Category Archives: Poetry

Wisdom Calls

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Lenten-Tide Day #3:

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Tula Devi

Befriend your Guardian Angel. I am often in conversation with my Angel. Right before sleep usually, when I thank, & acknowledge this being who serves me thru many lifetimes. And I also use this time to ask questions or set goals that I need help with.

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Katrina Lanfranco

I am using this time to set new rhythms.

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Sir George Clauson

The first rhythm is Rest or Peace, which for me still engages the will, it is active: playing, praying, holding reverence, wonder, gratitude & awe.

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With a focus on seeing: Christ in every human being.

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To Listen – In an age when smartphones & social media have made communication with people around the globe easier than ever, hearing that still small voice of the Divine in the midst of competing voices can often be difficult. Of course, this isn’t an entirely unique problem: Proverbs 8 describes both Wisdom & Folly crying out from the high places of the city to all who would pass by. The good news is that the gods are always speaking. The bad news is, so is are the adversarial voices.

What would it look like, to devote a designated period of time disconnected from all devices & distractions? What if you spent that time praying to more clearly hear the voice of Wisdom?

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Lupam Juniaa

Proverbs 8 – Wisdom’s Call

Does not wisdom call out?
    Does not understanding raise her voice?
At the highest point along the way,
    where the paths meet, she takes her stand;
beside the gate leading into the city,
    at the entrance, she cries aloud:
“To you, O people, I call out;
    I raise my voice to all mankind.
You who are simple, gain prudence;
    you who are foolish, set your hearts on it.[a]
Listen, for I have trustworthy things to say;
    I open my lips to speak what is right.
My mouth speaks what is true,
    for my lips detest wickedness.
All the words of my mouth are just;
    none of them is crooked or perverse.
To the discerning all of them are right;
    they are upright to those who have found knowledge.
10 Choose my instruction instead of silver,
    knowledge rather than choice gold,
11 for wisdom is more precious than rubies,
    and nothing you desire can compare with her.

12 “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence;
    I possess knowledge and discretion.
13 To fear the Lord is to hate evil;
    I hate pride and arrogance,
    evil behavior and perverse speech.
14 Counsel and sound judgment are mine;
    I have insight, I have power.
15 By me kings reign
    and rulers issue decrees that are just;
16 by me princes govern,
    and nobles—all who rule on earth.[b]
17 I love those who love me,
    and those who seek me find me.
18 With me are riches and honor,
    enduring wealth and prosperity.
19 My fruit is better than fine gold;
    what I yield surpasses choice silver.
20 I walk in the way of righteousness,
    along the paths of justice,
21 bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me
    and making their treasuries full.

22 “The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works,[c][d]
    before his deeds of old;
23 I was formed long ages ago,
    at the very beginning, when the world came to be.
24 When there were no watery depths, I was given birth,
    when there were no springs overflowing with water;
25 before the mountains were settled in place,
    before the hills, I was given birth,
26 before he made the world or its fields
    or any of the dust of the earth.
27 I was there when he set the heavens in place,
    when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
28 when he established the clouds above
    and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,
29 when he gave the sea its boundary
    so the waters would not overstep his command,
and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
30     Then I was constantly[e] at his side.
I was filled with delight day after day,
    rejoicing always in his presence,
31 rejoicing in his whole world
    and delighting in mankind.

32 “Now then, my children, listen to me;
    blessed are those who keep my ways.
33 Listen to my instruction and be wise;
    do not disregard it.
34 Blessed are those who listen to me,
    watching daily at my doors,
    waiting at my doorway.
35 For those who find me find life
    and receive favor from the Lord.
36 But those who fail to find me harm themselves;
    all who hate me love death.”

***

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

19 February 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: First-quarter Moon shines between Aldebaran & the Pleiades.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY 

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Alexander Mak

1473 – Birthday of Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish mathematician & astronomer

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1807 – Former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr is arrested for treason in Wakefield, Alabama and confined to Fort Stoddert. Aaron Burr was an American politician & lawyer. He served as the third vice president of the United States during President Thomas Jefferson’s first term from 1801 to 1805. During his last year as vice president, Burr engaged in the duel in which he fatally shot Hamilton, his political rival. Although dueling was illegal, Burr was never tried, and all charges against him eventually were dropped. Nevertheless, Hamilton’s death ended Burr’s political career.

Burr traveled west to the American frontier, seeking new economic & political opportunities. His secretive activities led to his 1807 arrest in Alabama on charges of treason. He was brought to trial more than once for what became known as the Burr conspiracy, but was acquitted each time. Nevertheless, with large debts & few influential friends, Burr left the United States to live as an expatriate in Europe. Handicapped by a stroke and financially ruined, Burr died at a boarding house in 1836.

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1878 – Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.

1884 – More than sixty tornadoes strike the Southern United States, one of the largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history.

1899 – End of the Kali Yuga according to Elisabeth Vreeda, which began in 3001 BC.

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1899 – Birthday of Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, a German scientist, soil scientist, leading advocate of biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophist and student of Rudolf Steiner.

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1942 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese Americans to internment camps.

1953 – Book censorship in the United States: The Georgia Literature Commission is established

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1963 – The publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique reawakens the feminist movement in the United States as women’s organizations and consciousness raising groups spread

***

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POD

~do you
know magic…?
can you utter the name of your soul
& bring yourSelf back to light…?
from the fruits of your labor do you know
… who you are…?
can you speak your destiny
with willful words that vibrate
to create a life full filled…?
~hag

***

Weaving a non-gendered Feminist Reality with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg*

Friday 5 March 2021 – 6:30 am – 8 am Central Time as part of the The International Youth Initiative Program Initiative Forum

What are the qualities of the Divine Feminine? How can we use them to empower an innovative way of thinking, feeling & willing, to create a new world, where the human being is free?

Have paper & colored pencils at the ready for this hands-on workshop.

*Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual: Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year & the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast. Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Anthroposopher – working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Past Video Recordings

 Other presenters include:
Oland Bishop, Helmy Abouleish
Managing Director of SEKEM


While this wasn’t exactly what we first envisioned, moving online means
that this forum will be more accessible than perhaps ever before.
The program will be designed to accommodate people from different time zones
all over the globe, and we look forward to transcending restrictions and limitations by joining together in community with folks for whom travelling is not an option.

In addition to interactive workshops, lectures, open spaces, performances & more, there will be plenty of space within the program for fostering connection
and conversation. At the Initiative Forum, we hope you will laugh a lot
(wait till you see what our arts & culture team is cooking up!), listen deeply,
be truly heard, and experience the power of community,
which no distance can dull. We can’t wait to meet you!

For tickets click here! (it’s only $30 to support these young folks)
 To stay updated follow us on Facebook or Instagram
The International Youth Initiative Program

***


The 8-Fold Path to the Easter Elementals

Holy Week 2021 (March 28 – April 4): Starting on Palm Sunday then thru-out Holy Week including Easter Morning, we will meet every day on Zoom at 10:10 am (Central Time) to create together a Thought-Seed Egregore based on the Herbert Hahn Verse

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

& then we will take turns sharing the indications for that day from Rudolf Steiner / The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’ (let me know if you would like to lead one of the days? (5 min) Holy Week  chart

Palm SUNDAY
Resolves or ‘RIGHT JUDGMENT.’ having been formed independently of sympathies and antipathies.

Holy MONDAY
Talking – ‘RIGHT WORD.’

Holy TUESDAY
External actions- ‘RIGHT DEED.’

Holy WEDNESDAY
The ordering of life. – ‘RIGHT STANDPOINT.’

Maundy THURSDAY
Human Endeavour. – ‘TO LET ALL THE EXERCISES BECOME A HABIT.

Good FRIDAY
The endeavor to learn as much as possible from life. – ‘RIGHT MEMORY.’ (Remembering what has been learned from experiences).

Holy SATURDAY
To pay attention to one’s ideas. – ‘RIGHT OPINION.’

The octave of the New Sun
EASTER SUNDAY
To turn one’s gaze inwards –
RIGHT EXAMINATION.’

Whoever is holding the leading thoughts for that day will tie it into some 5-10 min. artistic exercise based on the indications

Group sharing (5 min)

We close with the ‘reversed’ Hahn verse.
I am a True Human Being
For the Earth is a Star
The Earth is a Star
When I Think Light
When I think Light
My Soul Shines

Easter Sunday – 4 April 2021, in person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online 2 pm – 4 pm Central Time.

Group Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Hazel Archer – The octave of the New Sun

Keynote with Ines Katharina (Bee Keeper, Founder of the Biodynamic Emerald Honeybee Sanctuary, Waldorf Teacher) Ines will connect the Easter Thought with the Elemental Beings & the flight of the Queen Bee.

Mary Ruud will give us a performance of ‘Rock Spring Wonder’

We close with singing ‘Now the green Blade Riseth’

Potluck Social Time in the Schreinerei – Please bring food & drink to share

$10 Suggested Donation (can’t make it? or joining us online? please consider supporting this event, Thank you)

*Dear friends, please join the call at 10:05 am to get settled in so we can begin the Thought-Seed promptly at 10:10 am
Topic: The 8-Fold Path thru Holy Week 2021
Time: Starting on Palm Sunday Mar 28 – thru Easter Morning, 2021 10:10 AM Central Time (US and Canada)
Every day, 8 occurrence(s)
Mar 28, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 29, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 30, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 31, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 1, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 2, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 3, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 4, 2021 10:10 AM

Daily: https://zoom.us/meeting/tJErdOqsqj8iGNzL8iNTwKUXyrvmVGSSXqaW/ics?icsToken=98tyKuCtqDgpHtCRuBuPRowMBIjCb-jwiClHjY1HsEfsLRRESTbOL_BUP4RYI-vo

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95633444828?pwd=Wk56K08vK2dNQUhhK0Q2S09zQWJrQT09 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: bee

Dial by your location Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aX8X3nrr3 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: 425730

Wade in…

Lenten-Tide Day #2:

From Lisa Bennett: ‘Also, for your consideration: 40 is the value of the Hebrew Letter Mem – Water. Water is the “water that will not wet the hands” as opposed to the Fire that Moses saw that did not consume the Bush. John said that One would come after him Baptizing in Fire and the Holy Spirit. Also, in the Wilderness when Jesus was tempted he was tempted 3 times, and each of these temptations has a significant character to it, a specific aspect of fall that can only be remedied through what Jesus referred to in Matthew 28 “baptizing ‘in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit’. Jesus was born of the waters of his mothers’ womb, his first miracle was at a wedding and involved water. I will dive deep into the depths with you these 40 days as we await taking a breath on the other side with the Breath of Life fully filling us.’

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From Steve Hale: The Gospel of John – The Healing at Bethesda: “Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted. A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk.”

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Wade in the water, wade in the water children
Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water

Who’s that yonder dressed in red
Wade in water
Must be the children that Moses led
God’s gonna trouble the water

Wade in the water, wade in the water children
Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water

Who’s that yonder dressed in white
Wade in the water
Must be the children of the Israelite
God’s gonna trouble the water

Wade in the water, wade in the water children
Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water

Who’s that yonder dressed in blue
Wade in water
Must be the Children that’s comin’ through
God’s gonna trouble the water
God’s gonna trouble the water

Wade in the water, wade in the water children
Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water

If you don’t believe I’ve been redeemed
Wade in the water
Just see the holy ghost looking for me
God’s gonna trouble the water

Wade in the water, wade in the water children
Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water

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Baily Adams

My question for Day 2 of Lent 2021:

2. What habits in my life are preventing me from loving with my whole heart, & my neighbor as myself? How will I address those issues before Easter?

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Rekha Rodwittiya

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

18 February 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover lands today!?!

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (4 interesting Deathdays)

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1535 – Deathday of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, German magician, astrologer, &  theologian. “  In Agrippa’s time one found, it is true, little comprehension of the “natural magic” which he advocated, and which seeks in nature the natural, and the spiritual only in the spirit; men clung to the “supernatural magic” which seeks the spiritual in the realm of the sensory, and against which Agrippa fought. This is why the Abbot Trithemius of Sponheim advised him to communicate his views as a secret doctrine only to a few chosen ones, who were able to rise to a similar conception of nature and spirit, for “one gives only hay to oxen and not sugar, as to songbirds.” It is perhaps to this abbot that Agrippa himself owes the right point of view.” ~ Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern Age, by Rudolf Steiner

Lucas Cranach the Elder

1546 – Deathday of Martin Luther, German priest & theologian, leader of the Protestant Reformation. A piece of paper was later found on which Luther had written his last statement. The statement was in Latin, apart from “We are beggars,” which was in German. The statement reads:

No one can understand Virgil’s Bucolics unless he has been a shepherd for five years. No one can understand Virgil’s Georgics, unless he has been a farmer for five years.

No one can understand Cicero’s Letters (or so I teach), unless he has busied himself in the affairs of some prominent state for twenty years.

Know that no one can have indulged in the Holy Writers sufficiently, unless he has governed churches for a hundred years with the prophets, such as Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist, Christ and the apostles.

Do not assail this divine Aeneid; nay, rather prostrate revere the ground that it treads.

We are beggars: this is true.

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1564 – Deathday of Michelangelo, Italian sculptor & painter. “In Michelangelo we have a spirit who helped human evolution on its way because he had a maturity of soul which enabled him to imprint on the world of space and matter significant facts from the spiritual world. He stood wholly in the great current of his times yet his own inmost quality was not fully understood. A friend once wrote to him that even the Pope feared him; and yet in his soul there lived all the greatness of Christian impulses which flowed into his work. While he felt himself at one with the great Christian impulses he yet lived at the dawn of a later epoch — closely though it was still connected with earlier ages. The content of older Christian impulses still affected his soul and out of that he created something which in its form and artistic method was already part of the ties in which we ourselves live. Hence comes the mood of the poem which he wrote — probably during his last days as he looked back over his life — and which makes it clear what our relation is to him, and how we should allow his influence over us to work:

Now hath my life across a stormy sea
like a frail barque reached that wide port where all
are hidden, ere the final reckoning fall
of good and evil for eternity.

