Dear friends – Don’t let the dark lure you into sleep. Keep your wick trimmed, fuel your inner torch, & keep it lit with the fires of purpose – shining in the spiritual air which feeds it, grounded in the sacred earth; flowing like forever.
“Long ago, Truth, Beauty, and Goodness arose out of the deepest human instinct and became the three greatest ideals that inspired human striving. In modern times these ideals have almost become empty words, but we have the possibility of taking these ideals and giving them, once more, real meaning and substance…
Anthroposophy wants to sound the alarm! In the Oberufer Nativity play, the shepherd named Huckle tries to awaken his fellow shepherd Buckle. He calls out, ‘The birds are already singing.’ Buckle rolls over, ‘Let ’em sing. They’ve got little heads and they don’t need much sleep.’ Huckle tries again, ‘The sky is falling! The sky is falling!’ Buckle ignores him, ‘So what! Let the sky fall in! It’s already been up there long enough.’ That, of course, is not exactly what anthroposophy is saying. Rather the call is: ‘The spiritual world wants to come in! Wake up! Let the Light of the Spirit shine!’ Anthroposophy wants the sleeper to wake up. Modern civilization needs an awakening. But humanity wants to go right on sleeping!” ~Rudolf Steiner, “The Sleep of Civilization,” from Awake! For the Sake of the Future (CW 220)
“Let My Country Awake” by Rabindranath Tagor
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken
Up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost
Its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action –
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
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Listen to the podcast around the theme of the CRONE HERE
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5 December 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars“: Bella Luna is some days past full, so she’s rising later. These next several nights – December 5, 6 & 7, 2020 – catch the moon & star Regulus – in the constellation Leo the Lion – rising in the east from mid-to-late evening. If you’re not a night owl, you can always get up before daybreak to view this waning gibbous moon & star Regulus in the morning sky. You’ll recognize them easily. Look first for the moon. That nearby bright star will be Regulus.
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
“HEALING WILL COME TO OUR AGE when the thoughts and ideas that are applied to social conditions and political life are in living contact with spiritual reality”.
~ Rudolf Steiner
Saint Nicholas’ Eve – Sinterklaas – a mythical figure with legendary, historical & folkloric origins based on Saint Nicholas. Other names for the figure include De Sint (“The Saint”), De Goede Sint (“The Good Saint”), & De Goedheiligman (“The Good Holy Man”)
Sinterklaas is celebrated annually with the giving of gifts on 5 December, the night before the feast of Saint Nicholas – the primary source of the popular Christmas icon of Santa Claus
304 – Deathday of Saint Crispina – a martyr of Africa who suffered during the Diocletian persecution. She was born at Thagara (now an archaeological site in Tunisia near the town Taoura) in the Roman province of Africa. She died by beheading at Theveste, in Numidia.
Crispina belonged to a distinguished family & was a wealthy matron with children. At the time of the persecution she was brought before the proconsul Annius Anullinus; on being ordered to sacrifice to the gods she declared she honoured only one God.
Her head was shaved at the command of the judge, & she was exposed to public mockery, but she remained steadfast in the Faith & was not moved even by the tears of her children. When condemned to death, she thanked God & offered her head with joy for execution.
400 – Deathday of Nicetas, a Greek philosopher of the Pythagorean School. He was born in Syracuse. Like his fellow Pythagoreans he believed that the daily movement of permanent stars was caused by the rotation of the Earth around its axis. Copernicus referred to him in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium as having been cited by Cicero as an ancient who also argued that the earth moved.
532 – Feast day of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified, a Cappadocian-Syrian monk, who lived mainly in Palaestina Prima. He was the founder of several monasteries, most notably the one known as Mar Saba. The Saint’s name is derived from Aramaic meaning “old man”
1784 – Deathday of Phillis Wheatley, Senegal-born slave, American poet who wrote: His Excellency General Washington –
Celestial choir! enthron’d in realms of light,
Columbia’s scenes of glorious toils I write.
While freedom’s cause her anxious breast alarms,
She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms.
See mother earth her offspring’s fate bemoan,
And nations gaze at scenes before unknown!
See the bright beams of heaven’s revolving light
Involved in sorrows and the veil of night!
The Goddess comes, she moves divinely fair,
Olive and laurel binds Her golden hair:
Wherever shines this native of the skies,
Unnumber’d charms and recent graces rise.
Muse! Bow propitious while my pen relates
How pour her armies through a thousand gates,
As when Eolus heaven’s fair face deforms,
Enwrapp’d in tempest and a night of storms;
Astonish’d ocean feels the wild uproar,
The refluent surges beat the sounding shore;
Or think as leaves in Autumn’s golden reign,
Such, and so many, moves the warrior’s train.
In bright array they seek the work of war,
Where high unfurl’d the ensign waves in air.
Shall I to Washington their praise recite?
Enough thou know’st them in the fields of fight.
Thee, first in peace and honors—we demand
The grace and glory of thy martial band.
Fam’d for thy valour, for thy virtues more,
Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore!
One century scarce perform’d its destined round,
When Gallic powers Columbia’s fury found;
And so may you, whoever dares disgrace
The land of freedom’s heaven-defended race!
Fix’d are the eyes of nations on the scales,
For in their hopes Columbia’s arm prevails.
Anon Britannia droops the pensive head,
While round increase the rising hills of dead.
Ah! Cruel blindness to Columbia’s state!
Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late.
Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,
Thy ev’ry action let the Goddess guide.
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,
With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! Be thine.
1791 – Deathday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer & musician
Mozart’s final year
1848 – California Gold Rush: In a message to the United States Congress, U.S. President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California
1931 – Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow was destroyed by an order of Joseph Stalin
1932 – German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa
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POD (Poem Of the Day)
~Let us lift the clouds that guard the secret –
The miracle is happening
Let aspirations rise & speak:
The Peace of Wisdom is coming back
To give birth to Love
Again & yet again Sing Life
Stirring below the surface of skin,
Anoint the pain of mortality, the loss & suffering
The misunderstandings that prick
Consciousness & prod us toward truth…
Bless the body
Where Love in Wisdom is gathering…
~hag
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The Festivals Committee for the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago invites you to
Holy Nights December 24, 2020, through January 5, 2021
Please note–No meeting December 29th and 31st
The Fifth Gospel by Rudolf Steiner https://wn.rsarchive.org/Religion/GA148/English/RSPC1950/FG1950_index.html
Each evening we will study together on Zoom from 7 pm – 8 pm CST
Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/92592034861?pwd=Mmo0eURaWDVqYVlabTdSY1ltcUFxdz09 Meeting ID: 925 9203 4861 Passcode: Peace
On Tuesday, December 29th, 6 pm – 8:30 pm CST, we will join Anthroposophy Atlanta for a reading of Goethe’s fairy tale, The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily This has a separate zoom code: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82656914578?pwd=MHN3Mmt3OEhtQlZTMlc1NHFtUm80QT09 Meeting ID: 826 5691 4578 Passcode: Goethe
New Year’s Eve, there will be NO zoom call, as we will gather for our Annual NYE event. This year’s theme is “A Masked Ball” 6 pm till 10:30 pm
6 pm Potluck and artistic mask making with Lucien Dante Lazar
7:30 – 9:30 Live Music with Jutta and the High Dukes
10:10 pm Project Thought-Seed
The evening ends at 10:30 pm
$20 donation
Wednesday, January 6, 2021, 2 pm – 4 pm CST Joan’s Epiphany: What Joan of Arc Calls for Today In-Person at Elderberries & The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago and online
Today on the Birthday of Joan of Arc, we welcome special guest Nancy Poer
We will also explore The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations, Lecture 5, “The Nature of the Christ Impulse and the Michaelic Spirit Serving It” by Rudolf Steiner, with Leading Thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Social Sculpture: “The Passage” with Lucien Dante Lazar
We will also share an artistic exploration, singing and Eurythmy.
This event has a new Zoom Code https://zoom.us/j/7052931041 Meeting ID: 705 293 1041
For more info, contact Hazel Archer hag@rschicago.org
Peace and Good Will to All,
Deborah Rogers on behalf of the Rudolf Steiner Branch Festivals Committee
