“Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story.” ~Homer
The classical Greeks describe the Muse, as ‘She Who Knows All That Is, Ever Was or Will Be’. Sounds alot like the inscription for the New Isis. Mousa is the ancient Greek word for the Muse, the archetypal goddess of the mind, representing the forces of intuition, inspiration, & creative imagination, that leads to wisdom & self-realization. She is also the power of language in all of its many forms — the power of communication at its most exalted & divine manifestation thru words, song, music, dance & art.
“Happy is he whom the Muses love: sweet flows speech from his mouth.” ~Hesiod
In the seventh century B.C.E. Hesiod sang of Nine Muses, the Mousai: Kalliopeia, muse of epic poetry & the oldest of the nine Muses; Euterpe, muse of music & lyric poetry; Melpomene, muse of singing &tragedy; Erato, muse of mystical & erotic love; Terpsikhore, muse of whirling & ecstatic dance; Urania, muse of astronomy & prophecy; Kleio, muse of history & heroic poetry; Thaleia, muse of comedy & idyllic poetry; & Polyhymnia, muse of sacred hymns and meditation.
The Nine Muses are the daughters of Mnemosyne, the goddess of Memory, & Zeus, the god of the lightning-like flash of inspiration. Sudden & powerful moments of intuition combined with the power of memory give piercing insights into the mysteries of the universe. Mnemosyne, the power of remembrance, is one of the three elder Muses, along with Melete, the power of practice, study, & meditation, & Aoide, the power of song, chant, & mantra. These Muses are the ancient Divine Muse, the threefold goddess, the symbolic teacher & guide of the Pythian Priestess at the Delphic Oracle. This prophetic priestess, a channel for the Muse, was the most powerful religious & political authority in the Hellenic world for more than two thousand years.
The Pythia’s greatest law sent from the Divine Muse was: ‘Know Thyself’. Know thyself through meditation, mantra, &memory — the tools of the three elder Muses who are the daughters of the goddess Gaia, the Earth, & the god Uranus, the Heavens. This Divine Muse is the connecting principle between heaven &earth. Through meditation, mantra, & memory, we can connect the power of heaven’s creativity with the grounded, sustaining energy of the earth within our own being.
The Divine Muse taught the use of intuition & prophecy as a way to inner development. They fused prophesy & poetry with inspiration — the creative energy welling up from deep within the mind. The word inspiration means breathing into, inhalation, the breath of life, to be filled with the breath of life, to be inspired, to show genius. The Divine Muse is inspiration — the sacred breath, the life force in the air that is the power that makes consciousness possible. The Muse breathed into Hesiod, “a divine voice to celebrate the things that were and shall be.”
“This draught of flowing nectar, the Muse’s gift, the sweet fruit of the mind,” ~Pindar
The Muse taught that vibration & music are the gateways to knowledge of the universe, of reality, & of ourselves. The Pythagoreans structured their colleges as temples dedicated to the powers of the Muse. Both Aristotle & Plato created shrines to the Muse in their colleges of philosophy. The word museum originally meant the shrine or temple of the Muse, designating a place of transformation of consciousness, a place of research, scholarship, & learning, a place where sculpture, painting, art, & sacred texts were kept.
“Musikos,” the Greek word for music, meant, “relating to the Muses.” Plato used musikos to refer to the quality of being, “well educated and versed in things of the mind.” Plato taught that the concept of music encompassed all that relates to the mind. He believed in revealed knowledge as a path to knowing ultimate truth, describing the channel of flowing creativity between the human & divine as the Muse herself.
Within the brain there are unused areas of potential energy & psychic awareness. The power to awaken these dormant regions is within us. We can open the gate to wisdom & consciousness through study, meditation, chanting, & dancing — the rituals of the Muse who rests hidden in our memory, waiting to lead us to the highest states of knowledge, blessedness, & being. Once the Muse reveals the truths within us, we understand who we are & what we are supposed to do.
”The Muses are all of one mind, their hearts are set upon song, and their spirit is free from care.” ~Hesiod
The Muse is not a mythological figment of the ancient past, she is the inner source of wisdom & the force of creativity within our own minds. Rise in your thinking to meet the Muse within & she will come.
~hag
“The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”~Eden Phillpotts, “A Shadow Passes,” 1918
10 September 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Mars, after standing stationary, will now begin a retrograde loop, switching from its previous eastward motion to slide westward through Pisces. Early morning is the best time to observe the Red Planet; high in the southwestern sky in the hours before sunrise.
Last Quarter Moon occurs this morning. You can observe Bella Luna early in the AM rising in the east in Taurus the Bull. Look to the Moon’s upper right to find the bright, golden-hued star Aldebaran, or straight above it to see the Pleiades star cluster.
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
720 – Death/Feast Day of Aubert of Avranches According to legend, in 708 he had a vision in which the Archangel Michael instructed him to build an oratory on the rocky tidal island at the mouth of the Couesnon. Aubert did not pay attention to this vision at first, until in exasperation Michael appeared to him again, this time driving his finger into Aubert’s skull & ordering him to complete the task again. Michael is said to have appeared to him a total of three times. After this the oratory was built.
The relic of Aubert’s skull, complete with hole where the archangel’s finger pierced it, can still be seen at the Saint-Gervais Basilica in Avranches.
1305 – Death/Feast Day of Nicholas of Tolentino, known as the Patron of Holy Souls, was an Italian saint &mystic. There are many tales & legends which relate to Nicholas. One says the devil once beat him with a stick, which was then displayed for years in his church. In another, Nicholas, a vegetarian, was served a roasted fowl, for which he made the sign of the cross, & it flew out a window. Nine passengers on a ship going down at sea once asked Nicholas’ aid, & he appeared in the sky, wearing the black Augustinian habit, radiating golden light, holding a lily in his left hand, & with his right hand, he quelled the storm. An apparition of the saint, it is said, once saved the burning palace of the Doge of Venice by throwing a piece of blessed bread on the flames. He was also reported to have resurrected over one hundred dead children, including several who had drowned together.
1509 – An earthquake known as “The Lesser Judgment Day” hits Constantinople killing over 2,000
1721 – The Treaty of Nystad was signed ending the twenty-one year Great Northern War between Russia & Sweden. Rudolf Steiner speaks about the significance of this in GA 119 Macrocosm/Microcosm: Lecture 6: Experiences of Initiation in the Northern Mysteries
1898 – Deathday of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I, Queen of Hungary & Queen consort of Croatia and Bohemia. While travelling in Geneva in she was stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni who selected her because he had missed his chance to assassinate Prince Philippe, Duke of Orléans, & wanted to kill the next member of royalty that he saw. Elisabeth was the longest serving Empress-consort of Austria, at 44 years.
1919 – Austria & the Allies sign the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye recognizing the independence of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia & Yugoslavia
1933 – Deathday of A.W. Sellin, Anthroposopher & Fremason
1935 – Birthday of Mary Oliver, poet & author
1943 – World War II: German forces begin their occupation of Rome
2008 – The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in history, is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland
World Suicide Prevention Day
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On Sunday, September 20th, the day the foundation stone was laid into the first Goetheanum, we invite everyone back to share and offer a plenum.
HOW WE WILL HARVEST: 12 pm pacific, 1pm mountain, 2pm central, 3pm eastern, 9pm Europe / Dornach
Zoom details & Schedule TBA – I have been asked to share a few Leading Thoughts around the Michaelmas Season
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ALIANT ALLIANCE MICHAELMAS MEET-UP: Tuesday, September 29th (for roughly 2.5 hours) @ 10am pacific, 11am mountain, 12pm central, 1pm eastern, 7pm Europe / Dornach
We will discuss organizing some of the ALIANT Next Steps
Review ELIANT’s Charter, Vision, and Mission Statement –
Take up a biweekly study of Rudolf Steiner’s Speaker’s Lectures for the Threefold Commonwealth from 1921, found in Communicating Anthroposophy. (We place an order and coordinate shipping, if you are interested please message us, and if you would like support purchasing a book, let us know! ) –
Study our countries’ Constitution wherever we are living.
