Category Archives: History

Flow-Form

Greetings friends – All my current essay’s are now being posted on Substack. I hope to see you there…xox

~hag

Whenever I reach a Turning Point in my life-stream – I step in. Bringing ‘Biography Work’ into this Conscious Threshold experience shows the flow from the past swirling into the now – conveying clarity into connectivity. And from the analysis of the rhythmic tides, the glacial overview emerges. Slow-motion waves cresting & ebbing, spilling & pooling – exposing a new perception of the undercurrents.

O look – the future flux is rising up in the Wellsprings of my Soul – becoming a welcoming ocean of possibility.

I think about my deep immersion in:

1) The 1st Class of the Michael School of Spiritual Science – working in me to transform my astral body into Spirit-Self.

2) The Consecration of my humanness as I serve at the altar of the Christian Community – opening me to my Higher “I” & the New-Group-Soul in Christ.

3) My daily meditative rhythm as a dedicated member of the Esoteric Kries – to create a New kind of Social-Working imprinting the inner planes with spiritual imaginative impulses.

Bringing these 3 aspects together in my life has led me to the revelation – the duty – to take what was given to us in the Ancient Mysteries – renewed & transmitted 100 years ago by the great Initiate Rudolf Steiner – further – into the New Rosicrucian Mysteries of the 2nd Class of the Free High School for Spiritual Science – this working transforms etheric body into Life-Spirit.

This is the task at hand for humanity – to consciously meet the Being of Christ in the Etheric.

The Misraim Dienst=Service, gives us a modern ritual-working that reveals & galvanizes the revelations that flowed out of the imaginations of the Supersensible School of Michael at the end of the 18th & 19th Centuries. Activating the Reverse Cultus now, but this time – here on earth.

Hella Wiesberger reports that in a letter Marie Steiner von Sivers mentions: In Class II much of what he had given us in the Mystica Aeterna (the esoteric group working with the cognitive rituals of the Memphis-Misraim Service) would flow into it imaginatively.

And that in Class III this would have been transformed into moral strength.”

The adversarial powers working thru the Jesuits of the Roman Church & the Dark Occult Brotherhoods saw the power of this combination of 1st Class, Christian Community & the Misraim Dienst. Their Jealousy burnt down the 1st Goetheanum & shortened the life of Rudolf Steiner.

That reside lingers & has infected many with unconscious fear, disallowing the right relationships to unfold, & fostering an unwillingness to take Spiritual Science into the New Mysteries.

But friends, as we stand now at the Centennial of the Re-founding of Anthroposophy, we cannot let the destruction of the adversarial beings, or the mistakes of past, keep us from moving forward. We must bring the Imaginations, fired up in the Michael School & thru the burning, down from the ethers into the actions of a New Mystica Aeterna in America.  

Let us keep looking Above & Below the surface – Into the Heights & Depths, the Center & the Periphery, with open-mindedness, in the endeavoring to Know ThySelf…

~hag

P.S. FYI: These essays are now coming to you via the platform Substack, connected to the domain name Cognitive Ritual, https://hazelarcherginsberg.substack.com/

with my new email Hazel@CogRite.com

20 October 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: We won’t be able to see Occult Mercury, reach superior conjunction at 1 A.M. CDT. But this Wandering Planet will become an evening star visible after sunset in November.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1512 – Martin Luther becomes a doctor of theology

1781 – At Yorktown, Virginia, representatives of British commander Lord Cornwallis handed over Cornwallis’ sword & formally surrendered to George Washington & the comte de Rochambeau. The Revolutionary War Ends

1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Austrian General Mack surrenders his army to the Grande Armée of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Ulm. 30,000 prisoners are captured & 10,000 casualties inflicted on the losers

1812 – Napoleon Bonaparte retreats from Moscow

1813 – The Battle of Leipzig concludes, giving Napoleon Bonaparte one of his worst defeats

1893 – Deathday of Lucy Stone, a prominent American orator, abolitionist, & suffragist, & a vocal advocate & organizer promoting rights for women. In 1847, Stone became the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women’s rights & against slavery at a time when women were discouraged & prevented from public speaking. Stone was known for using her maiden name after marriage.

Stone’s organizational activities for the cause of women’s rights yielded tangible gains in the difficult political environment of the 19th century. Stone helped initiate the first National Women’s Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts & she supported & sustained it annually, along with a number of other local, state & regional activist conventions. She assisted in establishing the Woman’s National Loyal League to help pass the Thirteenth Amendment & thereby abolish slavery, after which she helped form the American Woman Suffrage Association AWSA, which built support for a woman suffrage Constitutional amendment by winning woman suffrage at the state & local levels.

In the long-running & influential Woman’s Journal, a weekly periodical that she founded & promoted, Stone aired both her own & differing views about women’s rights. Called “the orator”, the “morning star” & the “heart & soul” of the women’s rights movement, Stone influenced Susan B. Anthony to take up the cause of women’s suffrage. Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote that “Lucy Stone was the first person by whom the heart of the American public was deeply stirred on the woman question.

1897 – Deathday of George Pullman, an American engineer & industrialist. He designed & manufactured the Pullman sleeping car & founded a enslaving ‘company town’ for the workers who manufactured it.

During an 1894 downturn in manufacturing demand, he lowered wages & required workers to spend longer hours at the plant, but did not lower prices of rents & goods in his company town. He gained presidential support by Grover Cleveland for the use of federal military troops which left 30 strikers dead in the violent suppression of workers there to end the Pullman Strike of 1894. A national commission was appointed to investigate the strike, which included assessment of operations of the company town. In 1898 the Supreme Court of Illinois ordered the Pullman Company to divest itself of the town which became a neighborhood of the city of Chicago

1902 – Founding of the German Section of the Theosophical Society in Belin with Rudolf Steiner as the General Secretary

1915 – J.P. Morgan arranges the biggest foreign loan in history – a $500 million war loan to Britain & France – passing global financial control from the UK to the US

1936 – Deathday of Lu Xun, a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. Writing in Vernacular Chinese as well as Classical Chinese, Lu Xun was a short story writer, editor, translator, literary critic, essayist, & poet. After the May Fourth Movement, Lu Xun’s writing began to exert a substantial influence on Chinese literature & popular culture. Though sympathetic to socialist ideas, Lu Xun never joined the Communist Party of China

1937 – Deathday of Ernest Rutherford, a New Zealand physicist & Nobel Prize laureate, who came to be known as the father of nuclear physics. Encyclopædia Britannica considers him to be the greatest experimentalist since Michael Faraday

He conducted research that led to the first “splitting” of the atom in 1917 in a nuclear reaction between nitrogen & alpha particles, in which he also discovered & named the proton

1950 – Deathday of Edna St. Vincent Millay, poet & playwright. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, the third woman to win the award for poetry, & was also known for her feminist activism. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work.

Save the Dates for Community Workings

October 21-22Orionids Meteor Shower Predicted Peak
October 23Venus at Greatest Western Elongation
October 28Full Hunter’s Moon and Partial Lunar Eclipse

~Alex Gray

All Souls Festival – Election Day 7 November 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Bon-fire

Celebrating: The Festival of the Dead, & Martinmas

7 – 9 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

The reprise of the 2017 Great American Eclipse Monday, April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse

Stay tuned for details about a Retreat for this Solar Eclipse Event in Fort Worth/Austin, Texas

Begins: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 12:22 pm
Maximum: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 1:41 pm 1.005 Magnitude
Ends: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 3:01 pm
Duration: 2 hours, 39 minutes
Totality: 2 minutes, 34 seconds

Lunar Eclipse Sep 18, 2024

Bio~hag

Why ReverseRitual?

What is Anthroposophy?

The forms of light & dark

~Szabolcs Bodo

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~The forms of light & dark are many
The shapes of good & evil are hidden
We must discern the fruit from the poison…
In every moment beings of spirit wait
To rise up in our thinking –
That one of darkness has eyebrows that swim on his forehead like fishes
That one of light burns in the cold fire of selfishness
The middle pillar, whose two arms are scales
Stands firm in equanimity…
What cannot be known remains
There I see
With the eye of the sun
As it comes to rest
On my forehead
Throwing light in the dark corners of things
Casting shadows of my selves
Into uncharted lands…
Will you meet me there…?

~hag

Dear friends, Today on this Friday the 13th, remembering the trials of the Templars which began on this day in the 12th Century, I am off to embody the mounds & ‘Woodhenge’ of Cahokia to stand in community during the Annular Solar Eclipse on the Michaelmas New Moon -the first after the Autumnal Equinox.

This sacred place called ‘Sun City’, had its heyday starting in 700 CE flourishing for four centuries (c. 950–1350). It reached a peak population of 30,000 & was the most extensive urban center in prehistoric America north of Mexico – a bustling trading center on the mighty Mississippi River, larger than London or Paris at that time. The area once inhabited by the Tamaroa Tribe was later named Cahokia (kahokiaki meaning “Wild Geese”) for a group of Algonquian-speaking Native peoples of the Illinois Confederation that inhabited the area in the 18th century.

I am also holding in my consciousness that today in 1792, George Washington laid the Foundation Stone for the White House. And in 1917 The “Miracle of the Sun” is witnessed by an estimated 100,000 people in the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal.

May we meet together on the inner planes to uphold the forces of the Sun during the time of the eclipse 14 October 2023

~hag

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Mary Ann Bernal: History Trivia - Emperor Claudius dies from poison

In 1307 October 13 was a Friday – Hundreds of Knights Templar in France are simultaneously arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair, to be later tortured into a “confession” of heresy. Once freed of the Inquisitors’ torture, many Templars recanted their confessions. Some had sufficient legal experience to defend themselves in the trials, but in 1310 Philip blocked this attempt, using the previously forced confessions to have dozens of Templars burned at the stake in Paris. With Philip threatening military action unless the pope complied with his wishes, Pope Clement finally agreed to disband the Order, citing the public scandal that had been generated by the confessions. At the Council of Vienne in 1312, he issued a series of papal bulls, which officially dissolved the Order. As for the leaders of the Order, the elderly Grand Master Jacques de Molay, who had confessed under torture, retracted his confession & insisted on his innocence. But he was declared guilty of being a relapsed heretic & was sentenced to be burnt at the stake in Paris on 18 March 1314. De Molay reportedly remained defiant to the end, calling out from the flames that both Pope Clement & King Philip would soon meet their end. Pope Clement died only a month later, & King Philip died in a hunting accident before the end of the year

1792 –The cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion (known as the White House since 1818) is laid

1917 – The “Miracle of the Sun” is witnessed by an estimated 100,000 people in the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal. The people had gathered because the 3 shepherd children, who originally claimed to have seen Our Lady of Fátim, had predicted that at high noon the lady who had appeared to them several times would perform a great miracle. According to many witnesses, after a period of rain, the dark clouds broke & the sun appeared as an opaque, spinning disc in the sky. It was said to be significantly duller than normal, & to cast multicolored lights across the landscape, the people, & the surrounding clouds. The sun was then reported to have careened towards the earth before zig-zagging back to its normal position. Witnesses reported that their previously wet clothes became “suddenly & completely dry, as well as the wet & muddy ground that had been previously soaked because of the rain that had been falling.” According to reports, a panorama of visions, including those of Jesus, Our Lady of Sorrows, & of Saint Joseph blessed the people. The event lasted approximately ten minutes

The 1st New Moon after the Autumnal Equinox – Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, annular solar eclipse

GLOBAL EVENT:Annular Solar Eclipse
LOCAL TYPE:Partial Solar Eclipse in Cahokia Mounds State Historic SIte, Illinois
BEGINS:Sat, Oct 14, 2023 at 10:32 am
MAXIMUM:Sat, Oct 14, 2023 at 11:57 am 0.634 Magnitude
ENDS:Sat, Oct 14, 2023 at 1:27 pm
DURATION:2 hours, 55 minutes

All are welcome to meet on the inner planes during any part of the duration of the Solar eclipse – which Spiritual Science tells us is like the releasing of a safety valve – allowing the unbridled astral urges of the adversarial forces living in humanity, which are normally held in check by the spiritual beings working in the rays of the Sun, to instead surge out to infect the cosmic spaces, including our beloved dead & the unborn. (More on this soon)

We are all set for the Michaelmas Speaking with the Stars retreat 13-15 October 2023 at Cahokia Mounds – a sacred Mississippian Indian site in Collinsville, Illinois, called by the ancients: Sun City.

Annular solar eclipse total phases composite panorama during Totality , moon covers the sun’s visible outer edges to form a “ring of fire” shot using mylar solar film , very rare natural event Sun, Moon and Earth are aligned. A total eclipse , An annular eclipse , A hybrid eclipse, partial eclipse

Save the Dates for Community Workings

October 14Annular Solar Eclipse
October 21-22Orionids Meteor Shower Predicted Peak
October 23Venus at Greatest Western Elongation
October 28Full Hunter’s Moon and Partial Lunar Eclipse

All Souls Festival – Election Day 7 November 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Bon-fire

Celebrating: The Festival of the Dead, & Martinmas

7 – 9 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

The reprise of the 2017 Great American Eclipse Monday, April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse

Stay tuned for details about a Retreat for this Solar Eclipse Event in Fort Worth, Texas

Begins: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 12:22 pm
Maximum: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 1:41 pm 1.005 Magnitude
Ends: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 3:01 pm
Duration: 2 hours, 39 minutes
Totality: 2 minutes, 34 seconds

Lunar Eclipse Sep 18, 2024

Jehanne d’Arc

Greetings Friends – Before going out to Zinniker – The oldest Biodynamic Farm in America for our Michaelmas Farm Day experience today, I thought to share some thoughts that I hold of Joan d’Arc – a true Christic Warroior inspired by Michael. A few years back our Michaelmas Festival was inspired by Joan of Arc. I called it ‘PURIFYING FIRE: The Power behind the Will’.

My research led me to many amazing resources, including Mark Twain’s heart-felt Book, as well as the work of Anthroposopher Joan M. Edmunds. But my main source came from Rudolf Steiner who gives us many insights into this powerful individuality.

Now I can’t help but think of Joan when it comes to Michaelmas. And Yesterday while getting ready to serve at the Christian Community, my co-server came in wearing one of the red T-shirts with Joan’s likeness on it that everyone got who was involved with that Fest. (Thanks Mary & Deborah!) I had almost worn mine. I love these little clues that work thru to inspire us to take initiative.

The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations: Steiner, Rudolf:  9780880102056: Amazon.com: Books

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

What is the mission of The Maid of Orleans?

From the time of her enchanted childhood playing around the village ‘fairy tree’ – & then, starting at the age of 12 – & for 7 years till she was martyred at age 19, Jehanne (feminine form of Joannes or John) d’Arc was inspired into by progressive Beings of the Divine Spiritual World. These powers battled the inflammatory Luciferic forces of deception prevailing in humanity at that special time right before the beginning of the Consciousness Soul Age.  

Joan of Arc, with the aid of Michael, (& his helpers St. Catherine & St. Margaret) was able to vanquish the seductive Luciferic forces which were vying to prevent this shift in human consciousness.

Steiner describes the miracle of her birth, how she went thru a sort of pre-earthy initiation during the potent time of the 13 Holy nights, incarnating on Epiphany, the day the Christ came into a human being at the Baptism.

And we can also point to her equally auspicious death. Yes it was gruesome, not unlike like the sacrifice of the Christ. In her case, it occurred because all the jealous, selfish, Luciferic forces of her enemies joined together to bring about her sacrifice by fire; not unlike the burning of Ephesus & of the 1st Goetheanum.

Trial of Joan of Arc - Wikipedia
Paul Delaroche

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

Spiritual Science tells us that the soul of Joan of Arc continued working across the Threshold to shape these events after her death.

What the spiritual powers have to bring about will occur whatever the external conditions may be. 

Many great individualities are working with us even now from across the threshold. 

The Maid’s adversaries were able to bring about her death, but they were NOT able to prevent her mission.

Joan of Arc Bio, Age, Height, Death

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

Rudolf Steiner | Rudolf steiner, Steiner, Rudolf

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

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

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (1863 – 1914). On 17 August 1913, the  Emperor promoted Franz Ferdinand to inspector … | Ferdinand, History,  Historical pictures

~Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

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

In that case the selfish Luciferic forces came back to destroy the English reign after the sacrifice of Joan of Arc; and in this case – of the world war, all the elements of fear from the ahrimanic powers began to gather around the sacrificed soul of the Archduke, creating a focal point, a tear at the threshold.

The Changing Face Of Satan, From 1500 To Today

It’s hard to really phantom this, but we know that anything that has a specific character on the physical plane will have the opposite character in the spiritual world. Everything is reversed in the spiritual world. 

An element that had a blocking effect, keeping the 1st world war at bay, was now acting in the opposite way, as a spur, an incitement, to war.

So we see that a flip of the elements of fear, of the deceiving Ahrimanic elements, became a catalyst for war, which now a 100 years later, has led to the events of our present age, where there is constant war, in all realms of society.

Tyrone Dwelzel

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

Lebanese artist auctions viral painting of Beirut blast to help people in  need | Arab News
Pas Beirutt

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

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

Social Threefolding and Commonweal | Feminist movement, Freedom, Road trip

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

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

Irene Olid Gonzalez.

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

~hag

Here are some podcasts & video’s on the theme of Michaelmas:

Video – Michaelmas: Festival of the Future

Video: Michaelmas Musings

The Anthroposopher podcast – Preserve the Light

Video – The Central Regional Council – ‘Courage Born of Wisdom

30 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The waning gibbous Moon visits two celestial highlights of October’s late evenings.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

~Bosch

395 – John the Evangelist settles in Patmos to write the Apocalypse

420 – Deathday of St. Jerome also called Hieronymus, Roman priest, theologian, patron saint of translators, librarians & encyclopedists. Rudolf Steiner speaks of him in From Jesus to Christ lecture 4, saying he had to ‘falsify’ the Gospel of St. Matthew, because it was too esoteric for folks at the time:

When we know this, we understand that the original Gospel of Matthew could not be imparted without further preparation because men were not ripe to receive what was in it. For if Jerome, a Father of the Church, was himself not ripe for what it contained, then certainly other men were not. Those who were originally in possession of these communications, the Ebionites, did not impart them because, if received by unripe persons, they would have been so distorted that they must have led to what Jerome meant when he said that they would serve not for edification but for destruction. Now Jerome understood this; yet he allowed himself to impart in a certain way the Gospel of Matthew to the world. ~Rudolf Steiner

1207 – Birthday of Rumi, Persian mystic & poet

1791 – The first performance of The Magic Flute, the last opera by Mozart to make its debut, took place at Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, Austria

1791 – The National Constituent Assembly in Paris is dissolved; Parisians hail Maximilien Robespierre & Jérôme Pétion as “incorruptible patriots”

1882 – Thomas Edison’s first commercial hydroelectric power plant (later known as Appleton Edison Light Company) begins operation on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin

1914 – Birthday of Johannes Tautz – a Historian, Religious scholar, Anthroposophist, Author & Waldorf teacher. After the German capitulation, Tautz was imprisoned by the Czechs, Americans & Russians but managed to escape in the summer of 1945 back to his family in Bad Boll. He was soon approached by Erich Gabert in Stuttgart to join the Waldorf School that was about to be opened as its German & History teacher. On 1 November 1945 he stood before his first 9th grade at the Free Waldorf School, Uhlandshöhe.

Soon Johannes Tautz decided to look up his “predecessor”, the first history teacher at the Waldorf School, Walter Johannes Stein. The conversations with Stein provided an orientation & inspiration for all of his further work as a teacher, lecturer & writer; in his lecturing work at national & international conferences and in the “Hague Circle”, a coordinating international group of Waldorf teachers.

He likewise received particular guidance from Emil Bock regarding a Christological view of world history & from Jürgen von Grone about the destiny of Germany &in particular to the figure of Helmuth von Moltke.

In 1966 Tautz held three lectures about the spiritual background to National Socialism, which later appeared in print under the title Attack of the Enemy – The Occult Inspiration Behind Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in 1976. In it he looks at a number of personalities connected with questionable occult practices with which leading Nazis had been close during the time of the movement’s growth.

In 1979 he edited a collection of biographical portraits together with Gisbert Husemann of the circle of founding Waldorf teachers around Rudolf Steiner.

