“Mother’s Day For Peace”

May 8, 2022Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Poetry, Remembering~hag

Listen to the podcast for today on ‘I Think Speech‘

Happy Mother’s Day to all motherers – Motherhood is a soul quality – If you have cradled, fed, held, hugged, nurtured, counselled, driven around, stayed up late for, cleaned up after, shared joys, shared heartaches, nursed late at night, helped out, cheered on, fought for, worried about, taken pride in, stood behind, defended, believed in, & loved with all your heart above & beyond what is asked for in any other situation, unconditionally & respectfully…If you are a place called ‘home’ to someone – a refuge from the world, an embrace full of warmth & understanding – then you are a ‘mother’.

And we can remember & honor the fact that we all have life & the continuity of life, growth & change on our planet because of the Mother-line. The Mothers have gifted all with the pulse & rhythm of life – the heart of the Mother ! The Mother-Line connects all of Humanity. Happy Mother’s Day to Grandmothers, Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, Aunties, Girlfriends, all Kindred & Mother Gaia who sustains us all !

Happy Mother's Day – Pagan Newswire Collective – Minnesota Bureau — Belinda Grey

The Her-Story of MOTHER’S DAY– The earliest mother’s day celebrations, can be traced back to the Spring Festivals of the ancients, honoring the Mother of the gods…& the Queen Bee…

Much later…in the 1600’s, England celebrated a day called ‘Mothering Sunday’, honoring the matriarchy…the Queens of England…

As Christianity spread thruout Europe the celebration changed to honor the ‘Mother Church’…

Here in the US, in 1870, Julia Ward Howe – the woman that actually wrote the words to the battle hymn of the republic, knowing all too well the horrors of war, called for women to rise up & oppose war in all its forms. She wanted women to come together across national lines, to recognize what we hold in common above what divides us, & to commit to finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts. She called it “Mother’s Day For Peace”

Her idea was influenced by Anna Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker, who had attempted starting in 1858, to improve sanitation thru what she called Mothers’ Work Days. She organized women thru-out the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, & in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union & Confederate neighbors.

Anna Jarvis’ daughter, also named Anna Jarvis, would of course have known of her mother’s work, & the work of Julia Ward Howe. Much later, when her mother died, this second Anna Jarvis started her own crusade to found a ‘Memorial Day for Women’.

The first ‘Mother’s Day’ was celebrated in West Virginia in 1907 in the church where the elder Anna Jarvis had taught Sunday School. So to pay homage to her ancestor, she began a campaign to establish a national Mother’s Day on the 2nd Sunday of May…the anniversary of her mother’s death…which just happened to be 40 days after Easter…as a day dedicated to peace.

And from there the custom caught on – spreading eventually to 45 states. Finally the holiday was declared officially by states beginning in 1912.

And in 1914, hoping to get the female vote & also as a distraction from his declaration of the 1^st World War, President Woodrow Wilson, confirmed the first national Mother’s Day. So ironic as the original impulse was all about working to prevent war.

But what does it mean to us today…? You know I’m not taking about the commercialized happy-faced take-your-mother-to-brunch-cliché’s. Hallmark may not be talking…but this is heavy stuff…the concept of ‘mother’ is highly charged for most of us…we all have, or had, a mother…good or bad or in-between…We may be a mother ourselves…what does that bring up…plenty…right…there’s a lot there I know…

So maybe today we can try & access some of these impressions & feelings & memories…to pound out the pain…rattle the wonder…to sing our story…to dance in the healing process…to mother ourselves…

So choose your weapon of peace…your surgical tool…your pruning shears, or hammer, or monkey wrench…A drum or shaker…these will do…as we explore & experience our Mother’s Day anthem ponding in the heart-beat we all share…

Blessings to all those who create & give life…

xox

~hag

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
EASTERTIDE IV
The Marriage Gift
v4
I feel the essence of my being,
speaks clear sensing,
perceptive feeling in the sunlit world
uniting with the flowing light;
it would enliven clear thought
with warmth
and marry Man and World.

This verse is part of the Fire Festival quartet:
v4 Beltane, v17 Lammas, v30 Samhain and v43 Imbolc,
times of perception, imagination, inspiration and intuition.

LAMMAS
The Bread
v17
The Cosmic Word
I’ve had the grace to lead
through senses’ gates to soul ground speaks:
“Imagine in your spirit depths my world expanse
to find in future Me in you”.

SAMHAIN (HALLOWEEN)
Sun Inspiration
v30
In sunlight of my soul
ripe fruits of thought arise;
all feeling turns to sureness
of conscious self-awareness.
I joy to sense
the autumn’s rousing of the spirit;
within me will the winter wake
the summer of the soul.

IMBOLC (EPIPHANY IV)
The Consecration of the World
v43
In winter’s depths
true spirit presence warms,
makes new appearance real
and through the heart’s force
intuits earthlife’s rise towards her glory;
the soul’s revitalising fire in the human core
defies world cold.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (rsarchive.org is such a blessing!)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Indications from the orignal Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner + Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

8 May 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: First-quarter Moon (exactly first-quarter at 8:21 p.m. EDT). Now the Moon is under the front hook-end of the Sickle of Leo. The brightest star of the Sickle is the bottom of its handle, Regulus. Spot Regulus about 10° (a fist at arm’s length) left of the Moon. ~sky&telescope.com

1760 – Death-day of Count Zinzendorf , A social reformer & bishop of the Moravian Church. The Zinzendorf family belonged to one of the most ancient of noble families in Lower Austria. Among his ancestors was the Emperor Maximillian I.

Zinzendorf did not intend to found a religious organization distinct from the area’s Lutheran Church, but to create a Christian association, by demonstrating practical benevolence, that might awaken dull Lutheranism. He began to think that true Christianity could be best promoted by free associations of Christians, which in the course of time might grow into churches with no state connection.

In 1722, Zinzendorf offered asylum to a number of refugees from Moravia & Bohemia & built the village of Herrnhut on a corner of his estate.

Out of study & prayer, the community formed a document known as the Brüderlicher Vertrag, the ‘Brotherly Agreement’, today known as “The Moravian Covenant for Christian Living.” The Moravian Church is one of the few denominations that emphasizes a code of Christian behavior over specific creeds.

In these communities, a radical equality of spiritual life was practiced. Nobility & Native Americans shared common quarters; slaves were full members of the Church & could be elected to offices of leadership.

Zinzendorf’s interest in missionary work was sparked by meeting two Inuit children.

In 1736, accusations from neighboring nobles & questions of theological orthodoxy caused Zinzendorf to be exiled from his home in Saxony. He & a number of his followers moved to Marienborn (near Büdingen) & began a period of exile & travel, during which he became known as the “Pilgrim Count.”

In 1741, Zinzendorf visited Pennsylvania, becoming one of the few 18th century European nobles to have actually set foot in the Americas. In addition to visiting leaders such as Benjamin Franklin, he met with the leaders of the Iroquois.

Zinzendorf’s theology strongly included the emotional life of the believer as well as the intellectual. He criticized the coldly intellectual approach common in his day, & built a great deal of practice around the transformation of the emotions. He referred to this as the “religion of the heart.”

1805 – Death-day of Friedrich Schiller, some say he was poisoned (GA 64) The coffin containing what was purportedly Schiller’s skeleton, was brought in 1827, into the Weimarer Fürstengruft (Weimar’s Ducal Vault), later also Goethe’s resting place. On 3 May 2008, scientists announced that DNA tests showed that the skull of this skeleton is not Schiller’s, & his tomb is now vacant.

Friedrich Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, physician, historian, & playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with the already famous & influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. They frequently discussed issues concerning human freedom. Schiller encouraged Goethe to finish works he left as sketches. This relationship & these discussions led to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism. They also worked together on Xenien, a collection of short satirical poems in which both Schiller & Goethe challenge opponents to their philosophical vision.

Schiller wrote many philosophical papers on ethics & aesthetics. He synthesized the thought of Immanuel Kant with the thought of the German Idealist philosopher, Karl Leonhard Reinhold. He elaborated Christoph Martin Wieland’s concept of die schöne Seele (the beautiful soul), a human being whose emotions have been educated by reason, so that Pflicht und Neigung (duty & inclination) are no longer in conflict with one another. Beauty, for Schiller, is not merely an aesthetic experience, but a moral one as well: the Good is the Beautiful.

His philosophical work was particularly concerned with the question of human freedom, a preoccupation which also guided his historical researches, & found its way as well into his dramas. Schiller wrote important essays on the question of the sublime, addressing one aspect of human freedom—the ability to defy one’s animal instincts, such as the drive for self-preservation, when, for example, someone willingly sacrifices themselves for conceptual ideals.

~Today I am
The thought of myself
In my Mothers forehead…
May I listen to the voice of the messenger
Bringing her song up from the dead –
A silver star bruised & hanging on a cloud
As I roll gold into life
Like the scarab
& stand with the flowering hawthorn on the obsidian altar…
~hag

‘Let Freedom Ring – Reclaiming the Wisdom of Columbia – Folk Soul of America’.

A zoom presentation with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg For the Greater Washington Branch of the Anthroposophical Society

1 pm ET – 2:30 pm ET Saturday 14 May 2022

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86119386116

Meeting ID: 861 1938 6116

Email asgwb.dc@gmail.com with any questions

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual: Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year & the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast. Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Anthroposopher – working as the Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, & as the Central Regional Council representative on the General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America. Past Video Recordings

Announcing an exciting Event on Ascension Thursday, May 26^th 7 – 8:30 pm Eastern time.

Climbing Jacob’s Ladder – Celebrating the Festival of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

“In heavy clouds let Him ascend
And so also let Him downward tread.
In cooling streams let Him be sent,
In flames of fire blaze His descent,
In air & essence, sound & dew
To permeate our whole earth thru” ~Novalis

Ascension is a Festival of the Elements, & of the Hierarchies, it relates to the Transfiguration & the fulfillment of the promise of the ‘Second Coming’. Together we will explore the mystery of ‘As Above so Below’.

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg is a trans-denominational minister, essayist, lecturer, performer, and poet. She writes and curates ‘Reverse Ritual, Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year’ and the ‘I Think Speech’ podcast. Hazel’s been the Cultural Events and Festivals Coordinator for the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago for over 10 years. She is a member of the Central Regional Council, the School for Spiritual Science, the Esoteric Youth Circle, and the General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America.

Register by contacting Diane McGary, mcgary.family@comcast.net, by Sunday, May 22nd. You will receive an email with the zoom link on Tuesday May 24.

Hope to see you there!!

YES! Please feel free to spread the word!

Yours,

Diane McGary, mcgary.family@comcast.net, for the the Eastern Region

DEAR EARTH MOTHER

Blessed Be Dear Earth Mother,
Mother in every caress and gesture,
in touch and whisper becoming song,
soft and reassuring that all is well,
rocking as I nestle close to her breast,
her heart pulsing, waves gently washing,
informing me as I sleep, wake, and sleep again.

Day by day I am encouraged to take up my staff,
fearless in innocence to welcome the angels in,
confirming that tedious, indelible connection,
and week by week watching, seeing more
as shadows take on form and feeling,
recognized as beings who bless and protect,
freeing me for life as I will grow to know it,
with bright awareness upright and speaking
truth that I am yet to know or conceive,
until I own the voice within, claiming autonomy.

Mother looks on as I grow and explore
month by month through the seasons,
and year by year discerning destiny’s revelations,
until the time arrives for me to stand alone,
Mother older now, ensouled and gentle still,
having released me with an unseen golden thread
confirming the bond that will always be.

As I become a Mother I carry Her with me,
Her skill, presence, touch and warm embrace
firmly rooted in life’s etheric rhythms,
and whether man or woman Mother’s blessing flows
with tears and laughter, joy and sorrow,
every Mother with a Mother to hold her
in loving arms and eternal wisdom. ~Nicholas Morrow

May 6, 2022Biography, Festival, Insight~hag

‘I Think Speech’ podcast for today‘s Vision

Dear Friends- The universe is eternally creative. Something is always coming into being, or transforming into something else. To awaken to this process makes us co-creators. We become a willing accomplice – for our attention & intention sets up a radiating frequency that morphs matter. Don’t underestimate the vibration of Devotion. And if this Hope & Faith is backed by Love, it is never blind – it’s visionary – Quixotic – Starry-eyed without the rose colored glasses…

I just did a prsentation for the Faust Branch called ‘From Neccesity to Freedom’ – Here’s the link

Many times when talking about destiny or fate, Rudolf Steiner reminds us that ‘miracles are never-not-happening’. Our angels are ever working, whether we are aware of it or not, to help guide & protect us. Just imagine how much more effective we can be if we are consciously working with them?

If we make the connections & see the workings of the wizard behind the curtain, the wizard of our higher-self, what might appear broken is already programmed for repair.

Throw trust into the eternal handiwork of the infinitely creative process of evolution, & watch how what appears to be a road block shapeshifts into a more scenic drive, leading into opportunity.

And guess what? As cliche as it is true: There’s no time like the present – Because: It’s caterpillar season folks. What happens inside a chrysalis or cocoon? Well first, the caterpillar digests itself, releasing enzymes to dissolve all of its tissues. Go ahead – disintegrate into an “imaginal soup” knowing that you will emerge as the butterfly. Marianne Williamson, who I still visualize as the perfect president, said: “Only infinite patience produces immediate results.”

So let’s be the process, expecting nothing less than the daily magnificence of tiny miracles, which we can recognize, Rise to meet & manifest.

See you on the high road

~hag

6 May 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: To the right of the thick crescent Moon this evening shine the two heads of the Gemini twins, as shown below. In springtime the stick-figure twins stand upright

Irene Hardwicke Olivieri Artist Interview | Scribble08 by Mark Murphy | Art, Art block, Artist — Irene Wardwicke

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (so thankful for rsarchive.org/)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (From the Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner & Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

“What is to be the starting force & impulse for events in social & ethical life must come out of the spiritual world.” Rudolf Steiner, New Spiritual Impulses in History” Dornach 16 December, 1917

Birthday of St. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. Thru the research of Rudolf Steiner (GA 93, 264, 265) we hear of this individuality in other lives as: Hiram, Lazarus, Christian Rosenkreutz, St. Germain.

680 Death-day of Muawiyah Caliph. The meaning of Muawiyah in Arabic is “young fox”. Muawiyah worked as a scribe for Muhammad. The story goes: He had a pen behind his ear which he had not used. The Prophet said, ‘What is this on your ear?’ He said, ‘A pen which I have made ready for Allah & His Messenger.’ The Prophet said. ‘May Allah repay you well on behalf of your Prophet! By Allah, I will only ask you to write down revelation from heaven.”

In 639, Muawiyah was appointed as the governor of Syria. Under his governance the Syrian army became a major military force. Muawiya was one of the first to realize the full importance of having a navy. During his naval expeditions he took Rhodes & later Cyprus; then shifted his focus back towards Constantinople, & Anatolia. By his creation of a fleet, Muawiyah was the driving force of the Muslim effort against Byzantium. His navy raided the Byzantine islands & coasts at will. The shocking defeat of the imperial fleet by the young Muslim navy at the Battle of the Masts in 655 was of critical turning point. It opened up the Mediterranean, considered a “Roman lake”, & began a centuries-long series of naval conflicts over the control of the Mediterranean. This also allowed the expansion of the state into Africa & Spain. Trade between the Muslim eastern & southern shores & the Christian northern shores almost ceased during this period, isolating Western Europe from developments in the Muslim world. Muawiyah was crowned as caliph at a ceremony in Jerusalem in 661.

We learn from Karmic Relationships Vol. 7 lecture 6 that he was reincarnated as Woodrow Wilson.

1871 – Birthday of Christian Morgenstern, was a member of the General Anthroposophical Society. Dr. Rudolf Steiner called him ‘a true representative of Anthroposophy’. In 1881 his mother Charlotte died of a lung disease which he inherited from her and which was to overshadow his life with a long series of sanatorium stays. Morgenstern was a German author & poet from Munich. He worked for a while as a journalist in Berlin, but spent much of his life traveling through Germany, Switzerland, & Italy, primarily in a vain attempt to recover his health. His travels, though they failed to restore him to health, allowed him to meet many of the foremost literary & philosophical figures of his time in central Europe.

In January 1909 he met Rudolf Steiner , with whom he became a close friend, and in the same year he joined the German section of the Theosophical Society led by him. When this organization was split up in 1912/1913, he stayed on Steiner’s side and became a member of the Anthroposophical Society.

Morgenstern’s comical poetry still inspires today. Morgenstern unfolds his amiable, but sometimes also shrewd language wit especially in the poetry collection Galgenlieder: “How the toad sings so foolishly in the nearby reed!” His best-known poem is The Impossible Fact . The conclusion became a catchphrase: “[…] because, he concludes with razor-sharpness, what cannot be cannot be.” In “Scholastikerprobleme” he discussed how many angels could sit on a needle. Many Germans know some of his poems & quotations by heart.

• “I shall excavate the strata of my soul.”
• “I’m a man of limits: forever physically, emotionally, morally and artistically on the brink of plunging into the abyss. Yet I manage to keep my balance and possess presence of mind.”
• “I bear no treasures within me. I only possess the power to transform much of what I touch into something of value. I have no depths, save my incessant desire for the depths.”

Morgenstern’s poems have been set to music by many composers

Christian Morgenstern was also an acclaimed translator, rendering into German various prominent works from Norwegian and French, including the dramas and poems of Henrik Ibsen, Knut Hamsun, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson & August Strindberg. He died of tuberculosis.

Moonrise
In the tops of the forest,
the rigid and black
in the pale twilight sky
ghosts,
hangs a big one
shiny soap bubble.

It is slowly loosening
from the branches
and floats up
in the ether.

Down in the thicket
lies Pan,
in the mouth
a long reed,
there is still the foam on it
of the nearby pond
encrusted shimmers.

He blew bubbles,
the cheerful god:
but most of them
planted him treacherously.

Just one
held up bravely
and flew out
from the crowns.

There she drifts shimmering
carried by the wind,
across the country.
Rises higher and higher
the fragile ball.

But Pan looks
with a pounding heart –
restrained breath –
after her.

~Christian Morgenstern

‘Let Freedom Ring – Reclaiming the Wisdom of Columbia – Folk Soul of America’.

A zoom presentation with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg For the Greater Washington Branch of the Anthroposophical Society

1 pm ET – 2:30 pm ET Saturday 14 May 2022

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86119386116

Meeting ID: 861 1938 6116

Email asgwb.dc@gmail.com with any questions

Announcing an exciting Event on Ascension Thursday, May 26^th 7 – 8:30 pm Eastern time.

Climbing Jacob’s Ladder – Celebrating the Festival of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Register by contacting Diane McGary, mcgary.family@comcast.net, by Sunday, May 22nd. You will receive an email with the zoom link on Tuesday May 24.

Hope to see you there!!

YES! Please feel free to spread the word!

Yours,

Diane McGary, mcgary.family@comcast.net, for the the Eastern Region

The ‘Unconquerable Grail Mood’

May 4, 2022Biography, Community, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

In light of the situation in Ukraine, I have been reading “The Spiritual Origins of Eastern Europe & the Future Mysteries of the Holy Grail”, by Sergei O. Prokofieff. This is where I heard about: The legendary city of Kitezh – which gives us a look at the goal of the Slavic Folk Soul – to help unveil the Sophia as a future evolutionary impulse.

The Legend tells us that Georgy II, Grand Prince of Vladimir 1st built the town of Kitezh in 1235 – a sacred place where the largest Cathedral to The Sophia was at its center. The Mongol ruler Batu Khan after having conquered some other Russian lands heard of the splendor of Kitezh & ordered his army to advance towards it. One of the captured prisoners confessed under torture & told the Mongols about the secret paths to Lake Svetloyar. The Horde soon reached the town. To the surprise of the Mongols, the town had no fortifications. Its citizens didn’t even defend themselves, they were deeply engaged in fervent praying, asking the Mother of God for their salvation. On seeing this, the Mongols rushed to the attack, but then stopped, because suddenly, they witnessed huge fountains of water bursting up from under the ground all around them. The Mongol horde fell back & watched as the glorious town became submerged in the lake. The last thing they saw was the golden dome of the cathedral with a fiery chalice on top. Soon only waves remained.

This legend gave birth to numerous claims about the lost city. It is said that only those who are pure in heart & soul will ever find their way to Kitezh. Although sometimes folks report hearing the sound of chiming bells, or voices singing from under the waters of Lake Svetloyar when the weather is calm. Some stories claim that the most pious individuals may actually see the lights of spiritual processions & even the cathedral there at the bottom of the lake. For this reason, Lake Svetloyar is sometimes called the “Russian Atlantis”. It is thought that when Humankind has reached the stage of Spirit-Self – the purification of our astral body, that the invisible city of Kitezh will return as the New Jerusalem.

It’s interesting to study what Rudolf Steiner gave us about the importance of the Slavic impulse. In 1916, during the First World War, in a powerful series of lectures, which I often referred to during our recent world crisis, called “The Karma of Untruthfulness” – Steiner confirms that The Slavic Impulse & the Russian state are not the same – that actually the Russian state as well as the corporate American interests are extremely hostile to the Slavic element, (which seeks to humble humanity) wanting instead to destroy it, or use it for its own economic domination.

The true Spiritual Slavic impulse that holds the New Mystery of the New Isis-Mary-Sophia, lives in the cultural & spiritual diversity of Eastern Europe, striving for freedom & peace.

“The circumstances which could and should have been brought about — not because of the wishes of some ruler or other, but because of the purpose of world evolution – would truly have had a liberating effect on the Slavic folk element. But Russianism wants to confine the Slavic element within its own framework and use it as its tool.The speed with which such things come to realization depends, of course, on all kinds of side-currents and peripheral circumstances. But it is important to have an eye for what is gathering momentum in any particular direction. Obviously, therefore, only those who understand the Slavic element more deeply can understand what web is really being woven, and also that those who want to destroy the Slavic element through Russianism had to work against more healthy endeavours.” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Karma of Untruthfulness

Prokofieff gives us the picture of the ‘unconquerable Grail Mood’ which has lived from the earliest times in the souls of the Eastern Slavs. My prayer is that besides the obvious despotism of the Russian State, that this powerful Grail Mood won’t be high jacked by the rhetoric & materialism of Corporate America under the guise of protecting the people from another ‘strongman.’ Read between the lines dear friends, not everything is as it seems on the screen between commercials.

~hag

TONIGHT Wednesday May 4^th 7 pm PDT on ZOOM for the Sacramento Faust Branch

From Necessity to Freedom – The Evolution of Human Consciousness

From the vaporous cleft of Mount Parnassus, and the birth place of Greek Philosophy, to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, and the Holy Grail – From Prophesy to Warning, from Fate to Karma, From Destiny to Free Will.

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual: Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year & the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast. Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Anthroposopher – working as the Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, & as the Central Regional Council representative on the General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America. Past Video Recordings

We appreciate your support of the ongoing work of The Faust Branch in making these offerings available. Admission for lectures: Faust Branch members $5, non-members $10. No one excluded for lack of funds. Admission fees may be made via PayPal

Join Zoom Meeting – Conversation 6:45 pm PDT, Presentation 7 pm PDT
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81856833235?pwd=Z29CQ1hVUWFEUjE1alkyb2RMSVIwZz09

Meeting ID: 818 5683 3235
Passcode: 576668

4 May 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The Eta Aquariid meteor shower are starting to come in.

The Inexhaustible Cup Virgin Mary Christ Russian Icon Christ Theotokos 8" Gift | eBay

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY – Past/Present/Future:

250 AD – Feast day of St. Florian the patron of Upper Austria, chimney sweeps; soapmakers, & firefighters. The “Florian Principle” (known in German language areas as “Sankt-Florians-Prinzip”) is named after a somewhat ironic prayer to Saint Florian: “O heiliger Sankt Florian, verschon’ mein Haus, zünd’ and’re an”, equivalent to “O Holy St. Florian, please spare my house, set fire to another one”. This saying is used in German much like the English “not in my back yard. The name Florian is considered synonymous with fireman in the German speaking world. In some cases call for a fireman will actually be spoken as calls for Florian.

1493 – The Division of the world: The Spanish-born Pope Alexander VI decreed in a Papal Bull that all lands west & south of a pole-to-pole line one hundred leagues west & south should belong to Spain. Portugal objected because its status & rights had been omitted & overlooked. King John II of Portugal began negotiations directly with King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella of Spain to push the line west & allow him to lay claim to lands discovered east of it. The result was the Treaty of Tordesillas.

1875 – Birthday of Hermann Beckh a pioneering German Tibetologist & prominent promoter of anthroposophy.

Due to his unusual memory skills, & his many interests & talents, his peers encouraged him towards law. It became clear to him that he was not made out to be a judge when he had to impose a fine on a poor married couple for stealing wood. He paid the couple’s fine out of his own pocket & left his position.

He later took up the study of oriental languages, Indology, & Tibetology. In 1907, he received his doctorate with a thesis on Kalidasa’s poem Meghaduta.

In 1911, he met Rudolf Steiner & Friedrich Rittelmeyer, which led to his intensive study of Steiner’s work. On Christmas Day, 1912, he became a member of the Anthroposophical Society.

In 1916, Beckh was drafted into military service, shortly after he published two volumes about the Buddha & his teachings. Stationed in the Balkans, he was called to work in the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Due to his task, he learned the Scandinavian languages in addition to: English, French, Italian, Classical Greek & Latin, Hebrew, Egyptian, Sanskrit, Tibetan & Old Persian.

From 1920 onwards, he worked as a lecturer of anthroposophy. In March 1922, he joined the Circle of Priests of The Christian Community & worked until his death as a priest, seminary teacher, lecturer, independent researcher & writer. In 1928, “Mark’s Gospel: The Cosmic Rhythm” was published, in which he related the narration of the gospel of Mark to the path of the sun through the twelve zodiac signs. In Beckh’s exposition, Mark’s gospel could be understood more in connection with the “earthly” signs seen in the planets, & John’s gospel more in connection with the “stellar” zodiac of the fixed stars. At the time of The Mystery of Golgotha the planets & the constellations were together, not separate as they are now, due to the progression of the equinoxes. In the Introduction to the sequel, “The Cosmic Rhythm, the Secrets of the Stars & Earth in the Gospel of John” (1930), Beck favorably mentioned Wilhelm Kaiser’s “Die geometrischen Vorstellungen in der Astronomie” (1928), & referred to The Novices of Sais, of Novalis. Beckh died in Stuttgart, in 1937.

‘Let Freedom Ring – Reclaiming the Wisdom of Columbia – Folk Soul of America’.

A zoom presentation with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg For the Greater Washington Branch of the Anthroposophical Society

1 pm ET – 2:30 pm ET Saturday 14 May 2022

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86119386116

Meeting ID: 861 1938 6116

Email asgwb.dc@gmail.com with any questions

Announcing an exciting Event on Ascension Thursday, May 26th 7 – 8:30 pm Eastern time. for the Great Boston Branch.

Climbing Jacob’s Ladder – Celebrating the Festival of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg is a trans-denominational minister, essayist, lecturer, performer, and poet. She writes and curates ‘Reverse Ritual, Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year’ and the ‘I Think Speech’ podcast. Hazel’s been the Cultural Events and Festivals Coordinator for the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago for over 10 years. She is a member of the Central Regional Council, the School for Spiritual Science, the Esoteric Youth Circle, and the General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America.

Register by RSVPing to Diane McGary, mcgary.family@comcast.net, by Sunday, May 22nd, and You will receive an email with the zoom link on Tuesday.

Hope to see you there!!

YES! Please feel free to spread the word!

Yours,
Diane McGary, mcgary.family@comcast.net

Portals of Perception

May 2, 2022Celestial Event, Community, Festival, History, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

POD (Poem Of the Day)

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

Grass-fed • Holistic • Regenerative • Biodynamics – Thank you to all who came out to support the Zinniker Farm. May we continue to build a bigger table. Please contribute.

Zelle: chuck@chuckginsberg.com or Venmo: https://www.venmo.com/u/Chuck-Ginsberg

Blessings on the Farmers https://familyfarminitiative.com/

2 May 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars:” In the twilight the thin crescent Moon is like a crown to Mercury & the 7 Sisters.

TOP 25 QUOTES BY NOVALIS (of 112) | A-Z Quotes

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (so thankful for rsarchive.org)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (From the Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner & Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

1519 – Death Day of Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, sculptor, & architect. “…We know how Leonardo worked at the “Last Supper”. He often went and sat on the scaffolding and brooded for hours in front of the wall, then he would take a brush and make a few strokes and go away again. Sometimes he only went and stared at the picture and went away again. When he was painting the Christ Figure, his hand trembled. Indeed, if we put together all that we can find concerning this subject we must say that neither outwardly nor inwardly was Leonardo happy when painting this world-renowned picture. Now there were people at that time in Milan who were displeased with the slow progress of the picture, for instance a Prior of the monastery, who could not see why an artist could not paint such a picture quickly, and complained to the Duke. He too thought the affair had lasted too long. Leonardo answered: “The picture is to represent Jesus Christ and Judas, the two greatest contrasts; one cannot paint them in one year; there are no models for them in the world, neither for Judas nor for Christ”. After he had been working at the picture for years, he said he did not know whether he could finish it after all! Then he said that if finally he found no model for Judas he could always use the Prior himself! It was thus extraordinarily difficult to bring the picture to a conclusion but within himself Leonardo did not feel happy. For this picture showed the contrast between what lived in his soul and what he was able to represent on the canvas. Here it is necessary to bring forward a hypothesis of Spiritual Science, which may be reached by anyone who studies what can by degrees be learned about this picture.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Leonardo da Vinci, His Spiritual and Intellectual Greatness, At the Turning Point of the New Age

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

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

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

“Everything beloved is the centre point of a paradise.” – Novalis

Novalis took the name from “de Novali” which was an old family name. The future Baron von Hardenberg was born into a noble German family in lower Saxony. He was sent to a religious school as a boy, but he was stifled by the strict atmosphere and he never adjusted to its severe discipline. He later lived with his uncle who introduced him to the French literature and rational philosophy. He then went to Weissenfels, where his father moved, and entered the Eisleben gymnasium. In 1790-91 he studied law at the University of Jena, where he met Friedrich von Schiller and Friedrich Schlegel. Novalis completed his studies at Wittenberg in 1793.

In the 1790s, the ideas of the French Revolution spread among idealistic intellectual circles throughout Europe, greatly inspiring the young Novalis. He was also deeply moved by reading the mystical philosophical writings of Goethe. Goethe’s book “Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship”, which he read in 1795, influenced him deeply; he considered it the Bible for the “New Age”. In 1795-96 he studied the works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte. At the age of 21 he moved to Tennstädt and took up job in civil service.

When Novalis was a young man, he fell in love with a teenage girl named, appropriately enough, Sophie (Sophia is a personification of the goddess of wisdom, the feminine embodiment of the divine in Western gnostic traditions). His experience of love for the young woman was so deep that it became a transformative, “mystical” experience for the young and impressionable Novalis, whose reading had made him receptive to the concept of ideal love. Sadly, Sophie von Kühn died two years later of tuberculosis.

In 1798 Novalis published a series of philosophical fragments, “Fragmenten”. The loss of his beloved caused an infinitude of pain and sorrow for the hapless young lover, but it also served as strong inspiration and source of creative energy. His “Hymnen an die Nacht” (Hymns to the Night – 1800) was the resultant work. This is a collection of prose, poetry and aphorisms in praise of the sacred encounters with nature, night, sleep, and the magnetic connection between the masculine and the feminine.

Novalis died at the age of 29 of tuberculosis, the same disease that claimed Sophie. He is considered one of the early German Romantics, and he is sometimes referred to as “the prophet of the Romantics”. ~from nicholasjv.com

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

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

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

May 2, 1924 – Deathday of Edith Maryon an English sculptor who worked closly with Rudolf Steiner on the carving of the First Goetheanum & on the Scultural Group called The ‘Representative of Humanity’. From Anthrowiki: Edith Maryon grew up as the second of six children of the wealthy master tailor John Simeon Maryon and his wife Louisa Church in central London. She attended a girls’ school and later a boarding school in Geneva, Switzerland . In the 1890s she studied sculpture at the Central School of Design in London , from 1896 at the Royal College of Arts , which she appointed in 1904 as an “Associate”. She went public with sculptural portraits and created reliefs in a classically inspired, traditionalist style.

After first meeting Rudolf Steiner in 1912/13, she moved to Dornach in the summer of 1914 and played a decisive role in the construction of the first Goetheanum . Together with Steiner, she was largely responsible for the design of the well-known large-scale sculpture The Representative of Humanity between Lucifer and Ahriman as well as colored eurythmy figure sculptures, which she also executed in wood. These works are stylistically close to Expressionism . Edith Maryon resisted any haste. For this reason, the work was not destroyed in the fire of the first Goetheanum on New Year’s Eve 1922/23, but has been preserved and is still on display in the (second) Goetheanum today.

When there was a housing shortage in Switzerland, Edith Maryon – together with Paul Johann Bay – designed three houses for employees on Dornacher Hügel between 1920-22. At that time called “English houses”, today they are called eurythmy houses .

Edith Maryon was in constant personal or letter contact with her teacher, Dr. Steiner. In a brotherly and sisterly way, he confided a great deal to her and dedicated some of his texts to her. While working in the sculptor’s studio around 1916, she once saved him from a serious, perhaps fatal, fall. In 1923 (after the burning of the first Goetheanum) Edith Maryon fell seriously ill. At the end of the year she was appointed head of the section for fine arts at the Goetheanum (without being able to hold the office) and died the following year of complications from tuberculosis .

Wednesday May 4^th 7 pm PDT on ZOOM for the Sacramento Faust Branch

From Necessity to Freedom – The Evolution of Human Consciousness

Join Zoom Meeting – Conversation 6:45 pm PDT, Presentation 7 pm PDT
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81856833235?pwd=Z29CQ1hVUWFEUjE1alkyb2RMSVIwZz09

Meeting ID: 818 5683 3235
Passcode: 576668

‘Let Freedom Ring – Reclaiming the Wisdom of Columbia – Folk Soul of America’.

A zoom presentation with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg For the Greater Washington Branch of the Anthroposophical Society

1 pm ET – 2:30 pm ET Saturday 14 May 2022

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86119386116

Meeting ID: 861 1938 6116

Email asgwb.dc@gmail.com with any questions

Announcing an exciting Event on Ascension Thursday, May 26th 7 – 8:30 pm Eastern time. for the Great Boston Branch.

Climbing Jacob’s Ladder – Celebrating the Festival of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Register by RSVPing to Diane McGary, mcgary.family@comcast.net, by Sunday, May 22nd, and You will receive an email with the zoom link on Tuesday.

Hope to see you there!!

YES! Please feel free to spread the word!

Yours,
Diane McGary, mcgary.family@comcast.net

Farm to Table

May 1, 2022Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Chicago Event, Community, Festival~hag

https://www.patreon.com/zinnikerfarm

Today on this May Day – Beltane –We are hosting a Farm to Table Dinner at the Chicago Christian Community Church, as a Benefit to support the Zinniker’s – the oldest Biodynamic Farm in America. Without much effort, just an evite, 57 folks have responded YES!

After returning from Santa Fe, I was informed that well we had no ‘chef’, sooo, guess who’s cooking for almost 60 people! Yep, for days now, besides trying to digest & write up my impressions from the Sophia Rising Convergence, our little kitchen has been working it…

22 lbs of slow roasted Biodynamic Chuck Roast, 18 lbs of ground beef to make my famous meatloaf – 2 bio chickens for soup, I don’t even know how many lbs of potatoes from Petra’s garden…salad fixings…weee…Luckily we have 2 other friends making quiche from 4 doz Zinniker eggs, & rice & veggies to round out the meal (Thanks Leslie & Sheila)…My beloved husband Chuck made 14 loaves of bread this morning, & Petra will bring her famous chocolate mousse for dessert…

Perhaps in the fall we will feature their turkey & pork…

Right now I’m still trying to figure out how everything can come together & be hot for the serving…We still need to set up the space that Rev. Jeana Lee has graciously let us use at the Church. My best friend Philip Armetta, will play Classical, Jazz & Blues Guitar to start us off. Ultra-Violet Archer will perform a set on her lopper after the dinner, & Petra & Mark Zinniker will give a talk about what’s happening on the farm & how we can help make it sustainable.

Spiritual Science tells us that Biodynamic Agriculture will not only spiritualize the Earth, the nutrition received by the human being enables those who eat this spiritualized food to be able to truly think in freedom!

Even if you live far away from Elkhorn WI. where this family farm is doing this work, you can know that a spiritual vortex is rising up from this sacred land into the Earth ethers we all share. So you too dear friends are invited to make a financial contribution. All proceeds go directly to Zinniker Farm to help sustain their legacy.

Please help support this important initiative: Zelle: chuck@chuckginsberg.com or Venmo: https://www.venmo.com/u/Chuck-Ginsberg

We are looking forward to a heart-stirring community gathering. Blessings on the Farmers, on this May Day 2022…https://familyfarminitiative.com/

~hag – the kitchen witch of Beltane present

1 May 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars:” Look west an hour after sunset on May 1st to find Comet PanSTARRS, the Pleiades, Mercury, Orion’s Belt, and more.

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
EASTERTIDE III
The Self’s Foundation
v3
The human spirit speaks.
The growing I, in self-forgetfulness
and mindful of its primal roots,
is speaking to the whole enwoven world:
“In you, releasing my subjective chains
of private wants and pains,
I fathom my life’s inborn truth”.

After Easter the human I is called upon to forget its personal self,
freeing it from subjective passions and desires, on the path to finding
and resurrecting its higher self, its true being, rooted in cosmic being.
Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

304,384 Dew Stock Photos, Images | Download Dew Pictures on Depositphotos®

Listen to the May Day Podcast at ‘I Think Speech‘

Greetings friends – Yes that was me out sipping dewdrops from the lilacs at sunrise – just one way to participate in the magical reality of May 1st – the fixed date of what we call the Cross-Quarter on the Wheel of the Year, between the Spring Equinox & the Summer Solstice – called Beltane by the ancients, the Festival of joyful growth & fecundity, heralding the promise of Summer. (The actual cosmic Cross-Quarter date is May 5th this year)

Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Beltane is the Festival Season of the ‘Good Fire’ or ‘Bel-fire’, named after the Solar Deity Bel: “Bright and Brilliant Regenerator”, “Protective Shepard”, “The Fiercely Shining One”, & “The Hospitable Boar Chieftain”.

Tradition has it that all hearth fires were extinguished on Beltane Eve, & then kindled again from the sacred “need fires” lit on Beltane. People would leap through the smoke & flames of the Beltane fires, & also drive their cattle thru them for purification, fertility, prosperity & protection.

Bel is a Pan-Celtic & Gaulish god of light revered all over Europe. Bel was also known as ‘Bile’ in Ireland, meaning ‘Tree of Life’. Besides being a solar god, Belenus was also known to be a ‘Rainbow rayed healer’ & there are healing springs that are associated with him.

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

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

Maypoles were often danced around at Beltane to bring fertility & good fortune. The addition of ribbons, which came later, wrapped around the pole by the dancers, bring a further sense of the integration of the complimentary energies, mirroring the union between the God & the Goddess. Beltane is a time to devote energy to growth & integration – a time to celebrate, exuberance & hope, when we can enjoy & appreciate the gifts of nature.

Beltane is a Celtic re-newal of an even older Sabine (ancient Greco-Roman) festival, ‘Floralia‘, which celebrated the goddess Flora & the blossoming of Spring into Summer, especially associated with vines, olives, fruit trees & honey-bearing plants.

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

Cernnunos was seen as master of the hunt, & protector of nature – A creative mentor of animals, nature spirits, & woodlands, This Green God is also a magical craftsman & initiator of the mysteries, considered a Netherworld Threshold Guardian – & pyschopomp.

Originally Beltane was a ‘Movable Feast’ gauging the condition of the crops & flowers, under the command of a Sibylline Oracle, with the purpose of gaining from the Goddess the protection of the blossoms.

Festive games, bringing folks out from their winter hibernation, were played in honor of the Goddess Flora; with pantomimes, & street theatre. The people of all classes wore their brightest clothes, all decked out in flowers –even the animals were garlanded. Goats & hares representing fertility were let loose about the village or town. In Piedmont Italy, the Bride of May carries the ‘maggio’, a green branch garlanded with ribbons, fresh fruits & lemons. Rome must have looked particularly beautiful at this time.

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

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

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

Anyone who went out into the woods & found a branch of flowering hawthorn would bring it triumphantly into the village (the tradition of ‘Bringing in the May’) & announcing the start of planting season. But beware – for bringing hawthorn into the house, also invites the fairies in, & some of these ‘little folk’ can be tricksters, so it’s important to have a good intent.

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

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

In Scandinavia & Germany, May trees are also important for animals, & are set up beside the barn door, one for each baby animal in the stable.

When I was growing up my Italian grandmother on my father’s side would celebrate May Day by tying lemons & ribbons around the flowering branches of the Dogwood tree & the grapevines in the backyard. She would laugh & say “More May wine for the God-Dog.”

In Italy, my Strega Nona told me, Maypoles are called ‘alberi della cucagna’ (trees from the land of milk & honey) there were no ribbions, instead folks would have prosciutto, mortadella, cheeses & money dangling from the top. She told stories of how when she was little the men of the village would try to get these prizes by climbing the pole which is greased with lard. Eventually the grease wears off & someone gets the prize.

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

In ancient Ireland, where my Mother’s people are from, I’ve heard tell, there was a ‘Sacred Tree named Bile’, which was the center of the clan, or Tuatha. As the ‘Irish Tree of Life’, the Bile Pole, represents the connection between the people & the three worlds of Bith: The Skyworld (heavens), The Middleworld (our world), & The Netherworld.

Bringing the social realm together with the sacred, the more modern Maypole circle dancing, with it’s weaving in & out, of the colorful ribbons plaiting them as they go – helped people flirt & mingle socially – & also raised energy in a patterned & focused way.

Even today in some towns & villages a ‘mummer’ called Jack in the Green (drawing from the Green Man), wears a costume made of green leaves as he dances around the Maypole. The role of the Green Man is the re-greening of the world –

He also represents –The Fool – another archetype of Beltane – a symbol of the beginning of beginnings, & the ever present help of the spiritual world, which comes to those who have a clear head, as well as the idea of the emergence from the void of nothingness (winter)

In England, May Day was all about Morris Dancing & Mummer’s Plays -The larger-than-life leaping of the Morris dancers serve as charms to show the crops how high to grow (similar dances were done in early Roman times) & the clashing of their sticks represent a ritual battle between Winter & Spring.

The mummer’s plays feature interesting characters like: Green George, & there’s always a hobbyhorse, cockhorse (or dragon), a male dressed as a female, a jester & sometimes chimney sweeps with their brushes. I remember hearing a storyteller speak about how the hobbyhorse has coal under his skirts, with the goal of running after the young women who were eligible maidens, to mark them with the coal. Only those marked can dance around the Maypole.

Sometimes when the play portrays a battle between the Seasons, Spring squirts Winter with water & seizes the garland from Winter & presents it to the May Queen.

We have to remember that Beltane, is a precarious time; the crops are still very young & tender, susceptible to frost & blight. The folk in those days, being close to the land, felt strongly that the Wheel of the year would not turn without human intervention; So they did everything in their power to encourage the Sun & the elemental powers, by acknowledging & working with these energies.

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

Other Celtic stories suggest using the dew found under oaks or on ivy leaves. Folks would make a special wish as they washed their face in dew, or as they drank from a well before sunrise. The first Sunday & first Monday in May are traditional days for ‘dressing’ – decorating & honoring the local wells or water source.

This is an important association of Beltane, for water is rejuvenating – vital to life. It is said that if you bathe in the dew gathered before dawn on Beltane morn, your beauty, health & happiness will flourish thruout the year.

Another way to bring in the Fire element is to make May wine flavored with herbs, berries, fruits or flowers. I remember a friend who always made a traditional May wine with sweet woodruff.

At Beltane the Pleiades star cluster rises just before sunrise (during wintertime the Pleiades rises at sunset) This cluster of seven closely placed stars, the seven sisters, is in the constellation of Taurus. Spiritual Science associates the higher astral aspect of the bull with the Dove or Holy Spirit.

And right now Mercury & Venus are part of the conversation. Soon Jupiter & Saturn will be in on the dawn sky show. Wintry Sirius still twinkles very low in the southwest in the evening twilight.

Friends, as we stand on the Greening Earth, bringing our prayers & intentions for new growth into our actions, we can also rise in our thoughts to meet the cosmic forces – the inspiration & origin of our fertility…

See you in the sacred grove
xox

~hag