Category Archives: Calendar of the Soul

Rising with the Tide

June 26, 2023Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Community, Quote, Summer~hag

I greet you dear friends from deep inside the St. John’s Tide, where I am swimming with the Virtue of the Month: ‘Unselfishness Becomes Catharsis’ – which is acting like a Catalyst for the Call of Conscience – ever issuing forth from the Spirit of John the Baptizer – answering the Universal need that arises to Let the Light of the Higher “I” shine into our being.

At our Spring Biodynamic Prep-making Work-day on Zinniker Farm, Margaret took me aside & told me how much it meant to her that in 2017 I led a powerful St. John’s Festival on the farm. She said that year she was going thru a difficult time as her mother was making the transition into the spiritual world. She shared how the drumming & my leading thoughts on the Season, helped her come to a place of peace – This was a catalyst, she emphasized, that allowed her to let go of fear & worry – Which then allowed her mother to pass over peacefully. Margaret said she has been wanting to thank me for years, & asked if I might lead another Drum Circle to celebrate St. John’s Day this year..?

I often suffer from self doubt – thinking what I do doesn’t matter, isn’t wanted, or that someone else can do it better; so I was very grateful to hear that our gathering had meant so much. And I enthusiastically agreed to bring the St. John’s Festival alive again on the farm.

The Zinniker’s wanted to make it a low-key community celebration, not a workday; & Margaret wanted to bring her Christian Community friends together, & I wanted to serve the Spiritual World, the Community – the land & the Farmers. And so it was that More than 50 folks came from near & far.

Gathering around in a big circle before the sumptuous potluck meal, I looked around at the bright shining faces, & felt ‘Words of Flame’ rise-up within me, as if the Baptist was standing with us.

In my minds-eye, the circle of human beings became a Christened periphery, with the blazing bonfire – a point at the center, creating the astrological symbol of the Sun.

The flaming point seemed to move out into vertical & horizontal lines to create a Cross within the Circle – the planetary symbol for Earth – & the alchemical sign for Salt – the cube shaped mineral-crystal – outpictured in the Holy of Holies & the cubic altar of The New Jerusalem.

We had ‘Squared the Circle’ bringing in the 4 Elements.

Acknowledging these Nature Beings fostered on the sacred land maintained by the Zinniker Family, we directed our human Reverence & Gratitude to connect & enliven the Christic impulses, Living into each Quarter.

Because the land was so dry, after giving Recognition with Thanks & Praise, to the Elements, we appealed specifically to the Undines for some rain to ease the drought. We made the intention that during the Drum Circle we would do a Rain Dance.

By establishing ‘The Great Cross of Nature’ – we experience the Seasonal Round – We see how the Equinoxes of Spring & Autumn hold the Horizontal Axis, the balance of Resurrection & Renunciation – Easter & Michaelmas.

And coinciding with the Vertical Axis we meet the polarity of the Solstices – 3 days after the Summer Solstice is the Birthday of The Forerunner, John the Baptizer; & 3 days after the Winter Solstice brings us the fixed date of Christmas – the Birthday of the Luke Jesus.

When thinking about the Living Cycle of the Soul of the Earth, the in-breath & out-breath – now – during the Summer-Tide – we feel ourselves fully exhaled out to the periphery of the cosmos –

We are a circle, within a circle
With no beginning, and never ending

Intermingled with the grandeur of the highest Cosmic Mysteries, where the Divine forces of life exist among the Stars.

The Soul of the Earth is dreaming now in the heights, in union with the Angelic Hierarchies; & it is this dreaming which is brought back into the Earth to become assessable to our thinking during the Sacred Time of the Holy Nights.

Epiphany, the last of the Holy Nights, coincides with the Baptism of Jesus by John – the birth of Christ on Earth – the fulfillment of John the Baptizers mission.

And just as John the Baptist, the last Old Testament Prophet, had to decrease; when our ‘little ego’ decreases, we grow in Christ.

At the fullness of Summer, the light is so bright that it leaves no room for the shadow to hide. Summer is associated with High Noon – the hour of judgment – “Then you shall know the truth, & the truth will set you free.”

This can happen if we respond to the Summertime call for a ‘Metanoia’- from the Greek μετάνοια – a transformative change of heart & mind – a Spiritual Conversion, brought in thru Repentance / Atonement; a review of our Conscience; a call to ‘make straight the path’.

Then the power of our Higher “I” will increase, just as the Christ impulse is ever increasing in Earth existence.

After his sacrifice, John the Baptizer, was able to distillate his Spirit-Self to become like a guardian angel for the apostles, especially Lazarus John, his name-sake – Johannes – E – O – Ah – nes.

Following this archetypal gesture from ‘the voice of one crying in the Wilderness’ we can see that John the Baptist has become one of the main impulse givers towards a new kind of group work – guiding community life for us today.

After the delicious repast, I acted as Master of Ceremonies & sparked the space for artistic sharings out of the community. Many folks came forth with a story, song or poem. Rev. Jeana Lee brought a wonderful overview of Christianity. Velsum sang. Gregory & Alexander brought some Irish tunes on violin & cello to get the crowd dancing. A few young people including Emma & Ultra taught us some songs. And this led naturally into the Drumming & Song Circle in earnest.

The clouds rolled in as we sang “Air I am, Fire I Am, Water, Earth & Spirit I am”. The lingering twilight brought a few fireflies which receieved our serenade. Soon lightning flashes could be seen striking in the dusky clouds above. We felt ourselves rise together in ‘Ripening Glory’ –

We sang to Mark & Lucien, & Jack’s dad who recently passed away, to celebrate their St. John’s Day Birthdays.

When it was too dark to find our shoes we closed the circle, feeling that the reverberations of our sounding added to the ‘Music of the Spheres’ – An echo that unites us to the eternity of the Trinity – Reminding us to explore our own inner harmony with the cosmos – For at Midsummer the Trinity reveals itself out of the heart of this cosmic activity.

Substance of Earth
Essence of Light
Grace of Heaven
In Us Unite

Our carload made it back to the city by 1 am; the thunder building. By 3 am our Rain Dance started to pay off – What a gift! There was no doubt. Faith is real – effecting change & cooperation between Spirit & Matter – Thought & Deed –

Blessings as we continue to unfold this St. John’s Tide.

~hag

The wise one built their house upon the Rock,
And the rains came tumbling down.
The rains came down and the waters came up,
But the house on the Rock stood firm.

So build your life on the Being of Love,
And the blessings will come down.
The blessings come down as your prayers go up,
So build your life on Love.

26 June 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: This evening and tomorrow evening, the waxing crescent – and 1st quarter – moon sit along the southern edge of the star pattern known as the Spring Triangle – an asterism made of the bright stars Arcturus in Boötes the Herdsman, Spica in Virgo the Maiden and Denebola or sometimes Regulus in Leo the Lion at its corners. Bella Luna and the Spring Triangle will be visible until after midnight. ~Chart via John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
SAINT JOHN’S TIDE
At the Altar of the Senses
v12
The world’s light-glancing beauty
compels me from the depths of soul
to free the god-enwoven powers of my life
in cosmic flight, forsake myself
and trusting, seek my Self
in cosmic light and warmth.

The mirror verse:
EPIPHANY II
At the Altar of the Heart
v41
The soul’s creative power
from depths of heart aspires
to fire the forces of the gods
to right activity in human life
and form itself in human love
and human deeds.

Beyond Alexander the Great

June 11, 2023Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Celestial Event, History, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Event~hag

POD

~Birthed by a bird song
Foretold in the stars
All that I am
Released in a Summer Storm
Said I should fly
~hag

11 June – Today – is the Death-day of Alexander the Great.

According T.H. Meyer: On this day in 1924, Rudolf Steiner wrote a letter to Ita Wegman, from Koberwitz, during the Whitsun Agricultural Course, speaking about her incarnation as his former pupil, when he was Aristotle, & she, Alexander The Great.

Aristotle’s Influence On Education Of Alexander The Great …

After death, Aristotle & Alexander, just as before, when they worked as Eabani & Gilgamesh, continued to be active in the spiritual world for a long period of time, touching down once for a brief time connected with the Parzival saga. (*see below)

Then in 869 AD the entelechies of Aristotle & Alexander met, in the spiritual world, with Haroun al-Raschid & his counselor.

This coincided with the Council of 869 in Constantinople during which the concept of spirit was eliminated from the 3-fold human being, & was replaced with the polarized concept of body & soul.

Haroun al-Raschid & the opposing forces that he represented did not want Christianized Aristotelianism, only the teaching of natural science that has gradually taken the form of today’s scientific materialism, devoid of any true conception or reverence for divinity & creation; devoid of spiritual science.

This meeting in the spiritual world was a confrontation that was later reflected in earthly life thru the Quest for the Holy Grail & the striving for a union of early Christianity with the Arabian cultures that had preserved Aristotle’s works.

“For the natural science that Aristotle was able to pass on to Alexander needed for its comprehension souls that were still touched with the spirit of the Ephesian age, the time that preceded the burning of Ephesus. Such souls could only be found over in Asia or in Egypt, and it was into these parts that this knowledge of nature and insight into the Being of Nature were brought, by means of the expeditions of Alexander. Only later in a diluted form did they come over into Europe by many and diverse ways – especially by way of Asia Minor, Africa and Spain – but always in a very diluted or, as we might say, sifted form. The writings of Aristotle that came over into Europe directly were his writings on logic and philosophy. These lived on, and found fresh life again in medieval scholasticism.”

“…For we can see how the expeditions of Alexander and the teachings of Aristotle had this end in view: to keep unbroken the threads that unite humanity with the ancient spirituality, to weave them as it were into the material civilization that was to come, so they might endure until such time as new spiritual revelations should be given…” ~Rudolf Steiner, World History and the Mysteries in the Light of Anthroposophy, 1910.

Parcival findet Sigune mit dem toten Schionatulander auf einer …

*Brief indications by Rudolf Steiner say: “…they lived, unknown and unheeded, in a corner of Europe not without importance for Anthroposophy, dying at an early age, but gazing for a brief moment as it were through a window into the civilisation of the West, receiving impressions and impulses but giving none of any significance themselves. That was to come later.” ~GA 240

This points us to the figures of Schionatulander (Rudolf Steiner) & Sigune (Ita Wegman), who play an important, yet mostly overlooked role, in the Parsifal legend.

Sigune loves Schionatulander but she longs to read the stellar script, called “Brackenseil” – seen on the leash belonging to the hound “Gardevias” which means: ‘Guardian of the Pathways‘.

In the attempt to bring it to her, after she had lost it, Schionatulander is killed by Orilus who is actually looking for Parsifal. Schionatulander dies instead of Parsifal; & he becomes a guardian spirit of Parsifal & those on the Quest for the Holy Grail.

In a private conversation with Friedrich Rittelmeyer, Steiner spoke about that incarnation: “I was obliged to incarnate in a stream completely foreign to me in order to acquire the Christian fervor which I needed for the Thomas Incarnation.“

Dominus vobiscum, Et cum spiritu tuo.: Saint Thomas Aquinas, ora …

Incarnating together again to bear a new striving – the transformation of the cosmic Intelligence thru the Christ Impulse – they enter the Order of the Dominicans. Out of the quiet ‘cloister cell’ comes a world-wide influence inspired by the most illustrious scholar of the ecclesiastical system of thought, known as Scholasticism – thru Thomas Aquinas (Rudolf Steiner); & by his side is his confesser, the young Dominican, Reginald of Piperno (Ita Wegman).

Friedrich Walther | Sermon of Saint Albertus Magnus, the teacher of Thomas Aquinas

To grasp spiritual reality in pure thinking, to lead pure thinking with mathematical precision from idea to idea — this was the faculty developed by Scholasticism & bequeathed to the spiritual history of humankind thru its great teachers: Albertus Magnus (Marie Steiner) & Thomas Aquinas (Rudolf Steiner).

In contrast to the Christ Impulse which brings in the possiblity for the individual “I” consciousness to humanity – The Arabian culture adhered firmly to the old idea of cosmic, universal Intelligence. Thomas Aquinas brought the idea of personal Intelligence, to human thinking. The Arabian mind-set persisted in the contention that every human being can be fructified by the universal Intelligence, but that there is no personal thinking, no personal immortality – Much like the ancient Hindu teachings that say: at death a human being passes into the ocean of Cosmic Intelligence.

For Aquinas, whose thinking was combined with fervent Christian piety, the world of Ideas was connected with spiritual reality, coming to expression thru Beings he calls “Intelligences” living behind the world of the senses.

Thru the evolution of human consciousness, our thinking evolves from the cosmic realms of the “Intelligences” (the Planetary & Zodiacal Beings) to the earthly realm of human intelligence.

This is seen in the progression from the Elemental Beings connected with King Arthur’s Castle – to the countenance of Christ in the gaining of the Grail Castle.

In the “Arthurian stream” it was not yet realized that the Cosmic Intelligence had fallen away from Archangel Michael, & had come to human beings.

The Teachers of Chartres, like Alanus ab Insulis, working to foster the stream of the Grail Castle, were representative of the Intelligence that had now become Christian & human – a polar contrast to the Castle of King Arthur.

Steiner’s Spiritual Sceince shows us that the Teachers of Chartres, then working in the spiritual world, had realized the significance of personal immortality, realized that the Intelligence had become human, & were aware of the Christian thinking in the Grail stream, connected with the world of stars, but that this knowledge would have to sleep for a time in the spiritual world, so that the intellect could be born in freedom.

And now in our time the 2 streams must merge, to create a unity within the world.

From the Karmic Relationships lectures: “Aristotle and Alexander had centuries earlier witnessed, from the spiritual world, the departure of Christ from the sphere of the Sun towards Golgotha. This called forth in their souls “the challenge to set a new beginning – not to continue what had been on the earth before this mystery, but to begin completely anew.”

“Henceforth, Aristotle and Alexander must work – who already in antiquity were equal to the concepts and ideas of the fifth post-Atlantean age.” – Karmic Relationships, 1924.

Glass Windows Designed by Rudolf Steiner

Poem written by Rudolf Steiner to Ita Wegman:

There, where the light
In face of green demons
Is tremulous,
And the primordial Powers
Born of the light
To wrestling men
Proclaim the riddle,
Which from the demons
Only by men can be enticed forth
And brought to the Gods
There soul found soul
In order to offer someday to waiting Gods
The secrets of demons
In a darkened place
That light may be born,
Where for want of this deed
Eternal darkness held sway.
Such a place there is
It must vanish
Make it someday vanish,
So speaks the admonishing
Gaze of Michael.

And so it is dear friends, that The future Age of Love & Freedom, prepared thru the marriage of the 2 Streams, is characterized by the fact that human beings must learn to see thru the attacks made by the ‘demons’. We cannot run. We cannot hide. On the contary – We have to step in – We are called to uncover the secrets behind these demons – to awaken to what is really working within their deeds. And to pass on these mysteries of ‘evil’ to the Hierarchies of the ‘good gods’ – our ever present helpers, to receive the Wisdom needed so that we can take on the responsibility of transforming evil.

Since the advent of the Consciousness Soul Age we can use our imaginative cognition to move our thinking in a lemniscate from head to heart, & from heart to head.

We must learn the secret that the Fox told the Little Prince, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eyes.”

