Category Archives: Insight

She is

Central Regional Council, Chicago Event, Insight, Lecture, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, The Bridging Project: Life & Death

22 January 2017 – Astro-Weather: Capella high overhead, & equally bright Rigel in Orion’s foot. They cross the sky’s meridian at almost exactly the same time: around 8 pm CST now, with Rigel marking true south

Although the asteroid Vesta reached opposition & peak visibility last week, the brightest minor planet of 2017 still shines east of Kappa this evening

Vesta Goddess of the Hearth

***

 Jim Leasure

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN Occult HISTORY

1561 – Birthday of Francis Bacon – English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, & author. He served both as Attorney General & as Lord Chancellor of England. After his death, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate of materialism & practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution. Bacon died of pneumonia, with one account by John Aubrey stating that he had contracted the condition while studying the effects of freezing on the preservation of meat. Rudolf Steiner speaks about him in a previous incarnation as Haroun al Raschid

1729 – Birthday of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist & art critic – one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays & theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature. He is widely considered by theatre historians to be the first dramaturg in his role at Abel Seyler’s Hamburg National Theatre.

From Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies – Volume I, Lecture 11 by Rudolf Steiner:

“Another personality, very well-known to you by name, is of exceptional interest in connection with investigations into karma. It is Lessing. The circumstances of Lessing’s life, I may say, have always interested me to an extraordinary degree. Lessing is really the founder of the better sort of journalism, the journalism that has substance and is really out to accomplish something. Before Lessing, poets and dramatists had taken their subjects from the aristocracy. Lessing, on the other hand, is at pains to introduce bourgeois life, ordinary middle-class life, into the drama, the life concerned generally with the destinies of men as men, and not with the destinies of men in so far as they hold some position in society or the like. Purely human conflicts — that is what Lessing wanted to portray on the stage. In the course of his work he applied himself to many great problems, as for example when he tried to determine the boundaries of painting and of poetry in his Laocoon. But the most interesting thing of all is the powerful impetus with which Lessing fought for the idea of tolerance. You need only take his Nathan the Wise and you will see at once what a foremost place this idea of tolerance has in Lessing’s mind and life. In weaving the fable of the three kings in Nathan the Wise, he wants to show how the three main religions have gone astray from their original forms and are none of them really genuine, and how one must go in search of the true form, which has been lost. Here we have tolerance united with an uncommonly deep and significant idea.

Interesting, too, is the conversation between Freemasons, entitled Ernst und Falk, and much else that springs from Freemasonry. What Lessing accomplished in the way of critical research into the history of religious life is, for one who is able to judge its significance, really astounding. But we must be able to place the whole Lessing, in his complete personality, before us.

We begin to get an impression of Lessing when we observe, shall I say, the driving force with which he hurls his sentences against his opponents. He wages a polemic against the civilisation of Middle Europe — quite a refined and correct polemic, but at every turn hitting straight home. You must here observe a peculiar nuance in Lessing’s character if you want to understand the make-up of his life. On the one hand we have the sharpness, often caustic sharpness, in such writings as The Dramatic Art of Hamburg, and then we have to find the way over, as it were, to an understanding, for example, of the words used by Lessing when a son had been born to him and had died directly after birth. He writes somewhat as follows in a letter: Yes, he has at once taken leave again of this world of sorrow; he has thereby done the best thing a human being can do. In so writing, Lessing is giving expression to his pain in a wonderfully brave way, not for that reason feeling the pain one whit less deeply than someone who can do nothing but bemoan the event. This ability to draw back into himself in pain was characteristic of the man who at the same time knew how to thrust forward with vigour when he was developing his polemics. This is what makes it so affecting to read the letter written when his child had died immediately after birth, leaving the mother seriously ill.

Lessing had moreover this remarkable thing in his destiny — and it is quite characteristic, when one sets out to find the karmic connections in his case — that he was friends in Berlin with a man who was in every particular his opposite, namely, Nikolai; an example of a true philistine. Although a friend of Lessing, he was none the less a typical philistine-bourgeois; and he had visions, most strange and remarkable visions.

Lessing, genius as he was, had no visions, not even dreams. Nikolai literally suffered from visions. They came, and they went away only after leeches had been applied. Yes, in extremity they actually applied leeches to him, in order that he might not be forever tormented by the spiritual world which would not let him alone.

At the close of his life Lessing wrote the remarkable essay, The Education of the Human Race, at the end of which, quite isolated, as it were, the idea of repeated earth-lives appears. The book shows how mankind goes through one epoch of development after another, and how the Gods gave into man’s hand as a first primer, so to speak, the Old Testament, and then as a second primer the New Testament, and how in the future a third book will come for the further education of the human race. And then all at once the essay is brought to a close with a brief presentation of the idea that man lives through repeated earth-lives. And there Lessing says, again in a way that is absolutely in accord with his character: The idea of repeated earth-lives does not seem so absurd, considering that it was present in very early times, when men had not yet been spoilt by school learning? The essay then ends with a genuine panegyric on repeated earth-lives, finishing with these beautiful words: “Is not all Eternity mine?”

When a man like Lessing utters a profound aphorism such as this on repeated earth-lives, there is, properly speaking, no possibility of ignoring it.

You will readily see that the personality of Lessing is interesting in the highest degree from a karmic point of view, in relation to his own passage through different earth-lives. In the second half of the 18th century the idea of repeated earth-lives was by no means a commonly accepted one. It comes forth in Lessing like a flash of lightning, like a flash of genius. We cannot account for its appearance; it cannot possibly be due to Lessing’s education or to any other influence in this particular life. We are compelled to ask how it may be with the previous life of a man in whom at a certain age the idea of repeated earth-lives suddenly emerges — an idea that is foreign to the civilisation of his own day — emerges, too, in such a way that the man himself points to the fact that the idea was once present in very early times. The truth is that he is really bringing forward inner grounds for the idea, grounds of feeling that carry with them an indication of his own earth-life in the distant past. Needless to say, in his ordinary surface-consciousness he has no notion of such connections. The things we do not know are, however, none the less true. If those things alone were true that many men know, then the world would be poor indeed in events and poor indeed in beings”.

Henry Pierce Bone

1788 –Birthday of Lord Byron, a British poet, politician, & a leading figure in the Romantic movement. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems, Don Juan & Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, & the short lyric poem, “She Walks in Beauty”.

He travelled extensively across Europe, especially in Italy, where he lived for seven years. Later in his brief life, Byron joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire, for which many Greeks revere him as a national hero.

He died in 1824 at the age of 36 from a fever contracted while in Missolonghi. Often described as the most flamboyant & notorious of the major Romantics, Byron was both celebrated & castigated in life for his aristocratic excesses, including huge debts, numerous love affairs – with men as well as women, as well as rumors of a scandalous liaison with his half-sister – & self-imposed exile. He also fathered Ada, Countess of Lovelace, whose work on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine is considered a founding document in the field of computer science.

Rudolf Steiner speaks about Lord Byron in the same lecture with Lessing- Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies – Volume I, Lecture 11:

“I began to take a special interest in the life of Lord Byron. And at that same time I got to know some Byron enthusiasts. One of them was the poetess, Marie Eugenie delle Grazie, of whom I shall have much to say in my autobiography. During a certain period of her life she was a Byron enthusiast. Then there was another, a most remarkable personality, a strange mixture of all possible qualities Eugen Heinrich Schmidt. Many of you who know something about the history of Anthroposophy will be familiar with his name.

He came to Vienna, a tall, slight man filled with a burning enthusiasm, which came to expression at times in very forcible gestures and so on. It was none the less genuine for that. And it was just this enthusiasm of Schmidt’s that gave me the required “jerk,” as it were. I thought I would like to do him a kindness, and as he had recently written a most enthusiastic and inspired article on Lord Byron, I introduced him to my other Byron enthusiast, Marie Eugenie delle Grazie. And now began a wildly excited discussion on Byron. The two were really quite in agreement, but they carried on a most lively and animated debate. All we others who were sitting round — a whole collection of theological students from the Vienna Catholic Faculty were there, who came every week and with whom I had made friends — all we others were silent. And the two who were thus conversing about Byron were sitting like this. — Here was the table, rather a long one, and at one end sat delle Grazie and at the other end, Eugen Heinrich Schmidt, gesticulating with might and main. All of a sudden his chair slips away from under him, and he falls under the table, his feet stretching right out to delle Grazie. I can tell you, it was a shock for us all! But this shock helped me to hit upon the solution of a particular problem.

Let me tell you of it quite objectively, as a matter of history. All that they had been saying about Byron had made a strong impression upon me, and I began to feel the keenest need to know how the karmic connections might be in the case of Byron. It was, of course, not so easy. But now I suddenly had the following experience. — It was really as if the whole picture of this conversation, with Eugen Heinrich Schmidt being so terribly impolite with his foot! — as if this picture had suddenly drawn my attention to the foot of Lord Byron, who was, as you know, club-footed. And from that I went on to say to myself: My beloved teacher, too, had a foot like that; this karmic connection must be investigated. I have already given you an example, in the affliction of the knee from which Eduard von Hartmann suffered, of how one’s search can be led back through peculiarities of this kind. I was able now to perceive the destiny of the teacher whom I loved and who also had such a foot. And it was remarkable in the highest degree to observe how on the one hand the same peculiarity came to view both in the case of Byron and of my teacher, namely, the club-foot; but how on the other hand the two persons were totally different from one another, Byron, the poet of genius, who in spite of his genius — or perhaps because of it — was an adventurer; and the other a brilliant geometrician such as one seldom finds in teaching posts, a man at whose geometrical imagination and treatment of descriptive geometry one could only stand amazed.

In short, having before me these two men, utterly different in soul, I was able to solve the problem of their karma by reference to this seemingly insignificant physical detail. This detail it was that enabled me to consider the problems of Byron and my geometry teacher in connection with one another, and thereby to find the solution”.

Steiner continues this thread in Karmic Relationships, Vol. V: Lecture IV

“…The two men were there before me in this inner picture. And the karma of my teacher, as well as the peculiarity of which I have told you, led me to the discovery that in the 10th or 11th century, both these souls had lived in their earlier incarnations far over in the East of Europe where they came one day under the influence of a legend, a prophecy. This legend was to the effect that the Palladium, which in a certain magical way helped to sustain the power of Rome, had been brought to that city from ancient Troy, and hidden. When the Emperor Constantine conceived the wish to carry Roman culture to Constantinople he caused the Palladium to be transported with the greatest pomp and pageantry to Constantinople and hidden under a pillar, the details of which gave expression to his overweening pride. For he ordered an ancient statue of Apollo to be set at the top of this pillar, but altered in such a way as to be a portrait of himself. He caused wood to be brought from the Cross on which Christ had been crucified and shaped into a kind of crown which was then placed on the head of this statue. It was the occasion for indulging in veritable orgies of pride!

The legend went on to prophesy that the Palladium would be transferred from Constantinople to the North and that the power embodied in it would be vested eventually in a Slavonic Empire. This prophecy came to the knowledge of the two men of whom I have been speaking and they resolved to go to Constantinople and to carry off the Palladium to Russia. They did not succeed. But in one of them especially — in Byron — the urge remained, and was then transformed in the later life into the impulse to espouse the cause of freedom in Greece. This impulse led Byron, in the 19th century, to the very region, broadly speaking, where he had searched for the Palladium in an earlier incarnation.”

Gosta Adrian Nilsson

1849 – Birthday of August Strindberg, a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist & painter. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg’s career spanned four decades, during which time he wrote over 60 plays & more than 30 works of fiction, autobiography, history, cultural analysis, & politics. A bold experimenter & iconoclast throughout, he explored a wide range of dramatic methods & purposes, from naturalistic tragedy, monodrama, & history plays, to his anticipations of expressionist & surrealist dramatic techniques.  From his earliest work, Strindberg developed innovative forms of dramatic action, language, & visual composition. He is considered the “father” of modern Swedish literature & his The Red Room (1879) has frequently been described as the first modern Swedish novel.

During the 1890s he spent significant time abroad engaged in scientific experiments and studies of the occult. A series of psychotic attacks between 1894 & 1896 (referred to as his “Inferno crisis”) led to his hospitalization & return to Sweden. Under the influence of the ideas of Emanuel Swedenborg, he resolved after his recovery to become “the Zola of the Occult”. In 1898 he returned to playwriting with ‘To Damascu’s, which, like The Great Highway (1909), is a dream-play of spiritual pilgrimage. His ‘A Dream Play’ (1902) – with its radical attempt to dramatize the workings of the unconscious by means of an abolition of conventional dramatic time & space & the splitting, doubling, merging, & multiplication of its characters – was an important precursor to both expressionism & surrealism. He also returned to writing historical drama, the genre with which he had begun his playwriting career. He helped to run the Intimate Theatre from 1907, a small-scale theatre, modelled on Max Reinhardt’s Kammerspielhaus, that staged his chamber plays (such as The Ghost Sonata)

Rudolf Steiner gives an amazing account of his former life in as an initiate in ancient Egypt, in a karmic knot with another. They then both reincarnated together again Strindberg as Julia & his friend as Titus Livius. This account must be read in full.

Bassano

1901 – Deathday of Queen Victoria ruling over the United Kingdom, Ireland & India. She inherited the throne aged 18. The United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy & ministerial appointments; publicly, she became a national icon who was identified with strict standards of personal morality.

Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. Their nine children married into royal & noble families across the continent, tying them together and earning her the sobriquet “the grandmother of Europe”. After Albert’s death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning & avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign her popularity recovered. Her Golden& Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration.

Her reign of 63 years & seven months is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, & military change within the United Kingdom, & was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover. Her son & successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father.

Victoria wrote an average of 2,500 words a day during her adult life. From July 1832 until just before her death, she kept a detailed journal, which eventually encompassed 122 volumes. After Victoria’s death, her youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice, was appointed her literary executor. Beatrice transcribed and edited the diaries covering Victoria’s accession onwards, & burned the originals in the process. Despite this destruction, much of the diaries still exist.

1910 – Deathday of Johann Steiner, father of Rudolf Steiner

“One spring day in 1860, an autocratic Hungarian magnate, a certain Count Hoyos, who owned several large estates in Austria, dismissed his game-keeper, because this game-keeper, Johannes Steiner wanted to marry Franziska Blie, one of the Count’s innumerable housemaids. Perhaps the old Count had a foreboding as to what a great spiritual revolution would be born of this marriage. (The baroque palace of Hom, where it happened, is still in the possession of the Hoyos family, and stands today just as it was one hundred years ago.) So Johannes Steiner had to look for another occupation, and got himself accepted as a trainee telegraphist and signalman by the recently opened Austrian Southern Railway. He was given his first job in an out-of-the-way request stop called Kraljevic (today in Yugoslavia), and there his first child, Rudolf, arrived on February 25-27, 1861. On the same day the child was taken for an emergency baptism to the parish Church of St. Michael in the neighboring village of Draskovec. The baptismal register was written in Serbo-Croat and Latin, and the entry still can be read today as of one Rudolfus Josephus Laurentius Steiner. “Thus it happened,” Rudolf Steiner writes in his autobiography, “that the place of my birth is far removed from the region where I come from.”

From the severity of the Puszta the family moved, when the boy was two years old, into one of the most idyllic parts of Austria, called “the Burgenland” since 1921. Comprising the foothills of the eastern Alps, it is of great natural beauty, very fertile, and drenched in history. It takes its name from the many Burgen, i.e. castles which at different times of history were erected on nearly every hill. During recent excavations coins bearing the head of Philip of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great, have been found near Neudörfl, where the Steiners now settled, and where a daughter and a younger son were added to the family.

The management of the Austrian Southern Railway seems to have taken a sympathetic view toward the promising boy, and agreed to move father Steiner as stationmaster to several small stations south of Vienna, so that the eldest son was able to attend good schools as a day student, and finally in 1879 could matriculate at the Technical University of Vienna, then one of the most advanced scientific institutions of the world. Until then Rudolf Steiner’s school life had been fairly uneventful, except that some of his masters were rather disturbed by the fact that this teen-ager was a voracious reader of Kant and other philosophers, and privately was engrossed in advanced mathematics.” ~From the intro to Christianity as Mystical fact

***

Gretchen A. Steele

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~She is
A fire raging, changing, going in
& Coming out of form in time
A mad genius, wind howling
& the beat of wings inspired
She is a star in the dark tomb
A shadow cast by sunlight
Life that can
Not be contained
A holy insurrection
Ever Marching…
~hag

***

The Bridging Project – Between Life and Death from Soul to Soul
Central Regional Council’s Audio/Video Conference
February 1st, 2017 – 7:15 pm CST

Guest Speaker Mark Miller, Architect – Builder – Director, will talk about ‘Spirit Parks’  “How We Design Places To Connect With The Dead” 

www.zenplusarchitecture.com
www.phaus.org

Details to follow

***

Saturday 4 February 2017,  3 pm at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP

The Madonna Sequence

Presented by Debra Barford & Christine Culbert

The Madonna Pentagram, was first recommended by Dr. Rudolf Steiner in 1911 as an enlivening, curative therapy. Raphael’s paintings of the Madonna express secret truths. These images invite us to look into the deeper significance of the flow of energy stimulated within us as our attention is guided through the five-pointed-star-like movement of the images in relation to one another, accompanied by the appropriate tones on the lyre. Rudolf Steiner described the healing effects of Raphael’s Madonna’s in August 1908, and between 1908 and 1911 he directed Dr. Felix Peipers to arrange fifteen images as a therapeutic meditation. Sometimes called the Raphael Madonna Series, these fifteen pictures invite our active contemplation. Each image can awaken inner pictures that lift us into communion with realms beyond the physical world, stirring our feelings of wonder and reverence and opening our souls to divine mysteries.

$10 donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged

***

Mysteries of the Celtic Goddess

brigid-helena-nelson-reedBrigid by Helena Nelson Reed

Thursday February 9th 2017 -7 pm
at the Theosophical Society in America
1926 North Main Street
Wheaton, IL 60187

Invoking the Practical Alchemy of the Celtic Triple Goddess Brigid
To Purify, Awaken, & Galvanize Your Head, Heart, and Hands

Brigid’s festival is the 1st of the cross-quarter days in the wheel of the year, a time of spiritual re-dedication and initiation. Brigid invites us to forge and shape ourselves, as the tools of our own destiny. Come Renew Yourself. Together we will thaw the winter & rouse the mysteries growing within…

Hazel Archer Ginsberg is a Spiritual Midwife, and Trans-denominational Minister, working in an eclectic style that inspires connections – initiating us into the magic, waiting to be revealed, in the cycle of the seasons. Festivals Coordinator of the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society. Lecturer, Promoter, Blogger, Poet & Performance Artist.  www.ReverseRitual.com.

$10 nonmembers   $5 members

Live Webcast

***

DIGITAL Pandora: Imaging HOPE by Gretchen Steele

Art Opening 7 pm – 9 pm Friday February 17th, 2017 at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP

A Performance Art Exhibit & Gallery Reception with an opportunity for participants to create their own collage art to be shown at the Closing exhibit March 31st, 2017

DIGITAL Pandora: Imaging HOPE is a multi-media art exhibit including work inspired by the myth of Pandora as a narrative of hope – by Gretchen Steele

The exhibit includes multi-media collages on paper, large-scale (5’ x 5’) collaged fabric prayer cloths, a performance art piece titled Embodied Compass ll: Reliquary Immersion, and a participatory SEA (Socially Engaging Artwork) inviting viewers to collaborate in a collaged community mural using a images (from the artist’s photo bank of the previous performance piece, Embodied Compass l: Digital Pandora) and marker-based drawing materials.

***

The 156th Anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s Birthday on the New Moon/Solar Eclipse

Sunday February 26th 2017, 3 pm – 5 pm

We will celebrate Steiner’s birthday and the solar eclipse by analyzing his horoscope in the most respectful manner.  Astrologer Victoria Martin will expound on some classic interpretations of Rudolf Steiner’s Birth chart – For instance did you know he was born on a Full Moon, near the zenith of the sky aligned to Saturn? Victoria will also go further by adding the fixed stars, which according to Brian Gray at Steiner College, are basic components in Astrosophy.

The Solar eclipse, on Sunday February 26th 2017 indicates a new phase of Steiner’s influence, which is especially potent for the next six months!

Victoria will also do 3-minute readings for each participant to see where their birthdays fit in Steiner’s horoscope!

This can be even more precise if the entire horoscope of participants is available, so please email your date, time, and place of birth to viccimartin@gmail.com.

We can also look into the 2017 trends if there is interest! And if time allows Hazel Archer Ginsberg will give a brief overview of the phases in Rudolf Steiner’s life.

 $10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP

For more info. contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

***

An evening Discourse &  Full day Workshop with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg at

Fostering Sustainable Agriculture through Research, Education and Policy since 1984

What is Anthroposophy?

Friday March 3rd 2017,  Potluck Social 5:30 pm  Lecture –7 pm – 9 pm

A Hands-on Discourse with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

What can the human being (anthropos) of today do to recognize our inherent wisdom (sophia) to access the source of spiritual knowledge, for our own inner development, and for the evolution of the earth and all of humanity?

What would it be like to support each other in community, as we strive to penetrate the mystery of our relationship with the spiritual world?

How does this ‘Spiritual Science’ built on the research of Rudolf Steiner, speak to the riddles of existence: our artistic needs, the truth of karma, the mystery of evil, life after death and so much more?

Come Explore this Modern Path of Initiation with:

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Festivals Coordinator & Council Member of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, and the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Founder of Reverse Ritual – Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year– Presenter, Poet, & Trans-denominational Minister.

Also:

 Saturday March 4th 2017 –

A Experiential Three Part Workshop* with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

‘The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and Humanity’

Some of the topics treated in this experiential workshop are: The nature of the brain, the development of speech, angelic beings, ancient language, Zarathustra, Buddha, & Christ.

‘The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and Humanity: Some Results of Spiritual-Scientific Research into Human History and Development’ consists of three sections. Each section was originally a lecture (6, 7, & 8 June 1911) but was subsequently reworked by Steiner & cast into the form of an essay.  It is available without a fee at Rudolf Steiner Archives 

Session #1 – 10 am – 12 noon:
• Introductions
• The divine wisdom working in the human being in the 1st three years of life.
• Through inner striving we can contact again and consciously build on this wisdom which is connected to the Christ impulse.
• Activity- Biography work: Our 1st conscious memory – a preview of the “I”.

Noon – 1:30 pm – Lunch

Session #2 – 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm:
• The childlike condition of humanity in ancient times, directed by higher spiritual beings.
• A look into the evolution of these guiding spirits –progressive as well as regressive –
• Revealing the necessity of the ‘two kinds of evil’.
• The importance of Spiritual Science to avoid error.
• Activity – Labyrinth Walk

3:30 pm – 4 pm – Break

Session #3 – 4 pm – 6 pm:
• A survey of the Post-Atlantean age, our present epoch.
• The Christ connection with the progressive spiritual beings
• Modern science as the work of the regressive spiritual beings
• A peek into the future
• Activity – The Golden Legend & The Rose Cross Mediation: An artistic rendering

*(Workshops can be taken as a whole or individually, details to follow)

Register here

Michael Fields W2493 County Rd ES
East Troy, WI 53120, USA

‘Only in the darkness can we see the stars’

Chicago Event, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, The Bridging Project: Life & Death

16 January 2017 – Astro-Weather: Orion is the brightest of the 88 constellations, but his main pattern is surprisingly small compared to some of his dimmer neighbors. The biggest of these is Eridanus the River, enormous but hard to trace. Dimmer Fornax the Furnace, to Eridanus’s lower right, is almost as big as Orion! Even the main pattern of Lepus, the Hare cowering under Orion’s feet, isn’t much smaller than he is.

Mars continues to put on a nice show these January evenings. It appears to the upper left of Venus, above the southwestern horizon once twilight fades to darkness. The Red Planet currently lies among the background stars of Aquarius.

Mars, Venus, Neptune in the Waterman by John Seeker of from the Astrosophy Center

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1412 – The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy

1477 – Birthday & Deathday (1547 ) of Johannes Schöner, a renowned German polymath. He was a priest, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, cosmographer, cartographer, mathematician, globe &scientific instrument maker & editor/ publisher of scientific tests. He published of Copernicus’ “De revolutionibus” in Nürnberg in 1543. He enjoyed a European wide reputation as an innovative & influential globe maker & cosmographer- as one of the continent’s leading & most authoritative astrologers.

1547 – Ivan IV of Russia a.k.a. Ivan the Terrible becomes Czar of Russia

1556 – Philip II becomes King of Spain

1838 – Birthday of Franz Brentano an influential German philosopher, psychologist, & priest whose work strongly influenced not only students Edmund Husserl, Sigmund Freud, Kazimierz Twardowski, Alexius Meinong, Carl Stumpf, Anton Marty, Christian von Ehrenfels, and Tomáš Masaryk, but many others whose work would follow &make use of his original ideas & concepts. Rudolf Steiner recalls the obituary he gave of Brentano as part of his lecture The Case for Anthroposophy where he also speaks about the Separation of the ‘Psychological from the Non-Psychological’ in Franz Brentano.

1901 – Deathday of Arnold Böcklin a Swiss symbolist painter. Rudolf Steiner speaks about him in an incarnation as an Arthurian Knight

1909 – Ernest Shackleton‘s expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.

1919 – Temperance movement: The United States ratifies the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring Prohibition

1942 – Crash of TWA Flight 3, killing all 22 aboard, including film star Carole Lombard

1945 – Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the Führerbunker

SOP with his wife Astrid

1954 – Birthday of Sergei O. Prokofieff – a Russian anthroposophist. He was the grandson of the composer Sergei Prokofiev. Born in Moscow, he studied fine arts & painting at the Moscow School of Art. He encountered anthroposophy in his youth, & soon made the decision to devote his life to it. Prokofieff, wrote his first book, Rudolf Steiner and the Founding of the New Mysteries, while living in Soviet Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he was a co-founder of the Anthroposophical Society in Russia. At Easter 2001, he became a member of the Executive Council of the General Anthroposophical Society in Dornach, Switzerland. Prokofieff was a prolific author; at the core of his work is an attempt to develop a deepened understanding for Christianity on the basis of Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual-scientific research. Prokofieff left us a treasure trove of Works

1957 – Deathday of Arturo Toscanini an Italian conductor, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail & sonority, & his photographic memory.] He was at various times the music director of La Scala Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, & the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Later in his career he was appointed the first music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937–54), & this led to his becoming a household name through his radio & television broadcasts & many recordings.

1969 – Soviet spacecraft perform the first-ever docking of manned spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, & the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk

Marta Lebeck

1970 – Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects

2003 – The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry

2006 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia’s new president. She becomes Africa’s first female elected head of state

***

Eliza Leahy

POD (Poem Of theDay)

~The truth
Of what we call our knowing
Is both light & dark…
Humans are always dying & waking…
The rhythm between – We call life…
Wake-up!
Some miracle is about
To happen…
~hag

Tina Yu

***

May the echo of these words, spoken by Martin Luther King Jr. reverberate in our hearts, stimulate our minds & inspire our hands to action:

“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”

“Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles; Cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances. Courage breeds creativity; Cowardice represses fear and is mastered by it. Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience ask the question, is it right? And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.”

“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”

“A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.”

“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”

“Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”

“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.”

“Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That’s the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system.”

“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.”

“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”

“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”

“By opening our lives to God in Christ, we become new creatures. This experience, which Jesus spoke of as the new birth, is essential if we are to be transformed nonconformists … Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit.”

“Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, ‘Love your enemies.’ It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.”

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”

‘We shall overcome someday’

Xox  ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

 ***

Current Festival & Program Events

UPCOMING EVENTS:

The Bridging Project – Between Life and Death from Soul to Soul
Central Regional Council’s Audio/Video Conference 
February 1st, 2017 – 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm CST (call instructions to follow)

Guest Speaker Mark Miller, Architect & Director of ‘Spirit Parks’  

will talk about “How We Design Places To Connect With The Dead” 

www.zenplusarchitecture.com
www.phaus.org

For more info. contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

***

The Madonna Sequence

Presented by Debra Barford & Christine Culbert

Sunday 3 February 2017, 3 pm 

The Madonna Pentagram, was first recommended by Dr. Rudolf Steiner in 1911 as an enlivening, curative therapy. Raphael’s paintings of the Madonna express secret truths. These images invite us to look into the deeper significance of the flow of energy stimulated within us as our attention is guided through the five-pointed-star-like movement of the images in relation to one another, accompanied by the appropriate tones on the lyre. Rudolf Steiner described the healing effects of Raphael’s Madonna’s in August 1908, and between 1908 and 1911 he directed Dr. Felix Peipers to arrange fifteen images as a therapeutic meditation. Sometimes called the Raphael Madonna Series, these fifteen pictures invite our active contemplation. Each image can awaken inner pictures that lift us into communion with realms beyond the physical world, stirring our feelings of wonder and reverence and opening our souls to divine mysteries.

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP

$10 donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged

For more info. contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

***

Celtic Mysteries 

Thursday February 9th 2017, 7 pm – 9 pm
at the Theosophical Society in America
1926 North Main Street, Wheaton, IL 60187

(contact Hazel if you’d like to take a road trip to Wheaton)

 Invoking the Practical Alchemy of the Celtic Triple Goddess Brigid 
To Purify, Awaken, & Galvanize Your Head, Heart, and Hands

Brigid’s festival is the 1st of the cross-quarter days in the wheel of the year, a time of spiritual re-dedication and initiation. Brigid invites us to forge and shape ourselves, as the tools of our own destiny. Come Renew Yourself. Together we will thaw the winter & rouse the mysteries growing within…

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Festivals Coordinator & Council Member of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, and the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Founder of Reverse Ritual – Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year– Presenter, Poet, & Trans-denominational Minister.

$10 nonmembers   $5 members

 Live Webcast

***

DIGITAL Pandora: Imaging HOPE by Gretchen Steele

Art Opening 7 pm – 9 pm Friday February 17th, 2017

In the space next to the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP

A Performance Art Exhibit & Gallery Reception with an opportunity for participants to create their own collage art to be shown at the Closing exhibit March 31st, 2017

 DIGITAL Pandora: Imaging HOPE is a multi-media art exhibit including work inspired by the myth of Pandora as a narrative of hope – by Gretchen Steele

The exhibit includes multi-media collages on paper, large-scale (5’ x 5’) collaged fabric prayer cloths, a performance art piece titled Embodied Compass ll: Reliquary Immersion, and a participatory SEA (Socially Engaging Artwork) inviting viewers to collaborate in a collaged community mural using a images (from the artist’s photo bank of the previous performance piece, Embodied Compass l: Digital Pandora) and marker-based drawing materials.

For more info. contact Gretchen Steele

 

***

25 February 2017 – 7 pm – 9 pm

Celebrating the 156th Anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s Birthday

on the eve of the New moon/Solar Eclipse

Come celebrate this great initiate with Insights gained thru looking into his natal chart with Victoria Martian & an overview of his life, by Hazel Archer Ginsberg

$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged

For more info. contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP

***

Mark your Calendars for Another ‘Field-Trip’ opportunity:

An evening Discourse & Full day Workshop with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg at

Michael Fields W2493 County Rd ES
East Troy, WI 53120, USA

What is Anthroposophy?

Friday March 3rd 2017,
Potluck Social 5:30 pm – Lecture, 7 pm to 9 pm

A Hands-on Discourse with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

What can the human being (anthropos) of today do to recognize our inherent wisdom (sophia) to access the source of spiritual knowledge, for our own inner development, and for the evolution of the earth and all of humanity?

What would it be like to support each other in community, as we strive to penetrate the mystery of our relationship with the spiritual world?

How does this ‘Spiritual Science’ built on the research of Rudolf Steiner, speak to the riddles of existence: our artistic needs, the truth of karma, the mystery of evil, life after death and so much more?

Come Explore this Modern Path of Initiation with:

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Festivals Coordinator & Council Member of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, and the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Founder of Reverse Ritual – Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year– Presenter, Poet, & Trans-denominational Minister.

Register here

Also:

Saturday March 4th 2017 –

A Experiential Three Part Workshop*

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

‘The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and Humanity’

Some of the topics treated in this experiential workshop are: The nature of the brain, the development of speech, angelic beings, ancient language, Zarathustra, Buddha, & Christ.

‘The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and Humanity: Some Results of Spiritual-Scientific Research into Human History and Development’ consists of three sections. Each section was originally a lecture (6, 7, & 8 June 1911) but was subsequently reworked by Steiner & cast into the form of an essay.  It is available without a fee at Rudolf Steiner Archives 

Session #1 – 10 am – 12 noon:
• Introductions
• The divine wisdom working in the human being in the 1st three years of life.
• Through inner striving we can contact again and consciously build on this wisdom which is connected to the Christ impulse.
• Activity- Biography work: Our 1st conscious memory – a preview of the “I”.

Noon – 1:30 pm – Lunch

Session #2 – 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm:
• The childlike condition of humanity in ancient times, directed by higher spiritual beings.
• A look into the evolution of these guiding spirits –progressive as well as regressive –
• Revealing the necessity of the ‘two kinds of evil’.
• The importance of Spiritual Science to avoid error.
• Activity – Labyrinth Walk

3:30 pm – 4 pm – Break

Session #3 – 4 pm – 6 pm:
• A survey of the Post-Atlantean age, our present epoch.
• The Christ connection with the progressive spiritual beings
• Modern science as the work of the regressive spiritual beings
• A peek into the future
• Activity – The Golden Legend & The Rose Cross Mediation: An artistic rendering

*(Workshops can be taken as a whole or individually, details to follow)

Register here

Michael Fields W2493 County Rd ES
East Troy, WI 53120, USA

(If you are interested in car-pooling contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12th Holy Night: Eve of Epiphany – The Sphere of the Mystic Lamb

Celestial Event, Festival, Insight, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Winter

5 January 2017 – Astro-Weather: First-quarter Moon (exact at 1:47 pm CST). Our satellite rises in the east around noon but doesn’t become prominent until the Sun sets around 5 pm, by 6 pm it appears in the south nearly two-thirds of the way to the zenith. The Moon’s half-lit orb then lies among the background stars of southern Pisces. This evening, look to the upper right of the Moon for the Great Square of Pegasus. A diagonal through two corners of the Square points toward the Moon.

Orion is now well up in the east-southeast after nightfall, with his three-star Belt nearly vertical. The Belt points up toward Aldebaran & even higher, the Pleiades. In the other direction, it points down to where bright Sirius rises to twinkle furiously around 7 pm CST.

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

TODAY – According to the original Calendar of the Soul:

The Eve of Epiphany

137 – Deathday of Pope Telesphorus, traditionally considered as being the 7th Roman bishop in succession after Saint Peter. In ancient Greek myth, Telesphorus was a son of Asclepius. He frequently accompanied his sister, Hygieia. He was a dwarf whose head was always covered with a cowl hood or cap. He symbolized recovery from illness, as his name means “the accomplisher” or “bringer of completion” in Greek. Representations of him are found mainly in Anatolia & along the Danube. Telesphorus is thought to have been a Celtic god in origin.

Feast day of Saint Simeon Stylites (the Greek word style means pillar) a Syriac ascetic saint who achieved fame for living 47 years on a small platform on top of a pillar near Aleppo (in modern Syria)

***

 Van Eyck’s Ghent Altar Piece

12th Holy Night:  January 5-6, 2017 Epiphany, ‘Three Kings’ –Constellation of Aries, Ram (ruling the head) The Sphere of the Mystic Lamb

Our journey, taking us on the path from Jesus to Christ, is a divine archetype that every human being may follow thru the 12 regions of the Zodiac – & beyond, into the compass of the Holy Spirit & now on the Eve of Epiphany, we get a glimpse into the sphere of the Mystic Lamb.

David-Taulbee-Anderson

This last & highest region – Aries the Ram, is ‘at the head’ of the whole zodiac circle of ‘Adam-Kadmon’ – the Alpha to Omega Archetype of Humanity –from which the Christ descended – passing thru each sign – each Angelic realm – into the Spirit & Soul of the Sun, for the pre-earthly deeds.

It is no coincidence that the sphere of the Mystic lamb in Aries stood in the heavens at the exact time of the Baptism, when the Christ being was ‘born’ into the Sun-Soul/body of the Nathan Jesus, in order to perform, 3 years later, His 4th & most important deed on the hill at Golgotha. In John 1:35-36, the Baptist says: “Look, there is the Lamb of God”.  With these words we hear a testimony of the cosmic connection of Christ with the heavenly region of the Ram, thru which Christ entered our cosmos from the realms beyond the zodiac. It is thru this portal outside of The Trinity, related to more than our cosmos alone, that the ‘Voice from Heaven’ speaks at the baptism: “This is my Beloved Son, today I have begotten Him” or as Matthew 3:17 tells it: “As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. Suddenly the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on Him. 17And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!”

Giusto de Menabuoi

From the Aries constellation flows the source of Christ’s spiritual influence in the cosmos which then spreads its emanations towards the 1st 7 ‘light or ascended’ zodiac signs, which goes down to the region of the Scales. This may be called the body of the Mystic Lamb. And from Virgo to Pisces we have the body of the Divine Sophia. The overlapping center where they meet is where the ‘Mystic or alchemical Marriage’ takes place, an initiatory process in the New Mysteries open to humanity now. (Remember: the 13 Hidden Holy Night is New Year’s Eve, the center between the above & below, where we see the Sun at Midnight)

Peter Paul Reubens

Those initiated in the ancient Jewish rites had an inkling of the connection between, what they called the ‘Messiah’ & the region of the Ram. This is seen in the practice of sacrificing lambs for the ‘sins of Israel’. The Passover was a pre-figuring of The Christ, the new ‘Sacrificial Lamb’ – destined to be led to the slaughter for ‘the sins of the world’. This sacrifice was the medicine redeeming humanity from the fall, & ending the need for blood sacrifice.

Peter Paul Rubens

John the Baptist was a leading initiate of the Jewish mysteries. In his earliest incarnation as ‘Adam’ – he was the 1st man to take up a physical existence on earth. Because of this he was given the task of baptizing people in preparation for the descent of Christ -the 1st God to enter physical existence on earth. His task was to sort the Lambs – those ready for the new initiation, from those unfit in that life. And Eve had the task of giving birth to the Matthew Jesus.

Christ-Jesus became the new archetype of the human being, which had fallen into disarray through ‘the fall of Adam’- The human body was intended in the beginning to be more spiritual, but instead, it entered more deeply into materiality then what was intended by the gods. But thru the Resurrection, we can achieve the rise of Adam-Kadmon – the perfected human being – in times to come. It is for this reason that John the Baptist says that he (as the old Adam) must decrease, while Christ (the new Adam) must increase.

Henry Ossawa Tanner

Later after John the Baptist dies, his spirit is able to unite with Lazarus/John during his initiation by Christ into the New Mysteries – so that Lazarus becomes John the Divine. In the Book of the Apocalypse he reveals the connection of Christ with the Sphere of the Mystic Lamb, in his description of the Heavenly Lamb who guards the Book of Seven Seals.

Frank Yoneur

And so, thru our journey of Jesus to Christ we see the earthly reflection in the 13 Holy Nights between the festivals of Christmas to Epiphany, of our human evolution back to the Godhead. And at Epiphany, the festival of the Birth of Christ into the earthly body of humanity in the man Jesus, we get an insight into the journey that a god took to become human.  For at the moment of the Baptism, the highest Trinity is reflected in the depths of earthly existence: the Holy Spirit as the Dove (Bull), the Son-Principle as the Lamb (Ram) & the Father-principle as the Voice from the Heavens – from those realms where human imagination has yet to penetrate. But it is from there, from the bosom of the Father/Mother, that Christ descended into our cosmos. There He worked from the sphere of the Sun, as the 13th in the circle of the 12  – the Divine Spirit of our solar system; & then at the Baptism He descends from the Sun to the Earth, in order that the Earth may become a Sun.

It is ‘The Great Work’ of Being Human, to Become, each of us, a Sun – Recognizing & acknowledging this spark of Divinity in everyone we meet – supporting & adding to this light – to do as my friend Teddy Mowrey resolves:  “…Improve my awareness of the Christ in me, bringing it consciously into recognition of the Christ in others. The Christ in me responds to the Christ in you”.

Ninette Sombart

Let us gleam in 2017

Xox  ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Jan de Kok

Virtue: Devotion becomes the power of sacrifice

11th Holy Night: The Sphere of the Holy Spirit

Celestial Event, Festival, Insight, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Winter

4 January 2017 – Astro-Weather: Today at 11 am CST, Earth reaches perihelion – the closest point to the Sun during its year-long orbit, The two are then 91.4 million miles apart. It surprises many people to learn that Earth comes closest to the Sun in the dead of winter, but the cold weather in the Northern Hemisphere at this time of year arises because the Sun lies low in the sky

In early evening at this time of year, the Great Square of Pegasus balances on one corner high in the west. The vast Andromeda-Pegasus constellation runs all the way from near the zenith (Andromeda’s foot) down through the Great Square (Pegasus’s body) to fairly low in the west (Pegasus’s nose).

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

TODAY – According to the original Calendar of the Soul:

Girolamo da Santacroce

Balthasar

Melthusalah

The book of Titus is a Pastoral Epistle-letter from Paul to a church leader-written  approximately 66 A.D. as a guide to Titus, a Greek believer, in his leadership of the churches on the island of Crete, “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you” (1:5)

1504 – Deathday of Isabella I, Queen of Castile. She was married to Ferdinand II of Aragon. Their marriage became the basis for the political unification of Spain under their grandson, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. After a struggle to claim her right to the throne, she reorganized the governmental system, brought the crime rate to the lowest it had been in years, & unburdened the kingdom of the enormous debt her brother had left behind. Her reforms & those she made with her husband had an influence that extended well beyond the borders of their united kingdoms. Isabella & Ferdinand are known for supporting & financing Christopher Columbus’ 1492 voyage that led to the opening of the New World & to the establishment of Spain as the first global power which dominated Europe & much of the world for more than a century

1785 – Birthday of Jacob Grimm, a German philologist, jurist, & mythologist. He is known as the discoverer of Grimm’s law (linguistics), the co-author with his brother Wilhelm of the monumental Deutsches Wörterbuch, the author of Deutsche Mythologie &, more popularly, as one of the Brothers Grimm & the editor of Grimm’s Fairy Tales

1786 – Deathday of Moses Mendelssohn,  a German Jewish philosophe. His ideas from the ‘Haskalah’, formed the ‘Jewish enlightenment’ of the 18th & 19th centuries. Born to a poor Jewish family in Dessau, Principality of Anhalt, & originally destined for a rabbinical career, Mendelssohn educated himself in German thought & literature & from his writings on philosophy & religion came to be regarded as a leading cultural figure of his time. He also established himself as an important figure in the Berlin textile industry, which was the foundation of his family’s wealth. Moses Mendelssohn’s descendants include the composers Fanny & Felix Mendelssohn & the founders of the Mendelssohn & Co. banking house

1849 –Deathday of Franz Xaver Gabelsberger a German inventor of a shorthand writing system, later known as Stenograph.

