POD (Poem Of the Day) ~Fuddling in the muddy puddle I grab onto a Rolly-Polly curled up tight She carries me egg light & silent In the pregnant pause of possibility I meditate With this spiraled-in universe Waiting to expand in her unfurling… ~hag
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves,” said Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl.
This advice always hits home; begging the question: How can I change a stagnant situation I have perpetuated? What can I do to unlock the door I’ve been banging on for so long that I have forgotten what is on the other side? How can I redirect my attention – to reclaim the energy I have been expending on closed-down thinking & moldering systems of belief? What would it be like to work on the unfinished wisdom & beauty of what is as close as a shadow: MYSELF.
To open that personal, yet universal portal – to consciously cross the Threshold – I find it helps to be awake to the sacred moments just before I fall asleep & right after I wake up.
Those opportune times can become potent rituals in our striving – hallowed moments – when we are poised between the two great dimensions of life.
What would it be like to give special care & attention to these transitions?
Edward Burne-Jones
Life Hack: I find it extremely helpful to avoid watching TV or surfing the Internet as much as possible, before sleep – which profoundly affects what realm of the spiritual world I inhabit & how I dream. Have you ever had dreams where you are scrolling? – hellish.
And I never leap out of bed to the detonation of an alarm clock. Why would we want to be alarmed when we first awaken from the glories of night school?
To become clued-up to receive special revelations, & ringing epiphanies while inhabiting those in-between states, we must enter consciously – with reverence; perhaps asking a question, or saying a prayer or affirmation, or sending someone a blessing.
Every day I work to be both highly alert & deeply relaxed. Today can I be wildly curious & also serenely reflective? Can I cultivate a hunger to crack open life’s secrets while at the same time, living at the pace of peace – accepting my destiny exactly the way it is in this holy moment..?
We can tune into this as we head into the Michaelmas season. The universe is always conspiring to educate & heal us. Thru the seasons we can receive a steady flow of clues about how to get closer to living our highest destiny.
Georg Baselitz
The best way to prepare for a Big Shift is to cultivate states of being that ripen us to be ready for anything:
* First off we have to employ righteous strategies to help us avoid becoming entrenched in the hypnotic lure of painful emotions, past events, & worries about the future…
* How can we foster a trust in “the ever present help of the spiritual world” to snap us out of our time-worn beliefs & bad habits;
* Let’s sure up our talents & turn up our curiosity full blast – tuning in to the raw veracity of every moment with our beginner’s mind leading the way;
* How about deciding to engage an eagerness to dwell gracefully in the midst of all the interesting ‘What If’s’ that tease & teach us – allowing questions to remain open -interpretation & reinvention to go hand in hand…?
Together, in our own individual way, we can Practice Becoming
In this sacred moment we are prime for an enduring, simmering, steady groove, in the Christ zone – which is here, there & seeks thru us to be everywhere…
We invite you to join us as we explore big, essential questions together…
What is contemporary culture asking for now?
What are you being called to bring to the world?
How will Anthroposophia assist you in the task?
The Applied Anthroposophy Course (AAC) brings transformative online content to the alchemy of individual and group inner work.
The mission is to explore the urgent issues of our time and awaken meaning through the lens of spiritual philosophy, inner reflection, and outer action. Visit appliedanthroposophy.orgfor more information!
The Perseid meteor showers are back, heralding the season of Michael. The shooting stars awaken us. This dose of cosmic iron is the perfect medicine for this uncertain time. We must take it in consciously to strengthen our Michaelic impulse for the spiritual battle ahead.
Perseus is a cosmic starry imagination of Michael. He stands with sword of iron raised in one hand and in the other the decapitated head of Medusa with her serpent hair and eyes that turn all who gaze upon her to stone, symbol of the old clairvoyance. He has rescued Andromeda, the chained princess, from the approaching sea monster Cetus. From the forehead of Andromeda springs the constellation Pegasus, the winged intelligence. This entire narrative contains deep imaginations of the work of Michael in the human being rescuing the threatened human soul from the destructive forces rising from the unconscious and the past in the sea monster and the deadening forces of Ahriman’s cold intellect in the gaze of Medusa.
A study of The Michael Mystery by Steiner can be a helping guide during this season. In it he states: “Hearts begin to have thoughts, that is the new way of thinking, with the heart.” It is Michael’s intention that in the future, intelligence will flow through human hearts and be connected to the same divine spiritual forces that created the human in the beginning of time
Rogier van der Weyd
If we look for, or even use our imaginative cognition to picture inwardly this cosmic offering, we can carry the thought of Michael/Perseus in our heart-thinking, to consciously align with our Time-Spirit. Let us make the intention to be awake to the power of the Christ-Sun in the Earth, & the enlivening impulse of Anthroposophia within, which through our thinking hearts becomes enlightened by Wisdom, helping us overcome the darkness with love.
