Today’s ‘I Think Speech’ podcast

Greetings friends – Today I am thinking about The Notre-Dame de Paris fire, which broke out on 15 April 2019. It is significant to remember we had 2 Easter’s in 2019 – our Easter Paradox – & that this burning happened during the Ecclesiastical Holy Week – between Holy Moon-day, with its cursing of the fig tree, symbol of the old clairvoyance, & the cleansing of the Temple, & Holy Mars-day, Christ’s conflict with the High Priests , & his telling of the ‘Little Apocalypse’ to his disciples (Luke 21)

When I saw these pictures of the Gargoyles of Notre Dame, my 1^st thought was that now, upon the burning of the Cathedral, these gruesome protector beings are inscribed on the ethers.

Of course we must remember that this Cathedral is dedicated to Mary, Mother of God, as Our Lady of Paris, as well. Which I wrote about 2 years ago as an imagination of the awakening of the Divine Feminine in the world!

We also have to re-call that at the same time the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem also had a fire, & so I wondered what was being inscribed there?

My friends, it seems to me that these burnings, are the antithesis of what occurred with the burning of the Temple of Ephesus – sacred to the Goddess Artemis…Which also calls to mind the image seen in the burning of the Goetheanum, the Johannasbau inspired by the Templars thru Goethe. These burnings inscribed into the ethers the potent powers of the ancient & the new mysteries, enriching the starry script, furthering & potentizing our true human evolution.

Could it be that this Holy Week burning , on the 1 hand, of an important seat of the Catholic Church, during the time when a Jesuit Pope sits on the Vatican throne, & on the other hand,  the 3^rd holiest site in Islam – central to the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict, is a signal of the materialistic etherization of the spirit? – A fall of something spiritual – leading to the rise of the spirits of darkness, which has come to bear in 2020…?!?

May we be awake to the signs of the times; ever striving to participate in the appearance of the Christ in the etheric realm.

Blessings dear ones & peace ~hag

17 April 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Mars occultation of Bella Luna, look for it at sunset!!!

Thoughts today from Martee Seuss: Mars is positioned between the horns of Taurus close to the Crab Nebula. A picture of Mars replacing the Sun disc in the crown of Isis arises for me when contemplating Buddha, his work, and the huge sacrifice he made for humanity by going to Mars.

Elisabeth Vreede writes a lot about Nebulae in her Year 3 Letters, there is much to contemplate, but what stood out for me, because of the recent Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on Winter Solstice 2020 , and also because I am currently taking the “Agriculture Course” with Harald Hoven, is “So genius works out of chaos as a new spark that springs from the marriage of chaos and cosmos. And so arises all that is new in the world, even new worlds themselves. For the creation of these new worlds science can give only natural causes. But with some justification it relates these to cosmic Nebulae formations. Indeed science even calls some of these “gas nebulae”. – Elisabeth Vreede ( Vreede speaks of the word gas arising from the word chaos earlier).

On October 9, 1604, one year after the Jupiter/Saturn Conjunction of 1603, Elisabeth Vreede says “another new star was discovered, this time in the Serpent Bearer (Ophiuchus- I imagine as Eagle -the higher form of Scorpio -Spirit-Self) between Scorpio and Sagittarius. This was the Mars region of the zodiac, where that planet stood, not far from where Jupiter and Saturn were located. “ Vreede goes on to say “ It is the same critical moment in world history – of which Rudolf Steiner has spoken- when at the request of Christian Rosenkreutz, the Buddha left the aura of the Earth to go to Mars.”

Rudolf Steiner said: “It is a remarkable discovery of spiritual investigation to find the most penetrating and significant thoughts conceived in our present age originated with Guatama Buddha… from higher worlds he sends down forces , inspiring all those cultural leaders who are not yet permeated by the Christ Impulse.”-Rudolf Steiner GA 130

“In Buddha’s teaching of compassion and Love, we discover a heightening of goodness of heart into Wisdom …in our soul we may begin to sense how intrinsically the spiritual being of the Buddha has become a part of Anthroposophia and of the whole of her being.”- Rudolf Grosse “The Living Being Anthroposophia” page 27.

Buddha’s journey began close to Ophiuchus andantes this time has arrived between the horns of Taurus. So I can also imagine the mighty words from the Foundation Stone Meditation:
“Let from the East be enkindled – What through the West takes on form”

In “ Isis Mary Sophia- Her Mission and Ours” Rudolf Steiner states “We have seen how we live in an age of abstractions, when human words and concepts have only an abstract meaning, when human beings stand far away from reality. The power of the Word, the power of the Logos must be recaptured. The cow’s horns of the ancient Isis must take on quite a different form”

He goes on to say “ It is very important for the new Isis to transform the cow horns through the power of the Word which is to be regained through spiritual science, so that the paper crown, covered with writing in the new deeply profound scientific vein ,will become a genuine golden crown.”

And about the New Isis Mary Sophia , Christopher Bamford writes in the forward of the book “But her clairvoyance continues to grow and with its help she begins to understand the meaning of the “Word”or “Logos”, taught by St John in the Prologue to his Gospel. And, as she begins to understand the meaning of the Logos, her paper crown turns to gold. Scientific abstraction becomes living reality. Sophia becomes “alive”. “ This brings to mind What Rudolf Steiner wrote in the “Legend of the New Isis”: “Isis Sophia Wisdom of God. Call to new life in Human Souls!”

While the Sun is in the last day of Pisces and Mars is between the horns of Taurus in the realm of Holy Spirit, can we permeate our Wisdom with Goodness of Heart and through the power of the Word bring about the redemption of the Gold while striving towards the Eagle -Spirit Self? If you are willing and able take a peek at Mars tonight right after Sunset.

The waxing Grail Moon is positioned right beneath Mars still in Taurus (Holy Spirit) and where Venus is the ruling planet. In my Imagination I see it as the Grail Cup, rising up to hold the precious “New Wisdom”, emanating from Buddha along with the redeemed Gold.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

“Our ancestors required a different event that was connected to the time when the sun reaches its zenith. When everything in nature was budding and blossoming, they experienced an ecstasy that reaffirmed for them the existence of the spiritual world. What they experienced then at St. John’s Tide we now have to experience in the spring, at Easter. We have to be able to celebrate the awakening of the soul, the resurrection of the soul, when spiritual science speaks to us not merely as a theory, but as living knowledge”. ~Rudolf Steiner, The Presence of the Dead on the Spiritual Path, April 17, 1914

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

485 – Death-Day of Proclus – dubbed ‘The Successor’ – a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher. He studyed mathematics & the works of Aristotle under Olympiodorus the Elder. As a gifted student, he eventually became dissatisfied with the level of philosophical instruction available in Alexandria, & went to Athens, the pre-eminent philosophical center of the day, to study at the Neoplatonic successor of the famous Academy founded 800 years earlier (in 387 BC) by Plato; there he was taught by Plutarch of Athens, Syrianus, & Asclepigenia; he succeeded Syrianus as head of the Academy, & would in turn be succeeded on his death by Marinus of Neapolis.

He lived in Athens as a vegetarian bachelor, prosperous & generous to his friends, until the end of his life. He was not appreciated by the Christian rulers; he spent time traveling & being initiated into various mystery cults. He was also instructed in the “theurgic” Neoplatonism, as derived from the Orphic & Chaldean Oracles.

His house has been discovered recently in Athens, under the pavement of Dionysiou Areopagitou Street, south of Acropolis, opposite the theater of Dionysus. He had a great devotion to the Goddess Athena, whom he believed guided him at key moments in his life. Marinus reports that when Christians removed the statue of the Goddess from the Parthenon, a beautiful woman appeared to Proclus in a dream & announced that the “Athenian Lady” wished to stay at his home. Proclus died aged 73, & was buried near Mount Lycabettus in a tomb. It is reported that he was writing 700 lines each day.

