets, irises also and hyacinths, but what took her breath away was the narcissus, which Earth made to grow at the will of the King of the gods, to be a prompt for the bloom-like girl to ripen.

Persephone reached out with both hands to take up the inviting blossom. Just then, SOUND (tambourine shake and clap) the wide-pathed earth yawned open, there in the plain of Arabia, and Hades, the god of Hell, sprang out.

It was Hades’ job to judge the souls of the dead, but the underworld was a dark, isolated place, and he had grown lonely and cold as he carried out his duties over the centuries.

The other gods had grown to fear him, and the mortals hardly dared to utter his name.  

But as he observed Persephone, he felt new life stirring in the cold depths of Hell itself. SOUND rainstick and ting shaw

An echo resounding: the time was now right for her initiation.  

And yet Hades knew Demeter would never allow this, so he decided to spirit Persephone away. SOUND chimes

Shaken to the core, her breath no longer dreamy, she descended into Hell. And so, the innocent maiden was thrust into an ancient trial.

Demeter quickly noticed her daughter was gone and searched frantically for help. Eventually she discovered that the wise crone Hecate had witnessed it all.

Not knowing what to do, and finding no help from the gods, Demeter grew livid, vowing that the ground would never produce a stalk of wheat until Persephone was returned.

Down in the Underworld, Persephone was working through her trials, taking up the mysteries of the Underworld. Hades was a fair, but exacting task master, yet when she excelled, he showered her with gifts. (SOUND: shimmer chime) It was so different from her leisurely life before, and Persephone often missed Demeter, her mother, and the bright world above.

Hades was patient. He put Persephone’s throne next to his and, unlike the other gods, allowed her equal rule alongside him.

When Persephone suggested that the finest mortals be released from eternal bondage, and another realm be made for them to journey outward, Hades softened by love, made it for her. It was called Elysium–the spiritual world of heaven. SOUND – chime shimmer

Persephone grew in wisdom. She noticed and appreciated that Hades was the only one who had ever treated her like the Goddess she was. Feeling her power grow, Persephone matured in her role as Queen.

One morning while Persephone was in the garden of the Netherworld for the rites, Hades offered her a blood red pomegranate, the sacred fruit of the dead. Knowing this was a test, she ate six(Ting)plump (Ting )juicy (Ting)seeds.

Immediately Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, appeared before them. He told Persephone that Demeter had caused the earth to freeze, and that no crops would grow. Mortals were dying in droves, and the only thing that would stop her was Persephone’s return.

Persephone reluctantly allowed Hermes to take her to Mount Olympus, where Zeus and Demeter were having it out, since, after all, the King of the gods had encouraged Hades to take his daughter into initiation, without her mother’s consent.

Persephone tried to convince Demeter that she was flourishing in her new power, and that Hades had been kind to her. But Demeter insisted that  Persephone had to come home, or else she would let every mortal on earth die of famine.

Suddenly the throne room darkened (SOUND – RAINSTICK) and the gods turned as Hades stepped out of the shadows. He was holding the partially eaten pomegranate in his hand.

 “Persephone has eaten the fruit of the Underworld. She must return and rule there with me.”

While Demeter started to protest, Zeus considered Persephone quietly.

“How many seeds did you eat, daughter?” he asked.

Persephone told him, “Six.” Sound: (1Ting) Zeus stood up from his throne and the assembly quieted.

 “Since Persephone has eaten six seeds of the pomegranate, I rule that she will spend six months each year in the Underworld with her husband, and six months tending to the fields of earth with her mother.”

SOUND: Rainstick

Neither Demeter nor Hades were completely happy with this agreement, but the king of the gods had made it so. 

FLUTE: Springy tune

Every year Persephone returns to the fields of the mortals and restores them with Demeter.

And when the Autumn time comes, SOUND (tambourine & clap) Hades comes to escort Persephone back to her throne in the Underworld.

Each time she leaves, Demeter mourns and all vegetation dies.  

And each time Persephone returns, the earth warms and becomes fertile once again.

This is how the Greeks explained the earth’s seasons.

