Category Archives: Quote

Ptolemaic

August 17, 2023Celestial Event, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events~hag

~New Moon Maiden
Innocent scythe of alteration
Teach us to value our hidden gestation
Even as you move into the light
Let us give voice
To what is secret
Let us make visible
What is occult
Let us make familiar
What has been disowned
Blessed be the darkness
For out of it
We shall make ourselves
whole
~hag

In this Dark of the Moon time, when Bella Luna is taking up the mysteries of the Underworld. And Venus (which Steiner calls ‘Occult or Ptolemaic Mercury’ – I wrote about this here) after having been the Evening Star all Spring & Summer is making passage between Earth & the Sun – Veiled for now by Light. After 21 August this Being so close to Earth & Sun returns again to the East before dawn – to shine as the Morning Star.

~Howen/ Upsplash

A few days ago, Hideo Nishimura of Kakegawa, Japan, was photographing the night when he captured a new comet! – Comet C/2023 P1 Nishimura – currently moving in front of the constellation Gemini the Twins, low in the dawn sky. The comet was hiding in the sun’s glare before Nishimura picked it up. And, by next month, it might be bright enough to see with the unaided eye!

~Eddie Irizarry

Look for the new comet on 3 September (CG’s B-Day) 2023, some 45 minutes before sunrise, appearing with Venus (Occult Mercury) as Morning Star.

Yes – every year at this time the Cosmic Iron enters Earth’s atmosphere, following the rhythms of the cosmos – bringing the forces harnessed in the metal sacred to the planet Mars, & the Being Michael. But why is that? What’s the reason behind this charming sky show that urges us to make wishes? And what does all this have to do with iron?

Interior of Chiesa dei Gesuiti (Venice) – left nave – The Martyrdom of St Lawrence – Titian

To add to the lore, the August meteor showers are also called the “Lacrime di San Lorenzo”—St. Lawrence’s tears – the last of the seven deacons of Rome to die, martyred in August 258 AD, during the persecution of the emperor Valerian.

When he was summoned before the executioners, Lawrence was ordered to bring all the wealth of the Church with him. He showed up with a handful of crippled, poor, & sick people, & when questioned, replied that “These are the true wealth of the Church.” He was immediately sent to his death, being cooked alive on a ‘gridiron’.

Legend has it that his last words were a quip to his killers: “Turn me over, I’m done on this side!”

Italian lore also holds that the fiery bits of debris seen during a meteor shower are representative of the coals that killed St. Lawrence.

After that, people began calling the August meteors the “The tears of St. Lawrence,” even though the celestial phenomenon pre-dates the Saint, being associated with Perseus, & in our time now with the Mighty Archai Michael. These correspondences are very interesting, finding a valid explanation in the results of a spiritual-scientific investigation.

According to Anthroposophy in Summer a specific process takes place in the human organism, as light & heat grow stronger & more potent. This is a sulphurising process. From a spiritual perspective human beings start shining ‘like glow-worms’ surrounded by a yellow-bluish “sulphur” flame. This flame is associated with the spiritual beings of ‘fallen light’ which want to take advantage of human freedom for their purposes.

“From the standpoint of the cosmos this is actually a majestically beautiful sight, for it is in this glorious astral light that human beings shine out into the cosmos during the ‘Dog Days of Summer’, but at the same time it gives occasion for the Ahrimanic power to draw near to humanity. For this adversarial power is very closely related to the sulphurising process in the human organism.

We can see how, on the one hand, the human being shines out into the cosmos in the St. John’s light, & on the other, how the dragon-like serpent-form of Ahriman winds its way among the human beings shining in the astral light & tries to ensnare & curtail us, to draw us down into the realm of half-conscious sleep & illusion”. ~Rudolf Steiner, The Four Seasons & the Archangels

This process of subtle combustion in the human organism causes what comes so natural in Summer – a dream-like state where human instincts arise, gaining power over the forces of consciousness & awareness. Who hasn’t experienced this during summer? And it’s not for nothing, it is important to have that outbreath to come in contact with the cosmic reaches.

But we need to understand that from this perspective the ahrimanic forces are not interested in awakening clairvoyance in humanity. That would be an old form of clairvoyance, anyway. All they want, is to control human beings – fooling us thru our own lower instincts.

When this process of expansion comes to its peak at the Summer Solstice—we must start to come back down to earth or there is a danger we fall victim to the Luciferic influences that would draw us away from life. But the wisdom of the cosmos gives human beings the antidote. The balancing impulse to counter the forces of sulphur rising from the ground, is the Cosmic Iron.

“And when in high summer, from a particular constellation, meteors fall in great showers of cosmic iron, then this cosmic iron, which carries an enormously powerful healing force, is the weapon which the gods bring to bear against Ahriman, as dragon-like he tries to coil round the shining forms of men.

The force which falls on the earth in the meteoric iron is indeed a cosmic force whereby the higher gods endeavour to gain a victory over the Ahrimanic powers, when autumn comes on. And this majestic display in cosmic space, when the August meteor showers stream down into the human shining in the astral light, has its counterpart — so gentle and apparently so small — in a change that occurs in the human blood.

This human blood, which is in truth not such a material thing as present-day science imagines, but is permeated throughout by impulses from soul and spirit, is rayed through by the force which is carried as iron into the blood and wages war there on anxiety, fear and hate.

The processes which are set going in every blood-corpuscle when the force of iron shoots into it are the same, on a minute human scale, as those which take place when meteors fall in a shining stream through the air. This permeation of human blood by the anxiety-dispelling force of iron is a meteoric activity. The effect of the raying in of the iron is to drive fear and anxiety out of the blood”. ~Rudolf Steiner, The Four Seasons & the Archangels

From this perspective we can contemplate the amazing show of the meteor showers which go on into September as we make our way toward Michaelmas. We can look at them knowing that the forces of the cosmos are at work to help us.

Fear & anxiety are two adversarial forces, that have been ensnaring us all. So this makes having an awareness of the meteor showers even more important – worthy of contemplation & active participation.

May the Cosmic Iron of the gods be with you, to defeat all the inner & outer obstacles that stand in your way.

~hag

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

Saturday 23 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire

*Autumnal Equinox

*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 – Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day

for more info.

Ides of August

August 15, 2023Festival, History, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

With the Rising of Sirius a sacred gate that joins the Earth with the Cosmos is opened. The ancient Egyptians knew this – their temples were aligned to this constellation heralding the flooding of the fertile Nile & The Festival of Lights for Isis of the Sea – called the Lychnapsia.

~White-robed priestess’ of Isis perform the water ritual. ~painting from Herculaneum.

The sacred story attached to this Sais Festival was that lamps were lit & set afloat on the sea to assist Isis in Her search for the body of Osiris.

Sopdet or Sothis is the ancient personification as an Egyptian goddess of the star Sirius- conflated with Isis & Anubis.

Later in Greece & Rome it became known as The Festival of Torches or The Nemoralia a 3-day event celebrated on the Ides of August (August 13–15) in honor of the goddess Diana.

This festival commemorates the foundation of Diana’s Temple upon the Aventine Hill on the shores of Lake Nemi. In antiquity, woman would decorate the lake with lamps. Then, they would march with hunting hounds, along the shore carrying torches. There, they would sacrifice the fruits of the harvest to Diana & honor the Rex Nemorensis (King of the Wood) as well as Egreria (The Lady of the Lake).

The Golden Bough speaks of this as the original impulse behind Excalibur, the mythical sword of King Arthur.

Italian Stega’s like my Grandmother keep this festival as well. Many from Southern Italian traditions view it as an ideal time to renew one’s vows & oaths to the Goddess.

The date has also become associated with the underworld Goddess Hecate, because of the connection to death & Resurrection. In Greece even today Hekate is given offerings during the height of summer to protect the crops against blight & storms.

~Michel Sittow

Himmelfahrt Mariae – The Feast Day of the Assumption of The BVM – The Dormition – celebrates the “falling asleep” (death) of the Theotokos. Her body was not subjected to the usual process of physical decay but was “assumed” into heaven & reunited there with her eternal spirit in the Holy Trinity.

Many see this Christian Festival as incorporating aspects of these ancient Holy Days. It is still common in some parts of the Eastern Orthodox tradition for worshippers to make offerings of new wheat to the Theotokos on this day.

So much to tune into

~hag

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

What was given to those who were in the Super-sensible Michael School came into the world as Anthroposophy. To the statement about the origin of the Cognitive-Ritual, around the New Mysteries, given later as part of the ‘Comic Cultus’, Rudolf Steiner wrote in a letter from

August 15th, 1906:

“This ritual can be nothing else than a mirror image of what is a fact on the higher plane. At the end of the 18th & beginning of the 19th Century there hovers in the immediate neighborhood of the physical world of sense, a great super-sensible event, consisting of super-sensible acts of ritual, an unfolding of mighty pictures of the spiritual life of beings of the universe, the beings of the hierarchies, in connection with the great ether-workings of the universe, & the human workings upon Earth. It is interesting to see how at this most favorable moment a little miniature picture of this super-sensible ritual & action flowed into Goethe’s spirit. Transformed & changed in miniature we have this picture set down by Goethe in his fairy story of the Green Snake & the beautiful Lily…”

One of the themes central to this tale is that of the Temple – with its Three Kings: the representations of Wisdom, Beauty, & Strength. This is also characterized by Rudolf Steiner as a path of initiation: The power of perception of the Golden King coming from the Imaginative faculty giving us Wisdom; that of the Silver King, an inspiration from the equanimity of feelings; & that of the Bronze King, which we are still learning to strengthen, building us up to Intuition springing from the Will.

The Three altars, in the the Fairy Tale, are also in Steiner’s Cognitive-Ritual, & artisticly shown in the Temple scenes of the Mystery dramas.

Also from the letter of August 15, 1906, Steiner further states, that the ritual appropriate for our time, was prefigured by esotericists & in particular the initiate Melchizedek, stating over 2,300 years ago, & then taken up by “The Rosicrucians who said: “Shape the world in such a way that it contains, Wisdom, Beauty, & Strength, then will Wisdom , Beauty & Strength, be mirrored in us. If you have used your time to this end, then you will depart from this life taking with you the mirror-image of Wisdom, Beauty, & Strength. Wisdom is the image of Manas; Beauty, piety, goodness, the image of Buddhi; Strength is the image of Atman…It is not through idle contemplation that the human being progresses on Earth, but by incorporating Wisdom, Beauty & Strength into the Earth”.

From Marie Steiner in reference to Steiner’s autobiography The Story of My Life, she writes: “When Rudolf Steiner first made his public appearance with the intention of removing the veil of esotericism, he took Goethe’s Fairy Tale as his starting point, & spoke about the altars of Wisdom, Beauty, & Strength. He placed them in the Temple of his Mystery Dramas & spoke to us in greater depth about their significance. And again he placed them into our Esoteric School (specifically in the Cognitive-Reverse Ritual of the Misraim Service) & let us approach again & again the various aspects of Thinking, Feeling & Willing, which are an expression of these altars”.

A start had been made in fulfilling the central demand of Goethe’s Fairy Tale: to bring the Mysteries – ie. the Temple – out of occult obscurity into the full light of day, to the attention of the public.

Rudolf Steiner: “What is Anthroposophy in its reality? My dear friends, if you comprehend all the wonderful, majestic imaginations which are present as a Super-sensible Reverse Ritual & translate them into human concepts, that is Anthroposophy” ~Dornach, July 8, 1924, Karmic Relationships Vol. 3.

In this sense Goethe’s fairy Tale, developed further in the Cognitive-Ritual, with its Three altars, was the sign & seal of Rudolf Steiner’s activity, brought out of the depths of the Temple, since the time when the Mysteries 1st existed, & handed over to humankind as the New Mysteries.

This has been my biggest inspiration for my work with the Reverse Ritual

~hag

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

In Italy remnants of the ancient celebration Of the Assuption of mary include night time bonfires & public illuminations, symbolic of the Sun. The idea of prosperity is also evident in the throwing of coins from windows down to the street in some cultures. Symbolic images of the Virgin Mary & her assumption into heaven are paraded throughout the day. Blue is the color most often associated with the Virgin Mary. It symbolizes truth & clarity, & it is the color of the sky, which symbolizes heaven. The lily, which is a symbol of purity, chastity, & simplicity, is also associated with the Virgin Mary.

1248 – In honor of the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, The foundation stone of Cologne Cathedral, built to house the relics of the Three Wise Men, is laid

1281 –The Mongolian fleet of Kublai Khan is destroyed by a “divine wind” for the second time in the Battle of Kōan in Japan

1309 – The city of Rhodes surrenders to the forces of the Knights of St. John, completing their conquest of Rhodes. The knights establish their headquarters on the island & rename themselves the Knights of Rhodes

1534 – Jesuit Order Founded

1549 – Jesuit priest Francis Xavier comes ashore at Kagoshima, Japan
Rudolf Steiner describes him as having forgot his true destiny by failing to recognize Kasper Hauser

Rudolf Steiner describes him as having forgot his true destiny by failing to recognize Kasper Hauser

1769 – Birthday of Napoléon Bonaparte

1812 –The Battle of Fort Dearborn is fought between United States troops & Potawatomi at what is now Chicago

1843 – Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest still intact amusement parks in the world, opens in Copenhagen, Denmark (Tivoli inspired Walt Disney to create Disneyland)

1910 – Very 1st performance of Rudolf Steiner’s 1st Mystery Drama “The Portal of Initiation” opens in Munich

1914 – Julian Carlton, A servant of architect Frank Lloyd Wright murders seven people & sets fire to the living quarters of Wright’s Wisconsin home, Taliesin

1914 – The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship SS Ancon

1915 – A story in New York World newspaper reveals that the Imperial German government had purchased excess phenol from Thomas Edison that could be used to make explosives for the war effort & diverted it to Bayer for aspirin production

1917 – Deathday of Hermann Joachim, Anthroposopher & Freemason. Rudolf Steiner did his funeral address see GA 261

1935 – Will Rogers & Wiley Post are killed after their aircraft develops engine problems during takeoff in Barrow, Alaska

1939 – The Wizard of Oz premieres at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in LA

1941 – Corporal Josef Jakobs is executed by firing squad at the Tower at 7:12 am making him the last person to be executed at the Tower of London for espionage

1945 – Surrender of Japan in World War II, Korea gains Independence from Japan. The Allies proclaimed V-J Day a day after

1947 – India gains Independence from British rule after near 190 years of Crown rule & joins the Commonwealth of Nations

1965 – The Beatles play to nearly 60,000 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City, an event later regarded as the birth of stadium rock

1969 – The Woodstock Music & Art Fair opens in upstate New York, featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era

1971 – President Richard Nixon completes the break from the gold standard by ending convertibility of the United States dollar into gold by foreign investors. Nixon also announced a 90-day freeze on wages, rents & prices

Saturday 23 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire

*Autumnal Equinox

*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

Kite-Song

August 13, 2023Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Celestial Event, Chicago Event, Community, History, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Event~hag

For Ultra-Violet Archer on the eve of your furthering:

Soar like an epic melody
My beloved kite-song –
Eternal rays
Like the trailing hair of a comet
Flowing forth from your Sun-Self
To give Hope to the world.
Shine with Faith
As a flame shines from the up-right wick
Trimmed & oiled – Christ fueled
Sending darkness into a taming conversion
Your Cosmic Memory undulating
With senses pressed
Like scent into temple drapery,
A liquid seal ever forming from molten beeswax,
A labyrinth of flowers spicing the air,
The crunch of apple,
The slow cloudage of Autumn’s promise,
As the Seasons spin –
& you
Snug as an acorn in the cup-crown of your making
A sweet sip of light
Vibrating inner warmth
On your honeyed lips.
Your soul a red thread between spirits
Gold dust between stars
A silky sash – The endless vine –
My own heart’s root
Whispering/Shouting/Singing: Love is
Who you are.

~XOXmom

“…See the sun-drenched vine, with its juice spiritualized to etheric sunlight! It is a picture of the purification & fermentation process of the “I”. It shows you how drives can be transformed when they are purified thru life’s bitter crisis, flowering as the wisdom of age.

Your “I” bears the Queenly (Kingly) power within itself thru which you can transform all that is lower within you & raise it to the heights. Without these drives you would not be a full human being, but you must tame & refine them in the crucible of the royal power of the “I”.

Then they will bear for you the loveliest fruits which will ripen in the autumn of life to become saturated with the wisdom of the divine.

You extend your soul beyond itself when you compassionately share in all that is living in humanity. You open your Self to the world. For being human means: Building the Royal power of the “I” by sharing responsibility for all that is human!

Then the thought that: “I am a member of all humankind & I am co-responsible for all that happens” is no longer foreign to you. With such an attitude the human being’s whole way of thinking gradually changes…” ~Rudolf Steiner, Knowledge of Higher Worlds

13 August 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars:” If you extend your Perseid watch to the beginning of dawn Sunday the 13th, the waning crescent Moon will cap the night by forming a triangle with Castor and Pollux low in the east-northeast. ~skytelescope

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
LAMMASTIDE III – Assumption of the Virgin Mary (Tuesday)
To Waken Self With Memory
v19
Mysteriously to sheathe
the new conceived with memory
be now my striving’s further aim
that strengthening it shall awake
my inner power to become
my real self.

ADVENT I
The Newly Risen Self
v34
Mysteriously to feel
old treasure resurrecting in me
with newly risen sense of who I am
shall rouse a tide of cosmic forces
that pouring into my endeavour for the world
will in becoming print me into that which Is.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

“Study the past if you would define the future.” ~Confucius

303 – St. Cassian of Imola, Patron Saint of Teachers, martyred during the reign of Julian the Apostate

1699 – Deathday of Marco d’Aviano, Capuchin monk. When he gave his blessing to a nun, bedridden for some 13 years, she was miraculously healed. The news spread far & wide, among those who sought his help was Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, whose wife had been unable to conceive a male heir. From 1680 to the end of his life, Marco d’Aviano became a close confidant & adviser to him. As the danger of war with the Ottoman Turks grew near, Marco d’Aviano played a crucial role in resolving disputes, restoring unity, & energizing the armies of the Holy League

1792 – King Louis XVI of France is formally arrested by the National Tribunal, & declared an enemy of the people

1818 – Birthday of Lucy Stone a prominent American orator, abolitionist, & suffragist, known for using her maiden name after marriage. In 1847, Stone became the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women’s rights & against slavery at a time when women were discouraged & prevented from public speaking

1831 – Nat Turner witnesses a solar eclipse which caused the sky to appear a blue-green color, which he envisioned as a black man’s hand reaching over the sun. Eight days later he & 70 other slaves kill between 55-65 whites in Southampton County, Virginia

1860 – Birthday of Annie Oakley

1868 – A massive earthquake near Arica, Peru, causes an estimated 25,000 casualties, & the subsequent tsunami causes considerable damage as far away as Hawaii & New Zealand

1876 – The premiere of Der Ring des Nibelungen at the recently completed Bayreuth Festspielhaus

ALFRED HITCHCOCK -- Pictured: Alfred Hitchcock -- Photo by: NBCU Photo Bank **FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY AND CANNOT BE ALTERED, ARCHIVED OR RESOLD. NO TABLOID USAGE WORLDWIDE. SPECIFIC CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR COMMERCIAL OR PROMOTIONAL USE. CONTACT YOUR NBCU REPRESENTATIVE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION**

1899 – Birthday of Alfred Hitchcock

1900 – Deathday of Vladimir Soloviev, a Russian philosopher, theologian, poet, pamphleteer & literary critic. It is widely held that Solovyov was one of the sources for Dostoyevsky’s characters in The Brothers Karamazov. Solovyov’s influence can also be seen in the writings of the Symbolist & Neo-Idealist writers of the later Russian Soviet era. His book The Meaning of Love can be seen as one of the philosophical sources of Leo Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata. It was also the work in which he introduced the concept of ‘syzygy’, to denote ‘close union’. He influenced the religious philosophy of many including the ideas of Rudolf Steiner, (see War, Progress, and the End of History: Three Conversations, Including a Short Story of the Anti-Christ. Reprinted 1990 by Lindisfarne Books) Steiner speaks of Solovyov’s former incarnation as a visionary nun in the Middle Ages in his Karmic relationships Vol. 4 #8

1910 – Deathday of Florence Nightingale

1914 – The beginning of Rudolf Steiner’s Curative Education Course “For our Friends”

1926 – Birthday of Fidel Castro

1942 – Walt Disney’s fifth full-length animated film, Bambi, was released to theaters

1946 – Deathday of H. G. Wells

1961 – the Berlin Wall is erected

International Lefthanders Day

~Dali

Sunday 13 August 2023 – Prep-Stir – Potluck – Bonfire –

*To celebrate The 2^nd Harvest = Lammas / Lughnasdh

*The Perseid Meteor Showers, Venus (occult Mercury) /Sun Conjunction, Sirus Rising

*The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

*And a bon voyage Blessing for Ultra-Violet Archer

7 – 9 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

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

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

Cosmic Conversation

August 12, 2023History, Rudolf Steiner Quote~hag

~Arthur Dove

~today:
the Sun is mellow upon the land
deep yellow dust on the head of a bee…
the lake is pregnant & still…
& the belly of the sky is cozy in my garden…
~hag

Dear friends, Can you feel the shift? Mid-August is a powerful time of transition written large now in the starry-script. Who are these Beings waiting for us to join the Cosmic conversation?

