Category Archives: Festival

Costume Idea: Dress up as your Higher Self

Autumn, Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Chicago Event, Festival, Poetry, Remembering, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars

31 October 2018 – “Speaking with the Stars”: This Halloween the evening is moonless, since it’s the Last-quarter Moon. Bella Luna is between Cancer & Leo, rising around midnight in the east-northeast far below Castor & Pollux. The Moon reaches perigee, the closest point in its orbit around Earth, at 3:23 p.m. CDT. She is then 230,034 miles away from us.

In early evening, the two brightest celestial objects in good view are Vega high in the west & Mars lower in the south. Draw a line between them – & a little below the line’s midpoint shines Altair, with fainter Tarazed to its upper right by about a finger width at arm’s length.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

All-an-tide (Cornwall)

The first day of All-hallow-tide, observed until November 6 (Western Christianity)

Halloween (Ireland, Canada, United Kingdom, United States etc…)

Hop-tu-Naa is a Celtic festival celebrated in the Isle of Man on 31 October. Predating Halloween, it is the celebration of the original New Year’s Eve (Oie Houney). It is thought to be the oldest unbroken tradition in the Isle of Man

Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season & the beginning of winter or the “darker half” of the year. It is the cross quarter between the autumn equinox & the winter solstice.

The Mound of the Hostages, a Neolithic passage tomb at the Hill of Tara, is aligned with the Samhain sunrise. It is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature & many important events in Irish mythology happen or begin on Samhain.

It was the time when cattle were brought back down from the summer pastures & when livestock were slaughtered for the winter. As at Beltane, special bonfires were lit.

Like Beltane, Samhain was seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world & the Otherworld could more easily be crossed. This meant the Aos Sí, the ‘spirits’ or ‘fairies’, could more easily come into our world. Offerings of food & drink were left outside for them.

The souls of the dead were also thought to revisit their homes seeking hospitality. Feasts were had, at which the souls of dead kin were beckoned to attend & a place set at the table for them.

Mumming & guising were part of the festival, & involved people going door-to-door in costume (or in disguise), often reciting verses in exchange for food.

Divination rituals & games were also a big part of the festival.

The first day of the Day of the Dead, celebrated until November 2 (Spanish: Día de Muertos) The multi-day holiday focuses on gatherings of family to pray for & remember members who have died, & help support their spiritual journey.

Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars called ofrendas, honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, & the favorite foods & beverages of the departed, & visiting graves with these as gifts. Visitors also leave possessions of the deceased at the graves.

Scholars trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances dating back hundreds of years and to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl. The holiday has spread throughout the world, being absorbed within other deep traditions for honoring the dead.

683 – During the Siege of Mecca, the Kaaba, catches fire & burns down. The literal meaning of the Arabic word ka`bah (كَعْبَة) is “cube”, or “House of God”, considered the most sacred site in Islam, a similar role to the Tabernacle & Holy of Holies in Judaism.

500 years ago, on Oct. 31, 1517, the story goes, that the small-town monk, Martin Luther, marched up to the castle church in Wittenberg & nailed his ‘95 Theses’ to the door, lighting the flame of the Reformation — the split between the Catholic & Protestant churches. Luther’s act is one of the cornerstones of world history, & remains a lasting symbol of resistance.

Nearly all of American history bears the imprint of that act of protest. Luther’s challenge, the protection he obtained, & the reformers he inspired laid the foundation for the establishment of colonial America.

In 1934, an African American pastor from Georgia made the trip of a lifetime, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, through the gates of Gibraltar, and across the Mediterranean Sea to the Holy Land. After this pilgrimage, he traveled to Berlin, attending an international conference of Baptist pastors. While in Germany, this man — who was named Michael King — became so impressed with what he learned about the reformer Martin Luther that he decided to do something dramatic. He offered the ultimate tribute to the man’s memory by changing his own name to Martin Luther King. His 5-year-old son was also named Michael — and to the son’s dying day his closest relatives would still call him Mike — but not long after the boy’s father changed his own name, he decided to change his son’s name too, & Michael King Jr. became known to the world as Martin Luther King Jr.

Another dynamic measure of the influence of Martin Luther is the quintessentially modern idea of the individual — of our personal responsibility before ourselves & our God, rather than before any institution, whether church or state. This was as unthinkable before Luther. The contemporary idea of “The People,” along with the democratic impulse that proceeds from it –  The more recent ideas of pluralism, religious liberty, & self-government all entered history through the door that Luther opened.

Luther’s second unyielding act of courage was at the ‘imperial diet’ held in the city of Worms in 1521, when he made it clear that he feared God’s judgment more than the judgment of church leaders in that room.

And suddenly the individual had the freedom & possibility of thinking for themselves.

Martin Luther was not inclined to tilt at papal windmills. In fact, until about 1520 he was a vigorous champion of the church. He desired desperately to help Rome elude the fate it ended up experiencing. In fact, in a case of Oedipusian irony he became the very man who brought about everything he had hoped to avoid. As his story illustrates, it was a sublime & ridiculous decoction of forces that created the perfect storm that burst over the European continent, creating what we now call the Reformation.

Today the Catholic & Lutheran churches are taking the memory of 1517 in hand. Pope Francis joined leaders of the Lutheran World Federation in Sweden to hold a joint service in a spirit of unity after 500 years of division.

1517 – Deathday of Fra Bartolomeo, Italian artist

1984 – Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh security guards. Riots break out in New Delhi & other cities – 4,000 Sikhs are killed.

Image result for Russian Metrojet Flight 9268

2015 – Russian Metrojet Flight 9268 is bombed over the northern Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board

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POD (Poem Of the day)

~My soul duels with worms
Hidden in the clay of being
That would gnaw the scroll of mythos
Witch I carry in my heart whole
& speak thru the living word…
No worries
I will cut bait & continue singing...
~hag

***

On All Hallows-tide, the eve of All Saints’ Day, it was a Medieval Christian tradition for the poor to go to wealthy homes offering to pray for the recently departed in that household, since folks knew that prayers could help the dead on their journey in the after-life. And as a token of their appreciation, the rich would give them food & beer.

Many Halloween customs come from this same ritual. Visitors would show up holding lanterns made of hollowed-out turnips with candles inside, which represented souls in purgatory. Masses were held so that souls wouldn’t feel neglected & haunt believers. There were costumes & masks, & mummers plays to depict the various stages of the after-life.

But after the Protestant Reformation — which can be traced back to a different Oct. 31 event (exactly 500 years ago today): Martin Luther’s 1517 publication of his 95 theses — the idea that souls could be saved in this way began to lose popularity in many of the new denominations.

Some Catholics kept up the practice of going door-to-door on the eve of All Saints’ Day, which became known as “Souling.” By the 1840s, when a wave of Irish & Scottish immigrants brought the custom to the U.S., it was basically a pagan/secular pastime. Young people danced outside tenement apartments in exchange for gifts. Costumes were made out of old clothes, & faces painted with burnt corks, while tricks included stuffing cabbages in chimneys & whacking each other with bags of flour.

Although the Irish Catholics faced widespread prejudice, the celebration having been stripped of its Catholic underpinning, quickly proved to be popular. As those immigrants began to assimilate, newspapers reported the custom trending among 19th century college students. In the early 1900s, high schools, rotary clubs & charities began to throw Halloween parties. By the 1930s, North America had a new term for the old tradition: Trick-or-Treating. And as suburban swelled in the 1950s, Trick-or-Treating grew into the kid-friendly practice seen today.

