I glide…on the winds of change blowing in hot & cold currents, as the season shifts – Smoothing the air – not like a leaf in the fall, but as a hawk, eyes penetrating into the essence of all….filled with wild strength & elemental power – yet safely rocking as in a mother’s arms – ensconced & tender.
All is open, there is no fixed schema, no anxiety or fear, no bullets-points on the agenda…The sky is vast – ready to receive – whatever my long-sighted wings want to inscribe on it…
As the wind releases, I slide down, toward wild trees encircled by streams & jutting glacial rock sprouting bright orange lichen & limey moss – Sun-drenched & shining…Gently, soundlessly…I reach the rich earth – strewn with the scent of living humus.
Finding the power of my limbs, I walk – a well-trodden path – heading in an unfamiliar direction. I revel in the 1st hint of color dressing the trees…& the silence – broken only by the play of the elements: the song of birds, the water flowing, the busy animals. Ahead the path opens into a clearing ringed with ancient sentinel trees to make a shady grove. I recognize this Place. I remove my shoes to let my feet become one with the hallowed ground – Singing a blessing of thanks & praise – I cross the threshold between 2 mighty oaks.
Standing in the center of a cairn littered labyrinth, I see the bright figure of a woman. The quintessence of her visage becomes clear when she speaks my secret name, which I have not yet learned to pronounce. She is bidding me to come forward – to enter the spiraling labyrinth.
I take the 1st step – & the path pulls me forward. I cannot tell of this journey, for it is my own…you have yours too…& it never ends…But when we reach the center – Anthroposophia – The She in me & we – leans forward to welcome our embrace. She whispers a truth that reverberates thru the embryo of the ear so that all may hear – a well-reasoned wisdom speaking – something we already know, but have perhaps forgotten. It may be like the core of common sense; or perhaps it strikes the funny-bone like the humor of nonsense; or maybe it opens the heart to wonder. It may be a simple truth, or a complex mystical teaching which will require further deepening, or that which leads to a hero’s task. However it is heard, receive it as a benediction.
Let the bright woman braid a chain of flowers into your hair – touch your fingers to your crown knowing your mind has been forever changed, released, opened to all the possibilities that will transform your thoughts into things…
Spin with joy, noticing all at once, that the bright woman has vanished – & now, standing before us, is a dark figure, looking strangely familiar. Can you make out her face there in the shadow? She is carrying a bundle over her shoulder. She lays her burden down at our feet. The dark woman speaks with a voice that resonates to the bone…She calls us each with a special tone only we can hear. Will you answer & come forward? If you choose to, don’t close your eyes when the embrace pulls you in…
The Dark She gently whispers a truth into your left ear. It is a truth that you know is right. The truth touches your heart & frees your soul. You remember the bird, soaring thru clear skies, singing a song of joy & longing. When you return to the depths, the dark woman has vanished, & the bundle she was carrying, & then left there at your feet, has transformed, into a large pyramid of rich honey-colored amber. Pick up a piece & warm it in your hand…
The Sun calls you to lift the amber up…bring it up, into the light…Let the sunshine merge with this solid symbol of your vitality…Breathe in the pranic life-force emanating from your true purpose made manifest…
Put this treasure in your breast pocket, as you leave the Sacred Place…forever knowing that your inner sanctuary goes where your intention flows…Knowing that union is possible between the many parts of our being…
Walking on in confidence… Balanced in the light & dark of our most authentic self…We walk the path from the wilderness…curving & mounding onto a city street. And as we stand in a circle there on the curb, in the oblique angle of the autumning Sun, feel how minds & bodies are changing – like the leaves. What color are you now?
Xox
~hag
13 October 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars“: The waxing moon sweeps past bright Jupiter and fainter Saturn in the evening sky
“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” ~H.G. Wells
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
In 1307 October 13 was a Friday – Hundreds of Knights Templar in France are simultaneously arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair, to be later tortured into a “confession” of heresy. Once freed of the Inquisitors’ torture, many Templars recanted their confessions. Some had sufficient legal experience to defend themselves in the trials, but in 1310 Philip blocked this attempt, using the previously forced confessions to have dozens of Templars burned at the stake in Paris. With Philip threatening military action unless the pope complied with his wishes, Pope Clement finally agreed to disband the Order, citing the public scandal that had been generated by the confessions. At the Council of Vienne in 1312, he issued a series of papal bulls, which officially dissolved the Order. As for the leaders of the Order, the elderly Grand Master Jacques de Molay, who had confessed under torture, retracted his confession & insisted on his innocence. But he was declared guilty of being a relapsed heretic & was sentenced to be burnt at the stake in Paris on 18 March 1314. De Molay reportedly remained defiant to the end, calling out from the flames that both Pope Clement & King Philip would soon meet their end. Pope Clement died only a month later, & King Philip died in a hunting accident before the end of the year
1792 –The cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion (known as the White House since 1818) is laid
1917 – The “Miracle of the Sun” is witnessed by an estimated 100,000 people in the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal. The people had gathered because the 3 shepherd children, who originally claimed to have seen Our Lady of Fátim, had predicted that at high noon the lady who had appeared to them several times would perform a great miracle. According to many witnesses, after a period of rain, the dark clouds broke & the sun appeared as an opaque, spinning disc in the sky. It was said to be significantly duller than normal, & to cast multicolored lights across the landscape, the people, & the surrounding clouds. The sun was then reported to have careened towards the earth before zig-zagging back to its normal position. Witnesses reported that their previously wet clothes became “suddenly & completely dry, as well as the wet & muddy ground that had been previously soaked because of the rain that had been falling.” According to reports, a panorama of visions, including those of Jesus, Our Lady of Sorrows, & of Saint Joseph blessed the people. The event lasted approximately ten minutes.
STARTS TONIGHT AT 6 PM CT. For those who are longing for a deep dive: The Applied Anthroposophy Course (AAC) brings transformative online content into the alchemy of individual and group inner work. The mission is to explore the urgent issues of our time through the lens of spiritual philosophy, awakening meaning, inner reflection, and outer action.
I will be facilitating one of the Chrysalis Groups: ‘The Cycle of the Year as a Path of Initiation into the New Mysteries’ –
The Royal Art of community awaits your participation.
See you there
~hag
