Greetings Friends on this High Holy Day of Yom Kippur, & also the eve of the ‘Feast of St. Michael & All the Heavenly Hosts’. This year our Michaelmas theme was ‘Joan d’Arc – PURIFYING FIRE: The Power behind the Will’, & my research led me to many amazing resources, including Mark Twain’s, as well as Anthroposopher Joan M. Edmunds Books. But my main source came from Rudolf Steiner who gives us many insights into this powerful individuality.

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

What is the mission of The Maid of Orleans?

From the time of her enchanted childhood around the village fairy tree, & then starting at the age of 12, & for 7 years till she was martyred at 19, Jehanne (feminine form of Joannes or John) d’Arc was inspired into by progressive Beings of the Divine Spiritual World. These powers battled the inflammatory Luciferic forces of deception prevailing in humanity at that special time right before the beginning of the Consciousness Soul Age.  Joan of Arc, with the aid of Michael, (& his helpers St. Catherine & St. Margaret) was able to vanquish the seductive Luciferic forces which were vying to prevent this shift in human consciousness.

Steiner describes the miracle of her birth, how she went thru a sort of pre-earthy initiation during the potent time of the 13 Holy nights, incarnating on Epiphany, the day the Christ came into a human being at the baptism. And we can also point to her equally auspicious death. Yes it was gruesome, not unlike like the sacrifice of the Christ. In her case, it occurred because all the jealous, selfish, Luciferic forces of her enemies joined together to bring about her sacrifice by fire; not unlike the burning of Ephesus & of the 1st Goetheanum.

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

Spiritual Science tells us that the soul of Joan of Arc continued working across the Threshold to shape these events after her death. What the spiritual powers have to bring about will occur whatever the external conditions may be. Many great individualities are working with us even now from across the threshold. The Maid’s adversaries were able to bring about her death, but they were NOT able to prevent her mission.

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

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

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

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

It’s hard to really phantom this, but we know that anything that has a specific character on the physical plane will have the opposite character in the spiritual world. Everything is reversed in the spiritual world. An element that had a blocking effect, keeping the 1^st world war at bay, was now acting in the opposite way, as a spur, an incitement, to war. So we see that a flip of the elements of fear, of the deceiving Ahrimanic elements, became a catalyst for war, which now a 100 years later, has led to the events of our present age, where there is constant war, in all realms of society.

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

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

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

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

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

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

~May we strive for at-one-ment on this solemn fast day, in preparation for our journey into the Michaelmas season, where we must kindle our own light of thinking.

~hag

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

28 September 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Retro. Saturn halting its westward motion, coming to an apparent stop 10 pm CDT tonight. The planet of universal memory will then begin moving eastward again — although not as quickly as Jupiter. The King questioner switched directions September 12 & is tracking east much faster than Saturn. Jupiter will ultimately catch up with the ringed planet December 21 for an extraordinary close conjunction that will bring Saturn as close as Jupiter’s own moons.

Our own Moon has pulled away from Sagittarius, where the giant planets now sit, so consider spending some time in this constellation tonight. The tiny dwarf planet Pluto, lies roughly between Saturn & Jupiter, Southwest of Saturn & Southeast of Jupiter.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Tuesday, September 29 MICHAELMAS ‘Talisman for Courage’ Art Workshop with Victoria Martin 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

MICHAELMAS ‘Talisman for Courage’ Art Workshop in person at the Rudolf Steiner Chicago Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago. 6:30-8:30 PM Facilitated by Victoria Martin

RSVP – viccimartin@gmail.com  312-961-3380

6:30 (sunset) Doors open: orientation. Tea, nuts, and fruit are served

7 PM sharp Visual lecture and demonstration

7:15 PM –8:00 PM workshop  – Pastels on flat canvas good for 100+ years (archival materials)

8:00– 8:30 PM discussion – We will learn all about symbols of The Michaelmas: Wings, Iron Meteorites/Stars, Scales of Judgment, Sword of Justice, and the Serpent/Dragon. There will be a wide selection of easy to render visual images in any/all of these 5 categories at each workstation. We will use a black charcoal pencil and the colors red, gold, and turquoise archival pastels on raw canvas size 11” x 11” this Talisman will be suitable for mounting on stretchers or framing (no glass needed).

Limited to 10 participants $15 tuition + $5 materials = $20 or pay what you will. Observers and guests are welcome at no charge, but please bring tree nuts, greens, fruit, or other paleo snacks.

Everyone: wear something RED: Michael’s color!

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ON-GOING: 

Community Study – Wednesdays at  9:30 am – 11 am at the Branch – Working with Rudolf Steiner’s Karmic Relationships Vol 6.

Wednesday Morning Study Group Internet: https://meet.google.com/hdr-iaof-jkg

Phone: +1 402-828-0131 PIN: ‪867 997 908#

‘Anthroposophy’, which means Wisdom of the Human Being is a ‘Spiritual Science’ built on the research of Rudolf Steiner. Our current conversation explores: the riddles of existence, the truth of karma, the mystery of evil, historic connections, life after death and more.  We incorporate ‘The Calendar of the Soul’, eurythmy, focused discussion and seasonal artistic explorations in our study.  

For more info. contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg

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