Category Archives: Quote

Like a seed blown home

October 20, 2016Autumn, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

20 October 2016 – Astro-Weather: Jupiter appears in the morning sky this week. It rises as morning twilight begins & climbs high in the east 45 minutes before sunrise. You won’t mistake the giant planet for any other object, it’s brighter than any other morning object besides the Moon

After dark, spot the W of Cassiopeia standing on end high in the northeast. The third segment of the W, counting from the top, points almost straight down. Extend it twice as far down and you’re at the Double Cluster in Perseus. This pair of star-swarms is dimly apparent to the unaided eye in a dark sky

***

Buddha – On thought sprung from love:

The thought manifests as the word.

The word manifests as the deed.

The deed develops into habit.

And the habit hardens into character.

So watch the thought and its ways with care.

And let it spring from love, born out of concern for all beings…

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day – One of the many for today is : Dornach, 20 October 1917 – Excerpt from: Fall of the Spirits of Darkness LECTURE 10 – The Influence of the Backward Angels

The masses of humanity go through life as if asleep, without thought; they are completely unaware of what is going on in groups, some of them quite large, which may be right next door. Today, more than ever, people are much given up to illusion. Just consider the way in which many people keep saying today: ‘lt is amazing how effective modern communications are and how this brings people together!

I have spoken of this to show that it is entirely possible today for the mass of people to know nothing of radically new developments which are right on their doorstep.

The ahrimanic powers will also thrive if people nurture the elements which they desire to spread among people today: prejudice, ignorance and fear of the life of the spirit. There is no better way of encouraging them.

Just think how many people there are today who actually make it their business to foster prejudice, ignorance and fear of the spiritual powers.

So you see, the people who consider themselves to be the most enlightened today are living with entirely unrealistic ideas.

Since 1879 the situation is like this: people go to school and acquire scientific attitudes and thinking; their philosophy of life is then based on this scientific approach and they believe only the things which can be perceived in the world around us to be real, whilst everything else is purely imaginary. When people think like this, and infinitely many people do so today, Ahriman has the upper hand in the game and the ahrimanic powers are doing well. Who are these ahrimanic powers which have established their fortresses in human minds since 1879? They are certainly not human. They are angels, but they are backward angels, angels who are not following their proper course of evolution and therefore no longer know how to perform their proper function in the spiritual world that is next to our own. If they still knew how to do it, they would not have been cast down in 1879. They now want to perform their function with the aid of human brains. They are one level lower in human brains than they should be. ‘Monistic’ thinking, as it is called today, is not really done by humans. People often speak of the science of economics today, a science in which it was said at the time when the war started that it would be over in four months — I mentioned this again yesterday. When these things are said by scientists — it does not matter so much if people merely repeat them — they are the thoughts of angels who have made themselves at home in human heads. Yes, the human intellect is to be taken over more and more by such powers; they want to use it to bring their own lives to fruition. We cannot stand up to this by putting our heads in the sand like ostriches, but only by consciously entering into the experience. We cannot deal with this by not knowing what monists think, for example, but only by knowing it; we must also know that it is Ahriman science, the science of backward angels who infest human heads, and we must know about the truth and the reality.

It is indeed true, and initiates have always said so: ‘When human beings are filled with spiritual wisdom, these are great horrors of darkness for the ahrimanic powers and a consuming fire. It feels good to the ahrimanic angels to dwell in heads filled with ahrimanic science; but heads filled with spiritual wisdom are like a consuming fire and the horrors of darkness to them.’ If we consider this in all seriousness we can feel: filled with spiritual wisdom we go through the world in a way which allows us to establish the right relationship with the ahrimanic powers; doing the things we do in the light of this, we build a place for the consuming fire of sacrifice for the salvation of the world, the place where the terror of darkness radiates out over the harmful ahrimanic element.