Let us step into the world, to meet our Higher Self, & to meet each other – to stand together in the glory of the Spirirt Sun. And at night, under the myriad canopy of Stars, we will be invited to share in the cosmic conversation of our collective evolution.

So may this anniversary of the Death of Alexander the Great, be our reminder to take up again & once again our tasks at hand.

~hag

11 June 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Brilliant Venus (or as Steiner tells us: Occult Mercury) – our sky’s brightest planet – will take on the roll of queen bee when it passes by the Beehive star cluster. Look west shortly after darkness falls for Venus and the Beehive as they make an interesting and beautiful sight.

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated with added titles by Roy Sadler
TRINITY II
Soul Consecration
v10
The being of the sun ascends to summer’s heights
and takes my human feeling far and wide
and into the sublime, the cosmic harmony
wherein a dawning vision’s intimating faintly,
‘in future you will know:
a holy being felt you now’

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

Spring Garden Waldorf School Ohio 6th Grade

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day(RSarchives)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s orginal Calendar of the Soul, Anthrowiki, Wikipedia Commons)

323 – Deathday of Alexander The Great

1184 BC – Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned

1194 – Fire at Chartres Cathedral

1346 – Birthday of Charles IV (the last initiate to become Holy Roman Emperor)

1364 – Deathday of Agnes of Hungary, patroness of Konigsfelden monastery

1924 – Rudolf Steiner sends Ita Wegman a letter speaking about her incarnation as Alexander The Great.

1963 – Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức burns himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon intersection to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam

1963 – John F. Kennedy addresses Americans from the Oval Office proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that would revolutionize American society. Proposing equal access to public facilities, end segregation in education and guarantee federal protection for voting right

https://www.kennedy24.com/

~Kindling Radiance~
A Community Festival Gathering Celebrating St. John’s-Tide
Saturday, June 24, 2023 at Zinniker Farm
5:30 pm – Potluck – Please bring food & drink to share
6 – 7 pm – Artistic Offerings – Poem, Song?… Express yourself!
7 – 9 pm – Bonfire Drum & Song Circle w/ Hazel & Ultra-Violet Archer

Bring lawn chairs & drums if you have them!Show support for Zinniker Farm –
$15 more or less Love Donation
Co-hosted by The Christian Community of Southeast Wisconsin, The Christian Community of Chicago, Mark & Petra Zinniker, Hazel at ReverseRitual.com

Why a St. John’s Festival?
At this time of year, when daylight hours are the longest, “the soul of the earth rises in longing toward the heights, seeking communion with the universe, with the light and warmth of the sun… and the stars.” ~Rudolf Steiner.

Three days after the Summer Solstice, we celebrate St. John the Baptist – a lone voice calling to us from the wilderness to change our hearts and minds – so that we can connect to the ‘True Vine’ & receive the new impulse of Love raditating into the world. Come join us as we come together as a community to support the Farm & celebrate the glories of Summer.

Interested? Please…
RSVP to margaretincommunity@gmail.com Subject: St. John’s
Let us know the number of people you are RSVPing for
And if someone in your group would like to offer a poem, song, story, etc. on the theme
Bring food & drink to share (plates and utensils provided)
Bring a friend, lawn chairs, drums, clothes and shoes for a working farm
All are welcome, but please keep your pets at home.
You can visit the pigs and chickens on the farm, but please remember these are farm animals and not pets. Please just look and say hello quietly and respectfully, with reverence and gratitude for their service.

Zinniker Farm is located at N7399 Bowers Rd., Elkhorn, WI 53121If you are in the area, come join us as we celebrate St. John’s-Tide on the Zinniker Farm.

Can’t make it in person? You can still support the Zinniker Farm and their regenerative work with your good will and contributions.

Regenerative farming is Stewardship that provides true results for the healing of the Earth. It is time to make a lasting investment.Please contact Mark & Petra Zinniker to find out how to make a direct contribution to their regenerative work or sign up at Patreon.com/Zinnikerfarm

Philosophie des Unbewussten

June 5, 2023Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

POD (Poem Of the day)

~Look, I have light
In my eyes
& on my skin…
The star is warming…
And everything alive is turning
Into something else
Deep in the alchemical Heart
Of some annihilating
Ever creative fire
That is burning unnoticed
Waiting to touch
Me & you…
~hag

5 June 2023 – Speaking with the Stars”: The waning gibbous moon will pass through the center of the Teapot – an asterism in Sagittarius the Archer – today & tomorrow. You can catch them around midnight until dawn.

The Arietids are an active shower, but they’re visible mostly in daytime. Watch for them in the sunrise direction in the dark hour before dawn peaking today thru June 17. You’ll be looking for meteors that shoot up from the horizon. The radiant is below the constellation Aries.

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
CORPUS CHRISTI
My Spirit Vision Is To Lose Myself In Light
v9
And when I let my own will go
the comming of the summer’s warmth
will fill my soul and spirit being;
my spirit vision is commanding me
to lose myself in light, and ardently
my foresight’s calling: ‘lose yourself.
to find your Self’.

The third line of the mirror verse, a translation of ‘Eingedenk vollzogener Geistgeburt’, is the Soul Calendar’s only trochaic one: the other 336 are iambic, which Steiner described as essential for meditations leading to the world from the heart. The emphasis of ‘Mindful of the spirit’s birth fulfilled’ acts as a balance to all the other lines; and the Soul Calendar would be meaningless without the birth of the child that gave rise to the Christ on Earth.

CANDLEMAS
Mindful Of The Spirit Birth Fulfilled
v44
And when I grasp the senses’ new allure
the clarity of soul,
mindful of the Spirit-birth fulfilled,
imbues the world’s bewildering,
fresh sprouting growth
with my creative will of thinking.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day(RSarchives)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s orginal Calendar of the Soul, Wikipedia Commons)

World Environment Day – raising global awareness to take positive environmental action to protect nature & the planet Earth.

1752 – Benjamin Franklin flew a kite for the first time to demonstrate that lightning was a form of electricity

1832 – The ‘June Rebellion’ breaks out in Paris in an attempt to overthrow the monarchy of Louis Philippe

1883 – The first regularly scheduled Orient Express departs Paris

1906 – Death day of Eduard von Hartmann – Born 1842, von Hartmann was originally an officer in the Prussian army. Because of an illness, he retired from military service and took up an intensive study of philosophy. In 1869 his Philosophie des Unbewussten (Philosophy of the Unconscious) appeared, and made him famous almost overnight.

Rudolf Steiner describes a personal impression of von Hartmann, when he visited him in Berlin in 1888 after a long correspondence over many years. He describes the chilling effect he had on him – the way this philosopher of pessimism denied that thinking could ever reach reality, but must forever deal with illusions. Steiner was already clear in his mind how such obstacles were to be overcome. He did not stop at the problem of knowledge, but carried his ideas from this realm into the field of ethics, to help him deal with the problem of human freedom. He wanted to show that morality could be given a sure foundation without basing it upon imposed rules of conduct.

From Rudolf Steiner’s biography: “…More than anything else at that time I craved to know personally Eduard von Hartmann, with whom I had corresponded for years in regard to philosophical matters. This was to take place during a brief stay in Berlin which followed that in Weimar.

I had the privilege of a long conversation with the philosopher. He lay upon a sofa, his legs stretched out and his upper body erect. It was in such a posture that he passed by far the greater part of his life from the time when the suffering with his knee began. I saw before me a forehead which was an evident manifestation of a clear and keen understanding, and eyes which in their look revealed that assurance felt in the innermost being of the man as to that which he knew. A mighty beard framed in the face. He spoke with complete confidence, which showed how he had woven certain basic thoughts about the whole world-concept and thus in his way illuminated it. In these thoughts everything which came to him from other points of view was at once overwhelmed with criticism. So I sat facing him while he sharply passed, judgment upon me, but in reality never inwardly listened to me. For him the being of things lay in the unconscious, and must ever remain hidden there so far as concerned human consciousness; for me the unconscious was something which could more and more be raised up into consciousness through the strivings of the soul’s life. During the course of the conversation about this, I said that one should not assume beforehand that a concept is something severed from reality and representing only an unreality in consciousness. Such a view could never be the starting-point for a theory of cognition. For by this means one shuts oneself off from access to all reality in that one can then only believe that one is living in concepts and that one can never approach toward a reality except, through hypothetical concepts – that is, in an unreal manner. One should rather seek to prove beforehand whether this view of the concept as an unreality is tenable, or whether it rises out of a preconception. Eduard von Hartmann replied that there could be no argument as to this; in the very definition of the term “concept” lay the evidence that nothing real is to be found there. When I received such an answer I was chilled to the soul. Definitions to be the point of departure for conceptions of life! I realized how far removed I was from contemporary philosophy. While I sat in the train on my return journey, buried in thoughts and recollections of this visit, which was nevertheless so valuable to me, I felt again that chilling of the heart. It was something which affected me for a long time afterward.” ~Rudolf Steiner, THE STORY OF MY LIFE, GA 28
Chapter IX

He also speaks about von Hartmann in Wahrheit und Wissenschaft (Truth and Knowledge) & in His Karmic Relaionships Vol 1 lecture 9:

“…Now when I came to study this personality, it dawned upon me one day that there was very special importance in the onset of this knee affliction…When I was able to bring the affliction of the knee into its right relation with the whole personality, I began to perceive how destiny manifested in the life of this man. And then I could go back. It was not by starting from the head of Eduard von Hartmann, but from the knee, that I found the way to his earlier incarnations.

And in the case of Eduard von Hartmann, as soon as I turned my attention to the affliction of the knee, I was guided to his earlier incarnation, during which at a certain moment in his life he had a kind of sunstroke. In respect of destiny, this sunstroke was the cause that led in the next earthly life, through metamorphosis, to an infirmity of the knee — the sunstroke being, as you will realise, an affliction of the head. One day he was no longer able to think. He had a kind of paralysis of the brain, and this came to expression in the next incarnation as an affliction of one of the limbs. Now the destiny that led to paralysis of the brain was due to the following circumstances. — This individuality was one of those who went to the East with the Crusades and fought over in Asia against the Turks and Asiatic peoples, acquiring, however, a tremendous admiration for the latter. The Crusaders encountered very much that was great and sublime in the East, and the individuality of whom we are speaking absorbed it all with deep admiration. And now he came across a man concerning whom he felt instinctively that he had had something to do with him in a still earlier life. The account, so to speak, that had now to be settled between this and the still earlier incarnation, was a moral account. The metamorphosis of the sunstroke in one incarnation into the affliction of the knee in the next appears at first to be a purely physical matter, but when it is a question of destiny we are invariably led back to something that appertains to the moral life. This individuality bore with him from a still earlier incarnation the impulse to wage a fierce battle with the man whom he now encountered and in the heat of the blazing sun he set about persecuting his opponent. The persecution was unjust, and it recoiled upon the persecutor himself inasmuch as his brain was paralysed by the heat of the sun. What was to be brought to an issue in this fight originated in a still earlier incarnation when this individuality had been brilliantly, outstandingly clever. The opponent whom he encountered during the Crusades had suffered injury and embarrassment in an earlier incarnation at the hands of this brilliant individuality. As you see, it all leads back to the moral life, for the forces in play originated in the earlier incarnation.

Thus we have three consecutive incarnations of an individuality. A remarkably clever and able personality in very ancient times — that is one incarnation. Following that, a Crusader, who at a certain time in his life gets paralysis of the brain, brought about as the result of a wrong committed by his cleverness which had, however, in the next incarnation, caused him to acquire tremendous admiration for oriental civilisation. Third incarnation: a Prussian officer who is obliged to retire owing to an affliction of the knee, does not know what to do with his time, goes in for philosophy and writes a most impressive book, a perfect product of the civilisation of the second half of the 19th century: The Philosophy of the Unconscious.

Once this connection of lives is perceived, things that were previously obscure become quite clear. When I was reading Hartmann while I was still young, without knowing anything about these connections, I always had the feeling: Yes, this is extremely clever! But when I had read one page I used to think: There is something brilliantly clever here, but the cleverness is not on this particular page! I always felt I must turn the page and look at the previous one to see if the cleverness were there. In short, the cleverness in this writing was not of today, but of yesterday, or of the day before yesterday.

Light came to me for the first time when I perceived: the outstanding cleverness really lies two incarnations ago and is working on from there. Great illumination is shed upon the whole of this Hartmann literature — which, as I said, is a library in itself — as soon as one realises that the cleverness in it is working on from a much earlier incarnation.

And when one came to know Eduard von Hartmann personally and was talking with him, one also felt: another man is there behind him, but even he is not the one who is talking; behind him again is a third, and it is the third who is really the source of the inspirations. For listening to Hartmann was often enough to drive one to despair! There was an officer, talking philosophy without enthusiasm, apathetically, speaking with a certain crudity of the loftiest truths. One could see how things really were only when one knew: the cleverness behind what he says is that of two incarnations ago.

It may seem disrespectful to relate such things, but no disrespect whatever is intended. Moreover I am convinced that it can be of great value for any human being to know of such connections and apply them to his own life, even if it means that he has to say to himself: Three incarnations ago I was an out-and-out scoundrel! It can be of immense benefit to life when a man can say to himself: In one incarnation or another, perhaps not only in one, I was a thoroughly bad lot! In speaking of such things, just as in other circumstances present company is always excepted, so here present incarnations are excepted!”

1915 – Denmark amends its constitution to allow women’s suffrage

1917 – American men began registering for the World War I draft

1924 – Ernst F. W. Alexanderson transmitted the first facsimile message across the Atlantic Ocean

1933 – President Roosevelt signed the bill that took the U.S. off of the gold standard

1967 – The Six Day War between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan began today

1968 – Robert F. Kennedy, is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

1981 – The first recognized cases of what later became known as AIDS

2012 – The last transit of Venus (occult Mercury) of the 21st century begins

~Kindling Radiance~

A Community Festival Gathering Celebrating St. John’s-Tide

Saturday, June 24, 2023 at Zinniker Farm

5:30 pm Potluck – Please bring food & drink to share

Artistic Offerings – Poem, Song… Express yourself!

7 – 9 pm – Bonfire Drum Circle w/ Hazel & Ultra-Violet Archer –

Bring lawn chairs & drums if you have them!

Show support for Zinniker Farm – $15 more or less Love Donation

Co-hosted by The Christian Community of Southeast WI. & Chicago
http://thechicagochristiancommunity.org/ & https://zinnikerfarm.com/ & ReverseRitual.com

>>> RSVP margaretincommunity@gmail.com Subject: St. John’s

Whitsun Congress

May 28, 2023Calendar of the Soul, Community, Festival, Speaking with the Stars, Upcoming Event~hag

Greetings friends on this WhitSunday 2023 –

The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, our individual “I”, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is strongly felt during this time of the consciousness soul age. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create this type of culture, and the opportunity is here for each of us to meet, human to human, where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength comes from our personal development and is enhanced by weaving our gifts together with others, knitting our social world in conscious community.

We can think about the ‘7 gifts of the Holy Spirit’, and ask ourselves: What are my gifts? How can I place them in right relationship within the social realm? How can I hone them, to strengthen and enhance the world? How do we turn the ME into a WE?

