The 10:10 is the spiritual antidote to our current world crisis, which we are called to be awake to. For mighty forces of opposition are acting as catalysts, intended to bring us to attention. They pull the strings & continue to unroll the global ‘reset’ plan in stages – accompanied by the death of true democracy & the rise of a tyrannical world technocracy – ever shrouded in noble sounding slogans like: public health, & the common good. We can trace the plan back for years, to experiments conducted in corporate labs, backed by our tax dollars, & carried out in third world countries among the poorest of the poor. – And soon the watch-words will include happy jingles like ‘The New Green Deal’ – or the ‘Promise of Progress’.
Mike Essing
But dear friends, the dark wizard behind the curtain has been playing the well-intentioned, but gullible guppies like a fiddle. Our leaders keep us cozy with responsible, well-censored speech, the latest social austerity (because ‘We’re all in this together’), keeping us jonesing for the promised new untested, non-liable, government approved corporate RNA hot shot – a soon to be mandatory? dictatorial – take it or go hungry imperative, folks are lining up for. The digital contact tracing id-travel pass on every cell, or even better a chip inserted under the skin has begun. And of course, the cashless currency, so much easier than gold or dollar bills -that filthy lucre, riddled with cooties. The banks will keep us all clean & safe.
Donny Crazzel
This foreshadowing overture will soon come to a head, dear friends, drowned out by war drums & the march of jack boots – the buzz of domestic drones, the social ostracism & the betrayal of neighbor against neighbor. The camps, to quarantine the ‘sick’, or for those that refuse, & as always- the illegal refugees are already operating, behind the wall, of the Brave New World Order, for our own good.
Susanna Lavega
phew, Ok, I got that out of my system!
Alex Grant
Now I can continue to emphasize that everything, yes every thing, that is happening in 2020 has come to heighten our 2020 vision.
Does it need to become hindsight before we take action?
Emily Kell
I know you have heard it before, but hear it again with fresh open hearts: We are the ones we have been waiting for.We signed up for this – remember?!? We are the change we want to see in the world. Let us unite in love & light for the healing of all life, & of the world – manifesting our highest universal destiny.
361 –Julian the Apostate enters Constantinople as sole Emperor of the Roman Empire.
***
Marina Petro
POD
~Celestial fire descend Burnish bright as copper our diamond mind Carry the ideals of Archangels into our body So we may uplift the sky, rend the veil & reveal the temple true… ~hag
Folks have been asking for more insights into how to actually do the 10:10 Thought-Seed Project. Well friends, there is no right or wrong. It can be as simple as picturing yourself as a being of light; radiating wholeness, sharing truth, activating Will, blending colors, with all the other human souls aligned with love & light, shining together, to permeate the atmosphere with good will – illuminating the whole Earth. Short & sweet, you can do this anywhere, anytime.
Deb Safferal
If you want to elaborate, you may want to build an imagination to help you “Think Light”. Sometimes I like to use these Steiner verses as a lead in: In purest outpoured light Shimmers the godhead of the World In purest love toward all that lives Outpours the godhood of my soul I rest within the godhead of the world There shall I find myself Within the godhead of the world (Repeat, knowing you are shimmering along with the godhead)
Or this verse: More radiant than the sun Purer than the snow Subtler than the ether Is the Self The spirit within my heart I am that Self That Self am I
Kelly Treely
And of course our go-to verse from Waldorf Teacher & Esoteric Circle member Herbert Hahn, is the anchor for the Thought-seed for me every day: “When I think light, my soul shines, When my soul shines, the earth is a star, When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being”.
in reverse:
I am a true human being When the earth is a star The earth is a star When my soul shines My soul shines When I think light.
Paul Carter
Perhaps you might want to picture Mighty Spiritual Beings noticing our shining. Then we become a beacon which calls for a response. Powerful forces reply, by sending their protection & energy to us on Earth. Then we can work with them to collectively surround any disharmony, embracing with compassion all discord, bringing every dis-ease into the light of healing wholeness…
Every day is different; you may want to feel into the sense of what is needed, for yourself, & for the world in that moment.
Lately before saying the verse, I have been setting the stage by creating Thought-pictures using my guardian angel as an energy enhancer. I invoke the angelic presence into my thinking, inviting this being to work with me to purify my astral forces, so that I may be a fit vessel for the light. I say: Spirit Triumphant Flame thru the weakness of my faint-hearted soul Consume my self-seeking Burn up my egoism Enkindle compassion That selflessness That living stream in humanity May flow as a well-spring of Spiritual Re-birth.
Mandy Parker
I also picture the guardian angels of the all of you out there shining with me.
I can continue to build circles within circles, expanding out from the human, to the angelic; & then I bring in the Archangelic forces, which I picture as Columbia, the Being of America; joining in harmony with all the other Folk Spirits of the various national cultures, going beyond borders, into the universality of our unique humanness.
Kristena West
This then opens the threshold to the Archai, The Time-Spirit who holds the zeitgeist of the Age – Michael, who beckons us to work with him & the Being of Wisdom, The Sophia, to redeem the Cosmic Intelligence.
William Blake
Of course we could keep going up the ladder of the 9 Angelic realms to build higher circles of light by rising in our thinking – all the way – to meet the godhead in the Trinity.
Daniel Holeman
And then gathering & contracting that energy back down into the Earth, & into ourselves, to empower us in our becoming – the 10th Hierarchy of Freedom & Love – And the Earth – a sacred planet, a Star – the Sun of the New Jerusalem.
How do you do 10:10?
D.P. Dyyard
~Together we create a circle of protection & light In the Christic center Which has its eternal point within our heart – Ever reflecting out to the periphery of eternal becoming. ~hag
***
10 December 2020 = “Speaking with the Stars”: On the next 3 mornings look east before sunrise. The waning crescent moon & dazzling planet Venus will be beautiful in your early-morning sky. The illuminated or day side of the moon will be pointing right at Venus on December 11 and 12. The lit side of a waning crescent always points eastward, or in the moon’s direction of travel in front of the constellations of the zodiac.
According to the original Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner, Today is the Birthday of Judith. The book from the Apocrypha, named after her, tells the lesser known story of this beautiful widow who plied enemy Assyrian General Holofernes with cheese & wine until he fell into a drunken stupor. Judith then beheaded the general in his sleep, & his soldiers fled in fear, saving her people from the Assyrians. This story is the subject of much renowned artwork. And is told at Hanukkah (This 8 day festival starts tonight)
1198 – Deathday of Averroes, Arabian philosopher, astronomer, most famous for his commentaries on Aristotle’s works, which had been largely forgotten in the West. It was through the Latin translations of Averroes’ work, beginning in the twelfth century, that the legacy of Aristotle was recovered in the West. Averroes attempted to reconcile Aristotelian philosophy with Islamic theology & to demonstrate that philosophy & theology were two paths to understanding the same truth. Rudolf Steiner refers to him a lot in his lectures on Karmic relationships.
1520 – The Burning the Papal Bull of Excommunication by Martin Luther. Because of constant attacks from the Roman Church, Luther was forced to shape his ideology into an autonomous theology. During the years 1520-1521 he worked on the three great works “Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation”, “The Babylonian Captivity” & “The Freedom of the Christian Man”, thereby emotionally cutting himself off from Rome.
The inquisition against Luther was taken up again in 1520, partly because of these works. The peak of the inquisition came, with the Papal Bull of excommunication in which Luther was ordered to recant his teachings.
Luther reacted in protest. He burned the Papal Bull (“Exurge Domine”) along with the book of church law & many other books by his enemies on December 10, 1520 in Wittenberg where the Luther Oak (Luthereiche) stands today. He is said to have yelled: “Because you, godless book, have grieved or shamed the holiness of the Father, be saddened and consumed by the eternal flames of Hell”.
This behavior caused a conclusive and irrevocable break with Rome. On January 3, 1521 the Pope excommunicated Luther.
The Emperor, however, felt forced to accept Luther because of the pro-Luther mood in the empire & because of the influence of various princes who were hoping to weaken the Pope’s political influence through Luther. As a result, the rebel was guaranteed safe escort on his trip to the Imperial Diet of Worms.
1884 – Birthday of Albert Steffen, poet, painter, dramatist, essayist, & novelist. He joined the Theosophical Society in Germany in 1910, & the Anthroposophical Society in 1912. He was 1 of the original Vorstand members, & became its president after the death of founder, Rudolf Steiner. Steffen was chief editor of the society’s journal, Das Goetheanum, from 1921-1963. At an early age his senses were especially attuned to all of nature. “As a child it always seemed to me as though a human countenance peeped forth from every blossom. From the tulip, that of a Turkish maiden; from the chrysanthemum, that of a Japanese dancer; from the sunflower of Inca King; from the geranium a Moorish boy.”~AS
By age 14 he had intuitively ‘understood’ that the human soul goes through the process of reincarnation. At age 21 he moved to Berlin, & 2 years later, to Munich. There he became a freelance writer & published his first novel, ‘Ott, Alois and Werelsche’ in 1907.
In Berlin, Steffen 1st heard a lecture by Rudolf Steiner. He writes: “I recognized immediately the leader of humanity: the wisdom on his brow, the love pervading his eye, the conscience in his word.”
In 1914, the beginning of World War I, Steffen was 29. At that time he was making frequent visits to Dornach. Of his experience there, he wrote: “Harmony reigned through a single man’s God-founded spirit,”…“Carving the Goetheanum capitals and architraves furthered me as a shaper of words.” In 1920, at the age of 35 Steffen moved to Dornach. In 1921 he was asked by Rudolf Steiner to be editor of the newly founded ‘Das Goetheanum’ weekly periodical.
On New Year’s 1923 Steffen witnessed the destruction by fire of the 1st Goetheanum, despite all efforts to save it. At the Christmas Conference Rudolf Steiner named Steffen to head the Section for Belles Lettres in the newly constituted Anthroposophical Society & named him Deputy Chairman. Of Albert Steffen he said: “The members of Vorstand are, I believe, chosen in the right way. Albert Steffen has already been an anthroposophist before he was born; this must be recognized with regard to him” (The Christmas Conference).
In an article which appeared in Das Goetheanum February 22nd, 1923, Steiner wrote about Steffen: “Within the Anthroposophical Movement, the spirit of such a poet, if rightly felt, should be experienced as the bringer of a message from the spiritual sphere.”… “That he wishes to work in this Movement, should be felt as a good destiny.”
F W Zeylmans van Emmichoven, a Dutch Anthroposophist, wrote that Rudolf Steiner wanted the members of the Vorstand to recognize themselves & each other against the background of the spiritual streams to which they belonged, “to cultivate fraternal feeling even between strongly contrasting personalities.”
Rudolf Steiner died in 1925; Steffen was with him in his last days. He expressed his reverence & thankfulness for this great initiate’s being & gift to humanity, recreating a ‘memory picture’ for the reader – ‘In Memoriam, Rudolf Steiner’.
After Steiner’s death, in accordance with his wishes, Albert Steffen became Chairman of the Society, serving to keep a center point of balance amidst contrasting personalities & divergent streams, which he was not able to do.
