Ok so lets’ talk about the weather.

For me it is not an idle chit chat, no small talk – it is a way of observing & communicating with the elemental beings. What are they trying to say to us?

Because I make it a point to commune with these beings, in all weathers, I have always been fascinated with Ben Franklin who made a number of discoveries & tinkered with various inventions that had to do with Weather – a topic that continuously fascinated him.

He gave us the famous quote: “Some are weatherwise; some are otherwise.”

I don’t know much about what folks call ‘geo-engineering’ or weather warfare, or  electromagnetic weapons like HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) Some researchers go so far as to claim that HAARP technologies are used to cause earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, to disrupt global communications systems, etc…

These researchers point to major aspects of the program which are still kept secret for alleged reasons of “national security.” Yet the U.S. patent of a key developer of HAARP & other documentary evidence support these claims. And there is no doubt that electromagnetic weapons capable of being used in warfare do exist. The capability of influencing & yes controlling human emotions has been studied by the military & intelligence agencies of the world for many decades. Here is the abstract of U.S. patent number 5,159,703: “A silent communications system in which nonaural carriers, in the very low or very high audio frequency range or in the adjacent ultrasonic frequency spectrum, are amplitude or frequency modulated with the desired intelligence and propagated acoustically or vibrationally, for inducement into the brain, typically through the use of loudspeakers, earphones or piezoelectric transducers. The modulated carriers may be transmitted directly in real time or may be conveniently recorded and stored on mechanical, magnetic or optical media for delayed or repeated transmission to the listener.”

Ok so we could easily fall down the rabbit hole here. But I bring this up because of the strange weather we have been experiencing.

Yes, we know tornadoes happen, but not usually in December…At least 70 people were killed & countless homes destroyed when tornadoes — one of which traveled on the ground for a record 227 miles — swept across 6 states on December 10 & 11, 2021.

Then on Dec. 15^th approximately 100 million people were under a high-wind weather alert – stretching from eastern Arizona to upstate New York.

Wind gusts up to 100 mph, along with the unprecedented winter tornadoes, rain storms in Southern California, & in Colorado a wildfire risk – the severest in 20 years & simply unheard of for mid-December.

What was it like by you?

The National Weather Service has never issued a tornado watch or warning during the month of December. In fact, Minnesota has zero confirmed tornadoes on record during the month of December. Yet on Wednesday 15 Dec. there was 10 inches of snow on the ground on top of the tornado threat. The rare overlap of the tornado risk over deep snow cover leaves meteorologists wondering…

Meanwhile across the Plains & Upper Midwest we are experiencing Highs 20 to 40 degrees above average – we were in the mid 60’s when the big winds came our way on Wed. 15 December 2021.

Interesting to read that as far away as the Australian island state of Tasmania at the same time ‘a freak accident on the school field. While some schoolchildren were in the inflatable bouncy castle, the police said, “a significant” gust of wind sent it, flying into the air. Nine students plunged more than 30 feet to the ground, 5 were killed.’

During our Family Farm Initiative meeting last night Mark & Petra Zinniker spoke about how the high-winds were the elementals trying to get our attention.

And I woke up thinking about how during the laying of the Foundation Stone for the 1^st Goetheanum in 1913, Rudolf Grosse reported: “The sky had clouded over during the day & when we were all gathered, a great wind arose. Thunder rumbled in the distance, lightning again & again rent the darkness & the landscape seemed eerie”

And then I thought of how at the re-founding of the Anthroposophical Society during the Christmas Conference in December 1923, when Rudolf Steiner laid the Foundation Stone of Love into the hearts of the members, he included 3 times the phrase: “In East, West, North, South, May human beings hear it” – a call to acknowledge & listen to the elemental beings.

Friends, It’s time we hear it…

~hag

17 December 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Tonight is the eve of the Full Cold Moon, also called the Moon Before Yule, or the Long Night Moon.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

 ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Feast day of Lazarus – The biblical narrative of the raising of Lazarus is found in chapter 11 of the Gospel of John. Lazarus is introduced as a follower of Jesus, who lives in the town of Bethany near Jerusalem, the brother of Mary & Martha. The sisters send word to Jesus that Lazarus, “he whom thou lovest,” is ill. Instead of immediately traveling to Bethany, Jesus intentionally remains where he is for two more days before beginning the journey.

When Jesus arrives in Bethany, he finds that Lazarus is dead & has already been in his tomb for four days. He meets first with Martha & then Mary in turn. Martha laments that Jesus did not arrive soon enough to heal her brother &Jesus replies with the well-known statement, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die”. Later the narrator here gives the famous simple phrase, “Jesus wept”.

In the presence of a crowd of mourners, Jesus comes to the tomb. Over the objections of Martha, Jesus has them roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb & says a prayer. He then calls Lazarus to come out (“Come forth”) & Lazarus does so, still wrapped in his grave-cloths. Jesus then calls for someone to remove the grave-cloths, & let him go.

The narrative ends with the statement that many of the witnesses to this event “believed in him.” Others are said to report the events to the religious authorities in Jerusalem.

The Gospel of John mentions Lazarus again in chapter 12. Six days before the Passover on which Jesus is crucified, Jesus returns to Bethany & Lazarus attends a supper that Martha, his sister, serves. Jesus & Lazarus together attract the attention of many & the chief priests consider having Lazarus put to death because so many people are believing in Jesus on account of this miracle.

The miracle of the raising of Lazarus, the longest coherent narrative in John aside from the Passion, is the culmination of John’s “signs”. It explains the crowds seeking Jesus on Palm Sunday, & leads directly to the decision of Caiaphas & the Sanhedrin to kill Jesus.

It is notable that at John 11:11, after being told by His disciples to fear those who would kill Him, & after the parable about living in darkness, Jesus references his own parable & states that Lazarus sleeps, & that He will go “wake him up”. The disciples thought Jesus meant Lazarus was actually sleeping in verse 12. Then, in verse 14, Jesus speaks plainly & tells them that “Lazarus has died”. This is to be clear that Lazarus has died in the flesh, & is not sleeping or unconscious.

Lazarus is spoken of by Rudolf Steiner as becoming John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, & formerly as Hiram Abiff the Master Builder of Solomon’s Temple & Christian Rosenkreutz.

497 BC – The first Saturnalia festival was celebrated in ancient Rome.

1790 – The Aztec calendar stone is discovered at El Zócalo, Mexico City.

1819 – Simón Bolívar declares the independence of Gran Colombia in Venezuela. Gran Colombia was the most prestigious country in Spanish America. John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State & future president of the United States, claimed it to be one of the most powerful nations on the planet. This prestige, attracted to the nation unionist ideas of independence movements in Cuba, the Dominican Republic & Puerto Rico, which sought to form an associated state with the republic.

1862 –General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from parts of Tennessee, Mississippi, & Kentucky.

1830 – Death Day of Simón Bolívar, 2nd President of Venezuela

1833 – Deathday of Kaspar Hauser, the rightful Prince of Baden, died on this after a murder attempt on 12.12.1833

The individuality that hides behind the Kaspar Hauser veil is a being which worked inspiringly into the Rosicrucian connection from the beginning, and then on 29th September 1812, incarnated as the son of Grand Duke Karl of Baden and his wife Stephanie de Beauharnais. Kaspar Hauser had an important mission of esoteric Christianity to fulfil….It is not a question of who …Kaspar Hauser was, but of what was to have been achieved by [him].

According to these thoughts of Rudolf Steiner, to concern oneself with Kaspar Hauser is to concern oneself with the future. Steiner draws attention to when Kaspar incarnated : Michaelmas in the year 1812; where : Baden in southern Germany; and the importance of his mission. To the above indications he added that Kaspar Hauser had been an angelic being and that he had been unable to discover any previous incarnation of Kaspar Hauser since Atlantis.

It was in Karlsruhe on 25th January 1910 that Rudolf Steiner gave the first public lecture of which we have a record about the Second Coming of Christ, which would take place, not in the physical body but in the etheric world, the spiritual region where, according to Steiner , angelic beings are most active between the Earth and the Moon. He said that this would commence in the 1930s, citing especially the years 1933, 1935 and 1937, which was, incidentally, a century after the death and slandering of Kaspar Hauser. It was also in Karlsruhe the following year at Michaelmas, almost exactly 99 years after Kaspar’s birth, that Steiner compared for the first time the methods of the Rosicrucians with those of the Jesuits. In those same lectures of 1911 given at Kaspar Hauser’s birthplace, Rudolf Steiner revealed one of the most profound teachings of esoteric Christianity – that of the nature of the human ‘Phantom’, or the Resurrection body.

Karl Heyer reports the well-authenticated remark of Steiner ‘s that: “if Kaspar Hauser had not lived and died as he did, the contact between the earth and the heavenly would have been completely severed.” 

What was it that created the bridge that linked the second crucifixion and the second resurrection of Christ ? Steiner does not spell it out, but well over 100 years have now passed since the death of Kaspar Hauser, and so  we can now at least put the question: was it not the sacrificial life and death of the angelic being of Kaspar Hauser there in the land of the Germans, the crossroads region of the heart of Europe,  that built a spiritual bridge between heaven and earth at the time of Europe’s darkest materialism of mind and secured for mankind in the 20th century and for centuries afterwards the possibility of seeing the resurrected Etheric Christ?

And if Kaspar Hauser’s sacrificial life is so intimately related to this Second Crucifixion and Second Resurrection of Christ (Second Coming), does this not suggest that his spiritual significance is of a most profound and awesome nature? ~Terry Boardman

1873 – Birthday of Eleanor Charlotte Merry, an English poet, artist, musician & anthroposophist with a strong Celtic impulse & interest in esoteric wisdom. She studied in Vienna & met Rudolf Steiner in 1922 after becoming interested in his teachings. She went on to organize Summer Schools where Steiner gave lectures, & was secretary for the World Conference on Spiritual Science in London in 1928

Eleanor Charlotte Kynaston grew up in a liberal educational environment, her father being the well known classical scholar & professor of Ancient Greek, Herbert Snow aka Kynaston. It was only at the age of 13 that she began to attend a regular school. This was also when she began to take a passionate interest in music. Two years later, her father became Deacon of Durham, so Eleanor grew up close to the beautiful cathedral. She was able to read the manuscripts that were kept in the monastic library, walking up & down amongst the Norman columns of the cathedral & experienced something of a real, concrete history, something completely different from what she read in her schoolbooks. It was the myths & legends that captivated her, & she learned by heart Tennyson’s King Arthur.

The stream of scholars & theologians that entered their house fed her spiritual longings.

As she grew up, she sought a career as singer, wanting to study music & art. At 19, she left home for a course of study in Vienna, which led not only to a fine command of the German language & development of her musical skills but also placed her in a kind of artistic-aesthetic inner crisis. Soon after her return to England, she married the well-known Oxford surgeon Merry, to whose professional commitments Eleanor Merry was to devote much of her energy besides the rearing of their son & daughter.

She learnt about Theosophy at the beginning of World War I when a copy of the “Secret Doctrine” of H.P. Blavatsky was sent her by persons unknown. As she read it, she felt as if guided by some unseen hand, & studied further works of Annie Besant & other Theosophists. After the war, she was made aware of Rudolf Steiner’s Knowledge of the Higher Worlds. In January 1922 she met Daniel Nicol Dunlop in London for the first time. He was reading a lecture of Rudolf Steiner’s to the anthroposophical group there. A few months later, her husband died of pneumonia, after which she had her first personal conversation with DN Dunlop. Dunlop was still fired up with gratitude over his meeting with Rudolf Steiner some few weeks previously.

She took part in the conference “Spiritual Values in Education” in Oxford that August, where she met Rudolf Steiner personally for the first time. She saw him first in a corridor & by his gait & the manner in which he looked at her, she had the impression: “He knows where he is going.”

She assisted D.N. Dunlop in the preparation of the subsequent Summer School in Penmaenmawr the following year, where a further conversation with Rudolf Steiner took place in which he recommended to her the new techniques in painting that had been developed under his guidance. She was soon exhibiting publicly in London& elsewhere. He also advised her to form as strong a bond as possible with Dunlop. This summer school, devoted to the theme “The Evolution of Consciousness” was felt by Steiner to be a milestone in the development of the anthroposophical movement.

Eleanor was present at the founding of the new General Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland around New Year 1923/24.

The theme of the ensuing Summer School at Torquay in 1924, “True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation” (GA 243), stemmed from a conversation she had with Rudolf Steiner on this occasion.

In her further work in Britain after Rudolf Steiner’s death, she wholeheartedly supported D.N. Dunlop’s efforts to create an open, inclusive & at the same time spiritually founded continuation of the anthroposophical work. She acted as secretary of the anthroposophical World Conference in London of 1928 &wrote a play around the figure of King Arthur for the youth conference initiated by David Clement in Glastonbury in 1932. More immediately than anyone, she experienced the dramatic events affecting Daniel Dunlop between 1929, when he became General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain & the spring of 1935, when he was expelled from the General Anthroposophical Society & died a short while later. After his death, she maintained intimate friendships with her half-sister, Marna Pease, Walter Johannes Stein & particularly Eugen Kolisko, whom she helped to build up the School for Spiritual Science, wrote numerous articles for their magazine “The Modern Mystic“, & wrote down the biographical notes Kolisko dictated to her. In the 1940s she led a painting school together with Maria Schindler as well as working with her on the book Pure Colour (1946), leading to large public exhibitions.

Holiday Market at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 
4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago
18 December 2021 – from 11 am – 4 pm

Handcrafted gifts, décor & toys
Featuring Live Music, Puppetry & Candle Dipping!!!

If you would like to be a vendor contact Elizabeth Kelly 
eilisaineariadne@gmail.com

Thursday 23 December 2021 – The Eve of the Eve –
11 am PT / 12 pm MT / 1 pm CT / 2 pm ET / 7 pm UTC

A Christmas Festival with Christian Community Priest Rev. Jeana Lee, 
Movement with Lucien Dante Lazar 

‘Divine Love and the Holy Child Within’

This will be a hybrid in-person & Zoom event
Featuring our 2 camera technology with Mary Spalding

Doors open at 12:30 pm (Zoom Room open 12:45 pm for Social time)
Snacks to Share Encouraged

Suggested donation $15.00 – 
At the door or via the Rudolf Steiner Branch PayPal donation site –
*Please make a note on the first line – type in: “Christmas Fest”!
The Festival will be recorded

Time: Dec 23, 2021 01:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7052931041?pwd=Vk1XcDJqT0lKeHYzWXZJNlRYNlRvZz09
Meeting ID: 705 293 1041
Passcode: Christmas

For more info. Contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg 

The Epic of Gilgamesh
Storytelling during the Holy Nights 2021-2022
Hosted by the Anthroposophical Society in America 

”The purpose of a story is to be an ax that breaks up the ice within us.”
~ Franz Kafka

Click to Register! 

All around the world the season of midwinter is the traditional time for community bonding through storytelling. In laying the groundwork for the 100-year anniversary of the Christmas Conference, we bring the ancient Sumerian saga “The Epic of Gilgamesh” to life. Rudolf Steiner explored this story in Occult History during the Holy Nights of 1910; and again with the lectures “World History in the Light of Anthroposophy” given during those fateful Holy Nights in 1923 for the re-founding of the Society. 

The Epic of Gilgamesh is perhaps the oldest written tale on Earth. The Sumerian version dates from around 3000 B.C. Later it was compiled from 12 clay tablets written in Akkadian cuneiform. 

It is the “Hero’s Journey” of human evolution, a story of friendship, and a quest for the meaning of life – revealing Steiner’s core mission of bringing karma and reincarnation to the west. 

Myths, fairytales, historical epics, and sagas open us up to powerful archetypes behind the human condition, revealing clues to ourselves – from the past, the present, and the future. What will we uncover about ourselves and each other during this year’s Holy Nights adventure in storytelling?

Tune in for any or all of the episodes of this dramatic reading, re-worked by Hazel Archer from various translations, and featuring friends from around the world.

What: The Epic of Gilgamesh: Story Telling during the Holy Nights hosted by the ASA, Hazel Archer, and friends.

Time: 22 minutes daily at 9 am PT / 10 am MT / 11 am CT / 12 pm ET / 5 pm UTC

Dates:  December 24, 2021- January 5, 2022 for 13 consecutive days  
Can’t join us live? No problem. Each gathering will be recorded and posted on our Holy Nights page (link will be emailed upon registration).

How: Register Here!  Then check your email for confirmation with the Zoom registration link. 

Cost: This event is free with suggested donations of $25, $50, $100
Your donations help us create events like this one!
Register Here! 
www.anthroposophy.org/holynights

Eurythmy for the Holy Nights with Jan Ranck
‘Tuning to the Stars’:
Sacred Geometry, the Planets and the Zodiac

LIVE IN-PERSON 26-30 Dec. 2021
at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago 4 pm – 5 pm
And at 7pm on 31 Dec. as part of our Annual NYE Gathering (details below)

$100 for all 6 sessions, or $22 for each individual session.

Make your payment using the Rudolf Steiner Branch PayPal
or QuickPay with Zelle to chase@rschicago.org
(Please indicate in the notes that it is for the “Holy Nights Eurythmy”)

Cash at the door, or send a check to:
Rudolf Steiner Branch
4249 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60618-2953
USA

For more info. Contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg 

* Jan Ranck – Born in the USA, Jan Ranck studied music and comparative arts at Indiana University in Bloomington. She accompanied the London Stage Group on their 1976 USA tour and went on to study eurythmy at the Eurythmeum in Dornach with Lea van der Pals, where she subsequently taught. In 1984 she joined the faculty of The London School of Eurythmy. She left there to complete her eurythmy therapy training in Stuttgart in 1989, moving afterward to Israel, where she founded and directed the Jerusalem Eurythmy Ensemble (1990) and the Jerusalem Academy of Eurythmy (1992) and was an instructor in the Jerusalem Waldorf Teacher Bachelor Program in David Yellin Academic College from 1999. Jan has held Master Classes at various venues worldwide, including the Goetheanum and the MA Program in Eurythmy held at Emerson College and Spring Valley. She is the representative for Israel in the International Eurythmy Therapy Forum.

Friday 31 December 2021
Doors open at 6:30 pm 

Join us for our Annual NYE Conscious Community Gathering –
The Theme for 2022 is Cabaret – a Cultural Sharing!

All are invited to take the stage with an offering.

Circles Edge & other Waldorf alum will also perform

Please bring Food & Drink to share

$20 Cash at the door or Make your payment using the Rudolf Steiner Branch PayPal or QuickPay with Zelle to chase@rschicago.org
(Please indicate in the notes that it is for the “NYE”)

All proceeds go to support the Rudolf Steiner Branch – the young People hosting & The Band (Can’t make it? send a $ gift PayPal)

7 – 8 pm – Holy Nights Eurythmy with Jan Ranck (separate fee $22 see above)

8 pm – Potluck Social

8:30 pm – Circles Edge & Friends warm the stage & host the open mic

10:10 pm – Thought-Seed Circle

10:30 pm – Clean-up…;)

For more info. Contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg