Monthly Archives: July 2020

Look, See, Think, Do

Understanding Society through Spiritual–Scientific Knowledge ...

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 - Waldorf Watch

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 Sculpture by Rudolf Steiner | Rudolf steiner, Steiner, Rudolf

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.

The Bondage of Spirits | Gornahoor

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.

PISTIS SOPHIA - Awareness of Nothing

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’..?

eaglefineart on Twitter: "BARON ARILD ROSENKRANTZ. Christ Between ...
BARON ARILD ROSENKRANTZ

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.

Portrait of Rudolf Steiner – Amanda Sage Collection
Amanda Sage

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

Newly discovered Comet Neowise visible in evening sky: 'A long ...

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Nikola Tesla died on this Day | The Srpska Times

Nikola Tesla Day

Hadrian: rescuer of the Roman Empire - HistoryExtra

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.

Felicitas of Rome - Wikipedia

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

508 The Great Fire Of London 1666 Photos and Premium High Res ...

1212 –London burns to the ground

TOP 25 QUOTES BY JOHN CALVIN (of 410) | A-Z Quotes

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

11 Quotes By Nikola Tesla That Will Fire Up The Genius In You

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

Marcel Proust (Author of Swann's Way)

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.

Photos: On this day in 1938, Howard Hughes sets record for around ...

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.

When Martin Luther King Jr. Changed Chicago – Chicago Review of Books

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

#ClassroomAliveChicago2020

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

A peek into the Divine Blueprint

St. Raphael the Archangel – Novena - Prayers Room

And so this is what came to me this morning: The Feast Day of Archangel Raphael, companion of Tobias; Mohammed’s flight from Mecca; & the Birth Day of Astrosopher Elisabeth Vreede

Preparing for the New Divine Blueprint | Galactic Connection | Sacred  geometry art, Sacred geometry, Visionary art
David Gennde

A peek into the Divine Blueprint: It is Michael’s intention that intelligence will stream through the hearts of human beings, & that it will be consciously connected to the same divine spiritual forces that helped to create humanity in the beginnings of time.

Soul Portraits - Barbara McKell - Visionary Artist
Barbara Mckell

It has become possible for souls aligned with Michael to be engaged in a goal-oriented schooling for initiation, to enter into a closer working with the hierarchies & the etheric Christ, who reveals Himself today as an angel. It is Michael’s aim that the spiritual schooling will lead to heart-knowledge & that the etheric eye of the heart will become an organ of cognition.

Soul Portraits - Barbara McKell - Visionary Artist
Barbara Mckell

We read the following in the Michael-Letters:
“The Christ-force imprints human imaginations into the cosmic ether.”

The Original Blueprint of Humans | We Are 1 in Spirit
Dennis Fixer


“That which man experiences as strength of conscious imagination becomes world content.”

Original Light Language
Mellie Von


“Hearts begin to have thoughts, that is the new way of thinking with the heart.”

The Original Blueprint of Humans | We Are 1 in Spirit
Mellie Von


“The newly developed heart-organ slowly transforms into an eye, or better, a sensing-heart-eye-organ.”

Visionary art | Suzann Art
Suzanne Cowebber


“Everyone who strives in the light of spiritual science and connects himself with the creative World-Logos through heartfelt thoughts, sooner or later will learn to read Karma. By doing so he adds to the substance of the etheric-youth or angel-being through which the etheric Christ reveals Himself today.”

Art - Soul Connection
Xi Twi

For spiritually active pupils in the Michaelic stream, the heart becomes: An eye for self-cognition, the realization of the true self as eternal being; it also becomes the eye of the Ego-sense, the true ‘I’ – which perceives the ‘other’ in their true being, an eye of cognition for supersensible beings & for the etheric Christ Himself, protected & cherished in the Michaelic mystery-culture of will; it will also become possible to perceive the karma of others as well as one’s own karmic chain.

On Rudolf Steiner’s 63rd birthday he gave the following meditation to Dr. Ita Wegman:
Hearts will read karma
When hearts learn
To read the Word
Which shapes things
In human lives
When hearts learn
To utter the Word
Which shapes things
In the human world
.”

Universal Blueprints of Creation | Wilka Zelders
Welka Zelderds

We experience our own Self & those connected to us, in our eternal being. When our heart-sense becomes a cognitive organ, we feel as if our heart is being transplanted into the Sun, we feel as if we go with the Sun, the Sun is in us, belonging to us. The Sun becomes our eye, our ear as well as our organ of warmth.

The Divine Hermaphrodite
William Mills

“We stand within the light, we touch spirit-beings with our light-organs.” Then we not only feel ourselves within the Sun but we perceive ourselves “on the other side of the Sun”. We experience the world within our being, where previously it was outside of ourselves, around us. Rudolf Steiner tells us it is an experience which we go through unconsciously during sleep.

City Foursquare - TSL Encyclopedia

This is a powerful esoteric call to each pupil of Michael, to help in the creation of a new Sun-Earth. In this way the secret of the Grail lives – as Christian Morgenstern says: “I lift my heart to you as a true vessel of the Grail …”

Pin on Pendragon
Max Zen

It is the experience of being totally imbued with the spirit of eternity which fills the receiving Grail-Soul in a cultic spirit event, a ‘reverse-ritual’, at the Sun-altar. Here Spirit & Soul truly unite. It is the Michaelic path to the heavenly city of the New Jerusalem.

Shamballa/The New Jerusalem | Reverse Ritual
RS

See you there
Until soon
Blessings and Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

The Grail of the Summer Stars » Kinuko Craft » Marcus Ashley Gallery
Marcus Askley

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

16 July 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Neowise & STEVE – a recent discovery that looks like an aurora, but it’s not. The purple glow is caused by hot ribbons of gas flowing through Earth’s magnetosphere from the Sun. It appears during some geomagnetic storms, often alongside a type of green aurora known as the “picket fence,” shown in the photo along with Neowise.