“Let this be for us our cosmic goal: – To paint a living picture for the soul which the claws of death cannot despoil, which lights the darkest dungeon deep below – take a new earth with us when we go, which no evil shadow e’er can soil, no tide nor flood can ever wash away, no wind that blows can ever bleach or blight, will never yield to acid’s poisoned bite, will never melt in fire’s burning ray, that’s brighter than the sun’s own visage is – but only Christ himself can give us this!” ~Albert Steffen, Adonis Spiel / Eine Herbstfeier
Albert Steffen is also concerned with how the forces of growth & becoming are victorious. He writes: “Everywhere Christ emerges from the elements. With the lifting power with which he rolled the stone from the grave, support your body, with the light forces with which he permeates the plants, renew your life! With the air of heaven with which he sends you thoughts, like butterflies, fill your words. Guide your ego from rock to forest to the clouds, right up to the sun, by shaping, condensing, transforming and purifying it. Gaze upon your destiny from above, with starry eyes.” Steffen’s work is grounded in a living experience of the eternal. It conveys a quality which helps transform our consciousness of the earth, helping to redeem & heal.
One of Steffen’s friends was the American poet-dramatist Percy MacKaye. They spoke a similar inner language & conversed together through poetry. In an essay, ‘The Excellence of Albert Steffen’, Percy MacKaye seeks to describe his friend. “How shall I sketch his portrait for the reader? The solemnity of Savonarola, illumined by the radiance of Shelly, the staunch piety of William Penn (in black quakerish hat), all twinkled over and merrified by the arch smile and skipping gait of the marble faun himself – on a holiday, the athleticism of an alpine skier, subdued to the tender solitude of St Francis feeding the birds.”
In Steffen’s dramas one can discover interweaving themes. One is that of the victory of the spirit reborn in Christ over physical death & the forces of destruction & chaos. This is an aspect of the struggle for transformation of evil into good, a teaching of Manes who lived in the third century after Christ. Strength is called forth to release worn-out thought forms in order to grasp a deeper clarity; this leads to acts of sacrifice, inspired through love. Their example has a transforming effect, both on the people within the play & in the audience.
‘Friend’ – (from the Anglo-Saxon root: freon – to love) is defined as ‘one disposed to promote the good of another’. – Steffen describes how he aspires to view others: “The developed person does not judge others and thus set them back, but lets them stand and understands them.”
1896 – Deathday of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, & philanthropist. Known for inventing dynamite, Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron & steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon & other armaments. Nobel held 355 different patents, dynamite being the most famous. After reading a premature obituary which condemned him for profiting from the sales of arms, he bequeathed his fortune to institute the Nobel Prizes.
***
Sunday 20 December 2020, 2 pm – 3pm CT
‘Awakening to the Light in the Darkness’: A Christmas Contemplation with Rev. Craig Wiggins. In-Person at The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online
We will begin with live Music by Lucien Dante Lazar
Unwrapping our Cosmic Gift: Thoughts on the Christmas Conference 1923
with the Central Regional Council. Themes inspired by Prokofieff’s book: May Human Beings Hear it! include: Turning Points of Time; Christ, Sophia and Michael; Foundation Stone Meditation.
On Tuesday, December 29th,6 pm – 8:30 pm CST,we will join Anthroposophy Atlanta for a reading of Goethe’s fairy tale, The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily This has a separate zoom code: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82656914578?pwd=MHN3Mmt3OEhtQlZTMlc1NHFtUm80QT09Meeting ID: 826 5691 4578 Passcode: Goethe
New Year’s Eve, there will be NO zoom call, as we will gather for ourAnnual NYE event. This year’s theme is “A Masked Ball” 6 pm till 10:30 pm
6 pm Potluck and artistic mask making with Lucien Dante Lazar
7:30 – 9:30 Live Music with Jutta and the High Dukes
10:10 pm Project Thought-Seed
The evening ends at 10:30 pm
$20 donation
Nancy Poer
Wednesday, January 6, 2021, 2 pm – 4 pm CSTJoan’s Epiphany: What Joan of Arc Calls for Today In-Person at Elderberries & The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago and online
Today on the Birthday of Joan of Arc, we welcome special guest Nancy Poer
We will also explore The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations, Lecture 5, “The Nature of the Christ Impulse and the Michaelic Spirit Serving It” by Rudolf Steiner, with Leading Thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Social Sculpture: “The Passage” with Lucien Dante Lazar
We will also share an artistic exploration, singing and Eurythmy.
The Feast Day of The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception:
The Blessed Virgin Mary in Her aspect of The Immaculate Conception has been called the patroness of the United States, & 8 December is the octave of her feast for our country & for the virtue of piety. We celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, 9 months before her birth celebrated on 8 September. Although it is not officially part of Advent, in celebrating this feast we can easily enter into the spirit of Christmastide, for it is like the hope & truth of the dawn that grows within us all. Mary is our guide, & mother along the path of the Sun.
The vigil of the Immaculate Conception is an opportune time to lighta special Advent candle in Mary’s honor expressing symbolically the words of Isaias, “There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of this root.” I usually put a beeswax candle in a candleholder covered with white silk, tied with red & blue ribbon. I place this before my statue of Our Lady.
From the womb of Our Lady, comes the light of the world. The candle represents Christ, who dispels all darkness.
“Behold a branch is growing Of loveliest form and grace. As prophets sung, foreknowing; It springs from Jesse’s race. And bears one little flower. In midst of coldest winter, At deepest midnight hour. Isaiah hath foretold it In words of promise sure, And Mary’s arms enfold it, A Virgin meek and pure. Through God’s eternal will, This Child to her is given At midnight calm and still.
Joachim & Anna are the parents of the Luke Mary.
