1 August 2018 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The Southern Delta Aquariid meteor, is infusing us with cosmic iron, but the waning Moon remains in the sky all night, cutting the visibility. Still, it’s worth keeping an eye out for some “shooting stars” radiating from a point in the constellation Aquarius the Water-bearer.
Mars came closest to Earth yesterday just 5 days past the opposition with the Sun.
Venus dominates the western sky after sunset. The dazzling goddess of Love shines among the background stars of western Virgo. She appears an hour after sundown & sets just after 10 pm.
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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
“An ethical misunderstanding, a clash, is impossible among ethically free human beings. Only someone who is ethically unfree, who obeys natural drives or the conventional demands of duty, will thrust aside someone who does not follow the same instincts and the same demands. To live in love of action, and to let live in understanding of the other’s will, is the fundamental maxim of free human beings.” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity
The Harvest fest of Lammas or Lughnasadh begins today until August 7th when we hit the Crossquarter between Summer Solstice & Fall Equinox (see article below)
Feast Day of Joseph of Arimathea – according to all four Gospels, the man who assumed responsibility for the burial of Jesus after the crucifixion. A number of stories that developed during the Middle Ages connect him with both Glastonbury, where he is supposed to have founded the earliest Christian oratory, & also with the Grail legend.
“One must penetrate to an understanding of the Mystery of the Bread, which is said to have been broken by Christ Jesus in the same chalice in which Joseph of Arimathea caught His blood. As legend tells it, this chalice was then removed to Europe, but was preserved by angels in a region high above the surface of the earth until the arrival of Titurel who created for this Grail, this sacred chalice, a temple on Mont Salvat” ~Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, April 16, 1921
30 BC – Augustus Octavian enters Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under the control of the Roman Republic
30 BC – Deathday of Mark Antony, Roman general & politician
1464 – Deathday of Cosimo de’ Medici, Italian ruler
1469 – Louis XI of France founds the chivalric order called the Order of Saint Michael in Amboise
1714 – Deathday of Queen Anne of Great Britain
1819 – Birthday of Herman Melville, American novelist, short story writer, & poet
1842 – The Lombard Street riot erupts in Philadelphia. A parade was held by over 1,000 members of the black Young Men’s Vigilant Association on Philadelphia’s Lombard Street between 5th & 8th streets in commemoration of the 8th anniversary of the end of slavery in the British West Indies. As the paraders neared Mother Bethel Church, they were attacked by an Irish Catholic mob. The rioters moved west, setting fires & attacking firefighters & police as they went, heading for the home of African-American leader Robert Purvis. Purvis & his home were reportedly saved from the Irish mob solely by a Catholic priest’s intervention. Requests to the mayor & police for protection initially led to the arrest of several of the victims & none of the rioters. Over three days of attacks, the 2nd African American Presbyterian Church, the abolitionist Smith’s Hall, & numerous homes & public buildings were looted, burned & mostly destroyed. The mayor had credible evidence of a plan to burn several local churches, which he ignored. Eventually, as the rioting began to subside, the local militia was brought in to restore order.
1936 – The Olympics opened in Berlin with a ceremony presided over by Adolf Hitler
1971 – The Concert for Bangladesh, organized by former Beatle George Harrison, is held at Madison Square Garden in New York City
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(Lammas/ Lughnassad poem – Aug. 1st )
CORN RIGS & WHEELS
CICADAS TRANCE
IN THETA WAVES OF SOUND
THE SICKLES REAP IN BORDERTIME
OPENING THE GATEWAY TO THE WEST
DRAGONS FLY
INTO THE MOUTH
OF THE HOLLOWMAN –
HIS EYES BLAZE
AS HE GLIMPSES HER WAITING WOMB
ALL RIPE & HOT – HER PHOENIX TOMB
A FIERCE ALCHEMICAL FURANCE –
BAKED IN THE LION FIRE
OF TETRAMORPH ANGELS
JOHN BARLEYCORN MUST DIE
GRIND THE GRAIN
TO MAKE THE BREAD & BEER
MOULDED CHRYSOKOLLA –
THE KNEADED WICKERMAN
FULFILLS THE SACRIFICE
& SITS UPON HER ALTAR –
NEXT TO BRAIDED CORN DOLLIES
& MOIST CAKE
AT THE TOP OF THE HILL –
THE SUN
COVERED WITH PITCH & TAR
& TIED TO THE SPIKED WHEEL OF CATHERINE…
IS SET AFLAME –
THE BLAZING DISK ROLLS IN IMMOLATION
TO IT’S DECLINE
BURN THE OLD STRAW EFFIGY
AT THE FUNERAL GAMES
TO BLESS THE FIRST GRAINS
WATCH SOTHIS RISE –
MORNING FIRST SCORCHER
CELESTIAL JACKAL
HERALD OF THE NEW YEAR –
FLOOD THE FIELDS
WITH YOUR SCINTILLATING SERUM
& WE MEET ONCE AGAIN
ONCE AGAIN, ONCE AGAIN
IN A YEAR & A DAY
TO BEHEAD THE LOAF
& EAT…
~Hazel Archer Ginsberg
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“Bringing in the Sheaves” – Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness, sowing in the noontide and the dewy eve: Now begins the harvest and the time of reaping, we shall come rejoicing bringing in the sheaves. Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, we shall come rejoicing bringing in the sheaves. Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, we shall come rejoicing bringing in the sheaves…”
The Wheel turns from St. John’s Tide with its message of the inner Christ Sun and the mirroring of the Holy nights, to Lammas, or Loaf mas, a cross quarter festival traditionally celebrated at the beginning of August, marks the point when we leave the Garden, and earn our own way, “by the sweat of our brow”.