Here in America, Halloween calls for an interaction with spooky strangers, that come out of the night, knocking on our door, shouting, give me a treat or you’ll get a trick. On a spiritual level, trick-or-treat, can be seen as a demand that strangers, a symbol of the unfamiliar parts of ourselves, give up their gifts to us. There is a lot of energy that gets locked up in the dark, & Halloween is an opportunity for us to dialogue with the dark, the shadow side of The Self, & call that energy back.

Light & dark are not opposites, but 2 parts of the same cycle. In order to fully appreciate the festivals of light, which return with the Winter Solstice, we must 1st grow in the dark womb of our perennial inward journey. With the veil between the worlds so thin, great transformations are possible, since the power of all the dimensions are available to us.

It is not only the veil between the physical & spiritual worlds that thin, it can also be the division between any 2 polarities, like the left & right hemispheres in our brains for instance, or between any 2 realities that are struggling to coexist, like war & peace for instance. This dark night can represent a resolution of paradox, a respectful meeting of the different sides of the same coin, witch can initiate the healing transformation required, in order to let the light back into our lives, once we’ve come to understand & own our side of the dark…

Look for me there, in the dark…

Homework: Dress up as who you want to be in the coming year

xox

 ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

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~ALL SOULS FESTIVAL~

Come Experience the Journey of the Soul in the Life between Death & Rebirth

 6:45 pm – 9:30 pm Friday 2 November 2018 at theRudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618

Guitar by Philp Armetta, Didgeridoo by CG, Fratres by Arvo Part 1 – Cello by Martin Brenman, Piano by Danuta Berger

The Descent of Inanna – An archetype of the soul in the spirit world with Hazel Archer Ginsberg

We cross the threshold for the Leminscate Journey thru the Planetary Spheres & the Zodiac – Eurythmy with Mary Ruud +

Moon: Sheila Donahue
Mercury: Nancy Melvin
Venus: Deborah Rogers
Sun: Alison Biagi
Mars: JMMF
Jupiter: Mary Spalding
Saturn: Martine Benmann

an Artistic Exploration with Nancy Melvin during the Circle of Remembrance

Please contact Carolyn Arnett with the names of those who have died this year to be read in the Circle 

$10 Donation goes to support Eurythmy

Snacks to Share Encouraged

For more info. contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg

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 ‘The Festival Life’

with Hazel Archer Ginsberg for WITH = Waldorf in the Home

Monday 5 November 2018 from 8:15 am – 9:30 am

at the Chicago Waldorf School Andersonville Campus, 5200 N Ashland Ave, Chicago

In the cafe (on far north east side of first floor) after the Day of the Dead assembly

For more info. contact Judy Shaver jlshaver9832@gmail.com

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 2018 Fall Youth Conference in Chicago Nov 1-4th, 2018 

Our Ideas – Our Ideals – Working together to create together

Tamarack Waldorf School will stay as a group though Friday evening- the rest of us will carry on through Sunday at 1PM.

Sponsored by the Christian Community in Coordination with Tamarack Waldorf School, Bart Eddy and Detroit Community School, Elderberries Chicago and musician Jen Zimberg.

High School students that want to come together to work- build- paint- create – in conversation and singing – Our Ideas – Our Ideals – Working together to create together

for more info. contact Ann Burfeind

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The Karma Project 
A Western Approach to Reincarnation & Karma
August 8, 2018 – 7:15 pm CST (8:15 pm EST)
View this email in your browser

“ … something is present in us that is like a more sensible person who gladly turns to the eternal, divine, spiritual powers that live in and animate the world.  Then, in our inner life, we become certain of a higher inner individuality existing behind the outer one.  Through thought exercises such as these, we become aware of the eternal spiritual core of our being.  This is extraordinarily significant.  And once again, this is something we can actually do“.

~Rudolf Steiner, A Western Approach to Reincarnation and Karma, Chapter 4, “Knowledge of Reincarnation and Karma through Thought-Exercises”, Stuttgart, 20 February, 1912 … focus of the November 7meeting!

The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing  study conversation.  The study has been divided amongst five volunteers who will summarize their section to rebuild it as a foundation for our conversation. Please familiarize yourself with the lecture if possible so you will feel comfortable sharing your reflections and thoughts with the group.

This collection of lectures has been republished by Anthroposophic Press under the title: “A Western Approach to Reincarnation and Karma”

This will be a “Zoom” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer).  To connect to the audio/video-conference:
Option 1.  Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended)
https://zoom.us/j/320455319
Option 2.  Call in using your telephone.
United States: +1 669 900 6833  or +1 646 558 8656
Access Code: 320-455-319
Option 3. You can use a combination of Options 1 and 2 (computer and phone). If you use the phone, please turn off the audio on your computer to prevent audio feedback.

Please join us!
Agenda for our Study Call

7:15  Welcome and Introductions
7:18  Verse
7:25  Study led by six volunteers
Mary – pages 53 to 56
Nick – pages 56 to 60
Hazel – pages 60 to 63
Travis – pages 63 to 65
Alberto – pages 65 to end
8:05  Conversation
8:25  Identify volunteers for our next study call (Chapter 5): January 9
8:28  Close with verse

Wednesday 5 December, 2018 CRC Conference Call 7:15pm – 8:30pm CST (8:15pm – 9:30pm EST) – Reincarnation & Karma

with special guest: Dr. Ross Rentea: “A presentation from the karma and the work together of Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman”.

Rudolf Steiner considered Ita Wegman a true “friend”, companion over many incarnations, and invaluable helper. In her incarnation in the 20th century she collaborated with him in writing a book, asked decisive questions that led to the Christmas Foundation Conference, the First Class, and more. We will look especially at their working together on the “Fundamentals of Therapy” a work on which R. Steiner put finishing touches until hours before crossing the threshold.

Ross Rentea, MD, has been practicing anthroposophical medicine in Chicago for 35 years. He is a member of the Anthroposophical Society (1972), the First Class of the School for Spiritual Science (1974), the Physicians Association for Anthroposophic Medicine (1984) and the Christian Community (1976). He has served on the Board of the American College of Anthroposophic Medicine. He has lectured nationally and internationally, and published and written numerous scientific research articles and recently (2017) the book “Childhood Illnesses and Immunizations”. Besides anthroposophical medicine his current interests are in better understanding the seven Rhythms of the Foundation Stone. He is a co-founder of the True Botanica Company www.truebotanica.com and the Lili Kolisko Institute for Anthroposophical Medicine www.koliskoinstitute.org .

For more info. contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg

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The Changing Nature of Childhood Health & Illness

by Dr. Thomas Cowan, M.D.

Nov 15, 2018 — Morning Lecture

10:30am—12noon; Location: 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL 60618 (Rudolf Steiner Branch);

childcare available for additional $5 cash donation at day of event as needed.

Click link below for tickets and more info.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-changing-nature-of-childhood-health-illness-morning-lecture-tickets-51902871887

Nov 15, 2018 — Evening Lecture

7:00 pm—8:30pm; Location: 2135 W. Wilson Ave. Chicago, IL 60625 (The Christian Community Church)

Click link below for tickets and more info.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-changing-nature-of-childhood-health-illness-evening-lecture-tickets-51983654510

Tickets are $12. No tickets sold at the door. This event will sell out.

Please join us in welcoming world-renowned doctor and author Dr. Thomas Cowan, M.D. from San Francisco, CA as he describes his research and experience with today’s children and their health, based on his newest book, Vaccines, Autoimmunity and the Changing Nature of Childhood Illness. The lecture will include suggestions to support the best possible health in our children. We are providing two opportunities to hear Dr. Cowan speak.

We will provide childcare for the morning session in an adjoining space to the lecture, to help parents of young children attend.  Childcare will not be available for the evening lecture.

Dr. Thomas Cowan M.D. is board-certified in anthroposophic medicine. He is a founding board member of the Weston A Price Foundation and is author of The Fourfold Path to Healing, a companion book to Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. He writes the “Ask the Doctor” column in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts.

He is author of Human Heart, Cosmic Heart (A Doctor’s Quest to Understand, Treat and Prevent Cardiovascular Disease). He has three grown children and currently practices medicine in San Francisco where he resides with his wife Lynda Smith Cowan.

This series is presented and sponsored by:

Waldorf Learning Support http://arcturus.info

Arcturus Rudolf Steiner Education Program http://arcturus.info

HealthMarketing.us http://healthmarketing.us

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Friday 16 November 2018

COMMUNITY MEETING

Details TBA

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Friday 30 November 2018 – 7 – 9 pm 

HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT:  THE MYSTERY OF THE APOCALYPSE with Margaret Shipman

‘Apocalypse’ today almost always means war, but its primary definition is REVELATION.  the Book of Revelations seems warlike until we begin to delve into the messages, seals, trumpets and bowls as stages of initiation!  We will explore the complexities of this amazing book of the Bible by taking a journey through the 7-pointed star and the Apocalyptic Seals of the 1907 Munich Conference.

AND:

Saturday 1 December 2018 – 10 am – noon

THE CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE

How can we begin to understand the importance of The Christmas Conference of 1923/24?  Can it be understood as so profound to consider it a second turning point of time?

We will take a journey with the foundation stone, beginning with the laying of the first stone, a physical one, for the first Goetheanum, in 1913.  Then — through the phoenix experience of the 1922/23 fire, and its journey back to earth a year later—we find it again, as a foundation stone meditation planted into our hearts.  The introduction of The Foundation Stone Meditation was a central focus of the Christmas Conference week.  It was one of three great gifts which Rudolf Steiner brought at this time as powerful spiritual tools for human evolution.

Margaret Shipman has been a member of the Anthroposophical Society for 30 years and considers the work of Rudolf Steiner to be the core of her life.  In 2002 she started a national study group for anthroposophy – ‘Geographically Engaged Members Studygroup’, or G.E.M.S.  She is also a cellist and pianist and spent 36 years repairing and making instruments of the violin family.  She co-authored the book titled Violin Restoration with her mentor, Hans Weisshaar, who was in the second-ever Waldorf class and met Rudolf Steiner as a child.

For more info. contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg

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Wed. 5 December 2018 CRC Zoom Call 7:15pm – 8:30pm – Reincarnation & Karma

with special guest: Dr. Ross Rentea: “A presentation from the karma and the work together of Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman”

Steiner considered I. Wegman a true “friend”, companion over many incarnations, and invaluable helper. In her incarnation in the 20th century she collaborated with him in writing a book, asked decisive questions that led to the Christmas Foundation Conference, the First Class, and more. We will look especially at their working together on the “Fundamentals of Therapy” a work on which R. Steiner put finishing touches until hours before crossing the threshold.

Ross Rentea, MD, has been practicing anthroposophical medicine in Chicago for 35 years. He is a member of the Anthroposophical Society(1972), the First Class of the School for Spiritual Science(1974), the Physicians Association for Anthroposophic Medicine (1984) and the Christian Community (1976). He has served on the Board of the American College of Anthroposophic Medicine. He has lectured nationally and internationally, and published and written numerous scientific research articles and recently (2017) the book “Childhood Illnesses and Immunizations”. Besides anthroposophical medicine his current interests are in better understanding the seven Rhythms of the Foundation Stone. He is a co-founder of the True Botanica Company www.truebotanica.com and the Lili Kolisko Institute for Anthroposophical Medicine www.koliskoinstitute.org .

For more info. contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Blood Moon

Autumn, Celestial Event, Chicago Event, Festival, Insight, Lecture, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote

24 October 2018 – “Speaking with the Stars”: October’s Full Moon is called the “Blood Moon or Hunter’s Moon.” Bella Luna officially arrives at opposition to the Sun (which is what makes a full moon) at 11:45 pm CDT. You can find her rising in the east around sunset, residing in the northern part of the constellation Cetus, peaking in the south around 1 am. Look left of her shining face by two or three fists for the little Pleiades cluster on the rise. Whenever we see the Pleiades climbing the eastern sky, their tiny dipper shape is standing on its handle. Bella Luna dips low in the west by the time morning twilight starts to paint the sky.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1260 – Chartres Cathedral is dedicated in the presence of King Louis IX of France

Image result for tycho brahe

1601 – Death day of Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer & alchemist. Rudolf Steiner speaks about him here in Karmic Relationships, Volume IV: Lecture VI: “We were tracing the thread of evolution which enters into the spiritual life of the present time, and we left off with the individuality of Julian the Apostate. I told you that this individuality was next incarnated in one who is only known by legendary accounts, whose secret is contained in the Parsifal legend, in the name of Herzeleide. In this life as Herzeleide, the soul of Julian the Apostate entered into a far deeper inner life. The soul-life of the individuality was deepened, as was indeed necessary after the many storms and inner moods of opposition which he had undergone in his life as Julian the Apostate.

But this later life of which I told you — this life as Herzeleide — spread itself out over the former life as Julian the Apostate like a warm embalming cloud. Thus the soul grew more intense and deep and inward, and grew richer, too, in manifold impulses of the inner life.

Now this soul was among those who had carried over something of the ancient Mysteries. Julian had lived within the substance of the ancient Mysteries at a time when their light was still radiant in many ways. Thus he had received into himself much spirituality of the cosmos. All this had been as it were pressed back during the incarnation as Herzeleide; but it was none the less pressing forth in the soul, and thus we find the same individuality again in the 16th century; we find arising in him once more, in a Christianised form, what he had undergone as Julian the Apostate. For the same individuality reappears in the 16th century as Tycho de Brahe, and stands face to face with the Copernican world-conception which emerges within Western civilisation at that time.”

1911 – Orville Wright remains in the air nine minutes and 45 seconds in a Wright Glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.

1926 – Harry Houdini’s last performance takes place at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit. Harry Houdini was born Ehrich Weisz on 24 March 1874 in Budapest, Hungary. The son of a Rabbi, he relocated with his family to America in 1876.  By the age of 17 he was known as Harry Houdini & left his family to pursue his career in magic. Booked for a two-week engagement in Detroit at The Garrick Theatre, he arrived in pain, but decided to perform the opening show on October 24th.  With much difficulty he performed, but cut the show short & was admitted to Grace Hospital.  It had been determined that he had a ruptured appendix. Surgery was not enough to spare Houdini’s life & he died on 31 October 1926 from peritonitis.

1945 – Founding of the United Nations.

1946 – Deathday of Emil Grosheintz – a dentist who had a practice in Basel, was an early anthroposopher, when the society was still connected to the theosophical movement. Rudolf Steiner loved him because of his sacrificial & conscientious work. His professional career as a dentist allowed him to accompany Steiner on many of his lectures. Like a leitmotiv, his life runs through the fact that he was always present as a witness in important moments of anthroposophy.

In 1906, Emil Grosheintz co-founded the Paracelsus branch in Basel. In 1907 he took part in the Munich Congress & became a member of the German section of the Theosophical Society in 1908.

In 1912, during a visit of Rudolf Steiner to his estate in Dornach, Grosheintz decided to make his land on the Dornach hill available for the construction of the first Goetheanum, & organized the purchase & donation of some further eastern plots.

In 1913 he became chairman of the Johannesbauverein. Because of his excellent organizational abilities & his experience, Emil Grosheintz became co-founder of the anthroposophical branch at the Goetheanum on September 12, 1920, & until May 9, 1943, he served as its first chairman &remained honorary chairman until his death

On 24 December 1914, Emil & Nelly Grosheintz-Laval were witnesses at the wedding ceremony of Marie & Rudolf Steiner.

On September 20, 1913, Emil Grosheintz & his wife Nelly Grosheintz-Laval took part in the laying of the foundation stone for the first Goetheanum. In the same year he moved with his wife & the two sons Hansi & Pierre into the Duldeck house designed for him by Rudolf Steiner on the Dornach hill near the Goetheanum.

1929 – “Black Thursday” stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange.

Image result for 1975 – In Iceland, 90% of women take part in a national strike

1975 – In Iceland, 90% of women take part in a national strike, refusing to work in protest of gaps in gender equality.

Image result for Solidarity trade union

1980 – The government of Poland legalizes the Solidarity trade union

2008 – “Bloody Friday” saw many of the world’s stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

A Haiku for Lori Kulik’s Birthday

Between Michael
& All Souls, green becomes gold
Your fire a bell
Calling in the Full Blood Moon
Your bright gifts so bold
In the cosmic Iron Swell
~hag

***


From Occult History: Lecture 4 by Rudolf Steiner

“During the 16th century, in the year 1546, a remarkable man was born of a noble house of Northern Europe, and in his very cradle, so to speak, everything was laid — including family wealth — that could have led him to positions of great honour in the traditional life of that time. Because, in line with his family traditions, it was intended that he should occupy some eminent political or other high position, he was marked out for the legal profession and sent with a tutor to the University of Leipzig to study jurisprudence. The tutor tormented the boy — for he was still a boy when he was forced to study law — all day long. But at night, while the tutor was sleeping the sleep of the just and dreaming of legal theories, the boy stole out of bed and observed the stars with the very simple instruments he had himself devised. And very soon he knew not only more than any of the teachers about the secrets of the stars but more than was to be found at that time in any book. For example, he very soon noticed a definite position of Saturn and Jupiter in the constellation of Leo, turned to the books and found that they recorded it quite erroneously. The longing then arose in him to acquire as exact a knowledge as possible of this star-script, to record as accurately as possible the course of the stars. No wonder that in spite of all his family’s resistance he soon extracted the permission to become a natural philosopher and astronomer, instead of dreaming his life away over legal books and doctrines. And having considerable means at his disposal, he was able to set up a whole establishment.

This was arranged in a remarkable way. In the upper storeys were instruments designed for observing the secrets of the stars; in the cellars there was equipment for bringing about different combinations and dissolutions of substances. And there he worked, dividing his time between observations carried out on the upper floors of the building and the boiling, fermenting, mixing and weighing which went on in the cellars below. There he worked, in Order to show, little by little, how the laws that are written in the stars, the laws of the planets and fixed stars, the macrocosmic laws, are to be found again microcosmically in the mathematical numbers underlying the combinations and dissolutions of substances. And what he discovered as a living connection between the heavenly and the earthly he applied to the art of medicine, producing medicaments which were the cause of bitter animosity around him because he gave them freely to those he wanted to help. The doctors at that time, intent upon extorting high fees, raged against this man who was accused of perpetrating all sorts of “horrors” with what he endeavoured to bring down from the heavens to the earth.

Fortunately, as the result of a certain happening, he found favour with the Danish King, Frederick the Second, and as long as he retained this favour, all went well: tremendous insight was gained into the spiritual working of cosmic laws in the sense I have just described. This man did indeed know something about the spiritual course of cosmic laws. He dumbfounded the world with things which admittedly would no longer find the same credence to-day. On one Occasion, when he was at Rostock, he prophesied, from the constellation of the stars, the death of the Sultan Soliman, which came true within a few days of the date he had foretold. The news of this made the name of Tycho Brahe famous in Europe. To-day the world at large knows hardly anything more of Tycho Brahe, whose life lies such a short time behind us, than that he was somewhat of a crank and never quite reached the lofty standpoint of modern materialism. He recorded a thousand stars for the first time in the maps of the heavens and also made the epoch-making discovery of a type of star, the “Nova,” which flares up and vanishes again, and described it. But these things are mostly passed over in silence. The world really knows nothing about him except that he was still “stupid” enough to devise a plan of the cosmos in which the earth stands still and the sun together with the planets revolve around it. That is what the world in general knows to-day. The fact that we have to do here with a significant personality of the 16th century, with one who accomplished an infinite amount that even to-day is still useful to astronomy, that untold depths of wisdom are contained in what he gave — none of this is usually recorded, for the simple reason that in presenting the system in detail, out of his own deep knowledge, Tycho Brahe saw difficulties which Copernicus did not see. If such a thing dare be said — for it does indeed seem paradoxical — even with the Copernican cosmic system the last word has not yet been uttered. And the conflict between the two Systems will still occupy the minds of a later humanity. — That, however, only by the way; it is too paradoxical for the present age.

It was only under the successor of the King who had been well-disposed towards him that the enemies of Tycho Brahe arose an all sides. They were doctors and professors at the University of Copenhagen, and they succeeded in inciting the successor of his patron against him. Tycho Brahe was driven from his fatherland and was obliged to go south again. It was in Augsburg that he had originally set up his first great planisphere and the gilded globe on which he always marked the new stars he discovered — finally amounting to a thousand. This man was destined to die in exile in Prague. To this very day, if we turn, not to the usual textbooks, but to the actual sources, and study Kepler, let us say, we can still see that Kepler was able to arrive at his laws because of the meticulous astronomical observations made by Tycho Brahe before him. Here indeed was a personality who again bore the stamp, in a grand style, of what had been great and significant wisdom before his time; one who could not reconcile himself to the kind of knowledge that became popular immediately afterwards in the shape of the materialistic view of the world. Truly it is a strange destiny, this destiny of Tycho Brahe!

And now, placing both personal destinies side by side, think how endlessly instructive it is when we learn from the Akasha Chronicle that the individuality of Julian the Apostate appears again in Tycho Brahe, that Tycho Brahe is, so to say, a reincarnation of Julian the Apostate. Thus strangely and paradoxically does the law of reincarnation take effect when the karmic connection of the single individual are modified by world-historic karma; when the cosmic Powers themselves use the human individuality as their instrument.”

***

~ALL SOULS FESTIVAL~

Come Experience the Journey of the Soul in the Life between Death & Rebirth

 6:45 pm – 9:30 pm Friday 2 November 2018 at theRudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618

Cello by Martin Brenman, Guitar by Philp Armetta, Didgeridoo by CG

The Descent of Inanna – An archetype of the soul in the spirit world with Hazel Archer Ginsberg

We cross the threshold for the Leminscate Journey thru the Planetary Spheres & the Zodiac – Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

an Artistic Exploration with Nancy Melvin during the Circle of Remembrance

$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged

For more info. contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

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‘The Festival Life’

with Hazel Archer Ginsberg for WITH = Waldorf in the Home

Monday 5 November 2018 from 8:15 am – 9:30 am

at the Chicago Waldorf School Andersonville Campus, 5200 N Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL · (773) 465-2662

In the cafe (on far north east side of first floor) after the Day of the Dead assembly

For more info. contact Judy Shaver jlshaver9832@gmail.com

***

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 2018 Fall Youth Conference in Chicago Nov 1-4th, 2018 

Our Ideas – Our Ideals – Working together to create together

Tamarack Waldorf School will stay as a group though Friday evening- the rest of us will carry on through Sunday at 1PM.

