Category Archives: Quote

Mysteries of the Body & Blood

August 3, 2021Celestial Event, Central Regional Council, Festival, History, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

Greetings friends on this the Feast day of Nicodemus. As fate would have it, yesterday as I was doing some research about the Holy Grail for the Pageant: ‘The Royal Art: A Social Pilgrimage of the Soul’ (for the ASA AGM on Sunday 10 October); I was reading from Sergei O. Prokofieff’s book ‘The Spiritual Origins of Eastern Europe and the Future Mysteries of the Holy Grail’ Chapter 3 ‘Scythianos & the Grail Stream’, where he reveals the connection between this great initiate of the mysteries of the physical body (The blood & body) & his 2 pupils – Joseph of Arimathea & Nicodemus. So this powerful individuality was already ‘visiting me in the night’.

Just like Lazarus, Nicodemus does not belong to the tradition of the Synoptic Gospels & is only mentioned by John, who brings him in 3 times, devoting more than half of Chapter 3 of his Gospel, a few verses of Chapter 7 & again in Chapter 19.

The first time Nicodemus is mentioned, he is identified as a Pharisee who comes to see Jesus “at night”. John places this meeting shortly after the Cleansing of the Temple & links it to the signs which Jesus performed in Jerusalem during the Passover feast. “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him” (John 3:2).

Then follows a conversation with Nicodemus about the meaning of being “born again” or “born from above” (Greek: ἄνωθεν), & the mention of seeing the “kingdom of God”.

In Chapter 7, Nicodemus advises his colleagues among “the chief priests and the Pharisees”, to hear & investigate before making a judgment concerning Jesus. Their mocking response argues that no prophet comes from Galilee. Nonetheless, it is probable that he wielded a certain influence in the Sanhedrin.

Finally, when Jesus is buried, Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh & aloes—about 100 lbs [John 19:39]

“We have already pointed out in these lectures that in the words of Christ-Jesus to Nicodemus, we must recognize a conversation between Christ and a personality who is able to perceive what can be beheld outside of the physical body by means of higher organs of cognition if developed to a certain stage. For those who understand such things, this is clearly and distinctly indicated in the Gospel wherein it is stated that Nicodemus came to Christ-Jesus “in the night,” meaning in a state of consciousness in which the human being does not make use of his outer sense organs.” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Gospel of St. John, lecture VI -THE “I AM”

You can also find some amazing insights about Nicodemus from the work of Emil Bock in his book ‘The Three Years’ Chapter 8.

3 August 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Today is a great day to view Saturn, which reached opposition at 1 am last night. If you’re up early, the ringed planet won’t set until nearly sunrise; if you’re an evening observer, it will rise again as the Sun sets in Capricornus the Sea Goat.

Bella Luna reaches apogee, the farthest point from our planet in its orbit. ~astronomy.com

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1829 – Birthday of Laurence Oliphant – a Member of the British Parliament, was a South African-born British author, traveler, diplomat, intelligence agent, & Christian mystic. (see Steiner’s Quote below that in a former life he was Ovid)

From Rudolf Steiner in Karmic Relationships, VIII: Lecture V

“In the early years of this century I was several times in London. On the occasion of one of these visits I was prompted to make myself acquainted with an extraordinarily significant personality — to begin with, simply in his writings. And as in those days there were rather longer intervals between the journeys than there are now, I obtained from the Theosophical Library the books he had written — the books that is to say, of Laurence Oliphant.

Laurence Oliphant is a remarkably interesting and significant personality: he strikes you in this way directly you begin to study his writings. These books deal with the similarities to be found in different religions, with spiritual religions, and so forth; and all of them bear evidence of a deep understanding of how in the various processes of his body and soul, man is connected with the secrets of the universe. When you read Oliphant’s writings you have the impression: Here is a picture of man in his earth-life that owes its inspiration to deep cosmic instincts. The processes of the earthly life of man that are connected with birth, embryonic life, descent and so forth, are described in such a way as to show how man, as microcosm, is wondrously rooted in the macrocosm.

Now I was very soon led in this study to a point where the figure of the dead Laurence Oliphant stood before me, but not in a form which suggested that I had here to do with the individuality as he was then living after death; it was rather that what was contained in these writings (which may be described as setting forth a kind of cosmic physiology, a cosmic anatomy) began to come alive, began to spiritualise; and a figure appeared, not all at once entirely clear, but unquestionably there before me on many different occasions. I was able to make occult investigations into the matter and I could never do otherwise than bring the figure into connection with what came to me from reading Oliphant. It was very often there before me. At first I was often unable to satisfy myself as to what this figure wanted, what its manifestations meant. The whole manner of its appearance however, left me in no doubt whatever that it was none other than the individuality of Laurence Oliphant; and it was likewise clear to me that this figure had had a long life in the time between death and a new birth — that is to say, the birth as Laurence Oliphant — probably only broken by one earth-life that was not very significant for the rest of the world. What might not then be hidden in the personality of Laurence Oliphant! In short, this appearance of the figure of Laurence Oliphant suggested significant questions of karma.

When I entered on an investigation of the karma, a spiritual Being became manifest who is engaged in the elaboration of human karma…

Now the investigations which I described in Torquay led me into close contact with the spirit of Brunetto Latini, the teacher of Dante. When one penetrates into these spiritual worlds in the manner described, it also becomes possible to stand before individualities in the form in which they lived in a particular epoch. Thus one can stand face to face with Brunetto Latini, the great teacher of Dante in the 13th century. Brunetto Latini still possessed a knowledge whereby nature was seen, not in the abstraction of natural laws, but as under the influence of living spiritual Beings. On the way back to his native town of Florence from his post as Ambassador in Spain, Brunetto Latini heard all kinds of reports that troubled and disturbed him, and in addition he had a slight sunstroke. In this condition and under the influence, too, of the pathological disturbances, glimpses came to him of nature in her creative work, of cosmic creation, and of the connection of man with the planetary world. What he was able to see was wonderful and sublime and no more than a shadow-picture of it subsequently found its way into the great work of Dante — the Divine Comedy.

But now if we follow this Brunetto Latini, we find that in a critical moment, when the knowledge was like to suffocate him, when it seemed to him that he might go astray from true knowledge and fall into error — in this critical moment, Ovid became his guide, Ovid, the Roman author of the Metamorphoses which contain such wonderful visions of the old Greek age, though expressed in the prosaic, characteristically Roman style.

And so we meet the individuality of Ovid together with Brunetto Latini. If we have a true grasp of the connection we can see Brunetto Latini, in the pre-Dante time, actually together with Ovid. Ovid is with him. And now, precisely in connection with the scientific, medical researches of which I was speaking, Ovid revealed himself as Laurence Oliphant.

In reality, Ovid was the guide in the spiritual world for many Initiates, appearing again as Laurence Oliphant with his sublime treatment of physiology and pathology. This connection between Laurence Oliphant and Ovid is of most far-reaching import and is one of the most illuminating examples one could possibly find. ~Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships, VIII: Lecture V

1929 – Krishnamurti dissolves the Order of the Star in the East

1936 – Jesse Owens wins the 100 meter dash, defeating Ralph Metcalfe, at the Berlin Olympics.

1977 – Tandy Corporation announces the TRS-80, one of the world’s first mass-produced personal computers

On August 3, 2019, a mass shooting occurred at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, United States. 21 year old Patrick Crusius shot & killed 23 People & injured 23 others, in an act of domestic terrorism -a hate crime described as the deadliest attack on Latinos in modern American history.

Shortly before the shooting Crusius posted a manifesto with white nationalist anti-immigrant themes, online, citing that year’s earlier Christchurch mosque shootings & the right-wing conspiracy theory known as the Great Replacement as inspiration for the attack.

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I travel inwardly
I gather berries that have fallen
Fully ripened to the ground
& swing the scythe under hot blue skies…
What is remembered, lives…
~hag

The Anthroposophic Movement

August 1, 2021Lecture, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

Greetings friends – I shared in the last post how Sergei O Prokofieff affirmed my connection to the Being of Anthroposophia, & a long time participant of ReverseRitual Steve Hale recalled a lecture by Steiner, which I quote in part below. In re-reading this, other important aspects caught my attention; specifically in regard to the difference between modern science & Spiritual Science.

“As long as so much of the present scientific mode of thinking is carried unconsciously into the anthroposophical movement it will not be able to make progress productively.

In particular, there will be a lack of progress as long as people believe that the current scientific establishment can be persuaded about anything without their first adopting a more positive attitude towards anthroposophy. Once they have done that, a dialogue can begin. Our task with regard to those who are fighting against anthroposophy today can only be to demonstrate clearly where they are not telling the truth. That is something which can be discussed. But of course there can be no dialogue about matters of substance, matters of content, with people who not only do not want to be convinced, but who cannot be convinced because they lack the necessary basic knowledge.

That, above all, is where the work needs to be done: to undertake basic research for ourselves in the various fields, but to do that from the core of anthroposophy…

The only proper course we can pursue is to tell the world what we have found through anthroposophy itself, and then wait and see how many people are able to understand it. We certainly cannot approach the world with the core material of anthroposophy in the hope that there might be a party or a person who can be won over.”

Also what struck me was the idea that we must each come to our own understanding of Anthroposophy by consulting as free individuals with the Being of Anthroposophia as Steiner says.

Below are some other interesting quotes & also the link to the entire lecture which is worth studying.

The Anthroposophic Movement, Lecture 7, The Consolidation of the Anthroposophic Movement, Dornach, 16 June 1923 https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA258/English/RSP1993/19230616p01.html

Anthroposophists today must not think that they have only the same commitments which future anthroposophists will have when they exist by the million rather than the thousand. When limited numbers are active in the vanguard of a movement they have to show commitment of a much higher order. It means that they are obliged to show greater courage, greater energy, greater patience, greater tolerance and, above all, greater truthfulness in every respect. And in our present third stage a situation arose which specifically tested our truthfulness and seriousness. It related in a certain sense to the subject matter discussed at one point in the lectures to theologians. [ Note 5 ] Irrespective of the fact that individual anthroposophists exist, a feeling should have developed, and must develop, among them that Anthroposophia exists as a separate being, who moves about among us, as it were, towards whom we carry a responsibility in every moment of our lives. Anthroposophia is actually an invisible person who walks among visible people and towards whom we must show the greatest responsibility for as long as we are a small group. Anthroposophia is someone who must be understood as an invisible person, as someone with a real existence, who should be consulted in the individual actions of our lives.

Thus, if connections form between people — friendships, cliques and so on — at a time when the group of anthroposophists is still small, it is all the more necessary to consult and to be able to justify all one’s actions before this invisible person.

This will, of course, apply less and less as anthroposophy spreads. But as long as it remains the property of a small group of people, it is necessary for every action to follow from consultation with the person Anthroposophia. That Anthroposophia should be seen as a living being is an essential condition of its existence. It will only be allowed to die when its group of supporters has expanded immeasurably. What we require, then, is a deeply serious commitment to the invisible person I have just spoken about. That commitment has to grow with every passing day. If it does so, there can be no doubt that everything we do will begin and proceed in the right way…

As long as so much of the present scientific mode of thinking is carried unconsciously into the anthroposophical movement it will not be able to make progress productively.

That, above all, is where the work needs to be done: to undertake basic research for ourselves in the various fields, but to do that from the core of anthroposophy.

When an attempt was made after the war to tackle practical issues in people’s lives and the problems facing the world, that again had to be done on the basis of anthroposophy, and with the recognition that with these practical tasks in particular it was hardly possible to count on any sort of understanding. The only proper course we can pursue is to tell the world what we have found through anthroposophy itself, and then wait and see how many people are able to understand it. We certainly cannot approach the world with the core material of anthroposophy in the hope that there might be a party or a person who can be won over. That is impossible. That is contrary to the fundamental circumstances governing the existence of the anthroposophical movement. Take a women’s movement or a social movement, for instance, where it is possible to take the view that we should join and compromise our position because its members’ views may incline towards anthroposophy in one way or another; that is absolutely impossible. What matters is to have enough inner security regarding anthroposophy to be able to advocate it under any circumstances…

A society cannot be sectarian. That is why, if the Anthroposophical Society were standing on its proper ground, the we should never play a role. One repeatedly hears anthroposophists saying we, the Society, have this or that view in relation to the outside world: Something or other is happening to us. We want one thing or another. In ancient times it was possible for societies to face the world with such conformity. Now it is no longer possible. In our time each person who is a member of a society like this one has to be a really free human being. Views, thoughts, opinions are held only by individuals. The Society does not have an opinion. And that should be expressed in the way that individuals speak about the Society. The we should actually disappear…

There is something else connected with this. If this we disappears, people in the Society will not feel as if they are in a pool which supports them and which they can call on for support when it matters. But if a person has expressed his own views in the Society and has to represent himself, he will also feel fully responsible for what he says as an individual.

This feeling of responsibility is something which has to grow as long as the Society remains a small group of people. The way in which that has been put into practice so far has not succeeded in making the world at large understand the Anthroposophical Society as an eminently modern society, because this practice has repeatedly led to a situation in which the image which has been set before the public is we believe, we are of the opinion, it is our conception of the world. So today the world outside holds the view that the Society is a compacted mass which holds certain collective opinions to which one has to subscribe as a member. Of course this will deter any independently minded person…

But people will only be able to think in this direction if they radically discard the petty aspects of their character and truly begin to be understand the need to recognize Anthroposophia as an independent, invisible being…”

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
LAMMASTIDE II
Can I Imagine Spiritual Need?
v18
Can I make wide my soul
that she unite with seed
of Cosmic Word conceived?
I feel my foresight asking me
to find the strangth my soul will need
to form her spirit garment worthily.

v18 and its mirror, v35, are the only question verses.

ADVENT II
Can I Be Present?
v35
Can I absorb true being
that it may find itself anew
within my soul’s creative urge?
I feel a power trusting me
to make myself with modesty
a member of the Cosmic Self.

Roadtrippers Return

July 29, 2021History, Quote, Speaking with the Stars~hag

Greetings friends – I am just now returning from a family road-trip – a kind of second honeymoon. CG & I, with UVA, who was 1 & a half & still nursing, eloped to Berkley Springs, West Virginia 20 years ago. This time for our anniversary, on the way, we stopped off for a 2 day hike in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The forest was teeming with life forces, its ravines, & waterfalls breath-giving.

Working with the biodynamic preps over the years I ‘met’ Abby Porter online years ago, & wonder of wonders, Abby happens to live in Berkeley Springs – an art-filled oasis nestled in the West Virginia mountains. She was the one who actually suggested we come back for our 20^th anniversary. So we finally got to meet in person. Abby knows everyone; she acted as our personal tour guide, taking us to all the highlights in the sweet historic spa town.

A fountainhead of warm mineral waters frequented by Native Americans long before Europeans arrived in the New World, are at the heart of the mountain spa community. The waters flow at a constant 74°F from the base of Warm Springs Ridge. You can still drink freely & fill your jugs at the public tap; & everyone – young & old, rich & poor, comes to wade in the ancient stone pools.

Berkeley Spring, West Virginia | West virginia mountains, Travel spot, Berkeley springs

In the little museum next to the bath house you can see a map of the ‘Medicine Springs’ drawn by Thomas Jefferson’s father in 1747.

George Washington first visited in 1748 when he was 16, & made the area his favorite getaway.

We also hiked in Cacapon State Park down the road, sitting in the shadows of the highest peak in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle. Cacapon is a Shawnee Indian word meaning – you guessed it – ‘medicine waters’.

In the evenings we would make sure to be somewhere so I could participate in the rehearsals lead by Barbara Renold for the reading of the Russian Epic initiated by our Elderberries friends in honor of Sergei O. Prokofieff’s birthday.

On the way home we spent some time exploring Sandusky Ohio, with its river famous for trout fishing, & the beautiful bay next to Lake Erie. Sandusky is derived from the Wyandot word saundustee, meaning ‘cold water’.

What a glorious land America is – So diverse & beautiful – Mother Nature in all her variations, there to remind us of the spirit behind all life.

We were on the road traveling home on Sergei’s birthday anniversary so sadly I couldn’t be in Chicago for the amazing tribute that our Elderberries friends created. The wifi was iffy in the mountains – I was in a panic – but at a truck stop I was able to get a good signal & since I played the part of ‘Dark Night’ – a Spiritual Being seeking to lure Ilya to sleep, it was reasonable to be a disembodied voice that wafted in during the reading. I thought I had found the perfect spot in the busy food court, but just as I was speaking my lines 2 guys came by talking loudly & another fellow wheeling a bin created some strange sound effects…O well…I did what I could…I was just grateful to be part of the effort, since the work of Sergei Olegovitch Prokofieff has played a significant part on my Anthroposophical path.

I have written about Sergei often, he was the 1^st to confirm my connection with the New Isis.

His dedication to the School of Spiritual Science birthed in me a true knowing. A group of us meets every Friday to study ‘The Esoteric Path through the 19 Class Lessons.’ This work is a key that unlocks the mystery of the Michael School, bringing into focus the connection between the 2 streams in the life of Christ, & of the sacrifice that opens us to the Etheric Christ now.

Sergei’s work has deepened for me the living reality of the ‘New Mysteries’, illuminating the relationship of the Christ-Sophia in this Michael age, with Rudolf Steiner & Christian Rosenkreutz, which we as human beings are called to explore & develop. “The Cycle of the Year as a Path of Initiation – A Esoteric Study of the Festivals” is my vademecum – my calling, my life’s work.

“The Occult Significance of Forgiveness” changed my life (I am of course still striving here) And the massive work “May Human Beings Hear It” which convinced me to dedicate myself to the Foundation Stone Meditation, has kept me involved in the Anthroposophical Society, when the human failings & karmic knots would have driven me away; pointing up the living reality of the Christmas Conference, which I feel a personal & collective responsibility to fulfill.

