Category Archives: Poetry

Cut Bait

~Mister Tee

POD (Poem Of the day)

~My soul duels with worms
Hidden in the clay of being
That would gnaw the scroll of mythos
Witch i carry in my heart whole
& speak thru the living word…
No worries
I will cut bait & continue singing…
~hag

31 October 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The Halloween Moon this year is first quarter (exactly first quarter at 1:37 am CDT tonight). It hangs in the south in early evening, with distant Saturn glowing steadily to its upper left. Much farther left of Saturn is brighter Jupiter. As night deepens, the dim boat-shaped pattern of Capricornus emerges shyly behind Saturn and the Moon.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Daniel Maclise

All-an-tide (Cornwall)

The first day of All-Hallows-Tide, observed until November 7 (Western Christianity)

Halloween (Ireland, Canada, United Kingdom, United States etc…)

Hop-tu-Naa is a Celtic festival celebrated in the Isle of Man on 31 October. Predating Halloween, it is the celebration of the original New Year’s Eve (Oie Houney). It is thought to be the oldest unbroken tradition in the Isle of Man

Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season & the beginning of winter or the “darker half” of the year. It is the cross quarter between the autumn equinox & the winter solstice.

The Mound of the Hostages, a Neolithic passage tomb at the Hill of Tara, is aligned with the Samhain sunrise. It is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature & many important events in Irish mythology happen or begin on Samhain.

It was the time when cattle were brought back down from the summer pastures & when livestock were slaughtered for the winter. As at Beltane, special bonfires were lit.

Like Beltane, Samhain was seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world & the Otherworld could more easily be crossed. This meant the Aos Sí, the ‘spirits’ or ‘fairies’, could more easily come into our world. Offerings of food & drink were left outside for them.

The souls of the dead were also thought to revisit their homes seeking hospitality. Feasts were had, at which the souls of dead kin were beckoned to attend & a place set at the table for them.

Mumming & guising were part of the festival, & involved people going door-to-door in costume (or in disguise), often reciting verses in exchange for food.

Divination rituals & games were also a big part of the festival.

The first day of the Day of the Dead, celebrated until November 2 (Spanish: Día de Muertos) The multi-day holiday focuses on gatherings of family to pray for & remember members who have died, & help support their spiritual journey.

Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars called ofrendas, honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, & the favorite foods & beverages of the departed, & visiting graves with these as gifts. Visitors also leave possessions of the deceased at the graves.

Scholars trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances dating back hundreds of years and to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl. The holiday has spread throughout the world, being absorbed within other deep traditions for honoring the dead.

On this day in 683 AD: The Kaaba, the holiest site in Islam, is burned to  the ground

683 – During the Siege of Mecca, the Kaaba, catches fire & burns down. The literal meaning of the Arabic word ka`bah (كَعْبَة) is “cube”, or “House of God”, considered the most sacred site in Islam, a similar role to the Tabernacle & Holy of Holies in Judaism.

503 years ago, on Oct. 31, 1517, the story goes, that the small-town monk, Martin Luther, marched up to the castle church in Wittenberg & nailed his ‘95 Theses’ to the door, lighting the flame of the Reformation — the split between the Catholic & Protestant churches. Luther’s act is one of the cornerstones of world history, & remains a lasting symbol of resistance.

Nearly all of American history bears the imprint of that act of protest. Luther’s challenge, the protection he obtained, & the reformers he inspired laid the foundation for the establishment of colonial America.

In 1934, an African American pastor from Georgia made the trip of a lifetime, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, through the gates of Gibraltar, and across the Mediterranean Sea to the Holy Land. After this pilgrimage, he traveled to Berlin, attending an international conference of Baptist pastors. While in Germany, this man — who was named Michael King — became so impressed with what he learned about the reformer Martin Luther that he decided to do something dramatic. He offered the ultimate tribute to the man’s memory by changing his own name to Martin Luther King. His 5-year-old son was also named Michael — and to the son’s dying day his closest relatives would still call him Mike — but not long after the boy’s father changed his own name, he decided to change his son’s name too, & Michael King Jr. became known to the world as Martin Luther King Jr.

