Greetings freinds – Well we made it – to the 2nd phase in the 3-fold Festival of Easter-tide. Our journey began with the spiritual reality that from death comes new life – fulfilling the human longing for Resurrection – & this gives an opportunity for the dawning of the New Sun. The deed of Christ takes the ancient mysteries further, to meet us where we are now, & to lead us into a glorious future.
Yes, the Easter-Tide flows on, it goes further – 40 days after the mysteries of death & resurrection we receive the second aspect – a new archetype thru the Festival of Ascension. There is an esoteric significance of the 40 days – 1st of all, the symbolism of the # 40, which BTW: is mentioned 149 times in the Bible, is important to contemplate, it represents an initiation process, some sort of trial, a period of testing, which we must endure to become more spiritually aware, to achieve a triumph of the spirit – a chance for advancement.
Friends, we can all tune into together, & even though the date changes from year to year due to the nature of the ‘Moveable Feast’ aspect, it’s always a Thursday – Now isn’t that interesting. Thor’s day – representing the planet Jupiter, the archetype of growth & expansion – model of the beneficent Ruler, an impulse we can take advantage of & tune into.
Then 10 days later comes the 3rd aspect – the Festival of Pentecost – which means 50 days after the Resurrection, when the inspiration of the Holy Spirit pours in.
10:10 Testament: Since the original Ascension, thru the effects of the expansion of the Christ light, the possibility exists in the etheric body of human beings for something new to appear, something that breathes in life eternal. And these ultimate formative forces which do not participate in death, & which humanity will gradually attain thru the influence of the Christ Impulse, is ever streaming back to us – a contraction & expansion into-&-out-of cosmic & earthly space.
Ethel Mann
It generates a force that will in turn create a sphere around our Earth that is in the process of becoming a Sun – A spiritual sphere – a Corona – is forming around the Earth composed of the etheric forces that have come alive with the essence of Love & Light. Just as the Christ Love issues from the Earth, & the light of the New Isis-Mary-Sophia radiates from cosmic space, there is also a kind of reflection of it that encircles the Earth thru us – embodied as the enlivening fire of the Holy Spirit. And so it is & ever shall be that the Earth thru our purified soul forces begins to be creative, surrounding itself with this Spiritual Corona which will ripen the seed into a Sun…
~hag
18 May 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: After nightfall and in the early evening, you’ll see Arcturus fairly high in the east, noticeable for its brightness and yellow-orange color. Next, look for Vega rather low in the northeast. It’s a bright blue-white star. Then look for the Northern Crown between these 2 bright stars – closer to Arcturus.
Anthroposophia & the Redemption of Lucifer – A Pentecost Festival for 2023
Happy Mother’s Day to all motherers – Motherhood is a soul quality – If you have cradled, fed, held, hugged, nurtured, counselled, driven around, stayed up late for, cleaned up after, shared joys, shared heartaches, nursed late at night, helped out, cheered on, fought for, worried about, taken pride in, stood behind, defended, believed in, & loved with all your heart above & beyond what is asked for in any other situation, unconditionally & respectfully…If you are a place called ‘home’ to someone – a refuge from the world, an embrace full of warmth & understanding – then you are a mother.
And we can remember & honor the fact that we all have life & the continuity of life, growth & change on our planet because of the Mother-line. The Mothers have gifted all with the pulse & rhythm of life – the heart of the Mother ! The Mother-Line connects all of Humanity. Happy Mother’s Day to Grandmothers, Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, Aunties, Girlfriends, all Kindred & Mother Gaia who sustains us all !
Belinda Grey
The Her-Story of MOTHER’S DAY- The earliest mother’s day celebrations, can be traced back to the Spring Festivals of the ancients, honoring the Mother of the gods…& the Queen Bee…
Much later…in the 1600’s, England celebrated a day called ‘Mothering Sunday’, honoring the matriarchy…the Queens of England…
As Christianity spread thruout Europe the celebration changed to honor the ‘Mother Church’…
Here in the US, in 1870, Julia Ward Howe – the woman that actually wrote the words to the battle hymn of the republic, knowing all too well the horrors of war, called for women to rise up & oppose war in all its forms. She wanted women to come together across national lines, to recognize what we hold in common above what divides us, & to commit to finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts. She called it “Mother’s Day For Peace”
Her idea was influenced by Anna Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker, who had attempted starting in 1858, to improve sanitation thru what she called Mothers’ Work Days. She organized women thru-out the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, & in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union & Confederate neighbors.
Anna Jarvis’ daughter, also named Anna Jarvis, would of course have known of her mother’s work, & the work of Julia Ward Howe. Much later, when her mother died, this second Anna Jarvis started her own crusade to found a ‘Memorial Day for Women’.
The first ‘Mother’s Day’ was celebrated in West Virginia in 1907 in the church where the elder Anna Jarvis had taught Sunday School. So to pay homage to her ancestor, she began a campaign to establish a national Mother’s Day on the 2nd Sunday of May…the anniversary of her mother’s death…which just happened to be 40 days after Easter…as a day dedicated to peace.
And from there the custom caught on – spreading eventually to 45 states. Finally the holiday was declared officially by states beginning in 1912.
And in 1914, hoping to get the female vote & also as a distraction from his declaration of the 1st World War, President Woodrow Wilson, confirmed the first national Mother’s Day. So ironic as the original impulse was all about working to prevent war.
But what does it mean to us today…? You know I’m not taking about the commercialized happy-faced take-your-mother-to-brunch-cliché’s. Hallmark may not be talking…but this is heavy stuff…the concept of ‘mother’ is highly charged for most of us…we all have, or had, a mother…good or bad or in-between…We may be a mother ourselves…what does that bring up…plenty…right…there’s a lot there I know…
So maybe today we can try & access some of these impressions & feelings & memories…to pound out the pain…rattle the wonder…to sing our story…to dance in the healing process…to mother ourselves…
So choose your weapon of peace…your surgical tool…your pruning shears, or hammer, or monkey wrench…A drum or shaker…these will do…as we explore & experience our Mother’s Day anthem ponding in the heart-beat we all share…
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Indications from the orignal Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner + Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
~John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.
14 May 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: On the mornings of May 12-14, 2023, look for the waning last quarter crescent moon near Saturn. Its closest approach to Saturn will be on the morning of May 13. You can catch the moon and Saturn for a few hours before dawn. Saturn is getting easier to see as it’s climbing away from the sun in the morning sky.
Feast Day of Matthias – According to the Acts of the Apostles, Matthias was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot following the betrayal of Jesus & his subsequent suicide. This calling as an apostle is unique, since his appointment was not made personally by Jesus, since it was after the Ascension, but made before the descent of the Holy Spirit at Whitsun.
1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition departs from Camp Dubois & begins its historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River.
1947 – Winston Churchill‘s speech in London declares a “United States of Europe“‘ is “indispensable” for “an authoritative, all-powerful world order”.
1948 – Founding of the State of Israel
1912 – Death-Day of Johan August Strindberg, something of a polymath, Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist & painter, Strindberg was also a telegrapher, theosophist, painter, photographer & alchemist. Rudolf Steiner speaks about him in Karmic Relationships, Volume IV: Lecture II:
“…Thus I made the acquaintance of this doctor, a man of our own day. When I met him I was in the company of another person whom I had known very well for a long time. This other person had always made, I will not say a deep, but a very thorough impression on me. He was exceedingly fond of the society of men who were interested in occultism in the widest possible range, though an occultism somewhat externally conceived. He was fond of relating the views of his many acquaintances on all kinds of occult matters, and especially on the occult connections of what the modern artist should strive for, as a lyric and epic poet, or as a dramatist. Around this person there was what I might call a kind of moral, ethical aura. I am applying the word ‘moral’ to all that is connected with the soul-qualities under the command of the will.
I was paying a visit to him, and in his company I found the other man first mentioned, whom I knew by reputation and respected very highly for his literary and medical career. Everything that took place during this visit made a deep impression on me and impelled me to receive the whole experience into the realm of spiritual research.
Then a very remarkable thing happened. By witnessing the two persons in the company of one another, and by the impression which my new acquaintance made on me — (I had known him for a long time as an eminent literary and medical man and had a great regard for him, but this was the first time that I saw him in the flesh) — by these impressions I gained certain perceptions. To begin with however, it enabled me, not to investigate in any way the connections in life and destiny of my new acquaintance. On the contrary, my seeing them together shed light as it were upon the other one, whom I had long known. And the result was this. — He had lived in ancient Egypt, not in his last, but in one of his former lives on earth. And (this is the peculiar thing) he had been mummified, embalmed as a mummy. Soon afterwards I discovered that the mummy was still in existence. Indeed a long time afterwards I saw the actual mummy. This, then, was the starting-point. But once the line of research had been kindled in connection with the person whom I had long known, it shed its light still farther, and eventually I was enabled to investigate the karmic connections of the other man, my new acquaintance, the doctor. And the following was the result.
