The Preparers

Celestial Event, Community, History, Insight, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events
Rita Cassia

Dear friends, I thought to bring back into focus our ‘Thought Seed project‘ with this 10:10 Testament: In our present age we have a mighty opportunity – Every human being (Anthropos) has the inherent wisdom (Sophia) to solve the riddles of existence, & to transform both self & society – to give birth within ourselves to the being of Anthroposophia – to develop our higher ‘I’ on the earth. In the ‘Apocalypse of John: Lecture XII’ Rudolf Steiner said: “We are preparing for the preparers. The Anthroposophical spiritual movement is today but a very small flame; in the future it must develop into a mighty spiritual fire!” Our current world situation calls us to be alert to the formative forces that can either drag us down into the abyss of unconscious slavery OR these forces can be developed in awakened consciousness into a New Etheric-Sun Heart, which must begin to be enlivened even if at 1st it is just thru our Cognitive-Imagination, so that in our many incarnations we can continue this work.

Zosia Nowak

These new more conscious formative forces must be built up thru our individual efforts, we can then bring these fruits together in freedom to co-create a larger ‘Love imbued egregore‘– a shared Christic Etheric Body of Sophia-Michael – as a seed for all of human evolution, in which we consciously participate in a formative Sun-becoming process. This must be a systematic, spiritually scientific praxis, not some fantasy or illusion. It is built up & formed, step by step, in a disciplined, consistent way – a fully conscious method put into the practical application of the 4 stages of the Reverse-Cultus:

  1. Communion as pure thinking – “Spiritual Knowledge is a real communion, the beginning of a cosmic ritual that is suitable for human beings today”. We rise in our thinking to commune with the spiritual world behind sense perception.
  2. Transubstantiation or Transformation – from matter to spirit
  3. Offering a selfless meeting Ego to Ego “That good can become”
  4. Revelation of destiny unfolding as “Christ in Me”

These essential guidelines of the modern spiritual path, that were given to us a 100 years ago by Rudolf Steiner, are the New Mysteries which will prepare us to be transformed & adapted to the Social-Cognitive Art of a modern come-unity of Anthroposophia.

etheric heart ~Rudolf Steiner

BTW: Please don’t get discouraged if you can’t always join into the 10:10 Thought Seed. Perhaps you can start by setting your alarm to at least mark it. Even a split second moment of attention adds to the spark.

Here’s a wonderful Steiner verse that fits well with the growing light that hearlds the promise of Spring’s new beginnings.

Sun, thou bearer of rays,
Thy light’s power over matter
Magics life out of the earth’s
Limitless rich depths.

Heart, thou bearer of soul,
Thy light’s power over spirit
Magics life out of the human being’s
Limitless deep inwardness.

If I gaze upon the Sun
Her light speaks to me in radiance
Of the Spirit, filled with grace,
Wielding through the beings of worlds.

If I feel within my heart
The Spirit speaks its own true word
About the human being, loved by him
Through all time and eternity.

Looking upwards, I can see
In the Sun’s bright disc
The mighty heart of worlds.

Looking inwards, I can feel
In the heart’s warm beat
The human Sun ensouled. ~Rudolf Steiner

Chart via John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.

7 February 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The green comet – will pass near the red planet – Mars – in mid-February. Here’s how to see them: See that green line across our chart? That’s the ecliptic, or path the sun travels during the day. Look along that line for 2 bright reddish objects, a planet and a star. The green comet will sweep past red Mars around February 10 and 11. It’ll go on to pass the red-orange star Aldebaran, Eye of the Bull in the constellation Taurus. The comet is faint now and moving fast away from our sun. You’ll need a dark-sky to see it.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1478 – Birthday of Thomas More, Chancellor of Enhland, author of Utopia, according to Rudolf Steiner in GA 167 & 171 he was condemed to death for betraying occult secrets.

Editorial cartoon (by Thomas Nast) depicts a defiant Pope Pius IX (1792 – 1878) as he stands on railroad tracks and attempts to block a train labelled ‘Progress, 19th Century’ with nothing more than an umbrella labelled ‘The Ecumenical Council,’ mid 19th century. The ecumenical council, First Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church, issued a statement on papal infallibility which is referred to by the cartoon caption, ‘I am infallible.’ (Photo by Stock Montage/Getty Images)

1878 – Deathday of Pope Pius IX head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878, the longest verified papal reign. At the time of his election, he was seen as a champion of liberalism and reform, but the Revolutions of 1848 decisively reversed his policies. Yet he emphasized Mary’s role in salvation & promulgated the dogma of the Immaculate Conception – that Mary, the Mother of God, was conceived without original sin. His chief legacy is the dogma of papal infallibility – preserved from the possibility of error on doctrine! Pope John Paul II beatified him in 2000.

1966 – Deathday of composer Leopold van der Pals. In 1907, after four years of basic musical education in Lausanne, Van der Pals moved to Berlin where he met Rudolf Steiner, who made a great impression on him and introduced the idea of metamorphosis, derived from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. At the time, Berlin was a melting pot of musical development in the wake of the romantic era. Van der Pals experimented with new harmonic ideas and alternative cadenzas. He shaped his personal expression, a hybrid of different styles such as romanticism, impressionism, free tonality and inspiration from Russian and Nordic folklore. In 1915, due to World War I, Van der Pals moved to Arlesheim & then DornachSwitzerland.

The Women at the Tomb – A Festival of Resurrection

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Insights about Mary Magdalene with Faith DiVecchio, Song-Circle with Velsum, Eurythmy – & an artistic break out session

Holy Saturday 8 April 2023

1 pm – 3pm CT a hybrid event in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & on zoom

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7050174041

Meeting ID: 705 017 4041

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
www.rschicago.org/donate

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll

Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance

Gerald Shepherd

When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.

Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.

Nancy Poer

~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices & Eurythmy

Saturday 27 May 2023 a Hybrid event in person* & on zoom

We are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83663366670?pwd=L292UzlOR1pkZjBXSWpxK1B2b0o1dz09 Meeting ID: 836 6336 6670 / Passcode: 397593

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
*Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) www.rschicago.org/donate

Echoes

Festival, History, Poetry, Upcoming Events

my POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I hear echoes in vibration
Sculpting – unfolding – dematerializing –
Reforming forces
Rising in the sap of ancient trees
Up building
Where my tongue curls
Over words shot thru with bones of nimble Sun
& Crystalline structures that thrust the flowers
Into a cold field of refracted light
~hag

astronomy.com

6 February 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Draco the dragon winds his way beneath the Little Dipper in the north shortly after sunset tonight. The Dragon’s head is marked by the asterism the Lozenge, which lies to the lower left (southeast) of the Litter Dipper’s bowl just after dark. There is a short dark-sky window in the hour between sunset and moonrise, so take advantage of it if you can.

If you look along the Dragon’s body as it curls beneath Ursa Minor, you’ll reach Thuban (Alpha [α] Draconis) west of the Lozenge. This star was once the North Star, sitting close to Earth’s Celestial Pole as the sky appeared to spin around it. That honor now belongs to Polaris in Ursa Minor — the change is due to the fact that Earth’s rotational axis wobbles, or precesses, over the course of about 25,000 years. As the axis moves, it points at various stars in the sky at different times, so our North Star can change over the course of thousands of years.

Sunrise: 7:04 A.M.
Sunset: 5:25 P.M.
Moonrise: 6:22 P.M.
Moonset: 7:55 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (99%)

Image result for sun offering painting
Thomas Jackson

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Image result for Burning of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus AND the Birthday of Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great mosaic.jpg

356 -The Burning of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus AND the Birthday of Alexander the Great

Image result for Dorothea of Montau,

1347 – Birthday of Dorothea of Montau, the guardian of the country of the Teutonic Knights & patron saint of Prussia. Born to a wealthy farmer from Holland, she was married at the age of 16 to the swordsmith Adalbrecht of Danzig (Gdańsk), an ill-tempered man in his 40s. Almost immediately after marrying she began to experience visions. Her husband had little patience with her spiritual experiences & abused her. Later, both made pilgrimages to Cologne, Aachen, & Einsiedeln. While Dorothea, with her husband’s permission, was on pilgrimage to Rome, he died in 1389. Of their nine children eight died. The surviving daughter, Gertrud, joined the Benedictines. In the summer of 1391 Dorothea moved to Marienwerder (Kwidzyn), & with the blessing of the Teutonic Order, established a hermit’s cell against the wall of the cathedral. She never left that cell for the rest of her life. Dorothea led a very austere life. Numerous visitors sought her advice & consolation, & she had visions & revelations

Image result for Adam Weishaupt

1748 – Birthday of Adam Weishaupt, German philosopher & founder of the Illuminati. After Pope Clement XIV’s suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773, Weishaupt became a professor of canon law, a position that was held exclusively by the Jesuits until that time. In 1775 Weishaupt was introduced to the empirical philosophy of Johann Georg Heinrich Fede. Both Feder &Weishaupt would later become opponents of Kantian idealism.