Here also we get a glimpse into the ancient mysteries, and we see how a goddess of life brought light into the Underworld – Making the ground of the human soul fertile to receive a new impulse at the ‘Turning Point of Time’.

Native Flute Interlude

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Asher Teorg

The Three Days” – An online Easter Festival with the Central Regional Council

Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, All three days: April 10 -12, 2020 from 3 pm – 4:15 pm CDT (4 pm – 5:15 pm EDT)

We will apply Spiritual Research, taking inspiration from the ancient Mysteries, indications from Rudolf Steiner, Emil Bock, and personal vision, to artistically follow the Cosmic Sun on the ultimate path of human initiation, from the Free-Will Sacrifice, through the Harrowing of Hell, to Conquer Death – into the Resurrection of the New Sun.

Please have paper & colored pencils on hand.

Artistic activities include: Speech Work with the Calendar of the Soul, Musical interludes, Drawing exercise, Conscious conversation,

Hygienic Eurythmy,and a Performance with Mary Ruud of the Easter Verse from the Calendar of the Soul.

Special Guest Rev. Craig Wiggins, Lanker for the Christian Community, will join us in the pageant readings. And Dr. David Tressemer of the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology (AAP) will also join us in the readings, as our dear David Howerton is ill. (please send prayers!)

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 – find below Zoom Call details and link to reading materials.

The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our on-line Easter Festival, which replaces the original festival with the AAP which has been postponed to a TBD date due to pandemic precautions.

This will be a “Zoom” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer). To connect to the audio/video-conference:
Option 1. Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended)
https://zoom.us/j/9900117223
The PASSWORD is: 679832

Option 2. Call in using your telephone.
United States: +1 669 900 6833 or +1 312 626 6799
Access Code: 990-011-7223
The PASSWORD is: 679832

Option 3. You can use a combination of Options 1 and 2 (computer and phone). If you use the phone, please turn off the audio on your computer to prevent audio feedback.

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

May Hope Spring Eternal – The CRC – Marianne FieberAlberto LoyaHazel Archer Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton

Love’s Sacrifice

Greetings dear friends on this Good Friday 2020 –

B. Hannel

Do you remember in 2003-04 when we had that powerful tetrad of solar & lunar eclipses that came during the Easter & Michaelmas seasons? I was prompted at that time to research the Spiritual Significance of Eclipses & the inner layers of the earth. I presented a program called: ‘The Interior of the Earth as Christian / Rosicrucian Initiation’, giving the beatitudes as the antidote to the sub-nature of these realms.

Nicholas Roerich

With all that is happening at this Easter-Tide I was thinking of delving back into that ‘Harrowing of Hell’ with the hopes of bringing healing into the spiritual causes of the pandemic, making it the theme for this year’s Easter Festival.

Red Virus Cells Over Earth And Its Blurry Hologram. Concept Of ...

But of course since we cannot gather I reached out to my dear friend Laura Scappaticci, program director of the ASA to see what could be done online. She suggested I use the Central Regional Councils Zoom connection. When I spoke with my colleges there was a great enthusiasm to offer something. We brainstormed together & “The Three days” was born. I love how working with others can bring fresh impulses.

Xennie Donge

As is often the case, when sitting down to ‘write’ something, the spiritual world guides my pen. And so it was that the present offerings came forth, very different then my original idea.

I offer up The Good Friday ‘script’ for your contemplation, with the hopes that you will join us online for the next ‘Three Days’.

“The Three Days” Good Friday 10 April 2020 by Hazel Archer Ginsberg

‘When from the depths of soul
The Spirit turns to the life of worlds
And beauty wells from wide expanses,
Then out of heaven’s distances
Streams life-strength into human bodies,
Uniting by its mighty energy
The spirit’s being with our human life.
~Rudolf Steiner

(Overview introduction to Open the Gathering)

In the New Mysteries we follow the path of the Christian initiation thru the Holy Week before Easter – With every step, from the recognition of the old Sun on Palm Sunday, thru the Death that brings New Life, to the meeting of the Saturn-Spirit and The Harrowing of Hell, which sparks the rising of the New Sun of Easter, we are led deeper into an inner initiation.  Each of these steps, seen through the lens of the planetary spheres, leads to a conquest of a corresponding layer in the interior of the earth.