As a general rule one is led from one earthly life of a human being to the preceding one. But in this case intuition led far back into ancient Egypt, to a kind of chieftain in ancient Egypt. It was a chieftain who in a certain sense, indeed in a very interesting way, possessed the ancient
Egyptian Initiation, but had become somewhat decadent as an Initiate. In the further course of his life, he began to take his Initiation not very seriously, indeed he even treated it with a certain scorn. Now this man had a servant, who in his turn was extremely serious. This servant was of course not initiated; but both of them together were given the task of embalming mummies and procuring the substances for this purpose, which was no easy matter.
Now especially in the more ancient periods of Egypt, the process of embalming mummies was very complicated and demanded an intimate knowledge of the human being, of the human body. Nay more, of those who had to do the embalming — if they did it legitimately — deep knowledge of the human soul was required. The chieftain of whom I spoke had been initiated for this very work, but he gradually became, in a manner of speaking, frivolous in relation to this, his proper calling. So it came about that in the course of time he betrayed (so they would have put it in the language of the Mysteries) the knowledge he had received through his Initiation to his servant, and the latter gradually proved to be a man who understood the content of Initiation better than the Initiate himself. Thus the servant became the embalmer of mummies, and at length his master did not even trouble to supervise the work, though of course he still took advantage of the social position, etc., which this honourable task involved. But at length his character became such that he no longer enjoyed great respect, and he thus came into various conflicts of life. The servant, on the other hand, worked his way up by degrees to a very, very earnest conception of life, and was thus taken hold of, in a remarkably congenial way, by a kind of Initiation. It was no real Initiation, but it lived within him instinctively. Thus a large number of mummies were mummified under the supervision and co-operation of these two people.
Time went on. The two men passed through the gate of death and underwent the experiences of which I shall speak next time — the experiences in the super-sensible which are connected with the development of karma or destiny. And in the Roman epoch they both of them came back to earthly life. They came back at the very time when the dominion of the Roman Emperors was founded, in the time of Augustus — not exactly, but approximately, in the time of Augustus himself.
The chieftain, who had gradually become a really frivolous Initiate, and who, when he had passed through the gate of death, had felt this as an extraordinarily bitter trial of earthly life, experiencing it in all the bitterness of its effects — we find him again as Julia, the daughter of Augustus. She married Tiberius, the step-son of Augustus, and led a life which to herself seemed justified but was considered, in the Roman society of that time, so immoral that at length both she and Tiberius were banished.
The other man — the servant who had worked his way from the bottom upwards nearly to the grade of an Initiate — was born again at the same time, as the Roman historian Titus Livius, or Livy.
It is most interesting how Livy came to be an historian. In the ancient Egyptian times he had embalmed a large number of mummies. The souls who had lived in the bodies of these mummies — very many of them — were reincarnated as Romans. And certain ones among them were actually reincarnated as the seven Kings of Rome. For the Seven Kings were no mere legendary figures. Going back into the time when the chieftain and his servant had lived in Egypt, we come into a very old Egyptian epoch. Now through a certain law which applies especially to the reincarnation of souls whose bodies have been mummified, these souls were called back again to earth comparatively soon. And the karmic connection of the servant of the chieftain with the souls whose bodies he had embalmed was so intimate, that he had to write the history of the very same human being whom in a previous life he had embalmed, though naturally, he also included the history of many others whom he had not embalmed. Thus Titus Livius became an historian. Now I would like some, indeed as many of you as possible, to take Livy’s Roman History, and, with the knowledge that results from these karmic connections, to receive a real impression of his style. You will see that his peculiar penetration into the human being and his tendency at the same time towards the style of the myth, is akin to that intimate knowledge of man which an embalmer could attain.
We do not perceive such connections until the corresponding researches have been made. But once this has been done, a great light is shed on many things. It is difficult to understand the origin of the peculiar style of Titus Livius, who as it were embalms the human beings whom he describes. For such is his style. Real light is thrown upon it when we point to these connections.
Thus we have the same two people again as Julia and Titus Livius. Then Julia and Livy passed once more through the gate of death. The one soul had had the experience of being an Initiate to a considerable degree, and having then distorted his Initiation by frivolous conduct. He had discovered all the bitterness of the after-effects of this in the life between death and a new birth. He had then undergone a peculiar destiny in his new life on earth as Julia, of which life you may read in history. The result was, that in his next life between death and a new birth (following on the life as Julia) he conceived a strong antipathy to this his incarnation as Julia. And in a curious way this antipathy of his was universalised. For spiritual intuition shows this individuality in his life between death and a new birth as though perpetually crying out: “Would that I had never become a woman! It was the evil that I did in yonder life in ancient Egypt which led me thus to become a woman.”
We can now trace the life of these two individualities still farther. We come into the Middle Ages. We find Livy again as the glad poet and minstrel in the very centre of the Middle Ages. We are astonished to find him thus, for there is no connection between the external callings. But the greatest possible surprises that a human being can possibly have are those that result from a real study of successive lives on earth. The Roman historian, with his style that proceeded from a knowledge of man acquired in embalming mummies, with his style so wonderfully light — we find him again as the poet Walther von der Vogelweide. His style is carried upwards, as it were, upon the wings of lyric poetry.
Walther von der Vogelweide lived in the Tyrol. He had many patrons; and among his many patrons there was one very peculiar man, who was on familiar terms with alchemists of every kind, for there were scores of alchemists at that time, in the Tyrol. This man was himself the owner of a castle, but he frequented all manner of alchemists’ dens and hovels. In so doing he learned extraordinarily much, and (as happened in the case of Paracelsus too) by spending his time in the dens of alchemists he was impelled to study all occult matters very intensely, and gained an unusually intense feeling for occult things. He thus came into the position of rediscovering in the Tyrol what was then only known as a legend, namely, the Castle in the Mountain — the Castle in the Rocks — (which indeed no one would have recognised as such, for it consisted of rocks, it was hollowed out of the rocks) — I mean, the Castle of the Dwarf King Laurin. The daemonic nature in the district of the Castle of the Dwarf King Laurin made a profound impression on him. Thus there was a remarkable combination in this soul — Initiation which he had carried into frivolity, annoyance at having been a woman and having thus been drawn into the sphere of Roman immorality and, at the same time, Roman cant and hypocrisy about morals; and lastly, an intimate knowledge, though still only external, of all manner of alchemical matters, which knowledge he had extended to a clear feeling of the nature-daemons and of other spiritual agencies in nature.
These two men — though it is not recorded in the biography of Walther, nevertheless it is the case — Walther von der Vogelweide and this other man often came together, and Walther received many an influence and impulse from him.
Here we have an instance of what is really a kind of karmic law. We see the same people drawn together again and again, called to the earth again and again simultaneously, complementing one another, living in a kind of mutual contrast. It is interesting once more, to enter into the peculiar lyrical style of Walther. It is as though at last he had grown thoroughly sick of embalming dead mummies and had turned to an entirely different aspect of life. He will no longer have anything to do with dead things, but only with the fullness and joy of life. And yet again, there is a certain undercurrent of pessimism in his work. Feel the style of Walther von der Yogelweide, feel in his style the two preceding earthly lives: feel too, his restless life. It is extraordinarily reminiscent of that life which dawns upon one who spends much of his time with the dead, when many destinies are unburdened in the soul. For such indeed was the case with an embalmer of mummies.
Now we go on. — My further researches into this karmic chain led me at length into the same room where I had visited my old acquaintance, whom I had recognised as an Egyptian mummy. And now I perceived that this very mummy had been embalmed by the other man whom I now met in his room. The whole line of research led me back to this same room. In effect, I found the soul who had passed through the servant of the old Egyptian embalmer, through Titus Livius, through Walther von der Vogelweide (the most celebrated of the Middle High German lyric poets) — I found him again in the doctor of our time, in Ludwig Schleich.(a German surgeon,writer philosopher, poet & painter)
Thus astonishingly do the connections in life appear. Who, with the ordinary consciousness alone, can understand an earthly life? It can only be understood when we know what is there in the foundations of a soul. Theoretically, many people know that deep in the foundations of the soul there are the layers of successive earthly lives. But it becomes real and concrete only when we behold it in a specific instance.
Then inner vision was directed out of this room once more. (For in the case of the other man, who had been mummified by this one, I was led to no more clues — at any rate to no important ones.) On the other hand I now perceived the further soul-pilgrimage of the old chieftain, of Julia, of the discoverer of Laurin’s Castle. For he came back to earth as August Strindberg.
Now I would like you to take the whole life and literary work of August Strindberg and set it against the background which I have just described. See the peculiar misogyny of Strindberg, which is no true misogyny, but proceeds from quite different foundations. Look, too, at all the strange daemonic elements that occur in his works. See his peculiar attraction to all manner of alchemistic and occult arts and artifices. And at length, look at the adventurous life of August Strindberg. You will find how well it stands out against the background which I have described.
Then read the Memoirs of Ludwig Schleich, his relations to August Strindberg, and you will see how all this arises once more against the background of their former earthly lives. Indeed, from the Memoirs of Ludwig Schleich a very remarkable light may suddenly arise, a light truly astonishing. For the man in whose company I first met Ludwig Schleich — the man of whom I said that in his ancient Egyptian life he was mummified by Schleich — it is he of whom Schleich himself tells in his Memoirs that he led him to Strindberg. In a past life, Strindberg and Schleich had worked together upon the corpse. And the soul who dwelt in that body, led them together again.
Thus, all that we have to explain to begin with about repeated earthly lives and the karmic connections in general, becomes real and concrete. Only then do the facts that appear in earthly life become transparent. A single human life on earth is an entire mystery. What else can it be, until seen against the background of the former lives on earth?” ~ Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships, Volume IV: Lecture IIhttp://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA238/English/APC1957/19240907p01.html#sthash.phuf3nNA.dpuf
~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor
1 – 2:30 pm Central Time Saturday 27 May 2023 on zoom
We are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.
Hazel Archer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Pentecost Festival Time: May 27, 2023 01:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
In Truth & Beauty I Stand – Athena Your Wisdom Lights My way In Truth & Beauty I stand – Centered In Strength & Purpose In Truth & Beauty I Stand – To Carry the Torch of Victory!
In Truth & Beauty I Stand – In-between Heaven & Earth I Am In Truth & Beauty I Stand – Upright & Reverent I Wear the Crown In Truth & Beauty I Stand – To Carry The Torch of Victory!
12 May 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Last Quarter Moon occurs today. This phase of Bella Luna is visible well into the daytime, allowing all to observe her the stars of in Capricornus. And right now she is leading Saturn thru the sky.
1820 – Birthday of Florence Nightingale, Italian-English nurse, social reformer, & statistician
1921 – Birthday of Joseph Beuys, German sculptor, performance artist & illustrator
1933 – The Agricultural Adjustment Act is enacted to restrict agricultural production by paying farmers subsidies.
2002 – Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro’s 1959 revolution.
2008 – An 8.0 magnitude earthquake in Sichuan, China, kills over 69,000 people
~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor
1 – 2:30 pm Central Time Saturday 27 May 2023 on zoom
We are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.
Hazel Archer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Pentecost Festival Time: May 27, 2023 01:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
“On the river stands the Temple in which the marriage of the Young Man with the beautiful Lily takes place – the marriage with the supersensible. The realization of the free personality is possible in a human soul whose forces have bridged the state of regularity with the divine forces of transformation.” ~ Rudolf Steiner, ‘Goethe’s Standard of the Soul’
Let your union ripen Let your union deepen
Brent Barup
In your mind’s eye, can you see before you a sacred grove, a place of verdant life-force, in spring bloom? Can you feel that grove calling to you, life-force to life-force, drawing you deeper into the heart of the grove? Can you open your senses, letting the sights, sounds, & scent of the sacred wash over you? Can you reach out & touch the plants, filled with life-force…?
How do they feel? Can you sense the ground beneath your feet? Are there animals here, making sound, trying to communicate?
What is the color of their sound? Can you see with your ears? Taste with your eyes? Do you feel called to let your body move with the life-force of this place? How does this movement manifest within you?
Through union we awaken Through union we are brazen
And that life-force, that seed of life-force inside you, is it drawn to a plant, a bush, or a tree, & can you see a fruit so filled with the seeds of life-force that it calls to you, calls to the life-force flowing through your blood? Your life-force to its life-force.
If you feel called, if you dare, can you pluck that ripe fruit, take it in your hand, savoring its texture, its aroma, &, if you will, will you take a bite of its rich life-force, the seeds & flesh of its life-force joining your life-force, as your attention expands further, to a place of unity with pure life-force energy.
In union we take action In union our heart is open
Frida Kalho
And in this place of unity, what if you could marry yourself?
How does life-force flow within you? What parts of yourself would you wed to yourself? What are your strengths & gifts? Who are your allies, what are your tools? Where are your shadows, the parts of you that needing polishing?