Now know I well how that fond phantasy,
which made my soul the worshipper and thrall
of earthly art, is vain; how criminal
is that which all men seek unwillingly.

Those amorous thoughts which were so lightly dressed
what are they when the double death is nigh?
The one I know for sure, the other dread.

Painting nor sculpture now can lull to rest
my soul that turns to His great Love on high
Whose arms to clasp us on the cross were spread.” ~ from ‘Michelangelo’, A Lecture given by Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, 8th January, 1914, GA 63

Head and shoulders portrait

1967 – Deathday of J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist & academic. “Father of the atomic bomb” for his role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II undertaking that developed the first nuclear weapons. The first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, in the Trinity test in New Mexico. Oppenheimer later remarked that it brought to mind words from the Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” In August 1945, the weapons were used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki.

After the war ended, Oppenheimer became chairman of the influential General Advisory Committee of the newly created United States Atomic Energy Commission. He used that position to lobby for international control of nuclear power to avert nuclear proliferation and a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. He opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb during a 1949–50 governmental debate on the question & subsequently took stances on defense-related issues that provoked the ire of some factions in the U.S. government & military. During the Second Red Scare, those stances, led to him suffering the revocation of his security clearance in a much-written-about hearing in 1954. Effectively stripped of his direct political influence, he continued to lecture, write & work in physics.

***

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Michelangelo

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Thought finds form
All that is forgotten returns
Transformed in the doing
This moment marks a time
Like a black obsidian
Reflecting sunlight
Into my mind’s eye
~hag

***

Weaving a non-gendered Feminist Reality with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg*

Friday 5 March 2021 – 6:30 am – 8 am Central Time as part of the The International Youth Initiative Program Initiative Forum

What are the qualities of the Divine Feminine? How can we use them to empower an innovative way of thinking, feeling & willing, to create a new world, where the human being is free?

Have paper & colored pencils at the ready for this hands-on workshop.

*Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual: Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year & the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast. Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Anthroposopher – working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Past Video Recordings

 Other presenters include:
Oland Bishop, & Helmy Abouleish
Managing Director of SEKEM


While this wasn’t exactly what we first envisioned, moving online means
that this forum will be more accessible than perhaps ever before.
The program will be designed to accommodate people from different time zones
all over the globe, and we look forward to transcending restrictions and limitations by joining together in community with folks for whom travelling is not an option.

In addition to interactive workshops, lectures, open spaces, performances & more, there will be plenty of space within the program for fostering connection
and conversation. At the Initiative Forum, we hope you will laugh a lot
(wait till you see what our arts & culture team is cooking up!), listen deeply,
be truly heard, and experience the power of community,
which no distance can dull. We can’t wait to meet you!

For tickets click here! (it’s only $30 to support these young folks)
 To stay updated follow us on Facebook or Instagram
The International Youth Initiative Program

***


The 8-Fold Path to the Easter Elementals

Holy Week 2021 (March 28 – April 4): Starting on Palm Sunday then thru-out Holy Week including Easter Morning, we will meet every day on Zoom at 10:10 am (Central Time) to create together a Thought-Seed Egregore based on the Herbert Hahn Verse

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

& then we will take turns sharing the indications for that day from Rudolf Steiner / The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’ (let me know if you would like to lead one of the days? (5 min) Holy Week  chart

Palm SUNDAY
Resolves or ‘RIGHT JUDGMENT.’ having been formed independently of sympathies and antipathies.

Holy MONDAY
Talking – ‘RIGHT WORD.’

Holy TUESDAY
External actions- ‘RIGHT DEED.’

Holy WEDNESDAY
The ordering of life. – ‘RIGHT STANDPOINT.’

Maundy THURSDAY
Human Endeavour. – ‘TO LET ALL THE EXERCISES BECOME A HABIT.

Good FRIDAY
The endeavor to learn as much as possible from life. – ‘RIGHT MEMORY.’ (Remembering what has been learned from experiences).

Holy SATURDAY
To pay attention to one’s ideas. – ‘RIGHT OPINION.’

The octave of the New Sun
EASTER SUNDAY
To turn one’s gaze inwards –
RIGHT EXAMINATION.’

Whoever is holding the leading thoughts for that day will tie it into some 5-10 min. artistic exercise based on the indications

Group sharing (5 min)

We close with the ‘reversed’ Hahn verse.
I am a True Human Being
For the Earth is a Star
The Earth is a Star
When I Think Light
When I think Light
My Soul Shines

Easter Sunday – 4 April 2021, in person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online 2 pm – 4 pm Central Time.

Group Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Hazel Archer – The octave of the New Sun

Keynote with Ines Katharina (Bee Keeper, Founder of the Biodynamic Emerald Honeybee Sanctuary, Waldorf Teacher) Ines will connect the Easter Thought with the Elemental Beings & the flight of the Queen Bee.

Mary Ruud will give us a performance of ‘Rock Spring Wonder’

We close with singing ‘Now the green Blade Riseth’

Potluck Social Time in the Schreinerei – Please bring food & drink to share

$10 Suggested Donation (can’t make it? or joining us online? please consider supporting this event, Thank you)

*Dear friends, please join the call at 10:05 am to get settled in so we can begin the Thought-Seed promptly at 10:10 am
Topic: The 8-Fold Path thru Holy Week 2021
Time: Starting on Palm Sunday Mar 28 – thru Easter Morning, 2021 10:10 AM Central Time (US and Canada)
Every day, 8 occurrence(s)
Mar 28, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 29, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 30, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 31, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 1, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 2, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 3, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 4, 2021 10:10 AM

Daily: https://zoom.us/meeting/tJErdOqsqj8iGNzL8iNTwKUXyrvmVGSSXqaW/ics?icsToken=98tyKuCtqDgpHtCRuBuPRowMBIjCb-jwiClHjY1HsEfsLRRESTbOL_BUP4RYI-vo

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95633444828?pwd=Wk56K08vK2dNQUhhK0Q2S09zQWJrQT09 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: bee

Dial by your location Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aX8X3nrr3 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: 425730

Her Body Electric

Image result for the truth about valentines day

On the ‘I Think Speech’ podcast: The Truth about Valentines’ Day ~According to hag

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Alma Amakeki

POD (Poem Of the Day)
~All are One
In Love…
We are Her body electric,
Her Eternal Time moves in our bellies…
There is no season in which heaven is not
In earth – holding the shape of the Beloved to connect the heart & mind…
We are growing, forgiving, re-membering, forgetting, becoming
We are the many –
One face changing expression –
We are the will of Love…
~hag

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Kati Thamo

“To be a poet in a destitute time means: to attend, singing, to the trace of the fugitive gods. This is why the poet in the time of the world’s night utters the holy.”
~Martin Heidegger

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‘Why do we occupy ourselves with Spiritual Science? It is as though we were learning the vocabulary of the language through which we approach the Christ. If we take the trouble to learn to think the thoughts of Spiritual Science, and make the mental effort necessary for an understanding of the Cosmic secrets taught by Spiritual Science, then, out of the dim, dark foundations of the Cosmic mysteries, will come forth the figure of Christ Jesus, which will draw near to us and give us the strength and force in which we shall then live. The Christ will guide us, standing beside us as a brother, so that our hearts and souls may be strong enough to grow up to the necessary level of the tasks awaiting humanity in its further development.’ ~ Rudolf Steiner, Cosmic and Human Metamorphoses, Lecture 1. Materialism and Spirituality.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Image result for Ernst Haeckel, painting

1834 – Birthday of Ernst Haeckel, was also a promoter of scientific racism & embraced the idea of Social Darwinism. Haeckel was also a German zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist, & artist who discovered, described & named thousands of new species, mapped a genealogical tree relating all life forms, & coined many terms in biology, including ecology. Haeckel promoted & popularised Charles Darwin’s work in Germany. The published artwork of Haeckel includes over 100 detailed, multi-colour illustrations of animals & sea creatures. See Haeckel, the Riddles of the World and Theosophy, by Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, 5th October 1905

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1924 –  Rudolf Steiner began the Karmic Relationships lecture today in Dornach GA 235-240

***

Weaving a non-gendered Feminist Reality with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg*

Friday 5 March 2021 – 6:30 am – 8 am Central Time as part of the The International Youth Initiative Program Initiative Forum

What are the qualities of the Divine Feminine? How can we use them to empower an innovative way of thinking, feeling & willing, to create a new world, where the human being is free?

Have paper & colored pencils at the ready for this hands-on workshop.

*Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual: Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year & the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast. Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Anthroposopher – working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Past Video Recordings

 
While this wasn’t exactly what we first envisioned, moving online means
that this forum will be more accessible than perhaps ever before.
The program will be designed to accommodate people from different time zones
all over the globe, and we look forward to transcending restrictions and limitations by joining together in community with folks for whom travelling is not an option.

In addition to interactive workshops, lectures, open spaces, performances & more, there will be plenty of space within the program for fostering connection
and conversation. At the Initiative Forum, we hope you will laugh a lot
(wait till you see what our arts & culture team is cooking up!), listen deeply,
be truly heard, and experience the power of community,
which no distance can dull. We can’t wait to meet you!

For tickets click here! (it’s only $30 to support these young folks)
 To stay updated follow us on Facebook or Instagram
The International Youth Initiative Program

***


The 8-Fold Path to the Easter Elementals

Holy Week 2021 (March 28 – April 4): Starting on Palm Sunday then thru-out Holy Week including Easter Morning, we will meet every day on Zoom at 10:10 am (Central Time) to create together a Thought-Seed Egregore based on the Herbert Hahn Verse

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

& then we will take turns sharing the indications for that day from Rudolf Steiner / The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’ (let me know if you would like to lead one of the days? (5 min) Holy Week  chart

Palm SUNDAY
Resolves or ‘RIGHT JUDGMENT.’ having been formed independently of sympathies and antipathies.

Holy MONDAY
Talking – ‘RIGHT WORD.’

Holy TUESDAY
External actions- ‘RIGHT DEED.’

Holy WEDNESDAY
The ordering of life. – ‘RIGHT STANDPOINT.’

Maundy THURSDAY
Human Endeavour. – ‘TO LET ALL THE EXERCISES BECOME A HABIT.

Good FRIDAY
The endeavor to learn as much as possible from life. – ‘RIGHT MEMORY.’ (Remembering what has been learned from experiences).

Holy SATURDAY
To pay attention to one’s ideas. – ‘RIGHT OPINION.’

The octave of the New Sun
EASTER SUNDAY
To turn one’s gaze inwards –
RIGHT EXAMINATION.’

Whoever is holding the leading thoughts for that day will tie it into some 5-10 min. artistic exercise based on the indications

Group sharing (5 min)

We close with the ‘reversed’ Hahn verse.
I am a True Human Being
For the Earth is a Star
The Earth is a Star
When I Think Light
When I think Light
My Soul Shines

Easter Sunday – 4 April 2021, in person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online 2 pm – 4 pm Central Time.

Group Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Hazel Archer – The octave of the New Sun

Keynote with Ines Katharina (Bee Keeper, Founder of the Biodynamic Emerald Honeybee Sanctuary, Waldorf Teacher) Ines will connect the Easter Thought with the Elemental Beings & the flight of the Queen Bee.

Mary Ruud will give us a performance of ‘Rock Spring Wonder’

We close with singing ‘Now the green Blade Riseth’

Potluck Social Time in the Schreinerei – Please bring food & drink to share

$10 Suggested Donation (can’t make it? or joining us online? please consider supporting this event, Thank you)

*Dear friends, please join the call at 10:05 am to get settled in so we can begin the Thought-Seed promptly at 10:10 am
Topic: The 8-Fold Path thru Holy Week 2021
Time: Starting on Palm Sunday Mar 28 – thru Easter Morning, 2021 10:10 AM Central Time (US and Canada)
Every day, 8 occurrence(s)
Mar 28, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 29, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 30, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 31, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 1, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 2, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 3, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 4, 2021 10:10 AM

Daily: https://zoom.us/meeting/tJErdOqsqj8iGNzL8iNTwKUXyrvmVGSSXqaW/ics?icsToken=98tyKuCtqDgpHtCRuBuPRowMBIjCb-jwiClHjY1HsEfsLRRESTbOL_BUP4RYI-vo

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95633444828?pwd=Wk56K08vK2dNQUhhK0Q2S09zQWJrQT09 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: bee

Dial by your location Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aX8X3nrr3 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: 425730

6BE

Image result for the 6 basic excersices by rudolf steiner

Listen to the Guided Meditation ‘As Above So Below‘ on the ‘I Think Speech‘ podcast

Greetings friends – Today is ‘Attuning Tuesday’ – a little offering that I bring to the group working with the 6BE exercises. We just started concentrating on with ‘Positivity’, so today I am feeling called to offer a little guided meditation that I am Calling ‘As Above So Below’. This is a theme I often work with.

Image result for breathing painting
Margaherita Arkuna

So make yourself comfortable, as we share the air – taking a deep breath – filling your belly – thrilling your lungs. Feel your body let go of any tensions & relax. Consciously set the rhythm with your breath. And as your awareness is internalized, fully connected with the Breath of Life gently moving through you, make all your senses alert to this life force. Enjoy its power & simplicity. Feel the sustaining energy behind every inhalation, release the breath as a gift of gratitude to the plant world. Feel the life force coursing thru your cells inspiring your thoughts. Consciously stay with the rhythm in your breathing, healing & energizing the heart of the core, of the root of your own being; & all beings. This life force power is the vibration of love, becoming stronger & more beautiful, growing more potent thru your attention & intention.

Image result for sun in the core of the earth painting

Call in the power of the molten golden core of Gaia, feel it pulsing up into your solar plexus, attuning you to this omnipresent rhythm that flows in great cycles of elemental energy; radiating thru you. Move it with your thought, expanding this golden force, on to the Earth’s surface, covering the entire globe – connecting you to all life. Feel this healing vibration, revitalizing all life, as you begin to move your attention outward to visualize our planet Earth, spinning thru space. As you allow it to expand your experience, immerse yourself in this potent cosmic current where powerful spiritual allies join you in the dance of life – Universes upon universes forming the Cosmic Body which we all share – the vastness in which our Earth revolves. In that infinite space feel the loving presence of the Divine. Each of us vibrating with the same beat of the Cosmic Heart enfolding us, & countless galactic systems in loving arms; the one pulse of Life in all. Add your love to the love of the Cosmic Beloved. And let it emanate to all places hungry for healing.

Image result for heartbeat of the earth painting
Lily Verento

As the heartbeat of the Earth swells & rises, all forms of life upon the soil & in the waters, in the warmth & in the air, receive & heal. Entire nations, & peoples gather in peace, at the endless fount of compassion & abiding love. See yourself & the planet restored. Riding the upward intensity of this positive purposeful energy, feel it circulating in the atmosphere, filling the clouds & becoming more ethereal, ever more potentized. Circling up & thru our Earth’s atmospheric layers; cradling Earth’s aura – Charging it with the thought & feeling of wholeness.

Image result for Peace on earth painting
Chilria Corina

Place a strong signature of peace in the global mind. Create an energetic grid that will emanate rays of peace & unity, joy & purpose on Earth. Resolve to act on your life-purpose & make it ever more real, ever more whole. And as you breathe in this unfolding truth, gradually bring your experience to our little hive here, striving to live in positivity, in this here & now. Feel your body refreshed & renewed, here & now, in your room, in this sacred cyber space, that we continually consecrate with our positive intentions. Holding what is sacred, bringing everything into the light of love. Know too that you are here to be loved.

Image result for Peace on earth painting
Mary Pat Chappell

And Gently, joyfully, when you are ready, open your awareness to this perfect divine moment, to this opportunity right now to bring clear thinking, right action, equanimity, positivity, open-mindedness, & inner harmony to all you do – Sharing these gifts that you are living into thru your dedicated striving, to infuse the Earth-beat rhythms, adding to the pulse of life – joining us together, shining thru us – Charging the ethers with blessings that radiate out to all beings.

And so it is, Blessed 6Bee
~hag

***

Image result for leo constellation question mark painting

9 February 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: After it’s good and dark, look due east for twinkly Regulus, not very high. Extending upper left from it is the Sickle of Leo, a backward question mark, outlining the Lion’s forequarters. “Leo announces spring,” goes an old saying. Actually, Leo showing up after dark announces the cold, clammy, messy back half of winter.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1872 – Birthday of Edith Maryon. She studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London & exhibited her work at the Royal Academy. When she met Rudolf Steiner & Anthroposophy she discovered her raison d’être. Maryon wrote to Steiner that “for some years I have always felt there is something for me to do, and that sometime I shall meet the Master who will tell me what it is and explain some of the things that have puzzled me so much. For a long time I searched…and when I saw you in Berlin I knew at last I was right about the Master…is there really any definite thing for me to do… if there is may I know now what it is?” (1 Jan 1913). Months later, from Munich, Maryon wrote to Steiner: “I must find some definite work to do, or be forced to return to England. There is a feeling that perhaps there may be something for me to do here, so I will not go back unless absolutely obliged. You will see that it is necessary for me to come to a conclusion about the kind of work I will do during the rest of my life, and I do want some advice…Your pupil, L Edith C Maryon” (10 Jun 1913).

Sculpture by Edith Maryon

Maryon arrived at Dornach, Switzerland, in January 1914. These were very early days for the project of relocating Anthroposophy headquarters to Switzerland. It was propitious timing since six months later the Great War would begin & engulf Europe & the world in catastrophe. Maryon was a trailblazer: “There was hardly any other artist coming to work in Dornach before her, capable in the way Edith Maryon was, of sacrificing – that is, largely giving up her own deeply rooted style, born out of the aesthetics of Greece, in favour of a new Mystery art”.

The next decade was a period of intense industry & creativity for the English sculptor, a period in which she found her life’s purpose. “Edith Maryon…was helping him [Steiner] with the Goetheanum building and above all with the great wooden sculpture The ‘Representative of Humanity’…Miss Maryon throughout those years was one of his closest collaborators…the studio in which the work was going on became his study for a great part of the day. Here he received his visitors, and she was acting very largely as his secretary” (George Kaufmann Adams, 1958). Adams related a visit to Dornach after the war: “We were received in the most friendly way by the Dornach members and above all by Miss Maryon herself. She gave us mallet and chisel and let us help with parts of the sculpture where there was much superfluous wood and our unskilled hands could do no harm”.

Adams reported that Steiner was “anxious for an English edition of the book [on the Threefold Social Order], and as no one else was at hand, Miss Maryon had undertaken to translate it. In style – like many of the attempted translations of Dr Steiner’s works in those days – it was impossible…and we said so frankly. We were then invited to Dornach to go into the whole question”. (Adams went on to extemporaneously translate many of Steiner’s lectures, for example at Oxford & Torquay, as well as books, for example Steiner’s Agriculture Course)

by EM

Edith Maryon & Rudolf Steiner carried on an extensive exchange of correspondence beginning in 1912, when Maryon wrote to Steiner on 16 October from London. Steiner wrote to Maryon from his travels including from Ilkley, Penmaenmawr, London, Stuttgart, Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Mannheim, Vienna, Prague, Amsterdam, Kristiania (Oslo), and & The Hague. Steiner’s salutation to Maryon progressed in the course of 1919 to 1920 from “Mein liebes Fraulein E. Maryon” (My dear Miss E Maryon) to “Mein liebes Fraulein Edith Maryon!” (My dear Miss Edith Maryon) to “Meine liebe Edith Maryon!)“ (My love Edith Maryon!)

Theirs was an artistic partnership: “Rudolf Steiner stood, day after day, beside his colleague in the high ceilinged sculpture studio. During this time they not only worked with their hands, but also conversed intensively on every imaginable subject – from art, through politics to things of the deepest concern. Over & above this his studio had become for Rudolf Steiner a refuge of inner peace in which – well protected from visitors by Edith Maryon – he could both do a lot of esoteric work & also relax”. Maryon worked tirelessly with Steiner to create the ‘The Representative of Humanity’. She was “one of the closest colleagues and pupils of Rudolf Steiner”.

Maryon was appointed by Steiner as the leader of the Section for Sculptural Arts at the Christmas Conference of the Anthroposophy Society at Dornach in December 1923, & was unanimously elected as the vice-president of the Anthroposophy Society at the General Assembly on 21 January 1924.

Edith Maryon died on 2 May 1924 reportedly of tuberculosis, & many say from a broken heart (a depletion of her etheric forces  which were tied up in the burning of the Goetheanum. In his memorial tribute, Steiner stated of Edith Maryon that: “When we began to build the Goetheanum, she was one of the first to devote herself to the work…With a perfect control of her technique, her special gift was to give spirituality to stately form. This artistic skill she devoted entirely to the service of the Goetheanum…earnestness showed itself in her appearance. One could see a person who had not been spoiled by the amenities of life, though she had been sorely tried by the hand of fate…She participated most actively in all that went on at the Goetheanum. The spiritual contents of the Christmas Assembly and the Class lectures…up to the last days of her life she pondered on how this Section [Sculptural Arts] should develop its activity in the right way…Her work for the this Society will always be remembered as being most earnest and devoted”.

Image result for eye of the earth painting
Corina Chistes

POD (Poem Of the day)

~Be-held in the eye
Time moves in the heart-throb
There is no time
in which the cosmos does not hold
the shape of its Beloved
No time
In which the earth does not sing
I behold in my I
The eye that holds me
My work is its Will
~HAG

***

Weaving a non-gendered Feminist Reality with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg*

Friday 5 March 2021 – 6:30 am – 8 am Central Time as part of the The International Youth Initiative Program Initiative Forum

What are the qualities of the Divine Feminine? How can we use them to empower an innovative way of thinking, feeling & willing, to create a new world, where the human being is free?

Have paper & colored pencils at the ready for this hands-on workshop.

*Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual: Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year & the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast. Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Anthroposopher – working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Past Video Recordings

 
While this wasn’t exactly what we first envisioned, moving online means
that this forum will be more accessible than perhaps ever before.
The program will be designed to accommodate people from different time zones
all over the globe, and we look forward to transcending restrictions and limitations by joining together in community with folks for whom travelling is not an option.

In addition to interactive workshops, lectures, open spaces, performances & more, there will be plenty of space within the program for fostering connection
and conversation. At the Initiative Forum, we hope you will laugh a lot
(wait till you see what our arts & culture team is cooking up!), listen deeply,
be truly heard, and experience the power of community,
which no distance can dull. We can’t wait to meet you!

For tickets click here!
 To stay updated follow us on Facebook or Instagram
The International Youth Initiative Program

***


The 8-Fold Path to the Easter Elementals

Holy Week 2021 (March 28 – April 4): Starting on Palm Sunday then thru-out Holy Week including Easter Morning, we will meet every day on Zoom at 10:10 am (Central Time) to create together a Thought-Seed Egregore based on the Herbert Hahn Verse

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

& then we will take turns sharing the indications for that day from Rudolf Steiner / The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’ (let me know if you would like to lead one of the days? (5 min) Holy Week  chart

Palm SUNDAY
Resolves or ‘RIGHT JUDGMENT.’ having been formed independently of sympathies and antipathies.

Holy MONDAY
Talking – ‘RIGHT WORD.’

Holy TUESDAY
External actions- ‘RIGHT DEED.’

Holy WEDNESDAY
The ordering of life. – ‘RIGHT STANDPOINT.’

Maundy THURSDAY
Human Endeavour. – ‘TO LET ALL THE EXERCISES BECOME A HABIT.

Good FRIDAY
The endeavor to learn as much as possible from life. – ‘RIGHT MEMORY.’ (Remembering what has been learned from experiences).

Holy SATURDAY
To pay attention to one’s ideas. – ‘RIGHT OPINION.’

The octave of the New Sun
EASTER SUNDAY
To turn one’s gaze inwards –
RIGHT EXAMINATION.’

Whoever is holding the leading thoughts for that day will tie it into some 5-10 min. artistic exercise based on the indications

Group sharing (5 min)

We close with the ‘reversed’ Hahn verse.
I am a True Human Being
For the Earth is a Star
The Earth is a Star
When I Think Light
When I think Light
My Soul Shines

Easter Sunday – 4 April 2021, in person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online 2 pm – 4 pm Central Time.

Group Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Hazel Archer – The octave of the New Sun

Keynote with Ines Katharina (Bee Keeper, Founder of the Biodynamic Emerald Honeybee Sanctuary, Waldorf Teacher) Ines will connect the Easter Thought with the Elemental Beings & the flight of the Queen Bee.

Mary Ruud will give us a performance of ‘Rock Spring Wonder’

We close with singing ‘Now the green Blade Riseth’

Potluck Social Time in the Schreinerei – Please bring food & drink to share

$10 Suggested Donation (can’t make it? or joining us online? please consider supporting this event, Thank you)

*Dear friends, please join the call at 10:05 am to get settled in so we can begin the Thought-Seed promptly at 10:10 am
Topic: The 8-Fold Path thru Holy Week 2021
Time: Starting on Palm Sunday Mar 28 – thru Easter Morning, 2021 10:10 AM Central Time (US and Canada)
Every day, 8 occurrence(s)
Mar 28, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 29, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 30, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 31, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 1, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 2, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 3, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 4, 2021 10:10 AM

Daily: https://zoom.us/meeting/tJErdOqsqj8iGNzL8iNTwKUXyrvmVGSSXqaW/ics?icsToken=98tyKuCtqDgpHtCRuBuPRowMBIjCb-jwiClHjY1HsEfsLRRESTbOL_BUP4RYI-vo

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95633444828?pwd=Wk56K08vK2dNQUhhK0Q2S09zQWJrQT09 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: bee

Dial by your location Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aX8X3nrr3 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: 425730

***

A Cadence

Image result for frozen breath painting
Julie Little

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~My breath is like a child to me
A lulling rhythm that undulates my heart-whole
My breath hangs sweet
Making condensation in the frigid air
A wafting food for the trees
I live there
A cadence
Driving the wing of a wild bird
~hag

8 February 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: ‘Ruddy Mars is now the only bright planet visible in the overnight hours.  Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn are all too close to the Sun to be easily seen.  The red planet is moving steadily through the faint constellation of Aries, the Ram, toward Taurus, where he will encounter Aldebaran around the time of the spring equinox’. (Thanks Steve Hale & USNO)

Image result for god mars planet painting
Remedios Varo

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

According to the original; Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner today it the Birthday of King Solomon. In the ‘Temple Legend’ lectures by Rudolf Steiner, he speaks of King Solomon as the reincarnation of Abel. (And the Master Builder of the Temple Hiram Abiff, Cain)

Image result for carninval brazil painting
Julio Rodrigues

Rudolf Steiner’s SOUL CALENDAR translated with added titles by Roy Sadler
This is the week leading to Lent. It’s the last verse dated by our ordinary solar calendar, before the lunar calendar time that dates the verses from Lent to Whitsun.

This one, v45, between Imbolc & Lent, is in the time that leads in Brazil to the world’s biggest Carnival, which this year was due from Friday February 12 to Shrove Tuesday,
February 16, next week – but the pandemic has forced it to be cancelled. v45 is the octave of Christmas (38+7), and its mirror, v8, is the octave of Easter (1+7), one reason – together with finding the iambic rhythm – why I’ve translated ‘Im Bunde’
as ‘In concert’… & rather than in its original 2nd line I let the verses begin with this…
CARNIVAL
Illuminate
v45

In concert with the spirit’s birth
the mind grows firm;
it lifts the senses’ vague allure
to perfect clarity.
When soul abundance
would bond with springlife’s coming,
thought’s power must shine its light
on sense revealing.
>>>

Image result for whitsun


WHITSUN
Dream
v8

In concert with the gods’ creating
the senses’ power grows;
it overwhelms the force of thinking,
subduing it to dimness of a dream.
When bonding with my soul
wold be a holy being,
then human thinking must be stilled,
in dreamlike presence satisfied.

Image result for Eliphas Levi,

1810 – Birthday of Eliphas Levi, a French sage, poet, & author of more than twenty books about magic, Cabbalah, alchemical studies, & occultism.

