Ahriman (known as Angra Mainyu) often called ‘The liar’, or ‘king of deception’, is the spirit of evil & darkness, from Zoroastrianism, a religion in Persia around 600 BCE. Ahriman is Lord of a legion of demons, the force behind materialism & greed, darkness, chaos, & the source of all human confusion, disappointment, destruction, & strife. In Zoroastrianism, Ahriman is contrasted with Ahura Mazda, (also called Ormuzd) the supreme creator of order, goodness & light.
“Ahriman has the greatest interest in concealing from humankind what must be seen – that in modern intellectual, rationalistic science, in superstitious empiricism, one is dealing with a great illusion, a deception. If human beings should not recognize this, that is the greatest possible goal for Ahriman. It would be a triumphant experience for him if the scientific superstition which infiltrates all areas of life today, and which human beings even try to use as a template for the social sciences, should prevail into the third millennium (In contemporary history, the third millennium of the Anno Domini or Common Era in the Gregorian calendar is the current millennium spanning the years 2001 to 3000, ie. the 21st to 30th centuries) He would have the greatest success if he could then arrive in western civilization in human form and find the scientific superstition as prevailing dogma.
Lucifer, the opposite polarity of evil, is the power that stirs up all fanatical, all falsely mystical forces in human beings, all that physiologically tends to bring the blood into disorder, and so lifts the human being outside themselves through the forces of fear, envy, & anger.
Ahriman is the power that makes people dry, letter-of-the-law, prosaic, philistine—that ossifies them and brings in the superstition of materialism, seen in false calculations, charts and misleading numerical figures ….” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Incarnation of Ahriman: The Embodiment of Evil on Earth.
Dear friends, Let us awaken to this, & let us seek, in equanimity, to hold these 2 adversarial forces in check, with the courage & Heart-Thinking of Michael, in the Light-filled Wisdom of The Sophia, & thru the healing power of Love – standing in peace, with balance – living into, ‘not me, but Christ in me’..?
”Whatever has to happen will happen. Whatever it is that is wrestling its way out, must needs go through all these experiences in order to reach a stage at which spirituality can be united with the soul, so that humanity can grow up spiritually.
Today’s tragic destiny of humankind is that in striving upwards today, human beings are endeavouring to do so not under the sign of spirituality but under the sign of materialism. This is what brought them under the sway of those elite brotherhoods who want to develop the impulses of the mercantile element, commerce and industry, in a materialistic way on a grand scale. This is today’s main conflict. All other things are side issues, often terrible side issues. This shows us how terrible the illusion of maya can be.” ~ Rudolf Steiner, the final lecture of ‘the Karma of Untruthfulness’, volume 2.
”The aims of these elite groups are anything but what they say they are in their newspapers. They want to make profits, or achieve certain destructive things through doing business, and for this they possess the means by which they can disseminate views whose truthfulness is irrelevant, but which serve the purpose of entering into certain kinds of business. In the case of much of the printed matter distributed around the world today, the right question to ask is not: What does this person mean? But: In whose service does this person stand? Who is paying for this or that opinion? This is often the crucial question these days.
The secret brotherhoods about whom we have been speaking are not concerned with debating these things, but rather promoting them as an important occult means of which they can make use of, to discredit any questioner. An important aim is achieved by them when what is said no longer matters, as long as it exercises influence over people in the interests of these certain groups.” ~ Rudolf Steiner, Lecture 23, of the, Karma of Untruthfulness, volume 2.
Dear Friends, please take to heart these words of Benedictus, from scene 7 of the Mystery Drama: ‘The Portal of Initiation‘:
‘You have been joined by destiny
together to unfold the powers
which are to serve the good in active work.
And while you journey on the path of soul,
wisdom itself will teach you
that the highest goal can be achieved
when souls will give each other spirit certainty,
will join together in faithfulness
for the healing of the world.
The spirit’s guidance has united you in knowledge;
so now unite yourselves for spirit work.
The rulers of this realm bestow on you,
through me, these words of strength:
Light’s weaving essence radiates
from person to person
to fill the world with truth.
Love’s blessing gives its warmth
to souls through souls
to work and weave the bliss of all the worlds.
And messengers of spirit
join human works of blessing
with purposes of worlds.
And when those who find themselves in others
join with each other
the light of spirit radiates through warmth of soul’.
~Rudolf Steiner
May our collective ‘Initiation’, our arduous task, toward building the spirit of light, & warmth, continue with grace
Xox ~hag
***
POD for Betty Mae, my Mother, who would have been 80 today:
my heart. my mother.
my heart. my Mother.
my heart is
the living heart of earth.
my heart is my becoming.
my heart dreams
in the house of hearts.
my heart is a jug of cool water…
the unblinking eye of night –
red & blue flames shooting
from the corners of my mouth…
beneath the lilies,
amid the stars
all flesh & teeth & hunger
i am rising up
like the stirring of bees…
beat beat beat
i rise up & dance upon the altar of Love
~hag
***
19 July 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars“: The Summer Triangle is not a constellation but a large asterism consisting of three bright stars in three separate constellations. These stars are Vega, Deneb & Altair. If you can find the Summer Triangle, you can use it to locate three of the sky’s smallest constellations: Vulpecula the Fox, Delphinus the Dolphin & Sagitta the Arrow
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Nikola Tesla Day
138 – Deathday of Emperor Hadrian, Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian is known for building Hadrian’s Wall, which marked the northern limit of Britannia. He also rebuilt the Pantheon & constructed the Temple of Venus & Roma. An admirer of the Greeks, he is considered by some to have been a humanist, & he is regarded as one of the Five Good Emperors.
165 – Deathday of Felicitas of Rome is a saint numbered among the Christian martyrs. A legend presents her as the mother of the seven martyrs: Alexander, Vitalis, Martialis, Januarius, Felix, Philip, Sylvanus. In Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul we see listed for today the Fairy Tale The Seven Ravens (Sieben Bruder) by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm
1212 –London burns to the ground
1509 – Birthday of John Calvin, an influential French theologian & pastor during the Protestant Reformation
1778 – American Revolution: Louis XVI of France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain
1832 – U.S. President Andrew Jackson vetoes a bill that would re-charter the Second Bank of the United States
1856 – Birthday of Nikola Tesla, a Serbian American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, & futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system
1871 – Birthday of Marcel Proust, French novelist, critic, & essayist
1921 –‘Bloody Sunday’: 160 people are killed & 161 houses destroyed during rioting & gun battles in Belfast, Northern Ireland
1925 – Scopes Trial: the so-called “Monkey Trial” – a young high school science teacher accused of teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act.
1938 – Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91-hour airplane flight around the world
1962 – Telstar, the world’s first communications satellite, is launched into orbit.
1966 – The Chicago Freedom Movement, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., holds a rally at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. As many as 60,000 people come to hear Dr. King as well as Mahalia Jackson, Stevie Wonder, & Peter, Paul and Mary.
1985 – An Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-154 stalls & crashes near Uchkuduk, Uzbekistan (then part of the Soviet Union), killing all 200 people on board in the USSR’s worst-ever airline disaster
1991 – Boris Yeltsin takes office as the first elected President of Russia.
2005 – Hurricane Dennis slams into the Florida Panhandle, causing billions of dollars in damage
***
August 8-18 ‘Classroom Alive’ Youth Open-Source Learning in Chicago
We’re starting up with Culture in our community – join young people here in Chicago for a 10 day walking journey – Classroom Alive Chicago!
Exploration & experiencial learning all over Chicagoland, starting at at Elderberries 3-Fold Bio-dynamic Outpost & Cultrual Hub 4251 N. Lincolon Ave. Chicago, IL. 60618
for more info. contact Ultra-Violet Archer, or Frank Agrama
Details TBA
Thank you for forwarding this flier for any interested young people –
Co-sponsored in part by The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Festival & Program Coordinator
August 20-23, 2020 Questions of Courage Youth Conference at Elderberries
Questions of Courage 2020 in Chicago – August 20-23 Elderberries Biodynamic Outpost and 3Fold Cultural Hub 4251 N. Lincolon Ave. Chicago, IL. 60618
August 20: Check-in, share conversation, build the ground for the journey together.
August 21-22: Travel to Wisconsin Move together towards the land, link up with Farmer John and Haidy Angelic Organics Biodynamic Farm, and also with Dana and Phil Burns at Healing Traditions and Alizur farm. Connect with the land, plants, animals, and one another, through creative explorations and “roughin’ it” type amendments. Sleep under the stars or indoors.
August 23: Return to Chicago Enter back into the metropolitan context, into the social questions of urban life, and close the gathering together at Elderberries, setting the ground for future work out of questions of courage that are present.
Other locations and collaborators are currently in dialogue, and will be updated here.
The gathering is essentially about stepping into the living natural element, step by step, making an integral connection, with one another, ourselves, and the elements that support us here on the Earth…”
registration: https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLSdY7KXHkjUPV2h9UD…/viewform
Thank you Elderberries for giving us an anchor to build our heartland gathering around!
Elderberries Biodynamic Outpost + Threefold Cultural Hub, 4251 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618
Co-sponsored in part by The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Festival & Program Coordinator
August 27-30, Dr. Michaela Glockler and Nicanor Perlas, + more -HOW WE WILL 2020
SAVE THE DATE – August 27 – 30 2020 Elderberries Biodynamic Outpost and 3Fold Cultural Hub in person in Chicago and also Online
Friends, Dr. Michaela Glockler and Nicanor Perlas, storyteller Melody Brink, biographer Linda Bergh and Seneca Gonzalez! are added to our collaborators for this How We Will – Forming Curative Communities.
We have a few more responses that we are waiting for before we send out our invitations and our website. Turning Point in Time!
At Elderberries 3-fold Bio-Dynamic Outpost 4251 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL. 60618
for more info. contact Frank Agrama or Dottie Zold
Details TBA
Co-sponsored in part by The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Festival & Program Coordinator
Michael: His Mission & Ours! Michaelmas Festival Sept. 27-29, 2020
Save the Date for Our Michaelmas Festival & Yourth Gathering Sunday 27 September 2 pm – 4 pm, Monday 28 Sept. & Tuesday 29 Sept.
Sponsered by: The Rudolf Steiner Branch, Elderrberries Biodynamic Outpost & 3-Fold Cultural Hub, & Angelic Organics Biodymanic Farm
In person & online presentations
Details TBA
contact Dottie Zold or Festivals coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
