Cognitive Ritual

Lectures by Rudolf Steiner on this date

Days of Awe

September 15, 202310:10, Autumn, Birth / Death Days, Celestial Event, Festival, History, Poetry~hag

Listen to today’s podcast on ‘I Think Speech’

~Morris Hirshfield

~I carry into the clouds
the life of earth,
the breath of my body
a pulse of prose
gained from pain
the twists of fate
given into with pleasure
an opening to moisture
an opportunity seized & released…
~hag

Greetings friends – Here we are: Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, (רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה‎, literally “head of the year“) the first of the High Holy Days or Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe), a two-day celebration that starts tonight at sunset, as the New Moon makes her way into the light. It weds seriousness with celebration & begins the 10 days of repentance that culminate in Yom Kippur. This festival is believed to be the anniversary of the creation of Adam & Eve, acknowledging their first actions toward the realization of humanity’s role in the world.

Rosh Hashanah Art | Fine Art America — Ben Heloc

The 1st panel of the Foundation Stone Meditation askes us to ‘Practice Spirit Recalling.” Recognizing ancient traditions, we can renewal time honored themes that still apply today:

The New Year focuses our attention on themes of discernment, repentance, memory & the Divine presence in the world (The Shekinah). At the same time, Rosh Hashanah invites us to celebrate birth & creation on many levels. The liturgy suggests that Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of the world.

Still Life With Apples, Pomegranates, Fish, Challah And Honey.. Stock Photo, Picture And Royalty Free Image. Image 17729412.

Family-oriented services often include a birthday cake for the world. Customs include sounding the shofar (a hollowed-out ram’s horn) & eating symbolic foods such as apples dipped in honey to emphasize the sweetness of starting the cycle of seasons once again; & round challah to remind us of the cycles of life.

What is your birthday wish for the world? Are you willing to personally practice themes like forgiveness, as you recall that the Divine essence is in all that lives?

How can you bring sweetness into life – making everyday a ‘Day of Awe’ – pulsing with reverence & wonder?

How are YOUR thoughts, words, deeds, adding to the re-creation of the world?

La Shanah Tovah – In Oneness with each other & the Universe –

~hag

15 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Venus will climb higher each morning to reach its greatest elongation on October 23. Mercury is just now coming into view, rising in the east shortly before sunup – in the bright morning twilight near Regulus far below brilliant Venus. Mercury will brighten during the rest of this month.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (Latin: Mater Dolorosa) The Seven Sorrows (or Dolors) are events in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

The Prophecy of Simeon. (Luke2:34–35)
The escape and Flight into Egypt. (Matthew2:13)
The Loss of the Child Jesusin the Temple of Jerusalem. (Luke 2:43–45)
The Meeting of Mary and Jesus on the Via Dolorosa.
The Crucifixion of Jesuson Mount Calvary. (John 19:25)
The Piercing of the Side of Jesus, and His Descent from the Cross. (Matthew 27)
The Burial of Jesusby Joseph of Arimathea. (John 19:40–42)

921 – At Tetin, Saint Ludmila, a Czech saint, the grandmother of Saint Wenceslaus, widely referred to as Good King Wenceslaus, is murdered at the command of her daughter-in-law, Drahomíra, who was jealous of Ludmila’s influence over Wenceslaus. Antonín Dvořák composed his oratorio Svatá Ludmila for her

1254 – Birthday of Marco Polo, Italian merchant & explorer

1616 – The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy

1821 – Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, & Costa Rica jointly declare independence from Spain

1916 –Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme World War I

1935 – The Nuremberg Laws deprive German Jews of citizenship

1935 – Nazi Germany adopts a new national flag bearing the swastika

1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt & Winston Churchill meet in Quebec as part of the World War II Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.

1945 – A hurricane strikes southern Florida & the Bahamas, destroying 366 airplanes & 25 blimps at Naval Air Station Richmond, 230 die

1947 – Typhoon Kathleen hit the Kanto Region in Japan killing 1,077

1961 – Hurricane Carla strikes Texas with winds of 175 miles per hour, kills 23

1963 – 16th Street Baptist Church bombing , an act of white supremacist terrorism, in Birmingham, Alabama, occurred when four members of the Ku Klux Klan planted at least 15 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the front steps of the church.Described by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as “one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity”. The explosion killed four girls & injured 22 others.

No prosecutions ensued of the Klan members involved until 1977, when Robert Chambliss was tried & convicted of the first degree murder of one of the victims, 11-year-old Carol Denise McNair. Thomas Blanton & Bobby Cherry were each convicted of four counts of murder & sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 & 2002, but Herman Cash, was never charged .

The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing marked a turning point in the United States during the Civil Rights Movement & contributed to support for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

1966 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation

1968 – The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere

1971 – The first Greenpeace ship sets sail to protest against nuclear testing on Amchitka Island

1972 – A Scandinavian Airlines System domestic flight is hijacked

1974 – Air Vietnam Flight 706 is hijacked, then crashes while attempting to land with 75 on board

2008 – Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history

Free Money Day is an annual, global event held since 2011 as a social experiment to promote sharing & alternative economic ideas. The day is held annually on September 15, the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers’ 2008 filing for bankruptcy. Participants offer their own money to passing strangers at public places, two coins or notes at a time. Recipients are asked to pass on one of the notes or coins to someone else

International Day of Democracy …’democracy is a universal value based on the freely-expressed will of people to determine their own political, economic, social and cultural systems, and their full participation in all aspects of life’

30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day

Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought

The time for biodynamic preparation making is come up again very soon.
We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and work in soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year?
Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye and thank you.
Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.

Affect Change

September 13, 202310:10, Community~hag

Greetings friends on this Eve of the New Moon – I am striving, like you, thru Spiritual Science, in the continual digestion of past, present & future world events, to not only uncover the supersensible reality behind the various physically manifested phenomenon – naming the forces working in what we see out-pictured in our collective reality – but also to ask questions?

And one of the main questions many of us are asking is: How can we affect positive change?

We know that as individuals we are tasked with consistently practicing the inner development work described in Rudolf Steiner’s basic book: ‘How to Know Higher Worlds’. This first step is a life-long process, not a theory – but a conscious Initiatory practice… – Then with a firm moral foundation that allows us to build new spiritual organs, we are meant to join our gifts together to build the Temple of the New Mysteries – A Michaelic Oasis/Fortress that enables us to counteract the adversarial forces thru our collective endeavor – which involves rising in our thinking to meet the spiritual beings who are willing to work as our allies for the highest evolution of humanity.

Here on RR we have brought forth the intention to co-create change thru what I call: Project Thought-Seed (Egregore 10:10 )

Do you feel as I do that we must become spiritual warriors? We cannot realistically hope to affect change by physical means alone. The 3-fold Social Organism is in deep dis-ease. The Economic & Political realms are thoroughly corrupt, so in re-awakening the moral civil center of the Spiritual/Educational/Cultural realm in freedom, we can endeavor to take up the practice of building up affirmative imaginations on the inner planes as a counterforce to the adversarial powers working in the world.

This kind of willed-visualization becomes a “key-call” to the Spiritual Powers aligned with love & light, to enlist their aid.

Our collective Good Will can form a cosmic energy field for healing – planting what Dion Fortune called “Seed ideas in the group mind of humanity” to co-create intentions for our Highest human evolution – that the Earth may become a Sacred Planet – a Sun – & every Human Being a Star. “What is sown in our highest thought will grow and bear seed.” It only takes the square root of any number of people to create true change.

To further explain ‘the working’, we can do together, let’s look at what this positive group energy can be, from a spiritual scientific point of view:

An egregore is a positive group thought-form, & when intentionally created, becomes a kind of ‘entity’ with the power to help & influence.

Whenever we meditate, pray, study a sacred image, or create an inspiring work of science, art, or literature, we radiate into time & space positive thoughts & emotions which benefit the all. Thru concentration exercises we can build Thought-Forms in the astral where we can meet in spirit.

Our goal is to co-create a new ‘Group-Soul United in Christ’ – which has the power to affect the ultimate positive change we want to see in the world.

As a psychic ‘entity’, the egregore exists between the material & spiritual worlds, & is connected to both. It is a living creation of our highest intentions.

We have the power to manifest thought-forms of good will together – to collectively build a cognitive imagination of Michael-Christ-Sophia, protecting & embracing us with love & light.

The forces built up thru our collective egregore fortifies & sustains us. The intentional visualization of the Earth as a Sun, increases thru our efforts over time – becoming more & more realized thru our repeated affirmational actions.

Here is the Meditative Thought-Seed I have been working with:

For Thinking: “When I think light, my soul shines,
When my soul shines, the Earth is a Star,
When the Earth is a Star, I am, a true human being”.
~Herbert Hahn

I love to reverse the verses:
I Am
A True Human Being
The Earth is a Star
My Soul Shines
I think Light

For Feeling: When I feel Love, my heart sings
When my heart sings, the Earth resounds
When the Earth resounds, I am a true I AM

I Am
A True I am
The earth Resounds
My Heart Sings
I Feel Love

For Willing: When I will life, my hands help
When my hands help, the Earth heals
When the Earth heals, I am a free human being

I Am
A Free Human Being
The Earth Heals
My Hands Help
I Will Life

~ hag

Of course just a simple moment of sending your good will out into the ethers is potent too.

If you are interested you can read about the origins for this Thought-Experiment which came about during the start of the Corona Crisis.

This brainstorm also became the reason I started doing the ‘I Think Speech’ podcast. The very first episodes beginning on 24 November 2020 describe the 1010 – Project Thought-Seed – Egregore.

So dear friends, here is something we can actually do to counteract evil – to make our world a better place.

I hope to see you in the ethers every day 10:10 AM, (&/or PM) (but please don’t worry if you can’t tune in at 10:10, just do it whenever you think of it, which may be many times a day, or perhaps only occasionally, don’t stress it, just do what you can with a loving heart-mind)

~hag

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
AUTUMN PRELUDE III
The Yield Of Summer
v23
In autumn haze
the senses’ lure fades;
a mist arising veils
the light’s revealing.
In widths of space I see
the autumn landscape fall asleep;
the summer’s yielded me her being
for me to reap

This week’s octave is its mirror verse:
the Celtic Wise Woman festival of Samhain
[‘Summer’s End’] when the summer’s being
begins to shine as the summer of the soul,
the cosmic light living on with inner power.

SAMHAIN – HALLOWEEN
The Summer Of The Soul
v30
In sunlight of my soul
the fruit of thinking ripens;
all feeling turns to sureness
of self-awareness.
I joy to sense
the autumn’s rousing of the spirit;
within me will the winter wake
the summer of the soul.

PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE: Due to the farm day at Angelic Organics we are changing our Chicago Festival to: FRIDAY 22 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire Celebrating

*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

30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day

Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

Virgin’s Virtue

September 10, 202310:10, Biography~hag

The maiden, the wheat, and the threshing moon | Wandering Arrow

Greetings freinds – Here is today’s essay on the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast

The Virtue associated with Virgo is: Courtesy becomes Steadiness of Feeling.

In taking up the work of understanding Mary Magdalene in her overcoming of the 7 demons, to become ‘She who anoints the Anointed One’ – I have been working with the 12 virtues as the antidote – turning those vices into virtues.

Being a double Cancer with a Pisces Moon, this virtue of Equanimity or steadiness of Feeling has never been my strong suit – too much water! But the other day it also dawned on me that perhaps it’s partly because I have always looked on ‘courtesy’ as a false societal mask, a convention that my – ‘Say it like it is’ attitude didn’t allow me to fully appreciate; especially since my dear mother, who always very courteous, another Cancer native, was often martyred. So, I thought I had to be tough – I didn’t want to be walked on like she was. But I know that because of this need to adjust to my childhood experiences, I have often let my hard crabby shell be too heavy an armor. And it hurts that some can see me as aloof, thinking my need to protect my overly sensitive feeling life is a conceit. And yet it woke me up to seek to understand & deal with my own vulnerability.

And I see that to practice this virtue I must also deal with my impatience. I must learn to see that tolerance, & patient interest, is the real form of courtesy. It shows me that to be kind, to be truly courteous, I have to practice a real ‘steadfastness of feeling’ the virtue seen in the 6 basic exercises as Equinimity. – It can’t come from a rule outside me, an unconscious convention, a dutiful patent ‘please & thank you’, or an overt inconsiderateness – but from a tactful heart, centered in equanimity, bringing a calm sobriety & the resolve to cultivate & harvest right relationship.

Virgo Constellation Painting by Erdal Bölükbaşı | Artmajeur — Erdal Bölükbaşı

We are in the season cycle when the contemplative Virgin of the heavens holds the Sun forces, sparking wholeness, to gather us up in her blue mantle, like ears of corn. We are brought home from the far fields of Summer.

The constellation of the Virgin has always been regarded since the ancient mysteries, as the bearer of the bread of life – Full-filled at the ‘Turning Point of Time’ in the ‘miracle of the loaves & the fishes’, as well as the ‘Last Supper’ & in the birth of the Sun into humanity.

If cosmic provisions are to become nourishment for the Higher Self – The “I”, we must make a connection with the powers of the depths, which lie opposite the Virgin along the axis of the Zodiac, in the constellation of Pisces, the sign of the Fishes. With this balance of Above & Below we can truly feed the “I” – & say as St. John The Divine did: “I am the Bread of Life”!

This begs the question, which our current culture has to answer: How can the food of life, which is so often taken in unconsciously, in greedy gulps -instead, be taken up & internalized with a wakeful & reverent consciousness?

Madonna of the Wheat, Addressing Sacred Feminine Imagery in Art, Statuary, and Textiles - Attraversando in il Rinascimento Italiano

If the Bread of Life is to be fully digested by the “I”, then what is required is the destruction of our selfish desires, making us ‘virgin’ again, Whole – that we may give birth to the ‘Christ in me’, to preserve & focus the activity of the will, freeing the “I” from outdated husks, to feed the Christ self.

Virgo, Earth, Mutable, 6th House, "I Analyze" | Zodiac art, Esoteric art, Art

In the social realm, the royal virtue of courtesy brings the giddiness of summer’s unconscious expansion back into a steadfast feeling of thoughtful care. A soul hygiene that brings the pendulum into right relationship, just as every out-breath is followed by an in-breath –The austerity of the Virgin leading us into the balanced scales of Libra in preparation for Michaelmas.

This must be developed in the practice of our social life. If we practice this high ideal of courtesy, not just a surface, conventional politeness, we can acquire the right heart-felt feeling, which awakens an inner organ that can reveal to us the true being of the other person, as well as opening our connection to the elemental beings, that look to us to release them from the withering blooms.

~hag

“If the sheath-bearing Virgin, who draws near with golden rays of autumn sun, in the blue firmament, is to nourish you with what she provides, you must take up this food that is the Bread of Life in your innermost being.

That you can only do, when you develop not only your senses, but with them, open up the spirit of your soul to the world around you, & deepen in your heart the fruits of your life, that you gather, shape & organize. Only the right heartfelt tact gives you the possibility of recognizing the human being in others & of becoming aware of your own human nobility!” ~Rudolf Steiner

~Petr Horalek, Slovakia 09/09/2023 – 04:00 am – Comet C/2023 P1 Nishimura, discovered on 12 August by Hideo Nishimura from Japan, next to Venus (Occult Mercury).

10 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

720 – Death/Feast Day of Aubert of Avranches According to legend, in 708 he had a vision in which the Archangel Michael instructed him to build an oratory on the rocky tidal island at the mouth of the Couesnon. Aubert did not pay attention to this vision at first, until in exasperation Michael appeared to him again, this time driving his finger into Aubert’s skull & ordering him to complete the task again. Michael is said to have appeared to him a total of three times. After this the oratory was built.

Mont-Saint-Michel, an island fortress, medieval abbey, and UNESCO world heritage site, is one of France's major and most stunning tourist attractions.

The relic of Aubert’s skull, complete with hole where the archangel’s finger pierced it, can still be seen at the Saint-Gervais Basilica in Avranches.

The Blessed Guillaume de Toulouse Tormented by Demons — Ambroise Frédeau – Biblioklept

1305 – Death/Feast Day of Nicholas of Tolentino, known as the Patron of Holy Souls, was an Italian saint &mystic. There are many tales & legends which relate to Nicholas. One says the devil once beat him with a stick, which was then displayed for years in his church. In another, Nicholas, a vegetarian, was served a roasted fowl, for which he made the sign of the cross, & it flew out a window. Nine passengers on a ship going down at sea once asked Nicholas’ aid, & he appeared in the sky, wearing the black Augustinian habit, radiating golden light, holding a lily in his left hand, & with his right hand, he quelled the storm. An apparition of the saint, it is said, once saved the burning palace of the Doge of Venice by throwing a piece of blessed bread on the flames. He was also reported to have resurrected over one hundred dead children, including several who had drowned together.

1509 – An earthquake known as “The Lesser Judgment Day” hits Constantinople killing over 2,000

Europe after the Treaties of Utrecht and Nystad, 1721. | Historical maps, German history, European history

1721 – The Treaty of Nystad was signed ending the twenty-one year Great Northern War between Russia & Sweden. Rudolf Steiner speaks about the significance of this in GA 119 Macrocosm/Microcosm: Lecture 6: Experiences of Initiation in the Northern Mysteries

Empress Elisabeth of Austria - Wikipedia

1898 – Deathday of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I, Queen of Hungary & Queen consort of Croatia and Bohemia. While travelling in Geneva in she was stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni who selected her because he had missed his chance to assassinate Prince Philippe, Duke of Orléans, & wanted to kill the next member of royalty that he saw. Elisabeth was the longest serving Empress-consort of Austria, at 44 years. Rudolf Steiner gives us much to think about concerning her destiny in this lecture – BEHIND THE SCENES OF EXTERNAL HAPPENINGS, GA 178, Lecture I, Zürick, 6th November, 1917

1919 – Austria & the Allies sign the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye recognizing the independence of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia & Yugoslavia

1933 – Deathday of A.W. Sellin, Anthroposopher & Fremason

1935 – Birthday of Mary Oliver, poet & author

1943 – World War II: German forces begin their occupation of Rome

2008 – The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in history, is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland

Stay: Suicide Prevention Campaign | Baltimore-Washington Conference UMC

World Suicide Prevention Day

Saturday 23 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire Celebrating

*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

30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day

Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.