Interestingly enough, the name Anna (or Hannah in the Hebrew) means “full of grace” – and indeed the mother of Mary was at one time full with the one who is called “full of grace”! Joachim is a variant form of the Hebrew name Jehoiachin and can mean “God will establish” or “The Lord exalts” or “God has granted a son.” Fitting names for the ones who would bear & raise the child Mary who would become the Mother of God!
Joachim was of the tribe of Judah, & a descendant of King David. St. Anna was the daughter of Matthan the priest, of the tribe of Levi as was Aaron the High Priest..
Joachim & Anna had been married for fifty years, & were barren. They lived devoutly & quietly, using only a third of their income for themselves & giving a third to the poor & a third to the Temple. Joachim had done this since he was 15-years-old, & God multiplied his flocks, so the couple was well provided for. They longed for a child but remained childless into their old age.
When they were in Jerusalem to offer sacrifice to God, the High Priest, Issachar, upbraided Joachim, “You are not worthy to offer sacrifice with those childless hands.” This caused the aged couple great grief. Then the two of them gave themselves to prayer to God that He would work in them the wonder that He had worked in Abraham & Sarah, & give them a child to comfort their old age.
Joachim took his flocks & went to a high mountain, refusing to return home in shame. Meanwhile, Anna prayed in her garden. God sent the Archangel Gabriel to each of them, who gave them tidings of the birth of “a daughter most blessed, by whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed, & through whom will come the salvation of the world.“ Each promised to have their child raised in the Temple as a holy vessel of God. The archangel told Joachim to return home, where he would find his wife waiting for him in the city gate. The Archangel told Anna to wait at the gate. When they saw one another, they embraced, & this image is the traditional icon of their feast.
Anna conceived shortly thereafter. This Conception of the Most Holy Mother of God is celebrated by the Church on December 8 & the Nativity of the Theotokos is celebrated on September 8.
Joachim & Anna took Mary, at the age of three, to the temple to be dedicated to the service of the Lord, & presented her to the priest Zechariahs. The parents then, after offering up her sacrifice (according to the custom of the time), left the Virgin with other maidens in the apartments of the temple to be brought up there.
Robert Morse
The Ave Maris Stella, is another vesper hymn for the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Even the cook can be part of the octave of the Immaculate Conception, for it is time to make Moravian Spritz. These gingerbread cookies are made for the vigil of the Immaculate Conception since Mary, too, “gave forth sweet smell like cinnamon and aromatic balm and yielded a sweet odor like the best myrrh.” The cookies must stand for ten days in the refrigerator before baking, & are then shaped into Christmas figures, especially hearts. (Later on in the season, when we come to Candlemas, we could cut the cookies into the form of candles & turtle-doves)
The Immaculate Conception as the Patroness of the United States reminds us that the hope of Peace in the world does not rest in force of arms, but rather in prayers & social action & with recourse to the intercession of Our Lady. The octave of the Immaculate Conception furnishes an admirable occasion for a renewal of true love for our country. St. Thomas Aquinas associates the virtue of piety with the cardinal virtue of justice.
8 December 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Tonight, & thru out these long December nights, you can find the constellation Auriga the Charioteer. The Heavenly Chariot – with its brilliant yellow star Capella – starting the journey in the northeast at early evening, flying overhead around midnight & finishes up in the northwest at dawn.
“We understand only the very smallest part of human history and of our own life if we consider it in its external aspect, I mean in that aspect which we see from the limited view-point of our earthly life between birth and death. It is impossible to comprehend the inner motives of history and life unless we turn our gaze to that spiritual background which underlies the outer, physical happenings”. ~Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships, Volume IV: Lecture III
3 – Deathday of Saint Eucharius, venerated as the first bishop. He lived in the second half of the 3rd century. According to an ancient legend, he was one of the seventy-two disciples of Christ, & was sent to Gaul by Saint Peter as bishop, to preach the Gospel. He came to the Rhine where Maternus his companion died. St. Peter gave his pastoral staff to Eucharius, &, upon being touched with it, Maternus, who had been in his grave for forty days, returned to life. The Gentiles were then converted in large numbers. Among other miracles related in the legend, an angel announced to him his approaching death & pointed out Maternus as his successor. Eucharius died on December 8, having been bishop for twenty-five years, & was interred in the church of St. John outside the city. The staff of St. Peter, with which Maternus had been raised to life, was preserved at Cologne until the end of the 10th century when the upper half was presented to Trier, & was afterwards taken to Prague by Emperor Charles IV to become ever after the staff of the Pope.
1542 – Birthday of Mary, Queen of Scots
1765 – Birthday of Eli Whitney, American engineer, invented the cotton gin
1854 – In his Apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaims the definition of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived free of Original Sin
1953 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his “Atoms for Peace” speech, which leads to an American program to supply equipment & information on nuclear power to schools, hospitals, & research institutions around the world
1963 – Pan Am Flight 214, a Boeing 707, is struck by lightning & crashes near Elkton, Maryland, killing all 181 people on board
1966 – The Greek ship SS Heraklion sinks in a storm in the Aegean Sea, killing over 200
1969 – Olympic Airways Flight 954 strikes a mountain outside of Keratea, Greece, killing 190 people in the worst crash of a Douglas DC-6 in history
1972 – United Airlines Flight 553, a Boeing 737, crashes after aborting its landing attempt at Chicago Midway International Airport, killing 145. This is the first-ever loss of a Boeing 737
1980 – Former Beatle John Lennon is murdered by Mark David Chapman in the archway of the Dakota, his residence in New York City. Earlier that day, photographer Annie Leibovitz had been to the Lennons’ apartment to do a photo shoot for Rolling Stone magazine. Delayed by a late limousine, they left their apartment to mix the song “Walking on Thin Ice” (an Ono song featuring Lennon on lead guitar) at the Record Plant Studio. As Lennon & Ono walked to a limousine, shared with the RKO Radio crew, they were approached by several people seeking autographs. Among them was Mark David Chapman. It was common for fans to wait outside the Dakota to meet Lennon and ask for his autograph. Chapman, a 25-year-old security guard from Honolulu, Hawaii, had previously traveled to New York to murder Lennon in October (before the release of Double Fantasy), but had changed his mind & returned home. Chapman silently handed Lennon a copy of Double Fantasy, & Lennon obliged with an autograph. After signing the album, Lennon asked, “Is this all you want?” Chapman smiled & nodded in agreement. Photographer & Lennon fan Paul Goresh took a photo of the encounter. Chapman had been waiting for Lennon outside the Dakota since mid-morning, & had even approached the Lennons’ five-year-old son, Sean, who was with the family nanny, Helen Seaman, when they returned home in the afternoon. According to Chapman, he briefly touched the boy’s hand.
The Lennons spent several hours at the Record Plant studio before returning to the Dakota. Lennon had decided against dining out so he could be home in time to say goodnight to his son, before going on to the Stage Deli restaurant with Ono. Lennon liked to oblige any fans who had been waiting for long periods of time to meet him with autographs or pictures, once saying during an interview with BBC Radio’s Andy Peebles on 6 December 1980: “People come and ask for autographs, or say ‘Hi’, but they don’t bug you”. The Lennons exited their limousine on 72nd Street instead of driving into the more secure courtyard of the Dakota.
The Dakota’s doorman, Jose Perdomo, & a nearby cab driver saw Chapman standing in the shadows by the archway. As Lennon passed by, he glanced briefly at Chapman, appearing to recognize him from earlier. Seconds later, Chapman took aim directly at the center of Lennon’s back & fired five hollow-point bullets at him in rapid succession from a range of about nine or ten feet away. Lennon, bleeding profusely staggered up five steps to the security/reception area, saying, “I’m shot, I’m shot”. He then fell to the floor, scattering cassettes that he had been carrying. The concierge, Jay Hastings, first started to make a tourniquet, but upon ripping open Lennon’s blood-stained shirt & realizing the severity of his multiple injuries, he covered Lennon’s chest with his uniform jacket, removed his blood-covered glasses, & summoned the police.
They reported that Chapman had dropped the revolver to the ground & was holding a paperback book, J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye.
Realizing the extent of his injuries, the policemen decided not to wait for an ambulance & immediately carried Lennon into their squad car & rushed him to St Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center.
Dr. Stephan Lynn, head of the Emergency Department, who had been called in again after having just returned home after a 13-hour-long work shift, received Lennon in the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital a few minutes before 11:00 pm.
When Lennon arrived, he had no pulse & was not breathing. Dr. Lynn, two other doctors, a nurse & two or three other medical attendants worked on Lennon for ten to 15 minutes in a desperate attempt to resuscitate him.
Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival in the emergency room at the Roosevelt Hospital at 11:15 pm by Dr. Lynn.
The surgeon also noted—as did other witnesses—that, at the moment Lennon was pronounced dead, a Beatles song (“All My Loving”) came over the hospital’s sound system.
1987 – An Israeli army tank transporter kills four Palestinian refugees & injures seven others – one of the events which sparked the First Intifada
1988 – A United States Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II crashes into an apartment complex in Remscheid, Germany, killing 57 people & injuring 50 others
***
J.W. Waterhouse
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~I rise from the center of myself, Fire on wick, Burning, tossing back shadows… Patient & plain as day… ~hag
***
Sunday 20 December 2020, 2 pm – 3pm CT
‘Awakening to the Light in the Darkness’: A Christmas Contemplation with Rev. Craig Wiggins. In-Person at The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online
We will begin with live Music by Lucien Dante Lazar
Unwrapping our Cosmic Gift: Thoughts on the Christmas Conference 1923
with the Central Regional Council. Themes inspired by Prokofieff’s book: May Human Beings Hear it! include: Turning Points of Time; Christ, Sophia and Michael; Foundation Stone Meditation.
On Tuesday, December 29th,6 pm – 8:30 pm CST,we will join Anthroposophy Atlanta for a reading of Goethe’s fairy tale, The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily This has a separate zoom code: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82656914578?pwd=MHN3Mmt3OEhtQlZTMlc1NHFtUm80QT09Meeting ID: 826 5691 4578 Passcode: Goethe
New Year’s Eve, there will be NO zoom call, as we will gather for ourAnnual NYE event. This year’s theme is “A Masked Ball” 6 pm till 10:30 pm
6 pm Potluck and artistic mask making with Lucien Dante Lazar
7:30 – 9:30 Live Music with Jutta and the High Dukes
10:10 pm Project Thought-Seed
The evening ends at 10:30 pm
$20 donation
Nancy Poer
Wednesday, January 6, 2021, 2 pm – 4 pm CSTJoan’s Epiphany: What Joan of Arc Calls for Today In-Person at Elderberries & The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago and online
Today on the Birthday of Joan of Arc, we welcome special guest Nancy Poer
We will also explore The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations, Lecture 5, “The Nature of the Christ Impulse and the Michaelic Spirit Serving It” by Rudolf Steiner, with Leading Thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Social Sculpture: “The Passage” with Lucien Dante Lazar
We will also share an artistic exploration, singing and Eurythmy.
During this time of Advent we must face trials that make us worthy to receive the sacred birth of the Nathan soul, around the time of the Winter Solstice; which then guides us into the precession of the 13 Holy Nights; which culminates in the birth of Christ on the Epiphany.
In the 1st week of Advent we meet the mineral kingdom to see our relationship with issues relating to our physical needs. We recognize that death & mineralization in the physical world of nature at this time helps us step into the karmic unfolding of ourselves & of humanity as a whole. Here we face the Fire trial, where we must rise to the challenge of cultivating a sense of justice. Fire meets earth. Our task is to burn away the dross of what does not serve so that we can stand upright in the face of what we are meeting in ourselves & in the world.
Now we enter the 2nd week, related to the plant kingdom, where the etheric realm comes into play. Here we encounter the trial by water. Discretion & Self-restraint will help us meet these challenges. Water meets air. Practicing selflessness will help us build truthfulness in the face of the societal temptation to accept & perpetuate the blind lie. In the water trial we encounter our feeling life which is still quite dreamy, so we are called to bring thought into this realm, so we can judge our feelings objectively, working to understand what inspires them. And we are also challenged to bring Will into our feelings. Then we are able to control them & practice equanimity.
Hilma af Klint
These trials help us develop new spiritual organs – This week we practice breathing under water! See you in the pool.
~hag
Michelle Young
‘In the breathing process, we inhale fresh oxygen and exhale unusable carbon. A similar process takes place in all our sense perceptions. Just think, my dear friends, that you see something — let us take a radical case — suppose you see a flame. There a process takes place that may be compared with inhalation, only it is much finer. If you then close your eyes — and you can make similar experiments with every one of your senses — you have the after-image of the flame which gradually changes — dies down, as Goethe said. Apart from the purely physical aspect, the human ether body is essentially engaged in this process of reception of the light impression and its eventual dying down. Something very significant is contained in this process: it contains the soul element which, three millennia ago, was breathed in and out with the air. And we must learn to realize the sense process, permeated by the soul element in a similar way we have realized the breathing process three millennia ago.’ ~Rudolf Steiner, The Mission of the Archangel Michael VI – November 30, 1919
***
Ivana Pelouchová
Pod (Poem Of the Day)
~That quivering star is Her Blue eye – The watcher, Awake in the darkening world… When the eye opens I look back ~hag
***
Today is the Feast Day of Old St. Nick, a bishop waring his red mantle & mitre hat, sporting a long, white beard & carrying his golden shepherds crook. Legend has it that he helped the poor & calmed the seas; & on his feast day gives children who are good sweets or gifts.
But beware if you are bad for black Pete, or Knecht Ruprecht, will put you in his bag & take you away to the black forest until you learn your lesson… So on the night of December 5th set out your boots & leave a carrot for his horse then go to bed & dream of doing good deeds like St. Nichplas once did…
In Waldorf schools St. Nick comes into the classroom of the lower grades & shakes the hand of each child telling them what they have done well, & what they have not done so well & need to improve. This always made quite an impression on the young children to receive this gentle reckoning.
The one we know of as St. Nicholas was born in 271 AD & died around December 6, 342 or 343 AD near the Asia Minor (Turkey) town of Myra, where he later became Bishop. He performed many good deeds & was a friend to the poor & helpless. Upon his death, myths soon sprang up about him all around the Mediterranean Sea. He was reputed to be able to calm the raging seas, rescue desperate sailors, & save children. He was soon named as the patron saint of sailors, & when Myra was overthrown, his bones were transported by sailors to Bari, a port in Italy, where a tomb was built over the grave & became the center of honor for St. Nicholas. From here the legend spread on around to the Atlantic Coast of Europe & the North Sea to become a European holiday tradition regardless of religion.
In the Netherlands, legend has it that Sinterklaas (Dutch name for St. Nicholas) arrives in the Netherlands by way of steamboat from Spain 2 weeks before his traditional birthday, December 6th, along with his helper, Zwarte Piet (Black Pete), who will help disperse the gifts & candy to all the good children. Referring to his book that lists all the good & bad children, Sinterklaas will deliver presents to all the good children, but watch out if you’ve been bad! The Low Countries (Belgium & Luxemburg) have basically the same traditions surrounding St. Nicholas, but not to the extent of the Netherlands. Children in Luxemburg call him Kleeschen, & his helper is Hoseker (Black Peter). Belgian children know him as Sint Niklaas.
For families with older children & adults, different twists are added to the gift giving & may include gag gifts or the drawing of gift ideas or names, & most times are accompanied by poems with a “personal touch” that poke fun at the recipient in a gentle way (or not, depending on the families ). Wrapping the presents up in odd packages & planting a trail of clues is also part of the general fun, & can sometimes be pretty tricky to get to, depending on the squeamishness of the recipients.
In Germany, St. Nicholas is also known as Klaasbuur, Sunnercla, Burklaas, Bullerklaas,& Rauklas, & in eastern Germany, he is also known as Shaggy Goat, Ash Man, or Rider & is more reflective of earlier Norse influences that were blended in with the figure of St. Nicholas, when Christianity came to Germany. After the reformation, St. Nicholas’s attire began to change, maybe as a reflection of the change from the Roman church, & he started to wear a red suit with fur. Although he still visits many homes on Dec 5th/6th & leaves candy and gifts in the children’s shoes, more recently St. Nicholas has begun showing up on Christmas Eve in Germany & is called Father Christmas.
In France, he is also called Pere Noel (Father Christmas) & he travels in the company of Pere Fouettard. Pere Noel leaves presents for good children, while Pere Fouettard disciplines bad children.
St. Nicholas day was celebrated formerly in Russia, but under Communism he was changed to Grandfather Frost & wore blue instead of red. In Sicily, he comes on Dec 13th with Santa Lucia.
