my POD (Poem Of The Day)
~Before the hawk sailed
In the space between the mountain & the moon
Before magic made the Word
Before Isis was veiled
I flourished in the mirrored sea
Waiting for this life
With you
~hag
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Like quicksilver, the messenger of the gods, darts thru dark tangled alleys. Is he a healer, or a trickster, or maybe a thief? With a light step, in his winged sandals, he confidently goes through hidden passages in the night. In his hands a golden key has the power to open all the doors before him. There is no place dark enough or deep enough that he cannot reach. Not even the realm of the Shades, for in his role as pyschopomp he is a guide to souls, in initiation, & to the place of the dead.
Mercury is the only god allowed to come & go from the Underworld. Standing now in retrograde in Scorpio, this powerful aspect of Mercury, as ‘guide into the depths’, is especially enhanced. Mercury retrograde is about the mind turning its attention within. The psyche becomes the object of observation. And immediately the alchemical motto of the V.I.T.R.I.O.L.V.M. is evoked.
Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem Veram Medicinam. Visit the interior of the earth, and by rectifying you will find the hidden stone which is the true medicine. The black dirt of Egypt (al-Kemia) contains vital forces hiding in the mud.
Working on our shadow side isn’t easy, & is often avoided. It’s the soul’s journey into the vault where we keep all our secrets hidden away. Confronting our unconscious fears takes a force of will; & this transit can help.
Get ready friends, because all the shadows that emerged during the lockdown—which was a forced social Nigredo—are going to come back during Mercury retrograde in Scorpio. In alchemy, nigredo, or blackness, means putrefaction or decomposition. This is the 1st step in the cultivation of the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’. All alchemical ingredients have to be cleansed & cooked down into a uniform black primordial matter.
In analytical psychology, the term became a metaphor for ‘the dark night of the soul, when we must confront the shadow within.’
Besides the shadow work, with Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio, we might also experience the return of relationships, or external situations, which we thought were over & done with. Or perhaps we will glean some insights about them. This is what Scorpio does; it turns Mercury into a private detective. Truths are unveiled.
Mercury also performs an opposition to Uranus in Taurus; & also a strong square with Saturn – Two perfect squares immediately before & then after the 2nd stationary point.
The opposition with Uranus is about technology, means of transport & communication, betraying us. Isn’t that the way the truth often comes out, by a kind of betrayal? Messages sent to the wrong person—a classic. A slip of the tongue; or a chance encounter, revealing where we really were.
And the square with Saturn, brings deep intuition, because of Mercury being in Scorpio; which then comes knocking up against our intellectual reasoning, since Saturn is in Capricorn. Our gut is going to tell us one thing, our intellect, something else. Not only it will be very difficult to be reasonable, but it will be just as easy to be suspicious.
This year we had Mercury retrograde in all Water signs: Pisces, Cancer & now Scorpio. This created a great triangle of water in the sky. Water is the element of emotions & feelings.
Interesting that next year we will see Mercury doing the same thing in Air signs: Aquarius, Gemini & Libra; perhaps that will bring an opportunity to change our way of thinking?
***
11 October 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: If you’re awake in the early dawn, like I am, tomorrow, Monday the 12th, the waning crescent Moon stands very high above bright Venus. It’s been fascinating to watch Venus as morning star reveal herself. Look between Bella Luna & the goddess of Love, for Regulus, the forefoot of Leo.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
1138 – A massive earthquake strikes Aleppo, Syria. The third deadliest earthquake in history with over 230,000 killed
1582 – Because of the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain
1634 – The Burchardi flood: killed around 15,000 in North Friesland, Denmark & Germany
1809 – Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis dies under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder’s Stand
1890 – The Daughters of the American Revolution is founded
1906 – San Francisco public school board sparks a diplomatic crisis between the United States & Japan by ordering Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools
1918 – The Puerto Rico earthquake shakes the island with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing 1116 people
1958 –NASA launches the lunar probe Pioneer 1 which falls back to Earth & burns up
1962 – Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years
1968 –NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele & Walter Cunningham aboard
1972 – A race riot occurs on the United States Navy aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk off the coast of Vietnam during Operation Linebacker
1984 – Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a spacewalk
2000 – NASA launches STS-92, the 100th Space Shuttle mission, using Space Shuttle Discovery
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Thanks to all who heard the call & took up the invitation to join us for the workshop: Sophia Working. I hope to be able to share the link to the recording soon
xox
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‘Soul to Soul’ on-line Festival with the Central Regional Council & Speical Guests
Halloween 31 October 2020, Saturday 11 am – 1 pm PT / 1 pm – 3 pm CT / 2pm – 4pm ET
Stay tuned for details
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The Connection Between Epidemics, the Souls of the Dead, & the Spiritual World – Leading thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg.
2 pm – 4 pm CDT 8 Nov. 2020 Our Annual All Souls Festival
With Group Eurythmy, Singing, Social Sculpture while reading the names of the dead, & Break out Sessions.
In-person at Elderberries Biodynamic Outpost & 3 fold Cultural Hub, in conjunction with the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago, 4249-51 N. Lincoln Ave.
& On-line (details coming soon)
2 pm – 4 pm CDT Sunday 8 November 2020
