Category Archives: Biography

“How can I do the Good?”

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

Greeting Friends – I am fresh from “The Mysteries of Healing: Realizing AnthropoSophia” Conference, put on by the AHA, spearheaded by Dr. Melissa Greer of Carah Medical Arts, a non-profit, Community-supported practice, working with Social 3-folding. In Gaelic Carah means “friend”. In Welsh it means “love” between friends and neighbors. In Indonesian it means “the way” and “wise”.

The Steiner verse spoken each day by Molly McIntyre set the soul mood:

“Wisdom in the Spirit
Love in the Soul
Power in the Will:
They guide me
They hold me
I trust them.
I offer myself to them”.

More than 80 dedicated Anthro doctors, therapists, various practitioners & inter-related souls, gathered on the sacred land of Camphill Soltane to ask “How can I do the Good?”.

The impulse to renew the ancient mysteries of healing brought by Ita Wegman to Rudolf Steiner 100 years ago, was alive & palpable.

August 1923 was a profound turning point for the ‘Movement’, which led to the new founding of the Society, with Rudolf Steiner uniting us to AnthropoSophia at the Christmas Conference.

During that potent time in Penmaenmawr = “Head of the Great Stone”, & Ilkley – there on the North coast of Wales, dotted with ancient Neolithic pre-Druidic ritual sites – & more than 250 large spirals, & a curved swastika carved into the rocky outcroppings, a break-thru occurred for Rudolf Steiner & Dr. Ita Wegman.

Connecting to the healing impulse radiating there brought further evidence of the ‘Northern stream‘, described often by Spiritual Science & in Germanic mythology – giving us glimpses into the Druidic, Trotten & Hibernian mystery school traditions.

The Druid Priests in particular were healers, working with the elemental realms to create remedies & medicines. This is captivatingly described by Steiner in THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS, 26 August 1923, Penmaenmawr & in other lectures including: MAN IN THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE: “The actions of the sun on plants was revealed to the Druid Priest; he could see that a particular kind of plant-life flourishes at a particular time when the sun is active in a particular way. He could trace the spiritual activity of the sun and see how it pours and streams into flower, leaf and root; and it was the same with animals...We see it best of all in what the Druid priests possessed as a science of healing.”

Interesting to contemplate the connection between the veneration of the Druid Priests working with mistletoe, a parasitic plant that never touches the earth, intwining instead around a mighty oak tree – & the fact that Ita Wegman was one of the first to use Mistletoe (Viscum album) as a healing remedy for cancer.

Thinking of the Druids as a Priest – as well as a Healer, made me recall the Pastoral Medicine lectures – which Steiner gave just a few days after he had returned from Penmaenmawr…!

Are not the Priests Healers, & the Doctors Priests…?

Yes, I know – at that time Steiner saw the 2 streams as being separate. But more & more it seems we are being called to marry the streams. Perhpas when Ita Wegman asks her question, she is seeing a more integrated reality – a true renewal of the ancient mysteries. Dr. Ursula Flatters mentioned that according to her journals, Ita Wegman had been mulling over this question for 10 years.

During the various talks by Dr.’s Ursula Flatters, James Dyson, Marion Debus – many times their experience showed that to “do the Good” we have to let go of our ego-driven-human-will; this opens the space for the inspiration & intution of our Higher “I” – Anthroposophia, & the Holy Spirit to enter-in the work of healing.

More about that soon.

In ‘Mysterien- und Geisteschichte der Menschheit’, Gunther Wachsmuth reports what was experienced by Rudolf Steiner at the stone circle now known as the ‘Twelve Apostles’, on Ilkley Moor, constructed over 9000 years ago.

And in “The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner.” Wachsmuth writes: “During his trips to England, In Penmaenmawr, Steiner visited a Druid circle: In keeping with the spiritual atmosphere of the place, the conversation centered on the Mysteries of the Druids and their opposite pole in Europe, the cult of Mithras, by which the Southern Mysteries were contrasted to the Northern Mysteries seen here. Before Steiner’s spiritual eye the ancient Druid culture came to life upon the spot. Indeed he himself seemed to change into a Druid priest, speaking with intimate knowledge and understanding as he began to explain the arrangement and the function of the stones, a unique and strange picture, as now in the loneliness of this lofty plateau Rudolf Steiner entered into the midst of the Druid circle. He told me to lift my gaze above the stones towards the mountain peaks surrounding the plateau, and described to me, with an intensity in his retrospect as if the event were occurring at that moment, how once the Druid priests, through viewing the signs of the zodiac passing along the horizon in the course of the year, were able to experience the spiritual cosmos, the beings within it, and their mandates to humanity.”

From Rudolf Steiner a month later in MICHAELMAS AND THE SOUL-FORCES OF MAN: “…In the immediate vicinity of Penmaenmawr were to be found two such sun-circles adjoining each other; and in this particular neighborhood, where even in the spiritual life of nature there is so much that has a different effect from that of nature elsewhere, what I have set forth in various anthroposophical lectures concerning the Druid Mysteries could be tested with the utmost clarity.

There is indeed a quite special spiritual atmosphere in this region where — on the island of Anglesea — the Society of King Arthur had a settlement…

…these sun-circles are arranged in the number twelve, like the twelve signs of the zodiac; and on the mountain we had climbed we found a large sun-circle and nearby a smaller one. If one had ascended, perhaps in a balloon, and looked down upon these two Druid circles, ignoring the insignificant distance between them, the same ground plan would have presented itself — there is something profoundly moving about this — as that of the Goetheanum in Dornach which was destroyed by fire.”

Steiner’s “Druidenstein painting“,“ which he gifted to Ita Wegman after their experiences in Penmaenmawr, depicts the shimmering etheric & astral overlay powerfully resonate there, shown in dramatic stages.

I’m sure there are others better able than myself to share a Spiritual Scientific artistic study of the color details & what the images all represent, so I’ll just emphasize that for me, this imagination describes the Druid Priests being able to perceive The Mystery of Golgotha – written on the Sun-drenched tapestry of the elemental world, & in the stellar script, at the Turning Point of Time.  A fulfillment of the teachings foreseen for thousands of years in the ancient Mystery Schools. The Cosmic Christ had taken human incarnation, & thru the medicine of his blood permeating the body of the Earth, a healing seed was set into all realms which they perceived.  

I picture The Druid Priests working deeply in a sort of ‘biodynamic’ way with the earth thru their healing practices, to prepare the way in the far distant future, for our Earth to become a New Sun…

These potent imaginations along with my impressions of the conference will continue to unfold in a series of essays that I will strive to assemble before I go off to the AAP training 1-8 August…

Until soon

~hag

25 July 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Look for Bella Luna as the 1st quarter Moon near the bright star Spica in Virgo the Maiden.

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
On Saturday the sun entered the sign of Leo,
whose Eurythmy gesture is Enthusiasm,
THE ENTHUSIASM OF THE YEAR
The Spirit’s Treasure
v16
My foresight is commanding me
to harbour inwardly the spirit’s gift
that God’s fruit ripen
in ground of soul
for Selfhood’s harvest.

In the mirror verse the sun enters the sign of Capricorn.
WINTER SOLSTICE – ADVENT IV
The Midnight Sun
v37
My heart anointed impulse strives
to bear the spirit light
into world-winter-night
that shining seeds of soul
take root in cosmic ground,
and in the senses’ dark
God’s all-transfiguring Word resound

Feast Day of Mary Magdalene

Biography, History, Poetry

Yes dear friends the long awaited Feast Day of Mary Magdalene has arrived! Did you receive the Video “The Sanctifier”? She who Anoints the Anointed One ~Lyrics by hag – Music by Velsum – Originally performed as part of our Easter Festival on Holy Saturday 2023. This deeply moving video was lovingly crafted as a surprise gifting from Velsum to me on my recent Natal Return – Premiering TODAY for all to witness. (see the lyrics below)

22 July 2023 “Speaking with the Stars”: From Astrosopher Jonathan Hilton: “the Moon leaves Leo and steps into the stars of Virgo. If we hold the imagination of Virgo as the great Isis/Sophia with a crown of stars around her head, the Sun in her heart, and the Moon under her feet, then the Moon TODAY will enter the crown of stars around the head of Virgo.“

The Sanctifier ~hag
MMMMMMM
He is the eternal flame of love. She is the oil that burns for light.
She who anoints ‘The Anointed One’ (1)
Hers is the path of the Sacred Union, consummated within the soul.
She of ‘The Three Marys’ (15) =
“Rebellious, bitter, & beloved.” (16)
“There were three
who always walked with The Lord:
Mary His mother;
Mary His sister;
And Mary Magdalene, His companion. (17)
Three Marys: Virgin, Sister, Companion
MMMMMM
He is the eternal flame of love. She is the oil that burns for light.
She who anoints ‘The Anointed One’ (1)
Hers is the path of the Sacred Union, consummated within the soul.
She is the Magdala – The Tower ascending
In Christened Catharsis
She is freed from the 7 demons –
“A design was erased by virtue of a higher design” (2)
MMMMMM
“Then Mary Arose”(3)
And Anthropos Sophia entered in
MMMMMMM
He is the eternal flame of love. She is the oil that burns for light.
She who anoints ‘The Anointed One’ (1)
Hers is the path of the Sacred Union, consummated within the soul.
She offers Tears of Repentance –
His feet, her hair.
Thru “her Greater Love” (4)
She breaks open
The “alabaster jar” (5)
Spilling out
The Unction
A Precious Perfume
Confirming the balm of Faith
MMMMMMM
Then – when it was His Time
At the ‘Turning Point of Time’
She prepares the Lamb for sacrifice
She offers the Golden Chrism
She Anoints His head for burial
“Truly I tell you, wherever in the whole world this Gospel is proclaimed,
what she has done will be told and her memory will be honored.” (6)
MMMMMMM
He is the eternal flame of love. She is the oil that burns for light.
She who anoints ‘The Anointed One’ (1)
Hers is the path of the Sacred Union, consummated within the soul.
She sits at the feet of the Master
She stands with the Twelve
She walks with the women who sustained the mission
“By their own means” (7)
MMMMMMM
She kneels
At the foot of the Cross (11)
With the Virgin Sophia
And her risen brother
MMMMMM
Death Doula –
Myrrhbearer (12)
Sacred Witness
At the tomb (13)
Holding Space
Turning Time
Harrowing Hell (14)
MMMMMMM
He is the eternal flame of love. She is the oil that burns for light.
She who anoints ‘The Anointed One’ (1)
Hers is the path of the Sacred Union, consummated within the soul.
The Priestess of Isis Becomes
The “Apostle of the apostles”
So says the ‘Angelic Doctor’. (2a)
MMMMMM
She is the Mercy Seat (20)
The Shekinah
In the Holy of Holies – Revealed –
When “The veil of the Temple was rent in twain.” (21)
MMMMMMM
She is
The first to See
The first to Be
The Holy Grail
She leads us to the Gardener (22)
Of the New Jerusalem
MMMMMMM
He is the eternal flame of love. She is the oil that burns for light.
She who anoints ‘The Anointed One’ (1)
Hers is the path of the Sacred Union, consummated within the soul.
She holds the Red Egg (19)
In The Golden Legend
Cherubim lift her
Out of the cave
Contemplative in her hair-shirt
Soul of Wisdom
Messenger of Christ
“The compassionate Christ said to Mary his companion:
You are the blessed one in whom I will perfect all Mysteries” (18)
MMMMMMM
He is the eternal flame of love. She is the oil that burns for light.
She who anoints ‘The Anointed One’ (1)
Hers is the path of the Sacred Union, consummated within the soul.
MMMMMMM…MMMary MMMagdalene is:
“Beloved of Christ and greatly loved by Christ” (8)
“Chosen because you are beloved, beloved because you have been chosen” (9)
“The Lord loved her more than He loved all other disciples
and often kissed her on her mouth.” (10)
MMMMMMM
He is the eternal flame of love. She is the oil that burns for light.
She who anoints ‘The Anointed One’ (1)
Hers is the path of the Sacred Union, consummated within the soul.
MMMMMM
“The Gospel according to MMMary MMMagdalene

~Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Lyrics for a Velsum song, for our Easter Festival on Holy Saturday 2023
(1) Christ comes from the Greek word χριστός (chrīstós), meaning “anointed one”. In the Greek Septuagint, χριστός was used to translate the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (Mašíaḥ, messiah), meaning “⁠[one who is] anointed”.
(2) ‘The Gospel of Mary Magdalene’ page 17 verse 2-5 (2a) Saint Thomas Aquinas
(3) ‘The Gospel of Mary Magdalene’ page 9 verse 12
(4) Luke 7:36-50
(5) Matthew 26:7 & Mark 14:3
(6) Matthew 26: 6-10
(7) Mark 15: 40-47
(8) Vatican City announcement on 3 July 2016 elevating Mary Magdalene – quoting Rabanus Maurus from “dilectrix Christi et a Christo plurimum dilecta”: De vita Mariae Magdalenae, Prologus
(9) Saint Anselm of Canterbury (“electa dilectrix et dilecta electrix Dei”: Oratio LXXIII ad sanctam Mariam Magdalenam).
(10) Gospel of Philip see Verses 55 -125
(11) John 19:25-27
(12) The Myrrhophores are an ancient , secret group of women who work with sacred threshold oils
Mark 15:44-16:8 – 27:56 – Mark 15:40 – John 19:39
(13) Matt 12:14 – 27:66 – 28:1-8 – Mark 6:29 – 15:46 – 16:1-8 – Luke 23:53-55 – 24:1-24 – John 19:41-42 – 20:1-11
(14) referred to in the Apostles’ Creed & the Athanasian Creed (Quicumque vult) – Ephesians 4:9 – Ephesians 4:9 – Acts 2:24 – 1 Peter 4:6
(15) John 19:24
(16) I see the name Mary, like the name John, as an honorific title of initiation. Miriam or Mary originated from the Egyptian language; derivative of the root mr “beloved of Yahweh; derivation from Hebrew, either from marah “to be rebellious”, or from mara “bitter” (cf. myrrh), or mry “rebellious”. St. Jerome (writing c. 390), following Eusebius of Caesarea, translates the name as “drop of the sea” (stilla maris in Latin), from Hebrew מר mar “drop” (cf. Isaiah 40:15) and ים yam “sea”. This translation was subsequently rendered stella maris (“star of the sea”) whence comes the Virgin Mary’s title Star of the Sea.
(17) The apocryphal Gospel of Philip – Verse 32
(18) The Pistis Sophia
(19) The Golden Legend ~ Jacobus de Voragine
(20) Attended by two Cherubim- Exodus 25:17-22 – 26:34 – 30:6 — Hebrews 9:5 – Leviticus 16:2 – Numbers 7:89
(21) Matt. 27 – Mark 15:38 – Luke 23:45
(22) John 20:15

Fiery Radiance

Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Festival, History, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Summer, Upcoming Event

Yes, Friends we are still riding the St. John’s-Tide.

Since my experience at the altar last Sunday I have been extra keen on tuning into the Archangel of Summer – Uriel, whose name in Hebrew stands for ‘the radiance & fire of God’. Rudolf Steiner describes Uriel as ‘weaving his being out of the golden radiance of the elemental beings intertwining with the Sun’. If we follow his ‘grave, judicial eyes’, we are directed down towards the crystal realm of the earth, where this fiery being shows us how human thinking, feeling & willing actually affect the earth realm.

Uriel’s gesture is a warning, indicating what we ought to do to receive the baptism of repentance. For just like John the Baptizer, this Archangelic being admonishes us to “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Can we rouse ourselves to see that up above in the clouds, appear shining pictures of beauty, of virtue – our highest goals – woven out of the Sun-gold, which humanity can take in, AND must contribute to as well, so that ultimately, we can achieve that radiance for ourselves & for the Earth.

We can use the golden, fiery, radiant light, to lift ourselves up from complacency, to repair the breach – giving us the will to work for a more perfect future.

Uriel calls us to transform our vices into virtues.

If we can understand the connection of human morality with the crystalline element below, & of human virtues with the shining beauty above — & if we take these connections into our inner experience, Steiner tells us that the real St. John’s Imagination will come to meet us.

What is arising here is an Imagination of the Trinity, which Steiner tells us, is the true St. John Imagination – with the admonishing Archangel of Summer Uriel in the background.

After reading my experience a friend sent me this Steiner quote:

 “In the elements of fire, of water, of air and of earth we have only an outer expression. Behind what our eyes see as fire, and what we feel as heat, is a real spiritual entity, which only has its outer expression in the outer fire.

Behind what we inhale as air, behind what enters our eyes as light, and behind what our ears perceive as sound, are active beings, spiritual and divine, whose outer garments we are only beholding in fire, in water, and in all that surrounds us in the different realms of nature.

In the teaching of the mysteries, there is an experience called: the ‘passage through the elementary worlds.’ One then becomes aware that living beings are hidden behind the fire. We become intimately acquainted with fire, as something quite different from what it appears to be in the world of the senses. We become acquainted with the fire-beings, with what is the soul of the fire.

Just as our souls are hidden behind our bodies, so the soul and spirit of fire is hidden by the outward appearance of fire which we perceive with our senses.

We penetrate into a spiritual domain when we experience the soul and spirit of fire in this way. To use the terms of occult science, we now move among the fire-gods, ‘living in the element of fire’.

When one has acquired true self-knowledge, one can ascend to experiencing the beings in the elements of fire, of water, of air and of earth. These four classes of gods or spirits live a real existence in the elements, and a person who has reached the stage which has just been described is in touch with the divine spiritual beings of the elements.” ~Rudolf Steiner, The East in the Light of the West, Lecture two, 24 August 1909.

These Beings wait for us to tune into their essential nature, so that we can work together to spiritualize matter with the Light of Love.

~hag

16 July 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Look southeast after dark tonight and you should immediately spot the bright star Altair in Aquila, which anchors another point of the Summer Triangle (along with Deneb, from last night, and Vega in Lyra). ~astronomy.com

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
SAINT JOHNSTIDE IV
The Spirit’s Gift
v15
I feel, as if spellbound, the weaving
of spirit in the glory of the world;
it’s veiled my own being
in drowsiness of sense
to give to me the strength
that in my narrow bounds
I’m powerless to give myself.

The soul is given the strength to be pregnant
and at Lammas she will conceive the Cosmic Word
for the Spirit Child’s birth in this week’s mirror verse.
CHRISTMAS
The Spirit Child
v38
I feel the Spirit Child set free
from spell in womb of soul;
in heart’s bright radiance
from seed of holy Cosmic Word
the heaven’s fruit of hope
is growing into farthest worlds
rejoicing from my being’s ground of God.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Our Lady of Mount Carmel: July 16 | saints-feast-family

Feast Day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order, by Christian hermits living in the Holy Land during the late 12th & early to mid-13th century. They built a chapel conceived of in chivalric terms as the “Lady of the place.” Our Lady of Mount Carmel was adopted in the 19th century as the patron saint of Chile, in South America.

In celebration of the feast day of Our... - Diocese of Palm Beach | Facebook

Since the 15th century, popular devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel has centered on the Scapular, a sacramental associated with promises of Mary’s special aid for the salvation of the devoted wearer. Since the Middle Ages, Our Lady of Mount Carmel has been related to Purgatory, where souls are purged of sins in the fires. In some images, she is portrayed as accompanied with angels and souls wearing Brown Scapulars, who plead for her mediation.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel - Wikipedia

Our Lady of Mount Carmel was seen in the apparitions of Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal, by Lúcia Santos & her co-visionary companions Jacinta & Francisco Marto & as many as 70,000 witnesses of the extraordinary events during the Miracle of the Sun. She also appeared to Saint Simon Stock to whom she gave the Brown Scapular. The Garabandal apparitions, in Spain, were reported to be images of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. Also in Acquafondata, Italy, the apparition of the Virgin of Mount Carmel, was seen on July 16, 1841. There is still today a small sanctuary on the site.

Mohammed's Flight from Mecca in 622 AD; Algerian color postcard from the 1920s or '30s. Mohammed is the figure dressed in red entering th… | Image archive, Postcard

622 – Mohammed’s flight from Mecca, which came to determine the beginning of the Islamic calendar.

Byzantine Empire Religious & Political Differences Split Christianity, Decline of the Empire. - ppt download

1054 – Three Roman legates break relations between Western & Eastern Christian Churches through the act of placing an invalidly-issued Papal bull of Excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia during Saturday afternoon divine liturgy. Historians frequently describe the event as the start of the East–West Schism.

1879 – Birthday of Elisabeth Vreede – Dutch philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, astrologer & anthroposopher. Elisabeth Vreede came into contact with Theosophy in her home growing up. She was interested early on in the starry sky, read the works of Camille Flammarion & learned French at the same time. At the University of Leyden she studied mathematics, astronomy, philosophy (especially Hegel) & Sanskrit. She was also actively involved in student life, founding a boat club, & was a council member of the students’ union.

Einige Briefe aus dem Jahr 1943, Elisabeth Vreede

Her first meeting with Rudolf Steiner took place at the Theosophical Congress in London in 1903. Vreede was leader of the mathematics & astronomy sections in the Goetheanum in Dornach from 1926 till 1935. In her capacity as leader of the Mathematical-Astronomical Section she wrote a monthly letter, then available by subscription, about both modern astronomy & classical astrology in the light of spiritual science. The letters included explanations of the fundamentals of astronomy & discussions of astrology in the modern world, with reference to such topics as the procession of the equinoxes, comets, solar & lunar eclipses, & the meaning of the Christian holidays such as Easter & Whitsun. The Letters in English translation were published in 2007 with the title Astronomy and Spiritual Science.

Elisabeth Vreede - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

In 1935 the separation within the Anthroposophical Society took place & she was expelled from the executive council & excluded along with her long-time friend & co-member, Dr. Ita Wegman from the board of directors. She was also cut off from the observatory & archives that she herself helped assemble.

The last years of her life became more lonely. She was cut off from her friends abroad by the War. The death of Ita Wegman at the beginning of March, 1943, was a great shock for her.

Cichorei | Elisabeth Vreede

Rudolf Steiner said of her: ‘this individuality does not wish to be recognized …’ Elisabeth Knottenbelt in her memoirs describes statements about her: that ‘she incarnated too early’ for the sake of serving Rudolf Steiner. “for this task [the work with Rudolf Steiner] she had assumed the sacrifice of a premature incarnation. One who, for the sake of a spiritual mission, comes in this way to earth too early must forego a lot. To a great extent one leaves one’s karmic circle of human beings behind in the spiritual word. Her life was thus really a quite lonely one, only a few persons were grouped around her without any real connection.”

Astronomy and Spiritual Science: The Astronomical Letters of Elisabeth Vreede: Vreede, Elisabeth, Koetzsch, Ronald, Riegel, Anne, Davidson, Norman: 9780880105880: Amazon.com: Books

Here is a quote from a letter written by her prior to her removal from the executive council: “The Being of Anthroposophy – I myself have always felt it as a spiritual being newly created by Dr. Steiner, as it were the first hierarchical Being that men have begotten, quite young and still underdeveloped, as is the case with a child—a Being that must now begin to develop further through our common work as a ‘community of knowledge’, and with the cooperation of its creator from the spiritual world. Just for this reason I find it so painful when attacks are continually made against part of the active members such as to exclude them from the work, from creating together the Being of Anthroposophy.”

Elisabeth Vreede - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

Read her biography from the Astrosophy Research Center

Revisiting the Vel d'Hiv roundup through the ca...

1942 – Holocaust: Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup.The government of Vichy France orders the mass arrest of 13,152 Jews who are held at the Winter Velodrome in Paris before deportation to Auschwitz.

Preserving the History of the Atomic Age and the Manhattan Project - Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly

1945 – Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

1948 – The city of Nazareth, revered by Christians as the hometown of Jesus, capitulates to Israeli troops during Operation Dekel, the largest offensive by Israeli forces in the north of Palestine in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Israeli aircraft bombed Saffuriya village & caused panic among the population; many of the villagers fled northwards toward Lebanon, others found shelter in Nazareth, leaving about 100 elderly people behind. Nazareth surrendered to the Israelis.

July 16–17, 1999 — “A Small Plane Is Missing” — The Death Of JFK Jr.

1999 – John F. Kennedy Jr., piloting a Piper Saratoga aircraft, dies when his plane crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. His wife & sister-in-law are also killed

2014 – Deathday of Ruth Zinniker – The biodynamic movement owes so much to Ruth and the whole Zinniker family. Their farm has been a source of inspiration for thousands of people, many of whom came there to work as apprentices when they were young people and have gone on to be important leaders in the biodynamic movement. Ruth had a place in her heart for all these people and many others. She warmed the movement with her social gesture and her fiery enthusiasm. Thank you dear Ruth, thank you Zinniker family, for all you have given to help seed the biodynamic movement in North America.

Then I will be heading out for our next training 1-7 August 2023

After- Image 4

Biography, Insight, Quote, Upcoming Event

After-Image 1 & After-Image 2 & After-Image 3

Dear friends – Welcome to this last essay in the series based on our work with the After-Image during the ‘Fire in the Heart’ Christian Community Conference.

Anthroposophy asks us to live into the idea that there is a kind of reversal from what we see in the material world & what we experience in the Spiritual Worlds. This kind of Reversal is one of the reasons the Backwards Review or “Ruchschau” is recommended before sleep. In German Ruchschau, actually translates as ‘viewing movement’ which makes sense since the Etheric/Life-Body of Formative Forces is a Time-Body expressed thru rhythm & habits.

The Ruchschau is a potent alchemical force – a practical way of consciously entering into the spiritual world. It centers on taking memory pictures across the threshold into the spiritual world during sleep. We are more likely to then to receive a further after-image in the morning.

Dennis Klocek calls the backward review “a practice of soul distillation…The backwards review trains us to repeatedly form and dissolve pictures with personal will. When done at the threshold of sleep, this practice amounts to willing life pictures across the abyss of dream and on into the spiritual world. In the morning I can briefly establish a link to them by listening to my heartbeat.”

If the backwards review is done regularly, it fortifies our Etheric/Life-Body, AND our dreams become more lucid…

~Odilon Redon

Ok, deep breath – here we go: On Sunday 9 July 2023, I awoke in the twittering twilight of a ‘Driftless-Region’ dawn, with the fragment of a dream:

I was standing in a garden. The air was fragrant. I looked to my left, & saw a large raised bed of tall star-gazer lilies, open & dripping nectar. On my right, was a huge field of rioting roses, some wide-petaled & exposed – others, a tight red bud. I could see their scent like a misty vapor, rising & falling. In the distance, rays of light pierced thru the leaves & clustered flowers of the Linden trees, which formed a ring at the edge of my vision. Swirling in the beamed light were many swarming honeybees – their intense hum & the smell of the flowers made me light-headed.  I looked down at my feet, & dug my toes, which were painted red, into the rich black earth. I looked up at the big sky undulating with white clouds that were forming & re-forming. I was trying to make out the shapes when I awoke.  

I put the dream away, hurrying to pack-up & get ready for the Act of Consecration, in which I was serving on the left.

I was excited to put into practice Steiner’s Candle-Gazing Exercise which we had been working with in our group over the last 2 days, up close at the altar where I could see all 7 flames.

At first I experienced the usual after-image of the yellow flame becoming violet at the center with a kind of rainbow effect bringing in green & orange, the candlesticks flipping from white to black, the firing up of the purple aura outlining the flowers, the altar, the window, & the bodies of the Priests.  

When we got to the part in the service when the Priest makes the sign of the Cross horizontally over the Chalice, I experienced rays of yellow/violet/green light from the 6 candles streaming out – & arching into the tallest center candle. And from that center candle sprang, what I can only describe, perhaps, as a Salamander or Fire-Being of Light. It was shaped like a sea-horse, with bright primary red in the bottom circle ringed with green around the bottom edge, ringed upward with concentric circles of orange into yellow becoming misty white at the top, & at the bottom a white & grey wispy tail curling up like the sea-horse. I blinked & it plunged down into the altar. I felt it like a current in my body, piercing past me into the earth. Then it rose back up again – very fast – & disappeared into the ceiling.

I immediately broke out in a sweat. I felt my vision constricting & expanding at the same time. The light all around seemed overly bright, saturated with little rainbows that appeared in tiny squares, like pixels revealing something behind the light. I got concerned that I was going to faint. I worked to center myself, trying to control my breathing. I was dripping sweat.

While the Transubstantiation was happening, my vision was narrowing, the too bright light becoming velvet black, studded with flickering 4-pointed rainbow stars – like a Christmas card I said to myself.

The sound in the room became highly pitched. I consciously brought my attention down from my head into my throat – engaging my larynx – vibrating The Word within me. “O Christ, sick is the dwelling…O Christ, I confess…”

My vision was now fully inward, yet in the atmosphere I felt a pulsing, a kind of fireworks show – flashing like a coded message – it took me back to my dream. Was this forming & re-forming what the clouds were veiling?

(In retrospect, I woke up this morning thinking it was like the scene in the Bhagavata, when Arjuna opens Krishna’s sight to the eternal world…)

For a second I saw my Self falling like a tree in the forest, & I was concerned about where I would land?

When it came time for folks to come up to receive communion, I stood as the left-server at the end – the pillar reflecting the community. When the 1st round of folks had all lined up, I knew I should slip out the door to get some fresh air.

I sat down on the cool stone steps of The ‘Old Main’ Building where the Christian Community holds their affiliate services, swimming in sweat, pushing up the sleeves of my white vestments. I knew I had a few moments to catch my breath since there would be several rounds with the over 50 folks in the Church who would be taking communion.

Pat, a nurse practitioner saw me leave & came out to check on me. I turned & she gasped: ‘My dear, you are as white as your collar’. She touched my forehead & exclaimed: ‘O, & very clammy’. She sat down with me for a bit until I knew I was good to go back in to take up my position. There were still 2 more rounds to go, so I was able to receive the chalice – & O Lordy – The ‘wine’ was especially enlivening.

Afterward I felt strange about what happened. No one asked me anything, which I wondered about; but I was also relieved, since I wouldn’t have been able to speak about it.

Going around the circle at the closing Plenum, I became uneasy. I didn’t feel ready to share. Would people think I was crazy, or irresponsible, or deluded…? I was so uncomfortable.

It wasn’t until after we had driven the 4 hours home that I was able to talk a bit about it to CG, UVA & LDL. Their open-heartedness took the load right off me. And I remembered that I had felt that same kind of lifting during the service on Friday morning – Such wonder – & reverent gratitude!  And a reminder that my intention during the clay exercise was ‘Let go & let come’.

And now thru the digestion process, which always comes, for me, in having to put the experience into writing, deepening my persepctive, is able to live as an after-image of wholeness. Especially since it has become interwoven with the forces present during this time of my Natal Return, which always brings a profound retrospective.

Thank-you dear friends, for being part of my spiritual biography. May we all move ever closer to our highest destiny – forging the Wisdom of Love in Freedom.

Xox

~hag

Then I will be heading out for our next training 1-7 August 2023

After-Image 3

Biography, Community, History, Insight, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Event

After-Image 1 & After-Image 2

After taking our after-image impressions from the altar candles during the ‘Close of Day’ into Night School, the group returned the next day with lively descriptions of their experiences of the Light Ensouled.

At the risk of turning on the fire hose, (which my husband reminds me I tend to do, offering too much information) I spoke a bit about the role of empathy in the cultivation of the after-image, how important it is to initiate the marriage of warmth & light – Love & Wisdom = Christ/Sophia – & how that relates to what Rudolf Steiner brought  thru his Karmic Relationships lectures in August 1924, from Torquay around the coming together of the ‘2 Streams’ – The Arthur Stream = Light, & the Grail Stream = Warmth.

There is a mysterious connection with how the Life-Spirit or etheric essence of the Christ rose up for the earth in the 9th Century, & at the same time, as a kind of oppositional after-image comes the ‘Abolition of the Spirit’ at the 8th Ecumenical Council of 869, brought on because of the failed unification in the spiritual world of the individualities of Aristotle & Alexander, with Harun al Rashed & his counselor.  

I prefaced this with an overview of the 4 main Christian Festivals – How at Easter we see a redemption of the physical body thru the overcoming of Death with the Resurrection of Christ, leading in the future to the achievement of what Spiritual Science calls The ‘Spirit-Human.’ The Transfiguration & Ascension brings the possibility for the rescuing of our Etheric Body – ‘Life-Spirit’. And with the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the purification of our Astral Body, to bring us ‘Spirit-Self’.  

In our present age, one of the many tasks of humaity, besides recognizing evil, is to work with the after-image so that, like the vision of The Transfiguration & Ascension, we can enliven our Life-Body, allowing us to meet the Etheric Christ.

At this point we got up to do the hygienic eurythmy gestures for Faith, Love & Hope – Eurythmy being a powerful way to strengthen our etheric body.

I brought a Steiner verse to pair with the Love A gesture:

“In purest outpoured light
shimmers the godhead of the world.

In purest Love towards all that lives
Outpours the godhood of my soul

I rest within the godhead of the world
There shall I find myself
Within the godhead of the world.”

After sharing our reflections about the eurythmy, I spoke about how when Paul had his Damascus Experience of the Etheric Christ, he was struck blind for 3 days. So much here to contemplate in regards our theme eh…?

In “Learning to Experience the Etheric World, Empathy, the After-Image & a New Social Ethic” Baruch Urieli has a short chapter called: ‘The Archetype of the After-Image’ – where he fills out the picture of Mary Magdalene’s deed in anointing the feet & head of Christ – & how on Easter morning she looks into the empty tomb to see 2 Light-Beings, sitting at the foot & head. When the angels ask her why she is weeping, she turns & sees Jesus as the Gardener (the plant Kingdom is connected to the etheric realm). When he speaks her name, she turns once more, & recognizes Christ in his risen Life-body.

These events show how empathy can bring on the after-image – how the love & compassion of Mary Magdalene is an example of the ‘New Power of Will’ (The New Yoga Will which uses light not air) – which enables the opening of the etheric space to inner vision. Urieli: “For that further step to happen we must ‘Turn once more’ – we must ‘Re-turn’ to that space which is the home of our “I Am”, the space where our name resounds.”

In 1923 Rudolf Steiner gave medical student Helene von Grunelius ‘The Warmth Meditation” & described it “as the way for medical practitioners to behold the etheric Christ.”

“You detect at this point what life, which has poured into the world, actually is. Where can the source of this life be found? It can be found in what stirs the moral ideals and prompts us to say that if we allow ourselves to be filled by the light of moral ideals today, they will bear life, matter, and light and create worlds. We carry that world-creating element, and the moral ideal is the source of all that creates worlds.” ~Rudolf Steiner

Super Soul Shine Art for Sale by Maui Artist Brad Huck - Wet Paint NYC Gallery

~Brad Huck

This idea of creating ‘The New Jerusalem‘ is the basis of my work with an initiative that I call The ‘10:10 Thought-Seed’ Imagination – ‘Project Egregore’ – which is a collective ‘Thought-Form’ of Good Will – a “key-call” to the Spiritual powers on the Inner Planes, to enlist their aid in the graceful unfolding of our highest human destiny.

Through our continued, & consistent intention to visualize the Human Being as a Star & the Earth as a Sun, our positive egregore grows in the etheric realm of formative forces allowing us to meet & work with Christ in His Life-Body.

Our goal is to co-create a new ‘Group-Soul United in Christ’ thru our daily 10:10 contemplation.

For the practicum we all gazed into the beeswax candle set upon a pillar while I spoke the Meditative Thought-Seed many have been working with. In-between verses we shut our eyes to experience the after-image.

Yellow – For Thinking:
“When I think light, my soul shines,
When my soul shines, the earth is a star,
When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being”.
~Herbert Hahn

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

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

Another way to access the Etheric World, & a powerful way of strengthening our Life-Body, is to speak meditative verses, like I shared yesterday, backwards – since everything in the spiritual world is revealed thru its reversal –

Thinking – In Reverse:
I Am a True Human Being
The Earth is a Star
My Soul Shines
I Think Light

Feeling – In Reverse:
I Am a True I Am
The Earth Resounds
My Heart Sings
I feel Love

Willing – In Reverse:
I Am a Free Human Being
The Earth Heals
My Hands Help
I Will Life

Tomorrow I will share my powerful after-image experience at the altar.

Until soon

~hag

13 July 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: On the mornings of July 13 and 14, 2023, the waning crescent moon will pass the Pleiades star cluster, one of the many gems of Taurus the Bull. The bright orange star Aldebaran will shine nearby. Also, look for the glow of earthshine on the darkened portion of the moon. ~Chart via John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.

In conjunction with our after-image theme of seeing into the Etheric we have Today – the anniversary of the third Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima on Friday, July 13, 1917. The three secrets involve Hell, World War I & World War II.

Sacred Heart Of The Virgin Mary | Di maria, Maria mãe de jesus, Virgem maria

Our Lady told the children that to save the sinners from hell, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to Her Immaculate Heart. She asked for the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, & the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.

Getting Fatima Right | Catholic Answers

From the Fourth Memoir: The Story of the Apparitions by Lucia Santos the oldest of the 3 children:

‘A few moments after arriving at the Cova da Iria, near the holmoak, where a large number of people were praying the Rosary, we saw the flash of light once more, and a moment later Our Lady appeared on the holmoak.

— Your Grace, what do you want of me? — I asked.

— I want you to come here on the 13th of next month, to continue to pray the Rosary every day in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can help you.

— I would like to ask you to tell us who you are, and to work a miracle so that everybody will believe that you are appearing to us.

— Continue to come here every month. In October, I will tell you who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe.

I then made some requests, but I cannot recall now just what they were. What I do remember is that Our Lady said it was necessary for such people to pray the Rosary in order to obtain these graces during the year. And she continued:

— Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially whenever you make some sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation (порт. reparação) for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

As Our Lady spoke these last words, she opened her hands once more, as she had done during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me). The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. Terrified and as if to plead for succour, we looked up at Our Lady, who said to us, so kindly and so sadly:

— You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion (port. a devoção) to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.

— To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation (port. a Comunhão reparadora) on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved; etc… Do not tell this to anybody. Francisco, yes, you may tell him.

— When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need.

After this, there was a moment of silence, and then I asked:

— Your Grace, is there anything more that you want of me?

— No, I do not want anything more of you today.

Then, as before Our Lady began to ascend towards the east, until she finally disappeared in the immense distance of the firmament’.

1298 – Deathday of Blessed Jacobus de Varagine, an Italian chronicler & archbishop of Genoa. He was the author, of Legenda Aurea, the Golden Legend, a collection of hagiographies of the legendary lives of saints of the Middle Ages. The Golden Legend is the source of the Rose Cross Meditation that Rudolf Steiner often quoted.

EPSON scanner image

1527 – Birthday of John Dee, English-Welsh mathematician, astronomer, & astrologer & occultist

1727 – The founding of The Herrnhuter Brotherhood, The Moravian Church – Unitas Fratrum – Unity of the Brethren – predating the Protestant Reformation by a century, it was really the 1st  Protestant Church, with its heritage dating back to the Bohemian Reformation in the fifteenth century. It places a high value on ecumenism, personal piety, music -communio sub utraque specie, married priests, & eliminating indulgences & the idea of Purgatory. The Church’s emblem is the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei) with the flag of victory, surrounded by the Latin inscription: Vicit agnus noster, eum sequamur “Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow Him”

1889 – Deathday of Robert Hamerling an Austrian poet. Rudolf Steiner gave his funeral address.  http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA154/English/AP1990/19140426p01.html

The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica characterizes Hamerling as one of the most remarkable poets of the modern Austrian school, describing his imagination as rich & his poems as full of life & color. In his most popular poem, Ahasver in Rom (1866), the emperor Nero is the central figure. Among his other works, Venus im Exil (1858); Der König von Sion (1869), characterized as a masterpiece; Die sieben Todsünden (1872) Blätter im Winde (1887); Homunculus (1888); Amor und Psyche (1882). His novel, Aspasia (1876), a finely-drawn description of the Periclean age, & his tragedy Danton und Robespierre (1870), showed Hamerling’s genius.

In Karmic Relationships Vol. 2, lecture 6, Steiner describes him as a pupil of Plato in an earlier incarnation.

albert_steffen_peter_selg

1963 – Deathday of Albert Steffen a poet, painter, dramatist, essayist,& novelist. He joined the Anthroposophical Society in 1912 & became its president after the death of its founder, Rudolf Steiner, in 1925. Steffen was chief editor of the society’s journal, Das Goetheanum, from 1921-1963

His earliest works, predating his encounter with anthroposophy, already manifest a spiritual awareness. His later works, which reflect a vision of the world permeated by metaphysical powers of good & evil, draw on a wide range of esoteric European & Asian traditions

I will be heading out for our next training 1-7 August 2023

Here is a newsletter with an article I wrote about my expereince working with Steiner’s Inner Realities of Evoultion