Greetings friends – We are on the other side of the Resurrection – although the Orthodox celebration of Easter comes Sunday the 24th of April, so during the Sophia Rising Convergence we have the opportunity to recapitulate Holy Week. In the meantime my house is filled with the lingering scent of Easter lilies.
And of course we are still in the Easter-tide – for it is a 3-fold Festival. We are now in the 40 days when the disciples received the esoteric teachings of the Risen Christ leading up to the Ascension – & then at 50 days – Pentecost, bestowing its Baptism with the fire of the Holy Spirit.
I am leaving tomorrow for the Convergence with my daughter Ultra-Violet, so I just wanted to share a few thoughts here before we head off to this milestone event…
First of all I want to thank everyone who came out to the Rudolf Steiner Branch & those that attended on Zoom our Easter offering featuring Lucien Dante Lazar & Ultra-Violet Archer who gifted us with their amazing Anthroposophical Musical Initiative: Velsum, which can be defined as Victory in Wholeness. They also call their music Ancient Futurism.
They shared a powerful set of acapella songs called: New Nightingale, New Rose. In-between these harmonious airs they told the stories of their wondrous collaboration, & how each song came to be – describing the potent inspirations they received from Spiritual Science & from the being of Anthroposophia ever unfolding from within their individual & collectively Christ imbued “I” forces. They spoke & sang with such ease & grace, finishing each other’s sentences with humor. These stories with all the riveting details & spiritual synchronicities added a true enlightenment – revealing their spirit filled process.
The uplifting resonance of Agape that their presence exudes takes every listening heart into the Harmony of the Spheres. I was so engrossed that I’m sorry to say I took no pictures.
The title of their set: New Nightingale, New Rose, came from a book of poems by the Sufi poet Hafiz, which jumped off Lucien’s shelf. When I first heard this title, it felt like an ancient memory had surfaced.
I finally woke up with an image. When Ultra was about 12 years old we went to Turkey with CG’s parents. We took a side trip & visited The House of the Virgin Mary (Turkish: Meryemana Evi or Meryem Ana Evi, “Mother Mary’s House”) located on Mt. Koressos (Turkish: Bülbüldağı, “Mount Nightingale”) in Ephesus.
That was it – “Mount Nightingale” – the home of the Mary-Sophia! How perfect – since Velsum’s mission carries the impulse of Christ-Sophia thru the Logos.
The Gospel of John 19:25-28 tells the story of The Mother of God and the Beloved Disciple at the Foot of the Cross
25 “Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.”
27 then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her to himself.”
Lazarus, who became John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, received from Christ the impulse that the Mother of God carried – The Divine Sophia – into himself – inspiring him after that to write his Gospel & the Book of Revelation, there in Ephesus, where John took Mary to escape persecution. They lived peacefully on Mount Nightingale for many years, until The Dormition (“falling asleep”) or Assumption of Mary – a teaching that says, after the mother of Christ died, she was resurrected, glorified, & taken bodily to heaven. Lazuas-John lived to be almost 100 years old…
Going there was the highlight of our trip. On the way to the shrine, you must walk up the steep hill of the mount; at the crest, by the humble home, there is a key-hole shaped baptismal pool. The house is now a chapel, where an altar featuring a large statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary is prominently displayed in the center. Off to the right is the chamber where the Virgin Mary is said to have slept. The legends say that an underground stream flowed from the foot of her bed out to the baptismal font. Outside the shrine there is also a well, believed to have miraculous powers of healing or fertility. Near the well is a “wishing wall” where pilgrims leave their personal prayers & intentions on paper or fabric.
It is a desert area, but all around the house there are many types of flowers & fruit trees.
I’m sure we have pictures. I remember Ultra wearing a blue silk scarf, & I wore a yellow one, as the woman always had to have their heads covered to enter these sacred sites. I will have to look for those pictures when we return from Sophia Rising…
I hope to see you in Santa Fe…
~hag
This year’s Sophia Rising Convention culminates on April 24th, and you have alerted me to something I had never considered before, Hazel. Orthodox Easter is one week after traditional Easter. Now, beside all the business about Gregorian calendar vs. Julian calendar, the real issue is about getting all twelve disciples into the fold of the seminal Christ experience. As such, the Resurrection event did occur on Easter, and yet one disciple was absent on that date, and when he heard about it, he demanded proof. Eight days later it happened. All twelve were in the fold.
Jesus among His Disciples
19 So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”
24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called]Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
26 After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 28 Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”
I think this represents the difference between traditional (Catholic) Easter, and the one celebrated a week later. The Orthodox church sees the need for Thomas to be convinced, which occurs a week later. Now, Easter is complete.
Your conference has the same ability in mind. I am more than willing to extend Easter an additional week in order to take it to a higher level this year. Thanks for enabling me to speak of the importance of Thomas, who doubted for some reason, and then was convinced for a much bigger reason. There is more to this story and maybe it can be continued.
Good ol’ ‘doubting Thomas’ – Doubt the subleist of the 3 beasts – many suffer from this crippling of the thinking. Perhaps this was the beginning of what until then had been dominated by Luciferic traits, now bringing in the Ahrimanic forces more strongly…
This idea of bringing all into the fold is beautiful.
My Russian orthodox friend says they must wait until after Passover to celebrate, so maybe that’s the same idea…
See you on the flip side
xox
What if it can be shown that Thomas was not there when Christ first appeared to the disciples on Easter because he was helping Judas Iscariot commit suicide? This is what the Akashic record reveals. He was absent because of his close kinship to Judas from their former lives as Maccabees. That is why he demanded proofs of what he had missed in the first place. Then, eight days later it is given with the second appearance in the Upper Room. Thomas needed an extra-special convincing. He got it. Yet, the reason he had missed the first appearance of Christ was that he was assisting Judas Iscariot in his suicide, which by all reasonable accounts was an assisted suicide. Judas before he dies throws the 30 pieces of silver back at the Sanhedrin, according to Matthew, chapter 27. And this is the beginning of his own redemption. Then, he does two things:
1) He impales himself on the field of Aceldama, or the ‘blood field’ and;
2) He is hanged from a tree.
Now, it is hardly possible he could have done both these acts alone. He was helped, and he was helped by Thomas, who was able to make the second appearance of Christ on the so-called “Orthodox Easter’. And this is where an extraordinary act occurred. Thomas meets Jesus.
Thanks Hazel for remembering to post these remarks after your successful return from Sante Fe. You never had to do it, but it shows allegiance, and I thank you for it. Yes, Thomas had an ordeal, and I have described it as it actually occurred. Please remember, it was Steiner who said that the disciples were the reincarnated Maccabees from the OT. GA 139.