Category Archives: Meditation

Autumn: A Guided Meditation

October 13, 2016Autumn, Meditation, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

13 October 2016 – Astro-Weather: The gibbous Moon lights the southeastern sky after dark. Look upper left of it, by a couple of fists at arm’s length, for the Great Square of Pegasus tilted up onto one corner. Far lower right of the Moon is Fomalhaut

Isao Tomoda

***

“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” ~H.G. Wells

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Feast Day of Edward the Confessor, the last king of the House of Wessex. Some portray this king’s reign as leading to the disintegration of royal power in England.

Feast Day of Gerald of Aurillac, who suffered illness as a child, & in later life became blind. He seriously considered joining a religious order, but was persuaded against it. Nevertheless, secretly tonsured under his habitual cap, he consecrated his life in service to God, gave away his possessions, took a personal vow of chastity & prayed the breviary each day. He is the patron saint of the disabled, handicapped, & physically challenged.

54 – Emperor Claudius is poisoned to death under mysterious circumstances. His 17-year-old stepson Nero succeeds him

1307 – Hundreds of Templars in France are simultaneously arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair, to be later tortured into a “confession” of heresy. Once freed of the Inquisitors’ torture, many Templars recanted their confessions. Some had sufficient legal experience to defend themselves in the trials, but in 1310 Philip blocked this attempt, using the previously forced confessions to have dozens of Templars burned at the stake in Paris. With Philip threatening military action unless the pope complied with his wishes, Pope Clement finally agreed to disband the Order, citing the public scandal that had been generated by the confessions. At the Council of Vienne in 1312, he issued a series of papal bulls, which officially dissolved the Order. As for the leaders of the Order, the elderly Grand Master Jacques de Molay, who had confessed under torture, retracted his confession & insisted on his innocence. But he was declared guilty of being a relapsed heretic & was sentenced to be burnt at the stake in Paris on 18 March 1314. De Molay reportedly remained defiant to the end, calling out from the flames that both Pope Clement & King Philip would soon meet their end. Pope Clement died only a month later, & King Philip died in a hunting accident before the end of the year

Mariotto Albertinelli

1474 – Birthday of Mariotto Albertinelli, an Italian High Renaissance painter of the Florentine school. He was a close friend & collaborator of Fra Bartolomeo & their joint works appear as if they have been painted by one hand

1582 – Because of the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain

1773 – The Whirlpool Galaxy is discovered by Charles Messier

1792 –The cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion (known as the White House since 1818) is laid

1917 – The “Miracle of the Sun” is witnessed by an estimated 100,000 people in the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal. The people had gathered because the 3 shepherd children, who originally claimed to have seen Our Lady of Fátim, had predicted that at high noon the lady who had appeared to them several times would perform a great miracle. According to many witnesses, after a period of rain, the dark clouds broke & the sun appeared as an opaque, spinning disc in the sky. It was said to be significantly duller than normal, & to cast multicolored lights across the landscape, the people, & the surrounding clouds. The sun was then reported to have careened towards the earth before zig-zagging back to its normal position. Witnesses reported that their previously wet clothes became “suddenly & completely dry, as well as the wet & muddy ground that had been previously soaked because of the rain that had been falling.” According to reports, a panorama of visions, including those of Jesus, Our Lady of Sorrows, & of Saint Joseph blessed the people. The event lasted approximately ten minutes

1962 – The Pacific Northwest experiences a cyclone the equal of a Cat 3 hurricane. Winds measured above 150 mph at several locations; 446 people died

1972 – An Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-62 crashes outside Moscow killing 174

1972 – Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashes in the Andes mountains, near the border between Argentina & Chile. By December 23, 1972, only 16 out of 45 people lived long enough to be rescued

1976 – A Bolivian Boeing 707 cargo jet crashes in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, killing 100 (97, mostly children, killed on the ground)

1983 – Ameritech Mobile Communications (now AT&T) launched the first US cellular network in Chicago

1988 – Naguib Mahfouz, an Egyptian writer regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature, to explore themes of existentialism. wins Nobel Prize in Literature; the only Arab to win the prize. As a consequence of his outspoken support for Sadat’s Camp David peace treaty with Israel his books were banned in many Arab countries. Mahfouz was on an Islamic fundamentalist “death list”. In 1994 an Islamic extremist succeeded in attacking the 82-year-old novelist by stabbing him in the neck outside his Cairo home. He survived, permanently affected by damage to nerves of his right upper limb. After the incident Mahfouz was unable to write for more than a few minutes a day & consequently produced fewer & fewer works

1992 –Antonov Airlines crashes near Kiev, Ukraine killing 80

2010 – The Copiapó mining accident in Copiapó, Chile comes to an end as all 33 miners arrive at the surface after surviving a record 69 days underground awaiting rescue

***

MY POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I travel the back of a snake

An unbroken seal on the book of myself

Giving my mind the pleasure of creation

My heart thinks

& love opens the way…

~hag

***

Autumn: A Guided Meditation

You float…you feel a gentle breeze began to dance you through the air like a leaf in the fall. This is a very comforting feeling, like being carried in your mother’s arms. There is no fear. You spin through the sky, flying over fields & forests…

As the wind gently releases, you slowly begin to sink down toward a wilderness of trees. Gently, Gently…You reach the ground landing on a well-trodden path.

You begin, now, to walk the path heading in a familiar direction. As you walk, you notice the 1st hint of color changing the trees…& the silence, broken only by the gentle breeze…the song of birds & other animals. Ahead of you, the path opens up to a larger area. You arrive at this place, & know that it is a Sacred Place.

