Effective Tools for Suicide Prevention by Jennifer McGregor*
Depression and suicidality are some of the most dangerous and underestimated health conditions affecting people today. The CDC notes suicide as one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. and points out that suicide rates have gone up in nearly every state since 1999. People kill themselves for myriad reasons, ranging from tangible challenges in their day-to-day lives to invisible, internal struggles no one else ever sees.
Fortunately, this is preventable. When it comes to suicide, our actions matter. As a society and as individuals, we have the power to lower suicide rates and protect one another from this avoidable tragedy. Here are some tools you can use to prevent suicide in your community:
Access to Health Care
Suicidality is a medical problem. Proper health care is essential in preventing it:
For many people, talk therapy can reduce suicide urges and provide effective coping tools.
Depending on the root cause behind suicidality, medication may also be appropriate.
Many people are what’s known as passively suicidal. Though this is marked by a lack of urgency, it is still dangerous, and you should speak to a doctor or therapist as soon as possible.
In addition to talk therapy and medication, coping skills such as exercise, eating a regular, healthy diet, and learning how to sit in unpleasant emotions can make a big difference.
Meditation and mindfulness can also help soothe your spirit and teach you to live in the moment, rather than dwell in the past or fear for the future.
Suicide affects us all on both a community and an interpersonal level. We have to learn how to join together and address the root causes of suicide. In doing so, we can ensure that fewer people – and perhaps, eventually, no one – is lost this way.
*Jennifer McGregor is a pre-med student, who enjoys writing about health and medical topics and providing reliable health and medical resources for Public Health Library users. She knows how difficult it can be to sift through the mountains of health-related information on the web and wants to make it easier for people to find high quality health info.
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Sandra Cwendel
Dear friends –
Karl Jung tells it like it is: “Whatever is rejected from the self, appears in the world as an event.” So ok, we’ve got our work cut out for us! Brothers, sisters, don’t give up. Stay tuned, the plot twists will be intriguing. Stand upright, get aligned, ‘cause the actors will be unpredictable, even the archetypes erratic. Decay & blossoming will be happening simultaneously, & the line between wisdom & craziness will get blurry.
Isabelle M Gonzales
But you are not alone, & there’s no way to describe the epic sweep of spiritual forces working behind the scenes. And yet if we really listen, we can feel a pulsing, a harmonious throbbing, undulating in waves out from the unseen, working thru US to help form our reality.
SO: Are we willing to confront uncanny truths that some might regard as too unruly? Are we brave enough to penetrate to the depths, that perhaps in the past we were too timid to look at, let alone deal with? Our willingness to focus our intention for the good shall give us the power to ultimately emerge from this pandemonium with our integrity, intelligence & heart forces shining.
Trudy Gent
H.P. Lovecraft captures it: “Pleasure to me is wonder. It’s the unexplored, the unexpected, the thing that is hidden and the changeless thing that lurks behind superficial mutability. To trace the remote in the immediate; the eternal in the ephemeral; the past in the present; the infinite in the finite; these are to me the springs of delight and beauty.”
Swimming in it with you
~hag
kelly Hunter
17 October 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bella Luna unlocking the mysteries of retrograde Mercury (occult Venus – think messenger of Love writing itself a letter!) – Our solar system’s smallest, speediest planet is heading toward inferior conjunction on the 25th. Tonight, it shines in the southwest next to the waxing crescent Moon just 10 minutes after sunset. The Moon sets shortly after, taking the retro love note into the dark to ponder.
~I see the beginning Begin again from this end Coming forth well invoked & flowing like a web on the wind… ~hag
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31 October, 1 pm – 3 pm CT
‘Soul to Soul’ on-line Festival with the Central Regional Council
Join the CRC for an All Souls Pageant on All Hallows Eve, honoring our connection with our Beloved Dead, thru music, & poetry & Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts – ‘Break Out’ sessions & live music with special guest Rev. Carol Kelly
Halloween 31 October 2020, Saturday 11 am – 1 pm PT / 1 pm – 3 pm CT / 2pm – 4pm ET
Stay tuned for ZOOM details
All Souls Election Day Vigil Tuesday 3 November 2020 7 pm – 9 pm CT
We will hold space with each other & connect with the ‘so called dead’ to bring healing on both sides of the Threshold, during Electon Night 2020, through Soical Sculpture with Lucien Dante Lazar & special guest host Anne Nicholson
Meeting ID: 943 1996 1767 Passcode: 494798 One tap mobile +13126266799,,94319961767#,,,,,,0#,,494798# US (Chicago) +16468769923,,94319961767#,,,,,,0#,,494798# US (New York)
Dial by your location +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 646 876 9923 US (New York) +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) Meeting ID: 943 1996 1767 Passcode: 494798 Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/a5qH2seB0
The Connection Between Epidemics, the Souls of the Dead, & the Spiritual World – Leading thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg based on Spiritual Scientific research & indications from Rudolf Steiner
With Group Eurythmy, Singing, Social Sculpture while reading the names of the dead, & Break out Sessions.
In-person at Elderberries Biodynamic Outpost & 3 fold Cultural Hub, in conjunction with the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago, 4249-51 N. Lincoln Ave.
Meeting ID: 984 1208 0773 Passcode: 054456 One tap mobile +13126266799,,98412080773#,,,,,,0#,,054456# US (Chicago) +16468769923,,98412080773#,,,,,,0#,,054456# US (New York)
Dial by your location +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 646 876 9923 US (New York) +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 984 1208 0773 Passcode: 054456 Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/acVfkxLHkM
Working into October’s Virtue “Satisfaction Becomes Serenity” continued:
This morning at dawn, I could perceive a hint of white mist, spreading across the glassy lake; expanding over the fields of exposed seeds & brown stubble like a soft cloth. Nature is beginning her gestation, concealing in her womb the seeds of future growth. So rests also in our souls the seed of future life. What the future will bring us seems covered by these mists, & the darkening. But now the time has come when in the longer nights this spiritual seed wants to be cherished & nurtured.
Chía Ortegón
We can belong to ourselves again, igniting our inner light. If we foster this calm self-contemplation in our busy lives, even if only for a few minutes every day, we can live with a deep serenity, thru this dark season, & also into the future which is shrouded in the darkness of time.
Tocho Amelki
We must remember that all human life must fluctuate like the scales between two poles, it cannot be fixed. Day & night, life & death, activity & quietness, the out-breath & the in-breath, are the swipes of the pendulum, the rhythms which bear us thru the cycle of the year, & enable us to mature into our true being, when we have found the inner observer at the fulcrum of the scales.
CB Woodling
From this mood is prepared the soil from which the future fruits of the soul will ripen.
Collecting colored leaves with you
~hag
16 October 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: New Moon occurs this afternoon at 2:31: pm CT. Our satellite is also at perigee, the closest point in its orbit around our planet.
Lane Makkel
October 2020 has Two full moons (Blue Moon on Halloween!) with a meteor shower sandwiched in between – The annual Orionid meteor shower is already heating up. It generally lasts from early October through about Nov. 7. This year, it’s expected to reach its peak before dawn on Oct. 21. But don’t wait until then to start watching for meteors streaking across the sky. Earth passes through the trail of space debris (rocky dust and ice) left in the wake of Comet Halley. The Orionids, are considered to be one of the most beautiful showers of the year, known for their brightness & speed. Fast meteors can leave glowing ‘trains’ (incandescent bits of debris in the wake of the meteor) which last for several seconds to minutes. Fast meteors can also sometimes become fireballs: Look for prolonged explosions of light when viewing the Orionid meteor shower. You can typically see them anytime after dark, but after midnight is your best bet, & very early mornings are prime time to see these. So if you find yourself up early, like me, say from 4 am – 6 am – you’ve got a good shot at seeing them if you live in a place with dark skies. While the radiant for this meteor shower – the spot where the meteors seem to come from – is the constellation Orion, you can usually see these meteors from anywhere in the sky. So get outside early, look up & let your gaze wander.
1793 – Marie Antoinette, widow of Louis XVI, is guillotined at the height of the French Revolution.
1827 – Birthday of Arnold Bocklin , a Swiss symbolist painter portraying mythological, fantastical figures along classical architecture constructions creating a strange, fantasy world. Böcklin is best known for his five versions of the Isle of the Dead, which partly evokes the Cemetery close to his studio where his baby daughter Maria had been buried.
Rudolf Steiner speaks of him as an Arthurian Knight: Thus even in the 9th century, in the paganism of Europe, there still lived much of the pre-Christian Christianity. That is the remarkable fact. Moreover even in that time the belated followers of European paganism understood the Cosmic Christ far more worthily and truly than those who received the Christ in the Christianity that was spread officially under that name. Strangely we can see the life around King Arthur radiate into the present time, continued even into our time, placed into the immediate present by the sudden power of destiny. Thus I beheld in seership a member of the Round Table of King Arthur, who lived the life of the Round Table in a very deep and intense way, though he stood a little aside from the others who were given more to the adventures of their knighthood. This was a knight who lived a rather contemplative life, though it was not like the Knighthood of the Grail, for this did not exist in Arthur’s circle. What the knights did in the fulfilment of their tasks, which in accordance with that age were for the most part warlike campaigns, was called by the name ‘Adventure’ (Aventure). But there was one who stood out from among the others as I saw him, revealing a life truly wonderful in its inspiration. For we must imagine the knights going out on to the spur of land, seeing the wonderful play of clouds above, the waves beneath, the surging interplay of the one and the other, which gives a mighty and majestic impression to this very day. In all this they saw the Spiritual and were inspired with it, and this gave them their strength. But there was one among them who penetrated most deeply into this surging and foaming of the waves, with the spiritual beings wildly rising in the foam with their figures grotesque to earthly sight. He had a wonderful perception of the way in which the marvellously pure sun-influence played into the rest of nature, living and weaving in the spiritual life and movement of the surface of the ocean. He saw what lived in the light nature of the sun, borne up as it were by the watery atmosphere as we can see to this day, the sunlight approaching the trees and the spaces between the trees quite differently than in other regions, glittering back from between the trees, and playing often as in rainbow colours. Such a knight there was among them, one who had a peculiarly penetrating vision of these things. I was much concerned to follow his life into later time to see the individuality again. For just in this case something would needs enter into a later incarnation of a Christian life that was almost primitive and pagan, that was Christian only to the extent that I have just described. And this in fact was what appeared, for that Knight of the Round Table of King Arthur was born again as Arnold Böcklin. This riddle which had followed me for an immensely long time, can only be solved in connection with the Round Table of King Arthur. Thus you see that we have a Christianity tangible with spiritual touch to this very day, a Christianity before the Mystery of Golgotha which shed its light even into the time that I have just outlined ~Karmic Relationships, Volume IV: Lecture III
1922 – The founding of the Esoteric Youth Circle by Rudolf Steiner. Notes from the various preparatory discussions for the founding of the Group:
‘If I am to go into what I understand with the term “esoteric group” then let me say that if you want to take the esoteric earnestly, you must say to yourself that it is an action out of the impulses from the spiritual world. One can strive toward this. Anthroposophy is a path to this end. To build such a community would constitute a decision to set upon this path.
The spiritual is a living element & so such a group must not be something dead. The group must be a force-group. The health of each part is the health of the whole. It is the mutual taking on of karma that is created in such a community. There is then mutual suffering to live through, but also mutual joy. People must be treated like fellow human beings, with all their imperfections.
What you seek is to find a friend in the spiritual world. The important thing is to remain spiritually true to the friend once found. Therefore, the 1st requirement is that you learn quite precisely what spiritual loyalty is.
Your community will have in it something of the primordial mystery of all human community. This mystery is that, what we ourselves do within the community bears no fruit for us ourselves, but for others, & that the fruits for us come from others.
We must work for the progress of humanity – Just as the physical social life consists of deeds done together, so too we strive for common deeds in the spirit – thus actually, for a social working in the suprasensible.
We must endeavor to carry spirit into the furthest consequences of our actions. This alone – that we bring spirit & love into our will – can make it possible to stand firmly against being overrun by the cultural machine. Too few people today develop real initiative. There is a lot of willfulness, but little will.
The true meditation is a fulfilling of the spiritual will that the Time Spirit bears with itself. Where such meditation is practiced, a spiritual force is able to work into the earthly events. Spiritual worlds want to work in to earthly events today, but they can do this only when, through human meditation, space is created for it. Through meditation, something like an empty space comes about. Into this space, the spiritual beings can enter with their effects. And the power of meditating such a meditation in common increases by potentization.
When we do this community-meditation, it will bring about a deeper connection of the core of our being with our sheaths.
These meditations, when used correctly, could become something like windows into the spiritual world. The words & pictures given, form only half of what is to be entrusted to us. The other half we are to find ourselves through spiritual activity.
Each of you must feel joy for the success of the other. You must avoid every feeling of rivalry & have the awareness that what each of you accomplishes, you accomplish through the power of all of the others.
Uniting yourself through a mutual promise to strive toward a common spiritual goal – & leaving one another completely free in actions & judgements in life – such a community based on this is something completely new in the evolution of humanity. And it is what is most necessary today.
For someone who comes to specific results on the esoteric path, there is always the danger of delusions of grandeur. Such a community as yours can be a protection against this. For in it, you strive together to cross the threshold of the spiritual world. And there each of you has to say that you have the efforts of all the others to thank for what you have achieved personally.
Effects will arise in the destiny between human beings who are connected with us in the community physically & spiritually. The community will never die out. With the 1st community members who reincarnate, the community returns to Earth.
By persevering with the exercises we have a chance to stand up to Ahrimanic powers that no one person can withstand.
Through the reading of the oath given by Rudolf Steiner on 16 October 1922, in the presence of the others, the admittance into the community was effected.
And now consider your community as having been founded by the spiritual world itself…Now get to know each other well.
This gave us the idea to tell each other our biography at the mutual acceptance into membership.
What has taken place now is a 1st in the post-Christian era: human beings themselves chose, out of freedom before the spiritual world, to join together esoterically’.
The 12 founding members:
Daniel van Bemmelen, co-founder of the 1st Dutch Waldorf School
Georg Groot MD, 3-fold social order, co-worker in the Berlin Group of the College Association
Herbert Hahn, called by Steiner to teach at the Independent Waldorf School in Stuttgart
Ernst Lehrs, teacher at the Waldorf school in Stuttgart, served on the committee for the Independent Anthroposophical Society founded for the youth. Later taught in The Hague, London, & Aberdeen. Also taught with his wife Maria Roeschl in the Rudolf Steiner Seminar.
Rene Maikowski, business manager of the Association for Anthroposophical College Studies, also a Waldorf teacher.
Wilhelm Rath, bookseller, man of letters, farmer, was on the committee of the Independent Anthroposophical Society.
Wilhelm Selling, mechanical engineer, colonial officer in Africa, in charge of the Theosophical library, mentor of the youth work in Berlin
Karin Selling, part of the Scandinavian Theosophical Society, teacher at the Waldorf School in Stockholm
Emma Smit, teacher & organizer of the Independent school in The Hague
Maria Spira, came from the Zionist Youth Movement, married Wilhelm Rath
Albrecht Strohschein, business man, 1st co-worker in the Der Kommenden (The Coming Day) in Stuttgart, student of psychology in Jena, co-founder of the therapeutic pedagogical movement
Kurt Walther, postal officer, lecturer, & leader of many courses, the successor of Marie Steiner in the Executive Council of the Anthroposophical Socety,married Wilhelm Sellings sister ClaraSelling, who was part of Steiner’s household
Others that came in after the founding, in the transition of the Association for the Three-fold Social Organism as it moved into the Association for Independent Spiritual Life, included: Ernst Uehli, Rector Moritz, Michael Bauer, Hermann Beck, Eugen & Lily Kolisko, Emil Leinhas, Emil Molt, Rudolf Meyer, Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz, Fredrich Rittelmeyer, Walter Johannes Stein, Carl Unger, Ludwig Webeck, H. Wohlbold
1946 – Nuremberg trials: Execution of the convicted Nazi leaders of the Main Trial
1964 – China detonates its first nuclear weapon
1968 – United States athletes Tommie Smith & John Carlos are kicked off the US team for participating in the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute
1984 – Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
***
~hag
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~i am a cackle of joy in the throat of a wild goose swallowing cloud stuff in a dizzy triangle above the lake… ~hag
***
31 October, 1 pm – 3 pm CT
‘Soul to Soul’ on-line Festival
with the Central Regional Council
Join the CRC for an All Souls Pageant on All Hallows Eve, honoring our connection with our Beloved Dead, thru music, & poetry & Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts – ‘Break Out’ sessions & live music with special guest Rev. Carol Kelly
Halloween 31 October 2020, Saturday 11 am – 1 pm PT / 1 pm – 3 pm CT / 2pm – 4pm ET
Stay tuned for ZOOM details
***
Election Day – Tuesday 3 November 2020
7 pm – 9 pm CT
Our Annual All Souls Festival
We will hold space with each other & connect with the ‘so called dead’ to bring healing on both sides of the Threshold, during Electon Night 2020, through Social Sculpture with Lucien Dante Lazar.
In person at Elderberries Bio-dynamic Outpost in league with the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249-51 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago
Meeting ID: 943 1996 1767 Passcode: 494798 One tap mobile +13126266799,,94319961767#,,,,,,0#,,494798# US (Chicago) +16468769923,,94319961767#,,,,,,0#,,494798# US (New York)
Dial by your location +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 646 876 9923 US (New York) +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) Meeting ID: 943 1996 1767 Passcode: 494798 Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/a5qH2seB0
***
Friday 6 November 2020, 7 pm – 9 pm CT
‘Connections Revealed’
The Connection Between Epidemics, the Souls of the Dead, & the Spiritual World – Leading thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg based on Spiritual Scientific research & indications from Rudolf Steiner
With Group Eurythmy, Singing, Social Sculpture while reading the names of the dead, & Break out Sessions.
In-personat Elderberries Biodynamic Outpost & 3 fold Cultural Hub, in conjunction with the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago, 4249-51 N. Lincoln Ave.
Meeting ID: 984 1208 0773 Passcode: 054456 One tap mobile +13126266799,,98412080773#,,,,,,0#,,054456# US (Chicago) +16468769923,,98412080773#,,,,,,0#,,054456# US (New York)
Dial by your location +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 646 876 9923 US (New York) +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 984 1208 0773 Passcode: 054456 Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/acVfkxLHkM
You float…you feel a gentle breeze began to dance you through the air like a leaf in the fall. This is a very comforting feeling, like being carried in your mother’s arms. There is no fear. You spin through the sky, flying over fields & forests…
As the wind gently releases, you slowly begin to sink down toward a wilderness of trees. Gently, Gently…You reach the ground landing on a well-trodden path.
You begin, now, to walk the path heading in a familiar direction. As you walk, you notice the 1st hint of color changing the trees…& the silence, broken only by the gentle breeze…the song of birds & other animals. Ahead of you, the path opens up to a larger area. You arrive at this place, & know that it is a Sacred Place.
It may be a grove, or a shady spot under a large tree. It may be a clearing, or a meadow. It may be a stone-circle, or a temple. However it appears to you – know this is a Sacred Place, that feels safe & powerful.
Enter this Sacred Place…You may wish to remove your shoes because the ground is holy…You may wish to make an offering, or sing a blessing…As you enter, you see the bright figure of a woman ahead of you. She looks very familiar. She calls your name, & asks you to come forward. You are unable to make out her face, as she is engulfed in a brilliant glow. She leans forward; you close your eyes, & embrace. As you stand in the arms of this bright woman, she whispers a truth to you. It is a well-reasoned, logical truth. It may be something you already know, but are unaware of. It may be something which makes wonderful sense to you, & makes your mind open with wonder. It may be a mystical teaching which will require further thought. Whatever it may be, you know you are blessed by this amazing teaching…
Then the bright woman braids a chain of flowers into your hair…you touch your fingers to your head knowing your mind has been forever changed, opened, to all the possibilities of positive thinking that will transform your thoughts into things…
You spin with joy, noticing all at once, that the bright woman has vanished & now, standing before you, is a dark figure, looking strangely familiar. Again, you are unable to make out her face. But you notice she is carrying a bundle over her shoulder. She lays her burden down on the ground at your feet. The dark woman speaks to you, with a voice that resonates in a similar way as the first figure; yet deeper, more mellow & mysterious…She calls you by name, & asks you to come forward. You do so. You close your eyes, & embrace this dark woman…Your embrace is a full of compassion & warmth.
She gently whispers a truth in your ear. It is a truth which you feel is right. The truth touches your heart & frees your soul. You feel like a bird, soaring through the skies, singing a song of joy. When you open your eyes you become aware that the dark woman has vanished, & the bundle she was carrying which she left at your feet, has transformed into a large piece of rich honey-colored amber. You pick it up & hold it in your hand…the sun calls you to lift the amber up…bring it up into the light…let the sunshine merge with this solid symbol of your vitality…breathe in the pranic life-force emanating from your true purpose made manifest…
Put this treasure in your pocket, as you leave the Sacred Place…forever knowing that the sacred place goes where your intention flows…Knowing that union is possible between the many parts of our beings…walk in confidence… balanced in the light & dark of your most authentic self…walk the path toward the wilderness.
You pass the trees, & notice that the colors of their leaves are becoming more pronounced. You see the squirrels busy collecting nuts, & the birds beginning their southward journey. You pass the point where you began walking on this path.
You begin ascending a large hill. You walk upward…upward…up the hill, until you reach the top. There you find that you can see the surrounding countryside all around you. You have an amazing view of your Sacred Place. As you stand there in the waning Sun, you feel your mind & body change. Knowing in every cell of your being that our soul must sink into the earth like a seed in its season, released into the fertile earth. Feel the last wave of the Summer heat vanish, you are in a warm blanket of earth, waiting, listening, waiting…feeling the loving arms of Mother Earth awakening you to transformation…
Put on the colors of autumn, & feel the breezes washing you. A glad gust takes hold of you, & floating in the air, you dance away from the wilderness…away from the Sacred Place…Back to yourself. As the wind loosens its grip…you land, back into yourself, grounded, renewed & ready to walk the talk…Ready to Be…Ready to Begin, the labor of love, called your life…
See you there
xox ~hag
***
13 October 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The big night is finally here: Mars reaches opposition with our Day Star Sun at 6 pm CDT, just one week after its closest approach to Earth. It’s blazing amid the stars of Pisces in the East an hour after sunset. It will climb higher as the hours tick by; the best time to observe the Red Planet is late this evening in the hours leading up to midnight, when it is high above the horizon. It’s in a relatively dark part of the sky & in a faint constellation, so it will be easy to pick out, thanks to its brightness & its distinctive red color.
Mercury goes stationary at midnight, before heading into retrograde. It’s well below the horizon by then, but we can view it tomorrow at sunset.
***
Trent Blazer
“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” ~H.G. Wells
In 1307 October 13 was a Friday – Hundreds of Knights Templar in France are simultaneously arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair, to be later tortured into a “confession” of heresy. Once freed of the Inquisitors’ torture, many Templars recanted their confessions. Some had sufficient legal experience to defend themselves in the trials, but in 1310 Philip blocked this attempt, using the previously forced confessions to have dozens of Templars burned at the stake in Paris. With Philip threatening military action unless the pope complied with his wishes, Pope Clement finally agreed to disband the Order, citing the public scandal that had been generated by the confessions. At the Council of Vienne in 1312, he issued a series of papal bulls, which officially dissolved the Order. As for the leaders of the Order, the elderly Grand Master Jacques de Molay, who had confessed under torture, retracted his confession & insisted on his innocence. But he was declared guilty of being a relapsed heretic & was sentenced to be burnt at the stake in Paris on 18 March 1314. De Molay reportedly remained defiant to the end, calling out from the flames that both Pope Clement & King Philip would soon meet their end. Pope Clement died only a month later, & King Philip died in a hunting accident before the end of the year
1792 –The cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion (known as the White House since 1818) is laid
1917 – The “Miracle of the Sun” is witnessed by an estimated 100,000 people in the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal. The people had gathered because the 3 shepherd children, who originally claimed to have seen Our Lady of Fátim, had predicted that at high noon the lady who had appeared to them several times would perform a great miracle. According to many witnesses, after a period of rain, the dark clouds broke & the sun appeared as an opaque, spinning disc in the sky. It was said to be significantly duller than normal, & to cast multicolored lights across the landscape, the people, & the surrounding clouds. The sun was then reported to have careened towards the earth before zig-zagging back to its normal position. Witnesses reported that their previously wet clothes became “suddenly & completely dry, as well as the wet & muddy ground that had been previously soaked because of the rain that had been falling.” According to reports, a panorama of visions, including those of Jesus, Our Lady of Sorrows, & of Saint Joseph blessed the people. The event lasted approximately ten minutes
***
Hank Lukas
MY POD (Poem Of the Day)
~I travel the back of a snake An unbroken seal on the book of myself Giving my mind the pleasure of creation My heart thinks & love opens the way… ~hag
***
‘Soul to Soul’ on-line Festival with the Central Regional Council & Speical Guests
Halloween 31 October 2020, Saturday 11 am – 1 pm PT / 1 pm – 3 pm CT / 2pm – 4pm ET
Stay tuned for details
***
The Connection Between Epidemics, the Souls of the Dead, & the Spiritual World – Leading thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. Group Eurythmy, Singing, Social Sculpture while reading the names of the dead, & Break out Sessions.
2 pm – 4 pm CDT 8 Nov. 2020 Our Annual All Souls Festival
In-person at Elderberries Biodynamic Outpost & 3 fold Cultural Hub, in conjunction with the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago, 4249-51 N. Lincoln Ave.
I could give a rich play-by-play review of the entire ASA ‘Willing the Good Conference’, but what is living in me to share as a true after-image, the most powerful soul resounding is:
The social realm is the new stage of initiation.
WanJun Gim
More & more I find, that in the human social encounter (even in the medium of cyber space, when properly redeemed thru positive intention) thru a simple comment, an offhanded phrase spoken in the moment – the unplanned karmic happenstance becomes a living thread that can lead us thru the labyrinth of our habitual thinking. A flash of synchronistic truth transforms into a golden life-line freely given, a universal tether pulling us up from a personal abyss, into a shared illumination; a moment of instruction, a grace that sparks clarity or affirmation.
Lectures or leading thoughts can wash over us & leave us feeling full & bright.
Andi Oakes
And then, in a 3 minute session, if we let ourselves become a listening vessel, & allow ourselves to be real, & vulnerable, true human encounters become a place of revelation, a wellspring, nourishing us roots to crown – giving us the courage & fortitude to continue to potentize our homeopathic dose of ‘Willing the Good: Love, Action, Healing’ – A beginning manifestation of the ‘Culture of Selflessness’, which invokes deep connection, creating thru us, a vessel for Anthroposophia in the world.
Preparing the future with you
~hag
Remedios Varo The Encounter 1962
“What is it that really underlies these things? What is it that is trying to work its way out to the surface in human destinies and human evolution?” We may characterize it as follows: — Man wants to have a social order, he wants to give the life of humankind in society a social structure within which, in harmony with the age of the spiritual soul, he may become conscious of what he is, and knows himself to be, as a spiritual being — in his human dignity, in his significance and force as Man. Within the social order, he wants to find himself as a human being among fellow human beings.” ~Rudolf Steiner: The Fundamental Social Demand of Our Times, LECTURE 1, The Transforming of Instinctive into Conscious Impulses
(Dear friends in the School of Spiritual Science: Out of one such encounter this weekend, a few of us will be creating a study group to work with Sergei O. Prokofieff’s book: “The Esoteric Path Through the Nineteen Class Lessons”. Please contact me for details)
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Henri Matisse
‘Thinking’ in the Soul Calendar by Rudolf Steiner, Translated by Roy Sadler This week: v28, I can, revived within, now feel my own wide breadth of being, my strength of sun-empowered soul whose radiance of thinking solves life’s riddles and lifts the wish-fulfilling wings that hope left lame.
& its opposite in the southern hemisphere now, v2, Arising into senses’ all-enwoven outwardness thought’s power sheds its separate strand; the spirit worlds will find again the offspring who in them must find its human seed but in itself the fruit of soul.
Thinking is mentioned just 4 times in between v2 & 28: v4, Beltane, I feel the being resonant with mine, speaks feeling that perceives and in the sunlit world unites with all that shines; it would endow illumined thought with warmth, and marry man and world. v7, Ascensiontide, My Self is threatening to flee, drawn strongly by the world’s inviting light. Now you, my foresight, dawn your star in me and firmly as of right replace the power of thought that in the senses’ glory will lose itself. v8, Whitsun, In concert with the god’s creating the senses’ power grows; it overwhelms the mind’s force, dampening it down to dream. When bonding with my soul would be a holy being my thinking must be stilled in dreamlike presence satisfied. & v14 (2 octaves before v28), Completely open to the senses I lost my own impulse; thought’s dream seemed, numbing me, to rob me of myself, but waking, even now, there comes to me in all the senses’ glory cosmic thought.
So the Tenor experience till v13 (qv Oct. 4th re. the 4 voices) is to release thought, endowing it with the summer’s warmth for the Baritone to ensoul dream experience with cosmic thought and begin to glisten this week’s Soprano voice with sun-empowered radiance of thinking.
To quote a phrase from the approaching Halloween verse, v30, the summer of the world becomes the summer of the soul. We have moved into the 2nd half of the Soul Calendar, & now the cosmic summer’s dreamtime activates human thinking. The verses can be imagined in a 24 hour rhythm. Each morning dawns with a new reviving gift.
We can meditate this week’s verse every morning when we wake! & v2 with a slight change in lines 1 & 3 can help us into sleep… To sleep in all-enwoven outwardness thought’s power sheds its separate strand; the spirit worlds will find again their human offspring, whose soul must find her seed in them, but in herself the fruit.
The last 3 lines are an alternative translation of the 1st version. I invite readers if they wish to suggest which they prefer in the comment section, & also any thoughts they might like to offer about my translations & descriptions I’ve added last week & this.
~Roy Sadler
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Jyoti Sahi
Those who work with the Original indications in the Calendar of the Soul know that Rudolf Steiner lists the birth & death days, as well as other significant occurrences of various individualities, along with the dates in the calendar. He said of this: “What is presented here can be useful to those who wish to follow the path of mankind’s spiritual development” ~Rudolf Steiner
12 October 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: At dawn tomorrow Tuesday the 13th, Bella Luna in her waning crescent sheath dances with Venus. Look for Regulus to Luna’s upper right & orange Gamma Leonis, only a little fainter than Regulus, to the Moon’s upper left.
The constellation Cetus the Whale is rising in the southeast as darkness falls.
Freethought Day – the annual observance by freethinkers & secularists of the anniversary of the effective end of the Salem Witch Trials
Fiestas del Pilar -Feast Day of Our Lady of the Pillar – the name given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in connection with an ancient Spanish tradition that she appeared to the Apostle James the Greater as he was praying by the banks of the Ebro at Zaragoza. Mary is often depicted carrying the Child Jesus on her arms resting above a pillar, sometimes carried by angelic cherubs. The Virgin Mary is invoked under this title as the Patroness of Spain
1692 – The Salem witch trials are ended by a letter from Massachusetts Governor William Phips
1875 – Birthday of Aleister Crowley, an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, & mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century.
Born to a wealthy Plymouth Brethren family, Crowley rejected this fundamentalist Christian faith to pursue an interest in Western esotericism. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, where he focused his attentions on mountaineering & poetry, resulting in several publications. Some biographers allege that here he was recruited into a British intelligence agency, suggesting that he remained a spy throughout his life. In 1898 he joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, where he was trained in ceremonial magic by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers & Allan Bennett.
Moving to Boleskine House by Loch Ness in Scotland, he went mountaineering in Mexico with Oscar Eckenstein, before studying Hindu & Buddhist practices in India. He married Rose Edith Kelly & in 1904 they honeymooned in Cairo, Egypt, where Crowley claimed to have been contacted by a supernatural entity named Aiwass, who provided him with The Book of the Law, a sacred text that served as the basis for Thelema. Announcing the start of the Æon of Horus, The Book declared that its followers should adhere to the code of “Do what thou wilt” & seek to align themselves with their Will through the practice of magick.
After an unsuccessful attempt to climb Kanchenjunga & a visit to India & China, Crowley returned to Britain, where he attracted attention as a prolific author of poetry, novels, & occult literature. In 1907, he & George Cecil Jones co-founded a Thelemite order, the A∴A∴, through which they propagated the religion.
After spending time in Algeria, in 1912 he was initiated into another esoteric order, the German-based Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), rising to become the leader of its British branch, which he reformulated in accordance with his Thelemite beliefs. Through the O.T.O., Thelemite groups were established in Britain, Australia, & North America.
Crowley spent the First World War in the United States, where he took up painting & campaigned for the German war effort against Britain, later revealing that he had infiltrated the pro-German movement to assist the British intelligence services. In 1920 he established the Abbey of Thelema, a religious commune in Cefalù, Sicily where he lived with various followers. His libertine lifestyle led to denunciations in the British press, & the Italian government evicted him in 1923. He divided the following two decades between France, Germany, & England, and continued to promote Thelema until his death.
Crowley gained widespread notoriety during his lifetime, being a recreational drug experimenter, bisexual & an individualist social critic. He was denounced in the popular press as “the wickedest man in the world”. Crowley has remained a highly influential figure over Western esotericism & the counter-culture, & continues to be considered a prophet in Thelema. In 2002, a BBC poll ranked him as the seventy-third greatest Briton of all time.
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‘Soul to Soul’ on-line Festival with the Central Regional Council & Speical Guests
Halloween 31 October 2020, Saturday 11 am – 1 pm PT / 1 pm – 3 pm CT / 2pm – 4pm ET
Stay tuned for details
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The Connection Between Epidemics, the Souls of the Dead, & the Spiritual World – Leading thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. Group Eurythmy, Singing, Social Sculpture while reading the names of the dead, & Break out Sessions.
2 pm – 4 pm CDT 8 Nov. 2020 Our Annual All Souls Festival
In-person at Elderberries Biodynamic Outpost & 3 fold Cultural Hub, in conjunction with the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago, 4249-51 N. Lincoln Ave.
my POD (Poem Of The Day) ~Before the hawk sailed In the space between the mountain & the moon Before magic made the Word Before Isis was veiled I flourished in the mirrored sea Waiting for this life With you ~hag
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Evelyn De Morgan
Like quicksilver, the messenger of the gods, darts thru dark tangled alleys. Is he a healer, or a trickster, or maybe a thief? With a light step, in his winged sandals, he confidently goes through hidden passages in the night. In his hands a golden key has the power to open all the doors before him. There is no place dark enough or deep enough that he cannot reach. Not even the realm of the Shades, for in his role as pyschopomp he is a guide to souls, in initiation, & to the place of the dead.
Mercury is the only god allowed to come & go from the Underworld. Standing now in retrograde in Scorpio, this powerful aspect of Mercury, as ‘guide into the depths’, is especially enhanced. Mercury retrograde is about the mind turning its attention within. The psyche becomes the object of observation. And immediately the alchemical motto of the V.I.T.R.I.O.L.V.M. is evoked.
Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem Veram Medicinam. Visit the interior of the earth, and by rectifying you will find the hidden stone which is the true medicine. The black dirt of Egypt (al-Kemia) contains vital forces hiding in the mud.
Working on our shadow side isn’t easy, & is often avoided. It’s the soul’s journey into the vault where we keep all our secrets hidden away. Confronting our unconscious fears takes a force of will; & this transit can help.
Get ready friends, because all the shadows that emerged during the lockdown—which was a forced social Nigredo—are going to come back during Mercury retrograde in Scorpio. In alchemy, nigredo, or blackness, means putrefaction or decomposition. This is the 1st step in the cultivation of the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’. All alchemical ingredients have to be cleansed & cooked down into a uniform black primordial matter.
In analytical psychology, the term became a metaphor for ‘the dark night of the soul, when we must confront the shadow within.’
Besides the shadow work, with Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio, we might also experience the return of relationships, or external situations, which we thought were over & done with. Or perhaps we will glean some insights about them. This is what Scorpio does; it turns Mercury into a private detective. Truths are unveiled.
Mercury also performs an opposition to Uranus in Taurus; & also a strong square with Saturn – Two perfect squares immediately before & then after the 2nd stationary point.
The opposition with Uranus is about technology, means of transport & communication, betraying us. Isn’t that the way the truth often comes out, by a kind of betrayal? Messages sent to the wrong person—a classic. A slip of the tongue; or a chance encounter, revealing where we really were.
And the square with Saturn, brings deep intuition, because of Mercury being in Scorpio; which then comes knocking up against our intellectual reasoning, since Saturn is in Capricorn. Our gut is going to tell us one thing, our intellect, something else. Not only it will be very difficult to be reasonable, but it will be just as easy to be suspicious.
This year we had Mercury retrograde in all Water signs: Pisces, Cancer & now Scorpio. This created a great triangle of water in the sky. Water is the element of emotions & feelings.
Interesting that next year we will see Mercury doing the same thing in Air signs: Aquarius, Gemini & Libra; perhaps that will bring an opportunity to change our way of thinking?
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11 October 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: If you’re awake in the early dawn, like I am, tomorrow, Monday the 12th, the waning crescent Moon stands very high above bright Venus. It’s been fascinating to watch Venus as morning star reveal herself. Look between Bella Luna & the goddess of Love, for Regulus, the forefoot of Leo.
1138 – A massive earthquake strikes Aleppo, Syria. The third deadliest earthquake in history with over 230,000 killed
1582 – Because of the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain
1634 – The Burchardi flood: killed around 15,000 in North Friesland, Denmark & Germany
1809 – Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis dies under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder’s Stand
1890 – The Daughters of the American Revolution is founded
1906 – San Francisco public school board sparks a diplomatic crisis between the United States & Japan by ordering Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools
1918 – The Puerto Rico earthquake shakes the island with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing 1116 people
1958 –NASA launches the lunar probe Pioneer 1 which falls back to Earth & burns up
1962 – Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years
1968 –NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele & Walter Cunningham aboard
1972 – A race riot occurs on the United States Navy aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk off the coast of Vietnam during Operation Linebacker
1984 – Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a spacewalk
2000 – NASA launches STS-92, the 100th Space Shuttle mission, using Space Shuttle Discovery
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Kristina West
Thanks to all who heard the call & took up the invitation to join us for the workshop: Sophia Working. I hope to be able to share the link to the recording soon
xox
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‘Soul to Soul’ on-line Festival with the Central Regional Council & Speical Guests
Halloween 31 October 2020, Saturday 11 am – 1 pm PT / 1 pm – 3 pm CT / 2pm – 4pm ET
Stay tuned for details
***
The Connection Between Epidemics, the Souls of the Dead, & the Spiritual World – Leading thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg.
2 pm – 4 pm CDT 8 Nov. 2020 Our Annual All Souls Festival
With Group Eurythmy, Singing, Social Sculpture while reading the names of the dead, & Break out Sessions.
In-person at Elderberries Biodynamic Outpost & 3 fold Cultural Hub, in conjunction with the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago, 4249-51 N. Lincoln Ave.
