Category Archives: Festival

Urban Renewal

March 20, 2020Chicago Event, Festival, Poetry, Speaking with the Stars, Spring~hag

Dear Friends – O the glories of Spring – & the power of the Bio-Dynamic Preparations! I am energized from our ‘Merry Prep-stir’ event last night, which truly was a gorilla gathering because of last minute changes. I ran to the branch & reached out to Dottie Zold, who was supposed to be taking a night off, a cozy, go to bed early, take-care-of-self night, but I roused her from her rest, & the 1^st thing she said was: ‘Do you need me to support you’! ‘Yes’, I cried relived, since everything planned had suddenly shifted as of a half hour before start time! So…we thought, perhaps we are supposed to do the stir in Elderberries instead of the branch? In hindsight it all makes sense since it is ‘Elderberries Bio-Dynamic Outpost’ after all!

6 stalwart souls, created a circle in the storefront window, including my daughter, who is home, because Oberlin College has been closed down till fall.

2 folks had never stirred before, so we spoke a bit about what Bio-Dynamics is, & about the recent Prep-Makers Gathering. We made a blessing on the gifted BD 500 prep, & added a pinch of sacred soil gathered by Angel Foster from her many travels, including our recent Southern Tour, & started the alchemical stir. Deborah Rogers showed the newbies how to make the ‘vortex’, & we each took it for a spin.

How exciting to be the creator of a cosmic portal syphoning the heavens into the earthly elements, for transformation & healing. We sang & laughed & shared, knowing we were vessels, a bridge between the above & below. Bringing in the imagination of the Vernal Equinox increased our sense for balance. What a joyful legacy Rudolf Steiner has given us in this practical work.

After an hour we completed the stir, standing in a circle holding hands, watching the vortex swirl. In the slowing, a bubbling mandala formed at the center, which seemed to sing with light.

Image result for lincoln square chicago in mist

We ladled the medicine out into individual jars & ventured out in the warm misty cityscape to do the work of spiritualizing the earth.

May the Earth Become a Sun!

~hag

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~When I have visions
Ravens come from my eyes –
To eat them…
The breath of life escapes…
When I have no words –
Worms crawl thru my teeth – to clean my palate…
I am more than bone & blood –
I am more than the deeds I have done –
I am more than I remember…
I am
In Surrender…
~hag

***

We Are Faced With a Choice (an excerpt from the article Eight Emerging Lessons: From Coronavirus to Climate Actionby Otto Scharmer)

The coronavirus situation provides an opportunity for all of us to pause, reset, and step up. COVID-19, like any disruption, essentially confronts each of us with a choice: (1) to freeze, turn away from others, only care for ourselves, or (2) to turn toward others to support and comfort those who need help. That choice between acting from ego or acting from ecosystem awareness is one that we face every day, every hour, every moment. The more the world sinks into chaos, desperation, and confusion, the greater our responsibility to radiate presence, compassion, and grounded action confidence.

Two responses to disruption — two social fields

Here are two different social fields that we can choose to embody through our actions, through our relationships, and through our thoughts. In the upper half of the figure you see the “freeze” reaction, which tends to amplify ignorance, hate, and fear. In the lower half you see the “opening” response, which tends to amplify curiosity, compassion, and courage.

The Conversation We Need To Have Now: Reimagining Our Civilization

Each disruption has two sides: the things we need to let go of, and the things that are about to emerge. On the letting-go side of things, it’s interesting to see how quickly we can adjust as a global community. So why do we keep ourselves busy with stuff that is not essential? That’s a great question to ask.

The next question might be: If we let go of everything that is not essential — what’s left? It’s another great question (or “mantram”) to meditate on. Whatever the answer is that emerges for you from this contemplation, keep it in your heart.

And then, a third question to contemplate might be this: What if we used this disruption as an opportunity to let go of everything that isn’t essential in our life, in our work, and in our institutional routines? How might we reimagine how we live and work together? How might we reimagine the basic structures of our civilization? Which effectively means: how can we reimagine our economic, our democratic, and our learning systems in ways that bridge the ecological, the social, and the spiritual divides of our time?

That’s the conversation we need to have now. With our circles of friends. With our families. With our organizations and communities.

The outer changes necessary today require us to tune into and activate our inner sources, the deeper levels of our humanity. How can we activate them not only at the level of the individual, but also at the level of the whole system? How can we upgrade the operating system in our various key systems? This clearly requires us to upgrade:

1. our learning infrastructures toward whole-person and whole-systems learning;

2. our democratic infrastructures by making them more direct, distributed, and dialogic; and

3. our economic infrastructures toward shifting from ego-system to eco-system awareness.

How might we use our present situation to slow down, to pause, and to connect with our deeper sources of stillness?

What actually emerges from the now? We may see the beginnings of a new wave of hyper-localizing our economies, of supporting small farmers and producers who may be more resilient to supply chain disruptions. We may see the beginnings of a more intentional economy, one that — similar to CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) — is based on aligning economic activities around a shared intention for the future, namely, co-creating an ecosystem-centric agriculture, as opposed to extending the past based on ego-driven transactions.

8. School For Transformation: Activating Generative Social Fields

Many of us feel that we live in a time of profound change — change not only in terms of things ending, but also in terms of seeding and cultivating and growing a new civilization for the decades and centuries to come. That was true before the COVID-19 pandemic, and it will be true after. The question is how to respond to the current situation in ways that help this enormous potential for positive change to manifest?

Which leaves us with the question: Now what? In my view, one of the most urgent priorities for the coming years is to cultivate these deeper conditions for our individual and collective actions in ways that are highly accessible, scalable, and modularized so that everyone can integrate them into their own movement building and learning infrastructures.

GAIA: Global Activation of Intention and Action

It is for this reason that, starting next week, my colleagues and I are going to offer an impromptu global learning infrastructure that is free, online, Zoom-based and yet designed in ways that will activate generative social fields among all of the participants throughout the coming weeks. The idea is to offer this infrastructure as a journey for change-makers from all sectors, systems, and cultures — a journey that will eventually result in a global, multi-local, multi-regional Forum, co-created among the participants later this year in July.

The actual format of this journey and the Forum will evolve with and adjust to the situation that keeps unfolding around us, between us, and within us. It’s an infrastructure that invites you to join with your whole Self and that is designed to be accessible to all, whether you want to join from home while in self-quarantine or in concert with friends and fellow change-makers in your local organization or community.

If you are interested to join, check out this landing page for the journey: Global Activation of Intention and Action (GAIA) and sign up for the first session on Friday March 27. The time to pause, to sense, to connect, and then act together is now.

***

Greetings friends – The Central Regional Council has just scheduled a Zoom Study Group Meeting for April 8th on the Karma of Epidemics (details below) ALL are welcome to join us.

Our Easter Retreat ‘KNOW THYSELF – Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology’ – a combined effort of the CRC & AAP is POSTPONED.

We will continue to evaluate the world situation & will revisit this potent working in late Summer or early Autumn.

If you have registered already, we will process refunds beginning this week. Let Alberto Loya (aloyavaca@peoplepc.com) know if you prefer to re-use your registration fee for the re-scheduled event.

We will use our next CRC Zoom Meeting to explore together the spiritual psychology & karma of epidemics.

April 8th 2020, 7:15 pm CST (see audio conference details below)

“Imagine a people which was composed entirely of liars, the astral plane would be populated solely by the corresponding demons and these demons would be able to express themselves in a constitutional tendency to epidemics. Thus there is a certain species of bacilli who are the carriers of infectious diseases; these beings are the progeny of the lies told by human beings; they are nothing else than physically embodied demons generated by lies.” (GA 99 – L.6)

Theosophy of the Rosicrucian – The Law of Destiny – Schmidt Number: S-1539
Lecture VI https://wn.rsarchive.org/GA/GA0099/19070530p01.html

Audio Conference Details:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/451374910

Meeting ID: 451 374 910

One tap mobile
+13126266799,,451374910# US (Chicago)
+16465588656,,451374910# US (New York)

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Meeting ID: 451 374 910
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/adZ7jft0hb

If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@peoplepc.com
Let us stand together with courage in this now, as we look to our future with equanimity, holding all that comes before us as being guided by a divine directive waiting to be revealed by our patient spiritual investigation.

Many of us are doing constructive things like the Hallelujah in Eurythmy, & The Foundation Stone Meditation at Sunrise (or anytime) every morning to create a high vibration of Love & Light – Please join us for the healing of all.

Yours in service ~The CRC team: Marianne Fieber, Alberto Loya, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton

art by Daniel Ospina

***

‘The Three Days’, an On-Line Easter Festival with the Central Reginal Council

Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, all three days: April 9-12, 2020 from 3 pm – 4:15 pm CDT

We will be taking up indications from Emil Bock’s ‘The Three Years” to artistically explore the Spiritual Science of ‘The Paschal Triduum’: Following the Cosmic Sun on the ultimate path of initiation, from the Free-Will Sacrifice, through the Conquering of Death, into the Resurrection of the New Sun.

How can we as human beings in community bring a practical understanding to these mysteries?

Join us as we strive to gain the forces needed to do our part in furthering this impulse in world evolution.

FREE – ALL are Welcome – Zoom Call and other details to follow

For more info. contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@peoplepc.com

May Hope Spring Eternal –

The CRC – Marianne Fieber, Alberto Loya, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton

***

The Sacred Gateway: Online Conference

Conscious Living, Conscious Dying,
and the Journey Beyond

ONLINE
APRIL 17-19, 2020

Bring a new consciousness to your own life and death

Support those who are crossing and who have crossed over
Expand your practice and knowledge of working with the dying
Learn more about the soul’s journey from death to new life

Through interactive workshops, biogrpahy work, keynote discussions with Rev. Patrick Kennedy and Dr. Melinda Toney, workshops with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox, and more, as well as experiential and artistic activities, we will consciously explore the spiritual and practical aspect of human life and death.

Conference Fees:

$200 Supporter Level/Group Rate(3+ People) Includes Conference Live Links and Recordings, Two Sacred Gateway Webinar Series ($80 value), Resources & Podcast Links and supports this conference and other events like it!
$150 Registration and Resource Package ~ Includes Conference Live Links and Recordings, Two Sacred Gateway Webinar Series ($80 value), Resources & Podcast Links
$95 Regular Rate Includes the entire Live Event + Recordings and Resources
$45 Youth Rate (Age 35 and under) Includes the entire Live Event + Recordings and Resources
$45 Keynotes Only Live Keynotes + Recordings

Click Here to Join the ASA!

Conference Schedule

All start times in Eastern Standard Time
(Note: Workshops Subject to Additions/Minor Changes)

Friday, April 17

7:30pm-9pm Conference Opening and Keynote

True Living is Dying: The Life-Giving Power of Death Keynote Discussion and Q&A with Rev. Patrick Kennedy

Saturday April 18

11:00-11:45am Welcome, Introductions and Biography Work

11:45am-1:15pm Two-Day Themed Workshops (Choose one theme and attend Saturday, and Sunday)

From Loss to Connection Through the Arts: Reading, Writing and Drawing with Marianne Dietzel and Maureen Flannery
The Lemniscate Journey: Exploring the Relationships in Our Lives from Birth to Death and Death to Rebirth Through Biography and Social Art with Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox
Giving Way to Grace: Chrysalis Emerging from Conscious Living and Conscious Dying with Melinda Toney, MD, Carole Shoaf End-Of-Life Doula and Katherine Blackburn, End-Of-Life Doula and Esoteric Christian Minister
Saturday April 18^th, 11:45am-1:15pm – Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn, and the evolution of Earth – Then and Now. with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. How do we look at the karmic connections that shape current events? Our work with those on the ‘Other-side of the Threshold’ can give us clues about the causes and purpose of epidemics and the ways of healing ourselves, our beloved dead and the Earth.

1:15-1:30pm Break

1:30-2:30pm Vigil Room Experience

2:30-3:00pm Break

3:00-4:30pm Topic Workshops

Acknowledging the End with Jolie Luba
After Deathcare as a Healing Art with Tischia Bluske

4:30-5:00pm Break

5:00-6:00pm Death & Healing Keynote Conversation with Dr. Melinda Toney

6:15- 7:00pm Group Reflections and Closing

Sunday, April 19

11:00-11:45am Welcome, Introductions and Biography Work

11:45-12:45 Consecrating our Dying Keynote with Patrick Kennedy

12:45-1:15 Break

1:15-2:30 Two-Day Themed Workshops

From Loss to Connection Through the Arts: Reading, Writing and Drawing with Marianne Dietzel and Maureen Flannery
The Lemniscate Journey: Exploring the Relationships in Our Lives from Birth to Death and Death to Rebirth Through Biography and Social Art with Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox
Giving Way to Grace: Chrysalis Emerging from Conscious Living and Conscious Dying with Melinda Toney, MD, Carole Shoaf End-Of-Life Doula and Katherine Blackburn, End-Of-Life Doula and Esoteric Christian Minister
Sunday April 19^th, 1:15 pm – 2:30 pm – Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn, and the evolution of Earth – Then and Now. with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. Explore the many cultural expressions that work with, and celebrate our beloved dead. Prepare the way for the Unborn, and for the future of humanity. Become inspired to Renew or Create your own Tradition. Learn to find your destiny, and meet your karma. Prepare for your own conscious crossing into the journey between death and rebirth, by asking questions like: Where did I come from? What did I come into to this life to do? Who is with me on this journey?

2:30-2:45pm Break

2:45-3:30pm Green Burial Exploration and Conference Closing

Full Conference
$200 Supporter
$150 Resource Package (Includes 3 Webinar Series $80 value, Podcast Links and Conference Live Links and Recordings)
$95 Standard ASA Member Rate
$45 Youth Rate

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

***

Our dear Dr. Steiner said: ‘It is not the Christ we lack, but the knowledge of Christ, the Sophia of Christ, the Isis of Christ we are lacking.’ In ‘Ancient Myths and the New Isis Mystery: Their Meaning and Connection with Evolution’ Lecture 3; given in Dornach, 6 January 1918, by Rudolf Steiner; we hear how the power of ‘The Word, the power of The Logos’, must be resurrected through our striving to activate the Wisdom of Anthroposophia within each of us. Join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg for a powerful presentation Lifting the Veil of the New Isis-Sophia, to bring Light to Love.

Image result for the divine sophia painting

~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Saturday, 30 May, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm Groh Farm, 135 Temple Rd, Wilton, NH

Eurythmy: AUM = A – I stand for myself, U- I stand for humanity, M – I stand for Life

Social Sculpture: Steiner’s ‘Blue Dot Exercise’– Through Art, the bridge between science & spirit, we warm the ‘I’, to open the heart, in support of healthy community.

What are my gifts-What are my tools? How can I place them in right relationship within the social realm? How can I hone them to strengthen and enhance the world?

