Category Archives: Festival

Vernal Balance

Community, Festival, History, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Speaking with the Stars, Spring, Upcoming Events

HAPPY SPRING – Check out my Video Recording about the Vernal Equinox

20 March 2023 – “speaking with the Stars”: Today at 4:24 p.m CT is the Vernal Equinox – when the center of the Sun’s disk crosses the equator — both Earth’s equator & the celestial equator are heading north for the season.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Nowruz (Persian: literally “New Day”) the Iranian New Year, also known as the Persian New Year. Nowruz is partly rooted in the traditions of Mitraism & Zoroastrianism. In Mitraism, festivals had a deep linkage with the sun light. The Iranian festivals such as Mehrgan (autumnal equinox), Tirgan, & the eve of Chelle ye Zemestan (winter solstice) also had an origin in the Sun god (Surya). Among other ideas, Zoroastrianism is the first monotheistic religion that emphasizes broad concepts; such as the corresponding work of good & evil in the world,& the connection of humans to nature. Zoroastrian practices were dominant for much of the history of ancient Iran.

Although having Iranian & religious Zoroastrian origins, Nowruz has been celebrated by people from diverse ethno-linguistic communities for thousands of years. It is a secular holiday for most celebrants that is enjoyed by people of several different faiths, but remains a holy day for Zoroastrians

OSTARA (pronounced O-STAR-ah) is celebrated on the Vernal or Spring Equinox. The name for this Sabbat actually comes from that of the Teutonic lunar Goddess, Eostre. Her chief symbols are the bunny (for fertility & because the Ancient Ones who worshiped her often saw the image of a rabbit in the full moon), & the egg (representing the cosmic egg of creation). This is where the customs of “Easter Eggs” & the “Easter Bunny” originated.

Ostara is a time to celebrate the arrival of Spring, the renewal & rebirth of Nature herself, & the coming lushness of Summer. It is at this time when light & darkness are in balance, yet the light is growing stronger by the day. The forces of masculine & feminine energy, yin & yang, are also in balance at this time. At this time we think of renewing ourselves. We renew our thoughts, our dreams, & our aspirations. We think of renewing our relationships. This is an excellent time of year to begin anything new or to completely revitalize something. This is also an excellent month for prosperity rituals or rituals that have anything to do with growth.

Customs such as the lighting of new fires at dawn for healing, renewed life, & protection of the crops still survive in the Southern Americas as well as in Europe. Eggs were gathered & used for the creation of talismans & also ritually eaten. The gathering of different colored eggs from the nests of a variety of birds has given rise to two traditions still observed today – the Easter egg hunt, & coloring eggs in imitation of the various pastel colors of wild birds. It is also believed that humankind first got the idea of weaving baskets from watching birds weave nests. This is perhaps the origin of the association between colored Easter eggs & Easter baskets.

There is much symbolism in eggs themselves. The golden orb of its yolk represents the Sun God, its white shell is seen as the White Goddess, & the whole is a symbol of rebirth. The Goddess Eostre’s patron animal was the hare.

The Spring Equinox is a time of new beginnings, of action, of planting seeds for future grains, & of tending gardens. Spring is a time of the Earth’s renewal, a rousing of nature after the cold sleep of winter. As such, it is an ideal time to clean your home to welcome the new season. “Spring cleaning” is much more than simply physical work. It may be seen as a concentrated effort to rid your home of the problems & negativity of the past months, & to prepare for the coming spring and summer. To do this, we may approach the task of cleaning our homes with positive thoughts. This frees the home of any negative feelings brought about by a harsh winter. A common rule of thumb for Spring cleaning is that all motions involving scrubbing of stains or hand rubbing the floors should be done “clockwise”. This custom aids in filling the home with good energy for growth.

Appropriate Deities for Ostara include all Youthful and Virile Gods and Goddesses, Sun Gods, Mother Goddesses, Love Goddesses, Moon Gods and Goddesses, & all Fertility Deities. Some Ostara Deities to mention by name here include Persephone, Blodeuwedd, Eostre, Aphrodite, Athena, Cybele, Gaia, Hera, Isis, Ishtar, Minerva, Venus, Robin of the Woods, the Green Man, Cernunnos, Lord of the Greenwood, The Dagda, Attis, The Great Horned God, Mithras, Odin, Thoth, Osiris, & Pan.

Key actions to keep in mind during this time in the Wheel of the Year include openings & new beginnings. Work for improving communication & group interaction are recommended, as well as fertility & abundance. Ostara is a good time to start putting those plans and preparations you made at Imbolc into action. Start working towards physically manifesting your plans now

43 BC – Birthday of Ovid, Roman poet

1616 – Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment

1726 – Deathday of Isaac Newton, English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, & philosopher

1815 – After escaping from Elba, Napoleon enters Paris beginning his “Hundred Days” rule

1828 – Birthday of Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian poet, playwright, & director

1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published

1915 – Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity

1928 – Birthday of Fred Rogers, American television host & producer

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Will you
Sow the seeds of peaceful premonition
Into a fruitful action
To ignite the weave
In radiant expectation…?
~hag

Equinox means “equal night” when the sun is positioned above the equator & day and night are about equal in length all over the world. This is the start of the Astrological year. Many ancient cultures built structures to point directly toward the rising Sun on this day every year. The celebration of the Vernal Equinox is about new life & hope, the planting of seeds & the activation of the fertility cycle.

A look into the ancient Mystery Schools honoring The Vernal Equinox: The Spring Equinox is also called: Alban Eilir, Eostar, Eostre, Feast of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Festival of Trees, Lady Day, NawRuz, No Ruz, Ostara, Ostra, Rites of Spring. The Old Testament heroine of Spring was the goddess Ishtar- Persian for ‘star'(Esther is the Aramaic word for Ishtar).  So Ishtar was the goddess of the morning & evening star, as well as being the Great Mother, Shining One, Lady of Visions, Priestess of Priestess’, she was the source of the Oracles of Prophesy, & Possessor of the Tablets of Life’s Records.Her symbols were the eight pointed star, the pentagram, dove, serpents, & the double axe. Her planet was Venus. She wore a rainbow necklace. The Persians converted this necklace (the rainbow) into a razor-sharp bridge that led to the Mount of Paradise. In ancient Sumeria, she had 180 shrines where women gathered daily for prayer, meditation, & socializing. The night of the full moon, known as Shapatu, saw joyous celebrations in her temples.

In Ireland, the spring equinox was celebrated long before the arrival of the Celtic tribes. The best known of the ancient Irish equinox temples is Knowth, which is near to Newgrange (Brú na Boinne). Knowth has a 100-foot long passage that accepts the Sun on the morning of the Spring & Autumn Equinox. A second & older stone cairn equinox temple is found at Longhcrew & is given the name Cairn T. Both Knowth & Cairn follow a sunbeam on the morning of the Equinoxs to enter a passageway lighting up the sacred geometry on a back stone inside the temple. This precise timing from a period of over 6 thousand years ago still works today.

The German fertility Goddess was Ostara, who was associated with fertility. Ostara mated with the solar god on the Spring Equinox & nine months later she gave birth to a child at the Winter Solstice.

The Saxon name for the Germanic lunar goddess Ostara was Eostre. Her festival was held at the full moon after the Spring Equinox just like our Easter celebrations.

The Mayans of Central American have also honoured the spring equinox. For ten centuries they have held their unique celebration using their ancient knowledge of the Sunbeam. El Castillo is the name of their great pyramid of the Equinox & as the sunsets on its western face light & dark compliment each other creating a very special pattern of a diamond backed snake descending the pyramid. This solar magic has always been known as the “The Return of the Sun Serpent”.

For the Greeks the god-man of the Spring Equinox was Dionysus. He was associated with flowering plants & fruitful vines & he was always in pain during winter, symbolizing hibernation & the cessation of growth. He returned triumphant on the Spring Equinox & many researchers see direct parallels with the story of Jesus Christ.

Mesopotamia, Sumeria, Babylonia, Elam (5000 years ago) celebrated the start of their new year at the time of the spring equinox. Zoroastrianism was the religion of Ancient Persia until the advent of Islam 1400 years ago. “Nooruz,” their ‘new day’ or New Year was celebrated on the Spring Equinox. Many religious historians connect Judeo-Christian concepts to Zoroastrianism.

In Rome, about 200 years before the birth of Christ there was a wide range of what are today called “mystery cults”. Attis & Cybele held their Spring Equinox rituals at the location of today’s St. Peter’s on Vatican hill. Attis was also known under various names such as Osiris, Dionysus, Tammuz & Orpheus. The Attis & Cybele festival had a death or day of blood & three days of semi-death & then a return to life for the deceased. Attis‘s mother was called Nana & she was a virgin. Attis was crucified on a pine tree.  His blood was spilled to redeem the earth. Attis was both a sacrificial victim & a savior, his death & re-birth was intended to bring salvation to mankind. Most researchers will say that Attis is clearly a prefiguring prototype for The Christ.

In Judaism we can see that the Passover dinner was their spring fertility festival. It records the escape of the ancient Hebrews from slavery in Egypt – its main meal was of unleavened bread & lamb.

In America the native Indians honoured the Spring Equinox in landscape-sized temples such as Mystery Hill in Salem NH. Five standing stones & one recumbent stone are set in a linear alignment that connects the sunrise on both the Spring & Autumn Equinoxes.

March 20-23, is the mid-point of the Waxing Year. The spark of light that was born at Winter Solstice has reached maturity, & from this point forward, the days grow longer than the nights. This is the time of full Dawn, 6:00 a.m. on the Year Clock, & so was the time of the festivals of the Grecian Goddess, Eostre, & the Germanic Ostara, both Goddesses of Dawn. (It is from these Bright Ladies that the modern Easter holiday takes its name). This is the time that is often seen as the time of Kore’s return from the Underworld, where She (as Persephone) has ruled throughout the Winter. It is also the time of the celebration of the rebirth of Adonis the Beautiful.

Spring is the time for a celebration of planting & of the greening of the Earth. Folks start to talk about having ‘Spring Fever’ & doing ‘Spring cleaning’, as the brighter sunshine provides a needed morale boost.

Many traditions associated with Spring Equinox have been retained over the years & grafted onto the Easter celebration. Even today, people arise early on Easter morning to attend ‘Sunrise Service’. (Remember Eostre, the Dawn Goddess?)

May this time of new beginnings bring you the fresh start you need, as you begin to plan & to plant the seeds for the future you want to see grow with the light.

Xox ~Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

The Categories of Aristotle – a process of contraction…
Is there a path to expansion…..?

PUBLIC LECTURE AND EURYTHMY WORKSHOP WITH CLAUDIA FONTANA

Friday 24 March 2023 – Lecture 7 pm CT – 8:30 pm –

Purchase tickets at the door or pay online $12

Saturday 25 March 2023 – Workshop – 9 am CT– (10:30 am 1/2 hour break – 11 am) 12:30 pm CT Purchase tickets at the door or pay online $50

Does one have to be a philosopher of great erudition to approach Aristotle’s gift to humanity……his Categories?

Perhaps , YES! But an initial acquaintance with them can lead out of the confinement of the intellectual concept to an experience of expansion supported by Eurythmy.

In the evening lecture Claudia will introduce the life of the Categories before they became concepts – Bringing the symbols in a sequence of sounds  (called the Evolutionary Sequence ) out of their conceptual form, to life, supported by Eurythmy and examples of poetry.

During the workshop we will enter into the movement of the poetry presented  during the lecture. This will be accessible to Eurythmists as well as to anyone interested in the life of language, poetry and our alphabet.

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar 
www.rschicago.org/donate

For more info contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Claudia Fontana saw a Eurythmy performance when still a teenager. Unbeknownst to her at the time, that performance was the gate to her destiny path. Soon thereafter she studied Eurythmy in Vienna and subsequently spent fourteen years as a performer with the Dornach, London and Stuttgart Eurythmeum ensembles. Teaching became the next challenge which she happily met in the United States, Europe. Before Covid, she spent seven years teaching all levels in Thailand, Malaysia and China. She resides in Ann Arbor, MI still performing and teaching.

Juan de Flandes

“Lazarus – Come Forth” – Through The Word & Eurythmy

w/ Rev. Jeana Lee, Mary Ruud & Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Starting at Sundown Friday 31 March 2023
7 pm – 8:30 pm CT at the Christian Community 2135 W. Wilson

Leading Thoughts & Close of Day with Rev. Jeana Lee

Continuing on Lazarus Saturday 1 April 2023
10 am – 12 noon CT
at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago 4249 N. Lincoln Ave

Night School Check-in w/ Hazel Archer – Eurythmy w/ Mary Ruud

$10 more or less or pay what you will
Please bring a potluck dish to share for the luncheon after the Festival

For more info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hag@rschicago.org

Mary Magdalene & the Women at the Tomb – A Festival of Recogniton

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,

Song-Circle with Velsum, 

Eurythmy – & an artistic break out session

Holy Saturday 8 April 2023

1 pm – 3pm CT a hybrid event in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & on zoom

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7050174041

Meeting ID: 705 017 4041

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
www.rschicago.org/donate

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

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.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

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 

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices & Eurythmy

Saturday 27 May 2023 a Hybrid event in person* & 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.

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83663366670?pwd=L292UzlOR1pkZjBXSWpxK1B2b0o1dz09 Meeting ID: 836 6336 6670 / Passcode: 397593

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
*Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) www.rschicago.org/donate

Find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals HERE

Age quod agis

Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Community, Festival, History, Insight, Upcoming Events
Bernardino Luini (Thanks to Faith DiVecchio for this image)

Dear friends, I have been deep into research, study & contemplation of the individuality we call Mary Magdalene. The work has intensified during this Lenten-Tide Season in preparation for our Easter Festival here at the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, on Holy Saturday. (see annoucement below). Besides the leading thoughts & art images I will share, I am writing a poem encompassing these findings & insights, which Velsum Voices will transform into a song for us to sing together on the day of the Fest.  

There are so many amazing resources to work with. Besides the Synoptic Gospels, there are the Gnostic texts, most notably ‘The Gospel of Mary Magdalene’ a 1st century papyrus codex discovered in Cairo in 1896, written in Sahidic Coptic.

After taking 46 pages of notes, I have narrowed things down to 8 pages from which I am curating the poem. And for the presentation itself I have decided to hone it into a few essential elements: The casting out of the 7 demons as initiation, The Anointing, Holding witness at the foot of the Cross & at the Tomb, & the 3 Marys as The Myrrhophores – an ancient sect of women who work with Threshold oils.

I have been holding this process close, but decided to mention it today as it is the Deathday in 604 of Pope Gregory I, the one who denigrated The Magdalene by mislabeling her a prostitute – issued in Homily 33 from 591 AD (Leloup xiv). And although the Catholic Church officially redacted this decree in 1969, his depiction of Mary Magdalene is still believed by many as the “Gospel Truth”. The power of one pope to change the world’s perception of a powerful woman, hundreds of years after the fact, & for over a thousand years into the future, gives one pause for thought.

Then on 3 June 2016 = ‘the Feast of the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus’, Pope Francis, elevated the Sainthood of Mary Magdalene giving her Feast Day as 22 July. The announcement quotes: 

~Rabanus Maurus Magnentius (a Frankish Benedictine monk born in 780, theologian, poet, archbishop in Mainz, Germany) in his Prologue from: ‘De vita Mariae Magdalenae = On the life of Mary Magdalene, he said of her that she was: ‘Beloved of Christ and greatly loved by Christ’ “Dilectrix Christi et a Christo plurimum dilecta”.

Saint Anselm of Canterbury hails her: “Chosen because you are beloved and beloved because you are chosen of God” (“Electa dilectrix et dilecta electrix Dei” ~ Oratio LXXIII ad sanctam Mariam Magdalenam)

The ‘Angelic Doctor’Saint Thomas Aquinas calls Mary Magdalene the “apostolorum apostola” = Apostle of the apostles – because she announces to the 11 what they in turn are able to announce to the whole world after the Pentecost.

According to the 2016 Vatican press release the decision will “reflect more deeply on the dignity of women, and the greatness of the mystery of Divine Mercy.”

This made me think of: Exodus 25:22 – “The Ark of the Covenant was a box of acacia wood overlaid with gold both inside and out. It had a golden cover called the Mercy Seat with two golden Cherubim spreading their wings above. It was the place God chose to meet with His people.”

Dear Friends – Something powerful is seeking to come thru at this time, so strong that even the Vatican feels the shift in the ethers.

Olivia Tautkus

I will leave you to ponder, as I am, this connection between Mary Magdalene & the Mercy Seat – Thinking on how ‘the veil was rent in twain’ with Christ’s deed on Golgotha – revealing the ‘Holy of Holies’ to all –

Blessings on this 1st Sunday of Passion-Tide.

~hag

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated with added titles by Roy Sadler
LENT 4, PASSIONTIDE I
The Passiontide Hope
v49
‘I feel the force of Cosmic Being’,
speaks clear thinking,
recalling its own spirit’s growth
in world nights’ darkness,
and turning to the dawning cosmic day
with inner rays of hope.

Its mirror verse is at the fire festival of Beltane. In ancient times it was a full moon Celtic marriage festival. ‘Marry’ is my free translation of ‘unite’.
EASTERTIDE IV, BELTANE
The Marriage Gift
v4
‘I feel the essence of my being’,
speaks senses’ feeling
that in the sunlit world unites
with floods of light;
to clarity of thought
it would bring warmth
and marry Man and World.

The Categories of Aristotle – a process of contraction…
Is there a path to expansion…..?

PUBLIC LECTURE AND EURYTHMY WORKSHOP WITH CLAUDIA FONTANA

Friday 24 March 2023 – Lecture 7 pm CT – 8:30 pm – Purchase tickets at the door or pay online
$12

Saturday 25 March 2023 – Workshop – 9 am CT– (10:30 am 1/2 hour break – 11 am) 12:30 pm CT CT– Purchase tickets at the door or pay online $50

The Categories of Aristotle: A process of contraction…exploring a path to expansion…

Does one have to be a philosopher of great erudition to approach Aristotle’s gift to humanity……his Categories?

Perhaps , YES! But an initial acquaintance with them can lead out of the confinement of the intellectual concept to an experience of expansion supported by Eurythmy.

In the evening lecture Claudia will introduce the life of the Categories before they became concepts – Bringing the symbols in a sequence of sounds  (called the Evolutionary Sequence ) out of their conceptual form, to life, supported by Eurythmy and examples of poetry.

During the workshop we will enter into the movement of the poetry presented  during the lecture. This will be accessible to Eurythmists as well as to anyone interested in the life of language, poetry and our alphabet.

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar 
www.rschicago.org/donate

For more info contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Claudia Fontana saw a Eurythmy performance when still a teenager. Unbeknownst to her at the time, that performance was the gate to her destiny path. Soon thereafter she studied Eurythmy in Vienna and subsequently spent fourteen years as a performer with the Dornach, London and Stuttgart Eurythmeum ensembles. Teaching became the next challenge which she happily met in the United States, Europe. Before Covid, she spent seven years teaching all levels in Thailand, Malaysia and China. She resides in Ann Arbor, MI still performing and teaching.

“Lazarus – Come Forth” – An exploration of the 1st Christian Initiation, thru the Word & Eurythmy

with Rev. Jeana Lee, Mary Ruud & Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Starting at Sundown on Friday 31 March 2023
7 pm – 8:30 pm CT at the Christian Community 2135 W. Wilson Leading Thoughts & Close of Day with Rev. Jeana Lee

Continuing on Lazarus Saturday 1 April 2023
10 am – 12 noon CT Night School Check-in w/ Hazel Archer – Eurythmy w/ Mary Ruud
at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago 4249 N. Lincoln Ave

$10 more or less or pay what you will
Please bring a potluck dish to share for the luncheon after the Festival

For more info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hag@rschicago.org

Mary Magdalene & the Women at the Tomb – A Festival of Resurrection

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,

Song-Circle with Velsum, 

Eurythmy – & an artistic break out session

Holy Saturday 8 April 2023

1 pm – 3pm CT a hybrid event in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & on zoom

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7050174041

Meeting ID: 705 017 4041

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
www.rschicago.org/donate

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

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.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

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 

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices & Eurythmy

Saturday 27 May 2023 a Hybrid event in person* & 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.

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83663366670?pwd=L292UzlOR1pkZjBXSWpxK1B2b0o1dz09 Meeting ID: 836 6336 6670 / Passcode: 397593

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
*Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) www.rschicago.org/donate

Find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals HERE

Vashti/Esther

Festival, History, Upcoming Events

Today on the eve of the Full ‘Worm’ Moon of Spring comes the two day celebration of the Jewish Festival Purim.

On Purim nothing is as it seems…& all that is hidden shall be revealed…

One of the meanings of the name Esther, the star of the Purim story, is concealment – that hidden level of divinity beyond our awareness.

The book of Esther called the ‘Megillah’ has the opposite meaning = revelation.

Put the two together & we get the paradoxical reality of life – which often seems like mission impossible – yet every trial is a spiritual reality hiding the essence of the Divine in the everyday world…

Purim is traditionally a masquerade. One of the reasons to dress up is to ‘hide’- an allusion to the hidden hand of G-d in the Purim miracle, The name of G-d is never spoken & yet is made manifest thru a woman named  Esther (= Ishtar = where we get our name for Easter – A fertility goddess of Spring, She is a warrior, yet a goddess of love, marriage & childbirth, & of fate)

On Purim we can live into an act of faith – which demonstrates that even when the presence of the Divine is hidden from us, it is always there – often working thru us!

Spiritual powers have a hand in pulling the strings, even when things seem to be ‘just happening.’

Although the name of G-d is never mentioned In the Book of Esther = The “Gantze Megillah” – The Divine plan was just disguising itself in this palace soap opera:

It all began in Ancient Persia. The Holy Temple that had stood in Jerusalem was destroyed more than 50 years earlier, & the Jews were subjects of the mighty Persian empire which extended over 127 lands. Three years after King Ahasuerus ascended the Persian throne, when he felt secure in his new position, he celebrated by throwing a grand 180 day-long party for all his subjects.

Following this extravagant gala, The King hosted a smaller week-long party for the favored residents of the capital city.

In the women’s quarters, his wife Queen Vashti, hosted her own party for the womenfolk.

On the seventh day of this party, The King “was merry with wine,” & he commanded his wife Queen Vashti to appear before all the drunk men—he wanted to show off her exquisite beauty. But Queen Vashti balked at this request. So the men became angry & the drunken King ordered Queen Vashti’s execution.

She was beheaded, (like John the Baptist), her head presented on a platter to the drunken mob. (There is much we could say in commentary around this sacrifice which often goes unexamined in this story about a woman’s right to body sovereignty & the deep connections to the stories of Demeter & Innana, etc…)

When the King sobered up, he was lonely for a wife. His advisors suggested that he orchestrate a beauty pageant. Officers were appointed in all the king’s lands, & all beautiful girls would be brought to the King, & the girl who found favor in the king’s eyes would be the new queen.

The leader of the Jews at that time was named Mordechai. He had a cousin, Esther, who was orphaned as a young girl. Mordechai raised her & treated her as a daughter. Though she had no desire to be the queen, Esther, like many others, was forcibly taken to the king’s harem, to participate in the contest…

While all the other contestants beautified themselves with perfumes & lotions, Esther did nothing. But as fate would have it when she appeared before the king, he immediately liked her best, & Esther became the new Queen of Persia.

Mordechai begged Queen Esther not to divulge her nationality – even to the king…

Shortly after Esther became queen, Mordechai overheard two of the king’s chamberlains discussing a plot to assassinate the king. So Mordechai had them reported, & the two traitors were hanged…

Meanwhile, Haman, a virulent Jew hater was promoted to the position of Prime Minister. Immediately after his promotion, he got the King to issue a decree ordering everyone to bow down whenever Haman appeared as an extension of the King. So Haman would walk around with a large idol on his head…

When Mordechai, refused to bow down, Haman was infuriated. He resolved to take revenge against all the Jews & threw lots to determine the day when he would implement his plan. The lot fell on the 13th day of the Hebrew month of Adar (March)…

Haman approached King Ahasuerus & told him the Jews were planning an uprising against the King. So the King told Haman  “the nation is yours to do with as you please.” Haman immediately sent proclamations to all the King’s land, sealed with the royal signet ring, ordering the people to rise up against the Jews & kill them all – men, women, & children – on the day the lot declared…

When Mordechai became aware of the decree, he rent his garments & put on sackcloth. He sent a message to Queen Esther, imploring her to approach the king & beg him to spare the Jewish people. Queen Esther reminded him that according to the rules anyone who entered the king’s presence un-summoned would be put to death—unless the king extended to that person his golden scepter. “And as it is, I have not been summoned by the king for thirty days” -Queen Esther said…

Mordechai sent another message: “Perhaps you were made Queen for just this purpose”. So Queen Esther prayed & then agreed to approach the king. But 1st she asked Mordechai to gather all the Jews & have them fast with her for 3 days & 3 nights.

Mordechai gathered all the Jews of the city & they fasted, repented & prayed…

After the 3 days, Queen Esther put on royal garb & entered the chambers of the King. The King softened & extended his scepter. “Why have you come?” he asked. “What is your request?”

Queen Esther responded: “I would like to invite you O King & your advisor Haman to a small feast I have prepared.”

So King Ahasuerus & the puffed up Haman joined Queen Esther for a wine-feast. During, the king again asked Queen Esther whether she had anything to request. Queen Esther responded “Yes, come again tomorrow, with Haman to join me for another feast, & then I will tell you my request”…

Haman left the party with grandiose ideas of himself as the King’s right hand man invited to the most honored occasions with the King. This made him think that he himself should be king. In this high mood he saw Mordechai standing at the king’s gate– who still refused to bow to him – this enraged the evil man. When he arrived home, he brooded, & decided to erect a gallows, to show Mordechai his power by hanging him in front of all. Then while talking with his servants he hatched a plan to usurp the King, promising his minions grand positions when he was ruler.  

Evil mingled with the night air, & sleep eluded the King that night, so he asked his servants to read to him from the Royal Chronicles. They just happened to open the book to read of how Mordechai had saved the King’s life when 2 of his chamberlains were devising a plot to kill him…The King asked: “Was Mordechai ever rewarded for this fine act?” “No he was not,” the servants responded…

The next day Haman entered the king’s courtyard to ask the king’s permission to hang Mordechai! But before Haman could utter a word, the King addressed him: “My Haman, in your estimation, what shall be done to a person who the king wishes to honor”? Haman, was certain that the king wished to honor him, so he responded: “Bring royal garments & a royal horse, & let one of the king’s nobles dress the man & lead him on the horse through the city streets, proclaiming: See what is done for the man whom the king wishes to honor!’…

“Let it be so,” the King responded. “Now, go get the garments & the horse and do so for Mordechai the Jew!” Haman shocked & angry as he was, had no choice but to comply. He went & honored Mordechai as the king had ordered, but he couldn’t hold his grumbling tongue, so that Mordecai heard Haman telling one of the servants that soon he would be giving the orders as king. Haman planned kill the king when the attack on the Jewish people was occurring in order to blame it on them.

Mordecai was able to tell the king of Haman’s plan & show him the gallows he had erected.

At the 2nd feast prepared by Queen Esther, the king asked Haman what he would do if he knew someone was not honoring the king? Haman thinking of how Mordecai had not bowed down to him said, “I would hang him from the highest gallows & leave his body there for 3 days to rot as an example” The king paused. Then he asked Queen Esther “What is your request?”

Queen Esther found the courage to reply saying: “If I have found favor in your eyes, O King, let the life of the Jewish people be saved, for they are my people.” Remembering the chronicles that listed Mordecai’s loyalty the king, & of Haman’s evil plan, ordered that Haman be hanged on the very gallows he had built for the Jew…

On that day, Haman’s estate was given to Queen Esther, & Mordechai was appointed Prime Minister in Haman’s place…

The evil one was dead, but his decree was still in effect. According to Persian law, once a king issues a decree it cannot be rescinded. So on the request of Queen Esther, the king promptly wrote up a decree that countermanded Haman’s edict to the effect that the Jews had permission to defend themselves against any attack. And since the guards all knew that the Queen & Prime Minister were both Jewish, many were saved.

After that, Mordechai & Queen Esther established the holiday called “Purim” which means lots, to commemorate these amazing events –

Snip, snap, snout, this tail is all told out…

And so yes dear friends, all that is hidden shall be revealed.

Blessings to all

~hag

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

12 BC – The Roman Emperor Augustus is named Pontifex Maximus, incorporating the position into that of the emperor.

632 – The Farewell Sermon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

1475 – Birthday of Michelangelo, Italian painter & sculptor

1619 – Birthday of Cyrano de Bergerac, French author & playwright

1806  – Birthday of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. – poet. She campaigned for the abolition of slavery & her work helped influence reform in the child labor legislation. Her prolific output made her a rival to Tennyson as a candidate for poet laureate on the death of Wordsworth.

1888 – Deathday of Louisa May Alcott, American novelist & poet, best known as the author of the novel Little Women. Raised by her transcendentalist parents, Abigail May & Amos Bronson Alcott in New England, she also grew up among many of the well-known intellectuals of the day such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, & Henry David Thoreau. Alcott was an abolitionist & a feminist & remained unmarried throughout her life.

1893 – Birthday of Eleonore Clara Maria Lory Maier-Smits – the 1st Eurythmist

1943 – Norman Rockwell published Freedom from Want in The Saturday Evening Post with a matching essay by Carlos Bulosan as part of the Four Freedoms series

1964 – Boxing champion Cassius Clay takes the name Muhammad Ali

1975 – For the first time the Zapruder film of the assassination of John F. Kennedy is shown

1986 – Deathday of Georgia O’Keeffe, American painter – the “Mother of American modernism”. In 1905, O’Keeffe began her serious formal art training at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago & then the Art Students League of New York, but she felt constrained by her lessons that focused on recreating or copying what was in nature…The rest is herstory…

The Categories of Aristotle – a process of contraction…
Is there a path to expansion…..?

PUBLIC LECTURE AND EURYTHMY WORKSHOP WITH CLAUDIA FONTANA

Friday 24 March 2023 – Lecture 7 pm CT – 8:30 pm – Purchase tickets at the door or pay online
$12

Saturday 25 March 2023 – Workshop – 9 am CT– (10:30 am 1/2 hour break – 11 am) 12:30 pm CT CT– Purchase tickets at the door or pay online $50

The Categories of Aristotle: A process of contraction…exploring a path to expansion…

Does one have to be a philosopher of great erudition to approach Aristotle’s gift to humanity……his Categories?

Perhaps , YES! But an initial acquaintance with them can lead out of the confinement of the intellectual concept to an experience of expansion supported by Eurythmy.

In the evening lecture Claudia will introduce the life of the Categories before they became concepts – Bringing the symbols in a sequence of sounds  (called the Evolutionary Sequence ) out of their conceptual form, to life, supported by Eurythmy and examples of poetry.

During the workshop we will enter into the movement of the poetry presented  during the lecture. This will be accessible to Eurythmists as well as to anyone interested in the life of language, poetry and our alphabet.

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar 
www.rschicago.org/donate

For more info contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Claudia Fontana saw a Eurythmy performance when still a teenager. Unbeknownst to her at the time, that performance was the gate to her destiny path. Soon thereafter she studied Eurythmy in Vienna and subsequently spent fourteen years as a performer with the Dornach, London and Stuttgart Eurythmeum ensembles. Teaching became the next challenge which she happily met in the United States, Europe. Before Covid, she spent seven years teaching all levels in Thailand, Malaysia and China. She resides in Ann Arbor, MI still performing and teaching.

Mary Magdalene & the Women at the Tomb – A Festival of Resurrection

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,

Song-Circle with Velsum, 

Eurythmy – & an artistic break out session

Holy Saturday 8 April 2023

1 pm – 3pm CT a hybrid event in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & on zoom

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7050174041

Meeting ID: 705 017 4041

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
www.rschicago.org/donate

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

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.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

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 

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices & Eurythmy

Saturday 27 May 2023 a Hybrid event in person* & 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.

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83663366670?pwd=L292UzlOR1pkZjBXSWpxK1B2b0o1dz09 Meeting ID: 836 6336 6670 / Passcode: 397593

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
*Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) www.rschicago.org/donate

Find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals HERE

Shriven

Biography, Community, Festival, History, Quote, Speaking with the Stars, Upcoming Events

In honor of Ita Wegman’s Birthday which this year falls tomorrow on Ash Wednesday: THE ADMISSION RITUAL FOR LEADERSHIP IN THE MICHAEL SCHOOL ~ Peter Selg

When Ita Wegman wrote to Albert Steffen on August 21, 1925, five months after Rudolf Steiner’s death, about her relationship with the First Class of the School for Spiritual Science, she mentions a Rose Cross given to her by Rudolf Steiner: ‘Before his illness the Doctor gave me a Cross with small rubies set in roses, which he used to wear on a red ribbon around his neck. He put it on me with his own hands after we had performed a ritual act‘. Rudolf Steiner’s Rose Cross can be found as part of Ita Wegman’s estate. A few years later, on April 25, 1930, Ita Wegman spoke about the circumstances of the handing over of the cross, the preceding ‘ritual act’, and their connection with the First Class during the Executive Council meeting with the general secretaries and delegates of the General Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum: ‘I also received his cross directly. He took it from his neck and put it on me with his own hands, saying: ‘From this moment we will be there together for the Michael School’.

This meant that Rudolf Steiner, after performing the ritual act, and through the ritual of handing over the cross, admitted Ita Wegman to the Michael School as co – leader with joint responsibility. There is sufficient reason to believe that Rudolf Steiner performed the ritual act and the passing on of the cross at the beginning of September 1924 (after his return from England) in his studio.

In all the Class Lessons Steiner held from September 6 onward, he emphasized Ita Wegman’s special co-responsibility for the mantras of the ritual lessons and for the esoteric school.

People who were admitted to the First Class in September 1924 were ritually introduced by Steiner and Wegman together: ‘Admissions took place in the studio. I had to stand next to the Doctor; members were shown into the studio by Dr. Wachsmuth. Dr. Steiner would ask applicants a few questions, and if they were to be admitted, Dr. Steiner would speak the following words: ‘If you are willing to remain faithful to the Michael School, take my hand. Take also Frau Dr. Wegman’s hand, who will lead the Michael School together with me‘. (Ita Wegman )

Among the class members who were admitted in September 1924 was Wolfgang Moldenhauer, who described the admission procedure in exactly the same way in a letter to Kurt Franz David: ‘On November 5, 1924, I was admitted to the First Class by R. St. After the handshake and troth, he asked me to take the hand of Frau Dr. Wegman who sat next to him as co – leader of the class’.

In notes she took of an internal lecture, Ita Wegman wrote a brief summary about the changes in the affairs of the First Class in the late Sumner of 1924: ‘To me, he {Rudolf Steiner} said that the people should know now that the class was the Michael School in spiritual world. Of that school he was the leader and I was his assistant. It was my task to guard the mantras. Any member who wanted to pass a mantra on to another member had to consult me or him. This was an esoteric act, the beginning of a newly – to – be – introduced esotericism. At the same time it was arranged that during the admission procedure, applicants would hear the words: ‘This is the Michael School, which is led by me and Frau Wegman’.

Since from that time the first ritual elements (the ‘signs and seal of Michael‘) were introduced into the lessons.

The unpublished minutes of an Executive Council meeting of November 29, 1930, reveal that a document about the performed ritual act was in Ita Wegman’s possession. During the crisis of the Executive Council and the Society, Ita Wegman was forced again to confirm to her colleagues that Rudolf Steiner had indeed conferred joint responsibility for the class (nobody apart from Elizabeth Vreede believed her).

The ‘papers’ recording the ritual act, or aspects of that act, form part of a comprehensive collection of mantras and esoteric exercises in Rudolf Steiner’s handwriting, which she had received from him. The collection was preserved in full by the priest Emanuel Zeylmans van Emmichoven, and was published in 2009. It includes a text in Rudolf Steiner’s and Ita Wegman’s handwriting, covering several sheets. The text focuses on the Rose Cross and its transfer, culminating in the actual handing over: and contains ritual elements of a ritual antiphony between two people. Emmanuel van Emmichoven wrote: “Because Ita Wegman wrote down Rudolf Steiner’s oral instructions, it is possible for us to place the text, right into its individual images and personal statements before our souls‘. The text includes an evening and a morning meditation for Ita Wegman, both culminating in the meeting with a ‘priest figure’ and the handing over of a Rose Cross. The mantric verses are associated with the esoteric training of the First Class, and end with a blessing on the meditating person who receives the Rose Cross from the priest figure — the ‘spirit guide’.

The evening meditation exercise for Ita Wegman begins with the review of the experiences of the day. (‘imagine an experience of the day in reverse order’ ) This is followed by exact instructions given by Rudolf Steiner, taken down in her handwriting: a breathing exercise that is to be repeated seven times; an IAO exercise: and then the Rose Cross imagination. The imagination was linked to a mantra referring to the spiritual human form, and was to be meditated in relation to that form (focusing on heart and limb organization)

“Primal Powers hold me
Spirits of fire free me
Spirits of light illumine me
So that I reach toward spirit life
So that I feel beings of soul
So that I traverse uncertainties
So that I stand above the abyss.”

In meditating accordingly, the Rose Cross imagination will convey strength and support to the human being from the third hierarchy (in the region of the heart), so that inner certainly can be gained for meeting the tasks and dangers of humanity with confidence.

The process of strengthening, affirmation, and empowerment (or encouragement) was to be followed by further deepened concentration — full inner immersion into the Christ Mystery with the mantra:

“In me let Christ live
And change my breath
And warm the course of my blood
And shine into my soul being.”

Rudolf Steiner’s transcript of the evening meditation ends with the instructions: ‘Maintain inner poise’. In the margin of the page Steiner had added a square bracket: ‘White robe. Red belt and pendant. Red headband. I: Ave frater {Hale thee, brother}. He: rosae et aureae {of the rosy and golden}. I: crucis {cross}. He: Benedictus deus qui dedit nobis signum {Blessed be God who gave us the sign}’.

What Steiner had written down and passed on to Ita Wegman was obviously a summary, which served as a reminder. He would have specified the inner process to her verbally in much more detail. According to Wegman’s notes, the ‘Rose Cross’ had to be retrieved from the heart of the meditating person, where it had previously been ‘placed‘ after the Christ meditation. The Rose Cross had to be created, or reproduced, mantrically and internalized during the exercise. After the Rose Cross had been ‘retrieved” from the heart, it had to be carried imaginatively up a mountain, ‘step by step’. On the mountain peak an encounter should take place in the imagination with a figure {‘person‘} in priestly ritual vestment (with white robe, red stole, red band around the neck, and red belt: the colours of Christian Rosenkreutz, white and red, in the “Chymical Wedding’).

Ita Wegman wrote about that meeting: “One has to hand the Rose Cross over to that person with the words: Ave frater and sense the others response: Rosae and aureae. With devotion one answers: Crucis. The other speaks: Benedictus deus qui dedit nobis signum’. After the imaginative experience of such a meeting; that is, the joint, antiphonal speaking of the words: ‘Hail thee, Brother of the Rosy and Golden Cross’: The blessing of God through the priestly figure; and the handing over to that figure of the Rose Cross that has been carried up, the meditating person turns back. Then the imagination that one leaves the other again. After that, allow a sense of calm to enter into the soul. Empty the mind“. The Rose Cross remains on the mountain.

As a reminder for the morning meditation Rudolf Steiner wrote simply:

Imagination on the mountain. Being received. Holding up the Rose Cross.
‘May my head condense the spirit of worlds
Extracting for me the living light of thoughts
May my throat parch the breath of soul
Infusing it with spirit word meaning
Live in my heart, you, my spirit guide
There to unite me with you
That I move live weave in spirit soul life.

Ita Wegman added more details to her notes: Imagine in the morning: That one has climbed up the mountain again; that one meets the same person in the same robe; that the figure gives back the Rose Cross given to him {her} on the previous evening. Imagination to be meditated, kneeling down:

  1. May my head condense the spirit of worlds
    Extracting for me the living light of thoughts
  2. May my throat parch the breath of soul
    Infusing it with spirit word meaning.
  3. Live in my heart, you, my spirit guide
    There to unite with me with you
    That I move live weave in spirit soul life!
  4. Feel the head — the thinking — like a stone
  5. The throat like a parched plant
  6. Concentration on the heart while meditating the above.
    Now meditate that the person gives back the Rose Cross and places the right hand on top of the left; then both hands on the forehead, speaking the words:
    ‘Benedictus deus qui dedit nobis signum’
    Empty the mind again.

The meditation of the pupil climbing the mountain again, which is carried out while kneeling, culminates in the spiritual union with the priestly figure in the heart, the human organ of destiny. (‘Live in my heart, you, my spirit guide, there to unite me with you‘) After that, as Ita Wegman’s notes suggest, the ‘spirit guide‘ returns the Rose Cross to the pupil, with a blessing and laying of hands on the pupils forehead.

~hag

The same motif of assistance and union appeared at the end of another mantric verse that Rudolf Steiner had already given to Ita Wegman in September 1923, a year before the ritual of the First Class, asking her to meditate it every evening:

“Ever shining supreme light;
To you I entrust my soul.
May the light of my soul weave
With the weaving light of worlds.
As light I feel,
Light in the smallest point;
Light that widens boundlessly.
Pure transparent light am I.
I seize hold of the spirit world
At the end of my soul of light,
I hold the spirit world
With my arms of light;
I sense your presence,
You want to carry me
To worlds of light and spirit.”
~’Rudolf Steiner and Christian Rosenkreutz’

21 February 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY 

TODAY is Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Carnival, .

The word shrove is a past-tense form of shrive “to take confession.” 

The day before Ash Wednesday is the last day to use up rich ingredients that should be avoided during the Lenten season, including sugar, eggs, and fats. Throw in a bit of flour, and what’ve you got? Pancakes! It has become a tradition in many places, especially in Europe, to make pancakes on the day before Ash Wednesday. In fact, in some communities, the people are called to confession by the ringing of a bell which some people call “the pancake bell.”

Fat Tuesday, which in French is Mardi Gras, a last chance for overindulgence.

The word carnival — comes from the Latin caro “flesh, meat” and levare “to remove, to raise.”

The Categories of Aristotle – a process of contraction…
Is there a path to expansion…..?

PUBLIC LECTURE AND EURYTHMY WORKSHOP WITH CLAUDIA FONTANA

Friday 24 March 2023 – Lecture 7 pm CT – 8:30 pm – Purchase tickets at the door or pay online
$12

Saturday 25 March 2023 – Workshop – 9 am CT– (10:30 am 1/2 hour break – 11 am) 12:30 pm CT CT– Purchase tickets at the door or pay online $50

The Categories of Aristotle: A process of contraction…exploring a path to expansion…

Does one have to be a philosopher of great erudition to approach Aristotle’s gift to humanity……his Categories?

Perhaps , YES! But an initial acquaintance with them can lead out of the confinement of the intellectual concept to an experience of expansion supported by Eurythmy.

In the evening lecture Claudia will introduce the life of the Categories before they became concepts – Bringing the symbols in a sequence of sounds  (called the Evolutionary Sequence ) out of their conceptual form, to life, supported by Eurythmy and examples of poetry.

During the workshop we will enter into the movement of the poetry presented  during the lecture. This will be accessible to Eurythmists as well as to anyone interested in the life of language, poetry and our alphabet.

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar 
www.rschicago.org/donate

For more info contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Claudia Fontana saw a Eurythmy performance when still a teenager. Unbeknownst to her at the time, that performance was the gate to her destiny path. Soon thereafter she studied Eurythmy in Vienna and subsequently spent fourteen years as a performer with the Dornach, London and Stuttgart Eurythmeum ensembles. Teaching became the next challenge which she happily met in the United States, Europe. Before Covid, she spent seven years teaching all levels in Thailand, Malaysia and China. She resides in Ann Arbor, MI still performing and teaching.

Mary Magdalene & the Women at the Tomb – A Festival of Resurrection

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,

Song-Circle with Velsum, 

Eurythmy – & an artistic break out session

Holy Saturday 8 April 2023

1 pm – 3pm CT a hybrid event in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & on zoom

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7050174041

Meeting ID: 705 017 4041

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
www.rschicago.org/donate

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

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.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

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 

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices & Eurythmy

Saturday 27 May 2023 a Hybrid event in person* & 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.

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83663366670?pwd=L292UzlOR1pkZjBXSWpxK1B2b0o1dz09 Meeting ID: 836 6336 6670 / Passcode: 397593

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
*Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) www.rschicago.org/donate

Find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals HERE

Pure Love

Festival, History, Quote, Upcoming Events

Video: ‘The Truth about Valentine’s Day’ starts at 9:24

A Love Storytelling on the ‘I Think Speech Podcast’

Beloved Heart-throb – Yep, here we are again on the eve of the ides of February – the time when St. Valentine’s Day is celebrated. Have you ever wondered where this hearts & flowers frivolity came from? Well it wasn’t always about chocolates & sappy hallmark cards. Let’s look back to the origins of this Holiday & set the record straight. For one thing, Valentinus was a very common Roman name meaning strong, effective fertility.

Please excuse me if I must commit a little history here, but basically the church fathers were trying to replace a very potent ancient Roman festival called Lupercalia with a Christian martyr named Valentinus, to usurp the power of this rite of great antiquity. Now don’t get me wrong, frivolity has its place, & so it was in the festival of Lupercalia, a ritual of purification & fertility, sacred to the Wolf-Goddess Rumina. Maybe you’ve heard of Her, the She-Wolf & founder of Rome?

Image result for lupercalia wolf

The festival of Lupercalia was celebrated on the ides of February (the 15th)…& the name ‘February’ comes from the Latin word ‘februare’, meaning tool of purification.

The rite began in the cave of the She-Wolf, where legend has it, the founders of the city, Romulus & Remus, were suckled by the Wolf-Goddess.

As fate would have it a sacred fig tree (symbol of the feminine sex) grew outside the cave & vestals would come, with cakes made from the corn of last year’s grain harvest, laying them beneath the fig tree as offerings.

Meanwhile Rumina’s priests would preside over the sacrifice of a goat. Now this was a pretty big deal since this was the only time of year a goat was used as a sacrifice. It was an offering given to the guardian angels associated with the crops, & the ancestral guardians, as well as the guardians of the city & community. The priests would  mark their foreheads with its blood, which was then ritualistically wiped clean with a ‘Februare’ or tool of purification, which was, in this case, wool, dipped in the milk of the goat which had just starting to flow around the Crossquarter time. The priests would then dress themselves in the skin of the sacrificial animal, & using strips of the hide they would fashion a scourge, another tool of purification. They would then jog around in their little loincloths, running up & down Rome’s seven hills, wielding their strips of hide, ‘purifying’ anything & anybody in their path.

Women seeking pregnancy & easy childbirth lined the streets, extending hands, or baring their bodies, to afford a better target, to be briefly & symbolically ‘purified’ as they passed by.

Fertility, of course, is worthless without sex, so as time passed, sex became the festival’s primary focus for the average Roman citizen, & the occasion took on a character much like carnival.

When the church tried to ban it, the people needless to say, stubbornly resisted. Hence the need for the substitute of St. Valentine’s Day emerged, with its more innocent version of love.

But let’s face it folks, the real Cupid was not the cute little cherub he is thought of today, but rather, a very randy Roman God responsible for a more tangible fertility.

So all the frivolous frivolity aside, let’s take ourselves back to the days when the Wolf Goddess Rumina, was at the heart of this time of celebration, as we purify & purge all of our afflictions & ills before we begin to plant the new seeds of creativity. For by the ancient calendars, Winter is ended by the ides of February, & Spring, a season of new beginnings, has arrived.

So on Valentine’s Day, let’s remember the potent powers of the Wolf, asking Her to spare the herds, taking only what She must, to keep us free & fertile & abundant, like the crops – as fruitful, & as wild as we want to be.

Peace & Blessed Bee…~hag

14 February 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

And so it is that today it has been 6 years since Richard Dancey died – & Valentine’s Day has forever taken on a deeper dimension. He comes up in my thoughts at all the obvious times, when I’m at the Christian Community where his picture graces the sacristy, & many times when I am writing my blog. He always encouraged me to write & inspired me so much over the years with his amazing storytelling. Here is one of my favorites, a short piece called: “The Crack in the Liberty Bell”

“In Philadelphia, birthplace of the constitution, home of Ben Franklin, there is the Liberty Bell, a cherished, close to holy relic of our story. In the Liberty Bell there is a crack, a large, long crack. It has its special significance. It speaks out a truth. It is a revelation. What does it reveal? One response can be this: it reveals we are very far from a perfect union. In fact, this land of liberty throughout its whole story has been and is riddled with flaws, contradictions, tragedies, and crimes against our striving to reach the promised land, the beloved community, a fair and vital society of free, healthy human beings, respecting and supporting one another, working together, inclusive of all the wide diversity of perspectives, backgrounds, and persuasions. At this moment in the story the crack in the Liberty Bell can feel like a deep wound, that is not healed, that is open and raw.

But the crack in the Liberty Bell could be revealing something more. In 2016 the songwriter, Leonard Cohen, died. In his song, ”Anthem,” the chorus sings:

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack, a crack, in everything.
That’s how the light gets in.
That’s how the light gets in.

It is a trembling, astonsihing thought—that where there is a wound, a fracture, a broken heart; Where there is a trespass, violation, betrayal – There – is Christ!

May we be there too. We can forget our perfect offering. We can be who we are, with all our flaws and weaknesses. But just be there: present, conscious, standing, living, working, celebrating there. With Him. In the Light.” ~Richard Dancey

The Categories of Aristotle – a process of contraction…
Is there a path to expansion…..?

PUBLIC LECTURE AND EURYTHMY WORKSHOP WITH CLAUDIA FONTANA

Does one have to be a philosopher of great erudition to understand Aristotle’s gift to humanity – his Categories? Let us explore a path to an experience supported by Eurythmy.

Friday 24 March 2023 – Lecture 7 pm CT – 8:30 pm – Purchase tickets at the door or pay online
$12

Saturday 25 March 2023 – Workshop – 9 am – 12 noon CT– Purchase tickets at the door or pay online $50

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar 
www.rschicago.org/donate

For more info contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Claudia Fontana saw a Eurythmy performance when still a teenager. Unbeknownst to her at the time, that performance was the gate to her destiny path. Soon thereafter she studied Eurythmy in Vienna and subsequently spent fourteen years as a performer with the Dornach, London and Stuttgart Eurythmeum ensembles. Teaching became the next challenge which she happily met in the United States, Europe. Before Covid, she spent seven years teaching all levels in Thailand, Malaysia and China. She resides in Ann Arbor, MI still performing and teaching.

The Women at the Tomb – A Festival of Resurrection

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,

Insights about Mary Magdalene with Faith DiVecchio, 

Song-Circle with Velsum, 

Eurythmy – & an artistic break out session

Holy Saturday 8 April 2023

1 pm – 3pm CT a hybrid event in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & on zoom

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7050174041

Meeting ID: 705 017 4041

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
www.rschicago.org/donate

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

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.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

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 

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices & Eurythmy

Saturday 27 May 2023 a Hybrid event in person* & 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.

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83663366670?pwd=L292UzlOR1pkZjBXSWpxK1B2b0o1dz09 Meeting ID: 836 6336 6670 / Passcode: 397593

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
*Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) www.rschicago.org/donate