Greetings Friends – Here are a few thoughts that I probably won’t get to in my Pentecost presentation on Saturday so I thought to share them today:
In our time now, the Being of Anthroposophia working as the youngest member of the Divine Sophia, is guiding us on the path that leads to the true activity of thinking, feeling & willing, out of which arises the possibility of free human action, in anticipation of the age of the Spirit-Self.
Also Leading humanity in our journey thru the modern path of initiation, made available to humanity thru the work of 2 exalted servants of the Divine Sophia: Christian Rosenkreutz & Rudolf Steiner.
Steiner once characterized their relationship thru this supersensible picture:
We are asked to see ourselves in front of an altar in the spiritual world- on the left stands Christian Rosenkreutz in a blue stola – on the right, Rudolf Steiner in a red stola. Between them is Michael; & above our mighty Time Spirit, is the Being of Love, the Christos, holding the center between the eye of god the Father & the dove of wisdom – the Holy Sophia, flowing down to us thru the teachings of these great Christian Initiates. Available to those who gather at the altar, ready & willing to take up the indications offered & put them into action in the world.
Friends, we can remember: Red & blue are the colors of Mary-Sophia. Many great artists depict the Virgin Sophia in a cloak of red & blue.
This is also the pictorial reality seen in the 2 Columns of the Rosicrucian Temple – Joachim & Boaz.
This spiritual imagination points to our present, & future task: to cultivate the Etherization of our blood – What does that mean? How do we spiritualize the substance of our blood? – Thru the practice of heart-thinking – which is a result of the mystic marriage of: thinking (blue) & feeling (red) – a transformation of the physical blood into a higher vibration, where the formative forces can spiritualize the life force of our blood…
This Wedding is initiated thru the warmth of the Holy Spirit.
When the light of wisdom & revelation is able to fully penetrate the astral body of the human being, we reach the stage of Spirit-Self – where we can consciously act from our Higher ‘I’.
This is also the goal of the Rose Cross meditation – the cultivation of the Philosophers Stone – topic for another session.
For human beings to experience this we must purify our astral body–thru selfless renunciation which cultivates a higher desire, to serve with love.
And what’s so interesting – when we practice this – it will have a direct effect, not only in us as individual human beings, but it will light up the sphere of the Angels too; & then it has a ripple effect on up thru all the hierarchies –& also down into the elemental realms.
Lucifer who lost his connection to the Holy Spirit when he willed to rise before the time was ripe, becoming a tough-love-tool for the higher gods in our evolution, will, thru our human intervention as Anthroposophia, be able to regain this re-connection to the Healing Spirit working from the godhead – which will lead to the full redemption of Lucifer. It has already begun…
See you in the ethers
~hag
Anthroposophia & the Redemption of Lucifer – A Pentecost Festival for 2023
24 May 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Tonight Bella Luna as a waxing crescent will speak with Mars & the Beehive star cluster. And of course you can’t miss bright Venus with Gemini the Twins, Castor & Pollux.
Greetings dear friends – Can you feel it? The expansion experienced during Ascension gives way to a kind of constriction of the soul, as we abide in the upper room of our consciousness. In open anticipation, we prepare for the revelation of the Spirit of Wisdom – The Paraclete – The Mediator -between the ‘Above & Below’ that connects us to our highest human destiny – modeled in the original Pentecost mystery, 50 days after Easter Sunday.
The Merry month of May, when all of nature is reborn, belongs to the 3-Fold Easter-Tide Season, which is traditionally dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
As we know the 3rd Sunday in May is Mother’s Day. And every year our family has a practice of beautifying our wild garden – planting flowers, herbs & our vegetables for the year. We have the annual Plant Parade – All the house plants go outside where they receive some of Angie’s gold compost.
Besides tuning into the plant world, I have an ever-growing collection of rocks & crystals that I have gathered over the years from various excursions, & every Mother’s Day I clean & rearrange them around the plants. I touch each one, connecting to its essence, often recalling the story of where they came from & why I chose them.
I receive so much from the treasure’s of Natrura’s.
We are shifting now at the end of May to the virtue: ‘Perseverance Becomes Faithfulness’.
In my work to understand the initiation of Mary Magdalene I have taken up a practice of working with the 12 virtues as a way of transforming ‘the 7 demons’.
After Whitsunday I will share some of my experiences in seeking to live into this ‘Apostle to the Apostles‘ – This woman who was chosen to anoint the ‘Anointed One’.
Until then I will abide (John 15:4-7 – Thanks CG)
~hag
Here are some pics from Our Spring Farm Day at Zinniker. It was a glorious Saturday with many friends. We stuffed stag bladders with yarrow, Stirred 500, & barrel, nettle, & equisetum, infused gold into horn silica, made tree paste, visited the animals, including their new puppy, & shared a delicious repast…CG & I were on delivery duty for the Chicago egg group, so we had to leave before folks did the spray on the land. I look forward to gathering again for St. John’s…God Bless the Zinniker’s.
Eddie Calz
RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL translated with added titles by Roy Sadler ASCENSIONTIDE Transition verse from Spring to Summer Come, Foresight v7 My Self is threatening to flee, lured stromgly by the cosmic light. Now you, my foresight, dawn your star and my divining, firmly as of right, replace the power of thought that in the senses’ glory leaves me.
This is part of the square quartet, the verses at the centre of each quarter of the year, each of them presenting a challenge to the soul: to proceed in her development something must wake up. This week’s verse is a luciferic temptation; the mirror verse an ahrimanic one. I think they can be imagined as transition verses between the seasons of the year.
LENT 1 Transition verse from Winter to Spring Memory, Arise v46 The world is threatening to numb my soul’s own inborn force. Now memory, companion me, and in my sight enhance the penetration of my glance vitality of will alone sustains
~John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.
21 May 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars: Look west shortly after sunset this evening for the young moon. It’s edging toward the brightest planet, dazzling Venus (occult Mercury) look for the pale glow – called earthshine – on the unlit side of the moon.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY ( From Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul, The Present Age Mag., Wikipedia, RSarchive.org)
429 BC -Birthday of Plato (According to Dunlop’s ‘Path’ Calendar)
1265 – Birthday of Dante – according to Rudolf Steiner “…Dante became a seer at the age of thirty-five”. “…All leaders of mankind, who were aware of how the higher spiritual life of man arises out of his lower nature, have comprehended the significance of Easter. Dante therefore described his awakening — in his Divine Comedia — as taking place on Good Friday.”
“…Dante had a friend and teacher Brunetto Latini, who, as I think you will recognise from what we shall presently say, may be described as an Initiate in the true sense of the word.”
“…When you follow the teaching of the Templars, there at the heart of it is a kind of reverence for something of a feminine nature. This femininity was known as the Divine Sophia, the Heavenly Wisdom. Manas is the fifth principle. the spiritual self of man, that must be developed, for which a temple must be built. And, just as the pentagon at the entrance to Solomon’s Temple characterises the fivefold human being, this female principle similarly typifies the wisdom of the Middle Ages, This wisdom is exactly what Dante sought to personify in his Beatrice. Only from this viewpoint can Dante’s Divine Comedy be understood. Hence you find Dante, too, using the same symbols as those which find expression in the Templars, the Christian knights, the Knights of the Grail, and so on. Everything which is to happen [in the future] was indeed long since prepared for by the great initiates, who foretell future events, in the same way as in the Apocalypse, so that souls will be prepared for these events.” ~ Rudolf Steiner, The Temple Legend
1471 – Birthday of Albrecht Dürer, German painter, engraver, & mathematician
1639 – Death Day of Tommaso Campanella, an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet. Campanella was prosecuted by the Roman Inquisition for heresy in 1594 and was confined to house arrest for two years. Accused of conspiring against the Spanish rulers of Calabria in 1599, he was tortured and sent to prison, where he spent 27 years. He wrote his most significant works during this time, including The City of the Sun, a utopia describing an egalitarian theocratic society where property is held in common.
Rudolf Steiner speaks of him as reincarnating in the brilliant but tragic individuality of Otto Weininger
1860 – Giuseppe Garibaldi begins his attack on Palermo, Sicily, as part of the Italian unification. Rudolf Steiner speaks about him qite a bit in his Karmic Relationships series.