STEVE appears most often in spring & fall. So what summoned STEVE in mid-summer? It may have been a CME (formed by explosive reconfigurations of solar magnetic fields) from the Sun, that grazed Earth’s magnetic field. (“…the ever present help from the spiritual world“!)

Our Lady of Mount Carmel: July 16 | saints-feast-family

Feast Day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order, by Christian hermits living in the Holy Land during the late 12th & early to mid-13th century. They built a chapel conceived of in chivalric terms as the “Lady of the place.” Our Lady of Mount Carmel was adopted in the 19th century as the patron saint of Chile, in South America.

In celebration of the feast day of Our... - Diocese of Palm Beach | Facebook

Since the 15th century, popular devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel has centered on the Scapular, a sacramental associated with promises of Mary’s special aid for the salvation of the devoted wearer. Since the Middle Ages, Our Lady of Mount Carmel has been related to Purgatory, where souls are purged of sins in the fires. In some images, she is portrayed as accompanied with angels and souls wearing Brown Scapulars, who plead for her mediation.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel - Wikipedia

Our Lady of Mount Carmel was seen in the apparitions of Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal, by Lúcia Santos & her co-visionary companions Jacinta & Francisco Marto & as many as 70,000 witnesses of the extraordinary events during the Miracle of the Sun. She also appeared to Saint Simon Stock to whom she gave the Brown Scapular. The Garabandal apparitions, in Spain, were reported to be images of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. Also in Acquafondata, Italy, the apparition of the Virgin of Mount Carmel, was seen on July 16, 1841. There is still today a small sanctuary on the site.

Mohammed's Flight from Mecca in 622 AD; Algerian color postcard from the  1920s or '30s. Mohammed is the figure dressed in red entering th… | Image  archive, Postcard

622 – Mohammed’s flight from Mecca, which came to determine the beginning of the Islamic calendar.

Byzantine Empire Religious & Political Differences Split Christianity,  Decline of the Empire. - ppt download

1054 – Three Roman legates break relations between Western & Eastern Christian Churches through the act of placing an invalidly-issued Papal bull of Excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia during Saturday afternoon divine liturgy. Historians frequently describe the event as the start of the East–West Schism.

1879 – Birthday of Elisabeth Vreed – Dutch philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, astrologer & anthroposopher. Elisabeth Vreede came into contact with Theosophy in her home growing up. She was interested early on in the starry sky, read the works of Camille Flammarion & learned French at the same time. At the University of Leyden she studied mathematics, astronomy, philosophy (especially Hegel) & Sanskrit. She was also actively involved in student life, founding a boat club, & was a council member of the students’ union.

Einige Briefe aus dem Jahr 1943, Elisabeth Vreede

Her first meeting with Rudolf Steiner took place at the Theosophical Congress in London in 1903. Vreede was leader of the mathematics & astronomy sections in the Goetheanum in Dornach from 1926 till 1935. In her capacity as leader of the Mathematical-Astronomical Section she wrote a monthly letter, then available by subscription, about both modern astronomy & classical astrology in the light of spiritual science. The letters included explanations of the fundamentals of astronomy & discussions of astrology in the modern world, with reference to such topics as the procession of the equinoxes, comets, solar & lunar eclipses, & the meaning of the Christian holidays such as Easter & Whitsun. The Letters in English translation were published in 2007 with the title Astronomy and Spiritual Science.

Elisabeth Vreede - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

In 1935 the separation within the Anthroposophical Society took place & she was expelled from the executive council & excluded along with her long-time friend & co-member, Dr. Ita Wegman from the board of directors. She was also cut off from the observatory & archives that she herself helped assemble.

Forschungsstelle Kulturimpuls - Biographien Dokumentation

The last years of her life became more lonely. She was cut off from her friends abroad by the War. The death of Ita Wegman at the beginning of March, 1943, was a great shock for her.

Cichorei | Elisabeth Vreede

Rudolf Steiner said of her: ‘this individuality does not wish to be recognized …’ Elisabeth Knottenbelt in her memoirs describes statements about her: that ‘she incarnated too early’ for the sake of serving Rudolf Steiner. “for this task [the work with Rudolf Steiner] she had assumed the sacrifice of a premature incarnation. One who, for the sake of a spiritual mission, comes in this way to earth too early must forego a lot. To a great extent one leaves one’s karmic circle of human beings behind in the spiritual word. Her life was thus really a quite lonely one, only a few persons were grouped around her without any real connection.”

Astronomy and Spiritual Science: The Astronomical Letters of Elisabeth  Vreede: Vreede, Elisabeth, Koetzsch, Ronald, Riegel, Anne, Davidson,  Norman: 9780880105880: Amazon.com: Books

Here is a quote from a letter written by her prior to her removal from the executive council: “The Being of Anthroposophy – I myself have always felt it as a spiritual being newly created by Dr. Steiner, as it were the first hierarchical Being that men have begotten, quite young and still underdeveloped, as is the case with a child—a Being that must now begin to develop further through our common work as a ‘community of knowledge’, and with the cooperation of its creator from the spiritual world. Just for this reason I find it so painful when attacks are continually made against part of the active members such as to exclude them from the work, from creating together the Being of Anthroposophy.”

Elisabeth Vreede - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

Read her biography from the Astrosophy Research Center

Revisiting the Vel d'Hiv roundup through the ca...

1942 – Holocaust: Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup.The government of Vichy France orders the mass arrest of 13,152 Jews who are held at the Winter Velodrome in Paris before deportation to Auschwitz.

