Entering into the Longest Night Entering into the Birth of Light Consecrating the prophetic Nativity Of a new Solar year In Yule-Tide Exultation In the light of Transformation…
The battle between old & new – Dark & Light…
The Winter Solstice is the dark before the dawn, a time of renewal, giving us the most primordial myths of humankind: In Old Norse mythology, the Sun goddess was swallowed up by the wolf of darkness, but was reborn as her daughter, the maiden goddess of the underworld, who rose again to illumine the world.
In Greece & Rome, midwinter marked the birth of Sun gods, such as Mithras & Dionysus, who died & journeyed into the underworld, winning gifts for humankind before their miraculous rebirth.
Dahlia Khodur
In the Hellenistic world, initiates into the Mysteries of Isis had to undergo a ceremony of death & rebirth in which they entered the underworld to gaze upon the “Sun at Midnight.” This ceremony, which had its origins in ancient Egypt, speaks of the journey of the soul into the fecund depths of the subconscious mind, where we meet the Guardian at the Threshold, which opens to the dark sea of spirit from which all creation comes forth, purified & born anew.
To this day people gather at sacred sites as far apart as Newgrange in Ireland & the temple of Karnak in Egypt, to celebrate the miracle of the Sun’s return at the darkest time of the year – In the pitch-black sanctuaries of caves & earth chambers, to wait for the birth of new light & life.
All ways we must honor the dark before calling in the light.
The esoteric meaning of this time of year can be gleaned from the ancient mystery schools & its essence applied consciously now.
Let each of us journey down into the cave of the soul to drink from the secret well of wisdom & find the hidden flame within the dark – then return bearing our own unique gift of Light for the world.
The hag has gone to seed – & become bone…a fresh soul-frame for the new year. Let us stand in uprightness at the door & dare to open the portal to face the abyss – To release ourselves from the outer world for a sacred moment, that we may invoke our own immaculate conception – That we may surrender to the ‘waking dreaming’ – To celebrate the dark, where the inner life is honored & nurtured by the many Marys within…
The power of Peace – The Birth of Love – The Light of Wisdom
… ‘The wine dark sea’… … The active dark womb… … The dark space between the stars…
Let the Power of Faith lead us from the darkness into the birth of our own unique inner light…
The Darkness is coming… But never fear… The darkness is coming… But the light is near… The darkness is coming… The darkness is here…
Engel Kunst
The gift of the light (Gesture: Both hands scoop up light & bring it to your heart) We thankfully take, But nothing may be, Just alone for our sake. The more we give light (Hands move outward) The one to the other It shines & spreads life (Arms move out horizontally, spreading light) Growing still further, Till every spark is set aflame. (Right hand in front of chest shows the proof of a flame.) Till every heart, Joy shall proclaim. (Eurythmy Ah — arms up, palms upward)
~hag
21 December 2022 “Speaking with the Stars”: The winter solstice occurs at 3:48 pm CST today.
Mercury reaches greatest elongation east of the Sun (20°) at 9 am CST this morning. The solar system’s smallest planet is visible in the evening twilight.
Nearby, blazingly bright Venus is to Mercury’s west (lower right). Although Venus is closer to the horizon, it’s so bright that it will remain easy to spot until it sets about an hour after the Sun. In just a few days, a delicate crescent Moon will join this pair in the Christmas Eve sky.
Finally, Mars passes north of the bright red giant Aldebaran in Taurus at 10 pm CST tonight.
Online & in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago
Dear Friends – This special presentation is supported by your generous donations. $10-$50 or pay what you will www.rschicago.org/donate(credit card or PayPal)
Please type ‘Adriana’ to designate your payment
For those attending in-person doors open at 5:30 pm for our Potluck meal.
Please bring food & drink to share.
For more Info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Work on building the First Goetheanum, which was designed and supervised by Rudolf Steiner, began after the laying of the double dodecahedron foundation stone on the 20th of September 1913. Construction proceeded for a decade under enormous difficulties in the political, economic and cultural realms, brought on by the advent of the First World War. After the war when the building was near completion, the First Goetheanum was destroyed by an arsonist on New Year’s Eve 1922/1923.
This NYE 2022-23 will be the 100th anniversary of this event and the world is again facing many difficulties, political, economic and social. Adriana’s lecture will explore what Rudolf Steiner meant by the ‘Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human beings’ and how a consciousness of this during the coming 12 Holy Nights can provide the necessary strengthening for the coming twelve months.
During this presentation Adriana will speak about the three gifts given by Rudolf Steiner in 1913: The naming of Anthroposophy, The Fifth Gospel, and The Laying of the Foundation Stone of the First Goetheanum. She will explore with us how we can link our hearts to the old Goetheanum during the coming 12 Holy Nights to prepare ourselves for the coming 12 months in 2023, so we can work towards a Cosmic New Year.
In this way we will celebrate the Jubilee of the Christmas Conference and the resurrection of the living impulse of the First Goetheanum in the most auspicious way.
For Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘My dear friends, may this link our hearts to the old Goetheanum which we had to consign to the elements. May it link our hearts also to the Spirit, to the Soul of this Goetheanum. With this vow before whatever is best within our being we want to live on not only into the new year. In strength of deed, bearing the spirit, leading the soul we want to live on into the new cosmic year.’ ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘The Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human Beings.’
Adriana Koulias was born in 1960 in Brazil. Adriana moved to Australia when she was 9 years old where she lives today. She has studied art, operatic singing and nursing. She has been studying Anthroposophy (awareness of our humanity) as given by Rudolf Steiner for 33 years and has since 2002-3 integrated this knowledge into several novels and a number of books, international lectures and articles online and in magazines.
Beloved Friends – As the Advent & now the Hanukkah candles are lit – I contemplate: These are the darkest days, the longest nights, fraught with internal midnights – a grey time when it’s easy to forget the bright crystal radiance of the newborn Sun – that is still to come. The perfect time to celebrate the dark in a Festival of Light…
When we meld intention with valor to embrace our darkest spaces in the fierce onslaught of restless tossing – we will deepen into the boundless birthing. Softening until we are ripe, like pomegranates that seep & pulse ruby red – an opening of the dark wound – taking us from the dark into new light.
May grace chime in our bell-hollows, so that Night Herself can become the conduit to the New Mary.
Yes, a Great Shift is happening, ready or not, here I come – go…
Closer & closer – a blending in the bow of color, out pictured as a cosmic conversation in the BecomingTwilight.
Come on, lets uncover our eyes, loosen our tongues & go out into the night, to hula-hoop the rings of Saturn round glad hips, while balancing Jupiter on our held-high-head as a benevolent crown so that we can reclaim our Human Kingdom.
Will we will to – align the solar system – by straightening our collective spine? – As we prepare to pass thru the star portal of Winter Solstice of 2022 – a ticklish bellybutton in the world moment.
The Milky Way is pouring from our pineal gland – Drink it all in – to activate our inner “I”.
See, Divine Helpers enter with each inhalation. Breathe them in – & sing them out, in a frosty bestowing. The Christmas Star is meant to re-tune our mind to your heart – That we stand together as Shepherd AND King.
YES, Together we Become – the new variant – the human evolution revolution.
~hag
19 December 2022 “Speaking with the Stars”: Have you ever watched a Sirius-rise? Find an open view right down to the east-southeast horizon, and watch for Sirius to come up about two fists below Orion’s vertical belt. Sirius rises sometime around 7 pm now.
Resurrection of the Temple (The first Goetheanum) by Rita de Cassia Perez, Adriana’s mother
The ‘Envy of the Gods’ – The ‘Envy of Human Beings’
Presented byAdriana Koulias*
A Winter Solstice offering preparing us for the Centennial commemoration
of the burning of the first Goetheanum.
21 December2022, at 5 pm PT, 6 pm MT, 7 pm CT, 8 pm ET
Online & in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago
Dear Friends – This special presentation is supported by your generous donations. $10-$50 or pay what you will www.rschicago.org/donate(credit card or PayPal)
Please type ‘Adriana’ to designate your payment
For those attending in-person doors open at 5:30 pm for our Potluck meal.
Please bring food & drink to share.
For more Info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Work on building the First Goetheanum, which was designed and supervised by Rudolf Steiner, began after the laying of the double dodecahedron foundation stone on the 20th of September 1913. Construction proceeded for a decade under enormous difficulties in the political, economic and cultural realms, brought on by the advent of the First World War. After the war when the building was near completion, the First Goetheanum was destroyed by an arsonist on New Year’s Eve 1922/1923.
This NYE 2022-23 will be the 100th anniversary of this event and the world is again facing many difficulties, political, economic and social. Adriana’s lecture will explore what Rudolf Steiner meant by the ‘Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human beings’ and how a consciousness of this during the coming 12 Holy Nights can provide the necessary strengthening for the coming twelve months.
During this presentation Adriana will speak about the three gifts given by Rudolf Steiner in 1913: The naming of Anthroposophy, The Fifth Gospel, and The Laying of the Foundation Stone of the First Goetheanum. She will explore with us how we can link our hearts to the old Goetheanum during the coming 12 Holy Nights to prepare ourselves for the coming 12 months in 2023, so we can work towards a Cosmic New Year.
In this way we will celebrate the Jubilee of the Christmas Conference and the resurrection of the living impulse of the First Goetheanum in the most auspicious way.
For Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘My dear friends, may this link our hearts to the old Goetheanum which we had to consign to the elements. May it link our hearts also to the Spirit, to the Soul of this Goetheanum. With this vow before whatever is best within our being we want to live on not only into the new year. In strength of deed, bearing the spirit, leading the soul we want to live on into the new cosmic year.’ ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘The Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human Beings.’
Adriana Koulias was born in 1960 in Brazil. Adriana moved to Australia when she was 9 years old where she lives today. She has studied art, operatic singing and nursing. She has been studying Anthroposophy (awareness of our humanity) as given by Rudolf Steiner for 33 years and has since 2002-3 integrated this knowledge into several novels and a number of books, international lectures and articles online and in magazines.
Folks often ask why I call myself ~hag. No, I was not born hag; I chose those initials because I want to reclaim the archetype of the Wise Crone. In our modern culture, the Crone is either invisible or scorned. If a woman is wise & powerful she is often feared or demonized. It’s true that we can often be direct, & outspoken, which in a woman is not prized.
The Crone is featured in many myths & fairytales. She is the witch – the haggard old woman who lives in the forest; a friend of death, feared by the uninitiated. From Hansel & Gretel to Baba Yaga, this archetype has become one to avoid. In folklore the Crone may also exhibit supernatural, magical abilities, either for helpful or obstructive purposes.
The ancient archetype of the Crone held a more holistic ideal & can be traced back to the Middle East, Balkans, Scandinavia & Ancient Greece. For example, in Norse mythology the God Thor wrestled the crone Elli.
The word ‘crone’ only entered the English language around 1390. It was derived from the Anglo-French word ‘carogne’ (an insult), which itself was derived from the Old North French ‘charogne’ or ‘caroigne’, meaning a disagreeable woman (or literally “carrion”).
However, when we reclaim this archetype, The Crone is said to derive from another more positive origin, with the Word Crone coming from Crown, indicating wisdom emanating from the head.She plays the role of Hierophant or initiator, demanding seemingly impossible tasks, which are often only completed with the help of supernatural elemental beings.
Paula Belle Flores.
The crone aspect of the Female Metaphor is not just about age, it the mysterious time of the waning crescent, & dark Moon phases.It is about the acceptance & valuing of the darkness, as an essential life process. Once this aspect was connected to regeneration & acumen – Ancient cultures understood the dark as the source of being.
In a culture where the darkness is thought of as evil – where there is no place for the compost, this aspect is avoided or loathed. Where only the Light is valued as positive, where the nurturance of the Dark has been forgotten, real wisdom & compassion will never be realized.
If we are stuck in the duality of light vs. dark, good vs. evil, blue vs. red – or any other either/or frame of mind, we will never escape the prison walls of division – we will never escape the jailer – the executioner who divides one I from another.
Freedom is to be able to live in the frame of mind that is guided by an all-inclusive attitude, always able to consider & even accept contradiction, whose outlook on life & interaction with the world is not cause for division but guided by the searching for a higher unity.
The world has been run for too long by the analytical man-mind-set of either/or. A new womb-mind-set of ‘As Well As’ brings the opening to choice, & promotes both, with the heart in the center, weighing & balancing the 2 with the transcendent third.
And so let us write a new story, where we embrace the gifts of darkness, the hard truth of death in life, which makes true regeneration possible.
10 December 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Cassiopeia the Queen is circumpolar – She circles around the north celestial pole, never dipping below the horizon. However, the best time to see Cassiopeia is during fall and winter evenings, since that’s when the constellation rides highest in the sky. The bright stars of Cassiopeia trace out an M or W, depending on its position in the sky and your perspective.
According to the original Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner, Today is the Birthday of Judith. The book from the Apocrypha, named after her, tells the lesser known story of this beautiful widow who plied enemy Assyrian General Holofernes with cheese & wine until he fell into a drunken stupor. Judith then beheaded the general in his sleep, & his soldiers fled in fear, saving her people from the Assyrians. This story is the subject of much renowned artwork. And is told at Hanukkah.
1198 – Deathday of Averroes, Arabian philosopher, astronomer, most famous for his commentaries on Aristotle’s works, which had been largely forgotten in the West. It was through the Latin translations of Averroes’ work, beginning in the twelfth century, that the legacy of Aristotle was recovered in the West. Averroes attempted to reconcile Aristotelian philosophy with Islamic theology & to demonstrate that philosophy & theology were two paths to understanding the same truth. Rudolf Steiner refers to him a lot in his lectures on Karmic relationships.
1520 – The Burning the Papal Bull of Excommunication by Martin Luther. Because of constant attacks from the Roman Church, Luther was forced to shape his ideology into an autonomous theology. During the years 1520-1521 he worked on the three great works “Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation”, “The Babylonian Captivity” & “The Freedom of the Christian Man”, thereby emotionally cutting himself off from Rome.
The inquisition against Luther was taken up again in 1520, partly because of these works. The peak of the inquisition came, with the Papal Bull of excommunication in which Luther was ordered to recant his teachings.
Luther reacted in protest. He burned the Papal Bull (“Exurge Domine”) along with the book of church law & many other books by his enemies on December 10, 1520 in Wittenberg where the Luther Oak (Luthereiche) stands today. He is said to have yelled: “Because you, godless book, have grieved or shamed the holiness of the Father, be saddened and consumed by the eternal flames of Hell”.
This behavior caused a conclusive and irrevocable break with Rome. On January 3, 1521 the Pope excommunicated Luther.
The Emperor, however, felt forced to accept Luther because of the pro-Luther mood in the empire & because of the influence of various princes who were hoping to weaken the Pope’s political influence through Luther. As a result, the rebel was guaranteed safe escort on his trip to the Imperial Diet of Worms.
1884 – Birthday of Albert Steffen, poet, painter, dramatist, essayist, & novelist. He joined the Theosophical Society in Germany in 1910, & the Anthroposophical Society in 1912. He was 1 of the original Vorstand members, & became its president after the death of founder, Rudolf Steiner. Steffen was chief editor of the society’s journal, Das Goetheanum, from 1921-1963. At an early age his senses were especially attuned to all of nature. “As a child it always seemed to me as though a human countenance peeped forth from every blossom. From the tulip, that of a Turkish maiden; from the chrysanthemum, that of a Japanese dancer; from the sunflower of Inca King; from the geranium a Moorish boy.”~AS
By age 14 he had intuitively ‘understood’ that the human soul goes through the process of reincarnation. At age 21 he moved to Berlin, & 2 years later, to Munich. There he became a freelance writer & published his first novel, ‘Ott, Alois and Werelsche’ in 1907.
In Berlin, Steffen 1st heard a lecture by Rudolf Steiner. He writes: “I recognized immediately the leader of humanity: the wisdom on his brow, the love pervading his eye, the conscience in his word.”
In 1914, the beginning of World War I, Steffen was 29. At that time he was making frequent visits to Dornach. Of his experience there, he wrote: “Harmony reigned through a single man’s God-founded spirit,”…“Carving the Goetheanum capitals and architraves furthered me as a shaper of words.” In 1920, at the age of 35 Steffen moved to Dornach. In 1921 he was asked by Rudolf Steiner to be editor of the newly founded ‘Das Goetheanum’ weekly periodical.
On New Year’s 1923 Steffen witnessed the destruction by fire of the 1st Goetheanum, despite all efforts to save it. At the Christmas Conference Rudolf Steiner named Steffen to head the Section for Belles Lettres in the newly constituted Anthroposophical Society & named him Deputy Chairman. Of Albert Steffen he said: “The members of Vorstand are, I believe, chosen in the right way. Albert Steffen has already been an anthroposophist before he was born; this must be recognized with regard to him” (The Christmas Conference).
In an article which appeared in Das Goetheanum February 22nd, 1923, Steiner wrote about Steffen: “Within the Anthroposophical Movement, the spirit of such a poet, if rightly felt, should be experienced as the bringer of a message from the spiritual sphere.”… “That he wishes to work in this Movement, should be felt as a good destiny.”
F W Zeylmans van Emmichoven, a Dutch Anthroposophist, wrote that Rudolf Steiner wanted the members of the Vorstand to recognize themselves & each other against the background of the spiritual streams to which they belonged, “to cultivate fraternal feeling even between strongly contrasting personalities.”
Rudolf Steiner died in 1925; Steffen was with him in his last days. He expressed his reverence & thankfulness for this great initiate’s being & gift to humanity, recreating a ‘memory picture’ for the reader – ‘In Memoriam, Rudolf Steiner’.
After Steiner’s death, in accordance with his wishes, Albert Steffen became Chairman of the Society, serving to keep a center point of balance amidst contrasting personalities & divergent streams, which he was not able to do.
“Let this be for us our cosmic goal: – To paint a living picture for the soul which the claws of death cannot despoil, which lights the darkest dungeon deep below – take a new earth with us when we go, which no evil shadow e’er can soil, no tide nor flood can ever wash away, no wind that blows can ever bleach or blight, will never yield to acid’s poisoned bite, will never melt in fire’s burning ray, that’s brighter than the sun’s own visage is – but only Christ himself can give us this!” ~Albert Steffen, Adonis Spiel / Eine Herbstfeier
Albert Steffen is also concerned with how the forces of growth & becoming are victorious. He writes: “Everywhere Christ emerges from the elements. With the lifting power with which he rolled the stone from the grave, support your body, with the light forces with which he permeates the plants, renew your life! With the air of heaven with which he sends you thoughts, like butterflies, fill your words. Guide your ego from rock to forest to the clouds, right up to the sun, by shaping, condensing, transforming and purifying it. Gaze upon your destiny from above, with starry eyes.” Steffen’s work is grounded in a living experience of the eternal. It conveys a quality which helps transform our consciousness of the earth, helping to redeem & heal.
One of Steffen’s friends was the American poet-dramatist Percy MacKaye. They spoke a similar inner language & conversed together through poetry. In an essay, ‘The Excellence of Albert Steffen’, Percy MacKaye seeks to describe his friend. “How shall I sketch his portrait for the reader? The solemnity of Savonarola, illumined by the radiance of Shelly, the staunch piety of William Penn (in black quakerish hat), all twinkled over and merrified by the arch smile and skipping gait of the marble faun himself – on a holiday, the athleticism of an alpine skier, subdued to the tender solitude of St Francis feeding the birds.”
In Steffen’s dramas one can discover interweaving themes. One is that of the victory of the spirit reborn in Christ over physical death & the forces of destruction & chaos. This is an aspect of the struggle for transformation of evil into good, a teaching of Manes who lived in the third century after Christ. Strength is called forth to release worn-out thought forms in order to grasp a deeper clarity; this leads to acts of sacrifice, inspired through love. Their example has a transforming effect, both on the people within the play & in the audience.
‘Friend’ – (from the Anglo-Saxon root: freon – to love) is defined as ‘one disposed to promote the good of another’. – Steffen describes how he aspires to view others: “The developed person does not judge others and thus set them back, but lets them stand and understands them.”
1896 – Deathday of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, & philanthropist. Known for inventing dynamite, Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron & steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon & other armaments. Nobel held 355 different patents, dynamite being the most famous. After reading a premature obituary which condemned him for profiting from the sales of arms, he bequeathed his fortune to institute the Nobel Prizes.
Holiday Market at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago TODAY! 10 December 2022 – from 11 am – 4 pm
The 4th Sunday of Advent – 18 December 2022 at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago, 2 pm – 3:30 pm CST (after Rev. Jonah Evans talk at the Christian Community)
The Individuality of Conscience and the Goetheanum with Lucien Dante Lazar
Out of our conscience, we witness the Christ in the other. And through this Seeing, our I is born within us, whose self-conscious interior is the I of God. This is a mystery of John the Baptist.
When Love enters the human heart as an awakening to freedom, the Wisdom of form enters our awareness, and color, that majesty of Light, teaches us about creation. This is a mystery of the painter Raphael.
When the Word approaches us, inspiring us in our language to find the Heavenly Sophia as intellect, we write truth and honor the New Revelation of the Christ and His marriage to Sophia. And out of this marriage, we learn about ourselves. This is a mystery of Novalis.
On this last Sunday of Advent dedicated to the Human Being & the Angels, we will engage in these three Christian gifts through the social encounter, our working with color, and our thinking through language. And we will strive to harmonize these three incarnations of this significant individuality with the birth, death, and resurrection of the Goetheanum.
$10-$50 or pay what you will at the door or online www.rschicago.org/donate(credit card or PayPal)
Resurrection of the Temple (The first Goetheanum) by Rita de Cassia Perez, Adriana’s mother
The ‘Envy of the Gods’ – The ‘Envy of Human Beings’
Presented byAdriana Koulias*
A Winter Solstice offering preparing us for the Centennial commemoration of the burning of the first Goetheanum.
21 December 2022, at 5 pm PT, 6 pm MT, 7 pm CT, 8 pm ET Here is a link to the World Clock for your time zone
Online & in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago
Dear Friends – This special presentation is supported by your generous donations. $10-$50 or pay what you will www.rschicago.org/donate(credit card or PayPal)
Please type ‘Adriana’ to designate your payment
For those attending in-person doors open at 5:30 pm for our Potluck meal.Please bring food & drink to share.
One tap mobile +13092053325,,89586637726# US +13126266799,,89586637726# US (Chicago) Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kbtvb8sTRI
Work on building the First Goetheanum, which was designed and supervised by Rudolf Steiner, began after the laying of the double dodecahedron foundation stone on the 20th of September 1913. Construction proceeded for a decade under enormous difficulties in the political, economic and cultural realms, brought on by the advent of the First World War. After the war when the building was near completion, the First Goetheanum was destroyed by an arsonist on New Year’s Eve 1922/1923.
This NYE 2022-23 will be the 100th anniversary of this event and the world is again facing many difficulties, political, economic and social. Adriana’s lecture will explore what Rudolf Steiner meant by the ‘Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human beings’ and how a consciousness of this during the coming 12 Holy Nights can provide the necessary strengthening for the coming twelve months.
During this presentation Adriana will speak about the three gifts given by Rudolf Steiner in 1913: The naming of Anthroposophy, The Fifth Gospel, and The Laying of the Foundation Stone of the First Goetheanum. She will explore with us how we can link our hearts to the old Goetheanum during the coming 12 Holy Nights to prepare ourselves for the coming 12 months in 2023, so we can work towards a Cosmic New Year.
In this way we will celebrate the Jubilee of the Christmas Conference and the resurrection of the living impulse of the First Goetheanum in the most auspicious way.
For Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘My dear friends, may this link our hearts to the old Goetheanum which we had to consign to the elements. May it link our hearts also to the Spirit, to the Soul of this Goetheanum. With this vow before whatever is best within our being we want to live on not only into the new year. In strength of deed, bearing the spirit, leading the soul we want to live on into the new cosmic year.’ ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘The Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human Beings.’
Adriana Koulias was born in 1960 in Brazil. Adriana moved to Australia when she was 9 years old where she lives today. She has studied art, operatic singing and nursing. She has been studying Anthroposophy (awareness of our humanity) as given by Rudolf Steiner for 33 years and has since 2002-3 integrated this knowledge into several novels and a number of books, international lectures and articles online and in magazines.
What can the human being (Anthropos) of today do to recognize our inherent wisdom (Sophia) – to access the source of spiritual knowledge, for our own inner development, for the evolution of the earth & for all of humanity?
By transforming ourselves we change society & are better able to put the riddles of existence into perspective, reflecting & speaking to our need to relate to the world out of a spiritual scientific attitude of mind, as well as our basic artistic needs, & the need to develop a relationship to the world in complete freedom.
Anthroposophia can truly be embodied thru our practice of Spiritual Science, bringing into focus the essential nature of our humaness, in light of our evolution of consciousness.
What does Spiritual Science give us? By revealing the all-embracing laws of karma & reincarnation, it shows us the existence of an objective, wisdom-filled spiritual world that is accessible by direct experience thru inner development – which permeates us with Hope.
It shows, if we understand karma, that our physical body, which will pass away into dust when we go thru the gate of death, can, thru the forces permeating us with hope, be re-built for a new life. Spiritual Science fills us with the strongest forces of hope.
But if we can’t truly live into Spiritual Science – the new revelation for our present age – if we get stuck in the intellect, or act from a place of exclusion like the Essences, we will still be able to reincarnate, because of Christ’s deed on Golgotha – which planted the seed for our physical resurrection in ages yet to come. Yes, because of this grace, physical life on earth goes on, despite people’s ignorance of its spiritual nature.
Human beings can reincarnate again; but, Steiner reveals, that “there would begin to be something very strange about these incarnations…To put it simply, a condition of dying away, of withering, would assail humankind if their consciousness, and from there the hidden depths of their being right down into the physical body, were not given fresh life through the power of hope.”
This power of hope arises thru the certainty of wisdom gained thru the laws of karma & reincarnation. Karma = Hope
Leap of Faith Christine Anne Raeier
“Faith is the source of the true future. It makes space for grace, and that is what constitutes the power and validity of the promise that has been made to all generations…~Romans 4:16.
Faith, Love, & Hope, are the 3 stages in the foundation of our essential soul nature. It is impossible for a human being to thrive if our 3 sheaths are not warmed thru – permeated, & strengthened by these virtues, which are necessary for health & for life itself – When cultivated, Faith, Love, & Hope are the basic forces that fortify & transform our astral, etheric body, & physical bodies.
I admit that I have heard these virtues spoken of many times before, & have not done anything with them. Harkening back to my bible school days, I remember how they usually appear as set forth in the order given by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, where we hear all about the importance of Love, ending with: “Three things will last forever: faith, hope, and love – and the greatest of these is love.”
