Category Archives: Quote

Universal Harvest

~Mariusz Lewandowski

Here are some podcasts & video’s on the theme of Michaelmas:

Video – Michaelmas: Festival of the Future

Video: Michaelmas Musings

The Anthroposopher podcast – Preserve the Light

Video – The Central Regional Council – ‘Courage Born of Wisdom

Greetings friends – I know you are feeling it. A deep holiness broods over the dying light. Now, in ourselves we must find our own power of bestowing warmth; that we may shine from within. In the realm of the senses the plant world sinks down into death. Inwardly the fire-spirits, offspring of the lofty Beings of the Sun, bearing the Archetypal pictures of the plant kingdom, stream down into the womb of Mother Earth. All around us we see withering, the color leaving to reveal the essence. As human beings we must not allow the death of nature to draw us into sleep. In autumn we must discover the force of resurrection within, so that we can pass with full consciousness thru the gate of death with a wakened soul, in our time. This is possible by what Michael bestows as the Fire of Will. We can come into communion with the most hidden secrets of existence now, whispering: Feel yourself as bearer of the Motherhood of Nature, to conceive in love the fiery germ of Self.

Michaelmas is not just a day; it is a season that extends from September 29, the Feast of St. Michael & All the Heavenly Hosts, to October 31, All Hallows Eve

The dragon is not an external reality, but rather lives within all humankind, represented by cold, dead, rationalistic & pragmatic thinking. It is alive within every mortal as a potentially evil force. Michael’s message to humanity is not to try to slay the dragon within ourselves, for we would not live in freedom if we did, but rather to overcome it with consciousness. It is the consciousness in our thinking which calls for Imaginative Cognition & selflessness, as well as the strength of will needed to follow a moral path in life.

Michaelmas is a festival of inner strength & initiative. It is a time when our higher being can conquer anxiety & fear, for it is the task of Michael to awaken humankind to the eternal within.

The old legends always preface the story of the battle against the dragon with an enumeration of the 9 Angelic Realms. This view is revealed to our soul, taking us all the way to the Seraphim. Michael stands before us as the Prince & Herald of all the Hierarchies, that we may look to the Angelic Choirs, that we may look to our future selves, that we may think, what it is to be truly human, here & now, & step by step, to courageously build our own strong & steady rung on the ladder of evolution.

It is our job to strive to complete the never-ending story, with the New Michaelic Mysteries put forth by Rudolf Steiner, a true emissary of Michael, teaching us to count the human being as the 10th hierarchy.

The Michael thought: (to be born again – one has to die), and a Michael festival in the second half of September, must be linked alongside the Easter festival. Then, to the thought of the resurrection of the God after death, could be added the thought, produced by the Michael force, of the resurrection of the human being from death, so that humanity, through the Resurrection of Christ, would find the force to die in Christ and be born again. This means, taking The Risen Christ into one’s soul during earthly life, so as to be able to die in Him — that is, to be able to die not at death, but when one is living. Then that which we need will be present in life. For these are one, and they will once again weave religion, science, and art into oneness, because people will understand how to conceive the trinity. Such a thing could actually become an impulse which singly and alone would be able, in the present condition of humanity, to replace the descending forces with ascending ones.” ~Rudolf Steiner ‘The Cycle of the Year’ 1923 Dornach

~Lois Schoff

In our present age full of these forces that would pull us down, it is essential to align ourselves with the Being of Michael to enable us to overcome all that is of the ‘dragon’ rearing its many heads within us.

We can come to know this mighty ‘Time Spirit’ by taking into our hearts earnest wisdom-filled thoughts concerning the Christ Countenance that this being holds. If we practice this, we will soon see the light of Wisdom transform into fiery flames of will –empowering us to fulfill the tasks that are incumbent upon us.

During Harvest season these energies firing up our will are especially available & are strongest when joined in a community effort. In concert with friends & co-creators, we can work with Sophia-Michael/Christ at this crucial time, when the Mystery of Evil unfolds together with the Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric.

Mi-cha-el is a Hebrew name consisting of three separate words – the word Mi, pronounced My, means “Who?” cha, pronounced kai, means “like” or “as.” And El pronounced “L”, is the abbreviated form of Elohim – the name of God in the plural – the 7 Spirits of Form or the Creator Gods referred to in Genesis: “In the beginning God [Elohim] created heaven and earth…” Put these three word-syllables together & we get Mi-cha-el: “Who is like God?” This name prods our ordinary thinking – providing an opportunity to penetrate beyond the surface – to pose important questions.  Facts are dead if they are not stepping-stones to more penetrating questions which allow further answers.

The very essence of Michael is not a proper noun but a verb – a deed. What if we applied this kind of spiritual questioning to all our striving toward knowledge?

~Hilma af Klint

Who, or what, is the essence behind the Word? What is it that we seek in all our ‘Questing’ for Wisdom, knowledge & understanding?

The ‘Holy Grail’ up-holds the Wisdom of god – The knowing of the spiritual foundation of things.

Rudolf Steiner reminds us that “Every idea we hold that does not become an ideal slays a power within us.” Instead of slaying the dragon in us, this kind of lazy thinking slays the Michael power within us. But when our thoughts rise to the ideal, they have a force that is useful & eternal, imbued with will – fired with an indomitable force. These thoughts rise-up to God.

~Carlline Maniele

Michael as Time Spirit is cosmopolitan – universal – a role-model preparing us for the collective culture of the future which began with the Christ event – blossoming in the future into ‘Philadelphia’ – the culture of ‘Brotherly Love’ which leads us into the ideal community of the New Jerusalem – where we are the 10th hierarchy – the universal human being – co-creators in the cosmos.

What is universal goes completely beyond groups, beyond divisions – into the All as One – the Christ within us.  This divine spark that we have in common with all of humanity is universal. Until we can embrace all, accept all, love all—as Christ shows us—we have not achieved the Freedom of Universal Individualism. As students of the Michaelic intelligence we are called to mirror the highest in the other.

~Vlad Apetrei & Irene Olid

This is how we can work with Michael. We become co-workers – mirroring the highest in the other –mirroring the countenance of Christ – this is what we come to understand in the School of Michael.

Anyone who is striving to do ‘The Great Work’ on the path of personal development & spiritual research knows that it is an arduous, lonely path – And ironically it is often in community where the most suffering & pain is triggered, offering our deepest sorrow as well as our biggest opportunities for growth.

~Beela Dentley

From a broad evolutionary perspective, we can understand that every soul is on ‘the path’.

Can we recognize & feel the cry of the spirit, the seeking soul within our family members, or co-workers, the annoying person on the street? Can we have compassion for others & for ourselves in our various conditions of soul & spirit-sickness?

Can we see beyond this soul-sicknesses, to meet the hungering individual who is, in their own way, hoping for a fulfillment that only the spirit can bring?

When we are recognized by another on the level of spirit, we naturally awaken to our latent potential & connect more readily with our unique life-purposes.

Can we trust that no matter where a fellow human being is on their journey that we can acknowledge the Christ within them? Or do we hold the individuals around us captive to their past? Do we unconsciously cast judgment on them? We have seen them fail perhaps countless times. Is there a subtle condemning in us when we speak to them or of them to others?

How about those who ascribe to a different social philosophy or support a different political party – do we judge them as inferior for their beliefs & unworthy of our help or support? Do we think of them as evil – never able to progress or change? If so, we are aligning ourselves with the adversary stunting our own soul’s progress as well as theirs.

Can we forgive them & ourselves, & step up to be the person in their life that helps them see their true potential?

Are we living up to our own true potential? 

If we are able to do this, then we are working with Michael as a mirror to the divine nature within others. What a beautiful harvest that will bring to the world.  

Let this season enkindle in us a renewed hope, an unshakeable faith, a sure strength – endowing us with the spiritual will of Sophia-Michael. In the name of Christ, we can stand fast in freedom – to sure up the practical reality that Spiritual Science offers as a world view.

~hag

29 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” ~Mark Twain

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

The Feast Day of St. Michael All the Heavenly Hosts, also called MICHAELMAS

1227 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, is excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for his failure to participate in the Crusades. A man of extraordinary culture, energy, & ability Frederick II was called stupor mundi (the wonder of the world), by Nietzsche, also the first European, the first modern ruler – by many historians, Frederick established in Sicily & southern Italy a modern, centrally governed kingdom with an efficient bureaucracy.

He was a King of Germany, of Italy, & Burgundy. His other royal title was King of Jerusalem by virtue of marriage & his connection with the Sixth Crusade.

He was frequently at war with the Papacy, hemmed in between Frederick’s lands in northern Italy & his Kingdom of Sicily (the Regno) to the south. Pope Gregory IX went so far as to call him an Antichrist.

Speaking six languages (Latin, Sicilian, German, French, Greek & Arabic, Frederick was an avid patron of science & the arts. He played a major role in promoting literature through the Sicilian School of poetry. His Sicilian royal court in Palermo, saw the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian. The poetry that emanated from the school had a significant influence on literature & on what was to become the modern Italian language.

He was also the first king who explicitly outlawed trials by ordeal as they were considered irrational.

1571 – Birthday of Caravaggio, Italian painter

1717 – An earthquake strikes Antigua Guatemala, destroying much of the city’s architecture & making authorities consider moving the capital to a different city

1812- Birthday of Caspar Hauser, grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell. Theories link  him with the grand ducal House of BadenThese claims, & his subsequent death by stabbing, sparked much debate & controversy.

“…It was the case of that human being, so enigmatic for many people, who was once placed into this city in a mysterious way, and who in just as mysterious a way met his death in Ansbach. An author, in order to indicate the mystery of his life, wrote that as he was carried out to burial the sun was setting on the one horizon and the moon was rising on the other. I speak, as you know, of Caspar Hauser. If you disregard all the pros and cons that have been asserted, if you look only at what has been fully verified, you will know that this foundling — who was one day simply there in the street, and who since he did not know whence he came, was called the Child of Europe — could neither read nor write when he was found. At an age of twenty years he possessed nothing of what is gained through the intellect but he had a remarkable memory. As they began to instruct him, as logic entered his soul, his memory disappeared. This transition in consciousness was accompanied by something else. He possessed at first an incredible, an entirely inborn truthfulness and it was precisely in this truthfulness that he went more and more astray. The more he nibbled, so to say, at intellectuality, the more it vanished. There would be many things to study were we to enter deeply into this human soul which had been artificially held back. It is not difficult for the student of Spiritual Science to credit the popular tradition, so unacceptable to the learned people of to-day, which relates that while Caspar Hauser still knew nothing, while he still had no idea that there were beings besides himself of different form, he exercised a remarkable effect upon quite savage creatures. Savage animals humbled themselves and became mild, something streamed from him that made such beasts gentle, although they savagely attacked anyone else. We could in fact penetrate deeply into the soul of this remarkable personality, so enigmatic to many, and you would see how things that cannot be explained from ordinary life are led back through Spiritual Science to spiritual facts. Such facts cannot be learnt by speculation but only by spiritual observation, though they are comprehensible to an unbiased and logical thinking.

All this has only been said in order to show you that the modern consciousness has evolved from another, an age-old-state when man was not in direct touch with outer objects in the modern sense, but on the other hand was in connection with facts and beings of the spiritual world.” ~Rudolf SteinerThe Apocalypse of St. John, Spiritual Science — The Gospel — The Future of Mankind

1885 – The first public electric tramway in the world is opened in Blackpool, England

1902 – Deathday of Émile Zola a French novelist, playwright, journalist, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, & an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France & in the exoneration of the falsely accused & convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J’accuse. Zola was nominated for the first & second Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901 & 1902. His death from carbon monoxide poisoning is suspected to have been murder

1924 – Ludwig Polzer holds his 1st First Class Lesson

1954 – The convention establishing CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) is signed

1957 – Twenty MCi of radioactive material is released in an explosion at the Soviet Mayak nuclear plant at Chelyabinsk

1981 – Deathday of Adolf Arenson, German composer & Anthroposopher. Arenson editied many of Rudolf Steiner’s works, & composed the music for many of the plays & productions. Steiner mentions him at the end of Wonders of the World lecture 1

2008 – Following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers & Washington Mutual, The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, the largest single-day point loss in its history

30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day – Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought

The time for biodynamic preparation making is upon us. We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and working in the soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year?
Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye/ thank you.
Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.

Last Address

~George Mason

Greetings Dear Sisters & Brothers on this auspicious Eve of the Full Harvest Moon, coupled with the ancient Jewish celebration of Sukkot, which brings the community together for a unique opportunity to experience an amazing blend of Honoring the Ancestors, Giving Thanks, & opening to receive prosperity’s blessings…Yes, the season of in-gathering is upon us once again…Sweet with the seal of At-One-ment…

In the New Christian Mysteries this is also the Eve of The Feast Day of St. Michael & All the Heavenly Hosts. Referred to as Michaelmas, a season that really begins during the Perseid Meteor showers, is celebrated specifically on September 29th, & lasts until The Feast of All Hallows.

~hag

TODAY – 99 years ago – on 28 September 1924, Rudolf Steiner rose from his sick bed where he worked at the foot of his unfinished sculpture – the ‘Representative of Humanity’, to give what has been referred to as: THE LAST ADDRESS, GA 238, THE INDIVIDUALITY OF ELIAS, JOHN, RAPHAEL, NOVALIS. Rudolf Steiner died 6 months later on 30 March 1925.

On the eve of Michaelmas, Steiner gives a mysterious example of what is called ‘Spiritual Economy’ – which he had been revealing all thru 1923 in his ‘Karmic Relationships’ series – the idea that powerful individualities can share the results of their initiations which have developed their various bodies: physical, etheric, astral & I, with other worthy souls for the purpose of furthering human evolution.

In this last public lecture, he gives a truncated glimpse into the special relationship between John the Evangelist, who in earlier incarnations was Cain, Hiram Abiff, Christian Rosenkreutz, Count of St-Germain…& John the Baptist, who was the first man Adam, the Zealot Phinehas-grandson of Aaron & great-nephew of Moses, then the prophet Elijah, the painter Raphael, & the poet Novalis…

It is up to us now as part of the Centennial renewal to take up the threads.

Thru Steiner’s 5th Gospel we can understand that John the Baptist worked with all the apostles from the spiritual world after his beheading, becoming like the “overshadowing spirit of the disciples”

And in particular JB participated, along with other powerful individualities, in the first Christian initiation of a human being by Christ Jesus: the ‘Raising of Lazarus’ = An integration of the pure essence at the core of the ancient Mystery Schools with the New Christian Mysteries working simultaneously. And here we see this principle of ‘Spiritual Economy’ or as Marie Steiner called described it:  “incorporation secrets, the line of interception of individualities”. For while Lazarus was undergoing this new 4-day initiation, JB endowed Lazarus with his Consciousness Soul which he had achieved as Elijah, & the advanced level of his astral body as Spirit-Self. Bestowing on Lazarus the initiatory title John, which signifies the Air (Hebrew=Ruach) Initiation. Steiner describes the title John as “one who has awakened his higher self, who governs the occult forces of air”.

~Van Gogh

From the Last Address we hear: “At the rising of Lazarus, the spiritual being of John the Baptist, who since his death had been the overshadowing spirit of the disciples, penetrated from above into Lazarus as far as the Consciousness-Soul. The being of Lazarus himself, from below, intermingled with the spiritual being of John the Baptist from above. After the rising of Lazarus, this Being is Lazarus-John, the disciple whom the Lord loved. And he was then able to write the Gospel of John & the Book of Revelation”. ~Rudolf Steiner

This initiation of Lazarus-John, as a representative of future humanity, pre-figured on the micro-level the death & resurrection that Christ Jesus accomplished macrocosmically on Golgotha. Since this was such an important task, other powerful individualities not able to be mentioned at that time by Steiner in the Last Address, were involved:

The Being known as Zarathustra, who had incarnated as the Matthew Jesus, visited by his followers the 3 Magi, merging with the Nathan Soul of the Luke Jesus at age 12, who then left the body of Jesus of Nazareth at the Baptism by JB to allow the Christ to enter, worked now from the Moon Sphere, offering Lazarus his advanced etheric-body (Buddhi).

And it was Aristotle, who later became Rudolf Steiner, working with Michael from the Sun sphere at the Turning Point of Time, made his powers of Atman (Spirit-Man) available to Lazarus-John.

Christ himself bestowed the Higher “I”.

The Raising of Lazarus ~Juan De Flandes

Lazarus’ sister Mary Magdalene kept his physical body intact enough to rise from the grave (even though Martha his other sister said “by this time there is a bad odor…”) Mary worked thru the advanced power of her Sentient Soul to hold him grounded in the physical while he underwent the initiation.

Perhaps that is why some say ‘the Disciple who Jesus loved’ looked like a woman. Some say it was even Mary…

And so dear friends on this eve of Michaelmas thru the inspiration of Rudolf Steiner’s ‘Last Address’, as well as comments he made in connection to other incorporations, such as between Demetrius & Kaspar Hauser, which Steiner spoke about to Count Polzer-Hoditz a few weeks before he died, we can see that at the ‘Raising of Lazarus’ we are dealing with a new kind of Initiation where a human being stands before Christ, reaching from the earthly depths to the highest heavenly heights – Assisted thru the interception of spiritual organs of high initiates working from the Spiritual Worlds: John the Baptist, Zarathustra, Aristotle, & the Apostle of the Apostles Mary Magdalene.

May more threads of our evoultion continue to connect us in our seeking to be ‘Christ in me’.

~hag

28 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The full moon closest to the equinox, or Harvest Moon – rises just before sunset. It’s the last of 4 full supermoons in a row in 2023. Also, on September 28, look for the full super Harvest Moon to be about halfway between the 2 planets, very bright Jupiter and golden Saturn.

Humanity and divinity | thehumandivinedotorg
William Blake

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

551 BC – Birthday of Confucius, Chinese teacher, editor, politician, & philosopher of the Spring &Autumn period of Chinese history

1203 – Deathday of Alanus ab Insulis, Theologian, poet, teacher at Chartres. Alan’s philosophy was a sort of mixture of Aristotelian logic and Neoplatonic philosophy. The Platonist seemed to outweigh the Aristotelian in Alan, but he felt strongly that the divine is all intelligibility and argued this notion through much Aristotelian logic combined with Pythagorean mathematic

 “Do not hold as gold all that shines as gold”

In the Anticlaudianus he sums up as follows: Reason, guided by prudence, can unaided discover most of the truths of the physical order; for the apprehension of religious truths it must trust to faith. This rule is completed in his treatise, Ars catholicae fidei, as follows: Theology itself may be demonstrated by reason. Alainus even ventures an immediate application of this principle, & tries to prove geometrically the dogmas defined in the Creed

Rudolf Steiner speaks extensively about this powerful Platonic individuality in many place such as: Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies – Volume III, lecture VI – THE SCHOOL OF CHARTRES

Giovanni Segantini - Wikipedia

1899 – Deathday of Giovanni Segantini,an Italian painter known for his large pastoral landscapes of the Alps. He was one of the most famous artists in Europe in the late 19th century. In later life he combined a Divisionist painting style with Symbolist images of nature. He was active in Switzerland for most of his life.

TODAY in 1924 – Rudolf Steiner gave his ‘Last Address’ in Dornach GA 238  ‘The Individuality of Elias, John, Raphael, Novalis’ with the Michael Meditation:

Springing from Powers of the Sun,
Radiant Spirit-powers, blessing all Worlds!
For Michael’s garment of rays
Ye are predestined by Thought Divine.

He, the Christ-messenger, revealeth in you —
Bearing mankind aloft — the sacred Will of Worlds.
Ye, the radiant Beings of Aether-Worlds,
Bear the Christ-Word to Man.

Thus shall the Heralds of Christ appear
To the thirstily waiting souls,
To whom your Word of Light shines forth
In cosmic age of Spirit-Man.

Ye, the disciples of Spirit-Knowledge,
Take Michael’s Wisdom beckoning,
Take the Word of Love of the Will of Worlds
Into your soul’s aspiring, a c t i v e l y !

1978 – Deathday of Pope John Paul I, born Albino Luciani, served as Pope until his sudden suspicious death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history.

30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day – Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought

The time for biodynamic preparation making is upon us. We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and working in the soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year?
Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye/ thank you.
Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.

Fired up

Dear friends – In thinking back to the laying of the Foundation Stone for the 1st Goetheanum, called at that time the ‘Johannas Bau’, 110 years ago on 20 September 1913– (Read the transcript of that elementally charged ceremony in an essay I shared HERE) I can’t help but connect this to the arson that destroyed the ‘House of the Word’ 10 years later.

In the amazing ‘Play for Voices’ by Richard Ramsbotham, called “The Burning of the Goetheanum a powerful occult secret is revealed thru his research capturing biographical insights from those who were there.

I met Richard for the 1st time in person this Summer at the ‘AHA‘ conference ‘The Mysteries of Healing: Realizing AnthropoSophia“, where he gave me a signed copy of this amazing telling of the Anthroposophical Biography we all share.

As we know Dr. Steiner designed this incredible ‘House of the Word’. Along with all the craftsmen & volunteers, that he worked with to co-create a powerful synthesis of diverse artistic & sensory forms infused with spiritual significance, he also employed Architect Schmid-Curtius & Engineer Englert to pull off this never before organic building achievement of the connecting domes.

From Emil Molt we hear: “The building supervision lay in the hands of the engineer Englert, the former director of the Basel building association that had produced the special concrete base for the building. Dr Steiner gave Englert the task of anchoring the two cupolas at their section in such a way that they would mutually support each other. At first, Englert declared the problem insoluble according to his calculations. He was given some directions by Dr Steiner then, lo and behold, a few days later he had solved what he had at first thought impossible. ~Emil Molt and the beginnings of the Waldorf School movement: Sketches from an autobiography. Edinburgh: Floris Books, 1991. Page 114.

From Steiner we learn: “Technically, it was an extremely difficult task to accomplish — to bring the two cupolas together —there didn’t seem to be a way to fit two spherical surfaces one into the other. So I really must mention here that we did succeed through the insight and effort of our friend, the esteemed Basel engineer Joseph Englert, who solved this architectural  problem which had heretofore never been solved.” ~Rudolf Steiner, 10 April 1915, in Basel GA 289

From the biography of Joseph Englert, which Ramsbotham opens for us in his play – we learn that from an early age Englert had a powerful fascination with occult phenomena of all kinds. In particular he dabbled in mediumism, spiritualism, & was an accomplished astrologer. We was a member of the Theosophical society & heard Steiner speak for the 1st time in Basel in 1906.  

As mentioned in the essay on the laying of the Foundations Stone, he was at the original founding as board member & treasurer of the Johannesbauverein – the building committee. But:

“In the second half of 1918 there was a series crisis of trust between Englert & the other board members, & after a stormy meeting on 10 January 1919, Englert not only resigned from the board, but also from the construction management. As a result, he also turned away from Anthroposophy…Shortly afterwards his marriage ended in divorce & in 1922 he moved to Lugano. There he became friends, with Hermann Hesse.” ~ https://biographien.kulturimpuls.org/detail.php?id=1479

Englert also cast Horoscope charts for Hermann Hesse. In his novel “Klingsor’s Last Summer”, Hesse Depicts Englert as the Dark Magician.

Clara Selling Walther, who lived with Rudolf Steiner & Marie von Sivers at 30 Motzstrasse in Berlin, for 20 years, tells us that after Englert broke away from Anthroposophy he converted to Catholicism & became a Jesuit. After the fire at the Goetheanum she wrote down some recollections: “A body was found, of a crippled man, a watchmaker. Herr Doctor said he was NOT the arsonist. ‘Oh, No! Old Englert was the only one who knew everything about the cupolas’.”

Russian novelist Andrei Bely, another artistic associate who worked on the Goetheanum, wrote about Englert:

“I appreciated Englert…but I also suspected him ever more strongly of being marked out by a secret tragedy. I sensed his growing fascination with the abyss surrounding us. He suffered a fall. He separated from Steiner, in dissonance & discord, and converted to Catholicism.”

After the burning Steiner spoke to Ita Wegman & a small group of esoteric students, about how the 2 Dark Brotherhoods working behind the Jesuits & the Freemasons – usually enemies – joined together for the 1st time to destroy the House of the Word’.

Steiner quotes what the astrologers working for the Freemasons started as a rumor in the media, which was then picked up & flamed into a fever by the Catholic Church: “Spiritual sparks have flown into the Goetheanum; physical sparks of fire will leap into it too, bringing an end to the glory of Dornach”

We know the fire was discovered in the ‘White Room’ which is where the Christian Community Priests were ordained. There are stories from the eurythmists who also used that room, that a strange wind ‘like an elemental force’ blew the cover off a sky light.

Asja Turgeniev, mentioned something about a large mirror falling off the wall. That skylight blew off just before the first ever Weihehandlung (Act of Consecration) – the inaugural moment of the Christian Community. To reach that room the arsonist would have known to come thru the sky light that allowed access to the inside space between the 2 cupolas which led right down to the make-shift altar left there from the ceremonies of the new Priests.

This space between the 2 cupala’s, which the engineer Englert was so proud of, is beautifully described by Painter & Eurythmist Margarita Woloschina who speaks about how Englet took her on a tour under the scaffolding to show her the construction of the Cupola’s:Both Cupolas were double-shelled, according to the principle of the sounding board of a violin. It was an extraordinary experience to stand in the space between the 2 half-spheres of the inner & outer roofs of the small cupola, where all normal spatial relationships were as though annulled.” ~ The Green Snake: An Autobiography

We know from experience that the 2 once oppositional adversarial powers are now working together against humanity in many ways.

The question for us today 110 years after the original laying of the Foundation Stone is: When will the 2 Anthroposophical streams, often called the Platonists & the Aristotelians, consciously stive to work together for the good?

And Yes, we are meant to expand out the polarity – Hey, Let’s explore the transcendent 3rd  – We can square the Circle – Step into the pentagram, The 6-pointed heart-star – the 12 points of View…etc…In Christic Revelation…

Let us close this theme with a quote from ‘WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE OF THE GOETHEANUM’, GA 84, 9 April 1923, Basel : “The Goetheanum could burn down. A catastrophe has swept it away. The pain of those who loved it is so great that it cannot be described…But Anthroposophy is built out of spirit, and only flames of spirit can touch this. Just as the human soul and spirit are victor over the physical when this is destroyed in death, so Anthroposophy must live, even though it has lost its Dornach home..

What Anthroposophy is to be for the further development of humanity, is built of spirit. This will not be destroyed by the flames of the spiritual life, for these flames are not destroying flames; they are strengthening flames, flames that give more life than ever. And all that life which is to be revealed through Anthroposophy as life of knowledge of the higher world, must be tempered by the flames of the highest inspiration of the human being, soul and spirit. Then Anthroposophy will continuously evolve.” ~Rudolf Steiner

Maybe you’re thinking: Ok so -Why are you even bringing up this arsonist business anyway?

I guess for me it’s always interesting to try & understand what moves thru individuals who affect world history. Always after 100 years – What could not be spoke of then – must now come to light. The forces that lived in those that have fallen to their lower selves, becoming pawns for the adversarial powers, where are these forces living today? Can we meet them before they create a destructive fire? Spiritual Science tells us that events are certainly written in the stars, & yet – if we stay awake & watch thru the dark night – we can work with the stars to steer humanity toward the light…

Bring on the fire of selfless enthusiasm

xox

~hag

SUNDAY 24 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire 

Celebrating:

*The Autumnal Equinox

*World Eurythmy Day

*Yom Kippur

*Michaelmas Festival

6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring Food & Drink to share, & a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day – Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought

The time for biodynamic preparation making is upon us. We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and working in the soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year?
Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye/ thank you.
Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.

Stand Fast-See Far

Yes, Friends, I often look back – to see where I stand now – & to get a clue of how to go forward. Today’s Inspiring quote which touches on themes from the Affect Change post, is from the contents of the Esoteric Lessons, given in Stuttgart, by Rudolf Steiner on this day 17 September in 1917, the anniversary of the Deathday of Hildegard of Bingen, “the Sybil of the Rhine”.

“It’s very important for modern people to get a strong dose of esoteric life. Plagues, epidemics and wars would rage among men in a terrible way if the wise masters hadn’t decided to give mankind a deepening in the spiritual realm….

Unfortunately often this egotistical age can’t make proper use of such high capacities…Even people who have reached a certain stage in esoteric training can’t stand certain truths. And yet these are the very highest truths, and your training will eventually enable to you to receive them….

~ Kinjal Gorakh

We speak of reincarnation and the law of karma. One can tell oneself: I don’t believe in reincarnation, but I can assume that it exists. I’ll act as if my assumption is true and wait to see what comes of it. A person who thinks and acts like this will make amazing discoveries. In everything that happens to them they will think: I caused this in a past life and now bear the consequences of my own deeds. If such a person unconsciously did something foolish and is punished for it, they’ll think: I’ll make myself aware of this foolishness, so that I can see that I was the one who brought on these ugly consequences. This is the real meaning of: Whoever hits you on the right cheek, turn the other one to them also.

Anyone who succeeds in looking for the cause of everything that hits them from outside, sees that it begins within oneself, has accomplished a great deal. One who does this will soon notice that it brings them forward, that they begin to loosen karmic chains and increasingly gets control of their life. Such a person treads their life’s path freely and surely.

One can verify all anthroposophical teachings in the same way. So let’s all try to bring ever more spirituality into life, and make the light and life that the great masters stream into us alive.

You should all realize that the battles anthroposophy and especially esotericism will have to fight with the outer world will get ever bigger. There it’s a matter of standing fast, my sisters and brothers, stand fast, as you look at your goal and at the great masters who stand by us.” ~Rudolf Steiner

Together with you

~hag

17 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Look very low in the southwest in early evening twilight for the waxing crescent Moon. Can you see Spica twinkling to her lower right of the waxing curved sickle that is Bella Luna?

Then look for Comet Nishimura at perihelion. You have only a narrow time window between when twilight is still too bright and the comet gets too low and sets.

Art Can Win The War: Employing the Language of Humanity - Impakter
Ken Blancet

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

I turn to history not for lessons but to confront my experience with the experience of others and to win for myself a sense of responsibility for the state of the human conscience ~ Zbigniew Herbert

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

hildegard-von-bingen

1179 – Deathday of Hildegard of Bingen, “the Sybil of the Rhine” a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, & polymath.

She is considered to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany. One of her works as a composer, the Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama, the oldest surviving morality play. She wrote theological, botanical, & medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, & poems, while supervising miniature illuminations in the Rupertsberg manuscript of her first work, Scivias.  She is also noted for the invention of a constructed language known as Lingua Ignota.

Hildegard von Bingen - Visual Melt

Hildegard 1st saw “The Shade of the Living Light” at the age of three. Hildegard was hesitant to share her visions, but at the age of 42, Hildegard received instruction from God, to “write down that which you see and hear.” Still hesitant to record her visions, Hildegard became physically ill. The illustrations recorded in the book of Scivias were visions that Hildegard experienced, causing her great suffering: “But I, though I saw and heard these things, refused to write for a long time through doubt and bad opinion and the diversity of human words, not with stubbornness but in the exercise of humility, until, laid low by the scourge of God, I fell upon a bed of sickness; then, compelled at last by many illnesses, and by the witness of a certain noble maiden of good conduct [the nun Richardis von Stade] I set my hand to the writing. While I was doing it, I sensed, the deep profundity of scriptural exposition; and, raising myself from illness by the strength I received, I brought this work to a close – though just barely – in ten years. (…) And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and received them in the heavenly places. And again I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me, ‘Cry out therefore, and write thus!’

Women Overcoming the Boundaries: Hildegard of Bingen's Mystical  Representation of the Porous Womb

Hildegard’s visions caused her to see humans as “living sparks” of God’s love.

On 17 September 1179, when Hildegard died, her sisters claimed they saw two streams of light appear in the skies & cross over the room where she was dying.

Pin on ART and Crafts

“Listen: there was once a king sitting on his throne. Around Him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honor. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground, and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself but because the air bore it along. Thus am I, a feather on the breath of God.” ~Hildegard of Bingen

1787 – The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia

How Emperor Norton rose to power - SFChronicle.com

1859 – Joshua A. Norton declares himself “Norton I, Emperor of the United States.” Born in England, Norton spent most of his early life in South Africa, he emigrated to San Francisco with an inheritance, but he lost his fortune investing in Peruvian rice & Norton’s public prominence faded. He reemerged to lay claim to the position of Emperor of the United States, & ‘Protector of Mexico’. He was treated deferentially in San Francisco, &currency issued in his name was honored in the establishments he frequented.

Though some considered him insane or eccentric, citizens of San Francisco celebrated his regal presence & his proclamations, such as his order that the United States Congress be dissolved by force & his numerous decrees calling for a bridge crossing connecting San Francisco to Oakland, &a corresponding tunnel to be built under San Francisco Bay.

At his funeral two days later, nearly 30,000 people packed the streets of San Francisco to pay homage. Norton has been immortalized as the basis of characters in the literature of writers Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Christopher Moore, Maurice De Bevere, Selma Lagerlöf, & Neil Gaiman

Wright Brothers' First Fatal Airplane Crash

1908 – The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes, killing Selfridge. He becomes the first airplane fatality

1916 –Manfred von Richthofen (“The Red Baron“), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France, in World War I

1928 – The Okeechobee hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing more than 2,500 people. It is the third deadliest natural disaster in United States history, behind the Galveston hurricane of 1900 & the 1906 San Francisco earthquake

1939 –The Soviet Union joins Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland in World War II

1939 –German submarine U-29 sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous in World War II

1948 – The Lehi, also known as the Stern gangassassinates Count Folke Bernadotte, who was appointed by the United Nations to mediate between the Arab nations & Israel. Lehi = “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel” was a Zionist paramilitary organization founded by Avraham (“Yair”) Stern in Palestine. Its aim was to evict the British authorities from Palestine by force, allowing unrestricted immigration of Jews & the formation of a Jewish state, a ‘new totalitarian Hebrew republic’

U.N. Renews Push to Solve Its Biggest Mystery: Hammarskjold's Death - The  New York Times

1961 – Deathday of Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish diplomat, economist, author & the second secretary-general of the United Nations. Soon after his appointment Hammarskjöld was interviewed on radio by Edward R. Murrow. In this talk he declared: “But the explanation of how man should live a life of active social service in full harmony with himself as a member of the community of spirit, I found in the writings of those great medieval mystics [Meister Eckhart and Jan van Ruysbroek] for whom ‘self-surrender’ had been the way to self-realization, and who in ‘singleness of mind’ and ‘inwardness’ had found strength to say yes to every demand which the needs of their neighbours made them face, and to say yes also to every fate life had in store for them when they followed the call of duty as they understood it.”

He was en route to negotiate a cease-fire on 18 September when his plane crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia. Hammarskjöld & fifteen others died in the crash. The circumstances of the incident are still not clear. There is some evidence that suggests the plane was shot down. Göran Björkdahl (a Swedish aid worker) wrote in 2011 that he believed Dag Hammarskjöld’s 1961 death was a murder committed in part to benefit mining companies like Union Minière, after Hammarskjöld had made the UN intervene in the Katanga crisis. Björkdahl based his assertion on interviews with witnesses of the plane crash & on archival documents. Former U.S. President Harry Truman commented that Hammarskjöld “was on the point of getting something done when they killed him. Notice that I said ‘when they killed him’.”

camp-david-accords

1978 – The Camp David Accords brokered by President Jimmy Carter, is signed by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin

2001 – The New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 attacks, the longest closure since the Great Depression

2006 – Fourpeaked Mountain in Alaska erupts, marking the first eruption for the long-dormant volcano in at least 10,000 years

Occupy Wall Street 2.0: Protesters Go High-Tech - WSJ

2011 – Occupy Wall Street movement begins in Zuccotti Park, New York City

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler

AUTUMN PRELUDE IV
The Fruit Of Will
v24
In constant self-creation
the soul grows self-aware;
the spirit of the world strives onward
in new self-knowledge re-enlivened,
creating from the darkness of the soul
the sense of selfhood’s harvest of the will.

MICHAELMAS IV
Michaelic Hope
v29
To have the inner fire
to kindle thinking’s radiance
and draw the meaning of experience
from worldwide spirit’s well of power
is now for me the summer’s heritage,
is autumn’s peace… and winter’s hope.

30 September 2023 –

Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day

Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 –

Food for Thought

The time for biodynamic preparation making is come up again very soon.
We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and work in soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year?
Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye and thank you.
Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info

Consecration of the Human Being

~Alma Yamazaki

~I hear the words that shatter space
My tongue curls around the tone
of Iron rising from the rust
in the oblique angle
of the Autumning sun…
There
the Prime Principality beckons…
~hag

Happy Birthday to the Christian Community, founded on this day 101 years ago TODAY in 1922!

Rudolf Steiner joyfully accepted the very first inquiry from young theologians, Gertrud Spörri & Johannes Werner Klein. And in a mood of devoted willingness he give the first Priest course.

Already in March 1920 Rudolf Steiner stressed to Gertrud Spörri – at the time of the first doctors’ course – that he would be pleased about a possible lecture cycle for the renewal of religious life. He said that he could speak in a more intimate manner than he could with the doctors.

Was it because of Rudolf Steiner’s own Christ experience, or because he was at home in the ritual-sacramental practice thru his work with the Misraim Service?

In looking at the whole anthroposophical movement, the young priests who founded The Christian Community, had a special closeness to Rudolf Steiner. He spoke to them in an especially intensive, intimate way, with an emphasis out of his own biography, in spite of the objectivity with which he developed the content.

‘So, now that you are full of plans, let us begin,’ Steiner said on June 15, 1921; speaking of ‘our cause’; ‘our meetings’; as well as the necessity that it take place only if ‘we can find enough people’; ‘then we will make progress.’

Rudolf Steiner was the spiritual leader, the communicator of the insights out of the supersensible world, making these insights freely available.

He never spoke to the doctors concerning ‘our cause’; or even to the Waldorf teachers, whose school he invested so much time & love for the children. But in his teaching of the theologians, they experienced him as radiant, joyful, knowledgeable & totally in his element, like a fish in water,’ as Emanuel Zeylmans van Emmichoven once said. ~Peter Selg

Here is an account by Rudolf Steiner: “At the end of September and beginning of October 1921, there assembled at the Goetheanum a number of German theological students who bore in their hearts the impulse for a religious renewal in the Christian sense. The work that was begun then found its fulfilment in September 1922.

The hours spent with these students, in the small hall of the south wing – the very spot where later the fire was first discovered (The Goetheanum was destroyed by arson on the New Year’s Night 1922 – 1923) – were for me an experience that I cannot but reckon as one of the solemn festivals of my life. There, in company with a group of men and women fired with a noble enthusiasm it was possible to enter on the path that carries the knowledge of the spirit into religious experience.” ~Rudolf Steiner on the founding of The Christian Community. From “Growing Point – The Story of the Foundation of The Christian Community” by Alfred Heidenreich~

The celebration of the first Act of Consecration of Man (the Christian Community Mass) constituted the birth of The Christian Community on 16 September 1922 in Dornach, Switzerland, guided into being through the immeasurable & selfless help of Dr. Rudolf Steiner.

From Rudolf Stiener to the Priests: “My dear friends, take this into your souls: the Act of Consecration is to become alive. Through this you will earn the right to place yourselves in the earth’s becoming and through the Act of Consecration be present within the earth’s becoming. Then may you express the following truth: If this Act of Consecration is not performed then the earth will waste away and remain without nourishment. It would be just as if no plants would grow. Plants grow in the physical world; the Act of Consecration of Man must grow in the spiritual realm. If it was not enacted there on this higher level it would be the same as if on the lower level of the physical earth no plants would grow. A human-being only has the right to say this when he or she succeeds in continuously enlivening the Act of Consecration so that this self-expressed word ‘human-being’ has been achieved in the correct manner and being and weaving, within the earthly existence, through achieving the three steps of inner soul development…” ~COURSE FOR PRIESTS OF THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY, GA 345, Lecture III, 13 July 1923, Stuttgart

16 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Lectures by Rudolf Steiner on this date

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Intense Acrylic Storm Paintings Portray the Power of Nature
Joo Campo

1732– In Campo Maior, Portugal, a storm hits the Armory & a violent explosion ensues, killing two thirds of its inhabitants over 30,000 people!

1893 – Settlers make a land run for prime land in the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma

1908 – The General Motors Corporation is founded.

1920 – The Wall Street bombing: A bomb in a horse wagon explodes in front of the J. P. Morgan building in New York City killing 38 & injuring 400. The bombing was never solved, although investigators & historians believe it was carried out by Galleanists (Italian anarchists), a group responsible for a series of bombings the previous year. The attack was related to postwar social unrest, labor struggles, & anti-capitalist agitation in the United States

1947 – Typhoon Kathleen hits Saitama, Tokyo, at least 1,930 killed

1961 – The United States National Hurricane Research Project drops eight cylinders of silver iodide into the eyewall of Hurricane Esther. Wind speed reduces by 10%, giving rise to Project Stormfury

1961 – Typhoon Nancy, with possibly the strongest winds ever measured in a tropical cyclone, makes landfall in Osaka, Japan, killing 173 people

1977 – Deathday of Maria Callas, Greek operatic soprano

1978 – The 7.4 Mw earthquake affects the city of Tabas, Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 15,000 people were killed

1987 – The Montreal Protocol is signed to protect the ozone layer from depletion

2004 – Hurricane Ivan makes landfall in Gulf Shores, Alabama as a Category 3 hurricane, killing 124

30 September 2023 –

Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day

Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 –

Food for Thought

The time for biodynamic preparation making is come up again very soon.
We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and work in soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year?
Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye and thank you.
Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.