Category Archives: Festival

Cahokia Eclipse

~Jane Hudson

Greetings Friends – Today on this anniversary of the Founding of the Esoteric Youth Circle by Rudolf Steiner, I am slowly emerging like the waxing crescent after the New Moon from 3 days in the Underworld. I seek to reflect a sliver of illumination around our Michaelmas 2023 Speaking with the Stars Retreat at ‘Sun City’ – the ancient Native American settlement 5 hours south of Chicago on the Cahokia Mounds state historic site.

We packed up ‘The Beast’ a van gifted to us, & set off down I-55 on Friday the 13th. The sky was muted with a mantle of fog as we traveled, diffusing the fall colors in an Atlantean – ‘Mists of Avalon’ blur. Soon the clouds burst into a pelting torrential downpour that came & went as we hydroplaned down the highway. The farms & wild prairie grass of the Heartland pulsing golden in the silver rain. CG held the wheel, meeting the rainfall with humor & grace, as I pointed out the scenic inspirations along the way & DJ’d the ride with world music.

As we neared Joliet IL. the sky lifted & we pulled off looking for a place to run our dog Winnie (Winifred J. Rabbit) who was also attending the vigil. We weren’t using our devices, just the trusty Rand McNally. We were looking for The National Shrine & Museum of St. Thérèse of Lisieux – the Little Flower – a Carmelite Nun & Doctor of the Church, just off the highway. I always loved the Carmelites who follow the ‘Most Pure Heart of Mary, Christ Jesus & the prophet Elijah to live in God’s presence’.

The “Little Way” of St. Thérèse is a simple approach to a spiritual life that seeks to find holiness thru everyday life – to do ordinary things with extraordinary love. It’s about trust – living a life where ‘small daily sacrifices’ make life a great deed.

I made the mistake of turning on my phone to help us find it, & that allowed Ahriman to send us on a wild goose chase. Well, we got lost. But inadvertently, as the adversarial beings are meant to do, we were led right where we needed to go – granting us the opportunity to put Trust to the test.

And somehow we ended up at ‘Waterfall Glen’, a nature wildlife preserve with trails, & fishing, famous for its glacial lake. It was perfect. The rain stopped just as we pulled up. Ah, such majesty. We took a thoughtful, refreshing hike around the primordial lake with Winnie in the lead.

Without much more ado we arrived in Springfield, IL. home of Honest Abe & settled into the Bungalow house that would be our retreat center for the next nights.

~hag

I picked this place because it is across the street from Oak Ridge Cemetery – a State Historic Site – home of Lincoln’s Tomb. Working with the dead has led me to visit many Burial Grounds – a favorite past time of mine. Our pilgrimage there amongst the rolling hills dotted with founding families & civil war heroes was peaceful & reverent. We extended our inner vision to connect to the Spirit of Place, not just of the Cemetery, but of the larger whole – The Genius Loci of Springfield IL. & the Heartland in general, which helped form the Genius of a great man like Abraham Lincoln.

We shared a delicious meal & prepared for the Michaelmas 2023 annular solar eclipse & our trip to Cahokia. Using the black & white of charcoal drawing how do we live into the qualities of Light & Dark? Tying the eurythmy gestures for “I Think Speech”, & working with various prayers, verses & mantras like: The Lord’s Prayer, The Foundation Stone Meditation, The Verse for the Michaelic Age, The 1010 Thought-Seed mantras, etc, we embody our Speaking with the Stars.  Toning & improvisational singing, as well as harmonizing our favorite Michaelmas Songs is a powerful way to bring unity to community.

~Nancy Melvin

I was thinking to apportion out parts & do a reading together of ‘From Light Through Darkness Into New Light’ a Mystery Drama type Pageant I wrote for the ‘Great American Eclipse’ of 21 August 2017, which the Central Regional Council of the ASA enacted as part of our retreat in St. Louis, but I decided to save it for the big gathering we will have during the solar eclipse on the octave of Easter 8 April 2024.

The next morning 14 Oct. 2023, after bagels & homemade biscuit sandwiches we made our way to the sacred Cahokia Mounds near Horseshoe Lake State Park, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River.

The atmosphere still had that Watery ‘Mists of Avalon’/ Atlantean quality with occasional cloud bursts. The hanging waves made the fall colors more vibrant, the etheric essence of the plant world more evident, spread out; deeper, richer.

As we drove the mists lifted. We arrived an hour before the eclipse began to get a lay of the vast landscape, tuning-in to the Genius Loci of this place, so different from where we had just come from.

The site was practically deserted. There were only a few folks around the main areas. The overview of the region with its 94 Ceremonial Mounds rising up out of the prairie, which was once productive farmland, deeply stirs the soul.

We chose to make a pilgrimage on the Blue Nature/Cultural trail, a 5 1/2-mile hike that often intersected with the 10 mile Red trail, & the Yellow shorter Tour trail. We started by walking the periphery thru the forest & marsh areas. At 1st the wildlife was abundant & bounding.

Then as the eclipse began – The shift was palpable. Everything stilled. The trees hushed, with not a squirrel or bird to be seen or heard. Even Winnie stayed with us on the path.

When we came to a Mound or a particularly beautiful tree or other striking feature in the landscape we would organically stop & linger – to contemplate, pray, make a gesture, or sing as the spirit moved us.

CG & Winifred J. Rabbit = Bros. of Christ Woodhenge in the background

Around the max time at the height of the eclipse we quite naturally found ourselves at ‘Woodhenge’. We were the only ones there in that vast circle, which once held 3 interconnecting circles of 5, 7, & 12 posts marking out the measure of the human being, the Wandering Planets & the Fixed Stars of the zodiac. We walked to the center post & sat down facing in the direction of the tallest & largest Ceremonial ‘Monks Mound’, where the Sun rises at the Spring Equinox. At this still point during the greatest darkness we held a silent vigil.

We felt called to ascend ‘Monks Mound’ where there is a panoramic view that includes the St. Louis Arch across the mighty Mississippi. Amazing to ponder that this site marking the stars of Ursa Major, was made without the use of the wheel, beasts of burden, or metallurgy, the mound technology was highly refined, taking hundreds of years of dedication. This agri-culture fostered widespread commerce, artistic expression, & monumental architecture. The model for this urban world was nothing less than the cosmos itself. The epitome of their ritual center was a four-tiered pyramid covering fourteen acres, rising a hundred feet into the sky—the tallest structure in the United States until 1867.

~Andis Kaulins

We decided we wouldn’t eat any food until the eclipse ended. We continued our journey passed the ‘Twin Mounds’ thru the ‘Stockade areas’ where we were attracted to ‘Mound 72’ which had a unique quality about it. We could see that it was laid out differently than the other mounds – its long axis is on a Northwest-Southeast orientation.

We discovered it is the only burial mound! More than 250 skeletons were recovered in various states of preservation there. And one burial spot separate from the rest consisted of a young man & woman in their early 20’s resting on a platform of shell beads that was laid out in the shape of a falcon. The residents of Cahokia were buried in cemeteries around the perimeter of the grounds. So some conclude this was a special ritual burial site. We spent a commanding time of contemplation there.

Later as we were walking out of a forested area, there was a murmuration of Starlings undulating over ‘Fox Mound.’ Then we realized that the eclipse had just ended!

When hiking to a picnic bench, Winnie scared 2 wild animals out of the bush. Yes, the deer were coming back into sight, but these looked like fat wooly sheep!?!

And then all the rest of that day & the next we must have seen at least 8 different bird murmurations on our travels speaking in the mysterious language of the air & sky! Video of murmuration

I won’t go into all the details about our digestion time the rest of that day & the next, except to say we had some intense discussions, great meals, artistic sharings, & more cultural explorations around Springfield before heading home – The landscape completely transformed in the sunshine, hung with low holographic clouds that wanted in on the conversation which is always more priceless than gold!

~Betsy

And friends, we can remember that the effects of this solar eclipse series are still reverberating – this energy has repercussions that reach into every kingdom of Nature, penetrating into the Spiritual Worlds where our Beloved Dead & the Unborn- our Descendants dwell in their life between death & new birth – Working, as we must – to heal the Earth. We don’t have to be in the ‘eclipse path’ – We don’t have to ‘see it’ thru cardboard glasses or a device – to do the work of holding the light.

The Battle of the Soul continues…

Shine on dear Michaelic Souls…

~hag

~Lydia Celmer

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler

MICHAELMAS 111
Soul Sunpower’s Awakening
v28
I can, revived within,
now feel my own wide breadth of being,
my strength of sun-empowered soul
whose radiance of thinking solves life’s riddles
and lifts the wish-fulfilling wings
left lame by hope.

The COTS verses can also be imagined in a 24 hour rhythm.
The summer is the soul’s sleeptime in drowsiness of senses.
This verse, the first mention of active human thought,
can be a meditation every morning on awakening,
in an inner light that dawned in the mirror verse.

AUTUMN EQUINOX
Dawning Soul Light
v25
I may, belonging to myself now,
begin to shine a dawning inner light
across the darkening of space and time.
To sleep is nature’s urge;
the depths of soul shall wake
and bear the sun’s warm glow
through winter storms and snow.

October 28–29, 2023 Partial Lunar Eclipse

~Alex Gray

All Souls Festival – Election Day 7 November 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Bon-fire

Celebrating: The Festival of the Dead, & Martinmas

7 – 9 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

The reprise of the 2017 Great American Eclipse Monday, April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse

Stay tuned for details about a Retreat for this Solar Eclipse Event in Fort Worth, Texas

Begins: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 12:22 pm
Maximum: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 1:41 pm 1.005 Magnitude
Ends: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 3:01 pm
Duration: 2 hours, 39 minutes
Totality: 2 minutes, 34 seconds

Lunar Eclipse Sep 18, 2024

Epistle

Greetings friends – Besides our Sunday Communion at the Christian Community Church here in Chicago, we also have services on Tuesdays & Thursday mornings. Not many folks come out on the weekdays, unless it falls on a Feast Day, so it’s essentially an offering for the Beloved Dead, & for the Beings of the Spiritual World. These intimate times are my favorite & I often serve at the altar on these days.

Today’s Gospel reading was from Ephesians 6: 10-20 – the last part of the last chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, authored by Saul who after his Damacus experience became Paul the Apostle.

I work closely with the synoptic Gospels. But I admit I have not spent much time with Peter & Paul who tend to prick my feminist sensibilities. But this Michaelic letter attributed to Paul set me on fire – It speaks directly to what we are facing now, especially in light of the up-coming Solar eclipse this Saturday 14 October 2023 – The 1st New Moon after the Autunmal Equinox.

When I got home, I picked up my bible & started reading Ephesians, where we are told in the first verse that it was written by “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God” (1:1)

This book is an epistle, meaning it’s a letter. And Paul wrote this particular letter, addressed to the Church in Ephesus, while he was being held captive as a prisoner in a Roman jail! .

Ephesus was once part of Greece, which today is near the western shores of modern-day Turkey, where the Aegean Sea meets the coast of Ionia.

The city was famous in its day for the Ancient Mystery School & Temple dedicated to Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which was burnt to the ground by an arsonist on 21 July 356 BC, the day Alexander the Great was born.

Rudolf Steiner speaks about the connection of Ephesus & the Temple of Artemis with the burning of the 1st Goetheanum in the ‘World History in the Light of Anthroposophy’ lectures he gave in the evenings during the Christmas Conference. We have referred to these lectures many times here on RR. They offer many occult clues that are very insightful, especially now 3 months before the 100 year anniversary of the Christmas ConferenceWhen Steiner opened the New Mysteries of Anthroposophia to the world.

~Sigmund Gleismüller

Patmos an Island in Ephesus is where St. John the Divine wrote the Gospel of John, & the Book of Revelation thru the inspiration of Mother Mary, who lived with him there, & continued to inspire him after Her Assumption. Lazarus-John, who was ‘The Disciple whom Jesus Loved’ died many years later in that same place.

~Matthias Grünewald

From John 19:26-29, we hear: 26 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” 27 Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.”

Before going to prison, the Apostle Paul spent 3 years in Ephesus, speaking boldly, leading daily discussions, & doing extraordinary miracles by the power of God (Acts 19).

I would like to share what I heard read from the altar today by Rev. Jeana Lee:

Ephesians 6: The Armor of God

Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 6, 10-20 Translation by Rev Craig Wiggins

“What it comes to in the end is this: Let his strength and might flow through you in order to serve the Lord. Put on the full armor of God that you may withstand all the well-aimed attacks of the devil. For what we face is not a fight against blood and flesh, but against spirit-beings, against Archai, against Exousiai, against cosmic powers whose darkness rules the present time, against beings that are themselves powers of evil in the heavens and on the earth.

Therefore take up the God-given armor, so that you can withstand the evil on the day that it reaches its climax. You should stand there as those who follow everything through to the end.

Stand upright and gird your loins with truthfulness.

Strive for righteousness and balance in your judgement. It will shield your middle like a breastplate.

Shoe your feet with the readiness to proclaim the gospel of peace to all you meet.

Have faith in God that will provide you with a shield with which you can quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Think about the mystery of Christ’s deed of salvation that will protect your head as a helmet.

And grasp the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God in your speaking.

May this armour protect you in all your supplications and prayers, when you, at the right times, lift up your souls to the spirit and, in wakefulness and with tireless effort, make your intercessions for all who would know Christ’s healing power.

Take me, Paul, into your prayers as well, so that when I open my mouth the strength of the Word may be given me and I may courageously and openly expound the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am a messenger in chains.”

May we put this powerful Michaelic imagination to work for ourselves in the world!

~hag

10.10.23 – “Speaking with the Stars”: In the dawn twilight look for dazzling Venus (occult Mercury) in conjunction with Regulus – the Heart of Leo the Lion. Bella Luna in her waning mood will also be visible in the dome of the morning sky!

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Today 10.10 begins the 16 day Hindu Festival for the dead Shradh Ekadashi. Offerings are also made to Vishnu ‘one who is everything and inside everything’ known as The Preserver within the Trimurti, the triple deity of supreme divinity that includes Brahma, the Sustainer & Shiva, the Destroyer.

680 – Deathday of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Mohammed, beheaded by the forces of Yazid, led by the son of Caliph Muawiyah, who Rudolf Steiner tells us was reincarnated as Woodrow Wilson.

1780 – The Great Hurricane of 1780 kills 30,000–50,000 in the Caribbean.

1913 – President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike, completing major construction on the Panama Canal.

1957 – The Windscale fire results in Britain’s worst nuclear accident

1973 – U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns after being charged with evasion of federal income tax

1980 – The 7.1 Mw  El Asnam earthquake shakes northern Algeria, killing 20,633 and injuring 80,369

The 1st New Moon after the Autumnal Equinox – Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, annular solar eclipse

GLOBAL EVENT:Annular Solar Eclipse
LOCAL TYPE:Partial Solar Eclipse in Cahokia Mounds State Historic SIte, Illinois
BEGINS:Sat, Oct 14, 2023 at 10:32 am
MAXIMUM:Sat, Oct 14, 2023 at 11:57 am 0.634 Magnitude
ENDS:Sat, Oct 14, 2023 at 1:27 pm
DURATION:2 hours, 55 minutes

All are welcome to meet on the inner planes during any part of the duration of the Solar eclipse – which Spiritual Science tells us is like the releasing of a safety valve – allowing the unbridled astral urges of the adversarial forces living in humanity, which are normally held in check by the spiritual beings working in the rays of the Sun, to instead surge out to infect the cosmic spaces, including our beloved dead & the unborn. (More on this soon)

We are all set for the Michaelmas Speaking with the Stars retreat 13-15 October 2023 at Cahokia Mounds – a sacred Mississippian Indian site in Collinsville, Illinois, called by the ancients: Sun City.

Annular solar eclipse total phases composite panorama during Totality , moon covers the sun’s visible outer edges to form a “ring of fire” shot using mylar solar film , very rare natural event Sun, Moon and Earth are aligned. A total eclipse , An annular eclipse , A hybrid eclipse, partial eclipse

Save the Dates for Community Workings

October 14Annular Solar Eclipse
October 21-22Orionids Meteor Shower Predicted Peak
October 23Venus at Greatest Western Elongation
October 28Full Hunter’s Moon and Partial Lunar Eclipse

All Souls Festival – Election Day 7 November 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Bon-fire

Celebrating: The Festival of the Dead, & Martinmas

7 – 9 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

The reprise of the 2017 Great American Eclipse Monday, April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse

Stay tuned for details about a Retreat for this Solar Eclipse Event in Fort Worth, Texas

Begins: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 12:22 pm
Maximum: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 1:41 pm 1.005 Magnitude
Ends: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 3:01 pm
Duration: 2 hours, 39 minutes
Totality: 2 minutes, 34 seconds

Lunar Eclipse Sep 18, 2024

Jehanne d’Arc

Greetings Friends – Before going out to Zinniker – The oldest Biodynamic Farm in America for our Michaelmas Farm Day experience today, I thought to share some thoughts that I hold of Joan d’Arc – a true Christic Warroior inspired by Michael. A few years back our Michaelmas Festival was inspired by Joan of Arc. I called it ‘PURIFYING FIRE: The Power behind the Will’.

My research led me to many amazing resources, including Mark Twain’s heart-felt Book, as well as the work of Anthroposopher Joan M. Edmunds. But my main source came from Rudolf Steiner who gives us many insights into this powerful individuality.

Now I can’t help but think of Joan when it comes to Michaelmas. And Yesterday while getting ready to serve at the Christian Community, my co-server came in wearing one of the red T-shirts with Joan’s likeness on it that everyone got who was involved with that Fest. (Thanks Mary & Deborah!) I had almost worn mine. I love these little clues that work thru to inspire us to take initiative.

The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations: Steiner, Rudolf:  9780880102056: Amazon.com: Books

I was particularly taken by what Steiner says in ‘The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations, Lecture 5, The Nature of the Christ Impulse and the Michaelic Sprit Serving It. Berlin, 1915’; a lecture series he gave right at the start of the 1st world war. I felt called to make that my personal focus. I didn’t get a chance to share it at our Festival since I wanted to keep it more experienical, so here it is for your contemplation. I hope it moves you to take action as it did me.

What is the mission of The Maid of Orleans?

From the time of her enchanted childhood playing around the village ‘fairy tree’ – & then, starting at the age of 12 – & for 7 years till she was martyred at age 19, Jehanne (feminine form of Joannes or John) d’Arc was inspired into by progressive Beings of the Divine Spiritual World. These powers battled the inflammatory Luciferic forces of deception prevailing in humanity at that special time right before the beginning of the Consciousness Soul Age.  

Joan of Arc, with the aid of Michael, (& his helpers St. Catherine & St. Margaret) was able to vanquish the seductive Luciferic forces which were vying to prevent this shift in human consciousness.

Steiner describes the miracle of her birth, how she went thru a sort of pre-earthy initiation during the potent time of the 13 Holy nights, incarnating on Epiphany, the day the Christ came into a human being at the Baptism.

And we can also point to her equally auspicious death. Yes it was gruesome, not unlike like the sacrifice of the Christ. In her case, it occurred because all the jealous, selfish, Luciferic forces of her enemies joined together to bring about her sacrifice by fire; not unlike the burning of Ephesus & of the 1st Goetheanum.

Trial of Joan of Arc - Wikipedia
Paul Delaroche

At what can in truth be be called her witch trial, she predicted her own death, & said that within 7 years after of her sacrifice: “the English would meet with a much greater reversal of fortune than any they had known before”.