We rest on Good Friday, the stillness of Sabbath, ‘In Christo morimur’ – This is the Mystic-death or temple sleep of the initiate. The Tomb becomes the altar, a sacred place to commune with the gods – with the souls of the departed as our intermediaries.

In the garden, at the center of the earth, between the rocky hill of Golgotha, part of the lunar Mount Moriah, and its polar opposite the Solar Mount Zion – the center of the cosmos – there is a new tomb where the body of Christ rests, and yet it is the oldest tomb, for it was formerly a primal fissure, a gorge splitting Jerusalem in two, called by some Adam’s grave – Known as the gate to the underworld.

The earthquakes tear open the original fissure.  The veil of the Temple is “rent in twain”. Vistas are opened into the interior of the world. He is “lowered into the grave of the earth,” and so it is, that The Christ went into the Earth’s Interior, becoming the seed for our continued evolution.

Even there the darkness of Saturn is warmed and lit up from within by the Cosmic Sun. The Easter garden begins to bloom, for those who have lost their divine nature in the dungeons of Hell. Releasing the light so that our soul can behold, like the Magdalene before us, The Risen One as the gardener of the New Jerusalem.

The spirit radiates from the heights and yet is also carried to us by the eternal divine world of the depths. ‘Let from the depths be entreated, What in the heights will be heard’.  We can send our prayer to the Christ-heart in the earth’s depths, to help overcome and redeem the adversarial powers that hold sway in the 9 layers of the earth’s interior. The agricultural course is a stepping stone to this ultimate aim.

Spiritual science tells us that when the blood flowed into the earth from the cross on Golgotha, a new Sun-globe was born in the interior of the earth. This golden earth-center is the legendary land of Shambhala, hidden away, yet waiting to be re-discovered by the seeking, Christ-guided human soul.

Before the mystery of Golgotha, the task of evolution was that the cosmos would become human. After this ‘Turning Point’, the human becomes cosmos -The New Sun -The imperishable resurrection-body uniting with the Cosmic- Sophia.

The tomb becomes the Round table, and the Parsifal question leads us to find Christ in the etheric. 

Also working with us from the time of the Vernal Equinox is the Archangel Raphael, who holds the staff of Mercury, offering us the healing power of the Caduceus through the grace of the living Christ, who stands as the middle pillar within us all.

May we take up this healing, that ‘Good May Become’ for human & cosmic evolution.

On the urn that holds the ashes of Rudolf Steiner, we read: “To create centres of peace & love in which the Christ can resurrect.”

Musical Interlude

Activity: Break out karmic groups with leading thought: What is your personal experience with the world situation, in the light of the Good Friday experience, overlaid with the reality that in 1925 when Rudolf Steiner died, the starry world at Holy Week was the same as this year in 2020…?

Chimes

***

Doris Harpers

Love’s Sacrifice: The Good Friday Contemplation by ~hag

And so it was that there was a great convocation in the spiritual world after humanity fell to the temptation of eating an unripen fruit. The Father Ground of the World shook His head:

“Babies are always putting things in their mouths. And yet this will surly alter my Divine plan. This premature action sows the seeds of death. We must send an emissary to reset this shift & bring balance to the blueprint once again”.

The mighty choirs of angels were ready to serve, but really, they couldn’t go, as they had their work to do to keep the harmony of the spheres.

The Holy Spirit volunteered, but it was thought She should wait until they were ready for Her Wisdom. So Love stepped forward.

“Father I will be the emissary. I will go in your name, and by dying I will conquer death. I will sow a new garden that the earth shall become a Sun. And I will bring the mystery of death back as a gift to our eternal world.  I will say “Who so ever believes in me, believes in the Father who sent me. I will come into the world as light, so that who so ever believes in me may not remain in darkness”.

And so it was that Love made the journey from the eternal, through the zodiac & down into every planet, making a special home in the Sun.

The Holy Spiritsent Wisdom, Her own avatar tolight the way. Awakening some wise initiates who began preparing for Love to come, hoping it would be soon, for the earth was rapidly dying. When the stars were right, Love became human, which took about 30 years. And  as with all Love’s actions on earth, when the cosmic alignment was in harmony, the earthly being received the Cosmic Being from the Sun, at the Baptism by John, and began the mission. Showing how Love could live on earth.

And when Love had taken 33 and a third turns around the Sun, the “Three Days” came that he should enact the trial to conquer death.

In the Garden of Gethsemane the fight against the power of death enters a decisive phase. Here in the quiet grove of the Mount of Olives, where Love has so often been with His disciples for intimate training, The Son of God must now withstand the most dangerous attack of the enemy in utmost loneliness.

Death, already apprehensive of losing control over Him, appears, in order to lay hold of Him. The Destroying Angel wants to possess Him.

The secret of the conflict in Gethsemane lies in the fact that death wants to outwit Love. It wants to wrest Him away too soon, before He has ended His work and filled the last vestige of His earthly vessel with His Spirit.

The Cosmic part of Love’s Being wrestles to enter still more deeply into the earthly world of matter through the physical body. There is still a last remnant to be ensouled. The very bones.

For three years, the Fire of divine Ego-hood has burned in the body and soul of Love. For this reason the human vessel – from within outwards – has already almost been consumed to ashes.

What still has to be suffered and completed demands so much strength from the earthly sheaths that there is a real danger of premature death. Death lies in wait and hopes to make use of this moment.

But Love is victorious and death is repulsed.

It is not the will of Love to pass into the spiritual world simply through dying. It is the will of Love to remain united with the Earth, so that when the sacrifice is made, Love can conquer over death.

Through the medicine of bitter pain, the inmost Being of Love has gained the ultimate power of spirit over matter, so that Death can no longer hold sway.

The death-powers realize this, and appear for their last effort, furious that their might has been of no avail. When the sun is darkened during the sultry midday hours of Good Friday, it is as though the demon of the sun were straining to the utmost against the God of the Sun.

And when the earth is shaken by the earthquake, all the demons of the earth seem to storm forward and endeavor to help the death-power to victory.

Scorn of Love disturbs the earthly elements and even shakes the heavens. However, death can strip nothing from the sovereignty of Love.

And from the Cross a mysterious brilliance breaks through the dreadful noonday light. The Son of God reveals itself at the same time as the physical sun suffered eclipse. A ray of Easter is already weaving itself into the darkness of Good Friday.

In the willing sacrifice, Love goes directly into the Earth. The body, like a seed, is planted; and the Earth opens in an earthquake that takes into itself the body of Love.  Death becomes life, for the whole of earth-existence. A cosmic and earthly Communion.

The medicine for the spiritualizing of all material existence is incorporated into Earth existence – “the medicine that makes whole”.

Sound interlude

70 Best Eurythmy figures images | Rudolf steiner, Waldorf ...
Bet Taylor

Hygienic Eurythmy Exercise

‘When from the depths of soul
The Spirit turns to the life of worlds
And beauty wells from wide expanses,
Then out of heaven’s distances
Streams life-strength into human bodies,
Uniting by its mighty energy
The spirit’s being with our human life. ~Rudolf Steiner

***

Sea Cooke

The Three Days” – An online Easter Festival with the Central Regional Council

Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, All three days: April 10 -12, 2020 from 3 pm – 4:15 pm CDT (4 pm – 5:15 pm EDT)

We will apply Spiritual Research, taking inspiration from the ancient Mysteries, indications from Rudolf Steiner, Emil Bock, and personal vision, to artistically follow the Cosmic Sun on the ultimate path of human initiation, from the Free-Will Sacrifice, through the Harrowing of Hell, to Conquer Death – into the Resurrection of the New Sun.

Please have paper & colored pencils on hand.

Artistic activities include: Speech Work with the Calendar of the Soul, Musical interludes, Drawing exercise, Conscious conversation,

Hygienic Eurythmy,and a Performance with Mary Ruud of the Easter Verse from the Calendar of the Soul.

