Category Archives: Quote

“You are now entering the school of the sounds”

July 2, 2016Poetry, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Summer~hag

2 July 2016 – This day is the midpoint of the year. There are 182 days before & 182 days after. The exact time of the middle of the year is at noon.

Perhaps no month better epitomizes summer in the Northern Hemisphere than July. The Summer Triangle is on prominent display. The trio’s brightest member, Vega in the constellation Lyra the Harp, stands nearly overhead shortly after midnight. The asterism’s second-brightest star, Altair in Aquila the Eagle, then lies more than halfway from the southeastern horizon to the zenith. Deneb, the luminary of Cygnus the Swan, marks the Summer Triangle’s third corner. Although it is the dimmest star, it’s the brightest point of light in the northeastern sky.

Maria Heimsuchung – Rudolf Steiner lists this in his original Calendar of the Soul, as an ancient German Feast day celebrating the Visitation Of Mary to Elisabeth.

437 – Emperor Valentinian III begins his reign over & ongoing dismemberment the Western Roman Empire.

1566 – Deathday of Nostradamus, French astrologer & author

1698 – Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine

1778 – Deathday of Procopius of Caesarea the last major historian of the ancient Western world. He Accompanied the Roman general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian, writing the Wars (or Histories), the Buildings of Justinian & the celebrated (& infamous) Secret History discovered centuries later in the Vatican Library.

The Secret History reveals his deep disillusion with the emperor Justinian & his wife, Empress Theodora, as well as Belisarius, his former commander & patron, & Antonina, Belisarius’ wife. The anecdotes expose the secret springs of their public actions, as well as their private lives. Justinian is portrayed as cruel, venal, prodigal & incompetent; as for Theodora, the reader is treated to the most detailed & titillating portrayals of vulgarity & insatiable lust combined with shrewish & calculating mean-spiritedness:

“Often, even in the theatre, in the sight of all the people, she removed her costume and stood nude in their midst, except for a girdle about the groin: not that she was abashed at revealing that, too, to the audience, but because there was a law against appearing altogether naked on the stage, without at least this much of a fig-leaf. Covered thus with a ribbon, she would sink down to the stage floor and recline on her back. Slaves to whom the duty was entrusted would then scatter grains of barley from above into the calyx of this passion flower, whence geese, trained for the purpose, would next pick the grains one by one with their bills and eat.”

Her husband Justinian, meanwhile, was a monster whose head could suddenly vanish—at least according to this passage:

“And some of those who have been with Justinian at the palace late at night, men who were pure of spirit, have thought they saw a strange demoniac form taking his place. One man said that the Emperor suddenly rose from his throne and walked about, and indeed he was never wont to remain sitting for long, and immediately Justinian’s head vanished, while the rest of his body seemed to ebb and flow; whereat the beholder stood aghast and fearful, wondering if his eyes were deceiving him. But presently he perceived the vanished head filling out and joining the body again as strangely as it had left it.”

Géricault

1816 – The French frigate Méduse struck the Bank of Arguin & 151 people on board had to be evacuated on an improvised raft, a case immortalised by Géricault’s painting The Raft of the Medusa

1822 – Thirty-five slaves are hanged in South Carolina, including Denmark Vesey, after being accused of organizing a slave rebellion

1839 – Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinqué take over the slave ship Amistad

1897 – British-Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi obtains a patent for radio in London

1900 – The first Zeppelin flight takes place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany

1921 – World War I: U.S. President Warren G. Harding signs the Knox–Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the United States and Imperial Germany

1934 – The Night of the Long Knives, sometimes called Operation Hummingbird, or in Germany, sometimes mockingly called Reichsmordwoche (Reich Murder Week), a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from June 30 to July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political executions. Leading members of the left-wing Strasserist faction of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), along with its figurehead, Gregor Strasser, were killed, as were prominent conservative anti-Nazis (such as former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher & Gustav Ritter von Kahr, who had suppressed Adolf Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch in 1923). Many of those killed were leaders of the Sturmabteilung (SA) – the paramilitary Brownshirts.