Sponsored by the Christian Community in Coordination with Tamarack Waldorf School, Bart Eddy and Detroit Community School, Elderberries Chicago and musician Jen Zimberg.

High School students that want to come together to work- build- paint- create – in conversation and singing – Our Ideas – Our Ideals – Working together to create together

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Friday 30 November 2018 – 7 – 9 pm

 HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT:  THE MYSTERY OF THE APOCALYPSE with Margaret Shipman

 ‘Apocalypse’ today almost always means war, but its primary definition is REVELATION.  The Book of Revelations seems warlike until we begin to delve into the messages, seals, trumpets and bowls as stages of initiation!  We will explore the complexities of this amazing book of the Bible by taking a journey through the 7-pointed star and the Apocalyptic Seals of the 1907 Munich Conference.

$15 or pay what you can, Snacks to Share Encouraged

AND:

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Saturday 1 December 2018 – 10 am – noon

 THE CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE with Margaret Shipman

 How can we begin to understand the importance of The Christmas Conference of 1923/24?  Can it be understood as so profound to consider it a second turning point of time?

We will take a journey with the foundation stone, beginning with the laying of the first stone, a physical one, for the first Goetheanum, in 1913.  Then — through the phoenix experience of the 1922/23 fire, and its journey back to earth a year later—we find it again, as a foundation stone meditation planted into our hearts.  The introduction of The Foundation Stone Meditation was a central focus of the Christmas Conference week.  It was one of three great gifts which Rudolf Steiner brought at this time as powerful spiritual tools for human evolution.

 $15 or pay what you can, Snacks to Share Encouraged

 Margaret Shipman has been a member of the Anthroposophical Society for 30 years and considers the work of Rudolf Steiner to be the core of her life.  In 2002 she started a national study group for anthroposophy – ‘Geographically Engaged Members Studygroup’, or G.E.M.S.  She is also a cellist and pianist and spent 36 years repairing and making instruments of the violin family.  She co-authored the book titled Violin Restoration with her mentor, Hans Weisshaar, who was in the second-ever Waldorf class and met Rudolf Steiner as a child.

For more info. contact coordinator Hazel Archer Ginsberg hag@rschicago.org

 ***

Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map) Check out our Web site! Chicago, IL (Anthroposophical Society in America)

 The Elderberries 3-Fold Space is currently available for rental on PEER SPACE for classes, events, meetings, retreats, art exhibits, family parties, etc…

To bear myself in me

Autumn, Festival, Insight, Lecture, Meditation, Poetry, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Speaking with the Stars

29 September 2018 – “Speaking with the Stars”: There’s roughly a two-hour window of darkness now between twilight’s end & moonrise The window gets longer every night this week. Late tonight when the Moon does rise, it’s in company with Aldebaran. By Sunday morning the 30th, the Moon and Aldebaran are shining very high toward the south.

***

“In the karma of every single Anthroposophist is written: Become a person of initiative; observe whether out of the hindrances of your body or any other hindrances that thwart you, you do not discover initiative to be the center of your being. Suffering and joy for you will actually depend on whether or not you can discover personal initiative. As if in letters of gold, there should always stand before the soul of the Anthroposophist: ‘Initiative is part of your karma; much of what meets you in life will depend on whether you can bring this initiative to consciousness’. ~Rudolf Steiner.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

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

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

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

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

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

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

Related imageCaravaggio

1571 – Birthday of Caravaggio, Italian painter

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

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

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

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

Image result for 1885 – The first public electric tramway

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

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

1924 – Ludwig Polzer holds his 1st First Class Lesson

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

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

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

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

Image result for 2008 – Following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers & Washington Mutual, The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points,

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

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2009 – The 8.1 Mw Samoa earthquake strikes with a maximum Mercalli intensity.  A destructive tsunami follows, leaving 1189 dead & hundreds injured.

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~my hives shimmer with grace
golden in the grey day
the ever busy bees work at home today
cleaning house
singing appeasements to the undines…
the sukkah waits
as the countenance of Michael
radiates
the power of Divine Will
in Love
~hag

***

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

Blessings of Michaelmas dear friends.

~hag

see you in NOLA

AGM of the ASA Friday, Oct 5 – Sunday, Oct 7 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE!

First Grace United Methodist Church 3401 Canal Street, New Orleans (Check out their amazing history here!)

Pre-conference: Thursday, Oct 4: Living in the Branches National Branch and Group Gathering

Friday 5 October 2018 4:00-5:15 pm Cain and Abel: Building a bridge between the Two Streams, with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

***

Friday 19 October 2018, 7 – 9 pm

COMMUNITY MEETING: ”A healing conversation about equality and the threefold social order: What is living in us now?” 

Facilitated by Paulette Arnold

***

Friday 2 November 2018, 7 – 9 pm

ALL SOULS FESTIVAL

Earthly Death / Cosmic Life

Storytelling: The Descent of Inanna – An archetype of the soul in the spirit world

 Lemniscate Journey thru the Planetary Spheres & the Zodiac –Artistic Exploration – Which Wandering or Fixed Star calls to you?

Didgeridoo

Remembering those who have Crossed the Threshold

The Hallelujah in Eurythmy

Contact Carolyn Arnett with the names of loved ones, who have died this year, to be read in the circle. (773-539-3688) c.roorda.arnett@gmail.com

$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged

For more info. contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

Friday 30 November 2018 – 7 – 9 pm 

 HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT:  THE MYSTERY OF THE APOCALYPSE with Margaret Shipman

‘Apocalypse’ today almost always means war, but its primary definition is REVELATION.  the Book of Revelations seems warlike until we begin to delve into the messages, seals, trumpets and bowls as stages of initiation!  We will explore the complexities of this amazing book of the Bible by taking a journey through the 7-pointed star and the Apocalyptic Seals of the 1907 Munich Conference.

$15 or pay what you will, Snacks to Share Encouraged

AND:

Saturday 1 December 2018 – 10 am – noon

 THE CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE with Margaret Shipman

How can we begin to understand the importance of The Christmas Conference of 1923/24?  Can it be understood as so profound to consider it a second turning point of time?

We will take a journey with the foundation stone, beginning with the laying of the first stone, a physical one, for the first Goetheanum, in 1913.  Then — through the phoenix experience of the 1922/23 fire, and its journey back to earth a year later—we find it again, as a foundation stone meditation planted into our hearts.  The introduction of The Foundation Stone Meditation was a central focus of the Christmas Conference week.  It was one of three great gifts which Rudolf Steiner brought at this time as powerful spiritual tools for human evolution.

 $15 or pay what you will, Snacks to Share Encouraged


Margaret Shipman has been a member of the Anthroposophical Society for 30 years and considers the work of Rudolf Steiner to be the core of her life.  In 2002 she started a national study group for anthroposophy – ‘Geographically Engaged Members Studygroup’, or G.E.M.S.  She is also a cellist and pianist and spent 36 years repairing and making instruments of the violin family.  She co-authored the book titled Violin Restoration with her mentor, Hans Weisshaar, who was in the second-ever Waldorf class and met Rudolf Steiner as a child.

For more info. contact coordinator Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map) Check out our Web site! Chicago, IL (Anthroposophical Society in America)

The Elderberries 3-Fold Space is currently available for rental on PEER SPACE for classes, events, meetings, retreats, art exhibits, family parties, etc…

Gemüt

Autumn, Festival, Lecture, Poetry, Remembering

20 September 2018 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The yellow-orange point to the right of Bella Luna this evening is Mars. Once night is fully dark, look for Fomalhaut, the Autumn Star, rising about three fists to the Moon’s lower left.

 Mars by WilliamTurners

Mercury reaches superior conjunction at 9 pm CDT. This means the innermost planet lies on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth & remains hidden in our Day Star’s glare. It will return to view in the evening sky, though just barely, in late October.

***

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Lectures by Rudolf Steiner on this date

Looking at the past to see the present, co-creating the future:

“History, historical life, will only be seen in the right light when a true consciousness of the connection of the so-called living with the so-called dead can be developed” – The Living and the Dead by Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, 5th February, 1918

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

622 – Muhammad & Abu Bakr arrived in Medina

Image result for 1378 – Cardinal Robert of Geneva, called by some the "Butcher of Cesena", is elected as Pope Clement VII

1378 – Cardinal Robert of Geneva, called by some the “Butcher of Cesena“, is elected as Pope Clement VII, beginning the Papal schism. He was the 1st antipope residing in Avignon, France

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1498 – The 1498 Nankai earthquake generates a tsunami that washes away the building housing the statue of the Great Buddha at Kōtoku-in in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan. Over 10,000 die

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1519 – Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with 270 men on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe

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1737 – The Walking Purchase– between the Penn family, the proprietors of Pennsylvania, & the Lenape Tribe (also known as the Delaware). This document may have been an unsigned, unratified treaty, or even an outright forgery (Encyclopædia Britannica refers to it as a “land swindle”. The Penns’ agents began selling land, an area of 1,200,000 acres, in the Lehigh Valley to colonists while the Lenape still inhabited the area

Image result for 1893 – Charles Duryea road-tests the first American-made gasoline-powered automobile

1893 – Charles Duryea road-tests the first American-made gasoline-powered automobile

Image result for 1906 – Founding of the Paracelsus Branch, Basel Switzerland

1906 – Founding of the Paracelsus Branch, Basel Switzerland

Image result for 1906 – Founding of the Paracelsus Branch, Basel Switzerland

1913 – The laying of the Foundation Stone of the 1st Goetheanum

1913 – Founding of the Moscow Branch of the Anthroposophical Society

1933 – Deathday of Annie Besant. In 1890 Besant met Helena Blavatsky. She became a member of the Theosophical Society & a prominent lecturer. She established the first overseas Lodge of the International Order of Co-Freemasonry, Le Droit Humain. Over the next few years she established lodges in many parts of the British Empire. In 1907 she became president of the Theosophical Society, whose international headquarters were in Adyar, Madras. She also became involved in politics in India, joining the Indian National Congress. When World War I broke out in 1914, she helped launch the Home Rule League to campaign for democracy in India. This led to her election as president of the India National Congress. In the late 1920s, Besant travelled to the United States with her protégé & adopted son Jiddu Krishnamurti, whom she claimed was the new Messiah & incarnation of Buddha. Krishnamurti rejected these claims in 1929. She is thought to be the reincarnation of Giordano Bruno

1941 – Holocaust 403 Jews (128 men, 176 women & 99 children) were murdered by Einsatzkommando 3 in Nemencing, Latvia.

1942 – Holocaust in Letychiv, Ukraine. In the course of two days the German SS murders at least 3,000 Jews

1973 – Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome

***

Image result for rain painting

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~i sing the rain
in fresh contemplation
of change…

~hag

***

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Today I begin a series on Michaelmas.

MICHAELMAS AND THE SOUL-FORCES OF MAN By RUDOLF STEINER

a Summary by Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

Lecture 1. How can humanity, the earth citizen, become once more a citizen of the cosmos? The expansion of life’s horizon into cosmic reaches brings the human being into the picture of Michael’s Conflict with the Dragon.

The Dragon is not found in the sense world. Where is he? The dragon lives within the human being. “…the outer cosmic conflict of Michael and the Dragon was transferred to the inner human being, because only in human nature could the Dragon now find his sphere of action.”

Because of that Michael now works with us to fight the dragon within human nature.

Steiner gives this picture of the dragon writhing around the animalistic part of humanity, even coiling around the heart; but then — behind us, at the back of the head — the outer cosmic figure of Michael, towering, radiant, retaining his cosmic nature but reflecting it in the higher human nature, so that our etheric body reflects etherically the cosmic figure of Michael. Then there would be visible in the human head — but working down into the heart — the power of Michael, crushing the Dragon and causing blood to flow down from the heart to the limbs.” So we can put our will into action

“…. In the intellect we are isolated from the world, because everyone has their own head, and in that head, their own thoughts. But In our Gemüt we cannot do that, the Gemüt is not dependent upon the head, but on the rhythmic system, bringing us back to where we belong, as a being in the cosmos.”

The Gemüt, as meaning something like: ‘the mind warmed by a loving heart and stimulated by the soul’s imaginative power’.

“…So with our Gemüt we can say: The power of the Dragon is working within me, I might not see it — but I can feel it as a force that wants to drag me down below myself. But in the spirit I see the luminous Angel whose cosmic task has always been the vanquishing of the Dragon. I concentrate my Gemüt upon this glowing figure, I let its light stream into my Gemüt, so that my illumined and warmed Gemüt will bear within it the strength of Michael. And out of a free resolution I will be able, through my alliance with Michael, to conquer the Dragon’s might in my own lower nature.”

“…this activated Gemüt enters into a living relationship with the whole cosmos the moment it indeed comes to life.

Life will not have a true soul content until we can develop cosmic impulses in our Gemüt.”

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Tomorrow I will bring my summary of lecture 2

Xox

~hag

***

 Veil Painting Workshop with David A. Dozier 773-627-0060

Friday Sept. 21, 2018, 7 -9pm, Saturday Sept. 22, 10 am – 5 pm, Sunday Sept. 23, 10 am -1pm

Workshop fee: $135.00 for RSB members, $160.00 for non-members Supply fee: $135.00*

***

 Friday 28 September 2018 – COMMUNITY MEETING 

at 7 pm with Ann Burfeind 

Checking in on our local Anthroposophical Initiatives:

Are you a Waldorf Teacher, Branch Member, Christian Community Member, In the Arcturus Teacher Training, Involved with Anthroposophical Medicine, or Bio-Dynamics, Interested in serving the Being of Chicago…? Please come & bring a report, of the new school, or your Spiritual Scientific research…ETC…

We will also have a review of the How We Will Forum2

All in the spirit of Michaelmas

***

Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map) 

Check out our Web site! Chicago, IL (Anthroposophical Society in America

The Elderberries 3-Fold Space is currently available for rental on PEER SPACE for classes, events, meetings, retreats, art exhibits, family parties, etc…

 

 

 

 

 

Against All Odds

Festival, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars

14 September 2018 – “Speaking with the Stars”: It’s the last week of summer!

In twilight this evening, catch the crescent Moon in the southwest with Jupiter on her lower right. A line from the Moon through Jupiter points toward Venus, much lower.

Once nightfall is complete, the two brightest stars (not planets) are Vega high overhead & Arcturus in the west.

Draw a line down from Vega to Arcturus. A third of the way down you cross the dim Keystone of Hercules. Two thirds of the way you cross the dim semicircle of Corona Borealis with its one modestly bright star: Alphecca, the gem of the crown.

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

We are the echo of the future ~W. S. Merwin (Thanks to Chris Manvell)

Feast of the Cross – According legend the True Cross was discovered in 326 by Saint Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, during a pilgrimage she made to Jerusalem. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was then built at the site of the discovery, by order of Helena & Constantine. The church was dedicated nine years later, on this same date, with a portion of the cross placed inside it.

Other legends explain that in 614, that portion of the cross was carried away from the church by the Persians, & remained missing until it was recaptured by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius in 628. Initially taken to Constantinople, the cross was returned to the church in 629.

326 – Helena of Constantinople discovers the True Cross & builds the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem

629 – Emperor Heraclius enters Constantinople in triumph after his victory over the Persian Empire

Sandro Botticelli

1321 – Deathday of Durante degli Alighieri – known as Dante

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1486 – Birthday of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, German Occultist, theologian, astrologer, & alchemist

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1723 – Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena lays down the first stone of Fort Manoel in Malta. de Vilhena, a Portuguese nobleman was the 66th Prince of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Unlike many other Grand Masters, he was benevolent & popular with the Maltese people

1741 – George Frideric Handel completes his oratorio Messiah

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1752 – The British Empire adopts the Gregorian calendar, skipping eleven days (the previous day was September 2)

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1901 – U.S. President William McKinley dies after an assassination attempt on September 6, & is succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt

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1940 –The  Ip massacre: The Hungarian Army, supported by local Hungarians, kill 158 Romanian civilians in Ip, Sălaj, a village in Northern Transylvania, an act of ethnic cleansing

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1943 – World War II: The Wehrmacht starts targeting several Greek villages death toll over 500 people

1959 – The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it?

1960 – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is founded

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1960 – Congo Crisis: With CIA help, Mobutu Sese Seko seizes power in a military coup, suspending parliament & the constitution

Image result for 1969 – The US Selective Service selects September 14 as the First Draft Lottery dateImage result for 1969 – The US Selective Service selects September 14 as the First Draft Lottery date

1969 – The US Selective Service selects September 14 as the First Draft Lottery date

2008 – All 88 people on board Aeroflot Flight 821 are killed when the plane crashes on approach to Perm Airport

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My POD (Poem Of the Day)

Sir Edward Coley

~I burn & radiate
In the empty space
Where fire appears blue
A jolt of essence
A glow of ether
A passion for stars & stones
~hag

***

How We Will: Bare Bones Organizing – Threefolding Our Cultural Revolution

Review by Kait Ziegler

How do we stand deeply in spiritual space and also be of service in a social justice movement?” This question resonated throughout the space, weaving through the breaths of the individuals who came to How We Will with their own deep questions and capacities. It cascaded down the brightly hued, Lazure walls of the second, emerging Elderberries Threefold Cafe in Chicago, the Aquarian Heartland of the country. In this Heartland, our second forum was a beating heart with many different veins of communities connecting into a shared source of life, with two essential streams of spirituality and inner work intersecting with activism and social justice. The meeting of these two seemingly disconnected life journeys–inner and outer healing of ourselves and the world–sparked the moral imagination of how to build a meaningful bridge between the communities, and ask “how to build it?” and “why to build it?” There is also a question of if these two streams are really disconnected at all, and if they are not binary realms opposing one another, how do we locate the bridge which is already there as a fused, inseparable gesture?

The organizers and forum community offered the idea of Social Threefolding as the reasons for “Why” and “How”. Social Threefolding, a separation of the political, cultural, and economic spheres, was dived deeply into and acted as the blood running through the different veins to make the heart of our forum pump with life. Through panels like “Building Bridges”, “Against All Odds”, and “Why I Stand”, along with Theory U sessions and Threefold Breakout Groups, we investigated the inner and outer qualities of Threefold–technically, emotionally, spiritually, logistically, and more–both intangible and tangible realities of a new system being brainstormed and vigorously worked with. Through hearing insights from individuals working in the Poor People’s Campaign, as well as leaders around the country active in social justice and organizing work, we also explored the reality that, just as Rudolf Steiner was a community organizer and activist, we must also pick up the baton of organizing our local communities, intersecting with social justice awareness, if we are to practically and holistically bring the impulse of Social Threefolding into the world.

As a ribbon threading through our intellectually rich sessions, Melody and Ianthe led the community through an embodied, creative journey of co-leading the story of Goethe’s, “The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily“. With different small groups taking portions of the tale, we used our bodies, props, and imagination to tell the story at different times of the days which mirrored the times of the story, midnight to midnight, until the prophecy had been fulfilled. Melanie offered an evening imagination of, “Who is the lily?” which boldly illuminated the creative power of the story and its purpose– to open deep questions and themes in which to resonate in our souls.

Each interpretation is different of Goethe’s tale, but the feeling of it somehow generated a correlating and empowering question around our purpose of coming to How We Will, and what might come next. Like the convening of the old man, old woman, maidens, lily, snake, young prince, four kings, will-o wisps, ferryman, and the hawk, what might happen when all of us come together that cannot be achieved if working alone? Like the separated worlds of the two sides of the great river, with a great prophecy waiting to be fulfilled of true leadership, bridging an abyss, and building a sacred space, what is our collective prophecy which we must pick up as our task to help serve humanity and bridge the gaps which are present in our society? How do the streams of inner and outer work connect to topple the pillars of racism, poverty, ecological devastation, and the war economy, as the work does of the Poor People’s Campaign?

Our answers to these questions varied. At the closing of the forum, people spoke of their ideas that want to be put into action: a localized Threefold organizing project with research and development; outreach to the older generations within Anthroposophy; a housing trust to crumble borders and increase accessibility; building an international sacred space for youth; connecting Brightmoor Maker Space and Free Columbia to the new cafe space, and much more. There is a lot of inner and outer work to be done, and this will certainly not be our last How We Will, yet we made beautiful progress together. Though our initiatives might be separate, the blood of their intention is of one source. Social Threefolding and its qualities of striving for deeper freedom, equity and equality, as well as kinship is coursing through all of the gifts manifested from the forum. We will have to work and see what emerges in our upcoming future, and invite you to set a benchmark that brings us and our communities back together in Philadelphia in 2019 for our third How We Will. A six month interval will happen for those wishing to be a part of the Organizing Research looking at two cities in Los Angeles as our map.

We offer gratitude to all who came to How We Will, all of the organizers, all which emerged and was shared, and acknowledge the courage it takes to stand against all odds for the sake of humanity.

#HowWeWill
#SeparationOfPowers
#Threefolding

Another review from Tom Grode!

A FAIRY TALE

Webster’s: “a story with improbable events leading to a happy ending”.

Once upon a time I flew from Los Angeles to Chicago for How We Will — a four day gathering the end of summer at the Rudolph Steiner Branch.

Steiner lived and worked in Germany during the days following World War I. From Conscious Society: “Delivered in the context of post-war culture and chaos, these lectures form part of Rudolf Stenier’s energetic efforts to cultivate social understanding and renew culture through his innovative ideas based on “threefolding”. Steiner develops a subtle and discerning perception of how social dynamics could change and heal if they were founded on real insight into our threefold nature as individuals, social beings, and economic participants in the world. He doesn’t offer a programmatic agenda for change, but a real foundation from which change can organically grow.”

I flew to Chicago stressed and excited about the chaotic circumstances in my life. I flew to Chicago not really sure what I was walking into. I flew to Chicago anticipating something important would happen.

Around seventy people came to Chicago. Several of us came from Los Angeles. Several came from an artists community in rural upstate New York. Some guys came from Detroit. A sprinkling came from other parts of the country and many from Chicago.

Two young Storytelling ladies from Europe on the first day broke us into seven groups to take turns with a section of The Green Snake and Beautiful Lily fairy tale by Goethe. I never heard of The Green Snake and Beautiful Lily before. The different groups would perform their section of the story over the course of the next few days so by the end we presented the full story to one another.

We had just established Community Agreements, one of which was Trust The Process and so I suppose I broke the agreement because I quickly went to Google to read the whole story. The Green Snake and Beautiful Lily tells of a river separating two lands and a snake that sacrifices itself to become a bridge so people can freely walk over the river from land to land.

The Los Angeles folks were connected to Moral Mondays held by a vegan café Elderberries 3Fold on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. Moral Mondays is rooted in the work done by Rev. William Barber in North Carolina who launched Moral Mondays and later re-launched the Poor Peoples Campaign first launched by Martin Luther King now under the name Poor Peoples Campaign: a national call for moral revival. Some of the Moral Mondays folks are now major leaders in the Poor Peoples Campaign for California.

I flew to Chicago carrying three things:

1) My Native American name is Woorypot Moompet and much of the Poor Peoples Campaign foundation laid by Dr.King at the time of his assassination was his growing relationship with Native American leaders.

2) I’ve lived in Skid Row downtown Los Angeles since 2013 and the essence of Skid Row mirrors the essence of the Poor Peoples Campaign: a national call for moral revival.

3) A few years ago while staying in Pasadena I had a vision of two lines moving in outer space where they would eventually intersect. One line was called Martin Luther King and the other line was called William Seymour. When they intersected there was an explosion and inside the explosion appeared the word “justice”. Preacher Seymour, the son of slaves, was the leader of the Azusa Street Revival of 1906 in downtown Los Angles that birthed Pentecostal Christianity. Time-Life in 2001 put the Azusa Street Revival, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and Shekinah Glory, as #68 on their list of 100 Most Important Events of the Past One Thousand Years 1000–2000AD. Azusa is a Tongva word, Native indigenous people of Los Angeles, and is usually translated as Blessed Miracle or Healing. .

The threefolding process of Rudolf Steiner is based on a simple premise: human society used to be centralized courtesy of the Pharoah and the King. But the great wave has been away from centralization and this movement has resulted in three separate yet overlapping realms — Rights (government), Cultural, Economic. That premise then becomes the basis for systemic reformation and creating new systems.

Steiner developed Anthroposofy as a scientific form of Theosophy, a relationship with God and the spiritual realm based on mystical insights, and followers of Steiner weave Anthroposofy into Threefolding as part of exploring the Rights, Culture, and Economic realms for a healthier humanity.

In this fairy tale are many characters: a Ferryman, two Will O’ The Wisps, the Green Snake, a Weak Giant with a Strong Shadow, the Gold King, the Silver King, the Bronze King, a Fourth King (composite of the other three Kings), Old Man with Lamp, Wife of Old Man, Beautiful Lily, Young Man, Maiden, Mops the Dog, two Maiden Servants. As the seven groups rehearsed their turn to tell their section of the story, one wall was painted as a Green Snake and Beautiful Lily mural.

The rural New York artists sang folk songs wearing rural New York folk song clothing. The Detroit guys were led by an old white guy who kept spitting out rhymes. Words from Motor City mostly very pretty.

Meals were shared — every possible tasty variation of beans and rice. During one lunch I spoke to one of the rural New York artist folk singers and he told me how a Mohawk leader walked with them for counsel as they developed a Native theater piece featuring giant puppets, Excerpts of the Journey of the Peacemaker.

The Chicago folks were mostly older and over the days they wrestled with how to support a vegan café based on the one in Los Angeles about to be built in much of their Rudolf Steiner Branch building.

How We Will included expert threefolding teachers with Q and A plus group discussion. We also had panel discussions. One panel was Against All Odds and I spoke about the intense still to be finished roller coaster in City Hall for Skid Row to create a Skid Row Neighborhood Council as an official part of City government.

We closed our gathering in a circle where folks could step forward to announce some brand new practical effort as an invitation for others to support their journey. One of the Storytellers from England who helped lead our Green Snake theater process stepped into the circle bursting into tears as she shared her vision of how affordable housing can help bridge gaps between people, ending with her crying saying: “Why is this happening, I don’t even know how to do a mortgage”.

Tears can be a form of intercession. Intercession is a gap between what should never have been separated, and you step into that gap. Tears nurture the coming together.

The common aftermath of a mountaintop experience is folks return to normal life in the valley. This gathering could be different as everyone can follow online or in person the process to turn much of the Chicago Branch building into a threefolding vegan café based on the community-building momentum of How We Will.

“Finally, the crowd gradually dispersed, pursuing its own course; and the bridge, to this day, continues to swarm with travelers, and the temple is the most frequented one on the entire earth”.

***

Dear Friends – A friendly reminder: The play “This War Is Not Inevitable” will be performed at Urban Prairie on Saturday night at 7 pm.  And at the Christian Community on Sunday Sept. 16th at 12:30 pm.

This two-actor performance is about Social Three-Folding in Middle Europe at the beginning of World War I and the beginning of the Waldorf School Movement.

It is acessable to all, and so relevant to the issues we are all facing today in the cultural, political and the economic realms, but refreshingly non-partisan.

Michael Burton, from New Zealand along with young Waldorf alumnus Christian Peterson, from Harlemville, will be performing.

We are so fortunate that they are able to stop in Chicago on their tour around the US!  So bring a neighbor or friend along!

All Contributions are appreciated. ?

~Johanna Rohde

PERFORMANCE OF THE PLAY Written by Michael Hedley Burton:Saturday, September 15th at 7 pm  Urban Prairie Waldorf School 1310 S. Ashland

PERFORMANCE CANCELED on Sept. 14th at Chicago Waldorf School

PERFORMANCE on Sunday, Sept 16th at 12:30 pm

At The Christian Community, 2135 West Wilson Ave, 60625

Suggested donation: $15, $25 or $40…depending on your circumstances.Books written by Michael Burton also for sale

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 Poetic Imagination, Metamorphosis and the Evolution of Consciousness with Luke Fischer

Sunday 16 September 2018, 4 – 6 pm At the Branch

In this lecture, poet and philosopher, Dr Luke Fischer will discuss ways in which the poetry and thought of Goethe, Rilke, Barfield, and Steiner contribute to an understanding of the evolution of consciousness and of the particular significance of poetic imagination. He will also shed light on how his own poetic and philosophical writings have addressed these topics.

Also: a short Poetry Reading and Piano Recital with Ryan Senger www.lukefischerauthor.com

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Veil Painting Workshop with David A. Dozier

Friday Sept. 21, 2018, 7 -9pm, Saturday Sept. 22, 10 am – 5 pm, Sunday Sept. 23, 10 am -1pm

Workshop fee: $135.00 for RSB members, $160.00 for non-members Supply fee: $135.00*

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 Friday 28 September 2018 – COMMUNITY MEETING at 7 pm with Ann Burfeind 

Checking in on our local Anthroposophical Initiatives:

Are you a Waldorf Teacher, Branch Member, Christian Community Member, Involved with Anthroposophical Medicine, or Bio-Dynamics, Interested in serving the Being of Chicago…? Please come & bring a report, of the new school, or your Spiritual Scientific research…ETC…

We will also have a review of the How We Will Forum2

All in the spirit of Michaelmas

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Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map) Check out our Web site! Chicago, IL (Anthroposophical Society in America) 

The Elderberries 3-Fold Space is currently available for rental on PEER SPACE for classes, events, meetings, retreats, art exhibits, family parties, etc…