In 1907 Steiner created the ‘Whitsun Congress’ in Munich as a new Rosicrucian impulse, displaying the 7 seals of St. John’s Apocalypse, a representation of the 7 stages of Christian initiation. The Whitsun spirit came alive again, through Rudolf Steiner for the 3rd time in history with the re- founding of the Anthroposophical Society at the Christmas Conference.

When we take up the mantric expression of the Foundation Stone Meditation, it becomes the key in which the individual and social principles are harmoniously united – Lifting us out of the ‘ME’ into the ‘WE’, so that the spirit flame can enter and spread out through us, creating a radiating vessel for the Christ – Anthroposophia – and the powerful Michaelic forces wanting to be employed by us.

Our job as Michaelites is to take our individual Inner Whitsun and expand it, into what Steiner calls the “World Festival of Knowledge” a path leading from ‘Sprit Recalling’, to ‘Sprit Sensing’, to ‘Sprit Beholding.’

Through Steiner’s profound mystery deed at the Christmas Conference, an altogether new relationship between the spiritual world and the human being was conceived. If, today, together, we will to turn our hearts towards a higher wisdom in Love, to set fire to the forces of knowledge in our souls, redeeming our intelligence, our Anthroposophical angel, if you will, can anchor and embody itself in the environment we prepare for it.

Schiller once said “Take the divine into your will & it descends from its cosmic throne.”

We are called to create an Ecclesia, a vessel, a chalice, a sheath for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference, where the ‘inverted Whitsun’, was born. The idea of taking the spirit that has flowed through the head into the heart, and then out from the heart, back as a gift to humanity, to redeem the Cosmic Intelligence of Michael.

In this sense the Christmas Conference, in all its spiritual reality, reveals itself as the true Whitsun for those who strive to take into their souls the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit concerning the human being – Anthropos-Sophia, which is the knowledge of the grail held aloft by Michael in this present age of the consciousness soul.

~hag

Here are some Whitsun presentations for your inspirational viewing:

Sangraal: A Pentecost Pilgrimage with the CRC

Whitsun: ‘The Festival of United Soul Endeavour’ – All Region’s

~Vitae Sophia~

This years offering: Anthroposophia & the Redemption of Lucifer, featuring Velsum, coming soon! Stay tuned…

28 May 2023 – “Speaking with the stars”: Shortly before sunrise tomorrow Mercury (occult Venus) will reach greatest distance from the Sun and will be very low in the east. To its upper right shines the brighter planet Jupiter.

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated with added titles by Roy Sadler
WHITSUN
DREAM LIFE’S PRESENCE
v8
In concert with the spirit’s birth
the senses’ power grows;
it presses thinking down
to dimness of a dream.
When Holy Spirit
would bond with soul;
the mind must rest
in dream life’s presence.

the mirror verse
CANDLEMAS II
THOUGHT’S LIGHT
v45
In concert with the spirit’s birth
thought’s power grows;
it lights up senses’ vague allure
to vivid clarity.
When soul would bond
with springtime’s coming,
thought’s light must shine
on sense revealing.

TODAY: Whitsunday 28 May 2023

NEW TIME: 7 pm – 9 pm

50 Days after The Resurrection =
Our Community Pentecost Gathering –

Social Sculpture with Rev. Jeana Lee & ~hag

Pot-Luck, Bonfire & Prep Stir

at the home of Hazel & Chuck Ginsberg

Please bring food & drink to share –

RSVP to Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

The True Vine

May 21, 2023Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Festival, History, Upcoming Events~hag

The new vine – Spring Farm Day At Zinniker

Greetings dear friends – Can you feel it? The expansion experienced during Ascension gives way to a kind of constriction of the soul, as we abide in the upper room of our consciousness. In open anticipation, we prepare for the revelation of the Spirit of Wisdom – The Paraclete – The Mediator -between the ‘Above & Below’ that connects us to our highest human destiny – modeled in the original Pentecost mystery, 50 days after Easter Sunday.

The Merry month of May, when all of nature is reborn, belongs to the 3-Fold Easter-Tide Season, which is traditionally dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

As we know the 3^rd Sunday in May is Mother’s Day. And every year our family has a practice of beautifying our wild garden – planting flowers, herbs & our vegetables for the year. We have the annual Plant Parade – All the house plants go outside where they receive some of Angie’s gold compost.

Besides tuning into the plant world, I have an ever-growing collection of rocks & crystals that I have gathered over the years from various excursions, & every Mother’s Day I clean & rearrange them around the plants. I touch each one, connecting to its essence, often recalling the story of where they came from & why I chose them.

I receive so much from the treasure’s of Natrura’s.

We are shifting now at the end of May to the virtue: ‘Perseverance Becomes Faithfulness’.

In my work to understand the initiation of Mary Magdalene I have taken up a practice of working with the 12 virtues as a way of transforming ‘the 7 demons’.

After Whitsunday I will share some of my experiences in seeking to live into this ‘Apostle to the Apostles‘ – This woman who was chosen to anoint the ‘Anointed One’.

Until then I will abide (John 15:4-7 – Thanks CG)

~hag

Here are some pics from Our Spring Farm Day at Zinniker. It was a glorious Saturday with many friends. We stuffed stag bladders with yarrow, Stirred 500, & barrel, nettle, & equisetum, infused gold into horn silica, made tree paste, visited the animals, including their new puppy, & shared a delicious repast…CG & I were on delivery duty for the Chicago egg group, so we had to leave before folks did the spray on the land. I look forward to gathering again for St. John’s…God Bless the Zinniker’s.

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated with added titles by Roy Sadler
ASCENSIONTIDE
Transition verse from Spring to Summer
Come, Foresight
v7
My Self is threatening to flee,
lured stromgly by the cosmic light.
Now you, my foresight, dawn your star
and my divining, firmly as of right,
replace the power of thought
that in the senses’ glory leaves me.

This is part of the square quartet, the verses at the centre of each quarter of the year, each of them presenting a challenge to the soul: to proceed in her development something must wake up. This week’s verse is a luciferic temptation; the mirror verse an ahrimanic one.
I think they can be imagined as transition verses between the seasons of the year.

LENT 1
Transition verse from Winter to Spring
Memory, Arise
v46
The world is threatening to numb
my soul’s own inborn force.
Now memory, companion me,
and in my sight enhance
the penetration of my glance
vitality of will alone sustains

21 May 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars: Look west shortly after sunset this evening for the young moon. It’s edging toward the brightest planet, dazzling Venus (occult Mercury) look for the pale glow – called earthshine – on the unlit side of the moon.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (RSarchve.org)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY ( From Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul, The Present Age Mag., Wikipedia, RSarchive.org)

429 BC -Birthday of Plato (According to Dunlop’s ‘Path’ Calendar)

1265 – Birthday of Dante – according to Rudolf Steiner “…Dante became a seer at the age of thirty-five”. “…All leaders of mankind, who were aware of how the higher spiritual life of man arises out of his lower nature, have comprehended the significance of Easter. Dante therefore described his awakening — in his Divine Comedia — as taking place on Good Friday.”

“…Dante had a friend and teacher Brunetto Latini, who, as I think you will recognise from what we shall presently say, may be described as an Initiate in the true sense of the word.”

“…When you follow the teaching of the Templars, there at the heart of it is a kind of reverence for something of a feminine nature. This femininity was known as the Divine Sophia, the Heavenly Wisdom. Manas is the fifth principle. the spiritual self of man, that must be developed, for which a temple must be built. And, just as the pentagon at the entrance to Solomon’s Temple characterises the fivefold human being, this female principle similarly typifies the wisdom of the Middle Ages, This wisdom is exactly what Dante sought to personify in his Beatrice. Only from this viewpoint can Dante’s Divine Comedy be understood. Hence you find Dante, too, using the same symbols as those which find expression in the Templars, the Christian knights, the Knights of the Grail, and so on. Everything which is to happen [in the future] was indeed long since prepared for by the great initiates, who foretell future events, in the same way as in the Apocalypse, so that souls will be prepared for these events.” ~ Rudolf Steiner, The Temple Legend

1471 – Birthday of Albrecht Dürer, German painter, engraver, & mathematician

1639 – Death Day of Tommaso Campanella, an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet. Campanella was prosecuted by the Roman Inquisition for heresy in 1594 and was confined to house arrest for two years. Accused of conspiring against the Spanish rulers of Calabria in 1599, he was tortured and sent to prison, where he spent 27 years. He wrote his most significant works during this time, including The City of the Sun, a utopia describing an egalitarian theocratic society where property is held in common.

Rudolf Steiner speaks of him as reincarnating in the brilliant but tragic individuality of Otto Weininger

1860 – Giuseppe Garibaldi begins his attack on Palermo, Sicily, as part of the Italian unification. Rudolf Steiner speaks about him qite a bit in his Karmic Relationships series.

“…many Initiates of bygone days appear again as personalities who with the concepts and notions prevailing to-day cannot be recognised as former Initiates because they are obliged to use the body which their epoch provides. Garibaldi is just such an example…In Hibernia, in Ireland, there were deep and penetrating Mysteries whose influences still made their way across to Europe in the early centuries of the spread of Christianity. And there one finds an Initiate whose path in the 8th to 9th centuries after the founding of Christianity led him from Ireland to the region corresponding approximately to modern Alsace. Under the stormy conditions then prevailing, this Initiate achieved much for the cause of true Christianity. To this Initiate came three pupils from different quarters of the world — three pupils who entrusted themselves to him. These three pupils came to him — one from far away, another from nearer at hand. But in the Irish Mysteries there was an inviolable decree that an Initiate to whom pupils had entrusted themselves must not abandon them in the later incarnation but must accomplish in earthly life something that will hold them to him, something that establishes a bond between him and these pupils. The Initiate of whom I am speaking was born again as Joseph Garibaldi, with that visionary quality of will which in olden times had been able to express itself in a quite different form from that possible in a body belonging to the 19th century. Garibaldi received only a very inferior education, quite unlike the education that was typical of the 19th century. The three others I have named were the pupils who in the past had come to him from different parts of the world. But the impulse working from the one incarnation over into the other was far deeper and more potent than external principles of action…And so in spite of the radical difference in sentiment and conviction, Garibaldi could not abandon, for example, Victor Emanuel...” ~Rudolf Steiner