Greetings friends – I am just bobbing my head up from a deep dive – my 1st foray as a member of the General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America. Thruout the 4 day retreat we worked with a lecture series by Rudolf Steiner called simply – ‘Anthroposophy, An Introduction’, GA 234, given a year before he died, from January – February of 1924. These 9 lectures are a kind of recapitulation, a deepening of concepts he gave 21 years earlier in his seminal books ‘Theosophy’, & ‘How to Know Higher Worlds’.
Steiner asks us to face life’s riddles, as he takes us from ordinary knowing to the science of initiation. On this path of the soul to the spiritual we peel away yet another layer in the exploration of the various sheaths of the human being. Are we willing to transcend the chains of necessity binding us to the destructive forces inherent in the laws of nature? We can ask things like: “How does a moral impulse come to move bone by muscle?”
Ram Daleti
When we seek the moral element within us, we meet ourselves in a fresh way – thru imaginative thinking – the human being as small ocean, our fluid etheric self – taking us back to the womb – & at birth, “time becomes space“, for the etheric body is a “time-organism”, just as the physical body is a “space-organism”.
To Balance the rounding down centripetal forces we live into inspired feeling. The inner music of our breath streaming in as living beings, & out again to be read by our higher self, allows us to look directly into the spiritual world, where “space must become time for us“.
Steiner describes the human being as a “comet stretching its tail far back into the past”. And so it is that inspiration can reveal our past incarnations when we empty our consciousness – “suggest away” all the pictures we have built up, leaving that strengthened space open. Music (or a scent) can unlock experiences, perhaps memories from another life. “Our moral impulses act indirectly, through the ego of our last incarnation.”
Ilene Wentworth Merkel
Intuition activating the will of the true “I”, “is attained by making the power of love a cognitive force” – to be able to go out of ourselves, selflessly, with warmth of soul, & live into another human being…
Jeffery Centoff
I hope that little nugget of a synopsis wets your appetite to read this series for yourself. It is truly food for the soul.
Frederic Leighton
On the 2nd day of the retreat, (11 June 2021) we took a break in the afternoon. I went to do my midday Circle meditation & fell asleep. Tomorrow I will share what Steiner had to say in the above lectures about the sleeping human being, but for now here is the dream I had during my afternoon nod:
I am in a kind-of Jules Vern landscape – caves under the sea. I am part of a community that lives there. We are all dressed like the time of the French Revolution: with big powered-wigs & fancy clothes; everyone is wearing overstated makeup. A woman – one of the leaders has a presentment that an important ‘book’ was to appear. We travel into another chamber of the cave which is vast & airy, & there is a large group pf people that have Ethiopian / Egyptian features, very tall and thin with coal black skin. Their faces are all painted in bright yellow chalk, which gives them a striking countenance. They are bare chested, with leather skirts & black bands around their left arms. The woman wear large top hats & their breasts are painted bright yellow like their faces. They are all smoking pipes that emit pure clean oxygen which enlivens the chamber. They stare out as if in a deep meditative state. The air vibrates & moves like music. I stand there certain that they have ‘the book’. I am filled with a deep feeling of gratitude & anticipation.
It’s been a long weekend & I am still digesting. I feel like I have taken a turn somehow…
As my friend Mary Louise always says: Onward!
~hag
Angela Foster
Summer Practice & Research Group – 6 Essential Exercises & Eightfold Path
Beginning Saturday June 12 and ending July 24.
9:00 – 9:15 am PT / 10 am MT / 11 am CT / noon ET / 5 pm UTC / 6 pm CET
Daily 15-minute Zoom for 42 days (6 weeks)
You are invited to join with a group of friends as we explore Rudolf Steiner’s 6 Essential Exercises alongside the Eightfold / Daily Exercise Path.
This is a practice group AND a research group. We are experimenting with weaving our attention with weekly rhythm of the 6BE and the daily rhythm of Eightfold Path/ Daily Exercises. You are encouraged to bring a journal to make notes and keep track of your progress.
‘Preparing the Way’ an experiential St. John’s-Tide Festival
23 June 2021, Doors open at 5:30 pm with a Potluck -Program from 7-8:30 pm
In-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4248 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, 60618
The program is evolving – There is a possibility that world-renowned eurythmist Jan Ranck from the Jerusalem Academy of Eurythmy will lead us in group eurythmy (TBA)
Other activities may include:
Art – Mary Spalding
Spacial Dynamics – Deborah Rogers
Singing – Elizabeth Kelly
Group discussion – Hazel Archer
If Jan Ranck is leading – $20 pre-pay onlineor $30 at the door (no one turned away for lack of funds)
For more info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer
Sea Cooke
St. John the Baptist and Uriel the Archangel of Summer –
An Experiential Festival with Geoff Norris, Elizabeth Carlson, Lisa Dalton, Hazel Archer
Sunday 27 June 2021 on Zoom: Noon – 1:30 pm PT / 1 – 2:30 pm MT / 2 pm – 3:30 pm CT / 3 – 4:30 pm ET / 8 – 9:30 pm London Time / 9 – 10:30 pm CET
Metanoia – Can you hear the voice of conscience? – Make straight the path, for at the fullness of Summer, the light is so bright that it leaves no room for the shadow, a time to remember what St. John said “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Musicial Performance by Lucien Dante Lazar
Speech – Geoffrey Norris
Eurythmy- Elizabeth Carlson
Living into St. John’s-Tide – Lisa Dalton
Leading Thoughts – Hazel Archer
Hazel Archer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: St. John’s Time: Jun 27, 2021 02:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
10 June 2021 – The catalpa trees are sending their flowering fragrance into the morning air, as the dragon takes a bite out of the Sun. The birds pause, & listen, in the dusky light, to a human song, full of dissonance & longing, a deep mourning- rumbling moan, a forgotten resonance, a cry for help…
‘This little light of mine…’ spirals out from the warmth of my heart begotten from the pain of empathy – in the retort of my vibrating throat I transform it into healing rays of recognition, entraining my tender teeth, pitching love & light out of the top of my head. The hierarchies join me in the Halleluiah as a new sun dawns.
FYI: Dear friends, as a neophyte memeber of the General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America I will be attending my 1st council retreat, so for the next 4 days I will be away from my usual duties…
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul, Anthrowiki, Wikipedia Commons, Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia)
40 AD – Birthday of Apollonius of Tyana, a Greek Neopythagorean philosopher, around the time of Jesus.
671 – Emperor Tenji of Japan introduces a water clock (clepsydra) called Rokoku.
1190 –Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the river Saleph while leading an army to Jerusalem
1786 – A landslide dam on the Dadu River created by an earthquake ten days earlier collapses, killing 100,000 in the Sichuan province of China
1886 – Mount Tarawera in New Zealand erupts, killing 1,530 people & burying the famous Pink & White Terraces. Eruptions continue for 3 months creating a large, fissure across the mountain peak
1898 – Spanish–American War: U.S. Marines land on the island of Cuba
1915 – Birthday of Saul Bellow, Canadian-American author & playwright, Nobel Prize laureate
1963 – Equal Pay Act of 1963 aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex (see Gender pay gap) was signed into law by John F. Kennedy as part of his New Frontier Program
1964 – United States Senate breaks a 83-day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, leading to the bill’s passage.
1977 – The Apple II, one of the first personal computers, goes on sale
2002 – The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans is carried out by Kevin Warwick in the United Kingdom
Andrea Realpe
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~The moist wind is my skin I cannot divide heaven from you, you from me, me from myself… We are 2 eyes aligned in a single vision… ~hag
Angela Foster
Summer Practice & Research Group – 6 Essential Exercises & Eightfold Path
Beginning Saturday June 12 and ending July 24.
9:00 – 9:15 am PT / 10 am MT / 11 am CT / noon ET / 5 pm UTC / 6 pm CET
Daily 15-minute Zoom for 42 days (6 weeks)
You are invited to join with a group of friends as we explore Rudolf Steiner’s 6 Essential Exercises alongside the Eightfold / Daily Exercise Path.
This is a practice group AND a research group. We are experimenting with weaving our attention with weekly rhythm of the 6BE and the daily rhythm of Eightfold Path/ Daily Exercises. You are encouraged to bring a journal to make notes and keep track of your progress.
‘Preparing the Way’ an experiential St. John’s-Tide Festival
23 June 2021, Doors open at 5:30 pm with a Potluck -Program from 7-8:30 pm
In-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4248 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, 60618
The program is evolving – There is a possibility that world-renowned eurythmist Jan Ranck from the Jerusalem Academy of Eurythmy will lead us in group eurythmy (TBA)
Other activities may include:
Art – Mary Spalding
Spacial Dynamics – Deborah Rogers
Singing – Elizabeth Kelly
Group discussion – Hazel Archer
If Jan Ranck is leading – $20 pre-pay onlineor $30 at the door (no one turned away for lack of funds)
For more info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer
Sea Cooke
St. John the Baptist and Uriel the Archangel of Summer –
An Experiential Festival with Geoff Norris, Elizabeth Carlson, Lisa Dalton, Hazel Archer
Sunday 27 June 2021 on Zoom: Noon – 1:30 pm PT / 1 – 2:30 pm MT / 2 pm – 3:30 pm CT / 3 – 4:30 pm ET / 8 – 9:30 pm London Time / 9 – 10:30 pm CET
Metanoia – Can you hear the voice of conscience? – Make straight the path, for at the fullness of Summer, the light is so bright that it leaves no room for the shadow, a time to remember what St. John said “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Musicial Performance by Lucien Dante Lazar
Speech – Geoffrey Norris
Eurythmy- Elizabeth Carlson
Living into St. John’s-Tide – Lisa Dalton
Leading Thoughts – Hazel Archer
Hazel Archer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: St. John’s Time: Jun 27, 2021 02:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
The dance goes on. Two weeks after May’s total lunar eclipse, the Sun, Moon and Earth align again on Thursday, June 10th. This time, the Moon glides between the Earth and the Sun to grace the morning sky with an annular eclipse. The eclipse is central but not total because the Moon is near apogee, its most distant point from Earth. Its apparent diameter will be shy of completely covering the Sun, leaving a “ring of fire”.
Try to watch the eclipse from the Great Inland Sea of Chicago where the blazing crescent and its glitter path should be nothing short of spectacular. Many of us will be tempted to look at the rising Sun at the horizon where haze often attenuates its light. Be careful. A momentary glance might be OK, but never stare at the Sun even for a second. Infrared light can cook your retinas and permanently damage your vision. Keep eclipse glasses at the ready.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul, Anthrowiki, Wikipedia Commons)
53 – The Roman emperor Nero marries Claudia Octavia.
68 – The Roman emperor Nero commits suicide, after quoting Homer’s Iliad. In 64 AD, most of Rome was destroyed in the Great Fire of Rome, which many Romans believed Nero himself had started in order to clear land for his planned palatial complex, the Domus Aurea. Nero’s rule is associated with tyranny & extravagance. He is known for many executions, including that of his mother. Nero was rumored to have had captured Christians dipped in oil & set on fire in his garden at night as a source of light. This view is based on the writings of Tacitus, Suetonius & Cassius Dio, the main surviving sources for Nero’s reign. Facing a false report of being denounced as a public enemy who was to be executed, he committed suicide, the first Roman emperor to do so.
“Think of all that history recounts of Nero. In face of such a personality it seems as if life could be mocked and scorned with impunity, as if the utterly flippant disregard for life displayed by one in a position of great power and authority, brought no consequences. Anyone hearing of Nero’s deeds must be dull-witted if he is not driven to ask: What becomes of a soul such as this, who scorns the whole world, who regards the life of other men, nay even the existence of a whole city, as something he can play with? “What an artist is lost in me!” is a saying attributed to Nero, and it seems to be in line with his whole attitude and tenor of mind. Utmost flippancy, an intense desire and urge for destruction, acknowledged even by himself — and the soul actually taking pleasure in it all!
One can only be repelled by the story, for here is a personality who literally radiates destruction. And the question forces itself upon us: What becomes of such a soul?
Now we must be quite clear on this point: Whatever is discharged, as it were, upon the world, is reflected in the life between death and a new birth, and discharged in turn upon the soul who has been responsible for the destruction. A few centuries later, that is to say, a comparatively short time afterwards, Nero appeared again in the world in an unimportant form of existence. During this incarnation a certain balance was brought about in respect of the mania for destruction, the enthusiasm for destruction in which he had indulged as a ruler, simply out of an inner urge. In that next life on earth something of this was balanced out, for the same individuality was now in a position where he was obliged to destroy; he was in a subordinate position, acting under orders. The soul had now to realise what it is like when such acts are not committed out of free will while in a position of supreme power.
Matters of this kind must be studied quite objectively and all emotion avoided — that is absolutely essential. In a certain respect, such a destiny calls for pity — for to be as cruel as Nero, to have a mania for destruction as great as his, is, after all, a destiny. There is no need for hatred or censure; moreover such an attitude would prevent one from experiencing all that is required in order to understand the further developments. Insight into the things that have been spoken of here is possible only when they are looked at objectively, when no hostile judgment is passed but when human destiny is really understood. Things disclose themselves quite clearly, provided one has the faculty for understanding them … That this Nero-destiny came vividly before me on one occasion was attributable to what seemed to be chance — but it was only seemingly chance.
One day, when a terrible event had occurred, an event of which I shall speak in a moment and which had a shattering effect throughout the region concerned, I happened to be visiting a person frequently mentioned in my autobiography: Karl Julius Schröer. When I arrived I found him profoundly shocked, as numbers were, by what had happened. And the word “Nero” fell from his lips — apparently without reason — as though it burst from dark depths of the spirit. To all appearances the word came entirely out of the blue. But later on it became quite clear that in reality the Akashic Record was here being voiced through human lips. The event referred to was the following. —
The Austrian Crown Prince had always been acclaimed as a brilliant personality, and great hopes were entertained for the time when he would ascend the Throne. Although all kinds of things were known about the behaviour of the Crown Prince Rudolf, they were accepted as almost inevitable in the case of one of such high rank; nobody dreamt for a moment that the things told about him might lead to any serious, tragic conflicts. It was therefore an overwhelming shock when it became known in Vienna that the Crown Prince Rudolf had met his death in mysterious circumstances near the Convent of the Holy Cross, outside Baden, near Vienna. Details gradually came to light and at first there was talk of a “fatal accident” — indeed this was officially announced. Then, after the official announcement, it became known that the Crown Prince had gone to his hunting lodge accompanied by the Baroness Vetsera and that there they had both met their death…” ~Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships, Volume II: Lecture V https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA236/English/RSP1974/19240427p01.html
373 – Feast Day of Ephrem the Syrian, Turkish hymnographer & theologian
1311 – Duccio’s Maestà Altarpiece, a seminal artwork of the early Italian Renaissance, is unveiled & installed in Siena Cathedral in Siena, Italy
1870 Deathday of Charles Dickens
1915 – William Jennings Bryan resigns as Woodrow Wilson’s Secretary of State over a disagreement regarding the United States’ handling of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania
1934 – Donald Duck made his debut in the Silly Symphonies cartoon “The Wise Little Hen.”
1940 – Norway surrendered to the Nazis during World War II
1941 – The Christian Community is banned in Germany
1954 – McCarthyism: Joseph Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during hearings on whether Communism has infiltrated the Army giving McCarthy the famous rebuke, “You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
NPR
1967 – Six-Day War: Israel captures the Golan Heights from Syria.
Jeremy Aiyadurai
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~i carry into the clouds the life of earth, the breath of my body a pulse of prose gained from pain the twists of fate given into with pleasure an opening to moisture an opportunity seized & released… ~hag
Angela Foster
Summer Practice & Research Group – 6 Essential Exercises & Eightfold Path
Beginning Saturday June 12 and ending July 24.
9:00 – 9:15 am PT / 10 am MT / 11 am CT / noon ET / 5 pm UTC / 6 pm CET
Daily 15-minute Zoom for 42 days (6 weeks)
You are invited to join with a group of friends as we explore Rudolf Steiner’s 6 Essential Exercises alongside the Eightfold / Daily Exercise Path.
This is a practice group AND a research group. We are experimenting with weaving our attention with weekly rhythm of the 6BE and the daily rhythm of Eightfold Path/ Daily Exercises. You are encouraged to bring a journal to make notes and keep track of your progress.
‘Preparing the Way’ an experiential St. John’s-Tide Festival
23 June 2021, Doors open at 5:30 pm with a Potluck -Program from 7-8:30 pm
In-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4248 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, 60618
The program is evolving – There is a possibility that world-renowned eurythmist Jan Ranck from the Jerusalem Academy of Eurythmy will lead us in group eurythmy (TBA)
Other activities may include:
Art – Mary Spalding
Spacial Dynamics – Deborah Rogers
Singing – Elizabeth Kelly
Group discussion – Hazel Archer
If Jan Ranck is leading – $20 pre-pay onlineor $30 at the door (no one turned away for lack of funds)
For more info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer
Sea Cooke
St. John the Baptist and Uriel the Archangel of Summer –
An Experiential Festival with Geoff Norris, Elizabeth Carlson, Lisa Dalton, Hazel Archer
Sunday 27 June 2021 on Zoom: Noon – 1:30 pm PT / 1 – 2:30 pm MT / 2 pm – 3:30 pm CT / 3 – 4:30 pm ET / 8 – 9:30 pm London Time / 9 – 10:30 pm CET
Metanoia – Can you hear the voice of conscience? – Make straight the path, for at the fullness of Summer, the light is so bright that it leaves no room for the shadow, a time to remember what St. John said “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Musicial Performance by Lucien Dante Lazar
Speech – Geoffrey Norris
Eurythmy- Elizabeth Carlson
Living into St. John’s-Tide – Lisa Dalton
Leading Thoughts – Hazel Archer
Hazel Archer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: St. John’s Time: Jun 27, 2021 02:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Yes, it’s Wedding season. I had a call with a nervous bride yesterday. I am officiating her Wedding this weekend. It was originally meant to be last year but was postponed because of the world crisis, & tensions are still running high around how to create a sacred space where all feel comfortable gathering.
Besides a funeral, celebrating a marriage is the ultimate social event, a ritual merger, as well as a personal milestone. I think we are all ripe for union. It doesn’t have to be a traditional union between 2 lovers, there are many ways to satisfy this universal fiat. Perhaps committing to walk down the aisle with your most loyal muse – or pledging your mutual support & undying agape with a soul friend. It certainly is high time to say “I do” to your community – to espouse yourself to a pet project – or get hitched to a star.
What symbol, moral principle, or ideal might you link yourself to? You may even want to tie the knot with your preferred power tool, beloved animal companion, or sacred happy place – Come on – Pop the Question, jump over the broom,or stand under the Chuppah of your imagination, to tie the knot with your higher Self.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s orginal Calendar of the Soul, Anthrowiki, Wikipedia Commons)
rmg.com
8 June 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: See if you can find Draco, the dragon, with its body and tail coiling around Ursa Minor and its head facing towards Lyra and Cygnus. The two bright stars of Rastaban and Eltanin are the dragon’s eyes and are very close to the bright star Vega.
Rastaban is a yellow-white coloured bright giant or supergiant star, almost 1,000 times as luminous as our Sun! Eltanin appears similarly very bright, but much more orange in colour.
632 – Deathday of the prophet Muhammad in Medina.
793 – 1st Viking raid in England, sack of the abbey at Lindisfarne in Northumbria – the beginning of Norse activity in the British Isles.
1191 – Richard the Lionheart (also known in Occitan as Oc e No (Yes and No), arrives in Palestine beginning his crusade
1768 – Death day of Johann Joachim Winckelmann a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the difference between Greek, Greco-Roman & Roman art. “The prophet and founding hero of modern archaeology”, Winckelmann was the father of the discipline of art history. His writings influenced: Lessing, Herder, Goethe, Hölderlin, Heine, Nietzsche, George, & Spengler. Winckelmann was homosexual, & open homoeroticism informed his writings on aesthetics. This was recognized by his contemporaries, such as Goethe
1783 – Laki, a volcano in Iceland, begins an eight-month eruption which kills over 9,000 people & starts a seven-year famine
“…Now there are occasions when the very substance of the passions of the Fire-Earth begins to rebel. Aroused by men’s passions, it penetrates through the Fruit-Earth, forces its way through the channels in the upper layers and even flows up into and violently shakes the solid Earth: the result is an earthquake. If this passion from the Fire-Earth thrusts up some of the Earth’s substance, a volcano erupts. All this is closely connected with man. In Lemurian times, the upper layer was still very soft and the Fire-layer was near the surface. Human passions and the “passion-substance” of this layer are related; when men give rein to evil passions they strengthen its passions, and that is what happened at the end of Lemurian times. Through their passions the Lemurians made the Fire-Earth rebellious, and in this way they brought the whole Lemurian continent to destruction. No other cause for this destruction could be found except in what they had themselves drawn forth from the Earth. Today the layers are thicker and firmer, but there is still this connection between human passions and the passion-layer in the interior of the Earth; and it is still an accumulation of evil passions and forces that gives rise to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
How man’s destiny and will are related to happenings in the Earth can be seen from two examples which have been occultly investigated. It has been found that persons who have been killed in an earthquake appear in their next incarnation as men of high spiritual quality and faith. They had progressed far enough to be convinced by that final stroke of the transitoriness of earthly things. The effect of this in Devachan was that they learnt a lesson for their next lives: that matter is perishable but spirit prevails. They did not all come to realise that, but many of them are now living as people who belong to some spiritual-theosophical movement.
In the other example, the births which occurred during a time of frequent earthquakes were investigated. It was found that all those born at about the time of an earthquake, though not exactly in its area, were, surprisingly enough, men of a very materialistic cast of mind. The earthquakes were not the cause of this; rather it was these strongly materialistic souls, ripe for birth, who worked their way down into the physical world by means of their astral will and let loose the forces of the Fire-Earth layer, which proceeded to shake the Earth at the time of their birth.
Man transforms his dwelling-place and himself at the same time, and when he spiritualises himself, he spiritualises the Earth also. One day, at a later planetary stage, he will have ennobled the Earth by his own creative power. Every moment when we think and feel, we are working on the great structure of the Earth. The Leaders of mankind have insight into such relationships and seek to impart to men the forces which will work in the true direction of evolution”. http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA095/English/RSPAP1986/19060904p01.html
“The following is an example of the relationship that exists between the human will and telluric cataclysms: in human beings who perish as a result of earthquakes or volcanic eruptions one notices, during their next incarnation, inner qualities which are quite different. They bring from birth great spiritual pre-dispositions because, through their death, they were brought in touch with forces which showed them the true nature of reality and the illusion of material life.
One has also noticed a relationship between certain births and seismic and volcanic catastrophes.
During such catastrophes materialistic souls incarnate, drawn sympathetically by volcanic phenomena — by the convulsions of the evil soul of the earth. And these births can in their turn bring about new cataclysms because reciprocally the evil souls exert an exciting influence on the terrestrial fire. The evolution of our planet is intimately connected with the evolution of the forces of humanity and civilizations.
Behind the objective laws of Nature there are in reality always spiritual laws; and a clairvoyant cannot, for instance, cross a dry piece of meadow land, or a flooded region, or perceive a volcanic eruption, without realising that spiritual powers, spiritual beings, are behind all phenomena in Nature. A volcanic eruption is for him also a moral deed, although the moral element may perhaps lie on an entirely different plane than we may, at first, imagine. Those who always confuse the physical and the higher worlds will say: — “If innocent people perish through a volcanic eruption, how can we suppose this to be a moral deed.” But at first, we need not consider this opinion; for it would be just as cruelly narrow-minded as the opposite one — namely, to consider this eruption as a punishment inflicted by God upon the people who live near the volcano. Both opinions are only the result of the narrow-minded mentality here on the physical plane. But this is not the point in question; far more universal things must be taken into consideration. Those people who live on the slopes of a volcano and whose possessions are destroyed through an eruption, are perhaps without any guilt in this life. But this will find its balance later on, and does not imply a merciless attitude on our part (to consider it as such would again be a narrow-minded interpretation of the facts). In the case of volcanic eruptions, for instance, we find that in the course of the evolution of the earth human beings cause to certain things; and because these things occur, the entire evolution of humanity is held up. For this very reason, good Gods must work in a certain way in order to establish the balance — and such phenomena in Nature sometimes bring about such a balance. Very often, this connection can be seen only by penetrating into occult depths. Thus, adjustments occur in the case of things brought about by human beings — things which are in opposition to the spiritual course of mankind’s true development. All events, even if they are mere phenomena of Nature, have something moral in their depths, and the bearers of this moral element; which lie behind the physical facts, are spiritual beings. Thus, if we imagine a world where it is impossible to speak of a division between the laws of Nature and spiritual laws — in other words, a world where justice rules as a law of Nature — then this world would be Devachan. And in Devachan we need not think that actions which deserve punishment are punished arbitrarily; for there, the immoral element destroys itself and the moral one progresses, with the same necessity with which a flame sets fire to combustible material”. http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/19120225p01.html
1794 – Robespierre inaugurates the French Revolution’s new state religion, the Cult of the Supreme Being, with large organized festivals all across France
1876 – Deathday of Georges Sand born Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin, recognised as one of the most notable writers of the European Romantic era
1867 – Birthday of Frank Lloyd Wright
1921 – Opening of the Ita Wegman Clinic in Arlesheim
1949 – The celebrities Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named in an FBI report as Communist Party members.
1949 – George Orwell’s book 1984 is published
Eurythmists Alicia and Robert Santacroce
1965 – Deathday of Eurythmist of Nora Stein-von Baditz, wife of Walter Johannes Stein, an Austrian philosopher, Waldorf school teacher, Grail researcher, & one of the pioneers of anthroposophy.
1967 – Israeli airplanes attacked the USS Liberty in the Mediterranean during the 6-Day War between Israel & its Arab neighbors. 34 U.S. Navy crewmen were killed. Israel later called the incident a tragic mistake due to the mis-identification of the ship. The U.S. has never publicly investigated the incident
2001 – Marc Chagall’s painting “Study for ‘Over Vitebsk” was stolen from the Jewish Museum in New York City. The 8×10 painting was valued at about $1 million. A group called the International Committee for Art & Peace later announced that they would return the painting after the Israelis & Palestinians made peace.
William Wolff
‘Preparing the Way’ an experiential St. John’s-Tide Festival
23 June 2021, Doors open at 5:30 pm with a Potluck -Program from 7-8:30 pm
In-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4248 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, 60618
The program is evolving – There is a possibility that world-renowned eurythmist Jan Ranck from the Jerusalem Academy of Eurythmy will lead us in group eurythmy (TBA)
Other activities may include:
Art – Mary Spalding
Spacial Dynamics – Deborah Rogers
Singing – Elizabeth Kelly
Group discussion – Hazel Archer
$20 pre-pay onlineor $30 at the door (no one turned away for lack of funds)
For more info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer
Sea Cooke
St. John the Baptist and Uriel the Archangel of Summer –
An Experiential Festival with Geoff Norris, Elizabeth Carlson, Lisa Dalton, Hazel Archer
Sunday 27 June 2021 on Zoom: Noon – 1:30 pm PT / 1 – 2:30 pm MT / 2 pm – 3:30 pm CT / 3 – 4:30 pm ET / 8 – 9:30 pm London Time / 9 – 10:30 pm CET
Metanoia – Can you hear the voice of conscience? – Make straight the path, for at the fullness of Summer, the light is so bright that it leaves no room for the shadow, a time to remember what St. John said “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Musicial Performance by Lucien Dante Lazar
Speech – Geoffrey Norris
Eurythmy- Elizabeth Carlson
Living into St. John’s-Tide – Lisa Dalton
Leading Thoughts – Hazel Archer
Hazel Archer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: St. John’s Time: Jun 27, 2021 02:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
As we ramp up toward the solar eclipse, let’s tune into the power of our Day-Star Sun – to lubricate our imagination – Ever listening to that little birdy, or the iridescent insect that has lighted on the fragrant flower of the neighbors catalpa tree. Are you weaving in the wave with the cicadas yet? The Elemental world invites you to be inspired into. The fixed & wandering stars radiate rampant probabilities into the intuition of our willing will. Will we – think the liquid lightning of invocation – Meet the many ambrosial realities available to our warmth of feeling, to receive the luscious healing balms flowing forth from the beginning of time – as we reclaim the NOW…!?!
Andrea Moni
Let’s dare to become intimate with the primal pool of possibilities – Ready, set, go – Engage – Draw up Michael’s majestic mojo to transcend our personal habits thru our communal intention to serve.
Jeszika Le Vye
In the sliver of the Crescent Moon, as she wanes into New, & waits to comes in between the Earth & the Sun, blocking the light – casting shadows on the Earth from the Underworld – it’s an excellent time to communicate with our own alien shadows – those unknown inner-species that unconsciously drive us to the fallen angels. Let’s take this time to search for our misplaced teddy bears, & throw gluten free bread crumbs to the odd ducks in our life – our faithful karmic goads & co-creators – & maybe even call up some empathy for a well-meaning zombie or 2 – & those that don’t share your worldview…
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s orginal Calendar of the Soul, Anthrowiki, Wikipedia Commons)
Rudolf Steiner
7 June 1924 – Beginning of the “Agricultural Course” on the Koberwitz estate of Count & Countess Keyserlingk – Founding of bio-dynamic agriculture by Rudolf Steiner.
By the time Rudolf Steiner was cajoled into presenting the Agriculture Course, he was well experienced in planting an ‘impulse’- the seeds of an idea, & witnessing the ensuing manifestation. Steiner’s Agriculture Course comprised just 8 lectures presented over a 10 day period in the Whitsun-tide of 1924, 7 to 16 June, at the small village of Koberwitz, Silesia (now Kobierzyce, Poland).
Count Carl Keyserlingk was an anthroposophist, & the estate manager of 18,500 acres at Koberwitz. He managed 18 farms, with more than 1000 workers. So Keyserlingk was keen for Steiner to present a course for farmers. There was some disquiet among the farmers because of the rapid change in agricultural practices in the wake of the supply of cheap synthetic nitrogenous fertilizer flowing from the adoption of the Haber-Bosch process for the ‘fixing’ of gaseous nitrogen which was first demonstrated in 1909 & which was then rapidly industrialized on a grand scale for explosives, & after WWI, for fertilizer.
Ehrenfried Pfeiffer’s account relates that: “Count Keyserlingk set to work in dead earnest to persuade Dr. Steiner to give an agricultural course. As Dr. Steiner was already overwhelmed with work, tours & lectures, he put off his decision from week to week. The undaunted Count then dispatched his nephew to Dornach, with orders to camp on Dr. Seiner’s doorstep & refuse to leave without a definite commitment for the course. This was finally given.”
Keyserlingk was the driving force behind the agriculture course. He was described by Elisabeth Vreede, who was at the course, as “one to whom farming itself was a priestly office” According to the Astrosopher: “Count Keyserlingk had realised the dire need for a complete revival of cultural methods”.
Steiner described his Agriculture Course as: “A course of lectures containing what there is to be said about agriculture from an anthroposophical point of view.” Steiner stated that “the contents of these lectures were to serve, in the first place, as working material for the Association of farmers which had just been founded in the Anthroposophical Society”. Steiner stressed the importance of practical demonstrations: “As to the farmers – well, if they hear of these things from a fellow-farmer, they will say, “What a pity he has suddenly gone crazy!” … But eventually when he sees a really good result, he will not feel a very easy conscience in rejecting it outright”. He empowered the Agricultural Experimental Circle (AEC): “enhance it and develop it by actual experiments and tests. The farmers’ society – the “Experimental Circle” that has been formed – will fix the point of time when in its judgment the tests and experiments are far enough advanced to allow these things to be published”. He stressed the importance of confidentiality: “No kind of communication was to be made about the contents of the Course until such time as the members of the Association felt impelled to speak out of the results of their own experimental work”. It was critical that a project development plan was set in place at Koberwitz for two reasons, firstly, because the Agriculture Course was never repeated &, secondly, although up to this point Steiner had engaged in a comprehensive schedule of travelling & lecturing, he was seriously unwell, & his public life & life itself were drawing to a close. The continuing vitality of Steiner’s agricultural ‘impulse’ was dependent on Steiner successfully passing the baton to others. The AEC began with 60 members of the Koberwitz Course (out of the course’s total enrollment of 111), with Ernst Stegemann & Carl Keyserlingk appointed by Steiner as chairmen.
By 1929, the Natural Science Section of the Goetheanum reported the positive news that the work of translating Steiner’s ‘hints’ was by then a global enterprise: “Dr. Steiner’s new methods for Agriculture have been investigated and applied on a practical and on an experimental basis.
Steiner was prophetic in much of what he taught. He presented the farm as “a living organism”. He spoke against a purely chemical view & a chemical reductionist view, & he insisted on the criticality of provenance. Long before the costs of nitrogen pollution were monetized, Steiner, with great vision, put it in a nutshell: “There is a big difference between nitrogen and nitrogen. He spoke of “the degradation of the products of agriculture” & observed that: “Nowadays people simply think that a certain amount of nitrogen is needed for plant growth, and they imagine it makes no difference how it’s prepared or where it comes from. Where it comes from, however, is not a matter of indifference.” Steiner urged the adoption of a holistic view, & he stated that “we’ve lost the knowledge of what it takes to continue to care for the natural world.” He urged his listeners to take “the macrocosmic approach”& to “see individual plants as parts of a single whole.” He was critical of the approach where living things are “neatly pigeonholed into separate species & genera”, adding: “But that is not how things are in nature. In nature, and actually throughout the universe, everything is in mutual interaction with everything else.”
“The most important thing is to make the benefits of our agricultural preparations available to the largest possible areas over the entire earth, so that the earth may be healed and the nutritive quality of its produce improved in every respect. That should be our first objective.” ~Rudolf Steiner
William Wolff
‘Preparing the Way’ an experiential St. John’s-Tide Festival
23 June 2021, Doors open at 5:30 pm with a Potluck -Program from 7-8:30 pm
In-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4248 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, 60618
The program is evolving – There is a possibility that world-renowned eurythmist Jan Ranck from the Jerusalem Academy of Eurythmy will lead us in group eurythmy (TBA)
Other activities may include:
Art – Mary Spalding
Spacial Dynamics – Deborah Rogers
Singing – Elizabeth Kelly
Group discussion – Hazel Archer
Further contributions welcome.
Other activities may include:
Art – Mary Spalding
Spacial Dynamics – Deborah Rogers
Singing – Elizabeth Kelly
Group discussion – Hazel Archer
$20 pre-pay onlineor $30 at the door (no one turned away for lack of funds)
For more info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer
Sea Cooke
St. John the Baptist and Uriel the Archangel of Summer –
An Experiential Festival with Geoff Norris, Elizabeth Carlson, Lisa Dalton, Hazel Archer
Sunday 27 June 2021 on Zoom: Noon – 1:30 pm PT / 1 – 2:30 pm MT / 2 pm – 3:30 pm CT / 3 – 4:30 pm ET / 8 – 9:30 pm London Time / 9 – 10:30 pm CET
Metanoia – Can you hear the voice of conscience? – Make straight the path, for at the fullness of Summer, the light is so bright that it leaves no room for the shadow, a time to remember what St. John said “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Musicial Performance by Lucien Dante Lazar
Speech – Geoffrey Norris
Eurythmy- Elizabeth Carlson
Living into St. John’s-Tide – Lisa Dalton
Leading Thoughts – Hazel Archer
Hazel Archer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: St. John’s Time: Jun 27, 2021 02:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Angela Foster
Angela Foster
