Category Archives: Quote

Renunciation

Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Rudolf Steiner Quote

Dear friends, first we met Sacrifice, then Bestowing, now we explore Renunciation. Living into the ‘Inner Realities of Evolution’ it’s been interesting to experience the idea that the 4 elements which are the foundation of life on here on Earth are a mirror reflecting the essential deeds of great spiritual beings. I have always related to nature spirits, the elemental beings, but this is a whole new perspective.

The reality behind Fire is sacrifice: the supreme offering of the Spirits of Will.

The Air we breathe, the wind – is ever whispering: the virtue of bestowing, a weaving reverence granted by the Spirits of Wisdom.

So now every time I encounter or work with these elements my entire mood of Soul shifts….And before we get to the last 2 elements, developed in the further Earth embodiments, I’d like to take us deeper into the quintessence of Will & Wisdom.

Being a person of initiative I have always prided myself in being able to get things done. My childhood was taken from me, so I learned early on to use my will to get what I wanted.  But what I am learning now is that deeds connected with the spiritual world require a different kind of will – the will of resignation – of renunciation. This is triggering for me since my mother was very passive, renouncing herself to death, so I was determined to never be like that.

But more & more I know that what worked for me in the past does not apply to my life now. I see that to achieve spiritual results it is not effective to make my personal desires top priority. By consciously subduing my wishes, restraining my self-motivated intentions, & forgoing result orientated satisfaction, I can work my resolve to serve the higher will.

It’s powerfully interesting to explore our will force thru the lens of Spiritual Science which gives us 7 stages of Will:

  1. Instinct
  2. Impulse/Drive
  3. Desire
  4. Motive
  5. Wish/Aspiration
  6. Intention
  7. Resolve for the Good

In lecture 3 Steiner gives the most interesting advice, which was hard for me to hear at first: “The greatest spiritual, magical effects, always require preparation connected with the renunciation of wishes, desires, and impulses of will which may appear within us. The less we “will,” the more we say: We will allow life to flow over us, not longing for this or that, but accepting everything just as Karma sends it to us, the more we are able to accept Karma and its workings in this way, keeping quietly ready to renounce all that we should otherwise wish to choose for this life, the more vigorous we become as regards the activity of our thinking.”

Being fully conscious of the various phases of evolution, guides us on the path of initiation. The Saturn experience can be seen in the fire trial, & on ancient Sun we meet the air trial.

To face the water trial as experienced on old Moon we have to be able to recognize the Luciferic beings who remained behind in their course of development, enabling them to invade our astral body during this phase of earthly evolution.

On the one hand it is because of these Luciferic beings that we have desires, drives & passions. And on the other hand our will to overcome their resistance gives us the impulse toward free will.

Also mysteriously attached to these backward beings is the seed of resignation or renunciation on the part of the Cherubim – Because while some of the choir receives the warmth that flows from the sacrifice of the Spirits of Will into themselves, others renounce the sacrifice – they return what comes toward them – they do not participate in it – they hold themselves back.

So now besides the sacrifice that ascends & is reflected back as light in Time, we have renounced clouds of sacrifice that descend, that return back – to become a separate layer between the outer & inner expanse of ancient Sun.  And thru this diverting back, a ring of clouds comes into being, a division in the Sun substance, like a globe that has a divergent outer ring.

This is the origin of all divisions, what can be called the ‘Sacred Wound’ which some of us carry more than others.

But why did a portion of these Cherubim, these Spirits of Harmony renounce this willing sacrifice?

Well if they had not, everything would have been subject to Time – the coming into being & the passing away – But since some rejected the sacrifice they were able to hold onto eternity. These Cherubim move beyond Time, so that eternity – permanence – may also exist – And we will be able to fully receive this eternity in the New Jerusalem!

One of the questions I hold is: Do these refraining Cherubim move up the ladder – graduate to the realm of the Seraphim, the Spirits of Love? Interestingly enough these highest of the Hierarchical beings – the closest to the godhead, are not mentioned at all in the course of evolution so far. That leads me to imagine that Love, The Spirits of Love, are directing it all – preparing us in all ages to come for the incarnation of The Christ on Earth – the ‘Being of Love’ born into a human body at the Turning point in Time…

A recapitulation occurs within this process before the Old Moon embodiment & in our next installment we will further explore this ‘Sacred Wound’ – how it affected those that were rejected & how that manifests in the human soul today…

Until then remember: Love is who you are…

~hag

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
ALL HALLOWTIDE III
The Gift Of Destiny
v32
I feel my own fruit-bearing power
present me to the world
and strengthen my innate intent
to turn towards the clarity
within life’s web of destiny.

This verse can be regarded as the last autumn verse
and its mirror the first one, with an unknown power
that can now become one’s own creativity for the world
as one’s soul turns towards the clarity of her destiny.

AUTUMN PRELUDE I
My Future’s Power
v21
I feel a strange new strengthening
fruit-bearing power of becoming;
I sense the seed maturing
and on a starlit loom in me
a dawning vision weaving
my pathway to my real being.

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’ on the line of your payment that says: Purpose

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

To register & receive the Zoom code Contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

 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.

Bestowing

Biography, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote

We continue from yesterday’s Martinmas insights gleaned from the AAP seminar working with ‘Inner Realities of Evolution’. 

With the sacrifice –
A joyful self-surrendering –
Transformed into a deed,
From the Spirits of Will –
Rising like incense to the Cherubim,
In the ebb & flow of warmth,
The beginnings of our element of fire
On ancient Saturn – The ‘realm of space-less eternity’ –
Time
The offspring
Of the Thrones & the Spirits of Harmony
Is born.

After a recapitulation of this spiritual activity, in the Ancient Sun stage, there is an atmosphere of enlivening bliss & devotion, as the Spirits of Wisdom witness the willing sacrifice of the Thrones.

This inspires the Kyriotetes to give or bestow their Wisdom into the mix, which becomes the essence behind what we know of as air; enhancing the warmth. This gift is preserved in Time. The birth of bestowing in the universe by the Spirits of Wisdom on ancient Sun in turn gave birth to the Archangels who are the receivers of the giving. But they don’t keep what they receive for themselves, they reflect it back – this becomes light.

We can remember that whenever wind or light occurs, the gifts of the Spirits of Wisdom are whirling out to us. And wherever light appears, hidden behind it are the Archangels; but they are only able to ray forth light because they reflect back the bestowing virtue of the Spirits of Wisdom which has streamed out to them.

JJ Pinkerton

Steiner asks us to:  “Imagine the Spirits of Wisdom situated at the centre of the Sun absorbed in contemplation of the vision of the sacrificing Thrones; and by reason of this vision, radiating forth their own being; and receiving back their radiating being which they sent forth, receiving it reflected back from the surface, so that they receive it back as light. Everything is illuminated…Their own being meets them coming back from outside. They see their own inner being outspread in the Cosmos — and reflected back as light, as the reflection of their own being.

The inner and the outer are the two opposites which we now meet. The earlier and the later are transformed into the inner and the outer; and “Space” is born! Space comes into existence through the bestowing virtue of the Spirits of Wisdom on ancient Sun.”

We can now picture a globe of inner space. In the center, Saturn is recapitulated, we see the Thrones kneeling before the winged Cherubim, sacrificing their own being.  

Then we witness The Spirits of Wisdom surrendering in devotion to this vision at the center of this globe. Their reverence coalesces into an image of sacrificial incense, as air ascending, which streams outward & condenses into clouds at the periphery. The Archangels are born of these clouds of smoke. The gift of the incense is radiated back from them in the form of light. Their essence of light illuminates the interior, creating space. The bestowing of the Spirits of Wisdom are taken back in, becoming the sphere of ancient Sun, consisting of: glowing warmth or heat, the air of sacrificial incense, & light.

Peter Yelling

What a glorious picture, inspiring a heightened mood that invites us to joyfully give of ourselves too, in imitation of these Higher Beings.

And what a blessing to have that essence fully received, so the a gesture in kind comes back – transformed – A gift that keeps on giving – A bestowing that engenders a reciprocation that shows us to ourself.

We can think about how without receiving, giving is incomplete. In a way they are one & the same. Receiving differentiates itself from giving only in terms of time. Receiving occurs in response to giving.

Joseph Iorusso

But what happens when something is given – that is not received?

We will explore what has been called ‘The Sacred Wound’ in the next installment when we enter the ancient Moon embodiment of Earth…

Until then

I leave you with this thought: May we give of ourselves unselfishly;  for as Steiner lays out in this lecture: “a person who is unable to create a spirit of self-surrender cannot achieve higher knowledge. What is the opposite of this attitude of self-surrender? It is self-will, the assertion of one’s own will. These are 2 poles in the souls’ life: loss of self in what one is contemplating, & self-willed assertion of what lies within the self. These are 2 great opposites. If you wish to attain real knowledge & permeate yourself with wisdom, self-will is lethal.

In ordinary life, we know self-will only as prejudice – & prejudices always destroy higher insight.”

So much to ponder as we strive for true becoming

~hag

Elizabeth Wang

11.11.22

Biography, Celestial Event, Festival, Rudolf Steiner Quote, video recording
~hag

Greetings dear friends – Today, 11.11.22, is the perfect occasion to begin a sharing of my recent AAP experience, being that it is Martinmas. This Feast Day exemplifies the theme of our seminar: Sacrifice & the healing of the ‘Sacred Wound’.  I invite you to explore with me the ‘Inner Realities of Evolution’ given by Steiner around this time of year in 1911. It takes the depictions from ‘Occult Science’ & ‘Cosmic Memory’ to a whole new level, bringing us into the inner experience of the hierarchical beings themselves!  

In the 1st lecture, given on All Hallows, we take a journey into the aspects of the ancient Saturn embodiment of Earth. Steiner describes his struggle to enter into this existence clairvoyantly, how it must be approached with ‘inner firmness’ & certainty’. He reveals that as a modern human being this realm can fill us with ‘fear & terror at the sight of Saturn’s endless void’, because there is an absence of all space & time. Steiner gives us the tools to counteract this sickening vertigo thru the suggestion to uphold the virtues of Christ found within practical Anthroposophy & the Gospels.  When we can get past our horror of the void, by grounding ourselves in love, trust, gratitude, & the will to serve, we can encounter The Thrones, the Spirits of Will, as a ‘surging sea of courage’.

At the same time what lights up for us is a sense of Harmony streaming in from The Cherubim. This becomes a glow that stirs a divine reverence within the Spirits of Will, inspiring them to sacrifice their very Being to the Cherubim. Steiner gives a beautiful imagination of the Thrones kneeling with complete devotion & courage before the Cherubim, offering the flaming warmth of reverence. From this sacrificial union Time is born – The Beings of Time – The Archai. This warmth is the spirit behind what we experience on earth in the physical form of the element of fire.

When we live into these pictures of experience we realize that the existence of these ancient forces work on into our present age & will continue on into the future thru our understanding & active participation.

Next we will enter the experience of the ancient Sun embodiment of Earth.

~hag

Until then, Remember, that as we journey into the darkest time of the year, we can kindle warmth within our soul forces. The example of Martin’s cloak can remind us of the sacrifice of the Spirits of Will in our primal beginnings. This Festival is a call to emulate the higher spiritual beings.

Celebrating Martinmas renews our divine spark so that we may warm the world in our true becoming.

~hag  

~hag

Here is a recording of ‘Martinmas & the 11:11 Phenomenon‘ – The story of St. Martin with Nancy Melvin; & then starting at 25:42 – The 11:11 connection with Hazel Archer

11.11.22 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The waning gibbous Moon rises less than an hour after nightfall is complete, with Mars shining to her upper right. A week ago it was Jupiter’s turn with the Bella Luna, & 3 days before that it was Saturn’s. The Moon doesn’t play favorites; She makes a point of visiting each planet every month, not to mention its own phase-maker, the Sun.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

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Feast Day of Martin of Tours.

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1918 – Armistice of 11/11 ending the fighting in the First World War between the Allies & Germany – also known as the Armistice of Compiègne after the location in which it was signed – &the agreement that ended the fighting on the Western Front. It went into effect at 11 a.m. Paris time on 11 November 1918 (“the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month”), & marked a victory for the Allies & a complete defeat for Germany, although not formally a surrender. The Germans were responding to the policies proposed by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson* in his Fourteen Points of January 1918. Although the armistice ended the actual fighting, it took six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty, the Treaty of Versailles. And the world is still at war.

*”…‘Spiritual science brings forward a truth such as: What takes place in the historical life of man, and consequently in the life of political impulses, has nothing to do with the ordinary consciousness, it can have nothing to do with it; but can only be understood and applied through imaginative consciousness.’ We might even say as regards the most distinctive representatives of the anti-social historic conception, that President Wilson’s view must be replaced by an imaginative knowledge of the truth. And Wilson’s ideas are very widespread (far more people are of his way of thinking than is supposed). Names are of no moment, only the facts under which men live are of consequence. I may be allowed to be somewhat outspoken about Wilson, because in the course of lectures given in Helsingfors before the war, already then I pronounced my judgment of him and did not need to wait for the war to learn of what spirit he is who sits on the throne of America. At that time fulsome praise of Woodrow Wilson could be heard everywhere; it has not long ceased. The world is now very much wiser, and knows that the man who now occupies the throne of America drafted his most powerful republican document from one issued by the late Emperor of Brazil, Don Pedro, in 1864. Wilson copied this exactly except that the passage, ‘I must intervene in the interests of South America’ is altered to ‘I must intervene in the interests of the United States of America,’ etc., with the necessary recasting.” ~Rudolf Steiner, THE PRESENT POSITION OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE.

“…If we follow this Muavija, one of the earliest successors of the Prophet, as he passes along the undercurrent and then appears again, we find Woodrow Wilson.

In a shattering way the present links itself with the past. A bond is suddenly there between present and past. And if we observe how on the sea of historical happenings there surges up as it were the wave of Muavija, and again the wave of Woodrow Wilson, we perceive how the undercurrent flows on through the sea below and appears again — it is the same current.

I believe that history becomes intelligible only when we see how what really happens has been carried over from one epoch into another. Think of the abstraction., the rigid abstraction, of the Fourteen Points. Needless to say, the research did not take its start from the Fourteen Points — but now that the whole setting lies before you, look at the configuration of soul that comes to expression in these Fourteen Points and ask yourselves whether it could have taken root with such strength anywhere else than in a follower of Mohammed.

Take the fatalism that had already assumed such dimensions in Muavija and transfer it into the age of modern abstraction. Feel the similarity with Mohammedan sayings: “Allah has revealed it”; “Allah will bring it to pass as the one and only salvation.” And then try to understand the real gist of many a word spoken by the promoter of the Fourteen Points. — With no great stretch of imagination you will find an almost literal conformity.

Thus, when we are observing human beings, we can also speak of a reincarnation of ideas. And then for the first time insight is possible into the growth and unfolding of history.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies – Volume I

1821 – Birthday of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian philosopher & author

1855 – Deathday of Soren A. Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher, theologian, & cultural critic who was a major influence on existentialism & Protestant theology in the 20th century. He attacked the literary, philosophical, & ecclesiastical establishments of his day for misrepresenting the highest task of human existence—namely, becoming a free human being in an ethical & religious sense.

1887 – August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer & George Engel are executed as a result of the Haymarket affair. It began Tuesday May 4, 1886, as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour day & in reaction to the killing of several workers the previous day by the police. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they acted to disperse the public meeting. The bomb blast & ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of seven police officers & at least four civilians; scores of others were wounded.

The Haymarket affair is generally considered significant as the origin of international May Day observances for workers. The site of the incident was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1992, & a public sculpture was dedicated there in 2004.

Image result for Hilde Boos-Hamburger

1966 – Deathday of Hilde Boos-Hamburger, painter & co-worker with Rudolf Steiner EXPERIENCES IN PAINTING THE CUPOLAS OF THE FIRST GOETHEANUM by Hilde Boos-Hamburger

“Every artistically striving person making closer acquaintance with Rudolf Steiner and his anthroposophy is likely to have experienced in a quite individual manner the agreeable shock: here lie all the possibilities for the further development of art. In one way or another it may have gone with him as with the writer of these recollections when she first read through (not yet actually studied!) the book Theosophy, without understanding the essential, yet riveted by the crystal-bright formation of this work, and having to say to herself: Even if I cannot survey it, it is nonetheless evident: Here lies a comprehensive work of art! This first impression did not deceive, for with every subsequent work taken up, every book, every lecture, not to mention the Mystery Dramas, there opened up new experiences and vistas previously undreamed of. – These will surely be found most felicitously expressed in the poem by Christian Morgenstern (1871–1914) dedicated to Rudolf Steiner:

“To beauty does your work lead:
For beauty in the end
Streams in through every revelation
That surrounds us.
Out of human-sufferings
Upward to ever higher harmonies
You release the dizzying feeling,
Till, united
In accord with the
Inestimable proclaimer of GOD
And HIS never-to-be-grasped splendor
It vibrates in the love-light
Of blessedness….
From beauty does your work come, to beauty does it lead.”

Election Eclipse

Calendar of the Soul, Celestial Event, Insight, Quote, Rudolf Steiner Quote

Dear Friends – I am just now landing back from the AAP training with many insights that I hope to share soonly. But I want to send out this message tonight before the Lunar Eclipse begins at 2:02 am CT – so that we might make it our intention to tune in together – to hold the light in the dark. But even if you are reading this after the fact – the eclipse energy is written in the astral script – so, you can still add your enchristened enegries into the mix!

