Category Archives: History

Geopolitics

June 13, 2022Biography, History, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Event~hag

Path under the Rose Arches by Claude Monet

~i walk the unpaved path
between moats & molehills
longer then forever
where my heart is made
fragrant as this rose
nodding & over-ripe…
my hands carry power
i let go
& hold on to love…
~hag

13 June 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Eve of the Full Honey Moon tonight (exactly full at 6:52 a.m. Tuesday morning Eastern Daylight Time). The Moon shines lower left of Antares this evening.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (RSarchives)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s orginal Calendar of the Soul, Wikipedia Commons)

Feast Day of Tobias – accompanied by the Archangel Raphael

1231 – Feast day of St. Anthony of Padua, patron saint of lost and stolen articles – a powerful Franciscan preacher & teacher.

1864 – Birthday of Rudolf Kjellen -Swedish historian, professor at Upsala. Coined the phrase: “geopolitics”, the doctrine of the interaction of geographical and political factors in the constitution and development of States.

Spoken of by Rudolf Steiner in BUILDING STONES FOR AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE MYSTERY OF GOLGOTHA, GA 175, Lecture IX, Berlin, 1st May, 1917

“In the course of our studies I have spoken of the events in the early development of Western civilization. My aim was to ascertain from these enquiries into the past what is of importance for the present, and with this object in view I propose to pursue the matter in further detail. Our present epoch, as we can see from a cursory glance, is an epoch when only thoughts derived from the Mystery teachings concerning human evolution can exercise effective influence. Now in order to grasp the full implication of this claim we must not only have a clear understanding of many things, but we must also look closely into the needs and shortcomings of contemporary thinking, feeling and willing. We shall then begin to feel that our present epoch has need of new impulses, new thoughts and ideas, and especially of those impulses and thoughts which spring from the depths of the spiritual life and which must become the subject of spiritual-scientific study.

At the present time there is much that fills us with sadness. We must not allow ourselves to be depressed by this mood of sadness, rather should it be something that can prepare us and teach us to work and strive in our present circumstances. I recently came across a publication which I felt would give me the greatest pleasure. The author is one of the few who are receptive to the ideas of Spiritual Science and the more is the pity that he was unable to introduce into his writings the fruits of anthroposophical endeavour. The book to which I am referring is The State as Organism, by Rudolf Kjellén the Swedish political economist. After reading the book, I must confess that I was left with a feeling of disappointment because I realized that here was a person who, as I said, was receptive to the ideas of Spiritual Science, but whose thoughts were still far removed from the thoughts we stand in need of today, thoughts which must be clearly formulated and become concrete reality, especially today, so that they may enter into the evolution of our time.

Before I say a few words on these matters I should like to call your attention once again to those ancient Mysteries which are known to history today only in a mangled version. It is all the more necessary therefore for our present age that Spiritual Science should bring an understanding of these Mysteries. I mentioned in my last lecture the unprecedented fury with which Christianity in the first centuries destroyed the ancient works of art and how much that was of priceless value was swept away. One cannot take an impartial view of Christianity unless one is prepared to see this destructive side with complete objectivity…How different this picture would be if Archbishop Theophilus of Alexandria had not burnt in the year 391 seven hundred thousand scrolls which contained vitally important records of Roman, Egyptian, Indian and Greek literature and their cultural life…

The forms of Christian worship were in many respects borrowed from the symbols and ceremonies of the ancient pagan Mystery cults, that the forms of these Mystery cults and symbols had been totally eradicated by Christianity in order to conceal their origin. Christianity had made a clean sweep of the pagan forms of worship so that people had no means of knowing what had existed prior to their time and would simply have to accept what the Church offered. Such is the fate of human evolution. We must be prepared to recognize without giving way to pessimism that the course of human evolution is not one of uninterrupted progress.

It would be foolish to imagine that the course of history could have been other than it has been. But sometimes a thought such as the following may prove fruitful: what would have happened if, at the time when the message of Christianity first made its impact on human evolution, the pagan traditions had not been eradicated root and branch, but if historically a certain knowledge had been transmitted to posterity? But Christianity was opposed to such a possibility.

People are unwilling to listen to the teachings of Spiritual Science; but in saying this I have no wish to imply reproach. Far be it from me to attach blame to anyone. At this juncture I can now revert to Kjellen’s book, The State as Organism. It is a curious book because the author strives with every fibre of his being to clarify the question: What is the State in reality?…Kjellen raises the question: What is the relation of the individual to the State? And in attempting to answer this question he immediately came up against a difficulty…Even if at a pinch we compare the State with an organism we must realize that we and the whole of political science are sorely mistaken if we overlook the fact that the individual is not a cell; only the productive element in man can sustain the State, whilst the organism is an aggregate of cells and it is they which determine its functioning. Therefore the present State in which the group-soul is no longer the same as in ancient times can only progress through the endeavour or initiative of the single individual…

We shall then be able to satisfy ourselves that the whole being of man by virtue of his individuality is far superior to the State, he penetrates into the spiritual world where the State cannot enter…

It is imperative that our present age should be permeated with the impulses of Spiritual Science. It is the tragedy of our time that it is powerless to develop ideas which could reconcile and control the organic life of the State. Hence everything is in a state of chaos. One must face these problems squarely; for the impulse, the desire to gain insight into these problems only arises when we face them squarely, when we know what are the driving forces in our present age

Even without looking far beneath the surface we perceive today an urge towards a kind of “socialization”, I do not mean towards socialism, but towards “socialization” of the Earth organism. But socialization — because it must be conscious, and not proceed from the unconscious as in the last two thousand years — socialization, reorientation or reorganization, is only possible if we understand the nature of man, if we learn to know once again the being of man — for that was the object of the ancient Mysteries.

Socialization applies to the physical plane. But it is impossible to establish a social order if one ignores the fact that on the physical plane are to be found not only physical men, but men endowed with soul and spirit. Nothing can be achieved if we think of man only in physical terms. You may socialize, you may order social life in accordance with contemporary ideas, and within twenty years everything will be in chaos again if you ignore the fact that man is not only the physical being known to natural science, but a being endowed with soul and spirit. For soul and spirit are active agents and exercise a powerful influence. We may ignore their existence in our ideas and representations, but we cannot abolish them.

If the soul is to inhabit a physical body which participates in a social order appropriate to our time it must have freedom of thought and opinion. Socialization cannot be realized without freedom of thought. And socialization and freedom of thought cannot be realized unless the spirit is rooted in the spiritual world itself.

Freedom of thought as an attitude of mind or way of thinking, pneumatology, spiritual maturity and spiritual science — as scientific foundation of all ordinances and directives — these are inseparably linked. We can only discover through spiritual science how these things are related to man and how they can he realized practically in the social order. Freedom of thought, that is, an attitude to one’s neighbour that fully recognizes his right to freedom of thought, cannot be realized unless we accept the principle of reincarnation, for otherwise we look upon man as an abstraction. We shall never see him in the right light unless we look upon him as the result of repeated lives on Earth. The whole question of reincarnation must be examined in connection with the question of freedom of thought and opinion. The life of man will be impossible in the future unless the inner life of the individual can be rooted in the life of the spirit…

What would Christ most vigorously condemn if He were to appear in our midst today? Most probably what the majority of people call “Christian” today, and much else besides…”

1865 – Birthday of William Butler Yeats

Ecclesia

June 4, 2022Biography, Community, Festival, History, Speaking with the Stars~hag

Dear freinds – I greet you on this eve of Pentecost. I will be celebrating Whitsun in Viroqua WI. at the ‘Turning Place’ this year so I wanted to touch in before the trip.

Working with the Whitsun imagination empowers us to creatively explore how we can engage in the lifting out of the ‘me’ into the ‘we’, out of opinion into wisdom; warming the “I”, to open the heart, in support of healthy community. Can we endeavor to strengthen our individual soul forces, to collectively open the portal into the Spirit worlds?

As Steiner’s Whitsun verse states: “This portal’s key the Soul may fashion If she herself grow strong within the strife” …

We can create an Ecclesia, a vessel, a chalice, a sheath for the Spirit. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas conference, where the reversed Whitsun, was born, the idea of moving the spirit that has flowed thru the head – into the heart, transforming it into wisdom to redeem our intelligence, & then back out as a gift to humanity – transforming the larynx along the way.

Our work is to take our individual Inner Whitsun & expand it, into what Steiner calls the “World Festival of Knowledge” – a path leading from ‘Sprit Recollection’, to ‘Sprit Sensing’, to ‘Sprit Beholding’.

In this sense the Christmas Conference, in all its spiritual reality reveals itself as the true Whitsun for anthroposophers – Those who strive to take into their souls the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit concerning the human being – Anthropos-Sophia, which is the knowledge of the grail held aloft by Michael in this present age of the consciousness soul.