Special Guest Rev. Craig Wiggins, Lanker for the Christian Community, will join us in the pageant readings. And Dr. David Tressemer of the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology (AAP) will also join us in the readings, as our dear David Howerton is ill. (please send prayers!)

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 – find below Zoom Call details and link to reading materials.

The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our on-line Easter Festival, which replaces the original festival with the AAP which has been postponed to a TBD date due to pandemic precautions.

This will be a “Zoom” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer). To connect to the audio/video-conference:
Option 1. Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended)
https://zoom.us/j/9900117223
The PASSWORD is: 679832

Option 2. Call in using your telephone.
United States: +1 669 900 6833 or +1 312 626 6799
Access Code: 990-011-7223
The PASSWORD is: 679832

Option 3. You can use a combination of Options 1 and 2 (computer and phone). If you use the phone, please turn off the audio on your computer to prevent audio feedback.

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

May Hope Spring Eternal – The CRC – Marianne FieberAlberto LoyaHazel Archer Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton

Terry Zoll

When out of world-wide spaces
The sun speaks to the human mind,
And gladness from the depths of soul
Becomes, in seeing, one with light,
Then rising from the sheath of self,
Thoughts soar to distances of space
And dimly bind
The human being to the spirit’s life.

~Rudolf Steiner, Calendar of the Soul – Spring Verse

***

Calling all Merry Prep-Stirs!!!

We will have a Spring Stir at Sunrise on Easter morning 6:12 am.

Please contact Hazel for dets

***

The Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond ONLINE CONFERENCE APRIL 17-19, 2020

MORE INFORMATION

The Connection between Epidemics, the souls of the Dead, and the Spiritual World on Saturday & on Sunday: Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn and the Evolution of Earth -Then and Now with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Streaming

David Newbatt.

Dear friends – Every day I find revelations, insights & connections thru Spiritual Science in my search to understand myself & the world. What a blessing to have this resource, & to be part of a world-wide community that strives to live into these New Mysteries.

Ocean meets River | Ocean quotes, Ocean, Outdoor
Jack Milner

I have often found it to be vital to highlight the importance of acknowledging & bringing together the 2 major streams within our movement. And in these times of unrest this is even more essential.

E.L.D - HOME (newest art)
Victor Bright

So in that light, just because a spiritual scientist goes about interrupting a Steiner quote in their own way, or focuses on a different aspect of modern science from their own research then perhaps you might feel is right; it does not make them wrong, or bad, or make it OK to go on an attack out of a sense of righteousness, that you have to set the record straight. Friends, we are a small karmic group, sending negative barbs out at others who are perhaps of a different stream, just weakens our cause. Please consider practicing tolerance, to develop interest which can ideally lead to love of the other.

Annael

If the stream of spirituality is not powerful enough to influence lazy and easy-going people as well, the karmic consequence of nervous derangement will gain greater and greater hold over humanity, and just as in the Middle Ages there were epidemics of leprosy, so, in future, materialistic thinking will give rise to grave nervous diseases; there will be epidemics of insanity besetting whole peoples.

Insight into this domain of the Law of Karma reveals that Spiritual Science should never be a matter of strife but a healing power in humanity. The more spiritual men become, the more will troubles connected with diseases of the nervous system and derangement in the life of soul, be expunged.”

~From the very end of last night’s CRC study call where we worked with Theosophy of the Rosicrucian – The Law of Destiny VI by Rudolf Steiner

Sea Cooke

The Three Days” – An online Easter Festival with the Central Regional Council

Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, All three days: April 10 -12, 2020 from 3 pm – 4:15 pm CDT (4 pm – 5:15 pm EDT)

We will apply Spiritual Research, taking inspiration from the ancient Mysteries, indications from Rudolf Steiner, Emil Bock, and personal vision, to artistically follow the Cosmic Sun on the ultimate path of human initiation, from the Free-Will Sacrifice, through the Harrowing of Hell, to Conquer Death – into the Resurrection of the New Sun.

Please have paper & colored pencils on hand.

Artistic activities include: Speech Work with the Calendar of the Soul, Musical interludes, Drawing exercise, Conscious conversation, Participatory Eurythmy, and a Performance with Mary Ruud of the Easter Verse from the Calendar of the Soul.

