Category Archives: Festival

Sunward-Striving

Chicago Event, Festival, Lecture, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote

8 May 2018 – Astro-Weather: Jupiter is at opposition with the Sun as seen from Earth. The Benevolent King is also at its closest & brightest for the year.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Kelly Wright

“Greek philosophy beautifully compared the human soul with a bee. The world of colour and light offers the soul honey which it brings with it into the higher world. The soul must spiritualize sense experience and carry it up into higher worlds.” ~Rudolf Steiner 1906

1429 – Joan of Arc lifts the Siege of Orléans, turning the tide of the Hundred Years’ War.

1902 – In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful of residents survive the blast.

1933 – Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast of self-purification and launched a one-year campaign to help the Harijan movement

1884 – Birthday of Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States, 33 degree Mason.

1922 – D. N. Dunlop resigns from the Theosophical Society

1891 – Death Day of Helena Blavatsky, Russian-English mystic & author, said to be the reincarnation of Cagliostro by Emil Bock. In her will, HPB suggested that her friends might gather together on the anniversary of her death & read from Sir Edwin Arnold’s The Light of Asia & from The Bhagavad Gita. Lotuses grew in unusual profusion one year later. Hence, May 8 became known as White Lotus Day.

1903 – Deathday of Paul Gauguin, French painter and sculptor. His work was influential to the French avant-garde & many modern artists, such as Pablo Picasso & Henri Matisse.

1929 – Death Day of Pauline von Kalckreuth, early anthroposophist

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~The sparrows song cuts the twilight
Opening the colors to dawn
I carry this melody in my belly
Close to the egg of silence in my womb –
Thus I give birth to Easter with every sunrise…

~hag

***

David Newbatt

Ascension part  4:

Christ remains in union with the earth, which rescues for the earth the sunward-striving etheric body. -But to be able to take effect in a human being’s spirit & soul nature, The Christ impulse must also be able to penetrate into the human soul during sleep. And this is only possible if a person consciously recognizes the significance of the Mystery of Golgotha. The spiritual effect can only proceed from a true recognition of its content.

 Mankind must come to realize that on the one hand Christ holds back the etheric body in its urge towards the sun; but on the other hand, mankind’s ego & astral body, can receive the Christ impulse only in the time between falling asleep & waking – which is only possible when knowledge of this impulse has been acquired in waking life.

 The festival of Ascension is a mystery not only of the forces of the macro-cosmic kingdom of the Son, into Earth-existence, but also the connection that opens us to the forces proceeding from the sphere of the Father.

The gospel of mark tells us: ‘Then the Lord, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into the heavenly spheres & sat down at the right hand of the World-Father as the fulfiller of His deeds’. 

As a result of the conversations over the 40 days with the presence of The Risen Christ, the apostles were able to receive the primal sources of a new imaginative clairvoyance – removing the veil hiding the true image of death which is really a facet of the Father-God in the aspect of Creator – what is born must die, but thru Christ death becomes life.

The scene of the ascension brought to manifestation the inner content of death as a revelation of man’s higher, imaginative consciousness, which has its source in the kingdom of the divine Father.

 According to the 5th gospel, the Ascension was for Christ Himself an event which is comparable only with death in human life, where the human becomes a fully spiritual being again.  –  At that moment the true meaning of death was made manifest to the apostles, they beheld it with their own eyes to be a process of union with the world of the Divine.

From that ‘turning point of time’ onward, Rudolf Steiner tells us that, one of the 1st experiences of every human being after death, is a contemplation of Christ’s Ascension, which can reveal to the person’s soul, the true picture of death & its connection to the spiritual world that lies closest to the earth, & with the highest sphere of the Father. 

For the person who on earth worked to understand the mystery of Golgotha, this picture of the ascension after death becomes an affirmation, but for the soul that has not worked towards true spiritual knowledge, it is a picture of reproach.  Helping us seek in freedom to understand this mystery in our next life.

Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘It is the Christ-impulse that works on after death; it is this impulse under whose influence man frees himself from the Moon-sphere, penetrates the starry Sun-sphere & from the impulses given to him by beings of the starry world, is there able to work upon the forming of the physical organism for his next earthly life’. Dornach 15 Sept. 1922

Christ takes our Moon-Karma upon Himself, enabling our soul to find the path of the true Ascension, which leads to the world of the fixed stars.

In the scene of the Ascension we have an indication of the all-encompassing influence of the Christ Being, as the Lord of Karma, upon the life of the human soul after death. 