It’s powerful to reclaim these virtues now in the light of Anthroposophy.
~hag
~astronomy.com
3 December 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Asteroid 324 Bamberga steals the spotlight this month with a path that takes it near Algol, the Demon Star. Already high in the east an hour after sunset, Algol is an eclipsing binary star that grows dimmer as its unseen companion passes in front of it and brighter as its circling orbit moves it away once more.
The large main-belt world stays close to the Demon Star all month, while the nearby Moon will slide on by over the next several days, leaving darker skies in its wake.
Online & in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago
Dear Friends – This special presentation is supported by your generous donations. $10-$50 or pay what you will www.rschicago.org/donate(credit card or PayPal)
Please type ‘Adriana’ in the memo for your payment
To register & receive the Zoom codeemail your receipt of payment to the Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg hag@rschicago.org
For those attending in-person doors open at 5:30 pm for our Potluck meal. Please bring food & drink to share.
Work on building the First Goetheanum, which was designed and supervised by Rudolf Steiner, began after the laying of the double dodecahedron foundation stone on the 20th of September 1913. Construction proceeded for a decade under enormous difficulties in the political, economic and cultural realms, brought on by the advent of the First World War. After the war when the building was near completion, the First Goetheanum was destroyed by an arsonist on New Year’s Eve 1922/1923.
This NYE 2022-23 will be the 100th anniversary of this event and the world is again facing many difficulties, political, economic and social. Adriana’s lecture will explore what Rudolf Steiner meant by the ‘Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human beings’ and how a consciousness of this during the coming 12 Holy Nights can provide the necessary strengthening for the coming twelve months.
During this presentation Adriana will speak about the three gifts given by Rudolf Steiner in 1913: The naming of Anthroposophy, The Fifth Gospel, and The Laying of the Foundation Stone of the First Goetheanum. She will explore with us how we can link our hearts to the old Goetheanum during the coming 12 Holy Nights to prepare ourselves for the coming 12 months in 2023, so we can work towards a Cosmic New Year.
In this way we will celebrate the Jubilee of the Christmas Conference and the resurrection of the living impulse of the First Goetheanum in the most auspicious way.
For Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘My dear friends, may this link our hearts to the old Goetheanum which we had to consign to the elements. May it link our hearts also to the Spirit, to the Soul of this Goetheanum. With this vow before whatever is best within our being we want to live on not only into the new year. In strength of deed, bearing the spirit, leading the soul we want to live on into the new cosmic year.’ ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘The Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human Beings.’
Adriana Koulias was born in 1960 in Brazil. Adriana moved to Australia when she was 9 years old where she lives today. She has studied art, operatic singing and nursing. She has been studying Anthroposophy (awareness of our humanity) as given by Rudolf Steiner for 33 years and has since 2002-3 integrated this knowledge into several novels and a number of books, international lectures and articles online and in magazines.
To contemplate the virtues of Faith, Love & Hope during Advent is especially powerful. A time when we honor the Mineral (physical/Hope), Plant (Etheric/Love), Animal (Astral/Faith) thru the lens of our human/Angel being, in preparation for the rebirth of the Light,
These lectures were among the first attended by Dr. Friedrich Rittelmeyer – proof of the indications in these lectures that point to the great mysteries of destiny working in these encounters, which in this case led to the foundation of the Christian Community, 11 years later in 1922. One of the things that Steiner describes here is the connection between the altar & the tomb, which dovetails nicely with yesterday’s essay Beyond Death.
For me, making the mysteries of Karma conscious is an important part of the ‘Great Work’ calling to us today. If we treat this practical research as a Spiritual Science, we can gradually achieve, thru our own efforts, in freedom, the faculty for perceiving & putting into play the karmic adjustments – the compensating deeds, needed in our personal & social spheres. –
For the time is coming when new faculties will awaken in the human being – IF, as part of our inner development we take up what John the Baptist says by the Jordan: Change your state of soul.
The other important thing is that when we do this work, karmic perception births in us new insight, a new way of seeing, so that it becomes possible to engage with the etheric Christ as counselor & protector when we need guidance, or solace. To deveolp this new perception we need Faith, Love & Hope…
So besides all the wonderful exoteric qualities of Faith, which can seem to harken back to a more ancient, more simple morality, what are the more esoteric attributes?
What would it be like to live into the idea that Faith brings life-giving forces to the soul..?
Steiner gives us the picture that if we are incapable of faith – we become ‘withered – dried-up as the desert’. “Were people to lose all faith, they would soon see what it means for evolution. By losing the forces of faith they would be incapacitated, their very existence would be undermined by fear, worry, and anxiety.
To put it simply, it is through the forces of faith alone that we can receive the life which should well up to invigorate the soul…There lies in the hidden depths of our being something in which our true ego is embedded where the forces of faith are active. We may term it the ‘faith-soul’, or — as I prefer — the ‘faith-body’. It has also been given the more abstract name of ‘astral body’.
The most important forces of the astral body are those of faith, so the term astral body, and the term faith-body are equally justified.”
A 2nd force found in the hidden depths of our being – is the force expressed by the word ‘Love’.
Love is not only something wedding people together; it is also a force that is needed by us as individuals in order to be whole. “Love is a living force that stimulates something deep in our being, keeping it awake and alive — an even deeper force than faith. And just as we are cradled in a body of faith, which from another aspect can be called the astral body, so are we cradled also in a body of love, or, as in Spiritual Science we called it, the ‘etheric body’, the ‘body of life-forces’…the person, empty of love, would actually perish; they would meet with physical death.”
Interesting to think of the ‘etheric body’ as being the same as ‘the body of love’ & not as a force acting in the astral, which would have been my 1st guess.
“Duty becomes Love when we love the commands we give oneselves.” ~ Goethe.
When we do our duty with love, forces waken in our souls that will be especially needed in the 6th culture-epoch – when our etheric body is to be transformed into Life-Spirit.
Love provides a living foundation, which gives us confidence for the future – This is Hope. The forces of hope are connected with our last sheath – our physical body. It is in our physical existence that we need hope; without it our will is lamed.
Steiner mentions that a person who is unable to hope, will always be depressed about the future, & will go thru life with deadening forces clearly etched like deep wrinkles in their physical countenance.
So we see how this picture of the 3 virtues must come together in the human being: The ‘inmost kernel of our being’, our “I”, is sheathed in our ‘Faith-body’ or astral body, in our ‘body of Love’ or etheric sheath, & in our ‘Hope-body’ or physical body.
In the next essay we will explore the connections of these virtues with our Karma.
Until soon
~hag
2 December 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Fresh off its conjunction with Jupiter on Thursday December 1st, today Bella Luna shines left of the bright planet in early evening, then upper left of it by 10 pm CST.
Online & in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago
Dear Friends – This special presentation is supported by your generous donations. $10-$50 or pay what you will www.rschicago.org/donate(credit card or PayPal)
Please type ‘Adriana’ in the memo for your payment
To register & receive the Zoom codeemail your receipt of payment to the Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg hag@rschicago.org
For those attending in-person doors open at 5:30 pm for our Potluck meal. Please bring food & drink to share.
Work on building the First Goetheanum, which was designed and supervised by Rudolf Steiner, began after the laying of the double dodecahedron foundation stone on the 20th of September 1913. Construction proceeded for a decade under enormous difficulties in the political, economic and cultural realms, brought on by the advent of the First World War. After the war when the building was near completion, the First Goetheanum was destroyed by an arsonist on New Year’s Eve 1922/1923.
This NYE 2022-23 will be the 100th anniversary of this event and the world is again facing many difficulties, political, economic and social. Adriana’s lecture will explore what Rudolf Steiner meant by the ‘Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human beings’ and how a consciousness of this during the coming 12 Holy Nights can provide the necessary strengthening for the coming twelve months.
During this presentation Adriana will speak about the three gifts given by Rudolf Steiner in 1913: The naming of Anthroposophy, The Fifth Gospel, and The Laying of the Foundation Stone of the First Goetheanum. She will explore with us how we can link our hearts to the old Goetheanum during the coming 12 Holy Nights to prepare ourselves for the coming 12 months in 2023, so we can work towards a Cosmic New Year.
In this way we will celebrate the Jubilee of the Christmas Conference and the resurrection of the living impulse of the First Goetheanum in the most auspicious way.
For Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘My dear friends, may this link our hearts to the old Goetheanum which we had to consign to the elements. May it link our hearts also to the Spirit, to the Soul of this Goetheanum. With this vow before whatever is best within our being we want to live on not only into the new year. In strength of deed, bearing the spirit, leading the soul we want to live on into the new cosmic year.’ ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘The Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human Beings.’
Adriana Koulias was born in 1960 in Brazil. Adriana moved to Australia when she was 9 years old where she lives today. She has studied art, operatic singing and nursing. She has been studying Anthroposophy (awareness of our humanity) as given by Rudolf Steiner for 33 years and has since 2002-3 integrated this knowledge into several novels and a number of books, international lectures and articles online and in magazines.
