Category Archives: Insight

6BE

Image result for the 6 basic excersices by rudolf steiner

Listen to the Guided Meditation ‘As Above So Below‘ on the ‘I Think Speech‘ podcast

Greetings friends – Today is ‘Attuning Tuesday’ – a little offering that I bring to the group working with the 6BE exercises. We just started concentrating on with ‘Positivity’, so today I am feeling called to offer a little guided meditation that I am Calling ‘As Above So Below’. This is a theme I often work with.

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Margaherita Arkuna

So make yourself comfortable, as we share the air – taking a deep breath – filling your belly – thrilling your lungs. Feel your body let go of any tensions & relax. Consciously set the rhythm with your breath. And as your awareness is internalized, fully connected with the Breath of Life gently moving through you, make all your senses alert to this life force. Enjoy its power & simplicity. Feel the sustaining energy behind every inhalation, release the breath as a gift of gratitude to the plant world. Feel the life force coursing thru your cells inspiring your thoughts. Consciously stay with the rhythm in your breathing, healing & energizing the heart of the core, of the root of your own being; & all beings. This life force power is the vibration of love, becoming stronger & more beautiful, growing more potent thru your attention & intention.

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Call in the power of the molten golden core of Gaia, feel it pulsing up into your solar plexus, attuning you to this omnipresent rhythm that flows in great cycles of elemental energy; radiating thru you. Move it with your thought, expanding this golden force, on to the Earth’s surface, covering the entire globe – connecting you to all life. Feel this healing vibration, revitalizing all life, as you begin to move your attention outward to visualize our planet Earth, spinning thru space. As you allow it to expand your experience, immerse yourself in this potent cosmic current where powerful spiritual allies join you in the dance of life – Universes upon universes forming the Cosmic Body which we all share – the vastness in which our Earth revolves. In that infinite space feel the loving presence of the Divine. Each of us vibrating with the same beat of the Cosmic Heart enfolding us, & countless galactic systems in loving arms; the one pulse of Life in all. Add your love to the love of the Cosmic Beloved. And let it emanate to all places hungry for healing.

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Lily Verento

As the heartbeat of the Earth swells & rises, all forms of life upon the soil & in the waters, in the warmth & in the air, receive & heal. Entire nations, & peoples gather in peace, at the endless fount of compassion & abiding love. See yourself & the planet restored. Riding the upward intensity of this positive purposeful energy, feel it circulating in the atmosphere, filling the clouds & becoming more ethereal, ever more potentized. Circling up & thru our Earth’s atmospheric layers; cradling Earth’s aura – Charging it with the thought & feeling of wholeness.

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Chilria Corina

Place a strong signature of peace in the global mind. Create an energetic grid that will emanate rays of peace & unity, joy & purpose on Earth. Resolve to act on your life-purpose & make it ever more real, ever more whole. And as you breathe in this unfolding truth, gradually bring your experience to our little hive here, striving to live in positivity, in this here & now. Feel your body refreshed & renewed, here & now, in your room, in this sacred cyber space, that we continually consecrate with our positive intentions. Holding what is sacred, bringing everything into the light of love. Know too that you are here to be loved.

Image result for Peace on earth painting
Mary Pat Chappell

And Gently, joyfully, when you are ready, open your awareness to this perfect divine moment, to this opportunity right now to bring clear thinking, right action, equanimity, positivity, open-mindedness, & inner harmony to all you do – Sharing these gifts that you are living into thru your dedicated striving, to infuse the Earth-beat rhythms, adding to the pulse of life – joining us together, shining thru us – Charging the ethers with blessings that radiate out to all beings.

And so it is, Blessed 6Bee
~hag

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Image result for leo constellation question mark painting

9 February 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: After it’s good and dark, look due east for twinkly Regulus, not very high. Extending upper left from it is the Sickle of Leo, a backward question mark, outlining the Lion’s forequarters. “Leo announces spring,” goes an old saying. Actually, Leo showing up after dark announces the cold, clammy, messy back half of winter.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1872 – Birthday of Edith Maryon. She studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London & exhibited her work at the Royal Academy. When she met Rudolf Steiner & Anthroposophy she discovered her raison d’être. Maryon wrote to Steiner that “for some years I have always felt there is something for me to do, and that sometime I shall meet the Master who will tell me what it is and explain some of the things that have puzzled me so much. For a long time I searched…and when I saw you in Berlin I knew at last I was right about the Master…is there really any definite thing for me to do… if there is may I know now what it is?” (1 Jan 1913). Months later, from Munich, Maryon wrote to Steiner: “I must find some definite work to do, or be forced to return to England. There is a feeling that perhaps there may be something for me to do here, so I will not go back unless absolutely obliged. You will see that it is necessary for me to come to a conclusion about the kind of work I will do during the rest of my life, and I do want some advice…Your pupil, L Edith C Maryon” (10 Jun 1913).

Sculpture by Edith Maryon

Maryon arrived at Dornach, Switzerland, in January 1914. These were very early days for the project of relocating Anthroposophy headquarters to Switzerland. It was propitious timing since six months later the Great War would begin & engulf Europe & the world in catastrophe. Maryon was a trailblazer: “There was hardly any other artist coming to work in Dornach before her, capable in the way Edith Maryon was, of sacrificing – that is, largely giving up her own deeply rooted style, born out of the aesthetics of Greece, in favour of a new Mystery art”.

The next decade was a period of intense industry & creativity for the English sculptor, a period in which she found her life’s purpose. “Edith Maryon…was helping him [Steiner] with the Goetheanum building and above all with the great wooden sculpture The ‘Representative of Humanity’…Miss Maryon throughout those years was one of his closest collaborators…the studio in which the work was going on became his study for a great part of the day. Here he received his visitors, and she was acting very largely as his secretary” (George Kaufmann Adams, 1958). Adams related a visit to Dornach after the war: “We were received in the most friendly way by the Dornach members and above all by Miss Maryon herself. She gave us mallet and chisel and let us help with parts of the sculpture where there was much superfluous wood and our unskilled hands could do no harm”.

Adams reported that Steiner was “anxious for an English edition of the book [on the Threefold Social Order], and as no one else was at hand, Miss Maryon had undertaken to translate it. In style – like many of the attempted translations of Dr Steiner’s works in those days – it was impossible…and we said so frankly. We were then invited to Dornach to go into the whole question”. (Adams went on to extemporaneously translate many of Steiner’s lectures, for example at Oxford & Torquay, as well as books, for example Steiner’s Agriculture Course)

by EM

Edith Maryon & Rudolf Steiner carried on an extensive exchange of correspondence beginning in 1912, when Maryon wrote to Steiner on 16 October from London. Steiner wrote to Maryon from his travels including from Ilkley, Penmaenmawr, London, Stuttgart, Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Mannheim, Vienna, Prague, Amsterdam, Kristiania (Oslo), and & The Hague. Steiner’s salutation to Maryon progressed in the course of 1919 to 1920 from “Mein liebes Fraulein E. Maryon” (My dear Miss E Maryon) to “Mein liebes Fraulein Edith Maryon!” (My dear Miss Edith Maryon) to “Meine liebe Edith Maryon!)“ (My love Edith Maryon!)

Theirs was an artistic partnership: “Rudolf Steiner stood, day after day, beside his colleague in the high ceilinged sculpture studio. During this time they not only worked with their hands, but also conversed intensively on every imaginable subject – from art, through politics to things of the deepest concern. Over & above this his studio had become for Rudolf Steiner a refuge of inner peace in which – well protected from visitors by Edith Maryon – he could both do a lot of esoteric work & also relax”. Maryon worked tirelessly with Steiner to create the ‘The Representative of Humanity’. She was “one of the closest colleagues and pupils of Rudolf Steiner”.

Maryon was appointed by Steiner as the leader of the Section for Sculptural Arts at the Christmas Conference of the Anthroposophy Society at Dornach in December 1923, & was unanimously elected as the vice-president of the Anthroposophy Society at the General Assembly on 21 January 1924.

