Monthly Archives: October 2022

Cut Bait

October 31, 2022Autumn, Community, Festival, History, Poetry~hag

POD (Poem Of the day)

~My soul duels with worms
Hidden in the clay of being
That would gnaw the scroll of mythos
Witch i carry in my heart whole
& speak thru the living word…
No worries
I will cut bait & continue singing…
~hag

31 October 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The Halloween Moon this year is first quarter (exactly first quarter at 1:37 am CDT tonight). It hangs in the south in early evening, with distant Saturn glowing steadily to its upper left. Much farther left of Saturn is brighter Jupiter. As night deepens, the dim boat-shaped pattern of Capricornus emerges shyly behind Saturn and the Moon.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

All-an-tide (Cornwall)

The first day of All-Hallows-Tide, observed until November 7 (Western Christianity)

Halloween (Ireland, Canada, United Kingdom, United States etc…)

Hop-tu-Naa is a Celtic festival celebrated in the Isle of Man on 31 October. Predating Halloween, it is the celebration of the original New Year’s Eve (Oie Houney). It is thought to be the oldest unbroken tradition in the Isle of Man

Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season & the beginning of winter or the “darker half” of the year. It is the cross quarter between the autumn equinox & the winter solstice.

The Mound of the Hostages, a Neolithic passage tomb at the Hill of Tara, is aligned with the Samhain sunrise. It is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature & many important events in Irish mythology happen or begin on Samhain.

It was the time when cattle were brought back down from the summer pastures & when livestock were slaughtered for the winter. As at Beltane, special bonfires were lit.

Like Beltane, Samhain was seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world & the Otherworld could more easily be crossed. This meant the Aos Sí, the ‘spirits’ or ‘fairies’, could more easily come into our world. Offerings of food & drink were left outside for them.

The souls of the dead were also thought to revisit their homes seeking hospitality. Feasts were had, at which the souls of dead kin were beckoned to attend & a place set at the table for them.

Mumming & guising were part of the festival, & involved people going door-to-door in costume (or in disguise), often reciting verses in exchange for food.

Divination rituals & games were also a big part of the festival.

The first day of the Day of the Dead, celebrated until November 2 (Spanish: Día de Muertos) The multi-day holiday focuses on gatherings of family to pray for & remember members who have died, & help support their spiritual journey.

Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars called ofrendas, honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, & the favorite foods & beverages of the departed, & visiting graves with these as gifts. Visitors also leave possessions of the deceased at the graves.

Scholars trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances dating back hundreds of years and to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl. The holiday has spread throughout the world, being absorbed within other deep traditions for honoring the dead.

On this day in 683 AD: The Kaaba, the holiest site in Islam, is burned to the ground

683 – During the Siege of Mecca, the Kaaba, catches fire & burns down. The literal meaning of the Arabic word ka`bah (كَعْبَة) is “cube”, or “House of God”, considered the most sacred site in Islam, a similar role to the Tabernacle & Holy of Holies in Judaism.

503 years ago, on Oct. 31, 1517, the story goes, that the small-town monk, Martin Luther, marched up to the castle church in Wittenberg & nailed his ‘95 Theses’ to the door, lighting the flame of the Reformation — the split between the Catholic & Protestant churches. Luther’s act is one of the cornerstones of world history, & remains a lasting symbol of resistance.

Nearly all of American history bears the imprint of that act of protest. Luther’s challenge, the protection he obtained, & the reformers he inspired laid the foundation for the establishment of colonial America.

In 1934, an African American pastor from Georgia made the trip of a lifetime, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, through the gates of Gibraltar, and across the Mediterranean Sea to the Holy Land. After this pilgrimage, he traveled to Berlin, attending an international conference of Baptist pastors. While in Germany, this man — who was named Michael King — became so impressed with what he learned about the reformer Martin Luther that he decided to do something dramatic. He offered the ultimate tribute to the man’s memory by changing his own name to Martin Luther King. His 5-year-old son was also named Michael — and to the son’s dying day his closest relatives would still call him Mike — but not long after the boy’s father changed his own name, he decided to change his son’s name too, & Michael King Jr. became known to the world as Martin Luther King Jr.

Another dynamic measure of the influence of Martin Luther is the quintessentially modern idea of the individual — of our personal responsibility before ourselves & our God, rather than before any institution, whether church or state. This was as unthinkable before Luther. The contemporary idea of “The People,” along with the democratic impulse that proceeds from it – The more recent ideas of pluralism, religious liberty, & self-government all entered history through the door that Luther opened.

Luther’s second unyielding act of courage was at the ‘imperial diet’ held in the city of Worms in 1521, when he made it clear that he feared God’s judgment more than the judgment of church leaders in that room.

And suddenly the individual had the freedom & possibility of thinking for themselves.

Martin Luther was not inclined to tilt at papal windmills. In fact, until about 1520 he was a vigorous champion of the church. He desired desperately to help Rome elude the fate it ended up experiencing. In fact, in a case of Oedipusian irony he became the very man who brought about everything he had hoped to avoid. As his story illustrates, it was a sublime & ridiculous decoction of forces that created the perfect storm that burst over the European continent, creating what we now call the Reformation.

Today the Catholic & Lutheran churches are taking the memory of 1517 in hand. Pope Francis joined leaders of the Lutheran World Federation in Sweden to hold a joint service in a spirit of unity after 500 years of division.

1517 – Deathday of Fra Bartolomeo, Italian artist

1984 – Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh security guards. Riots break out in New Delhi & other cities – 4,000 Sikhs are killed.

On All Hallows-tide, the eve of All Saints’ Day, it was a Medieval Christian tradition for the poor to go to wealthy homes offering to pray for the recently departed in that household, since folks knew that prayers could help the dead on their journey in the after-life. And as a token of their appreciation, the rich would give them food & beer.

Many Halloween customs come from this same ritual. Visitors would show up holding lanterns made of hollowed-out turnips with candles inside, which represented souls in purgatory. Masses were held so that souls wouldn’t feel neglected & haunt believers. There were costumes & masks, & mummers plays to depict the various stages of the after-life.

But after the Protestant Reformation — which can be traced back to a different Oct. 31 event (exactly 500 years ago today): Martin Luther’s 1517 publication of his 95 theses — the idea that souls could be saved in this way began to lose popularity in many of the new denominations.

Some Catholics kept up the practice of going door-to-door on the eve of All Saints’ Day, which became known as “Souling.” By the 1840s, when a wave of Irish & Scottish immigrants brought the custom to the U.S., it was basically a pagan/secular pastime. Young people danced outside tenement apartments in exchange for gifts. Costumes were made out of old clothes, & faces painted with burnt corks, while tricks included stuffing cabbages in chimneys & whacking each other with bags of flour.

Although the Irish Catholics faced widespread prejudice, the celebration having been stripped of its Catholic underpinning, quickly proved to be popular. As those immigrants began to assimilate, newspapers reported the custom trending among 19th century college students. In the early 1900s, high schools, rotary clubs & charities began to throw Halloween parties. By the 1930s, North America had a new term for the old tradition: Trick-or-Treating. And as suburban swelled in the 1950s, Trick-or-Treating grew into the kid-friendly practice seen today.

Here in America, Halloween calls for an interaction with spooky strangers, that come out of the night, knocking on our door, shouting, give me a treat or you’ll get a trick. On a spiritual level, trick-or-treat, can be seen as a demand that strangers, a symbol of the unfamiliar parts of ourselves, give up their gifts to us. There is a lot of energy that gets locked up in the dark, & Halloween is an opportunity for us to dialogue with the dark, the shadow side of The Self, & call that energy back.

Light & dark are not opposites, but 2 parts of the same cycle. In order to fully appreciate the festivals of light, which return with the Winter Solstice, we must 1st grow in the dark womb of our perennial inward journey. With the veil between the worlds so thin, great transformations are possible, since the power of all the dimensions are available to us.

It is not only the veil between the physical & spiritual worlds that thin, it can also be the division between any 2 polarities, like the left & right hemispheres in our brains for instance, or between any 2 realities that are struggling to coexist, like war & peace for instance. This dark night can represent a resolution of paradox, a respectful meeting of the different sides of the same coin, witch can initiate the healing transformation required, in order to let the light back into our lives, once we’ve come to understand & own our side of the dark…

Look for me there, in the dark…

xox~hag

Dear friends – I am heading out for another session of my AAP training at the Kimberton Camphill, so this All Hallows post will be my last until I return on 8 Nov. just in time for the Lunar Eclipse, which also happens to be election day here in Chicago. I voted early, taking the time to research all the candidates, which is not as easy as it used to be, the entitled apathy of these politicians is blatant. But there are a few folks out there fighting for Medical & Reproductive Freedom, who care about community, workers rights, & the environment, who think that we should put kids before guns…etc…So if you are willing to really take your civic duty seriously, & are willing to vote beyond party lines, you can make a difference – VOTE!

