After-Image 1

July 11, 2023Biography, Community, History, Insight, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Event~hag

~Christian Schoel

The theme of the ‘Fire of the Heart Conference’ had at its core an invitation to share the questions burning in our hearts around the ‘Movement for Religious Renewal’ – surveying this modern Christian Path thru the lens of the Arts.

Human consciousness is ever evolving; every age presents opportunities & challenges. In our present age, the Festival Life, as well as the Religious Ritual, exists to nourish & foster a new relationship between humanity & the beings of the spiritual worlds. (We can speak about the Cognitive/Reverse Ritual & how it enhances this at another time 😉

Advancing responsibility in freedom – is crucial in recognizing The Christ Impulse as the pivotal Turning Point for our human renewal.

Community reveals karma, opening us to a cosmic conception of Christ as Lord of Karma & as the Being of Love, who ‘goes before us,’ that we may become Anthroposophia.

Rev. Jeana Lee did a stellar job organizing & engaging folks from the greater community to come & share their gifts. I was thrilled to be asked to lead one of the workshops carrying a ‘burning question’ to be worked with over 2 days. My main goal was to make it experiential, so I didn’t prepare any formal leading thoughts as such but brought with me my personal practice with what Rudolf Steiner calls the After-Image to delve into the question of How to tune into the Etheric Christ.

For reference I brought the Book “Learning to Experience the Etheric World, Empathy, the After-Image & a New Social Ethic” by Christian Community priests Baruch Urieli & Hans Muller-Wiedemann.

I was nervous – it was a big group with a lot of Anthro-Newbees. I was grateful to have a chalk board to work with. The imagination of the good ol’ ‘Anthroposophical Bathtub’ (which, come to think of it, is the same glyph that we see on the back of the Priests Chasable in various colors most times of the year) this image can be used to show how in earlier times the human being derived a powerful soul-spiritual element from the atmosphere, thru the air. This was particularly strong during Atlantean times. And in the 1^st post Atlantean epoch of Ancient India, it could be seen in the Hindu Yogic Breath work which was the main form of initiation for that age. These forces slowly faded away.

And now, since the ‘Turning Point of Time’, it is not air – but Light that is ensouled. This was made possible thru Christ’s uniting with the Earth.

In our time of the Consciousness Soul we are called to consciously take in Light to spiritualize our sense impressions.

At the same time that Steiner gave lectures on ‘The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric’ he also spoke for the first time about Kasper Hauser. His sacrifice, like that of the Nathan Soul in the pre-earthly deeds of Christ, brought about the possibility for humanity to develop the capacity for pure sense perception. “The gift of empathy, the capacity to form after-images which penetrate earth existence & unveil its inner meaning, found its way to earth through the sacrificial deed of Kasper Hauser. In this way a tool has been given to humanity by means of which it can free itself from the encapsulation intended by the Dark Powers.”

But what is this thing called ‘after-image’ & how do we cultivate it?

Right away we got into the practicum. I brought out some cards with various shapes & colors. In Steiner’s day folks painted a red or blue or yellow circle on white paper. They then beheld the image for 30 seconds & then transferred their gaze to a plain sheet of white or grey paper which produced the complementary color in their vision.

Everyone in our group was amazed.

The idea of point & periphery was explored.

We spoke a bit about Goethe’s theory of Color, & the idea of ‘echoing’ which is what he called the complementary colors. Steiner’s vision tells us that ‘color is the sacrifice of Light‘; & how we can see the 3 primary colors as representing the 3-fold human being, & the 3 soul forces of thinking, feeling & willing. One color calls forth the other two.

We can go out into nature & try to experience the after-image of a rock, or a tree, which can reveal a great deal about its essence, or what it may need in terms of care. The next step is to turn to the animal kingdom – what does its movement or sound tell us in reflection?

The after-image is an experience that is given to us by our etheric body, our Time Body giving us formative forces.

Steiner gave us ‘Karma & after-image exercises’ where we are encouraged to take a detailed impression of a person into our thinking before sleep, & wait for the after-image to arise upon waking. Steiner tells us this can lead to new social capacities & moral qualities. The Good Doctor spoke about the after-image as ‘the foundation of a Michaelic Culture’, how the sense of the “I” of the other brings us into empathy & compassion.

In Rosicrucianism & Modern Initiation, The Tasks of the Michael Age, 13 January 1924, Dornach, he showed how the path that begins with experiencing the after-image of a physical color leads to empathy, & that of the plant, animal & human being to a sense of the “I”, so that we can gain entry to the New Mysteries, which leads us to the destiny-experience of the future where we can consciously perceive The Etheric Christ.

I think I will leave it here for today – to be continued – soonly – Do you feel called to take up some of these practices…? If so, please share…Thanks

~hag

11 July 2023– “Speaking with the Stars”: The waning crescent moon will pass Jupiter, heading toward the glittering Pleiades star cluster. They’ll be rising about 4 hours before sunrise. Chart via John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (RSarchives)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul; The Free Social Encyclopedia)

The feast day of Nertha, ancient Germanic Goddess of the Earth

1767 – Birthday of John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States. He began his diplomatic career as the U.S. minister to the Netherlands in 1794, and served as minister to Prussia during the presidential administration of his father, the formidable patriot John Adams. After serving in the Massachusetts State Senate and the U.S. Senate, the younger Adams rejoined diplomatic service under President James Madison, helping to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent (1814), which ended the War of 1812. As secretary of state under James Monroe, Adams played a key role in determining the president’s foreign policy, including the famous Monroe Doctrine. John Quincy Adams went on to win the presidency in a highly contentious election in 1824, and served only one term. Outspoken in his opposition to slavery and in support of freedom of speech, Adams was elected to the House of Representatives in 1830; he would serve until his death in 1848. ~history.com

1864 – Birthday of Peter Deunov, Bulgarian spiritual master and teacher of esoteric Christianity in the early 20th century, is also known for his inspired musical compositions and as the inventor of the Paneurhythmy, a sacred dance of the Universal White Brotherhood. Beinsa Duono is his Bulgarian spiritual name.

I will be heading out for our next training 1-7 August 2023

Here is a newsletter with an article I wrote about my expereince working with Steiner’s Inner Realities of Evoultion

Temple, Heart, Fire

July 10, 2023Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Celestial Event, Community, History, Upcoming Event~hag

~Franck Giraud

In this life, I am, at the core a solitary person – inwardly inclined. A meditant. Socially shy & awkward. And yet on the one side – my choleric nature makes me an active seeker – ever striving to unveil the New Mysteries, so folks often see me as a fiery extrovert. But my watery melancholic side is very much an introverted devotee – a contemplative hermit in service to the Christic Sophia. I AM, an ‘As above so Below’ – ‘Know Thyself’ introspector – a rhythmic cultivator of the Anthroposophia within.

So when I do a presentation, or attend a conference, or go out in public in anyway, I really have to psych myself up. (In the tropical Zodiac I am a double Cancer with a Pisces Moon)

Being a student of Spiritual Science I know I must come out of my shell to be ‘a person of initiative’ – that all the inner work must be tried on the stage of humanity – in karmic relationship – in community.

I thoroughly resonate to this Adam Bittleson quote:

“In the new mysteries the whole earth becomes an altar…Our friends & colleagues become for us, the terrible & wonderful actors in the ceremony of our initiation.”

So interesting that the Conference I have just returned from – a 101 year celebration of the founding of The Christian Community, was called ‘Fire in the Heart’. In my mind these words are a kind of continuation from the title of the ASA Conference I spearheaded called: ‘Building the Temple of the Heart’. And perhaps a precursor for the upcoming play “Fire in the Temple” a Centennial offering dramatizing Rudolf Steiner’s final months – & a showing of us to ourselves.

I am living into this juxtaposition of the words: Temple, Heart, Fire…It feels very Rosicrucian – Alchemical – Perfect for our time now.

Without going into the details of the conference with all its glory – from the Spirit of Place that is the Driftless Region of the Heartland – The powerful effect of participating daily in the Act Consecration & Close of Day services with 3 Priests & our Lenker – The experiential Art making, the breakout Workshops, Talks, evening Artistic Offerings, good Food & Conversation… I thought instead to digest outloud – sharing what at our Closing Plenum was called: a ‘Gem (I think of it as a Flower) & a Seed’ – our personal take away, & our hopes for the future of renewal.

It’s funny, when I was younger it was hard for me to hold back – I had a tendency to stay wide awake while others spoke, not very patiently waiting to have my say. I am still working on this of course. But since I have made it my intention for many years to consciously transform this tendency – to counteract that egotism so that I can really listen – recently what I have found is that I feel caught in-between – Yes, I can more easily yield to the other; but now I have a hard time waking back up to myself after falling asleep in the other – hmmm…

Our current Soul Calendar Verse describes this perfectly:

I find myself being more quiet, letting the space be open for others to speak my thoughts, which is good. I am relating, & the echo is resonate. But sometimes it feels like my unique experience, which is hard to access, let alone express in a sound bite, is left unrevealed.

(I guess that’s why I have this blog & podcast & do presentations eh 😉

This is the eve of the eve of my natal return, so it feels right to share my introspection. Today’s post is simply the setup for the next few essays in which I will attempt to process this most recent initiatory experience, which is tied into the workshop presentation I gave at the “Fire of the Heart’ Conference, coming from my burning question: ‘How can we tune into the Etheric Christ?’ Which was based on my work with what Steiner calls the ‘After-Image’, & with insights on Empathy & a New Social Ethic from Baruch Urieli’s book “Learning to Experience The Etheric World”.

Stay tuned

~hag

10 July 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Slowly making its way across Leo, Mars passes north of Regulus at 3 am CDT. You can view them this evening in the west after sunset, with the Red Planet now slightly northeast of the star. If you’re in a dark location, you can use Venus and Mars as guides to find the ecliptic, the plane of the solar system. It’s along this plane that dust from past cometary passes settles, scattering sunlight to create the zodiacal light. Once darkness falls, look for a faint, cone-shaped glow extending along the ecliptic, spreading upward from Cancer through Leo. The ecliptic continues along the sky and passes just north of Spica, Virgo’s bright alpha star, which lies east of Leo.

Sunrise: 5:40 A.M.
Sunset: 8:30 P.M.
Moonrise: 12:40 A.M.
Moonset: 2:02 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent (43%)

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (RSarchives)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul; The Present Age, Wikipedia)

Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856. The 10th of July is celebrated as #TeslaDay - a great day for students to learn about … | Science curriculum, Tesla, Science

Nikola Tesla Day

138 – Deathday of Emperor Hadrian, Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian is known for building Hadrian’s Wall, which marked the northern limit of Britannia. He also rebuilt the Pantheon & constructed the Temple of Venus & Roma. An admirer of the Greeks, he is considered by some to have been a humanist, & he is regarded as one of the Five Good Emperors.

Described by T.H. Meyer as being a former incarnation of Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz – the first to be informed by Rudolf Steiner about his idea of a social threefold structure , alongside Otto Lerchenfeld & Walter Johannes Stein . He introduced them to the governments of Austria & the Czech Republic thru his brother Arthur, head of the cabinet of Emperor Charles I.

In 1935 Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz tried to prevent the split in the Anthroposophical Society ; after he failed to do so, he resigned in 1936 & worked as a freelance publicist & lecturer until his death.

165 – Deathday of Felicitas of Rome is a saint numbered among the Christian martyrs. A legend presents her as the mother of the seven martyrs: Alexander, Vitalis, Martialis, Januarius, Felix, Philip, Sylvanus. In Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul we see listed for today the Fairy Tale The Seven Ravens (Sieben Bruder) by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm

1212 –London burns to the ground

Nikola Tesla quote: The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will...

1856 – Birthday of Nikola Tesla, a Serbian American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, & futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system

1871 – Birthday of Marcel Proust, French novelist, critic, & essayist

1921 –‘Bloody Sunday’: 160 people are killed & 161 houses destroyed during rioting & gun battles in Belfast, Northern Ireland

1923 – Rudolf Steiner invites L. Polzer-Hoditz to Belin to discuss Threefolding. (See above about the Emperor Hadrian)

1925 – Scopes Trial: the so-called “Monkey Trial” – a young high school science teacher accused of teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act.

1938 – Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91-hour airplane flight around the world

1962 – Telstar, the world’s first communications satellite, is launched into orbit.

1966 – The Chicago Freedom Movement, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., holds a rally at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. As many as 60,000 people come to hear Dr. King as well as Mahalia Jackson, Stevie Wonder, & Peter, Paul and Mary.

1975 – Deathday of Marie Savitch – One of eurythmy’s pioneers, Marie Savitch was director of the Goetheanum stage group for many years and oversaw much of the early development of eurythmy.

1991 – Boris Yeltsin takes office as the first elected President of Russia.

I will be heading out for our next training 1-7 August 2023

Here is a newsletter with an article I wrote about my expereince working with Steiner’s Inner Realities of Evoultion

All Hail Columbia

July 5, 2023Biography, Festival, History, Upcoming Events~hag

POD (Poem Of the Day)

Columbia Bless America.
O ancient Spirit of Place
Appear again as the Dove of Liberty
& teach us how to fly
Into our true destiny
That we may weave the laurel
In evolutions revolution
In this time of great turning
Let the truth of our hearts entwine
To conquer terror with tenderness
~hag

Dear friends I will be offline 6-11 July attending:

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (RSarchives)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul; The Present Age, Wikipedia)

5 July 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Feast Day of the Prophet Hosea (meaning ‘salvation’, ‘he saves’ or ‘he helps’) – often seen as a “prophet of doom”, but underneath his message of destruction is a promise of restoration. The Talmud claims that he was the greatest prophet of his generation. The period of Hosea’s ministry extended to some sixty years, and he was the only prophet of Israel of his time who left any written prophecy. “They that sow the wind reap the whirlwind”

Feast Day of St. Cyril & St. Methodius, two brothers – Byzantine Christian theologians and missionaries-known as the “Apostles to the Slavs”. They are credited with devising the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet used to transcribe Old Church Slavonic.

755 – Deathday of St. Boniface, destroyer of Celtic Christianity. Some traditions credit Saint Boniface with the invention of the Christmas tree. Boniface is celebrated as a missionary; he is regarded as a unifier of Europe, by German Catholics.

Birthday of St. Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury – Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher and theologian of the Catholic Church, who held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. His works were copied and disseminated in his lifetime and exercised an influence on the Scholastics, including Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham. His thoughts have guided much subsequent discussion on the procession of the Holy Spirit and the atonement. His work also anticipates much of the later controversies over free will and predestination.

As a child, he had a miraculous vision of God on the summit of the Becca di Nona near his home, with God asking his name, his home, and his quest before sharing bread with him.

Anselm’s canonization was requested of Pope Alexander III by Thomas Becket at the Council of Tours in 1163. Anselm was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church or the doctor Marianus (“Marian doctor”). A chapel of Canterbury Cathedral south of the high altar is dedicated to him; it includes a modern stained-glass representation of the saint.

1833 – Deathday of Nicephore Niepce, French inventor of the camera

1915 – In response to the First World War, Rudolf Steiner writes the essay “Thoughts during a time of war – for Germans and those who do not feel they must hate them”

“Now at a certain point of the third phase of Anthroposophy, during the war, I wrote the booklet Thoughts in Time of War. This particular work elicited inner opposition which was especially noticeable. People told me that they thought anthroposophy never intervened in politics, as if that booklet involved itself with politics! And there was more of the same. Something had affected them which should not grow on the ground of anthroposophy although it sprouts in quite different soil. There were quite a few such objections to Thoughts in Time of War, but I am about to say something terribly arrogant, but true nevertheless; no one ever acknowledged that the whole thing was not really comprehensible to them at the time but if they waited until 1935 they might perhaps understand why that booklet was written.

And this is only one example among many which demonstrates clearly the strong intervention of something whose almost exclusive purpose was to undermine the freedom and self-determination within the Anthroposophical Society which we take for granted. It should have been self-evident that the writing of this publication was my business alone. Instead, an opinion began to form: If he wants to be the one with whom we build the Anthroposophical Society, then he is allowed to write only the things we approve of.

These things have to be stated in a direct manner, otherwise they will not be understood. They are symptomatic of a mood which arose in the Society and which ran counter to the conditions governing the existence of the anthroposophical movement!” ~Rudolf Steiner, THE ANTHROPOSOPHIC MOVEMENT, GA 258, VII. The Consolidation of the Anthroposophic Movement, 16 June 1923, Dornach

(Thanks Steve Hale for shaing this quote)

I will be heading out for our next training 1-7 August 2023

Here is a newsletter with an article I wrote about my expereince working with Steiner’s Inner Realities of Evoultion

Love American Style

July 4, 2023Biography, Community, Festival, History, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events~hag

