All posts by ~hag

About ~hag

Having grown up in the wastelands of suburbia, I found refuge in the wilds of nature which sprung up in the empty lots behind the track housing. Developing a rich inner life, singing, writing plays or poetry and harvesting plants to make herbal medicines with my grandmother, helped get me through the mendacity of a public school education, graduating H.S. in 3 years at age 15. I backpacked around the sacred sites of Europe for a year, and then took my heart to San Francisco on a full scholarship to study Philosophy & Comparative Religion (with a minor in Women’s Studies) at SFSU. There in the dusty halls of dead thinking, I met Rudolf Steiner’s Spiritual Science through fate and the discovery of Owen Barfield, and began to work with the basic books on my own. (It was almost 25 years later when I finally discovered that there was such a thing as an Anthroposophical Society!) Destiny had prepped me through Rosicrucianism which came into play at an early age, (that’s another long story I would be happy to relate over coffee) but I didn’t officially join the Societas Rosicruciana in America (S.R.I.A), headquartered in Kingston NY, until I moved to NYC after college. I began applying my Midwest work ethic, and my eclectic blend of teachings in the Big Apple. I became a neighborhood leader working with disenfranchised youth. It was almost impossible for former drug addicts, run aways, and artist types to find affordable housing in Manhattan, so the focus of my community activism was with the ‘Homesteading Movement’. We became ‘squatters’ renovating several blocks of abandoned city owned buildings on the ‘Lower East Side’. Through this community I spearheaded many artistic initiatives such the experiential guerrilla Theatre Troupe, “The Valkyries.” I was also a singer, songwriter, and drummer, performing in several “No New York” genre original bands (Heal, Health Hen, Baby Boom) recording and touring extensively in the U.S. and Europe. In the 1980’s the Lower East Side was a cultural Mecca and we were featured at CBGB’s, the Mud Club, the Bitter End, the Beat Kitchen, etc. When I wasn’t on tour, I was a vegetarian chef; and diligently worked the Rosicrucian path traveling to upstate NY for the S.R.I.A workings. I also studied for 4 years and was ordained as a Trans-denominational Minister at the Spiritual Science Center, of Maryland, a school dedicated to teaching comparative religions, philosophy, & service to humanity. I moved to Chicago when my uncle was dying of AIDS. I became a Sous-chef at a Vegetarian restaurant, and started co-creating with a ‘Hermetic Order’, who had a healing center on the Northside, and sacred land in Indiana, making plant medicines again. I became the Founder & Facilitator of: The SheDrums MysteryLodge, featuring workshops, Retreats & Rites of Passage for Women. ‘the WE drum Tribe’ = “the Heart-Beat of Chicago’s Conscious Community”. E.V.A. (Divine Expressions of Vital Alchemy) A collaborative dance company that embodied the Divine Feminine through seasonal myth-telling performances. Sanctuary Dance: The Chicago facilitator for the annual International EarthDance, a worldwide dance event to promote unity across cultures. Producer, director, writer & videographer for The EarthNetwork, a monthly program focused primarily on environmental, political, & spiritual issues. Mother-Earth-Minute 8x’s a year at Lake Street Church in Evanston Classes on the Wheel of the Year for the Chicago Park District. Videographer for Richard Shay (Art Shay’s son) working with the likes of Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey and Gene Siskel. WRD Environmental Consultant for the Chicago Conservation Corps (C3). When I was almost 40 years old I had my daughter Ultra-Violet Archer, and married Chuck Ginsberg. It wasn’t until my girl was at the Chicago Waldorf School that I finally heard about the Anthroposophical Society, and discovered that the Branch was within walking distance to our house! Through the Waldorf School I Trained with Kim John Payne’s Social Inclusion Intervention & Mediation program called ‘Justice Without Blame’; and went on to do Hakomi, and Matrix leadership training in team building and consensus processes. As a Minster I started a business called “Milestones” Creating Custom Ceremonies for All Occasions: Traditional Weddings, as well as same sex Marriages, Fertility Rituals, Baby Blessings, Renewal of Vows, Home and Corporate Blessings, Crossing over ceremonies, Funerals, Memorials/Celebration of Life, and other Rites of Passage – Specializing in Coming of Age Initiations for girls and women. I studied with Susanne Down and Founded ‘Wisdom Roots Puppetry’ – Working in the Waldorf-Tradition of Therapeutic Seasonal Story, Song and Ensouled Puppetry. I have been the Cultural Events and Festivals Coordinator for the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago for about 10 years; and a member of the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society for 7 years. I am a member of the First Class of the School of Spiritual Science, and of the Esoteric Youth Circle. Because I have long been inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul, where he commemorates feast days, and birth and death days of important individualities; about 4 years ago I founded ‘Reverse Ritual: Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year’ and recently the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast; where I strive to reveal the patterns connecting the seasonal round with human karma, great historical events, as well as repeated weather patterns, natural catastrophes, wars, and the many milestones that can help us understand the past, stand with courage in the present, and see what is wanting to come in from the future. You can find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals that I offer or facilitate HERE I look forward to serving on the General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America, especially at this important ‘Turning Point’ in world history as we approach the 100 year anniversary of the Christmas Conference, a true Whitsun event for the evolution of humanity. ~Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual: Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year & the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast. Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Anthroposopher – working as the Cultural Events and Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. I am ready to bring my Festivals, Lectures & Programs to your community once again! View all posts by ~hag →

Inscribed

September 24, 2023Autumn, Birth / Death Days, Calendar of the Soul, Festival, History~hag

Greetings Friends –
During this time after the Autumnal Equinox & the beginning of the Michaelmas Season, a shift occurs within us, echoing outside of us in nature, & reflected in various cultural expressions & traditions.

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, comes 10 days after Rosh Hashanah, & is the culmination of the entire High Holy Day drama. It is the Holiest Day of the Jewish year or, as the Bible describes it, the “Sabbath of Sabbaths”. During the 24 hours of Yom Kippur, the biblical commandment to fast from food & water, while engaging in intense soul-searching, & praying for forgiveness is practiced. Yom Kippur is a day of inner purification & of reconciliation with the creator & with our fellow human beings. It is a reminder of the frailty of human existence & our duty to act charitably toward the less fortunate.

This ancient tradition is just as important now as it was for our ancestors, maybe even more so.

Yom Kippur Sermon 2018: A Eulogy for Isaiah • Rabbi Jay Asher LeVine — Isaiah by Marc Chagall

The inspiring, yet sobering, words of Isaiah 58 are read publicly in the synagogue on Yom Kippur “This fasting I have chosen,” says the prophet Isaiah, “Is it not done to loose the chains of injustice & untie the cords of bondage? To set the oppressed free & break every yoke? Are we not meant to share our food with the hungry & to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, you must clothe him, & not turn away from your fellow man?”

Sin and forgiveness in Psalm 51 | Marc chagall, Painting, Chagall — Forgiveness Marc Chagall

It is the moment in time to dedicate mind, body, & soul to reconciliation – with God, our fellow human beings, & ourselves; a time to turn to those whom we have wronged, acknowledging the pain we might have caused. At the same time, being willing to forgive & to let go of certain offenses & the feelings of resentment they provoked in us. This journey for both seekers & givers of pardon mirrors the journey a soul takes after death.

There are number of customs & traditions associated with the Holy Day of Yom Kippur. For example: the mikvah, or ritual bath. The scripture says “You shall immerse yourselves in water & be purified.” This practice, from which Christian baptism originated, symbolizes purification & regeneration, as well as new birth, through repentance. Another custom is to greet each other by saying ‘May your name be inscribed in the Book of Life’ Gmar Chatimah Tova.

The High Holy Days are divided into two parts: The first is the inscribing which begins on Rosh Hashanah & finishes on Yom Kippur when the final “sealing” of fate takes place for the year. Parents customarily bless their children with the priestly benediction: “May it be the will of our Father in Heaven to put into your heart love & reverence. May your eyes be directed, may your mouth speak wisdom, & your heart strive for holiness. May your hands be occupied with good deeds & your feet hasten to do the will of the divine. May He grant you sustenance without stress & with profit, out of His hand that is open wide. May you be inscribed & sealed unto a good, long life. And so shall it be. Amen.”

Our names are inscribed into the Mother Earth at the time of our birth. And thruout our many lives we add to this imprinting – Thru our thoughts, words & deeds – thru our interactions with other people, we create a trail that we traverse. And this pathway makes its mark.

So what happens to all that we inscribe into the Earth?

I think of the tale of ‘Eros & Fable’ by Novalis. In it there is a wise woman, named Sophia of course, who has a bowl of oracle water. When a scroll is immersed in it, all the nonessential writing is dissolved, leaving only what has lasting significance. Then this inscription is set into the great book.

But what happens to the rest? Does it become food for the adversary?

At this time of year we can imagine that our life story is dipped into this chalice. Our true name, our true eternal Self is not dissolved. But everything that must dissolve represents how we didn’t live up to our true name – How we missed the Mark.

And so it is that the question arises for each of us: How much of us is junk food & how much of our divine nature can be inscribed in the Book of Life?

It is also customary to give extra charity before the holiday, & to light memorial candles for departed family members.

As with all Jewish festivals, the woman formally ushers in the holiday by lighting the candles at sundown. Evening services commence with the recitation of the Kol Nidrei prayer, a plea for absolution from any & all unfulfilled vows a person may have made in the course of the year.

Chagall_20160928_042 | Landerneau en Finistère. Fondation Le… | Flickr | Marc chagall, Chagall paintings, Chagall — Marc Chagall

Contrary to popular belief, Yom Kippur is a day of hope & optimism in addition to a solemn day of soul-searching. The Day of Atonement provides a unique awareness of one’s own character, a track record, as well as the opportunity to upgrade relationships with relatives, friends, associates & the community at-large. Yom Kippur’s focus on forgiveness, highlights humility, fallibility, compassion, soul-searching faith, thoughtfulness, being considerate, & accepting responsibility

Second vision. Adam as Mankind - Hildegard of Bingen | Medieval art, Sacred art, Romanesque art — Hildegard

Cabalistic tradition states that the first human being, Adam, was created on Rosh Hashanah. And so it is that Human-beings are given an opportunity to recreate themselves spiritually, each year, on Yom Kippur. This holiday is celebrated when the constellation of the scales give way to the virgin as herald in the heavens. Libra & Virgo symbolize key themes of Yom Kippur: Justice, balance, truth, symmetry, wholeness.

Libra is ruled by the planet Venus which reflects the beauty of love, & Virgo is ruled by Mercury the god of communications.

During this season it is customary to walk to a body of fresh water & recite a special prayer, symbolically casting bread crumbs into the waters, a symbol of our sins: those actions that have missed the mark.

And now, at the risk of mixing metaphors, I’d like us to put into practice the Hawaiian ritual of forgiveness, called Ho‘oponopono – It stems from an understanding that everything in the world is connected, in spite of our feelings of ‘separateness’.

Healing Earth. You are the healers, teachers, and leaders of this new age. You are here to bring through new informati… | Mother earth, Spirituality, Energy healing — Trudy Suden

What we do to ourselves & others has repercussions. Because of this unity everything that occurs in our own little world creates a resonance in others & in society as a whole. To heal the planet we first have to heal ourselves; to do this, we will rely on four magic sentences: I am sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you. x4

In earnest wakefulness & practiced Peace –

~hag

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
AUTUMN EQUINOX
Soul Luminescence
v25
I may, belonging to myself now,
begin to shine a dawning inner light
across the darkening of space and time.
To sleep is nature’s urge;
the depths of soul shall wake
and bear the sun’s warm glow
through winter storms and snow.

The Equinox was on Saturday. I align the verses so that v38 is always
at Christmas, so this Equinox verse is a week late… until next year
when Christmas will be on Tuesday and the Autmn Equinox on Sunday.

This week’s mirror verse can be a meditation every morning on awakening.
MICHAELMAS 111
Soul Sunpower
v28
I can, revived within,
now feel my own wide breadth of being,
my strength of sun-empowered soul
whose radiance of thinking solves life’s riddles
and lifts the wish-fulfilling wings
left lame by hope.

24 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The bright gibbous moon moves into the constellation Capricornus on the evenings of September 24 and 25. Comet Nishimura, has now moved from the morning sky to the evening sky. The comet is in bright twilight!

Lectures by Rudolf Steiner on this date

According to the Calendar of the Soul today is the Festival of Persephone, part of The Eleusinian Mysteries, held annually in honor of Demeter & Persephone. The most sacred & revered of all the ritual celebrations of ancient Greece. They were instituted in the city of Eleusis, just west of Athens, possibly as far back as the early Mycenaean period, & continued for almost two thousand years. Large crowds of worshippers from all over Greece (& later, from throughout the Roman empire) would gather to make the holy pilgrimage between the two cities & participate in the secret rites, generally regarded as the high point of Greek life.

622 – Muhammad & his followers completed their Hijra from Mecca to Medina to escape religious persecution. Rudolf Steiner tells us Muhammad was able to see into the etheric realm. Legend has it that the enemy was just seconds from capturing them when they ducked into a cave, where they surly would been found, except a spider wove a giant web & a dove made a nest at the entrance, so when the enemy come to the cave they thought – they can’t be here, since the web was so intricate & the nest so well established.

Image result for Second Council of Nicaea

787 – Second Council of Nicaea: The council assembled at the church of Hagia Sophia

1046 – Deathday(drowned) /Feast of St. Gellert

1541 – Deathday (murdered) Theophrastus Paracelsus, a Swiss German philosopher, physician, botanist, astrologer, & occultist. He is credited as the founder of toxicology. He is also a famous revolutionary for utilizing observations of nature, rather than referring to ancient texts, something of radical defiance during his time. He is credited as the first to note that some diseases are rooted in psychological conditions.

Paracelsus’ most important legacy is his critique of the scholastic methods in medicine, science & theology. As a physician of the early 16th century, Paracelsus held a natural affinity with the Hermetic, Neoplatonic, & Pythagorean philosophies central to the Renaissance. Paracelsus rejected the magic theories of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa & Nicolas Flamel in his Archidoxes of Magic.

Astrology was a very important part of Paracelsus’ medicine & he was a practicing astrologer. Paracelsus devoted several sections in his writings to the construction of astrological talismans for curing disease. He also invented an alphabet called the Alphabet of the Magi, for engraving angelic names upon talismans.

1916 – Rudolf Steiner’s 2^nd lecture on the Mexican Mysteries

1789 – The United States Congress passes the Judiciary Act which creates the office of the United States Attorney General & the federal judiciary system, & orders the composition of the Supreme Court of the United States

1869 – “Black Friday“: Gold prices plummet after Ulysses S. Grant orders the Treasury to sell large quantities of gold after Jay Gould & James Fisk plot to control the market

Image result for f. scott fitzgerald quotes

1896 – Birthday of F. Scott Fitzgerald, novelist & short story writer

1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower in Wyoming as the nation’s first National Monument

1914 – World War I: The Siege of Poland begins

Image result for 1948 â The Honda Motor Company is founded

1948 – The Honda Motor Company is founded

1950 – Forest fires black out the sun over portions of Canada & New England. A blue moon is seen as far away as Europe

1957 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends 101st Airborne Division troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce desegregation

1960 – USS Enterprise, the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is launched

SUNDAY 24 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire

Celebrating:

*The Autumnal Equinox

*World Eurythmy Day

*Yom Kippur

*Michaelmas Festival

6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring Food & Drink to share, & a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day – Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought

The time for biodynamic preparation making is upon us. We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and working in the soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year?
Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye/ thank you.
Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.

Bio~hag

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Turn, Turn, Turn…

September 22, 2023Autumn~hag

At the Autumnal Equinox – the wheel of the year turns & we find ourselves moving into the time of the harvest. In the tropical zodiac, at equinox, we say the Sun is crossing the celestial equator, moving from Virgo into Libra, the sign of the scales – a time to take stock. Are the scales balanced? Do they tip & spill? Are they full? Do we know what to harvest & what to plow under? Can we identify & cut away outworn habits & emotional baggage that can choke our growth?

But in sidereal astrosophy we see the Sun in relation to the actual constellations as they are now, with the Sun in reality appearing in the crown of stars in the constellation of the Virgin.

When we use the tropical zodiac, the 4-foldness of the Equinoxes & Solstices form The Cross, which reminds us of an event that occurred only once in history, at the time of the incarnation of Christ. Then, the start of Spring was at 0 degrees of Aries, the Ram – the 1^st sign in the zodiac.

At the Equinoxes we have the horizontal beam, a balance of light & darkness. At the Solstices we have the vertical beam, an opposition of light & dark. At Autumn Equinox the Sun is balanced in Libra, which then marks the transition from the light to the dark signs of the zodiac. Libra is a threshold, a gateway between the upper chakras & the lower chakras. In the upper signs, from Aries thru Virgo we have a memory of the cosmic human being before we were formed on Earth. From Libra to Pisces, the human form meets the physical world. So we can look at the upper half of the zodiac as being related to our past cosmic creation by the ‘gods’ & the lower half of the zodiac as our human journey of ‘The fall’ giving us the task to work toward our redemption out of our own “ego”I” forces.

The Sidereal zodiac shows us the vernal point has moved thru the ‘procession of the equinoxes’, (The Sun moves backward thru the constellations) so that it is now descending thru the lower half of the zodiac, taking humanity along on its evolutionary journey.

Adorning this great cross, formed from the 4 Cardinal Points of the Equinoxes & Solstices, are the 7 Christian Festivals: Michaelmas, Advent, Christmas, Easter-tide – a 3-fold Fest which includes Ascension, Whitsun, then St. John’s-tide. These festivals are the 7 Cosmic Roses unfurling from the center of The Cross.

So on this Autumnal Equinox, we can contemplate & celebrate this solar moment of equality & balance, experienced by everyone around the globe. We can also think about how the world has changed, how the constellations have moved on, how The Christ has united with the Earth, & is now working in us to redeem our evolution.

~ Hilma af Klint

We can take our initiation in hand when we consciously co-create the Festivals in the solar-cycle of the year, working to unfold the 7 Roses of transformation within, & out in the world.

~Brenda Loschiavo

The apples fall from the tree, the corn & grain are gathered in, the grapes are crushed for wine…The Sun God is sacrificed to the awaken the mysteries of Michaelmas, & the fertile Mother assumes the face of the Wise Crone – the Harvest Hag challenging us to face our shadow…

22 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Autumn Equinox Brings Balance into Night School exact at 1:50 am in the Central Region. This is when the Sun crosses the equator heading south for the season.

Our Day-star rises due east & sets due west around this time. “Equinox” comes from the Latin words “equi” meaning “equal” & “nox” meaning “night.” This implies that there will be equal amounts of daylight & darkness, however that is not exactly the case.

This year, the Sun will rise at 6:38am CDT on the equinox & will set at 6:46pm. So that makes our day 12 hours & about 8 minutes long. With Solar Noon at 12:42 pm.

Exactly equal day & night won’t happen until September 25 with Sunrise as 6:41 am CDT & Sunset at 6:41 pm CDT. This day is known as the Equilux! “Lux” being Latin for light.

Also, every year when Summer turns to Autumn, Deneb takes over from brighter Vega as the zenith star when twilight fades into night.

And so it is my friends, that we begin once again our Hero’s Journey, like Persephone, into the dark of the year…Our inner Persephone, seeks now to experience not only the Underworld but the Etheric world to meet the Christ…

We can feel our power go deep within, like the seed planted deep within the darkness of the Earth…& we can also feel this seed expand out into the aura of the Whole Earth…We must be initiated into these New Mysteries that open our spiritual vision – then we can truly celebrate life’s renewal – Our work is to bring the Easter Thought into the Michaelmas Mood.

Balanced Blessings & Peace

~hag

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Lectures by Rudolf Steiner on this date

1452 – Birthday of Savonarola, an Italian Dominican friar, prophet & preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of secular art & culture, & his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule & the exploitation of the poor.

While Savonarola intervened with the French king, the Florentines expelled the ruling Medici &, at the friar’s urging, established a “popular” republic, declaring that Florence would be the New Jerusalem, the world center of Christianity.

When Florence refused to join Pope Alexander VI’s Holy League against the French, the Vatican summoned Savonarola to Rome. He disobeyed & further defied the pope by preaching under a ban, highlighting his campaign for reform with processions, bonfires of the vanities, & pious theatricals. In retaliation, the Pope excommunicated him & threatened to place Florence under an interdict. A trial by fire proposed by a rival Florentine preacher to test Savonarola’s divine mandate turned into a fiasco, & popular opinion turned against him. Savonarola & two of his supporting friars were imprisoned. Under torture, Savonarola confessed & the Church condemned, hanged, & burned the three friars in the main square of Florence.

Savonarola’s devotees, the Piagnoni, kept his cause of republican freedom & religious reform alive well into the following century, although the Medici—restored to power in 1512 with the help of the papacy—eventually broke the movement.

1791 – Birthday of Michael Faraday, English physicist & chemist. Although Faraday received little formal education, he was one of the most influential scientists in history. It was by his research on the magnetic field around a conductor carrying a direct current that Faraday established the basis for the concept of the electromagnetic field in physics. Faraday also established that magnetism could affect rays of light & that there was an underlying relationship between the two phenomena. His inventions of electromagnetic rotary devices formed the foundation of electric motor technology, & it was largely due to his efforts that electricity became practical for use in technology.

As a chemist, Faraday discovered benzene, investigated the clathrate hydrate of chlorine, invented an early form of the Bunsen burner & the system of oxidation numbers, & popularized terminology such as “anode”, “cathode”, “electrode” & “ion”.

Faraday was an excellent experimentalist who conveyed his ideas in clear & simple language. Albert Einstein kept a picture of Faraday on his study wall, alongside pictures of Isaac Newton & James Clerk Maxwell. Physicist Ernest Rutherford stated, “When we consider the magnitude and extent of his discoveries and their influence on the progress of science and of industry, there is no honour too great to pay to the memory of Faraday, one of the greatest scientific discoverers of all time.”

1991 – The Dead Sea Scrolls are made available to the public for the first time by the Huntington Library

SUNDAY 24 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire

Celebrating:

*The Autumnal Equinox

*World Eurythmy Day

*Yom Kippur

*Michaelmas Festival

6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring Food & Drink to share, & a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day – Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.

Bio~hag

Why ReverseRitual?

What is Anthroposophy?

Tip Jar

I Think Speech Podcast

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Fired up

September 21, 2023Community, Insight, Quote, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events~hag

Dear friends – In thinking back to the laying of the Foundation Stone for the 1st Goetheanum, called at that time the ‘Johannas Bau’, 110 years ago on 20 September 1913– (Read the transcript of that elementally charged ceremony in an essay I shared HERE) I can’t help but connect this to the arson that destroyed the ‘House of the Word’ 10 years later.

In the amazing ‘Play for Voices’ by Richard Ramsbotham, called “The Burning of the Goetheanum” a powerful occult secret is revealed thru his research capturing biographical insights from those who were there.

I met Richard for the 1^st time in person this Summer at the ‘AHA‘ conference ‘The Mysteries of Healing: Realizing AnthropoSophia“, where he gave me a signed copy of this amazing telling of the Anthroposophical Biography we all share.

As we know Dr. Steiner designed this incredible ‘House of the Word’. Along with all the craftsmen & volunteers, that he worked with to co-create a powerful synthesis of diverse artistic & sensory forms infused with spiritual significance, he also employed Architect Schmid-Curtius & Engineer Englert to pull off this never before organic building achievement of the connecting domes.

From Emil Molt we hear: “The building supervision lay in the hands of the engineer Englert, the former director of the Basel building association that had produced the special concrete base for the building. Dr Steiner gave Englert the task of anchoring the two cupolas at their section in such a way that they would mutually support each other. At first, Englert declared the problem insoluble according to his calculations. He was given some directions by Dr Steiner then, lo and behold, a few days later he had solved what he had at first thought impossible.” ~Emil Molt and the beginnings of the Waldorf School movement: Sketches from an autobiography. Edinburgh: Floris Books, 1991. Page 114.

From Steiner we learn: “Technically, it was an extremely difficult task to accomplish — to bring the two cupolas together —there didn’t seem to be a way to fit two spherical surfaces one into the other. So I really must mention here that we did succeed through the insight and effort of our friend, the esteemed Basel engineer Joseph Englert, who solved this architectural problem which had heretofore never been solved.” ~Rudolf Steiner, 10 April 1915, in Basel GA 289

From the biography of Joseph Englert, which Ramsbotham opens for us in his play – we learn that from an early age Englert had a powerful fascination with occult phenomena of all kinds. In particular he dabbled in mediumism, spiritualism, & was an accomplished astrologer. We was a member of the Theosophical society & heard Steiner speak for the 1^st time in Basel in 1906.

As mentioned in the essay on the laying of the Foundations Stone, he was at the original founding as board member & treasurer of the Johannesbauverein – the building committee. But:

“In the second half of 1918 there was a series crisis of trust between Englert & the other board members, & after a stormy meeting on 10 January 1919, Englert not only resigned from the board, but also from the construction management. As a result, he also turned away from Anthroposophy…Shortly afterwards his marriage ended in divorce & in 1922 he moved to Lugano. There he became friends, with Hermann Hesse.” ~ https://biographien.kulturimpuls.org/detail.php?id=1479

Englert also cast Horoscope charts for Hermann Hesse. In his novel “Klingsor’s Last Summer”, Hesse Depicts Englert as the Dark Magician.

Clara Selling Walther, who lived with Rudolf Steiner & Marie von Sivers at 30 Motzstrasse in Berlin, for 20 years, tells us that after Englert broke away from Anthroposophy he converted to Catholicism & became a Jesuit. After the fire at the Goetheanum she wrote down some recollections: “A body was found, of a crippled man, a watchmaker. Herr Doctor said he was NOT the arsonist. ‘Oh, No! Old Englert was the only one who knew everything about the cupolas’.”

Russian novelist Andrei Bely, another artistic associate who worked on the Goetheanum, wrote about Englert:

“I appreciated Englert…but I also suspected him ever more strongly of being marked out by a secret tragedy. I sensed his growing fascination with the abyss surrounding us. He suffered a fall. He separated from Steiner, in dissonance & discord, and converted to Catholicism.”

After the burning Steiner spoke to Ita Wegman & a small group of esoteric students, about how the 2 Dark Brotherhoods working behind the Jesuits & the Freemasons – usually enemies – joined together for the 1st time to destroy the ‘House of the Word’.

Steiner quotes what the astrologers working for the Freemasons started as a rumor in the media, which was then picked up & flamed into a fever by the Catholic Church: “Spiritual sparks have flown into the Goetheanum; physical sparks of fire will leap into it too, bringing an end to the glory of Dornach”

We know the fire stared in the ‘White Room’ which is where the Christian Community Priests were ordained. There are stories from the eurythmists who also used that room, that a strange wind ‘like an elemental force’ blew the cover off a sky light. To reach that room the arsonist would have known to come thru the sky light that allowed access to the inside space between the 2 cupolas which led right down to the make-shift altar left there from the ceremonies of the new Priests.

This space between the 2 cupala’s, which the engineer Englert was so proud of, is beautifully described by Painter & Eurythmist Margarita Woloschina who speaks about how Englet took her on a tour under the scaffolding to show her the construction of the Cupola’s:“Both Cupolas were double-shelled, according to the principle of the sounding board of a violin. It was an extraordinary experience to stand in the space between the 2 half-spheres of the inner & outer roofs of the small cupola, where all normal spatial relationships were as though annulled.” ~ The Green Snake: An Autobiography

We know from experience that the 2 once oppositional adversarial powers are now working together against humanity in many ways.

The question for us today 110 years after the original laying of the Foundation Stone is: When will the 2 Anthroposophical streams, often called the Platonists & the Aristotelians, consciously stive to work together for the good?

And Yes, we are meant to expand out the polarity – Hey, Let’s explore the transcendent 3^rd – We can square the Circle – Step into the pentagram, The 6-pointed heart-star – the 12 points of View…etc…In Christic Revelation…

Let us close this theme with a quote from ‘WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE OF THE GOETHEANUM’, GA 84, 9 April 1923, Basel : “The Goetheanum could burn down. A catastrophe has swept it away. The pain of those who loved it is so great that it cannot be described…But Anthroposophy is built out of spirit, and only flames of spirit can touch this. Just as the human soul and spirit are victor over the physical when this is destroyed in death, so Anthroposophy must live, even though it has lost its Dornach home..

What Anthroposophy is to be for the further development of humanity, is built of spirit. This will not be destroyed by the flames of the spiritual life, for these flames are not destroying flames; they are strengthening flames, flames that give more life than ever. And all that life which is to be revealed through Anthroposophy as life of knowledge of the higher world, must be tempered by the flames of the highest inspiration of the human being, soul and spirit. Then Anthroposophy will continuously evolve.” ~Rudolf Steiner

Maybe you’re thinking: Ok so -Why are you even bringing up this arsonist business anyway?

I guess for me it’s always interesting to try & understand what moves thru individuals who affect world history. Always after 100 years – What could not be spoke of then – must now come to light. The forces that lived in those that have fallen to their lower selves, becoming pawns for the adversarial powers, where are these forces living today? Can we meet them before they create a destructive fire? Spiritual Science tells us that events are certainly written in the stars, & yet – if we stay awake & watch thru the dark night – we can work with the stars to steer humanity toward the light…

Bring on the fire of selfless enthusiasm…

xox

~hag

SUNDAY 24 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire

Celebrating:

*The Autumnal Equinox

*World Eurythmy Day

*Yom Kippur

*Michaelmas Festival

6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring Food & Drink to share, & a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day – Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.

What was, What is, & What will be…

September 19, 2023Autumn, Birth / Death Days, Festival, History, Upcoming Events~hag

Listen to What is? on the ‘I Think Speech‘ podcast

“Golden light is turning grey,
Mists begin to rule the day.
Bare the trees, their branches lift;
Clouds of dead leaves earthward drift.

Through the field the farmer goes,
Seeds of ripened corn she sows;
Trusts the earth will hold it warm,
Shelter it from cold and harm.

For she knows, that warmth and light
Live there, hidden from our sight;
And beneath a sheltering wing,
Deep below, new life will spring!

Deep below, deep below, new life will spring!”

Dear friends – As I prepare for our Annual Michaelmas Festival, I am contemplating: What was, What is, What will be…Asking many questions such as: How can we renew the Autumnal Mysteries of Eleusis out-pictured in the myth of Persephone..? Can we apply the lessons of how the young innocent, narcissistic maiden, feeling a call from the future – becomes captivated in the Underworld – to bring light into the darkness of her unconscious human soul..?

I ponder her initiation into the inner sanctum of the Self, which allows a leap in her evolution – Joining her new won powers to the force of Demeter’s fertile purpose. This trial & transformation is not done in complete isolation – She receives the help of her ecstatic Sun brother Dionysus, & the humor of the mysterious Crone Baubo, with her ribald songs, in perfect iambic metre, which were sung to relieve the emotional tension at the Eleusinian Mysteries.

And in her stepping into this conscious dying of the onesidedness of the physical light, which then allows the spiritual light to flourish, she recalls her unborness, her divine origin – & brings that mystery back to Earth in the Spring.

Dionysus, reflective precursor to the great Sun gods, lifts her from the depths to the divine heights – As the Queen & Bride. The ancient Eleusinian Mysteries were a celebration of this holy marriage. The echo of this lives on, even into the first centuries of Christianity, before the further densification of the human being could no longer receive its true message.

But dear friends, what was lost, can be refounded – on a higher conscious level – If we experience the cycle of the year as a path of initiation, we can not only participate in the reality which we can observe in outward Nature, & in the Elemental life, which is shifting & ever changing; but we can also see the reality behind the inward aspects of the Mystery of Christianity which is ever evolving – giving an impetus to our inward soul-focus at this milestone time of the year.

Christ, as The Cosmic Being of Love, has become the meaning & the life of the Being of Earth – A Sacred marriage feast that we are invited to attend & celebrate.

In the Autumn-Tide time, when we pluck the ripe fruits, bringing in the harvest, reaping what we have sown, we can feel a deep gratitude to the Elemental forces working for Natura, waiting for us to acknowledge them – for our mutual evolution.

Here in the Windy City, the Autumn rains are pulling the dried seeds off the plants. Natura has not yet begun to array herself in a colorful cover, which always reveals the after-image of the life forces. And then after that magical display – as the withering death-forces come more & more to the surface, Natura cannot give us anything else – We are left to ourselves – so that we can dis-cover in ourselves the eternal – that which goes beyond Space & Time.

When nature dies in Autumn, we must awaken to the divine within – The eternal call to the deepest part of our “I”, hidden in our burgeoning soul – What was, what is & what will be, is revealed.

~Wolfgang Grasse

The New Christian Mysteries bring us a fresh tradition that we can unfold as a Festival of Michael – a practical, living imagination of the Mighty Principality holding the countenance of Christ – activating the Time Spirit guardian of our present age within our lives.

The wise prophets of the ancient Hebrew people recognized this seasonal signal & called it their New year in these ‘Days of Awe’. And we can remember that in Hebrew, the name Michael is a question – asking: “Who is like God..?” This is an appeal to humanity – O Human Soul – Step up to your true destiny!

This year we are coming together for our Annual Michaelmas Festival to serve the various impulses on 2 occasions:

SUNDAY 24 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire

Celebrating:

*The Autumnal Equinox

*World Eurythmy Day

*Yom Kippur

*Michaelmas Festival

6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring Food & Drink to share, & a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day – Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.

19 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Today in the life of Rudolf Steiner

“…The etheric Christ will be perceived through the development of the etheric body, and also through impressions of autumn which the human being weaves into himself. Why was Christ here in a physical body? It was so that man could develop higher in order to acquire the capacity to perceive the Christ more and more in the etheric…

As it happens so often that great things that should be brought into the world in the right way are so badly misunderstood, we must try to prepare ourselves for what should come. And if we want to approach the spirit at the point where the spirit of nature also speaks to us morally, then we may say to ourselves: all Spiritual Science is in a certain respect a preparation to help us understand what has been said about past events when we discussed the changes that take place in the course of time.“

~Rudolf Steiner, ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY AND THE MISSION OF CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUTZ, GA 130, II. The Christ Impulse in Historical Development II, 19 September 1911, Locarno

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

The Feast of San Gennaro, an Italian-American festival. Originally a one-day religious commemoration, the festival was first celebrated in the United States in September 1926, when immigrants from Naples congregated along Mulberry Street in the Little Italy section of Manhattan in New York City. The immigrant families on Mulberry Street who started the feast, a group of cafe owners, erected a small chapel in the street to house the image of their patron Saint. They invited all to partake of their wares, asking the devoted to pin an offering to the ribbon streamers that are hung from the statue’s apron. This money was then distributed to the needy poor of the neighborhood. Over time, the festival expanded into an 11-day street fair organized & run by people outside the neighborhood. It is now an annual celebration of food & drink, & a major tourist attraction. Centered on Mulberry Street, which is closed to traffic for the occasion, the festival generally features sausages, zeppole, street vendors, games, parades and other such attractions.

The Feast of Our Lady of La Salette*

634 – Siege of Damascus: The Rashidun Arabs under Khalid ibn al-Walid capture Damascus from the Byzantine Empire

1692 –The only death by peine forte et dure in American history was Giles Corey, who was (“pressed to death”) during the Salem witch trials, after he refused to enter a plea in the judicial proceeding. According to legend, his last words as he was being crushed were “More weight”, even though he was thought to be dead as the weight was applied.

*1846 – Two French shepherd children, Mélanie Calvat & Maximin Giraud, experience a Marian apparition on a mountaintop near La Salette, France, now known as Our Lady of La Salette. They returned from the mountain where they had been minding cows & reported seeing “a beautiful lady” on Mount Sous-Les Baisses, weeping bitterly. They described her as sitting with her elbows resting on her knees & her face buried in her hands. She was clothed in a white robe studded with pearls; & a gold colored apron; white shoes & roses about her feet & high head-dress. She wore a crucifix suspended by a necklace from her neck.

According to their account, she continued to weep even as she spoke to them, first in French, then in their own dialect. After giving a secret to each child, the apparition walked into a hill & vanished. The following day the children’s account of the apparition was put into writing & signed by the visionaries & those who had heard the story.

According to the children’s account, the Virgin invited people to respect the repose of the seventh day, & the name of God. She sorrowfully threatened punishment, in particular a scarcity of potatoes, which would rot. The context of these punishments places the warning just prior to the winter of 1846–1847, which was in Europe, & especially in Ireland & in France, a period of famine in the months which followed the apparition. This was one of the factors of the apparition’s popular appeal

Image result for Third Battle of Winchester

1864 – American Civil War: Third Battle of Winchester: Union troops under General Philip Sheridan defeat a Confederate force commanded by General Jubal Early. With over 50,000 troops engaged it was the largest battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley & was not only militarily decisive in that region of Virginia but also played a role in securing Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1864

1881 – U.S. President James A. Garfield dies of wounds suffered in a July 2 shooting. Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, a disgruntled office seeker, at the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station in Washington. Among those at the station was Robert Todd Lincoln, who sixteen years before had watched his father die from an assassin’s bullet. Vice President Chester A. Arthur becomes President upon Garfield’s death

1893 – Women’s suffrage: In New Zealand, the Electoral Act of 1893 is consented to by the governor giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote

Image result for mayer amschel rothschild quotes

1812 – Deathday of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the banking dynasty

1940 – Witold Pilecki is voluntarily captured and sent to Auschwitz to smuggle out information and start a resistance

1946 – The Council of Europe is founded following a speech by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich, calling for a “United States of Europe”

1952 – The US bars Charlie Chaplin from re-entering the country after a trip to England

1957 – First American underground nuclear bomb test (part of Operation Plumbbob)

1971 – Deathday of Lory Maier-Smith, the 1^st Eurythmist

1976 – Turkish Airlines Flight 452 hits the Taurus Mountains, killing all 154 passengers & crew

1976 – Two Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom II jets fly out to investigate a UFO when both independently lose instrumentation & communications as they approach, only to have them restored upon withdrawal

1985 – A Violent. 8.0m earthquake hits Greater Mexico City area, killing at least 5,000 people, & destroys about 400 buildings

1989 – A terrorist bomb explodes UTA Flight 772 in mid-air above the Tùnùrù Desert, Niger, killing 171

“The impression of something living, something realistic, is produced by what has arisen in living imagination from decanted dreams.” ~Rudolf Steiner, from a lecture on September 19, 1924, ‘Speech and Drama’ (GA 282):

Stand Fast-See Far

September 17, 2023Calendar of the Soul, History, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

Yes, Friends, I often look back – to see where I stand now – & to get a clue of how to go forward. Today’s Inspiring quote which touches on themes from the Affect Change post, is from the contents of the Esoteric Lessons, given in Stuttgart, by Rudolf Steiner on this day 17 September in 1917, the anniversary of the Deathday of Hildegard of Bingen, “the Sybil of the Rhine”.

“It’s very important for modern people to get a strong dose of esoteric life. Plagues, epidemics and wars would rage among men in a terrible way if the wise masters hadn’t decided to give mankind a deepening in the spiritual realm….

Unfortunately often this egotistical age can’t make proper use of such high capacities…Even people who have reached a certain stage in esoteric training can’t stand certain truths. And yet these are the very highest truths, and your training will eventually enable to you to receive them….

~ Kinjal Gorakh

We speak of reincarnation and the law of karma. One can tell oneself: I don’t believe in reincarnation, but I can assume that it exists. I’ll act as if my assumption is true and wait to see what comes of it. A person who thinks and acts like this will make amazing discoveries. In everything that happens to them they will think: I caused this in a past life and now bear the consequences of my own deeds. If such a person unconsciously did something foolish and is punished for it, they’ll think: I’ll make myself aware of this foolishness, so that I can see that I was the one who brought on these ugly consequences. This is the real meaning of: Whoever hits you on the right cheek, turn the other one to them also.

Anyone who succeeds in looking for the cause of everything that hits them from outside, sees that it begins within oneself, has accomplished a great deal. One who does this will soon notice that it brings them forward, that they begin to loosen karmic chains and increasingly gets control of their life. Such a person treads their life’s path freely and surely.

One can verify all anthroposophical teachings in the same way. So let’s all try to bring ever more spirituality into life, and make the light and life that the great masters stream into us alive.

You should all realize that the battles anthroposophy and especially esotericism will have to fight with the outer world will get ever bigger. There it’s a matter of standing fast, my sisters and brothers, stand fast, as you look at your goal and at the great masters who stand by us.” ~Rudolf Steiner

Together with you

~hag

17 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Look very low in the southwest in early evening twilight for the waxing crescent Moon. Can you see Spica twinkling to her lower right of the waxing curved sickle that is Bella Luna?

Then look for Comet Nishimura at perihelion. You have only a narrow time window between when twilight is still too bright and the comet gets too low and sets.

Art Can Win The War: Employing the Language of Humanity - Impakter — Ken Blancet

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

I turn to history not for lessons but to confront my experience with the experience of others and to win for myself a sense of responsibility for the state of the human conscience ~ Zbigniew Herbert

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1179 – Deathday of Hildegard of Bingen, “the Sybil of the Rhine” a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, & polymath.

She is considered to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany. One of her works as a composer, the Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama, the oldest surviving morality play. She wrote theological, botanical, & medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, & poems, while supervising miniature illuminations in the Rupertsberg manuscript of her first work, Scivias. She is also noted for the invention of a constructed language known as Lingua Ignota.

Hildegard 1st saw “The Shade of the Living Light” at the age of three. Hildegard was hesitant to share her visions, but at the age of 42, Hildegard received instruction from God, to “write down that which you see and hear.” Still hesitant to record her visions, Hildegard became physically ill. The illustrations recorded in the book of Scivias were visions that Hildegard experienced, causing her great suffering: “But I, though I saw and heard these things, refused to write for a long time through doubt and bad opinion and the diversity of human words, not with stubbornness but in the exercise of humility, until, laid low by the scourge of God, I fell upon a bed of sickness; then, compelled at last by many illnesses, and by the witness of a certain noble maiden of good conduct [the nun Richardis von Stade] I set my hand to the writing. While I was doing it, I sensed, the deep profundity of scriptural exposition; and, raising myself from illness by the strength I received, I brought this work to a close – though just barely – in ten years. (…) And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and received them in the heavenly places. And again I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me, ‘Cry out therefore, and write thus!’

Women Overcoming the Boundaries: Hildegard of Bingen's Mystical Representation of the Porous Womb

Hildegard’s visions caused her to see humans as “living sparks” of God’s love.

On 17 September 1179, when Hildegard died, her sisters claimed they saw two streams of light appear in the skies & cross over the room where she was dying.

“Listen: there was once a king sitting on his throne. Around Him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honor. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground, and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself but because the air bore it along. Thus am I, a feather on the breath of God.” ~Hildegard of Bingen

1787 – The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia

How Emperor Norton rose to power - SFChronicle.com

1859 – Joshua A. Norton declares himself “Norton I, Emperor of the United States.” Born in England, Norton spent most of his early life in South Africa, he emigrated to San Francisco with an inheritance, but he lost his fortune investing in Peruvian rice & Norton’s public prominence faded. He reemerged to lay claim to the position of Emperor of the United States, & ‘Protector of Mexico’. He was treated deferentially in San Francisco, &currency issued in his name was honored in the establishments he frequented.

Though some considered him insane or eccentric, citizens of San Francisco celebrated his regal presence & his proclamations, such as his order that the United States Congress be dissolved by force & his numerous decrees calling for a bridge crossing connecting San Francisco to Oakland, &a corresponding tunnel to be built under San Francisco Bay.

At his funeral two days later, nearly 30,000 people packed the streets of San Francisco to pay homage. Norton has been immortalized as the basis of characters in the literature of writers Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Christopher Moore, Maurice De Bevere, Selma Lagerlöf, & Neil Gaiman

Wright Brothers' First Fatal Airplane Crash

1908 – The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes, killing Selfridge. He becomes the first airplane fatality

1916 –Manfred von Richthofen (“The Red Baron“), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France, in World War I

1928 – The Okeechobee hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing more than 2,500 people. It is the third deadliest natural disaster in United States history, behind the Galveston hurricane of 1900 & the 1906 San Francisco earthquake

1939 –The Soviet Union joins Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland in World War II

1939 –German submarine U-29 sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous in World War II

1948 – The Lehi, also known as the Stern gang, assassinates Count Folke Bernadotte, who was appointed by the United Nations to mediate between the Arab nations & Israel. Lehi = “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel” was a Zionist paramilitary organization founded by Avraham (“Yair”) Stern in Palestine. Its aim was to evict the British authorities from Palestine by force, allowing unrestricted immigration of Jews & the formation of a Jewish state, a ‘new totalitarian Hebrew republic’

U.N. Renews Push to Solve Its Biggest Mystery: Hammarskjold's Death - The New York Times

1961 – Deathday of Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish diplomat, economist, author & the second secretary-general of the United Nations. Soon after his appointment Hammarskjöld was interviewed on radio by Edward R. Murrow. In this talk he declared: “But the explanation of how man should live a life of active social service in full harmony with himself as a member of the community of spirit, I found in the writings of those great medieval mystics [Meister Eckhart and Jan van Ruysbroek] for whom ‘self-surrender’ had been the way to self-realization, and who in ‘singleness of mind’ and ‘inwardness’ had found strength to say yes to every demand which the needs of their neighbours made them face, and to say yes also to every fate life had in store for them when they followed the call of duty as they understood it.”

He was en route to negotiate a cease-fire on 18 September when his plane crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia. Hammarskjöld & fifteen others died in the crash. The circumstances of the incident are still not clear. There is some evidence that suggests the plane was shot down. Göran Björkdahl (a Swedish aid worker) wrote in 2011 that he believed Dag Hammarskjöld’s 1961 death was a murder committed in part to benefit mining companies like Union Minière, after Hammarskjöld had made the UN intervene in the Katanga crisis. Björkdahl based his assertion on interviews with witnesses of the plane crash & on archival documents. Former U.S. President Harry Truman commented that Hammarskjöld “was on the point of getting something done when they killed him. Notice that I said ‘when they killed him’.”

1978 – The Camp David Accords brokered by President Jimmy Carter, is signed by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin

2001 – The New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 attacks, the longest closure since the Great Depression

2006 – Fourpeaked Mountain in Alaska erupts, marking the first eruption for the long-dormant volcano in at least 10,000 years

Occupy Wall Street 2.0: Protesters Go High-Tech - WSJ

2011 – Occupy Wall Street movement begins in Zuccotti Park, New York City

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
AUTUMN PRELUDE IV
The Fruit Of Will
v24
In constant self-creation
the soul grows self-aware;
the spirit of the world strives onward
in new self-knowledge re-enlivened,
creating from the darkness of the soul
the sense of selfhood’s harvest of the will.

MICHAELMAS IV
Michaelic Hope
v29
To have the inner fire
to kindle thinking’s radiance
and draw the meaning of experience
from worldwide spirit’s well of power
is now for me the summer’s heritage,
is autumn’s peace… and winter’s hope.

30 September 2023 –

Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day

Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 –

Food for Thought

The time for biodynamic preparation making is come up again very soon.
We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and work in soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year?
Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye and thank you.
Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info

Bio~hag

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