This annual celestial event, gifting us with the cosmic iron of Michael, begins as tiny specks of extra-terrestrial dust that hit Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds vaporizing from the friction with our atmosphere, leaving behind the streaks of light we call meteors. These dust particles were born in the comet known as 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which recently returned to the inner solar system in 1992. The giant planet Jupiter has nudged Swift-Tuttle’s debris stream closer to Earth’s orbit, So this year, we could see up to 150-200 meteors per hour, TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT.
The best views will come in the predawn hours. The spectacle will continue to improve as dawn approaches because the shower’s radiant — the spot on the border between the constellations Perseus & Cassiopeia where the meteors appear to emanate from — climbs higher.
As always, you’ll see more meteors at a viewing site far from any artificial lights. Look about two-thirds of the way from the horizon to the zenith, but don’t get tunnel vision gazing at one location. Let your eyes wander so your peripheral vision can pick up meteors you otherwise might not see.
Those who work with the Original indications in the Calendar of the Soul know that Rudolf Steiner lists the birth & death days, as well as other significant occurrences of various individualities, along with the dates in the calendar.
He said of this: “What is presented here can be useful to those who wish to follow the path of mankind’s spiritual development” ~Rudolf Steiner. This is my inspiration.
3114 BC – The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Mayans, begins
305 – Deathday of Saint Philomena, Steiner speaks of her as being a Greek priestess martyred at age 13 by Roman Emperor Diocletian.
559 – Birthday of Radegunde, Thuringian princess & Frankish queen, who founded the Abbey of the Holy Cross at Poitiers, named for holding the relic of the True Cross. Radegunde ate nothing but legumes & green vegetables, she was widely believed to have the gift of healing.
1253 – Deathday of Saint Clare of Assisi, an Italian saint & one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi
1464 – Deathday of Nicholas of Cusa, a German philosopher, theologian, jurist, & astronomer. One of the first German proponents of Renaissance humanism, he made spiritual & political contributions in European history. A notable example of this is his mystical or spiritual writings on “learned ignorance,” as well as his participation in power struggles between Rome & the German states of the Holy Roman Empire
1877 – The two moons of Mars were discovered by Asaph Hall, an American astronomer. He named them Phobos & Deimos
1896 – Harvey Hubbell received a patent for the electric light bulb socket with a pull-chain
1942 – Actress Hedy Lamarr & composer George Antheil receive a patent for a Frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones & Wi-Fi
1956 – Deathday of Jackson Pollock
1965 – the Watts Race Riots begin in Los Angeles, California
1972 – Vietnam War: The last United States ground combat unit leaves South Vietnam
1984 –”My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you that I just signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” -Said as a joke by senile President Ronald Reagan, while running for re-election, on his weekly Saturday address on National Public Radio.
2012 – At least 1306 people are killed & 3,000 others injured in a pair of earthquakes near Tabriz, Iran
***
Andrew Gough
My POD (Poem Of the Day)
~I come with the comet A priestess in the thought-skin of the lion Spreading the roaring depth of myself out Before friends & gods To let them study me… My ripened body is a rolled papyrus Tied with red string that holds no pretense Glow worms hide in the folds of my scroll I am washed & ready for the new turning Flashing with the hygienic iron-dust of shooting stars Reborn in the cradle of my blood ~hag
***
“…And when in high summer, from a particular constellation, meteors fall in great showers of cosmic iron, then this cosmic iron, which carries an enormously powerful healing force, is the weapon which the gods bring to bear against Ahriman, as dragon-like he tries to coil round the shining forms of men. The force which falls on the earth in the meteoric iron is indeed a cosmic force whereby the higher gods endeavour to gain a victory over the Ahrimanic powers, when autumn comes on. And this majestic display in cosmic space, when the August meteor showers stream down into the human shining in the astral light, has its counterpart — so gentle and apparently so small — in a change that occurs in the human blood. This human blood, which is in truth not such a material thing as present-day science imagines, but is permeated throughout by impulses from soul and spirit, israyed through by the force which is carried as iron into the blood and wages war there on anxiety, fear and hate. The processes which are set going in every blood-corpuscle when the force of iron shoots into it are the same, on a minute human scale, as those which take place when meteors fall in a shining stream through the air. This permeation of human blood by the anxiety-dispelling force of iron is a meteoric activity. The effect of the raying in of the iron is to drive fear and anxiety out of the blood.
