Listen to today’s podcast on ‘I Think Speech’
~Morris Hirshfield
~I carry into the clouds
the life of earth,
the breath of my body
a pulse of prose
gained from pain
the twists of fate
given into with pleasure
an opening to moisture
an opportunity seized & released…
~hag
Greetings friends – Here we are: Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, (רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה, literally “head of the year“) the first of the High Holy Days or Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe), a two-day celebration that starts tonight at sunset, as the New Moon makes her way into the light. It weds seriousness with celebration & begins the 10 days of repentance that culminate in Yom Kippur. This festival is believed to be the anniversary of the creation of Adam & Eve, acknowledging their first actions toward the realization of humanity’s role in the world.
The 1st panel of the Foundation Stone Meditation askes us to ‘Practice Spirit Recalling.” Recognizing ancient traditions, we can renewal time honored themes that still apply today:
The New Year focuses our attention on themes of discernment, repentance, memory & the Divine presence in the world (The Shekinah). At the same time, Rosh Hashanah invites us to celebrate birth & creation on many levels. The liturgy suggests that Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of the world.
Family-oriented services often include a birthday cake for the world. Customs include sounding the shofar (a hollowed-out ram’s horn) & eating symbolic foods such as apples dipped in honey to emphasize the sweetness of starting the cycle of seasons once again; & round challah to remind us of the cycles of life.
What is your birthday wish for the world? Are you willing to personally practice themes like forgiveness, as you recall that the Divine essence is in all that lives?
How can you bring sweetness into life – making everyday a ‘Day of Awe’ – pulsing with reverence & wonder?
How are YOUR thoughts, words, deeds, adding to the re-creation of the world?
La Shanah Tovah – In Oneness with each other & the Universe –
~hag
15 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Venus will climb higher each morning to reach its greatest elongation on October 23. Mercury is just now coming into view, rising in the east shortly before sunup – in the bright morning twilight near Regulus far below brilliant Venus. Mercury will brighten during the rest of this month.
Lectures by Rudolf Steiner on this date
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (Latin: Mater Dolorosa) The Seven Sorrows (or Dolors) are events in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary:
- The Prophecy of Simeon. (Luke2:34–35)
- The escape and Flight into Egypt. (Matthew2:13)
- The Loss of the Child Jesusin the Temple of Jerusalem. (Luke 2:43–45)
- The Meeting of Mary and Jesus on the Via Dolorosa.
- The Crucifixion of Jesuson Mount Calvary. (John 19:25)
- The Piercing of the Side of Jesus, and His Descent from the Cross. (Matthew 27)
- The Burial of Jesusby Joseph of Arimathea. (John 19:40–42)
921 – At Tetin, Saint Ludmila, a Czech saint, the grandmother of Saint Wenceslaus, widely referred to as Good King Wenceslaus, is murdered at the command of her daughter-in-law, Drahomíra, who was jealous of Ludmila’s influence over Wenceslaus. Antonín Dvořák composed his oratorio Svatá Ludmila for her
1254 – Birthday of Marco Polo, Italian merchant & explorer
1616 – The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy
1821 – Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, & Costa Rica jointly declare independence from Spain
1916 –Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme World War I
1935 – The Nuremberg Laws deprive German Jews of citizenship
1935 – Nazi Germany adopts a new national flag bearing the swastika
1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt & Winston Churchill meet in Quebec as part of the World War II Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.
1945 – A hurricane strikes southern Florida & the Bahamas, destroying 366 airplanes & 25 blimps at Naval Air Station Richmond, 230 die
1947 – Typhoon Kathleen hit the Kanto Region in Japan killing 1,077
1961 – Hurricane Carla strikes Texas with winds of 175 miles per hour, kills 23
1963 – 16th Street Baptist Church bombing , an act of white supremacist terrorism, in Birmingham, Alabama, occurred when four members of the Ku Klux Klan planted at least 15 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the front steps of the church.Described by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as “one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity”. The explosion killed four girls & injured 22 others.
No prosecutions ensued of the Klan members involved until 1977, when Robert Chambliss was tried & convicted of the first degree murder of one of the victims, 11-year-old Carol Denise McNair. Thomas Blanton & Bobby Cherry were each convicted of four counts of murder & sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 & 2002, but Herman Cash, was never charged .
The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing marked a turning point in the United States during the Civil Rights Movement & contributed to support for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
1966 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation
1968 – The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere
1971 – The first Greenpeace ship sets sail to protest against nuclear testing on Amchitka Island
1972 – A Scandinavian Airlines System domestic flight is hijacked
1974 – Air Vietnam Flight 706 is hijacked, then crashes while attempting to land with 75 on board
2008 – Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history
Free Money Day is an annual, global event held since 2011 as a social experiment to promote sharing & alternative economic ideas. The day is held annually on September 15, the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers’ 2008 filing for bankruptcy. Participants offer their own money to passing strangers at public places, two coins or notes at a time. Recipients are asked to pass on one of the notes or coins to someone else
International Day of Democracy …’democracy is a universal value based on the freely-expressed will of people to determine their own political, economic, social and cultural systems, and their full participation in all aspects of life’
30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day
Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought
The time for biodynamic preparation making is come up again very soon.
We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and work in soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.
After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –
Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year?
Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye and thank you.
Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?
Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.
