Resurrect the God-Bearer

August 14, 2023Festival, History~hag

~Michael O’Brien

Tomorrow, August 15th is the Feast of the Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary as the Theotokos (Greek: Θεοτόκος) “God-Bearer“. This mysterious event, which represents the 1st fruits of the Resurrection, comes during what the Farmers call the Season of Lammas / Loaf-mass – the Cross-Quarter time between, the Summer Solstice (St. John’s) & the Fall Equinox (Michaelmas) – when John Barleycorn is cut & ground to make our bread; it is a time of sacrifice, of death, in service to life; a time when we leave the sleepiness of Summer, to begin the conscious work of harvest.

We see this same theme of life & death in the Festival sacred to the Celtic Solar-Savoir-god Lugh, called Lughnasdh, which is drawn from his name associated with light, & nasdh which means, death – The ancient prefiguring of the decrease of John the Baptist & the increase of the Spiritual Sun thru sacrifice.

Celebrated with athletic competitions as a ‘Funeral Feast’ = Funeral Games – to commemorate the death of the earth goddess, Tailtiu who represents the dying vegetation which is offered up to feed humankind. The physical Sun forces die & are taken up into the substance of earth – becoming the fruits of the 2nd harvest –

The image of the scythe cutting down the ripened grains to be fashioned by human hands into the bread of life – to fortify us as we move into the unfolding of the Spiritual Forces of the Sun that we have to consciously take up as we progress into the dark of the year…

Also as we have mentioned, at this Cross-Quarter time we experience the Perseid meteor showers – our wake-up call – so we can activate & forge the iron in our blood for the battle that takes place at Michaelmas.

It is a powerful contemplation to see Michaelmas as a reversed Easter festival. Easter reveals 1st: the Mystery of Death, (conscious sacrifice) -then Resurrection, (transformation).

Michaelmas, a festival of the future-now, gives us 1st: a Resurrection of our soul forces, thru the awakening of our heart-thinking – then a Conscious Death, the courage to make a mindful sacrifice; to give up nature consciousness to achieve Self-Consciousness & ultimately to sacrifice the little self – to gain Spirit Consciousness – “Not me, but Christ in me”

And the Dormition or Feast of the Assumption is a symbol of this Sacrifice: a Conscious Death; the transformation that makes it possible to go into the spiritual world awake. –

The life of The God Bearer show us a way to live a life that prepares us for a worthy death, which is a revolution, like the sacrifice the caterpillar makes to become a butterfly. A Conscious Death in the physical world is a Resurrection into the Spiritual World.

So today, on this eve of the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, we have an opportunity to remember that thru our work with Anthroposophy, individually & in community, we too can re-emerge like the butterfly, enlivened by an Inner Sun, fortified by cosmic iron from the stars, ready to work with Michael & the being of Anthroposophia, in full wakefulness.

~hag

14 August 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

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

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

600 BC – Birthday of LaTzu, an ancient Chinese philosopher, writer – thought to be a contemporary of Confucius. The author of the Tao Te Ching & the founder of Taoism, also thought of as a deity in traditional Chinese religions.

1340 – Birthday of Meister Bertram of Minden, a German International Gothic painter primarily of religious art, 1^st to paint the serpent as a temptress with a human head

1842 – American Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminole tribe forced from Florida to Oklahoma

1880 – Construction of Cologne Cathedral is completed

1888 – An audio recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan’s “The Lost Chord”, one of the first recordings of music ever made, is played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison’s phonograph in London, England

1912 – U.S. Marines invade Nicaragua

LORRAINE - The Battle of Morhange - 1914

1914 – World War I: Start of the Battle of Lorraine

1916 – Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary, joining the Entente in World War I

1922 – Deathday of Alfred Harmsworth (Lord Northcliffe) British press baron & pre-1914 warmonger

1935 – Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act, creating a government pension system for the retired

1941 – World War II: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter

1945 – Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II

Image result for Helene Rochling rudolf steiner

1945 – Deathday of Helene Rochling, proof reader, & helper to Rudolf Steiner

1947 – Pakistan gains Independence from the British Empire & joins the Commonwealth of Nations

1956 – Deathday of Bertolt Brecht

2013 – Egypt declares a state of emergency as security forces kill hundreds of demonstrators supporting former president Mohamed Morsi

2015 – The US Embassy in Havana, Cuba re-opens after 54 years

Saturday 23 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire

*Autumnal Equinox

*Yom Kippur

*Michaelmas Festival

6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring Food & Drink to share, & a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

Kite-Song

August 13, 2023Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Celestial Event, Chicago Event, Community, History, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Event~hag

For Ultra-Violet Archer on the eve of your furthering:

Soar like an epic melody
My beloved kite-song –
Eternal rays
Like the trailing hair of a comet
Flowing forth from your Sun-Self
To give Hope to the world.
Shine with Faith
As a flame shines from the up-right wick
Trimmed & oiled – Christ fueled
Sending darkness into a taming conversion
Your Cosmic Memory undulating
With senses pressed
Like scent into temple drapery,
A liquid seal ever forming from molten beeswax,
A labyrinth of flowers spicing the air,
The crunch of apple,
The slow cloudage of Autumn’s promise,
As the Seasons spin –
& you
Snug as an acorn in the cup-crown of your making
A sweet sip of light
Vibrating inner warmth
On your honeyed lips.
Your soul a red thread between spirits
Gold dust between stars
A silky sash – The endless vine –
My own heart’s root
Whispering/Shouting/Singing: Love is
Who you are.

~XOXmom

“…See the sun-drenched vine, with its juice spiritualized to etheric sunlight! It is a picture of the purification & fermentation process of the “I”. It shows you how drives can be transformed when they are purified thru life’s bitter crisis, flowering as the wisdom of age.

Your “I” bears the Queenly (Kingly) power within itself thru which you can transform all that is lower within you & raise it to the heights. Without these drives you would not be a full human being, but you must tame & refine them in the crucible of the royal power of the “I”.

Then they will bear for you the loveliest fruits which will ripen in the autumn of life to become saturated with the wisdom of the divine.

You extend your soul beyond itself when you compassionately share in all that is living in humanity. You open your Self to the world. For being human means: Building the Royal power of the “I” by sharing responsibility for all that is human!

Then the thought that: “I am a member of all humankind & I am co-responsible for all that happens” is no longer foreign to you. With such an attitude the human being’s whole way of thinking gradually changes…” ~Rudolf Steiner, Knowledge of Higher Worlds

13 August 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars:” If you extend your Perseid watch to the beginning of dawn Sunday the 13th, the waning crescent Moon will cap the night by forming a triangle with Castor and Pollux low in the east-northeast. ~skytelescope

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
LAMMASTIDE III – Assumption of the Virgin Mary (Tuesday)
To Waken Self With Memory
v19
Mysteriously to sheathe
the new conceived with memory
be now my striving’s further aim
that strengthening it shall awake
my inner power to become
my real self.

ADVENT I
The Newly Risen Self
v34
Mysteriously to feel
old treasure resurrecting in me
with newly risen sense of who I am
shall rouse a tide of cosmic forces
that pouring into my endeavour for the world
will in becoming print me into that which Is.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

“Study the past if you would define the future.” ~Confucius

303 – St. Cassian of Imola, Patron Saint of Teachers, martyred during the reign of Julian the Apostate

1699 – Deathday of Marco d’Aviano, Capuchin monk. When he gave his blessing to a nun, bedridden for some 13 years, she was miraculously healed. The news spread far & wide, among those who sought his help was Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, whose wife had been unable to conceive a male heir. From 1680 to the end of his life, Marco d’Aviano became a close confidant & adviser to him. As the danger of war with the Ottoman Turks grew near, Marco d’Aviano played a crucial role in resolving disputes, restoring unity, & energizing the armies of the Holy League

1792 – King Louis XVI of France is formally arrested by the National Tribunal, & declared an enemy of the people

1818 – Birthday of Lucy Stone a prominent American orator, abolitionist, & suffragist, known for using her maiden name after marriage. In 1847, Stone became the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women’s rights & against slavery at a time when women were discouraged & prevented from public speaking

1831 – Nat Turner witnesses a solar eclipse which caused the sky to appear a blue-green color, which he envisioned as a black man’s hand reaching over the sun. Eight days later he & 70 other slaves kill between 55-65 whites in Southampton County, Virginia

1860 – Birthday of Annie Oakley

1868 – A massive earthquake near Arica, Peru, causes an estimated 25,000 casualties, & the subsequent tsunami causes considerable damage as far away as Hawaii & New Zealand

1876 – The premiere of Der Ring des Nibelungen at the recently completed Bayreuth Festspielhaus

ALFRED HITCHCOCK -- Pictured: Alfred Hitchcock -- Photo by: NBCU Photo Bank **FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY AND CANNOT BE ALTERED, ARCHIVED OR RESOLD. NO TABLOID USAGE WORLDWIDE. SPECIFIC CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR COMMERCIAL OR PROMOTIONAL USE. CONTACT YOUR NBCU REPRESENTATIVE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION**

1899 – Birthday of Alfred Hitchcock

1900 – Deathday of Vladimir Soloviev, a Russian philosopher, theologian, poet, pamphleteer & literary critic. It is widely held that Solovyov was one of the sources for Dostoyevsky’s characters in The Brothers Karamazov. Solovyov’s influence can also be seen in the writings of the Symbolist & Neo-Idealist writers of the later Russian Soviet era. His book The Meaning of Love can be seen as one of the philosophical sources of Leo Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata. It was also the work in which he introduced the concept of ‘syzygy’, to denote ‘close union’. He influenced the religious philosophy of many including the ideas of Rudolf Steiner, (see War, Progress, and the End of History: Three Conversations, Including a Short Story of the Anti-Christ. Reprinted 1990 by Lindisfarne Books) Steiner speaks of Solovyov’s former incarnation as a visionary nun in the Middle Ages in his Karmic relationships Vol. 4 #8

1910 – Deathday of Florence Nightingale

1914 – The beginning of Rudolf Steiner’s Curative Education Course “For our Friends”

1926 – Birthday of Fidel Castro

1942 – Walt Disney’s fifth full-length animated film, Bambi, was released to theaters

1946 – Deathday of H. G. Wells

1961 – the Berlin Wall is erected

International Lefthanders Day

~Dali

Sunday 13 August 2023 – Prep-Stir – Potluck – Bonfire –

*To celebrate The 2^nd Harvest = Lammas / Lughnasdh

*The Perseid Meteor Showers, Venus (occult Mercury) /Sun Conjunction, Sirus Rising

*The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

*And a bon voyage Blessing for Ultra-Violet Archer

7 – 9 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring Food & Drink to share, & a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

Cosmic Conversation

August 12, 2023History, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

~Arthur Dove

~today:
the Sun is mellow upon the land
deep yellow dust on the head of a bee…
the lake is pregnant & still…
& the belly of the sky is cozy in my garden…
~hag

Dear friends, Can you feel the shift? Mid-August is a powerful time of transition written large now in the starry-script. Who are these Beings waiting for us to join the Cosmic conversation?

THE SPIRITUAL INDIVIDUALITIES OF THE PLANETS, GA 228, 100 years ago on 27 July 1923, Dornach – shared by RR contributor Steve Hale, can help us prepare to join the “Speaking with the Stars” happening now between: Sirius Rising with the Sun in Leo the Lion; the conjunction of Sun / Venus (occult Mercury) – which according to Astrosophy holds the cosmic memory of the first Christian initiation – the Rising of Lazarus/John; & the peak of the Perseid meteors showers heralding the call of Michael as the countenance of Christ, to rise up the fallen intelligence back to a cosmic intelligence thru Heart-Thinking.

“…With the help of Initiation-science we must again learn to realise that our planetary system is permeated with soul and spirit. And today I want to speak of the “individualities” – the individual characters of the several planets…

I could say, Venus repels, wards off the whole universe. She is demure, prudish, aloof concerning the universe; she does not wish to know anything about the universe. She regards any external universal exposure as if it would cause her maiden purity, her virginity, to be lost. She is deeply shocked when any impression from the external universe attempts to approach her. She has no desire for the universe and rejects every dancing- partner.

On the other hand, Venus is highly responsive to everything that comes from the Earth. The Earth is, so to speak, her lover…she lovingly reflects whatever comes from the Earth. If we are able to glimpse the mysteries of Venus with the eyes of soul, the whole Earth with all of her soulful secrets is there before us once again.

The truth is that human beings on Earth can do nothing in the secrecy of their souls without it being reflected back again by Venus. Venus gazes deeply into the hearts of human beings, for that is what interests her, that is what she will allow to approach her, so that the most intimate experiences of earthly life are reflected again from Venus, in a mysterious and wonderful way…The secrets of human beings in their earthly existence are transformed by Venus into dream-pictures of infinite diversity. She has a very great deal to do with poets, although they are not aware of it.

In her heart, Venus repels what approaches her from the universe but not what comes from the Earth. As I said before, she declines every would-be suitor, but for all that she listens attentively to the utterances of Mars. She transforms and illuminates her dreamlike experiences of earthly things with what is communicated to her from the universe through Mars.

Venus receives into herself everything that comes from the Earth and she listens always to Mars, without wanting him to know it. And from this process, although the Sun is there in between to regulate it, spring the forces which underlie the organs connected with the formation of human speech.

If a person wants to become familiar with the impulses in the cosmos connected with the formation of human speech, then the person must turn his gaze to this noteworthy living and weaving that plays out between Venus and Mars…

We come next to Mercury – the domain of the masters of combining concepts, and ideas in thinking, whereas Jupiter is the habitation of the masters of wisdom-filled thinking…Mercury provides the impetus for man’s capacity of reasoning about things, of making sense of them, especially for his intellect.

Venus and Mercury, on the other hand, bring into the human being the karmic element that is connected more with the life of soul and spirit and comes to expression in his qualities of heart and in his temperament…

The inner will-impulse contained in acts of free thinking, however, is due to grace bestowed by Jupiter.

From another point of view therefore, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn may also be called the liberating planets, for they give man freedom. On the other hand, Venus, Mercury and the Moon may be called the destiny-determining planets.

In the midst of all these deeds and impulses of the planetary individualities stands the Sun, creating harmony between the liberating and the destiny-determining planets. The Sun is the individuality in whom the elements of destiny-necessity and human freedom interweave in a most wonderful way. And no-one can understand what is contained in the flaming brilliance of the Sun unless he is able to behold this interweaving life of destiny and freedom in the light which spreads out into the universe and concentrates again in solar warmth.

The Sun is the flame in which freedom becomes a luminous reality in the World-All, and at the same time the Sun is the substance, as condensed ashes, in which misused freedom is molded into destiny, until destiny itself can become luminous and pass over into the flame of freedom.” ~Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

30 BC– Deathday of Egyptian Queen Cleopatra

1827 – Deathday of 1827 – William Blake, poet, painter, mystic

1831 – Birthday of Helena Blavatsky

1848 – Deathday of George Stephenson, Renowned as the “Father of Railways”, he was an English civil & mechanical engineer who built the first public inter-city railway line in the world to use steam locomotives- considered a great example of diligent application & thirst for improvement

Image result for Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine

1851 – Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine

1875 – Helena Blavatsky founds the Theosophical Society in NY

Image result for Thomas Edison invented the phonograph & made the first sound recording

1877 – Thomas Edison invented the phonograph & made the first sound recording

Image result for The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

1883 – The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Image result for The United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit

1914 – The United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit

1944 – Nazi German troops end the week-long Wola massacre, during which time at least 40,000 people were killed indiscriminately or in mass executions

1950 – Korean War: Bloody Gulch massacre—American POWs are massacred by North Korean Army.

Image result for 1952 â The Night of the Murdered Poets: Thirteen prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union.

1952 – The Night of the Murdered Poets: Thirteen prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union.

1953 – The Soviet Union secretly tested its first hydrogen bomb

1953 – A 7.2 Ms earthquake shakes the southern Ionian Islands. 800 people were killed

1955 – Deathday of Thomas Mann, a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, & the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic & ironic epic novels are noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist & the intellectual. His analysis & critique of the European & German soul used modernized German & Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Goethe, Nietzsche & Schopenhauer

1960 – Echo 1A, NASA’s first successful communications satellite, is launched.

1964 – South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country’s racist policies

1976 –3,500 Palestinians are killed in the Tel al-Zaatar massacre, one of the bloodiest events of the Lebanese Civil War

Image result for 1981 â The IBM Personal Computer is released

1981 – The IBM Personal Computer is released

1992 – Deathday of John Cage

1998 – Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion as restitution to World War II Holocaust victims

2010 – Deathday of Isaac Bonewits, founder of Ár nDraíocht Féin

~Dali

Sunday 13 August 2023 – Prep-Stir – Potluck – Bonfire –

*To celebrate The 2^nd Harvest = Lammas / Lughnasdh

*The Perseid Meteor Showers, Venus (occult Mercury) /Sun Conjunction, Sirus Rising

*The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

*And a bon voyage Blessing for Ultra-Violet Archer

7 – 9 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring Food & Drink to share, & a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

Lion Heart

August 11, 202310:10, Biography, Celestial Event, History, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Event~hag

My POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I come with the comet
A priestess in the thought-skin of the Lion
Spreading the roaring depth of myself out
Before gods & demons
To let them study me…& I Them…
My ripened body is a rolled papyrus
Tied with red string that holds no pretense
Glow worms hide in the folds of my scroll
I am washed & ready for the new turning
Flashing with the hygienic iron-dust of shooting stars
Reborn in the cradle of my blood
~hag

And so as the Perseid’s peak, Venus comes into conjunction in front of the Leo-Sun, rising with scintillating Sirus, I attempt an ongoing digestion from Seminar 4 of the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology (AAP): Who Am I ? – The Search for Identity & Authenticity. The 3rd Septennial – age 14-21. Here is Part 1.

In our 1^st session with Dr. James Dyson he referenced Rudolf Steiner’s “Bridge Lectures,” a lead-in to the meditative instructions for deepening the art of healing given later during the Christmas Conference in 1923; followed by 5 lectures given at Easter, 1924. This was a very special course for medical students & young physicians on the Humanizing of Medicine.

Motivated to understand the astral body I found this quote inspiring:

“…So far as knowledge of the astral body is concerned, you learn far more when you can apply the laws of music. From music you learn an enormous amount about the forming of the human organism, how this process of formation develops out of the astral body. Inasmuch as the human being is organized for movement, for activity, he is built up, in reality, like a musical scale. Here (back of the shoulders) begins the tonic; then it passes over into the second, then into the third in the lower arms, where there are two bones because there are two thirds. This brings you to truths quite different from those which are considered nowadays to pertain to a real knowledge of the human being and quite a different course of teaching would really be necessary for one who is approaching medicine in the true sense…”

~Rudolf Steiner, COURSE FOR YOUNG DOCTORS, The “Bridge” Lectures, GA 202, III. The Path to Freedom and Love and Their Significance in World Happenings, Dornach, 19th December, 1920

This meditative verse holds many insights:

“Schau, was kosmisch sich fügt:
Du empfindest Menschengestaltung.

Schau, was luftig dich bewegt:
Du erlebest Menschenbeseelung.

Schau, was irdisch sich wandelt:
Du erfassest Menschendurchgeistung.

Look what cosmically fits:
You feel human design.

Look what moves you in the air:
You experience human inspiration.

Look what is changing on earth:
You grasp human spirituality.”

~Rudolf Steiner, COURSE FOR YOUNG DOCTORS, Easter Course, GA 316, Lecture II, Dornach, 22nd April, 1924

SUN in LEO Brings COMPASSION & FREEDOM (Opposite: Hearltessness)

Today the Sun enters the sign of the Lion, reaching again the maximum of light & heat. Open your noble heart – vital & burning with passion & compassion, shining like gold upon the sea of ripening worlds. The wise king, the good father, the Savior. Our Day-Star shining the Kingdom come.

Balance & openness belong to our heart – Not to our cold & bright head, enclosed in the skull. Not even to our dark hot limbs, radiating from the body. They belong to the heart region—to the center—where the head opens down into the spine & the ribs curve into a protective embrace.

~El Greco

I have made it my intention in working with Mary Magdalene to bring the 12 virtues to bear as I meet the 7 demons, so that I may transform them as Christ’s Companion Mary did.

In contemplating this month’s virtue, I had the thought this morning to connect the heart point from the many 7’s – seen in the #4 position of the 7 (see the many correspondances here ) to clarify & strengthen this healing process.

For instance-

In the list of the 7 Demons or 7 ‘Deadly Sins’, #4 is: Lethal Jealousy – Envy / Goodwill

In the 7 Life Processes – Sorting

Adult Learning Processes – Individualizing

7 Layers of Will – Motive

7 layers of Cognition – Discernment

7 Planets – Sun day

7 Chakras – Heart

Logic of the Heart – Witness & allow a complementary feeling to arise

7 stages of Christian Initiation – Crucifixion

7 Stages of Rosicrucian Initiation – Bringing Rhythm into Life

7 Apocalyptic Seals – The Tree of Knowledge & the Tree of Life

7 ‘I Am’ sayings of Christ – “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11–15).

Yes, friends, Today feels like a day for introspection & connection. See you between the lines

~hag

11 August 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The radiant point of the Perseid shower gets fairly high in the northeast by 10 pm, so meteors become more frequent. The higher a shower’s radiant, the more meteors are seen all across the sky. ~Sky & Telescope

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Those who work with the Original indications in the Calendar of the Soul know that Rudolf Steiner lists the birth & death days, as well as other significant occurrences of various individualities, along with the dates in the calendar.

He said of this: “What is presented here can be useful to those who wish to follow the path of mankind’s spiritual development” ~Rudolf Steiner. This is my inspiration.

3114 BC – The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Mayans, begins

305 – Deathday of Saint Philomena, Steiner speaks of her as being a Greek priestess martyred at age 13 by Roman Emperor Diocletian.

559 – Birthday of Radegunde, Thuringian princess & Frankish queen, who founded the Abbey of the Holy Cross at Poitiers, named for holding the relic of the True Cross. Radegunde ate nothing but legumes & green vegetables, she was widely believed to have the gift of healing.

1253 – Deathday of Saint Clare of Assisi, an Italian saint & one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi

1464 – Deathday of Nicholas of Cusa, a German philosopher, theologian, jurist, & astronomer. One of the first German proponents of Renaissance humanism, he made spiritual & political contributions in European history. A notable example of this is his mystical or spiritual writings on “learned ignorance,” as well as his participation in power struggles between Rome & the German states of the Holy Roman Empire

1877 – The two moons of Mars were discovered by Asaph Hall, an American astronomer. He named them Phobos & Deimos

1896 – Harvey Hubbell received a patent for the electric light bulb socket with a pull-chain

1942 – Actress Hedy Lamarr & composer George Antheil receive a patent for a Frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones & Wi-Fi

1956 – Deathday of Jackson Pollock

1965 – the Watts Race Riots begin in Los Angeles, California

1972 – Vietnam War: The last United States ground combat unit leaves South Vietnam

1984 –”My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you that I just signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” -Said as a joke by senile President Ronald Reagan, while running for re-election, on his weekly Saturday address on National Public Radio.

2012 – At least 1306 people are killed & 3,000 others injured in a pair of earthquakes near Tabriz, Iran

Ultra-Violet Archer – winner of the first annual Sound Opinions Music Prize

https://omny.fm/shows/sound-opinions/2023-sound-opinions-music-prize-winners/embed#?secret=8EhH9hRhh3

~Dali

Sunday 13 August 2023 – Prep-Stir – Potluck – Bonfire –

*To celebrate The 2^nd Harvest = Lammas / Lughnasdh

*The Perseid Meteor Showers, Venus (occult Mercury) /Sun Conjunction, Sirus Rising

*The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

*And a bon voyage Blessing for Ultra-Violet Archer

7 – 9 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring Food & Drink to share, & a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

Perseus

August 10, 2023Celestial Event, Upcoming Event~hag

What can we acquire in our present age from ancient myth & legend? Every year we have the Perseid meteor shower to awaken us from our Summer slumber. Perseus is the oldest of the Greek heroes, 3 generations before Hercules, long before the Trojan War.

~Benvenuto Cellini’s bronze statue in Florence

The Perseus legend was a favorite subject in painting & sculpture – the earliest scenes from mythology appearing in art.

His tale in a nutshell: Acrisius, the king of Argos, had a beautiful daughter named Danae. The king was told by the Oracle of the Sun god Apollo that Danae’s son would take over his fertile land. To thwart the prophecy, Acrisius imprisoned his daughter in a bronze, underground chamber.

~The amorous adventures of Zeus. Danae Gubaidullin Raushan

But Zeus came to the entombed Danae in the form of a shower of golden light entering thru a crack in the roof of her chamber. And Perseus was the demigod offspring of this unusual union between Zeus, the King of the gods, taking advantage of the Sun god’s omen, to appear as a shower of golden light, & Danae, a human being from the fertile plain – Princess of the golden agricultural Argos of ancient Greece.

~Walter Crane

Perseus had a calling. Aided by Hermes & the Goddess Athena, he pressed the Graiae, the prophetic witch sisters of the Gorgons, into helping him by seizing the one eye & one tooth that the sisters shared between them – not returning it until they provided him with winged sandals (which enabled him to fly), the cap of Hades (which conferred invisibility), a curved adamant sickle-sword, to decapitate Medusa, & a bag in which to conceal her serpent head. Since the gaze of Medusa turned all who looked at her to stone, Perseus guided himself by the reflection in a shield given to him by the wise Athena. He beheaded Medusa, the only Gorgon who was mortal, when she was asleep. From the blood that spurted from her neck sprang Chrysaor & Pegasus, her two sons by Poseidon. He then returned to Seriphus, where his mothe Danae had taken refuge, to rescue her by turning the wicked ruler Polydectes & his supporters to stone at the sight of Medusa’s head.

A further deed attributed to Perseus was his rescue of the Ethiopian princess Andromeda when he was on his way home with Medusa’s head. Andromeda’s mother, Cassiopeia, had claimed to be more beautiful than the sea nymphs, so Poseidon punished Ethiopia by flooding & plaguing it with a sea monster. An oracle informed Andromeda’s father, King Cepheus, that the ills would cease if he exposed Andromeda to the monster, which he did. Perseus, passing by, saw the princess, & fell in love with her. He turned the sea monster to stone by showing it Medusa’s head, & went on to marry Andromeda.

Later Perseus gave the Gorgon’s head to Athena, who placed it on her shield. He gave his other accoutrements, including most notably the winged sandals, to Hermes. He then accompanied his mother back to her native Argos, where, as fate would have it, he accidentally struck her father, Acrisius dead when throwing the discus, thus fulfilling the prophecy that he would kill his grandfather.

The chief characters in the Perseus legend, Perseus, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Pegasus, & the sea monster (Cetus), all figure in the night sky as constellations.

This is the peak weekend to receive, like Danae, the shooting stars which can turn wishes into the birthing of deeds. Perseus, a reflection of the mighty Archai Michael, must be reborn in us. We must cut off the head of the old way of thinking where the fates bind us, so we can consciously ‘Speak with the Stars’, thru the heart – in freedom – upholding Wisdom, with healing wings. Then we can reveal the underworld, & forge the golden light into an iron will for good.

~hag

10 August 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Perseid meteors have been streaking through Earth’s atmosphere since mid-July. But the moon is now waning, just in time for the shower’s peak on the mornings of August 11, 12 and 13. ~earthsky