To read the entire lecture:  Ascension: Climbing Jacobs Ladder

Blessings & Peace –

~hag = Hazel ArcherGinsberg 

**

Dali

Thursday 10 May 2018 – 7 pm – 9 pm

A Special Study for Ascension Thursday– “Easter, Ascension, Whitsun and the Essntial Nature of the Foundation Stone of the Christmas Conference” by Sergi O. Prokofieff from his book “The cycle of the Year as a Path of Initiation” read it here: Whitsun study_Prokofieff

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Stephen B Whatley

Friday 18 May 2018, 7 pm – 9 pm, –

Whitsun: A Festival of United Soul-Endeavor,

Art Projections & Lecture with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg.

Experiential Social Art with special guest TBA

***

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 newly renovated (& lazured) Elderberries 3-Fold Space is currently available for rental on PEER SPACE for classes, events, meetings, retreats, art exhibits, family parties, etc…

 

 

 

 

Burst into Bloom

Celestial Event, Chicago Event, Festival

7 May 2018 – Astro-Weather: Last-quarter Moon tonight (exact at 9:09 pm. CDT). La Bella Luna rises around 2 am. By early dawn Tuesday morning, it’s far left of Saturn & Mars.

Read the latest post from Johnathan Hilton of the Astrosophy Center

Robert S Connett

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

351 – The Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus breaks out. After his arrival at Antioch, the Jews begin a rebellion in Palestine.

558 – In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses. Justinian I immediately orders that the dome be rebuilt.

680 – Deathday of Caliph Muawiyah, who Rudolf Steiner talks a lot about in Karmic Relationships: “In Dornach recently I was able to call attention to another connection of karma, one which caused me repeatedly during the War, and especially at the end of the War, to warn people against allowing themselves to be blinded by a certain outstanding figure of modern times. This was because the connection between Muawiyah,, a follower of Mohammed in the 7th century, and Woodrow Wilson, was clear to me. All the fatalism which characterised the personality of Muawiyah, came out in the otherwise inexplicable fatalism of Woodrow Wilson — in his case, fatalism of will. And if anyone wants to find corroboration, to discover the origin of the well known Fourteen Points, he has only to turn to the Koran. Such are the connections. These things must be kept absolutely free from sympathy or antipathy; it is not a question of criticism but only of the purest objectivity. But this very objectivity leads from one point in history at which a soul has appeared, to another such point. When humanity out steps in some degree the still surviving heritage of materialism, people will be willing to listen to such things and observe for themselves. And then they will feel quite differently about their place in modern civilisation because they will be able to see it not in a dead but in a living setting. That is the important point. The whole process of historical development will be imbued with life. And if man is to get beyond the blind alley in which he is now standing in his civilisation, he needs the living spirit and not the dead spirit of abstract concepts and ideas.” ~ Volume V, Prague, 5th April, 1924

1274 – In France, the Second Council of Lyon opens to regulate the election of the Pope.

1664 – Louis XIV of France begins construction of the Palace of Versailles.

1697 – Stockholm’s royal castle (dating back to medieval times) is destroyed by fire. It is replaced in the 18th century by the current Royal Palace.

1718 – The city of New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville.

1794 – French Revolution: Robespierre introduces the Cult of the Supreme Being in the National Convention as the new state religion of the French First Republic.

1824 – World premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria. The performance is conducted by Michael Umlauf under the composer’s supervision

1840 – The Great Natchez Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi killing 1317 people. It is the second deadliest tornado in United States history.

1846 – The Cambridge Chronicle, America’s oldest surviving weekly newspaper, is published for the first time in Cambridge, Massachusetts

1895 – In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical & Chemical Society his invention, the Popov lightning detector—a primitive radio receiver. In some parts of the former Soviet Union the anniversary of this day is celebrated as Radio Day.

1930 – The 7.1 Mw Salmas earthquake shakes northwestern Iran & southeastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). Up to 3000 people were killed.

1946 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees.

1812 – Birthday of Robert Browning, English poet & playwright

1833 – Birthday of Johannes Brahms, German pianist & composer

1861 – Birthday of Rabindranath Tagore, Indian author & poet, Nobel Prize laureate

2007 – Israeli archaeologists discover the tomb of Herod the Great south of Jerusalem.

***

 Blu Smith

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I come
To the stony place hidden
In the nook of a willow
By the great inland sea
It has the shape of memory
In its fragrance
My weeping unfurls
Into the earth
To be taken
Up by the thirsty laurel
Which bursts into bloom
With the souls of the dead
Like pale yellow flowers yet to come
Again like Spring
~hag

***

 Sören Emil Carlsen

Ascension Part 3:

The Christ-Revelation ‘coming in the clouds’ is here- Showing us the bridge that brings a harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

At the Ascension Christ becomes “Lord of the heavenly forces upon earth”.

The fulfillment of the secret promise of the Ascension is the Second Coming. It was said to the apostles, “He will come again, in like manner, as you have seen Him go up into the clouds of heaven.”  The Ascension is the seed of this Second Coming, & the Second Coming is the fulfillment of the Ascension.