“…many Initiates of bygone days appear again as personalities who with the concepts and notions prevailing to-day cannot be recognised as former Initiates because they are obliged to use the body which their epoch provides. Garibaldi is just such an example…In Hibernia, in Ireland, there were deep and penetrating Mysteries whose influences still made their way across to Europe in the early centuries of the spread of Christianity. And there one finds an Initiate whose path in the 8th to 9th centuries after the founding of Christianity led him from Ireland to the region corresponding approximately to modern Alsace. Under the stormy conditions then prevailing, this Initiate achieved much for the cause of true Christianity. To this Initiate came three pupils from different quarters of the world — three pupils who entrusted themselves to him. These three pupils came to him — one from far away, another from nearer at hand. But in the Irish Mysteries there was an inviolable decree that an Initiate to whom pupils had entrusted themselves must not abandon them in the later incarnation but must accomplish in earthly life something that will hold them to him, something that establishes a bond between him and these pupils. The Initiate of whom I am speaking was born again as Joseph Garibaldi, with that visionary quality of will which in olden times had been able to express itself in a quite different form from that possible in a body belonging to the 19th century. Garibaldi received only a very inferior education, quite unlike the education that was typical of the 19th century. The three others I have named were the pupils who in the past had come to him from different parts of the world. But the impulse working from the one incarnation over into the other was far deeper and more potent than external principles of action…And so in spite of the radical difference in sentiment and conviction, Garibaldi could not abandon, for example, Victor Emanuel...” ~Rudolf Steiner
Dear Friends – It’s Interesting how rhythms ebb & flow. It’s powerful to discern the patterns.
Thru living into the energies of Ascension my work with The ‘10:10 Thought-Seed’ imagination has been strengthened.
It’s been awhile since we offically checked in around ‘Our ProjectEgregore’ – our collective ‘Thought-Form’ of Good Will – our “key-call” to the Spiritual powers on the Inner Planes, to enlist their aidin the graceful unfolding of our highest human destiny.
Kari Frid
Through our continued, & consistent intention to visualize the Human Being as a Star & the Earth as a Sun, our positive egregore grows between the material & spiritual worlds, & is connected to both.
This impulse extends beyond the usual limits of space/time, connecting the eternal with the temporal.
Our goal is to co-create a new ‘Group-Soul United in Christ’ thru our daily 10:10 contemplation.
Here is the Meditative Thought-Seed I love to work with:
For Thinking: “When I think light, my soul shines, When my soul shines, the Earth is a star, When the Earth is a star, I am, a true human being”. ~Herbert Hahn In Reverse: I am, a true human being The Earth is a Star My soul Shines I think Light
For Feeling: When I feel warmth, my heart sings When my heart sings, the Earth resounds When the Earth resounds, I am, a true I AM In Reverse: I am, a True I Am The Earth Resounds My Heart Sings I Feel Warmth
For Willing: When I will life, my hands help When my hands help, the Earth heals When the Earth heals, I am, a free human being In Reverse: I Am, a Free Human Being The Earth Heals My Hands Help I Will Life
~ Mary Lynn Channer & hag
Here’s a Steiner quote that supports our work: “Had the Event of Golgotha not occurred, the earth and the sun would never be able to reunite. For through the Event of Golgotha, which bound the force of the Elohim in the sun to the earth — in other words the force of the Logos — the impulse was given which will again eventually impel one Logos-force toward the other, and finally once more unite them — sun and earth — in one body. Since the Event of Golgotha, the earth, spiritually observed, is possessed of the force to draw the sun again into a unity with it.
Therefore it can be said that through this great Event, the force of the Logos, which formerly radiated down upon the earth from without, was now taken up into its spiritual being. The question may be asked, what existed previously within the body of the earth? It was that force which streamed down upon it from the sun. But since that time, what exists there within the earth? – The Logos itself which through Golgotha has become the spirit of the earth. As truly as your soul and spirit dwell within your physical body, do also the soul and spirit of the earth dwell within the body of the earth. This soul and spirit, this earth spirit is the Christ.” ~ The Gospel of St. John, Lecture 7 –THE MYSTERY OF GOLGOTHA
Heliocentric view of solar system, May 2023. Chart via Guy Ottewell
19 May 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bella Luna reaches her New phase at 10:53 A.M. CDT
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (resourses include The original Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner, Wikipedia, Skyandtelescope.org)
1895 – Birthday of Emil Bock, Priest & co-founder of the Christian Community, anthroposophist and writer. In 1914 he began a study of languages at the University of Bonn . However, the same year he enlisted as a volunteer in the First World War and was sent to the front in Flanders , where he was wounded. In 1916, he met the theologian Friedrich Rittelmeyer , and from 1918 he studied Protestant theology in Berlin, and graduated in 1921. In June of the same year Bock met Rudolf Steiner and became one of the founders of the Christian Community in Switzerland.
Right at the moment of the rise of one of the most destructive, anti-human powers the world has ever seen, the Seminary of The Christian Community opened the doors of its first building dedicated to the training of priests in the movement for religious renewal. As Adolf Hitler proclaimed himself the “Führer”students gathered daily to hear words spoken in the sanctuary, from the altar, from the true “helfende Führer” (helping guide). Banned by the Nazi’s in 1941, Emil Bock – one of the founding priests and main teachers at the seminary – worked on a whole new translation of the New Testament while in the prison camp in Welzheim, including Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians and the Letter to the Hebrews. This spiritual work, completed under the pressures of a time of terrible catastrophe and real evil, became a powerful force that emerged above-ground at the end of the war in 1945. Bock was released from the concentration camp in 1942, but was under surveillance for the rest of the war. After the war, Bock was instrumental in the rebuilding of the community.
On November 1, 1950, Pius XII proclaimed the Dogma of the Assumption–Mary’s bodily assumption into heaven–which sent shock waves throughout the Christian world. C.G. Jung, for example, wrote his Answer to Job in response. Emil Bock’s response was the ‘Threefold Mary’ lectures, which answer some of the issues and broaden the scope to include not only the Mary-Sophia mystery in human history, but also the meaning of the feminine element in the evolution of consciousness. ~anthrowiki, christiancommunity
This precious little book contains three lectures — “The Mystery of the Virgin Mary in Body, Soul, and Spirit” — presented during the Christmas Holy Nights of 1950/51.
“The Mary mystery has meaning for all humankind, and a renewed Christian understanding of the human being in the fullest sense will be able to fathom it“. ~Emil Bock
Wendy Bazster
Tune into the Ascsension – thru these video recordings:
Greetings freinds – Well we made it – to the 2nd phase in the 3-fold Festival of Easter-tide. Our journey began with the spiritual reality that from death comes new life – fulfilling the human longing for Resurrection – & this gives an opportunity for the dawning of the New Sun. The deed of Christ takes the ancient mysteries further, to meet us where we are now, & to lead us into a glorious future.
Yes, the Easter-Tide flows on, it goes further – 40 days after the mysteries of death & resurrection we receive the second aspect – a new archetype thru the Festival of Ascension. There is an esoteric significance of the 40 days – 1st of all, the symbolism of the # 40, which BTW: is mentioned 149 times in the Bible, is important to contemplate, it represents an initiation process, some sort of trial, a period of testing, which we must endure to become more spiritually aware, to achieve a triumph of the spirit – a chance for advancement.
Friends, we can all tune into together, & even though the date changes from year to year due to the nature of the ‘Moveable Feast’ aspect, it’s always a Thursday – Now isn’t that interesting. Thor’s day – representing the planet Jupiter, the archetype of growth & expansion – model of the beneficent Ruler, an impulse we can take advantage of & tune into.
Then 10 days later comes the 3rd aspect – the Festival of Pentecost – which means 50 days after the Resurrection, when the inspiration of the Holy Spirit pours in.
10:10 Testament: Since the original Ascension, thru the effects of the expansion of the Christ light, the possibility exists in the etheric body of human beings for something new to appear, something that breathes in life eternal. And these ultimate formative forces which do not participate in death, & which humanity will gradually attain thru the influence of the Christ Impulse, is ever streaming back to us – a contraction & expansion into-&-out-of cosmic & earthly space.
Ethel Mann
It generates a force that will in turn create a sphere around our Earth that is in the process of becoming a Sun – A spiritual sphere – a Corona – is forming around the Earth composed of the etheric forces that have come alive with the essence of Love & Light. Just as the Christ Love issues from the Earth, & the light of the New Isis-Mary-Sophia radiates from cosmic space, there is also a kind of reflection of it that encircles the Earth thru us – embodied as the enlivening fire of the Holy Spirit. And so it is & ever shall be that the Earth thru our purified soul forces begins to be creative, surrounding itself with this Spiritual Corona which will ripen the seed into a Sun…
~hag
18 May 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: After nightfall and in the early evening, you’ll see Arcturus fairly high in the east, noticeable for its brightness and yellow-orange color. Next, look for Vega rather low in the northeast. It’s a bright blue-white star. Then look for the Northern Crown between these 2 bright stars – closer to Arcturus.
Anthroposophia & the Redemption of Lucifer – A Pentecost Festival for 2023
Happy Mother’s Day to all motherers – Motherhood is a soul quality – If you have cradled, fed, held, hugged, nurtured, counselled, driven around, stayed up late for, cleaned up after, shared joys, shared heartaches, nursed late at night, helped out, cheered on, fought for, worried about, taken pride in, stood behind, defended, believed in, & loved with all your heart above & beyond what is asked for in any other situation, unconditionally & respectfully…If you are a place called ‘home’ to someone – a refuge from the world, an embrace full of warmth & understanding – then you are a mother.
And we can remember & honor the fact that we all have life & the continuity of life, growth & change on our planet because of the Mother-line. The Mothers have gifted all with the pulse & rhythm of life – the heart of the Mother ! The Mother-Line connects all of Humanity. Happy Mother’s Day to Grandmothers, Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, Aunties, Girlfriends, all Kindred & Mother Gaia who sustains us all !
Belinda Grey
The Her-Story of MOTHER’S DAY- The earliest mother’s day celebrations, can be traced back to the Spring Festivals of the ancients, honoring the Mother of the gods…& the Queen Bee…
Much later…in the 1600’s, England celebrated a day called ‘Mothering Sunday’, honoring the matriarchy…the Queens of England…
As Christianity spread thruout Europe the celebration changed to honor the ‘Mother Church’…
Here in the US, in 1870, Julia Ward Howe – the woman that actually wrote the words to the battle hymn of the republic, knowing all too well the horrors of war, called for women to rise up & oppose war in all its forms. She wanted women to come together across national lines, to recognize what we hold in common above what divides us, & to commit to finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts. She called it “Mother’s Day For Peace”
Her idea was influenced by Anna Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker, who had attempted starting in 1858, to improve sanitation thru what she called Mothers’ Work Days. She organized women thru-out the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, & in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union & Confederate neighbors.
Anna Jarvis’ daughter, also named Anna Jarvis, would of course have known of her mother’s work, & the work of Julia Ward Howe. Much later, when her mother died, this second Anna Jarvis started her own crusade to found a ‘Memorial Day for Women’.
The first ‘Mother’s Day’ was celebrated in West Virginia in 1907 in the church where the elder Anna Jarvis had taught Sunday School. So to pay homage to her ancestor, she began a campaign to establish a national Mother’s Day on the 2nd Sunday of May…the anniversary of her mother’s death…which just happened to be 40 days after Easter…as a day dedicated to peace.
And from there the custom caught on – spreading eventually to 45 states. Finally the holiday was declared officially by states beginning in 1912.
And in 1914, hoping to get the female vote & also as a distraction from his declaration of the 1st World War, President Woodrow Wilson, confirmed the first national Mother’s Day. So ironic as the original impulse was all about working to prevent war.
But what does it mean to us today…? You know I’m not taking about the commercialized happy-faced take-your-mother-to-brunch-cliché’s. Hallmark may not be talking…but this is heavy stuff…the concept of ‘mother’ is highly charged for most of us…we all have, or had, a mother…good or bad or in-between…We may be a mother ourselves…what does that bring up…plenty…right…there’s a lot there I know…
So maybe today we can try & access some of these impressions & feelings & memories…to pound out the pain…rattle the wonder…to sing our story…to dance in the healing process…to mother ourselves…
So choose your weapon of peace…your surgical tool…your pruning shears, or hammer, or monkey wrench…A drum or shaker…these will do…as we explore & experience our Mother’s Day anthem ponding in the heart-beat we all share…
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Indications from the orignal Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner + Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
~John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.
14 May 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: On the mornings of May 12-14, 2023, look for the waning last quarter crescent moon near Saturn. Its closest approach to Saturn will be on the morning of May 13. You can catch the moon and Saturn for a few hours before dawn. Saturn is getting easier to see as it’s climbing away from the sun in the morning sky.
Feast Day of Matthias – According to the Acts of the Apostles, Matthias was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot following the betrayal of Jesus & his subsequent suicide. This calling as an apostle is unique, since his appointment was not made personally by Jesus, since it was after the Ascension, but made before the descent of the Holy Spirit at Whitsun.
1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition departs from Camp Dubois & begins its historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River.
1947 – Winston Churchill‘s speech in London declares a “United States of Europe“‘ is “indispensable” for “an authoritative, all-powerful world order”.
1948 – Founding of the State of Israel
1912 – Death-Day of Johan August Strindberg, something of a polymath, Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist & painter, Strindberg was also a telegrapher, theosophist, painter, photographer & alchemist. Rudolf Steiner speaks about him in Karmic Relationships, Volume IV: Lecture II:
“…Thus I made the acquaintance of this doctor, a man of our own day. When I met him I was in the company of another person whom I had known very well for a long time. This other person had always made, I will not say a deep, but a very thorough impression on me. He was exceedingly fond of the society of men who were interested in occultism in the widest possible range, though an occultism somewhat externally conceived. He was fond of relating the views of his many acquaintances on all kinds of occult matters, and especially on the occult connections of what the modern artist should strive for, as a lyric and epic poet, or as a dramatist. Around this person there was what I might call a kind of moral, ethical aura. I am applying the word ‘moral’ to all that is connected with the soul-qualities under the command of the will.
I was paying a visit to him, and in his company I found the other man first mentioned, whom I knew by reputation and respected very highly for his literary and medical career. Everything that took place during this visit made a deep impression on me and impelled me to receive the whole experience into the realm of spiritual research.
Then a very remarkable thing happened. By witnessing the two persons in the company of one another, and by the impression which my new acquaintance made on me — (I had known him for a long time as an eminent literary and medical man and had a great regard for him, but this was the first time that I saw him in the flesh) — by these impressions I gained certain perceptions. To begin with however, it enabled me, not to investigate in any way the connections in life and destiny of my new acquaintance. On the contrary, my seeing them together shed light as it were upon the other one, whom I had long known. And the result was this. — He had lived in ancient Egypt, not in his last, but in one of his former lives on earth. And (this is the peculiar thing) he had been mummified, embalmed as a mummy. Soon afterwards I discovered that the mummy was still in existence. Indeed a long time afterwards I saw the actual mummy. This, then, was the starting-point. But once the line of research had been kindled in connection with the person whom I had long known, it shed its light still farther, and eventually I was enabled to investigate the karmic connections of the other man, my new acquaintance, the doctor. And the following was the result.
As a general rule one is led from one earthly life of a human being to the preceding one. But in this case intuition led far back into ancient Egypt, to a kind of chieftain in ancient Egypt. It was a chieftain who in a certain sense, indeed in a very interesting way, possessed the ancient
Egyptian Initiation, but had become somewhat decadent as an Initiate. In the further course of his life, he began to take his Initiation not very seriously, indeed he even treated it with a certain scorn. Now this man had a servant, who in his turn was extremely serious. This servant was of course not initiated; but both of them together were given the task of embalming mummies and procuring the substances for this purpose, which was no easy matter.
Now especially in the more ancient periods of Egypt, the process of embalming mummies was very complicated and demanded an intimate knowledge of the human being, of the human body. Nay more, of those who had to do the embalming — if they did it legitimately — deep knowledge of the human soul was required. The chieftain of whom I spoke had been initiated for this very work, but he gradually became, in a manner of speaking, frivolous in relation to this, his proper calling. So it came about that in the course of time he betrayed (so they would have put it in the language of the Mysteries) the knowledge he had received through his Initiation to his servant, and the latter gradually proved to be a man who understood the content of Initiation better than the Initiate himself. Thus the servant became the embalmer of mummies, and at length his master did not even trouble to supervise the work, though of course he still took advantage of the social position, etc., which this honourable task involved. But at length his character became such that he no longer enjoyed great respect, and he thus came into various conflicts of life. The servant, on the other hand, worked his way up by degrees to a very, very earnest conception of life, and was thus taken hold of, in a remarkably congenial way, by a kind of Initiation. It was no real Initiation, but it lived within him instinctively. Thus a large number of mummies were mummified under the supervision and co-operation of these two people.
