28 December 2016 – Astro-Weather: As winter tightens its grip on the Northern Hemisphere during the year’s final week, one of the most familiar constellations takes center stage – Orion the Hunter appears in the eastern sky as twilight fades – & grows even more prominent after darkness settles in. The star group climbs highest in the south around 10 pm CST, when it stands about halfway to the zenith

Mercury reaches inferior conjunction today at 1 pm CST. This means the innermost planet lies between the Sun & Earth & remains hidden in our star’s glare. It will reappear before dawn in early January

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

5th Night of Hanukkah

Pieter Paul Rubens

The ‘slaying of the innocents’ by Herod – This Massacre is the biblical account of infanticide by the Roman-appointed King of the Jews. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Herod ordered the execution of all young male children in the vicinity of Bethlehem, so as to avoid the loss of his throne to a newborn King of the Jews whose birth had been announced to him by the Magi. In typical Matthean style, it is understood as the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy: “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying, ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more.’’

893 – An earthquake destroys the city of Dvin, Armenia

1065 – Westminster Abbey is consecrated

1856 – Birthday of Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States. Rudolf Steiner speaks of his Arab incarnation as Muawiya & in many other lectures he exposes his imperialism.

1868 – Birthday of D.N. Dunlop, a Scottish entrepreneur, founder of the World Power Conference, & a theosophist-turned-anthroposophist. Dunlop led the anthroposophical “Human Freedom Group”, & introduced the idea of anthroposophical Summer Schools.  Rudolf Steiner & Dunlop both expressed their intimate spiritual connection & respect for one another. In 1928 he organized the first & only World Conference on Anthroposophy & in 1929 he was elected General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain. He had a great friendship with Eleanor Merry, who supported his work. Dunlop enlisted the help of fellow anthroposophist Walter Johannes Stein in the hope of founding a World Economic Organization, but his death prevented this.

1908 – The Messina earthquake shakes Southern Italy killing between 75,000 & 200,000 – See Rudolf Steiner’s lecture – The Deed of Christ and the Opposing Spiritual Powers: Earthquakes

1928 – Deathday of Count Carl W. von keyserlingk – Worked closely with Rudolf Steiner to bring about the birth of the Bio-Dynamic movement.

1939 – Deathday of Joseph Maurice Ravel a French composer, pianist & conductor. He is often associated with impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy. Ravel was internationally regarded as France’s greatest living composer

1969 – Deathday of Rudolf Hauschka, an Austrian chemist, author, inventor, entrepreneur & anthroposophist. He was the founder of the company Wala Heilmittel GmbH & inventor of a “rhythmic” production process that excluded the use of alcohol as a preservative of plant extracts & can preserve the extract for over 30 years. ‘Dr. Hauschka’ is the brand name given to the range of skin care & cosmetics made by the Wala company from his research

1973 – The Endangered Species Act is passed in the United States

1989 – Earthquake hits Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, killing 1113 people

2009 – 143 people die in a suicide bombing in Karachi, Pakistan, where Shia Muslims are observing the Day of Ashura

2010 – Arab Spring: Popular protests begin in Algeria against the government

2014 – Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 crashes into the Karimata Strait en route from Surabaya to Singapore, killing all 162 people aboard

***

 

5^th Holy Night: December 28-29, Constellation of Scorpio, Scorpion/Eagle (ruling the genitals) The Sphere of the Exusiai, the ‘Elohim’, Spirits of Form, Powers – Virtue: Patience becomes understanding

The Spirits of Form working from the region of the Scorpion/Eagle preserved & regulated all that was accomplished on Old Saturn by the Higher Hierarchies. Then, as Rudolf Steiner explains, in the Old Testament, these 7 ‘Elohim’ who’s chief Jehovah, sacrificed his abode on the Sun to become the regent of the Moon, acted as the creator god.

In the Atlantis-epoch, when the human being faced a distortion of the 7 vital organs from the adversarial powers, that would have made our organs selfishly fight against each other, there was a need for the 2^nd pre-earthly deed of Christ. Working in the realm of the Elohim with the Nathan Soul, Christ sacrificed his etheric forces so that human language could be objective – able to channel creatively the word of god in truth.

When I look around at society today, I ask myself: Was this sacrifice in vain? How can we honor this divine gift of speech & bring it back into sacredness?

Today the Elohim form the body of the Sun, & so light is their lowest manifestation – like an outer garment, while their essence is related to spiritual light. When the human ego uses these divine gifts of, uprightness, speech & thinking, to further our evolution, we are also striving toward this spiritual light. We see this in the imagination of the soaring eagle. But those that are selfish & seek to hide from the light, echo the image of the scorpion.

In Leonardo da Vini’s Last Supper, we see a picture of these 2 polarities in the nature of Judas & John the Evangelist within the Zodiacal Circle of personalities around The Christ.

It is interesting to think that after the Spirits of Form, working from the constellation of Scorpio, had endowed the human being with the possibility of the Higher Ego, there occurred the division of humanity into to 2 sexes.

The result of this was that some forces which had been used to reproduce could then be employed to form the human brain, which became the physical foundation for our Ego-Consciousness. One of the consequences of this was that there became the possibly for the substance of Love to be distorted – a confusion between spiritual love & sensual love. To enter selfishly into the astral realm we run the danger of falling under the influence of certain demonic beings which threaten humanity with a total darkening of ego-consciousness; where the scorpion stings itself to death.

In contrast to this we see the eagle in St. John, leaning on the breast of Christ-Jesus – the 1^st to be initiated into the Christened Initiation of the ‘Word’. As Christian Rosenkreutz, this enigmatic individuality continues to work with The Christ in His aspect of Lord of Karma, to assist those who are striving to rise to the highest levels of the Eagle-Ego.

Can we approach the New Year with the desire to transform the selfish scorpion into the far-reaching sight of the Eagle, & the Peace of the Dove? To let our speech be light-filled, in-forming the highest ideal, with Good Will & Patient Love!

See you in the striving

Xox  ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***