“In the sciences, people quickly come to regard as their own personal property that which they have learned and had passed on to them at the universities and academies. If someone else comes along with new ideas that contradict the Credo and in fact even threaten to overturn it, then all passions are raised against this threat and no method is left untried to suppress it. People resist it in every way possible: pretending not to have heard about it; speaking disparagingly of it, as if it were not even worth the effort of looking into the matter. And so a new truth can have a long wait before finally being accepted.” — Goethe’
7 April 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Venus guides the way down to fainter, lower Mercury in twilight. And as darkness deepens, look for the Pleiades above Venus.
1929 – Deathday of Édouard Schuré, a French philosopher, poet, playwright, novelist, music critic, & publicist of esoteric literature. Born in the old cathedral city of Strasbourg, as a young boy he experienced certain events that, as he described them many years later, “Ieft traces upon my thoughts, to which my memory returns ever and again.” The result of these events he called “inner vision, evoked by impressions of the external world.” The first of these experiences occurred shortly after the death of his mother, when he & his father visited a resort in Alsace. On the walls of one of the buildings the ten-year-old boy saw a remarkable series of frescoes, depicting the world of undines, sylphs, gnomes & fire-spirits. Before these representations of the Elemental Beings, the boy was transported into another world, the world of creative fantasy. Like a talisman, the pictures awakened the magic forces of wonder in the child soul, & the result was a new perception.
Not long after the death of his father, which occurred when Schure was fourteen, he visited Paris, & saw for the first time the classical sculptures in the Louvre. The beauty of the Venus di Milo, of Dionysus, of the wounded Amazon, penetrated deeply into the boy, awakening in him a love & appreciation for the world of ancient Greece, which was to play so significant a role in his later work as a playwright. In these sculptures Schure became aware of the fact that a divine beauty can be made manifest in physical substance through the magic of art. At about this same time Schure read a description of the Eleusinian Mysteries of Ancient Greece, & the inner pictures this evoked were so vivid, so compelling, that he dedicated himself to the task of recreating the sacred drama of Eleusis for modern humanity. For Schure was convinced that through the experiencing of such a drama, people of modern times can acquire a totally new conception of the relationship between the spiritual striving of the ancient world & the religious conceptions of today.
Parallel with these experiences of soul & spirit, Schure’s early years were devoted to formal education. Eventually he received his degree in law at the University of Strasbourg, but he never entered into practice. He visited Germany, remaining there for a few years, during which time he wrote Histoire du lied published in 1868. In this book he expressed his love for music & poetry which had been enhanced by his personal acquaintance with Richard Wagner, then living in Munich.
Shortly after his return from his travels in Germany, Schure married the sister of his friend, the composer Nessler. They moved to Paris, where Schure continued his writing & studies, making friends with some of the most important men & women in the cultural life of France of his time. With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Schure & his wife went to Italy.
In Florence Schure made the second great friendship of his life. One day Malvida von Meysenbergs, the devoted admirer & helper of the philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, introduced Edouard Schure to a Greek lady, Margherita Albana Mignaty. The meeting made a profound impression upon Schure, an impression he was to recall clearly in the last year of his life: “When I saw those great sunny radiant eyes directed questioningly upon me, I felt my consciousness almost desert me, for my whole being seemed called upon to reveal itself.” In the presence of this beautiful woman, so reminiscent of the women of the classical Greece he so deeply loved, Schure once again found access to the spiritual world opening within him. In Margherita Albana Mignaty he discovered a soul to whom the unseen world was as immanent as the physical. This direct relationship with the spiritual world was the result of the death of her child, which had taken place some years before. Through their many conversations, Schure’s own spiritual perception broadened & deepened beyond anything he had previously imagined. He referred to her as his Muse, & saw in her a “spirit that moves mountains, a love which awakens and creates souls, and whose sublime inspiration burns like a radiant light.” on one occasion he asked her how she acquired such precise knowledge of the spiritual history of humankind, such intimate details concerning long-forgotten antiquity. Her reply was profoundly simple: “When I wish to penetrate to the very depths of a subject, I shut myself in my room and reveal myself to myself.” Through the inspiration of Margherita Albana Mignaty ‘as a testimony of a faith acquired and shared,’ Schure’s book The Great Initiates came into being.
Schuré now turned increasingly to the esoteric & the occult, his major influence being the famous French occultist-scholar Fabre d’Olivet. In 1884, he met the founder of the Theosophical Society Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Although unwelcome in the Theosophical Society, he nevertheless entered.
In 1900, the actress Marie von Sivers came into contact with him because she intended to translate his works into German (The Great Initiates, The Sacred Drama of Eleusis & The Children of Lucifer). At the German Section of the Theosophical Society, he met the Austrian philosopher & later founder of Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner. In 1906, Sivers brought about a meeting between Schuré & Steiner. Schuré was deeply impressed & thought of Steiner as an authentic ‘initiate’ in line with his The Great Initiates. After hearing Steiner lecture in Paris for the first time in 1906, Schuré in an ecstatic state ran home & wrote down the entirety of the lecture from memory. This first lecture, & the other lectures in the series (which Schuré wrote down) were published as Esoteric Cosmology. Subsequently, Steiner & von Sivers staged Schuré’s esoteric dramas at the Theosophical Congresses in Berlin & Munich. Schuré’s The Children of Lucifer, served as a precursor of Rudolf Steiner’s own esoteric dramas.
In 1908 Schuré brought out Le Mystère Chrétien et les Mystères Antiques, a French translation of Steiner’s work Christianity as Mystical Fact & the Mysteries of Antiquity.
Édouard Schuré was often visited by Rudolf Steiner in Barr, Alsace. Steiner produced many of Schure’s plays. In speaking about his book The Great Initiates Steiner says: “Édouard Schuré speaks about the ‘Great Illuminated,’ the Great Initiates, who have looked deeply into the background of things, and from this background have given great impulses for the spiritual development of mankind. He traces the great spiritual deeds of Rama, Krishna, Hermes, Pythagoras and Plato, in order to show the unification of all these impulses in Christ…. The light streaming from Schuré’s book enlightens those who wish to be firmly rooted in the spiritual sources from which strength and certainty for modern life can be drawn.” ~Rudolf Steiner
altar piece Colijin de Coter
Mary Magdalene & the Women at the Tomb – A Festival of Recognition
6 April2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Find Bella Luna brightly glowing near Spica, the brightest star in Virgo the Maiden. The bright moon – in a waning gibbous phase – may overwhelm Spica. They will travel together across the sky all night until dawn.
altar piece Colijin de Coter
Mary Magdalene & the Women at the Tomb – A Festival of Recognition
Hazel will be making her famous annual biodynamic grilled Paschal Lamb! Please bring food & drink to share to fill out the feast for our Easter meal.
Gloria Ssaili
“What is to be the starting force & impulse for events in social & ethical life must come out of the spiritual world.” ~Rudolf Steiner, New Spiritual Impulses in History” Dornach 16 December, 1917
582- Death & Feast Day of Eutychius of Constantinople, Toward the end of his life, Eutychius maintained an opinion that after the resurrection the body will be “more subtle than air” & no longer a tangible thing. This was considered heretical, because it was taken as a denial of the doctrine of physical, corporeal resurrection.
TODAY in 1483 – Good Friday – Birthday of Raphael
TODAY in 1520 – Good Friday – Deathday of Raphael
“It must seem strange that Raphael was the same person as a thorny character like John the Baptist.How could it happen that this thorny man, who had to pave the way for the Mystery of Golgotha in such a violent way, reappeared as the gentle, pliable, charming Raphael? But look at this. Raphael’s father, Giovanni Santi, died when Raphael was eleven. He was a painter. He was not a great painter so far as external achievements go, but he had great ideas in his head, although he could not put them on camas because he had no technical skill. He was also a poet. There was a great deal of fantasy in him, but the physical capacities simply were not there. He went early through the portal of death, and then his forces worked into his son. In Raphael’s hands and imagination worked all that his father could send into the physical world. One can say that the old Giovanni Santi was a painter without hands in the supersensible world, for in a wonderful karmic relationship he supplied, in combination with the Christ-filled individuality of the Baptist, what came to expression in Raphael. The supersensible world had to work with the physical world to achieve this result. It shows how the so-called dead are able to influence those who have been left behind…” ~ Rudolf Steiner, On the Relationship with the Dead, 23 April 1913
Raphael, as we know from was an Italian painter & architect of the High Renaissance. Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop &, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace. From 1517 until his death, Raphael lived in the Palazzo Caprini in the Borgo, in rather grand style in a palace designed by Bramante. He never married, & was thought to be bi-sexual. He is said to have had many affairs, but a permanent fixture in his life in Rome was “La Fornarina”, Margherita Luti, the daughter of a baker (fornaro) named Francesco Luti from Siena.
The story goes that Raphael’s premature death on Good Friday, which was also his 37th birthday, was caused by a night of excessive sex with Luti, after which he fell into a fever &, not telling his doctors that this was its cause, was given the wrong cure, which killed him. At his request, Raphael was buried in the Pantheon.
His funeral was extremely grand, attended by large crowds. The inscription in his marble sarcophagus, an elegiac distich written by Pietro Bembo, reads: “Ille hic est Raffael, timuit quo sospite vinci, rerum magna parens et moriente mori”, meaning: “Here lies that famous Raphael by whom Nature feared to be conquered while he lived, and when he was dying, feared herself to die.”
1472 –Birthday of Lucas Cranach the Elder, a German Renaissance painter & printmaker
1520 – Good Friday – Deathday of Raphael
1869 – Celluloid is patented
1930 – Gandhi raises a lump of mud and salt and declares, “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire,” beginning the Salt Satyagraha
1965 – Launch of Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit
1971 – Deathday of Igor Stravinsky, Russian-American pianist, composer, & conductor
Ratt Rana
1992 – Deathday of Isaac Asimov, American science fiction writer
This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it.Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll
Course Number 231154 / Zoom Date: Thursday, May 11 Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance
Gerald Shepherd
When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.
Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.
This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.
Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.
Nancy Poer
~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices& Eurythmy
Saturday 27 May 2023 a Hybrid event in person* & on zoom
We are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.
For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.orgCultural Events & Festivals Coordinator *Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) www.rschicago.org/donate
Find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals HERE
I thought to share this recording from Palm Sunday as part of our The 8-Fold Path to Easter – Holy Week 2021 where we gathered online for 30 minutes, to take turns sharing indications from Holy Week, the 7 rhythms of the Foundation Stone Meditation & Rudolf Steiner/The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’
Ninetta Sombart
Palm Sunday – Matthew 21: 1-11
“Christ enters the Holy City on the first day of Holy Week. It is at first an unpretentious sight. He rides through the gate of the city upon a donkey, followed by His faithful believers. But suddenly, as though he were the God of Spring himself, His entry creates a frenzy in the souls of the people.
It is as though the crowd were seized with the ecstasy of a pagan Spring Festival. Primitive rites are revived when the people cast down palm branches from the trees. The palm has always ranked as the tree-symbol of the sun which shines in the Spring sky with renewed strength.
The crowd spread His path with the symbol of the sun.
Is He in fact perhaps the Friend and Lord of the Sun who has been promised to man as the great King of the Light?
Is the original spiritual significance of the city of Jerusalem to be released from enchantment, the city which sheltered on Mount Zion one of the oldest sun-sanctuaries of humankind, before it was overshadowed by Mount Moriah, the Mount of the Moon, with the Temple of Solomon?
Has the time of Melchisededek, the great Sun-Initiate, come back?
It would appear as though the Christ had now really found entrance into humanity. The high Sun- Spirit has already lived for three years in a human body and undergone earthly destiny. He held back and kept silence; and whenever He stepped forward He was met with hostility and lack of understanding.
Is all this now to take a new direction? Is destiny to find a solution in an ecstatic jubilation?
No, this is the beginning of the most solemn week in human history. The same men who strew palms and break forth into fervid Hosannas will shriek with fanatical hatred a few days later: “Crucify him! Crucify him!” The Cross on Golgotha, the symbol of death, will companion the palm branch, the symbol of life. It is the Christ Himself who brings about the sudden reversal of feeling. He passes through the ecstatic crowd in silence, with grave countenance. He sees through the acclamations; they are merely superficial, and He aims at deeper levels. His will is directed to something very different.”
~Indication from Emil Bock “Holy Week”
And so the Journey Begins – again & once again…
RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL translated with added titles by Roy Sadler
HOLY WEEK Communion In The Body v52 When from the depths of soul the spirit’s drawn towards the beauty arising from the springlife’s cosmic harmony, then streaming from the heavens life’s force invigorates the human body and powerfully binds the spirit’s being to the human presence.
EASTER In Unison With Light v1 When streaming from the cosmic spheres the sun to human sense is speaking and joy from depths of soul is with the light as one in seeing, then drawn from sheath of self thoughts rise to far horizons and dimly bind the human being to the spirit’s presence.
altar piece Colijin de Coter
Mary Magdalene & the Women at the Tomb – A Festival of Resurrection with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,Song-Circle withVelsumVoices = Lucien Dante Lazar & Ultra-Violet Archer
Holy Saturday 8 April 2023
1 pm – 3pm CT a hybridevent
in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it.Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll
Course Number 231154 / Zoom Date: Thursday, May 11 Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance
Gerald Shepherd
When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.
Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.
This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.
Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.
Nancy Poer
~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices& Eurythmy
Saturday 27 May 2023 a Hybrid event in person* & on zoom
We are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.
For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.orgCultural Events & Festivals Coordinator *Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) www.rschicago.org/donate
Find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals HERE
Greetings Dear friends on this Lazarus Saturday – a traditional celebration in the Eastern Orthodox Church – A moveable feast on the Eve of Palm Sunday. It commemorates the raising of Lazarus of Bethany from the tomb after 4 days by Jesus of Nazareth – In what Spiritual Science calls the 1st Christian Initiation. Bethany is the family residence of siblings Mary Magdalene, & Martha.
~hag
Here we see in the introduction to the 7th sign, that The Gospel of John goes on to affirm that Mary Magdalene is the one who anointed Christ previously, after the casting out of the demons. Then we learn that after “Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days…When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home”. Some translations say: “Mary stayed within” – When I first starting working with the Gospels this stuck out for me & I have pondered it for many years. Why would Mary who was always at the feet of the Master not come out to meet him? Then it struck me! –Was she busy protecting the red thread connecting Lazarus to his earthly home?Perhaps The Magdala was holding sacred space for her brother while he was undergoing his initiation in the spiritual world!
We can picture Lazarus working with John the Baptist on the other side as part of the initiation. So that when he emerged he could be deemed worthy to receive the title John as well – ‘The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved” – John the Evangelist –
Mary stayed within – It conjures the image of an Egyptian hierophant or Priestess accompanying an initiation – A highly developed Adapt who was empowered enough to anoint the Christ, standing at the threshold for her brother, as she would again later for the Christ during His ‘Harrowing of Hell’ on Holy Saturday…
Then what comes is John’s description of the final anointing:
~hag
We can think about how the act of anointing is defined as a ritual of the transference of power, like the ordination of a Priest, or the coronation of a king, or the confirmation bestowed on a Prophet, or a sacred place. It seals the deal. And now with Mary’s sacred act we see a new kind of anointing – the last anointing – performed right before death. Jesus said, “Leave her be, what she has done shall count on the day of my burial”.
And then The Christ goes on to conquer death!
~hag
John’s gospel reports that “Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.” It is where he spent the Great Sabbath right before Passover, prior to his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Jesus lodged there during Holy Week, & it is where his last anointing by Lazarus’ sister Mary Magdalene took place a few days later on Holy Wednesday.
St. John Chrysostom brought this Feast Day into the liturgy in 7th century, a joyful paschal service which glorifies Christ as the “Resurrection and the Life”.By raising Lazarus, Christ confirms the universal resurrection of humankind, even before his own deed on Golgotha. Lazarus Saturday is one of the great baptismal days in the ecclesiastical year.
It is celebrated in places like Bulgaria, & Armenia, with an end of the 40 days of fasting for Lent. In the Russian Church, the vestments & Church hangings are green on this day, denoting the renewal of life.
In the Greek Church, it is customary on Lazarus Saturday to plait elaborate crosses out of palm leaves which will be used on Palm Sunday.
In Greece they Bake lazarakia a mildly sweet Lenten bread made with sweet-smelling spices that looks like Lazarus bound up in grave clothes to eat on Lazarus Saturday It is said to have originated in Cyprus, where St. Lazarus was their first bishop.
In Serbia, small bells are often tied to the branches. Related traditions include: Burning a fire against vermin and snakes – Picking flowers & herbs which are put in water to either drink or swim in –
Exif_JPEG
And a Lazarice ritual – a Dance & procession of maidens
From Rudolf Steiner: “An initiation is veiled by the story of Lazarus in the Gospel of St. John. It has never been understood except by those who knew from their esoteric schools what was concealed behind it. When Christ was informed that Lazarus was ill, He replied: ‘The sickness is not unto death, but that the God in him should be made manifest!’ It means that the Christ-divinity shall be made manifest in and through Lazarus.
Remember that when there was question of the ‘life’ that had fled from Lazarus, and which the sisters Martha and Mary longed to have restored, Christ answers: ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life!’ The life was to return to Lazarus.
Lazarus meantime beheld the spiritual world. And inasmuch as Christ is the leader of that spiritual world, Lazarus had been filled with the Christ-power and the vision of Christ. Christ poured out His power upon Lazarus and Lazarus arose a new man.
A word in St. John’s Gospel arrests our attention. It is said that the Lord ‘loved’ Lazarus. The same word is used for the disciple ‘whom the Lord loved’.
What does this mean? The Akashic records reveal this to us. Who was Lazarus after he had risen from the dead? He was none other than the writer of the Gospel of St. John, the Lazarus who was initiated by Christ.
Christ poured into the soul of Lazarus the tidings of His own existence, so that the message of the fourth Gospel — the Gospel of St. John — might resound through the world as a description of Christ’s own being. This is also why the disciple John is not mentioned in the Gospel before the story of Lazarus. The individuality of Lazarus had been transformed into the John-individuality, in the sense of the Christian initiation.
Lazarus became an initiate in the new sense of the word, though the old forms were retained in a measure, a transition was created from the old to the new initiation.”
~Rudolf Steiner – The Gospel of St. John Lecture 7
Yes & today is also April Fool’s day 2023!!!
On this topsy-turvy day I like to share a little meditation Irecorded a few years ago, which I call: Ostara & the April Fool.(Listen to the story on ‘I Think Speech’ ) Strap on your imagination & come with me if you dare…
Giulia Massaglia
“Children and fools speak true.”
“The greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.”
“Foolproof systems do not take into account the ingenuity of fools.”
1 April 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars“: The Full Paschal Moon will come on the night of April 5-6. Tonight,& tomorrow night, Bella Luna is a bright waxing gibbous moon you’ll see in the sky from late afternoon on, near the bright star Regulus, Heart of the Lion in the constellation Leo.
According to Rudolf Steiner’s Original Calendar of the Soul: Today is the Feast Day of Isis, The Divine Sophia, consort of Osiris.
Birthday of Theodora from Steiner’s Mystery Dramas
1204 – Deathday of Eleanor of Aquitaine – one of the most powerful and influential figures of the Middle Ages. Inheriting a vast estate at the age of 15 made her the most sought-after bride of her generation. She would eventually become the queen of France, the queen of England and lead a crusade to the Holy Land. She is also credited with establishing and preserving many of the courtly rituals of chivalry. ~history.com
1815 – Birthday of Bismarck – Germany became a modern, unified nation under the leadership of the “Iron Chancellor” Otto von Bismarck who effectively ruled first Prussia and then all of Germany. A master strategist, Bismarck initiated decisive wars with Denmark, Austria and France to unite 39 independent German states under Prussian leadership. Although an arch-conservative, Bismarck introduced progressive reforms—including universal male suffrage and the establishment of the first welfare state—in order to achieve his goals. He manipulated European rivalries to make Germany a world power, but in doing so laid the groundwork for both World Wars. ~history.com
1930 – Death day of Cosima Wagner – the daughter of the Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt and Franco-German romantic author Marie d’Agoult. She became the second wife of the German composer Richard Wagner, and with him founded the Bayreuth Festival as a showcase for his stage works; after his death she devoted the rest of her life to the promotion of his music and philosophy. Commentators have recognized Cosima as the principal inspiration for Wagner’s later works, particularly Parsifal.
altar piece Colijin de Coter
Mary Magdalene & the Women at the Tomb – A Festival of Resurrection with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,Song-Circle withVelsumVoices = Lucien Dante Lazar & Ultra-Violet Archer
Holy Saturday 8 April 2023
1 pm – 3pm CT a hybridevent
in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it.Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll
Course Number 231154 / Zoom Date: Thursday, May 11 Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance
Gerald Shepherd
When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.
Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.
This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.
Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.
Nancy Poer
~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices& Eurythmy
Saturday 27 May 2023 a Hybrid event in person* & on zoom
We are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.
For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.orgCultural Events & Festivals Coordinator *Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) www.rschicago.org/donate
Find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals HERE
Dr. Rudolf Steiner 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925
Today,Dear Friends – on30 March 2023, we mark the 98th anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s Rebirth into the Spiritual World.
In the ‘Michael Prophesy’ Steiner spoke about how those involved with Anthroposophy would reincarnate after 80 years to be able to take advantage of the Michael Age to further the work of Spiritual Science…
That leads me to wonder…Is Rudolf Steiner, & those who were with him, here today? I often get this picture of Rudolf Steiner as a teenager (young woman?) living in California, just graduating from a Waldorf School…
How can we do our part to support the young people who are coming in today to find Anthroposophy?
Thinking back to Steiner’s time – After the burning of the 1st Goetheanum 100 years ago, at the Christmas Conference in 1923, when Rudolf Steiner re-founded & joined the Anthroposophical Society with the ‘movement’ ie. the good spirits working thru Anthroposophia, he also took on the karma of all its members.
Starting just after that Dr. Steiner showed signs of illness, made acute thru the tea party poisoning on New Year’s Day 1924 – The adversarial powers knew he was doing powerful work so they became relentless, working thru the dark brotherhoods to try & incapacitate him –
Yet the Christ in him, empowered by his selfless sacrificial deed enacted at the refounding gave him enormous inner strength & he continued to lecture & travel like never before. He was often giving 4 lectures a day for the various courses taking place concurrently. Many of these focused on practical anthroposophy, such as education, agriculture, medicine & the Christian Community.
If we are truly awake to the history of the ‘Society’ we must come to see more & more how the most profound cause of his early death was the lack of consciousness by the members – who were not upholding their responsibility to take up Steiner’s indications in a moral way – They were like children – fighting amounst themselves – dependent – leaning on Steiner – burdening him with their unresolved karma. This made them unable to protect what was theirs – the 1st Goetheanum – With its burning Steiner’s etheric forces were damaged, thus allowing the poison to take a stronger effect.
~hag
He gave his last in-person lecture on Michaelmas September 1924. Yet even after that, Rudolf Steiner continued to work on his autobiography & ‘Leading Thoughts’ during the last months of his life until he died on 30 March 1925 at 10 am with the Sun in Pisces & the Moon in Taurus.
From “The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner’ by Guenther Wachsmuth: “Even the last weeks in March 1925, during which he had to endure unspeakable suffering, were devoted in the most intense concentration to spiritual research, creative work, & bestowal…
…the beginning of his shared anthroposophical work with Marie von Sivers stood before his inner eye. It had not been easy for Marie Steiner to live with the increasing intense collaboration between Rudolf Steiner & Ita Wegman over the course of the last few years. Ita Wegman was so entirely different than she was. Now she was forced to deny herself the opportunity to care for the person she loved the most. Trouble with her legs inhibited her from doing this. That they had spoken about this with each other is evident from a letter he wrote her in Berlin on his official birthday:
“I write you these lines at about the same time that you would usually be sitting at my side. Thinking about how beautiful it is to listen to you speck about your activities & to speak with you about various aspects of your work moves me deeply. And when I know that you have now & again been able to read my Autobiography the description of our shared work, I feel deeply how closely connected we are. That destiny has brought other people close to me is simply the way destiny works. And my sickness has shown just how incisive this destiny can be. But you found the way to understanding; this is a blessing for me. To feel the unity of feeling & thinking in discernment is something I can do only with you. That I was not able to show you the last pages of the Steffen article before it went to the printer was a hardship for me. Then for myself, I find inner competence only in your judgement. Through you art is raised into the realms of the hierarchies. I gaze with wonder upon everything you achieve & with such devotion. In my thoughts I am with you” ~RS
Shielded under the devoted care of Dr. Ita Wegman, he still communicated many a spiritual message received, & he had us to report to him what was occurring on the hill of Dornach. He loved the living noise of hammering & scaffold-building which penetrated from the building place of the Goetheanum into the quiet of his sickroom, announcing the building in the process of coming into being. He was united through his council & help with this work to his last breath & beyond death.
From Albert Steffen: “The last moments in his earthly life were free from all struggle with the physical entity, free from all uncertainty such as characterizes the death of so many human beings; his countenance spoke of peace, grace, inner certitude, spiritual vision. He folded his hands over his breast; his eyes were shiningly & strongly directed into worlds with which in vision he was united. As he drew his last breath, he himself closed his eyes; but this filled the room not with the experience of an end, but with that of a most sublime spiritual action. An exalted, transfigured wakefulness spoke out of his countenance, out of the praying strength of the hands. As the great artists of the Middle Ages gave to the pictures of the knights resting upon the sarcophagus the expression indicating that their closed eyes were still beholding, their resting form was still able to stride forward, so did the figure here resting speak of a super-terrestrial wakefulness, of a striding forward into the spheres of the spirit.
The forward striding figure of the Christ statue, pointing into the expanses of the universe, which he himself had created & at whose feet he now lay, spoke for the eye of those left behind on earth what was taking place for the spirit of a great human being who had dedicated his life to the annunciation of the Christ. Even in dying, Rudolf Steiner bestowed upon humanity the most sublime gift of consolation: the certitude that death is a waking entrance into worlds of life & action.”
From Christian Community Priest Friedrich Rittelmeyer speaking about his death: “None of us had expected that Rudolf Steiner would succumb to the illness. The mortal sheath, just abandoned by the spirit setting out on its far journey, was resting on the death-bed at the foot of the Christ statue which stood there almost completed. Those who looked at the face of the dead could see what the spirit can make of the body in the life of a truly great man on earth. The sublimity and purity of his features was equal to every test and unsurpassed. Perhaps the death mask, if it is ever reproduced as a picture, will be a means of convincing many. Again and again one’s gaze turned from the forsaken earthly body to the great Christ figure which points with compelling gesture into the future. The disciple had fallen at the feet of the Master. It was as if Christ were taking the disciple to Himself with sheltering arms while He Himself went forward with unceasing step towards the future of the world. The disciple’s mission was fulfilled. The Master’s brow was radiant with the light of divine world-purposes. When, at the wish of Frau Dr. Steiner, and in the solemnly decorated hall where Dr. Steiner had given most of his great lectures, I was performing the burial service according to the ritual of The Christian Community, a drop of the sprinkled water fell in the centre of the forehead and shone there through the whole service like a sparkling diamond. The light of many candles was reflected in this glittering star – even as the revelations of light from higher worlds had been reflected in his spirit. Thus adorned, the body sank into the coffin. To me it was as if higher Spirits had indicated in an earthly picture what it had been our lot to experience. When the service was at an end, one impression lived mightily within my soul: “This work is now completed. Like a great question it stands there before mankind. If all who belong to that work dedicate their powers to it with single purpose, it will prevail!”
From Ita Wegman Nachrichtenblatt 1925: “At 3 am, I noticed a slight change in his breathing. I approached his bed; he was awake. He looked at me & asked whether I was tired. This question touched me. His pulse was not as strong as it had been, but much faster. I called Dr. Noll in order to speak with him about what ought to be done. Herr Steiner was not astonished to see him there in the middle of the night & greeted him amiably. “I don’t feel too bad” he said “I just can’t sleep.” We turned the light out again. At 4 am, he called me because the pain had reappeared. He said, “As soon as the day comes, we want to continue the treatment that I suggested”…Naturally, we didn’t wait for the day to come but did what was necessary. But then the situation changed quickly – his pulse grew weaker, his breathing more rapid. And we had to experience how his life was gradually extinguished…He went as though it were the obvious thing to do. It seemed to me as though the dice had been thrown for a last decision. When they fell, there was no struggle, no attempt to remain upon the earth any longer. He gazed calmly into the space before him for a time, said a couple of tender words to me, consciously closed his eyes & folded his hands”
Again from “The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner’ by Guenther Wachsmuth: In the lofty darkened space of the studio stood the bier of him who had completed this earthly life, surrounded by a sea of flowers, by the light of candles, the death watch by his side day & night. Many hundreds of persons came in soundless silence for the last visit, went back into life comforted, trusting, having received in their affliction assurance of the virtuousness of the Spirit, of rebirth. On the 3rd day the body was brought into the great workshop, to lie in state finally in the lecture hall, at the place from which he had for decades proclaimed the knowledge of the spirit. At the request of Frau Marie Steiner, Fredrich Rittelmeyer conducted the funeral service which was the gift of Rudolf Steiner to the Christian Community.
The next morning the coffin was carried away for cremation. When it was passing by the newly erected structure of the new Goetheanum, the workers at the building stood still on the scaffolding & greeted the master builder & friend. At the cremation ritual, Albert Steffen united us with our beloved teacher in a picture of his being which only the artist could draw in such shining perfection. He spoke of “the friend of God and leader of humanity”. And what has come into being in us earthly persons through the leadership & schooling of Rudolf Steiner as a certitude, what we are called upon to do in his spirit, he summarized in the following words:
“He has again showed the world to us in such a way that we know it has come forth out of god. He has died in such a way that we feel: Christ lives in this death. May his immortal Spirit be resurrected in our deeds. We will, as well as we can, make them holy.”
“To create centres of peace & love in which the Christ can resurrect.” ~written on the urn that holds the ashes of Rudolf Steiner
What a blessing to receive the teachings of this great initiate. May we continue our connection with him in the spiritual worlds, ever enlivening our Michaelic work with The Christ & the Being of Anthroposophia here on earth that we may co-create these “centres of peace & love in which the Christ can resurrect.”
30 March 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Tonight, the waxing gibbous moon is near the Beehive star cluster in the constellation Cancer the Crab. The twin stars – Castor and Pollux – of Gemini the Twins will also be nearby.
This chart shows the view on March 30, 2023, looking west after sunset. Jupiter is getting harder to see, dropping into the sunset glare. But Mercury will be ascending in the west – getting higher each evening – throughout early April.
1916 – Playright Edouard Schure betrayed Rudolf Steiner due to his nationalism during the First World War (They reconcilled in 1922, although Marie Steiner never spoke to him again)
1963 – Death Day of George Adams – born in Poland to a Jewish family as George Kaufmann, he went on to receive an honors degree in Chemistry from Cambridge University. In 1914 he encountered Rudolf Steiner’s “Occult Science” & become a member of the Emerson Group in London in 1916.
Preoccupied with problems of social reform, he rejected all manner of violence, remaining a conscientious objector throughout the First World War – a “militant revolutionary” as he described himself. He was imprisoned after refusing to serve with other conscientious objectors in the Non-Combatant Corps & was only released in 1919, after a hunger strike. During his time as conscientious objector he had come to know Mary Fox, a Quaker & in 1920 they married.
His interest in Steiner’s ideas on social reform & his intention to translate the book The Threefold Social Order (GA 23) caused him to visit Steiner together with Ethel Bowen Wedgwood in Dornach, Switzerland. Steiner advised him to become involved in some form of social work, something Adams could readily accept amid the social collapse in Central & Eastern Europe following the war. He went on several journeys to Poland as part of the English / American Quaker organization.
In 1920 he took part in the inauguration of the first Goetheanum building. On his return to England, he cooperated with some friends on spreading the ideas of Social three folding as well as the anthroposophical ideas of Steiner. His wife Mary Adams began her work as librarian & translator for the Anthroposophical Society in London that she was to carry for many years. In addition, Adams was the free verbal translator of around 110 lectures of Steiner into English. He went on to translate many of Steiner’s written works, often with his wife Mary.
He was often in Dornach during these times & experienced the burning of the first Goetheanum on New Year’s Eve 1922/23, he was also part of the Christmas Foundation meeting of the General Anthroposophical Society in 1923/24. In 1924 he became one of the Goetheanum-Speakers authorized by Steiner.
While working as a free co-worker of the Anthroposophical Society in Britain as lecturer & workshop holder after 1925, Adams turned again to the study of the natural sciences & mathematics, concentrating particularly on projective geometry while working with Elisabeth Vreede, leader of the Section for Mathematics & Astronomy at the Goetheanum. At the beginning of the 1930s, Adams published a series of articles & essays about projective, synthetic geometry & its relationship to physics, to Goethe’s theory of metamorphosis & to anthroposophical spiritual science, particularly the pioneering work “Of Etheric Space” in the magazine Natura of the Goetheanum’s Medical Section. Here for the first time is mentioned the concept of “counter-space”, as Steiner indicated in the third of his courses on the Natural Sciences (GA 323), explained by means of non-Euclidean geometry. Some years later Louis Locher was to discover the same thing independently of Adams. From that time on the conceptual development of the idea of counter-space in its relation to normal spatial thinking became the focal point of Adams’ further scientific research. In 1933 the comprehensive work Space & the Light of the Creation – Synthetic Geometry in the light of Spiritual Science appeared, which was an overview of the spiritual scientific meaning of synthetic geometry.
When Elisabeth Vreede & Ita Wegman were dismissed from the executive of the General Anthroposophical Society in Dornach, a number of other prominent members of the German, Dutch &British Societies were expelled, including Adams. This brought to an end his cooperation with the Mathematical -Astronomical Section. When the Chairman of the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain, D. N. Dunlop, died in May 1935, Adams took over as general secretary. In this task, Olive Whicher became his closest co-worker,& he introduced her to projective geometry.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Adams volunteered as interpreter in a prisoner of war camp. His close ties to Germany were soon the subject of investigation & he was dismissed after six months. He changed his name at this point from George Kaufmann to George Adams, taking the maiden name of his mother. In the following years Adams was one of the monitors of the Polish broadcasting corporation in the service of the BBC & he learnt several additional Slavic languages. Much of his free time was spent in the British Library studying the development of modern mathematical sciences to augment them with his thoughts about counter-space.
After the war, he was given a scholarship by the British Anthroposophical Society at Rudolf Steiner House in order to investigate with Whicher the geometric principles underlying the world of plants. It had been unclear where the corresponding projective counterpart of the infinite plane of Euclidean space, the infinite midpoint of the non-Euclidean space (was to be found in the plant world. In 1947, Adams expressed the idea that such a midpoint did not just exist, but that there was one to be found in every bud. This idea was connected with that of the lemniscatory correlation between space & counter- In 1949 and 1952, two books appeared with the titles: The Living Plant & the Science of Physical & Ethereal Space & The Plant between Sun & Earth.
In 1947, at the request of his friends Fried Geuter & Michael Wilson of Sunfield Homes in Clent near Birmingham, Whicher & he moved to Clent, where they founded the Goethean Science Foundation with Wilson to undertake scientific research. The peaceful countryside & a secure financial base provided an ideal environment for the work that followed.
Shortly before this, in 1946, Adams had made contact with the Goetheanum & its Mathematical-Astronomical Section under the provisional guidance of Louis Locher. He wished, despite their differences, to work together on common issues. He again participated actively in many conferences & discussions at the Goetheanum & in Germany. He also took up contact again with Georg Unger, who went on to found the Mathematisch-Physicalisches Institut in 1956, where Adams reported regularly on his work. Unger visited Clent for common research gatherings. In 1935, Olive Whicher joined Adams in London & worked with him in research into mathematics & physics until his death in 1963. He discovered how to describe Steiner’s findings about negative space in geometric terms, & was particularly adept with projective geometry & the application of path curves. He translated & published numerous books, lectures, & articles.
So interesting to think that this great human being has the same Death Day as Rudolf Steiner!
So does Dorothy S. Osmond, another translator of Anthroposophical literature, who died in 1978; & Norbert Glas, Anthroposophical doctor who died in 1986.
~Ninetta Sombart
“Lazarus – Come Forth” – Through The Word & Eurythmy w/ Rev. Jeana Lee, Mary Ruud & Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Starting at Sundown Friday 31 March 2023 7 pm – 8:30 pm CT at the Christian Community 2135 W. Wilson
Leading Thoughts & Close of Day with Rev. Jeana Lee – Vesper singer – Ultra Violet Archer
Continuing on Lazarus Saturday 1 April 2023 10 am – 12 noon CT at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago 4249 N. Lincoln Ave
Night School Check-in w/ Hazel Archer – Eurythmy w/ Mary Ruud – Music Ultra-Violet Archer
$10 more or less Please bring a potluck dish to share for the luncheon after the Festival
For more info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hag@rschicago.org
altar piece Colijin de Coter
Mary Magdalene & the Women at the Tomb – A Festival of Resurrection with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,Song-Circle withVelsumVoices = Lucien Dante Lazar & Ultra-Violet Archer
Holy Saturday 8 April 2023
1 pm – 3pm CT a hybridevent
in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it.Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll
Course Number 231154 / Zoom Date: Thursday, May 11 Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance
Gerald Shepherd
When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.
Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.
This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.
Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.
Nancy Poer
~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices& Eurythmy
Saturday 27 May 2023 a Hybrid event in person* & on zoom
We are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.
For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.orgCultural Events & Festivals Coordinator *Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) www.rschicago.org/donate
Find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals HERE