Preserving the History of the Atomic Age and the Manhattan Project - Non  Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly

1945 – Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

1948 – The city of Nazareth, revered by Christians as the hometown of Jesus, capitulates to Israeli troops during Operation Dekel, the largest offensive by Israeli forces in the north of Palestine in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Israeli aircraft bombed Saffuriya village & caused panic among the population; many of the villagers fled northwards toward Lebanon, others found shelter in Nazareth, leaving about 100 elderly people behind. Nazareth surrendered to the Israelis.

Palestinian Arab villages captured in Operation Dekel

NamePopulation[2]DatesBrigadeNotes
Kuwaykat1,05097th Armoured Brigade and Carmeli BrigadeVillage depopulated and destroyed
Kafr Yasif1,057 (1931)10Carmeli BrigadeMost of Muslim population as well as refugees from other villages deported. Town exists today.
Khirbat Jiddin1,50010–11Village and bedouin camps depopulated and destroyed.
Julisn/a (Druze)8–14Population allowed to remain in their homes. Town exists today.
Al-Makrn/a8–14Town exists today.
I’billin1,0578–14Muslim population expelled. Town exists today.
Shefa-‘Amr3,6408–147th Armoured Brigade and Carmeli BrigadeMuslim population fled under bombardmennt. Town exists today as a city.
Kabul457 (1931)157th Armoured BrigadeVillagers remained. Town exists today.
Al-Mujaydil190015Golani BrigadeVillage completely emptied and razed to the ground.
Ma’lul69015Village depopulated and destroyed.
Saffuriya4,000167th Armoured Brigade[3] and Carmeli BrigadeVillagers expelled. Hundreds of returnees expelled November 1948 and January 1949. Nothing remains.
Nazareth18,00016Carmeli BrigadePopulation allowed to remain. Town exists today.
Nimrin32017Village depopulated and destroyed.
Lubya2,37017Villagers not allowed to return. Village buildings destroyed in 1960s.
Hittin1,19017Golani BrigadeVillagers fled before the attack and then prevented from returning. Village destroyed.
Amqa1,24015–167th Armoured Brigade and Carmeli BrigadeVillage depopulated and destroyed.
ad-Damun1,31015–167th Armoured BrigadeVillage bombarded, population expelled and buildings destroyed.
Tamra,15–187th Armoured BrigadeVillagers evacuated 20 May. Re-populated with exiles from neighbouring villages.
Mi’ar77015–187th Armoured BrigadeVillagers fled from advancing soldiers. Village destroyed.
Yafa833 (1931)15–18Town exists today.
Uzeir15015–18Village exists today.
Kfar Kanna1,175 (1922)15–187th Armoured BrigadeTown exists today.
Rummana59015–18Village exists today.
Bu’eina15–18Town exists today.
Al-Ruways330187th Armoured BrigadeVillagers fled under bombardment and buildings destroyed. Land now used by kibbutz Yas’ur.
Tur’an1,35018Empty houses used for refugees expelled from other villages. Town exists today.
Nahf200 (1881)187th Armoured BrigadePopulation allowed to remain. Town exists today.
Al-Birwa1,46018Units of ALA involved in defending the village. After capture villagers were prevented from returning and the village was destroyed.
Sha’b1,74019Villagers expelled, later replaced by exiles from other villages.
Frank Beacham's Journal: 45 Years Ago Today: The Apollo 11 Moon Launch

1969 –Apollo 11, the first mission to land astronauts on the Moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Kennedy, Florida

July 16–17, 1999 — “A Small Plane Is Missing” — The Death Of JFK Jr.

1999 – John F. Kennedy Jr., piloting a Piper Saratoga aircraft, dies when his plane crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. His wife & sister-in-law are also killed

2007 – An earthquake of magnitude 6.8 & 6.6 aftershock occurs off the Niigata coast of Japan killing 280 people, injuring at least 5800 & damaging a nuclear power plant.

2014 – Deathday of Ruth Zinniker – The biodynamic movement owes so much to Ruth and the whole Zinniker family. Their farm has been a source of inspiration for thousands of people, many of whom came there to work as apprentices when they were young people and have gone on to be important leaders in the biodynamic movement. Ruth had a place in her heart for all these people and many others. She warmed the movement with her social gesture and her fiery enthusiasm. Thank you dear Ruth, thank you Zinniker family, for all you have given to help seed the biodynamic movement in North America.

***

DR. JOHN DEE, THE HOLY GRAIL, THE LIGHT BODY AND ENGLAND'S GREATEST SECRET  – William Henry

POD (Poem Of the day)

Stephen Hawks

~Over the open face of light
Some sober trails of vapor creep
Enticing a vortex in the somber cosmic night…
Inward I turn my rays of hope
To become a polished mirror
Hard obsidian & black silver
Lead into gold
~hag

***

star, flares, digital, wallpaper, sun, coronal mass ejection, energy,  space, CC0, public domain, royalty free | Piqsels

Man only looks up to the Sun in the right way (even if it be but in his mind) when, as he gazes upwards, he forgets Space and considers Time alone. For in truth, the Sun does not only radiate light, it radiates Space itself, and when we are looking into the Sun we are looking out of Space into the world of Time. The Sun is the unique star that it is because when we gaze into the Sun we are looking out of Space. And from that world, outside of Space, Christ came to men. At the time when Christianity was founded by Christ on Earth, man had been all too long restricted to the mere Ex Deo Nascimur, he had become altogether bound up in it, he had become a Space-being pure and simple. The reason why it is so hard for us to understand the traditions of primeval epochs, when we go back to them with the consciousness of present-day civilisation, is that they always had in mind Space, and not the world of Time. They regarded the world of Time only as an appendage of the world of Space”. ~Rudolf Steiner. Source : https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/AscenPent/19240604p01.html

***

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 #ClassroomAliveChicago2020

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!

