Category Archives: History

Hidden behind the Mirage

Benny Whitley

I know you are tired dear friend. It’s all so much. And I know today is an emotional day. But together we can continue to ask urgent & difficult questions, so that we may share healing, which often comes thru shattering insights. These will help us achieve humanity’s highest evolution. Next year when we hit the third 7 year cycle, the possibility of the “I” can come in – IF – we look past the dust swirling in the repeated mirage, & meet this event with our collective Higher “I”.

Mandali: India and the World | Dhruvi Acharya | Ann Arbor District Library
Dhruvi Acharya

We can’t rest until we reveal what lies at the root of the corona – our individual & collective Crown – & the worldwide stranglehold it has caused.  It’s all connected. What are the deeper, spiritual realities? Which entities stand behind these attacks on humanity? What can we do to meet them? How can we be spiritually hygienic? What therapeutic practices can we employ for ourselves & the world?

Mindy Sommers

Is this present & ever mutating pandemic meant to be seen as part of a series of world-events – Will we dare to follow the threads? All of humanity is being called upon to respond in a radically transformative way. How do these events point to real questions of individual freedom – not a selfish me 1st freedom, but a true collective freedom based on love, good will & compassion toward everyone?

Van James

And above all, how does all this relate to the essential event of our time – The revealing of the Christ in the etheric; which remains largely hidden behind the veil of materialism?

What if in our work of deep listening & presencing, we see this milestone as the tolling of the bell – as a Spiritual epiphany…!?!

A vibration, that with our intention for healing, sets our bundles of rumbling DNA into initiation mode – where uncanny revelations are imminent…yay, I know it’s hard to be shaken awake in the middle of our regularly scheduled programing – And yep, it doesn’t matter if we’re a true believer or a work-a-day couch surfer- we are all invited to have our pat certainties torn out by the roots & replaced with a throbbing vision of cosmic hoopla… For Long-standing versions of reality are mutating – Stories that have remained fixed, are about to acquire unexpected wrinkles…& from the crack in the godhead new possibilities are pouring forth… 

What I pray is that we won’t be satisfied with mediocre half-truths…That it is ok be focused on cutting out waste, fraud, & delusion; that it’s ok to be itchy to know more about the unacknowledged games that are being played…Frustration, I hope, will be our holy fuel…Unsweetened lemonade, I trust, will be our rejuvenating drink… These are blessings, my friend, not curses…We can see thru the misplaced acceptance of warped chunks of either or-ness…

Here stands a gaping opportunity to make a break for effervescent responsibility – True Human Freedom…And to take advantage, we’ll need to travel much lighter -So please peel off your heart-armor – polish your sun-shield – Power the rust off your sword – Wipe that forty-pound sneer of scorn & doubt off your face – Bury your broken-down theories by the wayside, & donate all your unnecessary props to the birds & the bees – Strip down – for where we’re going, all you’ll need is your good will & a fresh attitude… 

As we strive to stand together in the light of wisdom’s humble love

~hag

Millions of Americans Commemorate 9/11 Terror Attacks

I end this 9/11 epiphany with:

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

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

9/11 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars: Look left of the thick crescent Moon for the head stars of Scorpius & farther left for orange Antares. ~skyandtelescope

“It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.”~Benjamin Franklin

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Birthday of Abraham, ancestor of the Semitic Hebrews & Arabs

354 – Deathday of  Saints Protus & Hyacinth mentioned in “Depositio Martyrum

Image result for Captain William Morgan,

1826 – Captain William Morgan, an ex-freemason is arrested in Batavia, New York for ‘debt’ after declaring that he would publish The Mysteries of Free Masonry. This sets into motion the events that led to his mysterious disappearance

1830 – Anti-Masonic Party convention; one of the first American political party conventions

1851 – Christiana Resistance: Escaped slaves stand against their former owner in armed resistance in Christiana, Pennsylvania, creating a rallying cry for the abolitionist movement

parliment-of-world-regilons

1893 – Parliament of the World’s Religions opens in Chicago, where Swami Vivekananda delivers his speech on fanaticism, tolerance & the truth inherent in all religions

1919 – U.S. Marines invade Honduras

1921 – Nahalal, the first Jewish settlement in Palestine, as part of a Zionist plan to colonize Palestine creating a Jewish state, later to be called Israel

1932 – Deathday of Fritz Lemmermayer an Austrian writer, journalist & closest childhood friend of Rudolf Steiner in Vienna. Fritz was a passionate anti-materialist, he wanted to devote his life to the creation & maintenance of spiritual values.

In 1883 he completed his novel “The Alchemist”. Rudolf Steiner met Lemmermayer again in 1886 in the circle of the poet Marie Eugenie delle Grazie.  An extensive correspondence attests to the close friendship between the two (see GA 38 ).

In ” My Life ” Steiner says: Fritz Lemmermayer, with whom I was later on terms of intimate friendship, I came to know at one of delle Grazie’s afternoons. A highly noteworthy man. Whatever interested him he expressed with inwardly measured dignity. In his outward appearance he resembled equally the musician Rubinstein and the actor Lewinsky. With Hebbel he developed almost a cult. He had definite views on art and life born out of the sagacious understanding of the heart, and these were unusually fixed. He had written the interesting and profound romance, Der Alchemist(3), and much besides that was characterized by beauty and depth. He knew how to consider the least things in life from the view-point of the most vital. I recall how I once saw him in his charming little room in a side-street in Vienna together with other friends. He had planned his meal: two soft-boiled eggs, to be cooked in an instantaneous boiler, together with bread. He remarked with much emphasis while the water was heating to boil the eggs for us: “This will be delicious!” In a later phase of my life I shall again have occasion to speak of him (see GA 028, p 141f )

Lemmermayer & Steiner joined the ranks of the Viennese artist circle in the house of the protestant priest Alfred Formey. In 1891 Lemmermayer was vice president of Schrifstellerbundes Iduna , named after Iduna , the Norse goddess of youth & immortality a counterweight against the currents of naturalism.