My heart spills over with gratitude for this true initiate, this true anthroposopher, this true human being, who continues to be my mentor from across the Threshold.

“Anthroposophia seeks to become a new group-soul for that part of humankind which is united within the General Anthroposophical Society founded by Rudolf Steiner at the Christmas Conference of 1923-24, thereby representing a kind of archetype for the whole of future evolution & at the same time initiating that universally human process which Rudolf Steiner described in the following words: ‘When people gather together in voluntary associations, they group themselves around focal points. The feelings that stream together at such a focal point now gives Beings the opportunity to work as a kind of group-soul, though in a completely different sense from the former unconscious group-souls. All previous group-souls were beings who made man unfree. These New Beings, however, are wholly compatible with the freedom & preservation of human individuality’.

Anthroposophia would seek to become the 1^st of these Beings in our time. However, whether this is possible depends not on this Being alone, but also on human beings.

Thus by uniting with one another in the General Anthroposophical Society out of a love for Anthroposophia & a wish to serve her as a real, living Being, anthroposophist’s throughout the world have the task of together creating on Earth something akin to an all embracing soul-chalice into which this supersensible Being, the youngest member of the heavenly Sophia, can descend. And this means none other than the beginning of the incarnation of the heavenly Sophia on Earth. (This will come about in the 7^th epoch, but of which we must prepare now)

Only from this grandiose perspective can we really understand the inner significance of the deed wrought by Rudolf Steiner at the Christmas Conference, a deed which represents the high-point & culmination of the entire 21 year development of the anthroposophical movement (1902-23) – a ‘Turning Point of Time’ – For it signified the birth on Earth of her ego in the sheaths of the General Anthroposophical Society. In this way the foundation was laid, or-one could say-the possibility created, for the further working of Anthroposophia in the midst as a New Group-Soul.” ~Sergei O. Prokofieff, “The Heavenly Sophia and the Being Anthroposophia”

May we take up this task to give birth to Anthroposophia, this Being of Human Wisdom, within ourselves, to serve the highest good in all worlds.

Thank you dear Sergei for your continued inspiration.

~hag

29 July 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: On this evening of the Jupiter – Mars opposition, Mars passes Regulus in conjunction in the northwest after sunset. Venus is to their upper left.

also: The Southern Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capracornids are both lighting up the night sky this week.

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
THE ENTHUSIASM OF THE YEAR
(Last week, on July 22nd, the sun entered the sign of Leo
whose eurythmy gesture is Enthusiasm)
The Soul Ground’s Fruit
v16
My foresight is commanding me
to harbour inwardly the spirit’s gift
that its divine fruit, ripening
in ground of soul, bring who I am
the heaven’s harvest.

I date the verses so that Christmas is always verse 38,
which means that v17 is always in the week of July 31st,
including Lammas, August 1st, in 6 years out of 7,
but not when July 31st is on a Saturday as in this year
and Lammas Day is the Sunday of the following week;
but it is also celebrated for 3 days from July 31st to
August 2nd and this can still be the Lammas verse.
LAMMAS
The Bread
v17
The Cosmic Word
I’ve had the grace to lead
through senses’ gates to soul ground speaks:
Imagine in your spirit depths my world expanse
to find in future Me in you.

the mirror verse
ADVENT III
The Wine
v36
The Cosmic Word,
mysteriously urging to be heard,
is speaking in my depths of being:
Inspire your life’s endeavour
with spirit light of mine
to sacrifice yourself through Me.

Parallels

July 14, 2021History, Insight, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Speaking with the Stars~hag

Dear friends – This week has been one of looking back. I realize that it’s been 7 years since I began a modern study in the unveiling of true history thru karmic relationships, & if you have read my essays you know that Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul is my biggest inspiration.

The calendar is an active relational meditative path that shows how the individual soul’s journey is affected by the unfolding of the seasons realized at their deepest esoteric level. This is how Steiner described it:

“I have tried to draw up verses for meditation, the effect of which will enable the soul gradually to discover in itself and in its own experiences the connection with the great cosmic constellations. These formulae for meditation do in all reality lead the soul out of its narrow confines to experience of the heavens. These fifty-two verses will enable the soul to find access to happenings in the great universe, and thereby to experience the Spirits working in the onward flow of Time. But if you ponder on the texts of the verses in the Calendar, you will discern an element of Timelessness, in rhythmic alternation; an element that is experienced inwardly by the human being, the laws of which run parallel to those of Time in the outer world.”

