Category Archives: Chicago Event

Death Becomes Life

Celestial Event, Chicago Event, Community, Festival, History, Rudolf Steiner Quote

“On Good Friday, 1857, Wagner was sitting in the Retreat, “the sanctuary on the green hill.” Looking out over the fields watching the plants come to life, sprouting from the earth, an inkling arose in him of the Power of the germinating force emerging from the Earth in response to the rays of the sun: a driving force, a motivating force that permeates the whole world and lives in all beings; a force that must evolve, that cannot remain as it is; a force that, to reach higher stages, must pass through death. Watching the plants, he felt the force of sprouting life, and turning his gaze across the Lake of Zürich to the village; he contemplated the opposite idea, that of death — the two polar concepts to which Goethe gives such eloquent expression in his poem, Blessed Longing.

And until thou truly hast,
This dying and becoming,
Thou are but a troubled guest
O’er the dark earth roaming.

Goethe rewrote the words in his hymn to nature saying: “Nature invented death to have more life; only through death can she create a higher spiritual life.”

On Good Friday, as the symbol of death came before humankind in remembrance, Wagner sensed the connection between life, death and immortality. He felt a connection between the life sprouting from the earth and the Death on the Cross, the Death that is also the source of a Christian belief that life will ultimately be victorious over death, will become eternal life. Wagner sensed an inner connection between the sprouting life of Spring and the Good Friday belief in Redemption, the belief that from Death on the Cross springs Eternal Life. This thought is the same as that contained in the Quest for the Holy Grail, where the chaste plant blossom, striving towards the Sun, is contrasted with human desire filled nature. On the one hand Wagner recognized that human beings are steeped in desires; on the other he looked towards a future ideal — the ideal that human beings shall attain a higher consciousness through overcoming their lower nature, shall attain a higher fructifying power, called forth by the Spirit.

Looking towards the Cross, Wagner saw the blood flowing from the Redeemer, the symbol of Redemption, being caught in the Grail Chalice. This picture, linked itself within him to the life awakening in nature. These thoughts were passing through Wagner’s soul on Good Friday, 1857. He jotted down a few words that later became the basis from which he created his magnificent Good Friday drama. He wrote: “The blossoming plant springs from death; eternal life springs from the Death of Christ.” At that moment Wagner had an inner awareness of the Spirit behind all things, of the Spirit victorious over death.

For a time other creative ideas pushed those concerned with Parsifal into the Background. They came to the fore once more near the end of his life, when, clearer than before, they conveyed to him a person’s path of knowledge. Wagner portrayed the path to the Holy Grail to show the cleansing of a human beings’ desire nature. As an ideal this is depicted as a pure holy chalice whose image is the plant calyx’s chaste fructification to new creation by the sunbeam, the holy lance of love. The sunbeam enters matter as Amfortas’ lance enters sinful blood. But there the result is suffering and death. The path to the Holy Grail is portrayed as a cleansing of the sinful blood of lower desires till, on a higher level, it is as pure and chaste as is the plant calyx in relation to the sunbeam. Only he who is pure in heart, unworldly, untouched by temptation, so that he approaches the Holy Grail as an “innocent fool” filled with questions of its secret, can discover the path.

This idea led to his wonderful artistic interpretation of the Good Friday tradition, so that it can truly be said that Wagner has succeeded in bringing religion into art, in making art religious. 

In his artistic new creation of the Good Friday tradition, Wagner had the ingenious idea of combining the subject of faith with that of the Holy Grail. On the one hand stands the belief that humankind will be redeemed, and on the other, that through perfecting its nature humanity itself strives towards redemption; the belief that the Spirit permeating humankind — a drop of which lives in each individual as his higher self — in Christ Jesus foreshadowed humanity’s redemption. All this arose as an inner picture in Wagner’s mind already on that Good Friday in 1857 when he recognized the connection between the legend of Parsifal and Redemption through Christ Jesus.

We can begin to sense the presence of the Christ within mankind’s spiritual environment when, with sensitivity and understanding, we absorb the story of the Holy Grail. And it can deepen to concrete inner spiritual experience when we sense the transition from the midnight of Maundy Thursday — events of Maundy Thursday — to those of Good Friday, which symbolize the victory of nature’s resurrection.

Wagner’s Parsifal was inspired by the festival of Easter. He wanted new life to pour into the Christian festivals, which originally were established out of a deep understanding of nature. This can be seen especially in the case of the Easter festival, which was established when it was still known that the constellation of Sun and Moon affected human beings. When the spirit was regarded as a reality it was sensed in all things. If we could still sense what was bequeathed to us through traditions in regard to the festivals, then we would also have a feeling for how to celebrate Good Friday. Richard Wagner did have that feeling, just as he also perceived that the words of the Redeemer: “I am with you to the end of the world,” called human beings to follow the trail that led to the lofty ideal of the Holy Grail. Then people who lived the Truth would become redeemers.

Mankind is redeemed by the Redeemer. But Wagner adds the question: “When is the Redeemer redeemed?” He is redeemed when He abides in every human heart. As He has descended into the human heart, the human heart must ascend. Something of this was also felt by Wagner, for from the motif of faith he lets sound forth what is the mystical feeling of mankind in these beautiful words from Parsifal:

Greatest Healing Wonder – Redemption for the Redeemer!

These words truly show Wagner’s deep commitment to the highest ideal a person can set himself: to approach that Spiritual Power that came down to us and lives in our world. When we are worthy, we bring what resounds at the dose of Richard Wagner’s Parsifal: Redemption for the Redeemer” ~ Rudolf Steiner, Supersensible Knowledge, Lecture XII, Richard Wagner and Mysticism  From death comes life

From death comes life ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

15 April 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: This evening Bella Luna is not quite full – It will be exact at 1:55 tomorrow afternoon CDT. Look below the Moon after dark for Spica glimmering through its glare. Much farther to the Moon’s left shines brighter Arcturus. During dawn tomorrow morning the 16th, spot Venus shining in the East. Upper right of it are Mars and then Saturn, much fainter. Lower left of Venus Jupiter is also coming into view. WOW The Spiritual world is lining up for an Easter Parade!

Alexandra Tomorskaya

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

The Feast Day of Archangel Raphael

1452 – The Birthday of Leonardo da Vinci – According to the spiritual scientific research of Rudolf Steiner this individuality incarnated before as Augustine, Judas Maccabee & then…

“What is inscribed in the Akasha Chronicle between the earth and the moon is of special importance because it is there that among other things all imperfections are recorded. It should be realized that the inscribing of these imperfections is governed by the view that every record there is of significance for the individual’s own evolution, either furthering or hindering his progress. Because it is there inscribed in the Akasha Chronicle between earth and moon, it also becomes significant for the evolution of the earth as a whole. The imperfections of really great men are also recorded in that sphere. One example of tremendous interest for clairvoyant observation is Leonardo da Vinci. He is a spirit of greatness and universality equaled by few others on earth, but compared with what he intended, his actual achievements in the external world in many respects remained incomplete. As a matter of fact, no man of similar eminence left as much uncompleted as Leonardo da Vinci. The consequence of this was that a colossal amount was inscribed by him in the Moon sphere, so much indeed that one is often bound to exclaim, “How could all that is inscribed there possibly have reached perfection on the earth!”

At this point I want to tell you of something that seemed to me quite significant when I was studying Leonardo da Vinci. I was to give a lecture about him in Berlin and a particular observation made in connection with him seemed to be extremely important. It fills one with sadness today to see on the wall of the Church of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan the rapidly disappearing colors that now convey no more than a faint shadow of what the picture once was. If we remember that Leonardo took sixteen years to paint this picture, and think of how he painted it, we gain a definite impression. It is known that he would often go away for a long time. Then he would return to the picture, sit in front of it or many hours, make a few strokes with the brush and go off again. It is also known that many times he felt unable to express what he wished in the painting and suffered terrible fits of depression on this account. Now it happened that a new prior was appointed to the monastery at a time when Leonardo had already been working at the picture for many years. This prior was a pedantic and strict disciplinarian with little understanding of art. He asked impatiently why the painter could not finish the picture, reproached him for it and also complained to Duke Ludovico. The Duke repeated the complaint to Leonardo and he answered, “I do not know whether I shall ever be able to complete this picture. I have prototypes in life for all the figures except those of Judas and Christ. For them I have no models, although in the case of Judas, if no model turns up I can always take the prior. But for the Christ I have no prototype.”

What I want to say is that when one looks today at the figure of Judas in the picture that has almost completely faded, a shadow is to be seen on this figure, a shadow that cannot be explained in any way, either by the instreaming light or by anything else. Occult investigation finds that the painting was never as Leonardo da Vinci really wanted it to be. With the exception of the figures of Judas and the Christ he wanted to portray everything through light and shadow, but Judas was to be portrayed in such a way as to give the impression that darkness dominated the countenance from within. This was not intended to be conveyed by external contrasts of light and shadows. In the figure of Christ the impression was to be that the light on His countenance was shining from within, radiating outwards from within. But at this point disharmony beset Leonardo’s inner life, and the effect he desired was never produced. This affords a clue when one is observing the many remaining inscriptions made by Leonardo in the Moon sphere. It is an example of something that could not be brought to fulfillment in the earth sphere.

When the period following that of Leonardo da Vinci is investigated, it is found that Leonardo continued to work through a number of those who lived after him. Even externally there can be found in Leonardo’s writings things that later on were demonstrated by scientists and also by artists. In fact, the whole subsequent period was under his influence. It is then discovered that the inscribed imperfections worked as inspirations into the souls of Leonardo’s successors, into the souls of men who lived after him.

The imperfections of an earlier epoch are still more important for the following epoch than its perfections. The perfections are there to be studied, but what has been elaborated to a certain degree of perfection on the earth has, as it were, reached an end, has come to a conclusion in evolution. What has not been perfected is the seed of the following divine evolutionary process. Here we come to a remarkable, magnificent paradox. The greatest blessing for a subsequent period is the fruitful imperfection, the fruitful, justifiable imperfection of an earlier period. What has been perfected in an earlier epoch is there to be enjoyed. Imperfection, however, imperfection originating in great men whose influences have remained for posterity, helps to promote creative activity in the following period. Hence, there is obviously tremendous wisdom in the fact that imperfections remain in the neighborhood of the earth, inscribed in the records of the Akasha Chronicle between earth and moon.

This brings us to the point where we can begin to understand the principle that perfection signifies for the different epochs the end of a stream of evolution, and imperfection, the beginning of an evolutionary stream. For imperfection in this sense men should actually be thankful to the gods.” ~Rudolf Steiner Life Between Death and Rebirth Man’s Journey through the Cosmic Spheres after Death

‘The Devil Presenting Saint Augustine with the Book of Vices’; painting by Michael Pacher, fifteenth century
Judah Maccabee by Arthur Szyk

“Among the five sons of Mattathias is one who is already called Judas in the Old Testament. He was the one who at that time fought more bravely than all the others for his own people. In his whole soul he was dedicated to his people, and it was he who was successful in forming an alliance with the Romans against King Antiochus of Syria (I Maccabees, Chap. 8). This Judas (Maccabeus =The Hammer) is the same who later had to undergo the test of the betrayal, because he who was most intimately bound up with the old specifically Hebrew element, could not at once find the transition into the Christian element, needing the severe testing of the betrayal. Again, if we look at the purely artistic aspect, how wonderfully do the two figures stand out: the grand figure of the Judas in the last chapters of the Old Testament and the Judas of the New Testament. It is remarkable that in this symptomatic process, the Judas of the Old Testament concluded an alliance with the Romans, prefiguring all that happened later, namely the path that Christianity took through the Roman Empire, so that it could enter into the world. If I could add to this something that can also be known but that cannot be given in a lecture to an audience as large as this, you would see that it was precisely through a later reincarnation of Judas that the fusion of the Roman with the Christian element occurred. The reincarnated Judas was the first who, as we might say, had the great success of spreading Romanized Christianity in the world. The treaty concluded by the Judas of the Old Testament with the Romans was the prophetic foreshadowing of what was later accomplished by another man, who is recognized by occultists as the reincarnation of that Judas who had to go through the severe soul-testing of the betrayal. What through his later influence appears as Christianity within Romanism and Romanism within Christianity is like a renewal of the alliance concluded between the Old Testament Judas and the Romans, but transferred into the spiritual.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Gospel of Mark: Lecture 2

“If we let his “Last Supper” work on us, we find two things of which we can say that they do not altogether agree with Leonardo’s view of the principles of painting. One is the figure of Judas. From the reproductions and also to a certain extent from the shadowy painting in Milan, one gets the impression that Judas is quite covered in shadow — he is quite dark. Now when we study how the light falls from the different sides, and how with regard to the other eleven disciples the lighting conditions are represented in the most wonderful manner in accordance with reality, nothing really explains the darkness on the face of Judas. Art can give us no answer as to the wherefore of this darkness. This is fairly clear as regards the Judas figure. If we now turn to the Christ Figure, approaching it not according to Spiritual Science but according to the external view, it only produces, as it were, something like a suggestion. Just as little as the blackness, the darkness of the Judas figure seems justifiable, just as little does the “sunniness” of the Christ Figure, standing out as it does from the other figures, seem to be justified, in this sense. We can understand the lighting of all the other countenances but not that of Judas nor that of Christ Jesus. Then, as if of itself, the idea comes into one’s mind: surely the painter has striven to make evident that in these two opposites, Jesus and Judas, light and darkness proceed not from outside but from within. He probably wished to make us realize that the light on the face of the Christ cannot be explained by the outer conditions of light, and yet we can believe that the Soul behind this Countenance is itself a light force, so that It can shine of Itself, in spite of the lighting conditions. In the same way the impression with respect to Judas, is, that this form itself conjures up a shadow which is not explained by the shadows around it.

This is, as already said, a hypothesis of Spiritual Science, but one that has developed in me in the course of many years and we may believe that the more we considered the problem the more we would find it substantiated. According to this hypothesis one can understand how Leonardo, who strove to be true to nature in all his work and study, worked with trembling brush to present a problem that could only be justified with respect to this one figure. We can then understand that he might well be bitterly disappointed, indubitably so, because it was impossible by means of the then existing art to bring this problem to expression with complete truthfulness and probability. Because he could not yet do what he wanted, he finally despaired of the possibility of its execution and had to leave a picture behind him which still did not satisfy him, and the question as to the feelings with which Leonardo left his picture can be answered in full accord with the whole figure and spiritual greatness of Leonardo. He left it with a feeling of bitterness, realizing that in his most important work he had set himself a task, the execution of which could never be satisfactory with the means available to man. If in the centuries to come no eye will see the picture Leonardo had conjured on to the wall at Milan — that, in any case, was certainly not what lived in his soul. If we picture him thus before his most important creation, we are indeed tempted to ask: What secret really lay behind this figure?”

“…We see very little of Leonardo by looking at his external creations; we get the idea that this soul has still to carry out something in a super-sensible existence and we say to ourselves: Oh! We understand! In order that this soul, in the whole course of its collective existence, which runs through many earth lives, could always reveal something to mankind, it had in its Leonardo existence to pass through a life in which it was only able to bring to expression the very smallest part of what lived within it. Such souls as Leonardo are world riddles and life riddles — world riddles incarnate… Leonardo’s greatness only becomes evident to us when we get an inkling of what he could NOT accomplish. ~Rudolf Steiner, Leonardo da Vinci – His Spiritual and Intellectual Greatness At the Turning Point of the New Age

Kaysha Siemens

‘Velsum’ (Victory in Wholeness) an Anthroposophical Musical Initiative created by Lucien Dante Lazar & Ultra-Violet Archer performing New Nightingale, New Rose on Easter Sunday

Live streaming from the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago. Join us in-person or online.

PLEASE NOTE: BELOW IS THE NEW ZOOM CODE –  AND NEW TIME –
(Please disregard the last notices & use the new link to register for this event even if you think you have already registered – sorry for the confusion) 

This offering will not be recorded – it is meant for Easter Sunday only.

These 2 Christened voices came together for the “Building the Temple of the Heart” 2021 ASA AGM conference & have gone on to co-create a new musical genre that they call: Ancient Futurism. This past year they have been workshopping this initiative at Angelic Organics Farm graciously hosted by Haidy & Farmer John Peterson, who have put culture back into Agriculture by building a Temple stage to host Anthroposophical events in their glorious Barn building. The Debut of Velsum occurred there on Lazarus Saturday 2022.  

Easter Sunday 17 April 2022
Doors open at 12:30 pm CDT 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, Il. 60618
NEW TIME: Performance 1-2pm CDT
Potluck Easter Feast 2-3 pm CDT

$10 or more suggested donation goes to the artists –

Chicago Friends – Please Bring Hardy Festive Food & Drink to Share

www.rschicago.org/donate please indicate that it is for EASTER

Topic: Easter: New Nightingale, New Rose
Time: Apr 17, 2022 01:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

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from chaos to harmony

Biography, Chicago Event, Community, Festival
Victor Molev

Dear friends – I am not a tech person, I research & write & contemplate Anthroposophy, & I do a lot of work to find the images that highlight the content, BUT I do not understand the tech behind the web site. I apologize. So if an issue comes up where something isn’t functioning I have to ask for help. Often my beloved husband can lend a hand, even though he is very busy like myself & not a tech savvy guy either. So if you see that something isn’t working – Kindly email me, or volunteer to help on the backend.

It appears GoDaddy the host for this site has updated something with their firewall that has been treating your comments as spam. So if you tried to comment recently, which BTW I really appreciate, you probably experienced a message that said: ‘Access Denied – GoDaddy Website Firewall’. I discovered this by trying to share a comment myself.

Please friends I would never block your comments intentionally, I wouldn’t even know how to do that. My beloved CG helped me contact GoDaddy & they are working on fixing the problem. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Yours in service
~hag

14 April 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Holy Thursday and the Easter Triduum - Vatican News

“Everybody should be reminded by the Easter festival, that there will be the resurrection of the spirit out of the present darkened nature of the human being”. ~Rudolf Steiner, The Riddles of the World and Anthroposophy

Holy Thursday 2022

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

215 – Birthday of Mani the prophet & founder of Manichaeism – see Rudolf Steiner’s lectures GA 104 & 113

1126 – Averroes, a medieval Spanish polymath. He wrote on logic, Aristotelian & Islamic philosophy, theology, the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, psychology, political & Andalusian classical music theory, geography, mathematics, & the mediæval sciences of medicine, astronomy, physics, & celestial mechanics. Averroes was a defender of Aristotelian philosophy against Ash’ari theologians led by Al-Ghazali.

In 1561 on this date it was  Good Friday. Around dawn there was a mass sighting of celestial phenomena over Nuremberg, residents of Nuremberg saw what they described as an aerial battle, followed by the appearance of a large black triangular object & then a large crash outside of the city. According to witnesses, there were hundreds of spheres, cylinders & other odd-shaped objects that moved erratically overhead.

A broadsheet news article was printed later that month, describes objects of various shapes including crosses, globes, two lunar crescents, a black spear & tubular objects from which several smaller, round objects emerged & darted around the sky at dawn.

“In the morning of April 14, 1561, at daybreak, between 4 and 5 a.m., a dreadful apparition occurred on the sun, and then this was seen in Nuremberg in the city, before the gates and in the country – by many men and women. At first there appeared in the middle of the sun two blood-red semi-circular arcs, just like the moon in its last quarter. And in the sun, above and below and on both sides, the color was blood, there stood a round ball of partly dull, partly black ferrous color. Likewise there stood on both sides and as a torus about the sun such blood-red ones and other balls in large number, about three in a line and four in a square, also some alone. In between these globes there were visible a few blood-red crosses, between which there were blood-red strips, becoming thicker to the rear and in the front malleable like the rods of reed-grass, which were intermingled, among them two big rods, one on the right, the other to the left, and within the small and big rods there were three, also four and more globes. These all started to fight among themselves, so that the globes, which were first in the sun, flew out to the ones standing on both sides, thereafter, the globes standing outside the sun, in the small and large rods, flew into the sun. Besides the globes flew back and forth among themselves and fought vehemently with each other for over an hour. And when the conflict in and again out of the sun was most intense, they became fatigued to such an extent that they all, as said above, fell from the sun down upon the earth ‘as if they all burned’ and they then wasted away on the earth with immense smoke. After all this there was something like a black spear, very long and thick, sighted; the shaft pointed to the east, the point pointed west. Whatever such signs mean, God alone knows. Although we have seen, shortly one after another, many kinds of signs on the heaven, which are sent to us by the almighty God, to bring us to repentance, we still are, unfortunately, so ungrateful that we despise such high signs and miracles of God. Or we speak of them with ridicule and discard them to the wind, in order that God may send us a frightening punishment on account of our ungratefulness. After all, the God-fearing will by no means discard these signs, but will take it to heart as a warning of their merciful Father in heaven, will mend their lives and faithfully beg God, that He may avert His wrath, including the well-deserved punishment, on us, so that we may temporarily here and perpetually there, live as his children. For it, may God grant us his help, Amen”. Art by Hanns Glaser, letter-painter of Nurnberg

1759 – Deathday of G.F. Handel – composer

1865 Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford’s Theatre by John Wilkes Booth; Lincoln died the next day

1900 – The Exposition Universelle – a world’s fair held in Paris, France, from 14 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century & to accelerate development into the next. The fair, visited by nearly 50 million, displayed many machines, inventions, & architecture that are now nearly universally known, including the Grande Roue de Paris Ferris wheel, Russian nesting dolls, diesel engines, talking films, escalators, & the telegraphone (the first magnetic audio recorder)

1912 – The sinking of the Titanic

1935 – Exclusion from the General Anthroposophical Society of Ita Wegman, Elisabeth Vreed & other members also 2 national societies

1939 – The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck is first published

2010 – Over 2,700 are killed in a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture

2014 – 276  schoolgirls are abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria 

Moving thru Easter-Tide with more thoughts from Velsum: The Songs As Spiritual Scientific Documents

During Velsum’s writing process, spiritual scientific research is a central activity. The songs are born directly out of a spiritual scientific interest in the human being and reality as a whole. Due to this central aspect of Velsum’s initiative, Ultra-Violet and I felt it to be of service to these song beings, as well as to all the other spiritual impulses and beings who have helped form Velsum’s initiative, to offer some writing on this multi-faceted topic. With Ultra’s help, I have therefore taken the songs as an opportunity to do this. In the following paragraphs, you will be able to explore not only the lyrics of Velum’s songs; additionally you will be able to read spiritual scientific writings on their meanings, as well as historical anecdotes that help contextualize Velsum’s music and initiative as a whole in a variety of ways.
 
In reading this writing, it should be recognized that Velum’s music, like all music, exists on multiple levels of consciousness. While these songs were born out of specific spiritual scientific conversations and experiences, they do not exist solely within the meanings through which we have described them. They exist in whichever way they are beheld by one who engages with them. Beings and realities are infinitely sided—indeed, they have no sides—and therefore, these writings are a perspective written by an informed individual, and they are intended to serve as a potential inspiration for anyone who is interested in a deeper inquiry into the nature of anthroposophy, music, social relationship, and how life and art may become self-consciously unified as one spiritual initiative. 

It is with great joy that I am able to share my spiritual scientific research in this context. And I pray that these extremely condensed explorations may become unfolded in the hearts and heads of those who have interest in their inner content. If read with care and openness, I believe this unfolding will occur.

For the Love of I Am

Where do we go from here?
Do we say I do?
How will we pray
For the Love of I Am?
Where do we go from here?

Blessed be the Son of our hearts
Who enkindles the light of the world
As consciousness of Amen.
Let us in freedom be singing.
Let us in truth be.

For the Love of I Am is a foundation stone for our initiative, Velsum. It is an acknowledgement of the present, and the unique way in which the present may serve the future. It recognizes that once we have asked the divine question, we have already been received by its answer. The marriage of this sacred call and response is the being of this song. While the questions in the first stanza may be regarded as sacraments, the statements in the second stanza may be experienced as the prayers in which these sacraments are blessed. When, through Sophianic thought, we bless these sacraments with these prayers, we invite ourselves into the divine marriage of Christ and the human being. For the Love of I Am knows that humanity’s Love is the consciousness of Amen. And in that freedom, we behold the truth of the human being, who is the script of the Trinity. May this foundation stone be set in music. ~Lucien & Ultra

‘Velsum’ (Victory in Wholeness) an Anthroposophical Musical Initiative
created by Lucien Dante Lazar & Ultra-Violet Archer
performing New Nightingale, New Rose on Easter Sunday

Live streaming from the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago. Join us in-person or online.

PLEASE NOTE: BELOW IS THE NEW ZOOM CODE –  AND NEW TIME –
(Please disregard the last notices & use the new link to register for this event even if you think you have already registered – sorry for the confusion) 

This offering will not be recorded – it is meant for Easter Sunday only.

These 2 Christened voices came together for the “Building the Temple of the Heart” 2021 ASA AGM conference & have gone on to co-create a new musical genre that they call: Ancient Futurism. This past year they have been workshopping this initiative at Angelic Organics Farm – graciously hosted by Haidy & Farmer John Peterson, who have put culture back into Agriculture by building a Temple stage to host Anthroposophical events in their glorious Barn building. The Debut of Velsum occurred there on Lazarus Saturday 2022.  

Easter Sunday 17 April 2022
Doors open at 12:30 pm CDT 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, Il. 60618
NEW TIME: Performance 1-2pm CDT
Potluck Easter Feast 2-3 pm CDT

$10 or more suggested donation goes to the artists –

Chicago Friends – Please Bring Hardy Festive Food & Drink to Share

www.rschicago.org/donate please indicate that it is for EASTER

Topic: Easter: New Nightingale, New Rose
Time: Apr 17, 2022 01:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

NEW ZOOM CODE: Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 859 6497 5651
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Meeting ID: 859 6497 5651
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New Nightingale New Rose

Biography, Chicago Event, Community, Festival, Quote

Insights into Velsum, An Anthroposophical Musical Initiative through Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer, shared by Lucien

            Velsum first came into being when Hazel Archer Ginsberg asked her daughter, Ultra-Violet Archer and myself to sing a song for the pageant she would be offering at the Annual General Meeting for the Central Region of the Anthroposophical Society of America. The meeting was named ‘Building the Temple Of The Heart’, and she therefore encouraged us to make a song inspired by this theme.

            During our first rehearsal for the song that was to be, Ultra-Violet and I sat across from one another. As we began to sing, we saw aspects of our past lives and karmas flow out of each other’s mouths on our breath streams. It was a very surprising experience for both of us, and it was the first vivid indication we noticed that eluded us to our musical biographies, which is essentially founded in the spiritual world.

           During our first performance, Ultra-Violet and I experienced a selfless presence with each other through our singing. We were able to effortlessly behold one another as real human beings. This quality has since formed our musical connection, and has allowed for our musical endeavor to be fundamentally rooted in collaborative spiritual scientific inquiry into the nature of the spirituality of Love, friendship, and Wisdom.

            At the end of the Annual General Meeting, Farmer John and Haidy Peterson, who were part of the pageant and were moved by what they had witnessed, entered into dialogue with Ultra-Violet and I about their farm, Angelic Organics. We spoke about the architecture of the farm’s buildings, the fertile, cared for land, rich with healthy elemental activity, and the innate potential of artistic creativity that has arisen and could continue to arise from this sacred context. Together, we felt that it would be right for us to come into relationship with one another through our mutual interest in the potential of anthroposophy and the healing arts. Ultra-Violet and I were invited to come to Angelic Organics whenever we were able, and there to embark on a journey of writing music inspired by the architecture of the barns, the sacredness of the land, and the beauty, truth, and goodness of the spiritual relationships that were able to form there.

            It was during these weekend visits where the songs of Velsum started to flow through our beings like water in a sunlit creek. These songs felt like our children—little beings of music living in the spiritual world eager to come down through melody and word. We prayed before and after each ritual of incarnating these song beings, took walks in the land, ate vegetables from its crops, and relished in the wisdom of the architecture that held us.

            It wasn’t long into this process that many spiritual beings and impulses became known in the initiative of Velsum, which means Victory in wholeness.

            Joan of Arc’s wise and triumphant heralding presence appeared on the very first day. The Sufi poet Hafiz, with his enthusiastic jubilation for God, humanity, and the world sparkled into our voices shortly thereafter. Deep and mysterious impulses of Rosicrucianism flooded our songs like Spring rain on fresh, budding grass. And all throughout, the profound gifts of Rudolf Steiner through our Anthroposophia were dappled in our hearts and lungs like rose petals on a pond.

           Velsum’s music is the product of listening to the spiritual awakening of the soul through a social witnessing of Christ in the other’s activity. It is a manifestation of being grateful to God for His incarnation of Individuality. It is a deed of worship to Wisdom, and a call of Love to humanity’s Christian striving.

The Songs As Spiritual Scientific Documents (part 1)

Temple of the Heart

‘Thinking, doing, feeling;
Building the temple of the heart.
Loving, opening, thanking;
Building the temple of the heart’.

            Temple of the Heart is Velsum’s inaugural song. The lyrics were gifted to Velsum by Reverse Ritual founder Hazel Archer Ginsberg, who was inspired to write them after studying Michael Lipson’s translations of Rudolf Steiner’s six basic exercises. Through spending time with this socially constituted song, one may begin to experience the mutual fructification of these six basic verbs. Thinking, in its proposal to Love, births ideas founded in the unity of head and heart. Doing becomes a ritual for incarnating the conscious will, which opens the human being to the Godhead in nature and the Godhead in oneself. Feeling, as it imbues itself with divine wonder, becomes a song of gratitude spilling from the fount of the hierarchies in the cosmos. In this light, Temple of the Heart as a duet finds its meaning. (more from Lucien tomorrow)

~Lucien & Ultra

‘Velsum’ (Victory in Wholeness) an Anthroposophical Musical Initiative
created by Lucien Dante Lazar & Ultra-Violet Archer
performing New Nightingale, New Rose on Easter Sunday

Live streaming from the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago. Join us in-person or online.

PLEASE NOTE: BELOW IS THE NEW ZOOM CODE –  AND NEW TIME
(Please disregard the last notices & use the new link to register for this event even if you think you have already registered – sorry for the confusion) 

These 2 Christened voices came together for the “Building the Temple of the Heart” 2021 ASA AGM conference & have gone on to co-create a new musical genre that they call: Ancient Futurism. This past year they have been workshopping this initiative at Angelic Organics Farm – graciously hosted by Haidy & Farmer John Peterson, who have put culture back into Agriculture by building a Temple stage to host Anthroposophical events in their glorious Barn building. The Debut of Velsum occurred there on Lazarus Saturday 2022.  

Kaysha Siemens

New Nightingale, New Rose

Nightingale, have you heard the news!
The rose has come back
And the green and the blue.
And everything is as new as the dew,
New nightingale, new rose. 

Nightingale, be my bride 
For the birth of the new Sun in this Earth. 
Bleed your heart 
Into pure petals of fragrance,
New nightingale, new rose. 

Nightingale, be my bridegroom.
Fill my cup, I’ll sing Thy truth. 
Turn my blood into Thy blue
So my Love may be the light of Thy doing,
New nightingale, new rose. 

Nightingale, have you heard the news!
The rose has come back
And the green and the blue.
And everything is as new as the dew,
New nightingale, new rose.
    

New Nightingale, New Rose is a triumphant revelation of the spiritual mysteries of Rosicrucianism. It imagines the human being as the alchemical wedding of Christ and Sophia. This song which holds the mission of humanity, is the voice of the Nightingale, whose song is a warrior resurrecting Wisdom through Love. Let the Nightingale in freedom sing! ~Lucien & Ultra

Easter Sunday 17 April 2022
Doors open at 12:30 pm CDT 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, Il. 60618
NEW TIME: Performance 1-2pm CDT
Potluck Easter Feast 2-3 pm CDT

$10 or more suggested donation goes to the artists –

Chicago Friends – Please Bring Hardy Festive Food & Drink to Share

www.rschicago.org/donate please indicate that it is for EASTER

Topic: Easter: New Nightingale, New Rose
Time: Apr 17, 2022 01:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

NEW ZOOM CODE: Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85964975651

Meeting ID: 859 6497 5651
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Mothering Sunday

Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Celestial Event, Chicago Event, Community, Insight, Spring
Mable Sherer

Greetings friends on this last Sunday in March – Today in the Heartland Father Winter is teasing & testing the tender spring things – making hardy & strong what will soon become supple in their greening. The intrepid soul of the Chicagoan knows to keep the big coat & the pair of shorts handy at all times. We know that the seasons make the human being hardy too, strengthening our faith. So even though its 22 degrees outside, with a blustery wind whipping in from the lake – we know – This is the seed time…when the chains of death are broken & life bursts forth from the earth. Each day another minute of light triumphs over the darkness. The elementals arise, & wait for us to work with them in good will. The Sun stretches out its hand to the child within us all, bidding us to return from the land of the dead, to be cloaked in the fresh rain. Enlivened with the sweet scent of aspiration on our breath, we can joyfully step forth. As the wild flowers send their pastel shoots up from the brown compost, our souls dance in delight.  Our Lenten despair turns to hope, sorrow to joy, want to abundance…

If we do not spring forward, we will surly slip back. It’s time to venture out of the cave into the cold fresh possibility that exists at the change of season.

Within our own mind many detailed explanations may exist – excuses? -that keep us from moving forward. To put these parts of ourselves into perspective, we can see them in relation to the 4 basic elements…

It’s helpful to be specific about what you want to change – Choose the area of your life you want to focus on, such as relationships, health, career, clarity around direction, spiritual growth…etc…

Then begin in the East: Air – What thoughts bind you? Are you too scattered in your thinking, can’t make up your mind? Too dogmatic? Suffer from monkey mind? Inner critic on overdrive? What do you need so that you can create a positive thought pattern? What does a free mind look like?

South: Fire – What binds your will? Or are you too impulsive? Too willful, or perhaps your will is unfocused? Not able to take action? Feel fearful-unsafe? What do you need to empower your will force so you are free to take action?

West: Water – What emotions bind you? Are you too sensitive? Do you hold on to old feelings? Or are you rigid, frozen, not able to be empathic? Can’t go with the flow? How can you reclaim your creative fertility & be compassionate to yourself?

North: Earth – Does necessity bind you? Are you stuck in the mud? A perfectionist? Is nothing ever good enough? Perhaps you find it hard to complete things? What would it look like to be grounded, productive, prosperous & steadfast in your determination to create & manifest?

Perhaps this Spring season will call you to re-dedicate yourself to the 6 Basic Essential Exercises…

From Rudolf Steiner: A meditant should do these six exercises:

1. Control of Thought: Think about a simple object for at least five minutes. Hold it fast in thoughts without going over to other things. This exercise arouses a feeling of firmness in the pupil as it activates the chakra between the eyebrows. One should send this feeling through the brain and down the backbone.

2. Control of will (acting on your own initiative): Do an unimportant thing every day at a certain time. This exercise also gives firmness.

3. Develop equanimity, that is, one shouldn’t fluctuate between rejoicing to heaven and despairing to death. A joke can be enjoyed just as much if one doesn’t laugh boisterously at; one can bear a pain better if one doesn’t wallow in it too much. This gives one a feeling of quiet calm that one lets stream from the heart to the arms, and out through the hands.

4. Positivity: See the beautiful and true elements in all things. Christ Jesus admired the beautiful teeth in a rotting dog, where his disciples only saw ugliness. One can discover at least a small kernel of truth and something beautiful in everything. If one does this exercise for some time it gives one a feeling of great joy.

5. Open mindedness: Always be open to new things. One should never say: I never heard of that, that can’t be, or I don’t believe that. One should always leave the possibility open that one can learn something from everything that people say. Thereby one can learn from children, animals and everything else. This gives one the feeling that one could also perceive things while one is partly outside one’s body.

6. Inner Harmony: This exercise is a combination of the preceding ones, so that one can combine two and two or any way one wants. By doing this, one gets the feeling that one has grown beyond the limits of one’s skin.

By practicing these basic exercises we develop our soul forces of Thinking, Feeling & Willing, creating new spiritual organs of perception. May we all take up the work of transformation which will lead us into the Resurrection.

Blessings of becoming dear friends

~hag

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated with added titles by Roy Sadler
Mothering Sunday in England is the 4th Sunday of Lent, the 2nd of Passiontide
(not the 2nd Sunday in May as it is in the US)
and in this week’s spring verse Earth’s Mother can be the spirit’s jubilating force.
PASSIONTIDE 1I, Mothering Sunday
The World’s Fulfilment
v50
Earth’s Mother speaks…
her joy of growth in every bud’s unfurling,
revealing the inherent forces of her being,
is speaking to the human I:
In bringing into you my life
released from its enchantment,
I reach my true fulfilment.

The mirror verse
EASTERTIDE III
Foundation of the Self
v3
The human spirit speaks…
the growing I, in self-forgetfulness
and mindful of its primal state,
is speaking to the whole enwoven world:
In you, releasing chains
of private wants and pains,
I root my inborn truth.

27 March 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: At dawn the waning crescent Moon is below Venus, Mars, and Saturn, which now form an isosceles triangle

Dora Brenta

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

The Strange Story of Typhoid Mary, Quarantined on North Brother ...

1915 – Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States is put in quarantine for the second time, where she would remain as a prisoner for the rest of her life.

1966- DeathDay of Karl Konig, Founder of Camphill

1981 – The Solidarity movement in Poland stages a warning strike, in which at least 12 million Poles walk off their jobs for four hours.

No Pain No Gain

Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Celestial Event, Chicago Event, Community, Festival, History, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote
Atignas

“Knowledge of the connection between the physical and the astral world enables us to have a clear understanding of the world in its inner process of development; things are often connected in quite a different way from what people like to imagine. Many people deplore pain and suffering, but from a higher point of view this is quite unjustified, for if they are overcome and the person is ready for a new incarnation, suffering and pain are the sources of wisdom, prudence and comprehensiveness of vision.

There is something like “crystallised pain” in the face of every thinker. This has long been known to the occultist, for the greatest wisdom of the world is acquired by the quiet endurance of pain and suffering; this creates wisdom in the next incarnation“. ~Rudolf Steiner, Theosophy of the Rosicrucian – VI. The Law of Destiny – Munich, 30th May, 1907

Bosch

Opening verse for today’s AGM at the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago:

“To resolve our past requires knowledge,
To forge our future we need courage,
To experience the present we must develop dedication.
Our thinking needs riddles to wake up,
Our feeling needs pain to mature,
Our willing needs resistance to become strong.“ ~Rudolf Steiner

Book - Seussville

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans–that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves, too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no one could have dreamed would have come one’s way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.” ~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

space.com

27 February 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bright Venus (occult Mercury) red Mars and Bella Luna as a crescent Moon continue to call our attention.

If you’re up around 5 am CST, be sure to head outside and look to the southeast. By the time the sun rises the three worlds will be above the horizon and well visible above many buildings.

THE CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated – with added titles – by Roy Sadler
LENT
Memory, Arise
v46
The world is threatening to numb,
my soul’s own inborn force.
Now memory, companion me,
and in my sight enhance
the penetration of my glance
vitality of will alone sustains.

Today is the Sunday before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Verses 44 & 45 have each had to last for two weeks to wait for this week’s transition to the lunar dated calendar from the solar one. Verse 45 is the octave of the Christmas Spirit-birth in v38, and the final verse in Holy Week is the octave of v45.

In v45 sense revealing must receive thinking’s light. Now, in v46, memory is asked to arise from spirit’s depths and strengthen perception. And then come the final three thought verses.

In v47 ‘may joy of growth find strength of thought defended by the strength of God’. In v48 thinking becomes Cosmic Thought and focuses its radiance in human hearts to awaken love. This, in the week before Passiontide, is the Soul calendar’s climax, the last mention of the heart and love until next midwinter. It’s the octave’s fourth verse. The eurythmy gesture of the 4th tone streams out horizontally and can be pictured awakening love from the heart.

In v49 the clarity of thought, feeling the force of Cosmic Being, recalls its own spiritual growth in world nights’ darkness. After being told in the summer to dream and not think… thinking began in the third Michaelmas verse, v28, 21 verses, three octaves, before its final mention in v49.

There is a movement from the mind shining on the world in v45, doing so with memory in v46, with divine strength in v47, receiving Cosmic Thinking to awaken love in v48, and recalling its own spiritual growth as it feels Cosmic Being in v49.

It is a movement from the mind’s focus on the world to the world’s on the mind. And on Mothering Sunday the world’s joy of growth, bringing its life into the human self, reaches its true aim. In v51 the Cosmic Spirit finds itself in human eyes and in Holy Week life’s force, streaming from the heavens, invigorates the human body.

This last octave of the Soul Calendar – in memory of the Spirit’s Christmas birth in v38 that began the octave leading to v45 that begins ‘In concert with the Spirit’s birth the mind grows firm’ – will unfold the full measure of the heaven’s gift to humanity.

May the memory of the Spirit’s birth companion us in this transition week into nature’s new spring birth.

Basquiat

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

272 – Birthday of Constantine the Great, Roman emperor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1807 – Birthday of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1861 – The emergency Baptism of Rudolf Steiner

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

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

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

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

The Anthroposophical Society in America presents: Sophia Rising: Unveiling the Wisdom of Being Human

Santa Fe, New Mexico ~ April 21-24, 2022 Hotel Santa Fe Hacienda and Spa 

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER! 

***Early Bird Rate Until February 26 ~ Exclusively For Those Who Book With Hotel Santa Fe***

Join us in New Mexico, the ‘land of enchantment’, resonant with light ether and deep history, as we enliven Sophia. Join together in community as Sophia emerges and rises in her many facets and expressions- past, present, and future. 

You will be an active participant in this gathering that will engage storytelling and biography, art and color, eurythmy and movement, singing and speech, with offerings from speakers Carrie Schuchardt, Mary Stewart Adams, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Stephanie Georgieff, and more. 

Come and experience Sophia Rising as we honor the elements, the landscape, and each other. 

VENUE & TRAVEL 

Our gathering will take place at the lovely Native American-owned Hotel Santa Fe. We recommend you book your stay with the hotel to create a connected communal atmosphere for our gathering. The hotel has a full restaurant, pool, hot tub, and spa, as well as kivas and cozy sitting areas. Please call or email to make reservations with our special room rate for suites at $179/night. Each suite includes a refrigerator, microwave and sitting area. So much of what Santa Fe has to offer is within walking distance from the hotel. 

HOW TO BOOK: Email stay@hotelsantafe.com or call reservations at  877-259-3409 

**Ask for ASA Gathering to book with our special rate of $179/night for a suite. **

Registrants will receive suggested activities from our local organizers to explore in Santa Fe before or after our gathering. Extending your stay? The special ASA hotel rate is available for 3 days prior to and 3 days after the ASA gathering. 

CLICK HERE to post on our room and rideshare board to coordinate with other participants. 

AIR TRAVEL: Fly to Albuquerque or Santa Fe (note that flights are more limited and subject to the weather as Santa Fe is a small airport.)

There is a shuttle from Albuquerque to Santa Fe or car rentals available. Uber or Lyft is available if you fly into Santa Fe.

HOTEL and VENUE ADDRESS:
1501 Paseo de Peralta
Santa Fe, NM 87501
Phone: (877) 259-3409 

TICKETS
The ticket price includes access to all conference activities, snacks, coffee/tea and beverages, dessert reception Thursday, dinner Friday, lunch Saturday and brunch on Sunday.

No refunds after March 21, 2022

EARLY BIRD with ROOM BOOKING (until 2/26): $295* Must book at Hotel Santa Fe to receive this special early bird rate! Email stay@hotelsantafe.com or call 877-259-3409 to book. Please specify your reservation is for the ASA Gathering. 

STANDARD TICKET (After 2/26): $350

SUPPORTER TICKET: $425 

EXHIBITORS: If you are interested in being an exhibitor please fill out this form. 

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE: Limited assistance is available, please fill out this form. 

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER! 

Early Bird Only with Room Booking – After 2/26 more tickets will be released!

SCHEDULE  
(subject to minor changes) 


THURSDAY, April 21

7 pm                 Gathering Together  – with a dessert reception 

7:30- 8:30 pm    ArtActs: Past – Present – Future Eurythmy, and Singing,
 

FRIDAY, April 22

                           Explore Santa Fe on your own and continued arrivals 

1:00 – 2:30 pm     Welcome: Spirit of Place with organizers 

                            WEAVING EARTH Opening Ceremony with Angela Foster and friends

2:30pm-3:00pm   Break 

3:00-4:30 pm       Encountering the Celestial Goddess Anthroposophia with Mary Stewart Adams 

HeartMath with Michele Mariscal 

4:30-4:45 pm       Break

4:45- 6:00 pm      WEAVING AIR ArtActs  Eurythmy, Singing, and Speech 

6:00-7:30 pm       Dinner Together*

7:30 pm               Fireside Chats – Story and Sharing – Breakout circles led by friends and organizers 8:30 pm               

Stargazing with Mary Stewart Adams 
 

 SATURDAY, April 23

                            Breakfast – On your own

8:30 – 9:30 am       WEAVING ETHER Eurythmy

9:30 – 10:00 am     Break  

10:00 -11:15 am      The Virgin of Guadalupe: Sophia Rising in the Americas                                 with Stephanie Georgieff – The Virgin of Guadalupe is one of the first recorded apparitions in the Americas. Revealing herself to a Nahuatl Native and ultimately to the Bishop of New Spain and his entourage in December of 1531, this image has continued to inspire countless souls for nearly 500 years. The symbolism and timing of her appearance presents deep mysteries for our age, and points to the ultimate Sophianic impulse for the present and future of Humanity. 

11:30 – 12:30 pm    WEAVING STORIES Biography Work

12:30 – 2:00 pm       Lunch Together*

2:00 – 4:00 pm  ‘ANTHROPOSOPHIA: OUR ALCHEMICAL WEDDING’ with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg and Friends. At the heart of this convergence is a Grand Experiential Soul Journey to ‘Know Thyself’’ – A Temple Experience in the New Mysteries, built up and worked on during all the WEAVING sessions, preparing us to enter a deeply intensive initiatory experience – a ‘Movable Feast’ with various stations engaging us in group eurythmy, singing, Steiner verses, color gestures in art, and a telling of the New Isis Myth. Passing through Trials of the Soul we meet powerful Spiritual Beings on the way to our sacred marriage – a union of Warmth and Light, so that we can unveil the ‘Sophia Rising’ within ourselves, and the world.   

4:00 – 4:30 pm        Break

4:30 – 5:30 pm       WEAVING COLOR Invoking Natura: Sensing the Cosmic within the Earthly Pastels with Helen-Ann Ireland

5:30 – 6:00 pm       WEAVING STORIES Biography Conversation

6:00 pm                 Dinner – On your own

8:00-9:30 pm         WEAVING COMMUNITY Sophia Rising- Past, Present, and Future MC’d by Lucien Dante Lazar & Ultra-Violet Archer. Sign up to bring something to share! Poetry, Instruments, Story 
 

SUNDAY, April 24

8:00 – 9:00 am      WEAVING LIGHT Bathe in the Natural Warmth and Harmony  of the Metal Gold with Helena Hurrell – A metal color light therapy experience inspired by the glass windows at the Goetheanum 

9:00-10:30 am      WEAVING FIRE with Carrie Schuchardt 
                           HeartMath with Michele Mariscal 

10:30 – 12:00pm  Brunch Together*

12:00-1:00 pm    WEAVING WATER Water Ritual with Joyce Reilly and Friends
                          WEAVING WHOLENESS Closing with Angela Foster and Friends 

Notes: *Meals marked with an asterisk are included in the price of the ticket – Coffee, tea, and snacks will also be provided through the conference 

A quiet ‘Sanctuary Room’ will be provided for contemplation 

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER See you Santa Fe! 

PRESENTERS AND GUIDES (Not a full list-more to come!) 

Mary Stewart Adams is a Star Lore Historian, and host of the weekly public radio program and podcast “The Storyteller’s Night Sky”.  Through her research in spiritual science and her education in literary arts, Mary has developed a unique, humanities-based approach to understanding our relationship with the stars.  Her work is further augmented by an extensive knowledge of ancient mythologies and fairy tales, which she relates to the research and ideas of contemporary astronomy in order to understand the new star wisdom of astrosophy.

Eyahnna DalBo (artist of the Sophia Rising painting) came to anthroposophy 30 years ago when her daughter attended a Waldorf school. Her studies have included an undergraduate degree in fine art and graduate work in psychology using the arts for healing.  In her private practice, she developed various energetic modalities. Her experience with subtle energy fields gave her the opportunity to teach and take part in designing a curriculum for a 2-year program focusing on energy healing. As a consultant, she initiated numerous therapeutic programs to assist in pioneering the field of art therapy. Through the gift of an apprenticeship with indigenous people she was able to bring their practices and ceremonies to what she offered deepening her ability to be of service.  As an artist, she continues to utilize the spoken word, movement, sound, and visual imagery to honor and create a field that fosters awareness, growth, and transformation.

Angela Foster has been an active student of anthroposophy since 2008. After growing up in Texas, Angela is now embracing life in Atlanta, Georgia as an artist, teacher, and mom of two daughters, shepherd to two mini sheep. As a conscious practitioner of “beginner’s mind”, Angela has completed programs in foundation studies in Anthroposophy numerous times and is currently enrolled in Foundation Studies in Goethean Science through the Nature Institute. She and her husband manage the Anthroposophical Resource Center (ARC) an initiative in Decatur, Georgia that offers space for community events and serves as a little house for Anthroposophia.

Stephanie Georgieff, MS is an author, podcaster and pilgrim. Residing mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, she has written several books on The Divine Feminine as presented through the genre of The Black Madonna, The Virgin of Guadalupe and The Divine Sophia. She has spoken at conferences and venues throughout North America, the United Kingdom and Europe. The Black Madonna Speaks is her latest endeavor, a weekly podcast exploring the mysteries of The Black Madonna from an Anthroposophical and Esoteric Chritian perspective, along with artists, poets, authors and scholars on the subject.

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual: Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year & the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast. Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Anthroposopher – working as the Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, & as the Central Regional Council representative on the General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America. Past Video Recordings.

Helena Hurrell joyfully met Anthroposophy in San Fransisco in 1977 and has been working with individuals and groups as a Waldorf educator since 1981 and then throughout her life trained to become a therapist while living in Australia, the UK and North America. She is currently in private practice in Colorado blending the therapeutic work she offers through her love of color ~ as an Art and Metal Color Light Glass Therapist trained in the UK and Germany. Both of these trainings are certified by the Medical Section at the Goetheanum. Metal Color Light Therapy is a relatively new initiative originated by the late Marianne Altmaier who developed this therapy and training out of her deep interest in and knowledge of the Goetheanum windows in Dornach. Helena’s website: www.helioscenter.org

Helen-Ann Ireland has been involved in anthroposophical studies for over 30 years as a Waldorf teacher, member of the School for Spiritual Science, Class holder, and now as chair of the Anthroposophical Society of America. A special interest has been in the area of the Divine Feminine and the Being of Sophia.

Michele Mariscal has 30 years of experience in the health and wellness field. She is a skilled facilitator in soft skills, speaker, coach and author. She is an Advanced Grief Recovery Specialist as well as a Trainer and Coach with the Institute of HeartMath. She facilitates greater heart-based living for individuals and organizations Michele is also a five-time author with her most recent publication of Growing Through Grief – The Alchemy of Healing from Loss. 

Joyce Reilly Joyce studied psychology in college and was fascinated by the idea of a therapeutic community. She has worked in Camphill for many years, and is trained as a Waldorf and Therapeutic teacher.  She founded Gheel House, a therapeutic community near Kimberton Pennsylvania, still thriving after 37 years. Joyce’s interests expanded to international conflict work and refugee resettlement. She works with organizations such as the Janusz Korczak Association, Karuna Peacebuilders, Kiwimbi International, Good Grief, the Worldwide Storytelling and Puppetry Association, and especially with the New York Anthroposophical Branch, and also works part-time at the local public library. Joyce is also trained in Psychosynthesis therapy and Anthroposophical psychology – currently practicing as a life coach and counselor.

Carrie Schuchardt co-founded The House of Peace in 1990, a home that is a physical and spiritual refuge for victims of war in a community with adults with special needs. In the last 15 years over 400 refugees from approximately 30 countries have been received in the healing embrace of The House of Peace, giving supportive assistance in establishing themselves in the US. In addition to the daily work of The House Peace, Carrie participates in many activities for the conversion of consciousness and policies from war to peace. Carrie has begun a network of women who witness publicly, Women Weeping, where women dress in mourning carrying symbolic lifeless children in order to help people feel what is rarely expressed in the media: the grief of hundreds of thousands of mothers in war zones around the world who lose their children to the terrible violence of war.

Ultra-Violet Archer – Songwriter and Music Producer, exploring music as a tool for healing and storytelling. I am currently studying at Columbia College of Chicago, after spending a year with the International Youth Initiative Program in Sweden; and before that, two years at Oberlin College and Conservatory. Here https://linktr.ee/UltraVioletArcher you can find the links to my original releases and YouTube channel. I also sing and produce for the band Circle’s Edge. When I’m not making music, you can find me foraging for edible plants, reading fantasy novels, or hosting women’s circles!

For questions or inquiries please email programs@anthroposophy.org or call the office at 734-662-9355