Edith Maryon died on 2 May 1924 reportedly of tuberculosis, & many say from a broken heart (a depletion of her etheric forces  which were tied up in the burning of the Goetheanum. In his memorial tribute, Steiner stated of Edith Maryon that: “When we began to build the Goetheanum, she was one of the first to devote herself to the work…With a perfect control of her technique, her special gift was to give spirituality to stately form. This artistic skill she devoted entirely to the service of the Goetheanum…earnestness showed itself in her appearance. One could see a person who had not been spoiled by the amenities of life, though she had been sorely tried by the hand of fate…She participated most actively in all that went on at the Goetheanum. The spiritual contents of the Christmas Assembly and the Class lectures…up to the last days of her life she pondered on how this Section [Sculptural Arts] should develop its activity in the right way…Her work for the this Society will always be remembered as being most earnest and devoted”.

Image result for eye of the earth painting
Corina Chistes

POD (Poem Of the day)

~Be-held in the eye
Time moves in the heart-throb
There is no time
in which the cosmos does not hold
the shape of its Beloved
No time
In which the earth does not sing
I behold in my I
The eye that holds me
My work is its Will
~HAG

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Weaving a non-gendered Feminist Reality with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg*

Friday 5 March 2021 – 6:30 am – 8 am Central Time as part of the The International Youth Initiative Program Initiative Forum

What are the qualities of the Divine Feminine? How can we use them to empower an innovative way of thinking, feeling & willing, to create a new world, where the human being is free?

Have paper & colored pencils at the ready for this hands-on workshop.

*Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual: Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year & the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast. Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Anthroposopher – working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Past Video Recordings

 
While this wasn’t exactly what we first envisioned, moving online means
that this forum will be more accessible than perhaps ever before.
The program will be designed to accommodate people from different time zones
all over the globe, and we look forward to transcending restrictions and limitations by joining together in community with folks for whom travelling is not an option.

In addition to interactive workshops, lectures, open spaces, performances & more, there will be plenty of space within the program for fostering connection
and conversation. At the Initiative Forum, we hope you will laugh a lot
(wait till you see what our arts & culture team is cooking up!), listen deeply,
be truly heard, and experience the power of community,
which no distance can dull. We can’t wait to meet you!

For tickets click here!
 To stay updated follow us on Facebook or Instagram
The International Youth Initiative Program

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The 8-Fold Path to the Easter Elementals

Holy Week 2021 (March 28 – April 4): Starting on Palm Sunday then thru-out Holy Week including Easter Morning, we will meet every day on Zoom at 10:10 am (Central Time) to create together a Thought-Seed Egregore based on the Herbert Hahn Verse

When I think light, my soul shines,
When my soul shines, the earth is a star,
When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being

& then we will take turns sharing the indications for that day from Rudolf Steiner / The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’ (let me know if you would like to lead one of the days? (5 min) Holy Week  chart

Palm SUNDAY
Resolves or ‘RIGHT JUDGMENT.’ having been formed independently of sympathies and antipathies.

Holy MONDAY
Talking – ‘RIGHT WORD.’

Holy TUESDAY
External actions- ‘RIGHT DEED.’

Holy WEDNESDAY
The ordering of life. – ‘RIGHT STANDPOINT.’

Maundy THURSDAY
Human Endeavour. – ‘TO LET ALL THE EXERCISES BECOME A HABIT.

Good FRIDAY
The endeavor to learn as much as possible from life. – ‘RIGHT MEMORY.’ (Remembering what has been learned from experiences).

Holy SATURDAY
To pay attention to one’s ideas. – ‘RIGHT OPINION.’

The octave of the New Sun
EASTER SUNDAY
To turn one’s gaze inwards –
RIGHT EXAMINATION.’

Whoever is holding the leading thoughts for that day will tie it into some 5-10 min. artistic exercise based on the indications

Group sharing (5 min)

We close with the ‘reversed’ Hahn verse.
I am a True Human Being
For the Earth is a Star
The Earth is a Star
When I Think Light
When I think Light
My Soul Shines

Easter Sunday – 4 April 2021, in person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online 2 pm – 4 pm Central Time.

Group Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Hazel Archer – The octave of the New Sun

Keynote with Ines Katharina (Bee Keeper, Founder of the Biodynamic Emerald Honeybee Sanctuary, Waldorf Teacher) Ines will connect the Easter Thought with the Elemental Beings & the flight of the Queen Bee.

Mary Ruud will give us a performance of ‘Rock Spring Wonder’

We close with singing ‘Now the green Blade Riseth’

Potluck Social Time in the Schreinerei – Please bring food & drink to share

$10 Suggested Donation (can’t make it? or joining us online? please consider supporting this event, Thank you)

*Dear friends, please join the call at 10:05 am to get settled in so we can begin the Thought-Seed promptly at 10:10 am
Topic: The 8-Fold Path thru Holy Week 2021
Time: Starting on Palm Sunday Mar 28 – thru Easter Morning, 2021 10:10 AM Central Time (US and Canada)
Every day, 8 occurrence(s)
Mar 28, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 29, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 30, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 31, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 1, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 2, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 3, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 4, 2021 10:10 AM

Daily: https://zoom.us/meeting/tJErdOqsqj8iGNzL8iNTwKUXyrvmVGSSXqaW/ics?icsToken=98tyKuCtqDgpHtCRuBuPRowMBIjCb-jwiClHjY1HsEfsLRRESTbOL_BUP4RYI-vo

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95633444828?pwd=Wk56K08vK2dNQUhhK0Q2S09zQWJrQT09 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: bee

Dial by your location Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aX8X3nrr3 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: 425730

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A Cadence

Image result for frozen breath painting
Julie Little

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~My breath is like a child to me
A lulling rhythm that undulates my heart-whole
My breath hangs sweet
Making condensation in the frigid air
A wafting food for the trees
I live there
A cadence
Driving the wing of a wild bird
~hag

8 February 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: ‘Ruddy Mars is now the only bright planet visible in the overnight hours.  Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn are all too close to the Sun to be easily seen.  The red planet is moving steadily through the faint constellation of Aries, the Ram, toward Taurus, where he will encounter Aldebaran around the time of the spring equinox’. (Thanks Steve Hale & USNO)

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Remedios Varo

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

According to the original; Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner today it the Birthday of King Solomon. In the ‘Temple Legend’ lectures by Rudolf Steiner, he speaks of King Solomon as the reincarnation of Abel. (And the Master Builder of the Temple Hiram Abiff, Cain)

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Julio Rodrigues

Rudolf Steiner’s SOUL CALENDAR translated with added titles by Roy Sadler
This is the week leading to Lent. It’s the last verse dated by our ordinary solar calendar, before the lunar calendar time that dates the verses from Lent to Whitsun.

This one, v45, between Imbolc & Lent, is in the time that leads in Brazil to the world’s biggest Carnival, which this year was due from Friday February 12 to Shrove Tuesday,
February 16, next week – but the pandemic has forced it to be cancelled. v45 is the octave of Christmas (38+7), and its mirror, v8, is the octave of Easter (1+7), one reason – together with finding the iambic rhythm – why I’ve translated ‘Im Bunde’
as ‘In concert’… & rather than in its original 2nd line I let the verses begin with this…
CARNIVAL
Illuminate
v45

In concert with the spirit’s birth
the mind grows firm;
it lifts the senses’ vague allure
to perfect clarity.
When soul abundance
would bond with springlife’s coming,
thought’s power must shine its light
on sense revealing.
>>>

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WHITSUN
Dream
v8

In concert with the gods’ creating
the senses’ power grows;
it overwhelms the force of thinking,
subduing it to dimness of a dream.
When bonding with my soul
wold be a holy being,
then human thinking must be stilled,
in dreamlike presence satisfied.

Image result for Eliphas Levi,

1810 – Birthday of Eliphas Levi, a French sage, poet, & author of more than twenty books about magic, Cabbalah, alchemical studies, & occultism.

“There was a personality who lived in the later period of Mexican civilisation and was connected with the utterly decadent, pseudo-magical Mystery cults of Mexico; with an intense thirst for knowledge he studied everything with close and meticulous exactitude. My attention was attracted to him through having made the acquaintance some years ago of a curious man who is still engaged in a primitive form of study of the decadent superstitions of the Mexican Mysteries. Such lore is of negligible importance, because anyone who studies these things at the present time is studying pure superstition; it has all become decadent to-day. But the other personality to whom I am referring imbibed with fervent enthusiasm all that could be learnt from the still flourishing Mexican civilisation before the discovery, the so-called ‘discovery’ of America. In those days Mexican civilisation was still influenced by the Mysteries but was already in the throes of decline. When mention is made to-day of Taotl, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoka — the Beings of the Mexican Mysteries — little more is known than the names and a few scattered images. But this personality still knew that Taotl is a Being who as a cosmic, universal Spirit weaves in the clouds, lives in the lightning and the thunder. He knew too that under certain given conditions this Spirit could be invoked into consecrated water by enactments of sacred ritual. And he knew that Quetzalcoatl was a Divine Being who could take hold of man in his circulating blood, in the working of his breath. Living reality of Being was experienced in the Mexican Mysteries by the personality of whom I am speaking. He was reborn in a later age without any intermediate life as a woman. He had been a man in Mexico and was born again as a man. But in his life between death and rebirth this individuality passed through the super-sensible world in such a way that in the development of his karma — this in turn was the outcome of still earlier incarnations not in Mexico but elsewhere — he bore through the Jupiter region all that he had experienced in Mexico: knowledge that had degenerated into superstition but was nevertheless replete with vitality, saturated with the fruits of older civilisations. In the Jupiter-sphere all this assumed the form of wisdom, but a wisdom that is in truth automatic, unconscious, when compared with the wisdom man should make his own by individual effort.

When in the elaboration of karma between death and a new birth, the living, weaving wisdom of the Jupiter-sphere pours over what has been experienced by a man in a previous earthly life, wisdom and its light can still shine forth in the subsequent life. But the wisdom, then, is founded on the experiences of earthly life.

The individuality of whom I am speaking was born again in modern civilisation as Eliphas Levi. Eliphas Levi, therefore, had spent his previous incarnation in the Mexican civilisation, had then passed through the sphere of Jupiter with its wisdom, and in this sphere of Jupiter everything was worked through once again. But Mexican culture is a decadent culture and if you read the books of Eliphas Levi to-day you will find evidence of great wisdom spread out as it were over something extremely primitive. And one who has insight into these things will say: all this is Jupiter, but inferior Jupiter!” ~Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships, Volume II: Lecture XII

Image result for George Adams Kaufmann

1894 – Birthday of George Adams Kaufmann, a British mathematician, translator & anthroposophist. He travelled widely, spoke several languages & translated many of Rudolf Steiner’s lectures into English. Through his studies in theoretical physics he contributed to the expansion & development of the natural sciences as extended by the concepts of anthroposophy.

In 1914 he had encountered Rudolf Steiner’s “Occult Science” and become a member of the Emerson Group in London in 1916. During his time as conscientious objector he had come to know Mary Fox, a Quaker & in 1920 they married.

His interest in Steiner’s ideas on social reform & his intention to translate the book The Threefold Social Order (GA 23) caused him to visit Steiner together with Ethel Bowen Wedgwood in Dornach, Switzerland. Steiner advised him to become involved in some form of social work, something Adams could readily accept amid the social collapse in Central & Eastern Europe following the war. He went on several journeys to Poland as part of the English & American Quaker organization.

In 1920 he took part in the inauguration of the first Goetheanum building. On his return to England, he cooperated with some friends on spreading the ideas of Social threefolding as well as the anthroposophical ideas of Steiner. His wife Mary Adams began her work as librarian & translator for the Anthroposophical Society in London that she was to carry for many years. In addition, Adams was the free verbal translator of around 110 lectures of Steiner into English. He went on to translate many of Steiner’s written works, often with Mary Adams.

He was often in Dornach during these times and experienced the burning of the first Goetheanum on New Year’s Eve 1922/23 & was part of the Christmas Foundation meeting of the General Anthroposophical Society in 1923/24. In 1924 he became one of the Goetheanum-Speakers authorized by Steiner.

While working as a free co-worker of the Anthroposophical Society in Britain as lecturer & workshop holder after 1925, Adams turned again to the study of the natural sciences & mathematics, concentrating particularly on projective geometry & working with Elisabeth Vreede, leader of the Section for Mathematics & Astronomy at the Goetheanum. At the beginning of the 1930s, Adams published a series of articles & essays about projective, synthetic geometry & its relationship to physics, to Goethe’s theory of metamorphosis & to anthroposophical spiritual science, particularly the pioneering work “Of Etheric Space” in the magazine Natura of the Goetheanum’s Medical Section. Here for the first time is mentioned the concept of “counter-space”, as Steiner indicated in the third of his courses on the Natural Sciences (GA 323), explained by means of non-Euclidean geometry. Some years later Louis Locher was to discover the same thing independently of Adams. From that time on the conceptual development of the idea of counter-space in its relation to normal spatial thinking became the focal point of Adams’ further scientific research. In 1933 the comprehensive work Space & the Light of the Creation – Synthetic Geometry in the light of Spiritual Science appeared, which was an overview of the spiritual scientific meaning of synthetic geometry.

When Elisabeth Vreede & Ita Wegman were dismissed from the executive of the General Anthroposophical Society in Dornach, a number of other prominent members of the German, Dutch & British Societies were expelled, including Adams. This brought to an end his cooperation with the Mathematical/Astronomical Section. When the Chairman of the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain, D. N. Dunlop, died in May 1935, Adams took over as general secretary.

Charles Kovacs

1907 – Birthday of Charles Kovacs – born in Vienna. When he was still a young child the family moved to Nussdorf on the Danube, where the river flowed just before the house, so that he could see & hear the barges passing by, loading & unloading. Behind the house were forests of nut trees; to the left there shone a special light over the Kahlberg. It was here that he first went to school.

With the sudden death of his father, the family – his grandmother, mother & his younger brother Erwin – moved to their uncle’s lovely villa in Baden at the foot of the Vienna Woods. At that time the inhabitants of Baden were forward-looking & had high civic standards. They built fine modern art galleries to show the new styles of painting that had become popular. Charles was very interested in painting. He visited these galleries & then worked on his own pictures when he went home. He was about twelve years old when he showed his paintings to his respected art teacher, Professor Friedrich Thetter. Thetter’s two children were also Charles’ friends at the school & Charles was invited to come regularly and to bring his paintings. Professor Thetter, a long-standing anthroposophist, then introduced Charles to the fundamentals of art, to Goethe, then to Rudolf Steiner & anthroposophy. It was an encounter Charles never forgot. He was deeply grateful to Professor Thetter & they remained close friends, corresponding even when they were far apart. Charles & his brother Erwin both became members of the Anthroposophical Society, Charles when he was 22 years old.

Life was lively in Vienna. Charles would listen to the latest hits on the wireless in the evenings & next day he would play them to his friends, for both brothers had learned from their mother to play the piano. His uncle employed him for a time in his warehouse, selling coffee & tea, & it was his son who later, when Charles was 32, invited him out to Kenya. He enjoyed working on a large farm; the compound was so extensive that he needed a horse to get around it all & for a while he was in charge of a sawmill. It was during that time that he drew (on the backs of reference cards used at the mill) & compiled a small book of Pietas – each drawing so different!

Then came the Second World War & he volunteered to join the British Army. After the war he returned briefly to Kenya where he had started an anthroposophical study group. In April 1948 Charles came to London. A relative needed somebody to take on the responsibility of his firm in Golden Square, Piccadilly, & Charles worked there for about eight years. It was well-paid work, but it was a heavy burden. Before long he came to the anthroposophical group meeting one Monday evening; this was where he met Dora, & within six months they were married. Charles was soon asked to take over the study group at Museum Street & as part of his work for this group he translated works by Rudolf Steiner not then available in English. He became a member of the Council of the Anthroposophical Society & gave many lectures. His home was frequented by members of the group most evenings. When they had left he would often paint or draw, an activity which for him seemed a necessity. It was a member of the group who urged Charles to become a teacher. And so it came about that he came to Edinburgh in 1956 to teach at the Rudolf Steiner School.

Then his most productive years began. He took over a Class 4 of thirty-five children. As part of his preparation, he wrote out his lessons day by day so that he built into his teaching a structure, inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s curriculum, which could satisfy the growing child. These notes now stand as a fine example of the new & living way Steiner wanted his curriculum presented to children. ~Charles Kovacs – Reflecting on His Life, by Floris Books

Charles Kovacs - Christianity and the Ancient Mysteries

As a Waldorf teacher, Charles’ creative talents were called on more than ever before. His special gift for painting & drawing was put to good use & his work was much in evidence around the school. For example the kindergarten, which I took over, was blessed & looked upon by the guardian angel that Charles painted. He composed songs & poems, he wrote plays for his classes; Charles was completely given over to his teaching. At the same time he held parents’ evenings, had regular study groups & gave lectures within the Anthroposophical Society & to the public. For a time he travelled regularly to Ilkeston in Derbyshire to work with a group of friends there. His pupils wanted him to come to the upper school to give them the philosophy main lesson when he had already retired.

May be an image of 13 people, including Michael Anthony Bush, Lori Kulik, Sharleen Leonard and Lori Barian and people smiling

2018 – Death day of Christopher Mann, a long time Anthroposopher, His parents knew Rudolf Steiner & did the Mann translation of the Calendar of the Soul. Christopher & his wife Martina were champions of Biodynamics & eurythmy. https://www.biodynamics.com/…/celebrating-lifelong-work…Christopher produced the movie The Alchemist – A film by Frigyes Fogel and Christopher Mann Following those on their mission who have been called upon to form the earth throughout four continents…Dedicated To all who want to heal and consecrate the earth…https://vimeo.com/181737300

The picture above is Christopher at Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, which he helped build. He came to support my workshop on the Spiritual Hierarchies. He was quite lively, sharing about his early life, & then his work with land trusts & such. He was so proud of his movie The Alchemist…After a day on Zinniker Farm he invited a bunch of us to a showing in his home, & there were several teenagers from the Chicago Waldorf School Community with us, & because of that film, 1 of them wants to go into Bio dynamic farming! He touched many lives. And now he is our ally on the other side. Blessings dear friend on your spiritual journey! xox ~hag

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~hag

Weaving a non-gendered Feminist Reality with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg*

Friday 5 March 2021 – 6:30 am – 8 am Central Time as part of the The International Youth Initiative Program Initiative Forum

What are the qualities of the Divine Feminine? How can we use them to empower an innovative way of thinking, feeling & willing, to create a new world, where the human being is free?

Have paper & colored pencils at the ready for this hands-on workshop.

*Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual: Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year & the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast. Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Anthroposopher – working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society.

The International Youth Initiative Program

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Kristena West


The 8-Fold Path to the Easter Elementals

Holy Week 2021 (March 28 – April 4): Starting on Palm Sunday then thru-out Holy Week including Easter Morning, we will meet every day on Zoom at 10:10 am (Central Time) to create together a Thought-Seed Egregore based on the Herbert Hahn Verse

When I think light, my soul shines,
When my soul shines, the earth is a star,
When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being

Sophie Takata

& then we will take turns sharing the indications for that day from Rudolf Steiner / The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’ (let me know if you would like to lead one of the days? (5 min) Holy Week  chart

Palm SUNDAY
Resolves or ‘RIGHT JUDGMENT.’ having been formed independently of sympathies and antipathies.

Holy MONDAY
Talking – ‘RIGHT WORD.’

Holy TUESDAY
External actions- ‘RIGHT DEED.’

Holy WEDNESDAY
The ordering of life. – ‘RIGHT STANDPOINT.’

Maundy THURSDAY
Human Endeavour. – ‘TO LET ALL THE EXERCISES BECOME A HABIT.

Good FRIDAY
The endeavor to learn as much as possible from life. – ‘RIGHT MEMORY.’ (Remembering what has been learned from experiences).

Holy SATURDAY
To pay attention to one’s ideas. – ‘RIGHT OPINION.’

The octave of the New Sun
EASTER SUNDAY
To turn one’s gaze inwards –
RIGHT EXAMINATION.’

Whoever is holding the leading thoughts for that day will tie it into some 5-10 min. artistic exercise based on the indications

Group sharing (5 min)

We close with the ‘reversed’ Hahn verse.
I am a True Human Being
For the Earth is a Star
The Earth is a Star
When I Think Light
When I think Light
My Soul Shines

Then later in the afternoon on Easter Sunday – 4 April 2021, in person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online 2 pm – 4 pm Central Time.

Group Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Hazel Archer – The octave of the New Sun

Keynote withInes Katharina (Bee Keeper, Founder of the Biodynamic Emerald Honeybee Sanctuary, Waldorf Teacher) Ines will connect the Easter Thought with the Elemental Beings & the flight of the Queen Bee.

Mary Ruud will give us a performance of ‘Rock Spring Wonder’

We close with singing ‘Now the green Blade Riseth’

Potluck Social Time in the Schreinerei – Please bring food & drink to share

$10 Suggested Donation (can’t make it? or joining us online? please consider supporting this event, Thank you)

*Dear friends, please join the call at 10:05 am to get settled in so we can begin the Thought-Seed promptly at 10:10 am
Topic: The 8-Fold Path thru Holy Week 2021
Time: Starting on Palm Sunday Mar 28 – thru Easter Morning, 2021 10:10 AM Central Time
Every day, 8 occurrence(s)
Mar 28, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 29, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 30, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 31, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 1, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 2, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 3, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 4, 2021 10:10 AM

Daily: https://zoom.us/meeting/tJErdOqsqj8iGNzL8iNTwKUXyrvmVGSSXqaW/ics?icsToken=98tyKuCtqDgpHtCRuBuPRowMBIjCb-jwiClHjY1HsEfsLRRESTbOL_BUP4RYI-vo

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95633444828?pwd=Wk56K08vK2dNQUhhK0Q2S09zQWJrQT09 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: bee

Dial by your location Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aX8X3nrr3 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: 425730

Burn-Birth

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10:10 Testament: an affirmation from ‘The Influence of Spiritual Beings on the Human Being’ ~Rudolf Steiner, Lecture 2, January 27, 1908

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“What has been achieved in a planetary existence and has become sun, ascends to “heavenly” existence and becomes zodiacal existence.

And having reached zodiacal existence, what does it do? It offers itself in sacrifice! Please take account of this particular word. The first dawn-condition of the Earth, ancient Saturn, arose in a mysterious way as the result of sacrifice on the part of the Zodiac. The forces which caused the first, rarefied Saturn-masses to gather together were those which streamed down from the Zodiac, producing on Saturn the first germinal inception of physical man. This continued without cessation. You must not picture it as happening only once. Fundamentally speaking, what is happening continuously is that within what we call a planetary system the forces which evolved to a higher stage after having themselves passed through a planetary system, are sacrificed.

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Zoran Chikovik

We can say in effect: what is at first contained in a planetary system evolves to a “sun” existence, then to zodiacal existence and then has the power to be itself creative, to offer itself in sacrifice within a planetary existence.

The forces from the Zodiac “rain” down continuously into the planetary existence and continuously ascend again; for that which at one time became our Zodiac must gradually ascend again. The distribution of forces in our earth existence may be conceived as follows: — on the one side forces are descending from the Zodiac and, on the other, forces are ascending to the Zodiac. Such is the mysterious interplay between the Zodiac and our earth. Forces descend and forces ascend. This is the mysterious “heavenly ladder” upon which forces are descending and ascending. These forces are indicated in various ways in the different scriptures; you find them indicated, too, in Goethe’s Faust:

“What heavenly forces up and down are ranging, The golden vessels interchanging.”