Living into the Foundation Stone of Love – How can we take our individual Inner Whitsun & expand it, into what Steiner calls the “World Festival of Knowledge” a path leading from ‘Sprit Recollection’, to ‘Sprit Sensing’, to ‘Sprit Beholding’?

Enter the Labyrinth of ‘Vitae Sophia’ – Human hearts, once warmed, can rise up to meet the source of wisdom, like flowers turning toward the sun.

$30 suggested donation at the door, with potluck lunch to follow
(please bring a dish to share) RSVP deb@anthroposophy.org Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire

***

Also part of the tour

3 June 2020 – a Round Table Discussion 7 pm – 9 pm on ‘The Sophia’ with John Bloom, Joan Sleigh, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg & Carrie Schuchardt at The House of Peace in Ipswich, MA.

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year.Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Trans-denominational Minister, ‘Anthroposopher’, working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, The Traveling Speakers Program, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society.

Whitsun 2020 Vitae Sophia

Return of the Swallows

March 19, 2020Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Chicago Event, Festival, History, Insight~hag

For those of us who approach things by the Goldilocks Principle (not too little, not too much), the time of Equinox is practically perfect. TODAY we get that glorious balance of day & night all over the world- from the equator extending to the North & South poles- with just about 12 hours of each. (Now if only folks could come out of hibernation like the bear)

Image result for rebirth paintings — Ankita Goenka

For thousands of years, at the Vernal Equinox, human beings have been celebrating rebirth. Cultures & countries around the world mark the Spring Equinox with various holidays:

In Persia (known now as Iran), today is Nowruz, which means ‘New Day’ in Farsi – The start of their New Year, & is one of humanity’s oldest celebrations. More than 300 million people celebrate Nowruz. This includes Iran as well as places that have felt Persian influence through the ages: the Balkans, the Black Sea Basin, the Caucasus, Central Asia & the Middle East.

Image result for Shintoism spring paintings

On the other side of Asia from Iran is Japan, another country with a public holiday, with roots in the ancient Shintoism religion. The belief that every natural object possesses a spiritual force is honored with the advent of spring, as trees & flowers thrive. To celebrate, people will hold family reunions, visit shrines & give offerings to cherry blossoms & other natural wonders.

Holi: is a Hindu-arrival-of-spring holiday. Another very old festival. The first known mention of it is in a fourth century poem. It’s a national holiday in India, celebrated on the day after the full moon in the Hindu month of Phalguna, so it’s a movable feast. The holiday is known for the brightly colored powders that are thrown into the air covering everyone.

The Vernal Equinox sets the rhythm for our movable feast of Easter, which is the first Sunday after the 1^st Full Moon that occurs on or after the Spring Equinox. That allows Easter to fall anywhere from March 22 to April 25. This year, Easter Sunday is April 12^th 2020.

On this day I like to contemplate the ‘Representative of Humanity’, Rudolf Steiner’s sculpture holding the balance.

Our ancestors had a keen awareness of the seasons & the movements of the Sun & stars. They built initiation sites as giant calendars, often aligned to prominently display shafts of sunlight during solstices & equinoxes:

Chichen Itza, Mexico: This complex of Mayan ruins on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico is popular all year but especially during the equinoxes. At the “El Castillo” pyramid dedicated to Kukulcán (or Quetzalcoatl), the late afternoon Sun creates the shadow illusion of a snake slowly sliding down the northern staircase. Thousands come here to witness this spectacle, & now this day has a carnival atmosphere, with music, dancers & more.

Image result for Mnajdra Temples, Malta:

Mnajdra Temples, Malta: On the Mediterranean island of Malta, the Mnajdra complex consists of three temples. The buildings are estimated to date from 3600 B.C. to 2500 B.C. During the equinoxes, the rising Sun is in exact alignment with the main doorway of the lower temple, which allows sunlight to fill the main corridor into the innermost altar. It’s another highly celebrated event on the island.

Image result for Stonehenge, sun England:

Stonehenge, England: The most famous Neolithic structure in England, if not the world, is the gathering place for pagans, druids & well everyone, during spring equinox. You can watch the same awe-inspiring, clockwork sunrise that our ancient ancestors witnessed thousands of years ago.

Image result for Newgrange (Brú na Boinne)

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 Equinoxes 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.

With the Vernal Equinox, we are at 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 am on the Year Clock, & so it 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 also 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.

Image result for Feast of the Annunciation painting

The Feast of the Annunciation, occurring on the fixed calendar day of March 25,also known as Lady Day, the Feast of the Incarnation (Festum Incarnationis), Conceptio Christi (Christ’s Conception), commemorates the visit of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, during which he informed her that she would be the mother of the Son of God. Gabriel’s salutation: “Hail, Mary full of grace, the LORD is with thee” (Luke 1:28; gratia plena Dominus tecum), & Mary’s response to God’s will, “be it done to me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38; fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum). The “angelic salutation” is the origin of the Hail Mary prayer & the Angelus; the second part of the prayer comes from the salutation of Saint Elizabeth to Mary at the Visitation.

Image result for spring equinox ancient painting

The Spring Equinox is also associated with ancient mystery schools who had special initiatory rites at dawn, known as: Alban Eilir, Eostar, Eostre, Ostara, Ostra, (the origins for the name Easter) & the Rites of Spring.

Image result for spring balance painting — Michelle H. Taylor

For us it’s a time for balance, a time to honor & celebrate the greening of the Earth. This year is the earliest date for the Equinox in 124 years. Yes ‘Spring Fever’ may be extra potent this year, & our world situation is calling us to do some ‘Spring Cleaning’. May we avail ourselves to the growing sunshine, for healing, & a much needed morale boost.

~hag

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Feast Day of Joseph the Carpenter, husband of Mary the Mother of the Matthew Jesus.

Image result for return of the swallows painting — Gerry Hillber

Annual Return of the Swallows: The American cliff swallow is a migratory bird that spends its winters in Goya, Argentina, but makes the 6,000-mile trek north to the warmer climes of the American Southwest in springtime. According to legend, the birds, who have visited the San Juan Capistrano area every summer for centuries, first took refuge at the Mission when an irate innkeeper began destroying their mud nests. The Mission’s location near two rivers made it an ideal location for the swallows to nest, as there was a constant supply of the insects on which they feed, & the young birds are well-protected inside the ruins of the old stone church.

Each year the Fiesta de las Golondrinas is held in the City of San Juan Capistrano. Presented by the San Juan Capistrano Fiesta Association, the Fiesta de las Golondrinas is a week-long celebration of this auspicious event culminated by the Swallows Day Parade & Mercado, street fair. Tradition has it that the main flock arrives on March 19 (Saint Joseph’s Day), & flies south on Saint John’s Day, October 23.

When the swallows come back to Capistrano
That’s the day you promised to come back to me
When you whispered, “Farewell,” in Capistrano
’twas the day the swallows flew out to sea
— excerpt from “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano” by Leon René

In recent years, the swallows have failed to return in large flocks to the Mission. The reduction has been connected to increased development of the area, including many more choices of nesting place & fewer insects to eat.

Image result for Christiane Wilhelmine Sophie von Kühn painting

1797 – Death Day of Christiane Wilhelmine Sophie von Kühn (March 17, 1782 – March 19, 1797) the love interest & eventual fiancée of the German Romantic poet & philosopher Friedrich von Hardenberg, known to many simply as Novalis. Her image famously appears in Novalis’ Hymns to the Night.

***

Greetings friends – The Central Regional Council has just scheduled a Zoom Study Group Meeting for April 8th on the Karma of Epidemics (details below) ALL are welcome to join us.

Our Easter Retreat ‘KNOW THYSELF – Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology’ – a combined effort of the CRC & AAP is POSTPONED.

We will continue to evaluate the world situation & will revisit this potent working in late Summer or early Autumn.

If you have registered already, we will process refunds beginning this week. Let Alberto Loya (aloyavaca@peoplepc.com) know if you prefer to re-use your registration fee for the re-scheduled event.

We will use our next CRC Zoom Meeting to explore together the spiritual psychology & karma of epidemics.

April 8th 2020, 7:15 pm CST (see audio conference details below)

Theosophy of the Rosicrucian – The Law of Destiny – Schmidt Number: S-1539
Lecture VI https://wn.rsarchive.org/GA/GA0099/19070530p01.html

Audio Conference Details:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/451374910

Meeting ID: 451 374 910

One tap mobile
+13126266799,,451374910# US (Chicago)
+16465588656,,451374910# US (New York)

Yours in service ~The CRC team: Marianne Fieber, Alberto Loya, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton

art by Daniel Ospina

***

‘The Three Days’, an On-Line Easter Festival with the Central Reginal Council

Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, all three days: April 9-12, 2020 from 3 pm – 4:15 pm CDT

How can we as human beings in community bring a practical understanding to these mysteries?

Join us as we strive to gain the forces needed to do our part in furthering this impulse in world evolution.

FREE – ALL are Welcome – Zoom Call and other details to follow

For more info. contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@peoplepc.com

May Hope Spring Eternal –

The CRC – Marianne Fieber, Alberto Loya, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton

***

The Sacred Gateway: Online Conference

Conscious Living, Conscious Dying,
and the Journey Beyond

ONLINE
APRIL 17-19, 2020

Bring a new consciousness to your own life and death

Support those who are crossing and who have crossed over
Expand your practice and knowledge of working with the dying
Learn more about the soul’s journey from death to new life

Conference Fees:

$200 Supporter Level/Group Rate(3+ People) Includes Conference Live Links and Recordings, Two Sacred Gateway Webinar Series ($80 value), Resources & Podcast Links and supports this conference and other events like it!
$150 Registration and Resource Package ~ Includes Conference Live Links and Recordings, Two Sacred Gateway Webinar Series ($80 value), Resources & Podcast Links
$95 Regular Rate Includes the entire Live Event + Recordings and Resources
$45 Youth Rate (Age 35 and under) Includes the entire Live Event + Recordings and Resources
$45 Keynotes Only Live Keynotes + Recordings

Click Here to Join the ASA!

Conference Schedule

All start times in Eastern Standard Time
(Note: Workshops Subject to Additions/Minor Changes)

Friday, April 17

7:30pm-9pm Conference Opening and Keynote

True Living is Dying: The Life-Giving Power of Death Keynote Discussion and Q&A with Rev. Patrick Kennedy

Saturday April 18

11:00-11:45am Welcome, Introductions and Biography Work

11:45am-1:15pm Two-Day Themed Workshops (Choose one theme and attend Saturday, and Sunday)

From Loss to Connection Through the Arts: Reading, Writing and Drawing with Marianne Dietzel and Maureen Flannery
The Lemniscate Journey: Exploring the Relationships in Our Lives from Birth to Death and Death to Rebirth Through Biography and Social Art with Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox
Giving Way to Grace: Chrysalis Emerging from Conscious Living and Conscious Dying with Melinda Toney, MD, Carole Shoaf End-Of-Life Doula and Katherine Blackburn, End-Of-Life Doula and Esoteric Christian Minister
Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn, and the evolution of Earth – Then and Now. with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. How do we look at the karmic connections that shape current events? Our work with those on the ‘Other-side of the Threshold’ can give us clues.

1:15-1:30pm Break

1:30-2:30pm Vigil Room Experience

2:30-3:00pm Break

3:00-4:30pm Topic Workshops

Acknowledging the End with Jolie Luba
After Deathcare as a Healing Art with Tischia Bluske

4:30-5:00pm Break

5:00-6:00pm Death & Healing Keynote Conversation with Dr. Melinda Toney

6:15- 7:00pm Group Reflections and Closing

Sunday, April 19

11:00-11:45am Welcome, Introductions and Biography Work

11:45-12:45 Consecrating our Dying Keynote with Patrick Kennedy

12:45-1:15 Break

1:15-2:30 Two-Day Themed Workshops

From Loss to Connection Through the Arts: Reading, Writing and Drawing with Marianne Dietzel and Maureen Flannery
The Lemniscate Journey: Exploring the Relationships in Our Lives from Birth to Death and Death to Rebirth Through Biography and Social Art with Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox
Giving Way to Grace: Chrysalis Emerging from Conscious Living and Conscious Dying with Melinda Toney, MD, Carole Shoaf End-Of-Life Doula and Katherine Blackburn, End-Of-Life Doula and Esoteric Christian Minister
Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn, and the evolution of Earth – Then and Now. with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. Explore the ancient origins of the many cultural expressions that work with, celebrate, & honor our beloved dead. Prepare the way for the Unborn, and for the future of humanity. Become inspired to Renew or Create your own Tradition. Through Spiritual Science learn to find your destiny, and meet your karma. Prepare for your own conscious crossing into the journey between death and rebirth, by asking questions like: Who have I been? Who am I now? Who do I want to become?

2:30-2:45pm Break

2:45-3:30pm Green Burial Exploration and Conference Closing

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~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Saturday, 30 May, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm Groh Farm, 135 Temple Rd, Wilton, NH

Eurythmy: AUM = A – I stand for myself, U- I stand for humanity, M – I stand for Life

Social Sculpture: Steiner’s ‘Blue Dot Exercise’– Through Art, the bridge between science & spirit, we warm the ‘I’, to open the heart, in support of healthy community.

What are my gifts-What are my tools? How can I place them in right relationship within the social realm? How can I hone them to strengthen and enhance the world?

Enter the Labyrinth of ‘Vitae Sophia’ – Human hearts, once warmed, can rise up to meet the source of wisdom, like flowers turning toward the sun.

$30 suggested donation at the door, with potluck lunch to follow
(please bring a dish to share) RSVP deb@anthroposophy.org Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire

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Also part of the tour

3 June 2020 – a Round Table Discussion 7 pm – 9 pm on ‘The Sophia’ with John Bloom, Joan Sleigh, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg & Carrie Schuchardt at The House of Peace in Ipswich, MA.

Whitsun 2020 Vitae Sophia

“Matter is woven light, the soul is cultured love”.

March 13, 2020Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Chicago Event, Festival, History, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

Friday the 13^th March 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Right after dark at this time of year, 5 carnivore constellations stand upright in a row (emerging from hibernation?), from the northeast to south. They’re all seen in profile with their noses pointed up & their feet to the right. They are Ursa Major the Big Bear in the northeast (with the Big Dipper as its brightest part), Leo the Lion in the east, Hydra the Sea Serpent in the southeast, Canis Minor the Little Dog higher in the south-southeast, & bright Canis Major the Big Dog in the south.

A few days ago on 3/11 (interesting date) it was the anniversary of The 1918 influenza pandemic, known as the ‘Spanish Flu. Analysis of medical journals from the period of the pandemic found that the viral infection was no more aggressive than previous influenza strains. Instead, malnourishment, overcrowded medical camps, hospitals, & poor hygiene promoted bacterial superinfection. This superinfection killed most of the victims, typically after a somewhat prolonged death bed.

