Breaking Bread

Greetings friends – Thanks to everyone who reached out to ask where I’ve been – Well besides dealing with some teeth issues (yep working out some heavy family karma) – I have been deep into an artistic rendering of my work with Mary Magdalene in preparation for our annual Easter Festival, which will begin on the eve of Lazarus Saturday; & then on the last day of Holy Week we will gather to explore the mystery of Mary Magdalene = She who anoints the ‘Anointed One’ in the holding of sacred space during the Harrowing of Hell on Holy Saturday. (Details on the Festivals below)

Sophie Takata

I tore myself away from the art making integration this morning since I had the honor of serving at the altar with Rev.Gisela Wielki who came in from NYC. Her sermon brought in the picture of how at this time of year – during Passion-Tide – the seeds buried in the darkness of the earth are breaking apart, dissolving their seed form, selflessly offering themselves up to a disintegration, a death – so that in their season, thru the power of the warmth of the Sun & the other elements, they can be reborn.

If we kept the seed in the palm of our hand simply admiring it’s wholeness it would never feed us. Wholeness has the quality of completeness, a kind of ending. Going into the darkness willingly, with intention & purpose to allow the disintegration is how we evolve – how we grow – reintegrating at a higher octave.  

Lenny Fosterling

She connected this picture to the feeding of the 5000 from the Gospel of John – How Christ had to break up the loaves of bread to be able to nourish the people. The breaking up also allows the comic forces to enter, that is actually what feeds us Body, Soul & Spirit – When we break bread together to becomes the healing medicine that activates a new Wholeness.

This breaking apart reminds me of what happens when we stir a biodynamic preparation – we create the vortex in the prep & then it disintegrates thru the chaos when we reverse the stirring – allowing the cosmic forces to enter into the chaos to inform the vortex. The chaos opens us to the right divine order…

Tomorrow on the Vernal Equinox CG & I will join Petra & Mark Zinniker on their amazing biodynamic farm in WI to do a seasonal prep stir – blessing the land & the animals, & honoring the elementals. The mighty band of Merry Prep-stirs are encouraging everyone to do a stir on the Equinox so that the collective energy may cover the Earth with a glorifying intention. See you in the balance between dark & light.

~hag

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated with added titles by Roy Sadler

PASSIONTIDE 1I, Mothering Sunday
The World’s Fulfilment
v50
Earth’s Mother speaks…
her joy of growth in every bud’s unfurling,
revealing the inherent forces of her being,
is speaking to the human I:
‘In bringing you my life
released from its enchantment,
I reach my true fulfilment’.

It is Mothering Sunday in England this Sunday. It is an old Christian tradition in contrast to the American holiday of Mothers Day on the 2nd Sunday of May. There is no mention of the Earth in the original but to me it fits here. My translations are free expressions, adhering to its iambic meditative rhythm. Unlike other versions I quite often change the line order, which I recognise might be a problem for eurythmists following Steiner’s choreography. This is a literal version of the 1st 4 lines:
There speaks to human selfhood,
in mighty revelation
and liberating its inherent forces,
the joy-in-growth of world existence:

I’d be pleased to read comments from any of you meditating the verses.
This is the mirror verse
EASTERTIDE III
Foundation of the Self
v3
The human spirit speaks…
the growing I, in self-forgetfulness
and conscious of its origin,
is speaking to the whole enwoven world:
‘In you, releasing chains
that bind me to myself,
I root my inborn truth’.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

George de la Tour

Feast Day of Joseph the Carpenter, husband of Mary the Mother of the Matthew Jesus.

1797 – Death Day of Christiane Wilhelmine Sophie von Kühn (March 17, 1782 – March 19, 1797) the love interest & eventual fiancée of the German Romantic poet & philosopher Friedrich von Hardenberg, known to many simply as Novalis. Her image famously appears in Novalis’ Hymns to the Night, a foundational text of the literary movement known as German Romanticism.

Over I journey
And for each pain
A pleasant sting only
Shall one day remain.
Yet in a few moments
Then free am I,
And intoxicated
In Love’s lap lie.
Life everlasting
Lifts, wave-like, at me,
I gaze from its summit
Down after thee.
Your lustre must vanish
Yon mound underneath —
A shadow will bring thee
Thy cooling wreath.
Oh draw at my heart, love,
Draw till I’m gone,
That, fallen asleep, I
Still may love on.
I feel the flow of
Death’s youth-giving flood
To balsam and ether
Transform my blood —
I live all the daytime
In faith and in might
And in holy fire
I die every night
”.

Although Novalis’s love for Sophie has assumed mythic proportions, their time together was short . The two met on November 17, 1794 when Novalis was twenty-two & Sophie was only twelve. They became engaged on Sophie’s thirteenth birthday March 17, 1795. Sophie became sick in November 1795, & her sickness continued until her death at the age of 15 in March 1797. The loss of Sophie brought about a deep period of mourning & suffering in Novalis’ life.

Ludwig Tieck’s biography of Novalis describes Sophie, saying: “Even as a child, she gave an impression which–because it was so gracious and spiritually lovely–we must call superearthly or heavenly, while through this radiant and almost transparent countenance of hers we would be struck with the fear that it was too tender and delicately woven for this life, that it was death or immortality which looked at us so penetratingly from those shining eyes; and only too often a rapid withering motion turned our fear into an actual reality”.

1911 – Death day of Anna Eunike, Rudolf Steiner’s 1st wife. To supplement his income while working in Weimar, Steiner became tutor to the Eunike family. The father Eugen Friedrich Eunike had just died, & Anna was left behind as a widow with four daughters & a son. Rudolf Steiner had a deep connection with the deceased, following his after-death journey into the spiritual world. These insights helped Steiner form his seminal work “The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity”.

When the family moved to Berlin the friendship with Anna soon turned into a civil marriage, which Steiner kept very private. But we may see some clues into this relationship in the Mystery Dramas. During that time he was an instructor for the workers institute, of which Anna was very involved. The two separated when Steiner got involved with Theosophy; & in 1911 Anna Eunike dies at the fairly young age of 58. I often wonder if she selflessly sacrificed her unused etheric forces to help Rudolf Steiner in his mission.

1918 – The U.S. Congress establishes time zones & approves daylight saving time.

1945 –Adolf Hitler issues his “Nero Decree” ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany to be destroyed.

2018 – The last male northern white rhinoceros, Sudan, dies.

The Categories of Aristotle – a process of contraction…
Is there a path to expansion…..?

PUBLIC LECTURE AND EURYTHMY WORKSHOP WITH CLAUDIA FONTANA

Friday 24 March 2023 – Lecture 7 pm CT – 8:30 pm –

Purchase tickets at the door or pay online $12

Saturday 25 March 2023 – Workshop – 9 am CT– (10:30 am 1/2 hour break – 11 am) 12:30 pm CT Purchase tickets at the door or pay online $50

Does one have to be a philosopher of great erudition to approach Aristotle’s gift to humanity……his Categories?

Perhaps , YES! But an initial acquaintance with them can lead out of the confinement of the intellectual concept to an experience of expansion supported by Eurythmy.

In the evening lecture Claudia will introduce the life of the Categories before they became concepts – Bringing the symbols in a sequence of sounds  (called the Evolutionary Sequence ) out of their conceptual form, to life, supported by Eurythmy and examples of poetry.

During the workshop we will enter into the movement of the poetry presented  during the lecture. This will be accessible to Eurythmists as well as to anyone interested in the life of language, poetry and our alphabet.

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar 
www.rschicago.org/donate

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

Claudia Fontana saw a Eurythmy performance when still a teenager. Unbeknownst to her at the time, that performance was the gate to her destiny path. Soon thereafter she studied Eurythmy in Vienna and subsequently spent fourteen years as a performer with the Dornach, London and Stuttgart Eurythmeum ensembles. Teaching became the next challenge which she happily met in the United States, Europe. Before Covid, she spent seven years teaching all levels in Thailand, Malaysia and China. She resides in Ann Arbor, MI still performing and teaching.

Juan de Flandes

“Lazarus – Come Forth” – Through The Word & Eurythmy

w/ Rev. Jeana Lee, Mary Ruud & Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Starting at Sundown Friday 31 March 2023
7 pm – 8:30 pm CT at the Christian Community 2135 W. Wilson

Leading Thoughts & Close of Day with Rev. Jeana Lee

Continuing on Lazarus Saturday 1 April 2023
10 am – 12 noon CT
at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago 4249 N. Lincoln Ave

Night School Check-in w/ Hazel Archer – Eurythmy w/ Mary Ruud

$10 more or less or pay what you will
Please bring a potluck dish to share for the luncheon after the Festival

For more info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hag@rschicago.org

Mary Magdalene & the Women at the Tomb – A Festival of Recogniton

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,

Song-Circle with Velsum, 

Eurythmy – & an artistic break out session

Holy Saturday 8 April 2023

1 pm – 3pm CT hybrid event in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & on zoom

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7050174041

Meeting ID: 705 017 4041

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
www.rschicago.org/donate

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll

Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance

Gerald Shepherd

When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.

Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.

Nancy Poer

~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor 

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices & Eurythmy

Saturday 27 May 2023 a Hybrid event in person* & on zoom

We are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83663366670?pwd=L292UzlOR1pkZjBXSWpxK1B2b0o1dz09 Meeting ID: 836 6336 6670 / Passcode: 397593

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
*Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (mapwww.rschicago.org/donate


Find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals HERE

3 thoughts on “Breaking Bread

  1. Hi Hazel,

    When we consider this fourth Passiontide Sunday since the onset of Lent on Wednesday, February 22nd, we can see how quickly some 25 days has already occurred toward its realization. Yet, I know that while these 40 days are meaningful, and transect the Vernal Equinox on March 20, that we have an issue, which I did not expect to be an issue. It concerns Mary Magdalene, and her place in the events leading to the Apostleship.

    Now, again, and having studied this pivotal point in Mary for some 12 years, it is important to look at the Gospel of John, chapter 20 for its eyewitness account. We have it here easily recited, but there are important pointers:

    https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+20&version=NASB1995

    As indicated, Mary goes to the tomb on the first day after the Sabbath, and sees that it is empty. She runs to the disciples to tell them, and then Peter and Lazarus-John race to the tomb. Lazarus outruns Peter, which is meant to indicate an initiatic relationship between Aries and Taurus, but we can leave that for later. They look in the tomb and see that it is, indeed, empty. They both leave in amazement and anticipation that what Christ had told them before at the Last Supper was about to happen, as promised.

    This leaves Mary to look upon the empty tomb and wonder where the body has gone. She implores the two angels that appear about the body, and who has taken it, and where can she find it. Only then, in her hysteria, does she begin to see what is really going on here when she turns and sees Jesus. Yet, she does not recognize this Jesus. She thinks he is the gardener. Now, does that make sense? Then, she hears a familiar voice, which says, “Mary”. She turns and says, “Rabboni!”

    Thus, she meets the two Jesus children having become men. The first, she does not know at all. Thinking that he is the gardener, he is the Master Jesus, who had stood behind the Nathan Jesus for all those years. Then, in hearing the familiar voice, who says, “Mary”, she turns and sees the Nathan Jesus, who had harbored the Christ for three years. Yet, in her desperation, she had clung to the first one, who she called, ‘Sir’. This caused a conception to occur; an immaculate one. Yes, Mary gave birth to a Jesus child. She named him, John Mark. This brings us up to date, and where Jerusalem stood when Peter went to Mary’s house. You can see where she was a focal point here in Acts, chapter 12.

    11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.” 12 And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 13 When he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant-girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her joy she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind!” But she kept insisting that it was so. They kept saying, “It is his angel.” 16 But Peter continued knocking; and when they had opened the door, they saw him and were amazed. 17 But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison. And he said, “Report these things to James and the brethren.” Then he left and went to another place.

    https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+12&version=NASB1995

    1. Lent of course is the Catholic fast of 40 days, Passion-Tide is measured differently it is what the Christian community calls the 4 weeks before Easter, so this Sunday was the 2nd Sunday of Passion-Tide…But Yes, as you know this year I am working the Lenten path & We are fast approaching Holy Week!

      Thanks for sharing your very Interesting revelation:
      Thus, she meets the two Jesus children having become men. The first, she does not know at all. Thinking that he is the gardener, he is the Master Jesus, who had stood behind the Nathan Jesus for all those years. Then, in hearing the familiar voice, who says, “Mary”, she turns and sees the Nathan Jesus, who had harbored the Christ for three years. Yet, in her desperation, she had clung to the first one, who she called, ‘Sir’. This caused a conception to occur; an immaculate one. Yes, Mary gave birth to a Jesus child. She named him, John Mark.

      Are you referring to the Matthew Jesus when you say: ‘the Master Jesus, who had stood behind the Nathan Jesus’

      And so does that mean the one you call ‘the Nathan Jesus, who had harbored the Christ for three years’ would be the Luke Jesus?

      So is this last one going to ascend to the Father & the other stay in a body? or do they both just appear in that moment?

      John 20:17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

      1. I like to look upon all the Sunday’s involved in Lent as Passiontide in nature. This is part of my inspiration. The 40 days are very real on a visceral level, without having anything to do with the Catholic church. As I had mentioned, 22 years ago this was all made very apparent to me for the first time when on Ash Wednesday of 2001, which was February 28th that year, my coworker was offered a lifesaver while we were outside after an earthquake had just taken place. She said, “no thank you. This is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and I am fasting.” I immediately recognized that this was the day I had predicted from the previous year as an important “interim event” to take place. So, my first task was to seek to discover the mystery of Ash Wednesday, and I soon realized that it is the secret ceremonial acknowledgement in honor of the raising of Lazarus. This has been corroborated by Rudolf Steiner, as you indicated, that Lazarus was raised from the dead on February 23, 33 AD. I do, indeed, thank you for that.

        I think the best way to convey an answer to your questions about the Jesus children, now supersensible men, is to give what Rudolf Steiner says in the one and only place where he defines the Master Jesus. This is in lecture seven of the course on the Gospel of Luke:

        “The Zarathustra-Ego had lived in the body of the Solomon Jesus until the twelfth year. No further development in earthly existence would thereafter have been possible for this boy. Because the Zarathustra-Ego had gone out of him, his development came to a standstill at the point reached at that time, although exceptional maturity had been attained owing to the presence of such a highly advanced Ego. Anyone observing the Solomon Jesus-child would have found him prematurely advanced to a conspicuous degree; but from the moment the Zarathustra-Ego left him he came to a standstill and could make no further progress. And when — comparatively soon — the mother of the Nathan Jesus died and the spiritual part of her being was translated into the spiritual world, she took with her what was of eternal value and formative power in the Solomon Jesus child. This child also died — at about the same time as the mother of the Nathan Jesus.

        It was an etheric sheath of utmost value which then left the body of the Solomon Jesus. As we know, the development of the etheric body takes place mainly between the seventh year of life and puberty. This was an etheric body that had been worked upon and elaborated by the forces of the Zarathustra-Ego. In normal human existence, when the etheric body leaves the physical body at death, everything that is of no eternal use is discarded and the human being takes with him a kind of extract of the etheric body. In the case of the child of the Solomon line the etheric body was of eternal use in the fullest possible sense and the whole life-body of this child was taken by the mother of the Nathan Jesus with her into the spiritual world.

        Now the etheric body forms and shapes the physical body of man and it is not difficult to realize that there was a very deep connection between this etheric body of the Solomon Jesus which had been translated into the spiritual world, and the Zarathustra-Ego; for this Ego and etheric body had been united until the twelfth year of earthly life. And when the Zarathustra-Ego left the body of Jesus of Nazareth, the power of attraction between this Ego and the original etheric body in the Solomon Jesus asserted itself. The maturity of the Zarathustra-Ego was such that a further passage through Devachan was unnecessary and after a comparatively short time this Ego was able, in conjunction with his former etheric body, to build up a new physical body. This resulted in the birth of the Being who thereafter appeared again and again, always with relatively short intervals between physical death and rebirth; whenever this Being left the physical body at death, he soon appeared again on the Earth in a new incarnation. Having sought and found the etheric body he had once relinquished in the circumstances indicated, this Being went on his way through history as the ‘Master Jesus’, becoming, as you can well imagine, the great helper of those who have endeavoured to understand the Event of Palestine. Thus it was the Zarathustra-Ego, Zarathustra himself, who having found his etheric body again began to move through the evolution of mankind as the Master Jesus, incarnating again and again to give guidance and direction to the spiritual stream of Christianity. He is the Inspirer of those who strive to understand Christianity in its living growth and development; within the esoteric schools he inspired those whose perpetual duty it was to cultivate the teachings of Christianity. He stands behind the great spiritual figures of Christianity, ever teaching what the great Event of Palestine signifies.”

        https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA114/English/RSP1964/19090921p01.html

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