Category Archives: Insight

“When the trees melt away in a sun soaked cotton dream”

Summer Greetings Friends

I have been having some awful technical problems, not being able to publish posts. It’s been hit & miss, mostly miss, so if there is anyone out there that might be able to help, please contact me, so I can get back into the flow. Thanks for your patience as I work this thru.

Palais Garnier

18 June 2018 – Astro-Weather: Catch a peek at Mercury in this week’s early evening sky. The innermost planet stands high in the west-northwest a half-hour after sunset .

Just before dawn on Thursday 21 June 2018, our Day-Star Sun stands still – as it reaches its highest & most Northern point in our sky, fulfilling the meaning of Solstice.

WilliamBlake

At the same time, Venus & Mars stand on either side of the Earth in the exquisite tension of lovers in opposition, empowering their ancient connection. Mercury & Jupiter look on, encouraging their communication & expansion.

Venus, the Goddess of Love & Beauty stands as the ‘Evening Star’ in the West, working from the region of the Beehive Cluster in the Constellation of Cancer – the breast of the universe – the womb-gate of humanity.

Mars, the warrior; rises in the East at dawn, striving in the Constellation of Capricorn – the portal of initiation, opposite to the sign of Cancer.

This powerful configuration, of these primordial paramours, embraces us all in the cosmic out-breath of Summer that reaches the height of light. Our human souls surrender to this revelation, to be reborn in cosmic thinking.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

101 years ago, In June  Rudolf Steiner spoke for the 1st time about Three-Folding…Are we ready to carry this seed to the next stage…?

Understanding of the world as it actually is, has the ability to bring spiritual knowledge right down into the practical life of humanity, into the stubborn spheres of technical industry & economics, as well as into the thinking, the moral life & the actions of the human being – this is one side of Rudolf Steiner’s challenge. The other is the development of the inner life of soul which generates love for human beings and the wisdom to promote their spiritual & social wellbeing…The inspirer of the 20th century has lived among us, & lives among us still. Is it not for us to work as laborers unto harvest?” ~D.N. Dunlop, “Rudolf Steiner and the fulfillment of the Quest.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

What is presented here can be useful to those who wish to follow the path of humankind’s spiritual development” ~Rudolf Steiner about the Calendar of the Soul

Feast Day of the Archangel Uriel

1178 – Five Canterbury monks see the Giordano Bruno crater being formed. It is believed that the current oscillations of the Moon’s distance from the Earth are a result of this collision.

1429 – French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeat the main English army under Sir John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay. This turns the tide of the Hundred Years’ War.

1812 – The United States declaration of war upon the United Kingdom is signed by President James Madison.

Elizabeth Thompson

1815 – The Battle of Waterloo results in the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte  forcing him to abdicate the throne of France for the second & last time.

1873 – Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election.

1901 – Birthday of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia

1916 – Deathday of Helmuth von Moltke, nephew of Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke, served as the Chief of the German General Staff from 1906 to 1914. See “Light for the New Millennium: Rudolf Steiner’s Association with Helmuth & Eliza von Moltke” This collection of letters and documents deals with themes that are of tremendous significance for our time: especially karma and reincarnation; life after death; the workings of evil; the destiny of Europe; and the hidden causes of the First World War. It also tells the story of the meeting of two great men: Rudolf Steiner and Helmuth von Moltke (1848-1916), Chief of the general staff of the German army during the outbreak of the First World War, who was dismissed from his post in 1914 following disagreements with the Kaiser.

Moltke first came into contact with Steiner through his wife Eliza. Steiner’s connection to Moltke included personal meetings, letters, and clairvoyant messages after the General’s death. These communications are reproduced here in full, along with a key interview with Rudolf Steiner for Le Matin and commentaries and essays by Jürgen von Grone, Jens Heisterkamp, Johannes Tautz and T. H. Meyer.

See also Helmuth Von Moltke and the Origins of the First World War By Annika Mombauer

1924 – Rudolf Steiner travels to Koberwitz & Lauenstein to give the curative Pedagogy

1928 – Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean

1929 – Deathday of Michael Bauer,  German teacher, author, theologian & anthroposopher. In 1914, the Anthroposophical Society is founded in Cologne, Germany, with about 3,000 members.  Michael Bauer was on the Executive Council with Marie von Sivers,  & Carl Unger.

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I marveled
at that light,
and grasped it,
and brought it up to the sun.
I laid hold up on it,
and will not let it go.”
~Makeda, Queen of Sheba, c 1000 BC

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St. John’s Festival: Cosmic Rapture Grounded in Jubilant Hearts
Art Projections & Discourse with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Sunday 24 June 2018, 2– 4 pm at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in America – Chicago

ALSO: at the Nashville Branch 3 July 2018 – 4804  Sewanne Road Nashville TN

Pot Luck Dinner: 6 pm

Festival: 7pm-9pm

Please RSVP.  Barbara Bittles

And then in Maryville, TN on Sunday 8 June 2018 (details TBA)

Come join our Initiatory Workshop to discover the New Mysteries of St. Johns-Tide.

To pass the test of Summer we will explore many questions:
* How do we stand wakefully within the sublime mysteries of the Summer-Tide, to consciously embody ‘the spiritual wisdom of the gods’?
* Who is the mysterious Archangel of Summer?
* Who is John the Baptist? What do his sayings “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” And “He must increase, but I must decrease.” really mean?
*  What is the secret to healing the ‘soul-fever’ so prevalent in society today?
* What is the mystery of the Dragon-fly, & other elemental beings?
* How can we understand the ‘Cycle of the Year as Breathing Process of the Earth’?

Together we will work to strengthen our true “I”, enlivening our will forces with various social-artistic exercises:

Singing with Ultra-Violet Archer https://itunes.apple.com/…/beyond-blue-and-red-ep/1357968825

Folk Eurythmy
Questions to the Universe

$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged
For more info. contact Hazel

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by Grace Kahn

by Sophia Karris

“When the trees melt away in a sun soaked cotton dream”
http://www.rudolfsteiner.org/…/Grace_art_show_poster_june_2…

25 June 2018 ~MORAL MONDAY CHICAGO: 7 pm – 9 pm

Art Exhibit with Musical Performances from the Youth 
at Elderberries Chicago 4251 N. Lincoln Ave.

Illustrations by Grace Kahn, & Sophia Karris

New works by Shanti Rogers, Art booth by Liz Rosu-Rosenberg

Songs from “Beyond Blue and Red” by Ultra-Violet Archer 
https://itunes.apple.com/…/beyond-blue-and-red-ep/1357968825

Chance Schneider & DJ Grapefruit Effect

 

$10 Donation – MORE or less (Youth under 21 FREE)

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Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map) Check out our Web site! Chicago, IL (Anthroposophical Society in America)
http://www.rudolfsteiner.org/groups/chicago-il/

The Elderberries 3-Fold Space is currently available for rental on PEER SPACE for classes, events, meetings, retreats, art exhibits, family parties, etc…

https://www.peerspace.com/…/listin…/5a2872fbc0029221006de7d8

Inflamed with the Fire of Truth

20 May 2018 – Astro-Weather: Venus crossed the border from Taurus the Bull into Gemini the Twins yesterday, & tonight She slides north of the Beehive Cluster.

Sun in Bull: Pentecost by Jonathan Hilton

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Love is the final end of the world’s history, the Amen of the universe” ~Novalis

Jim Whalen

Pentecost (50 Days after Easter) Whitsunday:

  • Festival of United Soul Endeavor & Spirit Community
  • Festival of the Higher Self & the Universal Human Being
  • Festival of the Holy Spirit
  • Festival of Flowers
  • Festival of the human being released from materialism
  • Festival of the purified astral body

Martin Bridge

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 ecosytem

First Council of Nicaea

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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Elaine Welker

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

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Whitsun Contemplation

At the Turning Point of Time the ego or “I” of Zarathustra had to leave the body of Jesus at the Baptism, to allow the Christ Being to enter; appearing 1st like a dove above the head of John the Baptist as the voice of the father god was heard. Only the “I” of the Nathan Jesus, which was pure, could bear the Christ, & only for 3 years.

Knowing this we may ask: How can The Christ live in us without driving out our “I” or completely extinguishing our individuality with its cosmic forces?

We are able to strive to live into the ideal of ‘Not I, but Christ in me’, only because Christ sent the Holy Spirit, which enables the human “I” to receive the Christ Being fully. Rudolf Steiner tells us: “Christ wanted to dwell amongst humankind, but He did not want to obscure the emerging ego-consciousness of human beings. He had done this once in Jesus, in whom from the Baptism onwards a consciousness of the Son lived in place of his ego-consciousness. But this was not something that was to take place in people of future times. In the case of such people the ego was to be able to rise up in full consciousness, and yet the Christ could dwell with them…so Christ sent that divine being who does not extinguish ego-consciousness, that humanity might be able to retain their ego-consciousness and have the Christ dwell within them.” (GA 214, 30 July 1922) 

In the ‘Farewell Discourses’ from St. John’s Gospel, Christ Himself characterizes this coming of the Spirit of Truth: “But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit Whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and awaken your memory of all that I have said to you” (John 14:26)

In the 5th Gospel, Steiner talks about how for 40 days after the Resurrection, The Christ was able to provide secret teachings to the disciples about the mysteries of the spiritual world, together with its significance not only for the evolution of the human & earthly world, but also for the world of the gods. But that the disciples were in a sort of mystic state of mind, not fully conscious.

So, as also indicated in the ‘Farewell Discourses’, The Holy Spirit comes to reach right into the inner being of the disciples in order to dwell there as Wisdom, leading to a clear & conscious understanding of these essential secrets of the Mystery of Golgotha.

And so it is that this promise comes to fulfillment 50 days after the Resurrection, on that 1st Whitsun morning, amidst the surging winds, that the disciples might become apostles, taking up their individual tasks; speaking from the heart -the language that all may understand.

As spirit-pupils in the School of Spiritual Science striving to make the content of the Lessons of the 1st Class alive within us, especially the 18th lesson, which brings us to the Cosmic Realm of the Holy Spirit of Truth, the source of the Paraclete; we can achieve a reality where a renewed Whitsun is possible, now & in the times to come.

~hag

Here are my art collages from our Whitsun 2018

 

 

Rise Up I Shout

4 May 2018 – Astro-Weather: A grand dance: METEORS FROM HALLEY’S COMET Earth is entering a stream of debris from Halley’s Comet, source of the annual Eta Aquariid meteor shower.  This year’s shower is expected to produce the greatest number of meteors in the small hours before dawn on May 5 & 6th. The meteors tend to enter the atmosphere at speeds of around 148,000mph — so don’t blink. The best time to watch these fast & often bright meteors is in the early morning hours, before twilight. Meteors tend to come in spurts that are interspersed by lulls.

ALSO:

Keep a watch on the changing patterns Venus makes with Her background stars from week to week. As Aldebaran & the Pleiades sink away, Beta Tauri (El Nath) above Venus closes in.

Summer is seven weeks off, but the Summer Triangle is making its appearance in the east, one star after another. The first in view is Vega. It’s already shining low in the northeast as twilight fades out.

Next up is Deneb, lower left of Vega by two or three fists at arm’s length. Deneb takes about an hour to appear after Vega does.

The third is Altair, which shows up far to their lower right by midnight.

As dawn begins on Saturday morning May 5th, the waning gibbous Moon shines between Saturn & Mars.

Salvador Dali

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY – Past/Present/Future:

250 AD – Feast day of St. Florian the patron of Upper Austria, chimney sweeps; soapmakers, & firefighters. The “Florian Principle” (known in German language areas as “Sankt-Florians-Prinzip”) is named after a somewhat ironic prayer to Saint Florian: “O heiliger Sankt Florian, verschon’ mein Haus, zünd’ and’re an”, equivalent to “O Holy St. Florian, please spare my house, set fire to another one”. This saying is used in German much like the English “not in my back yard. The name Florian is considered synonymous with fireman in the German speaking world. In some cases call for a fireman will actually be spoken as calls for Florian.

1493 – The Division of the world: The Spanish-born Pope Alexander VI decreed in a Papal Bull that all lands west & south of a pole-to-pole line one hundred leagues west & south should belong to Spain. Portugal objected because its status & rights had been omitted & overlooked. King John II of Portugal began negotiations directly with King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella of Spain to push the line west & allow him to lay claim to lands discovered east of it. The result was the Treaty of Tordesillas.

1875 – Birthday of Hermann Beckh a pioneering German Tibetologist & prominent promoter of anthroposophy.

Due to his unusual memory skills, & his many interests & talents, his peers encouraged him towards law. It became clear to him that he was not made out to be a judge when he had to impose a fine on a poor married couple for stealing wood. He paid the couple’s fine out of his own pocket & left his position.

He later took up the study of oriental languages, Indology, & Tibetology. In 1907, he received his doctorate with a thesis on Kalidasa’s poem Meghaduta.

In 1911, he met Rudolf Steiner & Friedrich Rittelmeyer, which led to his intensive study of Steiner’s work. On Christmas Day, 1912, he became a member of the Anthroposophical Society.

In 1916, Beckh was drafted into military service, shortly after he published two volumes about the Buddha & his teachings. Stationed in the Balkans, he was called to work in the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Due to his task, he learned the Scandinavian languages in addition to: English, French, Italian, Classical Greek & Latin, Hebrew, Egyptian, Sanskrit, Tibetan & Old Persian.

From 1920 onwards, he worked as a lecturer of anthroposophy. In March 1922, he joined the Circle of Priests of The Christian Community & worked until his death as a priest, seminary teacher, lecturer, independent researcher & writer. In 1928, “Mark’s Gospel: The Cosmic Rhythm” was published, in which he related the narration of the gospel of Mark to the path of the sun through the twelve zodiac signs. In Beckh’s exposition, Mark’s gospel could be understood more in connection with the “earthly” signs seen in the planets, & John’s gospel more in connection with the “stellar” zodiac  of the fixed stars. At the time of The Mystery of Golgotha the planets & the constellations were together, not separate as they are now, due to the progression of the equinoxes.  In the Introduction to the sequel, “The Cosmic Rhythm, the Secrets of the Stars & Earth in the Gospel of John” (1930), Beck favorably mentioned Wilhelm Kaiser’s “Die geometrischen Vorstellungen in der Astronomie” (1928), & referred to The Novices of Sais, of Novalis.  Beckh died in Stuttgart, in 1937.

~   ~   ~

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Light stands behind
The clouds gifting rain
A question in reflection
Hovers
Moving about in my bones
Rise up I shout
There is work to do

~hag

 

~   ~   ~

Yoram Raanan

Climbing Jacob’s Ladder – A Festival of Ascension, part 2 of a Lecture by ~Hazel ArcherGinsberg

Ascension is a festival of the hierarchies. Remember, that when Christ descended thru the heavens, & came into human form, the hierarchies lost His presence. They could only find Him by looking into the depths  – bearing witness to  the God Who entered physical existence to remind earthly humanity of its cosmic citizenship.

At the Ascension, the mystery of the resurrection was brought for the 1st time to the company of heaven – Signaling the return of the lost world of earth into the community of the stars. Since that time, the life of this planet is renewed with the cosmic forces that stream earthward. 

The sacrifice of Christ initiated on earth, was the antidote to the consequences of death brought on by the Fall – the redemptive deed that turns death into life.

The Concentrated seed of Christ’s deed, continues to grow in the earth thru the connection to the stars. When the Risen Christ returned ‘to sit at the right hand of the Father’, at the Ascension, He became the bridge between the above & below.

As the Christ has ascended, so too, in the fullness of time will humanity be transfigured. The company of the hierarchies wait, for us, their younger siblings to ascend in our thinking to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while at our sides.

To read the entire lecture:  Ascension 2014 Climbing Jacobs Ladder

Blessings & Peace –

~hag = Hazel ArcherGinsberg

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Saturday 5 May 2018 – SPECIAL EVENT – Our Branch is hosting The General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America

6 pm – Community PotLuck – Let’s show these 12 guests from around the country some good hospitality from the Heart-Land – Please bring a dish to share.

7:30 pm – Open Community Conversation with John Bloom & the GC of the ASA

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Dali

Thursday 10 May 2018 – 7 pm – 9 pm

Special Study for Ascension Thursday– “Easter, Ascension, Whitsun and the Essntial Nature of the Foundation Stone of the Christmas Conference” by Sergi O. Prokofieff from his book “The cycle of the Year as a Path of Initiation”

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Stephen B Whatley

Friday 18 May 2018, 7 pm – 9 pm, 

Whitsun: A Festival of United Soul-Endeavor,

Art Projections & Lecture with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg.

Experiential Social Art with special guest TBA

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Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map) Check out our Web site! Chicago, IL (Anthroposophical Society in America)

The newly renovated (& lazured) Elderberries 3-Fold Space is currently available for rental on PEER SPACE for classes, events, meetings, retreats, art exhibits, family parties, etc…

 

In the Blood

14 April 2018 – Astro-Weather: After dark, Leo walks horizontally across the meridian high in the south. His brightest star is Regulus, the bottom star of Leo’s Sickle. The Sickle forms his front leg, chest, mane, & part of his head.

Not far from Regulus, the red long-period variable star R Leonis this week should still be near its maximum brightness,

There’s also the tiny Frosty Leo Nebula nearby to hunt out, & galaxy groups to explore.

Saat Chion

Everybody should be reminded by the Easter festival, that there will be the resurrection of the spirit out of the present darkened nature of the human being”. ~Rudolf Steiner, The Riddles of the World and Anthroposophy

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

Barbara Lea

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

215 – Birthday of Mani the prophet & founder of Manichaeism – see Rudolf Steiner’s lectures GA 104 & 113

Rudolf Steiner: “…Mani was the founder of a spiritual movement which although at first only a small sect, became a mighty spiritual current. The Albigenses, Waldenses and Cathars (Note 5) of the Middle Ages are the continuation of this current, to which also belong the Knights Templar, of whom we shall speak separately, (Note 6) and also — by a remarkable chain of circumstances — the Freemasons. Freemasonry really belongs to this stream, though it is connected with others, for instance with Rosicrucianism. (Note 7)

What outer history has to say about Mani is very simple. (Note 8)

It is said that there once lived a merchant in the Near East who was very learned. He compiled four important works: first, Mysteria, secondly, Capitola, thirdly, Evangelium, and lastly Thesaurus. It is further related that at his death he left these writings to his widow who was a Persian. This widow, on her part, left them to a slave whose freedom she had bought and whom she had liberated. That was the said Mani, who then drew his wisdom out of these writings, though he was also initiated into the Mithraic mysteries. (Note 9) Mani is called the ‘Son of the Widow’, and his followers are called the ‘Sons of the Widow.’ However, Mani described himself as the ‘Paraclete’. (Note 10) the Holy Spirit promised to mankind by Christ. We should understand by this that he saw himself as one incarnation of the Holy Spirit; he did not mean that he was the only one. He explained that the Holy Spirit reincarnated, and that he was one such reincarnation. ~The Temple Legend 

1126 – Averroes, a medieval Spanish polymath. He wrote on logic, Aristotelian & Islamic philosophy, theology, the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, psychology, political & Andalusian classical music theory, geography, mathematics, & the mediæval sciences of medicine, astronomy, physics, & celestial mechanics. Averroes was a defender of Aristotelian philosophy against Ash’ari theologians led by Al-Ghazali.

Rudolf Steiner:  Through Avicenna and Averroes, something was introduced that was to enter human civilization with the beginning of the fifteenth century, namely, the struggle for the consciousness soul.”~Materialism and the Task of Anthroposophy

“…In Spain it was taught by the Moorish scholars and above all by such an individuality as Averroes, that the Intelligence holds sway everywhere. The whole world, the whole cosmos is filled with the all-pervading Intelligence. Human beings down here on earth have many different properties, but they do not possess a personal intelligence of their own. On the contrary, every time a human being is active on the earth, a drop of Intelligence, a ray of Intelligence proceeds from the universal Intelligence, and descends as it were into the head, into the body of the single human being. So that the human being as he walks about on earth, shares in the universal Cosmic Intelligence which is common to all. And when he dies, when he passes through the gate of death, the Intelligence that was his returns to the universal Intelligence, flows back again. Thus all the thoughts, conceptions and ideas which man possesses in the life between birth and death flow back into the common reservoir of the universal Intelligence. One cannot therefore say that the thing of outstanding value in man’s soul, namely his Intelligence, is subject to personal immortality. Indeed it was actually taught by the Spanish, Moorish scholars that man does not possess personal immortality. True, he lives on, but, said these scholars, the most important thing about him during his life is the fact that he can unfold intelligent knowledge, and this does not remain with his own being” ~Karmic Relationships, Volume III: Lecture XI: Evolution of the Michael Principle Throughout the Ages. The Split in the Cosmic Intelligence

 

On this day in 1561 it was Good Friday, Around dawn there was a mass sighting of celestial phenomena over Nuremberg, residents of Nuremberg saw what they described as an aerial battle, followed by the appearance of a large black triangular object & then a large crash outside of the city. According to witnesses, there were hundreds of spheres, cylinders & other odd-shaped objects that moved erratically overhead.