~Mine is
A heart of ruby-red –
A Crimson hot
dark as murder on a Holy Day
pulsing sense organ.
Mine is a fist of emerald & gold –
the gnarled roots
of a rosewood bursting
with thorns
& bright blossoms
in the Sun…
~hag

THE “AMERICAN” or “THREEFOLD” VERSE by Rudolf Steiner given to Ralph Courtney, a pioneer of Anthroposophy in North America for the Threefold Group in New York City, which later established the Threefold Community in Spring Valley (now Chestnut Ridge). This verse for the American spirit speaks of the inner unity of human beings and of support from the spiritual world for our efforts. We spoke it for many years when I was in the Central Regional Council & It is the go-to verse for AAP.

“May our feeling penetrate to the center of our hearts –
And seek, in love, to unite with those who share our goals,
And with the spirits who look down benevolently
On our hearts earnest strivings.
Sending us strength from realms of light,
As they illuminate our love.”

Listen to “I think Speech’

Greetings Friends – May a Global Interdependent Independence reverberate in our collective consciousness – as we work towards a mutual dependency upon the independence of every nation & its people – not imposed by the corporate elite, but out of the inner Freedom & love of the human being for humanity – Imagine everyone celebrating our differences with great admiration & respect…

Let’s remember the meaning of ‘Independence Day’ celebrated on the ‘4^th of July’ – It’s about freedom from oppression… ‘No taxation without representation’…& all that…the center point being the Declaration of Independence.

When was the last time you read this important document of our countries origin? You can print it off the net. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are, Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”

Have we gained independence from one tyranny all those years ago, only to allow it to happen again on a world scale? Maybe it’s time to open our eyes & read the fine print of our birthright – Reclaim our rights & go forward as a united community of World people, in peaceful justice, in equity, in reason – with compassion, having come through so much pain – to really start to, not just declare our independence, but to really live it – As individuals, as well as with the united community of the whole planet…

It’s interesting to look at what Spiritual Science has to say about America.

In ‘The Mystery of the Double: Geographic Medicine’, Rudolf Steiner tells us that when we are born we not only acquire a physical body we become permeated by an Ahrimanic double a being with ‘a Mephistophelian intelligence’, & ‘a very strong will’. Thru them we carry electrical streams in us.

‘These beings of purely Mephistophelian intelligence, want to conquer the earth, and to do this they need bodies; they do not have bodies of their own’. But they are afraid of death & have to leave us when we die.

‘Had the Mystery of Golgotha not occurred, conditions on earth would have been such that these beings would long ago have attained the possibility of remaining within the human being when he is karmically predestined for death. Then they would have completely triumphed over human evolution on earth, they would have become masters of human evolution on earth.’

This has long been known to certain occult brotherhoods. They withheld this from humanity. ‘These egotistically minded occult brotherhoods make it a power issue, intending thereby to enhance their own power.’

But the human being must learn about the double within ‘if the human race is not to experience endless hindrances, really endless horrors’.

‘This double is the creator of all physical illnesses that emerge spontaneously from within the human being; coming not through outer injuries, and not from the human soul; they come from this being. He is the creator of all organic illnesses.’

And Lucifer, Ahriman’s brother, ‘is the creator of all neurasthenic and neurotic illnesses’.

Thus medicine must become spiritual in two directions’…

The Earth as a living organism streams out ‘different forces, among them magnetism and electricity’, as well as life-giving forces. ‘All these forces come up out of the earth and influence people in the most varied ways at different points on the earth. They influence the human being in various ways according to the geographical formation. This is a very important fact – The double uses these forces that stream up out of the earth.’

‘Some of these beings are especially pleased with the Eastern hemisphere: Europe, Asia, Africa. They choose to make use of the bodies of human beings born there. Others choose bodies born in the Western hemisphere, in America.’

So…’one of the most important tasks of the future will be to foster again something that has been interrupted: geographic medicine, medical geography…the connection of the illness-producing being in man with earthly geography, with all the fusions, with all the outward radiations that emerge from the earth in the various regions. It is very important for the human being to become acquainted with these things, for his life depends on it.’

‘For this reason spiritual science must now spread, the present time calls upon the human being to reach an understanding of these things in a conscious way in order to find a relationship to these things. The human being must become strong in this epoch in order to adapt his existence to these beings’.

But before the 5^th post Atlantean epoch the human being had to be protected from encountering the Ahrimanic double which is especially strong in America.

‘A really significant arrangement was required: Beginning in the ninth century and especially from the twelfth century on, the entire shipping exchange with America with the kind of ships there were at that time, was abolished’. This may sound very strange to you. You will say, “We have never heard anything like this in history.”

In many respects, history is just a fable convenue a legend; for in earlier centuries of European development, ships continually sailed from the Norway of that time to America.

Of course it was not called America it had a different name at that time. America was known to be the region where the magnetic forces particularly arose that brought the human being into relation with this double. For the clearest relations to the double proceed from that region of the earth that comprises the American continent. And in the earlier centuries people sailed over to America in Norwegian ships and studied illnesses there. The illnesses in America brought about under the influence of earthly magnetism were studied by Europe.

Then it was necessary for the connection with America to be gradually forgotten, and this was essentially brought about by the Roman Catholic Church through its edicts.

And only after the beginning of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch was America ‘rediscovered’ in a physical, sense-perceptible way.

Europe had to be protected for a long time from all these influences; and it could not have been protected if the European world had not been completely shut off from America in the centuries before the fifteenth century..”

And so dear friends how does this picture add to the history of our Country?

Something to contemplate on this anniversary to re-member our ‘Independence’.

~hag

4th of July 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”

1054 – A supernova, is seen by Chinese Song dynasty, Arab, & Amerindian observers near the star Zeta Tauri. For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula

1744 – The Iroquois are forced to cede lands between the Allegheny Mountains & the Ohio River to the British colonies

1776 – American Revolution: The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress

1826 – Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, dies the same day as John Adams, second president of the United States, on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence.

1827 – Slavery is abolished in New York State

1855 – In Brooklyn, New York City, the first edition of Walt Whitman‘s book of poems, Leaves of Grass, is published

1862 – Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell a story that would grow into Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Vicksburg: Confederate Army surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant after 47 days of siege

1863 – American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia withdraws from the battlefield after losing the Battle of Gettysburg, signaling an end to the Southern invasion of the North

1886 – The people of France offer the Statue of Liberty to the people of the United States

1914 – The funeral of Archduke Franz Ferdinand & his wife Sophie takes place in Vienna, six days after their assassinations in Sarajevo

1918 – Bolsheviks kill Tsar Nicholas II of Russia & his family

1934 – Leo Szilard patents the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb

1934 – Deathday of Marie Curie, French-Polish physicist & chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

1941 – Nazi troops massacre Polish scientists & writers in the captured Ukrainian city of Lviv

1941 – World War II: The Burning of the Riga synagogues with 300 Jews locked in the basement

1943 – World War II: The Battle of Kursk, the largest full-scale battle in history & the world’s largest tank battle, begins in Prokhorovka village

1950 – Radio Free Europe first broadcasts

1966 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act

This speaks to the best of America: FREEDOM by Jon Batiste

My Summer Conference schedule:

I will be heading out for our next training 1-7 August 2023

Here is a newsletter with an article I wrote about my expereince working with Steiner’s Inner Realities of Evoultion

Maria Heimsuchung

July 2, 2023Festival~hag

Greetings friends on this Feast Day of “Maria Heimsuchung” – The Visitation of Mary.

In our further contemplation of the Summer Mysteries of St. John’s Tide – Thru the Spiritual Science of Rudolf Steiner we learn that the individuality we know as ‘John the Baptizer’ – was, in his 1^st incarnation – Adam – the oldest human being.

Thru the intervention of the Highest Spiritual Beings, a part of Adam’s Higher Self was kept back in the ‘Mother Lodge’ so that it would be protected from “The Fall.” We call this pure part of Adam, ‘the Nathan Soul’. This being was able to work from the spiritual worlds in ‘the pre-earthly deeds of Christ’, to help protect humanity from further adversarial forces as we progressed thru evolution. This Nathan Soul then incarnated for the 1st time at the ‘Turning Point of Time’ as the ‘Luke Jesus’.

And this is why John ‘leaped in the womb’ of Elizabeth his mother at the visitation from Mary – Because even though he was still in utero – in unborness, he recognized the ‘Nathan Soul’ part of himself when he was Adam, gestating in Mary – The incarnated Virgin Sophia.