Lemmermayer  became a member of the Anthroposophical Society  in 1920. He Steiner on many trips through Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland & England.  This led to his 1929 published memories,  where he spoke about Rudolf Steiner, Robert Hamerling & other personalities of the Austrian intellectual life of the 80s. In addition, Lemmermayer published in the weekly ” Das Goetheanum “.

1940 – George Stibitz performs the first remote operation of a computer

1941 – Ground is broken for the construction of The Pentagon

1941 – Charles Lindbergh’s Des Moines Speech accusing the British, & the Roosevelt administration of pressing for war with Germany

1943 – World War II: Start of the liquidation of the Ghettos in Minsk & Lida by the Nazis

1950 – Korean War: President Harry S. Truman approved military operations north of the 38th parallel

1954 – Hurricane Edna hits New England as a Category 1 hurricane, causing significant damage & 129 deaths

1961 – Hurricane Carla strikes the Texas coast as a Category 4 hurricane, the second strongest storm ever to hit the state, 129 people die

1968 – Air France Flight 1611 crashes off Nice, France, killing 89 passengers &six crew

1974 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 crashes in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing 69 passengers & two crew.

1976 – A bomb planted by Zvonko Bušić is found at New York’s Grand Central Terminal

1978 – Janet Parker is the last person to die of smallpoxin a laboratory-associated outbreak

1982 – The international forces that were guaranteeing the safety of Palestinian refugees following Israel’s 1982 Invasion of Lebanon leave Beirut. Five days later, several thousand refugees are massacred in the Sabra & Shatila refugee camps

1988 – The St. Jean Bosco massacre takes place in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

9/11 – 2001 – Two hijacked aircraft crash into the World Trade Center in New York City, while a third smashes into The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, & a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in a series of coordinated attacks by ???

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Bloom upright skeleton
With soft flowers of bitter dust
Fetid in Autumn’s withering
Bloom, heart-head dreaming
My Crone womb carries you forward
Willing the grave to sprout from within
Bloom, soul-forces purified & ready
Let tears embrace the wind
To wipe blank eyes screen fixed & unfocused
Bloom now in freedom won

~hag

Nativity of the BVM

Dear Friends, We are excited that our Rudolf Steiner Branch here in Chicago will be serving as a hosting hub for the upcoming Anthroposophical Society in America hybrid General Meeting and Conference ‘Building the Temple of the Heart’ October 7th-10th.

Preparations are underway here on Lincoln Avenue for a lovely group of in-person attendees to arrive, to share fellowship and scholarship and experiences offered both online and in person here together. 

We have some limited space for vendors during the conference, which in-person attendees will be able to peruse during break- and meal-times.  If you have things for sale that would be enjoyed by conference attendees:  books, self-care items, beautiful adornments, gifts to bring home to children, beeswax candles, chimes or other musical instruments– the sort of things we would all enjoy with our senses in the space, and which we might want to purchase, please do fill out the attached form.

The convention hours are as follows: Thursday Oct. 7th Dinner at 5 pm, AGM starts at 6:30pm-8pm, Friday Oct. 8th – Class Lesson in the upper room at 9:30 am, Lunch at noon, conference 1-7:15pm, Saturday Oct. 9th – Pageant Rehearsal at 9am conference 11am-8:30pm, Sunday Oct. 10th – Pageant Rehearsal at 9am Conference 11-2pm.

You would be welcome to open your sales 30 minutes ahead of the start times, and to linger 30-40 minutes after hours for sales if it seems helpful. There will be snack and meal breaks during the sessions when people may like to browse as well.

For more information about the conference: https://secure.anthroposophy.org/np/clients/anthroposophy/event.jsp?forwardedFromSecureDomain=1&event=211

For more information about our own RSBranch’ participation as an in-person hub: https://rudolfsteinerbranch.blogspot.com/2021/08/registration-for-asa-agm-in-chicago.html

To apply as a vendor, Please complete the form by September 20th: https://forms.gle/AfpDueWSo9dRfYUH7

Very cordially; The RSBranch conference planning committee; Elizabeth Kelly eilisaineariadne@gmail.com  vendor coordinator

Bartolomé Esteban Perez Murillo

According to the original Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner, TODAY is the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Mary’s birth has ‘officially’ been celebrated since the 6th century. A September birth, with the Sun in the constellation Virgo. Also noteworthy-the Eastern Orthodox Church begins its Church year in September, with the feast of the Immaculate Conception nine months earlier on 8 December.

Feast of the Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Anna and Joachim –  Interrupting the Silence

The apocryphal book of James gives us this account: Anna & Joachim are infertile but pray for a child. They receive the promise of a child that will advance God’s evolutionary plan for the world.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is cots-virgo-938x1024.jpg

St. Augustine connects Mary’s birth with the work of The Christ. He tells the earth to rejoice & shine forth in the light of her birth. “She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley. Through her birth the nature inherited from our first parents is changed.”

