“Evil does not stand opposite to Good, but opposite another Evil. Where do we find Good? We find it as the Golden Mean, the balance between the extremes of the two Adversaries. That is why the Archangel Micha’el is often represented with the scales in his hand. The formula of the Golden Mean … is the key to the mysteries of morality. We must be ‘served’ by Lucifer (Devil) – without the luciferic power, we should have no artistic gifts and no art – and we must also be ‘served’ by Ahriman (Satan), for we need material science and technology. But Man must stand in the middle, holding by the bridle, so to speak, the Beasts from the abysss in both directions. The problem of Evil, too, requires for it’s understanding a “trinitarian” approach.
The divine secret of the Three in One, once grasped in its significance, will solve all the riddles of existence, including that of Evil. What is the power that stands in the middle, and shows us the way between the Devil and Satan, between Lucifer and Ahriman? The phrase of the “Golden” Mean is itself worth its weight in gold: in the Middle is the Sun of the Spirit, the Golden Heart of the world, Christ Himself. And Micha’el is the Archangel of the Sun, and of Christ, because, as servant of the Golden Balance, he helps to overcome the Beasts.” ~Emil Bock, “The Apocalypse of St John”
Greetings Friends – This morning on the eve of ‘Daylight Saving Time’ in the twilight of a grey dawn, as I stand at the Great Inland Sea, I am greeted by a fine white mist, which spreads across the brown stubble stalks of wild grasses like a undulating blanket. The goddess Natura is resting; rocking in her dark womb the seeds of future growth. She rests also in our souls where we hold the seed of our future self.
What the forthcoming will bring seems covered by the darkening, yet if we dare to look into the dark, we see evidenced in the swirling mists a purposeful pulsing. In these longer nights our spiritual seeds seek to be nurtured, unbound, & cherished. Banking our inner light, we belong to ourselves; & when we consciously gestate this seed of Self in our busy lives, even if only for a few minutes every day, we can live with a deep knowing, that thru this dark season, & on into the future, which is shrouded in the darkness of time, we are becoming.
Helen Chamberlain
Everything changes. All life must fluctuate, like the scales of Libra, it cannot be fixed. Day & night, life & death, activity & quietness, the out-breath & the in-breath, are the swings of the pendulum, the rhythms which bear us thru the cycle of the year, & enable us to mature into our true being, when we cultivate the inner observer at the fulcrum of the scales. From this Christic mood we prepare the soil for the future fruits of soul to ripen.
~hag
6 November 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The young Moon returns – bringing her secrets from the underworld. Look for Bella Luna as a waxing crescent in the west after sunset. There you will find her in conversation with dazzling Venus (occult Mercury).
November evenings bring Venus (occult Mercury) Jupiter & Saturn following the ecliptic – the Sun’s path – across our sky, into view. ~earthsky
According to the Original Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner Today in the 4th Century Columba founded the spiritual center of Irish monks on Iona.
1860 – Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th President of the United States with only 40% of the popular vote, defeating John C. Breckinridge, John Bell, and Stephen A. Douglas in a four-way race.
William Centrey
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~The heart ripens like fruit… Falling from the tree it breaks open to share its seeds… Mingling with the earth, it rests, & dreams, of being sweet meat for the mouth of god ~hag
In thinking what we three (Angela Foster, Timothy Kennedy & me) would offer to the Sophia Community Circle for November, it fell together that we would write a love poem to Sophia.
1st offering From ~hag: When does the past Become the present? ~When the outside is within~ When does the poem Become a song? ~When the Virgin is free & fruitful~ And in the Speaking? Do the Stars move Us toward the future? ~Only when the riddle key unlocks a world Whitsun~ And in the Standing Between thinking & willing Can the spark of feeling Feed the font of Wisdom wrested ? ~Only when the Mother has washed the 7 veils into white garments~ Then Becomes Love Unbound… Homebound “on the boats of spirit-knowledge To awaken in human souls Isis-Sophia Wisdom of God”.
The 2nd poem fashioned by using pieces from all 3 poems:
I am writing a love poem for my Sophia. The 3 into 1 ~hag Am I a body In you Sculpting a grand canyon An outer shell easily removed With the art of living..? Your gravity calls. And in the standing I set out A walking ocean Sister-sized Smooth & butter-colored Split stillness Water-fall tossed Vast & never far away. What is your Will..? Is there room For wind & weaving in the dark – A riddle ripple in mediating rhythm Listening For the reflection Of humble stars & tragic paradoxes of Love..? Feed the font of Wisdom wrested Surrendering color to the light. Sing the sonnet of Spirit-Self – To wash the 7 veils white Be – Coming I pray Let my stream Of-consciousness bee Poem enough.
The 3rd communal Poem (only words that appeared in all 3 poems): To Sophia A Love poem Becoming Will Homebound Unbound In gravity A waterfall I am
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, sourced from ~historyextra, docuwiki, skyandtelescope,
Wolfgang Amadeus & his wife Constanze Weber
1783 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 is performed for the first time in Linz, Austria. The Linz Symphony was written during a stopover in the Austrian town of Linz on back home to Vienna from Salzburg with his wife. The entire symphony was written in four days to accommodate the local count’s announcement, upon hearing of the Mozarts’ arrival in Linz, of a concert.
1847 – Deathday of Felix Mendelssohn, a German composer, pianist, organist & conductor. His best-known works include his Overture & incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the oratorio Elijah, the overture The Hebrides, his mature Violin Concerto, & his String Octet. The melody for the Christmas carol “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is also his. Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions.
A grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn was born into a prominent Jewish family. He was brought up without religion until the age of seven, when he was baptized as a Reformed Christian. Felix was recognized early as a musical prodigy, but his parents were cautious & did not seek to capitalize on his talent.
1847 – Sir James Young Simpson, a Scottish physician, discovers the anaesthetic properties of chloroform
1922 – In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard Carter & Lord Carnarvon find the entrance to Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings. ~historyextra
Howard Carter stood before a sealed door blocking a dark corridor. Behind him stood his patron Lord Carnarvon. Both men knew that they were standing in the tomb of the 18th-Dynasty boy king Tutankhamun – the sealing on the now dismantled outer door had made that clear. But the outer door had also shown the unmistakable signs of more than one forced entry. Was Tutankhamun still lying undisturbed in his tomb? Or had the ancient robbers once again thwarted the modern archaeologists? Nervously, his hands trembling, Carter forced a small hole in the left hand corner of the doorway, lit a candle, and peered inside.
Howard Carter pushed a candle through a hole he had made in a sealed tomb door and peeked inside. “Can you see anything?”, he was asked. “Yes, wonderful things”.
The most magnificent treasure of all — the pharaoh’s burial mask.
Carter had just discovered the tomb of an obscure 18th dynasty pharaoh, Tutankhamun. Piled high with a dazzling array of treasures, the contents would stun the world.
Carter and his sponsor, Lord Carnarvon, had made the greatest discovery in the history of Egyptology — a fully intact 3000-year-old pharaoh’s tomb untouched by grave robbers.
The story was mesmerising. Henry Morton, the only journalist allowed on the excavation, filed a series of reports of Carter’s discoveries to the London Times. And they kept coming.
The tomb was so stuffed with treasures it took the team nearly 3 months to sort and catalog them all. But by February the next year, Carter and Carnarvon were ready to open the inner burial chamber that they hoped would contain the pharaoh himself.
Carter and Carnarvon at the entrance to the burial chamber
They were astonished by what they found — 3 solid gold coffins, nested inside of each other. Inside the final one was the mummy of boy king, Tutankhamun.
Shortly after the amazing discovery, tragedy struck. Lord Carnarvon fell ill and died after an insect bite went septic.
Rumours began to circulate that Carter and Carnarvon had found stone tablets in Tutankhamun’s tomb inscribed with a curse. Had Carnarvon been struck down by a pharaoh’s spell for daring to desecrate his burial place?
Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, thought so. Ironically for a man associated with the logical detective, Doyle was an ardent believer in the supernatural and declared that Carnarvon was struck dead for daring to disturb the young king.
Was this simply early tabloid sensationalism and wild imaginations or did a sinister curse doom those who dared enter the pharaoh’s last resting place?
Even before Carnarvon’s death, there was talk of impending doom.
The day Carter first discovered the entrance to the tomb, a cobra got into his house and killed his pet canary. Pharaohs were represented by the cobra, and Carter’s workers felt it an omen — do not enter.
Best-selling novelist Marie Corelli, quoting an ancient Arabic manuscript, told the press that — “the most dire punishment follows any rash intruder into a sealed tomb”.
Carter also received a rash of letters warning him not to proceed. The archeologist dismissed it all as nonsense, but when his benefactor Carnarvon died shortly later it sent the press into a frenzy.
It wasn’t entirely clear how he died, although the suggestion was that a mosquito bite had become infected when Carnarvon accidently nicked it whilst shaving. After a delirious fever, he succumbed on April 5th, 1923.
Carter, centre and Carnarvon, centre right, with party
More details emerged that encouraged the speculation. The night of his death, there was a black-out in Cairo and reportedly Carnarovan’s dog back in England let out a howl and dropped dead.
The press around the world had become obsessed by the idea Carnarvon was killed by a pharaoh’s curse. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle publically endorsed the idea.
A Los Angeles Times leader wrote — “No matter how little superstitious a man may be, the act of breaking the rest so carefully guarded through the centuries must cause an emotion which time can never efface”.
More deaths were to follow. A few weeks after Carnarvon’s death, Carter gave wealthy financier George J Gould a private tour of he tomb. Soon after, Gould came down with a fever and died.
Other early tomb visitors died violent or strange deaths within the year. Prince Ali Kemal Fahmy Bey and South African millionaire Woolf Joel were both murdered and British MP Aubrey Herbert went blind and died of blood poisoning.
Carter and his workers remove the treasures
Hebert’s death was particularly tragic for the Carnarvon family as he was Lord Carnarvon’s half brother. He had reported on entering the burial chamber — “something dreadful is going to happen to our family”.
Perhaps the press were right? Within months, a disparate group of characters from around the world were all dead after visiting the tomb.
The following year, 1924, would only fuel the speculation. In January, Sir Archibald Douglas-Reid, who had x-rayed King Tutankhamun’s body, died from a mysterious illness.
H. E. Evelyn-White was next. The young British archeologist was one of the first to enter the tomb after Carter. After writing — “I have succumbed to a curse” in his own blood, he hung himself.
Sir Lee Stack, governor of Sudan, was also amongst the earliest visitors to the pharaoh’s tomb. Later that year he too met a violent end, shot dead on the streets of Cairo by an assassin.
The next year one of the most peculiar stories surrounding the curse hit the news-stands. Howard Carter had given his close friend, Sir Bruce Ingham, a paperweight made from a mummified hand wearing a scarab bracelet.
The dig site has notable visitors from all around the world.
Inscribed upon the bracelet were the words — “cursed be he who moves my body. To him shall come fire, water and pestilence”. Soon after, Ingham’s house burnt down. When it was rebuilt, it flooded.
In 1926, George Benedite of the Louvre museum died shortly after visiting the tomb. Another Egyptologist, Aaron Ember, also died that year in a curious fire at his home.
After Howard Carter himself, the main archeologist to excavate Tutankhamun’s tomb was A. C. Mace. Mace spent years on the dig and co-authored the first book about discovery with Carter.
In 1928, after complaining of increasing weakness, he collapsed. He died shortly later, seemingly of arsenic poisoning, in the same hospital as Lord Carnarvon.
1929 saw two particularly strange deaths. As Howard Carter’s personal secretary, Richard Bethell was present at the opening of the burial chamber in 1923. He was found in November, smothered to death in his bed.
The press blamed Westbury’s suicide on the curse
A few months later, Bethel’s father Baron Westbury jumped from his seventh floor flat in a delirium. The flat contained artifacts from the dig, obtained by his late son. Westbury’s suicide note read — “I really cannot stand any more horrors and hardly see what good I am going to do here, so I am making my exit”.
Finally in 1929, Lord Carnarvon’s other half brother died from ‘malarial pneumonia’.
Within 6 years of the discovery, Carnarvon, both his half brothers, Carter’s chief archeologist, his personal secretary and his father, the excavation’s radiologist and at least half a dozen other prominent individuals who visited the tomb were all dead.
Carter examines the coffin.
Was it down to vivid imaginations and a lot of coincidences, or did this rash of deaths have a more sinister cause?
Perhaps we don’t need to suppose any supernatural source for the ‘curse’. Could there be a more scientific answer?
The ‘curse’ of Tutankhamun was still claiming victims 70 years on. But this time it pointed to a scientific solution to the mystery.
Sheryl Munsun died in 1995 of respiratory failure, a few weeks after visiting Tutankhamun’s tomb. Munson didn’t just visit the tomb, she touched the walls and run her fingers across the paint.
Back home, she fell ill. Her immune system, already weakened by a battle with cancer, had become overrun by spores or a toxic fungus — Aspergillus Niger.
Doctors were baffled. Could there be any connection to her recent trip to Egypt? The suspicion wasn’t entirely new.
After Carnarvon’s death, American politicians had ordered an immediate investigation into mummies to see if they posed the same medical threat apparent in the tomb.
Potentially deadly fungus was found on the tomb walls
Arthur Conan Doyle, when not proposing supernatural sources, suggested the curse may be down to the pharaohs deliberately booby trapping their tomb walls with poisons.
Howard Carter, unaware of any potential danger, first noted patches of fungus on walls of the burial chamber in 1923 and experts say such mould and fungus is not uncommon.
“When you think of Egyptian tombs, you have not only dead bodies but foodstuffs — meats, vegetables, and fruits”, said Jennifer Wegner, an Egyptologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia.
“It certainly may have attracted insects, molds, and bacteria. The raw material would have been there thousands of years ago”.
Other studies of ancient mummies have shown they too can carry mold and bacteria, two of which — Aspergillus Niger and Aspergillus Flavus, are potentially deadly.
Traces of toxic mold and fungus has been found on Egyptian mummies
These molds can cause allergic reactions ranging from congestion to bleeding in the lungs and are particularly harmful to people, like Carnarvon, with weakened immune systems.
French physician Dr. Caroline Stenger-Philippe, in her doctoral thesis for the Strasbourg School of Medicine in 1985, linked 6 of the Tutankhamun deaths to a severe allergic reaction to the mould.
Stenger-Philippe claimed the victims were stricken with allergic alveolitis, an inflammation of the tiny air chambers in the lungs, and died of pulmonary insufficiency.
Further dangers have been found inside sealed sarcophagi. Ammonia gas, formaldehyde and hydrogen sulfide have all been detected, which in strong enough concentrations can cause burning of the eyes and nose, pneumonia-like symptoms and even death.
Lord Carnarvon was already ill before the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, injured in a bad car crash the previous year. The next victim — George J Gould, was also already weakened by illness at the time
Did exposure to toxic mold hasten their deaths?
Perhaps a supernatural curse did exist of a fashion — in the minds of its victims. Often ascribed to the invention of journalists, the public imagination in the 1920s was very receptive to the idea of curses.
This was a far more credulous and superstitious time, and tales of horror and dark goings-on in foreign lands were immensely popular. Could it be some of those that died simply believed the curse to be real, and this hastened their deaths?
With the media hype so strong about the ‘curse of the pharaohs’, there is evidence at least some of the deaths were influenced by the belief they had succumbed to it
The idea of ancient curses was in the popular imagination at the time
Evelyn-White’s grisly suicide is the most obvious candidate. A young archeologist who visited the tomb in 1923, he left a note, supposedly written in his own blood, complaining that he was cursed.
Although Evelyn-White had a troubled private life, could the fact he visited Tutankhamun’s burial chamber have made him believe his troubles were caused by the much-vaunted curse?
Another suicide ascribed by some to the curse was Baron Westbury, who jumped from a 7th-floor balcony to his death in 1930. His suicide note complained about ‘the horrors’.
Westbury’s son, Richard Bethel, was the second man to enter the burial chamber, after Carter himself. Just months earlier he had died in strange and violent circumstances.
Did Westbury believe he, too, was doomed and take matters into his own hands?
“Death Shall Come on Swift Wings To Him Who Disturbs the peace of the king”.
Rumours that Carter had found those words inscribed in the burial chamber were never substantiated, and Carter himself always denied it. However, ancient Egyptians did sometimes leave curses in their tombs.
The tomb of Khentika Ikhekhi contains an inscription — “As for all men who shall enter this my tomb… impure… there will be judgment… an end shall be made for him… I shall seize his neck like a bird… I shall cast the fear of myself into him.”
Another Old Kingdom curse reads “Cursed be those who disturb the rest of a Pharaoh. They that shall break the seal of this tomb shall meet death by a disease that no doctor can diagnose.”
Arthur Conan Doyle encouraged talk of a curse
Some mastaba walls in Giza and Saqqara were also inscribed with curses meant to scare off tomb robbers.
This inspired Little Women writer Louisa May Alcott to write one of the first mummy’s curse stories, in her long forgotten 1869 book “Lost in a Pyramid, or The Mummy’s Curse”. ~historyextra
Tutankhamun’s golden funeral mask. Getty Images
1924 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female elected as governor in the United States.
1966 – The Arno River floods Florence, Italy, to a maximum depth of 22 ft. leaving thousands homeless and destroying millions of masterpieces of art and rare books. Also Venice was submerged on the same day at its record all-time acqua alta of 76 in.
1973 – The Netherlands experiences the firstCar-Free Sunday caused by the 1973 oil crisis. Highways are used only by cyclists &roller skaters.
1979 – Iran hostage crisis: A group of Iranian college students overruns the U.S. embassy in Tehran and takes 90 hostages.
1980 – Ronald Reagan is elected the 40th President of The United States, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter.
1995 – Israel-Palestinian conflict: Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated by an extremist Israeli.
2002 – Chinese authorities arrest cyber-dissident He Depu for signing a pro-democracy letter to the 16th Communist Party Congress.
2008 – Barack Obama becomes the first person of biracial or African-American descent to be elected President of the United States.
‘Tuning to the Stars’: Eurythmy for the Holy Nights with Jan Ranck* – 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 8pm on 31 Dec. as part of our annual NYE Conscious Community Gathering (details TBA)
$100 for all 6 sessions, or $22 for each individual session. Make your payment using 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 hag@RSchicago.org
* 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.
And so the season spins: 1st there’s All Hallows – October 31, then comes All Saints – November 1st, & thirdly All Souls – November 2. This sacred time out of time, set aside for millennium with various names & cultural traditions to honor the dead, has somehow gotten mixed up with election day which is always the 1st Tuesday (Mars Day) in November. Yes, friends, ‘the powers that be’ recognize & seek to optimize the forces available at this time of the thinning of the veils.
The New Yorker
It is up to us to reclaim these forces from the spiritual world, not for power over, but for the good of all – on both sides of the threshold.
Darleen Jentelle
And today is the eve of the New Moon. In the olden days, ‘Earthshine’ was called “the old Moon in the new Moon’s arms.” The imagination of the Dark Moon time is that of an initiation, a going into the underworld to glean the secrets of death & rebirth.
Phil Vance
We are deep into the Michaelmas season – Michael holding the countenance of the Being of Love, born of the Sophia – which we must also gestate during the dark of the year – for this season encompasses the All Souls-Tide, lifting the veil between the worlds, where the co-called-dead & the unborn dwell. Bringing these forces to bear within us – into the healing of Martinmas, Thanksgiving, & Advent – & on into the rebirth of the Light.
Dex Nordern
In our striving to understand the Being of Anthroposophia we are called to explore & embody Science, Art & Spirituality. To be spiritual scientists, researchers, practitioners – training & transforming our soul forces – using the arts to express the spirit.
Margarita Kareva
Today for the Sophia Community Circle my friends Angela Foster, Timothy Kennedy & I are offering love poems to Sophia. I find that the tone of my love poem changes every day, in every moment, a continual shifting & lifting of the veil with the seasons.
3 November 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The old Moon and Mercury appear close together on these cold mornings. The stars Arcturus and Spica are also visible at either side of the messenger of the gods.
~She is the early light & the purpose of the dark Who Is The hidden wisdom of The Logos renewed… She will Rattle the seeds of the sistrum To awaken anew A brilliant moment in eternity: Today I will Lift Her veil… ~hag
The Holy Grail Study Group with the CRC Mysteries of the Holy Grail – from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation November 3, 2021 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)
“Where, then, is the Grail, which today bears the name of Parzival? Where can it be found? In the course of my research it had become apparent that the name must be sought in the stellar script. And then, in a day which I must regard as specially significant for me, I was shown where the gold-gleaming vessel is to be found in reality, so that through it – through its symbolical expression in the stellar script – we are led to the secret of the Grail. And then I saw in the stellar script something that anyone can see – only he will not immediately discern the secret. For one day, while I was observing the gold-gleaming sickle of the moon in inner vision, as this appears in the heavens, with the dark moon like a great disk dimly visible within it, it dawned on me: with physical sight one could see the gold-gleaming moon – ganganda greida, the journeying viaticum – and within it the large host, the dark, wafer-like disc. This is not to be seen if one merely glances superficially at the moon, but it is evident if one looks closely – and there, in wonderful letters of the occult script, was the name Parzival!”~Rudolf Steiner, The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, Chapter 5, “Seeking for Signs of Parzival”, excerpts from Steiner’s lectures given at Leipzig on 1 January 1914 … focus of the November 3 meeting.
These chapters from the book can be found online at the CRC’s website by clicking this link A transcript of the 1914 Torquay lectures can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this linkThe 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 Camille – pg. 32 to 37 Marianne – pg. 38 to 43 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
‘Tuning to the Stars’: Eurythmy for the Holy Nights with Jan Ranck* – 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 8pm on 31 Dec. as part of our annual NYE Conscious Community Gathering (details TBA)
$100 for all 6 sessions, or $22 for each individual session. Make your payment using 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 hag@RSchicago.org
* 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.
On this All Hallows Eve, do you have the courage to look beyond the mask of the material world, into the spirit realm, the place of our beginning, the time of our unborness, the abode of our ending, when we shuffle off this mortal coil, only to begin again & yet again, as we strive toward the eternal…?
Mat Bouten
Take heart my friends, for every ending is a new beginning. At All Hallows–tide we stand at the Cross Quarter between Autumn Equinox & Winter Solstice, a time when great transformations are possible. Since with the veils between the worlds so thin, the power of all the worlds are available to us.
Ulrich Osterloh
What is it like to bring awareness to this most important human initiation, this true rite-of-passage? Can we work to consciously “Cross the Threshold”, as we do in meditation, in sleep & ultimately in our life between death & rebirth..?
Katlyn Breene
As far back as ancient Persia, Mesopotamia & Sumeria, we find many initiation myths like the Epic of Gilgamesh, & the Descent of Inanna, that describe communicating with the dead & a journey to the underworld.
In Ancient Egypt we find: The Book of the Dead = ‘Book of Coming Forth by Day’ also called the ‘Book of Emerging Forth into the Light’; an ancient Egyptian funeral text illustrated with vignettes depicting the deceased & their journey in the afterlife. It was placed in the coffin or burial chamber. The Book consists of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person’s journey through the Duat, or underworld, & into the afterlife. It was written by many priests over a period of over a 1000 years.
Perhaps since in our time now we are recapitulating this epoch we might gain insight by looking into this text with modern eyes.
From ancient Greece we have the story of Demeter & Persephone, as Queen of the Underworld, connected to the secret festival of Thesmophoria, celebrated exclusively by the women. They dressed in white robes & observed strict chastity before & after the ceremony. According to Greek mythology, Demeter’s daughter, Persephone, was gathering flowers one autumn day when she was taken by Pluto, god of the underworld, to his subterranean kingdom. This was re-enacted as an initiation rite of death & resurrection. The 2nd night the women fasted & lowered wild boar, sacred to the goddess Circe & Hecate, into chasms in the earth as a sacrifice.
Francis Davis Millet
On the 3rd night the bones from former festivals were placed on altars & mixed with seed corn, which was then sown in the fields as a kind of magical fertilizer to ensure a good crop. Then they had a big feast. They would also cast herbs on their beds & sit on the ground to promote the fertility of the corn.
Although this festival was sacred & solemn, there was a lot of rather bawdy jokes in the style of the wild Crone Baubo, the sexually liberated Goddess of Mirth, who jested with Demeter to try & cheer her up after the loss of her daughter, & get her to bring fertility back to the earth again.
Paul Sérusier
The Romans had a similar festival in honor of Ceres. Also with the Eleusinian mysteries, we see initiation rites enacted to gain inspiration from the gods & the ancestors.
Robin Samiljan
Traditionally, the hunters are out in force. After the end of the breeding season, & before the severe weather comes to kill off many of these creatures anyway, they were taken for the cooking-pot, to supplement what might otherwise be a rather meager winter diet.
With all this death around, it is not surprising that people’s thoughts turned to human death.
The Celtics call All Hallows Eve or Samhain their New Year. Autumn is also the time of the Islamic New Year. Likewise for the Jewish people, with their New Year Rosh Hashanah; & at the end of the High Holy days Sukkot is celebrated, where they build a hut & invite the ancestors & the elemental beings to come to the feast. When you think about it, it makes sense to let the old year die away like the plant life, during this transition into the dark.
It is also traditional to look toward the future, & to dress up as what you want to Become for the New Year. To ask questions, like: Who have I been? Who am I now? & where am I going…? Who do I want to become?
And these are the kind of questions we can ask our beloved dead.
Paul Serisr
In Wales the souls of the dead are known as ‘the Silent Company’, but when they are welcomed with bwyd cennad y meinv, “the food for the embassy of the dead.” They become our helpers.
We can think of our ancestral allies in 3 ways:
1. Ancestors of the Blood – A common ancestral guide is a relative whom you knew & had some kind of positive connection with in this lifetime, quite often a loving grandparent or great-grandparent.
2. Ancestors of the Soul – This is an ancestral guide from a past life who may have been some kind of teacher or mentor to you.
3. Ancestors of Humanity – These were heroes whose lives were dedicated to the service of human evolution, like Casper Hauser or Jeanne d’Arc. They can be called upon in times of crisis, as Dion Fortune & her group called upon King Arthur & Merlin during the 2nd World War.
Terri Fenny
Dear friends, let’s take this opportunity to part the veil – letting go of our sense bound thinking, to consciously work with our spiritual helpers in this time of need. Let us set the table with our intention to join together in communion to celebrate the feast of life in all its aspects; as we build a picture of wholeness on the inner planes, which will ray out into all worlds.
~hag
31 October 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The constellation Orion, accompanied by the Witch Head Nebula, rises from the eastern horizon before midnight on Halloween. Scientists think it might be an ancient supernova remnant. The Witch Head Nebula is categorized as a reflection nebula, or one that shines with the aid of a nearby star. In this case, Rigel shines its bright light on the gas and dust to create the reflection that we see. The dust reflects more blue light than red, which gives it its eerie purplish-blue hue. ~earthsky
RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler ALL HALLOWTIDE II The Ripening Of Creative Powers v31 The light from spirit depths strives outwards like the sun, becomes life’s strength of will and shines in senses’ dullness to liberate the forces that ripen creative powers in human work the soul initiates.
The first day of All-hallows-tide, observed until November 7 (Western Christianity)
Halloween (Ireland, Canada, United Kingdom, United States etc…)
Hop-tu-Naa is a Celtic festival celebrated in the Isle of Man on 31 October. Predating Halloween, it is the celebration of the original New Year’s Eve (Oie Houney). It is thought to be the oldest unbroken tradition in the Isle of Man
Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season & the beginning of winter or the “darker half” of the year. It is the cross quarter between the autumn equinox & the winter solstice.
The Mound of the Hostages, a Neolithic passage tomb at the Hill of Tara, is aligned with the Samhain sunrise. It is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature & many important events in Irish mythology happen or begin on Samhain.
It was the time when cattle were brought back down from the summer pastures & when livestock were slaughtered for the winter. As at Beltane, special bonfires were lit.
Like Beltane, Samhain was seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world & the Otherworld could more easily be crossed. This meant the Aos Sí, the ‘spirits’ or ‘fairies’, could more easily come into our world. Offerings of food & drink were left outside for them.
The souls of the dead were also thought to revisit their homes seeking hospitality. Feasts were had, at which the souls of dead kin were beckoned to attend & a place set at the table for them.
Mumming & guising were part of the festival, & involved people going door-to-door in costume (or in disguise), often reciting verses in exchange for food.
Divination rituals & games were also a big part of the festival.
The first day of the Day of the Dead, celebrated until November 2 (Spanish: Día de Muertos) The multi-day holiday focuses on gatherings of family to pray for & remember members who have died, & help support their spiritual journey.
Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars called ofrendas, honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, & the favorite foods & beverages of the departed, & visiting graves with these as gifts. Visitors also leave possessions of the deceased at the graves.
Scholars trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances dating back hundreds of years and to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl. The holiday has spread throughout the world, being absorbed within other deep traditions for honoring the dead.
683 – During the Siege of Mecca, the Kaaba, catches fire & burns down. The literal meaning of the Arabic word ka`bah (كَعْبَة) is “cube”, or “House of God”, considered the most sacred site in Islam, a similar role to the Tabernacle & Holy of Holies in Judaism.
503 years ago, on Oct. 31, 1517, the story goes, that the small-town monk, Martin Luther, marched up to the castle church in Wittenberg & nailed his ‘95 Theses’ to the door, lighting the flame of the Reformation — the split between the Catholic & Protestant churches. Luther’s act is one of the cornerstones of world history, & remains a lasting symbol of resistance.
Nearly all of American history bears the imprint of that act of protest. Luther’s challenge, the protection he obtained, & the reformers he inspired laid the foundation for the establishment of colonial America.
In 1934, an African American pastor from Georgia made the trip of a lifetime, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, through the gates of Gibraltar, and across the Mediterranean Sea to the Holy Land. After this pilgrimage, he traveled to Berlin, attending an international conference of Baptist pastors. While in Germany, this man — who was named Michael King — became so impressed with what he learned about the reformer Martin Luther that he decided to do something dramatic. He offered the ultimate tribute to the man’s memory by changing his own name to Martin Luther King. His 5-year-old son was also named Michael — and to the son’s dying day his closest relatives would still call him Mike — but not long after the boy’s father changed his own name, he decided to change his son’s name too, & Michael King Jr. became known to the world as Martin Luther King Jr.
Another dynamic measure of the influence of Martin Luther is the quintessentially modern idea of the individual — of our personal responsibility before ourselves & our God, rather than before any institution, whether church or state. This was as unthinkable before Luther. The contemporary idea of “The People,” along with the democratic impulse that proceeds from it – The more recent ideas of pluralism, religious liberty, & self-government all entered history through the door that Luther opened.
Luther’s second unyielding act of courage was at the ‘imperial diet’ held in the city of Worms in 1521, when he made it clear that he feared God’s judgment more than the judgment of church leaders in that room.
And suddenly the individual had the freedom & possibility of thinking for themselves.
Martin Luther was not inclined to tilt at papal windmills. In fact, until about 1520 he was a vigorous champion of the church. He desired desperately to help Rome elude the fate it ended up experiencing. In fact, in a case of Oedipusian irony he became the very man who brought about everything he had hoped to avoid. As his story illustrates, it was a sublime & ridiculous decoction of forces that created the perfect storm that burst over the European continent, creating what we now call the Reformation.
Today the Catholic & Lutheran churches are taking the memory of 1517 in hand. Pope Francis joined leaders of the Lutheran World Federation in Sweden to hold a joint service in a spirit of unity after 500 years of division.
1517 – Deathday of Fra Bartolomeo, Italian artist
1984 – Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh security guards. Riots break out in New Delhi & other cities – 4,000 Sikhs are killed.
***
Joen Trimmster
POD (Poem Of the day)
~My soul duels with worms Hidden in the clay of being That would gnaw the scroll of mythos Witch I carry in my heart whole & speak thru the living word… No worries I will cut bait & continue singing… ~hag
Look for me there, in the dark…
Homework: Dress up as who you want to be in the coming year
Today in the Windy-City, on this Eve of All Hallows Eve the grey rain is pulling the leaves off the trees. Crumpled brown oak leaves, yellow fans from the chestnuts & gingko, bright red Japanese maples, & the rich gold of beech lie in heaps like the embers of Summer’s fire.
A tree in Summer is shaped like the alchemical symbol for Fire, the upward-pointing triangle or pyramid. It spreads its leaves & reaches up to absorb the Sun’s rays, transforming light into food through the process of photosynthesis.
At All Hallows-tide, the life-force returns to the roots: energetically it becomes the downward-pointing triangle, symbol of Water. Now the tree’s work is different, but every bit as important as in the growing season. Fallen leaves protect soil from being washed away by winter snow. They also provide a veritable feast for insects & micro-organisms who break them down & increase the availability of nutrients to the soil & roots of the tree.
Trees teach us the importance of releasing, knowing that each one of our past experiences – whatever they may be – ‘good or bad’, has the potential of enriching the soil of the soul.
Burlie Bacster
The fire of the great Spiritual Sun that powers our evolutionary journey through countless lifetimes now goes deep within to be absorbed & transformed in the cauldron of winter’s inward light. In Irish & Scottish tradition, where this festival is known as Samhain, meaning Summer’s end – the end of the light half of the year, this cauldron is stirred by the Cailleach, the Dark Goddess, & it is thru her alchemy that we are “cooked” to provide nourishment for another cycle of soul-growth.
Richard Waitt
I ran across an article today in Atlas Obscura about how Irish families fixed charms not only using trees, but onto all kinds of vegetables to be served up during the All Souls Season: colcannon, potato, cabbage, kale, & onion mash. This I knew – BUT – I had never heard of the ‘kale-based Halloween rituals’ practiced across the British Isles. That’s right kale! – How Scottish youths sneak onto local farms or into their neighbors’ gardens at midnight, blindfold each other, pull stalks of kale from the ground, then ‘read them’, analyzing their length & girth, the quality of their cores – the amount of dirt caked onto them – to divine what kind of partner they’ll marry. According to folklore some folks hung kale over their door overnight, & then placed it under their pillow to prompt prophetic dreams. Children who wanted a little sister or brother could place a stalk of kale outside their parents’ door to nudge a sibling into being.
Popular accounts describe these ritual divination games as ancient Celtic practices, but the first clear evidence of blindfolded midnight kale picking in Scotland crops up (haha) in a 1769 travelogue – it was also featured in Scottish literary hero Robert Burns’s 1785 poem “Hallowe’en”. From there, it pops up frequently in regional folklore collections.
Scottish newspapers talked about people in Halloween parades wielding kale stalks topped with candles as torches. Kale – a uniquely hearty crop, with its cousin cabbage, were two crops even the poorest folk could reliably grow. Halloween of course falls during the traditional cabbage & kale harvest season. In Scotland, kale was so ubiquitous that home gardens are still often called kaleyards. The bells of St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh tolling at noon were known as the ‘kale bell’ – calling workers in for their midday meal.
There are a tons of other Halloween divination traditions based on matchmaking using common foods, such as cracking egg whites into water or dropping apple peels onto the ground (to form your beloved’s initials). Bobbing for apples – a homage to the harvesting of the apple trees – was all about getting potential suitors up close & personal.
Of course, in America Halloween became a children’s holiday, focused on juvenile pranks & candy. And so unless we tune in again to our ancestors, & honor the natural world, this Holy Season meant to communicate with the so-called-dead, who are in the O so near spiritual world, along with those souls waiting to be reborn – is left loveless & kale-less…
~see you in the kaleyard…
Xox
~hag
30 October 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Find Perseus with the help of the constellation Cassiopeia the Queen. Cassiopeia’s distinctive M or W shape is ascending in the northeast on Northern Hemisphere autumn evenings, with Perseus following. Cassiopeia and Perseus travel together in a great arc around the northern sky. Be sure to look for the star Algol, sometimes called the Ghoul Star or Demon Star…to reminder to tame those forces during this All Hallows time…
Sophie Takata
Here is a short video offering of ‘Michaelmas as a Festival of the Future’given as part of the Applied Anthroposophy Chrysalis Group: ‘The Cycle of the Year as a Path of Initiation into the New Mysteries’ with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg and Nancy Melvin.
“Where, then, is the Grail, which today bears the name of Parzival? Where can it be found? In the course of my research it had become apparent that the name must be sought in the stellar script. And then, in a day which I must regard as specially significant for me, I was shown where the gold-gleaming vessel is to be found in reality, so that through it – through its symbolical expression in the stellar script – we are led to the secret of the Grail. And then I saw in the stellar script something that anyone can see – only he will not immediately discern the secret. For one day, while I was observing the gold-gleaming sickle of the moon in inner vision, as this appears in the heavens, with the dark moon like a great disk dimly visible within it, it dawned on me: with physical sight one could see the gold-gleaming moon – ganganda greida, the journeying viaticum – and within it the large host, the dark, wafer-like disc. This is not to be seen if one merely glances superficially at the moon, but it is evident if one looks closely – and there, in wonderful letters of the occult script, was the name Parzival!”~Rudolf Steiner, The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, Chapter 5, “Seeking for Signs of Parzival”, excerpts from Steiner’s lectures given at Leipzig on 1 January 1914 … focus of the November 3 meeting.
These chapters from the book can be found online at the CRC’s website by clicking this link A transcript of the 1914 Torquay lectures 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:
Video Conference Details: Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88210505106 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 Camille – pg. 32 to 37 Marianne – pg. 38 to 43 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
‘Tuning to the Stars’: Eurythmy for the Holy Nights with Jan Ranck* – 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 8pm on 31 Dec. as part of our annual NYE Conscious Community Gathering (details TBA)
$100 for all 6 sessions, or $22 for each individual session. Make your payment using 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 hag@RSchicago.org
* 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.
