Category Archives: Autumn

Even night & day struggle

Autumn, Insight, Lecture, Poetry

24 September 2018 – “Speaking with the Stars”: La Bella Luna comes into her fullness in the Harvest Moon exact at 9:52 p.m. CDT. She rises in the east soon after sunset. Later in the evening you’ll find the Great Square of Pegasus above her by a couple of fists at arm’s length.

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Lectures by Rudolf Steiner on this date

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

According to the Calendar of the Soul today is the Festival of Persephone, part of The Eleusinian Mysteries, held annually in honor of Demeter & Persephone. The most sacred & revered of all the ritual celebrations of ancient Greece. They were instituted in the city of Eleusis, just  west of Athens, possibly as far back as the early Mycenaean period, & continued for almost two thousand years. Large crowds of worshippers from all over Greece (& later, from throughout the Roman empire) would gather to make the holy pilgrimage between the two cities & participate in the secret rites, generally regarded as the high point of Greek life.

622 – Muhammad & his followers completed their Hijra from Mecca to Medina to escape religious persecution. Rudolf Steiner tells us Muhammad was able to see into the etheric realm. Legend has it that the enemy was just seconds from capturing them when they ducked into a cave, where they surly would been found, except a spider wove a giant web & a dove made a nest at the entrance, so when the enemy come to the cave they thought – they can’t be here, since the web was so intricate & the nest so well established.

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787 – Second Council of Nicaea: The council assembled at the church of Hagia Sophia

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1046 – Deathday(drowned) /Feast of St. Gellert

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1541 – Deathday (murdered) Theophrastus Paracelsus, a Swiss German philosopher, physician, botanist, astrologer, & occultist. He is credited as the founder of toxicology. He is also a famous revolutionary for utilizing observations of nature, rather than referring to ancient texts, something of radical defiance during his time. He is credited as the first to note that some diseases are rooted in psychological conditions.

Paracelsus’ most important legacy is his critique of the scholastic methods in medicine, science & theology. As a physician of the early 16th century, Paracelsus held a natural affinity with the Hermetic, Neoplatonic, & Pythagorean philosophies central to the Renaissance. Paracelsus rejected the magic theories of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa & Nicolas Flamel in his Archidoxes of Magic.

Astrology was a very important part of Paracelsus’ medicine & he was a practicing astrologer. Paracelsus devoted several sections in his writings to the construction of astrological talismans for curing disease. He also invented an alphabet called the Alphabet of the Magi, for engraving angelic names upon talismans.

1916 – Rudolf Steiner’s 2nd lecture on the Mexican Mysteries

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1789 – The United States Congress passes the Judiciary Act which creates the office of the United States Attorney General & the federal judiciary system, & orders the composition of the Supreme Court of the United States

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1869 – “Black Friday“: Gold prices plummet after Ulysses S. Grant orders the Treasury to sell large quantities of gold after Jay Gould & James Fisk plot to control the market

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1896 – Birthday of F. Scott Fitzgerald, novelist & short story writer

1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower in Wyoming as the nation’s first National Monument

1914 – World War I: The Siege of Poland begins

Image result for 1948 – The Honda Motor Company is founded

1948 – The Honda Motor Company is founded

1950 – Forest fires black out the sun over portions of Canada & New England. A blue moon is seen as far away as Europe

Image result for 1957 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends 101st Airborne Division troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce desegregation

1957 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends 101st Airborne Division troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce desegregation

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1960 – USS Enterprise, the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is launched

Image result for 1996 – Representatives of 71 nations sign the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban

1996 – Representatives of 71 nations sign the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty at the United Nations.

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2005 – Hurricane Rita makes landfall in the United States, devastating portions of southwestern Louisiana & southeastern Texas

Image result for 2007 –100,000 people take part in anti-government protests in Yangon, Burma

2007 –100,000 people take part in anti-government protests in Yangon, Burma

Image result for 2009 – The G20 summit

2009 – The G20 summit begins in Pittsburgh with 30 global leaders in attendance. It marks the first use of Long-Range Acoustic Devices in U.S. history

2013 – A 7.7-magnitude earthquake strikes southern Pakistan, killing more than 1327 people

2015 – At least 1,100 people are killed & another 934 wounded after a stampede during the Hajj in Saudi Arabia

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

Karen Sleigh

~Making Peace
even night & day struggle,
but this is how magnificent sunsets & the stunning dawn are born…
We can call it a state of grace –
for unless the earth enveloped the seed
& the seed moved against the darkness, there would be no grain…
We take in the air & the air escapes us…
Call it the breath of life; not loss or disaster
it is the empty heart waiting to be filled…

***

MICHAELMAS AND THE SOUL-FORCES OF MAN by RUDOLF STEINER

Summary by Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

Lecture 4. The far-reaching social significance of a Michael Festival. Earth spirit and human spirit. The cosmic breathing process. Nature-consciousness, self-consciousness, and spirit-consciousness. “

In the Gemüt, through anthroposophical endeavor — we learn to distinguish between nature-consciousness, engendered during the spring and summer, and self-consciousness proper which thrives in the fall and winter.

“When the human Gemüt receives into itself spirit-consciousness — the spirit-consciousness engendered by the transition from nature-consciousness (spring-summer) to self-consciousness (autumn-winter) — then will the solution to our social problems of the moment comes clear.”

A Michael Festival calls for us to feel in our souls everything that can activate spirit-consciousness.

“…What does Easter represent in the year’s festivals? First death, then resurrection: that is the outer aspect of the Mystery of Golgotha. One who understands the Mystery of Golgotha in this sense sees death and resurrection in this way of redemption; and can feel in their soul that we must unite in our Gemüt with Christ, the victor over death, in order to find resurrection in death.”

But Christianity does not end with the traditions associated with the Mystery of Golgotha: it must advance. The human Gemüt turns inward and deepens more and more as time goes on; and in addition to this festival that brings alive the Death and Resurrection of Christ, humanity needs that other one which reveals the course of the year as having its counterpart within us, so that we can find in the round of the seasons, first of all the resurrection of the soul — in fact, the necessity for achieving this resurrection — in order that the soul may then pass through the portal of death in a worthy way.

Easter: death, then resurrection; Michaelmas: resurrection of the soul, then death. This makes of the Michael Festival a reversed Easter Festival. Easter commemorates for us the Resurrection of Christ from death; but in the Michael Festival we must feel with all the intensity of our soul: In order not to sleep in a half-dead state that will dim our self-consciousness between death and a new birth, but rather, to be able to pass through the portal of death in full alertness, we must rouse the soul through our inner forces before we die. First, resurrection of the soul — then death, so that in death that resurrection can be achieved which the human being celebrates within.

 In Spiritual Science Death must Become…A Resurrection

For this we strive

In gratitude ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

human heart as sense organ

Autumn, Celestial Event, Insight, Lecture, Poetry

23 September 2018 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Now Bella Luna on the eve of the Full Harvest Moon, shines even farther left of Mars after dark. Look lower right of the Moon, by roughly half that distance, for Fomalhaut, the Autumn Star, low & slowly on its way up in the southeast.

Image result for moon & mars paintingStephanie Allison

Uranus reaches opposition one month from today, but it already has become a tempting evening target. The ice giant world rises before 8 pm CDT & climbs above the eastern horizon by 11 pm, in southwestern Aries, south of the Ram’s brightest star, Alpha.

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Lectures by Rudolf Steiner on this date

“A generation which ignores history has no past — and no future.” ~Robert A. Heinlein

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY ( Watch for repeating themes & interesting ‘coincidences’)

63 BC – Birthday of Augustus, the founder of the Roman Empire & its first Emperor. Augustus’ reign laid the foundations of a regime that lasted for nearly fifteen hundred years through the ultimate decline of the Western Roman Empire & until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. Both his adoptive surname, Caesar, & his title Augustus became the permanent titles of the rulers of the Roman Empire for fourteen centuries after his death. The cult of Divus Augustus continued until the state religion of the Empire was changed to Christianity in 391

Image result for Robert de Sablé paintingDereck Clark

1193 – Deathday of Robert de Sablé, French knight, the eleventh Grand Master of the Knights Templar & Lord of Cyprus

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1338 – The Battle of Arnemuiden was the first naval battle of the Hundred Years’ War & the first naval battle using artillery, as the English ship Christopher had three cannon & one hand gun.

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1409 – Battle of Kherlen, the second significant victory over Ming dynasty China by the Mongols since 1368.

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1459 – Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English War of the Roses, takes place.

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1641 – The Merchant Royal, carrying a treasure of over 100,000 pounds of gold (worth over £1 billion today), is lost at sea off Land’s End.

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1779 – John Paul Jones on board the USS Bonhomme Richard wins the Battle of Flamborough Head.

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1846 – Astronomers Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier, John Couch Adams & Johann Gottfried Galle collaborate on the discovery of Neptune

Related imageAnna Kulisz

1909 – The Phantom of the Opera (original title: Le Fantôme de l’Opéra), a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux, is first published as a serialization in Le Gaulois.

Image result for Pilot Earle Ovington makes the first official airmail delivery

1911 – Pilot Earle Ovington makes the first official airmail delivery in America under the authority of the United States Post Office Department

Image result for Roland Garros of France becomes the first to fly in an airplane across the Mediterranean

1913 – Roland Garros of France becomes the first to fly in an airplane across the Mediterranean (from St. Raphael France to Bizerte, Tunisia)

1930 – Birthday of Ray Charles, American singer-songwriter, pianist.

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1939 – Deathday of Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist & psychiatrist

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1943 – The Nazi puppet state known as the Italian Social Republic is founded.

1968 – Deathday of Padre Pio, a Franciscan friar, priest, stigmatist, & mystic. On September 20, 1918, while hearing confessions, Padre Pio had his first occurrence of the stigmata. This phenomenon continued for fifty years, until the end of his life. The blood flowing from the stigmata smelled of perfume or flowers:  the odour of sanctity.

People who had started rebuilding their lives after World War I, began to see in Padre Pio a symbol of hope. Those close to him attest that he began to manifest several spiritual gifts, including the gifts of healing, bilocation, levitation, prophecy, miracles, extraordinary abstinence from both sleep & nourishment, the ability to read hearts, the gift of tongues, the gift of conversions.

At the time of Padre Pio’s death, his body appeared unwounded, with no sign of scarring. Doctors who examined his body found it empty of all blood.

1973 – Deathday of Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet & diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate

1983 – Gulf Air Flight 771 is destroyed by a bomb, killing all 117 people on board.

2004 – Over 3,000 people die in Haiti after Hurricane Jeanne produces massive flooding & mudslides.

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I Am
A book without a cover
The Queen of Chaos on tippy-toes…
Dreaming of procrastination
I tie
The key onto the kite…
I gather
Earth crammed with heaven…
My 4 winds fold-in
Mountain dwellers from far & wide
Grass weavers, potters, & music makers…
I watch
Black earth & red earth join in a buckle of sky
As Hermes teaches me to be
Direct…
~hag

***

Ayse Domeniconi

MICHAELMAS AND THE SOUL-FORCES OF MAN by RUDOLF STEINER

Summary by Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

Lecture 3. The sun circles – The Druid and the Mithras Mysteries; Observation of the sun yielded knowledge of the connection between heaven and earth. The great language of the heavens was deciphered, and then applied to earthly things.

Through the heart organization the course of nature was perceived within the human being, and through the heart science the spirit of the sun’s annual passage through the zodiac was studied. In this way initiates read in the heavens what was to be done on earth.

“…the human heart is really a subconscious sense organ.”

This was taught in the Mithras Cult.

“…The disciple was taught to perceive the course of the seasons within himself by means of his heart organization.

the heart-science of the old Mithras pupils; what they really studied when they looked at themselves through their heart was the spirit of the sun’s annual passage through the zodiac. In this way the human being experienced themself as a higher being, riding on his lower nature; (the Bull) and therefore it was fitting that the cosmos should be arranged in a circle around him; in this manner cosmic spirituality was experienced.

“…A spirit of reverence for the ancient cultures pervades us when we see deeper into them and work to rediscover, how to apply this heart-science now.

Steiner talks in lecture 3 about the relationship between the various phases of the moon and the weather. “…looked at in a spiritual-scientific way the moon presents itself as a sort of fortress in the cosmos. From the outside, not only the light-rays of the sun but all the external effects of the universe are reflected by the moon down to the earth; but in the interior of the moon there is a complete world that nowadays can be reached only by ascending, to the spirit world.”

“…higher beings who occupied etheric bodies only, and whose instruction was imparted to human beings as though inoculating the etheric body with higher wisdom.”

“…it was simply a case of his having to breathe and of his blood circulating in him; and it was in his circulation that he willed.”

We know now that what the individual planets tell us provides the vowels of the world-script; and all that forms around the vowels when the planets pass the constellations of the zodiac gives us the consonants.

This kind of Cosmic experience leads us to participation in the cosmos; in this way we can achieve a spiritualized instinct for the meaning of the seasons with which our organic life as well as our social life is interwoven — an instinct for the different ways in which the earth stands to the cosmos while on its way from spring to summer, and again from summer through autumn into winter. Celebrating festivals that have social significance, in the same way that the forces of nature, through our physical organization, make us one with our breathing & circulation.

“…As the blood circulation inside us is essential for our existence, the circulation of the elemental beings between earth and the heavens is indispensable for us as well.”

We dig deeper with more Michaelmas tomorrow

Until soon ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

 

 

Symmetry

Autumn, Celestial Event, Insight, Lecture, Poetry

22 September 2018 –

Ayse Domeniconi

At the Autumnal Equinox – the wheel of the year turns & we find ourselves moving into the time of the harvest.  In the tropical zodiac, at equinox, we say the Sun is crossing the celestial equator, moving from Virgo into Libra, the sign of the scales – a time to take stock. Are the scales balanced? Do they tip & spill? Are they full? Do we know what to harvest & what to plow under? Can we identify & cut away outworn habits & emotional baggage that can choke our growth?

But in sidereal astrosophy we see the Sun in relation to the actual constellations as they are now, with the Sun actually appearing in the crown of stars in the constellation of the Virgin. When we use the tropical zodiac, the 4-foldness of the Equinoxes & Solstices form The Cross, which reminds us of an event that occurred only once in history, at the time of the incarnation of Christ. Then, the start of Spring was at 0 degrees of Aries, the Ram – the 1st sign in the zodiac.

At the Equinoxes we have the horizontal beam, a balance of light & darkness. At the Solstices we have the vertical beam, an opposition of light & dark. At Autumn Equinox the Sun is balanced in Libra, which then marks the transition from light to dark. Libra is a threshold, a gateway between the upper chakras & the lower chakras. In the upper signs, from Aries thru Virgo we have a memory of the cosmic human being before it was formed on Earth. From Libra to Pisces, the human form meets the physical world. So we can look at the upper half of the zodiac as being related to our past cosmic creation by the ‘gods’ & the lower half of the zodiac as our human journey of ‘The fall’ & then hopefully our redemption out of our own ego forces.

The Sidereal zodiac shows us the vernal point has moved thru the ‘procession of the equinoxes’, so that it is now descending thru the lower half of the zodiac, taking humanity along on its evolutionary journey.

Adoring this great cross, formed from the 4 Cardinal Points of the Equinoxes & Solstices, are the 7 Festivals: Michaelmas, Advent, Christmas, Easter-tide Ascension, Whitsun & St. John’s-tide. These festivals are the 7 Cosmic Roses unfurling from the center of The Cross.

So today on this Autumnal Equinox, we can contemplate & celebrate this solar moment of equality & balance, experienced by everyone around the globe. We can also think about how the world has changed, how the constellations have moved on, how The Christ has united with the Earth, & is now working in us to redeem our evolution.

We can take our initiation in hand when we consciously co-create the festivals in the solar-cycle of the year, working to unfold the 7 Roses of transformation within, & out in the world.

And so it is my friends, that we begin our journey, like Persephone, into the dark of the year…feel your power go within like the seed planted deep within the darkness of the Earth…We must be initiated into these dark mysteries before we can truly celebrate life’s renewal…

The apples fall from the tree, the corn & grain are gathered in, the grapes are crushed for wine…The Sun God is sacrificed to the night & the fertile Mother assumes the face of the Wise Crone – the Harvest Hag challenging us to face our shadow…

Balanced Blessings

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

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MICHAELMAS AND THE SOUL-FORCES OF MAN By RUDOLF STEINER, a Summary by Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Lecture 3. The sun circles – The Druid and the Mithras Mysteries; Observation of the sun yielded knowledge of the connection between heaven and earth. The great language of the heavens was deciphered, and then applied to earthly things.

Through the heart organization the course of nature was perceived within the human being, and through the heart science the spirit of the sun’s annual passage through the zodiac was studied. In this way initiates read in the heavens what was to be done on earth.

“…the human heart is really a subconscious sense organ.”

This was taught in the Mithras Cult.”

“…The disciple was taught to perceive the course of the seasons within himself by means of his heart organization.

the heart-science of the old Mithras pupils; what they really studied when they looked at themselves through their heart was the spirit of the sun’s annual passage through the zodiac. In this way the human being experienced themself as a higher being, riding on his lower nature; (the Bull) and therefore it was fitting that the cosmos should be arranged in a circle around him; in this manner cosmic spirituality was experienced.

“…A spirit of reverence for the ancient cultures pervades us when we see deeper into them and work to rediscover, how to apply this heart-science now.

Steiner talks in lecture 3 about the relationship between the various phases of the moon and the weather. “…looked at in a spiritual-scientific way the moon presents itself as a sort of fortress in the cosmos. From the outside, not only the light-rays of the sun but all the external effects of the universe are reflected by the moon down to the earth; but in the interior of the moon there is a complete world that nowadays can be reached only by ascending, to the spirit world.”

“…higher beings who occupied etheric bodies only, and whose instruction was imparted to human beings as though inoculating the etheric body with higher wisdom.”

“…it was simply a case of his having to breathe and of his blood circulating in him; and it was in his circulation that he willed.”

We know now that what the individual planets tell us provides the vowels of the world-script; and all that forms around the vowels when the planets pass the constellations of the zodiac gives us the consonants.

This kind of Cosmic experience leads us to participation in the cosmos; in this way we can achieve a spiritualized instinct for the meaning of the seasons with which our organic life as well as our social life is interwoven — an instinct for the different ways in which the earth stands to the cosmos while on its way from spring to summer, and again from summer through autumn into winter. Celebrating festivals that have social significance, in the same way that the forces of nature, through our physical organization, make us one with our breathing & circulation.

“…As the blood circulation inside us is essential for our existence, the circulation of the elemental beings between earth and the heavens is indispensable for us as well.”

***

 

Mabon (an ancient Celtic name for the Autumnal Equinox)

A salmon swallows the nut of wisdom
And leaps from the river’s dark depths –
A bright flash of silver in the bent rays of light

A hawk wheels in the eye of the Sun,
His elongated shadow moves
Over an ancient green mound

A fox gleams gold and russet there at the fringe of the forest
Her eyes glinting secrets
From the coming twilight realm

A Maiden sits silent
Clasping two crossed swords
In elegant equipoise

On his knee the King muses by a deep pool…

Soul tied to the wheel
Crystalized in the last shock of corn
Pierced by the oblique sun lit spear

With eyes that see
Down into the root
Where autumn grain waits
To Be
Easter-Tides’ Seed

The death of bedazzled day
And the dawn of focused night
Meet in symmetry

Halfway
Thru the cycle
We enter the return

Sail West Beloved Sun King
We follow You
Into the Dawning Dark

~hag

Gemüt

Autumn, Festival, Lecture, Poetry, Remembering

20 September 2018 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The yellow-orange point to the right of Bella Luna this evening is Mars. Once night is fully dark, look for Fomalhaut, the Autumn Star, rising about three fists to the Moon’s lower left.

 Mars by WilliamTurners

Mercury reaches superior conjunction at 9 pm CDT. This means the innermost planet lies on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth & remains hidden in our Day Star’s glare. It will return to view in the evening sky, though just barely, in late October.

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Image result for Rudolf Steiner and the theosophical society

Lectures by Rudolf Steiner on this date

Looking at the past to see the present, co-creating the future:

“History, historical life, will only be seen in the right light when a true consciousness of the connection of the so-called living with the so-called dead can be developed” – The Living and the Dead by Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, 5th February, 1918

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

622 – Muhammad & Abu Bakr arrived in Medina

Image result for 1378 – Cardinal Robert of Geneva, called by some the "Butcher of Cesena", is elected as Pope Clement VII

1378 – Cardinal Robert of Geneva, called by some the “Butcher of Cesena“, is elected as Pope Clement VII, beginning the Papal schism. He was the 1st antipope residing in Avignon, France

Image result for 1498 – The 1498 Nankai earthquake buddha

1498 – The 1498 Nankai earthquake generates a tsunami that washes away the building housing the statue of the Great Buddha at Kōtoku-in in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan. Over 10,000 die

Image result for 1519 – Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda

1519 – Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with 270 men on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe

Image result for Walking Purchase

1737 – The Walking Purchase– between the Penn family, the proprietors of Pennsylvania, & the Lenape Tribe (also known as the Delaware). This document may have been an unsigned, unratified treaty, or even an outright forgery (Encyclopædia Britannica refers to it as a “land swindle”. The Penns’ agents began selling land, an area of 1,200,000 acres, in the Lehigh Valley to colonists while the Lenape still inhabited the area

Image result for 1893 – Charles Duryea road-tests the first American-made gasoline-powered automobile

1893 – Charles Duryea road-tests the first American-made gasoline-powered automobile

Image result for 1906 – Founding of the Paracelsus Branch, Basel Switzerland

1906 – Founding of the Paracelsus Branch, Basel Switzerland

Image result for 1906 – Founding of the Paracelsus Branch, Basel Switzerland

1913 – The laying of the Foundation Stone of the 1st Goetheanum

1913 – Founding of the Moscow Branch of the Anthroposophical Society

1933 – Deathday of Annie Besant. In 1890 Besant met Helena Blavatsky. She became a member of the Theosophical Society & a prominent lecturer. She established the first overseas Lodge of the International Order of Co-Freemasonry, Le Droit Humain. Over the next few years she established lodges in many parts of the British Empire. In 1907 she became president of the Theosophical Society, whose international headquarters were in Adyar, Madras. She also became involved in politics in India, joining the Indian National Congress. When World War I broke out in 1914, she helped launch the Home Rule League to campaign for democracy in India. This led to her election as president of the India National Congress. In the late 1920s, Besant travelled to the United States with her protégé & adopted son Jiddu Krishnamurti, whom she claimed was the new Messiah & incarnation of Buddha. Krishnamurti rejected these claims in 1929. She is thought to be the reincarnation of Giordano Bruno

1941 – Holocaust 403 Jews (128 men, 176 women & 99 children) were murdered by Einsatzkommando 3 in Nemencing, Latvia.

1942 – Holocaust in Letychiv, Ukraine. In the course of two days the German SS murders at least 3,000 Jews

1973 – Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome

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Image result for rain painting

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~i sing the rain
in fresh contemplation
of change…

~hag

***

Image result for Michaelmas

Today I begin a series on Michaelmas.

MICHAELMAS AND THE SOUL-FORCES OF MAN By RUDOLF STEINER

a Summary by Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

Lecture 1. How can humanity, the earth citizen, become once more a citizen of the cosmos? The expansion of life’s horizon into cosmic reaches brings the human being into the picture of Michael’s Conflict with the Dragon.

The Dragon is not found in the sense world. Where is he? The dragon lives within the human being. “…the outer cosmic conflict of Michael and the Dragon was transferred to the inner human being, because only in human nature could the Dragon now find his sphere of action.”

Because of that Michael now works with us to fight the dragon within human nature.

Steiner gives this picture of the dragon writhing around the animalistic part of humanity, even coiling around the heart; but then — behind us, at the back of the head — the outer cosmic figure of Michael, towering, radiant, retaining his cosmic nature but reflecting it in the higher human nature, so that our etheric body reflects etherically the cosmic figure of Michael. Then there would be visible in the human head — but working down into the heart — the power of Michael, crushing the Dragon and causing blood to flow down from the heart to the limbs.” So we can put our will into action

“…. In the intellect we are isolated from the world, because everyone has their own head, and in that head, their own thoughts. But In our Gemüt we cannot do that, the Gemüt is not dependent upon the head, but on the rhythmic system, bringing us back to where we belong, as a being in the cosmos.”

The Gemüt, as meaning something like: ‘the mind warmed by a loving heart and stimulated by the soul’s imaginative power’.

“…So with our Gemüt we can say: The power of the Dragon is working within me, I might not see it — but I can feel it as a force that wants to drag me down below myself. But in the spirit I see the luminous Angel whose cosmic task has always been the vanquishing of the Dragon. I concentrate my Gemüt upon this glowing figure, I let its light stream into my Gemüt, so that my illumined and warmed Gemüt will bear within it the strength of Michael. And out of a free resolution I will be able, through my alliance with Michael, to conquer the Dragon’s might in my own lower nature.”

“…this activated Gemüt enters into a living relationship with the whole cosmos the moment it indeed comes to life.

Life will not have a true soul content until we can develop cosmic impulses in our Gemüt.”

Image result for Michaelmas

Tomorrow I will bring my summary of lecture 2

Xox

~hag

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 Veil Painting Workshop with David A. Dozier 773-627-0060

Friday Sept. 21, 2018, 7 -9pm, Saturday Sept. 22, 10 am – 5 pm, Sunday Sept. 23, 10 am -1pm

Workshop fee: $135.00 for RSB members, $160.00 for non-members Supply fee: $135.00*

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 Friday 28 September 2018 – COMMUNITY MEETING 

at 7 pm with Ann Burfeind 

Checking in on our local Anthroposophical Initiatives:

Are you a Waldorf Teacher, Branch Member, Christian Community Member, In the Arcturus Teacher Training, Involved with Anthroposophical Medicine, or Bio-Dynamics, Interested in serving the Being of Chicago…? Please come & bring a report, of the new school, or your Spiritual Scientific research…ETC…

We will also have a review of the How We Will Forum2

All in the spirit of Michaelmas

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Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map) 

Check out our Web site! Chicago, IL (Anthroposophical Society in America

The Elderberries 3-Fold Space is currently available for rental on PEER SPACE for classes, events, meetings, retreats, art exhibits, family parties, etc…

 

 

 

 

 

I take the sword I was given & winnow well

Autumn, Lecture, Meditation, Poetry, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote

20 November 2019 – 

Beloved One – I have just returned from the ‘Southern Tour’ my heart full, my head dancing & my hands open. The many miracles of the journey are churning, about to be born into the Logos shared. But 1st, I feel I must touch down here in the ‘City of Big Shoulder’s’ to bring all my revelations home to this spirit of place, with this seasonal story: 
Once upon an autumn day, cut thru with the thought of Winter, a little leaf was heard to sigh, as leaves often do when a blustery wind is swirling about. A nearby twig asked: “What is the matter, little leaf?” And the leaf said, “The wind just told me that one day it would pull me off & throw me down to die!”
 
The twig told this to the branch & the trunk told it to the bark, & when the roots heard it, the tall tree rustled all over, & sent back word to the leaf, “Do not be afraid, you shall not go until you want to.”
 
And so the leaf stopped sighing, but went on nestling & singing. Every time the wind spoke, the tree shook itself & stirred up all its leaves, the branches bobbed, the thin twig twittered, & the little leaf danced merrily up & down, as if nothing could ever pull it off. And so it was all thru the month of October. And then November came, & it grew colder still.
 
And as the outer light faded, the little leaf noticed that all the leaves around it became brighter. Some were yellow & some scarlet, & some striped with gold or curled with brown. The little leaf asked the tree what this change meant. And the tree said, “All these leaves are getting ready to fly away, & they have put on these beautiful colors to celebrate.”
 
Then the little leaf began to want to go, too, & grew very beautiful in thinking of it, & when it was bright orange, like the wings of a butterfly, it noticed that the branches that held it to the tree, had no color in them at all; & so the leaf said, “O branches, why are you so leaden-colored & we so golden?”
 
And the tree answered:“I must keep on my work-clothes, for my time has not yet come – but your clothes are for holiday, since your task is almost complete.”
 
Just then a stiff gust of wind came, & the leaf let go, without worry, & the wind took it up & turned it over & over, & whirled it like a spark of fire in the air…
 
& then it dropped gently down under the edge of the tree, among hundreds of other brightly colored leaves. There the little leaf lay dreaming of the sun & stars.
 
And when the child picked it up & held it to the light, it flew out again
& became the light.
 
~hag, adapted from a children’s story of old

Sir John Everett Millais

Dear friends, YES! I plan to share insights from the ‘Southern Tour’ as soon as the ongoing digestion process allows & I have time to  get all the images together… so stay tuned…xox 

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The Dove & Scythe by Charles Demuth

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I take the sword I was given & winnow well…~hag

“Speaking with the Stars”: Orion the Hunter clears the eastern horizon by about 7 pm CST. High above Orion shines orange Aldebaran. Above Aldebaran is the little Pleiades cluster, the size of your fingertip at arm’s length. Far left of Aldebaran and the Pleiades shines bright Capella.

***

Laura Summer

 Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

“The best Anthroposophists are those who take what is said as a stimulus in the first place, and then place it at the service of life, so as to prove it by life itself.” ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘The Mission of the Folk Souls’ lecture 11

 ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1805 – Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, premieres in Vienna.

1945 –Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg

1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation

1910 – Deathday of Leo Tolstoy, Russian author & playwright

“In 1828, Leo Tolstoy is born in a family of Russian counts about which he himself says that the family immigrated originally from Germany. Then we see Tolstoy losing certain higher goods of life. Hardly he is one and a half years old, he loses the mother, the father in the ninth year. Then he grows up under the care of a relative who is, so to speak, the embodied love, and from her spiritual condition, the marvellous soul condition had to flow in his soul like by itself. However, on the other side, another relative who wants to build up him out of the viewpoints of her circles, out of the conditions of time as they formed in certain circles influences him. She is a person who is completely merged in the outward world activity which later became very odious to Tolstoy and against which he fought so hard. We see this personality striving from the outset to make Tolstoy a person “comme il faut,” a person who could treat his farmers in such a way, as it was necessary in those days, who should receive title, rank, dignity, and medals and should play a suitable role in the society.

Then we see Tolstoy coming to the university; he is a bad student as he absolutely thinks that everything that the professors say at the University of Kazan is nothing worth knowing. Only oriental languages can occupy him. In all other matters, he was not interested. Against it the comparison of a certain chapter of the code of Catherine the Great (1729–1796) with The Spirit of the Laws (1748) by Montesquieu (Charles de Secondat, Baron de M., 1689–1755) attracted him. Then he tries repeatedly to manage his estate, and we see him almost getting around to diving head first into the life of luxury of a man of his circles, diving head first into all possible vices and vanities of life. We see him becoming a gambler, gambling big sums away. However, he has hours within this life over and over again when his own activities disgust him, actually. We see him meeting peers as well as men of letters and leading a life, which he calls a worthless, even perishable one at moments of reflection. However, we also see — and this is important to him who looks with pleasure at the development of the soul where this development manifests in especially typical signs — particular peculiarities appearing with him in the development of his soul which can disclose us already in the earliest youth what is, actually, in this soul.

Thus, it is of immense significance, what a deep impression a certain event makes on Tolstoy at the age of eleven years. A friendly boy once told him that one has made an important discovery, a new invention. One has found — and a teacher has spoken in particular of the fact — that there is no God that this God is only an empty invention of many human beings, an empty picture of thought. Everything that one can know about the impression that this boy’s experience made on Tolstoy shows already how he absorbed it that in him a soul struggled striving for the highest summits of human existence.” ~ Rudolf Steiner, Where and How Does One Find the Spirit? Tolstoy and Carnegie, Berlin, 28th January, 1909

see also Origin and Goal of the Human Being, Lecture V, Theosophy and Tolstoy  

1976 – Deathday of Lili Kolisko, remembered for her pioneer work in anthroposophy, attending lectures by founder Rudolf Steiner starting in 1914. She developed the Capillary Dynamolisis method (Steigbildmethode), testing the idea that not only the moon, but the other planets as well, have an influence over earthly fluids. To test this, she dissolved metals classically associated to each planet & observed the pictures left by their absorption over a filter paper. She noticed consistent differences of the patterns according to the position of the planets in relation to sun & earth. Lilly Kolisko also worked on the development of a remedy for foot and mouth disease & methods for assessment of food quality from an anthroposophic standpoint. She was married to Dr. Eugen Kolisko.

Lily Kolisko: Workings Of The Stars In Earthly Substances by Allan Balliett

Hilma af Klint

May we all answer to our highest calling…

Blessings dear friends

until soon