Another dynamic measure of the influence of Martin Luther is the quintessentially modern idea of the individual — of our personal responsibility before ourselves & our God, rather than before any institution, whether church or stateThis was as unthinkable before Luther. The contemporary idea of “The People,” along with the democratic impulse that proceeds from it –  The more recent ideas of pluralism, religious liberty, & self-government all entered history through the door that Luther opened.

Luther’s second unyielding act of courage was at the ‘imperial diet’ held in the city of Worms in 1521, when he made it clear that he feared God’s judgment more than the judgment of church leaders in that room.

And suddenly the individual had the freedom & possibility of thinking for themselves.

Martin Luther was not inclined to tilt at papal windmills. In fact, until about 1520 he was a vigorous champion of the church. He desired desperately to help Rome elude the fate it ended up experiencing. In fact, in a case of Oedipusian irony he became the very man who brought about everything he had hoped to avoid. As his story illustrates, it was a sublime & ridiculous decoction of forces that created the perfect storm that burst over the European continent, creating what we now call the Reformation.

Today the Catholic & Lutheran churches are taking the memory of 1517 in hand. Pope Francis joined leaders of the Lutheran World Federation in Sweden to hold a joint service in a spirit of unity after 500 years of division.

1517 – Deathday of Fra Bartolomeo, Italian artist

1984 – Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh security guards. Riots break out in New Delhi & other cities – 4,000 Sikhs are killed.

VeraPavlova.

On All Hallows-tide, the eve of All Saints’ Day, it was a Medieval Christian tradition for the poor to go to wealthy homes offering to pray for the recently departed in that household, since folks knew that prayers could help the dead on their journey in the after-life. And as a token of their appreciation, the rich would give them food & beer.

Many Halloween customs come from this same ritual. Visitors would show up holding lanterns made of hollowed-out turnips with candles inside, which represented souls in purgatory. Masses were held so that souls wouldn’t feel neglected & haunt believers. There were costumes & masks, & mummers plays to depict the various stages of the after-life.

But after the Protestant Reformation — which can be traced back to a different Oct. 31 event (exactly 500 years ago today): Martin Luther’s 1517 publication of his 95 theses — the idea that souls could be saved in this way began to lose popularity in many of the new denominations.

Some Catholics kept up the practice of going door-to-door on the eve of All Saints’ Day, which became known as “Souling.” By the 1840s, when a wave of Irish & Scottish immigrants brought the custom to the U.S., it was basically a pagan/secular pastime. Young people danced outside tenement apartments in exchange for gifts. Costumes were made out of old clothes, & faces painted with burnt corks, while tricks included stuffing cabbages in chimneys & whacking each other with bags of flour.

Although the Irish Catholics faced widespread prejudice, the celebration having been stripped of its Catholic underpinning, quickly proved to be popular. As those immigrants began to assimilate, newspapers reported the custom trending among 19th century college students. In the early 1900s, high schools, rotary clubs & charities began to throw Halloween parties. By the 1930s, North America had a new term for the old tradition: Trick-or-Treating. And as suburban swelled in the 1950s, Trick-or-Treating grew into the kid-friendly practice seen today.

Here in America, Halloween calls for an interaction with spooky strangers, that come out of the night, knocking on our door, shouting, give me a treat or you’ll get a trick. On a spiritual level, trick-or-treat, can be seen as a demand that strangers, a symbol of the unfamiliar parts of ourselves, give up their gifts to us. There is a lot of energy that gets locked up in the dark, & Halloween is an opportunity for us to dialogue with the dark, the shadow side of The Self, & call that energy back.

Light & dark are not opposites, but 2 parts of the same cycle. In order to fully appreciate the festivals of light, which return with the Winter Solstice, we must 1st grow in the dark womb of our perennial inward journey. With the veil between the worlds so thin, great transformations are possible, since the power of all the dimensions are available to us.

It is not only the veil between the physical & spiritual worlds that thin, it can also be the division between any 2 polarities, like the left & right hemispheres in our brains for instance, or between any 2 realities that are struggling to coexist, like war & peace for instance. This dark night can represent a resolution of paradox, a respectful meeting of the different sides of the same coin, witch can initiate the healing transformation required, in order to let the light back into our lives, once we’ve come to understand & own our side of the dark…

Look for me there, in the dark…

xox~hag

Dear friends – I am heading out for another session of my AAP training at the Kimberton Camphill, so this All Hallows post will be my last until I return on 8 Nov. just in time for the Lunar Eclipse, which also happens to be election day here in Chicago. I voted early, taking the time to research all the candidates, which is not as easy as it used to be, the entitled apathy of these politicians is blatant. But there are a few folks out there fighting for Medical & Reproductive Freedom, who care about community, workers rights, & the environment, who think that we should put kids before guns…etc…So if you are willing to really take your civic duty seriously, & are willing to vote beyond party lines, you can make a difference – VOTE!   

Our Annual All Souls Celebration – 
A Community Circle to Honor Our Beloved Dead

Wednesday, November 2, 2022
In-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 
4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL. 60613

Doors open 5 pm
5:15-6:00 Potluck Dinner & Conversation 
Transition to the Upper Room 
6:05 Verse for the So-Called Dead
6:10-6:20 Singing
6:20-6:30 Speak Their Names
6:30-6:40 Social Art for the Dead
6:40-7:10 Conversation RE Experience 
7:10 Closing Verse

For those wishing to attend All Souls Day Vesper Service (Ultra-Violet Archer will be lading the singing) at The Christian Community, please arrive at the Church and be seated by 7:25 pm
The service will begin promptly at 7:30pm

2135 W WILSON AVE
CHICAGO, IL  60625
Church calendar.

For more info. contact Coordinators Deborah Rogers or Paulette Arnold
Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar
www.rschicago.org/donate

. Dits & -Dahs

Teal Swan

There is no doubt about it – Sirius is my favorite star-being! The way it scintillates has to be a kind of cosmic Morse Code. Even when I was a child it spoke to me. I have had many dreams over the years knowing they were messages from this place in space. I remembering reading something Steiner said about how except for those human beings known as Adam & Eve, most of us left Earth during the tumultuous early Lumerian times, when Earth was still so very volatile, & went to dwell on other planets or stars. (Can any one share that reference?) This definitely rings true for me. (I often still have a hard time being an Earthling).

As a young woman Doris Lessing’s science fiction series ‘Canopus in Argos‘ where Beings from Sirius come to help us remember our cosmic origins, made a deep impression. Truly formative, It really rang true, that yes, sometimes we forget who we really are, & the stars are there to remind us.

Garth Battista caught Orion & Sirius – the bright star on the far left, at a School Farm in the Catskill Mountains

Right now this special star rises over the southeastern horizon after midnight; & at dawn we can see its brilliance adorning the southern part of the sky. This morning at 5:30 am we were communing, & wow, Sirius is seriously the brightest star of the whole sky. Even the city lights can’t interfere with its beaming message.

Sopdet or Sothis is the ancient Egyptian name of the star Sirius & its personification as an Egyptian goddess, conflated with Isis as a goddess & Anubis as a god. It’s easy to follow Orion to find Sirius: the starry belt of the mythological hunter points at this dazzling star, whose name means “glowing triangle or “Sharp One. ” Being the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (which was traditionally associated with Orion’s dog), Sirius is also known as the “Dog Star”.  During the dog days of summer the Nile rises with Sirius to feed the fertile bank & bring life to the desert.

During the early period of Egyptian civilization, this heliacal rising of the bright star preceded the annual flooding of the Nile. It was therefore used for the solar calendar which largely superseded the original lunar calendar in the 3rd millennium BC. & became central to cultural depictions of the year & to the celebrations of Wep Renpet the Egyptian New Year (starting around the beginning of August ie. ‘The dog days’) And Sopdet or Sothis was venerated as a goddess of the fertility brought to the soil by the flooding.