Hitler moved against the SA & its leader, Ernst Röhm because he saw the independence of the SA as a direct threat to his newly gained political power. Hitler was uncomfortable with Röhm’s outspoken support for a “second revolution” to redistribute wealth.

At least 85 people died during the purge, although the final death toll may have been in the hundreds, & more than a thousand perceived opponents were arrested. Most of the killings were carried out by the Schutzstaffel (SS) & the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei), the regime’s secret police. The purge provided a legal grounding for the Nazi regime, as the German courts & cabinet quickly swept aside centuries of legal prohibition against extra-judicial killings to demonstrate their loyalty to the regime. The Night of the Long Knives was a turning point for the German government. It established Hitler as “the supreme judge of the German people,” as he put it in his July 13, 1934 speech to the Reichstag. “The New York Times”stated that Hitler had acted to crush a revolt & that SA leader Ernst Röhm had committed suicide.

1947 – World UFO Day, commemorating the supposed UFO crash at Roswell

1964 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places

1976 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual.

2001 – The AbioCor self-contained artificial heart is first implanted

~ ~ ~

Susan Seddon Boulet

~O Soul of an ancient creature

Come here to drink at my pond

Let me caress your velvet horns of sense & reason

Implanted in your forehead like lightning rods to the sky…

O King, your dusty hoofs tramp a new trail

Worn smooth by my ritual dance to you…

~hag

~ ~ ~

Greetings Friends, I’ve missed you!

I have been studying Speech Formation with Kim Synder-Vine this last week. She is a force of nature. When she spoke the consonants, in my mind’s eye I saw the animals of the Zodiac coming alive, like they were walking off Noah’s Ark.

“You are now entering the school of the sounds” She told us, from ~Rudolf Steiner – his Speech & Drama Course of 1924, where he describes the revelation of speech as relating to the Greek Gymnastics. Every time we speak, the words run, leap off the diaphragm, wrestle off the vocal cords, hit the discus of the tongue, to fly like the javelin out the mouth with intention toward the goal, landing the target like a shot-put.

We started out with Vowels – “Soundings of the Soul”, our inner reaction to life, the planets, their colors, our organs. Vowels rise up from the root chakra to the heart then thru the larynx to the mouth.

Ah – Venus, Green, Kidneys

A – Mars, Red, wakes up our nerve center, Gallbladder

E – Mercury, Yellow, Lungs (good for to vibrate for teeth & gums)

O – Jupiter, Orange, Liver

UU – Saturn, Blue, Spleen

AE – Moon, Silver/Purple, Reproductive Organs, reflective quality to the teeth & bones

AOU – Sun, Gold/White, Heart/Head

Then consonants (the constellations forming us) I will write out a chart for tomorrow.

We must see it before we say it, to Re-cite it, before it becomes a concept, to let it stream forth, forming itself like an etheric arm reaching out into the world.

We did breath-work & placement in the mouth…KLSFM… Karl Let Sophie Fetch May. May Fetch Sophie & Let Karl Go!

“Hoom, Hahm, Hem, Him…Brooding Proofs…Droopy Troops…Gruesome Crooners…”

OUTBREATH – Declamation -spit it in the bucket – “Reforging Gales”…etc…Feelings into the will, (I feel it so I got to say it: Opera) connected to the Northern Mysteries.

INBREATH – Recitation, consonants, thinking into will, connected to the Southern Mysteries. “In the vast unmeasured world-wide spaces”…etc…

Hexameter – a health tonic from the Greeks, good for circulation, helps us speak the consonants.

I love the idea that we create a vacuum then fill it with cosmic substance…forming & letting go…

We started working with Lyric, Dramatic & Epic poetry & some speech chorus stuff with some Steiner & other verses…Iambic sonnets…

It’s been revealing to check-in to discover what my own propensities are. We were instructed to ‘Check Our Soul Mood’. I am by nature a Declamation ‘E’ type for sure…So I need to work on the more softer sounds of the Southern Mysteries…

Let’s explore Speech Formation further tomorrow…

Until soon

Blessings and Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

“Substances are densified, Faults are judged & rectified, Hearts are sifted – Receive the light”

June 26, 2016Chicago Event, Festival, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

26 June 2016, ASTRO-WEATHER Pluto passes just due south of the star Pi Sagittarii in northeastern Sagittarius.

363 – Julian the Apostate murdered. Rudolf Steiner speaks a lot about him as Tycho Brahe, astronomer, astrologer & alchemist & Herzeloyde, Percival’s mother, in Karmic Relationships Vol. 4 Lec. 5

405 – St. Vigilius murdered in Rendena Valley, Italy, where he had been preaching against the worship of the god Saturn. Vigilius said Mass & overturned a statue of the god into the River. As punishment, he was stoned to death. Ironically, a statue of the god Neptune stands in front of Vigilius’ shrine in Trent today.

699 – En no Ozuno, a Japanese mystic said to have supernatural powers, regarded as the founder of the folk religion Shugendō, is banished to Izu Ōshima.

1295 – Przemysł II crowned king of Poland. The white eagle is added to the Polish coat of arms.

1407 – Ulrich von Jungingen becomes Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.

1409 – Western Schism: Three men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope. Driven by politics rather than any theological disagreement, the schism was ended by the Council of Constance.

1483 – Richard III becomes King of England

1510 – Michelangelo completes his painting of Jeremiah on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo once remarked that “In painting, the idea is an image that the intellect of the painter has to see with interior eyes in the greatest silence and secrecy”. That’s why the prophet Jeremiah has his mouth covered & finger extended in the ‘signum harpocraticum’, an ancient gesture of silence signifying profound esoteric knowledge.

Origen, Christianity’s first theologian, states that you will not understand the prophet’s wisdom “if you do not listen in a hidden manner”. Jeremiah’s books in the Old Testament, like all scripture & art, require an esoteric interpretation.

(For Fuji) 1927 – The Cyclone roller coaster opens on Coney Island

1945 – The United Nations Charter is signed by 5o nations

1963 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall

2000 – Pope John Paul II reveals the third secret of Fátima

2015 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution

***

Roxana Villa

Calendar Of The Soul, 14th Week [June 26, 2016 – July 02, 2016]

SUMMER

Surrendering to senses’ revelation

I lost the drive of my own being,

And dreamlike thinking seemed

To daze and rob me of myself.

Yet quickening there draws near

In sense appearance cosmic thinking.

***

Who is this John the Baptist? (continued)

Before JB baptizes Jesus, opening the way for the cosmic Christ, he brings about an opening for many people, preparing them for their roles as disciples of Christ. By baptizing with water, JB brought about an initiatory near death experience, loosening the etheric body, so they could remember their life as a spiritual being. Into this experience of the past, John spoke his mighty admonition: “Change your hearts and minds!”

After the dove descended on Jesus & He became the Christ, & John the Baptist said, “He must increase and I must decrease’” JB was in prison until his beheading. Then his role changed from that of the “voice of one calling in the wilderness“, to a more inward voice, heard in the stillness of the soul.

Herod who had made him prisoner is haunted by this inner voice. Herod’s wife is also affected & wants to silence this uncomfortable voice, so she has John the Baptist beheaded.

The spirit, or angel, of John the Baptist, becomes the guardian of the apostles, appearing especially in the “rich young man” -Lazarus, continuing his mighty task thru him. It is Lazarus, who undergoes the first initiation in the ‘New Mysteries’, accomplished thru Christ Jesus, achieving the name John. But Instead of being performed in the secret inner sanctum of the temple, as it was in the past, this new initiation was done as an example, out in plain sight. It is not coincidence that they both take on the name John, because Johannes E-O-Ah is a powerful title sounding a high stage of initiation.

Lazarus John, ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’, is the only one who is able to remain mindful thru the events of Passion Week. He is there in full consciousness on Golgotha at the “Turning Point of Time” with Mary the Mother. And, along with Mary Magdalene, he is able to behold the Risen Christ on Easter Sunday.

He becomes the writer of the Gospel of St. John, the most spiritual book in the New Testament. He lives a long life, taking Mother Mary with him to the island of Patmos in Greece, where he is able to receive the prophetic vision of the Book of Revelation, with help from John the Baptist & other heavenly sources, bringing us a vision of the future destiny of humankind.

And the voice of John the Baptist can still be heard today, reminding us to, ‘Make Straight the path’.

Tomorrow I will try to bring a synthesis to this theme

Until soon

Blessings and Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

“For what lies inside the human being is the whole spiritual cosmos in condensed form. In our inner organism we have an image of the entire cosmos”.~ Rudolf Steiner

Come Join us for our St. John’s Festival – Sunday June 26^th, 2pm – 4pm

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP

He Must Increase but I Must Decrease– Exploring the Mysteries of Midsummer

Hammer Dulcimer – Dr. Elaine Wagner

Guest Speaker Robert Karp Co-Director of the Biodynamic Association

Rudolf Steiner’s Summer Mantra, Read by Elisabeth Swisher

Labyrinth Walk with Hazel Archer Ginsberg

*PLEASE BRING YOUR JOURNAL, & eurythmy shoes if you have them*

From-The St. John Imagination: The Four Seasons and The Archangels Lecture IV:

“…Thus there arises an imagination of the Trinity, which is really the St. John Imagination. The background of it is Uriel…”

Schaue unser Weben

Das leuchtende Erregen

Das wärmende Leben } The Heights

Lebe irdisch Erhaltendes

Und atmend Gestaltetes –

Als wesenhaft Waltendes } The Depths

Fühle dein Menschengebeine

Mit himmlischen Scheine

Im waltenden Weltenvereine } The Midst, The inner being of Man

Es werden Stoffe verdichtet

Es werden Fehler gerichtet

Es werden Herzen gesichtet. } The Whole, sounding as song & trumpet

The Heights:

Behold our weaving, the kindling radiance, the warming life.

The Depths:

Live in the earth’s sustaining, and in the form-giving breathing,

with the power of true being.

The Midst, The inner being of humanity:

Feel your very bones suffused with heavenly glory

in the sovereign yoga of the worlds.

The Whole:

Substances are densified,

Faults are judged and rectified,

Hearts are sifted – Receive the light

~Rudolf Steiner, Dornach 1923

For more info. Contact Hazel ReverseRitual@gmail.com

Chicago, IL (Anthroposophical Society in America)

I Am a Thought Made manifest

June 25, 2016Chicago Event, Festival, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Speaking with the Stars~hag

25 June 2016 – ASTRO WEATHER: Look high in the northwest after darkness falls & you’ll be greeted by the familiar sight of the Big Dipper. It forms the body & tail of Ursa Major the Great Bear. Use the Pointers, the two stars at the end of the Dipper’s bowl, to find Polaris, which lies due north. Polaris marks the end of the Little Dipper’s handle. On June evenings, the relatively faint stars of this dipper arc directly above Polaris.

1767 – Mexican Indians riot sending the Jesuit priests home

1767 – Deathday of Georg Philipp Telemann, a German Baroque composer & multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family’s wishes. Telemann one of the most prolific in history, was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the leading German composers of the time—he was compared favorably both to his friend Johann Sebastian Bach, who made Telemann the godfather & namesake of his son & to George Frideric Handel. Telemann made an important link between the late Baroque & early Classical styles.

1822 – Deathday of E. T. A. Hoffmann, a Prussian Romantic author of fantasy & horror, a jurist, composer, music critic, draftsman & caricaturist. His stories form the basis of Jacques Offenbach’s famous opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He is also the author The Nutcracker of which the famous ballet is based.