Image result for us authorities announcement of coronavirus as pandemic 2020

Considering this historic fact it is interesting to note that on this date 3/11/2020, it was ‘officially’ announced that the corona virus is a ‘pandemic’.

Nutshell compiled from resources below: Viruses come from from the animal kingdom, when the human astral realm is imbalance. “We are currently inflicting unspeakable suffering on animals: from mass slaughter, to experiments with laboratory animals, which leads to pain. Can this suffering lead to consequences that change viruses that are native to the animal organism to the human being?”

Whenever humanity brings an imbalance, illness arises; but nature can always provide a remedy. Our beloved ones in the spiritual world can help us find these remedies.

What else can we do? Avoid alcohol, moderate sugar & maintain a rhythm of life with sufficient sleep & an active relationship with the sun. Potentized phosphorus & potentiated meteor iron in the morning can also support the immune system as light substances.

What weakens the lungs? Two things: lack of relationship with the earth and the sun & social tensions. We must not run away from the other, we must balance social tensions.

Medicine has promoted the belief that vaccinations can protect us against all types of infection. That is a mistake. Vaccination only offers a protection rate of 10 to 30 percent. Careful hand washing & hygiene when blowing your nose & coughing are also effective – without possible side effects. It’s also an important step to let go of a fearful, defensive picture of the environment & your own body & ask what you can do, trusting your own immune system. Sending the light of hope to the world.

All life is One Being. Matter is woven Light. Soul is cultured Love. When there is imbalance humanity is called to bring light to darkness & love to fear, hatred & doubt.

From the Goetheanum except: “…where do these obviously new viruses come from and why did they arise? Interestingly, many of the viruses come from the animal kingdom. The Corona virus probably from the Javanese bat. Why are viruses from the animal kingdom becoming dangerous for humans? We are currently inflicting unspeakable suffering on animals: mass slaughter right up to experiments with laboratory animals lead to pain to which the animal world is helplessly at the mercy. Can this suffering lead to consequences that change viruses that are native to the animal organism? We are used to looking only at the physical level and mostly seeing it separately from the mental level. Research on the intestinal flora, the microbiome, which includes not only bacteria but also viruses, proves the opposite. This raises not only the microbiological question about the origin of the virus, but also the moral question of how to deal with the animal world. Rudolf Steiner pointed out these connections more than 100 years ago. Today it is up to us to investigate these relationships and to ask deeper questions in addition to scientific analysis.

What can we do?

There are now a number of measures in personal behavior that support the organism in coping with the disease. This includes avoiding alcohol, moderate sugar consumption and maintaining a rhythm of life with sufficient sleep and an active relationship with the sun. What our immune system often suffers from is the lack of sunlight, a deficiency that has the greatest impact in March. This is due to the lack of sun over the winter months and reminds us that it is extremely worthwhile to go outside every day and in winter if possible, and thus to connect with the periphery, elementarily with the cosmos. Rudolf Steiner went into the foundation of anthroposophic medicine, Even before vitamin D was discovered, tuberculosis described it in detail. It applies to the immune system that vitamin D tablets can only replace the absorption of sunlight to a limited extent. Potentized phosphorus and correspondingly potentiated meteor iron in the morning can also support the immune system as light substances. For those who are older and perhaps have to do with cardiovascular diseases, anthroposophical basic means for the cardiovascular system, regular walking and adequate sleep are also recommended. Those who sleep less than six hours are much more susceptible to such infections.

A healthy breath to fellow human beings

If there is an illness, then the patient is now kept in quarantine, although minor cases can now also be treated at home. What seems important to me is the fact that anthroposophic medicine has decades of experience in treating viral and bacterial pneumonia without antibiotics with anthroposophic medicines and external applications that can be extremely effective. The medical section of the medical section has developed a corresponding therapy scheme and made it available to international medical colleagues.

What weakens the lungs Two things: lack of relationship with the earth and the sun and social tensions. It is therefore advisable to protect your own lungs, this respiratory organ, from the inside and outside by trying to balance social tensions. In my view, those who are in unresolved social conflicts are at greater risk here. Medicine has promoted the belief that vaccinations can protect you against all types of infection. That is a mistake. Even flu vaccination only offers a protection rate of 10 to 30 percent; Careful hand washing and hygiene when blowing your nose and coughing are also effective – without possible side effects. So it’s an important step to let go of this fearful, defensive picture of the environment and your own body and ask what you can do yourself.

From Rudolf Steiner: “…nature which causes us to rejoice has within it at the same time the mighty healer for all the damage man can cause himself. Somewhere in nature the remedy is concealed. It is a question, not only of understanding the language of the healer, but also of obeying it and really carrying it out. Today it is in most cases impossible for us to hear the voice of healing nature because our misunderstanding of light, and the darkness which has penetrated into knowledge has in many respects brought about conditions preventing us from hearing.

Image result for matter woven out of light & love painting

Here again we see a remarkable connection which allows us to perceive the whole great world, inclusive of mankind, as One Being. In the sayings: ‘Matter is woven light,’ and ‘the soul is in some way or other diluted love,’ are to be found the keys of innumerable secrets of earth existence. Thus we have shown nothing less than that we, if in any way we alter the direction of karma, unite ourselves in one or the other case with the elements composing our earth existence: on the one side with light which has become matter — and on the other side with love which has become soul. We either draw the remedies out of our surroundings, out of the condensed light, or out of our own soul by the healing loving act, the sacrificial act, and we then heal with the soul-forces obtained from love. We unite ourselves with what is most deeply justified upon the earth, when, on the one hand, we unite ourselves with light and on the other with love. All earth conditions are in some way conditions of balance between light and love and everything unhealthy is a disturbance of that balance. If the disturbance is in love, we can then help by unfolding the forces of love; and if the disturbance is in light, we can then help by somehow providing for ourselves, out of the universe, that light which is able to dissolve the darkness within us.

Image result for uniting opposites painting

These are the fundamental ways of help, and we see again how everything depends upon the balance of opposites. Light and love are polar opposites and on their being interwoven depend ultimately all the psychic and material processes of our life.

In this connection I should like to note that just in such times as our own, a characteristic in many people is that they completely forget, and pay no attention to, that which one may call ‘the consciousness of a super-sensible world.’ They pay no attention whatever to the fact that there is a spiritual world, and they therefore turn away their thoughts from it. In such an age — or in all such ages — there is always in certain respects a counterpart to be found. I should like to show you this in a very simple manner.

When there are people upon the physical plane who are so absorbed in the physical that they completely forget the spiritual, then a contrary tendency appears among those souls who are living in the spiritual world between death and a new birth — a tendency which works over from the physical into the spiritual plane — impelling them to occupy themselves with the influences which act out of the spiritual world into the physical. It is this which brings about in the physical world the intervention by souls who are still in that state before birth. These souls work down into the physical world according to the means which offer and they are able to work indirectly through persons who are more sensitive to such influence from the spiritual world.

The dead are anxious show in a palpable manner that there is indeed a spiritual world.

This is intended to illustrate how in the world and in world affairs we see continual disturbances of the balance, and then again the efforts for the restoring of the balance.

This continual disturbance and restoration of the balance between the two elements of light and love is fundamental for us; and in human karma, from incarnation to incarnation, both work to restore the disturbed condition. Karma, working its serpentine way through incarnations is just such a disturbed balance, until man, after all his incarnations, shall at last create the final balance which can be reached upon earth. Having fulfilled his mission on earth, he evolves then into a new planetary form.

Image result for talking with the spirits painting — Hima af Klint

I have not shrunk from touching to-day upon those mysteries for which our modern science will not for a long time be ripe: Matter is in reality woven light, and that which belongs to the soul is in some way or other refined love. These are ancient occult sayings, but they are sayings which will for all time remain true and will prove fruitful for human evolution, not only for knowledge, but also for human work and action. ~ Manifestations of Karma, LECTURE 10, FREE WILL AND KARMA IN THE FUTURE OF HUMAN EVOLUTION by Rudolf Steiner

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Image result for love & light painting — Petey Bond

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Even now in the long pause of possibility
Rumbling beneath its shell
There rises a wild honking
That awakens the calling of Light
& the will to Love
~hag

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Friday the 13^th

What is at the root of “triskadekaphobia” (the fear of the number 13)?

Well it could be because all numbers have their own cosmic vibration, & “13” is considered an unstable number. From the time when humans first used numbers to measure things, the number 12 has represented a common cosmic standard. There are 12 months of the year, 12 hours on the clock, 12 signs of the Zodiac, 12 Tribes of Israel, 12 Apostles, 12 Knights of the Round Table & so on. The number 13 represents disruption to the established order.

The modern basis for the aura that surrounds Friday the 13th stems from Friday October the 13th, 1307. On this date, the Pope of the church in Rome, in Conjunction with the King of France, carried out a secret death warrant against “the Knights Templar”. The Templars were terminated as heretics, never again to hold the power & riches that they had stewarded for so long. Their Grand Master, Jacques DeMolay, was arrested & killed on that Friday the 13^th.

But In pre-Christian societies, reliance on a lunar calendar meant that Friday the 13th would coincide with the Full Moon or New Moon. It was a day to honor the goddesses & planet Venus in a day-long love-fest! Friday the 13th symbolized a day for everyone to let go, party, & sacrifice routine. Such breaks in the usual order allowed for the restoration of balance & harmony.

The Scandinavian belief that the number 13 signified bad luck sprang from their mythological 12 demigods, who were joined by a 13th demigod, Loki, a cruel trickster who brought upon humans great misfortune.

The number 13, in the Christian faith, is the number of people at the Last Supper, with the 13th guest at the table being the traitor, Judas.

Whether or not a person considers Friday the 13th as unlucky, belief in superstitions offers a sense of control in stressful situations. Today’s beliefs may very well be tomorrows superstitions.

Take a cue from our forebears. They saw the number 13 as a lucky omen, a time to make a fresh beginning, seeking new roads to success & satisfaction, as we open our heart & mind to new opportunities, luck & love!But just to be safe, don’t step on a crack!

~hag

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KNOW THYSELF – Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology

Postponed until Autumn

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Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond

THIS EVENT WILL NOW BE HELD ONLINE APRIL 17-19. STAY TUNED FOR NEW REGISTRATION INFORMATION!

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~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Saturday, 30 May, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm Groh Farm, 135 Temple Rd, Wilton, NH

Eurythmy: AUM = A – I stand for myself, U- I stand for humanity, M – I stand for Life

Social Sculpture: Steiner’s ‘Blue Dot Exercise’– Through Art, the bridge between science & spirit, we warm the ‘I’, to open the heart, in support of healthy community.

What are my gifts-What are my tools? How can I place them in right relationship within the social realm? How can I hone them to strengthen and enhance the world?

Enter the Labyrinth of ‘Vitae Sophia’ – Human hearts, once warmed, can rise up to meet the source of wisdom, like flowers turning toward the sun.

$30 suggested donation at the door, with potluck lunch to follow
(please bring a dish to share) RSVP deb@anthroposophy.org Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire

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“Beware the man of one book”

March 7, 2020Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Chicago Event, Festival, History, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

7 March 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Regulus shines below the nearly full Moon after dark. As the gibbous Moon waxes toward full on the 9th, it crosses Leo.

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“How is it they live in such harmony, the billions of stars, when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their minds?” ~Thomas Aquinas

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

161 – Deathday of Emperor Antoninus Pius, who is succeeded by his adoptive son Marcus Aurelius

321 – Emperor Constantine I decrees that the dies Solis Invicti (sun-day) is the day of rest in the Empire

1274 – Deathday of Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican Friar & Theologian, “The prince of Scholastics”. Nickname in school=The ‘dumb ox’. Also known as the ‘Angelic Doctor’. “It must be realized that Thomas Aquinas, in the 13th Century, attained the concepts and ideas he elaborated in his writings in a completely different way from the way ideas are acquired today. One must think of his books as being inspired by a spirit from the Hierarchy of the Angeloi and that he recorded what came from a higher consciousness” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Karma of Materialism

Aquinas, who is most renowned for his Five Ways of Proving the Existence of God, believed that both faith and reason discover truth, a conflict between them being impossible since they both originate in God.

Believing that reason can, in principle, lead the mind to God, Aquinas defended reason’s legitimacy, especially in the works of Aristotle. The philosophy of Aquinas continues to offer insights into many lingering problems in Metaphysics, the Philosophy of Mind, & the Philosophy of Religion & Ethics.

In Rudolf Steiner’s historic sketch of the life of thought in the Middle Ages, he shows how Albertus Magnus ( an earlier incarnation of Marie Steiner) & Thomas Aquinas ( an earlier incarnation of Aristotle & Rudolf Steiner himself) & the Scholastics of the 12th century gave an impetus towards what in the twentieth century has come to be known as Spiritual Science, or Anthroposophy.

“The Middle Ages would not have produced what is called Scholasticism — the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus and the other Scholastics — if this philosophy, this world conception, with all its social consequences, had not been inspired by the most important thought of the Church, by the Easter thought. In the vision of the descending Christ, Who lives for a time in man on Earth and then goes through the Resurrection, that soul impulse was given which led to the particular relation between faith and science, between knowledge and revelation which was agreed upon by the Scholastics. That out of man himself, only knowledge of the sensible world can be acquired, whereas everything connected with the super-sensible world has to be gained through revelation — this was determined basically by the way the Easter thought followed upon the Christmas thought.” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Cycle of the Year as Breathing-Process of the Earth

“Thomas Aquinas made himself thoroughly familiar with the world conception of Aristotle, who becomes, as it were, his master in the life of thought…For centuries, he is il maestro di color che sanno, the master of those who know, as Dante expresses the veneration for Aristotle in the Middle Ages.”

“Thomas Aquinas had intended on the one hand to investigate the world through physical research and intellectual knowledge but, on the other hand, that he had wanted to supplement this intellectual knowledge with the truths of revelation. But he had done that precisely to gain access to the unifying principle of the world.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, 12 June 1923

“Of the great Dominicans, St. Thomas Aquinas is especially noteworthy because in him the influence of the astral body of Christ was manifest to a high degree.”

“St. Francis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas had copies of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth woven into their souls, and it is this fact that allowed them to be such dynamic teachers. They worked from a sphere in which Christ had once lived.

In some cases external events such as natural catastrophes or similar things enhance this weaving of spiritual bodies into the soul of the recipient. It is said of St. Thomas Aquinas that lightning struck and killed his little sister in the room where he happened to be standing, but spared him. He interpreted this lightning bolt next to him to the effect that elemental forces were necessary to help him take up the copy of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. Elisabeth of Thüringen also had an imprint of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth in her soul”. ~ Rudolf Steiner, The Principle of Spiritual Economy, Rome, March 28, 1909

During the Feast of Saint Nicolas in 1273, Saint Thomas Aquinas had a mystical vision that made writing seem unimportant to him. At mass, he reportedly heard a voice coming from a crucifix that said, “Thou hast written well of me, Thomas; what reward wilt thou have?” to which Saint Thomas Aquinas replied, “None other than thyself, Lord.”