Time went on. The two men passed through the gate of death and underwent the experiences of which I shall speak next time — the experiences in the super-sensible which are connected with the development of karma or destiny. And in the Roman epoch they both of them came back to earthly life. They came back at the very time when the dominion of the Roman Emperors was founded, in the time of Augustus — not exactly, but approximately, in the time of Augustus himself.
The chieftain, who had gradually become a really frivolous Initiate, and who, when he had passed through the gate of death, had felt this as an extraordinarily bitter trial of earthly life, experiencing it in all the bitterness of its effects — we find him again as Julia, the daughter of Augustus. She married Tiberius, the step-son of Augustus, and led a life which to herself seemed justified but was considered, in the Roman society of that time, so immoral that at length both she and Tiberius were banished.
The other man — the servant who had worked his way from the bottom upwards nearly to the grade of an Initiate — was born again at the same time, as the Roman historian Titus Livius, or Livy.
It is most interesting how Livy came to be an historian. In the ancient Egyptian times he had embalmed a large number of mummies. The souls who had lived in the bodies of these mummies — very many of them — were reincarnated as Romans. And certain ones among them were actually reincarnated as the seven Kings of Rome. For the Seven Kings were no mere legendary figures. Going back into the time when the chieftain and his servant had lived in Egypt, we come into a very old Egyptian epoch. Now through a certain law which applies especially to the reincarnation of souls whose bodies have been mummified, these souls were called back again to earth comparatively soon. And the karmic connection of the servant of the chieftain with the souls whose bodies he had embalmed was so intimate, that he had to write the history of the very same human being whom in a previous life he had embalmed, though naturally, he also included the history of many others whom he had not embalmed. Thus Titus Livius became an historian. Now I would like some, indeed as many of you as possible, to take Livy’s Roman History, and, with the knowledge that results from these karmic connections, to receive a real impression of his style. You will see that his peculiar penetration into the human being and his tendency at the same time towards the style of the myth, is akin to that intimate knowledge of man which an embalmer could attain.
We do not perceive such connections until the corresponding researches have been made. But once this has been done, a great light is shed on many things. It is difficult to understand the origin of the peculiar style of Titus Livius, who as it were embalms the human beings whom he describes. For such is his style. Real light is thrown upon it when we point to these connections.
Thus we have the same two people again as Julia and Titus Livius. Then Julia and Livy passed once more through the gate of death. The one soul had had the experience of being an Initiate to a considerable degree, and having then distorted his Initiation by frivolous conduct. He had discovered all the bitterness of the after-effects of this in the life between death and a new birth. He had then undergone a peculiar destiny in his new life on earth as Julia, of which life you may read in history. The result was, that in his next life between death and a new birth (following on the life as Julia) he conceived a strong antipathy to this his incarnation as Julia. And in a curious way this antipathy of his was universalised. For spiritual intuition shows this individuality in his life between death and a new birth as though perpetually crying out: “Would that I had never become a woman! It was the evil that I did in yonder life in ancient Egypt which led me thus to become a woman.”
We can now trace the life of these two individualities still farther. We come into the Middle Ages. We find Livy again as the glad poet and minstrel in the very centre of the Middle Ages. We are astonished to find him thus, for there is no connection between the external callings. But the greatest possible surprises that a human being can possibly have are those that result from a real study of successive lives on earth. The Roman historian, with his style that proceeded from a knowledge of man acquired in embalming mummies, with his style so wonderfully light — we find him again as the poet Walther von der Vogelweide. His style is carried upwards, as it were, upon the wings of lyric poetry.
Walther von der Vogelweide lived in the Tyrol. He had many patrons; and among his many patrons there was one very peculiar man, who was on familiar terms with alchemists of every kind, for there were scores of alchemists at that time, in the Tyrol. This man was himself the owner of a castle, but he frequented all manner of alchemists’ dens and hovels. In so doing he learned extraordinarily much, and (as happened in the case of Paracelsus too) by spending his time in the dens of alchemists he was impelled to study all occult matters very intensely, and gained an unusually intense feeling for occult things. He thus came into the position of rediscovering in the Tyrol what was then only known as a legend, namely, the Castle in the Mountain — the Castle in the Rocks — (which indeed no one would have recognised as such, for it consisted of rocks, it was hollowed out of the rocks) — I mean, the Castle of the Dwarf King Laurin. The daemonic nature in the district of the Castle of the Dwarf King Laurin made a profound impression on him. Thus there was a remarkable combination in this soul — Initiation which he had carried into frivolity, annoyance at having been a woman and having thus been drawn into the sphere of Roman immorality and, at the same time, Roman cant and hypocrisy about morals; and lastly, an intimate knowledge, though still only external, of all manner of alchemical matters, which knowledge he had extended to a clear feeling of the nature-daemons and of other spiritual agencies in nature.
These two men — though it is not recorded in the biography of Walther, nevertheless it is the case — Walther von der Vogelweide and this other man often came together, and Walther received many an influence and impulse from him.
Here we have an instance of what is really a kind of karmic law. We see the same people drawn together again and again, called to the earth again and again simultaneously, complementing one another, living in a kind of mutual contrast. It is interesting once more, to enter into the peculiar lyrical style of Walther. It is as though at last he had grown thoroughly sick of embalming dead mummies and had turned to an entirely different aspect of life. He will no longer have anything to do with dead things, but only with the fullness and joy of life. And yet again, there is a certain undercurrent of pessimism in his work. Feel the style of Walther von der Yogelweide, feel in his style the two preceding earthly lives: feel too, his restless life. It is extraordinarily reminiscent of that life which dawns upon one who spends much of his time with the dead, when many destinies are unburdened in the soul. For such indeed was the case with an embalmer of mummies.
Now we go on. — My further researches into this karmic chain led me at length into the same room where I had visited my old acquaintance, whom I had recognised as an Egyptian mummy. And now I perceived that this very mummy had been embalmed by the other man whom I now met in his room. The whole line of research led me back to this same room. In effect, I found the soul who had passed through the servant of the old Egyptian embalmer, through Titus Livius, through Walther von der Vogelweide (the most celebrated of the Middle High German lyric poets) — I found him again in the doctor of our time, in Ludwig Schleich.(a German surgeon,writer philosopher, poet & painter)
Thus astonishingly do the connections in life appear. Who, with the ordinary consciousness alone, can understand an earthly life? It can only be understood when we know what is there in the foundations of a soul. Theoretically, many people know that deep in the foundations of the soul there are the layers of successive earthly lives. But it becomes real and concrete only when we behold it in a specific instance.
Then inner vision was directed out of this room once more. (For in the case of the other man, who had been mummified by this one, I was led to no more clues — at any rate to no important ones.) On the other hand I now perceived the further soul-pilgrimage of the old chieftain, of Julia, of the discoverer of Laurin’s Castle. For he came back to earth as August Strindberg.
Now I would like you to take the whole life and literary work of August Strindberg and set it against the background which I have just described. See the peculiar misogyny of Strindberg, which is no true misogyny, but proceeds from quite different foundations. Look, too, at all the strange daemonic elements that occur in his works. See his peculiar attraction to all manner of alchemistic and occult arts and artifices. And at length, look at the adventurous life of August Strindberg. You will find how well it stands out against the background which I have described.
Then read the Memoirs of Ludwig Schleich, his relations to August Strindberg, and you will see how all this arises once more against the background of their former earthly lives. Indeed, from the Memoirs of Ludwig Schleich a very remarkable light may suddenly arise, a light truly astonishing. For the man in whose company I first met Ludwig Schleich — the man of whom I said that in his ancient Egyptian life he was mummified by Schleich — it is he of whom Schleich himself tells in his Memoirs that he led him to Strindberg. In a past life, Strindberg and Schleich had worked together upon the corpse. And the soul who dwelt in that body, led them together again.
Thus, all that we have to explain to begin with about repeated earthly lives and the karmic connections in general, becomes real and concrete. Only then do the facts that appear in earthly life become transparent. A single human life on earth is an entire mystery. What else can it be, until seen against the background of the former lives on earth?” ~ Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships, Volume IV: Lecture IIhttp://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA238/English/APC1957/19240907p01.html#sthash.phuf3nNA.dpuf
~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor
1 – 2:30 pm Central Time Saturday 27 May 2023 on zoom
We are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.
Hazel Archer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Pentecost Festival Time: May 27, 2023 01:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