1876 – Battle of the Little Bighorn & the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.

1900 – The Taoist monk Wang Yuanlu discovers the Dunhuang manuscripts, a cache of ancient texts that are of great historical & religious significance.

1910 – Igor Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird is premiered in Paris

1924 – Beginning of the Curative Pedagogical Course by Rudolf Steiner in Dornach

1940 –France officially surrenders to Germany

1947 –The Diary of Anne Frank is published

1950 – The Korean War begins with the invasion of South Korea by North Korea

1978 – The rainbow flag representing gay pride is flown for the first time during the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade

1991 – Croatia & Slovenia declare independence from Yugoslavia

***

Carl Herpfer

~Weaving garlands of wort & hibiscus,

I am a thought made manifest

~hag

***

Who is this John the Baptist?

Studying Rudolf Steiner’s work on the Gospels, we gain profound insights that have the power to touch deep truths buried in the unconscious regions of our soul, regarding one of the most powerful personalities in the history of humankind. In the Gospel of St. John the Evangelist, right after the mighty description of the evolution of the cosmos, we read: “There came a man, send from God, his name was John.” (John 1.6.)

In the original Greek, Johannes, is made up of the vowels “E – O – Ah“, three very powerful Eurythmy gestures. The “E” represents the upright human being – one arm pointing toward heaven, the other grounding toward the earth; an admonition to be here now. The “O” is a round gesture of “inwardness”, an embracing of the soul. The “Ah” is an opening to heavenly revelation; both arms raised in a V, becoming a vessel that opens to heaven, a gesture of “vision”.

The Gospel of St. Luke describes the birth of John; how an angel appeared to the priest Zechariah, telling him, “your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, & you shall call him John.” (Luke 1.13.) The angel also foretells the task of this being John: “… even from his mother’s womb will he be filled with the Holy Spirit. And he will turn many sons of Israel to the Lord their God again. He will be his forerunner and will pave his way, bearing within him the spirit and power of Elijah, to change men’s hearts so that fathers shall rediscover the meaning of childhood, and those who have become alienated from God shall find the meaning of Good again. So shall he make a well-prepared people ready for the Lord “(Luke 1.15-17.)

The birth of John takes place just after the height of Summer, on June 24^th, framed by the births of the two Jesus children. On the one hand, the birth of the Matthew Jesus child on January 6th, with the visitation of the ‘three wise men from the East’, taking place in Bethlehem. And months later, we hear of the other birth, of the Luke Jesus child, on December 24^th, with the heavenly revelation to the shepherds.

In another mystery, we see the spiritual body or angel of Gautama Buddha, which appears in the etheric-astral realm, first, in the meeting between Elizabeth, (just before John the Baptist is born), with Mary, the mother of Jesus (Luke 1.39-56.) & then also at the revelation to the shepherds (Luke 11.8-15.).

Rudolf Steiner tells us that the Gospel of St. Luke brings us a new form of Christ-centered Buddhism, expressing the kind of love & compassion, that can be understood by even the simplest souls. The connection of the Buddha to JB & his mysterious influence on Christianity can be seen throughout the life of John the Baptist.

After his life as an ascetic, JB begins publicly preaching & baptizing. In the 5^th Gospel, Steiner describes how JB was close to the community of the Essenes, as well as with his young cousin, Jesus of Nazareth. John the Baptist’s sermon at the river Jordan shows how the teachings of Buddha come forward in a new form. – Just like the Buddha declared certain truths & warnings in his famous sermon at Benares some five hundred years before, so too did JB speak in a similar way. Buddha says: “Do not think, because you are a Brahman, you are able to advance …“, John changes this admonition to fit his time, saying: “Do not think, because you are children of Abraham …” Buddha gave the teaching of love & compassion – JB gave the parable of the man who has two coats, how we must share with those that have none. And just as the monks came to Buddha with questions, now the tax collectors & soldiers come to John the Baptist.

Yep there’s more tomorrow

Until soon

Blessings and Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

***

Join our community gathering:

Sunday June 26^th, 2pm -4pm at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP

He Must Increase but I Must Decrease– Exploring the Mysteries of Midsummer

with special guest Robert Karp, Co-Director of the Biodynamic Association.

How do we stand wakefully within the sublime mysteries of summer and St. John’s tide? Who is the mysterious archangel of Midsummer described by Rudolf Steiner and what is his relationship to John the Baptist? Can we trace his influence in modern culture, in modern America? What transformation does he seek to bring into our souls and into our communities?

These are some of the questions we will explore in this talk and, in a series of social-artistic exercises that will be incorporated into the talk.

***PLEASE BRING YOUR JOURNAL if you have one***

Hammer Dulcimer by Dr. Elaine Wagner

Rudolf Steiner’s Summer Mantra, Read by Elisabeth Swisher

Labyrinth Walk with ~hag

For more info. Contact Hazel ReverseRitual@gmail.com

Love speaks Truth in the deep rolling thunder

June 23, 2016Chicago Event, Festival, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Remembering~hag

23 June 2016 “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” ~George Orwell

Tonight is Saint John’s Eve

International Widows Day

“For Everyone: We aren’t satisfied with simple answers to complicated questions today as curious Mercury forms an irritable alignment with unrelenting Pluto. Embarking on a hero’s journey to uncover the original source of a sensitive issue is an admirable strategy unless our detective work turns compulsive. Thankfully, the emotionally detached Aquarius Moon enables us to approach our problems conceptually and increases our chances of finding the truth”. ~R.Levine

1456 – Birthday of Columbus

1868 –Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the “Type-Writer.”

1887 – The Rocky Mountains Park Act becomes law in Canada creating the nation’s first national park, Banff National Park

1894 – The International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne in Paris

1910- Birthday of Jean Anouilh. One of France’s most prolific writers after World War II, much of Anouilh’s work deals with themes of maintaining integrity in a world of moral compromise. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for Becket or Honour of God & his 1943 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles’ classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain’s Vichy government.

1942 –The first time the gas chamber at Auschwitz is used on a train full of Jews from Paris

1947 – The United States Senate overrides Harry Truman’s veto of the Taft–Hartley Act

1960 – The Food & Drug Administration declares Enovid to be the first oral contraceptive pill in the world – recalled in the U.S. in 1988, along with other first-generation high-estrogen COCPs

1985 – A terrorist bomb aboard Air India Flight 182 brings the Boeing 747 down off the coast of Ireland killing all 329 aboard

2001 – The 8.4 Mw earthquake shakes coastal Peru. A tsunami followed, leaving at least 74 people dead, & 2,687 injured

2006 – Rene Querido, General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America. Teacher, writer (The Golden Age of Chartres) pupil of W.J. Stein.

~ ~ ~

~The Spirits of Will flash code in the lightning

Love speaks

Truth in the deep rolling thunder

The Gnomes know its Midsummer

Fat Undines splash against the warm fecund earth

& steam up in a vital whiff

Of ozone wafting in the moist air

Filling my breath with purple sky

I walk home

~hag

~ ~ ~

So many forces interweaving in the imagination of St. John’s Eve, but I think I’d like to center on the idea that, in the new mysteries we strive at St. John’s Tide toward an enhanced awareness of our will forces – Rudolf Steiner speaks about how we are dreamy in our feeling & asleep in our willing, so we really have to make an effort to follow John the Baptist & ‘make straight the path’, an effort to enable the higher ego to come to expression ever more fully in the mysterious recesses of our personal priorities with respect to our will.

The summertime union between the sun & earth is actually a re-union between the spiritual beings of the sun & their human offspring. In the Summer-Tide, through ‘the great window of heaven’ we experience this interaction between humanity & the sun forces, which helps us develop an awareness of our ego. We can contemplate this dynamic & bring it to life in our soul most strongly at this time of year.

Rudolf Steiner tells us that at midsummer the Trinity reveals itself out of the heart of this cosmic activity. A sounding, like the music of the spheres, that calls us to explore our own inner harmony with the cosmos. To answer the echo that unites us to the eternity of the Trinity.

Also important: Can we learn, to be still & small enough to hear the voice of conscience?

At the fullness of Summer, the light is so bright that it leaves no room for the shadow to hide. High Noon is the hour of judgment – a good time to remember what John said “Then you will know the truth, & the truth will set you free.”

So as we lift up our hearts to meet ‘the heights & depths of the universe’, where we feel ‘Not I, but Christ in me’ – To say as John the Baptist said “He must increase, but I must decrease” we respond to the summertime call for a yearly reviewing of our deeds, looking with courage to the errors of the past, enduring all the pain self-knowledge brings, so that someday, with hearts lifted, we may say: Yes, I am, and Christ in me!

For the true power of our Ego will increase like Christ increases. And when our false ego decreases, we grow in Christ. Just as John the Baptist, after he was beheaded, concentrated his spirit self into the apostles, especially Lazarus John.

Until soon

Blessings and Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

FESTIVAL GATHERING:

Sunday June 26^th, 2pm -4pm at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP

He Must Increase but I Must Decrease– Exploring the Mysteries of Midsummer

with special guest Robert Karp, Co-Director of the Biodynamic Association.

These are some of the questions we will explore in this talk and, in a series of social-artistic exercises that will be incorporated into the talk.

***PLEASE BRING YOUR JOURNAL if you have one***

Dulcimer music by Dr. Elaine Wagner

Rudolf Steiner’s Summer Mantra, Read by Elisabeth Swisher

Labyrinth Walk with ~hag

More details coming soon. For more info. Contact Hazel ReverseRitual@gmail.com

Stellar is the golden seed from which the corn arises

June 22, 2016Chicago Event, Festival, Poetry, Quote, Remembering~hag

22 June 2016 –

Saturn reached its peak earlier this month, when it appeared opposite the Sun, & our view of the ringed planet remains spectacular. It is on display nearly all night among the background stars of southern Ophiuchus, hanging in the southeastern sky as darkness falls & climbing highest in the south around 11:30 p.m

Feast of St. Thomas More, “a man for all seasons,” literary scholar, lawyer, father of 4 & chancellor of England. He would not support Henry VIII’s divorce & remarriage. Beheaded on Tower Hill, London, 1535

1527 Deathday of Niccolo Macchiavelli – “The Prince”

1633 – The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe

1805 – Birthday of Giuseppe Mazzini, an Italian politician, journalist & activist for the unification of Italy spearheading the Italian revolutionary movement. Freemason – Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy. Rudolf Steiner speaks of him as a Hibernian initiate with Garibaldi & Cavour

1839 – Cherokee leaders Major Ridge, John Ridge, & Elias Boudinot are assassinated for signing the Treaty of New Echota, which had resulted in the Trail of Tears

1941 –Hitler invades the Russia in Operation Barbarossa

1942 – Pledge of Allegiance formally adopted by Congress

1969 – The Cuyahoga River catches fire in Cleveland, Ohio, drawing national attention to water pollution, & spurring the passing of the Clean Water Act & the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency

1978 – Charon, a satellite of the dwarf planet Pluto, is discovered by American astronomer James W. Christy

1990 – Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled in Berlin.

2002 – An earthquake measuring 6.5 Mw strikes northwestern Iran killing 261 people & injuring 1,300 others

2010 – Deathday of Ekkehard Meffert anthroposophist who studied geology, geography, philosophy (with a thesis on Cusa), Education, politics & history. Best known for his biography of Mathilde Scholl, one of the first esoteric students of Rudolf Steiner

~ ~ ~

Wolfgang Harms

~Stellar is the golden seed from which the corn arises,

Earthly is the Sun on the hill from which spirals day…

My body nourishes some unfolding time & purpose

My heart lifts like the Moon

& power quivers on the water…

I shine bronze & gold

& silver in the mirror of the unveiled Isis…

Today

The fixed stars & the circling planets are glad…

~hag

~ ~ ~

“He Must Increase but I Must Decrease.” (John 3:30)

John the Baptist – born in the light of the Summer Sun, just after the Solstice, six months before Jesus, whose birth is celebrated just after the Winter Solstice.

Along with references to the light of the Sun, there are many lamp & fire symbols in the Old Testament that prepare the way for the Christ, in which this being appeared in ‘flames of fire’ & ‘clouds of glory’, such as the burning bush (Exodus 3), & the refiner’s fire (Malachi 3:2)

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path”(Psalm 119:105)

Solomon compares prayer with a lamp, & teaching with light, (Proverbs 6:23) “like the shining of the sun, burns evermore, and leads to eternal rest.”

Rabbis were often called “Lamps of the Law,” & David was “The Lamp of Israel” (2 Samuel 21:17). Compare the remarkable parallel spoken of in the prototype of the Baptist: “Then stood up Elias the prophet, as fire, and his word was kindled like a lamp” (Ecclesiasticus 48:1). This speaks to the promised light which was to appear, & Elias as the torchbearer who kindles the lamb to light the bridegroom’s way.

“He was not the Light, but came to bear witness to the Light” (John 1:8). Here we see the distinction between the lamp (John the Baptist) & the Light (The Christ)

2 Peter 1:19 tells us: “We also have the message of the prophets, which has been confirmed beyond doubt. And you will do well to pay attention to this message, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

John the Baptist, as the Forerunner of the Christ, is the flame signal of the Messiah, the last Old Testament form of the pillar of fire, or the candlestick in the temple. “He was the burning and shining lamp (λύχνος, not φῶς) and there was nothing you wanted more than to bask for a while in that light”. (John 5:35) Here we experience the Baptist as Christōsphoros, the harbinger of the Christ-Light (Φωσφόρος) – the “Light-Bearer”,.

“John replies in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.” (John 1:23)

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.” (Matthew 6:22). We also find that, under the symbol of lamps of fire, the messengers of God, are repeatedly set forth (Matthew 5:14-16; Matthew 25:1-8; Revelation 1:20; Philippians 2:15).

Like the call of conscience from John the Baptist, the need arises to let the light of the higher ego shine into our being.

Let us seek to know the will forces that through our deeds become part of the earth’s being, & make straight the path to the New Jerusalem.

(See also these references: John 1:5, John 1:7, John 1:8, John 1:9; & compare John 3:19-21, John 8:12; John 9:5; John 12:46)

Until soon

Blessings and Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Come join us:

Sunday June 26^th, 2pm – 4pm

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP

He Must Increase but I Must Decrease– Exploring the Mysteries of Midsummer with special guest Robert Karp – Co-Director of the Biodynamic Association.

How do we stand wakefully within the sublime mysteries of Summer and St. John’s tide?

Who is the mysterious archangel of Midsummer described by Rudolf Steiner, and what is his relationship to John the Baptist?

Can we trace his influence in modern culture, in modern America? What transformation does he seek to bring into our souls and into our communities?

These are some of the questions we will explore in this talk and, in a series of social-artistic exercises that will be incorporated into the talk.

Please Bring your Journal & Eurythmy shoes if you have them

Dulcimer music by Dr. Elaine Wagner

Rudolf Steiner’s Summer Mantra – read by Elisabeth Swisher

Labyrinth Dance with Hazel Archer Ginsberg

For more info. Contact Hazel ReverseRitual@gmail.com

Cognitive Ritual

~Confessions of a Modern Rosicrucian

Category Archives: Quote

“You are now entering the school of the sounds”

“Substances are densified, Faults are judged & rectified, Hearts are sifted – Receive the light”

I Am a Thought Made manifest

Love speaks Truth in the deep rolling thunder

Stellar is the golden seed from which the corn arises

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