***

August 27-30, HOW WE WILL 2020

At Elderberries 3-fold Bio-Dynamic Outpost

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

Crucial Connections

In 52 week spreuken, heeft Rudolf Steiner ingesteld de buitenste race van  het jaar op het innerlijke leven van de mensen… | Rudolf steiner, Steiner  school, Calendar

Dear friends – In the original Calendar of the Soul, Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘What is presented here can be useful to those who wish to follow the path of humankind’s spiritual development’.

1916-17 were crucial years in the evolution of humanity; the repercussions of which, 103 years later, must become conscious for the modern world.

The Karma of Untruthfulness: v. 2 eBook by Rudolf Steiner - 9781855844902 |  Rakuten Kobo

Rudolf Steiner gave us ‘The Occult Background of the War’ under the title: The Karma of Untruthfulness, Vol. 1 & Vol 2 – given at the vital point in the war when there was the best hope for peace. But the Western Allies rejected all offers, & on 6 April President Woodrow Wilson took the US into war.

Biography of Czar Nicholas II, Last Czar of Russia

A month before the Russian Revolution ended the 300 year-old rule of the Romanovs. The 1st American troops arrived in June & from May to October 1917 ‘visions’ of the Virgin mary were seen at Fatima.

Fatima Vision of Hell helped Salvador Dali return to God - Our Lady's Blue  Army - World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A.
Dali

Today is the anniversary of the third Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima on Friday, July 13, 1917. The three secrets involve Hell, World War I & World War II.

Sacred Heart Of The Virgin Mary | Di maria, Maria mãe de jesus, Virgem maria

Our Lady told the children that to save the sinners from hell, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to Her Immaculate Heart. She asked for the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, & the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.

Getting Fatima Right | Catholic Answers

From the Fourth Memoir: The Story of the Apparitions by Lucia Santos the oldest of the 3 children:

‘A few moments after arriving at the Cova da Iria, near the holmoak, where a large number of people were praying the Rosary, we saw the flash of light once more, and a moment later Our Lady appeared on the holmoak.

— Your Grace, what do you want of me? — I asked.

— I want you to come here on the 13th of next month, to continue to pray the Rosary every day in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can help you.

— I would like to ask you to tell us who you are, and to work a miracle so that everybody will believe that you are appearing to us.

— Continue to come here every month. In October, I will tell you who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe.

I then made some requests, but I cannot recall now just what they were. What I do remember is that Our Lady said it was necessary for such people to pray the Rosary in order to obtain these graces during the year. And she continued:

— Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially whenever you make some sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation (порт. reparação) for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

As Our Lady spoke these last words, she opened her hands once more, as she had done during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me). The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. Terrified and as if to plead for succour, we looked up at Our Lady, who said to us, so kindly and so sadly:

— You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion (port. a devoção) to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.

— To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation (port. a Comunhão reparadora) on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved; etc… Do not tell this to anybody. Francisco, yes, you may tell him.

— When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need.

After this, there was a moment of silence, and then I asked:

— Your Grace, is there anything more that you want of me?

— No, I do not want anything more of you today.

Then, as before Our Lady began to ascend towards the east, until she finally disappeared in the immense distance of the firmament’.

Russian Revolution | Definition, Causes, Summary, History, & Facts |  Britannica

On 7 November the Bolsheviks seized power, the same day Steiner began his 7 lectures on the ‘Secret Brotherhoods and the Mystery of the Human Double’ given in St. Gallen Zurich & Dornach between 6 & 25 November 1917.

Balfour: Britain's original sin | Israel | Al Jazeera

2 days later the British Government’s Balfour Declaration to Lord Rothschild was published, which promised a national home in Palestine for the Jewish people.

Battle of Passchendaele - Wikipedia

On the Western Front 6 Nov. 1917 was the appalling slaughter of the Third Battle of Ypres – 600,000 dead – which Steiner attributed to the karma of materialism – the direct result of too many people being asleep to world events & to the ways in which spiritual realties play into these events.

Fall of the Spirits of Darkness

In these lectures Steiner shows the relationship of the ‘Fall of the Spirits of darkness’ cast out of the spiritual world & draws attention to the actions of elite power groups serving these beings: ‘Awareness alone…clear recognition and understanding of spiritual realties together with willingness to recognize the objective evil forces at work in the world and their purpose in the scheme of things – these are the only means that can be of real help in modern humanity’s predicament.’  

Books - Anthroposophy Colorado

Can we see a parallel today?

~yours in service

~hag

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

***

100 BC – Gaius Julius Caesar – “The Gallic Wars”

golden leagend

1298 – Deathday of Blessed Jacobus de Varagine, an Italian chronicler & archbishop of Genoa. He was the author, of Legenda Aurea, the Golden Legend, a collection of hagiographies of the legendary lives of saints of the Middle Ages. The Golden Legend is the source of the Rose Cross Meditation that Rudolf Steiner often quoted.

EPSON scanner image

1527 – Birthday of John Dee, English-Welsh mathematician, astronomer, & astrologer & occultist

Moravian Church - Wikipedia

1727 – The founding of The Herrnhuter Brotherhood, The Moravian Church – Unitas Fratrum – Unity of the Brethren – predating the Protestant Reformation by a century, it was really the 1st  Protestant Church, with its heritage dating back to the Bohemian Reformation in the fifteenth century. It places a high value on ecumenism, personal piety, music -communio sub utraque specie, married priests, & eliminating indulgences & the idea of Purgatory. The Church’s emblem is the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei) with the flag of victory, surrounded by the Latin inscription: Vicit agnus noster, eum sequamur “Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow Him”

1863 – New York City draft riots: violent demonstrations that were the culmination of working-class discontent with new laws passed by Congress to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. The riots remain the largest civil & racial insurrection in American history, aside from the Civil War itself

File:Map of the Balkans to illustrate the Treaty of Berlin, 1878, H. G.  Wells' Outline of History, page 513.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

