20 April 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bright Venus shows herself in East an hour before sunrise gracing the predawn sky as the rosy glow heralding the Sun’s arrival grows brighter. About an hour after dark, the Pointer stars forming the end of the Big Dipper’s bowl point straight down toward Polaris. Face north and look way up. Polaris is about three fists at arm’s length from the Pointers.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

The Ecclesiastical Holy Saturday: Christ’s Hallowing of Hell

1232 – Pope Gregory IX introduces the Inquisition

1314 – Death day of Pope Clement V – who abolished the Templar Order in 1312 – Interesting to note that the Grand Master of the Templars Jacques de Molay, Not to mention the countless women accused of being a witch, were all burnt at the stake outside of Notre Dame Cathedral.

1535 – Sun Dog sighting, observed over Stockholm, an atmospheric optical phenomenon depicting a halo display.

1586 – Birthday of Saint Rose of Lima, patroness of the Americas, of indigenous people of the Americas, especially of Lima, Peru, of Sittard in the Netherlands, of India, & of the Philippines. St. Rose’s skull, surmounted with a crown of roses, is on public display at the Basilica in Lima, Peru, along with that of Saint Martin de Porres. It was customary to keep the torso in the basilica and pass the head around the country.

1889 – Birthday of Adolf Hitler (which BTW: was also Holy Saturday in that year)

1898 – U.S. President William McKinley signed a joint resolution to Congress for declaration of War against Spain, beginning the Spanish–American War.

1999 – Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and injured 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado.

***

A few more thoughts to ponder about the burning of Notre-Dame:

This powerful Cathedral is considered to be in the very heart of Paris – the ‘zero point’ – at the center of a powerful vortex of interlacing ley lines.

And of course, as we know, most Churches are built on the sacred grounds of former temples or mystery centers. Beneath ‘Our Lady’ lay the ruins of a Temple to Isis. The Templars built this Cathedral in the 12^th century, in honor of Mary Magdalene, personified as the Black Madonna, symbol of the secret Wisdom of the Divine Feminine. And so, the former Egyptian Isis had been renewed & crowned by them: ‘Queen of Paris’.

You can see a statue of Saint Mary Magdalene outside the Western door, to the right of the Portal of the Virgin, between the Main Entrance & the Portal of the Last Judgment.

The statue of Saint Joan of Arc inside on the South wall of Notre Dame, features a key symbol linking her to Saint Mary Magdalene – a distinctive pouch hanging from her belt, mirroring the iconographic item traditionally depicted on the belt of Mary Magdalene.

By the Middle Ages the Goddess ‘Cybele’ had become another name for the Divine Feminine, ‘Our Lady of Wisdom’, or ‘Lady Philosophy’ of the French alchemists.

 “Cybele, as Goddess of philosophy” is also portrayed on the Western portal of Notre-Dame. She has her feet on the earth & her head in the heavens. She holds two books, one open & one closed – symbols for exoteric & esoteric knowledge. Leaning on her breast is “Jacob’s ladder”, which represents the gradual path of knowledge, leading to her scepter of wisdom, in divine union.

Perhaps with this burning, the ‘point zero’ of Ile de la Cité – the Island that Notre-Dame sits on – is in the throes of a fiery re-birthing…

And let us not forget that many people have been burnt at the stake in front of Notre Dame – Notably the Grand Master of the Templars himself, Jacques de Molay. Not to mention the countless women accused of being a witch.

Interesting to note that the relic of the Crown of Thorns is housed there.

Could it be that the Divine Feminine, buried beneath Notre-Dame, is awakening once more, surging up thru all that is falsely imprisoned. Could it be that with this burning & unholy inscription into the ethers, the New Isis will rise & open a path like a fiery phoenix, to a true Resurrection, reborn out of the flames of the divine Feminine reclaimed..?

Is ‘Our Lady’ trying to get our attention, just as the nationwide ‘Gilets Jaunes’ or ‘yellow Jacket’ protests have been vying for recognition, amid growing anger over rising fuel taxes & the high cost of living…?

And/or is this an example of a “Reichstag fire” – a false flag facilitated by an authority to promote their own interests through popular sympathy?

So much to ponder on this Holy Saturday, when, in the words of the Creed in the Christian Community, The Christ “was lowered into the grave of the Earth…to rescue the souls of the dead who had lost their divine nature…” A sacred spot which thousands of years before had been experienced as the center of the Earth – which the ancients called the grave of Adam – A primeval gorge, which splits Jerusalem into two parts, believed to be the gate of the Underworld. The Good Friday earthquake tore open this original fissure, so that The Christ could make His Descent into Hell.

May the Saturn darkness become Easter Light, healing the realm of the dead – turning the grave of the Earth into a new Sun.

Blessings Dear friends & Sabbath Peace ~hag

Blessings my dear friends on this  Ecclesiastical Good Friday –

In our exploration of the Easter Paradox of both 2019 & 1924, here is my synopsis of the last lecture Rudolf Steiner gave to the Anthroposophical Society 22 April, 1924- The Mysteries of Ephesus. The Aristotelian Categories: The Mysteries have played an important part in the whole evolution of humankind. The Easter Festival grew out of the principle of initiation. Humankind is predestined to evolve to spiritual freedom. We know that human individuals return to the Earth again & again in their repeated earthly lives, carrying with them experiences of former epochs into later ones. The environment created by the Mysteries is an important factor in the progress of carrying from one age into another what human beings experienced & what they experience again in other forms of knowledge.

When that spiritual impulse which has gone forth from the Goetheanum thru the Christmas Foundation meeting, really finds its way into the life of the Anthroposophical Society it will provide the foundation for the Mysteries of the future. The future life of the Mysteries must consciously & deliberately be planted by this Anthroposophical Society.

In the burning of the 1^st Goetheanum, the Anthroposophical Society has ever before it an event which can be turned to good will in future evolution just like the burning of the Temple of Ephesus.

Both seem a tragedy on the outside, but on the various planes of existence these things appear in different ways, & only in the freedom can we turn to good will that which on one plane is so wrong, for it is just thru these terrible events that a real evolution can be achieved.

To enter into these things with sympathetic understanding we must grasp them, as intimately as possible. How did the spiritual life of the world live in the Mysteries? Steiner talked about the how the yearly Easter Festival proceeds for the Earth from the constellations of the Sun & Moon, & how the other planets are seen from the standpoint of the Moon.

And he relates that never did human hearts & minds partake so intimately in these Northern Mysteries, this descent from the pre-earthly into the earthly life as in the Mysteries of Ephesus, devoted to Diana or Artemis, enabling her initiates to experience & enter into the spiritual life & movement within the ether of the Cosmos.

A deep impression was made on those present when the Temple Goddess expressed her joy in all things growing, springing, sprouting in the far-spread ether of the world; a feeling that wafted thru the spiritual atmosphere of the Sanctuary as a magic breath.

And as a consequence a certain instruction could be given with great clearness in these Ephesian Mysteries, whose aim was to bring the secret of the Moon forth in the human soul, creating one’s being out of the Sunlight that wove around the Moon.

Verse Steiner gave to Ita Wegman:
The Sun, in me, my King,
Leads me into the world.
The Moon, in me, maintains
My shape, she keeps my form.
Mercury holds, in me,
The Sun and Moon in one.
Venus in me is all,
Nothing without her love.
When she and Mars are one,
He speaks me as a Word,
So Jupiter can shine
All through me wisdom’s rays,
And Saturn, ripe, can beam
Through me the colours that I am.

The spiritual life in Ephesus was filled with a radiant inner light – the true dignity of the Cosmic human being, a prefiguring of the Easter thought.

All these things bound up with the Temple Sanctuary went up in the flames lit by the hand of a criminal.

Then Steiner goes on to reference:  World History in the Light of Anthroposophy, which he gave during the Christmas Conference.  Telling how “two Initiates of these Mysteries were reincarnated in Aristotle and in Alexander. “

And “When the Temple of Ephesus was burning it was the hour of Alexander’s birth. But as the Temple burned something was powerful taking place…all that had gone on in these Temple spaces was communicated to the cosmic ether.

So we may truly say: The continuous Easter Festival at Ephesus which had been contained within these Temple spaces has since been written in the great orb of the ethereal heavens.

The human wisdom which was enclosed in Temple walls escaped & was written in the cosmic ether & is visible to spiritual Imagination, the interpreter of the starry script.

The stars must mean more to us than something merely to be calculated mechanically, or mathematically.”

For Alexander & Aristotle, there came the moment when thru the influence of the Mysteries of the Kabiri there arose something like a memory of the old Ephesian time which both of them had lived thru before. But in this remembrance of an ancient time, there was a certain power to create something new.

When the cosmic sounding in the Moon was there again & Aristotle & Alexander recognized what the fire at Ephesus had signified, when they saw how this fire had carried forth into the far ether of the world the content of the Mysteries of Ephesus, then there arose in these two the inspiration to be found the Cosmic Script written down by Aristotle, known as the Categories of Being:

Quantity
Quality
Relation
Space
Time
Position
Activity (or Action)
Passivity (or Suffering)

Steiner asks us to take these concepts which Aristotle first expounded to Alexander, & learn to develop them like we did as children with the alphabet, then we will learn to read in the Cosmos.

So we see, what was a mighty revelation of instinctive wisdom thru thousands of years flowed into concepts with an inner force of life & strength which must once more be revealed in time to come.

We must find again what is resting in the grave, we must find the Sophia, the cosmic wisdom & the cosmic light. We must learn to read once more in the great universe to experience the resurrection of what lies hidden.

We are here to create an Easter Festival as an experience for all humankind. “Anthroposophy in all its working, is an Easter experience, an experience of resurrection bound up with the experience of the grave.”

It is important just at this present Easter paradox for us to feel, the full festivity of Anthroposophical striving. Can we open ourselves to feel how once upon a time humankind was blessed with a divine-spiritual revelation which shone most radiantly in Ephesus. But now all this lies buried.

How can we set free from the grave what lies buried? And then listen to hear the words spoken on that Easter morn 2000 years ago: “That which you seek is no longer here.” Can we find it in our hearts, & open minds, in true active way?

Then in full consciousness, not instinctively as in ancient time, we are led forward into the new mysteries of Easter.

This too must be united with the impulse of the Christmas conference, which must not remain a merely intellectual, theoretic & abstract past deed. It must be an impulse of the heart, it must not be dry & matter-of-fact. It must be sacred, solemn, joyful.

Then just like Aristotle & Alexander, who used the fire of Ephesus when it flamed forth like a forge in their hearts, when it flamed forth in the Cosmic ether & then bore down to them new secrets that were gathered up into those simple concepts.

Will we take it upon ourselves to use what has also been carried out into the ether with the death of the 1^st Goetheanum, into a resurrection of Anthroposophia?

Can we awaken to the new dawn, shining in the far & wide ether, where the spirit-filled wisdom of the world dwells, to fill ourselves with impulses coming in towards us from the Cosmos?

The Anthroposophical Easter mood must hold to this Spirit that arises ever & again out of eternal foundations. Let us receive this as an Easter thought – as an Easter feeling into our hearts, as we experience Good Friday anew, as Love’s Sacrificial Death – even as we acknowledge the rending of the Temple Veil, to bring the transformation of the Venus-principle, thru the Sun-principle of Christ.

with humble respect ~hag

***

19 April 2019 “Speaking with the Stars”: The Pascal Full Moon, became exact at 6:12 am CDT. This evening look for Spica to the upper right of Bella Luna & brighter Arcturus to Her upper left.

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

The 1^st Night of Passover

Ecclesiastical Good Friday

Feast Day of the Holy Lance – the spear of Longinus

1054 – Feast Day of Leo IX, pope of the Catholic Church. Leo IX is widely considered the most historically significant German Pope of the Middle Ages; he was instrumental in the precipitation of the Great Schism of 1054, considered the turning point in which the Catholic & Orthodox Church formally separated.

1775 – The American Revolution begins at Lexington

1824 – Deathday of Lord Byron, English-Scottish poet & playwright, who Steiner refers to as “a seeker after the Palladium” in his Karmic Relationships lecture 1/11.

1882 – Deathday of Charles Darwin, English biologist & theorist, who Steiner refers to as “a seeker after the Palladium” in his Karmic Relationships lecture 1/11.

1960 – Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign

1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, USA, is bombed, killing 168 people including 19 children under the age of six

2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected to the papacy and becomes Pope Benedict XVI.

2011 – Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba after holding the title since July 1961.

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Look, she said, leaning out the window
To wave at the stream of the Pascal Moon
See how the reflected Easter light rises…
Mirroring strident spirals of the New Sun
Calling: Become
The Chalice of victory
& see thru soul eyes
To speak deeds clothed in spirit-light…
But 1st
You must drink from the cup of crucifixion
~hag

***J

Special Event for GOOD FRIDAY 19 April 2019, 7 pm – 9 pm- ‘O Man (or Woman) Know YourSelf: A Glimpse at the Human Double’ a workshop with biography worker Paulette Arnold

(1st Class is on Holy Saturday 20 April 2019)

$10 – 20 or pay what you can + Snacks to Share Encouraged 

for more info. contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

 A Cosmic Wake Up Call: the Easter Paradox of 2019

18 April 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Venus rises above the eastern horizon about an hour before sunrise. The brilliant planet of Love dominates the predawn sky as the rosy glow heralding the Sun’s arrival grows brighter.

The Full Wind Moon arrives at 6:12 am CDT on Good Friday morning. She rises in the east shortly before the Sun sets this evening & reaches her peak in the south around midnight. Bella Luna is in her Easter place in the constellation of Virgo, with bright Spica heralding the harvest of the Resurrection.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

 1506 – The cornerstone of the current St. Peter’s Basilica is laid.

1521 – Trial of Martin Luther begins its second day during the assembly of the Diet of Worms. He refuses to recant his teachings despite the risk of excommunication.

1775 –The British advancement by sea begins; (The midnight ride of) Paul Revere and other riders warn the countryside of the troop movements.

1857 – “The Spirits Book” by Allan Kardec is published, marking the birth of Spiritualism in France

1902 – The 7.5 Mw  Guatemala earthquake shakes Guatemala with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing between 1800–4,000.

1906 – An earthquake and fire destroy much of San Francisco, California.

1909 – Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.

1955 – Deathday of Albert Einstein

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~The mist has one last dance
In the slanting rays of the sun rise
The birds proclaim the resurrection
The tender tendrils tease
The daffodils, the hyacinth
Scent the dew
The porch is swept
The old wood waits to burn
Make way for the new
~hag

***

On this Ecclesiastical Maundy Thursday we continue with the synopsis of the lectures Rudolf Steiner gave during the Easter Paradox of 1924:

The day after the ecclesiastical Easter 21 April, 1924, The Moon Secret. Spring  & Autumn Mysteries. Steiner again indicates the cosmic aspect of the Easter Festival. And as a way of deepening understanding he touches upon some of the facts relating to the so-called secrets of the Moon.

In effect, all the light that rays forth from the Full Moon into the Cosmos contains the forces that the human being when descending into incarnation needs to form the outer aspect of the etheric body.

On the other hand all that rays forth spiritually from the New Moon, out into the Cosmos, contains the forces which the human being needs to form the inner aspect of the etheric body.

This rhythm, of the external shining of the Moon & of its darkening, enables the human being to connect with what Steiner called, the Primal Teachers, which work from the moon.

Steiner tells us that the spiritual Beings of the Moon turn their gaze to begin with on what is most important for them – the wandering stars that belong to our planetary system, in order that humanity may properly receive the forces needed.

Knowledge of this was contained in certain ancient Mysteries. This knowledge is seen in the days of the week. This brought home the planetary system to the consciousness of humanity in relation to space & time – on the one hand, thru the rhythmic course of the Moon around our Earth thru light & darkness, & on the other hand, we see an imprint in the consciousness of humanity the whole succession of the planets. The initiate in the Mysteries could free themselves from the physical body & live in the formative forces of the etheric body, to experience:

Monday
Tuesday: Speech
Wednesday: Movement
Thursday: Wisdom
Friday: Love, Beauty
Saturday: Inner warmth of soul
Sunday: Protecting forces (reflected from the Moon)

The initiates knew that the Sun cannot influence the forming of the etheric body directly, but only thru the reflection from the Moon.

The initiates knew that for the full inner force of the astral body, & the Ego, of the “I am”, they must go to the Sun., to become the Christophoros, the Sun-bearer –

this inner human Easter experience of former times transformed into a cosmic Festival. In later times humanity forgot that such a thing could happen. They no longer knew they could go forth from the earthly realm, unite themselves with the Moon nature, & from the Moon behold the Sun. But a certain remembrance of this has been preserved in the Easter Festival.

Our present spiritual Festival of Easter represents an event in the Mysteries which was enacted 1^st in the Autumn, & then later in the Springtime

In later days man was no longer able to penetrate the living reality of this his relationship to the Spiritual in the Cosmos. And at length things went so far that the Autumn Mysteries of resurrection were simply superimposed on the Springtime Mystery of the descent. The confusion that arose in the course of human evolution shows how deeply materialism worked in the course of time. For it not only created false opinions but brought humankind into real confusion with regard to those things which were once in sacred, holy order in the course of human earthly life.

Once upon a time there was a sacred order in these things. As Autumn came near, humankind celebrated a Cosmic Festival, a Festival which pointed to a real process of the Mysteries. Nature, they said, is fading & dying away, Nature is laid waste. It is like the gradual death of a human beings physical life. But when we look at Nature we see only the transitory at work in her, in the human being  we see the Eternal, which we must now behold apart from what takes place in outer Nature, for we must behold it in the spirit as that which is resurrected after death in the spiritual world.

And through the Mysteries of springtime it was made clear to humanity that the spiritual works in again from the Cosmos, the physical springs & sprouts forth from the Earth, because it is impelled by the Spiritual. This however was to lead humanity to remember, not how they passed through death into the Spiritual, but how they have come from & descended out of the Spiritual.

When Nature is springing & ascending, the human being was to remember their descent into the Physical; & again when Nature is declining the human being was to remember his ascent, his resurrection into the Spiritual. Infinitely deepening the life of the soul to experience how the human being is related to the Cosmos.

“These things varied according to the different regions of the Earth. We can say that there are Autumn people , & Springtime people”.

For the Autumn people there were the Mysteries of Adonis, the Southern Mysteries, of death & the after-life; the shining of the spiritual Sun in the beginning of the night of Winter; & for the Springtime people there were other Northern Mysteries related to the life before birth as seen from the secret of the Moon initiation.

In ancient times folks stayed within their stream, which was appropriate for their time, & only great initiates like Pythagoras, who traveled from place to place taking in the various mysteries underwent the true initiation of human experience, paving the way for our time now, when we are called to embrace both streams.

So you see our Easter Festival holds many components,  1^st we meet the planetary Beings revealed in the days of Holy Week, then we experience the mystery of death, the entombment, The harrowing or redeeming  of hell & then the resurrection. And of course Easter-Tide continues thru the secret teachings given to the apostles during the 40 days between the Resurrection & the Ascension & then after 10 days, the mystery of Pentecost. 

May we take to heart the truth behind the original Maundy Thursday, ever enacting the Last Supper as if it was the 1^st – Striving to ‘wash the feet of the other’, – recognizing that we owe our life to those around us & to the plant & animal worlds which give us a foundation for life. Let us administer to all the new sacrament in remembrance of King Jupiter’s benevolence  made new by Christ’s deed.

Tomorrow we turn again to our Easter Paradox research…

Until soon

~hag

Ecclesiastical Holy Week Kaspar Hauser Study 14 – 18 April 2019,

Special Event for GOOD FRIDAY 19 April 2019, 7 pm – 9 pm ‘O Man (or Woman) Know YourSelf: A Glimpse at the Human Double’

We have found this Study of Kaspar Hauser so intriguing that we wish to continue it for our Ecclesiastical Holy Week.

The work is such that you can jump in anytime. I recommend this powerful book: ‘Kaspar Hauser: The Struggle for the Spirit’ byAnthroposophical researcher Peter Tradowsky

Join us: 14 April Palm Sunday 2 – 4 pm, then Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. of Holy Week 15-18 April 7 – 9 pm

Special Event for GOOD FRIDAY 19 April 2019, 7 pm – 9 pm- ‘O Man (or Woman) Know YourSelf: A Glimpse at the Human Double’ a workshop with biography worker Paulette Arnold

(1st Class is on Holy Saturday 20 April 2019)

$10 – 20 or pay what you can + Snacks to Share Encouraged 

for more info. contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

 A Cosmic Wake Up Call: the Easter Paradox of 2019