And so, as the gods with their meteors wage war on the spirit who would like to radiate fear over all the earth through his coiling serpent-form, and while they cause iron to stream radiantly into this fear-tainted atmosphere, which reaches its peak when autumn approaches or when summer wanes — so the same process occurs inwardly in man, when his blood is permeated with iron. We can understand these things only if we understand their inner spiritual significance on the one hand, and if on the other we recognise how the sulphur-process and the iron-process in man are connected with corresponding events in the cosmos.
A man who looks out into space and sees a shooting-star should say to himself, with reverence for the gods: “That occurrence in the great expanse of space has its minute counterpart continuously in myself. There are the shooting-stars, while in every one of my blood-corpuscles iron is taking form: my life is full of shooting-stars, miniature shooting-stars.” And this inner fall of shooting-stars, pointing to the life of the blood, is especially important when autumn approaches, when the sulphur-process is at its peak. For when men are shining like glow-worms in the way I have described, then the counter-force is present also, for millions of tiny meteors are scintillating inwardly in their blood.
This is the connection between the inner man and the universe. And then we can see how, especially when autumn is approaching, there is a great raying-out of sulphur from the nerve-system towards the brain. The whole man can then be seen as a sulphur-illuminated phantom, so to speak.
But raying into this bluish-yellow sulphur atmosphere come the meteor swarms from the blood. That is the other phantom. While the sulphur-phantom rises in clouds from the lower part of man towards his head, the iron-forming process rays out from his head and pours itself like a stream of meteors into the life of the blood.
Such is man, when Michaelmas draws near. And he must learn to make conscious use of the meteoric-force in his blood. He must learn to keep the Michael Festival by making it a festival for the conquest of anxiety and fear; a festival of inner strength and initiative; a festival for the commemoration of selfless self-consciousness…”
Greetings friends on this Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ, a cosmic metamorphosis that prepared the way for the deed on Golgotha & was a pre-figuration of the Ascension.
“We find the transfiguration scene in all the evangelists except St. John. This is significant. Let us clarify the meaning of this scene. What takes place? Jesus goes with three disciples Peter, James and John, up a mountain: this means into the inner sanctuary where one is initiated into higher worlds and where one also speaks in occult language. The disciples were carried up into a higher state of consciousness. They saw then that which is not transitory but eternal. Moses and Elias appear and Jesus himself with them. What does this mean? In occult science the word Elias means the same as El — god the goal – the way. Moses is the spiritual scientific word for truth. By the fact that Elias, Moses and Jesus appear, you have the fundamental Christian truth: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus himself says — this is a fundamental Christian mystical truth — “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” (John, ch. 14, v. 6) ~ Rudolf Steiner, The Gospel of St. John, 3rd Lecture
Today in 70 AD- The Second Temple of Jerusalem is destroyed by Roman legions under Titus. For 420 years, the 2nd Temple constituted a divine presence – the point where heaven & earth met.
Hiroshima: The Anti-Transfiguration – Brian Zahnd
6 August is also the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945, an act of genocide on US President Harry Truman’s orders.
I think of all those souls who crossed the threshold together, at that time. How will their sacrifice bear fruit…?
Krishna with Aruna in the Bhagavad Gita: “A thousand simultaneous suns Arising in the sky Might equal that great radiance, With that great glory vie.”
Interesting to contemplate these pivotal events today in 2021 which occur on the actual astrological cross-quarter date of Lammas (Loaf-mass) when the Sun enters 15 degrees of fiery Leo the Lion (in the tropical zodiac) – the exact midpoint between Summer Solstice & the Autumnal Equinox – a time of harvest, when the plant is sacrificed to make the bread. “The king is dead love live the king”.
We stand now also in the dark of the Moon (New Moon & Islamic New Year 8 Aug) on the edge of the Perseid Meteor Showers which peak in a few days…
Suuny Unii
Those of us working in the Sophia Group & the planning committee for the ‘Sophia Conference’ happening in the Spring of 2022 are especially attuned to this duel anniversary since the location of the conference will be in New Mexico where the atomic bomb was engineered & tested. The site chosen was a remote corner of the desert, south of Los Alamos, New Mexico, known as the “Jornada del Muerto,” or “Journey of Death.” Robert Oppenheimer named the site of the testing “Trinity” inspired by the poems of John Donne.
