Category Archives: Biography

from chaos to harmony

Victor Molev

Dear friends – I am not a tech person, I research & write & contemplate Anthroposophy, & I do a lot of work to find the images that highlight the content, BUT I do not understand the tech behind the web site. I apologize. So if an issue comes up where something isn’t functioning I have to ask for help. Often my beloved husband can lend a hand, even though he is very busy like myself & not a tech savvy guy either. So if you see that something isn’t working – Kindly email me, or volunteer to help on the backend.

It appears GoDaddy the host for this site has updated something with their firewall that has been treating your comments as spam. So if you tried to comment recently, which BTW I really appreciate, you probably experienced a message that said: ‘Access Denied – GoDaddy Website Firewall’. I discovered this by trying to share a comment myself.

Please friends I would never block your comments intentionally, I wouldn’t even know how to do that. My beloved CG helped me contact GoDaddy & they are working on fixing the problem. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Yours in service
~hag

14 April 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Holy Thursday and the Easter Triduum - Vatican News

Everybody should be reminded by the Easter festival, that there will be the resurrection of the spirit out of the present darkened nature of the human being”. ~Rudolf Steiner, The Riddles of the World and Anthroposophy

Holy Thursday 2022

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

215 – Birthday of Mani the prophet & founder of Manichaeism – see Rudolf Steiner’s lectures GA 104 & 113

1126 – Averroesa medieval Spanish polymath. He wrote on logic, Aristotelian & Islamic philosophy, theology, the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, psychology, political & Andalusian classical music theory, geography, mathematics, & the mediæval sciences of medicine, astronomy, physics, & celestial mechanics. Averroes was a defender of Aristotelian philosophy against Ash’ari theologians led by Al-Ghazali.

In 1561 on this date it was  Good Friday. Around dawn there was a mass sighting of celestial phenomena over Nuremberg, residents of Nuremberg saw what they described as an aerial battle, followed by the appearance of a large black triangular object & then a large crash outside of the city. According to witnesses, there were hundreds of spheres, cylinders & other odd-shaped objects that moved erratically overhead.

A broadsheet news article was printed later that month, describes objects of various shapes including crosses, globes, two lunar crescents, a black spear & tubular objects from which several smaller, round objects emerged & darted around the sky at dawn.

“In the morning of April 14, 1561, at daybreak, between 4 and 5 a.m., a dreadful apparition occurred on the sun, and then this was seen in Nuremberg in the city, before the gates and in the country – by many men and women. At first there appeared in the middle of the sun two blood-red semi-circular arcs, just like the moon in its last quarter. And in the sun, above and below and on both sides, the color was blood, there stood a round ball of partly dull, partly black ferrous color. Likewise there stood on both sides and as a torus about the sun such blood-red ones and other balls in large number, about three in a line and four in a square, also some alone. In between these globes there were visible a few blood-red crosses, between which there were blood-red strips, becoming thicker to the rear and in the front malleable like the rods of reed-grass, which were intermingled, among them two big rods, one on the right, the other to the left, and within the small and big rods there were three, also four and more globes. These all started to fight among themselves, so that the globes, which were first in the sun, flew out to the ones standing on both sides, thereafter, the globes standing outside the sun, in the small and large rods, flew into the sun. Besides the globes flew back and forth among themselves and fought vehemently with each other for over an hour. And when the conflict in and again out of the sun was most intense, they became fatigued to such an extent that they all, as said above, fell from the sun down upon the earth ‘as if they all burned’ and they then wasted away on the earth with immense smoke. After all this there was something like a black spear, very long and thick, sighted; the shaft pointed to the east, the point pointed west. Whatever such signs mean, God alone knows. Although we have seen, shortly one after another, many kinds of signs on the heaven, which are sent to us by the almighty God, to bring us to repentance, we still are, unfortunately, so ungrateful that we despise such high signs and miracles of God. Or we speak of them with ridicule and discard them to the wind, in order that God may send us a frightening punishment on account of our ungratefulness. After all, the God-fearing will by no means discard these signs, but will take it to heart as a warning of their merciful Father in heaven, will mend their lives and faithfully beg God, that He may avert His wrath, including the well-deserved punishment, on us, so that we may temporarily here and perpetually there, live as his children. For it, may God grant us his help, Amen”. Art by Hanns Glaser, letter-painter of Nurnberg

1759 – Deathday of G.F. Handel – composer

1865 Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford’s Theatre by John Wilkes Booth; Lincoln died the next day

1900 – The Exposition Universelle – a world’s fair held in Paris, France, from 14 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century & to accelerate development into the next. The fair, visited by nearly 50 million, displayed many machines, inventions, & architecture that are now nearly universally known, including the Grande Roue de Paris Ferris wheel, Russian nesting dolls, diesel engines, talking films, escalators, & the telegraphone (the first magnetic audio recorder)

1912 – The sinking of the Titanic

1935 – Exclusion from the General Anthroposophical Society of Ita WegmanElisabeth Vreed & other members also 2 national societies

1939 – The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck is first published

2010 – Over 2,700 are killed in a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture

2014 – 276  schoolgirls are abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria 

Moving thru Easter-Tide with more thoughts from Velsum: The Songs As Spiritual Scientific Documents

During Velsum’s writing process, spiritual scientific research is a central activity. The songs are born directly out of a spiritual scientific interest in the human being and reality as a whole. Due to this central aspect of Velsum’s initiative, Ultra-Violet and I felt it to be of service to these song beings, as well as to all the other spiritual impulses and beings who have helped form Velsum’s initiative, to offer some writing on this multi-faceted topic. With Ultra’s help, I have therefore taken the songs as an opportunity to do this. In the following paragraphs, you will be able to explore not only the lyrics of Velum’s songs; additionally you will be able to read spiritual scientific writings on their meanings, as well as historical anecdotes that help contextualize Velsum’s music and initiative as a whole in a variety of ways.
 
In reading this writing, it should be recognized that Velum’s music, like all music, exists on multiple levels of consciousness. While these songs were born out of specific spiritual scientific conversations and experiences, they do not exist solely within the meanings through which we have described them. They exist in whichever way they are beheld by one who engages with them. Beings and realities are infinitely sided—indeed, they have no sides—and therefore, these writings are a perspective written by an informed individual, and they are intended to serve as a potential inspiration for anyone who is interested in a deeper inquiry into the nature of anthroposophy, music, social relationship, and how life and art may become self-consciously unified as one spiritual initiative. 

It is with great joy that I am able to share my spiritual scientific research in this context. And I pray that these extremely condensed explorations may become unfolded in the hearts and heads of those who have interest in their inner content. If read with care and openness, I believe this unfolding will occur. 

For the Love of I Am

Where do we go from here?
Do we say I do?
How will we pray
For the Love of I Am?
Where do we go from here?

Blessed be the Son of our hearts
Who enkindles the light of the world
As consciousness of Amen.
Let us in freedom be singing.
Let us in truth be.

For the Love of I Am is a foundation stone for our initiative, Velsum. It is an acknowledgement of the present, and the unique way in which the present may serve the future. It recognizes that once we have asked the divine question, we have already been received by its answer. The marriage of this sacred call and response is the being of this song. While the questions in the first stanza may be regarded as sacraments, the statements in the second stanza may be experienced as the prayers in which these sacraments are blessed. When, through Sophianic thought, we bless these sacraments with these prayers, we invite ourselves into the divine marriage of Christ and the human being. For the Love of I Am knows that humanity’s Love is the consciousness of Amen. And in that freedom, we behold the truth of the human being, who is the script of the Trinity. May this foundation stone be set in music. ~Lucien & Ultra

Velsum’ (Victory in Wholeness) an Anthroposophical Musical Initiative
created by Lucien Dante Lazar & Ultra-Violet Archer
performing New Nightingale, New Rose on Easter Sunday

Live streaming from the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago. Join us in-person or online.

PLEASE NOTE: BELOW IS THE NEW ZOOM CODE –  AND NEW TIME
(Please disregard the last notices & use the new link to register for this event even if you think you have already registered – sorry for the confusion) 

This offering will not be recorded – it is meant for Easter Sunday only.

These 2 Christened voices came together for the “Building the Temple of the Heart” 2021 ASA AGM conference & have gone on to co-create a new musical genre that they call: Ancient Futurism. This past year they have been workshopping this initiative at Angelic Organics Farm – graciously hosted by Haidy & Farmer John Peterson, who have put culture back into Agriculture by building a Temple stage to host Anthroposophical events in their glorious Barn building. The Debut of Velsum occurred there on Lazarus Saturday 2022.  

Easter Sunday 17 April 2022
Doors open at 12:30 pm CDT 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, Il. 60618
NEW TIME: Performance 1-2pm CDT
Potluck Easter Feast 2-3 pm CDT

$10 or more suggested donation goes to the artists –

Chicago Friends – Please Bring Hardy Festive Food & Drink to Share

www.rschicago.org/donate please indicate that it is for EASTER

Topic: Easter: New Nightingale, New Rose
Time: Apr 17, 2022 01:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

NEW ZOOM CODE: Join Zoom Meeting
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New Nightingale New Rose

Insights into Velsum, An Anthroposophical Musical Initiative through Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer, shared by Lucien

            Velsum first came into being when Hazel Archer Ginsberg asked her daughter, Ultra-Violet Archer and myself to sing a song for the pageant she would be offering at the Annual General Meeting for the Central Region of the Anthroposophical Society of America. The meeting was named ‘Building the Temple Of The Heart’, and she therefore encouraged us to make a song inspired by this theme.

            During our first rehearsal for the song that was to be, Ultra-Violet and I sat across from one another. As we began to sing, we saw aspects of our past lives and karmas flow out of each other’s mouths on our breath streams. It was a very surprising experience for both of us, and it was the first vivid indication we noticed that eluded us to our musical biographies, which is essentially founded in the spiritual world.