1878 – Treaty of Berlin: The European powers redraw the map of the Balkans. Serbia, Montenegro & Romania become completely independent of the Ottoman Empire

Neuerscheinung: Zündstofflieferant Robert Hamerling. Ein Mythos gerät ins  Wanken – Ilse Krumpöck
Ilsa Krumpock

1889 – Deathday of Robert Hamerling an Austrian poet. Rudolf Steiner gave his funeral address.  http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA154/English/AP1990/19140426p01.html The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica characterizes Hamerling as one of the most remarkable poets of the modern Austrian school, describing his imagination as rich & his poems as full of life & color. In his most popular poem, Ahasver in Rom (1866), the emperor Nero is the central figure. Among his other works, Venus im Exil (1858); Der König von Sion (1869), characterized as a masterpiece; Die sieben Todsünden (1872) Blätter im Winde (1887); Homunculus (1888); Amor und Psyche (1882). His novel, Aspasia (1876), a finely-drawn description of the Periclean age, & his tragedy Danton und Robespierre (1870), showed Hamerling’s genius. In Karmic Relationships Vol. 2, lecture 6, Steiner describes him as a pupil of Plato in an earlier incarnation.

hollywoodland

1923 – The Hollywood Sign is officially dedicated. It originally reads “Hollywoodland ” but the four last letters are dropped after renovation in 1949

1943 – Battle of Kursk was the final defeat of the German army. With the Soviet line at Kursk protruding into enemy territory, the Germans attempted to attack from different directions. Given time to reposition their defenses, the Soviets held off the offensive before launching a counterattack. Facing the American invasion of Sicily & the threat of an Italian collapse, Hitler decided to call off operations at Kursk, its failure shifting the balance of power.

albert_steffen_peter_selg

1963 – Deathday of Albert Steffen a poet, painter, dramatist, essayist,& novelist. He joined the Anthroposophical Society in 1912 & became its president after the death of its founder, Rudolf Steiner, in 1925. Steffen was chief editor of the society’s journal, Das Goetheanum, from 1921-1963. His earliest works, predating his encounter with anthroposophy, already manifest a spiritual awareness. His later works, which reflect a vision of the world permeated by metaphysical powers of good & evil, draw on a wide range of esoteric European & Asian traditions

1973 – Alexander Butterfield reveals the existence of the “Nixon tapes” to the special Senate committee investigating the Watergate break-in.

George Zimmerman Verdict -- NOT GUILTY of Trayvon Martin Murder

2013 – George Zimmerman is found not guilty in the shooting of Trayvon Martin

Typhoon Saomai - Wikipedia

2013 – Typhoon Soulik kills at least nine people & affects more than 160 million in East China &Taiwan.

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Hail seamstress of the cloth of life
whose thread is gold
whose needles are fire
i’ll not sever the cord for fear of entanglement
but learn to weave with you a web
of ever changing harmony…

~hag

***

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 #ClassroomAliveChicago2020

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!

***

August 27-30, HOW WE WILL 2020

At Elderberries 3-fold Bio-Dynamic Outpost

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

***

60 Spins ‘Round the Sun

Dennis Klocek

In 2022 The ASA will work with the theme of Isis-Sophia. A group of us have been holding this intention, meeting monthly since the Holy Nights to prepare & share our personal biographies around how we came to know ‘The Sophia’. Since today is my 60th natal return, it seemed a fine time to do a bit of biography work, & I was grateful to have this powerful theme to focus on.

Mary, Mother of Mercy — December 2015 - Diocese of Rapid City
Lippo Memmi

My 1st memory is when I was about 16 months old. My mother Betty Mae (she would have been 80 this 19 July) was pregnant with my sister, & I had the thought that she was going to give birth to me. When my sister was born, it was a huge shock. “That’s not me” I cried & ran out to the yard to sit under my weeping willow tree. I remember looking at my mother holding my sister & thinking over & over: “All people are different, but they all come from the mother”.

151 Best Prom theme images | Starry night prom, Prom decor, Prom themes
Kevin Lerry

My next big memory was when I was 3. Our family met up with some friends to share a lake cottage at the Indiana dunes. I was curled up on the floor sleeping with all the other kids in a big puppy pile, when a bight moonbeam pierced my left eye like a laser & woke me up. I was enchanted; it was like a siren song calling me to get up & follow that bright shimmering path. So I walked out the sliding glass doors & followed that beam of light across the sand, to where it was singing on the water. I would have waded out into the slow glistening waves, if not for one of the dads who happened to be out smoking a cigar. He swooped me up & brought me into the room where the adults were playing cards. I ran to sit on my daddy’s lap & he told everyone that I was Moonstruck. They all laughed. I was confused, but enjoyed the attention.

VLADIMIR KUSH - SYMPHONY OF THE SUN - ORIGINAL PAINTING ON CANVAS - 35 x 44  | eBay
VLADIMIR KUSH

(Many years later, after the complicated birth of my daughter, I had a similar experience with a shaft of sunlight, a true turning point, beginning my initiation into the Christ mysteries, but that’s another story)

Frances & Paulo Lucchesi

When I was 9, I started spending a lot of time with my ‘Grandma Good-Witch’ my Father’s mother, who was a ‘Strega’ from the old country; very different from my Irish Tennessee Granny who made yummy buttermilk biscuits & doodle-soup from the roasted pig-in-a-pit. I helped my Strega-Nona craft healing potions from herbs, & she taught me the peasant’s version of ‘Candle Magic’ involving the Saints; & rites that invoked the ‘Goddess’ in her 3-fold forms. I took particular interest in Proserpina, & Sapientia or The Divine Sophia. 