Spiritual Science tells us that the soul of Joan of Arc continued working across the Threshold to shape these events after her death.

What the spiritual powers have to bring about will occur whatever the external conditions may be. 

Many great individualities are working with us even now from across the threshold. 

The Maid’s adversaries were able to bring about her death, but they were NOT able to prevent her mission.

Joan of Arc Bio, Age, Height, Death

The power behind the will of the Maid of Orleans, the forces of Michael, are working still against the immoral Luciferic forces that rage in the world.

Rudolf Steiner | Rudolf steiner, Steiner, Rudolf

Dear friends, as you are all so keenly aware, we are also having to deal with hostile forces in our time; but now-a-days these are predominantly Ahrimanic forces; not inflaming, but hardening, materialistic forces, that have come up with the industrial age. These forces are in evidence everywhere, especially if we turn our attention not only to the mechanical element, but thru-out cyber space; a distractive shrouding of the reappearance of the Christ in the etheric.

And so Spiritual science tells us that if we remain unconscious of these forces working into our sense impressions, we are offering an abode to the dragon that seeks to stupefy us. These sclerotic forces influence our earth life, creating the fearful events happening NOW all over the globe.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (1863 – 1914). On 17 August 1913, the  Emperor promoted Franz Ferdinand to inspector … | Ferdinand, History,  Historical pictures

~Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

In the above mentioned 1917 lecture, Steiner talks about how a sort of denial of the build up to the 1st World War had been present for a long time in the astral world, but was held back by something that was also astral: by the fear, doubt & hatred held in the feeling life of human beings. These negative astral forces were able to hold the war back, to prevent it, for a while. Steiner says: “…at 1st a fearful denial was able to stop war from breaking out. But then with the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, there emerged a ‘reversal event’ – this recalls the words from Joan of Arc: “the English would meet with a much greater reversal than any they had known before”.

In that case the selfish Luciferic forces came back to destroy the English reign after the sacrifice of Joan of Arc; and in this case – of the world war, all the elements of fear from the ahrimanic powers began to gather around the sacrificed soul of the Archduke, creating a focal point, a tear at the threshold.

The Changing Face Of Satan, From 1500 To Today

It’s hard to really phantom this, but we know that anything that has a specific character on the physical plane will have the opposite character in the spiritual world. Everything is reversed in the spiritual world. 

An element that had a blocking effect, keeping the 1st world war at bay, was now acting in the opposite way, as a spur, an incitement, to war.

So we see that a flip of the elements of fear, of the deceiving Ahrimanic elements, became a catalyst for war, which now a 100 years later, has led to the events of our present age, where there is constant war, in all realms of society.

Tyrone Dwelzel

But fear not dear friends, Steiner tells us that we must not try to deny or rebel against these materialistic Ahrimanic elements. We must let them strengthen us; we must develop the courage of Michael to see it as something that is necessary in our time, something that has to be present, so that we can learn to reverse the fear thru our heart-thinking – transforming these forces of resistance thru love.

Lebanese artist auctions viral painting of Beirut blast to help people in  need | Arab News
Pas Beirutt

The question is: How do we make it possible for divine spiritual forces, the ‘ever present help of the spiritual world’, to enter into our actions so that we can consciously reverse The Beasts of fear, doubt & hatred?

How do we offer a positive resistance to this deceptive Ahrimanic element in our age, the way resistance was offered to the Luciferic element at the time of Joan of Arc?

Social Threefolding and Commonweal | Feminist movement, Freedom, Road trip

– By taking the path towards a spiritualization of human culture – by cultivating our ability to form ideas & concepts into a thinking will for good. This is the prerequisite foundation needed to manifest the 3-fold social organism. Which we can only do if we stop listening to the prejudices & propaganda currently pounding us deeper into the materialism of our age – a voice that speaks loudly at times, or can be the faintest of whispers from the dragon within.

We generate the great strength we need to offer resistance to these hardening forces by approaching the spirit not only thru the inner powers of revelation & faith, like in the case of Joan of Arc, but by trying to concentrate our powers of understanding on what spiritual science has to give – a rational wisdom, filling us with light.

Irene Olid Gonzalez.

And so dear freinds, when we take ahold of ourselves with this attitude, we can consciously work with what Michael, the Spirit of our Age, has to give us now in our time – Meeting every trial & test with a conscious heart-thinking, motivated by the wisdom of lovewhere we must kindle our own light of thinking.

~hag

Here are some podcasts & video’s on the theme of Michaelmas:

Video – Michaelmas: Festival of the Future

Video: Michaelmas Musings

The Anthroposopher podcast – Preserve the Light

Video – The Central Regional Council – ‘Courage Born of Wisdom

30 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The waning gibbous Moon visits two celestial highlights of October’s late evenings.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

~Bosch

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

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

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

1207 – Birthday of Rumi, Persian mystic & poet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 upon us. 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 working in the 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/ 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.

Universal Harvest

~Mariusz Lewandowski

Here are some podcasts & video’s on the theme of Michaelmas:

Video – Michaelmas: Festival of the Future

Video: Michaelmas Musings

The Anthroposopher podcast – Preserve the Light

Video – The Central Regional Council – ‘Courage Born of Wisdom

Greetings friends – I know you are feeling it. A deep holiness broods over the dying light. Now, in ourselves we must find our own power of bestowing warmth; that we may shine from within. In the realm of the senses the plant world sinks down into death. Inwardly the fire-spirits, offspring of the lofty Beings of the Sun, bearing the Archetypal pictures of the plant kingdom, stream down into the womb of Mother Earth. All around us we see withering, the color leaving to reveal the essence. As human beings we must not allow the death of nature to draw us into sleep. In autumn we must discover the force of resurrection within, so that we can pass with full consciousness thru the gate of death with a wakened soul, in our time. This is possible by what Michael bestows as the Fire of Will. We can come into communion with the most hidden secrets of existence now, whispering: Feel yourself as bearer of the Motherhood of Nature, to conceive in love the fiery germ of Self.

Michaelmas is not just a day; it is a season that extends from September 29, the Feast of St. Michael & All the Heavenly Hosts, to October 31, All Hallows Eve

The dragon is not an external reality, but rather lives within all humankind, represented by cold, dead, rationalistic & pragmatic thinking. It is alive within every mortal as a potentially evil force. Michael’s message to humanity is not to try to slay the dragon within ourselves, for we would not live in freedom if we did, but rather to overcome it with consciousness. It is the consciousness in our thinking which calls for Imaginative Cognition & selflessness, as well as the strength of will needed to follow a moral path in life.

Michaelmas is a festival of inner strength & initiative. It is a time when our higher being can conquer anxiety & fear, for it is the task of Michael to awaken humankind to the eternal within.

The old legends always preface the story of the battle against the dragon with an enumeration of the 9 Angelic Realms. This view is revealed to our soul, taking us all the way to the Seraphim. Michael stands before us as the Prince & Herald of all the Hierarchies, that we may look to the Angelic Choirs, that we may look to our future selves, that we may think, what it is to be truly human, here & now, & step by step, to courageously build our own strong & steady rung on the ladder of evolution.

It is our job to strive to complete the never-ending story, with the New Michaelic Mysteries put forth by Rudolf Steiner, a true emissary of Michael, teaching us to count the human being as the 10th hierarchy.

The Michael thought: (to be born again – one has to die), and a Michael festival in the second half of September, must be linked alongside the Easter festival. Then, to the thought of the resurrection of the God after death, could be added the thought, produced by the Michael force, of the resurrection of the human being from death, so that humanity, through the Resurrection of Christ, would find the force to die in Christ and be born again. This means, taking The Risen Christ into one’s soul during earthly life, so as to be able to die in Him — that is, to be able to die not at death, but when one is living. Then that which we need will be present in life. For these are one, and they will once again weave religion, science, and art into oneness, because people will understand how to conceive the trinity. Such a thing could actually become an impulse which singly and alone would be able, in the present condition of humanity, to replace the descending forces with ascending ones.” ~Rudolf Steiner ‘The Cycle of the Year’ 1923 Dornach

~Lois Schoff

In our present age full of these forces that would pull us down, it is essential to align ourselves with the Being of Michael to enable us to overcome all that is of the ‘dragon’ rearing its many heads within us.

We can come to know this mighty ‘Time Spirit’ by taking into our hearts earnest wisdom-filled thoughts concerning the Christ Countenance that this being holds. If we practice this, we will soon see the light of Wisdom transform into fiery flames of will –empowering us to fulfill the tasks that are incumbent upon us.

During Harvest season these energies firing up our will are especially available & are strongest when joined in a community effort. In concert with friends & co-creators, we can work with Sophia-Michael/Christ at this crucial time, when the Mystery of Evil unfolds together with the Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric.

Mi-cha-el is a Hebrew name consisting of three separate words – the word Mi, pronounced My, means “Who?” cha, pronounced kai, means “like” or “as.” And El pronounced “L”, is the abbreviated form of Elohim – the name of God in the plural – the 7 Spirits of Form or the Creator Gods referred to in Genesis: “In the beginning God [Elohim] created heaven and earth…” Put these three word-syllables together & we get Mi-cha-el: “Who is like God?” This name prods our ordinary thinking – providing an opportunity to penetrate beyond the surface – to pose important questions.  Facts are dead if they are not stepping-stones to more penetrating questions which allow further answers.

The very essence of Michael is not a proper noun but a verb – a deed. What if we applied this kind of spiritual questioning to all our striving toward knowledge?

~Hilma af Klint

Who, or what, is the essence behind the Word? What is it that we seek in all our ‘Questing’ for Wisdom, knowledge & understanding?

The ‘Holy Grail’ up-holds the Wisdom of god – The knowing of the spiritual foundation of things.

Rudolf Steiner reminds us that “Every idea we hold that does not become an ideal slays a power within us.” Instead of slaying the dragon in us, this kind of lazy thinking slays the Michael power within us. But when our thoughts rise to the ideal, they have a force that is useful & eternal, imbued with will – fired with an indomitable force. These thoughts rise-up to God.

~Carlline Maniele

Michael as Time Spirit is cosmopolitan – universal – a role-model preparing us for the collective culture of the future which began with the Christ event – blossoming in the future into ‘Philadelphia’ – the culture of ‘Brotherly Love’ which leads us into the ideal community of the New Jerusalem – where we are the 10th hierarchy – the universal human being – co-creators in the cosmos.

What is universal goes completely beyond groups, beyond divisions – into the All as One – the Christ within us.  This divine spark that we have in common with all of humanity is universal. Until we can embrace all, accept all, love all—as Christ shows us—we have not achieved the Freedom of Universal Individualism. As students of the Michaelic intelligence we are called to mirror the highest in the other.

~Vlad Apetrei & Irene Olid

This is how we can work with Michael. We become co-workers – mirroring the highest in the other –mirroring the countenance of Christ – this is what we come to understand in the School of Michael.

Anyone who is striving to do ‘The Great Work’ on the path of personal development & spiritual research knows that it is an arduous, lonely path – And ironically it is often in community where the most suffering & pain is triggered, offering our deepest sorrow as well as our biggest opportunities for growth.

~Beela Dentley

From a broad evolutionary perspective, we can understand that every soul is on ‘the path’.

Can we recognize & feel the cry of the spirit, the seeking soul within our family members, or co-workers, the annoying person on the street? Can we have compassion for others & for ourselves in our various conditions of soul & spirit-sickness?

Can we see beyond this soul-sicknesses, to meet the hungering individual who is, in their own way, hoping for a fulfillment that only the spirit can bring?

When we are recognized by another on the level of spirit, we naturally awaken to our latent potential & connect more readily with our unique life-purposes.

Can we trust that no matter where a fellow human being is on their journey that we can acknowledge the Christ within them? Or do we hold the individuals around us captive to their past? Do we unconsciously cast judgment on them? We have seen them fail perhaps countless times. Is there a subtle condemning in us when we speak to them or of them to others?

How about those who ascribe to a different social philosophy or support a different political party – do we judge them as inferior for their beliefs & unworthy of our help or support? Do we think of them as evil – never able to progress or change? If so, we are aligning ourselves with the adversary stunting our own soul’s progress as well as theirs.

Can we forgive them & ourselves, & step up to be the person in their life that helps them see their true potential?

Are we living up to our own true potential? 

If we are able to do this, then we are working with Michael as a mirror to the divine nature within others. What a beautiful harvest that will bring to the world.  

Let this season enkindle in us a renewed hope, an unshakeable faith, a sure strength – endowing us with the spiritual will of Sophia-Michael. In the name of Christ, we can stand fast in freedom – to sure up the practical reality that Spiritual Science offers as a world view.

~hag

29 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”

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

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

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

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

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

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

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

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

1571 – Birthday of Caravaggio, Italian painter

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

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

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

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

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

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

1924 – Ludwig Polzer holds his 1st First Class Lesson

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

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

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

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

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 upon us. 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 working in the 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/ 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.

Last Address

~George Mason

Greetings Dear Sisters & Brothers on this auspicious Eve of the Full Harvest Moon, coupled with the ancient Jewish celebration of Sukkot, which brings the community together for a unique opportunity to experience an amazing blend of Honoring the Ancestors, Giving Thanks, & opening to receive prosperity’s blessings…Yes, the season of in-gathering is upon us once again…Sweet with the seal of At-One-ment…

In the New Christian Mysteries this is also the Eve of The Feast Day of St. Michael & All the Heavenly Hosts. Referred to as Michaelmas, a season that really begins during the Perseid Meteor showers, is celebrated specifically on September 29th, & lasts until The Feast of All Hallows.

~hag

TODAY – 99 years ago – on 28 September 1924, Rudolf Steiner rose from his sick bed where he worked at the foot of his unfinished sculpture – the ‘Representative of Humanity’, to give what has been referred to as: THE LAST ADDRESS, GA 238, THE INDIVIDUALITY OF ELIAS, JOHN, RAPHAEL, NOVALIS. Rudolf Steiner died 6 months later on 30 March 1925.

On the eve of Michaelmas, Steiner gives a mysterious example of what is called ‘Spiritual Economy’ – which he had been revealing all thru 1923 in his ‘Karmic Relationships’ series – the idea that powerful individualities can share the results of their initiations which have developed their various bodies: physical, etheric, astral & I, with other worthy souls for the purpose of furthering human evolution.

In this last public lecture, he gives a truncated glimpse into the special relationship between John the Evangelist, who in earlier incarnations was Cain, Hiram Abiff, Christian Rosenkreutz, Count of St-Germain…& John the Baptist, who was the first man Adam, the Zealot Phinehas-grandson of Aaron & great-nephew of Moses, then the prophet Elijah, the painter Raphael, & the poet Novalis…

It is up to us now as part of the Centennial renewal to take up the threads.

Thru Steiner’s 5th Gospel we can understand that John the Baptist worked with all the apostles from the spiritual world after his beheading, becoming like the “overshadowing spirit of the disciples”

And in particular JB participated, along with other powerful individualities, in the first Christian initiation of a human being by Christ Jesus: the ‘Raising of Lazarus’ = An integration of the pure essence at the core of the ancient Mystery Schools with the New Christian Mysteries working simultaneously. And here we see this principle of ‘Spiritual Economy’ or as Marie Steiner called described it:  “incorporation secrets, the line of interception of individualities”. For while Lazarus was undergoing this new 4-day initiation, JB endowed Lazarus with his Consciousness Soul which he had achieved as Elijah, & the advanced level of his astral body as Spirit-Self. Bestowing on Lazarus the initiatory title John, which signifies the Air (Hebrew=Ruach) Initiation. Steiner describes the title John as “one who has awakened his higher self, who governs the occult forces of air”.

~Van Gogh

From the Last Address we hear: “At the rising of Lazarus, the spiritual being of John the Baptist, who since his death had been the overshadowing spirit of the disciples, penetrated from above into Lazarus as far as the Consciousness-Soul. The being of Lazarus himself, from below, intermingled with the spiritual being of John the Baptist from above. After the rising of Lazarus, this Being is Lazarus-John, the disciple whom the Lord loved. And he was then able to write the Gospel of John & the Book of Revelation”. ~Rudolf Steiner

This initiation of Lazarus-John, as a representative of future humanity, pre-figured on the micro-level the death & resurrection that Christ Jesus accomplished macrocosmically on Golgotha. Since this was such an important task, other powerful individualities not able to be mentioned at that time by Steiner in the Last Address, were involved:

The Being known as Zarathustra, who had incarnated as the Matthew Jesus, visited by his followers the 3 Magi, merging with the Nathan Soul of the Luke Jesus at age 12, who then left the body of Jesus of Nazareth at the Baptism by JB to allow the Christ to enter, worked now from the Moon Sphere, offering Lazarus his advanced etheric-body (Buddhi).

And it was Aristotle, who later became Rudolf Steiner, working with Michael from the Sun sphere at the Turning Point of Time, made his powers of Atman (Spirit-Man) available to Lazarus-John.

Christ himself bestowed the Higher “I”.

The Raising of Lazarus ~Juan De Flandes

Lazarus’ sister Mary Magdalene kept his physical body intact enough to rise from the grave (even though Martha his other sister said “by this time there is a bad odor…”) Mary worked thru the advanced power of her Sentient Soul to hold him grounded in the physical while he underwent the initiation.

Perhaps that is why some say ‘the Disciple who Jesus loved’ looked like a woman. Some say it was even Mary…

And so dear friends on this eve of Michaelmas thru the inspiration of Rudolf Steiner’s ‘Last Address’, as well as comments he made in connection to other incorporations, such as between Demetrius & Kaspar Hauser, which Steiner spoke about to Count Polzer-Hoditz a few weeks before he died, we can see that at the ‘Raising of Lazarus’ we are dealing with a new kind of Initiation where a human being stands before Christ, reaching from the earthly depths to the highest heavenly heights – Assisted thru the interception of spiritual organs of high initiates working from the Spiritual Worlds: John the Baptist, Zarathustra, Aristotle, & the Apostle of the Apostles Mary Magdalene.

May more threads of our evoultion continue to connect us in our seeking to be ‘Christ in me’.

~hag

28 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The full moon closest to the equinox, or Harvest Moon – rises just before sunset. It’s the last of 4 full supermoons in a row in 2023. Also, on September 28, look for the full super Harvest Moon to be about halfway between the 2 planets, very bright Jupiter and golden Saturn.

Humanity and divinity | thehumandivinedotorg
William Blake

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

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

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

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

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

Rudolf Steiner speaks extensively about this powerful Platonic individuality in many place such as: Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies – Volume III, lecture VI – THE SCHOOL OF CHARTRES

Giovanni Segantini - Wikipedia

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

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

Springing from Powers of the Sun,
Radiant Spirit-powers, blessing all Worlds!
For Michael’s garment of rays
Ye are predestined by Thought Divine.

He, the Christ-messenger, revealeth in you —
Bearing mankind aloft — the sacred Will of Worlds.
Ye, the radiant Beings of Aether-Worlds,
Bear the Christ-Word to Man.

Thus shall the Heralds of Christ appear
To the thirstily waiting souls,
To whom your Word of Light shines forth
In cosmic age of Spirit-Man.

Ye, the disciples of Spirit-Knowledge,
Take Michael’s Wisdom beckoning,
Take the Word of Love of the Will of Worlds
Into your soul’s aspiring, a c t i v e l y !

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

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 upon us. 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 working in the 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/ 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.