A broadsheet news article was printed later that month, describes objects of various shapes including crosses, globes, two lunar crescents, a black spear & tubular objects from which several smaller, round objects emerged & darted around the sky at dawn.

“In the morning of April 14, 1561, at daybreak, between 4 and 5 a.m., a dreadful apparition occurred on the sun, and then this was seen in Nuremberg in the city, before the gates and in the country – by many men and women. At first there appeared in the middle of the sun two blood-red semi-circular arcs, just like the moon in its last quarter. And in the sun, above and below and on both sides, the color was blood, there stood a round ball of partly dull, partly black ferrous color. Likewise there stood on both sides and as a torus about the sun such blood-red ones and other balls in large number, about three in a line and four in a square, also some alone. In between these globes there were visible a few blood-red crosses, between which there were blood-red strips, becoming thicker to the rear and in the front malleable like the rods of reed-grass, which were intermingled, among them two big rods, one on the right, the other to the left, and within the small and big rods there were three, also four and more globes. These all started to fight among themselves, so that the globes, which were first in the sun, flew out to the ones standing on both sides, thereafter, the globes standing outside the sun, in the small and large rods, flew into the sun. Besides the globes flew back and forth among themselves and fought vehemently with each other for over an hour. And when the conflict in and again out of the sun was most intense, they became fatigued to such an extent that they all, as said above, fell from the sun down upon the earth ‘as if they all burned’ and they then wasted away on the earth with immense smoke. After all this there was something like a black spear, very long and thick, sighted; the shaft pointed to the east, the point pointed west. Whatever such signs mean, God alone knows. Although we have seen, shortly one after another, many kinds of signs on the heaven, which are sent to us by the almighty God, to bring us to repentance, we still are, unfortunately, so ungrateful that we despise such high signs and miracles of God. Or we speak of them with ridicule and discard them to the wind, in order that God may send us a frightening punishment on account of our ungratefulness. After all, the God-fearing will by no means discard these signs, but will take it to heart as a warning of their merciful Father in heaven, will mend their lives and faithfully beg God, that He may avert His wrath, including the well-deserved punishment, on us, so that we may temporarily here and perpetually there, live as his children. For it, may God grant us his help, Amen”. Art by Hanns Glaser, letter-painter of Nurnberg

 

1759 – Deathday of G.F. Handel – composer

1865 Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford’s Theatre by John Wilkes Booth; Lincoln died the next day

1900 – The Exposition Universelle – a world’s fair held in Paris, France, from 14 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century & to accelerate development into the next. The fair, visited by nearly 50 million, displayed many machines, inventions, & architecture that are now nearly universally known, including the Grande Roue de Paris Ferris wheel, Russian nesting dolls, diesel engines, talking films, escalators, & the telegraphone (the first magnetic audio recorder)

1912 – The sinking of the Titanic

1935 – Exclusion from the General Anthroposophical Society of Ita Wegman, Elisabeth Vreed & other members also 2 national societies

1939 – The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck is first published

2010 – Over 2,700 are killed in a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture

2014 – 276 schoolgirls are abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria 

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Agostino Arrivabene

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~The combustion 
Becomes ash
& the seed is cooked in salt
As our bones grow roots
In the Earth-Womb
~hag

***

Agostino Arrivabene

I don’t know about you…but I have a powerful hunger…A spiritual hunger…that rattles my bones, stirs my loins, tugs at my belly, pounds in my heart, gets caught in my throat, burns in my eyes, & taps on the top of my head…

A hunger for roots, that go back before zero…A hunger to re-member, that life is a divine dance…pulsing in the bloodlines of a billion stars…connecting us all…A knowing that goes beyond heredity…A truth, in the blood of the I Am, earned & then shared…A striving for the living proof that Love is our mother tongue…A hunger to embrace the Goddess & the God within…A hunger for respect, & adoration…for acknowledgment, of our spirit…& so much more, that has been buried in the forgotten beat…burned at the stake…& bought & sold by the media…A hunger to heal…& reclaim the true expression of our essence…A hunger to undertake the hero’s journey that re-awakens our destiny, replacing the hunger, with a taste of our divine spiritual heritage…Calling the beat back into our cosmopolitan hearts…

& so if this rings true for you, let us make this our communal intention…along with each of our personal aspirations for this growing season of Spring, which we have an opportunity to program right here, right now…We can create sacred space most any time, most anywhere, with our intention…by connecting to the soft steady unified rhythm of our collective heartbeat…This is the cosmic rhythm of the eternal made manifest in the now…Let it awaken us…Let it harmonize us…Let it transform us…As we Become, Our Highest Self…As we begin…To balance our bones, Fulfill our selfless desire, Feed our belly with gratitude, Open the heart, Vibrate the throat, Expose our eyes, & Transcend our heads…in the many rhythms of our divine birthright…The circle is complete, yet forever open & always changing…Expand it now…To let the healing begin…

~hag

Born in magic made manifest

3 April 2018 – Astro-Weather: The waning gibbous Moon points the way to Jupiter. They appear more prominent as they climb higher & edge closer after midnight. Jupiter, the benevolent King, is easy to find all week because he shines so brightly, against the faint backdrop of Libra.

Jeremiah Briggs

Capella is the bright star high in the west-northwest during & after dusk. Its pale-yellow color matches that of our Sun, meaning they’re both about the same temperature. But otherwise Capella is very different. It consists of two yellow stars orbiting each other rather closely every 104 days

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

3 April 33 – The death day of Jesus Christ. At the same time in Mexico Vitzliputzli crucified a powerful black magician. “Now at a certain time a being was born in Central America who set himself a definite task within this culture. The old, original inhabitants of Mexico linked the existence of this being with a definite idea or picture. They said he had entered the world as the son of a virgin who had conceived him through super earthly powers, inasmuch as it was a feathered being from the heavens who impregnated her. When one makes researches with the occult powers at one’s disposal, one finds that the being to whom the ancient Mexicans ascribed a virgin birth was born in the year 1 A.D. and lived to be thirty-three years old. These facts emerge when, as stated, one examines the matter with occult means. This being set himself a quite specific task.

At this same time in Central America another man was born who was destined by birth to become a high initiate of Taotl. This man had in his previous earthly incarnations been initiated as described above and through the fact that he had many, many times repeated the procedure involving the excision of the stomach, which has been described to you and which there is no need to recapitulate, he had been gradually equipped with a lofty earthly and super-earthly knowledge. This was one of the greatest black magicians, if not the greatest ever to tread the earth; he possessed the greatest secrets that are to be acquired on this path. He was faced directly with a momentous decision as the year 30 A.D. approached, namely whether or not, as a single human individual, to become so powerful through continuous initiation that he would come to know a certain basic secret. Through knowledge of this secret he would have then been able to give such a shock and impetus to the coming evolution of man on earth that humanity in the fourth and fifth post-Atlantean epochs would have been thrown into terrible darkness, with the result that what the ahrimanic powers had striven for in these epochs could have come into existence.

Then a conflict began between this super-magician and the being to whom a virgin birth was ascribed, and one finds from one’s research that it lasted for three years. The being of the virgin birth bore a name that, when we try to transpose it into our speech approximates Vitzliputzli. He is a human person who, among all these beings who otherwise only moved about in spirit form and could only be perceived through atavistic clairvoyance, in actual fact became man, so the story goes, through his virgin birth. The three year conflict ended when Vitzliputzli was able to have the great magician crucified, and not only through the crucifixion to annihilate his body but also to place his soul under a ban, by this means rendering its activities powerless as well as its knowledge. Thus the knowledge assimilated by the great magician of Taotl was killed. In this way Vitzliputzli was able to win again for earthly life all those souls who, as indicated, had already received the urge to follow Lucifer and leave the earth. Through the mighty victory he had gained over the powerful black magician, Vitzliputzli was able to imbue men again with the desire for earthly existence and successive incarnations.” ~ Rudolf Steiner, The Mexican Mysteries and the Knights Templar Inner Impulses of Evolution lecture 3

José de Ribera

Feast Day of Mary of Egypt. In Goethe’s Faust Mary of Egypt is one of the three penitent saints who pray to the Virgin Mary for forgiveness for Faust. Her words are set by Mahler in his 8th Symphony, as the final saint’s appeal to the Mater Gloriosa.

Feast Day of Saints Agape, Chionia, & Irene (Greek: Αγάπη, Χιονία και Ειρήνη meaning Love, Purity, & Peace, born in Thessaloniki) 3 virgin sisters who, were martyred for their faith in the year 304 AD. The story of their martyrdom is the subject of Dulcitius, a 10th-century medieval Latin drama by the secular canoness, Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim, the first known female playwright.

1897 – Death day of Johannes Brahms, German pianist & composer

1922 – Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1925 – The Cremation of Rudolf Steiner at the Horburg cemetery in Basel

1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech. He was assassinated the next day

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Spring breaks thru
The diaphanous weave of Her dress
Nipples hard against the cold stone…
I am concealed
In the shimmering curtain
Of her fragrant hair –
In a spell of my own casting
Entwined in arms of splendor
About to blossom
Engendered on the in-breath of Her dreaming
Born in magic made manifest
Whirling in love outpouring
Peace & Noise…
~hag

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Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green”.

Our beloved Rudolf Steiner speaks about Easter as a spiritual event that takes place on the stage of humanity. The physical body of Jesus of Nazareth was the mediator through which the powers of the cosmos were united with the Earth aura. With the sacrifice on Golgotha, when the life-blood of the Cosmic Heart penetrated the Earth and its forces flowed down, even to the very core, the Earth became illuminated from within. The Resurrection took place, 1st at the gates of the underworld for the souls of the dead who had lost their divine nature. And with the dawn on Easter Sunday, the opportunity was then given to every single human individuality to experience this light within the self. And the seed was planted for the reunion of Sun and Earth.

The Mystery of Golgotha is the pivotal event of the whole divine process of creation, of the whole process of human evolution from its beginnings in the womb of the Spirit, to its consummation in humanity as the 10th hierarchy.

The Christian Festivals were never meant to be merely the commemoration of great historical events or simply truths of the Christian revelation, as great as these are. The Festivals in themselves, are, each year, spiritual events, carrying a significance that grows and deepens with the developing phases of human evolution, ever evolving as we do.  This is especially true of the Easter Festival, with its answer to humanity’s deepest needs, its quickening of our highest hopes; with its message of the victory of good over evil, of light over darkness, of life over death.

Again and again, from all points of view, Rudolf Steiner spoke about the deep meaning of the Easter Festival in the eternal working of the divine worlds upon humankind, in the prefiguring myths and symbols of the ancient Mystery religions, in its relation to the world of nature and the cosmic universe, in which the date of this moveable feast contains a unique mystery. For it is determined by a cosmic alignment. Right, So, as many of you know, 1st the sun must enter into the sign of Spring, then it waits, for the moon to come into its vernal fullness…then the planetary beings whose names correspond with the days of the week come into play. Holy Week.

We are invited to connect to the Solar forces, so when the first Sun-day after the full moon of spring arrives, then it is time to celebrate the Easter festival.

And there is deeper meaning still in this alignment. It indicates how through the Christ Impulse, humanity is to be set free from the forces of earth-evolution, pure and simple.

It contains a call to humanity to lift ourselves up to the worlds beyond the earth; to once again speak with the stars. It contains a promise, that in the course of world-history,

it will be possible, through the working of the Christ Impulse, for humanity to once again be united with the cosmos, in the New Jerusalem. It is for this that we strive when we celebrate the Easter Fest.

Its consequence, must be looked for in all human history, in the arts, in human thinking, in all social relationships, and even in the materialistic triumphs of modern science.

~hag

Anthroposophy itself must become like an inner festival of Resurrection for the human soul. It must bring an Easter mood into man’s world-conception.” – Rudolf Steiner, The Easter Festival in relation to the Mysteries.

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Christian Rosenkreutz: ‘Granum Pectori Jesu Insitum’ Interactive Art Projections & Lecture with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Social Art, Group Eurythmy with Mary Ruud & Singing 

$10 Donation to support Eurythmy & Art Supplies,

Snacks to Share Encouraged – Hazel will bring the Pascal Lamb

For more info. contact festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer Ginsberg