~My roots thickening Tether me like a kite – That I may Rise with the Sap. In the Hexagonal Snow Swirl Formula Becomes Motion. Come sit with the Crescent Moon Sharing the Sun Rise, Together We Sing into the Seven Stars. Beyond the false history of men Beyond numbers & letters that bind them I go Home where My Thought Becomes Word, Becomes Memory, Becomes The Seed that Becomes Me. ~hag
“What has been achieved in a planetary existence and has become sun, ascends to “heavenly” existence and becomes zodiacal existence.
And having reached zodiacal existence, what does it do? It offers itself in sacrifice! Please take account of this particular word. The first dawn-condition of the Earth, ancient Saturn, arose in a mysterious way as the result of sacrifice on the part of the Zodiac. The forces which caused the first, rarefied Saturn-masses to gather together were those which streamed down from the Zodiac, producing on Saturn the first germinal inception of physical man. This continued without cessation. You must not picture it as happening only once. Fundamentally speaking, what is happening continuously is that within what we call a planetary system the forces which evolved to a higher stage after having themselves passed through a planetary system, are sacrificed.
Zoran Chikovik
We can say in effect: what is at first contained in a planetary system evolves to a “sun” existence, then to zodiacal existence and then has the power to be itself creative, to offer itself in sacrifice within a planetary existence.
The forces from the Zodiac “rain” down continuously into the planetary existence and continuously ascend again; for that which at one time became our Zodiac must gradually ascend again. The distribution of forces in our earth existence may be conceived as follows: — on the one side forces are descending from the Zodiac and, on the other, forces are ascending to the Zodiac. Such is the mysterious interplay between the Zodiac and our earth. Forces descend and forces ascend. This is the mysterious “heavenly ladder” upon which forces are descending and ascending. These forces are indicated in various ways in the different scriptures; you find them indicated, too, in Goethe’s Faust:
“What heavenly forces up and down are ranging,The golden vessels interchanging.”
As far as our human understanding goes, these forces began to descend during the Saturn-existence of our Earth and when the Earth-existence proper had reached its middle point, the stage had arrived when they gradually began again to ascend. We have now passed beyond the middle point of our evolution, which fell in the middle of the Atlantean epoch; and what human beings have lived through since then is a phase of existence beyond the middle point. In a certain sense, therefore, we may say that at the present time, more forces are ascending to the Zodiac than are descending from it…
In this way you will realize that there is interaction between everything in cosmic space, that everything in cosmic space is interconnected, inter-related. But it must never be forgotten that these operations and activities are going on all the time, that they are ever-present. At any given moment in our evolution we can therefore speak of forces which are going forth from man and forces which are coming in; forces are descending and forces are ascending. For all and each of these forces there comes, at some point, the moment when from being descending forces they are transformed into ascending forces. All forces which eventually become ascending forces are at first descending forces. They descend, so to say, as far as man. In man they acquire the power to ascend.” ~Rudolf Steiner
almanac.com
7 February 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bella Luna barely half a day short of first quarter, shines high in the southwest this evening. Sirius the Dog Star blazes in the southeast after dinnertime, the brightest star of Canis Major.
1478- Thomas More, Chancellor of England, author of Utopia, was condemned to death for betraying ‘occult’ secrets. Rudolf Steiner speaks about this in ‘Things in Past and Present in the Spirit of Man’ Lecture VIII – THOMAS MORE’S “UTOPIA”, May 2nd, 1916 Dornach
1878 – The doctrine of papal infallibility was established during the pontificate of Pope Pius IX.
1966 – Death day of Leopold van der Pals was a Danish/Dutch Anthroposophical composer He was in close contact with authors, musicians, artists & poets his whole life. Among them were Rudolf Steiner, Andrei Belyj, Rainer Maria Rilke, Friedrich Lienhard, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Serge Koussevitzky & Alexander Scriabin. In 1907 he moved to Belin & met Rudolf Steiner, who made a great impression on him & introduced the idea of metamorphosis, derived from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. At the time, Berlin was a melting pot of musical development in the wake of the romantic era. Van der Pals experimented with new harmonic ideas & alternative cadenzas. He shaped his personal expression, a hybrid of different styles such as romanticism, impressionism, free tonality & inspiration from Russian & Nordic folklore. When his wife Marussja died in 1934. he withdrew himself to Ascona, Switzerland. Here Van der Pals wrote 80 poems to her memory; 45 of them were put to music. He then finally settled down in Dornach in Switzerland, where he lived during the remaining 31 years of his life.
Dear Friends, Today 109 years ago on 3 February 1913 we can re-call the very 1st AGM of the newly formed Anthroposophical Society, after the split from the Theosophical Society, held in Berlin, with the cycle of lectures called The Mysteries of the Orient & of Christianity (GA 144)
Rudolf Steiner opened the conference on this day with the lecture: The Being of Anthroposophy. In light of the upcoming ‘Sophia Rising’: Unveiling the Wisdom of Being Human Convergence, I thought to share some relevant quotes for your inspiration on this anniversary:
Iris
“…The being of anthroposophy is intimately connected with the being of our time- not with our own immediate little present moment, of course, but with the whole age within which we stand.
Today I want to point out the character of this being by speaking of the necessity for establishing anthroposophy in our time.
“Love, who commands the chambers of my mind Discoursing of my lady passionately, From hour to hour speaks things of her to me At which my intellect bids me demur. Sweetly his words make music of such kind My soul, which hears and feels how they agree, Exclaims, ‘Alas, that I can never be Equal to saying all I hear of her! Such things appear within her fair aspect As show they bear the joys of paradise I mean, both in her smile and in her eyes, Where Love brings them as if he brought them home.”
It seems very clear. A poet has written a love poem…This poem was not written today, however, but was written by Dante
Dante himself told us…that the beloved lady, with whom he had so direct and personal a relationship, was none other than Philosophy. Dante says that when he speaks of the lady’s eyes and says that what they say is no lie, he means the evidence of truth; and by her “smile,” he means the art of expressing the truth communicated to the soul; and by “love,” or amor; he means scientific study the love of the truth.
People who do not know how the times – into which our soul is ever growing with new life-change, lack any idea that Dante was just one (among many) of those with the capacity for a concrete experience of a passionate and personal relationship, immediate and of the soul, with Lady Philosophy, such as we today can feel only toward a man or woman of flesh and blood. In this sense, Dante’s time is past. The modern soul no longer approaches Lady Philosophy – the woman, Philosophy as a being of the same, fleshly nature as itself as Dante did.
When the Greeks present something, it is Sophia, not Philosophia. And they present her in such a way that, again, we experience her as a living being, as an immediate presence. We experience the Greek Sophia as an immediate, living being, just as Dante feels Philosophy to be. Always, however, we feel this Greek Sophia – and I ask you to please go through the descriptions that exist – to be an elemental force, as it were, an active being who intervenes in existence through action.
Albrecht Dürer
Beginning around the fifth century A.D., we find that Philosophia is first represented, initially described by poets in the most varied guises: nurse, benefactor, guide, and so on. Then somewhat later, painters begin to represent her. Thus, we reach the period during the Middle Ages called Scholasticism, when many philosophers really felt they were experiencing a directlyhuman relation when they became aware of beautiful, noble Lady Philosophia, who actually approached them from the clouds. Many medieval philosophers, in fact, felt the same deep, burning feelings toward the Lady Philosophia as she floated toward them on the clouds as Dante describes toward his Lady. And anyone who can feel such things will find a direct connection between Raphael’s Sistine Madonna floating on the clouds, and the exalted Lady Philosophia.
…the Greeks confronted Sophia, or Wisdom, as a being, so to speak, whom they could encounter standing before them in a particular place, Two beings then -Sophia and the Greek – faced each other, as if Sophia were a definite objective entity, to be looked at, with all the objectivity of the Greek’s way of seeing.
How then does the consciousness soul confront Sophia? This is done so that it brings the I into direct relationship with Sophia while at the same expressing -much more so than the objective being of Sophia the activity of the I within the relationship between the consciousness soul and this Sophia. “I love Sophia” was the natural feeling of an age that still had to encounter the being we designate as Philosophy – an age that was preparing the consciousness soul and, out of the relationship between the I and the consciousness soul (on which the greatest value must be placed), was working toward representing Sophia as simply as it represented everything else. It was natural for the time of the intellectual soul – which was preparing for the consciousness soul- to express this relationship to Philosophy. And because things came to expression slowly and gradually, this relationship was being prepared during Greco-Latin times.
Philosophy is no longer the “woman” she was to Dante and others who lived in his time.
..we now live in the age of the consciousness soul and look toward the dawn of the age of the spirit-self, and we know in this way that something is again becoming objective to human beings – something that looks forward to the coming times that will be gained by what we have won through the time of the consciousness soul.
What, therefore, must be developed? It must unfold that, once again, as a matter of course, a “Sophia” becomes present. But we must learn to relate this Sophia to the consciousness soul, bring her down directly to human beings. This is happening during the age of the consciousness soul. And thereby Sophia becomes the being who directly enlightens human beings. After Sophia has entered human beings, she must take their being with her and present it to them outwardly, objectively. Thus, Sophia will be drawn into the human soul and arrive at the point of being so inwardly connected with it that a love poem as beautiful as Dante wrote may be written about her.
Sophia will become objective again, but she will take with her what humanity is, and objectively present herself in this form. Thus, she will present herself not only as Sophia, but as Anthroposophia as the Sophia who, after passing through the human soul, through the very being of the human being, henceforth bears that being within her, and in this form she will confront enlightened human beings as the objective being Sophia who once stood before the Greeks.
What we receive through anthroposophy is our very own being.
Kristena West
This once floated toward us in the form of a celestial goddess with whom we were able to enter into relationship. This divine being lived on as Sophia and Philosophia, and now we can once again bring her out of ourselves and place her before us as the fruit of true anthroposophical self-knowledge. We can wait patiently until the world is willing to test the depth of the foundations of what we have to say, right down to the smallest details. It is the essence of anthroposophy that its own being consists of the being of the human, and its effectiveness, its reality, consists in that we receive from anthroposophy what we ourselves are and what we must place before ourselves, because we must practice self-knowledge.” ~Rudolf Steiner
May we receive this being, that is our birthright, with grace & develop her within us with intention & love.
3 February 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Tonight and tomorrow evening in twilight, the curved outer edge of the crescent Moon aims nearly at Jupiter like a bow shooting an arrow at it; see above.
Meanwhile – Mercury (occult Venus) is stationary at 4 pm CST in Sagittarius, & then begins tracking East against the background stars of the Archer.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in the Americas
1870 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to male citizens regardless of race.
