Sorry I missed acknowledging The Feast Day of The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary yesterday, my RR site was being held hostage by cyber gremlins…Today is a new day…
In the last essay, Love is Moral, we looked at how we need to bring morality into our intellect NOW – as a preparation for the 6th Cultural epoch to unfold with the virtue of Love.
In FAITH, LOVE, AND HOPE – GA 130 Steiner goes on to share how Hope is the key to what is needed for the 7th Cultural Epoch “in order to face the next catastrophe, and to begin a new life, just as was done in this present post-Atlantean age.
Thinking on this during the 2nd week of Advent when we consider the Plant Kingdom & the etheric realm with its ‘Water Trial’, this quote raises in me a contemplation of the Great Flood – a great ‘catastrophe’ – a severe trial – that became a new beginning in our evolutionary process. I think on how Christ was baptized with water; & that a baptism by fire comes after, bringing with it the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
In looking further into what is calling from the future, we can know that, if Hope is not cultivated, if what Spiritual Science has to offer is denied, then when our external culture, with its materialistic proclivity comes to a climax in the 7th – the final phase of the post-Atlantean epoch, bringing with it no fulfilment of Hope, but leaving instead “utter desolation”, people will say:
“We have wireless installations — undreamt of by our ancestors — to transmit our thoughts all over the earth, and what good does it do us? The most trivial, unproductive thoughts are sent hither and thither, and human ingenuity has to be strained to the utmost to enable us to transport from some far distant region, by means of all kinds of perfected appliances, something for us to eat; or to travel at high speeds round the globe. But in our heads there is nothing worth sending from place to place, for our thoughts are cheerless; more-over, since we have had our present means of communication, they have become even more cheerless than when they were conveyed in the old snail-like fashion.” ~Rudolf Steiner
In short, without hope, despair and desolation are all that our civilization can spread over the earth.
But, in the last – the 7th cultural epoch, souls who have accepted the spiritual in life, will become enriched, and rise above the ruins of the external life of culture. Their surety that this acceptance of the spiritual has not been in vain will be a strong force of hope within them — hope that after a great catastrophe a new age will come for human beings, when there will appear in external life, in a new culture, what has already been prepared spiritually within the soul.
And so Steiner ends these lectures on Faith, Love & Hope by assuring us that if we permeate our whole being with Spiritual Science, we will advance step by step: from our age of Faith, which we must cultivate now more than ever, thru the next age of Love, so that the angels can work in our astral body, & then into the final phase of Hope, to give us the strength to navigate thru a purifying catastrophe by fire, which will make way for the New Jerusalem. It’s up to us to do this work consciously. For if we can each do our part – if humanity can take on these virtues – a great teacher & helper will work with us – The Maitreya Buddha – who Steiner calls the “truest, most beautiful, of all human souls”
As always dear friends, See you in the Striving
~hag
9 December 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The waning gibbous Moon this evening forms a big, nearly equilateral triangle with Mars high to its upper right and Capella high above the Moon.
Sunrise: 7:10 A.M.
Sunset: 4:34 P.M.
Moonrise: 5:38 P.M.
Moonset: 8:44 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (98%)
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1923 – 1st extract of Rudolf Steiner’s autobiography ‘The Course of My Life’ in Das Goetheanum, with the birthdate of 27 February 1861
Holiday Market at the Rudolf Steiner Branch
4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago
10 December 2022 – 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
The 4th Sunday of Advent – 18 December 2022 at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago, 2 pm – 3:30 pm CST (after Rev. Jonah Evans talk at the Christian Community)
The Individuality of Conscience and the Goetheanum with Lucien Dante Lazar
Out of our conscience, we witness the Christ in the other. And through this Seeing, our I is born within us, whose self-conscious interior is the I of God. This is a mystery of John the Baptist.
When Love enters the human heart as an awakening to freedom, the Wisdom of form enters our awareness, and color, that majesty of Light, teaches us about creation. This is a mystery of the painter Raphael.
When the Word approaches us, inspiring us in our language to find the Heavenly Sophia as intellect, we write truth and honor the New Revelation of the Christ and His marriage to Sophia. And out of this marriage, we learn about ourselves. This is a mystery of Novalis.
On this last Sunday of Advent dedicated to the Human Being & the Angels, we will engage in these three Christian gifts through the social encounter, our working with color, and our thinking through language. And we will strive to harmonize these three incarnations of this significant individuality with the birth, death, and resurrection of the Goetheanum.
$10-$50 or pay what you will at the door or online www.rschicago.org/donate (credit card or PayPal)
For more Info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar www.rschicago.org/donate
The ‘Envy of the Gods’ – The ‘Envy of Human Beings’
Presented by Adriana Koulias*
A Winter Solstice offering preparing us for the Centennial commemoration of the burning of the first Goetheanum.
21 December 2022, at 5 pm PT, 6 pm MT, 7 pm CT, 8 pm ET Here is a link to the World Clock for your time zone
Online & in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago
Dear Friends – This special presentation is supported by your generous donations. $10-$50 or pay what you will www.rschicago.org/donate (credit card or PayPal)
Please type ‘Adriana’ to designate your payment
For those attending in-person doors open at 5:30 pm for our Potluck meal. Please bring food & drink to share.
For more Info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar www.rschicago.org/donate
You are invited to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Adriana Koulias
Time: Dec 21, 2022, 07:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89586637726
Meeting ID: 895 8663 7726
One tap mobile +13092053325,,89586637726# US +13126266799,,89586637726# US (Chicago) Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kbtvb8sTRI
Work on building the First Goetheanum, which was designed and supervised by Rudolf Steiner, began after the laying of the double dodecahedron foundation stone on the 20th of September 1913. Construction proceeded for a decade under enormous difficulties in the political, economic and cultural realms, brought on by the advent of the First World War. After the war when the building was near completion, the First Goetheanum was destroyed by an arsonist on New Year’s Eve 1922/1923.
This NYE 2022-23 will be the 100th anniversary of this event and the world is again facing many difficulties, political, economic and social. Adriana’s lecture will explore what Rudolf Steiner meant by the ‘Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human beings’ and how a consciousness of this during the coming 12 Holy Nights can provide the necessary strengthening for the coming twelve months.
During this presentation Adriana will speak about the three gifts given by Rudolf Steiner in 1913: The naming of Anthroposophy, The Fifth Gospel, and The Laying of the Foundation Stone of the First Goetheanum. She will explore with us how we can link our hearts to the old Goetheanum during the coming 12 Holy Nights to prepare ourselves for the coming 12 months in 2023, so we can work towards a Cosmic New Year.
In this way we will celebrate the Jubilee of the Christmas Conference and the resurrection of the living impulse of the First Goetheanum in the most auspicious way.
For Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘My dear friends, may this link our hearts to the old Goetheanum which we had to consign to the elements. May it link our hearts also to the Spirit, to the Soul of this Goetheanum. With this vow before whatever is best within our being we want to live on not only into the new year. In strength of deed, bearing the spirit, leading the soul we want to live on into the new cosmic year.’ ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘The Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human Beings.’
Adriana Koulias was born in 1960 in Brazil. Adriana moved to Australia when she was 9 years old where she lives today. She has studied art, operatic singing and nursing. She has been studying Anthroposophy (awareness of our humanity) as given by Rudolf Steiner for 33 years and has since 2002-3 integrated this knowledge into several novels and a number of books, international lectures and articles online and in magazines.
