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 →
~I carry into the clouds the life of earth, the breath of my body a pulse of prose gained from pain the twists of fate given into with pleasure an opening to moisture an opportunity seized & released… ~hag
Greetings friends – Here we are: Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, (רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה, literally “head of the year“) the first of the High Holy Days or Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe), a two-day celebration that starts tonight at sunset, as the New Moon makes her way into the light. It weds seriousness with celebration & begins the 10 days of repentance that culminate in Yom Kippur. This festival is believed to be the anniversary of the creation of Adam & Eve, acknowledging their first actions toward the realization of humanity’s role in the world.
Ben Heloc
The 1st panel of the Foundation Stone Meditation askes us to ‘Practice Spirit Recalling.” Recognizing ancient traditions, we can renewal time honored themes that still apply today:
The New Year focuses our attention on themes of discernment, repentance, memory & the Divine presence in the world (The Shekinah). At the same time, Rosh Hashanah invites us to celebrate birth & creation on many levels. The liturgy suggests that Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of the world.
Family-oriented services often include a birthday cake for the world. Customs include sounding the shofar (a hollowed-out ram’s horn) & eating symbolic foods such as apples dipped in honey to emphasize the sweetness of starting the cycle of seasons once again; & round challah to remind us of the cycles of life.
What is your birthday wish for the world? Are you willing to personally practice themes like forgiveness, as you recall that the Divine essence is in all that lives?
How can you bring sweetness into life – making everyday a ‘Day of Awe’ – pulsing with reverence & wonder?
How are YOUR thoughts, words, deeds, adding to the re-creation of the world?
Marc Chagall
La Shanah Tovah – In Oneness with each other & the Universe –
~hag
15 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Venus will climb higher each morning to reach its greatest elongation on October 23. Mercury is just now coming into view, rising in the east shortly before sunup – in the bright morning twilight near Regulus far below brilliant Venus. Mercury will brighten during the rest of this month.
The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (Latin: Mater Dolorosa) The Seven Sorrows (or Dolors) are events in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary:
The Prophecy of Simeon. (Luke2:34–35)
The escape and Flight into Egypt. (Matthew2:13)
The Loss of the Child Jesusin the Temple of Jerusalem. (Luke 2:43–45)
The Meeting of Mary and Jesus on the Via Dolorosa.
The Crucifixion of Jesuson Mount Calvary. (John 19:25)
The Piercing of the Side of Jesus, and His Descent from the Cross. (Matthew 27)
The Burial of Jesusby Joseph of Arimathea. (John 19:40–42)
921 – At Tetin, Saint Ludmila, a Czech saint, the grandmother of Saint Wenceslaus, widely referred to as Good King Wenceslaus, is murdered at the command of her daughter-in-law, Drahomíra, who was jealous of Ludmila’s influence over Wenceslaus. Antonín Dvořák composed his oratorio Svatá Ludmila for her
1254 – Birthday of Marco Polo, Italian merchant & explorer
1616 – The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy
1821 – Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, & Costa Rica jointly declare independence from Spain
1916 –Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme World War I
1935 – The Nuremberg Laws deprive German Jews of citizenship
1935 – Nazi Germany adopts a new national flag bearing the swastika
1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt & Winston Churchill meet in Quebec as part of the World War II Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.
1945 – A hurricane strikes southern Florida & the Bahamas, destroying 366 airplanes & 25 blimps at Naval Air Station Richmond, 230 die
1947 – Typhoon Kathleen hit the Kanto Region in Japan killing 1,077
1961 – Hurricane Carla strikes Texas with winds of 175 miles per hour, kills 23
1963 – 16th Street Baptist Church bombing , an act of white supremacist terrorism, in Birmingham, Alabama, occurred when four members of the Ku Klux Klan planted at least 15 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the front steps of the church.Described by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as “one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity”. The explosion killed four girls & injured 22 others.
No prosecutions ensued of the Klan members involved until 1977, when Robert Chambliss was tried & convicted of the first degree murder of one of the victims, 11-year-old Carol Denise McNair. Thomas Blanton & Bobby Cherry were each convicted of four counts of murder & sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 & 2002, but Herman Cash, was never charged .