Sapientia by W Dietterlin

My Strega-Nona held ‘salons’ in her living room in Oak Park IL, where folks from different spiritual traditions would gather. I helped serve the snacks, & tried to understand what they were going on about. My Grandfather, who only spoke Italian, sang opera, & others recited from things like Goethe’s Faust, or read poems by Blake or Yeats. Everyone spoke loudly, with great enthusiasm, arguing with good cheer.

Home - Societas Rosicruciana in America®

2 people from the S.R.I.A (The Societas Rosicruciana in America) took a shining to me, engaging me in conversation, & would often bring me little gifts. I still have the small ISIS statue they gave me. When I took it home I began to have dreams  where I was serving like at my Grandmother’s, but in an ornate temple with a colossus of Isis. I won’t go into all the details, but my father was there: a shadowy version of Set/Typhoon.  In one dream in particular, a Full Moon shone in from the sky-light, & Isis called to me, using a name I knew was mine, but which I cannot pronounce.

BibliOdyssey: The Secret Rosicrucian Symbols

I told the two Rosicrucian’s of the dreams. They went over to talk to my Grandmother & the next thing I knew I was ‘working’ with them as ‘an apprentice’. They would come to the salon early (traveling in each time from Kingston New York!) & we would do certain exercises involving shapes & colors; or they would tell me stories; or show me beautiful pictures & ask what I saw.

Rosicrucianism is a philosophical secret society said to have been founded  in late medieval Germany by Christian Rosenk… | Masonic art, Masonic  symbols, Freemasonry

Seven times a year at the Christian Festival times we set up elaborate tables with art & objects from nature. At the climax of these little ceremonies I was to sit & concentrate on a rose quartz crystal swinging on a golden chain. It was like I fell asleep & when I ‘awoke’ the atmosphere in the room was completely changed. I always felt enlivened; & we would have a big feast. This became my greatest joy, & went on month after month; until I got my moon-cycle, one of the last in my class, at around the age 15.

Astral Travel and The Silver Cord
Devon Wekoff

(This magical time was in counterpoise to the turmoil that was happening at home because of the ongoing incest with my father – another story, which of course relates, since this may have contributed to my ability to leave my body so easily.)

So when puberty hit, it hit hard & I questioned everything. I even rebelled against the SRIA. Not being able to remember anything during the ‘ceremonies,’ gave me a bad feeling, & I knew I had to get out of my home situation. So I worked extra hard at school, & took enough credits to graduate a year early.

Mule Barn History and Pictures From Productions

Right after my 16th birthday I married a boy, left home – & went to do Summer Stock Theater in Tarkio, Missouri. Then we moved to Hollywood CA.  Well that quickly ended & I started waitressing & going to college in Long Beach CA.

I transferred to San Francisco State, to study Philosophy, Comparative Religion & Women’s Studies while working at the Strand Theatre. It was there at Cal State that I discovered Rudolf Steiner, thru Owen Barfield – When I read ‘How to Know Higher Worlds’ I knew I was home. Yet at the time I had no idea that there was an Anthroposophical Society.

Baby Boom

When I graduated, I moved to NYC, took some poetry classes with Audrey Lord, continued my research into the ancient mystery schools, & got into some bands in the vital music scene on the Lower East Side (Health Hen, Baby Boom, The Valkyries, Heal…)

Philip Armetta & Hazel at CBGB’s

The guitar player & I were part of the ‘squatters movement’ – we took over an abandoned building, where we lived for 4 years in between tours. Another long story, but what is relevant is that I would go up on the roof & watch the night sky. Bella Luna was my teacher, unveiling for me in living pictures the secrets of the stars.

Mother Serena in SRIA Chapel

As soon as I arrived in NYC I started having dreams about the SRIA, & sure enough they contacted me thru a friend I just happened to meet at ‘Ahimsa’ the Organic Restaurant where I was chef. I told them ok, yes, I wanted to take up the initiatory path, but this time in full consciousness, no trances. They agreed, & besides my daily mediations & study, I stated traveling to The ‘Mother House’ in Kingston New York, a few hours upstate, carpooling with a small group of contemporaries, every month. (These practical teachings, the rituals, & the community dynamics are a whole saga in itself.)

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is healthhen-pa-1024x768.jpg
P.A.

The band broke up (Reagan era politics & drugs…) The guitar player, Philip, always wanted to play ‘The Blues’, & my uncle was dying of AIDS, so we moved to Chicago.

Besu Kenz

I felt called to take my years of esoteric teachings out into the world, which I believed was in desperate need of the Divine Feminine. So I created empowerment circles for woman; we called ourselves ‘She Drums’. Gathering every New Moon, we followed the seasonal energies to invoke the many faces of the ‘Goddess’, exploring thru sound vibration, art & ritual, a journey to ‘Know Thyself’. 

After marrying ‘CG the Solar King’ (which facilitated my experience with the ‘shaft of sunlight’) I created the ‘We Drum Tribe’ for the whole community to gather on the Full Moons, to resonate with, & out-picture the mystery of the union between Love (Christ) & Light (Sophia).

It wasn’t until my daughter UVA, was in 3rd grade, did I find out that there was such a thing as the Anthroposophical Society; with a Branch within walking distance from my house no less. It took another 2 years before I even heard about the ‘1st Class’; & another year till I found the Christian Community.

Why was everyone at the Branch so cold & off-putting; treating these important initiatives as an elite clandestine society, I wondered? – For Steiner himself said the time of secrets had passed. Why didn’t the Waldorf School ever talk about Rudolf Steiner; & why didn’t anyone want to mention ‘The Christ’ or The Sophia?

Before I came to be the ‘Festivals Coordinator’ at the branch, I felt called to bring a lecture about ‘Columbia as the Spirit of America’, for the 4th of July, but the program director at the Branch told me NO; ‘it was not Anthroposophical, too pagan’.