The calendar’s history is itself fascinating. It started on Easter Sunday, in the week from April 7 to 13, 1912. The shift from January to April was made in honor of the idea that the first year was 33 AD – the Resurrection, not year 1 of the birth of Jesus.

The Calendar was the first place Steiner referred to the Mystery of Golgotha as the birth of the “I.” This is why on the cover the characters “J C H” (Jesus Christ) appear, which also stand for the German Ich; which means ‘I’, & below them is the inscription Geburt (born). It reads “The year 1879 after the birth of the ‘I.’” In effect, the year 1912 equals 1879 plus 33.” Steiner wrote this at a time in which he could not yet speak openly of the Archangel Michael & the new Michael age.

The date of 33 AD as the birth of the “I” is crucial, because it reveals an important relationship between microcosm & macrocosm, in which Easter plays a central role. After that time it was possible for the human being to awake to the possibility of the “I” within, because the Christ had united with the Earth.

The preface to the first calendar was entitled “What is Intended,” & it was followed by a weekly calendar with drawings of the zodiac signs, which Imma von Eckhardstein had created, following Steiner’s sketches. These new signs were not meant to represent the classical zodiacal constellations, but rather the spiritual forces active in the cosmos. In addition to the twelve zodiacal images, were five images appearing at different times of the calendar year, representing the five great epochs of Earth evolution; a lunar calendar following the ephemeris; & a daily calendar with commemoration of historical events & memorial days of great individualities – Birthdays & Deathdays.

Among the individualities commemorated are Christian saints; biblical individuals (Enoch, Gaspar, Melchior, Balthasar, Abel, Seth); historical figures (Byron, Lessing, Galileo, Michelangelo, artists, philosophers, thinkers, & so forth). It was interesting that individuals that Steiner did not exalt (for example, Roger Bacon & Charles Darwin) were also listed.

The first calendar was met, in Steiner’s words, with “mockery and derision.” The major unease lay in the fact that the year would have been variable & of unequal length. To that objection, Steiner responded that for anthroposophists, it would be important to observe the year from Easter to Easter. He commented in a lecture specifically about the calendar, “In what is unequal there is life; in what is uniform and fixed, here is the impress of death.”

Great importance was placed by Steiner in publishing new calendars yearly, as well as working artistically with them. The 1918 edition appeared in the “Colorful Waldorf Astoria Booklets” – tiny books packaged with the cigarettes & intended for soldiers in the trenches. It also appeared in a series of books edited by Herman Hesse for Prisoners of war, in a text by Steiner called “The Real Experience of the Human Riddle through the Spirit.”

Karl König, who wrote much about the Calendar, made drawings for the weeks. Laura Summer, Sophie Takata, Ella Lapointe & many others have worked artistically with the Calendar, & we can too. As part of the festival life we have often painted our impressions from the Soul Verses.

I also think it’s a powerful act for us to add events such as milestones from the life of Rudolf Steiner to the calendar – for instance today 14 July in 1914 was the last of the 250 ‘Esoteric Lessons‘ given by Steiner in Norrkoping. These kinds of events along side modern happenings help us follow the treads & find the parallels.

And so the work continues…

~hag

14 July 2021 “Speaking with the Stars”: The ever-waxing Moon is now lower left of Denebola, Leo’s tail tip. They’re less than a fist at arm’s length apart. The brighter star way off three fists left of the Moon is Spica. ~skyandtelescope.org

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (RSarchives)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul; The Present Age, Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia)

Bastille Day

1789 – French Revolution began with Parisians stormed the Bastille prison & released the seven prisoners inside

1798 – The Sedition Act becomes law in the United States making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the United States government

1853 – Opening of the first major US world’s fair, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City

1862 – Birthday of Gustav Klimt an Austrian symbolist painter, one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement

His work was the subject of controversy that culminated when the paintings he completed around 1900 for the ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna were criticized as pornographic. He subsequently accepted no more public commissions, but achieved a new success with the paintings of his “golden phase,” many of which include gold leaf.

Prof Frank McDonough on Twitter: "14 July 1874. The Chicago Fire of 1874 burned down 47 acres of the city, destroyed 812 building & killed 20 people.… "

1874 – The Chicago Fire burns down 47 acres of the city, destroying 812 buildings, killing 20

1877 – The Great Railroad Strike begins in Martinsburg, West Virginia, US, when Baltimore & Ohio Railroad workers have their wages cut for the second time in a year

1896 – Birthday of José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange who played an influential role during the Spanish Revolution & is remembered as a hero in the Anarchist movement. “It is we [the workers] who built these palaces and cities, here in Spain and in America and everywhere. We, the workers. We can build others to take their place. And better ones! We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth. There is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world here, in our hearts. […] That world is growing in this minute.” — Buenaventura Durruti

Over a half million people filled the streets at his funeral. It was the last large-scale public demonstration of anarchist strength of numbers during the bitter & bloody civil war

1912 – Birthday of Woody Guthrie, singer-songwriter & guitarist

1933 – Gleichschaltung: In Germany, all political parties are outlawed except the Nazi Party.

1933 – The Nazi eugenics begins

1960 – Jane Goodall arrives at the Gombe Stream Reserve in Tanzania to begin her famous study of chimpanzees in the wild

1976 – Capital punishment is abolished in Canada

1986 – Deathday of Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges, an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet & translator, a key figure in Spanish-language literature. His compilations of short stories were interconnected by common themes, including dreams, labyrinths, libraries, mirrors, fictional writers, philosophy, & religion.

Borges’ works have contributed to philosophical literature & the fantasy genre -The first to use the term magical realism. His late poems dialogue with such cultural figures as Spinoza, Camões, & Virgil.

He became completely blind by the age of 55; as he never learned braille, he became unable to read. Scholars have suggested that his progressive blindness helped him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination

2003 – In an effort to discredit U.S. Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who had written an article critical of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Washington Post columnist Robert Novak reveals that Wilson’s wife Valerie Plame is a CIA “operative”

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~What small matters i remember-
things – & their histories – shall be found in books by others…
but the greater knowledge, of love, will flourish in my children’s children…
the sun will weave gold threads about them, truth embodied…
They will call this mantle: Life…
~hag

Beings in Conjunction

July 12, 2021History, Insight, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Speaking with the Stars~hag

My gifts to you ‘I think Speech’ podcast & the collection of Recordings of past presentations

(June 21 to July 21) “Selflessness Becomes Catharsis”

The fullness of the resplendent Summer with its lush, colorful gardens & flowering meadows, undulating like heat waves in a dream over the earth, embraced in a mantle of warmth. I give myself up to the fullness of the motherly Sun, in order to become, a sun myself. My soul a flaming glow blazing full of yearning for the open stillness of the wide starry sky.

“Lose yourself to find yourself”

Today too on my natal return, these words sound out to me from those heavenly heights. But how, after the ‘I’ has made its way into us, can we lose ourselves in order to find ourselves again in the ‘I’ of the World?

Perhaps it’s by sacrificing our intellectual knowledge to the spirit of the world! This is the secret of the Summer mysteries: the transformation of the intellectual knowledge of the head, into the warmth-bearing substance of the will!

Seen from the aspect of biography, this turning point, is mirrored after the middle of life, where the downward curve of life sets in – understood in July’s glyph of the crab, symbol of the constellation Cancer. (here is an amazing video for the constellation Cancer in Eurythmy)

We are called to give up the armoring of materialism, which is a danger that lucks in the summer feeling. Only when the crab reveals its spiritual secret can it bestow its wisdom to us.

This secret is transformation. The old & worn out reaches its completion, which is expressed in the involving spiral of the shell. – This narrowing passage of the spiral leads to an end, from which there is no escape – And then we see that the new beginning of the evolving spiral is separated from the involving spiral by an abyss.

How can we cross this abyss? Only by a courageous leap over the void! This archetypal motif always appears when what is old & exhausted reaches its end, & the new approaches, which can only be achieved thru new soul forces.

Today too this turning point, not only in the wheel of the year, but of world events before us -This stream of the past, that carries the seed of death within it – This stream of materialistic understanding & formation of time, armored within a rigid structure, can only be overcome by a courageous leap. For from that rigid structure no new seeds of the future can emerge. These seeds must be developed by a completely new set of soul forces, into which streams the light of true spiritual knowledge.

The time of summer is especially appropriate for cultivating within us, with warmth, these new concept-seeds of thought, in order to shape new imaginations with which we can approach the metamorphic processes of nature. Thinking in pictures means following intuitively this cosmic transformation processes of nature, for She Herself, the great World Mother, is woven out of cosmic imaginations. Thru this we form in our souls what we see in nature right now: the ripening of fruits, the fruitification of involution, in order to bear the seeds of summer thru the winter.

This turning point of the year can stand before us a guiding motif:

“Take into your soul, in Selfless-Devotion, the rich pictorial language of outer nature, & through it, try to solve the riddle of the world pictures of cosmic happenings. Through this you walk the path of alchemical transformation which leads to catharsis (purification). For catharsis means to be ready to humbly lay aside the proud thinking which has hardened & encrusted itself in modern intellectuality, in order to sacrifice it on the altar of the world spirit, so that it can transform itself into warming forces of will & imaginative world pictures. In doing this, we accomplish the demand of our age, which requires this sacrifice of us. And at the same time we accomplish the inner purification of our souls, which only in breaking through the rigid armour of intellectual thought can experience resurrection in the realm of creative world thoughts!”

We cultivate thinking & make it mature through developing qualities which seem not to be related at all to thinking – through devotion & insight – not so much through logical exercises, but when we observe this & that, & use processes in nature to penetrate into hidden mysteries. It is through devotion to questions of nature & humanity, through the attempt to understand complicated people, through an intensification of attention, that we make our thinking astute.

Little cultivation of insight & devotion makes us grumpy hypochondriacs. What is so very necessary for thinking does not at all depend on thinking. All self-will, all self-seeking, has a destructive effect on thinking…Devotion, willingness for sacrifice with respect to the most insignificant objects & occurrences, has a favorable effect on one’s thinking & one’s mood.” ~Rudolf Steiner GA 130, lecture 2

12 July 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Venus (occult Mercury) and Mars orbit the Sun on either side of Earth. But, in the July evening sky, Venus outshines Mars. Look west after sunset now to see these Beings in conjunction.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

100 BC – Birthday of Julius Caesar, Roman politician & general

Feast Day of St. Veronica – According tradition, Veronica was moved with sympathy when she saw Jesus carrying his cross to Golgotha & gave him her veil that he might wipe his forehead. Jesus accepted the offering, held it to his face, & then handed it back to her—the image of his face miraculously impressed upon it.

This piece of cloth became known as the Veil of Veronica.The name “Veronica” itself is a Latinisation of Berenice (Greek: Βερενίκη, Berenikē, with a secondary form Beronike), a Macedonian name, meaning “bearer of victory”. The woman who offered her veil to Jesus was known by this name in the Byzantine East, but in the Latin West the name took a life of its own as a designation for a relic venerated in Rome as the true image of Jesus. Since the Latin word for “true” or “authentic” happens to be vera, the theory emerged that the name itself is derived from the Latin phrase “true image”, vera icon (one Latin word for image is icon, derived from Greek: εικόνα, eikona). In the 13th-century text & also in some later sources the term Veronica was used for the veil, not the person, but for centuries it has been better known as the name of the woman.

Eusebius in his Historia Ecclesiastica (vii 18) tells how at Caesarea Philippi lived the woman whom Christ healed of an issue of blood (Matthew 9:20-22). Legend was not long in providing the woman of the Gospel with a name. In the West she was identified with Martha of Bethany; in the East she was called Berenike, or Beronike, the name appearing in as early a work as the “Acta Pilati”, the most ancient form of which goes back to the fourth century. The fanciful derivation of the name Veronica from the words Vera Icon (eikon) “true image” dates back to the “Otia Imperialia” (iii 25) of Gervase of Tilbury (fl. 1211), who says: “Est ergo Veronica pictura Domini vera” (translated: “The Veronica is, therefore, a true picture of the Lord.”)

1804 – Former United States Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton dies after being shot in a pistol duel by Vice President Aaron Burr

1895 – Birthday of Buckminster Fuller, American architect & engineer, designed the Montreal Biosphère

1895 – Birthday of Oscar Hammerstein II, American director, producer, & songwriter

1904 – Birthday of Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet & diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate

1948 – Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion orders the expulsion of Palestinians from the towns of Lod and Ramla.

1967 – The ‘Newark riot’ was one of 159 race riots that swept cities in the United States during the “Long Hot Summer of 1967”. This riot occurred between July 12 & July 17, 1967. Over the four days of rioting, looting, & property destruction, 26 people died & hundreds were injured.

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~My Lips
Red as etherized blood
Speak charms into the mantrams.
Iron words
Hot from the cosmic forge
Speak the intellect of the Sun
Into the green of the earth.
Stars fall into my heart
A pool of fire
Giving light.
Come share my thoughts expanding
In the Summer-tide dream –
Beauty dancing in the thunder Clouds
Meets Love where He waits.
~hag

Cognitive Ritual

~Confessions of a Modern Rosicrucian

Category Archives: Quote

Mysteries of the Body & Blood

The Anthroposophic Movement

Roadtrippers Return

Parallels

Beings in Conjunction

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