In the juxtaposition of these 2 world changing events we see not only the polarity of life & death, but the opportunity to bring the Wisdom of the Sophia in – with her connection to the Holy Spirit of the Trinity – calling in the ‘Healing Medicine that makes whole’ -to avail ourselves to the ‘Advocate, The ‘Comforter’ The ‘Mediator’ with the Being of Love – The Christos.
Together we can redeem & transfigure the fallen light of nuclear death, into the light of Wisdom & Love.
Blessings & Peace –
~hag
Candelario Cervantez
THE TRINITY by John Donne
“O blessed glorious Trinity, Bones to philosophy, but milk to faith, Which, as wise serpents, diversely Most slipperiness, yet most entanglings hath, As you distinguish’d, undistinct, By power, love, knowledge be, Give me a such self different instinct, Of these let all me elemented be, Of power, to love, to know you unnumbered three.”
Robert Bentley
Here is an interesting piece about the Transfiguration by Edouard Schure – French philosopher, poet, playwright, novelist, music critic, & publicist of esoteric literature – collaborator with Marie & Rudolf Steiner.
“In every great moment of his life, we see Christ Jesus withdrawing to the mountain to pray. Did not the Vedic sage say, “Prayer sustains heaven and earth and rules the gods?” Jesus knew this power of powers. Usually he did not allow any companion to share the times when he descended into the arcanum of his consciousness. However, on one occasion he led Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, John and James, to a high mountain in order to spend the night there. Tradition has it that the place was Mount Tabor. There that mysterious scene which the Gospels describe under the name The Transfiguration took place between the Master and his three most initiated disciples.
According to Matthew, the Apostles saw the luminous, diaphanous form of the Master appearing, in the transparent shadows of an oriental night, his face shining like the sun, his garments radiant as light. Then two forms, which they took for those of Moses and Elias appeared beside him. Trembling they came out of their strange prostration, which seemed to them like both a deep sleep and an intense waking state. Beside them they saw the Master, who touched them in order to awaken them completely. The transfigured Christ was never erased from their memory.
But what had Jesus himself seen, what had he experienced during that night which preceded the decisive deed of his prophetic career? He passed through a gradual disappearance of earthly things under the fire of prayer and an ascension from sphere to sphere on wings of ecstasy. Slowly it seemed to him that through his deep consciousness he was returning into a previous existence, which was entirely spiritual and divine. Far from him were the suns, worlds, earths, whirlwinds of painful incarnation, while in a homogeneous atmosphere was a fluid substance, an intelligent Light.
In this radiance legions of heavenly beings formed a moving canopy, a firmament of ethereal bodies, white as snow, from which emanated gentle rays of light. On the shining cloud where he himself was standing, six men in priestly clothing and of powerful stature are lifting a gleaming Chalice in their united hands. They are the six Messiahs who already have appeared on earth; the seventh is he himself, and this Cup signifies the Sacrifice which he must experience by becoming incarnate on earth in his turn. Beneath the cloud the thunder rolls, a black abyss opens, the circle of generations, the gulf of life and death, the earthly hell appear before him. With a supplicating gesture the Sons of God elevate the Cup. Heaven waits motionless …
With a gesture of acceptance Jesus spreads his arms in the form of a cross, as though he embraces the world. Then the Sons of God kneel, faces to the ground; angels with long wings and lowered eyes carry the shining Chalice upward into the vault of Light. Hosanna! rings out from heaven to heaven, melodious and ineffable . . . But without even hearing it, he plunges into the abyss …
This is what once took place in the world of Archetypes, in the Bosom of the Father, where the Mysteries of eternal Love are celebrated, and where the movements of the stars pass in waves of living Light. This is what Jesus had sworn to fulfill; this is why he was born, this is why he had struggled upon earth. And now the mighty promise gripped him again at the end of his work, through the fullness of his spiritual consciousness, by means of which he had entered into the revelation of a divine ecstasy.
Deep vow, dread Chalice! Nevertheless, it was necessary to drink from it. After the rapture of ecstasy, he awakened in the depths of the abyss, at the brink of martyrdom. There could be no further doubt; the time had come. Heaven had spoken, earth cried aloud for help.
Then, slowly retracing his steps, Jesus again went down to the valley of the Jordan and took the road to Jerusalem.”