26 July + Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed … | Flickr

Today the barren Anna claps her hands for joy, the earth radiates with light, kings sing their happiness, priests enjoy every blessing, the entire universe rejoices, for she who is queen and the Father’s immaculate bride buds forth from the stem of Jesse

The maiden, the wheat, and the threshing moon | Wandering Arrow

The Virtue for the month of SeptemberCourtesy becomes Steadiness of Feeling.

This virtue of Equanimity or steadiness of Feeling has never been my strong suit. And today it dawned on me that perhaps it’s partly because I have always looked on ‘courtesy’ as a false societal mask, a convention that my: ‘Say it like it is’ attitude didn’t allow me to fully appreciate; especially since my dear mother, always very courteous, was often martyred. I thought I had to be tough so I wouldn’t be walked on like she was. But recently I was called ‘unkind’ & that hurt. It woke me up to my impatience, & showed me how tolerance is a form of courtesy. It showed me that to be truly kind, truly courteous, I had to practice a real ‘steadfastness of feeling’ – It shouldn’t come from a rule outside me, an unconscious convention, a patent please & thank you – but from a kind, patient, heart – centered in equanimity, bringing a calm sobriety & the resolve to cultivate & harvest right relationship.

Virgo Constellation Painting by Erdal Bölükbaşı | Artmajeur
Erdal Bölükbaşı

So thank you September; for the time has come when the contemplative Virgin of the heavens approaches, sparking wholeness, to gather us up in her blue mantle, like ears of corn, we are brought home from the fields of Summer.

The constellation of the Virgin has always been regarded in the ancient mysteries as the bearer of the bread of life -Full filled at the ‘Tuning Point of Time’ in the ‘miracle of the loaves & the fishes’, as well as the ‘Last Supper’.

Pisces - Virgo Axis - Soul Bridging

If cosmic provisions are to become nourishment for the “I”, we must make a connection with the powers of the depths, which lie opposite the Virgin along the axis of the Zodiac, in the constellation of Pisces, the sign of the Fishes. With this balance of Above & Below we can truly feed the “I” – & say as St. John did: “I am the Bread of Life”!

This begs the question, which our current culture has to answer: How can the food of life, which is so often taken in unconsciously, in greedy gulps -instead be taken up & internalized with a wakeful & reverent consciousness?

Madonna of the Wheat, Addressing Sacred Feminine Imagery in Art, Statuary,  and Textiles - Attraversando in il Rinascimento Italiano

If the Bread of Life is to be fully digested by the “I”, then what is required is the destruction of our selfish desires, making us ‘virgin’ again, that we may give birth to the ‘Christ in me’, to preserve & focus the activity of the will, freeing the “I” from outdated husks, to feed the Christ self.

Virgo, Earth, Mutable, 6th House, "I Analyze" | Zodiac art, Esoteric art,  Art

In the social realm, the royal virtue of courtesy brings the giddiness of summer’s unconscious expansion back into a steadfast feeling of thoughtful care. A soul hygiene that brings the pendulum into right relationship, just as every out-breath is followed by an in-breath –The austerity of the Virgin leading us into the balanced scales of Libra in preparation for Michaelmas.

This must be developed in the practice of our social life. If we practice this high ideal of courtesy, not just a surface, conventional politeness, we can acquire the right heart-felt feeling, which awakens an inner organ that can reveal to us the true being of the other person, as well as opening our connection to the elemental beings, that look to us to release them from the withering blooms.

“If the sheath-bearing Virgin, who draws near with golden rays of autumn sun, in the blue firmament, is to nourish you with what she provides, you must take up this food that is the Bread of Life in your innermost being.

That you can only do, when you develop not only your senses, but with them, open up the spirit of your soul to the world around you, & deepen in your heart the fruits of your life, that you gather, shape & organize. Only the right heartfelt tact gives you the possibility of recognizing the human being in others & of becoming aware of your own human nobility!” ~Rudolf Steiner

Contrary to Popular Belief: Recovering the Grassroots History of American  Atheism | Perspectives on History | AHA

Happy B-day BVM. Please work with my karmic angels, & that seed of wise-love that I must continue to cultivate, to awaken the virtuous tasks at hand, living into the potential of human nobility…
~hag

8 September 2021 – “Speaking with the stars”: Early in twilight use the low, thin Moon to guide you down toward Mercury ~skyandtelescope

Meaning of life Painting by Tatjana Anufrijeva | Saatchi Art
Tatjana Anufrijeva

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Connie Landro on Twitter: "Today in History September 8th 1504  Michelangelo's David is unveiled in Piazza della Signoria in Florence. #OTD  #OnThisDay… https://t.co/tbaTI25OHf"

1504 – Michelangelo’s David is unveiled in Piazza della Signoria in Florence

1565 – The Knights of Malta lift the Ottoman siege of Malta, the climax of an escalating contest between a Christian alliance & the Islamic Ottoman Empire for control of the Mediterranean

Portrait of Robert Fludd (1574-1637) - Unbekannter Künstler riproduzione  stampata o copia dipinta a mano e ad olio su tela

1637 – Deathday of Robert Fludd, a prominent English Paracelsian physician & occultist, an astrologer, mathematician, cosmologist, Qabalist & Rosicrucian apologist.

1900 – Galveston hurricane: A powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000 people

1941 – World War II: Siege of Leningrad begins

1949 – Deathday of Richard Strauss, German composer

1978 – Black Friday, a massacre by soldiers against protesters in Tehran, provoked 700-3000 deaths, it marks the beginning of the end of the monarchy in Iran

1988 – Deathday of Dr Rita Leroi a few days before her 75th birthday. She attended the Stuttgart Waldorf School as a child. She went on to became a Clinical Assistant at the Ita Wegman Clinic in Arlesheim. She developed a deep interest in cancer & the Iscador treatment of this disease. In 1954 she married Dr Alexandre Leroi who was the leader of the Society for Cancer Research & Director of the Hiscia Research Institute in Arlesheim. It is here that Iscador is produced & researches into the many problems to be solved in developing it into an effective remedy are undertaken. In October 1963 the Lukas Klinik, devoted to the care & treatment of cancer patients, opened in Arlesheim & Rita Leroi became its Director & selected to be President of the International Anthroposophical Medical Association

Greetings kindred souls – This year for the APO fund raiser I plan to hold a Dance-A-Thon & Biodynamic Prep-stir on Friday 24 September 2021 at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in America – Chicago

Featuring Waldorf Alum DJ ‘Grapefruit Effect’ & Ultra-Violet Archer with ‘Circles Edge‘ 

It’s a potluck community gathering, so please bring food & drink to share – Along with your donation to this amazing program.

We also plan to read some poetry from some of the inmates who are working with Anthroposophy!

If you live out of town you can dance in your neck of the woods in solidarity with us. Please show your generous support…

Xox ~hag, hazel@reverseritual.com

Donate here https://secure.anthroposophy.org/…/anth…/campaign.jsp…

Craig Wiggins

Festival Gathering: Tuesday 28 September on the eve of Michaelmas with Rev’s Jeana Lee & Victoria Capon

Potluck at 5:30
Talk at 7pm

At the Rudolf Steiner Branch, 4249 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60618

Meeting The Dragon With Our Four Fold Being – A talk and collaborative sculptural creation

Bring Food & drink for the potluck & a found objects to help build the dragon!
Then our inspiration can come to life through our collaboration.

Jeana Lee was recently ordained as a priest of the Christian Community Movement for Religious Renewal and sent to the congregation in Chicago.  Previously she taught chemistry and math at Green Meadow Waldorf high school.  She enjoys swimming in the lake and is interested in questions of sin and redemption.

Victoria Capon hails from the east coast and is new to Chicago. Before attending seminary she taught at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod. Now she is happily settling into serving the chicago CC congregation and exploring the Windy City

Lay the foundation with us.

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Join us at the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago 

  • 1st make sure you are registered at https://www.anthroposophy.org/fallconference and have indicated that you will be attending in person at the RSBranch Chicago.
  • Then Register by October 1st with the Chicago Branch using PayPal (this requires that you have a PayPal account of your own).

OR

  • Register and write a check and it mail by October 1st to: Rudolf Steiner Branch, Attn: Jenny Doty 4249 N Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL 60618

OR

Details for the in-person conference:

  • $75 will cover the expenses for facilities, 3 lunches and 3 dinners, snacks, and printing.

You will enjoy a pre-AGM dinner on Thursday Oct. 7 Doors open at 5 pm (AGM starts promptly at 6:3opm CT)
Lunch and Dinner on Fri.and Sat.
and Lunch post-conference on Sunday.
As well as Snacks/Coffee-Tea during the breaks.

  • $40 will cover only the bare expenses – no meals
  • Be a Master Builder Patron for $100 or more, to help pay for the tech costs!

Registration Link

Days of Awe

Greetings friends on this Labor Day /New Moon/Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, (רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה‎, literally “head of the year“) is the first of the High Holy Days or Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe), a two-day celebration that starts tonight at sunset, as the New Moon makes her way into the light. It weds seriousness with celebration & begins the 10 days of repentance that culminate in Yom Kippur. This festival is believed to be the anniversary of the creation of Adam & Eve, acknowledging their first actions toward the realization of humanity’s role in the world.

Jasper Johns

The 1st panel of the Foundation Stone Meditation asks us to ‘Practice Spirit Recalling.” Recognizing ancient traditions, we can renewal time honored themes that still apply today:

The New Year focuses our attention on themes of discernment, repentance, memory & the Divine presence in the world (The Shekinah). At the same time, Rosh Hashanah invites us to celebrate birth & creation on many levels. The liturgy suggests that Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of the world.

Family-oriented services often include a birthday cake for the world. Customs include sounding the shofar (a hollowed-out ram’s horn) & eating symbolic foods such as apples dipped in honey to emphasize the sweetness of starting the cycle of seasons once again; & round challah to remind us of the cycles of life.

What is your birthday wish for the world? Are you willing to personally practice themes like forgiveness, as you recall that the Divine essence is in all that lives? How can you bring sweetness into life – making everyday a ‘Day of Awe’ – pulsing with reverence & wonder? How are YOUR thoughts, words, deeds, adding to the re-creation of the world?

Marc Chagall

La Shanah TovahIn Oneness with each other & the Universe

~hag

Venus-Spica conjunction

6 September 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Ruth Macabe

We are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is perhaps nothing but an expression of a poetry that was lost. ~ Gaston Bachelard

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Deathday of Albinus a Platonist philosopher, who lived at Smyrna, pupil of Gaius the Platonist & teacher of Galen.  A short tract by him, entitled Introduction to Plato’s dialogues, has survived. After explaining the nature of the Dialogue, which he compares to a Drama, he  goes on to divide the Dialogues of Plato into four classes, logical, critical, physical, ethical, & mentions another division of them into Tetralogies, according to their subjects. He advises that the Alcibiades, Phaedo, Republic, & Timaeus, should be read in a series

1080 – Deathday of Magnus of Füssen, a missionary saint in southern Germany, also known as the Apostle of the Allgäu, a contemporary of Saint Gall & Saint Boniface

1522 – The Victoria, the only surviving ship of Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition, returns to Spain, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the world

1729 – Birthday of Moses Mendelssohn, a creative & eclectic thinker whose writings on metaphysics & aesthetics, political theory & theology, together with his Jewish heritage, placed him at the focal point of the German Enlightenment for over three decades

1847 – Henry David Thoreau leaves Walden Pond & moves in with Ralph Waldo Emerson & his family in Concord, Massachusetts

1860 – Birthday of Jane Addams, sociologist & author, Nobel Prize laureate – I have a soft spot for this powerful lady – I went to Jane Addams Jr. High & the Hull House museum is close to where I live in Chicago. Jane Addams life’s work still resonates in a big way today. Social worker, suffragette & activist are just some of the titles that apply to her. In 1889, Jane founded a social settlement called Hull House, which supported thousands of people each week – mainly immigrants, the poor & the dispossessed. It became a model for similar communities in the future.

Jane studied medicine as a young adult but decided that wasn’t her calling. She was inspired during a trip to London when she visited the world’s first settlement house, Toynbee Hall. Within months, she opened the doors to a similar facility in her hometown of Chicago.

Originally conceived to give immigrants & the poor access to the arts, Hull House evolved according to the community’s needs. Along the way, Jane also challenged corrupt local officials, investigated health issues and lobbied against unfair laws.

Jane was way ahead of her time, a person who was making inquiries & putting her money where her mouth was into figuring out enormous social problems. She made a lot of progress in ways that are still really resonant. The legacy started at Hull House lives on, from juvenile courts & labor laws to playgrounds & public sanitation. The Mother of Social Work set a standard for how to help others.

All are Welcome

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Join us at the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago 

  • 1st make sure you are registered at https://www.anthroposophy.org/fallconference and have indicated that you will be attending in person at the RSBranch Chicago.
  • Then Register by October 1st with the Chicago Branch using PayPal (this requires that you have a PayPal account of your own).

OR

  • Register and write a check and it mail by October 1st to: Rudolf Steiner Branch, Attn: Jenny Doty 4249 N Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL 60618

OR

Details for the in-person conference:

  • $75 will cover the expenses for facilities, 3 lunches and 3 dinners, snacks, and printing.

You will enjoy a pre-AGM dinner on Thursday Oct. 7 Doors open at 5 pm (AGM starts promptly at 6:3opm CT)
Lunch and Dinner on Fri.and Sat.
and Lunch post-conference on Sunday.
As well as Snacks/Coffee-Tea during the breaks.

  • $40 will cover only the bare expenses – no meals
  • Be a Master Builder Patron for $100 or more, to help pay for the tech costs!

Registration Link

Greetings kindred souls – This year for the APO fund raiser I plan to hold a Dance-A-Thon & Biodynamic Prep-stir on Friday 24 September 2021 at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in America – Chicago

Featuring Waldorf Alum DJ ‘Grapefruit Effect’ & Ultra-Violet Archer with ‘Circles Edge

It’s a potluck community gathering, so please bring food & drink to share – Along with your donation to this amazing program.

We also plan to read some poetry from some of the inmates who are working with Anthroposophy!

If you live out of town you can dance in your neck of the woods in solidarity with us. Please show your generous support…

Xox ~hag, hazel@reverseritual.com

Donate here https://secure.anthroposophy.org/…/anth…/campaign.jsp…

Craig Wiggins

Festival Gathering: Tuesday 28 September on the eve of Michaelmas with Rev’s Jeana Lee & Victoria Capon

Potluck at 5:30
Talk at 7pm

At the Rudolf Steiner Branch, 4249 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60618

Meeting The Dragon With Our Four Fold Being – A talk and collaborative sculptural creation

Bring Food & drink for the potluck & a found objects to help build the dragon!
Then our inspiration can come to life through our collaboration.

Jeana Lee was recently ordained as a priest of the Christian Community Movement for Religious Renewal and sent to the congregation in Chicago.  Previously she taught chemistry and math at Green Meadow Waldorf high school.  She enjoys swimming in the lake and is interested in questions of sin and redemption.

Victoria Capon hails from the east coast and is new to Chicago. Before attending seminary she taught at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod. Now she is happily settling into serving the chicago CC congregation and exploring the Windy City

Find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals HERE

Peinture par Gioia Albano

ON-GOING WAYS TO ENGAGE:

Wednesdays 9:30-11:00am CT  – True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation, by Rudolf Steiner. We incorporate ‘The Calendar of the Soul’, eurythmy, focused discussion and seasonal artistic explorations in our study. All are Welcome. Contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg.  Hazel@ReverseRitual.com We meet in person in the Branch Library or join via Zoom
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84457727333?pwd=S2U1b0JGbjZmczR3SXJaUVdlbTJpUT09 Meeting ID: 844 5772 7333
Passcode: true

***

Rudolf Steiner

(CLOSED) Fridays 12noon – 1:30pm CT. The Esoteric Path Through the Nineteen Class Lessons by Sergei O. Prokofieff. A serious study for Members of the School of Spiritual Science. Contact Hazel Archer-GinsbergHazel@ReverseRitual.com

Gabriel Keleman

Sundays 7-9pm CT. Our international group is working with ‘The Effects of Esoteric Development” Contact Hazel Archer-GinsbergHazel@ReverseRitual.com, Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/91503499709?pwd=eEtzckt4NjM5OFIyUlJOT0pjYThCUT09 Meeting ID: 953 7461 8565 – Passcode: Logos

Labor Pains

Thomas Hart Benton

Some thoughts on the Origins of Labor Day

Most folks probably don’t think of Labor Day as a holiday commemorating struggle & death. But that’s what it used to be.

The period between the Civil War & the Great Depression was a time of massive upheaval: The industrial revolution swept in, & millions of Americans were forced to leave their farms & move to cities in search of work in the newly-formed rail, steel, textile, & shipping industries.

Economic policymaking was ad hoc & primitive. Massive recessions regularly created mass poverty & threw enormous numbers of people out of work. The rules, both legal & social, were still being formed for how employers could treat employees, & how the wealth they all collectively produced would be distributed.

Inequality soared to enormous heights by the end of the period. The minimum wage, the 40-hour work week, laws against child labor, & more were only instituted after pitched political combat. Unions were growing as the one avenue by which workers could fight for their interests, & the economy saw waves of regular strikes & work stoppages that would be unheard of today.

Sometimes, the battles were literal: Employers & politicians were not shy about busting unions with police forces & hired enforcers. Riots, deaths, & bombings were not uncommon.

The first inklings of America’s Labor Day took shape in 1882, when the Central Labor Union (CLU) met in September in New York City for a labor festival. Peter McGuire, a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), who was inspired by a parade in Toronto in 1872 in support of a strike against 58-hour work weeks may have been the 1st to propose the idea of a ‘Labor Day’. Other research points to Matthew Maguire, a machinist & member of the Knights of Labor. But somehow or another, the idea for a parade & yearly holiday to honor American workers was hatched.

The first parade of the new project was held in Manhattan on Sept. 5, 1882. It started out small, but then a band showed up, & workers’ groups from various industries began to flow in. Eventually the parade swelled to 10,000. After that initial success, various state & municipal governments began naming an official day to commemorate labor.

Then a massive recession hit in 1893. The job losses were devastating — & the frustration crystallized in a nationwide strike against the Pullman Company, a railroad car manufacturer & founder of one of the most infamous company towns in America, keeping the workers in appalling living conditions.

Railroad baron George Pullman created his eponymous town in 1880 just outside Chicago. It was a model of capitalist feudalism, with workers offered housing in line with their position in the company. Residents worked for Pullman’s company & their rent was automatically docked from their paychecks. They even had to bank at Pullman’s crooked bank. But Pullman’s business plummeted when the recession hit. Hundreds were laid off & wages were deeply cut — yet rents in the town did not decline.

In response, 4,000 of Pullman’s workers went on strike on May 11, 1894. On June 26, the American Railroad Union — led by Eugene V. Debs — called for a supporting boycott. One hundred & fifty thousand railway workers in 27 states joined the strike, refusing to operate Pullman rail cars. The massive halt to the rail industry & the interruption of U.S. mail cars set off a national crisis. Congress & President Grover Cleveland, looking to save face, rushed through a bill declaring Labor Day a national holiday. Cleveland signed it on June 28, 1894. He was backed by the AFL — the more conservative portion of the labor movement — which threw the first official Labor Day parade that year.

Pullman Strike, 1894 Drawing by Granger

But it was a brutally ironic gesture. Six days later, under pressure from the furious leaders of the rail industry, & facing the virtual shutdown of U.S. mail trains, Cleveland invoked the Sherman Antitrust Act to declare the stoppage a federal crime. He sent in 12,000 federal troops to break the strike. Days of fighting & riots ensued, as strikers overturned & burned railcars, & the troops responded with violent crackdowns. Over 30 workers were killed before the strikers were dispersed & the trains restarted.

Debs was sent to prison, where he read Marx for the first time, setting him on the path to becoming arguably America’s most famous socialist.

Cleveland & others picked the September date for Labor Day as a kind of alternative to May Day, which had by then arisen as the principal day of celebration for workers’ movements around the world. On May 1, 1886, over 250,000 workers struck in Chicago, shutting down 13,000 businesses to demand a shorter work week for equal pay. After several days of peaceful protest, an ‘unknown assailant’ threw a bomb at police in Haymarket Square on May 4. The police responded by firing into the crowd, killing scores of people.

So it’s understandable that many on the left view Labor Day as a cynical ploy — a lazy apolitical three-day weekend, which distracts from the remembrance of when workers fought & died for the basic human decency of a shorter work week.

But you could also look at Labor Day as a remembrance of a time when the labor movement was a force to be reckoned withSince the heyday of the New Deal, American membership in labor unions has collapsed. Millions of workers in modern service industries face capricious employment, low pay, & dismal conditions. Inequality has returned to its pre-Great-Depression levels, & the shared prosperity of the era immediately after the New Deal is a distant memory. Even the 40-hour work week is falling by the wayside.

All of which makes Labor Day ripe for reclaiming, in the name of some long-unfinished business.

~Jeff Spross

▷ Whispers of autumn by Rachael Dalzell, 2020 | Painting | Artsper (947466)
Rachael Dalzell

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
AUTUMN PRELUDE III
The Yield Of Summer
v23

In autumn haze
the senses’ lure fades;
a mist arising veils
the light’s revealing.
In widths of space I see
the autumn landscape fall asleep;
the summer’s yielded me
her being, and I reap.

Della Samford

In this week’s mirror verse, for the Celtic Wise Woman festival at Samhain
[‘Summer’s End’], the summer’s being begins to shine as the sun of the soul.
HALLOWEEN
Sun Inspiration
v30

In sunlight of my soul
ripe fruits of thought arise;
all feeling turns to sureness
of self-awareness.
I joy to sense
the autumn’s rousing of the spirit;
within me will the winter wake
the summer of the soul.

5 September 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Jebby Linde

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Deathday of Nathanael (Hebrew נתנאל, “God has given”) of Cana in Galilee, a disciple of Jesus Christ, mentioned in the Gospel of John in Chapters 1 & 21.

Jesus immediately characterizes him as “an Israelite in whom is no deceit”.   Steiner said this is a reference to the fact that Nathanael had been initiated & had received the title “The Israelite.” Jesus’ quote: “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you”, shows their connection in the super-sensible world.

Deathday of Gaius Marius Victorinus, born in Africa he became a Roman rhetorician & Neoplatonic philosopher. He translated 2 of Aristotle’s books from ancient Greek into Latin: The Categories & On Interpretation

Deathday of Zacharias the Prophet, father of John the Baptist. He performed the priest’s office in Jerusalem during the reign of Herod. The Lord appeared before him, standing on the right side of the altar & said “Fear, not Zacharias,” assuring him that his prayer was well pleasing & it had inclined God to a great act of mercy. The Archangel Gabriel then visited Zacharias’ wife Elizabeth who had long been barren & told her that she would give birth to a son who would be called John, whose name signifies grace.

Zacharias said to the angel, “Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is well stricken in years.”  The angel answered, “I am Gabriel, that stands in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings.  And, behold, thou shall be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things be performed, because thou believes not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.”

Then the prophecy was fulfilled & John was born, & after Zacharias had written John’s name on a writing tablet, his mouth was filled with the Holy Spirit, his tongue was loosed, & he spoke, praising God.

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem & the Magi came from the East, they told Herod of the newborn king. Herod sent soldiers to slay all the children in Bethlehem, he especially remembered hearing about the miraculous birth of John. “What manner of child shall this be?  Will this child be the King of the Jews?”  He decided to kill John.  The executioners could not find them, but the slaughter of innocents began.

When Elizabeth heard these cries, she took John & fled into the mountains.  When she saw soldiers drawing near, she prayed to God & cried out to the rocky mount nearby and said, “O mountain of God, receive a mother and her child!” Immediately the mountain was split & she entered hiding herself & John from the executioners.

The soldiers returned to Herod, having not found the child, & Herod sent word to Zacharias in the temple saying, “Surrender your son John to me.”  Saint Zacharias replied, “You will kill my body, but the Lord will receive my soul.”  The executioners straightway fulfilled Herod’s command & fell upon Zacharias between the temple & the altar.  His blood was spilt on the floor & became hardened like rock as a witness against Herod & a testimony to Zacharias.

Natalia Goncharova

My POD (Poem Of the Day)

~the barley grows in straight rows,
the stalks unfurl following their divine purpose…
Truth rides visibly thru the world
Have you not seen it?
Drink in the light & praise the cup of forever
spilling out the golden flow of eternity…
Let grace roll down your head like holy oil
warmed in the hands of SHE…
~hag

right livelihood

Greetings kindred souls – This year for the APO fund raiser I plan to hold a Dance-A-Thon & Biodynamic Prep-stir on Friday 24 September 2021 at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in America – Chicago 7 pm – 9 pm

Featuring Waldorf alum DJ Grapefruit Effect & Circle’s Edge with Ultra-Violet Archer

It’s also a potluck community gathering, so please bring food & drink to share – Along with your donation to this amazing program.

We also plan to read some poetry from some of the inmates who are working with Anthroposophy!

If you live out of town you can dance in your neck of the woods in solidarity with us. Please show your generous support…

Xox ~hag, hazel@reverseritual.com

Donate here https://secure.anthroposophy.org/…/anth…/campaign.jsp…

Craig Wiggins

Festival Gathering: Tuesday 28 September on the eve of Michaelmas with Rev’s Jeana Lee & Victoria Capon

Meeting The Dragon With Our Four Fold Being – A talk and collaborative sculptural creation

Potluck at 5:30
Talk at 7pm

At the Rudolf Steiner Branch, 4249 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60618

Bring Food & drink for the potluck & a found objects to help build the dragon!
Then our inspiration can come to life through our collaboration.

Jeana Lee was recently ordained as a priest of the Christian Community Movement for Religious Renewal and sent to the congregation in Chicago.  Previously she taught chemistry and math at Green Meadow Waldorf high school.  She enjoys swimming in the lake and is interested in questions of sin and redemption.

Victoria Capon hails from the east coast and is new to Chicago. Before attending seminary she taught at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod. Now she is happily settling into serving the chicago CC congregation and exploring the Windy City

Come & build with us

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is hww-outside.jpg

Join us at the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago 

  • 1st make sure you are registered at https://www.anthroposophy.org/fallconference and have indicated that you will be attending in person at the RSBranch Chicago.
  • Then Register by October 1st with the Chicago Branch using PayPal (this requires that you have a PayPal account of your own).

OR

  • Register and write a check and it mail by October 1st to: Rudolf Steiner Branch, Attn: Jenny Doty 4249 N Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL 60618

OR

Details for the in-person conference:

  • $75 will cover the expenses for facilities, 3 lunches and 3 dinners, snacks, and printing.

You will enjoy a pre-AGM dinner on Thursday Oct. 7 Doors open at 5 pm (AGM starts promptly at 6:3opm CT)
Lunch and Dinner on Fri.and Sat.
and Lunch post-conference on Sunday.
As well as Snacks/Coffee-Tea during the breaks.

  • $40 will cover only the bare expenses – no meals
  • Be a Master Builder Patron for $100 or more, to help pay for the tech costs!

Registration Link

World-Wide

Edwin Alverio

Greetings friends – I posted this in 2016 – It seems appropriate to revisit today…& everyday…

The hatred and antipathy in the world today can indeed be followed by international love with healing in its wings. This is indeed possible. But we are living in an age when all that is possible must be consciously, deliberately and freely striven for by human beings. There must be knowledge of the conditions requisite for uniting the peoples of the Earth, in order that, as a result of this knowledge, each individual people may help to make the waves of love follow those of hatred. Human love alone has power to heal the wounds of hatred. If humankind has no wish for this love, chaos will remain. That is the terrible alternative now facing human beings who have knowledge. Those who realise its terrors know that the souls of human beings dare not sleep, for otherwise, as a result of the powerlessness caused by the sleep into which the souls of the peoples have fallen, the healing waves of love will not be able to flow over the waves of hatred.

Mendy Z M Zimmerman

Human beings who realise this will acquire the kind of knowledge that flows from a spiritual conception of the relationships between the peoples. They will take this knowledge into their feeling — love for humanity will be born. They will take this knowledge into their will-deeds for humanity will be accomplished. The evolution of the age, with all the terrible paralysis that is appearing at the present time, places a solemn duty before the soul: to gather together all that can unite humankind in love and array it in opposition to the destructive elements that have made their appearance in recent times. This quest for loving unification, for unifying love is not merely a vague feeling. To those who understand the conditions of life today, it is the very highest duty of humanity.” ~ The Peoples of the Earth in the Light of Anthroposophy, A Lecture given by Rudolf Steiner, Stuttgart, March 10th, 1920  http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/19200310p01.html

Venus and Mercury in twilight, Sept. 5, 2021

3 September 2021 -“Speaking with the Stars”

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

frederick-douglass-quotes-about-education-18

1838 – Future abolitionist Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery

1939 – World War II: France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand & Australia declare war on Germany after the invasion of Poland, forming the Allies

1939 – World War II: The United Kingdom & France begin a naval blockade of Germany that lasts until the end of the war. This also marks the beginning of the Battle of the Atlantic

1941 – The HolocaustKarl Fritzsch, deputy camp commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, experiments with the use of Zyklon

1942 – World War II: Dov Lopatyn leads an uprising in the Ghetto of Lakhva, in present-day Belarus

1943 – World War II: The Allied invasion of Italy begins on the same day that U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower & Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio sign the Armistice of Cassibile aboard the Royal Navy battleship HMS Nelson off Malta

1944 – Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank & her family are placed on the last transport train from the Westerbork camp to the Auschwitz concentration camp

1959 – Birthday of my beloved husband Chuck Ginsberg :0

1962 – Deathday of E. E. Cummings

~talk is cheap…
uncover your face…
thru your own light come remembering
that the god you seek is within –
the truth you chase lives behind your eyebrows
look again…
Give from your body birth to all time & its seasons…
hum a song that lives in the quiet cypher of rain
sing for the gods hidden in tears
& laugh – for love is eternal…
~hag

Greetings kindred souls – This year for the APO fund raiser I plan to hold a Dance-A-Thon & Biodynamic Prep-stir on Friday 24 September 2021 at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in America – Chicago 7 pm – 9 pm

Featuring Waldorf alum DJ Grapefruit Effect & Circle’s Edge with Ultra-Violet Archer

It’s also a potluck community gathering, so please bring food & drink to share – Along with your donation to this amazing program.

We also plan to read some poetry from some of the inmates who are working with Anthroposophy!

If you live out of town you can dance in your neck of the woods in solidarity with us. Please show your generous support…

Xox ~hag, hazel@reverseritual.com

Donate here https://secure.anthroposophy.org/…/anth…/campaign.jsp…

Craig Wiggins

Festival Gathering: Tuesday 28 September on the eve of Michaelmas with Rev’s Jeana Lee & Victoria Capon

Meeting The Dragon With Our Four Fold Being – A talk and collaborative sculptural creation

Potluck at 5:30
Talk at 7pm

At the Rudolf Steiner Branch, 4249 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60618

Bring Food & drink for the potluck & a found objects to help build the dragon!
Then our inspiration can come to life through our collaboration.

Jeana Lee was recently ordained as a priest of the Christian Community Movement for Religious Renewal and sent to the congregation in Chicago.  Previously she taught chemistry and math at Green Meadow Waldorf high school.  She enjoys swimming in the lake and is interested in questions of sin and redemption.

Victoria Capon hails from the east coast and is new to Chicago. Before attending seminary she taught at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod. Now she is happily settling into serving the chicago CC congregation and exploring the Windy City

Come & build with us

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is hww-outside.jpg

Join us at the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago 

  • 1st make sure you are registered at https://www.anthroposophy.org/fallconference and have indicated that you will be attending in person at the RSBranch Chicago.
  • Then Register by October 1st with the Chicago Branch using PayPal (this requires that you have a PayPal account of your own).

OR

  • Register and write a check and it mail by October 1st to: Rudolf Steiner Branch, Attn: Jenny Doty 4249 N Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL 60618

OR

Details for the in-person conference:

  • $75 will cover the expenses for facilities, 3 lunches and 3 dinners, snacks, and printing.

You will enjoy a pre-AGM dinner on Thursday Oct. 7 Doors open at 5 pm (AGM starts promptly at 6:3opm CT)
Lunch and Dinner on Fri.and Sat.
and Lunch post-conference on Sunday.
As well as Snacks/Coffee-Tea during the breaks.

  • $40 will cover only the bare expenses – no meals
  • Be a Master Builder Patron for $100 or more, to help pay for the tech costs!

Registration Link