“Love is the result of wisdom reborn in the “I”. ~Rudolf Steiner
After working the path of the New Mysteries of Spiritual Science we are called to apply ourselves, & take the responsible steps of inner development from out of our own “I”. There is no guru, no dogma to follow. In the old mysteries one had to wait to be asked; now we must let wisdom give birth to love – which allows us to be guided by the Christic impulse within.
When we have cultivated with Anthroposophia the fruits of imaginative thinking, inspirational feeling, & intuitive willing, we come to realize that it is our duty to contribute something to the spiritual development of the future. This is the essential core of the New Mysteries.
If we can get passed the anti-social qualities of this consciousness soul age, we realize that the moment has arrived for us to give back to the Spiritual World.Just as the hierarchies bestowed on us their being substance for the evolution of humankind, so must we awaken in our “I” to participate in the work of further evolution – or not – we can be like the backward beings who have chosen to stay behind.
Michael as our Time Spirit is silent. He is awaiting what we will offer; He wills. In the future, worlds have to be built with human will, from our willing sacrifice – a dedication to offering up our higher Self for the Good of All – so that our Earth can become a Cosmos of Love – a development that leads from Wisdom to love thru the “I”.
~hag
27 August 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Week by week Jupiter and Saturn come into view ever higher in twilight.
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” ~George Orwell
348 – Ulfilas devised the Gothic alphabet & translated the Bible from Greek into the Gothic language
410 – The sacking of Rome by the Visigoths ends after three days
1730 – Birthday of Johann Georg Hamann, ‘the Magnus of the North –A German philosopher, whose work was used by his student J. G. Herder as a main support of the Sturm und Drang movement.Goethe & Kierkegaard considered him to be the finest mind of his time
1770 – Birthday of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a German philosopher of “absolute idealism” described a “Protestant Aquinas – the originator of the thesis, antithesis, synthesis triad along with Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Hegel has influenced many thinkers & writers- the philosophies of Marx & Nietzsche, phenomenology, German existentialism, & psychoanalysis
1813 – French Emperor Napoleon I defeats a larger force of Austrians, Russians, & Prussians at the Battle of Dresden
1832 – Black Hawk, leader of the Sauk tribe of Native Americans, surrenders to U.S. authorities, ending the Black Hawk War
1859 – Petroleum is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania leading to the world’s first commercially successful oil well
1881 – The Georgia hurricane makes landfall near Savannah, Georgia, resulting in an estimated 700 deaths
1883 – Eruption of Krakatoa: Four enormous explosions destroy the island of Krakatoa & cause years of climate change
1893 – The Sea Islands hurricane strikes the United States near Savannah, Georgia, killing an estimated 1,000-2,000 people
1916 – The Kingdom of Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary, entering World War I as one of the Allied nations
1924 – Introduction of the Michael sign by Rudolf Steiner after a breach of the mantras from the 1st Class of the School of Spiritual Science in London
1942 – Sarny Massacre – the execution of 18,000 people mostly Jews, in the Nazi-occupied city of Sarny, then part of Poland, on August 27 – 28, 1942
1962 – The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission is launched to Venus by NASA
1963 – Deathday of W. E. B. Du Bois, American sociologist, historian, & activist
1975 – Deathday of Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974, and the key figure of Rastafari, a religious movement in Jamaica. He was a member of the Solomonic dynasty who traced his lineage to Emperor Menelik I, the son of King Solomon and Makeda the Queen of Sheba. Haile Selassie attempted to modernize the country through a series of political and social reforms, including the introduction of Ethiopia’s first written constitution and the abolition of slavery. He led the failed efforts to defend Ethiopia during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and spent the period of Italian occupation in exile in England. He returned to lead Ethiopia in 1941 after the British Empire defeated the Italian occupiers in the East African campaign. His internationalist views led to Ethiopia becoming a charter member of the United Nations. In 1963, he presided over the formation of the Organisation of African Unity, the precursor of the African Union, and served as its first chairman. He was overthrown in a 1974 military coup by a Marxist-Leninist junta, the Derg. Selassie was murdered by the junta on 27 August 1975. Among some members of the Rastafari movement, Haile Selassie is referred to as the returned messiah of the Bible, God incarnate. This distinction notwithstanding, Haile Selassie was a Christian and adhered to the tenets and liturgy of the Ethiopian Orthodox church.
1991 – Moldova declares independence from the USSR
2003 – Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years
2011 – Hurricane Irene strikes the United States east coast, killing 77 & causing an estimated $15.6 billion in damage
Tanya Gordeeva
~Ahh The intrigue of beauty in decay… The columns of the temple in ruin The lilies shriveled & stinking with rot The repulsion of the slaughter house Awakens the study of my Self In the silence of time Without space… ~hag
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
Zosia Nowak
Join us online or in-person to further explore the 6BE – October 7-10, 2021 for ‘Building the Temple of the Heart’, the ASA AGM & Conference co-sponsored by the Central Regional Council.
Greetings Friends – Remember: Our Soul is the best friend we keep forgetting we have. She’s closer than our breath & older than death. She dreams like a mountain, laughs like a river, & communicates with us in the exuberantly mysterious style of the elements & the gods. We are animated because of our soul-forces! She loves us with nonstop unconditional ingenuity. Isn’t it right, then, to devote at least 5 minutes a day to acknowledging, working with & honoring our own Soul forces, as well as the World Soul, giving thanks & being open to receive her blessings?
Thinking, Feeling, and Willing in Relation to the Soul, Spirit, and I – Marc Clifton
When we work with the 6 Basic / Essential / Protective Exercises given to us by Rudolf Steiner, we are purifying & building up of our Soul Forces of Thinking (aligned with Imagination), Feeling (giving us Inspiration) & Willing (Intuition). Each of these forces can be combined to bring further development as we work consciously with these groupings: The fulfilment of Thinking in Feeling (Equanimity) – The fulfilment of Thinking in Willing (Open-mindedness) – The fulfillment of Thinking in Thinking (Positivity) –
Jacob Adrieane
And the alchemy of them all – to bring forth Harmony as the 6th – turning the 5-pointed Star of the human being into the hexagram – symbol of the heart – the triangle that points up to our Cosmic origins meets the triangle that points down to the Earth.
Anima Mundi by Robert Fludd
This individual development is again furthered by practicing the 8-Fold Path (the Weekday Exercises) which forges us in the fire of community – opening us to the:
Anima mundi (Latin. Greek: ψυχὴ κόσμου Psychè Kósmou) our intrinsic connection between all living things.
Plato knew: This world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul and intelligence…a single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related.
The Stoics believed it to be the only ‘vital force’ in the universe. Similar concepts are also held in the systems of Eastern Philosophy like the Brahman-Atman of Hinduism, the Buddha-Nature in Mahayana Buddhism, & in the School of Yin-Yang, Taoism, & Neo-Confucianism as qi or chi.
Also found in the thoughts of Hermetic Philosophers like Paracelsus, Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, Friedrich Schelling & in Hegel’s Geist (“Spirit”/”Mind”).
Ralph Waldo Emerson published “The Over-Soul” in 1841, which was influenced by the Hindu conception of a ‘Universal Soul’.
In Jewish mysticism, a parallel concept is that of “Chokhmah Ila’ah”, Sophia, the All-Encompassing “Supernal Wisdom” that transcends & vitalizes all of creation – a “cosmic consciousness” that empowers us to mitigate all division & conflict within creation.
Becky Linnelly
This jives with ideas developed by folks like James Lovelock since the 1960s – in the Gaia Principle.
Sweet, Ok, so…
IONA MILLER
Dear Soul-Self , ever dancing in the Beloved World-Soul we all share: May we see ourselves in each other. Then we can Be in Harmony so that the ‘Me’ becomes the ‘We’.
And we can ask: What is the message that our World-Soul is sending us?
Zosia Nowak
Join us online or in-person to further explore the 6BE – October 7-10, 2021 for ‘Building the Temple of the Heart’, the ASA AGM & Conference co-sponsored by the Central Regional Council.
25 August 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: August is prime Milky Way time. After dark, the Milky Way runs from Sagittarius in the south, up & left across Aquila & through the Summer Triangle very high in the east, on down through Cassiopeia to Perseus rising low in the north-northeast.
“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” ~H.G. Wells
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
79 – Deathday of Pliny the Elder, Roman commander & philosopher – died while attempting to rescue a friend from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Stabiae that had just destroyed the cities of Pompeii & Herculaneum. The prevailing wind caused by the sixth & largest pyroclastic surge of the eruption overcame his ship
El Greco
1270 – Deathday of Louis IX of France, the Crusader King, devoted to his people, founding hospitals, visiting the sick like his patron St. Francis, even caring for people with leprosy. Louis united France. Every day he invited 13 guests from among the poor to eat with him.
1530 – Birthday of Ivan the Terrible
1609 – Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers
1744 – Birthday of Johann Gottfried Herder, German poet, philosopher, friend of Goethe
1814 – The U.S. Library of Congress was destroyed by British forces
1867 – Deathday of Michael Faraday, English physicist & chemist, who contributed to the study of electromagnetism. Albert Einstein kept a picture of Faraday on his study wall, alongside pictures of Isaac Newton & James Clerk Physicist Ernest Rutherford stated, “When we consider the magnitude and extent of his discoveries and their influence on the progress of science and of industry, there is no honour too great to pay to the memory of Faraday, one of the greatest scientific discoverers of all time”.
1900 – Deathday of Friedrich Nietzsche. Rudolf Steiner mentioned that in a previous life he was a Franciscan monk. Steiner also wrote: Friedrich Nietzsche, Fighter for Freedom GA5. The enigmatic Friedrich Nietzsche was seen by Steiner, but was lying in a coma near death. Nietzsche’s philosophy receives a scholarly & critical treatment & is then related to Nietzsche, the man.
At one point in his life, Rudolf Steiner brought out an edition of some of Nietzsche’s writings. In seeing that Nietzsche’s ideas received a public exposure, Steiner was not identifying himself as one of Nietzsche’s disciples, but rather assuring philosophical readers that this important link in the spiritual development of occidental thought should not be ignored.
Here is Steiner’s Memorial Address The Personality of Friedrich Nietzsche
1914 – World War I: The library of the Catholic University of Leuven is deliberately destroyed by the German Army. Hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable volumes Gothic & Renaissance manuscripts are lost
1916 – The United States National Park Service is created
1933 – The Diexi earthquake strikes Sichuan, China & kills 9,000 people
1944 – World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies
1948 – The House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing: “Confrontation Day” between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.
1950 – President Harry Truman orders the U.S. Army to seize control of the nation’s railroads to avert a strike
Craig Wiggins
Festival Gathering: Tuesday 28 September on the eve of Michaelmas with Rev’s Jeana Lee & Victoria Capon
Potluck at 5:30 Talk at 7pm
At the Rudolf Steiner Branch, 4249 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60618
Meeting The Dragon With Our Four Fold Being – A talk and collaborative sculptural creation
Bring Food & drink for the potluck & a found objects to help build the dragon! Then our inspiration can come to life through our collaboration.
Jeana Lee was recently ordained as a priest of the Christian Community Movement for Religious Renewal and sent to the congregation in Chicago. Previously she taught chemistry and math at Green Meadow Waldorf high school. She enjoys swimming in the lake and is interested in questions of sin and redemption.
Victoria Capon hails from the east coast and is new to Chicago. Before attending seminary she taught at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod. Now she is happily settling into serving the chicago CC congregation and exploring the Windy City
POD (Poem Of the Day) ~Fuddling in the muddy puddle I grab onto a Rolly-Polly curled up tight She carries me egg light & silent In the pregnant pause of possibility I meditate With this spiraled-in universe Waiting to expand in her unfurling… ~hag
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves,” said Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl.
This advice always hits home; begging the question: How can I change a stagnant situation I have perpetuated? What can I do to unlock the door I’ve been banging on for so long that I have forgotten what is on the other side? How can I redirect my attention – to reclaim the energy I have been expending on closed-down thinking & moldering systems of belief? What would it be like to work on the unfinished wisdom & beauty of what is as close as a shadow: MYSELF.
To open that personal, yet universal portal – to consciously cross the Threshold – I find it helps to be awake to the sacred moments just before I fall asleep & right after I wake up.
Those opportune times can become potent rituals in our striving – hallowed moments – when we are poised between the two great dimensions of life.
What would it be like to give special care & attention to these transitions?
Edward Burne-Jones
Life Hack: I find it extremely helpful to avoid watching TV or surfing the Internet as much as possible, before sleep – which profoundly affects what realm of the spiritual world I inhabit & how I dream. Have you ever had dreams where you are scrolling? – hellish.
And I never leap out of bed to the detonation of an alarm clock. Why would we want to be alarmed when we first awaken from the glories of night school?
To become clued-up to receive special revelations, & ringing epiphanies while inhabiting those in-between states, we must enter consciously – with reverence; perhaps asking a question, or saying a prayer or affirmation, or sending someone a blessing.
Every day I work to be both highly alert & deeply relaxed. Today can I be wildly curious & also serenely reflective? Can I cultivate a hunger to crack open life’s secrets while at the same time, living at the pace of peace – accepting my destiny exactly the way it is in this holy moment..?
We can tune into this as we head into the Michaelmas season. The universe is always conspiring to educate & heal us. Thru the seasons we can receive a steady flow of clues about how to get closer to living our highest destiny.
Georg Baselitz
The best way to prepare for a Big Shift is to cultivate states of being that ripen us to be ready for anything:
* First off we have to employ righteous strategies to help us avoid becoming entrenched in the hypnotic lure of painful emotions, past events, & worries about the future…
* How can we foster a trust in “the ever present help of the spiritual world” to snap us out of our time-worn beliefs & bad habits;
* Let’s sure up our talents & turn up our curiosity full blast – tuning in to the raw veracity of every moment with our beginner’s mind leading the way;
* How about deciding to engage an eagerness to dwell gracefully in the midst of all the interesting ‘What If’s’ that tease & teach us – allowing questions to remain open -interpretation & reinvention to go hand in hand…?
Together, in our own individual way, we can Practice Becoming
In this sacred moment we are prime for an enduring, simmering, steady groove, in the Christ zone – which is here, there & seeks thru us to be everywhere…
We invite you to join us as we explore big, essential questions together…
What is contemporary culture asking for now?
What are you being called to bring to the world?
How will Anthroposophia assist you in the task?
The Applied Anthroposophy Course (AAC) brings transformative online content to the alchemy of individual and group inner work.
The mission is to explore the urgent issues of our time and awaken meaning through the lens of spiritual philosophy, inner reflection, and outer action. Visit appliedanthroposophy.orgfor more information!
The General Council of the ASA = hag, John Bloom, Gino Ver Eecke, Deb Abrahams-Dematte, Helen-Ann Ireland, Christine Burke, Dave Alsop,Dave Mansur, John H Beck, Micky Leach, Katherine Thivierge, missing: Nathaniel Williams
Greetings friends –
I am still re-acclimatizing after an intensely stimulating retreat with the General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America. We met for the 1st in-person gathering since the onset of the Corona-Crisis, at the Rudolf Steiner House in Ann Arbor, MI, the home of the ASA with its offices, including the work of the prison outreach program. It also houses the Great Lakes branch; & it’s only a few steps from the amazing Nichols Arboretum.
The beautiful brick building was built as the ‘Acacia Fraternity’, in 1923, for the sons of Masons attending the University of Michigan. A plaque engraved on the corner stone reads: “For the good of humankind” in Greek.
I was asked by Helen-Ann, the Chair of the Council, to bring 2 sessions of artistic activity for our retreat. I thought it would be engaging & powerful to explore the ‘Two main streams in Anthroposophy’ through a short theatrical-piece of famous quotes. So we all took on characters speaking in the voices of some famous Platonic & Aristotelian individualities from the past.
Besides being enlivening, the goal of this recitation was to help us contemplate where we may stand in these streams. It is always my hope that we will look to how we can learn from & appreciate the other tributaries; remembering that just as with the temperaments, none are ‘better or worse – right or wrong’; we are called to balance them all within us.
Clues as to your ‘original stream’ might be characters from history that you may feel drawn to. Being conscious of our sympathies & antipathies can reveal a lot. Do you relate more toward inner development or service? Do you resonate to the tales of Arthur & the Round Table or those of Parzival & the Holy Grail? Which of the original Vorstand members do you have an affinity with? Which panel of the FSM is your fav? It might also help to think which of the 6 basic exercises is easiest, which hardest for you; or what your favorite basic book is…?
We began with singing a song I learned when I presented at the “YIP Initiative Forum: Are You Listening?” And ended with a song written by Ultra-Violet Archer that was perfect: ‘You & Me, we are the leaves of the same tree, growing anew, & falling, side-by-side, come along for the ride’…
Then we worked with a piece i called: A Play on Words, complied by ~hag from Quotes by: Rudolf Steiner/Aristotle/Aquinas; Christian Rosenkreutz/Lazurus-John; Plato/Hroswitha; Alanus ab Insulis/ Lievegoed; Alexander the Great/Ita Wegman; Goethe; Schiller; Fichte; Schelling; Hegel; Marie Steiner; Willem Zeylmans van Emmichoven; Sergei O. Prokofieff.
We switched off playing the different parts, & thru Nathaniel’s encouragement, had fun making gestures & connecting. It was an enlivening time, a wonderful way to loosen up while still doing deep anthroposophical exploration.
The spirit of place still holds the aura of Dr. Ernst Katz, a professor of physics at the University of Michigan, who together with his wife, Katherine, fostered the growth of anthroposophy in Ann Arbor for sixty years. Folks in the community regaled him thru many stories of how he touched their lives during a potluck-initiative-sharing with the GC on Saturday evening.