Special Guest Rev. Craig Wiggins, Lanker for the Christian Community, will join us in the pageant readings. And Dr. David Tressemer of the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology (AAP) will also join us in the readings, as our dear David Howerton is ill.

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 – find below Zoom Call details and link to reading materials.

The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our on-line Easter Festival, which replaces the original festival with the AAP which has been postponed to a TBD date due to pandemic precautions.

This will be a “Zoom” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer). To connect to the audio/video-conference:
Option 1. Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended)
https://zoom.us/j/9900117223
The PASSWORD is: 679832

Option 2. Call in using your telephone.
United States: +1 669 900 6833 or +1 312 626 6799
Access Code: 990-011-7223
The PASSWORD is: 679832

Option 3. You can use a combination of Options 1 and 2 (computer and phone). If you use the phone, please turn off the audio on your computer to prevent audio feedback.

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

May Hope Spring Eternal – The CRC – Marianne FieberAlberto Loya, Hazel Archer Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton

Terry Zoll

When out of world-wide spaces
The sun speaks to the human mind,
And gladness from the depths of soul
Becomes, in seeing, one with light,
Then rising from the sheath of self,
Thoughts soar to distances of space
And dimly bind
The human being to the spirit’s life.

~Rudolf Steiner, Calendar of the Soul – Spring Verse

***

Calling all Merry Prep-Stirs!!!

We will have a Spring Stir at Sunrise on Easter morning 6:12 am.

Please contact Hazel for dets

***

Brian Wolbaum

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~At dawn the thread of Time unfurls –
Sunlight streams across Space –
Time reaches in both directions
Knotted in the golden orb of the moment.
The Eye opens, the Heart unlocks, the Navel yawns
& takes the World in its belly
~hag

***

Big Dipper Points To North Star in Little Dipper - My Explorations

9 April 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: This is the time of year when, the last of twilight fades away, the bowl of the Little Dipper extends straight to the right of Polaris. High above the end-stars of the Little Dipper’s bowl, you’ll find the end-stars of the Big Dipper’s bowl.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Margarita Woloschina

Maundy Thursday

Feast Day of of Mary Cleophas, who was at the crucifixion with Mary Magdalen & Mary-Sophia the Mother of Jesus

1241 –Mongol Invasions which necessitated the help of the Templars. The Templars worked hard to preserve the integrity of Europe. 73 years later – a little over the span of a human life – they were exterminated by the same forces that worked in the Mongols Ghengis Kahn & Kublai Kahn.

1626 – The death day of Francis Bacon. In Karmic Relationships Steiner indicates that in a former life he was, Harun al Rashid.

I have already spoken, here at Dornach too, of Lord Bacon of Verulam as the reincarnated Haroun al Raschid. We know how intense and determining an influence Bacon’s conceptions had on the whole succeeding evolution of the spiritual life, notably in its finer impulses and movements. Now the remarkable thing is this, that in Lord Bacon himself something took place which we may describe as a morbid elimination of old spirituality. For such spirituality he had after all possessed when he was Haroun al Raschid.

And thus we see, proceeding from the impulse of Lord Bacon, a whole world of daemonic beings. The world was literally filled supersensibly and sensibly with daemonic beings. (When I say “sensibly” I meant not, of course, visibly, but within the world of sense.)

Now it chiefly fell to the individuality of Alexander to wage war against these daemonic idols of Lord Bacon, Francis Bacon of Verulam. And similar activities, exceedingly important ones, were taking place on earth below. For otherwise the materialism of the 19th century would have broken in upon the world in a far more devastating way even than it did. Similar activities, taking place in the spiritual and in the physical world together, were allotted to the stream of Michael, until at length at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century there took place in super-sensible regions what I have already described as the enactment of a great and sublime super-sensible ritual and ceremony”. ~RS

***

The Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond ONLINE CONFERENCE APRIL 17-19, 2020

MORE INFORMATION

The Connection between Epidemics, the souls of the Dead, and the Spiritual World on Saturday & on Sunday: Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn and the Evolution of Earth -Then and Now with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg