Category Archives: Biography

Necklace of light

Biography, Celestial Event, Festival, History, Rudolf Steiner Quote

Today 3 February is The Feast of Saint Blaise, which merges with Candlemas & many other rites that herald the promise of Spring…These various Festivals, Saints’ Days, rites, & remembrances are not separate, they are all pearls on a single necklace, progressively lit, from epoch to epoch, one after the other – going forward, as part of the ensuing enkindling of evolving light called forth from the Sun. These traditions, blessed by all spiritual & religious peoples, are relied upon especially by those who love & work the land, those who steward the animals, plants & stones – those who consciously interact with the Elemental Beings…And those who value inner development…

The Candlmas of St Blaise – A Halo of Healing Flame, a conscious igniting – a banking of bonfires – This Holy Day, part of a series of progressive gems heralding the light – can bring the old seeds to freshly spaded earth – noting well the time for rebirth.

Our ancestors (ourselves in past lives) created these successive celebrations, meant to foster the tender light rising up from the womb of creative darkness. And now it’s up to us to renew these ideas, intentions, doings & markings of grace, to plan new works & fresh creations.

As we spoke about in the essay Cross-Quarter Passage in many cultural traditions folk costume up as animal totems for a festive parade, wearing wild wooly pelts; dancing & singing, & holding torches to revival the growing light.

The women of Ireland make effigies of ‘Bride’ or Brigid from wheat; & fiery sun wheel crosses from the reeds…Bride would go from house to house to bless & welcome the children to be born that year, & then the community would throw these effigies over the bluffs to shake loose the seed from the wand. When some took root, it would be a sign of a good year. The field of Brigid wheat would then be ceremoniously milled to make a special bread for weddings.

In our time now, we live in an increasingly disconnected environment, fraught & unprecedented over all the earth…swirling with fear & hypnotic terror from those afoot ever trying to cancel the wedding & douse the light. That this was so is not the startling thing in itself, really it can be seen as a grace if we take it as an opportunity. But as I try to see thru the churning fog of our time, the grey sky dull against the dirty snow – all dim & pale – & in its own way beautiful – what I see that truly startles me, is that for a century, many anthro-folk have disabused the massive longing in the modern soul for ritual that opens us to the mysteries, not only in nature, seen thru the circuit of our yearly dance around the Sun, but in our very souls – That our “Spirit-I” must be the blade of a sharpened shovel that transforms the earth of our bodies – scraping past boulders – bending to the task – our etheric body lifting that wet clod of heavy dirt up & flipping it over on itself, our astral purifing the earth, to break open our very being, in order to receive Spirit…

It is clear that so many souls are drawn to re-membering the times of seeking to light what was once dark…& in succession, to fire-up our thinking in this present age – a literal & figurative conception, a re-birth of the ancient ideals that do not come from outside of us, but rise up season after season, from within our soul forces of thinking, feeling & willing – which are yearning to be transformed…

Friends – Nothing is lost in Time that cannot be renewed. Nothing of goodness & light is lost to those who have the eyes to see, the ears to hear, the soul to sense, & the thinking heart to create – modern ritual that has meaning for us today – Realigning our cognitive imagination in the New Mysteries.

When I was a child, on the Feast of Saint Blaise, we all trod off to St. Gertudes’s in Franklin Park, IL. where I was Baptized, the Church my Italian Grandmother (my Strega Nona) went to, often in snow so high that it was like walking thru white tunnels, shoveled out by gangs of teenage boys looking to earn a dollar.

During the Mass, the priest would hold two large white blazing candles, crossed in an X at our throats – saying a prayer that all sickness be cured & our words be filled with love. “Per intercessionem S. Blasii liberet to Deus a malo gutteris et a qouvis alio malo.” = ‘St. Blaise goes before the Creator of all to ask that thy throat be blessed & not harmed or harmful, & that you be protected from all ills & evils.’ It was a re-setting of the throat chakra – an opening of the voice – asking that we remain close to Christ, to let the soul speak purely – to not be disheartened, or polluted by anything that takes us away from seeing & speaking in love, kindness, awareness, & in truth. A return to the light of consciousness sounding – empowering The Word within – a Christening of our thoughts – which inevitably fly from our lips into the world.

There are many ways to understand this blessing with fire, including a root cure of illness – like raising the body’s temperature during fever, or passing thru a fire-trial to reach a cleaner way of being…

Nowadays the priest no longer uses lit candles. What the priest of unlit candles misses is the bestowing of extreme love, & careful administration to cause no harm in the cure.

Can we awaken again out of the darkness of false caution, into a true heightened care, motivated by selfless love?

Can we be the one holding the lit candles?

~hag

Chart via John Jardine Goss/ Theresa Wiegert/ EarthSky.

3 February 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The bright waxing gibbous moon climbs in the east, near the twin stars of Gemini. The brighter star is golden Pollux, and the fainter one is white Castor. Although the twin stars don’t look alike, they’re noticeable near each other in the sky for being bright and close together. Also nearby is Procyon, the brightest star in Canis Minor the Lesser Dog.

Marie Knoble

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

Amanda Sage

Dear Friends, Today 110 years ago on 3 February 1913 we can re-call the very 1st AGM of the newly formed Anthroposophical Society, after the split from the Theosophical Society, held in Berlin, with the cycle of lectures called The Mysteries of the Orient & of Christianity (GA 144)

Rudolf Steiner opened the conference on this day with the lecture: The Being of Anthroposophy. 

Iris

“…The being of anthroposophy is intimately connected with the being of our time- not with our own immediate little present moment, of course, but with the whole age within which we stand.

Today I want to point out the character of this being by speaking of the necessity for establishing anthroposophy in our time. Philosophy is no longer the “woman” she was to Dante and others who lived in his time...What, therefore, must be developed? It must unfold that, once again, as a matter of course, a “Sophia” becomes present. But we must learn to relate this Sophia to the consciousness soul, bring her down directly to human beings. And thereby Sophia becomes the being who directly enlightens human beings. After Sophia has entered human beings, she must take their being with her and present it to them outwardly, objectively. 

Sophia will become objective again, but she will take with her what humanity is, and objectively present herself in this form. Thus, she will present herself not only as Sophia, but as Anthroposophia as the Sophia who, after passing through the human soul, through the very being of the human being, henceforth bears that being within her, and in this form she will confront enlightened human beings as the objective being Sophia who once stood before the Greeks.

What we receive through anthroposophy is our very own being.

Kristena West

This once floated toward us in the form of a celestial goddess with whom we were able to enter into relationship. This divine being lived on as Sophia and Philosophia, and now we can once again bring her out of ourselves and place her before us as the fruit of true anthroposophical self-knowledge. We can wait patiently until the world is willing to test the depth of the foundations of what we have to say, right down to the smallest details. It is the essence of anthroposophy that its own being consists of the being of the human, and its effectiveness, its reality, consists in that we receive from anthroposophy what we ourselves are and what we must place before ourselves, because we must practice self-knowledge.” ~Rudolf Steiner

May we receive this being, that is our birthright, with grace & develop her within us with intention & love.

~hag

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in the Americas

1870 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to male citizens regardless of race.

Picasso

1874 – Birthday of Gertrude Stein, American novelist, poet, playwright

1894 – Birthday of Norman Rockwell, American painter & illustrator

1909 – Birthday of Simone Weil, French mystic & philosopher

1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose & collect an income tax.

Rudolf Steiner

1913 – The 1st AGM of the Anthroposophical Society in Berlin, where Rudolf Steiner gave the lecture series “The Mysteries of the Orient and of Christianity” & spoke for the 1st time about the Being of Anthroposophy!

1924 – Deathday of Woodrow Wilson. Rudolf Steiner has a lot to say about what was behind this individuality & in his former incarnation as Muawiya

1959 – Rock & roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, & J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson are killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

1961 – The United States Air Forces begins Operation Looking Glass, & over the next 30 years, a “Doomsday Plane” is always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States’ bombers & missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC’s command post.

ArtNight 3 February 2023
@ the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4251 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

Doors open at 7:30 pm
8 pm – Sharings Start – $12 (pay online)

YOU MUST RSVP at this Link

ArtNight has been described as a 21st-century Salon. We gather once a month in Chicago. People sign up to present and perform what they’re passionate about,
having facilitated discussions and activities, and enjoying food from local establishments.

What we’re trying to do.

  1. Establish spaces where doing what you love is normal.
  2. Promote passion instead of perfection. You don’t need to be famous, talented, attractive, virtuosic or wealthy – it’s meaningful and important to do what you love no matter who you are and you should be supported.
  3. Create genuine connections in substance-free environments.
  4. Encourage curiosity and learning.
  5. Be a place where you can have fun without shame or embarrassment.

Article about ArtNight

The ArtNight night starts off with a vibe. As people filter in, we hang out,
talk to strangers who’ll become our friends, and we settle down before we
settle in for the next couple hours.
​
The ArtNight itself starts off with a welcome activity. Don’t worry,
it’s not your classic, awkward high school ice breaker.
​
Now it’s time for the main event. The people who volunteered to share do their thing. We watch and listen and experience and ask questions
and fall in love with them, loving their passions.
​
In between the sharing, we take a break for that meaningful discussion
we keep mentioning. Every ArtNight has a specific discussion topic,
and everyone is encouraged to share their experiences.
It’s always a dialogue, never a debate.
​
The ArtNight closes out with a vibe. We eat, and we reconnect with the
people we met earlier. All of this was to get to know people
for who they actually are – so we keep doing it.

YOU MUST RSVP to attend

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.

The Alchemy of Brigid

Biography, Community, Festival, Insight

Greetings on this Feast of Purification of the BVM – 40 days after Christmas.

You, my dear friends, are being called at this liminal time to stand at the Threshold, where your true purpose & the world’s deep hunger meet…
You are free, of course, to ignore this milestone moment…Maybe you have a kind of amnesia, & don’t remember what you came here to do in this life? Could it be you don’t see the signs? Carl Jung once said: “Whatever is rejected from the self, appears in the world as an event.”.

What will it take for you to collaborate with the forces of change?

What would it be like to: Think Willing; Feel Thinking; Will Feeling…?

Ever adjusting to the ongoing shifts, to re-direct, to play, in the interplay – stepping up to the experience of transformation with exhilaration & gratitude in the face of the eternal flux?

Dearly Beloved, your mission is to become your True You in the Divine We in 2023…

The Alchemical Triple Goddess Brigid can be our guide & role-model. Her Celtic Feast Day Imbolc, which roughly translates to mean: ‘a Quickening in the Belly’, is celebrated at this Cross-Quarter time, which comes when the Sun hits 15 degrees in the constellation Capricorn, falling this year on the 5th of February 2023, heralding the promise of Spring – The perfect time for a re-dedication to your life purpose.

As Goddess of Smith-craft & the Sacred Forge, Brigid is representative of our fiery will force. Brigid invites us to heat up our dormant potential – to re-seed our perfect passion – to be-come the tools of our own self-same destiny…

The name Brigid means ‘One who Exalts Herself’. She holds the Trinity in the unity of Maiden, Mother, Crone – past, present, future – aligning with the Threshold moments in the cycle of the year as path of initiation.

She is said to have invented the Ogham alphabet; so Brigid is patron of the written word – especially Poetry – called ‘Fire in the head’. In Druid tradition, poetry is attendant with augury, so what would it be like to reclaim Brigit as the patron of our new clairvoyance..?

Addie Hirschten

Since Brigid is strongly associated not only with the forge but with the Sacred Well, this fosters a deep healing of our formative forces which strengthens our physical, & brings purification to our astral sheath. The Fire of will born from the “I” & represented by the Forge brought into temperance as the banked Hearth fires, & combined with the healing waters, brings in the alchemy of medicine making – herbal potions, & a nurturing of Fertility. The joining of Fire & Water is an ancient alchemical symbol of the union of opposites – The Alchemical Marriage – which gives birth to the creative force.

As modern Bards & Anthrosoph-Druids, Brigid can inspire all who align with her archetype. We are invited to acknowledge ourselves as re-dedicated instruments in a Christic re-kindling of a new vitality, germinating the seeds in an evolution of transformation.

True Alchemy, as practiced by the Rosicrucian’s, is a process of the spiritual or psychological development & progression. It can be summed up with the Latin words “Solve et Coagula” –

1st- Separation: Are you willing to name the dross – get the lead out – the junk that gets in the way? Will you take the time to step out of your shadow? Do you dare to look deep into that dark adversarial places we all harbor? YES, it’s Time to begin the process of freeing ourselves from any obstacle that may have become entrenched in our being…

2nd Stage: Purification: Dissolving all the impurities…flushing the roots…washing away…opening the flood gates…a dissolution percolating into those hard to reach places…stirring up what has long been submerged…purging those places that even the fire could not reach…perhaps you’d even like to brave the cold hard truth & plunge your whole self into the icy waters of the Holy well…will you leap into the pool of ablution? So cold it feels hot…getting your blood flowing…tingling with life force…the pores of your skin opening & closing like an excretory organ…waking up your sluggish nature…bringing you back to clarity & wholesomeness…a true Baptism…a rebirth that makes you feel brand new…let the waters of adaptability free you from the swamp…drink deep of the waters of the Holy well & let your authentic-self float confidently to the surface…remembering always, that yes, Brigid’s Holy Well is as close as your next glass of water…

& the 3rd stage: The Refining/Re-combining – the creation of a unified self. Can you list your strengths? Those parts of you that are golden, (or perhaps silver – parts may need a little polishing) sweeping the hearth of your heart clean – re-forming…What are your good qualities?…those positive parts of yourSelf that you want to foster & encourage, affirm & strengthen… What Potentials do you want to focus on & give energy to…?

Salt, Sulphur & Mercury, like the Maiden, Mother, Crone, make up the ‘Three Principles’ of Alchemy. In the spiritual process, salt is often seen as the physical body, the ultimate ‘prima materia’, of the philosophers stone. Salt is ‘bitter’, a symbol for knowledge & wisdom gained, which is often bitter, & painful at 1st. In general sulfur is the symbol for the omnipresent Spirit of life. The fire of will. Mercury represents the healing adaptability of the soul.

Rosicrucianism which works with the cognitive imagination of this Spiritual Alchemy, is a world view aimed at understanding both the world around us, the world within us, & the correspondences between them.

“Visita Inferiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem” = Seek out the lower reaches of the earth, perfect them, & you will find the hidden stone.

“Holy water…Sacred Flame
Brigid We Invoke your Name
Bless my Hands, my Head, my Heart
Source of Healing, Song & Art”

See you on the high road
~hag

ArtNight 3 February 2023 – A Youth Sponsored Event using our Shared Space Agreement @ the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4251 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

Doors open at 7:30 pm
8 pm – Sharings Start – $12 (pay online)

YOU MUST RSVP at this Link:

ArtNight has been described as a 21st-century Salon. We gather once a month in Chicago. People sign up to present and perform what they’re passionate about,
having facilitated discussions and activities, and enjoying food from local establishments.

What we’re trying to do.

  1. Establish spaces where doing what you love is normal.
  2. Promote passion instead of perfection. You don’t need to be famous, talented, attractive, virtuosic or wealthy – it’s meaningful and important to do what you love no matter who you are and you should be supported.
  3. Create genuine connections in substance-free environments.
  4. Encourage curiosity and learning.
  5. Be a place where you can have fun without shame or embarrassment.

Article about ArtNight

The ArtNight night starts off with a vibe. As people filter in, we hang out,
talk to strangers who’ll become our friends, and we settle down before we
settle in for the next couple hours.
​
The ArtNight itself starts off with a welcome activity. Don’t worry,
it’s not your classic, awkward high school ice breaker.
​
Now it’s time for the main event. The people who volunteered to share do their thing. We watch and listen and experience and ask questions
and fall in love with them, loving their passions.
​
In between the sharing, we take a break for that meaningful discussion
we keep mentioning. Every ArtNight has a specific discussion topic,
and everyone is encouraged to share their experiences.
It’s always a dialogue, never a debate.
​
The ArtNight closes out with a vibe. We eat, and we reconnect with the
people we met earlier. All of this was to get to know people
for who they actually are – so we keep doing it.

YOU MUST RSVP to attend

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.

Cross-Quarter Passage

Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Community, Festival, History

Our journey to the Cross-Quarter began at an artist’s retreat center on the San Joaquin River in Stockton CA. generously held by a young pediatrician, who is an Emily Dickinson scholar & anthroposopher. My beloved CG & I joined a handful of young people, which included our daughter Ultra-Violet Archer & Lucien Dante Lazar of Velsum Voices, who had arrived a week before to workshop their music.

The monsoon rains from a few weeks before had enlivened the rolling hills with a striking lush greening. Waterfalls & feathered friends were abundant; our hikes accompanied by frog song & mud. We shared communal meals & explored many deep relational conversations & social world themes, while the seals barked & sang in the channel.

Making our way North/East thru the stunning landscape we arrived next at the craggy coast of Bodega Bay CA. We marveled at the tide pools full of bright star fish & colorful sea anemones in hidden coves amidst the crashing waves.

Our hikes in the shaded canopy of old growth redwood forests, a powerful contrast in Natura’s palette, were awe inspiring.  

We met Willow & Lew Summer of 3 Springs Community Farm & some of their local farmer friends at a cool supper club called Casino near them in Bodega that was having a themed dinner in honor of the Chinese New Year.

Their 50 acre biodynamic farm is nestled between vineyards & dairy ranches. They have goats, pigs, chickens, & a donkey living among the vegetable fields. New apprentices were arriving for the year, & some were working with Lew to refurbish the communal kitchen area in time for our gathering to bless the land & celebrate the Cross-Quarter.  

The day of the Festival, many folks, young & old came out to gather round the campfire; families setting up on blankets in the South, our altar in the East, bright with candles & the elements, was adorned with farm tools.  The gathering had an ‘As Above, So Below’ approach – ‘As the Spirit, so the Soul’ – working with head, hands & heart – exploring the Macro/Microcosm – the inner Self & outer world, thru singing, movement, drawing, looking at our place on the wheel of the year, a time of preparation – igniting the spark of Spring with the passion of our purpose, thru storytelling & the exploration of various cultural celebrations. We consecrated the farm tools: ‘Spirit to Matter – Matter to Spirit’ – as well as our own personal working tools. We did a group version of Rudolf Steiner’s Seed Meditation, & brought in the power of the Alchemical Celtic Triple Goddess Brigid, while sculpting with beeswax…

At the potluck it was great to get to know many folks who I had ‘met’ over the last years on zoom or thru the RR site – Such deep discussions around the content of the Festival, & life in the current world situation.  I am so grateful to Willow for bringing me to the farm for such a powerful & significant time together.

That same night Velsum performed at the Christian Community of Sacramento sponsored by the Faust Branch of Fair Oaks, who graciously changed their regular programing to bring the Velsum concert: ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’ as their West Coast Premier. Lucien & Ultra both have a deep connection to Anthroposophy & to the Christian Community so this was a blessing not only for the 40 folks who saw the show, but for their souls as well.   

The next night at the monthly Spiritual Science gathering in Sebastopol, Willow & Lew spoke about Farming & Finance outlining the 3-folding model they strive to use at 3 Springs.  

hag & Mary

It was great to meet old & new friends there as well…

I will share the next leg of the journey to White Feather Ranch in another essay.

For today I wanted to share some of the many indications we worked with at our Farm Festival so you can tune into this potent milestone too.

Imbolc! On the ‘I Think Speech‘ podcast

Today & everyday, dear friends, we must be like the groundhog & look for our shadow. The Cross-quarter betwixt the Winter Solstice & the Vernal Equinox is not only intuited & out-pictured in nature, but is determined by a cosmic conversation. Using the Sidereal zodiac which shows us what is actually being said in the heavens right now, not 2000 years ago, This cross-quarter happens when the Sun comes to 15 degrees of Capricorn, the same sign that the Jupiter & Saturn conjunction happened in; & that hits on Sunday Feb. 5th. But most folks celebrate on the fixed date of Feb. 2nd, which in our modern age we call Groundhogs Day, when the fate of Winter rests on the shoulders of a furry rodent.

But in the time of the ancient Mystery Schools it was a time of initiation, a time of purification & re-dedication.

For the Celtic tribes, who were very much in touch with the cycles of the season, this is called Imbolc – which means – in the belly – it’s the lambing season. After the cold dark winter where folks barely survived by eating their store of root vegetables, now the milk begins to flow, the butter was churned & the cruds gave much needed nourishment; they call it Celtic Spring – the time of year when the belly of the great mother quickens with the growing light.

This time is dedicated to the Triple Goddess Brigid, holding the power of the Maiden, Mother, Crone, & is associated with the mysteries of the sacred well connected to purification, & the fires of the forge, to call in the will of the Sun.

Daila Wright

Later, of course, it was adopted by the Church & attached to Candlemas & the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Interesting how many traditions mix & overlap.

In antiquity starting as early as the time of the cave people, it was known as the Feast of the Bear. From antiquity to the Middle Ages, bears were a cult symbol of the Germans, Scandinavians & the Celts. On this Cross-Quarter day they celebrated the end of hibernation – when the bears would leave their dens to see if the weather was mild enough to forage. The celebrations of the bear & the return of the  light was celebrated with bonfires & other torchlight processions.

Pope Gelasius I in the fifth century instituted the ‘f’Feast of Candles’, or ‘Candlemas’ to bring this tradtion back to the Church. From the twelfth to the eighteenth century, Candlemas was called “chandelours” which means bear in French, in many areas (including the Alps, Pyrenees, Ardennes) where the memory of the cult of the bear was still very present. There is also the Aosta Saint-Ours,  (which means “bear”) & Saint Blaise, who blesses the throat with 2 crossed candles.

Candlemas is also the beginning of the carnival period; the bear is the carnival animal par excellence. O & Remember that movie with Darrel Hanna, The Clan of the Cave Bear…?

In ancient Greece this Threshold time was connected to The Festival of Persephone & Demeter, celebrated exclusively by the woman, in an elaborate 3 day ritual, called Thesmophoria.

Spiraling down the line, the ancient romans called it Lupercalia a feast day that was very much like Mardi Gras. And I’ll talk about that more when we come to Valentine’s Day

In the Jewish mystical tradition of Tu’B’Shvat, It is known as The New Year for the Tree, the time of the rising of the sap – An opportunity to repair the breach in the Garden of Eden when the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil was eaten before it was ripe.

Here in Chicago it is bitter cold, with a few inches of snow, so it’s harder to remember when the skies are steel grey, & the ice crystals bite, that stirring in the wind, is the promise of spring – waiting, to be ignited by the passion of our purpose

Can you feel the energy of the earth…Quickening…I feel it groaning & stretching in the earth of my body…Like a snake trying to shed its skin…I just want to be a molting bird…Dancing in the silent belly of February… So much to do…So much to Be…Can you feel the growing rhythms?

A time to plan your garden, for the roots are stirring under the snow. A time to purify & get fertile. So let’s charm the plow – Kiss the candle, & gather the wood to kindle a need-fire, as a welcoming beacon, to call back our dormant power, to heat up, our potential, & re-seed our creativity – as we add fuel to the fire of our community. One spark warms us all – A purifying fire, that burns clean & opens the way to the true power of love & light from deep within us.

From the ancient & immortal tribes – from all quarters of the cosmos – a call comes – to warm our circle – to bring their respected dimensions into the eternity of our lives, now. Our reality, which is open & ever changing – for we have a lot to honor in ourselves today, as we stand on the waxing side of Bella Luna. Whispering the promise of passion like a communal prayer that builds – Into the arrows of Eros, embracing our true heart in the eternal now of Valentine’s Day coming up.

And as we have called in the Water Rabbit of Chinese New Year on the New Moon, so, let us also open to the power of our striving. Together may we will thaw the coldness in the world & rouse the mysteries growing within…

~hag

Chart via John Jardine Goss / EarthSky.

1 February 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Venus (Occult Mercury) is the brightest planet. It appears low in the west shortly after sunset. Meanwhile, Jupiter – 2nd-brightest planet – shines above Venus. As the month proceeds, Jupiter will drop lower, while Venus will climb higher. By February’s end, these 2 bright worlds will be very close to each other. They’ll appear closest on the evening of March 1, 2023. Afterwards, Venus will remain in our evening twilight sky for some months. It’ll reach its greatest elongation – its greatest apparent distance from the sunset – on June 4, 2023. But Jupiter will drop into the sunset glare sometime in March.

also today: Comet C/2022 E3 aka the Green Comet reaches its perigee—it’s closest point to Earth—today 2/1! Don’t miss your chance to hunt for the Green Comet before it leaves on 2/8 as it may never return!

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
EPIPHANY III

EPIPHANY IV – IMBOLC
The Consecration Of The World
v43
In winter’s depths
true spirit presence warms,
makes new appearance real
and through the heart’s force
intuits earthlife’s rise to glory;
the soul’s revitalising fire in the human core
defies world cold.

ArtNight 3 February 2023
@ the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4251 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

Doors open at 7:30 pm
8 pm – Sharings Start – $12 (pay online)

YOU MUST RSVP at this Link

ArtNight has been described as a 21st-century Salon. We gather once a month in Chicago. People sign up to present and perform what they’re passionate about,
having facilitated discussions and activities, and enjoying food from local establishments.

What we’re trying to do.

  1. Establish spaces where doing what you love is normal.
  2. Promote passion instead of perfection. You don’t need to be famous, talented, attractive, virtuosic or wealthy – it’s meaningful and important to do what you love no matter who you are and you should be supported.
  3. Create genuine connections in substance-free environments.
  4. Encourage curiosity and learning.
  5. Be a place where you can have fun without shame or embarrassment.

Article about ArtNight

The ArtNight night starts off with a vibe. As people filter in, we hang out,
talk to strangers who’ll become our friends, and we settle down before we
settle in for the next couple hours.
​
The ArtNight itself starts off with a welcome activity. Don’t worry,
it’s not your classic, awkward high school ice breaker.
​
Now it’s time for the main event. The people who volunteered to share do their thing. We watch and listen and experience and ask questions
and fall in love with them, loving their passions.
​
In between the sharing, we take a break for that meaningful discussion
we keep mentioning. Every ArtNight has a specific discussion topic,
and everyone is encouraged to share their experiences.
It’s always a dialogue, never a debate.
​
The ArtNight closes out with a vibe. We eat, and we reconnect with the
people we met earlier. All of this was to get to know people
for who they actually are – so we keep doing it.

YOU MUST RSVP to attend

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.

The Open Secret

Biography, Community, Festival, History, Insight, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events

Dear friends – I have been carrying a powerful overlay of the Holy Nights deeply in my soul, & in the ongoing alchemical digestion, so many thoughts & insights continue to arise which I have started to share in these prior essays: Festival of Offering, Come unity, Vidar Speaks, & there is so much more, which realistically I cannot relay before I leave tomorrow for the West Coast.  But I do want to try & put a few words to the experience we had at Camphill Beaver Run on NYE 2023, 100 years after the burning of the 1st Goetheanum.

We entered Rainbow Hall in the evening with the stage converted to give us a background bathed in deep primary blue, edged with the red velvet curtains, to receive: FIRE IN THE TEMPLE – The True Story of the Death of Rudolf Steiner, An Open-Secret Drama in Two Parts, written by Glen Williamson, directed by Laurie Portocarrero. They both read multiple roles, with the addition of eurythmists Zachary Dolphin as the Archangel Michael, & Sea-Anna Vasilas who gives a moving eurythmy performance & also plays ‘Sam’ a fictional amalgamation of several important anthroposophists.

We are propelled back to the years 1923, 1924 & early 1925 – We met in Dornach, & go all over Europe – living also into flashbacks from ancient times, where we get glimpses into various karmic connections thru earlier incarnations, & see how the individualities who become part of the original Vorstand interact.

Glen has been working on this script since 2017. What is most intriguing to me is that most of the dialogue comes from their own words, sourced from lectures, letters, memoirs & personal notebooks.

Everyone at the conference kept saying – ‘the play that’s not a play’ – because we all felt it to be so relevant – the ‘characters’ are US now!…

The 1st thing we meet is a ‘Dark Lodge of a Secret Brotherhood’ working with ‘Green Demons’, who thruout the play seek to stop the impulses brought forth from the spiritual world thru Rudolf Steiner, who thru Zachary’s powerful eurythmy we see working closely with the Archangel Michael.

Then we are immediately propelled to the dramatic scene of the burning.  

The interaction between these historic personalities shows the various karmic streams playing out. We as the audience can relate, feeling acutely the joys & sorrows of how hard it is to be in relationship. I found myself wishing that they could just love & accept each other, as Dr. Steiner did. The play clearly shows how he appreciated every one of them for who they were, & what they had to give; each playing an important role in the whole, each in their own way serving.

We are pulled into love & compassion thru the insights gleaned from their various relationships; from pet names, to open hostilities & misunderstandings.

The flow between Glen & Laurie is a potent dance. It is breathtaking to follow Laurie as she flawlessly builds & embodies the essence of the various personae for us, subtle yet highly refined & defined – And then she just lets that character drop away – moving graciously into the next soul essence – her whole demeanor transforming before our eyes – until we believe that Marie Steiner or Ita Wegman stand before us.

Sea-Anna brings the light & hope of her combined character alive with her expressive being. Her eurythmy is heart-throbbing & compelling. Zachary IS Michael – his articulate commanding presence opens us to the spiritual world, allowing us to perceive & contemplate the quintessence of this mighty Being.

Thru them we see the characters, whose lives we feel intertwined with, struggle to remember their past lives together; struggle to know when to speak about such things & when not to, & the consequences of not asking the Parzival question in time. We see how Steiner left everyone free to meet their karma. And we often lament that if they could have worked harder on their moral inner development, & if they had been able to truly take up the indications that Steiner gave them, then so much would have been different. And the thing is folks, the play does not make us feel that this is outside ourselves. It continues to apply to us today!

We feel Steiner’s burden, his humor & magnanimity; & his great responsibility as an initiate. We experience Marie Steiner’s pain & see her glory. We take on Ita Wegman’s mission. And even if sometimes we feel a onesided sympathy or antipathy rise up, or a keen sense of frustration, (this gives us great insight into ourselves) we can’t help being warmed by, & want to rout for, all the individualities that were at the center of the Anthroposophical impulse with Rudolf Steiner. Sharing their gifts, we revel in their deeds. And our own conscience is pricked by their all too humanness.

We stand on a druid hill, we go to ancient Greece, & into the middle ages – We knee at the death beds of Edith Mayon & our beloved teacher Rudolf Steiner.  

“Our houses may be shattered into dust.
But in the Temple of our body, pain
may grow into a light of soul,
and through the dust and ashes we will bear
a godly flame within our human hearts.” ~Rudolf Steiner

Can we learn from the triumphs, & mistakes, of our forebearers, as we move into the Centennial of the Christmas Conference with its refounding thru Rudolf Steiner? This play prods us awake & prompts us to be active, vigilant, & practical, asking: What is next for us, now, & for the next 100 years?  

~hag

The staged reading is beyond gripping – The full cast production with music, sets, lighting/sound & costumes will be epic!

To support a full-scale production of this important work donate here

Dear friends – I will be offline until the Cross-quarter 1 February 2023 – Come play with me in Northern Cali:

Candlemas – a Cross-Quarter Festival Heralding Spring – with Willow Summer & Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Wednesday 25 January 2023 – Program – 3 pm – Potluck – 5 pm, Please Bring Food & Drink to Share

Storytelling: The Alchemy of Celtic Triple Goddess Brigid

The Year of the Water Rabbit – Tu B’Shvat – Beeswax Crafting – Singing

Rudolf Steiner’s Seed Meditation – from ‘How to Know Higher Worlds’

‘Charm the Plow’ – Bless & Consecrate the Farm tools

Three Springs Community Farm 15300 Bodega Hwy, Bodega, CA 94922

Contact Willow for more info.

Velsum Voices Presents: ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’

A Benefit Concert to support Nancy Jewel Poer and the community events at White Feather Ranch

Saturday, 28 January 2023, at 2 pm PT

In the Peace Garden at White Feather Ranch, Placerville, CA

All Ages – Love Donation – Contribute what you will

Come join us for Velsum’s West Coast Debut!

Dress in warm clothes for a hearty heart-filled afternoon of music and celebration. We will have an outdoor fire. If it is too chilly we can meet in the Ranch House. Pack your own picnic lunch or dinner.

Can’t make the concert? You can still Donate to Nancy’s web site

*RSVP to receive directions to White Feather Ranch  hazel@reverseritual.com

‘Velsum‘ is a musical initiative formed through Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer. The songs are inspired to develop our human capacity for Love and Logic. Velsum is a celebration of harmony, rhythm, prayer, and the human voice. Each song is permeated with a sincere interest in the other, the self, the world, and the cosmos. ‘”Velsum’s music is a product of listening.” We hope that by listening to these songs, you feel heard. ~Velsum

Lucien and Ultra met as children at the Chicago Waldorf School, and became friends and collaborators as young adults. They now write, record and perform original music through the initiative Velsum. They debuted the show ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’ last winter at Angelic Organics Farm, and have performed it throughout the Midwest. Through weaving harmonies, poetic recitations, and movement, New Nightingale, New Rose invites the audience on a quest for love and wisdom.  A joyful experience awaits young and old!

Here is a short video clip of Velsum, and here you can find their link to all links! https://linktr.ee/velsum

~Velsum: Ancient Futurism~ Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer 

Here is a short video clip of Velsum find them on Instagram, Bandcamp, apple music, soundcloud, spotify, youtube

Ultra-Violet Archer – (b. Chicago, IL, 1999) is a songwriter and music producer, exploring music as a tool for healing and storytelling. After studying at Oberlin College & Conservatory and spending a year in Järna, Sweden, at the International Youth Initiative Program, she currently studies music at Columbia College Chicago. She strives to make music that invites people to honor the parts of themselves they feel but can’t yet put into words.  https://linktr.ee/UltraVioletArcher

Lucien Dante Lazar (b. Chicago, IL, 1994) is an interdisciplinary artist whose praxis is founded in the intersections of art, science, and spirituality. He received his BA from Bard College (2016), his MFA from California College of the Arts (2020), and is currently working on his PhD in the Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness program at California Institute of Integral Studies. His dissertation will concern the pedagogy of spiritual development through the diversity of the arts.

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.

Sacred Activism

Biography, Community, Festival, History, Insight, Remembering, Upcoming Events
Sleeping Giant Art | Fine Art America

Dear Ones –

On this Martin Luther King Jr. Feast Day, I thought to remind us that we are the sleeping giant – The buried god – the banished Goddess – Yes, we can wake up in the dream to practice lucid tolerance, take interest, do love. So much is revealed when we Read between the lies. To question is to answer. Friends, there are no innocent by-standers. There is no us & them. The dragon & the frontlines are in us all. And truth is a triple-edged sword that we must fashion. From Equity, comes Solidarity, which forges Freedom.

When the deepest & most grounded spiritual practice becomes vision & is married to a pragmatic drive to transform all existing political, economic & social institutions, a Holy force—the power of Wisdom & Love in action—is born – a Sacred Activism.

Shannon Blenterman

We are called to align with the true course of evolution. To STOP & create even a sacred moment is to hold all of eternity – to receive & to share – serves. Hand-crafted, our sacred weapons must include prayer, contemplation, & meditation, with the aim of practicing Spiritual Science to land the ultimate target.

Amazon.com: CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT: H.E. SACRBOROUGH: Home & Kitchen
Edward Sacrobourg

Conception never ends. Change is the only constant. Everything must become a verb. The goal is in the doing. The way in, is the way out. ‘Matter into Spirit, Spirit into Matter’. Embrace the chaos in the stirring. All effects connect in the cause – which ripples in from the past to call in the forthcoming.

And Beloved – Today is, today is, today is the Day! So what is the one thing that YOU will do today?

~hag, with you on the frontlines in solidary with those who have sacrificed themselves for us.

‘I Think Speech’ Podcast Dedicated to MLK jr.

MLK Mural Project - Virtual Painting Workshop - FestivALL
Mount Brenden School mural

Inspirations from MLK jr.:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

“But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”

“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”

16 January 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Watch Me Catch Fire" by Marie Enger - Hero Complex Gallery
Marie Enger

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Tyler Cantell

1838 – Birthday of Franz Brentano an influential German philosopher, psychologist, & priest whose work strongly influenced not only students Edmund Husserl, Sigmund Freud, Kazimierz Twardowski, Alexius Meinong, Carl Stumpf, Anton Marty, Christian von Ehrenfels, and Tomáš Masaryk, but many others whose work would follow &make use of his original ideas & concepts. Rudolf Steiner recalls the obituary he gave of Brentano as part of his lecture The Case for Anthroposophy where he also speaks about the Separation of the ‘Psychological from the Non-Psychological’ in Franz Brentano.

1901 – Deathday of Arnold Böcklin a Swiss symbolist painter. Rudolf Steiner speaks about him in an incarnation as an Arthurian Knight

1945 – Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker

1954 – Birthday of Sergei Olegovich Prokofieff  – In the biographical sketch given by Rolf Herzog of the Christian Community we hear that Sergei kept secret his inner connection with the spiritual world; that as a child he never had the impression that this was his first time on the earth; and that, in his ninth year he rediscovered esoteric Christianity through the Parzival story which was read aloud to him from the libretto of Wagner’s opera by his grandfather, in their home in Moscow. Sergei, starting at the age of 14, spent his vacations in Max Voloschin’s home in the Crimea, where he found books by Rudolf Steiner in the comprehensive library there .

Sergei had a rich inner life with an intense adolescence of spiritual seeking that included many mystical experiences. From his own words: “Everything Rudolf Steiner spoke of was already known to me, but I was unable to express it in thoughts before then. What had lived in my soul as a general, undefined feeling was now penetrated by a conscious clarity of thought.”

In the years between 1971 and 1973, when he was 17 to 19 years old, he wrote extraordinary poetry about the path out of the darkness into the light – about spiritual battles and apocalyptic events, with profound honesty and dramatic inner force. “I was awakened in the night by the powerful inspiration, as though awakened by the verses themselves. I rushed to my desk in order to capture the poetic words and images quickly—often putting on paper a poem that had arisen fully formed in me—frequently more than one; it was as if they themselves were striving and streaming towards the page. They were the poems of a ‘soul on fire.’” These poems had remained hidden in a cupboard in his parent’s Moscow home— he had shown them to no one when they were written—until he rediscovered them there on a visit during his illness. He decided to publish them by a non-anthroposophical press in Moscow in a splendid volume of more than 400 pages entitled ‘The Mystic Fire of the Soul’.

The voice of the verses went silent around the time of his first moon node, when he decided out of the most profound depths of his soul not only to read the writings of Rudolf Steiner
but also to choose anthroposophy as the central task of his life and his destiny. With this, his biography changed: “Only when the decision had been made and I experienced with full force that my life had received new meaning and purpose was I led out of my original lonely condition by the guidance of my destiny—I was taking the first steps to serve those ideals
consciously which had previously lived below the surface in my soul and which now had become for me a fully conscious reality thanks to spiritual science.”

Prokofieff, wrote his first book, Rudolf Steiner and the Founding of the New Mysteries, while living in Soviet Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he was a co-founder of the Anthroposophical Society in Russia. At Easter 2001, he became a member of the Executive Council of the General Anthroposophical Society in Dornach, Switzerland.

At the core of his work is an attempt to develop a deepened understanding for Christianity on the basis of Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual-scientific research. Peter Selg, in his memorial address, after Sergei died an early death on 26 July 2014, described him as “this most inwardly faithful pupil of Rudolf Steiner and protector of his new revelation of Christ.” Sergei had a powerful way of bringing together complex connections & interrelationships from Steiner’s ideas.

As part of the Vorstand he felt it was his calling to fulfill Steiner’s ideal of making the Goetheanum into a contemporary Mystery Center. Read more about this amazing individual in the articles written about his life in ‘Anthroposophy Worldwide‘. Or pick up one of his many books, & read the fruits of his insights for yourself. Prokofieff was a prolific writer leaving us a treasure trove of Works.

1970 – Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects

Candlemas – a Cross-Quarter Festival Heralding Spring – with Willow Summer & Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Wednesday 25 January 2023 – Program – 3 pm – Potluck – 5 pm, Please Bring Food & Drink to Share

Storytelling: The Alchemy of Celtic Triple Goddess Brigid

The Year of the Water Rabbit – Tu B’Shvat – Beeswax Crafting – Singing

Rudolf Steiner’s Seed Meditation – from ‘How to Know Higher Worlds’

‘Charm the Plow’ – Bless & Consecrate the Farm tools

Three Springs Community Farm 15300 Bodega Hwy, Bodega, CA 94922

Contact Willow for more info.

Velsum Voices Presents: ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’

A Benefit Concert to support Nancy Jewel Poer and the community events at White Feather Ranch

Saturday, 28 January 2023, at 2 pm PT

In the Peace Garden at White Feather Ranch, Placerville, CA

All Ages – Love Donation – Contribute what you will

Come join us for Velsum’s West Coast Debut!

Dress in warm clothes for a hearty heart-filled afternoon of music and celebration. We will have an outdoor fire. If it is too chilly we can meet in the Ranch House. Pack your own picnic lunch or dinner.

Can’t make the concert? You can still Donate to Nancy’s web site

*RSVP to receive directions to White Feather Ranch  hazel@reverseritual.com

‘Velsum‘ is a musical initiative formed through Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer. The songs are inspired to develop our human capacity for Love and Logic. Velsum is a celebration of harmony, rhythm, prayer, and the human voice. Each song is permeated with a sincere interest in the other, the self, the world, and the cosmos. ‘”Velsum’s music is a product of listening.” We hope that by listening to these songs, you feel heard. ~Velsum

Lucien and Ultra met as children at the Chicago Waldorf School, and became friends and collaborators as young adults. They now write, record and perform original music through the initiative Velsum. They debuted the show ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’ last winter at Angelic Organics Farm, and have performed it throughout the Midwest. Through weaving harmonies, poetic recitations, and movement, New Nightingale, New Rose invites the audience on a quest for love and wisdom.  A joyful experience awaits young and old!

Here is a short video clip of Velsum, and here you can find their link to all links! https://linktr.ee/velsum

~Velsum: Ancient Futurism~ Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer 

Here is a short video clip of Velsum find them on Instagram, Bandcamp, apple music, soundcloud, spotify, youtube

Ultra-Violet Archer – (b. Chicago, IL, 1999) is a songwriter and music producer, exploring music as a tool for healing and storytelling. After studying at Oberlin College & Conservatory and spending a year in Järna, Sweden, at the International Youth Initiative Program, she currently studies music at Columbia College Chicago. She strives to make music that invites people to honor the parts of themselves they feel but can’t yet put into words.  https://linktr.ee/UltraVioletArcher

Lucien Dante Lazar (b. Chicago, IL, 1994) is an interdisciplinary artist whose praxis is founded in the intersections of art, science, and spirituality. He received his BA from Bard College (2016), his MFA from California College of the Arts (2020), and is currently working on his PhD in the Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness program at California Institute of Integral Studies. His dissertation will concern the pedagogy of spiritual development through the diversity of the arts.

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.