some of the Nashville Group Whitsunday 9 June 2019
The last time I was in the Nashville/Knoxville area was on the ecclesiastical Whitsun weekend 2019. My dear friend Elisabeth Swisher went with me to bring her gifts of music, & to be the primary driver. We left Chicago on June 5th, made our way to Fox Hollow farm & the botanic gardens near Louisville Kentucky, & then brought my Rose Cross program to Nashville.
Elisabeth Swisher at the Botanic Gardens outside Louisville June 2019
While we were doing eurythmy during the festival, I felt the presence of Don Brakebill, who was born on a ranch in the Rockford/Maryville area, our next stop on the tour. I spoke it out to the group that Don was smiling, close to the Threshold, but with us. Later, we heard from Charlotte that Don her husband was not doing well. We arrived in Knoxville to do the Festival on ecclesiastical Whitsunday June 9th 2019. Early that morning Don Crossed the Threshold. We dedicated the program to him, & carried Charlotte & his spirit strongly as a group on that auspicious day.
~hag,AGM 2019 Atlanta Facing Each Other
After the AGM in Atlanta in October this year, I brought my All Souls workshop to Asheville NC; which was a wild ride, opening my psyche to some intense encounters with the Spirit of that Place. I knew it was important to also take it to my friends in Nashville & Knoxville in the light of Don’s passing, especially as Charlotte & I were in conversation around research into the life between death & rebirth.
~hag,CG & UVA Knoxville 2018
I could not find a local friend to be my co-pilot on the journey. My husband & daughter had come with me on a previous occasion, but the timing was off – Was I to travel alone this time?
~hag, Angela Foster Host of the Groups & Branches pre-conference in Atlanta 2019
Then Angela Foster, our amazing host for the recent AGM in Atlanta, contacted me saying ‘I feel we were working together in the night’, she shared an image of a blue circle.
~hag, the red mountains of Asheville Oct. 2019
I shared a dream I had that same night inspired by my time in the mountains of Asheville: ‘A circle of women were on the mountain. So many shooting stars. We watched a meteor – a burning streak – hit the ground in the center where were standing, creating a steaming ditch in the red earth.
The sun rose, & I was alone. I walked over to the ditch & something pushed me in. I stepped on the still hot cosmic iron with my bare feet & my left foot starting bleeding; but then the red blood turned into clear fresh water & I knew it was feeding the earth. I awoke to wild winds, & went to the lake to watch the sun rise.
Marta Such
This mixing of the blue & the red was something that has lived in Angela & me since I talked about it in my ‘Cain & Abel’ presentation on the 2 streams for the AGM in New Orleans.
Angela said, why don’t you fly into Atlanta & I will be the driver for the tour!
She was pondering the question & idea that MLK was born & did so much of his work in Atlanta, but he chose to die in Memphis. This needed to be a stop on the road-trip.
We took the idea into our sleep for 3 nights, & it became clear –
Ivy Green birth place of Helen Keller photo by Deb Abrahams-Dematte
YES, we must take this journey, stopping also at the birthplace of Helen Keller, & offering the program in Auburn Alabama for Helena Burkart & her many friends, as well as exploring Muscle Shoals, located alongside the Tennessee River, the unlikely sacred ground for some of America’s most creative & defiant music, born under the spiritual influence of the ‘Singing River‘ as Native Americans called it.
sorry i can’t get it to turn, selfie by Deb
Feeling the call to out-picture the ‘3 sisters’ which resonates so strongly for us, Angela suggested we reach out to our dear friend Deb Abrahams-Dematte, Director of Development for the Anthroposophical Society in America, who was so present at the recent AGM. And so the ball was rolling for our All Souls Southern Tour…
stay tuned as the journey continues…
***
POD (Poem Of the Day)
Carrie Ann Baade
~ I meet the angel guarding the gate The broken bulk of her wing I bear across my shoulders Hot is the searing of her sigil in my brow I roam in my vigil breathing darkly Annealed in sacred light Seeking the seal of her cloak ~hag
***
22 November 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Venus & Jupiter meet low in the southwest during twilight. On Saturday & Sunday evenings they’ll appear even closer. Right after it’s fully dark, Vega is the brightest star, higher in the west. Its little constellation Lyra extends to its left or lower left. Farther in the same direction, about a fist and a half at arm’s length from Vega, is Albireo, the beak of Cygnus. Farther on in the same direction are Tarazed, & just past it, Altair.
November 22 is the 326th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. 39 days remain until the end of the year. In the ancient astrology, it is the cusp day between Scorpio & Sagittarius. In some years it is Sagittarius, but others Scorpio.
Feast Day of Saint Cecilia patroness of musicians.
1744 – Birthday of Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams, 2nd First Lady of the United States
1819 – Birthday of Mary Ann Evans known by her pen name George Eliot, an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator & one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. Throughout her career, Eliot wrote with a politically astute pen, presenting the cases of social outsiders, small-town persecution & depictions of rural society. Much of the material for her prose was drawn from her own experience. She shared with Wordsworth the belief that there was much value & beauty to be found in the mundane details of ordinary country life.
1963 – Deathday of President John F. Kennedy, assassinated by the CIA.
1963 – Birthday of C. S. Lewis, British writer, critic & Christian apologist – one of the ‘Inklings’, some of whom were academics at Oxford University: Owen Barfield, J. A. W. Bennett, J. R. R. Tolkien, Percy Bates…
1968 – The Beatles release The White Album.
1999 – Birthday ofUltra-Violet Archer, born 11.22.99 butt 1st on the Full Moon 9:44 pm.
A Poem for your 20th natal return:
You, who is making the withered tracery sing Ensouling tress with your haloed heart Golden in the choral glow. Linger dear one Over the calyx of a rose & listen. Then ask. Watch your fingers creasing the lucent strings of rain The graceful vibrato condensing in a modern mist of sound A lacework stroking & cloaking your senses Do you see how the soaked lily inclines So reverently in the grist of your holy ground? ~hag
Greetings friends – The question for me is always, where do I start? For this 1st installment of the write-up for the ‘All Souls Southern Tour’, what came was to just be real, to be vulnerable, to start with the genesis of my own All Souls healing journey. And so it is:
~photo by Angela Foster
Verse for Our Beloved Dead by Rudolf Steiner:
May my heart-love reach to soul-love. May my love’s warmth shine to spirit light. Thus, I draw near to you. Thinking spiritual thoughts with you, Feeling cosmic love in you, Willing in spirit through you – Weaving with you One in experience.
~hag
I have always had an ‘Ancestor Shrine’. A kind of altar table layered with pictures, Mass cards, candles, crystals, bells, art offerings & the letters I written to the dead over the years. My Strega Nona taught me to place a fresh glass of water there every morning with a greeting. Starting with the Michaelmas season I often feel a pull to consciously tune in more. Sometimes I awake with the idea to bring a favorite food or an urge to sit there in meditation, or offer my research or reading; this ‘altar’ is after all, right next to my computer in my study where I do all my spiritual scientific work. Last year I began to know that I could recite the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ with my parents in mind. For many years it was difficult for me to engage with them, as the karmic knot was too tight, too painful. But my angel insisted, & so I push thru, & little by little the forgiveness & healing expands into all worlds.
~hag
As fate would have it a few years ago I was asked to come out to Nashville & Knoxville TN. to bring various anthroposophical programs, & I knew it was another opportunity for me to do some ancestral healing.
~hag
I have spoken about how my mother’s people came to the Knoxville/Milan/Skullbone TN area from Ireland. They raped & pillaged into the Chickasaw tribe, intermarrying, but then proceeding to become founders of the KKK in that area. Feeling the shame of the ‘sins of the father’s’, I had avoided the South all my life, going only once before when I was in a band, stopping in while on tour, for a family reunion after my mother had died.
~hag
I often imagine that my parents are still in the Kamaloca phase in their life between death & rebirth. Our dear Dr. Steiner shares with us that the human soul spends the beginning of this journey in what he refers to as the ‘Region of Burning Desires’ (in Hindu it is called Kamaloca, or in Christian verbiage-purgatory). On average we spend 1/3 of our lives in sleep, the little death, & so it is that we spend this same ratio purifying our passions, coming to terms with & reviewing our recent life on earth. This is a crucial time to reach across the threshold to help those on the other side in this phase closest to earth, especially since they are experiencing our time together. And so I offer them this Steiner Prayer:
I look to you in the spirit world In which you are. May my love mitigate your heat. May my love mitigate you’re cold. May it come through to you and help you To find the way From the spirit’s darkness To the spirit’s light.
Tomorrow my girl turns 20. & I know the work that I do on healing the ancestral line will reverberate into the future for all my relations…
~photo by Angela Foster
I am so grateful to my Southern friends, who have allowed me to meet this part of myself, thru the work that I share, to do some deep healing; welcoming me into their communities, which I see as my chosen family.
~hag
Coming this time for our ‘All Souls Southern Tour’, there was a big shift,
which I will go into tomorrow.
Thanks for walking with me on the path…
~hag
***
~Barbara Mckernan
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~The clouds cut A formless form Into the heavy throne of some kind of queen Only never my mother. & yet a clue unfolds & holds The encoded map Star clusters speaking the scope Of the stream, sunk In the occlusion of tears & corals Pried away from glistening birds Weaving treasures into stinging prayers & future symphonies. ~hag
***
21 November 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Look for Bella Luna waning in the east next to Regulus the next few mornings.
A very obscure meteor shower known as the Alpha Monocerotids is currently plowing streams of dusty particles that sputter off comet nuclei when they approach the Sun. The peak occurs TONIGHTstarting around 10:50 pm CST. The shower’s radiant is in the obscure constellation of Monoceros, the Unicorn, not far from the bright star Procyon, the easternmost star in the Great Winter Circle. Procyon will be low in the eastern sky at 10 pm.
164 BCE – Judas Maccabeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restores the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah.
1676 – The Danish astronomer Ole Rømer presents the first quantitative measurements of the speed of light.
1694 – Birthday of Voltaire, a French Enlightenment writer, historian, & philosopher famous for his wit, his criticism of Christianity, especially the Roman Catholic Church, as well as his advocacy of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile & prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, & historical & scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters & more than 2,000 books & pamphlets. He was an outspoken advocate of civil liberties, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. He adopted the name Voltaire in 1718, following his incarceration at the Bastille. It is an anagram of AROVET LI, the Latinized spelling of his surname, Arouet, & the initial letters of le jeune (“the young”). According to a family tradition he was known as le petit volontaire (“determined little thing”) as a child, & he resurrected a variant of the name in his adult life. The name also reverses the syllables of Airvault, his family’s home town in the Poitou region. Voltaire perceived the French bourgeoisie to be too small and ineffective, the aristocracy to be parasitic and corrupt, the commoners as ignorant and superstitious, and the Church as a static and oppressive force useful only on occasion as a counterbalance to the rapacity of kings, although all too often, even more rapacious itself. Voltaire distrusted democracy, which he saw as propagating the idiocy of the masses. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, & the French institutions of his day.