1622 – Birthday of Thomas Vaughn, a Welsh philosopher, famous for his writings in the area of natural magic, with his book Anthroposophia Theomagica, a magico-mystical work.  (Some say Rudolf Steiner got his idea for to name the AS from this treatise)

Although he did not practice medicine, Vaughan sought to apply his chemical skills to preparing medicines in the manner recommended by Paracelsus. Vaughan was also the author of tracts published under the pseudonym Eugenius Philalethes.

Vaughan was unusual amongst alchemists of the time in that he worked closely with his wife Rebecca Vaughan. He was a self-described member of the “Society of Unknown Philosophers”, & was responsible for translating into English in 1652 the Fama Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis, an anonymous Rosicrucian manifesto first published in 1614 in Kassel.

He placed himself in the tradition of the Rosicrucian reformers of education, &of Johannes Trithemius, his teacher Libanius Gallus, and Pelagius of Majorca.

1787 – Goethe’s experience of the archetypal plant in Palermo – “Goethe narrates a conversation that once ensued between Schiller and himself after they had both attended a meeting of the Society for Nature Research in Jena. Schiller was dissatisfied with the results of the meeting. He had found there a most disintegrating method for the study of Nature and he remarked that such a method could never appeal to a layman. Goethe replied that “possibly this method was cumbersome for the initiated also and that there might well exist yet another way of portraying Nature active and living, struggling from the whole into the parts, and not severed and isolated.” And then Goethe evolved the great ideas which had arisen within him concerning the nature of plants. He drew “with many characteristic strokes, a symbolic plant” before Schiller’s eyes. This symbolic plant was intended to give expression to the essential being lying in every single plant, whatever particular form it assumes. It was intended to demonstrate the successive development of the single portions of the plant, their emergence from each other and their mutual relationship. In Palermo, 17th April, 1787, Goethe wrote these words in reference to this symbolic plant form: “There must be such a thing; if not, how could I recognise this or that structure to be a plant if all were not moulded after one pattern?” Goethe had evolved in himself the conception of a plastic, ideal form that was revealed to his spirit when he surveyed the diversity of the plant forms and observed the element common to them all.” Rudolf Steiner Goethe’s Conception of the World: Chapter I: Goethe and Schiller

1790 – Death-Day of Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a renowned polymath & a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, & diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment & the history of physics for his discoveries & theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, & the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia’s fire department & the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution.

Benjamin Franklin, then 21, created the Junto, a group of “like minded aspiring artisans and tradesmen who hoped to improve themselves while they improved their community.” The Junto was a discussion group for issues of the day; it was modeled after English coffeehouses that Franklin knew well, & which became the center of the spread of Enlightenment ideas in Britain.

Franklin became Grand Master of the Freemasons & published the first Masonic book in the Americas, a reprint of James Anderson’s Constitutions of the Free-Masons. Franklin remained a Freemason for the rest of his life

Franklin earned the title of “The First American” for his early & indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author & spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation. Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, & opposition to authoritarianism both political & religious, with the scientific & tolerant values of the Enlightenment

Franklin became a successful newspaper editor & printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette at the age of 23. He became wealthy publishing this & Poor Richard’s Almanack, which he authored under the pseudonym “Richard Saunders”. After 1767, he was associated with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments & criticisms of the British policies.

He pioneered & was 1^st president of The Academy & College of Philadelphia which opened in 1751 & later became the University of Pennsylvania. He organized & was the first secretary of the American Philosophical Society & was elected president in 1769. Franklin became a national hero in America as an agent for several colonies when he spearheaded an effort in London to have the Parliament of Great Britain repeal the unpopular Stamp Act. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris & was a major figure in the development of positive Franco-American relations. His efforts proved vital for the American Revolution in securing shipments of crucial munitions from France.

He was promoted to deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies in 1753, having been Philadelphia postmaster for many years,& this enabled him to set up the first national communications network. During the Revolution, he became the first US Postmaster General. He was active in community affairs & colonial & state politics, as well as national & international affairs. From 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania. He argued against slavery from an economic perspective & became one of the most prominent abolitionists.

His colorful life and legacy of scientific and political achievement, & his status as one of America’s most influential Founding Fathers have seen Franklin honored more than two centuries after his death the $100 bill.

1907 – The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day.

1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed & trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.

1969 – Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.

Living into the spheres of cosmic Life and cosmic Light: Easter, Ascension, Whitsun in the Calendar of the Soul with Luigi Morelli, Hazel Archer & Geoff Norris

13 May 2021 Ascension Thursday 5- 6:30pm PT / 6-7:30 pm MT / 7 pm – 8:30 pm CT / 8-9:30 pm ET / 1 am – 2:30 am GMT / 2 am – 3:30 am CET

Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/7052931041?pwd=TStPVnpFRzlwZ0NpRURBZDNyYnpBQT09 Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: Ascension

Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/a961qZZhF

Verses & Group Speech – Geoff Norris

Ascension: The Secret Teachings, the Elementals, & The Etheric Christ – Hazel Archer

Calendar of the Soul – Luigi Morelli : For those who are familiar with the Calendar of the Soul we could say that during spring and summer we follow the ascent of cosmic life, cosmic light, cosmic warmth and cosmic Word as gifts bestowed upon the human being by the cosmos. By being receptive to them we strengthen our connection to cosmos and Self.

We will briefly explore the dynamics of the year, then look at what qualities of soul we need to develop as we move into spring and summer, most particularly from Easter to Ascension and Whitsun. We will look at the verses of the calendar in conjunction with the artistic renditions of Anne Stockton and Karl König, drawn for each of the verses.

We will ask ourselves: How can we live into and grow from this time of the year? How can we deepen our inner relationship to the event of Ascension? What can we receive and what can we give?

Luigi Morelli – Cultures have been a great part of my upbringing, since I’m American born, part Italian, part Peruvian, mostly grew up in Belgium, and have lived the longest in the US. I have long had a passion for social change from a cultural perspective. Professionally this has brought me to working with the developmentally disabled in the intentional, holistic, communities of Camphill International and L’Arche International, and also in the mainstream. Being a founding member of the Wavecrest L’Arche Community in Los Angeles was a memorable experience. I have lived in intentional cohousing for the last ten years; first in Ecovillage Ithaca, now at Headwaters Cohousing in Cabot, in both places actively involved in community building and process facilitation.

Since 1999 I have found a vocation in researching/writing both about American history and/or about cultural/spiritual change, which you can find at www.millenniumculmination.net. Only of late have I started writing on meditative material I have used for years, publishing an essay on the Foundation Stone Meditation (also onsite) and one upcoming on the Calendar of the Soul. I love outdoors in many forms, gardening, hiking, skiing, love singing and playing flute, and enjoy most kinds of social events.

Geoffrey Norris was born in Durban, South Africa on 07/09/1951. After extensive performing with the Rock Musical “Hair “in Southern Africa, Portugal and Spain in the early 70’s he continued his theatrical training at the London School of Speech Formation and Dramatic Art, graduating in 1978. He is an actor, storyteller and teacher of voice, movement and drama and has given courses and workshops worldwide integrating the approaches of Rudolf Steiner, Michael Chekhov, Viola Spolin (and others, his own included).and has performed extensively throughout Britain, Eire, Continental Europe, Scandinavia, Israel, Southern Africa, The United States, Canada, China, Taiwan, Japan, and New Zealand. He is a master teacher of Steiner Speech Drama and Movement, with over 46 years of experience in the field. www.speechanddramastudio.com

Norris’s “Noble Art of the Word” puts to shame our modern actors, who fear to bring colour to poetic, rhythmic language, making it monochromatic dull prose. May they learn from one of the best examples.
Theatre Critic – Olsztyn

Sangraal: A Pentecost Pilgrimage & Whitsun Festival with the Central Regional Council

After working with Karma & Reincarnation for 3 years the CRC has chossen a new Theme: ‘The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation’

Join us on Whitsunday 23 May 2021, at 11 am PT / 12 noon MT / 1 pm – 2:30 pm CT / 2 pm ET / 8 pm CET

Details coming soon

You are invited to get the Book & Join us for study sessions through out the year as well.