The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing marked a turning point in the United States during the Civil Rights Movement & contributed to support for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
1966 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation
1968 – The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere
1971 – The first Greenpeace ship sets sail to protest against nuclear testing on Amchitka Island
1972 – A Scandinavian Airlines System domestic flight is hijacked
1974 – Air Vietnam Flight 706 is hijacked, then crashes while attempting to land with 75 on board
2008 – Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history
Free Money Day is an annual, global event held since 2011 as a social experiment to promote sharing & alternative economic ideas. The day is held annually on September 15, the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers’ 2008 filing for bankruptcy. Participants offer their own money to passing strangers at public places, two coins or notes at a time. Recipients are asked to pass on one of the notes or coins to someone else
International Day of Democracy …’democracy is a universal value based on the freely-expressed will of people to determine their own political, economic, social and cultural systems, and their full participation in all aspects of life’
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.
Greetings friends on this Eve of the New Moon – I am striving, like you, thru Spiritual Science, in the continual digestion of past, present & future world events, to not only uncover the supersensible reality behind the various physically manifested phenomenon – naming the forces working in what we see out-pictured in our collective reality – but also to ask questions?
And one of the main questions many of us are asking is: How can we affect positive change?
We know that as individuals we are tasked with consistently practicing the inner development work described in Rudolf Steiner’s basic book: ‘How to Know Higher Worlds’. This first step is a life-long process, not a theory – but a conscious Initiatory practice… – Then with a firm moral foundation that allows us to build new spiritual organs, we are meant to join our gifts together to build the Temple of the New Mysteries – A Michaelic Oasis/Fortress that enables us to counteract the adversarial forces thru our collective endeavor – which involves rising in our thinking to meet the spiritual beings who are willing to work as our allies for the highest evolution of humanity.
Here on RR we have brought forth the intention to co-create change thru what I call: Project Thought-Seed (Egregore 10:10 )
Do you feel as I do that we must become spiritual warriors? We cannot realistically hope to affect change by physical means alone. The 3-fold Social Organism is in deep dis-ease. The Economic & Political realms are thoroughly corrupt, so in re-awakening the moral civil center of the Spiritual/Educational/Cultural realm in freedom, we can endeavor to take up the practice of building up affirmative imaginations on the inner planes as a counterforce to the adversarial powers working in the world.
This kind of willed-visualizationbecomes a “key-call” to the Spiritual Powers aligned with love & light, to enlist their aid.
Our collective Good Will can form a cosmic energy field for healing – planting what Dion Fortune called “Seed ideas in the group mind of humanity” to co-create intentions for our Highest human evolution – that the Earth may become a Sacred Planet – a Sun – & every Human Being a Star.“What is sown in our highest thought will grow and bear seed.” It only takes the square root of any number of people to create true change.
To further explain ‘the working’, we can do together, let’s look at what this positive group energy can be, from a spiritual scientific point of view:
An egregore is a positive group thought-form, & when intentionally created, becomes a kind of ‘entity’ with the power to help & influence.
Whenever we meditate, pray, study a sacred image, or create an inspiring work of science, art, or literature, we radiate into time & space positive thoughts & emotions which benefit the all. Thru concentration exercises we can build Thought-Forms in the astral where we can meet in spirit.
Our goal is to co-create a new ‘Group-Soul United in Christ’ – which has the power to affect the ultimate positive change we want to see in the world.
As a psychic ‘entity’, the egregore exists between the material & spiritual worlds, & is connected to both. It is a living creation of our highest intentions.
We have the power to manifest thought-forms of good will together –to collectively build a cognitive imagination of Michael-Christ-Sophia, protecting & embracing us with love & light.
The forces built up thru our collective egregore fortifies & sustains us. The intentional visualization of the Earth as a Sun, increases thru our efforts over time – becoming more & more realized thru our repeated affirmational actions.
Here is the Meditative Thought-Seed I have been working with:
For Thinking: “When I think light, my soul shines, When my soul shines, the Earth is a Star, When the Earth is a Star, I am, a true human being”. ~Herbert Hahn
I love to reverse the verses: I Am A True Human Being The Earth is a Star My Soul Shines I think Light
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
I Am A True I am The earth Resounds My Heart Sings I Feel Love
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
I Am A Free Human Being The Earth Heals My Hands Help I Will Life
~ hag
Of course just a simple moment of sending your good will out into the ethers is potent too.
If you are interested you can read about the origins for this Thought-Experiment which came about during the start of the Corona Crisis.
So dear friends, here is something we can actually do to counteract evil – to make our world a better place.
I hope to see you in the ethers every day 10:10 AM, (&/or PM) (but please don’t worry if you can’t tune in at 10:10, just do it whenever you think of it, which may be many times a day, or perhaps only occasionally, don’t stress it, just do what you can with a loving heart-mind)
~hag
RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler AUTUMN PRELUDE III The Yield Of Summer v23 In autumn haze the senses’ lure fades; a mist arising veils the light’s revealing. In widths of space I see the autumn landscape fall asleep; the summer’s yielded me her being for me to reap
This week’s octave is its mirror verse: the Celtic Wise Woman festival of Samhain [‘Summer’s End’] when the summer’s being begins to shine as the summer of the soul, the cosmic light living on with inner power.
SAMHAIN – HALLOWEEN The Summer Of The Soul v30 In sunlight of my soul the fruit of thinking ripens; all feeling turns to sureness of self-awareness. I joy to sense the autumn’s rousing of the spirit; within me will the winter wake the summer of the soul.
PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE: Due to the farm day at Angelic Organics we are changing our Chicago Festival to: FRIDAY 22 September 2023
Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire Celebrating
*Autumnal Equinox
*Yom Kippur
*Michaelmas Festival
6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile
Please Bring Food & Drink to share,& a jar for the prep
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.
Most folks can remember where they were, on that September morning, 22 years & counting ago.
It was autumn, & the new school year had just started. The Perseid meteor showers had been weak in 2001. Michaelmas was on my mind. My husband & I had slept late that day. My morning mediation was scattered, distracted. I went into the kitchen to make breakfast, my daughter, who was not yet 2 years old, was playing up in her room, when the phone rang. It was my friend Rowan. She was crying & whispering: ‘Turn on your TV’. I laughed & said ‘Rowan what is it? You know we don’t watch the tube”. She said ‘O Hazel honey, just turn it on’.
We were in shock. I don’t have to go into what we all felt at that world turning moment.
We tuned off the TV, & I called to see if school was still in session. The folks at the Chicago Waldorf School said, yes, stressing how we all needed to keep the media away from the young ones. In a daze I got the girl ready for our parent/child class. While the children played, the parents sat, quiet, nodding to each other, holding the sacred space for the innocents, speaking only with our eyes about what we had seen.
When I got home my husband said the 2nd tower was hit -The horrendous images repeating in an endless loop on every screen.
Miguel Tio
For many days after, when I would take my girl for walks, or wherever I was, – at work, at the market, I felt a deepened connection to my fellow human beings. People looked each other in the eyes. Folks were kind, helpful, really considerate, even in traffic. We were all brothers & sisters, bonded by this world altering event.
We were all one. Humanity united that day.
In trying to make sense of it all, I thought, perhaps this horrible tragedy would become a catalyst for true change. I saw it as a loosening of our collective etheric bodies, providing an opportunity for the angels to work with us, opening humanity to a threshold experience, an initiation, preparing us for the sister/brotherhood of the next epoch.
Remember how still, & quiet it was under clear blue skies in those 1st few days, after, when all the air traffic was halted? Peaceful, heightened, open.
But soon the shock, & vulnerable open eyed connection gave way to patriotic rhetoric; hateful & boiling, it radiated out infecting the planet. And anyone not jumping on the war wagon was called unpatriotic / trader / ’conspiracy theory’ lunatic, & roundly silenced.
Lies became truth. Phantoms became reality. Blood was exchanged for oil. Corporations became people. Our civil liberties were bought & sold. Homeland security invaded our right to privacy – The human soul oppressed by systematic illusion.
Never mind that VP Dick Cheney was running the largest war-games exercise at the same time as the ‘attacks’. Never mind the connection of the Saudi’s with the Bush dynasty. Never mind the mind, for thinking had been outlawed.
The fallout from 9/11 continues, but perhaps with time, truths will continue to surface bringing change & healing, AND there is always help from the ever present spiritual world, if we look for it. Michael will continue to pour his cosmic iron into our blood; it is up to us to use it to tame the dragon.
David T Nelson
“For once, therefore, a man woke up and saw that what mattered was not to proclaim democracy but to see the full reality, not to follow slogans, but to see things as they are. This would be particularly important today, for people would then realize that the events which reign with such blood and terror over the whole of humanity are guided and directed from just a few centers. People will never realize this if they persist in the delusion that nation is fighting nation, and allow the European and American Press to lull them to sleep over the kinds of relations that are said to exist between nations.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Fall of the Spirits of Darkness, : Lecture 14: Into the Future, Dornach, 28 October 1917
Dear Friends, This entire series of lectures: The Spiritual Background of the External World, given at the end of 1917 following 4 horrific years of WW1 – The war that begot every war since – gives Spiritually Scientific insights into the complex forces working behind the scenes. Revealing how most of humanity is asleep to the fact that fallen spirits, cast out of the spiritual worlds, have become intensely active on earth – working particularly in people’s thinking, & in their false perception of world events. It also gives a thru-line that says the defeat & fall of these spirits is ensured when we apply a science of the spirit which is available to us & needed now more than ever.
Insider Traders Knew About Attacks Before They Happened. Right before the 9/11 attacks, some fishy business happened within the stock market & insurance firms. An “extraordinary” amount of put options were placed on United Airlines & American Airlines stocks, the same airlines that were hijacked during the attacks. Many speculate that traders were tipped off about the attacks & profited from the tragedy. The Securities & Exchange Commission launched an insider trading investigation in which Osama bin Laden was a suspect, after receiving information from at least one Wall Street firm.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) generals reported that they learned of the hijackings in time to scramble fighter jets, but that they were ordered to stand down ‘because it was a part of a Military war game’.
Is this just like Pearl Harbor? Did our government want to use the attacks to justify an invasion on Iraq & Afghanistan to secure oil interests?
Commercial airplanes’ frames are constructed with a very light aluminum material in order to make it easier to fly. Some believe that missiles or explosives were used to ensure the buildings collapsed. Many scientists & engineers say it looked like a controlled demolition. Many speculate that the towers were in fact blown down with explosives placed in selected locations. Some witnesses recounted hearing explosions inside the building as they attempted to escape. Many architects even maintain that a plane’s fuel cannot produce enough heat to melt the steel frames of the two buildings that collapsed.
The Pentagon crash may be the most puzzling event of the day. Theorists maintain that the impact holes in the Pentagon were much smaller than a commercial American Airlines plane. They also question why the plane was not shot down prior to impact, as well as why the plane impacted a section of the Pentagon that was vacant due to renovations.
According to official reports, the passengers onboard Flight 93 attempted to take back the plane from the hijackers & the subsequent struggle caused the aircraft to crash into an open field in Pennsylvania. As with the Pentagon attack, theorists state that very little plane wreckage was actually discovered in the field – that the crash site itself was too small for an airliner that size, arguing instead that the plane was shot down by the military & so it disintegrated over a larger area.
In the aftermath of the attacks, passports & identification were found as evidence. How did the passports of the terrorists made out of paper survive the same explosion that destroyed buildings?
The vision of St. John ~el Greco
I know you are tired dear friend. It’s all so much. And I know today is an emotional day – But together we can continue to ask urgent & difficult questions, so that we may share healing, which often comes thru shattering insights. This can help us achieve humanity’s highest evolution.
Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn
We can’t rest until we reveal what lies at the root of the corona – our individual & collective Crown – vs. the ‘virus’, & the worldwide pandemic it has caused. What are the deeper, spiritual realities? Which entities stand behind this world-wide-illness? What can we do to meet this? How can we be spiritually hygienic? What therapeutic practices can we employ?
~hag
Is this present world situation meant to be seen as part of a larger series of world-events? – Can we find the connections? All of humanity is being called upon to respond in a radically transformative way. How will we face the issues relating to government lockdowns, police corruption, & the rise of the protest movements that have sprung up in opposition to them. How do these events point to real questions of individual freedom – not a selfish ‘me 1st freedom’, but a true freedom based on love, good will & compassion toward everyone?
~hag
And above all, how does all this relate to the essential event of our time – The revealing of The Christ in the etheric; which remains largely hidden behind the veil of materialism?
Here are a few recordings around these important themes:
1932 – Deathday of Fritz Lemmermayer – an Austrian writer, journalist, & close childhood friend of Rudolf Steiner in Vienna.
His father was a portrait painter, his mother a pianist. The shy boy had a particularly close relationship with her and his sister Marie. When Fritz was eight years old, his father died and his mother had to support four underage children under difficult circumstances, and Fritz had to help earn money from then on.
He studied philosophy, history and literature and discovered his love for poetry and soon wrote for a wide variety of journals. His large circle of friends also included the poets Robert Hamerling and Fercher von Steinwand Above all, however, Fritz was also an ardent admirer of Friedrich Hebbel and Richard Wagner , in whose house he visited regularly. His initial inclination towards Schopenhauer’s pessimistic philosophy soon gave way to an unshakable belief in the healing powers of the world Love . A passionate anti-materialist, he wanted to dedicate his life to creating and nurturing spiritual values.
In 1883, Fritz Lemmermayer completed his novel “The Alchemist”, his most important literary achievement, for which Hamerling also found very appreciative words. In 1884, his beloved sister Marie, who had been married to the musician Carl Udel, a confidante of Crown Prince Rudolf , died, which meant that Lemmermayer learned much of the Crown Prince’s life from close quarters. Lemmermayer’s mother also died in 1886 .
Rudolf Steiner met Lemmermayer in the same year 1886 in the circle of the poet Marie Eugenie delle Grazie . An extensive exchange of letters testifies to the close friendship that developed between the two. In “ My Journey ” Steiner reports: “He had just prepared his own meal: two soft eggs on a high-speed cooker; plus bread. He spoke with emphasis as the water surged to boil our eggs: “This will be delicious.” (Lit .: GA 028, p. 141f )
Lemmermayer and Steiner also joined the Vienna artists’ circle, which met weekly in the house of the Protestant pastor Alfred Formey (1844-1901) and his wife Marie on Dorotheergasse. Christine Hebbel , Friedrich Hebbel’s widow, also frequented here .
“It was also in 1888 when I was introduced to the house of the Viennese Protestant pastor Alfred Formey. Once a week a circle of artists and writers gathered there. Alfred Formey had appeared as a poet himself. Fritz Lemmermayer characterized him from the hearts of friends out like this: “Warm-hearted, intimate in his feeling for nature, enthusiastic, almost drunk in faith in God and happiness, this is how Alfred Formey writes his poems in soft, roaring chords. It is as if his step did not touch the hard earth, but as if he was going up in the clouds dozing and dreaming.” And that’s how Alfred Formey was as a person. You felt quite distant when you came to this rectory and at first there were only the master and the housewife there.” ( Lit .: GA 028, p. 157f)
In 1891, Lemmermayer became vice president of the Iduna Writers’ Association , named after Iduna , the Nordic goddess of youth and immortality , which had been founded as a counterweight against the currents of naturalism and in particular against the Young Vienna group led by Hermann Bahr .
After Steiner went to Weimar in the fall of 1890 to work on the publication of Goethe’s scientific writings for the large Weimar Goethe edition , Lemmermayer’s friendship with Martin Greif deepened. In 1893, Lemmermayer published his tragedy “Simson and Delilah,” which ends with the words: “Blessed is it to leave this world of madness and confusion.”
On September 24 , 1924, Lemmemayer was the victim of a dramatic incident. During a walk on the castle grounds in Brodzany, he was attacked by several dogs and was so badly injured from neck to feet that he had to stay in bed for six months. Fever, thrombosis and bilateral pneumonia brought him to the brink of death. It was only thanks to the self-sacrificing care of the then 23-year-old Heinz Robert von Wallpach that he was able to leave his sick bed for the first time at the end of March 1925 and soon afterwards moved to Vienna accompanied by his nurse.
In Vienna, Lemmermayer lived at Neubaugasse 29 until his death. He now got to know and appreciate Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy better and became a member of the Anthroposophical Society in 1926 . In 1927, Lemmermayer fell ill with a severe and rare form of measles and a new case of pneumonia. He now connected more and more with Steiner’s spiritual science and on many journeys through Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland and England he spoke in his subtle way about the time he spent with Steiner in Vienna and also cultivated the memory of Robert Hamerling and Fercher von Steinwand. This resulted in theIn 1929 he published memories of Rudolf Steiner, Robert Hamerling and some personalities of Austrian intellectual life in the 1980s . In addition, Lemmermayer also published some articles in the weekly magazine “ Das Goetheanum ”. ~Anthrowiki
Saturday 23 September 2023
Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire Celebrating
*Autumnal Equinox
*Yom Kippur
*Michaelmas Festival
6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile
Please Bring Food & Drink to share,& a jar for the prep
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.
Greetings freinds – Here is today’s essay on the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast
The Virtue associated with Virgo is: Courtesy becomes Steadiness of Feeling.
In taking up the work of understanding Mary Magdalene in her overcoming of the 7 demons, to become ‘She who anoints the Anointed One’ – I have been working with the 12 virtues as the antidote – turning those vices into virtues.
Being a double Cancer with a Pisces Moon, this virtue of Equanimity or steadiness of Feeling has never been my strong suit – too much water! But the other day it also dawned on me that perhaps it’s partly because I have always looked on ‘courtesy’ as a false societal mask, a convention that my – ‘Say it like it is’ attitude didn’t allow me to fully appreciate; especially since my dear mother, who always very courteous, another Cancer native, was often martyred. So, I thought I had to be tough – I didn’t want to be walked on like she was. But I know that because of this need to adjust to my childhood experiences, I have often let my hard crabby shell be too heavy an armor. And it hurts that some can see me as aloof, thinking my need to protect my overly sensitive feeling life is a conceit. And yet it woke me up to seek to understand & deal with my own vulnerability.
And I see that to practice this virtue I must also deal with my impatience. I must learn to see that tolerance, & patient interest, is the real form of courtesy. It shows me that to be kind, to be truly courteous, I have to practice a real ‘steadfastness of feeling’ the virtue seen in the 6 basic exercises as Equinimity. – It can’t come from a rule outside me, an unconscious convention, a dutiful patent ‘please & thank you’, or an overt inconsiderateness – but from a tactful heart, centered in equanimity, bringing a calm sobriety & the resolve to cultivate & harvest right relationship.
Erdal Bölükbaşı
We are in the season cycle when the contemplative Virgin of the heavens holds the Sun forces, sparking wholeness, to gather us up in her blue mantle, like ears of corn. We are brought home from the far fields of Summer.
The constellation of the Virgin has always been regarded since the ancient mysteries, as the bearer of the bread of life – Full-filled at the ‘Turning Point of Time’ in the ‘miracle of the loaves & the fishes’, as well as the ‘Last Supper’ & in the birth of the Sun into humanity.
If cosmic provisions are to become nourishment for the Higher Self – The “I”, we must make a connection with the powers of the depths, which lie opposite the Virgin along the axis of the Zodiac, in the constellation of Pisces, the sign of the Fishes. With this balance of Above & Below we can truly feed the “I” – & say as St. John The Divine did: “I am the Bread of Life”!
This begs the question, which our current culture has to answer: How can the food of life, which is so often taken in unconsciously, in greedy gulps -instead, be taken up & internalized with a wakeful & reverent consciousness?
If the Bread of Life is to be fully digested by the “I”, then what is required is the destruction of our selfish desires, making us ‘virgin’ again, Whole – that we may give birth to the ‘Christ in me’, to preserve & focus the activity of the will, freeing the “I” from outdated husks, to feed the Christ self.
In the social realm, the royal virtue of courtesy brings the giddiness of summer’s unconscious expansion back into a steadfast feeling of thoughtful care. A soul hygiene that brings the pendulum into right relationship, just as every out-breath is followed by an in-breath –The austerity of the Virgin leading us into the balanced scales of Libra in preparation for Michaelmas.
This must be developed in the practice of our social life. If we practice this high ideal of courtesy, not just a surface, conventional politeness, we can acquire the right heart-felt feeling, which awakens an inner organ that can reveal to us the true being of the other person, as well as opening our connection to the elemental beings, that look to us to release them from the withering blooms.
~hag
“If the sheath-bearing Virgin, who draws near with golden rays of autumn sun, in the blue firmament, is to nourish you with what she provides, you must take up this food that is the Bread of Life in your innermost being.
That you can only do, when you develop not only your senses, but with them, open up the spirit of your soul to the world around you, & deepen in your heart the fruits of your life, that you gather, shape & organize. Only the right heartfelt tact gives you the possibility of recognizing the human being in others & of becoming aware of your own human nobility!” ~Rudolf Steiner
~Petr Horalek, Slovakia 09/09/2023 – 04:00 am – Comet C/2023 P1 Nishimura, discovered on 12 August by Hideo Nishimura from Japan, next to Venus (Occult Mercury).