1783
– In Paris, Jean-François Pilâtre de
Rozier & François Laurent d’Arlandes, make the first untethered hot air
balloon flight.
1789 – North Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution & is admitted as the 12th U.S. state.
1811 – Death day of Heinrich von Kleist, German poet & author, spoken about by Rudolf Steiner in THE INNER ASPECT OF THE MOON-EMBODIMENT OF THE EARTH.How can we fail to recognise that this man’s spirit in its entirety as he stands before us, is an actual living embodiment of that which dwells in the depths of the Soul, which we must trace back to something other than the life of earth if we wish to recognise it? Has not Heinrich Von Kleist described in the most significant manner what may live within a man (a description of which you will find at the very beginning of The Spiritual Guidance of Man and Mankind), as something transcending him and driving him, and which he will only understand later on if he does not snap the threads of his life before! Think of his ‘Penthesilea’; how much more there is in her than she can span with her earthly consciousness! We should not be able to describe her at all, did we not take for granted that her Soul was immeasurably further advanced than the narrow little soul (although it was a great one) which she could span with her earthly consciousness. Hence a situation must arise which artistically introduces the whole process of the Drama. Indeed, it was necessary to prevent the whole transaction — which Kleist introduces with Achilles — from being grasped with the higher consciousness; otherwise the whole tragedy could not be perceived. Hence Achilles is called ‘her’ Achilles. What lies in the higher consciousness must be plunged into the non-conscious. Again, what part does this subconsciousness play in Katchen Von Heilbronn, especially in the remarkable relation between her and Wetter Von Strahl, which plays no part in the higher consciousness, but in the deeper strata of the Soul where dwells the forces of which man knows nothing, which pass from one to another. When we have this before us we can trace the spiritual nature of the world’s forces of gravity and attraction. For instance, in the scene where Katchen stands before her admirers, do we not feel what lives in the subconsciousness, and how it is related to what is outside in the world which has been dryly called the forces of our planet’s attractions? Yet only 100 years ago a truly penetrating and striving mind was not able to find his way into that subconsciousness. But it must be done to-day. And the tragedy of a Prince of Homburg strikes us in a very different way now. I should like to know how an abstract thinker, one who accounts for everything by reason alone, could account for a figure such as the Prince of Homburg, who carried out all his great deeds in a kind of dream-state, even those leading finally to victory. Kleist indicates very clearly that he could not possibly gain the victory by means of his higher consciousness, for as far as that was concerned he was not a particularly great man, for he whines and whimpers over everything he has to do. Only when by a special effort of the will, he brings up what dwells in the depths of his Soul, does he play the man.
1877 – Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record and play sound.
1905 – Albert Einstein’s paper that leads to the mass–energy equivalence formula, E = mc², is published in the journal Annalen der Physik.
The Emperor of Austria, who now belongs to the deposed royalty, before he was chased out carried around along with his other titles a most unusual one: Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slovenia, Galizia, Lodomeria, Illyia and so on. Among all these titles was also “King of Jerusalem!” The Austrian Emperor also carried, until he was no longer emperor, the title “King of Jerusalem.” It came from the crusades. It would be impossible to give a better example of meaninglessness than this. And such meaninglessness plays a much greater role than you imagine. It is a question of whether we can arise to a recognition of the present-day platitudes. It is made difficult because those who live in platitudes are the verbal representatives of the old concepts that stagger around in their brains imitating thoughts. But one can only achieve real thinking again when the inner soul-life is filled with substance and that can only come from knowledge of the spiritual world, of spiritual life. Only by being relieved by the spirit can one become a complete person, after having been constipated with platitudes. What I described yesterday as a feeling of shame will result in the call for the spirit. And the propagation of the spirit will only be possible if the spiritual/cultural sector is allowed to develop independently.
1927
– Columbine Mine massacre: Striking
coal miners are attacked with machine guns by a detachment of state police
dressed in civilian clothes.
***
13 December 2019 Rudiger Janisch:
The 3 fold human being , the Foundation Stone & the 3 fold social organism 7 pm – 9 pm &
14 December 2019- 9 am – noon
Rüdiger has been working in Curative Education and teaching in professional training programs in Germany and the United States for over 40 years. A long-time student of anthroposophy, he serves on the Collegium of the School for Spiritual Science in North America. His contributions to adult education methods were recognized in the context of an international research project sponsored by the European Union. He has been a member of the core faculty of a joint ‘Training for Trainers’ program supporting Curative Education and Social Therapy in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan. He has also taught as an adjunct faculty member of the M.S. Ed program in Waldorf Remedial Education at Antioch University N.H. Having taught many different aspects of anthroposophy and Curative Education, he currently is focused on action research and the development of artistic and experiential approaches to the spiritual scientific study of the human being.
20 November 2019 – Beloved One – I have just returned from the ‘Southern Tour’ my heart full, my head dancing & my hands open. The many miracles of the journey are churning, about to be born into the Logos shared. But 1st, I feel I must touch down here in the ‘City of Big Shoulder’s’ to bring all my revelations home to this spirit of place, with this seasonal story:
Once upon an autumn day, cut thru with the thought of Winter, a little leaf was heard to sigh, as leaves often do when a blustery wind is swirling about. A nearby twig asked: “What is the matter, little leaf?” And the leaf said, “The wind just told me that one day it would pull me off & throw me down to die!”
