Category Archives: Celestial Event

Vibrate the Word in love

Celestial Event, Festival, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Speaking with the Stars, The Bridging Project: Life & Death

27 February 2017 – Astro-Weather: New Moon, exact at 8:07 pm CST. At its New phase, the Moon crosses the sky with the Sun & so remains hidden in our star’s glare.

One of the biggest asterism in the heavens right now is the Winter Hexagon. It fills the sky toward the east & south after dinnertime. Start with brilliant Sirius at its bottom. Going clockwise from there, march through Procyon, Pollux & Castor, Menkalinan & Capella very high, Aldebaran over to Capella’s lower right, down to Rigel in Orion’s foot, & back to Sirius. Betelgeuse shines inside the Hexagon, off center.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Chinese Lunar New Year of the Red Fire Rooster*

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

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

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

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

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

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Toppie Lou

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Beware the seduction of talk,
The many nonsense words,
Thorns & faded flowers
Speak instead the language of the Sun
The yawn & shudder of the newborn
Speak for the gods hidden in things that cry
Uncover their faces…
Thru your own light
Vibrate the Word in love
~hag

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*Celebrations start tonight on the New Moon for the Chinese New Year, considered a “Spring Festival“, & goes for 15 days, ending with the Full Moon on the Lantern Festival, February 10-11th. This is based on the ancient Chinese calendar that existed when the Shang Dynasty was in power during the 14th Century B.C. The Chinese calendar is a complex timepiece; its parameters set according to the lunar phases as well as the solar solstices & equinoxes. The Chinese calendar also follows the Chinese zodiac, meaning each year is represented by one of 12 signs of the Zodiac.

2017 is a Fire Rooster Year. According to Chinese astrology, each year is associated with one of five elements as well as an animal, including gold (metal), wood, water, fire or Earth. The element, combined with the zodiac animal, set the astrology for the year. This year is a fire year, & so those born in 2017 are Fire Roosters. The last Fire Rooster Year was 1957.

This Lunar festival is centuries old, it is a time to honor deities as well as ancestors. According to tales & legends, the beginning of the Chinese New Year started with a mythical beast called the Nian, who had the reputation of eating the villagers, especially children. One year, all the villagers decided to go hide from the beast. Then an old man appeared & said that he was going to stay to get revenge on the Nian. All the villagers thought he was insane. The old man put up red papers & set off firecrackers. The day after, the villagers came back to their town to see that nothing was destroyed. They assumed that the old man was a deity who came to save them. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red & loud noises. When the New Year was about to come, the villagers would wear red clothes, hang red lanterns, or scrolls on windows & doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to the village again. And the legends say that eventually the Nian was captured by Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk.

The first day of this festival is for the welcoming of the deities of the heavens & earth, officially beginning at midnight. It is a traditional practice to light fireworks, & burn bamboo sticks to make as much of a din as possible to chase off the evil spirits. Many people, abstain from meat on the 1st day because it is believed this will ensure longevity. Some consider lighting fires & using knives to be bad luck on New Year’s Day, so all food is cooked before hand. It is also considered bad luck to use the broom on New Year’s day, so It is traditional for every family to thoroughly cleanse the house, the day before, on the eve, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune & to make way for good incoming luck. Windows & doors will be decorated with red color paper-cuts & couplets with popular themes of “good fortune” or “happiness”, “wealth”, & “longevity”. Dumplings are often created to resemble gold & silver ingots to represent riches & foods like hard-boiled eggs, fish & chicken are all associated with prosperity. Spring rolls tend to represent wealth & sweet rice balls represent family togetherness.

Most importantly, the 1st day of Chinese New Year is a time to honor one’s elders, so families visit the oldest & most senior members of their extended families, usually their parents, grandparents & great-grandparents.

For Buddhists, the first day is also the birthday of Maitreya Bodhisattva the Buddha-to-be.

Members of the family who are married also give red envelopes containing cash known as ‘lai see’, to junior members of the family, mostly children & teenagers; to suppress aging & the challenges associated with the coming year. Business managers also give bonuses through red packets to employees for good luck, smooth-sailing, good health & wealth. The amount of money doesn’t matter as it is only symbolic, however, it is usually an even number. The numbers 8 & 88 are considered especially lucky because “eight” sounds like a word that means “prosperity.”

New Year in China is the largest period of human migration on earth. Everyone goes back home to visit their families, & with so many migrant workers, this equates to hundreds of millions of people!

Praying in a temple during Chinese New Year is said to be a particularly blessed activity, & will lead to a smooth coming year. In Shanghai, China’s biggest city, thousands flock to Longhua Temple, the city’s biggest temple, to pray for good fortune.

At temple fairs in many Chinese cities, traditional performances can be seen: dragon dances, lion dances, & imperial performances like an emperor’s wedding. In North China people perform various versions of the Rice Sprout Song.

As Chinese people believe that the year’s start affects the whole year, are many superstitions & taboos for the Spring Festival season. These taboos usually apply up to a month before the festival & continue to the end of the festival (day 15, the Lantern Festival). Some Chinese people believe that they shouldn’t wash their hair in the first three days because that will wash away good luck. A cry of a child is believed to bring bad luck to the family, so the young are placated fastidiously. Another interesting thing is red underwear…You will see red underwear sold at supermarkets & street markets. Also no begging: To ask for a loan is a big “no-no”.

新年的祝福，平日的希冀，愿你心境祥和、充满爱意，愿你的世界全是美满，愿你一切称心如意，快乐无比。

Xīnnián de zhùfú, píngrì de xījì, yuàn nǐ xīnjìng xiánghé, chōngmǎn ài yì, yuàn nǐ de shìjiè quán shì měimǎn, yuàn nǐ yīqiè chènxīn rúyì, kuàilè wúbǐ.

At New Year and always, may peace and love fill your heart, beauty fill your world, and contentment and joy fill your days.

“I am alert
Ready to take action
The first on the scene
The last to leave
I take chances
But I am precise
I know where things belong
I am orderly and fastidious
Nothing escapes me
I am always prepared
I never give up or in
I AM THE ROOSTER”

~Hazel Archer-Ginsberg 

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The Bridging Project – Between Life and Death from Soul to Soul

Audio/Video Conference – February 1, 2017 – 7:15 pm CST

The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to our conversation with special guest Mark Miller.  Mark is a registered architect in the states of Illinois and Michigan, and is a member of the Passive House Alliance US and co-founder of the Chicago chapter of the organization (Passive House is the world’s highest energy efficiency standard).  www.phaus.org

Mark’s talk is titled: “Spirit Parks, an Alternative to Cemeteries”.  Mark will be discussing the spiritual intentions of traditional western cemeteries; overview of how different cultures embrace memorialization and creating a “place” for connecting with the dead; and he will present his thoughts on what the next evolutionary step in places of memorialization may look like and why.

Mark has published various articles and delivered lectures on Zen Architecture, Passive House and Green Design.  Mark’s spirituality includes past and current practices in western and eastern traditions;  Mark is an active member of the Chicago Waldorf School community, where his children have attended for 13 years.  Mark has designed several projects for the school incorporating Steiner’s philosophy within the architectural design wherever possible. www.zenplusarchitecture.com 

This will be a “go-to-meeting” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer).  To connect to the audio/video-conference:

Option 1.  Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended) https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/490464125

Option 2.  Call in using your telephone.

United States: +1 (571) 317-3116

Canada: +1 (647) 497-9372

Access Code: 490-464-125

Option 3. You can use a combination of Options 1 and 2 (computer and phone)

Please join us!

Agenda – 7:15  Verse

7:18  Welcome and Introductions

7:25  Introduce guest speaker

7:30  Guest Speaker: Mark Miller (45 minutes)

8:15  Q&A – state your name & location before asking a question

8:28  Close with verse

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Saturday 4 February 2017,  3 pm at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP

The Madonna Sequence

Presented by Debra Barford & Christine Culbert

The Madonna Pentagram, was first recommended by Dr. Rudolf Steiner in 1911 as an enlivening, curative therapy. Raphael’s paintings of the Madonna express secret truths. These images invite us to look into the deeper significance of the flow of energy stimulated within us as our attention is guided through the five-pointed-star-like movement of the images in relation to one another, accompanied by the appropriate tones on the lyre. Rudolf Steiner described the healing effects of Raphael’s Madonna’s in August 1908, and between 1908 and 1911 he directed Dr. Felix Peipers to arrange fifteen images as a therapeutic meditation. Sometimes called the Raphael Madonna Series, these fifteen pictures invite our active contemplation. Each image can awaken inner pictures that lift us into communion with realms beyond the physical world, stirring our feelings of wonder and reverence and opening our souls to divine mysteries.

$10 donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged

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Mysteries of the Celtic Goddess

brigid-helena-nelson-reedBrigid by Helena Nelson Reed

Thursday February 9th 2017 -7 pm
at the Theosophical Society in America
1926 North Main Street
Wheaton, IL 60187

Invoking the Practical Alchemy of the Celtic Triple Goddess Brigid
To Purify, Awaken, & Galvanize Your Head, Heart, and Hands

Brigid’s festival is the 1st of the cross-quarter days in the wheel of the year, a time of spiritual re-dedication and initiation. Brigid invites us to forge and shape ourselves, as the tools of our own destiny. Come Renew Yourself. Together we will thaw the winter & rouse the mysteries growing within…

Hazel Archer Ginsberg is a Spiritual Midwife, and Trans-denominational Minister, working in an eclectic style that inspires connections – initiating us into the magic, waiting to be revealed, in the cycle of the seasons. Festivals Coordinator of the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society. Lecturer, Promoter, Blogger, Poet & Performance Artist.  www.ReverseRitual.com.

$10 nonmembers   $5 members

Live Webcast

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DIGITAL Pandora: Imaging HOPE by Gretchen Steele

Art Opening 7 pm – 9 pm Friday February 17th, 2017 at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP

A Performance Art Exhibit & Gallery Reception with an opportunity for participants to create their own collage art to be shown at the Closing exhibit March 31st, 2017

DIGITAL Pandora: Imaging HOPE is a multi-media art exhibit including work inspired by the myth of Pandora as a narrative of hope – by Gretchen Steele

The exhibit includes multi-media collages on paper, large-scale (5’ x 5’) collaged fabric prayer cloths, a performance art piece titled Embodied Compass ll: Reliquary Immersion, and a participatory SEA (Socially Engaging Artwork) inviting viewers to collaborate in a collaged community mural using a images (from the artist’s photo bank of the previous performance piece, Embodied Compass l: Digital Pandora) and marker-based drawing materials.

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The 156th Anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s Birthday on the New Moon/Solar Eclipse

Sunday February 26th 2017, 3 pm – 5 pm

We will celebrate Steiner’s birthday and the solar eclipse by analyzing his horoscope in the most respectful manner.  Astrologer Victoria Martin will expound on some classic interpretations of Rudolf Steiner’s Birth chart – For instance did you know he was born on a Full Moon, near the zenith of the sky aligned to Saturn? Victoria will also go further by adding the fixed stars, which according to Brian Gray at Steiner College, are basic components in Astrosophy.

The Solar eclipse, on Sunday February 26th 2017 indicates a new phase of Steiner’s influence, which is especially potent for the next six months!

Victoria will also do 3-minute readings for each participant to see where their birthdays fit in Steiner’s horoscope!

This can be even more precise if the entire horoscope of participants is available, so please email your date, time, and place of birth to viccimartin@gmail.com.

We can also look into the 2017 trends if there is interest! And if time allows Hazel Archer Ginsberg will give a brief overview of the phases in Rudolf Steiner’s life.

 $10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP

For more info. contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

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An evening Discourse &  Full day Workshop with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg at

Fostering Sustainable Agriculture through Research, Education and Policy since 1984

What is Anthroposophy?

Friday March 3rd 2017,  Potluck Social 5:30 pm  Lecture –7 pm – 9 pm

A Hands-on Discourse with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

What can the human being (anthropos) of today do to recognize our inherent wisdom (sophia) to access the source of spiritual knowledge, for our own inner development, and for the evolution of the earth and all of humanity?

What would it be like to support each other in community, as we strive to penetrate the mystery of our relationship with the spiritual world?

How does this ‘Spiritual Science’ built on the research of Rudolf Steiner, speak to the riddles of existence: our artistic needs, the truth of karma, the mystery of evil, life after death and so much more?

Come Explore this Modern Path of Initiation with:

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Festivals Coordinator & Council Member of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, and the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Founder of Reverse Ritual – Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year– Presenter, Poet, & Trans-denominational Minister.

Register here

Also:

 Saturday March 4th 2017 –

A Experiential Three Part Workshop* with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

‘The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and Humanity’

Some of the topics treated in this experiential workshop are: The nature of the brain, the development of speech, angelic beings, ancient language, Zarathustra, Buddha, & Christ.

‘The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and Humanity: Some Results of Spiritual-Scientific Research into Human History and Development’ consists of three sections. Each section was originally a lecture (6, 7, & 8 June 1911) but was subsequently reworked by Steiner & cast into the form of an essay.  It is available without a fee at Rudolf Steiner Archives 

Session #1 – 10 am – 12 noon:
• Introductions
• The divine wisdom working in the human being in the 1st three years of life.
• Through inner striving we can contact again and consciously build on this wisdom which is connected to the Christ impulse.
• Activity- Biography work: Our 1st conscious memory – a preview of the “I”.

Noon – 1:30 pm – Lunch

Session #2 – 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm:
• The childlike condition of humanity in ancient times, directed by higher spiritual beings.
• A look into the evolution of these guiding spirits –progressive as well as regressive –
• Revealing the necessity of the ‘two kinds of evil’.
• The importance of Spiritual Science to avoid error.
• Activity – Labyrinth Walk

3:30 pm – 4 pm – Break

Session #3 – 4 pm – 6 pm:
• A survey of the Post-Atlantean age, our present epoch.
• The Christ connection with the progressive spiritual beings
• Modern science as the work of the regressive spiritual beings
• A peek into the future
• Activity – The Golden Legend & The Rose Cross Mediation: An artistic rendering

*(Workshops can be taken as a whole or individually, details to follow)

Register here

Michael Fields W2493 County Rd ES
East Troy, WI 53120, USA

 

 

 

 

 

 

12th Holy Night: Eve of Epiphany – The Sphere of the Mystic Lamb

Celestial Event, Festival, Insight, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Winter

5 January 2017 – Astro-Weather: First-quarter Moon (exact at 1:47 pm CST). Our satellite rises in the east around noon but doesn’t become prominent until the Sun sets around 5 pm, by 6 pm it appears in the south nearly two-thirds of the way to the zenith. The Moon’s half-lit orb then lies among the background stars of southern Pisces. This evening, look to the upper right of the Moon for the Great Square of Pegasus. A diagonal through two corners of the Square points toward the Moon.

Orion is now well up in the east-southeast after nightfall, with his three-star Belt nearly vertical. The Belt points up toward Aldebaran & even higher, the Pleiades. In the other direction, it points down to where bright Sirius rises to twinkle furiously around 7 pm CST.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

TODAY – According to the original Calendar of the Soul:

The Eve of Epiphany

137 – Deathday of Pope Telesphorus, traditionally considered as being the 7th Roman bishop in succession after Saint Peter. In ancient Greek myth, Telesphorus was a son of Asclepius. He frequently accompanied his sister, Hygieia. He was a dwarf whose head was always covered with a cowl hood or cap. He symbolized recovery from illness, as his name means “the accomplisher” or “bringer of completion” in Greek. Representations of him are found mainly in Anatolia & along the Danube. Telesphorus is thought to have been a Celtic god in origin.

Feast day of Saint Simeon Stylites (the Greek word style means pillar) a Syriac ascetic saint who achieved fame for living 47 years on a small platform on top of a pillar near Aleppo (in modern Syria)

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 Van Eyck’s Ghent Altar Piece

12th Holy Night:  January 5-6, 2017 Epiphany, ‘Three Kings’ –Constellation of Aries, Ram (ruling the head) The Sphere of the Mystic Lamb

Our journey, taking us on the path from Jesus to Christ, is a divine archetype that every human being may follow thru the 12 regions of the Zodiac – & beyond, into the compass of the Holy Spirit & now on the Eve of Epiphany, we get a glimpse into the sphere of the Mystic Lamb.

David-Taulbee-Anderson

This last & highest region – Aries the Ram, is ‘at the head’ of the whole zodiac circle of ‘Adam-Kadmon’ – the Alpha to Omega Archetype of Humanity –from which the Christ descended – passing thru each sign – each Angelic realm – into the Spirit & Soul of the Sun, for the pre-earthly deeds.

It is no coincidence that the sphere of the Mystic lamb in Aries stood in the heavens at the exact time of the Baptism, when the Christ being was ‘born’ into the Sun-Soul/body of the Nathan Jesus, in order to perform, 3 years later, His 4th & most important deed on the hill at Golgotha. In John 1:35-36, the Baptist says: “Look, there is the Lamb of God”.  With these words we hear a testimony of the cosmic connection of Christ with the heavenly region of the Ram, thru which Christ entered our cosmos from the realms beyond the zodiac. It is thru this portal outside of The Trinity, related to more than our cosmos alone, that the ‘Voice from Heaven’ speaks at the baptism: “This is my Beloved Son, today I have begotten Him” or as Matthew 3:17 tells it: “As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. Suddenly the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on Him. 17And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!”

Giusto de Menabuoi

From the Aries constellation flows the source of Christ’s spiritual influence in the cosmos which then spreads its emanations towards the 1st 7 ‘light or ascended’ zodiac signs, which goes down to the region of the Scales. This may be called the body of the Mystic Lamb. And from Virgo to Pisces we have the body of the Divine Sophia. The overlapping center where they meet is where the ‘Mystic or alchemical Marriage’ takes place, an initiatory process in the New Mysteries open to humanity now. (Remember: the 13 Hidden Holy Night is New Year’s Eve, the center between the above & below, where we see the Sun at Midnight)

Peter Paul Reubens

Those initiated in the ancient Jewish rites had an inkling of the connection between, what they called the ‘Messiah’ & the region of the Ram. This is seen in the practice of sacrificing lambs for the ‘sins of Israel’. The Passover was a pre-figuring of The Christ, the new ‘Sacrificial Lamb’ – destined to be led to the slaughter for ‘the sins of the world’. This sacrifice was the medicine redeeming humanity from the fall, & ending the need for blood sacrifice.

Peter Paul Rubens

John the Baptist was a leading initiate of the Jewish mysteries. In his earliest incarnation as ‘Adam’ – he was the 1st man to take up a physical existence on earth. Because of this he was given the task of baptizing people in preparation for the descent of Christ -the 1st God to enter physical existence on earth. His task was to sort the Lambs – those ready for the new initiation, from those unfit in that life. And Eve had the task of giving birth to the Matthew Jesus.

Christ-Jesus became the new archetype of the human being, which had fallen into disarray through ‘the fall of Adam’- The human body was intended in the beginning to be more spiritual, but instead, it entered more deeply into materiality then what was intended by the gods. But thru the Resurrection, we can achieve the rise of Adam-Kadmon – the perfected human being – in times to come. It is for this reason that John the Baptist says that he (as the old Adam) must decrease, while Christ (the new Adam) must increase.

Henry Ossawa Tanner

Later after John the Baptist dies, his spirit is able to unite with Lazarus/John during his initiation by Christ into the New Mysteries – so that Lazarus becomes John the Divine. In the Book of the Apocalypse he reveals the connection of Christ with the Sphere of the Mystic Lamb, in his description of the Heavenly Lamb who guards the Book of Seven Seals.

Frank Yoneur

And so, thru our journey of Jesus to Christ we see the earthly reflection in the 13 Holy Nights between the festivals of Christmas to Epiphany, of our human evolution back to the Godhead. And at Epiphany, the festival of the Birth of Christ into the earthly body of humanity in the man Jesus, we get an insight into the journey that a god took to become human.  For at the moment of the Baptism, the highest Trinity is reflected in the depths of earthly existence: the Holy Spirit as the Dove (Bull), the Son-Principle as the Lamb (Ram) & the Father-principle as the Voice from the Heavens – from those realms where human imagination has yet to penetrate. But it is from there, from the bosom of the Father/Mother, that Christ descended into our cosmos. There He worked from the sphere of the Sun, as the 13th in the circle of the 12  – the Divine Spirit of our solar system; & then at the Baptism He descends from the Sun to the Earth, in order that the Earth may become a Sun.

It is ‘The Great Work’ of Being Human, to Become, each of us, a Sun – Recognizing & acknowledging this spark of Divinity in everyone we meet – supporting & adding to this light – to do as my friend Teddy Mowrey resolves:  “…Improve my awareness of the Christ in me, bringing it consciously into recognition of the Christ in others. The Christ in me responds to the Christ in you”.

Ninette Sombart

Let us gleam in 2017

Xox  ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Jan de Kok

Virtue: Devotion becomes the power of sacrifice

11th Holy Night: The Sphere of the Holy Spirit

Celestial Event, Festival, Insight, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Winter

4 January 2017 – Astro-Weather: Today at 11 am CST, Earth reaches perihelion – the closest point to the Sun during its year-long orbit, The two are then 91.4 million miles apart. It surprises many people to learn that Earth comes closest to the Sun in the dead of winter, but the cold weather in the Northern Hemisphere at this time of year arises because the Sun lies low in the sky

In early evening at this time of year, the Great Square of Pegasus balances on one corner high in the west. The vast Andromeda-Pegasus constellation runs all the way from near the zenith (Andromeda’s foot) down through the Great Square (Pegasus’s body) to fairly low in the west (Pegasus’s nose).

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

TODAY – According to the original Calendar of the Soul:

Girolamo da Santacroce

Balthasar

Melthusalah

The book of Titus is a Pastoral Epistle-letter from Paul to a church leader-written  approximately 66 A.D. as a guide to Titus, a Greek believer, in his leadership of the churches on the island of Crete, “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you” (1:5)

1504 – Deathday of Isabella I, Queen of Castile. She was married to Ferdinand II of Aragon. Their marriage became the basis for the political unification of Spain under their grandson, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. After a struggle to claim her right to the throne, she reorganized the governmental system, brought the crime rate to the lowest it had been in years, & unburdened the kingdom of the enormous debt her brother had left behind. Her reforms & those she made with her husband had an influence that extended well beyond the borders of their united kingdoms. Isabella & Ferdinand are known for supporting & financing Christopher Columbus’ 1492 voyage that led to the opening of the New World & to the establishment of Spain as the first global power which dominated Europe & much of the world for more than a century

1785 – Birthday of Jacob Grimm, a German philologist, jurist, & mythologist. He is known as the discoverer of Grimm’s law (linguistics), the co-author with his brother Wilhelm of the monumental Deutsches Wörterbuch, the author of Deutsche Mythologie &, more popularly, as one of the Brothers Grimm & the editor of Grimm’s Fairy Tales

1786 – Deathday of Moses Mendelssohn,  a German Jewish philosophe. His ideas from the ‘Haskalah’, formed the ‘Jewish enlightenment’ of the 18th & 19th centuries. Born to a poor Jewish family in Dessau, Principality of Anhalt, & originally destined for a rabbinical career, Mendelssohn educated himself in German thought & literature & from his writings on philosophy & religion came to be regarded as a leading cultural figure of his time. He also established himself as an important figure in the Berlin textile industry, which was the foundation of his family’s wealth. Moses Mendelssohn’s descendants include the composers Fanny & Felix Mendelssohn & the founders of the Mendelssohn & Co. banking house

1849 –Deathday of Franz Xaver Gabelsberger a German inventor of a shorthand writing system, later known as Stenograph.

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11th Holy Night: 3-4 January 2017, Constellation of Taurus, Bull (ruling the neck & throat/larynx ) The Sphere of the Holy Spirit –

                                                                                

Congratulations Dear Holy Nights traveler – you have made it beyond the threshold – past the 9 Angelic realms, into the Sphere of the Holy Spirit!

It may seem odd at 1st that this Divine Realm is represented by what appears to be such an ‘earthly’ image – Taurus the Bull!? But we only need to contemplate the image of the sacred cow, with its potent digestive activity which is vast like the universe – & trace this imagination into the astral cosmos – which reveals its true form – as the dove! Rudolf Steiner encourages us to see that, what is astral in the Dove, becomes physical in the cow/bull.

(Holy Spirit hovering above the waters before creation Byzantine Mosaic)

Our ancestors of ancient India, Egypt, Babylon, Greece & Asia Minor, knew this, & made the cow sacred – revealing the significance of the cult of the bull or calf. The occult knowledge of this connection can be seen in Egypt for instance in depictions of the Sun-god Ra in the aspect of a falcon, bearing on its head a solar disc, sitting between the 2 horns of the heavenly cow; or in Babylon, with its images of the winded bulls (Shedu).

From Spiritual Science we know that the principle of the Holy Spirit works thru the sphere of the Moon, & the Son-principle works thru the sphere of the Sun. So the bull reflecting the activity of the Holy Spirit is connected to the Moon gods & goddeses – like the Sumerian Moon-god, pictured with the body of a bull.

In the Mysteries of ancient Egypt, the image of Isis arose out of the union in the lunar sphere of 2 cosmic streams coming from the heavenly regions of the Virgin (the constellation of Virgo) & the Bull (Taurus). When the influence of Virgo prevailed, then the image of Isis, usually seen holding her son Horus, out-pictured the energies of the Divine Sophia or World-Soul (Moon) a pre-figuring of The Virgin Mary. But if the Bull prevailed, Isis was depicted with the Sun disc between the bull’s horns, showing her connection with the World-Spirit (or Sun aspect).  The relationship of Isis with Osiris, a pre-figuring of The Christ, further indicates the transition from the Lunar Logos to the Solar Logos, which corresponds to the shift from the 3rd to the 4th cultural epoch, when The Christ is born on earth.

(It’s important to note that on Old Moon the Luciferic principle chose not to evolve to the Sun-Sphere, but wanted egoistically to remain behind in the Moon Sphere, yet cut off from the true Holy Spirit. We see this debased, Luciferic representation of the Holy Spirit, which does not seek to find The Christ, in the Greco-Roman era as the cult of Mithras -the god whose task was to slay the bull of passions & egoism, & in the time of Moses, as the cult of the Golden Calf)

At the baptism in the Jordan, it is the Holy Spirit which enables the descent of Christ, to be ‘born’ into the Sun-Soul of Nathan, in the body of Jesus. The Holy Spirit, emanating from the region of the Bull, was seen by John the Baptist through the agency of his angel, in the form of a Dove above the head of Jesus. (John 1:32-34) Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

Picasso

There is another significant aspect which connects the influence from the region of the Bull, which rules the larynx, giving us the gift of speech, with the future working of the Holy Spirit. Speech connects us with others in a loving marriage of souls, & Rudolf Steiner takes this metaphor even further  to say that the Larynx will one day not only speak forth words, but will become a creative organ, a higher version of the organs of reproduction! “…we must understand that the larynx in its full transformation, when man has become chaste again, will turn like a flower to the spiritual Sun. The calyx of the flower, when the larynx is pure, becomes a chaste chalice, ready to be fructified by the Spirit, to be offered to the ‘Holy Lance of Love’. This is a symbol of the Holy Grail, its highest Ideal” (GA 98 May 11, 1907)

May we begin this transformation of our speech NOW, in order to bring to birth the Spirit of Christ, as a moral creative force, within our human soul. This will fructify the soul of our communities (Think Whitsun), & pollinate the Soul of the Earth.

 Barbara Holden

Freed thru the working of the Christ-Impluse in the soul of humanity, the Luciferic principle will turn from being adversarial, to becoming the servant of the redeemed Holy Spirit, The New Isis-Sophia.

 Lori maden

May we ride the Bull in full consciousness & peace

Xox  ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

  Jan de Kok

Virtue: Equilibrium becomes progress

 

10th Holy Night: Spirits of Love

Celestial Event, Festival, Insight, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Winter

3 January 2017 – Astro-Weather: The first major meteor shower of 2017, (& every of New Year) the Quadrantid meteor shower, will be at its best in the hours between midnight & dawn January 3 or 4. The radiant point for the Quadrantids is the northern tip of Bootes, near the Big Dipper asterism in our sky, not far from Arcturus, the brightest star in Bootes. This region climbs high in the northeast as dawn approaches. And, with the waxing crescent Moon setting before 10 pm CST, observers with clear weather will have ideal conditions. Under a dark sky, viewers can expect to see up to 120 meteors per hour — an average of two per minute.

 

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

TODAY – According to the original Calendar of the Soul:

Betha Synge

Enoch – called ‘Enoch the scribe of judgment’. “In the seventh generation from Adam,” he was considered the author of the Book of Enoch, which recounts how he was taken up to Heaven & was appointed guardian of all the celestial treasures – chief of the archangels, & the immediate attendant of God’s throne. He was subsequently taught all secret mysteries &, with all the angels at his back, fulfills of his own accord whatever comes out of the mouth of God. Much esoteric literature identifies Enoch as Metatron, the angel which communicates God’s word. In consequence, Enoch was seen, by this literature, & the kabbala of Jewish mysticism, as having been the one which communicated God’s revelation to Moses, in particular. In addition to an appearance in the Book of Genesis, Enoch is the subject of many Jewish & Christian writings. Enoch was the son of Jared (Genesis 5:19–21), the father of Methuselah, & the great-grandfather of Noah. The Bible says that Enoch lived 365 years before he was taken up by God. The text reads that Enoch “walked with God: and he was no more; for God took him” (Gen 5:21–24)

 Michelangelo Sistine Chapel

The prophet Daniel – Hebrew: “God is my Judge“- was a hero who interprets dreams & receives apocalyptic visions. The Book of Daniel begins with an introduction telling how Daniel & his companions came to be in Babylon. Then a set of tales set in the Babylonian & Persian courts, followed by a set of visions in which Daniel sees the remote future of the world & of Israel.

Daniel & 3 friends were among the young Jewish nobility carried off to Babylon following the city’s capture by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The four are chosen for their intellect & beauty to be trained in the Babylonian court. They are given new names. Daniel is given the Babylonian name Belteshazzar, while his companions are given the Babylonian names Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego. Which we read about in the famous story of the fiery furnace

Daniel & his friends refuse the food & wine provided by the king of Babylon to avoid breaking the Jewish laws. They receive wisdom from God & surpass “all the magicians & enchanters of the kingdom.”

Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a giant statue made of four metals with feet of mingled iron & clay, smashed by a stone from heaven. Only Daniel is able to interpret it: the dream signifies 4 kingdoms, of which Babylon is the 1st, but God will destroy them & replace them with his own kingdom.

Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a great tree that shelters the entire world & of a heavenly figure who decrees that the tree will be destroyed; again, only Daniel can interpret the dream, which concerns the sovereignty of God over the kings of the earth.

When Nebuchadnezzar’s son King Belshazzar uses the vessels from the Jewish temple for his feast, a hand appears & writes a mysterious message on the wall, which only Daniel can interpret; it tells the king that his kingdom will be given to the Medes & Persians, because Belshazzar, unlike Nebuchadnezzar, has not acknowledged the sovereignty of the God of Daniel.

Anne Cameron Cutri

The Medes & Persians overthrow Nebuchadnezzar & the new king, Darius the Mede, appoints Daniel to high authority. Jealous rivals attempt to destroy Daniel with an accusation that he worships God instead of the king, & Daniel is thrown into a den of lions, but an angel saves him, his accusers are destroyed, & Daniel is restored to his position.

Merian

In the third year of Darius, Daniel has a series of visions. In the first, four beasts come out of the sea, the last with ten horns, & an eleventh horn grows & achieves dominion over the Earth & the “Ancient of Days” – God gives dominion to “one like a son of man”. An angel interprets the vision.

In the second, a ram with two horns is attacked by a goat with one horn; the one horn breaks & is replaced by four. A little horn arises & attacks the people of God & the temple, & Daniel is informed how long the little horn’s dominion will endure.

In the third, Daniel is troubled to read in Holy Scripture (the book is not named but appears to be Jeremiah) that Jerusalem would be desolate for 70 years. Daniel repents on behalf of the Jews & requests that Jerusalem & its people be restored. An angel refers to a period of 70 sevens, or weeks, of years.

In the final vision, Daniel sees a period of history culminating in a struggle between the “king of the north” & the “king of the south” in which God’s people suffer terribly; an angel explains that in the end the righteous will be vindicated & God’s kingdom will be established on Earth.

El Greco

Caspar – the youngest of the Magi, was King of Tarsus, a historic city in south-central Turkey. His gift was myrrh, which was used in making medicines. This symbolized Christ as the healer & great physician.

 

236 – The Deathday of Pope Anterus, Bishop of Rome. Anterus was the son of Romulus, born in Calabria. He is thought to have been of Greek origin, & his name may indicate that he was a freed slave. Scholars believe he was martyred because he ordered greater strictness in searching into the acts of the martyrs.

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 Jennifer O’Neil

10th Holy Night:  Constellation of Gemini, Twins (ruling the lungs, arms, & shoulders) The Sphere of the Seraphim, Spirits of Love –

 

The ceaseless yearning of the Seraphim for the sphere of the Holy Spirit above them brings the impetus of Universal Love which begets the will to sacrifice. An earthly reflection of this macrocosmic impulse of love can be seen in the ancient Greek myth of the Twin Brothers Castor & Pollux – where the immortal twin is willing to sacrifice himself for his brother.

In the Christian epoch, after the Christ-Impluse enters into earthly evolution, love becomes universal, going beyond the love founded on blood-ties. ‘My command is this: Love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.’ (John 15: 12-14) The Spiritual Love that Christ arouses is the fulfilment of the fundamental principle of all true Christian Mysteries – ‘Not I but Christ in me’.

We see this Universal Love in the being of the Nathan Soul, the Jesus of the Luke Gospel, who sacrificed himself 4 times in the pre-earthly deeds, to be the vessel of Christ. We see it in the Mary of the Luke Gospel, who united with Mary of the Matthew Gospel, allowing the Divine Sophia to enter the earthly realm.

We see it in the willing of Zarathustra, who incarnated as the Jesus of the Matthew Gospel, & sacrificed himself to allow the Christ to descend at the Baptism.  In ancient Persia, during the age of Gemini, Zarathustra was a great Magi, able to foretell the coming of Christ, who he saw as Ahura Mazdao. This vision gave him the impulse to sacrifice himself in his coming lives in order to prepare for it. Since ‘The turning point of time’, the individuality of Zarathustra has incarnated again & again as ‘Master Jesus’ –  & is one of the circle of 12 Bodhisattvas who inspire humanity towards developing this selfless Universal Love.

Salvador Dali

In the 6 cultural epoch we will see a recapitulation of the age of Gemini on a higher level. It will be a time that stands under the signature of the Wedding at Cana, where those who unite in the Spirit of Christ will feel good-will towards one another even though they are not blood-relations. Finally on ‘Vulcan’, at the end of earth evolution, this sacrificial love will have created a new Cosmos, a universe of love created by Human Beings as the 10th hierarchy of Freedom & Love.

Christ Himself shows us the way, He put this Love into practice, sacrificing his Heavenliness in order to descend from the Trinity beyond the Zodiac, into earthly evolution, to unite Himself for all times with humanity, becoming the ultimate example by fulfilling the deed on Golgotha. Christ Himself-a God-lay down his life, to die an earthly death in Jesus.

John, the disciple that Jesus loved most, a direct witness to all the events that he describes in his Gospel, knows this love thru his initiation as Lazarus. ‘By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers & sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a friend in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children in Christ, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth’. (1 John 3:16 – 18)

And so we see how all impulses concerning community, & the social life, all striving towards joining together on the basis of mutual love & genuine interest in one another, arise from the region of Gemini. Also Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘From fixed star to fixed star, a reciprocal conversation holds sway. Through this conversation the cosmos comes into being. Whatever the planetary systems speak about with one another across the widths of space in order to become a cosmos is regulated by those Spirits that new call the Seraphim’.

What would it look like to bring this Cosmic Universal Love, consciously into our world today? To resolve for this New Year, & very year, to open our thinking-hearts, with the intension of enacting an unconditional Love which is capable of uniting like-minded people, kindred-souls, who are willing to walk the talk, & join together in communion with the Spirits of Love, who yearn for us to join the cosmic conversation …?!?

We are all Twin-Souls United in Christ

Xox  ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Jan de Kok

Virtue: Perseverance becomes faithfulness

As we persist in developing the ability to be depended upon, faithfulness ripens. We must persevere even when we can’t see any outward progress. We insist on the progress toward self-development,  in service of our true destiny. We owe this to our “I”, to the world, & to those around us. It is honoring The Divine Will, not our own personal will.

Gemini Meditation: “I recognize my other self and in the waning of that self, I grow and glow.“

 

9th Holy Night: the Vortex

Celestial Event, Festival, Insight, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Speaking with the Stars, Winter

2 January 2017 – Astro-weather: The waxing crescent Moon stands between Mars & Venus in this evening’s sky. Notice that the Goddess of Love is much brighter than the warrior god Mars.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

According to the original Calendar of the Soul, Today is:

Feast Day of Abel – a son of Adam & Eve in the Bible. According to the Bible, he was the first person to die, murdered by his brother Cain

William Blake

Feast Day of Seth  – Hebrew for ‘placed’ or ‘appointed’, in Judaism, Christianity, Mandaeism, & Islam, Seth is recognized as the third son of Adam & Eve, brother of Cain & Abel. According to Genesis 4:25, Seth was born after Abel’s murder, & Eve believed God had appointed him as a replacement for Abel

Cherub guarding the gates of Paradise by Franz von Stuck

From Rudolf Steiner: “A story called “The Golden Legend” was imparted to the pupils of occultism in the form of an image. The legend was more or less as follows: — When Seth, the son whom God gave Adam and Eve in place of the murdered Abel, was called by the Cherubim to enter the gate guarding Paradise, he found the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life inter-grown; their branches intertwined. From this tree Seth took three seeds, following the command of the Angel who guided him. He kept the three seeds and when Adam died, he placed them into Adam’s mouth. And a tree grew out of Adam’s grave; (to those who knew how to look upon it in the right way,) this tree revealed a writing in flaming letters — the words: “Ejeh Asher Ejeh. I am He that was- He that is- He that shall be.”

Now Seth took some wood from this tree and many things were made out of it: among them the branch which became the magic rod of Moses. And this tree multiplied; from its wood the portal of Solomon’s temple was made, and later on, when it had passed through many other destinies, it became the Cross upon which the Savior hung. The legend thus connects the wood of the Cross of Golgotha with the tree which grew out of Adam’ s grave from the seeds of the Tree of Paradise.” (see the obvious connection with the 9th Holy Night below)

Birthday of Melchior, the oldest member of the Magi. The King of Persia who brought the gift of gold to Jesus

Deathday of Theodorus of Cyrene an ancient Libyan Greek who lived during the 5th century BC. The only first-hand accounts of him that survive are in 3 of Plato’s dialogues: the Theaetetus, the Sophist, & the Statesman. He is famous for the  mathematical theorem now known as the Spiral of Theodorus (perfect for the 9th Holy Night ie. The Vortex of the Crab, see below)

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 Seth Darias

9th Holy Night:  Constellation of Cancer, Crab (the Vortex) (ruling the chest/breast) The Sphere of the Cherubim, Spirits of Harmony –

 The Circle of the 12 Zodiac can be traced back to the dance of the Cherubim working from the world-periphery down into Old Sun to create a kind of cosmic thorax, a protective rib cage around the Sun/heart. The sign of the Crab stands at the highest point of the zodiacal circle, embracing the sphere in its protective shell.

 

The sign of the Crab is a modification of the vortex, an ancient occult symbol, which out-pictures the harmonious transition between cycles. “In the higher worlds, there is a process which appears also in the physical world: the rotation of a vortex. You can observe this phenomenon if you watch a starry nebula. There you see a spiral. That is on the physical plane. But you can observe it on all planes. You find that one spiral swirls into the next” ~Rudolf Steiner. All transitions: including World Evolution, the procession of the equinox’s-the shift from great & small epochs, & even the seasonal round, are directed by the Cherubim. They take-up the designs of the Seraphim, the ‘architects of the gods’ above them, & move it toward expression by handing it down to the Thrones. The spirals of the vortex provide the revolving movement, while the space in-between the arms of the vortex relates to a rest, or pralaya, a pause before the spiral transitions into a new phase. Some ‘revolutions’ from 1 condition to another can take a more dynamic character, ie. a flood, or the supreme example of the ‘Turning Point of Time’-Christ’s entry into world evolution (Matt: 21-25 describes this forceful expression shown in particular scenes from the life of Jesus)

Born under the sign of the Crab, John the Baptist, who in previous lives had been Elijah & before that Adam, the first earthly man, became after his death a kind of group soul for the apostles, fortifying like a protective shell, their micro-zodiac circle, or rib-cage around Christ-Jesus, the Sun-heart of the 12.

John the Baptist was able to recognize the pre-fall nature of the Nathan Soul living in Jesus of Nazareth, that part of himself that was separated out before the fall, held back in the Sun sphere, so that it could unite with Christ in His descent to earth.

Ezekiel’s Vision of the Cherubim William Blake

We see a connection with the Cherubim & Adam (JtB) & Eve (the Matthew Mary) at the fall, when the human being was cut off from the Trinity-the realm beyond the Zodiac, & the way was barred by the Cherub with the flaming sword.  This is a pre-figuring of John’s ‘Voice of Conscience’, which proceeds from the realm of the Cherubim. Our impulses of will, sprung from Conscience, was/& is, a necessary requirement for an understanding of Christ. 

It was Buddha who prepared the way for Conscience to arise during the time of Ancient India, which stood under the sign of Cancer/Crab. Many of John the Baptist’s sermons were a reflection of the Sermon at Benares, because the angel of Buddha was inspiring him. The Age of the Consciousness Soul is a further preparation for this morality of conscience, because ego consciousness requires a lighting up of thought in the will. This is an ability to understand the intentions behind actions – Moral Cognition – or heart-thinking, which is the seat of the will.

Seth Myer

Are we willing to heed the voice of conscience, & foster the imaginative inspiration from the realm of the Cherubim in our heart-thinking?

Let the way be opened, so we can transition gracefully in our journey back to the Godhead.

See you in the spiraling vortex

Xox  ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Jan de Kok

 Virtue: Unselfishness becomes catharsis