***

 

11th Holy Night: 3-4 January 2017, Constellation of Taurus, Bull (ruling the neck & throat/larynx ) The Sphere of the Holy Spirit –

                                                                                

Congratulations Dear Holy Nights traveler – you have made it beyond the threshold – past the 9 Angelic realms, into the Sphere of the Holy Spirit!

It may seem odd at 1st that this Divine Realm is represented by what appears to be such an ‘earthly’ image – Taurus the Bull!? But we only need to contemplate the image of the sacred cow, with its potent digestive activity which is vast like the universe – & trace this imagination into the astral cosmos – which reveals its true form – as the dove! Rudolf Steiner encourages us to see that, what is astral in the Dove, becomes physical in the cow/bull.

(Holy Spirit hovering above the waters before creation Byzantine Mosaic)

Our ancestors of ancient India, Egypt, Babylon, Greece & Asia Minor, knew this, & made the cow sacred – revealing the significance of the cult of the bull or calf. The occult knowledge of this connection can be seen in Egypt for instance in depictions of the Sun-god Ra in the aspect of a falcon, bearing on its head a solar disc, sitting between the 2 horns of the heavenly cow; or in Babylon, with its images of the winded bulls (Shedu).

From Spiritual Science we know that the principle of the Holy Spirit works thru the sphere of the Moon, & the Son-principle works thru the sphere of the Sun. So the bull reflecting the activity of the Holy Spirit is connected to the Moon gods & goddeses – like the Sumerian Moon-god, pictured with the body of a bull.

In the Mysteries of ancient Egypt, the image of Isis arose out of the union in the lunar sphere of 2 cosmic streams coming from the heavenly regions of the Virgin (the constellation of Virgo) & the Bull (Taurus). When the influence of Virgo prevailed, then the image of Isis, usually seen holding her son Horus, out-pictured the energies of the Divine Sophia or World-Soul (Moon) a pre-figuring of The Virgin Mary. But if the Bull prevailed, Isis was depicted with the Sun disc between the bull’s horns, showing her connection with the World-Spirit (or Sun aspect).  The relationship of Isis with Osiris, a pre-figuring of The Christ, further indicates the transition from the Lunar Logos to the Solar Logos, which corresponds to the shift from the 3rd to the 4th cultural epoch, when The Christ is born on earth.

(It’s important to note that on Old Moon the Luciferic principle chose not to evolve to the Sun-Sphere, but wanted egoistically to remain behind in the Moon Sphere, yet cut off from the true Holy Spirit. We see this debased, Luciferic representation of the Holy Spirit, which does not seek to find The Christ, in the Greco-Roman era as the cult of Mithras -the god whose task was to slay the bull of passions & egoism, & in the time of Moses, as the cult of the Golden Calf)

At the baptism in the Jordan, it is the Holy Spirit which enables the descent of Christ, to be ‘born’ into the Sun-Soul of Nathan, in the body of Jesus. The Holy Spirit, emanating from the region of the Bull, was seen by John the Baptist through the agency of his angel, in the form of a Dove above the head of Jesus. (John 1:32-34) Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

Picasso

There is another significant aspect which connects the influence from the region of the Bull, which rules the larynx, giving us the gift of speech, with the future working of the Holy Spirit. Speech connects us with others in a loving marriage of souls, & Rudolf Steiner takes this metaphor even further  to say that the Larynx will one day not only speak forth words, but will become a creative organ, a higher version of the organs of reproduction! “…we must understand that the larynx in its full transformation, when man has become chaste again, will turn like a flower to the spiritual Sun. The calyx of the flower, when the larynx is pure, becomes a chaste chalice, ready to be fructified by the Spirit, to be offered to the ‘Holy Lance of Love’. This is a symbol of the Holy Grail, its highest Ideal” (GA 98 May 11, 1907)

May we begin this transformation of our speech NOW, in order to bring to birth the Spirit of Christ, as a moral creative force, within our human soul. This will fructify the soul of our communities (Think Whitsun), & pollinate the Soul of the Earth.

 Barbara Holden

Freed thru the working of the Christ-Impluse in the soul of humanity, the Luciferic principle will turn from being adversarial, to becoming the servant of the redeemed Holy Spirit, The New Isis-Sophia.

 Lori maden

May we ride the Bull in full consciousness & peace

Xox  ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

  Jan de Kok

Virtue: Equilibrium becomes progress

 

10th Holy Night: Spirits of Love

Celestial Event, Festival, Insight, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Winter

3 January 2017 – Astro-Weather: The first major meteor shower of 2017, (& every of New Year) the Quadrantid meteor shower, will be at its best in the hours between midnight & dawn January 3 or 4. The radiant point for the Quadrantids is the northern tip of Bootes, near the Big Dipper asterism in our sky, not far from Arcturus, the brightest star in Bootes. This region climbs high in the northeast as dawn approaches. And, with the waxing crescent Moon setting before 10 pm CST, observers with clear weather will have ideal conditions. Under a dark sky, viewers can expect to see up to 120 meteors per hour — an average of two per minute.

 

***

 

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

TODAY – According to the original Calendar of the Soul:

Betha Synge

Enoch – called ‘Enoch the scribe of judgment’. “In the seventh generation from Adam,” he was considered the author of the Book of Enoch, which recounts how he was taken up to Heaven & was appointed guardian of all the celestial treasures – chief of the archangels, & the immediate attendant of God’s throne. He was subsequently taught all secret mysteries &, with all the angels at his back, fulfills of his own accord whatever comes out of the mouth of God. Much esoteric literature identifies Enoch as Metatron, the angel which communicates God’s word. In consequence, Enoch was seen, by this literature, & the kabbala of Jewish mysticism, as having been the one which communicated God’s revelation to Moses, in particular. In addition to an appearance in the Book of Genesis, Enoch is the subject of many Jewish & Christian writings. Enoch was the son of Jared (Genesis 5:19–21), the father of Methuselah, & the great-grandfather of Noah. The Bible says that Enoch lived 365 years before he was taken up by God. The text reads that Enoch “walked with God: and he was no more; for God took him” (Gen 5:21–24)

 Michelangelo Sistine Chapel

The prophet Daniel – Hebrew: “God is my Judge“- was a hero who interprets dreams & receives apocalyptic visions. The Book of Daniel begins with an introduction telling how Daniel & his companions came to be in Babylon. Then a set of tales set in the Babylonian & Persian courts, followed by a set of visions in which Daniel sees the remote future of the world & of Israel.

Daniel & 3 friends were among the young Jewish nobility carried off to Babylon following the city’s capture by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The four are chosen for their intellect & beauty to be trained in the Babylonian court. They are given new names. Daniel is given the Babylonian name Belteshazzar, while his companions are given the Babylonian names Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego. Which we read about in the famous story of the fiery furnace

Daniel & his friends refuse the food & wine provided by the king of Babylon to avoid breaking the Jewish laws. They receive wisdom from God & surpass “all the magicians & enchanters of the kingdom.”

Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a giant statue made of four metals with feet of mingled iron & clay, smashed by a stone from heaven. Only Daniel is able to interpret it: the dream signifies 4 kingdoms, of which Babylon is the 1st, but God will destroy them & replace them with his own kingdom.

Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a great tree that shelters the entire world & of a heavenly figure who decrees that the tree will be destroyed; again, only Daniel can interpret the dream, which concerns the sovereignty of God over the kings of the earth.

When Nebuchadnezzar’s son King Belshazzar uses the vessels from the Jewish temple for his feast, a hand appears & writes a mysterious message on the wall, which only Daniel can interpret; it tells the king that his kingdom will be given to the Medes & Persians, because Belshazzar, unlike Nebuchadnezzar, has not acknowledged the sovereignty of the God of Daniel.

Anne Cameron Cutri

The Medes & Persians overthrow Nebuchadnezzar & the new king, Darius the Mede, appoints Daniel to high authority. Jealous rivals attempt to destroy Daniel with an accusation that he worships God instead of the king, & Daniel is thrown into a den of lions, but an angel saves him, his accusers are destroyed, & Daniel is restored to his position.

Merian

In the third year of Darius, Daniel has a series of visions. In the first, four beasts come out of the sea, the last with ten horns, & an eleventh horn grows & achieves dominion over the Earth & the “Ancient of Days” – God gives dominion to “one like a son of man”. An angel interprets the vision.

In the second, a ram with two horns is attacked by a goat with one horn; the one horn breaks & is replaced by four. A little horn arises & attacks the people of God & the temple, & Daniel is informed how long the little horn’s dominion will endure.

In the third, Daniel is troubled to read in Holy Scripture (the book is not named but appears to be Jeremiah) that Jerusalem would be desolate for 70 years. Daniel repents on behalf of the Jews & requests that Jerusalem & its people be restored. An angel refers to a period of 70 sevens, or weeks, of years.

In the final vision, Daniel sees a period of history culminating in a struggle between the “king of the north” & the “king of the south” in which God’s people suffer terribly; an angel explains that in the end the righteous will be vindicated & God’s kingdom will be established on Earth.

El Greco

Caspar – the youngest of the Magi, was King of Tarsus, a historic city in south-central Turkey. His gift was myrrh, which was used in making medicines. This symbolized Christ as the healer & great physician.

 

236 – The Deathday of Pope Anterus, Bishop of Rome. Anterus was the son of Romulus, born in Calabria. He is thought to have been of Greek origin, & his name may indicate that he was a freed slave. Scholars believe he was martyred because he ordered greater strictness in searching into the acts of the martyrs.

 ***

 Jennifer O’Neil

10th Holy Night:  Constellation of Gemini, Twins (ruling the lungs, arms, & shoulders) The Sphere of the Seraphim, Spirits of Love –

 

The ceaseless yearning of the Seraphim for the sphere of the Holy Spirit above them brings the impetus of Universal Love which begets the will to sacrifice. An earthly reflection of this macrocosmic impulse of love can be seen in the ancient Greek myth of the Twin Brothers Castor & Pollux – where the immortal twin is willing to sacrifice himself for his brother.

In the Christian epoch, after the Christ-Impluse enters into earthly evolution, love becomes universal, going beyond the love founded on blood-ties. ‘My command is this: Love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.’ (John 15: 12-14) The Spiritual Love that Christ arouses is the fulfilment of the fundamental principle of all true Christian Mysteries – ‘Not I but Christ in me’.

We see this Universal Love in the being of the Nathan Soul, the Jesus of the Luke Gospel, who sacrificed himself 4 times in the pre-earthly deeds, to be the vessel of Christ. We see it in the Mary of the Luke Gospel, who united with Mary of the Matthew Gospel, allowing the Divine Sophia to enter the earthly realm.

We see it in the willing of Zarathustra, who incarnated as the Jesus of the Matthew Gospel, & sacrificed himself to allow the Christ to descend at the Baptism.  In ancient Persia, during the age of Gemini, Zarathustra was a great Magi, able to foretell the coming of Christ, who he saw as Ahura Mazdao. This vision gave him the impulse to sacrifice himself in his coming lives in order to prepare for it. Since ‘The turning point of time’, the individuality of Zarathustra has incarnated again & again as ‘Master Jesus’ –  & is one of the circle of 12 Bodhisattvas who inspire humanity towards developing this selfless Universal Love.

Salvador Dali

In the 6 cultural epoch we will see a recapitulation of the age of Gemini on a higher level. It will be a time that stands under the signature of the Wedding at Cana, where those who unite in the Spirit of Christ will feel good-will towards one another even though they are not blood-relations. Finally on ‘Vulcan’, at the end of earth evolution, this sacrificial love will have created a new Cosmos, a universe of love created by Human Beings as the 10th hierarchy of Freedom & Love.

Christ Himself shows us the way, He put this Love into practice, sacrificing his Heavenliness in order to descend from the Trinity beyond the Zodiac, into earthly evolution, to unite Himself for all times with humanity, becoming the ultimate example by fulfilling the deed on Golgotha. Christ Himself-a God-lay down his life, to die an earthly death in Jesus.

John, the disciple that Jesus loved most, a direct witness to all the events that he describes in his Gospel, knows this love thru his initiation as Lazarus. ‘By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers & sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a friend in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children in Christ, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth’. (1 John 3:16 – 18)

And so we see how all impulses concerning community, & the social life, all striving towards joining together on the basis of mutual love & genuine interest in one another, arise from the region of Gemini. Also Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘From fixed star to fixed star, a reciprocal conversation holds sway. Through this conversation the cosmos comes into being. Whatever the planetary systems speak about with one another across the widths of space in order to become a cosmos is regulated by those Spirits that new call the Seraphim’.

What would it look like to bring this Cosmic Universal Love, consciously into our world today? To resolve for this New Year, & very year, to open our thinking-hearts, with the intension of enacting an unconditional Love which is capable of uniting like-minded people, kindred-souls, who are willing to walk the talk, & join together in communion with the Spirits of Love, who yearn for us to join the cosmic conversation …?!?

We are all Twin-Souls United in Christ

Xox  ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Jan de Kok

Virtue: Perseverance becomes faithfulness

As we persist in developing the ability to be depended upon, faithfulness ripens. We must persevere even when we can’t see any outward progress. We insist on the progress toward self-development,  in service of our true destiny. We owe this to our “I”, to the world, & to those around us. It is honoring The Divine Will, not our own personal will.

Gemini Meditation: “I recognize my other self and in the waning of that self, I grow and glow.“