The long weekend was all about embodying initiative, which has become the driving force behind the General Councils’ focus & worldview. As a person of initiative myself, this is very exciting.
Before I left for the retreat my husband CG & some friends who own a biodynamic cranberry marsh met with Farmer John & Haidy Peterson of Angelic Organics, for a brainstorming session on how to create a ‘Community Farm Initiative’ to support biodynamic farmers working to ‘Spiritualize the Earth’, & to bring ‘Culture back to Agriculture’.
It seems, dear friends, that we are all being called to waken to our will.
Will you wkae for heavens sake?
~hag
Farmer Dan Gannon ‘Community Farm of Ann Arbor’
“Be a person of initiative, and take care that the hindrances of your own body or hindrances that otherwise confront you do not prevent you from finding the center of your being, where the source of your initiative lies. Likewise, you will find that all joy and sorrow, all happiness and pain, depend on finding or not finding your own individual initiative” ~Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies – Volume III, The Karmic Relationships of the Anthroposophical Movement, 1 August 1924, Dornach, GA 237
The calling of Anthroposophia & Michael is to become human beings of initiative – an unfolding of our karma. What meets us in this life depends on the extent to which we can become actively & willingly, conscious of it.
“…the Vorstand declares that it places itself within the Society in the freest manner possible: it wants nothing else but to be a group of people with initiative for the cause of Anthroposophy.To live fully in initiative for the cause of Anthroposophy will have to be the heart’s blood of this Vorstand. It is not a representative of people in the abstract; it is a representative of the anthroposophical cause here at the Goetheanum…The membership and the Vorstand, and their relationship with one another, is thought of as being quite generally human in an entirely free way in the future. We have not achieved this as yet; we must make it obvious to all the world...” ~ The Christmas Conference, Part Two: The Proceedings of the Conference – Rudolf Steiner’s Opening Lecture and Reading of the Statutes, 24 December, 11.15 a.m.
skyandtelescope.com
17 August 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: After nightfall, look far below Bella Luna for the Cat’s Eyes in the tail of Scorpius – Lambda and Upsilon Scorpii, canted at an angle; the cat is tilting its head to the right. And the cat has a bleary eye; Upsilon is fainter than Lambda.
“Nescire autem quid antequam natus sis acciderit, id est semper esse puerum. (To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.)” ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1560 – The Roman Catholic Church is overthrown & Protestantism is established as the national religion in Scotland
1585 – A first group of colonists sent by Sir Walter Raleigh under the charge of Ralph Lane lands in the New World to create Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of present-day North Carolina
1586 – Birthday of Johann Valentin Andrea, who wrote: The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz
1687 – Deathday of Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen , kidnapped at the age of 10 by Hessian soldiery, – in their midst tasted the adventures of military life in the Thirty Years’ War. He was made Schultheiss (magistrate) at Renchen in Baden where he devoted himself to literary pursuits. Greatly influenced by previous utopian & travel literature, he wrote the Simplicissimus series, inspired by the events & horrors of the Thirty Years’ War which devastated Germany from 1618 to 1648, it is regarded as the first adventure novel in the German language & the first German novel masterpiece. The full subtitle is “The life of an odd vagrant named Melchior Sternfels von Fuchshaim: namely where and in what manner he came into this world, what he saw, learned, experienced, and endured therein; also why he again left it of his own free will.” It attained a readership larger than any other seventeenth-century novel
1668 – A magnitude 8.0 earthquake causes 8,000 deaths in Anatolia, Ottoman Empire
1798 – The Vietnamese report a Marian apparition in Quảng Trị, an event which is called Our Lady of La Vang
1807 – Robert Fulton’s North River Steamboat leaves New York City for Albany, New York, on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world
1911 – The 1st performance of Rudolf Steiner’s 2nd Mystery Drama,The Trial of the Soul, in the Gardener’s Place Theatre in Munich. In all 4 four plays. Steiner showed how spiritual development might manifest in a freely formed, but karmically-knit group of people. The experiences of the main characters of the play, particularly Johannes, Capesius & Strader, represent 3 different aspects of the path of initiation – “differing according to the karma of the respective individualities.” Steiner described his process of artistic creation as “images that grew like the leaves of a plant”.
1918 – Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated
1924 – Rudolf Steiner visits Tintagel, mystery center & court of King Arthur.
On his final visit to Britain, Rudolf Steiner’s schedule of lecturing was hectic. He delivered three lectures a day during the Anthroposophical Society’s Summer School at Torquay (11-22 August 1924) – but that is another story…Steiner took one day out of that busy schedule, to go as far west as he ever ventured in that lifetime – to the west coast of Cornwall.
Tintagel is the legendary home of King Arthur, Merlin, the sword Excalibur, the Lady of the Lake, the Knights of the Round Table, Sir Lancelot, Queen Guinevere, & the court of Camelot.
Midway through the Torquay Summer School, on Sunday August 17th, Rudolf Steiner declared “I want to go to King Arthur” (see Eleanor Merry, 1956, in Villeneuve, 2004, p.1051). A cavalcade of three cars ventured forth from the southern beachside resort town of Torquay, across the verdant moors of Dartmoor, to the spectacularly positioned Tintagel, on the west coast of Cornwall.
Eleanor Merry & D.N. Dunlop were the two organizers of the Torquay Summer School. Both were part of the entourage to Tintagel. Merry reports that: “At last we came again to the sea, and straight ahead of us, at the top of a green cliff, were the last fragments of King Arthur’s castle of Tintagel. A deep rocky chasm divided this from a second rugged cliff, where still other remains could be seen”(quoted in Villeneuve, 2004, p.1052)Merry continues: “Dr. Steiner was at first silently absorbed in the wonderful view. All around was sunshine, and fleeting cloud-shadows and little hurrying rainbows – and a stormy and angry sea”.
The entourage included at least two of the 11 attendees of Steiner’s Agriculture Course at Koberwitz, namely Dr. Elisabeth Vreede & Guenther Wachsmuth. That course (7-16 June, 1924) laid the foundations for the development of biodynamic agriculture.
Wachsmuth remembered: “On that unforgettable day Rudolf Steiner went with us to the place on the rough rocky western coast of Cornwall, Tintagel, where the castle of King Arthur had once stood … That strangely densified spiritual atmosphere we shall never forget, so intensely to be felt as Rudolf Steiner climbed the strange projecting cliff on the lonely coast of Cornwall where the last walls of the castle of King Arthur towered over the roaring sea … He spoke there, standing on the cliff, about the experience of the Knights of King Arthur … He spoke of the teachings of Merlin … The immediacy of the spiritual vision in this place was so intense that, during his descriptions, the entire reality, the external life and action … of King Arthur’s knights, stood before us as actual experience” (Wachsmuth, 1989, pp.563-4)
The Tintagel visit occurred just two months after Steiner’s Agriculture Course & less than six weeks before Rudolf Steiner retreated from public life entirely. On this, his tenth visit to Britain, Steiner taught about Anthroposophy & Waldorf education. An opportunity for agriculture lectures in Britain did not arise, & there had been no British attendees at the Koberwitz course. We can speculate that the attendance of Wachsmuth & Vreede, who had attended at Koberwitz – as well as Tintagel, in this case along with Marna Pease – may have seeded the early interest in Britain in Anthroposophic agriculture which evolved into biodynamics.
Marna Pease went on to be the secretary of Britain’s Anthroposophical agricultural Foundation which was founded in 1928. Elizabeth Vreede attended, in London, as a guest at the first Annual Meeting of the Anthroposophical Agricultural Foundation.
Despite the intensity with which Rudolf Steiner engaged with his missions, including the Torquay Summer School, he was, by this time terminally ill from being ‘poisoned’ eight months earlier. Wachsmuth described this final visit to Britain: “During … the last trip of Rudolf Steiner in his life on earth, he suffered tragically from the destructive illness. Outwardly, nothing of this could be observed. He met daily all the requirements of the comprehensive program & his lecturing activity. He spoke introductory words at artistic programs, had numerous conferences, & took part in the excursions, but every meal caused in his ill condition renewed suffering, which he bore courageously without a word of complaint … He permitted nothing to be known by those at the conference regarding his illness” (Wachsmuth, 1989, p.563).
Just a month after this tenth visit to Britain, Rudolf Steiner retreated entirely from public life (on 28 September, 1924), & he died on 30 March 1925
References:
AAF. (1929). Annual Meeting of the Anthroposophical Agricultural Foundation, Minutes: 3 pp. typescript.
Ashley, M. (2010). A Brief History of King Arthur. London: Constable & Robinson.
Collison, H. (1925). Rudolf Steiner. X a.m. 30th March, 1925, R.I.P. Anthroposophical Movement, 2(13), 101.
Kolisko, L. N. (1936). The Moon and the Growth of Plants (M. Pease, Trans.). London: Anthroposophical Agricultural Foundation.
Paull, J. (2011a). Attending the First Organic Agriculture Course: Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course at Koberwitz, 1924. European Journal of Social Sciences, 21(1), 64-70. Paull, J. (2011b). Biodynamic Agriculture: The journey from Koberwitz to the World, 1924-1938. Journal of Organic Systems, 6(1), 27-41.
Pease, M. (1937). A New Farming and Gardening: For Enquirers (Leaflet No. 2, 2nd Series). Bray-on-Thames, Berkshire: Anthroposophical Agricultural Foundation.
Steiner, R. (1924a). On the conduct of this news-sheet, & the share members should take in it. Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain Monthly News-Sheet for Members, January, 8. Steiner, R. (1924b). To all members: Our summer courses in Torquay. Anthroposophical Movement, 1(24 August), 81-83.
Steiner, R. (1933). Nine Lectures on Bees: Given in 1923 to the workmen at the Goetheanum (M. Pearse, Trans.). London: Anthroposophical Agricultural Foundation.
Villeneuve, C. (2004). Rudolf Steiner in Britain: A Documentation of his Ten Visits, Volume 11, 1922-1925. Forest Row, UK: Temple Lodge.
Wachsmuth, G. (1989). The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner
Wannamaker & R. E. Raab, Trans. 2nd edition; first published in German 1941). Blauvert, NY: Spiritual Science Library.
Whitehead, A. (2010). Rudolf Steiner: Journey of a Grail Knight Warrior. Blackheath, NSW: Golden Beetle Books
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 and then transformation – Bring your 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 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
Join us for the Applied Anthroposophy Course 2021-2022!
October 13, 2021 – May 25, 2022
I will be leading a ‘Chrysalis Group on Thursday mornings 8am PT / 10 am CT / 11am ET /
We invite you to join us as we explore big, essential questions together…
What is contemporary culture asking for now?
What are you being called to bring to the world?
How will Anthroposophia assist you in the task?
The Applied Anthroposophy Course (AAC) brings transformative online content to the alchemy of individual and group inner work.
The mission is to explore the urgent issues of our time and awaken meaning through the lens of spiritual philosophy, inner reflection, and outer action. Visit appliedanthroposophy.orgfor more information!
Greetings friends on this Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ, a cosmic metamorphosis that prepared the way for the deed on Golgotha & was a pre-figuration of the Ascension.
“We find the transfiguration scene in all the evangelists except St. John. This is significant. Let us clarify the meaning of this scene. What takes place? Jesus goes with three disciples Peter, James and John, up a mountain: this means into the inner sanctuary where one is initiated into higher worlds and where one also speaks in occult language. The disciples were carried up into a higher state of consciousness. They saw then that which is not transitory but eternal. Moses and Elias appear and Jesus himself with them. What does this mean? In occult science the word Elias means the same as El — god the goal – the way. Moses is the spiritual scientific word for truth. By the fact that Elias, Moses and Jesus appear, you have the fundamental Christian truth: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus himself says — this is a fundamental Christian mystical truth — “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” (John, ch. 14, v. 6) ~ Rudolf Steiner, The Gospel of St. John, 3rd Lecture
Today in 70 AD- The Second Temple of Jerusalem is destroyed by Roman legions under Titus. For 420 years, the 2nd Temple constituted a divine presence – the point where heaven & earth met.
Hiroshima: The Anti-Transfiguration – Brian Zahnd
6 August is also the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945, an act of genocide on US President Harry Truman’s orders.
I think of all those souls who crossed the threshold together, at that time. How will their sacrifice bear fruit…?
Krishna with Aruna in the Bhagavad Gita: “A thousand simultaneous suns Arising in the sky Might equal that great radiance, With that great glory vie.”
Interesting to contemplate these pivotal events today in 2021 which occur on the actual astrological cross-quarter date of Lammas (Loaf-mass) when the Sun enters 15 degrees of fiery Leo the Lion (in the tropical zodiac) – the exact midpoint between Summer Solstice & the Autumnal Equinox – a time of harvest, when the plant is sacrificed to make the bread. “The king is dead love live the king”.
We stand now also in the dark of the Moon (New Moon & Islamic New Year 8 Aug) on the edge of the Perseid Meteor Showers which peak in a few days…
Suuny Unii
Those of us working in the Sophia Group & the planning committee for the ‘Sophia Conference’ happening in the Spring of 2022 are especially attuned to this duel anniversary since the location of the conference will be in New Mexico where the atomic bomb was engineered & tested. The site chosen was a remote corner of the desert, south of Los Alamos, New Mexico, known as the “Jornada del Muerto,” or “Journey of Death.” Robert Oppenheimer named the site of the testing “Trinity” inspired by the poems of John Donne.
In the juxtaposition of these 2 world changing events we see not only the polarity of life & death, but the opportunity to bring the Wisdom of the Sophia in – with her connection to the Holy Spirit of the Trinity – calling in the ‘Healing Medicine that makes whole’ -to avail ourselves to the ‘Advocate, The ‘Comforter’ The ‘Mediator’ with the Being of Love – The Christos.
Together we can redeem & transfigure the fallen light of nuclear death, into the light of Wisdom & Love.
Blessings & Peace –
~hag
Candelario Cervantez
THE TRINITY by John Donne
“O blessed glorious Trinity, Bones to philosophy, but milk to faith, Which, as wise serpents, diversely Most slipperiness, yet most entanglings hath, As you distinguish’d, undistinct, By power, love, knowledge be, Give me a such self different instinct, Of these let all me elemented be, Of power, to love, to know you unnumbered three.”
Robert Bentley
Here is an interesting piece about the Transfiguration by Edouard Schure – French philosopher, poet, playwright, novelist, music critic, & publicist of esoteric literature – collaborator with Marie & Rudolf Steiner.
“In every great moment of his life, we see Christ Jesus withdrawing to the mountain to pray. Did not the Vedic sage say, “Prayer sustains heaven and earth and rules the gods?” Jesus knew this power of powers. Usually he did not allow any companion to share the times when he descended into the arcanum of his consciousness. However, on one occasion he led Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, John and James, to a high mountain in order to spend the night there. Tradition has it that the place was Mount Tabor. There that mysterious scene which the Gospels describe under the name The Transfiguration took place between the Master and his three most initiated disciples.
According to Matthew, the Apostles saw the luminous, diaphanous form of the Master appearing, in the transparent shadows of an oriental night, his face shining like the sun, his garments radiant as light. Then two forms, which they took for those of Moses and Elias appeared beside him. Trembling they came out of their strange prostration, which seemed to them like both a deep sleep and an intense waking state. Beside them they saw the Master, who touched them in order to awaken them completely. The transfigured Christ was never erased from their memory.
But what had Jesus himself seen, what had he experienced during that night which preceded the decisive deed of his prophetic career? He passed through a gradual disappearance of earthly things under the fire of prayer and an ascension from sphere to sphere on wings of ecstasy. Slowly it seemed to him that through his deep consciousness he was returning into a previous existence, which was entirely spiritual and divine. Far from him were the suns, worlds, earths, whirlwinds of painful incarnation, while in a homogeneous atmosphere was a fluid substance, an intelligent Light.
In this radiance legions of heavenly beings formed a moving canopy, a firmament of ethereal bodies, white as snow, from which emanated gentle rays of light. On the shining cloud where he himself was standing, six men in priestly clothing and of powerful stature are lifting a gleaming Chalice in their united hands. They are the six Messiahs who already have appeared on earth; the seventh is he himself, and this Cup signifies the Sacrifice which he must experience by becoming incarnate on earth in his turn. Beneath the cloud the thunder rolls, a black abyss opens, the circle of generations, the gulf of life and death, the earthly hell appear before him. With a supplicating gesture the Sons of God elevate the Cup. Heaven waits motionless …
With a gesture of acceptance Jesus spreads his arms in the form of a cross, as though he embraces the world. Then the Sons of God kneel, faces to the ground; angels with long wings and lowered eyes carry the shining Chalice upward into the vault of Light. Hosanna! rings out from heaven to heaven, melodious and ineffable . . . But without even hearing it, he plunges into the abyss …
This is what once took place in the world of Archetypes, in the Bosom of the Father, where the Mysteries of eternal Love are celebrated, and where the movements of the stars pass in waves of living Light. This is what Jesus had sworn to fulfill; this is why he was born, this is why he had struggled upon earth. And now the mighty promise gripped him again at the end of his work, through the fullness of his spiritual consciousness, by means of which he had entered into the revelation of a divine ecstasy.
Deep vow, dread Chalice! Nevertheless, it was necessary to drink from it. After the rapture of ecstasy, he awakened in the depths of the abyss, at the brink of martyrdom. There could be no further doubt; the time had come. Heaven had spoken, earth cried aloud for help.
Then, slowly retracing his steps, Jesus again went down to the valley of the Jordan and took the road to Jerusalem.”
~In the cardboard sky The Thunder gods gather In a procession of chattering dark wind weavings Flashing signs of other lives Royal blue souls in zig-zagging sighs Stop Where heat rises like dust after the bomb To be weighed In the over-ripe fruit trees For the transfiguration ~hag