Picasso
1874 – Birthday of Gertrude Stein, American novelist, poet, playwright
1894 – Birthday of Norman Rockwell, American painter & illustrator
1909 – Birthday of Simone Weil, French mystic & philosopher
1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose & collect an income tax.
Rudolf Steiner
1913 – The 1st AGM of the Anthroposophical Society in Berlin, where Rudolf Steiner gave the lecture series “The Mysteries of the Orient and of Christianity” & spoke for the 1st time about the Being of Anthroposophy!
1924 – Deathday of Woodrow Wilson. Rudolf Steiner has a lot to say about what was behind this individuality & in his former incarnation as Muawiya
1959 – Rock & roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, & J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson are killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.
1961 – The United States Air Forces begins Operation Looking Glass, & over the next 30 years, a “Doomsday Plane” is always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States’ bombers & missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC’s command post.
Umění Olomouc
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~There is no ending to becoming I lose & find my way over & again One task gives rise to the next I wage battle against my own proud ignorance – My sentimental affection for folly In occluded justification… Let me live To strive Forever for perfection In Loves grace I go ~hag
Greetings friends – Here in the Heartland we are finally experiencing a worthy accumulation of glorious snow – a white hushing blanket fluffed & growing with each unique crystal. A magical transformation of elemental forces that brings a rosy glow to the face & delights the human heart. So that got me thinking about The Cailleach (KAL-y-ach) who is the Crone Goddess of Winter & transformation, said to control the weather & the winds. She strikes the ground with her staff, a Druidic white wand of power, made of birch, willow, bramble, or broom, causing the earth to be covered with a blanket of frost. She also determines the length & harshness of the season, which begins on October 31st, the Samhain festival, peaking just before the Cross-quarter of Imbolc, but often extending up till the Spring Equinox.
Bet Hanrahan
As a veiled Crone, with one eye & pale blue/grey skin, The Cailleach or twilight hag, has been feared & revered across Celtic cultures for over 3000 years. Depicted as a giant with a bow-legged stride, She leaps across mountains & plains with a power to shape & transform the landscape, rocks falling from Her gathered apron.
Her name means “Veiled One” & She is very old. No one knows for certain where She came from. When the Celts arrived in Ireland The Cailleach was already there.
Legend has it that ‘Fintan the Wise one of a 100 lives’ accompanied Noah’s granddaughter, Cessair, to Ireland before the great Biblical flood. He thought himself the first to set foot on the island but found Cailleach living there, & could see she was far more ancient than himself. He is said to have asked of her, “Are you the one, the grandmother who ate the apple in the beginning?” but received no answer.
Philip Carr-Gomm
There is a tale of a wandering friar & his scribe, who came to the old Crone’s stone domicile. He inquired as to her great age, which he had heard stories of. She replied that she didn’t know, but that every year she killed an ox & made soup from the bones—& perhaps they could gauge her age by the number of ox bones tossed up in the attic. The young scribe climbed the ladder & threw the bones down one by one for the friar to count. The friar duly made a mark on his paper for each bone, & the great pile of bones grew until he had run out of paper. He called up to the young scribe, who replied that he had not even cleared one corner of the pile of bones. Such was the great age of the Cailleach.
She has been called ‘Old Wife’, ‘Old Woman’ & the ‘Blue Hag of Winter’.In Celtic myth the Hag represents the spirit of the land, holding sovereign power over the earth. For a Celtic king to retain power, he was required to “marry” the Goddess of the earth. As ‘divine hag,’ she represents the dark side of the Mother who brings death & rebirth.
Some scholars believe “Cailleach” was more like a title of initiation, for the name is associated with various figures thru out history & mythology – passed down thru oral tradition.
In Irish mythology she is said to have had seven maidenhoods, before bearing children by many husbands, before becoming eternally aged, outliving all her husbands & children. She is the maternal ancestor of every Irish tribe.
The Cailleach is said to be responsible for raising mountains & creating the ancient burial cairns & barrow mounds. She is a Goddess of the Underworld, associated with the ancestors & the realms of death & rebirth. The Cailleach is connected to the bean sidhe (Banshee), the wild women of the Faeries, She oversees the faerie mounds & entrances to the realm of the Fey. You will also find Her near sacred standing stones, the “bones of the earth”. Her companion the Owl is associated with death, the underworld, magic, & the ability to see spirits. She is said to be a shapeshifter, & can transform into a giant bird – “cailleach-oidhche”, “the night hag”, old Gaelic for “owl”.
Lenny Lecerton
On Imbolc, legend has it that the Cailleach runs out of her store of winter firewood & goes to gather more. If the day is fine & dry, it means that she will be able to gather more firewood & prolong the harsh winter months, but if it rains, she will have no fuel & so will have to give way to Spring. This tradition traveled across the Atlantic & fed into what is known as Groundhog Day.
Terry Nix
And so it is that on Imbolc the Cailleach is said to cast her staff under a holly bush; her way of handing it over to Brigid. She then, swirls around 3x’s, & turns into a grey boulder, until the Wheel again turns to Samhain. The stone she transforms into is said to remain moist despite the warmth of the summer months because of the life force it contains. Countless standing stones are said to be sacred to her.
Tom Skellett
The Cailleach is associated with more locations across the Gaelic-speaking world than any other deity. Her ability to form the landscape means that many prominent mountain landmarks are attributed to her. According to legend, she either dropped or threw stones from her apron as she passed thru the land & these grew into rock formations or mountains.
In daily life The Cailleach inspires the local healer, called bean feasa ‘wise woman, fortune-teller, sorceress, charm-worker – Witch.’
Rachel Patterson
To reclaim the Crone, is to become synonymous with wisdom & sovereign female agency, operating outside the oppressive hand of patriarchy.
Many Gaelic oral narratives recount cures performed by the local bean feasa thru her gifts of prophecy & second-sight. Part herbalist, part oracle, the ‘wise woman’ is the representative of the Goddess who visits the spiritual world to gain insight. As healer she diagnoses & heals emotional traumas, both individual & communal. Like shamanic figures the world over, she treats illness by balancing the relationship between the human being & the spirits of the otherworlds. She restores well-being by bringing into harmony matter & Spirit.
Bailey Brown
As a Goddess of transformation & death, She oversees the culling of the old, & lets die all that is no longer needed. And also with the passing of the Winter months, the Cailleach finds & guards the seeds for the coming re-birth of Spring. She stands at the cusp of life & death, intimately connected to the wise women who preside as midwives over birthing, & who prepare the dead for burial.
Catlin Bextter
As the “Veiled One” the Cailleach guides us through our inner realities & dreams. She teaches us to let go of (allow to die) all that no longer serves our higher purpose, & guides us thru the many deaths & rebirths of our life phases. She is the final face of the Triple Goddess who rules the wheel of reincarnation.
May we embrace the “Veiled One” knowing the transformative power of darkness, will lead us into the growing light of re-birth.
~hag
24 January 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Mercury (occult Venus) reached inferior conjunction yesterday at 6 am CST. It’s now hidden from our view by the Sun’s bright glare but will just begin to peek out of the dawn as a morning star by the end of the month.
The Pleaides is already high an hour after sunset. Look south to find this young cluster of stars northwest of Aldebaran in Taurus the Bull. Many people think the Pleiades looks like a spoon or ladle, and some even confuse it with the Little Dipper (which is much larger, fainter, and in the north). At least six bright stars are visible to the naked eye.
AD 41 – Roman Emperor Caligula, known for his eccentricity and sadistic despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. The Guard then proclaims Caligula’s uncle Claudius as Emperor.
AD 76 – Birthday of Hadrian, Roman emperor. He is known for building Hadrian’s Wall, which marked the northern limit of Britannia, yet he visited almost every province of the Empire. Hadrian energetically pursued his own Imperial ideals & personal interests. He encouraged military preparedness & discipline, & fostered, designed or personally subsidized various civil & religious institutions & building projects. In Rome itself, he rebuilt or completed the Pantheon, & constructed the vast Temple of Venus & Roma. In Egypt, he rebuilt the Serapeum of Alexandria. An ardent admirer of Greece, he sought to make Athens the cultural capital of the Empire & ordered the construction of many opulent temples there. His intense relationship with the Greek youth Antinous, who he adopted & named his successor, on the condition that he adopt Marcus Aurelius & Lucius Verus as his own heirs, led to Hadrian’s establishment of an enduring and widespread popular cult. Hadrian died & Antoninus had him deified, despite opposition from the Senate. Hadrian has been described as enigmatic & contradictory, with a capacity for both great personal generosity & extreme cruelty, driven by insatiable curiosity, self-conceit, & above all, ambition.
Hadrian had an abiding & enthusiastic interest in art, architecture & public works. Rome’s Pantheon (temple “to all the gods”), originally built by Agrippa & destroyed by fire in 80, was restored under Hadrian in the domed form it retains to this day. Hadrian’s Villa at Tibur (Tivoli) provides the greatest Roman equivalent of an Alexandrian garden.
Hadrian was familiar with the Stoic philosophers Epictetus, & Favorinus, & with their works. Shortly before the death of Plotina, Hadrian had granted her wish that the leadership of the Epicurean School in Athens be open to a non-Roman candidate.
Hadrian had a great interest in astrology & divination & had been told of his future accession to the Empire by a grand-uncle who was himself a skilled astrologer.
Hadrian wrote poetry in both Latin & Greek; one of the few surviving examples is a Latin poem he reportedly composed on his deathbed:
Animula, vagula, blandula Hospes comesque corporis Quae nunc abibis in loca Pallidula, rigida, nudula, Nec, ut soles, dabis iocos… ~P. Aelius Hadrianus Imp.
Roving amiable little soul, Body’s companion and guest, Now descending for parts Colourless, unbending, and bare Your usual distractions no more shall be there…
There may be a connection between the individuality known as Hadrian & Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz, one of Rudolf Steiner’s most valued & independent-minded colleagues, who was born in Prague – in the midst of the Austro-Hungarian Empire – to an aristocratic family with royal connections. Leaving behind the traditions of his background, he was to become a key actor in Rudolf Steiner’s regenerative ‘threefold’ social impulses, working tirelessly for a genuinely unified & free Europe. Polzer-Hoditz also fought to protect Rudolf Steiner’s esoteric legacy & the integrity of the Anthroposophical Society that had been founded to further his work. Following Steiner’s untimely death, Polzer-Hoditz fostered a broad range of friendships & alliances with key figures such as D.N. Dunlop, Walter Johannes Stein & Ita Wegman. In the final decade of his life he concentrated his energies on world issues, seeking to influence events in Europe in particular, lecturing widely & writing a number of books & memoranda. Polzer-Hoditz sought to build a true understanding between Central & Eastern Europe & to cultivate a spiritual connection with the West.
