Yep, we need a holy day to remember to Give Thanks. Gratitude is more than just a hallmark catchphrase. It’s a way of life; an attitude, a habit that we have to train ourselves to practice so we can build up our appreciation like a muscle. And what I’m finding is that it may actually change the perception of my well-being.
When I’m feeling overwhelmed by the plandemic – all the vicissitudes it has brought to our sense of reality, I take a breath & thank my lucky stars that I can apply Spiritual Science to my heart-thinking. And I remember that this is the ultimate testing ground, where we all agreed to meet. Our ‘truth or dare’ stage where discernment, equanimity, love, reverence/wonder, hope, & the power of peace must come into play.
I know sometimes it feels like we are hell-bent on heading straight into the abyss – it’s all too easy to get discouraged & spiral into the negative, cynical scenarios.
Naming the shadow has its time & place, but if it pulls us too deep into discord or depression, this shrinks our heart-health, bringing more inflammation & a weaker immune system – Eclipsing the veracity of our collective power which we can access with every positive, thanks-giving, visualization.
Gratitude, dear friends is good medicine for everything that ails us. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Together we set the table for a feast of divine fulfillment.
See you there
~hag
***
My friends & family have often said I should do a podcast. Chuck my beloved husband, bought me a cool microphone cause he likes to hear my POD (Poem Of the Day) read out loud. He told me about a site called Anchor FM, which shares the podcasts on other platforms like Spotify. And so I have taken up this new adventure into the world of the Spoken Word, naming the podcast: ‘I THINK SPEECH‘.
I am thinking to do the 1st 3 podcasts as a background for our Thought-Seed Project. I have 2 up so far. I end each session with a POD, but Chuck said I should do those 1st thing, so I’ll try that next. The links will be accessible in the right hand column. The 2nd of the series gives the low-down on the idea of a Egregore. Let me know what it’s like to have me ringing in your ears…? xox
***
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~O offerers of cake & bearers of bounty let me not starve for love or thirst for wisdom… let my spirit bee stronger today than it was yesterday, my heart more peaceful, my mind more fertile, my hands happy with purpose… may the Goddess touch my face… ~hag
Wed. 2 December 2020 – 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm CT
The Karma Project with the Central Regional Council “…We can understand that someone who goes to a place where he may succumb to an infection will have been driven there under the influence of a certain level of karmic consciousness…”
Stay tuned for details. For more info. contact Hazel Archer hag@rschicago.org
***
Wednesday 6 January 2021, 2 pm – 4 pm CT
Joan’s Epiphany ‘What Joan of Arc Calls for Today’
In-Person at Elderberries Bio-dynamic Outpost & The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & 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 Sprit Serving It’ by Rudolf Steiner with Leading Thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Social Sculpture: “The Passage” with Luicen Dante Lazar, + Singing & Eurythmy
Wednesdays 9:30-11:00 am – Karmic Relationships Vol 8 by Rudolf Steiner. We incorporate ‘The Calendar of the Soul’, eurythmy, focused discussion and seasonal artistic explorations in our study. All are Welcome. We meet in person in the Upper Room at the Branch.
Branch Open Hours are every Wednesday 9:30 am – 11 am CT during the Karmic Relationships Study, And also by appointment, contact Librarian Paulette Arnoldpaulettea123@hotmail.com
I woke up this morning thinking about the concept of time. And so it formed the theme for my ‘Monday Musing‘, a short weekly offering that I share with our 6B group, working with Steiner’s ‘6 Basic Exercises‘ (see more about that below)
Chronos, depicted in Greco-Roman mosaics as an old bearded man turning the Zodiac Wheel is the personification of Time in pre-Socratic philosophy; giving rise to the allegory of “Father Time” wielding the harvesting scythe during the Renaissance.
The Greeks also had another name for Time, personified by his son Kairos, whose name means ‘the right, critical, or opportune moment’.
Rembrandt
Aristotle & his followers discussed the importance of kairos in their teachings as one of the most fundamental laws of the universe: ‘the uniquely timely; the radically particular’.
It has association with both archery & weaving – hitting the target; & the perfect moment in which the shuttle must pass thru threads on the loom.
In the ancient solar allegories, time becomes separated into seasons. The divisions of Time were personified & seen to pay homage to the Triune Deity, enthroned above the firmament.
The spirit of each second, every hour, was seen as an angel. Each day of the week represents the Beings of the Planetary Spheres – The Months: The Spiritual Beings of the Zodiac constellations.
David Nebatt
And of course, in Anthroposophy, we speak about the ‘Turning Point of Time’, with Christ’s deed on Golgotha; & Steiner’s deed of the Christmas Conference.
Einstein’s discoveries exploded our concept of time. He showed us that time is created by things; that time is eternal until things act upon it. He demonstrated that time is relative, moving more slowly if an object is moving fast. And that events don’t always happen in a set linear order. Of course it’s true that many events in the Universe can be put into sequential order, but time is not always segmented neatly into the past, the present & the future. Einstein showed that some equations work in either direction. And, although some physicists say that time is an illusion, our time perception – our sense of time – does exist. And it exists to serve a purpose for us in this life.
Amanda Sage
Here’s what Steiner says about time in ‘The World of the Senses and the World of the Spirit’ lecture 4: “What we, experience in the soul is subject to time. In the outer world things happen in such a way that they are spread out in space and also follow one another in time. Before we can come to the occult truth about all this we must put the question: How then does space stand in relation to time? In this anthroposophical course of lectures we come quite innocently up against a very great philosophical question, one upon which countless heads have been broken!…
We come, to the relation of time to space.
We can put memories behind us, and yet keep them, like continually cast-off skins — in this possibility lies the reality of our soul-life. So you have a continuous re-shaping of the soul-life. During this expansion and contraction one thing is unquestionably present, and that is inner spiritual movement. Movement! Soul-life is movement. And this expansion and contraction gives forms. Therein live your feelings, thoughts, impulses of will.
If you consider how this soul-life is at times in quicker motion and at times in slower motion, you will perceive that it is really Will itself which brings it into motion. If you stimulate your Will you can bring the thoughts and feelings into quicker flow; if the Will is indolent then it all moves along more slowly. You need the Will in order to expand your life of soul.
Within your soul-life: will, wisdom, movement, form, weave and live. Now you will see that these are the names for the successive hierarchies — Spirits of Will, Spirits of Wisdom, Spirits of Movement, and Spirits of Form. In presenting our soul-life in this manner we have, so to say, surprised the hierarchies in one spot, we have really caught them inside us. There they reveal themselves in a most singular way in the inner soul-life of the human being — and they reveal themselves in such a way that their activity is entirely unspatial, it is eternal.”
That makes me think of that famous line from Parsifal: ‘Here time becomes space’. Wagner wanted to portray the home of the Grail as a mystical place, outside of earthly constraints, like how it is in the spiritual world. And then the question becomes: How do we bring that back to earth – To ask the right question at the right time?
So in working with the ‘Will Exercise’, the 2nd of the 6 Basic, I often picture the ‘Hands of time’ – this idea of my will working thru my limbs. I think of my beating heart, or the rhythm of a drum keeping time – the rhythm of the seasons, the cycles of the moon, the pulsing stars.
This week we celebrate Thanksgiving, a yearly place holder in time to help us remember & practice being grateful.
Sulamith Wulfing
Next week we enter the time of Advent, the time of waiting, the time of preparing, of creating a manger in our hearts for the light to be reborn.
And in the Holy Nights we are in a sort of ‘Time out of Time’where we can make Time a Sacred Space.
Dali
Time is our initiator, sacrificing itself by popping up out of the eternal to help us find our way on the path of life. Creating milestones that we can use as a foundation within the flow.
Tamara Adams
We can think about the time or phase of our life…Maiden, Mother, Crone. These aspects don’t replace one another, each phase builds on the next & then they can work together in wholeness, just like the 6 Basic Exercises.
Bella Candor
Yes, for me, time is relative. It needs to be in relationship to something. I can remember that I am always in the right place at the right time – Each moment a journey. We go on a trip & say, yay, wow, were making good time. So let’s remember that Time is on our side, yes it is.
Arrati Morjoto
So I’ll close by asking: Are you taking time for yourself? Maybe we need to give ourselves a ‘Time Out’? Isn’t that part of what the Corona Crisis is bringing us? Let’s live into the eternal Now, & make Time our ally; working with us to firm up our Will.
~hag
The ARC (Anthroposophical Resorce Center in Atlanta) holds a Six Basic Exercise Practice Group weekdays 9 am PT/ 11 am CT / 12:00 pm ET. All are invited to join in a 15 minute practice group focusing on Rudolf Steiner’s foundational exercises. We begin the time each day with a 5 minute leading thought from Angela Foster, focusing one aspect of the practice. We will follow that with a 5 minute period in which we turn off our cameras and practice on our own. After the five minute bell, we take 1-2 minutes to journal about our experience and the end the call with a 3 minute closing thought. Come when you can, and leave when you must. Monday Musing with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg; and Friday’s are open discussion led by Joan Jackeal.
23 November 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Starting an hour before sunrise, both Mercury & Venus are easy to spot in the brightening sky. Mercury, just rising among the stars of Libra; Venus is impossible to miss due east of bright Spica.
“People will have to learn through the idea of karma that they may not repudiate their earlier deeds with their later deeds. A certain consequentiality in life, a readiness to take on the consequences of what one has done, will have to emerge in human evolution. When one looks more closely, one sees how far removed from this people still are. A greater feeling of responsibility for one’s actions, a greater awareness of karma, that is what a study of this sort might yield.” ~Rudolf Steiner
Belenca Kentloo
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Feast day St. Columban, Stories claim that as he walked in the woods, it was not uncommon for birds to land on his shoulders to be caressed, or for squirrels to run down from the trees & nestle in the folds of his cowl. He was a strong defender of Irish traditions. The following are the principal miracles attributed to his intercession: Procuring food for a sick monk and curing the wife of his benefactor Escaping injury while surrounded by wolves Causing a bear to evacuate a cave at his biddings Producing a spring of water near his cave Replenishing the Luxeuil granary Multiplying bread and beer for his community Curing sick monks, who rose from their beds at his request to reap the harvest Giving sight to a blind man at Orleans Destroying with his breath a cauldron of beer prepared for a pagan festival Taming a bear and yoking it to a plough.
1644 – John Milton publishes Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship.
1889 – The first jukebox goes into operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.
1924 – Edwin Hubble‘s discovery, that the Andromeda “nebula” is actually another island galaxy far outside of our own Milky Way, is first published in The New York Times.
1978 – Cyclone kills about 10,000 people in eastern Sri Lanka.
1978 – The Geneva Frequency Plan goes into effect, realigning many of Europe’s longwave & mediumwave broadcasting frequencies.
1981 – Iran–Contra affair: Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the Central Intelligence Agency the authority to recruit & support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
1992 – The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, is introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
***
Jerzy Bettler
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~Yes, it’s true My tone is often sharp, never flat A briny crusted argot. With cutting honesty I push into fathomless oceans Reaching out to the ancient Mother who is all gristle Bitter Trusting in nothing but death Scoured by truth & karma. My single solace, the fate That defines the map Of a star spoken sentence Striking out in pure tones Of too bright a light. ~hag
***
Wed. 2 December 2020 – 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm CT The Karma Project
The Karma Project Manifestations of Karma Study Group December 2, 2020 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)
“… We have now learned that it is possible to seek out accidents or other causes of illness due to karmic effects. In due course we will deal with the details of such processes, such as the way in which the forces in deeper levels of consciousness work within the human being, or to what extent our ordinary consciousness may avoid such accidents. We can understand that someone who goes to a place where he may succumb to an infection will have been driven there under the influence of a certain level of consciousness; in like manner we must be able to understand how it is that human beings take certain measures to render such infections less and less effective; in other words, that through our ordinary consciousness we are able to avert certain consequences by means of hygiene.“
~Rudolf Steiner, Manifestations of Karma, Chapter 6, “Karma in Relation to Accidents”, Hamburg, 21 May, 1910 … focus of the December 2 meeting.
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing study conversation. The study has been divided among four 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: “Manifestations of Karma.” This book is a translation from German of Die Offenbarung des Karma (Ga 120), published in English by Rudolf Steiner Press in 1996.
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:
If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu Agenda for our Study Call
7:15 Welcome and Introductions 7:18 Verse 7:25 Study led by five volunteers Note: CRC team will ID volunteers Laura – pg. 106 to 110 Ana – pg. 111 to 115 Camille – pg. 116 to 120 Alberto – pg. 121 to end 8:05 Conversation 8:28 Close with verse
Holy Nights 2020-21 “A Rose By Any Other Name…” The many faces of The Sophia
24 December 2020 – 5 January 2021
International online gathering on the Theme of the Divine Feminine.
Hosted by Laura Scappaticci & Tess Parker, featuring the Sophia Working Group
Everyday 9 am – 9:30 am PT, 10 am – 10:30 am MT, 11 am – 11:30 am CT, 12 pm – 12:30 pm
stay tuned for details
Our Annual Conscious NYE gathering 8 pm 1 am
In-Person at Elderberries Bio-dynamic Outpost & Cultural Hub & The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago 4249-51 N. Lincoln Ave. 60613
This Years Theme is a Masked Ball –
Live Music, Folk Dancing, Potluck, Mask-making with Lucien Dante Lazar, more TBA
$20 per person
Stay tuned for details
Joan’s Epiphany 6 January 2021 ‘What Joan of Arc Calls for Today’ 2 pm – 4 pm CT
In-person at Elderberries Chicago & 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 Sprit Serving It by Rudolf Steiner with Leading Thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Social Sculpture: “The Passage” with Luicen Dante Lazar – Eurythmy
One tap mobile +13126266799,,7052931041# US (Chicago) +19292056099,,7052931041# US (New York)
Dial by your location +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 929 205 6099 US (New York) +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington D.C) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aeoRtxhpwY
“When I think light, my soul shines, When my soul shines, the earth is a star, When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being”. ~Herbert Hahn
Dear Friends – Our Good Will becomes a cosmic energy field for healing; actual “Seed ideas in the group mind of humanity”, to co-create our highest intentions for the evolution of humanity – that the Earth may become a Sacred Planet – a Sun – and every Human Being a Star. “What is sown in our highest thought will grow and bear seed.” It only takes the square root of any number of people to create change.
As we shine out from the Earth, Divine Spiritual Beings take notice, we are seen. We become lightning rods for their protection & power. We become super charged catalysts for change. The light that is eternal is the future flowing into the now.
This verse can be an anchor for a group Thought-Form created by our Willed Visualization– to be conceived each day at 10:10 AM, (&/or PM)wherever you are, so it moves like a wave across the globe. Here is the Seeed verse said in reverse:
I am a true human being, When the Earth is a Star. The Earth is a Star When my soul shines. My soul shines When I think light.
We must become spiritual warriors, and endeavor to take up the practice of building up positive imaginations on the inner planes as a counterforce to the adversarial forces working in the world. This is a “key-call” to the Spiritual Powers aligned with love and light, to enlist their aid.
See you, dear friends, in the ethers every day 10:10 AM, (&/or PM) (10 is the number of completion, but please don’t worry if you can’t tune in at 10:10, just do it whenever you think of it, which may be many times a day, or perhaps only occasionally, don’t stress it, just do what you can with a loving heart-mind)
PLEASE SHARE THE GOOD WORD (& Let me know if you are taking on the project)
“When 2 or more are gathered…”
~hag
***
“The ideas, feelings and so on which transform the astral body during a long life will produce a marked change in the etheric body only in the next life. Thus if someone wants to be born in his next life with good habits and inclinations, he must try-to prepare these as much as possible in his astral body. If he makes the effort to do good, he will be born in his next life with the tendency to do good and that will be a characteristic of his etheric body. If he wants to be born with a good memory, he must exercise his memory as much as he can; he must practise looking back over the separate years of his life and over his life as a whole. In this way he will engender in his astral body something which will become a characteristic of his etheric body in his next life — the foundation for a good memory. A man who simply hurries through the world will find in his next life that he cannot stick at anything. But if anyone lives in intimate sympathy with a particular environment, he will be born with a special predilection for everything that reminds him of it.
We can trace the various temperaments, also, back to a previous life, for they are qualities of the etheric body.
The choleric man has a strong will, is bold, courageous, with an urge to action. Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Caesar, Napoleon, for example, were cholerics. This type of character shows itself even in childhood, and a child with this temperament will take the lead in childhood games.
The melancholic man is very much occupied with himself and hence is apt to keep himself to himself. He does a lot of thinking, particularly about the way in which his environment affects him. He withdraws into himself, tends to be suspicious. This temperament, too, is apparent in childhood: a child of this type does not like to display his toys; he is afraid something will be taken away from him and would like to keep everything under lock and key.
The phlegmatic man has no real interest in anything; he is dreamy, inactive, lazy, and seeks sensuous enjoyment.
The sanguine man, on the other hand, gets easily interested in anything but he does not stick to it; his interest quickly fades; he is continually changing his hobbies.
These are the four basic types. Generally a man is a mixture of all four, but we can usually discover the fundamental one. These four temperaments express themselves in the etheric body, and so there are four main types of etheric body. They have differing currents and movements, and these impart a particular basic colour to the astral body. This does not depend on the astral body; it only reveals itself there.
The melancholic temperament is karmically determined if a man in his previous life was compelled to lead a narrow, restricted existence and to be much alone; if he was always preoccupied only with himself and unable to Make much interest in anything else. If, however, a man has learnt a great deal from experience but has also had something of a hard struggle, if he has encountered many things and has not merely looked on at them, he will become a choleric. If, again, he has had a pleasant life without much struggle or toil, or if he saw and passed by many things, but only as an onlooker, all this will work karmically into the etheric body of his next life: he will become a phlegmatic or a sanguine type”. ~Rudolf Steiner, At the Gates of Spiritual Science, LECTURE SEVEN
***
20 November 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Shortly after sunset, you can observe the two largest planets in the solar system — Jupiter & Saturn — glowing between the Teapot of Sagittarius & the stars of Capricornus in the southwest. The crescent Moon is nearby, shining near the center of the Sea Goat.
“The best Anthroposophists are those who take what is said as a stimulus in the first place, and then place it at the service of life, so as to prove it by life itself.” ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘The Mission of the Folk Souls’ lecture 11
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1805 – Beethoven’s only opera,Fidelio, premieres in Vienna.
1945 –Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg
1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation
1910 – Deathday of Leo Tolstoy, Russian author & playwright
“In 1828, Leo Tolstoy is born in a family of Russian counts about which he himself says that the family immigrated originally from Germany. Then we see Tolstoy losing certain higher goods of life. Hardly he is one and a half years old, he loses the mother, the father in the ninth year. Then he grows up under the care of a relative who is, so to speak, the embodied love, and from her spiritual condition, the marvellous soul condition had to flow in his soul like by itself. However, on the other side, another relative who wants to build up him out of the viewpoints of her circles, out of the conditions of time as they formed in certain circles influences him. She is a person who is completely merged in the outward world activity which later became very odious to Tolstoy and against which he fought so hard. We see this personality striving from the outset to make Tolstoy a person “comme il faut,” a person who could treat his farmers in such a way, as it was necessary in those days, who should receive title, rank, dignity, and medals and should play a suitable role in the society.
Then we see Tolstoy coming to the university; he is a bad student as he absolutely thinks that everything that the professors say at the University of Kazan is nothing worth knowing. Only oriental languages can occupy him. In all other matters, he was not interested. Against it the comparison of a certain chapter of the code of Catherine the Great (1729–1796) with The Spirit of the Laws (1748) by Montesquieu (Charles de Secondat, Baron de M., 1689–1755) attracted him. Then he tries repeatedly to manage his estate, and we see him almost getting around to diving head first into the life of luxury of a man of his circles, diving head first into all possible vices and vanities of life. We see him becoming a gambler, gambling big sums away. However, he has hours within this life over and over again when his own activities disgust him, actually. We see him meeting peers as well as men of letters and leading a life, which he calls a worthless, even perishable one at moments of reflection. However, we also see — and this is important to him who looks with pleasure at the development of the soul where this development manifests in especially typical signs — particular peculiarities appearing with him in the development of his soul which can disclose us already in the earliest youth what is, actually, in this soul.
Thus, it is of immense significance, what a deep impression a certain event makes on Tolstoy at the age of eleven years. A friendly boy once told him that one has made an important discovery, a new invention. One has found — and a teacher has spoken in particular of the fact — that there is no God that this God is only an empty invention of many human beings, an empty picture of thought. Everything that one can know about the impression that this boy’s experience made on Tolstoy shows already how he absorbed it that in him a soul struggled striving for the highest summits of human existence.” ~ Rudolf Steiner, Where and How Does One Find the Spirit? Tolstoy and Carnegie, Berlin, 28th January, 1909
1976 – Deathday of Lili Kolisko, remembered for her pioneer work in anthroposophy, attending lectures by founder Rudolf Steiner starting in 1914. She developed the Capillary Dynamolisis method (Steigbildmethode), testing the idea that not only the moon, but the other planets as well, have an influence over earthly fluids. To test this, she dissolved metals classically associated to each planet & observed the pictures left by their absorption over a filter paper. She noticed consistent differences of the patterns according to the position of the planets in relation to sun & earth. Lilly Kolisko also worked on the development of a remedy for foot and mouth disease & methods for assessment of food quality from an anthroposophic standpoint. She was married to Dr. Eugen Kolisko.
~I rise above the waxing crescent moon Gentling the horns with peat moss & beeswax, Rounding up to the stars reaching Beyond numbers that bind minds into boxes – Let the vultures gobble the sin with the flesh… Thru me the past flows like blood Renewed in the heart convulsing – A formula forthcoming A blueprint unfolding gold
***
Wed. 2 December 2020 – 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm CT The Karma Project
The Karma Project Manifestations of Karma Study Group December 2, 2020 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)
“… We have now learned that it is possible to seek out accidents or other causes of illness due to karmic effects. In due course we will deal with the details of such processes, such as the way in which the forces in deeper levels of consciousness work within the human being, or to what extent our ordinary consciousness may avoid such accidents. We can understand that someone who goes to a place where he may succumb to an infection will have been driven there under the influence of a certain level of consciousness; in like manner we must be able to understand how it is that human beings take certain measures to render such infections less and less effective; in other words, that through our ordinary consciousness we are able to avert certain consequences by means of hygiene.“
~Rudolf Steiner, Manifestations of Karma, Chapter 6, “Karma in Relation to Accidents”, Hamburg, 21 May, 1910 … focus of the December 2 meeting.
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing study conversation. The study has been divided among four 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: “Manifestations of Karma.” This book is a translation from German of Die Offenbarung des Karma (Ga 120), published in English by Rudolf Steiner Press in 1996.
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:
If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu Agenda for our Study Call
7:15 Welcome and Introductions 7:18 Verse 7:25 Study led by five volunteers Note: CRC team will ID volunteers Laura – pg. 106 to 110 Ana – pg. 111 to 115 Camille – pg. 116 to 120 Alberto – pg. 121 to end 8:05 Conversation 8:28 Close with verse
Holy Nights 2020-21 “A Rose By Any Other Name…” The many faces of The Sophia
24 December 2020 – 5 January 2021
International online gathering on the Theme of the Divine Feminine.
Hosted by Laura Scappaticci & Tess Parker, featuring the Sophia Working Group
Everyday 9 am – 9:30 am PT, 10 am – 10:30 am MT, 11 am – 11:30 am CT, 12 pm – 12:30 pm
stay tuned for details
Our Annual Conscious NYE gathering 8 pm 1 am
In-Person at Elderberries Bio-dynamic Outpost & Cultural Hub & The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago 4249-51 N. Lincoln Ave. 60613
This Years Theme is a Masked Ball –
Live Music, Folk Dancing, Potluck, Mask-making with Lucien Dante Lazar, more TBA
$20 per person
Stay tuned for details
Joan’s Epiphany 6 January 2021 ‘What Joan of Arc Calls for Today’ 2 pm – 4 pm CT
In-person at Elderberries Chicago & 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 Sprit Serving It by Rudolf Steiner with Leading Thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Social Sculpture: “The Passage” with Luicen Dante Lazar – Eurythmy
One tap mobile +13126266799,,7052931041# US (Chicago) +19292056099,,7052931041# US (New York)
Dial by your location +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 929 205 6099 US (New York) +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington D.C) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aeoRtxhpwY
“The members of the Manichean Order are already learning how to transform quite radically those who by nature are wholly evil. And then the transformed evil will become a quite special good. The power to effect this change will bring about a condition of moral holiness on Earth. But this can be achieved only if the evil has first come into existence; then the power needed to overcome the evil will yield a power that can reach the heights of holiness. A field has to be treated with manure and the manure has to ferment in the soil; similarly, humanity needs the manure of evil in order to attain to the highest holiness. And herein lies the mission of evil. A man’s muscles get strong by use; and equally, if good is to rise to the heights of holiness, it must first overcome the evil which opposes it. The task of evil is to promote the ascent of man. Things such as this give us a glimpse into the secret of life”. ~Rudolf Steiner, At the Gates of Spiritual Science, Lecture 8.
***
18 November 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The waxing crescent Moon hangs out with Jupiter & Saturn TONIGHT & tomorrow evening.
Meanwhile Altair, the bright eye of Aquila, the Eagle, shines high to the upper right, of the Benevolent King & The Ruler of Time, about halfway up the sky just after dark: halfway from the horizon to the zenith.
~TODAY I AM A dusky grape Ripening in the oblique angle of the westering Daystar… ~hag
***
1923 – The founding of the Dutch Anthroposophical Society. Willem Zeylmans van Emmichhoven becomes its General Secretary.
1961- Deathday of Willem Zeylmans van Emmichhoven, a Dutch psychiatrist and anthroposophist. From 1923 until his death in 1961 he was chairman of the Dutch Anthroposophical Society. He was a familiar figure in public life & had a considerable influence on the Anthroposophic movement, particularly through his numerous lectures & his work as an author, which included the first biography of Rudolf Steiner.
Zeylmans was the son of a Dutch chocolate manufacturer. His mother came from Germany. In childhood he was often troubled by visions of color & emotional turmoil that later stimulated his preoccupation with what would later be called synesthesia: a condition when you hear a sound & automatically see a color. After recovering from an attack of typhoid, he entered medical school at eighteen, specializing in psychiatry. His interest in color, inspired by the painter Jacoba van Heemskerck & her friend & patron Marie Tak van Poortvliet, led him to research more about the effects of colors. He continued his medical studies in Leipzig under Wilhelm Wundt in 1919, where he became a member of the Anthroposophical Society. After meeting with Rudolf Steiner, he was encouraged to continue his research into the effect of colors & in his dissertation he wrote on “The effect of colors on the life of feeling.’’ On 27 September 1921 he was married to Ingeborg Droogleever Fortuyn, whom he had met for the first time many years earlier. Their first son was born in 1926.
At the age of 28, Zeylmans began lecturing on Anthroposophy to an enthusiastic public, as well as academic colleagues. He helped establish the first Waldorf School in The Hague, where he also founded a small psychiatric hospital, which soon moved into its own building (now the Rudolf Steiner Zorg). When the Anthroposophical Society was founded in the Netherlands, Rudolf Steiner appointed him as its first General Secretary. In addition to his psychiatric work Zeylmans undertook worldwide lecture tours. He spoke often about the effect of color on humans & gave advice to paint manufacturers, architects, directors of museums & artists.
Zeylman’s primary concerns were the rapprochement & understanding between the different nations & peoples, as well as a furtherance of cosmopolitanism. His attempt to found the global schools association suggested by Rudolf Steiner (a ‘”Weltschulverein”), to promote the dissemination & funding for free school education, failed due to resistance from anthroposophic circles against fostering broader public awareness.
In the face of increasing political fanaticism, another initiative Zeylmans took was to further interest for anthroposophy in European youth. In the summer of 1930 he organized a youth camp on the Stakenberg near Nunspeet in the Veluwe. More than a thousand participants gathered in working groups & heard lectures by leading anthroposophists like Eugen Kolisko, Walter Johannes Stein, Elisabeth Vreede & Ita Wegman on their thoughts to the situation of the time.
His work, however, was increasingly restricted by political developments. His involvement with the administration of the General Anthroposophical Society in Dornach Switzerland also met with increasing disapproval. The internal disputes since the death of Rudolf Steiner & his close collaboration with the physician Ita Wegman in 1935 led to his exclusion & that of the majority of the Dutch members.
After the war Zeylmans took up once again his international lecturing work. In 1954 he embarked on a global tour for nine months. Encouraged by Bernard Lievegoed, in 1960 he sought a mandate from the members of the Anthroposophical Society in the Netherlands to reunite it once more, after 25 years of separation, with the General Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum in Switzerland. He undertook a second journey through South Africa in 1961, visiting the newly established Waldorf schools & other institutions to give advice & hold lectures. During this trip, he died unexpectedly in Cape Town.
***
Wed. 2 December 2020 – 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm CT The Karma Project
The Karma Project Manifestations of Karma Study Group December 2, 2020 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)
“… We have now learned that it is possible to seek out accidents or other causes of illness due to karmic effects. In due course we will deal with the details of such processes, such as the way in which the forces in deeper levels of consciousness work within the human being, or to what extent our ordinary consciousness may avoid such accidents. We can understand that someone who goes to a place where he may succumb to an infection will have been driven there under the influence of a certain level of consciousness; in like manner we must be able to understand how it is that human beings take certain measures to render such infections less and less effective; in other words, that through our ordinary consciousness we are able to avert certain consequences by means of hygiene.“
~Rudolf Steiner, Manifestations of Karma, Chapter 6, “Karma in Relation to Accidents”, Hamburg, 21 May, 1910 … focus of the December 2 meeting.
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing study conversation. The study has been divided among four 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: “Manifestations of Karma.” This book is a translation from German of Die Offenbarung des Karma (Ga 120), published in English by Rudolf Steiner Press in 1996.
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:
If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu Agenda for our Study Call
7:15 Welcome and Introductions 7:18 Verse 7:25 Study led by five volunteers Note: CRC team will ID volunteers Laura – pg. 106 to 110 Ana – pg. 111 to 115 Camille – pg. 116 to 120 Alberto – pg. 121 to end 8:05 Conversation 8:28 Close with verse
***
Holy Nights 2020-21 “A Rose By Any Other Name” The many faces of The Sophia
24 December 2020 – 5 January 2021 (with NYE as the Hidden Holy Night)
Hosted by Laura Scappaticci & Tess Parker, featuring the Sophia Working Group
Everyday 9 am – 9:30 am ET, 10 am – 10:30 am MT, 11 am – 11:30 am CT, 12 pm – 12:30 pm ET
International online gathering on the Theme of the Divine Feminine.
stay tuned for details
***
Our Annual Conscious NYE gathering 8 pm 1 am
In-Person at Elderberries Bio-dynamic Outpost & Cultural Hub & The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago 4249-51 N. Lincoln Ave. 60613
This Years Theme is a Masked Ball –
Live Music, Folk Dancing, Potluck, Mask making with Lucien Dante Lazar, more TBA
$20 per person
Stay tuned for details
***
Epiphany 6 January 2021 What Joan of Arc Calls for Today 7 pm – 9 pm CT
In-person at Elderberries Chicago & online
Today on the Birthday of Joan of Arc we will explore ‘The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations, Lecture 5, The Nature of the Christ Impulse and the Michaelic Sprit Serving It by Rudolf Steiner with Leading Thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Social Sculpture: “The Passage” with Luicen Dante Lazar – Eurythmy
One tap mobile +13126266799,,7052931041# US (Chicago) +19292056099,,7052931041# US (New York)
Dial by your location +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 929 205 6099 US (New York) +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 Find your local number: zoom.us/u/aeoRtxhpwY
It was an eerie Halloween in the hood last night. The usually packed streets were relatively clear. Folks put out special tables or passed candy thru PVC pipes to the trick-o-treaters. A lot of neighbors had house parties. Revelers called out Happy Halloween to each other, looking into your eyes with hope, & the joy of connection. Everyone wanted it to be a regular celebration, but despite (or perhaps because of) the usual high rate of alcoholic spirits, there was a pallor over the cheer. The wind was high & the sky had strangely beautiful rippling cloud formations that danced across the Full Blue Blood Moon.
Bonnie Melvin
We made a bon-fire with a few friends, & did a 500 biodynamic prep stir for the ancestors, in conjunction with performing the Halleluiah in eurythmy & singing songs to the ‘so-called-dead’. After an hour, some kids helped us distribute the ‘holy water’ in-between their main task of hunting for houses that were open to them as treaters. The land & the spiritual beings soaked it up. O so thirsty are the spirits for interaction with human intention.
Tonya Wright
At the CRC Soul to Soul online gathering earlier, it was clear that the dead are with us, wanting to commune, hoping to co-create with us a world of light.
My grandmother always said that the spirits of the dead wander from sunset until midnight on All Hallows. After midnight – on November 1, All Saints’ Day – the ghosts are said to go back into the light.
But the October 31 date for Halloween has been fixed by tradition. The true astrological cross-quarter day falls on November 7. So we can see that All Souls is really a season lasting until Advent.
In early times, the forbearer of Halloween, (or as my Celtic ancestors called it, Samhain) happened on the night that the Pleiades star cluster culminated at midnight – In other words, when the 7 sisters climbed to its highest point in the sky at midnight on or near the same date as this cross-quarter day. Because of the precession of the Equinoxes, this now occurs on November 21.
Vanessa Lemen.
This morning the wind was howling so much & the spirits so restless I was up at 3 am, with a message from my dearly departed friend Joe G. which I got up to write down, but then I realized it was really 2 am, cause we are told to set our clocks back today (All Saints Day).
Fall Back they say.Usually this finagling with time bothers me. How dare ‘they’ just decide to change time, which plays havoc with our waking & sleeping rhythm. But for some reason this year, with everything else that’s shifting, I am thinking of it as a wakeup call, a reminder to not be complacent, taking time for granted – A prompt to see Time as relative, touching what is eternal.
And, of course, on top of all this, in 2 days time it is Election Day. Dear friends, don’t get caught up in the anxiety & fear that is already swirling in the media. Turn off the tv & Come join us instead, in creating a sacred space in person & online, to envision our true human destiny, thru Goethean Conversation, & Art, amidst the astral chaos:
All Souls Election Night Vigil
7 pm – 9 pm CT. Tuesday 3 November 2020
Dusee Aeye
In-person in the Upper Room of the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago 4249 N. Lincoln Ave.
Through Social Sculpture, we will hold space with each other, connect with our Angel, the ‘so called dead’, the Being of America…etc…to bring healing on both sides of the Threshold, during Election Night 2020, & on into the future which we are committing to consciously co-create.
Welcome – Anne Nicholson
Verse – Deborah Rogers
The Art of Goethean Conversation – Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Metamorphosis – Lucien Dante Lazar. Through a 5-point artistic metamorphosis that will weave throughout the evening we will rise in our thinking, & engage our will, to work with the beings of color, form & gesture from point to periphery.
Intermingling: Initiatives for NOW – The 3-Fold Social Order & ALIANT Alliance – Elderberries + ALL
Break-Out Session – groups of 3 for 15 minutes
Michael-Star Movement – Lucien + Nancy Melvin + ALL
Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner, Translated by Roy Sadler
It’s the third verse of the Light Quartet this week, the voice of the Soprano’s inspired will for the spirit’s birth, v31 The light from spirit depths strives outwards like the sun, becomes life’s strength of will and shines in dullness of the senses to free the forces that ripen creative powers in human work the soul initiates.
Its mirror verse is the voice of the Baritone, incarnating spirit with imaginative power in the first week of September, v22, The light from far and wide lives on with inner power, becomes the light of soul and shines in depths of spirit to free the fruits of cosmic self that from them in the course of time the human self will ripen. Its opposite verse is the voice of the Tenor, uniting with the spirit through the senses in the last Easter verse, the week before Ascension, a verse for life in the southern hemisphere now, v5, In light, whose fertile weaving into space from spirit depths reveals creative work of gods, the being of the soul is shining, widening, enlivened in the presence of the world and resurrected from narrow selfhood’s inner power. Its mirror of the opposite, the complementary verse, is the voice of the Alto, intuitive love uniting with the world at the full moon in Leo (Rudolf Steiner’s birthday week), v48, In light, whose flowing from the heights would be the world’s empowering of soul, let shine world thought, the cosmic certainty that solves soul riddles, and focusing its radiant power in human hearts awakens love. This is a climax verse, fulfillment of thinking after human thought’s first mention in v28 three weeks ago; and the last mention of the heart (the 7th) and of love (the 3rd) until the heart appears again at the winter solstice, v37, and love at Epiphany, v40.
ALL SAINTS DAY “After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands…. [One of the elders] said to me, ‘These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9,14)
The earliest observance of a feast in honor of all the saints is an early fourth-century commemoration of “all the martyrs.” In the early seventh century, after successive waves of invaders plundered the catacombs, Pope Boniface IV gathered up some 28 wagonloads of bones & reinterred them beneath the Pantheon, a Roman temple dedicated to all the gods. The pope rededicated the shrine as a Christian church. According to Venerable Bede, the pope intended “that the memory of all the saints might in the future be honored in the place which had formerly been dedicated to the worship not of gods but of demons” (On the Calculation of Time).
The Anglo-Saxon theologian Alcuin observed the feast on November 1 in 800, as did his friend Arno, Bishop of Salzburg. Rome finally adopted that date in the ninth century.
The Massacre of the Innocents, part of the El Dia de los Muertos celebration, honors the biblical account of infanticide by Herod. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Herod ordered the execution of all young male children in the vicinity of Bethlehem, so as to avoid the loss of his throne to a newborn King of the Jews whose birth had been announced to him by the Magi, understood as the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy: “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying, ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more”.
1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.
1570 – The All Saints’ Flood devastates the Dutch coast, breaking the dikes. The total number of dead in the tens of thousands, 100,000 people became homeless. Livestock was lost in huge numbers. Winter stocks of food & fodder were destroyed.
1604 – William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London
1611 – Shakespeare’s play The Tempest is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London
1755 – In Portugal, Lisbon is totally devastated by a massive earthquake & tsunami, killing 90,000 people
1838 –Birthday of Khedrup Gyatso – 11th Dalai Lama
1870 – In the United States, the Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service) makes its first official meteorological forecast
1911 – The first dropping of a bomb from an aircraft in combat, during the Italo-Turkish War
1918 – Malbone Street Wreck: The worst rapid transit accident in US history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street & Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, with 202 deaths
1941 – American photographer Ansel Adams takes a picture of a moonrise over the town of Hernandez, New Mexico that would become one of the most famous images in the history of photography. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes hired Adams for six months to create photographs of lands under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior. Adams was accompanied by his young son Michael & his best friend Cedric Wright on a long road trip around the west. They came upon the scene while traveling through the Chama River valley toward Española in late afternoon on November 1.
1948 – Off southern Manchuria, 6,000 people die as a Chinese merchant ship explodes & sinks
1950 – Pope Pius XII claims papal infallibility when he formally defines the dogma of the Assumption of Mary
1951 – Operation Buster–Jangle: 6,500 American soldiers are exposed to ‘Desert Rock’ atomic explosions for training purposes in Nevada. Participation is not voluntary
1952 – The United States successfully detonates Ivy Mike, the first thermonuclear device, at the Eniwetok atoll. The explosion had a yield of ten megatons TNT equivalent
1955 – The bombing of United Airlines Flight 629 occurs near Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers & five crew members aboard. Blown up with dynamite placed in the checked luggage by Jack Gilbert Graham to kill his mother as revenge for his childhood & to obtain a large life insurance payout. Within 15 months of the explosion, Graham—who already had an extensive criminal record—was tried, convicted, & executed for the crime
1956 – The Springhill mining disaster in Springhill, Nova Scotia kills 39 miners; 88 are rescued
1960 –John F. Kennedy announces his idea of the Peace Corps
***
Carrie Ann Baade
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~Today I am The thought of myself In my Mothers forehead… May I listen to the voice of the messenger Bringing her song up from the dead – A silver star bruised & hanging on a cloud As I roll gold into life Like the scarab A Sinner marching with the Saints I stretch canvas & continue Practicing ~hag
The Connection Between Epidemics, the Souls of the Dead, & the Spiritual World – Leading thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg based on Spiritual Scientific research & indications from Rudolf Steiner
Inspirations by Lelan Harris – the executive director of Wise Cosmos Educational Initiative (WiseCosmos.org). Lelan is a healer, teacher, and leader with over 40 years of experience in vocational roles such as pastor, professor, and Waldorf school administrator. He offers developmental mentoring, spiritual training, and energy healing in order to raise up new generations of leaders in service at all levels to humanity, Earth, and cosmos.