I have often commented on the extremely interesting fact that the ‘powers that be’ have deliberately chosen to hold elections on a Tuesday – the day associated with the planet Mars – bringing with it all the patriarchal associations of male control, war & aggression; but can also provide us with the will for action if we choose to direct our passions for justice & not martial power over, tuning in instead to the Buddha energies that seek to reach us now from the red planet.    

Another thing to ponder is that elections are always held during the season of All Soul-Tide, when the veils between the worlds are thin. Those of us who work with the “so-called dead” know how powerful & healing this interaction can be. The question is how are the ‘powers that be’ working with them?

Rudolf Steiner’s research tells us that: “Certain occult brotherhoods, however, make it their business to work in exactly the opposite sense; they want to retain the wisdom exclusively within their own narrow circles, in order to exploit it in connection with their lusts for power. We are living in the midst of this struggle.”

Ok, so that’s a lot to ponder with just a regular election day – but this year is especially fraught: Starting this evening – in the middle of the night – at 2:02 am Central Time – is the beginning of the Lunar eclipse of the Full ‘Mourning Moon’ – 8 November– Election Day  2022 –

2:02 am CT – Penumbral Eclipse begins – The Earth’s penumbra start touching the Moon’s face. 

3:09 am- Partial Eclipse begins – Partial moon eclipse starts – moon is getting red.

4:16 am – Total Eclipse begins – Total moon eclipse starts – completely red moon.

4:59 am – Maximum Eclipse – Moon is closest to the center of the shadow.

5:41 am – Total Eclipse ends – Total moon eclipse ends.
Moon close to horizon, so make sure you have free sight to West-northwest

6:40 am – Setting – Moonset

6:49 am –  Not directly visible – Partial Eclipse ends Below horizon

7:56 am – Not directly visible – Penumbral Eclipse ends Below horizon

To add to this eclipse energy we also hear Speaking: The Sun, Mercury and Venus which are all in the constellation of Libra, the Scales.

Mercury will be behind the Sun (in superior conjunction with the Sun). This all takes place in the descending Lunar Node, the tail of the dragon, and will stand opposite the Full Moon Total Eclipse – conjunct Uranus in the ascending Lunar Node, the head of the dragon, in the stars of the Aries the Ram!

PLUS: This potent configuration of planets will be in a T-square (at 90-degree angle) to Saturn in Capricorn – which creates a confrontational relationship with Mars.

Here are some curated inspights from astrosopher Jonathan Hilton: ‘In astrosophy, one can understand these lunar nodes as significant cosmic portals or gateways. They are, in a sense, open doors between the cosmic realm and the earthly realm where cosmic forces from the higher spiritual solar spheres may stream unobstructed by the envelope of the lunar sphere into the Earth sphere. Perhaps many of you are aware of the significance of the Moon Node returns in human biography, when the lunar nodes return after 18.6 years to their place at the human birth, thus, opening up the cosmic realm in human biography and bringing new developmental impulses into the human life. So, in a general sense when a planet is in a lunar node, one can say that its impulses are streaming more directly into the Earth sphere and are more accessible.

These nodes are also the source of eclipses, because when the Sun and Moon are along the same axis in these nodes at the same time, the Earth will stand directly between the Sun and Moon causing the Sun to be blocked from shining on the Moon while the Earth shadow passes across the Moon.

These eclipses can be seen as omens of evil and danger, for the Sun activity is blocked allowing the lower “shadow beings” of the Moon to be let loose upon the Earth, since they are not held in check by the sunlight on the Moon.

So here we have, setting up our Election Day, this potential for the subconscious, lower astral forces, or “evil thoughts” to influence or “possess” human souls.”

This eclipse is also occurring with the Moon conjunct Uranus in the Dragon’s Head ascending node, Uranus can be used by the opposing forces to arouse the lower astral forces or, as Steiner says, to attract the evil thoughts which are present in the cosmos to approach ‘those human beings who are desirous of being possessed by them’.

It is for this reason, that we who can be conscious, meet this event with the full presence of the Christic forces of the true I AM, the Spiritual Sun – awake to the working of subconscious forces.

Remember that also in this picture of the Lunar Eclipse Moon and Uranus, we also see standing opposite, the Sun conjunct Mercury and nearby Venus in the stars of the Scales. Mercury and Venus are more of the nature of the Sun and can become real tools of transformation for human beings to consciously work with.

So, with Mercury, Sun, and Venus in the Scales, the stars of Michael, the stars of the threshold, we can hear the cosmic beings speaking to us to address the challenge of this eclipse configuration with Uranus; to recognize the help of Michael in the battle in which we find ourselves on the threshold between the higher thinking and the lower dragon forces which want to drag humanity down into ever darker materialism and the old forms of the past. This configuration altogether can be taken up in contemplation on many levels as a picture of the need in humanity to raise our thinking, to stand on the threshold, and consciously employ the Christ ego force in our thinking and will to transform and heal in this time of transition.

But there’s more: This Eclipse configuration with Moon and Uranus in Aries opposite Sun, Mercury, Venus in Libra comes into a T-square with the planet Saturn in Capricorn. The meaning of this takes us again back to the events of 2020 and the Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Capricorn at solstice/Christmas 2020 – setting the stage for the ‘Corona’/ covid experience.

The stars of Capricorn carry both a past and future vision of destruction, catharsis and initiation. They carry both the memory of the Great War in Heaven on Ancient Moon evolution as well as the vision of the 7th Cultural Age and the end of our Epoch which brings the War of All Against All.

Saturn in a square relationship to this eclipse configuration reveals the struggle, the confrontation and conflicts we carry within our humanity around our shared world karma. It wants to bring us back on track with the Divine Plan of evolution, through whatever karma must be taken up to do so. It also stands as a question, reminding us of who we are from our origins and asking us how we will meet this eclipse moment.

One of the most powerful lectures by Steiner is his lecture on the Mystic Lamb, from The Influence of Spiritual Beings on Man, GA 102. In it he develops a picture of the zodiac and the human being in evolution in relation to the Christ. This picture of the mystic lamb can be a balm for us during the eclipse.

Libra – Sun, Mercury, Venus: Michael offering; Heart-thinking; Humanity on the Threshold between the dragon and the divine wisdom; standing between worlds holding the balance through the I AM.

Aries – Moon, Uranus: The new clair-thinking; Imaginative thinking and the Spirit Self; the true I AM; the Lamb of God who sacrificed for humanity

Capricorn – Saturn: the Father Will; World karma and the divine plan of evolution at work through catharsis; cosmic memory of our true nature and our evolutionary goals; the great division and War that will ultimately lead to reunion.

In this context of the significance of Saturn in this configuration, and the karmic call of the Father memory for the I Am to become active and awakened in humanity, I am reminded of Steiner’s re-phrasing of the Prologue to John’s Gospel in Lecture 7 of The Pre-Earthly Deeds of Christ, GA 152.

May we carry this thought into this eclipse configuration:

In the Primal Beginning is Memory,
And the Memory lives on further,
And Divine is the Memory.
And the Memory is Life.
And this Life is the Ego of Man
Which streams into Man himself,
Not he alone, the Christ in him.
When he remembers the Divine Life
In his Memory is the Christ.
And as the radiant Life of Memory
Christ will pour Light
Into every Darkness of the immediate present. ~Rudolf Steiner

~from Jonathan Hilton, read the whole article here: Astrosophy.com

Working with The Lord’s Prayer, & the 5th panel of the foundation Stone Meditation are also very powerful now.

Blessings my dear Michaelic Warriors as we carry the sheild & hold the sword of light during this time out of time

~hag

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
ALL HALLOWTIDE II
The Ripening Of Creative Powers
v31
The light from spirit depths
strives outwards like the sun,
becomes life’s strength of will
and shines in senses’ dullness
to birth the forces
that ripen creative powers
in human work the soul initiates.

This is the third verse of the Light Quartet, that begins with v5, when the light from spirit depths reveals the gods’ creative work, and culminates in v48 with the awakening of love in the human heart. Its mirror is the second one, v22, when summer’s light became the spirit light in us to raise the fruits whose ripening will lead us to our higher self.
Rudolf Steiner once spoke of how with every breath of air, we take not only air but also light into ourselves and that we transform this light within us and make it our own as we do any other substance: we digest it, that is, we make it an integral part of our self (qv. The Archangel Michael 11/30/1919).

AUTUMN PRELUDE II
The Ripening Of Self
v22
The cosmic light lives on with inner power,
becomes the light of soul
and shines in depths of spirit
to birth the fruits
that in the couse of time will ripen
the human Self from Cosmic Self.

Cosmic Humor

History, Rudolf Steiner Quote

Our Dear Kyle J. wrote in response to yesterday’s post about Sirius with a powerful connection to Till Eulenspiegel – which reminded me of presentation I love to give called ‘Lifting the Veil of the New Isis’, where I bring Rudolf Steiner’s imagination of the Statue of the Representative of Humanity as a veil covering the New Isis. And how in the corner of that statue is the Being of Cosmic Humor. In the Epiphany lecture of 6th January 1918 – ANCIENT MYTHS, THEIR MEANING AND CONNECTION WITH EVOLUTION, GA 180, Lecture III, in Dornach. Steiner likens this being of humor to the legend of ‘Till Eulenspiegel’:

‘So one day someone came before the provisional form of the statue of the new Isis, and up above at the left was placed a figure of humorous deportment, which in its world-mood had something between seriousness, a serious idea of the world and, one might say, even a chuckling about the world. And lo and behold! as once upon a time someone stood opposite this figure in a specially favourable moment, the figure became alive and said quite facetiously: Humanity has only forgotten the matter, but centuries ago something was placed before the new humanity about the nature of the new humanity, in so far as this new humanity is still only master of the abstract word, the abstract concept, the abstract idea and is far removed from the reality.

This new humanity keeps well to words and always asks: Is it a pumpkin or is it a flask? …when it happens that a flask has been made from a pumpkin…always clings to definitions, always stops short at words! (This is a reference to the cosmic script revealed in the cresent moon – spelling out the name Parzival, the Holy Fool who at 1st did not speak the words, but thru many trails is now the New Grail King)

In the 15th, 16th, 17th centuries — so said the chuckling being — mankind still had self-knowledge about this peculiar situation of taking words in a false sense, not relating them to their true reality, but taking them in their most superficial sense. Today, however, men themselves have already forgotten what was put before them for the benefit of their self-knowledge, in the 15th, 16th, 17th centuries.’

And the being went on chuckling and said: ‘What modern humanity should take as a real recipe for its abstract spirit is depicted on a tombstone in Mölln in the Lauenburg district. Because a tombstone stands there and on this tombstone is drawn an owl (Eule) which holds before itself a looking-glass (Spiegel). And it is related that Till Eulenspiegel, after he had wandered through the world with all sorts of buffoonery and pranks, was buried there. It is related that this Till Eulenspiegel existed, that he was born in the year 1300, went to Poland, even reached Rome, and in Rome even had a wager with the Court-jesters over all sorts of odds and ends of wisdom, and initiated all the other Till Eulenspiegelisms, which indeed are to be read in the literature about Till Eulenspiegel himself.’

Learned men — and the men who are scholars, are indeed very learned today and take everything with extraordinary gravity and significance — these have naturally discovered — they have discovered various things: for example, that there was no Homer, etc. — the scholars have naturally also discovered that there never was a Till Eulenspiegel. One of the chief reasons why the actual bones of the actual Till Eulenspiegel, who was only the representative of his age, are not supposed to lie beneath the tombstone in Lauenburg, on which is depicted the owl with the looking-glass, was because another tombstone had been found in Belgium upon which there was likewise an Owl with a mirror. Now the learned men naturally have said — for that is logical is it not, and logical are they all — how does it go in Shakespeare — for they are all honourable men — all, all, all! — logical are they all! They have said: if the same sign is found in Lauenburg and Belgium then naturally no Eulenspiegel existed at all. (Because their logic did not tell them, that like the name Parzival, the name Till Eulenspiegel is a title – held by those who have achieved that rank)

Generally in life if one finds a second time what one has found a first time, one takes this as a reinforcement — but it is logical, is it not, in these things to take matters so. Well, we say, if I have one franc, then I have one franc. I believe it. So long as I only know that I have a franc, I believe it! But then I get another and I now have two. Now I believe that I have not one at all! — that is the same logic. This is the logic in fact that is to be found in our science — if I were to recount to you how everywhere it is to be found wry frequently!

But what is the essential point of the Eulenspiegel-buffoonery? Read it up in the book: the essential thing of the Till Eulenspiegel-buffoonery always consists in the fact that Eulenspiegel is given some sort of commission, and that he takes it purely literally and naturally carries it out in the wrong way. For obviously if, for instance — to exaggerate somewhat — one were to say to Eulenspiegel (whom I now take as a representative figure) ‘Bring me a doctor,’ he would take the word literally and would bring a man who had graduated as doctor from a University. But he would perhaps bring a man who was — excuse the strong language — a perfect fool, he only went by the sound of the word. All the fooleries of Till Eulenspiegel are like this, he only goes by the wording. But this makes Till Eulenspiegel precisely the representative of the present age. Eulenspiegelism is a keynote in our modern times. Words today are far removed from their original source, ideas are often still farther removed, and people do not notice it, but behave in an Eulenspiegel way to what civilization happens to serve up. People have no notion how far they are removed from reality in what today they call ideas, and even ‘ideals’. In other words: mankind does not know at all how it has made Eulenspiegel into its patron saint, how Eulenspiegel is still wandering through the different lands.

One of the fundamental evils indeed, of our time, rests on the fact that modern humanity flees from Pallas Athene, that is, from the Goddess of Wisdom, and clings to the symbol, the owl (Eule). And mankind no longer has the least idea of it — but it is true, as I have often shown, that the foundation of external knowledge is only a reflection — but, my dear friends, in a mirror one sees that which one is! And so the owl … I mean the modern scientific profundity, sees in the glass, in the world-maya illusion just simply its own face.

Over such matters as these the being at the left above the modern Isis Statue chuckles and sniggers, and over many other matters which, out of a certain courtesy towards mankind, shall not be mentioned at the moment.

But, a feeling should be called forth that with the peculiarity of this presentation of human mysteries through the real existence of the Luciferic, Ahrimanic, in connection with the Representative of humanity itself, a state of consciousness is to be roused in mankind which wakes those very impulses in the soul which are necessary for the coming age.”

Steiner speaks again about Till Eulenspiegel in direct relation to the Grail Legend in OLD AND NEW METHODS OF INITIATION, GA 210, Lecture XIII, 26 February 1922, Dornach, Connecting Christoffel von Grimmelshausen’s fool, Simplicissimus representing the Fool of the intellectual soul, with Parzival, the Fool of the Consciousness soul age & with Till Eulenspiegel the Fool of the earlier sentient soul.

“People ought to consider what they actually have in their soul in conjunction with what they do externally; the relationship between the two would be like an owl looking in a mirror! If someone were to do exactly what the words say, it would be like holding up a mirror to an owl. Out of this, in the second half of the fourteenth century, Till Eulenspiegel arose. The owl’s mirror is held up in front of mankind. It is not Till Eulenspiegel who has to look in the mirror. But because Till Eulenspiegel takes literally what people say with their dry, abstract words, they suddenly see themselves, whereas normally they do not see themselves at all. It is a mirror for the owls because they can really see themselves in it.

Night has fallen. In past times, human beings could see into the spiritual world. And the activity of their words was in harmony with the world. Human beings were eagles. But now they have become owls. The world of the soul has become a bird of the night. In the strange world depicted by Till Eulenspiegel, a mirror is held up before the owl.”

In ANCIENT MYTHS, THEIR MEANING AND CONNECTION WITH EVOLUTION, GA 180, Lecture IV, Dornach 8th January 1918 – Steiner relates Till Eulenspiegel with the absurdity of modern science, the lies of politics & even names Woodrow Wilson!

Thanks Kyle for inspiring me to revist these ideas…

xox

~hag

28 October 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The waxing crescent Moon is back in the evening sky, low in the southwest. As twilight deepens and the stars begin to come out — but before the Moon gets too low — look for the Sagittarius Teapot in its background.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY 

1871 – Birthday of Michael Bauer, Anthroposophical teacher, poet, wrote: “The Life and Work of Christian Morgenstern“

Our Annual All Souls Celebration – 
A Community Circle to Honor Our Beloved Dead
Wednesday, November 2, 2022
In-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 
4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL. 60613

Doors open 5 pm
5:15-6:00 Potluck Dinner & Conversation 
Transition to the Upper Room 
6:05 Verse for the So-Called Dead
6:10-6:20 Singing
6:20-6:30 Speak Their Names
6:30-6:40 Social Art for the Dead
6:40-7:10 Conversation RE Experience 
7:10 Closing Verse

For those wishing to attend All Souls Day Vesper Service 
at The Christian Community, please arrive at the Church and be seated by 7:25 pm
The service will begin promptly at 7:30pm

2135 W WILSON AVE
CHICAGO, IL  60625
Church calendar.

For more info. contact Coordinators Deborah Rogers or Paulette Arnold
Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar
www.rschicago.org/donate