THE SPIRITUAL INDIVIDUALITIES OF THE PLANETS, GA 228, 100 years ago on 27 July 1923, Dornach – shared by RR contributor Steve Hale, can help us prepare to join the “Speaking with the Stars” happening now between: Sirius Rising with the Sun in Leo the Lion; the conjunction of Sun / Venus (occult Mercury) – which according to Astrosophy holds the cosmic memory of the first Christian initiation – the Rising of Lazarus/John; & the peak of the Perseid meteors showers heralding the call of Michael as the countenance of Christ, to rise up the fallen intelligence back to a cosmic intelligence thru Heart-Thinking.

“…With the help of Initiation-science we must again learn to realise that our planetary system is permeated with soul and spirit. And today I want to speak of the “individualities” – the individual characters of the several planets…

I could say, Venus repels, wards off the whole universe. She is demure, prudish, aloof concerning the universe; she does not wish to know anything about the universe. She regards any external universal exposure as if it would cause her maiden purity, her virginity, to be lost. She is deeply shocked when any impression from the external universe attempts to approach her. She has no desire for the universe and rejects every dancing- partner.

On the other hand, Venus is highly responsive to everything that comes from the Earth. The Earth is, so to speak, her lover…she lovingly reflects whatever comes from the Earth. If we are able to glimpse the mysteries of Venus with the eyes of soul, the whole Earth with all of her soulful secrets is there before us once again.

The truth is that human beings on Earth can do nothing in the secrecy of their souls without it being reflected back again by Venus. Venus gazes deeply into the hearts of human beings, for that is what interests her, that is what she will allow to approach her, so that the most intimate experiences of earthly life are reflected again from Venus, in a mysterious and wonderful way…The secrets of human beings in their earthly existence are transformed by Venus into dream-pictures of infinite diversity. She has a very great deal to do with poets, although they are not aware of it.

In her heart, Venus repels what approaches her from the universe but not what comes from the Earth. As I said before, she declines every would-be suitor, but for all that she listens attentively to the utterances of Mars. She transforms and illuminates her dreamlike experiences of earthly things with what is communicated to her from the universe through Mars.

Venus receives into herself everything that comes from the Earth and she listens always to Mars, without wanting him to know it. And from this process, although the Sun is there in between to regulate it, spring the forces which underlie the organs connected with the formation of human speech.

If a person wants to become familiar with the impulses in the cosmos connected with the formation of human speech, then the person must turn his gaze to this noteworthy living and weaving that plays out between Venus and Mars…

We come next to Mercury – the domain of the masters of combining concepts, and ideas in thinking, whereas Jupiter is the habitation of the masters of wisdom-filled thinking…Mercury provides the impetus for man’s capacity of reasoning about things, of making sense of them, especially for his intellect.

Venus and Mercury, on the other hand, bring into the human being the karmic element that is connected more with the life of soul and spirit and comes to expression in his qualities of heart and in his temperament…

The inner will-impulse contained in acts of free thinking, however, is due to grace bestowed by Jupiter.

From another point of view therefore, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn may also be called the liberating planets, for they give man freedom. On the other hand, Venus, Mercury and the Moon may be called the destiny-determining planets.

In the midst of all these deeds and impulses of the planetary individualities stands the Sun, creating harmony between the liberating and the destiny-determining planets. The Sun is the individuality in whom the elements of destiny-necessity and human freedom interweave in a most wonderful way. And no-one can understand what is contained in the flaming brilliance of the Sun unless he is able to behold this interweaving life of destiny and freedom in the light which spreads out into the universe and concentrates again in solar warmth.

The Sun is the flame in which freedom becomes a luminous reality in the World-All, and at the same time the Sun is the substance, as condensed ashes, in which misused freedom is molded into destiny, until destiny itself can become luminous and pass over into the flame of freedom.” ~Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

30 BC– Deathday of Egyptian Queen Cleopatra

1827 – Deathday of 1827 – William Blake, poet, painter, mystic

1831 – Birthday of Helena Blavatsky

1848 – Deathday of George Stephenson, Renowned as the “Father of Railways”, he was an English civil & mechanical engineer who built the first public inter-city railway line in the world to use steam locomotives- considered a great example of diligent application & thirst for improvement

Image result for Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine

1851 – Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine

1875 – Helena Blavatsky founds the Theosophical Society in NY

Image result for Thomas Edison invented the phonograph & made the first sound recording

1877 – Thomas Edison invented the phonograph & made the first sound recording

Image result for The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

1883 – The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Image result for The United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit

1914 – The United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit

1944 – Nazi German troops end the week-long Wola massacre, during which time at least 40,000 people were killed indiscriminately or in mass executions

1950 – Korean War: Bloody Gulch massacre—American POWs are massacred by North Korean Army.

Image result for 1952 â The Night of the Murdered Poets: Thirteen prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union.

1952 – The Night of the Murdered Poets: Thirteen prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union.

1953 – The Soviet Union secretly tested its first hydrogen bomb

1953 – A 7.2 Ms earthquake shakes the southern Ionian Islands. 800 people were killed

1955 – Deathday of Thomas Mann, a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, & the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic & ironic epic novels are noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist & the intellectual. His analysis & critique of the European & German soul used modernized German & Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Goethe, Nietzsche & Schopenhauer

1960 – Echo 1A, NASA’s first successful communications satellite, is launched.

1964 – South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country’s racist policies

1976 –3,500 Palestinians are killed in the Tel al-Zaatar massacre, one of the bloodiest events of the Lebanese Civil War

Image result for 1981 â The IBM Personal Computer is released

1981 – The IBM Personal Computer is released

1992 – Deathday of John Cage

1998 – Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion as restitution to World War II Holocaust victims

2010 – Deathday of Isaac Bonewits, founder of Ár nDraíocht Féin

~Dali

Sunday 13 August 2023 – Prep-Stir – Potluck – Bonfire –

*To celebrate The 2^nd Harvest = Lammas / Lughnasdh

*The Perseid Meteor Showers, Venus (occult Mercury) /Sun Conjunction, Sirus Rising

*The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

*And a bon voyage Blessing for Ultra-Violet Archer

7 – 9 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

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

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

Lion Heart

August 11, 202310:10, Biography, Celestial Event, History, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Event~hag

My POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I come with the comet
A priestess in the thought-skin of the Lion
Spreading the roaring depth of myself out
Before gods & demons
To let them study me…& I Them…
My ripened body is a rolled papyrus
Tied with red string that holds no pretense
Glow worms hide in the folds of my scroll
I am washed & ready for the new turning
Flashing with the hygienic iron-dust of shooting stars
Reborn in the cradle of my blood
~hag

And so as the Perseid’s peak, Venus comes into conjunction in front of the Leo-Sun, rising with scintillating Sirus, I attempt an ongoing digestion from Seminar 4 of the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology (AAP): Who Am I ? – The Search for Identity & Authenticity. The 3rd Septennial – age 14-21. Here is Part 1.

In our 1^st session with Dr. James Dyson he referenced Rudolf Steiner’s “Bridge Lectures,” a lead-in to the meditative instructions for deepening the art of healing given later during the Christmas Conference in 1923; followed by 5 lectures given at Easter, 1924. This was a very special course for medical students & young physicians on the Humanizing of Medicine.

Motivated to understand the astral body I found this quote inspiring:

“…So far as knowledge of the astral body is concerned, you learn far more when you can apply the laws of music. From music you learn an enormous amount about the forming of the human organism, how this process of formation develops out of the astral body. Inasmuch as the human being is organized for movement, for activity, he is built up, in reality, like a musical scale. Here (back of the shoulders) begins the tonic; then it passes over into the second, then into the third in the lower arms, where there are two bones because there are two thirds. This brings you to truths quite different from those which are considered nowadays to pertain to a real knowledge of the human being and quite a different course of teaching would really be necessary for one who is approaching medicine in the true sense…”

~Rudolf Steiner, COURSE FOR YOUNG DOCTORS, The “Bridge” Lectures, GA 202, III. The Path to Freedom and Love and Their Significance in World Happenings, Dornach, 19th December, 1920

This meditative verse holds many insights:

“Schau, was kosmisch sich fügt:
Du empfindest Menschengestaltung.

Schau, was luftig dich bewegt:
Du erlebest Menschenbeseelung.

Schau, was irdisch sich wandelt:
Du erfassest Menschendurchgeistung.

Look what cosmically fits:
You feel human design.

Look what moves you in the air:
You experience human inspiration.

Look what is changing on earth:
You grasp human spirituality.”

~Rudolf Steiner, COURSE FOR YOUNG DOCTORS, Easter Course, GA 316, Lecture II, Dornach, 22nd April, 1924

SUN in LEO Brings COMPASSION & FREEDOM (Opposite: Hearltessness)

Today the Sun enters the sign of the Lion, reaching again the maximum of light & heat. Open your noble heart – vital & burning with passion & compassion, shining like gold upon the sea of ripening worlds. The wise king, the good father, the Savior. Our Day-Star shining the Kingdom come.

Balance & openness belong to our heart – Not to our cold & bright head, enclosed in the skull. Not even to our dark hot limbs, radiating from the body. They belong to the heart region—to the center—where the head opens down into the spine & the ribs curve into a protective embrace.

~El Greco

I have made it my intention in working with Mary Magdalene to bring the 12 virtues to bear as I meet the 7 demons, so that I may transform them as Christ’s Companion Mary did.

In contemplating this month’s virtue, I had the thought this morning to connect the heart point from the many 7’s – seen in the #4 position of the 7 (see the many correspondances here ) to clarify & strengthen this healing process.

For instance-

In the list of the 7 Demons or 7 ‘Deadly Sins’, #4 is: Lethal Jealousy – Envy / Goodwill

In the 7 Life Processes – Sorting

Adult Learning Processes – Individualizing

7 Layers of Will – Motive

7 layers of Cognition – Discernment

7 Planets – Sun day

7 Chakras – Heart

Logic of the Heart – Witness & allow a complementary feeling to arise

7 stages of Christian Initiation – Crucifixion

7 Stages of Rosicrucian Initiation – Bringing Rhythm into Life

7 Apocalyptic Seals – The Tree of Knowledge & the Tree of Life

7 ‘I Am’ sayings of Christ – “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11–15).

Yes, friends, Today feels like a day for introspection & connection. See you between the lines

~hag

11 August 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The radiant point of the Perseid shower gets fairly high in the northeast by 10 pm, so meteors become more frequent. The higher a shower’s radiant, the more meteors are seen all across the sky. ~Sky & Telescope

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Those who work with the Original indications in the Calendar of the Soul know that Rudolf Steiner lists the birth & death days, as well as other significant occurrences of various individualities, along with the dates in the calendar.

He said of this: “What is presented here can be useful to those who wish to follow the path of mankind’s spiritual development” ~Rudolf Steiner. This is my inspiration.

3114 BC – The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Mayans, begins

305 – Deathday of Saint Philomena, Steiner speaks of her as being a Greek priestess martyred at age 13 by Roman Emperor Diocletian.

559 – Birthday of Radegunde, Thuringian princess & Frankish queen, who founded the Abbey of the Holy Cross at Poitiers, named for holding the relic of the True Cross. Radegunde ate nothing but legumes & green vegetables, she was widely believed to have the gift of healing.

1253 – Deathday of Saint Clare of Assisi, an Italian saint & one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi

1464 – Deathday of Nicholas of Cusa, a German philosopher, theologian, jurist, & astronomer. One of the first German proponents of Renaissance humanism, he made spiritual & political contributions in European history. A notable example of this is his mystical or spiritual writings on “learned ignorance,” as well as his participation in power struggles between Rome & the German states of the Holy Roman Empire

1877 – The two moons of Mars were discovered by Asaph Hall, an American astronomer. He named them Phobos & Deimos

1896 – Harvey Hubbell received a patent for the electric light bulb socket with a pull-chain

1942 – Actress Hedy Lamarr & composer George Antheil receive a patent for a Frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones & Wi-Fi

1956 – Deathday of Jackson Pollock

1965 – the Watts Race Riots begin in Los Angeles, California

1972 – Vietnam War: The last United States ground combat unit leaves South Vietnam

1984 –”My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you that I just signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” -Said as a joke by senile President Ronald Reagan, while running for re-election, on his weekly Saturday address on National Public Radio.