Greetings friends – We are on the other side of the Resurrection – although the Orthodox celebration of Easter comes Sunday the 24th of April, so during the Sophia Rising Convergence we have the opportunity to recapitulate Holy Week. In the meantime my house is filled with the lingering scent of Easter lilies.
And of course we are still in the Easter-tide – for it is a 3-fold Festival. We are now in the 40 days when the disciples received the esoteric teachings of the Risen Christ leading up to the Ascension – & then at 50 days – Pentecost, bestowing its Baptism with the fire of the Holy Spirit.
I am leaving tomorrow for the Convergence with my daughter Ultra-Violet, so I just wanted to share a few thoughts here before we head off to this milestone event…
First of all I want to thank everyone who came out to the Rudolf Steiner Branch & those that attended on Zoom our Easter offering featuring Lucien Dante Lazar & Ultra-Violet Archer who gifted us with their amazing Anthroposophical Musical Initiative: Velsum, which can be defined as Victory in Wholeness. They also call their music Ancient Futurism.
They shared a powerful set of acapella songs called: New Nightingale, New Rose. In-between these harmonious airs they told the stories of their wondrous collaboration, & how each song came to be – describing the potent inspirations they received from Spiritual Science & from the being of Anthroposophia ever unfolding from within their individual & collectively Christ imbued “I” forces. They spoke & sang with such ease & grace, finishing each other’s sentences with humor. These stories with all the riveting details & spiritual synchronicities added a true enlightenment – revealing their spirit filled process.
The uplifting resonance of Agape that their presence exudes takes every listening heart into the Harmony of the Spheres. I was so engrossed that I’m sorry to say I took no pictures.
The title of their set: New Nightingale, New Rose, came from a book of poems by the Sufi poet Hafiz, which jumped off Lucien’s shelf. When I first heard this title, it felt like an ancient memory had surfaced.
I finally woke up with an image. When Ultra was about 12 years old we went to Turkey with CG’s parents. We took a side trip & visited The House of the Virgin Mary (Turkish: Meryemana Evi or Meryem Ana Evi, “Mother Mary’s House”) located on Mt. Koressos (Turkish: Bülbüldağı, “Mount Nightingale”) in Ephesus.
That was it – “Mount Nightingale” – the home of the Mary-Sophia! How perfect – since Velsum’s mission carries the impulse of Christ-Sophia thru the Logos.
The Gospel of John 19:25-28 tells the story of The Mother of God and the Beloved Disciple at the Foot of the Cross
25 “Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.”
27 then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her to himself.”
Lazarus, who became John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, received from Christ the impulse that the Mother of God carried – The Divine Sophia – into himself – inspiring him after that to write his Gospel & the Book of Revelation, there in Ephesus, where John took Mary to escape persecution. They lived peacefully on Mount Nightingale for many years, until The Dormition (“falling asleep”) or Assumption of Mary – a teaching that says, after the mother of Christ died, she was resurrected, glorified, & taken bodily to heaven. Lazuas-John lived to be almost 100 years old…
Going there was the highlight of our trip. On the way to the shrine, you must walk up the steep hill of the mount; at the crest, by the humble home, there is a key-hole shaped baptismal pool. The house is now a chapel, where an altar featuring a large statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary is prominently displayed in the center. Off to the right is the chamber where the Virgin Mary is said to have slept. The legends say that an underground stream flowed from the foot of her bed out to the baptismal font. Outside the shrine there is also a well, believed to have miraculous powers of healing or fertility. Near the well is a “wishing wall” where pilgrims leave their personal prayers & intentions on paper or fabric.
It is a desert area, but all around the house there are many types of flowers & fruit trees.
I’m sure we have pictures. I remember Ultra wearing a blue silk scarf, & I wore a yellow one, as the woman always had to have their heads covered to enter these sacred sites. I will have to look for those pictures when we return from Sophia Rising…
I hope to see you in Santa Fe…
~hag