***
6 December 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: As dawn begins to break on tomorrow the waning gibbous Moon forms an isosceles triangle with Regulus &orange Algieba (Gamma Leonis).
During the Feast of Saint Nicolas in 1273, Saint Thomas Aquinas had a mystical vision that made writing seem unimportant to him. At mass, he reportedly heard a voice coming from a crucifix that said, “Thou hast written well of me, Thomas; what reward wilt thou have?” to which Saint Thomas Aquinas replied, “None other than thyself, Lord.”
When Saint Thomas Aquinas’s confessor, Father Reginald of Piperno (an earlier incarnation of Ita Wegman) urged him to keep writing, he replied, “I can do no more. Such secrets have been revealed to me that all I have written now appears to be like straw” Thomas Aquinas never wrote again.
1926 – Deathday of Claude Monet
1959- Deathday of Emil Bock, Priest & co-founder of the Christian Community
***
Calendar of the Soul, by Rudolf Steiner, translated by Roy Sadler. The verse quartet related to this week moves on from Advent to a week ending 30.1.21, but in most years reaching February 1st, Imbolc, Feile Brighde, the quickening of the year, the virgin fire festival, Brigid’s Day; then to the week before the Summer Solstice; and to Lammas, Lughnasadh, loaf-mass, the first harvest festival, the mirror of this week’s verse.
v36, The Cosmic Word enwoven by the world within my depths of being, mysteriously urging to be heard, now speaks: Inspire your life’s endeavour with spirit light of mine to sacrifice yourself through Me.
v43, In winter’s depths true spirit presence warms; it makes appearance real and through the heart empowers the coming of the springlife’s glory; the soul’s revitalising fire within the human core defies world cold.
v10, To summer’s heights the sunlight’s radiant being rises and takes my human feeling far and into the sublime, the harmony of worldwide space, wherein a faint, new dawn within me intimates, In future you will know: a holy being felt you now.
v17, The Cosmic Word the world has let me guide through senses’ gates to soul ground begins to speak: Imagine in your spirit depths my world expanse to find in future Me in you.
***
Sunday 20 December 2020, 2 pm – 3pm CT
‘Awakening to the Light in the Darkness’: A Christmas Contemplation with Rev. Craig Wiggins. In-Person at The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online
Unwrapping our Cosmic Gift: Thoughts on the Christmas Conference 1923
with the Central Regional Council. Themes inspired by Prokofieff’s book: May Human Beings Hear it! include: Turning Points of Time; Christ, Sophia and Michael; Foundation Stone Meditation.
On Tuesday, December 29th,6 pm – 8:30 pm CST,we will join Anthroposophy Atlanta for a reading of Goethe’s fairy tale, The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily This has a separate zoom code: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82656914578?pwd=MHN3Mmt3OEhtQlZTMlc1NHFtUm80QT09Meeting ID: 826 5691 4578 Passcode: Goethe
New Year’s Eve, there will be NO zoom call, as we will gather for ourAnnual NYE event. This year’s theme is “A Masked Ball” 6 pm till 10:30 pm
6 pm Potluck and artistic mask making with Lucien Dante Lazar
7:30 – 9:30 Live Music with Jutta and the High Dukes
10:10 pm Project Thought-Seed
The evening ends at 10:30 pm
$20 donation
Nancy Poer
Wednesday, January 6, 2021, 2 pm – 4 pm CSTJoan’s Epiphany: What Joan of Arc Calls for Today In-Person at Elderberries & The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago and online
Today on the Birthday of Joan of Arc, we welcome special guest Nancy Poer
We will also explore The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations, Lecture 5, “The Nature of the Christ Impulse and the Michaelic Spirit Serving It” by Rudolf Steiner, with Leading Thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Social Sculpture: “The Passage” with Lucien Dante Lazar
We will also share an artistic exploration, singing and Eurythmy.
Dear friends – Don’t let the dark lure you into sleep. Keep your wick trimmed, fuel your inner torch, & keep it lit with the fires of purpose – shining in the spiritual air which feeds it, grounded in the sacred earth; flowing like forever.
Scott Krotts
“Long ago, Truth, Beauty, and Goodness arose out of the deepest human instinct and became the three greatest ideals that inspired human striving. In modern times these ideals have almost become empty words, but we have the possibility of taking these ideals and giving them, once more, real meaning and substance…
Anthroposophy wants to sound the alarm! In the Oberufer Nativity play, the shepherd named Huckle tries to awaken his fellow shepherd Buckle. He calls out, ‘The birds are already singing.’ Buckle rolls over, ‘Let ’em sing. They’ve got little heads and they don’t need much sleep.’ Huckle tries again, ‘The sky is falling! The sky is falling!’ Buckle ignores him, ‘So what! Let the sky fall in! It’s already been up there long enough.’ That, of course, is not exactly what anthroposophy is saying. Rather the call is: ‘The spiritual world wants to come in! Wake up! Let the Light of the Spirit shine!’ Anthroposophy wants the sleeper to wake up. Modern civilization needs an awakening. But humanity wants to go right on sleeping!” ~Rudolf Steiner, “The Sleep of Civilization,” from Awake! For the Sake of the Future (CW 220)
Beatrice Gent
“Let My Country Awake” by Rabindranath Tagor
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken
Up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost
Its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action – Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
***
Lyn Stoppard
Listen to the podcast around the theme of the CRONE HERE
***
5 December 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars“: Bella Luna is some days past full, so she’s rising later. These next several nights – December 5, 6 & 7, 2020 – catch the moon & star Regulus – in the constellation Leo the Lion – rising in the east from mid-to-late evening. If you’re not a night owl, you can always get up before daybreak to view this waning gibbous moon & star Regulus in the morning sky. You’ll recognize them easily. Look first for the moon. That nearby bright star will be Regulus.
“HEALING WILL COME TO OUR AGE when the thoughts and ideas that are applied to social conditions and political life are in living contact with spiritual reality”. ~ Rudolf Steiner
Saint Nicholas’ Eve – Sinterklaas – a mythical figure with legendary, historical & folkloric origins based on Saint Nicholas. Other names for the figure include De Sint (“The Saint”), De Goede Sint (“The Good Saint”), & De Goedheiligman (“The Good Holy Man”) Sinterklaas is celebrated annually with the giving of gifts on 5 December, the night before the feast of Saint Nicholas – the primary source of the popular Christmas icon of Santa Claus
304 – Deathday of Saint Crispina – a martyr of Africa who suffered during the Diocletian persecution. She was born at Thagara (now an archaeological site in Tunisia near the town Taoura) in the Roman province of Africa. She died by beheading at Theveste, in Numidia.
Crispina belonged to a distinguished family & was a wealthy matron with children. At the time of the persecution she was brought before the proconsul Annius Anullinus; on being ordered to sacrifice to the gods she declared she honoured only one God.
Her head was shaved at the command of the judge, & she was exposed to public mockery, but she remained steadfast in the Faith & was not moved even by the tears of her children. When condemned to death, she thanked God & offered her head with joy for execution.
400 – Deathday of Nicetas, a Greek philosopher of the Pythagorean School. He was born in Syracuse. Like his fellow Pythagoreans he believed that the daily movement of permanent stars was caused by the rotation of the Earth around its axis. Copernicus referred to him in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium as having been cited by Cicero as an ancient who also argued that the earth moved.
532 – Feast day of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified, a Cappadocian-Syrian monk, who lived mainly in Palaestina Prima. He was the founder of several monasteries, most notably the one known as Mar Saba. The Saint’s name is derived from Aramaic meaning “old man”
1784 – Deathday of Phillis Wheatley, Senegal-born slave, American poet who wrote: His Excellency General Washington –
Celestial choir! enthron’d in realms of light, Columbia’s scenes of glorious toils I write. While freedom’s cause her anxious breast alarms, She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms. See mother earth her offspring’s fate bemoan, And nations gaze at scenes before unknown! See the bright beams of heaven’s revolving light Involved in sorrows and the veil of night!
The Goddess comes, she moves divinely fair, Olive and laurel binds Her golden hair: Wherever shines this native of the skies, Unnumber’d charms and recent graces rise.
Muse! Bow propitious while my pen relates How pour her armies through a thousand gates, As when Eolus heaven’s fair face deforms, Enwrapp’d in tempest and a night of storms; Astonish’d ocean feels the wild uproar, The refluent surges beat the sounding shore; Or think as leaves in Autumn’s golden reign, Such, and so many, moves the warrior’s train. In bright array they seek the work of war, Where high unfurl’d the ensign waves in air. Shall I to Washington their praise recite? Enough thou know’st them in the fields of fight. Thee, first in peace and honors—we demand The grace and glory of thy martial band. Fam’d for thy valour, for thy virtues more, Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore!
One century scarce perform’d its destined round, When Gallic powers Columbia’s fury found; And so may you, whoever dares disgrace The land of freedom’s heaven-defended race! Fix’d are the eyes of nations on the scales, For in their hopes Columbia’s arm prevails. Anon Britannia droops the pensive head, While round increase the rising hills of dead. Ah! Cruel blindness to Columbia’s state! Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late.
Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side, Thy ev’ry action let the Goddess guide. A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine, With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! Be thine.
1791 – Deathday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer & musician Mozart’s final year
1848 – California Gold Rush: In a message to the United States Congress, U.S. President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California
1931 – Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow was destroyed by an order of Joseph Stalin
1932 – German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa
***
Bella Jendopee
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~Let us lift the clouds that guard the secret – The miracle is happening Let aspirations rise & speak: The Peace of Wisdom is coming back To give birth to Love Again & yet again Sing Life Stirring below the surface of skin, Anoint the pain of mortality, the loss & suffering The misunderstandings that prick Consciousness & prod us toward truth… Bless the body Where Love in Wisdom is gathering… ~hag
***
The Festivals Committee for the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago invites you to
Holy Nights December 24, 2020, through January 5, 2021
On Tuesday, December 29th,6 pm – 8:30 pm CST,we will join Anthroposophy Atlanta for a reading of Goethe’s fairy tale, The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily This has a separate zoom code: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82656914578?pwd=MHN3Mmt3OEhtQlZTMlc1NHFtUm80QT09Meeting ID: 826 5691 4578 Passcode: Goethe
New Year’s Eve, there will be NO zoom call, as we will gather for ourAnnual NYE event. This year’s theme is “A Masked Ball” 6 pm till 10:30 pm
6 pm Potluck and artistic mask making with Lucien Dante Lazar
7:30 – 9:30 Live Music with Jutta and the High Dukes
10:10 pm Project Thought-Seed
The evening ends at 10:30 pm
$20 donation
Wednesday, January 6, 2021, 2 pm – 4 pm CSTJoan’s Epiphany: What Joan of Arc Calls for Today In-Person at Elderberries & The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago and online
Today on the Birthday of Joan of Arc, we welcome special guest Nancy Poer
We will also explore The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations, Lecture 5, “The Nature of the Christ Impulse and the Michaelic Spirit Serving It” by Rudolf Steiner, with Leading Thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Social Sculpture: “The Passage” with Lucien Dante Lazar
We will also share an artistic exploration, singing and Eurythmy.