Sopdet is the consort of Sah, the personified constellation of Orion near Sirius. Their child Venus was the hawk god Sopdu, “Lord of the East”. As the “bringer of the New Year & the Nile flood”, she was associated with Osiris from an early date, & by the Ptolemaic period Sah & Sopdet almost solely appeared in forms conflated with Osiris & Isis.

She was depicted as a woman with a five-pointed star upon her head, usually with a horned hedjet. In the Ptolemaic & Roman period, the European notion of the “Dog Star” caused her to sometimes be represented as a large dog or as a woman riding one sidesaddle.

During the Old Kingdom, she was also an important ‘psychopomp’ working in the guise of Anubis, guiding deceased pharaohs thru the Egyptian underworld.

From the Middle Kingdom, Sopdet sometimes appeared as a god who held up part of Nut (the sky or firmament) with Hathor. In Greco-Roman Egypt, the male Sopdet was conflated with the dog-headed Anubis.

Myztico Campo

The Dogon Tribe from Mali, West Africa honor their connection to their Star Ancestors from Sirius.

Sothis brings her light here to this side of the globe during Autumn & Winter…So friends, make it your intention to tune into the message of Sirius thru its shimmering rainbow of light,  then let me know what you talked about. Maybe I’ll be in the conversation with you, reminding each other of our divine origins…

~hag

28 October 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”

The waxing crescent Moon is back in the evening sky, low in the southwest. As twilight deepens and the stars begin to come out — but before the Moon gets too low — look for the Sagittarius Teapot in its background

Teal Swan

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY 

1260 – Chartres Cathedral is consecrated

Beal Hampton

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Hail claw in my heart,
Talon of the Hawk,
Bearer of yesterday & tomorrow…
Hail bright star in darkness,
White spider legs dancing on a web of night,
I’ve made my home within you…
The bitter herb I drank killed & cleansed & freed me,
I am new…

~hag

Our Annual All Souls Celebration – 
A Community Circle to Honor Our Beloved Dead

Wednesday, November 2, 2022
In-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 
4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL. 60613

Doors open 5 pm
5:15-6:00 Potluck Dinner & Conversation 
Transition to the Upper Room 
6:05 Verse for the So-Called Dead
6:10-6:20 Singing
6:20-6:30 Speak Their Names
6:30-6:40 Social Art for the Dead
6:40-7:10 Conversation RE Experience 
7:10 Closing Verse

For those wishing to attend All Souls Day Vesper Service 
at The Christian Community, please arrive at the Church and be seated by 7:25 pm
The service will begin promptly at 7:30pm

2135 W WILSON AVE
CHICAGO, IL  60625
Church calendar.

For more info. contact Coordinators Deborah Rogers or Paulette Arnold
Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar
www.rschicago.org/donate

See Thru

Today, 103 years ago, in 1919 Rudolf Steiner gave the 1st lecture on the physical incarnation, in the West, of Ahriman. THE AHRIMANIC DECEPTION, GA 193, Zurich, 27th October, 1919

“Now, in order that his incarnation may take the most profitable form, it is of the utmost interest to Ahriman that people should be steeped in illusory modern science, but without knowing that it is illusion…To conceal from humankind that in modern intellectual, rationalistic science with its supplement of a superstitious empiricism, one is dealing with a great illusion, a deception — that men should not recognize this is of the greatest possible interest to Ahriman.

It would be a triumphant experience for him if the scientific superstition which grips all circles today and by which men even want to organize their social science, should prevail into the third millennium. He would have the greatest success if he could then come as a human being into Western civilization and find the scientific superstition.

But I ask you not to draw false conclusions from what I have just said. It would be a false conclusion to avoid the science of the day; that is the very falsest conclusion which could be drawn. We must get to know science; we should get an exact knowledge of all that comes from this direction — but with the full consciousness that we are receiving an illusory aspect, an illusion necessary for our education as men. We do not safeguard ourselves against Ahriman by avoiding modern science, but by learning to know its character. For modern science gives us an external illusion of the universe, and we need this illusion. Do not imagine that we do not need it. We must only fill it in from quite another side with actual reality gained through spiritual research, we must rise from the illusory character to the true reality…It is by educating oneself through these illusions that one arrives at the reality.

This, then, represents one of the means used by Ahriman to make his incarnation as effective as possible — this keeping of man back in scientific superstition.

The second means that he employs is to stir up all the emotions that split men up into small groups — groups that mutually attack one another. You need only look at all the conflicting parties that exist today, and if you are unprejudiced you will recognize that the explanation is not to be found merely in human nature…

In order to create dissensions, Ahriman also makes use of what develops from the old conditions of heredity which man has really outgrown in the Fifth Post-Atlantean Epoch. The Ahrimanic powers use all that is derived from old circumstances of heredity in order to set men against each other in conflicting groups. All that comes from old differences of family, race, tribe, peoples, is used by Ahriman to create confusion. “Freedom for every nation, even the smallest …” These were fine-sounding words. But the powers hostile to man always use fine words in order to bring confusion and in order to attain the things that Ahriman wishes to attain for his incarnation.

If we inquire: Who stirs up nations against each other? Who raises the questions that are directing humanity today? — the answer is: the Ahrimanic deception which plays into human life. And in this field men very easily let themselves be deceived. They are not willing to descend to the lower strata where reality is to be found. For, you see, Ahriman skillfully prepares his goal beforehand; ever since the Reformation and the Renaissance, the economist has been emerging in modern civilization as the representative governing type. That is an actual historical fact…One must not imagine that the rulers of modern times are anything but the understrappers of the economists. And all that has resulted by way of law and justice — one should only study it carefully — is simply a consequence of what economically oriented men have thought.

But just because this rulership of the mere ‘symbol for solid goods’ (that is to say, money) has arisen, Ahriman has been given another essential medium for the deception of mankind. If men do not realize that the rights-state and the organism of the Spirit must be set against the economic order called up through the economists and the banks, then again, through this lack of awareness, Ahriman will find an important instrument for preparing his incarnation. His incarnation is undoubtedly coming, and this lack of insight will enable him to prepare it triumphantly…

The real Christ must be sought today through all that can be gained from a spiritual knowledge of the world.

These very people who swear by the Gospel alone and reject every kind of real spiritual knowledge, form the beginning of a flock for Ahriman when he appears in human shape in modern civilization. From these circles, from these members of confessions and sects who repulse the concrete knowledge brought by spiritual endeavor, whole hosts will develop as adherents of Ahriman. Now this is all beginning to come into existence…

Many people have felt something of this sort. But there is not yet courage everywhere to come to an understanding with the historical impulses of the Christ, Lucifer and Ahriman in the urgent way that is necessary and that is emphasized by Anthroposophy…

Yet humanity will only acquire the right attitude to the earthly incarnation of Ahriman if it sees through these things and has the courage, will and energy to illumine both secular science and the Gospel by the Spirit. Otherwise the result is always superficialities….

We need a new science, one that is illumined by the Spirit. But men must have the courage for such a new science…

Purely mundane science would make men entirely subject to illusion; in fact ultimately they would commit only follies…

Mankind must above all seek universality and the courage to look at things from all sides.

I wished to say this to you today so that you may realize that what one tries now to bring about within humanity has truly deeper grounds than just some sort of subjective prejudice. In fact one can say that it is read from the signs of the times and that it must be brought about.” ~Rudolf Steiner

27 October 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Scintillating Sirius & Orion’s belt can be found in the south before dawn.

Mars is also near the easy-to-spot constellation Orion the Hunter. It’s nearly the same brightness as Sirius, but shines steadily, with a distinctive red color.

~Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY 

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~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
~hag

Myth-Power

Gustave Moreau

“…Myth is the secret opening
through which the inexhaustible energies
of the cosmos pour
into human cultural manifestation.
Religions, philosophies, arts, the social forms
of primitive and historic man,
prime discoveries in science and technology,
the very dreams that blister sleep,
boil up from the basic, magic ring of myth…
The latest incarnation of Oedipus,
the continued romance of Beauty and the Beast,
stand this afternoon
on the corner of Forty-second Street and Fifth Avenue,
waiting for the traffic light to change
.”
— Joseph Campbell, The Hero’s Journey

Dear Friends – I am looking thru the kaleidoscope – of reality – to read the story we all share. I am watching the blocking on the world stage – listening for anecdotes underneath the monologues & slogans – to decode the archetype of the players – in our karmic Mystery Drama – unfolding as the unifing Myth of our time.

What is whispering in the heart? What is springing up as a new oral tradition – & written in the Book of Life?

We can, we must, we are, co-creating a Modern Myth – which can be: a living repository of collective wisdom, social practice, spiritual transformation, ecological awareness, & psychological insight.

Myth is deep psyche dressed in imaginative cultural garb – a bridge or fabric of story that connects us to the blueprint of our destiny & through it to Heaven & Earth’s innermost workings, which in the end are the same as our own.

Joseph Campbell often pointed out “Myths are metaphors,” ; that symbolize the perennial, archetypal aspects of human experience. But although the underlying themes are eternal, the images that story them are constantly in motion.

Deep rumblings sound below the level of collective consciousness, where vibrantly alive mythic images challenge & evolve us like the qualities of existence they image.

Edward Burne-Jones

But mythic beings won’t stay locked out or confined to a grid. In a rationalist, de-sacralized world run by money, force, & hardware, they creep in from the margins & ruptures & edges disguised as symptoms, nightmares, epidemics, political upheavals, works of art, moods of enchantment, & disturbing dreams.

Missy Crane

An education in mythology fills a gap in the hungering soul with nourishing visions, inspiring narratives, & timeless motifs. When properly digested they become food for the heart & therapy for the imagination. They summon us back to the natural terrains from which they originally sprang & to which all things return…

Friends we are called to be the New Myth Makers – the Modern Bard – Singing the story of Love & Freedom to life.

Sing with me

~hag

26 October 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY 

899 – Death day of Alfred the Great – King of the West Saxons. He defended his kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest. Alfred also oversaw the conversion of Viking leader Guthrum to Christianity. Alfred had a reputation as a learned and merciful man of a gracious and level-headed nature who encouraged education, proposing that primary education be conducted in English, rather than Latin, and improving the legal system and military structure and his people’s quality of life. He was given the epithet “the Great” in the 16th century and is only one of two English monarchs, to be labelled as such.

1923 – Ludwig Graf Polzer-Hoditz & Mana Brabinek made a vow togther on this day in the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague to work for a future of German-Slavic harmony, according to The Present Age Calendar.

Polzer-Hoditz was one of Rudolf Steiner’s most valued, independently-minded colleagues. Leaving behind his Royal traditions, he became a key player in Steiner’s regenerative threefold social impulses, working tirelessly for a genuinely unified, free Europe. He also fought to protect Rudolf Steiner’s esoteric legacy and the integrity of the Anthroposophical Society. Following Steiner’s untimely death, Polzer-Hoditz fostered a broad range of friendships and alliances with key figures such as D.N. Dunlop, Walter Johannes Stein, and Ita Wegman. In a bid to avoid further division and conflict, he made significant interventions to alter the tragic course of events that consumed the Anthroposophical Society, although he was unable to stop the major split within the membership that followed. In the final decade of his life, he concentrated his energies on world issues and on influencing events, especially in Europe, while lecturing widely and writing books. In contrast to the destructive special interests of the national and religious groups that craved dominion and power, Polzer-Hoditz sought to build a true understanding between Central and Eastern Europe and to cultivate a spiritual connection with the West.

1983 – Death day of Ilona Schubert-Polzer – Eurthmist & wife of L.Polzer-Hoditz

TINA YU

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Today I AM:
Light behind mist
From the dark vortex of primal fire
Where the 1st light was born
Which made the maker of gods & human-kind
Pressing the black world like a blinking eye
Into wakefulness…
Today: What are YOU?
~hag

Valve Released

partial eclipse of the sun
Photo taken by Rex Kramer using camera obscura like projection of the eclipse on a oil painting
 on October 25, 2022 -Munich, Germany

After receiving a pleasant and astute whisper from Mercury in sidereal Virgo, Luna moves on to trine Mars giving us grace to gently take right action, tidying up a bit to make the most of this grand alchemical opportunity we are getting TODAY Tuesday October 25 with this solar eclipse. Humans, as Sun, or Christ indwelt beings (hopefully) are tasked with stepping in with this Divine solar light to with care and gentleness tame the inner and outer dragon as he moves to devour the Sun.

An eclipse is like a release valve, and an opportunity for transformation. Some Karma is now ripe to be healed. May we be courageous and determined to see the potential for beauty in all we are called to heal. This eclipse occurs in conjunction with Venus, the goddess of love and beauty gifting us with creativity to wisely use as Children of God. ~Hermes Work

25 October 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun & the Earth, covering part of the solar disk. This happens when the New Moon – the conjunction of the Sun & Moon – occurs near one of the Moon Nodes.

Partial solar eclipse is when the Moon covers the disk of the Sun part way. The influence of the solar eclipse actively manifests itself two weeks before the eclipse, & two weeks after – a perfect opportunity to pour positive thought forms out to the Universe.

The eclipse is happening right now here in Chicago but it opens a corridor for 18.5 years ahead.

This partial solar eclipse is visible from Europe, the Middle East, parts of Asia & Africa. Almost all of Europe is in the eclipse zone with the deepest eclipse in the Scandinavian countries – Maximum eclipse occurs at 11:00 UT in northwest Russia where 86% of the solar disk is covered.

Louise Francke

In considering karma and disease, both of the individual and whole populations, we have seen that what has been prepared during earlier times spiritually asserts itself later in physical life. Therefore, if we ensure that humanity has good education and habits, we will promote health too! Not only is the moral element promoted by good habits, but also health, since bad habits create disease in the next incarnation. Nervousness, one of the most typical illnesses today, results from a particular state of mind in an earlier life. It would never have occurred if the materialistic worldview with its habits of thought had not become so prevalent. Should this mindset persist, it would devastate public health and drive humankind to madness. ~ Rudolf Steiner – GA 97 – Das christliche Mysterium – Stuttgart, March 14, 1906 (page 255)

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY 

1180 – Deathday of John of Salisbury, an English author, philosopher, educationalist, diplomat and bishop of Chartres.

1400 – Detahday of Geoffrey Chaucer, English philosopher, poet, & author best known for The Canterbury Tales.

sketch by Friedrich Engels

1806 – Birthday of Max Stirner, a German post-Hegelian philosopher, dealing mainly the notion of social alienation & self-consciousness. Stirner is often seen as one of the forerunners of nihilism, existentialism, psychoanalytic theory, postmodernism & individualist anarchism. In his book ‘The Ego And Its Own’, Stirner launches a radical anti-authoritarian critique of contemporary western society.

In the time of spirits thoughts grew till they overtopped my head, whose offspring they yet were; they hovered about me and convulsed me like fever-phantasies – an awful power. The thoughts had become corporeal on their own account, were ghosts, e. g. God, Emperor, Pope, Fatherland, etc. If I destroy their corporeity, then I take them back into mine, and say: “I alone am corporeal.” And now I take the world as what it is to me, as mine, as my property; I refer all to myself.”

1881 – Birthday of Pablo Picasso, a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most-influential artists of the 20th century & one of the creators of Cubism.

~~~Lightening lives in the marrow of my bones
It pours out from my eyes
Throbbing like a disco ball my skull
A blue speckled egg cracks open
Allowing the flaming sun to roll out
In a fine dust
settling on the world…
~hag