Today is follow up from my essay: Festival of Offering in which I shared my essential take away from the ‘Fire in the Temple’ gathering. Today I begin an overview of the many aspects of this life changing event:
Friends, I have been to a lot of ‘Anthroposophical conferences’ over the years, which have all been amazing in their own ways. From the beginning I knew the ‘Fire in the Temple’ Holy Nights gathering would be on a vastly different level. The conference team: Guy Alma, Dr. Raphael Knauf, Andreas Schuschke, Jacquelyn Bieringer & Mary Wildfeuer, worked it out so that everyone coming had a ride from the airport & a place to stay in the community! Andreas Schuschke a member of Camphill for 30 years, one of the key people carrying the conference, did the airport pickups & wouldn’t take any $ for gas. When I arrived at Whitestone house I was greeted by the house holder, Carsten Callesen, who is on many governing committees at Beaver Run, as well as Medical director. And in my room there was a little welcome package full of treats!
I could feel the whole village holding us. This Camphill community brings in the heart & essence of community – generous hospitality, & true service – it highlights the spiritual aspects of our Movement.
The gathering began with an option to attend ‘The Consecration of the Human Being’ with the Christian Community Priest from Devon, Penn. Rev. Jong Won Choi in the amazing Rainbow Hall.
This was followed by a glorious communal lunch (every snack & meal was bountiful – I cannot stress enough how important good food is to foster community, with time to stretch out & be social. This caring gesture creates a mood of love that nourishes & helps us digest the content on every level & cannot be received in any other way!)
Guy Alma, Director of Development, welcomed us with warmth & humor. In keeping with the theme of building up & living into the 1st Goetheanum as an etheric being, we were invited to participate in a variety of artistic offerings:
*Modeling & formwork of the Architraves of the small Cupola with Rudiger Janisch & Herb Walsh.
*Working with the Planetary Seals, drawing & conversation with Peggy Hirt
*Torn shapes/form drawing of the Red Window with Becky Rutherford
*Acrylic painting on large canvas of the initiates in the small cupola with Guy Alma
*The forms of the Goetheanum in Eurythmy with Gillian Shoemaker, who I adore having worked with her thru the AAP training.
We were also invited to sign up for 2 intimate Discussion Groups. One working with the ‘Reflections of the Night’, & the other, a ‘Conversation Group’ ‘ grappling with these evocative questions:
*What phenomena form the wood of the World Cross?
*Who has erected the Cross?
*Who is crucified there?
*When will the Roses grow from the Cross?
*What forces lie behind the Roses growth?
*How can we work as individuals, together, to bring these healing forces to life?
Rudiger Janisch laid out his many artistic renderings of the 1st Goetheanum to help us build it up in our imagination & then step in to ‘Find our seats’. I have experienced this presentation 3 times now, 1st when I brought Rudiger out to our Chicago Branch, then at the last AAP session. And each time a new layer is added. He points out that we have all experienced the etheric Goetheanum as we made our way out of the spiritual world into our present incarnation.
It’s interesting to contemplate that even though Rudolf Steiner said in 1914: ‘Not one thing of this building will remain…’ he still went forward with the work anyway!
The soul forces that went into the artistic manifestation of this Temple of the New Mysteries remains – these forces cannot be destroyed.
Yes, it’s true that the beautiful physical material became a burnt offering – but the selfless will forces that went in to co-create it remain – inscribed in the ethers – waiting for us to enter into – to take up – thru a cognitive ritual that employs our intentional, conscious, individual & collective soul forces.
This striving will transform our not only our Thinking, Feeling & willing but every one of our subtle bodies.
Will we reclaim the spiritual essence of this offering, & work to overcome what is written: The ‘Envy of human beings’?
We see an important parallel with the burning of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, releasing the mysteries of The Word into the ethers in order to point up the ‘Envy of the lower gods‘ & to inaugurate a new age in human consciousness –
We can think how Aristotle was able to read this sacred inscription in the starry script, bringing it down into his ‘Categories’. I have often spoken about this using quotes from Steiner’s Easter lecture of 1924.
At this Centennial milestone we are being called to rise up in ‘Cosmic Communion’ – to enter this modern Temple of the Word & bring down these will forces – a selfless will – inspired by Spirit.
The 2nd Goetheanum is like the shield of Michael, a protective shell over the etheric being of the Johannes Bau – A complete metamorphosis of the House of the Word – a tuning inside out, just as the Foundation Stone that was laid in the ground containing the Macrocosmic Lord’s Prayer needs to be transformed into the Our Father. The physical double dodecahedron was further spiritualized into the ‘Foundation Stone of Love’ laid in our hearts at the Christmas Conference Refounding thru Rudolf Steiner, which we must work toward in this Centennial Year..
To cap the day Jacquelyn Bieringer brought in ‘The Heavenly Sophia, The Virgin Mary Sophia, and Anthroposophia’ – Reminding us that this Being must be cultivated in the space between each of us in community. Setting the stage & giving focus to what is behind our movement: “I must be Mary & give birth to Christ within” ~Sileus
Such a great way to begin & make our way to the ‘Fire in the Temple’.
~hag
14 January 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
Candlemas – a Cross-Quarter Festival Heralding Spring – with Willow Summer & Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Wednesday 25 January 2023 – Program – 3 pm – Potluck – 5 pm, Please Bring Food & Drink to Share
Storytelling: The Alchemy of Celtic Triple Goddess Brigid,
The Year of the Water Rabbit – Tu B’Shvat – Beeswax Crafting – Singing
Rudolf Steiner’s Seed Meditation – from ‘How to Know Higher Worlds’
‘Charm the Plow’ – Bless & Consecrate the Farm tools
Three Springs Community Farm 15300 Bodega Hwy, Bodega, CA 94922
Contact Willow for more info.
Velsum Voices Presents: ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’
A Benefit Concert to support Nancy Jewel Poer and the community events at White Feather Ranch
Saturday, 28 January 2023, at 2 pm PT
In the Peace Garden at White Feather Ranch, Placerville, CA
All Ages – Love Donation – Contribute what you will
Come join us for Velsum’s West Coast Debut!
Dress in warm clothes for a hearty heart-filled afternoon of music and celebration. We will have an outdoor fire. If it is too chilly we can meet in the Ranch House. Pack your own picnic lunch or dinner.
Can’t make the concert? You can still Donate to Nancy’s web site
*RSVP to receive directions to White Feather Ranch hazel@reverseritual.com
‘Velsum‘ is a musical initiative formed through Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer. The songs are inspired to develop our human capacity for Love and Logic. Velsum is a celebration of harmony, rhythm, prayer, and the human voice. Each song is permeated with a sincere interest in the other, the self, the world, and the cosmos. ‘”Velsum’s music is a product of listening.” We hope that by listening to these songs, you feel heard. ~Velsum
Lucien and Ultra met as children at the Chicago Waldorf School, and became friends and collaborators as young adults. They now write, record and perform original music through the initiative Velsum. They debuted the show ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’ last winter at Angelic Organics Farm, and have performed it throughout the Midwest. Through weaving harmonies, poetic recitations, and movement, New Nightingale, New Rose invites the audience on a quest for love and wisdom. A joyful experience awaits young and old!
Here is a short video clip of Velsum, and here you can find their link to all links! https://linktr.ee/velsum
~Velsum: Ancient Futurism~ Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer
Here is a short video clip of Velsum find them on Instagram, Bandcamp, apple music, soundcloud, spotify, youtube
Ultra-Violet Archer – (b. Chicago, IL, 1999) is a songwriter and music producer, exploring music as a tool for healing and storytelling. After studying at Oberlin College & Conservatory and spending a year in Järna, Sweden, at the International Youth Initiative Program, she currently studies music at Columbia College Chicago. She strives to make music that invites people to honor the parts of themselves they feel but can’t yet put into words. https://linktr.ee/UltraVioletArcher
Lucien Dante Lazar (b. Chicago, IL, 1994) is an interdisciplinary artist whose praxis is founded in the intersections of art, science, and spirituality. He received his BA from Bard College (2016), his MFA from California College of the Arts (2020), and is currently working on his PhD in the Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness program at California Institute of Integral Studies. His dissertation will concern the pedagogy of spiritual development through the diversity of the arts.
The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll
Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance
When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.
Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.
This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.
Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.
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