Our Annual All Souls Celebration –
A Community Circle to Honor Our Beloved Dead
Wednesday, November 2, 2022
In-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch
4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL. 60613

Doors open 5 pm
5:15-6:00 Potluck Dinner & Conversation
Transition to the Upper Room
6:05 Verse for the So-Called Dead
6:10-6:20 Singing
6:20-6:30 Speak Their Names
6:30-6:40 Social Art for the Dead
6:40-7:10 Conversation RE Experience
7:10 Closing Verse

For those wishing to attend All Souls Day Vesper Service (Ultra-Violet Archer will be lading the singing) at The Christian Community, please arrive at the Church and be seated by 7:25 pm
The service will begin promptly at 7:30pm

2135 W WILSON AVE
CHICAGO, IL 60625
Church calendar.

For more info. contact Coordinators Deborah Rogers or Paulette Arnold
Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar
www.rschicago.org/donate

Book of the Dead

October 30, 2022Autumn, Biography, Celestial Event, Community, Festival~hag

Dearly Beloved – On this Eve of All Hallows Eve, do you have the courage to look beyond the mask of the material world, into the spirit realm, the place of our beginning, the time of our unborness, the abode of our ending, when we shuffle off this mortal coil, only to begin again & yet again, as we strive toward the eternal…?

Take heart my friends, for every ending is a new beginning. At All Hallows–tide we stand at the Cross Quarter between Autumn Equinox & Winter Solstice, a time when great transformations are possible. Since with the veils between the worlds so thin, the power of all the worlds are available to us.

What is it like to bring awareness to this most important human initiation, this true rite-of-passage? Can we work to consciously “Cross the Threshold”, as we do in meditation, in sleep & ultimately in our life between death & rebirth..?

As far back as ancient Persia, Mesopotamia & Sumeria, we find many initiation myths like the Epic of Gilgamesh, & the Descent of Inanna, that describe communicating with the dead & a journey to the underworld.

In Ancient Egypt we find: The Book of the Dead = ‘Book of Coming Forth by Day’ also called the ‘Book of Emerging Forth into the Light’; an ancient Egyptian funeral text illustrated with vignettes depicting the deceased & their journey in the afterlife. It was placed in the coffin or burial chamber. The Book consists of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person’s journey through the Duat, or underworld, & into the afterlife. It was written by many priests over a period of over a 1000 years.

Perhaps since in our time now we are recapitulating this epoch we might gain insight by looking into this text with modern eyes.

From ancient Greece we have the story of Demeter & Persephone, as Queen of the Underworld, connected to the secret festival of Thesmophoria, celebrated exclusively by the women. They dressed in white robes & observed strict chastity before & after the ceremony. According to Greek mythology, Demeter’s daughter, Persephone, was gathering flowers one autumn day when she was taken by Pluto, god of the underworld, to his subterranean kingdom. This was re-enacted as an initiation rite of death & resurrection. The 2nd night the women fasted & lowered wild boar, sacred to the goddess Circe & Hecate, into chasms in the earth as a sacrifice.

On the 3rd night the bones from former festivals were placed on altars & mixed with seed corn, which was then sown in the fields as a kind of magical fertilizer to ensure a good crop. Then they had a big feast. They would also cast herbs on their beds & sit on the ground to promote the fertility of the corn.

Although this festival was sacred & solemn, there was a lot of rather bawdy jokes in the style of the wild Crone Baubo, the sexually liberated Goddess of Mirth, who jested with Demeter to try & cheer her up after the loss of her daughter, & get her to bring fertility back to the earth again.

The Romans had a similar festival in honor of Ceres. Also with the Eleusinian mysteries, we see initiation rites enacted to gain inspiration from the gods & the ancestors.

The full moon of October is known as the Hunter’s or Blood Moon – Which came early this year aligned with the Jewish Festival of Sukkot. This was called ‘The Final Harvest’ – Traditionally, the hunters would be out in force. After the end of the breeding season, & before the severe weather comes to kill off many of these creatures anyway, they were taken for the cooking-pot, to supplement what might otherwise be a rather meager winter diet.

With all this death around, it is not surprising that people’s thoughts turned to human mortality.

The Celtics call All Hallows or Samhain their New Year. Autumn is also the time of the Islamic New Year. Likewise for the Jewish people, with their New Year Rosh Hashanah; & at the end of the High Holy Days Sukkot is celebrated, where they build a hut & invite the ancestors & the elemental beings to come to the feast. When you think about it, it makes sense to let the old year die away – like the plant life, during this transition into the dark.

It is also traditional to look toward the future, & to dress up as what you want to Become for the New Year. To ask questions, like: Who have I been? Who am I now? & where am I going…? Who do I want to become?

And these are the kind of questions we can ask our beloved dead.

In Wales the souls of the dead are known as ‘the Silent Company’, but when they are welcomed with bwyd cennad y meinv, “the food for the embassy of the dead.” They become our helpers.

We can think of our ancestral allies in 3 ways:

1. Ancestors of the Blood – A common ancestral guide is a relative we knew & had some kind of positive connection with in this lifetime, quite often a loving grandparent or great-grandparent.

2. Ancestors of the Soul – This is an ancestral guide from a past life who may have been some kind of teacher or mentor to us.

3. Ancestors of Humanity – These were heroes whose lives were dedicated to the service of human evolution, like Casper Hauser or Jeanne d’Arc. They can be called upon in times of crisis, as Dion Fortune & her group called upon King Arthur & Merlin during the 2^nd World War.

Dear friends, let’s take this opportunity to part the veil – letting go of our sense bound thinking, to consciously work with our spiritual helpers in this time great uncertainty. Let us set the table with our intention to join together in communion to celebrate the feast of life in all its aspects; as we build a picture of wholeness on the inner planes, which will ray out into all worlds.

~hag

30 October 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Mars stands stationary against the background stars of Taurus – the Red Planet is north of Alheka (Zeta [ζ] Tauri), which marks one of the Bull’s two horns.Because it’s nearing opposition, Mars is visible during most of the time it’s dark overnight. You can opt to catch the Red Planet either in the hours before dawn if you’re an early riser, or after it clears the horizon by 9 pm local time if you’re a night owl. ~astronomy.com

Sunrise: 7:27 A.M.
Sunset: 6:00 P.M.
Moonrise: 1:24 P.M.
Moonset: 10:25 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (32%)

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
HALLOWEEN
Soul Sunlight
v30
In sunlight of my soul
thought’s fruit matures;
all feeling turns to sureness
of self-awareness.
I joy to sense
the autumn’s rousing of the spirit;
within me will the winter wake
the summer of the soul.

Halloween was originally the Celtic Wise Woman festival of Samhain [‘Summer’s End’]. The summer’s being now begins to shine as the summer of the soul, the cosmic light living on with inner power. Its mirror verse, v23, of imaginative consciousness has changed after Michaelmas to an inspired one, an autumn awakening of a higher self that can be born as the Spirit Child at Christmas.

AUTUMN PRELUDE III
The Yield Of Summer
v23
In autumn haze
the senses’ lure fades;
a mist arising veils
the light’s revealing.
In widths of space I see
the autumn landscape fall asleep;
the summer’s yielded me her being
for me to reap.

Dear friends – I am heading out for another session of my AAP training at the Kimberton Camphill, so my All Hallows post tomorrow will be my last until I return on 8 Nov. just in time for the Lunar Eclipse, which also happens to be election day here in Chicago. I voted early, taking the time to research all the candidates, which is not as easy as it used to be, the entitled apathy of these politicians is blatant. But there are a few folks out there fighting for Medical & Reproductive Freedom, who care about community, workers rights, & the environment, who think that we should put kids before guns…etc…So if you are willing to really take your civic duty seriously, & are willing to vote beyond party lines, you can make a difference – VOTE!

For those wishing to attend All Souls Day Vesper Service (Ultra-Violet Archer will be singing)
at The Christian Community, please arrive at the Church and be seated by 7:25 pm
The service will begin promptly at 7:30pm

2135 W WILSON AVE
CHICAGO, IL 60625
Church calendar.

Cosmic Humor

October 29, 2022History, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

Our Dear Kyle J. wrote in response to yesterday’s post about Sirius with a powerful connection to Till Eulenspiegel – which reminded me of presentation I love to give called ‘Lifting the Veil of the New Isis’, where I bring Rudolf Steiner’s imagination of the Statue of the Representative of Humanity as a veil covering the New Isis. And how in the corner of that statue is the Being of Cosmic Humor. In the Epiphany lecture of 6th January 1918 – ANCIENT MYTHS, THEIR MEANING AND CONNECTION WITH EVOLUTION, GA 180, Lecture III, in Dornach. Steiner likens this being of humor to the legend of ‘Till Eulenspiegel’:

‘So one day someone came before the provisional form of the statue of the new Isis, and up above at the left was placed a figure of humorous deportment, which in its world-mood had something between seriousness, a serious idea of the world and, one might say, even a chuckling about the world. And lo and behold! as once upon a time someone stood opposite this figure in a specially favourable moment, the figure became alive and said quite facetiously: Humanity has only forgotten the matter, but centuries ago something was placed before the new humanity about the nature of the new humanity, in so far as this new humanity is still only master of the abstract word, the abstract concept, the abstract idea and is far removed from the reality.

This new humanity keeps well to words and always asks: Is it a pumpkin or is it a flask? …when it happens that a flask has been made from a pumpkin…always clings to definitions, always stops short at words! (This is a reference to the cosmic script revealed in the cresent moon – spelling out the name Parzival, the Holy Fool who at 1st did not speak the words, but thru many trails is now the New Grail King)

In the 15th, 16th, 17th centuries — so said the chuckling being — mankind still had self-knowledge about this peculiar situation of taking words in a false sense, not relating them to their true reality, but taking them in their most superficial sense. Today, however, men themselves have already forgotten what was put before them for the benefit of their self-knowledge, in the 15th, 16th, 17th centuries.’

And the being went on chuckling and said: ‘What modern humanity should take as a real recipe for its abstract spirit is depicted on a tombstone in Mölln in the Lauenburg district. Because a tombstone stands there and on this tombstone is drawn an owl (Eule) which holds before itself a looking-glass (Spiegel). And it is related that Till Eulenspiegel, after he had wandered through the world with all sorts of buffoonery and pranks, was buried there. It is related that this Till Eulenspiegel existed, that he was born in the year 1300, went to Poland, even reached Rome, and in Rome even had a wager with the Court-jesters over all sorts of odds and ends of wisdom, and initiated all the other Till Eulenspiegelisms, which indeed are to be read in the literature about Till Eulenspiegel himself.’

Learned men — and the men who are scholars, are indeed very learned today and take everything with extraordinary gravity and significance — these have naturally discovered — they have discovered various things: for example, that there was no Homer, etc. — the scholars have naturally also discovered that there never was a Till Eulenspiegel. One of the chief reasons why the actual bones of the actual Till Eulenspiegel, who was only the representative of his age, are not supposed to lie beneath the tombstone in Lauenburg, on which is depicted the owl with the looking-glass, was because another tombstone had been found in Belgium upon which there was likewise an Owl with a mirror. Now the learned men naturally have said — for that is logical is it not, and logical are they all — how does it go in Shakespeare — for they are all honourable men — all, all, all! — logical are they all! They have said: if the same sign is found in Lauenburg and Belgium then naturally no Eulenspiegel existed at all. (Because their logic did not tell them, that like the name Parzival, the name Till Eulenspiegel is a title – held by those who have achieved that rank)

Generally in life if one finds a second time what one has found a first time, one takes this as a reinforcement — but it is logical, is it not, in these things to take matters so. Well, we say, if I have one franc, then I have one franc. I believe it. So long as I only know that I have a franc, I believe it! But then I get another and I now have two. Now I believe that I have not one at all! — that is the same logic. This is the logic in fact that is to be found in our science — if I were to recount to you how everywhere it is to be found wry frequently!

But what is the essential point of the Eulenspiegel-buffoonery? Read it up in the book: the essential thing of the Till Eulenspiegel-buffoonery always consists in the fact that Eulenspiegel is given some sort of commission, and that he takes it purely literally and naturally carries it out in the wrong way. For obviously if, for instance — to exaggerate somewhat — one were to say to Eulenspiegel (whom I now take as a representative figure) ‘Bring me a doctor,’ he would take the word literally and would bring a man who had graduated as doctor from a University. But he would perhaps bring a man who was — excuse the strong language — a perfect fool, he only went by the sound of the word. All the fooleries of Till Eulenspiegel are like this, he only goes by the wording. But this makes Till Eulenspiegel precisely the representative of the present age. Eulenspiegelism is a keynote in our modern times. Words today are far removed from their original source, ideas are often still farther removed, and people do not notice it, but behave in an Eulenspiegel way to what civilization happens to serve up. People have no notion how far they are removed from reality in what today they call ideas, and even ‘ideals’. In other words: mankind does not know at all how it has made Eulenspiegel into its patron saint, how Eulenspiegel is still wandering through the different lands.

One of the fundamental evils indeed, of our time, rests on the fact that modern humanity flees from Pallas Athene, that is, from the Goddess of Wisdom, and clings to the symbol, the owl (Eule). And mankind no longer has the least idea of it — but it is true, as I have often shown, that the foundation of external knowledge is only a reflection — but, my dear friends, in a mirror one sees that which one is! And so the owl … I mean the modern scientific profundity, sees in the glass, in the world-maya illusion just simply its own face.

Over such matters as these the being at the left above the modern Isis Statue chuckles and sniggers, and over many other matters which, out of a certain courtesy towards mankind, shall not be mentioned at the moment.

But, a feeling should be called forth that with the peculiarity of this presentation of human mysteries through the real existence of the Luciferic, Ahrimanic, in connection with the Representative of humanity itself, a state of consciousness is to be roused in mankind which wakes those very impulses in the soul which are necessary for the coming age.”

Steiner speaks again about Till Eulenspiegel in direct relation to the Grail Legend in OLD AND NEW METHODS OF INITIATION, GA 210, Lecture XIII, 26 February 1922, Dornach, Connecting Christoffel von Grimmelshausen’s fool, Simplicissimus representing the Fool of the intellectual soul, with Parzival, the Fool of the Consciousness soul age & with Till Eulenspiegel the Fool of the earlier sentient soul.

“People ought to consider what they actually have in their soul in conjunction with what they do externally; the relationship between the two would be like an owl looking in a mirror! If someone were to do exactly what the words say, it would be like holding up a mirror to an owl. Out of this, in the second half of the fourteenth century, Till Eulenspiegel arose. The owl’s mirror is held up in front of mankind. It is not Till Eulenspiegel who has to look in the mirror. But because Till Eulenspiegel takes literally what people say with their dry, abstract words, they suddenly see themselves, whereas normally they do not see themselves at all. It is a mirror for the owls because they can really see themselves in it.

Night has fallen. In past times, human beings could see into the spiritual world. And the activity of their words was in harmony with the world. Human beings were eagles. But now they have become owls. The world of the soul has become a bird of the night. In the strange world depicted by Till Eulenspiegel, a mirror is held up before the owl.”

In ANCIENT MYTHS, THEIR MEANING AND CONNECTION WITH EVOLUTION, GA 180, Lecture IV, Dornach 8th January 1918 – Steiner relates Till Eulenspiegel with the absurdity of modern science, the lies of politics & even names Woodrow Wilson!

Thanks Kyle for inspiring me to revist these ideas…

xox

~hag

28 October 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The waxing crescent Moon is back in the evening sky, low in the southwest. As twilight deepens and the stars begin to come out — but before the Moon gets too low — look for the Sagittarius Teapot in its background.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1871 – Birthday of Michael Bauer, Anthroposophical teacher, poet, wrote: “The Life and Work of Christian Morgenstern“

For those wishing to attend All Souls Day Vesper Service
at The Christian Community, please arrive at the Church and be seated by 7:25 pm
The service will begin promptly at 7:30pm

2135 W WILSON AVE
CHICAGO, IL 60625
Church calendar.

. Dits & -Dahs

October 28, 2022Autumn, Biography, Celestial Event, Poetry~hag

There is no doubt about it – Sirius is my favorite star-being! The way it scintillates has to be a kind of cosmic Morse Code. Even when I was a child it spoke to me. I have had many dreams over the years knowing they were messages from this place in space. I remembering reading something Steiner said about how except for those human beings known as Adam & Eve, most of us left Earth during the tumultuous early Lumerian times, when Earth was still so very volatile, & went to dwell on other planets or stars. (Can any one share that reference?) This definitely rings true for me. (I often still have a hard time being an Earthling).

As a young woman Doris Lessing’s science fiction series ‘Canopus in Argos‘ where Beings from Sirius come to help us remember our cosmic origins, made a deep impression. Truly formative, It really rang true, that yes, sometimes we forget who we really are, & the stars are there to remind us.

Garth Battista caught Orion & Sirius – the bright star on the far left, at a School Farm in the Catskill Mountains

Right now this special star rises over the southeastern horizon after midnight; & at dawn we can see its brilliance adorning the southern part of the sky. This morning at 5:30 am we were communing, & wow, Sirius is seriously the brightest star of the whole sky. Even the city lights can’t interfere with its beaming message.

Sopdet or Sothis is the ancient Egyptian name of the star Sirius & its personification as an Egyptian goddess, conflated with Isis as a goddess & Anubis as a god. It’s easy to follow Orion to find Sirius: the starry belt of the mythological hunter points at this dazzling star, whose name means “glowing triangle or “Sharp One. ” Being the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (which was traditionally associated with Orion’s dog), Sirius is also known as the “Dog Star”. During the dog days of summer the Nile rises with Sirius to feed the fertile bank & bring life to the desert.

During the early period of Egyptian civilization, this heliacal rising of the bright star preceded the annual flooding of the Nile. It was therefore used for the solar calendar which largely superseded the original lunar calendar in the 3rd millennium BC. & became central to cultural depictions of the year & to the celebrations of Wep Renpet the Egyptian New Year (starting around the beginning of August ie. ‘The dog days’) And Sopdet or Sothis was venerated as a goddess of the fertility brought to the soil by the flooding.

Sopdet is the consort of Sah, the personified constellation of Orion near Sirius. Their child Venus was the hawk god Sopdu, “Lord of the East”. As the “bringer of the New Year & the Nile flood”, she was associated with Osiris from an early date, & by the Ptolemaic period Sah & Sopdet almost solely appeared in forms conflated with Osiris & Isis.

She was depicted as a woman with a five-pointed star upon her head, usually with a horned hedjet. In the Ptolemaic & Roman period, the European notion of the “Dog Star” caused her to sometimes be represented as a large dog or as a woman riding one sidesaddle.

During the Old Kingdom, she was also an important ‘psychopomp’ working in the guise of Anubis, guiding deceased pharaohs thru the Egyptian underworld.

From the Middle Kingdom, Sopdet sometimes appeared as a god who held up part of Nut (the sky or firmament) with Hathor. In Greco-Roman Egypt, the male Sopdet was conflated with the dog-headed Anubis.

The Dogon Tribe from Mali, West Africa honor their connection to their Star Ancestors from Sirius.

Sothis brings her light here to this side of the globe during Autumn & Winter…So friends, make it your intention to tune into the message of Sirius thru its shimmering rainbow of light, then let me know what you talked about. Maybe I’ll be in the conversation with you, reminding each other of our divine origins…

~hag

28 October 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”

The waxing crescent Moon is back in the evening sky, low in the southwest. As twilight deepens and the stars begin to come out — but before the Moon gets too low — look for the Sagittarius Teapot in its background

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1260 – Chartres Cathedral is consecrated

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Hail claw in my heart,
Talon of the Hawk,
Bearer of yesterday & tomorrow…
Hail bright star in darkness,
White spider legs dancing on a web of night,
I’ve made my home within you…
The bitter herb I drank killed & cleansed & freed me,
I am new…
~hag

For those wishing to attend All Souls Day Vesper Service
at The Christian Community, please arrive at the Church and be seated by 7:25 pm
The service will begin promptly at 7:30pm

2135 W WILSON AVE
CHICAGO, IL 60625
Church calendar.

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October 27, 2022Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

Today, 103 years ago, in 1919 Rudolf Steiner gave the 1^st lecture on the physical incarnation, in the West, of Ahriman. THE AHRIMANIC DECEPTION, GA 193, Zurich, 27th October, 1919

“Now, in order that his incarnation may take the most profitable form, it is of the utmost interest to Ahriman that people should be steeped in illusory modern science, but without knowing that it is illusion…To conceal from humankind that in modern intellectual, rationalistic science with its supplement of a superstitious empiricism, one is dealing with a great illusion, a deception — that men should not recognize this is of the greatest possible interest to Ahriman.

It would be a triumphant experience for him if the scientific superstition which grips all circles today and by which men even want to organize their social science, should prevail into the third millennium. He would have the greatest success if he could then come as a human being into Western civilization and find the scientific superstition.

But I ask you not to draw false conclusions from what I have just said. It would be a false conclusion to avoid the science of the day; that is the very falsest conclusion which could be drawn. We must get to know science; we should get an exact knowledge of all that comes from this direction — but with the full consciousness that we are receiving an illusory aspect, an illusion necessary for our education as men. We do not safeguard ourselves against Ahriman by avoiding modern science, but by learning to know its character. For modern science gives us an external illusion of the universe, and we need this illusion. Do not imagine that we do not need it. We must only fill it in from quite another side with actual reality gained through spiritual research, we must rise from the illusory character to the true reality…It is by educating oneself through these illusions that one arrives at the reality.

This, then, represents one of the means used by Ahriman to make his incarnation as effective as possible — this keeping of man back in scientific superstition.

The second means that he employs is to stir up all the emotions that split men up into small groups — groups that mutually attack one another. You need only look at all the conflicting parties that exist today, and if you are unprejudiced you will recognize that the explanation is not to be found merely in human nature…

In order to create dissensions, Ahriman also makes use of what develops from the old conditions of heredity which man has really outgrown in the Fifth Post-Atlantean Epoch. The Ahrimanic powers use all that is derived from old circumstances of heredity in order to set men against each other in conflicting groups. All that comes from old differences of family, race, tribe, peoples, is used by Ahriman to create confusion. “Freedom for every nation, even the smallest …” These were fine-sounding words. But the powers hostile to man always use fine words in order to bring confusion and in order to attain the things that Ahriman wishes to attain for his incarnation.

If we inquire: Who stirs up nations against each other? Who raises the questions that are directing humanity today? — the answer is: the Ahrimanic deception which plays into human life. And in this field men very easily let themselves be deceived. They are not willing to descend to the lower strata where reality is to be found. For, you see, Ahriman skillfully prepares his goal beforehand; ever since the Reformation and the Renaissance, the economist has been emerging in modern civilization as the representative governing type. That is an actual historical fact…One must not imagine that the rulers of modern times are anything but the understrappers of the economists. And all that has resulted by way of law and justice — one should only study it carefully — is simply a consequence of what economically oriented men have thought.

But just because this rulership of the mere ‘symbol for solid goods’ (that is to say, money) has arisen, Ahriman has been given another essential medium for the deception of mankind. If men do not realize that the rights-state and the organism of the Spirit must be set against the economic order called up through the economists and the banks, then again, through this lack of awareness, Ahriman will find an important instrument for preparing his incarnation. His incarnation is undoubtedly coming, and this lack of insight will enable him to prepare it triumphantly…

The real Christ must be sought today through all that can be gained from a spiritual knowledge of the world.

These very people who swear by the Gospel alone and reject every kind of real spiritual knowledge, form the beginning of a flock for Ahriman when he appears in human shape in modern civilization. From these circles, from these members of confessions and sects who repulse the concrete knowledge brought by spiritual endeavor, whole hosts will develop as adherents of Ahriman. Now this is all beginning to come into existence…

Many people have felt something of this sort. But there is not yet courage everywhere to come to an understanding with the historical impulses of the Christ, Lucifer and Ahriman in the urgent way that is necessary and that is emphasized by Anthroposophy…

Yet humanity will only acquire the right attitude to the earthly incarnation of Ahriman if it sees through these things and has the courage, will and energy to illumine both secular science and the Gospel by the Spirit. Otherwise the result is always superficialities….

We need a new science, one that is illumined by the Spirit. But men must have the courage for such a new science…

Purely mundane science would make men entirely subject to illusion; in fact ultimately they would commit only follies…

Mankind must above all seek universality and the courage to look at things from all sides.

I wished to say this to you today so that you may realize that what one tries now to bring about within humanity has truly deeper grounds than just some sort of subjective prejudice. In fact one can say that it is read from the signs of the times and that it must be brought about.” ~Rudolf Steiner

27 October 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Scintillating Sirius & Orion’s belt can be found in the south before dawn.

Mars is also near the easy-to-spot constellation Orion the Hunter. It’s nearly the same brightness as Sirius, but shines steadily, with a distinctive red color.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~The forms of light & dark are many
The shapes of good & evil are hidden
We must discern the fruit from the poison…
In every moment beings of spirit wait
to rise up in our thinking –
That one of darkness has eyebrows that swim on his forehead like fishes
That one of light burns in the cold fire of selfishness
The middle pillar, whose two arms are scales
Stands firm in equanimity
~hag

Cognitive Ritual

~Confessions of a Modern Rosicrucian

Monthly Archives: October 2022

Cut Bait

Book of the Dead

Cosmic Humor

. Dits & -Dahs

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