Category Archives: Insight

Pour it out

Celestial Event, Chicago Event, Festival, Insight, Poetry, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote

28 March 2018 – Astro-Weather: Before the first hint of dawn tomorrow morning, look for Mars & Saturn glowing just 2° apart in the south-southeast. They’re above the Sagittarius Teapot.

 

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

“Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.” ~ Thomas Aquinas

1483 – Birthday of Raphael,(Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino) Italian painter & architect. In Rudolf Steiner’s last address he speaks about this individualities’ previous lives as John the Baptist & Elijah.

1515 – Birthday of St. Teresa of Ávila, From the Pastoral Medicine lecture #5: “In the case with such personalities as St. Teresa there is continuous healing coming from the spirit. When we study these individuals, we find that as a first stage the ego organization separates from the rest of the human organism. It then draws the astral body closely to it, in a certain sense away from the physical-etheric organism. This is in the waking state. What is the consequence of this? You can easily see that this puts the individual into a kind of dream condition. From a spiritual-scientific point of view the ego, by drawing the astral body to itself, is not allowing it to enter the physical and etheric bodies completely, and this brings about a kind of dream condition. But because of the special karmic density, both ego and astral body are strong, and they bring into the dream condition receptivity for the perception of the spiritual world. Dream is transformed into a state in which the individual is really able to see into the spiritual world and to feel the presence of spiritual beings.” ~Rudolf Steiner

1592 – Birthday of John Amos Comenius, Czech bishop Pansophia educator. Rudolf Steiner speaks of him as an adviser to Harun-al-Rashid in the Karmic Relationships Vol. 6 lecture 8. “…Haroun al Raschid and his wise Counsellor passed through the gate of death. But after their life between death and rebirth they continued to pursue their earthly aims in remarkable ways. It was their aim to introduce Arabian modes of thinking into the European world with the help of the rudiments of the Intelligence now spreading in Europe. And so after Haroun al Raschid had passed through the gate of death, while his soul was traversing spiritual, starry worlds, we see his gaze directed unswervingly from Baghdad across Asia Minor, to Greece, Rome, Spain, France and then northwards to England. Throughout this life between death and rebirth his attention was directed to the South and West of Europe. And then Haroun al Raschid appeared again in a new incarnation — becoming Lord Bacon of Verulam. Bacon himself is the reincarnated Haroun al Raschid who in the intervening time between death and rebirth had worked as I have just described.

But the other, the one who had been his wise Counsellor, chose a different direction — from Baghdad across the Black Sea, through Russia and then into Middle Europe. The two individualities took different paths and directions. Haroun al Raschid passed to his next earthly goal as Lord Bacon of Verulam; the wise Counsellor during his life between death and a new birth did not divert his gaze from the sphere where influences from the East can be increasingly potent, and he appeared again as Amos Comenius (Komenski), the great educational reformer and author of “Pan-Sophia.” And from the interworking of these two individualities who had once been together at the Court in Baghdad there subsequently arose in Europe something which unfolded — more or less at a distance from Christianity — in the form of Arabism derived from influences of that past time when the Intelligence had first fallen away from Michael on the Sun.

Here we have indicated something that lies as sub-strata of the soil into which we to-day have to sow the seeds of Anthroposophy. We must ponder deeply over the inner and spiritual reality behind these things”.

1941 – DeathDay of Virginia Woolf, English novelist, essayist, short story writer.

1943 – DeathDay of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian pianist, composer, & conductor

1985 – Deathday of Marc Chagall, Russian-French painter & poet

1994 – DeathDay of Eugène Ionesco, Romanian-French playwright & critic

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)]

~I have burnt the old palms
To release the phoenix
This Dies Cinerum
Will raise the Lenten veil
Just enough
That I may enter
The house of Lazarus
As friend & sister
To pour the precious oil
~hag

***

NO STUDY AT THE BRANCH TONIGHT (I have a CRC meeting)

 

Greetings Friends on this Holy Wednesday, ruled by Mercury, who for the Greco-Roman world was both the god of healing & also the god of merchants & of thieves.

It is “Mitt-woch”. The balance of Holy Week, is sought, as the drama turns inward.

Both Judas & Mary Magdalene are typical Mercury people – active & temperamental; something is always happening round them. Mary Magdalene transforms her restlessness into peaceful devotion, & the capacity for love. She anoints the head of Christ with precious spikenard oil, a spiritual act. Christ accepts what this woman does as a fulfillment of the Last Anointing.

Judas declares her deed extravagant & becomes indignant. He pretends to want something for the poor; yet it is only self-deception, his own inner restlessness, not a genuine social impulse. His unrest springs from a deeply hidden fear, opening him to the adversarial power which leads him to betray Christ. A soul driven by fear & hate cannot show devotion; above all, it cannot love.

So, in the two figures, Mary Magdalene & Judas, we stand at a crossroads. One leads to the realization of the imminence of Christ; the other into the dark night.

All the individuals taking part in the scenes of Holy Wednesday – Mary, Martha, the risen Lazarus, & Judas, show us unique approaches in the expression of the mysteries.

Join us on March 29th Holy Thursday 7 pm – 9 pm as we continue the compelling saga of The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz 

Also Good Friday, March 30th, Rudolf Steiner’s DeathDay 7 pm – 9 pm

Then: Holy Saturday March 31st & Easter Sunday, April 1st 2018 – 4 pm – 6 pm

***Please print your own copy of the text***

4 pm – 6 pm Easter Sunday April 1st 2018

Christian Rosenkreutz: ‘Granum Pectori Jesu Insitum’

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Social Art, Group Eurythmy & 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@ReverseRitual.com

***

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

 

Vote

Celestial Event, Chicago Event, Festival, Insight, Poetry, Remembering, Spring

20 March 2017 – Astro-Weather: For those of you tired of winter weather, good news: Today is the Spring equinox. Earth’s vernal balance occurs at 11:15 am CDT, which marks the moment when the Sun crosses the celestial equator traveling north. The Sun rises due east & sets due west today.

After dark Leo strides up the eastern sky, with his brightest star Regulus in his forefoot & the Sickle of Leo extending upper left from there.

About two fists lower left of Regulus are the two stars of Leo’s rear end & tail: Delta Leonis & below it, slightly brighter Beta Leonis, or Denebola, the tail tip

As evening grows late & this scene rises higher, look left of Denebola, by a fist or a little bit more, for the big, dim Coma Berenices star cluster. Its brightest members form an upside-down, tilted Y. It’s visible even through some light pollution.

***

Kirsty Mitchell.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

“I turn to history not for lessons but to confront my experience with the experience of others and to win for myself a sense of responsibility for the state of the human conscience”. ~ Zbigniew Herbert

Today is the Illinois Primary – Don’t forget to VOTE

Nowruz (Persian: literally “New Day”) the Iranian New Year, also known as the Persian New Year. Nowruz is partly rooted in the traditions of Mitraism & Zoroastrianism. In Mitraism, festivals had a deep linkage with the sun light. The Iranian festivals such as Mehrgan (autumnal equinox), Tirgan, & the eve of Chelle ye Zemestan (winter solstice) also had an origin in the Sun god (Surya). Among other ideas, Zoroastrianism is the first monotheistic religion that emphasizes broad concepts; such as the corresponding work of good & evil in the world,& the connection of humans to nature. Zoroastrian practices were dominant for much of the history of ancient Iran.

Although having Iranian & religious Zoroastrian origins, Nowruz has been celebrated by people from diverse ethno-linguistic communities for thousands of years. It is a secular holiday for most celebrants that is enjoyed by people of several different faiths, but remains a holy day for Zoroastrians

Bethany Roberts

OSTARA (pronounced O-STAR-ah) is celebrated on the Vernal or Spring Equinox. The name for this Sabbat actually comes from that of the Teutonic lunar Goddess, Eostre. Her chief symbols are the bunny (for fertility & because the Ancient Ones who worshiped her often saw the image of a rabbit in the full moon), & the egg (representing the cosmic egg of creation). This is where the customs of “Easter Eggs” & the “Easter Bunny” originated.

Ostara is a time to celebrate the arrival of Spring, the renewal & rebirth of Nature herself, & the coming lushness of Summer. It is at this time when light & darkness are in balance, yet the light is growing stronger by the day. The forces of masculine & feminine energy, yin & yang, are also in balance at this time. At this time we think of renewing ourselves. We renew our thoughts, our dreams, & our aspirations. We think of renewing our relationships. This is an excellent time of year to begin anything new or to completely revitalize something. This is also an excellent month for prosperity rituals or rituals that have anything to do with growth.

Customs such as the lighting of new fires at dawn for healing, renewed life, & protection of the crops still survive in the Southern Americas as well as in Europe. Eggs were gathered & used for the creation of talismans & also ritually eaten. The gathering of different colored eggs from the nests of a variety of birds has given rise to two traditions still observed today – the Easter egg hunt, & coloring eggs in imitation of the various pastel colors of wild birds. It is also believed that humankind first got the idea of weaving baskets from watching birds weave nests. This is perhaps the origin of the association between colored Easter eggs & Easter baskets.

There is much symbolism in eggs themselves. The golden orb of its yolk represents the Sun God, its white shell is seen as the White Goddess, & the whole is a symbol of rebirth. The Goddess Eostre’s patron animal was the hare.

The Spring Equinox is a time of new beginnings, of action, of planting seeds for future grains, & of tending gardens. Spring is a time of the Earth’s renewal, a rousing of nature after the cold sleep of winter. As such, it is an ideal time to clean your home to welcome the new season. “Spring cleaning” is much more than simply physical work. It may be seen as a concentrated effort to rid your home of the problems & negativity of the past months, & to prepare for the coming spring and summer. To do this, we may approach the task of cleaning our homes with positive thoughts. This frees the home of any negative feelings brought about by a harsh winter. A common rule of thumb for Spring cleaning is that all motions involving scrubbing of stains or hand rubbing the floors should be done “clockwise”. This custom aids in filling the home with good energy for growth.

Appropriate Deities for Ostara include all Youthful and Virile Gods and Goddesses, Sun Gods, Mother Goddesses, Love Goddesses, Moon Gods and Goddesses, & all Fertility Deities. Some Ostara Deities to mention by name here include Persephone, Blodeuwedd, Eostre, Aphrodite, Athena, Cybele, Gaia, Hera, Isis, Ishtar, Minerva, Venus, Robin of the Woods, the Green Man, Cernunnos, Lord of the Greenwood, The Dagda, Attis, The Great Horned God, Mithras, Odin, Thoth, Osiris, & Pan.

Key actions to keep in mind during this time in the Wheel of the Year include openings & new beginnings. Work for improving communication & group interaction are recommended, as well as fertility & abundance. Ostara is a good time to start putting those plans and preparations you made at Imbolc into action. Start working towards physically manifesting your plans now

43 BC – Birthday of Ovid, Roman poet

Nikolai Bodarevsky

303 – Birthday of Saint Alexandra of Rome, wife of the Emperor Diocletian who secretly converted to Christianity. While Saint George was being tortured, Alexandra went to the arena, bowed before him & professed her faith openly. When she questioned whether she was worthy of paradise & of martyrdom without being baptized, Saint George told her “Do not fear, for your blood will baptize you.” She was denounced a Christian & imprisoned on her husband’s orders in Nicomedia, then sentenced to die. Her husband was so outraged by her conversion that he is said to have uttered “What! Even thou hast fallen under their spell!”

1602 – The Dutch East India Company is established

1616 – Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment

1726 – Deathday of Isaac Newton, English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, & philosopher

1760 – The Great Boston Fire  destroys 349 buildings

1815 – After escaping from Elba, Napoleon enters Paris beginning his “Hundred Days” rule

1828 – Birthday of Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian poet, playwright, & director

1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published

1861 – An earthquake completely destroys Mendoza, Argentina

1915 – Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity

1922 – The USS Langley is commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier

1923 – The Arts Club of Chicago hosts the opening of Pablo Picasso‘s first United States showing, entitled Original Drawings by Pablo Picasso, becoming an early proponent of modern art in the United States

1928 – Birthday of Fred Rogers, American television host & producer

1933 – Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler ordered the creation of Dachau concentration camp as Chief of Police of Munich & appointed Theodor Eicke as the camp commandant.

1995 – The Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo carries out a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, killing 12 and wounding over 1,300 people.

2003 – Invasion of Iraq: In the early hours of the morning, the United States and three other countries (the UK, Australia and Poland) begin military operations in Iraq

2012 – At least 52 people are killed and more than 250 injured in a wave of terror attacks across ten cities in Iraq

2015 – A Solar eclipse, equinox, & a Supermoon all occur on the same day

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~ TODAY I AM
Cupped in the hands of beggars
Yawning on every street corner,
& in the small dark mouth of a bird…
~hag

***

Paul Bond

“Spring is coming, spring is coming
birdies build your nest.
weave together straw and feather
doing each your best.
spring is coming, spring is coming
flowers are waking, too.
daisies, lilies, and daffodils
now are coming through.
spring is coming, spring is coming
all around is fair.
shimmer, glimmer on the meadow,
joy is everywhere.”

Equinox means “equal night” when the sun is positioned above the equator & day and night are about equal in length all over the world. This is the start of the Astrological year. Many ancient cultures built structures to point directly toward the rising Sun on this day every year. The celebration of the Vernal Equinox is about new life & hope, the planting of seeds & the activation of the fertility cycle.

A look into the ancient Mystery Schools honoring The Vernal Equinox: The Spring Equinox is also called: Alban Eilir, Eostar, Eostre, Feast of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Festival of Trees, Lady Day, NawRuz, No Ruz, Ostara, Ostra, Rites of Spring. The Old Testament heroine of Spring was the goddess Ishtar- Persian for ‘star'(Esther is the Aramaic word for Ishtar).  So Ishtar was the goddess of the morning & evening star, as well as being the Great Mother, Shining One, Lady of Visions, Priestess of Priestess’, she was the source of the Oracles of Prophesy, & Possessor of the Tablets of Life’s Records.Her symbols were the eight pointed star, the pentagram, dove, serpents, & the double axe. Her planet was Venus. She wore a rainbow necklace. The Persians converted this necklace (the rainbow) into a razor-sharp bridge that led to the Mount of Paradise. In ancient Sumeria, she had 180 shrines where women gathered daily for prayer, meditation, & socializing. The night of the full moon, known as Shapatu, saw joyous celebrations in her temples.

In Ireland, the spring equinox was celebrated long before the arrival of the Celtic tribes. The best known of the ancient Irish equinox temples is Knowth, which is near to Newgrange (Brú na Boinne). Knowth has a 100-foot long passage that accepts the Sun on the morning of the Spring & Autumn Equinox. A second & older stone cairn equinox temple is found at Longhcrew & is given the name Cairn T. Both Knowth & Cairn follow a sunbeam on the morning of the Equinoxs to enter a passageway lighting up the sacred geometry on a back stone inside the temple. This precise timing from a period of over 6 thousand years ago still works today.

The German fertility Goddess was Ostara, who was associated with fertility. Ostara mated with the solar god on the Spring Equinox & nine months later she gave birth to a child at the Winter Solstice.

The Saxon name for the Germanic lunar goddess Ostara was Eostre. Her festival was held at the full moon after the Spring Equinox just like our Easter celebrations.

The Mayans of Central American have also honoured the spring equinox. For ten centuries they have held their unique celebration using their ancient knowledge of the Sunbeam. El Castillo is the name of their great pyramid of the Equinox & as the sunsets on its western face light & dark compliment each other creating a very special pattern of a diamond backed snake descending the pyramid. This solar magic has always been known as the “The Return of the Sun Serpent”.

For the Greeks the god-man of the Spring Equinox was Dionysus. He was associated with flowering plants & fruitful vines & he was always in pain during winter, symbolizing hibernation & the cessation of growth. He returned triumphant on the Spring Equinox & many researchers see direct parallels with the story of Jesus Christ.

Mesopotamia, Sumeria, Babylonia, Elam (5000 years ago) celebrated the start of their new year at the time of the spring equinox. Zoroastrianism was the religion of Ancient Persia until the advent of Islam 1400 years ago. “Nooruz,” their ‘new day’ or New Year was celebrated on the Spring Equinox. Many religious historians connect Judeo-Christian concepts to Zoroastrianism.

In Rome, about 200 years before the birth of Christ there was a wide range of what are today called “mystery cults”. Attis & Cybele held their Spring Equinox rituals at the location of today’s St. Peter’s on Vatican hill. Attis was also known under various names such as Osiris, Dionysus, Tammuz & Orpheus. The Attis & Cybele festival had a death or day of blood & three days of semi-death & then a return to life for the deceased. Attis‘s mother was called Nana & she was a virgin. Attis was crucified on a pine tree.  His blood was spilled to redeem the earth. Attis was both a sacrificial victim & a savior, his death & re-birth was intended to bring salvation to mankind. Most researchers will say that Attis is clearly a prefiguring prototype for The Christ.

In Judaism we can see that the Passover dinner was their spring fertility festival. It records the escape of the ancient Hebrews from slavery in Egypt – its main meal was of unleavened bread & lamb.

In America the native Indians honoured the Spring Equinox in landscape-sized temples such as Mystery Hill in Salem NH. Five standing stones & one recumbent stone are set in a linear alignment that connects the sunrise on both the Spring & Autumn Equinoxes.

March 20-23, is the mid-point of the Waxing Year. The spark of light that was born at Winter Solstice has reached maturity, & from this point forward, the days grow longer than the nights. This is the time of full Dawn, 6:00 a.m. on the Year Clock, & so was the time of the festivals of the Grecian Goddess, Eostre, & the Germanic Ostara, both Goddesses of Dawn. (It is from these Bright Ladies that the modern Easter holiday takes its name). This is the time that is often seen as the time of Kore’s return from the Underworld, where She (as Persephone) has ruled throughout the Winter. It is also the time of the celebration of the rebirth of Adonis the Beautiful.

Spring is the time for a celebration of planting & of the greening of the Earth. Folks start to talk about having ‘Spring Fever’ & doing ‘Spring cleaning’, as the brighter sunshine provides a needed morale boost.

Many traditions associated with Spring Equinox have been retained over the years & grafted onto the Easter celebration. Even today, people arise early on Easter morning to attend ‘Sunrise Service’. (Remember Eostre, the Dawn Goddess?)

May this time of new beginnings bring you the fresh start you need, as you begin to plan & to plant the seeds for the future you want to see grow with the light.

Xox ~Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

***

Our Monthly Community Conversation

Friday March 23rd 2018 – 7 pm – 9 pm

Come be part of our ongoing Goethean Conversation about the future of Anthroposophy and its cultivation here in Chicago.

***

The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz –

Our Holy Week Study & Easter Festival 

Palm Sunday, March 25th – 2 pm – 4 pm,

Holy Monday – Good Friday, March 26- 30th – 7 pm – 9 pm

Holy Saturday March 31st & Easter Sunday, April 1st 2018 – 2 pm – 4 pm

This primary Rosicrucian text provides a 7 stage initiation, which we will traverse together on each of the days of Holy Week. We will discuss the symbolism & render some of the images from the text using various artistic mediums.

Please print your own  PDF copy

for more info. Contact  Hazel (at) ReverseRitual.com 

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…

Beetles at the door

Insight, Poetry, Remembering

12 march 2018 – Astro-Weather: After dark, Orion‘s near-horizontal Belt points to the right toward orange Aldebaran in the west &, farther on, the little Pleiades star cluster subtly glittering. The Pleiades are heading down to a twilight rendezvous with Venus in six weeks. They’ll pass closest to Venus for a few nights around April 23rd.

Mars’ eastward motion relative to the background stars carries it from Ophiuchus into Sagittarius today. The Red Planet rises around 2 am CDT & climbs high in the south-southeast by the time twilight begins. Although the passage from Ophiuchus into Sagittarius is little more than a technical milestone, it does set up a series of pretty conjunctions with some of the Archer’s deep-sky gems starting next week.

 

Sun enters the constellation of The Fishes: “…We are still only about a third into our Age in which the spiritual soul will be developed. Thus we are still in the throes of shedding and transforming the forms inherited from the past and struggling to realize our true humanity and the tasks of our age.  We can see in the world around this battle to move out of the forms of the past: religions defined by dogma and the law rather than conscious human awareness of the spiritual;  social forms based on archaic hierarchical structures created out of the old mystery traditions;  a sense of selfhood defined out of the old Roman personality cult;  and a view of nature as devoid of spirit and separate from our humanity.  These old forms of the past seek to hold on in humanity because the very nature of evil is that it seeks to retain the past beyond it’s appointed time, thus preventing evolution into the future.  In this way the adversary powers work to hold humanity back from its spiritual development.  In this way they hinder the move towards the new experience of the etheric Christ which will be the only foundation for our forward evolution into the Aquarian future.

Pisces constellation carries this struggle, which contains both a kind of culmination of the past and the start of something new.  It is the challenge of the Consciousness Soul age.  The two fishes swim apart..the one towards the past, Greco-Roman Age, the other towards the future, the Aquarian Age..a polarity in need of resolution through the work of the ego.   The two spheres stand side by side  horizontally…the worlds of matter and spirit, faith and knowledge in need of resolution through the human being; the constellation of hands and feet, through which we take up the world of matter and shape it; through which we reach out to the other to build community and through which we learn to stand on our own two feet as free beings in the world.   In this constellation is carried now the mystery of Golgotha/Easter through which the great separation was healed. It is through this deed of love that we can realize what this age requires in order to stand as brothers with fellow human beings, with even our own double being, and with the world of higher divine beings.  No longer do we live in hierarchy as children of the gods…but since the deed of Christ, we can begin to work as brothers with Him.” ~Jonathan Hilton On behalf of the Astrosophy Center

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

6th Century – DeathDay of Pope Gregory the Great: “Non Angli, sed angeli” – “They are not Angles, but angels”.

1312 – Abolition of the order of Knights Templar

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Blessings on the beetle sun
Which rolls into life humming a shining ball of song…
The world is a little patch of ground you travel
From your cosmic space with no haste
Sing us into spring...
~hag

***

Initially, the Knights Templar faced criticism from some religious leaders. But in 1129, the group received the formal endorsement of the Catholic Church & support from Bernard of Clairvaux, a prominent French abbot.

In 1139, Pope Innocent II issued a Papal Bull that allowed the Knights Templar special rights. Among them, the Templars were exempt from paying taxes, permitted to build their own oratories, & held to no one’s authority, except the Pope’s.

The Knights Templar set up a prosperous network of banks & gained enormous financial influence. Their banking system allowed religious pilgrims to deposit assets in their home countries & withdraw funds in the Holy Land.

The order became known for its austere code of conduct & signature style of dress, which featured a white habit emblazoned with a simple red cross.

Members swore an oath of poverty, chastity & obedience. Prayer was essential to their daily life, & the Templars expressed particular adoration for the Virgin Mary.

As the Knights Templar grew in size & status, it established new chapters throughout Western Europe.

At the height of their influence, the Templars boasted a sizable fleet of ships, owned the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, & served as a primary bank &lending institution to European monarchs & nobles.

The Fall of Acre in 1291 marked the destruction of the last remaining Crusader refuge in the Holy Land. European support of the military campaigns in the Holy Land began to erode over the decades that followed. Additionally, many secular & religious leaders became increasingly critical of the Templars’ wealth & power.

By 1303, the Knights Templar lost its foothold in the Muslim world & established a base of operations in Paris. There, King Philip IV of France resolved to bring down the order, perhaps because the Templars had denied the indebted ruler additional loans.

On Friday, October 13, 1307, scores of French Templars were arrested, including the order’s grand master Jacques de Molay. Many of the knights were brutally tortured until they confessed to false charges, which included heresy, homosexuality, financial corruption, devil worshipping, fraud, spitting on the cross & more.

A few years later, dozens of Templars were burned at the stake in Paris for their confessions. De Molay was executed in 1314.

Under pressure from King Philip, Pope Clement V reluctantly dissolved the Knights Templar TODAY 12 March 1312. The group’s property & monetary assets were taken by King Philip & King Edward II of England, seizing most of the Knights Templar’s wealth.

***

 

 

Bang the Stave

Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Chicago Event, Insight, Lecture, Poetry, Quote, Remembering

7 March 2017 – Astro-Weather: The waning gibbous Moon passes  north of Jupiter today, & the two make a pretty sight – the brightest point of light in the sky, Jupiter remains conspicuous all week. The King of the gods rises shortly after 11 pm CDT climbs highest in the south as twilight commences. This giant expansive kingdom resides among the stars of the constellation Libra.

***

Thomas Aquinas by Fra Bartolommeo

“How is it they live in such harmony, the billions of stars, when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their minds?” ~Thomas Aquinas

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

161 – Deathday of Emperor Antoninus Pius, who is succeeded by his adoptive son Marcus Aurelius

321 – Emperor Constantine I decrees that the dies Solis Invicti (sun-day) is the day of rest in the Empire

 

Carlo Crivelli

1274 – Deathday of Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican Friar & Theologian, “The prince of Scholastics”. Nickname in school=The ‘dumb ox’. Also known as the ‘Angelic Doctor’. “It must be realized that Thomas Aquinas, in the 13th Century, attained the concepts and ideas he elaborated in his writings in a completely different way from the way ideas are acquired today. One must think of his books as being inspired by a spirit from the Hierarchy of the Angeloi and that he recorded what came from a higher consciousness” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Karma of Materialism

Aquinas, who is most renowned for his Five Ways of Proving the Existence of God, believed that both faith and reason discover truth, a conflict between them being impossible since they both originate in God.

Believing that reason can, in principle, lead the mind to God, Aquinas defended reason’s legitimacy, especially in the works of Aristotle. The philosophy of Aquinas continues to offer insights into many lingering problems in Metaphysics, the Philosophy of Mind, & the Philosophy of Religion & Ethics.

Albertus Magnus by Tommaso da Modena

In Rudolf Steiner’s historic sketch of the life of thought in the Middle Ages, he shows how Albertus Magnus ( an earlier incarnation  of Ita Wegman) & Thomas Aquinas ( an earlier incarnation of Aristotle & Rudolf Steiner himself) & the Scholastics of the 12th century gave an impetus towards what in the twentieth century has come to be known as Spiritual Science, or Anthroposophy.

“The Middle Ages would not have produced what is called Scholasticism — the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus and the other Scholastics — if this philosophy, this world conception, with all its social consequences, had not been inspired by the most important thought of the Church, by the Easter thought. In the vision of the descending Christ, Who lives for a time in man on Earth and then goes through the Resurrection, that soul impulse was given which led to the particular relation between faith and science, between knowledge and revelation which was agreed upon by the Scholastics. That out of man himself, only knowledge of the sensible world can be acquired, whereas everything connected with the super-sensible world has to be gained through revelation — this was determined basically by the way the Easter thought followed upon the Christmas thought.” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Cycle of the Year as Breathing-Process of the Earth

Aristotle by Raphael

“Thomas Aquinas made himself thoroughly familiar with the world conception of Aristotle, who becomes, as it were, his master in the life of thought…For centuries, he is il maestro di color che sanno, the master of those who know, as Dante expresses the veneration for Aristotle in the Middle Ages.”

“Thomas Aquinas had intended on the one hand to investigate the world through physical research and intellectual knowledge but, on the other hand, that he had wanted to supplement this intellectual knowledge with the truths of revelation. But he had done that precisely to gain access to the unifying principle of the world.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, 12 June 1923

“Of the great Dominicans, St. Thomas Aquinas is especially noteworthy because in him the influence of the astral body of Christ was manifest to a high degree.”

“St. Francis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas had copies of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth woven into their souls, and it is this fact that allowed them to be such dynamic teachers. They worked from a sphere in which Christ had once lived.

In some cases external events such as natural catastrophes or similar things enhance this weaving of spiritual bodies into the soul of the recipient. It is said of St. Thomas Aquinas that lightning struck and killed his little sister in the room where he happened to be standing, but spared him. He interpreted this lightning bolt next to him to the effect that elemental forces were necessary to help him take up the copy of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. Elisabeth of Thüringen also had an imprint of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth in her soul”. ~ Rudolf Steiner, The Principle of Spiritual Economy, Rome, March 28, 1909

1792 – Birthday of English astronomer Sir John Frederick William Herschel. In 1864, he published the General Catalogue of Nebulae & Clusters, which astronomers still use today

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the “telephone

1913 – The Berlin chapter of the Theosophical Society, of which Rudolf Steiner was president & Marie von Sivers secretary, is officially annulled.

1965 – Bloody Sunday: A group of 600 civil rights marchers is brutally attacked by state and local police in Selma, Alabama

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~My heart kips in the house of Hearts
Like a knotting vine
Blue & red blood twist thru me
Humming like a hive awakened…
Bang the stave
While thunder opens my chest to love…
My raw, red heart leaps & answers the call
Of my head ignited…

~ Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

The Karma Project – A Western Approach to Reincarnation & Karma –
March 7, 2018 – 7:15 pm CST (8:15 pm EST)
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to our FREE conversation with special guest Frederick Amrine.

Fred Amrine is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in German Studies at the University of Michigan. A prolific author and translator of Rudolf Steiner, Fred has been an anthroposophist his entire adult life.

Steiner’s Karma lectures of 1924 are, strangely (and against usual press practices) not arranged chronologically. Moreover, two key lectures are entirely missing from the series, including Rudolf Steiner’s all-important “Last Address.”

This is very unfortunate for a number of reasons. These lectures, above all, should be read as one continuous cycle, and it is extremely important to read them in the right chronological sequence, for reasons that Fred Amrine will detail in his talk.

Audioconference Details

Option 1. Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended): https://zoom.us/j/499410574

Option 2. Call in using your telephone.

United States: (646) 558-8656 or: (669) 900-6833
Access Code: 499-410-574

Please join us – All are Welcome!

Agenda

7:15 Welcome and introductions
7:18 Verse
7:20 Introduce guest speaker
7:25 Guest Speaker: Frederick Amrine (45 minutes)
8:10 Q&A – Please state your name, location before asking a question
8:28 Close with verse

***

Sophie Takata

From Necessity to Freedom – Social Sculpture & Experiential Discourse with Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Friday March 9th 2018 at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 7 pm – 9 pm

From the vaporous cleft of Mount Parnassus, & the birth place of Greek Philosophy, to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, on to the Holy Grail. From Prophesy to Warning, from Fate to Karma, From Destiny to Free Will.

Through the insights of Spiritual Science, the power of Social Arts, & Story-Telling, we will journey into our soul-depths to stand before the “Daughters of Necessity” that we will transform into “Freedom Fighters” to meet our true calling; asking: ‘What is my Highest Purpose?’

$10 Love Donation

***

Our Monthly Community Conversation

Friday March 23rd 2018 – 7 pm – 9 pm

Come be part of our ongoing Goethean Conversation about the future of Anthroposophy and its cultivation here in Chicago.

***

The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz –

Our Holy Week Study & Easter Festival 

Palm Sunday, March 25th – 2 pm – 4 pm,

Holy Monday – Good Friday, March 26- 30th – 7 pm – 9 pm

Holy Saturday March 31st & Easter Sunday, April 1st 2018 – 2 pm – 4 pm

This primary Rosicrucian text provides a 7 stage initiation, which we will traverse together on each of the days of Holy Week. We will discuss the symbolism & render some of the images from the text using various artistic mediums.

Please print your own  PDF copy

for more info. Contact  Hazel (at) ReverseRitual.com 

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…

 

 

Can we hear the speed of light?

Central Regional Council, Chicago Event, Insight, Poetry, Remembering

6 March 2018 – Astro-Weather: Jupiter & Bella Luna showing her waning gibbous face, rise in company around the middle of the night. By early dawn on Thursday, they hang together in fine view in the south.

If you head outside after darkness falls & look to the west, you’ll see the stars of Taurus the Bull about halfway to the zenith. The V-shaped Hyades star cluster, which forms the Bull’s face, points straight toward the horizon. To the right of the Hyades lies the spectacular Pleiades star cluster & to the left are the glittering jewels that form Orion the Hunter’s shape.

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

12 BC – The Roman Emperor Augustus is named Pontifex Maximus, incorporating the position into that of the emperor.

632 – The Farewell Sermon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Daniele da Volterra

1475 – Birthday of Michelangelo, Italian painter & sculptor

1619 – Birthday of Cyrano de Bergerac, French author & playwright

1806  – Birthday of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. – poet. She campaigned for the abolition of slavery & her work helped influence reform in the child labor legislation. Her prolific output made her a rival to Tennyson as a candidate for poet laureate on the death of Wordsworth.

1888 – Deathday of Louisa May Alcott, American novelist & poet, best known as the author of the novel Little Women. Raised by her transcendentalist parents, Abigail May & Amos Bronson Alcott in New England, she also grew up among many of the well-known intellectuals of the day such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, & Henry David Thoreau. Alcott was an abolitionist & a feminist & remained unmarried throughout her life.

1943 – Norman Rockwell published Freedom from Want in The Saturday Evening Post with a matching essay by Carlos Bulosan as part of the Four Freedoms series

1964 – Boxing champion Cassius Clay takes the name Muhammad Ali

1975 – For the first time the Zapruder film of the assassination of John F. Kennedy is shown

1986 – Deathday of Georgia O’Keeffe, American painter – the “Mother of American modernism”. In 1905, O’Keeffe began her serious formal art training at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago & then the Art Students League of New York, but she felt constrained by her lessons that focused on recreating or copying what was in nature…The rest is herstory…

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

Sam Brown

~Awaken & contemplate
The inward clues
& open your eyes
To the outward signs
Chaos adds its odd time meter
To the harmony of the spheres…
Can we hear the speed of light?
~hag

***

Every morning that week I awoke to greet the Sun rising over the intercostal, a spit of sea in Boca Raton, set apart from the great expanse of the Atlantic Ocean.

Before commencing with my morning meditations, I made a point to commune with the local elementals, so diverse from the usual beings near the Great Inland Sea of Chicago.

On the day of Purim, which also happened to be the Full Sap Moon, the Storm Moon, the Worm Moon; the iridescence of a tiny dragonfly caught my eye. It was a happy surprise since I had never once seen an insect on the actual balcony, which I had always wondered about. Seeing it hovering so close cheered me greatly. I sang & honored the small creature, & went on to marvel at the busy pelicans & loud Jackjaws & graceful hawks, my usual friends, then went on to work my Circle & Foundation Stone Meditations.

Later my family spent the day exploring an open reserve bird sanctuary, where the mating & nest building was furious with nonstop activity, & many young fledglings with their fine downy heads & raised beaks filled there air with a cacophony of exuberant life.

On my return I went again to the balcony, where to my delight, I was greeted by an enormous, dazzlingly luminous dragonfly, which I immediately considered to be the mother of the tiny creature I had communed with that morning. I sat with her in reverence & adoration, blessing her & all her species.

Later everyone in the family gathered on the balcony for a snack. I mentioned my tiny friend, & the old man said “Yes, I saw it too, we never get insects here. Don’t worry I killed it”.

My throat tightened, my face flushed, tears rose, but just at that moment I saw 1, 2, 3 huge dragonflies darting at the edge of the balcony.  I made a sound & stood up. They all looked around – And another & another came, more & more, a literal swarm of perhaps 50 or more giant dragonflies, zipping around us. The old lady starting waving her arms in fear “We have to kill them, they will bite us”. I was aghast. I tried to tell her that they don’t bite, that they are good luck, that they are a sign from the spiritual world. Time stood still. I could hear their wings moving in the hot air. And then just as quickly as they had come, they were gone.

And everyone went on eating.

~True Story by hag

***

The Karma Project – A Western Approach to Reincarnation & Karma –
March 7, 2018 – 7:15 pm CST (8:15 pm EST)
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to our FREE conversation with special guest Frederick Amrine.

Fred Amrine is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in German Studies at the University of Michigan. A prolific author and translator of Rudolf Steiner, Fred has been an anthroposophist his entire adult life.

Steiner’s Karma lectures of 1924 are, strangely (and against usual press practices) not arranged chronologically. Moreover, two key lectures are entirely missing from the series, including Rudolf Steiner’s all-important “Last Address.”

This is very unfortunate for a number of reasons. These lectures, above all, should be read as one continuous cycle, and it is extremely important to read them in the right chronological sequence, for reasons that Fred Amrine will detail in his talk.

Audioconference Details

Option 1. Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended): https://zoom.us/j/499410574

Option 2. Call in using your telephone.

United States: (646) 558-8656 or: (669) 900-6833
Access Code: 499-410-574

Please join us – All are Welcome!

Agenda

7:15 Welcome and introductions
7:18 Verse
7:20 Introduce guest speaker
7:25 Guest Speaker: Frederick Amrine (45 minutes)
8:10 Q&A – Please state your name, location before asking a question
8:28 Close with verse

***

From Necessity to Freedom – Social Sculpture & Experiential Discourse with Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Friday March 9th 2018 at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 7 pm – 9 pm

From the vaporous cleft of Mount Parnassus, & the birth place of Greek Philosophy, to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, on to the Holy Grail. From Prophesy to Warning, from Fate to Karma, From Destiny to Free Will.

Through the insights of Spiritual Science, the power of Social Arts, & Story-Telling, we will journey into our soul-depths to stand before the “Daughters of Necessity” that we will transform into “Freedom Fighters” to meet our true calling; asking: ‘What is my Highest Purpose?’

$10 Love Donation

***

Our Monthly Community Conversation

Friday March 23rd 2018 – 7 pm – 9 pm

Come be part of our ongoing Goethean Conversation about the future of Anthroposophy and its cultivation here in Chicago.

***

The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz –

Our Holy Week Study & Easter Festival 

Palm Sunday, March 25th – 2 pm – 4 pm,

Holy Monday – Good Friday, March 26- 30th – 7 pm – 9 pm

Holy Saturday March 31st & Easter Sunday, April 1st 2018 – 2 pm – 4 pm

This primary Rosicrucian text provides a 7 stage initiation, which we will traverse together on each of the days of Holy Week. We will discuss the symbolism & render some of the images from the text using various artistic mediums.

Please print your own  PDF copy

for more info. Contact  Hazel (at) ReverseRitual.com 

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…