Atlanta, Part 10 of The Journey (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9)
And so the 2 sisters rode into another lingering sunset. The conversation which ranged from Harriet Tubman to Christian Rosenkreutz & beyond, made the hours slide by with the miles in a blink.
For the last 3 sleeps we had been contemplating taking the power of our journey up to ‘Stone Mountain’ in Atlanta.
In his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King Jr. lists places around the country, from California to Colorado, declaring: “let freedom ring”. He includes “Stone Mountain of Georgia” – a confederate strong hold, & symbol of the Ku Klux Klan, reborn there with the burning of a cross on Thanksgiving night 1915.
The dream I had on that Memphis morn seemed like a confirmation that, yes, as hard as it would be, we needed to go & reclaim Stone Mountain. So after we landed at the ARC, we made plans to meet the next day 11-18-19, & make the ascent.
In the morning I was strolling out front when Angela arrived. She pointed out 2 trees that stood like Joachim & Boaz outside of the ARC. When they 1st got the house, Angela was on the phone talking to Robert McDermott when she looked out the front window to see water gushing up from the tree holding the position of the Southern pillar. As the waters began to mix with the clay it became a stream of red spreading from the roots into churning a pool. We marveled that because we happened to be standing outside she was reminded of this origin story of the ARC, which was another synchronicity aligned with the reoccurring image of the waters creating an opening into the underworld.
We went inside & our conversation turned once again to Christian Rosenkreutz. Angela mentioned that when we were at Don’s farm in Rockford, Charlotte had showed her the bedroom where the picture of ‘The Polish Rider’ was prominently displayed. Angela went over to the library & dug behind some books pulling out a print of this same painting by Rembrandt. She taped it up on the dining room wall next to the map of the USA & the Verse for America. The next thing we knew a huge, & I mean gigantic cockroach was on the wall right above the print of CR. It was going around in circles & moving its long tentacles in strange ways. Was it dying, or giving birth, or doing some sort of weird eurythmy, or what? Then Angela calls out CR CockRoach CR!
We were repulsed but transfixed, watching its every move. And move it did, up above the map, stopping right over Chicago! We couldn’t look away, we were giving a blow by blow commentary on its gestures & progress across the map when it suddenly stopped near Portland OR. – which at the Group & Branch meeting of the AGM had just recently become ‘Branch Buddies’ with Chicago. Too strange. CR eventually moved to a high corner of the wall on the outside of the map & just kind of landed. We didn’t want to touch it, so we let it be & got into Big Daddy Howell’s van to make our pilgrimage to Stone Mountain.
I think I will stop here for today, dear friends, I planned for this 10th part of the series to bring us to completion, but I see now that the end of this journey must come as we began, with the #11.
So tune in tomorrow as we climb the mountaion…
~hag
***
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~I cross an open field strewn with stones
& shards of red rocks shaped like hearts…
Invoking the King of the Mineral Realm
I speak to the stones:
You, will break,
You, will hold rain,
You, will be tossed,
You, will crumble,
& your grains of sand will mark my passage…
& the red rocks agreed…
~hag
***
30 November 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: As the stars come out, the Cassiopeia W stands on end very high in the northeast. Watch her turn around to become a flattened M, even higher in the north, by late evening.
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Feast of Saint Andrew born in the village of Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee. “The first striking characteristic of Andrew is his name: it is not Hebrew, as might have been expected, but Greek, indicative of a certain cultural openness in his family. He was a fisherman like his brother St. Peter. Jesus called them to be his disciples by saying that he will make them “fishers of men.” Andrew told Jesus about the boy with the loaves and fishes (John 6:8), & when Philip wanted to tell Jesus about certain Greeks seeking Him, he told Andrew first (John 12:20–22). Andrew was present at the Last Supper, & was one of the four disciples who came to Jesus on the Mount of Olives to ask about the signs of Jesus’ return at the “end of the age”. (Mark 13:30) Andrew is said to have been martyred by crucifixion. In the Western Esoteric tradition, Andrew is associated with the astrological sign of Virgo.
1961 – Deathday of Ehrenfried Pfeiffer a German scientist, soil scientist, leading advocate of biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophist & student of Rudolf Steiner.
Ehrenfried Pfeiffer began work with Rudolf Steiner in 1920 to develop & install special diffuse stage lighting for eurythmy performances on the stage of the first Goetheanum.
After Steiner’s death in 1925, Pfeiffer worked in the private research laboratory at the Goetheanum in Dornach. He became manager & director of the 800-acre experimental biodynamic Loverendale farm in Domburg in the Netherlands. This farm was set up to carry out some of the agricultural studies of the Goetheanum laboratory. The work of testing & developing Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course of 1924 was an international enterprise coordinated by Pfeiffer at the Natural Science Section of the Goetheanum.
Pfeiffer’s most influential book ‘Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening’ was published in 1938 simultaneously in at least five languages, English, German, Dutch, French, & Italian.
The following year, just months before the outbreak of World War II, Pfeiffer ran Britain’s first biodynamics conference, the Betteshanger Summer School & Conference, at the estate of Lord Northbourne in Kent. Pfeiffer’s Betteshanger Conference is regarded as the ‘missing link’ between biodynamic agriculture & organic farming.
Pfeiffer first visited the U.S. in 1933 to lecture to a group of anthroposophists at the Threefold Farm in Spring Valley, New York on biodynamic farming. His consulting was essential to the development of biodynamic agriculture in the U.S.
Pfeiffer developed an analytical method using copper chloride crystallization & used this technique as a blood test for detecting cancer. As a result, Pfeiffer was invited to the U.S. in 1937 to work at the Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia. While in the U.S., he continued to consult with those interested in biodynamic farming & helped to form the Biodynamic Farming & Gardening Association in 1938.
In 1940 he immigrated to the U.S. from Switzerland with his wife Adelheid, escaping the advance of German troops into France. They brought with them their son Christoph & daughter Wiltraud.
With the advent of World War II in Europe, Pfeiffer took his family to Kimberton, Pennsylvania, where Alaric Myrin offered Pfeiffer the opportunity to create a model biodynamic farm & training program.
Starting in the late 1930s he taught biodynamic farming & gardening at the Kimberton Farm School. One of his students, Paul Keene, who worked & studied with Pfeiffer there for two years & shortly thereafter co-founded Walnut Acres, recalls: “… he helped bring all of life together for us in a definite coherent pattern”.
Aiming to continue his work training biodynamic farmers, Pfeiffer bought a farm in Chester, New York, where a small colony arose focused on farming, education, & the administration of the Biodynamic Association.
His copper chloride sensitive crystallization theory brought him an honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine from Hahnemann Medical College & Hospital in Philadelphia in 1939. He studied chemistry & became a professor of nutrition in 1956. Pfeiffer wrote on the dangers of pesticides & DDT a& Rachel Carson consulted with him when she was writing Silent Spring.
In 1961, at his home in Spring Valley, N.Y., he suffered from a series of heart attacks, lingering for several days, but ultimately was not given the proper medical care & died. His wife subsequently took over the operation of their farm in Chester, New York.
Pfeiffer was a pioneer of biodynamic agriculture in Europe, Britain, & America. He is most widely known for his innovative work in composting. He conducted extensive research on the preparation & use of biodynamic compost & was the inventor of BD Compost Starter, a compost inoculant. For many years Pfeiffer served as a compost consultant to municipal compost facilities.
