Greetings Friends – To cap off our recent work with the Inner realities of Evolution, which you can explore in these essays: Bestowing – Renunciation – Better than Sci-Fi – Cain’s Sacrifice – Homesick – Bildungsroman – Beyond Death – I thought to offer up some thoughts gleaned from Steiner’s Lectures on FAITH, LOVE, AND HOPE – GA 130, given 100 years ago today 2 December 1911, recommended by RR blog commentator Steve Hale.

To contemplate the virtues of Faith, Love & Hope during Advent is especially powerful. A time when we honor the Mineral (physical/Hope), Plant (Etheric/Love), Animal (Astral/Faith) thru the lens of our human/Angel being, in preparation for the rebirth of the Light,

These lectures were among the first attended by Dr. Friedrich Rittelmeyer – proof of the indications in these lectures that point to the great mysteries of destiny working in these encounters, which in this case led to the foundation of the Christian Community, 11 years later in 1922. One of the things that Steiner describes here is the connection between the altar & the tomb, which dovetails nicely with yesterday’s essay Beyond Death.

For me, making the mysteries of Karma conscious is an important part of the ‘Great Work’ calling to us today. If we treat this practical research as a Spiritual Science, we can gradually achieve, thru our own efforts, in freedom, the faculty for perceiving & putting into play the karmic adjustments – the compensating deeds, needed in our personal & social spheres. –

For the time is coming when new faculties will awaken in the human being – IF, as part of our inner development we take up what John the Baptist says by the Jordan: Change your state of soul.

The other important thing is that when we do this work, karmic perception births in us new insight, a new way of seeing, so that it becomes possible to engage with the etheric Christ as counselor & protector when we need guidance, or solace. To deveolp this new perception we need Faith, Love & Hope…

So besides all the wonderful exoteric qualities of Faith, which can seem to harken back to a more ancient, more simple morality, what are the more esoteric attributes?

What would it be like to live into the idea that Faith brings life-giving forces to the soul..?

Steiner gives us the picture that if we are incapable of faith – we become ‘withered – dried-up as the desert’. “Were people to lose all faith, they would soon see what it means for evolution. By losing the forces of faith they would be incapacitated, their very existence would be undermined by fear, worry, and anxiety.

To put it simply, it is through the forces of faith alone that we can receive the life which should well up to invigorate the soul…There lies in the hidden depths of our being something in which our true ego is embedded where the forces of faith are active. We may term it the ‘faith-soul’, or — as I prefer — the ‘faith-body’. It has also been given the more abstract name of ‘astral body’.

The most important forces of the astral body are those of faith, so the term astral body, and the term faith-body are equally justified.”

A 2^nd force found in the hidden depths of our being – is the force expressed by the word ‘Love’.

Love is not only something wedding people together; it is also a force that is needed by us as individuals in order to be whole. “Love is a living force that stimulates something deep in our being, keeping it awake and alive — an even deeper force than faith. And just as we are cradled in a body of faith, which from another aspect can be called the astral body, so are we cradled also in a body of love, or, as in Spiritual Science we called it, the ‘etheric body’, the ‘body of life-forces’…the person, empty of love, would actually perish; they would meet with physical death.”

Interesting to think of the ‘etheric body’ as being the same as ‘the body of love’ & not as a force acting in the astral, which would have been my 1st guess.

“Duty becomes Love when we love the commands we give oneselves.” ~ Goethe.

When we do our duty with love, forces waken in our souls that will be especially needed in the 6^th culture-epoch – when our etheric body is to be transformed into Life-Spirit.

Love provides a living foundation, which gives us confidence for the future – This is Hope. The forces of hope are connected with our last sheath – our physical body. It is in our physical existence that we need hope; without it our will is lamed.

Steiner mentions that a person who is unable to hope, will always be depressed about the future, & will go thru life with deadening forces clearly etched like deep wrinkles in their physical countenance.

So we see how this picture of the 3 virtues must come together in the human being: The ‘inmost kernel of our being’, our “I”, is sheathed in our ‘Faith-body’ or astral body, in our ‘body of Love’ or etheric sheath, & in our ‘Hope-body’ or physical body.  

In the next essay we will explore the connections of these virtues with our Karma.

