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!

The Fig Tree & the Cleansing of the Temple

Insights into Holy Monday (an excerpt from “The Three Years” by Emil Bock)

Holy Monday fig

«Christ approaches the fig tree and wishes to show the disciples how little value should be attached to the “Hosanna” of the previous day. All that it represented was the last fruits of the old visionary clairvoyance, given by nature, and bound to the body. The words He addresses to the fig tree are a challenge to the whole realm of ancient ecstatic vision.
Here a momentous decision is made in the history of mankind. Christ rejects a temptation.
Had He allied Himself with the ancient clairvoyant forces, He might have found public recognition. Not only people would have cried “Hosanna”; they would have crowned Him King. Jesus rejects the Hosannas of the people, and Himself brings about the transition to their cry, “Crucify Him”.

He is the Sun and when the Sun rises, the Moon perforce goes pale. So the moon-forces of the old vision fade away.

Then in the evening The Christ appears before the Temple. >>
Matthew 21:12-13 “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

Holy Monday

Easter-Tide Study throughout Holy Week
(Chapter 10 of “The Three Years” by Emil Bock)
at The Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

March 21-26th, 7pm-9pm

Including Eurythmy with Peter Vine – The 7-pointed Star
(Steiner called it the Heptagram of the Lamb)

If you would like a copy of the text contact Hazel ReverseRitual@gmail.com

~ ~ ~

Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society,
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618
Check out our Web site! Chicago, IL (Anthroposophical Society in America)http://www.anthroposophy.org/groups/chicago-il/

The Old Sun

Blessings on this Palm Sunday/Vernal Equinox –

Palm Sunday

«Christ enters the Holy City on the first day of Holy Week. It is at first
an unpretentious sight. He rides through the gate of the city upon a
donkey, followed by His faithful believers. But suddenly, as though
he were the God of Spring himself, His entry creates frenzy in the souls
of the people. It is as though the crowd were seized with the ecstasy
of a pagan Spring Festival. Primitive rites are revived when the people
cast down palm branches from the trees.

The palm has always ranked as the tree-symbol of the sun which shines in the Spring sky
with renewed strength. The crowd spread His path with the symbol of the sun.

Is He in fact perhaps the Friend and Lord of the Sun who has been promised
to man as the great King of the Light? Is the original spiritual significance
of the city of Jerusalem to be released from enchantment, the city which sheltered on
Mount Zion one of the oldest sun-sanctuaries of mankind, before it was overshadowed
by Mount Moriah, the Mount of the Moon, with the Temple of Solomon?
Has the time of Melchisededek, the great Sun-Initiate, come back?

It would appear as though the Christ had now really found entrance
into humanity. The high Sun- Spirit has already lived for three years
in a human body and undergone earthly destiny. He held back
and kept silence; and whenever He stepped forward He was met with
hostility and lack of understanding. Is all this now to take a new direction?
Is destiny to find a solution in an ecstatic jubilation?

No…This is the beginning of the most solemn week in human history.
The same men who strew palms and break forth into fervid Hosannas
will shriek with fanatical hatred a few days later: “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
The Cross on Golgotha, the symbol of death, will companion the palm branch,
the symbol of life. It is the Christ Himself who brings about the
sudden reversal of feeling. He passes through the ecstatic crowd in silence,
with grave countenance. He sees through the acclamations; they are
merely superficial, and He aims at deeper levels. His will is directed to
something very different.» ~ from “The Three Years” by Emil Bock

Easter-Tide Study throughout Holy Week
(Chapter 10 of “The Three Years” by Emil Bock) Including Eurythmy with Peter Vine
at The Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

Beginning TODAY, Palm Sunday March 20th, 2pm-4pm,
Snacks to Share Encouraged –
To celebrate the Spring Equinox We will dye eggs after the study

then, M-F: March 21-26th, 7pm-9pm

If you would like a copy of the text contact Hazel ReverseRitual@gmail.com

~ ~ ~

Easter Festival:
‘A Path to the Dawning’
4pm -6pm, Easter Sunday March 27th
at The Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

Midwest Eurythmy Group to Perform:
‘Hallelujah’ & the Easter Calendar of the Soul Verse by Rudolf Steiner

Lecture: Encountering the Inner Layers of the Earth as a Christian/Rosicrucian Initiation,
in relation to the Beatitudes and the 9-fold human being. by Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Live Music: Clark Remington – Prelude and Fugue by Bach

Group Eurythmy – Hallelujah

$10 donation goes to the Midwest Eurhythmy Group

A side-dish to Share Encouraged! (We will have our traditional Lamb Roast!)

For more info. Contact Hazel ReverseRitual@gmail.com

~ ~ ~

Member Initiative Event:

Beauty in Motion – Countering the Machine Civilization
with Kelly Calegar from Durham, NC

Easter Monday March 28th 12:45pm – 3pm
at the Christian Community 2135 W. Wilson Ave Chicago, Il 60625
Donation goes to the Christian Community

The Divine Will is revealed in movement. In this endeavor we will be moving together
in choreographed geometric forms for the integration of mindfulness and warmth of heart.
All of our actions are grounded in movement, including our speech, which involves
the movement of air through the larynx. The movements of the heavenly bodies are
intimately related with the beat of heart and lung. Aligning with the Divine Will
changes the way we move through space, and relate to each other.
It births Grace and Beauty in our ‘life body’, which we share with a human world
lacking in both Grace and Beauty – qualities of the Divine Feminine.

“Our purpose is to imitate, to absorb the movement of the world into ourselves
through our limbs. What do we do then? We dance. . .All true dancing has arisen from
imitating in the limbs the movement carried out by the planets, by other heavenly bodies
or by the earth itself. . .When the limbs carry out the harmonious cosmic movements
of the universe, …the soul… begins to sing.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Study of Man, p. 144

For more information contact Deborah Rogers: beewisdom33@yahoo.com

~ ~ ~

Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society,
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618
Check out our Web site! Chicago, IL (Anthroposophical Society in America) http://www.anthroposophy.org/groups/chicago-il/

 

Holy Week

Rudolf Steiner speaks about the Mystery of Golgotha as a spiritual event that takes place on the stage of humanity. The events leading up to this mystery are a preparation for this sublime deed that stands at the center of attention for a living cosmos. The Earth is the spiritual center during the sacred Holy Week.

But this position is not arrived at simply because it is Palm Sunday on our calendar, it defined by a relational gesture occurring between Sun & Moon relative to Earth each year. Our task is to discern the meaning in this gesture by considering when in the course of the Holy Week it takes place.

Each year, the date of Easter is determined by the First Full Moon after the Sun crosses the celestial equator, which we refer to as the Vernal Equinox. (Palm Sunday, 11:30am) Easter does not immediately follow the Vernal Equinox, this would imply a dictatorial nature in the Sun. Rather, the Sun returns north of the celestial equator, & waits…The Sun waits for the Moon to arrive at Full phase, which means it stands opposite the Sun from the Earth, occurring for the first time in the year below the celestial equator. This Full Moon will always occur during the Holy Week, but it will be on a different day from one year to the next.

What does it mean when the Full Moon falls on the Wednesday of Holy Week?
What can it mean when that Full Storm Moon is totally eclipsed by the shadow of the Earth? (Lunar eclipse, March 23rd, 6:47am in Libra)

Come join our Easter-Tide Study throughout Holy Week
(Excerpts from “The Three Years” by Emil Bock)

Beginning: Palm Sunday March 20th, 2pm-4pm, (which is also the Vernal Equinox!)
then, M-F: March 21-26th, 7pm-9pm

And our Easter Festival: A Path to the Dawning, 4pm -6pm, Sunday March 27th

If you would like a copy of the text contact Hazel ReverseRitual@gmail.com

lunar-eclipse-cartoon-lrg.en

~ ~ ~

Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society,
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618

 

 

Window Display

Greetings Friends –

In an effort to beautify the Rudolf Steiner Branch, All are Welcome
to help us design & create a ‘Waldorf Inspired Nature scene’
for our storefront windows, celebrating SPRING!!!
4pm – 6:45pm on St. Patrick’s Day, Thursday March 17th 2016.
Bring your (non-denominational) Spring Treasures
(We will return them when we change the scene for each season)

Soup provided, side-dish or snacks to share encouraged!

“When Goethe was seven he built himself an altar to nature, taking his father’s music stand and placing on it plants from his father’s herbarium and also minerals and crowning it all with a little incense candle that he lit by focusing the beams of the morning sun with a burning-glass; an offering to the great god of nature, a rebellion against everything imposed on him by education”. ~Rudolf Steiner, Practical Advice to Teachers: Fourteen lectures given at the foundation of the Waldorf School, Stuttgart, from 21 August to 5 September 1919.
spring goddess watercolor

~ ~ ~

Easter-Tide Study throughout Holy Week
Excerpts from “The Three Years” by Emil Bock
Beginning: Palm Sunday March 20th, 2pm-4pm,
then, M-F: March 21-26th, 7pm-9pm

If you would like a copy of the text contact Hazel ReverseRitual@gmail.com

Palm Sunday – The old Sun
Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem – The Prophesy fulfilled

Holy Monday
The fig tree, symbol of the old clairvoyance, cursed –
Moon-forces must be renewed -The cleansing of the Temple

Holy Tuesday (a Lunar Eclipse this year)
Conflict with opponents – bending the Mars sprit to His purposes
An Apocalyptic future revealed

Holy Wednesday
Mary Magdalene’s pre-burial anointing
Judas’s betrayal – the 2 sides of Mercury: Healer /Thief

Maundy Thursday (Last Supper)
Christ washes the feet of the disciples & administers to them
the new sacrament – King Jupiter’s benevolence

Good Friday
Love’s Sacrificial Death – the transformation of the Venus-principle
Thru the Sun-principle of Christ – the rending of the Temple Veil

Holy Saturday (The Harrowing of Hell)
Christ laid in the tomb is taken by the quake into the grave of the earth
Saturn darkness becomes Easter Light, healing the realm of the dead

Easter Sunday – The New Sun
The Octave of Resurrection – Mary Magdalene meets the Angels
& sees the ‘Gardener’ – The Risen One in His Spirit-Body

~ ~ ~

Spring Tomasz-Alen-Kopera

Easter Festival: A Path to the Dawning
Sunday March 27th – 4pm -6pm (note the time change!)

Midwest Eurythmy Group to Perform ‘Hallelujah’ & the Easter Calendar
of the Soul Verse by Rudolf Steiner

Lecture: : Encountering the Inner Layers of the Earth as a Christian/Rosicrucian Initiation,
in relation to the Beatitudes and the 9-fold human being by Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Live Music: Clark Remington – Prelude and Fugue by Bach

Group Eurythmy: Hallelujah

$10 donation goes to the Midwest Eurhythmy Group –

Snacks to Share encouraged!

All events at The Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago
For more info. Contact Hazel ReverseRitual@gmail.com

The Bridging Project

Dear Members and Friends of Anthroposophy in the Central Region-

The Bridging Project: Between Life and Death from Soul to Soul

We have begun the study for our new CRC Initiative: Rudolf Steiner’s lecture cycle entitled Historical Necessity and Freewill given in Dornach, December 9, 1917. This will provide the study content for our work together in addition to inviting special guests to offer fruits from out of their research and work. This collection of lectures has been republished under the title: “The Influence of the Dead on Destiny”, here is the link: https://steiner.presswarehouse.com/books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=179577

From these first steps we have laid out a series of “go-to-meeting” conference calls to which all members and friends interested in delving into this topic are warmly invited.

The audioconference invitations will be sent out ahead of time for individuals to register or plan to call in on their telephones to join the call.
Each call will be an hour and a quarter from 7:15 – 8:30 pm CST (8:15 – 9:30 pm EST).

Meeting Schedule
April 27th with guest Marianne Dietzel: Communicating with our Beloved Dead

August 10th with guest Maureen Flannery: Home Funeral Alliance; Prompts for writing poetry for the dead

October 26th with guest Dwight Ebaugh: Life between death & Re-birth

February 1st 2017 with guest
Mark Miller: Spirit Parks, an alternative to cemeteries

May 3rd 2017 TBA

May love of hearts
reach out to love of souls
May warmth of love ray out
to Spirit-light
Even so would we draw near to you
Thinking with you
Thoughts of Spirit
Feeling in you the Love of Worlds
Consciously at one with you
Willing in silent being.
Rudolf Steiner

From the Central Regional Council, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Dennis Dietzel, Marianne Fieber-Dhara, Raven Garland and Alberto Loya

veil-michael-sophia (1)

~   ~   ~

TODAY! on St. Patrick’s Day, Thursday March 17th 2016.
4pm – 6:45pm
Come help design & create
A ‘Waldorf Inspired Nature scene’
for our storefront windows, celebrating SPRING!!!
Bring your (non-denominational) Spring Treasures:
lots of green silks, flowers, animals with their babies, birds building nests, etc…
(We will return them when we change the scene for each season)
for info. contact Hazel ReverseRitual@gmail.com
GC-083-21 Trinity shamrock.indd

~ ~ ~

Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society,
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618
Check out our Web site!
Chicago, IL (Anthroposophical Society in America)

http://www.anthroposophy.org/groups/chicago-il/