Category Archives: Insight

Union

Today is the 20 year anniversary of the Wedding of Hazel Archer & Chuck Ginsberg, married in Berkley Springs, West Virginia. Our karmic meeting & whirlwind engagment would make a great movie, but long story short: We decided to elope, so I began to research a place where we could go with our girl Ultra-Violet who was 1 & a half & still nursing. I had a long list of requisites: Hot Springs, natural child care, & the perfect non-denominational minister, chief among them. I wrote our ceremony & found an amazing officiant in the area who loved our concepts & added to our vision of what we wanted to bring forth. I am in awe of the myriad layers of magic that came together to create the best Wedding & Honeymoon ever.

We chose August 4th for our Wedding date because in 2001 it was the ‘Kabbalistic Day of Love’. Known as the ‘Jewish Valentine’s Day’, Tu B’Av is celebrated for 3 days around the Lammas Full Moon.

It is written, “There is no better time than Tu b’Av, a time when nations are meant to mingle with each other and where each and every person bestowed their goodness upon their fellow human beings” (Tiferet Shlomo). The kind of love Tu b’Av represents is an unconditional love that has to spread thru out the whole of humanity. (And it is no coincidence that it comes right after Tisha B’Av, which represents the polar opposite—unfounded hatred)

The recognition of an unfounded hatred that dwells in our hearts is the precondition for the attainment of unconditional love between us, as it is written, “Tu b’Av is the correction and mitigation of Tisha b’Av” (Likutey Halachot).

It may not be intuitive to us humans at every moment, but the whole of nature works in this way. Evolution displays a dynamic interplay of two opposite forces, to create a transcendent third. Whether the poles manifest as plus & minus, hot & cold, ebb & flow, male & female, night & day…these often adversarial swings create levels of conflict & self-interest which can then open us to greater levels of reciprocity & connection. This is how ancient bacteria evolved from hostile competition, to shared responsibility, for the advancment of evolution. Our bodies also exemplify this perfectly, with up to 100 trillion individual cells, integrated to create a unified level of life. This way of seeing science is helpful during this confusing corona-crisis.

About 4,000 years ago, Abraham, understood that this natural dynamic also applies to human society. When the Babylonians around him sank into self-interest & separation, he recognized that stuck state as a precursor for the possibility of a new degree of human connection. Abraham “seeded love for all people” with the vision of a higher human union & “went from city to city, kingdom to kingdom, until thousands joined him…& they became a unified people” Which as Anthroposophy tells us gave us the vessel for the Christ – the Universal Impulse of Love to become human.

The Hebrew calendar says it is time for the ‘Festival of Love’, but our current reality shows that people are more divided than ever. Yet, just as Abraham saw thousands of years ago, the hatred & separation that persist today are not coincidental. It’s an evolutionary stage, a precursor to the next degree of unity. And in our time, there is even more that’s brewing under the surface.

How can we hold altruistic connections above the growing self-interest? The method of attaining true love unconditional among human beings must become a priority.

We are called to upgrade our human nature from the annihilation of selfish-love which leads us to crises, & leaves us with a very limited perception of reality; to a transformation – a force of universal love that permeates all of nature – a spiritual harvest waiting to be sown.

Tu B’Av, is marked by being on the Full Moon when the spiritual powers are strong & available to us so that we can bring all polarized energies into balance. This harmony creates the perfect environment for love.

May we seize every opportunity, awakening to the cosmic clues in every milestone!

~hag loves CG + you…xox

4 August 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

The Holy Grail Study Group with the Central Regional Council
of the Anthroposophical Society in America

TONIGHT August 4, 2021 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)
 

~Rudolf Steiner, The Mysteries of the Holy GrailChapter 2“The Birth of Higher Perception”, excerpts from Steiner’s The Gospel of St. John in its Relation to the Other Three Gospels given at Kassel on 24 June, 1909 is the  focus of the August 4 meeting.

This chapter from the book can be found online at the CRC’s website by clicking this link
The complete transcript of the lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this linkThe Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing  study conversation. The study has been divided among two volunteers who will summarize their section to rebuild it as a foundation for our conversation. Please familiarize yourself with the lecture if possible so you will feel comfortable sharing your reflections and thoughts with the group.This collection of lectures has been republished by Rudolf Steiner Press under the title: “The Mysteries of the Holy Grail — from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation.”  The book was compiled and edited by Matthew Barton, published by Rudolf Steiner Press in 2010.

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

Video Conference Details:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88210505106
Meeting ID: 882 1050 5106

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcHr5EVwrv

If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu
 
Agenda for this meeting (CST)
 
7:15  Welcome and Introductions        
7:18  Verse
7:25  Study led by volunteers
          Kate – pg. 15 to 17
          Michael – pg. 18 to 20
8:05  Conversation
8:28  Close with verse

We had a lively discussion during our July 7 meeting.  Here are two lectures that may shed some lights on two of the more hard-to-grasp ideas discussed. You can click on the “Prev” or “Next” button to scroll through other lectures in the same series.

1. About the Holy Trinity:
 The Mystery of the Trinity (Dornach, July 23, 1922)
2. About the Seven Elohim and the Christ Logos:
The Challenge of the Times (Dornach, Dec 7, 1918)

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

Harvest Home

O sweet sacrifice, teach me your Love –

Just like in days of old, we come can together, each from our own homestead, farm or condo, we can come together, to help our neighbor gather the 2nd harvest home…


As we enter the time of the grain harvest, a wealth of beauty in nature surrounds us…Mid-Summer has past & the fruits are ripening…now we begin to take this abundance in, digesting & cultivating seeds in our memory.

Like the animal kingdom storing food for a barren winter, we store the meaning of Summer’s richness within our souls, harvesting with a discerning eye – full of appreciation & compassion for our current crop – looking ahead to the next harvest…

Learning from our endeavors…we take the late Summers gifts into our heart & soul & belly – we know, that like the season’s inevitable movement, one into the next, we too are always becoming…We are always creating, always moving from the already been, to the not yet, always strengthening in the present what will happen in the soon to be…& as we do this, we give ourselves a gift grander than any earthly gift…We reap truth… We give ourselves to our Self…

We need the outer world of nature to understand our inner nature…just as we need both the in-breath & the out-breath, we need to see what we are in the world, to see our authentic Self & purpose…

We stand at the Cross-quarter a powerful turning point on the wheel of the year…between the Summer Solstice & the Fall equinox…we have breathed out into the lushness of Summer…& now we can hold the memory of Summer within us – as soul strength – as we prepare to turn inward during the winter’s long in-breathing…

We know that as we feel our existence in the world, we are a part of an ongoing cosmic dance…the endless dance of becoming…& we feel the stirrings of our soul longing to be gathered in…We know we must feed the inner fruit, at the same time that we harvest the earth, which in turn feeds the World Soul…


Invisibly & silently, the cosmic light is moving into each of us, just as it goes into the grain, preparing us for the threshing floor…even as we nourish our bodies from the fruits of the earth, we become the fruit that will sustain the Soul of the World…it is a dance of being & becoming, waxing & waning, feeding & being fed…Such is the dance of life…

Some Divine Archetypes to tap into:



Lugh the Long Arm – This festival is also called “Lugnasadh” (Loo-nah-sah), “nasadh” Gaelic, “to give in marriage,” Tailltean marriage.

Demeter (the Greek version of the Roman goddess Ceres = cereal) is the goddess of grain. It is her job to feed the world. After her reunion with her daughter Persphone, Demeter gave the gift of agriculture to humankind, so we could cultivate for ourselves.

Freya on the Boar – The boar as totem personified prosperity, vitality & ceremonial feasting for both the Norse & Celts also represented the time before agriculture, when food was foraged, the Boar is a great forger. Freya riding the Boar is a symbol of the cultivated grain overcoming the old ways of hunting & gathering.

creativecommons

Born from a tree that was gouged open by a boar, Adonis was later killed by a boar, he is an example of the dying vegetation god, sacrificed so that all may live.

Henry Meynell Rheam

Danu – Irish Goddess of fertility & plenty, Mother of the fairies – the force that turns the flower to the sun.


John Barleycorn” is a personification of the important cereal crop barley, & of the spirit beverages made from it, beer & whiskey. In the old English song, “John Barley Corn must die”, He is represented as suffering attacks, death, & indignities that correspond to the various stages of barley cultivation, such as reaping & malting – emulating also the passion of The Christos.

John Barleycorn represents the ideology of nature’s cycles, the spirit within nature, & the harvest. As a result of his being cut down, bread can be produced; therefore, Barleycorn dies so that others may live. His body eaten as bread.

The Empress –represents the Mother principle, referring to reproduction & growth; she sets all things in order. Symbolic of Venus & the material world, she rules the senses, teaching us to appreciate beauty in all forms. She is the figure of Creative Imagination, displaying the art of visualization. She is fertile & nurturing, providing the means to attract our desires. Confer with The Empress to increase creativity, manifest prosperity, & magnetize love…She is a wise woman who makes decisions based on her intuition & the facts at hand. She is a woman who can be forceful & strong willed in her position of authority…She is a business-woman who is level-headed & practical but she is also kind & charitable, one who instills confidence & nurtures others. She is a role model. The throne of The Empress is built of endurance, tenacity, loyalty & sheer determination…

I am The Empress, I celebrate this knowing,
I am The Empress, I am ripe, I am growing…

Abundant Blessings of Lammas
& Peace –
~hag

PS. Gather the seeds you want to save, & feed the rest to the birds of the air…Thank the Farmer (Bless you Farmer John & your Biodynamic abundance https://angelicorganics.com/ ) & enjoy the feast…!!!

xox

Vali Irina Ciobanu

2 August 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: With the advance of Summer the Sagittarius Teapot, in the south after dark now, is tilting and pouring from its spout to the right. The Teapot will tilt farther and farther for the rest of the summer — or for much of the night if you stay out late.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

An ethical misunderstanding, a clash, is impossible among ethically free human beings. Only someone who is ethically unfree, who obeys natural drives or the conventional demands of duty, will thrust aside someone who does not follow the same instincts and the same demands. To live in love of action, and to let live in understanding of the other’s will, is the fundamental maxim of free human beings. — Rudolf Steiner, The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

216 BC – The Carthaginian army led by Hannibal defeats a numerically superior Roman army at the Battle of Cannae

Feast day of “The Virgen de los Angeles” (the Virgin of the Angels) is Costa Rica’s patron saint, also known as La Negrita. According to tradition, La Negrita, the Black Virgin, is a small (less than a meter tall), representation of the Virgin Mary found on this spot on August 2, 1635 by a native woman. As the story goes, when she tried to take the statuette with her, it miraculously reappeared twice back where she’d found it. The townspeople then built a shrine around her. In 1824, the Virgin was declared Costa Rica’s patron saint. La Negrita now resides on a gold, jewel-studded platform at the main altar in the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles in Cartago. Each August 2, on the anniversary of the statuette’s miraculous discovery, pilgrims from every corner of the country (and beyond) walk the 22 km from San José to the basilica. Many of the penitent complete the last few hundred meters of the pilgrimage on their knees.

1832- Birthday of Henry Steel Olcott – an American military officer, journalist, lawyer & the co-founder & 1st President of the Theosophical Society. Olcott was the first well-known American of European ancestry to make a formal conversion to Buddhism. From 1874 on, Olcott’s spiritual growth & development with Helena Blavatsky & other spiritual leaders would lead to the founding of the Theosophical Society. In 1875, Olcott, Blavatsky, & others, notably William Quan Judge, formed the Theosophical Society in New York City. Olcott financially supported the earliest years of the Theosophical Society & was acting President while Blavatsky served as the Society’s Secretary. In December 1878, they left New York in order to move the headquarters of the Society to India.

1921 – Birthday of Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor & actor

1922 – Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-Canadian engineer, invented the telephone

1922 – A typhoon hits Shantou, Republic of China killing more than 50,000 people

1924 – The last of Rudolf Steiner’s “19 Class Lessons” was given in Dornach.

1934 – Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg

1939 – Albert Einstein & Leo Szilard write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon

1943 – Jewish prisoners stage a revolt at Treblinka, one of the deadliest of Nazi death camps where approximately 900,000 persons were murdered in less than 18 months

1968 – Deathday of Antonio d’Achille , Aquinas scholar

1969 – Deathday of Anna Samweber – an active co-worker in Berlin with Rudolf Steiner and Marie Steiner-von Sivers. Her anecdotes & recollections were recorded by Jacob Streit during an intensive two days shortly before Anna’s death. They contribute a warm & intimate picture of Rudolf Steiner, the man, & his work. “Frau Dr Steiner owned a lovely diamond watch with her initials inscribed on the lid. It was broken, and I had to take it to a well-known watchmaker who lived a long way from the Motzstrasse (the house at 17 Motzstrasse in Berlin was where Rudolf and Marie Steiner lived from 1903 – 1913, and where the work of the Anthroposophical Society was carried on). It was late on a cold and foggy November evening when I made my way in the direction of Nollendorfplatz, where the building site for a subway was situated. I was walking along a long, wooden blank wall when suddenly two human shapes appeared from the dark and attacked me. I remembered that once Rudolf Steiner had told me that if ever I was in need I could call on him. So when these two attackers went for me, the one holding me from behind so that the other could rob me, I called inwardly and spontaneously: ‘Doctor, help me!’ At the same moment both fellows fell back like lightning and were gone. When Rudolf Steiner came for breakfast the next morning he greeted me with the words ‘Good morning, Sam. What was the matter that you cried so loud last night?’ When I told him about my experience and he had listened quietly, he said simply: ‘But I did help you, didn’t I?’ “ ~Anna Samweber from her book Erinnerungen an Rudolf Steiner (Reminiscences of Rudolf Steiner)

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Tashina Suzuki

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~i am the reed from which words flow…
the honey i’ve tasted, the lips i’ve kissed
have all left their marks upon me…
this body is the book of all i remember
open me ever wider
beloved, i am yours…
~hag

Freedom & Love

Benny Leptesone

Greetings friends – To consciously live up to the task of being human – to embody in this life the Christic qualities of Love – in Freedom – to keep the focus on the goal of achieving the next rung on the ladder of evolution – to become the 10th Hierarchy – these thoughts are with me daily.

I struggle staying in Love – especially when I am experiencing pain – pain in all its myriad manifestations. It seems that for me having pain in my physical body unbalances the other subtle bodies & it’s harder to hold up Love as the selfless ideal, let alone live it relationally.

I am trying to sit with this pain today. It helped that I attended the ‘Consecration of Man’ at the Christian Community this morning instead of struggling to write for 8 hours straight like most days. To let the ‘medicine that makes whole’ enter the wounds – to awaken again the love that lives in the godhood of my soul – this got me thinking about the other most precious human attribute – Freedom.

I have made choices, worked hard & am blessed to live a life that is, for the most part, not bound by outer necessity.  I am graced with a karma that allows me to serve Anthroposophia full time. But today while sitting in the dull throb of pain which clouds my ability to do my chosen work, it hit me that I am not really free if I let my inner perfectionism, or my own enforcement of expectation bind me. Yes it’s true each day I wake with a seed idea or am sparked by a theme or milestone from history. But today I began questioning am I really free? I realize now as I am writing this that today is Thursday & on the 8-Fold path Steiner tells us:

THURSDAY is Right Striving
One should do nothing which lies outside one’s capacities, but one should do everything which is within one’s powers. One should place above everyday life, and that which happens at the moment, goals and ideals, which are in connection with the greatest duties a human being can have. For instance, to develop oneself, by making a habit of these exercises, in order to help one’s fellow human being all the more, to advise them, although perhaps not in the immediate future. What has been said can be summed up in: ‘Make a habit of these exercises.’

Spending hours on the computer, doing research, writing essays which I publish almost every day is begging the question: am I over reaching my capacities? Is all this ‘productivity’ really a call from the spiritual world, or is it just a way of justifying my existence; or perhaps even a convoluted way of procrastinating? It’s true that lately I find it difficult to work on my other projects, especially after spending such long hours in the realm of sub-nature. There is no doubt that the computer time exasperates my health problems.

The ironic thing is most folks tell me they don’t even have time to read everything I offer – so why am I killing myself? Chill hag. Go on your family vacation next week & just live. And then spend all that time & energy writing the pageant for the ASA AGM ‘Building the Temple of the Heart’ conference, instead of getting nervous that it won’t be done or good enough…etc…

Phew, ok, thanks for letting me get that off my chest, attempting to put all that into perspective – to let the ‘pain become crystalized wisdom’. I’m just going to post this without any proof reading or crafting so I can get on to a more balanced healing place…

I will drop in every now & then, So until soon…

Blessings & peace

~hag  

15 July 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Now Mars moves away lower right of Venus, while brighter Regulus hones in from the upper left. Regulus will pass 1° from Venus on the evening of the 21st.

***

There is no other way towards a world history in light of anthroposophy than to engage with concrete karmic facts” ~Rudolf Steiner

484 BC – Dedication of the Temple of Castor & Pollux in ancient Rome

1099 –Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem lead by Godfrey of Bouillon who became the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He refused the title of King, however, as he believed that the true King of Jerusalem was Christ, preferring the title of Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre. He is also known as the “Baron of the Holy Sepulchre” & the “Crusader King”

1149 – The reconstructed Church of the Holy Sepulchre is consecrated in Jerusalem

1274 – Feast Day of Bonaventure, Italian bishop & saint called the “Seraphic Doctor”

1381 – English Priest John Ball, a leader in the Peasants’ Revolt, is hanged, drawn & quartered in the presence of King Richard II of England whose posthumous reputation was shaped by Shakespeare, in the play Richard II

Rembrandt - De Poolse ruiter, c.1655 (Frick Collection).jpg
The Polish Rider CR

1606 – Birthday of Rembrandt

1741 –Aleksei Chirikov a Russian navigator & captain sights land in Southeast Alaska. He sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska

1799 – The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign

1815 –Napoleon Bonaparte surrenders aboard HMS Bellerophon

1823 – A fire destroys the ancient Basilica of Saint Paul

1834 – The Spanish Inquisition is officially disbanded after nearly 356 years

1904 – Deathday of Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright & short story writer

1929 – Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Austrian author, poet, and playwright

1955 – Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others

1971 – The United Red Army is founded in Japan

Glennis Siverson

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Mine is
A heart of ruby-red
Crimson hot
& dark as murder on a Holy Day…
Mine is a heart of emerald,
The gnarled roots
Of a rosewood bursting with thorns
& bright blossoms in the Sun…
~hag

Parallels

Van James

Dear friends – This week has been one of looking back. I realize that it’s been 7 years since I began a modern study in the unveiling of true history thru karmic relationships, & if you have read my essays you know that Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul is my biggest inspiration.

The calendar is an active relational meditative path that shows how the individual soul’s journey is affected by the unfolding of the seasons realized at their deepest esoteric level. This is how Steiner described it:

I have tried to draw up verses for meditation, the effect of which will enable the soul gradually to discover in itself and in its own experiences the connection with the great cosmic constellations. These formulae for meditation do in all reality lead the soul out of its narrow confines to experience of the heavens. These fifty-two verses will enable the soul to find access to happenings in the great universe, and thereby to experience the Spirits working in the onward flow of Time. But if you ponder on the texts of the verses in the Calendar, you will discern an element of Timelessness, in rhythmic alternation; an element that is experienced inwardly by the human being, the laws of which run parallel to those of Time in the outer world.”

The calendar’s history is itself fascinating. It started on Easter Sunday, in the week from April 7 to 13, 1912. The shift from January to April was made in honor of the idea that the first year was 33 AD – the Resurrection, not year 1 of the birth of Jesus.

The Calendar was the first place Steiner referred to the Mystery of Golgotha as the birth of the “I.” This is why on the cover the characters “J C H” (Jesus Christ) appear, which also stand for the German Ich; which means ‘I’, & below them is the inscription Geburt (born). It reads “The year 1879 after the birth of the ‘I.’” In effect, the year 1912 equals 1879 plus 33.” Steiner wrote this at a time in which he could not yet speak openly of the Archangel Michael & the new Michael age.

The date of 33 AD as the birth of the “I” is crucial, because it reveals an important relationship between microcosm & macrocosm, in which Easter plays a central role. After that time it was possible for the human being to awake to the possibility of the “I” within, because the Christ had united with the Earth.

The preface to the first calendar was entitled “What is Intended,” & it was followed by a weekly calendar with drawings of the zodiac signs, which Imma von Eckhardstein had created, following Steiner’s sketches. These new signs were not meant to represent the classical zodiacal constellations, but rather the spiritual forces active in the cosmos. In addition to the twelve zodiacal images, were five images appearing at different times of the calendar year, representing the five great epochs of Earth evolution; a lunar calendar following the ephemeris; & a daily calendar with commemoration of historical events & memorial days of great individualities – Birthdays & Deathdays.

Among the individualities commemorated are Christian saints; biblical individuals (Enoch, Gaspar, Melchior, Balthasar, Abel, Seth); historical figures (Byron, Lessing, Galileo, Michelangelo, artists, philosophers, thinkers, & so forth). It was interesting that individuals that Steiner did not exalt (for example, Roger Bacon & Charles Darwin) were also listed.

