Greetings friends – Besides our Sunday Communion at the Christian Community Church here in Chicago, we also have services on Tuesdays & Thursday mornings. Not many folks come out on the weekdays, unless it falls on a Feast Day, so it’s essentially an offering for the Beloved Dead, & for the Beings of the Spiritual World. These intimate times are my favorite & I often serve at the altar on these days.
Today’s Gospel reading was from Ephesians 6: 10-20 – the last part of the last chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, authored by Saul who after his Damacus experience became Paul the Apostle.
I work closely with the synoptic Gospels. But I admit I have not spent much time with Peter & Paul who tend to prick my feminist sensibilities. But this Michaelic letter attributed to Paul set me on fire – It speaks directly to what we are facing now, especially in light of the up-coming Solar eclipse this Saturday 14 October 2023 – The 1st New Moon after the Autunmal Equinox.
When I got home, I picked up my bible & started reading Ephesians, where we are told in the first verse that it was written by “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God” (1:1)
This book is an epistle, meaning it’s a letter. And Paul wrote this particular letter, addressed to the Church in Ephesus, while he was being held captive as a prisoner in a Roman jail! .
Ephesus was once part of Greece, which today is near the western shores of modern-day Turkey, where the Aegean Sea meets the coast of Ionia.
The city was famous in its day for the Ancient Mystery School & Temple dedicated to Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which was burnt to the ground by an arsonist on 21 July 356 BC, the day Alexander the Great was born.
Rudolf Steiner speaks about the connection of Ephesus & the Temple of Artemis with the burning of the 1st Goetheanum in the ‘World History in the Light of Anthroposophy’ lectures he gave in the evenings during the Christmas Conference. We have referred to these lectures many times here on RR. They offer many occult clues that are very insightful, especially now 3 months before the 100 year anniversary of the Christmas Conference – When Steiner opened the New Mysteries of Anthroposophia to the world.
~Sigmund Gleismüller
Patmos an Island in Ephesus is where St. John the Divine wrote the Gospel of John, & the Book of Revelation thru the inspiration of Mother Mary, who lived with him there, & continued to inspire him after Her Assumption. Lazarus-John, who was ‘The Disciple whom Jesus Loved’ died many years later in that same place.
~Matthias Grünewald
From John 19:26-29, we hear: 26 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” 27 Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.”
Before going to prison, the Apostle Paul spent 3 years in Ephesus, speaking boldly, leading daily discussions, & doing extraordinary miracles by the power of God (Acts 19).
I would like to share what I heard read from the altar today by Rev. Jeana Lee:
Ephesians 6: The Armor of God
Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 6, 10-20 Translation by Rev Craig Wiggins
“What it comes to in the end is this: Let his strength and might flow through you in order to serve the Lord. Put on the full armor of God that you may withstand all the well-aimed attacks of the devil. For what we face is not a fight against blood and flesh, but against spirit-beings, against Archai, against Exousiai, against cosmic powers whose darkness rules the present time, against beings that are themselves powers of evil in the heavens and on the earth.
Therefore take up the God-given armor, so that you can withstand the evil on the day that it reaches its climax. You should stand there as those who follow everything through to the end.
Stand upright and gird your loins with truthfulness.
Strive for righteousness and balance in your judgement. It will shield your middle like a breastplate.
Shoe your feet with the readiness to proclaim the gospel of peace to all you meet.
Have faith in God that will provide you with a shield with which you can quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Think about the mystery of Christ’s deed of salvation that will protect your head as a helmet.
And grasp the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God in your speaking.
May this armour protect you in all your supplications and prayers, when you, at the right times, lift up your souls to the spirit and, in wakefulness and with tireless effort, make your intercessions for all who would know Christ’s healing power.
Take me, Paul, into your prayers as well, so that when I open my mouth the strength of the Word may be given me and I may courageously and openly expound the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am a messenger in chains.”
May we put this powerful Michaelic imagination to work for ourselves in the world!
~hag
10.10.23 – “Speaking with the Stars”: In the dawn twilight look for dazzling Venus (occult Mercury) in conjunction with Regulus – the Heart of Leo the Lion. Bella Luna in her waning mood will also be visible in the dome of the morning sky!
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Today 10.10 begins the 16 day Hindu Festival for the dead Shradh Ekadashi. Offerings are also made to Vishnu ‘one who is everything and inside everything’ known as The Preserver within the Trimurti, the triple deity of supreme divinity that includes Brahma, the Sustainer & Shiva, the Destroyer.
680 – Deathday of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Mohammed, beheaded by the forces of Yazid, led by the son of Caliph Muawiyah, who Rudolf Steiner tells us was reincarnated as Woodrow Wilson.
1780 – The Great Hurricane of 1780 kills 30,000–50,000 in the Caribbean.
1913 – President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike, completing major construction on the Panama Canal.
1957 – The Windscale fire results in Britain’s worst nuclear accident
1973 – U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns after being charged with evasion of federal income tax
1980 – The 7.1 Mw El Asnam earthquake shakes northern Algeria, killing 20,633 and injuring 80,369
The 1st New Moon after the Autumnal Equinox – Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, annular solar eclipse
| GLOBAL EVENT: | Annular Solar Eclipse |
|---|---|
| LOCAL TYPE: | Partial Solar Eclipse in Cahokia Mounds State Historic SIte, Illinois |
| BEGINS: | Sat, Oct 14, 2023 at 10:32 am |
| MAXIMUM: | Sat, Oct 14, 2023 at 11:57 am 0.634 Magnitude |
| ENDS: | Sat, Oct 14, 2023 at 1:27 pm |
| DURATION: | 2 hours, 55 minutes |
All are welcome to meet on the inner planes during any part of the duration of the Solar eclipse – which Spiritual Science tells us is like the releasing of a safety valve – allowing the unbridled astral urges of the adversarial forces living in humanity, which are normally held in check by the spiritual beings working in the rays of the Sun, to instead surge out to infect the cosmic spaces, including our beloved dead & the unborn. (More on this soon)
We are all set for the Michaelmas Speaking with the Stars retreat 13-15 October 2023 at Cahokia Mounds – a sacred Mississippian Indian site in Collinsville, Illinois, called by the ancients: Sun City.
Save the Dates for Community Workings
| October 14 | Annular Solar Eclipse |
| October 21-22 | Orionids Meteor Shower Predicted Peak |
| October 23 | Venus at Greatest Western Elongation |
| October 28 | Full Hunter’s Moon and Partial Lunar Eclipse |
All Souls Festival – Election Day 7 November 2023
Community Prep-Stir / Bon-fire
Celebrating: The Festival of the Dead, & Martinmas
7 – 9 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile
Please Bring a jar for the prep
RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com
The reprise of the 2017 Great American Eclipse Monday, April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse
Stay tuned for details about a Retreat for this Solar Eclipse Event in Fort Worth, Texas
Begins: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 12:22 pm
Maximum: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 1:41 pm 1.005 Magnitude
Ends: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 3:01 pm
Duration: 2 hours, 39 minutes
Totality: 2 minutes, 34 seconds
Lunar Eclipse Sep 18, 2024
