Dear Friends – Our work on earth began with a push & a pull – an often painful, laborious, process of ‘Spirit becoming matter’. Since the ‘Turning Point of Time’ we are called to make the equally labor-some return – to consciously strive to spiritualize matter.
And since the advent of the current age of Michael as Time Spirit, our mission is to redeem the adversarial forces, in particular that side of ‘modern science’ that wants to keep us stuck in matter.
We are called, dear friends, to transform the laboratory bench into an altar.
The moment we work from a place of reverence, & wonder – a sacred space where interest is generated by the warmth of love, we are consecrating matter, recalling, sensing & beholding the spirit in Nature, to co-create a ‘Spiritual Science.’
With Heart-Thinking, the Christ Impulse will permeate the “I” of the scientist. And religion, science, & art will radiate out as a healing force in the world.
That’s what I am thinking about today, as I sit in this time between Ascension & Whitsun…
What are you thinking?
23 May 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: As soon as you can see Venus as the twilight moves in, start looking for Bella Luna, a very thin crescent Moon, hardly more than a day old, & then find Mercury, they make a triangle together as the Sun sets.
POD
…I have fallen down upon the earth, to gain the powers of the stars…~hag
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1498 –Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake in Florence, Italy. Savonarola was an Italian Dominican friar. He was known for his prophecies & his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule & the exploitation of the poor. The Florentines expelled the ruling Medici &, at the friar’s urging, established a “popular” republic. Declaring that Florence would be the New Jerusalem, the world center of Christianity & “richer, more powerful, more glorious than ever”, enlisting the active help of Florentine youth.
In 1495 when Florence refused to join Pope Alexander VI’s Holy League against the French, the Vatican summoned Savonarola to Rome. He disobeyed & defied the pope by preaching under a ban, highlighting his campaign for reform with processions, bonfires & pious theatricals. In retaliation, the Pope excommunicated him.
A trial by fire proposed by a rival Florentine preacher to test Savonarola’s divine mandate turned into a fiasco. On May 23, 1498, they condemned, hanged, & burned him in the main square of Florence.
1533 – The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null & void.
1934 – The American bank robbers Bonnie & Clyde are ambushed by police & killed in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
1945 –Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Schutzstaffel, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
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~Vitae Sophia~ A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Online Whitsunday, 31 May 2020 from 10 am–11:15 am EDT Zoom Call (9 am – 10:15 am CDT)
Through leading thoughts and conversation we are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.
*Join Zoom Meeting on computer https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85927907854
Meeting ID: 859 2790 7854
or Dial in by phone: Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbEIk8kgk1 Meeting ID: 859 2790 7854
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.
Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire
For more info. contact deb@anthroposophy.org