When Saint Thomas Aquinas’s confessor, Father Reginald of Piperno (an earlier incarnation of Ita Wegman) urged him to keep writing, he replied, “I can do no more. Such secrets have been revealed to me that all I have written now appears to be like straw” Thomas Aquinas never wrote again.

1792 – Birthday of English astronomer Sir John Frederick William Herschel. In 1864, he published the General Catalogue of Nebulae & Clusters, which astronomers still use today

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the “telephone

1913 – The Berlin chapter of the Theosophical Society, of which Rudolf Steiner was president & Marie von Sivers secretary, is officially annulled.

1965 – Bloody Sunday: A group of 600 civil rights marchers is brutally attacked by state and local police in Selma, Alabama

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Image result for worm moon paiting — Susan Breakwood

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Taking the low road
I climb the highest hill
Where the wind whips me
Awake I await the radiation
A flare that tears & makes bright
The night, a bed for the worm moon…
~hag

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‘The term “Anthroposophy” should really be understood as synonymous with “Sophia,” meaning the content of consciousness, the soul attitude and experience that make a man a full-fledged human being. The right interpretation of “Anthroposophy” is not “the wisdom of man,” but rather “the consciousness of one’s humanity.” In other words, the reversing of the will, the experiencing of knowledge, and one’s participation in the time’s destiny, should all aim at giving the soul a certain direction of consciousness, a “Sophia.” ~Rudolf Steiner GA127

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KNOW THYSELF – Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology — an Easter-Tide Retreat 9 -12 April 2020,

Registration is now open for the Easter-Tide Retreat: “Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology” presented by the Central Regional Council and the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology

Maundy Thursday 9 April 2020 Noon through Easter Sunday at 3 pm
Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL

AAP:James A. Dyson, M.D., Roberta Nelson, Ph.D., and David Tresemer, Ph.D. with Susan Overhauser, Ph.D.

CRC:Marianne Fieber, Alberto Loya, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton

Eurythmist: Mary Ruud

Activities:

Art-Acts
Star Wisdom
The Karma Exercises
Experiential PAGEANT on Holy Saturday: ‘Sophia-Christos- ‘Know Thyself’
Easter Sunrise Songtrail
Optional service at the Christian Community
Communal meals and time for Conversation

Lectures:

‘Living into Karma through the Senses’
‘How to find the Self in a Sea of Karma’
‘Unfolding the Enigma of the Saturn Path’
‘The Gesture of Karma’
‘Christ as Lord of Karma — how do I access this in terms of my personal psychology?’

Conference Fees (includes 1 meal per day & art supplies):

$190 Supporter Level
$140 Standard Rate
$60 Youth Rate (Age 35 and under)

Limited scholarships available. Click here to apply.

You are welcome to join us for individual lectures or activites $20 or $50 per day

Click here for program information and to register

We are looking for folks in Chicago who can offer Home Stays. Please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@peoplepc.com

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Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond April 16-19, 2020 in Detroit, MI.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

Bring a new consciousness to your own life and death
Support those who are crossing and who have crossed over
Expand your practice and knowledge of working with the dying

Through interactive workshops, triad sharing, keynote discussions with Rev. Patrick Kennedy, Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Dr. Melinda Toney, and more, as well as experiential and artistic activities, we will consciously explore the spiritual and practical aspect of human life and death.

Conference Fees:

$280 Supporter Level
$195 Standard ASA Member Rate
$215 Non-Member Rate
$60 Youth Rate (Age 35 and under)

Pre-conference Activities:

Thursday, April 16

2 pm Tour of Brightmoor Maker’s Space

4 pm Screening of short film The Art of Natural Death Care Detroit Waldorf School Auditorium- By Donation

7pm Screening of a Will For The Woods Detroit Waldorf School Auditorium- Open to the public! $10 Suggested Donation

Friday, April 17

10:00-1:00p Registration Opens
10:00-12:00p Choose from two pre-conference activities at the Detroit Waldorf School

Exploring the Beauty of home funerals and green burial: Photo essay and Q&A with Merilynne Rush, MS, End-of-Life Doula Trainer and Home Funeral Guide (Open to the public. Donation accepted at the door)
The Story of Detroit: A Walking Songtrail (Meet in the school playground. Approx. two mile walk)

12:00p Bag Lunch (For Purchase)
1:00p Conference Opening
1:45-3:00p Keynote Discussion with Rev. Patrick Kennedy: Befriending Death
3:00-3:30p Break
3:30-5:00p Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn, and the evolution of Earth – Then and Now. with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg.- – Explore the ancient origins of the many cultural expressions that work with, celebrate, & honor our beloved dead. Prepare the way for the Unborn, and for the future of humanity. Become inspired to Renew or Create your own Tradition. Through Spiritual Science learn to find your destiny, and meet your karma. Prepare for your own conscious crossing into the journey between death and rebirth, by asking questions like: Who have I been? Who am I now? Where am I going…? Who do I want to become?

ALL WORKSHOPS CHOSEN ON SITE
Fuller descriptions coming soon!

From Loss to Connection Through the Arts: Reading, Writing and Drawing with Marianne Dietzel and Maureen Flannery
Together we will invite our loved ones across the threshold to join us in experiencing practices thet connect and heal. We will read to the dead, write prose and poetry, and draw from gestures of nature.
BIOGRAPHY: GIFTS OF REVIEWING LIFE AND CONNECTING TO LIFE AFTER DEATH Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox
A HOME DEATH CARE STORY: CONSCIOUS DYING AND THE HOME VIGIL~BASED ON DYING OF WAYNE TONEY Dr. Melinda Toney, Carole Schoaf, and Katherine Blackburn
MULTI-CULTURAL APPROACHES: ANCIENT AND MODERN/ SACRED AND ESOTERIC: FESTIVALS FOR THE DEAD. THEN AND NOW. RENEW OR CREATE YOUR OWN TRADITION Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Julia Torres and Guests

5:30-6:30 Choose: Eurythmy (Movement), Singing, or Poetry
6:30 Evening Appetizer Reception (Included in registration fee)
7:30-9:00 Evening Performance

Saturday April 18 – All workshops chosen on site/Saturday Lunch and Dinner for purchase

8:00 Coffee/Tea/Breakfast Snacks (Included in Regisration Fee)
8:30-9:15 Choose: Eurythmy (Movement), Singing, or Poetry
9:30-11:00 Three-Day Themed Workshops
11:00-11:30 Break
11:30-12:30 Vigil Room Experience
12:30 – 2:00 Lunch and Table Conversations

2:15 – 3:45 Topic Workshops
Workshop Choices Coming Soon!

3:45-4:15 Break

4:15-5:45 Story Space: Death & Healing

5:45-7:00 Dinner With Your Dinner Table Groups

7:30-9:00 Evening Performance with Sarah Putnam: Little Gidding by TS Elliot followed by Memento Mori Ritual

Sunday, April 19 – All workshops chosen on site

8:00 Coffee/Tea/Breakfast Snacks (Included in Registration Fee)

8:30-9:15 Choose: Eurythmy (Movement), Singing, or Poetry

9:30 – 11:00 Three Day Themed Workshops

11:30-1:00 Green Burial Ceremony and Closing

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~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Saturday, 30 May, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm Groh Farm, 135 Temple Rd, Wilton, NH

Eurythmy: AUM = A – I stand for myself, U- I stand for humanity, M – I stand for Life

Social Sculpture: Steiner’s ‘Blue Dot Exercise’– Through Art, the bridge between science & spirit, we warm the ‘I’, to open the heart, in support of healthy community.

What are my gifts-What are my tools? How can I place them in right relationship within the social realm? How can I hone them to strengthen and enhance the world?

Enter the Labyrinth of ‘Vitae Sophia’ – Human hearts, once warmed, can rise up to meet the source of wisdom, like flowers turning toward the sun.

$30 suggested donation at the door, with potluck lunch to follow
(please bring a dish to share) RSVP deb@anthroposophy.org Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year. Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Trans-denominational Minister, ‘Anthroposopher’, working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, The Traveling Speakers Program, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society.

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Winds of Change

February 24, 2020Celestial Event, Chicago Event, Festival, History, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Speaking with the Stars~hag

Today’s thoughts: Ode to the West Wind

Percy Bysshe Shelley praises the wind for the role it plays in the cycle of life, death & rebirth, & implores it to scatter his poetry over the earth in order to aid humankind. Shelley uses stark imagery to portray vivid scenes of the natural world, & demonstrate the wind’s unrivaled power to both destroy & preserve. Though the ode has a plangent, slightly ominous tone, Shelley ends the poem with the promise of spring.

The first stanza opens with an incantation. Shelley proceeds to paint a scene of fall leaves & dried seeds being blown by the wind, made wonderfully eerie by a palette of colors: “yellow, black and pale, hectic red.” In this stanza, death is referenced multiple times; Shelley refers to the leaves as fleeing dead ghosts, before describing the seeds as corpses inside their grave. The first stanza, like the next two, ends with Shelley calling for the wind to hear him. In the second stanza, the wind is depicted whipping up a mighty storm, likened to a “dirge of the dying year”, furthering Shelley’s reference to death. Curiously intriguing is Shelley’s references to both Christianity & Greek mythology throughout this stanza; the storm clouds are described as being, “shook from the tangled bough of Heaven, Angels of rain and lightning”, & the ending line of the stanza, “Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst!” likens the approaching storm to doomsday. Yet Shelley also uses an image of a Maenad’s hair to describe the lightning. In the third stanza, Shelley writes of the Mediterranean being awoken from its blissful summer sleep by the west wind. The first half of the stanza is filled with images of the calm blue ocean & the azure moss, the sweet flowers & the sea blooms. However, this is then contrasted by the ocean’s power, which causes the serene foliage to grow “gray with fear”.

Stanzas four & five introduce the speaker’s motives for the first time. Shelley longs that he might feel the wind’s power in the way that the clouds, waves & leaves do. Conforming to the standard of the Romantic period, Shelley also references his childhood & loss of innocence by lamenting that the passing of time has hindered his ability to feel as “tameless, swift, and proud” as the wind. The last stanza implements another common Romantic symbol: the lyre. Shelley implores that the west wind take control of him in order to, “drive his dead thoughts over the universe” in order to fertilize the birth of new ideas, as dead leaves fertilize the new growth of plants. Shelley goes on to compare himself to a slowly dying hearth whose ashes & sparks are scattered among mankind. It is fitting that, after illustrating the power of the earth, the water, & the mighty west wind, Shelley ends the poem with a vivid image of fire. After all, though fire can be seen as the epitome of destruction, fire ultimately represents rebirth, like the flame of the phoenix, & a clean slate, like fertile, soot-blackened soil. Out of Shelley’s fiery metaphor comes his hopeful question, “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

Ode to the West Wind
BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
I
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

Her clarion o’er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill:

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear!

II
Thou on whose stream, mid the steep sky’s commotion,
Loose clouds like earth’s decaying leaves are shed,
Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,

Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread
On the blue surface of thine aëry surge,
Like the bright hair uplifted from the head

Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge
Of the horizon to the zenith’s height,
The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge

Of the dying year, to which this closing night
Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,
Vaulted with all thy congregated might

Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere
Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh hear!

III
Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
Lull’d by the coil of his crystalline streams,

Beside a pumice isle in Baiae’s bay,
And saw in sleep old palaces and towers
Quivering within the wave’s intenser day,

All overgrown with azure moss and flowers
So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou
For whose path the Atlantic’s level powers

Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below
The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear
The sapless foliage of the ocean, know

Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear,
And tremble and despoil themselves: oh hear!

IV
If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;
If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;
A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share

The impulse of thy strength, only less free
Than thou, O uncontrollable! If even
I were as in my boyhood, and could be

The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven,
As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seem’d a vision; I would ne’er have striven

As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

A heavy weight of hours has chain’d and bow’d
One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.

V
Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies

Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
Like wither’d leaves to quicken a new birth!
And, by the incantation of this verse,

Scatter, as from an unextinguish’d hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawaken’d earth

The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

***

24 February 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Under the feet of Orion, & to the right of Sirius in early evening now, hides Lepus the Hare. Like Canis Major, this is a constellation with a connect-the-dots that really looks like what it’s supposed to be – a crouching bunny, with his nose pointing lower right, his faint ears extending up toward Rigel (Orion’s western foot), & his body bunched to the left. His brightest 2 stars, Beta & Alpha Leporis, form the front & back of his neck.

Image result for sunrise painting — Helen Turner

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Feast Day of St. Matthias, who, according to the book of Acts, was chosen by the apostles to replace Judas Iscariot following his betrayal & his subsequent death. This calling is unique, since his appointment was not made personally by Jesus, who had already ascended into heaven, & it was also made before the descent of the Holy Spirit.

For superstitious reasons, when the Romans began to bring their calendar into line with the solar year, they chose not to place their extra month of Mercedonius after February but within it. February 24—known in the Roman calendar as “the sixth day before the Kalends of March”—was replaced by the first day of this month since it followed Terminalia, the festival of the Roman god of boundaries. After the end of Mercedonius, the rest of the days of February were observed & the New Year began with the 1^st day of March. The overlaid religious festivals of February were so complicated that Julius Caesar opted not to change it at all during his 46 bc calendar reform. The extra day of his system’s leap years were located in the same place as the old month but he opted to ignore it as a date. Instead, the sixth day before the Kalends of March was simply said to last for 48 hours & all the other days continued to bear their original names. Although February 29 has been popularly understood as the leap day of leap years since the late Middle Ages, no formal replacement of February 24 as the leap day of the Julian & Gregorian calendars has occurred. The exceptions include Sweden & Finland, who enacted legislation to move the day to February 29. This custom still has some effect around the world, for example with respect to name days in Hungary.

1582 – With the papal bull Inter gravissimas, Pope Gregory XIII announces the Gregorian calendar.

Image result for 1831 – The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the first removal treaty in accordance with the Indian Removal Act, is proclaimed on the Choctaws in Mississippi.

1831 – The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the first removal treaty in accordance with the Indian Removal Act, is proclaimed on the Choctaws in Mississippi.

1919 – The 1^st public performance of Eurythmy in Zurich.

1920 – The Nazi Party (NSDAP) was founded by Adolf Hitler in the Hofbräuhaus beer hall in Munich, Germany

***

KNOW THYSELF – Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology — an Easter-Tide Retreat 9 -12 April 2020,

Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond April 16-19, 2020 in Detroit, MI.

Cognitive Ritual

~Confessions of a Modern Rosicrucian

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