~The forms of light & dark are many The shapes of good & evil are hidden We must discern the fruit from the poison… In every moment beings of spirit wait To rise up in our thinking – That one of darkness has eyebrows that swim on his forehead like fishes That one of light burns in the cold fire of selfishness The middle pillar, whose two arms are scales Stands firm in equanimity… What cannot be known remains There I see With the eye of the sun As it comes to rest On my forehead Throwing light in the dark corners of things Casting shadows of my selves Into uncharted lands… Will you meet me there…? ~hag
Dear friends, Today on this Friday the 13th, remembering the trials of the Templars which began on this day in the 12th Century, I am off to embody the mounds & ‘Woodhenge’ of Cahokia to stand in community during the Annular Solar Eclipse on the Michaelmas New Moon -the first after the Autumnal Equinox.
This sacred place called ‘Sun City’, had its heyday starting in 700 CE flourishing for four centuries (c. 950–1350). It reached a peak population of 30,000 & was the most extensive urban center in prehistoric America north of Mexico – a bustling trading center on the mighty Mississippi River, larger than London or Paris at that time. The area once inhabited by the Tamaroa Tribe was later named Cahokia (kahokiaki meaning “Wild Geese”) for a group of Algonquian-speaking Native peoples of the Illinois Confederation that inhabited the area in the 18th century.
I am also holding in my consciousness that today in 1792, George Washington laid the Foundation Stone for the White House. And in 1917 The “Miracle of the Sun” is witnessed by an estimated 100,000 people in the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal.
In 1307 October 13 was a Friday – Hundreds of Knights Templar 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
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
The 1st New Moon after the Autumnal Equinox – Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, annular solar eclipse
All are welcome to meet on the inner planes during any part of the duration of the Solar eclipse – which Spiritual Science tells us is like the releasing of a safety valve – allowing the unbridled astral urges of the adversarial forces living in humanity, which are normally held in check by the spiritual beings working in the rays of the Sun, to instead surge out to infect the cosmic spaces, including our beloved dead & the unborn. (More on this soon)
We are all set for the Michaelmas Speaking with the Stars retreat 13-15 October 2023 at Cahokia Mounds – a sacred Mississippian Indian site in Collinsville, Illinois, called by the ancients: Sun City.
Annular solar eclipse total phases composite panorama during Totality , moon covers the sun’s visible outer edges to form a “ring of fire” shot using mylar solar film , very rare natural event Sun, Moon and Earth are aligned. A total eclipse , An annular eclipse , A hybrid eclipse, partial eclipse
Save the Dates for Community Workings
October 14
Annular Solar Eclipse
October 21-22
Orionids Meteor Shower Predicted Peak
October 23
Venus at Greatest Western Elongation
October 28
Full Hunter’s Moon and Partial Lunar Eclipse
All Souls Festival – Election Day 7 November 2023
Community Prep-Stir / Bon-fire
Celebrating: The Festival of the Dead, & Martinmas
Greetings Friends– Before going out to Zinniker – The oldest Biodynamic Farm in America for our Michaelmas Farm Day experience today, I thought to share some thoughts that I hold of Joan d’Arc – a true Christic Warroior inspired by Michael. A few years back our Michaelmas Festival was inspired byJoan of Arc. I called it ‘PURIFYING FIRE: The Power behind the Will’.
My research led me to many amazing resources, including Mark Twain’s heart-felt Book, as well as the work of Anthroposopher Joan M. Edmunds. But my main source came from Rudolf Steiner who gives us many insights into this powerful individuality.
Now I can’t help but think of Joan when it comes to Michaelmas. And Yesterday while getting ready to serve at the Christian Community, my co-server came in wearing one of the red T-shirts with Joan’s likeness on it that everyone got who was involved with that Fest. (Thanks Mary & Deborah!) I had almost worn mine. I love these little clues that work thru to inspire us to take initiative.
I was particularly taken by what Steiner says in ‘The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations, Lecture 5, The Nature of the Christ Impulse and the Michaelic Sprit Serving It. Berlin, 1915’; a lecture series he gave right at the start of the 1st world war. I felt called to make that my personal focus. I didn’t get a chance to share it at our Festival since I wanted to keep it more experienical, so here it is for your contemplation. I hope it moves you to take action as it did me.
What is the mission of The Maid of Orleans?
From the time of her enchanted childhood playing around the village ‘fairy tree’ – & then, starting at the age of 12 – & for 7 years till she was martyred at age 19, Jehanne (feminine form of Joannes or John) d’Arc was inspired into by progressive Beings of the Divine Spiritual World. These powers battled the inflammatory Luciferic forces of deception prevailing in humanity at that special time right before the beginning of the Consciousness Soul Age.
Joan of Arc, with the aid of Michael, (& his helpers St. Catherine & St. Margaret) was able to vanquish the seductive Luciferic forces which were vying to prevent this shift in human consciousness.
Steiner describes the miracle of her birth, how she went thru a sort of pre-earthy initiation during the potent time of the 13 Holy nights, incarnating on Epiphany, the day the Christ came into a human being at the Baptism.
And we can also point to her equally auspicious death. Yes it was gruesome, not unlike like the sacrifice of the Christ. In her case, it occurred because all the jealous, selfish, Luciferic forces of her enemies joined together to bring about her sacrifice by fire; not unlike the burning of Ephesus & of the 1st Goetheanum.
Paul Delaroche
At what can in truth be be called her witch trial, she predicted her own death, & said that within 7 years after of her sacrifice: “the English would meet with a much greater reversal of fortune than any they had known before”.
Spiritual Science tells us that the soul of Joan of Arc continued working across the Threshold to shape these events after her death.
What the spiritual powers have to bring about will occur whatever the external conditions may be.
Many great individualities are working with us even now from across the threshold.
The Maid’s adversaries were able to bring about her death, but they were NOT able to prevent her mission.
The power behind the will of the Maid of Orleans, the forces of Michael, are working still against the immoral Luciferic forces that rage in the world.
Dear friends, as you are all so keenly aware, we are also having to deal with hostile forces in our time; but now-a-days these are predominantly Ahrimanic forces; not inflaming, but hardening, materialistic forces, that have come up with the industrial age. These forces are in evidence everywhere, especially if we turn our attention not only to the mechanical element, but thru-out cyber space; a distractive shrouding of the reappearance of the Christ in the etheric.
And so Spiritual science tells us that if we remain unconscious of these forces working into our sense impressions, we are offering an abode to the dragon that seeks to stupefy us. These sclerotic forces influence our earth life, creating the fearful events happening NOW all over the globe.
~Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
In the above mentioned 1917 lecture, Steiner talks about how a sort of denial of the build up to the 1st World War had been present for a long time in the astral world, but was held back by something that was also astral: by the fear, doubt & hatred held in the feeling life of human beings. These negative astral forces were able to hold the war back, to prevent it, for a while. Steiner says: “…at 1st a fearful denial was able to stop war from breaking out. But then with the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, there emerged a ‘reversal event’ – this recalls the words from Joan of Arc: “the English would meet with a much greater reversal than any they had known before”.
In that case the selfish Luciferic forces came back to destroy the English reign after the sacrifice of Joan of Arc; and in this case – of the world war, all the elements of fear from the ahrimanic powers began to gather around the sacrificed soul of the Archduke, creating a focal point, a tear at the threshold.
It’s hard to really phantom this, but we know that anything that has a specific character on the physical plane will have the opposite character in the spiritual world. Everything is reversed in the spiritual world.
An element that had a blocking effect, keeping the 1st world war at bay, was now acting in the opposite way, as a spur, an incitement, to war.
So we see that a flip of the elements of fear, of the deceiving Ahrimanic elements, became a catalyst for war, which now a 100 years later, has led to the events of our present age, where there is constant war, in all realms of society.
Tyrone Dwelzel
But fear not dear friends, Steiner tells us that we must not try to deny or rebel against these materialistic Ahrimanic elements. We must let them strengthen us; we must develop the courage of Michael to see it as something that is necessary in our time, something that has to be present, so that we can learn to reverse the fear thru our heart-thinking – transforming these forces of resistance thru love.
Pas Beirutt
The question is: How do we make it possible for divine spiritual forces, the ‘ever present help of the spiritual world’, to enter into our actions so that we can consciously reverse The Beasts of fear, doubt & hatred?
How do we offer a positive resistance to this deceptive Ahrimanic element in our age, the way resistance was offered to the Luciferic element at the time of Joan of Arc?
– By taking the path towards a spiritualization of human culture – by cultivating our ability to form ideas & concepts into a thinking will for good. This is the prerequisite foundation needed to manifest the 3-fold social organism. Which we can only do if we stop listening to the prejudices & propaganda currently pounding us deeper into the materialism of our age – a voice that speaks loudly at times, or can be the faintest of whispers from the dragon within.
We generate the great strength we need to offer resistance to these hardening forces by approaching the spirit not only thru the inner powers of revelation & faith, like in the case of Joan of Arc, but by trying to concentrate our powers of understanding on what spiritual science has to give – a rational wisdom, filling us with light.
Irene Olid Gonzalez.
And so dear freinds, when we take ahold of ourselves with this attitude, we can consciously work with what Michael, the Spirit of our Age, has to give us now in our time – Meeting every trial & test with a conscious heart-thinking, motivated by the wisdom of love – where we must kindle our own light of thinking.
~hag
Here are some podcasts & video’s on the theme of Michaelmas:
395 – John the Evangelist settles in Patmos to write the Apocalypse
420 – Deathday of St. Jerome also called Hieronymus, Roman priest, theologian, patron saint of translators, librarians & encyclopedists. Rudolf Steiner speaks of him in From Jesus to Christ lecture 4, saying he had to ‘falsify’ the Gospel of St. Matthew, because it was too esoteric for folks at the time:
When we know this, we understand that the original Gospel of Matthew could not be imparted without further preparation because men were not ripe to receive what was in it. For if Jerome, a Father of the Church, was himself not ripe for what it contained, then certainly other men were not. Those who were originally in possession of these communications, the Ebionites, did not impart them because, if received by unripe persons, they would have been so distorted that they must have led to what Jerome meant when he said that they would serve not for edification but for destruction. Now Jerome understood this; yet he allowed himself to impart in a certain way the Gospel of Matthew to the world. ~Rudolf Steiner
1207 – Birthday of Rumi, Persian mystic & poet
1791 – The first performance of The Magic Flute, the last opera by Mozart to make its debut, took place at Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, Austria
1791 – The National Constituent Assembly in Paris is dissolved; Parisians hail Maximilien Robespierre & Jérôme Pétion as “incorruptible patriots”
1882 – Thomas Edison’s first commercial hydroelectric power plant (later known as Appleton Edison Light Company) begins operation on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin
1914 – Birthday of Johannes Tautz – a Historian, Religious scholar, Anthroposophist, Author & Waldorf teacher. After the German capitulation, Tautz was imprisoned by the Czechs, Americans & Russians but managed to escape in the summer of 1945 back to his family in Bad Boll. He was soon approached by Erich Gabert in Stuttgart to join the Waldorf School that was about to be opened as its German & History teacher. On 1 November 1945 he stood before his first 9th grade at the Free Waldorf School, Uhlandshöhe.
Soon Johannes Tautz decided to look up his “predecessor”, the first history teacher at the Waldorf School, Walter Johannes Stein. The conversations with Stein provided an orientation & inspiration for all of his further work as a teacher, lecturer & writer; in his lecturing work at national & international conferences and in the “Hague Circle”, a coordinating international group of Waldorf teachers.
He likewise received particular guidance from Emil Bock regarding a Christological view of world history & from Jürgen von Grone about the destiny of Germany &in particular to the figure of Helmuth von Moltke.
In 1966 Tautz held three lectures about the spiritual background to National Socialism, which later appeared in print under the title Attack of the Enemy – The Occult Inspiration Behind Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in 1976. In it he looks at a number of personalities connected with questionable occult practices with which leading Nazis had been close during the time of the movement’s growth.
In 1979 he edited a collection of biographical portraits together with Gisbert Husemann of the circle of founding Waldorf teachers around Rudolf Steiner.