Together with a young friend, Thomas Meyer, he visited the daughter of Walter Johannes Stein, Clarissa Johanna Muller, in Ireland where she was living in order to look through her father’s literary estate. They found the typescript of Stein’s dissertation annotated by Rudolf Steiner, letters & meditations of Steiner for Stein, his mother & for his brother, who fell in a mysterious manner in WWI. Letters & notes of Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz, Eliza von Moltke, Ita Wegman, D.N Dunlop & many other personalities were discovered & formed the basis of Tautz’s biography of Stein in 1989

In 1993 he initiated the editing of a collection Rudolf Steiner’s letters & notes to Eliza von Moltke together with the post mortem communications & the letters of Helmuth von Moltke himself. The decision to publish these was to prevent or anticipate a partial publication without an appropriate commentary on the subject that had been announced. A previous instance of this content being used had been in the book The Spear of Destiny by Trevor Ravenscroft which, in the opinion of Tautz had been written “without the necessary protection of background knowledge for the deeply-penetrant & difficult to understand material.” Further reading

1938 – The League of Nations unanimously outlaws “intentional bombings of civilian populations”

1962 – Labor leader César Chávez founds the National Farm Workers Association, which later becomes United Farm Workers

1982 – Cyanide-laced Tylenol kills six people in the Chicago area. Seven are killed in all

1993 – The 6.2 Mw Latur earthquake shakes Maharashtra, India with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe) killing 9,748 & injuring 30,000

1999 – The Tokaimura nuclear accident causes the deaths of 2 technicians, many others affected by radiation poisoning, in Japan’s second-worst nuclear accident

2009 – The 7.6 Mw Sumatra earthquake shakes central Sumatra with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). 1,115 people dead, many injured & left homeless

30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day – Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought

The time for biodynamic preparation making is upon us. We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and working in the soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year?
Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye/ thank you.
Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.

Inscribed

Greetings Friends 
During this time after the Autumnal Equinox & the beginning of the Michaelmas Season, a shift occurs within us, echoing outside of us in nature, & reflected in various cultural expressions & traditions.

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, comes 10 days after Rosh Hashanah, & is the culmination of the entire High Holy Day drama. It is the Holiest Day of the Jewish year or, as the Bible describes it, the “Sabbath of Sabbaths”. During the 24 hours of Yom Kippur, the biblical commandment to fast from food & water, while engaging in intense soul-searching, & praying for forgiveness is practiced. Yom Kippur is a day of inner purification & of reconciliation with the creator & with our fellow human beings. It is a reminder of the frailty of human existence & our duty to act charitably toward the less fortunate. 

This ancient tradition is just as important now as it was for our ancestors, maybe even more so.

Yom Kippur Sermon 2018: A Eulogy for Isaiah • Rabbi Jay Asher LeVine
Isaiah by Marc Chagall

The inspiring, yet sobering, words of Isaiah 58 are read publicly in the synagogue on Yom Kippur “This fasting I have chosen,” says the prophet Isaiah, “Is it not done to loose the chains of injustice & untie the cords of bondage? To set the oppressed free & break every yoke? Are we not meant to share our food with the hungry & to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, you must clothe him, & not turn away from your fellow man?”

Sin and forgiveness in Psalm 51 | Marc chagall, Painting, Chagall
Forgiveness Marc Chagall

It is the moment in time to dedicate mind, body, & soul to reconciliation – with God, our fellow human beings, & ourselves; a time to turn to those whom we have wronged, acknowledging the pain we might have caused. At the same time, being willing to forgive & to let go of certain offenses & the feelings of resentment they provoked in us. This journey for both seekers & givers of pardon mirrors the journey a soul takes after death.

There are number of customs & traditions associated with the Holy Day of Yom Kippur. For example: the mikvah, or ritual bath.  The scripture says “You shall immerse yourselves in water & be purified.” This practice, from which Christian baptism originated, symbolizes purification & regeneration, as well as new birth, through repentance. Another custom is to greet each other by saying ‘May your name be inscribed in the Book of Life’ Gmar Chatimah Tova.

The High Holy Days are divided into two parts: The first is the inscribing which begins on Rosh Hashanah & finishes on Yom Kippur when the final “sealing” of fate takes place for the year. Parents customarily bless their children with the priestly benediction: “May it be the will of our Father in Heaven to put into your heart love & reverence. May your eyes be directed, may your mouth speak wisdom, & your heart strive for holiness. May your hands be occupied with good deeds & your feet hasten to do the will of the divine. May He grant you sustenance without stress & with profit, out of His hand that is open wide. May you be inscribed & sealed unto a good, long life. And so shall it be. Amen.”

Our names are inscribed into the Mother Earth at the time of our birth. And thruout our many lives we add to this imprinting – Thru our thoughts, words & deeds – thru our interactions with other people, we create a trail that we traverse. And this pathway makes its mark.

So what happens to all that we inscribe into the Earth?

I think of the tale of ‘Eros & Fable’ by Novalis. In it there is a wise woman, named Sophia of course, who has a bowl of oracle water. When a scroll is immersed in it, all the nonessential writing is dissolved, leaving only what has lasting significance. Then this inscription is set into the great book.

But what happens to the rest? Does it become food for the adversary?

At this time of year we can imagine that our life story is dipped into this chalice. Our true name, our true eternal Self is not dissolved. But everything that must dissolve represents how we didn’t live up to our true name – How we missed the Mark.

And so it is that the question arises for each of us: How much of us is junk food & how much of our divine nature can be inscribed in the Book of Life?

It is also customary to give extra charity before the holiday, & to light memorial candles for departed family members.

As with all Jewish festivals, the woman formally ushers in the holiday by lighting the candles at sundown. Evening services commence with the recitation of the Kol Nidrei prayer, a plea for absolution from any & all unfulfilled vows a person may have made in the course of the year.

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Marc Chagall

Contrary to popular belief, Yom Kippur is a day of hope & optimism in addition to a solemn day of soul-searching. The Day of Atonement provides a unique awareness of one’s own character, a track record, as well as the opportunity to upgrade relationships with relatives, friends, associates & the community at-large. Yom Kippur’s focus on forgiveness, highlights humility, fallibility, compassion, soul-searching faith, thoughtfulness, being considerate, & accepting responsibility

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Hildegard

Cabalistic tradition states that the first human being, Adam, was created on Rosh Hashanah.  And so it is that Human-beings are given an opportunity to recreate themselves spiritually, each year, on Yom Kippur.  This holiday is celebrated when the constellation of the scales give way to the virgin as herald in the heavens. Libra & Virgo symbolize key themes of Yom Kippur: Justice, balance, truth, symmetry, wholeness.

Libra is ruled by the planet Venus which reflects the beauty of love, & Virgo is ruled by Mercury the god of communications.

a t H o m e

During this season it is customary to walk to a body of fresh water & recite a special prayer, symbolically casting bread crumbs into the waters, a symbol of our sins: those actions that have missed the mark.

Ho' oponopono & Let it Be

And now, at the risk of mixing metaphors, I’d like us to put into practice the Hawaiian ritual of forgiveness, called Ho‘oponopono – It stems from an understanding that everything in the world is connected, in spite of our feelings of ‘separateness’.

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Trudy Suden

What we do to ourselves & others has repercussions. Because of this unity everything that occurs in our own little world creates a resonance in others & in society as a whole. To heal the planet we first have to heal ourselves; to do this, we will rely on four magic sentences: I am sorry.  Please forgive me.  I love you. Thank you. x4

In earnest wakefulness & practiced Peace –

~hag

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler

AUTUMN EQUINOX
Soul Luminescence
v25
I may, belonging to myself now,
begin to shine a dawning inner light
across the darkening of space and time.
To sleep is nature’s urge;
the depths of soul shall wake
and bear the sun’s warm glow
through winter storms and snow.

The Equinox was on Saturday. I align the verses so that v38 is always
at Christmas, so this Equinox verse is a week late… until next year
when Christmas will be on Tuesday and the Autmn Equinox on Sunday.

This week’s mirror verse can be a meditation every morning on awakening.
MICHAELMAS 111
Soul Sunpower
v28

I can, revived within,
now feel my own wide breadth of being,
my strength of sun-empowered soul
whose radiance of thinking solves life’s riddles
and lifts the wish-fulfilling wings
left lame by hope.

24 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The bright gibbous moon moves into the constellation Capricornus on the evenings of September 24 and 25. Comet Nishimura, has now moved from the morning sky to the evening sky. The comet is in bright twilight!

Lectures by Rudolf Steiner on this date

According to the Calendar othe Soul today is the Festival of Persephone, part of The Eleusinian Mysteries, held annually in honor of Demeter & Persephone. The most sacred & revered of all the ritual celebrations of ancient Greece. They were instituted in the city of Eleusis, just  west of Athens, possibly as far back as the early Mycenaean period, & continued for almost two thousand years. Large crowds of worshippers from all over Greece (& later, from throughout the Roman empire) would gather to make the holy pilgrimage between the two cities & participate in the secret rites, generally regarded as the high point of Greek life.

622 – Muhammad & his followers completed their Hijra from Mecca to Medina to escape religious persecution. Rudolf Steiner tells us Muhammad was able to see into the etheric realm. Legend has it that the enemy was just seconds from capturing them when they ducked into a cave, where they surly would been found, except a spider wove a giant web & a dove made a nest at the entrance, so when the enemy come to the cave they thought – they can’t be here, since the web was so intricate & the nest so well established.

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787 – Second Council of Nicaea: The council assembled at the church of Hagia Sophia

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1046 – Deathday(drowned) /Feast of St. Gellert

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1541 – Deathday (murdered) Theophrastus Paracelsus, a Swiss German philosopher, physician, botanist, astrologer, & occultist. He is credited as the founder of toxicology. He is also a famous revolutionary for utilizing observations of nature, rather than referring to ancient texts, something of radical defiance during his time. He is credited as the first to note that some diseases are rooted in psychological conditions.

Paracelsus’ most important legacy is his critique of the scholastic methods in medicine, science & theology. As a physician of the early 16th century, Paracelsus held a natural affinity with the Hermetic, Neoplatonic, & Pythagorean philosophies central to the Renaissance. Paracelsus rejected the magic theories of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa & Nicolas Flamel in his Archidoxes of Magic.

Astrology was a very important part of Paracelsus’ medicine & he was a practicing astrologer. Paracelsus devoted several sections in his writings to the construction of astrological talismans for curing disease. He also invented an alphabet called the Alphabet of the Magi, for engraving angelic names upon talismans.

1916 – Rudolf Steiner’s 2nd lecture on the Mexican Mysteries

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1789 – The United States Congress passes the Judiciary Act which creates the office of the United States Attorney General & the federal judiciary system, & orders the composition of the Supreme Court of the United States

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1869 – “Black Friday“: Gold prices plummet after Ulysses S. Grant orders the Treasury to sell large quantities of gold after Jay Gould & James Fisk plot to control the market

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1896 – Birthday of F. Scott Fitzgerald, novelist & short story writer

1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower in Wyoming as the nation’s first National Monument

1914 – World War I: The Siege of Poland begins

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1948 – The Honda Motor Company is founded

1950 – Forest fires black out the sun over portions of Canada & New England. A blue moon is seen as far away as Europe

1957 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends 101st Airborne Division troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce desegregation

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1960 – USS Enterprise, the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is launched

SUNDAY 24 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire 

Celebrating:

*The Autumnal Equinox

*World Eurythmy Day

*Yom Kippur

*Michaelmas Festival

6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring Food & Drink to share, & a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day – Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought

The time for biodynamic preparation making is upon us. We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and working in the soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year?
Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye/ thank you.
Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.

What was, What is, & What will be…

Listen to What is? on the ‘I Think Speech‘ podcast

Golden light is turning grey,
Mists begin to rule the day.
Bare the trees, their branches lift;
Clouds of dead leaves earthward drift.

Through the field the farmer goes,
Seeds of ripened corn she sows;
Trusts the earth will hold it warm,
Shelter it from cold and harm.

For she knows, that warmth and light
Live there, hidden from our sight;
And beneath a sheltering wing,
Deep below, new life will spring!

Deep below, deep below, new life will spring!”

Dear friends – As I prepare for our Annual Michaelmas Festival, I am contemplating: What was, What is, What will be…Asking many questions such as: How can we renew the Autumnal Mysteries of Eleusis out-pictured in the myth of Persephone..? Can we apply the lessons of how the young innocent, narcissistic maiden, feeling a call from the future – becomes captivated in the Underworld – to bring light into the darkness of her unconscious human soul..?

I ponder her initiation into the inner sanctum of the Self, which allows a leap in her evolution – Joining her new won powers to the force of Demeter’s fertile purpose. This trial & transformation is not done in complete isolation – She receives the help of her ecstatic Sun brother Dionysus, & the humor of the mysterious Crone Baubo, with her ribald songs, in perfect iambic metre, which were sung to relieve the emotional tension at the Eleusinian Mysteries.

And in her stepping into this conscious dying of the onesidedness of the physical light, which then allows the spiritual light to flourish, she recalls her unborness, her divine origin – & brings that mystery back to Earth in the Spring.

Dionysus, reflective precursor to the great Sun gods, lifts her from the depths to the divine heights – As the Queen & Bride. The ancient Eleusinian Mysteries were a celebration of this holy marriage. The echo of this lives on, even into the first centuries of Christianity, before the further densification of the human being could no longer receive its true message.

But dear friends, what was lost, can be refounded – on a higher conscious level – If we experience the cycle of the year as a path of initiation, we can not only participate in the reality which we can observe in outward Nature, & in the Elemental life, which is shifting & ever changing; but we can also see the reality behind the inward aspects of the Mystery of Christianity which is ever evolving – giving an impetus to our inward soul-focus at this milestone time of the year.

Christ, as The Cosmic Being of Love, has become the meaning & the life of the Being of Earth – A Sacred marriage feast that we are invited to attend & celebrate.

In the Autumn-Tide time, when we pluck the ripe fruits, bringing in the harvest, reaping what we have sown, we can feel a deep gratitude to the Elemental forces working for Natura, waiting for us to acknowledge them – for our mutual evolution.

Here in the Windy City, the Autumn rains are pulling the dried seeds off the plants. Natura has not yet begun to array herself in a colorful cover, which always reveals the after-image of the life forces. And then after that magical display – as the withering death-forces come more & more to the surface, Natura cannot give us anything else – We are left to ourselves – so that we can dis-cover in ourselves the eternal – that which goes beyond Space & Time.

When nature dies in Autumn, we must awaken to the divine within – The eternal call to the deepest part of our “I”, hidden in our burgeoning soul – What was, what is & what will be, is revealed.

~Wolfgang Grasse

The New Christian Mysteries bring us a fresh tradition that we can unfold as a Festival of Michael – a practical, living imagination of the Mighty Principality holding the countenance of Christ – activating the Time Spirit guardian of our present age within our lives.

The wise prophets of the ancient Hebrew people recognized this seasonal signal & called it their New year in these ‘Days of Awe’. And we can remember that in Hebrew, the name Michael is a question – asking: “Who is like God..?” This is an appeal to humanity – O Human Soul – Step up to your true destiny!

This year we are coming together for our Annual Michaelmas Festival to serve the various impulses on 2 occasions:

SUNDAY 24 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire 

Celebrating:

*The Autumnal Equinox

*World Eurythmy Day

*Yom Kippur

*Michaelmas Festival

6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring Food & Drink to share, & a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm DayBiodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought

The time for biodynamic preparation making is upon us. We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and working in the soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year?
Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye/ thank you.
Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.

19 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Today in the life of Rudolf Steiner

“…The etheric Christ will be perceived through the development of the etheric body, and also through impressions of autumn which the human being weaves into himself. Why was Christ here in a physical body? It was so that man could develop higher in order to acquire the capacity to perceive the Christ more and more in the etheric…

As it happens so often that great things that should be brought into the world in the right way are so badly misunderstood, we must try to prepare ourselves for what should come. And if we want to approach the spirit at the point where the spirit of nature also speaks to us morally, then we may say to ourselves: all Spiritual Science is in a certain respect a preparation to help us understand what has been said about past events when we discussed the changes that take place in the course of time.

~Rudolf Steiner, ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY AND THE MISSION OF CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUTZ, GA 130, II. The Christ Impulse in Historical Development II, 19 September 1911, Locarno

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

san-gennaro

The Feast of San Gennaro, an Italian-American festival. Originally a one-day religious commemoration, the festival was first celebrated in the United States in September 1926, when immigrants from Naples congregated along Mulberry Street in the Little Italy section of Manhattan in New York City. The immigrant families on Mulberry Street who started the feast, a group of cafe owners, erected a small chapel in the street to house the image of their patron Saint. They invited all to partake of their wares, asking the devoted to pin an offering to the ribbon streamers that are hung from the statue’s apron. This money was then distributed to the needy poor of the neighborhood. Over time, the festival expanded into an 11-day street fair organized & run by people outside the neighborhood. It is now an annual celebration of food & drink, & a major tourist attraction. Centered on Mulberry Street, which is closed to traffic for the occasion, the festival generally features sausages, zeppole, street vendors, games, parades and other such attractions.

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The Feast of Our Lady of La Salette*

634 – Siege of Damascus: The Rashidun Arabs under Khalid ibn al-Walid capture Damascus from the Byzantine Empire

1692 –The only death by peine forte et dure in American history was Giles Corey, who was (“pressed to death”) during the Salem witch trials, after he refused to enter a plea in the judicial proceeding. According to legend, his last words as he was being crushed were “More weight”, even though he was thought to be dead as the weight was applied.

*1846 – Two French shepherd children, Mélanie Calvat & Maximin Giraud, experience a Marian apparition on a mountaintop near La Salette, France, now known as Our Lady of La Salette. They returned from the mountain where they had been minding cows & reported seeing “a beautiful lady” on Mount Sous-Les Baisses, weeping bitterly. They described her as sitting with her elbows resting on her knees & her face buried in her hands. She was clothed in a white robe studded with pearls; & a gold colored apron; white shoes & roses about her feet & high head-dress. She wore a crucifix suspended by a necklace from her neck.

According to their account, she continued to weep even as she spoke to them, first in French, then in their own dialect. After giving a secret to each child, the apparition walked into a hill & vanished. The following day the children’s account of the apparition was put into writing & signed by the visionaries & those who had heard the story.

According to the children’s account, the Virgin invited people to respect the repose of the seventh day, & the name of God. She sorrowfully threatened punishment, in particular a scarcity of potatoes, which would rot. The context of these punishments places the warning just prior to the winter of 1846–1847, which was in Europe, & especially in Ireland & in France, a period of famine in the months which followed the apparition. This was one of the factors of the apparition’s popular appeal

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1864 – American Civil War: Third Battle of Winchester: Union troops under General Philip Sheridan defeat a Confederate force commanded by General Jubal Early. With over 50,000 troops engaged it was the largest battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley & was not only militarily decisive in that region of Virginia but also played a role in securing Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1864

1881 – U.S. President James A. Garfield dies of wounds suffered in a July 2 shooting. Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, a disgruntled office seeker, at the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station in Washington. Among those at the station was Robert Todd Lincoln, who sixteen years before had watched his father die from an assassin’s bullet. Vice President Chester A. Arthur becomes President upon Garfield’s death

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1893 – Women’s suffrage: In New Zealand, the Electoral Act of 1893 is consented to by the governor giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote

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1812 – Deathday  of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the banking dynasty

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1940 – Witold Pilecki is voluntarily captured and sent to Auschwitz to smuggle out information and start a resistance

1946 – The Council of Europe is founded following a speech by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich, calling for a “United States of Europe”

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1952 – The US bars Charlie Chaplin from re-entering the country after a trip to England

1957 – First American underground nuclear bomb test (part of Operation Plumbbob)

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1971 – Deathday of Lory Maier-Smith, the 1st Eurythmist

1976 – Turkish Airlines Flight 452 hits the Taurus Mountains, killing all 154 passengers & crew

1976 – Two Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom II jets fly out to investigate a UFO when both independently lose instrumentation & communications as they approach, only to have them restored upon withdrawal

1985 – A Violent. 8.0m earthquake hits Greater Mexico City area, killing at least 5,000 people, & destroys about 400 buildings

1989 – A terrorist bomb explodes UTA Flight 772 in mid-air above the Tùnùrù Desert, Niger, killing 171

“The impression of something living, something realistic, is produced by what has arisen in living imagination from decanted dreams.” ~Rudolf Steiner, from a lecture on September 19, 1924, ‘Speech and Drama’ (GA 282):