Category Archives: Quote

Love is Moral

Celestial Event, Festival, History, Quote, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events

Greetings friends on this Full Cold Moon of December also called: the Moon Before Yule, or the Long Nights Moon – The Celts called it the Oak Moon – Tonight Bella Luna ‘occults’ Mars (see below)

Ludo Sevcik

We’ve been exploring an interesting side of the soul forces as revealed by Rudolf Steiner in FAITH, LOVE, AND HOPE – GA 130. We started with Sheaths of Virtue; then we worked a bit with The Karma of Hope. In The 2nd Light of Advent we looked at the connection to the time of Advent. In “A Become” we stepped into the opportunity afforded us in this season to take on the “Trials” spoken about in Steiner’s “How to Know Higher Worlds”.

Today let’s go deeper into what Steiner gives us around the Virtue of Love.  As a background, as well as a look into the future, we are introduced to the idea that Love can only occur when we are able to embody morality. We see this thru the example of the successor of Gautama Buddha, incarnated in the personality of Jeshu ben Pandira, who lived about a hundred years before Christ.

Standing as we are today it’s easy to recognize that being clever intellectually doesn’t always have an equal degree of morality. And yet for the future to unfold in health, if humanity is to progress, morality must be added.

Morality which means being in right relationship, is a product of Love. If we are to advance in our evolution, our thinking must be imbued with heart. Steiner gives the example that according to the reckoning of karma, if a person is intelligent without being moral, in their next incarnation they will be stunted “with an intelligence that is crippled, so that immorality and stupidity coincide”. Steiner is clear that immoral people may be clever but they are really not able to think for themselves – they are easy prey for the adversarial beings to work thru them. “For immorality has a crippling effect upon intelligence. In other words, we are approaching the age when morality and what has now been described for the sixth post-Atlantean epoch as the shining into the ego-soul of the love-forces of the etheric body, point essentially to forces having to do with harmonizing those of intelligence and morality. ”

In working with the Rosicrucianism implicit in Spiritual Science we know that the meaning of the Earth comes from the sacrifice of Christ – as the Being of Love.

Many High Beings prepared the way for this ‘Turning Point in Time’. In this lecture Steiner introduces us to Jeshu ben Pandira. “There have been, & will continue to be, frequent incorporations of the individuality who appeared as Jeshu ben Pandira, until he rises from the rank of Bodhisatva to that of The Maitreya Buddha. According to our reckoning of time this will be in about 3,000 years, when a sufficient number of people will possess the above-mentioned faculties, and when, in the course of a remarkable incarnation of the individual who was once Jeshu ben Pandira, this great teacher of mankind will have become able to act as interpreter of the Mystery of Golgotha in a very different way from what is possible to-day.”

The depth of the Mystery of Golgotha can only be understood thru the harmony of morality, & intelligence in the etheric streams of the human heart, so that it can be out-pictured in the astral of the social sphere. If humanity can achieve this we will see the coming of a “Golden Age” in the 6th Cultural Epoch. If not we will head straight for the “War of All Against All” unprepared.

“…Through the dawning of the age of love, conditions for the age of morality must be prepared.”

May we use this Advent time, this time of preparing, to create a manger in our hearts for the light of Love to be born.

~hag

7 December 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bella Luna in her Fullness will occult Mars, (pass directly in front of Mars) in the horns of the Bull, around 9:30 pm CST.

An excerpt from Jonathan Hilton: Occultations of planets by the Moon are not rare, however this is unique in that it is a Full Moon, which means it is happening when the Sun, in Scorpion, is opposite Mars and Moon. Mars is now exceptionally bright in the night sky, two times brighter than the brightest star, Sirius, so that even in the light of the Full Moon we will be able to see the bright reddish Mars disappear behind the Moon with the naked eye. The current brightness of Mars is because it is now retrograde in the heavens, meaning it is approaching closer to the Earth, which happens every two years.

How might we begin to understand this event out of astrosophy? First, we should consider that we are in the time of Advent. For most of every Advent season in our age, the Sun is passing through the stars of the Scorpion. It then steps into the arrow and bow of the Archer for the last week of Advent, and passes through the stars of the Archer for the Holy Nights. This is a significant imagination to carry during Advent. In Scorpio we have the memory of the Fall of the human being and the lower astral nature which can be transformed into Spirit Self.

Mars and the Full Moon tonight opposite the Sun in Scorpio can in many ways bring to our awareness a deeper consequence of our descent into matter. Mars joins this Full Moon bringing with it the fullness of what Mars has given to humanity. Mars represents the completed first half of Earth evolution. Mars also carries the memory of the previous incarnation of the Earth as Ancient Moon, when the astral body was bestowed on the human being and during which Lucifer rebelled against the higher Sun beings, a pre-figuring of his activity during Earth evolution as described in the story in Genesis. Mars is the god of war. Mars represents that sphere which has given the human being the capacity to separate the self and to confront and master the external world of the senses. Mars is all about “ME!”, the centric I am.

Taurus is also a constellation that is connected to our taking up of the material world, our descent into the weight of the Bull on the Earth. It carries the memory of the ancient Egyptian cultural age, the age of the pyramids, the heavy temples grounded on the Earth, yet with their tips oriented to the stars, just as the heavy earthy bull has horns tuning it into the stars. Yet Mars and Taurus are also both deeply associated with speech, with the Word. So, Mars carries the “sharp sword” of the word.

In our current times, I think we have all experienced the complete separation of the word from truth in so much of what we hear today. The word as lie, as tool of manipulation. The full story of Mars is the story of the Word becoming Flesh, losing its divine origin, its connection to the logos. Yet, since the event of Christ’s incarnation and resurrection, the Earth has begun its new development towards spiritualization out of the new Sun ego in us. Thus, Mars is undergoing a transformation, but only through the conscious working of human beings to restore the logos to the word. This is the long process of the Flesh becoming Word, through the new I AM force of Christ in the world.

For students of Rudolf Steiner, the deed of the Buddha in the healing process of Mars can be considered, which brought to the unruly, aggressive Mars sphere a step towards redemption and transformation. Rudolf Steiner speaks about how without this deed of Buddha, humans descending to incarnation through the Mars sphere would have been permeated with materialism and aggression. This cosmic deed of Buddha can be an inner practice of the human being as the eight-fold path which develops the Mars chakra.

Mars as well as Taurus also carry a future picture of the incarnation of the next Maitreya Buddha who will bring to humanity the full power of the creative Word as a force of goodness, as a moral force. ~ Jonathan Hilton, Astrosophy.com

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

43 BC – Cicero murdered

1941 – Japanese “surprise attack” on Pearl Harbor brings the USA into the 2nd World War

Holiday Market at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 
4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago
10 December 2022 – from 11 am – 4 pm

Handcrafted gifts, décor & toys
Featuring Live Music, Puppetry & Candle Dipping!!!

If you would like to be a vendor contact Elizabeth Kelly 
eilisaineariadne@gmail.com

Resurrection of the Temple (The first Goetheanum) by Rita de Cassia Perez, Adriana’s mother

The ‘Envy of the Gods’ – The ‘Envy of Human Beings’

Presented by Adriana Koulias*

A Winter Solstice offering preparing us for the Centennial commemoration of the burning of the first Goetheanum.

21 December 2022, at 5 pm PT, 6 pm MT, 7 pm CT, 8 pm ET

Here is a link to the World Clock for your time zone

Online & in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago

Dear Friends – This special presentation is supported by your generous donations. $10-$50 or pay what you will www.rschicago.org/donate (credit card or PayPal)

Please type ‘Adriana’ in the memo for your payment

To register & receive the Zoom code email your receipt of payment to the Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg hag@rschicago.org

For those attending in-person doors open at 5:30 pm for our Potluck meal. Please bring food & drink to share.

 Work on building the First Goetheanum, which was designed and supervised by Rudolf Steiner, began after the laying of the double dodecahedron foundation stone on the 20th of September 1913. Construction proceeded for a decade under enormous difficulties in the political, economic and cultural realms, brought on by the advent of the First World War. After the war when the building was near completion, the First Goetheanum was destroyed by an arsonist on New Year’s Eve 1922/1923.

This NYE 2022-23 will be the 100th anniversary of this event and the world is again facing many difficulties, political, economic and social.  Adriana’s lecture will explore what Rudolf Steiner meant by the ‘Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human beings’ and how a consciousness of this during the coming 12 Holy Nights can provide the necessary strengthening for the coming twelve months.

During this presentation Adriana will speak about the three gifts given by Rudolf Steiner in 1913: The naming of Anthroposophy, The Fifth Gospel, and The Laying of the Foundation Stone of the First Goetheanum. She will explore with us how we can link our hearts to the old Goetheanum during the coming 12 Holy Nights to prepare ourselves for the coming 12 months in 2023, so we can work towards a Cosmic New Year.

In this way we will celebrate the Jubilee of the Christmas Conference and the resurrection of the living impulse of the First Goetheanum in the most auspicious way.

For Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘My dear friends, may this link our hearts to the old Goetheanum which we had to consign to the elements. May it link our hearts also to the Spirit, to the Soul of this Goetheanum. With this vow before whatever is best within our being we want to live on not only into the new year. In strength of deed, bearing the spirit, leading the soul we want to live on into the new cosmic year.’ ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘The Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human Beings.’

Adriana Koulias was born in 1960 in Brazil. Adriana moved to Australia when she was 9 years old where she lives today. She has studied art, operatic singing and nursing.  She has been studying Anthroposophy (awareness of our humanity) as given by Rudolf Steiner for 33 years and has since 2002-3 integrated this knowledge into several novels and a number of books, international lectures and articles online and in magazines.

The 2nd Light of Advent

Calendar of the Soul, Celestial Event, Festival, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events

Some thoughts for the 2nd Sunday of Advent 2022, inspired in part by a quote from SIGNS AND SYMBOLS OF THE CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL ~Rudolf Steiner, GA 90f, I. Birth of the Light, 19 December 1904, Berlin – shared by Bill Rogers & his study group in Knoxville TN.

“. . . The fifth post-Atlantean epoch repeats the three preceding periods in the great process of Advent. The three weeks of Advent symbolize these earlier epochs, and in the fourth, the human being must once again pass through briefly the way the birth of the light was experienced at Christmas. ~Rudolf Steiner

When I read that Quote it felt like an affirmation of the work we have been doing in trying to understand the Steiner’s ‘Inner Realities of Evolution’ – Such blessings – More & more the threads weave into a tapestry of grace.

Being in the midst of all the Jubilee milestones, I have been thinking a lot about how at the Christmas Conference of 1923/24 when the great Rosicrucian initiate Rudolf Steiner brought the Spiritual Beings working to bring Anthroposophy to Earth into the Vessel of the Anthroposophical Society – Planting the Foundation Stone of Love into the Temple of the Human Heart – uniting us in our karma – it was the birth of Anthroposophia as preparation for the reappearance of Isis-Sophia – a spark in the consecration on Earth of the New Grail Mysteries.

The Christmas Conference that we are gearing up to meet again after 100 years, is felt every year at Christmas-Tide. This Festival celebrating the Birth of Light at the Turning Point of Time, like the refounding at the Christmas Conference is not a single event that is one & done. No, Steiner tells us: “It is not a memorial festival commemorating what has occurred in the past. The Christmas message does not say, “Christ has been born, Christ was born.” It says, “Today Christ is born.” Today is always emphasized. This is significant. The emphasis on today should be understood in the sense in which Christ has spoken, “I am with you always even unto the end of days.”

But before we can give birth every year to this New Light, we must 1st go thru the Challenge of Advent. At this time of the year, we are tasked with taking responsibility for our own moral development – especially because at this time of year our spiritual helpers withdraw from us.

The 2nd Week of Advent —
Focus: The Etheric Realm
Symbol: The Plant Kingdom
Abandoned by: The Archangels (move beyond the Folk Spirit of place)
Virtue: Temperance / Prudence (Beware the temptation to misuse our faculty of human speech)

The plant kingdom shows us the presence & working of the life-forces that make up the etheric realm. Plants teach us how the etheric element can take hold of matter & lift it into the light. The biggest lesson is that in this living plant world, nothing exists for itself alone. Plants reveal this as a pure revelation – Everything is interwoven into an ecology of mutual support – a unified living totality of beings.

Rudolf Steiner gives us wonderful descriptions of the plant & elemental beings. We can picture the ‘group ego of the plant’ as being located in the center of the earth. And with the help of the Gnomes the roots grow down into the darkness of gravity, in order to anchor themselves in these depths. Underground, all the plants are communicating with one another in an interlocking living cooperation.

Above, the plant also strives heavenwards. And with the help of the elemental beings of warmth (salamanders) & air (sylphs) & water (undines) they unfold their constantly evolving bodies in the light. The forces of the etheric world work from the periphery – generating powers of levity. These draw the plant upwards towards the light of the Sun – making of them a reflection of the stars.

Before our eyes, matter is enchanted into a living form. As the plant grows, from root to leaf, to flower – the life force sprouts, grows, adapts & changes. In the flower, it unfolds in ever higher octaves of fragrance & color. Finally, the plant reaches its perfection to give unselfishly of its fruits. It becomes life giving food, which in working with the mineral world, nourishes the animal & human kingdoms – Then it dies away. And in this death process it completely surrenders its essence to the seed – feeding future generations to come.

Because we have an etheric body, we are alive – Death occurs when the etheric body withdraws & the material world reveals its true reality as death. By working with plants, by studying & communing with them in loving attention, we can learn to perceive & understand this miracle of life.

We can learn to feel & respond to our own etheric body. For me, doing eurythmy helps in my perception of these etheric forces, both within myself & in the space around me. With practice, we can learn to affect our physical body thru consciously moving our etheric body. We can practice feeling the life-force pulsing in the space around & within us. We can explore molding & sculpting these forces with our articulate movements. When we work in this realm with dedicated intention, we are able to release the elemental beings from their material enchantment, so that they can become one with the Christ forces available in the etheric of the Earth – revealing in turn this super-sensible realm to us.

Go on – have a conversation with your house plants – give an offering to a tree!

O Tannenbaum, OTannenbaum,
Wie treu sind deine Blätter!
Du grünst nicht nur zur Sommerzeit,
Nein, auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Wie treu sind deine Blätter!

~hag

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
ADVENT II
Can True Being Inspire Me?
v35
Can I true being know
that it may find itself anew
within my soul’s creative urge?
I feel a power trusting me
to make my Self with modesty
a member of the Cosmic Self.

This verse and its mirror are the only question verses.

LAMMASTIDE II
Can I Imagine Spiritual Need?
v18
Can I make wide my soul
that she unite with seed
of Cosmic Word conceived?
I feel my foresight asking me
to find the strangth my soul will need
to form her spirit garment worthily.

4 December 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Cassiopeia Queen of Ethiopia boasted that she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than all the Nereids, the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus. This brought the wrath of Poseidon, ruling god of the sea, upon the kingdom of Ethiopia.

Trying to save their kingdom, Queen Cassiopeia and king Cepheus consulted a wise oracle, who told them that the only way to appease the sea gods was to sacrifice their daughter.

Andromeda was chained to a rock at the sea’s edge and left to be killed by Cetus the sea monster. Perseus arrives to kill Cetus, saves Andromeda and marries her.

Poseidon thought Cassiopeia should not escape punishment, so he placed her in the heavens chained to a throne in a position that referenced Andromeda’s ordeal. The constellation resembles the chair that originally represented an instrument of torture. Cassiopeia is not always represented tied to the chair in torment, in some later drawings she holds a mirror, symbol of her vanity, while in others she holds a palm frond.

 Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

Holiday Market at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 
4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago
10 December 2022 – from 11 am – 4 pm

Handcrafted gifts, décor & toys
Featuring Live Music, Puppetry & Candle Dipping!!!

If you would like to be a vendor contact Elizabeth Kelly 
eilisaineariadne@gmail.com

Resurrection of the Temple (The first Goetheanum) by Rita de Cassia Perez, Adriana’s mother

The ‘Envy of the Gods’ – The ‘Envy of Human Beings’

Presented by Adriana Koulias*

A Winter Solstice offering preparing us for the Centennial commemoration of the burning of the first Goetheanum.

21 December 2022, at 5 pm PT, 6 pm MT, 7 pm CT, 8 pm ET

Here is a link to the World Clock for your time zone

Online & in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago

Dear Friends – This special presentation is supported by your generous donations. $10-$50 or pay what you will www.rschicago.org/donate (credit card or PayPal)

Please type ‘Adriana’ in the memo for your payment

To register & receive the Zoom code email your receipt of payment to the Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg hag@rschicago.org

For those attending in-person doors open at 5:30 pm for our Potluck meal. Please bring food & drink to share.

 Work on building the First Goetheanum, which was designed and supervised by Rudolf Steiner, began after the laying of the double dodecahedron foundation stone on the 20th of September 1913. Construction proceeded for a decade under enormous difficulties in the political, economic and cultural realms, brought on by the advent of the First World War. After the war when the building was near completion, the First Goetheanum was destroyed by an arsonist on New Year’s Eve 1922/1923.

This NYE 2022-23 will be the 100th anniversary of this event and the world is again facing many difficulties, political, economic and social.  Adriana’s lecture will explore what Rudolf Steiner meant by the ‘Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human beings’ and how a consciousness of this during the coming 12 Holy Nights can provide the necessary strengthening for the coming twelve months.

During this presentation Adriana will speak about the three gifts given by Rudolf Steiner in 1913: The naming of Anthroposophy, The Fifth Gospel, and The Laying of the Foundation Stone of the First Goetheanum. She will explore with us how we can link our hearts to the old Goetheanum during the coming 12 Holy Nights to prepare ourselves for the coming 12 months in 2023, so we can work towards a Cosmic New Year.

In this way we will celebrate the Jubilee of the Christmas Conference and the resurrection of the living impulse of the First Goetheanum in the most auspicious way.

For Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘My dear friends, may this link our hearts to the old Goetheanum which we had to consign to the elements. May it link our hearts also to the Spirit, to the Soul of this Goetheanum. With this vow before whatever is best within our being we want to live on not only into the new year. In strength of deed, bearing the spirit, leading the soul we want to live on into the new cosmic year.’ ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘The Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human Beings.’

Adriana Koulias was born in 1960 in Brazil. Adriana moved to Australia when she was 9 years old where she lives today. She has studied art, operatic singing and nursing.  She has been studying Anthroposophy (awareness of our humanity) as given by Rudolf Steiner for 33 years and has since 2002-3 integrated this knowledge into several novels and a number of books, international lectures and articles online and in magazines.

The Karma of Hope

Biography, Quote, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events
Dalane Heppler

What can the human being (Anthropos) of today do
to recognize our inherent wisdom (Sophia) –
to access the source of spiritual knowledge,
for our own inner development,
for the evolution of the earth
& for all of humanity?

By transforming ourselves we change society & are better able to put the riddles of existence into perspective, reflecting & speaking to our need to relate to the world out of a spiritual scientific attitude of mind, as well as our basic artistic needs, & the need to develop a relationship to the world in complete freedom.

Anthroposophia can truly be embodied thru our practice of Spiritual Science, bringing into focus the essential nature of our humaness, in light of our evolution of consciousness.

What does Spiritual Science give us? By revealing the all-embracing laws of karma & reincarnation, it shows us the existence of an objective, wisdom-filled spiritual world that is accessible by direct experience thru inner development – which permeates us with Hope.

It shows, if we understand karma, that our physical body, which will pass away into dust when we go thru the gate of death, can, thru the forces permeating us with hope, be re-built for a new life. Spiritual Science fills us with the strongest forces of hope.

But if we can’t truly live into Spiritual Science – the new revelation for our present age – if we get stuck in the intellect, or act from a place of exclusion like the Essences, we will still be able to reincarnate, because of Christ’s deed on Golgotha – which planted the seed for our physical resurrection in ages yet to come. Yes, because of this grace, physical life on earth goes on, despite people’s ignorance of its spiritual nature.

Human beings can reincarnate again; but, Steiner reveals, that “there would begin to be something very strange about these incarnations…To put it simply, a condition of dying away, of withering, would assail humankind if their consciousness, and from there the hidden depths of their being right down into the physical body, were not given fresh life through the power of hope.”

This power of hope arises thru the certainty of wisdom gained thru the laws of karma & reincarnation. Karma = Hope

Leap of Faith Christine Anne Raeier

“Faith is the source of the true future. It makes space for grace, and that is what constitutes the power and validity of the promise that has been made to all generations…~Romans 4:16.

Faith, Love, & Hope, are the 3 stages in the foundation of our essential soul nature. It is impossible for a human being to thrive if our 3 sheaths are not warmed thru – permeated, & strengthened by these virtues, which are necessary for health & for life itself – When cultivated, Faith, Love, & Hope are the basic forces that fortify & transform our astral, etheric body, & physical bodies.

I admit that I have heard these virtues spoken of many times before, & have not done anything with them. Harkening back to my bible school days, I remember how they usually appear as set forth in the order given by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, where we hear all about the importance of Love, ending with: “Three things will last forever: faith, hope, and love – and the greatest of these is love.”

It’s powerful to reclaim these virtues now in the light of Anthroposophy.

~hag

~astronomy.com

3 December 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Asteroid 324 Bamberga steals the spotlight this month with a path that takes it near Algol, the Demon Star. Already high in the east an hour after sunset, Algol is an eclipsing binary star that grows dimmer as its unseen companion passes in front of it and brighter as its circling orbit moves it away once more.

The large main-belt world stays close to the Demon Star all month, while the nearby Moon will slide on by over the next several days, leaving darker skies in its wake.

Sunrise: 7:05 A.M.
Sunset: 4:35 P.M.
Moonrise: 2:11 P.M.
Moonset: 2:23 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous (81%)

 Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

Holiday Market at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 
4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago
10 December 2022 – from 11 am – 4 pm

Handcrafted gifts, décor & toys
Featuring Live Music, Puppetry & Candle Dipping!!!

If you would like to be a vendor contact Elizabeth Kelly 
eilisaineariadne@gmail.com

Resurrection of the Temple (The first Goetheanum) by Rita de Cassia Perez, Adriana’s mother

The ‘Envy of the Gods’ – The ‘Envy of Human Beings’

Presented by Adriana Koulias*

A Winter Solstice offering preparing us for the Centennial commemoration of the burning of the first Goetheanum.

21 December 2022, at 5 pm PT, 6 pm MT, 7 pm CT, 8 pm ET

Here is a link to the World Clock for your time zone

Online & in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago

Dear Friends – This special presentation is supported by your generous donations. $10-$50 or pay what you will www.rschicago.org/donate (credit card or PayPal)

Please type ‘Adriana’ in the memo for your payment

To register & receive the Zoom code email your receipt of payment to the Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg hag@rschicago.org

For those attending in-person doors open at 5:30 pm for our Potluck meal. Please bring food & drink to share.

 Work on building the First Goetheanum, which was designed and supervised by Rudolf Steiner, began after the laying of the double dodecahedron foundation stone on the 20th of September 1913. Construction proceeded for a decade under enormous difficulties in the political, economic and cultural realms, brought on by the advent of the First World War. After the war when the building was near completion, the First Goetheanum was destroyed by an arsonist on New Year’s Eve 1922/1923.

This NYE 2022-23 will be the 100th anniversary of this event and the world is again facing many difficulties, political, economic and social.  Adriana’s lecture will explore what Rudolf Steiner meant by the ‘Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human beings’ and how a consciousness of this during the coming 12 Holy Nights can provide the necessary strengthening for the coming twelve months.

During this presentation Adriana will speak about the three gifts given by Rudolf Steiner in 1913: The naming of Anthroposophy, The Fifth Gospel, and The Laying of the Foundation Stone of the First Goetheanum. She will explore with us how we can link our hearts to the old Goetheanum during the coming 12 Holy Nights to prepare ourselves for the coming 12 months in 2023, so we can work towards a Cosmic New Year.

In this way we will celebrate the Jubilee of the Christmas Conference and the resurrection of the living impulse of the First Goetheanum in the most auspicious way.

For Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘My dear friends, may this link our hearts to the old Goetheanum which we had to consign to the elements. May it link our hearts also to the Spirit, to the Soul of this Goetheanum. With this vow before whatever is best within our being we want to live on not only into the new year. In strength of deed, bearing the spirit, leading the soul we want to live on into the new cosmic year.’ ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘The Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human Beings.’

Adriana Koulias was born in 1960 in Brazil. Adriana moved to Australia when she was 9 years old where she lives today. She has studied art, operatic singing and nursing.  She has been studying Anthroposophy (awareness of our humanity) as given by Rudolf Steiner for 33 years and has since 2002-3 integrated this knowledge into several novels and a number of books, international lectures and articles online and in magazines.

Sheaths of Virtue

Biography, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events

Greetings Friends – To cap off our recent work with the Inner realities of Evolution, which you can explore in these essays: Bestowing – Renunciation – Better than Sci-Fi – Cain’s Sacrifice – Homesick – Bildungsroman – Beyond Death – I thought to offer up some thoughts gleaned from Steiner’s Lectures on FAITH, LOVE, AND HOPE – GA 130, given 100 years ago today 2 December 1911, recommended by RR blog commentator Steve Hale.

To contemplate the virtues of Faith, Love & Hope during Advent is especially powerful. A time when we honor the Mineral (physical/Hope), Plant (Etheric/Love), Animal (Astral/Faith) thru the lens of our human/Angel being, in preparation for the rebirth of the Light,

These lectures were among the first attended by Dr. Friedrich Rittelmeyer – proof of the indications in these lectures that point to the great mysteries of destiny working in these encounters, which in this case led to the foundation of the Christian Community, 11 years later in 1922. One of the things that Steiner describes here is the connection between the altar & the tomb, which dovetails nicely with yesterday’s essay Beyond Death.

For me, making the mysteries of Karma conscious is an important part of the ‘Great Work’ calling to us today. If we treat this practical research as a Spiritual Science, we can gradually achieve, thru our own efforts, in freedom, the faculty for perceiving & putting into play the karmic adjustments – the compensating deeds, needed in our personal & social spheres. –

For the time is coming when new faculties will awaken in the human being – IF, as part of our inner development we take up what John the Baptist says by the Jordan: Change your state of soul.

The other important thing is that when we do this work, karmic perception births in us new insight, a new way of seeing, so that it becomes possible to engage with the etheric Christ as counselor & protector when we need guidance, or solace. To deveolp this new perception we need Faith, Love & Hope…

So besides all the wonderful exoteric qualities of Faith, which can seem to harken back to a more ancient, more simple morality, what are the more esoteric attributes?

What would it be like to live into the idea that Faith brings life-giving forces to the soul..?

Steiner gives us the picture that if we are incapable of faith – we become ‘withered – dried-up as the desert’. “Were people to lose all faith, they would soon see what it means for evolution. By losing the forces of faith they would be incapacitated, their very existence would be undermined by fear, worry, and anxiety.

To put it simply, it is through the forces of faith alone that we can receive the life which should well up to invigorate the soul…There lies in the hidden depths of our being something in which our true ego is embedded where the forces of faith are active. We may term it the ‘faith-soul’, or — as I prefer — the ‘faith-body’. It has also been given the more abstract name of ‘astral body’.

The most important forces of the astral body are those of faith, so the term astral body, and the term faith-body are equally justified.”

A 2nd force found in the hidden depths of our being – is the force expressed by the word ‘Love’.

Love is not only something wedding people together; it is also a force that is needed by us as individuals in order to be whole. “Love is a living force that stimulates something deep in our being, keeping it awake and alive — an even deeper force than faith. And just as we are cradled in a body of faith, which from another aspect can be called the astral body, so are we cradled also in a body of love, or, as in Spiritual Science we called it, the ‘etheric body’, the ‘body of life-forces’…the person, empty of love, would actually perish; they would meet with physical death.”

Interesting to think of the ‘etheric body’ as being the same as ‘the body of love’ & not as a force acting in the astral, which would have been my 1st guess.

“Duty becomes Love when we love the commands we give oneselves.” ~ Goethe.

When we do our duty with love, forces waken in our souls that will be especially needed in the 6th culture-epoch – when our etheric body is to be transformed into Life-Spirit.

Love provides a living foundation, which gives us confidence for the future – This is Hope. The forces of hope are connected with our last sheath – our physical body. It is in our physical existence that we need hope; without it our will is lamed.

Steiner mentions that a person who is unable to hope, will always be depressed about the future, & will go thru life with deadening forces clearly etched like deep wrinkles in their physical countenance.

So we see how this picture of the 3 virtues must come together in the human being: The ‘inmost kernel of our being’, our “I”, is sheathed in our ‘Faith-body’ or astral body, in our ‘body of Love’ or etheric sheath, & in our ‘Hope-body’ or physical body.  

In the next essay we will explore the connections of these virtues with our Karma.

Until soon

~hag

2 December 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Fresh off its conjunction with Jupiter on Thursday December 1st, today Bella Luna shines left of the bright planet in early evening, then upper left of it by 10 pm CST.

 Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

Holiday Market at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 
4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago
10 December 2022 – from 11 am – 4 pm

Handcrafted gifts, décor & toys
Featuring Live Music, Puppetry & Candle Dipping!!!

If you would like to be a vendor contact Elizabeth Kelly 
eilisaineariadne@gmail.com

Resurrection of the Temple (The first Goetheanum) by Rita de Cassia Perez, Adriana’s mother

The ‘Envy of the Gods’ – The ‘Envy of Human Beings’

Presented by Adriana Koulias*

A Winter Solstice offering preparing us for the Centennial commemoration of the burning of the first Goetheanum.

21 December 2022, at 5 pm PT, 6 pm MT, 7 pm CT, 8 pm ET

Here is a link to the World Clock for your time zone

Online & in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago

Dear Friends – This special presentation is supported by your generous donations. $10-$50 or pay what you will www.rschicago.org/donate (credit card or PayPal)

Please type ‘Adriana’ in the memo for your payment

To register & receive the Zoom code email your receipt of payment to the Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg hag@rschicago.org

For those attending in-person doors open at 5:30 pm for our Potluck meal. Please bring food & drink to share.

 Work on building the First Goetheanum, which was designed and supervised by Rudolf Steiner, began after the laying of the double dodecahedron foundation stone on the 20th of September 1913. Construction proceeded for a decade under enormous difficulties in the political, economic and cultural realms, brought on by the advent of the First World War. After the war when the building was near completion, the First Goetheanum was destroyed by an arsonist on New Year’s Eve 1922/1923.

This NYE 2022-23 will be the 100th anniversary of this event and the world is again facing many difficulties, political, economic and social.  Adriana’s lecture will explore what Rudolf Steiner meant by the ‘Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human beings’ and how a consciousness of this during the coming 12 Holy Nights can provide the necessary strengthening for the coming twelve months.

During this presentation Adriana will speak about the three gifts given by Rudolf Steiner in 1913: The naming of Anthroposophy, The Fifth Gospel, and The Laying of the Foundation Stone of the First Goetheanum. She will explore with us how we can link our hearts to the old Goetheanum during the coming 12 Holy Nights to prepare ourselves for the coming 12 months in 2023, so we can work towards a Cosmic New Year.

In this way we will celebrate the Jubilee of the Christmas Conference and the resurrection of the living impulse of the First Goetheanum in the most auspicious way.

For Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘My dear friends, may this link our hearts to the old Goetheanum which we had to consign to the elements. May it link our hearts also to the Spirit, to the Soul of this Goetheanum. With this vow before whatever is best within our being we want to live on not only into the new year. In strength of deed, bearing the spirit, leading the soul we want to live on into the new cosmic year.’ ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘The Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human Beings.’

Adriana Koulias was born in 1960 in Brazil. Adriana moved to Australia when she was 9 years old where she lives today. She has studied art, operatic singing and nursing.  She has been studying Anthroposophy (awareness of our humanity) as given by Rudolf Steiner for 33 years and has since 2002-3 integrated this knowledge into several novels and a number of books, international lectures and articles online and in magazines.

Behold Death

Biography, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events

Behold the human being of flesh & bone
And there you behold Death,
Yet, Look within the bones
And you will behold the Awakener –

To follow thru with the thoughts developed in yesterday’s’ essay Bildungsroman from Steiner’s ‘Inner Realities of Evolution’  – Death represents & fulfills itself in the 4th element – earth. As we have previously explored, the other elements – warmth, air, water – have their essence in the spiritual world, & are only a mere semblance here on earth – The interesting thing is that in the whole sphere of physical existence – death is the only true reality!

“We have tried to trace the world of Maya back to reality and in doing so we have shown that all Fire is sacrifice, everything of the nature of Air is the generous virtue of giving, and the Fluid element of water – the result of renunciation and resignation. To these three truths we have to-day added the fact that the true nature of the Earth or solid matter is death, the cutting off of any substance from its cosmic purpose. Because this severing has entered, death itself enters the world of Maya or illusion as a reality…” ~Rudolf Steiner Lecture 5

We know that the physical body without the etheric, astral & “I” is separated from its source – The moment something is cut off from what gives it meaning in the spiritual sense – it dies. Crazy to think that the seed of this was 1st sown back on old Saturn with the rejection of the Sacrifice of the Spirits of Will by some of the Cherubim.  And so when we come into the 4th earth embodiment, we understand that Death would not exist if there were no element of earth.  

Because the mineral, plant & animal kingdoms have their spiritual essence in the higher worlds, Only the human being can actually experience death! Not even the gods knew what death was.

But then at the Turning Point of Time when the Being of Love incarnated into a human body for the first & only time, & gave us the ultimate sacrifice thru the deed of Golgotha, we can now receive the gift that gives true meaning to earth existence – the victory of life over death! – A healing redemption to that original sacred wound – reclaiming the corner stone that was rejected – to make the Temple whole once again.

Will we accept this sacrifice, this offering, this vital gift?

Thinking of these connections, I feel that if I don’t make my own selfless sacrifice, live into the virtue of bestowing, & renunciation, I can never fully understand & embody this gift of redemption, this transformation of death into life.

These insights into the inner realities of evolution, as well as all the other insights of Spiritual Science given to us by Steiner, are meant to be chewed on, digested, & transformed thru our doing, to convert our soul forces into new organs of perception.

We are meant to imitate the gods, just as children imitate their parents.  And somehow, especially recently, I find myself feeling called to take this on more & more. My process of initiation no longer feels theoretical. I can say I have tasted sacrifice, & the rejection of sacrifice – & I have chosen to make my own renunciation – letting go of bestowing seems the hardest for me right now; I’m still yearning to share. But mostly I am standing with death – face to face with what is dead in me – my moral failings, my unworthiness, the beasts that I harbor in my soul forces. Yet I have entered the underworld willingly to lay in the tomb in my search for freedom. Yes, friends, it’s true, being excluded from one’s essence & purpose is death. But unless we die we cannot be born again.

To quote Adriana Koulias from her book ‘The Sixth Key’: “To know the meaning of life, one has to understand death, and to understand death, one has to know the meaning of evil. You see they are interdependent”

As I stand at this threshold, I am listening to John the Baptist crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said’ Asking myself: Is it possible to repent, to truly forgive, to change my heart & mind, so that I can have my own Damascus experience?

Well, I am willing to die trying, because I know that once I begin to understand Anthroposophia while in the physical body, once I can live as ‘Christ in me’ – that impulse can be worked on further, cultivated in the higher worlds.

And so in this tearing open of the sacred wound, I hope to heal…

~hag

~Rudolf Steiner

 Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

Holiday Market at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 
4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago
10 December 2022 – from 11 am – 4 pm

Handcrafted gifts, décor & toys
Featuring Live Music, Puppetry & Candle Dipping!!!

If you would like to be a vendor contact Elizabeth Kelly 
eilisaineariadne@gmail.com

Resurrection of the Temple (The first Goetheanum) by Rita de Cassia Perez, Adriana’s mother

The ‘Envy of the Gods’ – The ‘Envy of Human Beings’

Presented by Adriana Koulias*

A Winter Solstice offering preparing us for the Centennial commemoration of the burning of the first Goetheanum.

21 December 2022, at 5 pm PT, 6 pm MT, 7 pm CT, 8 pm ET

Here is a link to the World Clock for your time zone

Online & in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago

Dear Friends – This special presentation is supported by your generous donations. $10-$50 or pay what you will www.rschicago.org/donate (credit card or PayPal)

Please type ‘Adriana’ in the memo for your payment

To register & receive the Zoom code email your receipt of payment to the Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg hag@rschicago.org

For those attending in-person doors open at 5:30 pm for our Potluck meal. Please bring food & drink to share.

 Work on building the First Goetheanum, which was designed and supervised by Rudolf Steiner, began after the laying of the double dodecahedron foundation stone on the 20th of September 1913. Construction proceeded for a decade under enormous difficulties in the political, economic and cultural realms, brought on by the advent of the First World War. After the war when the building was near completion, the First Goetheanum was destroyed by an arsonist on New Year’s Eve 1922/1923.

This NYE 2022-23 will be the 100th anniversary of this event and the world is again facing many difficulties, political, economic and social.  Adriana’s lecture will explore what Rudolf Steiner meant by the ‘Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human beings’ and how a consciousness of this during the coming 12 Holy Nights can provide the necessary strengthening for the coming twelve months.

During this presentation Adriana will speak about the three gifts given by Rudolf Steiner in 1913: The naming of Anthroposophy, The Fifth Gospel, and The Laying of the Foundation Stone of the First Goetheanum. She will explore with us how we can link our hearts to the old Goetheanum during the coming 12 Holy Nights to prepare ourselves for the coming 12 months in 2023, so we can work towards a Cosmic New Year.

In this way we will celebrate the Jubilee of the Christmas Conference and the resurrection of the living impulse of the First Goetheanum in the most auspicious way.

For Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘My dear friends, may this link our hearts to the old Goetheanum which we had to consign to the elements. May it link our hearts also to the Spirit, to the Soul of this Goetheanum. With this vow before whatever is best within our being we want to live on not only into the new year. In strength of deed, bearing the spirit, leading the soul we want to live on into the new cosmic year.’ ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘The Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human Beings.’

Adriana Koulias was born in 1960 in Brazil. Adriana moved to Australia when she was 9 years old where she lives today. She has studied art, operatic singing and nursing.  She has been studying Anthroposophy (awareness of our humanity) as given by Rudolf Steiner for 33 years and has since 2002-3 integrated this knowledge into several novels and a number of books, international lectures and articles online and in magazines.