It may be a grove, or a shady spot under a large tree. It may be a clearing, or a meadow. It may be a stone-circle, or a temple. However it appears to you, you know this is a Sacred Place, it feels safe & powerful.

Enter this Sacred Place…You may wish to remove your shoes because the ground is holy…You may wish to make an offering, or sing a blessing…As you enter this place, you see the bright figure of a woman ahead of you. She looks very familiar. She calls your name, & asks you to come forward. You are unable to make out her face, as she is engulfed in a brilliant glow. She leans forward; you close your eyes, & embrace. As you stand in the arms of this bright woman, she whispers a truth to you. It is a well-reasoned, logical truth. It may be something you already know, but are unaware of. It may be something which makes wonderful sense to you, & makes your mind open with wonder. It may be a mystical teaching which will require further thought. Whatever it may be, you know you are blessed by this amazing teaching…

Then the bright woman braids a chain of flowers into your hair…you touch your fingers to your head knowing your mind has been forever changed, opened, to all the possibilities of positive thinking that will transform your thoughts into things…

You spin with joy, noticing all at once, that the bright woman has vanished & now, standing before you, is a dark figure, looking strangely familiar. Again, you are unable to make out her face. But you notice she is carrying a bundle over her shoulder. She lays her burden down on the ground at your feet. The dark woman speaks to you, with a voice that resonates in a similar way as the first figure; yet deeper, more mellow & mysterious…She calls you by name, & asks you to come forward. You do so. You close your eyes, & embrace this dark woman…Your embrace is a full of compassion & warmth.

She gently whispers a truth in your ear. It is a truth which you feel is right. The truth touches your heart & frees your soul. You feel like a bird, soaring through the skies, singing a song of joy. When you open your eyes you become aware that the dark woman has vanished, & the bundle she was carrying & left at your feet has transformed into a large piece of rich honey-colored amber. You pick it up & hold it in your hand…the sun calls you to lift the amber up…bring it up into the light…let the sunshine merge with this solid symbol of your vitality…breathe in the pranic life-force emanating from your true purpose made manifest…

Put this treasure in your pocket, as you leave the Sacred Place…forever knowing that the sacred place goes where your intention flows…Knowing that union is possible between the many parts of our beings…walk in confidence… balanced in the light & dark of your most authentic self…walk the path toward the wilderness.

You pass the trees, & notice that the colors of their leaves are becoming more pronounced. You see the squirrels busy collecting nuts, & the birds beginning their southward journey. You pass the point where you began walking on this path.

You begin ascending a large hill. You walk upward…upward…up the hill, until you reach the top. There you find that you can see the surrounding countryside all around you. You have an amazing view of your Sacred Place. As you stand there in the sun, you feel your mind & body as it begins to change. Knowing in every cell of your being that we all sink into the earth like a seed in its season, released into the fertile earth. Feel the last wave of the Summer heat vanish, you are in a warm blanket of earth, waiting, listening, waiting…feeling the loving arms of Mother Earth transforming you…

Put on the colors of autumn, & feel the breezes washing you. A glad gust takes hold of you, & floating in the air, you dance away from the wilderness…away from the Sacred Place…Back to yourself. As the wind loosens its grip…you land, back into yourself, grounded, renewed & ready to walk the talk…Ready to Be…Ready to Begin, the labor of love, called your life…

See you there

xox

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Penetrate to the heart of the core of the root…

September 17, 2016Autumn, Chicago Event, Festival, Insight, Meditation, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

17 September 2016 – Astro-Weather: Now the Moon shines below the Great Square of Pegasus. From the Great Square’s left corner extends a big line of three stars, running to the lower left, that mark the head, backbone & leg of the constellation Andromeda. The line of three includes the Square’s corner

Upper left from the end of this line, you’ll find W-shaped Cassiopeia tilting up

Skywatchers with an unobstructed horizon toward the west-southwest should keep an eye out for Venus this week, minutes after sunset, it shines so brilliantly that it stands out against the bright twilight. The star Spica, is to her lower left

***

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 (from Chris Manvell)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1179 – Deathday of Hildegard of Bingen, “the Sybil of the Rhine” a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, & polymath.

She is considered to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany. One of her works as a composer, the Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama, the oldest surviving morality play. She wrote theological, botanical, & medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, & poems, while supervising miniature illuminations in the Rupertsberg manuscript of her first work, Scivias. She is also noted for the invention of a constructed language known as Lingua Ignota.

Hildegard 1st saw “The Shade of the Living Light” at the age of three. Hildegard was hesitant to share her visions, but at the age of 42, Hildegard received instruction from God, to “write down that which you see and hear.” Still hesitant to record her visions, Hildegard became physically ill. The illustrations recorded in the book of Scivias were visions that Hildegard experienced, causing her great suffering: “But I, though I saw and heard these things, refused to write for a long time through doubt and bad opinion and the diversity of human words, not with stubbornness but in the exercise of humility, until, laid low by the scourge of God, I fell upon a bed of sickness; then, compelled at last by many illnesses, and by the witness of a certain noble maiden of good conduct [the nun Richardis von Stade] I set my hand to the writing. While I was doing it, I sensed, the deep profundity of scriptural exposition; and, raising myself from illness by the strength I received, I brought this work to a close – though just barely – in ten years. (…) And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and received them in the heavenly places. And again I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me, ‘Cry out therefore, and write thus!’

Hildegard’s visions caused her to see humans as “living sparks” of God’s love.

On 17 September 1179, when Hildegard died, her sisters claimed they saw two streams of light appear in the skies & cross over the room where she was dying.

“Listen: there was once a king sitting on his throne. Around Him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honor. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground, and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself but because the air bore it along. Thus am I, a feather on the breath of God.”

Howard Chandler Christy

1787 – The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia

1859 – Joshua A. Norton declares himself “Norton I, Emperor of the United States.” Born in England, Norton spent most of his early life in South Africa, he emigrated to San Francisco with an inheritance, but he lost his fortune investing in Peruvian rice & Norton’s public prominence faded. He reemerged to lay claim to the position of Emperor of the United States, & ‘Protector of Mexico’. He was treated deferentially in San Francisco, &currency issued in his name was honored in the establishments he frequented.

Though some considered him insane or eccentric, citizens of San Francisco celebrated his regal presence & his proclamations, such as his order that the United States Congress be dissolved by force & his numerous decrees calling for a bridge crossing connecting San Francisco to Oakland, &a corresponding tunnel to be built under San Francisco Bay.

At his funeral two days later, nearly 30,000 people packed the streets of San Francisco to pay homage. Norton has been immortalized as the basis of characters in the literature of writers Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Christopher Moore, Maurice De Bevere, Selma Lagerlöf, & Neil Gaiman

1908 – The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes, killing Selfridge. He becomes the first airplane fatality

1916 –Manfred von Richthofen (“The Red Baron“), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France, in World War I

1928 – The Okeechobee hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing more than 2,500 people. It is the third deadliest natural disaster in United States history, behind the Galveston hurricane of 1900 & the 1906 San Francisco earthquake

1939 –The Soviet Union joins Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland in World War II

1939 –German submarine U-29 sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous in World War II

1948 – The Lehi, also known as the Stern gang, assassinates Count Folke Bernadotte, who was appointed by the United Nations to mediate between the Arab nations & Israel. Lehi = “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel” was a Zionist paramilitary organization founded by Avraham (“Yair”) Stern in Palestine. Its aim was to evict the British authorities from Palestine by force, allowing unrestricted immigration of Jews & the formation of a Jewish state, a ‘new totalitarian Hebrew republic’

1961 – Deathday of Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish diplomat, economist, author & the second secretary-general of the United Nations. Soon after his appointment Hammarskjöld was interviewed on radio by Edward R. Murrow. In this talk he declared: “But the explanation of how man should live a life of active social service in full harmony with himself as a member of the community of spirit, I found in the writings of those great medieval mystics [Meister Eckhart and Jan van Ruysbroek] for whom ‘self-surrender’ had been the way to self-realization, and who in ‘singleness of mind’ and ‘inwardness’ had found strength to say yes to every demand which the needs of their neighbours made them face, and to say yes also to every fate life had in store for them when they followed the call of duty as they understood it.”

He was en route to negotiate a cease-fire on 18 September when his plane crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia. Hammarskjöld & fifteen others died in the crash. The circumstances of the incident are still not clear. There is some evidence that suggests the plane was shot down. Göran Björkdahl (a Swedish aid worker) wrote in 2011 that he believed Dag Hammarskjöld’s 1961 death was a murder committed in part to benefit mining companies like Union Minière, after Hammarskjöld had made the UN intervene in the Katanga crisis. Björkdahl based his assertion on interviews with witnesses of the plane crash & on archival documents. Former U.S. President Harry Truman commented that Hammarskjöld “was on the point of getting something done when they killed him. Notice that I said ‘when they killed him’.”

1978 – The Camp David Accords brokered by President Jimmy Carter, is signed by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin

2001 – The New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 attacks, the longest closure since the Great Depression

2006 – Fourpeaked Mountain in Alaska erupts, marking the first eruption for the long-dormant volcano in at least 10,000 years

2011 – Occupy Wall Street movement begins in Zuccotti Park, New York City

***

Hilma Af Klint

~In slanted sunlight O my soul

The ripening fruits of my thinking are aroused in certainty,

For I sense an essence kindred to my own…

Joyfully I can perceive

The Autumn-Spirt waking…

& then I know

That winter will spring in me

Like Summer of the soul…

***

Hilma Af Klint

Inner Sanctum – a guided imagination:

Let us take our breath into our thinking, bringing our awareness inward, into the secret reaches of our inner sanctum…

Penetrate to the heart of the core of the root…

Peer down through the cracks in the surface, all the way to the center…

Treat the darkness there, as the source, of light, a cleverly disguised treasure, waiting to be re-discovered…a repository of raw material that will fuel the fires of inspiration, a place where we can go to practice the high art of redemption…

Let’s dare to be curious about the amazing sacraments that lie beneath the obvious questions…To open that mysterious door, that leads to the even more mysterious door, that will take us to the most private, yet inclusive, fertile oasis of all…as we aspire to wrestle tenderly with the unripe side of our nature, until it agrees to share its hidden treasures with the rest of us…

Then the immediate future, the eternal now, will bring cathartic revelations leading to spiritual insights & ingenious changes in the way we dance our life…

You are potentially a genius, we all are…Perhaps not in the same way that Einstein & Beethoven were, but still: We possess some brilliant capacity or set of skills that is exquisitely unique…

We are a masterpiece unlike any other that has ever lived…& you know what…the precise instructions we need to ripen into that glorious Genie have always been with us…The master plan…our special mission…our personal soul code…our secret song, that says, it’s our birthright to dance daily with the Divine Intelligence…

We have the power & the privilege to ask ‘The Source’ very specific questions about what we need to do NOW in order to activate more of our soul’s code, & to then receive a very specific answer…

So what question will you ask the Divine Intelligence today, as you commune in the sacred dance of yourself? …

Breathe in the Q breathe out the answer…open to receive it…breathe in the Q as you embody your answer in the healing moment of the now…

The Question is Love & Love Is the Answer…

Breathe in the Q breathe out the answer…& as you let yourself ripen & become the answer…just breathe & be…

And then slowly come, slowly come back into the body of this now…breathe in the now…& begin to renew your connection to the circle of life…bring your awareness back to the unity of the universe…into the sacred dance of your life…with the milk & manna still lingering on your lips…mingling with the salt of your skin…ready to be turned into honey-mead…we take the marriage feast back to the ring, into the circle that never stops…

Then Out into the world, to feed life with Loves healing mystery…grounded in every cell of our bodies…connected to the stars in our eyes…lived with every breath…as we take in the power we’ve raised in our imaginative thinking to fuel & feed our ‘balance in Change’…

See you in the circle

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

Michaelmas Festival: 7pm –9pm Friday 30 September, 2016

Optional Community Potluck Dinner 5pm – 6:45pm at The Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

Heart-Thinking: Michael Beckoning

7pm – The Midwest Eurythmy Group will perform the Michaelmas Verse from Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul

Activating Our ‘Gemut’: The mind warmed by a loving heart & stimulated by the soul’s imaginative power – Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Copper Rod Eurythmy: ALL

If I’m to be a valiant knight, Then there’s a battle I must fight , And I must choose right from the start, Not strength of arm But strength of heart, My sword shall of good steel be made, And love the keenness of the blade

Grimm’s Tale “The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs” by Laura Donkel

Verse for the Michaelic Age: ALL

We must eradicate from the soul all fear and terror of what approaches us from the future. We must acquire serenity in all feelings and sensations about the future.

We must look forward with absolute equanimity to whatever may come. And we must think only that whatever comes is given to us by a cosmic guidance full of wisdom.

It is part of what we must learn in this age, namely, to live without any security in material existence and to live with pure trust in the ever-present help of the spiritual world.

Truly, nothing else will do if our courage is not to fail us. For this let us seek awakening to the reality of the spirit from within ourselves, every morning and every evening. ~Rudolf Steiner

Piano & Voice – Kristen Wray & David Wray performing Nacht und Träume + Ganymed – By Franz Schubert. Kristen Wray is a fiber and metal weaving artist, an energy healing practitioner, as well as a classically trained singer. David Wray is a classics professor at the University of Chicago specializing in ancient Roman poetry. Kristen and David regularly perform together in music student recitals on the university campus.

$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged

For more info. Contact Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer Ginsberg Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

‘Carry wakefully Sun’s Glowing’

September 11, 2016Autumn, Celestial Event, Chicago Event, Festival, Insight, Meditation, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

11 September 2016 –

Astro-Weather: The Moon is just about equidistant from Altair, & Mars.

Asteroid 2 Pallas the second-largest object orbiting between Mars & Jupiter remains in the evening sky. You can find it in the dim constellation Equuleus the Little Horse, which lies just west of its big cousin, Pegasus, climbing nearly two-thirds of the way to the zenith in the southern sky around 10 pm CDT.

***

“It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.”~Benjamin Franklin

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Birthday of Abraham, ancestor of the Semitic Hebrews & Arabs

354 – Deathday of Saints Protus & Hyacinth mentioned in “Depositio Martyrum”

1826 – Captain William Morgan, an ex-freemason is arrested in Batavia, New York for ‘debt’ after declaring that he would publish The Mysteries of Free Masonry. This sets into motion the events that led to his mysterious disappearance

1830 – Anti-Masonic Party convention; one of the first American political party conventions

1851 – Christiana Resistance: Escaped slaves stand against their former owner in armed resistance in Christiana, Pennsylvania, creating a rallying cry for the abolitionist movement

1893 – Parliament of the World’s Religions opens in Chicago, where Swami Vivekananda delivers his speech on fanaticism, tolerance & the truth inherent in all religions

1897 –Menelik II of Ethiopia captures Gaki Sherocho, the last king of Kaffa, bringing an end to that ancient kingdom

1919 – U.S. Marines invade Honduras

1921 – Nahalal, the first Jewish settlement in Palestine, as part of a Zionist plan to colonize Palestine creating a Jewish state, later to be called Israel

1932 – Deathday of Fritz Lemmermayer an Austrian writer, journalist & closest childhood friend of Rudolf Steiner in Vienna. Fritz was a passionate anti-materialist, he wanted to devote his life to the creation & maintenance of spiritual values.

In 1883 he completed his novel “The Alchemist”. Rudolf Steiner met Lemmermayer again in 1886 in the circle of the poet Marie Eugenie delle Grazie. An extensive correspondence attests to the close friendship between the two (see GA 38 ).

In ” My Life ” Steiner says: Fritz Lemmermayer, with whom I was later on terms of intimate friendship, I came to know at one of delle Grazie’s afternoons. A highly noteworthy man. Whatever interested him he expressed with inwardly measured dignity. In his outward appearance he resembled equally the musician Rubinstein and the actor Lewinsky. With Hebbel he developed almost a cult. He had definite views on art and life born out of the sagacious understanding of the heart, and these were unusually fixed. He had written the interesting and profound romance, Der Alchemist(3), and much besides that was characterized by beauty and depth. He knew how to consider the least things in life from the view-point of the most vital. I recall how I once saw him in his charming little room in a side-street in Vienna together with other friends. He had planned his meal: two soft-boiled eggs, to be cooked in an instantaneous boiler, together with bread. He remarked with much emphasis while the water was heating to boil the eggs for us: “This will be delicious!” In a later phase of my life I shall again have occasion to speak of him (see GA 028, p 141f )

Lemmermayer & Steiner joined the ranks of the Viennese artist circle in the house of the protestant priest Alfred Formey. In 1891 Lemmermayer was vice president of Schrifstellerbundes Iduna , named after Iduna , the Norse goddess of youth & immortality a counterweight against the currents of naturalism.

