Category Archives: Celestial Event

Eclipse Report

Oksana Budnichenko

So friends, let’s check-in. How is the Full Lunar eclipse playing out for you? How was your night/early morning? – Anything to report? Together we can tally up our experiences for spiritual scientific research. Can you still feel the shadow which is indeed lingering in the etheric, or has the poison been transformed into medicine?

So far I have received a handful of accounts that mention troubled sleep, disturbing dreams or body discomfort; & another handful reporting encounters with their beloved dead across the threshold. A few friends did eurythmy, or sang. And a bunch of folks said they didn’t engage because it was cloudy…I admit it is compelling to actually witness these cosmic & earthly events, but even if we can’t see them physically in the sense world, the energies are there, working even more insidiously because we are not consciously taking them up.

I fell into the category of having nightmares, & actually one of the characters is across the threshold with the ‘so-called dead’. I tossed & turned & kept looking at the clock to see what time it was. Finally when I saw 3:33 am I knew that was my sign to rise up & get to work – I peeked outside my bedroom window, & yep, there she was – Bella Luna with the bite of the eclipse in progress. My cat was mewling, I thought she wanted breakfast, but no, she couldn’t wait to go out into the nocturnal scene.

The sky was completely clear. From my backyard garden I could see Orion’s Belt pointing down to scintillating Sirius with its rainbow colors, which set off the blazing orange of Mars high above.  Aldebaran & the 7 Sisters of the Pleiades were less distinct as they held witness.

At first I stood at the threshold of my kitchen doorway, where the event was unfolding in its frame, remembering how Ernst Katz, a teacher of Anthroposophy & professor of physics at the University of Michigan, used to say that he would never step out into the night during an eclipse. The energies were too overwhelming for him.

As I prayed the ‘Our Father’, taking each of the 7 lines as a universe unto itself, the bright light of Bella Luna was rapidly being diminished by the shadow of our Earth. I was surprised how fast the darkness moved. I worked a bit with the Prologue to John’s Gospel, but then felt called to alternate between the 5th panel of the Foundation Stone Meditation & the Lord’s Prayer.

As the eclipse was nearing totality, I kept feeling drawn – no compelled – to go outside & my speaking became more emphatic, which woke CG my beloved. When he saw what was happening he said let’s go out. Ok I thought – when 2 or more are gathered – so we grabbed coats & stepped into the highly charged atmosphere. It was after 5 am & the totality brought Andromeda into the mix. Whereas before, the darkness had moved so quickly, now as the luminary became rust red, time seemed to stop.

I kept up the prayers, adding this Steiner verse which I like to do along with the eurythmy gesture for ‘Love A’ over & over.

“In purest outpoured light shimmers the godhead of the world.
In purest love toward all the lives
Outpours the godhood of my soul
I rest within the godhead of the world
There shall I find myself within the godhead of the world”.

It was after 6 am & I actually started to feel a wave of panic – like the light was never going to return, so I prayed ever more earnestly & spoke the 5th panel centering on the ‘Cosmic Spirit-Light of the World’ – calling to Michael who stands with us – that humanity may hold the shield & sword of light.

Just then CG & I saw a shooting star! This was such a powerful affirmation, especially because I had several close encounters with shooting stars while I was at Kimberton Camphill, which is a story for another day.

Finally around 6:30 am, as the moon was sliding ever Westward, we could see the top of Bella Luna lighting up to look like a silver chalice that had been turned on its head. As the illumination pushed down, it appeared to us to resemble the blackboard drawing by Rudolf Steiner for Lesson 12 where he shows the human eye looking up into cosmic expanses. This impression was carried behind the tenement building as the Eastern sky lit up with the dawn.

Coming inside the warm house really felt like a homecoming – back to Earth & the human realm. I made some biodynamic Zinniker eggs & we talked over our impressions as the Sun came up.

What an extraordinary journey. All day I have felt heightened, lack of sleep can lift me out of myself a bit. The atmosphere still seems extra permeated with layers of unnamable forces. I wonder what effect it will have – on our midterm elections – & in the long run. How do we work to employ these kinds of cosmic & earthly opportunities to strengthen of our human evolution..?

With you in the Christ-Light

~hag

Daniel Bonnell

“Driven by the Spirit into the Desert” with Rev. Patrick Kennedy 
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Branch of the Anthroposophical Society invites you to 

Join us for a webinar on Sunday, November 20, 2022 at 3:00 PM EST

Our spiritual evolution does not take place separate from what is happening in the world. What used to take place in the hidden places of mystery schooling in the world is now a factor within history: The school of our becoming is life itself. In this presentation we will pick up the key elements that Rudolf Steiner names in his lecture from July 30th of 1918 and with them see better into the nature of what is happening in our time. What is revealed places us within powerful cultural streams of the present time – “Americanism, Bolshevism and Jesuitism” – and reveals the profound challenge we are called to face in establishing the truly a human – and a truly human culture – within this context. It is a societal level expression of what is revealed as a mystery image at the opening of the ancient gospel texts: the temptation of Jesus in the desert.

Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WDtT9UNVT2-5dS8KxGgdLw

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In preparation for this webinar, please read the following lecture: 

https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/19180730p01.html

Proceeds will benefit the Seminary of the Christian Community in North America

Bio:

In April of 2006, Patrick Kennedy was consecrated into the priesthood in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to attending the seminary in Stuttgart, Germany, Patrick studied and worked in the field of early childhood education and received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz in cultural anthropology. He has worked as a priest in the congregations in Devon, Pennsylvania and the Greater Washington, D.C., area. Then, in Chestnut Ridge, New York, he took up the roles of both seminary director and resident priest in the local congregation. In July 2019, Patrick, his family, and the entire seminary moved to the Toronto area.

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Shining a Light into the Darkness

Path of Knowledge inner development is itself a process of shining light into the darkness. 

As social challenges are intensifying, we are called upon more urgently to develop new capacities in understanding the human being, nature and medicine in wholeness. This series will focus on historical thinking influences which still darkly affect the soul of every modern human being. 

Because we see everywhere today that the “light shines into the darkness and the darkness comprehends it not”, what is our response to the recognition of darkness which lives within the thinking of each of us?

This series is open to all who study anthroposophy.

Proceeds will benefit anthroposophic organizations worldwide.

For a list of all webinars in this series:

https://www.ideasbookstorekimberton.com/zoom

SE PA Branch of the A.S.A. thanks IDEAS Bookstore for hosting the series’ announcement/registration page.

Election Eclipse

Dear Friends – I am just now landing back from the AAP training with many insights that I hope to share soonly. But I want to send out this message tonight before the Lunar Eclipse begins at 2:02 am CT – so that we might make it our intention to tune in together – to hold the light in the dark. But even if you are reading this after the fact – the eclipse energy is written in the astral script – so, you can still add your enchristened enegries into the mix!

I have often commented on the extremely interesting fact that the ‘powers that be’ have deliberately chosen to hold elections on a Tuesday – the day associated with the planet Mars – bringing with it all the patriarchal associations of male control, war & aggression; but can also provide us with the will for action if we choose to direct our passions for justice & not martial power over, tuning in instead to the Buddha energies that seek to reach us now from the red planet.    

Another thing to ponder is that elections are always held during the season of All Soul-Tide, when the veils between the worlds are thin. Those of us who work with the “so-called dead” know how powerful & healing this interaction can be. The question is how are the ‘powers that be’ working with them?

Rudolf Steiner’s research tells us that: “Certain occult brotherhoods, however, make it their business to work in exactly the opposite sense; they want to retain the wisdom exclusively within their own narrow circles, in order to exploit it in connection with their lusts for power. We are living in the midst of this struggle.”

Ok, so that’s a lot to ponder with just a regular election day – but this year is especially fraught: Starting this evening – in the middle of the night – at 2:02 am Central Time – is the beginning of the Lunar eclipse of the Full ‘Mourning Moon’ – 8 November– Election Day  2022 –

2:02 am CT – Penumbral Eclipse begins – The Earth’s penumbra start touching the Moon’s face. 

3:09 am- Partial Eclipse begins – Partial moon eclipse starts – moon is getting red.

4:16 am – Total Eclipse begins – Total moon eclipse starts – completely red moon.

4:59 am – Maximum Eclipse – Moon is closest to the center of the shadow.

5:41 am – Total Eclipse ends – Total moon eclipse ends.
Moon close to horizon, so make sure you have free sight to West-northwest

6:40 am – Setting – Moonset

6:49 am –  Not directly visible – Partial Eclipse ends Below horizon

7:56 am – Not directly visible – Penumbral Eclipse ends Below horizon

To add to this eclipse energy we also hear Speaking: The Sun, Mercury and Venus which are all in the constellation of Libra, the Scales.

Mercury will be behind the Sun (in superior conjunction with the Sun). This all takes place in the descending Lunar Node, the tail of the dragon, and will stand opposite the Full Moon Total Eclipse – conjunct Uranus in the ascending Lunar Node, the head of the dragon, in the stars of the Aries the Ram!

PLUS: This potent configuration of planets will be in a T-square (at 90-degree angle) to Saturn in Capricorn – which creates a confrontational relationship with Mars.

Here are some curated inspights from astrosopher Jonathan Hilton: ‘In astrosophy, one can understand these lunar nodes as significant cosmic portals or gateways. They are, in a sense, open doors between the cosmic realm and the earthly realm where cosmic forces from the higher spiritual solar spheres may stream unobstructed by the envelope of the lunar sphere into the Earth sphere. Perhaps many of you are aware of the significance of the Moon Node returns in human biography, when the lunar nodes return after 18.6 years to their place at the human birth, thus, opening up the cosmic realm in human biography and bringing new developmental impulses into the human life. So, in a general sense when a planet is in a lunar node, one can say that its impulses are streaming more directly into the Earth sphere and are more accessible.

These nodes are also the source of eclipses, because when the Sun and Moon are along the same axis in these nodes at the same time, the Earth will stand directly between the Sun and Moon causing the Sun to be blocked from shining on the Moon while the Earth shadow passes across the Moon.

These eclipses can be seen as omens of evil and danger, for the Sun activity is blocked allowing the lower “shadow beings” of the Moon to be let loose upon the Earth, since they are not held in check by the sunlight on the Moon.

So here we have, setting up our Election Day, this potential for the subconscious, lower astral forces, or “evil thoughts” to influence or “possess” human souls.”

This eclipse is also occurring with the Moon conjunct Uranus in the Dragon’s Head ascending node, Uranus can be used by the opposing forces to arouse the lower astral forces or, as Steiner says, to attract the evil thoughts which are present in the cosmos to approach ‘those human beings who are desirous of being possessed by them’.

It is for this reason, that we who can be conscious, meet this event with the full presence of the Christic forces of the true I AM, the Spiritual Sun – awake to the working of subconscious forces.

Remember that also in this picture of the Lunar Eclipse Moon and Uranus, we also see standing opposite, the Sun conjunct Mercury and nearby Venus in the stars of the Scales. Mercury and Venus are more of the nature of the Sun and can become real tools of transformation for human beings to consciously work with.

So, with Mercury, Sun, and Venus in the Scales, the stars of Michael, the stars of the threshold, we can hear the cosmic beings speaking to us to address the challenge of this eclipse configuration with Uranus; to recognize the help of Michael in the battle in which we find ourselves on the threshold between the higher thinking and the lower dragon forces which want to drag humanity down into ever darker materialism and the old forms of the past. This configuration altogether can be taken up in contemplation on many levels as a picture of the need in humanity to raise our thinking, to stand on the threshold, and consciously employ the Christ ego force in our thinking and will to transform and heal in this time of transition.

But there’s more: This Eclipse configuration with Moon and Uranus in Aries opposite Sun, Mercury, Venus in Libra comes into a T-square with the planet Saturn in Capricorn. The meaning of this takes us again back to the events of 2020 and the Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Capricorn at solstice/Christmas 2020 – setting the stage for the ‘Corona’/ covid experience.

The stars of Capricorn carry both a past and future vision of destruction, catharsis and initiation. They carry both the memory of the Great War in Heaven on Ancient Moon evolution as well as the vision of the 7th Cultural Age and the end of our Epoch which brings the War of All Against All.

Saturn in a square relationship to this eclipse configuration reveals the struggle, the confrontation and conflicts we carry within our humanity around our shared world karma. It wants to bring us back on track with the Divine Plan of evolution, through whatever karma must be taken up to do so. It also stands as a question, reminding us of who we are from our origins and asking us how we will meet this eclipse moment.

One of the most powerful lectures by Steiner is his lecture on the Mystic Lamb, from The Influence of Spiritual Beings on Man, GA 102. In it he develops a picture of the zodiac and the human being in evolution in relation to the Christ. This picture of the mystic lamb can be a balm for us during the eclipse.

Libra – Sun, Mercury, Venus: Michael offering; Heart-thinking; Humanity on the Threshold between the dragon and the divine wisdom; standing between worlds holding the balance through the I AM.

Aries – Moon, Uranus: The new clair-thinking; Imaginative thinking and the Spirit Self; the true I AM; the Lamb of God who sacrificed for humanity

Capricorn – Saturn: the Father Will; World karma and the divine plan of evolution at work through catharsis; cosmic memory of our true nature and our evolutionary goals; the great division and War that will ultimately lead to reunion.

In this context of the significance of Saturn in this configuration, and the karmic call of the Father memory for the I Am to become active and awakened in humanity, I am reminded of Steiner’s re-phrasing of the Prologue to John’s Gospel in Lecture 7 of The Pre-Earthly Deeds of Christ, GA 152.

May we carry this thought into this eclipse configuration:

In the Primal Beginning is Memory,
And the Memory lives on further,
And Divine is the Memory.
And the Memory is Life.
And this Life is the Ego of Man
Which streams into Man himself,
Not he alone, the Christ in him.
When he remembers the Divine Life
In his Memory is the Christ.
And as the radiant Life of Memory
Christ will pour Light
Into every Darkness of the immediate present.
~Rudolf Steiner

~from Jonathan Hilton, read the whole article here: Astrosophy.com

Working with The Lord’s Prayer, & the 5th panel of the foundation Stone Meditation are also very powerful now.

Blessings my dear Michaelic Warriors as we carry the sheild & hold the sword of light during this time out of time

~hag

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
ALL HALLOWTIDE II
The Ripening Of Creative Powers
v31

The light from spirit depths
strives outwards like the sun,
becomes life’s strength of will
and shines in senses’ dullness
to birth the forces
that ripen creative powers
in human work the soul initiates.

This is the third verse of the Light Quartet, that begins with v5, when the light from spirit depths reveals the gods’ creative work, and culminates in v48 with the awakening of love in the human heart. Its mirror is the second one, v22, when summer’s light became the spirit light in us to raise the fruits whose ripening will lead us to our higher self.
Rudolf Steiner once spoke of how with every breath of air, we take not only air but also light into ourselves and that we transform this light within us and make it our own as we do any other substance: we digest it, that is, we make it an integral part of our self (qv. The Archangel Michael 11/30/1919).

AUTUMN PRELUDE II
The Ripening Of Self
v22

The cosmic light lives on with inner power,
becomes the light of soul
and shines in depths of spirit
to birth the fruits
that in the couse of time will ripen
the human Self from Cosmic Self.

Book of the Dead

Dearly Beloved – On this Eve of All Hallows Eve, do you have the courage to look beyond the mask of the material world, into the spirit realm, the place of our beginning, the time of our unborness, the abode of our ending, when we shuffle off this mortal coil, only to begin again & yet again, as we strive toward the eternal…?

Mat Bouten

Take heart my friends, for every ending is a new beginning. At All Hallows–tide we stand at the Cross Quarter between Autumn Equinox & Winter Solstice, a time when great transformations are possible. Since with the veils between the worlds so thin, the power of all the worlds are available to us.

Ulrich Osterloh

What is it like to bring awareness to this most important human initiation, this true rite-of-passage? Can we work to consciously “Cross the Threshold”, as we do in meditation, in sleep & ultimately in our life between death & rebirth..?

Katlyn Breene

As far back as ancient Persia, Mesopotamia & Sumeria, we find many initiation myths like the Epic of Gilgamesh, & the Descent of Inanna, that describe communicating with the dead & a journey to the underworld.

In Ancient Egypt we find: The Book of the Dead = ‘Book of Coming Forth by Day’ also called the ‘Book of Emerging Forth into the Light’; an ancient Egyptian funeral text illustrated with vignettes depicting the deceased & their journey in the afterlife. It was placed in the coffin or burial chamber. The Book consists of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person’s journey through the Duat, or underworld, & into the afterlife. It was written by many priests over a period of over a 1000 years.

Perhaps since in our time now we are recapitulating this epoch we might gain insight by looking into this text with modern eyes.

From ancient Greece we have the story of Demeter & Persephone, as Queen of the Underworld, connected to the secret festival of Thesmophoria, celebrated exclusively by the women. They dressed in white robes & observed strict chastity before & after the ceremony. According to Greek mythology, Demeter’s daughter, Persephone, was gathering flowers one autumn day when she was taken by Pluto, god of the underworld, to his subterranean kingdom. This was re-enacted as an initiation rite of death & resurrection. The 2nd night the women fasted & lowered wild boar, sacred to the goddess Circe & Hecate, into chasms in the earth as a sacrifice.

Francis Davis Millet

On the 3rd night the bones from former festivals were placed on altars & mixed with seed corn, which was then sown in the fields as a kind of magical fertilizer to ensure a good crop. Then they had a big feast. They would also cast herbs on their beds & sit on the ground to promote the fertility of the corn.

Although this festival was sacred & solemn, there was a lot of rather bawdy jokes in the style of the wild Crone Baubo, the sexually liberated Goddess of Mirth, who jested with Demeter to try & cheer her up after the loss of her daughter, & get her to bring fertility back to the earth again.

Paul Sérusier

The Romans had a similar festival in honor of Ceres. Also with the Eleusinian mysteries, we see initiation rites enacted to gain inspiration from the gods & the ancestors.

Robin Samiljan

The full moon of October is known as the Hunter’s or Blood Moon – Which came early this year aligned with the Jewish Festival of Sukkot. This was called ‘The Final Harvest’ – Traditionally, the hunters would be out in force. After the end of the breeding season, & before the severe weather comes to kill off many of these creatures anyway, they were taken for the cooking-pot, to supplement what might otherwise be a rather meager winter diet.

With all this death around, it is not surprising that people’s thoughts turned to human mortality.

The Celtics call All Hallows or Samhain their New Year. Autumn is also the time of the Islamic New Year.  Likewise for the Jewish people, with their New Year Rosh Hashanah; & at the end of the High Holy Days Sukkot is celebrated, where they build a hut & invite the ancestors & the elemental beings to come to the feast. When you think about it, it makes sense to let the old year die away – like the plant life, during this transition into the dark.

It is also traditional to look toward the future, & to dress up as what you want to Become for the New Year. To ask questions, like: Who have I been? Who am I now? & where am I going…? Who do I want to become?

And these are the kind of questions we can ask our beloved dead.

Paul Serisr

In Wales the souls of the dead are known as ‘the Silent Company’, but when they are welcomed with bwyd cennad y meinv, “the food for the embassy of the dead.” They become our helpers.

We can think of our ancestral allies in 3 ways:

 1. Ancestors of the Blood – A common ancestral guide is a relative we knew & had some kind of positive connection with in this lifetime, quite often a loving grandparent or great-grandparent.

2. Ancestors of the Soul – This is an ancestral guide from a past life who may have been some kind of teacher or mentor to us.

3. Ancestors of Humanity – These were heroes whose lives were dedicated to the service of human evolution, like Casper Hauser or Jeanne d’Arc. They can be called upon in times of crisis, as Dion Fortune & her group called upon King Arthur & Merlin during the 2nd World War.

Terri Fenny

Dear friends, let’s take this opportunity to part the veil – letting go of our sense bound thinking, to consciously work with our spiritual helpers in this time great uncertainty. Let us set the table with our intention to join together in communion to celebrate the feast of life in all its aspects; as we build a picture of wholeness on the inner planes, which will ray out into all worlds.  

~hag

30 October 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Mars stands stationary against the background stars of Taurus – the Red Planet is north of Alheka (Zeta [ζ] Tauri), which marks one of the Bull’s two horns.Because it’s nearing opposition, Mars is visible during most of the time it’s dark overnight. You can opt to catch the Red Planet either in the hours before dawn if you’re an early riser, or after it clears the horizon by 9 pm local time if you’re a night owl. ~astronomy.com

Sunrise: 7:27 A.M.
Sunset: 6:00 P.M.
Moonrise: 1:24 P.M.
Moonset: 10:25 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (32%)

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
HALLOWEEN
Soul Sunlight
v30

In sunlight of my soul
thought’s fruit matures;
all feeling turns to sureness
of self-awareness.
I joy to sense
the autumn’s rousing of the spirit;
within me will the winter wake
the summer of the soul.

Halloween was originally the Celtic Wise Woman festival of Samhain [‘Summer’s End’]. The summer’s being now begins to shine as the summer of the soul, the cosmic light living on with inner power. Its mirror verse, v23, of imaginative consciousness has changed after Michaelmas to an inspired one, an autumn awakening of a higher self that can be born as the Spirit Child at Christmas.

AUTUMN PRELUDE III
The Yield Of Summer
v23

In autumn haze
the senses’ lure fades;
a mist arising veils
the light’s revealing.
In widths of space I see
the autumn landscape fall asleep;
the summer’s yielded me her being
for me to reap.

Dear friends – I am heading out for another session of my AAP training at the Kimberton Camphill, so my All Hallows post tomorrow will be my last until I return on 8 Nov. just in time for the Lunar Eclipse, which also happens to be election day here in Chicago. I voted early, taking the time to research all the candidates, which is not as easy as it used to be, the entitled apathy of these politicians is blatant. But there are a few folks out there fighting for Medical & Reproductive Freedom, who care about community, workers rights, & the environment, who think that we should put kids before guns…etc…So if you are willing to really take your civic duty seriously, & are willing to vote beyond party lines, you can make a difference – VOTE!   

Our Annual All Souls Celebration – 
A Community Circle to Honor Our Beloved Dead

Wednesday, November 2, 2022
In-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 
4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL. 60613

Doors open 5 pm
5:15-6:00 Potluck Dinner & Conversation 
Transition to the Upper Room 
6:05 Verse for the So-Called Dead
6:10-6:20 Singing
6:20-6:30 Speak Their Names
6:30-6:40 Social Art for the Dead
6:40-7:10 Conversation RE Experience 
7:10 Closing Verse

For those wishing to attend All Souls Day Vesper Service (Ultra-Violet Archer will be singing)
at The Christian Community, please arrive at the Church and be seated by 7:25 pm
The service will begin promptly at 7:30pm

2135 W WILSON AVE
CHICAGO, IL  60625
Church calendar.

For more info. contact Coordinators Deborah Rogers or Paulette Arnold
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

. Dits & -Dahs

Teal Swan

There is no doubt about it – Sirius is my favorite star-being! The way it scintillates has to be a kind of cosmic Morse Code. Even when I was a child it spoke to me. I have had many dreams over the years knowing they were messages from this place in space. I remembering reading something Steiner said about how except for those human beings known as Adam & Eve, most of us left Earth during the tumultuous early Lumerian times, when Earth was still so very volatile, & went to dwell on other planets or stars. (Can any one share that reference?) This definitely rings true for me. (I often still have a hard time being an Earthling).

As a young woman Doris Lessing’s science fiction series ‘Canopus in Argos‘ where Beings from Sirius come to help us remember our cosmic origins, made a deep impression. Truly formative, It really rang true, that yes, sometimes we forget who we really are, & the stars are there to remind us.

Garth Battista caught Orion & Sirius – the bright star on the far left, at a School Farm in the Catskill Mountains

Right now this special star rises over the southeastern horizon after midnight; & at dawn we can see its brilliance adorning the southern part of the sky. This morning at 5:30 am we were communing, & wow, Sirius is seriously the brightest star of the whole sky. Even the city lights can’t interfere with its beaming message.

Sopdet or Sothis is the ancient Egyptian name of the star Sirius & its personification as an Egyptian goddess, conflated with Isis as a goddess & Anubis as a god. It’s easy to follow Orion to find Sirius: the starry belt of the mythological hunter points at this dazzling star, whose name means “glowing triangle or “Sharp One. ” Being the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (which was traditionally associated with Orion’s dog), Sirius is also known as the “Dog Star”.  During the dog days of summer the Nile rises with Sirius to feed the fertile bank & bring life to the desert.

During the early period of Egyptian civilization, this heliacal rising of the bright star preceded the annual flooding of the Nile. It was therefore used for the solar calendar which largely superseded the original lunar calendar in the 3rd millennium BC. & became central to cultural depictions of the year & to the celebrations of Wep Renpet the Egyptian New Year (starting around the beginning of August ie. ‘The dog days’) And Sopdet or Sothis was venerated as a goddess of the fertility brought to the soil by the flooding.

Sopdet is the consort of Sah, the personified constellation of Orion near Sirius. Their child Venus was the hawk god Sopdu, “Lord of the East”. As the “bringer of the New Year & the Nile flood”, she was associated with Osiris from an early date, & by the Ptolemaic period Sah & Sopdet almost solely appeared in forms conflated with Osiris & Isis.

She was depicted as a woman with a five-pointed star upon her head, usually with a horned hedjet. In the Ptolemaic & Roman period, the European notion of the “Dog Star” caused her to sometimes be represented as a large dog or as a woman riding one sidesaddle.

During the Old Kingdom, she was also an important ‘psychopomp’ working in the guise of Anubis, guiding deceased pharaohs thru the Egyptian underworld.

From the Middle Kingdom, Sopdet sometimes appeared as a god who held up part of Nut (the sky or firmament) with Hathor. In Greco-Roman Egypt, the male Sopdet was conflated with the dog-headed Anubis.

Myztico Campo

The Dogon Tribe from Mali, West Africa honor their connection to their Star Ancestors from Sirius.

Sothis brings her light here to this side of the globe during Autumn & Winter…So friends, make it your intention to tune into the message of Sirius thru its shimmering rainbow of light,  then let me know what you talked about. Maybe I’ll be in the conversation with you, reminding each other of our divine origins…

~hag

28 October 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”

The waxing crescent Moon is back in the evening sky, low in the southwest. As twilight deepens and the stars begin to come out — but before the Moon gets too low — look for the Sagittarius Teapot in its background

Teal Swan

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY 

1260 – Chartres Cathedral is consecrated

Beal Hampton

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Hail claw in my heart,
Talon of the Hawk,
Bearer of yesterday & tomorrow…
Hail bright star in darkness,
White spider legs dancing on a web of night,
I’ve made my home within you…
The bitter herb I drank killed & cleansed & freed me,
I am new…

~hag

Our Annual All Souls Celebration – 
A Community Circle to Honor Our Beloved Dead

Wednesday, November 2, 2022
In-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 
4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL. 60613

Doors open 5 pm
5:15-6:00 Potluck Dinner & Conversation 
Transition to the Upper Room 
6:05 Verse for the So-Called Dead
6:10-6:20 Singing
6:20-6:30 Speak Their Names
6:30-6:40 Social Art for the Dead
6:40-7:10 Conversation RE Experience 
7:10 Closing Verse

For those wishing to attend All Souls Day Vesper Service 
at The Christian Community, please arrive at the Church and be seated by 7:25 pm
The service will begin promptly at 7:30pm

2135 W WILSON AVE
CHICAGO, IL  60625
Church calendar.

For more info. contact Coordinators Deborah Rogers or Paulette Arnold
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

Valve Released

partial eclipse of the sun
Photo taken by Rex Kramer using camera obscura like projection of the eclipse on a oil painting
 on October 25, 2022 -Munich, Germany

After receiving a pleasant and astute whisper from Mercury in sidereal Virgo, Luna moves on to trine Mars giving us grace to gently take right action, tidying up a bit to make the most of this grand alchemical opportunity we are getting TODAY Tuesday October 25 with this solar eclipse. Humans, as Sun, or Christ indwelt beings (hopefully) are tasked with stepping in with this Divine solar light to with care and gentleness tame the inner and outer dragon as he moves to devour the Sun.

An eclipse is like a release valve, and an opportunity for transformation. Some Karma is now ripe to be healed. May we be courageous and determined to see the potential for beauty in all we are called to heal. This eclipse occurs in conjunction with Venus, the goddess of love and beauty gifting us with creativity to wisely use as Children of God. ~Hermes Work

25 October 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun & the Earth, covering part of the solar disk. This happens when the New Moon – the conjunction of the Sun & Moon – occurs near one of the Moon Nodes.

Partial solar eclipse is when the Moon covers the disk of the Sun part way. The influence of the solar eclipse actively manifests itself two weeks before the eclipse, & two weeks after – a perfect opportunity to pour positive thought forms out to the Universe.

The eclipse is happening right now here in Chicago but it opens a corridor for 18.5 years ahead.

This partial solar eclipse is visible from Europe, the Middle East, parts of Asia & Africa. Almost all of Europe is in the eclipse zone with the deepest eclipse in the Scandinavian countries – Maximum eclipse occurs at 11:00 UT in northwest Russia where 86% of the solar disk is covered.

Louise Francke

In considering karma and disease, both of the individual and whole populations, we have seen that what has been prepared during earlier times spiritually asserts itself later in physical life. Therefore, if we ensure that humanity has good education and habits, we will promote health too! Not only is the moral element promoted by good habits, but also health, since bad habits create disease in the next incarnation. Nervousness, one of the most typical illnesses today, results from a particular state of mind in an earlier life. It would never have occurred if the materialistic worldview with its habits of thought had not become so prevalent. Should this mindset persist, it would devastate public health and drive humankind to madness. ~ Rudolf Steiner – GA 97 – Das christliche Mysterium – Stuttgart, March 14, 1906 (page 255)

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY 

1180 – Deathday of John of Salisbury, an English author, philosopher, educationalist, diplomat and bishop of Chartres.

1400 – Detahday of Geoffrey Chaucer, English philosopher, poet, & author best known for The Canterbury Tales.

sketch by Friedrich Engels

1806 – Birthday of Max Stirner, a German post-Hegelian philosopher, dealing mainly the notion of social alienation & self-consciousness. Stirner is often seen as one of the forerunners of nihilism, existentialism, psychoanalytic theory, postmodernism & individualist anarchism. In his book ‘The Ego And Its Own’, Stirner launches a radical anti-authoritarian critique of contemporary western society.

In the time of spirits thoughts grew till they overtopped my head, whose offspring they yet were; they hovered about me and convulsed me like fever-phantasies – an awful power. The thoughts had become corporeal on their own account, were ghosts, e. g. God, Emperor, Pope, Fatherland, etc. If I destroy their corporeity, then I take them back into mine, and say: “I alone am corporeal.” And now I take the world as what it is to me, as mine, as my property; I refer all to myself.”

1881 – Birthday of Pablo Picasso, a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most-influential artists of the 20th century & one of the creators of Cubism.

~~~Lightening lives in the marrow of my bones
It pours out from my eyes
Throbbing like a disco ball my skull
A blue speckled egg cracks open
Allowing the flaming sun to roll out
In a fine dust
settling on the world…
~hag