The harvest of grain, and the baking of bread, represents the first child of the cosmic union of Sun and Earth. It symbolizes the essence of humanity, born from this union, for the loaf is more than a gift of nature, it is made by the combined forces of nature with the will forces of human activity.
The harvest season is a time of judgment. We are called upon to sift through the things that have grown up during the past half-year, and decide what we will keep and what we will cut away. We must make choices, and act on them. The cycle of life turns past the peak of growth, into the time of release.
In astrology, the moon, five eighths past the new moon, is called the “disseminating moon”. During this phase, what has built up in the waxing cycle begins to be released into the environment. We start to see the results of our work. At Lammas, the sun is five-eighths of the way around the Wheel from Winter Solstice. Growth has reached its peak, and the life of the Sun God has begun to bleed off into the fruit and grain.
The King is Dead Long Live the King – for now is also the time of sacrifice, of death in service of life. Some of the first fruits are ready for harvest, but some, too unripe to be eaten, must be plucked anyway. These are culls, removed so they won’t drain the life force from the good fruit. If everything was left on the tree, the life force would be diluted, or worse, the bad fruit could weigh down a branch until it breaks, destroying the entire crop, or sometimes killing the tree. The culls are taken so the rest of the fruit, and those who depend on the crop for survival, might live.
John Barleycorn must die… ‘Cut in half and buried, then beaten with sticks, and finally crushed between stones’… as the song goes, nevertheless rises once again. Bread is the perfect sacrifice for “Loaf Mass” or Lughnassadh as the Celtics called it, for they knew that this festival is more than just the first fruits of the earth — it also involves the first fruits of human labor. Grain is processed by human craft, and joined with the four elements to make the staff of life.
What is this day?
It is the day of Lammas.
What is the meaning of this day?
It is the mystery of the corn
What is the mystery of the corn?
That which is cut down will rise again.
Who will rise again?
We will rise again.
Who will rise again?
We will rise again.
Who will rise again?
We will rise again.
So bake a loaf of bread on Lammas. If you’ve never made bread before, this is a good time to start. Honor the source of the flour as you work with it: remember it was once a plant growing on mother Earth. If you have a garden, add something you’ve harvested–herbs or onion or veggies. If you don’t feel up to making wheat bread, make corn bread, or gingerbread people, or popcorn. What’s most important is intention. All that is necessary to enter sacred time is an awareness of the meaning of your actions.
Saying Grace with you ~hag
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How We Will We want you in the room!
We need your voice and your experiences as we shepherd in the Threefold Commonwealth at Elderberries Threefold Chicago!
Please join us as a diverse group of community-change-makers, bringing in new forms of: Culture, Economics and the Rights realm, share what it takes to move from ideas to ideals to action.
Rudolf Steiner spoke very clearly at the end of WWI, about what would take place if the entanglement of the economic and political leaders of the day were to continue unabated to the detriment of civil society: a great civil unrest and a humanity at the grave of civilization. He was also very clear that at the beginning of the 21st century a new impulse would be needed for the future of earth evolution and humanity. We are that new impulse.
Through Tilling the Soil of Our Souls, where the essence of Freedom, Liberty and Fraternity/Kinship, can take root, the essence required for this societal shift and structural change, we will work towards a culture of selflessness throughout the weekend so that a new America can truly come into being. We ourselves will have to be the image of this new humanity striving towards and embodying, as best we can, a Beloved Community.
Presentations, Strategizing, Biography Work, Story-telling, Art Practices, and Threefold breakout groups, will allow us to have a creative dialogue throughout the weekend. John Bloom, Nathaniel Williams, Leah Walker, Kiara Nagel, Elizabeth Roosevelt Weeks, Johannes Kronenberg, Seth Jordan, Kait Ziegler, Destiny Nolen, Dottie Zold and Frank Agrama, will help us tease apart where these three realms and their principles rightfully stand, building moral imaginations for a more conscious community.
Theory U will be the bare bones of our organizing which brings about a safe space for deep listening, suspending our judgments, fears and cynicisms. It is crucial to come to understand the structural principle of the Threefold Commonwealth concept and even more so that we find a way to our humanness in the places we disagree. Through ‘making room for the other’ and ‘allowing the other to be free’ we will find those co-creative ideas waiting to be lifted up for a healthy eco-system begging in our time to be born.
Panel discussions will take place: ‘Against All Odds: Standing for the Future’ – Fred Janney of Anthroposophical Prison Outreach, Dr. Molly McMullen-Laird of Rudolf Steiner Health Center in Michigan, Dr. David Gershan, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg of the Elderberries Grailroad initiative, Joan Jaeckal of the Shade Tree Community School in Watts, and Dana Erickson, Mylene Carberry, on the Front Lines.
Robbie Solway will co-lead a conversation on Youth led questions concerning ‘brother what ails thee?’ These panel discussions will also open out further for friends to share their own initiatives and experiences.
Elderberries Threefold Chicago and The Rudolf Steiner Chicago Branch will host the weekend. Our friends Carolyn Arnett, Gordon Edwards and Ann Burfeind will deepen our understanding of the history of Anthroposophy in Chicago, the people and the biography of the City by the lake.
Brian Gray, of Rudolf Steiner College, will join us as we dedicate Elderberries 3Fold Chicago Café to Willi Sucher and his work with the starry worlds.
We want you in the room! Who do you want in the room? Who is missing? Feel free to share with anyone who might find this Forum worth considering.
#HowWeWill2018Chicago
#ThreefoldingOurCulturalRevolution