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As far as our human understanding goes, these forces began to descend during the Saturn-existence of our Earth and when the Earth-existence proper had reached its middle point, the stage had arrived when they gradually began again to ascend. We have now passed beyond the middle point of our evolution, which fell in the middle of the Atlantean epoch; and what human beings have lived through since then is a phase of existence beyond the middle point. In a certain sense, therefore, we may say that at the present time, more forces are ascending to the Zodiac than are descending from it…

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In this way you will realize that there is interaction between everything in cosmic space, that everything in cosmic space is interconnected, inter-related. But it must never be forgotten that these operations and activities are going on all the time, that they are ever-present. At any given moment in our evolution we can therefore speak of forces which are going forth from man and forces which are coming in; forces are descending and forces are ascending. For all and each of these forces there comes, at some point, the moment when from being descending forces they are transformed into ascending forces. All forces which eventually become ascending forces are at first descending forces. They descend, so to say, as far as man. In man they acquire the power to ascend.”

***

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POD (Poem Of the day)

~My roots thickening
Tether me like a kite –
That I may Rise with the Sap…
In the Hexagonal Snow Swirl
Formula Becomes Motion
Come sit with the Crescent Moon
Sharing the Sun Rise,
Together We Sing into the Seven Stars…
Beyond the false history of men
Beyond numbers & letters that bind them
I go Home where
My Thought Becomes Word, Becomes Memory, Becomes
The Seed that Becomes Me.
~hag

***

6 February 2021 – Speaking with the Stars”: During early dawn today & Sunday, spot the waning crescent Moon in the Southeast, with Antares to her lower right…Bella Luna steps down over Scorpius at dawn, as she nears her new-moon rendezvous with the Sun that will end her current cycle.

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The sky’s biggest asterism is the Winter Hexagon. It fills the sky toward the east & south these evenings. Start with brilliant Sirius at its bottom. Going clockwise from there, march up through Procyon, Pollux & Castor, then Menkalinan & Capella on high, down to Aldebaran, then to Rigel in Orion’s foot, & back to Sirius. Betelgeuse shines inside the Hexagon, well off center.

***

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Thomas Jackson

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

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356 -The Burning of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus AND the Birthday of Alexander the Great

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1347 – Birthday of Dorothea of Montau, the guardian of the country of the Teutonic Knights & patron saint of Prussia. Born to a wealthy farmer from Holland, she was married at the age of 16 to the swordsmith Adalbrecht of Danzig (Gdańsk), an ill-tempered man in his 40s. Almost immediately after marrying she began to experience visions. Her husband had little patience with her spiritual experiences & abused her. Later, both made pilgrimages to Cologne, Aachen, & Einsiedeln. While Dorothea, with her husband’s permission, was on pilgrimage to Rome, he died in 1389. Of their nine children eight died. The surviving daughter, Gertrud, joined the Benedictines. In the summer of 1391 Dorothea moved to Marienwerder (Kwidzyn), & with the blessing of the Teutonic Order, established a hermit’s cell against the wall of the cathedral. She never left that cell for the rest of her life. Dorothea led a very austere life. Numerous visitors sought her advice & consolation, & she had visions & revelations

Image result for 1778 - American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance & the Treaty of Amity are signed

1778 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance & the Treaty of Amity are signed by the United States & France signaling official recognition of the new republic.

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1748 – Birthday of Adam Weishaupt, German philosopher & founder of the Illuminati. After Pope Clement XIV’s suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773, Weishaupt became a professor of canon law, a position that was held exclusively by the Jesuits until that time. In 1775 Weishaupt was introduced to the empirical philosophy of Johann Georg Heinrich Fede. Both Feder &Weishaupt would later become opponents of Kantian idealism.

“At a time, however, when there was no end of making game of and abusing secret societies, I planned to make use of this human foible for a real and worthy goal, for the benefit of people. I wished to do what the heads of the ecclesiastical and secular authorities ought to have done by virtue of their offices…” ~ Adam Weishaupt

On 1 May 1776 Weishaupt founded the “Illuminati” in the Electorate of Bavaria. He adopted the name of “Brother Spartacus” within the order. The character of the society was an elaborate network of spies & counter-spies. Each isolated cell of initiates reported to a superior, whom they did not know: a party structure that was effectively adopted by some later groups.

Weishaupt was initiated into the Masonic Lodge “Theodor zum guten Rath“, at Munich in 1777. His project of “illumination, enlightening the understanding by the sun of reason, which will dispel the clouds of superstition and of prejudice” was an unwelcome reform. He used Freemasonry to recruit for his own quasi-masonic society, with the goal of “perfecting human nature” through re-education to achieve a communal state with nature, freed of government & organized religion. Presenting their own system as pure masonry, Weishaupt & Adolph Freiherr Knigge, who organized his ritual structure, greatly expanded the secret organization.

Weishaupt’s character & intentions have been variously assessed: from those such as the Abbé Barruel & John Robison who regarded him as a ‘human devil’ & saw his mission as one of malevolent destructiveness, to those who view him as a humane & benign, albeit willful, social reformer. Writing on this topic, Dr. Tony Page comments: “Weishaupt’s plan was to educate Illuminati followers in the highest levels of humanity and morality (basing his teachings on the supremacy of Reason, allied with the spirit of the Golden Rule of not doing to others what one would not wish done to oneself), so that if Illuminati alumni subsequently attained positions of significance and power (such as in the fields of education and politics), they could exert a benevolent and uplifting influence upon society at large. His project was utopian and naively optimistic, and he himself was certainly not without flaws of character – but neither he nor his plan was evil or violent in and of themselves. It is one of the deplorable and tragic ironies of history that a man who tried to inculcate virtue, philanthropy, social justice and morality has become one of the great hate-figures of 21st-century ‘conspiracy’ thinking.”

After Weishaupt was exiled, he received the assistance of Duke Ernest II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg & lived in Gotha writing a series of works on illuminism, including A Complete History of the Persecutions of the Illuminati in Bavaria (1785), A Picture of Illuminism (1786), An Apology for the Illuminati (1786), & An Improved System of Illuminism (1787).

After Weishaupt’s Order of Illuminati was banned & its members dispersed, it left behind no enduring traces of an influence, not even on its own former members, who went on in the future to develop in quite different directions.

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1891 – Birthday of Walter Johannes Stein. Stein grew up in Vienna as the son of a lawyer & a Theosophist . He studied mathematics, physics & philosophy in Vienna & received his doctorate there in 1918 with a dissertation entitled Historical-Critical Contributions to the Development of Modern Philosophy , which he had developed with the help of Rudolf Steiner . He had previously participated in the First World War as an artillery officer .

In the same year he married & campaigned for the threefolding of the social organism with writings & lectures . After their failure, he was appointed to teach German & history at the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart. To this end, he was committed to the Anthroposophical Society in Germany, from 1923 to 1928 as a board member.

In 1932 he left the Waldorf School & moved to England to work for Daniel Nicol Dunlop’s research office at the World Energy Council, founded in 1924 . After his death in 1935 he published the monthly The Present Age until the beginning of World War II .

During the war he began to work as a non-medical practitioner – he had been involved in medicine since around 1920, he was also close friends with the anthroposophical doctor Ita Wegman & his school friend Eugen Kolisko in Vienna – and held public lectures on medicine until his death in 1957 & worked on a book on the basics & perspectives of spiritually advanced medicine.

***

Discoursing

Cattie Blanchet

A story of the Celtic Triple Goddess Brigid on ‘I Think Speech

Amanda Sage

Dear Friends, Today 108 years ago on 3 February 1913 we can re-call the very 1st AGM of the newly formed Anthroposophical Society, held in Berlin, with the cycle of lecture called The Mysteries of the Orient & of Christianity (GA 144)

Rudolf Steiner opened the conference on this day with the lecture: The Being of Anthroposophy.

Iris

I thought to share some relevant quotes for your inspiration on this day:

“…The being of anthroposophy is intimately connected with the being of our time- not with our own immediate little present moment, of course, but with the whole age within which we stand.

Today I want to point out the character of this being by speaking of the necessity for establishing anthroposophy in our time.

“Love, who commands the chambers of my mind
Discoursing of my lady passionately,
From hour to hour speaks things of her to me
At which my intellect bids me demur.
Sweetly his words make music of such kind
My soul, which hears and feels how they agree,
Exclaims, ‘Alas, that I can never be
Equal to saying all I hear of her!
Such things appear within her fair aspect
As show they bear the joys of paradise
I mean, both in her smile and in her eyes,
Where Love brings them as if he brought them home.”

It seems very clear. A poet has written a love poem…This poem was not written today, however, but was written by Dante

Mary and The Divine Comedy – Casual Histrionics

Dante himself told us…that the beloved lady, with whom he had so direct and personal a relationship, was none other than Philosophy. Dante says that when he speaks of the lady’s eyes and says that what they say is no lie, he means the evidence of truth; and by her “smile,” he means the art of expressing the truth communicated to the soul; and by “love,” or amor; he means scientific study the love of the truth.

People who do not know how the times – into which our soul is ever growing with new life-change, lack any idea that Dante was just one (among many) of those with the capacity for a concrete experience of a passionate and personal relationship, immediate and of the soul, with Lady Philosophy, such as we today can feel only toward a man or woman of flesh and blood. In this sense, Dante’s time is past. The modern soul no longer approaches Lady Philosophy – the woman, Philosophy  as a being of the same, fleshly nature as itself as Dante did.

When the Greeks present something, it is Sophia, not Philosophia. And they present her in such a way that, again, we experience her as a living being, as an immediate presence. We experience the Greek Sophia as an immediate, living being, just as Dante feels Philosophy to be. Always, however, we feel this Greek Sophia – and I ask you to please go through the descriptions that exist – to be an elemental force, as it were, an active being who intervenes in existence through action.

Albrecht Dürer - Die Philosophie (c. 1502, collection of Hartmann Schedel,  Bavarian State Library) | Albrecht durer, Art history, Iconography

Beginning around the fifth century A.D., we find that Philosophia is first represented, initially described by poets in the most varied guises: nurse, benefactor, guide, and so on. Then somewhat later, painters begin to represent her. Thus, we reach the period during the Middle Ages called Scholasticism, when many philosophers really felt they were experiencing a directly human relation when they became aware of beautiful, noble Lady Philosophia, who actually approached them from the clouds. Many medieval philosophers, in fact, felt the same deep, burning feelings toward the Lady Philosophia as she floated toward them on the clouds as Dante describes toward his Lady. And anyone who can feel such things will find a direct connection between Raphael’s Sistine Madonna floating on the clouds, and the exalted Lady Philosophia.

…the Greeks confronted Sophia, or Wisdom, as a being, so to speak, whom they could encounter standing before them in a particular place, Two beings then -Sophia and the Greek – faced each other, as if Sophia were a definite objective entity, to be looked at, with all the objectivity of the Greek’s way of seeing.

How then does the consciousness soul confront Sophia? This is done so that it brings the I into direct relationship with Sophia while at the same expressing -much more so than the objective being of Sophia the activity of the I within the relationship between the consciousness soul and this Sophia. “I love Sophia” was the natural feeling of an age that still had to encounter the being we designate as Philosophy – an age that was preparing the consciousness soul and, out of the relationship between the I and the consciousness soul (on which the greatest value must be placed), was working toward representing Sophia as simply as it represented everything else. It was natural for the time of the intellectual soul – which was preparing for the consciousness soul- to express this relationship to Philosophy. And because things came to expression slowly and gradually, this relationship was being prepared during Greco-Latin times.

Philosophy is no longer the “woman” she was to Dante and others who lived in his time.

..we now live in the age of the consciousness soul and look toward the dawn of the age of the spirit-self, and we know in this way that something is again becoming objective to human beings – something that looks forward to the coming times that will be gained by what we have won through the time of the consciousness soul.

What, therefore, must be developed? It must unfold that, once again, as a matter of course, a “Sophia” becomes present. But we must learn to relate this Sophia to the consciousness soul, bring her down directly to human beings. This is happening during the age of the consciousness soul. And thereby Sophia becomes the being who directly enlightens human beings. After Sophia has entered human beings, she must take their being with her and present it to them outwardly, objectively. Thus, Sophia will be drawn into the human soul and arrive at the point of being so inwardly connected with it that a love poem as beautiful as Dante wrote may be written about her.

Sophia will become objective again, but she will take with her what humanity is, and objectively present herself in this form. Thus, she will present herself not only as Sophia, but as Anthroposophia as the Sophia who, after passing through the human soul, through the very being of the human being, henceforth bears that being within her, and in this form she will confront enlightened human beings as the objective being Sophia who once stood before the Greeks.

What we receive through anthroposophy is our very own being.

Kristena West

This once floated toward us in the form of a celestial goddess with whom we were able to enter into relationship. This divine being lived on as Sophia and Philosophia, and now we can once again bring her out of ourselves and place her before us as the fruit of true anthroposophical self-knowledge. We can wait patiently until the world is willing to test the depth of the foundations of what we have to say, right down to the smallest details. It is the essence of anthroposophy that its own being consists of the being of the human, and its effectiveness, its reality, consists in that we receive from anthroposophy what we ourselves are and what we must place before ourselves, because we must practice self-knowledge.”

***

Marie Knoble

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

https://earthsky.org/tonight/the-double-cluster-in-perseus

3 February 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

A History of American Currency

1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in the Americas

The 15th Amendment Was Ratified More Than 150 Years Ago, but the Fight to  Protect Black Voters Continues | Teen Vogue

1870 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to male citizens regardless of race.

Pablo Picasso | Gertrude Stein | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Picasso

1874 – Birthday of Gertrude Stein, American novelist, poet, playwright

Rockwell Finally Appears as Himself in Triple Self-Portrait | The Saturday  Evening Post

1894 – Birthday of Norman Rockwell, American painter & illustrator

Deep attention - Theology - TLS

1909 – Birthday of Simone Weil, French mystic & philosopher

Life Drawings: 5 February 1913 “16th Amendment, federal income tax,  ratified, the Thin Edge of the Wedge”

1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose & collect an income tax.

1913 – The 1st AGM of the Anthroposophical Society in Berlin, where Rudolf Steiner gave the lecture series “The Mysteries of the Orient and of Christianity”

Faces of Death: 20 Death Masks of Famous and Infamous People

1924 – Deathday of Woodrow Wilson. Rudolf Steiner has a lot to say about what was behind this individuality & in his former incarnation as Muawiya

The day the music died: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens & Big Bopper killed in plane  crash (1959) - Click Americana

1959 – Rock & roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, & J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson are killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

1961 – The United States Air Forces begins Operation Looking Glass, & over the next 30 years, a “Doomsday Plane” is always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States’ bombers & missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC’s command post.

***

Robert Rhodes

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Walk willingly between fire & ice…
Where the shadows of forever
& the light of Now
Clutch & release the world…
The empty filling & the full emptying…
So live with the certainty
That your Yin loves your Yang
Over & over, in to the out…
& dance the joy of movement ever changing…
~hag

***

The Bee — Celtic Spirit Books

Invitation: Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021, 6-8pm eastern (online using zoom)

“Candlemas Time with the Bee”

We will be celebrating a quiet and beautiful festival with the Bee. This ceremony will include artistic and meditative activity as we journey with the Bee into her connection to the Earth, the Cosmos, and the Human Soul. 

Please have ready: some real honey and a spoon, a beeswax candle and matches, some seeds you plan to plant this year, paper and colored pencils.

Please email “ineshoneybee@yahoo.com” before to registerand we will send you a zoom link. You may register any time before 5pm eastern on February 3rd.

May Humanity and Earth be Each Other’s Medicine 

Celebrating Life during the nodal points of the seasons has given Humanity the opportunity to realign with the rhythms of Earth and the Cosmos for thousands of years… the “Festival Year” emerged, spanning all time and all cultures, traditions, and religions of the world. Today, possibly due to the increase in technology and fast pace, consumer-driven lifestyles, many people have found it difficult to connect with the seasons and rhythms of Life or have given up the culture of festival and ceremony altogether.  

Yet we have entered a time during which our realignment with the Earth is more crucial than ever before… not only for our own health and wellbeing, but also for the renewal of the Earth herself. An opportunity for healing is created when we can hold in our conscious attention the nodal points of the year and the interconnected rhythms of Life… the animal, plant, and mineral beings.

These beings we share this planet with are ready for our consciousness and care. And when we create a space of openness and communication, we may just discover that they more than happily participate… for all of us do share the same “Festival Year” of Earth.

May the Peace of the Heavens in our Earth-home we find… for all Stones, Plants, and Animals, and all of Humankind.

Warmly, Ines Katharina Kinchen ineshoneybee@yahoo.com

***

The Karma Project
Manifestations of Karma Study Group
February 3, 2021 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)

Take the case of Luther. You cannot just simply ascribe everything he experienced and endured to his karma; you must be clear that those things which are due to happen in the course of human evolution must come about through human agency and that these individual agents have to be brought out of the spiritual world, without consideration whether they are fully ready in themselves.  They are born for the purposes of human evolution, and a karmic path has to be interrupted or lengthened, so that the individuality concerned may appear at a certain time.  In such cases a destiny is thrust upon specific individuals which need have no relation to their past karma.  But to have achieved something between birth and death sets up on earth later karmic causes, so that though it is true that a Luther was born for humanity and had to bear a destiny which had no connection with his former karma, yet what he accomplished on earth will be connected with his later karma.“~Rudolf Steiner, Manifestations of KarmaChapter 8“Karma of the Higher Beings”, Hamburg, 25 May, 1910 … focus of the February 3 meeting.

The lecture can be found online at the RS Archive (eLib) by clicking this link: 
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA120/English/RSP1984/19100525p01.html
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing  study conversation.  The study has been divided among four 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: “Manifestations of Karma.”  This book is a translation from German of Die Offenbarung des Karma (Ga 120), published in English by Rudolf Steiner Press in 1996.

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

Video Conference Details:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84043185047
Meeting ID: 840 4318 5047

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kclU2SSTF

If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu
Agenda for our Study Call
 
7:15  Welcome and Introductions        
7:18  Verse
7:25  Study led by five volunteers
Note: CRC team will ID volunteers
          Camille – pg. 147 to 151
          Travis – pg. 151 to 156
          Ana – pg. 156 to 161
          Rosemary – pg. 161 to end
8:05  Conversation
8:28  Close with verse
Destiny
I bear within me what has Been
I feel within me what is Becoming
In willing, I carry both toward the Future
 Faith looks upon what has Been
And is founded upon Truth
 Trust looks upon what will be
And is founded upon Hope
 Love Embraces Here and Now
Eternal Becoming
Eternal Being
~Rudolf Steiner

Feast of the Bear

Feast of the Bear – From antiquity to the Middle Ages, bears are to this day a cult symbol of the Germans, Scandinavians & the Celts. On 1 February they celebrate the end of hibernation. This is around the time when the bears leave their dens to see if the weather was mild. For a long time, the Catholic Church sought to eradicate these pagan practices. To do this, it instituted the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple which is celebrated on February 2, which corresponds to the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary. However, the celebrations of the bear & the return of the light continued, with bonfires & other torchlight processions. Pope Gelasius I in the fifth century therefore instituted the feast of candles, or Candlemas. From the twelfth to the eighteenth century, Candlemas was called “chandelours” which means bear in French, in many areas (including the Alps, Pyrenees, Ardennes) where the memory of the cult of the bear was still very present. There is also the Aosta Saint-Ours, & Saint Blaise (which means “bear”). Candlemas is also the beginning of the carnival period; the bear is the carnival animal par excellence.

Fate of the Cave Bear | History | Smithsonian Magazine

The existence of an ancient bear cult among Neanderthals in Western Eurasia in the Middle Paleolithic has been a topic of discussion spurred by archaeological findings. The Neanderthals worshiped the cave bear& ancient bear bones have been discovered arranged in a ritualistic way as part of a ceremony, found in Switzerland & in Slovenia.

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Volos

Bears were the most worshipped animals of Ancient Slavs. During pagan times, it was associated with the god Volos, the patron of domestic animals. Slavic folklore describes the bear as a totem personifying strength. Legends about turnskin bears appeared, it was believed that humans could be turned into bears for misbehavior.

In Finnish pagan culture, the bear was considered a taboo animal and the word for “bear” (oksi) was a taboo word. Euphemisms such as mesikämmen “honey-hand” were used instead. The modern Finnish word karhu (from karhea, rough, referring to its rough fur) is also such a euphemism. Calling a bear by its true name was believed to summon the bear. Ceremonies intended to show that the bear would be a “honored guest” were held in order to not to anger the bear’s spirit. The skull of the bear was hung into a tree, which was venerated as a totem.

Bear worship in ancient Finland and Siberia | PHOSPHORUS

There are annual bear festivals that take place in various towns & communes in the Pyrenees region. In Prats-de-Mollo, the Fête de l’Ours – A French”festival of the bear” was held on Candlemas (February 2) in a ritual in which men dressed up as bears brandishing sticks & dancing in an elaborate staging. The Arles-sur-Tech version (Fête de l’ours d’Arles-sur-Tech involves a female character named Rosetta (Roseta) who gets abducted by the “bear”. The “bear” would bring the Rosetta to a hut raised on the center square of town (where the victim would be fed sausages, cake, & white wine). The event finished with the “bear” being shaved & tamed.

According to legend, Ungnyeo (literally “bear woman”) was a bear who turned into a woman, & gave birth to Dangun, the founder of the first Korean kingdom, Gojoseon. Bears were revered as motherly figure & a symbol of patience.

The bear festival is a religious festival celebrated by the indigenous Nivkh in Russia’s fareast. A Nivkh Shaman (ch’am) would preside over the Bear Festival, celebrated on the 1st of February. Bears were captured & raised in a corral for several years by local women, treating the bear like a child. The bear is considered a sacred earthly manifestation of Nivkh ancestors & the gods in bear form. During the Festival the bear is dressed in a ceremonial costume & offered a banquet to take back to the realm of gods to show benevolence upon the clans. The festival was arranged by relatives to honor the death of a kinsman. The bear’s spirit returns to the gods of the mountain ‘happy’ & rewards the Nivkh with bountiful forests. Generally, the Bear Festival was an inter-clan ceremony where a clan of wife-takers restored ties with a clan of wife-givers upon the broken link of the kinsman’s death. The Bear Festival was suppressed in the Soviet period; since then the festival has had a modest revival, albeit as a cultural rather than a religious ceremony.

The Ainu people, who live on select islands in the Japanese archipelago, call the bear “kamuy” in their language, which translates to mean “god”. While many other animals are considered to be gods in the Ainu culture, the bear is the head of the gods. For the Ainu, when the gods visit the world of man, they put on fur & claws & take on the physical appearance of an animal. To return a god back to his country, the people would sacrifice & eat the animal sending the god’s spirit away with civility. Omante occurred when the people sacrificed an adult bear, but when they caught a bear cub they performed a different ritual which is called Iomante, in the Ainu language, or Kumamatsuri in Japanese. Kumamatsuri translates to “bear festival” & Iomante means “sending off”. The event of Kumamatsuri began with the capture of a young bear cub. As if he was a child given by the gods, the cub was fed human food from a carved wooden platter & was treated better than Ainu children for they thought of him as a god. If the cub was too young & lacked the teeth to properly chew food, a nursing mother will let him suckle from her own breast. When the cub reaches 2–3 years of age, the cub is taken to the altar & sacrificed. Usually, Kumamatsuri occurs in midwinter when the bear meat is the best from the added fat. The villagers will shoot it with ceremonial arrows, make offerings, dance, & pour wine on top of the cub corpse. The words of sending off for the bear god are then recited. This festivity lasts for three days & three nights to properly return the bear god to his home.

Bear worship was commen in North America and North Eurasian

THE FEAST OF THE BEAR – A NEW RITUAL IN A TRADITIONAL CONTEXT:

The “Bärentag” (Feast of the Bear), founded 21 years ago in Basel, is open to everyone, especially inclusive of immigrants, women & children, & focuses on solidarity & social integration. In 1998, the Bear Society was re-founded with the aim of promoting a sense of harmony amongst the inhabitants of Lesser Basel. As the Bear costume is always worn by women, just as the Bear dance is traditionally performed alongside female drummers. A key element of the Feast of the Bear is a dance-filled procession through the city.

“Diryff-dyff-dyff” resounds from a distance. We are standing with the children on the bank of the Rhine River in Basel. We hear the loud booms of the cannonballs and soon see the rapidly approaching wooden raft being propelled by the force of the river. A man wearing a Wild Man (Wilde Maa) mask and costume stands on the raft, spinning a fir tree slung over his shoulder and performing a dance while facing Lesser Basel and shaking his behind at Greater Basel. He is accompanied by drummers on the boat, smoke from the canons rises around them. The year is 2019 and we are in the heart of Europe, at the northern border of Switzerland. However, this is a special moment—a moment in which “the past and the present converge.”

The first part of the Day of the Bear is dedicated to children (they practice singing and dancing the jazz song Dr Bär isch zrugg in school in preparation for the festival) Some of the children accompany the Bear in the parade wearing furry vests and colourful balloons over their heads. The procession takes them through spots where the children can even stop and play on the playground. The Vogel Gryff costumes also spark the interest of children, though there is something sinister about them. “The Wild Man drives the children away by waving around his fir tree,” says current drummer for the Bear Festival, Lars Handschin. “The Bear costume,” on the other hand, “is a welcoming presence. The Bear gives the children a hug at the end of the parade and plays with them, even though she also commands respect.” The afternoon portion of the program culminates in a communal banquet attended by approximately two thousand residents and boasts a wide offering of cultural dishes. The atmosphere is one of acceptance, solidarity, and harmonious coexistence. “At a time when real walls are being built around the world, the Bear Society tries to tear down the figurative walls between people.” The procession then continues on into the night and is also accompanied by the sound of the piccolo and drums together with illuminated lanterns bearing the Bear Society emblem. (quoted from the link)

Bear Worship - Drawception
Riley Peterson

Here is a folk tale: “The Bear Feast Story

May we celebrate The Bear: from god to Teddy – an interesting totem to embrace

~hag

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Star chart with arrow from Big Dipper to North Star Polaris
https://earthsky.org/tonight/use-the-pointers-to-find-polaris

1 February 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

The Magical Legacy of Johannes Trithemius – Zero Equals Two!

1462 – Birthday of Johannes Trithemius, German lexicographer, historian, and cryptographer

1861 – American Civil War: Texas secedes from the United States.

13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States | National Museum of  African American History and Culture



1865 – President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

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1884 – The first volume (A to Ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.

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1893 – Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey

Groenkloof Nature Reserve

1895 – Fountains Valley, Pretoria, the oldest nature reserve in Africa, is proclaimed by President Paul Kruger.

February 1, 1896: Poor People of Paris – Wretched Richard's Almanac

1896 – La bohème premieres in Turin at the Teatro Regio (Turin), conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini.

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1960 – Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Valborg Werbeck-Svärdström - Wikidata

1972 – Deathday of Valborg Werbeck-Svärdström, a Swedish singer, voice teacher, & anthroposophist. When she was ten, her family moved to Stockholm, where the music educator Alice Tegnér discovered her talent. She was already performing at the age of eleven. After completing school & her studies at the Conservatory, she gave her debut & was received into the Ensemble of the Royal Swedish Opera. She was hailed as the new Jenny Lind” – the Swedish nightingale. As a concert & opera singer she experienced enormous success in many of the European countries. In 1906 she married Louis Michael Julius Werbeck, the German writer & musician from Hamburg & moved with him to Germany.

In 1908 she met Rudolf Steiner and received from him indications for her work & encouragement not to give up her successful singing career, but rather to pursue it against her original intentions. Her studies with experienced teachers had certainly guided her to a successful operatic career, but it had shown her that these methods of instruction also endangered her natural voice. She began searching for new methods of developing the voice, & remained in close contact about this with Rudolf Steiner until his death. At the same time she began to build up a method of singing therapy that she later was later to develop further together with Eugen Kolisko, who took singing lessons with her from time to time, & with Ita Wegman. In 1938 her book ‘’Uncovering the Voice: The Cleansing Power of Song’’ appeared in German. The rise of National Socialism in Germany made her work increasingly difficult. Eventually she had to close her school & spent the War years in semi-isolation in Silesia. The years following the War she devoted totally to her therapeutic work & to the instruction of a circle of young musicians that had gathered around her.

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Footsteps in the snow Photograph by Sonya Kanelstrand

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~my footsteps imprint possibility
on the unique shapes that gather together as fallen snow
that which is
follows in stride
& that which is not yet
flows in front
with the wind…
~hag

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Candlemas – St. Mary's Episcopal Church

‘Tree of Life’ Feast & ‘Candlemas’ Festival 2 February 2021 – 5:30-7pm
In the Schreinerei of the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4248 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

The RSB Festivals Committee invites you to celebrate the Cross-quarter between Winter Solstice & Spring Equinox, called by some: Groundhogs Day, Brigid’s Day
or Imbolc – the lambing season, The Feast of the Purification of Mary, & Tu’B’Shavat*- the “New Year for the Trees”.

All are invited to a Potluck consisting of fruits & nuts & seeds-the gifts of the trees. And then Nancy Melvin will facilitate a beeswax candle making workshop – a Candlemas tradition.

The Seven Species Quilt Blocks Machine Embroidery Designs set for 5x5 hoop  | Embroidery design sets, Machine embroidery quilts, Free machine  embroidery designs

*Tu B’Shvat offers a unique opportunity for insight into life & personal growth. Throughout the centuries, Kabbalists have used the tree as a metaphor to understand the One relationship to the spiritual & physical worlds. The higher spiritual realms are roots that ultimately manifest their influence through branches & leaves in the lower realms. In the 16th century, the Kabbalists compiled a Tu B’Shvat “Seder,” somewhat similar to the Seder for Passover. It involves enjoying the fruits & discussing philosophical & Kabbalistic concepts associated with the ‘Tree of Life’. Among other things, the Seder is a great way to appreciate the bounty that we so often take for granted, & to develop a good & generous eye for the world around us.

Suggestions for this special POTLUCK: lots of fruit! including: The seven species:
Figs, Dates, Pomegranates, Olives, Grapes (or raisins) wheat (Challah bread) &
Barley. Various nuts with the shells (walnuts, almonds, pistachios, coconut),
and fruits with peels (oranges, pomegranates, avocado)
Other fruits with edible seeds (e.g. blueberries)
Other fruits with inedible pits (e.g. peaches, plums)

Donations Welcome http://donate.rschicago.org/

For more info. contact Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg hag@rschicago.org

The Bee — Celtic Spirit Books

Invitation: Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021, 6-8pm eastern (online using zoom)

“Candlemas Time with the Bee”

We will be celebrating a quiet and beautiful festival with the Bee. This ceremony will include artistic and meditative activity as we journey with the Bee into her connection to the Earth, the Cosmos, and the Human Soul. 

Please have ready: some real honey and a spoon, a beeswax candle and matches, some seeds you plan to plant this year, paper and colored pencils.

Please email “ineshoneybee@yahoo.com” before to registerand we will send you a zoom link. You may register any time before 5pm eastern on February 3rd.

May Humanity and Earth be Each Other’s Medicine 

Celebrating Life during the nodal points of the seasons has given Humanity the opportunity to realign with the rhythms of Earth and the Cosmos for thousands of years… the “Festival Year” emerged, spanning all time and all cultures, traditions, and religions of the world. Today, possibly due to the increase in technology and fast pace, consumer-driven lifestyles, many people have found it difficult to connect with the seasons and rhythms of Life or have given up the culture of festival and ceremony altogether.  

Yet we have entered a time during which our realignment with the Earth is more crucial than ever before… not only for our own health and wellbeing, but also for the renewal of the Earth herself. An opportunity for healing is created when we can hold in our conscious attention the nodal points of the year and the interconnected rhythms of Life… the animal, plant, and mineral beings.

These beings we share this planet with are ready for our consciousness and care. And when we create a space of openness and communication, we may just discover that they more than happily participate… for all of us do share the same “Festival Year” of Earth.

May the Peace of the Heavens in our Earth-home we find… for all Stones, Plants, and Animals, and all of Humankind.

Warmly, Ines Katharina Kinchen ineshoneybee@yahoo.com