Kimberly Webber

Put off, but undaunted, a year after I was ‘in charge’, I started our annual conscious NYE gathering, & gave a program entitled: ‘Isis Redeemed’ – a kind of performance piece with art collages around the telling of the ‘New Isis Myth’ by Rudolf Steiner.

Since then, along with my service to the community in the practical work of the Festival life; the Bio-dynamic Preps to spiritualize the Earth; the active research into what Steiner calls ‘Cognitive-Ritual’; ‘The 2 Streams’; the Esoteric Youth Circle; & The Foundation Stone Meditation; my primary focus is in exploring & co-creating experiential programs around the connection between Michael, The Christos & The Isis-Sophia, in the New Mysteries of Anthroposophia.

~Hazel (Laura Dee Lucchesi) Archer-Ginsberg, born Tuesday 12 July 1960 at 4:57 am CDT in Elmhurst IL.    

Grilled Bee Sting Leg Quarters – PS Seasoning

I will be off-line until 16 July.

Is this ‘global pandemic’ entreating us to awaken to the etheric realm that we share in common with the earth? Perhaps the coronavirus is an admonition for us to reconnect to the sun-forces now imbued with the Etheric Christ, waiting to be recognized and employed in these current evolving conditions – an invitation for all of humanity to rise to a higher stage of initiation – a Crowning re-birth. Sponsored by Anthroposophy Atlanta Lunch & Learn Hosted by Angela Foster & Jordan Walker of Wisdom Working – Questions? Comments…? Want to start a dialogue? Add your thoughts to THE AFTERIMAGE page. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p…

SHOW LESS
for more videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-K-0SnCuVkSxiIbfJierJA

***

Comet Neowise – wraps up its morning appearance then transitions to an evening light as it zips from Lynx into Ursa Major
Comet NEOWISE

Interesting that this new comet discovered in March during the call of the Corona, is named ‘Neowise’. It makes me think of Neo the wise fool from the Matrix. His journey holds many hallmarks of classic myth – He is the reluctant hero, the Chosen One, the savior, & the one who will lead the people to freedom. In order to do that, he must sacrifice himself, & rise from the dead. He faces progressively greater challenges, & as he begins to believe in himself, he is able to overcome all obstacles, including the ultimate adversarial powers.

Bob King

The Comet represents an element that does not wholly enter the usual sphere of cosmic law. Although they still contain a trace of the direct working of spiritual powers, indeed, of the very highest — the Seraphim and Cherubim. Before ordinary law may be broken through, the very highest power and insight is required. The various comets, indeed, are agents of a very special nature in our planetary system, their polar antithesis being in the moons.

Just as the moons are a kind of corpse which the planetary system trails along with it, so, on the other side, the comets may be spoken of as constant purifiers of the spiritual atmosphere within the solar system.

In earlier times men thought of them as the “scavengers of God,” and many superstitions have gathered around them. To the eye of Spirit, too, the mission of the comets is perpetually to expel impure astral forces from the Cosmos or to introduce new impulses.” ~ From an article by Dr Elizabeth Vreede        

Mars and the moon will appear 'tangled' on May 14 as Earth's satellite  enters its last quarter phase - Internewscast

12 July 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Last-quarter Moon (exactly so at 6:29 p.m. CDT). Bella Luna clears the Eastern horizon around Midnight tonight, with Mars now shining to her upper right.

***

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 #ClassroomAliveChicago2020

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!

***

August 27-30, HOW WE WILL 2020

At Elderberries 3-fold Bio-Dynamic Outpost

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

***

‘Putting Stars in the Soil’

Passing It On: Hugh Courtney's Preparation Making Workshops in 2019 |  Biodynamic Association
Photo by Rand Carter

Today, 88 years ago, on 8 July 1932, Biodynamic champion Hugh Courtney, founder of The Josephine Porter Institute For Applied Bio-Dynamics was born in the Heartland of Chicago, my hometown. He now spiritualizes the Earth from across the Threshold. (15 June 2020)

Hugh Courtney – Earth Legacy Agriculture
~Rand Carter

Abby Porter asked me to write something up after he died. And Rand Carter entreated me to make a tribute today on his birthday.

CANCER ZODIAC SYMBOL / SIGN DECAL / STICKER 02

I wasn’t surprised to know that he was born under the constellation of Cancer, for he certainly had a reputation of being crabby. But under that stubborn shell & those snappy claws was a deeply feeling heart, dedicated to the service of the Earth. If you look at The Beehive Cluster (also known as Praesepe (Latin for “manger”), in the constellation Cancer, you see the vortex – symbol of transformation – the reflection & goal of the prep-stir.

The Whirlpool Galaxy | NASA

Hugh Courtney was in the room where the quality comparison samples were laid out. We were to go in during the breaks at the Fellowship of Preparation Makers Gathering at Michael Fields in February 2020. The theme was ‘BD 501 and 508: Tools to bring the cosmic light into the earth’, & I was asked to bring a ‘Candlemas Festival’ to ignite the weekend. 

Zinniker Farm

As a city girl I had only worked with the preps at the Zinniker Farm ( the oldest Biodynamic farm in America) over the years, so I was excited to learn more about them, especially since I am part of the Elderberries Biodynamic Outpost and 3-fold Cultural Hub here in Chicago.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Hugh-courtney-logo.png
One of Hugh’s main initiatives

When I came in Hugh didn’t even look up. We both walked around the table taking note of our impressions of the various prep samples. After a while Hugh made a kind of grunt, & I came over to where he was. I made a comment about how that one in particular had the quality of being touched by the Salamanders. He looked up at me for the 1st time, grunted again, staring into my eyes for a bit before he said, ‘O so you see it too’. He asked me what I thought about another sample. I sat with it for a spell & then replied, ‘Well this one is very different; it almost seems like the opposite, very watery. This got me a smile. The ice was broken. We sat down together & Hugh shared with enthusiasm some of his many experiences working with the Elemental beings.

