Category Archives: Calendar of the Soul

Baptism of a Modern Initiate

Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Insight, Upcoming Events

Greetings dear friends on this anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s Baptism on 27 February in 1861 –

I have been pondering the mysterious Birth of Rudolf Steiner for quite a while. Last year a group of us held a 3 day vigil from 25-27 February to live into this mystery. Many folks argue that we should celebrate Steiner’s birthday on the 27th of February, his Baptism day. Steiner himself names the 27th as his date of birth in his autobiography.

When we think of the connection with the Christ impulse, we can compare the powerful working that happens in the 3 day vigil between Good Friday & Easter Sunday, with the birth of Steiner who was given up for dead at his birth – We can also see a link with how the Cosmic Christ entered into the vessel of Jesus of Nazareth at the Baptism –

Maybe Steiner’s entelechy needed the Baptism rite to fully commit to incarnation…?

On a mundane level, I have also thought, well maybe Steiner simply names his birth date as 27 February because that is what his official papers say – Or then again, perhaps it’s because by not divulging his true birth date he thought it might afford him protection against the adversarial agencies that could use the cosmic information in his natal chart to thwart his mission..?

Those who can read a person’s destiny written in the stars, are able to use those impulses for their own purposes – for or againist that person…

But then this year, because I work deeply with Steiner’s Original Calendar of the Soul, where we can see the connections between cosmic & earthly historical events, as well as birth & death dates of influential human beings who have shaped our evolution – last night it occurred to me:

27 February is a very auspicious day – perhaps Steiner uses this date for his birthday as a pointer & to a great mystery:

27 February is the death day of Mani (277) – the highest initiate; who “According to Rudolf Steiner, the Young Man of Nain, the son of a widow, whom Christ Jesus raised from the dead, became Mani, the founder of Manicheism, in his following incarnation, and will become the Maitreya Buddha in time to come…” to guide humanity thru Christic love to redeem evil… (from a recorded conversation with Christian Community priests Walter Klein and Emil Bock in 1924)

AND today is also the death day of Comte de St. Germain (1784), an incarnation of Christian Rosenkreuz, whose ‘tomb is opened every 100 years’ allowing the secret teachings of our highest evolution to be revealed so that they can become manifest in the world…

Could Steiner be revealing to us his profound connection with these 2 great servants of humanity?

It is true that those whose death day is the same as our birthday become our co-workers & mentors during that life.

Is that why he put 27 February as his birth date in his autobiography…?

Ever pondering

~hag

27 February 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Waxing Bella Luna shines just a degree or two from Mars tonight, as shown above. Watch their separation change hour by hour. The Moon occults Mars for parts of the Arctic. Spot the big, bright, equilateral Winter Triangle in the south-southeast. Sirius is its brightest and lowest star. Betelgeuse is above Sirius by about two fists at arm’s length. Left of them shines Procyon.

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated with added titles by Roy Sadler
LENT II
Joy Will Arise
v47
From worldwide womb
will rise the joy of growth,
enlivening the senses’ glory:
and may it find my strength of thought
defended by the strength of God,
the living bedrock of my being.

It was Steiner’s birthday last Saturday, but his birthday verse was not last week’s or this one. In 1861 Easter was early on March 31st. He was born on the day of the full moon in the week of v48, a very special birthday verse as I shall explain next week.
This is a quote from Eleanor Merry in her Calendar of the Soul Commentary, relevant to both v47 & 48, “When our thinking can unite with the light of the Sun, it becomes creative for the future. And when we can be quickened within by the same powers that quicken the outer world into life, then will joy infill our deeds, and they will be in harmony with the deeds of Cosmic Beings.”

This is this week’s mirror verse.
ASCENSION
The Risen Self
v6
Arisen from my own persona
my real self appears
as revelation of the spheres
that in the powers of time and space
the world is showing me as paradigm
that is divine and everywhere portrays
the image in whose mirror I come true.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

(Interesting to note those who share a birthday with Steiner’s Baptism day: Constantine the Great, St. John Chrysostom, Mozart, Friedrich Schelling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Giuseppe Verdi – see below)

Constantine from BL Royal 19 E VI, f. 202 - PICRYL Public Domain Image

272 – Birthday of Constantine the Great, Roman emperor

File:John Chrysostom, St. Paul the Apostle Orthodox Church, Dayton, Ohio.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

407 – Deathday of St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, was an important Early Church Father. He is known for his preaching & public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical & political leaders, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, & his ascetic sensibilities. The epithet Χρυσόστομος (Chrysostomos, anglicized as Chrysostom) means “golden-mouthed” in Greek & denotes his celebrated eloquence. Chrysostom was among the most prolific authors in the early Christian Church exceeded only by Augustine in the quantity of his surviving writings. John was born in Antioch in 349 to Greco-Syrian parents. His mother Anthusa as a pagan & his father was a high-ranking military officer. John’s father died soon after his birth & he was raised by his mother. As a result of his mother’s influential connections in the city, John began his education under the pagan teacher Libanius. From Libanius, John acquired the skills for a career in rhetoric, as well as a love of the Greek language & literature.