Let those ideas and feelings enter into you! You will then be awake and see the things that go on in the world. ~Rudolf Steiner

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1941 – World War II: Thousands of civilians in Kragujevac in German-occupied Serbia are murdered in the Kragujevac massacre

1944 – Liquefied natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland & then explodes; the explosion & resulting fire level 30 blocks & kill 130

1947 – The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years

1976 – The ferry George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing the Mississippi River between Destrehan & Luling, Louisiana. 78 passengers & crew die, &only 18 people aboard the ferry survive

1982 – During the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow & HFC Haarlem, 66 people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster

1991 – The Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 & destroys 3,469 homes, causing more than $2 billion in damage

1991 – A 6.8 Mw earthquake strikes the Uttarkashi region of India, killing more than 1,000 people

2011 – Libyan Civil War: National Transitional Council rebel forces capture ousted Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in his hometown of Sirte & kill him shortly thereafter

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MY POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I festoon the grey day

With laser eyes & fierce cackles that call the wind to deliver me

Like a seed blown home

To fertile caverns…

I smell a change coming

A shape turning leaves into souls

Sheathed in paper hats torn from the mundane head

Born anew to the eternal flesh

Of freedoms reign

~hag

***

Another observance related to Sukkot involves what are known as The Four Species.

The “Etrog,” a Citron, resembles the heart, the driving force behind all our actions, the place of understanding & wisdom.

The “Lulav,” a Palm Branch, resembles the spine, symbolizing uprightness.

The Myrtle Branches, resemble, in their almond-shape, the eyes, with which we behold the World. Symbol of enlightenment.
The Willow Branches, resemble the lips, with which we give expression to our thoughts &feelings, Thru prayer.

By holding these four together in a tight bond we represent the unity that is the goal for all the People of this one world. The bond represents the conversion of a set of separate individuals into one human family.

The four species must be taken together as a unit. So too, to achieve happiness, we must use all our gifts in unison. We can’t say one thing & do another. We must unify our feelings, our actions, our speech & our intentions.

The four species also represent the Name of God, Yud Heh Vav Heh. Again, the key here is unity. God may have many names but She is One. Whether things may appear to us as good or evil, we must realize that it all comes from The Divine. In life we must deal with the good & the bad for true growth.

“How can the lulav sing if its leaves do not rustle?”

The motion of the wavings is highly significant. On a basic level it simply expresses our joy, thanks-giving & praise of Nature at the time of the harvest. It represents the fertility of the land, abundance & prosperity, & the desire for rain.

The waving also represents our complete immersion in the holiday. On one level, we are surrounded by the sukkah. On another level, through this motion (of bringing in toward us), the protection of the sukkah & all that the festival of Sukkot represents enters us.

The lulav becomes a conduit of peace & the presence of the Divine that comes from every direction – Transcendence & immanence.

We gather in & then we ourselves are gathered in & interwoven beautifully—redemption, universal peace , brotherhood, & completion.

Can I get an Amen?

& remember: “How can the lulav sing if its leaves do not rustle?”

ALL: a song for the elements –“Air I am, fire I am water, earth & spirit I am”.

Or Harvest Blessing Chant

“Our hands will work for peace & justice

Our hands will work to heal the land

Gather round the harvest table

Let us feast & bless the land”

With joy, I end this series of offerings on Sukkot

xox

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Let the invisible be seen

October 19, 2016Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

19 October 2016 – Astro-Weather: The Great Square of Pegasus is now high in the east-southeast after dark, still, for now, balancing on one corner

The modest Orionid meteor shower should be active for the next several mornings, but the light of the waning gibbous Moon will interfere with the viewing

Mars continues to put on a nice show these October evenings. The Red Planet lies among the background stars of Sagittarius & appears high in the south-southwest after darkness falls. While you look at Mars this evening, it should have a new visitor from Earth sitting on its surface. The European Space Agency’s ExoMars Schiaparelli module is scheduled to touch down on Martian soil shortly before 10 am CDT. Although largely a test to demonstrate the technology needed for future missions, Schiaparelli will capture 15 black-&-white images on its way to the surface

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1512 – Martin Luther becomes a doctor of theology

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

1950 – Iran becomes the first country to accept technical assistance from the United States under the Point Four Program, a technical assistance program for “developing countries” announced by President Harry S. Truman in his inaugural address