720 – Death/Feast Day of Aubert of Avranches According to legend, in 708 he had a vision in which the Archangel Michael instructed him to build an oratory on the rocky tidal island at the mouth of the Couesnon. Aubert did not pay attention to this vision at first, until in exasperation Michael appeared to him again, this time driving his finger into Aubert’s skull & ordering him to complete the task again. Michael is said to have appeared to him a total of three times. After this the oratory was built.
The relic of Aubert’s skull, complete with hole where the archangel’s finger pierced it, can still be seen at the Saint-Gervais Basilica in Avranches.
1305 – Death/Feast Day of Nicholas of Tolentino, known as the Patron of Holy Souls, was an Italian saint &mystic. There are many tales & legends which relate to Nicholas. One says the devil once beat him with a stick, which was then displayed for years in his church. In another, Nicholas, a vegetarian, was served a roasted fowl, for which he made the sign of the cross, & it flew out a window. Nine passengers on a ship going down at sea once asked Nicholas’ aid, & he appeared in the sky, wearing the black Augustinian habit, radiating golden light, holding a lily in his left hand, & with his right hand, he quelled the storm. An apparition of the saint, it is said, once saved the burning palace of the Doge of Venice by throwing a piece of blessed bread on the flames. He was also reported to have resurrected over one hundred dead children, including several who had drowned together.
1509 – An earthquake known as “The Lesser Judgment Day” hits Constantinople killing over 2,000
1721 – The Treaty of Nystad was signed ending the twenty-one year Great Northern War between Russia & Sweden. Rudolf Steiner speaks about the significance of this in GA 119 Macrocosm/Microcosm: Lecture 6: Experiences of Initiation in the Northern Mysteries
1898 – Deathday of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I, Queen of Hungary & Queen consort of Croatia and Bohemia. While travelling in Geneva in she was stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni who selected her because he had missed his chance to assassinate Prince Philippe, Duke of Orléans, & wanted to kill the next member of royalty that he saw. Elisabeth was the longest serving Empress-consort of Austria, at 44 years. Rudolf Steiner gives us much to think about concerning her destiny in this lecture – BEHIND THE SCENES OF EXTERNAL HAPPENINGS, GA 178, Lecture I, Zürick, 6th November, 1917
1919 – Austria & the Allies sign the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye recognizing the independence of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia & Yugoslavia
1933 – Deathday of A.W. Sellin, Anthroposopher & Fremason
1935 – Birthday of Mary Oliver, poet & author
1943 – World War II: German forces begin their occupation of Rome
2008 – The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in history, is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland
World Suicide Prevention Day
Saturday 23 September 2023
Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire Celebrating
*Autumnal Equinox
*Yom Kippur
*Michaelmas Festival
6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile
Please Bring Food & Drink to share,& a jar for the prep
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.
Greetings Friends – The Miraculous birth of someone who has a special destiny, is a big theme in myth & legend. These powerful tales often include interventions by a deity, an angel, some sort of supernatural elements, or profound astronomical signs, often accompanied by barreness in old age, or other hardships. Sometimes complex plots around the birth are related to creation myths or the progress of human evolution.
In the story of Krishna, the deity Vishnu is the agent of conception & also the offspring. Because of his sympathy for the earth, the divine Vishnu descended into the womb of Devaki & was born as her son, Krishna.
In Ancient Mesopotamia we hear that Ea (Sophia) Conceives Marduk. The conception of Horus by Isis is understood in terms of the Egyptian doctrine of parthenogenesis.
Mithra was born from the rock.
The Second Book of Enoch contains a section, called ‘Exaltation of Melchizedek’, which says that the Priest/King Melchizedek was conceived of a virgin, Sopanima, a brother of Noah – born after she died! Melchizedek sat on the bed beside her corpse, already fully grown, speaking & blessing the Lord, dressed with the badge of priesthood. Forty days later, Melchizedek was taken by the archangel Gabriel (Michael in some manuscripts) to the Garden of Eden to keep him safe from the Deluge without having to be in Noah’s Ark. Then later:
“And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine: and he is the priest of the most high God.” — Genesis 14:18–20
There is also a reflection in the Old Testament story of Hannah (also spelled Anna) the mother of the prophet Samuel. Childless, she prayed for a son, promising to dedicate him to God. Her prayers are answered, & she brings forth Samuel, giving him up to the Temple for religious training.