Lemmermayer became a member of the Anthroposophical Society in 1920. He Steiner on many trips through Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland & England. This led to his 1929 published memories, where he spoke about Rudolf Steiner, Robert Hamerling & other personalities of the Austrian intellectual life of the 80s. In addition, Lemmermayer published in the weekly ” Das Goetheanum “.

1940 – George Stibitz performs the first remote operation of a computer

1941 – Ground is broken for the construction of The Pentagon

1941 – Charles Lindbergh’s Des Moines Speech accusing the British, Jews & the Roosevelt administration of pressing for war with Germany

1943 – World War II: Start of the liquidation of the Ghettos in Minsk & Lida by the Nazis

1950 – Korean War: President Harry S. Truman approved military operations north of the 38th parallel

1954 – Hurricane Edna hits New England as a Category 1 hurricane, causing significant damage & 129 deaths

1961 – Hurricane Carla strikes the Texas coast as a Category 4 hurricane, the second strongest storm ever to hit the state, 129 people die

1968 – Air France Flight 1611 crashes off Nice, France, killing 89 passengers &six crew

1973 – Deathday of Salvador Guillermo a Chilean physician & politician, known as the first Marxist to become president of a Latin American country through open elections. Allende’s involvement in Chilean political life spanned a period of nearly forty years. As a member of the Socialist Party, he was a senator, deputy & cabinet minister. In 1970, he won the presidency. Allende adopted a policy of nationalization of industries & collectivisation; due to these & other factors, increasingly strained relations lead to his death. On 11 September 1973, the military moved to oust Allende in a coup d’état sponsored by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). As troops surrounded La Moneda Palace, he gave his last speech vowing not to resign. He was assassinated by the CIA assault rifle attack.

Following Allende’s death, General Augusto Pinochet declined to return authority to the civilian government, & Chile was later ruled by a military junta that was in power up until 1990, ending almost four decades of Chilean democratic rule. The military junta that took over dissolved the Congress of Chile & began a persecution of alleged dissidents, in which thousands of Allende’s supporters were kidnapped, tortured, and murdered.

1974 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 crashes in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing 69 passengers & two crew.

1976 – A bomb planted by Zvonko Bušić is found at New York’s Grand Central Terminal

1978 – Janet Parker is the last person to die of smallpox, in a laboratory-associated outbreak

1982 – The international forces that were guaranteeing the safety of Palestinian refugees following Israel’s 1982 Invasion of Lebanon leave Beirut. Five days later, several thousand refugees are massacred in the Sabra & Shatila refugee camps

1988 – The St. Jean Bosco massacre takes place in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

1992 – Hurricane Iniki, one of the most damaging hurricanes in United States history, devastates the Hawaiian islands of Kauai & Oahu

9/11 – 2001 – Two hijacked aircraft crash into the World Trade Center in New York City, while a third smashes into The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, & a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in a series of coordinated suicide attacks by 19 members of al-Qaeda? Over 2,996 people are killed, many suffer illness associated with the clean up

***

Van James

Calendar of the Soul Twenty-fifth Week [September 11, 2016 – September 17, 2016]

I can belong now to myself

And shining spread my inner light

Into the dark of space and time.

Toward sleep is urging all creation,

But inmost soul must stay awake

And carry wakefully sun’s glowing

Into the winter’s icy flowing.

~Rudolf Steiner

***

Sir Edward Coley

Spiritual epiphany alert!
Yes, my dear bundles of rumbling DNA

Uncanny revelations are imminent!
Hope you don’t mind being shaken awake
in the middle of your regularly scheduled life…
It doesn’t matter if you’re a true believer
or a work-a-day TV viewer — YOU
will soon be invited
to have one of your logical certainties torn out
by the roots & replaced with a throbbing vision
of cosmic hoopla…
Brace yourself for the most pungent enlightenment

you’ve had since your last mudwrestle
with an angel…

…for Long-standing versions of reality
are mutating…Stories that have remained fixed
are about to acquire unexpected wrinkles…
& from the crack in the godhead
new possibilities are pouring forth…

&…there’s something You can do
to ensure that the new versions of the old vision
are more empowering than the overlay:

Escape the cramped quarters of your own mind…
2. Slip away from the corners you’ve been backed into…
3. Stop telling the convoluted stories ‘they’ concocted
to rationalize why you should be afraid…
4. Get out of the loop & escape into the big,
fresh places that will rejuvenate
your eyes and heart…& for the foreseeable future,
5. take on the demeanor & spirit of a noble warrior
with high integrity & a fluid sense
of humor…What I pray is that we won’t be satisfied with mediocre
half-truths; that it is ok be focused
on cutting out waste, fraud, & delusion; that
it’s ok to be itchy to know more about the unacknowledged
games that are being played…Frustration, I hope,
will be our holy fuel…Unsweetened lemonade,
I trust, will be our rejuvenating drink…
These are blessings, my friend, not curses..!
I pray that you’ll pick one of those itchy scabs
until it bleeds
so the healing process can start over —
the right way this time…See…there goes that misplaced acceptance of
warped chunks of complications…Here comes
an opportunity to make a break for bubbly responsibility

True Human Freedom…
To take advantage, we’ll need to travel much lighter –
So please peel off your heart-armor – polish your sun-shield
Power the rust off your sword

Wipe that forty-pound sneer of doubt off your face –

Bury your broken-down theories by the wayside,
& donate all your unnecessary props
to the birds & the bees – Strip down –
for where we’re going, all you’ll need are
your good looks & a big fresh attitude…

I end this 9/11 epiphany with:

THE “AMERICAN” or “THREEFOLD” VERSE sent by Rudolf Steiner to Ralph Courtney, a pioneer of Anthroposophy in North America for the Threefold Group in New York City, which later established the Threefold Community in Spring Valley (now Chestnut Ridge). This verse for the American spirit speaks of the inner unity of human beings and of support from the spiritual world for our efforts:

May our feeling penetrate
To the center of our hearts –
And seek, in love, to unite with those who share our goals
And with the spirits who look down benevolently
on our hearts earnest strivings Sending us strength from realms of light
to illuminate our love.

In Peace & Good Will

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

Michaelmas Festival: 7pm -9pm, Friday 30 September, 2016 at The Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

Heart-Thinking: Michael Beckoning

Piano & Voice – Kristen & David Wray performing Nacht und Träume + Ganymed– By Franz Schubert

Activating Heart-Thinking– Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Copper Rod Eurythmy: ALL

Grimm’s Tale “The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs” by Laura Donkel

Harvest Songs-Singing with Elisabeth Swisher: ALL

Verse for the Michaelic Age: ALL

$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged

For more info. Contact Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer GinsbergHazel@ReverseRitual.com

Without the eternal, art is not art ~Rudolf Steiner

September 2, 2016Meditation, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Soul to Soul~hag

2 September 2016 – Astro-weather: Neptune reaches opposition & peak visibility today. Because it lies opposite the Sun in our sky, it rises at sunset & appears highest in the south around 1 am CDT. But you can start searching for it by 10 pm when it lies nearly one-third of the way from the southeastern horizon to the zenith. Neptune glows bright enough to spot through binoculars if you know where to look. The trick is to find the star Lambda Aquarii, which lies southeast of Aquarius’ distinctive Water Jar asterism. At opposition, Neptune appears southwest of this star

***

“Nescire autem quid antequam natus sis acciderit, id est semper esse puerum. To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.” ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Granger

31 B.C. – The Roman leader Octavian defeated the alliance of Mark Antony & Cleopatra. Octavian, as Augustus Caesar, became the first Roman emperor

44 BC – Marcus Tullius Cicero launches the first of his Philippics (oratorical attacks) on Mark Antony. He will make 14 of them over the following months

44 BC – Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of Egypt declares her son co-ruler

459 – Deathday of Saint Simeon a Syriac ascetic saint who achieved fame for living 37 years on a small platform on top of a pillar near Aleppo in Syria

1192 – The Treaty of Jaffa is signed between Richard I of England & Saladin, leading to the end of the Third Crusade

1666 – The Great Fire of London breaks out & burns for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings including St Paul’s Cathedral

1752 – Great Britain adopts the Gregorian calendar, nearly two centuries later than most of Western Europe

1789 – The United States Department of the Treasury is founded

1792 – During what became known as the September Massacres of the French Revolution, rampaging mobs slaughter three Roman Catholic Church bishops, more than two hundred priests, & prisoners believed to be royalist sympathizers

1806 – A massive landslide destroys the town of Goldau, Switzerland, killing 457

1885 – Rock Springs massacre: In Wyoming, 150 white miners, who are struggling to unionize so they could strike for better wages and work conditions, attack their Chinese fellow workers killing 28, wounding 15 & forcing several hundred more out of town

1901 – Vice President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt utters the famous phrase, “Speak softly and carry a big stick” at the Minnesota State Fair

1935 –Labor Day hurricane hits the Florida Keys, killing 423.

1939 – World War II: Following the start of the invasion of Poland the previous day, the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) is annexed by Nazi Germany

1945 – The day on which Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect ending the war six years & one day after it began. Know today as V-J Day

1945 – Ho Chi Minh declared the independence of Vietnam

1973 – Deathday of J. R. R. Tolkien

1992 – An earthquake in Nicaragua kills at least 116 people.

1992 – The U.S. & Russia agreed to a joint venture to build a space station.

1996 – Muslim rebels & the Philippine government signed a pact formally ending 26-years of insurgency that had killed more than 120,000 people

1998 – Swissair Flight 111 crashes near Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia. All 229 people on board are killed

1998 – The UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda finds Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of nine counts of genocide

***

My POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Am I

Bent on being bent

Raw

As milk

Hot like honey

In the sun…

The circle never stops

Even as we bite our own tails

~hag

***

Elemental Meditation

Take a moment, sit comfortably & calm your mind…Take a deep breath, deep into your belly, hold it for a moment, & let it slowly go…

Imagine that you are standing on a high, wide hill. It is midnight, & the crescent moon cuts a slice of light onto the landscape. You turn to the North, & across the valley, you can see majestic mountains, their sharp peaks reaching toward the sky. You notice the richness of the colors in the rock, & the pure whiteness of the snowy crests. A light breeze wafts up from the valley, bringing with it the earthy odors of the lush vegetation below.

You spread your feet wide, & you can feel the indomitable strength of the stone. Time slows down, & you feel that you yourself are made of the same stone, with your “I” in the realm of the Seraphim. You have seen eons of time go by; you have seen the Earth’s creatures evolve in the slow steady dance of life & death. You are One with the living Earth, part of her body ever changing, ever treasure full…

Spend a few breaths in rhythm with her cycles…then allow the image to fade…

Again you are standing on the hill. You turn to the East, & you notice that the dawn is beginning to break. An insistent breeze raises your hair, as you inhale the heady perfume of newly opened flowers in the air…

A tall pine grows up out of the valley, & on its topmost branch sits an eagle. It gives a loud cry, & as the sun breaks over the horizon, the eagle spreads its wings, & with powerful strokes, lifts itself into the rising currents of air. As it soars nearer, you too, can feel the rising thermals pressing upwards on your being, lifting & supporting the thoughts of your highest mind. You gaze around, & you find that you can distinguish the smallest detail with perfect clarity. You are One with the Air. Take a few healing breaths in the quicksilver lightness of new beginnings…your mind free & uncluttered… sharp & attuned…slowly this image begins to morph & fade.

Again you find yourself a top the hill. You turn to the South, you realize it is high noon, & the blazing Sun beats down like a drum. You look out over the valley, undulating with heat, & from a cave on the other side, you see an ancient winged-dragon emerge. It looks up to where you stand, & your eyes meet. Michael holds him lightly with a golden chain.

Before Michael lets him go, he beckons the dragon to kneel, head bowed, the dragon flies across the blazing valley toward you, & yet you feel perfectly safe meeting this great being face to face. Its eyes are like red coals, & its breath is hot fire on your face, like the scorching sun, smelling of the molten flames burning deep within your solar plexus. Its scales appear metallic, as though they were made of beaten gold. It lowers its head, & as you place your hand on its brow, you feel a surge of energy, as though the plasma of the sun itself was flowing through your veins. You are One with the Sun energy reclaimed from the belly of the dragon. Take a few golden breaths feeling its activating passion, protecting & enlivening every cell of your being. Release the dragon in peace, to go back to his master Michael, & allow the image to fade.

Yet again you find yourself standing on the hilltop. You turn to the West, & you realize that the Sun is setting. At the base of the hill a vast sea spreads to the horizon. Its deep blue surface is calm, & you feel a deep sense of perfect peace & serenity. The waters of the sea gently lap the shore directly below you, revealing its secret mysteries at your feet. You walk down the shore of this primordial sea, wading into the cool water. At the oceans edge, you see that a fresh water spring flows out from the side of the hill, cascading over rocks, to form a small waterfall.

You reach down, & scoop up some of this clear sparkling water, bringing it to your mouth to drink. The water tastes incredibly fresh & clean, & you know that it is.

You dive into the seawater at the base of the waterfall, & feel its smoothness over your body. You laugh, & float like a fish in the sea, soon realizing that you are surrounded by dolphins. You can feel their joy in life, you allow yourself to join in their playfulness. You feel the flowing force of your loving ancestors acting as midwifes as you are reborn in the purifying saltwater. You lie back, to allow the water to support you, yet you need no support, for you are One with the Water….

Spend a few breaths in the deep truth of this peace & calm, as you slowly allow the image to fade…

Once again you are on the hill. It is night. You look up, & see the great black arch of the sky thick with stars. As you gaze at them, you feel a pulsation of energy coming from them, & from the Earth beneath your feet. The energy feels like a dance, with you in the center of the leminscate, as you sway to its rhythm, the music of the spheres enters you, & you are One with the Universe. Breathe with the Life-Force pulsing within you…

In gratitude ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

“I carry Peace within me; I bear within myself forces giving me strength…”

July 9, 2016Insight, Meditation, Quote, Remembering~hag

9 July 2016 – ASTRO-WEATHER – The Big Dipper’s familiar shape lies high in the northwest as darkness falls these July evenings. One of the summer sky’s finest double stars marks the bend of the Dipper’s handle. Mizar shines some six times brighter than its companion, Alcor.

In the West, Jupiter now shines to the Moon’s lower right during & after dusk.

491 AD – Deathday of Cyrillus, a Greek jurist of the 5th century; professor & founder in the ancient Law School of Berytus (present-day Beirut), which preceded the succession of Anastasius to the Eastern empire & paved the way for Justinian’s legislation

869 – A magnitude 8.6 earthquake & subsequent tsunami strikes the area around Sendai in the northern part of Honshu, Japan. Death toll unknown

1793 – The Act Against Slavery in Upper Canada bans the importation of slaves & frees those who are born into slavery

1807 – The Treaties of Tilsit are signed, on a raft in the middle of the Neman River, by Napoleon I of France & Alexander I of Russia.

1815 – Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord becomes the first Prime Minister of France. The name “Talleyrand” has become a byword for crafty, cynical diplomacy; some believe that he was a traitor, betraying in turn the Ancien Régime, the French Revolution, Napoleon, & the Restoration.

1816 – Argentina declares independence from Spain. July 9 Avenue, located in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is the widest avenue in the world

1848 – Deathday of Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege, He is considered the father of analytic philosophy, where he concentrated on the philosophy of language & mathematics; responsible for the development of modern logic. Though largely ignored during his lifetime, Giuseppe Peano & Bertrand Russell introduced his work to later generations of logicians & philosophers

1850 – U.S. President Zachary Taylor dies after eating raw fruit & iced milk, to be succeeded by Millard Fillmore

1868 – The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship

1877 – Alexander Graham Bell, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, Thomas Sanders & Thomas Watson form the Bell Telephone Company

1896 – William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In the address, Bryan supported bimetallism or “free silver”, which he believed would bring the nation prosperity. He decried the gold standard, concluding the speech, “you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold”. Bryan’s address helped catapult him to the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination; it is considered one of the greatest political speeches in American history.

For twenty years, Americans had been bitterly divided over the nation’s monetary standard. The gold standard, which the United States had effectively been on since 1873, limited the money supply but eased trade with other nations, such as the UK, whose currency was also based on gold. Many Americans, however, believed that bimetallism (making both gold & silver legal tender) was necessary for the nation’s economic health. The financial Panic of 1893 intensified the debates, & when Democratic President Grover Cleveland continued to support the gold standard against the will of much of his party, activists became determined to take over the Democratic Party organization & nominate a silver-supporting candidate in 1896.

Bryan had been a dark horse candidate with little support in the convention. His speech, delivered at the close of the debate on the party platform, electrified the convention & is generally credited with getting him the nomination for president. However, he lost the general election to William McKinley & the United States formally adopted the gold standard in 1900

1903 – Future Soviet leader Joseph Stalin is exiled to Siberia for three years

1918 – In Nashville, Tennessee, an inbound local train collides with an outbound express, killing 101 & injuring 171 people, making it the deadliest rail accident in United States history

1937 – The silent film archives of Fox Film Corporation are destroyed by the 1937 Fox vault fire.

1943 – The Allied invasion of Sicily soon causes the downfall of Mussolini & forces Hitler to break off the Battle of Kursk

1956 – The 7.7 Amorgos earthquake triggers a destructive tsunami that affects the Aegean Sea. The mainshock was followed minutes later by a damaging 7.2 aftershock. 555 people were killed & 100 were injured.

1958 – A 7.8 strike-slip earthquake in Alaska causes a landslide that produces a megatsunami. The runup from the waves reached 1,722 ft .Due to the remote location, only 5 people were killed

1962 – Starfish Prime tests the effects of a nuclear test at orbital altitudes, it produces an artificial radiation belt in space

1972 –In Belfast, British Army snipers shoot 5 civilians dead in the Springhill Massacre

1982 – Pan Am Flight 759 crashes in Kenner, Louisiana killing all 145 people on board & eight others on the ground.

1986 – The New Zealand Parliament passes the Homosexual Law Reform Act legalizing homosexuality in New Zealand

***

One of my daily meditations:

“I carry Peace within me; I bear within myself forces giving me strength. Full will I fill myself with the warmth of these forces; I will drench myself with the power of my will; and I will feel how peace outpours itself thru all my being, as I strengthen myself to come upon peace as a force within me thru this my striving power.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Guidance in Esoteric Training

***

I always get a little squirrely around the time of my natal return. And this year I enter my 3^rd moon-node, which carries a wallop, so I am striving to move thru this time as consciously as possible, opening to insight & grace. Perhaps today I’ll just start with some basics on The Phases of Human Life sourced from ‘The Human Life’ by George & Gisela O’Neil.

The life of the human being fundamentally unfolds in 3 main phases of development (bear in mind that the ages can vary for each individual, but the phases remain, so don’t get stuck on the numbers):

Body: maturing until age 21
Soul: emotional/psychological stability building up until around age 42
Spirit: potential spiritual maturity after age 42

These 3 groups can be divided into 7 year growth phases – (the ending or transition of each can be especially intense & challenging, as I am currently discovering):

Bodily Development – 0-21yrs – The ultimate goal is to Awaken to Ego or ‘I’ awareness

0-7yrs – Unfolding the physical body. Learning: TRUST ‘The world is good’
7-14yrs – Unfolding the etheric body. Learning: FELLOWSHIP ‘The world is beautiful’
14-21yrs – Unfolding the astral body. Learning: INDEPENDENCE ‘The world is true’

Soul Development – 21-42yrs – Awakening the Eyes of the Soul – The Transformative Years (the fight years)

21-28yrs – Birth of the ‘I’ within the sentient soul. Learning: Experience becomes the primary urge
28-35yrs – Birth of the ‘I’ within the intellectual soul, also called the rational/feeling soul. Learning: Confronted by the realities of the world here we are struggling with ideals & necessities (31-33 are called ‘The Christ Years’ when we really ‘carry our own cross’ & take ourselves on)
35-42yrs – Birth of the ‘I’ within the consciousness soul. Learning: How to activate the will; sensing our own identity; ‘nothing happens anymore unless I make it happen.’

Spiritual Development – 42-63yrs – Awakening Our Spiritual Eyes – Gaining Wisdom (Notice I use the word potential alot, as I believe not every human being strives for these)

42-49yrs – Potential awakening of spiritual-self. Learning: New possibilities & potentials appear – Personal Authority – Striving -finding our direction ‘The world turns upside down’
49-56yrs – Potential life-spirit unfolding. Learning: Change of life; promoting new causes; gaining strength to bring ideas into life. Expertise – ‘The world becomes harmonious’
56-63yrs – Potential spirit-man unfolding. Learning: That we must awaken to love & commitment to others; working as a healing force in communities. Role Modeling – ‘The world is filled with Wisdom’
63-until death – ‘Years of Grace’. Freedom to Be- To serve humanity – Sharing the fruits of our life’s work – ‘The world is creative, AND, this is not all there is’

Of course the earlier phases continue to work into the later phases, building on them, filling them out with experience & the wisdom gained.

Along with the O’Neil’s amazing work, I have dipped into Bernard Lievegoed’s book ‘Phases: The Spiritual Rhythms of Adult Life’ & a compilation of lectures on Biography from Rudolf Steiner put out by Steiner Press as ‘Biography: Freedom & Destiny, Enlightening the Path of Human Life.

It’s interesting to look at the connection between illness & biography. And also to see how not just human beings, but all the phases of human evolution, seen throughout the epochs, are reflected in the birth, maturation & death of civilizations & nations.

I am struck by the fact, that some human beings don’t have the inner strength to develop their true potential. They never really leave adolescence, so they aren’t able to truly bring in their ego or ‘I’ forces. Perhaps this is what we are seeing reflected in society today in the form of impulsiveness & a propensity toward violence.

Let’s dig in more tomorrow

Until soon

Blessings and Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Cognitive Ritual

~Confessions of a Modern Rosicrucian

Category Archives: Meditation

Autumn: A Guided Meditation

Penetrate to the heart of the core of the root…

‘Carry wakefully Sun’s Glowing’

Without the eternal, art is not art ~Rudolf Steiner

“I carry Peace within me; I bear within myself forces giving me strength…”

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