1984 – Roman Catholic priest from Poland, Jerzy Popiełuszko, associated with the Solidarity Union, was murdered by three agents of the Polish communist internal intelligence agency

***

Pikishi

MY POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Let the invisible be seen…

Watch

As the ball of dung turns gold

See the ball bounce back & break

As beetles fly into the sun…

~hag

***

Tivu tivu ushpizin ila’in. Tivu tivu ushpizin ka’dishin. Tivu tivu ushpizin dim’hemnuta Tivu b’tzila de-shechina

Reader: Be seated, be seated, exalted guests. Be seated, be seated, holy guests. Be seated be seated, guests of faithfulness, be seated in the shade of the Shechina. This harvest hut, green boughs, ripe fruit, they are sweet with meaning.

All: We long for the link with each other and with our ancestors of the desert.

Reader: In the seasons of rich harvest, we gather each other in; we pause in the leafy shade in the sukkah of peace.

All: We listen inwardly; we thirst for spiritual richness; we invite the shechinah, the in-dwelling spirit of the Creator.

Reader: We know how fragile these shelters are. We remember Miriam unsheltered in the desert. We honor her and all our mothers, all the courageous makers of brief and loving safety–the cradle of rushes; the huppah; the hidden bunker; the sukkah; the circle of a mother’s strong arms.

All: The shelter is frail; the love is long.

Reader: We will weave our branches together. We will make each other stronger.

ALL: We shall reap in joy.

Reader: The Book of Proverbs tells us: Wisdom, Hochmah, is a woman. She has built her house, she has prepared the feast, set out the wine and called forth the people. She pours forth her spirit for us.

All: Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. we shall reap in joy

Reader: She is a tree of life to those who hold her, and happy is everyone who honors her.

All: Sit, sit, honored guests. Sit, sit, wise guests. sit, sit, absent guests for whom we have waited. Sit, sit. The meal has been prepared already — this time you do not have to cook or serve.

Reader: Ushpizot is an Aramaic word meaning guests. One Sukkot custom that became popular in the Middle Ages, based on the mystical text known as the Zohar, was to invite “invisible” guests to the sukkah along with “visible” ones. Who shall we call forth this year?

May our beloved dead bless us as we send our love to them.

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

“Flaumen un die Beren”

October 18, 2016Autumn, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

18 October 2016 – Astro-Weather: Be sure to keep an eye on the Moon tonight. The waning gibbous rises around 8:30pm CDT in the company of the Hyades star cluster in Taurus. Observers can see Luna pass in front of Theta1 & Theta2 Tauri. Watch the two stars reappear from behind the Moon’s dark limb around 11pm CDT.

The main event, however, starts more than two hours later. Observers can then watch as Aldebaran dips behind the bright limb of our satellite. This eye-catching occultation occurs from 12: 37am CDT to 1:20am CDT. It happens every 27 or 28 days, once per lunar month, in a long series that began on January 29, 2015, & ends on September 3, 2018

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“When we look up to the wonder of the starry world, when we contemplate the whole process of the universe with its glories and marvels, then we are led at last to the feeling that all the glory that lies open to our view in the whole universe that surrounds us only has meaning when it is reflected in an admiring human soul”. ~Goethe

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Feast Day of Luke the Evangelist. The early church fathers ascribed to him authorship of both the Gospel according to Luke & the book of Acts of the Apostles. The New Testament mentions Luke a few times, & the Pauline epistle to the Colossians refers to him as a Greek doctor; so he is thought to have been both a physician & a disciple of Paul. He is believed to have been a martyred, hung in an olive tree.

The Roman Catholic Church & other major denominations venerate him as Saint Luke the Evangelist & as a patron saint of artists, (He was the first icon painter. He painted pictures of the Virgin Mary & Child) physicians, surgeons, students & butchers.

Rudolf Steiner’s lectures on The Gospel of St. Luke, provides the solution to the riddle of the contradictions in the accounts of the genealogy & childhood of Jesus in Matthew & Luke when he unveils for the first time the secret of the two Jesus children. He also describes the workings of Zarathustra, the relation between the Buddha & Jesus child, & more

320 – Pappus of Alexandria, Greek philosopher, observes an eclipse of the Sun & writes a commentary for The Great Astronomer (Almagest)

1009 – The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Church’s foundations down to bedrock

1356 – Basel earthquake, the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps, destroys the town of Basel, Switzerland, over 500 die

1648 – Boston Shoemakers form first American labor organization

1914 – The Schoenstatt Marian Movement is founded in Germany, founded by Father Joseph Kentenich as a means of spiritual renewal in the Catholic Church. Schoenstatt means “beautiful place, it emphasizes a strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, upholding her as a perfect example of love & purity

1922 – The British Broadcasting Company (later BBC Corporation) is founded by a consortium, to consolidate the British Empire

1929 – The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council overrules the Supreme Court of Canada in Edwards v. Canada when it declares that women are considered “Persons” under Canadian law. The case, put forward by the Government of Canada on the lobbying of a group of women known as the Famous Five, began as a reference case which ruled that women were not “qualified persons” & thus ineligible to sit in the Senate. The Persons Case was a landmark, 1st it established that Canadian women were eligible to be appointed senators. Second, it established what came to be known as the “living tree doctrine“, that says that a constitution is organic & must be read in a broad & liberal manner so as to adapt it to changing times

1931 – Deathday of Thomas Edison

1939 – Birthday of Lee Harvey Oswald

1954 – Texas Instruments announces the first transistor radio

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Amanda Sage

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Sober on the gusty draft

Of the moist darkness gathering need

I eat the bread of life & die…

I know myself in a field enduring…

I am ever-after

Changing, while the eye of the watcher shines & takes me in…

~hag

***

Sukkot is the third of four Jewish Autumn holidays – Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot & Simchat Torah. The theme of these holidays in a nut shell is to prepare ourselves for the next year. Rosh Hashanah is the seed of the New Year – we celebrate the New Year & put ourselves on the right path.

At Yom Kippur, we clear ourselves of the old with forgiveness.

With Sukkot, we shelter & protect our new ideas & new ways of living to give them a chance for success. Traditionally, we build a temporary shelter & eat meals in it for seven days – some people even sleep in the sukkah!

We hear the story of Manna from Heaven, which reminds us that we will be cared for & protected if we are open to it. And of course there is a feeling of joy because we are celebrating the fall harvest. This holiday is like an early Thanksgiving.

In ancient times, people would spend all day in the fields during the harvest season to get the work done & would shelter themselves from the midday sun in a temporary dwelling, the sukkah. Just like our ancestors who wandered in the desert.

And the last of these festivals is Simchat Torah, this year it falls on Oct. 24th, & it’s the holiday in which we come to the end of the Torah scroll, which is partially read each week, & it all begins again at the beginning.

Sukkot comes during the month of “Elul” which means “search.” Elul is a time to search our hearts.

The mazal (constellation) for Elul is Virgo (betulah) a young, independent woman.

It is taught that the Hebrew letters for ELUL (aleph, lamed, vav, lamed) are an acronym for the verse from Song of Songs: I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine.

Elul arrives when the plums are purple & ripe & the pears were ready for picking. So Elul is called the time of the “Flaumen un die Beren” (the plums & pears).

In Yiddish these two words have additional meanings: “Flaumen” means flames, & “Beren” means to burn. So this is a time to search our hearts, & to seek The Divine with fiery, burning intensity. While Enjoying plums & pears as you do so!

Some traditions:

Recite Psalm 27 every day “God is my light and my helper, whom shall I fear?”

Visit the graves of loved ones throughout the month in order to remember & honor those people in our past who inspire us to live more fully in the future.

Begin all letters written during the month of Elul with wishes that the recipient have a good year. The standard blessing is K’tiva V’Chatima Tova (a good writing & sealing), meaning that the person should be written & sealed in the Book of Life.

Tomorrow I will share about Ushpizot, the tradition of inviting the spirits of our ancestors to join us.

Until soon

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

“When you sit in the Sukkah, ‘the shade of faithfulness,’ the Shechina spreads Her wings over you…”

October 17, 2016Autumn, Festival, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

17 October 2016 – Astro-Weather: Brilliant Venus stands out low in the southwest during evening twilight. The planet is above the horizon a half-hour after sunset & sets as twilight comes to a close. Venus is the brightest object in the evening sky after the Moon. Although you’ll be hard-pressed to see any background stars against the twilight, the inner world officially passes from the constellation Libra into Scorpius today

Vega is the brightest star high in the west these evenings. Less high in the southwest is Altair, not quite as bright. Just upper right of Altair, by a finger-width at arm’s length, is distant orange Tarazed. Straight down from Tarazed runs the stick-figure backbone of the constellation Aquila, the Eagle

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Bertram Von Minden

“The Master said, “A true teacher is one who, keeping the past alive, is also able to understand the present.” ~ Confucius, Analects 2.11

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1091 – The London Tornado, the earliest reported tornado. The wooden London Bridge was demolished, & the church of St. Mary-le-Bow as well as other churches in the area, were demolished, as were over 600 (mostly wooden) houses. For all the damage inflicted, the tornado claimed 2 victims

1604 – Kepler’s Supernova: German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes a supernova in the constellation Ophiuchus

1771 – Premiere in Milan of the opera Ascanio in Alba, composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, age 15

1829 – 1^st murder attempt on Kasper Hauser

1849 – Deathday of Frédéric Chopin, Polish pianist & composer

1887 – Deathday of Gustav Kirchhoff, a German physicist who contributed to the fundamental understanding of electrical circuits, spectroscopy, & the emission of black-body radiation by heated objects.

1888 – Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie)

1956 – The first commercial nuclear power station is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Sellafield,in Cumbria, England

1961 – Over 400 Algerian protesters are massacred by the Paris police at the instigation of former Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Prefecture of Police

1965 –New York World’s Fair closes after a two-year run. More than 51 million people had attended the event

1989 – The 6.9 Mw Loma Prieta earthquake shakes the San Francisco Bay Area &the Central Coast. 63 people were killed

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MY POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I come to shout the wisdom of air…

I come with a sycamore seed in my mouth…

I come to the great inland sea to sow my tree…

& you are there to meet me…

~hag

***

Linda Frimer

“When you sit in the Sukkah, ‘the shade of faithfulness,’ the Shechina spreads Her wings over you…”

The harvest season is upon us once again…The Jewish New Year has begun, Sweet with the seal of At-One-ment…& now, the ancient celebration of Sukkot comes,

to bring community together for a unique opportunity to experience an amazing blend of Honoring the Ancestors, Giving Thanks, & opening to receive prosperity’s blessings…

Please join us in spirit as we: Share food, Tell stories, Create Autumn Art, Invite in the Matriarchs of the Torah, & many other loving ancestors, & perform the ancient ritual of waving the Lulav, for blessings of abundance…

The Festival of Sukkot is quite a drastic transition, from one of the most solemn holidays in our year- Yom Kipper, to one of the most joyous. This festival is sometimes referred to as the ‘Season of our Rejoicing’. Sukkot began last night, & lasts for seven days.

The word “Sukkot” means “booths,” & refers to the temporary dwellings that we build to celebrate this holiday. The name of the holiday is frequently translated as “The Feast of Tabernacles,” & Like Passover & Shavu’ot, Sukkot has a dual significance: Historical & Agricultural.

The holiday commemorates the forty-year period during which the children of Israel were wandering in the desert, living in temporary shelters. Sukkot is also a harvest festival, & is sometimes referred to as the ‘Festival of Ingathering’.

This is harvest time, so we decorate the sukkah with the bounty of autumn, dried squash & corn, pumpkin & gourds, all the vegetables that make you think of Halloween & Thanksgiving. Building & decorating a sukkah is a fun, family project, much like decorating the Christmas tree.

Another observance related to Sukkot involves what are known as The Four Species, etrog (a citrus fruit, representing the heart), a palm branch (in Hebrew, lulav, representing the spine of the upright human being), two willow branches (arava, representing our eyes) & three myrtle branches (hadas, representing our lips & tongue). We take these four plants & use them to “rejoice.” The six branches are bound together & referred to collectively as the lulav. The etrog is held separately. With these four species in hand, one recites a blessing & waves the species in all six directions (east, south, west, north, up & down, symbolizing the fact that the Divine is everywhere).

Ushpizot is an Aramaic word meaning guests. According to Jewish tradition, each night of Sukkot, a different set of guests is invited to rejoice with us in the Sukkah. While the custom of inviting Ushpizin, seven biblical male leaders, has been widely celebrated, there are also medieval sources that suggest inviting the seven female prophetesses: Sarah (Genesis 16,21), Miriam (Exodus 2:1-9; 15:20-21), Deborah (Judges 4-5), Hannah (I Samuel 25), Huldah (II Kings 22:10-20), and Esther (Book of Esther).

So come join us in spirit, with thoughts of peace in the Middle East & everywhere, & be part of this experiential celebration…What great leaders, proud Matriarchs or daring Daddies would you like to invite into the sukkah…? Let this ancient tradition made new, empower you…

Blessings & Peace

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

The Ripened Fruits of Thinking

October 16, 2016Autumn, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars~hag

16 October 2016 – Astro-Weather: The variable star Algol in Perseus reaches minimum brightness at 8:49 CDT. If you start tracking it this evening, you can watch it more than triple in brightness by dawn. This eclipsing binary star runs through a cycle from minimum to maximum & back every 2.87 days. Algol remains visible all night, passing nearly overhead around 1:30am CDT

The Moon reaches perigee -the closest point in its orbit around Earth-at 6:34pm CDT. It is then 222,364 miles away from us

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

“We understand only the very smallest part of human history and of our own life if we consider it in its external aspect, I mean in that aspect which we see from the limited view-point of our earthly life between birth and death. It is impossible to comprehend the inner motives of history and life unless we turn our gaze to that spiritual background which underlies the outer, physical happenings“. ~Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships, Volume IV: Lecture III

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1311 – The beginning of the Council of Vienne by Pope Clement V against the Templar order

1793 – Marie Antoinette, widow of Louis XVI, is guillotined at the height of the French Revolution

Arnold Bocklin

1827 – Birthday of Arnold Bocklin , a Swiss symbolist painter portraying mythological, fantastical figures along classical architecture constructions creating a strange, fantasy world. Böcklin is best known for his five versions of the Isle of the Dead, which partly evokes the Cemetery close to his studio where his baby daughter Maria had been buried.

Arnold Bocklin

Rudolf Steiner speaks of him as an Arthurian Knight: Thus even in the 9th century, in the paganism of Europe, there still lived much of the pre-Christian Christianity. That is the remarkable fact. Moreover even in that time the belated followers of European paganism understood the Cosmic Christ far more worthily and truly than those who received the Christ in the Christianity that was spread officially under that name. Strangely we can see the life around King Arthur radiate into the present time, continued even into our time, placed into the immediate present by the sudden power of destiny. Thus I beheld in seership a member of the Round Table of King Arthur, who lived the life of the Round Table in a very deep and intense way, though he stood a little aside from the others who were given more to the adventures of their knighthood. This was a knight who lived a rather contemplative life, though it was not like the Knighthood of the Grail, for this did not exist in Arthur’s circle. What the knights did in the fulfilment of their tasks, which in accordance with that age were for the most part warlike campaigns, was called by the name ‘Adventure’ (Aventure). But there was one who stood out from among the others as I saw him, revealing a life truly wonderful in its inspiration. For we must imagine the knights going out on to the spur of land, seeing the wonderful play of clouds above, the waves beneath, the surging interplay of the one and the other, which gives a mighty and majestic impression to this very day. In all this they saw the Spiritual and were inspired with it, and this gave them their strength. But there was one among them who penetrated most deeply into this surging and foaming of the waves, with the spiritual beings wildly rising in the foam with their figures grotesque to earthly sight. He had a wonderful perception of the way in which the marvellously pure sun-influence played into the rest of nature, living and weaving in the spiritual life and movement of the surface of the ocean. He saw what lived in the light nature of the sun, borne up as it were by the watery atmosphere as we can see to this day, the sunlight approaching the trees and the spaces between the trees quite differently than in other regions, glittering back from between the trees, and playing often as in rainbow colours. Such a knight there was among them, one who had a peculiarly penetrating vision of these things. I was much concerned to follow his life into later time to see the individuality again. For just in this case something would needs enter into a later incarnation of a Christian life that was almost primitive and pagan, that was Christian only to the extent that I have just described. And this in fact was what appeared, for that Knight of the Round Table of King Arthur was born again as Arnold Böcklin. This riddle which had followed me for an immensely long time, can only be solved in connection with the Round Table of King Arthur. Thus you see that we have a Christianity tangible with spiritual touch to this very day, a Christianity before the Mystery of Golgotha which shed its light even into the time that I have just outlined ~Karmic Relationships, Volume IV: Lecture III

1834 – Much of the ancient structure of the Palace of Westminster in London burns to the ground

1846 – William T. G. Morton first demonstrated ether anesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the Ether Dome

1854 – Birthday of Oscar Wilde, Irish author, poet, & playwright

1922 – The founding of the Esoteric Youth Circle by Rudolf Steiner. Notes from the various preparatory discussions for the founding of the Group:

‘If I am to go into what I understand with the term “esoteric group” then let me say that if you want to take the esoteric earnestly, you must say to yourself that it is an action out of the impulses from the spiritual world. One can strive toward this. Anthroposophy is a path to this end. To build such a community would constitute a decision to set upon this path.

The spiritual is a living element & so such a group must not be something dead. The group must be a force-group. The health of each part is the health of the whole. It is the mutual taking on of karma that is created in such a community. There is then mutual suffering to live through, but also mutual joy. People must be treated like fellow human beings, with all their imperfections.

What you seek is to find a friend in the spiritual world. The important thing is to remain spiritually true to the friend once found. Therefore, the 1^st requirement is that you learn quite precisely what spiritual loyalty is.

Your community will have in it something of the primordial mystery of all human community. This mystery is that, what we ourselves do within the community bears no fruit for us ourselves, but for others, & that the fruits for us come from others.

We must work for the progress of humanity – Just as the physical social life consists of deeds done together, so too we strive for common deeds in the spirit – thus actually, for a social working in the suprasensible.

We must endeavor to carry spirit into the furthest consequences of our actions. This alone – that we bring spirit & love into our will – can make it possible to stand firmly against being overrun by the cultural machine. Too few people today develop real initiative. There is a lot of willfulness, but little will.

The true meditation is a fulfilling of the spiritual will that the Time Spirit bears with itself. Where such meditation is practiced, a spiritual force is able to work into the earthly events. Spiritual worlds want to work in to earthly events today, but they can do this only when, through human meditation, space is created for it. Through meditation, something like an empty space comes about. Into this space, the spiritual beings can enter with their effects. And the power of meditating such a meditation in common increases by potentization.

When we do this community-meditation, it will bring about a deeper connection of the core of our being with our sheaths.

These meditations, when used correctly, could become something like windows into the spiritual world. The words & pictures given, form only half of what is to be entrusted to us. The other half we are to find ourselves through spiritual activity.

Each of you must feel joy for the success of the other. You must avoid every feeling of rivalry & have the awareness that what each of you accomplishes, you accomplish through the power of all of the others.

Uniting yourself through a mutual promise to strive toward a common spiritual goal – & leaving one another completely free in actions & judgements in life – such a community based on this is something completely new in the evolution of humanity. And it is what is most necessary today.

For someone who comes to specific results on the esoteric path, there is always the danger of delusions of grandeur. Such a community as yours can be a protection against this. For in it, you strive together to cross the threshold of the spiritual world. And there each of you has to say that you have the efforts of all the others to thank for what you have achieved personally.

Effects will arise in the destiny between human beings who are connected with us in the community physically & spiritually. The community will never die out. With the 1^st community members who reincarnate, the community returns to Earth.

By persevering with the exercises we have a chance to stand up to Ahrimanic powers that no one person can withstand.

Through the reading of the oath given by Rudolf Steiner on 16 October 1922, in the presence of the others, the admittance into the community was effected.

And now consider your community as having been founded by the spiritual world itself…Now get to know each other well.

This gave us the idea to tell each other our biography at the mutual acceptance into membership.

What has taken place now is a 1^st in the post-Christian era: human beings themselves chose, out of freedom before the spiritual world, to join together esoterically’.

The 12 founding members:

Daniel van Bemmelen, co-founder of the 1^st Dutch Waldorf School

Georg Groot MD, 3-fold social order, co-worker in the Berlin Group of the College Association

Herbert Hahn, called by Steiner to teach at the Independent Waldorf School in Stuttgart

Ernst Lehrs, teacher at the Waldorf school in Stuttgart, served on the committee for the Independent Anthroposophical Society founded for the youth. Later taught in The Hague, London, & Aberdeen. Also taught with his wife Maria Roeschl in the Rudolf Steiner Seminar.

Rene Maikowski, business manager of the Association for Anthroposophical College Studies, also a Waldorf teacher.

Wilhelm Rath, bookseller, man of letters, farmer, was on the committee of the Independent Anthroposophical Society.

Wilhelm Selling, mechanical engineer, colonial officer in Africa, in charge of the Theosophical library, mentor of the youth work in Berlin

Karin Selling, part of the Scandinavian Theosophical Society, teacher at the Waldorf School in Stockholm

Emma Smit, teacher & organizer of the Independent school in The Hague

Maria Spira, came from the Zionist Youth Movement, married Wilhelm Rath

Albrecht Strohschein, business man, 1^st co-worker in the Der Kommenden (The Coming Day) in Stuttgart, student of psychology in Jena, co-founder of the therapeutic pedagogical movement

Kurt Walther, postal officer, lecturer, & leader of many courses, the successor of Marie Steiner in the Executive Council of the Anthroposophical Socety,married Wilhelm Sellings sister Clara Selling, who was part of Steiner’s household

The Nuremberg Trials — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

1946 – Nuremberg trials: Execution of the convicted Nazi leaders of the Main Trial

1964 – China detonates its first nuclear weapon

1968 – United States athletes Tommie Smith & John Carlos are kicked off the US team for participating in the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute

1984 – Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

***

Calendar of the Soul Thirtieth Week [October 16, 2016 – October 22, 2016]

There flourish in the sunlight of my soul

The ripened fruits of thinking;

To conscious self-assurance

The flow of feeling is transformed.

I can perceive now joyfully

The autumn’s spirit-waking:

The winter will arouse in me

The summer of the soul

~Rudolf Steiner

***

Libra continued:

Perceive the white mist, which spreads across the fields of brown stubble like a soft cloth. Nature is resting, & conceals in her womb the seeds of future growth. So rests in our souls the seed of future life. What the future will bring us seems covered by these mists, & the darkening. But now the time has come when in the longer nights the spiritual seed wants to be cherished & nurtured. We can belong to ourselves again igniting our inner light. If we foster this calm self-contemplation in our busy lives, even if only for a few minutes every day, we can live with a deep serenity, thru this dark season, & also into the future, which is shrouded in the darkness of time.

We must remember that all human life must fluctuate, like the scales between two poles, it cannot be fixed. Day & night, life & death, activity & quietness, the out-breath & the in-breath, are the swings of the pendulum, the rhythms which bear us thru the cycle of the year, & enable us to mature into our true being, when we have found the inner observer at the fulcrum of the scales.

From this mood is prepared the soil from which the future fruits of the soul will ripen.

Blessings on our ever striving journey

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Cognitive Ritual

~Confessions of a Modern Rosicrucian

Category Archives: Quote

Like a seed blown home

Let the invisible be seen

“Flaumen un die Beren”

“When you sit in the Sukkah, ‘the shade of faithfulness,’ the Shechina spreads Her wings over you…”

The Ripened Fruits of Thinking

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