The twig told this to the branch & the trunk told it to the bark, & when the roots heard it, the tall tree rustled all over, & sent back word to the leaf, “Do not be afraid, you shall not go until you want to.” And so the leaf stopped sighing, but went on nestling & singing. Every time the wind spoke, the tree shook itself & stirred up all its leaves, the branches bobbed, the thin twig twittered, & the little leaf danced merrily up & down, as if nothing could ever pull it off.
And so it was all thru the month of October. And then November came, & it grew colder still. And as the outer light faded, the little leaf noticed that all the leaves around it became brighter. Some were yellow & some scarlet, & some striped with gold or curled with brown. The little leaf asked the tree what this change meant. And the tree said, “All these leaves are getting ready to fly away, & they have put on these beautiful colors to celebrate.”
Then the little leaf began to want to go, too, & grew very beautiful in thinking of it, & when it was bright orange, like the wings of a butterfly, it noticed that the branches that held it to the tree, had no color in them at all; & so the leaf said, “O branches, why are you so leaden-colored & we so golden?” And the tree answered:“I must keep on my work-clothes, for my time has not yet come – but your clothes are for holiday, since your task is almost complete.”
Just then a stiff gust of wind came, & the leaf let go, without worry, & the wind took it up & turned it over & over, & whirled it like a spark of fire in the air… & then it dropped gently down under the edge of the tree, among hundreds of other brightly colored leaves. There the little leaf lay dreaming of the sun & stars. And when the child picked it up & held it to the light, it flew out again& became the light.
~hag, adapted from a children’s story of old
Sir John Everett Millais
Sister Suffragettes outside the Parthenon in Nashville TN
Dear friends, YES! I plan to share insights from the ‘Southern Tour’ as soon as the ongoing digestion process allows & I have time to get all the images together… so stay tuned…xox
The Dove & Scythe by Charles Demuth
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~I take the sword I was given & winnow well…~hag
“Speaking with the Stars”: Orion the Hunter clears the eastern horizon by about 7 pm CST. High above Orion shines orange Aldebaran. Above Aldebaran is the little Pleiades cluster, the size of your fingertip at arm’s length. Far left of Aldebaran and the Pleiades shines bright Capella.
“The best Anthroposophists are those who take what is said as a stimulus in the first place, and then place it at the service of life, so as to prove it by life itself.” ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘The Mission of the Folk Souls’ lecture 11
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1805 – Beethoven’s only opera,Fidelio, premieres in Vienna.
1945 –Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg
1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation
1910 – Deathday of Leo Tolstoy, Russian author & playwright
“In 1828, Leo Tolstoy is born in a family of Russian counts about which he himself says that the family immigrated originally from Germany. Then we see Tolstoy losing certain higher goods of life. Hardly he is one and a half years old, he loses the mother, the father in the ninth year. Then he grows up under the care of a relative who is, so to speak, the embodied love, and from her spiritual condition, the marvellous soul condition had to flow in his soul like by itself. However, on the other side, another relative who wants to build up him out of the viewpoints of her circles, out of the conditions of time as they formed in certain circles influences him. She is a person who is completely merged in the outward world activity which later became very odious to Tolstoy and against which he fought so hard. We see this personality striving from the outset to make Tolstoy a person “comme il faut,” a person who could treat his farmers in such a way, as it was necessary in those days, who should receive title, rank, dignity, and medals and should play a suitable role in the society.
Then we see Tolstoy coming to the university; he is a bad student as he absolutely thinks that everything that the professors say at the University of Kazan is nothing worth knowing. Only oriental languages can occupy him. In all other matters, he was not interested. Against it the comparison of a certain chapter of the code of Catherine the Great (1729–1796) with The Spirit of the Laws (1748) by Montesquieu (Charles de Secondat, Baron de M., 1689–1755) attracted him. Then he tries repeatedly to manage his estate, and we see him almost getting around to diving head first into the life of luxury of a man of his circles, diving head first into all possible vices and vanities of life. We see him becoming a gambler, gambling big sums away. However, he has hours within this life over and over again when his own activities disgust him, actually. We see him meeting peers as well as men of letters and leading a life, which he calls a worthless, even perishable one at moments of reflection. However, we also see — and this is important to him who looks with pleasure at the development of the soul where this development manifests in especially typical signs — particular peculiarities appearing with him in the development of his soul which can disclose us already in the earliest youth what is, actually, in this soul.
Thus, it is of immense significance, what a deep impression a certain event makes on Tolstoy at the age of eleven years. A friendly boy once told him that one has made an important discovery, a new invention. One has found — and a teacher has spoken in particular of the fact — that there is no God that this God is only an empty invention of many human beings, an empty picture of thought. Everything that one can know about the impression that this boy’s experience made on Tolstoy shows already how he absorbed it that in him a soul struggled striving for the highest summits of human existence.” ~ Rudolf Steiner, Where and How Does One Find the Spirit? Tolstoy and Carnegie, Berlin, 28th January, 1909
1976 – Deathday of Lili Kolisko, remembered for her pioneer work in anthroposophy, attending lectures by founder Rudolf Steiner starting in 1914. She developed the Capillary Dynamolisis method (Steigbildmethode), testing the idea that not only the moon, but the other planets as well, have an influence over earthly fluids. To test this, she dissolved metals classically associated to each planet & observed the pictures left by their absorption over a filter paper. She noticed consistent differences of the patterns according to the position of the planets in relation to sun & earth. Lilly Kolisko also worked on the development of a remedy for foot and mouth disease & methods for assessment of food quality from an anthroposophic standpoint. She was married to Dr. Eugen Kolisko.
11.11.19 – “Speaking with the Stars”: ‘There’s a little black spot on the Sun today’ ~Sting
Today is the 7th & last installment of: 11.11.19 – ‘Mercury Dances across the Face of the Sun’ – Read the 1st, 2nd , 3rd , 4th 5th , 6th chapters.
Greetings friends on this 11.11.19 – Here in Atlanta the transit commences at 7:36 am EST when the tiny disc of Mercury begins to cross the Sun’s blazing disc. It will take just under two minutes for the planet’s disc to fully ingress onto Old Sol, & Mercury will slowly move across the Sun for the next several hours. Mid-transit will occur at 11:20 am, & egress from the solar disc will occur between 1:02 pm & 1:04 pm, when the transit ends.
Benedizioni Pasquali
I am holding you in my thoughts this morning at Sunrise as Mercury the fleet messenger in his retro-parade dances around between the Earth & our Day Star Sun, at ‘inferior Conjunction’; where he reaches the same ecliptic longitude as the Sun, passing the torch to humanity. Will we take it up & hold it high?
The other ingredient necessary for a transit is that it has to occur at one of the two points in Mercury’s orbit where his orbital plane crosses the ecliptic.
Gaudenzio Ferrari
These two events coincide every few years near May 8 or November 10. Transits of Mercury occur 13 or 14 times per century and can occur at regular set intervals ranging from 3.5 to 13 years between events. Jonathan Hilton of the Astrology Center gives us indications from Willi Sucher about Mercury specific to the ‘Three Years of Christ’s activity on the Earth in relation to the so-called “7 Signs” as archetypes for how humanity might ultimately work with these conjunctions of Mercury’.
The work of the “winged messenger of the gods” is that of the communication of cosmic intelligence to earthly intelligence, & today in our time it is also about assisting Michael to help humanity redeem our earthly intelligence, raising it again to cosmic intelligence, co-creating heart-thinking as a true spiritual cognition.
In the original Calendar of the Soul, Rudolf Steiner says that on November 9th ‘Faust makes his descent to the ‘Mothers’. Even though we celebrate Halloween & All Souls earlier as a fixed date, these festivals are determined by a cosmic alignment: The actual Cross-Quarter is anywhere between November 7-9th )
The opposite date, in general in May/June, is the time of Whitsun, bringing us the power of the Holy Spirit, of which I spoke about in an early installment. In November’s descent we contemplate the All Souls journey where we meet death & are born into the spiritual world; in May we celebrate the transformative power of the Holy Spirit calling in our future self, a rebirth of the Divine Isis-Sophia within.
~With thanks & praise to Everyone who has been part of this amazing journey. Special thanks to USNO, Jonathan Hilton whose insights are always enlightening, & Steve Hale a true human being willing to generously share his powerful heart-thinking! xox
“We understand only the very
smallest part of human history and of our own life if we consider it in its
external aspect, I mean in that aspect which we see from the limited view-point
of our earthly life between birth and death. It is impossible to comprehend the
inner motives of history and life unless we turn our gaze to that spiritual
background which underlies the outer, physical happenings”. Karmic
Relationships, Volume IV: Lecture III
Feast Day of Martin of Tours. Each 11/11 the
younger children have a Lantern Walk to celebrate Martinmas, a
festival of inner light in the outer darkness of the approaching winter. St
Martin was a soldier in Rome in the 4th century. Legend says that one wintry night
he met a poor beggar, half-naked & freezing. Martin removed the heavy
military cloak from his shoulders &, drawing his sword, cut it in two,
giving half to the beggar. That night, Christ appeared to Martin in a dream,
wrapped in the same piece of cloak Martin had given the beggar, & said:
“Martin has covered me with this garment.”
Martin
became the patron saint of beggars, drunks & outcasts, dedicating his life
to assisting pariahs. As we journey into the darkest time of the year, it is
increasingly important for each of us to kindle warmth & light within our
hearts, which becomes a beacon of light to the world. Martin’s cloak can remind
us to share with those in need.
The
gently glowing lanterns of Martinmas will give way to the candles of the advent
spiral as we draw nearer to the Solstice, showing how our inner light must
shine ever brighter against the cold. As nature sleeps, we must be wakeful!
Celebrating Martinmas serves as a reminder that each of us has a divine spark that we must ferry out into the world & share with others. The children hear the story of St. Martin, sing songs &, as darkness falls, venture out into the night with their lanterns walking along a path lit with glowing luminaries, carefully carrying their lanterns in a mood of quiet reverence. This symbolic act brings home the deeper truth, in the words of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism (563-483 B.C.): “There isn’t enough darkness in all the world to snuff out the light of one little candle.”
1788 – Birthday of Baron Joseph von Spaun, an Austrian nobleman, & honorary citizen of Vienna; best known for his friendship with the composer Franz Schubert.
1918
– Armistice of 11/11 ending the
fighting in the First World War between the Allies & Germany – also known
as the Armistice of Compiègne after
the location in which it was signed – &the agreement that ended the
fighting on the Western Front. It went into effect at 11 a.m. Paris time on 11
November 1918 (“the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh
month”), & marked a victory for the Allies & a complete defeat for
Germany, although not formally a surrender. The Germans were responding to the
policies proposed by U.S. President Woodrow
Wilson in his Fourteen Points of
January 1918. Although the armistice ended the actual fighting, it took six
months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace
treaty, the Treaty of Versailles.
1821 – Birthday of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian philosopher & author
1855 – Deathday of Soren A. Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher, theologian, & cultural critic who was a major influence on existentialism & Protestant theology in the 20th century. He attacked the literary, philosophical, & ecclesiastical establishments of his day for misrepresenting the highest task of human existence—namely, becoming a free human being in an ethical & religious sense.
