Category Archives: Chicago Event

A sinner marching with the Saints

November 1, 2016Autumn, Chicago Event, Festival, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

1 November 2016 – Astro-Weather: Venus, Saturn, & the thin crescent Moon shine through the fading twilight low in the southwest.

Draw a line from Altair, the brightest star high in the southwest after dark, to Vega, the brightest high in the west. Continue the line onward half as far, & you hit the Lozenge: the pointy-nosed head of Draco, the Dragon

***

“We understand only the very smallest part of human history and of our own life if we consider it in its external aspect, I mean in that aspect which we see from the limited view-point of our earthly life between birth and death. It is impossible to comprehend the inner motives of history and life unless we turn our gaze to that spiritual background which underlies the outer, physical happenings”. ~Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships, Volume IV: Lecture III

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Fra Angelico

ALL SAINTS DAY “After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands…. [One of the elders] said to me, ‘These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9,14)

The earliest observance of a feast in honor of all the saints is an early fourth-century commemoration of “all the martyrs.” In the early seventh century, after successive waves of invaders plundered the catacombs, Pope Boniface IV gathered up some 28 wagonloads of bones & reinterred them beneath the Pantheon, a Roman temple dedicated to all the gods. The pope rededicated the shrine as a Christian church. According to Venerable Bede, the pope intended “that the memory of all the saints might in the future be honored in the place which had formerly been dedicated to the worship not of gods but of demons” (On the Calculation of Time).

The Anglo-Saxon theologian Alcuin observed the feast on November 1 in 800, as did his friend Arno, Bishop of Salzburg. Rome finally adopted that date in the ninth century.

The Massacre of the Innocents, part of the El Dia de los Muertos celebration, honors the biblical account of infanticide by Herod. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Herod ordered the execution of all young male children in the vicinity of Bethlehem, in an attempt to avoid the loss of his throne to a newborn King of the Jews whose birth had been announced to him by the Magi. Understood as the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy: “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying, ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more”.

1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.

1520 – The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of South America connecting the Pacific & the Atlantic Oceans, is first ‘discovered’ & navigated by Ferdinand Magellan during the first recorded circumnavigation voyage

1570 – The All Saints’ Flood devastates the Dutch coast, breaking the dikes. The total number of dead in the tens of thousands, 100,000 people became homeless. Livestock was lost in huge numbers. Winter stocks of food & fodder were destroyed.

1604 – William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London

1611 – Shakespeare’s play The Tempest is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London

1755 – In Portugal, Lisbon is totally devastated by a massive earthquake & tsunami, killing 90,000 people

1765 – The British Parliament enacts the Stamp Act on the Thirteen Colonies in order to help pay for British military operations in North America

1838 –Birthday of Khedrup Gyatso – 11th Dalai Lama

1870 – In the United States, the Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service) makes its first official meteorological forecast

1911 – The first dropping of a bomb from an aircraft in combat, during the Italo-Turkish War

1918 – Malbone Street Wreck: The worst rapid transit accident in US history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street & Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, with 202 deaths

1941 – American photographer Ansel Adams takes a picture of a moonrise over the town of Hernandez, New Mexico that would become one of the most famous images in the history of photography. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes hired Adams for six months to create photographs of lands under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior. Adams was accompanied by his young son Michael & his best friend Cedric Wright on a long road trip around the west. They came upon the scene while traveling through the Chama River valley toward Española in late afternoon on November 1.

1948 – Off southern Manchuria, 6,000 people die as a Chinese merchant ship explodes & sinks

1950 – Pope Pius XII claims papal infallibility when he formally defines the dogma of the Assumption of Mary

1951 – Operation Buster–Jangle: 6,500 American soldiers are exposed to ‘Desert Rock’ atomic explosions for training purposes in Nevada. Participation is not voluntary

1952 – The United States successfully detonates Ivy Mike, the first thermonuclear device, at the Eniwetok atoll. The explosion had a yield of ten megatons TNT equivalent

1955 – The bombing of United Airlines Flight 629 occurs near Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers & five crew members aboard. Blown up with dynamite placed in the checked luggage by Jack Gilbert Graham to kill his mother as revenge for his childhood & to obtain a large life insurance payout. Within 15 months of the explosion, Graham—who already had an extensive criminal record—was tried, convicted, & executed for the crime

1956 – The Springhill mining disaster in Springhill, Nova Scotia kills 39 miners; 88 are rescued

1957 – The Mackinac Bridge, the world’s longest suspension bridge at the time, opens to traffic connecting Michigan’s upper & lower peninsulas

1960 –John F. Kennedy announces his idea of the Peace Corps

1963 – The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opens

1970 – Club 5-7 fire in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France kills 146 young people

1982 – Honda becomes the first Asian automobile company to produce cars in the United States with the opening of its factory in Marysville, Ohio; a Honda Accord is the first car produced there

2013 – Paul Anthony Ciancia opens fire at Los Angeles International Airport, killing a US Transportation Security Administration employee, & wounding seven other people. After the shooting ended, Ciancia was found to be carrying a note stating that he “wanted to kill TSA”. It also mentioned “fiat currency” & the New World Order. The common theme of this theory is that a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an authoritarian world government—which will replace sovereign nation-states—& an all-encompassing propaganda whose ideology hails the establishment of the New World Order as the culmination of history’s progress. Many influential historical & contemporary figures are said to be part of this cabal that operates through many front organizations to orchestrate significant political & financial events, ranging from causing systemic crises to pushing through controversial policies, at both national & international levels, as steps in an ongoing plot to achieve world domination. The judge votes to keep Ciancia’s statements sealed.

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~My soul duels with worms
Hidden in the clay of my being
Tainting & gnawing the scroll of my mythos
Witch I spit
Out in
Vacillating antipathy…
Yet my heart is kept
Whole when I sing
Thru the Living Word…
A sinner marching with the Saints
I stretch canvas & continue
Practicing

***

Remedios Varo

Beloved Being – Life is a Loom…& we are the weavers of this fabric we call Reality…Our bodies: a bone spindle, shuttling bobbin Souls…Our fibers interlacing, Spinning straw into gold…& yes sometimes a strand of sorrow is added to the weft…These dark threads are just as needed in a weavers skillful hand as the threads of gold & silver in our patterns spun in sand…& now as the fire of life goes inward, & rest lies upon the patient land…Our Craft is the Art of Transforming the patchwork shadow, the wounded ancestor, the demure descendant, every loose fiber, Into a fabric of healed wholeness & Peace…

May your transformation be ever-full of grace.

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

PS. I will be in Boston the next few days & will return to the blog next week, where I hope to do a write-up on my time in the Tone Eurythmy Course with Jan Ranck

Until soon

xox

Join us for our Annual All Souls Festival

Especially scheduled this year on Election Night Tuesday 8 November 2016

Potluck 6 pm, Festival 7 pm – 9 pm

Get away from the media frenzy- As We Create a Healing Sanctuary thru Story & SongTo Honor Our Dearly Departed working with us from the Spiritual World

Nancy Melvin will lead us in a song-circle, & we will engage with Columbia the Folk-Spirit of America, & The Founding Mothers & Fathers of our country, as well as the Native Americans who were here before us.

Contact Deborah Rogers with the names of your beloved ones who have died this year, to be read in the circle beewisdom33@yahoo.com

“Feel how we gaze lovingly into heights that now call you to other work.
May your power reach out from spirit-realms to the friends you left behind.

Hear our soul’s request sent to you in confidence;
We need here, for our earthly work, strong power from spirit lands-
We thank our friends now dead for this.

A hope that makes us happy, a loss that pains us deeply:
Let us hope that you light our lives, far-and-near, un-lost,
A soul-star in the spiritual firmament.” ~Rudolf Steiner

Re-heat my half-bake

October 21, 2016Autumn, Chicago Event, Festival, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

21 October 2016 – Astro-Weather: Our cosmic conversation continues: The Orionids – Peak these next few days Oct 20-22 2016. The meteor shower of the Mighty Hunter Orion is underway, with the earth traveling once again through the trail of cosmic dust left by Halley’s Comet.

From an article by Dr Elizabeth Vreede: ” Comets represent an element that does not wholly enter the usual sphere of cosmic law, although they still contain a trace of the direct working of spiritual powers, indeed, of the very highest — the Seraphim and Cherubim. Before ordinary law may be broken through, the very highest power and insight is required. The various comets, indeed, are agents of a very special nature in our planetary system, their polar antithesis being in the moons. Just as the moons are a kind of corpse which the planetary system trails along with it, so, on the other side, the comets may be spoken of as constant purifiers of the spiritual atmosphere within the solar system. In earlier times men thought of them as the “scavengers of God,” and many superstitions have gathered around them. To the eye of Spirit, too, the mission of the comets is perpetually to expel impure astral forces from the Cosmos or to introduce new impulses.”

5 things you need to know about the Orionid meteor shower:

The meteors are actually debris from the Comet Halley – The Comet Halley hasn’t paid Earth a visit since 1986, but pieces of the famous space rock still show up every fall. Each year, around October 20-22, our planet intersects with the comet’s orbit, according to Earth Sky. Pieces of Halley disintegrate in Earth’s upper atmosphere nearly 60 miles above the planet’s surface, but not before creating quite the spectacle for those down below.
Let’s be honest, watching this thing is a commitment. Experts agree that the shower will take place before dawn on October 21 or 22, but can’t pinpoint an exact date.
10-20 Meteors Could Fall Each Hour – The Orionid Meteor Shower is a “modest shower.” That means you won’t see a constant stream of glowing rocks plummeting toward Earth at any given moment. Don’t let that fool you. Those watching from dark or rural locations will still have a front row seat for the kind of spectacle that only comes from space.
…And They’ll Be Traveling At 41 Miles Per Second – You read that right. 41 miles per second. These rocks are literally scorching across the sky as they enter Earth’s atmosphere. Roughly half of these blazing fast meteors will leave gas trails behind them that are visible for a few seconds after the meteor is gone.
From. Every. Direction.- The Orionids flying from the sky this month are named after the constellation Orion, where they appear to radiate. The thing is, these meteors generally aren’t visible until they’re at least 30 degrees from that radiant point. This means they can appear any & everywhere in the night sky. If watching with a party, focus on different areas of the night sky & be sure to call out the meteors as you see them.

Saturn & Antares now form a more compact, right triangle with bright Venus low in the southwest at dusk

***

As the sun relates to the constellations during the course of the year, there are contemplations that correspond to these relationships. Bringing these meditations into daily practice is a moral activity that brings a conscious change that everyone may experience. Here is such a practice from the Calendar of Virtues: For Scorpio – (October 21 – November 20.) Patience becomes Insight [Opposite: Loss of Temper]

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1097 – First Crusade: Crusaders led by Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemund of Taranto, & Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, begin the Siege of Antioch

William Lionel Wyllie's panoramic painting of the Battle of Trafalgar in the Victory gallery in Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard — William Lionel Wyllie

1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Trafalgar: A British fleet led by Vice Admiral Lord Nelson defeats a combined French & Spanish fleet under Admiral Villeneuve

1833 – Birthday of Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist & engineer, invented dynamite & founded the Nobel Prize

1867 – The Medicine Lodge Treaty is signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. The treaty requires Native American Plains tribes to relocate to a reservation in western Oklahoma

1879 – Thomas Edison invents the first commercially practical incandescent light bulb

1892 – Opening ceremonies for the World’s Columbian Exposition are held in Chicago, though because construction was behind schedule, the exposition did not open until May 1, 1893

1945 – Women’s suffrage: Women are allowed to vote in France for the first time

1959 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring Wernher von Braun & other German scientists from the United States Army to NASA

1965 – Comet Ikeya–Seki approaches perihelion, passing 279,617 miles from the sun

1969 – Deathday of Jack Kerouac

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Break my ache –
Still my agitate
Rip thru my restless skin
Rubbed raw – pity full & late to the gate
Re-heat my half-bake
While I conjugate
~hag

***

Immediately following the seven-day festival of Sukkot comes the festival of Shemini Atzeret, The holiday at the end of Sukkot, during which are recited prayers for rain, & Simchat Torah (October 23-25, 2016) when we conclude — & begin anew — the annual Torah reading cycle. The holiday is marked with unbridled rejoicing, especially during the “hakafot” procession, as we march, sing & dance with the Torah scrolls.

“On Simchat Torah,” goes the chassidic adage, “we rejoice in the Torah, & the Torah rejoices in us; the Torah, too, wants to dance, so we become the Torah’s dancing feet.”

As the month of Tishrei comes to a close, we have experienced & celebrated the most powerful moments of the Jewish year. As the Torah reading cycle comes to an end, & we start reading the Torah all over again, what new lessons, insights, & inspiration will we derive this time around?

Shemini Atzeret Rain Feast, this ritual reflects a theology wherein people help to carry out the work of God. The story of Ḥoni Ha-M’ageil:

Long ago, in the Land of Israel, there was a terrible drought. Usually the rain fell in abundance between Shemini Atzeret and Passover, but this year there hadn’t been a drop, and Passover was only a couple of weeks away! The people were almost ready to give up hope. Without rain, there would be no crops and no way to survive. In desperation, they turned to a man named Ḥoni Ha-M’ageil, Ḥoni the Circle Drawer, and asked him to pray for rain. Ḥoni had an especially close relationship with God and a strong desire to help others. He instructed the people to bring their ovens, which they kept outside in those days, into their homes, so that the ovens would not be destroyed by rain. And then he prayed for rain. The people were hopeful. But no rain fell.

Some people would have given up then, after praying to no avail, but not Ḥoni. He was a persistent man. Ḥoni then drew a circle in the sand and stood right in the middle of it and said, “Ribbono shel Olam! Master of the Universe, Your children have turned to me, because I am almost like a member of Your family. I swear by Your Great Name—I will not move from this circle until You take pity on Your children!”

Suddenly it began to drizzle. Some people would have stopped then, with their promise to bring rain fulfilled, but not Ḥoni. Ḥoni could hear his disciples saying, “We look to you to save us from death. This drizzle will not be enough.”

So Ḥoni said to God, “This is not what I wanted. I wanted enough rain to fill up every cistern, ditch, and cavern.” Then it began to rain violently. Some say that each individual raindrop was the size of a softball, if not larger. Most people would have stopped then, and gone inside to seek shelter from the storm, but not Ḥoni. Ḥoni could hear his disciples saying, “We look to you to save us from death. This storm is powerful enough to destroy the whole world!”

So Ḥoni said to God, “This is not what I meant either. I am asking You for the rain of blessing and graciousness.” Now it rained the right way, but there was still so much water that the Israelites had to head for high ground. They all gathered at the Temple Mount, the highest point then in Jerusalem.

Then Ḥoni’s disciples came up to him and said, “Just as you prayed for it to rain, now pray for it to go away!” Ḥoni prayed once again, “Ribbono shel Olam! Master of the Universe, Your children are a delicate people. They cannot endure too much or too little of anything. May it be Your will that the rain cease and there be relief for the world.”

The wind began to blow, the clouds dispersed, and the sun shone bright once again. The people went out into the fields and were able to gather fresh mushrooms and vegetation for a great and wonderful feast.

In the absence of Ḥoni Ha-M’ageil, we must come with a plan that cannot fail. We ask that You bless the earth with rain, But realize that action works as a chain, So we will pour the first few drops, & pray ‘til Pesach it never stops.

(Pass pitchers of water around for participants to pour (very lightly) in all directions outside of the circle. Once everyone has poured water, recite together:

So too, may Adonai shower us all with blessing and provide for the needs which are most pressing. We pray for all to enjoy a harvest of bounty, Here in the United States and in every county. May no one go hungry even once this year, Whether friend or stranger, far or near. Let our deeds reinforce our heartfelt prayers.Let us take action before taking our chairs.

Participants exit the circle & retrieve the food they brought to donate. Then participants pack the food into boxes, which will be taken to a local food pantry.

When all of the donations have been packed, recite together: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ הַמֵּכִין מָזוֹן לְכָל בְּרִיּוֹתָיו. Ba-ruch a-tah A-do-nai, ha-mei-chin ma-zon l’-chol b’-ri-yo-tav. Blessed are You, Adonai, who provides enough food for all of Your creations.

After this part of the ritual, everyone can enjoy a festive meal in the sukkah.

The joyous climax of Simchat Torah is the dancing of hakafot (lit. “circles”), during which we dance & sing with the Torah scrolls.

chochmah velo k’silut, tevunah velo kalut rosh. Lamdeinu Torat chesed she’taachilenu bayamim haba’im uvechol sha’ah. Amen. Source of Life, every year you plant within us a new tree of life. May it be your will that this year our interpretations will blossom forth kindness and not cruelty, wisdom and not foolishness, awareness and not thoughtlessness. May you teach us a Torah of love that will nourish us in the coming days at every hour. Amen.

Or try this: During the hakafot let your dance be a reflection of the new wisdom you want to receive in the coming year.

Simchat Torah is also a symbolic move from death to life – the death of Moses & of the old year, the birth of the New Year & the newly created plants, animals, & humans. It is the rebirth of the Torah. That makes Simchat Torah a good time to celebrate all renewals & transformations.

If you have experienced a major change during the year, such as the loss of a loved one or a relationship, a wedding, conversion, coming out, or birth of a child, you can recite the following prayer as the Torah scroll used for Deuteronomy is exchanged for the Torah scroll used for Genesis (or as the Torah scroll is rolled from one place to another).

K’shem shehaTorah niglelet mimakom lemakom besimcha uveshalom, ken eglol mimakom lemakom berachamim uve’ratzon.

Just as the Torah is rolled from place to place amid joy and peace, so too may I roll from place to place surrounded by compassion and good will.

Tonight I begin a 10 day journey into a Tone Eurythmy Therapy Course with Jan Ranck, so I will be taking a sabbatical from the blog, until All Hallows Eve.

Blessings & Peace

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

For info. on the Tone Eurythmy Therapy Course, The Bridging Project –From Soul to Soul-Between Life and Death, October 26, 2016 – 7:15 pm CST & our Annual All Souls Festival click: https://reverseritual.com/festivals-2/festival-dates/current-festival-events/

New Moon: Harbinger of new beginnings & festivities

September 30, 2016Autumn, Chicago Event, Festival, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

30 September 2016 – Astro-Weather: Humans have always had a fascination with lunar events—& with the rise of the Internet, all kinds of moon moments have become media sensations. Consider super moons, harvest moons, & the rare super blood moon total eclipse.

Today sky-watchers may be tempted to add another lunar moniker to the list: a “black moon,” popularly defined as the second new moon in a month. However, it’s not exactly going to make for good sky-watching.

New moons occur when the moon’s orbit takes it between Earth & the sun, leaving the lunar orb’s unilluminated side facing Earth. At night, this phase of the moon is impossible to see: Since new moons are in the same part of the sky as the sun, they rise and set with the sun & are overwhelmed by its glare.

New moons can be readily seen only when they pass directly in front of the sun, causing solar eclipses. Otherwise, sky-watchers must look to the days before or after a new moon, when just a sliver of the moon’s sunlit side is visible from Earth. (The Noble Qur’an categorically requires physical Moon sighting (with the naked eye) to confirm the beginning & ending of the Islamic months such as Ramadan & Zil-Hajjah. The Qur’anic term for the Crescent Moon is al-Hilal which means “the sighted Moon.”)

Usually, new moons occur only once a month, but because there’s a slight disjunct between the moon’s phases—a 29.5-day cycle, on average—& the Gregorian calendar, some months can have two new moons: one at the beginning & one at the end. This double-dipping occurs once every 32 months or so.

In this sense, a black moon is like the blue moon, conventionally understood as the second full moon in a month. But let’s be clear: This new moon—like any astronomical event—doesn’t bring ill tidings or herald the end of days, despite the astrological fear-mongering that has been seeping through the web.

If anything, this black moon is a harbinger of new beginnings & festivities: On the evening of October 2, the barely visible waxing crescent moon will shine on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. And on October 3, the growing crescent will mark the beginning of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic lunar calendar.

New Moon occurs at 7:11 pm CDT

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When we look up to the wonder of the starry world, when we contemplate the whole process of the universe with its glories and marvels, then we are led at last to the feeling that all the glory that lies open to our view in the whole universe that surrounds us only has meaning when it is reflected in an admiring human soul. -~Goethe

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

Sigmund Gleismüller

395 – John the Evangelist settles in Patmos to write the Apocalypse

Caravaggio

420 – Deathday of St. Jerome also called Hieronymus, Roman priest, theologian, patron saint of translators, librarians & encyclopedists. Rudolf Steiner speaks of him in From Jesus to Christ lecture 4, saying he had to ‘falsify’ the Gospel of St. Matthew, because it was too esoteric for folks at the time:

When we know this, we understand that the original Gospel of Matthew could not be imparted without further preparation because men were not ripe to receive what was in it. For if Jerome, a Father of the Church, was himself not ripe for what it contained, then certainly other men were not. Those who were originally in possession of these communications, the Ebionites, did not impart them because, if received by unripe persons, they would have been so distorted that they must have led to what Jerome meant when he said that they would serve not for edification but for destruction. Now Jerome understood this; yet he allowed himself to impart in a certain way the Gospel of Matthew to the world. ~Rudolf Steiner

1207 – Birthday of Rumi, Persian mystic & poet

1791 – The first performance of The Magic Flute, the last opera by Mozart to make its debut, took place at Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, Austria

1791 – The National Constituent Assembly in Paris is dissolved; Parisians hail Maximilien Robespierre & Jérôme Pétion as “incorruptible patriots”

1882 – Thomas Edison’s first commercial hydroelectric power plant (later known as Appleton Edison Light Company) begins operation on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin

1914 – Birthday of Johannes Tautz – a Historian, Religious scholar, Anthroposophist, Author & Waldorf teacher. After the German capitulation, Tautz was imprisoned by the Czechs, Americans & Russians but managed to escape in the summer of 1945 back to his family in Bad Boll. He was soon approached by Erich Gabert in Stuttgart to join the Waldorf School that was about to be opened as its German & History teacher. On 1 November 1945 he stood before his first 9th grade at the Free Waldorf School, Uhlandshöhe.

Soon Johannes Tautz decided to look up his “predecessor”, the first history teacher at the Waldorf School, Walter Johannes Stein. The conversations with Stein provided an orientation & inspiration for all of his further work as a teacher, lecturer & writer; in his lecturing work at national & international conferences and in the “Hague Circle”, a coordinating international group of Waldorf teachers.

He likewise received particular guidance from Emil Bock regarding a Christological view of world history & from Jürgen von Grone about the destiny of Germany &in particular to the figure of Helmuth von Moltke.

In 1966 Tautz held three lectures about the spiritual background to National Socialism, which later appeared in print under the title Attack of the Enemy – The Occult Inspiration Behind Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in 1976. In it he looks at a number of personalities connected with questionable occult practices with which leading Nazis had been close during the time of the movement’s growth.

In 1979 he edited a collection of biographical portraits together with Gisbert Husemann of the circle of founding Waldorf teachers around Rudolf Steiner.

Together with a young friend, Thomas Meyer, he visited the daughter of Walter Johannes Stein, Clarissa Johanna Muller, in Ireland where she was living in order to look through her father’s literary estate. They found the typescript of Stein’s dissertation annotated by Rudolf Steiner, letters & meditations of Steiner for Stein, his mother & for his brother, who fell in a mysterious manner in WWI. Letters & notes of Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz, Eliza von Moltke, Ita Wegman, D.N Dunlop & many other personalities were discovered & formed the basis of Tautz’s biography of Stein in 1989

In 1993 he initiated the editing of a collection Rudolf Steiner’s letters & notes to Eliza von Moltke together with the post mortem communications & the letters of Helmuth von Moltke himself. The decision to publish these was to prevent or anticipate a partial publication without an appropriate commentary on the subject that had been announced. A previous instance of this content being used had been in the book The Spear of Destiny by Trevor Ravenscroft which, in the opinion of Tautz had been written “without the necessary protection of background knowledge for the deeply-penetrant & difficult to understand material.” Further reading

1938 – The League of Nations unanimously outlaws “intentional bombings of civilian populations”

1962 – Labor leader César Chávez founds the National Farm Workers Association, which later becomes United Farm Workers

1982 – Cyanide-laced Tylenol kills six people in the Chicago area. Seven are killed in all

1993 – The 6.2 Mw Latur earthquake shakes Maharashtra, India with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe) killing 9,748 & injuring 30,000

1999 – The Tokaimura nuclear accident causes the deaths of 2 technicians, many others affected by radiation poisoning, in Japan’s second-worst nuclear accident

2009 – The 7.6 Mw Sumatra earthquake shakes central Sumatra with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). 1,115 people dead, many injured & left homeless

***

“Do you know what you are?
You are a manuscript of a divine letter.
You are a mirror reflecting a noble face.
This universe is not outside of you.
Look inside yourself;
everything that you want,
you are already that.”

~Rumi

***

Michaelmas is not just a day; it is a season that extends from September 29, the Feast of St. Michael & All The Heavenly Hosts, to October 31, All Hallows Eve. It is a time for harvest, a time for work, a time for storing away that which we need for the cold dark months to come.

The autumn is an exceptional time. In many parts of North America, the trees are ablaze with splendid color— the scarlet maples, the twittering yellow aspens, the orange sumac. The evening skies come alive as meteor showers streak across the dark canopy like blazing arrows. This cosmic metallic presence is absorbed into our blood from the very air we breathe, invigorating our blood with its homeopathic qualities of iron. Darkness starts to wrap around us & we are moved inside to the comfort of our homes. Our thought life also goes inward. The dreamy mood of summer is replaced by a new vigor that seems to aid us in our tasks. Beyond external observation, what does all of this mean?

An ancient intuitive wisdom placed a festival at each of the four turning points of the solar year. The autumn festival was named after the archangel Michael, the heavenly warrior. The name Michael is Hebrew, & its meaning is a question: “Who is like God?” Legend tells that Michael, along with Gabriel, Uriel & Raphael, were sent out into the cosmos by God to seek a name for man. With sublime spirit-power, Michael, as the messenger of God, proclaimed man’s earthly name: “Adam.”

There are many other legends of Michael, the most notable being of his confrontation in heaven with the rebellious angels, led by Lucifer, who sought to overthrow God. The forces of Michael cast them out of heaven & held them in control in their earthly form as dragons. Michael did not slay the dragon, but through inner forces was able to hold it in control, at the tip of his spear.

If we examine this story, we can begin to find the meaning of Michaelmas & the task of Michael. The dragon is not an external reality, but rather lives within all humankind, represented by cold, dead, rationalistic & pragmatic thinking.

It is alive within every mortal as a potentially evil force. Michael’s message to humanity is not to try to slay the dragon within ourselves, for we would not live in freedom if we did, but rather to overcome it with consciousness. It is the consciousness in our thinking which calls for exactitude & selflessness, as well as the strength of will needed to follow a moral path in life. Michaelmas is a festival of inner strength & initiative. It is a time when our higher being can conquer anxiety & fear, for it is the task of Michael to awaken humankind to the eternal within.

In earnest wakefulness & practiced Peace –

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

TONIGHT!!!

Michaelmas Festival: 7 pm –9 pm Friday 30 September, 2016

Optional Community Potluck Dinner 5pm – 6:45pm at The Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

Heart-Thinking: Michael Beckoning

7pm – The Midwest Eurythmy Group will perform the Michaelmas Verse from Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul

Activating Our ‘Gemut’: The mind warmed by a loving heart & stimulated by the soul’s imaginative power – Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Verse for the Michaelic Age: ALL

We must eradicate from the soul all fear and terror of what approaches us from the future. We must acquire serenity in all feelings and sensations about the future.

We must look forward with absolute equanimity to whatever may come. And we must think only that whatever comes is given to us by a cosmic guidance full of wisdom.

It is part of what we must learn in this age, namely, to live without any security in material existence and to live with pure trust in the ever-present help of the spiritual world.

Truly, nothing else will do if our courage is not to fail us. For this let us seek awakening to the reality of the spirit from within ourselves, every morning and every evening. ~Rudolf Steiner

Copper Rod Eurythmy: ALL

If I’m to be a valiant knight, Then there’s a battle I must fight , And I must choose right from the start, Not strength of arm But strength of heart, My sword shall of good steel be made, And love the keenness of the blade

Piano & Voice – Kristen Wray & David Wray performing Nacht und Träume + Ganymed – By Franz Schubert. Kristen Wray is a fiber and metal weaving artist, an energy healing practitioner, as well as a classically trained singer. David Wray is a classics professor at the University of Chicago specializing in ancient Roman poetry. Kristen and David regularly perform together in music student recitals on the university campus.

$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged

For more info. Contact Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer Ginsberg Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

The Feast Day of St. Michael & All the Heavenly Hosts

September 29, 2016Autumn, Celestial Event, Chicago Event, Festival, Insight, Lecture, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

29 September 2016 – Astro-Weather: The Moon has one final hurrah this morning before it disappears into the Sun’s glare. The waning crescent, now just 2 percent lit, slides below Mercury. The pair rises nearly 90 minutes before the Sun & climbs above the horizon 45 minutes ahead of sunrise.

Any clear evening this week is a good time to explore the constellation Sagittarius the Archer. This star group lies just west of due south around 7pm CDT time, near the time twilight ends. The brightest stars within the constellation form a distinctive asterism in the shape of a teapot. The central regions of the Milky Way pass through Sagittarius.

***

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” ~Mark Twain

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

The Feast Day of St. Michael & All the Heavenly Hosts, also called MICHAELMAS

1227 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, is excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for his failure to participate in the Crusades. A man of extraordinary culture, energy, & ability Frederick II was called stupor mundi (the wonder of the world), by Nietzsche, also the first European, the first modern ruler – by many historians, Frederick established in Sicily & southern Italy a modern, centrally governed kingdom with an efficient bureaucracy.

He was aKing of Germany, of Italy, & Burgundy. His other royal title was King of Jerusalem by virtue of marriage & his connection with the Sixth Crusade.

He was frequently at war with the Papacy, hemmed in between Frederick’s lands in northern Italy & his Kingdom of Sicily (the Regno) to the south. Pope Gregory IX went so far as to call him an Antichrist.

Speaking six languages (Latin, Sicilian, German, French, Greek & Arabic, Frederick was an avid patron of science & the arts. He played a major role in promoting literature through the Sicilian School of poetry. His Sicilian royal court in Palermo, saw the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian. The poetry that emanated from the school had a significant influence on literature & on what was to become the modern Italian language.

He was also the first king who explicitly outlawed trials by ordeal as they were considered irrational.

Caravaggio

1571 – Birthday of Caravaggio, Italian painter

1717 – An earthquake strikes Antigua Guatemala, destroying much of the city’s architecture & making authorities consider moving the capital to a different city

1789 – The United States Department of War first establishes a regular army with a strength of several hundred men

1789 – The 1st United States Congress adjourns

1812- Birthday of Caspar Hauser, grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell. Theories link him with the grand ducal House of BadenThese claims, & his subsequent death by stabbing, sparked much debate & controversy.

“…It was the case of that human being, so enigmatic for many people, who was once placed into this city in a mysterious way, and who in just as mysterious a way met his death in Ansbach. An author, in order to indicate the mystery of his life, wrote that as he was carried out to burial the sun was setting on the one horizon and the moon was rising on the other. I speak, as you know, of Caspar Hauser. If you disregard all the pros and cons that have been asserted, if you look only at what has been fully verified, you will know that this foundling — who was one day simply there in the street, and who since he did not know whence he came, was called the Child of Europe — could neither read nor write when he was found. At an age of twenty years he possessed nothing of what is gained through the intellect but he had a remarkable memory. As they began to instruct him, as logic entered his soul, his memory disappeared. This transition in consciousness was accompanied by something else. He possessed at first an incredible, an entirely inborn truthfulness and it was precisely in this truthfulness that he went more and more astray. The more he nibbled, so to say, at intellectuality, the more it vanished. There would be many things to study were we to enter deeply into this human soul which had been artificially held back. It is not difficult for the student of Spiritual Science to credit the popular tradition, so unacceptable to the learned people of to-day, which relates that while Caspar Hauser still knew nothing, while he still had no idea that there were beings besides himself of different form, he exercised a remarkable effect upon quite savage creatures. Savage animals humbled themselves and became mild, something streamed from him that made such beasts gentle, although they savagely attacked anyone else. We could in fact penetrate deeply into the soul of this remarkable personality, so enigmatic to many, and you would see how things that cannot be explained from ordinary life are led back through Spiritual Science to spiritual facts. Such facts cannot be learnt by speculation but only by spiritual observation, though they are comprehensible to an unbiased and logical thinking.

All this has only been said in order to show you that the modern consciousness has evolved from another, an age-old-state when man was not in direct touch with outer objects in the modern sense, but on the other hand was in connection with facts and beings of the spiritual world.” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Apocalypse of St. John, Spiritual Science — The Gospel — The Future of Mankind

1885 – The first public electric tramway in the world is opened in Blackpool, England

1902 – Deathday of Émile Zola a French novelist, playwright, journalist, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, & an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France & in the exoneration of the falsely accused & convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J’accuse. Zola was nominated for the first & second Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901 & 1902. His death from carbon monoxide poisoning is suspected to have been murder

1924 – Ludwig Polzer holds his 1^st First Class Lesson

1954 – The convention establishing CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) is signed

1957 – Twenty MCi) of radioactive material is released in an explosion at the Soviet Mayak nuclear plant at Chelyabinsk

1981 – Deathday of Adolf Arenson, German composer & Anthroposopher. Arenson editied many of Rudolf Steiner’s works, & composed the music for many of the plays & productions. Steiner mentions him at the end of Wonders of the World lecture 1

2008 – Following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers & Washington Mutual, The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, the largest single-day point loss in its history

2009 – The 8.1 Mw Samoa earthquake strikes with a maximum Mercalli intensity. A destructive tsunami follows, leaving 189 dead & hundreds injured.

2013 – Over 42 people are killed by members of Boko Haram at the College of Agriculture in Gujba, Nigeria

***

St. Michael’s Harvest Song

In autumn comes Saint Michael with sword and with shield
Passes over meadow and orchard and field.
He’s on the path to battle ‘gainst darkness and strife –
He is the heavenly warrior protector of life.

***

Liane Collot D ‘ herbois

Human consciousness is ever evolving. The Zeitgeist is flavored by the various attributes of the 7 Archangels who take turns ruling a portion of the epoch. In 1879 Michael became the Time Spirit of our age. When he was last up, he ruled the Hebrew folk as they were preparing the vessel for the Christ Being to enter a human form. Back then he held the countenance of Jehovah, the god of the Hebrew people.

At the ‘Turning point of Time’ Michael got a promotion to become an Archai & took on the countenance of The Christ.

In 1899 the Kali Yuga ended & the gates to the spiritual world were opened once again. Around that time, at the end of the 19^th century, the fixed date of September 29th came to be called: The Feast Day of St. Michael & All the Heavenly Hosts. The old legends would always preface the famous story of the battle against the dragon, with an enumeration of the 9 angelic realms, with Michael standing before us as the King & herald of all the hierarchies.

And so as we strive to create the festival of the future, which we call Michaelmas, we are invited to stand in balance between the light & the dark, around this time of the equinox, to look back to the fruits of the past, & to prepare by looking to what is coming toward us from the future.

To look where we have been & to where we are going. To contemplate the angelic choirs – that we may look to our future selves – that we may think, here & now, that step by step, we can courageously build our own strong & steady rung on the ladder of evolution, teaching us to count the human being as the 10th hierarchy. It is to this that the mighty sun-being Michael directs our gaze; which we must in turn direct to the world of nature – Replacing dead sense-bound thinking, represented by the Dragon, with Imaginative Cognition, (to reclaim the Cosmic intelligence) living heart-thinking, fostered by Michael, to reveal the Living Christ, as the fundamental force of the Universe.

I will publish the full notes to the lecture I will give at tomorrow’s Chicago Michaelmas Festival, over the next week.

May Michael fortify our “I” & strengthen our Will, giving us the courage to find the Spirit behind the living Cosmos.

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

Michaelmas Festival: 7 pm –9 pm Friday 30 September, 2016

Optional Community Potluck Dinner 5pm – 6:45pm at The Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

Heart-Thinking: Michael Beckoning

7pm – The Midwest Eurythmy Group will perform the Michaelmas Verse from Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul

Activating Our ‘Gemut’: The mind warmed by a loving heart & stimulated by the soul’s imaginative power – Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Verse for the Michaelic Age: ALL

We must eradicate from the soul all fear and terror of what approaches us from the future. We must acquire serenity in all feelings and sensations about the future.

We must look forward with absolute equanimity to whatever may come. And we must think only that whatever comes is given to us by a cosmic guidance full of wisdom.

It is part of what we must learn in this age, namely, to live without any security in material existence and to live with pure trust in the ever-present help of the spiritual world.

Truly, nothing else will do if our courage is not to fail us. For this let us seek awakening to the reality of the spirit from within ourselves, every morning and every evening. ~Rudolf Steiner

Copper Rod Eurythmy: ALL

Piano & Voice – Kristen Wray & David Wray performing Nacht und Träume + Ganymed – By Franz Schubert. Kristen Wray is a fiber and metal weaving artist, an energy healing practitioner, as well as a classically trained singer. David Wray is a classics professor at the University of Chicago specializing in ancient Roman poetry. Kristen and David regularly perform together in music student recitals on the university campus.

$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged

For more info. Contact Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer Ginsberg Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

Forge me with fire, a sword for my smiting

September 28, 2016Autumn, Celestial Event, Chicago Event, Festival, Lecture, Poetry, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

28 September 2016 – Astro-weather: Mercury is now in the midst of its finest morning apparition of 2016. The planet reaches greatest elongation today, lying west of the Sun & appearing high in the east 45 minutes before sunrise.

Mars continues to put on a nice show these September evenings. The Red Planet appears high in the south-southwest in early evening. Mars lies among the background stars of western Sagittarius. And this evening, it slides south of the massive star-forming region known as the Lagoon Nebula (M8)

As dawn brightens Thursday morning the 29th, look for a super-thin crescent Moon near Mercury very low in the east.

***

“God is an intelligible sphere whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere”. ~Alanus ab Insulis

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

551 BC – Birthday of Confucius, Chinese teacher, editor, politician, & philosopher of the Spring &Autumn period of Chinese history

1203 – Deathday of Alanus ab Insulis, Theologian, poet, teacher at Chartres. Alan’s philosophy was a sort of mixture of Aristotelian logic and Neoplatonic philosophy. The Platonist seemed to outweigh the Aristotelian in Alan, but he felt strongly that the divine is all intelligibility and argued this notion through much Aristotelian logic combined with Pythagorean mathematic

“Do not hold as gold all that shines as gold”

In the Anticlaudianus he sums up as follows: Reason, guided by prudence, can unaided discover most of the truths of the physical order; for the apprehension of religious truths it must trust to faith. This rule is completed in his treatise, Ars catholicae fidei, as follows: Theology itself may be demonstrated by reason. Alainus even ventures an immediate application of this principle, & tries to prove geometrically the dogmas defined in the Creed

Giovanni Segantini

1899 – Deathday of Giovanni Segantini,an Italian painter known for his large pastoral landscapes of the Alps. He was one of the most famous artists in Europe in the late 19th century. In later life he combined a Divisionist painting style with Symbolist images of nature. He was active in Switzerland for most of his life.

1924 – Rudolf Steiner gave his Last Address in Dornach GA 238 The Individuality of Elias, John, Raphael, Novalis with the Michael Meditation:

Springing from Powers of the Sun,

Radiant Spirit-powers, blessing all Worlds!

For Michael’s garment of rays

Ye are predestined by Thought Divine.

He, the Christ-messenger, revealeth in you —

Bearing mankind aloft — the sacred Will of Worlds.

Ye, the radiant Beings of Aether-Worlds,

Bear the Christ-Word to Man.

Thus shall the Heralds of Christ appear

To the thirstily waiting souls,

To whom your Word of Light shines forth

In cosmic age of Spirit-Man.

Ye, the disciples of Spirit-Knowledge,

Take Michael’s Wisdom beckoning,

Take the Word of Love of the Will of Worlds

Into your soul’s aspiring, a c t i v e l y !

1978 – Deathday of Pope John Paul I, born Albino Luciani, served as Pope until his sudden suspicious death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

***

Katlyn Breene

~Flowing from the living waters

The cosmic fount foams up

To moisten my mind’s eye with salt & sulphur,

Forming a mercurial lachrymation

Beading brilliant, Mixing & Pooling

The cosmic iron in my blood scintillating slowly

Within the shining spark of thinking

A way to read intrinsic meaning into being…

The writing is on the wall my friend

Add your etching to enhance

The conscious conversation & Be

Heard…

~hag

***

Forge me with fire, a sword for my smiting

Fright to my foes and flames for my fighting

Shape me a shield forceful and fierce

Stalwart and shapely to fend against fears

Strike me a spear of speed as a shaft

Fearless to fly as a shot to the start

Staunch be my front against fury assailed

Strong be my soul where the feeble have failed

***

Michaelmas Festival: 7pm –9pm Friday 30 September, 2016

Optional Community Potluck Dinner 5pm – 6:45pm at The Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

Heart-Thinking: Michael Beckoning

7pm – The Midwest Eurythmy Group will perform the Michaelmas Verse from Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul

Activating Our ‘Gemut’: The mind warmed by a loving heart & stimulated by the soul’s imaginative power – Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Copper Rod Eurythmy: ALL

Grimm’s Tale “The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs” by Laura Donkel

Verse for the Michaelic Age: ALL

We must eradicate from the soul all fear and terror of what approaches us from the future. We must acquire serenity in all feelings and sensations about the future.

We must look forward with absolute equanimity to whatever may come. And we must think only that whatever comes is given to us by a cosmic guidance full of wisdom.

It is part of what we must learn in this age, namely, to live without any security in material existence and to live with pure trust in the ever-present help of the spiritual world.

Truly, nothing else will do if our courage is not to fail us. For this let us seek awakening to the reality of the spirit from within ourselves, every morning and every evening. ~Rudolf Steiner

$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged

For more info. Contact Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer GinsbergHazel@ReverseRitual.com

Cognitive Ritual

~Confessions of a Modern Rosicrucian

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Forge me with fire, a sword for my smiting

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