Together with a young friend, Thomas Meyer, he visited the daughter of Walter Johannes Stein, Clarissa Johanna Muller, in Ireland where she was living in order to look through her father’s literary estate. They found the typescript of Stein’s dissertation annotated by Rudolf Steiner, letters & meditations of Steiner for Stein, his mother & for his brother, who fell in a mysterious manner in WWI. Letters & notes of Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz, Eliza von Moltke, Ita Wegman, D.N Dunlop & many other personalities were discovered & formed the basis of Tautz’s biography of Stein in 1989
In 1993 he initiated the editing of a collection Rudolf Steiner’s letters & notes to Eliza von Moltke together with the post mortem communications & the letters of Helmuth von Moltke himself. The decision to publish these was to prevent or anticipate a partial publication without an appropriate commentary on the subject that had been announced. A previous instance of this content being used had been in the book The Spear of Destiny by Trevor Ravenscroft which, in the opinion of Tautz had been written “without the necessary protection of background knowledge for the deeply-penetrant & difficult to understand material.” Further reading
1938 – The League of Nations unanimously outlaws “intentional bombings of civilian populations”
1962 – Labor leader César Chávez founds the National Farm Workers Association, which later becomes United Farm Workers
1982 – Cyanide-laced Tylenol kills six people in the Chicago area. Seven are killed in all
1993 – The 6.2 Mw Latur earthquake shakes Maharashtra, India with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe) killing 9,748 & injuring 30,000
1999 – The Tokaimura nuclear accident causes the deaths of 2 technicians, many others affected by radiation poisoning, in Japan’s second-worst nuclear accident
2009 – The 7.6 Mw Sumatra earthquake shakes central Sumatra with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). 1,115 people dead, many injured & left homeless
30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day – Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought
The time for biodynamic preparation making is upon us. We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and working in the soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.
After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –
Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year? Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye/ thank you. Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?
Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner Please bring a dish to share Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.
~I hear the words that shatter space My tongue curls around the tone of Iron rising from the rust in the oblique angle of the Autumning sun… There the Prime Principality beckons… ~hag
Happy Birthday to the Christian Community, founded on this day 101 years ago TODAY in 1922!
Rudolf Steiner joyfully accepted the very first inquiry from young theologians, Gertrud Spörri & Johannes Werner Klein. And in a mood of devoted willingness he give the first Priest course.
Already in March 1920 Rudolf Steiner stressed to Gertrud Spörri – at the time of the first doctors’ course – that he would be pleased about a possible lecture cycle for the renewal of religious life. He said that he could speak in a more intimate manner than he could with the doctors.
Was it because of Rudolf Steiner’s own Christ experience, or because he was at home in the ritual-sacramental practice thru his work with the Misraim Service?
In looking at the whole anthroposophical movement, the young priests who founded The Christian Community, had a special closeness to Rudolf Steiner. He spoke to them in an especially intensive, intimate way, with an emphasis out of his own biography, in spite of the objectivity with which he developed the content.
‘So, now that you are full of plans, let us begin,’ Steiner said on June 15, 1921; speaking of ‘our cause’; ‘our meetings’; as well as the necessity that it take place only if ‘we can find enough people’; ‘then we will make progress.’
Rudolf Steiner was the spiritual leader, the communicator of the insights out of the supersensible world, making these insights freely available.
He never spoke to the doctors concerning ‘our cause’; or even to the Waldorf teachers, whose school he invested so much time & love for the children. But in his teaching of the theologians, they experienced him as radiant, joyful, knowledgeable & totally in his element, ‘like a fish in water,’ as Emanuel Zeylmans van Emmichoven once said. ~Peter Selg
Here is an account by Rudolf Steiner: “At the end of September and beginning of October 1921, there assembled at the Goetheanum a number of German theological students who bore in their hearts the impulse for a religious renewal in the Christian sense. The work that was begun then found its fulfilment in September 1922.
The hours spent with these students, in the small hall of the south wing – the very spot where later the fire was first discovered (The Goetheanum was destroyed by arson on the New Year’s Night 1922 – 1923) – were for me an experience that I cannot but reckon as one of the solemn festivals of my life. There, in company with a group of men and women fired with a noble enthusiasm it was possible to enter on the path that carries the knowledge of the spirit into religious experience.” ~Rudolf Steiner on the founding of The Christian Community. From “Growing Point – The Story of the Foundation of The Christian Community” by Alfred Heidenreich~
The celebration of the first Act of Consecration of Man (the Christian Community Mass) constituted the birth of The Christian Community on 16 September 1922 in Dornach, Switzerland, guided into being through the immeasurable & selfless help of Dr. Rudolf Steiner.
From Rudolf Stiener to the Priests: “My dear friends, take this into your souls: the Act of Consecration is to become alive. Through this you will earn the right to place yourselves in the earth’s becoming and through the Act of Consecration be present within the earth’s becoming. Then may you express the following truth: If this Act of Consecration is not performed then the earth will waste away and remain without nourishment. It would be just as if no plants would grow. Plants grow in the physical world; the Act of Consecration of Man must grow in the spiritual realm. If it was not enacted there on this higher level it would be the same as if on the lower level of the physical earth no plants would grow. A human-being only has the right to say this when he or she succeeds in continuously enlivening the Act of Consecration so that this self-expressed word ‘human-being’ has been achieved in the correct manner and being and weaving, within the earthly existence, through achieving the three steps of inner soul development…” ~COURSE FOR PRIESTS OF THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY, GA 345, Lecture III, 13 July 1923, Stuttgart
1732– In Campo Maior, Portugal, a storm hits the Armory & a violent explosion ensues, killing two thirds of its inhabitants over 30,000 people!
1893 – Settlers make a land run for prime land in the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma
1908 – The General Motors Corporation is founded.
1920 – The Wall Street bombing: A bomb in a horse wagon explodes in front of the J. P. Morgan building in New York City killing 38 & injuring 400. The bombing was never solved, although investigators & historians believe it was carried out by Galleanists (Italian anarchists), a group responsible for a series of bombings the previous year. The attack was related to postwar social unrest, labor struggles, & anti-capitalist agitation in the United States
1947 – Typhoon Kathleen hits Saitama, Tokyo, at least 1,930 killed
1961 – The United States National Hurricane Research Project drops eight cylinders of silver iodide into the eyewall of Hurricane Esther. Wind speed reduces by 10%, giving rise to Project Stormfury
1961 – Typhoon Nancy, with possibly the strongest winds ever measured in a tropical cyclone, makes landfall in Osaka, Japan, killing 173 people
1977 – Deathday of Maria Callas, Greek operatic soprano
1978 – The 7.4 Mw earthquake affects the city of Tabas, Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 15,000 people were killed
1987 – The Montreal Protocol is signed to protect the ozone layer from depletion
2004 – Hurricane Ivan makes landfall in Gulf Shores, Alabama as a Category 3 hurricane, killing 124
30 September 2023 –
Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day
Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 –
Food for Thought
The time for biodynamic preparation making is come up again very soon. We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and work in soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.
After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –
Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year? Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye and thank you. Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?
Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner Please bring a dish to share Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.
~I carry into the clouds the life of earth, the breath of my body a pulse of prose gained from pain the twists of fate given into with pleasure an opening to moisture an opportunity seized & released… ~hag
Greetings friends – Here we are: Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, (רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה, literally “head of the year“) the first of the High Holy Days or Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe), a two-day celebration that starts tonight at sunset, as the New Moon makes her way into the light. It weds seriousness with celebration & begins the 10 days of repentance that culminate in Yom Kippur. This festival is believed to be the anniversary of the creation of Adam & Eve, acknowledging their first actions toward the realization of humanity’s role in the world.
Ben Heloc
The 1st panel of the Foundation Stone Meditation askes us to ‘Practice Spirit Recalling.” Recognizing ancient traditions, we can renewal time honored themes that still apply today:
The New Year focuses our attention on themes of discernment, repentance, memory & the Divine presence in the world (The Shekinah). At the same time, Rosh Hashanah invites us to celebrate birth & creation on many levels. The liturgy suggests that Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of the world.
Family-oriented services often include a birthday cake for the world. Customs include sounding the shofar (a hollowed-out ram’s horn) & eating symbolic foods such as apples dipped in honey to emphasize the sweetness of starting the cycle of seasons once again; & round challah to remind us of the cycles of life.
What is your birthday wish for the world? Are you willing to personally practice themes like forgiveness, as you recall that the Divine essence is in all that lives?
How can you bring sweetness into life – making everyday a ‘Day of Awe’ – pulsing with reverence & wonder?
How are YOUR thoughts, words, deeds, adding to the re-creation of the world?
Marc Chagall
La Shanah Tovah – In Oneness with each other & the Universe –
~hag
15 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Venus will climb higher each morning to reach its greatest elongation on October 23. Mercury is just now coming into view, rising in the east shortly before sunup – in the bright morning twilight near Regulus far below brilliant Venus. Mercury will brighten during the rest of this month.
The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (Latin: Mater Dolorosa) The Seven Sorrows (or Dolors) are events in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary:
The Prophecy of Simeon. (Luke2:34–35)
The escape and Flight into Egypt. (Matthew2:13)
The Loss of the Child Jesusin the Temple of Jerusalem. (Luke 2:43–45)
The Meeting of Mary and Jesus on the Via Dolorosa.
The Crucifixion of Jesuson Mount Calvary. (John 19:25)
The Piercing of the Side of Jesus, and His Descent from the Cross. (Matthew 27)
The Burial of Jesusby Joseph of Arimathea. (John 19:40–42)
921 – At Tetin, Saint Ludmila, a Czech saint, the grandmother of Saint Wenceslaus, widely referred to as Good King Wenceslaus, is murdered at the command of her daughter-in-law, Drahomíra, who was jealous of Ludmila’s influence over Wenceslaus. Antonín Dvořák composed his oratorio Svatá Ludmila for her
1254 – Birthday of Marco Polo, Italian merchant & explorer
1616 – The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy
1821 – Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, & Costa Rica jointly declare independence from Spain
1916 –Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme World War I
1935 – The Nuremberg Laws deprive German Jews of citizenship
1935 – Nazi Germany adopts a new national flag bearing the swastika
1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt & Winston Churchill meet in Quebec as part of the World War II Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.
1945 – A hurricane strikes southern Florida & the Bahamas, destroying 366 airplanes & 25 blimps at Naval Air Station Richmond, 230 die
1947 – Typhoon Kathleen hit the Kanto Region in Japan killing 1,077
1961 – Hurricane Carla strikes Texas with winds of 175 miles per hour, kills 23
1963 – 16th Street Baptist Church bombing , an act of white supremacist terrorism, in Birmingham, Alabama, occurred when four members of the Ku Klux Klan planted at least 15 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the front steps of the church.Described by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as “one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity”. The explosion killed four girls & injured 22 others.
No prosecutions ensued of the Klan members involved until 1977, when Robert Chambliss was tried & convicted of the first degree murder of one of the victims, 11-year-old Carol Denise McNair. Thomas Blanton & Bobby Cherry were each convicted of four counts of murder & sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 & 2002, but Herman Cash, was never charged .
The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing marked a turning point in the United States during the Civil Rights Movement & contributed to support for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
1966 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation
1968 – The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere
1971 – The first Greenpeace ship sets sail to protest against nuclear testing on Amchitka Island
1972 – A Scandinavian Airlines System domestic flight is hijacked
1974 – Air Vietnam Flight 706 is hijacked, then crashes while attempting to land with 75 on board
2008 – Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history
Free Money Day is an annual, global event held since 2011 as a social experiment to promote sharing & alternative economic ideas. The day is held annually on September 15, the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers’ 2008 filing for bankruptcy. Participants offer their own money to passing strangers at public places, two coins or notes at a time. Recipients are asked to pass on one of the notes or coins to someone else
International Day of Democracy …’democracy is a universal value based on the freely-expressed will of people to determine their own political, economic, social and cultural systems, and their full participation in all aspects of life’
30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day
Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought
The time for biodynamic preparation making is come up again very soon. We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and work in soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.
After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –
Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year? Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye and thank you. Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?
Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner Please bring a dish to share Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.
~Some things always remain True – Life From death into life into Boundlessness & restraint Intuition & magic Nature & nurture, the inner Earth & Sky… The Sun rolls onward The doors of heaven are open Light returns to light The great knowing descends – genius to genesis… Will you meet me? ~hag
Today 24 August in 1912 was the 1st performance of Rudolf Steiner’s 3rd Mystery Drama: “The Guardian of the Threshold”
The Mystery Dramas strike a deep chord within, bringing notes of destiny Wisdom to sound within our individual life circumstances. They contain extremely concentrated karmic wisdom. A clue to the reason why, appears in the following writings of Rudolf Steiner about his Mystery Dramas:
‘And actually, one must understand that if some trouble were to be taken to read the things that lie within this drama—not reading between the lines, but if one were to take the trouble to read what lies in the words themselves spiritually—if one were to take the trouble to grasp the Rosicrucian Mystery in just such a way, seeking for these things in the next few years, then it would not be necessary for me to give so many lectures about this or that in the time to come.’
In relation to the Mystery Dramas, Hans Pusch, who worked deeply with them, states:
‘It is a clear sign of genuine relationship to Anthroposophy, if the forces of destiny become more and more active, even though they may be disturbing and uncomfortable. The spirit of our time is an awakener, a conscious troublemaker, and a dis-illusioner. Anyone who feels inner turmoil as a necessary tribute to the forces of progress will be prepared to enjoy the seemingly long speeches in the dramas. In their composition, he will sense inner laws and rhythms that will bring order to his own soul. The dramatic events in the spirit scenes become as real as any physical happenings.’
Our trials help us to understand & have compassion for one another. As Hans says, sometimes it is indeed a daily, almost hourly inner battle with our self to say ‘Yes’ to what destiny throws in our path.
As the scenes of the Mystery Dramas unfold, we become aware of the various interactions between individuals in the course of time.
In the lecture series ‘The Secrets of the Threshold’ Steiner speaks often of the Mystery Dramas. They give us an objective overview, ‘of knots from threads that karma spun in world becoming’ in the words of Benedictus. (in the Temple Scene of the first Mystery Drama.) In these threads, human lives are interwoven.
In the Temple Scenes of the Mystery Dramas, we experience the manifestation of karmic configurations & their progression in the spiritual development of individuals.
Within our present incarnation, there are deeds to perform to help rectify misdeeds, before we cross the threshold into the life between death & rebirth. We all have knots to loosen & unbind in our individual destiny. By recognizing the characters & situations in the plays, which are similar to our own life, unexpected karmic understandings may be glimpsed.
We can think about the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, well known in Charles Dicken’s story, ‘A Christmas Carol’. Was it destiny that Scrooge was confronted by the ‘Ghost of Christmas Past’? How was his individual retrospect similar from those in the Mystery Dramas?
Dickens’ story is a Michaelic-kamaloca experience. Seeing the pain of the people he was hurting, Scrooge felt the need to make amends for his miserly misdeeds, thereby changing his future destiny & that of others, as well. This striving for atonement is to be developed at every turn on the wheel of the year. May we take stock of what we have reaped & sown as we move toward the harvest season.
In daily life, our trials along the path appear less objective to see & not so beautifully expressed as the poetry we find in The Mystery Dramas. It is, however, the suffering in destiny situations, which leads to soul-growth. Our present state of mind may hold clues to understanding past misdeeds. Likewise does heightened consciousness assist in planting seeds of service for the future of mankind.
~hag
from Hans Pusch – ‘Working together on Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery dramas
“The Guardian of the Threshold – Scene 10 – The Temple of the Mystic League. Here Benedictus, Torquatus, and Trustworthy have the robes and insignia of their office of Hierophant as described in the ‘Portal of Initiation.’ The Eastern altar supports a golden sphere; a blue sphere rests upon the Southern altar; while the sphere upon the altar of the West is red. As the scene opens Benedictus and Hilary are standing at the altar in the East; Bellicosus and Torquatus at the altar in the South; Trustworthy at the altar in the West; then enter Thomasius, Capesius, Strader then Maria, Felix Balde, and Dame Balde, and later on the Soul of Theodora; and last of all the four Soul-Forces. (East is stage right & West stage left.)
Benedictus: The souls of all my pupils have received The spirit-light, each in that special form Which was appointed for him by his fate. What they have now achieved each for himself Each now must render fruitful for the other. But this can only happen, if their powers According unto number’s rhythmic law Desire to join within the holy place To form the higher unity, which first Can waken to true life what otherwise Could only stay in solitary state. They stand upon the threshold of the shrine, Whose souls must first unite, and then shall sound In unison according to the rules Imprinted in the cosmic book of fate: That harmony of spirits may achieve What each alone could never bring to pass. ‘Twill bring fresh inspiration to the old Which here hath nobly reigned since Time was not. To you, ye brethren, I these pupils bring Who found their way here through the spirit-worlds And through the strictest proving of their souls. The holy customs will they treat with awe, And treasure ancient sacred mystic ways Which here are seen as powers of spirit-light. Ye too, who have fulfilled in truest wise Your lofty spirit-service for so long, Henceforth will be entrusted with new tasks. The cosmic plan loth call the sons of men But for a time unto the sacred shrine, And when in service they exhaust their strength It guideth them to other fields of work. Even this temple had to stand its trial; And one man’s error had to guard it once, The guardian of the light — from darkness deep, One cosmic hour big with the fate of worlds. Thomasius perceived through inward light Which rules unconscious in the souls of men, That o’er its threshold he must not pursue His way unto the holy mystic shrine Ere he had crossed that other threshold o’er, Of which this only is the outward sign. So of himself he shut the door again Which you would fain have opened wide in love. He now will as another come again Worthy of your initiation’s gift.“
24 August 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: the 1st quarter Moon will pass in front of Antares (Alpha Scorpii), creating a lunar occultation visible from the Contiguous United States, Mexico and Canada.. The reddish star will disappear behind the dark limb (edge) of the Bella Lina & reemerge under her lit half.
79 – Mount Vesuvius erupts. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum,& Stabiae are buried in volcanic ash
410 –Sack of Rome by The Visigoths
1185 – Sack of Thessalonica by the Normans.
1349 – Six thousand Jews are killed in Mainz after being blamed for the bubonic plague.
1391 – Jews are massacred in Palma de Mallorca
1456 – The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed
1814 – British troops invade Washington, D.C. burning down the White House, the Capitol & many other buildings
1816 – The Treaty of St. Louis is signed by the Council of Three Fires (united tribes of Ottawa, Ojibwa, & Potawatomi) residing on the Illinois and Milwaukee rivers. By signing the treaty, they relinquished all right, claim, & title to their land, also a 20-mile strip that connected Chicago & Lake Michigan with the Illinois River. In exchange the tribes were to be paid $1,000 in merchandise over 12 years. Today, Indian Boundary Park in West Ridge, Chicago commemorates this Treaty.
1857 – The Panic of 1857 begins, setting off one of the most severe economic crises in United States history. Since the years immediately preceding the Panic were prosperous, many banks, had seized the opportunity to take risks with their investments & as soon as market prices began to fall, they quickly began to experience the effects of financial panic (will we ever learn?)
1864 – Deathday of Jakob Lorber “scribe of God” a Christian mystic &visionary. Lorber’s prose, an ‘inner voice’ from the region of his heart, has been compared with writings by other mystics such as Emanuel Swedenborg, Jakob Boehme & Rudolf Steiner
1891 – Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera
1912 – 1st performance of Rudolf Steiner’s 3rd Mystery Drama: “The Guardian of the Threshold”
1932 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop (from Los Angeles to New Jersey)
1944 – World War II: Allied troops begin the attack on Paris
1954 – The Communist Control Act goes into effect, outlawing the American Communist Party
1967 – Led by Abbie Hoffman, the Youth International Party temporarily disrupts trading at the New York Stock Exchange by throwing dollar bills from the viewing gallery, causing trading to cease as brokers scramble to grab them
1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
1991 – Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union
1998 – First radio-frequency identification (RFID) human implantation tested in the United Kingdom
2004 – Deathday of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-American psychiatrist & death advocate
2006 – The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines Pluto as a dwarf planet
Saturday 23 September 2023
Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire
*Autumnal Equinox
*Yom Kippur
*Michaelmas Festival
6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile
Please Bring Food & Drink to share,& a jar for the prep
