Dear friends – I am forever finding myself in the great Quest – a mind-set that asks questions – a mood of wondering. So when this quote came up in our CRC study of the Holy Grail I knew it was meant to be shared & hopefully received by those who are also on the Quest…
“…The overwhelming impression for us today certainly is that there are too few individuals who can be active representatives of our spiritual movement. It is generally still easier to be effective among human beings by means of force, control, and injustice than by means of freedom.The truth that is to be proclaimed through anthroposophical spiritual science is permitted to count only on human freedom. It must find people who ask questions. One certainly cannot say, Why doesn’t this truth possess in itself the strength to compel human souls by virtue of divine-spiritual power? It does not wish to do that; it cannot do that. The reason is that it will always consider inner freedom, the freedom of the human being in general, to be something absolutely inviolable. If the human being is to come to anthroposophy out of his own judgment, he must become one who asks questions; out of the innermost freedom of judgment he must convince himself. The word of spiritual truth will be spoken to him; convincing himself of it is something he must do on his own. If he wishes to cooperate and be active in society, he must do so out of the innermost impulse of his heart. Those who belong in the truest sense of the word to anthroposophical spiritual science must become people who ask questions.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Materialism and the Task of Anthroposophy by Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, 17 April 1921
Peter Olsen
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~may we walk the middle path between fire & ice… where the shadows of forever & the light of now pulse the world. such is the way. the empty filling & the full emptying… so live with the certainty that your yin loves your yang over & over in to the out… & dance the joy of movement ever changing… ~hag
Dear Friends, Today 109 years ago on 3 February 1913 we can re-call the very 1st AGM of the newly formed Anthroposophical Society, after the split from the Theosophical Society, held in Berlin, with the cycle of lectures called The Mysteries of the Orient & of Christianity (GA 144)
Rudolf Steiner opened the conference on this day with the lecture: The Being of Anthroposophy. In light of the upcoming ‘Sophia Rising’: Unveiling the Wisdom of Being Human Convergence, I thought to share some relevant quotes for your inspiration on this anniversary:
Iris
“…The being of anthroposophy is intimately connected with the being of our time- not with our own immediate little present moment, of course, but with the whole age within which we stand.
Today I want to point out the character of this being by speaking of the necessity for establishing anthroposophy in our time.
“Love, who commands the chambers of my mind Discoursing of my lady passionately, From hour to hour speaks things of her to me At which my intellect bids me demur. Sweetly his words make music of such kind My soul, which hears and feels how they agree, Exclaims, ‘Alas, that I can never be Equal to saying all I hear of her! Such things appear within her fair aspect As show they bear the joys of paradise I mean, both in her smile and in her eyes, Where Love brings them as if he brought them home.”
It seems very clear. A poet has written a love poem…This poem was not written today, however, but was written by Dante
Dante himself told us…that the beloved lady, with whom he had so direct and personal a relationship, was none other than Philosophy. Dante says that when he speaks of the lady’s eyes and says that what they say is no lie, he means the evidence of truth; and by her “smile,” he means the art of expressing the truth communicated to the soul; and by “love,” or amor; he means scientific study the love of the truth.
People who do not know how the times – into which our soul is ever growing with new life-change, lack any idea that Dante was just one (among many) of those with the capacity for a concrete experience of a passionate and personal relationship, immediate and of the soul, with Lady Philosophy, such as we today can feel only toward a man or woman of flesh and blood. In this sense, Dante’s time is past. The modern soul no longer approaches Lady Philosophy – the woman, Philosophy as a being of the same, fleshly nature as itself as Dante did.
When the Greeks present something, it is Sophia, not Philosophia. And they present her in such a way that, again, we experience her as a living being, as an immediate presence. We experience the Greek Sophia as an immediate, living being, just as Dante feels Philosophy to be. Always, however, we feel this Greek Sophia – and I ask you to please go through the descriptions that exist – to be an elemental force, as it were, an active being who intervenes in existence through action.
Albrecht Dürer
Beginning around the fifth century A.D., we find that Philosophia is first represented, initially described by poets in the most varied guises: nurse, benefactor, guide, and so on. Then somewhat later, painters begin to represent her. Thus, we reach the period during the Middle Ages called Scholasticism, when many philosophers really felt they were experiencing a directlyhuman relation when they became aware of beautiful, noble Lady Philosophia, who actually approached them from the clouds. Many medieval philosophers, in fact, felt the same deep, burning feelings toward the Lady Philosophia as she floated toward them on the clouds as Dante describes toward his Lady. And anyone who can feel such things will find a direct connection between Raphael’s Sistine Madonna floating on the clouds, and the exalted Lady Philosophia.
…the Greeks confronted Sophia, or Wisdom, as a being, so to speak, whom they could encounter standing before them in a particular place, Two beings then -Sophia and the Greek – faced each other, as if Sophia were a definite objective entity, to be looked at, with all the objectivity of the Greek’s way of seeing.
How then does the consciousness soul confront Sophia? This is done so that it brings the I into direct relationship with Sophia while at the same expressing -much more so than the objective being of Sophia the activity of the I within the relationship between the consciousness soul and this Sophia. “I love Sophia” was the natural feeling of an age that still had to encounter the being we designate as Philosophy – an age that was preparing the consciousness soul and, out of the relationship between the I and the consciousness soul (on which the greatest value must be placed), was working toward representing Sophia as simply as it represented everything else. It was natural for the time of the intellectual soul – which was preparing for the consciousness soul- to express this relationship to Philosophy. And because things came to expression slowly and gradually, this relationship was being prepared during Greco-Latin times.
Philosophy is no longer the “woman” she was to Dante and others who lived in his time.
..we now live in the age of the consciousness soul and look toward the dawn of the age of the spirit-self, and we know in this way that something is again becoming objective to human beings – something that looks forward to the coming times that will be gained by what we have won through the time of the consciousness soul.
What, therefore, must be developed? It must unfold that, once again, as a matter of course, a “Sophia” becomes present. But we must learn to relate this Sophia to the consciousness soul, bring her down directly to human beings. This is happening during the age of the consciousness soul. And thereby Sophia becomes the being who directly enlightens human beings. After Sophia has entered human beings, she must take their being with her and present it to them outwardly, objectively. Thus, Sophia will be drawn into the human soul and arrive at the point of being so inwardly connected with it that a love poem as beautiful as Dante wrote may be written about her.
Sophia will become objective again, but she will take with her what humanity is, and objectively present herself in this form. Thus, she will present herself not only as Sophia, but as Anthroposophia as the Sophia who, after passing through the human soul, through the very being of the human being, henceforth bears that being within her, and in this form she will confront enlightened human beings as the objective being Sophia who once stood before the Greeks.
What we receive through anthroposophy is our very own being.
Kristena West
This once floated toward us in the form of a celestial goddess with whom we were able to enter into relationship. This divine being lived on as Sophia and Philosophia, and now we can once again bring her out of ourselves and place her before us as the fruit of true anthroposophical self-knowledge. We can wait patiently until the world is willing to test the depth of the foundations of what we have to say, right down to the smallest details. It is the essence of anthroposophy that its own being consists of the being of the human, and its effectiveness, its reality, consists in that we receive from anthroposophy what we ourselves are and what we must place before ourselves, because we must practice self-knowledge.” ~Rudolf Steiner
May we receive this being, that is our birthright, with grace & develop her within us with intention & love.
3 February 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Tonight and tomorrow evening in twilight, the curved outer edge of the crescent Moon aims nearly at Jupiter like a bow shooting an arrow at it; see above.
Meanwhile – Mercury (occult Venus) is stationary at 4 pm CST in Sagittarius, & then begins tracking East against the background stars of the Archer.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in the Americas
1870 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to male citizens regardless of race.
Picasso
1874 – Birthday of Gertrude Stein, American novelist, poet, playwright
1894 – Birthday of Norman Rockwell, American painter & illustrator
1909 – Birthday of Simone Weil, French mystic & philosopher
1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose & collect an income tax.
Rudolf Steiner
1913 – The 1st AGM of the Anthroposophical Society in Berlin, where Rudolf Steiner gave the lecture series “The Mysteries of the Orient and of Christianity” & spoke for the 1st time about the Being of Anthroposophy!
1924 – Deathday of Woodrow Wilson. Rudolf Steiner has a lot to say about what was behind this individuality & in his former incarnation as Muawiya
1959 – Rock & roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, & J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson are killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.
1961 – The United States Air Forces begins Operation Looking Glass, & over the next 30 years, a “Doomsday Plane” is always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States’ bombers & missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC’s command post.
Umění Olomouc
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~There is no ending to becoming I lose & find my way over & again One task gives rise to the next I wage battle against my own proud ignorance – My sentimental affection for folly In occluded justification… Let me live To strive Forever for perfection In Loves grace I go ~hag
Today & everyday, dear friends, we must be like the groundhog & look for our shadow.
The Cross-quarter betwixt the Winter Solstice & the Vernal Equinox is not only intuited & out-pictured in nature, but is determined by a cosmic conversation. Using the Sidereal zodiac which shows us what is actually being said in the heavens right now, not 2000 years ago, This cross-quarter happens when the Sun comes to 15 degrees of Capricorn, (the same sign that the Jupiter & Saturn conjunction happened in last year) & that hits tomorrow. But most folks celebrate today on the fixed date of Feb. 2nd which in our modern age we call Groundhogs day, when the fate of winter rests on the shoulders of a furry rodent.
