Greetings friends – All my current essay’s are now being posted on Substack. I hope to see you there…xox
~hag
Whenever I reach a Turning Point in my life-stream – I step in. Bringing ‘Biography Work’ into this Conscious Threshold experience shows the flow from the past swirling into the now – conveying clarity into connectivity. And from the analysis of the rhythmic tides, the glacial overview emerges. Slow-motion waves cresting & ebbing, spilling & pooling – exposing a new perception of the undercurrents.
O look – the future flux is rising up in the Wellsprings of my Soul – becoming a welcoming ocean of possibility.
I think about my deep immersion in:
1) The 1st Class of the Michael School of Spiritual Science – working in me to transform my astral body into Spirit-Self.
2) The Consecration of my humanness as I serve at the altar of the Christian Community – opening me to my Higher “I” & the New-Group-Soul in Christ.
3) My daily meditative rhythm as a dedicated member of the Esoteric Kries – to create a New kind of Social-Working imprinting the inner planes with spiritual imaginative impulses.
Bringing these 3 aspects together in my life has led me to the revelation – the duty – to take what was given to us in the Ancient Mysteries – renewed & transmitted 100 years ago by the great Initiate Rudolf Steiner – further – into the New Rosicrucian Mysteries of the 2nd Class of the Free High School for Spiritual Science – this working transforms etheric body into Life-Spirit.
This is the task at hand for humanity – to consciously meet the Being of Christ in the Etheric.
The Misraim Dienst=Service, gives us a modern ritual-working that reveals & galvanizes the revelations that flowed out of the imaginations of the Supersensible School of Michael at the end of the 18th & 19th Centuries. Activating the Reverse Cultus now, but this time – here on earth.
Hella Wiesberger reports that in a letter Marie Steiner von Sivers mentions: “In Class II much of what he had given us in the Mystica Aeterna (the esoteric group working with the cognitive rituals of the Memphis-Misraim Service) would flow into it imaginatively.
And that in Class III this would have been transformed into moral strength.”
The adversarial powers working thru the Jesuits of the Roman Church & the Dark Occult Brotherhoods saw the power of this combination of 1st Class, Christian Community & the Misraim Dienst. Their Jealousy burnt down the 1st Goetheanum & shortened the life of Rudolf Steiner.
That reside lingers & has infected many with unconscious fear, disallowing the right relationships to unfold, & fostering an unwillingness to take Spiritual Science into the New Mysteries.
But friends, as we stand now at the Centennial of the Re-founding of Anthroposophy, we cannot let the destruction of the adversarial beings, or the mistakes of past, keep us from moving forward. We must bring the Imaginations, fired up in the Michael School & thru the burning, down from the ethers into the actions of a New Mystica Aeterna in America.
Let us keep looking Above & Below the surface – Into the Heights & Depths, the Center & the Periphery, with open-mindedness, in the endeavoring to Know ThySelf…
20 October 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: We won’t be able to see Occult Mercury, reach superior conjunction at 1 A.M. CDT. But this Wandering Planet will become an evening star visible after sunset in November.
1781 – At Yorktown, Virginia, representatives of British commander Lord Cornwallis handed over Cornwallis’ sword & formally surrendered to George Washington & the comte de Rochambeau. The Revolutionary War Ends
1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Austrian General Mack surrenders his army to the Grande Armée of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Ulm. 30,000 prisoners are captured & 10,000 casualties inflicted on the losers
1812 – Napoleon Bonaparte retreats from Moscow
1813 – The Battle of Leipzig concludes, giving Napoleon Bonaparte one of his worst defeats
1893 – Deathday of Lucy Stone, a prominent American orator, abolitionist, & suffragist, & a vocal advocate & organizer promoting rights for women. In 1847, Stone became the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women’s rights & against slavery at a time when women were discouraged & prevented from public speaking. Stone was known for using her maiden name after marriage.
Stone’s organizational activities for the cause of women’s rights yielded tangible gains in the difficult political environment of the 19th century. Stone helped initiate the first National Women’s Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts & she supported & sustained it annually, along with a number of other local, state & regional activist conventions. She assisted in establishing the Woman’s National Loyal League to help pass the Thirteenth Amendment & thereby abolish slavery, after which she helped form the American Woman Suffrage Association AWSA, which built support for a woman suffrage Constitutional amendment by winning woman suffrage at the state & local levels.
In the long-running & influential Woman’s Journal, a weekly periodical that she founded & promoted, Stone aired both her own & differing views about women’s rights. Called “the orator”, the “morning star” & the “heart & soul” of the women’s rights movement, Stone influenced Susan B. Anthony to take up the cause of women’s suffrage. Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote that “Lucy Stone was the first person by whom the heart of the American public was deeply stirred on the woman question.”
1897 – Deathday of George Pullman, an American engineer & industrialist. He designed & manufactured the Pullman sleeping car & founded a enslaving ‘company town’ for the workers who manufactured it.
During an 1894 downturn in manufacturing demand, he lowered wages & required workers to spend longer hours at the plant, but did not lower prices of rents & goods in his company town. He gained presidential support by Grover Cleveland for the use of federal military troops which left 30 strikers dead in the violent suppression of workers there to end the Pullman Strike of 1894. A national commission was appointed to investigate the strike, which included assessment of operations of the company town. In 1898 the Supreme Court of Illinois ordered the Pullman Company to divest itself of the town which became a neighborhood of the city of Chicago
1902 – Founding of the German Section of the Theosophical Society in Belin with Rudolf Steiner as the General Secretary
1915 – J.P. Morgan arranges the biggest foreign loan in history – a $500 million war loan to Britain & France – passing global financial control from the UK to the US
1936 – Deathday of Lu Xun, a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. Writing in Vernacular Chinese as well as Classical Chinese, Lu Xun was a short story writer, editor, translator, literary critic, essayist, & poet. After the May Fourth Movement, Lu Xun’s writing began to exert a substantial influence on Chinese literature & popular culture. Though sympathetic to socialist ideas, Lu Xun never joined the Communist Party of China
1937 – Deathday of Ernest Rutherford, a New Zealand physicist & Nobel Prize laureate, who came to be known as the father of nuclear physics. Encyclopædia Britannica considers him to be the greatest experimentalist since Michael Faraday
He conducted research that led to the first “splitting” of the atom in 1917 in a nuclear reaction between nitrogen & alpha particles, in which he also discovered & named the proton
1950 – Deathday of Edna St. Vincent Millay, poet & playwright. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, the third woman to win the award for poetry, & was also known for her feminist activism. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work.
Save the Dates for Community Workings
October 21-22
Orionids Meteor Shower Predicted Peak
October 23
Venus at Greatest Western Elongation
October 28
Full Hunter’s Moon and Partial Lunar Eclipse
~Alex Gray
All Souls Festival – Election Day 7 November 2023
Community Prep-Stir / Bon-fire
Celebrating: The Festival of the Dead, & Martinmas
Greetings friends – Besides our Sunday Communion at the Christian Community Church here in Chicago, we also have services on Tuesdays & Thursday mornings. Not many folks come out on the weekdays, unless it falls on a Feast Day, so it’s essentially an offering for the Beloved Dead, & for the Beings of the Spiritual World. These intimate times are my favorite & I often serve at the altar on these days.
Today’s Gospel reading was from Ephesians 6: 10-20 – the last part of the last chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, authored by Saul who after his Damacus experience became Paul the Apostle.
I work closely with the synoptic Gospels. But I admit I have not spent much time with Peter & Paul who tend to prick my feminist sensibilities. But this Michaelic letter attributed to Paul set me on fire – It speaks directly to what we are facing now, especially in light of the up-coming Solar eclipse this Saturday 14 October 2023 – The 1st New Moon after the Autunmal Equinox.
When I got home, I picked up my bible & started reading Ephesians, where we are told in the first verse that it was written by “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God” (1:1)
This book is an epistle, meaning it’s a letter. And Paul wrote this particular letter, addressed to the Church in Ephesus, while he was being held captive as a prisoner in a Roman jail! .
Ephesus was once part of Greece, which today is near the western shores of modern-day Turkey, where the Aegean Sea meets the coast of Ionia.
The city was famous in its day for the Ancient Mystery School & Temple dedicated to Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which was burnt to the ground by an arsonist on 21 July 356 BC, the day Alexander the Great was born.
Rudolf Steiner speaks about the connection of Ephesus & the Temple of Artemis with the burning of the 1st Goetheanum in the ‘World History in the Light of Anthroposophy’ lectures he gave in the evenings during the Christmas Conference. We have referred to these lectures many times here on RR. They offer many occult clues that are very insightful, especially now 3 months before the 100 year anniversary of the Christmas Conference – When Steiner opened the New Mysteries of Anthroposophia to the world.
~Sigmund Gleismüller
Patmos an Island in Ephesus is where St. John the Divine wrote the Gospel of John, & the Book of Revelation thru the inspiration of Mother Mary, who lived with him there, & continued to inspire him after Her Assumption. Lazarus-John, who was ‘The Disciple whom Jesus Loved’ died many years later in that same place.
~Matthias Grünewald
From John 19:26-29, we hear: 26 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” 27 Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.”
Before going to prison, the Apostle Paul spent 3 years in Ephesus, speaking boldly, leading daily discussions, & doing extraordinary miracles by the power of God (Acts 19).
I would like to share what I heard read from the altar today by Rev. Jeana Lee:
Ephesians 6: The Armor of God
Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 6, 10-20 Translation by Rev Craig Wiggins
“What it comes to in the end is this: Let his strength and might flow through you in order to serve the Lord. Put on the full armor of God that you may withstand all the well-aimed attacks of the devil. For what we face is not a fight against blood and flesh, but against spirit-beings, against Archai, against Exousiai, against cosmic powers whose darkness rules the present time, against beings that are themselves powers of evil in the heavens and on the earth.
Therefore take up the God-given armor, so that you can withstand the evil on the day that it reaches its climax. You should stand there as those who follow everything through to the end.
Stand upright and gird your loins with truthfulness.
Strive for righteousness and balance in your judgement. It will shield your middle like a breastplate.
Shoe your feet with the readiness to proclaim the gospel of peace to all you meet.
Have faith in God that will provide you with a shield with which you can quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Think about the mystery of Christ’s deed of salvation that will protect your head as a helmet.
And grasp the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God in your speaking.
May this armour protect you in all your supplications and prayers, when you, at the right times, lift up your souls to the spirit and, in wakefulness and with tireless effort, make your intercessions for all who would know Christ’s healing power.
Take me, Paul, into your prayers as well, so that when I open my mouth the strength of the Word may be given me and I may courageously and openly expound the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am a messenger in chains.”
May we put this powerful Michaelic imagination to work for ourselves in the world!
~hag
10.10.23 – “Speaking with the Stars”: In the dawn twilight look for dazzling Venus (occult Mercury) in conjunction with Regulus – the Heart of Leo the Lion. Bella Luna in her waning mood will also be visible in the dome of the morning sky!
Today 10.10 begins the 16 day Hindu Festival for the dead Shradh Ekadashi. Offerings are also made to Vishnu ‘one who is everything and inside everything’ known as The Preserver within the Trimurti, the triple deity of supreme divinity that includes Brahma, the Sustainer & Shiva, the Destroyer.
All are welcome to meet on the inner planes during any part of the duration of the Solar eclipse – which Spiritual Science tells us is like the releasing of a safety valve – allowing the unbridled astral urges of the adversarial forces living in humanity, which are normally held in check by the spiritual beings working in the rays of the Sun, to instead surge out to infect the cosmic spaces, including our beloved dead & the unborn. (More on this soon)
We are all set for the Michaelmas Speaking with the Stars retreat 13-15 October 2023 at Cahokia Mounds – a sacred Mississippian Indian site in Collinsville, Illinois, called by the ancients: Sun City.
Save the Dates for Community Workings
October 14
Annular Solar Eclipse
October 21-22
Orionids Meteor Shower Predicted Peak
October 23
Venus at Greatest Western Elongation
October 28
Full Hunter’s Moon and Partial Lunar Eclipse
All Souls Festival – Election Day 7 November 2023
Community Prep-Stir / Bon-fire
Celebrating: The Festival of the Dead, & Martinmas
Dear friends – What would it be like to re-think the Michaelmas-Tide as a Moveable Feast like Easter?
When living into the Festival Life in the Cycle of the Year as a Path of Initiation, many occult realities are waiting to be unveiled, renewed & applied. One such open secret which we have been exploring here is the connection between Michaelmas & Easter.
The goal of the Michaelmas Festival is to be reborn at the time of death. And the maxim of Easter is that we must die to be reborn.
Michaelmas which has been called a Festival of the Future, that we are co-creating NOW, is celebrated on the fixed date of 29 September – the Feast Day of St. Michael & All The Heavenly Hosts.
But we also know that it is a Season – a Tide – that begins with the Perseid Meteor Showers – bringing in the Cosmic Iron needed to fortify our blood – the antidote to the luciferic forces of Summer’s expansion, at the end of August.
We are entering now the next phase: The Draconid Meteor Showers radiating from the Dragon’s Eyes – the stars Eltanin & Rastaban – in the constellation Draco.
Then in late October we encounter The Orionid Meteor Showers taking us into the All Souls Season.
~Umbra Perchiazzi
Recognizing this Michaelmas-Tide has brought many powerful Festival experiences.
“Life after death Life before birth Only by knowing both Do we know eternity” ~ Rudolf Steiner
We know that Easter-Tide: The Resurrection, Ascension, Pentecost events are Moveable Feasts – determined by a cosmic alignment: The 1st Sunday after the 1st Full Moon after the Vernal Equinox.
~Umbra Perchiazzi
What will it do for our experience to bring in the cosmic connection of the alignment of Sun, Moon & Earth to Michaelmas? To include a contemplation of the timing of the New Moon after the Autumnal Equinox..? Something long time RR contributor Steve Hale has suggested over the years.
Because of the meteoric activity, which brings a cosmic clearing on all levels, I had not felt a strong urge to reverse the Easter alignment & apply it to the Michaelmas Season.
But this year I noticed that the first New Moon after the Autumnal Equinox on Saturday 14 October 2023, will be a Solar Eclipse!
So this caught my attention, & is leading me to consider bringing a consciousness of the Movable Feast into this cosmic coincidence.
Although I do feel that the 1st Sunday after the Autumnal Equinox after the 1st New Moon which is Oct. 15 this year, feels too far in, & way too close to the All Souls Season to count as the Start of the Michaelmas – perhaps it can be seen as the herald of the end?
Just as it is interesting to parallel it with 15 August: The Feast of the Assumption of the BVM, as a start.
And which we can also connect to the creation of a New Vidar/Ramael Festival that we can conceive of around that August time – a heralding of the Michaelmas Fest.
So dear friends, I am proposing we take advantage of this calling to attend the Solar Eclipse on the 1st New Moon after the Autumnal Equinox as Michaelic Warriors for Peace – Holding the powers of the Sun during the time of darkness.
All are invited to tune into our Project Thought-Seed (Egregore 10:10) which is all about co-creating an imagination of the Earth as a Sun.
We must become spiritual warriors, & endeavor to take up the practice of building up positive imaginations on the inner planes as a counterforce to the adversarial forces working in all worlds. This is a “key-call” to the Spiritual Powers aligned with love & light, to enlist their aid.
Our Good Will becomes a cosmic energy field for healing: “Seed ideas in the group mind of humanity”, of our highest intentions for the evolution of humanity – that the Earth may become a Sacred Planet – a Sun – & every Human Being a Star.
“What is sown in our highest thought will grow and bear seed.”
We can picture Mighty Spiritual Beings noticing our shining. Then we become a beacon which calls for a response. Powerful forces will reply -sending their protection & energy to us on Earth. Then we can work with them to collectively surround any disharmony, embracing with compassion all discord, bringing dis-ease into the light of healing wholeness…
Here is the Meditative Thought-Seed I love to work with:
For Thinking: “When I think light, my soul shines, When my soul shines, the Earth is a star, When the Earth is a star, I am, a true human being”. ~Herbert Hahn In Reverse: I am, a true human being The Earth is a Star My soul Shines I think Light
For Feeling: When I feel Love, my heart sings When my heart sings, the Earth resounds When the Earth resounds, I am, a true I AM In Reverse: I am, a True I Am The Earth Resounds My Heart Sings I Feel Love
For Willing: When I will life, my hands help When my hands help, the Earth heals When the Earth heals, I am, a free human being In Reverse: I Am, a Free Human Being The Earth Heals My Hands Help I Will Life
~hag
We can also employ this powerful Verse for the Michaelic Age:
We must eradicate from the soul all fear and terror Of what approaches us from the future.
We must acquire serenity in all feelings and sensations About the future.
We must look forward with absolute equanimity To whatever may come.
And we must think only that whatever comes Is given to us by a cosmic guidance full of wisdom.
It is part of what we must learn in this age, namely, To live without any security in material existence And to live with pure trust in the ever-present help of the spiritual world.
Truly, nothing else will do if our courage is not to fail us.
For this let us seek awakening To the reality of the spirit From within ourselves, Every morning and every evening.
Together, Dear friends we can co-create a New Michaelmas-Tide – a circle of protection & light, in the Christic center of the Universe, which has its eternal point within our heart – Ever reflecting out to the periphery of eternal becoming.
The 1st New Moon after the Autumnal Equinox –Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, annular solar eclipse
For those who would like to gather in person I will be facilitating a Michaelmas Speaking with the Stars retreat 13-15 October 2023 at Cahokia Mounds – a sacred Mississippian Indian site in Collinsville, Illinois, called by the ancients: Sun City. We will gather to co-create ‘a New Group-Soul United in Christ’ thru Art-Acts, & other activities to consciously rise in our thinking, collectively building a cogitative imagination of Sophia-Michael-Christ, embracing all worlds with love & light. We will be working in the ‘Woodhenge’ zodiac site, as well as Monks Mound, & the Mississippi River trail. Space is limited contact Hazel@ReverseRitual.com
~hag
“For in the past, festivals used to bind human beings strongly together. Just think, for instance, of all that has been done and said and thought in connection with festivals for the whole of civilisation.
In our epoch, Western humanity’s development has again reached a point where we are confronted with the necessity of bringing forth new forms of the venerable, sacred ideals of religion, art and science.
This is what can enter physical life through the establishment of festivals directly out of the spirit – to do something that connects the earth with the heavens, that reconnects physical with spiritual conditions.
If to-day one could see the working of the whole universe when Autumn approaches, if one could decipher the whole face of the universe, and acquire creative force out of it, then the establishment of such a festival would reveal, not only the will of human beings, but also the will of Gods and Spirits. Then the Spirit would again be among humankind!” ~Rudolf Steiner – Michaelmas VII: The Creation of A Michael Festival Out Of The Spirit
6 October 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bella Luna in her Last Quarter Phase
Like the Solar Wheel of the year – There are 8 Lunar Phases in the 29.53 day cycle. The 4 major Moon phases are Full Moon, New Moon, First Quarter &Last Quarter. Between these major phases, there are 4 minor ones: Waxing Crescent, Waxing Gibbous, Waning Gibbous & Waning Crescent.
Interesting to observe & ponder:
A New Moon in Gemini appears highest at the Summer Solstice & in Sagittarius it is lowest at the Winter Solstice.
A First-Quarter Moon appears highest at the Spring Equinox & lowest at the Autumn Equinox.
The Full Cold Moon appears highest at the Winter Solstice & the Strawberry-Honey Moon is lowest at the Summer Solstice.
A Last-Quarter Moon appears highest at the Autumn Equinox (Michaelmas-Tide) & lowest at the Spring Equinox (Easter-Tide)
Save the Dates for Community Workings
October 14
Annular Solar Eclipse
October 21-22
Orionids Meteor Shower Predicted Peak
October 23
Venus at Greatest Western Elongation
October 28
Full Hunter’s Moon and Partial Lunar Eclipse
All Souls Festival – Election Day 7 November 2023
Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire
Celebrating: The Festival of the Dead, & Martinmas
6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile
Please Bring Food & Drink to share, & a jar for the prep
Greetings friends – There is so much to contemplate during this Michaelmas Season. Virtue for SEPT 21 – OCT 20 – Contentment becomes Equanimity. OPPOSITE: Dissatisfaction
At this time, the flowers wither, fruit & nuts fall from the trees & decompose, leaving their empty husks on the ground; grains are sorted or stored before being sown, to ensure a new cycle of growth. This process of decomposition & sorting also concerns the human being.
Just as the fruit is separated from the tree & the seed from the fruit, so is the soul separated from the body, in sleep, in meditation, in death…The body is the envelope -the wrapping – & the soul is the seed that is planted in the soil of the spiritual world.
The human being is a fruit…& when we are ripe, we must not fall to the ground like the fruits & seeds of the earth, we must journey with consciousness into the spiritual world.
Autumn is the season for that separation of which Hermes Trismegistus speaks: ‘You shall separate the subtle from the gross, gently and with great skill.’
To separate the subtle from the gross is to separate the spiritual from the material, & the whole of nature undergoes this process of alchemy at Autumn-Tide, in preparation for the coming of new light & life. And yet most people have no idea what to cut out or re-cycle: they swallow everything whole, & are rarely content.
And so this is what we have to learn from Michael: Discernment! Which is also the counter measure to cast out Ahriman – We must discern what to choose, & how to separate the pure from the impure, the useful from the useless, the harmful from the beneficial.
The absence of judgment in this respect is the cause of many misfortunes. Michaelmas is resplendently rich in meaning for those who understand that it can bring them the courage to cultivate true freedom & liberation.
So put the sword of Michael to use, to bless & bestow, as well as to cut away what does not serve – To separate the wheat from the chaff -To sharpen the mind & protect the heart.
Stand as a peaceful warrior for change
~hag
5 October 1872 – the Birthday of Friedrich Rittelmeyer, a Protestant German minister, & theologian; friend of Rudolf Steiner; co-founder & driving force of The Christian Community.
Growing up in Frankish Schweinfurt – his father was a Lutheran minister – it was already clear to him as a child that he wanted to go into a religious profession. From 1890 Rittelmeyer studied philosophy & Protestant theology. His teacher Oswald Külpe, encouraged him to write his dissertation on Friedrich Nietzsche.
He also went on a study trip to meet theologians & socially-engaged ministers of the time, as well as members of the Moravian Church. From 1895 to 1902 he was at the Stadtvikar in Würzburg. In 1903 he took up the preachership of Heilig-Geist-Kirche in Nuremberg. There he married Julie Kerler on 5 April 1904. Rittelmeyer worked & closely collaborated with Christian Geyer, the head preacher of the Sebalduskirche, together they produced two joint volumes of sermons. Around 1910 they both led discussions with the Bavarian church council on a liberal interpretation of the Bible.
Also inn 1910 the Nuremberg school teacher Michael Bauer enabled Rittelmeyer to have his first encounter with Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy. Rittelmeyer described the encounter & discussed Steiner’s personality & work in his book ‘Rudolf Steiner Enters my Life’.
Rudolf Steiner Comes Into My Life by Friedrich Rittelmeyer
“It was on August 28th, 1911, the anniversary of Goethe’s birthday, that I saw Rudolf Steiner for the first time. I had to go on a short journey and I managed to attend the Theosophical Summer Conference at Munich on the Sunday. For six months, practically all my spare time had been devoted to reading Dr. Steiner’s works, but I still had no thought as yet of joining the Society. In spite of this, I was allowed to attend all the meetings without any kind of obligation. When I went into the room I was surprised at the atmosphere I found there. The audience, for the most part, gave one an impression of strangeness. A certain type of passive, sensation-mongering mentality troubled me. Especially when I saw men with long hair, my impulse was to run away. Later on, all these things changed decidedly for the better, when the “theosophical” shells were laid aside and Rudolf Steiner began to attract more and more men of a scientific turn of mind. He certainly suffered a great deal in those earlier years, but out of respect for personal freedom he did not on principle enter into external trivialities of this kind and tried gradually to educate the people from within.
What pleased me was the evidence of a mood of festive devotion. It was not difficult to see that this was a festival of man. These people were filled with joy that they were in the presence of one whom they felt to be quite out of the common, a leader worthy of all respect, and who yet went about among them as a man among other men. Although I felt an outsider, and was repelled by many things I saw, I was interested to find how genuinely and sincerely a man was being regarded as an “event” in humanity. Everything breathed in honour of manhood, for these people felt themselves in the presence of a great figure of the human race. Something of this kind must have been experienced before one can realise the silent effect which a single individual can have upon those around him. This was particularly in evidence during the dramatic performances. Those who took part were not presenting their art with an eye to Press and public, but as if they felt a higher being looking through them, and they were therefore striving without personal vanity to offer their sacrifices in the revealed presence of a Divine world. Quite a new conception of art as worship arose within me...
Here, in very truth, was a kingly mind in the realms of knowledge, far-seeing and mighty in its freedom. He let a science of Nature come to flower around us, a wisdom far more stimulating than the dead knowledge of the day and a science in which religion could breathe anew...
In everything I said and asked I found myself in the presence of an unmistakable expert. There was nothing I could say that he did not seem already to know. Whereas in other conversations I had had with outstanding men I always refrained from speaking about certain experiences because one was accustomed to find no understanding, here I could touch upon whatever intimate and delicate subjects I liked and was always answered by genuine human kindliness and a superior power that could not but inspire every confidence...
If only people could have seen how he spoke of these matters in personal conversation! His great dark eyes became even more alert. With a consciousness of responsibility than which nothing greater or purer could be imagined, he spoke every word with hesitation. It was as if, all unseen, he had passed into a temple where he was acting before the eyes of higher powers. One could have wished that all the sensitive minds of humanity had been present to witness such a spectacle! If the teaching of reincarnation were to be renewed in a Christian sense it could not have been entrusted to a more scrupulous mind...
Only a warped nature could fail to perceive that here one was standing in the very light of truth. The man before us was telling of a world in which he himself was living. The many hundreds of sermons I had heard about Christ came up in the background of my mind. They faded into shadows. “We speak of that which we do know and testify of that which we have seen.” — A new proclamation of Christ was there. A new Christ-era was dawning — as yet in the first faint rays of the promised morning. The lecture itself spoke of this — spoke without the least trace of selfish longing for what has yet to come, proclaiming simply what is and would like to bestow itself upon us. Anyone who witnessed this could doubt no longer but that a fully authorized servant of Christ was standing before him...
There was also far too much easy chattering about anthroposophical truths and a great deal of blind following of the leader of Anthroposophy. Such is the tragedy that is bound up with greatness, a tragedy that will always be there when a great man appears. But Rudolf Steiner never failed to let it be known that the men he liked best were those who stood before him in freedom and self-assurance. Even wilfulness did not altogether displease him, although he could not regard it as a quality likely to promote the cause of Anthroposophy. The way in which he combined the pressing need of the cause with respect for personal freedom always called forth my unqualified admiration. If it were a matter of choosing, he invariably put the freedom of a man before the needs of the cause. For he regarded the future temple of mankind as lost if it were built upon mediæval foundations...”
In 1916 Rittelmeyer was sent to the Neue Kirche in Berlin, working as preacher there. He opposed the First World War, & with 4 other Berlin theologians signed a proclamation of peace & understanding on the occasion of Reformation Day (October 1917).
In September 1922 he established the “Movement for Religious Revival” (Christengemeinschaft) Rittelmeyer acted as its first “Erzoberlenker” or Head Priest, & from its base in Stuttgart was the leading envoy right up to his death. To do this great deed he sacrificed his eminent position within the Lutheran Chruch, in order to lead The Christian Community, an international movement for religious renewal founded with the co-operation of Rudolf Steiner.
1921 – French journalist Jules Sauerwein, Interviewed Rudolf Steiner about the cause of WW1. ‘Of all the kings, monarchs, presidents, ministers, scholars, artists, writers and prominent figures in business whom I have come to know in the course of the decades of my profession, none has made such a deep impression on me as the German philosopher Rudolf Steiner.’
ESSAYS ON THE THREEFOLD DIVISION OF THE SOCIAL ORGANISM, GA 24
“You know that if your opponents are to be believed, the Chief of General Staff is said to have lost his head first and then the Battle of the Marne because of you.”
That is the question that I asked the famous spiritual researcher and sociologist Rudolf Steiner, born German-Austrian. I have had sincere admiration and friendly feelings for him for more than fifteen years. It gave me great satisfaction at the time to translate several of his theosophical works into French. Whenever my travels permit, I do not fail to visit Dr. when passing through Basel. Steiner in Dornach to pay a short visit.
This time I met him again at the strange and enormous building, which was given the name Goetheanum by his students in honor of Goethe as a forerunner of spiritual science. I have already written in “Matin” about the man as well as about the building and its wonderful location, on the last foothills of the Jura crowned by castle ruins.
Rudolf Steiner had just returned from Germany after giving lectures on his teachings to thousands of enthusiastic listeners in Stuttgart and Berlin. On the same day in Dornach he received a group of 120 theologians with whom he discussed theological and religious questions. A number of these theologians, on the basis of Dr. Steiner’s teachings to tackle a redesign of religious life.
Dr. Steiner was currently working on a huge group in wood sculpture depicting Christ and the underlying seductive powers, Lucifer and Ahriman. This is one of the most impressive creations I have ever seen; it will form the central end of the smaller domed room in the Goetheanum. As I watched the listeners climb the hill in small groups to gather for the lecture, Dr. Steiner from the attacks of his opponents. Clericals and pan-Germans and fanatical followers of various religious denominations fight against him with every weapon and at every opportunity.
The fear of the truth
When I asked him directly the question about General von Moltke, he directed his piercing eyes at me, which looked at me from a face furrowed by forty years of intense intellectual struggle.
«What you tell me doesn’t surprise me. No means will be shied away from to expel me from Germany and possibly also from Switzerland. These attacks come from a variety of backgrounds. But insofar as they extend to my relationships with Moltke, they have a very specific goal. They want to prevent the publication of some notes that Moltke made for his family before his death and which I should arrange for publication in bookstores with the consent of Mrs. von Moltke.
These memoirs should have been published in 1919. Immediately before its publication, a person in charge of the Prussian diplomatic representation in Stuttgart visited me to tell me that this publication was impossible and that they would not want it in Berlin. Later a general who had been in positions with General von Moltke and Wilhelm II came to me and gave me the same ideas. I protested against this and wanted to ignore it. I thought of turning to Count von Brockdorff-Rantzau, who was then in Versailles; but couldn’t achieve anything. My efforts were all the more unsuccessful because at the same time Ms. von Moltke was approached with ideas that she could not escape.
Why these fears? These memoirs are by no means an indictment of the imperial government. But what they show, perhaps worse, is that the imperial government was in a state of complete confusion and under an incomprehensibly careless and ignorant leadership. One can apply the sentence that I wrote down in my foreword to the responsible personalities: <It was not what they did that contributed to the calamity, but the entire nature of their personalities.>
I can add that it was due to the peculiar circumstances that ultimately the weight of the decisive resolutions fell on a single man, the Chief of General Staff, who saw himself forced to do his military duty because politics was at a standstill had arrived. I never spoke to him about political or military questions before Moltke resigned. It was only later, when he was seriously ill, that he naturally spoke openly to me about all these matters, and since this will interest you, I will tell you what he told me himself and what can also be seen from his unpublished memoirs.
At the end of June 1914, Moltke, who had been chief of staff since 1905, went to Karlsbad for health reasons. Until his death he knew nothing about a Potsdam meeting on July 5th or 6th. He only returned to Berlin in good health after the ultimatum to Serbia. Since his return, he said, he had been firmly convinced that Russia was going to attack. He clearly foresaw the tragic development that things were bound to take, that is, he believed in the participation of France and England in the world conflict. He wrote a memorandum for the emperor that pointed out the need for measures to be taken. The German General Staff’s plan had essentially been fixed for a long time. It was set up by Moltke’s predecessor, von Schlieffen. You know its basics: Large masses were to be thrown against France in order to achieve a rapid decision in the West at any cost. A weak defensive army was planned against Russia, which was to be replenished later following the decision in the western theater of war.
Beguiled people
Von Moltke had changed his predecessor’s plan in one important point. While Schlieffen had planned to march through Belgium and Holland at the same time, Moltke had renounced Holland in order to give Germany breathing space in the event of a blockade.
When Moltke came to the castle on Friday, July 31st, he found people completely confused. As he said, he had the impression that he found himself in the position of having to make a decision all on his own. On that day, the Kaiser did not yet sign the mobilization order, an order which in Germany was tantamount to a declaration of war, because as soon as this order was given, everything, including the first operation at certain hours, took place with an inexorable automatism. For that day, Wilhelm II contented himself with proclaiming the impending danger of war. The following day, on Saturday, August 1st, at four o’clock in the afternoon, he summoned Moltke again, and over the next six hours the following drama unfolded.
Moltke meets the Kaiser in the presence of Bethmann Hollweg, whose knees were literally shaking, the War Minister Falkenhayn, General von Plessen, Lyncker and a few others. The Kaiser strongly objected to the Chief of Staff’s intentions. He says he received the best news from England. Not only would England remain neutral – as George V informed him – but she would even prevent France from taking part in the war. Under these conditions it would be logical to throw the entire army against Russia. No, Moltke replied, the plan must be carried out in the East and the West as it was determined if we do not want to bring about the greatest disaster.
The technical reasons
The objections don’t affect Moltke; he refuses to change anything. He argues that the mobilization order must be followed without any delay. He does not believe in the English telegrams, and with the mobilization order in hand that William II has just signed, he is dismissed, leaving the others in a state of complete confusion. So it came about that the decision to break out of war had to be made for purely military reasons. On the way from the castle to the general staff, his car is overtaken by an imperial automobile. Moltke is recalled on behalf of the emperor. The emperor is more excited than ever. He shows his chief of staff a telegram from England. He believes he can see with absolute certainty from this telegram that that the conflict would be confined to the East and that England and France would remain neutral. <There must, he concludes, <immediately be given an order to the army not to act in the West.> Moltke’s answer is that an army cannot be subjected to the alternative of orders and counter-orders. Then, while Moltke stood by, the Kaiser turned to the wing adjutant on duty and ordered him to immediately convey the order to the command of the 16th Division in Trier that they should not march into Luxembourg. Moltke goes home. Shocked because he expects the greatest disaster to come from such measures, he sits down at his table. He explains that he cannot take any measures for the army in accordance with the Emperor’s telephone order. This order is brought to you by an adjutant for your signature. He refuses to sign and postpones the order. He remained in a state of dull exhaustion until 11 o’clock in the evening, even though he had returned from Carlsbad in good health. The bell will ring at 11 a.m. The emperor asks about him again. He immediately goes to the castle. Wilhelm II, who had already retired, throws on a dressing gown and says: Everything has changed. Calamity is approaching. The King of England has just declared in a new telegram that he has been misunderstood and that he assumes no obligation on either his behalf or that of France. He concludes by saying: Now you can do whatever you want. And now the war begins. despite the fact that he had returned from Carlsbad completely healthy. The bell will ring at 11 a.m. The emperor asks about him again. He immediately goes to the castle. Wilhelm II, who had already retired, throws on a dressing gown and says: Everything has changed. Calamity is approaching. The King of England has just declared in a new telegram that he has been misunderstood and that he assumes no obligation on either his behalf or that of France. He concludes by saying: Now you can do whatever you want. And now the war begins. despite the fact that he had returned from Carlsbad completely healthy. The bell will ring at 11 a.m. The emperor asks about him again. He immediately goes to the castle. Wilhelm II, who had already retired, throws on a dressing gown and says: Everything has changed. Calamity is approaching. The King of England has just declared in a new telegram that he has been misunderstood and that he assumes no obligation on either his behalf or that of France. He concludes by saying: Now you can do whatever you want. And now the war begins. Everything has changed. Calamity is approaching. The King of England has just declared in a new telegram that he has been misunderstood and that he assumes no obligation on either his behalf or that of France. He concludes by saying: Now you can do whatever you want. And now the war begins. Everything has changed. Calamity is approaching. The King of England has just declared in a new telegram that he has been misunderstood and that he assumes no obligation on either his behalf or that of France. He concludes by saying: Now you can do whatever you want. And now the war begins.
Gloomy omens
In the month of August I saw General von Moltke once, on August 27th in Koblenz. Our conversation revolved around purely human matters. The German army was still in full victory. There was also no reason to talk about what wasn’t there yet. The Battle of the Marne unfolded later. I hadn’t seen Moltke again until then. It took place under conditions which must have profoundly shaken von Moltke’s expectations. During the test maneuvers he had several times carried out a cautious advance on the right wing, which could have been considered for a march on Paris. Kluck, who had overall command of the right wing, advanced too quickly three times. Every time Moltke said to him, If you advance just as quickly at the crucial moment, we will lose the war in an emergency. When Kluck’s army was threatened with being surrounded, Moltke found himself gripped by a terrible premonition. The thought occurred to him: the war could be lost for Germany. That seems to me to be part of the <psychology> of the course of the war. When von Moltke returned to headquarters on September 13th, he gave the impression of a deeply shaken man. Those around the emperor thought he was sick. From that moment on, Falkenhayn was in fact in command, without having the official title. Later, when Moltke had to stay in bed, Wilhelm II visited him. Am I still in charge of the operations? he asked the emperor. “I actually believe that you still are,” Wilhelm II replied.
But now a new example of the opinion that people had of Wilhelm II in his own environment. One day, when von Moltke described to me the feelings of deep suffering he felt returning via Belgium after the capture of Antwerp, I asked him for the first time about the invasion of Belgium. How come, I asked. that a war minister could claim in the Reichstag that the plan to invade Belgium did not exist. This minister, replied Moltke, did not know my plan, but the Chancellor was up to date. And the emperor? Never, said Moltke: he was too talkative and indiscreet. He would have told the whole world! » ~Jules Sauerwein.
The lecture cycle now being published in its entirety for the first time in English has always been known as the “French Course” for an interesting reason — although it is directed to anthroposophists everywhere as much as any other of Rudolf Steiner’s major cycles. The course was given in September, 1922 exclusively to members of the Society, and it was held in the old Goetheanum. French members were specially invited, and a considerable number of them were present. A French translation was provided by Jules Sauerwein, a distinguished bilingual French member, editor of Le Matin, the leading Parisian newspaper of the time, whose sister Alice was to become in the following year the first General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in France. Determined to spare no effort to make the cycle, difficult and detailed though it was, comprehensible to the French members present, Rudolf Steiner every night prepared an outline of what he was to say, and gave it to Jules Sauerwein the following morning, so that he could study it and decide how best he could translate it into French. During the lectures Steiner paused three or four times to allow him to translate the gist of what he had said, a procedure he followed also with George Adams Kauffman during these years when the audience was composed of English-speaking members…
The outline prepared by Rudolf Steiner for Jules Sauerwein has survived, and it is extremely interesting to compare it with the course. Steiner explained on several occasions that when he lectured he spoke always directly out of his supersensible perception of the spiritual worlds and could never speak out of what he remembered or had given previously. It will be evident that he did not deviate from his rule even when he had given his translator an outline of what the night before he had decided he would say. Especially the last highly esoteric lectures of the course when he speaks of the influence of the Christ in earth evolution go so much farther than the outline that Sauerwein must have felt he had been given little enough to help him through his exceptionally difficult task.” ~ Stewart C. Easton
5 October 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The last-quarter Moon awaits night owls, as it hangs over late-rising Gemini
610 – Coronation of Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, responsible for introducing Greek as the Eastern Empire’s official language. The year Heraclius came to power, the empire was threatened on multiple frontiers. Heraclius drove the Persians out of Asia Minor and pushed deep into their territory, defeating them decisively in 627 at the Battle of Nineveh. Then peaceful relations were restored to the two deeply strained empires.
Heraclius soon experienced a new event, the Muslim conquests. Within a short period of time, the Arabs conquered Mesopotamia, Armenia & Egypt.
Heraclius entered diplomatic relations with the Croats & Serbs in the Balkans. He tried to repair the schism in the Christian church by promoting a compromise doctrine called Monothelitism. Eventually, however, this project of unity was rejected by all sides of the dispute.
Heraclius was long remembered in the Western church for his reputed feat in recovering the True Cross, which had been captured by the Persians.
After a tour of the Empire Heraclius returned the cross on March 21, 630. For Christians of the Western Medieval Europe, Heraclius was the “first crusader”. The iconography of the emperor appeared in the sanctuary at Mont Saint-Michel. The story was included in the Golden Legend, the famous 13th century compendium of hagiography, and he is sometimes shown in art showing scenes of Heraclius & Constantine I’s mother Saint Helena, traditionally responsible for the excavation of the cross.
The scene usually shown is Heraclius carrying the cross; according to the Golden Legend he insisted on doing this as he entered Jerusalem, against the advice of the Patriarch. At first, when he was on horseback (shown above), the burden was too heavy, but after he dismounted & removed his crown it became miraculously light, & the barred city gate opened of its own accord
~Fra Filippo Lippi
6th Century – Feast day of Saint Placidus & Saint Maurus, disciples of Saint Benedict. Legend has it that Saint Maurus was sent a dream – an order from Saint Benedict’s to rescue Placidus from drowning. Maurus ran across the surface of the lake below the monastery, & drew Placidus safely to shore.
1789 – French Revolution: Women of Paris march to Versailles to confront Louis XVI of France about his refusal to promulgate the decrees on the abolition of feudalism, demand bread, & have the King & his court moved to Paris.
1793 – French Revolution: Christianity is disestablished in France
1864 – The Indian city of Calcutta is almost totally destroyed by a cyclone; 60,000 die
1948 – The 1948 Ashgabat earthquake kills 110,000, equivalent to almost 10% of the USSR’s Turkmen population. Due to censorship by the national (Soviet Turkmen) government, the event was not widely reported in the USSR’s media. Historians tend to agree that the ban on reporting the extent of the casualties & damage did not allow the central Soviet government to allocate enough financial resources to adequately respond
1966 – Near Detroit, Michigan, there is a partial core meltdown at the Enrico Fermi demonstration nuclear breeder reactor
1970 – The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is founded
1982 – Chicago Tylenol murders: Johnson & Johnson initiates a nationwide product recall in the United States for all products in its Tylenol brand after several bottles in Chicago are found to have been laced with cyanide, resulting in seven deaths
1986 – Israeli secret nuclear weapons are revealed. The British newspaper The Sunday Times runs Mordechai Vanunu’s story on its front page under the headline: “Revealed — the secrets of Israel’s nuclear arsenal”
All Souls Festival – Election Day 7 November 2023
Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire
Celebrating: The Festival of the Dead, & Martinmas
6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile
Please Bring Food & Drink to share, & a jar for the prep
RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com
Save the Dates for Community Workings TBA:
October 14
Annular Solar Eclipse
October 21-22
Orionids Meteor Shower Predicted Peak
October 23
Venus at Greatest Western Elongation
October 28
Full Hunter’s Moon and Partial Lunar Eclipse
The 1st New Moon after the Autumnal Equinox –Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, annular solar eclipse
Global Event: Total Solar Eclipse Local Type: Total Solar Eclipse in Fort Worth, Texas Begins: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 12:22 pm Maximum: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 1:41 pm 1.005 Magnitude Ends: Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 3:01 pm Duration: 2 hours, 39 minutes Totality: 2 minutes, 34 seconds
Greetings Friends– Before going out to Zinniker – The oldest Biodynamic Farm in America for our Michaelmas Farm Day experience today, I thought to share some thoughts that I hold of Joan d’Arc – a true Christic Warroior inspired by Michael. A few years back our Michaelmas Festival was inspired byJoan of Arc. I called it ‘PURIFYING FIRE: The Power behind the Will’.
My research led me to many amazing resources, including Mark Twain’s heart-felt Book, as well as the work of Anthroposopher Joan M. Edmunds. But my main source came from Rudolf Steiner who gives us many insights into this powerful individuality.
Now I can’t help but think of Joan when it comes to Michaelmas. And Yesterday while getting ready to serve at the Christian Community, my co-server came in wearing one of the red T-shirts with Joan’s likeness on it that everyone got who was involved with that Fest. (Thanks Mary & Deborah!) I had almost worn mine. I love these little clues that work thru to inspire us to take initiative.
I was particularly taken by what Steiner says in ‘The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations, Lecture 5, The Nature of the Christ Impulse and the Michaelic Sprit Serving It. Berlin, 1915’; a lecture series he gave right at the start of the 1st world war. I felt called to make that my personal focus. I didn’t get a chance to share it at our Festival since I wanted to keep it more experienical, so here it is for your contemplation. I hope it moves you to take action as it did me.
What is the mission of The Maid of Orleans?
From the time of her enchanted childhood playing around the village ‘fairy tree’ – & then, starting at the age of 12 – & for 7 years till she was martyred at age 19, Jehanne (feminine form of Joannes or John) d’Arc was inspired into by progressive Beings of the Divine Spiritual World. These powers battled the inflammatory Luciferic forces of deception prevailing in humanity at that special time right before the beginning of the Consciousness Soul Age.
Joan of Arc, with the aid of Michael, (& his helpers St. Catherine & St. Margaret) was able to vanquish the seductive Luciferic forces which were vying to prevent this shift in human consciousness.
Steiner describes the miracle of her birth, how she went thru a sort of pre-earthy initiation during the potent time of the 13 Holy nights, incarnating on Epiphany, the day the Christ came into a human being at the Baptism.
And we can also point to her equally auspicious death. Yes it was gruesome, not unlike like the sacrifice of the Christ. In her case, it occurred because all the jealous, selfish, Luciferic forces of her enemies joined together to bring about her sacrifice by fire; not unlike the burning of Ephesus & of the 1st Goetheanum.
At what can in truth be be called her witch trial, she predicted her own death, & said that within 7 years after of her sacrifice: “the English would meet with a much greater reversal of fortune than any they had known before”.
Spiritual Science tells us that the soul of Joan of Arc continued working across the Threshold to shape these events after her death.
What the spiritual powers have to bring about will occur whatever the external conditions may be.
Many great individualities are working with us even now from across the threshold.
The Maid’s adversaries were able to bring about her death, but they were NOT able to prevent her mission.
The power behind the will of the Maid of Orleans, the forces of Michael, are working still against the immoral Luciferic forces that rage in the world.
Dear friends, as you are all so keenly aware, we are also having to deal with hostile forces in our time; but now-a-days these are predominantly Ahrimanic forces; not inflaming, but hardening, materialistic forces, that have come up with the industrial age. These forces are in evidence everywhere, especially if we turn our attention not only to the mechanical element, but thru-out cyber space; a distractive shrouding of the reappearance of the Christ in the etheric.
And so Spiritual science tells us that if we remain unconscious of these forces working into our sense impressions, we are offering an abode to the dragon that seeks to stupefy us. These sclerotic forces influence our earth life, creating the fearful events happening NOW all over the globe.
~Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
In the above mentioned 1917 lecture, Steiner talks about how a sort of denial of the build up to the 1st World War had been present for a long time in the astral world, but was held back by something that was also astral: by the fear, doubt & hatred held in the feeling life of human beings. These negative astral forces were able to hold the war back, to prevent it, for a while. Steiner says: “…at 1st a fearful denial was able to stop war from breaking out. But then with the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, there emerged a ‘reversal event’ – this recalls the words from Joan of Arc: “the English would meet with a much greater reversal than any they had known before”.
In that case the selfish Luciferic forces came back to destroy the English reign after the sacrifice of Joan of Arc; and in this case – of the world war, all the elements of fear from the ahrimanic powers began to gather around the sacrificed soul of the Archduke, creating a focal point, a tear at the threshold.
It’s hard to really phantom this, but we know that anything that has a specific character on the physical plane will have the opposite character in the spiritual world. Everything is reversed in the spiritual world.
An element that had a blocking effect, keeping the 1st world war at bay, was now acting in the opposite way, as a spur, an incitement, to war.
So we see that a flip of the elements of fear, of the deceiving Ahrimanic elements, became a catalyst for war, which now a 100 years later, has led to the events of our present age, where there is constant war, in all realms of society.
But fear not dear friends, Steiner tells us that we must not try to deny or rebel against these materialistic Ahrimanic elements. We must let them strengthen us; we must develop the courage of Michael to see it as something that is necessary in our time, something that has to be present, so that we can learn to reverse the fear thru our heart-thinking – transforming these forces of resistance thru love.
The question is: How do we make it possible for divine spiritual forces, the ‘ever present help of the spiritual world’, to enter into our actions so that we can consciously reverse The Beasts of fear, doubt & hatred?
How do we offer a positive resistance to this deceptive Ahrimanic element in our age, the way resistance was offered to the Luciferic element at the time of Joan of Arc?
– By taking the path towards a spiritualization of human culture – by cultivating our ability to form ideas & concepts into a thinking will for good. This is the prerequisite foundation needed to manifest the 3-fold social organism. Which we can only do if we stop listening to the prejudices & propaganda currently pounding us deeper into the materialism of our age – a voice that speaks loudly at times, or can be the faintest of whispers from the dragon within.
We generate the great strength we need to offer resistance to these hardening forces by approaching the spirit not only thru the inner powers of revelation & faith, like in the case of Joan of Arc, but by trying to concentrate our powers of understanding on what spiritual science has to give – a rational wisdom, filling us with light.
And so dear freinds, when we take ahold of ourselves with this attitude, we can consciously work with what Michael, the Spirit of our Age, has to give us now in our time – Meeting every trial & test with a conscious heart-thinking, motivated by the wisdom of love – where we must kindle our own light of thinking.
~hag
Here are some podcasts & video’s on the theme of Michaelmas:
395 – John the Evangelist settles in Patmos to write the Apocalypse
420 – Deathday of St. Jerome also called Hieronymus, Roman priest, theologian, patron saint of translators, librarians & encyclopedists. Rudolf Steiner speaks of him in From Jesus to Christ lecture 4, saying he had to ‘falsify’ the Gospel of St. Matthew, because it was too esoteric for folks at the time:
When we know this, we understand that the original Gospel of Matthew could not be imparted without further preparation because men were not ripe to receive what was in it. For if Jerome, a Father of the Church, was himself not ripe for what it contained, then certainly other men were not. Those who were originally in possession of these communications, the Ebionites, did not impart them because, if received by unripe persons, they would have been so distorted that they must have led to what Jerome meant when he said that they would serve not for edification but for destruction. Now Jerome understood this; yet he allowed himself to impart in a certain way the Gospel of Matthew to the world. ~Rudolf Steiner
1207 – Birthday of Rumi, Persian mystic & poet
1791 – The first performance of The Magic Flute, the last opera by Mozart to make its debut, took place at Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, Austria
1791 – The National Constituent Assembly in Paris is dissolved; Parisians hail Maximilien Robespierre & Jérôme Pétion as “incorruptible patriots”
1882 – Thomas Edison’s first commercial hydroelectric power plant (later known as Appleton Edison Light Company) begins operation on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin
1914 – Birthday of Johannes Tautz – a Historian, Religious scholar, Anthroposophist, Author & Waldorf teacher. After the German capitulation, Tautz was imprisoned by the Czechs, Americans & Russians but managed to escape in the summer of 1945 back to his family in Bad Boll. He was soon approached by Erich Gabert in Stuttgart to join the Waldorf School that was about to be opened as its German & History teacher. On 1 November 1945 he stood before his first 9th grade at the Free Waldorf School, Uhlandshöhe.
Soon Johannes Tautz decided to look up his “predecessor”, the first history teacher at the Waldorf School, Walter Johannes Stein. The conversations with Stein provided an orientation & inspiration for all of his further work as a teacher, lecturer & writer; in his lecturing work at national & international conferences and in the “Hague Circle”, a coordinating international group of Waldorf teachers.
He likewise received particular guidance from Emil Bock regarding a Christological view of world history & from Jürgen von Grone about the destiny of Germany &in particular to the figure of Helmuth von Moltke.
In 1966 Tautz held three lectures about the spiritual background to National Socialism, which later appeared in print under the title Attack of the Enemy – The Occult Inspiration Behind Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in 1976. In it he looks at a number of personalities connected with questionable occult practices with which leading Nazis had been close during the time of the movement’s growth.
In 1979 he edited a collection of biographical portraits together with Gisbert Husemann of the circle of founding Waldorf teachers around Rudolf Steiner.
Together with a young friend, Thomas Meyer, he visited the daughter of Walter Johannes Stein, Clarissa Johanna Muller, in Ireland where she was living in order to look through her father’s literary estate. They found the typescript of Stein’s dissertation annotated by Rudolf Steiner, letters & meditations of Steiner for Stein, his mother & for his brother, who fell in a mysterious manner in WWI. Letters & notes of Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz, Eliza von Moltke, Ita Wegman, D.N Dunlop & many other personalities were discovered & formed the basis of Tautz’s biography of Stein in 1989
In 1993 he initiated the editing of a collection Rudolf Steiner’s letters & notes to Eliza von Moltke together with the post mortem communications & the letters of Helmuth von Moltke himself. The decision to publish these was to prevent or anticipate a partial publication without an appropriate commentary on the subject that had been announced. A previous instance of this content being used had been in the book The Spear of Destiny by Trevor Ravenscroft which, in the opinion of Tautz had been written “without the necessary protection of background knowledge for the deeply-penetrant & difficult to understand material.” Further reading
1938 – The League of Nations unanimously outlaws “intentional bombings of civilian populations”
1962 – Labor leader César Chávez founds the National Farm Workers Association, which later becomes United Farm Workers
1982 – Cyanide-laced Tylenol kills six people in the Chicago area. Seven are killed in all
1993 – The 6.2 Mw Latur earthquake shakes Maharashtra, India with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe) killing 9,748 & injuring 30,000
1999 – The Tokaimura nuclear accident causes the deaths of 2 technicians, many others affected by radiation poisoning, in Japan’s second-worst nuclear accident
2009 – The 7.6 Mw Sumatra earthquake shakes central Sumatra with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). 1,115 people dead, many injured & left homeless
30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day – Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought
The time for biodynamic preparation making is upon us. We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and working in the soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.
After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –
Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year? Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye/ thank you. Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?
Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner Please bring a dish to share Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.