Umbra Perchiazzi

I will never forget this singular encounter with Hugh Courtney. This brief hour of true connection has given me the key to continue our communication. as the fruit of his labor expands on into the spiritual world, & rains down on all of us who are willing to continue his life’s work of spiritualizing the Earth. 

~hag

***

Vega in the Summer Triangle

8 July 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Tonight, look eastward during the evening hours -it’s hard to miss the season’s signature star formation, called the Summer Triangle. Vega, Deneb & Altair are the first 3 to light up the eastern half of sky after sunset, & their bright sparkling radiance is even visible from light-polluted cities or on a moonlit night.

Try looking first for the most prominent star in the eastern sky, which is Vega in the constellation Lyra the Harp. Vega is blue-white in color. It’s sometimes called the Harp Star. And many people recognize its constellation, Lyra, as a triangle of stars connected to a parallelogram.

Star field with lines of three constellations and summer triangle drawn on it.

***

Among the stars by Love Stepunina: History, Analysis & Facts
L. Stepunia

History is a cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of man“. Percy Bysshe Shelley

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Feast day of Aquila & Priscilla, Companions of the Apostle Paul. When Paul came to Corinth (probably in the year 50), he met them as tentmakers who had just arrived from Rome, because the Emperor Claudius had recently expelled the Jewish community. They all went together to Ephesus. Aquila & Priscilla are mentioned six times in the New Testament (Acts 18:2,18,26; Romans 16:3; 1 Corinthians 16:19; 2 Timothy 4:19), & the reader will note that in the odd-numbered mentions, Aquila’s name comes first, while in the even-numbered mentions, Priscilla’s comes first, as if to emphasize that they are being mentioned on equal terms.

Feast day of Saint Kilian an Irish missionary bishop & the Apostle of Bavaria. He was beheaded with 2 of his companions. Their skulls, inlaid with precious stones, have been preserved to this day. On St Kilian’s day, a glass case containing the three skulls is removed from a crypt, paraded through the streets before large crowds, & put on display in Würzburg Cathedral (dedicated to Kilian).

1099 – Some 15,000 starving Christian soldiers begin the siege of Jerusalem which took place from June 7 to July 15, 1099 during the First Crusade

1579 – Our Lady of Kazan, a holy icon of the Russian Orthodox Church, is discovered underground in the city of Kazan, Tatarstan

1625 – Birthday of Giovanni Domenico Cassini, an Italian mathematician, astronomer, astrologer & engineer. Cassini discovered four satellites of the planet Saturn & noted the division of the rings of Saturn; the Cassini Division was named after him.

1730 – A magnitude 8.7 earthquake causes a tsunami that damages more than 1,000 of Chile’s coastline, death toll unknown

Percy Bysshe Shelley
by Joseph Severn

1822 – Deathday of Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of the major English Romantic poets, one of the most influential. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political & social views, Shelley did not see fame during his lifetime, but recognition for his poetry grew steadily following his death. Shelley was a key member of a close circle of visionary poets & writers that included Lord Byron, Leigh Hunt, Thomas Love Peacock, & his own second wife, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, including his father-in-law, the philosopher William Godwin.

Shelley’s theories of economics & morality, for example, had a profound influence on Karl Marx; his early—perhaps first—writings on nonviolent resistance influenced both Leo Tolstoy & Mahatma Gandhi. Henry David Thoreau‘s Civil Disobedience was apparently influenced by Shelley’s writings and theories on non-violence in protest and political action.

Shelley became a lodestone to the subsequent three or four generations of poets, including important Victorian & Pre-Raphaelite poets such as Robert Browning and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He was admired by Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw, Leo Tolstoy, Bertrand Russell, W. B. Yeats, Upton Sinclair & Isadora Duncan. Shelley’s popularity and influence has continued to grow in contemporary poetry circles.

St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian: A Romance is a Gothic horror novella written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1810 was published anonymously as “by a Gentleman of the University of Oxford” while the Shelley was an undergraduate. The main character is Wolfstein, a solitary wanderer, who encounters Ginotti, an alchemist of the Rosicrucian or Rose Cross Order who seeks to impart the secret of immortality.

1831 – Birthday of John Pemberton, chemist & pharmacist, invented Coca-Cola

1838 – Birthday of Eli Lilly, chemist, & businessman, founded Eli Lilly a global pharmaceutical company

1838 – Birthday of Ferdinand von Zeppelin German general & businessman, founded the Zeppelin Airship Company

1839 – Birthday of John D. Rockefeller, founded the Standard Oil Company

1876 – White supremacists kill five Black Republicans in Hamburg, South Carolina

1908 – Birthday of Nelson Rockefeller, 41st Vice President of the United States

1926 – Birthday of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross a Swiss-American psychiatrist, pioneer in near-death studies & the author of the groundbreaking book ‘On Death & Dying’ where she first discussed her theory of the five stages of grief

1932 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, closing at 41.22

Wildcat! The wartime strike wave in the auto industry - Ed Jennings

1968 – The Chrysler wildcat strike begins in Detroit, Michigan.

Solar-powered plane flies in dark, bringing joy to pilots and backers - The  National

2010 – The Solar Impulse completed the first 24-hour flight by a solar powered plane

2014 – Israel launches an offensive on Gaza

***

 Kari Marie Olson

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I stand before the mirror looking back in time
Gazing into unbornness – the other side of eternity
I am roused
To walk the circuitous path of the unseen
From no-thing – I come to thought
To birth
A-become
~hag

***

August 8-18 ‘Classroom Alive’ Youth Open-Source Learning in Chicago

UVA

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 #ClassroomAliveChicago2020

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

Frank Agrma

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!

***

August 27-30, HOW WE WILL 2020

~hag

At Elderberries 3-fold Bio-Dynamic Outpost

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