Primavera ~Botticelli (I never noticed before how it looks like lungs around the main figure…)
The amazing painting by Botticelli called ‘Primavera’ – was the perfect way to engage us in an AAP presentation with Vincent Roppolo & Laurie Schmiesing where we got to ‘Experience the Soul Forces & the Observer Self through Art’.
Thinking – past –judgment – Can we lift it up & just witness? Then in thinking we can know ourselves.
Feeling – present –an inside / outside experience where sympathies & antipathies are like a wave in our emotional life. Can we live in the now with equanimity?
Willing – future –action – Say yes & then the future unfolds.
In the spiritual world: Thinking comes from the Fixed Stars – Feeling from the Wandering stars – & Willing, from the Inner Earth.
We looked at the ‘Primavera’ painting by Botticelli – specifically The 3 Muses – Thinking of them as the representations of the 3 Soul Forces portrayed thru Eurythmy in Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery Dramas – Which one is Philia, what posture does Luna hold, & Astrid…?
We got into groups of 3 & mimicked the poses – the arms the feet, the tilt of the head, the gaze. It wasn’t as easy as it sounds. We danced around & traded places – A fun informative way to live into the gesture of the Soul. Each group shared their experience.
Which one is which for you? Which of the 3 do you most resonate to…? What a delightful way to live into these concepts.
We are left asking: Are my soul forces able to dance in harmony?
Ever dancing
~hag
22 August 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars
RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler LAMMASTIDE IV Transition from Summer to Autumn The Nemesis Of The Lower Self v20 So I begin to feel my being, I, who far from universal being would perish, I who self-confined, developing from me alone, must die.
This week’s Soul Calendar quartet is unique. It is the square quartet, the only one with the words of death (v20 & v33) and threatening (v7 & 46). They are verses testing the soul, and to me they appear as initiation verses preparing for a new season. The astronomical seasons begin at the equinoxes and solstices; the meteorological ones on month dates, Autumn in September. I think these verses, often described as corner verses, can be felt as transitions to new seasons, requiring new soul developments. Autumn this year then in the soul calendar would begin next week. The summer’s expanded soul with a new seed of consciousness must now surrender its lower self, pass through death for a new life, or else her potential higher self will die. The mirror verse presents the need for new human work on ourselves to save our Earth. Communing with Her… may a new world arise!
ALL HALLOWTIDE III Transition from Autumn to Winter World Nemesis, Or Resurrection? v33 And so I come to feel the world, which left without my soul’s communion would be just frosty, empty life, and powerless to resurrect in souls, arise anew in human self-creation, would in itself alone find only death.
“The aim of science is to discover and illuminate truth. And that, I take it, is the aim of literature, whether biography or history… It seems to me, then, that there can be no separate literature of science.” ~Rachel Carson
Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary & the Queenship of Mary– a logical follow-up to the Assumption, now celebrated on the octave day of that feast
392 –Birthday of Eugenius elected – the last Roman Emperor to support polytheism
476 – Birthday of Odoacer a soldier became the first King of Italy. His reign is commonly seen as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire
565 –Birthday of Columbaa, Christian saint -one of the ‘Twelve Apostles of Ireland’ reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland
1241 – Deathday of Pope Gregory IX, established the Papal Inquisition
1849 – The first air raid in history. Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice
1864 – Twelve nations sign the First Geneva Convention
1862 – Birthday of Claude Debussy
1902 – Cadillac Motor Company is founded
1902 – Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first President to ride in an automobile
1913 – 1st performance of Rudolf Steiner’s 4th Mystery Drama: The Souls’ Awakening
1932 – The BBCbegins television broadcasting using John Logie Baird’s system
1941 – World War II: German troops begin the Siege of Leningrad
1944 – World War II: Holocaust of Kedros in Crete by German force
1947 – Deathday of Francis Delaisi, French social economist spoken of by Rudolf Steiner in ‘Fall of the Spirits of Darkness’ Lecture 14 Dornach, 28 October 1917 (see except below)
1961 – Ida Siekmann dies attempting to cross the Berlin Wall
1962 – The OAS attempts to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle
1971 – J. Edgar Hoover & John Mitchell announce the arrest of 20 of the Camden 28, a group of “Catholic left” anti-Vietnam War activists who executed a raid on a Camden, New Jersey draft board
2006 – Russian passenger plane crashes over eastern Ukraine, killing all 170 people on board
~i am the word before it’s utterance i am a thought in the throat of god – She spits me out in a belly laugh & thought finds it’s form in me… ~hag
Greetings – On Saturday 20 August 2022, a group of us met in the Upper Room of the Rudolf Steiner Branch, Chicago, to explore the idea of co-creating a New Festival called Vidarmas to acknowledge the Archangel Vidar, in connection to our need to experience ‘The Etheric Christ‘ which is our task in this age.
We opened with the recitation of a Poem by ~Mac Andrew called ‘Woden and the Grail‘:
And Odin hung for nine days from the Earth’s One Tree, his eye gouged for wisdom gained, a loss so he could see.
He waited long upon this throne as Godlike days passed. For the future he’d wait to see; how to make his time last.
The One-God was coming for this was surely told but how to manage tomorrow for the long lost Gods of old.
His wolves, and horse, and crows they stood and gathered near looking long for his wisdom against the lives they held so dear.
Then Odin smiled upon the ninth day for the answer there did lie within the Earthen Tree he had helped himself to tie.
Lowered now to the ground, sodden by his many tears, he drew nigh his greatest friends those who waited the many years.
Turning to the tree he drew deep from within its heart a living chalice made of wood from which to make a start.
Come my friends gather round and for the past do not wail as we hold the future steady now within this Earthen Holy Grail.
While Lucien wrote on the black board, I shared a few leading thoughts gleaned from my work with Prokofieff’s indications encapsulating the Spiritual Science of Rudolf Steiner in his amazing book: “The Cycle of the year as a Path of Initiation Leading to an Experience of the Christ Being, An Esoteric Study of the Festivals” – the 12th & final chapter on: “The Modern Mysteries of the Etheric Christ” expounding on “The Vidar Mystery”.
Druidic ‘gravestone’ of Vidar found in Niederdollendorf near Colonge
a few Highlights: “This individuality of Wotan or Odin (who Steiner calls an Archangel) is the same as the one who later appeared with the same mission under the name Buddha”. (GA105 August 14 1908)
“When the Buddha appeared to the shepherds in the picture of the ‘heavenly host’, he was not in a physical body but in an astral body. He had assumed a body in which he could still send his influences to the Earth….This body is called a Nirmanakaya’. ” (GA 114, 17 September 1909)
Every human being has a guardian angel; before Siddhārtha became the Gautama-Buddha he had one too. When he achieved Buddhahood his angel was ‘freed’ & went on to work with the Christ thru the pre-earthly deeds & with the Nathan Soul who then incarnated as the Luke Jesus. You can read about this angel in the Gospel of Luke Chapter 2 & in Matthew 1:18–25.
Steiner speaks about the Nirmanakaya of the Buddha with all its “Youthful forces” becoming the astral body of the Nathan Jesus when he was 12.
It is the Buddha’s’ Angel, who we later learn is Vidar, who comes to the aid of the etheric body of Christ Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when the Ahrimanic death forces were threatening to kill the body before Christ’s deed on Golgotha was completed. “An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him”. (Luke 22-43)
According to Rudolf Steiner in 1879 the Angel of Gautama Buddha ascends into the sphere of the Archangels, taking the place vacated by Michael, who at this time completes his ascent to the rank of Archai. This angel being then went on to work with the Christ in the etheric.
Then we went around & read together Rudolf Steiner’s Lecture THE MISSION OF FOLK-SOULS, GA 121,, Lecture XI, 17 June 1910, Christiania – Here is a powerful quote from our study:
“All these details which are set forth in the ‘Twilight of the Gods’, correspond with that which is to appear to humankind in a newer etheric vision, which in reality refers to the future. The Fenris Wolf will still remain. Oh, there is a deep, deep truth concealed in this account of the Fenris Wolf remaining behind in conflict with Odin. In the near future of humankind there will be no danger so great as the tendency to remain satisfied with the old clairvoyance, — instead of developing the new by means of new forces — the danger that humanity might be tempted to remain satisfied with what the old astral clairvoyance of primal ages could give, namely, soul-pictures such as that of the Fenris Wolf. It would also be a severe trial for that which has to grow up in the domain of Anthroposophy, if in that, the tendency towards all sorts of confused, chaotic clairvoyance should arise…
Something very different must come in. And what that is, is, however, known to Celtic-Germanic-Norse mythology — it is well aware of its existence. It knows, that there exists the etheric form in which will embody that which we shall once again see as the etheric form of Christ. And this alone will succeed in driving out the confused clairvoyant power which would bewilder humankind… Vidar, who has kept silence all the time, will overcome the Fenris Wolf. That also is told us in the ‘Twilight of the Gods’.
Anyone who recognizes the importance of Vidar and feels him in their soul, will find that beginning in the twentieth century the capacity can again be given to humanity with which to see Christ.
Vidar, who belongs to us all, will again stand before the human being. Vidar was kept secret in the Mysteries and secret Schools as a god who would receive his mission only in the future.”
We had lively discussions throughout the evening. Then to get us up on our feet to vibrate from our lips & lungs, Lucien Dante Lazar & Ultra-Violet Archer of The Musical initiative: Velsum: Voices of Ancient Futurism brought us a song they wrote for the occasion.
Vidar! Vidar! Vidar! Come upon us. Vidar! Vidar! Vidar! Give us your trust.
Let us meet you in the threshold. Let us know you in the Light. Let us carry forth your banner In selfless might!
Vidar! Vidar! Vidar! Come upon us. Vidar! Vidar! Vidar! Give us your trust.
In the flowing of the spirit From the Northern sickle moon, We will harvest your new impulse In joyous truth!
Vidar! Vidar! Vidar! Come upon us. Vidar! Vidar! Vidar! Give us your trust.
Lucien & Ultra invited us to co-write a 3rd verse; so folks pop-corned ideas, & we will work more with that for our next gathering…
Here are the links to the recordings of the song they taught us.
Lucien suggested we end by doing a group poem, each going around saying 1 word. Here is what came forth from our collective efforts for our closing verse: “Speak from the light wherein resolution leads to our hearts fulfillment of the Etheric Christ with courage.”
Vidar at the gates of Shambala by Daniel Ospina
Daniel Ospina the artist of this amazing painting held a meeting at the same time in Ireland where they also read the lecture. The invitation was taken up by other branches including one in Colombia as well. If you dear reader have also taken up this impulse to know Vidar, please share your insights. Let’s keep this knowing going.
Many Thanks to Are Thoresen for sparking our interest in this Being whose powerful mission is calling us to participate.
May the Spiritual Scientific Research that we began into the Festival we are calling Vidarmas, continue to thrive.
~Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator for the Rudolf Steiner Branch, Chicago
Continuing on from yesterday’s “Awakening to Community” exploration of theAAP training (Association for Anthroposophical Psychology) I will open with a question Alan Thewless began his seminar with: What is the soul’s connection to the whole cosmos?
The astral body is music! – The etheric body works out of the rhythms of cosmic sculpture, with the astral body moving in the cosmic melody – We are the Rhythm & Melody of the Uni-verse!
The 7 planets living in our organs & chakras are the bridge to the Music of the Spheres! We go out to the periphery & then come back into the center of ourselves.
tobiasart
Saturn is as the Guardian to the Solar System – a boundary to the Stars of the constellations – from the sense world to the spiritual world, holding the energy of the ‘Priest’.
Jupiter asks: What is wisely working in us? The Kingly energy
Mars is our critical thinking – bringing us necessity & discernment: Yes or no; affirming our individuality – our ability to assert ourselves. We can ask: Am I being too critical, to harsh? The warrior.
In the Sun Sphere we say Yes to who we are. The administrator
We come to earth to give this something to the world – we come to care, bringing in the Venus quality of faithfulness & our gift of experiencing & creating beauty – to be & to give Love. The Care Giver
Once this love is part of us we can truly share & teach, working out of the Mercury sphere. The teacher.
The Moon brings our digested experience into our thinking. The Artist.
The planets – the wandering stars – are connected with Time – the vowels. The constellations of the Zodiac – the fixed Stars – bring us the concept of Space – the formative forces of the consonants. Our etheric body is the bridge between the 2.
Experiencing the cosmos within us, as well as out in nature, revitalizes our etheric being & the universe responds with joy at our interaction.
Alan asked: Which planetary quality do you most resonate to? Then we were invited to stand with a group of our fellows each in their chosen place. I was with the Saturn group – the Priests. What about you?
More tomorrow…Until soon (BTW: you can still join our cohort for the 3 year the training)
~hag
20 August 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The last-quarter Moon shone between Mars and the Pleiades early Friday morning the 19th. On Sunday morning the 21st it’s between the horntips of Taurus: Beta and fainter Zeta Tauri.
Chirila Corina
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day – “…Suppose that you could take the human being as you see him here and turn him inside out so that his inside — the heart, for instance — would become the outer surface. If this could be done taking hold of him in the inmost heart and turning him inside out like a glove, then man would not remain man as we see him here; he would enlarge into a universe. For if we had the faculty to concentrate in a single point within our heart, and then to turn ourselves inside out in spirit, we could become this world that we otherwise experience between death and a new birth. That is the secret of the inner side of the human being. The heart of the human being is also a world turned inside out. That is how the physical, earthly world is really connected to the spiritual world. We must get used to this “turning inside out.” If we do not, we will never get the right idea concerning how the physical world that surrounds us here relates to the spiritual world.” ~Rudolf Steiner, TODAY 100 years ago – THE MYSTERY OF THE TRINITY, PART 2: THE MYSTERY OF TRUTH, GA 214, I. Meditation: The Path to Higher Knowledge, 20 August 1922, Oxford
Vidar at the gates of Shambala by Daniel Ospina
Dear freinds – Anthroposophy gives us the opportunity to work with the Cycle of the Year as a modern path of Initiation into the New Mysteries. In our striving we not only renew, but we are being called from the future to co-create entirely new Festivals.
Join us in doing Spiritual Scientific research into the Being called Vidar –
Vidar-mas? – An exploration that may perhaps lead into a new Festival for this Archangel of our Time.
Having received insights from Are Thoresen at the Rudolf Steiner Branch, Chicago last week, we are taking up our own research into the new Archangel Vidar, who stands as Guardian to the Threshold of the Etheric Realm, in protection of the Nathan Soul, opening the Northern Stream of Initiation to those who would approach the Etheric Christ . In a recent spiritual experience, Are Thoresen suggested that August 20th may be the Feast Day of Vidar..?
All are invited to join us, where ever you are, in reading a lecture by Rudolf Steiner which brings to life this new Archangel Vidar.
We welcome your feedback as to whether or not August 20th resonates as a new Feast Day that we might call Vidar-mas..?
Meeting in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago or wherever you are 20 August 2022, at 5 pm PT / 6 pm MT / 7 pm CT / 8 pm PT
From Maverick a student of Astrosophy: “On the sheets given us by the Star House called “Sun Chronicle of the Christ Events”, Aug. 20th shows the Sun in sidereal longitude at 2 to 3 degrees in Leo – where the Sun is at home in the sign it rules. The Christ events occurring then are: Aug.20th – the conversation at Jacob’s well (so the 1st time Christ Jesus revealed to anyone other than the disciples that He was the Messiah), and Aug. 20/21st – the raising of Lazarus from the dead.
~Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator for the Rudolf Steiner Branch, Chicago
Dear friends – As Anthroposophers we are called to do active Spiritual Scientific research, not take any persons word for anything. So being that the Festival Life can be a path of initiation into the New Mysteries, we thought to explore this Being Vidar further in connection to our task in this age of understanding the etheric Christ, which Rudolf Steiner speaks about in GA 121, the lecture we will study together today. By doing so we are in no way suggesting that we are to replace Michael as the Time Spirit holding the Zeitgeist of the age, or that this exploration would in any way eradicate Michaelmas as the true Christian Festival that it is.
Druidic gravestone of Vidar found in Niederdollendorf near Colonge
“…The communications given out from Rosicrucian sources must be tested rather than believed, tested not superficially by the superficial methods of modern science, but ever more conscientiously…The more you test them, the more you will find them confirmed from this source. You must accept nothing on authority. The best students of Spiritual Science are those who take what is said as a stimulus in the first place and test it by the facts of life itself. For in life too, at every stage of life, you can test what is given out from the sources of Rosicrucianism. It is far from my intention in these lectures to lay down dogmas and claim that the facts are such and such and must be believed. Verify them by an exchange of views with people of able and active mind and you will find confirmation of what has been said as a prophetic indication of the future manifestation of Christ. You need only open your eyes and verify it objectively; we make no appeal to belief in authority. This need to test everything received from Spiritual Science should become a kind of basic attitude permeating our whole approach.
I should like to impress upon you, therefore, that it is not anthroposophical to accept a statement as dogma on the authority of this or that person; but it is truly anthroposophical to allow oneself to be stimulated by Spiritual Science and to verify what is communicated by life itself.” ~Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE INDIVIDUAL FOLK SOULS, GA 121, 11. Nerthus, Freyja and Gerda. Twilight of the Gods. Vidar and the new Revelation of Christ, 17 June 1910, Oslo
“All community building eventuates in a higher being descending from the world of the spirit to reign over and unite people who have come together in a common cause.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Awakening to Community, Lecture 9, 3 March 1923
I felt this Steiner quote to be true in a very real sense as we were building the container during our 1st session of cohort #5’s AAP training (Association for Anthroposophical Psychology).
45 diverse folks from various backgrounds came together in Rose Hall at Camphill Village Kimberton Hills of for an intensive week of learning amidst sacred encounters.
The tag team sessions with Tonya Stoddard & Susan Overhauser really made familiar themes like the Soul Forces pop, enlivening us with head, hands & heart. The topic ‘Empathic Resonance & Self Knowledge’ had a deep impact on me. (Empath – a path to meet “I to I”)
Resonance begins by emptying the dissonant chatter of the monkey mind, or any preconceived judgmental baggage that gets in the way of truly listening & being present in the encounter. To do this we must really strive to ‘Know Thyself’ – to recognize our own content – to be willing to let it go, so the “I” of the other can enter.
Reactions get in the way of resonating. We have to ask ourselves what are we attached to – see it, & then move it aside – It is a sacrifice to set yourself aside – to release the fear of not being seen ourselves. Just Like in meditation our “I” needs to ‘go to sleep’ to truly witness the essence of the other. This strengthens our will.
As we work with our angel, actively engaging our angel with the angel of the other, we can hear what karma is calling in from the future. Yep, it’s about listening to hear, not to talk. Will my question enhance their experience, or is it just my curiosity, my need? Can I stay quiet inside & outside?
We have to hold the silence to let the resonance resound. This allows space for a 3rd Being to arise between the 2 “I’s”. A Being created out of interest, reverence & love. This living Being has phases just like the relationship does. Our etheric life processes that come from warmth are nourishing to it. Co-creating a mood of wonder, reverence & awe helps continue the advance of this 3rd being.
Dr. James Dyson wasn’t present but the few things he said on zoom stood out, like: ‘The human encounter has the potential to develop future worlds.’ I have certainly taken that into my thinking.
Knowing the group was consciously working together with the help of the ‘Digestion Sessions’ in the evenings lead to a powerful backward review every night – welcoming in the future stream of time, allowing the beings of the spiritual worlds to be more conscious. And the ‘Echo Space’ in the mornings was a wonderful way to bring the lessons from ‘Night School’ into perspective.
And throughout, the eurythmy with Karen Derreumaux created the perfect atmosphere, molding the group into an etheric chalice, the beginnings of a spiritual vessel for a new AAP Archangel as per Steiner’s quote:
“All community building eventuates in a higher being descending from the world of the spirit to reign over and unite people who have come together in a common cause.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Awakening to Community, Lecture 9, 3 March 1923
More tomorrow
In gratitude for this working
~hag
19 August 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: For months, most of the naked-eye planets have been hanging out in the early morning sky. Now Saturn becomes the first of the crew to return to evening view as early as late twilight. Saturn emerges low in the southeast as twilight fades. Once night is dark, look just lower left of it for Delta Capricorni.
“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” ~H.G. Wells
World Humanitarian Day
295 BC – The first temple to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty & fertility, is dedicated by Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges during the Third Samnite War
43 BC –Caesar Augustus, compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul
14 AD – Deathday of Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus
1612 – The “Samlesbury witches“, three women from the Lancashire village of Samlesbury, England, are put on trial, accused of practicing witchcraft, one of the most famous witch trials in British history
1662 – Deathday of Blaise Pascal a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer &Christian philosopher. He was a child prodigy, while still a teenager he started some pioneering work on calculating machines. Following a religious experience in late 1654, he began writing influential works on philosophy & theology. His two most famous works set in the conflict between Jansenists & Jesuits. Rudolf Steiner wrote about him in GA 131, From Jesus to Christ: Lecture I: Jesuit and Rosicrucian Training
1692 – Salem witch trials: In Salem, Province of Massachusetts Bay, five women, & a clergyman, are executed after being convicted of witchcraft
1839 – The French government announces that Louis Daguerre’s photographic process is a gift “free to the world”. Viewing a daguerreotype is unlike looking at any other type of photograph. The image does not sit on the surface of the metal, but appears to be floating in space, & the illusion of reality.
1854 – The First Sioux War begins when United States Army soldiers kill Lakota chief Conquering Bear & in return are massacred
1868 – Jules Janssen discovered Helium during a solar eclipse
1919 – Afghanistan gains full independence from the United Kingdom
1934 – The German referendum of 1934 approves Hitler’s appointment as head of state with the title of Führer.
1936 – Deathday of Federico García Lorca, Spanish poet, playwright, & director He was executed by Nationalist forces at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War
1944 – World War II: Liberation of Paris: against German occupation with the help of Allied troops
1991 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union, August Coup: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Ukraine
Vidar-mas? – A new Festival for the new Archangel of our Time
Spiritual Science gives us the opportunity to work with the Cycle of the Year as a modern path of Initiation into the New Mysteries. In our striving we not only renew, but we are being called from the future to co-create entirely new Festivals.
Having received insights from Are Thoresen at the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago this weekend, we are taking up our own research into the new Archangel Vidar, who stands as Guardian to the Threshold of the Etheric Realm, in protection of the Nathan Soul, opening the Northern Stream of Initiation to those who would approach the Etheric Christ . In a recent spiritual experience, Are Thoresen suggested that August 20th may be the Feast Day of Vidar..?
All are invited to join us, where ever you are, in reading a lecture by Rudolf Steiner which brings to life this new Archangel Vidar.
We welcome your feedback as to whether or not August 20th resonates as a new Feast Day that we might call Vidar-mas..?
Meeting in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago or wherever you are
20 August 2022, at 5 pm PT / 6 pm MT / 7 pm CT / 8 pm PT
From Maverick: “On the sheets given us by the Star House called “Sun Chronicle of the Christ Events”, Aug. 20th shows the Sun’s sidereal longitude at 2 to 3 degrees in Leo – so the Sun’s at home in the sign it rules. The Christ events occurring then are: Aug.20th – the conversation at Jacob’s well (so the 1st time Jesus revealed to anyone other than the disciples that He was the Messiah), and Aug. 20/21st – the raising of Lazarus from the dead.
~Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,
Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator for the Rudolf Steiner Branch, Chicago
Dear friends – It was at this time 3 years ago now that I went on my Parzival Journey to Cornwall. I did not find the Holy Grail. In fact more often than not, I met the Guardian at the Threshold who brought admonishment into my soul forces. The stories of King Arthur & the Round Table never really captured my deeply feminine soul, since the powerful women in the tales were usually holding an adversarial position. But standing in Tintagel as Rudolf Steiner did in 1924, I felt the great force of the elemental world, & it has awakened something in me that has matured & grown.
On his final visit to Britain, Rudolf Steiner’s schedule of lecturing was hectic. He delivered three lectures a day during the Anthroposophical Society’s Summer School at Torquay (11-22 August 1924) – but that is another story…Steiner took one day out of that busy schedule, to go as far west as he ever ventured in that lifetime – to the west coast of Cornwall.
Tintagel is the legendary home of King Arthur, Merlin, the sword Excalibur, the Lady of the Lake, the Knights of the Round Table, Sir Lancelot, Queen Guinevere, & the court of Camelot.
Midway through the Torquay Summer School, on Sunday August 17th, 1924, Rudolf Steiner declared “I want to go to King Arthur” (see Eleanor Merry, 1956, in Villeneuve, 2004, p.1051). A cavalcade of three cars ventured forth from the southern beachside resort town of Torquay, across the verdant moors of Dartmoor, to the spectacularly positioned Tintagel, on the west coast of Cornwall.
Eleanor Merry & D.N. Dunlop were the two organizers of the Torquay Summer School. Both were part of the entourage to Tintagel. Merry reports that: “At last we came again to the sea, and straight ahead of us, at the top of a green cliff, were the last fragments of King Arthur’s castle of Tintagel. A deep rocky chasm divided this from a second rugged cliff, where still other remains could be seen”(quoted in Villeneuve, 2004, p.1052)Merry continues: “Dr. Steiner was at first silently absorbed in the wonderful view. All around was sunshine, and fleeting cloud-shadows and little hurrying rainbows – and a stormy and angry sea”.
The entourage included at least two of the 11 attendees of Steiner’s Agriculture Course at Koberwitz, namely Dr. Elisabeth Vreede & Guenther Wachsmuth. That course (7-16 June, 1924) laid the foundations for the development of biodynamic agriculture.
Wachsmuth remembered: “On that unforgettable day Rudolf Steiner went with us to the place on the rough rocky western coast of Cornwall, Tintagel, where the castle of King Arthur had once stood … That strangely densified spiritual atmosphere we shall never forget, so intensely to be felt as Rudolf Steiner climbed the strange projecting cliff on the lonely coast of Cornwall where the last walls of the castle of King Arthur towered over the roaring sea … He spoke there, standing on the cliff, about the experience of the Knights of King Arthur … He spoke of the teachings of Merlin … The immediacy of the spiritual vision in this place was so intense that, during his descriptions, the entire reality, the external life and action … of King Arthur’s knights, stood before us as actual experience” (Wachsmuth, 1989, pp.563-4)
The Tintagel visit occurred just two months after Steiner’s Agriculture Course & less than six weeks before Rudolf Steiner retreated from public life entirely. On this, his tenth visit to Britain, Steiner taught about Anthroposophy & Waldorf education. An opportunity for agriculture lectures in Britain did not arise, & there had been no British attendees at the Koberwitz course. We can speculate that the attendance of Wachsmuth & Vreede, who had attended at Koberwitz – as well as Tintagel, in this case along with Marna Pease – may have seeded the early interest in Britain in Anthroposophic agriculture which evolved into biodynamics.
Marna Pease went on to be the secretary of Britain’s Anthroposophical agricultural Foundation which was founded in 1928. Elizabeth Vreede attended, in London, as a guest at the first Annual Meeting of the Anthroposophical Agricultural Foundation.
Despite the intensity with which Rudolf Steiner engaged with his missions, including the Torquay Summer School, he was by this time quite ill, his etheric forces stripped with the burning of the Goetheanum & from being ‘poisoned’ eight months earlier on New Years Day 1924. Wachsmuth described this final visit to Britain: “During … the last trip of Rudolf Steiner in his life on earth, he suffered tragically from a mysterious destructive illness. Outwardly, nothing of this could be observed. He met daily all the requirements of the comprehensive program & his lecturing activity. He spoke introductory words at artistic programs, had numerous conferences, & took part in the excursions, but every meal caused in his ill condition renewed suffering, which he bore courageously without a word of complaint … He permitted nothing to be known by those at the conference regarding his illness” (Wachsmuth, 1989, p.563).
Just a month after this tenth visit to Britain, Rudolf Steiner retreated entirely from public life (on 28 September, 1924), & he died on 30 March 1925
Merlin’s cave, Tintagel, Cornwall
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~Light-Streaming Archetypes Flashing & quivering. Ocean-floor of Spirit My soul deserted you. In the Divine She Stayed awhile, & had Her rest. Into the zone that wraps existence round I consciously came. I am Here Now… ~hag
17 August 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The planet Venus pays the Beehive Cluster a visit this morning. You can’t miss Venus high in the East an hour before sunrise. Like Andromeda, the Beehive is spread out on the sky sitting smack dab in the middle of Cancer.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (indications from Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul, Wikimedia Commons, https://rsarchive.org/)
1586 – Birthday of Johann Valentin Andrea, who wrote: The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz
1687 – Deathday of Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen , kidnapped at the age of 10 by Hessian soldiery – in their midst he tasted the adventures of military life in the Thirty Years’ War. He was made magistrateat in Baden where he devoted himself to literary pursuits. Greatly influenced by previous utopian & travel literature, he wrote the Simplicissimus series, inspired by the events & horrors of the Thirty Years’ War which devastated Germany from 1618 to 1648, it is regarded as the first adventure novel in the German language & the first German novel masterpiece. The full subtitle is “The life of an odd vagrant named Melchior Sternfels von Fuchshaim: namely where and in what manner he came into this world, what he saw, learned, experienced, and endured therein; also why he again left it of his own free will.” It attained a readership larger than any other seventeenth-century novel
1798 – The Vietnamese report a Marian apparition in Quảng Trị, an event which is called Our Lady of La Vang. Fearing the spread of Catholicism, the Cảnh Thịnh Emperor restricted the practice of Catholicism in the country in 1798. Soon thereafter, the emperor issued an anti-Catholic edict & persecution ensued.
Many people sought refuge in the rainforest of La Vang in Quảng Trị Province, Vietnam, & many became very ill. While hiding in the jungle, the community gathered every night at the foot of a tree to pray the rosary. One night, an apparition surprised them. In the branches of the tree a lady appeared, wearing the traditional Vietnamese áo dài dress & holding a child in her arms, with two angels beside her. They said that Our Lady comforted them & told them to boil certain leaves from the trees for medicine to cure the illness. Legend states that the term “La Vang” was a derivative of the Vietnamese word meaning “crying out”. Modern scholars believe it comes from the ancient practice of naming a location for a genus of a tree or plant native to the area, La meaning “leaf” and ‘”Vang “herbal seeds”.
In 1802 the Catholics returned to their villages, passing on the story of the apparition in La Vang & its message. As the story of the apparition spreads, many came to pray at this site& to offer incense. In 1820, a chapel was built.
From 1830-1885 another wave of persecutions decimated the Catholic population, during the height of which the chapel in honour of Our Lady of La Vang was destroyed. In 1886, construction on a new chapel began. Following its completion, Bishop Gaspar consecrated the chapel in honour of Our Lady Help of Christians, in 1901.
On December 8, 1954, the statue of Our Lady of La Vang was brought from Tri Bun back to the holy shrine. The Vietnamese Bishops Conference chose the church of Our Lady of La Vang as the National Shrine in honour of the Immaculate Conception. La Vang became the National Marian Center of Vietnam on April 13, 1961. Pope John XXIII elevated the Church of Our Lady of La Vang to the rank of a minor basilica on August 22, 1961.
1807 – Robert Fulton’s North River Steamboat leaves New York City for Albany, New York, on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world
1911 – The 1st performance of Rudolf Steiner’s 2nd Mystery Drama,The Trial of the Soul, in the Gardener’s Place Theatre in Munich. In all 4 four plays. Steiner showed how spiritual development might manifest in a freely formed, but karmically-knit group of people. The experiences of the main characters of the play, particularly Johannes, Capesius & Strader, represent 3 different aspects of the path of initiation – “differing according to the karma of the respective individualities.” Steiner described his process of artistic creation as “images that grew like the leaves of a plant”.
Donna Kally
1924 – Rudolf Steiner visits Tintagel, mystery center & court of King Arthur.
1942 – World War II: U.S. Marines raid the Japanese-held Pacific island of Makin
1943 – World War II: The U.S. Eighth Air Force suffers the loss of 60 bombers on the Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission.
1943 – World War II: First Québec Conference of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, & William Lyon Mackenzie King begins.
1943 – World War II: The Royal Air Force begins Operation Hydra, the first air raid of the Operation Crossbow strategic bombing campaign
1950 – Hill 303 massacre: 41 American POWs are shot to death by the North Korean Army
1959 – Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.5 earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana
1959 – Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, highly influential, best-selling jazz recording of all time, is released
1962 – Peter Fechter is shot & bleeds to death while trying to cross the new Berlin Wall
1969 – Deathday of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, a German-American architect. Along with Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius & Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of modernist architecture. He called his buildings “skin and bones” architecture. He is often associated with his quotation of the aphorisms, “less is more” & “God is in the details”.
1982 – The first compact discs are released to the public in Germany
1999 – A 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes İzmit, Turkey, killing more than 17,000 & injuring 44,000
Vidar at the gates of Shambala Daniel Ospina
Vidarmas – A new Festival for the new Archangel of our Time
Spiritual Science gives us the opportunity to work with the Cycle of the Year as a modern path of Initiation into the New Mysteries. In our striving we not only renew, but we are being called from the future to co-create entirely new Festivals.
Having received insights from Are Thoresen at the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago this weekend, we are taking up our own research into the new Archangel Vidar, who stands as Guardian to the Threshold of the Etheric Realm opening the Northern Stream of Initiation to those who would approach with Christ Consciousness. In a recent spiritual experience, Are Thoresen suggested that August 20th may be the Feast Day of Vidar..?
All are invited to join us, where ever you are, in reading a lecture by Rudolf Steiner which brings to life this new Archangel Vidar. We welcome your feedback as to whether or not August 20th resonates as a new Feast Day that we might call Vidarmas.
From Maverick: “On the sheets given us by the Star House called “Sun Chronicle of the Christ Events”, Aug. 20th shows the Sun’s sidereal longitude at 2 to 3 degrees in Leo – so the Sun’s at home in the sign it rules. The Christ events occurring then are: Aug.20th – the conversation at Jacob’s well (so the 1st time Jesus revealed to anyone other than the disciples that He was the Messiah), and Aug. 20/21st – the raising of Lazarus from the dead.
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