Until soon

~hag

2 December 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Fresh off its conjunction with Jupiter on Thursday December 1st, today Bella Luna shines left of the bright planet in early evening, then upper left of it by 10 pm CST.

 Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

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 ‘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’ in the memo for your payment

To register & receive the Zoom code email your receipt of payment to the Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg hag@rschicago.org

For those attending in-person doors open at 5:30 pm for our Potluck meal. Please bring food & drink to share.

 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.

Behold the human being of flesh & bone
And there you behold Death,
Yet, Look within the bones
And you will behold the Awakener –

To follow thru with the thoughts developed in yesterday’s’ essay Bildungsroman from Steiner’s ‘Inner Realities of Evolution’  – Death represents & fulfills itself in the 4^th element – earth. As we have previously explored, the other elements – warmth, air, water – have their essence in the spiritual world, & are only a mere semblance here on earth – The interesting thing is that in the whole sphere of physical existence – death is the only true reality!

“We have tried to trace the world of Maya back to reality and in doing so we have shown that all Fire is sacrifice, everything of the nature of Air is the generous virtue of giving, and the Fluid element of water – the result of renunciation and resignation. To these three truths we have to-day added the fact that the true nature of the Earth or solid matter is death, the cutting off of any substance from its cosmic purpose. Because this severing has entered, death itself enters the world of Maya or illusion as a reality…” ~Rudolf Steiner Lecture 5

We know that the physical body without the etheric, astral & “I” is separated from its source – The moment something is cut off from what gives it meaning in the spiritual sense – it dies. Crazy to think that the seed of this was 1^st sown back on old Saturn with the rejection of the Sacrifice of the Spirits of Will by some of the Cherubim.  And so when we come into the 4^th earth embodiment, we understand that Death would not exist if there were no element of earth.  

Because the mineral, plant & animal kingdoms have their spiritual essence in the higher worlds, Only the human being can actually experience death! Not even the gods knew what death was.

But then at the Turning Point of Time when the Being of Love incarnated into a human body for the first & only time, & gave us the ultimate sacrifice thru the deed of Golgotha, we can now receive the gift that gives true meaning to earth existence – the victory of life over death! – A healing redemption to that original sacred wound – reclaiming the corner stone that was rejected – to make the Temple whole once again.

Will we accept this sacrifice, this offering, this vital gift?

Thinking of these connections, I feel that if I don’t make my own selfless sacrifice, live into the virtue of bestowing, & renunciation, I can never fully understand & embody this gift of redemption, this transformation of death into life.

These insights into the inner realities of evolution, as well as all the other insights of Spiritual Science given to us by Steiner, are meant to be chewed on, digested, & transformed thru our doing, to convert our soul forces into new organs of perception.

We are meant to imitate the gods, just as children imitate their parents.  And somehow, especially recently, I find myself feeling called to take this on more & more. My process of initiation no longer feels theoretical. I can say I have tasted sacrifice, & the rejection of sacrifice – & I have chosen to make my own renunciation – letting go of bestowing seems the hardest for me right now; I’m still yearning to share. But mostly I am standing with death – face to face with what is dead in me – my moral failings, my unworthiness, the beasts that I harbor in my soul forces. Yet I have entered the underworld willingly to lay in the tomb in my search for freedom. Yes, friends, it’s true, being excluded from one’s essence & purpose is death. But unless we die we cannot be born again.

To quote Adriana Koulias from her book ‘The Sixth Key’: “To know the meaning of life, one has to understand death, and to understand death, one has to know the meaning of evil. You see they are interdependent”

As I stand at this threshold, I am listening to John the Baptist crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said’ Asking myself: Is it possible to repent, to truly forgive, to change my heart & mind, so that I can have my own Damascus experience?

Well, I am willing to die trying, because I know that once I begin to understand Anthroposophia while in the physical body, once I can live as ‘Christ in me’ – that impulse can be worked on further, cultivated in the higher worlds.

And so in this tearing open of the sacred wound, I hope to heal…

~hag

 Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

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 ‘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’ in the memo for your payment

To register & receive the Zoom code email your receipt of payment to the Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg hag@rschicago.org

For those attending in-person doors open at 5:30 pm for our Potluck meal. Please bring food & drink to share.

 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.