           During our first performance, Ultra-Violet and I experienced a selfless presence with each other through our singing. We were able to effortlessly behold one another as real human beings. This quality has since formed our musical connection, and has allowed for our musical endeavor to be fundamentally rooted in collaborative spiritual scientific inquiry into the nature of the spirituality of Love, friendship, and Wisdom.

            At the end of the Annual General Meeting, Farmer John and Haidy Peterson, who were part of the pageant and were moved by what they had witnessed, entered into dialogue with Ultra-Violet and I about their farm, Angelic Organics. We spoke about the architecture of the farm’s buildings, the fertile, cared for land, rich with healthy elemental activity, and the innate potential of artistic creativity that has arisen and could continue to arise from this sacred context. Together, we felt that it would be right for us to come into relationship with one another through our mutual interest in the potential of anthroposophy and the healing arts. Ultra-Violet and I were invited to come to Angelic Organics whenever we were able, and there to embark on a journey of writing music inspired by the architecture of the barns, the sacredness of the land, and the beauty, truth, and goodness of the spiritual relationships that were able to form there.

            It was during these weekend visits where the songs of Velsum started to flow through our beings like water in a sunlit creek. These songs felt like our children—little beings of music living in the spiritual world eager to come down through melody and word. We prayed before and after each ritual of incarnating these song beings, took walks in the land, ate vegetables from its crops, and relished in the wisdom of the architecture that held us.

            It wasn’t long into this process that many spiritual beings and impulses became known in the initiative of Velsum, which means Victory in wholeness.

            Joan of Arc’s wise and triumphant heralding presence appeared on the very first day. The Sufi poet Hafiz, with his enthusiastic jubilation for God, humanity, and the world sparkled into our voices shortly thereafter. Deep and mysterious impulses of Rosicrucianism flooded our songs like Spring rain on fresh, budding grass. And all throughout, the profound gifts of Rudolf Steiner through our Anthroposophia were dappled in our hearts and lungs like rose petals on a pond.

           Velsum’s music is the product of listening to the spiritual awakening of the soul through a social witnessing of Christ in the other’s activity. It is a manifestation of being grateful to God for His incarnation of Individuality. It is a deed of worship to Wisdom, and a call of Love to humanity’s Christian striving.

The Songs As Spiritual Scientific Documents (part 1)

Temple of the Heart

‘Thinking, doing, feeling;
Building the temple of the heart.
Loving, opening, thanking;
Building the temple of the heart’.

            Temple of the Heart is Velsum’s inaugural song. The lyrics were gifted to Velsum by Reverse Ritual founder Hazel Archer Ginsberg, who was inspired to write them after studying Michael Lipson’s translations of Rudolf Steiner’s six basic exercises. Through spending time with this socially constituted song, one may begin to experience the mutual fructification of these six basic verbs. Thinking, in its proposal to Love, births ideas founded in the unity of head and heart. Doing becomes a ritual for incarnating the conscious will, which opens the human being to the Godhead in nature and the Godhead in oneself. Feeling, as it imbues itself with divine wonder, becomes a song of gratitude spilling from the fount of the hierarchies in the cosmos. In this light, Temple of the Heart as a duet finds its meaning. (more from Lucien tomorrow)

~Lucien & Ultra

Velsum’ (Victory in Wholeness) an Anthroposophical Musical Initiative
created by Lucien Dante Lazar & Ultra-Violet Archer
performing New Nightingale, New Rose on Easter Sunday

Live streaming from the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago. Join us in-person or online.

PLEASE NOTE: BELOW IS THE NEW ZOOM CODE –  AND NEW TIME
(Please disregard the last notices & use the new link to register for this event even if you think you have already registered – sorry for the confusion) 

These 2 Christened voices came together for the “Building the Temple of the Heart” 2021 ASA AGM conference & have gone on to co-create a new musical genre that they call: Ancient Futurism. This past year they have been workshopping this initiative at Angelic Organics Farm – graciously hosted by Haidy & Farmer John Peterson, who have put culture back into Agriculture by building a Temple stage to host Anthroposophical events in their glorious Barn building. The Debut of Velsum occurred there on Lazarus Saturday 2022.  

Kaysha Siemens

New Nightingale, New Rose

Nightingale, have you heard the news!
The rose has come back
And the green and the blue.
And everything is as new as the dew,
New nightingale, new rose. 

Nightingale, be my bride 
For the birth of the new Sun in this Earth. 
Bleed your heart 
Into pure petals of fragrance,
New nightingale, new rose. 

Nightingale, be my bridegroom.
Fill my cup, I’ll sing Thy truth. 
Turn my blood into Thy blue
So my Love may be the light of Thy doing,
New nightingale, new rose. 

Nightingale, have you heard the news!
The rose has come back
And the green and the blue.
And everything is as new as the dew,
New nightingale, new rose.
    

New Nightingale, New Rose is a triumphant revelation of the spiritual mysteries of Rosicrucianism. It imagines the human being as the alchemical wedding of Christ and Sophia. This song which holds the mission of humanity, is the voice of the Nightingale, whose song is a warrior resurrecting Wisdom through Love. Let the Nightingale in freedom sing! ~Lucien & Ultra

Easter Sunday 17 April 2022
Doors open at 12:30 pm CDT 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, Il. 60618
NEW TIME: Performance 1-2pm CDT
Potluck Easter Feast 2-3 pm CDT

$10 or more suggested donation goes to the artists –

Chicago Friends – Please Bring Hardy Festive Food & Drink to Share

www.rschicago.org/donate please indicate that it is for EASTER

Topic: Easter: New Nightingale, New Rose
Time: Apr 17, 2022 01:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

NEW ZOOM CODE: Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85964975651

Meeting ID: 859 6497 5651
One tap mobile
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Dial by your location
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Meeting ID: 859 6497 5651
Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kb1j1PB3WRFor more info. contact Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

Cling Not

“Modern humanity is passing over a threshold at which stands a Guardian, a Guardian grave and full of meaning. And this grave Guardian speaks: “Cling not to what has come as a transplant from olden times; look into your hearts, into your souls, that you may be capable of creating new forms. You can only create these new forms when you have faith that the powers of knowledge and of will for this spiritual creation come out of the spiritual world.”

It is only through spiritual-scientific knowledge of the passing of the threshold in our present day that can give the Christ-form to this chaos.” ~Rudolf Steiner, THE SEARCH FOR THE NEW ISIS, DIVINE SOPHIA, GA 202, Lecture III  https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/19201225p01.html

I stare into the Clouds
Fore-gathering
Noetic sight
Into squinting syllables.
Watch it pour out honeyed unguents –
A sweet viscus half-light
Overflowing the ashen cup of night.
My I’s washed
With April showers
Splashing like a stepped in puddle
Falling fragrant on the flower.
~hag

6 April 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The waxing crescent Moon passes the Pleiades, Aldebaran, and Aldebaran’s surrounding Hyades, just after the end of twilight.

Gloria Ssaili

What is to be the starting force & impulse for events in social & ethical life must come out of the spiritual world.” ~Rudolf Steiner, New Spiritual Impulses in History” Dornach 16 December, 1917

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

582- Death & Feast Day of Eutychius of Constantinople, Toward the end of his life, Eutychius maintained an opinion that after the resurrection the body will be “more subtle than air” & no longer a tangible thing. This was considered heretical, because it was taken as a denial of the doctrine of physical, corporeal resurrection.

TODAY in 1483 – Good Friday – Birthday of Raphael – Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino

TODAY in 1520 – Good Friday – Deathday of Raphael – Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino

It must seem strange that Raphael was the same person as a thorny character like John the Baptist. How could it happen that this thorny man, who had to pave the way for the Mystery of Golgotha in such a violent way, reappeared as the gentle, pliable, charming Raphael? But look at this. Raphael’s father, Giovanni Santi, died when Raphael was eleven. He was a painter. He was not a great painter so far as external achievements go, but he had great ideas in his head, although he could not put them on canvas because he had no technical skill. He was also a poet. There was a great deal of fantasy in him, but the physical capacities simply were not there. He went early through the portal of death, and then his forces worked into his son. In Raphael’s hands and imagination worked all that his father could send into the physical world. One can say that the old Giovanni Santi was a painter without hands in the supersensible world, for in a wonderful karmic relationship he supplied, in combination with the Christ-filled individuality of the Baptist, what came to expression in Raphael. The supersensible world had to work with the physical world to achieve this result. It shows how the so-called dead are able to influence those who have been left behind…” ~ Rudolf Steiner, On the Relationship with the Dead, 23 April 1913

Raphael, as we know from was  an Italian painter & architect of the High Renaissance. Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop &, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace. From 1517 until his death, Raphael lived in the Palazzo Caprini in the Borgo, in rather grand style in a palace designed by Bramante. He never married, & was thought to be bi-sexual. He is said to have had many affairs, but a permanent fixture in his life in Rome was “La Fornarina”, Margherita Luti, the daughter of a baker (fornaro) named Francesco Luti from Siena.

The story goes that Raphael’s premature death on Good Friday, which was also his 37th birthday, was caused by a night of excessive sex with Luti, after which he fell into a fever &, not telling his doctors that this was its cause, was given the wrong cure, which killed him. At his request, Raphael was buried in the Pantheon.

His funeral was extremely grand, attended by large crowds. The inscription in his marble sarcophagus, an elegiac distich written by Pietro Bembo, reads: “Ille hic est Raffael, timuit quo sospite vinci, rerum magna parens et moriente mori”, meaning: “Here lies that famous Raphael by whom Nature feared to be conquered while he lived, and when he was dying, feared herself to die.”

Rudolf Steiner speaks about him in his various incarnations, in ‘The Last Address’ – The Individuality of Elias, John, Raphael, Novalis. Dornach, Michaelmas Eve, 1924, GA 238

1472 –Birthday of Lucas Cranach the Elder, a German Renaissance painter & printmaker

Madonna del Cardellino | The Life of Jesus
Madonna del Cardellino by Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino

1520 – Good Friday – Deathday of Raphael

1869 – Celluloid is patented

1930 – Gandhi raises a lump of mud and salt and declares, “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire,” beginning the Salt Satyagraha

1965 – Launch of Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit

1971 – Deathday of Igor Stravinsky, Russian-American pianist, composer, & conductor

Zat Rana

1992 – Deathday of Isaac Asimov, American science fiction writer

2015 – Deathday of Ray Charles


he Holy Grail Study Group with the CRC
Mysteries of the Holy Grail – from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation
April 6, 2022 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)

“The pupils of the Grail were told of a state which humans would attain in future. Possessed of clear, alert consciousness, their being would be purified, the substance of the human body would become as pure and chaste as that of the plant, and their organs of reproduction transformed.”
~ from Chapter 12
 
Rudolf Steiner, The Mysteries of the Holy GrailChapter 12 “The Higher Calyx” and Chapter 13 “The Resonant Chalice,” excerpts from Steiner’s lectures given at Nuremberg on 2 December 1907 (GA 92) and Stuttgart 16 September 1907 (GA 101) … will be the focus of the April 6 meeting.

Chapters 12 and 13 in the book can be found online at the CRC’s website by clicking this link
A transcript of the 2 December 1907 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link
A transcript of the 16 September, 1907 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link
 The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing  study conversation.  The study has been divided among two volunteers who will summarize their section to rebuild it as a foundation for our conversation. Please familiarize yourself with the lecture if possible so you will feel comfortable sharing your reflections and thoughts with the group.

This collection of lectures has been republished by Rudolf Steiner Press under the title: “The Mysteries of the Holy Grail — from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation.”  The book was compiled and edited by Matthew Barton, published by Rudolf Steiner Press in 2010.

This will be a “Zoom” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer).  To connect to the audio/video-conference:

Video Conference Details:Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88210505106

Meeting ID: 882 1050 5106
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Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcHr5EVwrv

If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu
or Mary Mertz mary.mcginnis@juno.comThere is a knighthood of the 21st century
whose riders do not ride through the darkness
of physical forests as of old,
but through the forest of darkened minds.
They are armed with a spiritual armor
and an inner sun makes them radiant.
Out of them shines healing,
healing that flows from the knowledge
of the human being as a spiritual being.
They must create inner order, inner justice,
peace and conviction in the darkness
of our time. ~Karl Konig
 Agenda for this meeting (CST)
 
7:15  Welcome and Introductions        
7:18  Verse
7:25  Study led by volunteers
Note: CRC team will ID volunteers
          Michael – Chapter 12
          Tom – Chapter 13
7:50  Conversation
8:25   ID volunteers for next meeting
8:28  Close with verse


“The pupils of the Grail were told of a state which humans would attain in future. Possessed of clear, alert consciousness, their being would be purified, the substance of the human body would become as pure and chaste as that of the plant, and their organs of reproduction transformed.”
~ from Chapter 12
 
Rudolf Steiner, The Mysteries of the Holy GrailChapter 12 “The Higher Calyx” and Chapter 13 “The Resonant Chalice,” excerpts from 

Steiner’s lectures given at Nuremberg on 2 December 1907 (GA 92) and Stuttgart 16 September 1907 (GA 101) … will be the focus of the April 6 meeting.

Chapters 12 and 13 in the book can be found online at the CRC’s website by clicking this link
A transcript of the 2 December 1907 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link
A transcript of the 16 September, 1907 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link
 The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing  study conversation.  The study has been divided among two volunteers who will summarize their section to rebuild it as a foundation for our conversation. Please familiarize yourself with the lecture if possible so you will feel comfortable sharing your reflections and thoughts with the group.

This collection of lectures has been republished by Rudolf Steiner Press under the title: “The Mysteries of the Holy Grail — from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation.”  The book was compiled and edited by Matthew Barton, published by Rudolf Steiner Press in 2010.

This will be a “Zoom” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer).  To connect to the audio/video-conference:

Video Conference Details:Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88210505106

Meeting ID: 882 1050 5106
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,81116556762# US (Germantown)
+13126266799,,81116556762# US (Chicago)

Dial by your location
        +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
        +1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
        +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
        +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
        +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcHr5EVwrv

If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu
or Mary Mertz mary.mcginnis@juno.comThere is a knighthood of the 21st century
whose riders do not ride through the darkness
of physical forests as of old,
but through the forest of darkened minds.
They are armed with a spiritual armor
and an inner sun makes them radiant.
Out of them shines healing,
healing that flows from the knowledge
of the human being as a spiritual being.
They must create inner order, inner justice,
peace and conviction in the darkness
of our time. ~Karl Konig
 Agenda for this meeting (CST)
 
7:15  Welcome and Introductions        
7:18  Verse
7:25  Study led by volunteers
Note: CRC team will ID volunteers
          Michael – Chapter 12
          Tom – Chapter 13
7:50  Conversation
8:25   ID volunteers for next meeting
8:28  Close with verse

Aurelius Ambrosius & MLK jr.

Leah Saulnier

Out on a friends farm yesterday the beehives were stirring. It is still cold & rainy, the trees have not budded, but blue carpets of scilla & tender crocus abound.

Shakespeare described bees as singing masons building roofs of gold

POD (Poem Of the Day)
~In the hollow of a willow
I make my nest amidst snow bells & wise serpents
I am calling in eternity
Where I live forever in the fire spun from my own wings
Yes, I’ll suffer burns that burn to heal
Yes, I am destroyed – only to create myself anew
Like the Sun that rises burning in the East
& dies burning in the west…
Called again & again
To suffuse Sun fire into the human hive
~hag


Chart showing Mars and Saturn conjunction on April 5, 2022

4 April 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: We’re gearing up for a big show: Mars stands just south of Saturn at 5 pm CDT. Although both planets are below the horizon at that time, they will grow even closer in the subsequent hours. Check back tomorrow for the best early-morning view as these two planets make a close pass.

Merkel Martin

 “The historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence.” ~T.S. Eliot, “Tradition & the Individual Talent” (1919)

Patel Zimbetel

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

397 – Deathday of Aurelius Ambrosius, There is a legend that as an infant, a swarm of bees settled on his face while he lay in his cradle, leaving behind a drop of honey. His father considered this a sign of his future eloquence & honeyed tongue. For this reason, bees & beehives often appear in the saint’s symbology.

St. Ambrose ranks with Augustine, Jerome, & Gregory the Great, as one of the Latin Doctors of the Church. Theologians compare him with Hilary. Ambrose displayed a kind of liturgical flexibility that kept in mind that liturgy was a tool to serve people in worshiping God, & ought not to become a rigid entity that is invariable from place to place. His advice to Augustine of Hippo on this point was to follow local liturgical custom. “When I am at Rome, I fast on a Saturday; when I am at Milan, I do not. Follow the custom of the church where you are.” Thus Ambrose refused to be drawn into a false conflict over which particular local church had the “right” liturgical form where there was no substantial problem. His advice has remained in the English language as the saying, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”

One interpretation of Ambrose’s writings is that he was a Christian universalist. It has been noted that Ambrose’s theology was significantly influenced by that of Origen Didymus the Blind.

Ambrose considered the poor not a distinct group of outsiders, but a part of the united, solidary people. Giving to the poor was not to be considered an act of generosity towards the fringes of society but as a repayment of resources that God had originally bestowed on everyone equally & that the rich had usurped

560 – Death day of Zosimas of Palestine, reputed to have lived to be almost one hundred years of age is best known for his encounter with St. Mary of Egypt. It was the custom of that monastery for all of the brethren to go out into the desert for the 40 days of Great Lent, spending the time in fasting & prayer. While wandering in the desert he met Saint Mary, who told him her life story & asked him to meet her the next year on Holy Thursday on the banks of the Jordan, in order to bring her Holy Communion. He did so, & the third year came to her again in the desert, but he found that she had died & he buried her.

636 – Deathday of Saint Isidore of Seville, was one of the last of the ancient Christian philosophers; he was the last of the great Latin Church Fathers & was contemporary with Maximus the Confessor. Some consider him to be the most learned man of his age, & he exercised a far-reaching & immeasurable influence on the educational life of the Middle Ages. His contemporary & friend, Braulio of Zaragoza, regarded him as a man raised up by God to save the Iberian peoples from the tidal wave of barbarism that threatened to inundate the ancient civilization of Hispania

1863 – Deathday of Ludwig Emil Grimm, a German painter, art professor, etcher & copper engraver. His brothers were the well-known folklorists Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm

1887 – Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the 1st female mayor in the United States

1905 – In India, an earthquake hits the Kangra Valley, killing 20,000, &destroying most buildings in Kangra, McLeod Ganj and Dharamsala

1913 – Birthday of Blues man Muddy Waters (for Fuji)

1944 – World War II: First bombardment of oil refineries in Bucharest by Anglo-American forces kills 3000 civilians

1967 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech in New York City’s Riverside Church

1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee

Rudolf Steiner’s Deathday

Dr. Rudolf Steiner 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925

Today, Dear Friends – on this eve of the New Moon, 30 March 2022, we mark the 97th anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s rebirth into the Spiritual World.

After the burning of the 1st Goetheanum 100 years ago this year, at the Christmas Conference in 1923, when Rudolf Steiner re-founded & joined the Anthroposophical Society with the ‘movement’ ie. the good spirits working thru Anthroposophia, he also took on the karma of all its members. Starting just after that Dr. Steiner showed signs of illness. Yet he continued to lecture & travel like never before. He was often giving 4 lectures a day for the various courses taking place concurrently. Many of these focused on practical anthroposophy, such as education, agriculture, medicine & the Christian Community. He gave his last in-person lecture on Michaelmas September 1924. Yet even after that, Rudolf Steiner continued to work on his autobiography & the Leading Thoughts during the last months of his life until  he died on 30 March 1925 with the Sun in Pisces & the Moon in Taurus.

From “The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner’ by Guenther Wachsmuth: “Even the last weeks in March 1925, during which he had to endure unspeakable suffering, were devoted in the most intense concentration to spiritual research, creative work, & bestowal…

…the beginning of his shared anthroposophical work with Marie von Sivers stood before his inner eye. It had not been easy for Marie Steiner to live with the increasing intense collaboration between Rudolf Steiner & Ita Wegman over the course of the last few years. Ita Wegman was so entirely different than she was. Now she was forced to deny herself the opportunity to care for the person she loved the most. Trouble with her legs inhibited her from doing this. That they had spoken about this with each other is evident from a letter he wrote her in Berlin on his official birthday:

“I write you these lines at about the same time that you would usually be sitting at my side. Thinking about how beautiful it is to listen to you speck about your activities & to speak with you about various aspects of your work moves me deeply. And when I know that you have now & again been able to read my Autobiography the description of our shared work, I feel deeply how closely connected we are. That destiny has brought other people close to me is simply the way destiny works. And my sickness has shown just how incisive this destiny can be. But you found the way to understanding; this is a blessing for me. To feel the unity of feeling & thinking in discernment is something I can do only with you. That I was not able to show you the last pages of the Steffen article before it went to the printer was a hardship for me. Then for myself, I find inner competence only in your judgement. Through you art is raised into the realms of the hierarchies. I gaze with wonder upon everything you achieve & with such devotion. In my thoughts I am with you” ~RS

Shielded under the devoted care of Dr. Ita Wegman, he still communicated many a spiritual message received, & he had us to report to him what was occurring on the hill of Dornach. He loved the living noise of hammering & scaffold-building which penetrated from the building place of the Goetheanum into the quiet of his sickroom, announcing the building in the process of coming into being. He was united through his council & help with this work to his last breath & beyond death.

March 1925 was cold and foggy. It became quite windy in the last week of the month, and then the storms began. From the South and the West, the rain whipped against the walls of the studio. On March 29th, Rudolf Steiner awoke in pain. “No work was done that morning. It was the 1st time. We spoke at length about the pain. There was no reason to be worried. The pains disappeared in the course of the day. He was extraordinarily still and patient that day and gave new suggestions for his care” (Wegman and Nachrichtenblatt 1925)

Albert Steffen, who visited Rudolf Steiner regularly throughout his illness, recalled this time: “I visited him March 28th at 5 pm in his studio, where he lay in his sickbed. It was a tall room with skylights. Nothing of the earth looks in: no tree, no mountain, no house, only the light of the heavens. Sculptural and architectural models that he has made himself stand on the shelves along with some busts he has sculpted; at the foot of his bed, the noble statue of Christ, carved by his own hand, soars high above him. All around him are tables covered with books and manuscripts…Up to the last day of his life, his interest was for the entire world. In his studio, which he had not left for half the year, he had collected an entire library

Rudolf Steiner was writing his “Letters to the Members” up to a few days before he died! The last missive is like a preview of what was to come in the 21st Century. It is titled “From Nature to Sub-Nature.” In it, Rudolf Steiner characterizes the dangers of the technological age & the task that has arisen for humanity thru greed driven technological developments, which rob human beings of a direct experience with nature, placing the artificial there instead. At 4 pm on March 29th, the pain returned. Yet Rudolf Steiner asked again if the adjoining studio was ready for him to work on the model for the 2nd Goetheanum. Both doctors, Wegman & Noll, kept watch throughout the night.

In his recollections of Rudolf Steiner D.N.Dunlop recalled, “A few weeks before his final illness, during the summer conference in Torquay, I spoke to him about my concerns for his physical health. He drew me aside, vigorously but with infinite friendliness, and made me aware that his situation could not be explained in terms of our usual notions of disease”.

It has been publicly stated that he died of stomach cancer. But one of Ita Wegman’s closest colleagues, Dr. Margarete Kirchner-Bockholt vehemently rejected this conjecture. And Dr. Ita Wegman had reported that Rudolf Steiner’s etheric body was no longer able to work in the digestive organs in the appropriate manner. “The result was that these organs were subjected too strongly to the physical forces, which are forces of degeneration.” (Wegman and Nachrichtenblatt 1925)

The last moments in his earthly life were free from all struggle with the physical entity, free from all uncertainty such as characterizes the death of so many human beings; his countenance spoke of peace, grace, inner certitude, spiritual vision. He folded his hands over his breast; his eyes were shiningly & strongly directed into worlds with which in vision he was united. As he drew his last breath, he himself closed his eyes; but this filled the room not with the experience of an end, but with that of a most sublime spiritual action. An exalted, transfigured wakefulness spoke out of his countenance, out of the praying strength of the hands. As the great artists of the Middle Ages gave to the pictures of the knights resting upon the sarcophagus the expression indicating that their closed eyes were still beholding, their resting form was still able to stride forward, so did the figure here resting speak of a super-terrestrial wakefulness, of a striding forward into the spheres of the spirit.

The forward striding figure of the Christ statue, pointing into the expanses of the universe, which he himself had created & at whose feet he now lay, spoke for the eye of those left behind on earth what was taking place for the spirit of a great human being who had dedicated his life to the annunciation of the Christ. Even in dying, Rudolf Steiner bestowed upon humanity the most sublime gift of consolation: the certitude that death is a waking entrance into worlds of life & action.

From Friedrich Rittelmeyer speaking about his death: “None of us had expected that Rudolf Steiner would succumb to the illness. The mortal sheath, just abandoned by the spirit setting out on its far journey, was resting on the death-bed at the foot of the Christ statue which stood there almost completed. Those who looked at the face of the dead could see what the spirit can make of the body in the life of a truly great man on earth. The sublimity and purity of his features was equal to every test and unsurpassed. Perhaps the death mask, if it is ever reproduced as a picture, will be a means of convincing many. Again and again one’s gaze turned from the forsaken earthly body to the great Christ figure which points with compelling gesture into the future. The disciple had fallen at the feet of the Master. It was as if Christ were taking the disciple to Himself with sheltering arms while He Himself went forward with unceasing step towards the future of the world. The disciple’s mission was fulfilled. The Master’s brow was radiant with the light of divine world-purposes. When, at the wish of Frau Dr. Steiner, and in the solemnly decorated hall where Dr. Steiner had given most of his great lectures, I was performing the burial service according to the ritual of The Christian Community, a drop of the sprinkled water fell in the centre of the forehead and shone there through the whole service like a sparkling diamond. The light of many candles was reflected in this glittering star – even as the revelations of light from higher worlds had been reflected in his spirit. Thus adorned, the body sank into the coffin. To me it was as if higher Spirits had indicated in an earthly picture what it had been our lot to experience. When the service was at an end, one impression lived mightily within my soul: “This work is now completed. Like a great question it stands there before mankind. If all who belong to that work dedicate their powers to it with single purpose, it will prevail!”

According to Ita Wegman’s report right before he crossed the threshold, Rudolf Steiner was very still sad & silent. She recalled, “It seemed to me as though he had a very difficult problem to solve. The forces of light in his eyes appeared weaker than usual”.

From Ita Wegman Nachrichtenblatt 1925: “At 3 am, I noticed a slight change in his breathing. I approached his bed; he was awake. He looked at me & asked whether I was tired. This question touched me. His pulse was not as strong as it had been, but much faster. I called Dr. Noll in order to speak with him about what ought to be done. Herr Steiner was not astonished to see him there in the middle of the night & greeted him amiably. “I don’t feel too bad” he said “I just can’t sleep.” We turned the light out again. At 4 am, he called me because the pain had reappeared. He said, “As soon as the day comes, we want to continue the treatment that I suggested”…Naturally, we didn’t wait for the day to come but did what was necessary. But then the situation changed quickly – his pulse grew weaker, his breathing more rapid. And we had to experience how his life was gradually extinguished…He went as though it were the obvious thing to do. It seemed to me as though the dice had been thrown for a last decision. When they fell, there was no struggle, no attempt to remain upon the earth any longer. He gazed calmly into the space before him for a time, said a couple of tender words to me, consciously closed his eyes & folded his hands

Again from “The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner’ by Guenther Wachsmuth: In the lofty darkened space of the studio stood the bier of him who had completed this earthly life, surrounded by a sea of flowers, by the light of candles, the death watch by his side day & night. Many hundreds of persons came in soundless silence for the last visit, went back into life comforted, trusting, having received in their affliction assurance of the virtuousness of the Spirit, of rebirth. On the 3rd day the body was brought into the great workshop, to lie in state finally in the lecture hall, at the place from which he had for decades proclaimed the knowledge of the spirit. At the request of Frau Marie Steiner, Fredrich Rittelmeyer conducted the funeral service which was the gift of Rudolf Steiner to the Christian Community.

The next morning the coffin was carried away for cremation. When it was passing by the newly erected structure of the new Goetheanum, the workers at the building stood still on the scaffolding & greeted the master builder & friend. At the cremation ritual, Albert Steffen united us with our beloved teacher in a picture of his being which only the artist could draw in such shining perfection. He spoke of “the friend of God and leader of humanity”. And what has come into being in us earthly persons through the leadership & schooling of Rudolf Steiner as a certitude, what we are called upon to do in his spirit, he summarized in the following words:

“He has again showed the world to us in such a way that we know it has come forth out of god. He has died in such a way that we feel: Christ lives in this death. May his immortal Spirit be resurrected in our deeds. We will, as well as we can, make them holy.”

His last thoughts were of the work to which he had in love dedicated himself” ~Rudolf Steiner, from the last act of the 4th Mystery Drama.

“To create centres of peace & love in which the Christ can resurrect.”
~written on the urn that holds the ashes of Rudolf Steiner

What a blessing to receive the teachings of this great initiate. May we continue our connection with him in the spiritual worlds & ever enliven our Michaelic work with The Christ & the Being of Anthroposophia.

~Hazel Archer-Ginsberg