Category Archives: Festival

Ignite the Weave

Festival, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote

29 August 2017 – Astro-Weather: First-quarter Moon (exact at 3:13 a.m. CDT). By evening, can you see that Bella Luna is just a trace more than half lit? After dark it forms a triangle with Saturn to its left & Antares a greater distance below it.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

“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

Gustave-Moreau

33 – Beheading of John the Baptist

708 – Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time

1632 – Birthday of John Locke, English physician & philosopher

 

1756 – Frederick the Great attacks Saxony, beginning the Seven Years’ War

1758 – The first American Indian reservation is established, at Indian Mills, New Jersey

1778 – American Revolutionary War: British & American forces at the Battle of Rhode Island

1786 – Shays’ Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers, begins in response to high debt & tax burdens

1825 – Independence of Brazil from the Kingdom of Portugal

1831 – Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction

1842 – End of the First Opium War; China is forced by England to accept the opium trade & to surrender Hong Kong

1885 – Gottlieb Daimler patents the Reitwagen – the world’s first internal combustion motorcycle

1898 – The Goodyear tire company is founded

1941 – Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is occupied by Nazi Germany following an occupation by the Soviet Union

1943 – German-occupied Denmark scuttles most of its navy; Germany dissolves the Danish government

1949 –The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb– First Lightning or Joe 1

1965 – The Gemini V spacecraft returns to Earth

1966 – The Beatles perform their last concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco

2005 – Hurricane Katrina devastates the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing an estimated 1,836 people & causing over $108 billion in damage

International Day against Nuclear Tests

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Remedios Varo

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Will you
Sow the seeds of premonition
Into a fruitful action
To ignite the weave
In radiant expectation…?

~hag

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Dean Flock

John the Baptist, truly the greatest of all Men – Still human, He hovers as an Eagle in the realm of the Angels. After his beheading He became the protector of the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ & especially of John the Evangelist.

El Greco 

Did the Eagle land in the beginning of the 20th century on the shoulder of Rudolf Steiner to guide us towards a deeper understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha?

Richard Anderson

 “Elijah was destined to be one of the ruling figures in the régime inaugurated by Moses. There had to be Individualities who were not wholly contained in the human personality; one part of their being was in the earthly personality and the other in the spiritual world. Elijah was an Individuality of this nature. Only part of his being was present in his personality on the physical plane; the Ego-hood of Elijah could not penetrate fully into his physical body. He must therefore be called a personality ‘filled with the Spirit’. A figure such as Elijah could not possibly be brought into existence through the normal forces by which other men are placed in the world. In the normal way the human being develops in the mother’s body in such a way that through physical processes the Individuality who has been incarnated previously simply unites with the physical embryo. This could not be so in the case of an Individuality such as Elijah. Other forces had to intervene, concerned with the part of the Individuality that reached into the spiritual world. His development was necessarily attended by influences working upon him from outside. Hence when such Individualities are incarnated they appear as men who are ‘inspired’, ‘impelled by the Spirit’. They appear as ecstatic personalities whose utterances far surpass anything that might issue from their normal intelligence.

The man who lived as ‘Elijah’ was an outstanding example of this. The words uttered by his mouth and the actions performed by his hands did not proceed only from the part of his being actually present in his personality; they were manifestations of divine-spiritual Beings in the background.

When this Individuality was born again he was to unite with the body of the child born to Zacharias and Elisabeth. We know from the Gospel itself that John the Baptist is to be regarded as the reborn Elijah. But in him we have to do with an Individuality who in his earlier incarnations had not habitually developed or brought fully into operation all the forces present in the normal course of life. In the normal course of life the inner power or force of the Ego becomes active while the physical body of the human being is developing in the mother’s womb. The Elijah-Individuality in earlier times had not descended deeply enough to be involved in the inner processes operating here. The Ego had not, as in normal circumstances, been stirred into activity by its own forces, but from outside. This was now to happen again. But the Ego was now farther from the spiritual world and nearer to the Earth, much more closely connected with the Earth than the Beings who had formerly guided Elijah. The transition leading to the amalgamation of the Buddha-stream with the Zarathustra-stream was now to be brought about.

