As we have discussed, every year the cosmic iron enters Earth’s atmosphere, following the rhythms of the cosmos. With them they bring the metal sacred to Mars, & the forces harnessed in it. But why is that? What’s the reason behind this charming show that urges us to make wishes? And what does all this have to do with iron?
According to Roman Catholic lore, the August meteor showers are the “lacrime di San Lorenzo”—St. Lawrence’s tears- the last of the seven deacons of Rome to die, martyred on 16 August 258, during the persecution of the emperor Valerian.
When he was summoned before the executioners, Lawrence was ordered to bring all the wealth of the Church with him. He showed up with a handful of crippled, poor, & sick people, & when questioned, replied that “These are the true wealth of the Church.” He was immediately sent to his death, being cooked alive on a gridiron.
Legend has it that one of his last words was a joke – he quipped to his killers: “Turn me over, I’m done on this side!”
After that, Catholics began calling the August meteors the “tears of St. Lawrence,” even though the celestial phenomenon pre-dates the saint, being associated with Perseus.
Some Italian lore also holds that the fiery bits of debris seen during a meteor shower are representative of the coals that killed St. Lawrence. This correspondence with the myth is very interesting, it finds a valid explanation in the results of a spiritual-scientific investigation.
According to Anthroposophy in Summer a specific process takes place in the human organism, as light & heat grow stronger & more potent. This is a sulphurising process. From a spiritual perspective human beings start shining ‘like glow-worms’ surrounded by a yellow-bluish “sulphur” flame. This flame is associated with the spiritual beings of ‘fallen light’ which want to take advantage of human freedom for their purposes.
“From the standpoint of the cosmos this is actually a majestically beautiful sight, for it is in this glorious astral light that human beings shine out into the cosmos during the ‘Dog Days of Summer’, but at the same time it gives occasion for the Ahrimanic power to draw near to humanity. For this adversarial power is very closely related to the sulphurising process in the human organism.
We can see how, on the one hand, the human being shines out into the cosmos in the St. John’s light, & on the other, how the dragon-like serpent-form of Ahriman winds its way among the human beings shining in the astral light & tries to ensnare & curtail us, to draw us down into the realm of half-conscious sleep & illusion”. ~Rudolf Steiner, The Four Seasons & the Archangels
This process of subtle combustion in the human organism causes what comes so natural in summer – a dream-like state where human instincts arise, gaining power over the forces of consciousness & awareness. Who hasn’t experienced this during summer? And it’s not for nothing, it is important to have that outbreath to come in contact with the cosmic reaches.
But we need to understand that from this perspective the ahrimanic forces are not interested in awakening clairvoyance in humanity. That would be an old form of clairvoyance, anyway. All they want, is to control human beings – fooling us thru our own lower instincts.
When this process of expansion comes to its peak at the Summer Solstice—we must start to come back down to earth or there is a danger we fall victim to the Luciferic influences that would draw us away from life. But the wisdom of the cosmos gives human beings the antidote. The balancing impulse to counter the forces of sulphur rising from the ground, is the cosmic iron.
“And when in high summer, from a particular constellation, meteors fall in great showers of cosmic iron, then this cosmic iron, which carries an enormously powerful healing force, is the weapon which the gods bring to bear against Ahriman, as dragon-like he tries to coil round the shining forms of men.
The force which falls on the earth in the meteoric iron is indeed a cosmic force whereby the higher gods endeavour to gain a victory over the Ahrimanic powers, when autumn comes on. And this majestic display in cosmic space, when the August meteor showers stream down into the human shining in the astral light, has its counterpart — so gentle and apparently so small — in a change that occurs in the human blood.
This human blood, which is in truth not such a material thing as present-day science imagines, but is permeated throughout by impulses from soul and spirit, is rayed through by the force which is carried as iron into the blood and wages war there on anxiety, fear and hate.
The processes which are set going in every blood-corpuscle when the force of iron shoots into it are the same, on a minute human scale, as those which take place when meteors fall in a shining stream through the air. This permeation of human blood by the anxiety-dispelling force of iron is a meteoric activity. The effect of the raying in of the iron is to drive fear and anxiety out of the blood”. ~Rudolf Steiner, The Four Seasons & the Archangels
From this perspective we can contemplate the amazing show of the meteor showers which go on into September as we make our way toward Michaelmas. We can look at them knowing that the forces of the cosmos are at work to help us.
Fear & anxiety are two adversarial forces, that especially this year, have been ensnaring us all. So this makes having an awareness of the meteor showers even more important – worthy of contemplation & active participation.
May the cosmic iron of the gods be with you, to defeat all the inner & outer obstacles that stand in your way.
~hag
Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner, Translation by Roy Sadler
RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
Each new season is generally recognised as beginning with the
solstice or equinox… but do we consider the first 3 weeks of June
still to be spingtime, and those of September still to be summer?
This week’s Soul Calendar quartet is unique. It is the only square
quartet, and the only one with the words of ‘threatening’ (v46 & v7)
and ‘death’ (v20 & v33). They are verses testing the soul, and to me
they appear as initiation verses preparing for a new season – which then
fits better with temperatures & daylight hours than waiting another month.
And after the climax of the Perseid meteor showers, heralding the season
of Michael, it is appropriate to regard this week as a transition verse
(one of four, reducing each season to just 12 weeks).
LAMMASTIDE IV
Transition from Summer to Autumn
The Nemesis Of Self
v20
So I begin to feel my being, I,
who far from universal being
would perish, I
who building only on the ground of me
must die.
Transition from Autumn to Winter
The Nemesis Of The World
ALL HALLOWSTIDE IV
v33
And so I come to feel the world,
which left without my soul’s communion
would be just frosty, empty life
that powerless to recreate itself in souls
could in itself alone find only death.
16 August 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Right after first quarter the Moon shines near Antares, then high over the Cat’s Eyes.
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
“He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth.” ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Abraham receives Isaac back from Yahweh, according to the spiritual research of Rudolf Steiner, GA 117
1705 – Deathday of Jacob Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician & theorist, founder of the calculus of variations. His most important contribution was in the field of probability
1744 – Birthday of Pierre Méchain, French astronomer who studied of deep sky objects & comets
1841 – U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history
1842 – In New York City, the U.S. government took over operations of the City Despatch Post. This was the first congressionally authorized local postage delivery
1888 – Birthday of T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia) British colonel & archaeologist
1899 – Deathday of Robert Bunsen, a German chemist, discovered caesium & rubidium, pioneer in photochemistry, & did early work in the field of organoarsenic chemistry. He developed the Bunsen burner, an improvement on the laboratory burners then in use
1948 – Deathday of Babe Ruth
1906 – An estimated 8.2 MW earthquake hits Valparaíso, Chile, killing 3,886 people
1923 – Carnegie Steel Corporation put into place the eight-hour workday for its employees
1960 – Cyprus gains independence from Britain
1977 – Deathday of Elvis Presley
1989 – A solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips, leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto’s stock market
1999 – In Russia, Vladimir V. Putin was confirmed as prime minister by the lower house of parliament
2005 – Deathday (murder) of Brother Roger Schütz, founded the Taizé Community, an ecumenical monastic community in Burgundy, France
2012 – South African police fatally shoot 34 miners & wound 78 more during an industrial dispute near Rustenburg
***
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~i will the god within
to show Herself…
my soul walks out,
my mind burns…
are my eyes shining?
~hag