Alexander the Great (with the help of Artemis) the Ptolemies, & the Caesars were said to have been “virgin-born.”
Romulus & Remus, the legendary twin founders of the city of Rome, were born to a Vestal Virgin, Rhea Silvia, & raised by the Wolf Goddess.
The virgin Chimalman conceived Quetzalcoatl by swallowing an emerald.
Huitzilopochtli’s mother was Coatlicue – She of the Serpent Skirt. One day, while sweeping she discovers a bundle of feathers on the ground. She decides to save them placing them next to her heart. Without realizing, the feathers impregnate her.
~Bartolomé Esteban Perez Murillo, The Nativity of the Virgin Mary
I could go on & on with examples…But why am I thinking about this today – Well, According to the original Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner, TODAY is the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Mary’s September birth, with the Sun in the constellation Virgo, has ‘officially’ been celebrated since the 6th century. Also noteworthy – the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary is nine months earlier on 8 December.
St. Augustine connects Mary’s birth with the work of The Christ. He tells the earth to rejoice & shine forth in the light of her birth. “She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley. Through her birth the nature inherited from our first parents is changed...
Today the barren Anna claps her hands for joy, the earth radiates with light, kings sing their happiness, priests enjoy every blessing, the entire universe rejoices, for she who is queen and the Father’s immaculate bride buds forth from the stem of Jesse”
Anne, the mother of Mary, first appears in the 2nd-century Apocryphal Gospel of James. Anne & her husband, Joachim, (name of a pillar in the sacred Temple) are infertile, but God hears their prayers & Mary is conceived without sexual intercourse. – The story goes that Anna prayed beneath a laurel tree near their home in Galilee. Gabriel appeared & said: “Anne the Lord hath heard thy prayer & thou shalt conceive & bring forth, & thy seed shall be spoken of in all the world” Anna replied: “As the Lord my God liveth, I will bring this child as a gift to the Lord thy God in all Holiness.”
When Mary was 3 years old, Anna & Joachim took Mary to the Temple in Jerusalem where she entered into the inner Sanctuary, & they never saw her again in that life.
Legend has it that the body of “Good Saint Anna” was brought to France by Saint Mary Magdalene in 47 AD
Happy B-day BVM. May your miraculous birth work to awaken the virtuous tasks at hand, so that we may live into the potential of our human nobility… ~hag
~Chart via John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.
8 September 2023 – “Speaking with the stars”: The waning crescent moon is near the twin stars of Gemini: Castor & Pollux. Bright Venus (occult Mercury) will rise below them as morning twilight begins. Also, look for the bright star Procyon of Canis Minor the Lesser Dog shining nearby. Can you see earthshine glowing on the moon?
1504 – Michelangelo’s David is unveiled in Piazza della Signoria in Florence
1565 – The Knights of Malta lift the Ottoman siege of Malta, the climax of an escalating contest between a Christian alliance & the Islamic Ottoman Empire for control of the Mediterranean
1637 – Deathday of Robert Fludd, a prominent English Paracelsian physician & occultist, an astrologer, mathematician, cosmologist, Qabalist & Rosicrucian apologist.
1900 – Galveston hurricane: A powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000 people
1941 – World War II: Siege of Leningrad begins
1949 – Deathday of Richard Strauss, German composer
1978 – Black Friday, a massacre by soldiers against protesters in Tehran, provoked 700-3000 deaths, it marks the beginning of the end of the monarchy in Iran
1988 – Deathday of Dr Rita Leroi a few days before her 75th birthday. She attended the Stuttgart Waldorf School as a child. She went on to became a Clinical Assistant at the Ita Wegman Clinic in Arlesheim. She developed a deep interest in cancer & the Iscador treatment of this disease. In 1954 she married Dr Alexandre Leroi who was the leader of the Society for Cancer Research & Director of the Hiscia Research Institute in Arlesheim. It is here that Iscador is produced & researches into the many problems to be solved in developing it into an effective remedy are undertaken. In October 1963 the Lukas Klinik, devoted to the care & treatment of cancer patients, opened in Arlesheim & Rita Leroi became its Director & selected to be President of the International Anthroposophical Medical Association
Saturday 23 September 2023
Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire Celebrating
*Autumnal Equinox
*Yom Kippur
*Michaelmas Festival
6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile
Please Bring Food & Drink to share,& a jar for the prep
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.