2 December 2016 – Astro-Weather: For the next two evenings, the thickening crescent Moon poses with bright Venus in the southwest at dusk
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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
HEALING WILL COME TO OUR AGE when the thoughts and ideas that are applied to social conditions and political life are in living contact with spiritual reality. ~Rudolf Steiner
Deathday of Saint Aurelia of Strasbourg, a 4th-century saint. According to legend, Aurelia accompanied Saint Ursula & the eleven thousand virgins from Roman Britain to Cologne, where they were favorably received by Aquilin, bishop of the place. From Cologne they traveled to Basel. From Basel the travelers descended the Rhine to Strasbourg where St Aurelia succumbed to a violent fever, dying after a few days. Three virgins were left to care for her. She is particularly invoked against fevers in the church that bears her name. Her three companions lived many years in the same place & were buried there. Some centuries later their tomb was opened & their bodies were found completely intact, marked with titles bearing their names.
1469 – Deathday of Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici, Italian banker & politician
1804 – At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of the French
1814 – Deathday of Marquis de Sade
1823 – Monroe Doctrine: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James Monroe proclaims American neutrality in future European conflicts, & warns European powers not to interfere in the Americas.
The intent and impact of the Monroe Doctrine persisted with only minor variations for more than a century. Its stated objective was to ‘free’ the newly independent colonies of Latin America from European intervention & avoid situations which could make the New World a battleground for the Old World powers, so that the U.S. could exert its own influence undisturbed.
1845 – Manifest destiny: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James K. Polk proposes that the United States should aggressively expand into the West
“Manifest Destiny” was a belief that American settlers were destined to expand across North America. There are three basic themes to manifest destiny:
*The special virtues of the American people and their institutions
*The mission of the United States to redeem and remake the west in the image of agrarian America
*An irresistible destiny to accomplish this essential duty
Historians have emphasized that “manifest destiny” was a contested concept—many prominent Americans (such as Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, & most Whigs) rejected it. Historian Daniel Walker Howe writes, “American imperialism did not represent an American consensus; it provoked bitter dissent within the national polity…Whigs saw America’s moral mission as one of democratic example rather than one of conquest.”
It never became a national priority. By 1843 John Quincy Adams, originally a major supporter of the concept underlying manifest destiny, had changed his mind & repudiated expansionism because it meant the expansion of slavery in Texas.
From the outset Manifest Destiny—vast in program, in its sense of continentalism—was slight in support. It lacked national, sectional, or party following commensurate with its magnitude. The reason was it did not reflect the national spirit (Columbia)
1930 – Great Depression: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President Herbert Hoover proposes a $150 million public works program to help generate jobs & stimulate the economy
1942 – World War II: During the Manhattan Project, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction
1943 – World War II: A Luftwaffe bombing raid on the harbor of Bari, Italy, sinks numerous cargo & transport ships, including the American SS John Harvey, which is carrying a stockpile of World War I-era mustard gas
1956 – The Granma reaches the shores of Cuba’s Oriente Province. Fidel Castro, Che Guevara & 80 other members of the 26th of July Movement disembark to initiate the Cuban Revolution
1961 – In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist–Leninist & that Cuba is going to adopt Communism.
1962 – Vietnam War: After a trip to Vietnam at the request of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to comment adversely on the war’s progress
1970 – The United States Environmental Protection Agency begins operations
1971 – Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, & Umm al-Quwain form the United Arab Emirates
1976 – Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba, replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado
1980 – Salvadoran Civil War: Four American missionaries, Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Ursuline Dorothy Kazel, & lay missionary Jean Donovan, are raped & murdered by a death squad
1982 – At the University of Utah, Barney Clark becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart
1988 – Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islam-dominated state
1991 – Canada & Poland become the first nations to recognize the independence of Ukraine from the Soviet Union
2001 – Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
2015 – San Bernardino attack: Syed Rizwan Farook & Tashfeen Malik kill 14 people & wound 22
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POD (Poem Of the Day)
~I come
& go out the same door
A portal ever undulating
To greet the passage of Time
To trace the footfall
Of a hidden god
To stand in space
When the rest disappears
In a face of flowers out of season…
No day passes
When we are not
Part of each other
~hag
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I’ve been told that the Third Lunar Node, occurring around the age of 56, often brings about a healing crisis. Encountering serious illness & death becomes more frequent. Many people at this time become ill with cancer, have a heart attack, or suffer the threatening climax of a chronic illness? This was the age my mother Betty Mae died, the age I am now. What a perspective to view recent lower-back issues, social upheavals, new career orientations, & the current viral pneumonia, arising in this light.
The thought of death & dying comes more strongly into consciousness & serves to sharpen my gaze into the spiritual world. I become more contemplative. What will come after death for me? Where do I come from? Where am I going? What deeper meaning does my life have?
Bam…All at once, long nagging habits, life questions, daily activities, routines, & social interactions, suddenly come forward in my consciousness, begging for clarity, purification or retribution. Anxiety stirs as I feel my waning physical strength preventing me from fulfilling duties. I take stock of my Self. The longing to leave something lasting & significant to the world pierces. I examine what is important, what is real, what is essential? & ask: How can I be a more loving human being? How can I forgive myself, & the other? How can I put the Being of Anthroposophia to work in my every thought, word & deed? How can I live in the truth of ‘Christ in me’?
At the second lunar node my question was: In what social connections can I best serve? Now a further spiritual element arises – I ask: Who shares my common interests & goals? Friendships & social relationships are examined & weighed according to their spiritual connectivity & lasting value. Spiritual questions become the only focus. I’m done with small talk. I strive to experience the reality & truth of the spiritual world. I seek a Spiritual Home, where there is support & healthy discussion. And yet I feel so alone, unworthy. Who are my peers, my partners & co-creators? Why do I clash & bump up against my contemporaries? Why can’t I heal this moon-karma? Where are my mentors?
They say: When the student is ready…sigh…
I read that Goethe reached his third lunar node in 1805. He became ill in the first months of that year, plagued by kidney colic. His friend Schiller also became ill during those months. On May 1st, Goethe visited him for the last time, & on May 9th Schiller died. Three weeks later Goethe wrote :
“What more can a person have from life
Than God-Nature revealing itself
How it allows the solid to trickle away to spirit
How it solidly preserves that created by spirit.”
Hey, ‘Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ right?
Xox
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TONIGHT
FLOWERS AND LANDSCAPES
New Works by
Lisa Villa Moser
Opening Reception:
Friday December 2nd, 2016
5 pm – 8 pm
Closing Reception
Sunday December 18th, 2016
12-3 pm
at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP