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Greetings & Happy New Year Dear friends. On this 1st day of 2021. I will kick us off with this quote from our dear Dr. Rudolf Steiner, which speaks to the resolution of taking on our karma with grace:
‘Whatever life will
Set before my spirit
From its depths
From world sources of fate –
My courageous soul finds
The Right way
Through trusting the light
And heat
Of my radiant selfhood I’.
~Rudolf Steiner
Yes, we have more power within us than we know & there are always helpers to guide & remind us that ‘we got this’. As a matter of fact we can still experience the powerful energies of Jupiter & Saturn who are continuing to be inscribed in the starry script, imprinting clues to our destiny in the ethers, which await our interpretation & conversation, for what is written is not fixed, we can change the script by our willing participation.
What will that look like for you in 2021?
Here’s a clue: Today January 1st is the feast of the Solemnity of Mary, where we are called to join the Mother of God –in contemplating the gift of her Son – allowing the grace of these Holy Nights to change us.
To call on Mary, the Theotokos, the “God-Bearer,” is to celebrate the unique role that she has played—& continues to play—in the Cosmic & Earthly evolution. And as we honor the Theotokos, on the 1st day of the New Year, we also celebrate the Octave Day of Christmas, On the eighth day of Christmas my true love sent to me: Eight Maids a Milking. This octave recalls the naming of the Luke Jesus on the 8th day after his birth (Luke 2:21).
The iconic Christmas image of Mary holding her infant Son embodies the mystery of the sacrifice of birth, bringing together the human & divine elements of the Incarnation. And yet, in honoring Mary as the Mother of God, we are also invited to consider another image, of the Pieta -The same arms which held the Prince of Peace in a stable in Bethlehem, received the body of the crucified god on the hill of Golgotha. This juxtaposition is worthy of our contemplation.
January 1st is also celebrated as the World Day of Peace, reminding us that the Prince of Peace must reign in our hearts if it is to rule in our world.
Today, after experiencing the Hidden Holy night of NYE, we come to the 8th Holy Night: which brings us to the Constellation of Leo, the LION (ruling the heart ) in which dwells The Sphere of the Thrones, Spirits of Will.
We receive an interesting picture from 2 Chronicles 9:17: ‘Then King Solomon made a great throne covered with ivory and overlaid with pure gold. 18 The throne had six steps, and a footstool of gold was attached to it. On both sides of the seat were armrests, with a lion standing beside each of them. 19 Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like it had ever been made for any other kingdom’.
This description of Solomon’s temple gives us insight into the Spirits of Will in the realm of Leo the Lion which fortifies the Thrones. So let’s look deeper into the numerology & other symbolism that we meet in this description. But what comes to mind first off is The sacrifice enacted by these Spirits of Will during our primal beginnings on Old Saturn which was the impetus for all further evolution. Steiner talks about this in his ‘Occult Science’ a must read basic book of Anthroposophy.
In the countenance of the Lion we have the transition from Sacrificial Will, to the heart-forces of courage – a readiness to fulfill the design of the Divine Will, & become thru its own inner forces, an external reality, which we see embodied in the 12 petals of the human heart.
We are gifted with 6 Petals which relate to Buddha’s 6 fold path & we have to earn the other 6 petals (this is the 12 lions on the 6 steps) We must take steps by working with what Spiritual Science calls ‘the 6 basic exercises’, to evolve & create a fifth chamber, in our lion-hearts, which Rudolf Steiner calls an Etheric Heart – pictured in the Arthurian Legends as the Holy Grail – the fountain of love pouring forth the Waters of Life.
Rudolf Steiner tells us the heart is ‘the seat of the will’ spiritualizing the blood, working into the physical body to engender ‘eternal life’. The warmth accompanying this alchemical Sulphur process becomes the new ‘blood sacrifice’, for as it dies away from the heart, to nourish the muscles & limbs, it encourages the human being to acts of Good Will.
The Spirits of Will bring a connection with The god, Saturn, as Chronos, the Father of Time – associated with looking into the Past, reading there the Karmic Laws that apply to the present. (A perfect contemplation for New Year’s Day!) The forces of inner courage bounding from the region of the Lion can help us create a right relationship to our karma, giving us the fortitude to deal with all the trials of destiny, so we learn to carry it, & work thru it consciously.
So back to the symbolism from Chronicles, we can see in the # 12, the 12 tribes of Israel which are of course, related to the Zodiac. So it’s interesting to note that the Solomon Jesus of the Matthew Gospel was from the Tribe of Judah-the Lion, related to the constellation of Leo. We see this quality strongly in the individuality of Zarathustra, (the soul behind the Matthew Jesus) who had once been the pupil of Melchizedek, along with Abraham, who was given the task of preparing the human vessels for the 2 Jesus children –working thru 42 generations!
We see how Leo’s connection to Old Saturn, with its genesis of the physical body, relates to this process of creating in the Matthew Jesus wisdom, & an understanding of the Law. It also shows Courage & the Will to Sacrifice – for remember: this individuality sacrificed himself when he merged with the Nathan Jesus in the temple of Jerusalem, & again at the Baptism. Thru the spiritual research of Rudolf Steiner we also learn that in earlier times he sacrificed his etheric body to Moses, & his astral body to Hermes!
The 4 pre-earthly deeds of Christ (the last being the deed on Golgotha) made it possible for The Christ as ‘The Lord of Karma’ to take upon himself the ‘sins’ or karma of humankind, bringing the old Saturnian Laws of necessity to an end, & inaugurating the new Sun Karma – in freedom. Since the Mystery of Golgotha, these forces of The Christ Live in the Heart-Sun of every human being, & also in the Earth’s etheric realm.
In the earthly cycle of the year, the time of Leo is at the end of July into August, when the strength of the sunlight begins to wane, yet it’s often the time of greatest warmth. This hottest time in the seasonal round preserves an echo in natures memory of the conditions on Old Saturn, & of the sacrificial streaming forth of warmth-substance thru the Spirits of Will – The great gift of the Thrones.
May we foster that warmth in our lion-heart, during the dark winter-tide time, to activate our will for good in the world. And to help us achieve this we can contemplate & practice the Virtue: Compassion Becomes Freedom. Yes, when we are willing to become our brother’s keeper we are serving in freedom, with an open heart which engenders warmth in the world for human connection & healing. Let us be ever Roaring in Love for Peace –
I will end this New Year’s Day contemplation with this quote from the Dream Song, a Norwegian folk tale:
“And young and old they all gave heed,
To Olaf’s words they harkened
That told them of his dreams.
You have slept long indeed. . . .
Awaken now, O Olaf Åsteson!”
Yes, friends, let us rub the sleep from our eyes, & decide we are done with letting the blind lead the blind. May we gain 20/20 insight to unmask New Revelations for 2021, co-creating the dawning of a New Sun.
~Blessings & Peace on this New Years Day & everyday
~hag
***
Nancy Poer
Wednesday 6 January 2021, 2 pm – 4 pm CST
Joan’s Epiphany ‘What Joan of Arc Calls for Today’
In-Person at Elderberries Bio-dynamic Outpost & The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/7052931041 Meeting ID: 705 293 1041
Today on the Birthday of Joan of Arc we welcome special Guest Nancy Poer
We will also explore ‘The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations’, Lecture 5, ‘The Nature of the Christ Impulse and the Michaelic Sprit Serving It’ by Rudolf Steiner with Leading Thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Social Sculpture: “The Passage” with Lucien Dante Lazar,
+ An Artistic exploration, Singing & Eurythmy
For more info. contact Hazel Archer hag@rschicago.org
Blessings of the Season
~Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Events & Festival Coordinator
for the Rudolf Steiner Branch
of The Anthroposophical Society
Hi Hazel,
I like very much your acknowledgement that on the eighth day, the Luke Jesus child experienced circumcision, and was given his name. Yet, this very revelation points to Leo as the sign which honors the Luke Jesus in his former life from long before, wherein he is depicted as “the Lion of the house of Judah, root of David”. As such, this is the one who is worthy to open the book with the seven seals. Then, the second occult seal picture is completed with the Lamb of God placed in the center of the four heads.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=revelation+5&version=NASB1995
The Matthew Jesus child is born out of a certain relationship between Leo and Taurus, and wherein the heart of the lion can be found to exist in the bull sacrifice seen in the Mithras mystery of the Egyptian epoch, and wherein the sun forces are added in order to transform the bull archetype into the beginnings of Universal Human. Steiner’s four lectures on “Michaelmas and the Soul Forces of Man”, GA 223, are essential here for considering the heart of the bull in this sacrifice.
Thus, the Matthew Jesus child is not born in the sign of Leo, but in the sign of Taurus, in the days leading to the summer solstice, some six months before the birth of the Luke Jesus at the winter solstice. You had also expressed that the Matthew Jesus was two years older than the Luke Jesus, but this can be explained as not so. Their births were approximately six months apart.
We know from the lectures on the Gospel of Luke, ref. GA 114, that Zarathustra was prepared to bring his stream of evolution directly into the Hebrew cultural stream at a certain point in time. His mission was to invest directly into the physical-hereditary bloodlines of the Hebrews when Abraham was 75 years old, which is accounted in Genesis, chapter 14.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis+14&version=NASB1995
Rudolf Steiner indicates in the Gospel of Matthew lectures, ref. GA 123, that Melchizedek is an incarnation of the Sun Oracle Manu, who had previously initiated a band of the Primal Semites into Asia at the close of the Altantean epoch. Abraham, of the Hebrews, has been esteemed to receive the physical instrument of the brain for a kind of development that is to lead to the end of clairvoyant perception, and the advent of the faculty of thinking. Zarathustra sees this as his point of entry into the culture of the Hebrews. The reason that Abraham has been esteemed is that he is the reincarnation of Cepheus, the King of Old Ethiopia, at the end of the old Lemurian epoch. He would go on to reincarnate eventually as Simon, brother of Andrew, who Christ gives back his old name, i.e., “Simon, son of John, I will name you Cepheus”. John 1: 40-42.
Hazel, I have had a full year in which to converse with you, and I consider it so important that we have had this gathering. Your year-end event, and you are the leader, has been very insightful in many ways. Steiner’s lectures on the “New Isis”, GA 202, I finished just now because I know how important this matter of redemption is for the future. You will find that many of my contributions of this last year had this redemption of Isis fully in mind. In certain respects, we stand in a condition of Taurus-Aquarius today in the fifth epoch, and I am looking at this right-angle arrangement of the signs, which Steiner first gives with Virgo-Gemini.
As such, I see Isis ensconced in her full beauty in Aquarius, as we speak, and she represents the firmament of the heavens. Yet, She needs to be brought down into the realm of humanity, as the harbinger of the Consciousness Soul, just as She was formerly the one who drew the veil of the Intellectual Soul down and said, “no mortal can lift my veil”. Now, of course, the homage is: “Come Immortal Human, lift my veil into the supersensible”, and we can readily do it.
Happy New Year Dear Steve. So much to read in the starry script which leads us to examine what is written in our hearts.
Yes the Isis theme is ever present & the calling to unveil her gifts within ourselves is urgent.
Thank you for hearing this call to action. & for engaging with me in the striving to bring wisdom to the understanding