Out on a friends farm yesterday the beehives were stirring. It is still cold & rainy, the trees have not budded, but blue carpets of scilla & tender crocus abound.
Shakespeare described bees as “singing masons building roofs of gold“
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~In the hollow of a willow
I make my nest amidst snow bells & wise serpents
I am calling in eternity
Where I live forever in the fire spun from my own wings
Yes, I’ll suffer burns that burn to heal
Yes, I am destroyed – only to create myself anew
Like the Sun that rises burning in the East
& dies burning in the west…
Called again & again
To suffuse Sun fire into the human hive
~hag
4 April 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: We’re gearing up for a big show: Mars stands just south of Saturn at 5 pm CDT. Although both planets are below the horizon at that time, they will grow even closer in the subsequent hours. Check back tomorrow for the best early-morning view as these two planets make a close pass.
“The historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence.” ~T.S. Eliot, “Tradition & the Individual Talent” (1919)
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
397 – Deathday of Aurelius Ambrosius, There is a legend that as an infant, a swarm of bees settled on his face while he lay in his cradle, leaving behind a drop of honey. His father considered this a sign of his future eloquence & honeyed tongue. For this reason, bees & beehives often appear in the saint’s symbology.
St. Ambrose ranks with Augustine, Jerome, & Gregory the Great, as one of the Latin Doctors of the Church. Theologians compare him with Hilary. Ambrose displayed a kind of liturgical flexibility that kept in mind that liturgy was a tool to serve people in worshiping God, & ought not to become a rigid entity that is invariable from place to place. His advice to Augustine of Hippo on this point was to follow local liturgical custom. “When I am at Rome, I fast on a Saturday; when I am at Milan, I do not. Follow the custom of the church where you are.” Thus Ambrose refused to be drawn into a false conflict over which particular local church had the “right” liturgical form where there was no substantial problem. His advice has remained in the English language as the saying, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
One interpretation of Ambrose’s writings is that he was a Christian universalist. It has been noted that Ambrose’s theology was significantly influenced by that of Origen & Didymus the Blind.
Ambrose considered the poor not a distinct group of outsiders, but a part of the united, solidary people. Giving to the poor was not to be considered an act of generosity towards the fringes of society but as a repayment of resources that God had originally bestowed on everyone equally & that the rich had usurped
560 – Death day of Zosimas of Palestine, reputed to have lived to be almost one hundred years of age is best known for his encounter with St. Mary of Egypt. It was the custom of that monastery for all of the brethren to go out into the desert for the 40 days of Great Lent, spending the time in fasting & prayer. While wandering in the desert he met Saint Mary, who told him her life story & asked him to meet her the next year on Holy Thursday on the banks of the Jordan, in order to bring her Holy Communion. He did so, & the third year came to her again in the desert, but he found that she had died & he buried her.
636 – Deathday of Saint Isidore of Seville, was one of the last of the ancient Christian philosophers; he was the last of the great Latin Church Fathers & was contemporary with Maximus the Confessor. Some consider him to be the most learned man of his age, & he exercised a far-reaching & immeasurable influence on the educational life of the Middle Ages. His contemporary & friend, Braulio of Zaragoza, regarded him as a man raised up by God to save the Iberian peoples from the tidal wave of barbarism that threatened to inundate the ancient civilization of Hispania
1863 – Deathday of Ludwig Emil Grimm, a German painter, art professor, etcher & copper engraver. His brothers were the well-known folklorists Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm
1887 – Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the 1st female mayor in the United States
1905 – In India, an earthquake hits the Kangra Valley, killing 20,000, &destroying most buildings in Kangra, McLeod Ganj and Dharamsala
1913 – Birthday of Blues man Muddy Waters (for Fuji)
1944 – World War II: First bombardment of oil refineries in Bucharest by Anglo-American forces kills 3000 civilians
1967 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech in New York City’s Riverside Church
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee