Greetings friends on this Eve of the New Moon – I am striving, like you, thru Spiritual Science, in the continual digestion of past, present & future world events, to not only uncover the supersensible reality behind the various physically manifested phenomenon – naming the forces working in what we see out-pictured in our collective reality – but also to ask questions?
And one of the main questions many of us are asking is: How can we affect positive change?
We know that as individuals we are tasked with consistently practicing the inner development work described in Rudolf Steiner’s basic book: ‘How to Know Higher Worlds’. This first step is a life-long process, not a theory – but a conscious Initiatory practice… – Then with a firm moral foundation that allows us to build new spiritual organs, we are meant to join our gifts together to build the Temple of the New Mysteries – A Michaelic Oasis/Fortress that enables us to counteract the adversarial forces thru our collective endeavor – which involves rising in our thinking to meet the spiritual beings who are willing to work as our allies for the highest evolution of humanity.
Here on RR we have brought forth the intention to co-create change thru what I call: Project Thought-Seed (Egregore 10:10 )
Do you feel as I do that we must become spiritual warriors? We cannot realistically hope to affect change by physical means alone. The 3-fold Social Organism is in deep dis-ease. The Economic & Political realms are thoroughly corrupt, so in re-awakening the moral civil center of the Spiritual/Educational/Cultural realm in freedom, we can endeavor to take up the practice of building up affirmative imaginations on the inner planes as a counterforce to the adversarial powers working in the world.
This kind of willed-visualizationbecomes a “key-call” to the Spiritual Powers aligned with love & light, to enlist their aid.
Our collective Good Will can form a cosmic energy field for healing – planting what Dion Fortune called “Seed ideas in the group mind of humanity” to co-create intentions for our Highest human evolution – that the Earth may become a Sacred Planet – a Sun – & every Human Being a Star.“What is sown in our highest thought will grow and bear seed.” It only takes the square root of any number of people to create true change.
To further explain ‘the working’, we can do together, let’s look at what this positive group energy can be, from a spiritual scientific point of view:
An egregore is a positive group thought-form, & when intentionally created, becomes a kind of ‘entity’ with the power to help & influence.
Whenever we meditate, pray, study a sacred image, or create an inspiring work of science, art, or literature, we radiate into time & space positive thoughts & emotions which benefit the all. Thru concentration exercises we can build Thought-Forms in the astral where we can meet in spirit.
Our goal is to co-create a new ‘Group-Soul United in Christ’ – which has the power to affect the ultimate positive change we want to see in the world.
As a psychic ‘entity’, the egregore exists between the material & spiritual worlds, & is connected to both. It is a living creation of our highest intentions.
We have the power to manifest thought-forms of good will together –to collectively build a cognitive imagination of Michael-Christ-Sophia, protecting & embracing us with love & light.
The forces built up thru our collective egregore fortifies & sustains us. The intentional visualization of the Earth as a Sun, increases thru our efforts over time – becoming more & more realized thru our repeated affirmational actions.
Here is the Meditative Thought-Seed I have been working with:
For Thinking: “When I think light, my soul shines, When my soul shines, the Earth is a Star, When the Earth is a Star, I am, a true human being”. ~Herbert Hahn
I love to reverse the verses: I Am A True Human Being The Earth is a Star My Soul Shines I think Light
For Feeling: When I feel Love, my heart sings When my heart sings, the Earth resounds When the Earth resounds, I am a true I AM
I Am A True I am The earth Resounds My Heart Sings I Feel Love
For Willing: When I will life, my hands help When my hands help, the Earth heals When the Earth heals, I am a free human being
I Am A Free Human Being The Earth Heals My Hands Help I Will Life
~ hag
Of course just a simple moment of sending your good will out into the ethers is potent too.
If you are interested you can read about the origins for this Thought-Experiment which came about during the start of the Corona Crisis.
So dear friends, here is something we can actually do to counteract evil – to make our world a better place.
I hope to see you in the ethers every day 10:10 AM, (&/or PM) (but please don’t worry if you can’t tune in at 10:10, just do it whenever you think of it, which may be many times a day, or perhaps only occasionally, don’t stress it, just do what you can with a loving heart-mind)
~hag
RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler AUTUMN PRELUDE III The Yield Of Summer v23 In autumn haze the senses’ lure fades; a mist arising veils the light’s revealing. In widths of space I see the autumn landscape fall asleep; the summer’s yielded me her being for me to reap
This week’s octave is its mirror verse: the Celtic Wise Woman festival of Samhain [‘Summer’s End’] when the summer’s being begins to shine as the summer of the soul, the cosmic light living on with inner power.
SAMHAIN – HALLOWEEN The Summer Of The Soul v30 In sunlight of my soul the fruit of thinking ripens; all feeling turns to sureness of self-awareness. I joy to sense the autumn’s rousing of the spirit; within me will the winter wake the summer of the soul.
PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE: Due to the farm day at Angelic Organics we are changing our Chicago Festival to: FRIDAY 22 September 2023
Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire Celebrating
*Autumnal Equinox
*Yom Kippur
*Michaelmas Festival
6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile
Please Bring Food & Drink to share,& a jar for the prep
30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day
Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought
The time for biodynamic preparation making is come up again very soon. We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and work in soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.
After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –
Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year? Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye and thank you. Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?
Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner Please bring a dish to share Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.
Greetings friends – I trust that your Labor Day was light filled.
Matthew 11:28-30: “28 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
We brought a highlight to the biography of Elizabeth Vreede on her Death-day recently. And today I ran across this lecture which she gave on 11 July 1930, so I thought to share this interesting snippet:
“In conclusion, I would like to share with you the beautiful words of comfort which Rudolf Steiner spoke once during the time when we were standing in the midst of battle. It was in Copenhagen in 1911, when he was giving three lectures which were then printed in the little book ‘The Spiritual Guidance of Humankind.’
The three lectures that were then used as a basis for the book were preceded by this introduction, which, however, was not included in the printing, and which indeed also would not have fitted there. I would like to read to you the conclusion from this lecture. It is my own transcription- I do not have any other- and regrettably incomplete in places. But even if it were complete, it could hardly convey the immeasurable love, forgiveness and comfort that streamed from Rudolf Steiner to his listeners in this lecture. These were approximately his words:
~Henry Brown Fuller
‘A period of time such as ours, portending such tremendous events of soul, presents a special opportunity for us to enter profoundly into ourselves. In addition to the many duties that flow out of our movement, we must also draw into our own hearts, our own souls, so that we may clearly appreciate that only through sacrifice, are we able to follow the way which can bring a certainty in regard to the Mystery of Golgotha.
Significant times such as these must necessarily bring us something confirming the truth of the old saying, ‘where there is great light, there is much darkness’- Shadows that arise along with those gifts of which we have spoken here. This possibility of error necessarily exists in combination with the outpouring of great truths. Thus, more than at other times the human soul is at present open to error. It is also true that in the coming days of enlightenment, the greatest possible errors may occur. Error is easily possible for the weak human heart precisely because we shall be experiencing enormous events.
In consideration of what the occultists of all ages, with clear warning voices, have spoken about this possibility of error, we must learn to practice the tolerance of which we have spoken here. A blind subjection must, on the one hand, be avoided, for that can actually foster the possibility of error. On the other hand, it is also necessary to have an open heart for the new forces that will to flow now from spiritual worlds into humankind. Whoever is a good Anthroposophist knows that if we wish to foster the Light that is now wanting to stream into humankind, then we must recognize the errors that will flow into us along with the light.
Let us take confidence in knowing that there has never been a movement in which such open, loving hearts could be fostered as in our present- day movement. May we realize that it is better to be attacked by those who believe they have the only truth, in their opinion, than to attack them ourselves…between those two extremes there lies indeed a long path.
Despair may descend on us with the thought in these difficult times ‘How can I distinguish truth from error?’ In our striving, let us try to live in such a way that we can be strengthened by the idea that the truth will indeed be what can provide the highest impulses for humankind: The truth shall be closer to me than I am to myself. If I have this relationship to truth and if I should err in this Incarnation, then in the next Incarnation the truth itself will lead me back to what is right. It is better to err in this frame of mind than to cling to dogmas.
If we honestly strive for truth, then truth will be the victorious impulse in the world; through us, and through its inherent power.
If the communications of spiritual truths can awaken such feelings in the human soul, then there will be fulfilled in these Souls the mission of the new spiritual Revelation which has come into humankind – and will come ever more strongly in the future – in order to lead us up into spiritual worlds’ “.
TODAY in 1919 – Opening of the 1st Waldorf School in Stuttgart “A Ceremony of Cosmic Order”
“We can accomplish our work only if we do not see it as simply a matter of intellect or feeling, but, in the highest sense, as a moral spiritual task. Therefore, you will understand why, as we begin this work today, we first reflect on the connection we wish to create from the very beginning between our activity and the spiritual worlds. With such a task, we must be conscious that we do not work only in the physical plane of living human beings.
In the last centuries, this way of viewing work has increasingly gained such acceptance that it is virtually the only way people see it. This understanding of tasks has made teaching what it is now and that the work before us should improve. Thus, we wish to begin our preparation by first reflecting upon how we connect with the spiritual powers in whose service and in whose name each one of us must work. I ask you to understand these introductory words as a kind of prayer to those powers who stand behind us with Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition as we take up this task.
It is our duty to see the importance of our work. We will do this if we know that this school is charged with a particular task. We need to make our thoughts very concrete; we need to form our thoughts so that we can be conscious that this school fulfills something special. We can do this only when we do not view the founding of this school as an everyday occurrence, but instead regard it as a ceremony held within Cosmic Order. In this sense, I wish, in the name of the good spirit whose task it is to lead humanity out of suffering and misery, in the name of this good spirit whose task it is to lead humanity to a higher level of development in education. I wish to give the most heartfelt thanks to this good spirit who has given our dear friend Mr. Molt the good thoughts to do what he has done for the further development of humanity at this time and in this place, and what he has done for the Waldorf School. We are united with him in feeling the greatness of the task and of the moment in which it is begun, and in feeling that this is a festive moment in Cosmic Order, he will be able to work in our midst with the necessary strength.
We wish to begin our work with this in mind. We wish to see each other as human beings brought together by karma, who will bring about, not something common, but something that, for those doing this work, will include the feeling of a festive Cosmic moment. ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘The Foundations of Human Experience’.
CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF WALDORF EDUCATION Even the large scale of the photograph did not permit the inclusion of hundreds of personages and Beings who deserve to appear. Among those from the Past are: Adam and Eve, Abraham, Joseph, St. Luke, St. Paul, St Odelia, St Christopher, Pythagoras, Thales, Julius Caesar, William Blake, Buddha, Cicero, Albertus Magnus, Brunetto Latini, Zarathustra, Gilgamesh and Ibani, Novalis, Schiller, Christian Morgenstern, Karl Koenig, A.C. Harwood, Margaret Froehlich, Henry Barnes, Roy Wilkinson, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and many, many others.
Our thanks to Paul McCartney, Jann Haworth, and Peter Blake, creators of the iconic album cover for the Beatles’ inimitable Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band .
Among those from the Present who should take their place in this photographic Pantheon are: Patrick Wakeford-Evans, Ted Mahle, Roberto Trostli, Torin Finser, Karine Munk Finser, John Alexandra, Betty Staley, Douglas Gerwin, Arthur Auer, Norman Davidson, Clifford Monks, Arline Monks, Ida Oberman, Brian Gray, Michael Heffernan, Jaimen McMillan, Bonnie River, Thom Schaefer, Donna Long, Prairie Adams, Anna Rainville, David Mitchell, Chip Romer, Allegra Allesandri, Susan Olson, Kim John Payne, Jamie York, and many, many others. ~Eugene Schwartz
Saturday 23 September 2023
Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire Celebrating
*Autumnal Equinox
*Yom Kippur
*Michaelmas Festival
6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile
Please Bring Food & Drink to share,& a jar for the prep
~Art Of The New Deal: How Artists Helped Redefine America During The Depression
Labor Pains 2023
While firing up the BBQ & setting out the disposable plates, most folks probably don’t think about Labor Day as a holiday commemorating the battle for human rights. But this is its origin.
~Thomas Hart Benton
In the volatile time between the Civil War & the Great Depression there was a massive sea-change within society – The industrial revolution was sweeping in – & millions of Americans were forced to leave their farms & move to cities in search of work. They found themselves on the assembly line in dark factories & in the newly-formed rail, steel, textile, & shipping industries.
Soon economic recession became a thing, creating mass poverty – throwing enormous numbers of people out of work. The Rights realm, in relation to the Economic & Cultural realms, was not up to morally dealing with how employers should treat their workers. There was no clear concept of how the wealth they all collectively produced would be distributed. Inequality soared to enormous heights. Growing corporations were making workers their indentured slaves.
Labor Unions were growing as the one avenue by which workers could fight for their interests, & the economy saw waves of regular strikes & work stoppages that would be unheard of today. The minimum wage, the 40-hour work week, laws against child labor, & more were only instituted after pitched political combat.
Sometimes, the battles were literal: Employers & politicians were not shy about busting unions with police as well as hired enforcers. Riots, deaths, & bombings were not uncommon.
The first inklings of America’s Labor Day took shape in 1882, when the Central Labor Union (CLU) met in September in New York City for a labor festival. Peter McGuire, a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), who was inspired by a parade in Toronto in 1872 in support of a strike against the 58-hour work week, may have been the 1st to propose the idea of a ‘Labor Day’. Other research points to Matthew Maguire, a machinist & member of the Knights of Labor. But somehow or another, the idea for a parade & yearly holiday to honor American workers was hatched.
The first parade of the new project was held in Manhattan on Sept. 5, 1882. It started out small, but then a band showed up, & workers’ groups from various industries began to flow in. Eventually the parade swelled to 10,000. After that initial success, various state & municipal governments began naming an official day to commemorate labor.
Then a massive recession hit in 1893. The job losses were devastating — & the frustration crystallized in a nationwide strike against the Pullman Company, a railroad car manufacturer & founder of one of the most infamous company towns in America, keeping the workers in appalling living conditions.
Railroad baron George Pullman created his eponymous town in 1880 just outside Chicago. This is part of the history that has affected the ‘Spirit of Place’ in which I live here in Chicago. It was a model of capitalist feudalism, where workers were moved into housing in line with their position in the company. Residents worked for Pullman’s company & their rent was automatically docked from their paychecks. They even had to bank at Pullman’s corrupt bank. But Pullman’s business plummeted when the recession hit. Hundreds were laid off & wages were deeply cut — yet rents in the town did not decline.
In response, 4,000 of Pullman’s workers went on strike on May 11, 1894. On June 26, the American Railroad Union — led by Eugene V. Debs — called for a supporting boycott. One 100,50 railway workers in 27 states joined the strike, refusing to operate Pullman rail cars. The massive halt to the rail industry & the interruption of U.S. mail cars set off a national crisis.
Congress & President Grover Cleveland, looking to save face, rushed through a bill declaring Labor Day a national holiday. Cleveland signed it on June 28, 1894. He was backed by the AFL — the more conservative portion of the labor movement — which threw the first official Labor Day parade that year.
~Pullman Strike, 1894 Drawing by Granger
But it was a brutally ironic gesture. Six days later, under pressure from the furious leaders of the rail industry, & facing the virtual shutdown of U.S. mail trains, President Cleveland invoked the ‘Sherman Antitrust Act’ to declare the work stoppage a federal crime. He sent in 12,000 federal troops to break the strike. Days of fighting & riots ensued, as strikers overturned & burned railcars, & the troops responded with violent crackdowns. Over 30 workers were killed before the strikers were dispersed & the trains restarted.
President Cleveland & others picked the September date for Labor Day as a kind of alternative to May Day, which had by then arisen as the principal day of celebration for workers’ movements around the world. On May 1, 1886, over 250,000 workers struck in Chicago, shutting down 13,000 businesses to demand a shorter work week for equal pay. After several days of peaceful protest, an ‘unknown assailant’ threw a bomb at police in Haymarket Square on May 4. The police responded by firing into the crowd, killing scores of people. Some speculate that this assailant was a paid provocateur.
How ironic that now Labor Day is just an excuse for a commercialized, lazy-apolitical 3-day weekend, which his been totally disconnected from the remembrance of when workers fought & died for the basic human decency of a shorter work week.
And we can also look at Labor Day as a remembrance of a time when the labor movement was a force to be reckoned with. Since the heyday of the New Deal, American membership in labor unions has collapsed. And of course like everything that turns corporate, the Labor Unions became corrupt. Today Millions of workers in modern service industries face capricious employment, low pay, & dismal conditions. Inequality has returned to its pre-Great-Depression levels, & the shared prosperity of the era immediately after the New Deal is a distant memory. Even the 40-hour work week is falling by the wayside.
Dear freinds – Labor Day is ripe for renewal. Isn’t it time to take up The 3-Fold Social Organism as inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s Spiritual Science?
There isn’t, nor should there be, a ready-made ‘social program’ or ‘regulation’ to solve all of our problems. We each have to take-up social ideals that serve the highest good of the all – & work together to transform the communities we belong to. We must each work with the ‘Spirit of Place’ in which our karma has placed us, to co-create a movement for Freedom based on Love, in our Cultural Sphere; Equity in our Rights Realm; & in the sphere of Economics, we must foster an association of Sister/brotherhood – Then our Labor pains will give birth to a practical 3-fold Social Movement that brings harmony to humanity.
~hag
~Chart via John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.
4 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The trio will rise after 10 pm – visible thru dawn.
RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler AUTUMN PRELUDE II The Ripening Of Self v22 The cosmic light lives on with inner power, becomes the light of soul and shines in depths of spirit to free the fruits of Cosmic Self that from them in the course of time the Human Self will ripen.
This is the second verse of the Light Quartet: its mirror verse in November is the third one. ALL HALLOWTIDE II The Ripening Of Creative Powers v31 The light from spirit depths strives outwards like the sun, becomes life’s strength of will and shines in senses’ dullness to free the forces that ripen creative powers in human work the soul initiates.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s Original Calendar of the Soul: “What is presented here can be useful to those who wish to follow the path of humankind’s spiritual development“)
“And when Moses came down from the mount Sinai, he held the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands,: and he knew not that his head was horned with light from the conversation of the YHWH. And Aaron and the children of Israel seeing the head of Moses horned with light were afraid to come near… he gave them in commandment all that he had heard of the YHWH in mount Sinai…And having done speaking, he put a veil upon over his head…~ Exodus 34:29-35
Birth & Death-day of MOSES (from Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul):
According to Egyptian astrologers, the liberator of the children of Israel was to be born on this day – So all the male children were to be thrown into the water by order of King Pharaoh.
Jochebed, Amram‘s wife, mother of Miriam, & Aaron, gave birth to her third child, a boy that morning at sunrise. Right from that moment the house was filled with a radiant light, so they knew he was an extraordinary child. After three months, Jochebed saw that she would not be able to conceal her child any longer. So she made a small, water-proof basket & set him down among the papyrus reeds growing on the brink of the Nile. Miriam remained nearby to watch the baby.
The day was hot, & King Pharaoh’s daughter, Bithya, came out to the river, accompanied by her maids, to take a bath in the cool waters of the Nile. Suddenly, she heard the wailing of a small child, & she found the basket. Intrigued by the child’s beauty, Bithya tried to figure out a way to enable her to keep him for herself & save him from death, for she understood that this boy was from a Jewish family.
The child refused to be nursed by any of the Egyptian maids-in-waiting, & continued to weep. At this moment, Miriam came over to the princess & offered to find a Jewish nurse. Bithya was glad of this solution, so Miriam rushed home & brought her mother Jochebed, to be his ‘nurse’. For two years the baby was left in his mother’s care.
Meanwhile Bithya told Pharaoh about the boy she had adopted. Her father did not object as he felt sure that the danger had already been averted years ago. So Moses was taken to the royal court, where he grew up as the princely adopted son of the Pharaoh’s daughter.
Once it happened that Moses was playing on King Pharaoh’s lap. He saw the shining crown, studded with jewels, reached for it & took it off. Pharaoh, asked his astrologers for the meaning of this action. They interpreted it to mean that Moses was a threat to Pharaoh’s crown & suggested that the child be put to death before it could do any harm. But one of the king’s counselors suggested that they should first test the boy to see whether his action was prompted by an evil intelligence, or if he was merely grasping for sparkling things as any other child would.
Pharaoh agreed to this, & two bowls were set down before young Moses. One contained gold & jewels, & the other held glowing fire-coals. Moses reached out for the gold, but an angel re-directed his hand to the coals. Moses snatched a glowing coal & put it to his lips. He burned his hand & tongue, but his life was saved.
After that fateful test, Moses suffered from a slight speech defect. He could not become an orator, but G‑d’s words that were spoken to him & with the help of his brother Aaron & sister Miriam, he was able to fulfill his mission.
At age 20, Moses fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian he saw beating a Jew &made his way to Midian, where he married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, & fathered two sons, Gershom & Eliezer.
When he was 80 years old, Moses was shepherding his father-in-law’s sheep when G‑d revealed himself to him in a burning bush at Mount Horeb (Sinai) & instructed him to liberate the Children of Israel. Moses took the Israelites out of Egypt, performed numerous miracles for them (the ten plagues in Egypt, the splitting of the sea, extracting water from a rock, bringing down the manna, etc), received the Torah from G‑d & taught it to the people, built the Mishkan (Divine dwelling) in the desert, & led the Children of Israel for 40 years as they journeyed through the wilderness; but G‑d did not allow him to bring them into the Holy Land. Moses passed away on his 120th birthday on Mount Nebo, within sight of the land he yearned to enter.
According to Konrad Burdach, Rudolf Steiner connects Moses in a later incarnation as Goethe, in a special lecture in the GA 138 series
1150 – Feast day of St. Rosalia – born of a Norman noble family that claimed descent from Charlemagne. Devoutly religious, she retired to live as a hermit in a cave on Mount Pellegrino, where she died alone in 1166. Tradition says that she was led to the cave by two angels. On the cave wall she wrote “I, Rosalia, daughter of Sinibald, Lord of Roses, and Quisquina, have taken the resolution to live in this cave for the love of my Lord, Jesus Christ.”
In 1624, a plague beset Palermo. During this hardship Saint Rosalia appeared first to a sick woman, then to a hunter, to whom she indicated where her remains were to be found. She ordered him to bring her bones to Palermo and have them carried in procession through the city.
The hunter climbed the mountain & found her bones in the cave as described. He did what she had asked in the apparition. After her remains were carried around the city three times, the plague ceased. After this Saint Rosalia was venerated as the patron saint of Palermo, & a sanctuary was built in the cave where her remains were discovered.
On September 4 there is a tradition of walking barefoot from Palermo up to Mount Pellegrino. In Italian American communities in the United States, the September feast brings large numbers of visitors annually to the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn in New York City.
1882 – The Pearl Street Station in New York City becomes the first power plant to supply electricity to paying customers.
1886 – After almost 30 years of fighting, Apache leader Geronimo, with his remaining warriors, surrenders to General Nelson Miles in Arizona.
1888 – George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak& receives a patent for his camera that uses roll film.
1949 – The Peekskill riots erupt after a Paul Robeson concert in Peekskill, New York.
1951 – The first live transcontinental television broadcast takes place in San Francisco, from the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference.
1957 – Little Rock Crisis: Orval Faubus, governor of Arkansas, calls out the National Guard to prevent African American students from enrolling in Central High School.
1957 – The Ford Motor Company introduces the Edsel.
1965 – Death-Day of Albert Schweitzer, French-Gabonese physician, theologian, missionary, & Nobel Prize laureate.
From the memoirs of Albert Schweitzer (1875 – 1965): “My first encounter with Rudolf Steiner took place on the occasion of a Theosophical conference in Strasbourg. If I’m not mistaken, it was in 1902 or 1903. Annie Besant, with whom I was acquainted through Strasbourg friends, introduced us. At that time Rudolf Steiner acted in connection with the Theosophical Society, not so much because he shared its convictions, but because he found in its members the possibility to find understanding and interest for the spiritual truths which he had to make known.
The language mostly used at that Theosophical conference was French. So they counted on me, because I spoke German, to take care of the Austrian guest, which I gladly did. I arranged it so we were neighbors at meals during the conference. From the beginning, he was the talker and I the listener and questioner during our conversations.
Before we had consumed the soup, a discussion spontaneously arose about his studies of Goethe in Weimar and about Goethe’s Weltanschauung (or world view). I immediately became aware that my companion had extensive knowledge of natural science. It was a great surprise to me that he spoke of the need to recognize the importance of Goethe’s knowledge of nature. He had been able to penetrate from a superficial knowledge of the sense world to a more profound knowledge of spiritual being. I knew something about Goethe’s natural scientific writing and the places where he sought a perceptual knowledge. My table partner realized that he had an attentive listener beside him. He gave a lecture. We forgot that we were supposed to be eating. In the afternoon we stood around together, not paying much attention to what was happening at the Theosophical conference.
When the discussion turned to Plato, I could participate more. Steiner surprised me here as well, in that he revealed hidden aspects of Plato’s knowledge that I had not yet appreciated.
When Steiner asked me what concerned me especially in theology, I answered that it was research into the historical Jesus. Well, I felt the moment to have come in which I could take the conversation in hand and began to lecture him about research into the life of Jesus and about which Gospel contained the oldest tradition. To my astonishment, he did not discuss this subject. He let me lecture on without saying a word. I had the impression that he was mentally yawning. I got off my theological social-scientific high horse and put it in the stable, and waited for what would come.
Then something remarkable happened. One of us, I don’t remember which, began to speak of the spiritual decline of culture as the fundamental, unnoticed problem of our time. Thus we realized that we were both preoccupied with it. We had not expected that of each other. A lively discussion resulted. We learned from each other that we had both taken on a lifetime mission of working for the emergence of a true culture enlivened by the ideal of encouraging people to become truly thinking beings. We parted with this consciousness of belonging together without arranging for another meeting. But the consciousness of togetherness remained. We each followed the activities of the other.
I never took part in Rudolf Steiner’s flights of thought in the spiritual sciences. But I know that he elevated many people through those flights and made new human beings of them. His disciples have made excellent contributions in many fields. I have followed Rudolf Steiner’s life and activities with heartfelt participation. Notable were his successes until World War I, the problems and hardships that accompanied them, his courageous efforts in the postwar confusion to create order through teaching about the Threefold Social Organism, his founding of the Goetheanum in Dornach, where his thought-world found a home, the pain caused by its destruction by fire on New Year’s Eve 1922-3, the courage with which he went about its reconstruction, and finally the spiritual greatness of his tireless teaching and activity during the suffering of the last months of his life on earth.
Neither did he lose sight of me. He took note of the 1923 publication of my Verfall und Wiederaufbau der Kultur and Kultur und Ethik. In a lecture, he appreciated the analysis of the cultural problems those books offered but made no secret of his regret that I tried to solve the problems with ethical thinking alone, without the help of spiritual science. During my meeting with him, his face with his wonderful eyes made an unforgettable impression on me.”
Albert Schweitzer also reported on this meeting to the composer-conductor Bruno Walter:
“I continually occupied myself with Steiner and was always conscious of his importance. What we had in common was that we both wanted culture to stand in place of its lack. This bond arose in Strasburg. He expected culture from ethical thinking and the knowledge of spiritual science. According to my nature, I had to stay with letting it arise through concentration on the essence of the ethical. In this way I came to the ethics of Reverence for Life and hoped for the emergence of culture from it. I know that Rudolf Steiner regretted my remaining in the old way of thinking. But we had both experienced the same responsibility to lead men to true culture again.”
Albert Schweitzer reported to Camille Schneider in Strasburg in 1951:
“Our goals are the same. Our paths are apparently different. Whereas Rudolf Steiner as spiritual researcher advances towards the experience of Christ by means of exercises, thinking, and mysticism, I have attempted to encounter Christ Jesus through thoughtful knowledge of the eschatological content of his teachings. And I encounter him daily in my work with the blacks of Africa. From this twofold experience, I derive the foundation of my life’s ethic. That is what matters to me.”
In 1922, after the First World War, Albert Schweitzer visited Rudolf Steiner in Dornach. Camille Schneider reports:
“Albert Schweitzer informed me that he once visited Rudolf Steiner in Dornach. He couldn’t say exactly in what year. He spoke with him about the necessity, after World War I, for a new penetration of cultural life with religious impulses and said that he recognized him to be a great man, who with comprehensive knowledge and astounding wisdom transforms all the information and opinions we hear or read daily without always understanding their deeper meanings. ‘An initiate in the sense of Edouard Schuré’, Dr. Schweitzer added, because shortly before we had spoken about Schuré and his book The Great Initiates.”
Emil Bock dates this meeting in autumn, 1922:
“Many years ago – it was 1922 – we were in preparation for the founding of the Christian Community in Dornach, and I went to Dr. Steiner in order to ask him something. He received me with glowing eyes: ‘Just think! Albert Schweitzer was with me today. He is really an important personality.'”
1998 – Google is founded by Larry Page & Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University.
Saturday 23 September 2023
Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire
*Autumnal Equinox
*Yom Kippur
*Michaelmas Festival
6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile
Please Bring Food & Drink to share,& a jar for the prep
Greetings Friends – There is a powerful magic in the August air. The harvest is unfolding. Cosmic Iron is scintillating in our blood – seeding our souls for Michaelmas.
Last year on this date20 August, a group of us met in the Upper Room of the Rudolf Steiner Branch, Chicago, to explore the idea of co-creating a New Festival called Vidarmas – as a gateway & compliment to Michaelmas – to acknowledge this young Archangel as the inspiring Being of Community Life, connected with pure ether forces – & in connection to our need to experience ‘The Etheric Christ‘ which is our task in this age.
Big thanks to Rob Treiste for this cool chart
The Four Ethers & the Four Elements overlap to create the seven layers of the Physical-Etheric World, & the 7-fold human being. To begin to understand this gives us insight into our task with Vidar.
I remember looking into Norse mythology thru the lens of Spiritual Science when my girl was in 4th grade at the Chicago Waldorf School. Rudolf Steiner tells us that Wotan or Odin was an Archangelic being, who later appeared as Siddhārtha carrying on the mission of Odin to become the Gautama-Buddha.
‘Woden and the Grail‘:
And Odin hung for nine days from the Earth’s One Tree, his eye gouged for wisdom gained, a loss so he could see.
He waited long upon this throne as Godlike days passed. For the future he’d wait to see; how to make his time last.
The One-God was coming for this was surely told but how to manage tomorrow for the long lost Gods of old.
His wolves, and horse, and crows they stood and gathered near looking long for his wisdom against the lives they held so dear.
Then Odin smiled upon the ninth day for the answer there did lie within the Earthen Tree he had helped himself to tie.
Lowered now to the ground, sodden by his many tears, he drew nigh his greatest friends those who waited the many years.
Turning to the tree he drew deep from within its heart a living chalice made of wood from which to make a start.
Come my friends gather round and for the past do not wail as we hold the future steady now within this Earthen Holy Grail.
~Mac Andrew
Javier Dominguez
Vidar, unseated by Loki, becomes the “Silent Aesir” – the only one to survive Ragnarok, conquering the Fenrris Wolf who wants to devour the Sun.
Important to remember that every human being has a guardian angel; & that before Siddhārtha became the Buddha he had one too. When he achieved Buddhahood, his angel was ‘freed’ – Able to ascend to a higher rank.
After much time as the “Silent Aesir”, this angel – went on to work with the Nathan Soul & with the Christ thru the pre-earthly deeds etc…(You can read about this angel working at the ‘Turning Point of Time’ in the Gospel of Luke Chapter 2 & in Matthew 1:18–25.)
Robert Paulson
Rudolf Steiner connects Buddha’s angel with Vidar.
So we can see that Vidar is linked, not only to what we hear about him thru mythology, but also to Buddhism, & to the ‘Nathan Soul’ – that pure paradisiacal ‘Sister Soul of Adam’ that did not go thru the fall from paradise – but was held back in the Mother-lodge to be able assist the mission of Christ.
Steiner speaks about the “Nirmanakaya of the Buddha” with all its “Youthful forces” as an intermigling with the astral body of the Nathan Jesus when he was 12. These Youthful forces are a characteristic of Vidar & his work with the formative forces of the etheric.
Paulo Veronesse
Thru Spiritual Science we learn it is Vidar, who comes to the aid of the Christ Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, fortifing his etheric body when the Ahrimanic death forces were threatening to kill the physical body of Jesus before Christ’s deed on Golgotha was completed. “An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him”.(Luke 22-43)
To put things into perspective we can think how everything changes; growth/transformation – embraces all beings – evolution is working not only in humanity but in the ‘gods’.
When the Archangel Michael got promoted to Archai, the being known as Vidar, who was once associated with the Northern Mysteries, stepped into Michael’s position as ruling Archangel of the Sun, becoming Universal in his service, cosmopolitan like Michael.
According to Rudolf Steiner Vidar, could have become an Archangel long before that, but he took the path of renunciation, of silence – listening & waiting – building up forces, until 1879 – only then did Vidar take the place vacated by Michael, to work specifically with the Christ during the 2nd crucifixion in the etheric.
The silent Aesir now speaks.
Vidar’s task is essential for our present age; he creates the etheric sheath for the Being of Christ, so that we can develop a new clairvoyance to perceive & receive this Etheric Christ.
Vidar wants to work with us to achieve the necessary formative forces needed to conquer the many Ahrimanic & Luciferic influences that plague us today – So that we can attain a level of super-sensible acuity to work with Christ in our own etheric bodies.
Vidar will guide us so that we too can become Christbearers – creating CHRISTOPHOROS ( Χριστόφορος ) in us.
Vidar was with us in the Michael School & the super-sensibile Cultus, & he helps us now – & into the future – to put these lessons into practice with discernment; making us ready to achieve access to all the ethers: warmth, light, sound, life. To consciously employ them – which will help us purify our astral body & transform our etheric body.
We will need these tools to meet the mystery of evil.
Elizabeth Wang
In our striving to harmonize our astral & etheric currents, we create new spiritual organs, described by Steiner in ‘How to Know Higher Worlds’ as an ‘etheric lattice’. This gives us a reflective apparatus for our pure thinking – allowing our thoughts to press or imprint directly into our ether body – creating an etheric bridge to the Christ – giving us access to cosmic memory & the gifts from the 5th sacrifice of Christ ie. the suffocation in the etheric attended by Vidar & the Nathan Soul– this sacrifice was the catalyst for our new clairvoyance!
I keep thinking: How can we, in everyday practical terms, work with Vidar as Guardian of the etheric forces which can brings us together in our various groups striving to live into the Spiritual Science of Christ-Sophia?
We have to be aware that elemental beings inhabit the etheric forms we create – consciously with Love & Light – or unconsciously thru what is adversarial in us…Let us call in the forces of Sophia-Michael-Vidar to fill the etheric with Christic Wisdom.
Vidar as an Archangel for our time speaks with the language of Whitsun – Pentecost – the fires of purification & purpose. And thru the Holy Spirit connected to Anthroposophia we can work with Vidar in our search for the Holy Grail, when we ask the Parzival question of each other, in a true mood of service & enthusiasm, so that when we are ripe we can become co-creators of a new Universe.
Druidic ‘gravestone’ of Vidar found in Niederdollendorf near Colonge
I have gleaned many insights from my work with Sergei Prokofieff’s indications encapsulating the Spiritual Science of Rudolf Steiner in his amazing book: “The Cycle of the year as a Path of Initiation Leading to an Experience of the Christ Being, An Esoteric Study of the Festivals” – the 12th & final chapter on: “The Modern Mysteries of the Etheric Christ” expounding on “The Vidar Mystery”.
a few Highlights: “This individuality of Wotan or Odin (who Steiner calls an Archangel) is the same as the one who later appeared with the same mission under the name Buddha”. (GA105 August 14 1908)
“When the Buddha appeared to the shepherds in the picture of the ‘heavenly host’, he was not in a physical body but in an astral body. He had assumed a body in which he could still send his influences to the Earth….This body is called a Nirmanakaya’. ” (GA 114, 17 September 1909)
THE MISSION OF FOLK-SOULS, GA 121,, Lecture XI, 17 June 1910, Christiania – Is a powerful study:
“All these details which are set forth in the ‘Twilight of the Gods’, correspond with that which is to appear to humankind in a newer etheric vision, which in reality refers to the future. The Fenris Wolf will still remain. Oh, there is a deep, deep truth concealed in this account of the Fenris Wolf remaining behind in conflict with Odin. In the near future of humankind there will be no danger so great as the tendency to remain satisfied with the old clairvoyance, — instead of developing the new by means of new forces — the danger that humanity might be tempted to remain satisfied with what the old astral clairvoyance of primal ages could give, namely, soul-pictures such as that of the Fenris Wolf. It would also be a severe trial for that which has to grow up in the domain of Anthroposophy, if in that, the tendency towards all sorts of confused, chaotic clairvoyance should arise…
Something very different must come in. And what that is, is, however, known to Celtic-Germanic-Norse mythology — it is well aware of its existence. It knows, that there exists the etheric form in which will embody that which we shall once again see as the etheric form of Christ. And this alone will succeed in driving out the confused clairvoyant power which would bewilder humankind…Vidar, who has kept silence all the time, will overcome the Fenris Wolf. That also is told us in the ‘Twilight of the Gods’.
Anyone who recognizes the importance of Vidar and feels him in their soul, will find that beginning in the twentieth century the capacity can again be given to humanity with which to see Christ.
Vidar, who belongs to us all, will again stand before the human being. Vidar was kept secret in the Mysteries and secret Schools as a god who would receive his mission only in the future.”
We had lively discussions throughout the evening. Then to get us up on our feet to vibrate from our lips & lungs, Lucien Dante Lazar & Ultra-Violet Archer of The Musical initiative: Velsum: Voices of Ancient Futurism brought us a song they wrote for the occasion.
Vidar! Vidar! Vidar! Come upon us. Vidar! Vidar! Vidar! Give us your trust.
Let us meet you in the threshold. Let us know you in the Light. Let us carry forth your banner In selfless might!
Vidar! Vidar! Vidar! Come upon us. Vidar! Vidar! Vidar! Give us your trust.
In the flowing of the spirit From the Northern sickle moon, We will harvest your new impulse In joyous truth!
Vidar! Vidar! Vidar! Come upon us. Vidar! Vidar! Vidar! Give us your trust.
Lucien & Ultra invited us to co-write a 3rd verse; so folks popcorned ideas, & we will work more with that for our next gathering…
Here are the links to the recordings of the song they taught us.
Lucien suggested we end by doing a group poem, each going around saying 1 word. Here is what came forth from our collective efforts for our closing verse: “Speak from the light wherein resolution leads to our hearts fulfillment of the Etheric Christ with courage.”
Vidar at the gates of Shambala by Daniel Ospina
Daniel Ospina the artist of this amazing painting held a meeting at the same time in Ireland where they also read the lecture. The invitation was taken up by other branches including one in Colombia South America. If you dear reader have also taken up this impulse to know Vidar, please share your insights. Let’s keep this knowing going.
Many Thanks to Susan Overhauser, who is one of the brilliant facility members for our AAP training who brought alive for us ‘Vidar as a Guide in the Etheric’. Susan is bringing her research to present at a Conference at the Goetheanum this month!
May the Practicum which we have began into this new Festival we are calling Vidarmas, continue to thrive.
~hag
20 August 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bella Luna emerging from the Underworld is dancing with the sheath of wheat held by Spica the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo
RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler LAMMASTIDE IV Transition from Summer to Autumn The Nemesis Of The Lower Self v20 So I begin to feel my being, I, who far from world existence would perish, I, who self-confined, evolving only on its own ground, must in itself surender… die.
We must take up the goal of higher self-development. We must willingly give up what is holding us back, not a Luciferic, unconscious, sacrifice, but a rise in freedom to a new sense of self and purpose. (a message derived from Eloise Krivosheia in anthroposophyla.org – verse 20). The mirror verse involves an Ahrimanic temptation.
ALL HALLOWTIDE III Transition from Autumn to Winter World Nemesis… or Resurrection? v33 And so I come to feel the world, which left without my soul’s communion would be just frosty, empty life, and powerless to resurrect in souls, arise anew in human self-creation, could in itself alone find only death.
For Ultra-Violet Archer on the eve of your furthering:
Soar like an epic melody My beloved kite-song – Eternal rays Like the trailing hair of a comet Flowing forth from your Sun-Self To give Hope to the world. Shine with Faith As a flame shines from the up-right wick Trimmed & oiled – Christ fueled Sending darkness into a taming conversion Your Cosmic Memory undulating With senses pressed Like scent into temple drapery, A liquid seal ever forming from molten beeswax, A labyrinth of flowers spicing the air, The crunch of apple, The slow cloudage of Autumn’s promise, As the Seasons spin – & you Snug as an acorn in the cup-crown of your making A sweet sip of light Vibrating inner warmth On your honeyed lips. Your soul a red thread between spirits Gold dust between stars A silky sash – The endless vine – My own heart’s root Whispering/Shouting/Singing: Love is Who you are.
~XOXmom
“…See the sun-drenched vine, with its juice spiritualized to etheric sunlight! It is a picture of the purification & fermentation process of the “I”. It shows you how drives can be transformed when they are purified thru life’s bitter crisis, flowering as the wisdom of age.
Your “I” bears the Queenly (Kingly) power within itself thru which you can transform all that is lower within you & raise it to the heights. Without these drives you would not be a full human being, but you must tame & refine them in the crucible of the royal power of the “I”.
Then they will bear for you the loveliest fruits which will ripen in the autumn of life to become saturated with the wisdom of the divine.
You extend your soul beyond itself when you compassionately share in all that is living in humanity. You open your Self to the world. For being human means: Building the Royal power of the “I” by sharing responsibility for all that is human!
Then the thought that: “I am a member of all humankind & I am co-responsible for all that happens” is no longer foreign to you. With such an attitude the human being’s whole way of thinking gradually changes…” ~Rudolf Steiner, Knowledge of Higher Worlds
13 August 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars:” If you extend your Perseid watch to the beginning of dawn Sunday the 13th, the waning crescent Moon will cap the night by forming a triangle with Castor and Pollux low in the east-northeast. ~skytelescope
RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler LAMMASTIDE III – Assumption of the Virgin Mary (Tuesday) To Waken Self With Memory v19 Mysteriously to sheathe the new conceived with memory be now my striving’s further aim that strengthening it shall awake my inner power to become my real self.
ADVENT I The Newly Risen Self v34 Mysteriously to feel old treasure resurrecting in me with newly risen sense of who I am shall rouse a tide of cosmic forces that pouring into my endeavour for the world will in becoming print me into that which Is.
“Study the past if you would define the future.” ~Confucius
303 – St. Cassian of Imola, Patron Saint of Teachers, martyred during the reign of Julian the Apostate
1699 – Deathday of Marco d’Aviano, Capuchin monk. When he gave his blessing to a nun, bedridden for some 13 years, she was miraculously healed. The news spread far & wide, among those who sought his help was Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, whose wife had been unable to conceive a male heir. From 1680 to the end of his life, Marco d’Aviano became a close confidant & adviser to him. As the danger of war with the Ottoman Turks grew near, Marco d’Aviano played a crucial role in resolving disputes, restoring unity, & energizing the armies of the Holy League
1792 – King Louis XVI of France is formally arrested by the National Tribunal, & declared an enemy of the people
1818 – Birthday of Lucy Stone a prominent American orator, abolitionist, & suffragist, known for using her maiden name after marriage. In 1847, Stone became the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women’s rights & against slavery at a time when women were discouraged & prevented from public speaking
1831 – Nat Turner witnesses a solar eclipse which caused the sky to appear a blue-green color, which he envisioned as a black man’s hand reaching over the sun. Eight days later he & 70 other slaves kill between 55-65 whites in Southampton County, Virginia
1860 – Birthday of Annie Oakley
1868 – A massive earthquake near Arica, Peru, causes an estimated 25,000 casualties, & the subsequent tsunami causes considerable damage as far away as Hawaii & New Zealand
1876 – The premiere of Der Ring des Nibelungen at the recently completed Bayreuth Festspielhaus
1899 – Birthday of Alfred Hitchcock
1900 – Deathday of Vladimir Soloviev, a Russian philosopher, theologian, poet, pamphleteer & literary critic. It is widely held that Solovyov was one of the sources for Dostoyevsky’s characters in The Brothers Karamazov. Solovyov’s influence can also be seen in the writings of the Symbolist & Neo-Idealist writers of the later Russian Soviet era. His book The Meaning of Love can be seen as one of the philosophical sources of Leo Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata. It was also the work in which he introduced the concept of ‘syzygy’, to denote ‘close union’. He influenced the religious philosophy of many including the ideas of Rudolf Steiner, (see War, Progress, and the End of History: Three Conversations, Including a Short Story of the Anti-Christ. Reprinted 1990 by Lindisfarne Books) Steiner speaks of Solovyov’s former incarnation as a visionary nun in the Middle Ages in his Karmic relationships Vol. 4 #8
1910 – Deathday of Florence Nightingale
1914 – The beginning of Rudolf Steiner’s Curative Education Course “For our Friends”
1926 – Birthday of Fidel Castro
1942 – Walt Disney’s fifth full-length animated film, Bambi, was released to theaters
