Dear friends – I am finding this 3rd week of Advent to be particularly challenging. After taking in some thoughts given in the comments – thank you Kyle, Maverick, Steve, Nicholas, Rick…I will continue to grapple…Please add your comments below to further the conversation…

Focus: The Astral World
Symbol: the animal
Abandoned by: Guardian Angels
Virtues: Bravery, fortitude and presence of mind
Beware of temptation to lose your self-control

Ok, so I am learning how in the Air trial we see how we imprint or project ourselves & our thoughts into the world, both good & bad. The world thinks in us & we think in the world.

Ordinary sense based thinking has to be silenced so that it can unite with a harmonious will. When thought is willed it becomes an organ of perception. It becomes conscious of the way our Astral body penetrates into the world & becomes one with all we see.

When we do this we realize that we are the creators of the future, we imprint outwardly what we think inwardly & this becomes the outer world that we will face today – & even imprints our physical bodies in our next incarnation.

More & more it is being revealed that the Cyber World has 2 sides – it can be a tool for communion, or it can be used to further the advent of the ‘8th Sphere’ which has risen higher than ever before into the realm of the human soul – causing a kind of unconsciousness paralysis in the human will. This unconsciousness is the 1st layer – allowing the melding of human thought with demonic delusion to take place.

The only way to counteract the attacks on human thinking is to free it thru spiritual exercises that create a consciousness in all 3 soul forces, so that thinking becomes an awakened organ of will – in alignment with Divine Will.

Working with after images & complementary colors is the new Christic Yoga for this Michaelic age. We must use Lucifer’s gift of imagination as a tool – but we don’t use fantasy, we employ cognitive imagination to activate our Divine Will – this does not allow the Luciferic powers to interfere or the Ahrimanic beings to enslave.

We are meant to learn to breathe light in thru our transformed organ of thought & breathe it out thru our eyes – to shine healing grace out into the sense bound world.

When we look out into the world in this way we see how our soul can be a beacon of light revealing the spirit in all things so that we see the essence – We breathe light in & out! In this way we don’t see the physical world lit up only by electric light, but by our spiritual light.

But yes, my friends, in doing this we will also come face to face with all that is dark & imperfect in our soul. What lives inside us unconsciously is now lit up to be looked at – & we are faced with what we are. This is the first thing we see when we do these exercises.

We lose the floor from under our feet, we are up in the air without a foothold – we recognize the dross we carry unconsciously – which is what we imprint on the world around us.

Friends let’s break the spell that wants to keep us trapped in the 8th sphere – which is striving to be the new normal.

We must become capable of seeing this dross & transforming it in the light of Christ, so that by working on perfecting our lower desires, thru moral thinking, we can build together – the Temple of our true heart – where love lives.

This lecture by Rudolf Steiner explains it much better than I can: The Mission of the Archangel Michael. Lecture 6 – The Ancient Yoga Culture and the New Yoga Will. The Michael Culture of the Future, November 30, 1919

“We shall have the possibility of grasping, the nature of the sense process of man in its relation to the outer world. Man’s conceptions are very coarse and clumsy, indeed, which maintain that the outer world merely acts upon us and we, in turn, merely react upon it. In reality, there takes place a soul process from the outside toward the inside, which is taken hold of by the deeply subconscious, inner soul process, so that the two processes overlap. From outside, cosmic thoughts work into us, from inside, humanity’s will works outward. Humanity’s will and cosmic thought cross in this crossing point, just as the objective and the subjective element once crossed in the breath. We must learn to feel how our will works through our eyes and how the activity of the senses delicately mingles with the passivity, bringing about the crossing of cosmic thoughts and humanity’s will. We must develop this new Yoga will. Then something will be imparted to us that of like nature to that which was imparted to human beings in the breathing process three millennia ago. Our comprehension must become much more soul-like, much more spiritual. If we learn, in nature, to receive the soul element together with sense perception, then we shall have the Christ relationship to outer nature. This Christ relationship to outer nature will be something like a kind of spiritual breathing process.”

16 December 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Left of Orion after dinnertime is the constellation Gemini. Castor and Pollux, the head stars of the Gemini stick-figure twins, are at its left end; the twins are lying on their sides. Castor is the higher one. Bella Luna crosses Taurus as it waxes toward full, on the night of the 18th.

Comet Leonard has been emerging just above the southwest horizon in evening twilight, a little bit higher each day

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

 ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1770 – Birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven

1859 – Death day of Wilhelm Grimm, German anthropologist and author – the younger brother of Jacob Grimm, of the literary duo the Brothers Grimm.

1900 – Deathday of Karl Julius Schröer, Rudolf Steiner’s professor – Steiner speaks about him in his Karmic Relationships Lectures in Vol 4, lecture 10 his former incarnations as Plato / Hroswitha are given. He was the son of the educator and writer Tobias Gottfried Schröer (Socrates in a former life)

1901 – Birthday of Margaret Mead, American anthropologist and author

Holiday Market at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 
4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago
18 December 2021 – from 11 am – 4 pm

Handcrafted gifts, décor & toys
Featuring Live Music, Puppetry & Candle Dipping!!!

If you would like to be a vendor contact Elizabeth Kelly 
eilisaineariadne@gmail.com

Thursday 23 December 2021 – The Eve of the Eve –
11 am PT / 12 pm MT / 1 pm CT / 2 pm ET / 7 pm UTC

A Christmas Festival with Christian Community Priest Rev. Jeana Lee, 
Movement with Lucien Dante Lazar 

‘Divine Love and the Holy Child Within’

This will be a hybrid in-person & Zoom event
Featuring our 2 camera technology with Mary Spalding

Doors open at 12:30 pm (Zoom Room open 12:45 pm for Social time)
Snacks to Share Encouraged

Suggested donation $15.00 – 
At the door or via the Rudolf Steiner Branch PayPal donation site –
*Please make a note on the first line – type in: “Christmas Fest”!
The Festival will be recorded

Time: Dec 23, 2021 01:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7052931041?pwd=Vk1XcDJqT0lKeHYzWXZJNlRYNlRvZz09
Meeting ID: 705 293 1041
Passcode: Christmas

For more info. Contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg 

The Epic of Gilgamesh
Storytelling during the Holy Nights 2021-2022
Hosted by the Anthroposophical Society in America 

”The purpose of a story is to be an ax that breaks up the ice within us.”
~ Franz Kafka

Click to Register! 

All around the world the season of midwinter is the traditional time for community bonding through storytelling. In laying the groundwork for the 100-year anniversary of the Christmas Conference, we bring the ancient Sumerian saga “The Epic of Gilgamesh” to life. Rudolf Steiner explored this story in Occult History during the Holy Nights of 1910; and again with the lectures “World History in the Light of Anthroposophy” given during those fateful Holy Nights in 1923 for the re-founding of the Society. 

The Epic of Gilgamesh is perhaps the oldest written tale on Earth. The Sumerian version dates from around 3000 B.C. Later it was compiled from 12 clay tablets written in Akkadian cuneiform. 

It is the “Hero’s Journey” of human evolution, a story of friendship, and a quest for the meaning of life – revealing Steiner’s core mission of bringing karma and reincarnation to the west. 

Myths, fairytales, historical epics, and sagas open us up to powerful archetypes behind the human condition, revealing clues to ourselves – from the past, the present, and the future. What will we uncover about ourselves and each other during this year’s Holy Nights adventure in storytelling?

Tune in for any or all of the episodes of this dramatic reading, re-worked by Hazel Archer from various translations, and featuring friends from around the world.

What: The Epic of Gilgamesh: Story Telling during the Holy Nights hosted by the ASA, Hazel Archer, and friends.

Time: 22 minutes daily at 9 am PT / 10 am MT / 11 am CT / 12 pm ET / 5 pm UTC

Dates:  December 24, 2021- January 5, 2022 for 13 consecutive days  
Can’t join us live? No problem. Each gathering will be recorded and posted on our Holy Nights page (link will be emailed upon registration).

How: Register Here!  Then check your email for confirmation with the Zoom registration link. 

Cost: This event is free with suggested donations of $25, $50, $100
Your donations help us create events like this one!
Register Here! 
www.anthroposophy.org/holynights

Eurythmy for the Holy Nights with Jan Ranck
‘Tuning to the Stars’:
Sacred Geometry, the Planets and the Zodiac

LIVE IN-PERSON 26-30 Dec. 2021
at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago 4 pm – 5 pm
And at 7pm on 31 Dec. as part of our Annual NYE Gathering (details below)

$100 for all 6 sessions, or $22 for each individual session.

Make your payment using the Rudolf Steiner Branch PayPal
or QuickPay with Zelle to chase@rschicago.org
(Please indicate in the notes that it is for the “Holy Nights Eurythmy”)

Cash at the door, or send a check to:
Rudolf Steiner Branch
4249 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60618-2953
USA

For more info. Contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg 

* Jan Ranck – Born in the USA, Jan Ranck studied music and comparative arts at Indiana University in Bloomington. She accompanied the London Stage Group on their 1976 USA tour and went on to study eurythmy at the Eurythmeum in Dornach with Lea van der Pals, where she subsequently taught. In 1984 she joined the faculty of The London School of Eurythmy. She left there to complete her eurythmy therapy training in Stuttgart in 1989, moving afterward to Israel, where she founded and directed the Jerusalem Eurythmy Ensemble (1990) and the Jerusalem Academy of Eurythmy (1992) and was an instructor in the Jerusalem Waldorf Teacher Bachelor Program in David Yellin Academic College from 1999. Jan has held Master Classes at various venues worldwide, including the Goetheanum and the MA Program in Eurythmy held at Emerson College and Spring Valley. She is the representative for Israel in the International Eurythmy Therapy Forum.

Friday 31 December 2021
Doors open at 6:30 pm 

Join us for our Annual NYE Conscious Community Gathering –
The Theme for 2022 is Cabaret – a Cultural Sharing!

All are invited to take the stage with an offering.

Circles Edge & other Waldorf alum will also perform

Please bring Food & Drink to share

$20 Cash at the door or Make your payment using the Rudolf Steiner Branch PayPal or QuickPay with Zelle to chase@rschicago.org
(Please indicate in the notes that it is for the “NYE”)

All proceeds go to support the Rudolf Steiner Branch – the young People hosting & The Band (Can’t make it? send a $ gift PayPal)

7 – 8 pm – Holy Nights Eurythmy with Jan Ranck (separate fee $22 see above)

8 pm – Potluck Social

8:30 pm – Circles Edge & Friends warm the stage & host the open mic

10:10 pm – Thought-Seed Circle

10:30 pm – Clean-up…;)

For more info. Contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg