‘Free your mind & the rest will follow’

Celestial Event, Spring

Greetings Friends –

Sarah Goodall

We are in the time of the Dark of the Moon…& tomorrow is Ascension. It is also the New Moon, in Gemini, which is ruled by Mercury, the messenger of the gods, guiding & directing our thought processes. This is time to reclaim & expand our mental space; to set limits on what gets our attention, & to carefully examine how our current diet of information is affecting our lives.

Jennifer Powell

As you may have noticed, our world is suffering from a bad case of close-mindedness fueled by fear. Concurrently, we are also suffering from information overload. Our lives have become a roller coaster of bad news & a constant need to deal with the ensuing manic reactions that follow. On this New Moon we can work toward opening the mind to a diverse range of ideas, while maintaining a self rooted in calm heart-fullness.

Salvador Dali

The symbol of Gemini is the twins, but they are not identical; they represent the broad spectrum of experience. But, since they arise from the same source, at their core, they are identical. That which appears different on the surface, is sourced in a fundamental oneness.

Gemini, with its love of communication, makes this New Moon the right time to question & transform old beliefs about & relationality. We can talk about it. We can find the right words. We can be inspired to open up to others without fear of reprisal. We can relax & let our words be a force for healing.

Jennifer O’Neil

Gemini is best symbolized by flexibility, changeability, & adaptation, & this is the New Moon to cultivate these qualities & incorporate them into our daily lives. When strong winds & hard rains come, the supple trees bend & sway with the each gust. It is only the hardened, stiff trees that break & fall. Fear makes us stiffen up & go rigid. When we harden our hearts & minds, plant our feet & become immovable, we set ourselves up for failure. To survive the gusts of hatred & fear, we must open our minds & create useful dialogue.

Jeff Sweben

As you know, all New Moons are a time to initiate new goals, ideas, & desires.

What do you want to see grow into fullness like the Moon?

This is the right New Moon to communicate your wishes, dreams & desires to those who can aid your progress. The truth is, no one does it completely alone & learning to ask for help at the right time is one of life’s hardest lessons.

Shiloh

Over the next two weeks as the Moon waxes to fullness, try to really hear what those around you have to say about your wishes, & take their advice to heart. Honest & clear communication is a two-way street & the best way to achieve a successful outcome for all.

One last thing, Gemini rules change. This is the best night to work on managing your fear of change. Everything changes. When we ride the changes & make surfing the waves of change a vehicle for success, we actualize the highest expression of Gemini. This is the New Moon to celebrate the power knowledge holds to broaden our perspective & open our minds!

Salvador Dali

Tomorrow we will explore the expansion of Ascension

Brian Gray

Until then, May we all practice the 6 basic exercises, especially Open-Mindedness – For we are what we think. All that we are, arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.

In Peace

xox ~ ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

An invitation from Petra Zinniker (from the oldest Biodynamic farm in the USA) ‘We will have the 2017 spring prep day this Saturday, May 27th. This includes taking out the preps from last fall and stuffing the deer bladders with yarrow.

We will start at 1:30pm and end with a potluck supper. Bring clothes and shoes so you can “dig in” and a dish to pass. Hope to see you there’.

Zinniker Family Farm  – N 7399 Bowers Rd. Elkhorn, WI 53121 – 262-642-5775 zinnikers@zinnikerfarm.com www.zinnikerfarm.com

There will be some folks from the branch who will be taking the short road trip (about an hour) to attend. If you would like to join us contact Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

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Sunday May 28th 2017 – 3 pm – 6 pm “I” See Heaven”The Closing Event for the New Art Exhibition by astrologer Victoria Martin

The heavens and stars are symbols of spirit and magic! Here in “I“ See Heaven” are large-scale illustrated paintings of mystic verses. Many stellar traditions are represented via Zoroastrian, Hebrew, Jain, Vedic, Arabian, Islamic and Mesopotamian sacred texts. Some paintings are interactive or provide pose-inside photo ops! Participate in an artistic exercise: “Aura Drawing”, Healing drinks & more…

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP

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PDF Exploring the Mysteries of St John’s-Tide

Friday June 23rd 2017  – Zinniker Family Farm N 7399 Bowers Rd. Elkhorn, WI 53121

Pot Luck 6:30 pm – Bee & Stag Bon-fire & Drum Circle 8 pm

We begin with the setting Sun, in the dark of the New Moon.  Thru the drumming of our collective heart-beat, circle dancing, singing to the stars, & blessing the earth, we will celebrate the bright reflection of the Divine within ourselves & each other.

$10 – All Donations go to the Zinniker farm – Bring a folding-chair & your drum, shaker or music maker (or borrow one of ours)

For more info.  Hazel (at) ReverseRitual.com

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St. John’s Festival: Cosmic Rapture Grounded in Jubilant Hearts

Sunday June 25th 2017, 2 pm – 4 pm – at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP

Come join our Initiatory Workshop/Ritual, to discover the New Mysteries of St. Johns-Tide. To pass the test of Summer we will explore many questions:

  • How do we stand wakefully within the sublime mysteries of the Summer-Tide, to consciously embody ‘the spiritual wisdom of the gods’?
  • Who is the mysterious Archangel of Summer?
  • Who is John the Baptist? What do his sayings “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” And “He must increase, but I must decrease.” really mean?
  • What is the secret to healing the ‘soul-fever’ so prevalent in society today?
  • What is the mystery of the Dragon-fly, & other elemental beings?
  • How can we understand the ‘Cycle of the Year as Breathing Process of the Earth’?

 Together we will work to strengthen our true “I”, enlivening our will forces with various social-artistic exercises, Including: ‘Seeing into the Etheric World’ thru the ‘After-Image’, Eurythmy, & an exploration of Karmic investigations.

$10– (or pay what you can, no one will be turned away for lack of funds, contact Hazel if you’d like to do work exchange) All materials included

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.   Festivals Coordinator & Council Member of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, and the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Founder of Reverse Ritual – Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year

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The  Center of Anthroposhopyis holding a PDF foundation year training at Urban Prairie this summer

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The Central Regional Council is hosting a Bridging to the ‘Great American Eclipse’ in St. Louis – August 19-22, 2017 stay tuned for details

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Current Festival & Program Events

 

 

 

3 Secrets-100 years after Fatima

Celestial Event, Chicago Event, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars

13 May 201 – Astro-Weather:  3 main stars shine after dark in May: Arcturus high in the southeast, Vega much lower in the northeast, & Capella in the northwest.

In early dawn Sunday morning, look for Saturn lower right of the Moon. Much farther to the lower right of this pair is fiery Antares.

***

The 100 year anniversary of The Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima: Between May 13 & October 13, 1917, three Portuguese children received apparitions of Our Lady at Cova da Iria, near Fatima, in Portugal.

Mary asked the children to pray the rosary for world peace, for the end of World War I, for sinners & for the conversion of Russia. The third visionary, Lucia dos Santos, became a Carmelite nun & died in 2005 at the age of 97.

Mary gave the children three secrets. Since Francisco died in 1919 & Jacinta the following year, both of the Spanish flu, Lucia revealed the first secret in 1927, concerning devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The second secret was a vision of hell.

Pope John Paul II was supposed to reveal the third secret in 2000; but we only received a part which spoke of a “bishop in white” who was shot by a group of soldiers who fired bullets & arrows into him. Many people linked this to the assassination attempt against Saint John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981.

Yesterday, Pope Francis headed to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in northern Portugal to celebrate the centenary of the first appearances of the Virgin Mary as described by three shepherd children on May 13, 1917.

Fatima is a small city in central Portugal where the landscape is dry & rocky. For centuries, people made their living raising sheep & other animals Some people wonder about a connection to Islam because the village has the same name as the Prophet Muhammad’s favorite daughter.

In May 1917, three shepherd children — two girls & a boy — claimed they saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary. The children described Mary as “a lady dressed all in white, more brilliant than the sun.” Mary told the children that praying the rosary would end what was then called The Great War — World War I— which left 17 million dead.

According to the children, Mary appeared to them six times that year. In one appearance, Mary said a miracle would occur on Oct. 13, 1917. Initially the children were scolded & even threatened with death for spreading what were considered baseless stories. But pilgrims from all over the world gathered in Fatima on that date & awaited Mary’s appearance. In what came to be called the “Miracle of the Sun,” many reported seeing visions in the sky while others reported miracles of healing. A newspaper of the day reported, “Before their dazzled eyes the sun trembled, the sun made unusual & brusque movements, defying all the laws of the cosmos, & according to the typical expression of the peasants, ‘the sun danced.’”

In 1930, the Catholic Church declared the events at Fatima “worthy of belief,” & chapels, sanctuaries, shrines & other memorials to the events popped up.

Fatima attracts between 5 – 6 million pilgrims a year, making it one of the most popular shrines in the world. The largest numbers come on May 13 — the anniversary of the first apparitions.

Pope Francis will be the fourth pontiff to visit Fatima; Pope Paul VI marked the 50th anniversary in 1967, John Paul II went three times & Benedict XVI visited once.

While there, Pope Francis will canonize the shepherd children — Jacinta & Francisco, & Lucia dos Santos.

Lucia dos Santos became a Carmelite nun &, in 1941, wrote her memoirs. In them, she said Mary gave the children three secrets, or prophecies, two of which she revealed at that time. The first secret was a vision of hell that Mary showed to the children, full of lakes of fire with screaming souls in torment. The second was that World War I would end — it did, a little more than a year after the children saw their first apparition — & that another great war would come if the people of Russia were not converted to Catholicism. They weren’t, & World War II began in 1939. There was also a prediction that Russia would “spread her errors throughout the world,” which many believe is a reference to Soviet communism.

Sister Lucia wasn’t eager to share the third prophecy, but was compelled to write it down in the case of her untimely death. She told Rome the secret could be revealed in 1960, but the Vatican decided to keep it sealed to avoid inflaming the wild speculation that was already connected with the so-called Third Secret of Fatima. Sister Lucia died in 2005 at age 97.

In 2000, then-Pope John Paul II — now St. John Paul — ordered the secret published. The prophecy is said to be an apocalyptic vision of a terrible persecution. The publication hardly dampened the fervor over the Third Secret since the assassination attempt against John Paul took place on May 13, 1981 — the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima — as he rode around St. Peter’s Square wearing his white cassock, the traditional vestment of the Bishop of Rome. It seemed like a near-fulfillment of the prophecy & John Paul said that he believed the Virgin Mary saved his life by guiding the bullet past a major artery. He later sent the bullet to Fatima where it was placed in the crown of the original image of Our Lady of Fatima, fitting perfectly into the only empty space left available when the crown was made 40 years earlier.

But all of the Third Secret has not been published in full. And it is thought that people like Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — later Pope Benedict XVI — have worked to actively suppress it.

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

Sali Duren

~In the dream
A multitude of lights
Fluttered, becoming birds:
Hawks, herons, ibis, geese, flamingo, quail, vultures, lapwings & owls –
They stormed my head
Calling to each other
Then settled in the branches of my arms…
~hag

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TONIGHT: Saturday May 13th 2017, 7:30 pm – 9 pm

‘Proffered Words and the Landscape of Gratitude’ A poetic journey into the heart of a life written and performed by Joen Dealande (Barbara Danner)

$10 Love Donation

After the show Join us for an open conversation about the Elderberries Initiative

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 Harry Clark

Sunday, May 14, 2017- a Mother’s Day Treat

***12:30 pm at the Christian Community 2135 W. Wilson Ave, Chicago

Beat the Devil!  Performed by Glen Williamson

Based on Goethe’s play (Parts I and II) (Ninety minutes including an intermission. Yes, the whole story!)

$15

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Current Festival & Program Events

 

 

 

 

Clarion Call

Celestial Event, Chicago Event, Festival, Insight, Poetry, Remembering, Speaking with the Stars

This is the Eve of the Full BUDDHA Moon – Sun in Taurus, Moon in Scorpio

The Buddha (whose name means: *The Awakened One* or *One who Knows*) is regarded as the ninth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. He was born in 563 BC.

Traditionally, Buddha’s Birthday is known as Wesak or Visakah Puja (Buddhas Day).

Wesak, the major Buddhist festival of the year, celebrates the birth, enlightenment & death of the Buddha on one and the same day, when the Sun is in Taurus, & the Moon is in Scorpio.

This ‘Buddha Moon’ is a mystically auspicious time – it is considered to be the greatest moment of spiritual contact for the entire year. Great polarities are said to be synthesized & consequently united at this festival. Hope is revived in the world, & great seeds of beauty, truth, & goodness are planted within us — qualities needed for the unity of humankind.

Ancient Wisdom asserts that there will be a new coming of the World Avatar & those beings who assist them. But the reality set forth & embedded within this festival, is that WE, as a living unit called humanity, are to be that World Avatar, when we can live as “Christ in me”…

The Wesak Festival provides us each year with a reception of the tools of love & wisdom, to fulfill this ancient prophecy. What all the higher beings have done, we can do also, taking up our responsibility as the 10th hierarchy to radiate the Christ Impulse out to all the kingdoms of Earth -becoming like little suns – emanating rays from the very core of our “I”, through the vehicle of our bodies, from our purified hearts, & specifically from our forehead, where our third eye is located. This is the Bulls Eye of Taurus – the Sun of May – & the mystery of the transformative Scorpio Moon.

The Full Buddha Moon will be exact at 4:42 pm Wednesday May 10th 2017. We will see it rise over the Great Inland Sea of Chicago at 6: 50 pm tonight. & it will rise tomorrow at 7:41 pm

Haiku’s, ants & worms
Buddha-like the Moon sitting
All have the same face

On Buddha’s birthday
Spring rain beneath a full moon,
On Buddha’s deathday
Enlightenment in the Lake
Another sunset
~hag

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The Elderberries Three-Fold Café has been on Sunset Blvd. in the heart of Hollywood for over 9 years. They provide not only good healthy food, but nutrition for the soul – Rudolf Steiner’s Weekday Exercises are even on the back of the menu! The café is a hub for youth, hosting anthroposophical study groups, music, alternative film screenings etc – providing support for inner practices, meaningful work to those in need, & platforms for individual creative expression -imbuing all they do with a love for the future of our world.

Their motto: KINDNESS, CARE & CONSIDERATION

Our 3-fold friends, Dottie Zold, Daniel Evaeus & Frank Agrama, came in from Los Angeles to speak with the Branch Council & have an open conversation with members & friends, about the possibility of opening a second Elderberries 3-fold Café in the unrented space at the branch. It has long been the vision of Elderberries to create a “Michael Grail-Road” establishing 3-fold Café’s around the world where youth could come to find themselves thru anthroposophy.

Here are a few words about the Initiative from Dottie,  Hazel   Daniel & Frank

“We would like to be meeting the needs of the Chicago community, we ask for any council members, branch members, parents, students, etc. to write up their thoughts or wants for Elderberries Chicago, so we can incorporate the needs of Chicago in our request to John Bloom & RSF Social Finance ”. ~Dottie Zold

Here are a few ‘testimonies’ so far. We hope if the spirit moves you, that you will add your voice to this Clarion call, no matter where you live in the world.

If this initiative resonates, &/or if you’d like to help make it happen – Please  let us know  

Join your good will with ours that these fruits will ripen – casting ever more seeds – to flourish & feed the 3-fold social organism of humanity & the Being of Anthroposophia.

We will keep you posted as things unfold.

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

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St. John’s Festival: Cosmic Rapture Grounded in Jubilant Hearts

Saturday June 24th 2017, 1 pm – 4 pm at Michael Fields Agricultural Institute  

Sunday June 25th 2017, 2 pm – 4 pm – at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP

Come join our Initiatory Workshop/Ritual, to discover the New Mysteries of St. Johns-Tide. To pass the test of Summer we will explore many questions:

  • How do we stand wakefully within the sublime mysteries of the Summer-Tide, to consciously embody ‘the spiritual wisdom of the gods’?
  • Who is the mysterious Archangel of Summer?
  • Who is John the Baptist? What do his sayings “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” And “He must increase, but I must decrease.” really mean?
  • What is the secret to healing the ‘soul-fever’ so prevalent in society today?
  • What is the mystery of the Dragon-fly, & other elemental beings?
  • How can we understand the ‘Cycle of the Year as Breathing Process of the Earth’?

 Together we will work to strengthen our true “I”, enlivening our will forces with various social-artistic exercises, Including: ‘Seeing into the Etheric World’ thru the ‘After-Image’, Eurythmy, & an exploration of Karmic investigations.

$30– (or pay what you can, no one will be turned away for lack of funds, contact Hazel if you’d like to do work exchange) All materials included

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.   Festivals Coordinator & Council Member of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, and the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Founder of Reverse Ritual – Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year

Current Festival & Program Events

In Moral Steps of Time

Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Chicago Event, Festival, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars, Spring

2 May 2017 – Astro-Weather: The First Quarter Moon hangs high in the southwest as darkness falls, then sinks steadily toward the western horizon throughout the evening hours. Our satellite officially reaches First Quarter phase at 9:47 pm CDT among the background stars of Cancer the Crab. It will remain on view until it dips below the horizon after 2 am.

María León

The annual eta Aquarid meteor shower is underway. These meteors are pieces of Halley’s Comet, hitting Earth’s atmosphere above Earth’s surface. In the days ahead our planet will cross a network of debris streams from the comet, producing a drizzle of eta Aquarids numbering 10 to 30 meteors per hour in the northern hemisphere & perhaps twice that number in the southern hemisphere.

Activity could increase on May 4th when Earth grazes a dust trail released by Comet Halley in the year 616. The strongest activity is seen around May 6th.

The best time to look, no matter where you live, is during the dark hours just before dawn when the constellation Aquarius is rising in the east.

Tomorrow Mercury comes out of retrograde.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1519 – Death Day of Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, sculptor, & architect.

“…We know how Leonardo worked at the “Last Supper”. He often went and sat on the scaffolding and brooded for hours in front of the wall, then he would take a brush and make a few strokes and go away again. Sometimes he only went and stared at the picture and went away again. When he was painting the Christ Figure, his hand trembled. Indeed, if we put together all that we can find concerning this subject we must say that neither outwardly nor inwardly was Leonardo happy when painting this world-renowned picture. Now there were people at that time in Milan who were displeased with the slow progress of the picture, for instance a Prior of the monastery, who could not see why an artist could not paint such a picture quickly, and complained to the Duke. He too thought the affair had lasted too long. Leonardo answered: “The picture is to represent Jesus Christ and Judas, the two greatest contrasts; one cannot paint them in one year; there are no models for them in the world, neither for Judas nor for Christ”. After he had been working at the picture for years, he said he did not know whether he could finish it after all! Then he said that if finally he found no model for Judas he could always use the Prior himself! It was thus extraordinarily difficult to bring the picture to a conclusion but within himself Leonardo did not feel happy. For this picture showed the contrast between what lived in his soul and what he was able to represent on the canvas. Here it is necessary to bring forward a hypothesis of Spiritual Science, which may be reached by anyone who studies what can by degrees be learned about this picture.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Leonardo da Vinci, His Spiritual and Intellectual Greatness, At the Turning Point of the New Age

1611 – The King James Version of the Bible is published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker

1729 – Birthday of Catherine the Great of Russia, the longest-ruling female leader of Russia. The Catherinian Era, is often considered the Golden Age of the Russian Empire & the Russian nobility. She enthusiastically supported the ideals of The Enlightenment, thus earning the status of an enlightened despot. As a patron of the arts she presided over the age of the Russian Enlightenment, a period when the Smolny Institute, the first state-financed higher education institution for women in Europe, was established.

1772 – Birthday of Novalis, the pseudonym & pen name of Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg, poet, author, mystic, & philosopher of Early German Romanticism. His study of mineralogy & management of salt mines in Saxony, was often ignored by his contemporary readers Novalis concerned himself with the scientific doctrine of Johann Gottlieb Fichte, which greatly influenced his world view, transforming Fichte’s Nicht-Ich (German “not I”) to a Du (“you”), an equal subject to the Ich (“I”). This was the starting point for Novalis’ Liebesreligion (“religion of love”) dedicated to his beloved Sophie who died of tuberculosis.

“…When we consider the life of Novalis, what an echo we find there of the Raphael life for which Hermann Grimm had so fine an understanding! His beloved dies in her youth. He is himself still young. What is he going to do with his life now that she has died? He tells us himself. He says that his life on Earth will be henceforth to “die after her”, to follow her on the way of death. He wants to pass over already now into the super-sensible, to lead again the Raphael life, not touching the Earth, but living out in poetry his magic idealism. He would fain not let himself be touched by Earth life.

When we read the “Fragments” of Novalis, and give ourselves up to the life that flows so abundantly in them, we can discover the secret of the deep impression they make on us. Whatever we have before us in immediate sense-reality, whatever the eye can see and recognise as beautiful — all this, through the magic idealism that lives in the soul of Novalis, appears in his poetry with a well-nigh heavenly splendour. The meanest and simplest material thing — with the magic idealism of his poetry he can make it live again in all its spiritual light and glory.

And so we see in Novalis a radiant and splendid forerunner of that Michael stream which is now to lead you all, my dear friends, while you live; and then, after you have gone through the gate of death, you will find in the spiritual super-sensible worlds all those others — among them also the being of whom I have been speaking to you today — all those with whom you are to prepare the work that shall be accomplished at the end of the century, and that shall lead mankind past the great crisis in which it is involved.” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Individuality of Elias, John, Raphael, Novalis – The Last Address – Dornach, Michaelmas Eve, 1924

1933 – Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler bans trade unions

1945 –Fall of Berlin: The Soviet Union announces the capture of Berlin & Soviet soldiers hoist their red flag over the Reichstag building

1952 – The world’s first ever jet airliner, the De Havilland Comet 1 makes its maiden flight, from London to Johannesburg

1972 – In the early morning hours a fire breaks out at the Sunshine Mine located between Kellogg and Wallace, Idaho, killing 91 workers.

1986 –The City of Chernobyl is evacuated six days after the disaster

1998 – The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define & execute the European Union’s monetary policy

2000 – President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military

2008 – Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Burma killing over 138,000 people & leaving millions of people homeless

2008 – Chaitén Volcano begins erupting in Chile, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people.

2011 – Osama bin Laden, is killed by the United States special forces in

2014 – Two mudslides in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, leave over 2,500 people dead

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

Valerie Sjodin

~The portals of perception
Raw & cluttered await
The revealing –
It is my Self I see –
A 1000 colors swirling in liquid light
A star covered in rising clouds
Hung by a thread from its ocean Moon
Hail Self
Traversing eternity
In moral steps of time
Where the Guardian beckons
~hag

***

Linda Yelson

Dear Friends – As we move deeper into the glories of Spring, under the cosmic fortitude gracing us from the annual eta Aquarid meteor showers, & the guidance of the Archangel Raphael – I will be more sporadic in my blog offerings, as I prepare for some upcoming lecture events & workshops, which I hope you will attend…

Until soon

Xox ~!Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

Exploring the Mysteries of Mid-Summer: Then & Now

Bee & Stag Bon-fire / Drum Circle (at the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute)

8 pm – 10 pm Friday June 23rd  2017

We begin with the setting Sun, in the dark of the New Moon, by enlivening the ecstatic elements practiced by our ancient ancestors, at the time of the Summer Solstice. Thru the drumming of our collective heart-beat, circle dancing, singing to the stars, blessing the earth, & celebrating the bright reflection of the Divine within ourselves & each other, we shall pour our dream-consciousness out into the cosmos.

$20? – Bring your drum, shaker or music maker (or for $5 borrow one of ours)

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Cosmic Rapture Grounded in Jubilant Hearts

10 am – 12 noon Saturday June 24th 2017 (at the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute)

Then in the clear light of day, Come Join our Initiatory Workshop/Ritual, as we expand our Celebration into the 21st Century, to discover the New Mysteries of St. Johns-Tide.

To pass the test of Summer we will explore many questions:

  • How do we stand wakefully within the sublime mysteries of the Summer-Tide,

to consciously embody ‘the spiritual wisdom of the gods’?

  • Who is the mysterious Archangel of Summer?
  • Who is John the Baptist? What do his sayings “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” And “He must increase, but I must decrease.” really mean?
  • What is the secret to healing the ‘soul-fever’ so prevalent in society today?
  • What is the mystery of the Dragon-fly, & other elemental beings?
  • How can we understand the ‘Cycle of the Year as Breathing Process of the Earth’?

Together we will work to strengthen our true “I”, enlivening our will forces with various social-artistic exercises, Including: ‘Seeing into the Etheric World’ thru the ‘After-Image’, Eurythmy, & an exploration of Karmic investigations.

$20? – All materials included

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Festivals Coordinator & Council Member of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, and the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Founder of Reverse Ritual – Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year– Presenter, Poet, & Trans-denominational Minister

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The Central Regional Council is hosting a Bridging to the ‘Great American Eclipse’ in St. Louis – August 19-22, 2017 stay tuned for details

***

John Stolfo

Michaelmas & the Horn of Plenty – Fall Festivals Ancient and New –

Saturday, September 23rd 2017, 1 pm – 5 pm (at the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute)

Saturday September 30th 10:30 am – 4:30pm ( at the Theosophical Society)

Come join our Experiential Workshop/Ritual celebrating the Autumnal Equinox. We will look back to the fruits of the past, and prepare for what is coming toward us from the future. Our ancestors called this Sabbath Harvest Home or Mabon. The Hebrew folk count this as part of the High Holy Days. In Greece and Rome it is dedicated to Dionysus, or Persephone & Demeter.  Today, we are invited to stand with the powerful Archangel Micha-el, in balance, between the light and the dark, as we create the ‘festival of the future’, which we call ‘Michaelmas’.

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.  Festivals Coordinator of the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society. Lecturer, Promoter, Blogger, Poet & Performance Artist www.ReverseRitual.com

Current Festival & Program Events

 

Past, Present & future Beltane

Celestial Event

May Day POD (Poem Of the Day)

~My mouth is
My hands are
Hard green seedlings
No longer innocent
Yet pliable by grace
An active hive of Bees
Stirred by Sun mysteries
& service

~hag

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some Ancient Origins of Beltane

May 1st, called Beltane by the ancients, is the cross-quarter on the wheel of the year, between the Spring Equinox & the Summer Solstice, which marks a joyful festival of growth & fecundity, heralding the promise of Summer. This is a time when nature blossoms & felicity & fertility return to the land.

Beltane is the festival of the ‘Good Fire’ or ‘Bel-fire’, named after the solar deity Bel. “Bright and Brilliant Regenerator”, “Protective Shepard”, “The Fiercely Shining One”, & “The Hospitable Boar Chieftain”. All hearth fires were extinguished on Beltane Eve & then kindled again from the sacred “need fires” lit on Beltane. People would leap through the smoke & flames of Beltane fires & cattle were driven through them for purification, fertility, prosperity & protection. Bel was a Pan-Celtic & Gaulish god of light who was revered in such widespread locals as Aquitaine, Austria, Britain, northern Italy. Bel was also known as Bile in Ireland, meaning ‘tree of Life’. Besides being a solar god, Belenus was also known to be a rainbow rayed healer & there are healing springs that were associated with him.

Rudolf Steiner, when lecturing about the Mystery Schools, speaks of this time as being ruled by the Archangel Raphael.

In terms of the Archetypal cycle, Beltane marks the union of female & male polarities, bringing new life to the earth. It is a traditional time for Handfastings (marriages), & was a time for couples to make love outside to bless the crops & the earth.

Maypoles were often danced around at Beltane to bring fertility & good fortune. The later addition of ribbons which were wrapped around the pole by the dancers brought a further sense of the integration of male & female energies, mirroring the union between the God & the Goddess.

Beltane is a time to devote energy to growth & integration. It is a time of celebration, exuberance & hope, when we can enjoy & appreciate the gifts of nature.

Julie Wise

It is believed that Beltane is a Celtic reinvention of an even older Sabine festival, Floralia, which celebrated the goddess Flora & the flowering of spring into summer, especially associated with vines, olives, fruit trees & honey-bearing plants.

Cernnunos, the earthly god-force present at Beltane, is a Triple God who is Green Man, Great Father, & Nature Deity. “Antlered Horned Forest Lord”, “Leaf Faced Greenery Father”, & “Primal Landscape Goddess Consort”, he was known by many names throughout the ages on the European continent & the British Isles.

The keeper of the archetypal bag of “fertility coins”, he carried a mighty club that symbolized his authority as master of the hunt, & protector of nature –

A creative mentor of animals, nature spirits, & woodlands, Cernnunos is also a magickal craftsman & Mysteries initiator, considered an Otherworld threshold guardian.

Originally a movable feast controlled by the condition of the crops & flowers, It is believed to have been instituted in 238 BCE under the command of an oracle in the Sibylline Books, with the purpose of gaining from the goddess the protection of the blossoms.

Games were instituted in honor of Flora; with pantomimes, & street theatre. The people of all classes wore their brightest clothes, all decked out in flowers – even their animals were garlanded. Goats & hares were let loose as they represented fertility.

Odilon Redon

Rome must have looked particularly beautiful at this time.

Gift-giving for the season included vegetables as tokens of sex & fertility. (Use your imagination) In fact, the origins of the Floralia are associated in Greece with Aphrodite in her aspect as the goddess of Love & flowering plants (Antheia) before the festival found its way to Italy.

Mandy Pullish

Choosing a May Queen & King is part of celebrating May Day. A young girl dressed in white represented the Goddess in her maiden aspect. The merry month of May & the word maiden both come from the same source, a word which simply means young.

In Piedmont Italy, the Bride of May carries the maggio, a green branch garlanded with ribbons, fresh fruits & lemons.

In some English Villages, the maiden is called Maid (or May) Marian & this is considered Robin Hood’s holiday.

Anyone who went out into the woods & found a branch of flowering hawthorn would bring it triumphantly into the village (thereby bringing in the May) & announcing the start of planting season. However there were warnings about bringing hawthorn into the house, since it would invite the fairies in.

Sometimes flowers were given as messages: plum for the glum, elder for the surly, thorns for the prickly, pear for the popular.

In Eastern Europe, a young man would go into the woods on May Eve, dig up a young flowering tree, decorate it with ribbons & colored eggshells, & plant it outside the bedroom window of his sweetheart.

In Scandinavia & Germany, May trees are important for both people & animals, & are set up beside the door, sometimes one for each animal in a stable.

In Italy, May Day was celebrated by tying lemons & ribbons around flowering branches. Maypoles are called alberi della cucagna (trees from the land of milk & honey). These Maypoles would have prosciutto, mortadella cheeses & money dangling from the top. The men try to get these prizes by climbing the pole which is greased with lard. Eventually the grease wears off & someone gets the prize. A similar custom is found in Wales.

In English villages, the Maypole is often decorated with a broom or bush & brought in from the woods with girls riding astride it.

The Maypole dance is a circle dance of alternating male & female dancers, weaving in & out in a maze movement, plaiting ribbons as they go. Maypole dances fulfilled social & sacred functions. They helped people flirt & mingle socially. They also raised energy in a patterned & focused way.

In ancient Ireland there was a Sacred Tree named Bile, which was the center of the clan, or Tuatha. As the Irish Tree of Life, the Bile Pole, represents the connection between the people & the three worlds of Bith: The Skyworld (heavens), The Middleworld (our world), & The Otherworld.

barb saler

Today in some towns & villages a mummer called Jack in the Green (drawing from the Green man), wears a costume made of green leaves as he dances around the May pole. Mumming is a dramatic performance of exaggerated characters & at Beltane the characters include Jack in the Green & the Fool.

The Fool, & the Fool’s journey symbolism can be understood in relation to Beltane as it is the beginning of beginnings, the emergence from the void of nothingness (winter), as one can also see the role of the green man as the re-greening of the world.

In England, May Day was also an occasion for Morris dancing & mummer’s plays. Scholars have speculated that the exaggerated leaps of the Morris dancers serve as charms to show the crops how high to grow (similar dances are reported from early Roman times) & the clashing of their sticks may represent a ritual battle between summer & winter.

The mummer’s plays feature odd character including Green (or St) George, a hobbyhorse, cockhourse (or dragon), a male/female, a teaser, a jester & chimney sweeps with their brushes. Sometimes the hobbyhorse has coal under his skirts & he tries to trap young women under them. Only those who are marked with coal can dance around the maypole. Sometimes when the play portrays a battle between summer & winter, Summer squirts Winter with water & seizes the garland from winter & presents it to the May Queen.

Beltane, is still a precarious time, the crops are still very young & tender, susceptible to frost & blight. As was the way of ancient thought, the Wheel would not turn without human intervention. People did everything in their power to encourage the growth of the Sun & His light, for the Earth will not produce without the warm love of the strong Sun, & the nourishing, healing powers of rain.

Water has special properties on May Day. A Mother Goose rhyme tells us:
The fair maid who, the first of May
Goes to the fields at break of day
& washes in dew from the hawthorn tree
Will ever after handsome be.

Other sources suggest using the dew found under oaks or on ivy leaves. Make a special wish as you wash your face in it or as you drink from a well before sunrise. The first Sunday & first Monday in May are traditional days for dressing (decorating & honoring) wells.

This is an important association of Beltane, for water is refreshing & rejuvenating, it is also imperative to life. It is said that if you bathe in the dew gathered before dawn on Beltane morn, your beauty will flourish throughout the year. Those who are sprinkled with May dew are insured of health & happiness.

May wine is made by flavoring wine with herbs, berries, fruits or flowers. The traditional May wine is white wine flavored with sweet woodruff (soak the sprigs of woodruff in the wine for only 15 minutes or so to flavor the wine).

Elihu Vedder

At Beltane the Pleiades star cluster rises just before sunrise on the morning horizon, (whereas winter begins when the Pleiades rises at sunset) The Pleiades is a cluster of seven closely placed stars, the seven sisters, in the constellation of Taurus, near his shoulder. When looking for the Pleiades with the naked eye, remember it looks like a tiny dipper-shaped pattern of six moderately bright stars (the seventh can be seen on very dark nights) in the constellation of Taurus. It stands very low in the east-northeast sky for just a few minutes before sunrise.

For as we stand on the earth bringing our prayers & intentions for new growth into our actions, we must also remember to rise in our thoughts to meet the cosmic forces, the inspiration & origin of our fertility…

See you in the grove

xox ~hag