Feast of the Bear – From antiquity to the Middle Ages, bears were a cult symbol of the Germans, Scandinavians & the Celts. On this day they celebrated the end of hibernation – when the bears would leave their dens to see if the weather was mild. The celebrations of the bear & the return of the light was celebrated with bonfires & other torchlight processions. Pope Gelasius I in the fifth century instituted the feast of candles, or Candlemas to bring this tradtion back to the Church. From the twelfth to the eighteenth century, Candlemas was called “chandelours” which means bear in French, in many areas (including the Alps, Pyrenees, Ardennes) where the memory of the cult of the bear was still very present. There is also the Aosta Saint-Ours, (which means “bear”) & Saint Blaise. Candlemas is also the beginning of the carnival period; the bear is the carnival animal par excellence.
But in the time of the ancient Mystery Schools it was a time of initiation, a time of purification & re-dedication.
For the Celtic tribes, who were very much in touch with the cycles of the season, this is called Imbolc – which means in the belly – it’s the lambing season. After the cold dark winter where folks barely survived by eating their store of root vegetables, now the milk begins to flow, the butter was churned & the cruds gave much needed nourishment; they call it Celtic Spring – the time of year when the belly of the great mother quickens with the growing light.
And it is dedicated to the Triple Goddess Brigid, holding the power of the Maiden, Mother, Crone, & associated with the mysteries of the sacred well connected to purification & the fires of the forge, to call in the will of the Sun.
Here is a presentation about Brigid I did a few years back at the Theosophical Society Called: ‘The Mysteries of the Celtic Goddess.’
Daila Wright
Later, of course, Brigid’s tradition was adopted by the Church & attached to Candlemas & the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The 40th day of the Christmas-Epiphany season, commemorating the presentation of Jesus at the Temple. Joseph & Mary brought the child into the Temple, & when Simeon & Anna the prophetess, saw Him, they knew the prophesy of ‘The Chosen One’ had been fulfilled.
We see the connection between the Buddha & Jesus of Nazareth in the stories of Asita & Simeon. When Asita, the great Indian sage, saw Siddhartha as a young child, before he had reached Buddhahood, he was able to recognize what the child would become. It was Asita’s heart’s desire to see the Buddha before he died, so he wept because he was an old man & would not live to see him become the Buddha. This wise seer was then reborn in the time of Jesus as Simeon introduced in Luke 2:29-30 as the temple priest who waits for the Messiah. He recognizes the Buddha in the Nathan Jesus, so he praises god & says now he can die happy, having fulfilled his heart’s desire.
In ancient Greece this cross-quarter was connected to The Festival of Persephone & Demeter, celebrated exclusively by the woman, in an elaborate 3 day ritual, called Thesmophoria.
In addition, the Festa candelarum in Rome commemorated the search for the Spring Goddess Persephone, by her mother the Goddess of Life, Demeter. This festival symbolizes the return of the Light.
The myths of Sleeping Beauty or Theseus & Ariadne, for example, relate to the release or liberation of the light (Dawn of the year) by the “solar knight”.
Spiraling down the line, the ancient romans called it Lupercalia a feast day that was very much like Mardi Gras. The ancient Romans celebrated this festival in honor of Lupercus, & Feralia the god & goddess of fertility & shepherds. A theme of purification was also present. And there was a custom of the Vestal Virgins offering cakes made with wheat from the old crop so that the following crop would be fruitful.
At the time of the Full Quickening Moon of February, in the Jewish mystical tradition, we celebrate Tu’B’Shvat – the time of the rising of the sap, The New Year for the Tree – An opportunity to repair the breech when the the unripe fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil was prematurely eaten.
Here in Chicago we are experiencing snow, so it’s harder to remember when the skies are steel grey, & the ice crystals bite, that stirring in the wind, is the promise of spring – waiting, to be ignited by the passion of our purpose.
And yet if you are listening perhaps you can feel the energy of the earth…Quickening…I feel it groaning & stretching in the earth of my body…Like a snake trying to shed its skin…I just want to be a molting bird…Dancing in the silent belly of February… So much to do…So much to Be…Can you feel the growing rhythms…
This is the time to plan your garden, for the roots are stirring under the snow. A time to purify & get fertile. So let’s charm the plow – Kiss the candle, & gather the wood to kindle a need-fire, as a welcoming beacon, to call back our dormant power, to heat up, our potential, & re-seed our creativity – as we add fuel to the fire of our community. One spark warms us all – A purifying fire, that burns clean & opens the way to the true power of love & light from deep within us.
From the ancient & immortal tribes – from all the quarters of the cosmos – to come & warm our circle – to bring, their respected dimensions, into the eternity, of our lives, now. Our reality, which is open & ever changing – for we have a lot to honor in ourselves today, as we stand on the waning side of Bella Luna. Whispering the promise of the Light like a communal prayer that builds -Into the arrows of Eros, embracing our true heart in the eternal now of Valentine’s Day coming up.
And as we call in the Water Tiger of the New Year which began on the New Moon – let us open to the power of our striving. Together may we will thaw the coldness in the world & rouse the mysteries growing within…
~hag
2 February 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Waxing Bella Luna passes south of Jupiter tonight – one of the last best views of this beneficent planet before it becomes hard to spot by next week. Turn west as soon as the Sun sets and the sky starts growing dark to find the pair in Aquarius. Jupiter is hard to miss in the twilight. The Moon, which appears to Jupiter’s lower left in the sky,
Feast day of Cornelius a Roman centurion. He is depicted in the New Testament as a God-fearing man who always prayed & was full of good works. Cornelius receives a vision in which an angel of God tells him that his prayers have been heard, he understands that he’s chosen for a higher alternative. The angel then instructs Cornelius to send the men of his household to Joppa, where they will find Simon Peter, who is residing with a tanner by the name of Simon (Acts 10:5ff).
The conversion of Cornelius comes after a separate vision given to Simon Peter (Acts 10:10–16) himself. In the vision, Simon Peter sees all manner of beasts & fowl being lowered from Heaven in a sheet. A voice commands Simon Peter to eat. When he objects to eating those animals that are unclean according to Mosaic Law, the voice tells him not to call unclean that which God has cleansed.
When Cornelius’ men arrive, Simon Peter understands that through this vision the Lord commanded the Apostle to preach the Word of God to the Gentiles. Peter accompanies Cornelius’ men back to Caesarea. When Cornelius meets Simon Peter, he falls at Peter’s feet. Simon Peter raises the centurion & the two men share their visions. Simon Peter tells of Jesus’ ministry & the Resurrection; the Holy Spirit descends on everyone at the gathering & they all begin speaking in tongues, praising God
1786 – Birthday of Jacques Philippe Marie Binet, a French mathematician, physicist & astronomer. Binet’s Formula expressing Fibonacci numbers in closed form is named in his honour.
1882 – Birthday of James Joyce, Irish novelist, short story writer, & poet
1971 – Idi Amin replaces President Milton Obote as leader of Uganda
1972 – The British embassy in Dublin is destroyed in protest at Bloody Sunday
1976 – The Groundhog Day gale hits the north-eastern United States & south-eastern Canada, killing 112
1987 – After the 1986 People Power Revolution, the Philippines enacts a new constitution
1990 – Apartheid: F. W. de Klerk announces the unbanning of the African National Congress & promises to release Nelson Mandela
2007 – The worst flooding in Indonesia in 300 years begins. Death toll 804
2012 – The ferry MV Rabaul Queen sinks off the coast of Papua New 300 dead
“Out of the substance of soul and spirit, human beings have to fashion the tools with which to plough a way, the soul-way leading to the castle of the Grail, to the mystery of the Grail, to the mystery of bread and blood, to the fulfilment of the words ‘This do in remembrance of me’. This is, truly, in remembrance of the mighty event of Golgotha, if the symbol of the bread — of what, in other words, develops from the earth through the synthesis of cosmic forces — is understood. It is done in full remembrance if we understand once again how to grasp the world through a spiritualized cosmology and astronomy, and if we learn to comprehend the human being in terms of his essence: the element where the spiritual directly enters him — the mystery of the blood. The path that leads to the Holy Grail must be found through inner work in human souls. This is the task of cognition and the social task.”~Rudolf Steiner, The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, Chapter 8, “The Lapse into Matter”, and Chapter 9, “Piercing the Thicket”, excerpts from Steiner’s lectures given at Dornach on 16 & 17 April 1921 … focus of the February 2 meeting.
Chapters 7, 8 & 9 in the book can be found online at the CRC’s website by clicking this link A transcript of the 16 April, 1921 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link A transcript of the 17 April, 1921 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing study conversation. The study has been divided among two volunteers who will summarize their section to rebuild it as a foundation for our conversation. Please familiarize yourself with the lecture if possible so you will feel comfortable sharing your reflections and thoughts with the group.This collection of lectures has been republished by Rudolf Steiner Press under the title: “The Mysteries of the Holy Grail — from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation.” The book was compiled and edited by Matthew Barton, published by Rudolf Steiner Press in 2010.
This will be a “Zoom” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer). To connect to the audio/video-conference:
Meeting ID: 882 1050 5106 One tap mobile +13017158592,,81116556762# US (Germantown) +13126266799,,81116556762# US (Chicago)
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7:15 Welcome and Introductions 7:18 Verse 7:25 Study led by volunteers Note: CRC team will ID volunteers Michael – Chapter 8 Camille – Chapter 9 7:50 Conversation 8:25 ID volunteers for next meeting 8:28 Close with verse There is a knighthood of the 21st century whose riders do not ride through the darkness of physical forests as of old, but through the forest of darkened minds. They are armed with a spiritual armor and an inner sun makes them radiant. Out of them shines healing, healing that flows from the knowledge of the human being as a spiritual being. They must create inner order, inner justice, peace and conviction in the darkness of our time. ~Karl Konig
Greetings friends – I am just now re-acclimatizing after our General Council of the ASA retreat in Austin TX – such a vibrant city. We were blessed to have eurythmy with Barbara Bresette-Mills which helped enliven us after many hours of intense work – the perfect invigorating impulse that came each day after lunch.
Eileen Bristol, a woman of heart in action, who works deeply with Kathy Serafin for APO – the Anthroposophical Prison Outreach program, joined us to give an update on this powerful initiative that is thriving in the hearts & souls of many human beings whose karma has brought them to Anthroposophy thru their work. Eileen stayed for lunch & was in my eurythmy breakout group which was a joy.
Besides helping to start the local Waldorf School; working at the bio-dynamic Onion Creek Farm; Eileen runs the Sahara Lounge, named ‘Best Dive Bar’ in the Austin 2021 Readers Poll.
She generously offered the large backyard space for our community gathering, where folks from near & far came to nosh, socialize & meet the GC, amongst the kitschy Texas antiques & welcoming picnic tables. My dear friend & CRC colleague Lisa Dalton drove 3 hours from Fort Worth TX, helping to extend the invitation for collaboration with the Novalis Branch, which is part of our Central Region. Besides taking in many local sites after the GC retreat, like the river walk & the Elizabeth Ney museum, Lisa & I must have hit every thrift store in Austin!
After going to Black’s BBQ for some down home southern hospitality, a few of us went back to the Sahara Lounge for Eileen’s famous Africa Night, which draws in a hugely diverse crowd & offers a free buffet along with the amazing live music. We danced to the Joshua Thomson World Jazz Trio which featured sax, drums & an Ud – the 12 stringed instrument central to Arabic music, which originated over 3,500 year ago in Persia. Some friends came for the second band playing Latin Jazz, but couldn’t quite stay up for the late show with the Sahara Allstars featuring Eileen on bass & I believe her son Topaz McGarrigle on guitar…Next time!
I am in awe of the innovative impulsing stirring in the GC – a will toward initiative – The striving for engagement between point & periphery – a movement toward the next 100 years that calls us all to action, as we co-create a New Turning Point in Time, together.
~hag
Cindy Laxstrumm
Today on this New Moon – Lunar New Year of the Water Tiger – on the Eve of the Cross Quarter between Winter Solstice & Spring Equinox – Imbolc – Brigid’s Day – Candlemas –HERE is a video from a program I did for the Theosophical Society called: ‘Mysteries of the Celtic Goddess Brigid’ ENJOY!
1 February 2022– “Speaking with the Stars”: The sky’s biggest asterism is the Winter Hexagon. It fills the sky toward the east and south these evenings. Start with brilliant Sirius at its bottom. Going clockwise from there, march up through Procyon, Pollux and Castor, Menkalinan and Capella on high, down to Aldebaran, then to Rigel in Orion’s foot, and back to Sirius. Betelgeuse shines inside the Hexagon, off center.
New Moon – exact at 11:46 am
THE CALENDAR OF THE SOUL translated – with added titles – by Roy Sadler
Easter is very late this year on April 17th, and Ash Wednesday not till March 2nd. Verse 46 must always begin in the first week of Lent, so verses 44 & 45 have to extend through the whole of February. I’ll come to v44 next week. Today I’m going to concentate on the verse I posted for last week, verse 43, the Imbolc verse, which usually reaches February, buit not when Christmas, always verse 38, has been on a Friday or as it was last year on a Saturday.
Imbolc, meaning literally “in milk”, the beginning of the lactation period of ewes after bearing their young, was originally a customary thanksgiving festival, pouring milk onto the earth as an offering of nurturing, to assist in the return of fertility and the earth’s generosity to its people, for whom it was the return of Spring. It is the first of the four Gaelic fire festivals, and was conceived in honor of the goddess Brigid in her maiden aspect, pregnant with the seed of the Sun, ripe with the promise of new life as the earth seeds deep within the soil begin to awaken, and was regarded as the beginning of spring. It was followed by the Beltane marriage festival for the beginning of summer, the Lammas harvest feast festival, a beginning of autumn, and the Samhain wise woman festival, a gateway to winter that became Halloween. They were originally full moon festivals and celebrated at the 4 turning points of the day: Imbolc, a lantern procession from midnight; Beltane at dawn; a midday feast for Lammas (Anglo-Saxon ‘hlaf-mas, “loaf-mass”); & a sunset Samhain celebration.
The 4 quarters of the Soul Calendar, in their physical, etheric, astral and ego realms, can be described as the senses uniting with the spirit from Easter to July, the imagination to incarnate the spirit for Michaelmas, the inspiration for the spirit’s birth at Christmas, and the intuitive love for the new spring world. I had already incorporated the word ‘imagine’ into verses 17 (verse 43’s opposite) and ‘inspire’ into verse 36 (the mirror of v17).
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.
ADVENT II The Wine v36 The Cosmic Word, mysteriously urging to be heard, is speaking in my depths of being: Inspire your life’s endeavour with spirit light of mine to sacrifice yourself through Me.
And this last week, observing the potential of the first new tree buds and the new daffodil shoots, I added ‘intuit’ in v43. A literal translation could be ‘to give to cosmic glory through the heart’s force the power to exist’ but my free translations are an attempt to bring a meaningful new poetic impulse to these wonderful meditations.
IMBOLC 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 to glory; the soul’s revitalising fire in the human core defies world cold.
1462 – Birthday of Johannes Trithemius, German polymath, lexicographer, historian, and cryptographer
1861 – American Civil War: Texas secedes from the United States.
1865 – President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
1884 – The first volume (A to Ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
1893 – Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey
1895 – Fountains Valley, Pretoria, the oldest nature reserve in Africa, is proclaimed by President Paul Kruger.
1896 – La bohème premieres in Turin at the Teatro Regio (Turin), conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini.
1960 – Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
1972 – Deathday of Valborg Werbeck-Svärdström, a Swedish singer, voice teacher, & anthroposophist. When she was ten, her family moved to Stockholm, where the music educator Alice Tegnér discovered her talent. She was already performing at the age of eleven. After completing school & her studies at the Conservatory, she gave her debut & was received into the Ensemble of the Royal Swedish Opera. She was hailed as the new Jenny Lind” – the Swedish nightingale. As a concert & opera singer she experienced enormous success in many of the European countries. In 1906 she married Louis Michael Julius Werbeck, the German writer & musician from Hamburg & moved with him to Germany.
In 1908 she met Rudolf Steiner and received from him indications for her work & encouragement not to give up her successful singing career, but rather to pursue it against her original intentions. Her studies with experienced teachers had certainly guided her to a successful operatic career, but it had shown her that these methods of instruction also endangered her natural voice. She began searching for new methods of developing the voice, & remained in close contact about this with Rudolf Steiner until his death. At the same time she began to build up a method of singing therapy that she later was later to develop further together with Eugen Kolisko, who took singing lessons with her from time to time, & with Ita Wegman. In 1938 her book ‘’Uncovering the Voice: The Cleansing Power of Song’’ appeared in German. The rise of National Socialism in Germany made her work increasingly difficult. Eventually she had to close her school & spent the War years in semi-isolation in Silesia. The years following the War she devoted totally to her therapeutic work & to the instruction of a circle of young musicians that had gathered around her.
***
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~my footsteps imprint possibility on the unique shapes that gather together as fallen snow that which is follows in stride & that which is not yet flows in front with the wind… ~hag
“Out of the substance of soul and spirit, human beings have to fashion the tools with which to plough a way, the soul-way leading to the castle of the Grail, to the mystery of the Grail, to the mystery of bread and blood, to the fulfilment of the words ‘This do in remembrance of me’. This is, truly, in remembrance of the mighty event of Golgotha, if the symbol of the bread — of what, in other words, develops from the earth through the synthesis of cosmic forces — is understood. It is done in full remembrance if we understand once again how to grasp the world through a spiritualized cosmology and astronomy, and if we learn to comprehend the human being in terms of his essence: the element where the spiritual directly enters him — the mystery of the blood. The path that leads to the Holy Grail must be found through inner work in human souls. This is the task of cognition and the social task.”~Rudolf Steiner, The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, Chapter 8, “The Lapse into Matter”, and Chapter 9, “Piercing the Thicket”, excerpts from Steiner’s lectures given at Dornach on 16 & 17 April 1921 … focus of the February 2 meeting.
Chapters 7, 8 & 9 in the book can be found online at the CRC’s website by clicking this link A transcript of the 16 April, 1921 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link A transcript of the 17 April, 1921 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing study conversation. The study has been divided among two volunteers who will summarize their section to rebuild it as a foundation for our conversation. Please familiarize yourself with the lecture if possible so you will feel comfortable sharing your reflections and thoughts with the group.This collection of lectures has been republished by Rudolf Steiner Press under the title: “The Mysteries of the Holy Grail — from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation.” The book was compiled and edited by Matthew Barton, published by Rudolf Steiner Press in 2010.
This will be a “Zoom” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer). To connect to the audio/video-conference:
Meeting ID: 882 1050 5106 One tap mobile +13017158592,,81116556762# US (Germantown) +13126266799,,81116556762# US (Chicago)
Dial by your location +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 882 1050 5106
7:15 Welcome and Introductions 7:18 Verse 7:25 Study led by volunteers Note: CRC team will ID volunteers Michael – Chapter 8 Camille – Chapter 9 7:50 Conversation 8:25 ID volunteers for next meeting 8:28 Close with verse There is a knighthood of the 21st century whose riders do not ride through the darkness of physical forests as of old, but through the forest of darkened minds. They are armed with a spiritual armor and an inner sun makes them radiant. Out of them shines healing, healing that flows from the knowledge of the human being as a spiritual being. They must create inner order, inner justice, peace and conviction in the darkness of our time. ~Karl Konig
Dear Friends – Amidst the daily duties in the striving to serve Anthroposophia, while still holding the energies of Epiphany, looking forward to what Holy Week wants this year, preparing for the new semester of Applied Anthroposophy (which starts tonight!) & the Sophia Rising Convergence (the official announcement & registration will come from the ASA on 5 Feb.) during my sunrise oblations this morning I found myself casting about for a clue as to what to bring for today’s offering.
Georgie Frankel
I am feeling called to leave a lasting impression, a hardy morsel that needs chewing, since I am off to a retreat with the General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America in Austin, & I will be completely off line until 1 February 2022 – the New Moon, Imbolc, & The Lunar New Year of the Water Tiger.
Leon Zernitsky
And what came is this lecture from Dr. Steiner, which I may have shared before, & which has a rinse & repeat quality. Chew well my friends, & may this inconvenient truth become a nourishing impulse for Wisdom & Love…
“Who are the Beings of the Spiritual World who stand behind the revelations that are breaking newly into human history through the veil of outward phenomena?
Evolution does indeed take place among the Hierarchies. The Spirits of Personality are rising to a creative activity.
What then is it that is revealing itself through the veil of phenomena? It is the expression of a new creative principle, brought into the world by the Spirits of Personality. In this connection we must recognize it as the essential characteristic of our age (which began in the fifteenth century A.D.) to develop impulses of personality. The personality, if I may use this trite expression, wants to stand on its own feet, does so more and more as we go forward into the third millennium, when other impulses for the fulfillment of personality will enter in.
Consider carefully, my dear friends, what I have just told you. There, coming towards humanity, is the new revelation from the Spirits of Light, the Spirits of Personality. But over against this, especially since the beginning of the fifth Post-Atlantean age, there stand certain Spirits of Darkness. For as soon as we look behind the veil of the phenomena we see at once how certain ranks of spiritual Beings are confronted by other ones, opposing ones. On the one hand we turn our gaze to the Spirits of Personality revealing themselves as I described them just now; on the other hand we see over against them certain Spirits of Darkness, making themselves manifest, Spirits whose interest it is not to allow that which is to come — the new revelation of the Spirit of Personality — to become effective in mankind. These new Spirits of Darkness find an opportunity to realize their intentions in a certain phenomenon of modern life which is unfortunately far too little heeded by present-day mankind.
You see therefore that human labor on Earth has found, so to speak, a substitute. Something is here that works like human beings and yet does not consist of human beings in flesh and blood. This fact is extremely important for the evolution of mankind, and it is connected with other facts in the evolution of the present time. The five hundred million men who are really not there as men of flesh and blood — all the work that is done by the machines just as though men were doing it — all this machine work gives opportunity for the Spirits of Darkness to realize themselves within our human evolution. And these very Spirits of Darkness are the opponents of the Spirits of Personality who bring with them the new revelations of the heavens breaking in upon us with a new clairvoyance, while on the other hand, arising out of the sub-earthly realms, we have the embodiment provided for the adversaries. For these very adversaries are demonic Spirits, Spirits of Darkness, who can now actualize themselves — albeit not through human beings of flesh and blood; they live and move among us none the less, inasmuch as human forces are being replaced by mechanisms, by machines.
This too lies at the basis of all disharmony in the social life of our time. It lies also at the basis of certain errors, certain aberrations of human thinking in our time, which in their turn provide once more the starting-point for social aberrations. For in the course of the last few centuries, human thinking has in a certain respect adapted itself to the mechanistic order. It is permeated, impregnated by conceptions adapted purely to a mechanistic order. In many spheres of natural science — but not only there, in many spheres of actual life, of the social and socialistic life of today…
And yet, my dear friends, in the world of manifestation everything has a twofold aspect, and you must not therefore conclude that the mechanistic ideas have slunk into human evolution as an evil thing that ought to be avoided. No, that would be altogether wrong. Dangerous as these ideas are because they give certain Spirits of Darkness the opportunity to arise against the Spirits of Personality who are revealing themselves today; dangerous, above all, as is the mechanistic order from which these ideas are derived, yet on the other hand the very thinking which takes its start from mechanistic ideas is beneficial. For this, my dear friends, is the task of modern time: — Our powers of soul must be equipped with the ideas that live in modern scientific thought and altogether in modern thought. This is the necessary task of modern time. We must permeate ourselves with these ideas and then place them in the service of the new revelation of the heavens…
Thus humankind has passed through a certain education in sharply outlined thinking. But from this point onward it is necessary to turn to the new revelation of the Spirit, and to conceive the spiritual worlds with the same clarity with which we have grown accustomed to conceive the world of Natural Science. This is what the modern intellectual conscience requires, nor will mankind be able to dispense with this. Without this, mankind will never be able to solve the all-important questions that will arise in the present and in the near future. Clear and sharp thinking trained in the modern, scientific ideas and then applied to the spiritual world as it reveals itself anew; such is the configuration, fundamentally speaking, of anthroposophical Spiritual Science. Such is the character which anthroposophical Spiritual Science wants to have, therefore it reckons with the most necessary requirements of our time. Moreover, for this very reason, it is able to descend from spiritual heights, to grasp what is necessary to the everyday life of man. My dear friends, we must again and again repeat that Spiritual Science wishes to bring new help to human work and human tasks of outer life.
A host of other important impulses of our time must be seen in this connection. We are standing in the very midst — not at the end, but I say with full consciousness, in the very midst — of a time of conflict, a time when chaotic events are taking place in human evolution, events from which as I have often said, men ought to learn. Alas! There are so many who have learnt nothing yet from the events of the last four and a half years, whose thinking is still the very same in form as it was four and a half years ago. Events are taking place, my dear friends, which reveal outward humanity — or the life of outward humanity — in conflict and in warfare.
Man must pass through inner conflicts of the soul, conflicts that will strengthen him. We have not to look towards a future more comfortable than the past or the present. Specious ideals — which in reality are nothing but modern narcotics — are not the truth.
For the future, my dear friends, things will by no means be more comfortable in the outer life. For the remainder of earthly evolution mankind will yet have to shoulder far greater discomforts than they dream of yet. Nevertheless, they will shoulder them, for they will be strengthened by inner conflicts of soul — every individual man in his own soul.
When we pierce the veil of phenomena we behold a life of Divine Spiritual, Hierarchical labor; the thing that strikes us first is the great battle which is taking place behind the scene of the physical world of sense — the battle between Wisdom and Love. And man is placed in the midst of this battle. For a long time he has been unconscious of it, in future he must take part more and more consciously in this conflict which is taking place in the world between Wisdom and Love. For Man himself shall be the outcome when Wisdom and Love beat like an eternal pendulum, now towards the side of Wisdom and now towards the side of Love. Only through the rhythmic swinging of the pendulum, not through a sleepy peace, will the future shape itself aright.
All that is written in the book Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment is meant to lead men to fight this inner battle out victoriously. But people find it inconvenient; they shrink in fear; they have not the courage to go through the inner fight. And this, my dear friends, is a characteristic phenomenon of our time. Men will not go through this inner fight; they flee from it; they do not want it yet. And because they will not have it inwardly, it is projected outward…” ~Rudolf Steiner
Roen Kelly
26 January 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Through the end of January, Mars is skimming through a particularly rich Milky Way region of Sagittarius. By this morning, the Red Planet is less than a Moon’s width from the northeastern edge of the breathtaking Lagoon Nebula.
155 –Polycarp of Smyrna, pupil of John the Evangelist, burnt at the stake
1915 – Rudolf Steiner gives Helmuth von Moltke a meditation: Genius des Deutschen Vilkes
“Out of the substance of soul and spirit, human beings have to fashion the tools with which to plough a way, the soul-way leading to the castle of the Grail, to the mystery of the Grail, to the mystery of bread and blood, to the fulfilment of the words ‘This do in remembrance of me’. This is, truly, in remembrance of the mighty event of Golgotha, if the symbol of the bread — of what, in other words, develops from the earth through the synthesis of cosmic forces — is understood. It is done in full remembrance if we understand once again how to grasp the world through a spiritualized cosmology and astronomy, and if we learn to comprehend the human being in terms of his essence: the element where the spiritual directly enters him — the mystery of the blood. The path that leads to the Holy Grail must be found through inner work in human souls. This is the task of cognition and the social task.”~Rudolf Steiner, The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, Chapter 8, “The Lapse into Matter”, and Chapter 9, “Piercing the Thicket”, excerpts from Steiner’s lectures given at Dornach on 16 & 17 April 1921 … focus of the February 2 meeting.
Chapters 7, 8 & 9 in the book can be found online at the CRC’s website by clicking this link A transcript of the 16 April, 1921 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link A transcript of the 17 April, 1921 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing study conversation. The study has been divided among two volunteers who will summarize their section to rebuild it as a foundation for our conversation. Please familiarize yourself with the lecture if possible so you will feel comfortable sharing your reflections and thoughts with the group.This collection of lectures has been republished by Rudolf Steiner Press under the title: “The Mysteries of the Holy Grail — from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation.” The book was compiled and edited by Matthew Barton, published by Rudolf Steiner Press in 2010.
This will be a “Zoom” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer). To connect to the audio/video-conference:
Meeting ID: 882 1050 5106 One tap mobile +13017158592,,81116556762# US (Germantown) +13126266799,,81116556762# US (Chicago)
Dial by your location +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 882 1050 5106
7:15 Welcome and Introductions 7:18 Verse 7:25 Study led by volunteers Note: CRC team will ID volunteers Michael – Chapter 8 Camille – Chapter 9 7:50 Conversation 8:25 ID volunteers for next meeting 8:28 Close with verse There is a knighthood of the 21st century whose riders do not ride through the darkness of physical forests as of old, but through the forest of darkened minds. They are armed with a spiritual armor and an inner sun makes them radiant. Out of them shines healing, healing that flows from the knowledge of the human being as a spiritual being. They must create inner order, inner justice, peace and conviction in the darkness of our time. ~Karl Konig