A late medieval legend relates that, when John Chrysostom was a hermit in the desert, he was approached by a royal princess in distress. The Saint, thinking she was a demon, at first refused to help her, but the princess convinced him that she was a Christian & would be devoured by wild beasts if she were not allowed to enter his cave. He therefore admitted her, carefully dividing the cave in two parts, one for each of them. In the morning she had given birth to a child she claimed was his. He then went to Rome to beg absolution, which was refused. Chrysostom made a vow that he would never rise from the ground until his sins were expiated, & for years he lived like a beast, crawling on all fours & feeding on wild grasses & roots. One day the princess reappeared, suckling the saint’s baby, who miraculously pronounced his sins forgiven. This last scene was very popular from the late 15th century onwards as a subject for engravers & artists.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1777 | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 177… | Flickr

1756 – Birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in full Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, baptized as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. A prolific & influential composer of the Classical era. Born in Salzburg, he showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard & violin, he composed from the age of 5 & performed before European royalty. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court, but grew restless & traveled in search of a better position. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security.

Mozart’s physical appearance described him as “a remarkably small man, very thin and pale, with a profusion of fine, fair hair of which he was rather vain, except for his large intense eyes, he gave no signs of his genius.” His facial complexion was pitted, a reminder of his childhood case of smallpox. He loved elegant clothing. Of his voice his wife later wrote that it “was a tenor, rather soft in speaking and delicate in singing, but when anything excited him, or it became necessary to exert it, it was both powerful and energetic”.

Mozart usually worked long & hard, finishing compositions at a tremendous pace as deadlines approached. He often made sketches & drafts; unlike Beethoven’s these are mostly not preserved, as his wife sought to destroy them after his death.

Mozart lived at the center of the Viennese musical world, & knew a great number & variety of people: fellow musicians, theatrical performers, fellow Salzburgers, & aristocrats, including some acquaintance with the Emperor Joseph II. He enjoyed billiards & dancing, & kept pets: a canary, a starling, a dog, & a horse for recreational riding. He had a startling fondness for scatological humor, which is preserved in his surviving letters, notably those written to his cousin Maria Anna Thekla Mozart around 1777–1778, & in his correspondence with his sister & parents. Mozart also wrote scatological music, a series of canons that he sang with his friends.

During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, & operas, & portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze & two sons. He composed more than 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, & choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, & his influence is profound on subsequent Western art music.

Friedrich von Schelling – Store norske leksikon

1775 – Birthday of Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, a German philosopher. Standard histories of philosophy make him the midpoint in the development of German idealism, situating him between Johann Gottlieb Fichte, his mentor in his early years, & Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, his former university roommate, early friend, & later rival. Some later philosophers such as Martin Heidegger & Slavoj Žižek have shown interest in re-examining Schelling’s body of work. Quotes:

“Nature is visible Spirit; Spirit is invisible Nature.” (Ideen, “Introduction”)

“History as a whole is a progressive, gradually self-disclosing revelation of the Absolute.” (System of Transcendental Idealism, 1800)

“Has creation a final goal? And if so, why was it not reached at once? Why was the consummation not realized from the beginning? To these questions there is but one answer: Because God is Life, and not merely Being.” (Philosophical Inquiries into the Nature of Human Freedom, 1809)

“Only he who has tasted freedom can feel the desire to make over everything in its image, to spread it throughout the whole universe.” (Philosophical Inquiries into the Nature of Human Freedom, 1809)

“As there is nothing before or outside of God he must contain within himself the ground of his existence. All philosophies say this, but they speak of this ground as a mere concept without making it something real and actual.” (Philosophical Inquiries into the Nature of Human Freedom, 1809)

“God then has no beginning only insofar as there is no beginning of his beginning. The beginning in God is eternal beginning, that is, such a one as was beginning from all eternity, and still is, and also never ceases to be beginning.” (Quoted in Hartshorne & Reese, Philosophers Speak of God, Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1953, p. 237.)

A Scientist's Mind, a Poet's Soul — The New Atlantis

1807 – Birthday of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

File:Rudolf Steiner. .jpg - Wikimedia Commons

1861 – The emergency Baptism of Rudolf Steiner

Happy 200th, Giuseppe Verdi | Chicago Public Library

1901 – Deathday of Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi an Italian opera composer. Verdi was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, & developed a musical education with the help of a local patron. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera . In his early operas Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy. He also participated briefly as an elected politician. An intensely private person, Verdi however did not seek to ingratiate himself with popular movements & as he became professionally successful was able to reduce his operatic workload & sought to establish himself as a landowner in his native region. He surprised the musical world by returning, after his success with the opera Aida (1871), with three late masterpieces: his Requiem (1874), & the operas Otello (1887) &Falstaff (1893). His operas remain extremely popular, especially the three peaks of his ‘middle period’: Rigoletto, Il trovatore & La traviata.

1922 – A challenge to the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing women the right to vote, is rebuffed by the Supreme Court

1939 – United States labor law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that sit-down strikes violate property owners’ rights & are therefore illegal

2004 – The initial version of the John Jay Report, with details about the Catholic sexual abuse scandal in the United States, is released. The report determined that, during the period from 1950 to 2002, a total of 10,667 individuals had made allegations of child sexual abuse. Of these, the dioceses had been able to identify 6,700 unique accusations against 4,392 clergy over that period in the USA, which is about 4% of all 109,694 ordained clergy i.e. priests or deacons or members of religious orders, active in the USA during the time covered by the study. Roughly 4% of them were accused. However, of these 4392 accused, only 252 (5.7% of those accused or less than 0.1% of total clergy) were convicted. The number of alleged abuses increased in the 1960s, peaked in the 1970s, declined in the 1980s, & by the 1990s had returned to the levels of the 1950s. In summary, over a 50-year period, out of more than 100,000 priests deacons & religious order clergy, 4,392 (~4.4%) were accused of sexual abuse, 252 (<0.26%) were convicted & 100 (<0.1%) sentenced to prison

The Categories of Aristotle – a process of contraction…
Is there a path to expansion…..?

PUBLIC LECTURE AND EURYTHMY WORKSHOP WITH CLAUDIA FONTANA

Friday 24 March 2023 – Lecture 7 pm CT – 8:30 pm – Purchase tickets at the door or pay online
$12

Saturday 25 March 2023 – Workshop – 9 am CT– (10:30 am 1/2 hour break – 11 am) 12:30 pm CT CT– Purchase tickets at the door or pay online $50

The Categories of Aristotle: A process of contraction…exploring a path to expansion…

Does one have to be a philosopher of great erudition to approach Aristotle’s gift to humanity……his Categories?

Perhaps , YES! But an initial acquaintance with them can lead out of the confinement of the intellectual concept to an experience of expansion supported by Eurythmy.

In the evening lecture Claudia will introduce the life of the Categories before they became concepts – Bringing the symbols in a sequence of sounds  (called the Evolutionary Sequence ) out of their conceptual form, to life, supported by Eurythmy and examples of poetry.

During the workshop we will enter into the movement of the poetry presented  during the lecture. This will be accessible to Eurythmists as well as to anyone interested in the life of language, poetry and our alphabet.

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar 
www.rschicago.org/donate

For more info contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Claudia Fontana saw a Eurythmy performance when still a teenager. Unbeknownst to her at the time, that performance was the gate to her destiny path. Soon thereafter she studied Eurythmy in Vienna and subsequently spent fourteen years as a performer with the Dornach, London and Stuttgart Eurythmeum ensembles. Teaching became the next challenge which she happily met in the United States, Europe. Before Covid, she spent seven years teaching all levels in Thailand, Malaysia and China. She resides in Ann Arbor, MI still performing and teaching.

Mary Magdalene & the Women at the Tomb – A Festival of Resurrection

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,

Song-Circle with Velsum, 

Eurythmy – & an artistic break out session

Holy Saturday 8 April 2023

1 pm – 3pm CT a hybrid event in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & on zoom

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7050174041

Meeting ID: 705 017 4041

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
www.rschicago.org/donate

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll

Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance

Gerald Shepherd

When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.

Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.

Nancy Poer

~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor 

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices & Eurythmy

Saturday 27 May 2023 a Hybrid event in person* & on zoom

We are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice 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. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83663366670?pwd=L292UzlOR1pkZjBXSWpxK1B2b0o1dz09 Meeting ID: 836 6336 6670 / Passcode: 397593

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
*Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) www.rschicago.org/donate

Find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals HERE

“Eternal Verities”

Calendar of the Soul, History, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events

True, the Beautiful, the Good – GA 220 – A lecture given by Rudolf Steiner 100 years ago today 19 January 1923, in Dornach – showing that the primary function of education & evolution is to exercise soul faculties of Thinking, Feeling & Willing, as the “eternal verities” of Truth, Beauty & Goodness – outpictured in Science, Art & Spirituality.

“…A genuine feeling for beauty forges a link that connects us here, in earthly life once again with our pre-earthly existence…

A civilization that is filled with ugly machines, with chimneys and smoke, and dispenses with beauty, tears humanity asunder…it is a fitting abode for the demonic beings who would like to make the human being forget pre-earthly existence in the realm of spirit…

How can a human being develop an actual power that will lead directly into the spiritual world left when descending to the earth from pre-earthly existence? The answer is, when the person is filled with Goodness — a goodness that flows to others, and is not confined to self-interest…

Such goodness can lead to qualities, and experiences of innumerable forces of soul, that actually instill into the human being elements with which they were permeated with in pre-earthly existence.

Through the sense of Beauty the human being is linked, by means of a picture, to the spirit.

If they are truly good, this links their earthly life to pre-earthly existence. A good person is one who can bear their own soul over into the soul of another. Upon this all true morality depends. Without morality no true social order among earthly humanity can be maintained.

When this true morality develops into momentous impulses of will which then become moral acts, it begins to be a quickening- all-pervading impulse in the soul, inasmuch as a person can then be moved to real sympathy at the sight of care on the face of another — their own astral body feels pain at the sight of suffering in others.

For just as the sense of truth manifests in the human being’s right relation to the physical body; just as a warm enthusiasm for Beauty expresses itself in the etheric body — so does Goodness live in the astral body.

The astral body cannot be healthy, or maintain its true position in the world, if a person is not able to pour through it the forces proceeding from Goodness.

Here we have the concrete reality of the three ideals of Truth, Beauty, Goodness. Truth, is related to the physical body, Beauty to the etheric body, Goodness to the astral body.

These ideals show up, to begin with, in the physical body, when the person is filled with a real sense of truth instead of conventional opinions.

A worthy existence can quicken the etheric body into life through a feeling for beauty.

A person may do good because of some convention, or because punishment is in store for a wrong-doing — or because other people will respect them less if they do wrong. A person can, however, also do good from a sheer love of goodness, I spoke about this in my book, The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. Such an experience of goodness will always lead to a recognition of the reality of the astral body.

Now to realize the good is not, as in the experience of beauty, merely to create a link with pre-earthly existence. To experience goodness is, to unite oneself with the world, which is ever present. We have but to stretch out towards it. Experience of goodness is a link, leading directly to the world the human soul enters after death.

Forces that endure beyond the gate of death are present in actions done here on earth, if a person lives a life of goodness.

The sense of truth is a heritage from pre-earthly existence. The sense of beauty will create an image, of pre-earthly connection with spirit. And the impulse exists within us not to cut ourselves off from spirit, but rather to maintain the bond intact by the goodness we develop as inner power.

To be true is to be rightly united with our spiritual past. To sense beauty means that in the physical world we do not disown our connection with spirit. To be good is to build a living seed for a spiritual world in the future.

Past, present, future — these three concepts, as they play their part in human life, assume far-reaching significance when we understand the concrete reality of the other three concepts — Truth, Beauty, Goodness.

The person who is untruthful denies his spiritual past; the liar severs the threads between himself and his spiritual past. He who disregards beauty is building an abode on earth where the sun of spirit never shines, where he wanders in spiritless shadow. The human being who belies the good renounces their spiritual future.

It was, indeed, out of a profound drive that Truth, Beauty and Goodness were held to be the greatest ideals of human striving. Yet they have faded away into shadowy words, and it is up to our present age to bestow concrete reality upon them once again”

THE CALENDAR OF THE SOUL translated – with added titles – by Roy Sadler – LENT – 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.

This is part of the square quartet, the only one where the 4 related verses form a perfect square in the Soul Calendar’s lemniscate pattern. They correspond to the middle of each quarter in the year. It’s not mentioned elsewhere but I think these verses can be regarded as transitions between the seasons. They are a kind of crossing over the threshold to a new soul mood. When a new spring comes without proper clarity of thought it can numb our consciousness. For thoughtful perception the power of memory is needed, in contrast to foresight for a new summer union with spirit in the mirror verse. 

ASCENSIONTIDE
Come, Foresight
v7
My Self is threatening to flee,
drawn strongly to the world’s inviting light.
Now foresight, dawn in me, your star arise
and my divining, firmly as of right,
replace the power of thought
that in the senses’ glory leaves me.

19 February 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Watch them draw closer together twilight after twilight

Alexander mark

1473 – Birthday of Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish mathematician & astronomer

1807 – Former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr is arrested for treason in Wakefield, Alabama and confined to Fort Stoddert. Aaron Burr was an American politician & lawyer. He served as the third vice president of the United States during President Thomas Jefferson’s first term from 1801 to 1805. During his last year as vice president, Burr engaged in the duel in which he fatally shot Hamilton, his political rival. Although dueling was illegal, Burr was never tried, and all charges against him eventually were dropped. Nevertheless, Hamilton’s death ended Burr’s political career.

Burr traveled west to the American frontier, seeking new economic & political opportunities. His secretive activities led to his 1807 arrest in Alabama on charges of treason. He was brought to trial more than once for what became known as the Burr conspiracy, but was acquitted each time. Nevertheless, with large debts & few influential friends, Burr left the United States to live as an expatriate in Europe. Handicapped by a stroke and financially ruined, Burr died at a boarding house in 1836.

Thomas Alva Edison

1878 – Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.

1899 – End of the Kali Yuga according to Elisabeth Vreeda, which began in 3001 BC.

Ehrenfried Pfeiffer.png

1899 – Birthday of Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, a German scientist, soil scientist, leading advocate of biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophist and student of Rudolf Steiner.

Pfeiffer grew up in Nuremberg. He studied chemistry in Basel and came into contact with anthroposophy there. At the age of 21 he installed stage lighting in the carpenter’s workshop at the first Goetheanum, so that it was suitable for eurythmy performances (now on display in the Salzburg Museum for Stage Technology). He lit the eurythmy performances until Rudolf Steiner’s death in 1925 and recorded many of the performance director’s details on the use of light for posterity. At times he also Steiner’s driver.

In 1925, together with Erica Sabarth, he developed the copper chloride crystallisation method, which is one of the image-creating methods of anthroposophy. On a cold winter’s day he is said to have observed how the steam from a hot coffee cup and a hot tea cup at the window produced different ice crystals. With the method one can prove to what degree food has vitality (by examining the images that the crystals form when they come together with plant juices or blood preparations).

In 1938-40, Pfeiffer emigrated to the USA via France. In 1939, he received an honorary doctorate of medicine for his cancer research. In the USA, he developed a method for composting urban waste and conducted research in the field of organic farming and maintained a biodynamic model and research farm. In 1956 he became professor of biochemistry. He died on 30 November 1961 in Spring Valley, NY.

Image result for Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese Americans to internment camps. painting

1942 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese Americans to internment camps.

1953 – Book censorship in the United States: The Georgia Literature Commission is established

1963 – The publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique reawakens the feminist movement in the United States as women’s organizations and consciousness raising groups spread.

The Categories of Aristotle – a process of contraction…
Is there a path to expansion…..?

PUBLIC LECTURE AND EURYTHMY WORKSHOP WITH CLAUDIA FONTANA

Friday 24 March 2023 – Lecture 7 pm CT – 8:30 pm – Purchase tickets at the door or pay online
$12

Saturday 25 March 2023 – Workshop – 9 am CT– (10:30 am 1/2 hour break – 11 am) 12:30 pm CT – Purchase tickets at the door or pay online $50

The Categories of Aristotle: A process of contraction…exploring a path to expansion…

Does one have to be a philosopher of great erudition to approach Aristotle’s gift to humanity……his Categories?

Perhaps , YES! But an initial acquaintance with them can lead out of the confinement of the intellectual concept to an experience of expansion supported by Eurythmy.

In the evening lecture Claudia will introduce the life of the Categories before they became concepts – Bringing the symbols in a sequence of sounds  (called the Evolutionary Sequence ) out of their conceptual form, to life, supported by Eurythmy and examples of poetry.

During the workshop we will enter into the movement of the poetry presented  during the lecture. This will be accessible to Eurythmists as well as to anyone interested in the life of language, poetry and our alphabet.

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar 
www.rschicago.org/donate

For more info contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Claudia Fontana saw a Eurythmy performance when still a teenager. Unbeknownst to her at the time, that performance was the gate to her destiny path. Soon thereafter she studied Eurythmy in Vienna and subsequently spent fourteen years as a performer with the Dornach, London and Stuttgart Eurythmeum ensembles. Teaching became the next challenge which she happily met in the United States, Europe. Before Covid, she spent seven years teaching all levels in Thailand, Malaysia and China. She resides in Ann Arbor, MI still performing and teaching.

Mary Magdalene & the Women at the Tomb – A Festival of Resurrection

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Song-Circle with Velsum, 

Eurythmy – & an artistic break out session

Holy Saturday 8 April 2023

1 pm – 3pm CT a hybrid event in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & on zoom

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7050174041

Meeting ID: 705 017 4041

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
www.rschicago.org/donate

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll

Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance

Gerald Shepherd

When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.

Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.

Nancy Poer

~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor 

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices & Eurythmy

Saturday 27 May 2023 a Hybrid event in person* & on zoom

We are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice 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. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83663366670?pwd=L292UzlOR1pkZjBXSWpxK1B2b0o1dz09 Meeting ID: 836 6336 6670 / Passcode: 397593

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
*Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) www.rschicago.org/donate

Find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals HERE

You in Me

Biography, Calendar of the Soul, History, Upcoming Events

Dear friends – What is the essence of the New Mysteries of initiation? – Where do we meet the tasks & challenges on this modern path of evolution?

We often find our most profound trials in the Social Realm – It is with each other that we are tested – We must learn to work & grow together, creating safe sacred spaces where we can meet “I” to “I”.

There are of course conditions that depend on us doing our own personal inner work, & a selfless desire to met the other in good will. Our hearts & minds must be on fire with a balanced enthusiasm for a true creative becoming, which inspires us to mutually support, empower, awaken, & stimulate each other. This means that as participants in this fluid, independent, karmic school, we have to develop forces of love & trust, by 1st of all truly knowing ourselves, & then working to know each other, seeking to understand why destiny has brought us together.

We are meant to cultivate totally new kinds of spiritual forces that generate resolve, strengthening our thinking, because we will be tested daily – The adversarial powers work very hard to prick & divide us.

It is part of our task in this Michaelic school of life on earth where we meet our initiators in every relationship, to experience consciously the fact that especially in our anthroposophical communities where profound ideals have an opportunity to flourish, these adversarial forces are ever lurking – specifically in each of our soul forces – working to turn idealistic love into mutual hatred, trust into fractional mistrust – hope into despair.

Only thru a lifelong willingness to cross this deep abyss, together, in positivity, with a courageous vulnerability – to repeatedly create a new & robust kind of mutual love, trust, & abiding loyalty – uplifting sisterly-&-brotherly care, can we hope to make progress.

And this mutually suffered, joyfully harvested & actualized love shores up the Foundation Stone of our future orientated Independent School of Spiritual Science that we are meant to co-create.

I seek to hold this ideal even when I know I am not meeting it because of my feelings of pain & discomfort at my own moral failings which keep me separate. Sometimes I need boundaries. And so I do the work of weaving a tender fence of protection around the garden of my soul – So that I can ‘Awaken to Community’ in a more upright way…And so it is today…   

~hag

12 Friday 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Asteroid 2 Pallas reaches its stationary point amid the background stars in Canis Major, rising in the southeast at sunset. A few hours later, Pallas is high in the south, to the lower right of the blazing luminary Sirius, the Dog Star.

THE CALENDAR OF THE SOUL translated – with added titles – by Roy Sadler
CARNIVAL Illuminate v45
In concert with the spirit’s birth
the mind grows firm;
it lifts the senses’ vague allure
to perfect clarity.
When soul abundance
would bond with springlife’s coming,
the mind must shine its light
on sense revealing.

Its mirror verse is at Pentecost (Whitsun, White Sunday) the octave of Easter,
as this week’s is the octave of Christmas, which is why I begin both verses
not simply as ‘United with’ but ‘In concert with’.

WHITSUN
Dream
v8
In concert with the gods’ creating
the senses’ power grows;
it presses thinking down
to dimness of a dream.
When Holy Being
would bond with soul
the mind must rest,
in dreamlike presence satisfied.

~Sea Cooke

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1804 – Death day of Immanuel Kant, German anthropologist, philosopher, & academic. “…all that the Critique of Pure Reason attempts to show can be summed up as follows: Mathematics and pure natural science are a priori sciences; from this it follows that the form of all experiences must be inherent in the subject itself. Therefore, the only thing left that is empirically given is the material of sensations. This is built up into a system of experiences, the form of which is inherent in the subject. The formal truths of a priori theories have meaning and significance only as principles which regulate the material of sensation; they make experience possible, but do not go further than experience. However, these formal truths are the synthetical judgment a priori, and they must — as condition necessary for experience — extend as far as experience itself. The Critique of Pure Reason does not at all prove that mathematics and pure science are a priori sciences but only establishes their sphere of validity, pre-supposing that their truths are acquired independently of experience. Kant, in fact, avoids discussing the question of proof of the a priori sciences in that he simply excludes that section of mathematics where even in his own opinion the a priori nature is open to doubt; and he limits himself to that section where he believes proof can be inferred from the concepts alone.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Truth and Knowledge: Kant’s Basic Epistemological Question

1809 – Birthday of Charles Darwin, English geologist & theorist. “…Arabism spreads abroad in the spiritual life. And along this undercurrent of history, Tarik bears what he originally bore into Spain on the fierce wings of war. The aim of the Arabians in their campaigns was most certainly not that of mere slaughter; no, their aim was really the spread of Arabism. Their tasks were connected with culture. And what a Tarik had carried into Spain at the beginning of the 8th century, he now bears with him through the gate of death, experiencing how as far as external history is concerned it runs dry in Western Europe. And he appears again in the 19th century, bringing Arabism to expression in modern form, as Charles Darwin.

Suddenly we shall find a light shed upon something that seems to come like a bolt from the blue — we find a light shed upon it when we follow what has here been carried over from an earlier into a later time, appearing in an entirely different form.

It may at first seem like a paradox, but the paradox will disappear the more deeply we look into the concrete facts. Read Darwin’s writings again with perception sharpened by what has been said and you will feel: Darwin writes about things which Tarik might have been able to see on his way to Europe! — In such details you will perceive how the one life reaches over into the next.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies – Volume I, lecture 10

1809 – Birthday of Abraham Lincoln, American lawyer & politician, 16th President of the United States

The Categories of Aristotle – a process of contraction…
Is there a path to expansion…..?

PUBLIC LECTURE AND EURYTHMY WORKSHOP WITH CLAUDIA FONTANA

Does one have to be a philosopher of great erudition to understand Aristotle’s gift to humanity – his Categories? Let us explore a path to an experience supported by Eurythmy.

Friday 24 March 2023 – Lecture 7 pm CT – 8:30 pm – Purchase tickets at the door or pay online
$12

Saturday 25 March 2023 – Workshop – 9 am – 12 noon CT– Purchase tickets at the door or pay online $50

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar 
www.rschicago.org/donate

For more info contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Claudia Fontana saw a Eurythmy performance when still a teenager. Unbeknownst to her at the time, that performance was the gate to her destiny path. Soon thereafter she studied Eurythmy in Vienna and subsequently spent fourteen years as a performer with the Dornach, London and Stuttgart Eurythmeum ensembles. Teaching became the next challenge which she happily met in the United States, Europe. Before Covid, she spent seven years teaching all levels in Thailand, Malaysia and China. She resides in Ann Arbor, MI still performing and teaching.

The Women at the Tomb – A Festival of Resurrection

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,

Insights about Mary Magdalene with Faith DiVecchio, 

Song-Circle with Velsum, 

Eurythmy – & an artistic break out session

Holy Saturday 8 April 2023

1 pm – 3pm CT a hybrid event in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & on zoom

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7050174041

Meeting ID: 705 017 4041

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
www.rschicago.org/donate

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll

Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance

Gerald Shepherd

When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.

Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.

Nancy Poer

~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor 

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices & Eurythmy

Saturday 27 May 2023 a Hybrid event in person* & on zoom

We are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice 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. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83663366670?pwd=L292UzlOR1pkZjBXSWpxK1B2b0o1dz09 Meeting ID: 836 6336 6670 / Passcode: 397593

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
*Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) www.rschicago.org/donate

ArtNight our Beaux-Ideal

Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Celestial Event, Community, Festival, Rudolf Steiner Quote
photo by Jay Faulkner

Dear friends, I am thrilled to testify that with all the divisiveness in our world today it was refreshing & energizing to experience the phenomenon that is ArtNight – where a ’20 something’ crowd (although all ages are welcome) comes together for a sober 1st Friday event – creating a conscious community where everyone is encouraged do what they love, & to share it in the affirmative environment that is generated.

At the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago we offer a ‘Shared Space Agreement’ encouraging folks to bring their social initiatives & share them in our community space. We have things like early childhood playgroups, watercolor painting classes, a mom & tot exercise class, Martial Arts demonstrations, Live music concerts, special events & celebrations, gallery openings…etc…

On 3 February 2023 the ArtNight Team: Founder & facilitator:Jared Hochberg; Patrick Fang: co-facilitator, AV, & newsletter guy; Kiki King: co-facilitator, outreach coordinator; & Jay Faulkner: Social media, film/photography – brought a diverse group of about 90 young people – Including artist-venders selling their work – various ‘presenters’ who sign up by contacting the organizers before-hand for a 5 or 15 minute time slot, & sometimes free food that is donated by different venues. This month there was stand-up comedy, a young entrepreneur promoting her business, dance, music, film…And what makes the evening so special is that it is very interactive. After each offering questions & feedback are encouraged. And what I loved most, there are opportunities for group activities – at the beginning to break the ice – in the middle, there are small group sessions to go deep – & social cappers that bring everyone together at the end.

The most amazing part of ArtNight is the vibe – such generous enthusiasm, total support – a relaxed, ‘go with the flow’ – accepting attitude – a sense of adventure & a willingness to engage in exploring what others are passionate about without judgement – no tension from competition – no hipster posers or head trips – absolute authenticity – a spirit of fun & of being in the moment – a truly safe sober space, where folks can be vulnerable & real – It was like being around Waldorf grads who can shake your hand, & look you in the eye, so earnest, polite & helpful – they listen, & take genuine interest in the other, asking questions & giving encouragement – & drum roll please – there is an atmosphere of pure Good Will & warm Heartedness!!!

Only a few Branch members were there, which is too bad, since these young people are beaux-ideal exemplars for us – holding an important spiritual impulse that I would sincerely label as unconditional Love – which we all need to foster in this world.

NatalieFuentesAleman.com

A dear friend who is relatively new to Anthroposophy was telling me just last week that he wanted to buy some art for his apt. He ended up purchasing 2 original paintings. He said it was kismet.

Johnna Ceick wetpaintbyjohnna.com

I am always looking to support young artists, so I bought one too, as well as a print.   

Our Branch space was definitely uplifted, thoroughly enlivened with positive youthful forces. It was striking to hear their perspective of how the lockdown affected them on many levels, & so powerfully beautiful to see how they brought these & other personal experiences into their artistic expressions.

photo by Jay Faulkner

Every month there is a conversational theme, & this month it was ‘Friendship’. We all got a handout with suggested questions we could ask each other. I was in a group of 4 young men around 25 years old who were open & willing to share their biography. It felt safe, fun & intimate; a great way to get to know complete strangers, allowing the founding of a relationship. I was surprised at how many were curious about Anthroposophy. It reminded me that I need to polish up my elevator speech in case any hidden Michaelites are meant to hear about Spiritual Science. Yes, our karma meets us in the most interesting & often unexpected ways.  

Natalie Fuentes-Aleman

ArtNight is very all-inclusive, everyone is invited to share what interests them, or simply come as you are to have an experience & make some new friends.

And if you have a social initiative that needs a sacred space, check out our ‘Shared Space Agreement’ at the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago. The social cultural realm must become a living chalice pouring out the opportunity to learn, heal, & grow spiritually.

“When human beings meet together seeking the spirit with unity of purpose, then they will also find their way to each other…” ~Rudolf Steiner

~hag

5 February 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The Quickening Moon reached fullness today. Bella Luna, hanging with Leo the Lion, rises in the east-northeast within a few minutes of sunset. Once the Moon is well up after dark, you can see it forming an isosceles triangle once again with Regulus and Algieba, the two brightest stars of Leo’s Sickle glimmering through the moonlight. Regulus is about a fist below the Moon. Algieba (Gamma Leonis) is a fist to the Moon’s lower left.

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
CANDLEMAS
Thought’s Creative Will
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.

There is a unique line here with a different format to every other line in the Soul Calendar. If you recognise it and have an idea of its significance I invite you to bring your own thought’s creative will to the comment section, which I look forward to reading and replying to.

The mirror verse
CORPUS CHRISTI
Lose Yourself In Light
v9
And when I let my own will go
the summer’s coming fills my soul
and spirit life with cosmic warmth;
my spirit vision is commanding me
to lose myself in light, and ardently
my foresight’s calling: ‘lose yourself.
to find your Self’.

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll

Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance

Gerald Shepherd

When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.

Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.

Here’s a blast from the past: ~hag Bringing in the Celtic Triple Goddess Brigid to The Theosophical Society

​

Cross-Quarter Passage

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

hag & Mary

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

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

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

Imbolc! On the ‘I Think Speech‘ podcast

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

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

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

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

Daila Wright

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~hag

Chart via John Jardine Goss / EarthSky.

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

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

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

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

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

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

YOU MUST RSVP at this Link

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

What we’re trying to do.

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

Article about ArtNight

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

YOU MUST RSVP to attend

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll

Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance

Gerald Shepherd

When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.

Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.