Dear friends – Last night the clouds that have been hanging over the ‘City by the Lake’ for weeks ascended & hid in the upper ethers as the Full Moon of November, called by the Native People’s the ‘Beaver Moon’ or the ‘Mourning Moon’, began her journey across the sky. Bella Luna was so clear & bright that a rainbow aura graced the circle of her being as she rose from East to South.
My daughter was born during the November Full Moon on 11/22/99 & so this Moon is always a special occasion – & this is her ‘Golden Birthday’ – she will be 22. I hadn’t heard of this before, She was the one who told me: A golden birthday is when you turn the age that matches the date of your birth. So to begin with this is a special time. But interesting to note that this time of year corresponds to verse 33 in Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul – the Ahrimanic Deception – & as many of you know we experienced a 6 hour lunar eclipse last night…
After attending the rising, & speaking prayers of gratitude & of protection & light, I picked up some research that I am doing in anticipation of the 100 year anniversary of the Re-Founding of the Anthroposophical Society. Eventually I fell asleep reading ‘The Christmas Foundation: Beginning of a New Cosmic Age’, by Rudolf Grosse. I awoke little before 2 am CT as the eclipse was happening right outside my bedroom window.
I sat witnessing this cosmic & earthly gesture unfolding, & let myself take stock of my inner life, & how the astral tides were knocking against the shores of my soul. I could feel the pulling at my thinking as my shadow-self rose up -showing itself in various inclinations & relational mis-interactions.
I soon found myself thinking of the inverted Lord’s Prayer – remembering what Steiner shared in the 5th Gospel – that Jesus visited a pagan site that had become corrupted by unclean spirits where the people still lingered in the hopes that the power would return. When they saw His radiance they hailed him as a High Priest come to revive their ancient place of worship. As they pulled Jesus nearer to the altar he was overcome by the demonic forces dwelling there & fell face down on the altar as if dead – the people scattered in fear. But at that time Jesus heard the ancient voice of the Bath Kol that no other human being was still able to receive, saying to him these powerful words which Steiner calls ‘the macrocosmic Lord’s Prayer’: AUM, Amen! The evil holds sway. Witness of the ‘I’ severed. Selfhood guilt through others incurred Experienced in the daily bread In which heaven’s will is not being done, For man deserted your kingdom, And forgot your names, O You fathers in the heavens.
In Grosse’s book he reports how Steiner spoke this at the laying of the Foundation Stone on the Dornach Hill on 20 September 1913. And it was during those Holy Nights that Steiner gave insights for the 1st time about the Epic of Gilgamesh, which we will explore come the Holy Nights…
As an offset I also spoke The Lord’s Prayer as Prayed by Rudolf Steiner: “Father, you who are, were and will be in our inmost being May Your Name be glorified and praised in us May Your Kingdom grow in our deeds and inmost lives May we perform Your Will as You, Father, lay it down in our inmost being You give us spiritual nourishment, the Bread of Life, super abundantly In all the changing conditions of our lives. Let our mercy toward others make up for the sins done to our being. You do not allow the tempter to work in us beyond the capacity of our strength, For no temptation can live in Your Being, Father, And the tempter is only appearance and delusion From which you lead us, Father, through the light of knowledge. May Your power and glory work in us through all periods and ages of time”.
& The Lord’s Prayer translated from Aramaic:
O cosmic Birther of all radiance and vibration. Soften the ground of our being and carve out a space within us where your Presence can abide. Fill us with your creativity so that we may be empowered to bear the fruit of your mission. Let each of our actions bear fruit in accordance with our desire. Endow us with the wisdom to produce and share what each being needs to grow and flourish. Untie the tangled threads of destiny that bind us, as we release others from the entanglement of past mistakes. Do not let us be seduced by that which would divert us from our true purpose, but illuminate the opportunities of the present moment. For you are the ground and the fruitful vision, the birth, power and fulfillment, as all is gathered and made whole once again.
My impression during the eclipse was that Time went from Cronos to Kairos – it became eternal – just slipped by – like the earth shadow over the Moon. I experienced the safety valve doing its job of letting off steam while I did my best to hold the hygienic container so that the darkness could be transformed…
I went back to bed a little before 5 am CT & when I woke the Sun was shining & the coffee was made…my beloved CG & I were going to drive out to Ann Arbor to attend a meeting with the shareholders of the ‘Community Farm‘ held by Farmer Dan Gannon, as part of our research into our ‘Family Farm Initiative‘ but my car GG (Granny Gray Ghost) had other plans. So Chuck & I will zoom in & take a trip out to be on the farm another time…
Thank you to all those who continue to hold the light – each in our own ways…
Have you experienced what it called the ‘Time Prompt Phenomenon’? In our digital age this synchronicity seems to happen a lot. You feel the urge to look up; & the clock says 11:11…Is the Universe trying to get your attention?
~hag
Some claim that seeing 11:11 is an auspicious sign. Others say that 11:11 signals a divine presence. Perhaps the 11:11 experience is a synchronicity that occurs when we become more conscious of the connection between the physical world outside, & the spiritual world within & how they interpenetrate. It certainly seems be a wake-up call, a prompt to snap out of the mundane, materialistic way of thinking, opening to the realm of the supersensible.
In China, 11 represents The Tao – The Way, or union of the sky & the earth.
~hag (Bruce Rimall)
It is the union of the microcosm & the macrocosm. In mathematics it can be represented by 5 + 6 – related to the Pentagram & the Hexagram.
~hag
It seems that the # 11 is of central importance in understanding the mathematical infrastructure of the universe. If you multiply 1111 by 1111 you get 1234321, representing a pyramid. 11 is also a number harmonious with Pi – & Scientists have found that chromosome 11, may be involved in DNA repair.
~hag
…In the Cabbala, the Jewish mystical tradition, the glyph of the Tree of Life, shows us the entire universe. The #11 is the elusive Sphere of Daath, which means “knowledge for crossing the Abyss”, it is located in between the Supernal Triangle (Kether, Chokmah & Binah) & the Sephiroth of the manifested world. Daath is represented by the imagination a camel crossing the desert, & can be compared with the “Dark Night of the Soul“. This state of the mind is essential to the ‘Great Work’. In contemplating this mysterious sphere we are brought into contact with the Guardian of the Threshold, Our Angel or Higher Self, which can safely conduct us over the Abyss.
Every letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a number. Part of the work of the Cabbalist is to use what is referred to as Gematria, where we add up the numbers of each word revealing secret combinations & connections that give us a deeper meaning thru the various, sometimes surprising corresponding attributes.
All these & many more add up to 11: LIGHT = 56 = 5 + 6 = 11, HEALING = 56 = 5 + 6 = 11, SHAMBHALA = 65 = 6 + 5 = 11, ENERGY = 74 = 7 + 4 = 11, OCCULT = 74 = 7 + 4 = 11, CROSS = 74 = 7 + 4 = 11, JESUS = 74 = 7 + 4 = 11, THE CHRIST = 110 = 11, MESSIAH = 74 = 7 + 4 = 11, REVERSE = 92 = 9 + 2 = 11, I AM WHO I AM = 92 = 9 + 2 = 11, DOORWAY = 101 = 11, THE LOGOS = 101 = 11, THE GROOM = 101 = 11, MELCHIZEDEK = 101 = 11, THE SOPHIA = 101 = 11
~hag
“11” also suggests the mystery of the human being coming face-to-face with the ‘Self’, where “1” meets “1”, Where our “I” meets itself as a reflection in the world (“…In matter thus I find the world, & know myself amidst the worlds becoming” ~Rudolf Steiner – ‘The 3rd Tablet’)
~hag
11 can also represent a Dyad, 1 + 1 = 2 – or a Number repeated, & then we can see 11 as the mystic number of Womanhood, a dividing into two / mother & child.
In the Hebrew language the word for female is ascribed the letter Beth, which means house or womb. In eurythmy Virgo is the letter B as well. The 11th letter in the Hebrew Alphabet is Caph = palm (2 hands in prayer)
In Numerology the number 10 is the number of completion. 11 is considered the ‘Master Number’ which duplicates itself, & represents inspiration, illumination, & spiritual enlightenment. And yet it is an odd number, an unstable number. The # 12 brings the transformation back into a new harmony.
Our Day Star has a Sun Spot Cycle of 11 years. Rudolf Steiner tells us that there wasn’t always this phenomenon of sun spots- that this is the physical reality of the materialism on earth which is showing itself as decay on the Sun.
At the 11th hour in the life of Christ on earth, Judas, one of the 12 chosen disciples, betrays him. Judas ends up killing himself over having this hard destiny, which then leaves only 11 to pass through the rites of the Mystery of Golgotha. These 11 stay together, forming a dedicated conscious community, a prefiguring of the consciousness soul age which we are living into now. Then 50 days after the Resurrection, the 11, together in the upper room, receive the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Grace of the Dove, the flaming tongues, coming as promised on the rushing winds of Pentecost; The Sophia, baptizes them with fire, & the 11 become empowered with their individual missions, & together they are able to choose another from out of their community to round out the perfect Zodiac once again.
This experience of initiation shifts them into the wholeness of the Higher “I”, able to perform the deeds that the Christ did on earth, for themselves. We can see this as an alignment of their will with the Divine Will, & also as a crossing of the threshold, a true rite of passage, from being called & conducted by higher worlds, to an ability to heed an inner calling which activates the will to action.
Could this original 11 be the origin of the now ubiquitous sighting of 11:11 everywhere? A call to rise up in our initiative, & to truly live as Christ in me…?
Revelation 11:11: And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. 12. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them
~hag
11/11 is also Martinmas. St. Martin of tours, like Martin Luther King Jr, recognized that he had the capacity to bring healing out of his own resources by sharing his cloak (etheric body) with the shivering beggar (humanity).
Celebrating this Feast Day serves as a reminder that each of us has a connection in the etheric world, where the Christ is calling to be recognized & that each of us has a divine spark that we must ferry out into the world & share with others.
John Singer Sargent – Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose
On Martinmas the children hear the story of St. Martin, sing songs; & as darkness falls, venture out into the night with their lanterns, walking along a path lit with glowing luminaries, carefully carrying their glowing light in a mood of quiet reverence – An innocent prefiguring of the human soul in the life between death & rebirth.
This symbolic act also brings home the deeper truth heard in the gospel song “This little light of mine.”
~hag
Interesting to note that MLK Sr. after visiting Germany, changed his name & his son’s name from Michael to Martin Luther. & MLK Jr. also named his 1st son Martin Luther.
So powerful to feel the sword & shield of Michael under the wings of these powerful human beings.
Lynet McDonald
May we all find our way thru the darkness, enkindling & holding the wisdom of the true light within.
Dear Friends – As we move closer to the Autumnal Equinox & deeper into the earnestness of the Michaelmas Season, I find that every day I am meeting with inspired happenstance leading me hither & thither on a Social Pilgrimage of the Soul – only to find yet another golden nugget, a well baked brick, for the experiential Pageant: ‘Building the Temple of the Heart – the capstone community offering for the ASA annual conference & members meeting.
Yesterday an inspiration came forth while I was thinking of what to share at the closing around the Sophia Conference in the Spring. Graced by the research muses I rediscovered this amazing Steiner quote which speaks to both conference themes:
“When we are more and more able to experience the content of anthroposophy in our heart, in our feelings, then it is as if living, cosmic beings enter our souls. Then, anthroposophy will appear to us increasingly as a living being. And we will become aware that something is knocking at the threshold of our heart saying, ‘Let me in, because I am you yourself; I am your true nature, your very humanity’ ~ Rudolf Steiner, Supersensible Man, 18 November 1923, Lecture V
Dear Friends – Now more than ever we are called to join our soul forces together. I hope you will consider being part of the Conference 7-10 October. Maybe you will choose to meet with kindred souls in person in your neck of the woods, or simply join us online for a potent & festive event.
For those who are longing for a deep dive: The Applied Anthroposophy Course (AAC) brings transformative online content into the alchemy of individual and group inner work. The mission is to explore the urgent issues of our time through the lens of spiritual philosophy, awakening meaning, inner reflection, and outer action.
I will be facilitating one of the Chrysalis Groups: ‘The Cycle of the Year as a Path of Initiation into the New Mysteries’ –
The Royal Art of community awaits your participation.
See you there
~hag
17 September 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The gibbous Moon hangs lower right of bright Jupiter at dusk this evening. To their right, Saturn glows dimmer in the background. Later in the night, as the sky turns, Bella Luna will come directly below Jupiter, and Saturn will move lower than both of them. That’s how you’ll find them oriented around midnight.
I turn to history not for lessons but to confront my experience with the experience of others and to win for myself a sense of responsibility for the state of the human conscience ~ Zbigniew Herbert
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1179 – Deathday of Hildegard of Bingen, “the Sybil of the Rhine” a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, & polymath.
She is considered to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany. One of her works as a composer, the Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama, the oldest surviving morality play. She wrote theological, botanical, & medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, & poems, while supervising miniature illuminations in the Rupertsberg manuscript of her first work, Scivias. She is also noted for the invention of a constructed language known as Lingua Ignota.
Hildegard 1st saw “The Shade of the Living Light” at the age of three. Hildegard was hesitant to share her visions, but at the age of 42, Hildegard received instruction from God, to “write down that which you see and hear.” Still hesitant to record her visions, Hildegard became physically ill. The illustrations recorded in the book of Scivias were visions that Hildegard experienced, causing her great suffering: “But I, though I saw and heard these things, refused to write for a long time through doubt and bad opinion and the diversity of human words, not with stubbornness but in the exercise of humility, until, laid low by the scourge of God, I fell upon a bed of sickness; then, compelled at last by many illnesses, and by the witness of a certain noble maiden of good conduct [the nun Richardis von Stade] I set my hand to the writing. While I was doing it, I sensed, the deep profundity of scriptural exposition; and, raising myself from illness by the strength I received, I brought this work to a close – though just barely – in ten years. (…) And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and received them in the heavenly places. And again I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me, ‘Cry out therefore, and write thus!’
Hildegard’s visions caused her to see humans as “living sparks” of God’s love.
On 17 September 1179, when Hildegard died, her sisters claimed they saw two streams of light appear in the skies & cross over the room where she was dying.
“Listen: there was once a king sitting on his throne. Around Him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honor. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground, and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself but because the air bore it along. Thus am I, a feather on the breath of God.”
1787 – The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia
1859 – Joshua A. Norton declares himself “Norton I, Emperor of the United States.” Born in England, Norton spent most of his early life in South Africa, he emigrated to San Francisco with an inheritance, but he lost his fortune investing in Peruvian rice & Norton’s public prominence faded. He reemerged to lay claim to the position of Emperor of the United States, & ‘Protector of Mexico’. He was treated deferentially in San Francisco, ¤cy issued in his name was honored in the establishments he frequented.
Though some considered him insane or eccentric, citizens of San Francisco celebrated his regal presence & his proclamations, such as his order that the United States Congress be dissolved by force & his numerous decrees calling for a bridge crossing connecting San Francisco to Oakland, &a corresponding tunnel to be built under San Francisco Bay.
At his funeral two days later, nearly 30,000 people packed the streets of San Francisco to pay homage. Norton has been immortalized as the basis of characters in the literature of writers Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Christopher Moore, Maurice De Bevere, Selma Lagerlöf, & Neil Gaiman
1908 – The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes, killing Selfridge. He becomes the first airplane fatality
1916 –Manfred von Richthofen (“The Red Baron“), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France, in World War I
1928 – The Okeechobee hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing more than 2,500 people. It is the third deadliest natural disaster in United States history, behind the Galveston hurricane of 1900 & the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
1939 –The Soviet Union joins Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland in World War II
1939 –German submarine U-29 sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous in World War II
1961 – Deathday of Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish diplomat, economist, author & the second secretary-general of the United Nations. Soon after his appointment Hammarskjöld was interviewed on radio by Edward R. Murrow. In this talk he declared: “But the explanation of how man should live a life of active social service in full harmony with himself as a member of the community of spirit, I found in the writings of those great medieval mystics [Meister Eckhart and Jan van Ruysbroek] for whom ‘self-surrender’ had been the way to self-realization, and who in ‘singleness of mind’ and ‘inwardness’ had found strength to say yes to every demand which the needs of their neighbours made them face, and to say yes also to every fate life had in store for them when they followed the call of duty as they understood it.”
He was en route to negotiate a cease-fire on 18 September when his plane crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia. Hammarskjöld & fifteen others died in the crash. The circumstances of the incident are still not clear. There is some evidence that suggests the plane was shot down. Göran Björkdahl (a Swedish aid worker) wrote in 2011 that he believed Dag Hammarskjöld’s 1961 death was a murder committed in part to benefit mining companies like Union Minière, after Hammarskjöld had made the UN intervene in the Katanga crisis. Björkdahl based his assertion on interviews with witnesses of the plane crash & on archival documents. Former U.S. President Harry Truman commented that Hammarskjöld “was on the point of getting something done when they killed him. Notice that I said ‘when they killed him’.”
1978 – The Camp David Accords brokered by President Jimmy Carter, is signed by Egyptian PresidentAnwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime MinisterMenachem Begin
2001 – The New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 attacks, the longest closure since the Great Depression
2006 – Fourpeaked Mountain in Alaska erupts, marking the first eruption for the long-dormant volcano in at least 10,000 years
2011 – Occupy Wall Street movement begins in Zuccotti Park, New York City
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
Greetings friends – Come Join us in Chicago *Special in-person activities for ‘Building the Temple of the Heart’ ASA Annual Conference and Members Meeting 7-10 October 2021:
THURSDAY, October 7 – CENTRAL TIME (*For those in the pageant: Tech rehearsal – 3 pm) *5 pm Dinner in the RS Branch ‘Schreinerei’ (Meal plan menu coming soon – Sign up now so we know how much food we need!)
6:30- 8:00 PM Annual General Meeting (AGM) – Members Meeting (Note: This portion is free and open to all members)
FRIDAY, October 8 – CENTRAL TIME *9:30 AM In the Upper Room our Class Reader Clark Remington will give Lesson XI for the School of Spiritual Science (Note: There will be no online gathering for the Class Lesson 11:30 AM What is the School of Spiritual Science? A conversation led by Helen-Ann Ireland, open to all (30 min) *12 Noon LUNCH in the RS Branch ‘Schreinerei’ 1:00 PM Conference Opening 2:00 PM The Stairway of Surprise: Rudolf Steiner’s 6 Basic Exercises with Michael Lipson 3:00 PM 30-minute Snack Break in the RS Branch ‘Schreinerei’ 3:30 PM Thinking / Clear Thinking with the New Orleans Hub Doing / Right Action with the Austin Hub Musical Interludes by Morgan Vallat 4:30 PM Biography with Janey Newton 5:00 PM 60-minute Break *DINNER in the RS Branch ‘Schreinerei’ 6:00 PM Singing, Speech & Eurythmy with Dennis Dietzel, Katherine Thivierge & Mary Ruud 6:15 – 7:15 PM Building the Temple through Spiritual Research: Sections of the School of Spiritual Science as Columns of the Temple
SATURDAY, October 9 – CENTRAL TIME (*For those in the pageant: Tech rehearsal – 9 am)
11:00 AM Singing, Speech & Eurythmy with Dennis Dietzel, Katherine Thivierge & Mary Ruud 11:15 AM The Life of the Heart in Space, Time and Eternity with Michaela Glöckler 12:30 PM Biography with Janey Newton 1:00 PM 60-minute Break *LUNCH in the RS Branch ‘Schreinerei’ 2:00 PM Singing, Speech & Eurythmy with Dennis Dietzel, Katherine Thivierge & Mary Ruud 2:15 PM Feeling / Equanimity with the Twin Cities Hub Loving / Positivity with the Northern Michigan Hub Opening / Open-mindedness with the Ann Arbor Hub Musical Interludes by Morgan Vallat 3:30 PM 60-minute Snack Break in the RS Branch ‘Schreinerei’ 4:30 PM Exploring the Heart Connections between Chartres Cathedral and Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival with Brian Gray 5:45 PM Biography with Janey Newton 6:15 PM 60-minute Break *DINNER in the RS Branch ‘Schreinerei’ 7:15-8:30 PM Thanking / Inner Harmony / Wholeness with the Chicago / Youth Section Hub
SUNDAY, October 10 – CENTRAL TIME (*For those in the Pageant- Please wear all Black, or all white – Run Through – 9 am) 11:00 AM Singing, Speech & Eurythmy with Dennis Dietzel, Katherine Thivierge & Mary Ruud 11:15 AM Experiential Pageant: ‘Building the Temple of the Heart- The Royal Art: A Social Pilgrimage of the Soul’ by Hazel Archer featuring the 6 HUBS, Friends and Hosts, Dennis Dietzel, Mary Ruud, Katherine Thivierge & YOU 12:15 PM (Timing Subject to change) LUNCH in the RS Branch ‘Schreinerei’ 1:00-2:00 PM Conversation and Conference Closing
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
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 Holocaust: Karl 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
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
$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!
Greetings friends – We have some interesting biographies to explore today 2 September:
Planetary influences on metals. Lili Kolisko’s empirical research
1889 – Birthday of Lili Kolisko a scientist & anthroposopher. The rising image method she developed enabled the detection of cosmic effects in earthly substances for the first time & made her a pioneer of biodynamic agriculture.
She was the daughter of a typesetter, born in Vienna. Together with her two step-sisters, she grew up very poor, burdened by her father’s drunkenness. Still she was able to attend high school & graduate with honors. After the outbreak of the First World War, she worked as a hospital where she learned to use a wide variety of medical laboratory techniques. This is where she met the young assistant doctor Eugen Kolisko. They were married in 1917. Both were united by a strong interest in the natural sciences & anthroposophy .
After Lili Kolisko had met Rudolf Steiner for the first time in 1915 , she wrote a letter asking for suggestions for the development of a chemistry oriented towards the humanities.
In 1919 the Kolisko couple had a daughter & the family moved to Stuttgart , where Eugen Kolisko worked as a teacher in the newly founded Waldorf School .
In July of the same year, Eugen Kolisko & Rudolf Steiner researched a cure for foot-and-mouth disease, which was rampant at the time. Lili Kolisko was entrusted with the laboratory work required to find out the correct dosage of the agent. Rudolf Steiner instructed her to carry out germination experiments on plants with various dilutions & to record the result in the form of a curve. Lili Kolisko also examined the blood of the sick animals &, in 1922, when little was known about the function of the spleen, was able to prove a metabolic regulator secreted by the spleen in her pioneering work “Spleen function and the platelet question”. In the course of this work with Steiner they founded the Biological Institute at the Goetheanum..
Rudolf Steiner considered Lili Kolisko’s research work to be very important & often visited her in her laboratory to discuss the results & provide further suggestions. He worked with both Koliskos emphasizing that science needed to overcome the prevailing materialism, to make visible the ethereal qualities in matter. Together with Steiner, Lili Kolisko developed potentization methods where the material substance was gradually thinned beyond the limits of physcial, so that the etheric efficacy emerged more & more clearly. In germination tests with plants, the dilutions, she denoted the rhythmic properties directed by Steiner’s indications.
“Lili Kolisko’s studies of the effects of the smallest entities, have put everything that has been touching in homeopathy on such a thorough scientific basis in such a brilliant way. One can consider it absolutely scientific that the smallest entities, in tiny quantities – precisely the radiant forces which are used in the organic world – are released by using these minute quantities in a corresponding way. ” ~Rudolf Steiner, GA 327
In the afterword of her study, which summarizes her work from 1923 – 1959 on the physiological & physical proof of the effectiveness of the smallest entities , Lili Kolisko writes: “In the course that Rudolf Steiner held for doctors in Switzerland in 1920, he described it as “a beautiful task to show the effects that emerge during potentiation in certain curves”. It was a nice job. Time and again one convinces oneself that if one takes Rudolf Steiner’s words seriously and follows his suggestions, they will come true in every detail. Plant growth shows an effectiveness again and again, but it is no longer bound to a substance. One perceives effects – without being able to prove a substance for it. You stand in amazement and admiration in front of the sheer effects of forces. A wonderful rhythm swings through the substance, from the terrestrial to the cosmic…You have to learn to read the curves. That too is a nice job. In Jahn in 1926, I wrote in the epilogue of the book “Physiological evidence of effectiveness smallest entities in seven metals”: The curves are spiritual into the physical shut fetched images realities they reflect Weltgesetzmäßigkeiten again! If one keeps in mind, you do not shy away from the effort to penetrate deeper into this wonderful area and to think in gratitude to Rudolf Steiner, who made this knowledge accessible to us. “~ Lili Kolisko
This rhythmization method developed by Lili Kolisko, in which she worked out differentiated shaking rhythms for individual substances, was groundbreaking for later anthroposophical research on medicinal products.
On the basis of this procedure, she also examined the influence of cosmic constellations on the creative forces in the following decades. In an elaborate series of tests with one percent metal salt solutions, she was able to determine the effect of solar and lunar eclipses and the influence of the planetary movements on the seven planetary metalsdocument. I published the results of some of her work: The “star work in earth materials” during the Cosmic & Earthly Easter event a few years back.
Together with her husband, Lili Kolisko was very active in the Anthroposophical Society. After the Christmas conference in 1924 she was commissioned by Rudolf Steiner to read the esoteric instructions given by Steiner, the so-called class hours, for the teachers of the Stuttgart Waldorf School as part of the newly established ‘First Class of the School of Spiritual Science.
After Rudolf Steiner’s death in 1925, the working conditions for the Kolisko couple, who were close to Ita Wegman & Elisabeth Vreede, became increasingly difficult due to the ongoing disputes.
Lili Kolisko’s work was also largely ignored by the anthroposophical doctors & only given little financial means, because she was not considered competent enough because she had no academic medical or pharmaceutical training. The couple left Stuttgart in 1934 & moved to London, where the ‘International Association for the Advancement of Spiritual Science’ was to be established at the suggestion of the English anthroposopher Daniel Nicol Dunlop . The plan failed because Dunlop died the following year.
In 1939 Lili Kolisko’s husband Eugen died suddenly & unexpectedly of a heart attack in a lonely train compartment of a suburban train . From then on, Lili Kolisko lived very withdrawn, but she continued her research tirelessly under the most difficult financial conditions. She also translated numerous works by her late husband into English. In 1961 she was able to complete the biography of her husband Eugen Kolisko, in which she also reports in great detail about the bitter experience with the Anthroposophical Society after Steiner’s death.
1973 – Deathday of J.R.R Tolkien. His tales tell the story of human evolution in the form of a myth or fairy tale – reminiscent of the initiation rites seen in the occult traditions, & in a renewed sense in Spiritual Science. Tolkien tells about a humanity born from the Music of the spiritual Hierarchies – coming to Earth immortal & perfect, & transforming this original pureness in a love for Earth & her creations. The way Tolkien chooses numbers, images, events – everything is amazingly similar to the ancient teachings – Yes, everything reveals this presence in Tolkien’s soul – an artistic forming of past incarnations & certainly influenced by the anthroposophical Christology discussed with his friend Owen Barfield – revealing deep knowledge & images, that whisper into his inspired ear -The precise & patient, but non-intellectual, inner dialogue with the spiritual streams of a human civilization from the past, into the present & future time.
2009 – Deathday of Ernst Katz, a great teacher of anthroposophy based for many years in Ann Arbor MI, where he was professor of physics at the University there. At the recent retreat of the General Council of the ASA in Ann Arbor the local community shared many stories about this powerful thinker. We heard that at the tender age of 16 Ernst joined the Anthroposophical Society & for his long life of 96 years was fully dedicated to Spiritual Science as a way of life & method of understanding the human being’s purpose on Earth.
Ernst ran the legendary Ann Arbor study group which at first held its meetings in various members’ homes. The protocol was as the same one we use in the CRC study group: Designated people present a short recap in their own words of the Steiner lecture followed by a general discussion in the group. Many folks were drawn to Ernst’s quiet way of leading. Attendance was typically 25 to 30 eager anthroposophers, & discussion was lively.
Even his physics students at the university recognized his extraordinary teaching skills & moral character. It was clear to all that Ernst saw every human connection as an event of destiny, & he treated each one with respect & reverence.
It was Ernst’s suggestion that the members of the study group buy an old abandoned fraternity house to create a place for university students interested in spiritual development to live & study – & the Rudolf Steiner House of the Great Lakes Branch was born. For many years Ernst & his wife Katherine were overseers of the building which was donated to the Anthroposophical Society in America & is now the society’s headquarters. He is still teaching from the spiritual world today! xox
~I carry the tectonic plates Of my skull & the bones of my back That I might recollect myself, That I may become A pillar, a watchtower, a hermits lantern… I gather my opposites, my fragments & walk on… ~hag
$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!
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
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