For 40 days after the Resurrection, the apostles received from the risen Christ his esoteric teachings, essentially the contents of the 5th Gospel given to us by Rudolf Steiner. -Then the apostles witnessed The Christ, being received into the clouds, passing out of their sight – an expansion of His being, like a flower unfolding into the universe.

Rudolf Steiner tells us, that at the time of the Ascension the apostles beheld the vivid spiritual reality of what would have happened to earth existence if the mystery of Golgotha had not occurred. – It was revealed to them that human bodies would have so deteriorated that the whole of humanity would have perished.

Our physical bodies have earth-gravity, but our etheric bodies have sun levity, so if Christ’s deed had not taken place our etheric bodies would have left the physical for good & the existence of mankind would have inevitably come to an end, having no formative forces to give them life.

We know that Until the Mystery of Golgotha, the sun was the dwelling place of The Christ. Because Christ’s deed unities his being with the earth, the etheric nature of man, in its upward striving, can unite itself with the power & impulse of Christ in the etheric of the earth.

The human etheric body, which was in danger of being drawn out towards the sun, like clouds, & dispersed –is held together, contained by Christ, thru His cosmic deed, so that we are not dispersed, but can remain individuals.

To read the entire lecture:  Ascension: Climbing Jacobs Ladder

Blessings & Peace –

~hag = Hazel ArcherGinsberg

***

Dear Friends –

Thanks to everyone who came out to host the GC of the ASA. Here are a few pics from that gathering.

Below is one of the things we discussed at the Community Conversation:

Did you know that the Branch holds a hidden gem? That’s right; the back warehouse space is our diamond in the rough. Take a moment to discover it for yourself – Because we are in the midst of transforming it into a ‘Flex Space’ that will attract a tenant, either long-term or more Peerspace clients.  These kind of raw industrial loft-style spaces are very desirable in the rental market now. Here are the short term goals for this space:

  1. Insulate the ceiling
  2. Install a furnace / air conditioner and related infrastructure
  3. Perform some light restoration and painting.

Our Treasurer Mihai Rosu, who is an engineer, along with Council President Chuck Ginsberg, & a few folks from the community, have been working most weekends to accomplish these improvements, but we need to buy some supplies.

So here’s Your Chance to Invest in the Future!

The Branch Council is requesting tax exempt donations and/or loans, in order to meet our $7,000 goal for this restoration. The loans are for 2-3 years, simple interest of 5%, paid yearly. More favorable terms are welcome.

You may drop off any checks or mail them directly to the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago 60618.

If you’d like to support the Branch through service, come by on our ‘Work Party’ Days to help in the renovation. Contact Mihai Rosu

 

Thank you!

The Rudolf Steiner Branch Council hopes you will support these efforts, as we continue to provide Programs, and Festival Events, Monthly 1st Class Lessons, Study Groups, Library / Bookstore, and weekly Public Open House hours, in one of the few Branch homes in America to own their own building. 

(Also, look forward to receiving new information on an improved email communications system coming very soon)

~President – Chuck Ginsberg,   Treasurer -Mihai Rosu,   Secretary – Mary Ruud,   Festivals Coordinator – Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,   Programs Director – Andrei Onegin,   Kurt Estep

*** 

William Blake

Thursday 10 May 2018 – 7 pm – 9 pm

A Special Study for Ascension Thursday-

“Easter, Ascension, Whitsun and the Essntial Nature of the Foundation Stone of the Christmas Conference” by Sergi O. Prokofieff from his book “The Cycle of the Year as a Path of Initiation”

 ***

Liane Collot d’Herbois

Friday 18 May 2018, 7pm–9pm,

Whitsun: A Festival of United Soul-Endeavor,

Art Projections & Lecture with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg.

Eurythmy, Experiential Social Art, Foundation Stone Meditation

*** 

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…

Walpurgis Night

Central Regional Council, Chicago Event, Festival, Rudolf Steiner Quote

30 April 2017 – Astro-Weather: Now Jupiter shines to the right of bright Bella Luna after nightfall. Jupiter stands out among the background stars of central Libra from the time it rises around 8:30 pm CST until morning twilight is well underway. The giant planet is near its best for the year right now, reaching opposition & peak visibility next week (on May 8). Jupiter is brightest point of light in the evening sky once Venus sets around 10 pm.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Walpurgis Night, In Germanic folklore Walpurgisnacht, also called Hexennacht, literally “Witches’ Night” – the eve of the feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess in Francia.  In Goethe’s Faust we see 2 scenes: ‘Romantic Walpurgis Night’ the night of a witches’ meeting on the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains, a range of wooded hills in central Germany; and later in Part 2 a ‘Classical Walpurgis Night’ is featured.

Death Of Seneca by Manuel Dominguez

65 – Seneca, teacher of Nero, murdered

1789 – On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States

1812 – Birthday of the enigmatic Kaspar Hauser: From Rudolf Steiner: 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.

1877 – Birthday of Alice B. Toklas, an American-born member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century. Life partner of American writer Gertrude Stein

1885 – The Niagara Reservation becomes New York’s first state park, ensuring that Niagara Falls will not be devoted solely to industrial & commercial use

1939 – The 1939-40 New York World’s Fair opens

1945 – Adolf Hitler commits suicide

1963 – The Bristol Bus Boycott is held to protest the Company’s refusal to employ Black or Asian bus crews, drawing national attention to racial discrimination in the United Kingdom

***

Kirsty Mitchell

POD for Flora on Beltane:
May Day Maya
Pleiadian Goddess
Bright light of the 7 Sisters
Mountain Nymph transformed,
We ascend your beacon mound
& kindle there
The oakwood of the Bel-Fire
To rival the Sun
& call the Summer heat.
Zeus’s lover
Hermes Mother
Inspire processions
Of chimney sweeps & milkmaids
To leap the healing flames
& sky-clad singing:
“Ride a cock horse to Banburry Cross
To see a fine lady on a white horse”
Walk the circuit
& beat the bounds
With the young Summer King
& the Queen of the May
For the feast of flowers
Is calling forth the consort
Come, come, come unto me
& celebrate with the orders of Elementals.
Bold maidens bathing in the dew of May morn
Sword dancing & singing
In deep forest frivolity
Striking open ancient ley lines in bulls-eye archery
Marking the unrestrained tryst,
A Maypole in Holy-Rood-Mass
Wrapped & weaved in ribbons & ivy
For the May-Eve rites.
Robin Hood makes ready the hunt,
Maid Marian has gone-a-Maying.
~Lady Hazel

***

Laila Breker

This is the Eve of Beltane or May Day. Beltane, the old Celtic name for May Day, means bright fire or fire of Bel, the name of the Solar force, whose feast marks the beginning of the 2nd half of the year.

Wood from 9 sacred trees is gathered, & the great Bel-fire is built & ritualistically ignited by the High priestess or Arch-Druid. People would jump these ‘need-fires’ for fertility, healing & protection.

Torches lit from it were carried home to re-light the hearth fires. The folk would walk their animals in-between them to ensure a productive season – this is the mating season after all for man & beast.

There were other May Day customs, like walking the circuit of one’s property, repairing fences & boundary markers, processions of all kinds, archery tournaments, Morris dances, sword play, & of course making merry with music & drinking.

May morning is a time when the veil between the worlds can easily be pushed aside; but instead of the spirits coming into our realm from the other side, which is the case with Halloween, the polar opposite of Mayday on the wheel of the year -the fairies can enchant us over into their mystical realms.

This is a magical time, perfect for gathering ‘wild’ water, especially the May morning dew, or water from hidden wells & springs. These wild waters were collected & used to bath in for beauty, or to drink for health.

May Day is considered the start of summer – the time of milk & honey. This sensuous fertile energy is totally universal, & can be applied on many different levels. When we acknowledge these creative forces in the dance of our lives, it takes us to our own personal, modern-day version of dancing around the maypole, where we weave & combine the opposing energies within ourselves, blending them into one balanced source.

So yes, whether you know it or not, there will be at least one song that plays in your sub-conscious head on this eve of the 1st day of May, when you become perhaps, the Queen of the May, or Jack-in the Green. Our body like the body of the earth instinctively knows its Beltane, the time of vitality & passion & new growth. And the wisdom of our spirit seeks the natural union of polarities that occur at this time, giving us the opportunity for integration, in the alchemical dance of our souls…

Because under all the sexual innuendo & frivolity, it’s really all about the inner mystic marriage, the union of fire & water -opposites complimenting each other, to become one, bringing all the elements into balance.

You’ll just have to go dancing naked in the forest preserve on your own time…

For now, let’s work to unify the polarities of our being, by sparking the new fire of creative fertility & passion, & marrying it with the beautiful, healing waters of compassion & pure love. So we can truly celebrate the marriage feast of our lives, with a grounded, mindful joy.

So if it is your will – light your Bel-fire, marry it to the water, by floating it in the chalice of your choice. Take the time you need there…To do or not, what you will…Whisper your marriage vows into the water…or dance the 1st dance…or smash the glass…whatever your ceremony calls for…short simple or silent…it doesn’t matter…a 3 day bacchanal, with dancing puppets…it’s all good…cause it’s all about what’s inside…

Peace & Love

~Lady Hazel 

***

May 2nd 2018, 7 pm – 9 pm – John Bloom,  Vice President, Organizational Culture, RSF Social Finance, and General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America

Organic Money –  An evening exploring the work with money in new social forms.

How do we find a way to perceive money as a reflection of not only who we are but also how we work through relationships? With the idea of Rudolf Steiner’s threefold commonwealth as a back drop we will explore the connection between money and spirit. There will be ample time for dialogue, so come with your questions.

$10 suggested donation

Ayse Domeniconi

The Karma Project – A Western Approach to Reincarnation & Karma May 2, 2018 – 7:15 pm CST (8:15 pm EST)
https://mailchi.mp/…/central-region-may-3-audio-conference-…The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to our conversation with special guest Linda Bergh.

Linda Bergh is Psychologist Emeritus, a former Waldorf teacher, is currently a Biography Facilitator in Minneapolis (Novalis Institute), nationally and internationally. She is passionate about bringing Biography and Social Art to individuals, teacher trainings, and communities. She also works with Conscious Dying both locally (Minnesota Threshold Network) and nationally to bring awareness to the sacred threshold of death.

ON THE MAY 2 PHONE CONFERENCE CALL WE WILL HAVE A BIOGRAPHY FOCUS RELATING TO OUR THEME OF KARMA AND REINCARNATION.

Here is the suggestion for preparation from Linda Bergh who will be leading the call :

One of the ways we can be aware of the movement of karma/destiny is to do an exercise where we begin to notice with our attention and intention the surprises and changes that come in our day.

Plan to do this for a minimum of three evenings and days before our call on May 2. Write down the plan for the next day or think it through in as much detail as you can. People, places, time alone. work/home. Then the next day, notice what things were not on your plan. Notice the smallest details.

Examples:
* Who did you meet at a coffee shop that you were surprised by?
* Was there a phone call you didn’t expect, something to shift your thinking?
* Did you see something in nature you have never noticed and that awakened you?
* What event or meeting was cancelled or changed; or one you decided not to go to?
* Was there someone you began to think about decided to call or contact?
* Was there a book that you noticed on your shelf that has always been there but drew you today?

As you are able, jot these down during the day or at the end of the day, or think through the unexpected changes in as much detail as possible. And then that second night, write down or think through your plan for the next day again. Before you go to sleep, as you do a daily review, notice the surprises again, and take them into your sleep.

Do this process for three days. You could start this when you get this email, or you can wait to try it the three days before our call on May 2. Whatever is right for you.

There are no expectations, just noticing. This is a practice, like noticing the changes in a flower as it grows. During our call we will do another kind of destiny exercise that can help us get in touch with the way that Karma moves as Steiner describes.

From Theosophy:
“As the keeper of the past, the soul is continually collecting treasures for the spirit. We can be sure that not a single experience goes to waste, since the soul preserves each one as a memory, and the spirit extracts from each one whatever it can use to enhance its abilities and enrich its life. The human spirit grows as these experiences are worked over and assimilated.”

Audioconference Details

Option 1. Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended): https://zoom.us/j/535966270

Option 2. Call in using your telephone.
United States: (646) 558-8656 or: (669) 900-6833
Access Code: 535-966-270

Please join us!

Saturday 5 May 2018 – SPECIAL EVENT – Our Branch is hosting The General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America

6 pm – Community PotLuck – Let’s show these 12 guests from around the country some good hospitality from the Heart-Land – Please bring a dish to share.

7:30 pm – Open Community Conversation with John Bloom & the GC of the ASA

***

Dali

Thursday 10 May 2018 – 7 pm – 9 pm

A Special Study for Ascension Thursday– “Easter, Ascension, Whitsun and the Essntial Nature of the Foundation Stone of the Christmas Conference” by Sergi O. Prokofieff from his book “The cycle of the Year as a Path of Initiation”

***

Stephen B Whatley

Friday 18 May 2018, 7 pm – 9 pm, –

Whitsun: A Festival of United Soul-Endeavor,

Art Projections & Lecture with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg.

Experiential Social Art with special guest TBA

***

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 newly renovated (& lazured) Elderberries 3-Fold Space is currently available for rental on PEER SPACE for classes, events, meetings, retreats, art exhibits, family parties, etc…

 

Waxing Mystery

Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Chicago Event, Festival, Lecture, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote

27 April 2018 – Astro-Weather: Keep an eye on the changing pattern of Venus, Aldebaran, & the Pleiades in late twilight. Every day the stars slide a little farther to the lower right, while Venus stays at nearly the same altitude.

On the opposite side of the sky, look below waxing Bella Luna for Spica. Jupiter rises far to their lower left.

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Feast day of Our Lady of Montserrat – One of the Black Madonnas of Europe, (“the little dark-skinned one” or “the little dark one”)- Believed by some to have been carved in Jerusalem in the early days of the Church. The Patron Saint of Catalonia, an honor she shares with Saint George. The famed image once bore the inscription ”Negra Sum Sed Formosa” (Latin: I am Black, but Beautiful).

The hymn to the Virgin of Montserrat, known as “el Virolai” is sung at noon on her feast day & begins with the words: “Rosa d’abril, Morena de la serra…” (April rose, dark-skinned lady of the mountain…). Therefore, this virgin is sometimes also known as the “Rosa d’abril”

Feast Day of St. Zita, the Italian patron saint of maids, often appealed to in order to help find lost keys. Born in Tuscany in the village of Monsagrati, not far from Lucca. At the age of 12, she became a servant in the Fatinelli household. For a long time, she was unjustly despised, overburdened, reviled, & often beaten by her employers & fellow servants for her hard work & obvious goodness. The abuse did not deprive her of her inward peace, & her love of those who wronged her. Her faith gradually moved the family to a religious awakening.

Zita often said to others that devotion is false if slothful. She considered her work assigned to her by God. She always rose several hours before the rest of the family to pray.

One anecdote relates a story of Zita giving her own food to the poor. One morning, Zita left her chore of baking bread to tend to someone in need. Some of the other servants told on her & when they went to investigate, they claimed to have found angels in the kitchen, baking the bread for her.

St. Zita died peacefully in her sleep & a star appeared above the attic where she lay. After 150 miracles were proven, she was canonized in 1696.

Her body was exhumed in 1580, discovered to be incorrupt, but has since become mummified. St. Zita’s body is currently on display for public veneration in the Basilica di San Frediano in Lucca.

On her feast day families bake a loaf of bread in her honor.

470 – Birthday of Socrates – teacher of Plato. “Socrates gathers his pupils around himself, but how does he feel in relation to them? His manner of treating these pupils has been called the art of a spiritual midwife because he wished to draw out from the souls of his pupils what they themselves knew, and what they were to learn. He put his questions in such a manner that the fundamental inner mood of the souls of his pupils was stirred to movement. He transmitted nothing from himself to his pupils, but elicited everything from them. The somewhat dry and prosaic aspect of Socrates’ view of the world and the way he presented it comes from the fact that Socrates actually appealed to the independence and to the innate reasoning power of every pupil.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Gospel of Mark: Lecture 4

399 BC – Deathday of Socrates 

711 – Tarik ibn Ziyad, (who according to the spiritual scientific research of Rudolf Steiner in Karmic relationships Vol. 1 Chapter 10, reincarnated as Darwin) leads his army into Gibraltar

1667 – John Milton, blind & impoverished, sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for 10 pounds

1882 – Deathday of R.W.Emerson essayist, lecturer, & poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism & a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, & he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays & more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.

Emerson gradually moved away from the religious & social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating & expressing the philosophy of transcendentalism in his 1836 essay “Nature”. Following this work, he gave a speech entitled “The American Scholar” in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. considered to be America’s “intellectual Declaration of Independence”.

Emerson wrote most of his important essays as lectures first & then revised them for print. His first two collections of essays, Essays: First Series (1841) & Essays: Second Series (1844), represent the core of his thinking. They include the well-known essays “Self-Reliance”, “The Over-Soul”, “Circles”, “The Poet” &”Experience”. Together with “Nature”, these essays made the decade from the mid-1830s to the mid-1840s Emerson’s most fertile period.

Emerson wrote on a number of subjects, never espousing fixed philosophical tenets, but developing certain ideas such as individuality, freedom, the ability for humankind to realize almost anything, & the relationship between the soul & the surrounding world. Emerson’s “nature” was more philosophical than naturalistic: “Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul”. Emerson is one of several figures who “took a more pantheist approach by rejecting views of God as separate from the world.”

He remains among the linchpins of the American romantic movement, & his work has greatly influenced the thinkers, writers & poets that followed him. When asked to sum up his work, he said his central doctrine was “the infinitude of the private man.” Emerson is also well known as a mentor & friend of Henry David Thoreau, a fellow transcendentalist.

(Spoken of by Rudolf Steiner as Tacitus in Vol 2 lecture 5, of Karmic Relationships. Tacitus was considered to be one of the greatest Roman historians. He lived in what has been called the Silver Age of Latin literature, & is known for the brevity & compactness of his Latin prose, as well as for his penetrating insights into the psychology of power politics )

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~The Moon gate is freshly oiled
A waxing mystery
Reverberating in my swelling heart
With high notes of intention
& the will toward freedoms mind…
~hag

***

William Blake

My Leading Thought in Preparing for Ascension:

Ascension comes when the season of blossoming is reaching fullness. Trees & plants, stirring upwards in growth, have been touched by the warmth & light from above & show forth the blessing of the heavens in color & scent. The whole of nature reaches upwards towards the heights.

The longing of the human soul strives also, upward, in unison with nature, seeking the touch of world-warmth from the sun. This mood of ascension attunes all of life to the cosmic expanses.

However closely heaven & earth are aligned, their relationship is not always the same. In this we see the miracle of the seasons –the breathing-in, & the breathing-out, of the earth soul.

At the time of the Ascension of Christ, nature celebrates the ascension of the soul of the earth. – It is not by chance that the 40 days between Easter & Ascension coincide with this season.

Every year, when the earth breathes out in the springtime, the mystery of the Ascension of Christ, Who is the Spirit of the Earth, is renewed.

~hag

To be continued…

***

May 2nd 2018, 7 pm – 9 pm – John Bloom, the General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America: The Financial sphere in Threefold Social Organism.

Ayse Domeniconi

ON THE MAY 2 PHONE CONFERENCE CALL WE WILL HAVE A BIOGRAPHY FOCUS RELATING TO OUR THEME OF KARMA AND REINCARNATION. Here is the suggestion for preparation from Linda Bergh who will be leading the call : One of the ways we can be aware of the movement of karma/destiny is to do an exercise where we begin to notice with our attention and intention the surprises and changes that come in our day.

Plan to do this for a minimum of three evenings and days before our call on May 2. Write down the plan for the next day or think it through in as much detail as you can.  People, places, time alone. work/home. Then the next day, notice what things were not on your plan.  Notice the smallest details. 

Examples: 

* Who did you meet at a coffee shop that you were surprised by?
* Was there a phone call you didn’t expect, something to shift your thinking?
* Did you see something in nature you have never noticed and that awakened you?
* What event or meeting was cancelled or changed; or one you decided not to go to?
* Was there someone you began to think about decided to call or contact?
* Was there a book that you noticed on your shelf that has always been there but drew you today?

As you are able, jot these down during the day or at the end of the day, or think through the unexpected changes in as much detail as possible. And then that second night, write down or think through your plan for the next day again. Before you go to sleep, as you do a daily review, notice the surprises again, and take them into your sleep.  

Do this process for three days. You could start this when you get this email, or you can wait to try it the three days before our call on May 2.  Whatever is right for you.   

There are no expectations, just noticing.  This is a practice, like noticing the changes in a flower as it grows.  During our call we will do another kind of destiny exercise that can help us get in touch with the way that Karma moves as Steiner describes.

From Theosophy: “As the keeper of the past, the soul is continually collecting treasures for the spirit.  We can be sure that not a single experience goes to waste, since the soul preserves each one as a memory, and the spirit extracts from each one whatever it can use to enhance its abilities and enrich its life.  The human spirit grows as these experiences are worked over and assimilated.”

Larry Young

Audioconference Details: May 2, 2018 at 7:15 CST

Option 1.  Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended): https://zoom.us/j/535966270

Option 2.  Call in using your telephone.
United States: (646) 558-8656 or: (669) 900-6833
Access Code: 535-966-270

Saturday 5 May 2018 – SPECIAL EVENT – Our Branch is hosting The General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America

6 pm – Community PotLuck – Let’s show these 12 guests from around the country some good hospitality from the Heart-Land – Please bring a dish to share.

7:30 pm – Open Community Conversation with John Bloom & the GC of the ASA

Liane Collot d’Herbois

Friday 18 May 2018, 7 pm – 9 pm, –

Whitsun: A Festival of United Soul-Endeavor,

Art Projections & Lecture with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg.

Experiential Social Art with special guest TBA

***

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 newly renovated (& lazured) Elderberries 3-Fold Space is currently available for rental on PEER SPACE for classes, events, meetings, retreats, art exhibits, family parties, etc…

 

 

Standing in the obvious

Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Chicago Event, Festival

26 April 2018– Astro-Weather: Face north just after nightfall, look very high, & you’ll find the Pointers, the end stars of the Big Dipper’s bowl, on the meridian pointing toward Polaris straight down below. From the Pointers to Polaris is about three fists at arm’s length.

Saturn rises before 1 am CST & climbs some  high in the south as morning twilight starts to paint the sky. The ringed planet shines against the backdrop of northern Sagittarius the Archer, west of Mars.

Look below waxing Bella Luna this evening for Spica. Jupiter rises far to their lower left around the end of twilight.

For an enlightening view into Astrosophy see Johnathan Hilton’s latest post from the Astrology center

***

Aries head silica David Taulbee Anderson

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1721 – A massive earthquake devastates the Iranian city of Tabriz. Many prominent mosques & schools in the city were destroyed, resulting in the deaths of over 250,000 people.  At the time that it occurred, the earthquake was popularly interpreted as an omen of misfortune, or a demonstration of godly wrath. The destruction that the earthquake caused was a significant factor in the successful Ottoman takeover of Tabriz in 1722, as well as contributing to Tabriz’s economic difficulties during that period.  It also caused the destruction of some of the city’s significant historical monuments

1803 – Thousands of meteors fall from the skies in L’Aigle, France; the event convinces European scientists that meteors exist. In the early afternoon a meteorite shower of more than 3000 fragments fell. Upon hearing of this event the French Academy of Sciences sent the young scientist Jean-Baptiste Biot to investigate that spectacular fall of stones. After painstaking work in the field he reported how these stones must undoubtedly be of extraterrestrial origin effectively gave birth to the science of meteoritics. The L’Aigle event was a real milestone in the understanding of meteorites & their origins because at that time the mere existence of meteorites was harshly debated, if they were recognized their origin was controversial.

1933 – The Gestapo, the secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established

1966 – The magnitude 5.1 earthquake affects the largest city in Soviet Central Asia. Tashkent is destroyed & over 300 people are killed.

1986 – Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Ukraine

1989 – The deadliest tornado in world history strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 2,300, injuring 22,000, & leaving as many as 180,000 homeless

***

Karen Sleigh

POD (Poem Of the Day)

 

‎~Standing in the obvious
Plunging my hands
Into the oblique angles
Of the obscure…
I return,
With a hot springs
For a Heart…

~hag

***

May 2nd 2018, at the RSB 7 pm – 9 pm – John Bloom, the General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America: The Financial sphere in Threefold Social Organism.

Ayse Domeniconi

ON THE MAY 2 PHONE CONFERENCE CALL WE WILL HAVE A BIOGRAPHY FOCUS RELATING TO OUR THEME OF KARMA AND REINCARNATION. Here is the suggestion for preparation from Linda Bergh who will be leading the call : One of the ways we can be aware of the movement of karma/destiny is to do an exercise where we begin to notice with our attention and intention the surprises and changes that come in our day.

Plan to do this for a minimum of three evenings and days before our call on May 2. Write down the plan for the next day or think it through in as much detail as you can.  People, places, time alone. work/home. Then the next day, notice what things were not on your plan.  Notice the smallest details. 

Examples: 

* Who did you meet at a coffee shop that you were surprised by?
* Was there a phone call you didn’t expect, something to shift your thinking?
* Did you see something in nature you have never noticed and that awakened you?
* What event or meeting was cancelled or changed; or one you decided not to go to?
* Was there someone you began to think about decided to call or contact?
* Was there a book that you noticed on your shelf that has always been there but drew you today?

As you are able, jot these down during the day or at the end of the day, or think through the unexpected changes in as much detail as possible. And then that second night, write down or think through your plan for the next day again. Before you go to sleep, as you do a daily review, notice the surprises again, and take them into your sleep.  

Do this process for three days. You could start this when you get this email, or you can wait to try it the three days before our call on May 2.  Whatever is right for you.   

There are no expectations, just noticing.  This is a practice, like noticing the changes in a flower as it grows.  During our call we will do another kind of destiny exercise that can help us get in touch with the way that Karma moves as Steiner describes.

From Theosophy: “As the keeper of the past, the soul is continually collecting treasures for the spirit.  We can be sure that not a single experience goes to waste, since the soul preserves each one as a memory, and the spirit extracts from each one whatever it can use to enhance its abilities and enrich its life.  The human spirit grows as these experiences are worked over and assimilated.”
 
Audioconference Details: May 2, 2018 at 7:15 CST

Option 1.  Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended): https://zoom.us/j/535966270

Option 2.  Call in using your telephone.
United States: (646) 558-8656 or: (669) 900-6833
Access Code: 535-966-270

***

Saturday 5 May 2018 – SPECIAL EVENT – Our Branch is hosting The General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America

6 pm – Community Pot-Luck – Let’s show these 12 guests from around the country some good hospitality from the Heart-Land – Please bring a dish to share.

7:30 pm – Open Community Conversation with the GC of the ASA

For those interested in following in the current study with the General Council: 2018 April-May ASA Council Study – Transforming the Soul.Vol1.docx

***

Stephen B Whatley

Friday 18 May 2018, 7 pm – 9 pm, –

Whitsun: A Festival of United Soul-Endeavor,

Art Projections & Lecture with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg.

Experiential Social Art with special guest TBA

***

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 newly renovated (& lazured) Elderberries 3-Fold Space is currently available for rental on PEER SPACE for classes, events, meetings, retreats, art exhibits, family parties, etc…