Category Archives: Insight

Preparing for the Baptism by Fire

May 29, 2020Festival, Insight~hag

ANGEL OF SELF-HEALING — ARCHANGEL RAPHAEL - MysticalTalk - Medium

When we attune ourselves to beings such as Raphael, Archangel of spring, we can awaken to the way spiritual entities constantly interact with earth thru the elements.

FOLLOWING THE SUN. PIONEERING ART IN THE DECORATION OF PUBLIC ... — Edvard Munch

The messengers of cosmic warmth in the rays of the sun activate the ascension of the element of water. Through its union with air, clouds originate. In the cloud, between depths of earth & heavenly heights, in the sphere of the etheric realm, a mobile balance manifests.

Blossoms & fruits are in reality not just products of earth but heavenly forms filled with earthly substance, like us.

The phantom body of Christ is a reconstituted New Adam, & the Resurrection Body points us in the direction of our future evolution, not back to the garden, but going forward toward the New Jerusalem. Materializing & dematerializing at will.

The ‘ Resurrection Body’ encompasses the whole of humanity – Rudolf Steiner calls it a redeeming of the group-soul of mankind. It is like a cell that is multiplying; growing ever more evident in the etheric realm.

The expression “Put on the resurrection body” used by the apostle Paul is a true picture of what can happen for us. An imaginative picture of this is secreted in the allegory of the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz .

Goethe’s Fairy Tale is another powerful imagination that captures the essence of the Ascension.

It’s been said that The Green Snake & the Beautiful Lily which is full of esoteric symbolism, was born out of Goethe’s reading of The Chymical Wedding .

Goethe’s Tale was written as a response to a work by Friedrich Schiller called ‘Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man’. Über die aesthetische Erziehung des Menschen

One of the central ideas discussed so often by by Goethe & Schiller centered on the question of human freedom. Schiller was trying to build an inner bridge between reality & the ‘ideal human being’.

Schiller wrote his ‘Letters’ during the time of the French Revolution, which was driven by a desire for outer social changes, to enable human beings to become free.

But both Schiller and Goethe recognized that freedom cannot be ‘imposed’ from the outside, it must arise from within. So Goethe took this inspiration & set about writing a Fairy Tale that would show, in imaginative pictures, the way in which a human soul could become whole & free by bridging the abyss between the human & the divine within.

For 40 days Christ lived in the concentrated form of the Phantom & resurrection body, which was perceptible, to the apostles. The Concentration then changed into expansion, conveying to the universe the mystery of death, & the secret of death into life. So Now, at the Ascension, the wisdom of the resurrection that had been brought forth in the depths, was made known in the heights, & the expansion fulfills the cycles of time.

Matter is spirit burst into visibility. The crucifixion was an undoing of this process.

The phantom or resurrection body of Christ is no longer purely human comprised as we are of the Imagination of the Spirits of Form, the Inspiration of the Spirits of Wisdom, with an aura by the Spirits of Will. It is the body of a reconstituted new Adam pointing us in a new direction of our future evolution, not back to the garden, but going forward toward the New Jerusalem. Materializing & dematerializing at will.

This ‘body’ encompasses the whole of humanity – Rudolf Steiner calls it the group-soul of mankind. It is like a cell that is multiplying. The expression “put on the resurrection body” used by the apostle Paul is a true picture of what can happen for us. This is really what is meant by the Chymical Wedding.

May we all called to the marriage feast as we prepare to receive the baptism by fire from the Holy Spirit

xox ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Greetings friends on this Whitsun Weekend 2020 –
The birth of Bio-Dynamics thru Rudolf Steiner occurred at Whitsun time in 1924, when he gave us the Agriculture Course – in the hopes that we would take up this impulse to spiritualize the earth.

TONGHT: Putting Whitsun into the will:

7 pm CDT Friday 29 May 2020
The Merry Prep-Stirs of Chicago are doing a Whitsun Prep – coordinating with many other Bio-Dynamic folks around the world, & YOU are invited. Come stir in Social Solidarity around the campfire. BYO beverages or snacks. Musical instruments encouraged. Contact Hazel@ReverseRitaul.com for details

Hilma af Klint - A Pioneer of Abstraction - 7.3.2014 - 6.7.2014 — Hilma af Klint

Whitsunday 31 May 2020 – Online 9 am–10:15 am CDT Zoom Call*
~Vitae Sophia~ A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire

Through leading thoughts and conversation we are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.

*Join Zoom Meeting on computer https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85927907854
Meeting ID: 859 2790 7854

or Dial in by phone: Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbEIk8kgk1 Meeting ID: 859 2790 7854

For more info. contact deb@anthroposophy.org

POD

~with simple sandals
i walk before my Beloved
but in the house of heaven my feet are still…
my breast is a lyre that hums,
my lungs fill with living fire,
a cool breeze encircles me,
there is no need for haste…
~hag

Vitality

May 25, 2020Festival, Insight, Poetry, Quote~hag

“There is not only one health, but there are as many healths as there are human beings. We must incorporate that in our attitude if we want to see the issues of health and illness in the right light. We must incorporate in our attitude that the human being is an individual being that every human being is different from the other, and that that which is salutary to the one is noxious and disease causing to the other, that it completely depends on his individual state“.

~Rudolf Steiner – GA 57 – Where and How Does One Find the Spirit?: Lecture VIII: Issues of Health in the Light of Spiritual Science – Berlin, 14th January, 1909

“…And how did you manage to bring so many souls to hell back then?
Because of fear.
Oh, yeah. Excellent strategy; old and always current. But what were they afraid of? Fear of being tortured? Fear of war? Hunger?
No. Afraid of getting sick.
But then, no one else got sick back then?
Yes, they got sick.
No one else died?
Yes, they died.
But there was no cure for the disease?
There was.
Then I don’t understand.
As no one else believed and taught about eternal life and eternal death, they thought they only had one life, and they clung to it with all their might, even if it cost them their affection (they did not embrace or greet, they had no human contact for days and days); their money (they lost their jobs, spent all their savings, and still thought it lucky being prevented from earning bread! ); their intelligence (one day the press said one thing and the next day contradicted themselves, and yet they believed it all! ); their freedom (they didn’t leave their house, they didn’t walk, they didn’t visit their dying relatives… It was a great concentration camp for volunteer prisoners!!!). They accepted everything, everything, as long as they could grasp their miserable lives one more day. They no longer had the slightest idea that He, and only Him, is the one who gives life and ends it. It was like this, as easy as it had ever been “.

“My Dear Wormwood, Plagues are a most effective weapon given to us by our father below. Normally, Christians are quite comfortable in receiving the dreaded sacraments and gathering in their prayers and other heinous Arts. But if you can stir up a hysteria by means of a plague so that they cut themselves off from our enemy’s gifts to them, the torment of isolation will drive them to despair and season them quite deliciously much to our delight.

Get them to forget about their usual practices of prayer, fasting and alms giving and encourage them to become gluttons, slanderers, and lose all regard for their neighbor thinking only about themselves and their immediate needs. Storing up treasures which we can send moth and rust to destroy further sweetening their torment.

If you can, help them to redefine their usual words like “church” and “fellowship” and “ministry” so that they feel comfortable cutting themselves off from our enemy’s care and they can be tempted all the more.

Yes, Wormwood, a plague is a tried and true method of taking their eyes off our enemy and getting them to worship their own bodies. A most desirable position for we tempters. Never let a good crisis go to waste!

~John Keeney

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~In the wind I hear what I see –
A low hum of vitality
The bell of flowers singing…
With the bright blade of spirit I turned new ground,
Planted seed & watched,
Beneath my hand things happened –
Grain & fruit
In time I will rise & ripen…
~hag

***

25 May 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Look west for the crescent Moon after dusk. About a fist at arm’s length above it are Pollux & Castor, the Gemini “twins.” They’re not identical twins. Pollux, on the left, is slightly brighter & tinted pale orange.

Vega is the brightest star in the northeast after dark. Look upper left of it for Eltanin, the nose of Draco the Dragon. Closer above & upper left of Eltanin are the 3 fainter stars of Draco’s stick-figure head, also called the Lozenge. Draco always points his nose to Vega, no matter the season or how they’re oriented. He seems curious about it. Dragons are supposed to have a thing for jewels. . . .

The faintest star of Draco’s head, opposite Eltanin, is Nu Draconis. They await your attention higher & higher overhead as the night progresses.

Plein Air Artists Workshops - Rangeley Maine Events and Concerts ... — Randell Langley

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

240 BC – First recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet.

1085 – Death-day of Gregor VII – One of the great reforming popes, best known for the ‘Investiture Controversy’, attacking the practice of simony (trafficking for money in “spiritual things”- named after Simon Magus, who is described in Acts 8:9–24 as offering Peter & John, payment in exchange for their empowering him to impart the Holy Spirit to anyone he laid hands on) & his dispute with Henry IV. In Rudolf Steiner’s Karma Lectures Vol. I/12 he was revealed as Haeckel in a previous life.

A Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson — Fascinating Womanhood

1803 – Birthday of Ralph Waldo Emerson an American essayist, lecturer, & poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism.

1803- Birthday of Edward Bulwer-Lytton an English novelist, poet, playwright, & politician. Theosophists Annie Besant & especially Helena Blavatsky incorporated his thoughts & ideas, from: ‘The Last Days of Pompeii’, ‘Vril’, ‘The Power of the Coming Race’ & my fav. ‘Zanoni’, in her own books.

He coined the phrases “the great unwashed”,”pursuit of the almighty dollar”, “the pen is mightier than the sword”, “dweller on the threshold”, as well as the well-known opening line “It was a dark and stormy night”.

One must have chaos within oneself, if one is to be a dancing star ...

1904 – Birthday of Wilhelm Jordan a German writer & politician, seen as “a precursor of Nietzsche and pioneer of Darwin in Germany”; Known for his books ‘mysterium’ Demiurgos & his translation of the Edda.

***

“…Like an evening vapor after the sunset…”
Ascension Festival with the Central Regional Council
Links to the video recording & resources offered on Thursday, May 21, 2020

‘Ascension comes as the blossoming world is reaching fullness. Trees and plants, stirring upward in growth, touched by the warmth and light from above embody heaven’s blessing in color and fragrance. The whole of nature reaches upward towards the heights.

The longing of the human soul strives also, upward, in unison with nature, seeking the touch of world-warmth from the sun. This mood of Ascension attunes all of life to the cosmic expanses’.

Thank you for joining us, on this artistic exploration of Ascension.

Special THANK YOU to Geoff Norris, Nancy Melvin and Mary Ruud for their contributions!

The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to view the videos and materials used throughout this conference.

Ascension Festival
The link to the video is here
The link to the script is here
The link to the images is here

For more info. contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@peoplepc.com

May Hope Spring Eternal –

The CRC – Marianne Fieber, Alberto Loya, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Lisa Dalton

***

~Vitae Sophia~ A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Online Whitsunday, 31 May 2020 from 10 am–11:15 am EDT Zoom Call*

*Join Zoom Meeting on computer https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85927907854

Meeting ID: 859 2790 7854

or Dial in by phone: Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbEIk8kgk1 Meeting ID: 859 2790 7854

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

Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire

For more info. contact deb@anthroposophy.org

The Return

May 23, 2020Celestial Event, Festival, History, Insight, Poetry~hag

3757 - Madonna on a Crescent Moon with a cloak of stars - Museum ...

Dear Friends – Our work on earth began with a push & a pull – an often painful, laborious, process of ‘Spirit becoming matter’. Since the ‘Turning Point of Time’ we are called to make the equally labor-some return – to consciously strive to spiritualize matter.

And since the advent of the current age of Michael as Time Spirit, our mission is to redeem the adversarial forces, in particular that side of ‘modern science’ that wants to keep us stuck in matter.

We are called, dear friends, to transform the laboratory bench into an altar.

The moment we work from a place of reverence, & wonder – a sacred space where interest is generated by the warmth of love, we are consecrating matter, recalling, sensing & beholding the spirit in Nature, to co-create a ‘Spiritual Science.’

With Heart-Thinking, the Christ Impulse will permeate the “I” of the scientist. And religion, science, & art will radiate out as a healing force in the world.

That’s what I am thinking about today, as I sit in this time between Ascension & Whitsun…

What are you thinking?

23 May 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: As soon as you can see Venus as the twilight moves in, start looking for Bella Luna, a very thin crescent Moon, hardly more than a day old, & then find Mercury, they make a triangle together as the Sun sets.

Catch a Falling Star Digital Art by Marilyn Wilson — Bilstrum Sennwel

POD

…I have fallen down upon the earth, to gain the powers of the stars…~hag

Painting "Tree of Life" (Rev. 22:1-2, Isaiah 55:9-11) Artwork by ... — Michelle Tripp

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1498 –Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake in Florence, Italy. Savonarola was an Italian Dominican friar. He was known for his prophecies & his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule & the exploitation of the poor. The Florentines expelled the ruling Medici &, at the friar’s urging, established a “popular” republic. Declaring that Florence would be the New Jerusalem, the world center of Christianity & “richer, more powerful, more glorious than ever”, enlisting the active help of Florentine youth.

In 1495 when Florence refused to join Pope Alexander VI’s Holy League against the French, the Vatican summoned Savonarola to Rome. He disobeyed & defied the pope by preaching under a ban, highlighting his campaign for reform with processions, bonfires & pious theatricals. In retaliation, the Pope excommunicated him.

A trial by fire proposed by a rival Florentine preacher to test Savonarola’s divine mandate turned into a fiasco. On May 23, 1498, they condemned, hanged, & burned him in the main square of Florence.

The King's First Marriage is Declared Null and Void - The Tudor ...

1533 – The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null & void.

1934 – The American bank robbers Bonnie & Clyde are ambushed by police & killed in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.

Heinrich Himmler | Biography & Facts | Britannica

1945 –Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Schutzstaffel, commits suicide while in Allied custody.

***

~Vitae Sophia~ A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Online Whitsunday, 31 May 2020 from 10 am–11:15 am EDT Zoom Call (9 am – 10:15 am CDT)

*Join Zoom Meeting on computer https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85927907854

Meeting ID: 859 2790 7854

or Dial in by phone: Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbEIk8kgk1 Meeting ID: 859 2790 7854

Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire

For more info. contact deb@anthroposophy.org

Rise Up

May 21, 2020Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Festival, Insight, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

The festival of Ascension is a mystery not only of the forces of the macro-cosmic kingdom of the Son, into Earth-existence, but also the connection that opens us to the forces proceeding from the sphere of the Father.

Monday of Jubilate: You will see Me, because I go to the Father ...

The gospel of mark tells us: ‘Then the Lord, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into the heavenly spheres & sat down at the right hand of the World-Father as the fulfiller of His deeds’.

As a result of the conversations over the 40 days with the presence of The Risen Christ, the apostles were able to receive the primal sources of a new imaginative clairvoyance – removing the veil hiding the true image of death which is really a facet of the Father-God in the aspect of Creator – what is born must die, but thru Christ death becomes life.

The scene of the ascension brought to manifestation the inner content of death as a revelation of man’s higher, imaginative consciousness, which has its source in the kingdom of the divine Father.

Ascension Day [Eastertide 2018] — Tamara Hill Murphy | A ... — Tamara Hill Murphey

According to the 5th gospel, the Ascension was for Christ Himself an event which is comparable only with death in human life, where the human becomes a fully spiritual being again. – At that moment the true meaning of death was made manifest to the apostles, they beheld it with their own eyes to be a process of union with the world of the Divine.

Ascension" New Original Abstract 24" x 36" Painting Print Unframed ... — Fredrick Jenttop

From that ‘turning point of time’ onward, Rudolf Steiner tells us that, one of the 1st experiences of every human being after death, is a contemplation of Christ’s Ascension, which can reveal to the person’s soul, the true picture of death & its connection to the spiritual world that lies closest to the earth, & with the highest sphere of the Father.

Mondernist paintings by Teofan Sokerov in the Patriarchal … | Flickr — Teofan Sokerov

For the person who on earth worked to understand the mystery of Golgotha, this picture of the ascension after death becomes an affirmation, but for the soul that has not worked towards true spiritual knowledge, it is a picture of reproach. Helping us seek in freedom to understand this mystery in our next life.

Nico Westerdale - About Me — Nico Westerdale

Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘It is the Christ-impulse that works on after death; it is this impulse under whose influence man frees himself from the Moon-sphere, penetrates the starry Sun-sphere & from the impulses given to him by beings of the starry world, is there able to work upon the forming of the physical organism for his next earthly life’. Dornach 15 Sept. 1922

Christ takes our Moon-Karma upon Himself, enabling our soul to find the path of the true Ascension, which leads to the world of the fixed stars.

In the scene of the Ascension we have an indication of the all-encompassing influence of the Christ Being, as the Lord of Karma, upon the life of the human soul after death.

Tonight: more layers will be reveled

Until soon

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

TGIF Recital: Santa Fe Community Coll... | May 3 | Santa Fe Reporter — June Sailo

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

21 May 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The Eve of the New Moon. Mercury cozys up to Venus in conjunction overnight. The best time to view the pair is immediately after sunset. Look Northwest. It’s one your last chances to view Venus for a while; she will continue her journey into the underworld, out of view earlier & earlier each night, while Mercury will begin to climb higher.

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

The Ascension of Jesus — Nathan Mark Phillips — Nathan Mark Phillips

Ascension Thursday 2020

Birthday of Mary Magdalene, sister of Martha & Lazarus.The Gospels of Luke & Mark say 7 demons were cast out of her by Jesus. She became one of Jesus’ most celebrated disciples. Within the four Gospels she is named at least 12 times, more than most of the apostles. She is most prominent in the narrative of the crucifixion of Jesus, John 19:25–26 notes that she stood by the cross, near the Virgin Mary & the Apostle whom Jesus loved. According to all 4 Gospels,[Matthew 28:1–8] [Mark 16:9–10] [Luke 24:10] [John 20:18] she was, either alone or as a member of a group of women, the 1st to testify to the resurrection of Jesus. John 20 & Mark 16:9 specifically name her as the first person to see Jesus after his resurrection.

“…As the Spiritual Soul is the principle in which the Spirit Self develops, this principle is called the “mother of Christ,” or, in the occult schools, the “Virgin Sophia.” Through the fertilisation of the Virgin Sophia the Christ could be born in Jesus of Nazareth. In the occult school of Dionysius, the Intellectual Soul was called “Mary,” and the Sentient Soul “Mary Magdalene.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Gospel of John (Basle): Lecture V

1265 – Birthday of Dante – according to Rudolf Steiner “…Dante became a seer at the age of thirty-five”. “…All leaders of mankind, who were aware of how the higher spiritual life of man arises out of his lower nature, have comprehended the significance of Easter. Dante therefore described his awakening — in his Divine Comedia — as taking place on Good Friday.”

“…Dante had a friend and teacher Brunetto Latini, who, as I think you will recognise from what we shall presently say, may be described as an Initiate in the true sense of the word.”

“…When you follow the teaching of the Templars, there at the heart of it is a kind of reverence for something of a feminine nature. This femininity was known as the Divine Sophia, the Heavenly Wisdom. Manas is the fifth principle. the spiritual self of man, that must be developed, for which a temple must be built. And, just as the pentagon at the entrance to Solomon’s Temple characterises the fivefold human being, this female principle similarly typifies the wisdom of the Middle Ages, This wisdom is exactly what Dante sought to personify in his Beatrice. Only from this viewpoint can Dante’s Divine Comedy be understood. Hence you find Dante, too, using the same symbols as those which find expression in the Templars, the Christian knights, the Knights of the Grail, and so on. Everything which is to happen [in the future] was indeed long since prepared for by the great initiates, who foretell future events, in the same way as in the Apocalypse, so that souls will be prepared for these events.” ~ Rudolf Steiner, The Temple Legend

1860 – Giuseppe Garibaldi begins his attack on Palermo, Sicily, as part of the Italian unification

1907 – Bubonic plague breaks out in San Francisco

1941 – World War II: The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic killing over 2,100 men

1941 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaims an “unlimited national emergency”

2006 – The 6.4 Mw Yogyakarta earthquake shakes central Java leaving more than 5,700 dead & 37,000 injured.

2016 – Barack Obama is the first president of United States to visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park & meet Hibakusha.

***

Veil Paintings | Kristin Lee Hager Art — Kristin Lee Hager

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Steller is the golden seed from which the corn arises,
Earthly is the Sun on the hill from which springs god’s day…
My body nourishes some unfolding time & purpose
My heart lifts like the Moon
& power quivers on the water…
I shine bronze & gold
& silver in the mirror of the unveiled Isis…
Today
The fixed stars & the circling planets are glad…
~hag

***

Sustainer of Life on Earth

May 20, 2020Central Regional Council, Festival, Insight, Poetry~hag

Catch a Buzz With Two New Books About Bugs - The New York Times — Guy Benter

The Honeybee, Sustainer of Life on Earth
Inspired by Gunther Hauk, dedicated to Ines Katharina

Rarely are we aware of the very subtle interrelationships of life, for they are hidden by what we see, or perhaps don’t see, & simply take for granted. As an example: we know that great herds of buffalo provided meat, hides & bones for the American Indians. And yet, these gifts were almost side effects compared to the critical, yet less-seen role that the bison had of building up the deep, rich soil in the prairies, an abiding fertility that was essential in creating the breadbasket of our nation. Our conventional agriculture is still relying on this richness, but depleting it by the year.

When we think of the honeybee, we think of her gifts of pollinating about 3/4 of our daily food, of the honey she prepares out of the nectar of plants, of pollen & propolis. These, too, are minor contributions to life on earth, compared to the far greater importance she holds as sustainer of life. She shares this task with all the stinging insects, the hornets & wasps, the other bee species & the ants.

Sustainer of life on earth? Isn’t this a bit exaggerated? What then do they give us?- Believe it or not, it’s the acids! An organic substance, in homeopathic dilution, which is the basis of all life: DNA, fatty acids, amino acids, peptic acid, uric acid, folic acid, just to name the more familiar ones. Without these acids, no life processes could take place!

In plants it is the oxalic acid that provides the basic life-giving substance. Oxalis clover, rhubarb, & wood sorrel have lots of it, & we can taste the sour acid element more easily than in most vegetables.

In the animal kingdom, specifically in the stinging insects, it is the formic acid that plays a major role. Formic acid (formica = the ant) is the poison we feel when an ant bites us or a wasp or bee stings us. Each of these species produces a variation of formic acid.

As the bees & wasps receive nectar & pollen from the flowers, they are able to take in some of this oxalic acid, but they do not only take, they also provide a gift for the plants. As these insects fly & crawl through nature, they distribute their formic acid.

This formic acid, in finest dilution, wafts through the air & in Spring the germinating seeds & budding perennials receive this formic acid that has been produced the year before & still saturates the atmosphere, as their Spring tonic. So, these stinging insects are the nurturers of life on earth, since plants provide food, directly or indirectly, to all other beings.

Oxalic & formic acid each acts as an invigorator, a booster to the life processes for the other kingdoms. It is with the help of minute quantities of formic acid that the earth’s entire plant life grows & thrives. And, on the other hand, it is the plants’ oxalic acid that stimulates & invigorates all of the animal & human kingdom.

As we eat our spinach, broccoli, chard, carrots, the fruit & berries, we also take up the oxalic acid contained in them. Now a mysterious transformation occurs: we are able to change this acid into our very own formic acid!

“It is an established fact that our entire endocrine processes—governing growth, health, reproduction—function by virtue of minuscule amounts of the secretion created by the pituitary gland. Little, if any, scientific knowledge exists that on the same level of importance, this process of transforming oxalic acid into formic acid lets us live as spiritual beings in a physical body ~Rudolf Steiner, “Bees”.

For our life on Earth we depend on the vast numbers of stinging insects, which enliven the plant kingdom with their formic acid. SO our attitude toward these insects will have to undergo a drastic revision, away from disdain, anger, & fear – toward gratitude & respect, a nurturing, instead of killing.

Thinking of the honey bee, the ants, wasps & hornets, we can now understand that our lives depend on them. The honey bee takes a special place among all these formic acid producing insects because they live through the winter as a colony of perhaps 10 -20 thousand individual workers. By the end of March they may have already doubled their numbers & by the Summer Solstice, they reach 40-60 thousand individual worker bees. The vast numbers of honeybees flying already in early Spring not only contribute to the much needed pollination, but to the amount of formic acid released into nature. Now perhaps we can appreciate that our very lives depend on the care of the honeybee, & that we must participate with them in the sustaining of life on earth.

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~To my body I gave the power of my heart
Bee love & create I said
Beat within the grace of the world’s rhythms
A radiant Sun
In tune with the music of becoming
A ferry thru dark churning waves
An oasis flowing with fresh waters
On the high tide of blessings
To open my head
to pure thought unfolded
~hag

***

Venus & Mercury are dancing toward each other as we speak. Coming into a tight conjunction in the northwest at evening twilight. Although they look close together, Mercury is on the far side of the Sun from us while Venus is now on the near side.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

World Bee Day – Birthday in 1734 of Anton Janša, the pioneer of beekeeping. The purpose of this international day is to acknowledge the role of bees & other pollinators for our eco-sytem

First Council of Nicaea | Description, History, Significance ...

325 – The First Council of Nicaea is formally opened, starting the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church. Its main accomplishments were settlement of the Christological issue of the divine nature of God the Son & His relationship to God the Father, the construction of the first part of the Nicene Creed, & establishing uniform observance of the date of Easter, & the promulgation of early canon law.

John Cabot - Route, Facts & Explorer - HISTORY

1497 – John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship Matthew looking for a route to the west.

Vasco da Gama's Historic Voyage | On Point

1498 – Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovers the sea route to India when he arrives at Calicuta India.

Typus Orbis Terrarum.: Geographicus Rare Antique Maps

1570 – Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas.

1609 – Shakespeare’s sonnets are illicitly published in London, by Thomas Thorpe.

The siege and massacre of Magdeburg | History of Sorts

1631 – The city of Magdeburg in Germany is seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire & most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years’ War.

1645 – Yangzhou massacre: the 10-day massacre of 900,000 residents of the city of Yangzhou, part of the Transition from Ming to Qing.

1802 – By the Law of 20 May 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte reinstates slavery in the French colonies, revoking its abolition in the French Revolution.

1813 – Napoleon Bonaparte leads his French troops into the Battle of Bautzen in Saxony, Germany, against the combined armies of Russia and Prussia. The battle ends the next day with a French victory

May 20, 1862: President Abraham Lincoln Signs the Homestead Act ...

1862 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law

1883 – Krakatoa begins to erupt; the volcano explodes three months later, killing more than 36,000 people.

1891 –The first public display of Thomas Edison’s prototype kinetoscope.

1902 – Cuba gains independence from the United States.

Auschwitz: Key Dates | The Holocaust Encyclopedia

1940 –The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz.

1956 – In Operation Redwing, the first United States airborne hydrogen bomb is dropped over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean

NEW U.S. REPORT NAMES VIRUS THAT MAY CAUSE AIDS - The New York Times

1983 – First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by Luc Montagnier.

Tiananmen Square: How the 'Goddess of Democracy' became a symbol ...

1989 – The Chinese authorities declare martial law in the face of pro-democracy demonstrations, setting the scene for the Tiananmen Square massacre.

***

Cognitive Ritual

~Confessions of a Modern Rosicrucian

Category Archives: Insight

Preparing for the Baptism by Fire

Vitality

The Return

Rise Up

Sustainer of Life on Earth

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: