At the ‘Turning point of Time’ around the time of the Fall Equinox, the Sun stood in the constellation of Libra; the sign of the scales, & human beings were indeed weighed on that stern measure. And even today we can ask ourselves: Can we find our balance? Will our inner strength hold up, when the support of nature is withdrawn?
Liane Collot d’Herbois.
But we also have a new question that comes with what is referred to as ‘The Precession of the Equinoxes’ which spans a period of 25,920 years – a cycle termed a ‘Platonic Year’ – over which time the constellations appear to slowly rotate around the earth. Each sign of the zodiac stands behind the rising sun on the vernal equinox for about 2,000 years. At the Time of Christ the Sun rose in Aries on the 1st day of Spring. And in our time now at the Vernal Equinox it is the constellation of Pisces, with Virgo behind the sun starting at the time of the Autumnal Equinox & all thru the Michaelmas season.
Merry Chantel
My point is that now standing with Michael, we need to look for the Divine Feminine, to reveal not only the secret of a bountiful harvest, but the archetype of the Virgin, representing true wholeness, who waits to be recognized in the heavens & honored on the earth -Leading us to the unveiling of the New Isis-Sophia which gives us the wisdom to understand the Christ Impulse.
Johfra Bosschart
During the growing season nature supports our human consciousness, it is a gift given to us from the cosmos. But for the harvest we must work, not only to sow the fields on earth but also to fashion our own self-consciousness, if we are to remain inwardly awake during the dark of the year.
So as we’ve seen, & as Spiritual Science tells us – human consciousness is ever evolving, & around 1879, humanity experienced a huge shift in consciousness, & the fixed date of September 29th came to be called: The Feast Day of St. Michael & All the Heavenly Hosts. The old legends always preface the famous story of the battle against the dragon, with an enumeration of the 9 Angelic Realms, & there in the center is Michael, standing before us as the King & herald of all the hierarchies.
And so as we strive to create this festival of the future, now; we are
invited to contemplate the Angelic Choirs – that we may look to our future
selves – that we may think, here & now, that step by step, we can
courageously build our own strong & steady rung on the ladder of evolution,
teaching us to count the human being as the 10th hierarchy. It is to this that the mighty Sun-being
Michael directs our gaze, so that we can become once again beings of the
cosmos.
Great Platonic Year = 25,920 years
The human being takes 18 breaths a minute
One hour 18 x 60 = 1080
24 hours: 1080 x 24 = 25,920
72 (the life span of the human being) x 360 = 25,920
Let us stand in unity with our Time-Spirit Michael, along with the wisdom
& wholeness of the Virgin, as we put heart-thinking into practice in our
every thought word & deed.
~Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
***
Frank Agrama
Dear Friends,
Below is an Overview as well as the Full Schedule of Activities for ourMichaelmas Festival Weekend. Calling to those who would take up the spirit of Rudolf Steiner’s last address:
…You, disciples of Spirit-Knowledge,
Take Michael’s Wisdom beckoning,
Take the Word of Love of the Will of Worlds
Into your soul’s aspiring, actively!”
Our work begins at the Branch with World Eurythmy Day Tuesday 24 September 2019 With Therapeutic Eurythmist & President of Athena, Mary Ruud7PM-9PM $10 Donation
Weekend Overview:
“The ‘I’ Awakens” a Michaelmas
Festival for ALL…Saturday, 28 Sep. 9 AM – 6 PM at Urban First Aid Chicago – Art As
Medicine & the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in
America 4249-51 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago.
Bonfire 7:30 pm – 9 pm at the
Archer-Ginsberg home
$25 – $100 Donation (or pay what you
can) to support the Elderberries Initiative Potluck Snacks, Lunch & Dinner,
Encouraged!
6 AM – Sunday 29 Sept. Sunrise Gathering at Montrose Beach Bird Sanctuary “The
Magic Hedge”
8 am – Field trip to Angelic Organics Biodynamic farm 1547 Rockton Road, Caledonia, IL 61011 (Contact Hazel if you want to carpool)
Bring food & drink to share & a donation to support the farm
29 Sept. Working with Michael in Heaven and on Earth –An Upper Midwest Michaelmas Festival 10 AM – 6 PM
$25 – $100 Donation (or pay what you
can) to support Angelic Organics
The ‘I’ Awakens” a Michaelmas
Festival for ALL…(come & go as you will)
9 AM
Singing with Nancy Melvin
Eurythmy
with Sea-Anna Vasilas, Eurythmist
from Spring Valley, NY
Check-in
Speech
Work on the Foundation Stone Meditation
Biography
Work with Sea-Anna Vasilas
12 PM – 1:30 PM Potluck Lunch
Singing
with Nancy Melvin
Eurythmy
with Sea-Anna Vasilas
At 2pm We will gather in the Upper
Room of the Branch for:
‘The Evolution of
the Michael Principle Throughout The Ages’ – Original art collages &
Leading Thoughts with Hazel Archer
Ginsberg. Synopsis of Indra with Felicia
White, Mithras with Elisabeth
Swisher, Marduk & ‘The Babylonian Creation Myth’ with Jonathan Hadley, & ‘The Epoch of
Gilgamesh’ with Mary Spalding
Speech
Work on the Foundation Stone Meditation
3:30 PM – 4 PM
Break
Singing
Nancy Melvin
Eurythmy
& Biography Work with Sea-Anna
Vasilas
Soul
Art with Frank Agrama Verse 26 for
Michaelmas:
‘Starry
World Movement’ (based on the Michaelmas Verse ) with Dottie Zold, Felicia White & Nancy Melvin
Speech
Work on the Foundation Stone Meditation
6 PM – Potluck Dinner
7:30 PM – Bonfire
Sunday 29 Sept. 6 AM – Sunrise at the
‘Magic Hedge’ Bird Sanctuary
Speech Work on the Foundation Stone Meditation
Thoughts from the Night Check-in
Eurythmy & Biography Work with Sea-Anna Vasilas
Potluck Breakfast
8 AM –Carpool to Angelic Organics Farm 1547 Rockton Road, Caledonia, IL 61011 (Contact Hazel if you want to carpool, meet us at Montrose Harbor no later than 8AM)
Working with Michael in Heaven and on Earth – An Upper Midwest Michaelmas Festival Sunday, September 29th from 10 AM to 6 PM (with potluck lunch & catered dinner) at
Angelic Organics Farm
Schedule:
9:30 am – Arrive and settle in, coffee and rolls served
10 am – Songtrail – This walking tour of Angelic Organics Farm will integrate: • Stories from John Peterson’s life on the farm and his efforts to imbue the farm and its buildings with spiritual, social and artistic impulses inspired by his love of the first Goetheanum • Singing and poetry led by Joen Delande • Movement and biography exercises led
by Robert Karbelnikoff
PLEASE BRING A POEM OR SONG TO SHARE DURING THE SONGTRAIL
1 pm POTLUCK LUNCH, please bring a dish to share
2:00 pm – Chorus of the Elementals (from Rudolf Steiner’s Symphony of
the Creative Word) with Hazel Archer
Ginsberg
2:30 pm – Working with Michael in Heaven and on Earth How are the adversaries working in the realm of food and agriculture? Who is Michael and how do we
strengthen his presence in our lives, our food, our farms, our families? Leading
thoughts from Walter Goldstein, Bente
Goldstein, John Peterson, and Robert
Karbelnikoff, interspersed with poetry and music from Joen Delande and followed by conversation and work in small groups
5:00 -Closing Reflections
5:30 – Catered supper prepared with
food from the farm,
Directions • Exit I-90 East on Rockton Road • Drive 4 1/4 mi until road turns to gravel. • Once Rockton Road turns to gravel, drive another 1/4 mi east. • You will come upon a small, old cemetery on your right, and a converted limestone schoolhouse on your left (Haidy and John’s home.) • Just past the cemetery, turn right into the 1/4 mi long driveway to the Angelic Organics farmstead. • Turn right off the driveway onto the service drive just north of the farmstead. • Park along the fenceline. • Enter the big barn through the milkhouse. Come to the kitchen.
15 August 2018 –“Speaking with the Stars”: La Bella Luna officially reaches fullness this morning 8:29 am CST. You can find her rising in the eastern sky around sunset & then watch her climb highest in the south by 1 am. She dips low in the west by the time morning twilight starts to paint the sky. The Moon lies against the backdrop of Capricornus the Sea Goat, though its bright glow nearly drowns out the faint stars in this constellation.
Venus passes on the far side of the Sun ( “superior conjunction”) from our perspective at midnight tonight. Of course, the Sun’s glare totally obscures her. The Goddess of Love will return, switching over to an evening star in October.
As the brightness of the Moon starts to wane you still have a chance to view Perseus cutting off the head of what does not serve & freeing the maiden Andromeda
My best friend is the person
who in wishing me well, wishes it for my sake. ~Aristotle
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Peter Paul Rubens
Himmelfahrt Mariae Feast Day of the Assumption of Mary, is the day the mother of Jesus Christ, ‘died’. Her body was not subjected to the usual process of physical decay but was “assumed” into heaven & reunited there with her soul. This holiday, which has been celebrated since the fourth century CE, is a Christian version of an earlier harvest festival &, in many parts of Europe, is known as the Feast of Our Lady of the Harvest.
Feast of Isis
For centuries celebrations were held in the honor of the goddess Isis of the Sea, who was born on this day according to mythology. With the coming of Christianity church leaders decided that the easiest way to handle this pagan ritual was to simply change it into a Christian holiday, hence the introduction of Assumption Day came forth.
Titian
In Italy remnants of the ancient celebration include night time bonfires & public illuminations, symbolic of the Sun. The idea of prosperity is also evident in the throwing of coins from windows down to the street in some cultures. Symbolic images of the Virgin Mary & her assumption into heaven are paraded throughout the day. Blue is the color most often associated with the Virgin Mary. It symbolizes truth & clarity, & it is the color of the sky, which symbolizes heaven. The lily, which is a symbol of purity, chastity, & simplicity, is also associated with the Virgin Mary.
Michel Sittow
Like the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption was not always an official dogma of the Roman Catholic Church – not until Pope Pius XII ruled it so in 1950. It is regarded as the principal feast day of the Virgin Mother.
636 – Arab–Byzantine wars: The Battle of Yarmouk between Byzantine Empire & Rashidun Caliphate begins.
717 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Maslama ibn Abd
al-Malik begins the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople, which will last for
nearly a year.
718 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Raising of the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople.
778 – The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, at which Roland is killed
1038 – Deathday of King Stephen I, the first king of Hungary
1057 – Deathday of King Macbeth, killed at the Battle of Lumphanan by the forces of Máel Coluim mac Donnchada
1248 – In honor of the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, The foundation stone of Cologne Cathedral, built to house the relics of the Three Wise Men, is laid
1281 –The Mongolian fleet of Kublai Khan is destroyed by a “divine wind” for the second time in the Battle of Kōan in Japan
1309 – The city of Rhodes surrenders to the forces of the Knights of St. John, completing their conquest of Rhodes. The knights establish their headquarters on the island & rename themselves the Knights of Rhodes
1534 – Jesuit Order Founded
1549 – Jesuit priest Francis Xavier comes ashore at Kagoshima, Japan
Rudolf Steiner describes him as having forgot his true destiny by failing to recognize Kasper Hauser
1769 – Birthday of Napoléon Bonaparte
1812 –The Battle of Fort Dearborn is fought between United States troops & Potawatomi at what is now Chicago
1843 – Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest still intact amusement parks in the world, opens in Copenhagen, Denmark (Tivoli inspired Walt Disney to create Disneyland)
1910 – Very 1st performance of Rudolf Steiner’s 1st Mystery Drama “The Portal of Initiation” opens in Munich
1914 – Julian Carlton, A servant of architect Frank Lloyd Wright murders seven people & sets fire to the living quarters of Wright’s Wisconsin home, Taliesin
1914 – The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship SS Ancon
1915 – A story in New York World newspaper reveals that the Imperial German government had purchased excess phenol from Thomas Edison that could be used to make explosives for the war effort & diverted it to Bayer for aspirin production
1917 – Deathday of Hermann Joachim, Anthroposopher & Freemason. Rudolf Steiner did his funeral address see GA 261
1935 – Will Rogers & Wiley Post are killed after their aircraft develops engine problems during takeoff in Barrow, Alaska
1939 – The Wizard of Oz premieres at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in LA
1941 – Corporal Josef Jakobs is executed by firing squad at the Tower at 7:12 am making him the last person to be executed at the Tower of London for espionage
1945 – Surrender of Japan in World War II, Korea gains Independence from Japan. The Allies proclaimed V-J Day a day after
1947 – India gains Independence from British rule after near 190 years of Crown rule & joins the Commonwealth of Nations
1948 – The Republic of Korea is established south of the 38th parallel north
1965 – The Beatles play to nearly 60,000 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City, an event later regarded as the birth of stadium rock
1969 – The Woodstock Music & Art Fair opens in upstate New York, featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era
1971 – President Richard Nixon completes the break from the gold standard by ending convertibility of the United States dollar into gold by foreign investors. Nixon also announced a 90-day freeze on wages, rents & prices
2001 – Astronomers announced the discovery of the first solar system outside our own. They had discovered two planets orbiting a star in the Big Dipper
2013 – The Smithsonian announces the discovery of the olinguito, the first new carnivoran species found in the Americas in 35 years
2015 – North Korea moves its clock back half
an hour to introduce Pyongyang Time, 8½ hours ahead of UTC
***
My POD (Poem Of the Day)
~She is the early light & the purpose of dusk Who Is The song bird of The Logos renewed… She will Rattle the seeds of the sistrum To Awaken A brilliant moment in eternity: Today I will Lift Her veil… ~hag
***
fra angelico
–
“I AM STANDING ON HOLY GROUND”
–
Today on this Feast of the Assumption of Mary, I am cultivating the feeling that as I move through the world, that everywhere I go, wherever I am, I am standing on holy ground. In my backyard this morning, watching the butterflies & beetles, I was imagining all the life processes that unfold outside of my conscious awareness: my body digesting food & the circulating of my blood. I pictured the trees working with the elemental beings, taking in carbon dioxide, water, & sunlight to synthesize their nourishment. I felt the micro-organisms in the soil beneath my feet endlessly toiling away to create humus.
I ‘see’ the bee as a spiritual messenger – an interlocutor – Carriers of the Solar-Logos – an intermediary, between the human being & the Spiritual realms – Opening us to those peripheral dimensions of human awareness where super-sensible perceptions can awaken.
The
bee carries a signal or frequency that enables transformation; it enables the
sterile to become fertile & initiates the process of regeneration…
Even if you don’t ‘perceive’ any of these things directly; can you use your imaginative cognition to feel how alive & active & real the spiritual world is, working behind all that we see in the nature world?
And so I ask: What other growth & transformation might be going on in secret?
Ahh, what a perfect time to tune-in to all the vitalizing alchemy that is usually hidden, as I contemplate the mystery of the Assumption of Mary, the Mother of god.
The Meditative Path: An Exploration of Self and Community withGino Ver Eecke*
Join us for a weekend of lectures, discussion and artistic work to explore The Meditative Path of Knowledge through the lens of Anthroposophy.
Sat. 14 Sept. 7-9pm: The Meditative Path of Knowledge in Anthroposophy
Sunday 15 Sept. 2-4pm: The Call for Self-Knowledge. How to Meet the Demands of Life?
Participants will benefit most from attending both sessions, as Gino intends to guide us in an imaginative picture over the weekend. However, if you cannot attend both sessions, you may still attend as your schedule allows.
There is no set fee to attend; suggested donation for the weekend is $50.
To reserve your spot, or for more information and the suggested reading list contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
*Gino Ver Eecke met Anthroposophy in his birth town of Roeselare, Belgium, at the young age of 16. After spending a year on a BioDynamic farm in Switzerland, he moved to Chestnut Ridge, NY, to complete his Eurythmy training. He has been active as an amateur actor, most notably in the role of Benedictus in the 10 day festival and performance of the Rudolf Steiner’s four Mystery Dramas in 2014. Currently he guides the work of the Threefold Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in Chestnut Ridge. He can be reached at gfbver@gmail.com
Suggested reading by Rudolf Steiner: Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment, CW 10, First Chapter. Occult Science, Chapter V Cognition of the Higher World. Initiation. CW 13 Theosophy, Chapter IV: The Path of Knowledge, CW 9 The Stages of Higher Knowledge, CW 12 Lecture: What is Self Knowledge? CW 108 Vienna Nov 23, 1908
Anthroposophical ideas are vessels fashioned by love, and man’s being is spiritually summoned by the spiritual world to partake of their content. Anthroposophy must bring the light of true humanness to shine out in thoughts that bear love’s imprint; knowledge is only the form in which man reflects the possibility of receiving in his heart the light of the world spirit that has come to dwell there and from that heart illumine human thought.
Since anthroposophy cannot really be grasped except by the power of love, it is love-engendering when human beings take it in a way true to its own nature. That is why a place where love reigned could be build in Dornach in the very midst of raging hatreds. Words expressing anthroposophical truths are not like words spoken elsewhere today; rightly conceived, they are all really reverential pleas that the spirit make itself known to men. The building erected in Dornach was built in this reverential spirit. Love was embodied in it. That same love manifested itself in renewed sacrifice during the night of the Goetheanum fire. It was spirit transformed into love that was present there. ~Rudolf Steiner, From a lecture given in Stuttgart January 23 , 1923. Awakening to Community GA 257
The content of what is spiritually perceived can only be reproduced in pictures (imaginations) through which inspirations speak, which have their origin in spiritual entity intuitively perceived. ~ From Occult Science Preface: Sixteenth to Twentieth Edition I. Study of spiritual science, in which one employs one’s power of judgment gained in the physical-sensory world. II. Acquiring imaginative knowledge. III. Reading the occult script-corresponding to inspiration. IV. Living into the spiritual environment — corresponding to intuition. V. Knowledge of the relationships between microcosm and macrocosm. VI. Union with the macrocosm. VII. Total experience of all previous experiences as a fundamental mood of the soul. From Occult Science Chapter 5 Cognition of the Higher Worlds, Initiation
What may be known through imagination, inspiration, and intuition about the higher worlds in connection with the Christ mystery will increasingly permeate the thought, feeling, and will-life of humanity. The “concealed knowledge of the Grail” will be revealed; as an inner force it will permeate more and more the manifestations of human life. From Occult Science Chapter 6 The Present and Future of Cosmic and Human Evolution When we no longer follow personal interests in our actions, when we do what we have to do in such a way that we follow the inner necessities that a rightly understood law of karma places on us, when we give our deeds to the outer world with inner equanimity and in accordance with this law, then we overcome estimation through our own higher I who is then the doer.
And when bound by the strength of this I we no longer let ourselves be driven by the streams and influences that storm in on us from the outer world we can then make right judgments about the outer world and we gather wisdom from it. It reveals its inner nature to us when we stand before it with equanimity, and when we think and act in such a way that we know: All of my thoughts, feelings and deeds influence the whole, nothing exists for itself; I want to give everything to humanity, let everything be dedicated to the service of mankind. When this lives in a pupil as the basic feeling, he then develops Buddhi, the Christ principle. ~ GA 266 Esoteric Lesson, Hamburg, 5-24-’08
Within the Earth evolution is contained what has evolved during the preceding Saturn, Sun, and Moon evolutions. The earth man finds “wisdom” in the processes that take place in his environment. This wisdom is present as the result of what had happened previously. The Earth is the descendant of the ancient Moon which, with all that belonged to it, formed itself into the “cosmos of wisdom.” The Earth is the beginning of an evolution through which a new force is added to this wisdom. It brings the human being to the point where he feels himself an independent member of the spirit world. This rests on the fact that his ego is fashioned by the Spirits of Form during the Earth evolution, just as upon Saturn the Spirits of Will formed his physical body, upon the Sun the Spirits of Wisdom his life-body, and upon the Moon the Spirits of Motion his astral body. The manifestation of wisdom appears through the co-operation of the Spirits of Will, Wisdom, and Motion. The Earth beings and Earth processes can harmonize in wisdom with the other beings of their world through the work of these three classes of spirits. From the Spirits of Form the human being receives his independent ego. In the future this ego will harmonize with the beings of Earth, Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan through the power that is added to wisdom by the Earth evolution. This is the power of love. In earth humanity this power of love must take its beginning, and the “cosmos of wisdom” unfolds itself into a “cosmos of love.” Everything that the ego is able to unfold within itself is to become love. The exalted Sun Being Whom we are able to characterize in the description of the Christ evolution manifests Himself as the all-encompassing “archetype of love.” Thus the seed of love is planted into the innermost core of human nature. And from there it is to flow into the whole of evolution. Just as the previously formed wisdom reveals itself in the forces of the sensory external world of the earth, in the present-day “nature forces,” so in the future love will reveal itself in all phenomena as a new nature force. It is the mystery of all evolution into the future that knowledge and all that the human being does through a true understanding of evolution is a sowing of seed that must ripen as love, and the greater the force of love coming into being, the greater will be the accomplishments of creative force in the future. In what will be created from love will lie the strong forces leading to the above described culminating result of spiritualization. The greater the amount of spiritual cognition that flows into human and earth evolution, the greater will be the number of fertile seeds for the future. Spiritual knowledge is transmuted by its very nature into love. The entire process that has been described, beginning with the Greco-Latin cultural epoch and extending through our present epoch, shows how this transformation is to take place, and also shows that the beginning of development into the future has been made. What has been prepared during the Saturn, Sun, and Moon evolutions as wisdom acts in the physical, ether, and astral body of man; there it shows itself as “cosmic wisdom”; in the “ego,” however, it becomes “inner wisdom.” From the Earth stage onward, “wisdom of the external world” becomes inner wisdom of man. Intensified in the inner life, it becomes the seed of love. Wisdom is the pre-condition of love; love is the result of wisdom reborn in the ego. ~ From Occult Science Chapter 6 The Present and Future of Cosmic and Human Evolution
12 August 2019, ‘Speaking with the Stars’: Perseid
meteor showers
This annual celestial event, gifting us with the cosmic iron of
Michael, peaks tonight!
The Perseids begin as tiny specks of extra-terrestrial dust that hit Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds vaporizing from the friction with our atmosphere, leaving behind the streaks of light we call meteors. These dust particles were born in the comet known as 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which recently returned to the inner solar system in 1992. The giant planet Jupiter has nudged Swift-Tuttle’s debris stream closer to Earth’s orbit.
The best views will come in the predawn hours of 13 August 2019,
after the waxing gibbous Moon sets around 3 am CDT. The spectacle will continue to
improve as dawn approaches because the shower’s radiant — the spot on the
border between the constellations Perseus
& Cassiopeia where the meteors appear to emanate from — climbs higher.
As always, you’ll see more meteors at a viewing site far from any artificial lights. Look about two-thirds of the way from the horizon to the zenith, but don’t get tunnel vision gazing at one location. Let your eyes wander so your peripheral vision can pick up meteors you otherwise might not see.
This dose of cosmic iron is our perfect spiritual medicine, as these shooting stars awaken us; but we must take this medicine in consciously to strengthen our Michaelic impulse for the spiritual battle ahead.
Perseus is the cosmic starry imagination of Michael. He stands with sword of iron raised in one hand & in the other the decapitated head of Medusa with her serpent hair & eyes that turn all who gaze upon her to stone. He has rescued Andromeda, the chained princess, from the approaching sea monster Cetus. From the forehead of Andromeda springs the constellation Pegasus, the winged intelligence. This entire narrative contains deep imaginations of the work of Michael in the human being rescuing the threatened human soul from the destructive forces rising from the unconscious & the pastin the sea monster, & the deadening forces of Ahriman’s cold intellect in the gaze of Medusa.
A study of The Michael Mysteryby Rudolf Steiner can be a helping guide during this season. In it he states: “Hearts begin to have thoughts, that is the new way of thinking, with the heart.” It is Michael’s intention that in the future, intelligence will flow through human hearts & be connected to the same divine spiritual forces that created the human in the beginning of time.
Jim Lesure
If we use our imaginative cognition to inwardly picture this cosmic offering, we can carry the thought of Michael/Perseus in our heart-thinking, to consciously align with our Time-Spirit.
The Angel Standing in the Sun by JMW Turner
Let us make the intention to be awake to the power of the
Christ-Sun in the Earth, & the enlivening impulse of Anthroposophia within,
which thru our thinking hearts becomes enlightened by Wisdom, helping us
overcome the darkness with love.
“To truly know the world, look deeply within your own being; to truly know yourself, take real interest in the world.” ~Rudolf Steiner
30 BC– Deathday of Egyptian Queen Cleopatra
1827 – Deathday of 1827 – William Blake, poet, painter, mystic
1831 – Birthday of Helena Blavatsky
1848 – Deathday of George Stephenson, Renowned as the “Father of Railways”, he was an English civil & mechanical engineer who built the first public inter-city railway line in the world to use steam locomotives- considered a great example of diligent application & thirst for improvement
1851 – Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine
1875 – Helena Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society in NY
1877 – Thomas Edison invented the phonograph & made the first sound recording
1883 – The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1914 – The United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit
1944 – Nazi
German troops end the week-long Wola
massacre, during which time at least 40,000 people were killed
indiscriminately or in mass executions
1950 – Korean War: Bloody Gulch massacre—American POWs are massacred by North Korean Army.
1952 – The Night of the Murdered Poets: Thirteen prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union.
1953 – The Soviet Union secretly tested its first hydrogen bomb
1953 – A 7.2 Ms earthquake shakes the southern Ionian Islands. 800 people were killed
1955 – Deathday
of Thomas Mann, a German novelist,
short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, & the 1929
Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic & ironic epic
novels are noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist & the
intellectual. His analysis & critique of the European & German soul
used modernized German & Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Goethe,
Nietzsche & Schopenhauer
1960 – Echo 1A, NASA’s first successful communications satellite, is launched.
1964 – South Africa is banned from the Olympic
Games due to the country’s racist policies
1976 –3,500 Palestinians are killed in the Tel al-Zaatar massacre, one of the bloodiest events of the Lebanese Civil War
1981 – The IBM Personal Computer is released
1992 – Deathday
of John Cage
1998 – Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion as restitution to World War II Holocaust victims
2010 – Deathday
of Isaac Bonewits, founder of Ár
nDraíocht Féin
***
My POD (Poem Of the Day)
~I come with the comet
A priestess in the thought-skin of the lion
Spreading the roaring depth of myself out
Before friends & gods
To let them study me…
My ripened body is a rolled papyrus
Tied with red string that holds no pretense
Glow worms hide in the folds of my scroll
I am washed & ready for the new turning
Flashing with the hygienic iron-dust of shooting stars
Reborn in the cradle of my blood
~hag
***
“…And when in
high summer, from a particular constellation, meteors fall in great showers of
cosmic iron, then this cosmic iron,
which carries an enormously powerful healing force, is the weapon which the
gods bring to bear against Ahriman, as dragon-like he tries to coil round the
shining forms of men. The force which falls on the earth in the meteoric
iron is indeed a cosmic force whereby the higher gods endeavour to gain a
victory over the Ahrimanic powers, when autumn comes on. And this majestic display in cosmic space, when
the August meteor showers stream down into the human shining in the astral
light, has its counterpart — so gentle and apparently so small — in a change that occurs in the human blood.
This human blood, which is in truth not such a material thing as present-day
science imagines, but is permeated throughout by impulses from soul and spirit,
israyed through by the force which is carried as iron into the blood and
wages war there on anxiety, fear and hate. The processes which are set
going in every blood-corpuscle when the force of iron shoots into it are the
same, on a minute human scale, as those which take place when meteors fall in a
shining stream through the air. This
permeation of human blood by the anxiety-dispelling force of iron is a meteoric
activity. The effect of the raying in of the iron is to drive fear and anxiety
out of the blood.
And so, as the
gods with their meteors wage war on the spirit who would like to radiate fear
over all the earth through his coiling serpent-form, and while they cause iron
to stream radiantly into this fear-tainted atmosphere, which reaches its peak
when autumn approaches or when summer wanes — so the same process occurs
inwardly in man, when his blood is permeated with iron. We can understand these things only if we understand their inner
spiritual significance on the one hand, and if on the other we recognise how the
sulphur-process and the iron-process in man are connected with corresponding
events in the cosmos.
A man who looks
out into space and sees a shooting-star should say to himself, with reverence
for the gods: “That occurrence in the
great expanse of space has its minute counterpart continuously in myself. There
are the shooting-stars, while in every one of my blood-corpuscles iron is
taking form: my life is full of shooting-stars, miniature shooting-stars.”
And this inner fall of shooting-stars, pointing to the life of the blood, is
especially important when autumn approaches, when the sulphur-process is at its
peak. For when men are shining like
glow-worms in the way I have described, then the counter-force is present also,
for millions of tiny meteors are scintillating inwardly in their blood.
This is the connection between the inner man and the universe. And then we
can see how, especially when autumn is approaching, there is a great raying-out
of sulphur from the nerve-system towards the brain. The whole man can then be
seen as a sulphur-illuminated phantom, so to speak.
But raying into
this bluish-yellow sulphur atmosphere come the meteor swarms from the blood.
That is the other phantom. While the sulphur-phantom rises in clouds from the
lower part of man towards his head, the iron-forming process rays out from his
head and pours itself like a stream of meteors into the life of the blood.
Such is man, when Michaelmas draws near. And he must learn to make
conscious use of the meteoric-force in his blood. He must learn to keep the
Michael Festival by making it a festival for the conquest of anxiety and fear;
a festival of inner strength and initiative; a festival for the commemoration
of selfless self-consciousness…”
The Meditative Path: An Exploration of Self and Community withGino Ver Eecke*
Join us for a weekend of lectures, discussion and artistic work to explore The Meditative Path of Knowledge through the lens of Anthroposophy.
Sat. 14 Sept. 7-9pm: The Meditative Path of Knowledge in Anthroposophy
Sunday 15 Sept. 2-4pm: The Call for Self-Knowledge. How to Meet the Demands of Life?
Participants will benefit most from attending both sessions, as Gino intends to guide us in an imaginative picture over the weekend. However, if you cannot attend both sessions, you may still attend as your schedule allows.
There is no set fee to attend; suggested donation for the weekend is $50.
To reserve your spot, or for more information and the suggested reading list contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
*Gino Ver Eecke met Anthroposophy in his birth town of Roeselare, Belgium, at the young age of 16. After spending a year on a BioDynamic farm in Switzerland, he moved to Chestnut Ridge, NY, to complete his Eurythmy training. He has been active as an amateur actor, most notably in the role of Benedictus in the 10 day festival and performance of the Rudolf Steiner’s four Mystery Dramas in 2014. Currently he guides the work of the Threefold Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in Chestnut Ridge. He can be reached at gfbver@gmail.com
PARTIAL ECLIPSE OF THE THUNDER MOON: It’s happening tonight – Bella Luna will pass through the shadow of Earth, off center, plunging 65% of the lunar disk into darkness. This movie created by space artist Larry Koehn shows how the 3-hour eclipse will unfold:
The eclipse begins at approximately 20:00 UT, reaching maximum coverage an hour and a half later. The timing favors observers in Africa and the Middle East, with some visibility in South America, Europe, Asia and Australia as well. North Americans will see none of the eclipse–only a normally bright full Moon east of Saturn. Bella Luna shines near the border between the constellations Sagittarius the Archer & Capricornus the Sea Goat.
According to folklore, July’s full Moon is the “Thunder-Buck Moon,” named after the booming electrical storms of northern summer & honoring the rack of the horned creatures. This is the last significant lunar eclipse until May 2021, when the “Flower Moon” will be shadowed, so tune in!
Feast Day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order, Christian hermits living in the Holy Land during the late 12th & early to mid-13th century. They built in the midst of their hermitages a chapel which they dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, whom they conceived of in chivalric terms as the “Lady of the place.” Our Lady of Mount Carmel was adopted in the 19th century as the patron saint of Chile, in South America.
Since the 15th century, popular devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel has centered on the Scapular, a sacramental associated with promises of Mary’s special aid for the salvation of the devoted wearer. Since the Middle Ages, Our Lady of Mount Carmel has been related to Purgatory, where souls are purged of sins in the fires. In some images, she is portrayed as accompanied with angels and souls wearing Brown Scapulars, who plead for her mediation.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel was seen in the apparitions of Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal, by Lúcia Santos & her co-visionary companions Jacinta & Francisco Marto & as many as 70,000 witnesses of the extraordinary events during the Miracle of the Sun. She also appeared to Saint Simon Stock to whom she gave the Brown Scapular. The Garabandal apparitions, in Spain, were reported to be images of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. Also in Acquafondata, Italy, the apparition of the Virgin of Mount Carmel, was seen on July 16, 1841. There is still today a small sanctuary on the site.
622 – Mohammed’s flight from Mecca, which came to determine the beginning of the Islamic calendar. He hid in a cave where a spiders web quickly grew over the entrance so that the enemy was fooled into thinking he wasn’t there.
1054 – Three Roman legates break relations between Western & Eastern Christian Churches through the act of placing an invalidly-issued Papal bull of Excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia during Saturday afternoon divine liturgy. Historians frequently describe the event as the start of the East–West Schism.
1879 – Birthday of Elisabeth Vreed – Dutch philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, astrologer & anthroposopher. Elisabeth Vreede came into contact with Theosophy in her home growing up. She was interested early on in the starry sky, read the works of Camille Flammarion & learned French at the same time. At the University of Leyden she studied mathematics, astronomy, philosophy (especially Hegel) & Sanskrit. She was also actively involved in student life, founding a boat club, & was a council member of the students’ union.
Her first meeting with Rudolf Steiner took place at the Theosophical Congress in London in 1903. Vreede was leader of the mathematics & astronomy sections in the Goetheanum in Dornach from 1926 till 1935. In her capacity as leader of the Mathematical-Astronomical Section she wrote a monthly letter, then available by subscription, about both modern astronomy & classical astrology in the light of spiritual science. The letters included explanations of the fundamentals of astronomy & discussions of astrology in the modern world, with reference to such topics as the precession of the equinoxes, comets, solar & lunar eclipses, & the meaning of the Christian holidays such as Easter & Whitsun. The Letters in English translation were published in 2007 with the title Astronomy and Spiritual Science.
In 1935 the separation within the Anthroposophical Society took place & she was expelled from the executive council & excluded along with her long-time friend & co-member, Dr. Ita Wegman from the board of directors. She was also cut off from the observatory & archives that she herself helped assemble.
The last years of her life became more lonely. She was cut off from her friends abroad by the War. The death of Ita Wegman at the beginning of March, 1943, was a great shock for her.
Rudolf Steiner said of her: ‘this individuality does not wish to be recognized …’ Elisabeth Knottenbelt in her memoirs describes statements about her: that ‘she incarnated too early’ for the sake of serving Rudolf Steiner. “for this task [the work with Rudolf Steiner] she had assumed the sacrifice of a premature incarnation. One who, for the sake of a spiritual mission, comes in this way to earth too early must forego a lot. To a great extent one leaves one’s karmic circle of human beings behind in the spiritual word. Her life was thus really a quite lonely one, only a few persons were grouped around her without any real connection.”
Here is a quote from a letter written by her prior to her removal from the executive council: “The Being of Anthroposophy – I myself have always felt it as a spiritual being newly created by Dr. Steiner, as it were the first hierarchical Being that men have begotten, quite young and still underdeveloped, as is the case with a child—a Being that must now begin to develop further through our common work as a ‘community of knowledge’, and with the cooperation of its creator from the spiritual world. Just for this reason I find it so painful when attacks are continually made against part of the active members such as to exclude them from the work, from creating together the Being of Anthroposophy.”
1942 – Holocaust: Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup.The government of Vichy France orders the mass arrest of 13,152 Jews who are held at the Winter Velodrome in Paris before deportation to Auschwitz.
1945 – Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
1948 – The city of Nazareth, revered by Christians as the hometown of Jesus, capitulates to Israeli troops during Operation Dekel, the largest offensive by Israeli forces in the north of Palestine in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Israeli aircraft bombed Saffuriya village & caused panic among the population; many of the villagers fled northwards toward Lebanon, others found shelter in Nazareth, leaving about 100 elderly people behind. Nazareth surrendered to the Israelis.
1969 –Apollo 11, the first mission to land astronauts on the Moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Kennedy, Florida. The 1st ‘moomwalk’ 20 July 1969.
1999 – John F. Kennedy Jr., piloting a Piper Saratoga aircraft, dies when his plane crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. His wife, Carolyn Bassette & sister-in-law are also killed
2007 – An earthquake of magnitude 6.8 & 6.6 aftershock occurs off the Niigata coast of Japan killing 280 people, injuring at least 5800 & damaging a nuclear power plant.
2014 – Deathday of Ruth Zinniker – The biodynamic movement owes so much to Ruth and the whole Zinniker family. Their farm has been a source of inspiration for thousands of people, many of whom came there to work as apprentices when they were young people and have gone on to be important leaders in the biodynamic movement. Ruth had a place in her heart for all these people and many others. She warmed the movement with her social gesture and her fiery enthusiasm. Thank you dear Ruth, thank you Zinniker family, for all you have given to help seed the biodynamic movement in North America. — Robert Karp
***
Norbert Papp
TOD (Thought Of the day)
“I know not what my past still has in store for me,” testified the Indian spiritual poet Tukaram… I believe most of us can say the same thing, & here’s why: The events that happened to us once upon a time keep transforming as we ripen. They come to have different meanings in light of the ever-new experiences we have. What seemed like a setback when it first occurred may eventually reveal itself to have been the seed of a blessing. A wish fulfilled at a certain point in our history might come back to haunt us later on. I bring up these ideas, because I think we are all primed to reinterpret our past, so we can co-create a more truthful now, to beget a more beautiful future…
***
From Rudolf Steiner’s Human Questions Cosmic Answers: “…when there is an eclipse of the moon, the man of today merely says: “Now the earth comes between the sun and the moon; hence we see the shadow cast upon the moon by the earth.” That is the physical explanation. But in this case also the old initiate knew that a spiritual reality was behind the physical fact. He knew that when there is an eclipse of the moon, thoughts stream through darkness down upon the earth; and that such thoughts have a closer relationship with the subconscious life than with the conscious life of the human being. The old initiates often made use of a certain simile when speaking to their pupils. It is; of course, necessary to translate their words into modern language, but this is the gist of what they said: “Visionaries and dreamers love to go for rambles by moonlight, when the moon is full. There are, however, certain people who have no wish to receive the good thoughts coming to them from the cosmos, but who, on the contrary, are desirous of getting hold of evil, diabolical thoughts. Such people will choose the moment of a lunar eclipse for their nocturnal wanderings.
Eclipses of the sun and moon, recurring as they do in the course of every year, may really be looked upon as “safety-valves.” A safety-valve is there to avert danger, to provide an outlet for something or other — steam, for instance — at the right moment. One of the safety-valves which makes its appearance in the cosmos and to which we give the name of a solar eclipse, serves the purpose of carrying out into space in a Luciferic way, the evil that spreads over the earth, in order that evil may work havoc in a wider, less concentrated sphere. The other safety-valve, the lunar eclipse, exists for the purpose of allowing the evil thoughts which are present in the cosmos to approach those human beings who are desirous of being possessed by them. people do not, as a rule, act in full consciousness, but the facts are nevertheless real — just as real as the attraction of a magnet for small particles of iron. Such are the forces at work, in the cosmos.”
The tradition on the Italian side of my family: My Strega Nona told us that Bella Luna was a great mirror reflecting the Sun, & that during a lunar eclipse, we must practice the very old tradition of breathing on a mirror. We had a contest who could fog up the mirror the most. Grandmother told us that a wolf swallowed the Moon during an eclipse & that our breath would cause the wolf to cough it up & return it to the sky.
My Irish mother used to tell us the Viking tale about two wolves who wish to eat the Sun & Moon. Skoll (repulsion) goes after the Sun & Hati, running ahead of the Sun, goes after the Moon. When either are caught, there is an eclipse. When this happens, the people on Earth rush to rescue the Sun or Moon by making as much noise as they can in hopes of scaring off the wolves. So we would bang on pots & pans to drive the wolfs away.
The lesson here my friends is that as human beings we must participate in these cosmic conversations. We must be involved – active – co-creators in the ever evolving interchange.
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