After taking our after-image impressions from the altar candles during the ‘Close of Day’ into Night School, the group returned the next day with lively descriptions of their experiences of the Light Ensouled.
At the risk of turning on the fire hose, (which my husband reminds me I tend to do, offering too much information) I spoke a bit about the role of empathy in the cultivation of the after-image, how important it is to initiate the marriage of warmth & light – Love & Wisdom = Christ/Sophia – & how that relates to what Rudolf Steiner brought thru his Karmic Relationships lectures in August 1924, from Torquay around the coming together of the ‘2 Streams’ – The Arthur Stream = Light, & the Grail Stream = Warmth.
There is a mysterious connection with how the Life-Spirit or etheric essence of the Christ rose up for the earth in the 9th Century, & at the same time, as a kind of oppositional after-image comes the ‘Abolition of the Spirit’ at the 8th Ecumenical Council of 869, brought on because of the failed unification in the spiritual world of the individualities of Aristotle & Alexander, with Harun al Rashed & his counselor.
I prefaced this with an overview of the 4 main Christian Festivals – How at Easter we see a redemption of the physical body thru the overcoming of Death with the Resurrection of Christ, leading in the future to the achievement of what Spiritual Science calls The ‘Spirit-Human.’ The Transfiguration & Ascension brings the possibility for the rescuing of our Etheric Body – ‘Life-Spirit’. And with the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the purification of our Astral Body, to bring us ‘Spirit-Self’.
In our present age, one of the many tasks of humaity, besides recognizing evil, is to work with the after-image so that, like the vision of The Transfiguration & Ascension, we can enliven our Life-Body, allowing us to meet the Etheric Christ.
At this point we got up to do the hygienic eurythmy gestures for Faith, Love & Hope – Eurythmy being a powerful way to strengthen our etheric body.
I brought a Steiner verse to pair with the Love A gesture:
“In purest outpoured light
shimmers the godhead of the world.
In purest Love towards all that lives
Outpours the godhood of my soul
I rest within the godhead of the world
There shall I find myself
Within the godhead of the world.”
After sharing our reflections about the eurythmy, I spoke about how when Paul had his Damascus Experience of the Etheric Christ, he was struck blind for 3 days. So much here to contemplate in regards our theme eh…?
In “Learning to Experience the Etheric World, Empathy, the After-Image & a New Social Ethic” Baruch Urieli has a short chapter called: ‘The Archetype of the After-Image’ – where he fills out the picture of Mary Magdalene’s deed in anointing the feet & head of Christ – & how on Easter morning she looks into the empty tomb to see 2 Light-Beings, sitting at the foot & head. When the angels ask her why she is weeping, she turns & sees Jesus as the Gardener (the plant Kingdom is connected to the etheric realm). When he speaks her name, she turns once more, & recognizes Christ in his risen Life-body.
These events show how empathy can bring on the after-image – how the love & compassion of Mary Magdalene is an example of the ‘New Power of Will’ (The New Yoga Will which uses light not air) – which enables the opening of the etheric space to inner vision. Urieli: “For that further step to happen we must ‘Turn once more’ – we must ‘Re-turn’ to that space which is the home of our “I Am”, the space where our name resounds.”
In 1923 Rudolf Steiner gave medical student Helene von Grunelius ‘The Warmth Meditation” & described it “as the way for medical practitioners to behold the etheric Christ.”
“You detect at this point what life, which has poured into the world, actually is. Where can the source of this life be found? It can be found in what stirs the moral ideals and prompts us to say that if we allow ourselves to be filled by the light of moral ideals today, they will bear life, matter, and light and create worlds. We carry that world-creating element, and the moral ideal is the source of all that creates worlds.” ~Rudolf Steiner
~Brad Huck
This idea of creating ‘The New Jerusalem‘ is the basis of my work with an initiative that I call The ‘10:10 Thought-Seed’ Imagination – ‘Project Egregore’ – which is a collective ‘Thought-Form’ of Good Will – a “key-call” to the Spiritual powers on the Inner Planes, to enlist their aid in the graceful unfolding of our highest human destiny.
Through our continued, & consistent intention to visualize the Human Being as a Star & the Earth as a Sun, our positive egregore grows in the etheric realm of formative forces allowing us to meet & work with Christ in His Life-Body.
Our goal is to co-create a new ‘Group-Soul United in Christ’ thru our daily 10:10 contemplation.
For the practicum we all gazed into the beeswax candle set upon a pillar while I spoke the Meditative Thought-Seed many have been working with. In-between verses we shut our eyes to experience the after-image.
Yellow – For Thinking:
“When I think light, my soul shines,
When my soul shines, the earth is a star,
When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being”.
~Herbert Hahn
Red – For Feeling:
When I feel Love, my heart sings
When my heart sings, the Earth resounds
When the Earth resounds, I am a true I AM
Blue – For Willing:
When I will life, my hands help
When my hands help, the Earth heals
When the Earth heals, I am a free human being
Another way to access the Etheric World, & a powerful way of strengthening our Life-Body, is to speak meditative verses, like I shared yesterday, backwards – since everything in the spiritual world is revealed thru its reversal –
Thinking – In Reverse:
I Am a True Human Being
The Earth is a Star
My Soul Shines
I Think Light
Feeling – In Reverse:
I Am a True I Am
The Earth Resounds
My Heart Sings
I feel Love
Willing – In Reverse:
I Am a Free Human Being
The Earth Heals
My Hands Help
I Will Life
Tomorrow I will share my powerful after-image experience at the altar.
Until soon
~hag
13 July 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: On the mornings of July 13 and 14, 2023, the waning crescent moon will pass the Pleiades star cluster, one of the many gems of Taurus the Bull. The bright orange star Aldebaran will shine nearby. Also, look for the glow of earthshine on the darkened portion of the moon. ~Chart via John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.
In conjunction with our after-image theme of seeing into the Etheric we have Today – the anniversary of the third Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima on Friday, July 13, 1917. The three secrets involve Hell, World War I & World War II.
Our Lady told the children that to save the sinners from hell, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to Her Immaculate Heart. She asked for the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, & the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.
From the Fourth Memoir: The Story of the Apparitions by Lucia Santos the oldest of the 3 children:
‘A few moments after arriving at the Cova da Iria, near the holmoak, where a large number of people were praying the Rosary, we saw the flash of light once more, and a moment later Our Lady appeared on the holmoak.
— Your Grace, what do you want of me? — I asked.
— I want you to come here on the 13th of next month, to continue to pray the Rosary every day in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can help you.
— I would like to ask you to tell us who you are, and to work a miracle so that everybody will believe that you are appearing to us.
— Continue to come here every month. In October, I will tell you who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe.
I then made some requests, but I cannot recall now just what they were. What I do remember is that Our Lady said it was necessary for such people to pray the Rosary in order to obtain these graces during the year. And she continued:
— Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially whenever you make some sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation (порт. reparação) for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
As Our Lady spoke these last words, she opened her hands once more, as she had done during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me). The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. Terrified and as if to plead for succour, we looked up at Our Lady, who said to us, so kindly and so sadly:
— You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion (port. a devoção) to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.
— To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation (port. a Comunhão reparadora) on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved; etc… Do not tell this to anybody. Francisco, yes, you may tell him.
— When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need.
After this, there was a moment of silence, and then I asked:
— Your Grace, is there anything more that you want of me?
— No, I do not want anything more of you today.
Then, as before Our Lady began to ascend towards the east, until she finally disappeared in the immense distance of the firmament’.
1298 – Deathday of Blessed Jacobus de Varagine, an Italian chronicler & archbishop of Genoa. He was the author, of Legenda Aurea, the Golden Legend, a collection of hagiographies of the legendary lives of saints of the Middle Ages. The Golden Legend is the source of the Rose Cross Meditation that Rudolf Steiner often quoted.
1527 – Birthday of John Dee, English-Welsh mathematician, astronomer, & astrologer & occultist
1727 – The founding of The Herrnhuter Brotherhood, The Moravian Church – Unitas Fratrum – Unity of the Brethren – predating the Protestant Reformation by a century, it was really the 1st Protestant Church, with its heritage dating back to the Bohemian Reformation in the fifteenth century. It places a high value on ecumenism, personal piety, music -communio sub utraque specie, married priests, & eliminating indulgences & the idea of Purgatory. The Church’s emblem is the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei) with the flag of victory, surrounded by the Latin inscription: Vicit agnus noster, eum sequamur “Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow Him”
1889 – Deathday of Robert Hamerling an Austrian poet. Rudolf Steiner gave his funeral address. http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA154/English/AP1990/19140426p01.html
The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica characterizes Hamerling as one of the most remarkable poets of the modern Austrian school, describing his imagination as rich & his poems as full of life & color. In his most popular poem, Ahasver in Rom (1866), the emperor Nero is the central figure. Among his other works, Venus im Exil (1858); Der König von Sion (1869), characterized as a masterpiece; Die sieben Todsünden (1872) Blätter im Winde (1887); Homunculus (1888); Amor und Psyche (1882). His novel, Aspasia (1876), a finely-drawn description of the Periclean age, & his tragedy Danton und Robespierre (1870), showed Hamerling’s genius.
In Karmic Relationships Vol. 2, lecture 6, Steiner describes him as a pupil of Plato in an earlier incarnation.
1963 – Deathday of Albert Steffen a poet, painter, dramatist, essayist,& novelist. He joined the Anthroposophical Society in 1912 & became its president after the death of its founder, Rudolf Steiner, in 1925. Steffen was chief editor of the society’s journal, Das Goetheanum, from 1921-1963
His earliest works, predating his encounter with anthroposophy, already manifest a spiritual awareness. His later works, which reflect a vision of the world permeated by metaphysical powers of good & evil, draw on a wide range of esoteric European & Asian traditions
I will be heading out for our next training 1-7 August 2023
Here is a newsletter with an article I wrote about my expereince working with Steiner’s Inner Realities of Evoultion
Mary Magdalene’s experience at the empty tomb, as described in its most complete picture in chapter 20 of the Gospel of John, is one we have discussed again recently, and probably this year in its most crystalline form until now. With the emphasis over the last three days on Image and After-Image, we can gain a further perspective on her experience that Easter morning. The key element, it seems to me, is when she looks in at the empty tomb after Peter and Lazarus-John have left. She sees two Angels, one at the head and the other at the foot of the tomb. They ask her: “Woman, why do you weep”? She responds that *they* have taken away her Lord, and she does not know where *they* have laid Him”. So, this is clearly an Image seen, and even further indicated by a communication between the parties involved. Then, Mary turns and sees Jesus, but does not know that it is Jesus. He asks, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking”? She pleads, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him and I will take Him away”. Then, a familiar voice says, “Mary”! She turns and says, “Rabboni”!, which means that this is the One she knows. This is the Nathan Jesus, who walked with the Christ for three years, while the Jesus she does not know, and thinks is the Gardener, is the Master Jesus, who she has never met until now.
So, this constitutes the real nature of Mary Magdalene’s experience that morning. She first has an Image of two Angels, supersensible beings, who communicate with her. Then, she turns around and sees Jesus, who she does not immediately recognize, and he asks her the very same question that the Angels had asked, i.e., “Woman, why are you weeping”? This is the After-Image event in which clarity is coming to her in stages. Then, she turns and sees Jesus of Nazareth, who she has anointed no less than three times. Thus, when she goes and reports that she has seen the Lord, this is the one she has seen. The Nathan Jesus of Nazareth, who is now the Etheric Jesus. This etheric presence becomes the means by which the disciples are able to perceive Christ on the evening of the first day, when Christ enters the Upper Room and says, “Peace be with you.” Then, He breathes the Holy Spirit upon them. The Etheric Jesus helps facilitate this, and even to the extent of viewing the wounds, which was an Image also perceived by the faithful.
Notes: In “Learning to Experience the Etheric World, Empathy, the After-Image & a New Social Ethic” Baruch Urieli has a short chapter called: ‘The Archetype of the After-Image’ – where he fills out the picture of Mary Magdalene’s deed in anointing the feet & head of Christ – & how on Easter morning she looks into the empty tomb to see 2 Light-Beings, sitting at the foot & head. When the angels ask her why she is weeping, she turns & sees Jesus as the Gardener (the plant Kingdom is connected to the etheric realm). When he speaks her name, she turns once more, & recognizes Christ in his risen Life-body.
These events show how empathy can bring on the after-image – how the love & compassion of Mary Magdalene is an example of the ‘New Power of Will’ (The New Yoga Will which uses light not air) – which enables the opening of the etheric space to inner vision. Urieli: “For that further step to happen we must ‘Turn once more’ – we must ‘Re-turn’ to that space which is the home of our “I Am”, the space where our name resounds.”
We are given this picture in the Gospel of John, but then the furthering happens in what Steiner calls his 5th Gospel & in the Gospel of Mary Magdalene & other Gnostic Gospels. The part that is a missing piece for me is what comes after – described in ‘legends’ with MM’s life as teacher & contemplative minstered by the angels…
For me, a big part of the mystery is about who wrote down this experience in chapter 20? Peter and Lazarus-John have left the scene, and this would seem to exclude Lazarus as the writer of the Gospel of John! This perception adds another layer to be revealed in terms of true authorship, and why, after many years, it has been made known that Mary actually experienced the two Jesus’s at the same time. It was Memorial Day 2011 that I posted on my forum for the first time about Mary Magdalene’s experience at the empty tomb, and I would not have done it if my investigation over many years of patient research had come to any other result. Now, it is 12 years later, which is a Jupiter revolution, and my conviction about this has only grown. Many other factors have also been added to the mix, and this is why Acts of the Apostles is such an important topic, which you have shown interest for Mary’s participation.
When the Disciples received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, as promised, they began to remember what they had experienced over the three years with Christ, and with a new kind of understanding. This understanding was on the level of the Higher Sun Triad, which carries a motivational power. They all became irresistible forces in the quest to overcome immovable objects. Peter, for example, wrote a gospel in which he told of what actually took place at the crucifixion, and this proves that when he heard the cock crow, which is a sign of awaking, that he remembered what he had been told, and broke down and cried. He had been brought out of the Last Supper Sleep in order to be there, as he had promised Christ.
Those who wrote the Gospels had access to Akaskic reacords.
Many times Steiner said they didn’t have the capacity to receive the teachings in the moment in complete understanding.
And of course we know Lazarus John had the help of the Virgin Sophia & John the Baptist…so…along with the Logos Himself…that’s who wrote it…
And yes, The Holy Spirit – One of the Trinity – who in her Plerome can also be called Wisdom/Sophia
Luke especially conveys how his gospel is owed to both the spirit-seers, who read the akashic records with their more imaginative faculty, and the eyewitness, who is an Initiate possessed of Inspirative and Intuitive Consciousness. This is the writer of the Gospel of John, who used Lazarus as his vehicle of incorporation. The Luke gospel, which describes the Nathan Jesus, receives important testimony from the eyewitness, who was there and observed how Jesus was dragged out of the synagogue in Nazareth after introducing Christ to his fellow townspeople. They were going to throw him off the brow of the hill upon which Nazareth was built, ref. Luke 4. This event was filtered to the other gospels with the analogy which says, “One cannot be a prophet in his hometown, or even in his own family”.
Of course it is a combination of their memory pictures, & what they were able to receive from the occult teachings of Christ during the 40 days. And in the case of Peter needing to be awakened, or John not being there, they had an initiatory ability to read the akashic records…
Luke would express from the beginning of his gospel what he was after with the combining of imaginative pictures along with the eyewitness testimony. This rationale would be explained in full in the first lecture of GA 114.
“Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, 3 it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; 4 so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught. Luke 1
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA114/English/RSP1964/19090915p01.html
Hazel, you are such an inspiration. I just wanted to thank you for being the humble leader that you are – wedding the anthroposophical and Christian path of initiation.
Blessings,
Diana
I was so happy to have you join us…
It was a wonder filled experience to be together with so may striving souls…
Blessings
xox