How can you stand complete & whole unto yourself, knowing yourself in all your parts? Is there a gesture, a motion, a movement that can integrate self to self, can you let that flow thru your body?
How can you create a life, that celebrates the life-force as an integrated Web of Energy integrated & whole… In the harmony of the elements balanced & blessed… How can you use this season of fertile gifts to become more integrated & whole…?
Your personal alchemical marriage- Takes courage, knowledge, & voyage… The Self an integration of life’s message
And in this place of unity, what if you could marry your community?
What communities are you a part of? Call them back. Call back how they feed you, how you feed them. How does life-force flow & move in exchange between self & community?
Call back how they serve you, call back how they don’t serve you. With what tools, with what allies can you serve & heal community? Where is the light, & where is the shadow? How can you wed your community with love beyond all reason? Is there a gesture, a motion, a movement that can integrate self to community, can you let that flow thruyour body?
Andrew Marolzel
What do you want to wed What do you want to shed What will you grow in your seedbed What are your marriage vows What are your not alloweds What power will your wedding arouse
And in this place of unity, what if you could marry the universe?
How do you live in relationship with the world? In relationship with the sum of all the communities, all the animals, all the plants, all the rocks & stones & bones of our ancestors? How can you live in sacred marriage with the world? Life-force to life-force, all connected, married, in a circle of life feeding life, life-force feeding life-force.
How can you nurture & heal the universe as the universe nurtures & holds you? Is there a gesture, a motion, a movement that can integrate self to universe, can you let that flow thru your body?
Beth Merkel
What mystery is unfolding in the heart-fires we are holding In our hand we our molding a new destiny
Imagine building a nurturing matrix In the heart of a rising phoenix A mystic union stronger then steel & bricks a marriage of ethics & frolics…
Kenneth Yung
We are here, in a place of unity, of sacred marriage, self to self, self to community, self to universe, the union of all, of the elements, of life-force itself. Can you let that union, that sacred marriage flow thru your body, in gesture, movement, dance, & song?
One self in union with oneself One unity together in community One world united in myself
Do you take your Self to be your True Authentic Self…in the presence of the Divine & in the witness of this community, do you promise to love yourself with an affirming devotion. Care for yourself with tenderness, seek to strengthen yourself, comfort & encourage yourself…To share the good times & hard times, integrated & whole…To make your heart a sanctuary of warmth & peace… integrated & whole…if you do, let your heart say, I do…& be integrated & whole… May this community of faith witness this sacred attunement…integrated & whole…
Yen Shaer
Consecrating that sacred marriage of self to self, self to universe, life-force to life-force.
Let the sacred Love Dance of the Divine within begin…Let the Wedding of Heaven & Earth, the Bridal Feast of the True Authentic Self begin…Let the organic betrothal with Mother Earth, in wedded bliss, begin…
Nancy Rourke
Self to Self… Parts Become One… Earth to Sky & Moon to Sun… 1st fruits Bless this Union Celebrate the Gifts that come
I love you ~hag
~John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.
8 May 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars” : The bright waning gibbous moon will glow near fiery Antares, the brightest star in Scorpius the Scorpion, before dawn on May 7 and 8, 2023. You can catch the moon and Scorpius starting around midnight until dawn.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Indications from the orignal Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner + Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
3 events on 8 May connected to the Archangel Michael: 490, 1429, 1945
The Feast of the Apparition of Michael at the Garganico Sanctuary of San Michele in Monte Sant’Angelo. In the year 490, when a nobleman of this small village lost the best bull in his herd, he went searching for him and found the bull kneeling in a deserted cave. The cave was inaccessible, and so in order to scare the bull out of the cave, the nobleman shot an arrow at it, but to his amazement the arrow turned around and struck him instead! He fell on his face & prayed.
A being appeared at the entrance to the cave: “I am the Archangel Michael and I am always in the presence of God. This cave is sacred to me. The Bull’s Blood need not be shed. What will be asked here in prayer will be granted as sure as my Countenance is of The Christ. Build therefore on this mountain and dedicate the cave to Christian worship.”
Saint Michael’s Cave was named “the Celestial Basilica”. It is one of the seven sacred sites along an imaginary line stretching from Ireland to Israel, known as “The Sword of Saint Michael“. (Interesting to think that the Bull was sacred to Mithras, an early incarnation of the Being Michael. And many depictions show a ‘celestial’ connection as well.)
Jules Eugène Lenepveu
1429 – Joan of Arcwho worked closly with the Archangel Michael liftsthe Siege of Orléans, on this day, turning the tide of the Hundred Years’ War.
For years, vague prophecies had been circulating in France concerning an armored maiden who would rescue France. Many of these prophecies foretold that the armored maiden would come from the borders of Lorraine, where Domrémy, Joan’s birthplace, is located. As a result, when word reached the besieged citizens of Orléans concerning Joan’s journey to see the King, expectations and hopes were high.
The city of Orléans commemorates the lifting of the siege with an annual festival, including both modern and medieval elements and a woman representing Joan of Arc in full armor atop a horse.
On 8 May Orléans simultaneously celebrates the lifting of the siege and V-E Day – Victory in Europein 1945 – the day that Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies to end World War II in Europe.
1891 – Death Day of Helena Blavatsky, Russian-English mystic & author, said to be the reincarnation of Cagliostro by Emil Bock. In her will, HPB suggested that her friends might gather together on the anniversary of her death & read from Sir Edwin Arnold’s The Light of Asia & from The Bhagavad Gita. Lotuses grew in unusual profusion one year later. Hence, May 8 became known as White Lotus Day.
1903 – Deathday of Paul Gauguin, French painter and sculptor. His work was influential to the French avant-garde & many modern artists, such as Pablo Picasso & Henri Matisse.
1922 – D. N. Dunlop resigns from the Theosophical Society
Pauline von Kalckreuth “Straße aus Tolkemit
1929 – Death Day of Pauline von Kalckreuth, a German Artist & early anthroposophist
1933 – Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast of self-purification and launched a one-year campaign to help the Harijan movement
This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it.Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll
Course Number 231154 / Zoom Date: Thursday, May 11 Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance
Gerald Shepherd
When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.
Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.
Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.
Nancy Poer
~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor
1 – 2:30 pm Central Time Saturday 27 May 2023 on zoom
We are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.
Hazel Archer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Pentecost Festival Time: May 27, 2023 01:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Dear friends – I have been working hard to take the highly esoteric concepts involved in understanding the 2nd aspect of the 3-fold Festival of Easter – the Ascension – into a digestible process that unfolds within the soul of the new friends I am presenting to from the Infinity Foundation. I hope you will join us too, I could use the moral support of some friendly faces!
“Infinity Foundation is the Chicago area’s leading holistic education center and globally on Zoom. We provide experiential courses in personal, professional, and spiritual growth to enhance your life…”
Being in these powerful 40 days between Easter & Ascension, I continue to ponder the latest AAP training that brought in what I have calledthe 7’s – Applying these concepts to my everyday working.
Thru my research into the Festival life as a Path of conscious Initiation into the New Mysteries, I have come to see that since the event of the 1st Easter, a new rhythm has been established – a fresh cycle for the ever becoming human being. This new cycle is not a four/eight-rhythm as seen in the wheel of the year, associated with the physical world of space, but rather a Seven-fold-rhythm leading into the unmanifest eternal realm of Time – a new dimension of formative forces, that we can cultivate in the etheric realm & in our own Life Body.
Dr. Friedrich Rittelmeyer, a founding priest of the Movement for Religious Renewal, once asked Rudolf Steiner how one could come to an experience of the Christ in this etheric.
Steiner answered, “by living with the cycle of the year”.
And so it is…
~hag
6 May 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The Eta Aquariid meteor shower peaks today — unfortunately under a Full Moon! Because the Moon is up all night and sets after sunrise, shower meteors will be difficult to catch in the brighter sky.
Nonetheless, if the weather is mild and you’re up before the Sun, it’s worth a try. The shower’s radiant lies in the east, just above Saturn. The ringed planet serves as an excellent guidepost, so let’s check it out first.
Saturn is high an hour before sunrise. Look southeast to find it — you may still see the four bright stars that mark the Square of Pegasus asterism to the planet’s upper left. Far above it lies the Summer Triangle, pointing nearly straight up.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (From the Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner & Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Meagan O’ Santter
“What is to be the starting force & impulse for events in social & ethical life must come out of the spiritual world.” Rudolf Steiner, New Spiritual Impulses in History” Dornach 16 December, 1917
Birthday of St. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. Thru the research of Rudolf Steiner (GA 93, 264, 265) we hear of this individuality in other lives as: Hiram, Lazarus, Christian Rosenkreutz, St. Germain.
680 Death-day of Muawiyah Caliph. The meaning of Muawiyah in Arabic is “young fox”. Muawiyah worked as a scribe for Muhammad.
In 639, Muawiyah was appointed as the governor of Syria. Under his governance the Syrian army became a major military force. Muawiya was one of the first to realize the full importance of having a navy. During his naval expeditions he took Rhodes & later Cyprus; then shifted his focus back towards Constantinople, & Anatolia. By his creation of a fleet, Muawiyah was the driving force of the Muslim effort against Byzantium. His navy raided the Byzantine islands & coasts at will. The shocking defeat of the imperial fleet by the young Muslim navy at the Battle of the Masts in 655 was of critical turning point. It opened up the Mediterranean, considered a “Roman lake”, & began a centuries-long series of naval conflicts over the control of the Mediterranean. This also allowed the expansion of the state into Africa & Spain. Trade between the Muslim eastern & southern shores & the Christian northern shores almost ceased during this period, isolating Western Europe from developments in the Muslim world. Muawiyah was crowned as caliph at a ceremony in Jerusalem in 661.
We learn from Karmic Relationships Vol. 7 lecture 6 that he was reincarnated as Woodrow Wilson.
1871 – Birthday of ChristianMorgenstern, was a member of the General Anthroposophical Society. Dr. Rudolf Steiner called him ‘a true representative of Anthroposophy’.
In 1881 his mother Charlotte died of a lung disease which he inherited from her and which was to overshadow his life with a long series of sanatorium stays. Morgenstern was a German author & poet from Munich. He worked for a while as a journalist in Berlin, but spent much of his life traveling through Germany, Switzerland, & Italy, primarily in a vain attempt to recover his health. His travels, though they failed to restore him to health, allowed him to meet many of the foremost literary & philosophical figures of his time in central Europe.
In January 1909 he met Rudolf Steiner , with whom he became a close friend, and in the same year he joined the German section of the Theosophical Society led by him. When this organization was split up in 1912/1913, he stayed on Steiner’s side and became a member of the Anthroposophical Society.
Morgenstern’s comical poetry still inspires today. Morgenstern unfolds his amiable, but sometimes also shrewd language wit especially in the poetry collection Galgenlieder: “How the toad sings so foolishly in the nearby reed!” His best-known poem is The Impossible Fact . The conclusion became a catchphrase: “[…] because, he concludes with razor-sharpness, what cannot be cannot be.” In “Scholastikerprobleme” he discussed how many angels could sit on a needle. Many Germans know some of his poems & quotations by heart.
• “I shall excavate the strata of my soul.” • “I’m a man of limits: forever physically, emotionally, morally and artistically on the brink of plunging into the abyss. Yet I manage to keep my balance and possess presence of mind.” • “I bear no treasures within me. I only possess the power to transform much of what I touch into something of value. I have no depths, save my incessant desire for the depths.”
Morgenstern’s poems have been set to music by many composers
Christian Morgenstern was also an acclaimed translator, rendering into German various prominent works from Norwegian and French, including the dramas and poems of Henrik Ibsen, Knut Hamsun, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson & August Strindberg. He died of tuberculosis.
Natalia Toledo
Moonrise In the tops of the forest, the rigid and black in the pale twilight sky ghosts, hangs a big one shiny soap bubble.
It is slowly loosening from the branches and floats up in the ether.
Down in the thicket lies Pan, in the mouth a long reed, there is still the foam on it of the nearby pond encrusted shimmers.
He blew bubbles, the cheerful god: but most of them planted him treacherously.
Just one held up bravely and flew out from the crowns.
There she drifts shimmering carried by the wind, across the country. Rises higher and higher the fragile ball.
But Pan looks with a pounding heart – restrained breath – after her.
~Christian Morgenstern
Founder Angela Curtes will be at the Spring Farm Fair on Sunday, (see below) but you are invited to check out her website to learn more about & preorder products for Earth & Body healing. *Angie’s Gold Living Compost *SILVER Seed Start Potting Mix – *100% Organic Certified Echinacea Purpurea Herbal Extract *& MORE…!
This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it.Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll
Course Number 231154 / Zoom Date: Thursday, May 11 Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance
Gerald Shepherd
When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.
Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.
Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.
Nancy Poer
~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor
1 – 2:30 pm Central Time Saturday 27 May 2023 on zoom
We are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.
Hazel Archer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Pentecost Festival Time: May 27, 2023 01:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