“At a time, however, when there was no end of making game of and abusing secret societies, I planned to make use of this human foible for a real and worthy goal, for the benefit of people. I wished to do what the heads of the ecclesiastical and secular authorities ought to have done by virtue of their offices…” ~ Adam Weishaupt

On 1 May 1776 Weishaupt founded the “Illuminati” in the Electorate of Bavaria. He adopted the name of “Brother Spartacus” within the order. The character of the society was an elaborate network of spies & counter-spies. Each isolated cell of initiates reported to a superior, whom they did not know: a party structure that was effectively adopted by some later groups.

Weishaupt was initiated into the Masonic Lodge “Theodor zum guten Rath“, at Munich in 1777. His project of “illumination, enlightening the understanding by the sun of reason, which will dispel the clouds of superstition and of prejudice” was an unwelcome reform. He used Freemasonry to recruit for his own quasi-masonic society, with the goal of “perfecting human nature” through re-education to achieve a communal state with nature, freed of government & organized religion. Presenting their own system as pure masonry, Weishaupt & Adolph Freiherr Knigge, who organized his ritual structure, greatly expanded the secret organization.

Weishaupt’s character & intentions have been variously assessed: from those such as the Abbé Barruel & John Robison who regarded him as a ‘human devil’ & saw his mission as one of malevolent destructiveness, to those who view him as a humane & benign, albeit willful, social reformer. Writing on this topic, Dr. Tony Page comments: “Weishaupt’s plan was to educate Illuminati followers in the highest levels of humanity and morality (basing his teachings on the supremacy of Reason, allied with the spirit of the Golden Rule of not doing to others what one would not wish done to oneself), so that if Illuminati alumni subsequently attained positions of significance and power (such as in the fields of education and politics), they could exert a benevolent and uplifting influence upon society at large. His project was utopian and naively optimistic, and he himself was certainly not without flaws of character – but neither he nor his plan was evil or violent in and of themselves. It is one of the deplorable and tragic ironies of history that a man who tried to inculcate virtue, philanthropy, social justice and morality has become one of the great hate-figures of 21st-century ‘conspiracy’ thinking.

After Weishaupt’s Order of Illuminati was banned & its members dispersed, it left behind no enduring traces of an influence, not even on its own former members, who went on in the future to develop in quite different directions.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobin_(politics)

From Steve Hale: Yet, there is clear evidence that after being banned in 1784, due to the direct intervention of Count Saint Germain, who exposed the aims of the Illuminati just before his own death on February 27th of that year, that Weishaupt simply regrouped and cloaked his movement in the religious veneer of the Dominicans, as the Jacobins, who influenced the French Revolution, which began in 1789, and had Robespierre as its autocratic leader in the so-called, ‘Reign of Terror’.

Maybe Tony Page doesn’t know this part, but this kind of strategic scheming in order to uphold the aims of Freemasonry has had a long history of its efforts within the political domain for the purpose of controlling the world ever since the French Revolution, which was all about upholding the aristocracy instead of the people. America had its own version of it with the Revolutionary War.

John Robison wrote the seminal book, “Proofs of a Conspiracy”, in 1798, about the aims of the Illuminati Order which Weishaupt had created in 1776. What Robison didn’t know because it was not possible to know at the time, was that Count St. Germain, an incarnation of Christian Rosenkreutz, had exposed the order in 1784.

1891 – Birthday of Walter Johannes Stein. Stein grew up in Vienna as the son of a lawyer & a Theosophist . He studied mathematics, physics & philosophy in Vienna & received his doctorate there in 1918 with a dissertation entitled Historical-Critical Contributions to the Development of Modern Philosophy , which he had developed with the help of Rudolf Steiner . He had previously participated in the First World War as an artillery officer .

In the same year he married & campaigned for the threefolding of the social organism with writings & lectures . After their failure, he was appointed to teach German & history at the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart. To this end, he was committed to the Anthroposophical Society in Germany, from 1923 to 1928 as a board member.

In 1932 he left the Waldorf School & moved to England to work for Daniel Nicol Dunlop’s research office at the World Energy Council, founded in 1924 . After his death in 1935 he published the monthly The Present Age until the beginning of World War II .

During the war he began to work as a non-medical practitioner – he had been involved in medicine since around 1920, he was also close friends with the anthroposophical doctor Ita Wegman & his school friend Eugen Kolisko in Vienna – and held public lectures on medicine until his death in 1957 & worked on a book on the basics & perspectives of spiritually advanced medicine.

I just re-read this amazing book!

The Women at the Tomb – A Festival of Resurrection

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Song-Circle with Velsum,

Eurythmy – & an artistic break out session

Holy Saturday 8 April 2023

1 pm – 3pm CT a hybrid event in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & on zoom

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7050174041

Meeting ID: 705 017 4041

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
www.rschicago.org/donate

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll

Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance

Gerald Shepherd

When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.

Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.

Nancy Poer

~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices & Eurythmy

Saturday 27 May 2023 a Hybrid event in person* & on zoom

We are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83663366670?pwd=L292UzlOR1pkZjBXSWpxK1B2b0o1dz09 Meeting ID: 836 6336 6670 / Passcode: 397593

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
*Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) www.rschicago.org/donate

ArtNight our Beaux-Ideal

Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Celestial Event, Community, Festival, Rudolf Steiner Quote
photo by Jay Faulkner

Dear friends, I am thrilled to testify that with all the divisiveness in our world today it was refreshing & energizing to experience the phenomenon that is ArtNight – where a ’20 something’ crowd (although all ages are welcome) comes together for a sober 1st Friday event – creating a conscious community where everyone is encouraged do what they love, & to share it in the affirmative environment that is generated.

At the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago we offer a ‘Shared Space Agreement’ encouraging folks to bring their social initiatives & share them in our community space. We have things like early childhood playgroups, watercolor painting classes, a mom & tot exercise class, Martial Arts demonstrations, Live music concerts, special events & celebrations, gallery openings…etc…

On 3 February 2023 the ArtNight Team: Founder & facilitator:Jared Hochberg; Patrick Fang: co-facilitator, AV, & newsletter guy; Kiki King: co-facilitator, outreach coordinator; & Jay Faulkner: Social media, film/photography – brought a diverse group of about 90 young people – Including artist-venders selling their work – various ‘presenters’ who sign up by contacting the organizers before-hand for a 5 or 15 minute time slot, & sometimes free food that is donated by different venues. This month there was stand-up comedy, a young entrepreneur promoting her business, dance, music, film…And what makes the evening so special is that it is very interactive. After each offering questions & feedback are encouraged. And what I loved most, there are opportunities for group activities – at the beginning to break the ice – in the middle, there are small group sessions to go deep – & social cappers that bring everyone together at the end.

The most amazing part of ArtNight is the vibe – such generous enthusiasm, total support – a relaxed, ‘go with the flow’ – accepting attitude – a sense of adventure & a willingness to engage in exploring what others are passionate about without judgement – no tension from competition – no hipster posers or head trips – absolute authenticity – a spirit of fun & of being in the moment – a truly safe sober space, where folks can be vulnerable & real – It was like being around Waldorf grads who can shake your hand, & look you in the eye, so earnest, polite & helpful – they listen, & take genuine interest in the other, asking questions & giving encouragement – & drum roll please – there is an atmosphere of pure Good Will & warm Heartedness!!!

Only a few Branch members were there, which is too bad, since these young people are beaux-ideal exemplars for us – holding an important spiritual impulse that I would sincerely label as unconditional Love – which we all need to foster in this world.

NatalieFuentesAleman.com

A dear friend who is relatively new to Anthroposophy was telling me just last week that he wanted to buy some art for his apt. He ended up purchasing 2 original paintings. He said it was kismet.

Johnna Ceick wetpaintbyjohnna.com

I am always looking to support young artists, so I bought one too, as well as a print.   

Our Branch space was definitely uplifted, thoroughly enlivened with positive youthful forces. It was striking to hear their perspective of how the lockdown affected them on many levels, & so powerfully beautiful to see how they brought these & other personal experiences into their artistic expressions.

photo by Jay Faulkner

Every month there is a conversational theme, & this month it was ‘Friendship’. We all got a handout with suggested questions we could ask each other. I was in a group of 4 young men around 25 years old who were open & willing to share their biography. It felt safe, fun & intimate; a great way to get to know complete strangers, allowing the founding of a relationship. I was surprised at how many were curious about Anthroposophy. It reminded me that I need to polish up my elevator speech in case any hidden Michaelites are meant to hear about Spiritual Science. Yes, our karma meets us in the most interesting & often unexpected ways.  

Natalie Fuentes-Aleman

ArtNight is very all-inclusive, everyone is invited to share what interests them, or simply come as you are to have an experience & make some new friends.

And if you have a social initiative that needs a sacred space, check out our ‘Shared Space Agreement’ at the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago. The social cultural realm must become a living chalice pouring out the opportunity to learn, heal, & grow spiritually.

“When human beings meet together seeking the spirit with unity of purpose, then they will also find their way to each other…” ~Rudolf Steiner

~hag

5 February 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The Quickening Moon reached fullness today. Bella Luna, hanging with Leo the Lion, rises in the east-northeast within a few minutes of sunset. Once the Moon is well up after dark, you can see it forming an isosceles triangle once again with Regulus and Algieba, the two brightest stars of Leo’s Sickle glimmering through the moonlight. Regulus is about a fist below the Moon. Algieba (Gamma Leonis) is a fist to the Moon’s lower left.

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
CANDLEMAS
Thought’s Creative Will
v44
And when I grasp the senses’ new allure
the clarity of soul,
mindful of the Spirit-birth fulfilled,
imbues the world’s bewildering,
fresh sprouting growth
with my creative will of thinking.

There is a unique line here with a different format to every other line in the Soul Calendar. If you recognise it and have an idea of its significance I invite you to bring your own thought’s creative will to the comment section, which I look forward to reading and replying to.

The mirror verse
CORPUS CHRISTI
Lose Yourself In Light
v9
And when I let my own will go
the summer’s coming fills my soul
and spirit life with cosmic warmth;
my spirit vision is commanding me
to lose myself in light, and ardently
my foresight’s calling: ‘lose yourself.
to find your Self’.

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll

Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance

Gerald Shepherd

When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.

Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.

Here’s a blast from the past: ~hag Bringing in the Celtic Triple Goddess Brigid to The Theosophical Society

​

Necklace of light

Biography, Celestial Event, Festival, History, Rudolf Steiner Quote

Today 3 February is The Feast of Saint Blaise, which merges with Candlemas & many other rites that herald the promise of Spring…These various Festivals, Saints’ Days, rites, & remembrances are not separate, they are all pearls on a single necklace, progressively lit, from epoch to epoch, one after the other – going forward, as part of the ensuing enkindling of evolving light called forth from the Sun. These traditions, blessed by all spiritual & religious peoples, are relied upon especially by those who love & work the land, those who steward the animals, plants & stones – those who consciously interact with the Elemental Beings…And those who value inner development…

The Candlmas of St Blaise – A Halo of Healing Flame, a conscious igniting – a banking of bonfires – This Holy Day, part of a series of progressive gems heralding the light – can bring the old seeds to freshly spaded earth – noting well the time for rebirth.

Our ancestors (ourselves in past lives) created these successive celebrations, meant to foster the tender light rising up from the womb of creative darkness. And now it’s up to us to renew these ideas, intentions, doings & markings of grace, to plan new works & fresh creations.

As we spoke about in the essay Cross-Quarter Passage in many cultural traditions folk costume up as animal totems for a festive parade, wearing wild wooly pelts; dancing & singing, & holding torches to revival the growing light.

The women of Ireland make effigies of ‘Bride’ or Brigid from wheat; & fiery sun wheel crosses from the reeds…Bride would go from house to house to bless & welcome the children to be born that year, & then the community would throw these effigies over the bluffs to shake loose the seed from the wand. When some took root, it would be a sign of a good year. The field of Brigid wheat would then be ceremoniously milled to make a special bread for weddings.

In our time now, we live in an increasingly disconnected environment, fraught & unprecedented over all the earth…swirling with fear & hypnotic terror from those afoot ever trying to cancel the wedding & douse the light. That this was so is not the startling thing in itself, really it can be seen as a grace if we take it as an opportunity. But as I try to see thru the churning fog of our time, the grey sky dull against the dirty snow – all dim & pale – & in its own way beautiful – what I see that truly startles me, is that for a century, many anthro-folk have disabused the massive longing in the modern soul for ritual that opens us to the mysteries, not only in nature, seen thru the circuit of our yearly dance around the Sun, but in our very souls – That our “Spirit-I” must be the blade of a sharpened shovel that transforms the earth of our bodies – scraping past boulders – bending to the task – our etheric body lifting that wet clod of heavy dirt up & flipping it over on itself, our astral purifing the earth, to break open our very being, in order to receive Spirit…

It is clear that so many souls are drawn to re-membering the times of seeking to light what was once dark…& in succession, to fire-up our thinking in this present age – a literal & figurative conception, a re-birth of the ancient ideals that do not come from outside of us, but rise up season after season, from within our soul forces of thinking, feeling & willing – which are yearning to be transformed…

Friends – Nothing is lost in Time that cannot be renewed. Nothing of goodness & light is lost to those who have the eyes to see, the ears to hear, the soul to sense, & the thinking heart to create – modern ritual that has meaning for us today – Realigning our cognitive imagination in the New Mysteries.

When I was a child, on the Feast of Saint Blaise, we all trod off to St. Gertudes’s in Franklin Park, IL. where I was Baptized, the Church my Italian Grandmother (my Strega Nona) went to, often in snow so high that it was like walking thru white tunnels, shoveled out by gangs of teenage boys looking to earn a dollar.

During the Mass, the priest would hold two large white blazing candles, crossed in an X at our throats – saying a prayer that all sickness be cured & our words be filled with love. “Per intercessionem S. Blasii liberet to Deus a malo gutteris et a qouvis alio malo.” = ‘St. Blaise goes before the Creator of all to ask that thy throat be blessed & not harmed or harmful, & that you be protected from all ills & evils.’ It was a re-setting of the throat chakra – an opening of the voice – asking that we remain close to Christ, to let the soul speak purely – to not be disheartened, or polluted by anything that takes us away from seeing & speaking in love, kindness, awareness, & in truth. A return to the light of consciousness sounding – empowering The Word within – a Christening of our thoughts – which inevitably fly from our lips into the world.

There are many ways to understand this blessing with fire, including a root cure of illness – like raising the body’s temperature during fever, or passing thru a fire-trial to reach a cleaner way of being…

Nowadays the priest no longer uses lit candles. What the priest of unlit candles misses is the bestowing of extreme love, & careful administration to cause no harm in the cure.

Can we awaken again out of the darkness of false caution, into a true heightened care, motivated by selfless love?

Can we be the one holding the lit candles?

~hag

Chart via John Jardine Goss/ Theresa Wiegert/ EarthSky.

3 February 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The bright waxing gibbous moon climbs in the east, near the twin stars of Gemini. The brighter star is golden Pollux, and the fainter one is white Castor. Although the twin stars don’t look alike, they’re noticeable near each other in the sky for being bright and close together. Also nearby is Procyon, the brightest star in Canis Minor the Lesser Dog.

Marie Knoble

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

Amanda Sage

Dear Friends, Today 110 years ago on 3 February 1913 we can re-call the very 1st AGM of the newly formed Anthroposophical Society, after the split from the Theosophical Society, held in Berlin, with the cycle of lectures called The Mysteries of the Orient & of Christianity (GA 144)

Rudolf Steiner opened the conference on this day with the lecture: The Being of Anthroposophy. 

Iris

“…The being of anthroposophy is intimately connected with the being of our time- not with our own immediate little present moment, of course, but with the whole age within which we stand.

Today I want to point out the character of this being by speaking of the necessity for establishing anthroposophy in our time. Philosophy is no longer the “woman” she was to Dante and others who lived in his time...What, therefore, must be developed? It must unfold that, once again, as a matter of course, a “Sophia” becomes present. But we must learn to relate this Sophia to the consciousness soul, bring her down directly to human beings. And thereby Sophia becomes the being who directly enlightens human beings. After Sophia has entered human beings, she must take their being with her and present it to them outwardly, objectively. 

Sophia will become objective again, but she will take with her what humanity is, and objectively present herself in this form. Thus, she will present herself not only as Sophia, but as Anthroposophia as the Sophia who, after passing through the human soul, through the very being of the human being, henceforth bears that being within her, and in this form she will confront enlightened human beings as the objective being Sophia who once stood before the Greeks.

What we receive through anthroposophy is our very own being.

Kristena West

This once floated toward us in the form of a celestial goddess with whom we were able to enter into relationship. This divine being lived on as Sophia and Philosophia, and now we can once again bring her out of ourselves and place her before us as the fruit of true anthroposophical self-knowledge. We can wait patiently until the world is willing to test the depth of the foundations of what we have to say, right down to the smallest details. It is the essence of anthroposophy that its own being consists of the being of the human, and its effectiveness, its reality, consists in that we receive from anthroposophy what we ourselves are and what we must place before ourselves, because we must practice self-knowledge.” ~Rudolf Steiner

May we receive this being, that is our birthright, with grace & develop her within us with intention & love.

~hag

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in the Americas

1870 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to male citizens regardless of race.

Picasso

1874 – Birthday of Gertrude Stein, American novelist, poet, playwright

1894 – Birthday of Norman Rockwell, American painter & illustrator

1909 – Birthday of Simone Weil, French mystic & philosopher

1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose & collect an income tax.

Rudolf Steiner

1913 – The 1st AGM of the Anthroposophical Society in Berlin, where Rudolf Steiner gave the lecture series “The Mysteries of the Orient and of Christianity” & spoke for the 1st time about the Being of Anthroposophy!

1924 – Deathday of Woodrow Wilson. Rudolf Steiner has a lot to say about what was behind this individuality & in his former incarnation as Muawiya

1959 – Rock & roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, & J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson are killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

1961 – The United States Air Forces begins Operation Looking Glass, & over the next 30 years, a “Doomsday Plane” is always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States’ bombers & missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC’s command post.

ArtNight 3 February 2023
@ the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4251 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

Doors open at 7:30 pm
8 pm – Sharings Start – $12 (pay online)

YOU MUST RSVP at this Link

ArtNight has been described as a 21st-century Salon. We gather once a month in Chicago. People sign up to present and perform what they’re passionate about,
having facilitated discussions and activities, and enjoying food from local establishments.

What we’re trying to do.

  1. Establish spaces where doing what you love is normal.
  2. Promote passion instead of perfection. You don’t need to be famous, talented, attractive, virtuosic or wealthy – it’s meaningful and important to do what you love no matter who you are and you should be supported.
  3. Create genuine connections in substance-free environments.
  4. Encourage curiosity and learning.
  5. Be a place where you can have fun without shame or embarrassment.

Article about ArtNight

The ArtNight night starts off with a vibe. As people filter in, we hang out,
talk to strangers who’ll become our friends, and we settle down before we
settle in for the next couple hours.
​
The ArtNight itself starts off with a welcome activity. Don’t worry,
it’s not your classic, awkward high school ice breaker.
​
Now it’s time for the main event. The people who volunteered to share do their thing. We watch and listen and experience and ask questions
and fall in love with them, loving their passions.
​
In between the sharing, we take a break for that meaningful discussion
we keep mentioning. Every ArtNight has a specific discussion topic,
and everyone is encouraged to share their experiences.
It’s always a dialogue, never a debate.
​
The ArtNight closes out with a vibe. We eat, and we reconnect with the
people we met earlier. All of this was to get to know people
for who they actually are – so we keep doing it.

YOU MUST RSVP to attend

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll

Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance

Gerald Shepherd

When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.

Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.

The Alchemy of Brigid

Biography, Community, Festival, Insight

Greetings on this Feast of Purification of the BVM – 40 days after Christmas.

You, my dear friends, are being called at this liminal time to stand at the Threshold, where your true purpose & the world’s deep hunger meet…
You are free, of course, to ignore this milestone moment…Maybe you have a kind of amnesia, & don’t remember what you came here to do in this life? Could it be you don’t see the signs? Carl Jung once said: “Whatever is rejected from the self, appears in the world as an event.”.

What will it take for you to collaborate with the forces of change?

What would it be like to: Think Willing; Feel Thinking; Will Feeling…?

Ever adjusting to the ongoing shifts, to re-direct, to play, in the interplay – stepping up to the experience of transformation with exhilaration & gratitude in the face of the eternal flux?

Dearly Beloved, your mission is to become your True You in the Divine We in 2023…

The Alchemical Triple Goddess Brigid can be our guide & role-model. Her Celtic Feast Day Imbolc, which roughly translates to mean: ‘a Quickening in the Belly’, is celebrated at this Cross-Quarter time, which comes when the Sun hits 15 degrees in the constellation Capricorn, falling this year on the 5th of February 2023, heralding the promise of Spring – The perfect time for a re-dedication to your life purpose.

As Goddess of Smith-craft & the Sacred Forge, Brigid is representative of our fiery will force. Brigid invites us to heat up our dormant potential – to re-seed our perfect passion – to be-come the tools of our own self-same destiny…

The name Brigid means ‘One who Exalts Herself’. She holds the Trinity in the unity of Maiden, Mother, Crone – past, present, future – aligning with the Threshold moments in the cycle of the year as path of initiation.

She is said to have invented the Ogham alphabet; so Brigid is patron of the written word – especially Poetry – called ‘Fire in the head’. In Druid tradition, poetry is attendant with augury, so what would it be like to reclaim Brigit as the patron of our new clairvoyance..?

Addie Hirschten

Since Brigid is strongly associated not only with the forge but with the Sacred Well, this fosters a deep healing of our formative forces which strengthens our physical, & brings purification to our astral sheath. The Fire of will born from the “I” & represented by the Forge brought into temperance as the banked Hearth fires, & combined with the healing waters, brings in the alchemy of medicine making – herbal potions, & a nurturing of Fertility. The joining of Fire & Water is an ancient alchemical symbol of the union of opposites – The Alchemical Marriage – which gives birth to the creative force.

As modern Bards & Anthrosoph-Druids, Brigid can inspire all who align with her archetype. We are invited to acknowledge ourselves as re-dedicated instruments in a Christic re-kindling of a new vitality, germinating the seeds in an evolution of transformation.

True Alchemy, as practiced by the Rosicrucian’s, is a process of the spiritual or psychological development & progression. It can be summed up with the Latin words “Solve et Coagula” –

1st- Separation: Are you willing to name the dross – get the lead out – the junk that gets in the way? Will you take the time to step out of your shadow? Do you dare to look deep into that dark adversarial places we all harbor? YES, it’s Time to begin the process of freeing ourselves from any obstacle that may have become entrenched in our being…

2nd Stage: Purification: Dissolving all the impurities…flushing the roots…washing away…opening the flood gates…a dissolution percolating into those hard to reach places…stirring up what has long been submerged…purging those places that even the fire could not reach…perhaps you’d even like to brave the cold hard truth & plunge your whole self into the icy waters of the Holy well…will you leap into the pool of ablution? So cold it feels hot…getting your blood flowing…tingling with life force…the pores of your skin opening & closing like an excretory organ…waking up your sluggish nature…bringing you back to clarity & wholesomeness…a true Baptism…a rebirth that makes you feel brand new…let the waters of adaptability free you from the swamp…drink deep of the waters of the Holy well & let your authentic-self float confidently to the surface…remembering always, that yes, Brigid’s Holy Well is as close as your next glass of water…

& the 3rd stage: The Refining/Re-combining – the creation of a unified self. Can you list your strengths? Those parts of you that are golden, (or perhaps silver – parts may need a little polishing) sweeping the hearth of your heart clean – re-forming…What are your good qualities?…those positive parts of yourSelf that you want to foster & encourage, affirm & strengthen… What Potentials do you want to focus on & give energy to…?

Salt, Sulphur & Mercury, like the Maiden, Mother, Crone, make up the ‘Three Principles’ of Alchemy. In the spiritual process, salt is often seen as the physical body, the ultimate ‘prima materia’, of the philosophers stone. Salt is ‘bitter’, a symbol for knowledge & wisdom gained, which is often bitter, & painful at 1st. In general sulfur is the symbol for the omnipresent Spirit of life. The fire of will. Mercury represents the healing adaptability of the soul.

Rosicrucianism which works with the cognitive imagination of this Spiritual Alchemy, is a world view aimed at understanding both the world around us, the world within us, & the correspondences between them.

“Visita Inferiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem” = Seek out the lower reaches of the earth, perfect them, & you will find the hidden stone.

“Holy water…Sacred Flame
Brigid We Invoke your Name
Bless my Hands, my Head, my Heart
Source of Healing, Song & Art”

See you on the high road
~hag

ArtNight 3 February 2023 – A Youth Sponsored Event using our Shared Space Agreement @ the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4251 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

Doors open at 7:30 pm
8 pm – Sharings Start – $12 (pay online)

YOU MUST RSVP at this Link:

ArtNight has been described as a 21st-century Salon. We gather once a month in Chicago. People sign up to present and perform what they’re passionate about,
having facilitated discussions and activities, and enjoying food from local establishments.

What we’re trying to do.

  1. Establish spaces where doing what you love is normal.
  2. Promote passion instead of perfection. You don’t need to be famous, talented, attractive, virtuosic or wealthy – it’s meaningful and important to do what you love no matter who you are and you should be supported.
  3. Create genuine connections in substance-free environments.
  4. Encourage curiosity and learning.
  5. Be a place where you can have fun without shame or embarrassment.

Article about ArtNight

The ArtNight night starts off with a vibe. As people filter in, we hang out,
talk to strangers who’ll become our friends, and we settle down before we
settle in for the next couple hours.
​
The ArtNight itself starts off with a welcome activity. Don’t worry,
it’s not your classic, awkward high school ice breaker.
​
Now it’s time for the main event. The people who volunteered to share do their thing. We watch and listen and experience and ask questions
and fall in love with them, loving their passions.
​
In between the sharing, we take a break for that meaningful discussion
we keep mentioning. Every ArtNight has a specific discussion topic,
and everyone is encouraged to share their experiences.
It’s always a dialogue, never a debate.
​
The ArtNight closes out with a vibe. We eat, and we reconnect with the
people we met earlier. All of this was to get to know people
for who they actually are – so we keep doing it.

YOU MUST RSVP to attend

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll

Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance

Gerald Shepherd

When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.

Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.