10th Holy Night: Spirits of Love

Celestial Event, Festival, Insight, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Winter

3 January 2017 – Astro-Weather: The first major meteor shower of 2017, (& every of New Year) the Quadrantid meteor shower, will be at its best in the hours between midnight & dawn January 3 or 4. The radiant point for the Quadrantids is the northern tip of Bootes, near the Big Dipper asterism in our sky, not far from Arcturus, the brightest star in Bootes. This region climbs high in the northeast as dawn approaches. And, with the waxing crescent Moon setting before 10 pm CST, observers with clear weather will have ideal conditions. Under a dark sky, viewers can expect to see up to 120 meteors per hour — an average of two per minute.

 

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

TODAY – According to the original Calendar of the Soul:

Betha Synge

Enoch – called ‘Enoch the scribe of judgment’. “In the seventh generation from Adam,” he was considered the author of the Book of Enoch, which recounts how he was taken up to Heaven & was appointed guardian of all the celestial treasures – chief of the archangels, & the immediate attendant of God’s throne. He was subsequently taught all secret mysteries &, with all the angels at his back, fulfills of his own accord whatever comes out of the mouth of God. Much esoteric literature identifies Enoch as Metatron, the angel which communicates God’s word. In consequence, Enoch was seen, by this literature, & the kabbala of Jewish mysticism, as having been the one which communicated God’s revelation to Moses, in particular. In addition to an appearance in the Book of Genesis, Enoch is the subject of many Jewish & Christian writings. Enoch was the son of Jared (Genesis 5:19–21), the father of Methuselah, & the great-grandfather of Noah. The Bible says that Enoch lived 365 years before he was taken up by God. The text reads that Enoch “walked with God: and he was no more; for God took him” (Gen 5:21–24)

 Michelangelo Sistine Chapel

The prophet Daniel – Hebrew: “God is my Judge“- was a hero who interprets dreams & receives apocalyptic visions. The Book of Daniel begins with an introduction telling how Daniel & his companions came to be in Babylon. Then a set of tales set in the Babylonian & Persian courts, followed by a set of visions in which Daniel sees the remote future of the world & of Israel.

Daniel & 3 friends were among the young Jewish nobility carried off to Babylon following the city’s capture by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The four are chosen for their intellect & beauty to be trained in the Babylonian court. They are given new names. Daniel is given the Babylonian name Belteshazzar, while his companions are given the Babylonian names Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego. Which we read about in the famous story of the fiery furnace

Daniel & his friends refuse the food & wine provided by the king of Babylon to avoid breaking the Jewish laws. They receive wisdom from God & surpass “all the magicians & enchanters of the kingdom.”

Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a giant statue made of four metals with feet of mingled iron & clay, smashed by a stone from heaven. Only Daniel is able to interpret it: the dream signifies 4 kingdoms, of which Babylon is the 1st, but God will destroy them & replace them with his own kingdom.

Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a great tree that shelters the entire world & of a heavenly figure who decrees that the tree will be destroyed; again, only Daniel can interpret the dream, which concerns the sovereignty of God over the kings of the earth.

When Nebuchadnezzar’s son King Belshazzar uses the vessels from the Jewish temple for his feast, a hand appears & writes a mysterious message on the wall, which only Daniel can interpret; it tells the king that his kingdom will be given to the Medes & Persians, because Belshazzar, unlike Nebuchadnezzar, has not acknowledged the sovereignty of the God of Daniel.

Anne Cameron Cutri

The Medes & Persians overthrow Nebuchadnezzar & the new king, Darius the Mede, appoints Daniel to high authority. Jealous rivals attempt to destroy Daniel with an accusation that he worships God instead of the king, & Daniel is thrown into a den of lions, but an angel saves him, his accusers are destroyed, & Daniel is restored to his position.

Merian

In the third year of Darius, Daniel has a series of visions. In the first, four beasts come out of the sea, the last with ten horns, & an eleventh horn grows & achieves dominion over the Earth & the “Ancient of Days” – God gives dominion to “one like a son of man”. An angel interprets the vision.

In the second, a ram with two horns is attacked by a goat with one horn; the one horn breaks & is replaced by four. A little horn arises & attacks the people of God & the temple, & Daniel is informed how long the little horn’s dominion will endure.

In the third, Daniel is troubled to read in Holy Scripture (the book is not named but appears to be Jeremiah) that Jerusalem would be desolate for 70 years. Daniel repents on behalf of the Jews & requests that Jerusalem & its people be restored. An angel refers to a period of 70 sevens, or weeks, of years.

In the final vision, Daniel sees a period of history culminating in a struggle between the “king of the north” & the “king of the south” in which God’s people suffer terribly; an angel explains that in the end the righteous will be vindicated & God’s kingdom will be established on Earth.

El Greco

Caspar – the youngest of the Magi, was King of Tarsus, a historic city in south-central Turkey. His gift was myrrh, which was used in making medicines. This symbolized Christ as the healer & great physician.

 

236 – The Deathday of Pope Anterus, Bishop of Rome. Anterus was the son of Romulus, born in Calabria. He is thought to have been of Greek origin, & his name may indicate that he was a freed slave. Scholars believe he was martyred because he ordered greater strictness in searching into the acts of the martyrs.

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 Jennifer O’Neil

10th Holy Night:  Constellation of Gemini, Twins (ruling the lungs, arms, & shoulders) The Sphere of the Seraphim, Spirits of Love –

 

The ceaseless yearning of the Seraphim for the sphere of the Holy Spirit above them brings the impetus of Universal Love which begets the will to sacrifice. An earthly reflection of this macrocosmic impulse of love can be seen in the ancient Greek myth of the Twin Brothers Castor & Pollux – where the immortal twin is willing to sacrifice himself for his brother.

In the Christian epoch, after the Christ-Impluse enters into earthly evolution, love becomes universal, going beyond the love founded on blood-ties. ‘My command is this: Love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.’ (John 15: 12-14) The Spiritual Love that Christ arouses is the fulfilment of the fundamental principle of all true Christian Mysteries – ‘Not I but Christ in me’.

We see this Universal Love in the being of the Nathan Soul, the Jesus of the Luke Gospel, who sacrificed himself 4 times in the pre-earthly deeds, to be the vessel of Christ. We see it in the Mary of the Luke Gospel, who united with Mary of the Matthew Gospel, allowing the Divine Sophia to enter the earthly realm.

We see it in the willing of Zarathustra, who incarnated as the Jesus of the Matthew Gospel, & sacrificed himself to allow the Christ to descend at the Baptism.  In ancient Persia, during the age of Gemini, Zarathustra was a great Magi, able to foretell the coming of Christ, who he saw as Ahura Mazdao. This vision gave him the impulse to sacrifice himself in his coming lives in order to prepare for it. Since ‘The turning point of time’, the individuality of Zarathustra has incarnated again & again as ‘Master Jesus’ –  & is one of the circle of 12 Bodhisattvas who inspire humanity towards developing this selfless Universal Love.

Salvador Dali

In the 6 cultural epoch we will see a recapitulation of the age of Gemini on a higher level. It will be a time that stands under the signature of the Wedding at Cana, where those who unite in the Spirit of Christ will feel good-will towards one another even though they are not blood-relations. Finally on ‘Vulcan’, at the end of earth evolution, this sacrificial love will have created a new Cosmos, a universe of love created by Human Beings as the 10th hierarchy of Freedom & Love.

Christ Himself shows us the way, He put this Love into practice, sacrificing his Heavenliness in order to descend from the Trinity beyond the Zodiac, into earthly evolution, to unite Himself for all times with humanity, becoming the ultimate example by fulfilling the deed on Golgotha. Christ Himself-a God-lay down his life, to die an earthly death in Jesus.

John, the disciple that Jesus loved most, a direct witness to all the events that he describes in his Gospel, knows this love thru his initiation as Lazarus. ‘By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers & sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a friend in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children in Christ, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth’. (1 John 3:16 – 18)

And so we see how all impulses concerning community, & the social life, all striving towards joining together on the basis of mutual love & genuine interest in one another, arise from the region of Gemini. Also Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘From fixed star to fixed star, a reciprocal conversation holds sway. Through this conversation the cosmos comes into being. Whatever the planetary systems speak about with one another across the widths of space in order to become a cosmos is regulated by those Spirits that new call the Seraphim’.

What would it look like to bring this Cosmic Universal Love, consciously into our world today? To resolve for this New Year, & very year, to open our thinking-hearts, with the intension of enacting an unconditional Love which is capable of uniting like-minded people, kindred-souls, who are willing to walk the talk, & join together in communion with the Spirits of Love, who yearn for us to join the cosmic conversation …?!?

We are all Twin-Souls United in Christ

Xox  ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Jan de Kok

Virtue: Perseverance becomes faithfulness

As we persist in developing the ability to be depended upon, faithfulness ripens. We must persevere even when we can’t see any outward progress. We insist on the progress toward self-development,  in service of our true destiny. We owe this to our “I”, to the world, & to those around us. It is honoring The Divine Will, not our own personal will.

Gemini Meditation: “I recognize my other self and in the waning of that self, I grow and glow.“

 

9th Holy Night: the Vortex

Celestial Event, Festival, Insight, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Speaking with the Stars, Winter

2 January 2017 – Astro-weather: The waxing crescent Moon stands between Mars & Venus in this evening’s sky. Notice that the Goddess of Love is much brighter than the warrior god Mars.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

According to the original Calendar of the Soul, Today is:

Feast Day of Abel – a son of Adam & Eve in the Bible. According to the Bible, he was the first person to die, murdered by his brother Cain

William Blake

Feast Day of Seth  – Hebrew for ‘placed’ or ‘appointed’, in Judaism, Christianity, Mandaeism, & Islam, Seth is recognized as the third son of Adam & Eve, brother of Cain & Abel. According to Genesis 4:25, Seth was born after Abel’s murder, & Eve believed God had appointed him as a replacement for Abel

Cherub guarding the gates of Paradise by Franz von Stuck

From Rudolf Steiner: “A story called “The Golden Legend” was imparted to the pupils of occultism in the form of an image. The legend was more or less as follows: — When Seth, the son whom God gave Adam and Eve in place of the murdered Abel, was called by the Cherubim to enter the gate guarding Paradise, he found the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life inter-grown; their branches intertwined. From this tree Seth took three seeds, following the command of the Angel who guided him. He kept the three seeds and when Adam died, he placed them into Adam’s mouth. And a tree grew out of Adam’s grave; (to those who knew how to look upon it in the right way,) this tree revealed a writing in flaming letters — the words: “Ejeh Asher Ejeh. I am He that was- He that is- He that shall be.”

Now Seth took some wood from this tree and many things were made out of it: among them the branch which became the magic rod of Moses. And this tree multiplied; from its wood the portal of Solomon’s temple was made, and later on, when it had passed through many other destinies, it became the Cross upon which the Savior hung. The legend thus connects the wood of the Cross of Golgotha with the tree which grew out of Adam’ s grave from the seeds of the Tree of Paradise.” (see the obvious connection with the 9th Holy Night below)

Birthday of Melchior, the oldest member of the Magi. The King of Persia who brought the gift of gold to Jesus

Deathday of Theodorus of Cyrene an ancient Libyan Greek who lived during the 5th century BC. The only first-hand accounts of him that survive are in 3 of Plato’s dialogues: the Theaetetus, the Sophist, & the Statesman. He is famous for the  mathematical theorem now known as the Spiral of Theodorus (perfect for the 9th Holy Night ie. The Vortex of the Crab, see below)

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 Seth Darias

9th Holy Night:  Constellation of Cancer, Crab (the Vortex) (ruling the chest/breast) The Sphere of the Cherubim, Spirits of Harmony –

 The Circle of the 12 Zodiac can be traced back to the dance of the Cherubim working from the world-periphery down into Old Sun to create a kind of cosmic thorax, a protective rib cage around the Sun/heart. The sign of the Crab stands at the highest point of the zodiacal circle, embracing the sphere in its protective shell.

 

The sign of the Crab is a modification of the vortex, an ancient occult symbol, which out-pictures the harmonious transition between cycles. “In the higher worlds, there is a process which appears also in the physical world: the rotation of a vortex. You can observe this phenomenon if you watch a starry nebula. There you see a spiral. That is on the physical plane. But you can observe it on all planes. You find that one spiral swirls into the next” ~Rudolf Steiner. All transitions: including World Evolution, the procession of the equinox’s-the shift from great & small epochs, & even the seasonal round, are directed by the Cherubim. They take-up the designs of the Seraphim, the ‘architects of the gods’ above them, & move it toward expression by handing it down to the Thrones. The spirals of the vortex provide the revolving movement, while the space in-between the arms of the vortex relates to a rest, or pralaya, a pause before the spiral transitions into a new phase. Some ‘revolutions’ from 1 condition to another can take a more dynamic character, ie. a flood, or the supreme example of the ‘Turning Point of Time’-Christ’s entry into world evolution (Matt: 21-25 describes this forceful expression shown in particular scenes from the life of Jesus)

Born under the sign of the Crab, John the Baptist, who in previous lives had been Elijah & before that Adam, the first earthly man, became after his death a kind of group soul for the apostles, fortifying like a protective shell, their micro-zodiac circle, or rib-cage around Christ-Jesus, the Sun-heart of the 12.

John the Baptist was able to recognize the pre-fall nature of the Nathan Soul living in Jesus of Nazareth, that part of himself that was separated out before the fall, held back in the Sun sphere, so that it could unite with Christ in His descent to earth.

Ezekiel’s Vision of the Cherubim William Blake

We see a connection with the Cherubim & Adam (JtB) & Eve (the Matthew Mary) at the fall, when the human being was cut off from the Trinity-the realm beyond the Zodiac, & the way was barred by the Cherub with the flaming sword.  This is a pre-figuring of John’s ‘Voice of Conscience’, which proceeds from the realm of the Cherubim. Our impulses of will, sprung from Conscience, was/& is, a necessary requirement for an understanding of Christ. 

It was Buddha who prepared the way for Conscience to arise during the time of Ancient India, which stood under the sign of Cancer/Crab. Many of John the Baptist’s sermons were a reflection of the Sermon at Benares, because the angel of Buddha was inspiring him. The Age of the Consciousness Soul is a further preparation for this morality of conscience, because ego consciousness requires a lighting up of thought in the will. This is an ability to understand the intentions behind actions – Moral Cognition – or heart-thinking, which is the seat of the will.

Seth Myer

Are we willing to heed the voice of conscience, & foster the imaginative inspiration from the realm of the Cherubim in our heart-thinking?

Let the way be opened, so we can transition gracefully in our journey back to the Godhead.

See you in the spiraling vortex

Xox  ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Jan de Kok

 Virtue: Unselfishness becomes catharsis

8th Holy Night-Solemnity of Mary-Constellation of Leo-Thrones-Spirits of Will

Celestial Event, Festival, Insight, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars, Winter

William Adolphe Bouguereau

1 January – the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God – As we celebrate this great feast we are called to join Mary in contemplating the gift of her Son – allowing the grace of these Holy Nights to change us. To call Mary the Theotokos, the “God-Bearer,” is to celebrate the unique role that she has played—& continues to play—in the Cosmic & Earthly evolution. And as we honor the Theotokos, on the 1st day of the New Year, we also celebrate the Octave Day of Christmas, recalling the naming of Jesus on the 8th day after his birth (Luke 2:21).

William Adolphe Bouguereau

The iconic Christmas image of Mary holding her infant Son embodies the mystery of the sacrifice of birth, bringing together the human & divine elements of the Incarnation. And yet, in honoring Mary as the Mother of God, we are also invited to consider another image of the Pieta -The same arms which held the Prince of Peace in a stable in Bethlehem, received the body of the crucified god on the hill of Golgotha.

Picasso

January 1st is also celebrated as the World Day of Peace reminding us that the Prince of Peace must reign in our hearts if it is to rule in our world

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8th Holy Night:  Solemnity of Mary – Constellation of Leo, LION (ruling the heart & upper back) The Sphere of the Thrones, Spirits of Will –

 

2 Chronicles 9: 17: Then King Solomon made a great throne covered with ivory and overlaid with pure gold. 18 The throne had six steps, and a footstool of gold was attached to it. On both sides of the seat were armrests, with a lion standing beside each of them. 19 Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like it had ever been made for any other kingdom

This picture of Solomon’s temple gives us insight into the Spirits of Will in the realm of Leo the Lion which fortifies the Thrones. The sacrifice enacted by these Spirits of Will on Old Saturn was the impetus for all further evolution. In the countenance of the Lion we have the transition from Sacrificial Will to the heart-forces of courage – a readiness to fulfill the design of the Divine Will, & become thru its own inner forces, an external reality, which we see embodied in the 12 petals of the human heart. We are gifted with 6 Petals which relate to Buddha’s 6 fold path & we have to earn the other 6 petals thru our work with the 6 basic exercises, to evolve & create a fifth chamber, which Rudolf Steiner calls an Etheric Heart – pictured in the Arthurian Legends as the Holy Grail – the fountain of love pouring forth the Waters of Life.

Evelyn Marx

Rudolf Steiner calls the heart ‘the seat of the will’ spiritualizing the blood, working into the physical body to engender ‘eternal life’. The warmth accompanying this alchemical Sulphur process  becomes the new  ‘blood sacrifice’ for as it dies away from the heart, to nourish the muscles & limbs, it encourages the human being to acts of Good Will.  

Jacob Picssr

The Spirits of Will on Old Saturn bring a connection with The god Saturn as Chronos, the Father of Time – associated with looking into the Past, reading there the Karmic Laws that apply to the present. (A perfect contemplation for New Year’s Day!)The forces of inner courage bounding from the region of the Lion can help us create a right relationship to our karma, giving us the fortitude to deal with all the trials of destiny, to learn to carry it, & work thru it consciously.

The 12 tribes of Israel are related to the Zodiac. So it’s interesting to note that the Solomon Jesus of the Matthew Gospel was from the Tribe of Judah-the Lion, related to the constellation of Leo. We see this quality strongly in the individuality of Zarathustra, (the soul behind the Matthew Jesus) who had once been the pupil of Melchizedek, along with Abraham, who was given the task of preparing the human vessels for the 2 Jesus children –working thru 42 generations!  We see how Leo’s connection to Old Saturn, with its genesis of the physical body, relates to this process of creating in the Matthew Jesus wisdom & an understanding of the Law. It also shows Courage & the Will to Sacrifice – for remember: this individuality sacrificed himself when he merged with the Nathan Jesus in the temple of Jerusalem, & again at the baptism. Thru the spiritual research of Rudolf Steiner we also learn that in earlier times he sacrificed his etheric body to Moses & his astral body to Hermes!

Margarita Woloschina

The 4 pre-earthly deeds of Christ (the last being the deed on Golgotha)made it possible for The Christ as ‘the Lord of Karma’ to take upon himself the ‘sins’ or karma of humankind, bringing the old Saturnian Laws of necessity to an end, & inaugurating the new Sun Karma – in freedom. Since the Mystery of Golgotha, these forces of The Christ Live in the Heart-Sun of every human being, & also in the Earth’s etheric realm.

Sandy Septa

In the earthly cycle of the year, the time of Leo is at the end of July into August, when the strength of the sunlight begins to wane, yet its often the time of greatest warmth. This hottest time in the seasonal round preserves an echo in natures memory of the conditions on Old Saturn, & of the sacrificial streaming forth of warmth-substance thru the Spirits of Will – The Thrones great gift.

Max Treegel

May we foster that warmth in our lion-heart, during the dark winter-tide time, to activate our will for good in the world.

Ever Roaring in Love for Peace –

Xox  ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Jan de Kok

Virtue: Compassion Becomes Freedom

The Hidden Holy Night-Cosmic New Year

Celestial Event, Chicago Event, Festival, Insight, Lecture, Meditation, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars, Winter

Toni Carmine Salerno

Deeply embedded in our cultural tradition of ‘Ringing out the old & Ringing in the new’ on the eve of the New Year, lives many celestial synchronicities, which change every year, but for the last 70 years, with 30 more to go – at Midnight, we are directly ‘downstream’ from the star Sirius.

Because Sirius is the brightest star in our sky, next to the Sun, in antiquity it was known as ‘The Shining One’. The ancient Egyptians called Sirius ‘Isis’ (Sothis) & built their calendar around the rising & setting of this magnificent star. It is interesting to note that our time now is a recapitulation of ancient Egypt (the 3rd cultural epoch) What can we take from that time & make it new?

 Nassa Lemit

The Egyptians believed that Sirius had a tremendous effect upon life on our planet. In particular, they felt that Sirius could open a portal into the spiritual world, so they oriented the pyramid at Giza to the Sirius light.

The Sirius system is directly “upstream” of our solar system within the galactic arm of our Milky Way Galaxy (the Orion arm). And of all the stars in our skies, only Sirius exactly matches the length of our solar year, 365.25 days. This exact correlation has led some to surmise that Sirius is related to our Sun as a binary star. Sirius imprints upon us, like the Sun, a realignment of our own vibrational patterns, touched by the perfection of this Golden Proportion.

Our magical midnight of New Beginnings marks the moment when the energies of Sirius, directly overhead, & the forces of the Sun shining thru the earth from the other side, bring transformational re-alignment. The Golden mean holds the codes of perfection which are eternal. To be in conscious attendance of the positional relationship of the Sun & the star Sirius in the mid-heaven at midnight -visualizing the Earth – & all life – in its ultimate perfection – enables us to receive the empowerment of the Spiritual world directly into our consciousness

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“Behold the Sun
At the midnight hour;
Build with stones in the lifeless ground,
Thus in decay and in the night of Death
Find the Creation’s new beginning,
Young morning’s strength;
Glory in the heights the eternal Word of Gods;
Shelter in the depths the Powers of Peace.
In darkness dwelling, create a Sun.
In matter weaving, know the joy of Spirit”! ~Rudolf Steiner Schmidt Number: S-1456

“On New Year’s Eve our folk soul briefly releases us & consequently what we then think is perceived by the highest hierarchies & has the power in it to be brought into reality” ~Rudolf Steiner in conversation with H. Hahn, reported in Das Goetheanum, # 3, Jan 4, 1990

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“It is really the case that what was taught the Mystery-pupils at Ephesus concerning the primeval Word lies in the opening sentences of the John Gospel. It is indeed very fitting for Anthroposophists to turn their attention today, on this Cosmic New Year’s Eve, to these secrets which rest in the lap of time; for in a certain sense, that which stood here on the Dornach hill as the Goetheanum had become the centre of anthroposophical activity. The pain we feel today must continue to be pain, and will do so in everyone who was able to feel what the Goetheanum was intended to be. But to one who is striving upwards in his knowledge towards the spiritual all that takes place in the physical world must be for him an external manifestation, a picture of the spiritual which lies behind it. We as human beings striving after spiritual knowledge must be able to turn what has caused this pain into an opportunity for looking spiritually into a revelation which leads us into greater and greater depths. This Goetheanum was to have been a place in which one hoped to have spoken, and in which we have spoken again and again of those things which are connected with the opening words of the John Gospel:

“In the Primal Beginning was the Word — the Logos — and the Word was with God, and a god was the Word.”

Then the Goetheanum was destroyed by fire. This terrible picture of the burning Goetheanum arises before us. The pain may give birth to the summons to look ever more deeply into that which lives in the power of our thought, into this burning Goetheanum of New Year’s Eve. That is an experience, painful though it is, which leads us into greater and greater depths. That which we wished to have founded in this Goetheanum, which is connected with the John Gospel, these already form an enclosure within these burning consuming flames. And it is an important impulse which we may grasp: Let these flames be for us the occasion to look through them to other flames, those flames which once long ago consumed the Temple of Ephesus. Let us look upon them as a summons to us to try and fathom that which stands at the beginning of the John Gospel. Urged by this painfully sacred impulse, let us look back from the John Gospel to the Temple of Ephesus — which once was also burned down — and then in the Goetheanum flames, which speak indeed so painfully we shall receive a monition from that which streams into the Akasha with the burning flames of the Ephesian Temple.

Herostratus burns  the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

Even today, if we look back on that night of misfortune, to those fierce flames of the Goetheanum conflagration, do we not still find in them the molten metals of the musical instruments which speak a language so pure and holy? Do we not find in these molten metals those musical instruments which conjured into the flames those wonderful colours — variously speaking colours — colours closely connected with the metals? Through connection with the metals something arises like memory in the earth-substance. This memory we have of that which was consumed with the Temple at Ephesus. And just as these two conflagrations may be connected, so the longing to investigate the meaning of “In the Primal Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and a god was the Word” may be connected somewhat with the words which again and again were made clear to the pupil at Ephesus: “Study the mystery of man in the small word, in the micrologos; thereby thou shalt make thyself ripe to experience in thyself the mystery of the macrologos.”

Saat Chion

Man is the microcosm as contrasted with the world which is the macrocosm, but he also bears within him the mysteries of the cosmos, and we can decipher the cosmic mystery contained in the first three verses of the John Gospel if we bear in mind in the right sense that into which, as into many other things also, the flames of the Goetheanum condensed, as if in written characters:

“Behold the Logos
In the burning fire
Seek the solution
In the house of Diana.”

 The Akashic Record of the fire of last New Year’s Eve speaks these words very clearly, together with many others; and they make on us the demand to establish in the microcosm the micrologos, so that man may gain the understanding of that out of which his whole being has been formed — the macrocosmos — through the macrologos. ~Rudolf Steiner, Mystery Centres, Lecture IV, Dornach, December 1923

Jean Mignon

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The Christmas Conference:

World History in the light of Anthroposophy, Lecture VIII: The Burning of the Ephesian Temple and the Goetheanum, Dornach 31st December 1923 Morning

The Envy of the Gods — The Envy of Human Beings

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Mieke Filmich.

“Our end-of-year festival will begin with Frau Dr. Steiner giving us a recitation of the beautiful Norwegian legend of Olaf Åsteson, of whom we are told that at the approach to Christmas he fell into a kind of sleep which lasted for thirteen days; the thirteen holy days that we have explored in various ways. In the course of this sleep he had significant experiences, that he was able to narrate when he awoke.

Olaf Åsteson, Olaf the son of earth, experiences various secrets of the cosmic All whilst he is transported into the macrocosm during the thirteen shortest days. And the nordic legend which has recently been extricated from old accounts, tells of these experiences Olaf Åsteson had between Christmas and New Year up till the 6th January. We often have reason to remember this former manner in which the microcosm took part in the macrocosm, and we can then take these things further. First of all, however, let us hear the legend of Olaf Åsteson, the earth son, who during the time in which we are now, experienced the secrets of cosmic existence in his meeting with the earth spirit. Let us listen to these experiences.

The Dream Song
I
Come listen to my song!
The song of a nimble youth.
Of Olaf Åsteson will I sing,
Who lay and slept so long.
II
He laid him down on Christmas Eve
And soon lay deeply sleeping.
Nor could he awaken
Until the people went to church
Upon the thirteenth day.
Of Olaf Åsteson will I sing,
Who lay and slept so long.
He laid him down on Christmas Eve
And he slept long indeed!
He could not awaken
Until the bird was on the wing
Upon the thirteenth day.
Of Olaf Åsteson will I sing,
Who lay and slept so long.
Olaf could not awaken
Until the sun shone o’er the peaks
Upon the thirteenth day.
Then saddled he his nimble horse
And rode in haste to the church.
Of Olaf Åsteson will I sing,
Who lay and slept so long.
The priest was at the altar
Reading holy mass
When Olaf alighted at the gate
To tell the many dreams
That had passed through his soul
When he did sleep so long.
Of Olaf Åsteson will I sing,
Who lay and slept so long.
Then old and young they all gave heed,
To Olaf’s words they harkened
That told them of his dreams
Of Olaf Åsteson will I sing,
Who lay and slept so long.
III
‘I laid me down on Christmas Eve
And soon lay deeply sleeping.
Nor could I awaken
Before the people went to church
Upon the thirteenth day.
The moon shone bright
And all the paths led far away.
I was borne up into the clouds
Thrown down to the ocean’s depths,
And whosoever will follow after
Good cheer he will not find.
The moon shone bright
And all the paths led far away.
I was borne up into the clouds
Then hurled into murky swamps,
And I saw the horrors of hell
And also heaven’s light.
The moon shone bright
And all the paths led far away.
I had to go through deep, dark clefts
Where heaven’s rivers rushed and roared.
The power to see them was not mine
Yet I could hear their roaring.
The moon shone bright
And all the paths led far away.
My coal-black horse he did not neigh,
Nor did my good hounds bark,
The bird of morning did not sing
For a wonder lay on all.
The moon shone bright
And all the paths led far away.
I had to travel in spiritland
Through stretch on stretch of thorny heath,
My scarlet mantle was torn to shreds
The nails of my feet likewise.
The moon shone bright
And all the paths led far away.
Then I came to the Gjallar Bridge
Suspended in the windblown heights,
Studded it is with rich red gold
And the nails thereon have sharp points.
The moon shone bright
And all the paths led far away.
The spirit snake he struck at me
The spirit hound bit me,
And lo! the bull did bar the way.
These are the three beasts of the bridge,
Most wicked are they all.
The moon shone bright
And all the paths led far away.
The hound he is a snappish beast
The serpent waits to strike,
The bull is ready to attack!
And no one may pass o’er the bridge
Who will not honour truth!
The moon shone bright
And all the paths led far away.
I passed o’er the Gjallar Bridge
On dizzy heights and narrow.
I who had waded in the swamps . . . .
Behind me now they lie!
The moon shone bright
And all the paths led far away.
I had waded in the swamps
There seemed no foothold I could find
As I passed o’er the Gjallar Bridge
Earth did I feel within my mouth
As the dead who lie in their graves.
The moon shone bright
And all the paths led far away.
To the waters then I came,
’Twas where the icy masses gleamed
Like unto flames of blue. . . .
And God did guide me in my steps
That I did not come close.
The moon shone bright
And all the paths led far away.
So I went on the wintry way
And saw on my right hand:
Like unto paradise it was,
Light shining far and wide.
The moon shone bright
And all the paths led far away.
God’s Holy Mother then I saw
Amidst most wondrous glory!
‘Now take thy way to Brooksvalin,
the place where souls are judged!’
The moon shone bright
And all the paths led far away.

IV
In other worlds I tarried then
Through many nights and long;
And God alone can know
The suffering I saw there —
In Brooksvalin, where souls
World judgment undergo.
I could see a young man
Who in life had killed a child.
Now he must carry him always
And stand in mud to his knee
In Brooksvalin, where souls
World judgment undergo.
Also I saw an old man
Wearing a cloak of lead;
Thus was he punished,
The miser on earth,
In Brooksvalin, where souls
World judgment undergo.
And men appeared before me
Wearing apparel of fire;
So does their dishonesty
Weigh on their poor souls
In Brooksvalin, where souls
World judgment undergo.
Children I also saw,
Glowing coals beneath their feet,
In life they did their parents ill,
Now must their spirits feel it
In Brooksvalin, where souls
World judgment undergo.
And to a house I had to go
Where witches toiled in blood;
This was the blood of those
Who had enraged them whilst on earth,
In Brooksvalin, where souls
World judgment undergo.
Now there came riding from the North
Wild hordes of evil spooks,
Led by the Prince of Hell,
In Brooksvalin, where souls
World judgment undergo.
This horde riding from the North
Was the wickedest ever seen;
And the Prince of Hell rode out in front,
And he rode on his coal-black steed
In Brooksvalin, where souls
World judgment undergo.
Yet now came a host from the South
Bringing holy calm,
And at their head rode Saint Michael
At the side of Jesu Christ
In Brooksvalin, where souls
World judgment undergo.
The souls weighed down by sin
Had to tremble in anguish and fear!
Their tears ran down in streams
To hear of their wicked deeds
In Brooksvalin, where souls
World judgment undergo.
Michael stood in majesty
And weighed the souls of men
Upon his heavenly scales,
And near him, judging, stood
The Lord of Judgment, Jesu Christ
In Brooksvalin, where souls
World judgment undergo.

V
Blessed is he who in earthly life
Gives shoes unto the poor;
He does not need, with naked feet,
To walk on the heath of thorn.
Thus speaks the Balance,
And World truth
Sounds forth in spirit heights.
Blessed is he who in earthly life
Unto the poor gave bread!
For nothing of harm can come to him
From the hounds of spiritland.
Thus speaks the Balance,
And World truth
Sounds forth in spirit heights.
Blessed is he who in earthly life
Gave corn unto the poor!
The horns of the bull are no threat to him
When he crosses the Gjallar Bridge.
Thus speaks the Balance,
And World truth
Sounds forth in spirit heights.
Blessed is he who in earthly life
Unto the poor gives clothes!
He need not fear the freezing wastes
Of ice in Brooksvalin.
Thus speaks the Balance,
And World truth
Sounds forth in spirit heights.

VI
And young and old they all gave heed,
To Olaf’s words they harkened
That told them of his dreams.
You have slept long indeed. . . .
Awaken now, O Olaf Åsteson!

This legend brings us tidings of ancient knowledge and insight into the spiritual worlds, which we shall regain once more through what we call the spiritual-scientific world outlook.

The human soul has slept long indeed, but world spirits will approach and call to it, ‘Awaken now, O Olaf Asteson!’ — Only we have to prepare ourselves in the right way, so that it does not happen that we are faced with the call, ‘Awaken now, O Olaf Åsteson!’ and have not the ears to hear it. That is why we are engaged in spiritual science, so that we shall have the ears to hear, when the call to be spiritually awake sounds in human evolution.

~Rudolf Steiner, Art as Seen in the Light of Mystery Wisdom, Lecture 4, COSMIC NEW YEAR, Dornach, 31st December 1914

***

“…Two cycles interpenetrate at this time of the year, approximately around New Year’s Eve.

The approach of New Year’s Eve may therefore appear to us like the approach of a messenger from the spiritual world, revealing to us the mysteries connected with the end of the year and bringing us the following message: The secret of existence consists in the fact that cycles INTERPENETRATE

“Behold, in the midst of the dark cold winter season the vegetable consciousness unites with the mineral consciousness of the earth. Let this be a sign to you that the earth too has its own cycle, namely the great cosmic year mentioned by Zarathustra, which goes from one Cosmic New Year’s Eve to the other, and which we must understand if we wish to grasp the course of human development.”

Zarathustra speaks of twelve thousands of years. He described the course of one Earthly Year, and divided it into four seasons representing the course of human evolution upon the earth. This is deeply rooted in the spiritual mysteries.

The thirteen days from the 24th of December to the 6th of January are the days in which the plants’ consciousness unites with the mineral consciousness. If the human being can transfer himself into the consciousness of the plants, he can see and dream of many mysteries which pass through his heart in many forms — he can have dreams such as that of Olaf Åsteson.

If we develop such feelings and moods, we obtain the right attitude towards the aims of our spiritual knowledge; these warm feelings which stream through our heart are a preparation for the New Cosmic Year, and they enable us to await it worthily, to look forward to that cosmic New Year’s Eve which brings a new cosmic year. In future incarnations, when our souls will pass through the great Cosmic New Year, we shall experience it in the right way if the end of the year which closes the small cycle of twelve months becomes a symbol for the great end of the year which closes a cycle of twelve thousand years.

This is the secret of our existence. The things which take place upon a small scale always correspond to the things which take place upon a large scale, and upon a large scale the things are the same as upon a small scale. The small scale, the course of one year, can only be grasped if it becomes a symbol for the great cosmic course, for the cycle which encompasses thousands of years.

The year is an image for the Aeons. And Aeons are the reality of symbols which we encounter in the course of one year. If we really understand the year’s course, our hearts will be deeply moved to the mysteries of the cosmos, at this time of the year which marks the beginning of a new year. Let us try to attune our soul so that it can look into the new year conscious of the fact that it can bear within it the year’s course as a symbol for the great COSMIC course, which encompasses all the mysteries pursued by spiritual Beings who surge and weave through the universe from aeon to aeon, in the same way in which the Lesser Gods pursue the mysteries connected with the development of the vegetable and mineral Kingdoms during the course of one year. ~Rudolf Steiner THE YEAR’S COURSE AS A SYMBOL FOR THE GREAT COSMIC YEAR 31st of December, 1915.

***

“On New Year’s Eve it is always fitting to remember how past and future are linked together in life and in the existence of the world, how past and future are linked in the whole life of the Cosmos of which man is a part, how past and future are linked in every fraction of that life with which our own individual existence is connected, is interwoven through all that we were able to do and to think during the past year, and through all that we are able to plan for the coming year…

What we are striving for in Anthroposophical Spiritual Science is this: To receive with goodwill all that is seeking to enter through spiritual revelation from another world — from a world, however, which bears within it this world of ours — and to clothe these revelations in terms by which they can be communicated to humanity. These revelations are nothing less than that which definitely (in a certain respect) guarantees the future of mankind.

As long as questions of this kind are not considered with due earnestness, we have not arrived at the right understanding of the Cosmic New Year’s Eve. At the present moment, it is essential to reach this right understanding. It is essential for us to extend our sympathies — alas, our sympathies often arise from egoistic sources — to the great human relations, and to feel for the whole of mankind that human sympathy which impels us to make a spiritual movement like this effectively fruitful for the evolution of mankind.

May you experience, my dear friends, at this very time, that it is the Spirit of the Cosmos itself, which has been seeking entrance. May you experience during the coming night, that this Spirit which seeks to enter humanity, shall here so be served that the souls of those, who will to feel with and who will to think with Anthroposophical Spiritual Science, may feel their union with this new Spirit which wills to enter the world — the Spirit which alone can bring to the earthly world, the world that is destroying itself — the new upbuilding impulse out of Heaven. In this hour, a symbolic hour every year, demanding that we experience it as the decisive hour between past and future — in this hour may you unite your souls with the new Spirit; may you so experience in your souls the contact of the past year with the coming year, that the Cosmic Year which is passing away, may contact itself with the dawning Cosmic Year.

But the passing Cosmic Year will still send many an after-effect into the future; destructive forces into the spheres of Spirit, of Equity, of Economics. Therefore it is all the more needful, that as many men as possible shall be seized in the innermost depths of their souls by the New Year of the Spiritual Future, and shall develop a Will which may be the foundation of a new spiritual world, a world to be built into the future evolution of mankind”.

~Rudolf Steiner The Cosmic New Year, lecture 4, 31st December, 1919

***

Van James

May we all meet in consciousness the spiritual powers that avail themselves to us on this Cosmic New Year’s Eve

In Peace, Unconditional Love & Good Will

 ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Current Festival & Program Events

7th Holy Night: Spirits of Wisdom

Celestial Event, Festival, Insight, Meditation, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars, Winter

30 December 2016 – Astro-Weather: Can you spot the thin crescent Moon at the twilight time? Look low in the southwest just after the Sun goes down. The Moon is located about three fists at arm’s length to the lower right of shiny Venus. A similar distance to the Moon’s upper right look for sparkling Altair

Josephine Wall

Although Saturn passed on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth less than three weeks ago (on December 10), it already appears low in the southeast during morning twilight. The ringed planet lies above the horizon 45 minutes before sunrise. It is the brightest point of light in this part of the sky

***

Patrica Lamb

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

7th Night of Hanukkah

1816 – The Treaty of St. Louis signed between the United States the Council of Three Fires (united tribes of Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi) living on the Illinois & Milwaukee rivers. The tribes, their chiefs, & their warriors had to relinquish all right, claim, & title to land which connected Chicago & Lake Michigan with the Illinois River. Today, Indian Boundary Park in West Ridge, Chicago commemorates this Treaty. In exchange the tribes were to be paid $1,000 in merchandise over 12 years

1825 – The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States & the Shawnee Nation. In this treaty, the Shawnee gave up their lands to the United States near Cape Geredeau. In return for Cape Geredeau, the United States government gave the Shawnee a sum of 11,000 dollars & leased to them a blacksmith shop for five years providing all tools & 300 pounds of iron annually

1853 – Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building over  a 29,670-square-mile region of present-day southern Arizona & southwestern New Mexico

1903 – A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois kills at least 655

1916 – This is the 100 year anniversary of the deathday of Grigori Rasputin, the Russian mystic, spiritual healer & monk, whose name became proverbial for the intrusion of occult influence on politics – murdered in the midst of the WW1. Rasputin was the spiritual & medical adviser to Tsar Nicolas II of Russia, the last Russian Emperor, his wife Alexandra, & their daughter Anastasia. He called himself the “secretary of the Tsar’s soul”. He prophesied that his death would lead to the demise of the Tsardom. And so it was, that 2 months after his death, in the February Revolution of 1917, the monarchy was abolished, & the Bolsheviks took power in Russia. The royal couple was murdered & only Anastasia survived exiled in the West, never recognized as the true heir.  Rasputin’s murder was initiated by the British secret service at a decisive phase of the war to prevent a peace treaty. His reputation became fraught with accusations of decadence, so it’s interesting to read some statements about him from Rudolf Steiner. Even more intriguing are the after-death messages from Helmuth von Moltke’s soul that Steiner transmitted to Eliza Moltke his widow, which speak to Molke’s encounter with Rasputin’s soul in the after-life.

“When the Russian Tsar & Tarina used the inner experiences of Rasputin for the purposes of government, the people had a right to be afraid of that, because revelations from the spiritual world should only have a role in spiritual life, not in the political field. In this field only what has become our sound reason by way of the spiritual revelations should intrude. Rasputin had not developed sound reasoning, although he had revelations”. ~Rudolf Steiner 14 Feb. 1920 Dornach

“Rasputin worked directly on the will. That should not be. But people want that. He really is an unrestrained man, the ‘Rasputin’ (Russian: one without a path) Everything said about him is true, but he is nevertheless a God-Seer, that is an occult term for a grade of initiation. It is only thru him that the spiritual world, the Russian Folk-Spirit, can now take effect in Russia, thru nobody else.” ~Rudolf Steiner according to Assya Turgeneva in the early years of WWW1, recorded in her book Erinnerugen an Rudolf Steiner

1936 – The United Auto Workers union in the Flint, Michigan, stages its first sit-down strike. Workers occupied several General Motors plants for more than forty days, & repelled the efforts of the police & National Guard to retake them.  A wave of strikes followed, but were put-down by the end of the decade, as the courts & the National Labor Relations Board ruled that sit-down strikes were illegal & that strikers would be fired

2009 – A segment of the Lanzhou–Zhengzhou–Changsha pipeline ruptures in Shaanxi, China, and approximately 40,000 US gal. of diesel oil flows down the Wei River before finally reaching the Yellow River

***

7th Holy Night:  December 30-31, Constellation of Virgo, Virgin (ruling the abdomen & digestive system) The Sphere of the Kyriotetes, Spirits of Wisdom, Dominions

Rudolf Steiner

The imagination of the Heavenly Virgin, as an indication of the cosmic being of the The Divine Sophia – the Archetypal Wisdom of the World – depicted in the 12th chapter of the Apocalypse of St John, as the woman clothed with the Sun, wearing a crown of stars & standing on the sickle moon with the dragon at her feet – reveals to us its profound connection with this Hierarchy. The ancients knew that the 12 stars corresponded to the Old Saturn evolution (Steiner’s planetary seal shows 9 stars- the process of a gradual formation of the Zodiac); the Sun image reflects the Old Sun phase (the Virgin gives birth to the Sun & is then clothed by the Sun: a picture of the birth of the etheric body) & the sickle moon to the Old Moon evolution (resulting in the origin on Earth of silver, the metal that testifies to the overcoming of the lower Moon-Forces by the higher forces of the Sun)

We find all these qualities in the being of the Mary of the Luke Gospel , an earthly reflection of this Heavenly Sophia – the twin soul of the Nathan Jesus. The Mary of the Matthew Gospel was the earlier incarnation of Eve the 1st earthly woman.

Sophia Calder

In the 5th Gospel, Rudolf Steiner tells us that at the Baptism, the 2 Marys became united to create a vessel for The Divine Sophia, in the same way that the 2 Jesus children, united at the steps of the Temple in Jerusalem, to create the perfect vessel for The Christ.

After this merging, the Mary of the Matthew Gospel became the earthly reflection of the Divine Sophia, opening the way for humanity to become the lowest member of the Sobornal (collective) being of the Sophia. Rudolf Steiner named her Anthroposophia, the force of the Wisdom that lives in the soul of humanity. This archetype carries the contemplation of the sacrifice offered by the Thrones (8th Holy Night) to the Cherubim (9th) to induce the Kyriotetes to radiate out their essence of Wisdom, which for us becomes the virtue depicted by the ‘Mother of God’ as selfless giving.

In order to receive the experience of the Christ, this Wisdom had to ‘pierce Mary’s heart like a sword’ (Luke 2:35) so that there might pour forth from Mary-Sophia the highest virtue of true giving, into the hearts of humanity. At the foot of the cross, John the disciple Jesus loved, is asked by Christ-Jesus to take this Sophia-Wisdom-the Mother of God-into his ‘house’ or soul. Thru this he becomes known as ‘John the Divine’ because he is embodied by the Divine Sophia, which enables him to write his Gospel & the Book of Revelations. This is also outpictured in his later incarnation, as ‘The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz‘.

 Matthaus Merian

So on this 7th Night let us look within, to find the realm of The Virgin, & feel our connection to the being of Anthroposophy. May we seek to acquire the Wisdom that gives birth to The Christ within

 ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Jan de Kok

Virtue: Courtesy becomes steadiness of feeling

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