1887
– August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph
Fischer & George Engel are executed as a result of the Haymarket affair. It
began Tuesday May 4, 1886, as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking
for an eight-hour day & in reaction to the killing of several workers the
previous day by the police. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police
as they acted to disperse the public meeting. The bomb blast & ensuing gunfire
resulted in the deaths of seven police officers & at least four civilians;
scores of others were wounded.
The Haymarket affair is generally considered significant as the origin of international May Day observances for workers. The site of the incident was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1992, & a public sculpture was dedicated there in 2004.
1904
– Birthday of Alger
Hiss, American lawyer & spy
“Every artistically striving person making closer acquaintance with Rudolf Steiner and his anthroposophy is likely to have experienced in a quite individual manner the agreeable shock: here lie all the possibilities for the further development of art. In one way or another it may have gone with him as with the writer of these recollections when she first read through (not yet actually studied!) the book Theosophy, without understanding the essential, yet riveted by the crystal-bright formation of this work, and having to say to herself: Even if I cannot survey it, it is nonetheless evident: Here lies a comprehensive work of art! This first impression did not deceive, for with every subsequent work taken up, every book, every lecture, not to mention the Mystery Dramas, there opened up new experiences and vistas previously undreamed of. – These will surely be found most felicitously expressed in the poem by Christian Morgenstern (1871–1914) dedicated to Rudolf Steiner:
To beauty does your work lead: For beauty in the end Streams in through every revelation That surrounds us. Out of human-sufferings Upward to ever higher harmonies You release the dizzying feeling, Till, united In accord with the Inestimable proclaimer of GOD And HIS never-to-be-grasped splendor It vibrates in the love-light Of blessedness…. From beauty does your work come, to beauty does it lead.”
1992
– The General Synod of the Church
of England votes to allow women to become priests
2000
– Kaprun
disaster: One hundred fifty-five skiers & snowboarders die
when a cable car catches fire in an alpine tunnel in Kaprun, Austria
2012
– A strong earthquake with
the magnitude 6.8 hits northern Burma, killing at least 2226 people
***
Frank Cadogan Cowper
My POD (Poem Of the Day)
~The outstretched wings of a bird, like wind in the fire, Gives me guidance as the journey continues deeper into the dark Together we carry the unending rhythm of the light… ~hag
***
Ellen Hollaway
Thought for Martinmas 11/11/19
Every one of us is a mix of good and evil. And it’s prime time for everyone to become hyper-alert about how the two play out in us. Once we acknowledge our own part in feeding the darkness, then we will have a lot more credibility as a fighter for beauty, truth, peace, love, goodness, & justice.
~hag
***
How about a Road-Trip?
THE ALL SOUL’S SOUTHERN TOUR! Take the Journey of the Soul in the Life Between Death & Rebirth in the warm hospitality of our Branch Buddies in the South:
Quick overview of the week:
Nov 10, 1st Class Lesson at the ARC in Atlanta GA
11.11.19 – Martinmas / Mercury Transit Gathering 4:11 pm – 6:11 pm at the Martin Clinic
Nov 12, Hazel and Deb Abrahams-Dematte will be in Atlanta, send any thoughts for must-see spots before we head out on the road trip
Nov 13, Gathering at Helene Burkarts’ ALL SOULS’ FESTIVAL 10 am-2 pm (see below)
Nov 14, Tuscumbia site visit, Helen Keller’s birth place
Nov 15, Memphis, death place of MLK, home of Elvis Presley
Nov 16, Nashville program ALL SOULS’ FESTIVAL 10 am – 2 pm
Nov 17 Knoxville program ALL SOULS’ FESTIVAL 1 pm – 5 pm
Nov 18 return to ATL
11/11/19, at the Martin Clinic – Humanizing Medicine – in Atlanta GA, 4:11 pm – 6:11 pm with a community potluck to follow
On this auspicious day we will gather to look at the mystery of 11:11, & the connections between, Martinmas, MLK, The Journey of the Soul, Armistice Day, The laying of the Foundation Stone, & a Rare Cosmic Alignment – The Transit of Mercury across the Sun.
‘Speaking with the Stars’ with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Storytelling with Enid Hancock
Leading thoughts with Mark Hancock, Angela Foster
Votive Art with Angela Foster
Biography work with Jolie Luba
Together we will sprinkle the BD preps around the Clinic
ALL SOULS JOURNEY – Exploring the Life between Death & Rebirth
10 am – 2 pm, Wednesday 13 November 2019, Auburn, Alabama, Community Potluck lunch – Please Bring a dish to Share – Suggested Donation $20-$50 or pay what you will – for more info. contact Helena Burkhart
***
10 am – 2 pm, Saturday 16 November 2019 in Nashville TN Community Potluck lunch – Please Bring a dish to Share – Suggested Donation $20-$50 or pay what you will – For more info. contact Cathy Green Or Barbara Bittles
***
1 pm – 5 pm, Sunday 17 November 2019 Knoxville TN Community Potluck Dinner – Please Bring a dish to Share – Suggested Donation $20-$50 or pay what you will – For more info. contact Bill Rogers
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg is a spiritual midwife and trans-denominational minister working in an eclectic style that inspires connections, initiating us into the magic waiting to be revealed in the cycle of the seasons. She is also the festivals coordinator of the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society, a lecturer, promoter, blogger, poet and performance artist. Learn more at www.ReverseRitual.com
10 November 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: A lone bright star now hangs low in the south during early evening- Fomalhaut, often called “the Solitary One”, belongs to the constellation Piscis Austrinus the Southern Fish.
***
Today is the 6th installment of: 11.11.19 – ‘Mercury Dances across the Face of the Sun’ – Read the 1st, 2nd , 3rd , 4th 5th chapters.
We
know, that Rudolf Steiner did everything in his power to reach out to those who
could have stopped the World War from happening; but the adversarial beings had
their way. And so during those war years Steiner spoke a good deal about the
life after death & how to work with those on the other side.
World War I finally came to an end at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. We remember this as Armistice Day.
And so it has been that we have explored over this last week the mystery of 11:11, & the connections between, Martinmas, MLK, The Journey of the Soul in the life between death & rebirth, The laying of the Foundation Stone, The Transit of Mercury across the Sun & Armistice Day; remembering that there was once a world where war was not always raging.
Can we take the insights we have gleaned into our lives, into the world, to bring the qualities of St. Martin & Martin Luther & the kings & the shepherds & all those who long to work with us in the spiritual world, into the practical alchemy of our intention, truly living into the foundation stone of love.
‘Light Divine, Christ Sun, warm our hearts, enlighten our minds that good may become, what from our hearts we are founding what from our heads we direct with single purpose’…
Rudolf Steiner invited each of us to make this a reality by facing each other, co-creating a spiritual community defined by our shared striving toward a realization of the Christ in our time. And it’s no coincidence that this years’ AGM,in Atlanta, was called Facing Each Other: Freedom, Responsibility & Love! So be it…
Join me tomorrow dear friends for a Sunrise service, let’s greet our day Star & then welcome the messenger of the gods in his journey, together.
Tomorrow I will share my final thoughts on 11.11.19
461 – Pope Leo, the first pope to be called “the Great”. He is perhaps best known for having met Attila the Hun in 452, persuading him to turn back from his invasion of Italy. He is also a Doctor of the Church, most remembered theologically for issuing the Tome of Leo, a document which was a major foundation to the debates of the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon which elucidated the orthodox definition of Christ’s being as the hypostatic union of two natures, divine & human, united in one person.
1483 – Birthday of Martin Luther, German monk & priest, leader of the Protestant Reformation
1493 – Birthday of Paracelsus “In order to understand Paracelsus, one must look at the basic character of his work as a doctor and as a philosopher, and grasp him as a theosophist, as he combined these both soul characters with each other. This personality was uniform. With brilliant look, he tried to grasp the construction of the world edifice. His surprised sight looked up at the secrets of the starry heaven, became engrossed in the construction of the earth and in particular in the construction of the human being himself. This brilliant sight penetrated also into the secrets of the spiritual life. He was also a theosophist, while he tried to enclose the nature of the astronomical knowledge and at the same time the nature of anthropology, the doctrine of the human being in connection with the doctrine of all living beings. Nothing was mere theory in him, everything was immediate in such a way that it was bent on practise, that he wanted to use all that he knew for the welfare, the spiritual and physical health of the human being. This gives his work, his thinking, and investigations the big, immense unity. This makes him appear as sharply carved from one single piece of wood. Thus, he stands before us as an original, elementary personality.” see The Riddles of the World and Anthroposophy by Rudolf Steiner.
1759 – Friedrich Schiller,
German poet, playwright, & historian. From Rudolf Steiner in Karmic
Relationships: Esoteric Studies – Volume VI “I
should like to speak today about an individual who was incarnated about the
second century A.D. in Rome, as it then was, and who with great sensitiveness
of perception had witnessed the willing martyrdom suffered by the Christians in
their efforts to promulgate their cause in the Roman Empire. This individual
had also witnessed the terrible injustices and the many forms of depravity and
corruption which were so rife in the Roman Empire at that time. Numberless
manifestations of Good and Evil were witnessed and experienced by this
individual. With the methods of spiritual research which enable such happenings
to be recognised, we find this individual drawn into the tumultuous happenings
which at that time, during the second half of the second century A.D., were
experienced in the Roman Empire in connection with the spread of Christianity.
There is something extremely moving about this individual when the eye of
spirit is directed upon him in the way I explained last time with reference to
other individuals in their repeated earthly lives.
In this individual who lived to a very
great age and who had witnessed so much Good in deeds of supreme sacrifice in
the sphere of germinating Christianity, and so much that was evil and bad in
Roman life at that time, there arose a kind of realisation which was also a question:
Where is the balance, the mean? Is there only the wholly Good and the wholly
Evil in the world?
With the consciousness of Imagination
and Inspiration one can follow quite clearly how this individual was
subsequently reborn in the eleventh century, as a woman. The experiences
undergone in the life as a woman levelled out the hard, steel-like angularity
of soul which had developed during the Roman incarnation when he had reached a
great age. This trait was softened and mellowed and became a faculty of inner,
thoughtful contemplation of Good and Evil. This individual then came again to
the Earth in the eighteenth century and was born as the German poet, Friedrich
Schiller.
And now study Schiller’s life and see
how it develops, striving to find a middle condition, a balance, a mean.
Schiller needed Goethe before he could get rid of all that had remained in him
from the conviction that there is only Good, there is only Evil. Read
Schiller’s dramas, and you will understand them if you think of his earlier incarnation.
What circumstances lie behind Schiller’s life and outlook? The experiences he had undergone in the Roman incarnation continued to be alive within him, but he had subsequently incarnated as a woman in the Middle Ages. And then, in his life between death and a new birth, it was in the Saturn sphere that the most significant development of his karma took place.”
1939 – Deathday of Frederick
Eckstein, an Austrian polymath, theosophist, Anthroposophist, & friend
& co-worker of Sigmund Freud. Emil Molt states: ‘ Frederick Eckstein was
the benefactor of Bruckner and Hugo Wolf, indeed the right arm of Bruckner,
taking care that affairs went smoothly. He was a world traveller, had mastered
Jui-jitsu and taught himself all sorts of difficult tricks. The story went
around that he had trained himself to jump off a fast moving train without
getting hurt. He too, was a highly gifted mathematician and a learned man in
many respects.’
Also the husband of fellow theosophist & writer Bertha Diener, Eckstein’s penchant for occultism first became evident as a member of a vegetarian group which discussed the doctrines of Pythagoras & the Neo-Platonists in Vienna at the end of the 1870s. His esoteric interests later extended to German & Spanish mysticism, the legends surrounding the Templars & the freemasons, Wagnerian mythology & oriental religions. In 1886, in the week after the tragedy at Mayerling, in which Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, & his mistress were found dead in mysterious circumstances, he & his friend, the composer Anton Bruckner (for whom he also served as private secretary) traveled to the monastery of Stift Heiligenkreuz to ask the abbot there for details of what happened.
He introduced C. G.
Harrison to Rudolf Steiner, the writer of ‘Transcendental Universe, Six
Lectures on Occult Science, Theosophy and the Catholic Faith’. Most spiritual
impulses at work today can be traced back to the nineteenth century explosion
of esotericism. In The Transcendental Universe, one of the most enigmatic and
thought-provoking works of the period, C. G. Harrison, a mysterious and unknown
figure, examines Theosophy from an esoteric Christian standpoint and separates
the true gnosis from the false. With great personal courage, he makes public
much esoteric knowledge that had remained hidden within the occult orders.
Self-initiated and unaffiliated, he speaks authoritatively on: the secret
history of Spiritualism and Theosophy; the nature of initiates, esoteric
societies, and secret brotherhoods; occult science; the true nature of God,
matter, evil, and the evolution of consciousness; the angelic hierarchies: the
Archangel Michael, Beelzebub, and the War in Heaven; the coming sixth epoch,
and more. Previously known only to esotericists, this important work is now
made available to the general public ninety-nine years after its original
publication.
1940 – The Vrancea
earthquake strikes Romania killing an estimated 1,000 & injuring
approximately 4,000 more
1975 – The 729-foot-long freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks during a storm on Lake Superior, killing
all 129 crew on board.
1975 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the United Nations General Assembly passes Resolution 3379, determining
that Zionism is a form of racism
1983 – Bill Gates
introduces Windows 1.0
***
Carrie Ann Baade
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~Celestial fire descend Burnish bright as copper Our diamond mind Carry the ideals of Archangels into the body electric So we may uplift the sky, Rend the veil & reveal the temple true… ~hag
***
How about a Road-Trip?
THE ALL SOUL’S SOUTHERN TOUR! Take the Journey of the Soul in the Life Between Death & Rebirth in the warm hospitality of our Branch Buddies in the South:
Quick overview of the week:
Nov 10, 1st Class Lesson at the ARC in Atlanta GA
11.11.19 – Martinmas / Mercury Transit Gathering 4:11 pm – 6:11 pm at the Martin Clinic
Nov 12, Hazel and Deb Abrahams-Dematte will be in Atlanta, send any thoughts for must-see spots before we head out on the road trip
Nov 13, Gathering at Helene Burkarts’ ALL SOULS’ FESTIVAL 10 am-2 pm (see below)
Nov 14, Tuscumbia site visit, Helen Keller’s birth place
Nov 15, Memphis, death place of MLK, home of Elvis Presley
Nov 16, Nashville program ALL SOULS’ FESTIVAL 10 am – 2 pm
Nov 17 Knoxville program ALL SOULS’ FESTIVAL 1 pm – 5 pm
Nov 18 return to ATL
11/11/19, at the Martin Clinic – Humanizing Medicine – in Atlanta GA, 4:11 pm – 6:11 pm with a community potluck to follow
On this auspicious day we will gather to look at the mystery of 11:11, & the connections between, Martinmas, MLK, The Journey of the Soul, Armistice Day, The laying of the Foundation Stone, & a Rare Cosmic Alignment – The Transit of Mercury across the Sun.
‘Speaking with the Stars’ with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Storytelling with Enid Hancock
Leading thoughts with Mark Hancock, Angela Foster
Votive Art with Angela Foster
Biography work with Jolie Luba
Together we will sprinkle the BD preps around the Clinic
ALL SOULS JOURNEY – Exploring the Life between Death & Rebirth
10 am – 2 pm, Wednesday 13 November 2019, Auburn, Alabama, Community Potluck lunch – Please Bring a dish to Share – Suggested Donation $20-$50 or pay what you will – for more info. contact Helena Burkhart
***
10 am – 2 pm, Saturday 16 November 2019 in Nashville TN Community Potluck lunch – Please Bring a dish to Share – Suggested Donation $20-$50 or pay what you will – For more info. contact Cathy Green Or Barbara Bittles
***
1 pm – 5 pm, Sunday 17 November 2019 Knoxville TN Community Potluck Dinner – Please Bring a dish to Share – Suggested Donation $20-$50 or pay what you will – For more info. contact Bill Rogers
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg is a spiritual midwife and trans-denominational minister working in an eclectic style that inspires connections, initiating us into the magic waiting to be revealed in the cycle of the seasons. She is also the festivals coordinator of the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society, a lecturer, promoter, blogger, poet and performance artist. Learn more at www.ReverseRitual.com
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