Let’s think about it. The foundation stone was formed by Rudolf Steiner at the Christmas conference out of the Father-forces rising from the depths – gravity, unconscious will; as well as the Son-forces working in the periphery-warmth, creative love; with the Spirit-forces descending from the heights- consciousness, wisdom.

Thru Steiner’s profound mystery deed, an altogether new relationship of the macrocosmic forces working within the human being = the thoughts of the Spirit revealed in the human head- Christ working in the heart- & the will of the Father fulfilled in the deeds of the limbs, was made openly manifest.

When Steiner took on the karma of the society he gave the Michaelic impulse the possibility of flowing directly into the earth sphere & into those active in the Anthroposophical society.

Here we see a direct relationship with the original Pentecost, which was the 3rd & final stage of Christ the Sun Being’s union with the stream of Earthly Being, & the mission of Anthroposophy, as the Proclamation of World Pentecost.

Yes, we live in a potent time, when divergent karmic streams have the possibility of coming together-‘That Good May Become,’ a time when, some say, the Platonists of the School of Chartres & the Aristotelian-Dominicans, The Arthur & Grail streams with true Rosicrucianism, meet the new Michaelic Grail imagination arising in the human soul. A renewed chalice whose substance is Love, whose form is Imagination & whose light of thought which radiates, is redeemed Michaelic Intelligence.

This transforms the stone of the wise, into the dodecahedral foundation stone of love. For Michael frees thoughts from the realm of the head, opening a path to the heart, bringing forth that shining, raying-out of the divine chalice, that celestial light of redeemed intelligence, which like the radiance of the Spiritual Sun, can unite into a single whole the Spiritual substance of Divine love & human love, in the Holy Grail that was set into our souls at the Christmas conference. Calling ever & again for a renewal of the spiritual quest.

See you at the ‘Turning Place’

~hag

4 June 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day(RSarchives)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s orginal Calendar of the Soul, Anthrowiki, Wikipedia Commons)

1647 – Deathday of Canonicus, Grand Chief Sachem of the Narragansett Indian Tribe at the time of the Pilgrims landing in Plymouth.

1896 – Henry Ford completes the Ford Quadricycle, his first gasoline-powered automobile, & gives it a successful test run

1913 – Emily Davison, a suffragette protesting for women’s rights is trampled by King George V’s horse.

1919 – Women’s rights: The U.S. Congress approves the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees suffrage to women, & sends it to the U.S. states for ratification.

1939 – The MS St. Louis, a ship carrying 963 Jewish refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida, after already being turned away from Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, its passengers later die in Nazi concentration camps.

1975 – The Governor of California Jerry Brown signs the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act into law, the first law in the U.S. giving farmworkers collective bargaining rights

1989 – The Tiananmen Square protests are violently ended in Beijing by the People’s Liberation Army, with at least 241 dead.

my heart is a furrowed field
that the Sun rolls over
beating out the fallowness
with never-ending beams
infusing my will to receive…
~hag

Alone Together

June 3, 2022Biography, Community, Festival, History~hag

In the 10 Days…

Dear friends, as seekers on the path, have you ever felt utterly alone, overwhelmed, or even a bit lost? Rudolf Steiner speaks of this in ‘How to know Higher Worlds’ & in the ‘5^th Gospel’.

We have an opportunity, especially at this time of year, to recognize & acknowledge that uncomfortable feeling of isolation that can come from our striving; a mirroring of the experience of the disciples those 10 days between Ascension & Whitsun, when waiting feels like wrestling.

Since the time of Christ’s Ascension, humanity can now follow in the expansion of the one who has ascended to heaven. A path up to the heights has been prepared for us to tread. There, we grow wings. For this to happen we must let the ground of our soul become warm. Just as air only rises when it becomes warm, so it is with our inner being. If our soul does not become warm with enthusiasm, it does not rise to meet the heights.

Meditation & prayer are ways of warming our “I” so that our soul can carry out its own ascension.

Not the type of prayer consisting of mere words recited by rote from the head—which does not warm the soul’s ground—& not the kind of prayer into which all sorts of wishes & desires make an appeal ‘for something.’

But a meditation, like the Foundation Stone, spoken from the heart, from the human feeling nature, which not only warms the soul of the individual, but adds light to the community of other souls who are also working to build the ‘Dodecahedron of Love’ in service to the All. This allows our soul to ascend to where our True Self exists.

The soul’s union with the spirit then comes to be; & only in this way does the human being become complete. Our “I”, which until it is cultivated, merely hovers above us, but with this kind of warmth, we then become filled with the Higher Self. In this way during the 10 days, we can do our part to approach that sphere out of which the flames of Whitsun descend.

On the one hand, the Whitsun flames have warmth, & on the other hand, they possess light. Warmth must arise first out of human hearts like a fire. Then the Spirit responds out of the sphere of the Father, where The Christ & the Father are One. The light flame of the Spirit sinks down, joining the warmth flame of the praying heart. The light flame from above answers to the warmth flame from below. Only when we actively strive, with sufficient patience & endurance, working to become warm, may we hope for illumination. Becoming warm is our task, then illumination is the answer from heaven.

As the gifts of light from a higher realm come towards us, Whitsun expands into the world – But only if our thinking can change into heart-thinking; which will have an effect on the whole activity of human life, softening the prevailing intellectual forces which are so rigid & dark, with a cold hard cleverness.

Once the human being begins to truly think with warmth, then the Holy Spirit enters our heart-thinking, for then our True Higher Self thinks in us.

Let us sit in the loneliness together during these days, feeling the blessing of Christ’s Grace bestowed on us thru the Ascension. Knowing that in the future, which we are creating in each moment even now, a new thinking, a new culture, can finally come into being from the breath that touches us out of the Spirit of the coming Pentecost.

Move will be revealed…

Until soon ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (RSarchives)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s orginal Calendar of the Soul, Wikipedia Commons)

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

545 – Deathday of Saint Clotilde – patron saint of Les Andelys, Normandy. Wife of the Frankish king Clovis I, & princess of the kingdom of Burgundy. In 511, the Queen founded a convent for young girls. The natural spring there is known for healing skin diseases.Queen Clotilde’s cult made her the patron of queens, widows, brides & even those in exile. In Normandy she was venerated as guarding the lame & those who suffered violent death from ill-tempered husbands.

1924 – Deathday of Franz Kafka a German novelist & short story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work, which fuses elements of realism & the fantastic, typically features isolated protagonists faced by bizarre or surrealistic predicaments & incomprehensible social-bureaucratic powers, & has been interpreted as exploring themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, & absurdity. His best known works include “Die Verwandlung” (“The Metamorphosis”), Der Process (The Trial), & Das Schloss (The Castle). The term Kafkaesque has entered the English language to describe situations like those in his writing. Kafka was born into a middle-class, German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, today part of the Czech Republic. He trained as a lawyer, & after completing his legal education he was employed with an insurance company, forcing him to relegate writing to his spare time. Over the course of his life, Kafka wrote hundreds of letters to family & close friends, including his father, with whom he had a strained & formal relationship. He became engaged to several women but never married. He died in 1924 at the age of 40 from tuberculosis.

1943 – The founding of the Nachlassverein by Marie Steiner

1989 – Deathday of Ayatollah Khomeini, Iranian religious leader & politician

2013 – The trial of United States Army private Chelsea Manning for leaking classified material to WikiLeaks begins in Fort Meade, Maryland

Image result for wArmth & light painting — Jenn Nelson

POD (Poem Of the day)

~Look, I have light
In my eyes
& on my skin…
The star is warming…
And everything alive is turning
Into something else
Deep in the alchemical Heart
Of some annihilating
Ever creative fire
That is burning unnoticed
Waiting to touch
Me & you…
~hag

Standing in Awe

June 1, 2022Community, History, Insight~hag

~Today I am
a drop of water
Falling
To green the earth
I bring a message from the heights…
I leap
Up from matter
To ride the current of spirit
into truth…
TODAY WHAT ARE YOU?

When we stand in reverence & awe in our striving to take in the great revelations & truths coming from the spiritual world behind world events, we imbue ourselves with a feeling of wonder that can develop into a force of attraction for the Christ Impulse.

As the Logos is drawn in, the Christ Impulse unites with our individual human soul, to the extent that we are capable of standing in awe of cosmic mysteries.

The astral body of Christ, which The Sophia purifies in us, is derived from all the feelings of wonder that we have lived into thru our individual soul forces.

Another attribute that we must develop to attract the high Impulse is the feeling of compassion. Whenever a feeling of compassion or shared joy develops in a human soul, it serves as a force of attraction for the Christ Impulse. Through compassion & love, The Logos unites with our human soul. Compassion & love lived into by humanity are the forces from which the Christ will shape his own etheric body until the end of the Earth phase of evolution.

When we picture that the etheric body of The Christ develops out of human feelings of compassion & love, the biblical statement, ‘What you have done to the least of my brothers, you have done to me,’ becomes very real.

A third higher attribute that enters the human soul is the awakening & heeding of conscience; placing greater value on this ‘still small voice’, than on our own individual instincts. Christ unites most intimately with conscience, (as he did with John the Baptist), deriving his physical body from impulses of conscience in individual human souls.

Today will you stand in Reverence & Awe; in Compassion & Love; letting that still small voice of Conscience ring out with truth – as we embody & manifest the Christ within, & out in the world…?

~hag

1 June 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (RSarchives) The Four Sacrifices of Christ,
Basel, June 1, 1914, GA 152

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s orginal Calendar of the Soul, Wikipedia Commons)

International Children’s Day

1812 – War of 1812: U.S. President James Madison asks the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom

1967 – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles is released

1968 – Deathday of Helen Keller, American author & activist

TONIGHT! The Holy Grail Study Group with the CRC
Mysteries of the Holy Grail – from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation
June 1, 2022 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)
“Anyone who approaches these mysteries today must feel that they are confronting and challenging themselves by striving for the virtues of Parzival, while knowing that — because of modern conditions — they are in fact someone else also, the wounded Amfortas. Today we bear this divided nature within us: aspiring Parzival, wounded Amfortas. That is what self-knowledge must lead us to feel. From this recognition will flow the forces which make a unity again of this duality, and will thus advance us a little further in world evolution.”~ from Chapter 15, Rudolf Steiner, The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, Chapter 15 “Acknowledging Amfortas,” excerpts from Steiner’s lecture given at Berlin on 7 February 1913 (GA 144, lecture IV), will be the focus of the June 1 meeting.

A transcript of the entire lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link. * Please consider giving to the development and maintenance of the digital library of Rudolf Steiner’s work. Scroll to the bottom of this message to read more about the RSArchive.org and SteinerLibrary.org

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

This collection of lectures has been republished by Rudolf Steiner Press under the title: “The Mysteries of the Holy Grail — from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation.”  The book was compiled and edited by Matthew Barton, published by Rudolf Steiner Press in 2010.

This will be a “Zoom” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer). To connect to the audio/video-conference:

Video Conference Details:Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 882 1050 5106
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There is a knighthood of the 21st century
whose riders do not ride through the darkness
of physical forests as of old,
but through the forest of darkened minds.
They are armed with a spiritual armor
and an inner sun makes them radiant.
Out of them shines healing,
healing that flows from the knowledge
of the human being as a spiritual being.
They must create inner order, inner justice,
peace and conviction in the darkness
of our time. ~Karl Konig

Agenda for this meeting (CST)
7:15 Welcome and Introductions
7:18 Verse
7:25 Study led by volunteers
Note: CRC team will ID volunteers
Mariarosa – pages 117-123b
Marianne – pages 123b-129
7:50 Conversation
8:25   ID volunteers for next meeting
8:28 Close with verse

= I

May 31, 2022Biography, History, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

~with simple sandals
i walk before my Beloved
but in the house of heaven my feet are still…
my breast is a lyre that hums,
my lungs fill with living fire,
a cool breeze encircles me,
there is no need for haste…
~hag

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (RSarchives) ESOTERIC LESSONS I
GA 266, # 34, Hamburg, 31 May 1908

“One must repeatedly let what one had heard in esoteric classes pass before one’s soul, and only then will one gradually get out the forces that are hidden in what’s given.

Most scientific thinking is unproductive. But when we occupy ourselves with what’s given to our thinking in esoteric classes we occupy ourselves with productive thoughts, and that’s a source of strength for our soul. Such thoughts must pass through our soul in the right order. Just as nothing could exist in an organism if a leg was attached where an arm was supposed to be, so everything in our thinking must be consequent. Let’s place such a thought structure before our soul today.

One says a lot about wisdom. But wisdom isn’t what’s often called wisdom today. One gets smart through experience, but wisdom is the force that streams into us from the spiritual world and then streams out again. Wisdom also comes from the mouth of babes. When what streams out comes more from the feeling, it’s wisdom, but when it stimulates a man into action so that productivity predominates, it’s love. But one has to know what love really is. Someone may feel sympathy for a man’s misfortune, but that isn’t real love. Sympathy only becomes love if one steps in and helps him. Wisdom and love make up the I. The I is love and wisdom that have become will. This is the higher triad.

When it’s reflected in the lower I, love and wisdom become thinking, willing and feeling, respectively. Reflected even further down they become the four temperaments. Men have composite temperaments, but angels only have one each. The first kind of angels are those who work the choleric temperament into human beings. Such people like to do things. Sanguine angels inject people with a temperament that makes them receptive to all sublime and beautiful things, although such people aren’t very active. They get enthused easily but don’t stick to anything very long.

Phlegmatic angels influence people so that they’re not interested in what others have created. They do not leave such a creation the way it is, they repeatedly change it, they make everything flowing and indefinite. This is already expressed in the word phlegma, which means slime. Phlegmatics can’t make decisions and resolutions and so they’re always missing opportunities. Their bodies have soft and indefinite forms, they walk softly as they weave back and forth. And yet such people can also be choleric in their insistence on particular foods that they like. Melancholic angels work on a person so that they see everything in himself, he’s only occupied with himself, he does nothing for progress. So he doesn’t enjoy creation and becomes dull and dark. One must judge all characters on the basis of what the individual does for the whole’s progress. If one reflects these qualities even further down then choleric corresponds to fire, air to sanguine, phlegmatic to water, and melancholic to earth — there everything becomes rigid and solid.

One should hold such figures before one repeatedly. They make it possible that our soul organism is built up in the right way. One must think through such figures clearly. Our inner life can’t be strengthened by thoughts that oscillate back and forth. The soul gets stronger if one places such forms before one’s spiritual eye.

31 May 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s orginal Calendar of the Soul, Wikipedia Commons)

‘The Feast of the Visitation’ – The visible actors (see Luke 1:39-45) are Mary & Elizabeth, although Jesus & John the Baptist steal the scene. John leaps with joy in the womb of Elizabeth, who in turn, is filled with the Holy Spirit & addresses words of praise to Mary—words that echo down through the ages. Then comes the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55).

One of the invocations in Mary’s litany is “Ark of the Covenant.” Like the Ark of the Covenant of old, Mary brings God’s presence into the lives of other people. As David danced before the Ark, John the Baptist leaps for joy. As the Ark helped to unite the 12 tribes of Israel by being placed in David’s capital, so Mary has the power to unite all in her Son.

1809 – Deathday of Austrian composer Franz Haydn

Poetry Friday: Celebrating 200 Years Of Walt Whitman | KNAU Arizona Public Radio

1819 – Birthday of Walt Whitman, American poet, essayist, & journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism & realism, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene.

1875 – Deathday of occultist Eliphas Levy. Steiner refers to his Mexican incarnation in the Karma lectures Vol. 2

1942 – Deathday of Reinhard Heydrich, assinated in Prague. A high-ranking German Nazi official during World War II, one of the main architects of the Holocaust. Many historians regard him as the darkest figure in the Nazi elite; Adolf Hitler described him as “the man with the iron heart”.

1962 – Deathday of Adolf Eichmann, a German Nazi SS, one of the major organisers of the Holocaust. Eichmann was working with Reinhard Heydrich facilitating & managing the logistics of mass deportation of Jews to extermination camps. In 1960, he was captured in Argentina by Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service. Following a widely publicized trial in Israel, he was found guilty of war crimes & hanged on this day in 1962.

The Holy Grail Study Group with the CRC
Mysteries of the Holy Grail – from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation
June 1, 2022 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)
“Anyone who approaches these mysteries today must feel that they are confronting and challenging themselves by striving for the virtues of Parzival, while knowing that — because of modern conditions — they are in fact someone else also, the wounded Amfortas. Today we bear this divided nature within us: aspiring Parzival, wounded Amfortas. That is what self-knowledge must lead us to feel. From this recognition will flow the forces which make a unity again of this duality, and will thus advance us a little further in world evolution.”~ from Chapter 15, Rudolf Steiner, The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, Chapter 15 “Acknowledging Amfortas,” excerpts from Steiner’s lecture given at Berlin on 7 February 1913 (GA 144, lecture IV), will be the focus of the June 1 meeting.

A transcript of the entire lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link. * Please consider giving to the development and maintenance of the digital library of Rudolf Steiner’s work. Scroll to the bottom of this message to read more about the RSArchive.org and SteinerLibrary.org

Cognitive Ritual

~Confessions of a Modern Rosicrucian

Category Archives: History

Geopolitics

Ecclesia

Alone Together

Standing in Awe

= I

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