Everything was to be rejuvenated. Thus it was the Nirmanakaya of Buddha which now stirred the Ego-force of John into activity, having the same effect as spiritual forces that had formerly worked upon Elijah. At certain times the being known as Elijah had been rapt in states of ecstasy; then the God spoke, filling his Ego with a force which could be communicated to the outer world. Now again a spiritual force was present — the Nirmanakaya of Buddha hovering above the head of the Nathan Jesus; this force worked upon Elisabeth when John was to be born, stimulated within her the embryo of John in the sixth month of pregnancy, and wakened the Ego. But being nearer to the Earth this force now worked as more than an inspiration; it had an actual formative effect upon the Ego of John. Under the influence of the visit of her who is there called ‘Mary’, the Ego of John the Baptist awoke into activity. The Nirmanakaya of Buddha was here working upon the Ego of the former Elijah — now the Ego of John the Baptist — wakening it and penetrating right into the physical substance.” ~Rudolf Steiner, from The Gospel of St. Luke

Caravaggio

“If we pass on to the sixth chapter of Mark we hear fully described how King Herod had John the Baptist beheaded. The tortured conscience of Herod arouses a strange foreboding in him. When he hears all that has occurred through Christ Jesus he says, “John, whom I beheaded, has been restored to life!” Herod feels that, though the physical personality of John had gone away, he is now all the more present! He feels that his atmosphere, his spirituality — which was none other than the spirituality of Elijah, is still there. His tormented conscience causes him to be aware that John the Baptist, that is, Elijah, is still there.

But then something strange happens. We are shown how, after John the Baptist had met his physical death, Christ Jesus came to the very neighborhood where John had worked. I want you to take particular notice of a remarkable passage and not to skim over it lightly, for the words of the Gospels are not written for rhetorical effect, nor journalistically. Something very significant is said here. Jesus Christ appears among the throng of followers and disciples of John the Baptist, and this fact is expressed in a sentence to which we must give careful attention: “And as Jesus came out He saw a great crowd,” by which could be meant only the disciples of John, “and He had compassion on them …” (Mark 6:34.) Why compassion? Because they had lost their master, they were there without John, whose headless corpse we are told had been carried to his grave. But even more precisely is it said, “for they were like sheep who had lost their shepherd. And He began to teach them many things.” It cannot be indicated any more clearly how He teaches John’s disciples. He teaches them because the spirit of Elijah, which is at the same time the spirit of John the Baptist, is still active among them. Thus it is again indicated with dramatic power in these significant passages of the Mark Gospel how the spirit of Christ Jesus entered into what had been prepared by the spirit of Elijah-John. Even so this is only one of the main points, around which many other significant things are grouped.

I will now call your attention to one thing more. I have several times pointed out how this spirit of Elijah or John continued to act in such a way as to impress its impulses into world history. I have often mentioned that the soul of Elijah-John appeared again in the painter Raphael. This is one of those facts that call attention to the metamorphoses of souls that take place under the impetus given by the Mystery of Golgotha. Because it was also necessary that in the post-Christian era such a soul should work in Raphael through the medium of a single personality; what in ancient times was so comprehensive and world encompassing now appears in such a different personality as that of Raphael. Can we not feel that the aura that hovered round Elijah-John is also present in Raphael? That in Raphael there were such similarities to these two others that we could even say that this element was too great to be able to enter into a single personality but hovered round it, so that the revelations received by this personality seemed like an illumination? Such was indeed the case with Raphael!” ~Rudolf Steiner, Gospel of Mark: Lecture 3

self portrait of Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino – Raphael

“The truth is, my dear friends, this earthly personality of Raphael was completely yielded up and was only present through what Lazarus-John gave to this soul to be poured out into colour and line for all mankind.

Such was the life of this being. And it was so, that this Raphael life could only be, as it were, absolved in another life of thirty years — in Novalis. And so we see Raphael die young, Novalis die young — one being, who came forth from Elijah-John, appearing before mankind in two different forms, preparing through art and through poetry the true Michael mood of soul, sent down by the Michael stream as messenger to men on Earth.

And now we behold the wonderful artistic power of Raphael come to life again in Novalis in poetry that stirs and enraptures the hearts of men. All that through Raphael was given to human eyes to see, — of this could human hearts drink deep, when it came again in self portrait of Novalis.

When we consider the life of Novalis, what an echo we find there of the Raphael life for which Hermann Grimm had so fine an understanding! His beloved dies in her youth. He is himself still young. What is he going to do with his life now that she has died? He tells us himself. He says that his life on Earth will be henceforth to “die after her”, to follow her on the way of death. He wants to pass over already now into the super-sensible, to lead again the Raphael life, not touching the Earth, but living out in poetry his magic idealism. He would fain not let himself be touched by Earth life.

When we read the “Fragments” of Novalis, and give ourselves up to the life that flows so abundantly in them, we can discover the secret of the deep impression they make on us. Whatever we have before us in immediate sense-reality, whatever the eye can see and recognise as beautiful — all this, through the magic idealism that lives in the soul of Novalis, appears in his poetry with a well-nigh heavenly splendour. The meanest and simplest material thing — with the magic idealism of his poetry he can make it live again in all its spiritual light and glory.

And so we see in Novalis a radiant and splendid forerunner of that Michael stream which is now to lead you all, my dear friends, while you live; and then, after you have gone through the gate of death, you will find in the spiritual super-sensible worlds all those others — among them also the being of whom I have been speaking to you today — all those with whom you are to prepare the work that shall be accomplished at the end of the century, and that shall lead mankind past the great crisis in which it is involved”. ~ The Last Address given by Rudolf Steiner The Individuality of Elias, John, Raphael, Novalis, Dornach, Michaelmas Eve, 1924

Leonardo

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Dear Friends – The Elderberries Three-Fold Café has been on Sunset Blvd. in the heart of Hollywood for over 9 years. They provide not only good healthy food, but nutrition for the soul – Rudolf Steiner’s Weekday Exercises are even on the back of the menu! The café is a hub for youth, hosting anthroposophical study groups, music, alternative film screenings etc – providing support for inner practices, meaningful work to those in need, & platforms for individual creative expression -imbuing all they do with a love for the future of our world.

Our 3-fold friends, Dottie Zold, Daniel Evaeus & Frank Agrama, came in from Los Angeles in March to speak with the Branch Council & have an open conversation with members & friends, about the possibility of opening a second Elderberries 3-fold Café in the unrented space at the branch*. It has long been the vision of Elderberries to create a “Michael Grail-Road” establishing 3-fold Café’s around the world where youth can come to find themselves thru anthroposophy.

Here are a few words about the Initiative from Dottie,  Hazel   Daniel & Frank  Here are a few ‘testimonies’

Please help us pave the way for a 3-fold Cafe in the heartland!

Go to this link to find out more & donate if you will https://igg.me/at/michaelgrailroad/x/17233652

Thanks for supporting the future!

If you prefer to give a donation by check, or would like a receipt for tax purposes contact Chuck@ChuckGinsberg.com

*The good will of the Branch council & the membership at large shall determine whether this initiative will reside at the Branch. (Stay tuned for a ‘Special Members Meeting’ TBA) If it is not wanted here, Elderberries may take up root near a Waldorf School or other Chicago location.

You can get your donation back upon request if it doesn’t come thru, or you can choose to support the mission in LA, or other future hubs in the Michael-Grail Road around the country.

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Michaelmas & the Horn of Plenty – Fall Festivals Ancient and New

Saturday September 23rd, 2017 – 4 pm – 6 pm at the Rudolf Steiner Branch,4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL.

Saturday September 30th 10:30 am – 4:30pm at the Theosophical Society 1926 N Main St, Wheaton, IL. 60187 – Pre-registration (630) 668-1571 

Come join our Experiential Workshop celebrating the Autumnal Equinox to prepare us for the journey into the dark of the year. We will look back to the fruits of the past, and prepare for what is coming toward us from the future. Our ancestors called this Sabbath – Harvest Home or Mabon. The Hebrew folk count this as part of the High Holy Days. In Greece and Rome it is dedicated to Dionysus, or Persephone and Demeter.  Today, we are invited to stand with the powerful Archangel Micha-el, in balance, between the light and the dark, as we create the ‘festival of the future’, which we call ‘Michaelmas’. Forging confidence thru Heart-Thinking, Michael strengthens our Will & reinforces our higher “I” so that we have the Courage to find the Spirit behind the living cosmos.

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – is a Spiritual Midwife, and Trans-denominational Minister, working in an eclectic style that inspires connections – initiating us into the magic, waiting to be revealed, in the cycle of the seasons.   Festivals Coordinator & Council Member of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, and the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Founder of Reverse Ritual – Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year

This Little Light of Mine

Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Festival, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Speaking with the Stars

23 August 2017 – Astro-Weather:

After dusk as August nears its end, the Great Square of Pegasus looms up in the east, balancing on one corner. Extending leftward from the Square’s left corner is the main line of the constellation Andromeda, shaped like a giant Little Dipper, it currently scoops upward.

Frederic Leighton

The actual, meanwhile, is tipping over leftward in the north. As always, it’s rotated about 90° counterclockwise from Andromegasus.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Feast Day of Rose of Lima. ‘Saint Rose’ is the patroness of the Americas, sacred to the indigenous people,  in Lima, Peru.

Black Ribbon Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism & Nazism

International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade & its Abolition

30 BC – After the successful invasion of Egypt, Octavian executes Marcus Antonius Antyllus, eldest son of Mark Antony, & Caesarion, the last king of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt & only child of Julius Caesar & Cleopatra

Andrea Mantegna

20 BC – Ludi Volcanalici = games or chariot races, held within the temple precinct of Vulcan for the Fire God’s Feast Day, to mark the treaty with Parthia by Augustus

79 – Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire

1244 – Siege of Jerusalem: The city’s citadel, the Tower of David, surrenders to Khwarezmian (Persian) Empire

1382 – Siege of Moscow: The Golden Horde led by khan Tokhtamysh lays siege

1572 –St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) during the French Wars of Religion. Traditionally believed to have been instigated by Catherine de’ Medici, the mother of King Charles IX.

Antoine Francosis Callet

1754 – Birthday of Louis XVI of France

1839 – The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong. The ensuing 3-year conflict will later be known as the First Opium War

1914 – World War I: Japan declares war on Germany

1926 – Deathday of Rudolph Valentino, Italian-American actor

1939 – World War II: Nazi Germany & the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, the Baltic states, Finland, Romania, & Poland are divided between the two nations.

1942 – World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad

1944 – World War II: Marseille is liberated by the Allies

1944 – Freckleton Air Disaster: A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England killing 61 people

1966 – Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon

1970 –César Chávez leads the Salad Bowl strike, the largest farm worker strike in U.S. history

1973 – A bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden, turns into a hostage crisis, who begin to sympathize with their captors, leading to the term “Stockholm syndrome”

1989 – Singing Revolution: Two million people from Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania stand on the Vilnius–Tallinn road, holding hands for restoration of independence

1990 – Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union

1990 – Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western “guests” (actually hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War

1991 – Tim Berners-Lee opens the World Wide Web to new users

1996 – Osama bin Laden issues message entitled ‘A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places.’

2000 – Gulf Air Flight 072 crashes into the Persian Gulf killing 143

2011 – A magnitude 5.8 earthquake occurs in Virginia as a result of ‘Fracking’. Damage occurs to monuments & structures in Washington D.C. with damage estimated at 300 million

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~Oh Mother see how I have ripened, becoming
Upright & tall as a weed tree on the parkway

Seeds sown on the wind
Swell up in the shade of the city street
Conversing with the blacktop softening in the sun

When the light comes after
The shadow playing in a passing cloud
Bent on the steam of my breathing
All is blue bliss
Even into deep caverns
Where secret waters run high
Pacing with the star-tides

Quenching the lioness
I shine
Renewing Regulus in the heart of heaven
And within the beat of heart & lung on earth

A circus-ring-riding
High on the rising wheat
With the Virgin pushing past
Hells plush taverns
Into Benediction

A sweet prayer of Love in action
A chord ever chiming
In a soft whisper thru my August soul
~hag

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“Per corem Leonis in signo virginis in sororitatem steallarum te salvamus” : “Through the heart of the lion, in the sign of the woman, we welcome you in the sisterhood of the stars”

With the solar eclipse energy radiating within me, I awoke with that mysterious Latin phrase in my head. I’m not sure where it comes from, but I do know that Right Now, roaring in the night sky, beating in our human heart, is the constellation Regulus.

Neil Hague

Venus is also holding sway; the Goddess of Love was highlighted during the Maximum Totality of the Great American solar eclipse. She was revealed only thru the darkening.

With the return of the light, only a few days later, with much to contemplate, I am experiencing a re-birth in my thinking about Columbia, the Folk-Spirit of America. She rises from the grave, like the resurrection of Lazarus – She comes forth to us – an initiate, wiser, mature, carrying the nature of the Holy-Spirit, the Dove of Peace.

The archetype of the strong woman leader – Virgin/Crone, Whole, Moral – is being out-pictured to us in a cosmic pageant.

What would it be like to, each of us, lift her up in our hearts? The tide rises slowly at 1st, a ripple thru individual human souls, swelling toward high-tide & the 100th monkey.

With the eclipse we have received a jolt to the heart of the Lion. A cosmic-heart massage that kneads & pulses – a contraction–expansion, that can help the human being cultivate an etheric heart – a new heart capable of living into the new mysteries – Heart-Thinking that brings a renewed spiritual vision, able to perceive the etheric Christ.

‘Becoming co-creators with Michael, in service of the Logos, in creating the new Earth-Sun’.*

A joyful service, like standing in the Mississippi, with kindred souls, singing “ This little Light of Mine ” as the Moon slowly slid off the Sun. (hmmm, that’s a lot of S’s…)

More as I digest…

Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

*Thanks to Jonathan Hilton, your profound understanding of Astrosophy always inspires me.  http://astrosophycenter.com/

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 Baron Arild Rosenkrantz

Michaelmas & the Horn of Plenty – Fall Festivals Ancient and New –

September 22-24th 2017,  Eugene Oregon 

Saturday September 30th 2017 – 10:30 am – 4:30 pm,  at the Theosophical Society  1926 N Main St, Wheaton, IL 60187

Sunday Oct. 1st, 2017 – 4 pm – 6 pm at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

Come join our Experiential Workshop celebrating the Autumnal Equinox to prepare us for the journey into the dark of the year. We will look back to the fruits of the past, and prepare for what is coming toward us from the future. Our ancestors called this Sabbath – Harvest Home or Mabon. The Hebrew folk count this as part of the High Holy Days. In Greece and Rome it is dedicated to Dionysus, or Persephone and Demeter.  Today, we are invited to stand with the powerful Archangel Micha-el, in balance, between the light and the dark, as we create the ‘festival of the future’, which we call ‘Michaelmas’. Forging confidence thru Heart-Thinking, Michael strengthens our Will & reinforces our higher “I” so that we have the Courage to find the Spirit behind the living cosmos.

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – is a Spiritual Midwife, and Trans-denominational Minister, working in an eclectic style that inspires connections – initiating us into the magic, waiting to be revealed, in the cycle of the seasons.   Festivals Coordinator & Council Member of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, and the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Founder of Reverse Ritual – Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year

Der Fokus

Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Festival, Insight, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars, The Bridging Project: Life & Death

Greetings Friends –

Manami Lingerfelt

Just a quick note before I head off to the Central Regional Council Retreat ‘Speaking From Soul to Soul with the Solar Eclipse’ in St Louis. Here is the official article I was asked to write for the Der Fokus page in Das Goetheanum.

I wrote at least 4 versions covering this cosmic/earthly event from various angels. Here is one version in English.

Paul Nash

No matter where you are on 21 August 2017 during the ‘Great American Eclipse’ I hope you will join with those of us working to hold the light.

Here is a link with some ideas for activities

Also, check-out the pageant “From Light Through Darkness into New Light”

See you on the other-side

xox

Blessings & Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

PS. Those of you in the Chicago area, come check-out this Youth Initiative ‘The Dawn Before the Dark’ at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Sat. Aug. 19 2017, 6 pm-10 pm (see details below)

Current Festival & Program Events

3 Dead Presidents

Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Festival, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Speaking with the Stars, Summer

4th of July 2017 – Astro-Weather:  Waiting for fireworks to start? Point out some sky sights to folks around you. The waxing gibbous Moon is almost due south at dusk. Look lower left of it for orange Antares, one of the brightest “red” supergiants in the sky. Left of Antares is Saturn. Meanwhile, much farther to the right of the Moon, Jupiter shines brightly in the southwest.

No holiday better epitomizes summer in the United States than Independence Day. And the season’s namesake asterism — the Summer Triangle — will be on prominent display as fireworks ring out across the land. The trio’s brightest member, Vega in the constellation Lyra the Harp, stands nearly overhead in late evening. The asterism’s second-brightest star, Altair in Aquila the Eagle, then lies about halfway from the southeastern horizon to the zenith. Deneb, the luminary of Cygnus the Swan, marks the Summer Triangle’s third corner. Although it is this asterism’s dimmest star, it’s the brightest point of light in the northeastern sky.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1054 – A supernova, called SN 1054, is seen by Chinese Song dynasty, Arab, & Amerindian observers near the star Zeta Tauri. For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula.

1776 – American Revolution: The United States Declaration of Independence of the 13 States is adopted by the Second Continental Congress

1807 – Birthday of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian general and politician

1826 – Thomas Jefferson, 3rd president of the United States, dies the same day as John Adams, 2nd president of the United States, on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. (see article below)

1855 – The first edition of Walt Whitman’s book of poems, Leaves of Grass, is published In Brooklyn.

1862 – Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell a story that would grow into Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & its sequels.

1872 – Birthday of Calvin Coolidge, lawyer & politician, 30th President of the United States

1886 – The people of France offer the Statue of Liberty to the people of the United States.

1902 – Deathday of Vivekananda, Indian monk & saint

1914 – The funeral of Archduke Franz Ferdinand & his wife Sophie takes place in Vienna, six days after their assassinations in Sarajevo.

1918 – Bolsheviks kill Tsar Nicholas II of Russia & his family

1934 – Deathday of Marie Curie, French-Polish physicist & chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

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THE “AMERICAN” or “THREEFOLD” VERSE by Rudolf Steiner given to Ralph Courtney, a pioneer of Anthroposophy in North America for the Threefold Group in New York City, which later established the Threefold Community in Spring Valley (now Chestnut Ridge). This verse for the American spirit speaks of the inner unity of human beings and of support from the spiritual world for our efforts:

“May our feeling penetrate to the center of our hearts –
And seek, in love, to unite with those who share our goals,
And with the spirits who look down benevolently
On our hearts earnest strivings.
Sending us strength from realms of light, to illuminate our love“.

***

 

Thomas Jefferson & John Adams were ideological opposites & election rivals, but the two Founding Fathers reconciled late in life—which made their nearly simultaneous deaths on July 4, 1826, all the more meaningful. On the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson uttered his last words, “Is it the fourth yet?” before passing away. Later that same day, Adams also died, but not before saying, “Thomas Jefferson survives,” unaware his dear friend had already passed on.

Five years later, on July 4, 1831, James Monroe, the last presidential Founding Father, died as well. The fifth U.S. president had attempted to write an autobiography, but was unable to complete it as his health slowly deteriorated after his wife died the year before.

Interesting that there has only been 1 president born on the 4th of July – Calvin Coolidge, the nation’s 30th president, in 1872.

“Three of the four presidents who have left the scene of their usefulness & glory expired on the anniversary of the national birthday, a day which of all others, had it been permitted them to choose [they] would probably had selected for the termination of their careers,” wrote the New York Evening Post the day after Monroe’s death.

Adams served as the second president from 1797 to 1801, followed by Jefferson, who served until 1809. But long before the 13 colonies had won their independence, Adams & Jefferson played vital roles in creating the document that declared men were created equal & entitled to “life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness.”

Adams, in a letter to a friend in 1822, recalled how Jefferson was placed on the committee to write the document. “Mr Jefferson came into Congress in June 1775 and brought with him a reputation for literature, science, and a happy talent at composition. Writings of his were handed about, remarkable for the peculiar felicity of expression,” Adams wrote.

The irascible Adams also described why he insisted that Jefferson write the draft: “Jefferson proposed to me to make the draught. I said I will not; You shall do it. Oh No! Why will you not? You ought to do it. I will not. Why? Reasons enough. What can be your reasons? Reason 1st. You are a Virginian, and Virginia ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason 2d. I am obnoxious, suspected and unpopular; You are very much otherwise. Reason 3d: You can write ten times better than I can. ‘Well,’ said Jefferson, ‘if you are decided I will do as well as I can.’”

The importance of July 4 might have surprised some Founding Fathers. The Continental Congress declared freedom from Britain on July 2 & approved the Declaration on Independence on July 4. Most members signed the document in August.

Adams thought Americans would remember July 2 as their “Day of Deliverance” from Britain. In a letter to his wife, Abigail, he wrote, “It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

While Adams & Jefferson represented their states in the Continental Congress, a teenage Monroe dropped out of college in 1776 to fight in the Revolution, enlisting in the 3rd Virginia Regiment, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Many historians consider Monroe the last president from the Founding Fathers.

Adams & Jefferson would live to see the country expand well beyond the original 13 states. Adams was 90 when he died of a heart attack. Jefferson had been in declining health for years before dying at 83.

“People interpreted their deaths in a religious manner,” said Michael Meranze, a U.S. history professor at UCLA. “It was clearly taken symbolically as both the birth and growth of the early republic.”

In 1826, for instance, Rep. Daniel Webster of Massachusetts delivered a two-hour-long eulogy in Boston suggesting their deaths were a sign that God was protecting the nation.

“As their lives themselves were the gifts of Providence, who is not willing to recognize in their happy termination, as well as in their long continuance, proofs that our country and its benefactors are objects of His care?” Webster said.

~ Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

The Central Regional Council is hosting a Bridging to the ‘Great American Eclipse’ in St. Louis – August 19-22, 2017 

Speaking from Soul to Soul with the Solar Eclipse At the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Motherhouse, St. Louis, Missouri August 19, 5 PM CST through August 21, 5pm CST

Read the article from Das Goetheanum

RETREAT CONTENT: At this Central Regional retreat, we take The ‘Bridging Project’ into the realm of ‘Speaking with the Stars’. In the life between death and re-birth the human being is engaged in an intimate conversation with the ‘Stars’. We will prepare for, view and work to hold the light during the ‘Great American Solar Eclipse’, which will sweep from West to East across all of America, and will be visible in the St. Louis area on Monday August 21st 2017. Through the social arts of folk eurythmy, song, study, color, meditation, and an interactive pageant*, we will engage with the spiritual significance of this powerful cosmic and earthly event. Afterward we will process, share and continue the conversation, working to understand the mysteries of the will. 

RETREAT LOCATION: The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Motherhouse is located just south of downtown St. Louis, Missouri, overlooking the Mississippi River(https://www.csjsl.org/motherhouse-services/take-a-tour.php). On Monday, we will travel to a TBD park or nature area about one hour south of St. Louis to experience the full solar eclipse, returning to The Motherhouse in the late afternoon.

TRANSPORTATION: Transportation is at the discretion of the participants (not included in retreat cost). The planning team will try to facilitate ride sharing opportunities if you request our assistance.  The closest airport is Lambert-St. Louis International Airport (Code: STL) ( http://flystl.com/)

LODGING PLANS: The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Motherhouse has 8 single and 2 double rooms available for the CRC conference. A few rooms have private bathrooms, and there are several shared bathrooms across the hall from the bedrooms. Rooms will be assigned on a first-registration basis to conference participants. If capacity allows, we will try to accommodate additional participants, whether at Carondelet or at local members’ homes.

MEALS: Meals will be provided by the Sisters of Carondelet during the fixed times listed below. Conference participants not staying at The Motherhouse are also able to order meals through this registration form. Vegan, vegetarian, non-dairy and gluten-free diets can be accommodated if requested in advance. Coffee, tea and ice water will be provided. Breakfast: 7:30 AM – 8:30 AM $7 Lunch: 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM $10 Dinner: 5:15 AM – 6:15 PM $11

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The Sisters of Carondelet are environmentally conscious, and no disposable water bottles are allowed in the property (but re-usable bottles are allowed)  Additional information will be provided to registered participants in July

click here to register 

***

The Alchemists

Central Regional Council, Festival, Insight, Remembering, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars, Summer

26 June 2017 – Astro-Weather: The tiny black shadow of Io crosses Jupiter’s face tonight from 9:23 pm. to 11:33 pm. CDT, when it leaves Jupiter’s western limb. Then just three minutes later, Europa exits from in front of Jupiter’s western side.

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

363 – Julian the Apostate murdered. Rudolf Steiner speaks a lot about him as Tycho Brahe, astronomer, astrologer & alchemist & Herzeloyde, Percival’s mother, in Karmic Relationships Vol. 4 Lec. 5

405 – St. Vigilius murdered in Rendena Valley, Italy, where he had been preaching against the worship of the god Saturn. Vigilius said Mass & overturned a statue of the god into the River. As punishment, he was stoned to death. Ironically, a statue of the god Neptune stands in front of Vigilius’ shrine in Trent today.

699 – En no Ozuno, a Japanese mystic said to have supernatural powers, regarded as the founder of the folk religion Shugendō, is banished to Izu Ōshima.

1295 – Przemysł II crowned king of Poland. The white eagle is added to the Polish coat of arms.

1407 – Ulrich von Jungingen becomes Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.

1409 – Western Schism: Three men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope. Driven by politics rather than any theological disagreement, the schism was ended by the Council of Constance.

1483 – Richard III becomes King of England

1510 – Michelangelo completes his painting of Jeremiah on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  Michelangelo once remarked that “In painting, the idea is an image that the intellect of the painter has to see with interior eyes in the greatest silence and secrecy”. That’s why the prophet Jeremiah has his mouth covered & finger extended in the ‘signum harpocraticum’, an ancient gesture of silence signifying profound esoteric knowledge. Origen, Christianity’s first theologian, states that you will not understand the prophet’s wisdom “if you do not listen in a hidden manner”. Jeremiah’s books in the Old Testament, like all scripture & art, require an esoteric interpretation.

(For Fuji) 1927 – The Cyclone roller coaster opens on Coney Island

1945 – The United Nations Charter is signed by 5o nations

1963 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall

2000 – Pope John Paul II reveals the third secret of Fátima

2015 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution

***

From our Zinniker Farm St. John’s Bee & Stag Bonfire Circle taken by Deborah Rogers

Before we went to the gathering we met with Christopher Mann,  who lives in the area. (His parents knew & worked with Rudolf Steiner, they were one of the 1st to translated his Calendar of the Soul into English) Christopher was born in London in 1930, to pioneer teachers of the first English speaking Waldorf school. He eventually became a Waldorf teacher himself & developed a love of building conscious community. His 1st community development was in Sussex, called Michael Fields.  In the early 1980’s, Christopher & his wife Martina purchased their first parcel of agricultural land in the US & created a community farm.  They also founded the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute in East Troy, WI & served on its Board of Trustees for many years. Throughout his lifetime, Christopher has developed enterprises & land trusts to support biodynamic, organic & sustainable agriculture, along with research & education. Of these, the Yggdrasil Land Foundation was founded as a support organization to RSF, the BD Association & Michael Fields Agricultural Institute. His wife Martina was life long friends with Ruth Zinniker. We heard alot of great stories of the old days on the farm told by Petra as the sun was setting around the bonfire. Today, at 87 years of age Christopher is in his retirement & continues to find joy, in meeting pioneers involved in new Anthroposophical & spiritually based initiatives. His newest venture is as film producer:

The Alchemists https://vimeo.com/181737300

A film about the power & importance of Biodynamic farming for the Earth & humanity, by Frigyes Fogel & Christopher Mann

“Following those on their mission who have been called upon to form the earth throughout four continents…To all who want to heal and consecrate the earth…”

***

Hendrik Van Somer.

Who is this John the Baptist? (continued)

Before JB baptizes Jesus, opening the way for the cosmic Christ, he brings about an opening for many people, preparing them for their roles as Disciples of Christ. By baptizing with water, JB brought about an initiatory near death experience, loosening the etheric body, so they could remember their life as a spiritual being. Into this experience of the past, John spoke his mighty admonition: “Change your hearts and minds!”

After the dove descended on Jesus & He became the Christ, & John the Baptist said, “He must increase and I must decrease’” JB was in prison until his beheading. Then his role changed from that of the “voice of one calling in the wilderness“, to a more inward voice, heard in the stillness of the soul.

Herod who had made him prisoner is haunted by this inner voice. Herod’s wife is also affected & wants to silence this uncomfortable voice, so she has John the Baptist beheaded.

The spirit, or angel, of John the Baptist, becomes the guardian of the apostles, appearing especially in the “rich young man” -Lazarus, continuing his mighty task thru him. It is Lazarus, who undergoes the first initiation in the ‘New Mysteries’, accomplished thru Christ Jesus, achieving the name John. But Instead of being performed in the secret inner sanctum of the temple, as it was in the past, this new initiation was done as an example, out in plain sight. It is not coincidence that they both take on the name John, because Johannes I-O-Ah is a powerful title sounding a high stage of initiation.

El Greco

Lazarus John, ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’, is the only one who is able to remain mindful thru the events of Passion Week. He is there in full consciousness on Golgotha at the “Turning Point of Time” with Mary the Mother. And, along with Mary Magdalene, he is able to behold the Risen Christ on Easter Sunday.

He becomes the writer of the Gospel of St. John, the most spiritual book in the New Testament. He lives a long life, taking Mother Mary with him to the island of Patmos in Greece, where he is able to receive the prophetic vision of the Book of Revelation, with help from John the Baptist & other heavenly sources, bringing us a vision of the future destiny of humankind.

And the voice of John the Baptist can still be heard today, reminding us to, ‘Make Straight the path’.

Tomorrow I will try to bring a synthesis to this theme

Until soon

Blessings and Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

The Central Regional Council is hosting a Bridging to the ‘Great American Eclipse’ in St. Louis – August 19-22, 2017 

Speaking from Soul to Soul with the Solar Eclipse At the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Motherhouse, St. Louis, Missouri August 19, 5 PM CST through August 21, 5pm CST

Read the article from Das Goetheanum

RETREAT CONTENT: At this Central Regional retreat, we take The ‘Bridging Project’ into the realm of ‘Speaking with the Stars’. In the life between death and re-birth the human being is engaged in an intimate conversation with the ‘Stars’. We will prepare for, view and work to hold the light during the ‘Great American Solar Eclipse’, which will sweep from West to East across all of America, and will be visible in the St. Louis area on Monday August 21st 2017. Through the social arts of folk eurythmy, song, study, color, meditation, and an interactive pageant*, we will engage with the spiritual significance of this powerful cosmic and earthly event. Afterward we will process, share and continue the conversation, working to understand the mysteries of the will. 

RETREAT LOCATION: The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Motherhouse is located just south of downtown St. Louis, Missouri, overlooking the Mississippi River(https://www.csjsl.org/motherhouse-services/take-a-tour.php). On Monday, we will travel to a TBD park or nature area about one hour south of St. Louis to experience the full solar eclipse, returning to The Motherhouse in the late afternoon.

TRANSPORTATION: Transportation is at the discretion of the participants (not included in retreat cost). The planning team will try to facilitate ride sharing opportunities if you request our assistance.  The closest airport is Lambert-St. Louis International Airport (Code: STL) ( http://flystl.com/)

LODGING PLANS: The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Motherhouse has 8 single and 2 double rooms available for the CRC conference. A few rooms have private bathrooms, and there are several shared bathrooms across the hall from the bedrooms. Rooms will be assigned on a first-registration basis to conference participants. If capacity allows, we will try to accommodate additional participants, whether at Carondelet or at local members’ homes.

MEALS: Meals will be provided by the Sisters of Carondelet during the fixed times listed below. Conference participants not staying at The Motherhouse are also able to order meals through this registration form. Vegan, vegetarian, non-dairy and gluten-free diets can be accommodated if requested in advance. Coffee, tea and ice water will be provided. Breakfast: 7:30 AM – 8:30 AM $7 Lunch: 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM $10 Dinner: 5:15 AM – 6:15 PM $11

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The Sisters of Carondelet are environmentally conscious, and no disposable water bottles are allowed in the property (but re-usable bottles are allowed)  Additional information will be provided to registered participants in July

click here to register