~In the cardboard sky The Thunder gods gather In a procession of chattering dark wind weavings Flashing signs of other lives Royal blue souls in zig-zagging sighs Stop Where heat rises like dust after the bomb To be weighed In the over-ripe fruit trees For the transfiguration ~hag
Greetings friends on this the Feast day of Nicodemus. As fate would have it, yesterday as I was doing some research about the Holy Grail for the Pageant: ‘The Royal Art: A Social Pilgrimage of the Soul’ (for the ASA AGM on Sunday 10 October); I was reading from Sergei O. Prokofieff’s book ‘The Spiritual Origins of Eastern Europe and the Future Mysteries of the Holy Grail’ Chapter 3 ‘Scythianos & the Grail Stream’, where he reveals the connection between this great initiate of the mysteries of the physical body (The blood & body) & his 2 pupils – Joseph of Arimathea & Nicodemus. So this powerful individuality was already ‘visiting me in the night’.
Zosia Nowak
Just like Lazarus, Nicodemus does not belong to the tradition of the Synoptic Gospels & is only mentioned by John, who brings him in 3 times, devoting more than half of Chapter 3 of his Gospel, a few verses of Chapter 7 & again in Chapter 19.
The first time Nicodemus is mentioned, he is identified as a Pharisee who comes to see Jesus “at night”. John places this meeting shortly after the Cleansing of the Temple & links it to the signs which Jesus performed in Jerusalem during the Passover feast. “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him” (John 3:2).
Then follows a conversation with Nicodemus about the meaning of being “born again” or “born from above” (Greek: ἄνωθεν), & the mention of seeing the “kingdom of God”.
In Chapter 7, Nicodemus advises his colleagues among “the chief priests and the Pharisees”, to hear & investigate before making a judgment concerning Jesus. Their mocking response argues that no prophet comes from Galilee. Nonetheless, it is probable that he wielded a certain influence in the Sanhedrin.
Finally, when Jesus is buried, Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh & aloes—about 100 lbs [John 19:39]
“We have already pointed out in these lectures that in the words of Christ-Jesus to Nicodemus, we must recognize a conversation between Christ and a personality who is able to perceive what can be beheld outside of the physical body by means of higher organs of cognition if developed to a certain stage. For those who understand such things, this is clearly and distinctly indicated in the Gospel wherein it is stated that Nicodemus came to Christ-Jesus “in the night,” meaning in a state of consciousness in which the human being does not make use of his outer sense organs.” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Gospel of St. John, lecture VI -THE “I AM”
You can also find some amazing insights about Nicodemus from the work of Emil Bock in his book ‘The Three Years’ Chapter 8.
Betta Uyne
3 August 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Today is a great day to view Saturn, which reached opposition at 1 am last night. If you’re up early, the ringed planet won’t set until nearly sunrise; if you’re an evening observer, it will rise again as the Sun sets in Capricornus the Sea Goat.
Bella Luna reaches apogee, the farthest point from our planet in its orbit. ~astronomy.com
1829 – Birthday of Laurence Oliphant – a Member of the British Parliament, was a South African-born British author, traveler, diplomat, intelligence agent, & Christian mystic. (see Steiner’s Quote below that in a former life he was Ovid)
“In the early years of this century I was several times in London. On the occasion of one of these visits I was prompted to make myself acquainted with an extraordinarily significant personality — to begin with, simply in his writings. And as in those days there were rather longer intervals between the journeys than there are now, I obtained from the Theosophical Library the books he had written — the books that is to say, of Laurence Oliphant.
Laurence Oliphant is a remarkably interesting and significant personality: he strikes you in this way directly you begin to study his writings. These books deal with the similarities to be found in different religions, with spiritual religions, and so forth; and all of them bear evidence of a deep understanding of how in the various processes of his body and soul, man is connected with the secrets of the universe. When you read Oliphant’s writings you have the impression: Here is a picture of man in his earth-life that owes its inspiration to deep cosmic instincts. The processes of the earthly life of man that are connected with birth, embryonic life, descent and so forth, are described in such a way as to show how man, as microcosm, is wondrously rooted in the macrocosm.
Now I was very soon led in this study to a point where the figure of the dead Laurence Oliphant stood before me, but not in a form which suggested that I had here to do with the individuality as he was then living after death; it was rather that what was contained in these writings (which may be described as setting forth a kind of cosmic physiology, a cosmic anatomy) began to come alive, began to spiritualise; and a figure appeared, not all at once entirely clear, but unquestionably there before me on many different occasions. I was able to make occult investigations into the matter and I could never do otherwise than bring the figure into connection with what came to me from reading Oliphant. It was very often there before me. At first I was often unable to satisfy myself as to what this figure wanted, what its manifestations meant. The whole manner of its appearance however, left me in no doubt whatever that it was none other than the individuality of Laurence Oliphant; and it was likewise clear to me that this figure had had a long life in the time between death and a new birth — that is to say, the birth as Laurence Oliphant — probably only broken by one earth-life that was not very significant for the rest of the world. What might not then be hidden in the personality of Laurence Oliphant! In short, this appearance of the figure of Laurence Oliphant suggested significant questions of karma.
When I entered on an investigation of the karma, a spiritual Being became manifest who is engaged in the elaboration of human karma…
Now the investigations which I described in Torquay led me into close contact with the spirit of Brunetto Latini, the teacher of Dante. When one penetrates into these spiritual worlds in the manner described, it also becomes possible to stand before individualities in the form in which they lived in a particular epoch. Thus one can stand face to face with Brunetto Latini, the great teacher of Dante in the 13th century. Brunetto Latini still possessed a knowledge whereby nature was seen, not in the abstraction of natural laws, but as under the influence of living spiritual Beings. On the way back to his native town of Florence from his post as Ambassador in Spain, Brunetto Latini heard all kinds of reports that troubled and disturbed him, and in addition he had a slight sunstroke. In this condition and under the influence, too, of the pathological disturbances, glimpses came to him of nature in her creative work, of cosmic creation, and of the connection of man with the planetary world. What he was able to see was wonderful and sublime and no more than a shadow-picture of it subsequently found its way into the great work of Dante — the Divine Comedy.
But now if we follow this Brunetto Latini, we find that in a critical moment, when the knowledge was like to suffocate him, when it seemed to him that he might go astray from true knowledge and fall into error — in this critical moment, Ovid became his guide, Ovid, the Roman author of the Metamorphoses which contain such wonderful visions of the old Greek age, though expressed in the prosaic, characteristically Roman style.
And so we meet the individuality of Ovid together with Brunetto Latini. If we have a true grasp of the connection we can see Brunetto Latini, in the pre-Dante time, actually together with Ovid. Ovid is with him. And now, precisely in connection with the scientific, medical researches of which I was speaking, Ovid revealed himself as Laurence Oliphant.
In reality, Ovid was the guide in the spiritual world for many Initiates, appearing again as Laurence Oliphant with his sublime treatment of physiology and pathology. This connection between Laurence Oliphant and Ovid is of most far-reaching import and is one of the most illuminating examples one could possibly find. ~Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships, VIII: Lecture V
1929 – Krishnamurti dissolves the Order of the Star in the East
1936 – Jesse Owens wins the 100 meter dash, defeating Ralph Metcalfe, at the Berlin Olympics.
1977 – Tandy Corporation announces the TRS-80, one of the world’s first mass-produced personal computers
On August 3, 2019, a mass shooting occurred at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, United States. 21 year old Patrick Crusius shot & killed 23 People & injured 23 others, in an act of domestic terrorism -a hate crime described as the deadliest attack on Latinos in modern American history.
Shortly before the shooting Crusius posted a manifesto with white nationalist anti-immigrant themes, online, citing that year’s earlier Christchurch mosque shootings & the right-wing conspiracy theory known as the Great Replacement as inspiration for the attack.
more Lammas Love
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~I travel inwardly I gather berries that have fallen Fully ripened to the ground & swing the scythe under hot blue skies… What is remembered, lives… ~hag
The Central Regional Council’s Holy Grail Study Group Mysteries of the Holy Grail – from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation August 4, 2021 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)
We had a lively discussion during our July 7 meeting. Here are two lectures that may shed some lights on two of the more hard-to-grasp ideas discussed. You can click on the “Prev” or “Next” button to scroll through other lectures in the same series.
“The higher I which may be born in every human soul points to the rebirth of the divine I in the evolution of humanity through the events in Palestine. In the same way that the higher self can be born in every human being, the higher self of humanity as a whole was born in Palestine and is preserved and further developed behind the external symbol of the Rose Cross.”~Rudolf Steiner, The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, Chapter 2, “The Birth of Higher Perception”, excerpts from Steiner’sThe Gospel of St. John in its Relation to the Other Three Gospels given at Kassel on 24 June, 1909 .. focus of the August 4 meeting.
This chapter from the book can be found online at the CRC’s website by clicking this link The complete transcript of the lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this linkThe 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 Kate – pg. 15 to 17 Michael – pg. 18 to 20 8:05 Conversation 8:28 Close with verse There is a knighthood of the 21st centurywhose riders do not ride through the darknessof physical forests as of old,but through the forest of darkened minds.They are armed with a spiritual armorand an inner sun makes them radiant.Out of them shines healing,healing that flows from the knowledgeof the human being as a spiritual being.They must create inner order, inner justice,peace and conviction in the darknessof our time.~Karl Konig
Just like in days of old, we come can together, each from our own homestead, farm or condo, we can come together, to help our neighbor gather the 2nd harvest home…
As we enter the time of the grain harvest, a wealth of beauty in nature surrounds us…Mid-Summer has past & the fruits are ripening…now we begin to take this abundance in, digesting & cultivating seeds in our memory.
Like the animal kingdom storing food for a barren winter, we store the meaning of Summer’s richness within our souls, harvesting with a discerning eye – full of appreciation & compassion for our current crop – looking ahead to the next harvest…
Learning from our endeavors…we take the late Summers gifts into our heart & soul & belly – we know, that like the season’s inevitable movement, one into the next, we too are always becoming…We are always creating, always moving from the already been, to the not yet, always strengthening in the present what will happen in the soon to be…& as we do this, we give ourselves a gift grander than any earthly gift…We reap truth… We give ourselves to our Self…
We need the outer world of nature to understand our inner nature…just as we need both the in-breath & the out-breath, we need to see what we are in the world, to see our authentic Self & purpose…
We stand at the Cross-quarter a powerful turning point on the wheel of the year…between the Summer Solstice & the Fall equinox…we have breathed out into the lushness of Summer…& now we can hold the memory of Summer within us – as soul strength – as we prepare to turn inward during the winter’s long in-breathing…
We know that as we feel our existence in the world, we are a part of an ongoing cosmic dance…the endless dance of becoming…& we feel the stirrings of our soul longing to be gathered in…We know we must feed the inner fruit, at the same time that we harvest the earth, which in turn feeds the World Soul…
Invisibly & silently, the cosmic light is moving into each of us, just as it goes into the grain, preparing us for the threshing floor…even as we nourish our bodies from the fruits of the earth, we become the fruit that will sustain the Soul of the World…it is a dance of being & becoming, waxing & waning, feeding & being fed…Such is the dance of life…
Some Divine Archetypes to tap into:
Lugh the Long Arm – This festival is also called “Lugnasadh” (Loo-nah-sah), “nasadh” Gaelic, “to give in marriage,” Tailltean marriage.
Demeter (the Greek version of the Roman goddess Ceres = cereal) is the goddess of grain. It is her job to feed the world. After her reunion with her daughter Persphone, Demeter gave the gift of agriculture to humankind, so we could cultivate for ourselves.
Freya on the Boar – The boar as totem personified prosperity, vitality & ceremonial feasting for both the Norse & Celts also represented the time before agriculture, when food was foraged, the Boar is a great forger. Freya riding the Boar is a symbol of the cultivated grain overcoming the old ways of hunting & gathering.
creativecommons
Born from a tree that was gouged open by a boar, Adonis was later killed by a boar, he is an example of the dying vegetation god, sacrificed so that all may live.
Henry Meynell Rheam
Danu – Irish Goddess of fertility & plenty, Mother of the fairies – the force that turns the flower to the sun.
“John Barleycorn” is a personification of the important cereal crop barley, & of the spirit beverages made from it, beer & whiskey. In the old English song, “John Barley Corn must die”, He is represented as suffering attacks, death, & indignities that correspond to the various stages of barley cultivation, such as reaping & malting – emulating also the passion of The Christos.
John Barleycorn represents the ideology of nature’s cycles, the spirit within nature, & the harvest. As a result of his being cut down, bread can be produced; therefore, Barleycorn dies so that others may live. His body eaten as bread.
The Empress –represents the Mother principle, referring to reproduction & growth; she sets all things in order. Symbolic of Venus & the material world, she rules the senses, teaching us to appreciate beauty in all forms. She is the figure of Creative Imagination, displaying the art of visualization. She is fertile & nurturing, providing the means to attract our desires. Confer with The Empress to increase creativity, manifest prosperity, & magnetize love…She is a wise woman who makes decisions based on her intuition & the facts at hand. She is a woman who can be forceful & strong willed in her position of authority…She is a business-woman who is level-headed & practical but she is also kind & charitable, one who instills confidence & nurtures others. She is a role model. The throne of The Empress is built of endurance, tenacity, loyalty & sheer determination…
I am The Empress, I celebrate this knowing, I am The Empress, I am ripe, I am growing…
Abundant Blessings of Lammas & Peace – ~hag
PS. Gather the seeds you want to save, & feed the rest to the birds of the air…Thank the Farmer (Bless you Farmer John & your Biodynamic abundance https://angelicorganics.com/ ) & enjoy the feast…!!!
xox
Vali Irina Ciobanu
2 August 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: With the advance of Summer the Sagittarius Teapot, in the south after dark now, is tilting and pouring from its spout to the right. The Teapot will tilt farther and farther for the rest of the summer — or for much of the night if you stay out late.
“An ethical misunderstanding, a clash, is impossible among ethically free human beings. Only someone who is ethically unfree, who obeys natural drives or the conventional demands of duty, will thrust aside someone who does not follow the same instincts and the same demands. To live in love of action, and to let live in understanding of the other’s will, is the fundamental maxim of free human beings.” — Rudolf Steiner, The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
216 BC – The Carthaginian army led by Hannibal defeats a numerically superior Roman army at the Battle of Cannae
Feast day of “The Virgen de los Angeles” (the Virgin of the Angels) is Costa Rica’s patron saint, also known as La Negrita. According to tradition, La Negrita, the Black Virgin, is a small (less than a meter tall), representation of the Virgin Mary found on this spot on August 2, 1635 by a native woman. As the story goes, when she tried to take the statuette with her, it miraculously reappeared twice back where she’d found it. The townspeople then built a shrine around her. In 1824, the Virgin was declared Costa Rica’s patron saint. La Negrita now resides on a gold, jewel-studded platform at the main altar in the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles in Cartago. Each August 2, on the anniversary of the statuette’s miraculous discovery, pilgrims from every corner of the country (and beyond) walk the 22 km from San José to the basilica. Many of the penitent complete the last few hundred meters of the pilgrimage on their knees.
1832- Birthday of Henry Steel Olcott – an American military officer, journalist, lawyer & the co-founder & 1st President of the Theosophical Society. Olcott was the first well-known American of European ancestry to make a formal conversion to Buddhism. From 1874 on, Olcott’s spiritual growth & development with Helena Blavatsky & other spiritual leaders would lead to the founding of the Theosophical Society. In 1875, Olcott, Blavatsky, & others, notably William Quan Judge, formed the Theosophical Society in New York City. Olcott financially supported the earliest years of the Theosophical Society & was acting President while Blavatsky served as the Society’s Secretary. In December 1878, they left New York in order to move the headquarters of the Society to India.
1921 – Birthday of Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor & actor
1922 – Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-Canadian engineer, invented the telephone
1922 – A typhoon hits Shantou, Republic of China killing more than 50,000 people
1924 – The last of Rudolf Steiner’s “19 Class Lessons” was given in Dornach.
1934 – Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg
1939 – Albert Einstein & Leo Szilard write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon
1943 – Jewish prisoners stage a revolt at Treblinka, one of the deadliest of Nazi death camps where approximately 900,000 persons were murdered in less than 18 months
1968 – Deathday of Antonio d’Achille, Aquinas scholar
1969 – Deathday of Anna Samweber – an active co-worker in Berlin with Rudolf Steiner and Marie Steiner-von Sivers. Her anecdotes & recollections were recorded by Jacob Streit during an intensive two days shortly before Anna’s death. They contribute a warm & intimate picture of Rudolf Steiner, the man, & his work. “Frau Dr Steiner owned a lovely diamond watch with her initials inscribed on the lid. It was broken, and I had to take it to a well-known watchmaker who lived a long way from the Motzstrasse (the house at 17 Motzstrasse in Berlin was where Rudolf and Marie Steiner lived from 1903 – 1913, and where the work of the Anthroposophical Society was carried on). It was late on a cold and foggy November evening when I made my way in the direction of Nollendorfplatz, where the building site for a subway was situated. I was walking along a long, wooden blank wall when suddenly two human shapes appeared from the dark and attacked me. I remembered that once Rudolf Steiner had told me that if ever I was in need I could call on him. So when these two attackers went for me, the one holding me from behind so that the other could rob me, I called inwardly and spontaneously: ‘Doctor, help me!’ At the same moment both fellows fell back like lightning and were gone.When Rudolf Steiner came for breakfast the next morning he greeted me with the words ‘Good morning, Sam. What was the matter that you cried so loud last night?’ When I told him about my experience and he had listened quietly, he said simply: ‘But I did help you, didn’t I?’ “ ~Anna Samweber from her book Erinnerungen an Rudolf Steiner (Reminiscences of Rudolf Steiner)
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Tashina Suzuki
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~i am the reed from which words flow… the honey i’ve tasted, the lips i’ve kissed have all left their marks upon me… this body is the book of all i remember open me ever wider beloved, i am yours… ~hag
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