1965 – Death-day of Winston Churchill, English colonel & politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nobel Prize laureate.
1978 – Soviet satellite Kosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth’s atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada’s Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered.
1993 – Death-Day of Thurgood Marshall, American lawyer & jurist, 32nd United States Solicitor General.
1991 – Deathday of René Maikowski, member of the Esoteric Youth Circle. Born in Berlin of a Russian-Polish father & a Franco-Swiss mother, he spoke all these languages fluently. Fighting in WW1 awakened in him a longing for a meaningful & humane way of life, which sparked an interest in social issues, politics, history & economics. He was drawn to Rudolf Steiner because of his views on the 3 fold social organism.
Steiner appointed him secretary of the ‘Association for Anthroposophical University Work’, in 1920, a confederation advocating anthroposophy in the universities. With Steiner he organized Higher education courses. He worked with Ernst Lehrs, Albrecht Strohschein & Fritz Kubler to help with the East-West Conference in Vienna in 1922. These 4 young men went to Dornach with the purpose of asking Rudolf Steiner to help them form the ‘Pedagogical Youth Course’, which Steiner held in Stuttgart in Oct. 1923.
Maikowski, traveled with Steiner all that year, & helped him form the ‘Free Anthroposophical Society’ mainly for the youth. He was part of the executive committee with Maria Roschl, Wilhelm Rath, & Hans Buchenbacher.
In GA 259 Rudolf Steiner calls him “Theoretician of Youth’ as he was doing a lot of the programming. Steiner loved Maikowski because he was always full of questions; & he revealed to him that as an initiate Steiner could only do something if it was asked of him. Once when they were entering a city where Steiner had never been, he called for quiet saying: “I want to see if anyone is meditating, because if there is even one person who meditates, it changes the aura of the city”.
Steiner commissioned him to set up various Waldorf Schools. When the National Socialists began to harass the Waldorf schools, Maikowski tried to use the influence of his brother who was an SA officer, but it was no use, the authorities shut down the school anyway. He stepped down as the head of the Confederation. (Many anti-Waldorf sites mention Maikowksi saying he was a Nazi, which he wasn’t)
René Maikowski was much missed by his students, who called him: Die Flamme due to his ardor & enthusiasm in the classroom. After the war he worked to rebuild many of the schools, traveling as far as Russia & Israel. He died at the age of 92.
2003 – The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
~like a black jackal on a freezing dark night i am stealth… i make a quiet passage to heaven & yet i still search for secrets among the cold colored stones… ~hag
“Out of the substance of soul and spirit, human beings have to fashion the tools with which to plough a way, the soul-way leading to the castle of the Grail, to the mystery of the Grail, to the mystery of bread and blood, to the fulfilment of the words ‘This do in remembrance of me’. This is, truly, in remembrance of the mighty event of Golgotha, if the symbol of the bread — of what, in other words, develops from the earth through the synthesis of cosmic forces — is understood. It is done in full remembrance if we understand once again how to grasp the world through a spiritualized cosmology and astronomy, and if we learn to comprehend the human being in terms of his essence: the element where the spiritual directly enters him — the mystery of the blood. The path that leads to the Holy Grail must be found through inner work in human souls. This is the task of cognition and the social task.”~Rudolf Steiner, The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, Chapter 8, “The Lapse into Matter”, and Chapter 9, “Piercing the Thicket”, excerpts from Steiner’s lectures given at Dornach on 16 & 17 April 1921 … focus of the February 2 meeting.
Chapters 7, 8 & 9 in the book can be found online at the CRC’s website by clicking this link A transcript of the 16 April, 1921 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link A transcript of the 17 April, 1921 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing study conversation. The study has been divided among two volunteers who will summarize their section to rebuild it as a foundation for our conversation. Please familiarize yourself with the lecture if possible so you will feel comfortable sharing your reflections and thoughts with the group.This collection of lectures has been republished by Rudolf Steiner Press under the title: “The Mysteries of the Holy Grail — from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation.” The book was compiled and edited by Matthew Barton, published by Rudolf Steiner Press in 2010.
This will be a “Zoom” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer). To connect to the audio/video-conference:
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7:15 Welcome and Introductions 7:18 Verse 7:25 Study led by volunteers Note: CRC team will ID volunteers Michael – Chapter 8 Camille – Chapter 9 7:50 Conversation 8:25 ID volunteers for next meeting 8:28 Close with verse There is a knighthood of the 21st century whose riders do not ride through the darkness of physical forests as of old, but through the forest of darkened minds. They are armed with a spiritual armor and an inner sun makes them radiant. Out of them shines healing, healing that flows from the knowledge of the human being as a spiritual being. They must create inner order, inner justice, peace and conviction in the darkness of our time. ~Karl Konig
Here in the Northern Hemisphere our Day-Star-Sun is rising about a minute earlier each morning & setting a minute later every evening. As a result, we can drink in about 15 minutes more sunlight every week. The psycho-physical effect of this steady influx is slowly rising, & in concert with a variety of astrological & evolutionary influences, will eventually reach critical mass. As a result, humanity will become Sun-like – a luminous beacon of warmth.
With this thought in mind, everything you shine upon will look brighter, & your own Sun-like beauty will be exceedingly visible, as well. So make each moment, the perfect time, to pursue your highest destiny.
But remember what Andrew Harvey, said: “If you’re really listening, if you’re awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly. In fact, your heart is made to break; its purpose is to burst open again and again so that it can hold ever-more wonders.”
So…Be the seed that breaks open to the light. Roots pushing into the dark. Stem reaching. Blossom answering to the stars. Fruit – feeding the world.
~hag
upiter at dusk, Jan. 21, 2022
21 January 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Jupiter still shines brightly in the southwest at dusk, though lower each week. It makes a perfectly nice “Evening Star” to replace brighter Venus, which departed the evening a few weeks ago. To Jupiter’s lower left, Fomalhaut still twinkles (about two fists at arm’s length).
259 – Deathday of St. Fructuosus, bishop of Tarragona arrested during the persecutions of Christians under the Roman Emperor Valerian. He was burned at the stake in the local amphitheater.
304 – Feast Day of St. Agnes of Rome a virgin martyr, 1 of 7 women, who along with the Blessed Virgin Mary, are commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass. She is the patron saint of chastity, gardeners, girls, engaged couples, rape survivors, virgins, & the Children of Mary. Agnes is depicted in art with a lamb. The name “Agnes” is derived from the feminine Greek adjective meaning “chaste, pure, sacred”
1793 – After being found guilty of treason Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine
1841 – Birthday of Édouard Schuré, a French philosopher, poet, playwright, novelist, music critic, & publicist of esoteric literature. Born in the old cathedral city of Strasbourg. As a young boy he experienced events that, “Ieft traces upon my thoughts, to which my memory returns ever and again.” The result of these events he called “inner vision, evoked by impressions of the external world.” The first of these experiences occurred shortly after the death of his mother, when he & his father visited a resort in Alsace. On the walls of one of the buildings the ten-year-old boy saw a remarkable series of frescoes, depicting the world of undines, sylphs, gnomes & fire-spirits. Before these representations of the Elemental Beings, the boy was transported into another world, the world of creative fantasy. Like a talisman, the pictures awakened the magic forces of wonder in the child soul, & the result was a new perception.
Not long after the death of his father, which occurred when Schure was fourteen, he visited Paris, & saw for the first time the classical sculptures in the Louvre. The beauty of the Venus di Milo, of Dionysus, of the wounded Amazon, penetrated deeply into the boy, awakening in him a love & appreciation for the world of ancient Greece, which was to play so significant a role in his later work as a playwright. In these sculptures Schure became aware of the fact that a divine beauty can be made manifest in physical substance through the magic of art. At about this same time Schure read a description of the Eleusinian Mysteries of Ancient Greece, & the inner pictures this evoked were so vivid, so compelling, that he dedicated himself to the task of recreating the sacred drama of Eleusis for modern humanity. For Schure was convinced that through the experiencing of such a drama, people of modern times can acquire a totally new conception of the relationship between the spiritual striving of the ancient world & the religious conceptions of today.
Parallel with these experiences of soul & spirit, Schure’s early years were devoted to formal education. Eventually he received his degree in law at the University of Strasbourg, but he never entered into practice. He visited Germany, remaining there for a few years, during which time he wrote Histoire du lied published in 1868. In this book he expressed his love for music & poetry which had been enhanced by his personal acquaintance with Richard Wagner, then living in Munich.
Shortly after his return from his travels in Germany, Schure married the sister of his friend, the composer Nessler. They moved to Paris, where Schure continued his writing & studies, making friends with some of the most important men & women in the cultural life of France of his time. With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Schure & his wife went to Italy.
In Florence Schure made the second great friendship of his life. One day Malvida von Meysenbergs, the devoted admirer & helper of the philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, introduced Edouard Schure to a Greek lady, Margherita Albana Mignaty. The meeting made a profound impression upon Schure, an impression he was to recall clearly in the last year of his life: “When I saw those great sunny radiant eyes directed questioningly upon me, I felt my consciousness almost desert me, for my whole being seemed called upon to reveal itself.” In the presence of this beautiful woman, so reminiscent of the women of the classical Greece he so deeply loved, Schure once again found access to the spiritual world opening within him. In Margherita Albana Mignaty he discovered a soul to whom the unseen world was as immanent as the physical. This direct relationship with the spiritual world was the result of the death of her child, which had taken place some years before. Through their many conversations, Schure’s own spiritual perception broadened & deepened beyond anything he had previously imagined. He referred to her as his Muse, & saw in her a “spirit that moves mountains, a love which awakens and creates souls, and whose sublime inspiration burns like a radiant light.” on one occasion he asked her how she acquired such precise knowledge of the spiritual history of humankind, such intimate details concerning long-forgotten antiquity. Her reply was profoundly simple: “When I wish to penetrate to the very depths of a subject, I shut myself in my room and reveal myself to myself.” Through the inspiration of Margherita Albana Mignaty ‘as a testimony of a faith acquired and shared,’ Schure’s book The Great Initiates came into being.
Schuré now turned increasingly to the esoteric & the occult, his major influence being the famous French occultist-scholar Fabre d’Olivet. In 1884, he met the founder of the Theosophical Society Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Although unwelcome in the Theosophical Society, he nevertheless entered.
In 1900, the actress Marie von Sivers came into contact with him because she intended to translate his works into German (The Great Initiates, The Sacred Drama of Eleusis & The Children of Lucifer). At the German Section of the Theosophical Society, he met the Austrian philosopher & later founder of Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner. In 1906, Sivers brought about a meeting between Schuré & Steiner. Schuré was deeply impressed & thought of Steiner as an authentic ‘initiate’ in line with his The Great Initiates. After hearing Steiner lecture in Paris for the first time in 1906, Schuré in an ecstatic state ran home & wrote down the entirety of the lecture from memory. This first lecture, & the other lectures in the series (which Schuré wrote down) were published as Esoteric Cosmology. Subsequently, Steiner & von Sivers staged Schuré’s esoteric dramas at the Theosophical Congresses in Berlin & Munich. Schuré’s The Children of Lucifer, served as a precursor of Rudolf Steiner’s own esoteric dramas.
In 1908 Schuré brought out Le Mystère Chrétien et les Mystères Antiques, a French translation of Steiner’s work Christianity as Mystical Fact & the Mysteries of Antiquity.
Édouard Schuré was often visited by Rudolf Steiner in Barr, Alsace. Steiner produced many of Schure’s plays. In speaking about his book The Great Initiates Steiner says: “Édouard Schuré speaks about the ‘Great Illuminated,’ the Great Initiates, who have looked deeply into the background of things, and from this background have given great impulses for the spiritual development of mankind. He traces the great spiritual deeds of Rama, Krishna, Hermes, Pythagoras and Plato, in order to show the unification of all these impulses in Christ…. The light streaming from Schuré’s book enlightens those who wish to be firmly rooted in the spiritual sources from which strength and certainty for modern life can be drawn.” ~Rudolf Steiner
Thoughts on Rudolf Steiner by Edouard Schuré”
“Rudolf Steiner is both a mystic and an occultist. These two natures appear in him in perfect harmony. One could not say which of the two predominates over the other. In intermingling and blending, they have become one homogeneous force. Hence a special development in which outward events play but a secondary part.
Dr. Steiner was born in Upper Austria in 1861. His earliest years were passed in a little town situated on the Leytha, on the borders of Styria, the Carpathians, and Hungary. From childhood his character was serious and concentrated. This was followed by: a youth inwardly illuminated by the most marvelous intuitions, a young manhood encountering terrible trials, and a ripe age crowned by a mission which he had dimly foreseen from his earliest years, but which was only gradually formulated in the struggle for truth and life.
This youth passed in a mountainous and secluded region, was happy in its way, thanks to the exceptional faculties that he discovered in himself. He was employed in a Catholic church as a choir boy. The poetry of the worship, the profundity of the symbolism, had a mysterious attraction for him; but, as he possessed the innate gift of seeing souls, one thing terrified him. This was the secret unbelief of the priests, entirely engrossed in the ritual and the material part of the service. There was another peculiarity: no one, either then or later, allowed himself to talk of any gross superstition in his presence, or to utter any blasphemy, as if those calm and penetrating eyes compelled the speaker to serious thought. In this child, almost always silent, there grew up a quiet and inflexible will, to master things through understanding.
That was easier for him than for others, for he possessed from the first that self-mastery, so rare even in the adult, which gives the mastery over others. To this firm will was added a warm, deep, and almost painful sympathy; a kind of pitiful tenderness to all beings and even to inanimate nature. It seemed to him that all souls had in them something divine. But in what a stony crust is, hidden the shining gold! In what hard rock, in what dark gloom lay dormant the precious essence! Vaguely as yet did this idea stir within him — he was to develop it later — that the divine soul is present in all men, but in a latent state. It is a sleeping captive that has to be awakened from enchantment”. ~Edouard Schuré.
1861 – Feast Day of St. Meinrad a hermit known as the “Martyr of Hospitality”
1908 – New York City passes the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for women to smoke in public, only to have the measure vetoed by the mayor
1924 – Deathday of Vladimir Lenin
1950 – Deathday of George Orwell
1959 – Deathday of Cecil B. DeMille
1960 – Avianca Flight 671 crashes at Montego Bay, Jamaica killing 137
1961 – 435 workers are buried alive when a mine in Coalbrook, South Africa collapses
1968 – A B-52 bomber crashes near Thule Air Base, contaminating the area after its nuclear payload ruptures. 1 of the 4 bombs remains unaccounted for after the cleanup
2003 – A 7.6 magnitude earthquake strikes the Mexican state of Colima, killing 529 & leaving approximately 10,000 people homeless
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~I saw Her Soul of the Universe Lady of crossed Destinies Queen of Honeyed Vibrations She, Who is the name of Spirit Pronounced into form Cut into wax – tossed into flames She, Who sets the secret paths Plotting my life Aligned with Divine Will… Her Name is Holy Mine ~hag
The Holy Grail Study Group with the CRC Mysteries of the Holy Grail – from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation February 2, 2021 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)
“Out of the substance of soul and spirit, human beings have to fashion the tools with which to plough a way, the soul-way leading to the castle of the Grail, to the mystery of the Grail, to the mystery of bread and blood, to the fulfilment of the words ‘This do in remembrance of me’. This is, truly, in remembrance of the mighty event of Golgotha, if the symbol of the bread — of what, in other words, develops from the earth through the synthesis of cosmic forces — is understood. It is done in full remembrance if we understand once again how to grasp the world through a spiritualized cosmology and astronomy, and if we learn to comprehend the human being in terms of his essence: the element where the spiritual directly enters him — the mystery of the blood. The path that leads to the Holy Grail must be found through inner work in human souls. This is the task of cognition and the social task.”~Rudolf Steiner, The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, Chapter 8, “The Lapse into Matter”, and Chapter 9, “Piercing the Thicket”, excerpts from Steiner’s lectures given at Dornach on 16 & 17 April 1921 … focus of the February 2 meeting.
Chapters 7, 8 & 9 in the book can be found online at the CRC’s website by clicking this link A transcript of the 16 April, 1921 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link A transcript of the 17 April, 1921 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing study conversation. The study has been divided among two volunteers who will summarize their section to rebuild it as a foundation for our conversation. Please familiarize yourself with the lecture if possible so you will feel comfortable sharing your reflections and thoughts with the group.This collection of lectures has been republished by Rudolf Steiner Press under the title: “The Mysteries of the Holy Grail — from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation.” The book was compiled and edited by Matthew Barton, published by Rudolf Steiner Press in 2010.
This will be a “Zoom” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer). To connect to the audio/video-conference:
Meeting ID: 882 1050 5106 One tap mobile +13017158592,,81116556762# US (Germantown) +13126266799,,81116556762# US (Chicago)
Dial by your location +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 882 1050 5106
7:15 Welcome and Introductions 7:18 Verse 7:25 Study led by volunteers Note: CRC team will ID volunteers Michael – Chapter 8 Camille – Chapter 9 7:50 Conversation 8:25 ID volunteers for next meeting 8:28 Close with verse There is a knighthood of the 21st century whose riders do not ride through the darkness of physical forests as of old, but through the forest of darkened minds. They are armed with a spiritual armor and an inner sun makes them radiant. Out of them shines healing, healing that flows from the knowledge of the human being as a spiritual being. They must create inner order, inner justice, peace and conviction in the darkness of our time. ~Karl Konig
“To meditate is to become a stage where the eternal and transitory meet, so that our actions can become those of the eternal, for which we are but mediators; we are the eyes and the hands of the primal spirit, who sees and creates through us. Out of the spirit, then, let us create a better world.”-Rudolf Steiner
Hima af Kint
Dear Friends – Our imaginative cognition is a treasure when it spins out scenarios that are aligned with our higher “I”. Then it’s an indispensable tool in creating a reality that brings in the flow of the universe. Nothing manifests on the material plane unless it first exists as a mental picture. We can form images of the tools we hope to wield in the world, & the conditions we’d like to inhabit.
Rachel Handly
But for most of us, the imagination is as much a curse as a blessing. We are just as likely to use it to conjure up premonitions that are at odds with our conscious values. Fearful fantasies regularly pop up, many disguising themselves as rational thoughts & genuine intuitions. They hijack our psychic energy, directing it to exhaust itself in dead-end deliberations.
Meanwhile, ill-suited longings are also lurking in our unconscious mind, impelling us to want things that aren’t good for us. Anytime we surrender to their allure, our imagination is practicing a form of black magic.
Berty Willis
These unsavory aspects of our imagination are what Zen Buddhists describe as the chatter of the “monkey mind.” If we can stop associating our sense of self with this endless surge of slapdash distractions & fruitless fantasies, then we can ‘Be Here Now’ to see what is actually needed.
di Vinci
But whether our imagination is in service to our noble ideals or in the thrall of compulsive fears & inappropriate yearnings, there is one thing for sure: These thoughts can become prophesies.
Of course many of our visions of the future do not come to pass – Thank the good gods – The situations we expect to occur & the experiences we rehearse & dwell on, all the worry about the future, just zaps us, & lames our will. It’s downright self-destructive to keep infecting our imaginations with pictures of loss & failure, doom & gloom, fear & loathing.
Freddy Zentral
The far more sensible approach is to anticipate & actualize blessings…
Join us everyday at 10:10 am/pm when we can join our cognitive imagination together to become spiritual warriors, and endeavor to take up the practice of building up positive imaginations on the inner planes as a counterforce to the adversarial forces working in the world. This is a “key-call” to the Spiritual Powers aligned with love and light, to enlist their aid.
This verse can be an anchor for a group Thought-Form created by our Willed Visualization– to be conceived each day at 10:10 AM, (&/or PM)wherever you are, so it moves like a wave across the globe:
“When I think light, my soul shines, When my soul shines, the earth is a star, When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being”. ~Herbert Hahn
Our Good Will becomes a cosmic energy field for healing – “Seed ideas in the group mind of humanity”, to co-create our highest intentions for the evolution of humanity – that the Earth may become a Sacred Planet – a Sun – and every Human Being a Star. “What is sown in our highest thought will grow and bear seed.” It only takes the square root of any number of people to create change.
See you, dear friends, in the ethers every day 10:10 AM, (&/or PM) (10 is the number of completion, but please don’t worry if you can’t tune in at 10:10, just do it whenever you think of it, which may be many times a day, or perhaps only occasionally, don’t stress it, just do what you can with a loving heart-mind)
PLEASE SHARE THE GOOD WORD (& Let me know if you are taking on the project)
“When 2 or more are gathered…”
~hag
Len Kemmer
“Learn to dance, or else the angels in heaven will not know what to do with you”. ~Saint Augustine
20 January 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: It’s time to get in your last good views of Jupiter for a while. As the month progresses this being will be seen lower & lower in the West after sunset.
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