Category Archives: History

“Matter is woven light, the soul is cultured love”.

Friday the 13th March 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Right after dark at this time of year, 5 carnivore constellations stand upright in a row (emerging from hibernation?), from the northeast to south. They’re all seen in profile with their noses pointed up & their feet to the right. They are Ursa Major the Big Bear in the northeast (with the Big Dipper as its brightest part), Leo the Lion in the east, Hydra the Sea Serpent in the southeast, Canis Minor the Little Dog higher in the south-southeast, & bright Canis Major the Big Dog in the south.

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A few days ago on 3/11 (interesting date) it was the anniversary of The 1918 influenza pandemic, known as the ‘Spanish Flu. Analysis of medical journals from the period of the pandemic found that the viral infection was no more aggressive than previous influenza strains. Instead, malnourishment, overcrowded medical camps, hospitals, & poor hygiene promoted bacterial superinfection. This superinfection killed most of the victims, typically after a somewhat prolonged death bed.

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Considering this historic fact it is interesting to note that on this date 3/11/2020, it was ‘officially’ announced that the corona virus is a ‘pandemic’.

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Nutshell compiled from resources below: Viruses come from from the animal kingdom, when the human astral realm is imbalance. “We are currently inflicting unspeakable suffering on animals: from mass slaughter, to experiments with laboratory animals, which leads to pain. Can this suffering lead to consequences that change viruses that are native to the animal organism to the human being?”

Whenever humanity brings an imbalance, illness arises; but nature can always provide a remedy. Our beloved ones in the spiritual world can help us find these remedies.

What else can we do? Avoid alcohol, moderate sugar & maintain a rhythm of life with sufficient sleep & an active relationship with the sun. Potentized phosphorus & potentiated meteor iron in the morning can also support the immune system as light substances.

What weakens the lungs? Two things: lack of relationship with the earth and the sun & social tensions. We must not run away from the other, we must balance social tensions.

Medicine has promoted the belief that vaccinations can protect us against all types of infection. That is a mistake. Vaccination only offers a protection rate of 10 to 30 percent. Careful hand washing & hygiene when blowing your nose & coughing are also effective – without possible side effects. It’s also an important step to let go of a fearful, defensive picture of the environment & your own body & ask what you can do, trusting your own immune system. Sending the light of hope to the world.

All life is One Being. Matter is woven Light. Soul is cultured Love. When there is imbalance humanity is called to bring light to darkness & love to fear, hatred & doubt.

From the Goetheanum except: “…where do these obviously new viruses come from and why did they arise? Interestingly, many of the viruses come from the animal kingdom. The Corona virus probably from the Javanese bat. Why are viruses from the animal kingdom becoming dangerous for humans? We are currently inflicting unspeakable suffering on animals: mass slaughter right up to experiments with laboratory animals lead to pain to which the animal world is helplessly at the mercy. Can this suffering lead to consequences that change viruses that are native to the animal organism? We are used to looking only at the physical level and mostly seeing it separately from the mental level. Research on the intestinal flora, the microbiome, which includes not only bacteria but also viruses, proves the opposite. This raises not only the microbiological question about the origin of the virus, but also the moral question of how to deal with the animal world. Rudolf Steiner pointed out these connections more than 100 years ago. Today it is up to us to investigate these relationships and to ask deeper questions in addition to scientific analysis.

What can we do?

There are now a number of measures in personal behavior that support the organism in coping with the disease. This includes avoiding alcohol, moderate sugar consumption and maintaining a rhythm of life with sufficient sleep and an active relationship with the sun. What our immune system often suffers from is the lack of sunlight, a deficiency that has the greatest impact in March. This is due to the lack of sun over the winter months and reminds us that it is extremely worthwhile to go outside every day and in winter if possible, and thus to connect with the periphery, elementarily with the cosmos. Rudolf Steiner went into the foundation of anthroposophic medicine, Even before vitamin D was discovered, tuberculosis described it in detail. It applies to the immune system that vitamin D tablets can only replace the absorption of sunlight to a limited extent. Potentized phosphorus and correspondingly potentiated meteor iron in the morning can also support the immune system as light substances. For those who are older and perhaps have to do with cardiovascular diseases, anthroposophical basic means for the cardiovascular system, regular walking and adequate sleep are also recommended. Those who sleep less than six hours are much more susceptible to such infections.

A healthy breath to fellow human beings

If there is an illness, then the patient is now kept in quarantine, although minor cases can now also be treated at home. What seems important to me is the fact that anthroposophic medicine has decades of experience in treating viral and bacterial pneumonia without antibiotics with anthroposophic medicines and external applications that can be extremely effective. The medical section of the medical section has developed a corresponding therapy scheme and made it available to international medical colleagues.

What weakens the lungs Two things: lack of relationship with the earth and the sun and social tensions. It is therefore advisable to protect your own lungs, this respiratory organ, from the inside and outside by trying to balance social tensions. In my view, those who are in unresolved social conflicts are at greater risk here. Medicine has promoted the belief that vaccinations can protect you against all types of infection. That is a mistake. Even flu vaccination only offers a protection rate of 10 to 30 percent; Careful hand washing and hygiene when blowing your nose and coughing are also effective – without possible side effects. So it’s an important step to let go of this fearful, defensive picture of the environment and your own body and ask what you can do yourself.

From Rudolf Steiner: “…nature which causes us to rejoice has within it at the same time the mighty healer for all the damage man can cause himself. Somewhere in nature the remedy is concealed. It is a question, not only of understanding the language of the healer, but also of obeying it and really carrying it out. Today it is in most cases impossible for us to hear the voice of healing nature because our misunderstanding of light, and the darkness which has penetrated into knowledge has in many respects brought about conditions preventing us from hearing.

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Here again we see a remarkable connection which allows us to perceive the whole great world, inclusive of mankind, as One Being. In the sayings: ‘Matter is woven light,’ and ‘the soul is in some way or other diluted love,’ are to be found the keys of innumerable secrets of earth existence. Thus we have shown nothing less than that we, if in any way we alter the direction of karma, unite ourselves in one or the other case with the elements composing our earth existence: on the one side with light which has become matter — and on the other side with love which has become soul. We either draw the remedies out of our surroundings, out of the condensed light, or out of our own soul by the healing loving act, the sacrificial act, and we then heal with the soul-forces obtained from love. We unite ourselves with what is most deeply justified upon the earth, when, on the one hand, we unite ourselves with light and on the other with love. All earth conditions are in some way conditions of balance between light and love and everything unhealthy is a disturbance of that balance. If the disturbance is in love, we can then help by unfolding the forces of love; and if the disturbance is in light, we can then help by somehow providing for ourselves, out of the universe, that light which is able to dissolve the darkness within us.

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These are the fundamental ways of help, and we see again how everything depends upon the balance of opposites. Light and love are polar opposites and on their being interwoven depend ultimately all the psychic and material processes of our life.

In this connection I should like to note that just in such times as our own, a characteristic in many people is that they completely forget, and pay no attention to, that which one may call ‘the consciousness of a super-sensible world.’ They pay no attention whatever to the fact that there is a spiritual world, and they therefore turn away their thoughts from it. In such an age — or in all such ages — there is always in certain respects a counterpart to be found. I should like to show you this in a very simple manner.

When there are people upon the physical plane who are so absorbed in the physical that they completely forget the spiritual, then a contrary tendency appears among those souls who are living in the spiritual world between death and a new birth — a tendency which works over from the physical into the spiritual plane — impelling them to occupy themselves with the influences which act out of the spiritual world into the physical. It is this which brings about in the physical world the intervention by souls who are still in that state before birth. These souls work down into the physical world according to the means which offer and they are able to work indirectly through persons who are more sensitive to such influence from the spiritual world.

hag

The dead are anxious show in a palpable manner that there is indeed a spiritual world.

This is intended to illustrate how in the world and in world affairs we see continual disturbances of the balance, and then again the efforts for the restoring of the balance.

This continual disturbance and restoration of the balance between the two elements of light and love is fundamental for us; and in human karma, from incarnation to incarnation, both work to restore the disturbed condition. Karma, working its serpentine way through incarnations is just such a disturbed balance, until man, after all his incarnations, shall at last create the final balance which can be reached upon earth. Having fulfilled his mission on earth, he evolves then into a new planetary form.

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Hima af Klint

I have not shrunk from touching to-day upon those mysteries for which our modern science will not for a long time be ripe: Matter is in reality woven light, and that which belongs to the soul is in some way or other refined love. These are ancient occult sayings, but they are sayings which will for all time remain true and will prove fruitful for human evolution, not only for knowledge, but also for human work and action. ~ Manifestations of Karma, LECTURE 10, FREE WILL AND KARMA IN THE FUTURE OF HUMAN EVOLUTION by Rudolf Steiner

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Petey Bond

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Even now in the long pause of possibility
Rumbling beneath its shell
There rises a wild honking
That awakens the calling of Light
& the will to Love

~hag

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Friday the 13th

What is at the root of “triskadekaphobia” (the fear of the number 13)?

Well it could be because all numbers have their own cosmic vibration, & “13” is considered an unstable number. From the time when humans first used numbers to measure things, the number 12 has represented a common cosmic standard. There are 12 months of the year, 12 hours on the clock, 12 signs of the Zodiac, 12 Tribes of Israel, 12 Apostles, 12 Knights of the Round Table & so on. The number 13 represents disruption to the established order.

The modern basis for the aura that surrounds Friday the 13th stems from Friday October the 13th, 1307. On this date, the Pope of the church in Rome, in Conjunction with the King of France, carried out a secret death warrant against “the Knights Templar”. The Templars were terminated as heretics, never again to hold the power & riches that they had stewarded for so long. Their Grand Master, Jacques DeMolay, was arrested & killed on that Friday the 13th.

But In pre-Christian societies, reliance on a lunar calendar meant that Friday the 13th would coincide with the Full Moon or New Moon. It was a day to honor the goddesses & planet Venus in a day-long love-fest! Friday the 13th symbolized a day for everyone to let go, party, & sacrifice routine. Such breaks in the usual order allowed for the restoration of balance & harmony.

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The Scandinavian belief that the number 13 signified bad luck sprang from their mythological 12 demigods, who were joined by a 13th demigod, Loki, a cruel trickster who brought upon humans great misfortune. 

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The number 13, in the Christian faith, is the number of people at the Last Supper, with the 13th guest at the table being the traitor, Judas. 

Whether or not a person considers Friday the 13th as unlucky, belief in superstitions offers a sense of control in stressful situations. Today’s beliefs may very well be tomorrows superstitions.

Take a cue from our forebears. They saw the number 13 as a lucky omen, a time to make a fresh beginning, seeking new roads to success & satisfaction, as we open our heart & mind to new opportunities, luck & love!But just to be safe, don’t step on a crack!

~hag

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KNOW THYSELF – Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology

Postponed until Autumn

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Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond

THIS EVENT WILL NOW BE HELD ONLINE APRIL 17-19.  STAY TUNED FOR NEW REGISTRATION INFORMATION! 

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~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Saturday, 30 May, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm Groh Farm, 135 Temple Rd, Wilton, NH

Eurythmy: AUM = A – I stand for myself, U- I stand for humanity, M – I stand for Life

Social Sculpture: Steiner’s ‘Blue Dot Exercise’– Through Art, the bridge between science & spirit, we warm the ‘I’, to open the heart, in support of healthy community.

What are my gifts-What are my tools? How can I place them in right relationship within the social realm? How can I hone them to strengthen and enhance the world?

Living into the Foundation Stone of Love – How can we 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’?

Enter the Labyrinth of ‘Vitae Sophia’ – Human hearts, once warmed, can rise up to meet the source of wisdom, like flowers turning toward the sun.  

$30 suggested donation at the door, with potluck lunch to follow
(please bring a dish to share) RSVP deb@anthroposophy.org Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year.Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Trans-denominational Minister, ‘Anthroposopher’, working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, The Traveling Speakers Program, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society.

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Our dear Dr. Steiner said: ‘It is not the Christ we lack, but the knowledge of Christ, the Sophia of Christ, the Isis of Christ we are lacking.’ In ‘Ancient Myths and the New Isis Mystery: Their Meaning and Connection with Evolution’ Lecture 3; given in Dornach, 6 January 1918, by Rudolf Steiner; we hear how the power of ‘The Word, the power of The Logos’, must be resurrected through our striving to activate the Wisdom of Anthroposophia within each of us. Join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg for a powerful presentation Lifting the Veil of the New Isis-Sophia, to bring Light to Love.

“Beware the man of one book”

Moon passing Leo, March 6-8, 2020

7 March 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Regulus shines below the nearly full Moon after dark. As the gibbous Moon waxes toward full on the 9th, it crosses Leo.

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Thomas Aquinas by Fra Bartolommeo

How is it they live in such harmony, the billions of stars, when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their minds?” ~Thomas Aquinas

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

161 – Deathday of Emperor Antoninus Pius, who is succeeded by his adoptive son Marcus Aurelius

321 – Emperor Constantine I decrees that the dies Solis Invicti (sun-day) is the day of rest in the Empire

Carlo Crivelli

1274 – Deathday of Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican Friar & Theologian, “The prince of Scholastics”. Nickname in school=The ‘dumb ox’. Also known as the ‘Angelic Doctor’. “It must be realized that Thomas Aquinas, in the 13th Century, attained the concepts and ideas he elaborated in his writings in a completely different way from the way ideas are acquired today. One must think of his books as being inspired by a spirit from the Hierarchy of the Angeloi and that he recorded what came from a higher consciousness” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Karma of Materialism

Aquinas, who is most renowned for his Five Ways of Proving the Existence of God, believed that both faith and reason discover truth, a conflict between them being impossible since they both originate in God.

Believing that reason can, in principle, lead the mind to God, Aquinas defended reason’s legitimacy, especially in the works of Aristotle. The philosophy of Aquinas continues to offer insights into many lingering problems in Metaphysics, the Philosophy of Mind, & the Philosophy of Religion & Ethics.

Albertus Magnus by Tommaso da Modena

In Rudolf Steiner’s historic sketch of the life of thought in the Middle Ages, he shows how Albertus Magnus ( an earlier incarnation  of Marie Steiner) & Thomas Aquinas ( an earlier incarnation of Aristotle & Rudolf Steiner himself) & the Scholastics of the 12th century gave an impetus towards what in the twentieth century has come to be known as Spiritual Science, or Anthroposophy.

The Middle Ages would not have produced what is called Scholasticism — the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus and the other Scholastics — if this philosophy, this world conception, with all its social consequences, had not been inspired by the most important thought of the Church, by the Easter thought. In the vision of the descending Christ, Who lives for a time in man on Earth and then goes through the Resurrection, that soul impulse was given which led to the particular relation between faith and science, between knowledge and revelation which was agreed upon by the Scholastics. That out of man himself, only knowledge of the sensible world can be acquired, whereas everything connected with the super-sensible world has to be gained through revelation — this was determined basically by the way the Easter thought followed upon the Christmas thought.” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Cycle of the Year as Breathing-Process of the Earth

Aristotle by Raphael

Thomas Aquinas made himself thoroughly familiar with the world conception of Aristotle, who becomes, as it were, his master in the life of thought…For centuries, he is il maestro di color che sanno, the master of those who know, as Dante expresses the veneration for Aristotle in the Middle Ages.

Thomas Aquinas had intended on the one hand to investigate the world through physical research and intellectual knowledge but, on the other hand, that he had wanted to supplement this intellectual knowledge with the truths of revelation. But he had done that precisely to gain access to the unifying principle of the world.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, 12 June 1923

Of the great Dominicans, St. Thomas Aquinas is especially noteworthy because in him the influence of the astral body of Christ was manifest to a high degree.”

St. Francis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas had copies of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth woven into their souls, and it is this fact that allowed them to be such dynamic teachers. They worked from a sphere in which Christ had once lived.

In some cases external events such as natural catastrophes or similar things enhance this weaving of spiritual bodies into the soul of the recipient. It is said of St. Thomas Aquinas that lightning struck and killed his little sister in the room where he happened to be standing, but spared him. He interpreted this lightning bolt next to him to the effect that elemental forces were necessary to help him take up the copy of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. Elisabeth of Thüringen also had an imprint of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth in her soul”. ~ Rudolf Steiner, The Principle of Spiritual Economy, Rome, March 28, 1909

During the Feast of Saint Nicolas in 1273, Saint Thomas Aquinas had a mystical vision that made writing seem unimportant to him. At mass, he reportedly heard a voice coming from a crucifix that said, “Thou hast written well of me, Thomas; what reward wilt thou have?” to which Saint Thomas Aquinas replied, “None other than thyself, Lord.”

When Saint Thomas Aquinas’s confessor, Father Reginald of Piperno (an earlier incarnation of Ita Wegman) urged him to keep writing, he replied, “I can do no more. Such secrets have been revealed to me that all I have written now appears to be like straw” Thomas Aquinas never wrote again.

1792 – Birthday of English astronomer Sir John Frederick William Herschel. In 1864, he published the General Catalogue of Nebulae & Clusters, which astronomers still use today

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the “telephone

1913 – The Berlin chapter of the Theosophical Society, of which Rudolf Steiner was president & Marie von Sivers secretary, is officially annulled.

1965 – Bloody Sunday: A group of 600 civil rights marchers is brutally attacked by state and local police in Selma, Alabama

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Susan Breakwood

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Taking the low road
I climb the highest hill
Where the wind whips me
Awake I await the radiation
A flare that tears & makes bright
The night, a bed for the worm moon

~hag

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The term “Anthroposophy” should really be understood as synonymous with “Sophia,” meaning the content of consciousness, the soul attitude and experience that make a man a full-fledged human being. The right interpretation of “Anthroposophy” is not “the wisdom of man,” but rather “the consciousness of one’s humanity.” In other words, the reversing of the will, the experiencing of knowledge, and one’s participation in the time’s destiny, should all aim at giving the soul a certain direction of consciousness, a “Sophia.” ~Rudolf Steiner GA127

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KNOW THYSELF – Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology — an Easter-Tide Retreat 9 -12 April 2020,

Registration is now open for the Easter-Tide Retreat: “Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology” presented by the Central Regional Council and the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology 

Maundy Thursday 9 April 2020 Noon through Easter Sunday at 3 pm
Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL

AAP:James A. Dyson, M.D., Roberta Nelson, Ph.D., and David Tresemer, Ph.D. with Susan Overhauser, Ph.D.

CRC:Marianne Fieber, Alberto Loya, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton

Eurythmist: Mary Ruud

Activities:

  • Art-Acts
  • Star Wisdom
  • The Karma Exercises
  • Experiential PAGEANT on Holy Saturday: ‘Sophia-Christos- ‘Know Thyself’
  • Easter Sunrise Songtrail
  • Optional service at the Christian Community
  • Communal meals and time for Conversation

Lectures:

  • ‘Living into Karma through the Senses’
  • ‘How to find the Self in a Sea of Karma’
  • ‘Unfolding the Enigma of the Saturn Path’
  • ‘The Gesture of Karma’
  • ‘Christ as Lord of Karma — how do I access this in terms of my personal psychology?’

Conference Fees (includes 1 meal per day & art supplies):

  • $190 Supporter Level
  • $140 Standard Rate
  • $60 Youth Rate (Age 35 and under)

Limited scholarships available. Click here to apply.

You are welcome to join us for individual lectures or activites $20 or $50 per day

Click here for program information and to register

We are looking for folks in Chicago who can offer Home Stays. Please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@peoplepc.com

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Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond April 16-19, 2020 in Detroit, MI.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER! 

  • Bring a new consciousness to your own life and death
  • Support those who are crossing and who have crossed over 
  • Expand your practice and knowledge of working with the dying

Through interactive workshops, triad sharing, keynote discussions with Rev. Patrick Kennedy, Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,  Dr. Melinda Toney, and more, as well as experiential and artistic activities, we will consciously explore the spiritual and practical aspect of human life and death. 

Conference Fees:

  • $280 Supporter Level
  • $195 Standard ASA Member Rate
  • $215 Non-Member Rate 
  • $60 Youth Rate (Age 35 and under)

Pre-conference Activities: 

Thursday, April 16  

2 pm Tour of Brightmoor Maker’s Space  

4 pm  Screening of short film The Art of Natural Death Care  Detroit Waldorf School Auditorium- By Donation  

7pm Screening of a Will For The Woods Detroit Waldorf School Auditorium- Open to the public!  $10 Suggested Donation 

Friday, April 17

10:00-1:00p Registration Opens 
10:00-12:00p Choose from two pre-conference activities at the Detroit Waldorf School 

  • Exploring the Beauty of home funerals and green burial: Photo essay and Q&A with Merilynne Rush, MS, End-of-Life Doula Trainer and Home Funeral Guide (Open to the public. Donation accepted at the door) 
  • The Story of Detroit: A Walking Songtrail (Meet in the school playground. Approx. two mile walk)

12:00p Bag Lunch (For Purchase) 
1:00p  Conference Opening 
1:45-3:00p  Keynote Discussion with Rev. Patrick Kennedy: Befriending Death 
3:00-3:30p Break
3:30-5:00p  Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn, and the evolution of Earth – Then and Now. with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg.- – Explore the ancient origins of the many cultural expressions that work with, celebrate, & honor our beloved dead. Prepare the way for the Unborn, and for the future of humanity. Become inspired to Renew or Create your own Tradition. Through Spiritual Science learn to find your destiny, and meet your karma. Prepare for your own conscious crossing into the journey between death and rebirth, by asking questions like: Who have I been? Who am I now? Where am I going…? Who do I want to become?

ALL WORKSHOPS CHOSEN ON SITE  
Fuller descriptions coming soon! 

  • From Loss to Connection Through the Arts: Reading, Writing and Drawing with Marianne Dietzel and Maureen Flannery
    Together we will invite our loved ones across the threshold to join us in experiencing practices thet connect and heal. We will read to the dead, write prose and poetry, and draw from gestures of nature.
  • BIOGRAPHY: GIFTS OF REVIEWING LIFE AND CONNECTING TO LIFE AFTER DEATH     Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox
  • A HOME DEATH CARE STORY: CONSCIOUS DYING AND THE HOME VIGIL~BASED ON DYING OF WAYNE TONEY    Dr. Melinda Toney, Carole Schoaf, and Katherine Blackburn 
  • MULTI-CULTURAL APPROACHES: ANCIENT AND MODERN/ SACRED AND ESOTERIC: FESTIVALS FOR THE DEAD. THEN AND NOW. RENEW OR CREATE YOUR OWN TRADITION  Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Julia Torres and Guests 

5:30-6:30 Choose: Eurythmy (Movement), Singing, or Poetry 
6:30 Evening Appetizer Reception (Included in registration fee) 
7:30-9:00 Evening Performance 

Saturday April 18 – All workshops chosen on site/Saturday Lunch and Dinner for purchase 

8:00 Coffee/Tea/Breakfast Snacks (Included in Regisration Fee) 
8:30-9:15 Choose: Eurythmy (Movement), Singing, or Poetry 
9:30-11:00 Three-Day Themed Workshops   
11:00-11:30 Break
11:30-12:30 Vigil Room Experience  
12:30 – 2:00  Lunch and Table Conversations 

2:15 – 3:45 Topic Workshops
    Workshop Choices Coming Soon! 

3:45-4:15 Break

4:15-5:45 Story Space: Death & Healing 

5:45-7:00 Dinner With Your Dinner Table Groups 

7:30-9:00 Evening Performance with Sarah Putnam: Little Gidding by TS Elliot followed by Memento Mori Ritual 
 

Sunday, April 19 – All workshops chosen on site

8:00 Coffee/Tea/Breakfast Snacks (Included in Registration Fee) 

8:30-9:15 Choose: Eurythmy (Movement), Singing, or Poetry 

9:30 – 11:00 Three Day Themed Workshops 

11:30-1:00 Green Burial Ceremony and Closing 

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~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Saturday, 30 May, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm Groh Farm, 135 Temple Rd, Wilton, NH

Eurythmy: AUM = A – I stand for myself, U- I stand for humanity, M – I stand for Life

Social Sculpture: Steiner’s ‘Blue Dot Exercise’Through Art, the bridge between science & spirit, we warm the ‘I’, to open the heart, in support of healthy community.

What are my gifts-What are my tools? How can I place them in right relationship within the social realm? How can I hone them to strengthen and enhance the world?

Living into the Foundation Stone of Love – How can we 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’?

Enter the Labyrinth of ‘Vitae Sophia’ – Human hearts, once warmed, can rise up to meet the source of wisdom, like flowers turning toward the sun.  

$30 suggested donation at the door, with potluck lunch to follow
(please bring a dish to share) RSVP deb@anthroposophy.org Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year. Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Trans-denominational Minister, ‘Anthroposopher’, working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, The Traveling Speakers Program, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society.

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Our dear Dr. Steiner said: ‘It is not the Christ we lack, but the knowledge of Christ, the Sophia of Christ, the Isis of Christ we are lacking.’ In ‘Ancient Myths and the New Isis Mystery: Their Meaning and Connection with Evolution’ Lecture 3; given in Dornach, 6 January 1918, by Rudolf Steiner; we hear how the power of ‘The Word, the power of The Logos’, must be resurrected through our striving to activate the Wisdom of Anthroposophia within each of us. Join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg for a powerful presentation Lifting the Veil of the New Isis-Sophia, to bring Light to Love.

The good Doctor

Moon passing Venus in twilight, Feb. 26-28, 2020

25 February 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: At twilight, look far below Venus for the thin crescent Moon

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1861 – Birthday of Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Timeline I created this PowerPoint to give the highlights of this great Initiate’s life. And here is My humble attempt to create a more extensive Biography

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (his Birthday!!!)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

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138 – The Roman emperor Hadrian adopts Antoninus Pius, to be his successor

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777 – Deathday of Saint Walpurga The earliest representation of Walpurga, in the early 11th-century Hitda Codex, made in Cologne, depicts her holding stylized stalks of grain. The grain attribute represents the older pagan concept of the Grain Mother. Peasant farmers fashioned her replica in a corn dolly at harvest time & told tales to explain Saint Walpurga’s presence in the grain sheaf. St. Richard, when starting with his two sons on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, entrusted Walburga, then 11 years old, to the abbess of Wimborne. Walpurga was educated by the nuns of Wimborne Abbey, Dorset, where she spent 26 years as a member of the community. She then travelled with her brothers, Willibald & Winebald, to Francia to assist Saint Boniface, her mother’s brother, in evangelizing among the still-pagan Germans. Because of her rigorous training, she was able to write her brother Winibald’s vita & an account in Latin of his travels in Palestine. As a result, she is often called the first female author of both England & Germany. Walpurga became a nun in the double monastery of Heidenheim am Hahnenkamm, which was founded by her other brother, Willibald, who appointed her as his successor. Following his death in 751, she became the abbess

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1631 – François de Bassompierre, a French courtier, is arrested on Richelieu’s orders

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1841 – Birthday of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French painter & sculptor

1848 – Provisional government in revolutionary France, by Louis Blanc’s motion, guarantees workers’ rights

1856 – A Peace conference opens in Paris after the Crimean War

1861 – Birthday of Dr. Rudolf Steiner.

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1870 – Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in the U.S. Congress

1901 – J. P. Morgan incorporates the United States Steel Corporation.

1921 – Tbilisi, capital of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, is occupied by Bolshevist Russia

1932 – Adolf Hitler obtains German citizenship by naturalization, which allows him to run in the 1932 election for Reichspräsident

1948 – The Communist Party takes control of government in Czechoslovakia & the period of the Third Republic ends

1956 – In his speech On the Cult of Personality & Its Consequences, Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union denounces the cult of personality of Joseph Stalin

1968 –135 unarmed citizens of Hà My village in South Vietnam’s Quảng Nam Province are killed & buried en mass in the Hà My massacre

1986 – People Power Revolution: President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos flees the nation after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the Philippines’ first woman president

1991 – The Warsaw Pact is declared disbanded

1992 – Khojaly massacre: About 613 civilians are killed by Armenian armed forces during the conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan

1994 – Mosque of Abraham massacre: In the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron, Baruch Goldstein opens fire with an automatic rifle, killing 29 Palestinian worshippers & injuring 125 more before being subdued & beaten to death by survivors

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February 23–March 1:  Fasching/Fasnacht – a German carnival season, celebrations, dances, & parades in the nights leading up to Ash Wednesday

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Hail architect of Freedom
Grant me thoughts of power
That I may create myself with sharpened tools
For the becoming

~hag

***

Collage by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

KNOW THYSELF – Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology — an Easter-Tide Retreat 9 -12 April 2020,

Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond April 16-19, 2020 in Detroit, MI.

Winds of Change

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Today’s thoughts: Ode to the West Wind

          Percy Bysshe Shelley praises the wind for the role it plays in the cycle of life, death & rebirth, & implores it to scatter his poetry over the earth in order to aid humankind. Shelley uses stark imagery to portray vivid scenes of the natural world, & demonstrate the wind’s unrivaled power to both destroy & preserve. Though the ode has a plangent, slightly ominous tone, Shelley ends the poem with the promise of spring.

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          The first stanza opens with an incantation. Shelley proceeds to paint a scene of fall leaves & dried seeds being blown by the wind, made wonderfully eerie by a palette of colors: “yellow, black and pale, hectic red.” In this stanza, death is referenced multiple times; Shelley refers to the leaves as fleeing dead ghosts, before describing the seeds as corpses inside their grave. The first stanza, like the next two, ends with Shelley calling for the wind to hear him. In the second stanza, the wind is depicted whipping up a mighty storm, likened to a “dirge of the dying year”, furthering Shelley’s reference to death. Curiously intriguing is Shelley’s references to both Christianity & Greek mythology throughout this stanza; the storm clouds are described as being, “shook from the tangled bough of Heaven, Angels of rain and lightning”, & the ending line of the stanza, “Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst!” likens the approaching storm to doomsday. Yet Shelley also uses an image of a Maenad’s hair to describe the lightning. In the third stanza, Shelley writes of the Mediterranean being awoken from its blissful summer sleep by the west wind. The first half of the stanza is filled with images of the calm blue ocean & the azure moss, the sweet flowers & the sea blooms. However, this is then contrasted by the ocean’s power, which causes the serene foliage to grow “gray with fear”.

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             Stanzas four & five introduce the speaker’s motives for the first time. Shelley longs that he might feel the wind’s power in the way that the clouds, waves & leaves do. Conforming to the standard of the Romantic period, Shelley also references his childhood & loss of innocence by lamenting that the passing of time has hindered his ability to feel as “tameless, swift, and proud” as the wind. The last stanza implements another common Romantic symbol: the lyre. Shelley implores that the west wind take control of him in order to, “drive his dead thoughts over the universe” in order to fertilize the birth of new ideas, as dead leaves fertilize the new growth of plants. Shelley goes on to compare himself to a slowly dying hearth whose ashes & sparks are scattered among mankind. It is fitting that, after illustrating the power of the earth, the water, & the mighty west wind, Shelley ends the poem with a vivid image of fire. After all, though fire can be seen as the epitome of destruction, fire ultimately represents rebirth, like the flame of the phoenix, & a clean slate, like fertile, soot-blackened soil. Out of Shelley’s fiery metaphor comes his hopeful question, “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

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Ode to the West Wind
BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

I
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

Her clarion o’er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill:

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear!

II
Thou on whose stream, mid the steep sky’s commotion,
Loose clouds like earth’s decaying leaves are shed,
Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,

Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread
On the blue surface of thine aëry surge,
Like the bright hair uplifted from the head

Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge
Of the horizon to the zenith’s height,
The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge

Of the dying year, to which this closing night
Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,
Vaulted with all thy congregated might

Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere
Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh hear!

III
Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
Lull’d by the coil of his crystalline streams,

Beside a pumice isle in Baiae’s bay,
And saw in sleep old palaces and towers
Quivering within the wave’s intenser day,

All overgrown with azure moss and flowers
So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou
For whose path the Atlantic’s level powers

Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below
The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear
The sapless foliage of the ocean, know

Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear,
And tremble and despoil themselves: oh hear!

IV
If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;
If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;
A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share

The impulse of thy strength, only less free
Than thou, O uncontrollable! If even
I were as in my boyhood, and could be

The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven,
As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seem’d a vision; I would ne’er have striven

As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

A heavy weight of hours has chain’d and bow’d
One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.

V
Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies

Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
Like wither’d leaves to quicken a new birth!
And, by the incantation of this verse,

Scatter, as from an unextinguish’d hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawaken’d earth

The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

***

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24 February 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Under the feet of Orion, & to the right of Sirius in early evening now, hides Lepus the Hare. Like Canis Major, this is a constellation with a connect-the-dots that really looks like what it’s supposed to be – a crouching bunny, with his nose pointing lower right, his faint ears extending up toward Rigel (Orion’s western foot), & his body bunched to the left. His brightest 2 stars, Beta & Alpha Leporis, form the front & back of his neck.

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Helen Turner

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

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Feast Day of St. Matthias, who, according to the book of Acts, was chosen by the apostles to replace Judas Iscariot following his betrayal & his subsequent death.  This calling is unique, since his appointment was not made personally by Jesus, who had already ascended into heaven, & it was also made before the descent of the Holy Spirit.

For superstitious reasons, when the Romans began to bring their calendar into line with the solar year, they chose not to place their extra month of Mercedonius after February but within it. February 24—known in the Roman calendar as “the sixth day before the Kalends of March”—was replaced by the first day of this month since it followed Terminalia, the festival of the Roman god of boundaries. After the end of Mercedonius, the rest of the days of February were observed & the New Year began with the 1st day of March. The overlaid religious festivals of February were so complicated that Julius Caesar opted not to change it at all during his 46 bc calendar reform. The extra day of his system’s leap years were located in the same place as the old month but he opted to ignore it as a date. Instead, the sixth day before the Kalends of March was simply said to last for 48 hours & all the other days continued to bear their original names. Although February 29 has been popularly understood as the leap day of leap years since the late Middle Ages, no formal replacement of February 24 as the leap day of the Julian & Gregorian calendars has occurred. The exceptions include Sweden & Finland, who enacted legislation to move the day to February 29. This custom still has some effect around the world, for example with respect to name days in Hungary.

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1582 – With the papal bull Inter gravissimas, Pope Gregory XIII announces the Gregorian calendar.

Image result for 1831 – The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the first removal treaty in accordance with the Indian Removal Act, is proclaimed on the Choctaws in Mississippi.

1831 – The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the first removal treaty in accordance with the Indian Removal Act, is proclaimed on the Choctaws in Mississippi.

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1919 – The 1st public performance of Eurythmy in Zurich.

1920 – The Nazi Party (NSDAP) was founded by Adolf Hitler in the Hofbräuhaus beer hall in Munich, Germany

***

Collage by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

KNOW THYSELF – Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology — an Easter-Tide Retreat 9 -12 April 2020,

Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond April 16-19, 2020 in Detroit, MI.

School

Today 2-22-2020 on the 144th anniversary of Ita Wegman’s Birth* I wanted to offer this write-up on The Weekend Intensive for the School of Spiritual Science.

Kerry Bold

The timing of Valentine ’s Day weekend was perfect for my husband Chuck & I to get away. We have always loved the rhythm of the ‘Mid-Winter Break’ which is still part of us from our daughter’s Waldorf School days. But the snow fairies decided to give us a little storm, which wasn’t bad comparatively speaking for Chicago, yet had the effect of delaying our flight 5 hours.

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Gino Ver Eecke as Beniedictus, Maria Ver Eecke as Lucifer in the Mystery Dramas

It all worked out, since I often like to come to an event the day before to get acclimatized, & the delay actually allowed Gino Ver Eecke, our host, to come pick us up. We made it into ‘Spring Valley’ just in time for Gino to dash off to the Three Fold Auditorium to help with the lights for the dress rehearsal of the ‘Festival for the Unborn’ which was performed on Saturday night. The cold had followed us from Chicago, but even though it was dark, I wanted to show Chuck a little of Spring Valley, which had been my home over my Mystery Drama years, so we bundled up & took a walk-about.

The next morning was Valentine’s Day. Gino had to work, but we had time to commune while he prepared elaborate meals for the day to accommodate his special diet meant to combat Lyme’s, which a lot of folks in the area have –  fresh juices & smoothies & soup for the evening meal, before he left.

The wood burning stove made the house, decorated with the loving ascetic of eurythmist Maria Burbank Ver Eecke, warm & cozy. Chuck & I had a leisurely honeymoon morning, & then took another walk out in the cold sunshine to visit the ‘Hand & Hoe’ – the Fellowship Community’s organic cafe & hand-crafted merchandise emporium, selling goods from across the Threefold Community. It’s my favorite place to go on Friday’s as they serve a homemade pizza & soup lunch & sell organic products from the Pfeiffer Center’s biodynamic fields, as well as milk from their our own dairy! The store is stocked full of hand-dipped candles, books printed from Mercury Press, home-made bread, crystals, & more! I always end up buying a few gifts & books there. I picked up the ‘12 Moods’ by Rudolf Steiner, a hand knitted cap (I had forgot to bring one from home) & a beautiful hand crafted stained glass window piece for Gino & Maria.

Polly with her new stained glass, the 2 doggies are somewhere too
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The greenhouse in the Pfeiffer garden already had kale & lettuces growing. We took refuge from the cold there, blessing the land, the bees & all who work so lovingly to redeem the earth.

Hungry Hollow Co-op

Then off we went to pick up some food supplies at The Hungry Hollow Co-op established in 1973 as a buying club by parents at Green Meadow Waldorf School. The Co-op has the best fresh squeezed juice bar ever. It is a source for local Biodynamically grown produce, & strives to conduct business in an environmentally & socially responsible manner, which is evident in the pervasive mood of good will living in the folks there.

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Anyone who has been to ‘Spring Valley’ knows it’s a magical mecca for Anthroposophia. For 1 thing, upstate NY is beautiful, the land rolls with hills & dales, flowing creeks thru the forest, the ethers verdant with elemental forces, dotted by powerful granite boulders churned up from the ice age glacier.

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The Threefold community is home to a wide variety of initiatives rooted in the work of Rudolf Steiner. Chuck & I took advantage of our free day & explored everywhere, soaking up the spiritual striving that lives so strongly here.

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That night Barbara Renold set a mood of urgent action with the opening words of welcome, reminding us that the School of Spiritual Science is the antidote for the adversarial powers that have such a grip on humanity at this time of the Consciousness Soul Age. We in the School have a great responsibility to work with this sanctified gift from the Being of Michael thru Rudolf Steiner. Barbara also acknowledged the important role that Ita Wegman played in the School.

This made me smile in grateful remembrance of my portrayal of Ita Wegman there at the Three Fold Auditorium. It was not long ago that Lemniscate Arts staged a reading of the new play called ‘Steiner’, featuring the 2 women closest to him. I could really feel the spiritual presence of these powerful individualities, Dr. Steiner, Marie Steiner von Sivers & Dr. Wegman, working from all worlds.

Class Lesson 1, was given by the formidable Dorothea Mier, the premier Eurythmy performer & teacher from Dornach. Dorothea took over the leadership of Eurythmy Spring Valley in 1980. Since 2006 she has stepped back as lead teacher, but still has her hands in everything. Our hostess Maria, one of her eurythmy students from way back, does a great imitation of Dorothea saying “I marvel at the Father”, which captured the beauty & reverence with which Dorothea had presented the lesson.

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The next morning brought Herbert Hagens to the podium with a free rendering of Class Lesson II, revealing how working deeply with the Lessons can foster potent insights, connections & patterns; a true process of initiation. We come to know the ‘Threshold’, in Time, Space & through the heart – 3 ways that bring us to the same Threshold, speaking from the past, present & future. Herbert pointed out that there are 5 questions asked of us in the 1st tablet. He shared with us the German work Stimmung = ‘tuning in to a mood’, & said there are 4 moods in Lesson 2; with 3 warnings. He named the 3 beasts as Ahriman, the Asuras & Sorat, which was intensely unsettling yet truly eye-opening. But fear not, O human being, for at the end we can find Love in the 2nd Hierarchy thru the rays of the Sun. 

During the Lesson there was a strange rather unnerving high pitched sound piercing the atmosphere, which perfectly outpictured the forces of these beasts. It took a lot to overcome what felt like a nail in the head. At the break it was good to find out that I was not alone, others had heard it too, & that it was remedied.  So interesting since the night before Herbert had mentioned how he always likes to get the same room at the hotel because he is so sensitive to noise, hums & such.

There were about 60 participants, so we divided into 2 groups for our conversations, which were a wonderful way to share thoughts, & experiences, as well as explore various questions that were living in us.

Barbara Renold, lead us in Speech, helped by a student from China, taking us thru 5 languages to work with The Guardian’s Call: ‘O Human Being, Know Yourself’.  We were asked to think about how we represent Anthroposophy in the world. Can I be truly present? Not letting the beasts interfere. Can I stand with, & as, the ‘Representative of Humanity’, reflecting back what a human being can truly be? Is it my will to actively work with the Being of Michael – “Who is like god’ – holding the countenance of Christ, so that I can give this gift – this present to the world. What a joy to embody the Logos with Barbara’s enthusiastic teaching.

Dorothea Mier took us on the stage to work thru experiencing the effects of the beasts in Eurythmy. What an honor to get a taste of her powerful instruction, which was profound & engaging.

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There was a splendid exhibit by Anthro-Artist Larry Young at the Cafe, what a thrill!

Lunch at the Three Fold Café, was healthy, delicious & abundant. There was plenty of time to socialize, to meet new folks, & old friends, engaging in meaningful conversation. The weekend was set up wonderfully so that there was also ample time to just rest & digest all that we have taken in.

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I had experienced a powerful free rendering by Rudiger Janisch at the last AGM in Atlanta. In this afternoon session, he again took us deep & wide with Class Lesson III; writing on the board to give us a good overview that showed how we can work with the mantras vertically & horizontally, listening for instruction on what to do, developing a mood of soul & the moral faculty that helps us find the rhythms, noting clues as to the overcoming of these beasts. Things like heeding the headings, studying the architectural motifs in the 1st Goetheanum showing The Guardian over the windows & doors. He reminded us to approach these Lessons with the ‘Beginners Mind’, so that we see the other for the 1st time without the prejudice of memory. Be in the moment. Warm the thinking with feeling. Know that the other is I. And re-member ‘Wisdom lives in the light’.

Another amazing meal at the Threefold Café, where Chuck got Dorothea to give us a glimpse into her biography by asking her how she came to eurythmy. What a powerful karmic tale!

The ‘Festival for the Unborn’ was a revelation, with offerings in Eurythmy, Spoken Word, a Lyre Ensemble, Cello performance, Speech Choir, & a few thoughts on embryology by Dr. Karnow. The Threefold Auditorium was packed. As the festival Coordinators,  Melissa Lyons, who I lived with during my Mystery Drama visits, & Jennifer Kleinbach organized this amazing offering, with Melissa performing in the Eurythmy piece ‘Dance of Planets’ with the other eurythmists from the exceptional Festivals performing group.  Jennifer directed the whole affair & shared her considerable talents as Speech artist & MC. Dorothea Mier did an amazing solo piece, opening us to the etheric realm, which poured forth from her every gesture. The poetry by Eve Olive, interspersed with the live music, the exquisite eurythmy & speech work, made the program into an invocation to the unborn, whose presence was palatable, creating in my imagination a picture of human souls listening & waiting at the rainbow bridge.

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I have always coupled the Unborn with the so-called Dead, in my ‘All Souls’ Festivals, since for me the womb & the tomb are both portals to the spiritual world, the same Threshold seen from different angles.  It was interesting to tease them apart. It created an intense concentration for me, pointing up what Steiner said about how those working with him would return after a very short time in the spiritual world, about 80 years. I have been living with this for some time. It is the impedance for my dedication to the Elderberries 3 Fold Initiative that we are working to give birth to in Chicago, which since our Michaelmas festival has linked up with the biodynamic famers.  It really confirmed for me the responsibility we have as Anthroposophers to create the fertile foundations for the unborn to return, & how this relates to the sister movements like Waldorf education & biodynamics.  And also how important it is to strive to know our own prenatal commitments, echoing the words of The Guardian, to Know Thy Self, which we heard throughout the weekend, so that we can make manifest the destiny we signed up for, remembering & implementing the blueprint we created with the highest spiritual beings before we came into this life.

The evening was resplendent, giving us the perfect impulse to take into our sleep. So potent in fact that I awoke in the middle of the night recalling the dreams I had about my daughter before she was born, which revealed her name to me.

Class Lesson IV was a sublime free rendering by Judith Brockway-Aventuro, which was clarifying & succinct. Through her blackboard work we saw the movement from the preceding Lessons & got perspectives in how we must: stand firm & feel what the depths of earth are asking of us; lovingly receive the warmth of the Sun to strengthen us for good works ; & how through bravery & grace we find our true humanity, by lifting our thoughts to the spiritual world.

At the break Herbert asked me to sit on the panel for the closing conversation. It was great to see folks head on & to share a few thoughts. This initiative will continue with 3 Lessons each, starting up again 6-8 November 2020, alternating & cycling thru with February dates in 2021 dates & beyond, as we approach the 100 year anniversary of the School for Spiritual Science, inaugurated after the re-founding of the Society with the movement at the Christmas Conference.

After many wonderful goodbyes, we took Maria & Gino out to a place called Bare Burger for a lovely organic lunch. What a joy to spend time with these 2 amazing human beings. We had Gino out to Chicago awhile back to give a lecture, & it is my hope that Maria will come, perhaps for the big Waldorf 100 here in June! She graciously drove us to the airport for an uneventful flight where we were able to begin digesting all that we had received.

Upon my return I dove right into my next project:  the Easter-Tide Retreat: “Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology“, presented by the Central Regional Council and the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology. I have just finished the epic ‘pageant’ – an inner initiation taking us thru the ‘Harrowing of Hell’ on Holy Saturday, leading to the Alchemical Marriage of The Sophia-Christos within, as part of this amazing Easter-Tide Retreat…Come join us in Chicago…

Feeling Blessed

~hag

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

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1632 – Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published.

1651 – St. Peter’s Flood: A storm surge floods the Frisian coast, drowning 15,000 people

1732 – Birthday of George Washington, American general & politician, 1st President of the United States

1788 – Birthday of Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher & author

1876 – Birthday of Ita Wegman, founder of Anthroposophical medicine & close collaborator of Rudolf Steiner. She also developed a special form of massage therapy, called rhythmical massage, & other therapeutic treatments.

Ita Wegman, as she was known throughout her life, was born as Maria Ita Wegman in Indonesia, the first child of a Dutch colonial family. Around the turn of the century, she returned to Europe (she had visited before) & studied therapeutic gymnastics & massage. In 1902, when she was 26, she met Rudolf Steiner for the first time. Five years later she began medical school at the University of Zurich, where women were not discriminated to study medicine. She was granted a diploma as a medical doctor in 1911 with a specialization in women’s medicine & joined an existing medical practice.

In 1917, having opened an independent practice, she developed a cancer treatment using an extract of mistletoe following indications from Steiner. This first remedy, which she called Iscar, was later developed into Iscador & has become an approved cancer treatment in Germany & a number of other countries.

By 1919 she had a joint practice together with two other doctors, also women. In 1920 she purchased land in Arlesheim, where she opened her own clinic, the Klinisch-Therapeutisches Institut, the first center for anthroposophical medicine. In 1922 she founded a therapeutic home for mentally handicapped children, Haus Sonnenhof, also in Arlesheim, & co-founded a pharmaceutical laboratory, Weleda, that has since grown into a significant producer of medicines & health-care products.

In the following year, Rudolf Steiner asked Wegman to join the Executive Council of the newly reformed Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. She also directed the Medical Section of the research center at the Goetheanum. Together, Wegman & Steiner wrote what was to be Steiner’s last book, Extending Practical Medicine, which gave a theoretical basis to the new medicine they were developing. The book was partly written while Wegman cared for Steiner, who was already terminally ill. Wegman founded a new medical journal, Natura, the following year.

In 1936, the clinic opened a second home in Ascona, Switzerland. Shortly thereafter, difficulties between Wegman & the rest of the Executive Council flared up, & Wegman was asked to leave the Council; in addition, she & a number of supporters had their membership in the Anthroposophical Society itself withdrawn. The medical work flourished, however, & Wegman travelled extensively in support of the rapidly growing movement to extend medicine’s limits; she was especially active in the Netherlands & England during this time. Wegman died in Arlesheim in 1943, at the age of 67.

Ita Wegman is a close collaborator of Rudolf Steiner thruout many incarnations including: Alexander the Great to Steiner’s Aristotle; Gilgamesh & Ebani… On the Work of the Archangel Michael by Ita Wegman

1943 – Deathday of 1943 – Hans & Sophie Scholl, German activists. Sophie a German student along with her brother Hans were anti-Nazi political activists, active within the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany. They were convicted of high treason after distributing anti-war leaflets at the University of Munich (LMU).

In the early summer of 1942, Scholl, his sister Sophie, Willi Graf, Kurt Huber, Christoph Probst, & Alexander Schmorell, co-authored 6 anti-Nazi Third Reich political resistance leaflets. Calling themselves the White Rose, they instructed Germans to practice nonviolent resistance against the Nazis. The group had been horrified by the behavior of some German soldiers on the Eastern Front, where they had witnessed cruelty towards Jews in Poland & Russia.

Hans & Sophie Scholl & Christopher Probst were beheaded by Johann Reichhart in Munich’s Stadelheim Prison. The execution was supervised by Dr. Walter Roemer, the enforcement chief of the Munich district court. Scholl’s last words were “Es lebe die Freiheit!” (“Long live freedom!”). Shortly thereafter, most of the other students involved were arrested & executed as well.

1932 – Birthday of Ted Kennedy, an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Massachusetts for over forty years from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died & is the fourth-longest-continuously-serving senator in United States history, having served there for almost 47 years.

For many years, Ted Kennedy was the most prominent living member of the Kennedy family, & he was also the last surviving, longest-living, & youngest son of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. & Rose Kennedy. He was the youngest brother of John F. Kennedy—the 35th President of the United States—& Senator Robert F. Kennedy, both victims of assassination, & the father of Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy.

1997 – In Roslin, Midlothian, British scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly was successfully cloned.

***

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Bel Osnat

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Out of chaos came the light
Out of will came life…
~hag

***

Ita Wegman – The Courage to Heal – A Circles of Renewal Initiative 7 pm – 8:30 pm Saturday 22 February 2020

Ita Wegman ~ The Courage to Heal
7 pm Saturday 22 February 2020 – on the anniversary of her birth in 1876
A Community conversation around: The history of the friendship between Ita Wegman & Rudolf Steiner – From Mesopotamia, ancient Greece, the Fire, the re-founding of the Society with the Movement, the Split – hatred in the world, the Reconciliation with Marie Steiner, Qualities of meeting the other, – 8thfold path revisited…

A Circles of Renewal – Biodynamic Outpost Initiative
at Elderberries General Store 4251 N. Lincoln Ave. 60618

For more info. contact Frank Agrama 323-445-9615

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3-Fold Breakfast & Lunch Conversations

Every day there will be open conversations on 3-folding:
8am – 11am – Coffee, Tea & Oatmeal
2pm – 5pm – Soup
Free Will Donation

A Circles of Renewal – Biodynamic Outpost Initiative
at Elderberries General Store 4251 N. Lincoln Ave. 60618

And a study of the Agriculture lectures every Friday 7-8:30 pm

For more info. contact Frank Agrama 323-445-9615

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KNOW THYSELF – Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology — an Easter-Tide Retreat 9 -12 April 2020,

Registration is now open for the Easter-Tide Retreat: “Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology“, presented by the Central Regional Council and the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology View this email in your browser

Karma and Anthroposophic Psychology — an Easter-Tide Retreat

Maundy Thursday 9 April 2020 Noon through Easter Sunday at 3 pm
Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL. 60618 

AAP:James A. Dyson, M.D., Roberta Nelson, Ph.D., and David Tresemer, Ph.D. with Susan Overhauser, Ph.D.

CRC:Marianne Fieber, Alberto Loya, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton

Eurythmist: Mary Ruud

Activities:

  • Art-Acts
  • Star Wisdom
  • The Karma Exercises
  • Experiential PAGEANT on Holy Saturday: ‘Know Thyself’
  • Easter Sunrise Songtrail
  • Optional service at the Christian Community
  • Communal meals and time for Conversation

Lectures:

  • ‘Living into Karma through the Senses’
  • ‘How to find the Self in a Sea of Karma’
  • ‘Unfolding the Enigma of the Saturn Path’
  • ‘The Gesture of Karma’
  • ‘Christ as Lord of Karma — how do I access this in terms of my personal psychology?’

Conference Fees (includes 1 meal per day & art supplies):

Click here for program information and to register

If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@peoplepc.com

A popular view of karma is cause and effect or tit-for-tat. Karma, however, is so much more complex, interesting, and important. The soul work of karma has to do with the unfolding of our individuality through the elements, through the ethers, and very much through relationships.

Rudolf Steiner named his core mission as bringing karma and reincarnation to the West; his teachings deserve interpretation and practical enlivening. The Central Regional Council has been exploring this theme for many months. Anthroposophic Psychology gives a unique contribution to the soul work of karma. For this conference the CRC is partnering with the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology (AAP of North America) to present ideas and experiences concerning karma—and how it impacts upon personal psychology.

Tentative Schedule

Thursday April 9

Noon: Registration & Group Lunch (provided)

2:00-3:15 Welcome and ArtActs (Interactive Artistic Activity)

3:30-5:30 Star Wisdom and Karma – David Tresemer, Ph.D.

5:30-7:00 Dinner (on your own)

7:00-9:00 (Evening Presentation) “The Karma Exercises” – Susan Overhauser, Ph.D.

Friday April 10

9-10:15 ArtActs

10:30-12:30 Living into Karma—through the Senses —James A. Dyson, MD.

12:30-2:00 Lunch (on your own)

2:00-3:15 ArtActs

3:30-5:30 How to Find the Self in a Sea of Karma – Roberta Nelson, Ph.D. This is part 1 of a deep inquiry into finding one’s self.

5:30-7:00 Group Dinner (provided)

7:00-9:00 Unfolding the Enigma of the Saturn path — James A. Dyson, MD.

Saturday April 11

 9-10:15 ArtActs

10:30-12:30 How to Find the Self in a Sea of Karma – Roberta Nelson, Ph.D. This is part 2 of a deep inquiry into finding one’s self.

12:30-2:00 Lunch (on your own)

2:00-3:15 ArtActs

3:30-5:30 The Gesture of Karma – David Tresemer, Ph.D. Guest to this presentation will be Lisa Loving Dalton.

 5:30-7:00 Group Dinner (provided)

 7:00-9:00 PAGEANT: ‘Know Thyself’ by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,

Sunday April 12

Easter SunriseSongtrail at the Lake with Marianne Fieber

At the Christian Community 2135 W. Wilson Ave · Chicago, Il 60625

9:30 Children’s Stories

10:00 Children’s Service

10:30 Adult Easter Service

11:30 Potluck Feast

12:30LEADING THOUGHTS: Christ as Lord of Karma—how do I access this in terms of my personal psychology? – James Dyson, MD.

1:30 Gatheringexperiences and reflections.

2:30 CRC business

3:00 Closing

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Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond April 16-19, 2020 in Detroit, MI.

The Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond 2020

04/16/2020 – 2:00 PM – 04/19/2020 -1:00 PM PT

Description

The Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER! 

April 16 – 19, 2020
Detroit Waldorf School
Detroit, MI

  • Bring a new consciousness to your own life and death
  • Support those who are crossing and who have crossed over 
  • Expand your practice and knowledge of working with the dying

Through interactive workshops, triad sharing, keynote discussions with Rev. Patrick Kennedy, Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox, Dr. Melinda Toney, and Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,  and more, as well as experiential and artistic activities, we will consciously explore the spiritual and practical aspect of human life and death. 

Conference Fees:

  • $280 Supporter Level
  • $195 Standard ASA Member Rate
  • $215 Non-Member Rate 
  • $60 Youth Rate (Age 35 and under)

Limited scholarships available. Click here to apply.

Click Here to Join the ASA!


Conference Schedule 
(Note: Workshops Subject to Additions/Minor Changes)

Pre-conference Activities: 

Thursday, April 16  

2 pm Tour of Brightmoor Maker’s Space  

4 pm  Screening of short film The Art of Natural Death Care  Detroit Waldorf School Auditorium- By Donation  

7pm Screening of a Will For The Woods Detroit Waldorf School Auditorium- Open to the public!  $10 Suggested Donation 

Friday, April 17

10:00-1:00p Registration Opens 
10:00-12:00p Choose from two pre-conference activities at the Detroit Waldorf School 

  • Exploring the Beauty of home funerals and green burial: Photo essay and Q&A with Merilynne Rush, MS, End-of-Life Doula Trainer and Home Funeral Guide (Open to the public. Donation accepted at the door) 
  • The Story of Detroit: A Walking Songtrail (Meet in the school playground. Approx. two mile walk)

12:00p Bag Lunch (For Purchase) 
1:00p  Conference Opening 
1:45-3:00p  Keynote Discussion with Rev. Patrick Kennedy: Befriending Death 
3:00-3:30p Break
3:30-5:00p  Three-Day Themed Workshops (Chosen on site. Choose one theme and attend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday)

ALL WORKSHOPS CHOSEN ON SITE  
Fuller descriptions coming soon! 

  • From Loss to Connection Through the Arts: Reading, Writing and Drawing with Marianne Dietzel and Maureen Flannery
    Together we will invite our loved ones across the threshold to join us in experiencing practices thet connect and heal. We will read to the dead, write prose and poetry, and draw from gestures of nature.
  • BIOGRAPHY: GIFTS OF REVIEWING LIFE AND CONNECTING TO LIFE AFTER DEATH     Sandra LaGrega and Jennifer Fox
  • A HOME DEATH CARE STORY: CONSCIOUS DYING AND THE HOME VIGIL~BASED ON DYING OF WAYNE TONEY    Dr. Melinda Toney, Carole Schoaf, and Katherine Blackburn 
  • MULTI-CULTURAL APPROACHES: ANCIENT AND MODERN/ SACRED AND ESOTERIC: FESTIVALS FOR THE DEAD. THEN AND NOW. RENEW OR CREATE YOUR OWN TRADITION  Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Julia Torres and Guests 

5:30-6:30 Choose: Eurythmy (Movement), Singing, or Poetry 
6:30 Evening Appetizer Reception (Included in registration fee) 
7:30-9:00 Evening Performance 

Saturday April 18 – All workshops chosen on site/Saturday Lunch and Dinner for purchase 

8:00 Coffee/Tea/Breakfast Snacks (Included in Regisration Fee) 
8:30-9:15 Choose: Eurythmy (Movement), Singing, or Poetry 
9:30-11:00 Three-Day Themed Workshops   
11:00-11:30 Break
11:30-12:30 Vigil Room Experience  
12:30 – 2:00  Lunch and Table Conversations 

2:15 – 3:45 Topic Workshops
    Workshop Choices Coming Soon! 

3:45-4:15 Break

4:15-5:45 Story Space: Death & Healing 

5:45-7:00 Dinner With Your Dinner Table Groups 

7:30-9:00 Evening Performance with Sarah Putnam: Little Gidding by TS Elliot followed by Memento Mori Ritual 
 

Sunday, April 19 – All workshops chosen on site

8:00 Coffee/Tea/Breakfast Snacks (Included in Registration Fee) 

8:30-9:15 Choose: Eurythmy (Movement), Singing, or Poetry 

9:30 – 11:00 Three Day Themed Workshops 

11:30-1:00 Green Burial Ceremony and Closing 

Full conference: 
$280 Supporter (This level provides scholarships for other attendees!)
$195 Standard ASA Member Rate/$215 Non-Member Rate/$60 Youth 
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER! 

Please Note: Cancellation fee of $35 before April 9. No refunds after April 10. 

**Scholarship applications open. Click here to complete your application by March 30!** 
We will get back to you by either March 15th or 30th, depending upon your application date. 

Transportation and Lodging 

Transportation
The nearest aiport is the Detroit Metro airport, which is 30 minutes away. Please take Uber/Lyft/Taxi to our site. 
Click here for a general transportation FAQ.

Lodging
Rooms reserved at the following: 

Comfort Inn Detroit at 1999 E Jefferson Ave has a block of rooms available for us. Please go to this link for the $124.00 nightly rate. Breakfast is included, as well as shuttle rides to and from the Detroit Waldorf School. You can also call 313-567-8888 and say that you are with the Sacred Gateway group. 
 
Want to share a ride or room? You can post your request or respond to requests at our shared room/ride board here.