The Gospel of Luke is a code to deep occult truths waiting to be taken up. It opens with the story of the mystic conception of John the Baptist to the High Priest Zechariah & Elizabeth the cousin of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

This is followed by the Annunciation to Mary that she would bear the Son of God – Both these events were facilitated thru the Archangel Gabriel who held the Zeitgeist of that age.

~ Anne Cameron, The Visitation

Right after that we hear how Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was already 6 months pregnant – (Remember JB was born right after the Summer Solstice, 6 months before the Luke Jesus, who was born right after the Winter Solstice)

So these 2 parts of Adam were brought together for the 1^st time on Earth at the ‘Turning Point in Time’ during the “Maria Heimsuchung”.

The Gospel of St. Luke describes the birth of John; how an angel appeared to the priest Zechariah, telling him, “your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, & you shall call him John.” (Luke 1.13.) The angel also foretells the task of this being John: “… even from his mother’s womb will he be filled with the Holy Spirit. And he will turn many sons of Israel to the Lord their God again. He will be his forerunner and will pave his way, bearing within him the spirit and power of Elijah, to change men’s hearts so that fathers shall rediscover the meaning of childhood, and those who have become alienated from God shall find the meaning of Good again. So shall he make a well-prepared people ready for the Lord “(Luke 1.15-17.)

Hear now from Luke 1: 60 – “…They were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.” ( We have spoken many times about the importance of this name Johannes – Ιωάννης , made up of the vowels “E – O – Ah)

Zechariah’s Song – Luke 1:67- 80 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: “…And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” 80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to the people of Israel.

Christ Jesus Himself tells us “there is no one greater than John” (Luke 7:28)

JC also says -“And if you have ears to hear, John is Elijah, whose return men were expecting” (Matthew 11:14)

~Raphael, The Prophet’s Elijah & Isaiah, & John the Baptist as a boy

Elijah & Isaiah, who were subjects in many of Raphael’s paintings, were both Old Testament Prophets – John the Baptizer was called ‘the Last of the Great Prophets’. The artistry of Raphael, who we learn from Steiner, was a later incarnation of JB, reveals so much.

References to Elijah & Isaiah appear in the Old & New Testament, The Talmud, The Quran, The Book of Mormon, & Bahá’í

John 1:23 “John the Baptist replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet: “I am a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.”

The Transfiguration was the very last thing Raphael painted. Check out the detail in the etching of Elijah – the bones of his silhouetted face – the etheric movment in his hairs – his reverant all seeing eyes – his hand on the book…

This highly esoteric painting called ‘The Canigiani Holy Family or Canigiani Madonna’, by Raphael is one of my favs. It shows the Luke Mary & Joseph – with Elizabeth – &…Is that her son John the Baptist? – Or is it the Matthew Jesus…?

I have a print of this – so evocative. Follow the gazes – & the mudra gestures of the hands – The feet – Their expressions – The colors – The 2 backgrounds – What is Mary reading? … What is on the scroll..?

What do you see in the 2 tall trees…& the stream between them – The light – The vegetation – The mountains – The buildings – The Angel beings…?

~Raphael, Madonna Terrranuova

There are actually many paintings by various artists at differing degrees of initiation that show the 2 Jesus children; this one really feels like Raphael painted a memory of himself.

Enlightening mysteries are hidden in plain sight – for all to see

~hag

2 July 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The July Full Buck/Thunder Moon – which is also a supermoon – occurs at 6:39 a.m. CDT tomorrow, 3July. Bella Luna rises just after sunset & sits within the Teapot asterism of Sagittarius the Archer. ~Chart via John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
SAINT JOHNSTIDE II
The Spirit Bond
v13
And when I am in senses’ heights
the gods’ true Word from spirit fire-worlds
is flaming in my depths of soul:
‘Foreseeing, seek your vision, find your star,
divine in spirit ground
the spirit bond with who you are’.

This is the last verse of the Soul Calendar’s first quarter, descrbed by Karl König as the voice of the Tenor uniting with the spirit through the senses. Next week will be the first verse of the Baritone, incarnating spirit with imaginative insight.

This is the mirror verse.
EPIPHANY
Love’s Offering
v40
And when I am in spirit depths
then in my ground of soul
the heart-formed love world fills
my self-bound vain delusions
with power of the World Word’s fire.