Dear friends – Thank you to everyone who stood with me at the portal this weekend. Here are a few thoughts that I was not able to include in my ‘Sacred Gateway’ offering: ‘The connection between Epidemics, the Souls of the Dead, & the Spiritual World’:
In connection to illness Rudolf Steiner gives reference to ‘the double’, those parts of us that hold our often unconscious, un-redeemed parts, which can be attached to any of our sheaths, physical, etheric, & astral. To really know the double we have to understand Anthroposophic medicine, which tells us, certain illnesses like epidemics don’t come from outside us, they come from our double.
Steiner describes the Ahrimanic double as the creator of all organic illnesses – And the Luciferic double, as the creator of all nervous illnesses. He goes on to talk about the geographical forces that can promote these 2 kinds of sickness- forces coming up from the different regions of the earth prone to one or the other of these doubles within us. Steiner specifically mentions America as “…the region where the magnetic forces of sub-nature in particular arise, that bring the human being into relation with the Ahrimanic double” ~Rudolf Steiner, Geographic Medicine.
“True Medicine must become a Spiritual Science, since illness comes from these beings which make use of the human body in order to profit from it. These doubles come into each of us before birth & they leave our human body only because they cannot endure death. Illness often emerges because this double works in us. And when homeopathic remedies are given, Steiner describes how “…the double lets go of the human being and becomes satisfied with what we toss into its jaws as a remedy” ~Rudolf Steiner, Geographic Medicine.
Anthroposophical Psychology says “Shadow work” is the voluntary examination of our own internal darkness, which lacks the light of awareness, so it is often hidden from us. Obviously it takes courage to voluntarily look into the dark crevices of own psyche, where repressed traumas, inherited fear programs, undigested pain & all sorts of other disturbing & uncomfortable revelations lie buried. And as we have seen no matter how much we ignore, reject or deny the shadow, it will never just disappear. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The very fear that keeps us from looking at it is the same fear that feeds it. Hiding behind a mask will not keep us safe from what lives within us.
I believe times like these are a collective wake up call to actively participate in healing our shadow work. Friends, the Coronavirus can be seen as an agent of change. Will we actively participate in a conscious change, or will we let it be dictated to us?
Stand with me now & recite ‘Against Fear‘ by Adam Bittleston:
‘May the events that seek me,
Come unto me;
May I receive them,
With a quiet mind,
Through the Father’s ground of peace,
On which we walk.
May the people who seek me,
Come unto me;
May I receive them,
With an understanding heart,
Through the Christ’s stream of love
In which we live.
May the spirits which seek me,
Come unto me;
May I receive them,
With a clear soul,
Through the healing Spirit’s Light,
By which we see.’
If we breathe out fear & anxiety, we can engage our soul forces in spiritual activity – a practical expression of compassion for humanity on both sides of the threshold, with the ever present help of the spiritual world.
Steiner tells us that a karmic bond is created between people who belong together here on earth, & in the spiritual world; & that this relationship then works back onto the physical-sense world, which is continually under the influence of the spiritual world. What takes place here, are only effects. The causes occur beyond, in the spiritual world.
“…Indeed the time has come for us to find the courage in our souls to proclaim quite frankly before the world that the spiritual life must be placed on its own foundation. Many people are asking: Well, what are we to do? The first thing of importance is to inform people about what is needed: to get as many people as possible to comprehend the necessity, for example, of establishing the spiritual life on its own foundation; to comprehend that what the pedagogy of the 19th century has become can no longer suffice for the welfare of humankind, but that it must be built anew out of a free spiritual life. There is as yet little courage in souls to present this demand in a really radical way; and it can be thus presented only by trying to bring to as many people as possible a comprehension of these conditions. All other social work today is provisional. The most important task is this: to see that it is made possible for more and more people to gain insight into the social requirements – to provide enlightenment concerning these things through all the means at our disposal — that is now the matter of importance…” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Mysteries of Light, of Space, and of the Earth, lecture IV, Dornach, December 15, 1919
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20 April 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: One of the “Old Faithful” annual meteor showers will be reaching its peak this week: the April Lyrids.
On their peak night, which occurs overnight on Tuesday (April 21) & into the early hours of Wednesday (April 22), as many as 10 to 20 meteors per hour may be visible under dark, clear skies. The peak usually lasts for just a few hours. The path of these meteors, emerges from a spot in sky southwest of the brilliant blue-white star Vega in the little constellation Lyra . Your clenched fist held at arm’s length covers roughly 10 degrees of the sky. The radiant point is actually on the border between Lyra & the adjacent dim, sprawling constellation Hercules.
About 20 to 25 percent of them tend to leave a lingering incandescent trail behind it for a few moments. Their orbit strongly resembles that of Comet Thatcher which swung past us during the spring of 1861. It isn’t expected to swing by Earth again until the year 2276. However, the dusty material left behind by this “cosmic litterbug” along its orbit, produces an annual display of meteors in late April.
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1232 – Pope Gregory IX introduces the Inquisition
1314 – Death day of Pope Clement V – who abolished the Templar Order in 1312 – Interesting to note that the Grand Master of the Templars Jacques de Molay, Not to mention the countless women accused of being a witch, were all burnt at the stake outside of Notre Dame Cathedral.
1535 – Sun Dog sighting, observed over Stockholm, an atmospheric optical phenomenon depicting a halo display.
1586 – Birthday of Saint Rose of Lima, patroness of the Americas, of indigenous people of the Americas, especially of Lima, Peru, of Sittard in the Netherlands, of India, & of the Philippines. St. Rose’s skull, surmounted with a crown of roses, is on public display at the Basilica in Lima, Peru, along with that of Saint Martin de Porres. It was customary to keep the torso in the basilica and pass the head around the country.
1889 – Birthday of Adolf Hitler (which BTW: was also Holy Saturday in that year)
1898 – U.S. President William McKinley signed a joint resolution to Congress for declaration of War against Spain, beginning the Spanish–American War.
1999 – Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and injured 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado.
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SAVE THE DATE: Ascension Thursday 21 May 2020 ‘Coming in the Clouds’ a CRC Festival Celebration, 7 pm CDT online
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Lifting the Veil of The New Isis -Sophia, a Telling of the New Isis Myth, with Leading Thoughts, on the Being of Anthroposophia, w/ Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Friday, 29 May 2020, 7:30 – 9:30 pm at Groh Farm, 135 Temple Rd, Wilton, NH
(if the lockdown is still in effect, look for an online connection)
$10 suggesteddonation – RSVP deb@anthroposophy.org – Sponsored by the Anthoposophical Society in NH
Our dear Dr. Steiner said: ‘It is not the Christ we lack, but the knowledge of Christ, the Sophia of Christ, the Isis of Christ we are lacking.’ In ‘Ancient Myths and the New Isis Mystery: Their Meaning and Connection with Evolution’ Lecture 3; given in Dornach, 6 January 1918, by Rudolf Steiner; we hear how the power of ‘The Word, the power of The Logos’, must be resurrected through our striving to activate the Wisdom of Anthroposophia within each of us. Join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg for a powerful presentation Lifting the Veil of the New Isis-Sophia, to bring Light to Love.
~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg Saturday, 30 May, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm Groh Farm, 135 Temple Rd, Wilton, NH
(if the lockdown is still in effect, look for an online connection)
Eurythmy: AUM = A – I stand for myself, U- I stand for humanity, M – I stand for Life
Social Sculpture: Steiner’s ‘Blue Dot Exercise’– Through Art, the bridge between science & spirit, we warm the ‘I’, to open the heart, in support of healthy community.
What are my gifts-What are my tools? How can I place them in right relationship within the social realm? How can I hone them to strengthen and enhance the world?
Living into the Foundation Stone of Love – How can we take our individual Inner Whitsun & expand it, into what Steiner calls the “World Festival of Knowledge” a path leading from ‘Sprit Recollection’, to ‘Sprit Sensing’, to ‘Sprit Beholding’?
Enter the Labyrinth of ‘Vitae Sophia’ – Human hearts, once warmed, can rise up to meet the source of wisdom, like flowers turning toward the sun.
$30 suggested donation at the door, with potluck lunch to follow
(please bring a dish to share) RSVP deb@anthroposophy.org Sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in New Hampshire
as part of the tour
3 June 2020 – a Round Table Discussion 7 pm – 9 pm on ‘The Sophia’ with John Bloom, Joan Sleigh, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg & Carrie Schuchardt at The House of Peace in Ipswich, MA.
(if the lockdown is still in effect, look for an online connection)
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year.Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Trans-denominational Minister, ‘Anthroposopher’, working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, The Traveling Speakers Program, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society.
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