The first calendar was met, in Steiner’s words, with “mockery and derision.” The major unease lay in the fact that the year would have been variable & of unequal length. To that objection, Steiner responded that for anthroposophists, it would be important to observe the year from Easter to Easter. He commented in a lecture specifically about the calendar, “In what is unequal there is life; in what is uniform and fixed, here is the impress of death.”

Great importance was placed by Steiner in publishing new calendars yearly, as well as working artistically with them. The 1918 edition appeared in the “Colorful Waldorf Astoria Booklets” – tiny books packaged with the cigarettes & intended for soldiers in the trenches. It also appeared in a series of books edited by Herman Hesse for Prisoners of war, in a text by Steiner called “The Real Experience of the Human Riddle through the Spirit.”

Karl König, who wrote much about the Calendar, made drawings for the weeks. Laura Summer, Sophie Takata, Ella Lapointe & many others have worked artistically with the Calendar, & we can too. As part of the festival life we have often painted our impressions from the Soul Verses.

I also think it’s a powerful act for us to add events such as milestones from the life of Rudolf Steiner to the calendar – for instance today 14 July in 1914 was the last of the 250 ‘Esoteric Lessons‘ given by Steiner in Norrkoping. These kinds of events along side modern happenings help us follow the treads & find the parallels.  

And so the work continues…

~hag

14 July 2021 “Speaking with the Stars”: The ever-waxing Moon is now lower left of Denebola, Leo’s tail tip. They’re less than a fist at arm’s length apart. The brighter star way off three fists left of the Moon is Spica. ~skyandtelescope.org

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (RSarchives) 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul; The Present Age, Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia)

Vive la France: What Is Bastille Day and Why Should You Celebrate It?

Bastille Day

1789 – French Revolution began with Parisians stormed the Bastille prison & released the seven prisoners inside

1798 – The Sedition Act becomes law in the United States making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the United States government

1853 – Opening of the first major US world’s fair, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City

1862 – Birthday of Gustav Klimt an Austrian symbolist painter, one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement

His work was the subject of controversy that culminated when the paintings he completed around 1900 for the ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna were criticized as pornographic. He subsequently accepted no more public commissions, but achieved a new success with the paintings of his “golden phase,” many of which include gold leaf.

Prof Frank McDonough on Twitter: "14 July 1874. The Chicago Fire of 1874  burned down 47 acres of the city, destroyed 812 building & killed 20  people.… "

1874 – The Chicago Fire burns down 47 acres of the city, destroying 812 buildings, killing 20

1877 – The Great Railroad Strike begins in Martinsburg, West Virginia, US, when Baltimore & Ohio Railroad workers have their wages cut for the second time in a year

1896 –  Birthday of José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange who played an influential role during the Spanish Revolution & is remembered as a hero in the Anarchist movement. “It is we [the workers] who built these palaces and cities, here in Spain and in America and everywhere. We, the workers. We can build others to take their place. And better ones! We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth. There is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world here, in our hearts. […] That world is growing in this minute.” — Buenaventura Durruti

Over a half million people filled the streets at his funeral. It was the last large-scale public demonstration of anarchist strength of numbers during the bitter & bloody civil war

1912 – Birthday of Woody Guthrie, singer-songwriter & guitarist

1933 – Gleichschaltung: In Germany, all political parties are outlawed except the Nazi Party.

1933 – The Nazi eugenics begins

1960 – Jane Goodall arrives at the Gombe Stream Reserve in Tanzania to begin her famous study of chimpanzees in the wild

1976 – Capital punishment is abolished in Canada

1986 – Deathday of Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges, an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet & translator, a key figure in Spanish-language literature. His compilations of short stories were interconnected by common themes, including dreams, labyrinths, libraries, mirrors, fictional writers, philosophy, & religion.

Borges’ works have contributed to philosophical literature & the fantasy genre -The first to use the term magical realism. His late poems dialogue with such cultural figures as Spinoza, Camões, & Virgil.

He became completely blind by the age of 55; as he never learned braille, he became unable to read. Scholars have suggested that his progressive blindness helped him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination

2003 – In an effort to discredit U.S. Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who had written an article critical of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Washington Post columnist Robert Novak reveals that Wilson’s wife Valerie Plame is a CIA “operative”

Bella Dark

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~What small matters i remember-
things – & their histories – shall be found in books by others…
but the greater knowledge, of love, will flourish in my children’s children…
the sun will weave gold threads about them, truth embodied…
They will call this mantle: Life…
~hag

War & Peace

Dear friends – Even though I focus a lot of my study & research on the Being of Anthroposophia, I was never one to pay much heed to the Marian Apparitions – until I started to examine the connections with the reappearance of the etheric Christ. I have begun to think of these apparitions as precursors setting the stage for this powerful opportunity available to humanity today.  

Working with Steiner’s Original Calendar of the Soul, which shows along with the Holy Days, the birth & death days, & many great historical events, I take to heart what Steiner says: ‘What is presented here can be useful to those who wish to follow the path of humankind’s spiritual development’. So I work to make connections & find patterns, with what happened in the past, & how it effects the present, & informs the future that we are ever co-creating.

Today is the Anniversary of the third apparition of Our Lady of Fatima on 13 July 1917 – an interesting time in world events…

1916-17 were crucial years in the evolution of humanity; the repercussions of which, 105 years later, must become conscious for the modern world.

Rudolf Steiner gave us The Occult Background of the War’ under the title: ‘The Karma of Untruthfulness‘, Vol. 1 & Vol 2 – in 1916 at the vital point in the war when there was the best hope for peace. But the Western Allies rejected all offers, & on 6 April 1917 President Woodrow Wilson took the US into war.

A month before, the Russian Revolution ended the 300 year-old rule of the Romanovs. The 1st American troops arrived in June, & from May to October 1917 ‘visions’ of the Blessed Virgin Mary were seen at Fatima.

Dali

On the same day that the Third Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima occured – Friday the 13th of July in 1917, Rudolf Steiner had a meeting with Ludwig Graf Polzer-Hoditz where they talked about the Three-Fold Social order.

Let’s remember what message The Lady gave on that same day – The three secrets involving Hell, World War I & World War II.

Our Lady told the children that to save the sinners from hell, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to Her Immaculate Heart. She asked for the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, & the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.

From the Fourth Memoir: The Story of the Apparitions by Lucia Santos the oldest of the 3 children:

‘A few moments after arriving at the Cova da Iria, near the holmoak, where a large number of people were praying the Rosary, we saw the flash of light once more, and a moment later Our Lady appeared on the holmoak.

— Your Grace, what do you want of me? — I asked.

— I want you to come here on the 13th of next month, to continue to pray the Rosary every day in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can help you.

— I would like to ask you to tell us who you are, and to work a miracle so that everybody will believe that you are appearing to us.

— Continue to come here every month. In October, I will tell you who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe.

I then made some requests, but I cannot recall now just what they were. What I do remember is that Our Lady said it was necessary for such people to pray the Rosary in order to obtain these graces during the year. And she continued:

— Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially whenever you make some sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation (порт. reparação) for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

As Our Lady spoke these last words, she opened her hands once more, as she had done during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me). The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. Terrified and as if to plead for succour, we looked up at Our Lady, who said to us, so kindly and so sadly:

— You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion (port. a devoção) to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.

— To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation (port. a Comunhão reparadora) on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved; etc… Do not tell this to anybody. Francisco, yes, you may tell him.

— When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need.

After this, there was a moment of silence, and then I asked:

— Your Grace, is there anything more that you want of me?

— No, I do not want anything more of you today.

Then, as before Our Lady began to ascend towards the east, until she finally disappeared in the immense distance of the firmament’.

On 7 November 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power – at the same time Steiner began his 7 lectures on the ‘Secret Brotherhoods and the Mystery of the Human Double’ given in St. Gallen Zurich & Dornach between 6 & 25 November 1917.

2 days later the British Government’s Balfour Declaration to Lord Rothschild was published, which promised a national home in Palestine for the Jewish people.

On the Western Front, 6 Nov. 1917, was the appalling slaughter of the Third Battle of Ypres – 600,000 dead – which Steiner attributed to ‘the karma of materialism’ – the direct result of too many people being asleep to world events & to the ways in which spiritual realties play into these events.

In these lectures Steiner shows the relationship of the ‘Fall of the Spirits of darkness’ cast out of the spiritual world & draws attention to the actions of elite power groups serving these beings: ‘Awareness alone…clear recognition and understanding of spiritual realties together with willingness to recognize the objective evil forces at work in the world and their purpose in the scheme of things – these are the only means that can be of real help in modern humanity’s predicament.’  

Can we see a parallel today?

~yours in service

~hag

13 July 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (RSarchives) 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul; The Present Age, Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia)

100 BC – Gaius Julius Caesar – “The Gallic Wars”

1298 – Deathday of Blessed Jacobus de Varagine, an Italian chronicler & archbishop of Genoa. He was the author, of Legenda Aurea, the Golden Legend, a collection of hagiographies of the legendary lives of saints of the Middle Ages. The Golden Legend is the source of the Rose Cross Meditation that Rudolf Steiner often quoted.

1527 – Birthday of John Dee, English-Welsh mathematician, astronomer, & astrologer & occultist

1727 – The founding of The Herrnhuter Brotherhood, The Moravian Church – Unitas Fratrum – Unity of the Brethren – predating the Protestant Reformation by a century, it was really the 1st  Protestant Church, with its heritage dating back to the Bohemian Reformation in the fifteenth century. It places a high value on ecumenism, personal piety, music -communio sub utraque specie, married priests, & eliminating indulgences & the idea of Purgatory. The Church’s emblem is the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei) with the flag of victory, surrounded by the Latin inscription: Vicit agnus noster, eum sequamur “Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow Him”

1863 – New York City draft riots: violent demonstrations that were the culmination of working-class discontent with new laws passed by Congress to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. The riots remain the largest civil & racial insurrection in American history, aside from the Civil War itself

1878 – Treaty of Berlin: The European powers redraw the map of the Balkans. Serbia, Montenegro & Romania become completely independent of the Ottoman Empire

Jugend Bennderling

1889 – Deathday of Robert Hamerling an Austrian poet. Rudolf Steiner gave his funeral address.  http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA154/English/AP1990/19140426p01.html The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica characterizes Hamerling as one of the most remarkable poets of the modern Austrian school, describing his imagination as rich & his poems as full of life & color. In his most popular poem, Ahasver in Rom (1866), the emperor Nero is the central figure. Among his other works, Venus im Exil (1858); Der König von Sion (1869), characterized as a masterpiece; Die sieben Todsünden (1872) Blätter im Winde (1887); Homunculus (1888); Amor und Psyche (1882). His novel, Aspasia (1876), a finely-drawn description of the Periclean age, & his tragedy Danton und Robespierre (1870), showed Hamerling’s genius. In Karmic Relationships Vol. 2, lecture 6, Steiner describes him as a pupil of Plato in an earlier incarnation.

1923 – The Hollywood Sign is officially dedicated. It originally reads “Hollywoodland ” but the four last letters are dropped after renovation in 1949

1943 – Battle of Kursk was the final defeat of the German army. With the Soviet line at Kursk protruding into enemy territory, the Germans attempted to attack from different directions. Given time to reposition their defenses, the Soviets held off the offensive before launching a counterattack. Facing the American invasion of Sicily & the threat of an Italian collapse, Hitler decided to call off operations at Kursk, its failure shifting the balance of power.

1963 – Deathday of Albert Steffen a poet, painter, dramatist, essayist,& novelist. He joined the Anthroposophical Society in 1912 & became its president after the death of its founder, Rudolf Steiner, in 1925. Steffen was chief editor of the society’s journal, Das Goetheanum, from 1921-1963. His earliest works, predating his encounter with anthroposophy, already manifest a spiritual awareness. His later works, which reflect a vision of the world permeated by metaphysical powers of good & evil, draw on a wide range of esoteric European & Asian traditions

1973 – Alexander Butterfield reveals the existence of the “Nixon tapes” to the special Senate committee investigating the Watergate break-in.

2013 – George Zimmerman is found not guilty in the shooting of Trayvon Martin

Thomas Lensky

The Lion and the Rose by Robert Hamerling

On a deep red rose
The angry lion trod
His paw caught fast the thorn
Of this delicate bud.

His paw swelled large;
In angry pain he died.
Refreshed, the red rose drank
The early morning dew.

Be the delicate ever so delicate,
The rough ever so rough,
That which is fragile, gentle, pure —
Beauty, triumphs over all.
~ Letzte Grüsse aus Stiftinghaus, vol. 15 in Hamerling’s Collected Works