If you would like to engage our future steps with us, please email Dottie and Frank at CirclesforaRenewalofCulture@gmail.com
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The Central Regional Council Invites ALL to our Michaelmas Festival:
‘Courage Born of Wisdom’
Wednesday 23 September 2020 –On ZOOM – 7:15 pm CDT – 8:30 pm
CRC performs a telling of a tale from ancient Chaldea where EA gives birth to Marduk, precursor to Michael.
then “Wisdom Built herself a house*”…7 members of the various sections of the Anthroposophical Society will stand as Wisdom’s 7 Pillars to share how Courage was born from Wisdom leading to their work in the world.
Pedagogical Section –Michael Holdrege
Youth Section – Stephan Ambrose
Medical Section –Drs. Molly & Quentin McMullen
Eurythmy – Barbara Richardson
Social Science Section – Doug Wylie
BioDynamic Agriculture – Rand Carter
Three-Folding – Dorothy Hinkle-Uhlig
with Original songs by Lucien Dante Lazar!
& a closing about the connection between Michael, The Christ & Anthroposophia!
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82070460900
Meeting ID: 820 7046 0900
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If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu
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Michaelmas 2020: Joan d’Arc – PURIFYING FIRE: The Power behind the Will –
Date: Saturday 26 Sept. 2020. Time: 2 pm – 5 pm, In-Person & Online
https://zoom.us/j/97955920156 Meeting ID: 979 5592 0156
Schedule (in process)
Opening Song by Jen Zimberg? – (3-5 minutes)
Lucien Dante Lazar – Ring the Iron Bell – Welcome (How does our Festival form a Being of Courage in this Now?) (10 – 15 minutes?)
Group Singing: The Michaelmas Harvest Song (5 Minutes)
Angela Foster – Leading Thoughts, & ‘Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc – Preface’ (20-30 minutes)
Mary Spalding – ‘Courage Dear Hearts’ Biography of Jeanne d’Arc (10 minutes)
Copper Rod Eurythmy: (5-10 minutes)
Dottie Zold & Frank Agrama – Michael, Joan of Arc, St Oldie & the Elderberries Impulse of Selflessness (20-30 minutes)
Song by Jen Zimberg ? or another Michaelmas Song? (5 minutes)
Paulette Arnold? – Biography Work in Break out Groups –Sharing a story of courage from our lives: Each person takes 3 minutes to tell their tale. (15 minutes)
Large Group Sharing (5-10 minutes)
‘The Passage’ by Lucian Dante Lazar (15 minutes)
Large Group Sharing (5-10 minutes) which can lead into, or be part of:
Angela Foster – Social Sculpture – Weaving the Chalice (20 minutes)
Jonathan Hadley ?– The Mars / Saturn Square (10 minutes)
Everyone takes a turn Ringing the IRON, verse, goodbye (5-10 minutes)
Group 1: Springing from Powers of the Sun,
Radiant Spirit-powers, blessing all Worlds!
For Michael's garment of rays
We are predestined by Thought Divine.
Group 2: Michael, the Christ-messenger, reveals in us
Bearing humankind aloft — the sacred Will of Worlds.
You, radiant Beings of Ether-Worlds,
Bear the Christ-Word to human beings.
Group 1: Thus shall the Heralds of Christ appear
To our thirstily waiting souls.
Your Word of Light shines forth to us
In the cosmic age of the Spirit-Human.
Group 2: We, disciples who would know the spirit,
Follow Michael's beckoning Wisdom,
To take the Word of Love, Willed by Worlds,
Into our highest aims of soul-work; actively!
~From Rudolf Steiner's Last Addresshag – ending thoughts? – Goodbye – Thank you – Potluck
Saturday, 9/26 @2-5pm
https://zoom.us/j/97955920156 Meeting ID: 979 5592 0156
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