“There was a personality who lived in the later period of Mexican civilisation and was connected with the utterly decadent, pseudo-magical Mystery cults of Mexico; with an intense thirst for knowledge he studied everything with close and meticulous exactitude. My attention was attracted to him through having made the acquaintance some years ago of a curious man who is still engaged in a primitive form of study of the decadent superstitions of the Mexican Mysteries. Such lore is of negligible importance, because anyone who studies these things at the present time is studying pure superstition; it has all become decadent to-day. But the other personality to whom I am referring imbibed with fervent enthusiasm all that could be learnt from the still flourishing Mexican civilisation before the discovery, the so-called ‘discovery’ of America. In those days Mexican civilisation was still influenced by the Mysteries but was already in the throes of decline. When mention is made to-day of Taotl, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoka — the Beings of the Mexican Mysteries — little more is known than the names and a few scattered images. But this personality still knew that Taotl is a Being who as a cosmic, universal Spirit weaves in the clouds, lives in the lightning and the thunder. He knew too that under certain given conditions this Spirit could be invoked into consecrated water by enactments of sacred ritual. And he knew that Quetzalcoatl was a Divine Being who could take hold of man in his circulating blood, in the working of his breath. Living reality of Being was experienced in the Mexican Mysteries by the personality of whom I am speaking. He was reborn in a later age without any intermediate life as a woman. He had been a man in Mexico and was born again as a man. But in his life between death and rebirth this individuality passed through the super-sensible world in such a way that in the development of his karma — this in turn was the outcome of still earlier incarnations not in Mexico but elsewhere — he bore through the Jupiter region all that he had experienced in Mexico: knowledge that had degenerated into superstition but was nevertheless replete with vitality, saturated with the fruits of older civilisations. In the Jupiter-sphere all this assumed the form of wisdom, but a wisdom that is in truth automatic, unconscious, when compared with the wisdom man should make his own by individual effort.

When in the elaboration of karma between death and a new birth, the living, weaving wisdom of the Jupiter-sphere pours over what has been experienced by a man in a previous earthly life, wisdom and its light can still shine forth in the subsequent life. But the wisdom, then, is founded on the experiences of earthly life.

The individuality of whom I am speaking was born again in modern civilisation as Eliphas Levi. Eliphas Levi, therefore, had spent his previous incarnation in the Mexican civilisation, had then passed through the sphere of Jupiter with its wisdom, and in this sphere of Jupiter everything was worked through once again. But Mexican culture is a decadent culture and if you read the books of Eliphas Levi to-day you will find evidence of great wisdom spread out as it were over something extremely primitive. And one who has insight into these things will say: all this is Jupiter, but inferior Jupiter!” ~Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships, Volume II: Lecture XII

Image result for George Adams Kaufmann

1894 – Birthday of George Adams Kaufmann, a British mathematician, translator & anthroposophist. He travelled widely, spoke several languages & translated many of Rudolf Steiner’s lectures into English. Through his studies in theoretical physics he contributed to the expansion & development of the natural sciences as extended by the concepts of anthroposophy.

In 1914 he had encountered Rudolf Steiner’s “Occult Science” and become a member of the Emerson Group in London in 1916. During his time as conscientious objector he had come to know Mary Fox, a Quaker & in 1920 they married.

His interest in Steiner’s ideas on social reform & his intention to translate the book The Threefold Social Order (GA 23) caused him to visit Steiner together with Ethel Bowen Wedgwood in Dornach, Switzerland. Steiner advised him to become involved in some form of social work, something Adams could readily accept amid the social collapse in Central & Eastern Europe following the war. He went on several journeys to Poland as part of the English & American Quaker organization.

In 1920 he took part in the inauguration of the first Goetheanum building. On his return to England, he cooperated with some friends on spreading the ideas of Social threefolding as well as the anthroposophical ideas of Steiner. His wife Mary Adams began her work as librarian & translator for the Anthroposophical Society in London that she was to carry for many years. In addition, Adams was the free verbal translator of around 110 lectures of Steiner into English. He went on to translate many of Steiner’s written works, often with Mary Adams.

He was often in Dornach during these times and experienced the burning of the first Goetheanum on New Year’s Eve 1922/23 & was part of the Christmas Foundation meeting of the General Anthroposophical Society in 1923/24. In 1924 he became one of the Goetheanum-Speakers authorized by Steiner.

While working as a free co-worker of the Anthroposophical Society in Britain as lecturer & workshop holder after 1925, Adams turned again to the study of the natural sciences & mathematics, concentrating particularly on projective geometry & working with Elisabeth Vreede, leader of the Section for Mathematics & Astronomy at the Goetheanum. At the beginning of the 1930s, Adams published a series of articles & essays about projective, synthetic geometry & its relationship to physics, to Goethe’s theory of metamorphosis & to anthroposophical spiritual science, particularly the pioneering work “Of Etheric Space” in the magazine Natura of the Goetheanum’s Medical Section. Here for the first time is mentioned the concept of “counter-space”, as Steiner indicated in the third of his courses on the Natural Sciences (GA 323), explained by means of non-Euclidean geometry. Some years later Louis Locher was to discover the same thing independently of Adams. From that time on the conceptual development of the idea of counter-space in its relation to normal spatial thinking became the focal point of Adams’ further scientific research. In 1933 the comprehensive work Space & the Light of the Creation – Synthetic Geometry in the light of Spiritual Science appeared, which was an overview of the spiritual scientific meaning of synthetic geometry.

When Elisabeth Vreede & Ita Wegman were dismissed from the executive of the General Anthroposophical Society in Dornach, a number of other prominent members of the German, Dutch & British Societies were expelled, including Adams. This brought to an end his cooperation with the Mathematical/Astronomical Section. When the Chairman of the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain, D. N. Dunlop, died in May 1935, Adams took over as general secretary.

Charles Kovacs

1907 – Birthday of Charles Kovacs – born in Vienna. When he was still a young child the family moved to Nussdorf on the Danube, where the river flowed just before the house, so that he could see & hear the barges passing by, loading & unloading. Behind the house were forests of nut trees; to the left there shone a special light over the Kahlberg. It was here that he first went to school.

With the sudden death of his father, the family – his grandmother, mother & his younger brother Erwin – moved to their uncle’s lovely villa in Baden at the foot of the Vienna Woods. At that time the inhabitants of Baden were forward-looking & had high civic standards. They built fine modern art galleries to show the new styles of painting that had become popular. Charles was very interested in painting. He visited these galleries & then worked on his own pictures when he went home. He was about twelve years old when he showed his paintings to his respected art teacher, Professor Friedrich Thetter. Thetter’s two children were also Charles’ friends at the school & Charles was invited to come regularly and to bring his paintings. Professor Thetter, a long-standing anthroposophist, then introduced Charles to the fundamentals of art, to Goethe, then to Rudolf Steiner & anthroposophy. It was an encounter Charles never forgot. He was deeply grateful to Professor Thetter & they remained close friends, corresponding even when they were far apart. Charles & his brother Erwin both became members of the Anthroposophical Society, Charles when he was 22 years old.

Life was lively in Vienna. Charles would listen to the latest hits on the wireless in the evenings & next day he would play them to his friends, for both brothers had learned from their mother to play the piano. His uncle employed him for a time in his warehouse, selling coffee & tea, & it was his son who later, when Charles was 32, invited him out to Kenya. He enjoyed working on a large farm; the compound was so extensive that he needed a horse to get around it all & for a while he was in charge of a sawmill. It was during that time that he drew (on the backs of reference cards used at the mill) & compiled a small book of Pietas – each drawing so different!

Then came the Second World War & he volunteered to join the British Army. After the war he returned briefly to Kenya where he had started an anthroposophical study group. In April 1948 Charles came to London. A relative needed somebody to take on the responsibility of his firm in Golden Square, Piccadilly, & Charles worked there for about eight years. It was well-paid work, but it was a heavy burden. Before long he came to the anthroposophical group meeting one Monday evening; this was where he met Dora, & within six months they were married. Charles was soon asked to take over the study group at Museum Street & as part of his work for this group he translated works by Rudolf Steiner not then available in English. He became a member of the Council of the Anthroposophical Society & gave many lectures. His home was frequented by members of the group most evenings. When they had left he would often paint or draw, an activity which for him seemed a necessity. It was a member of the group who urged Charles to become a teacher. And so it came about that he came to Edinburgh in 1956 to teach at the Rudolf Steiner School.

Then his most productive years began. He took over a Class 4 of thirty-five children. As part of his preparation, he wrote out his lessons day by day so that he built into his teaching a structure, inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s curriculum, which could satisfy the growing child. These notes now stand as a fine example of the new & living way Steiner wanted his curriculum presented to children. ~Charles Kovacs – Reflecting on His Life, by Floris Books

Charles Kovacs - Christianity and the Ancient Mysteries

As a Waldorf teacher, Charles’ creative talents were called on more than ever before. His special gift for painting & drawing was put to good use & his work was much in evidence around the school. For example the kindergarten, which I took over, was blessed & looked upon by the guardian angel that Charles painted. He composed songs & poems, he wrote plays for his classes; Charles was completely given over to his teaching. At the same time he held parents’ evenings, had regular study groups & gave lectures within the Anthroposophical Society & to the public. For a time he travelled regularly to Ilkeston in Derbyshire to work with a group of friends there. His pupils wanted him to come to the upper school to give them the philosophy main lesson when he had already retired.

May be an image of 13 people, including Michael Anthony Bush, Lori Kulik, Sharleen Leonard and Lori Barian and people smiling

2018 – Death day of Christopher Mann, a long time Anthroposopher, His parents knew Rudolf Steiner & did the Mann translation of the Calendar of the Soul. Christopher & his wife Martina were champions of Biodynamics & eurythmy. https://www.biodynamics.com/…/celebrating-lifelong-work…Christopher produced the movie The Alchemist – A film by Frigyes Fogel and Christopher Mann Following those on their mission who have been called upon to form the earth throughout four continents…Dedicated To all who want to heal and consecrate the earth…https://vimeo.com/181737300

The picture above is Christopher at Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, which he helped build. He came to support my workshop on the Spiritual Hierarchies. He was quite lively, sharing about his early life, & then his work with land trusts & such. He was so proud of his movie The Alchemist…After a day on Zinniker Farm he invited a bunch of us to a showing in his home, & there were several teenagers from the Chicago Waldorf School Community with us, & because of that film, 1 of them wants to go into Bio dynamic farming! He touched many lives. And now he is our ally on the other side. Blessings dear friend on your spiritual journey! xox ~hag

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~hag

Weaving a non-gendered Feminist Reality with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg*

Friday 5 March 2021 – 6:30 am – 8 am Central Time as part of the The International Youth Initiative Program Initiative Forum

What are the qualities of the Divine Feminine? How can we use them to empower an innovative way of thinking, feeling & willing, to create a new world, where the human being is free?

Have paper & colored pencils at the ready for this hands-on workshop.

*Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual: Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year & the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast. Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Anthroposopher – working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society.

The International Youth Initiative Program

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Kristena West


The 8-Fold Path to the Easter Elementals

Holy Week 2021 (March 28 – April 4): Starting on Palm Sunday then thru-out Holy Week including Easter Morning, we will meet every day on Zoom at 10:10 am (Central Time) to create together a Thought-Seed Egregore based on the Herbert Hahn Verse

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

Sophie Takata

& then we will take turns sharing the indications for that day from Rudolf Steiner / The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’ (let me know if you would like to lead one of the days? (5 min) Holy Week  chart

Palm SUNDAY
Resolves or ‘RIGHT JUDGMENT.’ having been formed independently of sympathies and antipathies.

Holy MONDAY
Talking – ‘RIGHT WORD.’

Holy TUESDAY
External actions- ‘RIGHT DEED.’

Holy WEDNESDAY
The ordering of life. – ‘RIGHT STANDPOINT.’

Maundy THURSDAY
Human Endeavour. – ‘TO LET ALL THE EXERCISES BECOME A HABIT.

Good FRIDAY
The endeavor to learn as much as possible from life. – ‘RIGHT MEMORY.’ (Remembering what has been learned from experiences).

Holy SATURDAY
To pay attention to one’s ideas. – ‘RIGHT OPINION.’

The octave of the New Sun
EASTER SUNDAY
To turn one’s gaze inwards –
RIGHT EXAMINATION.’

Whoever is holding the leading thoughts for that day will tie it into some 5-10 min. artistic exercise based on the indications

Group sharing (5 min)

We close with the ‘reversed’ Hahn verse.
I am a True Human Being
For the Earth is a Star
The Earth is a Star
When I Think Light
When I think Light
My Soul Shines

Then later in the afternoon on Easter Sunday – 4 April 2021, in person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online 2 pm – 4 pm Central Time.

Group Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Hazel Archer – The octave of the New Sun

Keynote withInes Katharina (Bee Keeper, Founder of the Biodynamic Emerald Honeybee Sanctuary, Waldorf Teacher) Ines will connect the Easter Thought with the Elemental Beings & the flight of the Queen Bee.

Mary Ruud will give us a performance of ‘Rock Spring Wonder’

We close with singing ‘Now the green Blade Riseth’

Potluck Social Time in the Schreinerei – Please bring food & drink to share

$10 Suggested Donation (can’t make it? or joining us online? please consider supporting this event, Thank you)

*Dear friends, please join the call at 10:05 am to get settled in so we can begin the Thought-Seed promptly at 10:10 am
Topic: The 8-Fold Path thru Holy Week 2021
Time: Starting on Palm Sunday Mar 28 – thru Easter Morning, 2021 10:10 AM Central Time
Every day, 8 occurrence(s)
Mar 28, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 29, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 30, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 31, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 1, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 2, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 3, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 4, 2021 10:10 AM

Daily: https://zoom.us/meeting/tJErdOqsqj8iGNzL8iNTwKUXyrvmVGSSXqaW/ics?icsToken=98tyKuCtqDgpHtCRuBuPRowMBIjCb-jwiClHjY1HsEfsLRRESTbOL_BUP4RYI-vo

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